Church mourns Cardinal König, architect of the post-conciliar Church

BY STAFF REPORTER
THE LAST CARDINAL created by Pope John XXIII has died in his sleep at the age of 98 years.
Retired Austrian Cardinal Franz König’s work for peace and reconciliation “radiated far beyond the boundaries of his homeland”, Pope John Paul II said on the death of the former Archbishop of Vienna.
The Pope asked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), to preside in his name at Cardinal König’s March 27 funeral in the Cathedral of St Stephen in Vienna.
Cardinal König’s death leaves the College of Cardinals with 191 members, 126 of whom are under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.
He had been a cardinal for more than 45 years and has been recognised widely as one of the leading promoters of the 1978 election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland, as Pope John Paul.
Made a cardinal by Blessed John XXIII in 1958, he was an influential figure at the Second Vatican Council. He continued to defend the Council’s teaching and to promote its emphasis on ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. After retiring as Archbishop of Vienna in 1985 at age 80, he was elected president of the international Catholic peace organisation, Pax Christi.
Well into his 90s, he continued to call for decentralisation of power within the Catholic Church, for greater collegiality among the world’s bishops and for a broader involvement of priests and laity in the nomination of bishops.
In a telegram to Cardinal König’s successor, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Pope said Cardinal König was committed to promoting “the truth in love”.
The pope praised him as “a special resource” for the Catholic Church and for European Christians when the West and East were divided by the Iron Curtain. “At the same time, as a builder of bridges, he received recognition by the churches of the East,” he said.
In 1964, the Cardinal founded the Pro Oriente Foundation, a project of the Vienna archdiocese, which conducts unofficial dialogues between the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches.
Cardinal König was not afraid to publish his views on the state of the Church. In 1999, he defended Jesuit Fr Jacques Dupuis, who was under investigation by the CDF for his work on religious pluralism.
“Of course, the congregation has every right to guard the faith,” Cardinal König wrote, “though they do better still ... when they promote it.” Born in Rabenstein, Austria, Cardinal König studied at the Gregorian University and the Biblical Institute in Rome and was ordained in 1933. He was named a coadjutor bishop by Pope Pius XII in 1952 and became an archbishop in 1956.
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