Posted on 07/06/2011 11:41:23 AM PDT by marshmallow
Vienna, Austria, Jul 6, 2011 / 01:56 am (CNA).- Otto von Habsburg, a Catholic leader for a unified Europe and heir to the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire, died July 4 at the age of 98. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino remembered him as one of the twentieth century’s “greatest defenders” of the Catholic faith and human dignity.
“Even well into his nineties, Otto von Habsburg campaigned tirelessly to uphold Europe's Christian values and the sanctity of all human life,” the cardinal said in a statement from the Rome-based Dignitatis Humanae Institute.
“Otto von Habsburg's father, (Emperor) Blessed Karl of Austria, instilled in him from an early age that the office of a ruler is one of holy service and selfless sacrifice for the good of the peoples entrusted to him. It was a philosophy that would influence him all his life. He will be greatly missed.”
Cardinal Martino, who is the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, noted that the dynastic leader’s “uncompromising position” on human dignity was evident in his agreement to become a patron of the Dignitas Humanae Institute despite his increasing frailty.
The organization advocates a universal declaration which bases this dignity on man’s creation in the image and likeness of God.
In 2007 Habsburg argued that lobbyists should examine the effective tactics of the “anti-family lobby” and use them to promote the protection of the most vulnerable, the cardinal recalled.
“Our thoughts and prayers at this time are turned towards the repose of Otto's soul, the consolation of his family, and loss of the people of Austria; and we trust in the mercy of God that today this holy, humble man beholds the face of Jesus Christ, now into eternity,” the cardinal said.
Habsburg died at his villa in Poecking in southern Germany, where he had lived since the 1950s, with his seven children nearby, the Associated Press reports.
Although he was a witness to the dismantling of his family’s empire, he used his influence in an unsuccessful struggle to keep the Nazis from annexing Austria before World War II. He also opposed Soviet communism and worked for the opening of the Iron Curtain in the decades after the war.
Cardinal Martino said Habsburg was “particularly disturbed” by the rise of the major totalitarian ideologies and fought against both National Socialism and International Socialism “at significant risk to his own life.”
He was a member of the European Parliament for the conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union in southern Germany. He also served as president of the Pan-European League from 1979 to 1999, using his position to briefly open the border between Austria and Hungary to allow 600 East Germans to flee communism in 1989, months before the epochal fall of the Berlin Wall.
He is also credited with helping about 15,000 Austrians, including many Jews, escape the Nazis during World War II.
“My father was a towering personality," Habsburg's oldest son Karl Habsburg-Lothringen told the Austria Press Agency. "With him we lose a great European who has influenced everything we do today beyond measure.”
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso praised Habsburg as “a great European … who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life.”
“I will particularly remember his strong stance against all forms of totalitarianism and on Europe’s fundamental values,” Barroso said in a statement.
Habsburg's wife, Regina, died last year. Their eldest son Karl has officially headed the House of Habsburg since 2007.
His father, who tried to bring an end to World War I, was beatified in 2004.
Habsburg renounced all claims to the Austrian throne in 1961, five years before the Austrian government repealed the laws banning all members of the former imperial family from entering the country.
His body will be held in the St. Ulrich church in Poecking for three days for people to pay their respects. His funeral will take place in Vienna on July 16. Requiems are also planned for Poecking, Munich, Mariazell, Vienna and Budapest.
He will be buried in the imperial crypt in Vienna beneath the capital city’s Capuchin church. An aide to Habsburg’s son Georg told the AP that his heart will be buried in the Benedictine Abbey in Pannonhalma in central Hungary.
The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire, founded when the Pope crowned Charlemagne in AD 800. Not sure why you have an issue with that.
Were you aware that we were fighting the Second Reich during WWI?
The Second Reich was the Wilhelmine Empire, which lasted from 1870 to 1918, so that statement is correct.
Why would the leader of Germany from 1933-45 lay claim to the orb, scepter and sword of the aforementioned Reich?
The orb, scepter, and sword in the picture you previously posted belonged to the Austrian Empire, not the German Reich. As to why Hitler "laid claim" to the Austrian crown jewels ... since he considered himself to be the chief of state of Germany, considered Austria to a German province, and everyone agreed that the Austrian crown jewels were state property, I'd say the answer to your question is self-evident.
why has the Reichskonkordat remained unbroken till this day
The Reichskonkordat is more than just "broken," it's a dead letter, since one of the signatory states ceased to exist in May, 1945.
Doesn't take long to assemble this puzzle.
What puzzle are you assembling again, and why are you hijacking a thread about the death of a great man based on his comment that the the Holy Roman Empire was the model for the EU?
Incidentally, Otto von Habsburg, far from being a Nazi, spent most of the war running for his life from the Gestapo, which quite clearly wanted to put him in a KZ or kill him outright. He was also instrumental in the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Is there another Hapsburg?
WADR, I suppose that conversion by the sword is OK with you? As bad as Muhammad was on that score, he didn't originate it. Enough sources point out Charlemagne's "wad(ing) through a sea of blood" in that respect.
The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire, founded when the Pope crowned Charlemagne in AD 800. Not sure why you have an issue with that
Those crown jewels are the descendants of the regalia of the Holy Roman Empire indeed. And of course, Hitler himself was Austrian.
The orb, scepter, and sword in the picture you previously posted belonged to the Austrian Empire, not the German Reich. As to why Hitler "laid claim" to the Austrian crown jewels ... since he considered himself to be the chief of state of Germany, considered Austria to a German province, and everyone agreed that the Austrian crown jewels were state property, I'd say the answer to your question is self-evident
Because that comment should have been a warning. And the intent was not to hijack. I don't even think H.I.H. understood the implications of a restoration of a Reich; his having been abandoned by even the Vatican during WWII should have warned him against being a proponent of a united Europe in any form.
What puzzle are you assembling again, and why are you hijacking a thread about the death of a great man based on his comment that the the Holy Roman Empire was the model for the EU?
You're complaining that other people don't know history while you're retrojecting modern ideas of freedom of religion back into the 9th Century?
Charlemagne didn't originate conversion by the sword, either. Read your Bible.
Because that comment should have been a warning.
A warning of what?
against being a proponent of a united Europe in any form.
A disunited Europe led directly to the deaths of about 70 million people in the last century (and that's not counting those murdered by the Bolsheviks in Russia). Maybe it's time to try a united Europe.
Otto's father, Emperor Karl, has been beatified. His mother, Empress Zita, has a cause for beatification also.
"Modern ideas of freedom of religion"? Where did you pull that one out of? Freedom of religion is not "modern" at all.
You're complaining that other people don't know history while you're retrojecting modern ideas of freedom of religion back into the 9th Century?
Read the Bible for what? No Jews nor Christians converted people to their religion by the sword, so I don't know what you're trying to get at here. And I said nothing about who or where such a tactic was originated either.
Charlemagne didn't originate conversion by the sword, either. Read your Bible
I don't know what position you're coming from at all. Especially since it was never the case that a disunited Europe was the cause of the "70 million deaths" you refer to.
A disunited Europe led directly to the deaths of about 70 million people in the last century (and that's not counting those murdered by the Bolsheviks in Russia). Maybe it's time to try a united Europe
Freedom of religion in the modern sense was made in America by Roger Williams and the Maryland Catholics. There were antecedents, but there are those for anything.
No Jews nor Christians converted people to their religion by the sword
You haven't read the Old Testament very carefully. Like the part about the punishment for idolatry under the Law (that would be ... death), or the warfare of Israel against Amalek, or the warfare of Assyria against Israel. (The Assyrians didn't stop at conversion by the sword, they went the whole nine yards to erasing ethnic identity by forced intermarriage, exile, and assimilation.)
Especially since it was never the case that a disunited Europe was the cause of the "70 million deaths" you refer to.
I don't think unity was the cause of two World Wars, do you?
I think the traditional enmity between Germany and France, going back to the Thirty Years War and before, had a lot to do with it.
So you're OK with the "united" Europe being undemocratic
Save your breath. I never said anything like that, so stop putting words in my mouth.
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