Veteran Austrian cardinal wins tributes on retirement, called 'pontifex austriacus'

(OSV News) -- Church and state leaders in Austria have praised the veteran Cardinal Christoph Schönborn on his retirement, at age 80, after three decades as archbishop of Vienna.

Austria's president, a Protestant, even dubbed him "pontifex austriacus," or Austrian bridge-builder.

"Cardinal Schönborn played a decisive role in determining and shaping major church developments and decisions both in Austria and worldwide," said Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, chairman of the bishops' conference.

"As a Dominican, preaching and evangelization remain his main concerns. But the Franciscan part of his heart also beats especially for the poor and weak, showing no fear of seeing, naming and decisively opposing negative phenomena," the archbishop told Austrian press agency Kathpress.

The archbishop issued the message as the pope accepted the cardinal's retirement Jan. 22 from the Vienna Archdiocese, which is home to 1,100 priests, half from abroad, ministering in over 30 language communities.

Meanwhile, one of Austria's foremost church experts told OSV News that Cardinal Schönborn had faced criticism for some reforms, including a 2012 merger of the Vienna Archdiocese's 660 parishes into larger units, as well as for his sometimes harsh treatment of dissenting clergy, but he had also been praised for pioneering efforts to counter abuse and reach out to sexual minorities.

"Combining mystical and political approaches, he's been appreciated right across the political, cultural and academic scene," said Father Paul Zulehner, a Catholic pastoral theologian.

"His vicarious advocacy for homosexuals and people in irregular situations, whom he saw as having a right to live as they were created, earned him the title of a rainbow prelate, and formed part of the pastoral culture he brought from Vienna to Rome," the expert said.

Cardinal Schönborn was appointed the 16th head of the Archdiocese of Vienna in September 1995, following the scandal-tainted resignation of Cardinal Herman Groër (1919-2003), and elevated to cardinal in 1998, serving as Austrian bishops' conference chairman from 1998 to 2020.

In 1996, he became Europe's first church leader to set up an office for abuse victims, later co-founding an independent national commission in 2010, while criticizing former Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, for his disregarding approach to victims after the latter called claims of clerical abuse "petty gossip."

He also became well known internationally, participating in nine Rome synods and holding numerous Vatican assignments under Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

Speaking at a Jan. 18 televised thanksgiving Mass in Vienna's St. Stephen Cathedral, attended by over 4,000 prominent figures, Austria President Alexander Van Der Bellen, a Protestant, described the cardinal as a "pontifex austriacus" (Austrian bridge-builder), who had "stood on the side of the excluded and disadvantaged, not always to the delight of those in power."

Meanwhile, in his homily, the cardinal said the "goodwill" and togetherness shown on his retirement contrasted with "the great farewell that so many people in our country are making, mostly in silence, from the Church -- 85,000 in 2023 alone," in Austria.

He added, however, that he found sources of hope in his own background as a one-time refugee in post-war Austria, as well as in the interfaith coexistence facilitated by the country's "extraordinarily good religious legislation."

"Sins must be named, and they are sometimes outrageous: human trafficking, abuse, environmental destruction, corruption, exploitation, killing innocents," Cardinal Schönborn said.

"But being able to name sin without condemning or judging is probably the deepest source of hope. ... Compassion understands everyone, does not have to be learned and induces trust and confidence," he added.

He was born at Skalka Castle, near Litomerice, now in the Czech Republic, in 1945, and that year the Schönborn family fled anti-Nazi reprisals. The future cardinal grew up at Schruns in western Austria, joining the Dominican order in 1963.

He was ordained priest in 1970 by Cardinal Franz König, going on to study in Vienna and Paris, including at the Sorbonne. He taught dogmatics and theology from 1975 at Switzerland's Fribourg University, before being appointed a Vienna auxiliary in 1991 and archbishop four years later.

Besides supervising the new Catechism of the Catholic Church beginning in 1987, then-Father Schönborn served in several Vatican dicasteries and the council of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality, presenting the post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" to the world in April 2016 at the request of Pope Francis.

He was also active in interchurch and interfaith dialogue, visiting Iran in 2001 and Saudi Arabia in 2023, and co-signing a "Religions and Peace" declaration in Vienna with Muslim and Jewish leaders in this January.

In a Jan. 22 commentary, Austria's Kathpress agency said Cardinal Schönborn had "campaigned for a new trust in the church" as "shepherd and crisis-manager," and had sometimes been accused of lacking "steadfastness, courage and clarity" in his search for "diplomatic solutions" behind the scenes.

"For him, pastoral openness and loyalty to church teachings go hand in hand. The fact that he received not only applause is something that also connects him with Pope Francis," the agency said.

Meanwhile, Father Zulehner recalled that the cardinal's prominence in the world church, particularly in promoting the church's 1992 Catechism, widely regarded as its most important magisterial act since Second Vatican Council, as well as its 30-language 2011 youth edition, YouCat, had twice led him to be considered a candidate for pope in 2005 and 2013.

He added that Cardinal Schönborn had been criticized for a preoccupation with "legalistic structural reforms" at the cost of wider pastoral modernisation, but said his "polyglot personality" and fluency in multiple languages had extended his influence far beyond Austria.

"The idea there are gradations in canon law, and that divorced and remarried people might receive sacraments in particular cases, was a Viennese solution which Pope Francis accepted," Father Zulehner told OSV News.

"So was the idea that a person deserves respect even if he can only take a few faltering steps towards holiness. He valued such fragments of holiness and didn't seek to judge anyone, thus giving the Austrian church a polite and kind pastoral face."

The pope -- who extended Cardinal Schönborn's tenure in 2020 when the prelate turned 75, when canon requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope -- named Msgr. Josef Grünwidl, the Vienna Archdiocese's episcopal vicar, as temporary administrator Jan. 22.