Vienna: Church and society took leave of Auxiliary Bishop Krätzl

2023-05-15 18:29:45

Cardinal Schönborn at the requiem in St. Stephen’s Cathedral: For Krätzl, unshakable love for the church and criticism of ecclesiastical misdevelopments belonged together – with Krätzl, hope and confidence were rooted in the conviction that God himself acts in the church

Vienna (KAP) – With a solemn requiem in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the church, state and society bid farewell to the former Viennese auxiliary bishop Helmut Krätzl. Krätzl died on May 2nd at the age of 92. In his sermon, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, praised Krätzl as an outstanding priest, pastor and bishop who was “passionately committed, critical, but never bitter” because he “never lost his love for the Church”. “I have learned to look more at her (the church, note) inner being and that she is always much more than she appears at the moment,” Cardinal Schönborn quoted from Krätzl’s will.

Bishops Manfred Scheuer (Linz), Alois Schwarz (St. Pölten) and Wilhelm Krautwashl (Graz-Seckau) concelebrated with Cardinal Schönborn, as well as the auxiliary bishops Franz Scharl, Anton Leichtfried, Stephan Turnovszky and Hansjörg Hofer; as well as the bishops emeritus Egon Kapellari, Paul Iby, Ludwig Schwarz, Klaus Küng and the general secretary of the bishops’ conference, Peter Schipka. The Apostolic Nuncio to Austria, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, also attended the requiem.

Politics was represented first and foremost by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, accompanied by his wife Doris Schmidauer. The Lower Austrian provincial governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner also celebrated the requiem. Also present from the ecclesiastical side were the Vienna Vicar General Nikolaus Krasa, the Eastern Church Vicar General Yuriy Kolasa, the Episcopal Vicars Dariusz Schutzki and P. Gerwin Komma as well as Domdean Rudolf Prokschi; also Archabbot Korbinian Birnbacher, the chairman of the Austrian Orders Conference.

Appreciation despite disagreements

Even if there were “differences of opinion” between the two of them, he always valued Krätzl very much. “My appreciation for him grew until the end,” explained Schönborn. According to the archbishop of Vienna, the differences of opinion were rooted in different perceptions of the post-conciliar period. He once said to Krätzl: “When you talk about the time after the Council, I sometimes have the feeling that we lived in two church worlds. For you, the time was a departure that was blocked in the jump. I have this time experienced as a dramatic break as a young Dominican.” Crowds of confreres left the order – “the crisis was obvious”. In addition, hard “trench warfare” broke out over doctrinal questions, so that at the end of the 1960s he himself had to laboriously relearn the joy of faith, says Schönborn. “These were difficult years of growing polarization”.

What gave him confidence in this situation is also the core of what saved Auxiliary Bishop Krätzl from bitterness: the conviction that the church in its inner being “is much more than it appears at the moment,” Schönborn quoted again from the will scratches Ultimately, this speaks of a confidence that has helped to get through even the deepest crisis of recent years: the abuse crisis. “The credibility of the church was at its lowest point. There was no longer any room for ecclesiastical triumphalism. Honest recognition of the guilt and a clear option for the victims and not for the reputation of the churches was the path we had to take and are trying to take to this day .”

Krätzl’s own view of the inner being of the Church, which is bigger than it appears, is ultimately also the view that the Pope wants to take or implement with the synodal process. Because this process knows about the “incompleteness and incompleteness” of itself. He knows that it is just a step on a path that must always be characterized by “repentance and renewal” – and that ultimately only God himself can complete. A path on which Krätzl ultimately had no choice but to expand the place of women in the church, according to Schönborn. “Perhaps that was the deepest reason why Auxiliary Bishop Krätzl always and despite all worries remained a hopeful and confident person: because he knows that it is the Lord himself who will open hearts”. “Dear Bishop Helmut, you brought the Word of God closer to many people and the Lord opened the hearts of many. We thank you for that and we thank the Lord,” Schönborn concluded.

Ecumenism also said goodbye

Ecumenism was also strongly represented, with the Serbian-Orthodox bishop Andrej (Cilerdzic), the Protestant bishop Michael Chalupka, the reformed state superintendent Thomas Hennefeld, the Methodist superintendent Stephan Schröckenfuchs, the Anglican canon Patrick Curran, and the Syrian-Orthodox choreographer Emanuel Aydin and the Orthodox Archpriest Athanasius Buk, who represented Metropolitan Arsenios (Kardamakis), who was still in Turkey on a pilgrimage with Bishop Aegidius Zsifkovics of Eisenstadt.

The President of the Austrian Catholic Laity Council, Wolfgang Mazal, and the President of the Pro Oriente Foundation, Alfons Kloss, gave Krätzl the final escort at the Requiem.

The musical composition of the requiem was in the hands of the St. Stephan vocal ensemble and cathedral organist Ernst Wally under the direction of cathedral music director Markus Landerer.

After the funeral service, Krätzl was buried in the canon’s crypt. From Tuesday, May 16, after the services, there will be the opportunity to visit the grave site.

((forts. mgl.)) HKL/PWU
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