“Our sorrow is combined with deep gratitude for the fact that God gave us this great personality for so long a time”, said Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Vienna, commenting on the death of Cardinal Franz König, archbishop emeritus of the Austrian capital, on 12 March. Schönborn paid tribute to his great predecessor on ORF, Austria’s public television, on Saturday, 13 March. Born in 1905, ordained priest in 1933 and created cardinal by the Blessed John XXIII in 1958, König headed the archdiocese of Vienna till 1985. Apart from recalling Franz König’s key role in Vatican Council II, Schönborn paid tribute to his great gifts, “especially as a pastor of souls”, and his capacity for dialogue: “With König a new quality of encounter became possible, and he came to personify not only the dialogue between Church and society but also the dialogue between religions”. “We bow our heads in recognition and admiration of this great man”, says the message of condolence sent by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Episcopal Conference, to Cardinal Schönborn. “For us all added Lehman, referring to the influence exerted by König on Vatican II he was guarantor of a courageous renewal, a legitimate change in direction, without ignoring the risk of losing the continuing of the faith”. “The death of Cardinal König marks the end of an age. But the legacy he left behind is great and powerful”, concludes Lehmann, who also underlined “his long and precocious efforts to promote dialogue with the Churches of Eastern Europe”.
