Appointment of Bishops

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, O.P.

Function: Archbishop of Wien, Austria

Title: Cardinal Priest of Gesù Divin Lavoratore

Birthdate: Jan 22, 1945	Country: Austria

Elevated: Feb 21, 1998	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org, Stephanscom.at, The Schonborn Site

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Appointment of Bishops
Sept 12, 2004
“I must say that the appointments in Austria in the last ten years have been made very carefully following the procedures and in no case can we complain about an action of Rome over our heads.”

(The Tablet, 17 April 2004) Schönborn told me he was “hesitant” to call for more local church involvement in episcopal appointments. The Church, he said, had gained the freedom to appoint its own bishops – it was only 100 years ago in Austria that all bishops were appointed by the emperor.

“That the Pope is free to appoint bishops, this is a conditio sine qua non,” he told me, adding: “Now, having said this, it is not at all alien to the papal system to be truly collegial in the consultation and I think that the normal procedure of bishops’ appointments today, if it is truly followed, gives many, many possibilities of real commitment of the local Church in appointments.

” Take, for example, he said, the list of episcopal candidates which every bishop is obliged to give Rome every three years. “We have not done this in Austria,” he admits. “Our collaboration has been lacking. We have responsibility as bishops to be aware of possible candidates and to speak to the nuncio regularly, to give these lists to Rome.” He adds: “I must say that the appointments in Austria in the last ten years have been made very carefully following the procedures and in no case can we complain about an action of Rome over our heads.”

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