Pope Gregory XVI

Gregory XVI. ( Born September 18, 1765 in Belluno, Venetian Republic, † June 1, 1846 in Rome, real name: Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari ) was from 1831 until his death Pope. He is so far the last pope, who was at the time of his election had been a cardinal, but no bishop. Regularly only since 1962 Cardinals received episcopal ordination, provided they were not bishops. In addition, he was up to the election of Pope Francis in 2013, the last members of religious orders and is still the last monk, who was elected head of the Catholic Church.

Life

Bartolomeo Cappellari, son of a notary entered 1783 as Fra Mauro in the Order of the Camaldolese one, as a monk of the monastery of San Michele on the lagoon island of Murano near Venice. He studied philosophy, theology and canon law; 1787 was followed by the ordination and 1790 he was reading Master of the Order. 1795 Cappellari went to Rome. 1805 the priest Fra Mauro was appointed abbot of the monastery of San Gregorio at Monte Celio in Rome.

Between 1809 and 1814, during the occupation of Italy by Napoleonic troops and commanded by Napoleon dissolution of the Order, he worked as a lay teacher on Murano and in Padua. 1814, after Napoleon's influence had ended in Italy, he returned to the monastery of San Gregorio back in Rome. In 1818 he was elected Attorney General and 1823 General of his Order. 1826 Leo XII appointed him. Cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide.

On 2 February 1831, he was surprisingly elected by a 54 days -long conclave to succeed the deceased on November 30, 1830 Pius VIII. After his episcopal ordination on 3 February in St. Peter he was crowned on February 6.

Gregory XVI. played an important role in the redefinition of the Church's self-understanding, after the Church had survived the storms of the French Revolution with the overthrow of almost all conditions. The strengthening of the spiritual can be understood as a consequence of the suppression of the secular influence of the church and as a result in particular of secularization ( expropriation ). Gregory XVI. has on the enforcement of the new spirituality in the relationships with European countries substantial proportion. In Prussia, for example, he supported the archbishop of Cologne, Clemens August Freiherr Droste zu Vischering (1773-1845) in the practice of ecclesiastical self-government. The biography of Droste Vischering of Markus von Hänsel Hohenhausen (1991 ) is the most recent illustration of the reign of Gregory XVI. , Who announced his allocution against the Prussian government the modern claim of the Church to independence in spiritualibus. The appointment of Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer bishop of Trent makes his promotion of spiritual renewal significantly.

Critically the close proximity of the Pope to the Austrian State Chancellor Metternich is evaluated in some places. So he left with the aid of Austrian troops in 1831, the liberal uprisings Carbonari reflected. However, already has Gregory XVI. the " political naturalism " rejected and thus founded the principle of Catholicism, which claims a priority of the spiritual authority of the Church towards closer political and social orders.

As the first pope since Benedict XIV published Gregory XVI. to a greater extent papal encyclicals in the form of the encyclical (aka: circular to the bishops ). The sometimes aggressive tone of this scholarly documents irritates critics to, they often cite as an acknowledgment for a specific, anti- modern understanding of the papacy. For example, Gregory XVI condemned. In his first encyclical " Mirari vos " from August 15, 1832 not only naturalism, rationalism and religious indifference, but also freedom of conscience and freedom of expression.

Pope Gregory XVI. passed away on June 1, 1846 after one week of illness from the consequences of erysipelas.

Kardinalskreierungen