Alfons Maria Stickler
Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler SDB ( born August 23, 1910 in Neunkirchen, † 12 December 2007 in Vatican City ) was an Austrian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church with the title of Cardinal Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church.
Life
Alfons Maria Stickler resigned after his school years in the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco and laid on August 15, 1928, the religious profession. He then studied Catholic theology and philosophy at various universities in Germany, Austria and Italy. On March 27, 1937, he received in the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the priest. Subsequently, he studied ecclesiastical and secular law at the Pontifical Lateran University. He then taught at the church law faculty of the University of the Salesians in Turin, was from 1953 to 1965 dean of the Faculty and finally rector of the university.
On Ash Wednesday, in 1971 Pope Paul VI appointed him. Prefect of the Vatican Library. In this role, Stickler was consultant to several Vatican Congregations. On September 9, 1983, Pope John Paul II appointed Titular Archbishop of Volsinium ( Bolsena ) and Pro- librarian of the Holy Roman Church. He received his episcopal consecration on November 1, 1983, the Pope. Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo were co-consecrators and Rosalio José Castillo Lara Cardinal. On July 7, 1984 him, the Pope also has bore the title of Pro- Archivist of the Holy Roman Church. On May 25, 1985, he took it as a cardinal deacon with the title Diakonia San Giorgio in Velabro in the College of Cardinals, and appointed him Cardinal Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church.
During his tenure as prefect (until 1983 ) to Stickler sat for the maintenance and modernization of the Vatican library. Among other things, an atomic bomb safe bunker was built under his direction, in which the most important treasures of the library are housed (including the Codex Vaticanus ). In the summer of 1988 Stickler joined for reasons of age from his office as a cardinal librarian.
Despite his advanced age, traveled Cardinal Stickler, a friend and supporter of the Tridentine liturgy, repeated after Germany and Austria, where he celebrated with festivities and ordinations Pontifikalämter the traditional Roman rite. On January 29, 1996, he was appointed while retaining its title Diakonia cardinal priest per hac vice. Cardinal Stickler continued to live in Rome and was since the death of the Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands on August 2, 2006, the oldest living Cardinal in the world.
In 2007, a few months before his death, he was still able to celebrate the 70-year anniversary as a priest; in a letter on this occasion called him Pope Benedict XVI. as patriarch and spoke publicly his benevolence and his gratitude for his work from.
As a preliminary final resting place of the tomb of the Salesians of Don Bosco was chosen on the grounds of St. Callistus catacombs. On October 7, 2010, he was laid in his titular church of San Giorgio al Velabro to rest
Awards
He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Vienna, Bologna and Siena, the Medieval Academy of the United States, honorary senator of the University of Heidelberg.
- Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Grand Gold Medal with Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria
- Grand Silver Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria
- Culture Prize for Science of Lower Austria
Works
- Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler, The cleric celibacy: its historical development and its theological foundations, 1st Edition: Abenberg Kral 1993, new edition Sarto -Verlag, Stuttgart, 2012