Blessed Karl of Austria - Leadership and Holiness

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

The incredible secular assault on the foundations of our society motivates me to seek examples that defy the given wisdom that separation of church and state implies absense of morality from the public sphere. The last Holy Christian Emperor seems an impossibility in modern society – but all things are possible with God! Consider this revealing account of his life and death:

The Holy Christian Emperor Who Died in the Cold of Exile

Here are some additional valuable documents:

Emperor Charles I: World War I Peace Campaigner

COMMENTARIES - Beatification of Blessed Karl

For complete information on the cause for beatification and canonization, go here:

Beatification and Canonization Site

To conclude, contemplate Karl’s coronation ceremony:

Fifty years after the event, Empress Zita spoke about the coronation: “The thing that impressed both of us most about the whole ceremony was the moving liturgical side of it all—especially the oaths that the King took at the altar before his anointing to preserve justice for all and strive for peace. This sacred pledge given in the cathedral was exactly the political programme he wanted to carry out from the throne. We both felt this so strongly that hardly any words were necessary between us.” (Excerpt from: Gordon Brook-Shepherd: The Last Habsburg, Weybright and Talley, New York, 1968).

The coronation rite itself is described by Dr. Maria Holbacher: “Through the sacred rite, which is liturgically administered ‘through the Grace of God’ as a sacramental, he becomes sovereign and imbued with Divine Grace for the specific station of his high calling, in order that he might govern the peoples entrusted to him in peace and prosperity for their salvation. The ceremony of the coronation takes place before the offertory of the Holy Mass, and is similar to solemn professions, the ordination of priests, the blessing of abbots and the consecration of bishops, in that the candidate lies face-down on the floor before the altar while the litany of the saints is prayed. The Primate of Hungary, the Archbishop of Esztergom, confers the coronation-rite and celebrates the Mass. After a long prayer, the coronation-candidate, who stands throughout, is anointed with sacred chrism and invested with the royal regalia and insignia while his sacred obligations are cited individually. This is so the candidate clearly understands that the standards and expectations of ethical obligations and moral actions are so high that human power alone cannot accomplish them without the help of God.”

Would that Catholic, and other Christian leaders, would emulate Karl’s courage and fidelity.

http://www.emperorcharles.org/image...ngarian Royal Family Enthroned-Photograph.jpg

 

[MarieW]

Was there any movie that was made of Blessed Karl of Austria? He only lived to be 34 yrs. old, but he would’ve been a great leader and Empress Zita was also an incredible woman who lived a full life and passed away at 96 and yet their love story is one of the greatest.

 

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

Was there any movie that was made of Blessed Karl of Austria? He only lived to be 34 yrs. old, but he would’ve been a great leader and Empress Zita was also an incredible woman who lived a full life and passed away at 96 and yet their love story is one of the greatest.

It could earn an Academy Award for political incorrectness! It flies right in the face of liberal dogma:

The fact that the Church was declaring to be worthy of veneration a man who led an army against the Liberal Masonic Powers during World War I and actually tried twice to regain a throne, the Hungarian, which was legally his, in spite of the opposition of Anglo-American anti-Habsburg prejudice, is just the most obviously significant aspect of this event. What this event brings to our minds, however, and what probably set off all the rancor against the event in the European press, is the fact that the Catholic Church was making Her children and the peoples of the world aware of the fact that one can be a faithful, orthodox Catholic, a man striving after sanctity, and still deal, at the highest levels of the world-system, with the most complex and, ultimately, hazardous questions of politics, diplomacy, civic morality, and war. Civic courage and acumen can go perfectly well with child-like faith. One can be on the same world-stage as Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Kaiser Wilhelm — and still be a saint.

What, also, struck me when hearing of the beautification, was how the event and the man behind the event, Karl of Austria, made a complete lie of the typical analysis of the history and the character of Christendom. We are taught to think of Christendom as revealing its inherent implausibility and irrationality by its “decline” into irrelevance and hide-bound stupidity during the opening years of the 20th century. What we actually find is quite the opposite. The first quarter of the 20th century saw Christendom produce its finest, it’s most mature, fruit in both Church and State. Who would have thought that, at the end of this 1,700-year-old civilization we would have had 2 saints, Pope St. Pius X and Blessed Emperor Karl, occupying the two most venerable offices in Christendom? What the beatification tells us is that we must renew our intellectual and imaginative awareness of the Empire of Christ the King, as regards both Church and State, in order that enervating Liberal myths may not impede our own action and plans to “restore all things in Christ.”

The Blessed Emperor: Karl of Austria