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"At 94, the "uncrowned emperor" and visionary architect of a reunified Europe carries on a thousand-year legacy of Catholic political leadership. The past and future of Europe have hovered as a haunting subtext beneath all the headlines of 2006. Even as the global encounter with the Islamic world has claimed center stage, the very specter of clashing Christian and Moslem civilizations brings the mind back to Europe -- a Europe seemingly in full flight from its Christian heritage just as it stands on the brink of achieving the peace and unity that had eluded it for so many centuries. Europe the cradle of Christendom, where Christianity has become politically incorrect. Europe that stopped Islamic invasions at Tours and Lepanto and Vienna, but where now in some of its countries "Mohammed" is the single most popular name registered for newborn boys. Europe the 21st century's amnesiac lost child, bent on demographic suicide yet somehow still hearkening to its unique destiny as the heart of Christian civilization.
If the "problem of Europe" weighs heavily on the heart of this Bavarian pope, no one man better personifies a truly Catholic response to it than does Dr. Otto von Habsburg, heir of the last great Catholic monarchy and visionary architect of today's expanding European Union. His decades of public service in the political arena exemplify the best in Europe's Christian past and its hopes for a peaceful, united and still Christian future.
Born to a 700-year-old imperial dynasty, the present-day head of the House of Habsburg has, in his own way, taken up the same mantle of responsibility borne by the Austrian emperors, and the Holy Roman Emperors before them, without benefit of any of the office's perks or powers. Probably most identified with Dr. von Habsburg is the staggering achievement of European unity in our lifetime after a century of warfare and Cold War polarization. No one has done more to bring about the new Europe, or to manifest it in his own person. A citizen of at least four nations, an orator who switches effortlessly between German, French, Hungarian and other languages, with descendants and extended family members in more countries than one could count, his allegiance goes beyond any national boundary. He himself has recalled as an epiphany the day he first spontaneously answered the nationality question with "I am a European." …At the time of Emperor Karl's beatification in Rome in 2004, when former Soviet Bloc nations had begun entering the European Union and passage of the new European Constitution seemed imminent, many people were hailing the reunification of Europe as a vindication of Blessed Karl, who had said shortly before his death, "I must suffer so much so that my people can come together again." But one could not help but think with sadness about the other part of his sacrificial intention -- the good of the Church and the salvation of his people. Are we moving forward, or falling backward? Will Europe ever again hope to see a truly Christian, Catholic civilization? And so we asked Archduke Otto, during those joyful October days, "what about the other half, ‘for the good of the Church'?" He answered with great energy and conviction, eyes sparkling, "Oh, it will come -- it will come!" He added there are places where indications of it can be seen already. Dr. von Habsburg is nothing if not an optimist. But then, few people are as entitled to his optimism as he is. The young heir to the thrones of Austria and Hungary, who even in exile was on Hitler's hunt-and-kill list, has lived long enough to see the "thousand-year Reich" consigned to the ash-heap of history. He has lived long enough to see the iron grip of Soviet Marxism on Eastern Europe -- something Western policy analysts as late as the 1980's expected to endure for generations -- dissolve into a bad memory with scarcely a shot fired. He has lived long enough to see the nations of the former empire, forcibly broken up into economically and politically marginalized units, come together peacefully as part of a European superpower which he did much to bring into being. The head of the House of Habsburg, who for decades was not permitted so much as to set foot in his native land, lived long enough to hear the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna address him as "your imperial highness" at a Mass at the Stefansdom celebrating his 90th birthday. (Yes, without provoking a riot or government crisis!) Perhaps, then, it is not so unreasonable for him to foresee a vibrantly Christian future for a continent whose brave new government is today ashamed even to acknowledge its Christian past...” The whole article is an interesting read. The 'Inside the Vatican" magazine have profiled him as person #8 on their 2007 "Person of the Year" list.
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