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Catholic World News News Feature

Vatican announces Austrian bishop's replacement October 07, 2004

The Vatican has acknowledged the resignation of Bishop Kurt Krenn, the embattled head of the St. Pölten, Austria diocese, and the selection of Bishop Klaus Küng to replace him.

With a terse formal announcement, the Vatican press office confirmed the announcement that Bishop Krenn had made on September 30. Church officials in Austria had indicated that Bishop Krenn deliberately announced his resignation before receiving an official response from Rome. "He wanted to pre-empt the Vatican, so that the decision appeared to be his own, rather than something imposed on him," one source said.

In fact, however, informed sources at the Vatican have confirmed that Bishop Krenn was asked to resign in early September, after an investigation of a homosexual scandal at the St. Pölten diocesan seminary. The resignation request was reportedly made to Bishop Krenn by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Bishop Klaus Kung, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II to conduct an apostolic visitation of the troubled diocese after the scandal erupted this summer, has been named the new Bishop of St. Pölten. Bishop Kung, a member of the Opus Dei prelature, has been Bishop of Feldkirch, and is a member of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Soon after his July appointment to investigate the problems in St. Pölten, Bishop Kung imposed an order of silence on all parties involved in the scandal, and shortly thereafter he ordered the closing of the seminary that had been the main focus of the scandal. Later he began working with the papal nuncio in Austria, Archbishop Girgio Zur, to negotiate the resignation of Bishop Krenn.

Vatican officials had planned to delay the public announcement of Bishop Krenn's resignation until after the October 3 beatification of Emperor Carl of Austria: an event that drew thousands of Austrian Catholics to Rome. Bishop Krenn-- who did not come to Rome for the beatification ceremony, although he was a leader in the effort to promote the beatification of the last Hapsburg emperor-- upset those plans with his early public announcement.

The Vatican's announcement on October 7 indicated that Bishop Krenn's resignation was "accepted in accordance with Canon 401, para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law ." That canon allows for the replacement of a bishop who can no longer fulfill his duties "because of illness or some other grave reason." In his own September 30 announcement, Bishop Krenn indicated his resignation was not required by reasons of health, but requested by Pope John Paul.

Also announced on October 7 was the resignation of Bishop Heinrich Fasching, who had been serving as an auxiliary in the St. Pölten diocese. The Vatican announcement indicated that Bishop Fasching had resigned upon reaching the ordinary retirement age; his 75th birthday was in May.