Alfred Kostelecky

Alfred Kostelecky (born May 15, 1920 in Vienna ; † February 22, 1994 in Vienna) was the first military bishop of Austria from 1986 to 1994 , first titular bishop of Aggar (now Sidi Amara, Tunisia ) and then of Wiener Neustadt .

Life

Bishop Kostelecky's sarcophagus in St. George's Cathedral in Wiener Neustadt

Kostelecky was ordained a priest on June 29, 1948 . His appointment on November 12, followed in 1986 on 14 December 1986, the episcopal ordination by Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër in the cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna , where as co-consecrators the Salzburg Archbishop Karl Berg and Franz Žak , bishop of St. Pölten and as a military vicar Kosteleckys Predecessors, participated. His motto was Pax et Iustitia (Peace and Justice). As titular bishop of Aggar he was auxiliary bishop in Vienna and, when he was appointed first military bishop of Austria on November 12, 1986 by Pope John Paul II, he was entrusted with the Catholic military pastoral care in Austria. On February 10, 1990 he became titular bishop of the former diocese of Wiener Neustadt ( Neostadiensis ). As such, he also consecrated his future successor Christian Werner as bishop.

During his tenure, the military vicariate was renamed the military ordinariate on April 15, 1987 , and the organs and councils necessary for the administration of the diocese were formed by the now military ordinary. As far as functions were to be performed by laypeople , the military bishop primarily consulted members of the Working Group of Catholic Soldiers (AKS).

Kostelecky died on February 22, 1994 and was buried in the St. George's Cathedral in Wiener Neustadt according to his decree . An anteroom of the church was adapted for this in 1990; the otherwise empty room on the first floor has since contained the marble sarcophagus and a metal representation of Kostelecky's bishop's coat of arms.

Alfred Kostelecky had been a member of the Catholic student union K.Ö.St.V. Rudolfina Vienna in the ÖCV . He also wore the Gothia Seckau ribbon of honor in MKV.

Awards

• February 5, 1990: Large star for the Grand Cross of the Radetzky Order on the shoulder ribbon
• January 30, 1990: Large Golden Commander's Cross with the Star of the State of Lower Austria
• May 3, 1990: Large gold medal with a star for services to the Republic of Austria
• May 14, 1990: Cardinal Opilio Rossi Medal

Web links

• Literature by and about Alfred Kostelecky in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Alfred Kostelecky on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Kosteletzky on Giga-Catholic Information : "Military Ordinariate of Katholische Militärseelsorge Austria"
• Entry on Alfred Kostelecky in the database of the state's memory for the history of the state of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
• Sound recording by Alfred Kostelecky in the online archive of the Austrian Mediathek (interview in Mittagsjournal)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Festschrift "65 years Borussia Wien in the MKV", p. 22