Erwin Kräutler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erwin Kräutler 2010

Erwin Kräutler CPPS (also Dom Erwin ; born July 12, 1939 in Koblach , Vorarlberg ) is a Roman Catholic religious , missionary and from 1981 to 2015 was bishop and prelate of Xingu , the largest diocese in Brazil in terms of area .

In 2010 he was awarded the alternative Nobel Prize for his commitment to the human rights of the Indians and the preservation of the tropical rainforest in the Amazon region .

Life

Erwin Kräutler at a lecture in the Bildungshaus Schloss Puchberg on October 25, 2008

Erwin Kräutler, the oldest of six siblings, attended the Xaverius House in Feldkirch from 1951, a boarding school of the Congregation of Missionaries of the Precious Blood , and graduated from the secondary school in Feldkirch , where he passed the matriculation examination in 1958 . After graduating from high school, he joined the Congregation of Missionaries of the Precious Blood (CCPS) and completed his novitiate in Liechtenstein. After studying theology and philosophy at the University of Salzburg , Kräutler was ordained a priest in Salzburg Cathedral on July 3, 1965 . After his primacy on July 18, 1965 in Koblach, he went on November 2, 1965 as a missionary to the lower Río Xingú and Amazonas in Brazil.

On November 7, 1980 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as coadjutor bishop of his uncle Erich Kräutler (Eurico Kräutler) CPPS (with the right of succession), the prelate of the Brazilian territorial prelature, Xingu , with an area of ​​350,000 km² . The episcopal ordination donated to him on January 25, 1981 Archbishop Carmine Rocco , Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil; Co-consecrators were the Archbishop of Belém do Pará, Alberto Gaudêncio Ramos , and his predecessor, Erich Kräutler. His episcopal motto is “Servus Christi Iesu” (servant of Jesus Christ) from the first verse of Romans. With the resignation of Erich Kräutler on September 2, 1981, Erwin Kräutler succeeded him.

From 1983 to 1991 Kräutler was President of the Indian Mission Council of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CIMI) . In 2006 he became President of the CIMI again after the incumbent President Bishop Gianfranco Masserdotti MCCJ had a fatal accident. His closest collaborator is his vicar general Fritz Tschol .

In April 2014 he was received in a special audience by Pope Francis , and he is co-author of his second encyclical Laudato si ' on the topic of environmental protection, which is dealt with in the first chapter .

As a teenager, Kräutler founded the Catholic Workers' Youth in Austria (KAJ) in his home town. Kräutler is a member of the K.Ö.HV Leopoldina Innsbruck student association in the Austrian Cartell Association .

On December 23, 2015, Pope Francis accepted his age-related resignation. He then coordinated the preparations for the Synod of Bishops on Amazonia in October 2019, wrote books and gave lectures, as Vice President of the Pan-Amazonian diocesan network REPAM (among other things) .

Act

Political persecution

In 1983, Kräutler was arrested and beaten by the military police for participating in a solidarity campaign with sugar cane planters. On October 16, 1987, Kräutler survived a murder attack, seriously injured, when a pickup truck drove head-on into his car in a staged car accident. His rider was killed. The perpetrators and the commissioner of the assassination attempt were convicted, but the commissioner was released after a second trial.

In 1995, Kräutler's friar and colleague Hubert Mattle was murdered at the bishopric Altamira.

After the murder of the environmental activist and religious sister Dorothy Stang in 2005, Erwin Kräutler was repeatedly threatened with death because he wanted to bring backers to justice. Other reasons for death threats include his opposition to the Belo Monte dam project and his complaints against influential people in Altamira for the sexual abuse of children and child prostitution . He has been repeatedly faced with death threats for fighting to protect the environment. Kräutler advocates the viri probati consecration and the admission of married priests to the Catholic Church.

Erwin Kräutler has been under police protection for years.

Aspirations for the poor and the church

Kräutler has long been one of those bishops in South America who represent the " option for the poor ". His conviction that pastoral care among the Indians who belong to the lower social class must go hand in hand with the fight against poverty has been undisputed by his work and that of many other priests for several decades in the population of Latin America and increasingly also for conservative bishops. He created birth centers for indigenous mothers, because health care for them is often inadequate in Brazil. In his diocese, the indigenous people live in around twenty Indian villages on the Rio Xingu : Kayapo , Asurini , Araweté , Parakanã , Xikrin and Arara .

In an interview with the Austrian radio station Ö1 , Kräutler reported that the Indios in the Amazon were being pushed back more and more in their living spaces, often with brutal violence. As the shepherd of Xingú, he was charged with looking for ways to get out of this suffering and poverty. "If I take the side of the indigenous peoples, the blacks, the exploited women, then I am always against the interests of others who want to exploit these people." He emphasized that liberation theology will exist as long as there is arms under give us. “There are poor until Judgment Day. What does liberation theology basically mean? God is a liberating God. The name of Jesus already says: "God delivers". God heals, God is not a god far away, he is at the same time God with us, a God who descends, who hears the cry of his people and who frees them from slavery. That is the basic message of liberation theology. And I don't think much can change there. We can't close the Bible. ”It is the indigenous peoples, millions of poor who are half dead by the wayside. Not only first aid and transport to a hospital are required, but the system that rules out, that distributes the cake so unfairly, must be questioned.

From November 16 to December 12, 1997, Kräutler took part in the Synod for America in the Vatican as one of the 15 delegates of the Brazilian Episcopate elected by the Bishops' Conference and confirmed by the Pope , and raised his voice on behalf of the peoples of North Brazil for their rights and against them unscrupulous looting and exploitation of the Amazon. He achieved - on behalf of the Bishops' Conference - that the rights of the indigenous peoples of Brazil are now legally protected.

Interview after receiving the Right Livelihood Award

Kräutler with the Right Livelihood Award

At the beginning of October 2010, Bishop Kräutler gave the Salzburger Nachrichten a long interview on the political and social situation in Amazonia and his further plans. Kräutler sees the award as confirmation of his work with the Indians. Their fight against the mega-power station on the Xingu will also receive a tailwind and the Catholic Church will take legal action with them. Brazil will be wary, even under the new government, internationally as quite fragile to stand.

Here are some quotes from the interview:

  • Regarding the Belo Monte dam project : There are 15 lawsuits pending against the project that have not yet been decided ... the Ministry of the Environment must under no circumstances give permission to start construction ... it would be unconstitutional.
  • To the President: ... he cannot say that he is above the constitution. If there are constitutional violations, Brazil is no longer a constitutional state internationally, but a dictatorship. You will think about that carefully ... We made presentations everywhere. There are [also] several international complaints ...
  • Possible bribery of the Indios: The energy industry is doing everything to make the Indians compliant. You buy food parcels , you pay for their fuel ... They have always been marginalized in education, health and administration. And now suddenly someone is paying attention to them ... Of course, they also accept a lot.
  • Regarding the power station itself: [The Indians] cannot foresee what will happen to them. A huge wall is being built there, so that the Indians are completely cut off from the city. They are also cut off from the water - people who have lived from fishing for a long time .
  • We will use the money [of the Alternative Nobel Prize] for the people in Amazonia , for everything that has to do with their right to live and their living space ... The price is a very big help.
  • Priced as internal church Confirmation: The liberation theology is biblical, I am always assumed ... encouragement of Archbishop Robert Zollitsch , head of the German Bishops' Conference . In Brazil too ... there is great solidarity.

Awards

The bishop's work has received the following awards and honors:

Fonts

  • 500 years of Latin America. No reason to celebrate (lecture in Vienna City Hall on April 7, 1992). In: Viennese lectures in the town hall . Volume 15. Picus , Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85452-314-9 .
  • Church with an Indian face - a utopia? [Lecture in the Vienna City Hall on March 16, 1993. With a foreword by Hubert Christian Ehalt]. In: Wiener Vorlesungen im Rathaus , Volume 21. Picus, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85452-320-3 .
  • The night is not over yet . The Bishop of the Amazon as an advocate for the people. Herder library 1781, Freiburg im Breisgau / Basel / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-451-08781-2 .
  • My life is like the Amazon. From a bishop's diary . Autobiography 1981–1992, Herderbücherei 8815, Freiburg im Breisgau / Basel / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-451-08815-0 (also published in Braille).
  • Foreword for Franz Weber : Daring Inculturation. Base communities in Brazil: an interim pastoral history . Grünewald, Mainz 1996, ISBN 3-7867-1960-8 (also habilitation thesis at the University of Mainz , 1995).
  • with Felix Mitterer , Herbert Meusburger (illustrator), Gustav Schörghofer (texts), Manfred Horvath (photos): Kreuzweg Hochberg [illustrated book]. Folio, Vienna / Bozen 2004, ISBN 978-3-85256-256-8 .
  • Living worlds and problem areas in Amazonia today [Lecture in Vienna City Hall on June 21, 2005 on the occasion of the presentation of the prize of the Viktor Frankl Fund of the City of Vienna for the promotion of meaningful humanistic psychotherapy for 2004]. In: Viennese lectures in the town hall . Volume 124. Picus, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85452-524-9 .
  • The flowers are as red as blood. A bishop between life and death. [Autobiography 1965–2009], Müller, Salzburg / Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7013-1163-7 .
  • Fight, believe, hope: my life as a bishop on the Amazon. Four Towers 2011, ISBN 978-3-89680-534-8 .
  • My life for the Amazon. At the side of the oppressed peoples; In collaboration with Josef Bruckmoser. Tyrolia , Innsbruck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7022-3387-7 .
  • Have courage! Now change the world and the church . Tyrolia , Innsbruck 2016. ISBN 978-3-7022-3508-6 .
  • Justice for Brazil's Indigenous Peoples . Picus, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7117-3000-8 .
  • When God became one of us . Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2017, ISBN 978-3-7022-3630-4
  • Renewal now . Tyrolia, Innsbruck-Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-7022-3786-8

Erwin Kräutler Prize

The Center for Intercultural Theology and Study of Religions at the University of Salzburg has been awarding a prize named after Kräutler every two years "for contextual theology, interreligious dialogue and liberation theological research" since 2011. The prize, endowed with € 3,000, honors scientific work in the subject areas associated with Bishop Kräutler's commitment. Prize winners are:

literature

  • Dolores Bauer : Stream of Misery - River of Hope. On the way with Dom Erwin Kräutler, Bishop of the Xingu. Müller, Salzburg 1989, ISBN 3-7013-0774-1 .
  • Franz Ferdinand Wolf : About the person. Franz Ferdinand Wolf in conversation with Karlheinz Böhm , Erwin Kräutler, Leopold Ungar , Simon Wiesenthal . 1st edition. Edition S, [Vienna] 1993, ISBN 3-7046-0420-8 .
  • Johannes Haas; Young Missionaries Circle, KIM Headquarters Germany and Austria, Ingolstadt, Weibern (ed.): Always a hint from God. Vocation using the example of Bishop Erwin Kräutler. In: calling. Volume 2. 2nd edition, Sales, Eichstätt 1993, ISBN 3-7721-0155-0 .
  • Erwin Kräutler, Verena Daum (text), Miro Kuzmanovic (photographs): Dom Erwin [autobiography]. Bucher, Hohenems 2006, ISBN 3-902525-28-2 .
  • Andreas R. Batlogg : Erwin Kräutler - Bishop between life and death. In: Voices of the Time . 227th volume, 2009, issue 12, pages 853-855.
  • Andreas R. Batlogg: Dom Erwin Kräutler - a people bishop between the Amazon and the Rhine. In: Voices of the Times, online exclusively November 2010

Web links

Commons : Erwin Kräutler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Annual reports of the Bundesgymnasium Feldkirch 1951-1959: pupils or high school graduates ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Andreas R. Batlogg SJ: Dom Erwin Kräutler - a people bishop between the Amazon and the Rhine. In: Voices of the Time , accessed on March 12, 2011
  3. Pope: Special Audience for Bishop Kräutler , diepresse.com, April 1, 2014, accessed on June 2, 2017
  4. The Pope's “Eco Whisperer” , Vorarlberg online , June 18, 2015, accessed on June 2, 2017
  5. ^ Erwin Kräutler theologian and human rights activist ( memento of April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), exilarchiv.de, accessed on March 12, 2011
  6. ^ Vorarlberg Online: Bishop Kräutler visits Montfort and Leopoldina ; Retrieved May 3, 2012
  7. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo Prelato di Xingu (Brazil) e nomina del successore. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , December 23, 2015, accessed December 23, 2015 (Italian).
  8. REPAM website , accessed on July 25, 2019
  9. From: FURCHE No. 26 of June 29, 2000 "Vorarlberg in Amazonia"
  10. ^ "Brazil: New Death Threats Against Bishop" , Vatican Radio , March 24, 2008
  11. Mafia puts 400,000 € bounty on Bishop ( Memento from April 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Heute.at , January 28, 2013
  12. Cardinal Stella : "We have to think about whether the 'viri probati' are a possibility." ( Die Tagespost.de ).
  13. ^ "Option for the Poor" - Interventions by Bishops of the North and the South
  14. ^ Ö1 interview with Erwin Kräutler May 21, 2000
  15. We use all legal channels . Salzburger Nachrichten of October 4, 2010, p. 6
  16. Awards - Prizes - Honors ( Memento from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  17. domerwin.com
  18. Winner GlobArt Award 1998-2007 ( Memento from May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) “ Dom Erwin Kräutler received the GLOB A rtAward 2004 of the GLOB A rt Academy for his commitment to the people of his diocese in Xingu, Brazil, for his“ Service at the side of the poor in the Xingu prelature in Amazonia "Laudation: Dolores Bauer"
  19. Prize winner ( Memento from February 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at the Viktor Frankl Institute (viktorfrankl.org); Retrieved May 9, 2012
  20. ^ ORF Vorarlberg
  21. List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  22. Right Livelihood Award ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  23. An honor that goes to the heart
  24. Bishop Erwin Kräutler receives my way Foundation Prize 2012 ( Memento from March 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  25. Leopold Kunschak Prize for Bishop Kräutler at orf.at
  26. Archive link ( Memento from June 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) December 10, 2014
  27. Archive link ( Memento from June 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) May 7, 2015
  28. Bishop Kräutler honored with a medal from the State of Salzburg on July 6, 2015. Accessed on November 15, 2016
  29. Presentation of the Memming Freedom Prize in Die Lokal , accessed on October 15, 2016
  30. Bavarian Nature Conservation Prize for Erwin Kräutler. In: bund-naturschutz.de. BUND Naturschutz in Bayern eV, accessed on May 3, 2016 .
  31. Information on the website of the University of Salzburg
  32. ^ Andreas R. Batlogg, Dom Erwin Kräutler - a people bishop between the Amazon and the Rhine , in Voices of the Time, November 2010
predecessor Office successor
Erich Kräutler CPPS Prelate of Xingu
1981-2015
João Muniz Alves OFM