Johannes Oesterreicher

Johannes Oesterreicher (born February 2, 1904 in the city ​​of Liebau in Moravia , † April 18, 1993 in Livingston, New Jersey ) was an Austrian Catholic clergyman of Jewish descent.

Life

After a happy childhood in the city of Liebau, he attended high school in Olomouc, where he was also active in the Zionist youth movement. He moved to Vienna to study medicine, where he increasingly came into contact with the writings of Christian authors and had a lively exchange with Max Josef Metzger . In May 1924 he was baptized in Graz; his godfather was Max Josef Metzger. While still a Jew, he began studying theology in Graz; July 17, 1927, he received by Archbishop Friedrich Gustav Piffl the priesthood .

Together with Georg Bichlmair SJ he led the Pauluswerk founded by Cardinal Innitzer in Vienna, which had two goals: on the one hand to proselytize Jews, on the other hand to protect Jews from persecution. “The Pauluswerk was an attempt to oppose Hitler on a religious level. At that time we coined the sentence that the Jewish question was a question for Jews and Christians, but a religious question and not a question of a political and social nature. ”(Interview in the Kleine Zeitung of June 10, 1988).

After Schuschnigg's radio speech on March 11, 1938 about the capitulation of Austria and a conversation with Cardinal Innitzer, Johannes Österreicher burned all his correspondence and his books to protect citizens of Jewish descent and fled to Paris 5 weeks after the invasion. From Paris he held regular sermons against the tyranny of racial madness, which were broadcast on the wavelength of an Austrian resistance radio station. After the German troops marched into France, he fled to Spain, Portugal and finally to New York, where he worked at several parishes and from March 1953 taught at Seton Hall University in South Orange , New Jersey , where he did this Institute for Judeo-Christian Understanding and worked well into old age. In 1961 he was appointed Prelate of His Holiness (Monsignor) by Pope John XXIII. Johannes Maria Österreicher was one of the pioneers of the international Christian-Jewish dialogue and was instrumental in drawing up the “Jews Declaration” of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John XXIII appointed him before the beginning of the second council period as a representative in the "Unity Secretariat". He wrote a study of the fundamental truths that determine or should determine the relationship of the church to the Jewish people. The Council Declaration is based on this study.

Johannes Maria Österreicher sums up the epitome of the Jewish declaration in one sentence (Kathpress interview from 1988): "The rediscovery of Judaism and the Jews in their intrinsic value and their significance for the church." The church has declared that its existence in the removal of Jacob's descendants from the Egyptian bondage, whose wondrous passage through the Red Sea and whose wandering through the desert was rooted. What does this mean for our religious life and our relationship with the Jews? A watchful eye for the Jewish milieu of the New Testament, a real empathy with the environment of Jesus is necessary for a full understanding as well as for the right proclamation of the Christian message. One has to think lovingly into the concerns, worries, hopes and sufferings of the people. The Christian should be familiar with Hebrew ways of thinking and language. The declaration was passed as Nostra Aetate on October 28, 1965 . Johannes Maria Österreicher always referred to himself as “Jew and Catholic” and throughout his life maintained close contact with the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. He also worked hard to promote understanding for the Jews and vehemently opposed racial hatred.

As a person, he is described as very amiable, extremely intelligent, extremely humble and tolerant.

Quotes

• "I am a Jew and a Catholic" (often quoted by him)

• “Jesus, Mary and Joseph were Jews in their earthly lives, as were the apostles and the members of the early church. Anyone who uses the term Jew as a swear word insults, without knowing it, Jesus and all the early saints of the church ”(Kathpress interview from 1988)

• “A detailed account of my life and my commitment to Christ would take weeks. I should u. a. describe the influence that Sören Kierkegaard , Cardinal Newman , Ferdinand Ebner , Theodor Haecker , 'Der Brenner', 'Die Fackel', especially the Gospels, had on me. "(Johannes Maria Oesterreicher in a letter of October 16, 1986)

literature

• Asher Finkel and Lawrence Frizzell (Eds.): Standing Before God. Studies on Prayer in Scriptures and in Tradition with Essays in Honor of John M. Oesterreicher . KTAV Publishing House, New York 1981.
• Elias H. Füllenbach: The Catholic-Jewish Relationship in the 20th Century. Catholic initiatives against anti-Semitism and the beginnings of the Christian-Jewish dialogue in Germany . In: Reinhold Boschki and Albert Gerhards (eds.): Culture of remembrance in the plural society. New perspectives for the Christian-Jewish dialogue . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010 (= Studies on Judaism and Christianity), pp. 143–163, ISBN 978-3-506-76971-8 .
• Valentin Schneider: Nostra Aetate reversing brand. Prelate Johannes Oesterreicher and the rediscovery of Judaism . In: Angelika Strotmann u. a. (Ed.): Making the past present. On the need for a Christian culture of remembrance based on Judaism . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-58657-0 , pp. 125-144.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Oesterreicher in the catalog of the German National Library
• New York Times, April 20, 1993, obituary
• Oesterreicher, Auschwitz, the Christians and the Council
• Johannes Oesterreicher - as a Moravian Jew and Catholic pioneer for understanding between Jews and Christians