Léon-Joseph Suenens
Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens (born July 16, 1904 in Ixelles / Elsene , Belgium , † May 6, 1996 in Brussels ) was Archbishop of Mechelen and Cardinal .
Life
Leo Joseph Suenens received the in Mechelen on September 4th, 1927 sacrament of ordination by Jozef-Ernest van Roey Cardinal . In the summer of 1940 he was a military priest of the Ninth Artillery Regiment of the Belgian Army before becoming Vice Rector of the Catholic University of Leuven . In June 1944 he was briefly captured by Germany as a prisoner of war.
On November 12, 1945, Pope Pius XII appointed him titular bishop of Isinda and auxiliary bishop and vicar general in Mechelen. He received the episcopal ordination on December 16 of the same year by Jozef-Ernest Cardinal Van Roey, co-consecrators were the Bishop of Tournai , Joseph Carton de Wiart , and Jean Marie Van Cauwenbergh , auxiliary bishop in Mechelen. His motto was In Spiritu Sancto .
On November 24, 1961, Pope John XXIII appointed him . at the same time archbishop of Mechelen and Belgian military bishop .
On March 19, 1962 he was accepted into the College of Cardinals as a cardinal priest with the titular church of San Pietro in Vincoli .
Together with Grégoire-Pierre Agagianian , Giacomo Lercaro and Julius Döpfner, Suenens played a decisive role as one of the four Council moderators at the Second Vatican Council . Suenes also wrote a council diary. So he enforced the regulation that bishops have to submit a resignation after reaching the age of 75. Even under the pontificate of Paul VI. Suenens played an important role; He took part in the three general assemblies of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican, which were held in 1971, 1974 and 1977.
He received the Templeton Prize in 1976 for his services to the dialogue between science and religion .
He took part in the 1963 conclave and in both conclaves in August 1978 and October 1978 . On October 4, 1979, he resigned from his offices for reasons of age. At the end of 1985 he appeared as the only surviving Council moderator as a special guest at the Synod of Bishops for the 20th anniversary of the Council's conclusion in the Vatican. At thrombosis ailing Cardinal Suenens died eleven years later at age 91.
Positions
Cardinal Suenens was one of the liberal reformers in the Catholic Church. For example, he suggested appointing lay people to apostolic nuncios and reforming the ecclesiastical marriage laws and publicly criticized Paul VI's conservative attitude in an interview in 1969. This interview caused different reactions: while other cardinals were “painfully amazed”, the newspaper Témoignage chrétien spoke of an important event.
In 1967, Cardinal Suenens also spoke out in favor of transferring the right to elect the Pope to the Synod of Bishops . Suenens was a man of contrasts, on the one hand he was involved in the liturgical movement, ecumenism and the new ecclesiology, but on the other hand his attention and benevolence were directed towards the Marian ( Legio Mariens ) and the charismatic movement.
Publications (selection)
- Theology de l'apostolat: Commentaire doctrinal de la promesse légionnaire. Desclée de Brouwer, Bruges 1951.
- Les imprévus de Dieu. Fayard, Paris 1993.
- Translations
- Theology of the Apostolate of the Legion of Mary . B. Heiler, Vienna 1952.
- Mary in God's plan. Brief overview of ecclesiastical Mariology. Translation from French by Hilde Firtel , Kanisius Verlag, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1963.
- Apostolate and Motherhood of Mary. The promise of the Legion of Mary in the light of Church teaching. Kanisius, Freiburg / Switzerland et al. 1964.
Web links
- Suenens, Léon-Joseph. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed April 5, 2013.
- Entry on Léon-Joseph Suenens on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on August 5, 2016.
- Literature by and about Léon-Joseph Suenens in the catalog of the German National Library
- Suenens Center
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mathijs Lamberigts / Leo Declerck: The Role of Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens at Vatican II . In: Doris Donnelly et alii (eds.): The Belgian Contribution to the Second Vatican Council. International research Conference at Mechelen, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve (September 12-16, 2005) . Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, Vol. 216. Leuven 2008, p. 61-217 .
- ↑ Declerck L. / Louchez E .: Inventaire the paper you conciliaires cardinal L.-J. Suenens . In: Cahiers de la Revue Théologique de Louvain . tape 31 . Peeters, Leuven 1998, ISBN 978-90-429-0704-1 .
- ↑ a b Cardinal Suenens: Thirst for the real. Der Spiegel, June 2, 1969, pp. 120–125 , accessed April 21, 2013 .
- ↑ Heinz Josef Herbort: Against the absolutism of the curia. Die Zeit , July 4, 1969, accessed April 22, 2013 .
- ^ Giancarlo Zizola : The successor. Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1997, p. 71
- ↑ Jan Grootaers: A life in contrasts: Cardinal Suenens and the Church of the 20th century . In: Herder correspondence . tape 50/7 , 1996, pp. 359-362 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal Jozef-Ernest Van Roey |
Archbishop of Mechlin-Brussels 1961–1979 |
Godfried Cardinal Danneels |
| Cardinal Jozef-Ernest Van Roey |
Military Bishop of Belgium 1961–1979 |
Godfried Cardinal Danneels |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Suenens, Léon-Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Suenens, Cardinal Léon-Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian theologian, Archbishop of Mechelen and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 16, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ixelles / Elsene , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 6, 1996 |
| Place of death | Brussels |