Michael Weninger

Michael Weninger

Michael Heinrich Weninger (born February 18, 1951 in Wiener Neustadt ) was an Austrian diplomat and is a Roman Catholic clergyman at the Roman Curia .

Life

Michael Weninger graduated from the Handelsakademie Wiener Neustadt in 1971 and then studied Catholic theology and philosophy at the universities of Innsbruck and Vienna . After several study stays in various European and non-European countries, he worked from 1977 to 1979 as a study assistant at the Institute for Dogmatics at the University of Innsbruck and at the Innsbruck Episcopal Ordinariate. He then attended the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna from 1980 to 1982 and completed courses at the Ecole nationale d'administration Paris and the Escuela Diplomática de Madrid .

Ambassador and diplomat

Michael Weninger joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1982. For the Foreign Service of the Republic of Austria he was attaché at the Austrian embassy in Moscow (1983-84), first embassy secretary at the Austrian embassy in Madrid (1984-86), counselor at the Austrian embassy in Warsaw (1986-91) and at the Austrian Embassy in Moscow (1991).

From 1991 to 1992 he was head of the newly established Austrian Consulate General (Consul General) and head of the newly established Austrian Embassy in Ukraine in Kiev (permanent representative), from 1993 to 1997 he was head of the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade as permanent representative and after the recognition of the Serbia and Montenegro as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

From 1997 to 2001 Michael Weninger worked at the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs as Deputy Head of the Department for EU Enlargement and Foreign Trade Relations with Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and Head of the Subdivision for Construction and Reconstruction in Southeastern Europe. From 2001 to 2007 he was the first Austrian to serve as political advisor to the Presidents of the European Commission (Romano Prodi / Group of Policy Advisors [GOPA] and Jose Manuel Barroso / Bureau of European Policy Advisors [BEPA]). He was responsible for the dialogue with the religions, churches and ideologies as well as foreign policy for the states of South-Eastern Europe; his successor was Jorge Cesar das Neves. While serving at the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna, he received appointments to the Department of International Law, several times to the Department for Political Relations with Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the former CSCE Department and the Department for Asia, etc. From 2004 to 2006 he was also a member of the Ethical Working Group of the European Space Agency (ESA). From 2007 to 2008 he worked again in the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (Department for Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania; ASEM and regional associations such as ASEAN, SAARC and ARF). 2008: Special envoy of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs in Ndjamena / Chad. In 2008/09 he was head of the Austrian Embassy in Sarajevo. In 2009 he took over the management of the department for scientific cooperation and dialogue between cultures and religions at the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs in Vienna (intercultural and interreligious dialogue, task force "dialogue of cultures", multilateral and bilateral university cooperation, etc.).

In addition to German, he speaks several foreign languages, including English, French, Spanish, Russian, Serbian and Croatian.

Priesthood

Michael Weninger was married to Sanja Magdalena (1971-2009) and received June 24, 2011, now widowed, in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral , the priesthood by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn . He was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Vienna . On June 26, 2011 he celebrated his primacy in the Baumgartner parish church St. Anna in Vienna and in October 2011 secondary primacy in the provost church of St. Trinitatis in Leipzig and in the church of the St. Georgs Kolleg in Istanbul. He chose as the motto The Lord is my light and my salvation. ( Ps 27.1  EU ) He is the first ambassador in the history of Austria to be ordained a priest.

From 2011 to 2012 he was chaplain in the Kalvarienbergkirche in Hernals in Vienna and as an employee for the Austrian Bishops' Conference , u. a. as a representative for contacts to the world religions.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Michael Weninger to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on November 1, 2012 . There he works for the dialogue with Islam in Europe, Central Asia and Central and South America.

Others

He is a member of the Catholic student associations KÖStV Babenberg Wiener Neustadt in the MKV as well as the KÖHV Alpinia Innsbruck and the KÖStV Rudolfina Vienna in the ÖCV

Honors

• Numerous high domestic and foreign as well as papal decorations
• several honorary doctorates (Dr. hc mult.)
• 2004 Leopold Kunschak Prize

Fonts

• Practice as a place of hope with Ernst Bloch. Presentation and criticism of the basic positions of Ernst Bloch's philosophy of hope under the aspect of the practice of hope. Austrian Komm.-Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1982.
• Europe without God? The European Union and the dialogue with the religions, churches and ideological communities. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 3-8329-2421-3 .
• Experiment Europe. A meditative walk in three steps. GLOBArt 2008, ISBN 3-9502173-2-0 .

Web links

• Michael Weninger: "The EU - Dialogue with Religions and Churches" (2003)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Barroso consultant returns to Vienna ( Memento of October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , Salzburger Nachrichten , October 14, 2007
2. ^ ^{A b c} Franz Kangler CM: Austrian Ambassador becomes a priest ( Memento from October 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , Austrian St. Georgs Congregation, Istanbul, October 9, 2011
3. ^ Primizmesse by Michael Weninger ( Memento from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , Vienna Seminary, June 26, 2011
4. ↑ Diocesan ordination on June 24th , Archdiocese of Vienna , June 22nd, 2011
5. ^ High Vatican function for Austrian priests and diplomats ( Memento from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , in: Radio Vatican from November 7, 2012.

predecessor	Office	successor
---	Austrian Ambassador to Kiev (Ukraine) 1991–1992	Georg Weiss
...	Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade (Serbia) 1993–1997	Wolfgang Petritsch