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Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as arch-bishop of Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 22, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.
Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria’s most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops’ conference for 22 years. He is currently chair-man of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals.
The Vatican announced Jan. 22 that Pope Francis had accepted Schönborn’s resignation and appointed an apostolic admini-strator, Father Josef Grünwidl, to oversee the Vienna Archdio-cese until the appointment of Schönborn’s successor.
“The fact that Rome has created an interim solution shows us that Pope Francis has appare-ntly not yet made a decision on who should be the next archbishop of Vienna. Since the process is already well advanced, we hope for a decision in the coming weeks,” archdiocesan spokesman Michael Prüller said in a state-ment on Jan. 22.
Schönborn remains a member of the College of Cardinals, to which he was elevated in 1998, but at 80 years of age, he is no longer eligible to vote in a con-clave.
In a video message to Vienna’s Catholics, Schönborn said: “Above all, I have to thank God and I have to thank you all. The decisive experience in my almost 30 years in office has been: Church only works together, society only works together.”
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