22 January 2006: Happy 61st Birthday, Cardinal Schönborn!

   A priest for 35 years

   A bishop for 14 years

   A cardinal for 7 years

Summary: Cardinal Schönborn has been extremely active on behalf of the Church this year. In addition to his normal duties as the Archbishop of Vienna, he has been very involved in the debate over evolution and creation:

In April, he participated in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

In July, he published a watershed article on evolution in the New York Times.

In August, he directed or appeared at numerous events associated with World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne, Germany.

In October, he began to deliver a series of catechetical lectures on creation and evolution from his cathedral of St. Stephansdom which have been continued into 2006.

In December, he published a substantial article in First Things responding to critiques from the scientific community about his article for the New York Times.

In January, he has been active in the political and social initiatives that accompany Austria's six-month presidency of the European Union in 2006.

Analysis:

    On 18 April, Cardinal Schönborn joined 116 other Cardinals to begin the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church. Created a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998, Schönborn was the sixth youngest member of the college of Cardinals. Thought to be among the papabile going into the conclave, Schönborn himself made it clear to reporters that, "We all felt he [Cardinal Ratzinger] was our brother with superior qualities" and again, "We were convinced that he was the man God had indicated to us." In a lighter moment during the conclave, when a mishap caused the Sistine chapel to fill suddenly with the smoke of burning voting slips, there is a rumor that Schönborn was heard to comment, "Fortunately, there are no art historians present!"

   On 7 July, Schönborn published an opinion-editorial piece in the New York Times entitled "The Designs of Science." Among other things, the article argued that "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection — is not." Schönborn said he was prompted to write on this topic in part because of a recent conversation between him and Pope Benedict, his former teacher. In any event, the article itself touched-off a firestorm of controversy within the mainstream media regarding the authority of the statement and position of the Church on the issue, followed by a rigorous debate among theologians and scientists and also between proponents of Intelligent Design and evolution which has yet to resolve itself definitively (one can read our own summary of the article here).

   Before returning to the development of the evolution debate through the course of the year, it is important to mention Schönborn's participation in several events connected with World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne, Germany. He appeared at numerous events organized by the Emmanuel Community, as well as assisted with the German-language catechesis sessions for the youth assembled around the city in the days leading up to the celebrations with the Pope. Drawing large crowds of youth himself (seen blessing them in the picture to the left), the Cardinal also spoke about the central importance of building friendship with God - one of his favorite pastoral themes, especially among the youth. On this topic he has said, "Every day friendship is new, this amazing friendship that Jesus offers us; there is nothing more firm, solid, and sure than this always-new surprise of His friendship."

   In October, in large part to address the misrepresentations his position had been receiving in the United States' news services, Schönborn began a series of Catechetical Lectures on evolution and creation, the first two of which have been translated into English (and like all texts mentioned in this article, are available in our texts section). There will eventually be nine lectures in this series which will then be translated and published in book form.  In December, after holding several phone interviews to answer questions from the secular and religious media regarding his comments on evolution and Neo-Darwinism, Schönborn published an extensive response in the journal First Things to Stephen Barr. A theoretical particple physicist, Barr had previously criticized some of Schönborn's claims about the limits of science and evolution in the same publication. Next, in early January of 2006  Schönborn gave an interview to Tom Heneghan, editor of the religious news section of Reuters, to address the other common misconceptions being circulated about what he had and had not meant by his original statement.

   As of this writing in early 2006, it is difficult to get anything close to a "final read" on where the debate on evolution will end up. For instance, on 17 January, L'Osservatore Romano published an interview with Dr. Fiorenzo Facchini, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bologna, on the legitimacy of treating the theory of "Intelligent Design" as science. While seemingly in harmony and confirming many of the points made by Schönborn in his writings, the Cardinal has not yet responded directly to the article. He is, however, continuing to deliver his catechetical lectures in Vienna (the fourth was delivered early this month) while also administering the affairs of the Archdiocese of Vienna and being extensively involved in the wider affairs of Austrian politics, particularly its Presidency of the European Union from January through June of 2006.

   In any case, whether blessing a new Airplane for safe travel or delivering the Christmas homily at the cathedral of St. Stephansdom, Christopher Cardinal Schönborn remains first and foremost the shepherd of the souls entrusted to his care in the archdiocese of Vienna. Drawing upon his years of study, scholarship and service, the Cardinal remains intensely devoted to and active in building up the Church in the modern world, whether at home or abroad. Ad multos annos!

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