Erwin Krautler
C.Pp.S.
(born 12 July 1939 in
Koblach
,
Austria
) is a Roman Catholic
bishop
who headed the
Territorial Prelature of Xingu
from 1981 until 2015.
Biography
[
edit
]
Erwin Krautler was born in
Koblach
, Austria, on 12 July 1939. As a teenager he was drawn to the
Catholic Youth Worker
movement
[a]
and the model offered by French
worker priests
, as well as the vocation of his uncle, a missionary in Brazil.
[1]
He was ordained a priest on 3 July 1965 and became a missionary in Brazil later that year and has spent his entire career there. He became a Brazilian citizen in 1978, retaining his Austrian citizenship.
[2]
On 7 November 1980,
Pope John Paul II
appointed him
coadjutor prelate
of Xingu. Upon the resignation of
Eurico Krautler
, his uncle, he became Prelate of Xingu on 2 September 1981.
[3]
The prelature encompasses an area the size of Germany; it has 600 Catholic communities served by eighteen priests.
[4]
Between 1983 and 1991 and again beginning in 2006 he served as President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Brazilian Catholic Church.
[3]
In 1992, when Archbishop
Georg Eder
of Salzburg cancelled his scheduled speech at the university there, he spoke to an overflow crowd instead at Vienna City Hall at the invitation of the Mayor,
Helmut Zilk
.
[1]
[b]
In 2004, the German think tank GLOBALART gave him their annual award.
[6]
In 2010 he received the
Right Livelihood Award
for his defense of and advocacy for the rights of indigenous peoples.
[2]
[3]
In the 1980s, he helped secure the inclusion of indigenous peoples' rights in the Brazilian constitution. He also plays an important role in opposing the
Belo Monte Dam
. Opponents of his activism have responded with violence on several occasions. For supporting striking workers in 1983 he was arrested and beaten by military police. An attempted assassination staged as a car accident left him badly injured in 1987. He was given police protections when targeted with death threats for opposing the Belo Monte dam.
[3]
On 14 April 2014, he met with Pope Francis and provided him with information on Amazonia to his work on the ecology-themed encyclical
Laudato si'
(2015).
[1]
He published his memoirs in 2014,
Mein Leben fur Amazonien
(
My Life for Amazonia
).
[1]
[c]
He retired at the age of 76 upon the appointment of his successor in Xingu on 23 December 2015.
[8]
[9]
On 8 March 2018,
Pope Francis
appointed him to the 15-person council responsible for planning the
Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region
.
[10]
On 9 October 2019, the third day of that Synod, Krautler said that thousands of communities in the region "do not celebrate the Eucharist except perhaps one, two or three times a year", that he and his colleagues did not oppose celibacy but "just want these brothers and sisters of ours not to have just a celebration of the word but also the celebration of the Eucharist". He expressed his own support for the ordination of women but doubted it had widespread support.
[11]
[d]
He also told reporters he thought than two-thirds of synod participants "are in favor of the ordination of married men" and that "many of the bishops are in favor of the ordination of female deacons".
[13]
[e]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
More extensive coverage of this movement is available under its French and German names:
Jeunesse ouvriere chretienne
and
Christliche Arbeiterjugend
.
- ^
Krautler had been invited as part of the school's program marking the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Western Hemisphere.
[5]
- ^
The Italian translation is titled
Ho udito il grido dell’Amazzonia
(
I heard the cry of the Amazon
).
[7]
- ^
The official doctrine of the Catholic Church holds that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women".
[12]
- ^
When the synod participants elected four members of the committee to draft its final report, Krautler was a leading candidate until another Brazilian was chosen.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Boberski, Heiner (11 July 2014).
"Fur Gott, Menschenwurde und Amazonien"
.
Wiener Zeitung
(in German)
. Retrieved
15 October
2019
.
- ^
a
b
"Biography"
.
The Right Livelihood Award
.
Archived
from the original on 30 November 2010
. Retrieved
22 September
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
English, Juan (23 December 2010).
"Bishop Erwin Krautler, C.PP.S is Honored"
.
CPPS Missionaries
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
- ^
Prien, Hans-Jurgen (2012).
Christianity in Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition
. Brill. p. 518.
ISBN
9789004242074
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
- ^
"Fruherer Salzburger Erzbischof Georg Eder verstorben"
.
Der Standard
(in German). 19 September 2015
. Retrieved
15 October
2019
.
- ^
"Biography of Erwin Krautler"
.
GLOBALART
(in German). Archived from
the original
on 6 July 2011.
- ^
"
'Ich, Bischof unter Polizeischutz bei meinen 'grunen' Kampfen'
"
.
Zenit
(in German). 12 June 2015
. Retrieved
15 October
2019
.
- ^
"Rinunce e nomine, 23.12.2015"
(Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 23 December 2015
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
- ^
"Papa Francisco aceita pedido de renuncia de Dom Erwin Krautler"
.
Globo
(in Portuguese). 23 December 2015
. Retrieved
23 September
2019
.
- ^
"Rinunce e nomine, 08.03.2018"
(Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 8 March 2018
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
- ^
Hansen, Luke (9 October 2019).
"Possibility of women deacons proposed on day three of the Amazon Synod"
.
America
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
- ^
John Paul II (22 May 1994).
"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis"
. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
- ^
a
b
McElwee, Joshua J. (9 October 2019).
"Two-thirds of Amazon synod prelates want married priests, bishop estimates"
.
National Catholic Reporter
. Retrieved
14 October
2019
.
External links
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