The former Archbishop of Salzburg, Alois Kothgasser, died on Thursday evening at the age of 86, the archdiocese announced. Kothgasser recently became seriously ill after suffering a brain hemorrhage last November.
According to the archdiocese, Kothgasser died in the presence of his immediate family members, the seminary regent Tobias Giglmayr, the seminarians and Archbishop Franz Lackner. “Emeritus Archbishop Alois died when we started with Compline, the church night prayer and the confession of guilt at his side. His death touches me, but I also look at his work with great gratitude,” Archbishop Lackner said in the archdiocese statement.
Alois Kothgasser belonged to the order of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He was Archbishop of Salzburg from 2003 to 2013 and Bishop of Innsbruck from 1997 to 2002. After his old-age retirement, he initially lived for several years in the spiritual center of the Don Bosco Sisters in Baumkirchen (Tyrol). Since his 85th birthday in 2022, Archbishop Kothgasser has lived in the seminary of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.
Ordained as a priest 60 years ago
Kothgasser was born in 1937 in Lichtenegg in southeastern Styria to a farming family and studied with the Salesians in Turin and Rome after joining the order. In 1964 he was ordained a priest. From 1982 to 1997 he was professor of dogmatics and twice rector at the Benediktbeuern Philosophical-Theological University in Bavaria. Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) appointed him Bishop of Innsbruck in 1997. Almost ten years later, Kothgasser moved to Salzburg as archbishop.
Source: Krone
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