Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Andreas Laun of Salzburg died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 82 in the senior residence of Kahlsperg Castle. The Archdiocese of Salzburg announced this on Wednesday. Laun was auxiliary bishop of Salzburg from 1995 to 2017 and since his retirement he has lived in seclusion in Salzburg.
Laun, who was appointed auxiliary bishop of Salzburg by Pope John Paul II in 1995 and ordained bishop by Archbishop Georg Eder, was known in the Catholic Church as a hardliner. In addition to his advocacy against abortion, he also repeatedly made a name for himself with controversial statements: he denounced ‘gender ideology’, which he once described as a lie from the devil, such as National Socialism and Communism, and against homosexuality. partnerships.
With his statements about homosexuality or problematic Nazi comparisons, he not only offended those affected and the faithful, but also many fellow bishops.
“Lawyers for life”
Archbishop Franz Lackner praised Laun on Wednesday as “a sincere and steadfast advocate for life, especially in its most vulnerable moments.” His faith gave him the fortitude to “always raise his voice without fear,” Lackner told Kathpress. Laun “served with devotion as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Salzburg for over 22 years.”
The second chairman of the National Council, Peter Haubner (ÖVP), said on Wednesday that he was “affected and sad”. “With him, our country not only loses a great personality, but also a very special person who devoted his life and his work completely to the service of God and the Church,” Haubner said in a written statement.
Moved to Salzburg in 1945
Laun was born in Vienna in 1942 and his family moved to Salzburg in 1945. After graduating from the Borromäum, he entered the novitiate of the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales in Eichstätt in 1962 and took his perpetual vows in 1966. In 1967 he was ordained as a priest in Eichstätt. He worked as an educator, chaplain and religious teacher and obtained his doctorate in 1973 in Fribourg, Switzerland. He later completed his habilitation in moral theology at the University of Vienna and taught at the Heiligenkreuz University of Applied Sciences and at the University of the Salesians. by Don Bosco in Benediktbeuern in Bavaria.
Source: Krone
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