Konrad von Preysing

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Konrad Cardinal von Preysing
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Berlin |

Johann Konrad Maria Augustin Felix Graf von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos (August 30, 1880—December 21, 1950) was a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Berlin from 1935 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

Biography

Preysing was born at the castle of Kronwinkel, near Munich, to the nobles Kaspar von Preysing and his wife Hedwig von Walterskirchen. His brothers Albert and Joseph also became priests. Preysing attended a Landshut "gymnasium" before entering the University of Munich in 1898. After studying at the University of Würzburg from 1901 to 1902, he forfeited a diplomatic career for an ecclesiastical one. [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814186,00.html Milestones] January 1, 1951] He then obtained his doctorate in theology in 1913 from the Theological Faculty of Innsbruck, which he had entered in 1908.

Preysing was ordained to the priesthood on July 29, 1912, and then served as private secretary to Franziskus Cardinal von Bettinger, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, until 1916. As the Cardinal's secretary, he attended the 1914 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XV. Preysing did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising from 1916 to 1932. He was made a canon of the cathedral chapter on April 1, 1928, and an Honorary Chamberlain of His Holiness on May 15, 1914.

On September 9, 1932, Preysing was appointed Bishop of Eichstätt by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 28 from Archbishop Jacobus von Hauck, with Bishops Matthias Ehrenfried and Sigmund Ow-Felldorf serving as co-consecrators, in Eichstätt Cathedral. Preysing was later named Bishop of Berlin on July 5, 1935, and installed as such on the following August 31. A stern opponent of the Nazi regime, he said "We have fallen into the hands of criminals and fools" when the party came to power. [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797770-3,00.html The Roads to Rome] January 7, 1946] In 1940, Preysing ordered that prayers be offered in all of his diocese's churches for thirty Confessional clerics who were arrested in Prussia [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,765103-5,00.html German Martyrs] December 23, 1940] .

Preysing later admitted that Hans Globke had become an official of the Interior Ministry through the German episcopate in order to serve as an agent for the resistance movement. [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895423-2,00.html The Bureaucrat] June 30, 1961]

Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal Priest of "S. Agata de' Goti" in the consistory of February 18, 1946; Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, the nuncio to France, provided the Bishop with the money for the trip to Rome. [Pham, John-Peter. "Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession". Oxford University Press, 2007] At the ceremony, when another new cardinal remarked that their red hats would be suspended in their cathedrals following their deaths, Preysing responded, "Your Eminence forgets that I have no roof" [Ibid.] , as St. Hedwig's Cathedral had been bombed during the war. The German prelate later denounced the Communist National Front, which subsequently called him a "gladiator for American imperialism". [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812059,00.html The Hunt] February 27, 1950]

Preysing died in Berlin at age 70. He was buried in St. Hedwig Cemetery on December 28, 1950, but his remains were later transferred to the crypt of St. Hedwig's Cathedral on February 12, 1968.

Opposition to Germany's "Euthanasia" program

In a sermon in March 1941 Preysing supported and lauded Pius XII's opposition to the killing of the sick or otherwise infrm on either economic or eugenical grounds. [ [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0015.html Goldhagen v. Pius XII ] ]

Notes

References

External links

* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-p.htm#Preysing Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bpreysing.html Catholic-Hierarchy]

in general, and of the regime