Cardinal Franz Koenig, a church diplomat who helped set Vatican policy toward other religions and postwar communist regimes, died Saturday. He was 98.
The famed Pummerin bell in Vienna's downtown St. Stephen's Cathedral rang solemnly Saturday morning in honor of Koenig, who was widely revered in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Austria even after his retirement in 1985.
He died in his sleep in Vienna, Austrian radio reported.
Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence praising Koenig for "his work for peace and reconciliation far beyond the borders of his homeland" and for showing "remarkable concern in supporting believers in eastern Europe during the unfortunate political division of the continent."
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the current leader of the Austrian church, said he felt "a great and deep sorrow" over Koenig's death.
"The many years of the presence and service of Cardinal Koenig were a gift for the church in Austria and around the world," Schoenborn told the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress.
"He was long a moral authority in our country, open to cooperation with all people of good will," President Thomas Klestil said Saturday. "He worked for Christian spiritual renewal in Europe and to build bridges with our neighbors. I have lost a fatherly counselor."
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel hailed Koenig for having worked "to overcome borders in the Christian spirit, long before this topic became a part of the European agenda."
Koenig twice was considered a candidate to become pope, first in 1963 and again in 1978.
Koenig is known to have facilitated the papal nomination of Polish-born Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II in 1978. At the time, he once recalled, Poland's top churchman voiced misgivings that the pontiff-to-be was "too young and too little-known."
Koenig was Vienna's archbishop from 1956 until 1958, when Pope John XXIII elevated him to cardinal. He was president of the papal Secretariat for Non-Believers from 1966 to 1981 and played a key role in preparations for the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
No other churchman enjoyed greater prestige or managed to penetrate Austria's cultural elite and public life.
A renowned church scholar, the multilingual cardinal felt as much at ease among foreign dignitaries, actors and scientists as he did with young people and trade union functionaries.
"He was a pillar of confidence and faith," former President Kurt Waldheim said in a telegram Saturday to Schoenborn. "For decades, all over the world, I have felt respect and affection for this good shepherd."
Born on Aug. 3, 1905, in the Lower Austria village of Rabenstein, Koenig studied at the Gregoriana papal university in Rome and later at its Bible Institute, where he specialized in old Persian languages and religion.
He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1930 and another in theology in 1936, three years after being ordained priest.
After years as a chaplain and teacher during World War II, Koenig became a professor in Krems, Austria, in 1945 and a university professor in Salzburg in 1948. His many publications included a three-volume work titled "Christ and the Earth's Religions."
In a move considered bold at the time, he participated in a conference in Bombay, India, with representatives of three non-Christian religions in 1964.
In 1960, Koenig was surprisingly granted a visa by Yugoslavia's communist authorities to attend the funeral in Zagreb of Croatian Cardinal Alojze Stepinac. Koenig's car was involved in a serious car accident en route to the funeral, and he recalled awaking in a hospital decorated with a huge portrait of Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.
By staring for days at Tito's portrait, Koenig said, he conceived the idea that the archbishop of Vienna should do more for the churches behind the former Iron Curtain.
Dispatched by Pope John XXIII, Koenig in 1963 became the first Catholic prelate to visit Hungarian Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who had taken refuge at the U.S. Legation in Budapest after the Soviets crushed a 1956 uprising. Subsequent visits ultimately led to Mindszenty's departure to the West.
After that unprecedented journey, Koenig also visited Poland and Romania and later the Orthodox Church of Serbia.
In 1975, Koenig visited Coptic Christian leader Shenouda III in Egypt. Three years later, he met in Damascus with Syria's Orthodox patriarch, and in 1980 in Moscow with the leader of Armenia's apostolic Catholic church.
Koenig's funeral was scheduled for March 27.