George Weigel on:

Pope John Paul II's greeting to Empress Zita, widow of the Emperor Karl, last emperor of the Dual Monarchy of Austria - Hungary:

"[He] said that he was happy to receive the widow of my father's last sovereign..."


Snippet from George Weigel's article The first -- and last -- European? --- published in Today's Catholic, Friday, August 26, 2011.

Weigel tells that Archduke Otto von Hapsburg "died on July 4.

"Otto might have been thought an anachronism after his father, Emperor Karl, was driven from the throne of Austria - Hungary in the waning days of World War I."

But he wasn't!

"[T]he NAZI Fuhrer twice tried to meet the young Austrian nobleman when Archduke Otto was studying in Berlin in 1931 - 32.

"Otto von Hapsburg not only rebuffed Hitler on both occasions, thus putting himself firmly on the Gestapo's list of enemies: in 1938, as the NAZI vise was closing on an independent Austria, the archduke, at obvious risk to his life, volunteered to return to Austria as the head of government, to provide a national rallying point against NAZI paganism.

"In June 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the Belgian castle in which Otto von Hapsburg and his family were living, just hours after the family had fled south ahead of the Wehrmacht's drive west.

"Archduke Otto and his family came to the United States at the invitation of President Franklin Roosevelt. and spent the Second World War years in America."

Time to fast - forward maybe as many as 60 years!

Now, it's the looming threat of "The dictatorship of relativism!"

"In 2006, I spent a memorable evening discussing this unhappy situation with the Archduke Otto, at an Acton Institute dinner in Rome at which we were seated across the table from one another.

"[H]e was concerned about Europe's future, and his concerns have turned out to be entirely justified.

"Otto von Hapburg's father, Emperor Karl, was beatified by John Paul II in 2004.

"The late pope once greeted Archduke Otto's mother, Empress Zita, by saying that he was happy to receive the widow of my father's last sovereign.

"It is entirely safe to say that we shall not see their likes again.

"May they rest in peace..."

Amen to that, Señor! :)