‘Catholic Austria’ was long considered to be the graveyard of missionaries by evangelicals attempting to woo ‘baptised pagans’ into the Protestant fold.
Bruce Clewett, pioneer YWAM missionary in Austria, believed praying and working for spiritual renewal within Roman Catholic groups was a more fruitful approach. Last Sunday that fruit was overwhelmingly obvious to the thousands who thronged St Stephen’s Cathedral in the heart of Vienna to bid farewell to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. And to hundreds more who followed live on screens in two other large city churches, and to the literally millions more watching the three-hour television livecast.
For over three decades, Cardinal Schönborn had promoted the spiritual renewal for which Bruce and many others were praying. The farewell service itself reflected the cardinal’s passion for worship, prayer, the Word, discipleship, community, church unity and evangelism. The ceremony ranged from the informality of a worship band with guitar, keyboard, strings and saxophone leading in ‘Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here’, to the formal address by the Austrian President Van der Bellen.
Aware that Austria’s far-right Freedom Party was meeting at the same time last Sunday to plan a “Fortress Austria” without refugees, the cardinal spoke about his own family having found shelter in Austria after the war as refugees. Urging Christian hospitality towards ‘sojourners’, he said, “They come as strangers and make their home here, they become Austrians. They bring their languages, cultures, and religions with them. They enrich, not without tensions, our country and shape its future,” he said. “The success of this coexistence of residents and newcomers is crucial for our future.”
Evangelism
At the cardinal’s request, a small group of close associates was called forward to pray for him. The television commentator introduced them one by one, including ‘Bruce Clewett, missionary’. As Bruce (an American Presbyterian, left in photo) approached, the cardinal’s eyes lit up. For the cardinal who has over decades championed church unity and collaboration, Bruce has been a conduit to and from the evangelical and charismatic worlds. Bruce has also helped many from his own evangelical background recognise the work of the Holy Spirit among Catholics. He was a founder of the European Network of Communities, communities which are neither churches nor religious orders, but rather a ‘third’ expression of the biblical ideal of community. He was also an initiator of the global ‘Kerygma’ network of ministries in YWAM working among Catholics.
The thick book the cardinal was holding in the photo had been passed around the congregation during the worship, with signatures of thousands of people committing to respond to the call by Pope Benedict XVI to evangelise ‘ubicumque et semper‘ – ‘everywhere and always’. A high point of the worship was when three thousand voices accompanied by a small orchestra and a full choir united to sing in Latin, Ubicumque et semper Evangelium nuntiate, quoting the Great Commission. The titles of both the book and the song echo that of the pope’s 2010 encyclical urging a new evangelism movement.
During the EURO 2008 European football championships, Vienna witnessed an unprecedented display of Christian unity in evangelism supported by Schönborn’s leadership, when Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical, House Church, Messianic Jewish, Pentecostal and interdenominational leaders united in three weeks of city wide evangelism. After city authorities forbade a planned street Festival of Hope to conclude the outreach, out of concern for terrorism, the cardinal made St Stephen’s Cathedral available for an indoor event for all participating churches. Declaring the sanctuary to be fully ecumenical for 24 hours, the cardinal placed a round stage at the at the front where all the church leaders united in prayer together for the city.
Discipleship
Recognising the cardinal’s 80th birthday this past week, Pope Francis finally accepted his resignation, rejected five years ago. Now beyond the eligible age for participation in the next papal conclave to choose Francis’ successor, Schönborn had been influential in the last two conclaves. Long considered a papal contender himself, he was a close friend of Pope Benedict XVI under whom he had studied and worked.
Under Benedict (as Cardinal Ratzinger), Schönborn was appointed editorial secretary of the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, thus exercising an influence far beyond his own archdiocese in time and space. His passion to encourage believers to grow in their discipleship made him open to try out new things, despite risking criticism. Through Bruce, he saw the potential of adapting content of YWAM’s Discipleship Training Schools. The result was Follow Me, a training course for Catholic young people now operating on five continents and several European countries including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
Pope Francis now has the difficult task of finding someone to fill the big shoes of the cardinal.
Till next week,
