Rauscher, Joseph Othmar

RAUSCHER, JOSEPH OTHMAR. - Cardinal, b. 6 Oct. 1797 in Vienna, d. there 24 Nov. 1875. After taking his degree in jurisprudence he was ordained a priest in 1823 and in 1825 became professor of Church history and ecclesiastical law at Salzburg. He was a disciple of St. Clement Hofbauer.

In those years he began a history of the Church, of which, however, only two volumes appeared, reaching as far as the age of Constantine. R.'s activity as a writer and scholar was interrupted by other assignments. In 1833 he was in fact appointed director of the Oriental Academy of Vienna and also became tutor to the future emperor Francis Joseph. When, in accordance with a testamentary provision of the emperor Francis, Metternich in 1855 opened negotiations for the conclusion of a Concordat, R. was at his side, but the attempt foundered on the resistance of the Josephinist bureaucracy. On 15 Apr. 1849 R. was consecrated bishop of Seckau. A few days later, from 30 Apr. to 17 June, he took part, together with all the other bishops of Austria, in a meeting in Vienna to deliberate on the new legal condition assured to the Catholic Church by the Constitution of 4 March 1849. Great was the influence exercised there by R.; he himself declared that it was necessary to treat directly with the government authorities on disputes within the competence of the episcopate and to reserve the other questions instead for a Concordat. R. was then called to be part of the committee, composed of 5 bishops, to negotiate on the matter with the government. In Dec. 1851 the Emperor appointed him his plenipotentiary for a Concordat with the Holy See. After long negotiations, which R. conducted in Vienna and in Rome with Card. Santucci, the signing of the Concordat was reached on 18 Aug. 1855. In the meantime R. had been appointed on 27 June 1853 archbishop of Vienna and, in recognition of his merits, was created cardinal by Pius IX in the Consistory of 17 Dec. 1855. However, a few years later, and especially from 1866 onward, R. found himself compelled to defend the Concordat against the increasingly violent attacks of the liberals, who had installed themselves in the government and had the majority in the Chamber of Representatives. Little by little the concordatory provisions lost their force, owing to special laws issued by the State in matrimonial and scholastic matters. Finally, after the definition of papal infallibility, to which R. himself had shown himself opposed, the Concordat, in July 1870, was declared lapsed by the Austrian government.

Silvio Furlani