Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn

Archbishop of Vienna

Archbishop Schoenborn has led the Archdiocese of Vienna since 1995, and was elected a Cardinal in 1998.

Born in the Czech Republic, he was taken by his family to Austria as war refugees in 1945. He studied theology and philosophy in Bornheim-Walberberg, Vienna, and Paris.

Ordained a Dominican priest in 1970 in Vienna, he continued his studies in Regensburg under Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI. In 1975, the young priest became a professor of Dogmatic Theology at Freiburg University in Switzerland.

Speaking six languages and enjoying esteem as an expert theologian, he served on numerous ecumenical commissions over the next several decades.

In 1980, he became a member of the International Theological Commission of the Holy See, and in 1987 he was charged with editing the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was completed in 1992.