“I have always aspired to know as clearly as possible, in all things, what God’s will was…"
“I have always aspired to know as clearly as possible, in all things, what God’s will was, and to be able to accomplish it in as perfect a manner as possible”
On September 20, 2014 IMPACT J had the opportunity to meet the Archduke Rudolf of Austria. He was in Valleyfield, Canada to give a talk on the life and courage of his grandparents, Charles and Zita of Austria. They were, without a doubt, exceptional models of leaders and an inspiration for Impact J.
Charles of Austria became crown prince after the assassination of Francis-Ferdinand. The assassination triggered an escalation leading to the First World War. Charles reigned, with his wife, Empress Zita, on the Austrio-Hungarian Kingdom from 1916 to 1918.
They were years of extreme precariousness and the royal couple tried, through various means, to reduce the soldiers’ suffering, often going to the war front and forbidding military maneuvers that were costly in human lives. They required for their population adequate means of both subsistence and health services. Charles actively campaigned to the Catholic clergy so that they could organize missions in the farthest regions of the Empire. He asked that makeshift Churches be available everywhere, even in the poorest and most populated regions, including the war front.
The couple prayed and worked tirelessly for the end of the hecatomb and for the end of suffering related to war. But in 1918, faced with the republican progression, Charles was forced to give up the exercise of his power. “He was only left with the road to exile. To all those who were with him in those last moments, he would constantly repeat, “Even if we have failed in everything, we must thank God, because His ways are not our ways”. (1)
In 1919, Hungary was caught in the Communist revolution during which the deputies officially banished the Habsburg family from Austria and seized their possessions. In 1921, Pope Benedict XV, fearing the progression of soviet bolshevism in Europe, asked Charles to try and reclaim the Hungarian throne. As a result, Charles entered into negotiations with the Regent Horthy, but the latter did not want to relinquish his power. With the shadow of a new civil war seeming imminent, Charles decided to give himself up. He was taken prisoner and exiled to England, then on the island of Madeira in Portugal.
It is on this island, at age 34, that he died of pneumonia.
“Charles had five months to live and during his stay on the island, the population realized that this man had something more important than this title of Emperor. “Charles had the opportunity to meet many people, to establish with each an immediate human rapport, to spread everywhere the spark of his personality, rich in sentiments and attention towards others. This is how, what simply began as a sympathy full of compassion felt by the island’s population for him and his wife, quickly transformed itself into an overflow of enthusiasm, which won everyone’s heart.” (1)
“The night preceding his death, Charles had whispered to his wife: “I have always aspired to know as clearly as possible, in all things, what God’s will was, and to be able to accomplish it in as perfect a manner as possible”. An aspiration that had been his everyday of his life” (1)
I have transcribed here only a few elements of these incredible lives, that were involved in the ideological battles that waged during the Twentieth century, and whose consequences we still feel today. As the Archduke Rudolf mentioned with regret on September 20, important parts of Twentieth century history were purposefully cast aside to oblivion. After the war, a smear campaign was lead by the republicans and communists against the Hapsburg family, so that all the history books would remain silent about what Charles and Zita had done, and especially to prevent that their unfailing faith would be a witness for the population.
We had the opportunity to present Impact J to the Archduke Rudolf and we assured him of our prayers for him and his family. He expressed a lot of enthusiasm for Impact J and has great faith in Saint Joseph.
(1) The above quotations were taken from an article in the Italian magazine 30 days. It is an extensive article that is available on line: www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_1083_l4.htm
