Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (left) shakes hands with now Archbishop-elect of Vienna Josef Grünwidl at the time of his appointment as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Vienna on Jan. 22, 2025, and on Oct. 17, 2025. / Credit: Archdiocese of Vienna / Stephan Schönlaub
Rome Newsroom, Oct 17, 2025 / 06:02 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Friday appointed Father Josef Grünwidl to succeed Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, as head of the Archdiocese of Vienna, Austria’s most populous archdiocese.
Grünwidl has overseen the Vienna archdiocese on an interim basis since January, when the 80-year-old Schönborn concluded three decades at its helm following the acceptance of his resignation by Pope Francis.
The 62-year-old Grünwidl, born in lower Austria, was chairman of the Vienna Priests’ Council and episcopal vicar of the Vienna archdiocese’s southern vicariate before being named apostolic administrator.
A former concert organist, the archbishop-elect has served in numerous roles in the archdiocese since his ordination in 1988, including as a pastor and parish moderator. The priest was also secretary to Cardinal Schönborn from 1995 to 1998, at the beginning of Schönborn’s term as archbishop of Vienna.
According to Austria’s public broadcasting service, ORF, Grünwidl is a former member of the controversial “Pastor’s Initiative,” a dissident Catholic group founded in Austria in 2006 on a call to “disobedience” on certain Church issues. The group advocates for the ordination of women, optional priestly celibacy, and Communion for the divorced-and-remarried and members of other Christian faiths.
ORF reports that Grünwidl, who is not listed among current members of the “Pastor’s Initiative,” has “recently emphasized that celibacy is a consciously chosen way of life for him personally, but ‘not a matter of faith’ and should therefore not be a mandatory requirement for priests.”
“On the subject of women in the Church, he identified an ‘urgent need for clarification,’” ORF continued. “The diaconate for women should be discussed further, and Grünwidl also considers the admission of women to the College of Cardinals to be conceivable.”
Speaking on the broadcaster’s program “Orientation” early this year, Grünwidl said he left the “Pastor’s Initiative” because he felt that Pope Francis’ ideas had “overtaken” the group’s proposals, and he could no longer support a motto of “disobedience.” He emphasized “critical obedience,” and said he “can’t imagine an open opposition to the bishop in the Church.”
The Catholic news agency Kathpress describes the archbishop-elect as a “pastorally grounded leader, valued preacher, and insightful conversationalist.”
Archbishop emeritus Cardinal Schönborn
Schönborn, a theologian who led the Archdiocese of Vienna for 30 years, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops’ conference for 22 years.
The Church leader was born to a titled family in 1945 in Bohemia in what was then Nazi Germany and is now part of the Czech Republic.
He grew up in western Austria, close to the border with Switzerland, and joined the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, in 1963.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Vienna in 1970. He went on to study sacred theology in Paris and in Regensburg, Germany, under the then-Father Joseph Ratzinger — the future Pope Benedict XVI.
Schönborn was awarded a doctorate in sacred theology in the 1970s and was later made a member of the prestigious International Theological Commission of the Vatican.
He was editorial secretary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in 1991, Pope John Paul II named the theologian an auxiliary bishop of Vienna.
After being appointed coadjutor archbishop of Vienna in April 1995, he succeeded Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, OSB, as archbishop of Vienna on Sept. 14, 1995.
Schönborn was made a cardinal by St. Pope John Paul II in 1998.
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