Kurt Krenn (28 June 1936 – 25 January 2014) was an

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and

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Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten ...

, near

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, from 1991 to 2004.

Childhood and youth

Kurt Krenn was in Rannariedl, in the municipality of Neustift im Mühlkreis in Upper Austria, the second of six children of Karl and Leopoldine Krenn. Krenn's parents had left the church in 1941. Two of their children were unbaptized at the end of World War II. Krenn's father was a teacher and was killed in World War II. After the war, the family rejoined the Catholic Church. Krenn attended elementary school in

Oberkappel Oberkappel is a municipality in the district of Rohrbach in the state of Upper Austria. Population Geography Oberkappel has an area of 12 km². The municipality is located in the north of the state of Upper Austria. It borders on Germany and is ...

and graduated from high school at the Schlierbach Abbey School.

Studies, ordination to the priesthood, academic work

Krenn entered the seminary in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

in 1954 and studied philosophy and theology at the

Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school (pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...

and canon law at the Lateran University in Rome from 1955 to 1965. He earned licentiate degrees in theology and canon law, as well as a doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on "The Meaning of Being in the Condition of Participation" in Thomas Aquinas. On October 7, 1962, he was ordained a priest in the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome and then served as pastor in the parish of Capena - on the outskirts of Rome. After studying in Tübingen (1966-1967) and

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(1967-1970), where he was an assistant to Wilhelm Keilbach at the theological faculty, he was professor of philosophy at the Philosophical-Theological Institute at Linz from 1970 to 1975. In 1975 he was appointed Full Professor to the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Regensburg, which he held until 1987. He was co-editor of the ''Archiv für Religionspsychologie'' from 1978 to 1994, and from 1985 he was co-editor of the journal ''Forum Katholische Theologie'', a conservative offshoot of the ''Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift''.

Views

Krenn was a theological conservative. He argued against

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's entrance into the European Union, warning against the 'Islamisation' of Europe and calling

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

a "very aggressive kind of religion" that would not easily allow for the political unity

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neighbors. He was known for his criticism of the

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Abuse scandal

In the fall of 2003 a scandal arose around the seminary of the diocese of St. Pölten because of homosexual acts and child pornography. The seminarian Piotr Zarlinski, who had the porn on his computer, was sentenced to a six-month conditional prison sentence. In addition, there were homosexual relations in the seminary. The scandal provoked massive internal and external church criticism. Bishop Klaus Küng was appointed Apostolic Visitator to investigate the allegations. The seminary was temporarily closed. On Sept. 29, 2004, Krenn resigned from his episcopate at the request of Pope John Paul II, though without confirming the accusations. Klaus Küng was eventually appointed the new bishop.

References

External links

Official website
(in German) 1936 births 2014 deaths Roman Catholic bishops of Sankt Pölten {{Austria-RC-bishop-stub Christian critics of Islam Critics of Islamism People from Upper Austria Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Pontifical Lateran University alumni Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum alumni