Alfons Maria Stickler

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Styles of Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Volsinium (titular)

His Eminence Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler, SDB, JCD (born August 23, 1910) is an Austrian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the former Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and Librarian of the Vatican Library, serving from 1985 to 1988. Stickler was elevated to the cardinalate in 1985, and is currently the oldest member of the College of Cardinals. A conservative, he is a strong supporter of the Tridentine Mass and clerical celibacy.

1 Biography
2 Support for Tradition
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Stickler was born in Neunkirchen, near Vienna, as the second of twelve children. He entered the Salesians of Don Bosco in a German novitiate, and made his profession on August 15, 1928. Thereafter, Stickler studied philosophy in Germany and then in Austria, Turin, and Rome. He studied canon law at the Pontifical Athenaeum of S. Apollinare (from where he received his doctorate) and the Pontifical Lateran University, and was ordained to the priesthood on March 27, 1937.

Stickler taught at the Salesian University as Professor of Canon Law and Church Legal History for eight years. From 1958 to 1966 he served as rector of the Univeristy, having previously served as Dean of the Canon Law Faculty since 1953. Stickler participated as a peritus, or expert, at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), working as a member on the Commission for the Clergy, the Commission for the Liturgy, and (in his capacity as rector of the Salesian University) the commission directed by the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities. From the close of the Council until 1968, Stickler was president of the newly founded Institutum Altioris Latinitas.

On September 8, 1983, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Bolsena, Pro-Librarian of the Vatican Library, and Pro-Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives. Stickler received his episcopal consecration on the following November 1 from Pope John Paul II himself, with Archbishops Eduardo Martínez Somalo and Rosalio José Castillo Lara serving as co-consecrators, in the Sistine Chapel. He was created Cardinal Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro by John Paul II in the consistory of May 25, 1985, becoming full Librarian and Archivist two days later, on May 27.

Stickler served as Librarian and Archivist until his resignation on July 1, 1988. During his tenure he promoted the construction of underground storage for the conservation and consultation of all the codices and printed books of the library. He chose to be raised to the rank of Cardinal Priest (with the same title) on January 29, 1996, after spending ten years as a Cardinal Deacon.

Upon the death of Johannes Cardinal Willebrands on August 1, 2006, Stickler became the oldest living cardinal. In 2007, he celebrated the seventieth anniversary of his priestly ordination.

[edit] Support for Tradition

Stickler has consistently defended the position that the Tridentine Mass was never forbidden or suppressed. He believes that the Novus Ordo Mass contradicts the true wishes of the Second Vatican Council^[1], and once told the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales that its movement "has full legitimacy in the Church."^[2]

In 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed nine cardinals (Stickler, Ratzinger, Mayer, Oddi, Casaroli, Gantin, Innocenti, Palazzini, and Tomko) to study the legal status of the Tridentine Mass, specifically whether Pope Paul VI authorized its suppression and whether a priest has the right to freely celebrate this Mass^[3]. According to Stickler, all but one of the cardinals decided the Tridentine Mass was not forbidden, yet they unanimously agreed that no priest can be hindered from celebrating this Mass, even despite the orders of his bishop^[4].