The Unofficial Pilgrimage: Cardinal Franz Königs 1980 Soviet Union Journey with the Board of the Pro Oriente Foundation

The proposed article is devoted to the unofficial trip of the head of the Catholic Church of Austria, Cardinal Franz König, who initiated a ten-day tour to the USSR by a delegation of 30 people — members of the board of the Pro Oriente Foundation in November 1980. This Austrian foundation, initiated by König (who headed the Vatican Committee for Dialogue with Unbelievers) in the late 1960s, was focused on the development of dialogue with the Eastern Churches. In a study of travel materials obtained in the summer of 2019. from Cardinal König’s archives, it will question how impenetrable the Iron Curtain was for representatives of the Catholic world, how the symbolic resource of travelling through the Soviet Union was used in Western religious circles in the context of the Cold War, how the Austrian media presented the trip, and how Cardinal Franz König’s concept of Vienna being a bridge between the churches of the West and the East did/did not receive a concrete diplomatic, ecclesiastical and touristic dimension. The pilgrimage tour of the ecumenical foundation became part of both the international relations of the Cold War and the political dimension of this trip will be given attention in the study.

Keywords

Cold War, ecumenical relations, Catholic Church of Austria, Russian Orthodox Church, Cardinal Koenig, Pro Oriente

Received

12.10.2023

Publication date

27.12.2023

Number of characters

55931

Cite

GOST	Belyakova N. The Unofficial Pilgrimage: Cardinal Franz König's 1980 Soviet Union Journey with the Board of the “Pro Oriente” Foundation // ISTORIYA – 2023. – V. 14. – Issue 12 (134). Part 1 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840029286-3-1 (circulation date: 18.05.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840029286-3
MLA	Belyakova, Nadezhda "The Unofficial Pilgrimage: Cardinal Franz König's 1980 Soviet Union Journey with the Board of the “Pro Oriente” Foundation." ISTORIYA 14.12-1 (134) (2023) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840029286-3
APA	Belyakova N. (2023). The Unofficial Pilgrimage: Cardinal Franz König's 1980 Soviet Union Journey with the Board of the “Pro Oriente” Foundation. ISTORIYA 14(12-1 (134)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840029286-3

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