Blessed Karl and Fatima – Part III

Written by a guest writer – Hannah Houston | Blessed Karl is an example of a true Christian leader, despite the modern politically incorrect history…

Read Part Two HERE.

War Leads to the Empire’s Disintegration

In the end, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was betrayed by those whom Blessed Karl entrusted the charge of calming the rising tide of revolution. He sent Count Miháli Károlyi to Hungary as legate to the King. Instead, the Count declared himself the first President of Hungary. Closer to home, Karl Renner, who swore loyalty to the Emperor, did everything in his power to destroy the monarchy.[1] He was a crypto-socialist who had cleverly hidden his true sentiments so as to work and advance within the government. Renner became the primary architect of a new ‘Germany-Austria’ after the war and became the first president of the Austrian Republic.

Blessed Karl further thought he had reached a truce with the Italians. They promised to lay down their arms but then took to the offensive in October 1918, knowing Austria-Hungary was greatly weakened and without ally support. The Austro-Hungarians fought valiantly for four days, but were compelled to retreat once the Italians crossed the Piave River. News of the revolutions and proclamations of independence reached the soldiers and dealt the coup de grace. The disheartened troops felt betrayed, the army dissipated, and Blessed Karl was forced to request an armistice on October 29.

These difficult ordeals led Emperor Karl to realize that “Austria-Hungary” no longer existed. Instead, independent republics were being formed by those who had promised him aid and loyalty. The hereditary territory of the Hapsburg monarchy was being carved out piecemeal. Many of these new territories would prove politically unstable. The tumult, strife and war they would experience in the coming decades would be far worse than everything ‘endured’ under centuries of Hapsburg rule. It should be noted that despite these many challenges, the Emperor refused to abdicate the throne. He remained steadfast and persevered, stating that as he had sworn an oath to serve as Emperor; he would never retract an oath sworn to God.[2]

Failed Attempts to Restore the Monarchy

On March 23, 1919 Emperor Karl left his beloved country, believing that he would soon be called back to reign. Even the socialist Renner, shortly after assuming leadership of the country, exclaimed, “Austria is a republic without Republicans!”[3] Emperor Karl took his family to safety in Switzerland. Twice during their brief exile in Switzerland, Emperor Karl attempted a restoration. Yet on seemingly every front, he once again met continual betrayal by those who had promised him assistance.

During the second attempt at restoration, Emperor Karl met once more with Cardinal János Csernoch. In an interview with the Cardinal, Karl revealed not only what motivated this restorative attempt, but that which inspired his whole life’s goal. He stated: “I have done my duty, as I came here to do. As crowned King, I have not only a right, I also have a duty. I must uphold the right, and the dignity of the Crown…. With the last breath of my life, I must take the path of duty.”[4]

In these words, no faithful Catholic can fail to hear an echo of the sentiments which surely welled up within Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He faced the Sanhedrin and Pilate, and as He carried His Cross up Calvary. In these dark hours of the young Emperor’s life, Karl was often heard saying, “The Sacred Heart of Jesus will do it!”[5] Always fearing to cause scandal, especially connected with the Catholic Church, Emperor Karl informed no one that Pope Benedict XV had asked him to make those restoration attempts. Instead, Karl allowed the scandal to fall upon himself alone.[6]

Destroying the Last Catholic Empire Harms All Europe

In the rest of Europe, Woodrow Wilson was viewed as the great hero. He arrived at the Versailles Peace Conference and embraced the task of “redrawing” the map of Europe. This he did with gusto, despite knowing little of the peoples, history, cultures, or religion of these territories. Instead, relying on a common language as his standard for ‘uniting’ areas, Wilson created Yugoslavia for Croatians, Serbians, Slovenes, and Montenegrins. He created Czechoslovakia from lands traditionally belonging to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia, Ruthenia and parts of Hungary and Poland. Many Serbians, upset at not having their dream of a “Greater Serbia” realized, remained militant. Czechoslovakia remained politically divided and unstable, with many residents of the Sudetenland feeling ostracized and unjustly subjugated. Wilson’s machinations helped set the stage for World War II, an easier Communist takeover following that war, and the ensuing Balkan Wars of the 1990s.

However, when Wilson had to decide what should be done with the German-speaking Austrians, he hypocritically abandoned his linguistic principle. He stated: “Germany-Austria should go to Germany, as all were of one language and one race, but this would mean the establishment of a great central Roman Catholic nation[.]” Wilson had just destroyed the remains of the Holy Roman Empire; he did not want to create another. Therefore, the United States’ President separated the traditional Dual Monarchy of Austria and Hungary into two separate entities. Yet this created a gaping hole or ‘power vacuum’ in Central Europe. We all know nature abhors a vacuum, and this was a hole which the dictator Adolf Hitler easily filled.

Historian James Bemis, when discussing current-day Europe, states that: “Austria is now a hollowed-out shrunken shell of her former self, more forgotten than feared. Whether or not today’s Austrians recognize it, their nation’s greatness was tied to the Habsburg monarchy…To this family does Europe owe its preservation.”[7] Thus, when the Allies destroyed the ancient Austro-Hungarian Empire, they, in effect, harmed all of Europe.

Christian Empires Cease to Exist

Fearing a successful restoration of the crown, Great Britain exiled the royal family far from their homeland.[8] The final destination for the Habsburg family was the island of Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal, the very nation graced by Our Lady of Fatima! (Madeira is about 300 miles west of Morocco and 200 miles north of the Canary Islands.) When the family arrived on November 21, 1921, they had no home or income to provide for their needs. Trusting in the Will of Almighty God, they found shelter in a dark and damp house provided by a local banker.[9] As we will see in the conclusion to this article, Blessed Karl never left Madeira and never saw his beloved homeland again.

Emperor Constantine had banned the persecution of Christianity in 313 A.D. with the Edict of Milan. Emperor Theodosius had made the Roman Empire a Catholic Empire by the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD. For the next fifteen centuries Catholic empires and kingdoms existed in Europe, and Jesus Christ was publicly acknowledged as King. Yet by the 20th Century, all this would end. This should give us all insight into why Our Lady was sent by God to Fatima in 1917; She came at the very moment when Christendom was in its death throes because it is She who shall restore Her Son’s Kingdom here on earth.

Napoleon III lost his crown in 1870, and the [Second] French Empire ceased to exist following the Franco-Prussian War. Nicholas II, the Russian Czar, was executed on July 17, 1918. Blessed Karl lost his Empire on June 28, 1919 under the decrees of the Treaty of Versailles. And the Holy Father abdicated his temporal rule on June 7, 1929 through the Vatican’s Lateran Treaty with Benito Mussolini. All of these had been Christian kingdoms. In the aftermath of the Great War, the freemasonic principles of liberté, égalité and fraternité reigned supreme throughout the European Continent. The Great War was the death-knell of Christendom. Altar and Throne would never recover – that is, not until the time of Russia’s proper consecration and the Glorious Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

To be concluded (Part IV) …


EDITORS NOTE: 

Readers who have enjoyed reading about this topic might also be interested in attending the Blessed Emperor-King Karl von Habsburg Symposium in Dallas, Texas on October 15, 2022. Speakers will include Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Archduke Eduard von Hapsburg, Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See, and direct descendent of Emperor Franz Josef (Blessed Karl’s predecessor), an interview with with Princess Maria-Anna Hapsburg-Galitzine, granddaughter of Blessed Karl, and Suzanne Pearson.

Read about the Conference and get tickets HERE.


ENDNOTES:

[1] Coulombe, Blessed Charles of Austria, pp. 207-208.

[2] Ibid., p. 213.

[3] Ibid., p. 215.

[4] Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 137.

[5] Coulombe, Blessed Charles of Austria, p. 250.

[6] Pearson, “Blessed Karl of Austria and the Surprising Fatima Connection”: https://www.emperorcharles.org

[7] Bemis, James, Greatest When Catholic: Austria, Home of the Habsburg Monarchy, Spring 2008.

[8] Pearson, “Blessed Karl of Austria and the Surprising Fatima Connection”: https://www.emperorcharles.org

[9] Coulombe, Blessed Charles of Austria, p. 261.

Total
0
Shares
Total
0
Share