Sunday, August 10, 2008

Aloysius Cardinal Muench


He was born in 1889 in Milwaukee as son of two German immigrants. In 1935 he was consecrated bishop of Fargo. He became the first post-war nuncio in Germany, a post which he held from 1951 to 1959. He was created a cardinal in 1959 and died in 1962.





Since he was the first nuncio to Germany after the war, it was his task to furnish the nunciature. A famous story tells how he went to a couple of arts and antiques dealers to find some stuff for the walls. But all they had was, well... art. Muench didn't really seem excited. Only when he saw a huge painting with a deer in a German wood, his heart skipped a beat and he told his secretary to go and buy it. Somehow this story leaked and ever after all of Germany was kind of fond of the nuncio.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why does his cardinal's biretta have a pom-pom on it? I thought birettas for cardinals had no pom.

leo said...

When these photos were taken, he was still the Apostolic Nuncio to Germany.

Anonymous said...

Splendid. A ghastly rochett, though...