Bishop of Austria
Werner Freistetter (born 28 October 1953 in Linz an der Donau), the Military Bishop for Austria, is the third Military Ordinary of the Military Ordinariate of the Republic of Austria, which was established following the 1986 Apostolic Constitution Spirituali militum curae. His appointment by Pope Francis took place on 16 April 2015. Freistetter was consecrated bishop on 11 June 2015 in the cathedral at Wiener Neustadt by the Apostolic Nuncio in Austria, Archbishop Peter Stephan Zurbriggen. The co-consecrators were Christian Werner, Military Bishop Emeritus for Austria, and František Rábek, the Slovak Military Bishop. Freistetter grew up, among other places, in Zwölfaxing as the son of Divisionär Franz Freistetter, the longtime editor-in-chief of the ÖMZ (1970-1993). He studied theology in Vienna and Rome and earned a doctorate in social ethics. He was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Franz König, on 9 October 1979 in Rome. In the following years, Freistetter ministered in parishes of the Archdiocese of Vienna and served as an assistant at the University of Vienna in the Institute for Ethics and Social Sciences. Under President Cardinal Paul Poupard, Freistetter worked in the Pontifical Council for Culture in the Roman Curia, before Military Bishop Christian Werner entrusted him in 1997 with leadership of the Institute for Religion and Peace, founded in Vienna at the Military Bishop's Office. In 2006, Military Bishop Werner additionally appointed him episcopal vicar for science and research, fundamental theological questions, and international relations. Freistetter was a longtime member of the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the International Organizations in Vienna and spiritual assistant of the international Catholic soldiers' organization Apostolat Militaire International. Freistetter is known as an author and editor of numerous publications and for his extensive national and international lecturing activity; among other roles, he taught at the Naval Postgraduate School of the United States Navy in Monterey, CA. As a military chaplain, Freistetter was deployed abroad several times, including on the Golan Heights, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Lebanon.