MISSING CARDINAL
MYSTERY OF THE VATICAN. A mystery of the Vatican which has as its chief figure the millionaire Cardinal of Prague, who kept a retinue of 100 servants, and whose love affairs were a byword, is occupying the attention of the Swiss authorities, writes the Geneva correspondent of a London paper. Cardinal Prince Skrbensky-Huste received at Prague the invitation from the Vatican to be present at the conclave for the eleciton of the new Pope as a representative of the Church of Czechoslovakia. He did not reply to the invitation or apologise for his absence. He left Austria for Switzerland some time ago, and all trace of him has been lost. Thfe cardinal may be described truly as a Don Juan, with a history and life resembling that of the Borgias. He has erammed his life of 50 years with luxury and mediaeval church rites. Prince Skrbensky was a great friend of the late Emperor Joseph and an open enemy of the new Czecho-Slovak republic. In 1599 he was appointed archbishop of Prague, and lived like a king in a palace near the town. He had more than 100 servants and a number of automobiles and horses. Here he held a veritable court, and frequently gave fetes in honor of th* aristocracy of Hungary, Austria and Bohemia. At this time he was a handsome aristocratic man on the .sunny side of 50, with debts amounting to several million crowns when the crown was worth a franc, but everybody was then willing to give credit to the cardinal.
In 1916. however, the debts became so heavy and the creditors so pressing that the cardinal appealed for aid to the Emperor Joseph, who appointed him Archbishop of Olmutz, the annual revenue being at that time £480,000. Then followed the defeat of Austria in the war and the. revolution. Cardinal Skrbensky, whose life was threatened by many fathers and husbands whose women folk he had dishonored, and also by his numerous creditors, signed his resignation on August 6, 1920, but did not inform the Pope about the affair. The cardinal, though ruined by debts, took away with him an immense for_tuue. ±ys
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Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1922, Page 11
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360MISSING CARDINAL Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1922, Page 11
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