91����

While on a visit to the East Coast, Amb. Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, the Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See — and a TAC dad — paid a special visit to 91����. He joined the students for lunch and later invited them to Dolben Auditorium, where he recounted his journey to becoming an ambassador and his day-to-day tasks in that role. 

Ambassador Eduard — the great-great-great grandson of the late Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I — had an unexpected and unusual path to diplomacy. After receiving a doctorate in philosophy from the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 1999, he wrote multiple screenplays and a few books, notably James Bond in 60 Minuten. He later served as the public relations officer for the Most Rev. Klaus Küng, Bishop of the Sankt Pölten, from 2009 to 2014, until his unexpected appointment to the Holy See in 2015. “I became a diplomat like Pontius Pilate got into the Creed,” joked Ambassador Eduard. “It was very unlikely that I would become a diplomat.”

The ambassador also reflected on how his general education, like the one offered at 91����, aids him in his diplomatic duties. “I now got to a job that explains to me why I had nine years of Latin in school, why I wrote a thesis on Thomas Aquinas — which, two jobs back, didn’t really make sense. Suddenly, it all comes together.” He added, “Whatever you invest in formation, as broad as it is, God has a plan for you.”

“Today it is so easy to buy into the belief that someone needs to start early and make decisions that will affect their entire life or they will fall behind and never be able to support their family,” shared Paul Habsburg (’24), Ambassador Eduard’s son. “However, my father is living proof of following God’s will and trusting in Him.”