Christmas - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2012 - 70 Euro Cent

It is now a good tradition that the painting and writing altbishop of the diocese of Innsbruck, Dr. med. Reinhold Stecher, a Christmas stamp designed by Österreichische Post AG. For the sixth time, he used brush and palette and created the atmospheric motif of the present stamp, which shows the small Romanesque church of St. George in Kals am Großglockner. Dr. Reinhold Stecher writes: "This year's stamp on Christmas takes us to the village under the Grossglockner. Kals has the most peculiar settlement history of Tyrol. Field names and finds reveal that Celts, Romans, Slavs and Bavarians have lived together peacefully for centuries in Kals. The great seclusion may have contributed to the fact that this colorful population has developed a high community awareness. And something else has strengthened this togetherness: faith. This could tell the ancient Romanesque church of St. George. It had a previous church, and its soil contained Roman shards. Today Kals is the Glockner village with visitors from all over the world, but the message and the blessing of the child from Bethlehem remain current. The Sternenstrom, which flows on the special cancel over the Glockner into the valley, is to indicate this. Stecher: After graduating from high school in Innsbruck and completing the Reichsarbeitsdienst, he joined the seminary in St. Michael in Matrei in 1939. However, as the seminar was soon closed by the Gestapo, he continued to study at the monastery of St. Georgen in Carinthia. After a pilgrimage to Maria Waldrast Stecher was brought in 1941 to a two-month imprisonment in a Gestapo prison. Subsequently, the move to the Wehrmacht - with front-line operations in Karelia, in Lapland and in Norway. Reinhold Stecher was wounded and entered the Canisianum Seminary on his return to the seminary; in 1947 he was finally ordained a priest. Various activities as Prefect, teacher and pastor followed, before he graduated in 1951 as a Doctor of Theology. In the years from 1956 to 1981 Dr. Stecher Professor of Religious Education at the Innsbruck Teacher Training Institute and in parallel from 1968 Professor of Religious Education at the Pädagogische Akademie des Bundes. In addition, he was from 1965 to 1970 Spiritual in the seminary of the two dioceses of Innsbruck and Feldkirch. The solemn appointment as bishop took place in December 1980 by Pope John Paul II. In the Austrian Bishops' Conference Dr. Ing. Reinhold Stecher was responsible for many years for the reports Caritas and women, but at the same time he was also a representative in the Faith Commission of the German Bishops' Conference