Bishop Marketz reflects on what remains after death

As many people visit the graves of loved ones for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Carinthian Bishop Josef Marketz is reflecting on what remains of a person after death. In an interview published by ORF, he said the days prompt questions about the traces a life leaves behind.

Marketz met the ORF camera crew at the Carinthian State Archive in Klagenfurt. He said he often stopped there after visiting St Ruprecht Cemetery to look at the white marble tablets and wonder what they preserved. Inside, he said, the archive held the history of the region and the life stories of many people.

Among the archive’s holdings was an open book from the 16th century. Marketz said people of that time had created wonderful works, including art, and it would be a great loss if they were no longer preserved. The archive, he said, offered a quiet atmosphere that inspired respect for the people whose lives and achievements were recorded in its books.

Visiting a cemetery also meant looking to the past, Marketz said, but his faith led him to think about the future. He said Christians believe in the promise of eternal life and have hope: what is history here, he said, becomes the future there.