10 Facts About Karl-Josef Rauber

Karl-Josef Rauber was a German prelate of the Catholic Church who served as an apostolic nuncio from 1982 until his retirement in 2009.

Karl-Josef Rauber was created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015.

Karl-Josef Rauber was a chaplain in Nidda and in 1962 earned a doctoral degree in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

At the State Secretariat beginning in 1966, Karl-Josef Rauber was one of four secretaries of the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli.

Karl-Josef Rauber's motto was "Caritas Christi urget nos".

Karl-Josef Rauber continued to have responsibility for that troubled diocese when he returned to the diplomatic service of the Holy See when he was named Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland on 16 March 1993 and to Liechtenstein on 17 April 1993.

Karl-Josef Rauber's appointment was called "surprising", and Bayerischer Rundfunk reported "much speculation that perhaps Francis deliberately wanted to honor a man who did not always have an easy time with the Roman system".

Karl-Josef Rauber died in Rottenburg near Tubingen, on 26 March 2023, at the age of 88.

Karl-Josef Rauber had lived there in retirement with the Schoenstatt sisters.

Karl-Josef Rauber had been in poor health for several years and was weakened by the COVID-19 virus in 2022.