ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1998 the FPO was confronted with a political scandal. Peter Rosenstingl, an FPO member of parliament, fled to Brazil in May 1998. Rosenstingl left a financial disaster for the FPO in Lower Austria; he is alleged to have left the FPO of Lower Austria with debts of some oS 500 Million. The Rosenstingl scandal led to the resignation of Bernhard Grazter, head of the FPO in Lower Austria. The layout of the EURO banknotes was created by Robert Kalina, an Austrian, and Minister of Finance Rudolf Edlinger signed the banknotes as president on 31 December 1998. In November, Austria’s bishops made an “ad limina visitation” in Rome and presented their problems to Pope John Paul II. In June, Pope John-Paul II visited Austria for the third time, and this visit, too, was over shadowed by the Groer-case and by serious troubles within the Austrian Catholic Church.
