RIP: 13/04/2023 - Vienna
Fr. Elmar (Josef) Kahofer was born on 4 April 1937 on the mountain farm on Kreuzberg, in the parish of Klamm am Semmering in Austria. Through Fr. Reinhold Eitler SDS, with whom he was a member of the altar servers in Klamm, he entered the Salvatorian grammar school in Lochau and in 1957 he made novitiate, which he concluded, by professing his first vows on the Feast of Mater Salvatoris, 11 October 1958. After having finished the philosophical and theological formation in Passau, he was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of this historical city on 29 June 1964. His first assignment was at Hamberg. During his chaplaincy in the Apostolic Parish of Vienna 10, he devoted himself especially to young people. In 1970 he began to build up the Salvator parish in Graz. In September 1987 he was appointed parish priest in Kaisermühlen, where his special concern was for the elderly. He founded the Kaisermühlen Care Hospice Association with the aim of caring for elderly people in need of care at home for as long as possible. Slowly the health condition of Fr. Elmar became worse. Besides the fact that his legs were deteriorating, his apparent speechlessness also threatened to banish him from social life. He patiently accepted that individuals around him nevertheless understood him and acted as interpreters. And he was also increasingly able to express himself non-verbally. Until the end, his mind was wide awake. Fr. Elmar died on 13 April 2023 in Vienna. He was 86 years old and had been a professed member of the Society of the Divine Saviour for 64 years.
