Edmund Waldstein

Pater Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., is a monk of the Cistercian Abbey of Stift Heiligenkreuz in Austria. According to his author profile at Church Life Journal, he lectures in moral theology at the abbey's Phil.-Theol. Hochschule Benedikt XVI. and at the International Theological Institute in Trumau, and directs the János-Brenner-Haus for vocational discernment in Heiligenkreuz. His published CV lists studies at Thomas Aquinas College in California, the Hochschule Heiligenkreuz and the University of Vienna, where he received a doctorate in theology in 2019; his research interests include the common good, Catholic social teaching and integralism.

The Josias and Sancrucensis. Waldstein is the figure most associated with The Josias, an English-language website on Catholic integralism. The Austrian weekly Falter credited him with founding it in 2014 and called it the movement's central publication. A 2021 announcement identified him as its editor-in-chief and as co-editor, with Peter Kwasniewski, of a first print anthology from Angelico Press; he edited the second volume, subtitled The Two Powers (Angelico Press), which includes his essay "Integralism and Gelasian Dyarchy". The site later announced that he and Joel Augustine had given up the editorship and that Urban Hannon had succeeded them. The Josias's about page refers readers to his blog, Sancrucensis, for a fuller statement of the integralist position.

Public debate. In October 2024 Falter published a long profile of him as a source of ideas for the American right; it reported that J.D. Vance appeared to be paying attention to him and that he describes modern nation-states as diseased. The German-language theology site Feinschwarz presented him as a prominent representative of neo-integralism and cited a Sancrucensis post as supporting coercive punishment of heretics. A paper by theologian Michaela C. Hastetter published by the International Theological Institute notes that the post was later deleted, and that the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung has warned against integralism, naming Waldstein. Waldstein has replied to critics in essays such as "Integralism and the Logic of the Cross" for Church Life Journal.