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The German Bishops' Conference (German : Deutsche Bischofskonferenz) is the episcopal conference of the bishops of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. Members include diocesan bishops, coadjutors, auxiliary bishops, and diocesan administrators.
The first meeting of the German bishops took place in Würzburg in 1848, and in 1867 the Fulda Conference of Bishops ("next to the grave of St. Boniface") was established, which reorganized as German Bishops' Conference in 1966. The annual autumn conference of the German bishops still takes place in Fulda, while the meeting in spring is held at alternating places.
After the construction of the Berlin Wall the ordinaries in the East German Democratic Republic (GDR) were unable to participate in the Fulda Conference of Bishops. In 1974 the GDR formally suggested talks with the Holy See. As one of the outcomes, the Berlin Conference of Bishops was established for the East German ordinaries on 26 July 1976. The Diocese of Berlin, also comprising West Berlin, was thereafter represented in the German Bishops' Conference and the Berlin Conference alike, in the former by its vicar general, in the latter by the bishop personally. The Catholic Church did not consider the Berlin Conference as a national Bishops' Conference, since the Holy See officially conceived the East German ordinaries as part of the German Bishops' Conference as papally confirmed by its statute on 26 September 1976. East Germany's diocesan structure was complicated. Since 1972 three sees had their seat in East Germany, the dioceses of Berlin and of Dresden-Meissen and the Apostolic Administration of Görlitz. The rest of East Germany belonged to dioceses seated in West Germany, which appointed commissaries for the East German parts of their dioceses. The Berlin Conference was disestablished in 1990.
On 25 September 2018, [1] the national Episcopal Conference threw the presentation of a self-commissioned study from which resulted at least 3.700 cases of sexual abuse in Germany from 1946 to 2014. [2] More than a half were child abuse cases. [3]
In 2010, the New York Times published the allegations of sexual abuses committed by a priest of the Munich diocese in the 80s. It was preceded by the ones of Lawrence Murphy in Wisconsin, happened in a school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. [4]
The conference's maxim that, where other creatures are concerned, "we can speak of the priority of [their] being over [their] being useful" was commended by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si'. [5]
Friedrich Wetter is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, from 1982 to 2007. He was Bishop of Speyer from 1968 to 1982. He has been a cardinal since 1985.
Joachim Meisner was a German Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1989 to 2014. He previously served as Bishop of Berlin from 1980 to 1989, and was created a cardinal in 1983. He was widely considered to be Germany's leading conservative Catholic figure.
The Catholic Church in Germany or Roman Catholic Church in Germany is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church in communion with the Pope, assisted by the Roman Curia, and with the German bishops. The current "Speaker" of the episcopal conference is Georg Bätzing, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg. It is divided into 27 dioceses, 7 of them with the rank of metropolitan sees.
The Archdiocese of Wrocław is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in the city of Wrocław in Poland. From its founding as a bishopric in 1000 until 1821, it was under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland. From 1821 to 1930 it was subjected directly to the Apostolic See. Between 1821 and 1972 it was officially known as (Arch)Diocese of Breslau.
The Archdiocese of Berlin is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The archepiscopal see is in Berlin, with the archdiocese's territory extending over Northeast Germany.
Reinhard Marx is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory in 2010.
The Diocese of Görlitz is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in Germany. The current ordinary is Wolfgang Ipolt
Robert Zollitsch is a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau from 2003 to 2013 and was Chairman of the German Episcopal Conference from 2008 to 2014.
In the Holy Roman Empire, the German term Hochstift referred to the territory ruled by a bishop as a prince, as opposed to his diocese, generally much larger and over which he exercised only spiritual authority. The terms prince-bishopric and ecclesiastical principality are synonymous with Hochstift. Erzstift and Kurerzstift referred respectively to the territory (prince-archbishopric) ruled by a prince-archbishop and an elector-archbishop while Stift referred to the territory ruled by an imperial abbot or abbess, or a princely abbot or abbess. Stift was also often used to refer to any type of ecclesiastical principality.
Rainer Maria Woelki is a German Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He has been Archbishop of Cologne since his installation on 20 September 2014 following his election by the Cathedral Chapter to succeed Joachim Meisner in that position. He previously served as Archbishop of Berlin.
The Berlin Conference of Bishops was the meeting of Roman Catholic bishops of East Germany from 1976 to 1990. As was solidified after the Berlin Wall in 1961 and was the division of Germany prevented the participation of the bishops of the East of the German Bishops' Conference, the pastoral needs led to a separate meeting of the East German bishops, first of the Berlin Ordinarienkonferenz.
The Würzburg Bishops' Conference of 1848 was a four-week workshop of the German Catholic bishops in Würzburg. It can be regarded as the birth of the German and Austrian bishops' conferences.
Konrad Zdarsa is a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of Görlitz from 2007 till 2010, when he became bishop of Augsburg. He retired from the Augsburg see on 4 July 2019.
Stephan Burger is a German Roman Catholic clergyman. Since 2014 he has been Archbishop of Freiburg and Metropolitan Bishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Freiburg.
Heiner Koch is a German Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Berlin since 2015. He was an auxiliary bishop in Cologne from 2006 to 2013 and Bishop of Dresden-Meissen from 2013 to 2015.
Heinrich Timmerevers is a German prelate of the Catholic Church. A bishop since 2001, he has been the 50th Bishop of Dresden-Meissen since 2016.
Johannes Dyba was a German prelate of the Catholic Church who led the Diocese of Fulda from 1983 until his death. He spent his earlier career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
| Province of Bamberg | |
|---|---|
| Province of Berlin | |
| Province of Cologne | |
| Province of Freiburg | |
| Province of Hamburg | |
| Province of Munich and Freising | |
| Province of Paderborn | |
| Sui iuris jurisdictions | |
| Archdioceses |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Dioceses | ||
| Other | ||
