Diocese of Limburg Dioecesis Limburgensis Bistum Limburg | |
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Location | |
Country | Germany |
Ecclesiastical province | Cologne |
Metropolitan | Limburg, Hesse |
Coordinates | 50°23′20″N8°04′00″E / 50.38889°N 8.06667°E |
Statistics | |
Area | 6,182 km2 (2,387 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2013) 2,369,000 648,619 (27.4%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Catholic |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | 16 August 1821 |
Cathedral | St George's Cathedral |
Patron saint | St. George |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Georg Bätzing |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Rainer Maria Woelki |
Auxiliary Bishops | Thomas Löhr |
Apostolic Administrator | Manfred Grothe |
Vicar General | Wolfgang Rösch |
Bishops emeritus | Franz Kamphaus Bishop Emeritus (1982–2007) Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst Bishop Emeritus (2008–2014) Gerhard Pieschl Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus (1977–2009) |
Map | |
Website | |
bistumlimburg.de |
The Diocese of Limburg (Latin : Dioecesis Limburgensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne, with metropolitan see being the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Its territory encompasses parts of the States of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. Its cathedral church is St George's Cathedral Limburg an der Lahn. The diocese's largest church is Frankfurt Cathedral, St. Bartholomew.
From October 2013, the administrator of the diocese during the suspension of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is Wolfgang Rösch. The Bishop later resigned. The Cathedral Chapter elected and on 1 July 2016, Pope Francis appointed the Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier, Germany, Georg Bätzing, to serve as the next Bishop of the Diocese of Limburg, succeeding Bishop Tebartz-van Elst. [1] He was consecrated by the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Woelki, on 18 September 2016.
At the end of 2008 the diocese had 2,386,000 inhabitants. About 28 per cent of them were Catholics.
The diocese is divided into multiple administrative districts. Each district is represented by a clerical dean.
The Diocese of Limburg was established in 1827, during the reorganization of Catholic diocese in the course of the secularization. It was initially established as a suffragan diocese of the ecclesiastical province Upper Rhine with its metropolitan seat in Freiburg im Breisgau. Its territory had before been under what is today the Diocese of Trier and Diocese of Mainz. The diocese, therefore, is a rather young diocese. Today it encompasses the former territory of the Duchy of Nassau, the city of Frankfurt am Main, landgraviate Hesse-Homburg, and the former county Biedenkopf. In 1929, it was subordinated to the ecclesiastical province Cologne, according to the so-called Prussian Concordat. [13]
The first bishop of Limburg (1827–1833) was Jakob Brand. At that time, there were about 650,000 Catholics in the diocese (approx 27% of the total population in the area). The bishop Franz Kamphaus founded five theme churches. In 2005, he converted three parish churches to youth churches (Crossover in Limburg, Jona in Frankfurt and Kana in Wiesbaden). Two more parish churches were converted in 2007 to the Holy Cross - Centre for Christian Meditation and Spirituality in the Holy Cross Church, Frankfurt-Bornheim [14] and the Centre for Mourning Counselling in the church St. Michael, Frankfurt-Nordend in Frankfurt. He stepped down after Pope Benedict XVI had accepted his retirement on 2 February 2007. He was succeeded by the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Münster, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst who had been elected by the cathedral chapter. He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on 28 November 2007 and inaugurated by the Archbishop of Cologne Joachim Cardinal Meisner.
In 2013 the Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was accused of lying and of squandering church money. He had a new episcopal headquarters built and was said to have lied about its cost, which has reportedly escalated from an initial 5.5 million euros to 31 million euros. He was also accused of flying first class to India, where he went to help poor children. [15] He rejected calls to resign and the Vatican sent Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo to try to resolve the situation. [16] The accusations were investigated by the church, which reported in 2014. [17] In parallel, the attorney general of Cologne investigated the bishop. [18] On 13 October the bishop travelled to Rome to discuss the situation with the Vatican Curia. [19] On 23 October 2013, Tebartz van-Elst was suspended by Pope Francis as bishop of Limburg, and Wolfgang Rösch was named a new vicar general to administer the diocese in his absence. [20]
The "Synodal Way" was initiated by Bishop Wilhelm Kempf on 16 March 1969 in holding the first elections for a parish council. The basic idea is to have laity participate in important decisions concerning the diocese. “The main idea is to give every appointee a counterpart that consists of elected members who form a council. [21] Both bodies then are to discuss and decided certain issues." Accordingly, every appointed member of the clergy, such as a parish priest, faces a parish council that consists of elected members. On the next higher level, the pastoral realm, a clerical director faces the employees committee. On every "level" of the diocese, laity and appointed officials work together.
Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.
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. All the archbishops and bishops are members of the Conference of German Bishops. Because of the church tax and also because of its substantial real estate holdings and other sources of income, it has an approximate net worth of $26 billion, making it the wealthiest part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church and the fourth wealthiest religious organization in the world in its own right.
The Duchy of Nassau was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what is now the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine and later of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct, was the House of Nassau. The duchy was named for its historical core city, Nassau, although Wiesbaden rather than Nassau was its capital. In 1865, the Duchy of Nassau had 465,636 inhabitants. After being occupied and annexed into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War, it was incorporated into the Province of Hesse-Nassau. The area today is a geographical and historical region, Nassau, and Nassau is also the name of the Nassau Nature Park within the borders of the former duchy.
Limburg Cathedral (German: Limburger Dom, also known as Georgsdom after its dedication to Saint George, is located above the old town of Limburg in Hesse, Germany. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Limburg. Its high location on a rock above the river Lahn provides its visibility from far away. It is the result of an Early Gothic modernization of an originally Early Romanesque building and therefore shows a Romanesque-Gothic transitional style.
Hüblingen is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The Holy Cross Church is a Catholic church in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main (Germany). It is similar in design to the Frauenfriedenskirche in Frankfurt-Bockenheim. It was built by Martin Weber from 1928 to 1929, on a rise then known as Bornheimer Hang. The church is an unusual example of interwar modernism as sacred Bauhaus architecture.
The Lahntal railway is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse. Its western terminus was originally in Oberlahnstein. Trains now mostly operate between Koblenz and Gießen. The line was opened by the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company and the Nassau State Railway between 1858 and 1863 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is a German prelate of the Catholic Church and theologian. He was a vicar and an auxiliary bishop in Münster before becoming the Bishop of Limburg in January 2008. Pope Francis removed him from the exercise of his episcopal office on 23 October 2013 and on 26 March 2014 accepted his resignation as Bishop of Limburg, following a long-standing public dispute about the costs and financing of a diocesan construction project.
Wolfgang Rösch is a German Catholic priest. He was from 2010 to 2013 Dean of Wiesbaden at the parish St. Bonifatius. From 23 October 2013 he has been vicar general of the Diocese of Limburg, also administering the diocese during the absence of the bishop.
Franz Kamphaus is a German Catholic priest, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Limburg. He was bishop of the diocese from 1982 to 2007. He was the only German bishop to oppose Pope John Paul II in the matter of counseling pregnant women in conflict situations. Before being bishop, he taught pastoral theology and homiletics at the University of Münster; afterwards he became minister of a home for people with physical and mental disabilities in Aulhausen.
Georg Bätzing is a German Catholic theologian who has been Bishop of Limburg since 2016 and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference since March 2020.
Eugen Eckert is a German social worker, minister, singer-songwriter and academic teacher. He is known for his lyrics for new spiritual songs, and his oratorios and musical plays.
The Holy Cross - Centre for Christian Meditation and Spirituality is an institution of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg, Germany. It is based at the Holy Cross Church in Frankfurt-Bornheim and is dedicated to services, contemplation, meditation, retreats, counseling, and other events such as concerts.
Patrick Dehm is a German Catholic theologian, supervisor and clinical Gestalt therapist. He and his brother founded the Eugen Dehm foundation, supporting a holistic health concept, in memory of their father.
Wilhelm Kempf was a German Catholic theologian who served between 1949 and 1981 as Bishop of Limburg. After the Second World War, he introduced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to his Diocese.
Herbert Leuninger was a German Catholic priest and theologian. He was a human rights activist for asylum in Germany, a co-founder and speaker of the organisation Pro Asyl, helping refugees, and a member of the board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. He is remembered as a "loudspeaker" of refugees.
Karl Matthäus Winter was a German artist and sculptor. He created numerous sacred works of art as well as four statues for the new figure cycle on the Cologne Council Tower.
Johannes M. Schröder is a German organist, composer and Catholic church musician. After several years responsible for the church music at the Westerwälder Dom, he moved to St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden. He is also a lecturer and a music editor.
Johannes zu Eltz is a German Catholic priest, who has served as Dean of Frankfurt, and a member of the cathedral chapter of the Diocese of Limburg. Trained as a jurist, he became a priest in important parishes in Hesse, Germany. In Frankfurt, he has pursued ecumenism and collaboration with other Christian churches and the Jewish community. He is a member of the Synodal Path, seeking reforms in the Catholic Church.
Christof May was a German Catholic theologian and priest. He worked for the Diocese of Limburg, as Regens of the seminary, as Bischofsvikar responsible for development of the church, and as Domkapitular in the cathedral chapter. He advocated for changes in the Catholic Church.