Clearly, it’s the season for new bishops in Germany. Following Freiburg im Breisgau and Cologne, the Diocese of Osnabrück gets a new auxiliary bishop. He is 47-year-old Johannes Wübbe, a priest since 1993 and the first bishop to be consecrated, on 1 September, in Osnabrück’s St. Peter’s Cathedral since 1989.
Fr. Johannes Wübbe has been, until today, parish priest in four towns just west of Osnabrück. Before his ordination, he studied Catholic theology in Münster and Freiburg. His first assignment as priest was in the city of Osnabrück, with the added task of the pastoral care for the city’s Catholic youth. In 1997, he was appointed to Meppen, just across the border from where I was born and raised (as a personal aside). In 2000, he was appointed to spearhead the diocesan pastoral care for the youth. In 2010, he was assigned to his current placement in the towns of Spelle, Schapen, Venhaus and Lünne.
Bishop-elect Wübbe will work with Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, who has been the ordinary of Osnabrück since 1995. Although there is no real concept of auxiliary bishops succeeding one another, in Germany there are several dioceses which do have a traditionally set number of auxiliaries, each tasked with the pastoral care of a specific region or field. Bishop-elect Wübbe, in that sense, succeeds Bishop Theodor Kettmann, who retired in November of 2011, and may then take over the responsibility for the Caritas and other social services in the Diocese of Osnabrück that Bishop Kettmann has held until today.
As a titular see, Bishop-elect Wübbe has been assigned Ros Cré in Ireland, previously held by Bishop Heiner Koch before the latter was appointed to Dresden-Meiβen. His motto is a paraphrase from the Letter to the Romans: In spe credere (4:18), which means “to believe in hope” or “hopefully believing”.
Photo credit: Bistum Osnabrück
In Caelo et in Terra 
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