The long wait is over – A bishop for Limburg

It took two years, three months and a few days, but Limburg finally has a bishop again. Well, once he is ordained and installed, that is. Msgr. Georg Bätzing has been elected by the cathedral chapter and subsequently appointed yesterday by the Pope to become the 13th bishop of the Diocese of Limburg, which had been vacant since the forced retirement of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in March of 2014.

Msgr. Bätzing was born in 1961 in Kirchen, not far from the Diocese of Limburg. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Trier in 1987 following studies in Trier and Freiburg. After serving in parishes in Klausen and Koblenz, he was appointed as subsititute rector of the diocesan seminary in Trier. From 1996 to 2010 he led the seminary and was responsible for the whole of priestly formation in the diocese. He received the title of monsignor in 2005. Since 2012 he has been the vicar general of the diocese.

“If I knew how to laugh and cry at the same time, I would do it,” Msgr. Bätzen reflected on his appointment. The past days had been emotional, he said.  But the first moments of shock after hearing the news have been replaced by joy at his new assignment. Over the past two years he had hoped for a good bishop for the neighbouring Diocese of Limburg, but he never thought it would be him. Confident that God “has nothing but good for him in store”, he looks back on Trier, where his roots lie, and forward to Limburg, the faithful of which he asks to pray for him: “That our common path in the Church of Limburg will be good and under the blessing of God.”

Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier also commented on the appointment of hsi vicar general: “With Msgr. Bätzing, Limburg receives an excellent bishop. We all know that. We know Vicar General Bätzing as a person who is kindhearted, authentic and clear at the same time. Georg Bätzing can listen well, relies on participation, is a mediator, but does not shy away from making decisions. He is a priest in all his heart and an inspirational preacher.”

The Diocese of Limburg was established in 1821 to cater to the Catholics in the then-current Duchy of Nassau, as well as the Free City of Frankfurt. Its territory was taken from the adjacent dioceses of Trier and Mainz. Originally a suffragan see of Freiburg, in 1929 it became a part of the Province of Cologne. In 1930 and 1933 it gained some more territory, from Fulda and Trier respectively. There are some 645,000 Catholics in the diocese, out of a total population of 2.4 million. It has few major cities aside from Wiesbaden and Frankfurt am Main, with the majority of Catholics concentrated in the south and northwest.

Now that Limburg has a bishop again, there are two vacant dioceses remaining in Germany (pictured above at right): Aachen, like Limburg a suffragan of Köln, and Mainz, which borders Limburg in two separate parts to the south and east.

Photo credit: Bistum Trier