The work is never done – Bishop Dieser installed as Bishop of Aachen

With a call to unity and an eye on the future Bishop Helmut Dieser was installed as seventh bishop of Aachen on Saturday. In addition, bishop Dieser also emphasised the synodal future of the Church of Aachen, stating in his installation homily:

“No masterplan, no hey ho! we are better than those before us, and certainly no panic as if we must save the Church, but: Lord, tell us what is needed, tell us when we pray, when we speak and plan with each other, when we are critical and make decisions. Help us to be synodal with each other and with you today, meaning: to know that we are journeying together, not yet ready, but in the unity of the faith of the Church, in the diversity of gifts and tasks and responsibilities, growing towards you, the first who is already complete, so that we may also be complete.”

He may be the seventh bishop of Aachen since the diocese was re-established in 1930, Bishop Dieser has just as much to do as any of his predecessors, he explained.

Main celebrant at the installation Mass was Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, as Aachen is a suffragan diocese of that archdiocese. In his word of welcome, he recalled the main duty of a bishop: “The first and most important task of the Apostles then and their successors the bishops now is to proclaim the joyful message of Jesus Christ […] and to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ.”

Another word of welcome was given by Reinhard Cardinal Marx. The president of the German Bishops’ Conference knows Aachen’s new bishop well, as both come from the Diocese of Trier. Cardinal Marx was bishop there from 2001 to 2007, and Bishop Dieser was a priest of that diocese from 1989 to 2011 and later auxiliary bishop until this year. Cardinal Marx said,

“Those who know Helmut Dieser are soon impressed by his open and cheerful nature. I know the new bishop well. Dyuring my time as bishop of Trier, Helmut Dieser was an involved priest and pastor, who could listen well. With his pastoral experience, his responsibility as auxiliary bishop in Trier and his theological working and thinking, Bishop Dieser brings the best requirements for his new mission.”

Other celebrants at the installation Mass were Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the Apostolic Nuncio to Germany, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, and Bishop Karl Borsch, auxiliary if Aachen and Administrator of the diocese between the retirement of Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff and the installation of Bishop Dieser.

In his closing words of thanks, Bishop Dieser began his ministry with a request:

“Let me live with you! Simply, not excessively and exaggerated. Not hidden in roles and expectations. I too am a limited human being. I too can overtax myself.

Only when you can and want to live with me, can I be bishop with you and for you!”

Bishop Helmut Dieser is the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Aachen in its current form. A first Diocese of Aachen was established in 1801, under Napoleonic rule, with territory taken from Cologne in Germany, Roermond and Batavia in the Netherlands, and Liège in Belgium. In 1821 this was once again suppressed, its territory added to Cologne, Trier and Münster. This first Diocese of Aachen only ever had a single bishop, Frenchman Marc-Antoine Berdolet, from 1801 to 1809. His appointment was part of the power struggles between Napoleon’s France and the Holy See. Following Berdolet’s death, the Holy See gave no permission to ordain a successor.

 In 1930, Aachen was re-established, this time only from territory of the Archdiocese of Cologne.

Photo credit: Andreas Steindl

Advertisement

“A service to the faith of the people” – Bishop Helmut Dieser looks ahead to Aachen

Trier is a popular hunting ground for new bishops, if the last two appointments are an indication. First Germany’s oldest diocese lost its vicar general to Limburg and today one of its three auxiliary bishops is announced as the sevent bishop of the Diocese of Aachen. Bishop Helmut Dieser succeeds Heinrich Mussinghoff, who retired in December.

54-year-old Helmut Dieser was born in Neuwied, north of Koblenz, and studied Catholic theology and philosophy in Trier and Tübingen. He was ordained a priest in 1989 and in 1992 he was attached to theological faculty of Trier University, promoting there in 1998. From 2004 onward he worked as a parish priest and teacher of homiletics at the St. Lambert study house in Lantershofen. In 2011 he was appointed as auxiliary bishop of Trier and titular bishop of Narona, a former diocese in what is now southern Croatia. In the German Bishops’ Conference he is a member of the faith commission and the pastoral care commission.

The appointment of Bishop Dieser was announced at noon in Trier. Dean of the cathedral chapter Manfred von Holtum described the incoming ordinary like this. “I am happy that, with him, we receive a bishop in continuity with his predecessors, Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff and Bishop Klaus Hemmerle, who is open to new pastoral directions. The new bishop of Aachen, Dr. Helmut Dieser, stands for synodality in the Church and especially for ecumenism.”

Bishop Karl Borsch, auxiliary bishop of Aachen and diocesan administrator during the sede vacante, added: “In the meetings of the German Bishops’ Conference I have gotten to know and appreciate Bishop Helmut Dieser as a spiritual and communicative person. In the Conference he is a member of the faith and pastoral care commissions, where his counsel as a proven theologian is asked. He is an experienced shepherd, and I know that, as such, he is looking forward to meeting the faithful and communities in our diocese.”

Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier described his erstwhile auxiliary bishop as a “man of the Church and a powerful witness of the Gospel”. He also underlined his communicative skills, in part due to Bishop Dieser’s experience in teaching homiletics.

Speaking in Trier, Bishop Dieser himself describes his new mission as something great, something big in his life. “But I can say yes to this great thing, since I am confident that I will draw nearer to God, answering Him, as I follow Jesus: in this new office. God’s call does not remain vague, it becomes tangible. As tangible as this hour and as tangibe as the Diocese of Aachen and its people.”

Bishop Dieser also discussed the topic of synodality, thanking Bishop Ackermann for calling and organising a synod in the Diocese of Trier in recent years. “The experience of the synod left a deep impression on me, and its results have given us a sense of which direction to look and proceed. What I have learned and experienced in the synod, I now want to take with me to Aachen. I was happy to find, in a speech from Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff from 2011, that the Diocese of Aachen under his guidance has started in similar directions as our synod in Trier. Also in Aachen, the idea of a “community of communities” creates greater pastoral spaces which can give shape to various forms of Church life, interconnecting them.”

About his new ministry of service, he says,

“it will be a service to the faith of the people. The faith of the Gospel must in modern times be won, found and continued differently then in the past.

Many of our contemporaries are convinced: I know that I do not need to know whether God exists or not. I can live very well without knowing precisely. The Church, however, is convinced that, if we want to know more about ourselves, want to know deeper what our own life, the world, other people are and mean, we need faith. The God who surpasses all knowledge and understanding (cf. Phil. 4:7) has become completely knowable and meets us in a historical man and his life on earth: in Jesus and His Gospel.”

The bishop continues by explaining the ecumenism is an important element in this endeavour. He wants to help people acknowledge that they want to be Christians and so also know why they want to be Christians. Church life, he says, develops through the answers that people give to God and to Jesus, with their own lives and spiritual gifts, their charisms.

“So I am confident: we do not need to save the Church! She grows where the Gospel is being proclaimed and heard and answered. And there is not and will not be a time, until the end of the world, when the Gospel is not current!”

Photo credit: Bistum Trier