All seats filled as Mainz gets its new bishop

Almost a year after the retirement of Cardinal Karl Lehmann, all the dioceses of Germany have a bishop at the helm again – a situation that has not existed for several years. Succeeding the cardinal who led the Diocese of Mainz for 33 years is Father Peter Kohlgraf.

A priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Bishop-elect Kohlgraf has already been active in Mainz since 2012. He has been working as professor of pastoral theology at the Katholischen Hochschule in that city, and assistant priest in Wörrstadt, south of Mainz. Fr. Kohlgraf is a graduate of the Universities of Bonn and Münster, and has experience in pastoral care in the parish and for students as well as education.

The date for the bishop’s consecration is yet be announced, as is the identity of the consecrating bishops, but it would be surprising indeed of Cardinal Lehmann would decline the honour.

Cardinal Lehmann, seated, and Bishop elect Kohlgraf

With the appointment of Fr. Kohlgraf, Cologne once again shows itself to be one of the ‘bishop factories’ of Germany. Six of the 27 ordinaries in Germany hail from the archdiocese on the Rhine. Other such bishop factories are Paderborn with five ordinaries originating from there and Trier with four. All three dioceses are among the oldest in Germany and located in the central part of western Germany, to the west and north of Mainz.

In an interview for Katholisch.de, the new bishop of Mainz touched on some of the more sensitive topics in an dbeyond the church in Germany. Asked about the trend of merging parishes to create what the interviewer calls XXL parishes, as an answer to the shortage of priests, and if he has any alternatives, Fr. Kohlgraf responds:

“I think there is no standard solution here, either. In the Catholic Church we are faced with the tension that we rightly say that the celebration of the Eucharist is source and summit of the life of the Church. That means that, on Sundays, the Eucharist is the central celebration from which the Church and the community draw life. The question is then, of course, how Catholic life should function in small communities. I myself live in a small village in Rhenish Hesse, in a Catholic diaspora situation. That is this tension in which we exist. We should not merely think centralistic, but must also consider how Church life can function in each location. People must be motivated to live out their being Christian.”

Bishop-elect Kohlgraf’s thoughts here are comparable to those of, to name one, Bishop Gerard de Korte in the Netherlands.

As an academic, the bishop elect has followed the discourse about the priest shortage and possible solutions and especially the idea to ordain married men, the so-called viri probati. On this, he says:

“It should be proven if this really solves our problems. I am not so certain about that. I don’t want to look at this from ideological, philosophical or theological perspectives. But it is not without reason that the priestly vocation has always been an academic calling with a full study program. That has meaning. I think that we must remain able to speak theologically in modern society. That quality will play an increasingly greater part. That does not mean that there are not also highly qualified men among the so-called viri probati. But we must look at how a part-time formation would work in addition to holding a job. There are many questions which are not yet answered. I do not currently see a solution for it.”

It sounds as if Bishop-elect Kohlgraf is not opposed to detaching the priesthood from a mandatory vow of celibacy, but his uncertainty has to do with the practicality of it all, especially the years of study and formation. There are, however, places where part-time formation is practiced, albeit for the permanent diaconate, for example in Bovendonk, in the Dutch Diocese of Breda. Here, men study part-time next to their fulltime job, with the exception of the final years, in which they work fulltime in a parish.

Photo credit: [1] Bistum Mainz, [2] Bistum Mainz/Blum

From the courts, a new archbishop for Freiburg

Eight months after Archbishop Robert Zollitsch retired as archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau, and was immediately appointed as Apostolic Administrator of that see, a successor has been found. In the case of Freiburg, which was never part of Prussia and is therefore not bound by the concordat between that former state and the Holy See, the cathedral chapter is the sole party to select candidates. The Apostolic Nuncio has the duty to investigate the candidates and what he finds is used by the Holy See to make a list of three names, of which at least one must be that of a native priest of the archdiocese. The cathedral chapter then elects one of the three priests on that list. The Pope subsequently confirms the election by appointing the new archbishop.

This entire process has now resulted in the 15th archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau: Msgr. Stephan Burger. At 52 he is by far the youngest metropolitan archbishop of the country – the next youngest is Berlin’s Cardinal Woelki, at 57. Until now, Archbishop-elect Burger was the judicial vicar of the archdiocese, representing the archbishop in legal matters and leading the ecclesiastical court. Notable in this context is that the judicial vicar is also responsible for marital matters, most especially deciding on the validity of a marriage.

Archbishop-elect Stephan Burger was born in Freiburg, but raised in nearby Löffingen. He was ordained in 1990, after having studied philosophy in Freiburg and Munich. He spent his first years in parishes in Tauberbischofsheim, in the far north of the archdiocese, and in Pforzheim, halfway between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. In 1995 he was appointed as parish priest in Sankt Leon-Rot, north of Karlsruhe. At the same time, between 2004 and 2006, he studied canon law at the University of Münster, completing it with a licentiate in canon law. From 2002 onwards, he was also active as defender of the bond in the ecclesiastical court, and since 2006 he was promoter of justice. A year later he took on the function he held until today. Upon the appointment of Bishop Michael Gerber as auxiliary bishop last year, Archbishop Zollitsch made some changes to the cathedral chapter, and Msgr. Burger joined in 2013.

Msgr. Stephan hails from a strongly Catholic family, with his parents having been active as Church musicians. His brother Hans took the religious name Tutilo when he entered the Benedictine Order, and he is now the Archabbott of Beuron Abbey. He will assist his brother at his consecration.

^The ladies of Freiburg are already fond of their new archbishop.

The new archbishop’s appointment was received very positively in the Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau. Mr. Alfred Gut, chairman of the parish council of Vogtsburg, where Archbishop-elect Burger has been active as a priest for the past ten years, said,”I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I think it’s great. Stephan Burger is incredibly nice, open, sociable and has a ready ear for everyone.” While the news was welcomed, the new archbishop will be missed in the parishes of Kaiserstuhl, Burkheim and Vogstburg.

Although his work as the ecclesiastical courts was potentially dry, strict and serious, Msgr. Stephan has always seen it as pastoral work in the first place. Marriage annulments took up the major part of his work, but he saw it as his duty to “offer people in difficult situations an opportunity to talk in addition to the legal aspets. These people are part of our Church!” As archbishop, Msgr. Burger will obviously work from Freiburg, but he intends to be on the road when he can, to meet the people where they work and live.

Msgr. Burger’s consecration is planned fairly soon: on 29 June, the same day that the archdiocese is hosting a diocesan day,for all volunteers active in the churches, in the square in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady. Expect a major turnout of faithful, then. His predecessor, Archbishop Zollitsch, will be the main consecrator, while Bishop Uhl and Gerber, the archdiocese’s two auxiliaries, may be expected to serve as co-consecrators.

For his motto, the archbishop-elect took a line from the Letter to the Ephesians as inspiration: Christus in cordibus (Christ in the heart), from “s0 that Christ may live in your hearts through faith” (3:17).

Not only does this appointment continue the rejuvenation of the German episcopate, it also indicates that the appointments under Pope Francis seem to continue in the vein of those under Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop-elect Stephan Burger is, it would seem, liturgically quite sound and well educated in canon  law. He also has pastoral experience, maintained ever since his first years as a priest.

Photo credit: [2] Rita Eggstein