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Diocese of Limburg

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Diocese of Limburg
Dioecesis Limburgensis
Bistum Limburg
St George's Cathedral, Limburg
St George's Cathedral, Limburg
Location
Country Germany
Ecclesiastical province Cologne
Metropolitan Limburg, Hesse
Coordinates 50°23′20″N 8°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 Leo XIV
Bishop Georg Bätzing
Metropolitan Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki
Auxiliary Bishops Thomas Löhr
Apostolic Administrator Manfred Grothe
Vicar General Wolfgang Rösch
Bishops emeritus 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.

Districts

The diocese is divided into multiple administrative districts. Each district is represented by a clerical dean.

History

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.

Controversy

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]

Laity within the Diocese of Limburg: "Synodal Way"

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.

Ordinaries

  • Jakob Brand (21 May 1827 appointed – 26 October 1833 died)
  • Johann Wilhelm Bausch (8 January 1834 appointed – 9 April 1840 died)
  • Peter Joseph Blum (20 January 1842 appointed – 30 December 1884 died)
  • Johannes Christian Roos (19 Feb 1885 appointed – 2 June 1886 Appointed, Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau)
  • Karl Klein (25 September 1886 appointed – 6 February 1898 died)
  • Dominikus (Martin Karl) Willi, O. Cist. (15 June 1898 appointed – 6 January 1913 died)
  • Augustinus Kilian (22 January 1913 appointed – 30 October 1930 died)
  • Antonius Hilfrich (30 October 1930 succeeded – 5 February 1947 died)
  • Ferdinand Dirichs (24 September 1947 appointed – 27 December 1948 died)
  • Wilhelm Kempf (3 May 1949 appointed – 10 August 1981 retired)
  • Franz Kamphaus (3 May 1982 appointed – 2 February 2007 retired)
  • Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (28 November 2007 appointed – 26 March 2014 resigned)
  • Georg Bätzing (1 July 2016 appointed, 18 September 2016 ordained)

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg is a diocese of the catholic church of the Catholic Church.[22]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Diocese of Limburg — (LIMBURGENSIS)

Diocese in the Kingdom of Prussia, suffragan of Freiburg.

I. History

This diocese dates from the end of the eighteenth century. The city of Limburg then belonged to the Elector of Trier, but the north-eastern part of the present diocese lay outside of any diocesan territory, having been under Protestant rulers since the Peace of Westphalia. It was administered in spiritual matters from Trier, through the ecclesiastical authorities at Coblenz. When the latter city fell into the hands of the French (1794), the administrator, Archdeacon Joseph Ludwig Beck, was given ecclesiastical jurisdiction over that part of the Diocese of Trier which lay on the right bank of the Rhine, the seat of his administration being Limburg. When, in 1801, the left bank of the Rhine came into the possession of the French, the three rural deaneries of the Archdiocese of Trier on the right bank still continued to exist, but in 1803 passed to the princes of Nassau-Weilburg, who allowed the vicariate-general at Limburg to continue, but diverted various ecclesiastical revenues and, in the city of Limburg, suppressed the collegiate chapter which had existed since the tenth century. In 1802 the last Archbishop of Trier, Klemens Wenceslaus, appointed Beck sole vicar-general for what remained of the archdiocese, and after the death of the archbishop (1812) Beck was confirmed in this position by the pope (1813). His ecclesiastical administration was carried on under the most difficult circumstances, in spite of which he did not fail to provide for a well-trained priesthood, and to encourage learning and virtue among his clergy. Upon his death (3 February, 1816), the primate, Dalberg, in his capacity as metropolitan and nearest bishop, appointed Hubert Anton Corden, pastor of Limburg, to be administrator and director of the vicariate (15 December, 1816). Pius VII appointed him, 8 July, 1818, vicar Apostolic for the Archdiocese of Trier. Prussia did not recognize the new vicariate, and forbade Corden to administer the parishes which were under Prussian rule. A separate Diocese of Limburg was the only possible solution of the difficulty. Long negotiations, begun in 1818 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, were carried on between Rome and the Governments interested, with the result that the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine was established in 1821, and, as a part of it, the Diocese of Limburg. The Bull, Provida solersque, establishing the new diocese, was issued 16 August, 1821, but, on account of a dispute between the pope and the Governments concerned, the See of Limburg was not filled for five years. The first bishop was Jacob Brand, parish priest of Wieskirchen (b. 29 January, 1776, at Mespellbrunn in Franconia), proposed by the Government, confirmed by the pope, and consecrated 21 October, 1827.

The new diocese consisted of the fifty-seven parishes of the Duchy of Nassau that had formerly been under the Archbishop of Mainz and in 1821 had been placed under the vicar Apostolic Corden, the free imperial city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, fifty-one parishes of the former Archdiocese of Trier, and twenty-five parishes in which no episcopal jurisdiction had been exercised since the Peace of Westphalia. In 1828 the diocese was divided into fifteen deaneries. The former collegiate and parish church of St. George, at Limburg, which since the French Revolution had been in a dilapidated condition, became the cathedral. The endowment was, as Pius VIII himself expressed it, a "deplorable" one, and amounted only to 21,606 gulden for both the bishop and the entire cathedral chapter. This endowment was administered by the secular Government, as was also the Catholic central fund (Zentralkirchenfonds) for the diocese, over which the bishop had no control whatever. The position of the first bishop, little worthy of his rank, suffered from the ecclesiastical laws of Nassau in which he had too easily acquiesced before his appointment. In truth he was only a paid dependent upon the nod of the Government, put in charge of the purely religious affairs of the Catholics of this territory. He issued a number of excellent ordinances during his brief term of office. Having himself been a teacher, he devoted special and enlightened care to the founding of an ecclesiastical seminary, which was opened in 1829 in a former Franciscan monastery granted for the purpose by the Government. He prepared the way for a special theological seminary, but did not live to see it established, dying in 1835. The second bishop, Johann Wilhelm Bausch (1835-40), was likewise unable to secure from the Government any appreciable measure of freedom. Any attempt to control the central diocesan fund brought upon him and the cathedral chapter a sharp rebuke.

In the appointment of the third bishop, Peter Joseph Blum (1842-84), the diocese gained a man who, aided by the changed conditions of the times, was able to carry on a successful contest for greater liberty in the administration of his see. He cared for the religious quickening of his diocese by the introduction and zealous fostering of general confession, of religious brotherhoods, and a Christian press, the dissemination of good books, and the practice of spiritual exercises, which he succeeded in establishing after some opposition from the Government. The year of the Revolution, 1848, brought to the Catholic Church some freedom from the system of state guardianship until then in force, and permitted for the first time the holding of popular missions, which the bishop introduced as early as 1850. In that year also, he obtained possession of the former Franciscan monastery of Bornhofen, a much-frequented pilgrimage, and there founded a house of Redemptorists, in spite of government opposition. The first house of the Poor Handmaids of Christ was founded in 1850 at Dernbach; it gradually developed into a large mother-house with numerous branches. In 1855 followed the house of the Brothers of Mercy at Montabaur; in 1862, the diocesan protectory of Marienstatt; in 1850, the hospital of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul at Limburg, etc. Gradually the bishop replaced the old undenominational schools with Catholic schools which he obtained permission to establish. In 1851 a Catholic normal school was founded at Montabaur; in 1852 a college for boys was opened at Hadamar, and in 1872 another at Montabaur. From 1851 the bishop had an eight years' struggle with the Government in regard to the filling of vacant parishes; it ended by the establishment in principle of the bishop's right to independent administration of the diocese, and to the appointment and training of the clergy.

The political independence of the Duchy of Nassau and of the imperial free city of Frankfort-on-the-Main came to an end in the German war of 1866, after which both were incorporated in the Kingdom of Prussia. New religious houses, missions, and exercises were made possible by the introduction into the new territory of the same legal freedom of action as the Catholic Church then enjoyed in Prussia. These favourable circumstances did not last long. The Kulturkampf, beginning in 1872, destroyed at Limburg the greater part of what had been created by long years of work. Several institutions were closed by the expulsion of the Redemptorists, Jesuits, Poor Handmaids of Christ, the English Ladies, etc., while the Old-Catholic legislation transferred a number of Catholic churches to this new sect. By the Sperrgesetz, the clergy of Limburg found themselves deprived of salaries, while the bishop, after suffering fines and distraints for filling parishes without giving to the Government the newly prescribed notification, was, in 1876, expelled from office by the civil authority, and exiled. He administered his diocese, as well as possible, from Haid, in Bohemia, where Prince von Löwenstein generously granted him an asylum. It was not until 1883 that he was able to return to Limburg.

The spirit of Bishop Blum lived in his successors, Johann Christian Roos, who, after a short episcopate (1885-86), was raised to the archiepiscopal See of Freiburg, and Karl Klein (1886-98), dean of the cathedral chapter, appointed by the pope. Dr. Klein had been for many years the trusted vicar-general of Bishop Blum. During his episcopate the former Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt was restored (1888) by Cistercians from Mehrerau, near Constance. The same bishop also founded a Schola Gregoriana to provide music for the cathedral, built a new seminary, and made zealous efforts to repair the damage caused by the Kulturkampf. He was succeeded by Dominikus Willi, first abbot of the new Marienstatt.

II. Statistics

The Diocese of Limburg includes the Prussian civil district of Wiesbaden in the Province of Hesse-Nassau, with the exception of that part of the city of Frankfort-on-the-Main which belongs to the Diocese of Fulda and four towns in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. There are, taken altogether, 413,000 Catholic inhabitants. The diocese is divided into fifteen deaneries and the commissariat of Frankfort-on-the-Main (q.v.); it contains 210 parishes and cures of souls, 29 benefices, 38 endowed and 49 non-endowed chaplaincies, 48 other positions in the administration and the schools, and, at the close of 1909, there were 368 secular priests. The cathedral chapter consists of a dean, 5 canons, 1 honorary canon, and 2 cathedral vicars. The bishop is elected by the cathedral chapter from a number of candidates who must be approved by the ruler of Prussia; the members are appointed alternately by the bishop and the chapter itself. The institutions of the diocese are: the theological seminary at Limburg, with 18 students; the colleges for boys at Hadamar and Montabaur, each having about 100 pupils; the St. Joseph school for boys at Marienhausen; the asylum for idiots at Aulhausen; the Schola Gregoriana and the diocesan museum at Limburg.

The monasteries for men in the diocese are: the Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt, originally founded in 1215, suppressed in 1803, re-established in 1888, now (1910) numbering 32 fathers and 15 brothers; 3 Franciscan monasteries (Mariental, Bornhofen, and Kelkheim), with 17 fathers and 20 lay brothers; 1 Capuchin monastery at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 5 fathers and 3 brothers; the chief house of the Mission Society of the Pallottini at Limburg, 13 fathers, 57 scholastics, and 90 lay brothers; the chief house of the Brothers of Mercy at Montabaur and 5 other monastic houses, 105 professed brothers and 30 novices. The female orders and congregations in the diocese are: the Congregation of St. Vincent de Paul, 1 house, 12 sisters; the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, 1 mother-house and 86 dependent houses, 940 sisters; the Association of the Sisters of Divine Providence of Mainz, 6 houses, 36 sisters; the Poor Sisters of St. Francis, 1 house, 21 sisters; the Sisters of the Christian Schools of Mercy, 3 houses, 27 sisters; Ursulines, 3 houses, 80 sisters; English Ladies, 2 houses, 48 sisters; Sisters of Charity of the Good Shepherd, 1 house, 32 sisters; Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 2 houses, 8 sisters; the Pallottine Nuns, a mother-house at Limburg, 65 sisters; the Benedictine Nuns, 1 abbey (St. Hildegard, at Eibingen), 30 sisters; Benedictine Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration, 1 house, 29 sisters; Alexian Nuns, 1 house, 7 sisters.

The diocese has about 35 societies for boys and young men; 18 journeymen's unions; about 60 work-men's unions; 10 merchants' associations; 7 societies for servants; the Bonifatiusverein; a society for the support of priests; the St. Raphael Society; the Marian Society for the protection of girls, etc. There are 20 charitable institutions under religious administration (orphanages, working-girls' homes, hospitals, etc.).

The most important church of the diocese is the cathedral at Limburg. It is in the transition style between Romanesque and Gothic, and was built in the first third of the thirteenth century, consecrated in 1235, and completely restored 1871-78. The celebrated treasure of the cathedral, containing costly reliquaries of the Byzantine period, etc., is kept in the church of the Franciscans. Other churches of the diocese worthy of special notice are: the Kaiserdom of St. Bartholomew at Frankfort-on-the-Main, formerly a place of pilgrimage, and the church where the German emperors were crowned (see FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN), the Romanesque church of the former monastery of Augustinian Canons at Dietkirchen near Limburg, the oldest church of the diocese (ninth century), the Gothic pilgrimage church of Bornhofen (fifteenth century); the church of Eltville (fourteenth century), the pilgrimage church of Kiedrich (early fourteenth century), Rudesheim (1391-1400), the pilgrimage church of St. Martin at Lorch (end of thirteenth century), the abbey churches of Marienstatt and Eibingen, and the Romanesque-Gothic Church of the former Premonstratensian monastery of Arnstein-on-the-Lahn, etc.

BAHL, Beiträge zur Geschichte Limburgs (Limburg, 1889, 1890); IBACH, Der Dom zu Limburg (Limburg, 1879); LUTHMER, Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Regierungsbezirks Wiesbaden (3 vols., Frankfort, 1902-07); HÖHLER, Geschichte des Bestums Limburg mit besonderer Rucksichtnahme auf das Leben und Wirken des dritten Bischofs Peter Joseph Blum (Limburg, 1908); Schematismus der Diöcese Limburg (Limburg, 1907; supplementary vol., 1910).

References

  1. Back to citation "Rinunce e nomine". press.vatican.va. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  2. Back to citation Katholische Stadtkirche Frankfurt am Main
  3. Back to citation "Bezirk Hochtaunus". hochtaunus.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  4. Back to citation "Bezirk Lahn-Dill-Eder". lahn-dill-eder.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  5. Back to citation "Bezirk Limburg". Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  6. Back to citation "Bezirk Main-Taunus". main-taunus.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  7. Back to citation "Bezirk Rheingau". rheingau.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  8. Back to citation "Bezirk Rhein-Lahn". rhein-lahn.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  9. Back to citation "Bezirk Untertaunus". untertaunus.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  10. Back to citation "Bezirk Westerwald". westerwald.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  11. Back to citation "Bezirk Wetzlar". wetzlar.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  12. Back to citation "Bezirk Wiesbaden". wiesbaden.bistumlimburg.de. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  13. Back to citation "Über das Bistum. Das Bistum Limburg.". Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  14. Back to citation Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg (1 February 2007). "Dekret des Bischofs Franz Kamphaus vom 15.01.2007 über die Errichtung der Profilkirche "Heilig Kreuz – Zentrum für christliche Meditation und Spiritualität" (=decree of bishop Franz Kamphaus from 15 January 2007 concerning the foundation of the theme church "Holy Cross – Centre for Christian Meditation and Spirituality")" (in German). Parish of St.-Josef Frankfurt. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  15. Back to citation "Days Numbered for Controversial German Bishop". Der Spiegel. 27 August 2013.
  16. Back to citation "Vatican looks into German 'luxury bishop' charges". Reuters. 9 September 2013.
  17. Back to citation "Untersuchung abgeschlossen, Bericht im VatikanPapst entscheidet über Tebartz-van Elst" (in German). German N-TV. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  18. Back to citation Bishop of Limburg in trouble and in court Deutsche Welle
  19. Back to citation Bishop of Limburg Tebartz-van Elst case referred to the Vatican Deutsche Welle
  20. Back to citation "Mitarbeiter putschen gegen Bischof Tebartz-van ElstIm Bistum ist der Teufel los" (in German). NTV. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  21. Back to citation "Synodaler Weg". Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  22. Back to citation Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg, official website
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