Wilhelm Stang

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Wilhelm Stang

Wilhelm Stang (born April 21, 1854 in Langenbrücken , † February 2, 1907 ) was the first bishop of Fall River , Massachusetts .

Life

After attending the Langenbrücken elementary school and grammar school, he went to Leuven , where he studied theology and philosophy at the American College . On 15 June 1878 he was in Mechelen Cathedral for priests ordained. In Germany from 1871–1887 the culture war between state and church raged ; that should have been the reason for Stang's studies abroad. He began his ministry as a pastor in Providence , Rhode Island . In 1886 he became rector of the Peter and Paul Cathedral there. At the age of 41 (1895) he was called to Leuven to work at the American College as professor and vice-rector. His Pastoral Theology (1899) was used as the standard text in many North American seminaries.

On March 12, 1904, he was appointed the first bishop of the diocese of Fall River in the US state of Massachusetts , established at the same time by Pope Pius X. He was ordained episcopal on May 1 of the same year by the Bishop of Providence , Matthew Harkins . Co- consecrators were the Bishop of Hartford , Michael Tierney , and Auxiliary Bishop John Brady of Boston .

Bishop Stang visited his homeland in 1905 and took part in August as a guest at the 52nd General Assembly of German Catholics in Strasbourg (Deutscher Katholikentag ). There he was u. a. on August 21, 1905 with his brothers Adolf Fritzen , Willibrord Benzler and Franz Zorn von Bulach present when the famous church historian Albert Ehrhard gave his much-noticed lecture: "The importance of the papacy for religion and culture" .

After 33 months in office as bishop Wilhelm Stang died on February 2, 1907 at the age of 52 after an operation of an intestinal tumor . He was posthumously made an honorary citizen by his home town Bad Langenbrücken and honored with a street name. The American city of North Dartmouth called their high school "Bishop Stang High School".

Street sign "Bischof-Stang-Straße"

Works

  • Pastoral theology (New York 1897) ( digitized version )
  • Historiographia Ecclesiastica quam historiae seriam solidamque operam navantibus (Freiburg 1897)
  • Business Guide for Priests (New York 1899)
  • The Devil, Who He Is and What He Does (Providence 1900)
  • Socialism and Christianity [with Rudolf Amberg] (Einsiedeln 1907)
  • The Holy Hour of Adoration (New York 1907)
  • Medulla fundamentalis theologiae moralis quam seminaristis et presbyteris (Neo-Eboraci, Cincinnati 1907)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Brooks Holifield: God's Ambassadors: A History of the Christian Clergy in America (Grand Rapids, 2007), 204.
  2. ^ List of the German Catholic Days
  3. ^ Negotiations of the 52nd General Assembly of Catholics in Germany in Strasbourg (Strasbourg 1905).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stang, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic Bishop of Fall River
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Long bridges
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1907