Adolf Schmitt (Bishop)

Adolf Schmitt CMM (also: Adolph Gregory Schmitt ; born April 20, 1905 in Rimpar , Germany; † December 5, 1976 in Lupane , Rhodesia ) was a German missionary and Roman Catholic Bishop of Bulawayo in what is now Zimbabwe.

Life

In 1926 Schmitt graduated from high school in Lohr am Main . He joined the Mariannhill Missionaries . He made his profession on May 1, 1927. He studied in Würzburg , where he was ordained a priest on March 19, 1931 . Soon afterwards he went to Bulawayo in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was responsible for looking after the white community there. From 1936 to 1938 he was ordered back to Germany to work in the Mariannhiller seminary in Würzburg and in the Mariannhiller school seminar in Lohr am Main. In 1938 Schmitt was entrusted with setting up a province for the Mariannhiller Missionaries in the USA , where he last worked as a provincial. On December 23, 1950 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Bulawayo and titular Bishop of Nasai at the same time . On April 2, 1951, he received the episcopal ordination in Detroit from the local Archbishop Edward Aloysius Cardinal Mooney ; Co- consecrators were the Bishop of Lansing / Michigan Josef Henry Albers and the Bishop of Saginaw / Michigan Stephen Stanislaus Woznicki . His episcopal motto was: ut sint unum ("so that they are one"). A few months later, Schmitt started working in Zimbabwe. On January 1, 1955, the Apostolic Vicariate was elevated to a diocese and Schmitt was appointed first diocesan bishop. He participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council . He retired on May 9, 1974 . However, he remained in Rhodesia despite the increasingly dangerous situation . Quote: “Because I had the impression that I was still needed. I also stayed to show my confreres that I am not leaving because a new bishop has arrived ... and I do not want to give the impression that I am leaving the country as the difficulties are mounting. I will stay in Rhodesia as long as I can stay because it has practically become my second home. "

Circumstances of his violent death

On December 5, 1976, he drove with a group of missionaries and missionary sisters from the Regina Mundi Mission Station to St. Luke's Bush Hospital to pay a missionary a sick visit. A few kilometers from the hospital, a cross-cut tree blocked the way. The vehicle stopped and the occupants tried to clear the obstacle out of the way. However, the roadblock turned out to be a trap: A black guerrilla jumped out of the undergrowth and threatened the group. He demanded money under threat of armed violence. Then he opened fire from the automatic assault rifle and shouted: "All missionaries are enemies of the people." Bishop Schmitt died in the hail of bullets. Father Possenti Weggartner ( CMM ) and Sister Francis van den Berg ( CPS ) died with him.

Appreciation

• The Catholic Church accepted Bishop Adolph (Gregor) Schmitt as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

• Helmut Moll , (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume II, pp. 1700-1704.

Web links

• Article about Adolf Schmitt on the website of the Mariannhiller Missionare, accessed on May 12, 2014
• Article about Adolf Schmitt on the site neu-bybarny.de, accessed on May 12, 2014
• Entry on Adolf Schmitt at www.catholic-hierarchy.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Article about Adolf Schmitt on the website of the Mariannhiller Missionare

predecessor	Office	successor
---	Bishop of Bulawayo 1955–1974	Ernst Heinrich Karlen CMM