Anton Schlembach

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Bishop Anton Schlembach (2006)
Coat of arms of the Bishop of Speyer (1983-2007)

Anton Schlembach (born February 7, 1932 in Großwenkheim ; † June 15, 2020 in Speyer ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman . From 1983 to 2007 he was Bishop of Speyer , from 1991 to 2006 also Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem .

Life

Anton Schlembach was born in 1932 in Lower Franconia in the Bad Kissingen district as the oldest of four children in a farming family. After graduation in 1950 at the Humanities College Miltenberg he studied Catholic theology at the University of Würzburg and as Germanicum at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and received there on 10 October in 1956 by the Vienna Archbishop Francis King , the ordination . In 1959 he was at the Gregorian University with a thesis on the concept of theology of the dogmatist Mathias Joseph Scheeben (1835-1888) to the doctor of theology doctorate .

In his home diocese of Würzburg , Schlembach was entrusted with a number of different tasks after the chaplain years in Heppdiel, Aschaffenburg and Schweinfurt: 1963 parish administrator in Obersinn and three years director of the study seminar in Aschaffenburg as well as religion teacher at the Dalberg and Kronberg high schools . In 1966 he became a Regens of the seminary in Würzburg . For almost twelve years he gave full-time religious instruction at the Frobenius-Gymnasium in Hammelburg , before he was appointed cathedral capitular on June 1, 1981 and a month later vicar general of the diocese of Würzburg.

Bishop of Speyer

On August 25, 1983 Schlembach was appointed Bishop of Speyer by Pope John Paul II . He received the episcopal ordination on October 16 of the same year in the Speyer Cathedral by his predecessor in Speyer, the then new Munich Archbishop Friedrich Wetter . Speyer Bishop Ernst Gutting and the Würzburg Bishop Paul-Werner Scheele were the co-consecrators . His episcopal motto was “Deus salus” (God is salvation).

On February 10, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI. Schlembach's resignation and released him from his position as Bishop of Speyer for reasons of age.

Anton Schlembach died in June 2020 at the age of 88 in the Caritas nursing home in Speyer.

Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

In 1985 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Maximilien Cardinal de Fürstenberg and invested in the Regensburg Cathedral on May 11, 1985 by Franz Cardinal Hengsbach , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy .

In 1986, Schlembach took on the role of Prior of the Rhine-Main Province of the German Lieutenancy. In 1989 he was co-founder of the Regina Coeli Speyer / Kaiserslautern Commandery. From 1991 to 2006 he was Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem; Reinhard Marx became his successor . Schlembach worked with great commitment for the Christians in Israel and Palestine.

Act

Coat of arms of the bishop at the Ludwigskirche in Ludwigshafen / Rhein

In 1984 he founded the “Solidarity with the unemployed” campaign, which financed over 400 jobs, and was committed to this foundation until 2011. In 1991 he founded the ecumenical hospice aid in the area of ​​the Speyer diocese.

Schlembach was initially a member of the journalistic commission and the ecumenical commission, later the commission for universal church tasks and chairman of the sub-commission for missionary issues in the German Bishops' Conference . He was also involved as a member of the Commission for Societal Affairs, which he chaired for ten years. For five years he was a member of the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers; As head of the dialogue secretariat for the Federal Republic and German-speaking Switzerland, he organized scientific symposia in Speyer and Prague. He was a delegate of the German Bishops' Conference at the World Eucharistic Congress in Seoul (1989), Seville (1993), Wroclaw and Rome (2000).

Schlembach was committed to the renovation of the Speyer Cathedral, which is a world heritage site as the largest Romanesque church in the world . In 1996 the board of trustees of the Speyer Cathedral Building Association was constituted, at the same time as the start of the major renovation of the Speyer Cathedral. In 1999 he founded the “European Foundation for the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer” with the former Chancellor Helmut Kohl as chairman. One of the highlights of his tenure was the visit of Pope John Paul II in Speyer in 1987 and the mass celebration with around 60,000 believers on the cathedral square. Schlembach received numerous state guests whom Chancellor Helmut Kohl invited to the Speyr Cathedral, including Mikhail Gorbatschow and Boris Jelzin as well as George HW Bush , Vaclav Havel and Juan Carlos I , King of Spain.

He was also one of the initiators for the beatification (1987) and canonization (1998) of Edith Stein by Pope John Paul II. One of his main merits is his commitment to the beatification (2006) of the Speyer diocesan priest Paul Josef Nardini , the founder of the order Mallersdorfer Sisters , by Pope Benedict XVI.

In 1950 Schlembach joined the Scientific Catholic Student Association Unitas Hetania zu Würzburg in the Unitas Association as a full member. He was also an honorary member of the KDSt.V. Merowingia Kaiserslautern and the KDSt.V. Vasgovia Landau in the CV .

honors and awards

Quotes

"With a staunch atheist!"

- Answer to a question from a daily newspaper who he would like to have dinner with

“Dear young people, don't just make the way from Speyer to Cologne like the Three Kings, but also look for Jesus to worship him like them. Jesus Christ is our goal: the goal of all longing. He has made himself our way. He has made himself our companion. He is always with you. The blessing with which we are now dismissing you is a sign and certainty. "

Fonts

  • Anton Schlembach, Waltraud Herbstrith: Remember - don't forget: Edith Stein - Christian-Jewish perspectives. Plöger Medien, 1986, ISBN 3898570509 .
  • Anton Schlembach, Karlheinz Debus: Robert Schuman. Lorraine - European - Christian. Pilger-Verlag, Speyer, ISBN 387637054X .
  • Anton Schlembach: Service under six popes. In: Bernhard Oswald (Ed.): Paths of life. Miltenberg high school graduates 1950. Miltenberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-020445-6 .
  • Anton Schlembach: Witnesses of Faith. Sermons and contributions from 24 episcopal years. Ceremony for the 75th birthday of Bishop Dr. Anton Schlembach. Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 2007, ISBN 3-87637-082-5 .

literature

  • Hans Ammerich : Life pictures of the bishops of Speyer since the re-establishment of the diocese of Speyer in 1817/21. Celebration for the 60th birthday of His Excellency Dr. Anton Schlembach, Bishop of Speyer. Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 1992, ISBN 3-87637-044-2 .
  • Hans Ammerich, Thomas Fandel, Richard Schultz: Church on the way: From reconstruction to the turn of the millennium. The diocese of Speyer and its bishops 1945–2000. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Bishop Dr. Anton Schlembach. Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 2002, ISBN 3-87637-074-4 .

Web links

Commons : Anton Schlembach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Speyer diocese mourns Bishop Anton Schlembach. In: bistum-speyer.de. June 15, 2020, accessed June 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b The German Lieutenancy mourns the loss of SE Cfr. Bishop em. Dr. Anton Schlembach. Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem , June 16, 2020, accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ German Bishops' Conference mourns the loss of Bishop em. Dr. Anton Schlembach. German Bishops' Conference , June 15, 2020, accessed on June 16, 2020 .
  4. ^ Eberhard Schellenberger: Bishop Schlembach died: Mourning in his homeland in Lower Franconia. In: br.de . June 15, 2020, accessed June 16, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich Weather Bishop of Speyer
1983-2007 		Karl-Heinz Wiesemann
Franz Cardinal Hengsbach Croix de l Ordre du Saint-Sepulcre.svg Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
1991–2006 		Reinhard Cardinal Marx
personal data
SURNAME Schlembach, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer, Grand Prior of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Großwenkheim
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 2020
Place of death Speyer