Apostolic Vicariate of the North

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The Apostolic Vicariate of the North was an Apostolic Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Church which, after the fall of most of the North German Catholic dioceses during the Reformation, combined their areas. It was founded in 1667 and did not expire until 1929 with the Prussian Concordat .

history

In the course of the Reformation , the abolition of most episcopal seats brought the episcopal jurisdiction to a standstill in northern Germany and Scandinavia . These areas, in which the open exercise of the Catholic faith was no longer possible, were called Nordic Missions and in 1622 they were subordinated to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in Rome . While the Cologne nuncio now received the necessary faculties for northern Germany, the Warsaw nuncio was commissioned for Sweden and Mecklenburg . Similar faculties for Denmark and Norway were assigned to the Brussels nuncio . The gradual increase in the number of Catholics led to the establishment of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions in 1667 .

In the early years Hanover , where Duke Johann Friedrich , who converted to the Catholic Church, had ruled since 1665 , became the seat of the Apostolic Vicar . This was directly subordinate to the Cologne Nuncio, but often at the same time Auxiliary Bishop of another diocese , which did not facilitate the position.

At first there were only a few tolerated Catholic communities. Four of them have been identified as " privileged communities":

In 1709 it was divided. While the Danish and Swedish areas, as well as the former dioceses of Bremen - Hamburg , Lübeck and Schwerin, now formed the Apostolic Vicariate of the North and were administered by the Osnabrück or Paderborn auxiliary bishops, the territories of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Brandenburg became the Apostolic Vicariate Ober- and Lower Saxony together. The Apostolic Vicariate of the North also handed over the duchies of Bremen and Verden to this in 1721 .

At the beginning of the 18th century the vicariate counted 2,000 Catholics, around 20 mission stations , 6 male and 10 female monasteries. Pastoral care was mainly carried out by religious priests , especially Jesuits , Dominicans and Franciscans . In some places, including in the Kingdom of Hanover , where religious priests were forbidden to work, diocesan priests were available for pastoral care.

Donations from parishioners and mostly one-off or temporary donations from the Propaganda Congregation in Rome contributed to the upkeep of the mission stations and missionaries. In addition, there were larger private foundations from members of the imperial family, Catholic imperial estates and nobles. The mission foundation of the Bishop of Paderborn was able to maintain no fewer than 36 missionaries in 15 mission stations.

The heterogeneous character of the congregations, made up of believers from different nations and social classes, as well as a strong fluctuation, made pastoral care considerably more difficult. State ordinances also restricted pastoral care. Since the Protestant rulers also claimed ecclesiastical leadership vis-à-vis the Catholic subjects, the vicars apostolic, who mostly reside outside the respective territory, were considerably hindered in their administration. The exercise of judicial rights was practically impossible and pontifical acts were often only allowed in isolated cases. In order to strengthen his authority, the Pope took up a suggestion from Empress Maria Theresa and in 1780 reunited the two vicariates into one, which was to be headed by a ruling bishop.

After Sweden (together with Norway) had already been separated as an independent vicariate in 1783 , secularization brought the vicariate new difficulties in 1803. If the financial losses were already painful, the abolition of the orders, which almost all pastors placed, became a question of existence. When the Catholic dioceses in Germany were rewritten in 1824, large areas of the Apostolic Vicariate fell to the dioceses of Hanover and Prussia . Although greatly reduced, the remaining vicariate still included Denmark , Schleswig-Holstein , Saxony-Lauenburg , Mecklenburg , Schaumburg-Lippe , the three Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, Anhalt and the Duchy of Braunschweig . The latter, however, were removed from the vicariate in 1834, Anhalt as its own Apostolic Vicariate Anhalt , Braunschweig through incorporation into the diocese of Hildesheim .

In 1863, the Catholics in Holstein were granted religious freedom at the assembly of estates in Itzehoe . In the following year it was extended to all of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1868 Schleswig-Holstein became an Apostolic Prefecture , which was assigned to the Diocese of Osnabrück in 1921.

On August 7, 1868, the Vicariate Apostolic Denmark was separated.

After a transition period, the auxiliary bishop , later the bishop of Osnabrück, was entrusted with the administration of the vicariate in the middle of the 19th century . In the course of the Concordat between the Holy See and Prussia of 1929 ( Prussian Concordat ), the area of ​​the North German Missions was incorporated directly into the Diocese of Osnabrück. The Apostolic Vicariate was thus extinguished.

Vicars Apostolic

See also

literature

in order of appearance

  • Johannes Metzler: The apostolic vicariates of the north: their origin, their development and their administrators. A contribution to the history of the Nordic missions. Bonifacius, Paderborn 1919.
  • Georges Hellinghausen: Struggle for the apostolic vicars of the north J. Th. Laurent and CA Lüpke. The Holy See and the Protestant states of Northern Germany and Denmark around 1840 (= Miscellanea historiae Pontificiae, vol. 53). Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome 1987, ISBN 88-7652-568-8 .
  • Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1648 to 1803. A biographical lexicon . Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-06763-0 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio , edition 1870, p. 294.