Arthur Kather
Arthur Kather (born December 7, 1883 in Prossitten , Rößel district in Warmia ; † July 25, 1957 in Osnabrück ) was a Catholic clergyman, most recently the vicar of the diocese of Warmia .
Life
His younger brother was Linus Kather . Arthur Kather was the son of the main teacher in Braunsberg , attended the local grammar school from 1895 to 1902 and entered the Lyceum Hosianum seminary after graduating from high school . He was ordained priest on February 11, 1906 in Frauenburg Cathedral . From 1906 to 1908 he was employed as a chaplain in Peterswalde and Neuteich and from 1908 to 1914 in Braunsberg.
During the First World War he served first as a field chaplain , then as a military chaplain and divisional pastor and received the Iron Cross of the 2nd and 1st class. After the Versailles Peace Treaty , he returned to Braunsberg. In 1919 he was appointed pastor by Bishop Augustinus Bludau and appointed head of the Warmia Caritas Association and youth praeses for male youth in the Diocese of Warmia . Then Arthur Kather became the founder of the Catholic Federation of New Germany (ND) in the Diocese of Warmia. From April 1, 1924 until his expulsion by the Gestapo on September 12, 1940, he worked as provost and dean at St. Nikolai Church in Elbing . During this period he was also appointed to the clergy .
After the National Socialists had forbidden him to stay in the Diocese of Warmia, Arthur Kather was accepted into the Archdiocese of Breslau , where from October 1940 to January 1945 he was in charge of the parish of Breslau- Hundsfeld and, as a chaplain, of the local Carmelite monastery in Wendelborn. From January 1945 to May 1946 he was allowed to work as a chaplain in Sobięcin before he was expelled from Lower Silesia by the Polish authorities.
After a stay in the Archdiocese of Paderborn , he began working as a pastor at the Marienheim in Rulle near Osnabrück in August 1946 . After the death of the Bishop of Warmia Maximilian Kaller in Frankfurt am Main on July 7, 1947, Arthur Kather was appointed Vicar Capitular of Warmia by Bruno Schwark on July 11, 1947 . Pope Pius XII confirmed this choice, so that from now on Arthur Kather represented Warmia at the Fulda Bishops' Conference . In June 1949 the Warmia headquarters was relocated from Rulle to Honeburg near Osnabrück-Haste . In February 1949 the Holy See appointed Kather as papal house prelate and in December 1953 as apostolic protonotary . In December 1956 he appointed four clergymen from the Warmia, Gerhard Fittkau , Paul Hoppe , Ernst Laws and Josef Lettau, as consistorial councilors .
On May 9, 1954, Federal President Theodor Heuss awarded him the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Cross of Merit in Werl .
Fonts (selection)
- with Ernst Laws : Our way into God's heart. A spiritual yearbook . Bishop Maximilian Kaller Foundation, Münster 1963.
Awards / honors
- 1915/18: Iron Cross II. And I. Class
- 1924/40: Appointment to the clergy
- 1947: Vicar capitular of Warmia
- 1949: Appointment as papal house prelate
- 1953: Appointment as Apostolic Protonotary
- 1954: Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Cross of Merit
literature
- Barbara Wolf-Dahm: Kather, Arthur. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 1236-1238.
- Alfred Penkert : Higher powers have decided. The flight, expulsion and arrival of East Prussian Catholics as reflected in their correspondence with Bishop Maximilian Kaller . LIT Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1227-0 , pp. 291–333. (Digitized version)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charter of German Expellees. Warmian Family, accessed February 28, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kather, Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catholic clergyman, lastly capitular vicar of Warmia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prossitten , Rößel district , Warmia |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 25, 1957 |
| Place of death | Osnabrück |