Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch

Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch as Coadjutor Bishop of Nancy (1913)

Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch (born September 24, 1873 in Nancy , † August 30, 1945 in Strasbourg ) was Bishop of Nancy-Toul and then of Strasbourg .

biography

He was born to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. He received his education at the Petit Séminaire of Pont-à-Mousson , at the seminary of Nancy and at the Institut catholique de Paris , where in 1898 his theological doctoral thesis was accepted.

He first taught dogmatics at the seminary of Nancy before he was appointed parish vicar from 1907 . In 1913 he was appointed auxiliary bishop and coadjutor of Nancy. During the First World War he was a military chaplain and met Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau .

On October 26, 1918, he succeeded Bishop Charles-François Turinaz in the chair of the Bishop of Nancy. Clemenceau intended, however, to make him the successor of Bishop Adolf Fritzen in the diocese of Strasbourg . Pope Benedict XV It took time to confirm the appointment, especially since after 1871 the bishops in Alsace-Lorraine had been able to remain in their offices. Eventually he accepted the resignation of Bishop Fritzen and Charles Ruch was appointed Bishop of Strasbourg on August 1, 1919. In his first pastoral letter of October 9, 1919, the new bishop remembered his predecessor, who had recently died, with very warm and touching words. He mentions his voluntary resignation from office as a downright heroic act, given the new political situation:

"At an age where a change in life is difficult, where even the decline in strength suggested to him in his post as Bishop of Strasbourg to face imminent death, despite the love with which he showed you and although it should have seemed to him, that enough suffering had befallen him during the war, he immediately relinquished his office in the hands of the Holy Father when he was convinced that the good of his diocese required this renunciation. He did it without complaint, but with a broken heart, out of love for your souls. This was a great deed, it could only spring from a noble, strong-hearted heart and can only be explained in an unselfish devotion to the church and the general good. "

- Inaugural pastoral letter from Bishop Charles Ruch, October 9, 1919

Although Ruch's family came from Alsace , he couldn't speak German . Otherwise his position was very difficult as he was fighting on two fronts. So he turned decisively against the autonomist and pro-German aspirations of a large part of the clergy and ordinary citizens as well as against the secularism of the French government. Despite poor health, he remained tireless in his work and achieved that his episcopate is regarded as a "golden age" of the diocese.

In 1933 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques .

When the Wehrmacht occupied Alsace, he was forced into exile. After the liberation of Strasbourg he was able to return, but died at the end of August 1945, a few weeks after his successor Jean-Julien Weber had been appointed adjutant. He was buried in the Strasbourg Cathedral, but his heart was placed in the monastery on Mount Odile .

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  Pastoral letter on taking office in Strasbourg

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  Bookplate with the coat of arms of Bishop Ruch

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  Epitaph in the Strasbourg cathedral

literature

• Literature by and about Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Le livre du séminariste-soldat: Prières, conseils, méditations (1922)
• La Doctrine sociale de l'Église, d'après l'encyclique Rerum novarum et les autres enseignements des Souverains Pontifes (1931)
• Le livre du seminariste en campagne (1940)

Web links

• Entry on Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles-François Turinaz	Bishop of Nancy-Toul 1918 - 1919	Hippolyte-Marie de La Celle

predecessor	Office	successor
Adolf Fritzen	Bishop of Strasbourg 1919 - 1945	Jean-Julien Weber