Christ the King Church (Bochum)

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Christ the King Church

The Christ-König-Kirche is a Catholic church building in the southern inner city of Bochum .

history

The building was erected on Steinring from 1931 to 1932 as the church of the Franciscan monastery . Its first pastor was the Franciscan Father Romanus Bange , cathedral preacher from Paderborn. The architect of the building was the Düsseldorf architect Franz Schneider . During the Second World War , the church was completely destroyed down to the foundations.

In 1946 the tower was raised by 4 m. It was not until 1957 that the new foundation stone could be inaugurated and the church reopened in its present form. The Way of the Cross, painted under glass, which has been lit from behind since the church was being renovated, was designed by the artist Claus Kilian .

Until the summer of 1998 the parish was looked after and directed by Franciscans. The monastery was closed due to a lack of new members and converted into a parsonage with a parish office and rental apartments.

The future preservation of the church is uncertain. Bishop Felix Genn shared in the bishop's word from 14./15. January 2006 with:

“The Catholics of today's parish of Christ-König should form a community together with those from today's St. Joseph parish and the provost parish. Despite the protest and numerous concerns from the Christ-König congregation, some of which I can understand well against the background of the history of the congregation, I stayed with this plan. Otherwise the number of congregations or churches in the parish would be too large and would be neither financially nor personally responsible. In addition, the churches of St. Peter and Paul, St. Meinolphus and Liebfrauen are easily accessible from Christ-König. Nevertheless, it is important to me that the concerns of the congregation are kept in view in the course of establishing the parish. So it might make sense to keep certain rooms because of the relatively few meeting rooms in the large inner city parish of St. Peter and Paul in Christ-König. "

As a sign of protest, black flags have been hanging in and on the church since the bishop's word. These were removed on the 75th anniversary of the church consecration. Because a glimmer of hope for the preservation of the church became visible. The final decision will be made by the large parish of St. Peter and Paul on how to maintain parish life in Christ-King. Bishop Genn announced this during the visitation in March 2007, because he does not want to make an episcopal decision.

Since September 1st, 2008 it has been “another church” within the parish of St. Peter and Paul. As part of the 2010 Capital of Culture , the Christ-König-Church will be the “cultural filling station” of the diocese of Essen . Until then, it will be used by many exhibitors. Regular Sunday services were celebrated until the end of 2009. The new Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck approved the use as an art church and the temporary decommissioning for one year on January 1, 2010, with the conditions that the Holy of Holies and the tabernacle must be removed from the church, as well as the ban on Sunday mass .

See also

literature

  • Claus Kilian, Hans-Walter Nörtersheuser: Working out a way of the cross. Freiburg im Breisgau 2001.
  • Catholic parish Christ-König Bochum (ed.): You, Lord, have called us. Christ-König, Bochum - 75 years - living community 1932-2007. Bochum 2007.

Web links

Commons : Christ-König-Kirche (Bochum)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 29 ″  N , 7 ° 13 ′ 52.5 ″  E