Bishopric Budweis

Bishopric Budweis
Basic data
Country	Czech Republic
Metropolitan bishopric	Archdiocese of Prague
Diocesan bishop	Vlastimil Kročil
Auxiliary bishop	Pavel Posád
Vicar General	Adolf Pintíř
founding	September 20, 1785
surface	12,500 km²
Parishes	354 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Residents	762.200 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Catholics	286.100 (2016 / AP 2017 )
proportion of	37.5%
Diocesan priest	77 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Religious priest	37 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Catholics per priest	2,510
Permanent deacons	18 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Friars	48 (2016 / AP 2017 )
Religious sisters	98 (2016 / AP 2017 )
rite	Roman rite
Liturgical language	Czech
cathedral	St. Nicholas
Website	www.bcb.cz

The Diocese of Budweis ( Czech : Biskupství českobudějovické or Diecéze českobudějovická ; Latin : Dioecesis Budovicensis ) is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague in the Czech Republic with its seat in Budweis

Coat of arms of the Budweis diocese

St. Nicholas Cathedral in Ceske Budejovice

history

prehistory

As part of the diocesan regulation operated by Maria Theresa in her capacity as Queen of Bohemia, her son Joseph II tried to establish a diocese of Budweis by spinning off southern Bohemia from the large archbishopric of Prague. This measure was primarily intended to improve pastoral care in the partly mountainous diocesan area. Out of consideration for the aged Prague Archbishop Anton Peter Příchovský von Příchovice , the Olomouc canon Johann Prokop von Schaffgotsch was appointed auxiliary bishop of Prague and vicar general with his seat in Budweis in 1783 . Finally, however, Joseph II decided to establish an immediate diocese, which he, after negotiations about the equipment, already on December 20, 1784 with Pope Pius VI. requested. At the same time he requested papal confirmation for the previous vicar general Johann Prokop von Schaffgotsch as the first bishop of Budweis.

founding

After Archbishop Příchovský of Příchovice had renounced the South Bohemian part of his diocese at the end of 1784, the diocese of Budweis was founded on September 27, 1785 by the Holy See with the bull Cunctis ubique . At the same time, the vicar general Johann Prokop von Schaffgotsch, proposed by the emperor, was confirmed papally as the first diocesan bishop. The sovereign reserved the right to nominate the bishop and the canons.

The diocese area initially included the districts of Budweis , Tabor , Prachatitz and Klattau . When it was founded, it consisted of 144 pastoral care offices, which Bishop Schaffgotsch divided into five archipresbyterates and thirty vicariates . Around a quarter of the 570,000 Catholics were German-speaking. They lived mostly in the outskirts of Bavaria and Austria and in the city of Budweis.

The previous parish church of St. Nicholas was designated as the cathedral . The building of the former Piarist monastery served as the residence of the bishop and the cathedral chapter . The cathedral chapter was endowed with three dignities , four canons and four vicariates.

The financial and economic endowment of the diocese was largely covered by the religious fund founded as part of the Josephine reforms , which was formed from the assets of the dissolved monasteries. Since the diocese had no real endowment , it was one of the economically weakest dioceses in Bohemia and Moravia.

19th century

The priest's house, founded in 1786, was expanded in 1803 to a seminary with a theological college. In 1808 the Bavarian towns of Eisenstein and Grafenried , which until then belonged to the diocese of Regensburg, were added to the diocese of Budweis. Because of the Napoleonic Wars , Bishop Schaffgotsch was not able to visit his diocese until 1811–1812. According to the visit report to Emperor Franz I , the diocese comprised 298 parishes, 17 localities, 12 parish administrations, 17 residential chaplains and 17 monasteries at that time.

20th century

The events of the diocese in the 20th century were largely shaped by the two world wars and the associated economic and humanitarian needs as well as by communist rule from 1948 to 1989.

As a result of the Munich Agreement , the Sudetenland was split off from Czechoslovakia in 1938 . The parts of the diocese predominantly inhabited by Germans were initially administered by an episcopal commissariat in Hohenfurth . With effect from January 1, 1940, these areas were divided up and part of each was assigned to the German-speaking dioceses of Linz , St. Pölten , Passau and Regensburg across the border . Their diocesan bishops acted as administrators for the areas split off from Budweis.

After the death of Bishop Šimon Bárta in 1940, the Bishop's chair in Budweis remained vacant because the German occupying power did not accept the auxiliary bishop of Prague, Antonín Eltschkner, appointed by the Vatican, and demanded that a bishop of German descent be appointed. Since the Vatican did not comply, the diocese was administered by the vicar general until 1947. Antonín Eltschkner was unable to take up the office of bishop, but was consciously appointed by the church for episcopal acts in the parts of the area remaining near Budweis. In 1946 the diocese was re-established within its old boundaries and the vacancy ended with the appointment of Bishop Josef Hlouch in 1947.

Even during the time of communist rule, the diocese and religious life could not develop. The economic structures of the diocese were largely destroyed and the priests and believers who were not loyal to the regime were politically persecuted. After the death of Bishop Hlouch, the office of bishop remained vacant until 1990, as the communist rulers of the then Czechoslovakia prevented a new appointment.

After the political change , Pope John Paul II appointed Miloslav Vlk as Bishop of Budweis in 1990 . Most of the church property confiscated after 1948 was returned to the earlier church institutions by the Czech Republic . Since the church buildings and monasteries were largely in a poor structural condition, the diocese lacks the financial means for their renovation and maintenance. Numerous churches have been rebuilt or renovated with donations from former German residents. Miloslav Vlk was appointed Archbishop of Prague in 1991. He was succeeded by Antonín Liška , who led the diocese until 2002.

In 1993, 89 parishes with around 155,000 inhabitants had to be ceded to the newly founded diocese of Pilsen . It was the vicariate of Taus and parts of the area of ​​the vicariate of Klattau and Nepomuk .

present

In 2002, Bishop Antonín Liška resigned. He was succeeded on September 25, 2002 by the Capuchin Jiří Paďour on the bishopric. On March 19, 2015, Vlastimil Kročil was appointed as the new bishop.

The diocese consists of ten vicariates with 354 parishes on an area of ​​12,500 square kilometers. Of the 760,000 diocese residents, around 290,000 are Catholic. This corresponds to a Catholic share of 38 percent. In 2007 the diocesan administration decided to sell about a third of the rectory because there was a lack of funds for their maintenance.

See also

• List of the Bishops of Ceske Budejovice
• Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic
• List of Roman Catholic Dioceses

literature

• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The dioceses of the Holy Roman Empire from their beginnings to secularization. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003, ISBN 3-451-28075-2 , pp. 155–157.
• Jörg K. Hoensch : History of Bohemia . 3rd updated and supplemented edition. Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-41694-2 , ( Beck's historical library ), p. 293.

Web links

• Official website (Czech)
• Entry on the Diocese of Budweis on catholic-hierarchy.org (English)

Commons : Diocese of Budweis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual proof

1. ↑ Vikariáty ( Memento of the original of July 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . bcb.cz, accessed on January 24, 2018.