Eberhard von Gemmingen (theologian)

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Father Eberhard Freiherr von Gemmingen-Hornberg SJ (born April 4, 1936 in Bad Rappenau ) is a German Jesuit . From 1982 to 2009 he was head of the German-language editorial team at Vatican Radio .

Life

He comes from the family of the Barons von Gemmingen . When he was three years old, his parents, Hans Weiprecht Freiherr von Gemmingen-Hornberg (1905–1945) and Marie-Wilhelmine Countess von Drechsel auf Deufstetten (1908–1996), moved from the moated castle Bad Rappenau to Bürg in Württemberg. His father died on the Eastern Front in WWII in 1945 . The young half-orphan came to the St. Blasien College , a boarding school run by the Jesuits since 1934 in the former Benedictine monastery in St. Blasien .

After graduating from high school, Eberhard von Gemmingen entered the Jesuit order. As usual for Jesuits, he first completed a three-year course in philosophy before studying Catholic theology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck and the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen . In 1968 he received the sacrament of ordination through Julius Cardinal Döpfner in Munich . In 1980, his superior released him as a church representative at ZDF . In 1982 he switched to Vatican Radio.

After the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. he conducted the first personal interview with the new Pope. Gemmingen studied in Tübingen when Ratzinger was a professor there.

The main focus of the editorial work was the planning of the overall program, but above all the radio academies, the radio retreats, the Sunday observations and the weekly comments.

After a heart attack on January 14, 2007, Father von Gemmingen withdrew from work in the German-language editorial team of Vatican Radio. At the end of 2009 he handed over the management of the German-speaking section of Radio Vatican to Bernd Hagenkord SJ. Since 2010 he has been working in the donation center of the Society of Jesus in Munich.

On February 5, 2010, Gemmingen's comparison between reporting on the abuse scandal at German Jesuit schools and the Shoah caused a stir. In an interview with the Heilbronn voice he said: “It is fatal now to make the whole order bad. I have to draw a comparison: It started with the Jews in such a way that one or the other Jew may have done wrong. But then, in the worst case, everyone was accused and wanted to exterminate. ”Although he withdrew the passage in question before the newspaper went to print, it had already been distributed, among other things, via the Internet edition.

Father Gemmingen is also known through his co-moderation on German television when it comes to Vatican events, including the Vigil celebration of the XX. World Youth Day in Cologne .

Awards

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  1. ^ Vatican Radio: The German-language editorial staff ( Memento of April 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), January 26, 2007.
  2. ↑ Press Office of the Holy See , 2007.
  3. ↑ a b Vatican Radio: Father von Gemmingen on his eightieth: "He enjoys it a little too ..." ( Memento of September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). April 16, 2007.
  4. ↑ Vatican Radio: Weekly Commentary - by P. Eberhard v. Gemmingen SJ ( Memento from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), January 26, 2007.
  5. ^ Vatican Radio: Ask the pastor. Father Eberhard v. Gemmingen SJ ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ On our own behalf
  7. ↑ Vatican / D: Praise for Gemmingen , November 16, 2009 (accessed on August 20, 2010)
  8. ↑ Scandal - abuse: Jesuit takes back comparison of Jews ( Memento of April 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gemmingen, Eberhard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gemmingen-Hornberg, Eberhard Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit priest and editor of Vatican Radio
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Rappenau