Eduard Bösl

Eduard Bösl OFM (also (Antonio) Eduardo Bösl ; born March 21, 1925 in Hirschau as Anton Bösl ; † October 13, 2000 in Concepción , Bolivia ) was a mission bishop in Bolivia. He was a bearer of the Bavarian Order of Merit and the Condor de los Andes , the highest state honor in Bolivia.

Life

Anton Bösl was born in Hirschau as the fifth of six children of master shoemaker Georg Bösl and his wife Margarete. His brother was Willi Bösl , mayor and honorary citizen of the city of Hirschau. Bösl began his high school years in Freystadt , continued it at the Humanist High School in Landshut until the Franciscan Seminary there was dissolved by the Nazis.

Bösl completed his Abitur at what is now the Erasmus grammar school in Amberg. In 1943 he was drafted into labor service, then into military service, where he was wounded in the last days of the war. After being released from the hospital, he joined the Franciscan Order in Dietfurt on September 20, 1945 and was given the name of the order Eduard. He studied at the Order University in Munich-St. Anna Philosophy and Theology and was ordained a priest on July 8, 1951 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber .

Working in Bolivia

Shortly after his ordination in 1952, Bösl went to Bolivia as a missionary to the Apostolic Vicariate Ñuflo de Chávez , where he worked as a missionary among the Chiquitanos and Guarayos , Sirionos and Ayoreos . After a year as a chaplain in Concepción, he built the El Fortin Libertad mission station in the jungle. In 1970 he was called to be the Mission Superior of the Bavarian Franciscans in Bolivia.

On December 18, 1972, Pope Paul VI appointed him . as Vicar Apostolic of Ñuflo de Chávez and Titular Bishop of Thibuzabetum . On April 1, 1973 he received the episcopal ordination in the Marian Cathedral of Concepción by the Archbishop of Sucre , Josef Clemens Cardinal Maurer CSsR . Co- consecrators were the archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra , Luis Aníbal Rodríguez Pardo , and the coadjutor vicar of Chiquitos , Bonifaz Madersbacher OFM.

He was thus the chief shepherd of a diocese, the size of which, at 90,000 km², roughly corresponds to the area of ​​Bavaria and Hesse together. In 1992 he brought a German (from his native Bavaria ) and three Brazilian Franciscan nuns from Aiterhofen to his vicariate. In addition to numerous hospitals, schools, water supply systems, etc., the restored St. Mary's Cathedral of Concepción and the Church of San Javier testify to his work . Both churches are counted as part of the Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos for UNESCO - World Heritage Site .

In the episcopal city of Concepción, he became the most important employer. A good 80 workers and 60 apprentices found work in the episcopal sawmill, carpentry, carving or mechanic workshop.

On October 13, 2000, Bishop Bösl died of heart failure in Concepción . He was buried in the St. Mary's Cathedral in Concepción, where he is still highly venerated to this day.

Awards

Memorial plaque on the Church of the Assumption in Hirschau

In his adopted country of Bolivia, Bishop Bösl was honored with the "Condor de los Andes", the highest national award, after Bolivia's return to democracy. The Free State of Bavaria awarded him the "Bavarian Order of Merit".

The three largest cities of his diocese Concepción, Ascensión and San Javier made him an honorary citizen, as did his hometown Hirschau on May 7, 1974 . In Hirschau he received another honor a month before his death. On September 3, 2000 the square around the Catholic parish church was renamed "Bischof-Bösl-Platz".

Publications

Bishop Bösl reported on his missionary work in a total of eleven books (two of them in Spanish).

• Bolivia Report I: Experience reports and situation pictures from a Franciscan mission in Bolivia's jungle. Franciscan Mission Association in Bavaria V., 1st edition Munich 1976
• Bolivia-Report II: Experience reports and situation pictures from a Franciscan mission in Bolivia's jungle. , ISBN 3890040055
• Bolivia Report III: Reports from the cathedral building of a Franciscan mission in Bolivia's jungle. , ISBN 3890040314
• Bolivia Report IV: Reports on the church-social work of the Franciscans in Bolivia's jungle. , ISBN 3890040349
• Bolivia Report V: Bavarian Franciscans in the Service of the Mission Church. Peter Glas, 1990, ISBN 3890040489
• Bolivia Report VI: Experience reports and situation pictures from a Franciscan mission in Bolivia's jungle. , ISBN 3931351025
• Bolivia Report VIII: The First Years of a Primeval Forest Parish: Chronicle of its Foundation, Development and Tragedy. , 1998, ISBN 393135105X
• Una joya en la selva boliviana. , ISBN 847086212X
• Tesoros de la Iglesia Chiquitana.

Web links

• Literature by and about Eduard Bösl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Eduard Bösl on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Projects and work everywhere present - flood disaster in El Fortin. Bishop Bösl's life's work is anything but forgotten by Indios. (No longer available online.) In: kaolinpott.de. webplexity Dr. Stefan Birner, September 11, 2006, archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; accessed on December 16, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Youth soccer tournament in memory of Bishop Bösl on www.kaolinpott.de
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Memories of Hirschau's great son at www.oberpfalznetz.de
4. ↑ To the province of Santa Clara in Brazil with the region of Bolivia. In: website. Franciscan Sisters of Aiterhofen , accessed on May 5, 2015 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Schulz: Great son of Hirschau, Anton Eduard Bösl, ordained bishop 45 years ago , March 31, 2018
6. ↑ ^{a b} Football youth organizes for the third time Bischof-Bösl-Gedächtnis-Tournament on www.hirschau.de

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg Kilian Pflaum OFM	Vicar Apostolic of Ñuflo de Chávez 1972–2000	Antoni Bonifacy Reimann OFM