Franz Kaspar

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Franz Josef Kaspar (born May 24, 1938 in Dernbach , Westerwald ) is a German Roman Catholic theologian and religious educator . From 2006 to 2013 he was Episcopal Vicar in the Diocese of Limburg . He also held the position of vicar general there from September 21, 2009 to October 2013 .

Life

To Kaspar's family belonged Maria Katharina Kasper (1820–1898), founder of the congregation of papal law of the Dernbacher Sisters , which was founded on April 16, 1978 by Pope Paul VI. Beatified and canonized on October 14, 2018 by Pope Francis in the Vatican in Rome . Franz Josef Kaspar was ordained a priest in 1963 after studying theology and philosophy in Paderborn and Munich .

He was initially a pastoral trainee in Frankfurt-Zeilsheim (1964) and chaplain in Frankfurt-Sindlingen (1964 to 1965). In 1965 he went to Hadamar as a chaplain. In Bad Ems he worked as a chaplain from 1967 to 1968 and as a school priest from 1968 to 1970. In 1975 Kaspar received his doctorate in philosophy in the religious sciences department at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main with a thesis on religious instruction from a communicative aspect in the upper secondary level . Kaspar taught at the universities in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Mainz and Giessen. In 1979 he was appointed honorary professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main by the Hessian Ministry of Culture . He is a member of the KDStV Guestfalo-Silesia Paderborn (1959), the AV Rupert Mayer and the KDStV Tuiskonia Munich in the Cartell Association of Catholic German Student Associations .

From 1970 to 2006 he was the foundation director of the Sankt Vincenzstift Aulhausen , a charitable institution of the Catholic Church for people with disabilities founded in 1893. At the same time, from 1979 to 2003, Kaspar was in charge of the Commissariat of the Catholic Bishops in the State of Hesse (short name Catholic Office ) in Wiesbaden, which is responsible for lobbying the state governments , the federal government and the ministries as well as political parties and social associations Dioceses of Limburg, Fulda , Mainz and the Archdiocese of Paderborn .

Bishop Franz Kamphaus brought him to the diocesan curia in Limburg and appointed him episcopal vicar for religious institutes and spiritual communities in 2006 and deputy vicar general in 2006. Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst appointed him on August 22, 2008 as acting district dean for Wetzlar and as vicar general in the diocese of Limburg . Kaspar was a member of the Limburg cathedral chapter.

Kaspar was chairman of the supervisory board of Josefs-Gesellschaft GmbH (JG Group; rehabilitation and hospital support) for 28 years ; In 2014 he resigned from this office. For many years he was deputy chairman of the university council of the Hochschule Fresenius and has been a member of the supervisory board of the education group COGNOS AG for several years.

Pope Benedict XVI awarded Kaspar in 2010 with the papal honorary title Apostolic Protonotary , the highest honorary prelate title . Bishop Tebartz-van Elst announced the appointments on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, in Limburg Cathedral .

He received nationwide attention in 2012 when he was named as a fellow traveler in the context of the scandal surrounding the official Lufthansa First Class flight of the Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst to the slums of India.

Tebartz-van Elst (TvE) had claimed to a journalist that they had not flown in first class. When Der Spiegel stuck to its claim, TvE commissioned a lawyer's letter and tried to obtain a declaration of cease and desist with criminal penalties. When the Spiegel published a video with the words of the then bishop, the diocese announced that Kaspar had paid for an upgrade to first class for the two gentlemen with privately collected air miles (approx. 200,000 m & m miles). In this context, the allegations of waste and addiction to luxury have been raised.

Der Spiegel reported in September 2012, as Kaspar had not noticed as a director of the St. Vincent pin Aulhausen by the allegations of sexual abuse against his predecessor, Rudolf Müller and 1981 with the help of lawyers from the book of the former home resident Alexander Markus Homes beatings by God had taken . In 2006, to the outrage of the victims, Kaspar approved the designation of a new residential building in the monastery as “Rudolf-Müller-Haus”. The house was renamed in 2010.

In May 2013 Kaspar was 75 years of age and handed, as the canon law provides for his resignation. Bishop Tebartz-van Elst asked him on May 27, 2013 to exercise his role as vicar general until further notice. On October 2, 2013, Bishop Tebartz-van Elst announced the appointment of Wiesbaden city dean Wolfgang Rösch as Kaspar's successor from January 1, 2014. On October 23, 2013, the Holy See announced that Rösch's appointment as Vicar General would take effect on that day. In the background there was the public debate about the person and administration of the bishop.

The cathedral dean Günther Geis said or wrote on the same day in a statement:

“Vicar General Kaspar was surprised by this decision today, like all of us. From the text of the press release [of the Holy See] it can be concluded that Prelate Kaspar has resigned from this office with the appointment of the new Vicar General. "

Kaspar left the Limburg cathedral chapter at the beginning of 2014.

On March 26, 2014, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst; this also officially ended the term of office of Kaspar as one of the two episcopal vicars.

Shortly after this resignation, Tebartz-van Elst put a significant part of the responsibility for the cost explosion in the construction of the diocesan center St. Nicholas on Domberg in Limburg on Kaspar . Cardinal Karl Lehmann criticized Tebartz-van Elst for it. Kaspar wrote in a statement that was disseminated on April 8, 2014, among other things: "I would like to express my deep regret that the building project on Domberg in Limburg has plunged the diocese into such a crisis, and I hope, along with many others, that there will now be a good and successful new beginning with Auxiliary Bishop Grothe ” .

Others

In April 2014 it became known that Kaspar prevented the disclosure of a case of abuse from the 1960s and 1970s that had occurred during his time as the home manager of the St. Vincenzstift in Aulhausen am Rhein. On April 8, 2014, Kaspar distributed a declaration that he was "infinitely sorry" for the abuse that had occurred during his tenure and that he apologized for this. It was wrong. Kaspar did not respond to allegations that he knew about abuse and remained silent about it. Kaspar had previously initiated criminal proceedings for defamation against a victim who had published a book in 1981; Kaspar had obtained an injunction against the distribution of the book. The criminal case was dropped, it ended in a settlement.

In the statement, Kaspar also refers to an art collection that he had acquired as the head of the Vincenzstift (the money for this came from a fund of the institution for the disabled). He writes that “a few objects” are “temporarily stored in his apartment until the location of the installation in St. Vincenzstift is determined”.

Honors

Web links

literature

  • Alexander Markus Homes: Beatings from God. A home biography. Päd. Extra buchverlag, Bensheim 1981, ISBN 3887040082 . Extended new edition Alibri Verlag September 2012, ISBN 978-3-86569-023-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Church gets new saints - including a German. In: Vatican News , May 19, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  2. ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier March 26, 2014: Josefs-Gesellschaft without Kaspar
  3. ↑ The thing with the bonus miles on spiegel.de
  4. ↑ Piece Misere , Der Spiegel 51/1981
  5. ^ Der Spiegel, September 17, 2012: Victims of abuse in the Diocese of Limburg accuse the Catholic Church of failing to provide assistance
  6. ↑ bistumlimburg.de
  7. ^ Diocese of Limburg: Dr. Franz Kaspar remains Vicar General , accessed on October 11, 2013
  8. ↑ Press release of the Holy See
  9. ^ Diocese of Limburg: Declaration by the dean of the cathedral - reaction to the papal decision from Rome
  10. ^ Limburg ex-Vicar General Kaspar resigned from cathedral chapter , kath.net, January 31, 2014
  11. ↑ bistumlimburg.de ( memento from March 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), spiegel.de
  12. ↑ a b FAZ.net April 8, 2014: Former vicar general expresses "deep regret"
  13. ↑ a b Limburg ex-vicar foiled processing of abuse case Zeit Online April 2, 2014
  14. ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier April 8, 2014: Abuse of the children in the home in the St. Vincenzstift in Rüdesheim-Aulhausen: Franz Kaspar apologizes
personal data
SURNAME Kaspar, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaspar, Franz Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic theologian and religious educator
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Dernbach , Westerwald