Francis of Bettinger

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Cardinal Franz von Bettinger
Bettinger's cardinal coat of arms as Archbishop of Munich and Freising
Cardinal Bettinger in 1916, in front of the Brussels Cathedral. On the left his secretary Michael Buchberger , on the right Baron Moritz von Bissing , Governor General of Belgium

Franziskus Cardinal von Bettinger (born September 17, 1850 in Landstuhl , Palatinate , † April 12, 1917 in Munich ) was Archbishop of Munich and Freising and Cardinal .

Life

Origin and first work in the Diocese of Speyer

Franz Bettinger was the oldest of six children of farrier Franz Michael Bettinger and Maria Josephine Weber. In 1864 he entered the Bischöfliche Konvikt zu Speyer as a pupil, in 1869 he graduated from high school there with brilliant grades; he had even been allowed to skip a class. The university studies in philosophy, theology and canon law took him to Würzburg , where he joined the colored, Catholic student association “Markomannia”, and to Innsbruck . He was a member of the Catholic student union AV Austria Innsbruck since 1869 and of the KDStV Markomannia Würzburg in the CV since 1871 . Later he became a member of the KDStV Aenania Munich in the CV and honorary member of the KSSt.V. Alemannia Munich in the KV.

On August 17, 1873, Franziskus Bettinger was ordained a priest in Speyer by Bishop Daniel Bonifatius von Haneberg OSB , formerly Benedictine abbot in Munich and educator of kings Ludwig II and Ludwig III. of Bavaria .

Bettinger initially worked as a chaplain in Zweibrücken (1873–1877) and in Kaiserslautern (1877–1878) and as a cooperator in Reichenbach (1878–1879) before he took up his first own pastor's position as administrator and later pastor in Lambsheim in 1879 (1879–1888) ). The parsonage there at Marktstrasse 3 (later the Eisenbarth shoe store) has been preserved. From 1882 to 1895 he was also a district school inspector for the Catholic schools and simultaneous schools in the Frankenthal district. In this position he was respected and also found recognition in higher positions; the pedagogical papers later stated: "He enjoyed lasting popularity with all teachers of both denominations".

In 1888 Bettinger moved from Lambsheim to nearby Roxheim , where he remained a pastor until 1895 and retained his office as Frankenthal district school inspector. His parents lived here with him in the rectory; the mother died there on September 8, 1890 and is buried in the Roxheim cemetery. The father died in Speyer in 1903, where he had followed his son. In 1890 Bettinger received the honorary title of "Royal Spiritual Council ".

Cathedral capitular and cathedral dean in Speyer

As a result of his high level of ability and his general reputation as a school inspector, the Frankenthal district administrator (district administrator) Geib brought him up for discussion with Prince Regent Luitpold for a position as cathedral chapter . The appointment took place on May 21, 1895 and Franz Bettinger moved from Roxheim to Speyer, where the cathedral chapter soon elected him as cathedral and city pastor. He made lasting contributions to the episcopal city, especially through the construction of the Vincentius Hospital and the planning of St. Joseph's Church . The cathedral priest was also heavily involved in youth and workers' pastoral care, in the Christian trade union federation and in church associations. Bettinger played an important role not least in the Center Party . The social democrat Friedrich Profit later called him the "spokesman for the Palatinate Center". As a child of poor people, he remained very sensitive to the needs and worries of the workers throughout his life. This special understanding was probably one of the reasons why he did not hesitate to initiate contacts with the SPD in order to break the supremacy of the National Liberal Party, which on the one hand represented the interests of wealthy industrialists and large agrarians, but on the other hand was also largely anti-Catholic. Pastor Bettinger organized secret meetings of the Palatinate center and SPD top officials in the Speyer cathedral parish in 1899 and threaded the so-called “Palatinate Compromise”, the legendary alliance between the two parties that inflicted a severe setback on the National Liberal Party in the subsequent state elections and a ten-year period initiated mutual electoral support. Contrary to expectations, attracted to the Catholic Center Party of Deidesheimer Mayor Julius Siben (Bettingers classmate) and the Speyer Domkapitular Sigmund Joseph rooms , for the SPD Joseph Huber and the so-called "Pfalzgraf" Franz Josef Ehrhart from the southern Palatinate Eschbach one in the Bavarian state parliament.

At the beginning of 1909, Franz Bettinger was promoted to Speyer cathedral dean . As soon as he was introduced to his new office, Prince Regent Luitpold proposed him to the Holy See as a preferred candidate for the orphaned Archbishopric of Munich-Freising on the advice of Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs Wehner . The unsuspecting dean of the cathedral, Bettinger, was invited by the minister to a meeting in Stuttgart - about halfway between Munich and Speyer. There the request of the Bavarian state government was opened to him . His secretary, who later became Cardinal Konrad Graf von Preysing , reports on this in his memoirs:

"It took longer persuasion on the part of the Minister of Education, von Wehner , to persuade the unsuspecting person to accept the archbishopric of Munich and Freising; only the statement of the minister that he had done everything that seemed to him to advise the good of church and state - if Bettinger stuck to his refusal, he would be responsible for an unfavorable solution to the Munich archbishop's question - was able to overcome his resistance. "

- Konrad von Preysing

In agreement with Pope Pius X. , Prince Regent Luitpold appointed the Speyer canon on May 23, 1909 as Archbishop of Munich and Freising .

Mother's grave, Roxheim cemetery. The cardinal had this tombstone made, visited the tomb more often and all the Speyer bishops always prayed in front of it when they came to the village for confirmation. After a long break, the old tradition was resumed in 2006 by Auxiliary Bishop Otto Georgens .

The last ceremony that Franziskus Bettinger took part in before moving to Munich was the ordination of priests in Speyer Cathedral on August 1, 1909. On August 5, Bettinger said goodbye to Speyer; on the following two days he visited his hometown Landstuhl and his former parish Roxheim with his mother's grave. He spent the Sunday with Bishop Konrad von Busch, before leaving for the Bavarian national shrine Altötting the next day, on August 9 , to retire there for a short period of time.

Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and Freising

On August 15, 1909 (Solemnity of the Assumption ), Franziskus Bettinger received the episcopal ordination in the Liebfrauendom in Munich by the Apostolic Nuncio Andreas Frühwirt , assisted by the bishops of Augsburg, Maximilian von Lingg , and von Passau, Freiherr Sigismund von Ow . For his episcopal motto he explained the motto: “Pax in Virtute” (“Powerful in Peace”). In those days the joke was making the rounds in Munich, the highest authorities in the city now all came from the Palatinate - Lord Mayor Wilhelm Ritter von Borscht from Speyer, the Archbishop from Landstuhl and the Prince Regent from Zweibrücken (as a descendant of the Wittelsbach family branch Pfalz-Zweibrücken ). Bettinger was appointed " Imperial Councilor of the Crown of Bavaria" and received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown in 1910 , combined with personal nobility ; the Pope awarded him on December 8, 1911 with the pallium . In 1912 the metropolitan laid the almost 92-year-old Prince Regent Luitpold to rest, and on November 12, 1913, he led his son, Prince Ludwig, as Ludwig III. , solemnly in his royal office (there was no coronation in Bavaria, as the crown was only a symbol). On May 25, 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Pope Pius X appointed the Munich shepherd as the first cardinal in the history of the archbishopric ( cardinal priest with the titular church of San Marcello ). Just four months later, Francis von Bettinger took part in this capacity in the conclave that Giacomo della Chiesa, who had become cardinal with him and sat next to him in the conclave, on September 3, 1914, when Benedict XV. elected to the Pope. It is said that Benedict XV. only accepted his office after his friend Bettinger had encouraged him.

Franz v. Bettinger leads a Corpus Christi procession through Munich's Herzogspitalstrasse in 1915
Visit to the front in 1916. To the right of the cardinal, looking at the camera in a light coat, the secretary Konrad von Preysing ; to the left behind him, only to see his head, the other secretary Michael Buchberger .

The rapid population growth in the Bavarian state capital required the creation of new parishes and the construction of additional churches. The archbishop, who grew up in a family of craftsmen, tirelessly took care of many details, which earned him the nickname “cardinal with the folding rule”. With the outbreak of the World War, he also took over the office of "Bavarian Field Provost ", the highest Bavarian field chaplain . He also tried to fulfill this further task conscientiously. Although Bettinger had known about serious heart disease since 1912, he went on a strenuous visit to the Bavarian troops on the Western Front in autumn 1916 . He did not want to leave the soldiers entrusted to him alone in their need, but rather to encourage and comfort them through his personal appearance. The experience report of his accompanying secretary Michael Buchberger (later Bishop of Regensburg) later appeared on this front-line pastoral trip of the cardinal under the book title Im Purpur bei der Feldgrauen . The following was written about him in the Liller war newspaper : “ May [the soldiers] this deep faithfulness and depth of faith [the cardinal] give [the cardinal] strength and consolation in the difficult hours. “Archbishop Bettinger's last pastoral letter pays tribute to the introduction of the festival“ Patrona Bavariae ”-“ Maria Protector of Bavaria ”at the request of King Ludwig III.

Cardinal Bettinger, death picture, 1917

Death and memory

Cardinal Archbishop Franziskus von Bettinger died of sudden cardiac death on April 12, 1917 in his Munich palace. He had read Holy Mass that morning , then paid a visit to the terminally ill Apostolic Nuncio Giuseppe Aversa , from where he had returned visibly shaken. At 10 o'clock he gave another audience. Around eleven o'clock the house servant found the cardinal motionless on the floor in front of his armchair. The quickly summoned secretary, Count Konrad von Preysing (who later became Cardinal-Bishop of Berlin) quickly donated the anointing of the sick to him . A doctor who had appeared in the meantime could only determine the death that had already occurred. His successor was the then Speyer Bishop Michael von Faulhaber .

In addition to a delegation from the Speyer cathedral chapter, the priest Franz Joseph Gebhardt (1869–1945) from Lambsheim, who wanted to pay his last respects to his former village pastor, also took part in the funeral of Cardinal von Bettingers in the Liebfrauendom in Munich . In 1918 he was Bettinger's successor as cathedral capitular and cathedral pastor in Speyer.

Konrad Graf von Preysing , long-time secretary of the archbishop, later a well-known opponent of the Nazi regime and cardinal-bishop of Berlin, published the memorial book of Cardinal Bettinger after personal memory in 1918 . In it he gave the brief description of him, which is the basis of all his work: "Cardinal Bettinger has forgotten his own person in the service of his flock."

In the Liebfrauendom in Munich, which also contains Bettinger's grave, to the left of the main portal is his marble statue with a cardinal's hat, which was badly damaged in the Second World War but was restored. In 1966, the Landstuhl community erected a bronze plaque with his picture on the site of Bettinger's birthplace, where the primary school's school yard was at that time. Also Bobenheim-Roxheim remembered his now famous priest by named a street after him.

Cardinal Bettinger's nephew, Father Justin Bettinger OFMCap (1887–1947), was ordained a priest from him on July 14, 1913 in Munich. In 1925 he was among the founders of the Capuchin monastery in Blieskastel in the Saar area , of which he was the repeated and long-term superior .

  • Cardinal Bettinger, laid out, 1917

  • Cardinal Bettinger, laid out, 1917

  • Grave monument of Cardinal Bettinger, Frauenkirche (Munich)

  • Medal as a souvenir gift for confirmation

  • Cardinal Bettinger visiting a hospital with his nephew, around 1916

literature

Web links

Commons : Franziskus von Bettinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Becker: Building history of the pilgrimage monastery Blieskastel. Online publication of the Blieskastel pilgrimage monastery, retrieved in June 2020 (on Fr. Justin: section on the 2nd construction phase (1926–1928 / 29) and note 25).
predecessor Office successor
Franz Joseph von Stein Archbishop of Munich and Freising
1909–1917 		Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber
personal data
SURNAME Bettinger, Francis of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bettinger, Franz von; Bettinger, Franz Ritter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Landstuhl
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1917
Place of death Munich