Gebhard Fürst

Bishop Gebhard Fürst 2008

Bishop Gebhard Fürst in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt in 2004

Bishop's coat of arms from Gebhard Fürst

Gebhard Fürst (born December 2, 1948 in Bietigheim ) is bishop of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese .

Life

Career

Gebhard Fürst began in 1969 his studies after high school, he on science Mathematics High School Bietigheim took off, with the Greek and Hebrew at the Collegium Ambrosianum in Stuttgart . He continued with the subject of Catholic theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (1970) and at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna (1971 to 1972). In 1975 he passed the main theological examination (first service examination); in the same year he entered the seminary of the diocese Rottenburg-Stuttgart in Rottenburg am Neckar . The deacon ordination took place on December 13, 1975 . He then worked as a deacon in St. Johannes in Nürtingen . In 1977 he was ordained priest by Bishop Georg Moser in the St. Vitus Basilica in Ellwangen (Jagst) . Thereupon he became vicar in St. Josef in Stuttgart-Heslach and in 1979 repetent at the Episcopal Theologian Convict of the Diocese Rottenburg-Stuttgart Wilhelmsstift in Tübingen as well as doctoral candidate of Prof. Max Seckler at the chair for fundamental theology of the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen. In 1980 the second service examination took place.

In 1983, Fürst became provisional director of the Wilhelmsstift Theological Convict in Tübingen, in 1986 director of the academy of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese and member of the meeting of the Episcopal Ordinariate. In 1987 he received his doctorate in fundamental theology with the dissertation “Language as a metaphorical process. Johann Gottfried Herder's hermeneutic theory of language ” . From 1993 to 2000 he was chairman of the leadership group of the Catholic Academies in Germany. In 1999 Pope John Paul II bestowed him the title of Chaplain to His Holiness .

bishop

Pope John Paul II appointed Gebhard Fürst on July 7, 2000 Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. The Archbishop of Freiburg , Oskar Saier , gave him his episcopal ordination on September 17th of the same year; Co-consecrators were his predecessor, Curia Bishop Walter Kasper , and Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Kreidler .

Since 2007 Gebhard Fürst has been chairman of the journalistic commission , one of the 14 episcopal commissions of the German Bishops' Conference . He is also a member of the Faith Commission and heads its Bioethics sub-commission . From 2000 to 2016, Bishop Fürst was clergyman assistant to the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) .

Memberships and honors

As director of the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Fürst was chairman of the price committee of the Aleksandr Men Prize “For the ecumenical movement of cultures”. He was also a member of the culture committee of the state capital Stuttgart, a leading member of the board of trustees of the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and a member of the board of the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Academy. Further memberships existed on the board of the history society of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, on the board of the diocesan education organization, in the theological commission of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Baden-Württemberg (ACK) and in the women's commission of the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart (until 1999).

As bishop he was a member of the National Ethics Council from 2001 to May 2005 as a representative of the Catholic Church . The appointment to the National Ethics Council took place in 2001 by resolution of the Federal Cabinet .

In 2003 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Carlo Cardinal Furno and invested on October 4, 2003 by Anton Schlembach , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy .

Gebhard Fürst is an honorary member of the Rotary International District 1830 Esslingen Filder . He is a member of the theological association AV Albertus Magnus in Tübingen and since 2002 honorary member of AV Alania Stuttgart in the CV . In 2013, Fürst received the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg .

Fürst is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy for the Spoken Word in Stuttgart.

Positions

Bishop Gebhard Fürst (left) with Cardinal Kurt Koch at the pontifical office after the blood step in Weingarten on May 15, 2015

Stem cell research

Bishop Fürst rejects research on embryonic stem cells . His statement in this regard, that the National Socialists also justified their human experiments with the argument of improved chances of recovery, was criticized by German scientists.

Burial forests

At the beginning of the urn forest expansion, there was a dispute about opening a funeral forest in the municipality of Isny . The bishop took offense at the website of the leading Friedwald-GmbH, which was perceived as esoteric in nature religion , especially at the statement that the tree takes the ashes as a nutrient and thus becomes a symbol for the continued existence of life. He criticized that behind the business there was a turn to nature as a quasi-divine authority. Friedwald GmbH then permanently changed its website, but could not enforce the requested location at Isny.

Blood tests on pregnant women

As chairman of the commission for bioethics of the DBK, Fürst sees in the prenatal tests for Down's syndrome the danger “that people who are genetically classified as insufficient would already be singled out in the womb”. At the same time, according to Fürst, the early detection of diseases can also be a blessing.

Hohenheim Conference 2011

In 2011, Bishop Fürst prohibited a conference at the Academy in Hohenheim , which was supposed to address the relationship between Catholic sexual morality and open society, on the grounds that the composition of the speakers was not balanced enough.

Circumcision judgment

Bishop Fürst has criticized the controversial judgment of the Cologne regional court on religiously based circumcision and assured Jews and Muslims of his solidarity. He spoke of a "serious interference with religious freedom".

Nazi forced laborers

Immediately after taking office, Bishop Fürst worked towards compensation for the question of the forced laborers employed in church institutions in the diocese between 1939 and 1945 , while a commission was set up to deal with this subject scientifically. Former forced laborers were each paid DM 5,000, and eight of the 13 people who were still alive were able to personally accept the Prince's invitation to take a vacation and health resort in the diocese and be received by him.

Abuse scandal in the Catholic Church

The processing of church abuse cases began early in the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. In 2002 the Sexual Abuse Commission was set up. According to Fürst, every single case shows "how it changes people who have fallen victim to sexual abuse and who usually suffer from it for a lifetime."

Diocesan Finances

In October 2013, Bishop Fürst criticized an article in the magazine Kontraste , according to which "wrong priorities" had been set with the renovation of the Episcopal Ordinariate for 39.2 million euros and its partial new building, and described it as "distorted". This renovation or new building was transparently financed from church tax funds, and the diocesan council, the highest budgetary body, had accompanied this project for years. Furthermore, Prince said that contrary to the Kontraste contribution, the diocese is definitely planning to publish its assets. However, due to the change in accounting required for this, this could only take place at the end of the 2013 budget year (early summer 2014). Fürst also rejected allegations regarding the residential and commercial properties of the settlement agency , in which the diocese has a 75% stake, referring to its “social and ecological guidelines”.

Pegida / AfD

In his Christmas message and the 2014 New Year's Eve sermon, Fürst took a position against the Pegida movement. Those who, under the pretext of protecting the Christian West from foreign infiltration, deny aid to refugees and allow or spread xenophobia, betray Christian values ​​and pour fuel into the fire of fundamentalism, and whoever sing Christmas carols ( at the Pegida demonstration on December 22, 2014 called to do so ), must grasp their meaning, namely that God is with the needy and helpless. In February 2016, Fürst criticized the AfD in an interview with the words: “When I think about the fact that you are considering the use of firearms, you can see the horizon in which some people think. We have to distance ourselves clearly. ”Fürst himself had arranged that from 2014 to the beginning of December 2018, when the number of refugees had dropped, African refugees lived in the guest house of the former Weingarten monastery and that the Baden-Württemberg state's initial reception center for refugees was in the main building Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea was established. As a kind of residential community, the monastery buildings will in future accommodate refugee families with the right to stay and students.

Women's diaconate

In March 2017, the Prince confessed to the women's diaconate and described it as a "sign of the times".

anti-Semitism

At Christmas 2017, Fürst supported the call for a federal commissioner against anti-Semitism . There is "growing resentment towards Jewish fellow citizens" that can also be found among migrants.

digitalization

In an interview with the Stuttgarter Zeitung in January 2018, Fürst warned that in the event of "uninhibited development" algorithms could take over and people could lose their judgment, freedom and dignity. The country must not lose its economic connection, but this process needs rules. In concrete terms, Fürst criticized the development towards the “transparent person” and the free availability of the most private data and information. Robots or artificial intelligence should not be used in areas in which far-reaching decisions have to be sought and made, or in nursing and medicine, the most important characteristic of which is being close to people.

Despite the recommendation of the Conference of Diocesan Data Protection Commissioners , after the GDPR came into force in 2018, Fürst decided to keep his diocese's Facebook page .

He spoke out on Twitter in March 2019 against upload filters .

Ecumenical and Eucharistic hospitality

On March 25, 2019, the bishop in Ravensburg made it clear that it was not possible for all Christians to take part in the Protestant Lord's Supper and in the Catholic Eucharist. He also justified why the local Catholic pastor had to distance himself from the Ravensburg Declaration again in 2018 . The document, which was also signed by Catholic and Protestant clergy from Ravensburg on October 8, 2017, states, among other things, that both denominations want to invite each other to Catholic communion and to the Protestant Lord's Supper.

Corona pandemic

After the German Bishops' Conference distanced itself from the "call for the Church and the world" that a group around Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò had formulated and in which it was said that against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, "forces [... ] are interested in "causing panic among the population" and the measures taken by the governments are "the disturbing prelude to the creation of a world government that is beyond control", Fürst criticized these statements personally in a press release and said, he distances himself “clearly from such dangerous theories. Anyone who reinterprets the efforts of politics to protect human lives from the coronavirus into a dubious world conspiracy is playing with fire ”. In his Pentecost 2020 message, Fürst criticized participants in demonstrations against corona measures. They would put their need for freedom above the protection of weak and vulnerable people, said Fürst. This is "not just a lack of solidarity, but downright selfish and extremely hurtful". At the same time, he called the crisis "[b] particularly drastic and depressing" for people who have health problems, whose job is at risk or who have to accept financial losses. Before the priestly ordinations planned in his diocese in July 2020, Fürst withdrew together with the eight candidates for a voluntary corona quarantine in the Kellenried monastery near Weingarten . As the diocese announced, this should exclude infection and allow the consecration ceremony without distance rules and protective masks . Fürst himself justified this step with the fact that the rite of priestly ordination required a great deal of closeness - for example in the anointing or the clasping of hands in the promise of loyalty - so that it was not possible to keep distance rules. One wants "on the one hand to be able to celebrate the consecration service as dignified as possible and at the same time to give the signal to the outside world that the rules for church services are being adhered to in order to protect against infection."

Fonts (selection)

Bishop Prince 2008 in Upper Swabia

• Language as a metaphorical process: Johann Gottfried Herder's hermeneutic theory of language. Grünewald, Mainz 1988.
• “Church needs cultural stations”. An interview with the Academy Director Gebhard Fürst. In: Herder correspondence. 53, 1999, pp. 182-187.
• (Ed.): Caesura: Generational change in the Catholic theology / academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1997.
• Hell experiences in literature and art. (1998)
• (Ed.): Dialogue as the Church's Self-Execution? (Quaestiones disputatae 166) Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, Basel, Vienna 1997.
• The holy book of the people. Johann Gottfried Herder's hermeneutic language theory of the Bible. A contribution to Herder research. In: Michael Kessler (ed.): Fides quaerens intellectum: Contributions to fundamental theology. Max Seckler on his 65th birthday. Tübingen 1992.
• (Ed.): Mutual confessions: on the way to normality; from an East-West encounter in turbulent times. Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1992.
• Dialogue and hospitality: 40 years of the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart 1951–1991. Edited by the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Responsible for the content: Gebhard Fürst. Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart.
• (Ed.): Ideas for Europe. Christian perspectives on European politics (Forum Religion & Social Culture, Dept. A, Vol. 9), Münster 2004.
• (Ed.): Book of Life. Stories of life out of God's power , Ostfildern 2004.
• Become human. Impetus for Advent and Christmas , Ostfildern 2007.
• Life from the power of the resurrection. Impetus for Lent and Easter , Ostfildern 2008.
• Close to God and people. Deacons in a missionary church , Ostfildern 2010.
• For a habitable church. Perspectives for pastoral care close to people , Ostfildern 2010.
• (Ed.), Martin von Tours. Icon of charity , Ostfildern 2011.

Web links

Commons : Gebhard Fürst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Gebhard Fürst in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Gebhard Fürst on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Website of the Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Press release from September 20, 2016 - No. 175
2. ↑ kathisch.de . Change of staff at the ZdK , accessed on November 16, 2016.
3. ↑ https://www.bo.de/lokales/ortenau/orden-fuer-inge-auerbacher?page=3
4. ↑ Academy for the Spoken Word | Board. Retrieved March 2, 2018 . 
5. ^ Stephan Löwenstein: Bishops criticize Schavan. Faz.net> Politics, December 10, 2007
6. ↑ German scientists reject statement by Bishop Gebhard Fürst on stem cell research. Stem cells.nrw.de
7. ^ Catholic News Agency of May 28, 2003 . Retrieved October 2, 2017
8. ↑ Bishop fears systematic abortions because of blood tests. Suedkurier.de, July 12, 2012
9. ↑ ^{a b} A bishop who dares to do the balancing act: Gebhard Fürst is 70 years old. www.schwaebische.de, December 2, 2018
10. ↑ Maria Wetzel: No thinking about sex. Stuttgarter-nachrichten.de, June 22, 2011
11. ↑ Bishop Gebhard Fürst criticizes the circumcision judgment. Gea.de, July 10, 2012
12. ^ Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart
13. ^ Bishop Gebhard Fürst criticizes the TV report in "Contrasts". Tagblatt.de, October 26, 2013 (accessed November 14, 2013)
14. ^ German bishop on Pegida: "Has something to do with ungodliness." Augsburger-allgemeine.de, December 26, 2014
15. ↑ The head of the Rottenburg church considers some statements by the AfD to be despicable. www.tagblatt.de, February 7, 2016
16. ↑ New plans for the former monastery in Weingarten www.swr.de, December 14, 2018
17. ↑ Refugees in Weingarten Monastery: Man, it was quick! chrismon.evangelisch.de, January 25, 2016
18. ^ Bishop Gebhard Fürst is committed to the women's diaconate. www.domradio.de, March 27, 2017
19. ↑ Bishop calls for federal commissioner against anti-Semitism. Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 25, 2017, accessed on August 26, 2020 . 
20. ↑ Bishop Dr. Gebhard Fürst: "That would be a civilizational disaster."
21. ↑ kathisch.de : Data Protection: Better to turn off church Facebook pages
22. ↑ kathisch.de : Despite data protection concerns: Rottenburg-Stuttgart remains on Facebook
23. ↑ Thousands demonstrate in the southwest against copyright reform www.stuttgarter-nachrichten, March 23, 2019
24. ↑ Bishop Fürst criticizes the call against corona restrictions. www.neckar-chronik.de, May 11, 2020
25. ↑ "Unsolidarity and hurtful" - Bishop Fürst criticizes Corona demonstrators www.swr.de, May 29, 2020
26. ^ Bishop Prince and candidates before ordination in corona isolation www.katholisch.de, June 30, 2020

predecessor	Office	successor
Walter Kasper	Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart since 2000	...