Gerhard Schwenzer

Gerhard Schwenzer SSCC (born October 1, 1938 in Lorch , Hessen ) is a German Catholic clergyman. From 1983 to 2005 he was the Catholic Bishop of Oslo in Norway .

Youth, education, studies, first years of priesthood

After Schwenzer had spent the first four years of school in his hometown Lorch, he was later sent to the Niederlahnstein monastery school . After he had passed the Abitur there, he asked to be allowed to join the order of the Picpus missionaries ( Arnsteiner Fathers ) , which ran the school.

After the novitiate followed three years of philosophy studies in the study house of the Picpus Fathers in Simpelveld (Netherlands). He then studied theology in Rome and Heidelberg , where he last received his doctorate. He was ordained a priest on July 18, 1964 .

In his dissertation, Schwenzer dealt with the concept of church used by the Lutheran theologian Edmund Schlink , who had participated as an observer at the Second Vatican Council .

Then Schwenzer lived again in Simpelveld, where he now worked and taught as a novitiate master and lecturer in systematic theology .

Called to Norway, Bishop of Central Norway

The Picpus Fathers have been responsible for the Roman Catholic Church in Central Norway ( Møre og Romsdal and Trøndelag ) since 1931 . In 1974 Schwenzer was sent to Trondheim as Apostolic Administrator and soon became head of the church district there after Bishop Johannes Rüth had withdrawn. He was appointed Bishop of Trondheim on August 29, 1974, as well as Vicar Apostolic for the Vicariate of Central Norway. Bishop John Willem Gran consecrated him on December 7, 1975 in St. Olav's Cathedral in Trondheim and he became titular bishop of Hólar . Co- consecrators were Johann Wember , Titular Bishop of Vasada and Apostolic Vicar of Northern Norway , and Hans Ludvig Martensen , Bishop of Copenhagen .

Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo

On June 2, 1981 Schwenzer was appointed coadjutor bishop of Oslo and formally on September 4, 1981 in the St. Olavs Cathedral in Oslo. On November 26, 1983 he took over the bishopric from Gran. Until February 9, 1988, he kept his seat (sede vacante) in Trondheim.

Schwenzer was chairman of the Nordic Catholic Bishops' Conference . Under his leadership the pastoral letters Protection of Life (1999, Vern om Livet ), Care for Life (2002, Omsorg for livet ), Opportunities and Risks of Genetics (2002, Genetikkens muligheter og risikoer ), Learning to see our brothers and sisters were created as Christ sees them (2002, Å lære å se våre brødre og søstre slik Kristus ser dem ) and The Crisis in Iraq (2003, Krisen i Iraq ).

On March 2, 2005, Schwenzer asked to leave the Oslo bishopric for reasons of age and health. The consent to this request was made public on July 29th of that year and his successor, Bishop Bernt Ivar Eidsvig , was announced at the same time .

Web links

• Homepage with picture (Norwegian)
• Entry on Gerhard Schwenzer on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
John Willem Gran OCSO	Bishop of Oslo 1983-2005	Bernt Ivar Eidsvig CRSA
Johann Rüth	Prelate of Trondheim 1974–1981	Georg Müller SSCC