History of the Diocese of Limburg
The diocese of Limburg is a Catholic diocese in parts of the federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate . The cathedral church of the diocese is St. George's Cathedral in Limburg an der Lahn . It was founded in 1827 as a state diocese for the Duchy of Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt . In 1884 the county of Hessen-Homburg and the district of Biedenkopf were added. In 1930 the area of the diocese was expanded by four Frankfurt parishes and in 1933 by the district of Wetzlar .
prehistory
In accordance with the state church doctrine of the Restoration, the diocese of Limburg was planned as a " regional diocese " for the duchy of Nassau, founded in 1806, but was not established until 1827. Previously, the later diocese area belonged to the archbishopric of Trier and Mainz , with substantial parts of the northwest being Electorate of Trier and thus also secularly ruled by the Archbishopric of Trier .
The reason for the late order of church relations was the weakness of the Catholic Church in Nassau, but also in the entire Rhenish area. The Catholics made up the majority of the population in large parts of the denominationally heterogeneous duchy. However, the official church was weakened to a large extent by the consequences of the secularization of 1803. The Duchy of Nassau and its Protestant rulers had fully exhausted the possibilities of nationalizing church property in the Catholic areas in the Rhine and Lahn Valley , in the Rheingau and in the Westerwald .
The dukes used the time between the founding of the Duchy and that of the Diocese of Limburg to restrict ecclesiastical rights, to weaken the internal structures of the parishes and to appoint pastors unauthorized. During this time there was only a " Vicariate Limburg". From the point of view of the duchy, the aim was to consolidate its own legitimate rulership structure and to reduce the influence of the church "from outside" as much as possible. In the Protestant Church, too, the dukes and their administrators drove the development towards a closed regional church and in this respect temporarily occupied a leading position in the German Confederation . Despite this structural approach, there can be no question of discrimination against the practice of the Catholic religion or against pastors who are already in service.
Founding years
The foundation stone for the new Limburg diocese was laid in 1821 after lengthy negotiations with the creation of the Rhenish church province . The basis for this was the circumscription bull Provida solersque of 1821. Each of the participating states was assigned a diocese of the same area: Freiburg (for the Grand Duchy of Baden and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ), Rottenburg (for the Kingdom of Württemberg ), Mainz (for the Grand Duchy of Hesse ), Fulda ( for the Electorate of Hesse and the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar ) and finally Limburg. In 1827 the Diocese of Limburg was founded, which in addition to the Duchy of Nassau included the Free City of Frankfurt with a total of 136,000 Catholics. Even the designation of the state bishopric , based on the Protestant regional churches with the respective prince at the top, made clear the state's claim to rule over the church. With Jakob Brand , Duke Wilhelm asserted his preferred candidate as the first bishop - against the will of the majority of the clergy in the leadership of the Vicariate and the Roman Curia .
The following years were marked by the building work of the church structure. Although the diocese and the clergy were reluctant to make political statements, there were disputes with the duchy before 1848. In addition to cross-regional issues such as the Cologne turmoil , the dispute in Nassau repeatedly ignited at the simultaneous schools introduced in 1817 , in which children of both denominations and the Jewish faith were taught together. The Duchy of Nassau had taken a pioneering role in this matter. There were also repeated disputes over the question of confessional mixed marriages . Further conflicts arose from a series of ordinances with which Duke Wilhelm intensified state control over the church in 1830. On the other hand, negotiations in the following years also led to these controls being dismantled.
Beginning of the "Blum era" and the German Revolution
At the beginning of the 1840s the tone between church and state intensified again. The public also learned more about the conflict through press articles and episcopal publications such as the pastoral letters . On January 26, 1842, Peter Josef Blum was elected as the new bishop. He was consecrated on October 2nd (at the age of 34). A new era began; he would hold the office until his death in 1884. Duke Adolf tried in vain to prevent Blum's election.
Blum steered a conflict-ridden course from the start. When Blum took the bishop's seat, he made it clear that he was more committed to the church than to the state. This attitude was expressed until 1848, among other things, in disputes over the establishment of various religious communities, over the provisions of censorship for publications of the diocese, over the administration of church property and the (in a mixed confessional area particularly explosive) clearly anti-Protestant course Blum. In addition, Blum gave a clear rejection of tendencies towards enlightened Catholicism ; thus it corresponded to the predominant attitude among clerics and laypeople of the diocese, with whom the “church enlightenment” had found relatively little support. At that time there was a tendency in the Catholic Church known as anti-modernism ; it began around 1846 and went hand in hand with ultramontanism .
The dispute over the simultaneous schools also intensified. Under Blum, the abolition of this type of school became an important political goal of the diocese; it remained an issue of conflict until the end of the Kulturkampf .
In Nassau, too, the revolution of 1848 was dominated by liberal activists. In addition, a political Catholicism quickly formed . These Catholics were primarily active in the election campaign for the new parliament, which the revolution had wrested from the duke. The meeting of the estates met for the first time on May 22nd. Previously, the “Central Association for Religious Freedom” was founded as the first electoral association on March 21 in Limburg - and not in the centers of Nassau or Wiesbaden - as an organization for Catholics. Bishop Blum had pushed the beginning of the political club Catholicism (albeit covertly), so strongly that even individual Catholics from the Nassau civil service called on him to restrain. The bishop also influenced the voting behavior of the Catholics in Nassau with a call for elections and the individual pastors at the local level. With the church services, the church had a “mass medium”, so to speak. Overall, the first wave of Catholic associations founded in the direct context of the revolution took place primarily in the countryside, less in the urban centers of the diocese.
Reaction era
In the person of Blum, the official Church also tried to benefit from the end of the revolution. At the duke's request, Blum acted moderately on the Catholics with pastoral letters. In return, he hoped to ease state supervision of the church. A corresponding draft with 21 precisely defined “desiderata”, including the abolition of simultaneous schools and the establishment of a Catholic teachers' college, was handed over to the Duke on March 9, 1848 at the same time as the publication of the pastoral letter. The relationship between the state and the Catholic Church remained largely unaffected by the end of the conflict between the state and the revolutionaries. The duchy had given its citizens only a few of the freedoms they had won. However, religious freedom belonged to them, probably as a reward for the anti-revolutionary support of the bishop. The clergy used this legal situation to massively advance popular mission . Bishop Blum played a crucial role in this. In the context of the "Upper Rhine Church Dispute", in which the five bishops of the ecclesiastical province wanted to enforce the freedom of the church against the state, he opposed the princes even more decisively and irreconcilably than the more influential Mainz Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler . Presumably some activists of the political Catholicism of the revolution switched to directly religious and thus legal engagement in view of the state repression. This development was most evident in the increased occurrence of processions and pilgrimages as well as the growing activity of religious and other clergymen whom the bishop had brought to his diocese. As a result of his efforts, the Redemptorists settled in the long-standing pilgrimage monastery of Bornhofen , which had been orphaned since secularization . It was the first community settlement after secularization. In addition, an independent spiritual movement developed in the diocese, especially in the Westerwald, in the promotion of which the Redemptorists and especially their superior P. Eichelsbacher played a major role. At the same time as the Redemptorists settled down, a community developed that was to become the first new community to be founded within the diocese: After initial resistance from the official church, Katharina Kasper established the cooperative of poor servants of Jesus Christ in Dernbach in the Westerwald in 1851 . The charismatic founder quickly gathered a large following. In the years that followed, the community focused on social and charitable services spread across the diocese and beyond. As early as March 1850, the founder of the community of the Barmherzigen Brüder von Maria Hilf (Trier), Peter Friedhofen , visited Katharina Kasper. They strengthened each other in their faith and charitable claims. At the same time, he was able to benefit from her experience in founding a community. The Dernbach model would also play a role five years later, when a still young community around Peter Lötschert stayed in Dernbach from October 1855. There she received religious instruction from the superior of the Dernbach mother house, J. Wittayer. In 1856 the community around Lötschert founded the Barmherzigen Brüder von Montabaur as a charitable, nursing male community. Their first establishment was Hadamar, where the Dernbacher sisters had recently settled. Also Franciscan (OFM) and Jesuits became increasingly active.
In addition to the traditional forms of religious work , a wave of founding Catholic associations with a social focus began after 1848. In Limburg, it was primarily the parish priest and canon Diehl who promoted the establishment of Catholic associations from 1850 onwards. In 1852 a Vincenz Association was established, and six years later a journeyman's association. This development started a little later in Frankfurt, but quickly overtook the clubs in the much smaller Limburg in terms of strength. Journeyman's associations and, above all, a diverse Catholic press dominated the former imperial city . The Limburg and Frankfurt clubs mainly focused on social and charitable goals. In contrast, the founding associations in Wiesbaden were more politically oriented. In 1867, a Catholic reading club came together in the former residence of Nassau. An increased expansion of the different associations with different focuses and fixed institutional structures, however, only began after the Kulturkampf.
The Nassau Church Dispute
The “Nassau Church Dispute” from 1853 to 1861 was a “foretaste” of the Kulturkampf. This dispute between the diocese and the duchy consisted of numerous, sometimes marginal, disputes over individual problems. In some aspects, however, he anticipated the later Kulturkampf. The starting point was the appointment of eight pastors by Bishop Blum in 1853 without prior consultation with the state administration. Ever since Blum took office, there had been repeated conflicts over the occupation of pastors. Above all, the state administration endeavored to install moderate and convenient pastors in mixed denominational areas, which included practically all pastoral offices in cities and larger settlements. Any disputes that occurred were usually settled without much ado before 1853. In the context of the "Upper Rhine Church Dispute" and probably also influenced by the recent revolution, which had enforced some church freedoms, Blum went on the offensive in 1853 and refused the previous practice of compromise. Even minor concessions, especially in church administration and the school system, which the duchy made in March 1853, could not persuade Blum and especially his vicar general and later bishop Karl Klein , who had devised a real strategy for dealing with the duchy, to give in. However, the state administration also remained tough. Numerous parish positions remained de jure vacant, but were taken care of by parish commissioners, so that there were no pastoral care gaps that characterized the Kulturkampf. Similar to the Kulturkampf, developments in parliament ultimately led to an agreement in 1861. State and church felt equally threatened by the liberals' gain in power in the chamber and settled their quarrel in order to meet the new enemy. In the last years of the duchy there were no more significant disputes with the diocese. This led to the fact that the Catholics increasingly committed to the state of Nassau.
To a lesser extent, shortly before the end of the Duchy of Nassau, church politics became a political issue at the parliamentary level. In the 1860s, the diocese showed interest in acquiring the former Marienstatt Abbey in the Westerwald in order to build a home for neglected children there. The abbey was secularized in 1803 and then passed into private ownership. In 1841 the facility was for sale and the government drafted plans to convert the abbey buildings into the first state home for old and poor residents on Nassau soil. In 1842 the duchy bought the property for 19,500 guilders. Shortly afterwards it turned out that the buildings were in too bad a condition for the project. Marienstatt continued to fall into disrepair until the 1860s. The government was also interested in the sale to get rid of the running costs of the idle complex. For 20,900 guilders, the former abbey became the property of the diocese on May 18, 1864, which set up a rescue facility for neglected boys under the direction of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit . Shortly before, in the election on November 25, 1863, the Liberals had achieved a large majority in the second chamber of the Nassau Estates Assembly. The electoral program set up demanded, among other things, that the privileges that had been granted to the Catholic Church should also apply to other religious communities. On June 9, 1864, the Liberals moved to the assembly of estates that the sale should not be carried out. They argued that buildings and the property belonging to them were far more valuable than the proceeds from the auction and that the assembly of stalls had a say in the sale of state property to a large extent. The latter denied the government representatives and emphasized the social purpose of the facility, which should be rated higher than any possible commercial use. In the further course of the debate, which lasted several sessions, there were also arguments between pro and anti-clerical MPs. The latter generally disapproved of the fact that the Catholic Church should be allowed to supervise children. Ultimately, the sale was not reversed despite the parliamentary dispute.
First Prussian years
With the annexation of Nassau after the German War (1866) and its incorporation into the Prussian state, the conditions for the Catholic Church and the Catholic population were changed. The Catholics are likely to have tended to have rejected the union with the Protestant-dominated Prussia more strongly than the Protestants. In contrast, the liberal public welcomed this development to a large extent and also interpreted it as a victory over unfashionable Catholicism.
Rapprochement with the state
But the Catholic Church also immediately came to terms with the new rulers. An expression of this turn to the Prussian state was the pastoral letter of October 15, 1866. Although Blum did not pass judgment on the newly established Prussian hegemony, he used a clearly pro-Prussian language in his rules of conduct for the Catholics. The pastoral letter already mentioned the two most important program points that the diocese pursued in the first “Prussian” years: First, the planned constitutional revision was to be prevented from restricting the still very liberal church legislation. Second, as in previous decades, Blum aimed to abolish the mixed-denominational school system. This seamless turn from Nassau to Prussia, which was also reflected in a catalog of demands made to the Prussian king in November, probably came about primarily through the actions of Vicar General and later Bishop Karl Klein. It dealt with the official church on the one hand the derision of the liberals for their opportunism, on the other hand sharp criticism from its own ranks. Because, especially in rural areas, lay people and priests still saw themselves as Nassau and decidedly refused to annex. The same was true for the city of Frankfurt, which had also become Prussian. On the part of the Prussian administration, there seemed to be at least a greater distrust of the Catholic than the Protestant clergy when it came to their loyalty to the state. This was expressed in the form of oath required in May 1867, which contained detailed obligations for the Catholic clergy not to show any behavior hostile to the authorities. The Protestant clergy, on the other hand, were required to take an oath that was shorter than the length of the text and only contained a general call for loyalty.
At first, Blum's pro-Prussian course seemed to be paying off. Although many of the Nassau regulations for church affairs were adopted, the diocese gradually received more freedom, especially in its internal structures, until 1869, despite occasional disputes with the state administration. On the other hand, a sharp dispute arose over the question of simultaneous schools, which was already heavily disputed with the Nassau government. On the eve of the Kulturkampf, this conflict led to an increased political mobilization of the Catholic laity. In a wave of so-called "Catholic casinos" founded after the Aachen Catholic Day of 1862, numerous casinos had also been established in the Limburg diocese by the end of the 1860s. In the spring of 1868, members of the Catholic dignitaries also founded a “press association”. In the diaspora , the Bonifatiuswerk , which was chaired by Ernst Franz August Munzenberger in the diocese from 1869 , became an important provider of pastoral care.
New dispute over the simultaneous schools
Blum used these association structures to put public pressure on the Prussian government after negotiations to abolish simultaneous schools had no effect. However, the other side had also formed. A citizens' assembly in Wiesbaden in August 1868 had submitted a petition to the state parliament for the preservation of mixed denominational schools, whereupon, following a pastoral letter from Blum in September 1868, during a Catholic assembly in Limburg, a petition with 25,000 signatures for the introduction of denominational schools was passed. This initiative was unsuccessful, but contributed to the mobilization of the Catholics and to the profiling of Ernst Lieber , the leading figure of the Catholics of the region, later a member of the Reichstag and, after Windthorst's death, chairman of the Center Party. On the question of the relationship to liberalism and modern society, which determined the First Vatican , Bishop Blum clearly adopted the Pope's position without holding back on political issues. His pastoral letter for Lent in 1870, before the end of the council, vehemently opposed all non-traditional answers to the social question . The talk of Lucifer, the "invisible head of the pseudo-liberals when they began to build the anti-Christian state", was downright apocalyptic.
On the eve of the Kulturkampf, the Catholic official church in the Diocese of Limburg was the Prussian state as a negotiating partner who was able to achieve numerous goals of its own. This apparent gain in freedoms is primarily an adaptation to the relatively liberal legislation in Prussia, in contrast to the comparatively strict church legislation of the ceded Duchy of Nassau. However, the relationship between state and church was not free of conflict . In the still moderate differences of opinion, the ability of the Catholics to mobilize, especially among the rural population, became apparent before the actual Kulturkampf. In addition, there was a bishop, Peter Josef Blum, who enjoyed fighting and had an ultramontane and anti-modern worldview.
Kulturkampf
First arguments
The culture war clearly began with the Jesuit Law of 1872. In the diocese of Limburg, too, the conflict for the people became apparent with Prussia's action against the religious orders. In view of the threatened expulsion of the six Jesuits, Bishop Blum managed to activate the Catholic public even during the political discussion about the law that had not yet been passed. From October to the end of 1871, six public meetings were held promoting the Jesuits to remain. Blum's attempt to win the other bishops over to joint action was largely unsuccessful, as were appeals to the emperor. In November 1872 the Jesuits left the pilgrimage site of Marienthal . Franziskaner (OFM) took over the care of the site until 1875, but then also had to close their branch. The closure of further branches of the order followed, usually accompanied by protests from the population and the local administration, for whom the withdrawal of members of the order meant a reduction in spiritual and social care. Diocesan clergy took over the functions of members of the order, the diocese of necessity bought the real estate from the order, which meant a considerable financial burden. In July 1873, the expulsion of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit from the Marienstatt Monastery showed for the first time serious social consequences of the religious laws, as the diocesan educational institution, which provided a home for around 80 orphans, could no longer be operated. In order to compensate for the departure of the order and to ensure the existence of the diocese institution for the time being, the Dernbacher sisters began work there on October 1, 1873 (and stayed until February 15, 1876). The expulsion of the 'fathers' and other orders (e.g. the Redemptorists at the Bornhofen pilgrimage site) also meant that their order members dropped out as pastors in numerous parishes.
With the encyclical Quod numquam (What [we] never [expected]) of February 5, 1875, “On the Church in Prussia ”, Pope Pius IX condemned . the Prussian legislation and declared the Kulturkampfgesetze null and void . In the weeks and months following this encyclical, the fronts between state and church institutions hardened in many places in the empire.
The Monastery Act of May 31, 1875 was a further tightening, especially with a view to social provision. It affected numerous facilities that had been operated by religious sisters up until then. Orphanages, schools and charitable institutions were closed. Especially in the poor areas of the Westerwald and Taunus, these measures had a clear impact, for example through the closure of the teachers' seminar in Montabaur. In Frankfurt a few sisters continued to work in secret. However, during the Kulturkampf in the city, charitable institutions were brought back to life by sister orders. They were mostly tolerated; nevertheless, they were threatened with closure by state institutions at any time.
Pulpit paragraph
In order to eliminate the influence of the churches on the political opinion and above all the voting behavior of their believers, the “pulpit paragraph” was created, which remained in force long after the Second World War. The pastoral letter of February 11, 1871, shortly before the Reichstag election on March 3, 1871, is an example of how voting behavior in the Diocese of Limburg was influenced . Bishop Blum admonished the clergy to "exercise the greatest possible influence" on the Reichstag elections in a lawful manner and to allow as many members as possible to enter the Reichstag who would campaign for the rights of the Church. In a circular in October 1873 before the state and Reichstag elections (the latter on January 10, 1874 ), Blum then no longer only addressed the clergy who were supposed to encourage their parishioners to vote pro-church. In this respect, Bishop Blum fully and completely fulfilled Bismarck's allegations against the church. "We have to fight ... against the rulers of the world in this darkness" said the pastoral letter of February 1874. This is a quotation from the Bible; nevertheless it implied a massive charge against the government. The pulpit paragraph seems to have been one of the weapons of the Kulturkampf, which at least in the diocese of Limburg had hardly any mobilization effect. Neither in pastoral letters nor in the Catholic press are there any targeted attacks on this rule.
May laws - training of clergy
The May Laws of 1873 affected religious life in the Diocese of Limburg to a much greater extent than the restriction of religious work , especially with their provisions on the employment and training of clergy. With the loss of numerous clergymen, the closure of the Limburg seminary and ultimately the exile of Bishop Blum, they had the most profound consequences. The toughest arguments developed accordingly in this field. Even during the deliberations on the law, Bishop Blum reported to the priests of his diocese in a circular that surpassed all previous publications in sharpness. Although he once again invoked the “civic loyalty and patriotic sentiment” of the clergy, at the same time proclaimed that in the event of a conflict, “one must obey God more than people (Acts 4:19)”. Resistance to the state seemed at least possible. The bishop had always expressly denied this beforehand.
Initially, the seminary in Limburg, the diocese's central training institution, was the focus of the dispute. The administration tried to enforce revisions, that is, the at least random monitoring of the classroom, as was customary in the training of Protestant priests. On revision attempts in August and November 1873, in February 1874 and in March 1876, the seminar leader Heinrich Lala reacted with passive resistance and the bishop with the prohibition, “a different revision than one that is limited to building, fire and sanitary regulations “To allow. While the officers were present, teaching was stopped without further ado. The dispute finally came to a head when it became known that the Limburg parish priest and later Bishop Christian Roos was giving lectures without official approval. The administration reacted to the lack of willingness to cooperate by cutting financial contributions. In addition, studying at the Limburg seminary was no longer recognized as a reason to be deferred from military service. The “ Bread Basket Act ” of April 1875 made the work of the seminar even more difficult, as the state payments were completely suspended and only a small amount of the diocese's own funds flowed. The result was a massive decline in the number of aspirants to the priesthood. In the summer semester of 1875 there were no seminarians, in the following winter semester there were only nine. On April 8, 1876, the seminary was closed by the Ministry of Education, and on April 28 the last ordination took place in Limburg. The Limburg theology students and the prospective priests moved to other teaching institutions, preferably to study at the Universities of Bonn and Dillingen and for seminar training in the Bavarian dioceses of Augsburg and Eichstätt . Nevertheless, the “Limburgers” stayed in correspondence with the former Regens Heinrich Lala.
Trials against Bishop Blum
The direct consequences for the formation of priests were only one aspect of the May Laws of 1873. Much more important were the provisions that only allowed pastors to be filled if they had been reported to and approved by the state administration. Bishop Blum initially tried to circumvent the notification requirement by filling all vacant pastoral positions before the law came into force, in some cases by changing the training course that had been customary up to that point. But as early as October 1873, the death of a pastor in Balduinstein led to the first conflict about the replacement of a parish. Blum appointed his successor, Houben, to the Prussian administration without reporting. Houben was an active cultural fighter who, among other things, spoke out vehemently against the religious laws during a Catholic meeting. A process developed from his inauguration that ended in May 1874 before the district court in Limburg, initially with an acquittal. The judge justified the acquittal by stating that although the pastor's position had to be reported, no penalty was set for an infringement.
After an appeal by the public prosecutor and the bishop's refusal to comply with court summons, Houben was sentenced to a prison term of seven and a half months and the bishop to a fine. Several similar trials against priests who, from the state's point of view, acted unlawfully, ended partly with imprisonment, partly with expulsion from the Wiesbaden district. In the years that followed, they were among the most obvious manifestations of the culture war in the diocese and led to the vacancy of numerous pastoral positions.
As far as the direct punitive measures against bishops were concerned, the trial set a precedent for all of Prussia because of the occupation of the Balduinstein parish. After the acquittal in the first instance, the Prussian administration adjusted the laws and set fines for violations of the reporting obligation. This enabled the following series of trials to show effects: While numerous clergymen were sentenced to imprisonment or expelled, the fines against the bishop kept adding up. As in many other cases, a paradoxical double violation of laws came to fruition: on the one hand, judgments were made for the inauguration without reporting to the Prussian authorities, on the other hand, the Prussian President imposed fines because vacant positions were not filled. On one day of the trial alone, Blum was sentenced to pay 44,800 marks. The penalties were largely ineffective, however, because the bishop had transferred his personal property to church institutions in anticipation of the trials and had also waived salary payments that could have been seized. Blum himself reacted to the processes with passive resistance . When asked to take the stand, he usually responded by questioning both the legality of state laws on church matters and the jurisdiction of the secular courts. This tactic, which was designed to save time, was used several times during the court proceedings, played a role in the negotiations on the inspection of the seminary and in the implementation of "forbidden" services. It did not constitute a direct attack on the state and to that extent corresponded to the reluctance of the bishop to attack the Prussian state directly in his pastoral letters.
Passive resistance was perceived and advocated by the Catholic public as a possible tactic. “One resists the unjust law by not doing what it commands and suffering because of disobedience; that is passive resistance. But violent opposition to unjust orders from the authorities is never allowed ”, it was said in the early phase of the Kulturkampf in the“ Nassauer Bote ”. This reflected the view that one has to remain loyal to the state even in support of the position of the church, as it also spoke from the pastoral letters. Among the Catholics, the already very popular bishop, in view of the state coercive and punitive measures, became an almost martyr-like figure on whom the Kulturkampf was focused and who enabled many to take a stand in the dispute through personal expressions of applause. The presence of the bishop alone led to mass gatherings with several thousand participants, especially in the rural areas of the Westerwald, whose rural population received the title of “Blue Hussars” after their traditional dress in the “Nassauer Bote”. From the summer of 1874 real "pilgrimages" began from the surrounding area to Limburg. A special kind of this solidarity was shown by the notarized confession of the “Seven Boys of Obertiefenbach ” on June 16, 1874. The representatives of political Catholicism also joined this mass movement. In July 1874, Ernst Lieber (1838–1902; German Center Party , elected to the Prussian House of Representatives in 1870 and to the first Reichstag in March 1871 ) organized a train of Frankfurt Catholics to Limburg.
A special form of passive resistance to the punitive measures was shown at the auction of the bishop's traveling coach on June 1, 1874 in Limburg. The prices were kept low by the community of bidders. Protestant and Jewish citizens did not take part in the auctions. The carriage bought for the minimum bid of 245 thalers was then brought back to the bishop in a solemn procession in which half of Limburg's citizens allegedly took part, and left as an unassailable "loan". The three other seizure attempts ended in the same way.
Since Blum could not be dealt with with these funds, the Prussian administration began in 1876 to prepare more massive steps. Already in spring 1876 it became known in Limburg that an impeachment proceedings against the bishop were being prepared in Berlin. In response to this worrying news, Blum and his colleagues began to prepare for the exile. In doing so, the bishop wanted to escape the control of the state. If he had stayed in Limburg, sanctions up to and including the imprisonment of the 70-year-old would have been possible. Rumor has it that rooms had already been prepared in the prison in Dillenburg. The Prussian chief president August von Ende (1815–1889, 1876 to 1881 chief president of the (Prussian) province of Hessen-Nassau ) finally acted on October 17, 1876. In a letter he accused Blum of “systematic resistance against state power”. With reference to the May Laws, v. At the end of Blum, to resign within ten days. Otherwise there is a risk of impeachment. The bishop declined the invitation. "There is no official release from the episcopal office," said the reply from the end. In it, Blum claimed to act on the basis of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (1803) and the freedom rights of the churches anchored in it.
Bishop Blum's exile
When the reply was posted on October 25, 1876, Blum had already gone into exile. On October 13th he traveled with the episcopal carriage to Dernbach to the mother house of the poor servants of Jesus Christ, where he stayed overnight and celebrated the last mass in his diocese with the assembled sisters. This was followed by deliberations on the situation. Under strict secrecy and under the name "Pastor Flos" (Latin: flos = flower), the monastery carriage drove from Dernbach to Koblenz to the train station. From there via Mainz to Aschaffenburg and finally to Bohemia, where he remained in exile at Haid Castle until 1883 ( Haid is located southeast of Bamberg and Bayreuth; the castle then belonged to Karl Heinrich zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1834–1921)). Initially, his whereabouts were kept secret. Cathedral dean Karl Klein unofficially took over the official business of the diocese of Limburg as a "secret delegate". During his exile, Klein regularly provided Blum with information from the diocese and received instructions from afar. In addition, as the place of exile became known, there was a brisk correspondence, telegrams and visitors between Limburg and Haid. Occasionally the bishop also expressed himself in letters that were published in the "Nassauer Boten". During the entire period of exile, Blum remained an extremely popular figure of identification for the Catholics.
In Limburg, the Prussian administration tried to find the bishop's whereabouts - without success. From exile, Blum wrote the last pastoral letter before 1884 in 1877. This clearly shows the greater freedom of the bishop to address the consequences of the Kulturkampf from outside the Prussian territory. The letter no longer only spoke of less concrete “pressures” or “dangers” to which the church was exposed. For the first time, Blum criticized the government's fighting measures and their consequences in the diocese in detail. With this the arch was apparently overstretched: until the end of the exile no pastoral letters were allowed to appear. On June 13, 1877, the bishop was finally dismissed by the judge in absentia. The judges of the royal court for ecclesiastical affairs argued primarily with the bishop's oath of allegiance to Prussia from 1867. They contrasted this with various public statements by Blum. The judiciary saw in the behavior of the bishop an attack on the power of the state or at least a violation of the basic rule "that the laws necessarily bind all citizens for whom they are enacted and only carry the measure of their validity within themselves". The cathedral chapter was asked to elect a diocese administrator in accordance with the May Laws, which the committee rejected without giving reasons. On October 4, 1877, the government assessor Rabe, who was willing to compromise with the clerical diocese administration, took over the provisional administration of the diocese's assets.
Effects of parish vacancies
In addition to the bishop's exile, the Kulturkampf in the Diocese of Limburg found its most immediate and lasting expression in the ongoing legal proceedings for the filling of parish posts. As a rule, these processes ended with the parish office in question not being filled. Up to 45 of the 148 parishes in the diocese officially had to do without a pastor. The pastor designated by the diocese may have been on site, but from the point of view of the state he stayed there as a private person and was liable to prosecution if he provided pastoral care. There were also 28 parishes in which the chaplain was absent. In 1883, 42 priests from the Diocese of Limburg lived in exile in Bavaria alone. The undersupply of pastoral care, which had become apparent since the Order's laws came into force, grew noticeably. Sacraments could no longer be donated everywhere, which resulted in a real "pastoral tourism" in the places that still had a pastor. Funerals had to take place without a priest.
Forms of passive resistance to the removal of priests from the state were widespread and provided limited relief. Under conspiratorial conditions, with whispered propaganda instead of ringing bells and with guards who were supposed to warn of police actions, the “illegal” pastors celebrated services with their communities. In some cases, such gatherings were possible in churches or in private homes for more than a year. The indictment against Blum from 1877 even states that “the clergy of the diocese did not obey the law of May 11, 1873 in any single case”. One has to assume that the administration and the gendarmerie at the local level deliberately did not attend the services and thus made it possible. One reason for this is probably the fact that below the level of the district administrators, the old Nassau officials were taken over by Prussia and were benevolent towards the established Catholics (even if they were Protestants themselves). Even Ludwig von Bodelschwingh (1811-1879), the upper president of Hesse-Nassau by the year 1875, was limited to the implementation of martial law "to rule", until his successor by the end resorted to tougher action.
Even the Catholic clergy and lay people were apparently more interested in a defusing than in an escalation or a trial of strength. Calls for a separation from Prussia and a re-establishment of Nassau as a separate state in the German Reich were only rarely heard, unlike in other Catholic areas.
Financial implications
On July 1, 1875, the Blocking or Bread Basket Act came into force, which also deprived the Diocese of Limburg of all state grants. The Prussian administration withheld larger sums each year, partly from the contractually agreed state subsidies, partly from the income from church property, which was administered by the state in the central church fund. Höhler meticulously calculates that 773,244 marks and 62 pfennigs were withheld in the eight and a quarter years of the ban. During this time, the diocese remained financially viable, primarily through donations from lay people and clergy, including from other dioceses.
Conflict with the Old Catholics
A large Old Catholic community had formed especially in the administrative center of Wiesbaden . In 1876, the state administration granted the Old Catholics the right to share the Bonifatiuskirche. The local Roman Catholic community then withdrew from the church and had to be satisfied with cramped rooms. Blum complained about this in his pastoral letter of 1877 as injustice, since the Old Catholic community "separated itself from the Roman Catholic" and its pastor, apparently renounced the diocesan bishop and metropolitan by appointing its own bishop "and therefore no longer had any right to the building. In other pastoral letters, too, criticism of the infallibility dogma was repeatedly a central point. Bishop Blum tried again and again to place the authority of the Pope on biblical and early Christian foundations. The criticism of pastors and believers, who “lose the spirit of truth that animates the church's teaching office by separating them from their heads and thus fall into error”, is presented much more vehemently and clearly than the criticism of the actual opponents in the Kulturkampf, the representatives of the state.
The return of Blum
With the start of the intensive negotiations between Pope Leo XIII. and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck since 1878, both the exiled Bishop Blum and the leadership of the diocese and, albeit more slowly, the Catholic public began to concern themselves with ways of resolving the Kulturkampf. From Bohemia, Blum seems to have followed an unyielding line and even not to have rejected a revolution of the Catholic population as a possibility for a victorious end to the conflict. In the priesthood at the head of the diocese, a strategy seems to have gained more influence during Blum's absence, which saw an amicable agreement with the state as desirable. The most important representative of this line was cathedral dean Karl Klein, the most powerful man in the diocese. He had moved away from his earlier militant standpoint, probably also because of increasing fear of the new threat from socialism . In 1880, Klein agreed in principle to Bismarck's offer to maintain the combat laws, but to prevent their implementation through administrative regulations. Blum, on the other hand, remained explicitly on the point of view that the church deprived itself of all means to exert pressure on the state through this agreement, which only made possible the filling of the pastoral posts, but left all other demands unfulfilled. The Limburg cathedral chapter included representatives of the "hard line" as well as clerics willing to compromise. In ecclesiastical practice in the Limburg diocese, the administrative easing of the fighting laws had its first effects as early as the summer of 1881. The legal prosecution of pastors who were "illegally" active in pastoral work, that is, without state approval for their appointment, was suspended. Commissioner Rabe released funds with which these pastors were paid. For the time being, however, there was no movement on the question of the bishop's return. An appeal by the cathedral chapter to Kaiser Wilhelm on May 5, 1882 on the occasion of Blum's golden jubilee as a priest was unsuccessful.
The negotiations between the Pope and the Chancellor also failed to achieve a breakthrough for the time being. To this end, the Kulturkampf was defused in small steps, especially at the administrative level. With the second mitigation law of May 31, 1882, the prerequisites were created to reinstate deposed bishops in their offices. From the summer of 1883 onwards rumors could be heard in Limburg that Blum's return was being prepared. On December 3, 1883, the bishop was finally pardoned by the emperor and returned to his diocese on December 19 in a triumphal procession. The reception festivals in Frankfurt and Limburg again demonstrated Blum's unbroken popularity. Simultaneously with the return of the bishop, the state grants to the diocese were paid again. In return, three former Hesse-Homburg parishes moved from Mainz to the Limburg diocese. Prussia was very interested in this because the parishes belonged to its territory and should not be subordinate to the "foreign" diocese of Mainz. Numerous parishes could be reoccupied due to the "discretionary powers" that Blum, who was in bad health, had finally accepted. Priests of the diocese slowly returned from their Bavarian "exile dioceses". During this time, the Biedenkopf district changed from the jurisdiction of the Mainz diocese to Limburg. However, there were only around 200 Catholics there. Only after the Second World War did the influx of refugees give rise to larger communities.
The bishop himself suddenly showed himself to be forgiving of the state. His first pastoral letter after exile did not appear until February 12, 1884. Exile was only briefly dealt with at the beginning of the extensive pastoral letter, combined with thanks to the emperor for the pardon. In contrast to the pastoral letters of the years before 1877, the Kulturkampf was a subordinate topic. It is true that the entire pastoral letter dealt with the threat to the church from “the devil, world and flesh”, with the “struggles, sufferings and afflictions which the children of God on earth who persistently follow the divine Savior have to endure”, but all in one strong theologically claused nature and almost without reference to the political situation.
After his return, Blum stayed in office for only one year. During his exile, his health deteriorated steadily. On December 30, 1884, the 76-year-old died after 42 years in office.
Kulturkampf among the successors of Blum
Christian Roos was elected as Blum's successor in February 1885 . After the Prussian government had deleted several well-known ultramontanes from the electoral list, the chapter chose Roos as a less exposed but clearly ultramontane clergyman as bishop. However, the expected renewed intensification of the Kulturkampf did not materialize. In his first pastoral letter, Roos made no mention of the ongoing conflict. However, there was also no express commitment to the state authorities, as Blum had always included in his pastoral letters except in the toughest times of struggle. Even for his reputation as a moderate Ultramontaner, Roos came to the Prussian administration surprisingly well and suggested above all in negotiations with the Hesse-Nassau High President Botho zu Eulenburg (1831–1912, 1881–1892 High President of the Hesse-Nassau Province in Kassel; before that 1878– 1881 Prussian interior minister and as such intensely concerned with the socialist law) very conciliatory tones.
Roos was appointed Archbishop of Freiburg on July 27, 1886 , so he had to give up his Limburg office again.
Immediately after the settlement of the Kulturkampf, the orders intensified their activities in the diocese of Limburg. After the peace laws of 1887, the establishment of new branches of women's orders with a clearly charitable and social orientation began relatively quickly, especially in Frankfurt. Men's orders were viewed with great suspicion by the state, especially those that were considered "related to the Jesuits". Reluctantly, those orders returned that lived strictly remote from the world and dealt with pilgrimage care , charitable and missionary tasks. In May 1887 the Limburg seminary resumed its work. The Prussian administration even approved money to expand the seminar building.
With the move from Roos to Freiburg, the Prussian government unexpectedly quickly had the opportunity to make Karl Klein Bishop of Limburg, who had long since become the leader of the parliamentary group in the cathedral chapter that was friendly to the state and willing to compromise. The Prussian administration did not want to expose itself to the danger of re-electing an ultramontane, who might have been less accommodating than Roos. Since a strong ultra-montane faction under Matthias Höhler , vicar general and former private secretary Blum, dominated the cathedral chapter, the Prussian government decided to bypass the usual route of electing a bishop. It made use of the fact that Leo XIII. (Pope from 1878 to 1903) had just been recognized by Bismarck as a subject of international law in 1886 with the mediating role in the Karolinen dispute, on the one hand, but on the other hand was dependent on German support in the inner-Italian power struggle and was therefore heavily concerned with a quick compromise solution to the Kulturkampf. In addition, it was a guideline of the Pope anyway that the Kulturkampf should be ended through political negotiations between the states and the Holy See and not internally between the government and regional churches. With his peace course Leo found little support in the still fighting German episcopate. In Limburg the opportunity arose to install a bishop who would support the Pope's course. On September 15, 1887 Leo withdrew the right to vote from the Limburg cathedral chapter and appointed Klein as bishop ten days later.
Klein immediately accepted the Pope's view that the Kulturkampf can only be resolved through an amicable settlement between state and church. Publications at the beginning of his tenure repeatedly underlined the "Concordia inter Imperium et Sacerdotium". In his first pastoral letter, he also emphasized the importance "that the relationship between state and church is well-ordered and peaceful". The emperor was named before the Pope when it came to the merits in ending the Kulturkampf. A clear political implementation of the emerging course took place in 1887 in the Septennat dispute , when the center faction in the Reichstag refused to approve the army budget for seven years and thus to give up its budget right - an important power instrument of parliament - for this period .
Together with Bishop Kopp from Fulda , Klein was the only German bishop who spoke out clearly in favor of the papal line and thus against the Center Party's rejection of the Septennate . Inwardly, he tried above all to restore the church structures that had suffered from the Kulturkampf. He did not achieve a popularity comparable to that of Blum. In 1889 Limburg gave the former Nassau exclaves Harheim and Dornassenheim , which had changed to Hessen-Darmstadt in 1866 , to the diocese of Mainz. Even before the Kulturkampf, additional pastoral care districts had been set up as a reaction to the population growth . This policy now continued. From 1887 to 1897, 17 new parishes and twelve pastoral care districts were created. The expansion of mission stations of the Bonifatiuswerk in the diaspora also continued. On October 1, the “St. Lubentiusblatt ”, the diocese's own Catholic Sunday newspaper, published in 1934 in“ St. Georgsblatt ”was renamed.
Under Klein also began the resettlement of orders, which initially occupied the orphaned pilgrimage sites. The most important new settlement in 1888 was that of the Cistercians in the Abbey of Marienstatt . In 1892 the Pallottines in Limburg founded the mother house of their German religious province. The Pallottine Sisters followed three years later and developed into their own congregation. They had their generalate here until 1968 ; then they moved it to its place of origin (Rome).
Klein's tenure lasted until his death in 1898. The “Kulturkampf” had ended earlier; numerous priests were still classified as "ultramontane" by the Prussian administration.
The diocese under Dominikus Willi
On 15 June 1898, the cathedral chapter chose 54-year-den, from Switzerland originating Marie rapporteurs Cistercian abbot Dominikus Willi . Before that, the Prussian district administration had spoken out in favor of Willi and the vicar general Georg Hilpisch as "loyal to the state" candidates. Willi was the only member of the order to date on the Limburg bishopric. As a bishop, he often wore his religious costume. In contrast to Klein, he pursued a clearly pastorally oriented understanding of ministry. Five new parishes and 21 pastoral care districts were established during his term of office. From 1900 this expansion of pastoral care mainly affected the cities of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. In Frankfurt the proportion of Catholics rose from 4.9 (1851) to 24.3 percent (1913) due to immigration and incorporation. In Wiesbaden there were 5,600 Catholics in 1862 and 16,000 in 1887.
Several branches of women's orders were opened in the diocese, mostly with a charity and school orientation and without any conflicts over the required state approval. The Dernbach sisters , who had their origins in the diocese, were the strongest women's order. The negotiations for other male orders were tough. For around 13 years, the diocese and state administration negotiated about a settlement in Frankfurt until 1900 Capuchins were allowed to work there as temporary pastoral workers. In 1901 the first Jesuit returned to Frankfurt, initially illegally. In 1913, during the political debate about the repeal of the Jesuit law, the city became the scene of fierce propaganda clashes between Catholics and Protestants.
At the turn of the century, Catholic associations experienced an upswing, with the focus shifting away from the rural regions and especially Limburg, where numerous associations were founded around 1850. In Frankfurt, the Kolping Society with its journeyman's associations, servants' associations and the Volksverein for Catholic Germany founded in 1890 took on leading positions. These associations took up the impulses of the newly developed Catholic social doctrine and were primarily involved socially, in the beginning youth work and for popular education. Christian trade unions also emerged in Frankfurt, but had an even lower influx there than in the entire Reich. On November 19, 1897, Matthäus Müller founded the very first diocesan Caritas association , which was soon dissolved. Müller had already made a name for himself by setting up “rescue facilities” for young people that were not based on the system of severity and punishment typical of the time. In 1901 another Caritas association was established for Frankfurt and it continued to exist. The diocesan association was re-established in 1914.
The diocese during the First World War and the Weimar Republic
After Bishop Willi died on January 6, 1913, the cathedral chapter elected Augustine Kilian as his successor on January 22 . In the following year he changed the layout of the deaneries slightly. Pastoral care in Frankfurt, on the other hand, was fundamentally reorganized from 1917 to 1922 through the establishment of several new parishes. After the last Kulturkampf laws against religious settlements had been repealed in the First World War in 1917, the Franciscans (OFM) in particular returned to the diocese. In 1917 they opened a study house for the next generation of the Order in their old regional headquarters in Hadamar . In 1926 a retreat house was opened under Franciscan leadership in Hofheim. The Jesuits turned increasingly to pastoral care in Frankfurt. Various new branches of sister orders also date from the interwar period.
During the Weimar Republic , the proportion of Catholics in the Diocese of Limburg rose in the two cities of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. In 1914 around 25 percent of Catholics lived in the city of Frankfurt. In 1936 it was 45.5 percent in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden together. Unlike in previous centuries, Frankfurt was no longer a diaspora region.
With the Prussian Concordat of 1929, the Diocese of Limburg moved from the ecclesiastical province of Freiburg to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne . In addition, several formerly independent parishes, which had been connected to Frankfurt as districts in the previous decades, moved from the diocese of Fulda to the Limburg diocese, which did not always meet with approval in these places. The Eschersheim pastor Raban Fröhlich has passed down the saying: “The best thing about Limburgers is still their cheese - and it doesn't even come from there.” In addition, the Concordat strengthened Rome's position in the election of bishops, to the detriment of both the Limburg cathedral chapter also of the Prussian state.
Urbanization and liberalization
After the First World War, the Limburg diocese also had to deal with the challenges of social upheaval, not least because the pastoral focus shifted more from the rural regions to Frankfurt. At the first diocesan synod on July 28 and 29, 1920, among other things, the compatibility of church and SPD membership was debated, about leaving the church and the increasing difficulty of reaching young people with pastoral care and preaching. Immediately after the First World War, the Quickborn Association became active in the diocese, and from the end of the 1920s onwards, the German Scouting Association of Saint George strengthened . During this time, the traditional Catholic young men’s associations began to implement elements of the Bundische youth movement in the face of declining membership numbers. From 1926 to 1932 the number of young men’s associations in the diocese grew from 75 to 225. The later Bishop Ferdinand Dirichs was an important sponsor of the church youth movement at this time, especially in view of the growing disputes with nationalist and socialist youth associations .
At Christmas 1926 the first edition of the “ Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung ” appeared, the first church newspaper for the city of Frankfurt. The paper, coined by Friedrich Dessauer , became the mouthpiece of a new, liberal form of political Catholicism , which became effective far beyond the diocese. As early as January 1927 there were serious disputes with the diocese leadership because of the progressive course of the people's newspaper.
As early as 1917 there were considerations about the establishment of a Catholic church university in Frankfurt. The returning Jesuits were to be the porters. A connection as a faculty to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and a new establishment in Limburg were discussed as an organizational form. The most important advocate for the establishment of the university was Vicar General Matthias Höhler . Despite initial financial difficulties, drafts and negotiations continued. In 1925 the diocese finally acquired the Villa Grunelius in Frankfurt. On October 15, 1926, teaching began at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen . The new building of the seminary was inaugurated in Limburg in 1931.
Antonius Hilfrich as the new bishop
Since Kilian's health was badly damaged, on March 31, 1930, at his own request, Antonius Hilfrich was placed as coadjutor , who was appointed as his successor after Kilian's death on October 30. This gave the diocese a bishop classified as conservative. He shied away from confrontation with the rulers of the “Third Reich”, and was just as hostile towards efforts to reform the liturgy as towards the Catholic youth movement . The Sacred Heart devotion he promoted massively. A formative figure of this time was also Matthäus Göbel , who held the office of vicar general from 1920 to 1947 .
Under Hilfrich, the importance of the city's pastoral care was further strengthened with the establishment of four deaneries for Frankfurt, one for Wiesbaden and one for Hofheim. In 1933, the district of Wetzlar , which had previously belonged to the Trier diocese, was incorporated into the diocese, although only a good 3,000 Catholics lived there. This gave the diocese its geographical expansion that still exists today.
In 1931 a new hymn book was published. With the high number of 210 German-language songs, the collection held an exceptional position among the German dioceses. Various construction of new churches that time were on a service designed where the priest stood the faithful turned, and thus fulfilled a central idea of the liturgy reformer. The church buildings by Martin Weber in Frankfurt, such as the Holy Cross Church in Frankfurt - Bornheim, were particularly important . Bishop Hilfrich expressed himself repeatedly negative to such and similar developments. However, there were numerous reform proponents, particularly among the Frankfurt pastors.
The diocese in the "Third Reich"
repression
After the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists, Bishop Hilfrich belonged to the group of bishops who initially did not support the new rulers, but wanted to wait and see their attitude towards the church. At the end of March 1933 there were first clashes between the state and the diocese when several clergymen critical of the regime were arrested. From July 1, the Gestapo began to take action against Catholic associations, which initially had an impact primarily in Frankfurt. The Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung in particular came under massive pressure. Friedrich Dessauer was arrested among others . The clergy, however, were released during the summer. In January 1934, the Volkszeitung received a National Socialist management staff and was discontinued around a year later. The arrests of clergymen continued. In addition, officials committed to the Catholic Church were dismissed and Catholic libraries were searched. There were violent disputes between the Hitler Youth and Catholic youth organizations in which government agencies intervened on the side of the Hitler Youth. During this phase, representatives of the diocese negotiated with functionaries in the state and the NSDAP in order to reach agreements that should preserve Catholic structures. In 1934 these talks were broken off.
In the following years the disputes took place primarily at the local level. Criticism of the regime by individual pastors led several times to complaints from the state and the NSDAP to the diocese. The diocese leaders, on the other hand, did not comment on the political situation, which in turn provoked dissatisfaction among representatives of the clergy and organized Catholicism who were critical of the regime. In particular, when prominent Catholics were threatened and murdered on the verge of the “ Röhm Putsch ” in the summer of 1934 , there were emphatic demands that the bishop should comment on this, but this did not happen. Requests from the clergy that Hilfrich should speak out against the “Landjahrgesetz” passed in January 1935 remained equally inconclusive. He only expressed mild criticism in a pastoral letter and internal church circulars.
From the summer of 1935, increased reprisals against the Catholic Church began. For the first time since 1933, clergymen were arrested again from May 1935, partly because they had criticized the regime or the Nazi ideology, partly because of allegations of alleged currency offenses. The wave of arrests began in Wetzlar, where there were particularly violent clashes between the Catholic youth group and the Hitler Youth. At the 700th anniversary of the cathedral building on August 18th in Limburg, no loudspeaker systems were allowed to be used. In October, NSDAP members marched for the first time at night in front of the bishop's apartment. As a result, there were repeated nocturnal rallies at irregular intervals. The NSDAP district party conference in Limburg on October 27th was marked by sharp attacks against the Catholic Church. With a house search in the motherhouse of the Barmherzigen Brüder von Montabaur , a subsequent trial for actual sexual offenses and a broad press campaign, the church persecution took on a new quality. In the pastoral letter of January 27, 1937, Bishop Hilfrich emphasized the importance of Christian upbringing in the family compared to the increasingly unchristian state upbringing. The Gestapo then confiscated the printed copy of the pastoral letter. A few weeks later the encyclical “ With burning concern ” was copied and distributed in the diocese of Limburg in great secrecy. The later Bishop Wilhelm Kempf led this operation.
persecution
In response to "With burning concern," the state immediately intensified the persecution of the Catholic Church. The moral processes were resumed in an intensified manner. On November 25, 1937, all church youth organizations were banned. In a new wave of arrests in early 1938, a clergyman from the diocese was incarcerated in a concentration camp for the first time . On December 5, 1938, the first house search was carried out at the St. Georgen spiritual college.
In the course of 1937, the dissolution of church care institutions for the disabled had already begun, and in 1938 it was implemented across the board. In doing so, the regime prepared the "euthanasia" murders . The Hadamar Nazi killing center , in which around 14,000 people were murdered from 1941, was located in the immediate vicinity of Limburg.
In spring 1938, the denominational schools in Frankfurt were abolished. As early as 1937, clergymen were no longer allowed to give religious education in elementary schools, and in 1938 this ban was extended to higher schools.
The Diocese of Limburg did not officially intervene against the November pogroms in 1938 , although protests by individual clergy took place, especially in Frankfurt. In a pastoral letter from February 1939, Bishop Hilfrich even attempted to portray Christianity as detached from its roots in the Jewish faith.
In January 1939, the Catholic workers' associations in Frankfurt were banned. The background to this local advance of the Nazi authorities was the fact that, unlike the residents of Wiesbaden, the people of Frankfurt were suspected of having a rather skeptical attitude towards National Socialism. The dissolution of the monasteries in Frankfurt and the surrounding area also began in the course of this year. This campaign was accompanied by moral trials and arrests of members of the order. In the entire diocese area, the Catholic educational institutions and schools were closed by the summer of 1940 . As a result of this state action, the bishop's first public and clear protests against the government took place. In February 1940, however, Hilfrich issued a warning to the clergy, which urged them to act in support of the state.
With the beginning of the Second World War , the church persecution subsided for the time being. However, after the local NSDAP associations had intensified their anti-church propaganda at the end of 1940, the clashes broke out more strongly in 1941 than before. The reason for the intervention on the part of the church was the murder of handicapped people in Hadamar, which was now in full swing and was well known at least in the area around the city. On August 13, 1941, Bishop Hilfrich protested in writing to the Reich Ministry of Justice against the murders. Since the episcopate as a whole, above all the Münster bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, resisted "euthanasia", the murder program was continued with less intensity from late summer 1941, but was by no means ended.
In August 1941, the Catholic kindergartens were taken over by a Nazi organization. After a house search and arrests in March 1942, teaching in St. Georgen was restricted more and more, but did not come to a complete standstill. After the building was destroyed in an air war on March 18, 1944 by an Allied air raid , lessons continued in the Abbey of Marienstatt . Also Pallottiner coming from the Limburg mission house were arrested again and again from the 1942nd In 1944 the facility was finally closed.
The church historian Klaus Schatz assumes that at least five Catholics from the Limburg diocese were murdered because of their religious beliefs during the Nazi regime. Five secular priests and twelve religious had to endure imprisonment in a concentration camp. Around half of the clergy spent at least a short time in Gestapo detention.
After 1945
reconstruction
Bishop Hilfrich died unexpectedly on February 5, 1947. On September 29, Ferdinand Dirichs was appointed as his successor. A progressive man who was more interested in pastoral care than in theological theory was at the head of the diocese. Dirichs died on December 27, 1948 in a car accident near Idstein . On May 28, 1949, Wilhelm Kempf was elected as the new bishop, who was to hold this office until 1981. Kempf had been Bishop Hilfrich's secretary from 1936 to 1939 and then pastor in Frankfurt in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Frankfurt - Riederwald . This was the first time that a clergyman influenced by city pastoral care was at the head of the diocese.
In Frankfurt in particular, the diocese suffered the immediate consequences of the war. Almost all churches and catholic old people's homes as well as two church-sponsored hospitals were destroyed. The diocese extended over the French and American occupation zones , from which in 1949 the division into a Rhineland-Palatinate and a Hessian part of the diocese developed. In 1946 the Vatican Mission in Germany was established in Kronberg im Taunus , which became the official nunciature in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and moved its headquarters to Bad Godesberg in 1951 .
Immediately after the end of the war, numerous Catholic associations and groups with a social orientation began to form in Frankfurt to take care of refugees , displaced persons, and starving and homeless residents. The already established Caritas was also extensively active in this field. In few other large cities such an extensive Catholic association structure developed so quickly after the war as in Frankfurt. In cooperation with the dioceses of Fulda , Speyer and Mainz , the Frankfurt Social School was established on October 23, 1950 at the instigation of Prelate Alexander Stein, at which ideas of Christian social teaching were further developed and which played a pioneering role in the contact between Catholicism and trade unions . One of the most influential representatives of the institution was Oswald von Nell-Breuning . Socially committed priests, together with the strongly blossoming lay movement, also played a key role in the founding of the Frankfurt CDU and in the beginning of the work of the Catholic Action in the city.
As a result of the expellees , the number of Catholics in the diocese grew from 530,000 to 660,000. In particular in the Wetzlar and Marburg areas they created larger Catholic communities for the first time . 32 new pastoral care stations were built for them. The Protestant regional churches that dominate there made 300 churches available for worship services for the displaced communities. In 1945, in Königstein im Taunus , the second church aid center for displaced persons was established alongside Munich. The Warmian bishop Maximilian Kaller settled in Frankfurt, who was appointed papal commissioner for the expellees on June 24, 1946. With the "Königsteiner Anstalten", a seminary specially for candidates from the ranks of the expellees began its work in 1947, which existed until 1978.
The theological college of Sankt Georgen resumed teaching in November 1946. The reconstruction of the destroyed building was completed in 1949. In 1948 four chairs for Catholic theology were created at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University , which primarily served the training of Catholic religion teachers. To remedy the shortage of housing, the dioceses of Limburg, Fulda and Mainz founded the non-profit settlement agency in 1949 . On November 29, 1953, the Frankfurt Cathedral was reopened with a mass on the first Sunday of Advent .
When the state of Hesse established denominational simultaneous schools as the standard for school education in 1946, Bishop Kempf accepted this after initial protests. Thus the state had finally prevailed in one of the main points of dispute with the church from the previous centuries. State collection of church tax was established in Hesse in 1948 and in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1950 , so that from then on the Diocese of Limburg could rely on a solid financial basis.
Until the Second Vatican Council
The second diocesan synod of 1951 emphasized the importance of the pastor for pastoral work, strengthened the importance of Caritas work in the parishes and indicated the first, cautious echoes of a liturgical reform .
Also in 1951 there was a new division of the deaneries , with five new deaneries. In 1952, in view of the rapidly growing number of Catholics, Walther Kampe , an auxiliary bishop , was appointed for the first time . In 1958 a new hymn book was published for the diocese.
In Frankfurt, the 1950s were characterized by a strong expansion of pastoral care with educational work and advice in personal crisis situations. The ecumenism took in Frankfurt a high priority, for example, with the 1956 launched public "Frankfurter discussions" at which Catholic and Protestant theologians, later also involved lay people.
From 1950, beginning with the Westerwald region, regional Catholic days were held for the first time , which were replaced in 1959 by the "Limburg Cross Week", at which a cross relic stops at various locations in the diocese.
In 1961 the third diocesan synod took place, the central theme of which was the threatened loss of importance of the Christian faith in the world. In view of the imminent Second Vatican Council , however, hardly any concrete decisions were made.
The diocese according to the Vatican
At the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Kempf was one of the five undersecretaries. In the following years, however, Kempf acted rather cautiously to put the brakes on many of the reforms in his diocese that came out of the council, without completely suppressing the efforts.
The further opening for ecumenism was reflected on May 22, 1966 with the first ecumenical service in the diocese in the Katharinenkirche in Frankfurt . In the following years, especially in Frankfurt, several joint projects of the Catholic and Protestant Churches were implemented.
On October 2, 1966, the Office for Church Music was founded and settled in the Heilig-Geist-Pfarrei in Frankfurt am Main-Riederwald. In 1973 it was renamed the Church Music Department (RKM).
In accordance with the resolutions of the council, synodal participation should also be strengthened in the Diocese of Limburg. On the lay side, the Catholic Action was the carrier of these efforts. By 1968 she worked out a proposal for a synodal order, which Bishop Kempf rejected. The following conflict mainly revolved around whether the pastors or the parish and parish administrators should have the last word in decisions in cases of conflict. By the end of 1968, a solution was finally found that would secure the pastor's right to decide on questions relating to his direct exercise of office. In June 1969 the diocese was divided into eleven districts. This should in particular enable the creation of synodal intermediary bodies between the councils in the parishes and the diocesan synodal council. However, the deaneries continued to exist. In 1972 the episcopal ordinariate was reorganized into departments . Several disputes followed, in which the Vatican intervened with a legal opinion in 1974 before the synodal structure became established.
Conflicts over the encyclical Humanae Vitae from 1968 particularly arose among the priesthood. The dispute over the liturgical reform drew wider circles among the church people. The so-called "Hofheimer Messfeier" on June 13, 1971, a youth celebration with around 650 participants, became known throughout Germany because it had led to loud conversations during the service and, among other things, to smoking inside a church.
On September 24, 1973, the so-called "Bafile scandal" began. On that day, a letter from the nuncio Corrado Bafile was leaked to the public from an unknown source , in which he expressed clear criticism of Kempf's administration. Among other things, Bafile criticized the fact that a married Old Catholic priest who had converted to the Roman Catholic Church had been appointed parish administrator of a parish in Frankfurt am Main and that, in his opinion, the synodal representations in the Diocese of Limburg had extensive rights of co-determination. In conclusion, the nuncio proposed the removal of Kempf from his office, the appointment of an apostolic administrator and the dissolution of the synodal councils. After expressions of solidarity from the diocese and Kempf's trip to Rome , the Pope expressly expressed his confidence in Bishop Kempf at the end of 1974.
In 1969, Kempf was the first German bishop to appoint a pastor specifically to train priests. In the 1960s, the diocese administration first became aware of the challenges of pastoral care for guest workers . Until the 1980s, the number of Catholic, mainly Italian , guest workers in the diocese grew to more than 120,000. In 1976, a “Foreigners Council” was set up at the diocesan level. The Caritas work was bundled in so-called “ social stations ” in the 1970s after the number of community nurses had continued to decline. The Limburger Domsingknaben were founded on April 23, 1967 . On March 19, 1974, a new church state treaty was concluded with Hesse and in 1975 with Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1974 to 1977 the Limburg Cathedral was completely renovated. On September 8, 1977, Gerhard Pieschl, the second auxiliary bishop, was appointed to his office.
Since the end of the 1960s, there has been a clear decline in church attendance, as has an increasing shortage of priests , in the course of which in 1971 two parishes had to be looked after by just one pastor for the first time. In the course of this development, the importance of lay chaplains, for whom there were developed training courses from 1974, grew. In the course of the 1970s, the occupations of pastoral and community officers emerged as providers of pastoral care in the lay state. A large number of women took on responsibility in pastoral work in these functions.
The fourth diocesan synod also met in 1977. In particular, the powers of the district synods and the position of chaplains were contentious issues.
In 1980 the administrative structure was standardized. From then on, the deaneries no longer existed parallel to the district division, but below the districts and above the parishes. At the same time, the number of deaneries was reduced from 50 to 31.
The Kamphaus era
On August 10, 1981, Bishop Wilhelm Kempf turned 75. In accordance with canon law, he had to offer his resignation to Pope John Paul II on this date, but provided this with a personal request to the Pope to accept this request. In 1982 the number of Catholics in the Diocese of Limburg peaked at almost one million.
On May 4, 1982 the Vatican announced the appointment of the Münster theology professor Franz Kamphaus as the new Bishop of Limburg. Kamphaus caused a stir throughout Germany in 1999 when he spoke out against the papal command to discontinue pregnancy conflict counseling in church sponsorship and maintained this offer in his diocese until he submitted to the papal instructions in 2002. During Kamphaus' term of office from 2002 onwards, the process of “saving and renewing”, a kind of financial and pastoral plan, resulted in a consolidation of the church structures, which had become necessary due to financial difficulties. The plan set itself the goal of establishing a balanced diocese budget by 2008. In 2005 the three youth churches of the diocese were founded on the initiative of Franz Kamphaus . These are crossovers in the Church of St. Hildegard in Limburg an der Lahn , Jona in the Church of St. Bonifatius in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen and Kana in the Church of Maria-Hilf in Wiesbaden-Nordost . The number of parishes was reduced from 368 to 347 in 2007. In the course of this, abandoned parish churches were rededicated to profile churches such as the Meditation Church Center for Christian Meditation and Spirituality in the Holy Cross Church in Frankfurt-Bornheim or the Center for Mourning Pastoral Care in the Church of St. Michael in Frankfurt-Nordend . In addition, “ pastoral rooms ” were introduced as a new level of structure in some places .
The diocese today
After his election by the cathedral chapter on November 28, 2007, the former Muenster Auxiliary Bishop and theology professor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Pope Benedict XVI became Kamphaus' successor . appointed Bishop of Limburg and introduced to his office as the twelfth Limburg bishop on January 20, 2008 by Cardinal Joachim Meisner .
On June 29, 2009 the Institute for World Church and Mission (IWM) was founded, which is a scientific institute of the German Bishops' Conference at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen . It is dedicated to research and teaching from a theological perspective on questions of the universal church and mission . The acting director of the IWM is Markus Luber SJ. It was also the seat of the Rahel education project to support disadvantaged young people - especially young women - in Adigrat in the north of Ethiopia .
Bishop Tebartz-van Elst is considered conservative and his administration of office met with considerable criticism. On August 28, 2013, he traveled to the Vatican . When asked, the diocese spokesman said that Tebartz-van Elst had asked the Prefect of the Bishops' Congregation , Cardinal Marc Ouellet , to talk to him and had an appointment at short notice. The rebuilding of the diocesan center triggered a discussion in Germany that encompassed all dioceses about the church's handling of money, the lifestyle of its officials and power, and it became a “symbol of a profound crisis of confidence in the church”.
In September 2013 the Vatican sent Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo on a “fraternal visit” to the Diocese of Limburg. Three weeks later, the asset management council, which is supposed to oversee the finances of the Episcopal See, issued a statement ("We have been led behind the light by the Bishop of Limburg. [...] The costs of the diocesan center St. Nicholas incurred so far the bishop's apartment, the old vicariate , the sister house [...] other individual projects on Toompea in Limburg amount to around 31 million euros to date. ”) Shortly afterwards, minutes of the meetings of the Bishops’s Asset Management Council showed that the committee had been working since July 2011 was informed about the cost development up to the amount of 17 million euros. Within five years, from early 2008 until the end of 2012, occurred about 25,000 Catholics from the diocese of the Church. On March 26, 2014, Pope Francis accepted Tebartz-van Elst's resignation from October 20, 2013 with immediate effect and appointed the Paderborn Auxiliary Bishop Manfred Grothe , who had headed the investigative commission of the German Bishops' Conference into the construction of the Diocesan Center , as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Limburg.
On July 1, 2016, Pope Francis appointed Georg Bätzing as the new Limburg bishop. He was inducted into office on September 18, 2016. In the same year, the Holy Year of Mercy , the Limburg diocese declared that reconciliation with Bishop Tebartz-van Elst was not possible.
Bishops
literature
- Klaus Schatz SJ: History of the Diocese of Limburg (= sources and treatises on the Middle Rhine church history , Volume 48). Society for Middle Rhine Church History, Mainz 1983.
- Marie Luise Crone, Matthias Th. Kloft u. a .: Limburg - History of the Diocese , 6 vols., Éditions du Signe, Strasbourg 1993–1998.
- Dominik Burkard: State Church - Papal Church - Bishop's Church. The “Frankfurt Conferences” and the reorganization of the church in Germany after secularization (Roman quarterly, Supplementary Issue 53), Herder, Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-451-26253-3 .
- Martina Wagner: ... that they see the establishment of an episcopal seat and seminarium in this city as a real benefit. Limburg as a bishopric. In: Christoph Waldecker (Red.): Limburg in the flow of time. Highlights from 1100 years of city history . Magistrat der Kreisstadt Limburg ad Lahn, Limburg 2010, pp. 309–330 (= contributions to the history of the district town Limburg ad Lahn , vol. 1).
Numerous articles on the history of the diocese can be found in the archive for church history in the Middle Rhine region .
Web links
- Diocese history by Klaus Schatz online (accessed on February 24, 2018)
- Homepage of the diocese (accessed on February 24, 2018)
- Table of contents of the archive for church history in the Middle Rhine region, Vol. 1 (1949) - Vol. 60 (2008) (accessed on February 24, 2018)
Individual evidence
- ^ Prayer and hymn book for the Diocese of Limburg, pp. VII f., Frankfurt am Main 1957
- ↑ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 7, see also p. 11 (map: “Political and denominational borders before 1803”).
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 56.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 57.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 80–83.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 112–116.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 122–125.
- ↑ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 161.
- ↑ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 136.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 138–142.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 143.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 151–157.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 157.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 144.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 163.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 164.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 177–179.
- ↑ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 180.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 179–180.
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : 140 years of school building in Obertiefenbach . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 2014 . The district committee of the district of Limburg-Weilburg, Limburg-Weilburg 2013, ISBN 3-927006-50-5 , p. 95-98 .
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 181.
- ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, p. 189.
- ^ Diocese of Limburg - Church Music Department
- ↑ cf. Website of the process: Spar-und-ernneu.bistumlimburg.de ( Memento of October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 23, 2008
- ^ Diocese of Limburg : Decree of Bishop Franz Kamphaus of January 15, 2007. Published in the Official Gazette of the Diocese of Limburg 2007 No. 2 of February 1, 2007 No. 449: Document on the establishment of the profile church “Holy Cross - Center for Christian Meditation and Spirituality”. In: Website of the parish of St. Josef Frankfurt . February 1, 2007, accessed February 24, 2018 .
- ^ Diocese of Limburg : Decree of Bishop Franz Kamphaus of January 15, 2007. Published in the Official Gazette of the Diocese of Limburg 2007 No. 2 from 02/01/2007 No. 448: Document on the establishment of the profile church "St. Michael - Center for Mourning Pastoral", Frankfurt am Main. In: Website of the parish of St. Josef Frankfurt . February 1, 2007, accessed February 24, 2018 .
- ↑ The IWM. Institute for the Universal Church and Mission, accessed October 25, 2016 .
- ^ Tebartz-van Elst in Rome - Discussions on the situation in the Diocese of Limburg. August 28, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2013 .
- ^ Controversy over Tebartz building: The "underworld" on Limburg Domberg. March 23, 2015, accessed March 23, 2015 .
- ↑ Joint declaration by the Bishop of Limburg and the Limburg Cathedral Chapter to conclude the visit of Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo to the Diocese of Limburg (full text) (PDF; 43 kB)
- ↑ Volker Zastrow: Limburg bishop's residence significantly more expensive - “We were duped by the bishop” , FAZ from October 7, 2013, last accessed on October 10, 2013.
- ↑ "Limburg 2012 - Vicar General informed: No budget possible" , kath.net of October 17, 2013, last accessed on January 1, 2015.
- ↑ spiegel.de September 29, 2013: Controversial Bishop Tebartz-van Elst: number of people leaving the church at record level
- ↑ press.vatica.va Bollettino quotidiano - Sala Stampa: COMUNICATO CIRCA LA DIOCESI DI LIMBURG (GERMANIA)
- ^ Nomina del Vescovo di Limburg (Germania). In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , July 1, 2016, accessed July 1, 2016 (Italian).