Helmut Hermann Wittler

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Helmut Hermann Wittler

Helmut Hermann Wittler (born September 28, 1913 in Osnabrück ; † December 30, 1987 there ) was Roman Catholic Bishop of Osnabrück from 1957 to 1987.

Life

Helmut Hermann Wittler was the younger son from the marriage of Adolf Wittler and Marie Anne Kovermann. His brother Walter , who was six years older than him , also became a priest. After graduating from high school in 1932, Helmut Wittler studied Catholic theology and philosophy in Münster at the Carolinum Osnabrück grammar school , but switched to the Pontificium Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum de Urbe in Rome in 1933 and completed his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1938 . On October 30, 1938, he received the sacrament of ordination in Osnabrück . In 1940 he received his doctorate in theology . from 1940 to 1945 he was chaplain in Twistringen . In 1945 Archbishop Wilhelm Berning appointed him to Osnabrück as episcopal chaplain and secret secretary. After Berning's death, Wittler became the diocese administrator; Bishop Franziskus Demann appointed him vicar general on September 22, 1956 .

After Francis Demann died suddenly on March 27, 1957, the cathedral chapter elected its vicar general at the suggestion of Pope Pius XII. to the 74th Bishop of Osnabrück, whose territory at that time also included Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. On July 22, 1957, Pope Pius XII appointed him. as then the youngest German bishop to head the Diocese of Osnabrück . The episcopal ordination on October 2, 1957 was donated to him by Josef Cardinal Frings ; Co- consecrators were Michael Keller , Bishop of Münster, and Johannes von Rudloff , Auxiliary Bishop in Osnabrück. His motto was: Omnia et in omnibus Christ (“All and in all Christ”). He was the council father of all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.

In 1986, for health reasons, Pope John Paul II placed Ludwig Averkamp at his side as coadjutor. On September 9, 1987, John Paul II granted his resignation .

Act

Wittler was the commissioner for foreigners at the German Bishops' Conference and was committed to the rights of foreign workers in Germany. From 1957 until his death he was President of the Raphaels-Werk Service to People on the Move . He also campaigned for marriage and the family and initiated 20 marriage, family, life and parenting advice centers in what was then the Diocese of Osnabrück with Hamburg. He set up an aid fund for mothers in emergency situations, with which women in need due to pregnancy could be helped quickly and unbureaucratically. In the charitable area, a number of facilities for disabled people and the homeless were created.

For the 1200th anniversary of the Osnabrück diocese in 1980, Wittler hosted a visit by Pope John Paul II. Together with 140,000 believers, they celebrated a papal mass at the Illoshöhe sports complex in Osnabrück.

In 1964 he was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Eugène Cardinal Tisserant and invested on May 2, 1964 by Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy . He was a Grand Officer of the Order.

Honors

  • Accolade as a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher (1964)
  • Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1966)
  • Honorary member of the Catholic student association AV Rheno-Guestfalia Kiel in the CV (July 5, 1968)
  • Great Cross of Merit of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit (1973)
  • Honorary citizenship of the city of Osnabrück for his "decades of work as a bishop in Osnabrück and his special services to interdenominational dialogue and the integration of foreign citizens" (1987)

Fonts

  • Pastoral letter from His Excellency the Most Revered Mr. Helmut Hermann, Bishop of Osnabrück during the Passion of 1958 , Crone 1958
  • Finding the Church: New Year's Eve Sermon 1986 , 1986
  • Christian Congregation Today: New Year's Eve Sermon , 1978
  • Thoughts on the turn of the year and the beginning of the diocese anniversary, Leviendruck 1980
  • Church and foreigners: Documentation of the statements of the foreigner advisor of the German Bishops' Conference in the period from November 1981 to June 1982 , 1982
  • 1200 years of praise to God in the Diocese of Osnabrück. 780 - 1980. , Verlag Kirchenbote Osnabrück 1982
  • Learning to speak again about God: a challenge to our time; New Year's Eve sermon by the Bishop of Osnabrück in 1982 , Osnabrück 1982
  • “Peace through Reconciliation”: New Year's Eve sermon 1983 , 1984
  • Future of Faith - Future of Believers: New Year's Eve Sermon 1985 , 1985

literature

  • Hermann Queckenstedt: "Open to the new, the church guards all real values": On the life and work of Osnabrück Bishop Helmut Hermann Wittler , Grote Bad Iburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-933998-54-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Hermann Queckenstedt: "Bishop Wittler: Good listener and man of quiet tones" , Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , September 27, 2013
  2. ↑ a b Franz-Josef Bode: "Diocese commemorates Bishop Helmut Hermann Wittler" , Diocese Osnabrück , September 20, 2013
  3. ↑ Honorary Citizen of the City of Osnabrück on September 8, 1987 , City of Osnabrück, July 4, 2007
predecessor Office successor
Francis Demann Bishop of Osnabrück
1957–1987 		Ludwig Averkamp
personal data
SURNAME Wittler, Helmut Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, Roman Catholic bishop of Osnabrück
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Osnabrück
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1987
Place of death Osnabrück