Karl Christian Weber

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Bishop Karl Christian Weber SVD, 1938
Karl Christian Weber, front left, at the table, as a young seminarian in the St. Wendel Mission House, 1904
Karl Christian Weber as a missionary father in China.
Bishop Weber on the day of his golden jubilee as a priest with the newly donated bishop's insignia
Grave of Bishop Weber, cemetery, Steyler Missionshaus St. Wendel

Karl Christian Weber SVD (born June 28, 1886 in Bexbach ; † November 15, 1970 in St. Wendel ) was a Catholic priest , Steyler missionary and from 1938 bishop (Apostolic Vicar), since 1946 Diocesan Bishop of Ichowfu (also Ichow) in China .

Life

Karl Christian Weber was born in Bexbach , Diocese of Speyer , Saarpfalz , Kingdom of Bavaria in 1886 and entered the newly founded mission house of the Steyler missionaries in St. Wendel in 1898 as one of the first students . There he completed his high school studies and then attended the St. Gabriel Missionary Seminary in Maria Enzersdorf near Vienna. On September 7, 1910, he made the perpetual religious vows there, and on September 29, he was ordained a priest . In 1911 Weber went to China as a missionary father, which became his field of work and second home. Bishop Augustin Henninghaus SVD sent the talented young priest to the western districts of the Apostolic Vicariate Yenchowfu ( Yanzhou ) as a pastor and missionary . At the beginning of the First World War , Father Weber was drafted into the military in the German Kiautschou protected area . He stayed there for three months as a medical soldier in Tsingtao . After the war, the "Saarland Father" was expelled from China from 1919 to 1921. He then worked again in China, until 1928 as rector in Yangku and until 1936 as dean in Tsaochowfu .

In 1937, the year the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, the Apostolic Vicariate Ichowfu (Ichow) was founded and Father Weber was named the first Vicar Apostolic of Ichowfu and Titular Bishop of Daldis . He received the episcopal ordination on October 16, 1938 in the newly built cathedral of Tsingtao from the local Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Georg Weig SVD, a Bavarian compatriot from the Upper Palatinate . Kokonsekratoren were the apostolic vicar of Yenchowfu , Theodor Schu , SVD and the apostolic vicar of Tsaochowfu , Franz Hoowaarts SVD. In 1946 the Apostolic Vicariate Ichowfu was elevated to a diocese , and Karl Christian Weber became the first diocesan bishop . The conquest of China by the communists put an end to his active missionary work. Bishop Weber was arrested in 1951; He spent two years in prison, some of them hand and foot shackled; he was brainwashed several times .

The forced expulsion from China ended the painful imprisonment of the Palatinate bishop in October 1953. He was transported on a Danish coastal steamer to Hong Kong , where he was welcomed on board by the German consul general . Weber was emaciated to a skeleton and initially had to spend five months in the hospital in order to regain his strength. The heart, lungs and circulation were badly damaged. The bishop returned home via the Philippines in 1954 and from then on lived in the Steyler mission house in St. Wendel . From Germany he supported the Christians of his orphaned Chinese diocese and the Chinese abroad , especially in Taiwan and the Philippines. In September 1956 he took part in the Pastoral Liturgical Congress in Assisi as one of the representatives of the Chinese dioceses . In his home diocese of Speyer he developed a lively activity. Bishop Isidor Markus Emanuel von Speyer reports:

“Our compatriot from Bexbach, Mission Bishop Karl Weber, was expelled from China in 1954 after almost two years of cruel imprisonment and returned to his homeland as an old man. But after a short recovery he began such an intensive lecture apostolate that I was able to thank him during the sermon on his golden jubilee as a priest on October 2, 1960 for having held retreats and tridues in over 80 parishes despite his weakened health . The debt of gratitude had increased when I gave the sermon again on his silver bishop's jubilee on September 15, 1963 in his home church in Bexbach ... I was allowed to do the last service of love on behalf of his home diocese at his funeral in the cemetery of the mission house St. Michael in St. Wendel, on November 18, 1970. "

- Bishop Isidor Markus Emanuel, Speyer : My bishop years

Bishop Weber enjoyed staying in his home diocese of Speyer, but especially in his native Bexbach. Here, in his home parish, he always celebrated his anniversaries. On the occasion of its golden jubilee of consecration in 1960, the previous “Pfarrgasse” was renamed “Bischof-Weber-Straße”. On this day, Radio Saarbrücken broadcast the solemn pontifical office from Bexbach, at which Bishop Isidor Markus Emanuel from Speyer gave the sermon and was also attended by Mission Bishop Theodor Schu and Abbot Petrus Borne von Tholey . For the golden jubilee of the priesthood he received new bishops' insignia, since the old ones had remained in China. Bexbach gave the jubilee a new bishop's staff, Oberbexbach a new Rochett and Frankenholz a new miter. Karl Christian Weber regularly attended the Speyer Diocesan Catholic Days in Johanniskreuz . A stroke tied the bishop to bed in mid-August 1970.

Works by Bishop Weber

  • Only one more chance - a book about the emotional distress of the times and their remedies . Self-published by Missionshaus St. Wendel, around 1965.

literature

  • Father Weber, the new Palatinate missionary bishop . In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 2, January 9, 1938.
  • Episcopal ordination of a Palatine in Tsingtau . In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 50, December 11, 1938.
  • A bishop in a black robe ; for the 20th anniversary of Bishop Karl Christian Weber SVD. In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 41, October 12, 1958, p. 920 of the year.
  • Cross without Christ - Christ without a cross (on the life and sufferings of Bishop Weber). In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 40, October 2, 1960, p. 850 of the year.
  • Truth in love (for the golden jubilee of the priesthood). In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 41, from October 9, 1960, p. 884 of the year.
  • Realize the truth through love (on the 25th anniversary of the bishopric). In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 36, of September 8, 1963, p. 798 of the year.
  • Sorrowfully separated from his flock (report on the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the bishop, in Bexbach). In: Pilger , Speyer, No. 38, September 22, 1963, p. 840 of the year.
  • Pilgrim Calendar Speyer (yearbook of the Diocese of Speyer), 1972; Obituary.
  • Isidor Markus Emanuel : My bishop years . Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 1974, p. 70.
  • Festschrift 75 Years Missionshaus St. Wendel, 1975, p. 60.
  • Johannes Fleckner: Karl Weber. Bishop of Ichowfu 1886–1970 . In: Steyler Missionschronik , 1972, pp. 179–180. - also in: J. Fleckner: So they were . St. Augustin 1991, pp. 175-178.
  • Richard Hartwich SVD: Divine Word Missionaries in China III. Republic of China and World War I 1911–1919 . (Studia Instituti Missiologici SVD 40). Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1987, ISBN 3-8050-0180-0 .
  • Richard Hartwich: Divine Word Missionaries in China V. From war ruins to new borders 1920–1923 . (Studia Instituti Missiologici SVD 48). Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1989, ISBN 3-8050-0242-4 .
  • Richard Hartwich: Divine Word Missionaries in China VI. On the waves of the Chinese Civil War 1924–1926 . (Studia Instituti Missiologici SVD 53). Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1987, ISBN 3-8050-0288-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes Fleckner: Karl Weber. Bishop of Ichowfu 1886–1970 . In: Steyler Missionschronik , 1972, pp. 179–180.
  2. ^ Bishop Georg Weig
  3. ↑ Biographical page on Theodor Schu
  4. ^ Johannes Wagner : The renewal of the liturgy from the spirit of pastoral care under the pontificate of Pope Pius' XII. First International Pastoral Liturgical Congress Assisi 1956. In: Liturgisches Jahrbuch (LJ) 6 (1956), pp. 189–199, here p. 190.
  5. ^ Isidor Markus Emanuel: My bishop years . Speyer 1974
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Karl Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weber, Karl; Weber, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Divine Word Missionary, Vicar Apostolic and Bishop of Ichowfu, China
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Bexbach , Germany
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1970
Place of death St. Wendel , Germany