Ludwig Schick

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Ludwig Schick, Bamberg 2007

Ludwig Schick (born September 22, 1949 in Marburg ) is Archbishop of Bamberg and Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Bamberg . He was previously vicar general and auxiliary bishop in Fulda as well as professor of canon law at the theological faculty in Fulda .

Life

Youth and education

Ludwig Schick was born on September 22, 1949 as the second child of tax inspector Josef Schick and his wife Auguste in Marburg, Hesse. The family moved to Mardorf, a few kilometers away . After attending the St. Johann Abbey School in Amöneburg , he passed his Abitur in 1969 . He then studied Catholic theology and philosophy at the Fulda Theological Faculty and the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg . Since 1972 he has been a member of the Catholic student association WKSt.V. Unitas-Hetania in Würzburg. On June 15, 1975 he received the sacrament of ordination through Bishop Eduard Schick , with whom he is not related, in Fulda Cathedral and then worked as chaplain in Neuhof (near Fulda) and president of the Kolping family there. He then devoted himself to doctoral studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome , which he completed on November 19, 1980 with a dissertation on the threefold ministry of Christ and the Church. Concluded the creation and development of the trilogies .

Church career

Archbishop Schick (center) at the opening of the tent of religions , Bamberg 2012

Since 1981 Schick taught in Fulda and at the catholic seminar of the Philipps University in Marburg from 1985 to 2002. He was professor for canon law .

From 1981 to 1987 he worked at the Episcopal Office of Fulda and from 1981 to 1993 Ecumenical Advisor and Chairman of the Ecumenical Commission. In 1987 he was appointed cathedral capitular in the diocese of Fulda and on September 1, 1995 appointed vicar general of the diocese. Pope John Paul II , who had already awarded him the title of Papal Honorary Prelate in 1996 , appointed Schick on May 20, 1998 titular bishop of Auzia and auxiliary bishop in Fulda. The episcopal ordination received his Archbishop Johannes Dyba on 12 July of that year. His motto is: Sapientia nobis a Deo (" Jesus Christ , our wisdom, given by God)". During his time in Fulda, he was also President of the Kolping Family Rothemann.

On June 28, 2002, John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bamberg and on September 21 of the same year he was solemnly initiated into his office by the Apostolic Nuncio Giovanni Lajolo . On June 29, 2003, Schick received the pallium from Pope John Paul II in Rome .

In the German Bishops' Conference , Schick is a member of the World Church Commission and the Pastoral Commission. At the autumn 2006 general assembly, he was elected to succeed Franz Kamphaus as chairman of the World Church Commission of the German Bishops' Conference. a. coordinates the work of the Catholic aid organizations Missio , Misereor , Adveniat and Renovabis .

In 2007 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master John Patrick Cardinal Foley and invested on September 15, 2007 by Reinhard Marx , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy .

Horst Seehofer paid tribute to the sporting activities of Schicks on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2009: In order to network the Catholic Church with other socially relevant cultural institutions, he intensified pastoral care in sports clubs or in the context of the football world championship, a commitment that is achieved through personal activities in the sporting field is supported in its credibility.

Functions and memberships

In Africa 2009

Ludwig Schick is a member of the following supra-diocesan bodies:

Foundations

Archbishop Ludwig Schick founded two foundations in Bamberg, the Kinderreich family foundation and the Bread for All People Foundation .

Kinderreich family foundation

The Kinderreich Family Foundation aims to put Schick's ideas about families into practice. According to these, the family is the original cell of social and church life. It provides a holistic education on how to be human. From Schick's point of view, values ​​such as consideration, helpfulness, forgiveness and a new beginning are promoted daily in the family.

Bread for All People Foundation

With his Bread for All People Foundation , Schick pursues a threefold objective. On the one hand, it is intended to promote small-scale agriculture in developing countries . Furthermore, it wants to help ensure that high-quality seeds , fertilizers and irrigation systems are available to smallholders . The second mainstay of the foundation is the imparting of know-how, especially in agricultural training. An agricultural school is to be promoted in Senegal or Niger . Thirdly, financial resources should be available for acute emergencies, especially in the Sahel zone and in North Africa , where crop failures occur again and again after extraordinary periods of drought. Funding will be made available to people at risk of starvation to buy food.

Archbishop's coat of arms

Archbishop's coat of arms

The blazon reads: square ; in fields 1 and 4 in gold a right- facing, red- armed black lion covered with a silver diagonal right-hand bar ; in field 2 a silver book in red , the cover of which is decorated with the interlaced Greek letters chi and rho drawn in black, the Christ monogram Chrismon, on the sides of which the letters alpha and omega ; in field 3, in blue, a woven silver basket with five silver loaves.

Symbolism: Fields 1 and 4 show the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Bamberg, Fields 2 and 3 the private components of the previous auxiliary bishop's coat of arms. Book and bread stand for the word of God in the Gospel and for the Eucharist , at the same time also for the Fulda diocese saint Bonifatius (book of the good news) and Elisabeth of Thuringia (bread of charity). Biographically, they symbolize Marburg as the place of baptism and Fulda as the place of consecration for Ludwig Schicks.

The shield is surrounded by the heraldic rank symbols of a metropolitan (archbishop): the golden double cross, the green prelate's hat with ten green tassels on each side and the white pallium . The pallium and the two-beam lecture cross are the symbols of rank of a ruling metropolitan of a church province . Below the shield and pallium, on a white ribbon, is the personal motto of Schicks: “Sapientia nobis a Deo” - “The wisdom that has been given to us by God” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Episcopal insignia

"Council ring", as Pope Paul VI. at the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965 to all participating bishops

The miter is a gift for Schicks episcopal ordination from the parish , in which he worked as a subsidiar for 22 years . It was made by Sister Hilaris Haarengel OSB in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary in Fulda. Schick attached great importance to a deliberately simple design. In the center there is an embroidered cross decorated with a single pearl. For him this means: As a bishop, I have to point beyond myself to Jesus Christ , the crucified and risen Lord. He with his gospel is the pearl for which everything is worth selling in order to acquire.

The pectoral cross was made in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey . The diagram IHS (Jesus) is applied in gold on a silver background. The meaning of the diagram changed from a mere name symbol to a message of salvation from ancient times to the Middle Ages. The theologians of the Middle Ages understood IHS to be the abbreviation for Jesus Hominum Salvator = Jesus, Redeemer of the people . Schick understands the symbol on his pectoral cross in the medieval reading as a reference to Jesus, in whom God became man.

The bishop's ring is a real council ring, Pope Paul VI. gave to all bishops at the end of the council. It is a gift from Eduard Schick , who attended all the sessions of the council. Schick sees the ring as a sign of loyalty both to his archdiocese and to the post-conciliar church.

Positions

Ludwig Schick, Hof 2011

Importance of church music

Schick also sees religious celebrations as an effective healing space in which people can regain harmony with their best efforts. In this context, according to Schick, church music unfolds a therapeutic effect in that - and this applies to both harmonic and dissonant compositions - it leads the disharmony of the world to the harmony of God and can thus bring about healing. Schick emphasizes the missionary character of church music, which an artistically high quality music is able to realize. "Church music lets God feel and perceive by creating silence and leading into the depths of the human soul."

Reforms in the Church

In connection with the affair of Bishop Walter Mixa in 2010, Schick spoke out in favor of a renewal of the church. He also considered a relaxation of the celibacy of Catholic priests and a stronger engagement of women in the Church.

sustainability

In his function as chairman of the World Church Commission, Schick calls for a more conscious use of food that is irresponsibly wasted in the western world. The Archbishop describes the climate change caused by the industrialized nations as the main cause of hunger in poor countries, where drought or floods could cause ever smaller harvests. Therefore, the next UN climate conference must bring concrete results against CO 2 emissions, the monopoly of food and the purchase of large areas of land and water must be prevented. The people in the industrialized nations would have to make their contribution to reducing hunger in the world through conscious nutrition, energy saving and consumption. "When arable land, food and water supplies become objects of speculation for the rich of this world, the poor are the total losers."

Anti-blasphemy law

At the beginning of August 2012, after a controversial publication by the satirical magazine Titanic , which had recently been published, Schick demanded that blasphemy be made a criminal offense. In this context, he declared: "Anyone who hurts the soul of believers with mockery and mockery must be put in their place and, if necessary, punished" and demanded that a "law against the mockery of religious values ​​and feelings" should not only be Christianity, but protect all religions. Mockery and satire about religious attitudes represented a violation of human dignity . Schick explained that although paragraph 166 of the penal code existed , it had been completely forgotten and was hardly ever applied. No mockery and scorn should be allowed against “holy persons, holy scriptures, worship services and prayers as well as holy objects and implements of all religions”.

Schicks's demand sparked controversy. Thomas Goppel ( CSU ) supported the request, but other parties ( FDP , SPD and Die Linke ) met with rejection. The parliamentary manager of the Greens Volker Beck stated: “Believers do not need any other criminal protection against defamation, abuse and agitation than other social groups.” Franz Maget , church expert of the Bavarian SPD, did not consider the initiative necessary because blasphemy does not represent a relevant social problem . The satirical website Der Postillon also took up Schicks utterances.

Condemnation of the witch craze

On August 27, 2012, the Archdiocese of Bamberg condemned the witch craze with the persecution and killing of innocent people and confirmed the request for forgiveness from 2007. This request also applies today and for the future, emphasized Archbishop Schick, and added: “Catholic officials and other church members have done wrong. A terrible thing has happened to the victims and their families. According to our current understanding of law, the processes that were conducted are injustice and the judgments are therefore null and void. "

Against racism and anti-Semitism

Bishop Schick repeatedly spoke out against racist and anti-Semitic statements and movements in public .

In connection with the dismissal of a Bamberg student from the Würzburg seminary in summer 2013, who, according to an external commission of inquiry, told at least three “completely unacceptable and unbearable concentration camp jokes” and also imitated Adolf Hitler , Schick said: “I am worried about anti-Semitic and Racist expressions and tendencies as well as the glorification of Nazi symbols and nationalism in our society to the utmost - especially when it happens in the church. "

At a sermon on December 18, 2014 in Drügen village in Upper Franconia , Schick expressed his disapproval of the actions of the Pegida protest movement, which is critical of Islam . He did not contradict Pegida's core thesis that Islam is getting stronger. The problem is that Christianity is getting weaker. Instead of demonstrating, Christians should enter into a “dialogue of truth and love with those who think differently”. Even after protests against this statement, Schick emphatically reiterated his appeal to all Christians not to take part in Pegida actions. To justify this, he wrote that, according to analyzes by experts and institutions, Pegida was something that “wholly or partially does not agree with Christian principles and the values ​​of the Gospel”. Then Schick received - according to information from the diocese "every day" - in letters, emails and on Facebook hateful comments up to death threats.

After Schick responded at a panel discussion in Nuremberg in November 2016 to the question of whether the Catholic Church would also accept a Muslim as Federal President that the Church would accept any decision made by a democratic majority, he received hostility and death threats, especially from supporters the AfD . The mayors of the episcopal city of Bamberg condemned the "hate speech" against the archbishop. Schick added that he doubts that such a decision would "find support from society".

With regard to the attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, Schick said that anyone who is aware of the name of this city must feel disgust.

Publications (selection)

Books

Honors

Ludwig Schick (2018)

literature

  • Michael Kleiner and Elke Pilkenroth: My faith lives from YOU. Insights into the work and everyday life of Bamberg Archbishop Ludwig Schick. Bayerische Verlagsanstalt Bamberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89889-150-9 .
  • Wilfried Dettling and Siegfried Grillmeyer. In cooperation with the Academy Caritas-Pirckheimer-Haus: Igniting the fire: the message of the Gospel in a global world . Echter, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-429-03191-6 .

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Schick  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nomina dell'Arcivescovo Metropolita di Bamberg (Repubblica Federale di Germania). In: Holy See Press Office: Daily Bulletin of June 28, 2002.
  2. ↑ Michael Kleiner and Elke Pilkenroth: My faith lives from YOU. Insights into the work and everyday life of Bamberg Archbishop Ludwig Schick. Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg 2009.
  3. ^ German Bishops' Conference: Press release of September 20, 2016, No. 175
  4. ^ Family foundation Kinderreich accessed in October 2011.
  5. ↑ Bread for All People Foundation ( Memento from December 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed October 2011.
  6. ↑ Interview with Archbishop Ludwig Schick. In: Musica sacra 124th year, issue 2, Bärenreiter Kassel 2004, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Interview with Archbishop Ludwig Schick. In: Spiegel online on May 8, 2010.
  8. ↑ Archbishop Ludwig Schick on World Food Day 2011. In: Heinrichsblatt, church newspaper of the Archdiocese of Bamberg 118th Volume No. 43. Bamberg October 23, 2011.
  9. ^ Bishop calls for anti-blasphemy law. In: sueddeutsche.de, August 1, 2012
  10. ^ Debate about the ban on blasphemy. In: sueddeutsche.de, August 2, 2012
  11. ↑ A possible ban on blasphemy is not supported by political parties . In: welt.de, August 2, 2012
  12. ↑ Blasphemy! Archbishop thinks God is too weak to punish blasphemy itself. The Postillon , August 2, 2012, accessed on August 3, 2012 .
  13. ↑ Archbishopric Bamberg condemns witchcraft and confirms request for forgiveness statement from Archbishop Schick of August 27, 2012.
  14. ^ Nazi allegations in the Würzburg seminary. www.badische-zeitung.de, August 1, 2013
  15. ↑ Archbishop Schick: Christians are not allowed to participate in Pegida . Rheinische Post Online , December 18, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  16. ↑ New criticism of Pegida. Katholisch.de , December 22, 2014, accessed January 22, 2015 .
  17. ^ Criticism of Pegida: Bishop receives death threats. www.welt.de, March 9, 2016
  18. ^ Report in the regional broadcaster TV-Oberfranken
  19. ↑ Schick: Muslim Federal President would be justifiable , Vatican Radio , October 29, 2016, accessed on January 10, 2017
  20. ↑ 49 dead: Worldwide horror after terrorist attack in New Zealand. www.br.de, March 15, 2019
  21. ↑ Video from June 12, 2010
predecessor Office successor
Karl Braun Archbishop of Bamberg
since 2002 		---
personal data
SURNAME Schick, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, Archbishop of Bamberg
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg