Episcopal Munster officialate

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Diocese of Münster (brown) with the Oldenburg official district (dark brown)
coat of arms

The Bischöflich Münstersche Officialat is a regional church authority of the Roman Catholic diocese of Münster with its seat in Vechta . The church authority, founded in 1831, performs far-reaching church tasks in this area of ​​the diocese of Münster, the official district of Oldenburg. Its jurisdiction covers the Lower Saxony parts of the diocese of Münster - the historical state of Oldenburg without neighboring countries, i.e. with minor deviations the districts of Vechta , Cloppenburg , Oldenburg , Ammerland , Wesermarsch and Friesland as well as the citiesOldenburg , Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven .

history

The Oldenburger Münsterland used to be, together with most of the Emsland, the northern part ( Niederstift ) of the Principality of Münster . As a result, the Reformation was unable to gain a permanent foothold in these areas, and the population is still Catholic with a clear majority.

In 1821, the circumscription bull " De salute animarum " was used to rewrite the Catholic dioceses in Germany after the Congress of Vienna for the Kingdom of Prussia . The bull "De salute animarum" reached beyond Prussia. Because the Duchy of Oldenburg , the heartland of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , was added to the Diocese of Münster - without consulting Duke Peter I of Oldenburg . The duke wanted his Catholic subjects not to be subordinate to a bishop who in turn owed loyalty to the Prussian king. Since the establishment of an Oldenburg regional diocese was out of the question, he endeavored to delegate as much ecclesiastical authority as possible to an instance within his country. His negotiating partner on the ecclesiastical side was Prince Joseph von Hohenzollern , who was Prince-Bishop of Warmia and resided at Oliva Castle. Joseph von Hohenzollern had been appointed by the Pope to be the “executor” of the bull; H. charged with their implementation.

After lengthy negotiations, on January 5, 1830, the “Agreement for the Regulation of Diocesan Affairs of the Catholic Inhabitants of the Duchy of Oldenburg” was signed, usually referred to as the “Oliva Convention” after the place of negotiation, the seat of the Prince-Bishop. This created a "Bischöflich Münstersches officialate" and granted its official a wide range of autonomy vis-à-vis the Bishop of Münster. Together with the normative for the exercise of sovereign sovereignty (jus circa sacra) over the Roman Catholic Church in Herzogthume Oldenburg , the “Convention of Oliva” was put into effect by Grand Duke August I on April 5, 1831.

Official seat of the official on Bahnhofstrasse in Vechta

The Concordat between the Holy See and the State of Lower Saxony of February 26, 1965 confirmed the “Convention of Oliva”: “The part of the Diocese of Münster (the former State of Oldenburg) located in Lower Saxony will remain as a special ecclesiastical administrative district, the direction of which is the Bishop of Münster will continue to be entrusted to a permanent deputy with the powers he has been entitled to so far. "

Canon law regulations

At the head of the office is the official. Since Max Georg von Twickel's episcopal ordination in 1973 (official since 1970), the respective official has also been auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Münster. With regard to his official powers, he is almost equal to a diocesan bishop . The official powers of the Bischöflich Munster official correspond roughly to those of a vicar general .

In the Münster cathedral chapter, the posts of two non-resident cathedral capitulars are given to members of the Oldenburg clergy.

The staff of the Bischöflich Münster official office accompany the Catholic associations and forty parishes in eight deaneries between Wangerooge and Damme in technical matters, supervise over sixty church foundations and support and control the administrations of church institutions.

The church-political construct of the "Bischöflich Munster Officialat" in Vechta is unique in the world and therefore a destination and research object for canon lawyers from all over the world.

In the German diocese landscape, the distribution of the diocese between two federal states is also rare, if not unique. The largest part is in North Rhine-Westphalia , the smaller part in Lower Saxony . The official district of Oldenburg is ecclesiastically oriented towards Münster and belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne , but in terms of concordat - this concerns e.g. B. Topics such as education, construction, health and social affairs, finance and tax law - Lower Saxony law applies. The official office in Vechta therefore cooperates closely with the Lower Saxony dioceses of Hildesheim and Osnabrück and the Archdiocese of Hamburg on many issues .

Social facilities

In addition to the parishes, a dense network of educational and charitable institutions is connected to the official office, including 114 church kindergartens and day-care centers and nine church high schools and grammar schools in Vechta, Cloppenburg, Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven. Over 12,000 employees work in the official district in institutions of the Church and Caritas - for example in parishes, schools, advice centers, care facilities, hospitals and in refugee aid.

Catholic Church in the region

The Catholic Church is traditionally very deeply rooted in the region. The church as an institution with the official church authority, the parishes and the numerous institutions is one of the largest employers in the Oldenburger Land.

List of officials

Officials were:

structure

The official district of Oldenburg (the geographical name of the area administered by the Bischöflich Münsterischen officialate) comprises 8 deaneries :

The Oldenburg Official District has a total of 40  parishes . The number of Catholics is 265,000. The seat of the official, who is auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Münster , is the provost church of St. Georg . The northernmost parish is the St. Willehad parish on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge (Deanery Wilhelmshaven), the southernmost St. Viktor in Damme (Deanery Damme).

In addition to the church committees and parish councils, there are three central bodies in the official district:

  • The Church Tax Council , chaired by the Episcopal Official, decides on the budget of the Official Council - in 2015 it amounted to 82.8 million euros.
  • The Pastoral Council is the auxiliary bishop's highest advisory body on pastoral issues.
  • The Committee of Catholic Associations represents 25 associations with over 45,000 members.

Churches

See: Church building in the Oldenburg official district

literature

  • Willi Baumann, Peter Sieve: The Catholic clergy in the Oldenburger Land. Dialogverlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-937961-32-1 .
  • Helmut Hinxlage: The history of the Bischöflich Muenster officialate in Vechta. Vechta 1991, ISBN 3-88441-043-1 .
  • Heinz-Joachim Schulze: The justification of the Bischöflich-Münster official office in Vechta . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Vol. 62 (1963), Part 1, Pages 71–121 ( online )
  • Max Georg von Twickel: The Catholic church order in Oldenburg after 1803. Origin and development of regional independence in association with the diocese of Münster . Aschendorff, Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-402-13055-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alwin Hanschmidt : 600 years of Niederstift Münster - 1400 to 2000 . Part 2: 1803: The dismemberment of the Niederstift Münster - creation of the Oldenburger Münsterland . In: Jahrbuch für das Oldenburger Münsterland , Vol. 50 (2001), pp. 8–32, here p. 11.
  2. ^ Alwin Hanschmidt: 600 years of Niederstift Münster - 1400 to 2000 . In: Yearbook for the Oldenburger Münsterland , vol. 50 (2001), p. 12.
  3. ↑ Anton Eichhorn : The execution of the bull "De salute animarum" in the individual dioceses of the Prussian state by the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, Prince Joseph of Hohenzollern . In: Magazine for the history and archeology of Warmia . Volume 5, year 1870–1874, pp. 1–130.
  4. ↑ De salute animarum , § 42: “In Exequutorem itaque praesentium Nostrarum Literarum praedictum Venerabilem Fratrem Iosephum Episcopum Warmiensem, de cuius prudentia, doctrina, atque integritate plurimam in Domino fiduciam habemus, expresse nominus, expresse nominus”
  5. ↑ country Magnificent Regulation concerning regulation of the affairs of the Diöcesan Cathol. Inhabitants of the Duchy of Oldenburg a. the inheritance of Jever on April 5, 1831 .
  6. ^ Concordat between the Holy See and the State of Lower Saxony of February 26, 1965 . Art. 2, Para. 3.
  7. ↑ Concordat between the Holy See and the State of Lower Saxony of February 26, 1965. Art. 3, para. 3.
  8. ↑ Officialat presents budget figures for 2015 ( memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 22, 2015