Vitus Huonder

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Bishop Vitus Huonder (2013)
Episcopal coat of arms

Vitus Huonder (born April 21, 1942 in Trun , Canton of Graubünden , Switzerland ) is a Roman Catholic clergyman and emeritus bishop of Chur .

Life

Vitus Huonder attended the grammar school of the Disentis Abbey School from 1958 to 1963 . Until 1971 he studied philosophy and theology in Maria Einsiedeln , at the Papal Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome and at the University of Freiburg in Üechtland . On September 25, 1971 Vitus Huonder received by Bishop Johannes Vonderach in the parish church Thalwil the priesthood . In 1973 he was at the University of Freiburg with his dissertation Israel, Son of God. For the interpretation of the Old Testament theme in Jewish exegesis of the Middle Ages to the doctor of theology doctorate . He then worked as a university assistant in Freiburg until 1976 and as a lecturer for the Old Testament at the Chur Theological University . From 1976 to 1988 he was pastor in the pastoral ministry in Kilchberg ZH (1976–1982), Sachseln OW (1982–1984) and Egg ZH (1984–1988).

In 1989 , Vitus Huonder completed his habilitation in liturgical science at the University of Freiburg. In 1990 he was appointed cathedral canon in Chur and vicar general for Graubünden , Glarus and the Principality of Liechtenstein by Bishop Wolfgang Haas . In 1991 he was invested in the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem . From 1993 to 1998 he held various teaching positions in liturgical science in Freiburg and Chur. In 1998 the Bishop of Chur, Amédée Grab , confirmed him as Vicar General for Graubünden and appointed him moderator of the Episcopal Curia ( Moderator Curiae ).

On July 6, 2007, the Chur Cathedral Chapter elected Vitus Huonder as Bishop of Chur from a Terna of the Roman Congregation for the Bishops submitted by the Holy See . Pope Benedict XVI confirmed this election on July 8, 2007. He was ordained bishop on September 8, 2007 in Einsiedeln Abbey . The episcopal ordination received his his predecessor, Bishop Amédée grave OSB; Co -consecrators were Archbishop Francesco Canalini , Apostolic Nuncio in Switzerland, and Kurt Koch , Bishop of Basel. The motto of Bishop Huonder is Instaurare omnia in Christo (Renew everything in Christ).

After Bishop Huonder submitted his resignation in April 2017 in view of his 75th birthday, Pope Francis extended Huonder's term of office by two years. After the two years, the term of office was extended to an unknown period. On 20 May 2019 Pope Francis took his resignation as bishop of Chur and sat on May 20, 2019 Emeritus Bishop of Reykjavik , Pierre Bürcher , as apostolic administrator of the vacant bishopric of Chur one.

Act

Shortly after its publication in 2007, Huonder supported the Catholic traditionalist website gloria.tv with a letter of recommendation. In March 2013 , however , he distanced himself from gloria.tv and dismissed its individual authorized signatory Reto Nay as parish administrator of Tujetsch . Huonder had already warned Nay last year about his collaboration with the right-wing extremist blog kreuz.net .

Vitus Huonder has been a member of the Episcopal Commission "Ecclesia celebrans" since January 6, 2011.

Bishop Huonder is repeatedly criticized for his statements, for example for the statement that divine law takes precedence over secular law or for his views on sex education.

In the pastoral letter Gender - the deep untruth of a theory , published on December 10, 2013 for the “Day of Human Rights” , Huonder spoke out against what he said was the state appropriation of children through the political questioning of marriage and family. So-called genderism is primarily about gender equality on all levels of society, but marriage and the family are actually attacked as the supporting structures of society. Injustice in the relationship between the sexes cannot be remedied by denying the differences between the sexes. The creation of man as man and woman is a requirement of the Creator that man cannot and must not dispose of. In addition, genderism is scientifically untenable, it harms men, women and children. According to the NZZ, his spokesman Giuseppe Gracia added that the bishop encouraged the faithful to vote in all pending referendums on marriage, family, sex education, adoption by same-sex couples or health insurance funding according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, for example in the popular initiative "Abortion financing is a private matter", which wanted to forbid the health insurances from paying abortions from the basic insurance, or the initiative of the CVP , with which marriage is to be defined as a partnership between man and woman at constitutional level.

Rolf Trechsel, a board member of the gay organization Pink Cross , told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that “pretty much nothing” was right about Huonder's statements on the gender concept. To describe the adoption of children by homosexuals as "extradition" is a "monstrous word and a mean, cheap polemic that lacks any philanthropy". This also applies to the claim that children who grow up in same-sex relationships are harmed in their psychological development. This is "refuted by countless scientific studies".

In mid-February 2014, the Diocese of Chur announced that over 3000 letters of thanks had been received for this pastoral letter alone, including from neighboring countries and members of other denominations, for which Huonder publicly thanked.

At the end of July 2015, Huonder gave a lecture on the occasion of the Joy in Faith Congress of the Forum of German Catholics in Fulda with the title Marriage - Gift, Sacrament and Mission . In addition to applause, he triggered criticism, especially in Switzerland, for the mention of two passages from the Old Testament, including Lev 20.13  EU , of which he took the view that “the two cited passages alone would suffice to raise the question of homosexuality to give the right turn to the view of faith ”. This statement has been understood several times as a call to violence against homosexuals. In two statements in August 2015, Huonder expressed that he of course “does not stand for the Old Testament call for the death penalty for homosexual people” and regretted having been so misunderstood. In October 2015, the Graubünden public prosecutor closed a case that had been opened following a complaint by the Pink Cross organization; The Cantonal Court of Graubünden subsequently rejected a complaint, as Huonder's conduct had not been criminal. The Diocese of Chur was not surprised by the outcome of the proceedings.

In 2019, Vitus Huonder announced that, after his retirement in April 2019, he would move to the Institut Sancta Maria in Wangs (canton St. Gallen), a boarding school for boys of the traditionalist Brotherhood of St. Pius X. Huonder justified this step by saying that he was The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had been commissioned to maintain contact with the fraternity that was not recognized by the church. At the request of the press, the Vatican denied such an order. According to the diocese spokesman Giuseppe Gracia, Huonder appealed to Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller , the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Fonts

  • Israel, Son of God: On the Interpretation of an Old Testament Theme in Jewish Exegesis of the Middle Ages. (Dissertation) Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973, ISBN 3-525-53307-1 .
  • In Search of God: The Christian Faith and the Other Religions. Kanisius, Freiburg 1982, ISBN 3-85764-141-X .
  • Venena of grace. Kanisius, Freiburg 1984, ISBN 3-85764-170-3 .
  • To celebrate Sunday. Kanisius, Freiburg 1986.
  • The psalms in the liturgia horarum. (Habilitation thesis) Universitätsverlag, Freiburg 1991, ISBN 3-7278-0758-X .

Web links

Commons : Vitus Huonder  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bistum-chur.ch/aktuelles/papst-franziskus-verlaengert-amtszeit-von-bischof-vitus-huonder/
  2. ↑ Clickwerk AG: Bishop Vitus Huonder remains in office for the time being (Communiqué) | Diocese of Chur. Accessed April 23, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ Vitus Huonder is no longer Bishop of Chur. In: tagesanzeiger.ch . May 20, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019 .
  4. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Chur (Svizzera) e nomina dell'Amministratore Apostolico “sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis”. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, May 20, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019 (Italian).
  5. ↑ Vitus Huonder is no longer Bishop of Chur. In: tagesanzeiger.ch . May 20, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019 .
  6. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Chur (Svizzera) e nomina dell'Amministratore Apostolico “sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis”. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, May 20, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019 (Italian).
  7. ↑ Joel Bedetti, Pascal Sigg: They call him Don Reto. ( Memento from October 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Die Zeit , April 18, 2013.
  8. ↑ Switzerland: Gloria.tv employees dismissed by the bishop , Vatican Radio , March 15, 2013.
  9. ↑ Swastikas: Bishop of Chur removes pastor from his office. Catholic International Press Agency , March 15, 2013
  10. ^ Daniel Klingenberg: "Jesus was not a populist" ( Memento from January 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), St. Galler Tagblatt , June 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ Switzerland: Appointment for Bishop Huonder , Vatican Radio , February 21, 2011.
  12. ↑ Daniel Meier: The lonely bishop . In: NZZ on Sunday March 25, 2017
  13. ↑ Simone Rau: Bishop Huonder relativizes human rights. Tages-Anzeiger , December 6, 2011.
  14. ↑ Pascal Hollenstein: «There is a right to resistance». (Interview), NZZ am Sonntag , December 4, 2011.
  15. ↑ http://www.bistum-chur.ch/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Wort_des_Bischofs_VIII_2013.pdf
  16. ^ "Abortion financing is a private matter" initiative , rejected in the referendum on February 9, 2014
  17. ↑ The vote on the initiative “For marriage and family - against the marriage penalty” is still pending.
  18. ^ Vitus Huonder. Chur's bishop dismisses homosexuals. NZZ on Sunday, December 8, 2013
  19. ↑ http://www.kath.net/news/44910
  20. ↑ Michael Meier: Huonder continues to incite against gay marriage - The Chur bishop recalls the biblical death penalty for gays. Tagesanzeiger.ch, August 3, 2015, accessed on May 11, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Text of the short lecture (PDF)
  22. ↑ Bishop from Switzerland speaks of the death penalty for homosexuals , Telepolis, August 3, 2015.
  23. ↑ Death penalty for homosexuals: Swiss bishop takes an evil tone , huffingtonpost.de, August 3, 2015.
  24. ↑ Swiss bishop again attacked gays , kurier.at, August 3, 2015.
  25. ↑ Bishop brings the death penalty into play for homosexuals - but how are they supposed to die? , wochenblatt.de, August 7, 2015.
  26. ↑ http://www.bistum-chur.ch/aktuelles/stellungnahme-des-bischofs-bedauern-ueber-missverstaendis/
  27. ↑ http://www.bistum-chur.ch/aktuelles/stellungnahme-bischof-vitus-huonder/
  28. ↑ Huonder: PINK CROSS files a complaint against the discontinuation order. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .
  29. ↑ https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/aktuelle-themen/kantonsgericht-graubuenden-schwulenverband-scheitert-mit-haben-gegen-bischof-huonder-ld.83745
  30. ↑ https://www.katholisch.de/aktuelles/aktuelle-artikel/kontakt-zu-piusbrudern-doch-kein-vatikan-order-fur-huonder
  31. ↑ Bürcher becomes Apostolic Administrator. Domradio from May 20, 2019
predecessor Office successor
Amédée grave OSB Bishop of Chur
2007–2019 		Pierre Bürcher
(Ap. Administrator)
personal data
SURNAME Huonder, Vitus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss theologian and Bishop of Chur
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Trun , Canton of Graubünden