Wilhelm Wissing

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Prelate Wilhelm Wissing (born January 31, 1916 in Köckelwick, Vreden ; † November 12, 1996 in Coesfeld ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman . He was president of the papal mission organization Missio , federal president of the Catholic rural youth movement and head of the Catholic office in Bonn. He was also the first superior general of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers .

Life

As a schoolboy he was involved in Catholic youth work as a member of the young men’s association . Soon after Hitler came to power in 1933, restrictions on Catholic youth work were also felt in Vreden. There were assaults and fights after the group lessons and young guide meetings. Because of his refusal to join the Hitler Youth, he was threatened that he would not pass his Abitur. After graduating from high school, he began his studies in Münster , where in 1936 he took over the leadership of the Catholic youth group in the diocese of Münster . From 1941 to 1945 Wissing was called up for military service in the Wehrmacht, where he was deployed on the Eastern Front and in Yugoslavia "in partisan hunt".

On December 21, 1946 he was ordained a priest in Münster, after which he worked in pastoral care. In 1949 Wissing became a diocesan youth pastor, three years later Federal Curate of the Catholic rural youth movement . During this time he founded the rural youth academy in Klausenhof. In 1958, the German episcopate Wissing transferred the leadership of the commissariat of the German bishops in Bonn (so-called Catholic office ). There, Wissing succeeded in establishing a cooperation between church and state in the field of development aid. In 1963 he founded the Catholic Central Agency for Development Aid as a coordination office. On January 28, 1970, he took over the management of the Catholic Mission Center ( Missio ) in Aachen. In the same year he was called to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples , the highest Roman missionary authority. On June 1, 1986, Wissing was retired as head of Missio. In recognition of his life's work and his services to his hometown Vreden, the City Council of Vreden decided on March 9, 1986 to grant him honorary citizenship.

After leaving Missio, Prelate Wilhelm Wissing spent the rest of his life in Coesfeld St. Lamberti, where he died on November 12, 1996.

Schoenstatt Movement

Wilhelm Wissing had a major influence on the development of the Schoenstatt Movement . In 1964 he became apostolic administrator in the Schoenstatt case. From 1965 to 1968 General Superior of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers and thus also Chairman of the General Presidium of the international Schoenstatt Movement.

honors and awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kristian Buchna: A clerical decade? Church, Denomination and Politics in the Federal Republic during the 1950s. Baden-Baden 2014, p. 344.
  2. ^ Prelate Wilhelm Wissing - An extraordinary man - also in the service of Schoenstatt. Schoenstatt, accessed on April 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
predecessor Office successor
- Superior General of the Schoenstatt Fathers
1965–1968 		Bodo-Maria Erhard
personal data
SURNAME Wissing, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, president of the papal missionary organization
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Vreden
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1996
Place of death Coesfeld