Hessian dioceses: the New Bishop, and soon fewer parishes

The eyes of many Catholics is addressed in the next year to Fulda: There is expected with great excitement the inauguration of the new Bishop. In the diocese of Limburg, the “New” is almost the “Old”: Bishop Georg Bätzing is there for the third year in office. In the diocese of the dismissal of his predecessor, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst anniversary in 2019 for the fifth Time. One, however, combines the dioceses in the state of Hesse, one of which is the diocese of Mainz: you are planning structural changes. Also, the processing of the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

For the bishopric of Fulda, appointed by Pope Francis on 13. December Michael Gerber to the new shepherds. Gerber was previously auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Freiburg. In Fulda, the forty-eight years old, the youngest Bishop of the Catholic Church in Germany. He is on the 31. March introduced in Dom in his office.

The new appointment was necessary Algermissen, due to the retirement of his predecessor, Heinz Josef. In September, Algermissen, had stood for 17 years at the helm of the diocese, with a solemn adopted. Bishop Karlheinz Diez took over temporarily the management of the bishopric. Until the appointment of Gerber, he will remain at the top of the diocese.

number of parishes should be cut in half

Gerber wrote in an open letter to the faithful in the diocese of Fulda, he was happy, the people there get to know. “In the coming months and years will be marked by many encounters with them.” In the new year a lot of work is waiting for the Bishop in Fulda. Because in the diocese of conversion processes to the reorganization. You want to make the Church in the district fit for the year 2030. This is due to the decline of the faithful, for example, to mergers of municipalities and administrative structures.

Also in the diocese of Mainz is working on a structural reform. The number of parishes is to be halved, according to current plans, by 2030 more than: there Are currently 134 parishes, should it be in the future, only about 60. The has announced that Bishop Peter Kohl count in September. He said that he wanted to discuss everything in the bodies of the diocese. His ideas are not set “in stone”.

A coordination body for the project started on July 1. November. Until the summer of 2021, a concept will be developed. Cabbage Graf spoke in September of a “new culture of cooperation” and was open to the question of whether lay people are involved in the governance of municipalities.