Joseph Höffner

Joseph Cardinal Hoffner ( born December 24, 1906 in Horhausen (Westerwald ), † October 16, 1987 in Cologne) was from 1962 to 1969 the 73rd Bishop of Münster and from 1969 to 1987 and Archbishop of Cologne from 1976 to 1987 chairman of the German Bishops' Conference.

Life

Joseph Hoffner was born on 24 December 1906 as the eldest son of the farmer Paul Hoffner and his wife Helene, born Schug, in Horhausen (Westerwald ), in the south, predominantly Catholic part of the district of Old churches. He attended the Kaiser- Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Montabaur and in 1922 the humanist Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Trier, where he took off in 1926 -leaving examination.

From 1926 to 1934 Hoffner studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he acquired in 1929 and his first doctorate ( Dr. phil. ). In October 1932, he was ordained a priest. 1934 Hoffner earned his second doctorate ( Dr. theol. ) In Rome. After a short period in pastoral 1937-1939 he studied in Freiburg, where he 1938 Dr. theol. once acquired, in 1939 graduated in economics in 1940 and Dr. rer. pol. received his doctorate. He was, until his death in 1987, the only living German, who had a doctorate in quadruplicate.

In 1945 he completed his Habilitation in Freiburg and was in Trier professor of pastoral theology and Christian social teaching. Since 1951 he was the successor of Franz heat and Heinrich Weber Professor of Christian Social Sciences at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. In the same year he founded the Institute for Christian Social Sciences. Höffners curriculum included: the foundation of the Christian Social Teaching ( social philosophy ), economic, social, state, labor and professional ethics, marriage and family sociology, sociology of religion, social policy, particularly social security in industrial society, history and theory of capitalism, liberalism and socialism. The seminars were regulatory new concepts of soil and land use planning, the pension reform, discussed socio-political problems of the craft and the peasantry as well as the sociology of religion issues.

Höffners teaching and research was closely connected with his duties as a scientific policy advisor to the Federal Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs, for housing and for Labour and Social Affairs. In this capacity, Hoffner had a decisive influence on the development of social policy, on the reorganization and expansion of social security in the Adenauer era. His concept of social order was consistent with the economic system of the social market economy.

Was on 14 September 1962 Joseph Hoffner by the Bishop of Trier, Matthias Wehr, consecrated bishop of Münster. On January 6, 1969, he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings, while Titular Archbishop of Aquileia. On February 24, 1969, he was the successor of Frings as Archbishop of Cologne; on April 28 of that year, Pope Paul VI. him as cardinal priest with the titular church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in the College of Cardinals.

From 1976 to 1987 he was, like his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Frings, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference. In 1986 he was awarded the Honorary Ring of the Gorres Society for his work. In the same year was Hoffner, the " emanating from an unleashed nuclear dangers " were " because of its awfulness and because of their many generations injurious effects of high special kind ". For this he earned criticism from the ranks of the CDU and Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss. In January 1987, he declared that the Greens are not selectable for a Christian party. The Office of the Archbishop of Cologne, he resigned on September 14, 1987, a month before his death. His final resting place Cardinal Hoffner in the archbishop's tomb in the Cathedral. Was succeeded in February 1989 by Cardinal Joachim Meisner.

Joseph Cardinal Hoffner is one of the founders of the Christian Social Teaching (CGL ) as a science. Since the founding of the Federal Catholic Entrepreneurs ( BKU ) 1949 Hoffner was the first scientific and spiritual advisor.

Honors and named properties

As Bishop of Münster Hoffner in 1962 an honorary member of the Catholic Student Association Westfalia Mazenod in the KV to which he had been a professor contacts. As archbishop of Cologne, he became an honorary member of the Catholic Student Association Ripuaria Bonn in CV.

In the German Bundestag parliamentarians founded in 1993 the CDU - CSU parliamentary group the Cardinal Hoffner - circle, which has the aim to give the Catholicism in politics more weight.

Dedicated to the memory and work of scientist and bishop devote Founded in 2002, Joseph Hoffner Society, chaired by Lothar Roos and founded in 2001, Joseph Hoffner and Patrons in the municipality Flammersfeld chaired by Mayor Joseph Zolk. In a Kardinal- Hoffner Horhausen monument was inaugurated on 8 May 2004.

On 31 October 2003, he was with his sister Lena Hesseler, born Hoffner, Horhausen, awarded by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem posthumously awarded the honorary title Righteous Among the Nations. Hoffner had 1943 in his time as a priest in Kail Jewish girls can hide from the regime. One of them was, according to CBA report dated 18 January 2007 ( 14:54 clock ), be traced back from Cologne historians in the United States. His sister brought in her apartment in Horhausen at the request of her brother a vulnerable couple below.

2008 was a small square in front of the Cologne Cathedral, the name Cardinal Hoffner Square.

Quotes

"If we turn in the disease to God, we will realize that the disease such as a rug that is on the wrong side. We only see nodes and tangled threads and do not know what the whole thing means. But God is put to the time which he will determine the carpet on the right side. Then we realize that God 's providence is also present in the disease. "

Publications

Writings

• Christian social teaching. New edition, ed., Edit. and erg of Lothar Roos. Butzon Bercker, Kevelaer 1997, ISBN 3-7666-0107-5. The work has been translated into ten languages ​​now (including Russian and Chinese).
• Bauer and church in the German Middle Ages. Paderborn 1938.
• Business Ethics and monopolies in the 15th and 16th centuries. Jena 1941, 2nd edition: Darmstadt 1969.
• Christianity and human dignity. The concern of the Spanish colonial ethics in the Golden Age. Trier in 1947.
• The start of a new social policy. Cologne 1955.
• Social Policy in the German mining. Münster 1955 19562nd
• Wilhelm Emmanuel Ketteler and Catholic social movement of the 19th century. Wiesbaden 1962.
• Marriage and family. Nature and change in industrial society. Münster 1959 19652nd
• In the power of faith, 2 volumes. Freiburg 1986 ISBN. 3-451-20878-4.

Editorship

• Yearbook of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences. Münster 1960 ff
• Of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences at the Westfälische Wilhelms -Universität Münster, 19 volumes of writings. Münster 1955 ff
• Together with a couple Alfred Verdross, Francesco Vito: natural order in society, state, economy. Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich 1961