Wurzburg Bishops' Conference (1848)

The Würzburg Bishops' Conference of 1848 was a four-week workshop of the German Catholic bishops in Würzburg. It can be considered the birth of the German and Austrian bishops' conferences.

History

The meeting began on 21 October 1848 after the Archbishop of Cologne John of Scourge had previously invited just three weeks to unforeseen and ended after lengthy deliberations on November 16. Participants were 25 diocesan bishops or their representatives and selected theological consultants, not laymen. The venue was the seminary Würzburg, for the last three days of the Franciscan monastery of Würzburg. It was hosted by the Bishop of Würzburg Georg Anton of steel.

The bishops submitted to a tight labor discipline with daily eight -hour conference. Liturgical highlight was a Pontifical Mass in Wuerzburg Cathedral, under the direction of the Primate Germaniae, the Archbishop of Salzburg Cardinal Friedrich Schwarzenberg. A notable charitable character was the supply of 300 Wurzburg arms, in which the bishops participated in person at the table service.

The short-term invitation, the high number of participants and the long duration of the meeting are evidence of the urgency of the issues at hand. The end of the rich ecclesiastical order with their spiritual states no half a century was still down, the reorganization of the German dioceses only 25 years. Since May 18, 1848 was held in Frankfurt, the St. Paul's Church and Parliament negotiated controversy over a national, state and constitutional restructuring of Germany. This explosive event would not stand idly by the bishops. They formulated policy statements on the relationship between church and state, the church school supervision, the legal status of the clergy and to issues of societal and social order. They adopted three memoranda: one to all believers, one to the governments and to the clergy.

In an endeavor to official national synod did not happen, because this papal authorization was required ( Pope was from 1846 to 1878 Pius IX. ), But the Curia feared national religious tendencies, and as the Bavarian bishops in the Freising Bishops' Conference and the bishops of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Austrian Bishops' Conference went their own ways.

Participant

The above lithograph from 1848 shows in the 1st row from left:

• Karl August von Reisach (1800-1869), Archbishop of Munich and Freising, later Cardinal
• Maximilian Joseph Godfrey of Sommerau Beeckh (1769-1853), Archbishop of Olomouc ( now Czech Republic )
• Boniface Kaspar von Urban (1773-1858), Archbishop of Bamberg
• Friedrich zu Schwarzenberg (1809-1885), Archbishop of Salzburg, and later Cardinal Archbishop of Prague
• John of Scourge (1796-1864), Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal later
• Hermann von Vicari (1773-1868), Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau
• Bernhard Galura (1764-1856), Prince-Bishop of Brixen

2nd row from left:

• Melchior von Diepenbrock (1798-1853), Prince-Bishop of Breslau, later Cardinal, also a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly
• Carl Anton Lüpke (1775-1855), senior auxiliary bishop of Osnabrück and Titular Bishop of Anthedon
• Peter of Richarz (1783-1855), Bishop of Augsburg
• Peter Kaiser Leopold (1788-1848), Bishop of Mainz
• Henry of Hofstätter (1805-1875), Bishop of Passau
• Georg Anton Steel (1805-1870), Bishop of Würzburg

Third row from left:

• Johann Georg Müller (1798-1870), Bishop of Munster, also a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly
• Valentine of Riedel (1802-1857), Bishop of Regensburg
• Nikolaus von Weis (1796-1869), Bishop of Speyer
• Jacob Joseph Wundt (1780-1849), Bishop of Hildesheim
• Wilhelm Arnoldi (1798-1864), Bishop of Trier
• Peter Josef Blum (1808-1884), Bishop of Limburg
• Franz Drepper (1787-1855), Bishop of Paderborn
• Anastasius Sedlag (1787-1856), Bishop of Kulm ( Kingdom of Prussia )
• George of Oettl (1794-1866), Bishop of Eichstätt
• Josef Lipp (1794-1869), Bishop of Rottenburg
• Joseph Dittrich († 1853), Titular Bishop of Corycus, Apostolic Vicar of the Kingdom of Saxony

On the representation of missing Auxiliary Bishop Franz Grossmann from the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, Bishop Joseph Ambrose Geritz represented.

See also

• Jacob Joseph Wundt ( description of the atmosphere)