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The Würzburg bishops' Conference of 1848 was a four-week workshop of the German Catholic bishops in Wurzburg. It can be regarded as the birth of the German and Austrian bishops' conferences.
Contents
History
The hastily called meeting began on October 21, 1848, just three weeks after the Cologne Archbishop Johannes von Geissel had issued the invitations. It ended unexpectedly after lengthy deliberations on 16 November. Twenty-five diocesan bishops or their representatives, and selected theological advisers, participated. However, no laymen participated. The venue was the Würzburg seminary, for the last three days of the Franciscan monastery of Würzburg. It was hosted by the Bishop of Würzburg Georg Anton von Stahl.
The bishops had a strict work discipline with eight hours of daily conferences. The liturgical high point was a Pontifical Mass in the Würzburg Cathedral under the direction of the Primate Germaniae of Archbishop Cardinal Friedrich Johannes Jacob Celestin von Schwarzenberg. A noteworthy sign was the charitable feeding of 300 poor Würzburgen. The bishops worked at the tables serving the poor.
The shortness of the advance notice, 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 ecclesiastical order, with their rich spiritual states had taken place less than 50 years ago and the reorganization of the German dioceses, only 25 years ago. Since 18 May 1848 was held in Frankfurt, the St. Paul's Parliament, and negotiated over a controversial national government and constitutional order in Germany. Following this explosive event the bishops could not stand idly by. They formulated policy statements on the relationship between church and state, the church school inspection, the legal status of the clergy and on issues of societal and social order. They adopted three memoranda: one to all the faithful, one to the government and one to the clergy.
For the intended official national synod did not, however, because this papal authorization was required, the Curia, but national church tendencies was afraid, and went as the Bavarian bishops in the Freising Bishops 'Conference and the bishops of the Habsburg monarchy in the Austrian Bishops' Conference's own way.
Participants
Karl August von Reisach (1800–1869), Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal later
Maximilian Joseph Gottfried von Sommerau Beeckh (1769–1853), Archbishop of Olomouc
Bonifaz Kaspar von Urban (1773–1858), Archbishop of Bamberg
Friedrich Johannes Jacob Celestin von Schwarzenberg (1809–1885), archbishop of Salzburg, and later Cardinal Archbishop of Prague
Johannes von Geissel (1796–1864), Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal later
Hermann von Vicari (1773–1868), Archbishop of Freiburg
Galura Bernhard (1764–1856), Bishop of Brixen
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 bishop of Osnabrück and titular bishop of Anthedon
Peter von Richarz (1783–1855), Bishop of Augsburg
Peter Leopold Kaiser (1788–1848), Bishop of Mainz
Henry of Hofstätter (1805–1875), Bishop of Passau
Georg Anton von Stahl (1805–1870), Bishop of Würzburg
Johann Georg Müller (1798–1870), Bishop of Münster, also a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly
Valentine of Riedel (1802–1857), Bishop of Regensburg
Nicholas Weis (1796–1869), Bishop of Speyer
Jacob Joseph Wundt (1780–1849), Bishop of Hildesheim
William 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 von Oettl (1794–1866), Bishop of Eichstätt
Josef von Lipp (1794–1869), Bishop of Rottenburg
Joseph Dittrich († 1853), Titular Bishop of Corycus, Apostolic Vicar in the Kingdom of Saxony
On the representation of missing auxiliary bishop of Warmia Franz Grossmann, Bishop Joseph Ambrose Geritz represented.