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El nuevo presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Alemania: Mons. Robert Zollitsch, miembro del Instituto de Sacerdotes Diocesanos de Schoenstatt The new President of the German Bishops’ Conference: archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch, member of the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests Neuer Vorsitzender der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ist Dr. Robert Zollitsch, Mitglied des Instituts der Schönstatt-Diözesanpriester |
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Mons. Zollitsch en Schoenstatt Archbishop Zollitsch in Schoenstatt Erzbischof Zollitsch in Schönstatt |
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Al servicio de la iglesia Serving the Church Im Dienst an der Kirche Fotos: POS Fischer © 2008 |
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GERMANY, mkf. Yesterday evening at 6:30 PM the Plenary Assembly of the German Bishops’ Conference was solemnly opened with a Holy Mass in Wuerzburg; today, February 12, the sixty-nine bishops have elected the Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, age 69, as their new president and successor of Cardinal Karl Lehmann. The new President of the German Bishops’ Conference is a member of the Institute of Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests. It is an honor for the Schoenstatt Family of Germany and of the world to offer their prayers for him and his service along with the call to grow ever more in the love with the church by giving witness through deeds of selfless service.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch was born August 9, 1938 in Filipovo, in former Yugoslavia; with the expulsion of Germans from that area after World War II, he came in 1946 along with his family to Tauberbischofsheim, diocese of Freiburg. As a student there he got to know Schoenstatt, and joined the Schoenstatt Boys' Youth and later the Theologians. By1964 he had joined the emerging Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests. On May 27, 1965 he was ordained a priest in the Freiburg Cathedral.
Out of love for the church
In 1974 he was elected to the General Council of the Institute of Diocesan Priests, and again in 1980. He served his community in this task until his obligations in the diocese forced him to resign. In 1983 he was appointed as personnel manager of the diocese. Since then Fr. Robert Zollitsch, who in 1984 became member of the cathedral chamber, was in charge of personnel appointments for pastoral work and transfers for the entire diocese.
Fr. Robert Zollitsch is especially committed to the International Schoenstatt Rome Center and Shrine, which was dedicated September 8, 2004 in the presence of numerous bishops and cardinals including around 3,000 pilgrims from all over the world. "He hardly ever missed any meeting of the 'Rome board', despite his many obligations," Father Oskar Bühler of the Institute mentions. He saw that Schoenstatt could and should give to the church all the richness it has as a Movement and as a place of grace.
In 2003 he was appointed Archbishop of his Freiburg diocese, the largest diocese of Germany in terms of numbers. He wanted to actively face the challenges of the recent changes in the church: "New ideas and new pastoral patterns usually arise when people depend on each other, when they listen to each other, and try to solve problems together," he said. A forward-looking and fruitful pastorate needs communication, sharing of ideas, coordination, mutual complementation and cooperation, encouragement and support through the brothers and sisters in faith.
In the communion of faith
The motto he chose as bishop shows the way he certainly will also follow in his new task: In fidei communione – in the communion of faith. "We have to help people to find and live communion in order to assume out of faith responsibility for the world," he said. In a sermon last October 18 in Schoenstatt, he explained: "For our Christian faith in today’s world, it will be of extreme importance to form cells of faith, cells of faith in which we live and work together, where we share our faith and our life, where we carry others in our faith and experience being carried by the faith of other; cells of faith where we celebrate the sacraments and listen to Word of God."
That the German Bishops’ Conference, which played such a decisive role in the exile of Father Kentenich, has now elected one of his spiritual sons, as their President is a signal. Schoenstatt has definitely arrived in the Church, which expects Schoenstatt’s mature contribution on the way to the newest shores.
Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA/amj