Cardinal Lehmann resigns as Chairman of German Catholic Bishops Conference

Cathcon translation of kreuz.net – Kardinal Lehmann tritt zurück. Cathcon comments below translation.

The Bishop of Mainz will today cease from his duties as chairman of the German Bishops' Conference. He had in recent past health problems.
The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, is expected to resign this afternoon from the chairmanship of the German Bishops' Conference.

Vatican Radio reported this in a newsflash. The news was made known from church circles. He want to retain his office as Bishop of Mainz.

In recent years, he has fought with health problems.

In mid-December he was in hospital with cardiac arrhythmia.

Then, he went for several weeks on a rest cure. Cardinal Lehmann did not celebrate either the Christmas or the New Year Mass.

Chairman since 1987

From 1985, Cardinal Lehmann was vice chairman of the German Bishops' Conference.

On 22 September 1987, he was elected as the Bishops' Conference chairman.

In the years 1993, 1999 and 2005 respectively, he was for a further six years in that office confirmed.

The last election took place at the Plenary Assembly of Bishops on 20 September 2005 in Fulda.

Longest tenure

On 2 January, Cardinal Lehmann celebrated the longest tenure a chairman of the German Bishops' Conference since the Second World War.

Cardinal Lehmann was 7,407 days in office.

The longest term of office until then, was the former archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings, with 7,406 days (Cathcon note Joseph Ratzinger was the theological advisor to Cardinal Frings at the Council, Karl Lehmann being the principal researcher for Karl Rahner SJ.)

Cathcon comments
One cannot underestimate the sheer survival power and dominance of Karl Lehmann on post-conciliar German Catholic life. He has put the philosophy of Karl Rahner into practice with disastrous results for the German Catholic Church. Although the decline started well before World War II, his policies are far removed from being a successful cure.

It leaves his fellow German Cardinal Kasper dangerously exposed in Rome and less able to nuance the teaching of the Church, such as, for instance, his response to the recent document on the nature of the Church. Cardinal Lehmann was always a reliable echo of his views, at very least. Now when Kasper speaks, no echo will be heard which restricts his ability as an ecumenical adventurer.

Cardinal Lehmann's health problems did not prevent him from dancing with the devil and some chorus girls at Carnival just a couple of years ago.

The most likely candidate to succeed is the new Archbishop of Munich, a conservative sadly also an opponent of the Latin Mass.

The identity of the successor will be a demonstation of the degree to which the Pope is setting the agenda in his own country and in the longer term, whether this new agenda will restore the German Catholic Church to a House Full of Glory, to quote the title of well-known German hymn.