Bishop Bishop wants to be a Bridge Builder

Auxiliary Bishop Wolfgang Bischof returns to his hometown of Freising: "There are many bridges to build"

Has his roots in Freising: Auxiliary Bishop Wolfgang Bischof is already looking forward to meeting the faithful of the Pastoral Region North.

Auxiliary Bishop Wolfgang Bischof is returning to the Cathedral City of Freising. In his future work, he will focus on networking with all people.

Freising - His Wikipedia entry is long and extensive, the stations of his career, his offices and his tasks are varied and exciting. Now a new office and a new task have been added: Wolfgang Bischof will be Auxiliary Bishop of the Pastoral Region North from Easter Sunday and as such will succeed Bernhard Haßlberger. For the 62-year-old, it is a return to his native town of Freising. The Freisinger Tagblatt spoke with the man of God, who was ordained a priest by Cardinal Friedrich Wetter in Freising Cathedral on 2 July 1988 and a bishop by Cardinal Reinhard Marx in Munich's Liebfrauendom on 28 February 2010.

Bishop, it is something like returning to your birthplace. Is that something special for you?

From Easter Sunday 2023, our Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx is commissioning me as Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Care for the Pastoral Care Region North. This region currently consists of 14 deaneries from Fürstenfeldbruck to Mühldorf and from Ebersberg to Landshut. At the centre is our old episcopal town of Freising - also my birthplace. I am looking forward to being responsible for pastoral coordination. And since Freising is the cradle of our archdiocese, it is of course something special.

Have you had contacts with Freising in the past years and decades? How well do you know your new area of activity?

I always enjoyed being in Freising, even though I moved to Munich with my parents as a child. People in Freising helped shape the transition at that time and made it easier for me to retrain, for example. I have remained in good contact with some of my confidants beyond that time. I am thinking here in particular of my "nominal grandmother" or people who were connected to my parents in various ways. And my father's relatives still live in the Freising area. I was ordained a priest in Freising in 1988 and was able to celebrate a small post-prandial ordination in Lerchenfeld. Even beyond that, Freising was always a place for important steps in my life. Here I am thinking of the second service examination, several courses and especially my additional training and certification as a parish and organisational consultant.

For all these reasons, it was important to me on the occasion of my episcopal ordination to integrate the diocesan symbol of the Diocese of Freising, the so-called "Freising Moor", into my episcopal coat of arms. I am quite familiar with my future field of activity in the Pastoral Region North. After all, I myself was a parish priest in this region (Gröbenzell parish) for 15 years and dean of the Fürstenfeldbruck district for ten years. This was followed by another two years as regional pastor for the entire northern region and thus the closest colleague of my predecessor Bernhard Haßlberger. With my appointment as auxiliary bishop in 2010, I became responsible for the southern region of our archdiocese, and as a colleague of Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard and Auxiliary Bishop Rupert and through our joint discussions and consultations, I have repeatedly witnessed the developments in the northern region. This is where we now need to connect and explore and discover again.

What do you think are the specific challenges or circumstances in the Pastoral Region North?

Of course, there are specific challenges in the Pastoral Region, which I am currently being introduced to. At first glance, I would say, it is not very different in nature from the other regions of our diocese. In concrete terms, of course, it is important to look and listen carefully, because the most important thing is the people and their questions, fears, worries and joys. In the area of pastoral care, we will be particularly concerned with the reform of the deaneries in our archdiocese. Other special circumstances are, of course, the upcoming diocesan anniversary of 1300 years of St. Corbinian in 2024, the 300th anniversary of the consecration of St. Mary's Cathedral in the same year, the redesign of the Domberg, the upcoming Landshut wedding this year and much more in the entire region. I am very much looking forward to all the opportunities to meet many people here.

These are difficult times for the Church. As Auxiliary Bishop, where do you see your task in steering the Church through and out of the crisis?

The bishop, whether bishop or auxiliary bishop, has the task of building bridges. It is necessary to build many bridges, whether in or with society, whether in the church or between churches. Bridges between people of different spiritualities and world views. It is particularly important to me to look at people who have fallen to the margins of the church or have withdrawn from it, but also to look at those who are disappointed or affected in their innermost being and to seek contact. So I see myself as one who helps to build these bridges, and I hope that with trust and confidence ways of togetherness can be re-established or rediscovered. Only in this togetherness and in trust in God's guidance will we together survive this time of crisis for the Church, but also for society.

Cathcon:  Hopefully he includes traditional communities in this effort.  The crisis is nothing if not episcopal in origin beyond the specific issue of traditionalism

What will be the focus of your work?

My episcopal motto is: "Spera in Domino et fac bonum - Hope in the Lord and do good" (Ps 37:3). My responsibility in the region is the co-ordination of pastoral work, the visitation of the deaneries, parish associations and parishes, and the support of the archbishop in his tasks. This includes liturgical representation and the administration of the sacrament of Confirmation. In order to be able to do this in trust in the Lord and thus do good, it is necessary to know each other and to get to know each other better. So visits to the districts of the Pastoral Region and meetings with the respective parish priests, volunteers and representatives of communal life are at the top of my schedule. Added to this is my willingness to network with all people of good will on relevant issues and questions. And above all, of course, the celebration of the divine services with the faithful. The confirmation dates have already been fixed and also the special local celebrations in which I may and can participate.

What do you look forward to most?

Meeting the people, of course. And now I am looking forward to celebrating the liturgy of Holy Week and Easter in St Mary's Cathedral in Freising.

Where will you actually live?

This is a question I have been asked a lot lately. Like my two esteemed predecessors, Auxiliary Bishop Heinrich Graf von Soden-Fraunhofen and Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Haßlberger, I hope to be able to move to the Domberg very soon. But when that will be depends on various factors. But hopefully soon! In the meantime, I will still live in Munich, but I try to be present in Freising as much as it makes sense and is good.

Do you have any hobbies? And if so, do you have the time and leisure to pursue them?

Until my appointment as auxiliary bishop, I led a theatre group for over 25 years, acted in theatre myself and directed plays. This was my great passion, but unfortunately I no longer do it for reasons of time and organisation. However, I make a small substitute for it in the pre-Christmas period, when we perform Ludwig Thoma's "Holy Night" with like-minded people in distributed roles. I am happy to act as narrator here. And again a nice point of reference to Freising: for many years the reading has intensified the chants and music as composed by the former Freising cathedral chapel master Prelate Max Eham. As a great fan of the composer Giuseppe Verdi and of opera, I occasionally allow myself a visit to the Munich State Opera or a trip to Verona to see the arena there. Of course, my heart also beats for classical music and traditional folk music.

What is your favourite book?

I like to read crime novels, and if the one I'm reading is exciting, then that's my favourite book.

And what is your favourite film?

Again, there is no such thing as the film par excellence. The story has to be well told and well acted. And if the film music fits as well, wonderful. Unfortunately, I don't usually have time to go to the cinema. But when I do, I enjoy the atmosphere and the mood.

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