Franz Schmidberger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fr. Franz Schmidberger (October 19, 1946 in Riedlingen) is a priest in the Society of St. Pius X founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Graduated in 1972 in the University of Munich, in the same year he entered in the seminary of Econe where he was ordained priest on December 8, 1975. Later he taught in the seminary of Weissbad, the first German speaker of the fraternity.

In 1978 he funded the seminary of Zaitzkofen in Germany, where he was appointed in the charge of district superior from 1979. He was named general vicar of Msgr Lefebvre in 1982.

After the death of Lefebvre, Schmidberger was elected the second Superior-General of the SSPX. He was succeeded by Bernard Fellay, the present incumbent.

With Fellay, he is alleged to be part of a faction that favors reconciliation with Rome on the basis of the Campos precedent, a program in which he is allegedly opposed by the other three bishops of the SSPX.^{[citation needed]}