Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster

Diocese of Münster Dioecesis Monasteriensis Bistum Münster (German)
Diocese of Münster in Germany
Location
Country	Germany
Ecclesiastical province	Cologne
Metropolitan	Cologne
Statistics
Area	15,268 km2 (5,895 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2004) 4,317,937 2,056,427 (47.6%)
Parishes	675
Information
Established	800
Cathedral	Cathedral of St. Paul
Secular priests	1,069
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Felix Genn
Metropolitan Archbishop	Rainer Maria Woelki
Auxiliary Bishops	Dieter Geerlings Christoph Hegge Wilfried Theising Heinrich Timmerevers Stefan Zekorn
Emeritus Bishops	Alfons Demming Heinrich Janssen Friedrich Ostermann Max Georg von Twickel
Website
bistum-muenster.de

The Diocese of Münster is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Bishop Felix Genn is the current Bishop of the Diocese of Münster. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 11, 1976 and was appointed to the See of Münster on December 19, 2008.

Statistics

As of 31 Dec. 2006, with 4.336 million adherents or 47.1% of local population, nearly half the inhabitants of the Münster diocese were Roman Catholic; due to continuing securalisation, this a decreased percentage compared to earlier periods. Sunday mass attendance reflects this decline over the course of three decades. Per the diocesan website: in 2005, 13.6% Roman Catholics attended Sunday mass; in 2004, this was 14.5%. A decade earlier, in 1995, Sunday mass attendance was about 20% (416,406 churchgoers); in 1985, Sunday mass attendance was 29.3% (614,839 Roman Catholics); and, in 1975, Sunday mass attendance was 35.1% or 787,582 persons. Over a 30-year period, Sunday mass attendance declined over 50%.

As of 18 July 2007, there were 1,256 priests, 248 permanent deacons, and 3,150 religious in the diocese.^[1]

History

The diocese was canonically erected in 800 by Pope Leo III. It lost territory on February 23, 1957 to the newly established Diocese of Essen.

Ordinaries

Bishops till 1181

• Saint Ludger (805 – 809)
• Gerfried (809 – 839)
• Altfried (839 – 849)
• Luitbert (849 - 870)
• Bertold of Münster (870 - between 870 to 880)
• Wolfhelm of Münster (from before 882 - 888/889)
• Nidhard (899 - 921/922)
• Rumhold (922 - 941)
• Hildebold of Münster (941 - 969)
• Dodo of Münster (969 - 993)
• Saint Swidger (993 - 1011)
• Dietrich I of Münster (1011 - 1022)
• Siegfried of Walbeck (1022 - 1032)
• Hermann I of Münster(1032 - 1042)
• Rudbert of Münster (1042 - 1063)
• Frederick I of Münster (1064 - 1084)
• Erpho (1085 - 1097)
• Burchard of Holte (1098 - 1118)
• Dietrich II of Münster (1118 - 1127)
• Egbert of Münster (1127 – 1132).
• Werner of Steußlingen (1132 - 1151)
• Frederick II of Are (1152 - 1168)
• Louis I of Wippra (1169 - 1173)
• Hermann II of Katzenelnbogen (1174 - 1203)

Prince-Bishops

• Hermann II of Katzenelnbogen (1174 - 1203)
• Otto I of Oldenburg (1204 - 1218)
• Dietrich III of Isenberg (1218 - 1226)
• Ludolphus of Holte (1226 - 1247)
• Otto II. von Lippe (1247 – 1259)
• William I of Holte (1259 - 1260)
• Gerard of the Marck (1261 - 1272)
• Everhard of Diest (1275 - 1301)
• Otto III of Rietberg (1301 – 1306)
• Conrad I. of Berg (1306 - 1310)
• Louis II of Hesse (1310 – 1357)
• Adolphus of the Marck (1357 – 1363)
• John I of Virneburg (1363 - 1364)
• Florence of Wevelinkhoven (1364 - 1378)
• John II Potho of Pothenstein (1379 – 1382)
• Heidenreich Wolf of Lüdinghausen (1382 – 1392)
• Otto IV of Hoya (1392 – 1424)
• Henry II of Moers † ( 1424 Appointed - 2 Jun 1450 Died)
• Walram von Moers † (14 Jul 1450 Appointed - 3 Oct 1456 Died)
• Eric I of Hoya (antibishop 1450 - 1457)
• John of Palatinate-Simmern † (disputed; 11 Apr 1457 Appointed - 20 May 1465 Confirmed, Archbishop of Magdeburg)
• Henry III of Schwarzburg † (Apr 1466 Appointed - 14 Dec 1496 Died)
• Conrad IV of Rietberg † (18 Apr 1497 Appointed - 9 Feb 1508 Died)
• Eric II of Saxe-Lauenburg † (24 Feb 1508 Appointed - 20 Oct 1522 Died)
• Frederick III of Wied † (6 Nov 1522 Appointed - 24 Mar 1532 Resigned)
• Eric III of Brunswick-Grubenhagen † (27 Mar 1532 Appointed - 14 May 1532 Died)
• Francis I of Waldeck † (1 Jun 1532 Appointed - 15 Jul 1553 Died)
• William II Ketteler † (21 Jul 1553 Appointed - 2 Dec 1557 Resigned)
• Bernhard von Raesfeld † (4 Dec 1557 Appointed - 25 Oct 1566 Resigned)
• John III of Hoya † (26 Oct 1566 Appointed - 5 Apr 1574 Died)
• John William of Juliers-Cleves-Berg † (28 Apr 1574 Appointed - 18 May 1585 Resigned)
• Ernest of Bavaria † (18 May 1585 Appointed - 17 Feb 1612 Died)
• Ferdinand I of Bavaria † (18 Feb 1612 Confirmed - 13 Sep 1650 Died)
• Bernard von Galen † (14 Nov 1650 Appointed - 19 Sep 1678 Died)
• Ferdinand II of Fürstenberg † (19 Sep 1678 Succeeded - 26 Jun 1683 Died)
• Maximilian Henry of Bavaria (1683 - 1688)
• Friedrich Christian von Plettenberg zu Lenhausen † (29 Jul 1688 Appointed - 5 May 1706 Died)
• Franz Arnold von Wolff-Metternich zur Gracht † (8 Jun 1707 Appointed - 25 Dec 1718 Died)
• Clemens August I of Bavaria † (26 Mar 1719 Appointed - 6 Feb 1761 Died)
• Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels † (16 Sep 1762 Appointed - 15 Apr 1784 Died)
• Maximilian Francis of Austria † (15 Apr 1784 Succeeded - 29 Jul 1801 Died)

Bishops since 1820

• Anton Victor of Austria elect (1801, resigned after rejection by Prussia)
• Sede vacante (1801 - 1820)
• Ferdinand Hermann Maria Freiherr von Lüninck † (28 Aug 1820 Appointed - 18 Mar 1825 Died)
• Kaspar Maximilian Droste zu Vischering † (15 Jun 1825 Appointed - 3 Aug 1846 Died)
• Bernard Georg Kellermann † (10 Dec 1846 Appointed - 29 Mar 1847 Died)
• Johann Georg Müller † (1 Jul 1847 Appointed - 19 Jan 1870 Died)
• Johannes Bernhard Brinkmann † (6 Apr 1870 Appointed - 13 Apr 1889 Died)
• Hermann Jakob Dingelstad † (15 Aug 1889 Appointed - 6 Mar 1911 Died)
• Felix von Hartmann † (6 Jun 1911 Appointed - 29 Oct 1912 Appointed, Archbishop of Cologne)
• Johannes Poggenburg † (7 May 1913 Appointed - 5 Jan 1933 Died)
• Bl. Clemens Augustus II von Galen † (5 Sep 1933 Appointed - 22 Mar 1946 Died)
• Michael Keller † (19 Jul 1947 Appointed - 7 Nov 1961 Died)
• Joseph Höffner † (9 Jul 1962 Appointed - 6 Jan 1969 Appointed, Coadjutor Archbishop of Köln {Cologne})
• Heinrich Tenhumberg † (7 Jul 1969 Appointed - 16 Sep 1979 Died)
• Reinhard Lettmann † (11 Jan 1980 Appointed - 28 Mar 2008 Retired)
• Felix Genn (19 Dec 2008 Appointed - )

Footnotes

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Diocese of Münster.

• Prince-Bishopric of Münster
• Roman Catholicism in Germany

External links

• Website of the Diocese
• catholic-hierarchy.org
•  "Münster". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

Coordinates: 51°57′47″N 7°37′32″E / 51.96306°N 7.62556°E / 51.96306; 7.62556