Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn

Archdiocese of Paderborn Archidioecesis Paderbornensis Erzbistum Paderborn
Paderborn Cathedral
Location
Country	Germany
Territory	Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia
Ecclesiastical province	Paderborn
Statistics
Area
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2004) 4,900,000 1,757,474 (35.9%)
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	799
Cathedral	Paderborn Cathedral
Patron saint	St. Kilian St. Liborius
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Archbishop	Hans-Josef Becker Archbishop of Paderborn
Auxiliary Bishops	Hubert Berenbrinker, Matthias König, Dominicus Meier OSB (designated), Manfred Grothe (em.)
Map
Website
erzbistum-paderborn.de

The Archdiocese of Paderborn is an Archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany; its seat is Paderborn. It was a diocese from its foundation in 799 until 1802, and again from 1821 until 1930. In 1930, it was promoted to an archdiocese. From 1281 until 1802, the Bishopric of Paderborn (German: Fürstbistum Paderborn) was also a state of the Holy Roman Empire.

History

The diocese of Paderborn was founded in 799 by Pope Leo III. In the early years it was subordinated to the bishop of Würzburg. Since 855 the clergy had the right to elect the bishop. The diocese included the larger part of Lippe, Waldeck, and nearly half of the County of Ravensberg.

History of the Bishopric

Main article: Bishopric of Paderborn

Restoration and later history

While the bishopric as a state had been permanently dissolved in 1802, the Diocese of Paderborn, originally suffragan to Mainz Archdiocese (till 1805), was recreated by Pope Pius VII as a suffragan to Cologne Archdiocese in 1821. Through the Prussian Concordate, it was promoted to an archdiocese in 1930, heading the new Middle German Ecclesiastical Province; at the same time, Paderborn lost its districts around Erfurt and Heiligenstadt to the Diocese of Fulda, and two small areas to the Archdiocese of Cologne. The dioceses of Hildesheim and Fulda were made its suffragans.

When the Diocese of Essen was created in 1958, Paderborn lost a significant portion of its district to it.

In the 1980s the Campingkirche was founded.

In 1994 Paderborn lost the part of its district located in the former East Germany to its newly created suffragan Diocese of Magdeburg. Also the new Diocese of Erfurt was made subordinate to Paderborn. At the same time, Hildesheim was made subordinate to the Archdiocese of Hamburg.

In the 1990s, the conflict between the Archdiocese and renegade priest Eugen Drewermann made headlines.

The current archbishop is Hans-Josef Becker.

In April 2008 pope Benedict XVI. announced Hubert Berenbrinker as a new auxiliary bishop.

Ordinaries

• Dietrich Graf von Moers † (13 Apr 1415 Appointed - 24 Jan 1446 Resigned)
• Simon zur Lippe † (21 Feb 1463 Appointed - 7 Mar 1498 Died)
• Hermann Landgraf von Hessen † (7 Mar 1498 Succeeded - 19 Oct 1508 Died)
• Erich Herzog von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen † (17 Nov 1508 Appointed - 14 May 1532 Died)
• Rembert von Kerssenbrock † (26 Mar 1547 Appointed - 12 Feb 1568 Died)
• Johann Graf von Hoya zu Stolzenau † (22 Feb 1568 Appointed - 5 Apr 1574 Died)
• Salentin VII of Isenburg-Grenzau † (21 Apr 1574 Appointed - 5 Sep 1577 Resigned)
• Henry IV of Saxe-Lauenburg † ( 1577 Appointed - 3 May 1585 Died)
• Dietrich von Fürstenberg † (5 Jun 1585 Appointed - 4 Dec 1618 Died)
• Ferdinand of Bavaria † (13 Dec 1618 Succeeded - 13 Sep 1650 Died)
• Dietrich Adolf von Reck † (3 Nov 1650 Appointed - 30 Jan 1661 Died)
• Ferdinand Reichsfreiherr von Fürstenberg † (20 Apr 1661 Appointed - 26 Jun 1683 Died)
• Hermann Werner Reichsfreiherr von Wolf-Metternich zu Gracht † (15 Sep 1683 Appointed - 21 May 1704 Died)
• Franz Arnold Reichsfreiherr von Wolf-Metternich zur Gracht † (21 May 1704 Succeeded - 25 Dec 1718 Died)
• Clemens August of Bavaria † (27 Mar 1719 Appointed - 6 Feb 1761 Died)
• Wilhelm Anton Freiherr von der Asseburg zu Hinnenburg † (25 Jan 1763 Appointed - 26 Dec 1782 Died)
• Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Westphalen † (26 Dec 1782 Succeeded - 6 Jan 1789 Died)
• Franz Egon Freiherr von Fürstenberg † (6 Jan 1789 Succeeded - 11 Aug 1825 Died)
• Friedrich Klemens Freiherr von Ledebur † (10 Nov 1825 Appointed - 30 Aug 1841 Died)
• Richard Kornelius Dammers † (27 Nov 1841 Appointed - 11 Oct 1844 Died)
• Johann Franz Drepper † (11 Jan 1845 Appointed - 5 Nov 1855 Died)
• Konrad Martin † (29 Jan 1856 Appointed - 16 Jul 1879 Died)
• Franz Kaspar Drobe † (24 Mar 1882 Appointed - 7 Mar 1891 Died)
• Hubert Theophil Simar † (25 Jun 1891 Appointed - 24 Oct 1899 Appointed, Archbishop of Köln {Cologne})
• Wilhelm Schneider † (10 May 1900 Appointed - 31 Aug 1909 Died)
• Karl Joseph Schulte † (30 Nov 1909 Appointed - 8 Mar 1920 Appointed, Archbishop of Köln {Cologne})
• Caspar Klein † (30 Apr 1920 Appointed - 26 Jan 1941 Died)
• Lorenz Jaeger † (29 May 1941 Appointed - 30 Jun 1973 Retired)
• Johannes Joachim Degenhardt † (15 Mar 1974 Appointed - 25 Jul 2002 Died)
• Hans-Josef Becker (3 Jul 2003 Appointed - )

Structure

The archdiocese is allocated in 19 districts (Dekanate).

External links

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
• Official website
• At catholic-hierarchy.org