After the resignation of Archbishop Ludwig Schick, Bamberg’s Catholics are faced with a period of vacancy in the Sede. It is unclear when a successor will be announced. From the point of view of a canon lawyer, a suitable candidate needs one thing above all.
Bamberg (dpa / lby) – According to the canon lawyer Thomas Schüller, Ludwig Schick’s successor as Catholic Archbishop of Bamberg needs good nerves. “Certainly one will look for someone who has the gift of bringing people together in view of the violent polarization in the German church, a moderate and experienced man with good nerves,” he told the German Press Agency. “Unfortunately, the pool of suitable candidates is very limited due to the blatant shortage of priests.”
As became known on All Saints’ Day, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the 73-year-old archbishop after 20 years in office. Schick, who is considered to be one of the comparatively reform-oriented bishops in the debate about modernizing the Catholic Church, justified his resignation by saying that he wanted to leave important upcoming decisions and decisions to a younger successor.
It is unclear when such a successor will be determined. Unlike so many other things in the Catholic Church, the decision does not lie entirely with the Pope, although of course he has the last word.
The Bavarian Concordat, the state church agreement between the Holy See and the Free State of 1924, states: “The Holy See has complete freedom in the appointment of archbishops and bishops.” But Francis gets decision support: the Bamberg cathedral chapter and the bishops’ conference send the names of suitable candidates to Rome. It may be a few months before a successor is appointed.
Who it will be is “difficult to say,” said Schüller – “because according to the Bavarian Concordat, the pope cannot freely appoint a new archbishop, but must appoint a new archbishop from the list of those proposed.” Everything depends on the proposals of the Bamberg cathedral chapter, the incumbent Bavarian bishops and the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, who has the right to propose in this function”.
The Bamberg cathedral chapter will now first elect an administrator who will provisionally lead the archdiocese until then for the period of the vacant see, i.e. the orphaned bishopric.
