Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz

Diocese of Görlitz Dioecesis Gorlicensis
St. James Cathedral in Görlitz
Location
Country	Germany
Ecclesiastical province	Berlin
Metropolitan	Görlitz, Saxony
Statistics
Area	9,700 km2 (3,700 sq mi)
Population - Catholics	32,203 (4.1%)
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	June 28, 1972
Cathedral	St. James Cathedral
Patron saint	St. Hedwig of Silesia
Current leadership
Pope	Benedict XVI
Bishop	Wolfgang Ipolt Bishop-elect of Görlitz
Metropolitan Archbishop	Sede vacante Archbishop of Berlin
Emeritus Bishops	Rudolf Müller
Map
Website
bistum-goerlitz.online.de

The Diocese of Görlitz is a diocese of the Roman Catholic church in Germany. The current ordinary is Wolfgang Ipolt

History

For the history until 1972 see the History of the See of Breslau.

Today's diocese was erected in 1972 as the Apostolic Administration of Görlitz, when Pope Paul VI - by the Apostolic constitution Episcoporum Poloniae coetus - reduced the territory of the Archdiocese of Breslau to those areas within the then People's Republic of Poland. The archdiocesan territory then located in the then German Democratic Republic became a separate entity as an exempt apostolic administration.^[1] Breslau's German suffragan within the Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province, the Diocese of Berlin, became exempt on the same occasion.

On 27 June 1994 Pope John Paul II elevated the apostolic administration to the rank of a diocese, a suffragan to the newly elevated Archdiocese of Berlin.^[2] By his Apostolic exhortation Semper studuit John Paul II confirmed Breslau's traditional Saint Hedwig of Silesia as diocesan patron saint.^[3]

Territory and membership

Görlitz's territory covers the northeast of today's Saxony and the southeast of today's Brandenburg (Lower Lusatia). Comprising prevalently Protestant parts of a former large diocese, the Diocese of Görlitz is by far the smallest German diocese in terms of Catholic membership, thinly dispersed over the territory except for Wittichenau (Kulow).

Institutions

In 1948 Ferdinand Piontek, then capitular vicar at the local branch of Breslau's archdiocesan ordinariate in Görlitz, opened the seminary Bernardinum in Neuzelle. It was merged with that in Erfurt in 1993 and its Neuzelle premises were later closed. Its library of more than 30,000 volumes was donated to the seminary of the Diocese of Legnica in 2000.^[4]

Ordinaries

• Ferdinand Piontek (1945 – 1963)
• Bernhard Huhn (1972 - 1994)
• Rudolf Müller (1994 - 2006)
• Konrad Zdarsa (2007 - 2010)
• Wolfgang Ipolt, (2011 - )

Notes

1. ^ Paulus VI: Const. Apost. Episcoporum Poloniae coetus, AAS 64 (1972), n. 10, pp. 657seq.
2. ^ Ioannes Paulus II: Const. Apost. Solet usque, AAS 87 (1995), n. 3, pp. 219seqq.
3. ^ Ioannes Paulus II: Litt. Apost. Semper studuit, AAS 87 (1995).
4. ^ Juliane Schmidt, "Bibliothek des Neuzeller Priesterseminars jetzt in Legnica", in: Tag des Herrn, No. 29 (2000).