Bishop of Mainz
Bishop Peter Kohlgraf was born on 21 March 1967 in Cologne. In the winter semester 1986/1987 he began theological studies at the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University in Bonn, with a free semester in 1988/1989 in Salzburg. In 1991 he received the theological diploma at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University in Bonn. On 18 June 1993 he was ordained a priest in Cologne by Cardinal Joachim Meisner. From 1993 to 1996 he was chaplain at Herz Jesu and St. Martin in Euskirchen. In 1996 he was released for doctoral studies at the University of Bonn and was appointed subsidiary priest in the Bad Honnef pastoral area. From 1999 to 2003 he was school chaplain and religion teacher at the Archbishop's Kardinal Frings Gymnasium in Bonn-Beuel and city-group chaplain of the Catholic Student Youth (KSJ). In 2000 he received his doctorate in ancient church history and patrology with the dissertation "Die Ekklesiologie des Epheserbriefes in der Auslegung durch Johannes Chrysostomus" under Prof. Dr. Ernst Dassmann. In 2003 he became repetent (deputy director) at the Archbishop's Theologenkonvikt Collegium Albertinum in Bonn and secretary of the archiepiscopal examination committee. In 2009 he was appointed school chaplain and religion teacher at the Archbishop's Gymnasium and the Marienberg Higher Commercial School in Neuss. In October 2010 he completed his habilitation in Muenster, Westphalia, under Professor Dr. Udo Schmaelzle, with "Glaube im Gespraech. Die Suche nach christlicher Identitaet und Relevanz in der alexandrinischen Vaetertheologie. Ein Modell fuer praktisch-theologisches Bemuehen heute?" (venia legendi for pastoral theology), and was appointed Privatdozent at the University of Muenster. In the winter semester 2012/13 he was called to the professorship of pastoral theology at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences (KH) Mainz and was parish vicar in the Woerrstadt parish group in the Alzey/Gau-Bickelheim deanery. On 1 July 2013 he was appointed professor at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz by the Bishop of Mainz, Cardinal Karl Lehmann. In the winter semester 2016/2017 he was dean of the Department of Practical Theology at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz. On 18 April 2017 he was appointed Bishop of Mainz. On 27 August 2017 he was ordained Bishop of Mainz. On 15 October 2017 he was installed as honorary cathedral canon of Cologne Cathedral. In 2017 he became a member of the Commissions for Education and School and for Marriage and Family of the German Bishops' Conference. On 24.10.2019 he was elected president of Pax Christi Germany. On 19.01.2020 he was invested as honorary knight of the Teutonic Order in Mainz Cathedral. In 2024 he was appointed honorary professor at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He is chair of the Pastoral Commission and of the Subcommission on Women in Church and Society of the German Bishops' Conference.