Bishop Stephan Ackermann

20.3.1963 born in Mayen / Eifel 1986/87 diaconate internship in Trier St. Antonius and St. Paulus 10.10.1987 priestly ordination in Rome by Bishop Dr. Georg Moser, Rottenburg 1989-1991 chaplain in Bad Breisig/Rhein - St. Marien and St. Viktor 1991 - 1998 subregent at the Episcopal Seminary in Trier; additionally doctorate with Fr. Prof. Dr. Medard Kehl SJ, Frankfurt-St. Georgen, in dogmatics 1 September 1999 rector and at the same time lecturer in spiritual theology at the seminary "Studienhaus St. Lambert" in Lantershofen 2000 doctorate at the Philosophical-Theological College St. Georgen in Frankfurt in dogmatics: "Church as Person" November 2005 appointment as Monsignor by Pope Benedict XVI. 14 March 2006 appointment as auxiliary bishop by Pope Benedict XVI. 14 May 2006 episcopal consecration by Bishop Dr. Reinhard Marx September 2006 to September 2008 member of the Pastoral Commission of the German Bishops' Conference September 2006 to October 2011 member of the Commission for Science and Culture of the German Bishops' Conference 2 March 2008 election as chairman of the German Commission "Justitia et Pax" (until October 2019) September 2008 (until 2021) member of the Commission for the Universal Church of the German Bishops' Conference - also as Bishop of Trier 8 April 2009 appointment as Bishop of Trier by Pope Benedict XVI. 24 May 2009 installation as Bishop of Trier in Trier Cathedral 25 February 2010 (until the end of September 2022) appointment as representative of the German Bishops' Conference for all questions connected with the sexual abuse of minors in the Church sphere October 2011 (until 2016) member of the Commission for Societal and Social Questions (VI) of the German Bishops' Conference 29 August 2012 (until 2017) appointment to the Pontifical Council Justitia et Pax by Pope Benedict XVI. - The council was dissolved in 2017. 13 March 2014 member of the Liturgy Commission of the German Bishops' Conference September 2017 / September 2021 chairman of the Liturgy Commission of the German Bishops' Conference Bishop Ackermann is a member of the Evangelical-Catholic Contact Discussion Group and chairman of the Episcopal Working Group for Child and Youth Protection. Bishop Stephan Ackermann is chairman of the Liturgy Commission (K V) in the German Bishops' Conference. He is also a member of the Evangelical-Catholic Contact Discussion Group. Bishop Ackermann handed over the office as representative of the German bishops for questions of sexual abuse in September 2022 to the Bishop of Aachen, Dr. Helmut Dieser. Further information is available in the press release. The Trier cathedral provost Prelate Werner Rössel uses the occasion of the installation of Dr. Felix Genn as Bishop of Münster to speak with Nuncio Dr. Jean-Claude Périsset. The nuncio lets the cathedral provost know that an appointment of the Bishop of Trier before Easter can still take place only if the Terna (list of candidates) should come from Rome in this week. The cathedral provost asks the nuncio to inform him immediately by telephone if the Terna arrives in Berlin. Around 16 o'clock, nunciature secretary Msgr. Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Feulner calls Cathedral Provost Rössel: the Terna has arrived in Berlin. The cathedral provost is pleased and relieved. From 18 o'clock he telephones the 14 Trier cathedral capitulars who will elect the new Bishop of Trier. He invites them for Thursday, 2 April, 18 o'clock, to the decisive meeting. Secrecy is now especially important: "We meet at 18 o'clock in the Bishop's Residence and then go through the bishop's garden and the cathedral cloister, so to speak through the back entrance, into the chapter hall," the cathedral provost informs the cathedral capitulars. Around 8.30, the postwoman rings at Cathedral Provost Rössel's door. The cathedral provost, however, does not hear the ringing. Only when his housekeeper, Mrs. Steffens, draws his attention to it does he go to the front door and can thus still prevent the postwoman from putting the already completed blue pickup slip for the registered letter into the mailbox. The cathedral provost receives the registered letter with return receipt from Berlin and deposits it in a secure place in his study. Thursday, 2 April At 18 o'clock the 14 cathedral capitulars meet as agreed in the Bishop's Residence on Liebfrauenstraße. The tension is noticeable in everyone. Through the bishop's garden and cloister they go into the chapter hall. There they pray Vespers with the hymn to the Holy Spirit and also invoke the Trier saints, beginning with the founding bishop Eucharius. "An emotionally very moving moment," the cathedral provost recalls. In the invocation of the saints it becomes clear in which tradition the future bishop of Germany's oldest diocese will stand. Then Cathedral Provost Rössel first opens the outer envelope: in it, besides the sealed letter with the Terna, there is also a covering letter. It states that the letter contains the Terna and how to proceed. The cathedral provost reads this letter before opening the sealed envelope and reading out the three names. "It was beneficial and also in a certain way a relief that Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Stephan Ackermann, a Trier man, was also on the list," Werner Rössel says. The auxiliary bishop, as he said after his appointment at the press conference, is at this moment "pleased as a cathedral capitular," but as "Stephan Ackermann also a little startled." In the election itself, modern technology is then also used. With a laptop and printer, the cathedral provost produces the ballots on which the three names stand. Thus the cathedral capitulars only have to mark their favorite. The ballots are placed in a self-made ballot box and counted by the cathedral provost and by cathedral dean Prelate Franz Josef Gebert. The reactions are glad and relaxed when it is clear: the cathedral chapter has elected Stephan Ackermann Bishop of Trier. And the situation is especially happy insofar as the elected man can still be asked in the meeting whether he accepts the election. Stephan Ackermann does so, and now the joy in the cathedral chapter is even greater. With sparkling wine from the Episcopal Wineries, the cathedral capitulars toast the future Bishop of Trier. Even those who actually do not want to drink alcohol during Lent make an exception in this special situation. The day ends with Compline (night prayer) in the Marian chapel of the cathedral.