Bishop Heiner Wilmer

Bishop Heiner Wilmer, S.C.I., was born on 9 April 1961 in Schapen, diocese of Osnabrück. He studied philosophy and theology in Freiburg and Paris. After joining the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians), he was ordained a priest in 1987. After ordination, he studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and history in Freiburg, and was awarded a doctorate in theology from the University of Freiburg. He served as a teacher in various Catholic schools in Germany and New York, and held the offices of rector of the Gymnasium Leoninum a Handrup (1998), provincial of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Germany (2007-2015), superior general (2015-2018), and chair of the Commission for Social Issues of the Bishops’ Conference of Germany. He was appointed bishop of Hildesheim on 6 April 2018, and received episcopal ordination the following 1 September. Since 2026 he has been president of the Bishops’ Conference of Germany.