Suffragan bishops often act more in the background. But thanks to historical circumstances and his personality, things developed differently for Hans-Jochen Jaschke. Now the pope accepted the resignation of the 75-year-old.
Officially, the Hamburg Catholic auxiliary bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke was never at the head of a diocese. Nevertheless, the longest-serving bishop of the Hanseatic city enjoys a reputation far beyond the north. The expert on ecumenism and interreligious dialogue is characterized by openness, humor, a sharp intellect and courage. And it is precisely this that has often benefited his church, not only in the abuse crisis of 2010. On Saturday, the pope accepted the offer of resignation of the theologian with a doctorate in theology, who on 29. September 75 years old.
When the debate about sexualized violence against children made waves in 2010, it was above all Jaschke who showed his face for the Catholic Church on television shows such as Plasberg, Illner, Maischberger and Lanz. For when some prefer to go underground, he is on top form. At the beginning of 1989, Jaschke came to the Hanseatic city as auxiliary bishop of the Osnabruck diocese, to which Hamburg still belonged. This makes him the lone record holder in the north: No Catholic or Protestant bishop has ever been in office here for so long.
For a peaceful coexistence of religions
Jaschke, who belongs to the circle of students of his doctoral supervisor Joseph Ratzinger and later Pope Benedict XVI, has a wide range of topics. belongs to. As an expert on Islam, he advocates for Muslims to be able to practice their faith and build mosques. He calls for a sense of proportion in dealings between religions. "We cannot regulate everything by law," he recently said on the subject of the burqa ban. Conversely, he expressed the expectation that members of a religious community "also don't put the majority of the population before their heads".
Again and again, Jaschke praises the good relationship between Catholics and Jews and calls for vigilance against hostility toward Jews. He castigates right-wing populist positions against immigrants and dissenters as a brown swamp, but also warns politics and society not to be blind to the left eye. In 2009, Jaschke was appointed as a representative of the Catholic Church to the council of the "Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation" – after all, the theologian has personal experience with the topic.
Jaschke's career
Jaschke was born on 29. Born in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, in September 1941. After the expulsion, his family came to Buckeburg in Lower Saxony in 1945. Theology and philosophy studies in Frankfurt and Munster were followed by priestly ordination in 1967. In 1974 he received his doctorate in Munich under Joseph Ratzinger.
On 8. Jaschke received his episcopal ordination in Osnabruck in January 1989. As episcopal vicar in the Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1995, he was chairman of the regional Caritas associations for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. In the Bishops' Conference he was for many years also a commissioner for the federal police and a member of the joint conference of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and the bishops.
Expert in ecumenism
Jaschke, who likes to cycle around the Alster in his private life, can sufficiently demonstrate his skills in ecumenical matters in the Nordic diaspora. Not only since the "ecumenical Catholic Day" in Hamburg in 2000 did he repeatedly appear with the Protestant bishop Maria Jepsen – a photo of the two of them in a beach chair is almost legendary. Hajo" Jaschke deeply regretted Jepsen's resignation in July 2010.
In full gratitude
With his 75. According to church law, he had to offer his resignation to the pope on his 70th birthday. At a solemn service on Saturday, Jaschke looked back with gratitude on his work as auxiliary bishop in Hamburg. "I have had good times in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg serving the parishes there." Also in the future he will be gladly available for the work in the diocese. "Let's see what else is coming."
Already next weeks a significant appointment is coming up: He will take part in the first joint trip of the Bishops' Conference and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany to the Holy Land (16. to 22. October). During the pilgrimage immediately before the start of the Reformation commemoration in 2017, the dozen or so participants want to express the solidarity of the churches at places of origin of the Christian faith – certainly to the taste of ecumenist Hans-Jochen Jaschke.
Sabine Kleyboldt