Franz-Josef Hermann Bode (16 February 1951) is German prelate of the Catholic Church who has been

Bishop of Osnabrück A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, Germany, since 1995. He has been a bishop since 1991 and Deputy Chairman of the German Bishops Conference since 2017. Within that Conference, he is considered one of the strongest advocates of expanding the role of women in the Church.

Biography

Bode was born in

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

, Germany, on 16 February 1951. He was ordained a priest on 13 December 1975 for the

Archdiocese of Paderborn The Archdiocese of Paderborn is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany; its seat is Paderborn.Johannes Joachim Degenhardt and co-consecrators Hans Leo Drewes and Paul Consbruch. On 12 September 1995 he was appointed Bishop of Osnabrück and was installed on 26 November 1995."Franz-Josef-Bode", Religion News Service, January 23, 2018
/ref> From 1996 to 2010, he headed the German Bishops Conference's youth commission and since 2010 he has led the pastoral commission. In September 2017 he was elected Deputy Chairman of the

German Bishops' Conference The German Bishops' Conference (german: Deutsche Bischofskonferenz) is the episcopal conference of the bishops of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. Members include diocesan bishops, coadjutors, auxiliary bishops, and diocesan administrato ...

. He has withdrawn his name from consideration to succeed Cardinal

Reinhard Marx Reinhard Marx (born 21 September 1953) is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory in 2010. Biography Born in Geseke, N ...

as chairman of the conference, and his spokesperson noted that Marx thought it was time for younger leadership and that Bode is older than Marx and has health problems. He was one of three bishops representing the German Bishops Conference at the Synod on the Family in October 2015. In January 2018, he told an interviewer that the Vatican study commission on women deacons initiated by Pope Francis in 2016 "should not only proceed from tradition. We must do justice to the fact that today women are often in very responsible positions in the church". He also said he thought the Church should bless same-sex unions, though the Church does not call them marriages and "we would also not equate any blessing with the wedding ceremony". In November 2019, Bode said he can imagine women in his diocese leading Eucharist services, but considers his hopes unrealistic; he has named a woman as a parish commissioner and plans to have women fill half of those positions.

Awards

* Courage-Preis - By the city of

Bad Iburg Bad Iburg (; Westphalian: ''Bad Ibig'') is a spa town in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teutoburg Forest, 16 km south of Osnabrück. Bad Iburg is also the name of a municipality which includes ...

, awarded to the best contributor to the common good * Justus-Möser-Medaille - By the city of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

, awarded to the best contributor to the common good * Honoris Doctor from

University of Lucerne The University of Lucerne (UNILU; German: ''Universität Luzern'') is a public university with a campus in Lucerne, Switzerland. 1,460 undergraduates and 1,258 postgraduate students attend the university, which makes it Switzerland's smallest un ...

for his fight for women rights in Catholic Church

Publications

* Zeit mit Gott. Ein Stundenbuch. Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 2005, * Zeit mit Gott. Ein Stundenbuch II. Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 2008, * Priester: Wurzeln und Visionen einer spannenden Berufung. Osnabrück 2009.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bode, Franz-Josef 1951 births Living people People from Paderborn Roman Catholic bishops of Osnabrück 20th-century German Roman Catholic bishops 21st-century German Roman Catholic bishops 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Germany