Norbert Brunner (born 21 June 1942) was the bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion The Diocese of Sion ( la, Dioecesis Sedunensis, french: Diocèse de Sion, german: Bistum Sitten) is a Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is the oldest bishopric in the country and one of the oldest north of ...

, Switzerland from 1995 to 2014. He was the elected President of the

Swiss Bishops Conference The Swiss Bishops' Conference (SBC; german: Schweizer Bischofskonferenz; french: Conférence des évêques suisses; it, Conferenza dei vescovi svizzeri; rm, Conferenza dals uvestgs svizzers) is the coordinating body of the Catholic dioceses in ...

for the term 2010–2012.

Biography

Brunner was born 1942 in Naters, Valais. He studied at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

, Austria, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on 6 July 1968. His resignation as Bishop of Sion was accepted, in accordance with Canon 401.2 of the 1983

Latin rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church '' sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

Code of Canon Law, by

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

on Tuesday, 8 July 2014, and that same day, Pope Francis named the Right Reverend

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

Jean-Marie Lovey, CRB, so far Provost (Superior General) of the Congregation of

Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...

of St. Bernard the Great.

Views

In November 2009, he declared that he was in favor of the ordination of married priests, and that most Swiss Bishops agreed with him on this. During a Synod, Bishop Brunner insisted that the measures taken at Vatican II to promote collegiality still had not found their objective. Once again, he said with preoccupation, what value do the pastoral needs of the local churches have for the Roman Curia? Brunner wrote about the

canonical situation of the Society of St. Pius X The canonical situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is unresolved. The Society of Saint Pius X has been the subject of much controversy since 1988, when Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tiss ...

and concluded that the 1988 consecrations were

valid but illicit Validity and liceity are concepts in the Catholic Church. Validity designates an action which produces the effects intended; an action which does not produces the effects intended is considered "invalid". Liceity designates an action which has bee ...

, in the sense that Lefebvre did consecrate bishops but that these consecrations were against existing canonical norms.

External links

Diocèse de Sion

Profile

References

Living people 1942 births People from Naters 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion {{europe-RC-bishop-stub