Diocese of Speyer

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Diocese of Speyer (lat. Dioecesis Spirensis) is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland. The bishop's see is in the Palatinate city of Speyer.

Since February 10, 2007 the See of Speyer is vacant. On this day Pope Benedict XVI accepted the former bishop's age-related resignation. On the same day, the Chapter elected auxiliary bishop Otto Georgens to the office of Administrator sede vacante to the See of Speyer.

The former bishop, Dr. Anton Schlembach, entered office on August 25, 1983.

1 History
2 Administration
- 2.1 Diocese direction
- 2.2 Structuring

[edit] History

In a slightly different hierarchic structure it is one of the oldest Dioceses in Germany. A bishop of Speyer was first mentioned in a document in 346. Through grants by the Holy Roman Emperor, the prince-bishops of Speyer established themselves as worldly as well as spiritual rulers. The Diocese of Speyer in its current form was established within the borders of the former Royal Bavarian Rheinkreis (bayrischer Rheinkreis) in 1817 after the secularization and division of the former bishopric in 1803.

[edit] Administration

[edit] Diocese direction

The diocese is directed by

Suffragan Bishop Otto Georgens as Administrator sede vacante (since 2007)

[edit] Structuring

The diocese is structured in the following deaneries, with borders that are almost the same as the local county borders:

Deanery	City / County	Dean
Bad Dürkheim	Stadt Neustadt, Landkreis Bad Dürkheim	Priest Michael Janson, Hassloch
Donnersberg	Donnersbergkreis	Priest Thomas Brenner, Gerbach
Germersheim	Landkreis Germersheim	Priest Monsignore Felix Hirsch, Bellheim
Kaiserslautern	Stadt Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern (district)	Priest Ewald Sonntag, Kaiserslautern-Erfenbach
Kusel	Kusel (district)	Priest Rudolf Schlenkrich, Kusel
Landau	Stadt Landau, Landkreis Südliche Weinstraße	Priest Klaus Ambrust, Landau
Ludwigshafen	Stadt Ludwigshafen, Stadt Frankenthal, Northern part of Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis	Priest Dr. Gerd Babelotzky, Ludwigshafen-Friesenheim
Pirmasens	Stadt Pirmasens, Stadt Zweibrücken, Landkreis Südwestpfalz	Priest Rudolf Banzer, Pirmasens
Saarpfalz	Saarpfalz district	Priest Karl Josef Lindemann, St. Ingbert
Speyer	Stadt Speyer, Southern part of Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis	Priest Peter Nirmaier, Schifferstadt

v • d • e Roman Catholic archdioceses and dioceses in Germany
(Archdioceses in bold) Aachen \| Augsburg \| Bamberg \| Berlin \| Cologne \| Dresden-Meissen \| Eichstätt \| Erfurt \| Essen \| Freiburg \| Fulda \| Görlitz \| Hamburg \| Hildesheim \| Limburg \| Magdeburg \| Mainz \| Munich and Freising \| Münster \| Osnabrück \| Paderborn \| Passau \| Regensburg \| Rottenburg-Stuttgart \| Speyer \| Trier \| Würzburg