Fritz Lobinger

Fritz Lobinger (born 22 January 1929) is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who spent his career as a missionary in South Africa where, as head of the Lumko Missiological Institute, he developed the concepts of small Christian communities and Bible sharing. He was Bishop of Aliwal from 1987 to 2004. He has advocated the ordination of teams of married men as priests to serve communities that otherwise lack regular access to the sacraments, with their functions designed to distinguish them from celibate priests.

Biography

Fritz Lobinger was born on 22 January 1929 in Passau He was ordained as a priest in Regensburg on June 29, 1955.[1][2] As a seminarian in Regensburg in 1953, Lobinger together with Hubert Bucher and Oswald Georg Hirmer, determined to serve in the foreign missions. He arrived in Aliwal, South Africa, in 1956. Oswald Hirmer followed in 1957 and Hubert Bucher in 1958. All three of them would spend the rest of their lives in South Africa and become bishops.[3]

Lobinger launched his extensive writing career in 1963, publishing with Hirmer as co-author Africa’s Way to Life, a catechism based on their experience of African culture and designed for the instruction of adult candidates for baptism.[4] The two colleagues were also the first missionaries in more than a century to encourage the use of traditional Xhosa musical styles in creating church songs.[5]

From 1970 to 1986, Lobinger worked at the Lumko Missiological Institute, the Pastoral Institute of the Episcopal Conference for the implementation of Second Vatican Council in South Africa.[lower-alpha 1] Lobinger’s early interest was in developing a system of "trainer catechists" to develop lay leadership, recognizing that a catechist plays a far greater role in the local community than his title suggests. He found models of lay engagement in Anglican and Methodist parishes. He visited Brazil several times to study the work of education theorist Paolo Freire. He produced training materials and lead training sessions throughout South Africa. At Lumko, Lobinger contributed significantly to the development of the pastoral model of small Christian communities, including the model of Bible sharing, a method of Bible study that has implications for liturgical ministry, catechesis, social projects, and the institution of the local church.[6]

He completed his doctorate in theology in 1986.[2] On 18 November 1987, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Aliwal. He received his episcopal consecration on 27 February 1987 from Wilfrid Fox Napier, Archbishop of Durban.

John Paul accepted his resignation for reasons of age on 29 April 2004.[7] In retirement Lobinger lived with Hubert Bucher and Oswald Hirmer, until their deaths in 2008 and 2011 respectively, in a nursing home for priests in Mariannhill, a suburb of Durban, the headquarters of the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries.[8]

Pastoral theory

Working as missionaries, Lobinger and his colleagues at Lumko became advocates of inculturation to promote evangelization in a non-European context. They experimented with and documented ways of engaging parishioners in Church life. Confronted with the shortage of priests, Lobinger has advocated the creation of a new type of Catholic priesthood. He does not advocate the ordination of married men as peers of celibate priests. Instead he argues for the ordination of groups of married men, respected community elders, playing no role outside their local community.[9] He also believes that the presence of these teams of married elders would enhance the laity's image of the celibate priesthood.[10]

Speaking with reporters in January 2019, Pope Francis provided an outline of Lobinger's views as presented in his book Priests for Tomorrow. He called Lobinger's proposals "interesting" and "a matter for discussion among theologians", while repeating his own insistence on maintaining celibacy as general practice while considering the ordination of married men to serve linguistic minorities and geographically remote communities.[11][12] Francis also interpreted Lobinger to mean that the elders would enjoy only one of the three gifts conferred by ordination, leading prayer and celebrating the sacraments, but without the other ministries of teaching and governing. Lobinger objected that this interpretation diminishes the role of the elders in a way he did not intend, but allowed that "this is a time of moving into new territory and one must find a way".[10]

Writings
  • Katechisten als Gemeindeleiter, Dauereinrichtung oder Übergangslösung? (in German). Münsterschwarzach: Vier-Türme-Verlag. 1973. ISBN 3-87868-053-8. (Dissertation at the University of Münster Faculty of Catholic Theology, 1971)
  • With Adolf Exeler und Heinrich Aertker: Auf eigenen Füßen: Kirche in Afrika (in German). Düsseldorf: Patmos. 1986. ISBN 978-3-491-77440-7.
  • Gemeinsam Verantwortung tragen – Pfarrgemeinderat (in German). Munich: Missio. 1988. ISBN 978-3-921626-83-2.
  • Katechisten als Gemeindeleiter. Dauereinrichtung oder Übergangslösung? (in German). Münsterschwarzach: Vier-Türme-Verlag. 1997. ISBN 978-3-87868-053-6.
  • Wie Gemeinden Priester finden (in German). Graz, Wien: Zeitpunkt. 1998. ISBN 3-901908-06-4.
  • Like his Brothers and Sisters: Ordaining Community Leaders. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company. 1999. ISBN 978-0-8245-1850-9.
  • With Paul M. Zulehner: Um der Menschen und der Gemeinden willen: Plädoyer zur Entlastung von Priestern (in German). Ostfildern: Schwabenverlag. 2002. ISBN 978-3-7966-1082-0.
  • With Paul M. Zulehner und Peter Neuner: Leutepriester in lebendigen Gemeinden. Ein Plädoyer für gemeindliche Presbyterien (in German). Ostfildern: Schwabenverlag. 2003. ISBN 978-3-7966-1124-7.
  • Priests for Tomorrow. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications. 2004. ISBN 9715019838.
  • Every Community its own Ordained. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications. 2008. ISBN 9789710511273.
  • Teams of Elders. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications. 2008. ISBN 978-9710307920.
  • The Empty Altar: An Illustrated Book to Help Talk about the Lack of Parish Priests. Crossroad Publishing Company. 2017. ISBN 978-0824520793.

Notes
  1. Lumko was the name of the family that sold the property where the Institute was established in 1962. It began as an initiative of the Diocese of Queenstown under Bishop John Baptist Rosenthal, and its original isolated location 13 kilometers east of Lady Frere in Cape Province is thought to have contributed to its production of written materials. It was eventually taken over by the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference. The Institute relocated in 1985 to Germiston, near Johannesburg.[6]

References
  1. "Lobinger, Fritz 1929-". Contemporary Authors. Gale. 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2019 – via encyclopedia.com.
  2. Lobinger, Fritz (1 July 2011). "Die Jungen Kirchen und die Zukunft des Kirchlichen Amtes". Retrieved 18 June 2019. Speech delivered 15 October 2008, Catholic Theological Faculty, University of Vienna
  3. "Gesandt bis an die Grenzen der Erde". Die Regensburger Domspatzen in Südafrika (in German). 11 March 2008.
  4. Baur, John (1994). 2000 years of Christianity in Africa: an African history, 62-1992. Paulines. p. 285.
  5. Dargie, David (January 1997). "Christian Music among the Africans". In Elphick, Richard; Davenport, Rodney (eds.). Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. University of California Press. p. 321. ISBN 9780520209404. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  6. Prior, Anselm (1993). "A Brief History of the Lumko Institute (1962 - 1999)". University of South Africa. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  7. "Rinunce e Nomine, 29.04.2004" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 29 April 2004. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  8. "Südafrika – Das Land der Little Ten". Die Regensburger Domspatzen in Südafrika (in German). 2 April 2008.
  9. "The Lobinger Model of Teampriests". Association of Catholic Priests. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. Wooden, Cindy (30 January 2019). "Affirming celibacy, pope explains narrow possibility for married priests". Catholic News Service. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019. Explaining his thoughts in an article published in U.S. Catholic magazine in March 2010, Bishop Lobinger said, "The two kinds (of priests) would exercise two different roles. The elders would lead the community and administer the sacraments in their own community, while the (diocesan) priests would be the spiritual guides of elders in several self-ministering communities. The priests would thus serve the whole diocese, while the elders would serve only the community where they were ordained."
  11. "Press Conference on the Return Flight from Panama to Rome". Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 27 January 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  12. Keane, James T. (29 January 2019). "Explainer: Will Pope Francis allow married priests?". America. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
Further reading
  • Vellguth, Klaus (2005). Eine neue Art, Kirche zu sein. Entstehung und Verbreitung der Kleinen Christlichen Gemeinschaften und des Bibel-Teilens in Afrika und Asien [A new way of being a church. Creation and dissemination of the Small Christian Communities and Bible sharing in Africa and Asia] (in German). Freiburg: Herder. ISBN 978-3-451-28857-9.
  • Steffen, Paul B. (2014). Centres of Formation and Evangelizing Ministry. Pastoral Institutes in Oceania and Africa. Siegburg: Franz Schmitt Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87710-541-2.
  • Steffen, Paul B. (2014). "Lumko Institute: Towards building a participatory church". East Asian Pastoral Review. 51 (2): 109–139.
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