- Joseph Höffner
infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name= Joseph Cardinal Höffner
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Cologne (emeritus )|Joseph Cardinal Höffner (
December 24 ,1906 —October 16 ,1987 ) was a Germanprelate of theRoman Catholic Church . He served asArchbishop of Cologne from 1969 to 1987, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.Biography
Born in
Horhausen , Joseph Höffner attended theseminary in Freiburg im Breisgau and thePontifical Gregorian University inRome before being ordained to the priesthood byFrancesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani onOctober 30 ,1932 . He finished his studies in 1934, and then did pastoral work in Trier until 1945. After teaching at the Trier seminary for six years, Höffner was named to theUniversity of Münster in 1951. He was the founder, director, and a professor of the Institute of Christian Social Sciences inMunich from 1951 to 1961, and was also a scientific advisor to three ministries of the Federal Republic.On
July 9 ,1962 , Höffner was appointed Bishop of Münster. He received his episcopal consecration on the followingSeptember 14 from Bishop Matthias Wehr, with Bishops Heinrich Baaken and Heinrich Tenhumberg serving as co-consecrators. Höffner attended theSecond Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and was promoted to Coadjutor Archbishop of Cologne andTitular Archbishop of Aquileia onJanuary 6 ,1969 . He succeeded Josef Cardinal Frings asArchbishop of Cologne onFebruary 24 of that same year.Höffner was created Cardinal Priest of "S. Andrea della Valle" by
Pope Paul VI in theconsistory ofApril 28 , 1969. From 1976 to 1987, he was Chairman of theConference of the German Bishops and thus the highest representative of the Catholic Church in Germany. The German prelate was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which selectedPope John Paul I andPope John Paul II respectively. Höffner resigned asCologne 's archbishop onSeptember 14 , 1987, after a period of seventeen years.The Cardinal died the next month in Cologne at age 80, and is buried in the
Cologne Cathedral . Höffner, who was also an expert in Catholic social doctrine, was awarded the posthumous honor of "Righteous Among the Nations " in 2003 by the State of Israel, for having saved Jewish lives duringWorld War II .References
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-h.htm#Hoffner Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bhoffner.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
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