BETTINGER, Franziskus. – Cardinal, b. at Landstuhl (Palatinate) on 17 Sept. 1850, d. 13 Apr. 1917 at Munich. Ordained priest in 1873, he devoted himself to pastoral ministry in various parishes of the diocese of Speyer. In 1895 he was appointed canon of Speyer and dean of the same chapter. In the Consistory of 26 June 1909 he was preconized Archbishop of Munich and Freising. A distinguished organizer of ecclesiastical administration in Bavaria, Pius X created him cardinal on 25 May 1914. The conferral of the purple upon their metropolitan occasioned great rejoicing among Bavarian Catholics, since no Bavarian prelate had been raised to that dignity since the death of Cardinal Reisch in 1869. During the First World War Cardinal B. took a particular interest in the religious care of Bavarian combatants.
BETTINGER, FRANZISKUS
BIBL.: M. Buchberger, in Schematismus V. München, 1918, pp. 279-86; W. Kosch, Das katholische Deutschland, I, August 1933, col. 171.