MÜNSTER, DIOCESE OF. - A city and diocese in Westphalia (Germany).
The diocese has an area of 15,128 sq. km., with 3,606,669 inhabitants, of whom 2,075,795 are Catholics. It comprises 622 parishes, served by 1,466 secular priests and 84 regular clergy, 14 male and 58 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 280). The diocese is a suffragan of Cologne.
It was founded by Charlemagne during his wars in Saxony. The first bishop was St. Ludger, between 792 and 794, who established a monastery at the site of Mimigardeford, where he lived in community with the priests and clerics subject to him. From this monastery the city of Münster took its name from 1100 onwards. In addition to the administration of western Saxony between the Ems and the Lippe, Ludger also had jurisdiction over the Frisian territory on the lower Ems.
This territory remained attached to the diocese of Münster until the foundation of the Dutch dioceses in 1559. Since 798 the diocese has been a suffragan of Cologne. In the 9th century the Chapter appears as a distinct corporation, having dissolved the common life with the bishop. In the 10th century several notable collegiate churches of canons arose, such as Freckenhorst, Nottuln, Wreden, Liesborn, and Borghorst. A new cathedral was built by Bishop Dodo (969-93). During the Investiture Controversy the bishops of Münster sided with Henry IV and his son. The energetic Bishop Hermann II, Count of Katzenellenbogen (1174-1203), an ally of Frederick Barbarossa against Alexander III, subsequently obtained territorial sovereignty following the deposition of Henry the Lion and the dismemberment of the Duchy of Saxony, confirmed by Frederick II on 26 April 1220. He enlarged and restored the cathedral, fortified the city, and reorganized the parochial structure. The Cathedral Chapter, composed exclusively of nobles, exercised great influence over the political and religious life of the diocese. From 1203 it exercised the exclusive right of electing the bishop. Through the archdeacons, often chosen from among the canons, it also exercised a directive role over the parishes. Involved in the struggles among the nobility (Münsterische Stiftsfehde, 1450-56) and in the critical conditions of the Empire, the diocese declined. Henry von Schwarzburg (1466-96) began the work of reforming the monasteries and the clergy. The Protestant doctrines preached in Münster by Bernt Rothmann in all the city’s parishes were followed by the rule of the Anabaptists; after their suppression in 1535, Catholic worship was restored. Bishop Franz von Waldeck (1532-53) favored Protestantism and attempted to transform the ecclesiastical principality into a hereditary principality; a similar attempt, though unsuccessful, was made by his successor Wilhelm von Ketteler (1553-57). From 1643 Münster was the site of the congress for the peace following the Thirty Years’ War, concluded there with the Treaty of 1648. Notable for his pastoral zeal was Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen (1650-78). Bishop Ferdinand von Fürstenberg (1678-83) simultaneously administered the diocese of Paderborn, to which he devoted his principal care. In 1803 the ecclesiastical principality was secularized. The diocese was reorganized by the bull De salute animarum of 16 July 1821, and after overcoming the remnants of Enlightenment influences, a notable Catholic revival took place in Münster. During the Kulturkampf, Bishop Bernhard Brinkmann (1870-89) lived in exile for nine years. From 1933 to 1945 the diocese was governed by Clemens August Count von Galen (q.v.), formerly a parish priest in Berlin, an intrepid defender of the Church’s rights against the National Socialist regime and an indefatigable organizer of charitable works during the Second World War. He was created cardinal in February 1946.
The diocese comprises the Westphalian province of Münster, five Rhenish districts, and the district of Oldenburg, including the city of Wilhelmshaven and the island of Wangerooge.