Kempf, Wilhelm

Catholic clergyman, Bishop of Limburg

Born: 10.08.1906 in Wiesbaden

Died: 09.10.1982 in Wiesbaden

Kempf came from a family of teachers; his father was a secondary school principal and his mother was the daughter of a teacher. After graduating from the humanistic grammar school in Wiesbaden, where he joined the Catholic youth movement Bund Neudeutschland, he studied theology in Fulda, at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome (doctorate in 1928) and in Frankfurt/St. Georgen and was ordained a priest in Limburg in 1932.

This was followed by chaplain posts in Höhn-Schönberg and Tiefenthal Monastery, in Dernbach and in Frankfurt, interrupted by a three-year period as episcopal secretary in Limburg. In 1942, he became parish priest in Frankfurt/Hl. Geist, a new suburban parish that was influenced by his predecessor Dr. Georg Hörle and his ideas on liturgical renewal.

In 1949, Kempf was appointed bishop by Pope Pius XII and consecrated on July 25, 1949 by Cardinal Josef Frings in Limburg. The reconstruction after the war, the integration of displaced persons and the construction of many new churches characterized the beginning of his term of office. In 1959, he introduced the "Cross Week", which to this day places the Limburg relic of the cross at the center of a "diocesan Catholics' Day" and was intended to create an identity for the sociologically inhomogeneous diocese.

He took part in the Second Vatican Council as Undersecretary. The participation and voice of the laity in the church and an atmosphere of fraternity formed the so-called "Limburg style". However, these efforts and his openness to liturgical innovations went too far in certain circles, and in 1973 the Bonn nuncio Corrado Bafile arranged for the appointment of a coadjutor for Kempf in Rome, which would have been tantamount to removing the bishop from power. However, the plan came to the attention of the public in good time, who lobbied hard on Kempf's behalf and ultimately prevented the plans from being carried out. Kempf was rehabilitated before the Roman congregations and reconciled with Bafile in 1974.

In the Bishops' Conference, Kempf was a member of the commission for journalistic issues and responsible for church music. In 1981, he was awarded the Grand Federal Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon and an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Tübingen. The diocese's conference center in Wiesbaden-Naurod, which opened in 1984, bears the name Wilhelm-Kempf-Haus. In 1975, the city of Wiesbaden made him an honorary citizen. On the occasion of his 75th birthday, he handed in his resignation, retired to Wiesbaden and died just one year later. He was buried in the bishop's crypt in Limburg Cathedral.