Pope Francis has accepted a resignation from Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg. The Holy See announced this on Tuesday. This means that two bishop posts are vacant in Germany. In general, after the age of 75, bishops offer their resignation to the head of the Catholic Church. The 73-year-old Schick was in the Vatican for an audience with Francis at the end of April. Schick’s departure came as a surprise to some observers.
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, paid tribute to Schick’s work. “You were a member of the German Bishops’ Conference for almost a quarter of a century and made a committed contribution, played a major role in shaping debates and were our safe authority on all questions of ecclesiastical law,” said a letter from the DBK. Schick belonged to the camp of reformers in the German synodal path.