The former bishop of Passau, Wilhelm Schraml, is dead. The clergyman died on Monday in the Marian pilgrimage site of Altötting, where he has lived since 2013. He was 86 years old. The Passau bishop Stefan Oster praised Schraml’s work: “His tireless journey in the diocese, in the parishes and with the people is my role model.” For him personally, his predecessor in office was also a valuable advisor, said Oster.
Born in Upper Palatinate, Schraml headed the smallest diocese in Bavaria from 2002 to 2013. Schraml described the visit of Pope Benedict XVI as the highlight of his tenure in Passau. in September 2006 in Bavaria. The then head of the church also stopped in Altötting and his birthplace Marktl am Inn, both of which are located in the Passau diocese area. In these places Schraml had a lasting influence on the memory of the pope emeritus from Bavaria, to whom he was very fond and whom he once described as a “doctor of the church”. In Marktl, Schraml made sure that Benedikt’s birthplace was acquired by a church foundation and turned into a spiritual meeting center. In Altötting, which made him honorary citizen in 2015, several renovations and new buildings go back to his initiative, including the adoration chapel in the former treasury. He visited them every day, explained his former vicar general Klaus Metzl, who is now the parish priest of Altötting. “He would like to be buried there too.”
Schraml came from Erbendorf im Steinwald and was ordained a priest in Regensburg in 1961 and as auxiliary bishop in 1986. In 2001 Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Passau. When Schraml dutifully submitted his resignation on his 75th birthday in 2010, Benedict XVI left him. continue in office. This was interpreted as a sign of special appreciation. Pope Francis did not release the bishop into final retirement three years later. Schraml had already moved his residence to Altötting by then. Schraml’s start in Passau was a difficult one. In order to consolidate the diocese’s finances, which were burdened by a structural minus, he turned on the management consultancy McKinsey. His decision to push back the influence of the Viennese pastoral theologian Paul Michael Zulehner in the diocese, who had been promoted by his predecessor, Bishop Franz Xaver Eder, caused further conflict. Due to the catastrophic floods on the Danube and Inn in June 2013, Schraml was again challenged at the end of his term of office.