֎Jean Claude HÖLLERICH (elevated 2019)

IMAGE CREDIT: Photo : Guy Wolff / Église catholique à Luxembourg

LINKS

Vatican bio of Cardinal Höllerich

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_hollerich_jc.html

Jean Claude Höllerich on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvadore Miranda):

https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2019.htm#Hollerich

Cardinal Höllerich on Gcatholic.org:

http://www.gcatholic.org/p/47061

Cardinal Höllerich on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bholleri.html

Archdiocese of Luxembourg on Gcatholic.org:

http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/luxe0.htm?focus=47061&tab=info

Archdiocese of Luxembourg on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dluxe.html

National Catholic Register coverage of Cardinal Höllerich on church teaching on Homosexuality:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/quick-reads/top-eu-cardinal-calls-change-church-teaching-gay-relationships

2022 National Catholic Register coverage of Cardinal Pell calling for Cardinal Höllerich's censure:

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/cardinal-pell-calls-on-vatican-to-correct-2-senior-european-bishops-for-rejecting-church-s-sexual-ethics

Crux Now reporting on Cardinal Höllerich's appointment as Relator General for the Synod on Synodality:

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2021/07/pope-names-relator-general-for-2023-synod

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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights.

Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.

Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.

Jean Claude Höllerich was born on August 9, 1958 in Differdange, Luxembourg. Sandwiched at the intersection of Belgium, France, and Germany, Luxembourg isn't exactly large but for what, it's worth, Differdange is on the southwestern corner of things. He actually grew up in Vianden, which is clear on the opposite northeast end of the country, a full hour's drive away.

Anyways, Jean Claude went to Rome relatively early on in his journey, once he decided to pursue the priesthood he began studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He formally joined the Jesuit Order in 1981, doing his novitiate in Namur, Belgium, followed by a couple years of pastoral training back home in Luxembourg, then actually on to Japan and I'll bet you didn't see that one coming. But yes from 1985 to 1989 he studied Japanese, not only the language but the culture as well, accompanied of course by theological studies, which he capped off back closer to home in Germany. By the time of his 1990 ordination Father Höllerich was deep into studying German language and literature, winding up with his second licentiate, by which point he was already a decade into his teaching career. His early teaching had been focused on forming seminarians, but by 1994 he was settled in at Sophia University in Tokyo, where his focus was European studies. He gradually built his portfolio at that university, becoming student chaplain in 1999, then rector of the school's Jesuit community as well as vice-rector for general affairs and students at the school as of 2008. I should also note that he took his final vows as a Jesuit during all that, in 2002.

In 2011, the Archbishop of Luxembourg–aka the *only* Roman Catholic bishop of Luxembourg–retired. There has never been a non-Luxembourger Archbishop and there are only so many Luxembourger priests of the right age with the right qualifications-don't get me wrong I do think Father Höllerich was surprised but maybe just a bit less surprised than others we've talked about when he was named as the next Archbishop.

In a nice touch given Höllerich's history, the Archbishop of Tokyo joined the Archbishop of Cologne and the Archbishop Emeritus of Luxembourg in consecrating him on October 16, 2011. In his role as Archbishop–and even before– he was frequently involved in side projects like bringing the Catholic Scouts of Europe to Luxembourg and serving as President of the Catholic Bishops Conferences of Europe's Commission for youth. In 2018, he was elected president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE).

In 2019, Pope Francis named him as a Cardinal-Priest, assigning him the titular church of San Giovanni Crisostomo a Monte Sacro Alto and making him the first Luxembourger Cardinal.

Cardinal Höllerich has gained a reputation for being progressive–by Catholic standards–calling for lay empowerment and women deacons and being relatively LGBT+ affirming. On the latter topic, here's an eyebrow-raising quote:

"I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching is no longer correct,"

End quote.

In this he found himself at odds with the late Cardinal Pell, who publicly called for Pope Francis to condemn Höllerich's quote “wholesale and explicit” end quote rejection of Church teaching on sexuality. He's also the highest ranking Church official I've ever seen to openly express a willingness to consider full on women's ordination, not just the more common willingness to restore an unordained diaconate for women but openness to full-on women priests.

Given his progressive streak, it's not terribly surprising that Cardinal Höllerich's appointment as Relator General for the Synod on Synodality got a lot of attention generally and concern from more conservative commentators specifically.

The Synod on Synodality–officially the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops but Synod on Synodality is what's caught on so that's what we're rolling with–the Synod on Synodality is a rolling conversation that was originally supposed to wrap up in 2022 but it got pushed back to 2023 and then extended to a two-year program that started about a year ago and will conclude this October. A synod is a gathering of bishops, and therefore a synod on synodality is something of a meeting on meetings, but it's had a large amount of interest especially when someone like Höllerich was setting up the discussion topics, including increasing the participation of women and the laity in the life of the Church and being more pastoral slash welcoming to LGBT+ individuals. Right now I can tell you that I expect more movement on including women and laity in Church governance- it's already happened with the Synod itself, with laity including women having a voting role in the Synod on Synodality itself, a noteworthy departure from the Church's administrative tradition. But don't get too riled up about women deacons, much less women priests, or significant changes on the LGBT+ front, because by all accounts major shifts on those higher profile fronts are, simply put, not likely.

In 2020, Pope Francis named Cardinal Hollerich as a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture and then added him to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialog a few months later. In September 2021 he was named as one of the two vice presidents of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), and last but certainly not least in earlier this year Pope Francis added Cardinal Höllerich to his special kitchen cabinet “Council of Cardinals”, the same body where his erstwhile critic Cardinal Pell had served until his passing.

Jean Claude Höllerich is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2038.

Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening; God bless you all!