Life
He attended the gymnasium in his native city and afterwards, from 1836 to 1839, the academy in the same city, where he finished philosophy and began theology. As the teaching of the latter science was discontinued in this academy in 1839, he entered the ecclesiastical seminary at Würzburg and continued his studies there from the autumn of 1839 to that of 1841.
Acting on the advice of Bishop Georg Anton Stahl of Würzburg, who had taught him Christian doctrine in the gymnasium of Aschaffenburg, and had then been his professor of dogmatic theology at Würzburg until 1840, he went to Rome in the fall of 1841 for a four years' course in the German College. Here he was ordained on 2 September 1843, by Cardinal Patrizi, and upon the completion of his studies, in 1845, he received the degree of Doctor of Theology. In the first volume of his work, Aus Welt und Kirche, Hettinger gives an account of his student days in Rome.
After his return home, he was made chaplain at Alzenau, 3 October 1845. On 25 October 1847, he was appointed assistant, and on 20 May 1852, subregent, in the ecclesiastical seminary of Würzburg. On 1 June 1856, he became extraordinary professor, and on 16 May 1857, ordinary professor, of patrology and propaedeutics in the University of Würzburg.
He took up the teaching of apologetics and homiletics, with the direction of the homiletic seminary, on 1 January 1867. From 1871 he lectured on dogmatic theology in the place of Denzinger, whose health had failed, and after the latter's death, he became ordinary professor of dogmatic theology (16 Dec., 1884).
In 1859 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the philosophical faculty of Würzburg. Twice, 1862–63 and 1867–68, he was rector of the university. Hettinger and his colleagues, Joseph Hergenröther and Denzinger, formed a brilliant constellation to which the theological faculty of Würzburg owed the high repute which it enjoyed for many years. Hettinger's merits were also recognized abroad. He was made an honorary member of the college of doctors of the theological faculty of the University of Vienna in 1866, honorary doctor of theology of Louvain in 1884, and, in 1885, honorary member of the Academia Religionis Catholicæ of Rome.
He was called to Rome with Hergenröther in 1868 to assist in the preliminary work of the First Vatican Council, and appointed consultor to the theologico-dogmatic commission. On 21 November 1879, he was appointed a domestic prelate by Pope Leo XIII.
Read more about this topic: Franz Hettinger
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea’s foot and marveling at a midge’s humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“The touchstone for family life is still the legendary “and so they were married and lived happily ever after.” It is no wonder that any family falls short of this ideal.”
—Salvador Minuchin (20th century)
“Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)