Bishop
In 1975, he was elected titular Bishop of Vina and auxiliary bishop to the Apostolic Administrator Erfurt-Meiningen. He was elected as a delegate to the Fourth Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in 1977, where he renewed a friendship with Karol Wojtyła. After Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II, he appointed Meisner Bishop of Berlin in 1980, and proclaimed him Cardinal in the consistory of 2 February 1983, with the title Cardinal-Priest of S. Pudenziana.
In 1988 after the death of Joseph Höffner, Meisner was promoted to the position of Archbishop of Cologne, a post he continues to hold. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Meisner was the bishop in charge for the XX. World Youth Day in August 2005 in the archdiocese in Cologne that attracted more than one million people. As the leader of Germany's biggest and wealthiest archdiocese, the Cardinal holds a very significant moral and social position, too.
Meisner regularly travels to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict in private.
On Tuesday, 18 September 2012, Cardinal Meisner was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a Synod Father for the upcoming October 2012 Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
Read more about this topic: Joachim Meisner
Famous quotes containing the word bishop:
“All the untidy activity continues,
awful but cheerful.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)
“I know what I know, says the almanac.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)
“Apparently they have reached their destination.
It would be hard to say what brought them there,
commerce or contemplation.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)