Franz Hengsbach

Styles of Franz Hengsbach
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Essen (emeritus)

Franz Hengsbach (10 September 1910 – 24 June 1991) was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Essen from 1957 to 1991, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.

Franz Hengsbach was born in Velmede to Johann and Theresia Hengsbach; he had five brothers and two sisters. He studied at the Institute of Brilon and the seminaries in Paderborn and Freiburg. Hengsbach obtained his doctorate in theology in 1944 from the University of Münich, with a dissertation entitled Das Wesen der Verkündigung - Eine homiletische Untersuchung auf paulinischer Grundlag.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Kaspar Klein on 13 March 1937, and then served as vicar of Herne-Bukau, St. Marien until 1946. Hengsbach became general secretary of the Akademische Bonifatius-Vereinigung in Paderborn in 1946, and of the Central Committee for the Preparation of German Catholics in 1947. From 1948 to 1958, he was director of the archdiocesan pastoral office of Paderborn. He was made Domestic Prelate of His Holiness in 1952, and secretary general of the Central Committee of German Catholics on 30 April 1952.

On 20 August 1953 Hengsbach was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn and Titular Bishop of Cantanus by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 29 September from Archbishop Lorenz Jäger, with Bishops Wilhelm Weskamm and Friedrich Rintelen serving as co-consecrators, in Paderborn Cathedral. Hengsbach was later named the first Bishop of Essen on 18 November 1957.

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