Joachim Cardinal Meisner

His Eminence Joachim Cardinal Meisner (born 25 December 1933) is a Cardinal Priest and Archbishop of Cologne in the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), Meisner studied at the seminary of Erfurt, earning a doctorate in theology. Ordained as a priest in 1962, he pastored in Germany.

In 1975, he was elected titular Bishop of Vina and auxiliary Bishop of Erfurt. He was elected as a delegate tothe Fourth Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in 1977, where he renewed a friendship with Karol Cardinal Wojtyla. After Wojtyla 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, Meisner was promoted to the position of Archbishop of Cologne, a post he continues to hold.

External links

• Biography at catholic-pages.com