BERLIN, FEB. 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg was today elected the president of the German episcopal conference.
The 69-year-old prelate succeeds Cardinal Karl Lehmann, bishop of Mainz, who had the post since 1987 and who presented his retirement for health reasons.
Robert Zollitsch was born in 1938 in Filipovo, in what was then Yugoslavia. In 1946, after the expulsion of Germans from the area following World War II, his family moved within the Diocese of Freiburg. He was ordained in 1964, with the Schonstatt Fathers, a fledgling secular institute at that time.
In 2003, Pope John Paul II named him archbishop of Freiburg. His episcopal motto is "In the communion of the faith."
The German episcopal conference is comprised of the nation's bishops and archbishops from its 29 dioceses.
