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- The election of a bishop for the diocese of Chur would be scheduled for today and has now been postponed.
- The cathedral chapter, the body that should have chosen the new bishop, rejected the list of three candidates.
- According to SRF religion expert Norbert Bischofberger, the additional calendar is currently open.
- The bishopric of the Diocese of Chur has been vacant since 2019. It is led by Transitional Bishop Peter Bürcher.
This message was not officially confirmed. Bishop spokesman Giuseppe Gracia said at the request of Radio SRF that he could not provide any information, but promised information by Tuesday.
The 22 canons can, in principle, elect the new bishop from a tripartite Vatican proposal. If the person chosen is available for the position, the election must be confirmed by Pope Francis. The originally free right to vote of the Chur cathedral chapter was restricted and recorded in 1948 in the papal decree “Etsi salva”.
Trenches for three decades
Currently, the chair of the bishop of Chur is not completely orphaned. In May last year, the Pope appointed Peter Bürcher of Upper Valais as Apostolic Administrator. Bürcher runs the diocese until a new bishop is elected.
The fact that the choice of bishops in Chur has an above-average interest is due to the fact that conservative and liberal forces have been opposing each other in the diocese for more than three decades, leading to a split.
The former bishop of Chur, Johannes Vonderach, ushered in the trench warfare. He made conservative clergyman Wolfgang Haas auxiliary bishop with inheritance rights. This canceled the right of the cathedral chapter to have an opinion. Since then, with a view to electing a bishop, there has been repeated talk of a bridge builder filling trenches rather than breaking new ones.
