New Bishop for the Diocese of Münster

Appointment announced in a festive ceremony at Münster Cathedral

March 26, 2026. Pope Leo XIV has appointed the current Bishop of Hildesheim, Dr. Heiner Wilmer SCJ, as the new Bishop of Münster. He succeeds Bishop Emeritus Dr. Felix Genn, who retired on March 9, 2025. The announcement at St. Paul’s Cathedral by Cathedral Provost Hans-Bernd Köppen took place today on the Solemnity of St. Ludger, who was the first Bishop of Münster since 805. The installation of Bishop Wilmer as the 77th Bishop of Münster will take place on Sunday, June 28, in the afternoon.

We warmly congratulate the new Bishop of Münster on his election and wish him all the best and God’s blessing for his ministry.

The Diocese of Münster informs in a press release that Heiner Wilmer was born on April 9, 1961, in Schapen in the Emsland region. In 1980, he entered the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart and made his perpetual vows in 1985. He was ordained a priest in Freiburg in 1987. He then studied in Rome and Freiburg from 1987 to 1993. In 1991, he earned his doctorate in fundamental theology in Freiburg.

From 1993 to 2007, he worked in education, first as a student teacher in Meppen and, after passing his second state examination, from 1995 to 1997 as a teacher of religion, history, and politics, as well as a school chaplain at the Liebfrauenschule in Vechta. In 1997 and 1998, he taught German and history at Fordham Preparatory School (Jesuit High School) in New York (Bronx).

In 1998, Wilmer became principal of the Leoninum High School in Handrup. He held this position until 2007, before becoming Provincial of the German Province of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Bonn. In 2015, he became Superior General of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Rome. On April 6, 2018, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Hildesheim. Since September 2021, he has served as chairman of the Commission for Social and Societal Issues within the German Bishops’ Conference. From 2019 to 2024, he was chairman of the German Commission for Justice and Peace. In February of this year, Bishop Wilmer was elected chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference.

At the presentation of the new Bishop of Münster in the packed cathedral, in the absence of General Superior Sister M. Margarete Ulager, the Generalate of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis was represented by General Councilor Sister M. Lima Arackal and Sister M. Laetitia Matsunaga, member of the Japan Province.