Speyer – Pope Leo XIV today, 19 August 2026, accepted the resignation of Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann as Bishop of Speyer. The diocese’s statement explicitly cites health reasons as the basis for the request submitted to the Pope and includes excerpts from the letter in which Wiesemann explained to the faithful why he had taken the decision well before reaching the age at which diocesan bishops would normally be expected to offer their resignation.
Wiesemann turned 66 on 1 August and had led the Diocese of Speyer since March 2008. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Paderborn in 2002, and in December 2007 Benedict XVI chose him to succeed as Bishop of Speyer.
In the letter published by the diocese, Wiesemann speaks directly about the toll his ministry has taken on his health. “With all my heart and with great inner joy, I have been a Christian alongside you and a bishop for you,” he writes, before adding that the burden of such wide-ranging responsibility has left him with “serious consequences, physically and above all psychologically”. His resignation comes nine years before the age of 75 laid down by the Code of Canon Law for diocesan bishops to submit their resignation. Canon 401 §2 also provides for cases in which a bishop, because of ill health or another grave cause, has become less able to fulfil his office, and urges him to submit his resignation to the Roman Pontiff.
