Franz Xaver Dieringer

Franz Xaver Dieringer was a Catholic theologian, b. 22 August 1811, at Rangendingen (Hohenzollern-Hechingen); d. 8 September 1876, at Veringendorf (today a district of Veringenstadt).

He studied theology at Tübingen, was ordained at Freiburg, 19 September 1835, and appointed instructor at the archiepiscopal seminary there. In the autumn of 1840 he became professor of dogma at the ecclesiastical seminary of Speier and at Easter, 1841, was also made professor of philosophy in the lyceum of the same city. In the spring of 1843 he was appointed professor in ordinary of dogma and homiletics at the University of Bonn, and provisional inspector of the preparatory seminary.

When at his instance a homiletic-catechetical seminary was established in 1844, he took charge of the homiletic section. Besides performing the duties of his professorship, he published the "Katholische Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaft und Kunst," a periodical devoted to science and church interests, which he had founded in 1844 in opposition to the periodical of the Hermesians. From 1847 to 1849 it appeared as the "Katholische Vierteljahresschrift". Dieringer took a prominent part in the founding of the Society of St. Charles Borromeo in 1845, of which he was at first secretary and then president from 1846-1871. In 1853, though retaining his professorship and residing at Bonn, he was made canon of Cologne Cathedral and ecclesiastical councillor. In 1848 he represented the district of Neuss in the parliament at Frankfurt.

His name was among those proposed in 1856 for the vacant See of Paderborn and in 1864 for the See of Trier, but it was removed by the Prussian Government. Though his earlier teaching, especially in his "Laienkatechismus", had been in accordance with the doctrine of papal infallibility, at the time of the First Vatican Council he joined the opposition. After negotiations of some length, he yielded to the demand of the Archbishop of Cologne, Paul Melchers, and made his submission.

In order to escape from the strained relations which existed among the divided faculty, Dieringer resigned his offices and dignities during the spring of 1871 and took charge of the parish of Veringendorf in Hohenzollern. In 1874 he was among those recommended for the Archdiocese of Freiburg, but he could not accede to the demands of the government of the Grand Duchy of Baden. After 1874 he was constantly in failing health.

Dieringer's principal publications are:

• "System der göttlichen Thaten des Christenthums, oder, Selbst-begründung des Christenthums, voilzogen durch seine göttlichen Thaten" (Mainz, 1841, 2nd ea., 1857), a work which clearly shows the influence of Staudenmaier, especially in its first edition; and
• the "Lehrbuch der katholischen Dogmatik" (Mainz, 1847; 5th ed., 1865).

A work on theology in popular form is his "Laienkatechismus über Religion, Offenbarung and Kirche" (Mainz, 1865; 2nd ed. 1868). Another book also in popular style, "Der heil. Karl Borromäus und die Kirchenverbesserung seiner Zeit" (Cologne, 1846), appeared as the first publication of the Society of St. Charles Borromeo and had a wide circulation. Besides these publications there were the two homiletic works:

• "Kanzelvorträge an gebildete Katholiken auf alle Sonn- und Festtage des Kirchenjahres" (Mainz, 1844); and
• "Das Epistelbuch der katholischen Kirche, theologisch erklärt" (Mainz, 1863);

the polemical writings:

• "Offenes Sendschreiben über die kirchlichen Zustände der Gegenwart an Dr. J. B. von Hirscher" (Mainz, 1849, against Hirscher's publication under the same title);
• "Dogmatische Erorterungen mit einem Güntherianer" (Mainz, 1852);,
• "Die Theologie der Vor- und Jetztzeit, ein Beitrag zur Verständigung" (Bonn, 1868; 2nd ed., 1869; against Kleutgen's "Theologie der Vorzeit"), which appeared first in the "Theologisches Literaturblatt" of Bonn 1868); and: *"Expositio doctrinae Tertulliani de republica et de officiis ac iuribus civium christianorum" (University Program; Bonn, 1850).