Stefan Oster

Oster was born on June 3, 1965 in Amberg, a town in Bavaria, Germany. He graduated from Neutraubling high school and later trained as a newspaper - and a radio editor from 1984 to 1986. He spent some years working in this profession. From 1988 he started his studies in philosophy, history and religious studies in Regensburg, Kiel, at Keele University and the University of Oxford. From 1990 to 1991 he was a Fellow in the Erasmus Programme of the European Union. He graduated from Oxford in 1993 with a Master of Studies and a Master of Arts from Regensburg in 1994.

In 1995 Oster joined the Salesians of Don Bosco and spent a year in the novitiate in Jünkerath. From 1996 till 2000 he studied at the College of Philosophy and Theology in Benediktbeuern. On July 24, 1999 he professed his perpetual vows and thus formally became a member of Salesians of Don Bosco. He was ordained to the priesthood by Viktor Josef Dammertz, the bishop of Augsburg, on 24 June 2001.

In 2003 Oster received the Albertus Magnus prize by the Diocese of Augsburg and in 2004 the Vereins der Freunde by the University of Augsburg for his work on his Doctoral Thesis. He started lecturing philosophy at the College of Philosophy and Theology in Benediktbeuern.[1] His subjects were the Theory of Knowledge, Metaphysics, Philosophy of language, Philosophy of dialogue and Philosophy of the person.

In 2009, he did the Habilitation exam in Dogmatic Theology through the Faculty of Theology at the University of Trier. The Habilitation thesis dealt with the relationship between the Person and Transubstantiation under the supervision of Rudolf Voderholzer. He was appointed a professor of Dogma and History of Dogma. As a dogmatist, he focused mainly on Systematic theology, particularly in the area of Christology, Ecclesiology and Mariology.

In July 2013 the College of Philosophy and Theology in Benediktbeuern closed and thus Oster ended his local professorship at the college. He continued to lecture at the Katholische Stiftungsfachhochschule München. He also taught at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.[2]

The bishops Coat of Arms

On April 4, 2014 Pope Francis appointed Oster as the 85th Bishop of Passau.[3] His episcopal ordination took place on May 24 at the Cathedral of St Stephen in Passau by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising Cardinal Reinhard Marx. The co-consecrators were Wilhelm Schraml, emeritus bishop of Passau, as well as the emeritus archbishop of Salzburg, Alois Kothgasser.[4] Oster is the youngest German bishop. Stefan Oster chose the motto "Victoria Veritatis Caritas" ("The victory of truth is love").

In March 2019, Oster said, there can be also married priests in Roman-Catholic church.[5]

He affirmed to believe in the possibility a chaste life, but he was also certain that the frequency of failures among non married priests risks to transform the celibacy in the opposite of a testimony of Christian faith.[6] Bishop Oster also stated that the Christian sexual moral needs further developments in order to demonstrate that the sacerdotal marriage has ended to be qualified as a sin and can be blessed in the Roman Catholic Church.[6]

He defends the traditional view of the Catholic Church on Homosexuality and is a critic of proponents of Intercommunion with Protestants.[7] However, he defended the right of Protestants married with a Roman Catholic to participate in the Holy Mass butt with no possibility to receive the Eucharistic Sacrament.[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stefan Oster.

• Bishop Dr. Stefan Oster SDB The official website of the Diocese of Passau