Influential German prelate Karl Lehmann

Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the former head of Germany’s Catholic Bishops Conference, has died. He was 81.

The Catholic group said in a statement that Lehmann died yesterday at his home in Mainz.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement she is very sad about Lehmann’s death and called him one of the most prominent faces of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Aged 47, he was appointed Bishop of Mainz in 1983, becoming the youngest Catholic bishop ever appointed in Germany at that time.

After having been elected deputy chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Germany in 1985, he was elected chairman of the conference in 1987 and held that position for 21 years until 2008.

Lehmann was among the cardinals and bishops who met annually from 1995 to 2006 in St Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss reforms with respect to the appointment of bishops, collegiality, bishops’ conferences, the primacy of the papacy and sexual morality.

About a dozen in number, they differed among themselves, but shared the view that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was not the candidate they hoped to see elected at the next conclave.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Bishop of Mainz on May 16 2016, his 80th birthday.