Heiner Wilmer

Heiner Wilmer, S.C.J. (born 9 April 1961, in Schapen) is a German Catholic prelate who has served as the Bishop of Hildesheim since 2018. He was formerly the superior general of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians). Wilmer currently serves as the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference since 2026.

Biography

Heinrich Theodor Wilmer was born on 9 April 1961 on a farm in Emsland. In 1980, he graduated at the Leoninum, a high school operated by the Dehonians in Handrup close to his hometown. In the same year, he entered the novitiate of the congregation in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1986 he studied theology in Freiburg and romance philology (romance languages) in Paris. After that, he was ordained as a priest by Oskar Saier, the archbishop of Freiburg. He then went to Rome to study at the Gregorian Pontifical University; his focus was French philosophy. In 1991, Wilmer earned a Doctor of Theology in Freiburg, where he dealt with the concept of mysticism in the philosophy of Maurice Blondel. His works were awarded the Bernhard Welte Prize.

Shortly after that, he studied for a Master of Arts in History. Sometime before he finished his first master's degree Wilmer met the Dutch priest Henri Nouwen. At the request of Nouwen, Wilmer represented him for four months as a pastor at L'Arche Daybreak in Toronto, a facility for people with disabilities. After that he worked for two years as a school counselor and taught religion, political science, and history at the Liebfrauenschule Vechta (a German high school) in Niedersachsen, Germany. In 1997 he went to the United States for a year to teach German and history at the Fordham Preparatory School, a Jesuit high school in the Bronx (New York). Upon his return, he became headmaster of the SCJ high school Leoninum in Handrup.

In 2007, Wilmer was elected Provincial Superior of the German Province of the Dehonians.