Franz SchmidbergerFSSPX (born 19 October 1946) is a priest of theSociety of St. Pius X, founded by ArchbishopMarcel Lefebvre.
Graduated in 1972 in the university ofMunich, in the same year he entered the seminary ofÉcône where he was ordained priest on 8 December 1975. Later he taught in the seminary ofWeissbad, the first German speaking seminary of the Society.
In 1978 he founded the seminary ofZaitzkofen inGermany, where he was appointed district superior from 1979.
In 1982 Schmidberger was appointed superior general of the society of St Pius X (quitting the post of district superior). In 1994, he was succeeded by BishopBernard Fellay. He subsequently served as 1st General Assistant (1994-2006), Austrian (1996-2000) and again German (2006-2013) district superior as well as regent of the Zaitzkofen seminary (2003-2005 and 2013-2020[1]).
With Fellay, he is said to be part of a faction that favours reconciliation with Rome on the basis of theCampos precedent, a program which is reportedly opposed by the other bishops of the SSPX.[2]
In a letter that he addressed to the Catholic bishops of Germany in October 2008, Schmidberger rejected the description thatPope John Paul II had applied to the Jews: "our older brothers in the faith", and declared that "for as long as they do not distance themselves from their forefathers' guilt through the avowal of Christ's divinity and baptism, they are complicit in the deicide".[3][4]
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