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Revision as of 23:13, 11 February 2013 by HSchnyder (talk | contribs) (edit summary removed)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Michael Hesemann (born March 22, 1964, Düsseldorf) is a German historian, journalist and author, specialized on Church history.
Life
Hesemann studied History and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Göttingen in Germany. He lives in Düsseldorf and Rome, where he is accredited to the Holy See Press Office. The Wall Street Journal describes him as "a religious historian who helps the Vatican date relics" He is also one of the few academic historians who were granted access to and did research in the Vatican Secret Archives. Since November 2008, Hesemann advises and represents the “Pave the Way Foundation” with the aim to remove obstacles between the world religions and especially to improve the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism. His 34 books were published in 14 languages. He co-founded Deutschland pro Papa, a conservative catholic initiative which supports the "Ur-Katholiken" and considers them to be the "silent majority of Rome-loyal catholics".
Hesemann lectured at international conferences on religion, including the Vatican Lateran University and the Sorbonne in Paris. Together with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, he co-authored "My brother, the Pope". From 1984 – 2000 Hesemann published the German magazine Magazin 2000 dealing with paranormal phenomena and religious topics.
Vatican
In the Vatican, he investigated the history of the alleged relic of the inscription of the cross of Jesus, hidden in Rome for nearly 1700 years. It was dated by seven Israeli experts for comparative palaeography –the established method to date inscriptions- into the 1st century, indicating its authenticity. The relic is exhibited in the Basilica di Santa Croce.
Hesemann delivered the German language reading in the Easter Night Vigil 1999, presided by the Pope, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He travelled with Pope John Paul II to Poland, the Holy Land and Fátima, Portugal. In the course of his research, Hesemann identified a 5th century cave monastery at the banks of the Jordan river in which this relic was seen and described by pilgrims of the 6th century AD.
In March 2006, on request of the Cofradia of the "Caballeros del Santo Caliz", Hesemann briefed Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Piero Marini, Master of Liturgical Ceremonies of the Holy Father, on the "Santo Caliz" (Holy Chalice) in preparation of the Pope's announced trip to the World Family Meeting in Valencia. He followed Benedict XVI on his trips to Germany (2005, 2006), Spain (2006) and Israel (2009). In April 2008, after research in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel and Malta, Hesemann published "Paulus von Tarsus", an "archaeological biography" of St. Paul. The book features the first forensic reconstruction of the face of St. Paul, done by experts of the State Bureau of Investigations (Landeskriminalamt) of Northrhine-Westphalia.
In October 2008 "The Pope who Defied Hitler. The Truth about Pius XII" for which he did research in the Vatican Secret Archives and consulted with the Relator and Postulator of the ongoing Beatification Process of the wartime Pope who, according to Hesemann, saved the lives of over 850.000 Jews during the Holocaust. In 2010, again in the Vatican Secret Archives, he uncovered the documents of an initiative started by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the later Pope Pius XII, who requested Visa for 200.000 German Jews just three weeks after the Crystal Night (pogrom night of Nov. 9, 1939) in Germany. His discovery received, once again, worldwide attention and deeply influenced the perception of the wartime Pope in the Israeli media.
Court order against Hesemann
In January, 2013, a court in Hamburg ruled that Hesemann will have to pay a fine up to € 250,000 if he continues to state that the German gay theologian David Berger had been one of the authors of the extreme right-wing Catholic (now closed) web site kreuz.net.
Bibliography
- The Fatima Secret, New York (Dell) 2000, ISBN-13: 978-0440236443
- "The Face of Christ" (video), 2002
- (with Georg Ratzinger) My brother, the Pope, San Francisco (Ignatius Press) 2012, ISBN-13: 978-1586177041
See also
German National Library: Entry about Michael Hesemann (in German language)
References
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704216804575423673016971944.html
- http://www.zenit.org/article-29766?l=english
- www.ptwf.org
- Deutschland pro Papa Website (German)
- http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/author-denies-pope-benedict-nazi-rumors-15819403
- http://www.zenit.org/article-862?l=spanish
- http://www.linteum.com/tienda/58-linteum-n-39.html
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/7874740/Hitlers-Pope-saved-thousands-of-Jewish-lives.html
- Parakatholisch. Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 28, 2013
- all books in German only; titles roughly translated into english.