In memoriam Professor Dr Hans Jörg Urban

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has learned with sadness of the death of Professor Dr Hans Jörg Urban, who passed away in Paderborn on 13 August 2021, after a long illness.

In a letter of condolence to the Archbishop of Paderborn, Hans-Josef Becker, and to the Executive Director of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism in Paderborn, Professor Dr Wolfgang Thönissen, Cardinal Kurt Koch, PCPCU President, paid tribute to the dedicated ecumenical commitment of Professor Urban, who became the first representative of the German Bishops' Conference in the Ecumenical Center of the Association of Christian Churches in Germany. From 1975 to 2003, he was director at the Johann Adam Möhler Institute in Paderborn. From 2004 to 2016, as an appointed commission member, Professor Urban also contributed his expertise to the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht.

The PCPCU will keep him in grateful memory.