Dr. Joseph (Josif) Schubert was born on 24.06.1890 in Bucharest as member of the German minority. After grammar school in Engelberg in Switzerland he studied philosophy and theology in Innsbruck, where on 15.07.1916 he was ordained a priest by Sigismund Waitz, titular bishop of Cibira and later Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. After some pastoral work in Luzern, Schubert returned to Bucharest in 1918 to work there as chaplain.
In 1949, Alexandru Cisar, who in 1954 died in prison, was arrested so he was not able to act as Archbishop of Bucharest any more. Dr. Anton Durcovici, Bishop of Iaşi, lead the archdiocese for a short time as Apostolic Administrator, but Joseph Schubert succeeded him as soon as on 26.06.1949. The Holy See appointed him first titular bishop of the 1933 established titular diocese of Ceramussa in Numidia, and on 30.06.1950 Gerald Patrick O’Hara, Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta (U. S. A.) and Regent of the vacant Apostolic Nunciature in Romania, consecrated him secretly in the chapel of the nunciature at Bucharest. He was the eighth and last bishop consecrated by O’Hara, for soon later these consecrations became public, and the communist government expelled the American prelate.
Already on 17.02.1951, at the height of Stalinistic persecution, bishop Schubert was imprisoned and released only on 04.08.1964; Hieronymus Menges (1910 – 2002) was his deputy at Bucharest as Ordinary Substitutus and Special Apostolic Delegate before he himself was arrested in 1952. Joseph Schubert was bannished in 1964 into the cloister of the English Nuns of Timisul do Sus (Obertömösch) without being able to resume his episcopal or even priestly faculties. In 1969, the Holy See reached an accord in it’s Ostpolitik which allowed Mons. Schubert to leave the country.
This way into exile for the alrady deathly ill bishop became possible through an initiative of Vicar Peter Wittwer of Zurich. He gave a hint about Schubert’s fate in a letter to the Swiss Archbishop Bruno Bernard Heim on 28.09.1967, then Apostolic Delegate in Scandinavia. Chaplain Wittwer had visited Schubert, a former friend of his mother, in 1966 in Timisul, where the bishop asked him for assistance to leave the country to Swiss or Germany. After successless interventions at a Swiss former Bundesrat, ecclesiastical offices and the Romanian prime minister, Wittwer contacted Mons. Heim. On 09.10.1967 archbishop Heim informed archbishop Agostino Casaroli about this case and suggested talks to the Romanian ambassador in Copenhagen or Helsinki. On October 31, Casaroli confirmed the episcopal identity of Schubert and told Heim, the nunciature in Paris had been charged with seeking for an intervention of the Quay d’Orsay. There were no concrete results; therefore, Heim may seek for a resolve privately. Heim told Wittwer on 26.01.1968 he already had spoken to the new Romanian ambassador, who had promised to lead this request to Bucharest. On 02.10.1968 archbishop Heim wrote to Secretary of State, Cardinal Cicognani, the Romanian government had let to know via ambassador George Ploesteanu that Schubert may leave the country in each direction he wanted to. With letter from 03.02.1969 Wittwer confirmed to archbishop Heim bishop Schubert indeed had arrived at Zurich some days (January, 24) before and meanwhile had travelled to Germany as final destination. On 05.02.1969 bishop Schubert wrote to archbishop Heim from Munich and told him, his passport had been edited on 11.07.1968, but he only could pick it with renouncing his Romanian citizenship and after inquiries by Securitate. Answering on February 8, Heim asked Mons. Schubert „not to grant any interviews unpleasent to Romania“. In rome, he may speak with Benelli and Casaroli; without doubt the Holy Father would like to receive him.
On 17.02.1969 he indeed was received by Pope St. Paul VI. in audience; on Good Friday, 04.04.1969, Joseph Schubert died in his Munich exile. As only second non-Bavarian prelate – at the side of Prague Auxiliary Bishop Johann Remiger, who died in 1959 – he was buried in the bishops‘ crypt of Our Lady cathedral.
Letter of Bishop Schubert to Archbishop Heim
Letter from Archbishop Heim to Bishop Schubert
Bishop Schubert with Prelate Hieronymus Menges and Sister Olga, Christmas Eve 1964 in Timisul
Bishop Schubert, New Year 1966 at his confinement place Timisul monastery. The silver pectoral cross became, via Prelate Baltheiser, property of Bishop Riti about 1985. Since 1990 it is treasured in Austria.
Private audience with St. Paul VI., 17. 02.1969, in the Vatican
Receiving the ash cross by St. Paul VI., 19.02.1969 in the Vatican
Bishop Schubert iin the year of his consecration, 1950
Bishop Schubert, July 1968 in Timisul
Bishop Schubert with his brother Rudolf
All pictures, some of them never published before, came from the private property of the bishop’s family and kindly were contributed by his grand nephew Christoph Schubert, Kornwestheim. The biographical data mainly were taken from Romániai katolikus, erdélyi protestáns és izraelita vallási Archontológia by Archbishop Jakubínyi. The here firstly published letters come from the late Archbishop Heim’s estate.