Baron Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (25 December 181113 July 1877) was a German theologian and politician who served as Bishop of Mainz. His social teachings became influential during the papacy of Leo XIII and his encyclical Rerum novarum.
Early life and ordination
Ketteler was born in Münster in Westphalia. In 1828, he finished matura in Brig, Switzerland. He studied theology at Göttingen, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich, and was ordained as a priest in 1844. He dedicated much of his life to maintaining the freedom of the Church from the control of the State, which often brought him into conflict with political powers.
Bishophood
During the 1848 Revolutions, Ketteler was elected as a deputy for the District of Tecklenburg and Warendorf to the Frankfurt National Assembly. During this time, he became noted for his foresight, energy, and eloquence. He established a reputation for his decisiveness, rather than his scholarliness. Ketteler was friends with Julie von Massow, a Lutheran woman from Prussian nobility, who established one of these prayer societies.
Ketteler was opposed the dogma of papal infallibility on the ground that it was being promulgated at an inappropriate time. After the dogma was defined in 1870, he submitted to the decrees.