Fritz Lobinger (born 22 January 1929) is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who spent his career as a missionary in South Africa where, as head of the Lumko Missiological Institute, he developed the concepts of small Christian communities and Bible sharing.
[1][2] As a seminarian in Regensburg in 1953, Lobinger together with Hubert Bucher [de] and Oswald Georg Hirmer, determined to serve in the foreign missions.
[3] Lobinger launched his extensive writing career in 1963, publishing with Hirmer as co-author Africa’s Way to Life, a catechism based on their experience of African culture and designed for the instruction of adult candidates for baptism.
[10] Speaking with reporters in January 2019, Pope Francis provided an outline of Lobinger's views as presented in his book Priests for Tomorrow.
He called Lobinger's proposals "interesting" and "a matter for discussion among theologians", while repeating his own insistence on maintaining celibacy as general practice while considering the ordination of married men to serve linguistic minorities and geographically remote communities.
[11][12] Francis also interpreted Lobinger to mean that the elders would enjoy only one of the three gifts conferred by ordination, leading prayer and celebrating the sacraments, but without the other ministries of teaching and governing.