Bernhard Häring

Bernard Häring (10 November 1912 – 3 July 1998) was a German moral theologian and a Redemptorist priest in the Catholic Church. The National Catholic Reporter, upon his death, called him "the foremost Catholic moral theologian of the 20th century and a leading advocate for church reform before, during and after the Second Vatican Council."

Life Häring was born at Böttingen in Germany to a prosperous farmer. In 1934, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and was ordained a priest in 1939. He completed doctoral studies in moral theology, in obedience to his superiors, at the University of Tübingen.

During World War II, he was conscripted by the German army and served as a medic. Although forbidden from performing priestly functions in public by the Nazi authorities, he brought the sacraments to Catholic soldiers.

In 1954, he came to international fame as a moral theologian with his three-volume work, The Law of Christ. The work received ecclesiastical approval but was written in a style different from the manual tradition. It was translated into more than twelve languages.

Between 1949 and 1987, he taught moral theology at Alphonsian Academy in Rome. He served as a (expert) at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and was the chief architect on the mixed commission which prepared the pastoral constitution, Gaudium et Spes.

Selected works [German 1954]. 3 Vols.

( 3 Vols.)