Ludwig Schwarz

Ludwig Schwarz, S.D.B. (born 4 June 1940) was the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Linz, Austria from 2005–2015. A member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, he previously served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Vienna from 2001 to 2005

Life Ludwig Schwarz was the first of nine children and grew up in Most pri Bratislave. After the expulsion of his family from Slovakia in 1945, he arrived in Vienna, where he attended primary school. He attended a gymnasium in Vienna for a time, but switched to the Salesian school in Ebreichsdorf-Unterwaltersdorf at the age of fourteen. In June 1959, he sat for the Matura exams and subsequently joined the order of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He was assigned a two-year teaching practicum; for the first year he served as a general assistant in Ebreichsdorf, and the second at the Schülerheim Vinzentinum in Klagenfurt.

He studied philosophy in Ebreichsdorf and Catholic theology in Klagenfurt; from 1961 to 1964 he studied at Benediktbeuern Theological College (Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Benediktbeuern). On 29 June 1964, he was ordained to the priesthood by the Bishop of Augsburg. He afterwards served briefly as assistant chaplain at a parish church in Graz. He then studied classical philology and archeology at the University of Vienna, and was also the hospital chaplain at Sacred Heart Hospital (Herz Jesu Krankenhaus Wien).

One of the biggest challenges Schwarz had to face was the controversy over the nomination of Gerhard Maria Wagner as auxiliary bishop of the diocese, known for his view that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for New Orleans' sins. Wagner's selection by the Congregation for Bishops - with Schwarz's support - was rejected by many of the liberal deans in Austria. Wagner eventually turned down the appointment, after 2 weeks where the number of people leaving the Church quadrupled in his Linz congregation, with similar or even higher numbers in the neighbouring communities, many of the ex-parishioners naming Wagner's appointment as the reason for their departure.

His retirement was accepted on 18 Nov 2015 and thus Schwarz is now the Bishop Emeritus of Linz. In summer 2024, he retired from his duties there and by 2025 he was living at the senior citizens' centre of the Brothers of Mercy in Kritzendorf.