His Royal Highness Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, Count of Caserta, Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, Grand Master of the Illustrious Royal Order of Saint Januarius and the other Orders of His Royal House, Grand Master of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, by Decree of 16 December 2018 has named His Eminence the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, of the title of Saint Ines in Agony, as Grand Prior of the Constantinian Order of Saint George. Cardinal Müller has accepted the nomination in succession to His Eminence the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, of the Most Holy Name of Mary in the Trajan Forum, late lamented Grand Prior who served until his death on 18 May 2018.
Cardinal Müller was born in Finthen, a suburb of Mainz. He graduated from the Willigis episcopal high school of that city, and studied philosophy and theology in Mainz, Munich and Freiburg-in-Breisgau. In 1977 he received his doctorate in philosophy under the direction of Cardinal Karl Lehmann with a thesis on the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was ordained a priest in the diocese of Mainz on 11 February 1978, shortly before his thirtieth birthday, by Cardinal Hermann Volk. Following his ordination, he served as assistant priest in three different parishes. In 1986 he joined the School of Dogmatic Theology of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where he was appointed an honorary professor.
On 18 October 2002 His Holiness Pope Saint John Paul II nominated him as Bishop of Regensburg. He was consecrated bishop on 24 November 2002 by Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, the principal consecrator, with co-consecrators Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Bishop Vincenz Guggenberger and the Bishop Emeritus of Regensberg, Manfred Müller. He chose the episcopal motto Dominus Iesus (Romans 10,9).
He is president of the Ecumenical Commission of the German Conference of Bishops, vice-president of the Commission for the Faith and a member of the Commission of the Church in the World. He is also vice-president of the Association of Christian Churches in Germany and first president of the Society for the Promotion of the Institute of the Oriental Churches of Ratisbon. As a personal friend of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI he was charged with preparing the edition of his complete works, a series of volumes that incorporated all of the Pope’s writings. He is the author of more than 400 scholarly publications on dogmatic theology, ecumenism, news, hermeneutics, the priesthood and the diaconate. His most important work is the Katholische Dogmatik Für Stadium und Praxis der Theologie (Catholic Dogmatics for the Study and Practice of Theology).
On 2 July 2012 he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. At the same time he received the personal title of Archbishop. As Prefect of the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith he was ex officio president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (2012-2017), president of the International Theological Commission (2012-2017) and president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” (2012-2017).
His Holiness Pope Francis created him Cardinal Deacon of Saint Ines in Agony in the consistory of 22 February 2014, and he took possession of the Church of Saint Ines in Agony on 14 September following. He was admitted into the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George as a Chaplain Grand Cross of Merit on 20 April 2003 and promoted to Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice in 2015. He is also a Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He has been awarded the First Class Cross of Merit of the German Order of Merit. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of the Catholic University of Lublin, the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University of Warsaw and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
