Friedrich Wetter

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Styles of Friedrich Cardinal Wetter
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Munich and Freising (emeritus)

Friedrich Cardinal Wetter (born February 20, 1928) is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church, the Archbishop Emeritus of Munich, Germany. His resignation as Metropolitan Archbishop of Munich and Freising was accepted on Friday, February 2, 2007, by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, had held that post before becoming Pope John Paul II's Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and then Pope.

Friedrich Cardinal Wetter,
portrait by Günter Rittner 1998

Born in Landau (Rhineland-Palatinate) Wetter became a professor for doctrine at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 1967. He was Bishop of Speyer (1968–1982) and became Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1982. He was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1985, with the title of Cardinal Priest of Santo Stefano Rotondo. Friedrich Wetter was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Wetter belongs to the conservative representatives of the Catholic church. In 2004 he criticized that the Italian government announced to withdraw Rocco Buttiglione from the nomination for the European Commission.

Cardinal Friedrich Wetter also said in an open letter in 2004 that anonymous informers intent on reporting liturgical abuses would labour in vain in the Archdiocese of Munich. "Blackening people’s names, especially when the talebearer wishes to stay anonymous, will not get anyone anywhere in our archdiocese" Cardinal Wetter warned. His comments follow the promulgation of the Vatican instruction on abuses in the liturgy, Redemptionis Sacramentum.

On 2 February 2007 Pope Benedict accepted Cardinal Wetter's resignation as per Canon 354 of the Code of Canon Law (on the grounds of age) and at the same time named him apostolic administrator for the Archdiocese, until a replacement has been named. On 30 November 2007, Bishop Reinhard Marx of Trier was finally named as Wetter's successor.