Matthias Franz Johann Ring is a German theologian and the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of the Old-Catholics in Germany.
Education
He attended elementary school in Wallenfels from 1969 to 1973 and secondary school ("Kaspar-Zeuss-Gymnasium") in the city of Kronach from 1977, from which he graduated in 1982 ("Abitur"). After graduation from secondary school he read Roman Catholic theology at the University of Würzburg and at the University of Bamberg and graduated with a diplom in 1988.
Career
Ring was made a deacon by Bishop Sigisbert Kraft on 13 May 1989 to serve the Old Catholic communities of Würzburg and Nürnberg. Some six months later (18 November 1989) he was ordained priest and installed as pastor of the Old Catholic parishes in Regensburg and Passau on 1 October 1993. He graduated ("Doctor theology") after finishing his dissertation titled "Catholic and German.
He had already returned as pastor to Regensburg the previous year.
He was consecrated bishop on 20 March 2010.