On April 17, Fr. Hans Grotz S.J. was called to the Father's house. Fr. Grotz was born on March 13, 1923 in Schwabegg (now Schwabmünchen) in Bavaria, Germany. He entered the Society of Jesus on January 15, 1946, and was ordained a priest on July 31, 1956.

After the Licentiate in Philosophy at the Berchmanskolleg in Pullach, in 1952, he obtained his Licentiate in Theology in Innsbruck, at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität of Innsbruck, in 1957, and then in Ecclesiastical History at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1960.

In 1964 he obtained his Doctorate in Ecclesiastical History at the Gregorian University with a dissertation entitled "Die Hauptkirchen des Ostens. Von den Anfängen bis zum Konzil von Nikaia". He worked as Prefect of Studies at the University of Innsbruck, from 1961 to 1967, the year in which he obtained the qualification to teach in Ecclesiastical History and Patrology, which he practiced in the same University of Innsbruck from 1967 to 1973.

From 1973 to 1975 he was Deputy Director of the Missionsärztliches Institut in Würzburg. Moving to Rome, in 1975 he started teaching at the Gregorian Faculty of Ecclesiastical History, where he became Extraordinary Professor in 1976 and Full Professor in 1982. From 1981 to 1994 he was consultor of the journal "Archivum Historiae Pontificia". After retiring from teaching, he moved to Ravensburg in 1994. Since 1996 he was chaplain in Munich until, for health reasons, he moved to Unterhaching in 2013, where he passed away at the age of 97 years old.

Among the various works by Fr. Grotz, focusing mainly on medieval historiography, the primacy of Petrine and the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth century, we remember: "Herbs wider Willen. Hadrian II. (867-872) und seine Zeit" (Böhlaus, Wien, 1970) and "Medieval historiography. Introduction and panoramic view" (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, 1993).