 As of 1957, he was administrator of the priest's office there, and then temporary substitute for the priest until he was appointed as a prefect of the archiepiscopal "Collegium Leonium" in Paderborn by Archbishop Jaeger.On 28 January 1964 he received his doctorate degree in theology from Professor Rudolf Schnackenburg, and then worked as an assistant professor at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.In 1965, Degenhardt became university chaplain at the "Pädagogische Hochschule Westfalen/Lippe" in Paderborn and then in February of the same year, he became diocese representative of the "Katholisches Bibelwerk".