Werenfried van Straaten

Werenfried Philipp van Straaten OPraem ( born January 17, 1913 in Mijdrecht, The Netherlands, † January 31, 2003 in Bad Soden ), known as, Bacon Priest '', a Dutch Catholic religious priest and founder of the international relief organization Kirche in Not ( was formerly ACN / ACN ).

Life

Philipp van Straaten came from a Dutch family of teachers. Although he was inclined to painting, he decided on his father's desire to become a teacher and studied at the University of Utrecht from 1932 Classical Philology. He was also editor in a student newspaper and co-founder of a political party that had only short stock. Complete surprise to his surroundings, he entered 1934 in the Flemish Premontres Tongerlo ( Province of Antwerp / Belgium) and received the religious name Werenfried. A tuberculosis disease prevented its use in the mission, so he became secretary of the abbot.

In 1947 he wrote an article for Christmas, in which he called for help for the fourteen million expellees from the eastern areas of Germany. "Help" he did not understand the abstract concept: "I do not need money from you, because money can not buy you anything in Germany. I demand bacon! " He collected in the Dutch and Belgian farmers primarily food for the often malnourished and starving children expellees in the Western occupation zones of Germany. This earned him his nickname " Bacon Priest ". His next concern was for the pastoral care of the six million displaced Catholics who were housed partly in a purely Protestant areas without their own churches and pastors. With the " A vehicle for God," he had used buses and trucks converted to mobile altars. 1953 called van Straaten the "International Building Companions " to life, to motivate students, refugees and displaced persons in Germany to help in the construction of homes.

After the plight of the expellees was largely alleviated in the newly founded Federal Republic in 1950, was his concern of the persecuted Church in the now communist-ruled Eastern Europe. This led in 1952 to the founding of the Church in Need 's Fund based in Königstein. Later it was the only purpose in life of Father. After the collapse of the Soviet regime, he tried to bridge the trenches to the Catholic Church by generous aid to the Russian Orthodox Church. Werenfried van Straaten to combine social commitment: a commitment to evangelization succeeded; for his life's work, he was also many awards and honors of the church and the state. He describes the essence of his job so that he had to dry anywhere in the world where God is crying, the tears.

Father Werenfried trademark was the famous " millions" with which he has been begging for a lifetime. Even when this hat was old and full of holes, he gathered thus further donations; However, with the remark that it would be better to donate certificates as coins because they would fall through the holes.

As Christ went about in Palestine, fed the hungry, the sick healed, it is also the task of the Church to alleviate human misery, says Van Straaten. The proclamation of salvation and love is in the own words of the " Bacon Priest " is not a purely academic matter. He was thinking of the humanitarian obligations of the wealthy nations with their much-vaunted technology and science, its up to the moon up outstanding organizational skills and his assumption that there is still 15 percent of all children of landless people would die from hunger or malnutrition before five years old were.

Werenfried van Straten is buried in the cemetery of Königstein.

Honors

Werenfried is one of the three figures on the monument for the king Steiner church fathers in Königstein im Taunus. The monument was designed by Christoph Loch and inaugurated on 1 September 2011.

Father Werenfried Price

At the 3rd International Congress "Meeting the universal Church " from 11 to 13 April 2008 in Augsburg for the first time the Father Werenfried Award was presented and awarded to the Friends of the St. Clement's Church in Berlin. This endowed with 1,000 Euro prize was awarded jointly with the Catholic Sunday newspaper.

Works

• They call me Bacon Priest Paulusverlag K.Bitter KG, Recklinghausen 1961
• Where God Weeps. Georg Bitter Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3790300128