Eckart Höfling

Eckart courtier OFM ( born October 28, 1936 in Langenprozelten; † 1 March 2014, in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German Franciscan who was particularly involved in arms in Brazil.

Life

1949 closed Eckart courtier trade school in Würzburg from, completed in 1952 the examination for judicial officers contender and was the district office in Karlstadt worked. 1957 joined courtier at the Congregation of the Franciscan, the first time he entered the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception in São Paulo first to Eupen and at the turn of 1959/1960 to Brazil. After Stored higher education, philosophy and theology courtier received on 10 December 1966, the ordained priest by the Bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl. He was a chaplain in a suburban parish and director of a Brazilian sister congregation, then pastor in Sao Paulo. He became director of a university course in Franciscan Spirituality and Pastoral Petropolis 1972.

Starting in 1977, he built up the social work in Rio de Janeiro. He taught social centers in the favelas of Vila Ideal and Prainha and organized a regular health care for the residents of the slums. He was strongly supported from the outset by the nonprofit Georg Ludwig Rexroth Foundation in Lohr am Main, which provided over the past 30 years, with over two million euros for the essential basis of the work of the Franciscan Father in this project. The social work belonged to a religious hospital, as well as kindergartens and welfare centers in the slums of Rio and the surrounding areas. He also founded the Harbor School with Gymnasium. In 1986, the construction of social work in São Paulo.

In 1987, Eckart courtier on behalf of his Province of the Order and the Archbishop of Rio Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales, the management of the bankrupt social work of the Franciscan Third Order in Rio de Janeiro.

In March 2011 he retired due to health problems.

Honors

2007 Father Eckart courtier was honored by Federal President Horst Köhler for his work with the Federal Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Foreign Minister Frank -Walter Steinmeier gave him in 2008 the Quadriga award.