Aid to the Church in Need: "BACON PRIEST" MADE FREEMAN OF THE TOWN OF KÖNIGSTEIN, GERMANY

"BACON PRIEST" MADE FREEMAN OF THE TOWN OF KÖNIGSTEIN, GERMANY

Posted by Press Release on 29/11/2002, 12:06 pm
Board Administrator

PRESS RELEASE
"BACON PRIEST" MADE FREEMAN OF THE TOWN OF KÖNIGSTEIN, GERMANY
November 2002. Father Werenfried van Straaten was given the freedom of the town of Königstein, Germany by the civic authorities. The honour was being given because this Dutch Norbertine priest and the international Catholic charity founded by him, Aid to the Church in Need had been "linked for decades with the name of Königstein", as the citation of Mayor Siegfried Fricke explained. Since the charity had at first been involved with helping the imperilled and persecuted Church in Eastern Europe and then later become active in Latin America, Asia and Africa too, "Königstein had thereby undoubtedly earned a good name around the world", explained Mayor Fricke.
The charity Aid to the Church in Need began in 1948 with early relief campaigns for the uprooted German refugees from Eastern Europe. Father Werenfried van Straaten made collections among Germany's former enemies in Belgium and Holland, initially of clothing and foodstuffs - and including large quantities of bacon, which led to his affectionate nickname of the "Bacon Priest". In fact Father Werenfried visited Königstein as early as 1948, as he records in his book, "They call me the Bacon Priest". At that time the town had been "an oasis in the desert" of post-war Germany. Thanks in large part to Father Werenfried, Königstein soon became the "alma mater of the expelled Germans priests" who were supported from this centre. As Father Werenfried later wrote: "Tons of theological books, blankets, clothing and foodstuffs", plus "hundreds of thousands of guilders and millions of francs" were sent over the years to Königstein by his charity. A year later the famous "chapel trucks" rolled out from Königstein into the predominantly Protestant areas of Germany, where millions of uprooted German Catholics were now living without churches of their own.
In 1975 Father Werenfried transferred his international headquarters from Rome to Königstein. Since then the charity has, in the words of Cardinal Ratzinger, become "one of the most important of Catholic charities" and "a gift of Providence for these times".
For further information please contact
Phillip Collignon
Ph/Fax:02 9679-1929
e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org
Internet: www.aidtochurch.org

This message is locked.

Responses are not allowed!

Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org