Aid to the Church in Need: "The Greatest Beggar of the Century" celebrates his 90th birthday

"The Greatest Beggar of the Century" celebrates his 90th birthday

Posted by Press Release on 16/1/2003, 4:18 pm
Message modified by board administrator 19/1/2003, 4:01 pm

Press release
WERENFRIED VAN STRAATEN CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY
17th January 2003. Father Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of the International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, will be celebrating his 90th birthday on Friday 17 January at 11 am, with a solemn Mass in the cathedral at Limburg.
Werenfried van Straaten was born in 1913 in the Dutch town of Mijdrecht. In 1934 he entered the Norbertine abbey of Tongerlo in Belgium, where he was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 27. In 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War, he founded the charity known today as Aid to the Church in Need, appealing in Holland and Belgium for help for the homeless refugees in Germany - and above all for reconciliation with these their former enemies. Among other things, Father Werenfried collected hundreds of tons of bacon among the Flemish country folk and it was this that and earned him the nickname of "Bacon priest" a name by which he became famous. During the years which followed he extended the range of his charity to the Church in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. By holding annual congresses on the "Church in Need" Father Werenfried was able to maintain public awareness of the persecuted Church in Eastern Europe from the early 1950s onwards. From the 1960s onwards and right up to the present day he has had a particular concern for the Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, which was cruelly persecuted right up to the time of the communist collapse.
The need to build houses for refugees and churches for the scattered Catholic refugee communities in northern Germany led to the establishment of the Building Companions in 1953. In 1962, in response to a request by Pope John XXIII, the charity extended its aid to Latin America, followed later by Africa and Asia too. Rather than the usual social and development aid given by most charities, Aid to the Church in Need preferred to concentrate on pastoral aid on behalf of of the embattled Church in these regions. In 1966 Father Werenfried joined with the Belgian nun, Mother Hadewych to establish a native African congregation, the "Daughters of the Resurrection" in the former Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of Congo). This congregation is still active in central Africa today. Since the collapse of communism in the East, and in response to the express wish of Pope John Paul II, Aid to the Church in Need has established contacts with the Russian Orthodox Church with a view to giving pastoral aid to this Church, which was also hard hit by communism. By supporting joint projects especially, the aim was to bring Orthodox and Catholics closer together, as a a "sign of selfless love and a way towards reconciliation" between these two sister churches.
Again and again the "bacon priest" has captured the public imagination with his unconventional approach - for example the "chapel trucks" which he used in areas where there were no churches in post-war Germany - and later again in Eastern Europe, following the collapse of communism. More recently, in the vast region of the Volga and Don rivers, he has funded "chapel boats" - converted ships used as a floating churches.
Father Werenfried quickly became known,both within Germany and well beyond its borders, as a powerful preacher. Over the years he has raised more than three billion Euros in donations - an achievement that has earned him the title of the "greatest beggar of the century".

In the year 2000 Father Werenfried was able to celebrate his diamond jubilee of the priesthood.
Still today, at his advanced age, Father Werenfried tirelessly follows the work of his charity. In the Jubilee year 2000 he took part in a great pilgrimage to Rome by the staff and friends of Aid to the Church in Need. And in the following year he met with Pope John Paul II at the blessing of the site for a major seminary in the Ukrainian City of Lviv, during the latter's visit there. In September 2002 the ecclesiastical assistants and the national directors of Aid to the Church in Need met together in Rome with the founder of the charity.
ACN is a charity of pontifical right, and is thus directly answerable to the Vatican. It is has fund-raising offices in 16 different countries today. The international headquarters in Königstein, near Frankfurt in Germany handles around ten thousand requests every year from priests, religious and bishops in more than 130 countries around the world. The charity, in the words of its founder, has become "a meeting place of the universal Church". As a pastoral charity ACN helps especially for the training of seminarians and priests, for the construction and repair of churches and formation centres, the translation and publication of Bibles and other religious literature into local languages and the production of religious radio and television programmes. According to Vatican Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Aid to the Church in Need has developed into "one of the most important Catholic charities, with a richly blessed apostolate not only in Eastern Europe but all around the world".
For further information please contact
Phillip Collignon
Information Service
Phone/Fax 02 9679-1929
e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org
Internet: www.aidtochurch.org

Photo: Father Werenfried van Straaten, O.Praem, in May 1998
Photo by Balz Röthlin

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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