Aid to the Church in Need: In memory of Father Werenfried van Straaten O.Praem.

In memory of Father Werenfried van Straaten O.Praem.

Posted by Obituary on 1/2/2003, 9:37 am
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In memory of Father Werenfried
By Orazio Petrosillo*
Great men are great not merely because they have done "great deeds" and achieved "great things". Father Werenfried van Straaten, the Dutch priest, who died at the age of 90, and was known to millions by the affectionate nickname of the "Bacon Priest", was great for both these reasons, but also because he has inspired others to continue his great project after him.
In 1947 he established one of the most original and extraordinary charities in the service of the poor and of the Church in need, achieving one the most incredible "charity support systems" there have ever been in the world. His audacious "shareholder company", "Aid to the Church in Need", today handles some nine thousand requests for aid every year from 140 countries and is able to respond with around 70 million Euro in aid - the offerings of 700,000 benefactors, gathered in by the charity's 16 national offices in the wealthier "developed" countries. This ingenious system of generosity has been operating on the world stage for over half a century now.
The desperate cries of the Vietnamese Boat People or the African refugees, the appeals of missionaries who urgently need a motorcycle or a jeep for their ministry, the requests for aid from religious congregations who have to restore their crumbling religious houses, the churches to be built or repaired and the seminaries in need of support, the religious text books and the radio and television programmes in the service of evangelisation - all these many and varied appeals have not been left unanswered. For decades Father Werenfried has gone a-begging through the wealthier countries of the world, his renowned "hat of millions" in his hands, preaching and begging in the name of God's poor.
It all began in 1947. Fourteen million Germans had been expelled from their former homes in the East, in consequence of the Yalta Accords, under which the victorious powers had carved up Europe, thus paving the way for the greatest wave of ethnic cleansing of modern times. These refugees were now living, in appalling conditions, in the bunkers and among the rubble of what was left of Germany. Among them were 6 million Catholics.
Writing in the newsletter of his abbey in Tongerlo, Belgium, the young Dutch religious published a fiery article. It was Christmas time and he wrote that "in those bunkers there was no room for Christ". He appealed for a gesture of reconciliation from the Flemish people, themselves still mourning their own loved ones, who had died at German hands. Thus began the great adventure of Father Werenfried. With astonishing ingenuity he appealed to the Flemish farmers' wives for a piece of bacon. Hence the famous nickname of "bacon priest" of which he was so fond. Other initiatives soon followed - the "Chapel Trucks", used to minister materially and pastorally to the refugees in areas where there were no churches, then the "Building Companions" who helped to build "churches for God and houses for men", the daring missions on behalf of the Church behind the Iron Curtain, and then the leap from Europe to the other continents in order to bring succour and support to those in material and spiritual need all round the world.

One can hardly compress half a century of such ingenuity into a short article. This great "multinational" managed to operate without funds or working capital of it own, but solely on the “capital” of love and imagination. For in fact he managed, year after year from 1947 until the present day, to balance supply and demand, but according to a criterion that was the exact opposite of what is considered good business practice: "not what we can do, but what we must to".
A great work of charity for a great future, which must continue. But death intervened before the fulfilment of one great project of Father Werenfried van Straaten - a project that must now be continued today in his memory by all his benefactors and friends. The faithful service to the persecuted Church behind the Iron Curtain, where atheist communism had planned to eradicate all faith in Christ, earned him the admiration and the gratitude of all the great heroes of the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe - from Mindszenty to Beran, Slipyi,Wyszynski, Trochta, Todea and, not least, Wojtyla both before and after he became Pope John Paul II. However, at the same time it earned him the derisory title - which he considered an honour, given its provenance - of the "last general of the Cold War", for his resolute anti-communist stance.
It was he, the very man who had castigated the meek compliance and the collaboration of the Orthodox hierarchy in the Communist countries, especially the Soviet Union, who then came up with a prophetic initiative, that of coming to the aid of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was struggling to emerge from her own ruins. This was an aid given in a spirit of disinterested charity, such as can be given only by one sister Church to another, without ulterior motives of proselytism and with no strings attached. It was a gesture such as only prophets can achieve. And this is what Father Werenfried has bequeathed as his legacy to his followers today.
At the moment of his religious profession as a Norbertine monk, he adopted the name "Werenfried", a name which means a "warrior for peace". This name was his programme for life. A warrior he was indeed, but a warrior of love for the needy and for the Good News which he believed should not be hindered in its spread by lack of material resources. The vocation he had chosen was as original as its originator, namely to "dry the tears of God wherever He weeps".
Doing something for God. The theology of Father Werenfried was something altogether practical. It is summed up best in the words that were for him the key to the interpretation of every event: "God is better than we think, and man too is better than we think". In that expression were summed up his belief in a God far above all our narrow human vision, his faith in an omnipotent God greater than any difficulty, his charity towards God and towards his fellow men, inspired by an unwavering faith.
In dying he has entrusted himself utterly in hope to God, the God Who is better even than Werenfried himself dared to think. He has left behind a heavy legacy of responsibility, which rests today on the shoulders of his colleagues and benefactors, deprived now of the charism of his living faith, the inventiveness of his hope in the face of every trial, the fiery vigour of his love.
The great testimony of Father Werenfried lies in his letters written in the "Mirror" the bimonthly bulletin that he wrote, from 1953 onwards, to his benefactors. In so many ways Father Werenfried showed himself to be a master. He had a quite unique capacity for bringing home the "today" of salvation in the practical task of personal sanctification and charity towards those in need, via the programme that he had outlined. He saw Christ in everything. And his vocation of being "another Christ" was something he lived out not only during Mass, but indeed every time he stretched out his hand on behalf of his poor, on behalf of the Church of Christ in need. He saw the wounded and suffering Christ in his brothers and sisters. He confronted atheist communism, but with the same firmness he confronted the atheism of our consumerist and materialistic world.
His ecclesiology was that of succouring the Church. But his ecclesiology was also the struggle against the loss of identity and love for the Church on the part of God's own ministers. It is difficult to apply to Father Werenfried the Gospel Parable of the "servant who was faithful in little things" he was indeed faithful... but in big things; without limit. The Lord has welcomed him already with a warm embrace. Just as he used to do with us.

* Orazio Petrosillo is an outstanding expert in topics related to the Vatican working for the newspaper "Il Messagero“ in Rome.

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