Aid to the Church in Need: A LIFE-LONG SERVANT OF THE CHURCH IN NEED DIES AT 90

A LIFE-LONG SERVANT OF THE CHURCH IN NEED DIES AT 90

Posted by Press Release on 13/2/2003, 7:44 am
Message modified by board administrator 13/2/2003, 8:18 pm

A LIFE-LONG SERVANT OF THE CHURCH IN NEED DIES AT 90
“LOOK into your heart and look God in the eyes! Would you dare to look your own father in the eyes if you had allowed your brothers and sisters to die and had not lifted a finger to help them.”
Having devoted his life to the support of oppressed and suffering Christians and founded the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Father Werenfried van Straaten died at the end of January just two weeks after his 90th birthday.
Such was the forceful eloquence and tireless determination of Father Werenfried that he set out from his monastery in Belgium to lead generation after generation in a quest to breathe new hope into the lives of Christians persecuted for their faith all over the world.
So appalled was this Dutch priest by a refugee crisis left in the wake of the Second World War that he started a mission to convince people to seek reconciliation and to provide help for their former enemies.
It was only fitting that this man whose name means “Fighter for Peace” should waste no time in stamping the mark so typical of his life’s work by appealing to Benelux countries to put aside age-old differences with Germany in the cause of a people destitute and humiliated.
His success as a preacher unleashed an avalanche of blankets, clothing and food – most especially huge hunks of bacon which quickly earned Werenfried a nickname that would last for life – “The Bacon Priest”.
But Fr Werenfried never forgot that human misery can create spiritual emptiness. Even in those earliest days he did everything he could to equip priests with motorcycles, cars and later so-called “Chapel trucks” so they could provide for a people deprived of the sacraments they so adored.
Fr Werenfried’s Herculean task was to remain religious in essence – a characteristic for which he made no apology: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph were the first refugees of the Christian age,” he told audiences in the late 1940s.
“Since that night in which [they fled to Egypt] the world has been filled with the homeless and the refugees, in whom Christ pleads with us for love and support.”
Born in Mijdrecht of Dutch, schoolteacher parents, the child christened Philip van Straaten was the second of three brothers who quickly fulfilled their father’s dreams by becoming priests.
Father Werenfried’s life seemed set to follow a different course. He studied classical languages at Utrecht University and talked of becoming a politician.
But unable to resist the call to priesthood, he eventually joined the Norbertines at Tongerlo Abbey in Belgium, taking the religious name Werenfried.
Delicate health slowed his progress but after six years in 1940 he was ordained priest.
Werenfried quickly set himself the task of founding a magazine for the abbey. It was a letter he was later to print in his publication that would change his life forever.
Responding to Vatican calls to help millions of refugees left stranded by the Allies’ 1945 agreements at Yalta and Potsdam, Father Werenfried appealed to the abbey’s supporters to help their stricken German refugees.
But in a way that was typical of him, he was determined to take the extra step necessary for success and was soon to be found outside factory gates hoping for a donation or two from workers during their lunch hour.
Inspired by his early success, he soon ventured behind the Iron Curtain to find out for himself the truth about Christian oppression under the Communist regime.
What he found horrified him. It echoed his earlier experiences in Germany. Following a visit to a hostel for the homeless, he wrote: “The outcast Christians are huddled together in bunkers.
“Four families chosen at random are cast into each concrete cave…nowhere any homeliness or family life…Here, families waste away, sallow, shrivelled babies as well as grandmothers of 80.”
He risked his life as he set off to Eastern Europe dressed in disguise that was reported to include a false moustache.
His work demonstrated heart-felt compassion for and empathy with senior clergy including Hungarian primate Cardinal Josef Mindszenty. His care for the Church under persecution would never be forgotten as was witnessed in the huge outpouring of affection by East European bishops following his death.
Father Werenfried’s extraordinary charisma and unequalled success as a fund-raiser soon caught the attention of the Pope and in 1962 John XXIII personally enlisted his charity’s help in relieving the plight of Christians in Latin America.
As the relief work spread to Asia and Africa, Aid to the Church in Need under Father Werenfried’s helm soon took on truly world-wide proportions.
He had long known that Communist regimes had a terrible, dark side – up to 30,000 died in Soviet Gulag prison camps.
His uncompromising stance towards “that heresy: Communism”, always challenged people – a characteristic which won status and recognition for Werenfried and his charity with the arrival of a new Pontiff: Pope John Paul II.
The two men never forgot that ACN had paid for the construction of a church in the Polish town of Nowa Huta, built strictly against the Communist authorities’ order under the leadership of the future Pope – Cardinal Karol Wojtila, Archbishop of Krakow.
The beginnings of a warm and lasting friendship blossomed with Father Werenfried’s work with the Russian Orthodox Church as he and his charity came to their aid as they emerged from the long night of Soviet oppression in the early 1990s.
Persisting with his exhausting fund-raising tours well on into his 80s, Fr Werenfried continued to leave his audiences spell-bound with his unique combination of indestructible zeal and warm humanity.
Enfeebled by age and illness, only two months before his death he spoke lovingly of his determination to take congregations by storm with his challenging words pleading for help for the Church in Need.
To the very last, he lived up to the name he gave himself – “God’s Beggar”.
Latest reports show that at least one in four Christians suffer violence and/or oppression for their faith – the work Fr Werenfried made his own in the last century is perhaps more important than ever at the start of the Third Millennium.

Aid to the Church in Need is commemorating Father Werenfried’s life with a book of his sayings. 100 Words of Father Werenfried is a unique collection of his prayers and meditations which have inspired and challenged Christians to step out in faith and help Catholics in crisis. The hardback volume running to more than 100 pages is priced $10 (plus $2.00 postage and packing).
For an insider’s glance of the scale of Christian persecution and oppression, read Aid to the Church in Need’s new book Violence against Christians. With a day by day account of atrocities against the Church in more than 60 countries, the 288-page book reveals the stark truth about the suffering of the faithful. It is priced $10 (price includes postage and packing).
To order the books and to find out more about Aid to the Church in Need, telephone (02)9679-1929. e-mail:info@aidtochurch.org or visit www.aidtochurch.org
Photo: Beside Fr Werenfried's coffin lies his famous collection 'hat of millions' and well worn Rosary beads

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