Aid to the Church in Need: FINAL FAREWELL TO THE FOUNDER OF AID TO TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

FINAL FAREWELL TO THE FOUNDER OF AID TO TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

Posted by Press release on 14/2/2003, 7:26 am
Message modified by board administrator 13/2/2003, 5:06 pm

PRESS RELEASE
FINAL FAREWELL TO THE FOUNDER OF AID TO TO THE CHURCH IN NEED
An "outstanding apostle of charity" - so Pope John Paul II described the late founder of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. During a solemn Requiem Mass in Limburg Cathedral on Friday 7 February 2003 Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, the principal celebrant and prefect of the Vatican's clergy congregation, read out the papal tribute before 700 invited guests from all over the world, among them numerous bishops, priests, friends and colleagues of Father Werenfried van Straaten. "He allowed no one to outdo him in his love for the Church and the Pope. To the Church in West and East he gave the oxygen and the space she needed to breathe, leapt over barriers, opened hearts and reconciled former war enemies with one another", Cardinal Castrillón added. And Bishop Franz Kamphaus of Limburg, who just three weeks before had presided at a solemn Mass on the very same spot to celebrate the 90th birthday of Father Werenfried, paid tribute to him in his introductory address. For him this was "a memorable day, on which we truly experience the Universal Church".
During the Requiem Mass, at which numerous high-ranking figures in the Church were present, including the Archbishop of Cologne, Joachim Cardinal Meissner, and Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, of Moscow, excerpts were read out from the spiritual testimony of Father Werenfried.
On the same day, at four in the afternoon, the burial of Father Werenfried took place in the cemetery in Königstein, under the direction of Bishop Kamphaus. In the person of its mayor, Siegfried Fricke, Königstein bade a moving farewell to Father Werenfried, who had recently been made a Freeman of the town. In the spirit of Father Werenfried's work, a number of representatives of the Church in Central and Eastern Europe also paid brief tribute at the graveside. Among them were Archbishop Karel Otenaaek, who spoke for the Czech bishops' conference, Bishop Alojzy Orszulik on behalf of the Polish bishops' conference, Bishop Jerzy Mazur of the diocese of St Joseph in Irkutsk, Siberia, and Norbertine Abbot Eugene J Hayes of Father Werenfried's own abbey in Orange, California. Finally, a Panakida, a traditional Byzantine-rite funeral prayer, was sung by the bishops and priests from Ukraine.
On the following day, 8 February, the Belgian and Dutch colleagues and benefactors mourned their Bacon Priest in the church of St Peter in Louvain, Belgium. The main celebrant, Abbot Jozef Noyens, the abbot general of the Norbertine order, described Father Werenfried as "a Saint Paul of modern times". The Requiem Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Jan de Bie, the auxiliary of Cardinal Danneels, who represented the bishops of Belgium, by the abbots of Averbode and Tongerlo and by Father Joaquín Alliende-Luco, the spiritual assistant of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Abbot Ulrik Geniets of the abbey of Averbode thanked Father Werenfried for his prophetic mission which had, he said, "mobilised us for Christ in Europe".
Father Joaquín Alliende-Luco entrusted the charity ACN to Our Lady of Fatima, "moved by the same hope in which Father Werenfried had ventured forth upon so many crazy adventures of faith and reconciliation."
The collection, which was introduced by Father Rony Ceustermans junior, is destined for the congregation of the Daughters of the Resurrection, in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo - the congregation founded jointly by Father Werenfried and Mother Hadewych in 1966.
Altogether, hundreds of messages of sympathy have been received by Aid to the Church in Need from cardinals, bishops and other leading personalities in the Church, all over the world.
The founder of Aid to the Church in Need died on Friday, 31 January in Bad Soden, near Königstein, Germany.
For further information please contact
Marek Zurowski
Information Service
Phone/Fax:02 9679-1929
e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org
Internet: www.aidtochurch.org
Photo: Königstein 7 February 2003
Burial of Father Werenfried van Straaten in the cemetery in Königstein

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