Memorial Mass for Fr. Werenfried van Straaten (1913-2003), Founder of Aid to the Church in Need

1.     Only recently, when I was Rector of the Scots College in Rome, did I begin to realise the extent of  the work of Aid to the Church in Need. For some years the College had been receiving priests from Africa to pursue post-graduate studies in Rome and some of these were funded and sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need. And if you had named Fr. Werenfried van Straaten, I would not have connected him to Aid to the Church in Need. Now the dots have been joined up and these things have all come to together as I offer with you this Memorial Mass for Fr. Werenfried, the  founder of Aid to the Church in Need. Fr. Werenfreid was known also as the Bacon Priest because his first project was to give food parcels to the hungry and indigent refugees of World War II.

2.     As I read through the chronicle of the life of Fr. Werenfried, it struck me that he was a man who had the gift of unerringly identifying a need and of finding the way to meet that need. Ordained as a Norbertine priest in 1940, his heart went out to the plight of the defeated German people and he began to bring aid to German refugees. It was a courageous, prophetic and merciful project. His work then extended just as prophetically and innovatively to the Church which found itself behind the Iron Curtain erected across Europe by the harsh might of Soviet Russia. And so on through his life, his foundation, Aid to the Church in Need, moved in to Latin America, Africa, the post-Communist countries, and to obviate new contemporary needs occasioned by the rise of Islam, by the difficulties caused by religious sects, and by the problems which arise from family breakdown. The defining characteristic of Fr. Werenfried’s work carried out today all over the world by Aid to the Church in Need is especially to give assistance where Christians are persecuted for their faith and where the Church is in pastoral or spiritual need. This is surely a primary response to the command of Christ, “Love one another as I have loved you.” As such Fr. Werenfried’s work is a cause and a charity which immediately commends itself to our support and prayers.

3.     The man we remember and pray for this evening, Fr. Werenfried, by all accounts was a remarkable person. His given name was Philip. His birthday was 11^th January. I am honoured to discover to my delighted surprise that I share these two details of his identity with him. I would be even more gratified if I could serve the Lord and my brothers and sisters in faith with as much love and with as much initiative and prophetic courage as he clearly did.  

4.     “I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” These words from tonight’s second reading suggest that this faith in Christ, this passion for the Lord, this Christ-centred spirituality was the basis of Fr. Werenfried’s life and work. It was Christ who inspired and motivated him to carry out his labour of love for the needy. Surely it must be the same for us. It is such a pity that some people, even people who want to do good, are hesitant or even ashamed of the name of Christ, as if that name would be too much for others to bear. I am certain that Fr. Werenfried would have been mystified by that attitude and would say that Jesus Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice out of love for every human being, is the very reason he wants to help his fellow human being.

5.     This same Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” This is the month of November, the month when we pray for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. Great man, holy priest as he was, Father Werenfried is our brother who needs our prayers. And so once again we commend his generous and saintly soul to the Lord. Our prayer for him is enlivened with the words of tonight’s first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews which presents to us this vision of hope: “What you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God…You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect.” We pray with confidence that Father Werenfried now lives with “the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect.” Amen!

St. Bride’s, Cambuslang

19^th November 2007