Charity founder was 'greatest beggar of the century'

Sydney
9 February 2003

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Charity founder was 'greatest beggar of the century'

Fr Werenfried van Straaten (pictured), founder of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, has died.

He was admitted to hospital in Bad Soden, Germany, on January 30, and died early next day, exactly two weeks after attending a special Mass to mark his 90th birthday (Birthday service honours God's beggar, CW 2/2).

Fr Werenfried's 1947 efforts to collect food for homeless refugees in Germany after World War II earned him the nickname the "bacon priest"; his focus soon shifted to raising money and collecting religious literature for Catholic communities suffering or outlawed under the communist regimes of Eastern Europe.

He founded Aid to the Church in Need, which has raised more than $5 billion in donations, earning him the title "greatest beggar of the century".

The Rome office of Aid to the Church in Need says that along with the fund raising and the assistance to suffering Churches, he was atireless spokesman for Catholic communities forced into an underground existence, particularly the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

His work helped the Churches survive and was essential in rebuilding the churches when freedom returned after the fall of communism.

"He was the greatest benefactor the Ukrainian Catholic Church had in the 20th century," says Mons Ivan Dacko, the Church's director of external relations.

"Other organisations would not or could not help us prior to 1991 because we were illegal.

"Whenever our Church had a great need, we would knock on the door of Fr Werenfried," said Fr Ivan, who began working with the priest in 1978 in identifying projects and co-ordinating aid to Ukrainian Catholics.

When it was impossible to send religious material into the Soviet Union, Aid to the Church in Need sent care packages with clothing, shoes and other basic necessities to underground bishops, priests and nuns, as well as to Ukrainian dissidents struggling for a free Ukraine.

"He had great charisma: the way he preached, the way he begged for money, the way he would pray with you and offer you spiritual guidance and then invite (you) to a nice dinner and share with you a glass of good wine," Mons Ivan said.

Aid to the Church in Need later expanded its work in Eastern Europe to include support for priests and for priestly education in Orthodox Churches.

Since the early 1960s, it has also worked in Latin America, Africa and Asia, funding projects in 130 countries.

Born in the Netherlands, Werenfried van Straaten entered the Norbertine order at Tongerlo Abbey in Belgium in 1934. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1940.