Alfred Welker

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Alfred Welker (born April 14, 1939 in Stiebarlimbach, Hallerndorf parish in Upper Franconia; † December 30, 2015 in Unterhaching ), was a German priest and Jesuit who worked for decades in a poor district in Cali , Colombia .

Life

After studying theology in Bamberg and being ordained priest in Bamberg Cathedral in 1964, Alfred Welker entered the Jesuit order in 1965. After further studies he worked from 1971 to 1974 in Regensburg and from 1974 to 1981 in the Caritas-Pirckheimer-Haus in Nuremberg . In both cities he combined his actual task, the pastoral care of young people, with a clear focus on the homeless, drug addicts and other fringe groups in terms of the option for the poor, emphatically and not without conflicts . After making contact with a group of Colombian theologians in the Bamberg seminary and with his uncle, the pastor in Weißenohe , he decided in 1981 to complete his last training level in the Jesuit order, the tertiary , in Colombia. In the new poor district of Aguablanca in Cali, which had practically no infrastructure for half a million people, he gradually began to build up the large social project El señor de los milagros with kindergartens, schools etc. in addition to his parish . The fact that he himself lived in a wooden hut in an environment marked by poverty and violence, constantly criticizing the responsible politicians and often getting in the way of the drug and guerrilla groups fighting each other, led to several attacks on him.

In March 2011 he had to return to Germany for health reasons. He spent his twilight years in the St. Katharina Labouré nursing home of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vinzenz von Paul in Unterhaching, the senior residence of the Jesuits, where he died on December 30th, 2015 at the age of 76 after a long illness.

effect

Alfred Welker consistently implemented the theological optimism after the Second Vatican Council in his work as a pastor. In a certain way he can even be understood as a representative of a practical liberation theology . He was characterized by a charismatic personality, a conscious neglect of his external appearance and the unconditional, often conflictive advocacy of the poorest and weakest in society, whether in Regensburg, in Nuremberg or in Cali, where thousands of children and young people thanks to his projects a school and Could get vocational training.

In 2004 the Hallerndorf community made him an honorary citizen.

On January 22, 2018, the state vocational school in the Nuremberg district of Eberhardshof was renamed the Alfred Welker vocational school.

Fonts

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The biographical information is taken from the website The Children of Cali , for which the Jesuit Mission Nuremberg is responsible, and the obituaries in the Nordbayerische Nachrichten, the Mittelbayerische Zeitung and the Heinrichsblatt, diocese of the Archdiocese of Bamberg.
  2. ↑ See his famous letter 100 days in the hell of Cali , which made a decisive contribution to the fact that his project was supported for decades with donations from his former places of activity in Germany.
  3. ^ Mourning for Father Alfred Welker. infranken.de from January 5, 2016, accessed on March 10, 2018.
  4. ^ Father Alfred Welker - a life in the service of the poorest. infranken.de from July 31, 2014, accessed on March 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ “It is always worth doing something for the people.” Internet presence of the Jesuit Mission, accessed on March 10, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Welker, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Welker, Alfredo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest, Jesuit and missionary in Cali, Colombia
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Stiebarlimbach in Upper Franconia
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 2015
Place of death Unterhaching