Worker priest

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Worker priests ( French : prêtres ouvriers ) are Catholic priests who have entered the collective of workers with their physical activity . With the movement that emerged in the early 20th century, the church, which until then had mostly been anchored in the rural and bourgeois milieu, was to gain direct access to the working class. Worker priests work with their colleagues for a fairer world.

Catholic worker priests see themselves nowadays as siblings of the workers in community with evangelical workers pastors, religious and committed, manual Christians.

Beginnings of the movement

Belgium and France

In 1924 , Joseph Cardijn founded the Association of Christian Workers' Youth CAJ in Brussels , which expanded in the following years in many countries with industrial sites . However, clear differences remained between the workers and the long-established bourgeois pastors. In order to overcome this distance, the church made various, independent attempts.

In 1941 the Dominicans Jacques Loew and Louis Lebret founded the study center Économie et humanisme . Loew himself moved to the port district of Marseille in the same year . He became a dock worker in order to get to know firsthand the living conditions of the workers, and was thus the first labor priest in France. He described his impressions in the report from the docks . In addition to many other spiritual books, he wrote the introduction to Madeleine Delbrêl's (1904–64) Reflection: We Neighbors of the Communists. Delbrêl supported the worker priests and asked for their recognition before the council.

In 1942, a Mission de France seminary was founded in Lisieux (founding superior : Louis Augros ), which was followed by two more. Candidates for priesthood were trained to work in remote areas. They completed various internships in industry and agriculture.

In 1943, Henri Godin and Yvan Daniel, two chaplains of the CAJ, published the book La France, Pays de Mission? that saw the rapprochement between church and workers in parishes adapted to the needs of workers. One of the proponents of this study was the Cardinal of Paris, Emmanuel Suhard . He started a group consisting of 15 people (including two lay women), the Mission de Paris , which settled in Parisian working-class neighborhoods and tried to evangelize the workers .

Germany

During the Second World War , around 600,000 French slave laborers were employed in the arms industry and other branches of the economy. Inquiries from the Belgian Cardinal van Roey , among others , to send pastors for these workers to Germany were refused by the German government. In the Second World War from 1940 onwards, France was divided into the occupied zone (zone occupée) and the free zone , the Vichy regime (zone libre). At the first joint meeting of the bishops from the two zones on 7/8 In April 1943 they decided in pastoral responsibility - with the backing of the Pope - to pursue these forced laborers and to build an underground church for them in Germany . A first group of priests left on April 9, 1943 with the blessing of Cardinal Suhard from Paris. Five of these 25 or 26 priests remained undiscovered, the others were sent back to France after their exposure or had to endure prison sentences and torture. Six worker priests perished in the concentration camp .

Many of the priestly foreign workers were exposed and imprisoned by the Gestapo . Individual priest workers also came from the Netherlands. In this environment the illegal chaplains noticed how different the working class environment was from their own roots. They sometimes made friends with members of the KPD or the Resistance .

Some German pastor contributed resistance , such as the Jesuit Alfred Delp , of the Kreisau Circle participated since the advent time demand a decided reversal. From the collection of his writings we should particularly emphasize In the Face of Death , written between his arrest and execution in 1944, with the sentence “Man only participates in great freedom when he exceeds his own limits ... The hour of human freedom is the hour of encounter with God."

After the end of the war in France and in other Romance countries

Until 1945 the French bishops and the Roman Curia encouraged or tolerated the expansion of the workers 'priests' movement. It was only later that concerns were raised in Rome, but for now the project was continued as an experiment. The Mission de Paris set up new locations in various industrial cities . However, in 1949 Cardinal Suhard died, who always supported the movement very benevolently. At that time, about 100 priests had completely relocated their main place of activity to the factories. Many joined the communist union because they saw no workers' representation in the Christian unions. They also got involved in demonstrations and strikes , which caused quite a stir, especially when two priests were arrested during a demonstration in 1952.

This development of the approach to communist ideas and the increasing identification with the goals of the workers as well as the questioning of the traditional image of priests displeased church leaders and company management. Instead of closing the gap between workers and church, as it was originally intended, the rift got wider. The worker priests found themselves on the side of the proletariat .

Pressure from the Curia increasingly isolated the worker priests. The first official measure against the worker priests was the prohibition of physical labor for all candidates for priesthood, both of the religious orders and the secular clergy, in the fall of 1953. Shortly afterwards, the bishops and superiors of the order were informed by the papal nuncio that all worker priests had to leave their posts. The ultimatum expired on March 1, 1954. The Jesuits had already withdrawn their seven worker priests on December 28, 1953, and the Dominicans followed shortly before the ultimatum expired. An article signed by 73 worker priests was published in the French press in protest.

In 1959 the theologically justified prohibition followed, since, according to the Holy Office, priests should not work by preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments .

The commitment of the Christian Youth Workers , founded by Josef Cardijn in Belgium in 1927 , continued internationally. Her three-step approach to reflecting on reality, “seeing-judging-acting” had proven its worth and was later adopted by the theology of liberation in Latin America.

New impetus from the Second Vatican Council

In the course of the council , the role of priests was reconsidered to such an extent that a connection between priesthood and physical labor was possible again. Worker priests took advantage of the opportunity offered by the council and managed to be represented at all sessions, even if they were not officially involved as advisors. With the support of sympathetic council theologians , advisers and bishops such as Yves Congar OP, who had previously campaigned for the movement, the worker priests achieved a reassessment of the priesthood.

In France and other Romance countries

Due to the fact that the Council lifted the ban on worker priests, their number increased until, in 1979, nearly 1,000 of them in factories and the like. worked. But priests also went to factories outside France, for example in Italy, Belgium and Spain.

In the German Democratic Republic

In the Protestant church founded Horst Symanowski which on experience in the Third Reich fell back, and for many years as a worker priest, 1956 in Mainz, the "Seminar for church service in the industry," the one with the caravan work in the Oder and the church development in the GDR influenced . The life of worker pastors in the GDR and their desire to build Christian communities, especially on the large construction sites in the black coal mining area and in the cities, is documented in detail by some contemporary witnesses in the book Arbeiterpfarrer in der DDR .

In the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland

In post-war Germany, many young theologians were looking for a way to make the Christian faith effective in a world that was still perceived as unjust. 1953 appeared in Frankfurt / M. the novel The saints go to hell, priests become workers by Gilbert Cesbron as paperback in German.

In 1969 Dominicans opened a monastery in a miners' settlement in Bottrop. Markus Steindl, who under day part-time employment had (1933-1992) and Rufus basement belonged to it.

In the same year Klemens Alzer started work in the rolling mill in Andernach, and from 1971 to 1978 he also moved to a camp for gypsies to fight for better accommodation with them.

In 1972 the two national chaplains of the Christian Workers' Youth Richard Mayer (1934-2016) and Arnold Willibald took up manual work after their service among young workers and, together with ten other colleagues, founded the biannual assembly of worker priests from dioceses and dioceses in 1972 in the Oblate Monastery in Mainz Medal. This "workers' priests conference" took part with a delegation at the annual delegates' meeting of the workers' priests from France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and later also from England and sometimes also from the USA.

From 1974 to 2000 the Franciscan Karl Möhring worked at Opel in Bochum and lived in a homeless community. He presented his ideas in the magazine Tauwetter .

In 1975 the Jesuit Christian Herwartz went on a probationary period to a community of worker priests in France in Toulouse, Strasbourg and Paris; Michael Walzer followed in 1977. In 1978 the two Jesuits founded a new community in Berlin with their Hungarian brother Peter Musto. They chose to live and work as normal workers. In order not to occupy a special position in the company, they did not present their ecclesiastical position - similar to other worker priests. After half a year the three moved to Berlin-Kreuzberg . The small community grew quickly. People from the neighborhood and from far and wide came, little by little, from over seventy countries, with many interests, questions and injuries from their challenging lives. This also led to the confrontation with new questions that required solutions based on solidarity. As those who had been released from prison, drug addicts, those who challenged their health, made decisive political demands and people without papers were also admitted, there were also police checks. Out of this situation, the retreats on the street arose , which have spread in Germany and beyond since Christian Herwartz's dismissal from the company.

The German-speaking circle later expanded: regional groups in Germany and Switzerland were arranged for additional exchange. The circle gradually opened up to women and men with Christian roots who took the step beyond the boundaries of their - often rather middle-class-oriented - milieu of origin. This step in solidarity into the world of dependent employees was often experienced as a step towards the "incarnation", as Paul describes it in the letter to the Philippians ( Phil 2: 6  EU ).

In 1988 the six-monthly meeting place of the workers' siblings changed to the Catholic educational institution St. Gottfried in Ilbenstadt .

The siblings showed solidarity with their colleagues, sometimes took part in labor disputes in the factories and went to prison in solidarity with their colleagues. Many are inspired by Latin American liberation theology . In most cases, the worker priests do not receive any money from the church or their order, but earn their living through their physical labor. In Germany, the workers' siblings also include women religious and people without a church mandate.

After the wall came down

There are currently around 40 siblings living in Germany, and many of them work alongside their job in refugee aid or looking after the homeless and the unemployed. Experiences on the street, in the low-wage sector, unemployment and retirement are also linked. They are confirmed by Pope Francis , who has been in office since 2013 , when he speaks of the Church "should go to the margins".

Relationships with other collectives of worker priests and friends

In Europe

The biannual German-Swiss meetings in Ilbenstadt also include men and women from Austria, Holland and England. This ensures a lively cross-border exchange.

Furthermore, the regular meetings of the worker priests take place in Europe, even if the proportion of those who have left the work process increases. Due to the opening of the circle in Germany, younger members are growing again and again even under the changed conditions in the churches, the working world and the social environment. The area of ​​questions is constantly expanding and through the exchange with one another on site, in the regions, at the semi-annual general meeting and through the connections to colleagues in other countries. Everywhere experiences in the world of work, in the living area (district) and through other commitments in the peace movement , in the refugee area are brought in and parties are celebrated.

International

Many from the district have lived abroad for a while or have lively contact with people in other countries and continents through their involvement with cross-border issues.

Richard Mayer lived in Nicaragua from 1985 to 1991 and, during the embargo, set up a workshop to repair transformers. So the power supply in the country could be further secured.

Arnold Willibald was committed to working closely with farmers from the rainforest in Brazil. He organized support for an agricultural project.

Willibald Jakob lived in India and keeps updating the topics in this context from there.

Some worker priests joined together in the international calama group.

literature

  • Thomas Eggensperger, Ulrich Engel : Women and men in the Dominican order. History - Spirituality - Current Projects. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-7867-1660-9 .
  • Marie Luise Kaschnitz : The sacred experiment. In: M. L. Kaschnitz: Angel Bridge. Roman reflections. Claasen, Hamburg 1955, pp. 52-54.
  • Henri Perrin : Diary of a Worker Priest - Notes by Henri Perrin 1943/44. Kösel Verlag, Munich 1955.

Web links

Wiktionary: worker priests  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ berufergeschwister.wordpress.com , accessed January 20, 2019.
  2. ↑ Jacques Loew: Les dockers de Marseille: analyze d'un complexe type / MR Loew; ... préface de Gustave Thibon . S. 1945 .
  3. ↑ Madeleine Delbrêl: We Neighbors of the Communists Diagnoses - With an introduction by Jacques Loew, translated by Hans Urs von Balthasar . In: Theologia Romanica . tape VII . Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 1975, ISBN 978-3-89411-117-5 , p. 276 .
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Knauft: Between mills, chapels and KZ - French underground pastoral care in Berlin1943-1945 . 1st edition. FW Cordier, Heiligenstadt 2005, ISBN 3-929413-93-0 , p. 271 : "Only the French episcopate dares" catacomb care "p. 79-84"
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Knauft: Schnitter, concentration camp prisoners, forced laborers - forgotten chapters of pastoral care in the diocese of Berlin . More, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-87554-359-9 , pp. 139 , chapter "Experiment Katakomben" Berlin, pp. 56-59 .
  6. ↑ Publik Forum 13/2020, July 10, 2020, p. 38f.
  7. ↑ Delp, Alfred: In the face of death . In: Stefan Kiechle SJ and Willi Lambert SJ, (Eds.): Ignatianische Impulse . 3. Edition. tape 21 . Echter, Würzburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-429-02860-2 , pp. 79 : "Quote pp. 54-55"
  8. ^ Josef Cardijn: The fateful hour of the workers . Ed .: National Leadership of CAJ Germany. 3. Edition. Self-published, Essen 1981, p. 88 .
  9. ↑ Horst Symanoski: Church and working life: separate worlds? Impulse texts from 1950–2000 . Ed .: Wilhelm Huft, Jörg Müller, Christian Schröder. Lit, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7948-8 , pp. 376 .
  10. ^ Johannes Brückmann, Willibald Jacob: Arbeiterpfarrer. On site in the company and community in the GDR. Perspectives of the parish profession in view of a "people's church" as an obsolete model. Alektor, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88425-063-9 , pp. 160 .
  11. ↑ Johannes Brückmann, Willibald Jacob (ed.): Workers pastors in the GDR - community development and industrial society . Experiences in church and business 1950-1990. Alektor, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-88425-081-7 , p. 523 .
  12. ↑ Gilbert Cesbron: The saints go to hell . Ullstein, Frankfurt / Main, p. 222 (Original title: Les saints vont en enfer . Paris.).
  13. ↑ Andreas Terwort: He wanted to live like a brother among brothers. In: WAZ.de. July 19, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Angelika Wölk: The pugnacious Father. July 17, 2012, accessed November 26, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Rufus Keller: Last days in September . Fouqué Literaturverlag, 1999, ISBN 978-3-8267-4521-8 , pp. 151 .
  16. ↑ "Right in the middle and yet on the edge of society" film shows the work of the Koblenz worker priest Clemens Alzer. Diocese of Trier, October 4, 2007, accessed on January 11, 2019 .
  17. ^ Joachim Hennig: Worker priest Klemens Alzer is 80 years old. (PDF) In: Schängel-LOKALANZEIGER for the city of Koblenz and districts, VG Rhein-Mosel, VG Vallendar. Verlag für Werbung Blätter GmbH, October 2, 2008, accessed on January 11, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Priest from the Diocese of Trier
  19. ^ Herdwangen-Schönach: Arnold Willibald celebrates the anniversary of the diamond priestly ordination. Schwäbische Zeitung, July 20, 2007, accessed on January 11, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Documentation: 20 years of workers siblings . Self-published, Ilbenstadt, p. 67 .
  21. ↑ Karl Möhring: The face of work. Some requests . In: Thaw ... Franciscan Journal for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation . 27th year, no. 3 . Thaw, October 2012, ISSN  1618-0550 , p. 35-39 .
  22. ^ Rüdiger Gladen: Jesuits among workers . In: Jesuits (ed.): To our friends . Munich, S. 12 .
  23. ↑ Christian Herwartz: Exercises on the Street A determination of the position . Ed .: Spirit and Life. 87th year (2014) 472 ... Herder.
  24. ↑ Luisa Hommerich: "Even Moses had to look very carefully first". Report on the Jesuit Christian Herwartz . Friday June 25, 2015.
  25. ↑ Michael Hollenbach: Worker Priests - Once exotic, now the Pope's "favorites" . Deutschlandradio Kultur , March 1, 2014, accessed on August 2, 2015.
  26. ↑ Arnold Willibald celebrates the anniversary of the diamond priestly ordination. In: schwaebische.de. July 20, 2017, accessed November 5, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Willibald Jacob: The east wind blows where it wants . Scheunen, Kückenhagen 1995, ISBN 3-929370-34-4 , p. 299 .
  28. ^ Peasants - pastors - craftsmen Jacob, Willibald. - Ludwigsfelde: Ludwigsfelder Verlagshaus, 2016, [1. Edition] - The search for the soul of a city Jacob, Willibald. - Ludwigsfelde: Ludwigsfelder Verlagshaus, 2016, [1. Edition] - Stepping stones in the river Jacob, Elfriede. - Kückenshagen: Scheunen-Verl., 2010, 2., ext. Ed. - The east wind blows where it wants Jacob, Willibald. - Kückenshagen: Scheunen-Verl., 1995 - Justice in everyday life Jacob, Willibald. - Berlin: Union-Verlag, 1984, 1st edition - Achievement - what for? Jacob, Willibald. - Berlin: Union-Verlag, 1980, 1st edition - Property and work Jacob, Willibald. - Berlin: Union-Verlag, VOB, 1977, 1st edition -
  29. ↑ Martin Janik, The Utopia of a Radical Change of Location of the Church: From the Calama Project to the Industrial Work Project Group Mannheim-Ludwigshafen (1968–1998). ISBN 3-17-031916-7 . Kohlhammer 2016 Content: http://www.theologische-buchhandlung.de/pdf/978-3-17-031916-5_I.pdf