Eduard Achermann

Eduard Achermann (born June 28, 1928 in Buochs , canton Nidwalden , † August 13, 2004 in Ingenbohl , canton Schwyz ) was a Swiss Roman Catholic missionary priest who worked as a theologian and university rector in Africa. For over 30 years Eduard Achermann lived and taught mainly in East Africa ( Tanzania ) and Central Africa ( Malawi ), where he was active in pastoral care and priestly training and, as a Fidei Donum priest, tried to make a contribution to the new evangelization of Africa.

Church historical circumstances

After the Second World War, the Catholic Church turned its attention again to the mission areas in South America, Africa and Asia and their problems, especially the supply of the young churches there with qualified priests. So should the European dioceses according to the will of Pope Pius XII. Send priests to the mission. Eduard Achermann was called from the Swiss diocese of Chur to this ministry of proclamation of the Gospel in the Third World .

Life

Eduard Achermann was born in Buochs ​​in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden. He studied from 1948 as a "Germanic" at the Pontifical Gregorian University and was ordained a priest on October 10, 1954 in Rome. From 1958 to 1960 he was appointed vicar in Zurich ( parish of Liebfrauen ).

In 1961 he became a mission priest in the province of Ruvuma in southern Tanzania. For the first two years he worked as a pastor for the Rwanda community, in what was then the Peramiho diocese , now the Archdiocese of Songea . From 1963 to 1976 he taught the Old and New Testament as a professor in the seminary of Peramiho, where the Benedictine Missionary Abbey is also located.

In 1977 Achermann went to Malawi (Central Africa), appointed as a lecturer for the Old Testament and Rector of the Kachebere Major Seminary in Mchinji .

From 1980 to 1992 he continued to work in various countries in South and East Africa:

• 1980–1983 Professor at St. Peter's Seminary in Zomba (Malawi)
• 1983–1985 teacher for «Animators» in Lumko ( Transkei )
• 1985–1987 Professor of Philosophy at St. Peter's Seminary in Hammanskraal ( South Africa )
• 1987–1988 Professor at the Benedictine monastery of Tororo (Uganda)
• 1990–1992 Professor of Philosophy at the Uganda Religious Seminary

Back in his home on Lake Lucerne , he served as pastor for ten years as a chaplain in Oberrickenbach in the canton of Nidwalden, then from 2002 as a monastery pastor at the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross in Ingenbohl , where he died on August 13, 2004 and was buried five days later has been.

Works

• «Scream, beloved Africa!» A continent needs help . Walter-Verlag, Solothurn 1993, ISBN 978-353000244-7 . (The book is the summary of his life's work in Africa. It describes personal experiences of living together with Africans and the consequences that can be drawn from a well-intentioned but often unsuccessful development policy and missionary work in the past.)
  • Translation: «Cry, beloved Africa!» A continent needs help . 2nd ed., African University Studies, 1996, ISBN 3931169197 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Correspondence sheet of the Pontificium Collegium Germanicum Hungaricum 2003. Tübingen 2002, p. 11.
2. ↑ Swiss Church Newspaper, 35/2004