Jacques Loew

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Jacques Loew (born August 31, 1908 in Clermont-Ferrand ; † February 14, 1999 in the Échourgnac monastery ) was a French Dominican , worker priest , founder of the workers' mission St. Peter and Paul (MOPP) and the École de la Foi in Friborg (Switzerland ) .

Life

Jacques Loew studied law after graduating from high school in 1928 and worked as a lawyer in Nice . During a longer stay in a Swiss sanatorium , he spent Holy Week in the La Valsainte Charterhouse , where he watched the monks celebrate the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday . This experience and reading of the Gospels led to his conversion. In 1934 he entered the Dominican novitiate in Saint Maximin in the Var department . In 1939 he was ordained a priest after receiving a theological training .

In 1941 he founded the study center "Économie et humanisme" with Father Louis-Joseph Lebret and became a labor priest. For three years he worked as a docker in the port of Marseille . In 1943 he published a study on Les Dockers de Marseille , and the suggestions he made in it were incorporated into a law that improved the hard working conditions of dockers. During this time his friendship with Madeleine Delbrêl fell , which lasted until Madeleine's death on October 13, 1964. In 1946 Jacques Loew received a parish in La Cabucelle, a district of Marseille, and still worked as a docker. The project of the worker priests was initially promoted by the French bishops, the orders and the Roman curia . Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard , who was also Archbishop of Paris , remained an advocate for the worker priests until his death in 1949. However, fears soon arose that the French Communist Party might indoctrinate the labor priests through its union . On March 1, 1954, Pope Pius XII declared. the mission among the workers for finished. The priests received the notification from their bishops or religious superiors to give up their jobs. Jacques Loew obeyed the order, but a day later he wrote to his superior that the problem of disbelief among the workers would not be solved with this measure. At the Second Vatican Council , the priests again received the concession that they could do manual work. The ban on the worker priests was thus effectively lifted.

In the course of 1955 Jacques Loew founded the Mission Ouvrière Saints Pierre et Paul (MOPP) together with like-minded lay people and priests. In August 1956 the members of the workers' mission St. Peter and Paul met for further training and for retreats with the Cistercians in the Cîteaux monastery . At the beginning of the 1960s, Jacques Loew went to Brazil with two members of the MOPP and spent about nine months in this country for the following years. During this time the MOPP founded the first churches in Brazil. In August 1973 he resigned at the general meeting of MOPP as its responsible head.

In 1968 Jacques Loew founded the École de la Foi in Friborg (Switzerland) together with Father René Voillaume . In 1969 he concluded a cooperation agreement with the University of Friborg . The École de la Foi trained lay people and priests for the preaching of the faith and soon had schools in other European countries and in Africa . Despite increasing difficulties, particularly in obtaining visas for Africans, the École de la Foi continued its work for over 30 years and it managed to gain a foothold in Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast). Jacques Loew was with Pope Paul VI. amicably connected. In 1970 he was invited by him to hold the fasting retreat in the Vatican . These meditations were published under the title Ce Jésus qu'on appelle Christ and were published in German under the title Christ Meditations . Jacques Loew spent the last eighteen years of his life in seclusion in various monasteries, first in Cîteaux, then in the Tamié monastery , then with the hermits in Saint Jean de l'Albère and finally in the Echourgnac Abbey. He died there on February 14, 1999 at the age of 90.

Honors

In 1989 Jacques Loew was honored with the Grand prix catholique de littérature for his life's work .

estate

Jacques Loew's estate was donated by the Ecole de la Foi to the Archives of the Center d'études du Saulchoir in 2007 .

Fonts

  • Diary of a workers' mission, together with Toni Ronstadt, Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 1960 (Journal d'une mission ouvrière, 1963)
  • At your word, a picture of the apostle today , Verlag Styria, 1968 (Comme s'il voyait l'invisible, un portrait de l'apôtre aujourd'hui, 1979)
  • The Adventure of Faith , Rex-Verlag, 1970
  • We Neighbors of the Communists: Diagnoses , together with Madeleine Delbrêl, Johannes Verlag, 1975
  • You shall be my disciples. School of Faith , Herder, 1978 (Vous serez mes disciples, 1978)
  • In the school of great prayers , Herder, 1983 (La prière à l'école des grands priants, 1975, 1985)
  • The hidden treasure. Fables and Parables , with Jacques Faizant, Herder, 1985 (Paraboles et Fariboles, 1978)
  • He gave me a sign. My Faith Story , Herder, 1986 (Mon Dieu dont je suis sûr, 1983)

literature

  • Marie-Gabrielle Bérard (ed.): Jacques Loew, serviteur de la parole. Textes et témoignages d'amis . Éditions Saint-Augustin, Saint-Maurice 2000, ISBN 2-88011-176-5 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Jacques Loew - Serviteur de la Parole . In: Fondation Jacques Loew: Ecole de la Foi - Bulletin annuel , vol. 31, Friborg 2000, pp. 18–19, here p. 18.
  2. ↑ Démarche historique . In: Fondation Jacques Loew: Ecole de la Foi - Bulletin annuel , vol. 31, Friborg 2000, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Fondation Jacques Loew: Ecole de la Foi - Bulletin annuel , vol. 37, Friborg 2006, p. 43.
personal data
SURNAME Loew, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French religious, worker priest, founder of the workers' mission St
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Clermont-Ferrand
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1999