Josef Gorbach
Josef Gorbach (born April 25, 1889 in Lochau , Vorarlberg , † November 6, 1977 in Rankweil ) was an Austrian theologian , priest , publicist and promoter of makeshift emergency churches in Austria and Palestine .
Life
Gorbach, who was ordained a priest in 1912 , quickly distinguished himself through his practical work. He became director of Caritas Vorarlberg . He acted as the initiator of the two-groschen sheet , with the subtitle of the weekly leaflet for law and truth , published by the press apostolate association in Feldkirch . His gift for speech and formulation resulted in many invitations as guest preachers.
In 1930 Gorbach was invited to sermons in Vienna by Josef Moser, director of the Canisiuswerk , where he experienced the emergency services and got to know the social hardship and the lack of churches, especially in the workers' district of Favoriten . After returning to Vorarlberg, he asked the administrator, Bishop Sigismund Waitz, to transfer to Vienna, where he began his service in May 1931.
With the money generated by the two-groschen paper and interest-free loan agreements with readers of the paper, Gorbach financed the construction of emergency churches.
His first realization, which he lovingly called the Vienna Workers' Church, is the emergency church at the Philadelphiabrücke in Meidling , where 65,000 Catholics were looked after by just five clergy at the time. During a walk he had discovered a former leather processing factory with a large stable. He bought the property and after a short time began worshiping in the makeshiftly converted stable. The emergency church was destroyed by bombs during the war, the successor church is the Church of the Name of Jesus . In this direction, seven emergency churches were built in Vienna in five years.
In 1938, in the course of the annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany , the situation became dangerous for Gorbach, the two-groschenblatt was banned. He fled to Palestine . There, too, he remained true to his line and established emergency churches in Bethany , Caesarea, and Jerusalem .
After the end of the Second World War , Gorbach returned to Bregenz and built an emergency church. Then two emergency churches in Innsbruck . Archbishop coadjutor Franz Jachym asked Gorbach to return to work in Vienna, where he set up around 20 makeshift emergency churches in abandoned factories, allotment huts and barracks.
In 1971 Gorbach retired due to illness at the age of 82 and moved to Bregenz. His grave is in his birthplace Lochau.
Awards
- 1937: prelate
- 1937: Commander's Cross of the Knightly Order of the Holy Grave
- 1958: Honorary Canon St. Stephan for the emergency churches in the Archdiocese of Vienna
- 1989: Prelate Dr. Gorbach-Hof in Floridsdorf
literature
- Johannes Lampert: Caritas in Vorarlberg. Origins - history - outlook. Rheticus issue 1/2005, ISBN 3-900866-85-6 . Pp. 40 to 49.
- Ludwig Varga: The parish name of Jesus. History of a parish center , sheets of the Meidlinger Bezirksmuseum, Vienna 2001, issue 53/54.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short story on the "Zwei-Groschenblatt" Castle Church Hetzendorf Vienna
Web links
- Literature by and about Josef Gorbach in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gorbach, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian theologian, priest, publicist and founder of makeshift emergency churches in Austria and Palestine |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 25, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lochau , Vorarlberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 6, 1977 |
| Place of death | Rankweil |