Walter Neuwirth

Walter Neuwirth (OFM)

Walter Neuwirth (born August 8, 1935 in Wihorschen / Hlásná Lhota as Josef Neuwirth ; † June 4, 2020 in Santa Cruz ) was a German religious and missionary .

Life

Josef Neuwirth was born on a farm in 1935 as the youngest of ten children. Like many Germans from the Bohemian Forest , he had to leave his home with his mother and siblings in 1946. After joining the Franciscan order , he was given the name Walter and studied theology in Munich . After his ordination on August 9, 1964, he prepared in Spain for his mission as a missionary in the Bolivian lowlands.

From 1966 until 2009, when the consequences of a stroke forced him to give up his office, he worked as a missionary and pastor in Urubichá on the Río Blanco in the headwaters of the Amazon. As such, he was also a builder, founder and director of a rural cooperative and promoter of the musical talents of the indigenous people living there. So he built two churches and two school buildings in his wide parish and made sure that the Guarayos got humane housing; During his tenure, more than 500 small houses were built at his instigation and with the support of German mission organizations. At his instigation, the Spanish children's Bible was translated into the language of the Guarayos. He worked to ensure that the members of his parish would learn to care for themselves and the village community and not remain dependent on the state or almsgivers.

In his commitment to church music, he followed up on the Jesuit missions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Indians built their string instruments themselves. At first they only organized the services in their church. Later the singers and musicians from Urubichá ("Coro y Orquesta de Urubichá") also came to Germany on their travels and performed at the opening of Aktion Adveniat and in several concerts in Germany and Austria.

During his home leave, which he spent every six years in monasteries of his order in Bavaria and with his sisters who were still alive, Neuwirth repeatedly held services in the church of Záblatí (Sablat) and in the pilgrimage chapel in the associated village of Dobrá Voda (Gutwasser) .

After his work as a missionary he lived in the monastery of his order in Santa Cruz , where he still helped out in pastoral care in a prison and took care of the young people from his former parish studying in this city. In his autobiography “A life in gratitude” he described his career from being a farm boy to serving as a missionary among Indians for decades.

Web links

• Four seasons in the rainforest - report on Urubichá in Geo-Magazin Hamburg 1/2005, accessed on November 5, 2015
• The Poverello looks back on his life - newspaper article on the 50th anniversary of the priesthood in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung on August 7, 2014, accessed on November 5, 2015
• Reading tip: "A life in gratitude" by Walter Neuwirth ofm ( Memento from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 20, 2017
• Pictures from his life on the website Kohoutí kříž / ´s Hohnakreiz (Czech) of the South Bohemian Scientific Library (Jihočeská vědecká knihovna) in Budweis , accessed on November 5, 2015
• Feature “La Noche di Santa Cruz” (co-production ORF - Deutschlandradio Kultur 2012) on ORF , accessed on November 5, 2015
• Father Walter Neuwirth has passed away ( Memento from June 9, 2020 in the Internet Archive )