Did You Know the Bacon Priest?

Antonia Willemsen remembers “the Bacon Priest” as an “uncle” — and as the founder of the organization at which she's secretary-general.

Norbertine Father Werenfried van Straaten, who died Jan. 31 in Germany at the age of 90, was a cousin of her mother. She told the Register the story of this passionate white-clad man, who always had a story to tell, and a new initiative to help the poor. The name of the organization he founded describes his lifelong mission: Aid to the Church in Need.

What are your first memories of Father van Straaten?

Father Werenfried was a cousin of my mother. As he was a member of our family, I had often heard about him. After World War II, when he could safely pass between the borders of Belgium and Holland, he often visited us. I remember him as an impressive white-clad man, who always had very interesting stories to tell.

Before he became a priest, did he always come across as a man who was very concerned about the welfare of others?

As I was born in the year he was ordained a priest, I cannot answer your question from my own experience! I do know, however, that during his high school years, he became president of the alcohol abstinence program in the school. If he convinced somebody to take the “pledge,” he would promise to race against the candidate around the sports field. So, already at that time, he had a feeling for public relations.

Also, as a student in Utrecht he wanted to give an example of Christian charity to others. So, he invited an unemployed man to live with him and some other students.

I also remember hearing a story about him just before he was ordained in the abbey in Tongerlo, Belgium. One day, he decided to visit his parents. However, when he was alone at his home, a beggar who played the violin came to the door. Werenfried didn't have any money and his mother had taken her purse with her. Werenfried asked the man to follow him. He rang the bells of the other houses along the street and asked the neighbors to give the violin player some money!

How did World War II affect Father van Straaten?

He was living in the abbey in Tongerlo during that time and he experienced the war above all through the lives of other people, such as the people who were hiding in the abbey, people he knew who had been with the Germans or those who were against them.

At one point the abbey had to be evacuated and all the monks had to walk to a place in the French-speaking part of the country. They stayed in places together with the many other people who had fled. For Werenfried, the war was the beginning of his priestly life and the beginning of his pastoral ministry.

He knew people on both sides during the war but he was not interested in their political affiliations as much as their spiritual welfare. Could you tell me a little bit more about this side of Father van Straaten, and perhaps how he led people to God during those very turbulent years?

During the war Werenfried did not express a political opinion. He cared deeply for the spiritual welfare of people. He understood that atrocities were being committed on both sides and he tried to heal the wounds.

Once, a member of an anti-German group committed a mistake that led the group to believe that she had betrayed them. The leader of the group decided that she should be executed. He arranged it so that the girl who committed the mistake was behind a screen that was intended for target practice. Other members of that same group, not knowing that the girl was [behind the screen], were told to use the screen for such practice. The girl was killed. The boy who killed the girl went to Werenfried.

It was through stories like this one that helped Werenfried understand even more the madness of war and the absence of God in the hearts of people. It was also these experiences that made him a more convincing preacher after the war was over.

In his books, They Call Me the Bacon Priest and Where God Weeps, Father van Straaten comes across as a man very rooted in life and in the needs of people. Tell me a little bit about Father van Straaten's philosophy and spirituality and what he would say to people about becoming active in helping others.

The good Samaritan in the Gospel was Werenfried's example. According to Werenfried, if there is a need and you see that need, you are called to selflessly help in whatever way you can.

This Gospel was also the motivating factor behind Werenfried accepting only the minimum of bureaucracy, as experienced at the beginning of his work. He saw how the bureaucracy of well-established organizations often put obstacles in the way of helping others. In some cases, he said, there was only a structure left but no soul any more when it came to helping others and that charity seemed to become a business.

He often warned against placing “the business elements” as opposed to the needs of others in first place. He described organizations as only a “necessary evil” in order to channel the help from the benefactor to the person in need.

He became known as the Bacon Priest. How did he get this name?

One of his first actions after the war was to help starving refugees who had been displaced. So, in Flanders, he set about collecting bacon for them. His actions became well known and one day, as he entered a hall filled with peasant women, one of the women shouted out, “There's the Bacon Priest.” He liked the nickname so much that he kept it!

As a young child, what are your memories of Father van Straaten as the Bacon Priest?

I called him Uncle Phillip [his name of baptism]! I was impressed by his stories and actions, less by the fact that other people called him the Bacon Priest. He, however, loved and used his nickname. I do remember that my father and other members of my family had to organize meetings where the so-called Bacon Priest could speak and collect money and goods of all kinds.

Aid to the Church in Need evolved naturally from his concern for people. Why did Father van Straaten choose Eastern Europe as his next port of call?

After World War II and after the Treaty of Jalta, millions of Germans from former German regions were expelled and arrived in a devastated West Germany. Those were the people that Werenfried helped first. Through these people and their priests, he learned about their former home countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary. Through them, he realized that communism was now threatening Christianity in these countries and he decided to expand his help to behind the then Iron Curtain, and Aid to the Church in Need was born.

When and how did you become involved with Aid to the Church in Need?

I first became a teacher. But after one year, I felt a strong desire to work with people whom Werenfried had so often talked about. My parents were not very enthusiastic about the idea. But, still, I wrote a letter to Werenfried and two days later he came and took my sister and I to Tongerlo. Although it was only 42 miles from the place where we lived, I had never been there before.

My first impression of Tongerlo was overwhelming, to say the least. There, he had a warehouse filled to the ceiling with mountains of clothes and shoes, and there were men and women at a conveyer belt sorting all the items out. Trucks were continuously coming in with fresh materials.

They then took away bales and individual packages, which would be sent to Eastern Europe. Office walls were made out of cardboard and furnished with old tables and chairs.

Although I had never seen anything like this before, I knew that I wanted to work there. I began on Sept. 1, 1960, for one year. That's now more than 42 years ago!

What was it like for you then to be formally part of Aid to the Church in Need and to be working so closely to a man you deeply admired and respected?

During the first years I had a lot to learn, but it was the kind of learning that came by doing. Werenfried never became impatient or angry with me. I did my best.

I also knew that there were much better secretaries in the world than this ex-teacher. When it came to difficult or confidential matters, I would personally go to Werenfried and discuss them with him and he would tell me how to handle them.

After some years he started to take me on preaching tours to Germany and Switzerland. He would sometimes preach every night in a region for several weeks. During the day he would dictate letters and discuss office matters. He taught me about planning, new projects, people and budgets. He also asked my opinion so that I could better get an understanding of his criteria and how our work would help others.

Father van Straaten comes across as being a very determined man when it came to helping the suffering Church. Are there any particular stories that stand out in your mind that highlight this?

During the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, there was a general feeling in the Western world that communism would continue in Eastern Europe for the next 100 years.

As the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Casaroli had some official contacts with the communist leaders in Eastern Europe, he wrote to Werenfried requesting him to stop writing about the negative aspects of communism.

Werenfried was one of the few who regularly wrote in the Mirror - the bimonthly newsletter of Aid to the Church in Need — about the suffering Church in Eastern Europe. If he were to take the cardinal's suggestions on board, he felt he that he would be betraying the persecuted Christians in these countries. He asked for an audience with the Holy Father and explained the difficulty he was having at that moment.

The Holy Father answered him with the following: “As Pope, I have to use all means in order to ease the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe: The diplomatic way of Cardinal Casaroli is needed as well as your help. Please go on.”

Werenfried asked the Holy Father if he would then inform his secretary of state about this discussion and decision.

Father van Straaten was renowned for promising help in advance. Did that ever frighten you? Any story of where you thought such a promise of help being almost impossible to fulfill, yet it was fulfilled?

Personally, I never questioned his promises and I continue with that approach. But there were other people who would warn him about such an approach.

Between 1964 and 1975, when we had our office in Rome, Father Hugo, a confrere of Werenfried, was project director. However, toward the end of one of his years there, he told Werenfried that he, Werenfried, had been irresponsible in promising so much and that he was going to hand in his resignation.

“This time you have gone too far. We will not be able to fulfill all our promises … I will leave the organization at the end of the year,” he said. Werenfried tried to reassure him that December had always been a very good month and not to worry.

However, Father Hugo said that he had “calculated” that and even the fact that they had raised more money that year than the year before would be no guarantee in being able to fulfill all the promises that Werenfried had made. “I have taken all that into account,” he added, even any “unforeseen” donations. So, Werenfried asked him how much money needed to be in the account in order to fulfill all the promises. “One hundred thousand dollars!” was the reply.

Werenfried had to leave Rome on preaching assignments in Germany and Belgium. But a couple of days later Father Hugo called him with [news of] “an extraordinary event.” An Italian engineer sent the equivalent of $80,000. “We are saved!” proclaimed Father Hugo. But Werenfried remembered that they were still $20,000 short. However, he believed that money would come as well and he continued with his trip.

At the end of the trip, Werenfried went to Tongerlo. As the secretary there wanted to leave Werenfried's desk very tidy, she decided that she would open the mail and what she thought was a heavy package of books. You can't imagine her surprise to find, instead of books, the equivalent of $20,000 in Austrian banknotes.

Father Hugo withdrew his resignation. By the way, the thank you letter to the donor came back as “unknown.”

Do you remember Father van Straaten's reaction to the news that communism was collapsing?

It confirmed the vision he had preached for many years. He was prepared for it.

In March 1990, he organized a congress with the important leaders of the persecuted Church. Among the leaders were Cardinals Todea and Korec, as well as Bishop Kondrusiewicz and later Bishop Duka.

He underlined that the task to help the persecuted Church was not over by any means. Now, he said, it would be possible to help the Church even more to rise out of the ashes after 45 to 70 years of communism.

What do you think is the greatest lesson to be learned from such a great man?

Ora et labora [pray and work]! And, keep your humor and don't take yourself too seriously!

Father Werenfried's reasoning can be found in his Spiritual Guidelines: “Not only man, but God, too, is much better than we think. We can hardly ever go too far in trusting to His providence. From years of experience, we know that all the wonderful things that Christ has taught us about the goodness and faithfulness of our Heavenly Father are literally true. God has never disappointed our trust in Him. Again and again, He has helped us to fulfil the promises — often-rash ones from a human point of view — that we have made to the Church in need for His sake.

“This should not surprise us. It is perfectly natural. For the same God who plants in our hearts the desire to help the Church in need supplements with His almighty grace all that is lacking in us weak humans and, awakens in the hearts of the benefactors the love needed to alleviate the need. In drawing up our relief program, therefore, it is not what we can do but rather what we should do that must be decisive. For we can do all things in the power of Him who strengthens us.”