Father Werenfried's Birthday Mass
Father Werenfried van Straaten with Pope John Paul II
15 January 2010 10:00
Our Lady of the Rosary Church
St Barnabas Road
Sutton
SM1 4NL
Please join us as we celebrate the birthday of Aid to the Church in Need’s late founder, Father Werenfried van Straaten.
We will also be remembering the victims of the earthquake in Haiti at the Mass.
The Mass takes place at 10.00am on Friday, 15th January at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Sutton, Surrey.
Father Werenfried was born on 15th January 1913 and went on to become a Norbertine priest. In 1947, he founded the charity which was to become Aid to the Church in Need, in response to the refugee crisis in Europe following the end of World War Two.
His charity went on to support the work of the Church in more than 130 countries on five continents, and Father Werenfried himself was at the forefront of the work for his whole life. At the height of communism in Eastern Europe, he would travel incognito behind the Iron Curtain to bring prayerful solidarity and material aid to persecuted Christians.
Father Werenfried died on 31st January 2003, aged 90. On his death, Pope John Paul II called him “an outstanding apostle of charity”.
Join us as we give thanks for Father Werenfried’s life and his work of charity, Aid to the Church in Need.