SCOTLAND: Bishop thanks Aid to the Church in Need at Memorial Mass for charity's founder

By John Pontifex

Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway (right) with members of Saint Bride's Aid to the Church in Need Fundraising Group

Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway (right) with members of Saint Bride's Aid to the Church in Need Fundraising Group

24 November 2009

The Bishop of Galloway underlined the importance of supporting Christians who suffer for their faith, as Aid to the Church in Need supporters in Scotland remembered Father Werenfried van Straaten, the charity’s founder, at a memorial Mass.

People travelled from dioceses across Scotland to fill Saint Bride’s Church, Cambuslang, near Glasgow, for the Mass in honour of Father Werenfried, who died, aged 90, in 2003.

During the Mass on Monday, 23rd November, Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway recalled Father Werenfried’s ‘Peace on Earth’ appeal at Christmas in 1947. Father Werenfried called on Belgians to help reconcile with their former enemies – the Germans – many of whom were suffering extreme poverty after being forced to leave their homelands.

The bishop said the work of reconciliation continued through the mission of Aid to the Church in Need today and asked: “Do we ever think of praying for people in need?”

Thanking Aid to the Church in Need’s Scotland team including Scottish Secretary Doctor John Watts, Bishop Cunningham presented cheques to the charity’s UK National Director Neville Kyrke-Smith on behalf of parishioners dedicated to supporting the Church in need.

Saint Bride’s, Cambuslang, raised £14,500 split between support for the training of youth workers in Vietnam and help for the Daughters of the Resurrection Sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo – including medical training for one of the Sisters.

Meanwhile, Saint Patrick’s Church in Shieldmuir collected £2,300 for Grodno Seminary in Belarus, a project which the parish has supported since 1999.

After the Mass, Aid to the Church in Need's new Scottish Administrator, Dermot Lamb, said: “The Mass was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the work of Aid to the Church in Need and its supporters as well as to recall the continuing challenge left to us by Father Werenfried to respond to our persecuted brothers and sisters.”

Father Werenfried developed Aid to the Church in Need so that today it fulfils about 5,000 projects every year in nearly 140 countries.

In October 2009, Aid to the Church in Need opened an office in Motherwell, Scotland, at a ceremony presided over by Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell and Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Would your parish like to support an Aid to the Church in Need project? Find out more about our adoption projects or get involved in your parish.

Find out more about Father Werenfried van Straaten

Tagged with

< Back