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| Werenfried Pesch OP |
Werenfried was born in the German town of Kempen, close to Düsseldorf, on November 11, 1931.
Kempen is the birthplace of Thomas à Kempis.
He joined the North German Dominican Province in 1957 and was ordained a priest in 1962.
I write these few words about him because I had the great good fortune to get to know him.
In the summers of 1972 and 1973 I lived at the Dominican Priory in Lindenstraße in Cologne. It was there I got to know Werenfried.
I was 23/24 and he was 41/42. At the time I thought he was an elderly man.
He was a quiet, gentle person. He had that wonderful gift of accepting a person where they were. He was always willing to see the good in another person.
By nature he was a prayerful person and from what I can recall, he spent some time with a contemplative congregation.
Werenfried had that unique gift of making people feel important. In his presence one felt special.
There were many parts to him. Aren't there to all of us? While by nature he was more conservative than liberal, yet he embraced all that was good of the Vatican Council. He would shrug his shoulders and smile when conservative men in the community would criticise modern German theologians. He would never say a word at the time but later in his inimitable quiet way he would remind his fellow Dominicans of what they had said and point out to them how unwise their words had been.
At the time the Dominican students at nearby Walberberg were keenly listening to the latest world and church events, the Vietnam War, Baader Meinhof, the Willy Brandt government, the Munich Olympic Games and the treaty signed between East and West Germany, the Interflug air disaster at Königs Wusterhausen, killing all 156 passengers, Volkswagen launched the Passat.
Young Dominicans were seeing the world through different lenses. Homogeneous thinking was disappearing.
The late Dominican, Dominik Germeshausen said that Christoph ‘changed sides’ close to priestly ordination.
It was a place full of energy, a great place to be.
At the time Irish Dominican Gregory Kirstein, was a much loved member of the community, if considered slightly eccentric. The current archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn was a student in Walberberg in the late 1960s.
Werenfried had the wonderful gift of embracing with open arms the various 'disagreeing' factions. And they all in turn greatly respected him.
He was an honourable man. His word was his bond.
We belonged to different generations, different cultures. It was my first time in Germany. He had never been to Ireland. Werenfried helped make me feel at home in the summers of 1972 and '73 in Cologne.
Such a gentle and gracious person and born just two short years before Adolf Hitler became German chancellor.
Werenfried, rest in peace and thank you.
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