In Pace Christi

Trying to describe the character and work of Fr. Bernhard, two words come to mind: authentic and credible. He was not an intellectual, was rather slow but very empathetic and able to listen attentively. The people trusted him.

Born at Bad Mergentheim in 1942, the last of seven children, into a family of small farmers, he grew up in Bernsfelden. Aged eleven, he entered the minor seminary of the Institute at Bad Mergentheim where he studied until going on to the Josefinum seminary in Ellwangen where he finished high school and passed the final exams in 1962.

Ten classmates went on to the novitiate but only two of them were ordained priests: himself and Fr Otto Fuchs. It was early in 1968 and the novice masters, the directors of the scholasticates and the Church in general in Germany were not prepared for the new times that were commencing. The younger generations no longer accepted the internal rules of religious life, the manner of governing the Institute or the local communities – the traditional way of commanding and obeying. From then on, only a few people joined the novitiate from our seminaries. Father Bernhard finished his theological studies according to the classical formula at Bamberg, took final vows on 13 July 1968 and was ordained priest on 29 June 1969. He then left for South Africa.

In those days, the apartheid system was coming to its sad culmination. Many Africans had to abandon the land of their fathers and were settled in the so-called homelands. Father Bernhard personally experienced the resulting violence and tension in the three parishes where he worked: Bongani, Nelspruit and Burgersfort.

Things were also changing in the German-speaking countries. The minor seminaries, until then the primary source of priestly vocations, were increasingly under discussion; the novitiates and scholasticates were in crisis. On the other hand, the approaching reunion of our two Institutes was giving rise to great expectations and encouraging more radical steps. Then, after the reunion, the provincial administration began to give the many young confreres working in the seminaries the opportunity to go to the mission, replacing them with confreres with missionary experience: one of these was Father Bernhard who, together with Father Josef Altenburger, recalled from Uganda, was appointed formator at the Josefinum seminary. It was the year 1980. The two soon realised that the time of the seminaries was over: they succeeded in convincing the provincial administration and the seminaries were closed one after the other.

The closure was hastened by the new and promising youth pastoral, the so-called KIM (Kreis junger Missionare) movement started in Josefstal by Bro. Bruno Haspinger. In 1981, the province decided to close the more ancient and traditional seminary, the Josefinum at Ellwangen. Fr. Bernhard worked from then until 1989 as the animator of the KIM and collaborated in preparing young people to go to the mission (MAZ) for a limited period. Even though concrete results did not live up to expectations as regards vocations to the religious and missionary life, it was nevertheless a very interesting and fruitful period in the life of Fr. Bernhard: he became a spiritual guide for many of the young people.

In 1989, he was again assigned to South Africa: after the reunion, a new phase was also beginning in that province. Up to then, the majority of the missionaries in the diocese of Witbank came from German-speaking countries. Now there were missionaries not only from other provinces but also South African priests and members of other religious Institutes such as the Kiltegan missionaries from Ireland, Franciscans, White fathers and others. Some of our missionaries then took on missions in Transkei among the Xhosa people, the home of Nelson Mandela. Fr. Bernhard was one of the first to work in those parishes even though he had to learn a new language. In 1989, he went to the mission of Mt Frere and, four years later, to Mt Ayliff.

The confreres showed their trust in him by electing him to the Provincial Council and then as Provincial Superior from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, the General Council opened a scholasticate in Pietermaritzburg, close to Durban and took on a parish where Fr. Bernhard was appointed parish priest.

In 2009, he was recalled to the DSP and appointed superior of the largest local community of Ellwangen, being soon elected to the provincial council. In 2019, he returned to South Africa, shortly before his Golden Jubilee of ordination. There he succeeded Fr. Konrad Nefzger as parish priest at Maschisching, the former Lydenburg.

However, after just two years, acute leukaemia forced him to return to Germany. He soon realised that his life was coming to an end and he accepted this with great confidence in God. He spent his final years at the hospice of Saint Anne, very close to our house. He died on 7 October 2021, three days before the provincial assembly at Ellwangen which Fr. General Tesfaye Tadesse attended. On the final day of the assembly, Fr. Tesfaye concelebrated the funeral Mass together with almost all the confreres of the Province. (Fr. Reinhold Baumann mccj)