With a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Boniface in Fulda, “the apostle of the Germans”, on 3 October, the German Catholic Church commemorated the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and its consequences, in particular the deportation, expulsion and flight of German citizens from other European countries. Held on the day chosen to celebrate German reunification, the pilgrimage attracted some 2,000 pilgrims. The programme included a speech by the chairman of the German Catholic Council for refugees, Norbert Matern, and a solemn celebration presided over by Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen of Fulda and concelebrated by the auxiliary bishop Gerhard Pieschl (Limburg). The pilgrimage was organized jointly by the office for the pastoral care of deportees and exiles of the German Bishops’ Conference and by the Conference of Visitators (charged with the pastoral care of German deportees and exiles who live in the area of competence of the German Bishops’ Conference). “From the great suffering caused by the Germans to others and to themselves over the last century”, declared the organizers in a statement, springs a common message for mankind today: “beware of what man is capable of doing to his own neighbour, of the suffering caused to people by being uprooted from their own homeland, from their own past, and being abandoned to a future of despair, and of how much horror may be caused by the hand of man. Hence our exhortation to prevent with all our strength all this from being repeated in future”. “The power of reconciliation of the Christian faith can heal the wounds of the past and permit a dignified future”. “In this spirit, German deportees and exiles can continue along the path of reconciliation and understanding between European peoples. With this pilgrimage they intend to express their Christian bond with St. Boniface, their insertion in their new dioceses and parishes and their social integration in Germany”.
