Fate Will Be Decided

In a letter to a theology student in Munich, Boniface Wimmer wrote:

“Here the fate of the world will be decided, as well as the destiny of the Church, and quickly, at that. In decades things get done here which elsewhere did not happen in centuries. I believe the entire Christian Church history, in all its phases, will repeat itself here in one century, albeit in a new way and under very different conditions. We win or lose everything, depending on whether we appear on the battleground in time or too late. Just as Germany did not receive anything from America because it did not send any settlers at the time of the discovery and colonization, so the Church would be excluded or die in the bud if she would not send missionaries, or assure that the ones now working here would be continually replaced and increased and empowered to be equal to any foe. Only a person who has no eyes, or does not want to see with the ones he has, can fail to notice this.”

—Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.

—From Boniface Wimmer, Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania, translated by Dr. Maria Von Mickwitz and Father Warren Murrman, O.S.B., editor.