For the catholic parishes and the city of herzogenaurach, 2019 was an eventful year. In the parish church of st. Maria magdalena city pastor helmut hetzel looked back on the old year, but also looked ahead to a new one.
In the well-attended church, hetzel celebrated the end-of-year service together with chaplain tobias fehn and chaplain father moison michael, supported by ten altar boys from the parishes. For hetzel, god is the one who accompanies us, christ is the present one who promises the future.
Two spiritual directors bid farewell
In his review, the city pastor mentioned that the parish of st. Otto celebrated 25 years of the consecration of the church. In october there was a missio thanksgiving service with a bishop from india.
In st. Josef is the st. John’s bonfire on the 24th. June every year a magnet that attracts many children. Also singing with the band "spirit of life certainly contributes to this. Jean desire sawadogo, who had lived in niederndorf for a long time, was sent off to his home country burkina faso. According to hetzel, the advent reflections are also well received.
In the city parish, the dettelbach pilgrimage was a great community experience, as was the parish trip to portugal. Unfortunately, father ashok antony mathew had been transferred to schnaittach after only one year. The annual camp of the parish youth is a constant hit. The three towers festival in the weihersbach was a great success and "cries out for a repeat".
In the pastoral area, 74 children were baptized, around 100 celebrated their first communion, and 22 couples were married. In addition to the 128 deaths, there were 151 resignations, but also four new members. "Everything is no longer so self-evident", according to hetzel, a tendency is discernible. "We can talk about statistics", as it is customary in the church. But that was far from reality. The numbers are there to wake us up, he said. "We are called to stand up and wake up!"
He asked himself the question: "how can a really good pastoral happen?" New since the year 2019 is the pastoral area aurach-seebachgrund, in which many things have to be organized and implemented. It is important to bring the message of life to the people. With the words "get up and go, that’s what I wish everyone for the coming year", hetzel ended his sermon.
A choir and toni rotter on the organ provided the musical framework for the service. Hetzel concluded the mass with the benediction and dismissed the worshippers into new year’s eve.