Churches converted to house refugees

A number of active Catholic church communities in Germany are converting their churches into housing for refugees and will be celebrating Mass and other liturgies in places outside their churches, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

St Benedict’s parish church in Bremen is the first Catholic church to be converted into emergency winter quarters for 40 refugee families who will move in in mid-December. The parish only wants to take in families. The Stations of the Cross and the pews are being moved from the church and the altar covered by a special wooden construction “for practical reasons”, but the large cross above the altar will remain. Sanitary facilities will be put up in the church courtyard. The plan is to allow the refugee families to stay in the church for a year.

In the meantime, St Benedict’s parishioners will celebrate Mass in the parish hall and will hold festive Masses together with St Pius, a neighbouring church.

Dean Martin Schomaker, provost of Bremen Katholisches Büro (Catholic Bureau), has repeatedly appealed to the faithful to take in asylum seekers. “I do not want to see refugees dying for want of appropriate winter accommodation,” he warned. St Mary’s at Liebenau is preparing to take in 60 refugees and the sanctuary is being converted into a dormitory. “We must be creative,” pastoral assistant Wolfgang Ilg said. Mass would be celebrated in a nearby chapel and this year’s Christmas crib festivity would be held in a greenhouse.