THREE years ago the Premonstratensian Fr. Werenfried von Straaten began the movement which has brought home to the people of Holland and Flanders the extreme need of help for the priests in Germany whose task it is to minister to the needs of the Catholics expelled from Silesia and Eastern and Central Europe and sent to Germany.
The priests themselves have shared the exile of their flocks, and to the number of 2.800. mostly over the age of 50. tramp from one part of their immense parishes to another, carrying their Mass vestments and Mass vessels on their backs.
A number of parishes in Flanders have adopted a parish in the Protestant area of Germany.
Now, in addition to such aid to individual priests, the gifts of Catholics in Holland and Flanders are assisting in the foundation of a seminary in the Taunus area of Germany designed exclusively for students expelled from their homes in Eastern Europe.
Dutch Catholics have furnished travelling missions in the form of motor vans accommodating one German and one Dutch or Flemish priest. Twenty of these " travelling churches" are to he provided.