“Maria Hilf” Redemptorist monastery in Bochum and Polish pastoral care

The monastery of the Roman-Catholic religious order “Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer” – the Redemptorists – at Kaiser-Friedrich-Platz (now Imbuschplatz) in Bochum was founded in 1868. The foundation stone was laid for the adjacent church in the following year and in 1870 it was consecrated. The initiator of the monastery’s founding was the Bishop of Paderborn, Konrad Martin, who wanted to contribute to pastoral care and missionary work in the rapidly growing industrial area along the Ruhr River. In 1873, just a few years later, the monastery was closed during the “Cultural Struggle” (Kulturkampf) between Prussia, later the German Empire, and the Catholic Church. Between its beginning in 1871 and diplomatic resolution in 1887, the Order brothers and padres were expelled as the Prussian authorities had deemed them to be just as dangerous as the Jesuits. In the years afterwards, and particularly as of 1883, neighbouring parishes and travelling pastors used the church for (Polish) mass and administering the sacraments. As of 1885, however, the monastery was the home of the first Polish pastor for the Diocese of Paderborn, pastor Józef Szotowski, and used as the centre of his pastoral and social work.

Following the end of the conflict between church and state, the Paderborn bishop, Hubert Theophil Simar, worked on the return of the Redemptorists to Bochum for many years. He argued that he wanted to deploy the Redemptorists in Polish pastoral care, especially in Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Wanne, and Wattenscheid, since Franciscans from Upper Silesia who had been responsible for this since 1896 had been gradually leaving the Ruhr area. On 12 January 1899 the responsible Prussian authority finally gave permission for the monastery to be repopulated. The monastery was very close to the Polish “junction”, i.e. former Klosterstraße (today: Am Kortländer), which was home to, for example, the editorial office and printer of “Wiarus Polski”, the headquarters of the Polish Professionals Organisation (ZZP), a branch of the Polish Bank Robotników (worker’s bank), as well as political and social associations. Permission for the repopulation went hand in hand with the objective of providing assistance in the pastoral care of Polish working-class families in Bochum and the surrounding area. Ancillary Polish pastoral care was thus set as an obligatory condition for continuing the Redemptorist monastery in Bochum.

However, this clearly defined main task of the Redemptorists remained open to interpretation in terms of how it was carried out. This caused concern at the Order, because no one in the ranks of the returned padres and brothers of the Order were fluent in Polish nor aware of the specific forms of religious beliefs in the Ruhr-Pole regions of origin. It was therefore not long, only a few weeks later, before the Bochum Poles complained to the Paderborn bishop about the sluggish start to Polish pastoral care provided by the Redemptorists. The bishop then obligated the Redemptorists to hold communion in the monastery church (Latin High Mass) every Sunday, followed by Sunday gospel including a sermon and songs in the Polish language, which constituted a large problem. Although there was a Redemptorist monastery in Móscisko in Habsburg crown territory Galicja, a historic part of Poland, Prussian regulations prevented the permanent assignment of priests from non-Prussian regions. In order to circumvent the legal situation, in 1899 the Redemptorists invited their Head of the Vice-Province Poland, Father Engelbert Janecek (1848–1908), to Bochum for the first time for Easter. As a guest he was not subject to the restrictive Prussian regulations. Until June 1899, Father Janecek travelled around the parishes of the deaneries of Bochum and Wattenscheid to provide sermons and administer the sacraments, and held Polish mass in the monastery church every Sunday and religious holiday. The following Easter, Father Janecek returned to Bochum to support his order brothers in their pastoral tasks among the Ruhr Poles. He heard around 5,000 confessions in the Easter period alone.