When one speaks of peace – which Karl Gosler Emeritus Bishop of Bolzano-Brixen often uses as an example – one refers to a “conciliar process for justice, peace and the protection of creation.”
The idea of some kind of Council aimed at helping all Christians face threats to peace throughout the world, can actually be traced back to the '30s and was promoted by two German theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant and Max Josef Metzger, a Catholic.
At the dawn of the Second World War, the two theologians warned of the urgent need to awaken Christian consciences in order to prevent the carnage that was to take place in Europe. Bonhoeffer had asked for a Council for peace in 1934 and Metzger, in 1939, wrote tot he Pope asking for an ecumenical council to be held in Assisi for the reunification of the divided Churches, in order to make Christians more influential in society's choices.
Unfortunately, their calls fell on deaf ears and the two men, who can be defined as prophets, were tried after falling victim to Nazi insanity and became martyrs of freedom and peace.
Although Bonheoffer is a figure we are quite familiar with, Max Josef Metzger on the other hand, is not. Metzger was born in Schopfheim (Baden) on 43 February 1887, 125 years ago and a cause for his beatification began in 2006 (the most complete work, Bloodwitness for Peace and Unity, was published in 1977, in Philadelphia, by the couple, Leonard and Arlene Swidler, professors of theological thought and inter-religious dialogue – a sell out.
In Italy, only a collection of the Metzer's Letters from prison, edited by Lubomir Zak of the Pontifical Lateran University).
Having studied Theology in Freibourg, in Switzerland, he worked as a volunteer military chaplain on the front line from 1914 onwards. He was then sent to Graz in Austria, where aside from his priestly ministry he also became an assiduous journalist, in an attempt to alert youngsters about the need to begin a process for the promotion of peace and tolerance among the people who were left exhausted by the War. Metzger's aim was also to dissuade them later from embracing National Socialist ideals.
In 1917, when the world was in the midst of conflict, Metzger sent Pope Benedict XV a Peace Programme in which he laid out the foundations for “Catholic pacifism, the only thing that [could] bring peace to the world”: “We ask for an end to the futile bloodshed that is taking place on the battlefields. At the same time we ask for an end to a policy which uses authoritarian means to attempt to overcome the moral problems of co-existence among people which only leads to more wars. We ask for a lasting world peace in which we believe, in the name of civilisation, culture, morality and religion. We ask that as a first step to peace, all people turn their attention away from the supposed external enemy and focus all their efforts on concentrating on the real domestic enemy, which is common to all nations: alcoholism, immorality, tuberculosis, degeneration, exploitation of money and land, poverty...”.
He wrote a long series of bulletins and newspapers (which he signed as “uncle Max”) and founded the Una Sancta movement in order to start an ecumenical dialogue which according to him could “not be postponed further”. He also founded the Mission Society of the White Cross, a sort of nucleus for the renewal of the Church which aimed to create a sense of co-responsibility among lay people.
Metzger's activities inevitably provoked suspicions and hard feelings even within the German Church (where some were too hasty in calling him “a naive and at times rash utopian”). The Gestapo did all the rest. He was imprisoned on more than one occasion as of November 1939 (he described his days in the cell as “involuntary and forced spiritual exercises”) and guiloteened on 17 April 1944 in Brandenburg-Goerden, following one of the numerous summary trials, that formed part of the insanity of the Nazi regime, the outcome of which had already been decided beforehand. The same fate had been met by the Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, who had been tried in the same prison the previous year.
In September 1943, he had written his own defence in opposition to the inconsistent accusations that had been made against him. The defence read: “I am a Catholic priest, in body and in soul. However, my forma mentis does not correspond to the idea one usually has of a priest. Acting as a minister of worship, turning one's back on the world, distancing oneself from life, the narrow-mindedness of the spirit, legalism and traditionalism: all this is completely alien to me. I am a man of independent judgement who has an active interest in what goes on in the world.”
The fourth and final page of the document is proudly signed: Dr. Max Josef Metzger.
On his grave in the small cemetery of Meitingen is an inscription of the words he uttered as his death sentence was being read out, which he wrote an hour before his execution: “I have given my life for peace in the world and unity in the Church.”
As the first German to speak at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919, he surprised many of those present, calling for the establishment of a “federation of European state”. His request for an ecumenical council and for inter-religious prayer during the council of Assisi and his suggestion that one day a year be dedicated to reflection and prayer for Peace add an even greater sadness to the words he wrote from jail with his hands tied up: “My destiny was always that of living a little ahead of my times and of not being understood precisely for this reason.”
Another memorable message was that which he pronounced the day after Hitler rose to power: “First thing's first:we cannot sell the Gospel to save our lives! I am and remain a free man regardless of whether I am in chains or not. The truth continues to ring out and I will continue to announce it with courage. And should my tongue be cut off, then I will speak through my silence. I will fight against this stupidity for as long as I live.”