{"id":4215,"date":"2006-12-04T13:31:41","date_gmt":"2006-12-04T13:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/rip-fr-fuchs.html"},"modified":"2006-12-04T13:31:41","modified_gmt":"2006-12-04T13:31:41","slug":"rip-fr-fuchs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/rip-fr-fuchs.html","title":{"rendered":"RIP, Fr. Fuchs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the world’s oldest living priest passed away:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Father Konrad Fuchs, who has died aged 109, was reputedly the world’s oldest living Roman Catholic priest; he was also the second oldest living German and one of only eight known remaining German veterans of the First World War.<\/p>\n

It was following his own traumatising experience as an infantry soldier on the front line that he received a strong calling to the priesthood, one that he had already felt in boyhood. Three of his brothers fell at the front, and Fuchs often reflected that he was only saved from a similar fate after a head injury meant he was unable to fight in a particularly bloody battle in which many of his comrades lost their lives.<\/p>\n

snip<\/em><\/p>\n

Described by his parishioners as a down-to-earth, deeply religious clergyman, Fuchs cited as his great passions the liturgy, especially choral music. He took his motto from the Benedictines to whom he always felt a strong connection: "God is exalted in all things".<\/p>\n

On his last birthday, his eyesight failing, he expressed his sadness to the local newspaper that he was no longer able to read the Bible from beginning to end "one last time".<\/p>\n

He had also wanted to go to Rome to visit his fellow German, Pope Benedict XVI, whose election he welcomed as a "joy for Germany". Old age thwarted his plans; but Fuchs kept in regular contact with the Pope’s secretary, Georg G\u00e4nswein, whom he had known from his days as a young altar server and who sent him letters from the Vatican up until his death.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still with us, as we blogged a few months ago, Fr. James Martin, S.J., at 104, the oldest living Jesuit. <\/a> (No, not that<\/em> Jesuit James Martin…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the world’s oldest living priest passed away: Father Konrad Fuchs, who has died aged 109, was reputedly the world’s oldest living Roman Catholic priest; he was also the second oldest living German and one of only eight known remaining German veterans of the First World War. It was following his own traumatising experience as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRIP, Fr. 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