Bloodwitness for Peace and Unity: The Life of Max Josef Metzger

Bloodwitness for Peace and Unity

The Life of Max Josef Metzger

Leonard Swidler

ECUMENICAL PRESS

DIMENSION BOOKS

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Denville, New Jersey

ECUMENICAL PRESS

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Temple University

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CONTENTS

PREFACE iv

IN THE NAME OF THE GERMAN VOLK 1

BEGINNINGS 3

EARLY PASTORAL WORK 11

World War I 12

SOCIAL AND APOSTOLIC WORK 15

Graz Temperance Work 15

Renewal of Society through Religion 16

Founding of the White Cross 17

Support from Rome-Not from Home 18

Growth of the White Cross 20

The “Time of Troubles” 24

Priests and South America 26

WORLD PEACE 30

ECUMENISM 50

CONFLICT WITH TOTALITARIANISM 69

BETWEEN THE FALL OF THE GAVEL AND THE AXE 85

PREFACE

I first learned about Max Josef Metzger in the late 1950s when doing three years’ research on the Catholic-Protestant rapprochement in post World War II Germany known as the Una Sancta Movement. That investigation finally saw the light of day as The Ecumenical Vanguard in 1966. As founder of the Una Sancta Brotherhood in 1938, Metzger’s ecumenical activities were the subject of one chapter in that work. But there was so much more depth and drama to Metzger’s life than could be encompassed in that single chapter. I felt drawn back to Germany in the summer of 1963 to dig further into Metzger’s story. My wife Arlene and I spent that summer filling in the gaps in our earlier research of Metzger’s life. We interviewed Metzger’s sister, his friends, colleagues and acquaintances, visited the places where he studied, worked, and lived. Much time was spent carefully going through the voluminous archival material on Metzger in the diocesan files of Freiburg in Breisgau and Graz, Austria, the diocesan seminary of Regensburg, Metzger’s foundations in Graz and Meitingen bei Augsburg, and the many newspapers and booklets Metzger edited and wrote over the years.

For the most part I have avoided using footnotes since most of the information was taken from the above unpublished or largely inaccessible sources. Often, however, I did indicate in the text the source by stating, for example, that Metzger wrote such and such in the March issue of his newspaper Christkoenigsbote that year, or that his friend Monsignor Baumeister remarked something particular about Metzger to me.

While researching the Freiburg chancery archives I met Marianne Moehring, a member of the Society of Christ the King, founded by Metzger. She too was working on Metzger’s life and work, as her doctoral dissertation. Understandably she was anxious when she learned that another scholar was so far down the same path she was traveling - if substantially I’ scooped” she would have to write a whole new dissertation. Fortunately that did not happen. Although I was finished with my writing by the end of 1964 and the manuscript was accepted by Bruce Publishing Company for publication in 1965, before the manuscript got into print Bruce sold out to Macmillan and my book never came into existence - till now. In the meanwhile, Moehring completed her dissertation in the winter of 1966 and rushed the book into print that summer (Taeter des Wortes. Meitingen: Kyrios-Verlag, 1966). It is a good book, complete with 673 footnotes and 146 pages of documentation, charts, appendices, and indices beyond the 157 pages of text. But in any case it is quite a different book from mine, probably because of the dissertation form. We obviously covered most of the same archival material. I apparently found some early letters and garnered some information from interviews Moehring did not, but she found some things I did not. Hence, I took advantage of the publication of her book to add some half dozen pages of this supplemental information to my presentation. For the rest I was pleased to find my factual research corroborated by Dr. Moehring’s; I now reciprocate.

As one leafs through these pages it should become apparent why Max Josef Metzger’s life elicits the writing of a biography. Many groups of twentieth-century reformers have ample reason to be thankful for the pioneering efforts of Metzger. He was a vigorous pioneer of the popular biblical and liturgical movements already in the 1920s. The same was also true of Catholic involvement in ecumenism and social ethical action and the restructuring of “religious orders” to deeply involve active laity, and the founding of what became the new category of “secular institutes.” These latter pioneering efforts began already in the second decade of this century, as did also Metzger’s founding of the first effective Catholic world peace organization. But beyond that Metzger was obviously a fascinating, magnetic personality who spellbound and inspired many, and enraged others; the former tended to be liberals and the latter conservatives.

In the end Metzger showed not only a pioneering and prophetic spirit, but also extraordinary depth and staying power - to the fall of the axe. He became a martyr to the cause of peace and religious unity, for his ecumenical work was intimately bound up with his final peace effort, arrest, and trial. In fact, one of the memorial trees along the road to Yad Vashem, Israel dedicated to the Just Gentiles who gave their lives saving Jews from the Nazis could well be dedicated to Metzger, for he was also smuggling Jews, and the Nazis learned of it.

As will be seen, Metzger had his faults, but his gifts and responses to the overwhelming challenges thrown at him were so much greater that he became an authentic hero. His life and accomplishments deserve to be known beyond the German-reading world.

I want to express a brief word of special appreciation to my wife Arlene for the many weeks of researching along side me. The burdens, the excitement and the awe were shared day by day, giving us both a memorable summer. I also wish to note the gracious help given me by Sister Gertrudis Reimann, the superior general of the Sisters of Christ the King in 1963 and at the time of Metzger’s death, and Sister Maria Theresa at Graz, both close associates of Father Metzger. Special thanks are also due to John Heidbrink, who through the Fellowship of Reconciliation raised a small grant to help pay for the research costs.

April 17, 1977

Leonard Swidler

Anniversary of Metzger’s martyrdom

IN THE NAME OF THE GERMAN VOLK

In the criminal proceedings against the Catholic priest Dr. Max Josef Metzger of Berlin, born 3 February, 1887, in Schopfheim (Baden),

At present in police custody

Because of conspiracy to commit High Treason

The People’s Court, First Senate, on the basis of the trial of 14 October, 1943, at which participants were as Judges:

President of the People’s Court Dr. Freisler, Chairman.... Has justly recognized:

Max Josef Metzger, a Catholic diocesan priest, who, convinced of our defeat, in the fourth war year attempted to send a “Memorandum” to Sweden to prepare the way for an inimical pacifistic-democratic, federalistic “government,” with the personal defamation of the National Socialists. As a traitor of the people, forever without honor, he will be punished with death.

Reasons:

Max Josef Metzger is a Catholic diocesan priest who already in 1917 - in the midst of war! - worked in Austria in a World Peace organization (Just like Erzberger’s behavior in Germany), helping to undermine our war front.

Furthermore, he could not let off with that now either. He says himself that he believes Germany will collapse. Therefore, so he declares, he had it in mind to write the Fuehrer that he should step down, for he believed then a negotiated peace would be possible!! Of course he did not carry that out: 1. because he believed his letter would not reach the Führer;

2. because he judged that in any case he would meet with no success in his

request;

3. because he feared he would then be arrested.

Instead of that he composed a “Manifesto” and attempted to transmit it to the Protestant Bishop Eidem, whom he knew from Una Sancta work (efforts at the reunion of the Catholic and Protestant confessions). This was to be done through Mrs. Imgart from Giessen, a former Swede and present German citizen.... This Manifesto ... is a sketch of a system of government for Germany which would subordinate it, in a democratic pacifistic defenceless condition, to a terror army of our enemies. It would not be a unified state, not even a confederation - hence the realization of the wildest dreams of our enemies! Metzger says he thought that upon a German collapse Archbishop Eidem, whom he considers a Germanophile, would propagate such lines of thought among our enemies so as to “save” Germany with such a government rather than an enemy government. A completely monstrous thought as only a complete defeatist could conceive it. An outrageously traitorous thought as only one who thoroughly hates our National Socialist Germany would be able to articulate. A thought of High Treason because it proceeds from and pursues as a goal the replacing of our own National Socialist way of life with long since surpassed “ideas” which are hostile to the Volk. First of all, however, whoever sets forth such a scheme in the world during a war - for any reasons whatsoever - if it falls into the hands of our enemies, weakens our power of resistance and strengthens our enemy. For the enemy would doubtless use such a document as propaganda. It would give the impression that there were forces in Germany that thought about defeat and which after the defeat would attach themselves to the enemy, forming a powerless German government in order to play a helping role within the structure of a system subordinated to our enemy....

Even if Metzger were really convinced that this document could not fall into hands which would use it against Germany, such would not influence the judgment of the People’s Court. For the whole manner of behavior of Metzger is so monstrous that it is irrelevant whether it can be juridically defined as High Treason (Metzger says he had never considered violence) or as favoring the enemy (Metzger says he had thought only of action at the moment of an effective collapse) - all that is beside the point. For every people’s comrade knows that such stepping out of the battle front by a single German is a monstrous, damaging act, a betrayal of our Volk in its struggle for its life, and that such a betrayal is deserving of death. It is treason oriented toward High Treason, treason oriented toward defeatism, treason oriented toward favoring the enemy, a treason which our healthy Volk-sensitivity judges deserving of death (par. 2StGB)....

His archbishop has declared him in a letter sent to the defense, and which was read, as not being a criminal, but rather he called him an idealist. But that is a completely different world, a world which we do not understand....

Everyone must submit to being measured by the German National Socialist norm, and that norm clearly dictates that a man who so acts is a traitor of his own Volk.

Metzger, who through his behavior has forever lost his honor, must therefore be condemned to death.

Because he is condemned, Metzger must also pay the costs.

Dr. Freisler

“There was one fellow sufferer who, because of his upright bearing, his carefree look and his almost white hair, despite a youthful face, made a deep impression on me. - One always tried to speak with those for whom one felt a spiritual kinship. The clothing of course made us all alike, and often it was weeks before one realized that in these walking rags there was a general. - At first I judged the new fellow sufferer to be an actor, a great dramatic performer. He said to me, I am a Catholic priest, which made me happy. I soon learned his name; Father Max Metzger, born in Schopfheim....

“I was asked who this tall man with the white hair was. We were all agreed that Father Metzger, although perhaps many did not know what he was, had a calming influence on all the fellow sufferers. I had often observed him walking and looked to see if I could not make out a halo. His picture in the book [the edition of the prison letters] and the way he really looked during the last months really are considerably different. His hair became whiter and his face grew thinner and from his eyes there came a light that was almost unearthly. In the picture in the book Father Metzger is a priest who was standing in the middle of life. In the last weeks he gave the impression of a man who stood above life, whose soul was transfigured, who indeed bodily still lived on the earth, but whose spirit already stood before the blessing heavenly Father.”

These are the recollections of one of the last men to see Max Metzger alive.

BEGINNINGS

Max Joseph Metzger was born on February 3, 1887, in the quiet little Black Forest village of Schopfheim. His father, Friedrich August Metzger, was a secondary and normal school teacher devoted to his work. He taught history, Latin and, with a particular passion, French. He knew the literature well and spoke the language fluently, partly, no doubt, because the family lived so close to France and the French-speaking areas of Switzerland, and partly because he often went to France and traveled or enrolled in advanced studies. His efforts were at least to some extent recognized, for in 1887 he moved from Schopfheim to a post at the Meersburg academy and then eventually to a teaching position at the pedagogical academy in Freiburg in Breisgau, from which he was finally pensioned.

Despite these advancements the Metzger family had financial problems. Things were so bad in 1905 the daughter Maria recalls that her father planned to ration bread, milk and meat in the family and just try to get used to hunger himself.

Nevertheless the Metzger home was a cheerful one. Friedrich August Metzger, who had a reputation for being enigmatic, could espouse the most impossible thesis with a perfectly straight face; it was only in the middle of a heated dispute that a sly smile told you that you had been duped again by Metzger senior. Though the mother, Anna Gaenshirt Metzger, suffered from chronically poor health, most notably asthma, her children later remembered her as often singing about the house. In fact music was a very important part of the cheerful Metzger household, as it is in many educated German families. The father played the piano and particularly the organ very well. Max apparently had a very pleasant voice and later enjoyed composing texts and melodies of all sorts. In the Alleluja-Liederschatz, a song book published by a religious society he founded, forty-one out of the ninety-one songs were written by Max. The music of the family life impressed itself on Max’s whole life to the bitter end when he composed and sang an Easter Alleluia for the prison chaplain in Brandenburg, a few days before his beheading.

The Metzger home was a strongly religious one; the children grew up in an atmosphere of simple, solid piety. Max was the only boy and the eldest of four children. (The fact that he had only sisters may have had something to do with Max’s later having much greater success in founding a religious society of sisters than he did in founding an order of brothers.) His piety showed up in his enthusiasm for playing Mass; his sister remembered that he was very particular about her answering the prayers and performing the ministrations. Even in early childhood he often talked of becoming either a missionary or a doctor. Before he was eight years old he wrote to his priest uncle, Father Gaenshirt, and his sister:

Dear Uncle and Aunt,

Now Christmas is past and you will be wondering what the little Christ Child has brought me. Listen then and I will tell you. He brought me the following: 1.) a wonderful little altar, which makes me most happy. And now I want to tell you thank you very very much for the altar, dear Uncle. You are really my most loved and best uncle because you always make me so happy with your wonderful presents. I promise always to be a good boy so that you will always be proud of me. Every day I’ll pray for you and all my friends at my little altar.

Also thank you very much for the knife that I wanted for so long.

Mama will tell you about all the rest of the things I got..

Happy New Year.

Many greetings from your grateful nephew.

Max

Schopfheim, January 4, 1895

A little more than two years later he wrote Father Gaenshirt and promised to help him in the missions when he got big.

Max’s piety was mixed with high spirits and a terrible tendency to tease. Instead of walking around horses on the street or waiting for them to pass, he would laughingly run underneath them. When he and his younger sisters visited Father Gaenshirt at Oberhausen during vacation times, the village would be in a mild state of uproar. This sense of humor, although it matured, never left Max, to the great discomfort of his many opponents throughout the rest of his life.

Little Max’s self awareness was greatly heightened in his early home life by three major factors. The first was that his father was determined to make Max a model young boy and was consequently most exacting in his demands. (Is the root of Max’s later “free” attitude toward the letter of the law and authority partially to be found here, by the way of reaction?) Max soon began to expect first place performance from himself, to the point that a second place in a spelldown would result - in tears. Max later wrote of his early boyhood that he was in general an obedient lad - naturally less out of insight into the meaning of obedience than from fear of his father’s discipline, who “was a ‘stern schoolmaster,’ sternest of all with me, who he wished to raise as a model boy, although I had little talent or inclination thereto.... No king who was ever dethroned could be more crushed than I was. It was incomprehensible to me that I should have lost my first place.

Little Max was also made very conscious that he was a Catholic. Southwestern Germany was a very mixed area confessionally, but because since the Reformation the religion of a German state followed that of the prince and because until the nineteenth century the political map of much of Germany looked like a multicolored jigsaw puzzle, Protestants and Catholics tended to live in contiguous but mutually exclusive ghettos. In Max’s home town of Schopfheim, there was no Catholic parish from 1557 until 1846, and then it was only a mission parish served by a priest living elsewhere until 1899. But in addition to the ghettoizing tendency promoted by the diaspora experience, the whole Kulturkampf atmosphere in the Germany of 1870 onwards reinforced the polarization of Catholics and Protestants. As a consequence, Max, who more and more wished to “run with the boys” was restricted to his home. His parents forbade him to visit the house of his schoolmate, who happened to be the son of a Protestant minister. Max later wrote, “In Schopfheim I clearly must have been so very carefully protected by my parents as the apple of their eye that outside of taking walks with my parents, I very seldom got out of the house, and particularly seldom onto the street.” The religious tension was further intensified by the parish priest in Schopfheim, Dr. Arthur Steinam, who had a strong influence on the young Max. In his mature years Max wrote of him, “I cannot today sufficiently condemn it, but he had perhaps somewhat equated ‘anti-Protestant’ with ‘Catholic.’ Perhaps it was necessary to emphasize the differences in order to secure thereby the faith consciousness of a diaspora congregation.”

The third factor that played a significant role in heightening the self awareness of the young Max was strangely, but not untypically for that time, connected with his being a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant Germany: a strongly developed German nationalism. Of course, it is true that the latter part of the nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary buildup of nationalism in Europe, and in a very special way in Germany as a result of its unification in 1870. Also, this German nationalism was abetted at the turn of the century by a rising neo-romanticism and the German youth movement. But an additional religious element was added for Catholics. German Catholics’ Germanness was questioned by the dominant German Protestants - much as was the case for Catholics in America until recently. In fact, this was the whole point and basis of the Kulturkampf. The common response of German Catholics was twofold: they greatly stressed their Catholicism and their Germanness. They developed a minority’s 110% allegiance attitude. Thus Max later reported that in his very early years the children addressed their father as “Papa” a Latin-rooted word. Somewhat later, however, following a “wave of consciousness of their being German” the German “Vater” was insisted upon. Likewise, the parents forbade Max to play with Jewish children!

Despite restrictions the outdoors was also part of Max’s heritage. Friedrich August Metzger was even an editor of a magazine devoted to beekeeping. Father Gaenshirt’s house, where Max regularly spent his vacations, had an orchard and vegetable garden in the middle of a German “Bauerndorf,” which means there were plenty of farm animals all around. All this was set in the midst of the Black Forest, one of the most beautifully scenic areas in all Europe. Anyone growing up in these surroundings would almost have to be a bit romantic - Max Metzger was.

Max went to the grammar school in Schopfheim for three and a half years instead of the usual four years. Then he studied at the secondary school “Realschule,” in Schopfheirn where his father taught. Max had his father as teacher in French and history classes during this time. He received no special treatment, except the especially hard treatment which is usually the fate of teachers’ children; but nevertheless, in his spare time during those four years Max also studied Latin privately with his father.

The Progymnasium at Donaueschingen - still in the heart of the Black Forest - was the next school Max attended. During his stay there he lived with another uncle, Herr Kamerrat Gaenshirt. While here he had an experience that was a real thrill to his thirteen-year-old boyish heart: the Emperor came for a visit.

The whole city was bedecked in festive fashion and the street from the train station all the way to the castle was heavily laden with garlands, coats of arms, flags, etc. At the station a magnificent gate of honor was set up. The Kaiser was received at the station by the Fuerst and his guests, the mayor, etc. All along the way to the castle the various organizations, schools, farmers, groups, etc. lined the street. When the Kaiser passed by he was greeted by jubilant shouts. Afterwards all the massed groups walked past the castle to the train depot where they broke up. In the evening at 9:30 there was a torchlight parade in which the pupils of the Progymnasium also took part. All the participants gathered in front of the park gate: the boys of the seventh and eighth grades of the grammar school, the gymnasium students, the folk dance groups, the clubs, the firemen, etc. All carried either pitch torches or Chinese lanterns, which lit everything up splendidly. At the castle we paraded by twice and then remained standing. The Kaiser, the Fuerst, the Fuerstin etc. were on the magnificently decorated veranda.... Never will I forget this day!

On Sunday morning he [the Kaiser] again returned and at eleven o’clock he went to services in the Protestant church here. I saw him very well.... He drove out of the park by the train station but not, as was expected, around the bend toward Huefingen, but rather straight ahead because the curve was too sharp to make at that speed. The whole crowd raced after the carriage. I had gone over the railroad tracks and stood right next to the carriage. The Fuerst stepped out and called to me that I should clear a path for him among the people (the whole street was jammed) because he wanted to drive by way of Huefingen You can imagine how proud I felt that he spoke to me! The Kaiser is supposed to have said in a telephone conversation with the Kaiserin that he was very pleased with his stay here. Also it is said he really liked the local beer. It’s rumored he sent several cases to Berlin....

A loving greeting and kiss from your grateful son,

Max

Donaueschingen, April 3, 1900

After one year at Donaueschingen Max returned home (in his curriculum vitae he merely says “because of circumstances” - perhaps financial?) and commuted to the gymnasium at Loerrach on the German-Swiss border for his fifth and sixth years of secondary training. While at Lörrach Max’s enthusiasm got him into trouble, a foretaste of the sort of thing that was to plague him all his life - and death. One evening when Max was riding home from Loerrach the train stopped at the village of Haagen as usual and as one of the school boys was getting off Max snatched his cap and threw it out the window onto the platform. The boy leaped out, grabbed his cap and called Max a “Lausbub” Feeling his boy’s honor was at stake Max jumped from the train and just as he was about to grab the other boy the conductor shouted “‘board!” Max gave the boy a shove and ran as fast as he could back onto the train. The boy fell down and banged his knee and then was picked up by a trainman. Unfortunately for Max this incident was reported by the station master to the traffic inspection bureau in Basel and from there to the Loerrach gymnasium. Max received six hours disciplinary detention.

In writing to Father Gaenshirt and his sister housekeeper about the incident, Frau Metzger commented, “If only this will be a good lesson for him. He promised high and low to be calmer and better behaved. According to the description from Haagen you would think he were a terribly impudent ruffian. But no one could really think that of him. Thoughtless, headstrong, that’s the worst one can say of him.”

In other respects Max did well at the Loerrach gymnasium; his first year there he wrote Father Gaenshirt that he was the first in his class. However, in 1902 Friedrich August Metzger was appointed to the pedagogical academy in Meersburg. Max then decided to attend the gymnasium at Constance and stay at the “Konvikt,” St. Konradi Haus, a sort of minor seminary. The rector of the St. Konradi Haus at this time was Dr. Conrad Gröber, who later became Father Max Metzger’s archbishop in Freiburg and was his archbishop at the time of his execution.

Max followed pretty much the usual course of study in “humanistic” gymnasium, with a strong emphasis on languages, particularly the ancient ones, and literature; he studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German and apparently some English. He did very well in all his subjects, with the exception of Hebrew, in which he received a C.” In all the rest he received A’s and B’s. For application he was given A’s but in deportment he seemed able to manage only a B. He applied himself with typical intensity to preparation for the grueling state examinations, the “Abitur,” at the end of the nine year gymnasium period. He passed with the highest rating: “sehr gut” or “A. “ He still found leisure for his music, particularly piano and organ, and also stenography; in his final gymnasium year he passed a teacher’s exam in short-hand with a “sehr gut.” He had learned this, as well as his music, from his father and put it to wide use up to his death.

In 1905 Max began his theological studies for the archdiocese of Freiburg in Breisgau at the University in Freiburg. That was the year the financial situation in the Metzger family deteriorated so badly that Friedrich August Metzger was going to inaugurate rationing. Max’s situation was equally bad; he wrote on November 12, 1905, that although he was enjoying theology the food was so bad that he was wasting away. Nevertheless he stayed on and did very well in his studies.

Max, however, still had the old problem of being a bit headstrong. Dr. Conrad Gröber reported that Max’s talent - even in music - was very good and his application and religious moral attitude quite good in general, but that in his entire character he was very ambitious, fickle, forward and inclined toward particular friendships [a terminus technicus for what at one extreme is cliquishness, but which are often normal friendships in boarding schools]. Gröber felt that “this highly talented young man” might have a vocation to the priesthood, but that if he were to become a good priest it would behoove Freiburg to maintain a watchful eye and a firm hand which would “humble his high flying spirit.” He recommended that any eventual request to study at a university other than Freiburg should not be granted until Metzger’s character had “clarified itself so that he seeks only God in the priesthood and not himself. From all appearances the parents did not spare the incense when it came to their only son, and if he is reproved and a warning is given, the defense of the son rings louder in one’s ears than the well-intentioned voice of the superior in charge.”

An undated report (“Skrutinialbericht,” probably from 1908) from the theological seminary said that Max tended to take a leading role in various matters - the writer assumed this stemmed from his family training - and that although he took admonitions all right, he had not as yet attained the desired humility. Max was never at any time in his life one to follow in step for its own sake. “Er tanzt aus der Reihe,” as one of his colleagues later said.

In May, 1908, Max asked for permission to continue his theological studies to a doctorate, since he would be below the canonical age for ordination by the time he finished the regular seminary course of studies. He hoped to do his further work at the University of Bonn. (It is still quite common for Catholic students for the priesthood in Germany to study at two different universities during their philosophical and theological studies.) The adviser at the “Konvikt” wrote to the chancery office at the same time supporting Max’s request to study for a doctorate, but suggested that Bonn would be unsatisfactory because Max would not be able to live in a religious house (Konvikt) while studying there - it was felt he needed the direction. Innsbruck was then mentioned. However, Max later submitted a request for Fribourg in Switzerland, partly because he wanted to improve his French. And this is where Max finally went for several semesters, after which he returned to Freiburg in Germany to complete his studies.

While at the University of Freiburg Metzger devoted a large portion of his time to church history studies under the direction of Professor Georg Pfeilschifter, who, later published a small book entitled Die kirchliche Wiedervereinigungsbestrebungen der Nachkriegszeit (Reunion Efforts of the Churches in the Post-war Period). Max’s life-long friend and school comrade, Monsignor Wilhelm Baumeister, wrote that

in connection with the Freiburg church historian Pfeilschifter, it should never be forgotten that he really understood how to introduce the young students in his church history seminar to serious, scholarly research. Already in the first semester of theological studies [Metzger] produced, as a result of this discipline, scholarly lectures on St. Fridolin, the patron saint of Oberrhein.

It was under this same professor that Max finished his work for a doctorate in theology. For his prize-winning doctoral thesis he edited and compared the theological contents of two medieval pontificales. Here is a concrete indication of Metzger’s early interest in liturgical renewal. The responses to the 1914 publication of his dissertation were all positive, including, for example, the evaluation of Josef Braun in Stimmen der Zeit: “All in all the present book is a first-rate work and an admirable contribution to liturgical scholarship. “

By the end of the summer semester of 1910 Max was finished with his theological course work and was able to take the examinations. He wrote to Father Gaenshirt that he was really happy to have his exams behind him, for he found working for deadlines not only exhausting but also incompatible, making it impossible for him ever to delve into individual questions and tracts which particularly interested him, at least not to the extent he wished. He felt one had to hurry always so as to get through everything, and in that regard he liked the examination system at Fribourg much more since there one’s whole attention could be limited to a restricted number of theses which one could pick according to one’s own taste, the purpose of the examination not being to prove that one knew relatively everything, but that one had learned a method, that is, knew the principle perspectives from which the individual questions of a discipline must be approached.

I am just now beginning to realize the work was exhausting. Even though I fortunately don’t have any discomfort or physical distress this year I nevertheless am very tired out now and feel a real need for a period of complete relaxation. Most of all I would like to go to the mountains for a short while and lie under the Black Forest pines, alone and still. But there doesn’t seem to be any chance of that. I would be only too happy to go up to the Altglashuette for a week by myself - but it’s taken!

This letter exhibits a quite mature attitude toward study - no longer the need to excel for its own sake or for praise. The same growing maturity was exhibited by another letter Max wrote that December 29 to a group of his friends (a so-called Freundesbund). He said that his aim was not to become a scholar, or someday to obtain an honored and comfortable position, but rather to become a committed priest and pastor and

to develop all my powers for the honor of God. In what area of work I shall be placed I gladly leave to divine Providence: Deus providebit. If I have often thought of a particular position it was not, believe me, you have my solemn assurance on this, because of egotistical concerns, but because, after much prayer, I believed, through God’s enlightenment, myself to be directed that way, because I felt I could put my talents to work most fruitfully right there where I could develop enthusiasm for Christ and the Church in those circles on which so much depends. My efforts in my studies are not in order to attain a specific goal, but to develop me ascetically as well as in an all around scholarly-practical way so that as a pastor I can accomplish the most useful tasks for the honor of God regardless to which post the divine plan will direct me.

While a student Max drank beer and wine along with his comrades. It could hardly have been otherwise living in the midst of some of the most beautiful wine country in the world; the Black Forest “Weinstrasse” runs right through Freiburg. His classmates relate that he never failed to empty the bottle of beer that he, along with the other theological students, received every day. But Max’s habits in this regard changed radically during his stay in Fribourg, Switzerland. While there he first became acquainted with the problems of alcoholism. Along with other members of the student St. Vincent de Paul Society, he spent his Sundays working with children from the slum areas of the city. But he was soon impressed with the futility of bringing wholesome recreation to those children one day a week when the other six days would more than destroy all his efforts. One of the most pernicious of the forces of destruction he felt was alcoholism. What sense did it make to deliver coupons for bread, meat, coal and such necessities when whatever money was earned went to the taverns? Max decided one had to attack not the symptoms but the root of so many of the social problems he saw. Since he could not ask anyone to do something he did not do, he pledged himself to total abstinence from alcohol. Metzger’s decision was a purely practical one. He saw tremendous social misery all around him and saw alcohol figuring prominently in the midst of it. He joined with millions of others in Europe and America during this period - the movement reached its climax in America only in the Prohibition of the twenties - in combating alcoholism.

Max made some further revealing remarks in the 1910 letter to his Freiburg group of friends (the Freundesbund - besides this small number of German friends Max also established the beginnings of many international friendships during his Swiss study days).

It was just this [abstinence] that for my further moral development was of decisive significance. At that time I for once acted in earnestness so that to the beautiful words of love I added a deed which cut into my own flesh. For the first time I recognized the moral significance of the spirit of sacrifice.

Metzger did not insist on complete abstinence for others, although he was often very persuasive. He himself embraced total abstinence because he thought this example was needed to draw the intemperate to temperance. Already before his ordination Max had expressed these sentiments rather precisely in a letter to Father Gaenshirt.

Of course I would forbid no man his glass of wine. I see abstinence now as always only as the means - toward a general and ideal moderation. To the degree that I go to all lengths to win as many as possible over to abstinence, and thereby overcome the present-day problem of alcoholism, do I also reject any attempt to force anyone by external means to accept it. As much as I view it as a moral obligation for youth to offer up this sacrifice for the love of neighbor, I would never begrudge an older person’s following his custom of drinking his glass in moderation - for him it would physically and morally be a much more difficult sacrifice than for us young ones. I believe you can accept and approve my position.

The concerns Max developed during his student days included more than the study of theology and liturgy and active involvement. Also in the 1910 letter to the Freundesbund he outlined his aims, in addition to promoting the abstinence movement, from which he expected a “spiritual religious renewal” of the people (much as did many earnest temperance people in America). They included pastoral care among students and intellectuals, especially through the Akademischen Bonifatius Verein, social welfare work of all types, and the formation of a “Vita communis” of Reminded priests similar to the Oratorians - in other words, the expansion and eventual formalization of the Freundesbund. Max did eventually undertake all of these projects.

Max spent the academic year 1910-11 at St. Peter’s seminary, a beautiful old Benedictine abbey that had been secularized in the Napoleonic period and returned to church authorities in the twentieth century; it stands high up in the Black Forest mountains just a forty-five minute drive by car from Freiburg. It is here the last year of a seminarian’s training is spent in order to fulfill the canonical prescription of one year’s seminary training for students for the priesthood. In June, 1911, Max was ordained a priest. He celebrated his first Mass in his uncle’s church in Oberhausen. His friend Father Baumeister, who, because he had not taken on any additional theological studies, had been ordained the year before, served as deacon, and a comrade of Max’s from the Polish provinces of Prussia, Father Codes, was sub-deacon. Father Banholzer, who showed up later in Metzger’s life as a rather vicious enemy, was invited by Max to take Baumeister’ s place in case he couldn’t come at the last minute.

EARLY PASTORAL WORK

Father Metzger’s first assignment after his ordination was to the large city parish of Sts. Peter and Paul in the industrial city of Karlsruhe. He arrived on August 31, 1911, and was transferred on October 11, 1912. In his months at Karlsruhe young Father Metzger earned from his pastor a highly indignant report to the chancery office on the occasion of his transferral. Metzger was described as self-willed, self-confident, shunning advice, and ambitious, and, worst of all, as having done some things without having informed the pastor. Oh, he was full of energy and very talented, particularly in music, but he was ruining his ability because he had become a fanatic on abstinence - he even wrote and composed all sorts of things for it. The pastor complained that Father Metzger had ruined a youth society by pushing abstinence too much; he even had those members from ten on up writing essays on alcohol. The pastor also mentioned that Father Metzger had been active in the “Kreuzbündnis,” a Catholic temperance society, and that he had arranged for some religious to speak on temperance.

Monsignor Wilhelm Baumeister, who eventually became an important figure in the archdiocesan social work and the national caritas organization, also knew of Father Metzger’s activities at the time and evaluated them somewhat differently. According to Baumeister, the archdiocese of Freiburg owed Metzger a debt of gratitude for his thorough organization of a widespread preaching tour by the well-known Franciscan, Father Elpidius from Cologne, which led to the founding of Catholic temperance organizations throughout the archdiocese. Father Metzger also published numerous articles and brochures on alcoholism during this period, continuing the work of his student days when, for example, in a letter from Fribourg to his aunt he included a rather long poem on Christian temperance which he had just published. In this first year of pastoral activity the work that achieved probably the greatest popularity was his re-editing of Neumann’s Mässigkeitskatechismus (Catechism of Temperance); it went through seven editions and, as his friend Msgr. Baumeister remarked, “spread clear ideas on the foundation and goals of Catholic temperance work everywhere.” Later when Cathedral Dean Simon Hirt wrote Metzger’s necrology, he merely referred to this Karlsruhe report as describing Father Metzger as the most zealous of abstinence pioneers in the diocese.

Father Metzger was hardly finished with bad reports from his ecclesiastical superiors. From October 12, 1912, to January 27, 1914, Father Metzger served as parish assistant in Mannheim, another industrial city. Here he fortunately found a like-minded priest, a Father Risch, as another assistant. But his second pastor was less pleased, for when he learned that Father Metzger was about to be transferred he immediately wrote to the chancery office requesting that the replacement not be an anti-alcohol man, since he was still richly blessed in this regard with Father Risch. Apparently there were a number of younger priests in the diocese who were interested in the temperance movement, since the pastor made a strong point of saying that he and his elder colleagues could not see the advisability of devoting much time to this movement.

It was only a little more than seven months later when the same pastor submitted a service report on Father Metzger in which the criticism of the first pastor’s report was matched and even surpassed. Father Metzger was described as capable and efficient, but the pastor qualified this by adding that Metzger could accomplish still more if he were not over-involved in abstinence work. Then the Mannheim pastor shot out some scathing remarks of the sort that Father Metzger inspired time and again throughout his life.

I even have the impression that he hoodwinked the gentlemen in Freiburg. Had they known him they would not have accepted him into the seminary. This is not meant as an accusation against the Konvikt administration; Metzger is very sly and at the right moment he can be very disarming. Apparently already as a young lad he was too far gone. He lacks sincerity of character.

Some fifty years later Msgr. Baumeister, who never knew about this report, mentioned that Metzger’s unusual power of convincing people of the reasonableness of what he was saying and doing probably won Metzger many enemies; people resent being talked into or out of something, if only subconsciously. People could be angry with Metzger before or after meeting him, but never while talking to him.

Msgr. Baumeister appears to have described perfectly the reaction of the pastor from Mannheim. He apparently had been persuaded to accept or condone things which he probably could not effectively gainsay while Father Metzger was talking to him, things that probably did not fit in with the pastor’s old patterns of thinking and doing. Only after Metzger left the room did the pastor begin to realize what he had let himself in for. ‘this no doubt happened time and again during Metzger’s two years in Mannheim, and, given the seven months between Father Metzger’s departure and the writing of the regular report, time during which the pastor could settle back into his old ways and realize how far he had been pulled along by Father Metzger, it is not at all surprising that he complained loudly that he, and anyone else who had not resisted Metzger, had been duped by him.

What is surprising though is the fact that both the pastors, the one from Karlsruhe and from Mannheim, simultaneously sent Metzger what purported to be copies of their reports on him to the chancery at Freiburg; one would not have recognized the priest spoken of in the copies as being the same. The copy Metzger received was positive, whereas the copy sent to the Archbiship was, of course, very negative. One of many examples is the following. The Freiburg version read: “One can see no evidence of a solid scholarly education.” The version sent to Metzger: “Scholarly education is very good.” Such duplicity rather deeply undermines the confidence one can place in the evaluation these men made of Metzger.

The seven months following his transferral from Mannheim Father Metzger spent assisting his uncle in Oberhausen who had become quite ill with a cancer which eventually caused his death.

World War I

August 3, 1914. The Great War began. Germany marched into France amid the enthusiasm of the German populace. National patriotism was a. a peak in all European countries, and each felt it was justified in entering the war. Even though Germany was forced to sign the guilt clause after her defeat, most scholars have long since concluded that France, Russia, Austria and others share equally or more in this guilt. Hence it is not difficult to understand how each populace felt its cause was the just and noble one. It is also not difficult to understand how young Father Max Metzger, the same lad who had been so wildly enthusiastic about the Kaiser’s visit some fourteen years before, could write to the archbishop asking permission to volunteer as a front-lines chaplain - on August 3, 1914. Father Metzger left no record of how much, if any, his motives were influenced by patriotism or how much by pastoral zeal to be where the need was most pressing. Probably both elements, along with others, were there.

Unfortunately not very many of Father Metzger’s letters from the front seem to be extant. Those few that are available were all written during the two months from the end of February to the beginning of May, 1915. This was a relatively quiet period on the Western front, which may be why his letters reveal very little revulsion for the war. He mentioned that he was quite satisfied with his activity since he found a much more open-hearted response among the troops than at home. In rather soldier-like fashion he described being at a French castle near Cirez which had been owned by a former Bavarian officer who had fought against the French in 1870, and who had later become a naturalized French citizen. “He was shot during the battle because he had been directing the fight from the lookout - in favor of the French!!” This same rather nonchalant attitude toward warfare showed itself again in a letter to his uncle on March 24, 1915. He wrote that things were going along in rather pedestrian fashion. “Everything, praise God, is well as usual.” He then casually mentioned that his division’s dragoons had been attacked yesterday and the day before and had lost nine killed and fifty wounded.

May 6, 1915, he was decorated with the Iron Cross for “self-sacrificing actions and particularly for courageous work in the front-line trenches of the 42nd cavalry brigade. “When writing to his archbishop the same day he added that note only in a postscript. In these letters there is nothing of the vigorous pacifist of the future. The experiences of the summer and fall of 1915 must have deeply changed Father Metzger; but we have no record of these experiences.

Still, in the spring of 1915 a decision was made by Father Metzger that shaped the whole of his subsequent life. As a result of his earlier abstinence activities, his reputation as an energetic and efficient organizer had traveled as far as Austria. In the first part of 1915, Professor Johann Ude, a Catholic priest, visited Metzger’s home in Freiburg in an attempt to recruit him as general secretary of the Austrian Kreuzbündnis (League of the Cross). Since Father Metzger was at the front he wrote him of his offer. Metzger did not even consider leaving the army to take up this offer. He, like most other Germans, expected the war to be over rather soon and fully expected to serve till its end. Moreover, he had some other rather specific plans for his post-war work.

In writing to his uncle he said that although he would in many ways have liked to take on the organizational work that was waiting in Austria, he had almost completely rejected it from the beginning, for he had another plan. He hoped to return to the university to prepare himself for social and urban pastoral work; some members of the theological faculty and the chancery officials had encouraged him in this. Nevertheless Father Metzger wrote to his archbishop and presented the two choices to him and asked for his advice in the matter. Father Metzger felt that the archbishop’s answer showed a decided displeasure with him. The archbishop declared he could not and did not wish to decide the question, but if Metzger wanted to go he would give him leave of absence.

My Freiburg plan he handled in an almost despising manner so I see that in this direction there will be at best no hope of encouragement from him. Past judgements of me (by Gröber [Metzger’s former Konvikt rector, and future archbishop] are always plaguing me and it appears that no effort on my part can change things. It is a bitter experience for me, but of course it does not make me turn bitter. But so much is certain for me now: in my own diocese for Years to come I will have to reckon with receiving in my work not encouragement but rather restrictions and discouragements from above. Consequently I have no prospect in the foreseeable future of receiving a responsible post in my own diocese in which I could be satisfied with the work. You know me and my abilities. To just sit quietly for years - I can’t do it. That would be the death of my nature as God gave it to me. And I cannot, indeed may not allow exactly those talents with which I can contribute something simply to go to waste. On this everything depends, as far as I am concerned. So it is that the longer I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that perhaps the whole thing is a providential act of God. The task that awaits me in Austria is not a particularly esteemed one or one that is likely to bring me great honor, but it is one that is doubtless full of blessings. Whereas the Freiburg plan had perhaps attracted me more because the fruitful work also promised an externally very attractive position. Perhaps God wishes to lead me in this manner along the more thorny path? I don’t know.

. . . So I really don’t know what to do or what I should decide.... I pray and seek to recognize God’s holy will and ask you to do the same and also ask your opinion, which certainly will weigh in the balance of the final decision. (March 24, 1915)

By the sixth of May, 1915, Father Metzger made his decision to accept the invitation to go to Graz, Austria, as general secretary of the Kreuzbündnis and head of the Priests’ Abstinence League after the end of the war. In his letter to the archbishop informing him of his decision, Father Metzger included a brief paragraph in which he very carefully and politely told the archbishop he was aware of his position in the Freiburg diocese. “Although on one hand the decision weighed very heavily on me, I nevertheless believed I had to grasp the opportunity because in this position, at least under the present conditions at any rate, I can best serve the salvation of souls.”

The consummation of Father Metzger’s decision did not have to wait until 1918. In the fall of 1915 he developed a severe case of lung inflamation and was discharged from the Army. He was free to take up his new post, and that October he left for Graz.

SOCIAL AND APOSTOLIC WORK

The nineteenth century in general spawned all sorts of reforms, and the disastrous advent of World War I merely reinforced many of these reform movements, including the temperance movement. In the United States the prohibitionists were able to gather the necessary support for a constitutional amendment; in the beginning of the 1920's the vast majority of the American people, if not actively in favor of prohibition, were wining to go along with it for the sake of the common good. It should also be recalled that because of various circumstances the deleterious effects of alcohol were probably much more widespread a half a century ago than today. For example, it was almost impossible to buy a non-alcoholic drink in German restaurants; they simply did not sell soft drinks or fruit juices in those days. In any case, temperance work around the time of World War I was not the work of just a lunatic fringe. Max Metzger stood in the midst of the main stream of reform. He was concerned with complete renewal of society, and, as will be seen, founded an organization which he hoped would serve as a many-edged instrument that would help bring it about. Like many others Metzger thought temperance was one of the essential cutting edges.

Graz Temperance Work

Upon his arrival in Graz Father Metzger took over the position of general secretary of the Catholic League of the Cross of Austria (Katholische Kreuzbündnis Oesterreich), successor to the Catholic League of the Cross against Alcoholism for Austria (Katholische Kreuzbündnis gegen Alkoholismus für Oesterreich). The Kreuzbündnis was a non-political society whose purpose was “to combat alcoholism through natural and supernatural means which are both curative and preventive, and to cooperate in building the health, commercial, social, moral and religious aspects of life on foundations of sobriety.” Besides a personal example of temperance by the members, and publicizing of the problem and its solution the society promoted effective legislation, supported establishments for the care of inebriates, institutes for the cure of alcoholics, and alcohol-free education of youth. Connected with this general temperance league was the Priests Abstinence League of Salzburg of which Father Metzger was also general secretary. The whole program seems to have had whole-hearted episcopal support. Metzger himself quoted from the local bishop’s statement of June 19, 1916: “The Ordinary wishes that the Katholische Kreuzbündnis in its noble and extremely important efforts to combat alcoholism ... be most energetically supported and fostered by the reverend clergy.”

Much of the work consisted of writing and editing. On December 9, 1915, he was elected head of publications for the Katholische Kreuzbündnis, which had as its headquarters the “Volksheilzentrale” in Graz, Austria - the building included a large alcohol-free restaurant. The movement had two organs, one aimed at adults and one at youth, the Oesterreichs Kreuzzug (Austria’s Crusade) and the Oesterreichs Kinderkreuzzug (Austria’s Children’s Crusade). Metzger handled the adult magazine himself and delegated the work of the second, though still retaining responsibility for both. But already in 1916 the demands on his time were so great that he asked for additional help in his editorial work. Besides this magazine work and the directing of the Volksheil Publishing Company, Metzger also wrote fifteen brochures and booklets for the Volksheil Verlag between 1917 and 1920.

Yet he found time for a demanding lecture schedule. During 1916 alone he delivered 119 lectures and talks on alcoholism from Graz and Linz in Austria to Freiburg and Berlin in Germany. Although his audiences were of a varied sort, he had a particularly close and personal relationship with the German “Kreuzbündnis” and the German “Quickborn” youth organization, (a German Catholic youth group, begun about the time of the first World War, which brought the idealism and commitment of youth to the renewal of the Church; under the leadership of Romano Guardini it was strongly influenced by the liturgical revival). So great was Metzger’s enthusiasm for the Quickborn movement at this time that he gave lectures in Vienna, St. Poelten, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck to promote the movement in Austria.

On October 15, 1916, the Kreuzbündnis held a conference in Graz; 1200 representatives from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were present. On the opening day it was declared that

although out on all fronts cannons are still roaring and battlefields greedily drink up the blood of Christian peoples of Europe, the Catholic Kreuzbündnis of Austria calls all of its individual members and groups and the whole public to a large peace conference.... All forces should be gathered for the defeat of the ‘most dangerous internal enemy of our people.’

This most dangerous internal enemy was, of course, alcoholism. This conference, to which both the Austrian and German emperors sent telegrams, thus brought together two matters which so intimately concerned Max Metzger throughout his life: the causes of temperance and of peace.

Renewal of Society Through Religion

Although Father Metzger saw alcohol as a critical problem in the life of society, he felt that society’s ills demanded reform in many other areas as well, that there was a whole circle of evil that ringed Western humanity which had to be broken at every point. But Metzger believed this reform should be inspired by a religious spirit. It was not sufficient merely to establish another organization or two in nineteenth-century fashion. Renewal was needed not only in society but also in the Church, and the renewal of each depended in large measure on both learning to care about the other.

How the renewal of Church and society was to be approached effectively had long been a central concern for Father Metzger. Even during his student days in Fribourg, Switzerland, he had begun to lay the basis for the many organizations he later founded, with the Mission Society of the White Cross - later called the Society of Christ the King - as their dynamic center. While at Fribourg he formed his international “friendship league” with a number of his fellow seminarians, young priests and, a little later, also lay people. This league was one of the first two roots of the future Society.

The second root was provided by Father Wilhelm Impekovin, a member of the Steyler Congregation. The two men met at a conference of the German Catholic Kreuzbund in 1911, the year Metzger was ordained. At one of the meetings Metzger spoke with youthful vigor, and afterwards Father Impekovin, later known as Brother Gottwills, came up to him, shook his hand and said, “We two belong together.” The two men discussed their plans and exchanged ideas.

He [Br. Gottwills] came more from the ‘religious’ side and I more from the ‘social.’ However, as we discussed our thoughts together we found that they matched amazingly well. For I could conceive of effective social action, far-reaching relief for the social needs of the day only through the renewal of the parched wellsprings of power of Christianity. And Bother Gottwills was too much a friend of all the poor and too much a ‘Christian’ with the deepest bonds with his Master to be able to imagine ‘religiosity’ without its working out in everyday life, or in a Christianity of deeds without far-reaching social charity. And so, overwhelmed by the moment, we shook hands with the idealism of youth and promised that with God’s grace we would join forces in the future.

Founding of the White Cross

In 1912 Brother Gottwills started his “World League of the White Cross” by simply drawing up a set of aims and constitution for his organization and getting signatures - he started with three. (The name comes from the white cross that is normally impressed on the Mass host and reflects the revival of the devotion to the Eucharist.) Brother Gottwills gathered commitments and signatures wherever he found a sympathetic hearing. Although the project moved ahead very slowly, on Good Friday, 1913, Brother Gottwills decided to celebrate the public founding of his world league, during the convention of a Catholic society held in Merzig, Germany.

But the events of August, 1914, canceled all plans for several years. Brother Gottwills became a chaplain on the Western front and developed what then apparently was a new technique with his “Kapellenauto.” At first the vehicle was to serve simply to bring a Mass altar to the front. But each succeeding truck became larger and took on new functions such as serving as a mobile library and a medical aid station.

In the meanwhile Father Metzger’s work progressed in Graz. Yet he continued to move toward the founding of his own organization that would provide the enduring inner vitalizing elan to the various institutions and groups he was involved in. A further step was taken in this direction by the founding of the “World Peace League,” an international peace organization of Catholics, in 1916. That same year Brother Gottwills visited Metzger in Graz and mentioned that he had changed the name of his “World League of the White Cross” to “World Peace League of the White Cross.” Consequently, when in the following summer Brother Gottwills came to Graz to join Metzger permanently, they decided to merge what there was of their organizations and to give the new body the name “World Peace Work of the White Cross.” That summer they both worked on the details of the organization that slowly was being molded.

Within the next two years the organization took rather definite shape and settled on names that would be stable for a number of years. The broad, generic organization was given the simple title of “White Cross (Catholic Inner Mission),” and the smaller central group was named the “Mission Society of the White Cross.” This latter was to be a “whole order with the openness and mobility of laity,” consisting of men and women, married and single, lay and clerical. There were to be three groups within this “Catholic Salvation Army,” as Metzger sometimes referred to it. The first was to consist of those who had a vocation to the common life with the observance of the three religious vows; these were to be neither public nor permanent, but renewed every year on the feast of the Sacred Heart. This group was to be the nucleus or inspirational force for the other two groups. The second section was to consist of free members (Freiregulierte) who, although they often lived in a community, were not necessarily to remain celibate and therefore could live outside the community as assistants in ordinary or extraordinary pastoral work; they were expected to go where a religious community (regulierte Gemeinschaft) could not penetrate. The members of the third group were to remain in their individual jobs and to carry on the work of Christianizing their milieu, not unlike members of a Third Order.

The Mission Society of the White Cross (Missionsgesellschaft vom Weissen Kreuz), whose name was changed for the last time in 1925 to “Society of Christ the King” (Gesellschaft Christi des Königs), had no specific apostolate, but rather provided a common spirit and rule to live by; work would be decided upon as the needs in society appeared. The society did not wish to undertake tasks already handled by other orders; it wanted to fill gaps caused by a rapidly changing social environment.

They envisaged works of all kinds ... pastoral work, spiritual work, works of mercy, the winning of lay apostles, work for peace and for the unity of the Church, efforts to promote wholesome and simple living, and to provide help for those suffering under the un-Christian economic order of the day.

Already early in 1917 Brother Gottwills insisted that if the new society was to grow at all it needed a house. Metzger agreed but was skeptical about getting the necessary money. Brother Gottwills maintained that “God will provide.” So he and Metzger agreed that they would select a suitable house, take an option on it and if the necessary money was not available by the time the option ran out they would abandon the project. Brother Gottwills chose a huge, several-story house which cost 200,000 Friedenskronen. An option which ran until Christmas, 1917, was taken. Brother Gottwills solicited the countryside for the money and by that fall was able to collect only 12,000 Kronen. Matters suddenly improved, however. One of the occupants of the house, a well to do gentleman, was anxious about losing his fifteen-room apartment when he had heard the house was to be sold. He approached Metzger and Gottwills and they reached an agreement; the man would buy the house in the name of the White Cross and he would have the right to live in his apartment for the rest of his life - he lived there for another twenty years.

In 1918 when Brother Gottwills gave a lecture at the Catholic seminary of Salzburg on the consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart, Edward Hasenbichler, a young priest in his year of pastoral training was in the audience. He was so impressed by Brother Gottwills and by what he had to say about the White Cross Movement that he arranged to visit Graz later that year. He immediately felt content there, with the people and the work, and soon joined the society permanently, taking the name Brother Franz.

These three, Brothers Paulus (Metzger), Gottwills, and Franz, seemed destined to be the heart of the White Cross. But events soon took another turn. Brother Gottwills, who had been in rather poor health for a long time, died. Brother Franz lived another five years in the Society and then his health, which also had always been precarious, also failed. He contracted tuberculosis and in September of 1923 he too died, leaving Brother Paulus to lead his growing community alone.

Support from Rome - Not from Home

Though Metzger and his society were often discouraged at the episcopal level, they received warm encouragement from the Vatican. As early as 1917 Metzger wrote to Pope Benedict XV about the founding of the World Peace League of the White Cross and received a most sympathetic reply from Cardinal Gasparri, the Secretary of State, on June 27 of that year.

The Holy Father has taken notice of the program of this “Institution” which your Reverence and your colleagues humbly sent him with the letter dated February 20.

The Supreme Pontiff, Vicar on Earth of the King of Peace, blesses your ardent desire to see peace restored quickly among nations, and prays that the full and precise observance in individual and social life of the principles of justice and charity preached by the Divine Master may forever protect the people from the horrors of war.

I very gladly take advantage of this contact to reaffirm that I have a profound esteem of your Reverence and am ready affectionately to serve you,

Cardinal Gasparri ¹

As difficulties seemed to multiply within the diocese, encouragement from the Vatican and the Pope himself increased. In the first two weeks of October, 1920, Father Metzger went to Rome.

I found a very friendly reception from his eminence, Cardinal Secretary of State Gasparri. His eminence was already well instructed about us and promised to make favorable arrangements concerning the matter of the Catholic International. I had the privilege of a longer private audience with the Holy Father, whom Cardinal Gasparri had already informed about us, and gave him a detailed report on the White Cross and the Catholic International. The Holy Father received me very graciously and was very interested in our work. As I spoke of the program of the whole apostolic work of the Holy Father he interrupted me with a meaningful gesture and the simple word ‘Caritas.’ This was my entire impression: the Holy Father lives entirely for the idea of spreading the Christian love of neighbor more among Christians and thereby also serving social peace. Since this is exactly the program of the White Cross the Holy Father understandably rejoiced in it and encouraged me in further work. The Holy Father indicated the possibility of a written recommendation of our work.

I found particular support in his eminence Cardinal Fruehwirt, who immediately became a member of the White Cross and enthusiastically promised to enter into our work. Full of enthusiasm he said: ‘You Hungarian morning star and you Jewish morning star! You all will pale before the morning star which comes up from Graz.’

I found so much understanding in Rome and so little in this diocese. Yesterday I visited the ‘Chancellor’ of the diocese. As I reported to him about our work he said to me: “Listen, our attitude is that if a priest prays his breviary and says his Mass correctly and correctly prepares himself for preaching and catechetics, that is absolutely enough. There is absolutely no need for an organization besides this pastoral care!”

One of the earliest sources of Metzger’s difficulties with the diocesan officials, and many of the clergy, in Graz was his involvement in a p