And so do the Austrians and the Bavarians. (You can ask Pope Benedict for infallible confirmation of that.)
Did you also know that …they all pretty much go gaga for stories of the American Indians and the wild, wild West?
Ever since German novelist Karl May wrote story after story in the 19th century … without so much as ever making it west of Buffalo … they can’t get enough of it all.
Father Franz Xavier Weiser, SJ knew that. And like all the great Jesuits, he used every honest means to spread the Good News.
Our friends in Germany, at the Munich-based “Friends of Maria Goretti Center“, have just donated a copy of their most recent publication by Fr. Weiser, a double-history in one short volume.
Watomika: Der letzte Häuptling der Delawaren (1823-1889) and Ekom: Der Schwarzrock (1593-1649).
(Watomika: Last Chief of the Delaware and Echon [‘Great One’] the Blackrobe – being an hagiography of our beloved Jean de Brébeuf.)
Fr. Weiser was a Viennese, born in 1901. He was ordained a priest in 1930 at Innsbruck, and died October 22, 1986 at the Campion Center in Weston, MA. Most likely he was known to our beloved friend and Director of many years of the Auriesville Shrine, Fr. John Paret, SJ (d. August 29, 2006).
Let’s remember these courageous, ever-clever Jesuits in our prayers of thanksgiving, and for mercy upon their priestly souls.
See this page for a fascinating account of Watomika’s conversion, told by none other than the redoubtable Jesuit Father DeSmet himself.
