St. Joseph the worker: This is how Martin Melf looks back on 16 years of presiding over the parish council
Created: 04/06/2022, 09:00
By: Volker Ufertinger
The Wall of Lamentation was a reaction to the cases of abuse in the church in St. Josef der Arbeiter.
This openness in dealing with difficult issues is what characterizes the parish, says Martin Melf.
© Hermsdorf-Hiss
After 16 years, Martin Melf (54) no longer ran for the Waldram parish council.
A conversation about turbulent times in the church.
Wolfratshausen
– For 16 years, Martin Melf (54) was at the head of the ten-member Waldram parish council.
From the inauguration of the Madonna in 2008 to the founding of the town church in 2016, he has experienced a lot.
"It was a fulfilling time," he says.
"My share is not that big, I just had to moderate, everyone contributed their skills wholeheartedly." Nevertheless, he decided not to run again.
"At some point the time will be over."
Also read: That's why St. Joseph's day is still so important today
Actually, Melf is a Ur-Wolfratshauser: the Bockhornis have been documented in Loisachstadt since the end of the 18th century.
"And the Melfs have been around much longer," he says.
In 1996 he moved to Waldram - and was welcomed with open arms.
“The church played a big role in that,” he says.
"I was quickly integrated through the parish and through Kolping."
Also read: The new Waldramer Madonna
This is one of the reasons why the employee of the city administration was the right man to support the founding of the city church, more precisely the association of St. Andreas Wolfratshausen and St. Josef der Arbeiter in Waldram.
"Everyone had good intentions, everyone met as equals," says Melf.
Pastor Gerhard Beham did his part to ensure that all sides felt equally valued.
The merger took place in 2016.
Martin Melf, outgoing chairman of the Waldram parish council of St. Josef der Arbeiter © Hans Lippert / Archive
The father of four likes to talk about the new Waldram church of St. Joseph the Worker, inaugurated in 1998, and the Madonna with the Child Jesus, which found its place there in October 2008.
"The depiction suits Waldram, it is modern and down-to-earth at the same time." He feels it is a coincidence that the old Madonna of the Radiance, which some Waldramers were reluctant to give up, is now in good hands in the weekday chapel.
"It almost feels like she was made for that."
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What he appreciates so much about the parish is the great vitality and humanity.
"After Christmas mass, it can happen that you don't come home until half past two because the youth made mulled wine and you just chatted a bit," he says.
They also came up with something when dealing with the pandemic, for example with the “fasting soup to go”.
There is no offspring problem.
"In the last parish council elections, the average age fell again."
The Archbishop is on the right track
The current difficulties of the church - keyword abuse - drive Melf.
He says: "It is important that one stands by one's church even in difficult times." In the past, many mistakes, including serious ones, had been made.
He thinks it's the right thing for Archbishop Reinhard Marx to now listen to the victims and take them seriously.
In Waldram, pastoral officer Gabriele Seidnader has erected a "grievance wall" made of bricks, where people can give their anger, their anger, their feeling of being abandoned to God.
I wish for an affirmative church.
Martin Melf, 16 years parish council chairman
Which church does he wish for in the future?
Melf doesn't have to think long about this question.
"A human, an affirmative one," he says.
This attitude is well expressed in a sentence by Pope Francis: “How could the sinner Francis exclude another sinner?” With that he had decided the question of whether remarried Catholics could receive communion.
"I think we're on the right track."
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