Chapter Pax Christi, USA
Start with Why!
Franz and Franziska Jaegerstaetter
In March 2014, Christian Marte SJ, a friend of the Jagerstatters, joined CPF members in a conversation about Franz and Franziska Jagerstatter.
Fr. Marte, an Austrian, is currently in the states for a sabbatical.
Fr. John McNamee, Fr. Christian Marte SJ, Joe Bradley, and Fr. Peter Dubovsky SJ
Franz Jaggerstatter statue: R.F. McGovern
Simon Sinek, an American management trainer, received a lot of attention in the business community with his book, “Start with why” (see also his Ted talk on ted.com). His basic thesis is that we are good in showing what we do and how we do it, but that we often fail to demonstrate why we do it.
It seems to me that this is true also for Franz and Franziska Jaegerstaetter. Why did Franz decide not to fight in Hitler’s war? And why did Franziska support this decision? The brief answer is: because of their Christian faith.
Now, this is difficult to explain. For us today, faith seems to be something very private and personal. It is easier to speak about the political circumstances during World War II, about the violence of the Nazi regime, about the few who resisted, about conscientious objection in general. And from that analysis we draw conclusions for today.
However, this analysis is superficial if it does not take into account the faith convictions of Franz and Franziska. I think this is the main reason why today their decision is widely admired, but rarely understood. Their “why” can be found only in their faith.
Franz was led to his Christian convictions by Franziska. They were reading together the Bible, a habit which he kept during his time in the military and in prison. Even in the Military Verdict which condemned Franz to death we can read how he argued with quotes from the Bible.
Franz and Franziska were deeply immersed in Catholic popular piety. This was the air they breathed. Franz went daily to participate in the Eucharist, so the parish priest asked him to become the sacristan.
Several priests became his friends. And together with one of his close friends, Rudolf Mayr, whom he got to know during military training, he joined the Third Order of St. Francis.
Marriage, friendships, the Third Order of St. Francis, and the role model of St. Thomas More: these were the fabric of relationships which made his decision to become a conscientious objector possible and which helped him to sustain it under pressure. These were the people who formed the “cloud of witnesses” (Hebr 12,1) which supported him.
Franz argued that he cannot “bear arms in military service because of his religious convictions. (…) He declared it would be violating his religious conscience if he were to fight for the National Socialist state.” (Military Verdict, 14 July 1943).
The German military during the Nazi time was well aware that religious arguments are dangerous and that they can become “infectious”. Therefore, Franz was not judged in his home area, but brought to Berlin to the “Reich’s Court Martial”.
Franz is quoted in the Military Verdict that “there are things in which one must obey God rather than man.” Franz came to his decision after a long discernment process. What is the will of God in this situation for me?
Franziska confirmed in 20031 that Franz could make this decision “because he prayed so much. What did he pray! For two years he prayed, not for his life, but for the decision.”
Referring to a power that is higher than the state, government or military was a direct challenge to the authorities. And it is to this day.
Both, Franz and Franziska, had a notion of heaven that was very real: heaven was the place of hope, the place to look forward to, and the place to meet again.
Their notion of heaven was brought to them through the Church. Was this naïve? Was this “opium for the people” in order not to reflect on political or social issues? Franz and Franziska Jaegerstaetter stand for an informed faith which draws strength from the Church’s teaching of life after death. Life does not end when you die. The long term perspective is heaven, and this was more than just a pious imagination. In the case of Franz and Franziska their understanding of heaven was the real reason of hope.
But this long term perspective – heaven! – is not an escape from earthly reality. Franz urged his wife in his letter of 1 March 1943: “Help the poor as long as you can.” As farmers, they helped several poor people to survive – all of that became known only during the beatification process of Franz.
And the Military Verdict mentions twice that “he declared himself ready, however, to serve as a medical orderly as an exercise of Christian charity”. But this was not accepted by the Court Martial.
Take piety serious!
There are many lessons we can learn today from Franz and Franziska Jaegerstaetter. One lesson is to take piety serious. Christian convictions grow in a fabric of relationships, they can be challenging for authorities – and they give a long term perspective: heaven.
When we want to understand how a couple like Franz and Franziska can live with a decision of life and death, it is necessary to go deeper and to look at their deepest motivations.
1 Erna Putz: Heilig wird man nicht allein. p. 98; in: Georg Nuhsbaumer (Ed.): Was heisst heute “christlich”? Wien 2014 (my translation, CM).
Few people know that Franz Jaegerstaetter’s patron saint is not Francis of Assisi, but Francis Carraciolo (1563 – 1608), the patron saint of Naples, Italy. He founded an order which cared for prisoners sentenced to death. We do not know why this patron saint was chosen for Franz Jaegerstaetter.
In the rite of baptism we are asked three times if we say “no” to Satan, and only then the baptism takes place. Franz, whose memorial day is the day of his baptism (21 May), knew when to say “no”, and he could say it because he had a big “yes”: his Christian faith.
This is the answer to the “why”.
Fr. Christian Marte, S.J. Director of Kardinal Koenig Haus, Jesuit and Caritas formation center, Vienna, Austria.
Written for the Newsletter of the Catholic Peace Fellowship in Philadelphia, U.S.A. on 9 April 2014, on the day when Franz and Franziska married at St. Radegund, Austria, in 1936, at 6:30 in the morning.
On the same day they left for their honeymoon to Rome.
