RIP: 03/06/2023 - Vienna-Alterlaa (AU)
Fr. Wolfgang Eduard Worsch was born on 10 June 1926 in Vienna-Hernals. At the age of 16 he was already drafted into the flak helpers and was finally wounded in the arm at the Russian front in Hungary at the age of 18. Nursed back to health by the Sisters of the Divine Saviour, he began his university studies in history, German studies and art history in 1945. Through Fr. Reinhold Eitler SDS in St Michael, where he was an altar server, he became acquainted with the Salvatorians and the decision matured in him to become a Salvatorian and a priest. He joined the Salvatorian Novitiate at Hamberg in 1947 and professed his first temporary vows for one year in the Society on the Feast of Mater Salvatoris, 11 October 1948. From 1948 until 1954 he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, together with other scholastics from 13 different nations. He was ordained a priest on 20 December 1953. Only 6 months later he could celebrate his first mass in his home country, at St. Michaels in Vienna. From that moment on, Fr. Wolfgang was always engaged in pastoral work in different parishes. Firstly, as vicar and parish priest in Vienna VI, Maria Hilf and a religious education teacher on different schools and later as a parish priest of the Apostle Parish from 1965 until 1977 and then, for a period of 25 years in St. Michael´s from 1977 until 2002. Fr. Wolfgang dared to go innovative ways and worked with a heart that burned for the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council, involving his knowledge of art and artist friends. At various times in his life, he was honoured for his merits as a teacher, as a pastoralist and was appointed a member of the archdiocesan spiritual council and art pastor of Vienna. At the age of 75, Fr Wolfgang passed on this leadership task in 2002 and celebrated services with great joy with the faithful on Sundays and feast days in the evenings until autumn 2022. Fr Wolfgang spent his last five months in the Caritas nursing home, St Barbara’s House, where on the eve of the Feast of the Holy Trinity he peacefully laid down his long and abundant life in God’s hands. He died on 3 June 2023 at the age of 96 and had been a Salvatorian for 74 years.
