2023-11-08 07:36:04
The German delegation of clergy in the Inner Mountains is receiving reinforcements: Pastor Joachim Hagel is the new town priest in Zell am See.
“Kaiserschmarrn,” answers Pastor Joachim Hagel as if from a pistol when asked regarding his favorite Austrian dish. The 62-year-old clergyman from Münster in Westphalia says he is “austrophilic” and is no newcomer to the Austrian way of life. This is actually the reason why he was drawn here from the far north: “As a Premonstratensian, I was a novice at Schlägl Abbey in Upper Austria in 1987/88,” he says. “That’s where my love for the country began.”
The qualified moral theologian, who still has a teaching position at the University of Salzburg, has now been active in pastoral care in Bavaria and Austria for 30 years – most recently as parish association leader for Strobl, St. Wolfgang, Fuschl and St. Gilgen for five years: ” Many beautiful friendships were formed there.”
At the end of August, Joachim Hagel came to Zell am See “with all his baggage” following a one and a half year interlude as parish administrator in his homeland. With a friend who had helped him move, he sat on the balcony of his new rectory overlooking the lake. “Joachim, I think you’ve hit the jackpot,” the friend said to him. He himself believes so: “Zell am See was, in a way, my dream destination.” He is calm regarding the challenges that the parish association brings with it: “I had four parishes in the Salzkammergut, now only two.” The decision to start once more in a parish was easy for him. “Now I’m still at an age where that’s possible. Later it’ll probably be more difficult.”
“I wanted to be more of a pastor and less of an administrator.”
In his homeland he sometimes felt “like a museum director” in the preservation and management of church cultural monuments: “I wanted to be more among people, more involved in pastoral care.” He isn’t afraid of language barriers: “I’ve been used to the dialect for 30 years now – but you have to keep your ears open here in Pinzgau,” he smiles. “Still: I don’t have to speak – and I don’t always have to understand everything.”
His first month in Zell am See was “beautiful”. He is already comfortably furnished in the new rectory, which “is also big enough for relatives to visit,” he is happy: “If it’s a nice place where you go and we all have space in the rectory to visit you, “You can go,” his family said to him.
The clergyman, who has also worked as a provisional parish priest in Elixhausen and Anthering in the Archdiocese of Salzburg, brings a lot of experience to his new task, a good dose of composure, love for the new parish family and a good sense of humor: “A real Prussian is like a stork “They say: Small brain, big mouth and urge to go south,” he grins.
At least the urge to go south is true in his case. “For some of my confreres, a city with 10,000 inhabitants is far too little of a ‘city’. But I enjoy the countryside here.” This also includes the large vicarage garden, which the garden lover, who also brought a plant from his homeland, is looking forward to cultivating: “But that still has time until spring. First of all, I’ll arrive a little more and get to know new people . I feel very much at home now.”
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