Paul Badde has passed away in Manoppello, in Abruzzo, "a place he
considered his home," wrote Guido Horst in the German newspaper Die
Tagespost, while Bernhard Müller, of Vatican Magazine, spoke of "a writer
of exceptional caliber who enriched the world with his reporting and books. He
was someone who knew how to write masterfully about anything and, in recent
decades, he dedicated all his talent to the proclamation of the risen
Christ", the Holy Face. But the quotes could be many more.
Paul Badde was born in Germany, in Schaag, near Aachen, on
March 10, 1948. He studied at the Universities of Freiburg and Frankfurt and
was a professor of history and politics before choosing the profession of
journalist, working for authoritative German newspapers such as Franfurter
Allegemeine Zaitung, Die Zeit and Die Welt. For the latter newspaper he was
assigned to Jerusalem, and then from Rome. Beginning in 2013 he was a writer
and producer for the American television network EWTN.
His life had changed when in the spring of 2004, on his way
to San Giovanni Rotondo to report on the upcoming inauguration of the new
Sanctuary designed by Renzo Piano, he decided to make a small detour to get to
know the Holy Face of Manoppello of which he had heard.
That encounter was dazzling for him: "the image
overwhelmed me," he later wrote, beginning to devote himself frenetically
to studies and research on the sacred image, starting with the studies of
Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer, who had documented the overlapping of the
Holy Face with the Shroud of Turin, and above all those of Fr. Heinrich
Pfeiffer, who had identified the veil with the legendary Veronica. He
established frequent contacts and friendships with them, also identifying new
areas for in-depth study, especially of a historical nature, while encountering
opposition, mistrust, if not even hostility directed towards the theses of the
two German scholars which he gradually came to feel also towards himself. He
began to photograph the Holy Face by equipping himself with increasingly
powerful digital cameras, revealing previously unknown details, noting "it
is not an image, but a series of images together", which are moreover
always different. Many of his photos are now widely circulated as he gladly
granted them for use to scholars and journalists from a number of countries.
In the weeks that followed he asked the Capuchins to be able
to stay for about ten days in a cell of the friary to immerse himself in the
life of the religious community, remaining close to the Holy Face and
collecting all possible documentation, having immediately come to the idea of authoring
a book. I met Paul at that time and was struck by his enthusiasm and his human
and cultural depth. I made available to him some books, articles I had written
and information in my possession on the mystical figure of Fr. Domenico da Cese
and his relationship with Padre Pio, again on the subject of the Holy Face. I
remember that in those days he observed an extreme diet, feeding only on water
and honey, to maintain maximum concentration, he told me.
During the course of his research he immediately met Sister
Blandina and then the master weaver of byssus Chiara Vigo, who arrived in
Manoppello in September 2004 and confirmed the hypothesis that the exceptionally
fine and transparent fabric of the veil came from the precious "sea
silk", the filaments coming from the pinna nobilis. In the same period he
asked the Vatican to be able to view what was believed to be the Veronica, kept
to the left of the main altar, above the statue sculpted by Mochi. In the
meantime, he had seen and examined at the Treasury Museum of St. Peter's Basilica
in Rome the ancient reliquary, donated by Venetian merchants around 1350, which
had enshrined the Veronica between two glass frames (now broken), a tangible
sign that the veil was visible from both sides. After a number of requests, in
March 2005 Cardinal Marchisano, then president of the Fabric of St. Peter's
(the body responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter's Basilica and exercising
vigilance over its sacred character and the organization of visitors) communicated
to Badde the possibility of seeing the Veronica, which is under the care of the Canons of
St. Peter's. He was denied any possibility of photographing the image, which in
any case appears almost totally dark. Badde asked if he could at least measure
the painting, perhaps taking the caretakers off guard, who did not object. To
his surprise, he ascertained that the area within the frame measured 32cm x 20cm.
This circumstance compared with the field of vision of the ancient reliquary,
which measures 25cm x 25cm, would alone prove the existence of a forgery,
considering that "this relic," Badde later wrote, "would not fit
into the ancient empty frame of the Veronica." He wrote extensively about
it in Die Welt on March 22, 2005: "there is no face, not even the hint of
a face."
In those frenetic months he shared his unfolding knowledge with Cardinal Ratzinger, his neighbor in an apartment building of the Holy See in Rome. But he also sent extensive photographic documentation to Pope John Paul II. It must not be excluded that the sensational finding of the false Veronica contributed to some clarity in the years which followed, which led to the circumstance of July 11, 2011, under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, when the Vatican Press Office issued a statement in which, regarding an exhibition, it was affirmed, after so much silence, that the Veronica had disappeared during the Sack of Rome in 1527.
In September 2005, his first book on the Holy Face was published entitled Das muschelseidentuch. Auf der suche nach dem wahrem Antlitz Jesu (The veil of mussel silk. In Search of the True Face of Jesus), published by Ullstein in Berlin. On October 1, Paul sent me the book from Rome with a dedication "as a sign of gratitude". But the first to receive the book was Cardinal Ratzinger, who in the meantime had become pope on April 19.
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| Paul Badde with Benedict XVI on the plane returning from World Youth Day in Cologne, August 20, 2005 |
The book had numerous positive reviews, with the German weekly aptly calling it "a cultural thriller, full of suspense and plotting, like Dan Brown". On September 1, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Shrine, elevating it to a Basilica and dedicating, a year later, a prayer dedicated to the Holy Face, with references to the value of the sacred image in the history of the universal Church.
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| Dedication signed by Paul of the first edition of his book presented to Antonio Bini |
The book quickly became a best seller, an international
success, thanks to subsequent editions in various countries, starting with
Poland, France, etc. The first edition in Italian, published by Newton Compton,
took place in 2007, with the title La Seconda Sindone. La Storia del Vero Volto di Cristo (The second Shroud. The story of the
true face of Christ) In 2010 the book finally had an English-language
edition, with the title The Face of God. The Rediscovery of the True Face of
Jesus, published by Ignatius Press in San Francisco. In the same year, ENEA the
Italian scientific research agency recognized the acheropite nature of the Holy
Face.
In 2012 a new book was published, only in English and again
by Ignatius Press, entitled The True Icon: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil
of Manoppello, dedicated to Br. Vincenzo D'Elpidio, whom Paul perceived as
being in continuity with Father Domenico da Cese who was Br. Vincenzo’s friend.
Paul was very close to Br. Vincenzo, who passed away on December 15, 2020.
Finally, a lively booklet entitled Il Tesoro di Manoppello: Davanti al volto umano di Dio (The treasure of
Manoppello: before the human face of God), Effatà Editrice, Turin, 2017, also in
this case followed by foreign editions in various languages.
Many people, from various countries of the world, in these
days have expressed their gratitude to the writer for having known the Holy
Face thanks to his books. To satisfy many requests, the funeral celebration was
streamed live on the Basilica's Face Book page. (The replay of his funeral celebration can be found at Paul Badde Funeral)
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| Paul Badde in Manoppello with the European and African Bishops on February 17, 2013 |
When he retired in 2013 from Die Welt, I asked him if he was
thinking of returning to Germany. I remember that he replied, "Antonio
after so many years spent in Italy how can I return to Germany?". He was
linked to our country and to Abruzzo in particular. He continued to work for
the American Catholic television EWTN as an author, renting a house in
Manoppello, in Via Domenico da Cese, near the Shrine, which he could admire
from the top of the hill.
For EWTN he made a number of reports on the Holy Face and an extraordinary documentary entitled "Father Domenico da Cese. The Long Road to Turin", with a historical approach to the events of the drying up of Lake Fucino and the earthquake of 1915. Collaborating in that work, I played a selection of music performed by the Associazione Zampogne d'Abruzzo (Bagpipes of Abruzzo Association). Some of the tracks became the soundtrack for the documentary and the network's programming director decided to air it on Christmas Eve 2014.
In September 2015 he took part, together with Fr. Carmine
Cucinelli and Fr. Bonifacio Ted Lopez, in an international mission for the
dissemination of the Holy Face in the United States, Canada and the
Philippines, promoted and supported by the devout American of Filipino origin
Daisy Neves. The mission also included a number of enthronements of the veil of
Manoppello in various cities.
In January 2016, as a result of one of his proposals, the ancient
rite of Omnis Terra was re-enacted, with which Pope Innocent III in 1208 inaugurated the public cult of the Veronica, carrying the venerated veil in procession from St.
Peter's Basilica to the nearby church of Santo Spirito in Sassia. During Paul’s
funeral, some members of the choir remembered with emotion that extraordinary
day they had experienced in which a replica of the Holy Face kept in an ancient reliquary at the shrine of Manoppello dating from the early twentieth century was brought from St. Peter's to Santo Spirito in Sassia. Since then, the event has been celebrated every
year in Manoppello on the second Sunday following the feast of Epiphany.
It should be remembered that Paul Badde had achieved world
fame with the publication of Yossl Rakover Talks to God, a dramatic
story of a Lithuanian Jew in the Warsaw ghetto who called into question God and
his silence in the face of the horrors of Nazism. A story that Badde had
rediscovered, studied and translated. In Italy, the small book was published by
Adelphi, reaching 13 editions.
It was precisely this particular sensitivity with respect to
the reflections of Nazism that led him to take an interest in the tragedy of
Onna, in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck L'Aquila on April 6, 2006,
destroying the nearby village, of which I want to offer a personal memory.
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| Paul at Onna in April 2006 |
A few days after the earthquake, Paul asked me to help him come to a knowledge of the massacre of Onna, in which 17 civilians were murdered in June 1944, with the German army now in retreat. The reference to that tragedy had echoed in the international press, but Paul wanted to know more about that story in that hamlet that had become the epicenter of the earthquake. Years earlier I had seen by chance, on my way to L'Aquila, the poster for a small exhibition relating to the discovery of some photos which had been taken immediately following the massacre. I don't even remember how, but I managed to track down Aldo Scimia who had organized that exhibition together with the journalist Giustino Parisse. Paul and I arranged to meet at the gates of Onna, where the tent city had been set up. Scimia had managed to pull out of his house in rubble some photos kept among muddy plastic sheets, which we saw together, on the hood of his car. I still remember that in those moments we felt a long superficial shock under our feet. We then took a silent tour of the ruins of the village, while Paul noted, accompanied by his inseparable wife Ellen, who spoke Italian better than her husband with Paul being more at home with the English language. We spoke little that day. Paul was thoughtful, he observed everything carefully, he collected notes. He felt deep solidarity with that small community. He was an authoritative journalist and on his return to Rome he informed the German ambassador in Italy. He published a first article in Die Welt on April 26 and another two days later in which he recalled that tragedy, together with a section in which the news was given of the activation of an account at the Embassy to raise funds in Germany for the reconstruction of Onna, accompanied by a small photo of some women terrified by grief in front of some coffins of the victims resting on the ground. He also had a summary published on the website of the Catholic agency Kath.net. Several days later, that image was republished by the popular newspaper Bild. Badde then also covered Benedict XVI's visit to Onna and L'Aquila.
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| Announcement in Die Welt regarding the collection of funds for the victims of the earthquake published with Paul's article on the earthquake and the massacre of June 1944 |
With
the funds raised, the ancient church of San Pietro Apostolo was restored (at a
cost of 3.7 million euros) and two structures for the community were built,
Casa Onna and Casa della Cultura. A story that makes us understand the
importance of serious journalism, capable of combining history and cultural and
human sensitivities, for a communication capable of involving many people for
noble and concrete purposes. A few years ago, remembering that particular day
in the mud, I felt the duty to thank him for what he had done for Onna.
In recent years he has had health problems that never
extinguished his indissoluble relationship with the Holy Face.
On November 15, the funeral took place by a special
permission in the Basilica of the Holy Face, in the presence of family members
and acquaintances who had come from Germany, together with other people from
various parts of Italy and of course many people from Manoppello. Shortly
before Mass, a group of Polish pilgrims had left the Shrine.
The celebration was presided over by the archbishop of the
Diocese of Chieti-Vasto Mons. Bruno Forte, together with Fr. Simone Calvarese,
provincial minister of the Capuchins of Central Italy, Fr. Antonio Gentili,
rector of the Shrine, Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, Fr. Marian Michniak and Fr.
Girolamo De Rosa. The Polish nuns Handmaids of the Most Holy Blood were
present.
In his homily, in Italian and then in German, Msgr. Forte
offered a personal memory of the writer, expressing gratitude for his
studies on the Holy Face and for the faith with which he accompanied his
activity of dissemination, and extending his condolences to his wife Ellen and
children Raam, Joseph, Jakob, Mia and
Christina, and to his brother Hans Peter. At the end of the Mass, Fr. Antonio
Gentili spoke, calling Badde a "seeker of truth", emphasizing the
humility with which he attended the Shrine for years, blending in with the many
pilgrims. This was followed by the discourse of the mayor Giorgio De Luca, wearing
the tricolor sash, who reminded those present of Badde's desire to be buried in
the cemetery of Manoppello, his cordial relationship with the population, the
positive climate of collaboration established in the past with Fr. Heinrich
Pfeiffer and Sister Blandina and how the Municipality of Manoppello in 2010
delivered to the writer, through his
predecessor Gennaro Matarazzo, also present at the funeral, "the keys to
the city", in recognition of his ties with the local community. Paul was
proud of it, recalling that only Pope Benedict XVI had received the same
recognition.
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| Robert Moynihan |
Among the many present we recognized Robert Moynihan,
director of the American periodical Inside The Vatican, Martin Rothweiler, head
of programming at EWTN (Germany), Markus van den Hövel, author of Der
Manoppello-Code, the publisher Bernhard Müller, the scholars Dirk Weisbrod and
René Udwari, the Polish journalist Aleksandra Zapotoczny, author of the book Stygmatyk
z Manoppello, on the story of Padre Domenico and the Holy Face, Marco Gandolfo,
director and documentary filmmaker, Angelo Rytz, popularizer from Switzerland,
while Sister Petra Maria Steiner, a scholar engaged the night before in a
conference on the Holy Face in Karlsfeld, north of Munich, drove all night to
attend the funeral.
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| From the left, René Udwari, Markus van den Hövel, Dirk Weisbrod, Bernhard Müller, Antonio Bini, Martin Rothweiler |
Everyone had a memory of Paul. Sister Blandina, who has been
living as a hermit in Manoppello since 2003, told me "I am very grateful
to Paul for his friendship and all the treasures he has dug up and brought to
light regarding the Most Holy Face of the Lord. I thank God for his intense
work in favor of the Holy Face and the dissemination of its knowledge."
After the celebration in the church, Paul's coffin, followed
by a composed emotional multitude of relatives and friends, was taken to the
neighboring cemetery. The burial was accompanied by the hymns "Mater
nostra ora pro nobis" and the "Te Deum" in German.
At the end of the rite, Martin Rothweiler spoke. He had with
him a small box containing earth from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, received
as a gift years earlier from his friend Paul. His brief recounting was
followed by the scattering of the earth on the coffin.
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| Martin Rothweiler (Director of EWTN Germany) about to scatter earth from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In the background the Basilica of the Holy Face |
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| Photo courtesy of Antonio Bini |
