He was 31 years
old when he was sent from the cold of Germany to be a missionary in the “green
hell” as they used to call the Chaco area at that time. Today, Paraguay has
become “my land,” says Father Norberto SCHLECHTER, signaling that he is not
thinking of packing his bags for a final trip to old Europe. This is something that hundreds of people
appreciate who come each week to the simple chapel of the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate, at Villa Morra, to receive advice, hope, and above all, the so
necessary sacrament of pardon.
The silence in
the lovely chapel is frequently interrupted. The sharp and creaking sound of
hinges share the space and mark the coming and going of young people and adults
to this place in Villa Morra. All of this is due to this man of 78 years, who
behind a discrete, light-colored door, daily and for several hours, fulfills
his task, “his mission,” as he would say: hearing the confessions of those who
wish to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
Fr. Norbert
lives his vocation primarily in a tiny space in this chapel, ventilated by a
simple wall fan. He has been a priest for 48 years, but he does not remember at
what age he entered the seminary. “When you get old, the memory fails you,” he
adds, as he gives his quirky smile, a gesture that transforms his rigid
features into expressions of warmth and tenderness.
His humor is
constant, like the serenity and peace that he transmits by speaking with his
legs resting on a bench -- due to the “infirmities of old age,” as he likes to
say -- sitting in the little confessional, daily hearing the confessions of
young persons and adults, including seminarians, priests and sisters who come
to the place to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
“It’s a good
service (confession), but it is also tiring when you are there all day, but I
am the only beggar who has time for that,” he laughs. And as he settles into his chair, he adds
that he has never thrown anyone out. “You just have to hope,” assures the
religious who was born to a family of coal miners.
Besides the
confessions, he takes communion to the sick of the barrio and celebrates Mass
in this chapel, known for its celebrations in the German language, and
sometimes also in French, for the Catholic foreigner communities.
“Paí Norberto,”
as some like to call him, says that in the matter of the sacrament of Penance,
one cannot speak of feelings but of a reality: it is God’s pardon, beyond what
“we feel”, when there is repentance and a desire to change, trust in God and
confession of sins, states the German priest, born in 1933 in a city in the
area of Dormund. (Comunicaciones,
Easter 2012)
