Image: Marion Hörmandinger
Exactly 40 years ago today, Ebensee’s pastor Alois Rockenschaub began his service in the saltworks community. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1983, and two days later the Mühlviertler native (St. Leonhard near Freistadt) came to Ebensee as a young chaplain. Two years later he was appointed pastor.
“It wasn’t planned that way”
Rockenschaub is the only priest in the diocese who has dedicated his entire professional life to just one parish. The traces he left behind during this time are correspondingly diverse. His four decades of work included the renovation of the parish church, the development and maintenance of the town twinning with Prato, good communication between the parish and the parish, the renovation of countless other church buildings, the leadership of the parish through the corona pandemic and the Ebensee parish festival, which he organized for the first time a year after taking office and which today is an integral part of Ebensee parish life. Above all, however, Rockenschaub was a faithful pastor and friend of the people of Ebensee.
If someone had told him on September 1, 1983 that he would still be in Ebensee 40 years later, Rockenschaub would have thought it completely impossible. “Especially since we were always instructed during our training to get to know several parishes,” he says. “That was my plan too. But sometimes things don’t turn out as you think. The surprising departure of Pastor Johann Altendorfer was certainly decisive. I was appointed parish administrator in 1985. And when four years later the question arose whether I I agreed with full conviction that I would like to take over the office of pastor of Ebensee.”
He himself draws a positive balance over the four decades. “Of course you can’t always please everyone,” says Rockenschaub. “But I’ve always received thanks and recognition in Ebensee. That’s nice and gives strength.”
The pastor does not consider himself a great theologian, as he says. “I am a practitioner. I stand for joint design and improvement. And above all for togetherness.”
When Rockenschaub thinks of his 40th anniversary today, he might treat himself to a glass of wine. Tomorrow he will toast his 72nd birthday with his sister Elisabeth, who lives at his side as the vicar’s housekeeper. And if he retires in three years’ time as planned, Alois Rockenschaub wants to enjoy his retirement in Ebensee. In the past 40 years he has long since become a true Ebensee resident. (horn/ebra)
Source: Nachrichten
