mkf. He arrived on Friday evening at the beginning of the Night of the Shrine and placed himself along with his wife in between the youth: Torsten Hartung: reformed head of a car stealing gang that sold them on the black market, convicted murderer, ex-convict, touched personally by God and brought to faith… He had told his story at the ‘Celebration of faith’ in Dietershausen last year, and now he had come to Schönstatt and the Night of the Shrine to tell his story in front of hundreds of teenagers that no life could ever be too broken or too ruined that God cannot bring out great things, vocation, or happiness from it.
You can feel the reflection and providence behind the scenes when Torsten Hartung – a sympathetic, simple, intelligent man in his forties on first-impression, like any person you could meet on a street corner – tells his story about how he went from victim to a perpetrator, from convict to God’s servant. Now convinced and trusting in God, who will take you seriously and who one should trust even more radically in order to experience his overwhelming love, Torsten could talk only for a maximum length of five minutes about weather and politics without mentioning God; he talks about himself and everybody believes him. His witness has the flair of the first Christians’ spirit and their missionary work.
From the victim to the perpetrator
His life started out just like the career of so many young violent offenders -he was a victim of violent parents who earlier were also victims themselves. His parents were atheists, and he had never heard anything about God. He talks drastically about key moments in his childhood, when his natural trust and his sense of justice broke: brutal beatings, lies, suicide threats, and blame from his parents. Sooner or later, the child turns into the class clown and a bully who only feels alive when he is beating somebody up or is being beat up himself. His relationship to his girlfriend falls apart at the expense of him not being able to live relationships. Following this came his first encounters with prison, after that the contact with the Russian mafia and his career as head of a gang that stole cars and sold them afterwards. He acknowledged his path into criminal life and the doors to the criminal world started to open. In Russia he killed a man who was trying to take over his place as head of the gang who had the same name as his father…
The paper with one wish: A life of happiness
“I want a life of happiness,” he wrote on a piece of paper; this was in the San Salvador Cathedral in Spain that he visited with his girlfriend on a trip out of his interest in ancient art. He stumbles upon the prayer answers there, and the “Wish for something” he wishes for this one wish he had. Shortly after this, he was captured and imprisoned. In prison he began a diary. He reviewed his life from victim to perpetrator and acknowledged the fact that he had never met anyone as malicious as himself. A movie about Jesus at Easter touches something in him… and weeks afterwards an inconspicuous, unexpected encounter with the symbol of the cross leads him for the first time in his life to speak to God – to the God he is not even sure even existed: “God, I don’t know if you exist but if you do exist, then give me a new life.” And then, he began to ask God for forgiveness.
You can hear a pin drop that is how quiet the big tent had gotten, as Torsten Hartung went on about his immediate experience of God, about his hearing a voice full of compassion, forgiveness, love and security: “I know”. “That was when the way I had looked at the world crashed,” he told the youth. From that moment on, the completely new component, God, belonged to my life. The other prisoners wondered why he started to glow – just like he was glowing during his testimony.
Baptismal name: Peter
Two years, more encounters with God, intensive Bible study and a catechumen later, he was baptized – his baptismal name being Peter. He chose the Catholic faith because he discovered the continuity of the history from Peter to John Paul II. In the same year, he devoted himself to Mary with the request of her becoming the mother he never had. Raging applause followed his statement: “And I can only tell you, she is wonderful!” Since his release from prison, he has been working in prison ministry: ” I’m allowed to see miracles.” Together with his wife, who he had met in Korea in a predestined way, he is building an aftercare home for released teenage criminals.
The paper, part two
And what about the piece of paper from the San Salvador Cathedral? “The piece of paper fulfills itself every day. I lead a life of happiness. Believe it, God takes us seriously.” The applause and the questions from the audience prove that the witness has landed on fruitful ground. What was with the continuity in your life? Torsten Hartung talked about how he met his wife. The first encounter with God was extraordinary, the path afterwards, the questions about his next steps, about what he is supposed to do, about what God is trying to tell you with certain experiences and concrete encounters, equals in an astonishing way the Kentenich-way of practical faith in divine providence. Is it possible to work through twenty years of imprisonment and such a childhood all alone? Can these wounds ever be healed? Yes, he said. There was help starting through therapy that showed you the way to ask yourself questions according to the key points in life. But the healing came from the Saviour who came into the world. “Jesus is the best therapist. He is the Saviour who came for the sick souls.” The pressing point: how radically do I trust in God? “If I believe that God is omnipotent, my life is without worries.” said Torsten Hartung and he adds: “Father Kentenich said that, didn’t he?”
Start of an exciting day
After the opportunity of attending the celebration of Mass in various Shrines and house chapels, the talk from Torsten Hartung is the start of an exciting day – Saturday, August 21st’s components are introduced briefly at the beginning: Workshops – Torsten Hartung’s was probably overfilled – opportunities to be creative or sporty, as well as time spent in the Original Shrine and in Confession. But the highlight will be the actual Night of the Shrine.
At the beginning, the mayor from Vallendar, Günther Hahn had welcomed the youth and wished them a great time. The teenagers on hand had thanked him for his support during the preparations and arrangement of this Night of the Shrine.
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