Ralph M. Wiltgen

Ralph Michael Wiltgen (born 17 December 1921, Evanston, Illinois, USA, died 6 December 2007^[1]) was an American Catholic priest, missionary and journalist specially famous for writing the book "The Rhine flows into the Tiber", an account of the Second Vatican Council.

Life

Born in Chicago in 1921 he became a Divine Word Missionary in 1938, he received Holy Orders twelve years later. Apart from "The Rhine flows into the Tiber" he wrote other books about the Catholic Church as "The Religious Life Defined", "Founding of the Roman Catholic Church in Oceania, 1825-50" and "Gold Coast Mission History". During the Second Vatican Council he was in Rome. Given the poor performance by Vatican Press Office he started his own office called "Divine Word News Service" that had 3100 subscribers in 108 countries. He set press conferences with several bishops. He received pressures to stop doing his works but at the same time other bishops encouraged him to continue. He died in 2007.^[2]

The Rhine flows into the Tiber

He is specially famous because of his account of the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council.^[3] He holds the theory that the council was a theological dispute that pitted the churches of the countries where the Rhine flows (Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium, which were more liberal), against other churches (Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, English-speaking and Italian, which were more traditionalist). He took the name of the book from a phrase by 2nd century Roman writer Juvenal "It seems as if the Orontes flows into the Tiber", complaining of too much cultural influence from Syria into Roma. The book received the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur in 1966 by later cardinal Terence Cooke though many members of the church appeared under a grim light.^[4]

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