GROTE, FEDERICO

German Redemptorist leader in Catholic social action in Argentina; b. Munster, Wesphalia, July 16, 1853;d. Buenos Aires, April 30, 1940. Grote studied the humanities at the Gymnasium Paulinum and entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer at the age of 17. As a result of the kulturkampf, he was exiled in 1873, lost his German citizenship, and participated in the Catholic socialist movement. In Luxembourg, he studied philosophy and theology and was ordained in 1877–78. Grote was sent to Ecuador as a missionary in 1879. When transferred to Buenos Aires in 1884, he arrived at a grave time for the Church. Grote joined with José Manuel Estrada, Pedro Goyena, and Emilio Lamarca, outstanding leaders of the Catholic Action movement. To help in this militant work, Grote founded the Convent of San Alfonso in Salta. He went out on missions all over the country, spreading the Argentine Catholic social movement. Grote founded Vincentian conferences in the interior and Catholic workers' groups in Buenos Aires. He gave conferences, organized pilgrimages and workers congresses, and fostered insurance organizations. Grote epitomized the first confrontation of modern social problems by the Argentine Church. With the assistance of Bp. Gregorio Ignacio Romero, he prepared a proposal for Argentine labor legislation. Grote attended the dedication of the statue "Christ of the Andes" and on that occasion gave an invocation in Santiago de Chile. In this invocation, he stressed the idea that peace between the two republics was essentially peace between the workers. He founded the Catholic daily El Pueblo (1900), the Christian Democratic League, the weekly Justicia Social (1907), and El Ahorro, a credit union for all Catholic workers' organizations in the country.

Bibliography: a. sanchez gamarra, Vida del padre Grote, redentorista: Apóstol social cristiano en hispanoamérica (Madrid 1949).

[v. o. cutolo]