Greetings, all! Big things are happening behind the scenes for yours truly and the book on Fr. Viktor's travails in Nazi Germany. Here's a rundown of the latest.

Friends and family from the States to Germany are eagerly awaiting news on the Fr. Viktor project. For the benefit of all, I'll post the latest on this website.

Exciting news—Katherine's recent article on Fr. Viktor's nephew, Fr. Basil Bauer, C.P., was recognized as an "article of interest" by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

Fr. Viktor was not the only notable missionary in our family tree. In 1924, two years after the celebrated Passionist set sail for Germany, his nephew, Fr. Basil Bauer C.P., joined the Passionist mission fields of China. For all who are interested, Katherine has written an essay titled, "The Pennsylvania Passionist Who Became Chinese: Fr. Basil Bauer, C.P.," which appears in the Fall 2015 issue of Gathered Fragments.

It's finally done: the Father Viktor project website has been completely overhauled from the ground-up. Here's a summary of what has changed.

Katherine's historical fiction novel is nearly finished. The working title has changed to The Sower of Black Field. (For the non-German speaking crowd, "Black Field" translates into Schwarzenfeld in German). Katherine is presently finalizing the work, doing some follow-up editing.

2013 is proving to be a busy year for the Fr. Viktor project. In 2012, we were contacted by Dr. Christopher Mauriello, the Chair of History at Salem State University. He is researching case of "forced confrontation," incidents in which American soldiers forced German civilians to disinter and rebury victims of Nazi death marches at the end of WWII. He happened to find this site during a Google search, and has been in contact with Katherine ever since.

Katherine published a fourth piece about the Fr. Viktor project in the Passionist Heritage Newsletter: Working In the Framework: One Researcher's Journey of Faith, International Friendships, and Rejuvenated Hope.

The torch is now passed: we received word that Ed Pancoast, the WWII veteran who first learned of Fr. Viktor's story and brought it to our attention through sheer serendipity, has passed away.

This date marks a full year since the work on the book began. To all visitors who have expressed interest in our project, rest assured that we're still working away on the story! We'll release a few small details: the tentative title of the book will be "Triumph of the Cross," taken from the theme of Fr. Viktor's speech in May 1945 when the Miesberg monastery was re-consecrated.

Greetings to our visitors! Lately we have received numerous emails from people showing deep interest in Father Viktor's story, and several have contributed valuable pictures and stories. Our research is ongoing, though great progress is being made.

At last, we have two long-awaited updates for our visitors. First and foremost, Gary will be delivering a presentation tonight for the Mercer County Genealogical Society in Sharon, P.A. Just in time for this event, Katherine has finished the revised narrative complete with a specially redesigned storyboard.

It's official! We're repeat contributors to the Passionist Heritage. In early June, Katherine composed a follow-up to the July 2004 article titled, "From Pictures to Reality: Finding Father Viktor Koch, C.P." You can read the full text on the Passionist Heritage website.

It's been quite a while since we last posted news, but rest assured that the Father Viktor Project researchers have been making progress behind the scenes. We recently returned from a research trip to Schwarzenfeld, Germany, May 9-16, 2005. Katherine's upcoming article in the Passionist Heritage's 2005 summer edition, From Pictures to Reality: Finding Fr. Viktor Koch, C.P., describes the moving emotional experiences that accompanied our research.

We've successfully achieved publication! In the summer 2004 edition of the Passionist Heritage (Volume 11, Issue 3), Katherine's essay, Reclaiming History; Researching the Untold WWII Story of Father Viktor Koch, C.P., appears as the featured article. The piece describes Gary and Katherine's experiences and noteworthy discoveries while searching the German Foundation Archive holdings. Special thanks to the Passionist congregation for giving us this wonderful opportunity to spead word about the project.

During a long anticipated trip to New York, we visited the Passionist Archives in Union City. N.J., where we found valuable information on Father Viktor. Many thanks to Fr. Rob Carbonneau, C.P., and Anita Lewis, who provided this material. We've recently updated the photo gallery with pictures obtained during our two-day research session.

The story section and acknowledgements have been updated to reflect new information from Mrs. Rita Wittleben, the daughter of Schwarzenfeld's first pharmacist Emil Weiß. In her recent letter, she described Father Viktor's crucial role in establishing the St.Nikolaus Apotheke.

We've updated the story page to reflect recent information obtained from Peter and Elizabeth Bartmann, who are residents and historians in Schwarzenfeld. They helped us discover one remarkable piece of information. When the American commander ordered the townspeople to construct caskets, it is well-known that wood and nails were in short supply. Apparently, children of the town solved half of that problem.

Today is the official launch date for our web site, www.viktorkoch.com. While we have completed an English version, we do hope to eventually have a German version of the site for our friends and visitors across the pond. Keep checking this page for the latest developments on the Father Viktor project, as well as changes to this web site.