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With new BONI bus: Church strengthens encounters in Ostritz!
On October 28, 2025, the first BONI bus was handed over at the IBZ St. Marienthal to strengthen pastoral work in the diaspora.
With new BONI bus: Church strengthens encounters in Ostritz!
On October 28, 2025, the time had come: As part of a celebratory handover in Paderborn, nine new BONI buses were handed over to various communities and church institutions in Germany. Among the happy recipients was the International Meeting Center (IBZ) St. Marienthal in Ostritz, which was now able to receive its first BONI bus. A warm Monsignor Georg Austen, General Secretary of the Bonifatiuswerk, was present, who personally blessed the vehicle and thus laid the foundation for numerous future activities. The new BUS is not only used for events and planting campaigns, but is also used in work with children, such as Reporting from the Dresden-Meißen diocese explained.
During this handover, a total of eight BONI buses and one caddy were distributed to institutions in various German (arch)dioceses. These vehicles are specifically designed for pastoral work and promote mobility and encounters within faith communities. In the future, the new vehicles will be used in the dioceses of Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden-Meißen, Hildesheim, Osnabrück and Rottenburg-Stuttgart to support children and youth work, senior support as well as educational and encounter work.
A success for the diaspora
The BONI buses are not only a trademark of the Bonifatiuswerk, but also a sign of support for the Catholic communities in German diaspora regions, where the proportion of Catholics is less than 20 percent. A particular plus point: The Bonifatiuswerk covers two thirds of the acquisition costs, which makes financing much easier for many parishes. A total of around 600 BONI buses are currently in use, traveling in the plant's funding areas, including Northern Europe as well as Estonia and Latvia. This information is provided by the good overview Bonifatiuswerk.
Some of the new vehicles are also used in other regions for youth work and to support leisure activities, such as at the Catholic Youth Mecklenburg in Teterow, which uses them to organize children's leisure activities and holiday camps. The parishes of St. Michael in Wolfsburg and Maria - Help of Christians in Wiesmoor also benefit from the new vans.
Bonus buses: More than just transport
The BONI buses are symbolic of the values of the community that the Bonifatiuswerk represents in its work: promoting mobility and encounters. Many of the children and young people reached by the buses are still at the very beginning of their personal faith journey. This step into the future is made easier by the initiative to transport older parishioners to church services and thus enable them to lead an active parish life.
The ceremonial handover of the vehicles was rounded off with a common prayer and a travel blessing, which underlined the spiritual framework of this event. The congregations can look forward to their new vehicles, which will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to pastoral life and strengthening the community. Because as the saying goes? “Being on the road together makes you stronger!”
Shaped by the conviction that each individual is part of a larger whole, this project sets an example for cohesion in the church, as does the reporting on it Diocese of Dresden-Meißen highlights.