International Federation of Schoenstatt Priests
Unity in diversity from its very start
Our Community
Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests in the heart of the Church
The Priests’ Federation is characterized by freedom and generosity. It is in this spirit that the priest of the Federation lives the evangelical counsels and his apostolate in the community of confreres.
14+
Countries
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, India, Peru, Portugal, Switzerland
1966
FOUNDING
On 4 January, the Federation of Priests was founded in Germany with a first founding course “Confundatores Patris”, to which a second course “Consortes Patris” was soon added.
Life’s vocation
A Gift and Charism for the Renewal of the Church
The International Federation of Schoenstatt Priests (ISPB) sees its specific mission to live in cooperation with the other federal and Schoenstatt communities a consistently synodal-federative community culture in the spirit of “prophetic freedom” (Fr. Alejandro Blanco) in order to make the apostolic charism of Schoenstatt according to the vision of the founder Fr. Kentenich fruitful as a gift and charism for the renewal of the Church.
Beginnings
How it all began
The beginnings of the International Federation of Schoenstatt Priests (ISPB) lie in the foundation of the Apostolic Federation in Dortmund-Hörde in 1919. In the 1960s, the diocesan communities of priests were organized in League, Federation and Institute. On December 24, 1965, Father Kentenich, the founder of the Schoenstatt Work, gave the direction to re-establish the Federation of Priests. This took place on 4 January 1966 with juridical independence. It was only from this point onwards that the independent Priests’ Federation also developed in other countries.
In the world
International Constitution
On August 20, 2019, the Priests’ Federation took a historic step and constituted itself internationally. This founding hour was preceded by a process of search of more than ten years, which was lived in the spirit of synodality and federativity at the respective meetings of delegates in various countries and was characterized by cordial openness and fraternal communion.
260 Federation priests from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Cuba, Peru, India, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Germany were represented by 60 confreres who gathered in the Original Shrine for the formal and official foundation of the International Federation of Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests.
Expansion
New horizons
In some countries, the Federation of Priests is flourishing, e.g. in the Dominican Republic (the establishment of an independent regio is planned), and the Federation of Priests in Burundi, which is also on the same path. In India, too, confreres are on their way to becoming a Federation of Priests.
Statutes of the Federation
Spirituality of the Federation and Structure of the ISPB
The preamble to the Statutes of the Federation (adjusted May 31, 2022) states the following:
"The core of its spirituality is the offer of God's covenant to man and his covenant response in the original form of the covenant of love, as it originated and is lived in Schoenstatt" (b). And the Federation of Schoenstatt Priests "has a distinctly federative structure and a distinctly liberal character" (c).
Some of the goals of the Federation of Schoenstatt Priests are to strengthen priests in their personal way of life and vocation according to the spirit of the Evangelical Counsels and the spirituality of Schoenstatt (g). Its task is also to ensure that the Schoenstatt Movement is involved in diocesan pastoral care (h).
Our Mission
Freedom and generosity
Together with the other Federations of the Schoenstatt Work, the Federation of Schoenstatt Priests bears a special responsibility:
- for the unity of the entire family in a stimulating togetherness
- for the spirit of freedom and generosity
- for the exemplary representation of a federation
Multicultural
The focus is on the gospel
In his address on the occasion of the solemn constitution of the International Federation of Priests on 20 August 2019, Fr. Prof. Dr. Alejandro Blanco, la Plata/Argentina, described the specific character of the ISPB, based on the basic intuition of the “Apostolic Federation of Hörde 1919”, as follows:
"The unique and original feature of the Apostolic Federation is that it carries out the evangelizing task – the apostolate – in the form of an international and intercultural network that does not impose any culture – European, Western – in order to spread the Gospel, but allows itself to be enriched by the diverse forms in which the Gospel is inculturated in the different cultures of the world..."
The commitment to spiritual and community life in a spirit of freedom and generosity takes precedence in everything. Therefore, the ISPB has no superiors in the juridical sense.
Contact
Our contacts in the world
Need more information?
Our contacts in the world
The centre of international unity and identity is the "Marienau" and the "Canaan-Patris Shrine"
Priest and Guest house Marienau, Höhrerstr. 86, Zip code 56179, Vallendar, Germany
+49 (0) 261 96262 0
schoenstatt-priesterbund.de
emz@leben-an-der-quelle.de
