Luciana Loyola

October 23, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

A Day of Hope: Our Covenant 2020

A Warm Celebration from the Original Shrine.

Written by: Luciana Loyola P.

Pilgerkirche - Schoenstatt International.

Days before October 18th, the weather reports had been alerting us of possible rain and winds; already with the distancing measures due to the pandemic, it was feared that it would be a not very warm celebration. The great concern to offer a program full of spirituality was evident, especially in these times of so much adversity.

Against all odds and with the help of our MTA, a day of celebration for the foundation of Schoenstatt was held free of rain with special conferences, commemorative Masses, and the participation of people from different regions of Germany, some who sealed the Covenant of Love in the Original Shrine.

At the beginning of the day, families, youth, children, and members of the different Schoenstatt branches arrived at the Original Shrine to celebrate the 106th anniversary of the foundation. Applying security measures, about 250 people participated in the German-English Mass celebrated by Father Ludwig Güthlein, in which a special dedication was made to the theme of the day, Mary, hope for all. Flags from different countries made a formal entrance into the Pilgrims’ Church representing the internationality of Schoenstatt and giving way to the auxiliary image of the Pilgrim Mother.

Family receiving a blessing from Fr. Antonio Bracht at the Original Shrine - Schoenstatt International.

Simultaneously, in another corner of the valley, 20 members of the Portuguese-speaking community had moments of prayer and reflections on the Covenant of Love, led by their advisor, Sister Isabel of Brazil. Two young couples plus 11 members of the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign gave their Yes to the exchange of hearts with the Mother Thrice Admirable in the Covenant of Love. During the warm ceremony, which was celebrated by Father Antonio Bracht, Member of the General Council of the Schoenstatt Fathers, the children also made a special consecration to the Blessed Mother in which each one received a special medal.

“This is a great joy, we are very happy to be able to consecrate our marriage and our Benjamin to Mary” – this is how Mateus Cançado Moura and Anneliese Neumann described it; they are a Brazilian couple who have been living in Germany for 4 years and traveled from Munich with their 5-month-old son to Schoenstatt.

Soon after, the secretariat of hispanic language, led by Sister Carolina, offered more than 60 people a moment of singing and prayer. With the participation of Father Pablo Pol, Rector of the Original Shrine, 17 people sealed their Covenant of Love, 10 children were consecrated to our Blessed Mother and 4 images of the Pilgrim MTA were blessed and sent out.

“It was a very beautiful experience! We came with a group from the Catholic mission from Hannover to be able to consecrate our children to the Virgin” commented Sharon Jiménez Delgado, from Costa Rica who has been living in Germany for 13 years with her daughter Maria.

At this time of day, a Spanish-Portuguese Mass was celebrated in in the Pilgrims’ Church along with all the families who traveled to Schoenstatt. During the homily, Father Antonio Bracht made a brief reflection referring to the context of the pandemic, about how for some people, hope is the vaccine while for others the vaccine is hope, offering words of comfort and encouragement regarding the circumstances in which we are currently living. He concluded by saying “truly, our hope is Mary!”

Pilgrim signing the Covenant book - Schoenstatt International.

And this is how the afternoon was going. Each minute brought us closer to the exact moment when Father Kentenich, from the small chapel in Vallendar, decided to seal the first Covenant of Love.

With great care for the health and safety of all, more than 430 visitors were able to participate in the ceremony which was translated into 4 languages and transmitted through the internet by official channels. It is good for us to be here, let us build three tents! Without a doubt these words are a symbol of shelter which during this rite of renewal solidified our commitment to the Shrine and our dedication to the Mother Thrice Admirable. The atmosphere was spiritual and full of joy. The celebration concluded with the traditional burning of the offerings to the contributions to the Capital of Grace and several songs to our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt.

You can access to the video of this event through this link: www.bit.ly/sch106

October 20, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

The passing to the eternal Schoenstatt of Father José Antonio Arbulú Atoche “Toño

The Schoenstatt Family - Peru, bid farewell to Father José Antonio Arbulú Atoche. Father Toño, as he was known by everyone, was the founder of the Schoenstatt Family in Callao, a great promoter of Schoenstatt in Peru and a member of the first course of Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests in Peru.

By: Paola Andrea Aristizábal Giraldo

Father Toño is Our Father

Father Toño was born in Lima, but he defined himself as a Chalaco – coming from Callao – from the heart, which made his dedication to this community beyond measure. He was characterized by a deep love for Mary, since he chose her as his mother and protector from a very young age, and had a deep love for God and the Church, thus becoming a living testimony of love, dedication and obedience, for those who knew him.

He was ordained a priest by Saint John Paul II during his pastoral visit to Peru in 1985, which inspired his reflections and liturgies. He always lived his priesthood in the image of Jesus Christ and was inspired by Father Kentenich, because it was his spirituality that helped him to be faithful to his mission. At some point he mentioned: “In the pursuit of enjoying spirituality, I found it in Schoenstatt, which has helped me a lot in supporting my vocation, especially finding in Mary the mother and spiritual master of my being”.

He was always characterized by being a father to everyone, by his self-giving, his humor and the special attachment he felt for each one of those who approached him. In the parishes where he exercised his ministry, he always carried the Schoenstatt movement as a banner, respecting and valuing the different spiritualities that exist in the church, a trait that always left its mark, since he always made them see in him a father who loved the Church.

Encounter with Schoenstatt

Between the years 1980 and 1982, Father Toño was studying theology in Spain and it was there that he learned about Schoenstatt’s pedagogy through the now Schoenstatt Father Fernando Baeza, whom Father Toño visited in 1988 in Bellavista, Chile. There the real bond to the Shrine and to Schoenstatt was generated. He was amazed to know that he, as a diocesan priest, could have a place within the structure of the movement, as he said: “I was fascinated to find a twig in the little tree for me”.

He returned to Peru with his heart aflame for this great mission, which took on meaning when at the end of that same year Fr. Sidney Fones visited him and invited him to be the founder of Schoenstatt in Callao, a mission he assumed on December 8, 1988. In 1990 he returned to Chile to seal his Covenant of Love and then, along with other priests, he formed the founding course of the Federation of Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests of Peru.

The mission continues

In his last days, he did not stop thinking about his spiritual children, calling them even from the clinic, worrying about keeping the connection with them always and taking advantage of those last moments to say “thank you”. Although Father Toño’s absence is hard for the family in Peru, the call is to be always faithful to the mission, just as he was, who despite his health condition, was always willing to give himself for his family until the end.

As an international Schoenstatt family we unite in prayer for the soul of a Father, who knew how to be the face of Christ and the servant of Schoenstatt for the world of today.

October 18, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

Covenant of Fraternity

This year, the small and invisible virus Covid 19, has created a world-wide bond that neither politicians nor industrialists, neither great thinkers nor church leaders could have created.
We are one big family. The virus takes the form of a mirror in front of people: Who are you? What is the dignity of the human being? Who is your neighbor?

By: Fr. Heinrich Walter

We celebrate the founding of Schoenstatt in this context. We will renew the Covenant of Love. We will do so in 2020 as a response to the challenges of this time. In this process, we hear the voice of the Pope who addresses humanity as “fratelli tutti”. In February 2019 he signed a document on human brotherhood with the great Imam of Cairo, Ahmad Mohammed Al-Tayeb. It describes the goal of peaceful coexistence in the world. Dignity and brotherhood among peoples is based on faith in one God as the father of humanity.

In the new encyclical “fratelli tutti” the Pope develops this approach. It is about how we live brotherhood in a free society. This is reflected in how we treat the weakest members of society. The Pope reminds us of the biblical story about the Good Samaritan: Who is my neighbor and how do I treat him?

We are all part of humanity, our identity arising from social and cultural relations. But this needs to be lived out daily through our actions, which Pope Francis describes with four verbs: welcome, protect, promote, and integrate. No doubt his gaze is directed at all types of migrants, but not only at them. The four verbs can motivate us through the alliance, in the daily life of the new community that we want to form.

This effort and motivation can be the melody that accompanies us during the day of the alliance. The meaning of all historical dynamics is found for us in the covenant with God. Since we do not know what tomorrow will bring and what our life will be like the day after tomorrow, this covenant gives us strength and security, a home and protection.

This year, the renewal of the covenant has a great social dimension because of the pandemic. In the Shrine we experience again and again the transforming power of love that connects us to many people. We also think about the people we hear or read about, because that destiny touches us. Our solidarity is expressed in small gestures of charity, prayer, mutual support and renunciation.

We collect these contributions so that the climate around us changes, so that fraternity grows in our society. Mary strengthened the spirit of brotherhood among the disciples in the Cenacle. In many paintings, throughout the centuries, she is represented as the woman and mother of the brotherhood. This may be our current plea on the day of the foundation in the year of the pandemic: Educate us in the spirit of brotherly care for others!

October 17, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

To the Schoenstatt Family

A letter from the General Presidium on the Covenant Day

Dear Schoenstatt Family,

On this 18th of October, we wish you, throughout the world, many blessings on this Covenant day.

We celebrate our founding day and renew our Covenant of Love with Mary, especially united in the Original Shrine and with all of the daughter Shrines of the world. This year, we renew our Covenant of Love in a very special context.

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly shaken the entire world and has brought grave consequences for all people, in all aspects of life: health, economic, social, and psychological. Time and time again we have wondered what God is saying to us through this and how we are responding in the Covenant of Love. In these last months, we have experienced again the value of personal bonds and we have learned to cultivate them through new technological means. We have rediscovered the importance of the family and of the home. Especially for our spiritual life, we are much more conscious of the importance of the Home Shrine, prayer as a family, etc. And we have experienced the challenge of living our Covenant in solidarity with many people who are suffering. It is in these circumstances that we crown Mary as the Queen of our physical and spiritual health.

Pope Francis published “Fratelli tutti,” his encyclical which calls us to give our concrete support to the “universal fraternity and social friendship” among peoples, cultures, classes, and nations, through the Covenant of Love and through covenant culture. Pope Francis speaks of a “pedagogy of fraternity.”

The debate around Father Kentenich, which ignited at the beginning of July, has awakened a great interest to more intensely study our Founder – his person, his life, and his charism – to more profoundly understand him and to make him known. This is also part of the context in which we renew our Covenant of Love this year. In the framework of the process of beatification, the diocese of Trier, which is responsible for the cause, has announced the creation of a new historical commission. Many people of our communities are studying these issues in depth, including the Media Commission of Communication – led by the International Presidium – and their information team. Even other historians outside of Schoenstatt are also investigating the history of our founder.

The International Presidium, which gathered some days ago for their annual conference at the Josef-Kentenich-Hof in Hillscheid, Germany, has created an International Investigation Group to thoroughly address these issues. Prof. Alejandro Blanco, Secretary General of the International Federation of Priests, coordinates this interdisciplinary investigation team which includes men and women of our different communities and countries.

The postulator for the cause of Fr. Kentenich, Fr. Eduardo Aguirre, has already been able to work for three weeks in the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, to see and to study the documents of the Holy See of that time, which recently have been made accessible for the period up until 1958. It will take some time for these documents to be properly evaluated. In any case, nothing has been found thus far that calls our conviction into question about the person, life, and mission of Father Kentenich.

We wish you all a felicitous and fruitful celebration of the 18th of October. May the Covenant of Love become more and more a source of life and mission for a Schoenstatt that goes out to the peripheries for a world in which we can all live as brothers and sisters as one Family.

In the name of the International Presidium

Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio

October 15, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

Schoenstatt Movement establishes International Research Group

By: Heinrich Brehm, Media Commission

This summer, the General Presidium of the International Schoenstatt Work established an international research group intended to ensure a coordinated, joint investigation of key themes and processes in the history of Schoenstatt that led to the exile of Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, in Milwaukee. The members of the research group were officially appointed at the Presidium meeting on October 12, 2020.

The goal is to develop a critical edition of various texts and ways of acting of Father Joseph Kentenich in keeping with the present status of scholarly discussion.

In doing so, the pastoral, psychological, and pedagogical theory and practice which he developed during his time and which are rooted in Tradition, theology, and Christian anthropology will be taken into account. The research group, whose work is initially on a two-year timetable, will identify the topics in question and agree on a common approach to handling them.

Fr. Alejandro Blanco, Argentina, Director of the International Schoenstatt Federation of Diocesan Priests, is responsible for the coordination of this work and is the liaison between the research group and the General Presidium of Schoenstatt.

The other twelve members of the research group come from five different countries, and almost all of them belong to one of the core communities of the Schoenstatt Movement:

Mónica Asprella and Rodolfo Concia, Institute of Schoenstatt Families, Argentina,
Manfred Gerwing, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Germany,
Joachim Söder, Joseph Kentenich Institute, Germany,
Alicja Kostka, Schoenstatt Women’s Federation, Poland,
Sr. Virginia Perera, Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, Argentina,
Myriam de Soto Falcó, Institute of the Ladies of Schoenstatt, Spain,
Fernando Alliende Luco, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Chile,
Ignacio Serrano del Pozo, Schoenstatt Men’s Federation, Chile,
Fr. Raúl Espina, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile,
Fr. Patricio Moore, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile.
Daniel Jany (Schönstatt-Priesterbund, Argentinien)

If necessary, additional persons from the various countries can be invited to research or work on individual topics.