This page is dedicated to news about the Founder of Schoenstatt, Father Joseph Kentenich. We discuss the facts surrounding the process of his beatification, always updating the official information. We also have articles that reflect on current events in the light of Father Kentenich’s words and life. This is a place to meet the Founder of Schoenstatt online.
The Schoenstatt Movement commemorated the 55th anniversary of Father Joseph Kentenich’s death with two activities on September 14 and 15, 2023. ” Father Kentenich possessed a fatherly heart full of love, and a filial heart before God the Father,” said Father Eduardo Aguirre, postulator of the cause for the canonization of Father Kentenich.
In the world there are 17 Secretariats dedicated to the Cause of Father Kentenich’s Beatification. With their own particularities, they work together with the Central Secretariat, which has its headquarters in Germany.
The Schoenstatt Family of Ecuador participates in a virtual workshop on the charism and life of Father Kentenich and invites the entire International Family to join them.
The women’s group in Australia holds meetings for training and to cultivate bonds
“They choose Father Kentenich as a model for their own lives”, stated Sister M. Adele, at the end of the 30-year cycle in which she was responsible for Father Joseph Kentenich’s Secretariat. Sister Gisela-Maria Mues has now been given this assignment.
Testimony of Father Clemente Maria Hernandez from the Dominican Republic
On June 5, 1948, Father Kentenich missed his flight from Miami to Chicago, but this unplanned detour led to a transformative journey with the MTA, as he visited the Jesuits in Miami and embarked on a three-month exploration filled with stops, visits, and profound writings capturing the MTA’s glorification in both grand and small ways.
Meditations on the value of the cross for a Christian. Father Kentenich said: “We must have the most heartfelt certainty that God has drawn up a plan, not only a plan for the world, but also a plan for my personal life. Who has conceived this plan? Not only God’s wisdom and omnipotence, but also his love.”
Interview with Sister M. Eileen Johannsen, who witnessed Father Kentenich’s time in Milwaukee.
On January 23, 2023, the day of her 86th birthday, Sister M. Eileen arrived at Schoenstatt. Since then, she has traveled to various places in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, talking about her encounters and experiences with Father Kentenich. Before returning to the USA on March 18, we asked her a few questions.
Our history in Schoenstatt is also marked by the profound suffering that our founder experienced in the concentration camp. After his courageous acceptance of the cross, Father Joseph Kentenich went through years of difficult trials, trusting fully in Divine Providence and in Mary’s loving protection.
About 30 Schoenstatters visited the concentration camp of Dachau, where Father Kentenich was imprisoned by the Nazis for more than three years. It is in that hell that he wrote the Home Song, a poem to the wonders of Paradise, which we are called to create here on Earth.
On November 16 we celebrate Father Kentenich’s birthday. There is no better way of remembering him than through the deepest experiences of his heart, based on an intimate love for Jesus and Mary, which allowed him to trust them blindly in the most difficult moments of his life. His example encourages us to live with a profound faith that Mary will take perfect care of everything in our lives.
