News

February 21, 2021 By Sr. M. Cacilda Becker

Father Opeka of “Akamasoa” nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Lazarist missionary, Fr. Pedro Opeka has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work among the poor in Madagascar.

By Lisa Zengarini
February 22, 2021

The Argentinian-Slovenian Lazarist missionary Father Pedro Opeka and his humanitarian association “Akamasoa” (“City of Friendship”) have been nominated for the Peace Nobel Prize by the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša. The nomination was announced on January 31st on the official website of the Slovenian government.

According to the Prime Minister, the Akamasoa Community – which father Opeka founded over 30 years ago and which Pope Francis visited in September 2019 during his Apostolic Journey to Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius – has given an outstanding contribution to “social and human development” in Madagascar, helping it to achieve the 2030 UN goals for sustainable development. Janša has also remembered the former Malagasy President Hery Rajaonarimampianina as saying that father Opeka “is a living beacon of hope and faith in the fight against poverty”.

In the communiqué, the Slovenian Government points out that the humanitarian work of the Argentinian-born missionary and his collaborators in Madagascar has attracted public attention and support across the world and is an inspiration in the fight against poverty, marginalization and social injustice.

Born in 1948 in Argentina to Slovenian refugee parents, Father Opeka started working for the poor at a young age when he traveled to various countries. After entering the Congregation of the Mission (also known as Lazarists or Vincentians), he became a priest in 1975 and subsequently transferred to Madagascar. In 1989, because of his success with young people and his impressive high qualifications and knowledge of languages, his superiors appointed him director of a Vincentian theological seminary in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, where he soon noticed the extreme poverty in the slums of the city and discovered the human degradation of the “garbage people ” scavenging the waste hills to find something to eat or to sell. He thus convinced a group of them to leave the slums and improve their lot by becoming farmers, teaching them masonry skills, which he had learned as a young boy from his father, so they could build their own homes. The idea was to give these people a house, a decent job and an education. Since then the project has grown by leaps and bounds, offering housing, work, education and health services to thousands of poor Malgasies with the support of many international donors and friends of the association.

During his visit to the Akamasoa City of Friendship, on September 8, 2019, Pope Francis remarked that at its foundations “is a living faith translated into concrete actions capable of ‘moving mountains’” and that its success shows “that poverty is not inevitable”.

Font: www.vaticanews.va

February 19, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

The Cultural Struggle for the “Father”

The Cultural Struggle for the "Father"

PressOffice Schoenstatt International
19. February 2021

There is no doubt that Alexander Mitscherlich’s book “On the Road to a Fatherless Society”, which was published in in its first edition in Munich in 1963, represents the signature of a long social process that reached a peak in the mid-1960s. The authority of father figures in private and public spheres was visibly wearing thin/ or: was increasingly exhausted. A new era for the legitimization of authority and the interaction of the sexes was ushered in.

How did this come about?

Cheerful young family having breakfast at home.

Church in Transition

The Church was and is involved in this process of change. She was and is characterized, so to speak, by a father structure. The title Father is associated with a great wealth of power, which refers to the people entrusted to him: for the “Holy Father” the universal Church, for the bishops the dioceses (at consecration rituals the bishop is addressed with “venerable father”), for the pastor the parish. The recent disputes in the context of pastoral and synodal processes show how much this principle still applies and is questioned at the same time.

The following event, which falls precisely at the time of Father Kentenich’s conflicts with the Church, shows the imprint of the ecclesiastical image of the Father/ or: shows what influence the Church’s image of the father had/, in this case of the Father in the Family. In 1953, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany forced the abolition of the legal figure of the male head of the family. The German bishops reacted with protest because they saw the God given order of being undermined.

Emancipation of men and women

Father Kentenich and the Development of the Father Image

It is interesting to note that Joseph Kentenich’s personal development as a child who had to grow up without a father, as a student, as a priest and founder of Schoenstatt communities, ran parallel to the indicated social development of the father image.

Father Kentenich took up these developments with great sensitivity until his death in 1968. He did so according to his faith filled principle that in crises God wants to draw particular attention to certain values in light of the signs of the times. In concrete terms, this means that parallel to the dismantling of the traditional image of the father, he tried to create a new image of the father, which was to be the model, both for the Schoenstatt communities he founded, as well as for families, and for the Church.

Father Kentenich was initially guided by old-proven ideas with regard to the families. He understood the father in the family as the figure and institution toward whom everything converged in the sense of ultimate responsibility. Thus, he also had the idea of a hierarchical image of marriage and family. It was not until the 1950s that he saw the image of a partnership marriage gain influence. He was open to this development and recommended to wait and see which image would eventually prevail.

Fatherhood: Loving and Caring Accompaniment

It is precisely this recommendation, however, that makes it clear that the basic category of the father image for Father Kentenich was not first of all the external structure, but the loving and caring accompaniment and the resulting “natural authority” of the father. Love had the absolute primacy for him.

This vigilance of Father Kentenich for further developments in general and the development of the image of the family, the father, and the mother in particular, makes it clear that he held the idea of engaging in new processes of transformation. In another context, he took the view of the movement’s ability to perceive social and ecclesial processes and to interpret them in the light of faith. He held the view:

“What someone used to do alone in the past, you have to do afterwards as a team. So the question is: what currents are there now? If you can’t or don’t do that, then you’ll have a wooden or stone society.” (1964)

“It may also be taken for granted that a movement of renewal of the designated magnitude must be thrown into the middle of all spiritual currents of time in the world and Church. It must be stirred and shaken, it must come to terms with them, it must grow from them, it must absorb what is valuable and overcome and strip away what is questionable.” (1952)

Proclaiming this Image in Word and Deed

Father Kentenich tried to plant this image of the father in various ways in the Schoenstatt Movement. As the first example we mention how he made himself available to individuals and to individual communities as a fatherly/ or paternal companion. The aim for him was to inspire people and communities, not to maintain the upper hand over the different life processes according to a hierarchical structural model. His principle of “freedom as much as possible, bonds as few as necessary, cultivation of the spirit as much as possible” relied less on obedience to a father figure, than on inspiration and freedom.

Because of the obvious need for a loving father for all communities of life, he wanted his communities to see themselves as families. The successful “natural family” was the model for the loving care of the members towards each other. However, the emphasis on a new image of the father should not be understood in the sense of a primacy of the father over the mother. Mothers have always been more likely associated with the qualities of loving and merciful affection and appreciation. In this regard there was a clear deficit and an overlay with regard to the fathers due to authoritarian behavior. Here, Father Kentenich saw an urgent need for development.

The Father Image Open to Transparency

For Father Kentenich, a decisive task of the figure of the Father in the various forms was his character of transparency. A father should always be understood as one who refers to God as the loving father of humankind. With this task of being a father, he did not connect a claim to power or of disposing, as was often the case in tradition. He was much more concerned with an inner authority that could provide orientation and also challenge to make one’s own decisions and personal growth. All with paternal duties are to represent God as a loving father. And this applied to paternal tasks in families, in “family-like” communities, but also to parishes, dioceses and the entire church, who should see herself as a “familia Dei.”

Thus, being a father in the various communities of life was not an instrument of domination for Father Kentenich but an important opportunity to lead people to a relationship with God marked by love and freedom. This makes people capable of authentically saying “Our Father in heaven.”

Further Development of Image of the Father

It must be taken into account that a reshaping of the image of authority and of the father in society and the Church will take a long time. The first contours are beginning to appear. For example, the image of the man as father can only be formulated in the reciprocal relationship to the image of the woman as mother. The respective profiling of both images is then less about differences than about convergences. In this context, for example, is it not a remarkable process that political parties try to occupy their top positions with a woman and a man together? As in other events, does this perhaps indicate a sign of cultural history that wants to be taken seriously in society and in the Church? It will be a real challenge to perceive and accept the signs of the times and to interpret them from faith in God’s guidance.

Contributions to a More Comprehensive Picture in the Causa Kentenich

In cooperation with various persons from the Schoenstatt Movement, topics are being researched on behalf of the General Presidium of the International Schoenstatt Work which concern Father Joseph Kentenich, the founder of the Movement, and which are currently examined. This is done on the basis of the respective current state of knowledge available in the accessible documents and writings. The results of the research and conversations can be read in articles related to each topic.

Press Office Schoenstatt International

The Media Commission is responsible for articles signed by the Schoenstatt International Press Office.

The texts come from different groups of authors: from the Media Commission, Prof. Dr. Hubertus Brantzen, Fr. Heinrich Hug, Prof. Dr. Joachim Söder, Sr. Dr. M. Nurit Stosiek, or from research carried out by other private persons.

February 17, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

Pope celebrates Ash Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica

Pope celebrates Ash Wednesday in St. Peter's Basilica

Lent will feature four homilies by Cardinal Cantalamesa on a theme of great importance

Rosario Lira, based on information published on Vatican.news
17.02.2021

Today, Wednesday, February 17, marks the beginning of Lent. The Holy See Press Office informed that at 9:30 a.m., Italian time, Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Mass with the Imposition of Ashes on the Altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, with the limited participation of faithful chosen according to the modalities used in recent months, in respect of the protection measures provided for.

Who do they say I am?

The Prefecture of the Papal Household announced that the 2021 Lenten sermons will be given by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household, the recently consecrated cardinal, Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap. The theme is “Who do they say that I am?”, inspired by the question Jesus asks his disciples, which is answered by Simon’s profession of faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

Jesus expresses that this answer was revealed to Simon by the Father, and then he gives him the name of Peter, the rock on which Jesus will build his Church, with Peter as its first pope.

A theme that responds to the voices of the times

This theme for Lent is of great importance at a time when divisions are arising in the Church. We observe how some preachers, influential people and institutions, including some Catholic media, almost systematically place one idea above a spirit of unity in the Pope; they take one or two important values that are absolutized, harshly criticizing those who do not adhere to their position, including the Pope himself, accusing him with very strong epithets.

Pope Francis refers to these deviations from the spirit of unity to which Jesus calls us, in the second chapter of the apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate, On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World”, where he describes in detail the characteristics of “contemporary gnosticism” and “contemporary pelagianism”.

Dates of the four sermons

The sermons will take place on Fridays during Lent: February 26, February 5, March 12 and 26, at 9:00 a.m., in the presence of the Holy Father, cardinals, bishops, Vatican prelates, employees of the Roman Curia and others.

We believe that it is especially important in these times to listen to these talks and share them with others, since they will invite us to deepen the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, and at the same time motivate us to feel united as a Church, closer to Pope Francis, to his ministry, and therefore to Jesus, who calls us to renew our hearts.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2021

February 5, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

In the Clutches of the Holy Office

In order to evaluate the events that eventually led to Father Joseph Kentenich's exile, it is important to take a closer look at the position and functioning of the "Holy Office."

29. December 2020.
Press Office Schoenstatt International

As the supreme guardian of the faith of the Catholic Church, the institution had an exceptional position in the tradition of the “Holy Inquisition” as well as outstanding, even unrestricted rights to judge and, if necessary, condemn life and faith processes in the Church.

The institution of the Holy Office

The Position of the Holy Office

The “Holy Office” was the most important of all the Congregations and had a primary authority. It did not have to explain itself or justify its actions to anyone. Its instructions were to be followed absolutely. Thus, procedures remained non-transparent and incomprehensible to outsiders. For those accused before the Holy Office, there was no protection against possible injustice. The good of the church as a whole took precedence over the good of the individual. In this regard, the congregation alone could determine what did and did not serve the common good of the Church in each case. The term “holy” in the name of the authority already signaled inviolability.

In concrete terms, this meant that anyone who was accused before the Holy Office generally had no possibility of taking a stand or defending himself. Disagreeable theologians had their teaching faculties revoked. “Being under the Holy Office” was tantamount to ecclesiastical ostracism. To this end, everything was usually done in great secrecy.

The Causa Kentenich at the Holy Office

The Causa Kentenich was in the hands of the “Holy Office” in the 1950s. Father Kentenich, however, was apparently not very familiar with the workings of this institution. At a lecture in Münster in 1966 he confessed: “Actually I was a novice in all the methods that were common in Rome. I had always thought they were as eager to ascertain the truth as I personally had always been.”

Therefore, the fact that Father Kentenich contradicted the ecclesiastical authority in his request, had to have corresponding consequences. But he was not the only one to suffer the full harshness of the proceedings. When Father Adalbert Turowski, General of the Pallottine Fathers until 1953, wanted to do defend Father Kentenich at the “Holy Office,” it had harsh consequences for him. He expressed that no one should be condemned without a defense. At the following General Chapter of the Pallottines, at which his re-election as Superior General was pending, the “Holy Office” intervened and in a letter declared Turowski as a persona non grata and thus ineligible.

In the aforementioned 1966 lecture, Father quoted Cardinal Lavitrano, the Prefect of the Congregation for Religious and a friend of the Schoenstatt Movement, to illustrate the approach of the authorities: “If I had known how the law is dealt with in Rome, I would never have accepted the post as Prefect of the Congregation for Religious.” And further in that talk, Father confessed, “[I] knew – I had experienced this on my world travels – how even the highest ecclesiastical authorities trembled when the Holy Office spoke.”

The theologian Hans Küng, himself condemned, describes the “system” of the “Holy Office” thus: “Only in the case of more well-known victims does one hear something in public. Certainly, no one is physically burned today, but are psychologically and professionally destroyed, wherever necessary for the ‘good of the church’. … No less serious than the public condemnation of the few, which is resorted to only in the case of great public resonance, is the secret harassment of the innumerable, who are called to ‘order’ through a bishop or religious superior, and under certain circumstances are unceremoniously silenced deposed, transferred, placed under special censorship, or banned from publication and speech. On such occasions, the official letter of the Sanctum Officium (or of another Roman Congregation) is usually not handed to the accused by his own superior, but at best is read aloud, so that the person being reprimanded has as little evidence in his hands as possible.”

The Reform of the Holy Office

It was not until the Second Vatican Council that the supremacy of the Holy Office was publicly denounced. In the Council Hall on November 8, 1963, Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne, in front of more than 2,000 bishops and to the applause of the Council participants, broke the wall of silence by publicly denouncing the Holy Office headed by Cardinal Ottaviani. It had done serious damage to the Church and offered “a nuisance to non-Catholics.” Frings said, among other things: The Office – the successor to the medieval Inquisition – accuses and condemns orthodox scholars without lending them or their bishops a hearing. Theological books are banned without the author being told why. The cardinal demanded that no one should be condemned in the future without he and his bishop being heard. Furthermore, no one should be subjected to a sanction without having had the opportunity to make amends for his errors.

Pope Paul VI initiated the required reform toward the end of the Council. On December 7, 1965, in the motu proprio Integrae servandae, he reordered the tasks and structure of the congregation.

Contributions to a More Comprehensive Picture in the Causa Kentenich

Press Office Schoenstatt International

The Media Commission is responsible for articles signed by the Schoenstatt International Press Office.

It is composed of Sr. M. Cacilda Becker and Fr. Heinrich Walter, International Coordination of the Schoenstatt Movement; Sr. Dr. M. Lisianne Braunbeck, General Council of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary; Heinrich Brehm, Schoenstatt Press Office, Germany; Michael Defrancesco, Schoenstatt Family Federation; Fr. Ludwig Güthlein, Director of the German Schoenstatt Movement; Dr. Gertrud Pollak, General Superior of the Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt and Sr. M. Veronika Riechel, Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. The texts come from different groups of authors: from the Media Commission, Prof. Dr. Hubertus Brantzen, Fr. Heinrich Hug, Prof. Dr. Joachim Söder, Sr. Dr. M. Nurit Stosiek, or from research carried out by other private persons.

February 5, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

Candlemas – more relevant today than ever!

The celebration of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and its importance for Schoenstatt

On February 2, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple worldwide. Formerly it was called the Candlemas. What is the importance of this feast for Schoenstatt?

Claudia Brehm
2. February 2021

In the Temple, the presentation and prophecy of Simeon

Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple, to consecrate their first born to God, as was the custom at that time. Simeon and Anna, two very old people, who had spent all their life in prayer in the Temple, recognized Jesus as the Son of God and as the Messiah and they praised God for his gift to all people. Simeon prophesied to Mary that her son was destined for the rising and fall of many and that a sword would pierce her own heart, too.

How could Mary continue with her life after such a prophecy? The previous reference to the feast day as Candlemas indicates that she looks towards Jesus, the Light; that she lives from day to day – not in constant fear of what tomorrow may bring, when the sword strikes her. She gratefully contemplates what she has, sees and experiences today. She anchors her life in the heart of God, unperturbed by the storms around her. She has experienced: I am sheltered.

What does this teach us in terms of dealing with the pandemic?

In the concentration camp

Change of scene: Koblenz, 1942. Father Kentenich was imprisoned in September 1941, first for four weeks in a tiny, dark and airless bunker. After that he was moved to a prison. The way he radiated his total lack of anxiety and being sheltered by God impressed his fellow prisoners, as well as the prison guards. Since everything seemed to indicate that he would be transferred to a concentration camp, the Schoenstatt family tried to avoid it. They nearly succeeded. To have a chance of not going to the camp, all he had to do was sign to be examined a second time by a doctor who would declare him unfit for the concentration camp due to his long-standing lung condition.

After a long struggle, on the morning of January 20, 1942 he felt, when he secretly celebrated Holy Mass, that he should not undertake anything of his own accord. “Our priests need to take the Inscription seriously … then I will be free again“, he wrote to Father Menningen. In the weeks that followed, he wavered between hoping to be set free and preparing himself for going to the concentration camp. On February 2, the feast of Candlemas, he sensed that he would be released due to all the sacrifices and prayers made by the Schoenstatt family.

Hence, on this feast day, he composed the Hymn of Thanksgiving, that begins with „The chains have fallen!”. In stanza six it says:

“so that new men and women arise
who are, like Christ,
both free and firm on earth,
in joy and in sorrow,
interweaving with him alone
the striving of their hearts…“

(Heavenwards 617,618)

Understanding the message

Although he was not set free, on the same day, a decision was made by the Gestapo, the State Secret Police, to send him to the Dachau concentration camp, rather than Mauthausen. This entire process is called in Schoenstatt the Candlemas vision. Since the end of the 1940s the concept of the Candlemas vision includes the intention for Schoenstatt’s spirituality to be understood by the members of the Movement, as well as the bishops and the Church.

And today?

Thanks to this sign, the feast day of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, or Candlemas, becomes significant. Will all the questions regarding the father and founder of the family eventually lead to a better and deeper understanding of Schoenstatt’s spirituality by its members, and thereby become fruitful not only in their own lives but also in the lives of their fellow human beings? Will this facilitate for the bishops and the Church a better insight into Schoenstatt’s spirituality and thereby find new ways of pastoral care? It’s up to us to make this a reality! Mary’s attitude in Temple, as well as Father Kentenich’s total surrender in prison to the will of God, gives us many practical hints for our own personal Candlemas vision!