For the last six years, Patricia and José Antonio (Pepo) Köstner have been the General Superiors of the Schoenstatt Family Institute. The Argentinean couple was elected and assumed this mission at the General Chapter of 2018, and their term of office now comes to an end in 2024. They are succeeded in this task this year by the Spaniards Rafael and Cristina Muñoz, from Barcelona (read interview here).
Today, Pepo and Patricia share their experiences of these past years, a time marked by countless challenges and graces.
What can you tell us about the last six years of your mission in the global community?
They have been difficult years, with multiple challenges, but without a doubt, full of blessings. In spite of the pandemic, we have been able to make contact with almost all of our communities and families personally; we were able to participate in congresses about the family both in person and online; we have also deepened our contact with other communities and with different Schoenstatt groups, especially within the International Presidency, where we have been members for the last six years, working very intensely, side by side, especially during the time of the accusations against our Father and Founder. There we have also been able to experience being a family in the spirit of COR UNUM IN PATRE.
What has left its mark on you the most during these years?
We cannot say that there was something specific that marked us. What we are sure of is that we are not the same now as we were six years ago when we started. We have learned, grown and matured a lot, and we were able to reaffirm our vocation of being and becoming a family wherever God wants us to be.
We have matured in the conviction that our Father was very prophetic in listening to the voice of Divine Providence inviting him to found in Dachau a community of consecrated couples, whose mission was to embody the ideal of the Holy Family of Nazareth for today’s times, and thus help to build a new social order through the Christian renewal of marriage and the family. At a time when everything points to the destruction of the family, we are called to be signs of contradiction. A great mission, a great challenge!
You have faced a challenging period, marked by internal and external crises, such as the coronavirus pandemic and the questioning of the Kentenich Cause. What lessons have you learned from these times?
Undoubtedly, in this period we have been shaken by three great earthquakes, which have moved the floor of our certainties and have invited us to place all our filial trust in the God of Life, who always has a loving plan behind every event:
- A health earthquake: the Covid-19 pandemic.
- A spiritual earthquake: the accusations against our Father
- A geopolitical earthquake: the two wars, one triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the other by Hamas’ attack on Israel.
At first glance, the pandemic could have caused a debacle for the life of our community in terms of the possible loss of contact due to the confinement of COVID, but in the end it had a creative outcome. Divine Providence allowed us to grow, through cybernetic means, in an awareness of internationality that no one had imagined. The number of meetings among all the groups and guilds of our free and official communities has also grown. In some partial communities, the annual retreats were attended by almost 100% of their members.
A further creative result was the online Masses, celebrated by our spiritual director, Fr. Marcel Mouras, logistically coordinated by the Rivera family, and prepared and presented by the various regions and delegations in different languages. Without consciously seeking it, this breached all borders, uniting us even more as an international family.
We felt a bit like the first Christians, who gathered in their homes for fear of going out so as not to be persecuted (in our case, of being infected). We also rediscovered the great gift that we have as Schoenstatters: the Shrine, around which we reconfigured our spiritual and family life.
As for the subject of the accusations against Father, it was undoubtedly an earthquake that shook all of us Schoenstatters. But, beyond that moment and looking back, we are convinced that many of us have been strengthened in our affection for our Father and have been able to go deeper into his prophetic message of May 31st and into the whole world of the organism of attachments and second causes. Today, we can clearly say, “Yes, Father, we go with you!”
Also, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has touched us existentially, since we were in Argentina when the war broke out in February 2022, and many people advised us not to return to Schoenstatt as we had planned, because no one could predict the consequences of this invasion. However, we made the decision to return to Schoenstatt and thanks to God, the Blessed Mother has not allowed the war to spread to other European countries.
In those months, the migratory wave of Ukrainian refugees to European countries, especially to Germany, began to increase. Faced with such a need, our Nazareth House and our Family House also offered to take in some families through the Municipality of Vallendar.
In the daily visual contact with these suffering people, we perceived a heartbreaking pain, and a call from God to give them encouragement and shelter in our Mount Nazareth. In all this time we have been able to experience how the prophetic prayer written by our Father in the Prime Hour of Heavenwards was transformed into a palpable reality. It reads:
“Through this Nazareth for homeless times God wants to prepare salvation for families.”
We know that the Institute of Families represents a unique vocation in the Church and that it seeks juridical recognition of this way of life, formed by consecrated couples. How is the Institute’s search for this recognition going at the moment?
Regarding the issue of “Recognition in Rome” as a community of consecrated couples, we are still working on it. We have received some adjustments to our Statutes which were sent to Rome on October 18, 2022. After our General Assembly, we will resume the work through a commission that will deal with this issue. We know that it is a slow process, and that the important thing is to live what we proclaim. The rest will come naturally…
Based on all your experience, what message do you leave for Cristina and Rafael Muñoz and for the new general direction of the community?
We know Rafa and Cristina very well, as they have been our right arm as General Assistants, as well as all the families of the new General Direction. Our humble advice is that they continue working as a team, discussing and agreeing on ideas and decisions, looking for moments of prayer together, and delegating, as much as possible, tasks to people who do not belong to the Directorate. This eases the workload and at the same time creates co-responsibility. The community belongs to everyone, it grows thanks to everyone, it does not belong to the current General Directorate. We, even from a distance, will be available for whatever they need.
Something that has been fundamental for us has been to make our General Directorate a governing body that is very close to the people, listening, observing and being close to the families. Clearly, the General Directorate has the regional superiors who, by the way, are fundamental as extended arms. But the personal contact with the families is crucial for those who lead. We hope that this new General Government will continue with this dynamic.
Translation: Maribel Acaron
