As president of the International Presidium of the Schoenstatt Work, Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello invites the entire International Schoenstatt Family to support this time of transition in the Church with their prayers. He also encourages us to carry on the legacy that Pope Francis has left us. Here is his message in its entirety:

Dear international Schoenstatt Family, we are here together at the Original Shrine to pray for the eternal rest of our beloved Pope Francis, to ask the Blessed Mother to welcome him, to be with him at this time, and to also accompany the Church.

It is a time to look back at these 12 years of his pontificate and at everything he leaves us as a Schoenstatt Family, especially the encounter we had on our family’s 100th anniversary.

He left us so many important messages, a mission to carry forward this culture of the Covenant, this deep love that he always showed for the MTA, for the Blessed Mother, and even this beautiful gesture where, during his last stroll through St. Peter’s Square, the Pilgrim MTA wanted to be with him in his last moments together with the People of God, just as we know that she accompanied him for so many years in Casa Santa Marta, in his own room.

The MTA was always with him, and he always pointed us to her. And that is why we also want to make the most of these days remembering everything he gave us and accepting his legacy, carrying it forward in the Church.
Let us pray for this moment of transition from our shrines, praying for the pope and for the Church, cultivating the culture of the covenant and of encounter.

* Here he is referring to the picture of the Pilgrim Mother of Schoenstatt that the young Trinidad Dinamarca, from Chile, gave to the Holy Father on Easter Sunday. According to Trinidad, it was one of the last gifts the Pope received on Easter Sunday before his death – see her testimony here.