How Did the Episcopal and Apostolic Visitation in Schoenstatt Come About?
A visitation (Latin: visit) is a normal process in the Catholic Church. It does not always have to be about points of contention. For example, every bishop visits the parishes of his diocese at regular intervals. Every five years, the bishops of a country meet with the pope in Rome for what are known as ad limina visits.
PressOffice Schoenstatt International
February 4th, 20121
How Did the Episcopal and Apostolic Visitation in Schoenstatt Come About?
A visitation (Latin: visit) is a normal process in the Catholic Church. It does not always have to be about points of contention. For example, every bishop visits the parishes of his diocese at regular intervals. Every five years, the bishops of a country meet with the pope in Rome for what are known as ad limina visits.
In addition, special visitations may be requested from or instituted by a bishop or the pope when points of contention have arisen in a diocese, religious order, community, or ecclesiastical institution. Such a visitation is intended to prepare an objective and at the same time pastoral decision. The entire history of the Church, up to the present day, has been permeated by visitations in various forms, in which questions concerning the Church’s doctrine, her way of life, discipline and concerning unity in the Church are examined and decided.
These visitations have been carried out at different times, in the respective structures that were common at the time. If the leadership of the Church was structured in a rather autocratic and authoritarian way, visitations were carried out accordingly. Thus, it is clear that visitations of earlier times, such as the one in Schoenstatt 70 years ago, were carried out much differently than is the case today. Therefore, it is not only meaningful, but also necessary to view and evaluate such a visitation in its context.
New Things Move the Church Forward
In light of a church led by the Holy Spirit, crises and points of contention should not be seen as accidents of church history, but rather as opportunities and possibilities invitations for the church to develop further and not simply continue to think and live along traditional lines. In retrospect, the church can be grateful for all those who were initially perceived as uncomfortable critics or troublemakers, and who then decisively moved the church forward overcoming her sore spots.
Father Kentenich was very aware of the importance, but also of the risks of visitations. However, he did not want a community that would continue to follow traditional predefined paths, but one that would help build a “Church on the new shore of time.” Thus, the visitations did not come out of the blue for the Schoenstatt Movement, but the study of the newness of Schoenstatt was consciously desired by the founder. He wanted the Church’s hierarchy to study his foundation, to examine it and to it, also legally. He saw such a process as necessary so that a fruitful work in and for the Church would be and remain possible.
Prehistory of The Visitations in Schoenstatt
Already in the years 1934/35 there was a major controversy in the ecclesial public about the so-called “peculiar ideas” of Schoenstatt. After the Bishop of Limburg, Antonius Hilfrich, had expressed serious reservations about Schoenstatt, Bishop Bornewasser of Trier commissioned Ignaz Backes, a professor of dogmatics, to prepare a dogmatic report on Schoenstatt’s doctrine and spirituality. The report criticized the basic relationship of God to man represented in Schoenstatt. The General Government of the Pallottine Fathers then sent the General Councilor, Father Peter Resch (1873-1966), with the task of persuading Father Kentenich, by virtue of obedience, to renounce these ideas.
During the Second World War there was criticism from the Archbishop of Freiburg, Conrad Gröber. After the Second World War, even greater criticism was ignited by the publication of the Dachau Prayers “Heavenwards”. In 1948, the dogmatic historian Auxiliary Bishop Artur Landgraf of Bamberg submitted a negative opinion on Heavenwards to the German Bishops’ Conference. In the fall of the same year, the Bishops’ Conference drew up a list of demands that the movement should fulfill, which, however, was initially withheld by the Trier diocese.
The first diocesan visitation
On February 14, 1949, the Vicar General of Trier informed Father Kentenich’s representative, Father Friedrich Mühlbeyer (1889-1959), that Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Bernhard Stein would come to Schoenstatt on behalf of the bishop for a canonical visitation. Beforehand, Trier had decided at the last moment not to appoint a study commission, but to hold an ecclesial visitation. Behind this was the assumption that especially the Sisters of Mary could only in this way be prompted to be completely open in their statements. In his introductory address, Auxiliary Bishop Stein attached particular importance to this point. The visitation took place from February 19-28, 1949.
The Second Apostolic Visitation
On April 18 and November 6, 1950, Auxiliary Bishop Stein sent two memoranda to the Congregation for Religious in Rome. In November 1950, he requested an Apostolic Visitation of the Schoenstatt Work and especially of the Sisters of Mary. It was primarily to investigate the attachment of the Sisters of Mary to Father Kentenich and his ecclesial disposition, as well as the circumstances under which the first Superior General of the Sisters of Mary, Sister Anna Pries, had resigned from her office in February 1950.
Subsequently, the Holy Office intervened and appointed Father Sebastian Tromp SJ, a well-known Roman theologian of dogmatics and fundamental theology and consultor of the Holy Office, as Visitator. He was Dutch and spoke sufficient German.
The Apostolic Visitation began in Holy Week 1951 and was authoritatively concluded by Pius XII on August 03, 1953.
The Visitator first stayed in Schoenstatt for a week for a closer visitation of the Sisters. He then summoned Father Kentenich, who was again in South America, to Rome at the beginning of May and presented him with the choice of voluntarily resigning from his offices – otherwise he would have to expect deposition and exile from which he would not return. He would be a “persona non grata” with the German bishops. Fr. Kentenich conferred with Fr. General Adalbert Turowski (General Superior of the Pallottines) and Fr. Alexander Menningen and took the stand: “Voluntarily never, in obedience immediately.” Through Father Turowski he had the answer transmitted to Father Tromp.
In decrees issued at the end of July 1951, Father Kentenich was removed as General Director of the Sisters of Mary and his separation from the Work was decreed. These decrees were made known to the Sisters in Schoenstatt on August 15, 1951. Father Kentenich received permission to still hold the large conferences he had announced for the fall (the Pedagogical Conference and the October Week 1951) and then went to Switzerland.
Literature
More details on Father Kentenich’s conflicts with the Church: Schmiedl, Joachim, Der Konflikt um Pater Kentenich – Versuch eines Durchblicks, in: Regnum 55 (2020), issue 4.
On the course of the visitations: On the History of the Pallottine Fathers and the Schoenstatt Movement, in: Regnum 45 (2011), issue 2. This is an interim report of the Historical Commission of the Pallottine Fathers and the Schoenstatt Fathers. http://www.regnum-im-netz.de/download/hefte/REGNUM-45-2011-2.pdf
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.
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.