Schoenstatt Priests’ League
At the service of the diocese, bound through the Covenant of Love
Our League
Fathers on mission for the Church
The Schoenstatt Priests’ League is one of the four Schoenstatt priestly communities. Its members live and work in their parishes and dioceses, living out their priestly vocation in the light of the Covenant of Love with Mary.
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CONTINENTS
The Schoenstatt League of Priests is present in countries in Europe, America, and Africa
1972
FOUNDING
The branch was founded on November 16, 1972, in House Marienau in Schoenstatt
Basis
Spiritual guidance
Like the other Schoenstatt communities, they strive for their personality’s integral formation and development. In their attachment to the Blessed Mother of Schoenstatt, the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt, and to the spirit of the Founder, they know that they are carried by the promise of the love of God the Father in Christ Jesus. They know that they are at home in him and in their priestly community, secure in the midst of a pluralistic, digitalized, and secularized society.
They are committed to serving the ever-ongoing internal reform of the Church and the new evangelization wherever they are. They especially offer their priestly service through the spiritual accompaniment of other Schoenstatters and their communities. It is important for them to seriously consider the psychological laws of growth and development in the human soul, not only in the lives of the people they serve but also in fostering and striving for healthy spiritual and physical well-being in their own lives.
Providence
With an ear to the heart of God
The Schoenstatt Priests’ League members strive to shape their personal lives and pastoral activities in the spirit of active, practical faith in Divine Providence: They trust that God is a God of history and all life. He is a God of the covenant he has made with each individual person and wishes to lead into his glory. In respectful listening and the mutual search for God’s guidance in every human being’s life, they focus on shaping life and work according to Gospel values. They strive to reverently and humbly listen to and accompany people in their personal and current journeys. In this regard, Father Kentenich often spoke of empathetic and uplifting understanding. Their pastoral care fosters love rather than demanding rights and laws.
In the Church
Pastoral Commitment
The members of the Schoenstatt Priests’ League, knowing that they are assigned to their bishop and his presbyterate and that they are committed to him like the other communities of Schoenstatt diocesan priests, strive to be especially attentive to the needs of the confreres of their pastoral unit or deanery. They work on the renewal of the image of the priest in the spirit of the Church after the Second Vatican Council, which Father Kentenich described as a ministering, spirit-filled, humble, fraternal, and poor Church, a Church that is a friend of the poor and the soul of a new world.
On the way
Ready to serve
They are committed to cooperative pastoral care in parishes and communities and especially value collaboration with the social and ecclesial ministry of all the baptized. In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and its implementation, which is still largely to be accomplished, and in the spirit of the covenant of love with all people, they engage in interdenominational and interreligious efforts in an integrative way, seeking ever-new possibilities and ways of reconciliation. Together with all people of good will, they are committed to the responsible use of human resources and the preservation of creation. As a member community of the Schoenstatt Family, the confreres of the Priests’ League are available to the entire Movement for priestly ministries and spiritual accompaniment whenever possible.
Attachment
The organization and life structure
The Schoenstatt Priests’ League is organized at the diocesan level like all other league communities of the Schoenstatt Movement. This distinguishes it from the Federation of Priests, which is organized on a national level, and the Institute of Priests, which is organized on an international level. It was important for Joseph Kentenich to emphasize that the different types of communities of the Schoenstatt Family are equal but different. The members of the Priests’ League are not obliged to live in permanent communities of priests. Membership has fluid boundaries. But those who want to can, of course, meet in regional groups on their initiative. Where such local groups exist, experience shows that the confreres meet monthly or several times yearly for a spiritual exchange and to cultivate their professional and personal solidarity.
On a national level, members of other Schoenstatt priestly communities offer personal and inspirational help to the confreres of the Priests’ League at the headquarters of the Schoenstatt Movement of a country. They can offer national meetings and retreats. Many league members participate in the annual events offered by the Central Office. The independent diocesan communities of the Priests’ League can each choose a speaker to represent them at meetings with other diocesan speakers organized by the Central Office. These meetings serve the inter-diocesan exchange and the community’s common spiritual and pastoral orientation.
Contact
Our contacts in the world
Need more information?
Our contacts in the world
Contact in Germany
gerhardnisch@t-online.de
