AUSTRIA, by Susi Mitter •
Bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl (*5 March 1963 at Gleisdorf, Styria, Austria), member of the Focolare Movement, has been the bishop of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau since April 2015. He learned about the Schoenstatt Movement in the Styria province. He was present at a Schoenstatt gathering that the Schoenstatt Family organized on 8 December 2014 at the Graz Episcopal Seminary, since he was the rector of the seminary at that time.
On this occasion, leaders of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau Family Branch: Alenka and Ernst Körbler, Karin and Klaus Ebner, Elfi and Peter Gamperl, and Monika and Christoph Fürböck, as well as Fr. Felix Stässle and Sr. M. Gertraud, had a beautiful meeting with diocesan Bishop Wilhlem Krautwaschl.
Learning from one another…up close and personally
The new branch leaders, Alenka and Ernst Körbler wrote about the gathering:
A meeting with our diocesan Bishop Wilhelm was held on Thursday, 28 January. We met for about an hour in the hall of the bishop’s palace at Graz to get acquainted and to exchange ideas. The gathering took place in a very friendly and personal atmosphere. The Bishop also asked us how we had learned about Schoenstatt. Bishop Krautwaschl looked at every page of a book about Styria’s Home Shrines, reading the names of the families featured.
Bishop Krautwaschl sees that the Church is required to reach the people in their real lives, and to approach them personally in order to help them, “find peace, or better yet, to make peace.” We want to meet with our brothers/sisters with the awareness that we can learn from them, that is, to connect the Faith transmitted through direct encounters.
He quoted Bishop Klaus Hemmerle: “Let me learn about your way of thinking and speaking, your way of asking and existing, in this way, I can learn again the message that I want to convey to you.”
Original: German. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited by: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
