Covenant Solidarity in Times of Coronavirus Category

PARAGUAY, María Fischer in conversation with Juan Vicente Ramírez • “We are already getting to the last few supplies of food”, commented Juan Vicente Ramírez, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce of Ciudad del Este, a member of the International Community of Schoenstatt Businesses and Executives (CIEES). “We have 4,500 food kits left for this month, and we’re done.” They end up not because he and the others have lost the desire to act in solidarity, but because they have already fulfilled their mission. “Now government assistance programs forRead More
SPAIN, Pilar de Beas • For me, the confinement began on March 10 due to a pneumonia that to this day I do not know if it was COVID-19.  Already medicated and with the antibiotic in place, I began to have an urgent need to “do something”. I even contacted a hospital to help (innocent of me) make calls to the relatives of sick people, since what worried me most from the beginning was the loneliness of people who were dying without any hands on theirs. — Here I learnedRead More
INITIATIVES IN TIMES OF PANDEMIA, initiated by the Community of Sant’Egidio – Thousands of people from different European countries have shared the appeal promoted by the Community of Sant’Egidio. The first signatory is Andrea Riccardi, together with a group of personalities who express, in a different way, European culture. An appeal that quite obviously finds strong resonance among those who are worried about the situation of elderly citizens in these times of pademic.— This appeal comes from a concern of the Community of Sant’Egidio for the future of our societiesRead More
CHILE, Paulina Johnson V. and Rafael Mascayano M. • A few days have already passed and we are still thankful for the result of the workshop “Introduction to the Social Thought” of Fr. Kentenich. As he would say, we are in the re-living.  A workshop-course which was originally designed to be held in person and, because of the coronavirus, we were faced with the dilemma of not holding it or of trying to hold it in a virtual format, a modality which presented us with great challenges. — The concreteRead More
PARAGUAY, Ani Souberlich • Thanks to the “Intelligent Quarantine” decreed by the government of Paraguay, on Monday, May 4th, we re-opened the doors of the CMT  (Casa Madre de Tuparenda/House Mother of Tuparenda), “reinventing” ourselves to be able to continue giving the opportunity to our adult participants to rejoin the program and thus, together, to be able to accentuate the production of baked goods in the bakery and of mouth guards (so much in demand at this time of COVID-19) in the area of Industrial Confection. On the other hand,Read More
Paz Leiva, Spain • Nowadays there are adventure books or books about police matters in which one can modify the story, as one reads. Even at the end, there is the option to go back in pursuit of another ending. I don’t have these books, but my grandchildren read them. I read novels. And what I like about a good novel is that the ending is the result of the story, the life, the decisions, the wounds and the falls of its characters. It’s the writer’s art that everything fitsRead More
GERMANY, Bettina Betzner • In the midst of the turmoil of World War I in 1917, a young woman experiences an encounter that will change her life abruptly. For the observer it is an inconspicuous encounter and yet a decisive moment. After a prayer in a small side room in the military hospital, a conversation between two people begins, which will change their lives. Through Frater Franz Salzhuber, Countess Gertraud von Bullion learns about the existence of the Apostolic Federation of Schoenstatt. It is an association of lay people whoRead More
CHILE, editorial staff • May 31st, the anniversary of the third milestone in Schoenstatt’s history, which marks the commitment of Father Kentenich and his Schoenstatt to think, act and love organically as the fruit of a profound conversion and as a condition for a new Pentecost in the Church, this year 2020, coincides with Pentecost Sunday. It is being celebrated, at the same time, during a world pandemic; and in Chile -where this milestone occurred in 1949- at a time of a profound ecclesial crisis at the root of theRead More
SPAIN, Rodolfo Monedero • How to help? This is the question posed at a remote meeting of a group of Schoenstatters. When buying food or paying for electricity and gas, becomes a problem for many, Schoenstatt cannot remain indifferent. When our society suffers, we cannot remain comfortably installed in our bubble. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty…” —. “But there are already many initiatives at work,” -someone claims. “I already collaborate with Caritas,” -says someone else. It doesn’t matter. The Queen’s children also make themselvesRead More
ARGENTINA, Mercedes Verón, Director of the Casa del Niño Padre José Kentenich  • La Casa del Niño (Children’s House), a private institution, is in Florencio Varela, Province of Buenos Aires and was created on June 16, 1985, in the year of Father Joseph Kentenich’s centennial, from whom it takes its name. With the support of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement, little by little, with much effort and with the unconditional generosity of many people, this little house was built, which at this time gives 340 children between the ages of 3Read More