Portugal looks to the future – its 50th and 100th Jubilees and new goals

PORTUGAL, P. Francisco Sobral/cal. The Schoenstatt Family in Lisbon, Portugal, together with the other Diocesan Families throughout the country are preparing for Schoenstatt’s 50th jubilee in Portugal in 2010 and the centenary of the Covenant of Love in 2014, by taking practical steps and listing the goals they want to achieve. The Father Symbol will visit the country in 2010 as part of its jubilee celebrations and it will find a family that is renewing itself around the motto: 1 Family, 1 Father, 1 Mission.

The Leaders Retreat and the Diocesan Council in Lisbon met at the end of October to reflect on the Movement’s goals over the next few years. For the first time, they took decisions based not only on the present but also looking long-term into the future.

We wanted to choose ambitious goals that respond to the Movement’s present needs, but which also express our concerns and life currents. We tried to interpret and list practical guidelines on what we felt God and our Mother and Queen are asking from us at this time and over the next few years. From now, there will be open dialogue involving everyone – dialogue that will allow us to find the way to make the goals reality. They will only be achieved, if all of us make this journey together. “Only with each person’s contributions, we can make these dreams a reality,” said Fr. Francisco Sobral.

The most important contribution everyone can begin to offer so that these goals will be met is obvious: the Capital of Grace! One of the short-term goals is that we pray for one another so that our Family spirit can grow. Every month the different branches and communities of the Schoenstatt Family in Lisbon will hold prayer days, so that we can form a prayer chain throughout the entire Family.

Project ARCH

For 10 days (4 to 14 November) a Paraguayan couple (Iaia and Roberto Quevedo) with vast leaders’ training experience in various countries began the formation of the first 11 couples who will lead new groups from next year onwards, thus starting what we hope will be a new phase in the growth of the Schoenstatt Family Work. The three communities (League, Union and Family Institute) want to become Schoenstatt treasures that are accessible to a much larger number of couples and families in the diocese. Iaia and Roberto Quevedo started the educational programme developed by the Schoenstatt Movement in Paraguay. It is an annual introduction for couples in Schoenstatt and the Family Work that is both organic and systematic, emerging from a personal decision and which operates at different levels: yes to Schoenstatt, yes to an introduction and formation group, including the levels encompassing the Covenant of Love, Home Shrine, etc up until they are able to discern their vocation in terms of their commitment to the community: Family League, Union or Institute or more generally, such as the pilgrim movement. According to various comments, the Quevedos’ visit was a success.

This visit is one of the following short and medium term goals:

Short term goals – one year

1. Celebrate Schoenstatt’ 50th anniversary in Portugal

This is a unique moment in our Family’s history and an opportunity for us to invite 1000 people to celebrate with us in Fatima on 18 April 2010. We also want to have a closing Jubilee celebration in our Diocese, at the Cathedral if possible on a date that must still be scheduled.

2. Build Family unity

At diocesan level, we want to cultivate this unity on the 18th of each month at our 19:45 Mass. We also want to deepen everyone’s connection with our father and founder, as we experienced at the Leaders’ Retreat and promote the idea of praying for one another throughout the year. At national level, our particular wish is to make contact with the Aveiro Diocese as a way of developing in the centre and north of Portugal.

3. Secure the Movement’s financial sustainability

Given the size of the Movement in Lisbon, it has become imperative to communicate greater awareness among our members and all those who use the Movement’s facilities and services of their responsibility to secure the Movement’s financial situation. This is crucial for its continued growth, given that it does not have any other source of income other than the voluntary contributions of its members.

Medium term goals – 3 to 5 years

1. Double the number of groups and people who have sealed their Covenant of Love by 2014

We want to offer the Schoenstatt treasure to many more people around us. We see an urgent need to ensure continuity between the youth and adult branches so that those who join the Movement as youth can find a path for their entire lives. But it is also important that the adult communities find sustained forms of growth. The Covenant of Love should be an explicit goal for all those who are drawn to the Movement.

2. Have a second Schoenstatt centre by 2014 that complements the present centre

We know that the Schoenstatt Movement in Lisbon cannot be centred only in Restelo where it is located. We want to find a space that will allow us to build a second shrine with a large green area within a 20-30 km radius of Lisbon, with the right conditions and atmosphere to hold retreats and days of reflection with enough space for training weeks for youth leaders and other activities.

3. Serve the Church and establish a permanent Schoenstatt presence within 5 of the diocese’s parishes

After several years of participating in several parishes (youth, Pilgrim Mother Campaign, couples, mothers’ groups) we want to develop and implement a collaboration model between the Movement and the parishes, characterised by continuity and sustainability. We want to reflect and demonstrate the many services Schoenstatt can offer to bring it closer to the parish, making these offers comprehensible and transparent to parish priests and decision-making bodies within the diocesan Church.

4. Strengthen the relationship between the Movement and the Santa Maria College

The College is a project that makes practical much of what Schoenstatt offers in terms of infant, youth and family education, as well professional educational formation. Knowing that the College is undergoing a phase of expansion, we feel that it is both opportune and desirable to develop greater collaboration between the Movement and the College, helping it to respond to the expectations families have placed in this educational project for their children.

Source: www.schoenstatt.pt

Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Pretoria, South Africa