CHILE, Belisario Vargas. The desire and the present work of the Schoenstatt Family from Calama is to conquer a Shrine for their city. They have the land donated by a member of the Family, and they are working to create the “Santa Maria of the Desert Foundation” to reach this objective.
Schoenstatt History in Calama
The Movement was founded in Calama on November 1, 1981 through the initiative of a small group of couples who knew about the Schoenstatt Movement especially since their time at the university. The first visit of the advisers, Father Patricio González and Sister Maria Eugenia who traveled through Norte Grande, occurred in 1982. On September 18, 1985, the Wayside Shrine of Calama, “Bethlehem Land ” was blessed on a plot of land owned by a couple who belonged to the Movement; an attachment period to the Wayside Shrine and the growth of the Family began. It was a slow process and with some difficulty of integration, which meant they needed more support and orientation from the national advisers. On November 6, 1993, A Magna Carta was given to the Schoenstatt Family that was worked out by the entire Family with outlines for the future of this Family, and they were presented with Prayer and the Hymn of the Family of Calama.
The Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign was initiated
Next, there was a stage of growth and of more fruitfulness within the interior of the Family, and there was an important impulse of integration by the Calama Prelature. With this the Schoenstatt Work was fully integrated with the diocesan Church. In addition, the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign was started in 1992, and grew rapidly in an important way that demonstrated another image of the Movement in the different city parishes. On July 18, 1996, the Symbol of the Holy Spirit was incorporated and blessed in the Wayside Shrine, and it was constituted as the Schoenstatt Family’s Cenacle Wayside Shrine at Bethlehem Land in Calama.
A period of progressive growth continued within the interior and the exterior of the Family with development and activities of the different Branches.
A new place
In June of the year 2000, the grounds, where the Wayside Shrine was located had to be abandoned, and with the motto “Twilight time is time for a new dawn,” a pilgrimage began for new grounds. The Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Ayquina welcomed them, and finally on May 31, 2006, they moved to the center of the city to grounds that were leased to them by Bishop Guillermo Vera Sotao, Calama’s Diocesan Bishop. This is where the Wayside Shrine still resides. They have grown, and they now have a beautiful Wayside Shrine, Father’s Corner, and a multi-purpose hall.
The Schoenstatt Family in Calama now
Presently they have a Couples’ Branch, a Ladies’ Branch, and Boys’ and Girls’ Branches (Crusaders, Pioneers, Apostle of Mary and Allies), the Pilgrim MTA, and Dawnbreakers.
They receive periodic visits from a priest and a sister, and since the 1990’s, they have had the good fortune of constant assessment from Father José Plaza Monardes, a member of the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests.
Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio/Melissa Janknegt, Elgin, USA
