AUSTRIA, Eva and Karl Fraissler. More than sixty couples in the Diocese of Graz have already completed a course in the Academy for Schoenstatt’s Family Pedagogy on the Kahlenberg – a famous mountain outside Vienna. In Maria Laubegg Castle near Leibnitz another six couples were sent out as family trainers by Auxiliary Bishop Dr Franz Lackner.
The solemn commissioning Mass was followed by the festive celebration, during which the Bishop introduced three important books he recommended people could read: the first is the book of nature, including our own human nature; the second is our very personal lives with all their experiences and events; and the third is the Bible, God’s word. All three books are part of the training to become a family trainer according to Fr Joseph Kentenich’s pedagogy.
“The Family Academy is a school of awareness; we learnt to collect successful lives; through our discussions with other families we learnt a great deal, we have been greatly enriched”, one couple said.
It is worthwhile living a family life
The family is like the Church, a place for spiritual growth in depth. Growth follows its own laws, which God has placed into his creation. The task of married couples and parents is to discover, use and bring these ideas of being to full flowering. As one couple put it, “it is worthwhile living as a family. It is possible to become happy in a family.” Eva and Karl Fraissler are the leaders of the Academy for Family Pedagogy in the Diocese of Graz. They stressed that we all have the same amount of time, but we use it depends on the very personal decision of the individual. The time for marriage and the family can, however, be the happiest part of our lives, but for this to happen we need more than intuition; we need skills that can be learnt.
In addition to the many priests who attended the occasion, there were many Catholic associations and delegates of Movements, chief among them Sissi Potzinger, President of the Catholic Family Association. As a result, the Church in the Diocese of Graz showed a new and fresh “face” of freely chosen and organised associations enjoying one another’s presence and witness.
www.akademie-familienpaedagogik.at (German)
Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
