Fr. Heinrich Walter. The dispatch of this letter has been held up because it took longer than expected to get the contract signed, and the publication had to be agreed with both the Pallottine and Schoenstatt authorities.
2nd February 2012-02-02
Dear Schoenstatt Family
Today we celebrate with the Church the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Mary and Joseph took their child to the temple to give thanks and sacrifice to God. For Simeon these everyday events were connected with the deep knowledge of who this Jesus is. He is the Messiah who by his life, death and resurrection becomes the living temple of God for all humanity.
In the context of salvation our small Shrine is a help to be able to understand the secret of God better. Everywhere where there is a Shrine, there we meet Maria who leads us to the Lord. Everywhere where there is a Shrine a religious community grows, family of God. We deepen this reality in the year of the Shrine current on the way to the jubilee of the Covenant of Love.
This mystery of the feast of the 2nd February, 70 years ago (1942) in the Coblence Gestapo prison, opened our Founder, Fr. Joseph Kentenich to a deep religious experience with a future vision. Every year the Schoenstatt Family remembers this event.
On this Feast day I am able to inform you that the Schoenstatt Fathers have concluded negotiations for a contract with the community of the Pallottine’s concerning the use of the Original Shrine and the pilgrim’s area from the 1st April, 2012 until the end of the year. For this year we have agreed on other conversations about an acquisition of the Original Shrine with the adjoining pilgrim’s area.
For this period the general presidium confirmed on the 31st January, 2012 an administrative council which will handle all matters concerning the Original Shrine. Members of this council are: Fr. Heinrich Walter, Fr. Michael Marmann, Fr. Egon M. Zillekens, Sr. Andra Maria Lingscheid, Elisabeth and Bernhard Neiser.
The community of the Fathers makes Fr. Michael Marmann available as Rector of the Shrine. Fr. Marmann was the General Superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers up until 2003.
The Schoenstatt Family and everyone connected with the Shrine should have the possibility to take part spiritually and materially in this project. At the end of March you will find further information on the homepage www.schoenstatt.org .
We thank to the community of the Pallottines for the result of the conversation process. We thank all those who involve themselves in different ways for the preparation of the jubilee and for the Original Shrine.
With hearty greetings from Schönstatt,
Fr. Heinrich Walter
Thanks be to the Divine Intervention and for the efforts put in by different peoples…