PARAGUAY, Sebastián Martín Origgi. The community of Colonias Unidas (as the Paraguayan land that welcomed European immigrants and that is made of the districts of Hohenau, Obligado, and Bella Vista is known) was the center of a wonderful activity carried out by the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement of the Diocese of Encarnación. In effect, members of the Family and Mothers’ Branches and the Girls’ Youth from Colonias Unidas began a three-month process, which ended with the blessing of a wayside shrine of the Blessed Mother at Our Lady of Assumption Church of Obligado.
We say process because the members of the Movement from this place prayed three novenas to conquer the location for the Blessed Mother, and that is how they obtained it. On January 11th, Father Antonio Cosp, National Director of the Movement in Paraguay, accompanied by Fathers Mandredo Wilhelm and Marcelo Keiner, proceeded to bless the shrine.
60th Anniversary of Father Marcelo Keiner’s SVD priesthood
Before the blessing, Father Marcelo Keiner, who was celebrating his 60th Anniversary of priesthood on that day, con-celebrated a Holy Mass with Father Antonio Cosp in the same church of Obligado. It was within the framework of a liturgical ceremony of thanksgiving to the Lord for the fruitfulness of Father Marcelos’s SVD priestly life, which was carried out entirely in Paraguay. The community of Colonias Unidas offered the very beloved Father Marcelo a special greeting, after the Mass, he gave a synthesis of his priestly life.
The Schoenstatt Movement from Itapúa is happy about the accomplishment of the Schoenstatt Group from Colonias Unidas, and for the gift of a priest like Father Marcelo.
English translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, Texas
