ROMA, mda. The scene was something like a church square, of a new, fraternal, paschal, active church of solidarity: Six young men, who will be ordained as priests in two or three years were conversing in an enjoyable manner, laughing and gesturing with young couples and with a couple of elderly people in an adventurous mixture of Italian, Spanish, hands and feet; guitar sounds mixed with the laughter of children coming from the playground and the broad grounds; some men discussed Germany’s chances in the Soccer World Cup, a small group near them conversed about God and other things and about Francis; and a man was talking on the phone sitting on a bench close to a bronze statue of him who, 100 years ago began to dream about a Church in which freedom, joy, momentum and enthusiasm would reign and where men/women would meet as a people and family of God on pilgrimage. All of which, precisely on May 10th, Pope Francis asked the members of the Italian secular institutes to take as a heartfelt mission: “May you always safeguard this attitude, to go beyond things…and not just beyond… but to the very heart of things, where everything is played out: politics , economy , education , the family … “
We are speaking about the “Shrine for all of us” in Rome, in the Schoenstatt Belmonte International Center, after the Mass on Saturday, May 10th.
Since the beginning of May, six students of the Schoenstatt Fathers from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay are living with Father Patricio Moore in the Covenant House (Cas dell’Alleanza) in Rome with the aim of working for the international Jubilee of the Schoenstatt Movement in Rome, whose culmination will be the audience with Pope Francis on Saturday, October 25, 2014 – because the step toward the second Schoenstatt century should be taken in Rome, in the heart of the Church, in the place where Father Kentenich wanted to be since the beginning. This is the purpose of Schoenstatt’s presence here.
A part of the universal Church in the shrine
The rector of the shrine, Father Stefano Müller, from Germany, and Father Patricio Moore from Chile con-celebrated the Saturday Mass that for sometime has become a gathering place for the family, that congregates around the “Shrine for all of us”. A Sister of Mary from Brazil accompanied the lively Italian, Easter songs with the guitar; a volunteer from Germany held the sheet music. At a given time, the guitar reached the hands of Diego, one of the Fathers’ students, who sang the “Holy, Holy, Holy” in Spanish and then the communion song. When Don Stefano, who greeted the Fathers’ students at the beginning of the Mass and he asked them to come forward to be introduced, he announced the events at the shrine for the following week, then a lady, who was smiling radiantly, pointed out that not only Europe and Latin America were represented but visitors from Australia were kneeling in the front row; they had learned about the Shrine in Sidney!
The large jar from Germany and the small jar from Costa Rica were side by side close to the altar. The oldest one and the youngest one of the world’s Schoenstatt Family; they were here as well as also members from the different Schoenstatt communities with missionaries of the Pilgrim MTA and pilgrims from the neighboring parishes.
“In reality we should have gone there”
The Sunday after the Regina Coeli, someone from the Belmonte team saw the Pilgrim MTA, crowned with a Rosary at St. Peter’s Square in the midst of the multitude. Schoenstatt? Do you belong to the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign? From Paraguay? – The question in Spanish caused the sea of people to pause because four people greeted each other as if they had been friends since kindergarten. “We are from the Mothers’ Federation of Argentina, we were in the Holy Land and in Schoenstatt and now in Rome and this afternoon our flight is departing. And no, they did not have time to visit the shrine since the schedule in Rome had been very full… A couple of words here and there, then the Argentinean ladies went on their way, the two people from Belmonte went to the auto. Suddenly, the missionary with the Pilgrim MTA in her hand pulled on a sleeve, asking, “Which bus should we take to go to Belmonte? We really should visit the shrine…it is the shrine of all of us.” Unfortunately, there was not enough time for this before their flight’s departure, but a desire was awakened.
100 pilgrims from Brazil
On Monday, Claudia Echeñique and her mother arrived at Belmonte from Argentina. They had made a trip to the Holy Land, Assisi and to Rome and they were returning to Argentina on Wednesday. “Why do you want to spend an hour traveling by bus to go there and miss the guided tour to St. Peter’s?” the mother asked her daughter. After an hour, she was convinced that she had made the right decision, when she entered Belmonte’s compound.”
The impressions of this trip were so intense that by the afternoon one was simply dead tired because of so much traveling… It is so good, to only breathe here, to enjoy the vegetation and breadth and to meditate,” she said, while her daughter was busy with her video camera and tripod. She filmed a video about this shrine and the Schoenstatt center that the worldwide Schoenstatt Movement gave their founder for his 80th birthday – a gift that began to be a reality 10 years ago with the blessing of the Shrine and which will finally be fulfilled next year, when the construction work on the Father Kentenich House is finished.
Two days later approximately 100 pilgrims from Brazil arrived after the audience – to pray and to savor the experience and to know this place, where there is a shrine, where jars from all over the world have arrived for its blessing; they are filled with gifts of love for the Church – the Church of which Father Kentenich not only dreamed about; but rather, 100 years ago he began to create and whose contours are cradled by Francis in every one of his homilies, in every gesture, and in every action.
In this shrine, Pope Francis`pilgrimage to the Holy Land will be accompanied by many prayers.
