GERMANY, mda. It happened during an exhausting day some years ago at the Conference 2014. In one of the German-speaking workshops they were discussing the question posed by the conference leaders for practical suggestions for the preparations for the Jubilee. They let their imaginations run riot, they joked and laughed, and amazed the plenary session with their feedback. Until then the German language groups had been marked by their seriousness and awareness of problem areas. So the project “A promotion tour with Fr Kentenich’s statue on wheels over the Alps and back” caught them unawares. Some of the simultaneous interpreters looked around in amazement, and the laughter from the language groups wasn’t quite simultaneous. Albert Busch, a member of the Schoenstatt Family Institute, was not at the Conference 2014, but since 1 October he has been driving over the Alps on his way to Rome – with a shrine on wheels! 1 October car and driver received a special blessing at the Original Shrine and were sent on their way – on a promotional tour looking for donations for the shrine of all of us in Rome, and to tell people about Fr Kentenich’s vision of a Pilgrim Church. So, in the next few days, if you encounter a moving shrine on the Autobahn, you are not dreaming …
“My dear husband, Albert, following an inner impulse, decided rather spontaneously about four weeks ago to drive the ‘shrine on wheels’ to Rome”, reported Aloisia Busch. “His dream for Schoenstatt’s Jubilee Year is to see and photograph the shrine in the shadow of St Peter’s in St Peter’s Square, and, if at all possible, for our Holy Father to bless it. After that it is to accompany the Torch Relay runners to Valle di Pompeii, and from there back to Schoenstatt.”
“That’s true”, added Stephan Jehle of Ravensburg, who organised the 2014 Torch Relay. “Felix Geyer passed on the request, and we thought it a good idea, so the shrine will travel with us from Belmonte to Schoenstatt, where we expect to arrive for the Vigil on 17 October.”
The impossible becomes possible
“It’s an almost impossible plan, we thought at first, because we didn’t have any holidays left, no money, and actually some other plans …,” Aloisia Busch continued. We asked the relay runners, collected information from those responsible and from friends, and the first sponsors simply appeared. The signs were clear. Then “Albert asked for special leave for his task during the jubilee at the International Schoenstatt Centre in Belmonte – and was granted FIVE ADDITIONAL days of special leave (exactly the time he needed to take the shrine on wheels to Rome, and hand it over, after a test drive from Rome to Valle di Pompeii, to the relay runners.) Albert planned his route and found three hospitable hostels in Germany, Switzerland and Parma that were prepared to take him and his ‘co-pilot’, Simon, at short notice. The car had already had a service, so they could set off …”
More than just an adventure
Of course, behind this venture there is more than just a small adventure. The shrine is a symbol of the “Pilgrim Church”, a visible illustration of the “moving rock” that still today brings the Good News to the most inaccessible corners of the world, and through which the Blessed Mother is tangibly at work with her motherly care and love. It is a pilgrimage in thanksgiving for the hundred years of Schoenstatt’s richly blessed history, in which Albert Busch and his family have shared for over thirty years. It is also a conscious act of handing over the shrine to the young generation, who will set their stamp on the next hundred years of Schoenstatt’s history …
With them kilometre after kilometre
Now it isn’t possible for everyone to go along in the car that is taking the shrine on wheels to Rome. And a motorcade in its wake would really not do. But it is possible to join them – by travelling with them for one or more of 3600 kilometres:
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through praying a decade of the Rosary: the descent of the Holy Spirit;
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or, through a donation of 10 Euros per kilometre to the account of the Centro Internationale di Schoenstatt Roma-Belmonte, which can be found at the following address: www.offerta.roma-belmonte.info/de/spendentour;
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or, to Matri Ecclesiae e.V.: IBAN: DE66 5705 0120 0004 0058 72, BIC:MALADES1KOB.
The first 15 kilometres have already been sponsored! www.offerta.roma-belmonte.info/de/spendentour. And the shrine continues on its way to Rome.
Original: German – Translation: M. Cole, UK
