ROME, Martin Emge/mda. “Live in such a way that others will be interested enough to ask: Why? Testimony. The path of testimony. There is nothing more that can be added to this. Testimony in everything. We are nobody’s saviour. We are transmitters of the One who saved us all. And we can only transmit this if we take up the life of this someone called Jesus in our own lives, in our flesh, in our history. This is testimony. Testimony.” The words of Pope Francis during the Jubilee audience of the Schoenstatt Movement on 25 October. These words were particularly addressed to the youth, but they also remind us of people belonging to the Schoenstatt Movement who live and lived precisely in this way. These are people who convinced Pope Francis of Schoenstatt’s mission, because his knowledge of Schoenstatt is personal, it comes from the people with whom he has worked and who convinced him. These are people who will support Schoenstatt in the coming century.
People like Fr Franz Reinisch. He was born on 1 February 1903 in Feldkirch, Austria, and grew up in Bozen and Innsbruck. He followed God’s call and was ordained a priest in 1928, after which he entered the Pallottine community. In the time of his Novitiate in Untermerzbach near Bamberg, Germany, he got to know and appreciate the Franconia region in Southern Germany.
Later he was given a variety of tasks in his community and finally discovered Fr Kentenich and his Schoenstatt Movement, which had a profound influence on him.
When Hitler came to power, he took a stand, and as the only German priest refused to take the soldier’s oath on the flag for reasons of conscience.
Shortly before he was arrested and was transferred to a Berlin prison, he visited Bamberg on a number of occasions. That is why the people of this region have a special devotion to him.
On 21 August 1942 he was beheaded in Brandenburg, Berlin.
His process of beatification was opened in Trier in May 2013.
Contact with Fr Reinisch is dangerous
That was the case in the Third Reich, because he was outspoken and clearly declared that he was a Christian.
It applies today at a time that needs such people who boldly go their way in opposition to every form of conformism and lack of commitment, and follow their inner voice. Not radical on the left or right, but radical in love and wholly orientated to Christian values. Such a prophetic protest can cost a person his good name, his friends, and even his head.
The price is high, but it is worth it in order to live in freedom and with character. That is why the youth room in Belmonte will be named after Fr Franz Reinisch.
Blessed and sent out
During the audience of the Schoenstatt Movement on the occasion of the centenary of the covenant of love, Pope Francis also blessed a picture of Fr Reinisch that is destined for the Reinisch Room.
It was a blessing and mission – for all who will one day talk, think, discuss, laugh, dream, pray, plan … in this room.
“I do not think, speak and act in the way and because others think, speak and act, but because it is my inner conviction!” Fr Reinisch stated in 1942.
That is bearing witness. It is also good that there is a Reinisch Room in the International Schoenstatt Centre in Rome. It is good that Fr Reinisch’s witness has moved people to start to finance the room.
>>> Link to the website of the Reinisch Room – information and possibility to donate
Original: German. Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, UK
