mda. “The Blessed Mother left us in peace for some months, then she wrote to us on 18 February …” Those were the words of Fr Egon M. Zillekens, and he thought they should be at the start of an article about the letter from Mainz, which he receive around 6.13 p.m. on Ash Wednesday, 18 February, the start of the first post-Jubilee time of Lent. The official letter asked Schoenstatt to make accommodation available for the many refugees arriving in these weeks, mainly from Kosovo.
“And it happened at that time, the time after Schoenstatt’s jubilee … that men, women and children stood at the gates of Schoenstatt and looked for shelter. They had fled their homes with nothing but their lives; they were traumatised, lost, homeless. … And the hearts of the people there opened at this place where Schoenstatt came into existence a hundred years ago during a world war. Not only hearts opened, so did the houses – empty houses, and houses in which people moved closer together in order to take them in. They moved in and experienced that they were welcomed and loved. A Christmas fairy tale, or perhaps …?”
In Advent 2014 it really did sound more like a Christmas fairy tale on schoestatt.org than a request from Vallendar on the subject “Refugees in Schoenstatt.” The idea gave rise to a wave of joy and solidarity, way beyond the limits of Schoenstatt itself. Schoenstatters from South Africa offered to contribute their experiences in Mercy House, the house for refugees. Schoenstatters from Peru and Argentina asked whether they could send blankets or clothes. … Offers and deliberations, misgivings and hopes of practical solidarity, arose in the weeks that followed.
Then, in the middle of Carnival quite a different request arrived from the MINISTRY FOR INTEGRATION, THE FAMILY, CHILDREN, YOUTH AND WOMEN in the Rheinland-Palatinate. The head of the division on “refugee policy, the acceptance of migrants, return”, Astrid Becker, phoned Fr Zillekens in Schoenstatt, because his name was connected with the subject of refugees after the first request in Advent 2014. Her concern was the many refugees that have already arrived and have to be helped to survive the winter. The initial reception centres in the Rheinland-Palatinate are full, so full that no other possibility exists in Trier than to put up tents. Astrid Becker knows Schoenstatt from her youth and remembered the many houses there. Fr Zillekens was told that it wasn’t a case of two or three families, but between 100-150 people. He offered the Covenant House. Even though there is no running water there at the moment, there are beds and they would have a roof over their heads. Some days passed without a reaction from the ministry.
With the letter to the Covenant Mass and the Original Shrine
Then, in the evening of 18 February, a letter arrived from the Ministry signed by the Minister, Irene Alt, in which Schoenstatt was asked for support in the initial accommodation of refugees. “As you can conclude from the press reports, we have reached our limits because of the large number of people especially from Kosovo, and have already been forced to put up tents for the initial intake in Trier. So we hope you can offer active support,” Astrid Becker wrote in the accompanying letter.
The Minister for Integration asked in her letter for practical help until they had completed the construction of further reception centres – practical help for 100-150 people. What matters is that the accommodation is fit for human habitation, that there is solidarity and spontaneous, generous help.
Fr Zillekens took this very personal appeal from the Minister to the Covenant Mass and read it out there … and then took it to the Original Shrine. You could feel something of the grace of the jubilee.
That same evening the letter was sent to the members of the General Presidium.
The following Tuesday, 24 February, a representative arrived from the Ministry to look at the Covenant House and to examine the possibilities there. Two other houses are also under discussion.
Houses of the Original Shrine in solidarity
It was in Autumn 2013. The initiative “A hundred houses as thanks for the hundred years of our house in Schoenstatt” had just started – a jubilee project of collaborators with Schoenstatt.org. An expression of their covenant solidarity with Pope Francis. A house for a family in extreme poverty on the outskirts of Asuncion for each shrine. “Does the Original Shrine already have a house in solidarity?” a woman in the Pilgrims’ Movement asked. No. “Can I give it?” Yes. “The Original Shrine needs another house in solidarity.”
“So that houses in solidarity and our solidarity continue.” That was one of the goals that was formulated during the planning meeting of Schoenstatt.org on 24 January in Madrid.
Perhaps, one of the editors of Schoenstatt.org remarked, perhaps we need to build not just houses in solidarity for families who live on the streets … Perhaps we will soon have houses in solidarity for refugees in Schoenstatt, in the shadow of the Original Shrine – for people who are fleeing as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were at that time.
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