Editors schoenstatt.org •
As Fr Juan Pablo Catoggio, the Chairman of the General Presidium of the Schoenstatt Movement, has just learnt, a decisive step was taken in the beatification process of Joseph Engling on 7 April.
Fr Joachim Schmiedl , Schoenstatt Father, made the following information available on his Facebook page:
“On 7 April 2016 the Pallottine Postulator General, Fr Jan Korycki SAC, handed over the “Positio super vita, virtutibus et fama sanctitatis Josephi Engling Alumni Societatis Apostolatus Catholici” to the Vatican Congregation for Beatifications and Canonisations. In the last few years Fr Korycki and I have worked intensively on this thick book of over 500 pages. Now the Positio goes to the historical commission, and after that to the theological commission. If a miracle is worked at some time through the intercession of Joseph Engling, the beatification can take place – unless, as has often happened, the legal requirements change.”
My sincere thanks to Fr Korycki and the Relator, Fr Kijas”
“The lived Founding Document”
Fr Joseph Kentenich noted shortly after Joseph Engling’s death, that Joseph Engling was “the lived Founding Document”, and he started to publish parts of Joseph’s diary and letters in the “MTA” magazine.
Joseph Engling is one of the founder generation of Schoenstatt; he was born in a village in eastern Prussia (at that time Germany, now in Poland), and was a student in the Pallottine College in Vallendar, Schoenstatt.
He was not present when Fr Kentenich and a group of older students entered into the covenant of love on 18 October 1914 in the ancient Chapel of St Michael, today the Original Shrine. However, he assimilated this event in all its fullness and made Schoenstatt the content of his life. His notes clearly mirror every inspiration Fr Kentenich gave to this young foundation. He managed to grasp the thrust of the capital of grace that enabled him to make sense of his physical limitations, his successes and many failures in the apostolate, his self-education and the hardships of a soldier’s life at the front in World War I. For him everything was valuable, because it contributed to Schoenstatt’s growth.
On 11 May 1918 he offered his life to the Blessed Mother for this intention. He died on 4 October 1918 near Cambrai, France.
For many Schoenstatters, in particular the youth, Joseph Engling is still today a friend and companion on the way to the full depth and creative force of the covenant of love.
(part of the text from: https://www.schoenstatt.org/en/services/about-schoenstatt/schoenstatt-heroes/joseph-engling/)
