PARAGUAY, Mirta Etchegaray de Arias, Morocha and Carlos Etchegaray •
On Sunday, 20 June, Bishop Claudio Giménez returned to his home, his very beloved Tupãrenda, after generously serving the Church as Bishop of Caacupé for 22 years. The Schoenstatt Family welcomed him with a celebration.
On 28 May 1980, the Virgin of Caacupé visited Tupãrenda for the first time…
We had recently bought the land for our GREATLY DESIRED SHRINE. On that first visit, we went on pilgrimage with the Virgin to the exact place where the Shrine would be built. The Virgin of Caacupé was placed on a little table precisely where our future Shrine of Tupãrenda’s altar would be.
Fifteen years later, in 1995, our beloved Fr. Claudio Giménez was appointed Bishop of Caacupé.
Using our imagination, we could say that at that moment, the Virgin of Caacupé placed her gaze on her beloved son. At that moment, she entrusted the great task of being the instrument to initiate and to organize her Schoenstatt land and that Tupãrenda would begin and grow on a firm, solid and authentic Schoenstatt foundation. Then with a gaze and a smile, as only the Blessed Mother has, she asked him to take a great leap of faith, trust and detachment. Now her beloved son should also promise to be “Tecum sum in aeternum” “I will be with you eternally” like his Father and Founder. By leaving everything, he showed his love for the Church like his Father and with his great love of a son, he responded to the call of his Mother to organize and to work for her and for her nation in a direct way in the Mother’s House of all Paraguayans. And so it was, he worked untiringly and did much for the entire Diocese of Caacupé.
Many of us who attended his ordination when he became Bishop of Caacupé, wanted to wait for him and welcome him back to Tupãrenda, to his home; we are proud of this son, priest and loyal father.
Home, fireworks and family
2017 on a June day, Bishop Claudio arrived at 3:00 p.m. after his resignation accepted by the Pope because of age. We shed emotional tears and great joy at the roar of the fireworks, Fr. Antonio’s (his course brother) warm embrace, and an enormous banner that read: “Welcome to your home Bishop Claudio.”
During those moments, all of us felt such great joy and once again having the experience of Schoenstatt as a family. I can be sure that just like that day, the Blessed Mother, his Mother once again looked at him and smiled from the Shrine of Tupãrenda and from the Shrine of Caacupé, saying with her motherly love: “Thank you my son, for fulfilling my request, welcome home once again, now continue the mission of building the “Nation of God, heart of America.”
Original: Spanish. 13 August 2017. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
