Editorial Staff Schoenstatt.org •
Whoever looks for Schoenstatt on the Internet finds what constitutes the greatest strength of this movement that has just entered its second century of existence: the joy in diversity and freedom (we could call it federation), the creative tension between the institutional or official spaces and the free spaces, an endless number of authentic and diverse expressions of covenant life and its shaping force of a covenant culture. In addition to the many official pages (especially those of each country and those of federations, institutes, and projects) and the free ones (such as Schoenstatt Vivo, Hoffnungsvoll leben, schoenstatt.link, Schoenstatt Cloud, Schoenstatt.org and many more) as of this week there is also a page launched after more than five years of waiting, fundraising, and preparation: Schoenstatt.com, the official international page.—
“On behalf of the General Presidency, the Communications Council is responsible for the web page and is formed by Raúl Espina, from the Schoenstatt Fathers; Rafael and Cristina Muñoz, from the Institute of Schoenstatt Families; Birgitt Winter, from the Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt; Miguel Ramos, external advisor; Father Heinrich Walter and Sister Cacilda (International Coordination, editor`s note). This council has the task of thinking through the official communication as a whole and meets every six weeks in Schoenstatt for two days. Since the restrictions on meetings and travel due to the coronavirus began, we have met online. Carolin Strohbehn, a journalist and theologian hired as director of communication projects, works in the day to day of the Secretariat of Communication”, explains Sister M. Cacilda in an interview published on the official website of the Schoenstatt Movement in Brazil, schoenstatt.org.br.
“It is quite good and fills a need to be a source of official information about the movement, shrines, branches, federations and institutes. It is an informative web site”, commented Eduardo Shelley, from the editorial staff of schoenstatt.org, who had an interesting conversation in Schoenstatt last August with a person in charge of the new web site.
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Offering unified material for education
“This site wants to be dynamic, it always wants to have new content and offers, also in the fixed parts of the site, because we see a great advantage in being able to offer quality and unified material, especially to the countries where Schoenstatt is beginning and they do not have advisors available to take care of the life that is growing in these countries, many times totally alone, looking everywhere for the content that they need for their education”, says the International Coordination, citing the already mentioned article on the official website of Brazil.
This new website is thus added to the proven offerings of sites with videos, courses, speeches, and online and free materials, such as Schoenstatt Vivo in Spanish, SchoenstattCloud in English, and many newer projects with workshops, conversations, and meetings via YouTube, Zoom, WhatsApp, mentioning only the recent home shrine workshop conducted by youth from La Plata, Argentina.
Methodology of communication
How will something reach the new official international website? “Each country has a correspondent responsible for bringing this life to the Communications Office in Schoenstatt. “The director of the movement or the person responsible in the country, with the confirmation of the International Coordination, names these correspondents. This is to guarantee the official line of international communication,” explained Sister Cacilda in this interview.
The official website is now available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
From the editorial staff of Schoenstatt.org we wish them the best, that they will be successful and above all, that they will fulfill their mission. Diversity is the richness if we all try to add up.
Original Spanish 2020-05-30 Translated by Maria Aragón, Monterrey, México
