CANADÁ / ARGENTINA, Claudia Echenique •
On Tuesday, July 26, while I was working at home, I began to watch “out of the corner of my eye” on another monitor the transmission of Pope Francis’ pilgrimage in Canada. I was impressed by his homily, but I was even more impressed when suddenly I saw a picture of the Pilgrim MTA rising above several people… The Blessed Mother was there! —
It was an open-air celebration at the Commonwealth Stadium in the city of Edmonton, where some 60,000 people participated, but where there were no posters, flags, or banners as in other places or in other papal visits. Perhaps that is why I was so struck by seeing that small, large Pilgrim Image emerging among the people.
Children of a history, artisans of a history
Mónica Vega de Fiebelkorn with the Pilgrim MTA and the flags of Argentina and Canada
In the homily that the Pope read in Spanish and that was translated into English, on this feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne, he said some phrases that can be reflected on from the history of a person, a family, a community, or a movement. In a brief synthesis, Francis highlighted:
“We are children of a history that must be guarded. (…) Our roots, the love that awaited us and that we received when we came into the world, the family environments in which we grew up, are part of a unique history that has preceded us and generated us. We did not choose it but received it as a gift; and it is a gift that we are called to guard. (…) In addition to being children of a history that must be guarded, we are artisans of a history that must be built. (…) Let us go forward together, let us dream together. And let us not forget Paul’s advice to his disciple Timothy: ‘Remember your mother and your grandmother’ (cf. 2 Tim 1:5).
Remember your mother… And she was there
And a few minutes later, after hearing this “Remember your mother”, a Pilgrim MTA appeared in the midst of the people. Luckily, it lasted a few seconds, which allowed me to take a screenshot to share with my Schoenstatt brothers and sisters.
The next day, I was surprised when on the Instagram account of the Schoenstatt Shrine of Villa Ballester I see that same image with an overprinted phrase that says “The Blessed Mother present at the visit of the Pope in Canada. This image went on pilgrimage from Argentina!”. I did not really understand how this picture had traveled, in spite of the fact that we live in a socio-economic reality in Argentina where many people are emigrating to Europe and also to the United States and Canada.
I then communicated with Stellita, who had made the publication, and she told me that this picture was taken approximately 20 years ago by Monica Vega and Guillermo Fiebelkorn, an Argentinean couple from La Plata, who emigrated to Canada and who have sown and continue to spread Schoenstatt in that place.
In one of the pictures that I was able to capture, Monica Vega can be seen with the picture and the flags of Canada and Argentina in her hands.
A family in formation with many migrants
So I looked for more information and I was able to know that Schoenstatt in that country is in the process of formation, that they have been able to build a network of Schoenstatters in several cities, that they are very much connected virtually even to pray in common and that the majority are migrants from different countries such as Peru, Costa Rica and Argentina.
We now hope that they themselves, upon reading this article, will tell us what steps they have already taken and how they dream of being a Schoenstatt Family in Canada.
Original: Spanish. Translation: Maria Fischer @schoenstatt.org
