Hilde and Herbert Fellhofer/org. “The challenge and dynamism of youth” impressed the Conference 2014 very deeply. Besides the Campaign of the Pilgrim Mother, it is mainly young people who are the supporters of the Missionary Current. This is not a current in which people struggle to carry out apostolic gymnastics, but in which all who allow themselves to be captured by it hurry out with full power and vital enthusiasm into the Church, society, and wherever doors are wide open for people who are prepared from the depths of their hearts to bring the Good News to others – by their words, or with a glass of water, or motivation to act as responsible citizens. One project in this field came into focus on Saturday, 10 November: Patria Nueva – New Homeland – an initiative of the Schoenstatt Youth in La Plata, Argentina.
It is a project that could find its place in the field of pedagogy, or a new social order, and distinguishes itself by tremendous power and dynamism. The project started in 2002 in the Schoenstatt Youth of La Plata, Argentina, as an answer to the financial crisis and the bankruptcy of the state. The young people said to themselves: We won’t change anything with protests and demands for resignations; change will only come through a change in values and ideals based on the personal commitment of each one to the social question. Patria Nueva begins with young people and young adults as the people who will bear responsibility in the future for the state, economy and society. It conducts projects in schools, holds leadership courses for young people, and supports political initiatives and the project “Young Spring”. At the start of Spring – on 21 September – hundreds of young people clean up the city as a sign of a new and “clean” Argentina.
The guiding concept is: New Argentina – a culture of commitment and binding promises.
So that we know what is moving … and is moved
Fr Peter Locher was again the celebrant of the Mass “on the way to 2014”, an initiative of Team 2014. To start with he introduced this project. There were a few young people at the Mass and they seemed to be really taken by the new idea of the “Patria Nueva” …
A little innovation with a great effect: The poster that since the beginning of 2010 has introduced the country with we were celebrating the covenant in that Holy Mass, and which now shows the various apostolic projects, this time showed not only “Patria Nueva”, but also included a summary of what the project is and does. Throughout the week, until Saturday, 17 November, when it is the turn of the Project Dequeni in Paraguay, the visitors to the Original Shrine will be able to see that there are projects in Schoenstatt through which young people are prepared to take responsibility for society and politics. … In the spirit of the return current, networking and solidarity in the covenant, may we not be convinced that in this week rivers of life will flow back into the Original Shrine and can be directed into the worldwide Family – rivers of strength, youthful enthusiasm and energy, of alertness for the voices of the times and their answer through the covenant of love, and of a culture of commitment and binding promises?
United and interconnected
As usual, the prayers included the worldwide Schoenstatt Family on its pilgrimage to the jubilee of 2014, and all the apostolic projects that will be covenant gifts when we renew our covenant of love; all who are united each day all over the world as they pray the pilgrimage prayer; all who dedicate their strength and time to preparing for 2014, and all to whom we owe important contributions to the capital of grace on this pilgrimage.
We included in this Holy Mass the victims of Hurricane Sandy and the earthquake in Guatemala, the Congress on Communications in Buenos Aires, and all the conferences, pilgrimages and encounters of this weekend, as well as all in the Family who have died during this week.
On Saturday, 17 November, Holy Mass “on the way to 2014” will be celebrated in our covenant with Dequeni – a very well known project in Paraguay through schoenstatt.org that is supported by many. It enables children from the poorest circumstances to attend school and which builds up a social infrastructure of solidarity in settlements and villages.
