ARGENTINA, mda. At dawn on November 27th, at 3:55 a. m., the mercy of God called Sister Ursula Klein to the Father’s House. She was ninety-nine years old, just like her Schoenstatt, which she loved so much and with which she wanted to celebrate her one hundredth birthday in this Jubilee Year. She accompanied the international preparation for the Jubilee of the Covenant of Love with great interest and surely, she continues to accompany it.
“Sister Ursula was a loyal daughter, an ally of the Blessed Mother and of Father; she was a tireless collaborator in building Schoenstatt. She took root in our Argentinean soil, and here she bore abundant and generous fruit. Her life burned to give us the light of the covenant that she received from the Father; this flame was extinguished here today, but her light continues to shine and to illuminate our road,” Father Javier Arteaga wrote to the Schoenstatt Movement of Argentina.
Sister M. Teresa Buffa, transmitted the following to the Schoenstatt Family of Argentina:
Sister Ursula was only twenty-four years old, when in 1938, she arrived in Argentina as a missionary to announce the Schoenstatt message. She participated in the building of the world’s first Schoenstatt daughter Shrine in Nueva Helvecia, Uruguay, and in 1947, during Father Kentenich’s visit to the Latin American countries, she was named as the first Provincial Superior of the Province of Nazareth of the Sisters of Mary, a mission which she carried out until 1967. Our Father and Founder took her as his secretary and translator during his trips through Latin American between 1947 and 1952. Her typewriter produced a great part of the letter of the 31st of May 1949 that Father dictated, in addition to other important documents.
During our Father and Founder’s time of exile, Sister M. Ursula was a key instrument in the midst of the difficult trials, in maintaining the Sisters’ loyalty and that of all the work in our nation to Father Kentenich and his charism. She was also the instrument that God used in 1963 to make the first priestly ordinations of the New Community, the future Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers possible, which took place in New Schoenstatt, Florencia Varela and they were celebrated by Bishop Plaza, who was the Archbishop of La Plaza at that time.
In 1965, she accompanied Father Kentenich on his return from Rome to Schoenstatt at the end of his exile.
Father’s Translator
It is impossible to describe everything that Sister M. Ursula worked, prayed and sacrificed for the Schoenstatt Work during seventy-five years in our countries. She gave so many talks, conferences and testimonies up until her final years, with the desire of making the person of Father Kentenich closer and more vital for the many Schoenstatt children of so many generations. When her eye sight and hearing diminished significantly, she clearly knew that her mission continued through prayer for all of Father’s work, the Church and the world.
Today one could say that her main mission was to vitally transmit the profound community of hearts, lives, and destinies between the Father and Founder and the entire Schoenstatt Family.
May our gratitude for Sister M. Ursula’s giving of self be our commitment to take the Covenant of Love for the next one hundred years in filial and creative loyalty for the spirit of our Father and Founder for the blessing of the Church and the world.”
Juan Barbosa’s comment summarizes much of what can be said about Sister Ursula: “The beloved Sister is probably already building another Shrine in the eternal Schoenstatt (like she did with Varela, WITH HER OWN HANDS).”
An expression of gratitude for a “fanatic” of schoenstatt.org
When Sister Ursula is mentioned the many encounters in New Schoenstatt and testimonies come to mind. She was a pioneer translator for Father, a missionary and instrument… An article about her on this site cannot end without mentioning that she asked for the newspaper every day, she was interested in knowing what was happening in the country and the world. She was interested in what happened in Schoenstatt.
For years, she was a loyal and interested reader of the printed version of this page in German, which was given to her by a collaborator of this webpage from Argentina. She would subscribe to the bulletin, and she would find people to print the articles of schoenstatt.org that were of interest to her, and they were many. Her prayers accompanied the work of this webpage for years; she expressed her gratitude and encouraged those in charge to also continue during difficult times.
Thank you Sister Ursula: your covenant our mission.
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, Texas
I appreciate that this article was translated by Celina–thank you for this since Sr. M. Ursula is very important in the history of Schoenstatt and the Americas. However, her testimonial was only in Spanish and I was wondering if this also could be translated for those of us who do not speak Spanish.
Thank you.
Editors`response: Translation /synchronization of video texts at this moment is beyond the team`s capacity. Anybody who feels inspired to transcribe and translate is welcome.