mda. A great one is goneOne of those who seem to have always been present, and one on whom one could always count on. When the news of Father Gunther Boll’s death on July 16th became known on the Schoenstatt webs, it was not long before the arrival of testimonies, memories, experiences, words… The Director of the Movement in Argentina and the widow of a childhood friend in Germany, a candidate to the Family Institute from Peru and someone from the Mothers’ Federation in Zimbabwe wrote…and suddenly, even though it had happened the Saturday before, appears a person “who is alive.” Upon collecting the various testimonies, it comes to mind that precisely thus, almost 100 years ago, in the MTA Magazine, a great communicator by the name of Kentenich achieved, that the deceased sodalists would remain alive in the memory and the life of the budding Schoenstatt…
In gratitude for the life and mission of Father Gunther Boll, we remember him and keep him alive in the spontaneous contributions of the readers of schoenstatt.org.
The one who knew how to transmit his option for Father Kentenich
Not only a Great one….. A FAITHFUL child of the Father. I remember his presence here in Florencio Varela for the 2002 Jubilee. In a beautiful conference, he related in great detail his option for Father Kentenich and for Schoenstatt when no one in the Church wanted to ordain them priests. He told us of his meetings and dialogues with Father Kentenich in Milwaukee and of the “open door” which meant that Archbishop Antonio Plaza would ordain them in New Schoenstatt in 1963. I think that God the Father and our Founder receive him today in Heaven saying to him: “Come and enter, faithful Servant, and receive the Glory to which you have been called.” We have a new ally in the heavenly Legion to intercede for our Family which is still on pilgrimage on earth. Thank you, Father Gunther, for your surrender and fidelity; for having spent yourself for the mission!
Claudia Echenique, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Painfully and surprisingly I received the news of Father Gunther Boll’s homegoing to the Eternal Schoenstatt. Many years ago, on the occasion of an anniversary of the Florencio Varela Shrine in Argentina, the Family was sealing its Covenant in Childlikeness with our Father and Founder, and Father Gunther was invited to speak along with Sister Ursula. I listened to his life’s testimony, of the difficulties he had to go through for his ordination to the priesthood; this impressed me very much. It caught my attention…..his tranquil words, restful, profound, with great simplicity, some humor, but I was especially captivated by his words because they tranmitted our Father and Founder in a most palpable way. I have never forgotten those words, his fidelity and childlikeness. Today we receive the news of his death and we know a great priest is gone, but I believe it is a gesture of predilection which Blessed Mother sought in this Jubilee Year. It could not be any other way.
Maria Isabel Fernandez, Argentina
It is a great pity for the Schoenstatt Family to no longer count on the physical participation of Father Boll in the Movement. His heartfelt surrender, illumines, guides and motivates us to continue forward when strength fails us and for those of us who have had the opportunity of knowing him in person and having read his writings. I know he has helped many persons. My condolences to the Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers. We accompany them spiritually from this little corner of the world which is my city of Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, México. I had the occasion and the privilege to meet him personally in Monterrey, Mexico and we took him out to eat along with Father Marcel. That encounter is etched in my mind and my heart because he spoke to us of his experiences with our Father and Founder. May he rest in peace and may our Blessed Mother receive him and take him to the presence of her Son Jesus. Amen
Maria del Rosario Rodriguez, Mexico
The one who knew how to educate
He was the great pedagogical leader of our Family Institute and the architect of the Educator’s Manual. God and our Father speak to us clearly on calling Father Boll on this very special day, the anniversary of the Founding of the Institute of Families in Dachau.
Joaquin Lavini, Rosario, Argentina
The one who transmitted Father
Upon hearing the news…..a sentiment of deep gratitude emerged in my heart for having known and experienced the love of the Father through him….. Today, as then, I say THANK YOU, Father Gunther!!!!! Thank you Father Founder for ALL you have given me through him: Your time, your sheltering, your support, your Father love, my feeling accepted with my riches and my limitations….. It was one of the most important experiences of my life, especially during my stay in Schoenstatt.
Gladys J. Benitez Ramirez
I got to know Father Gunther Boll from 1992 to 1994, and I have heard many times, attentively, the stories they would tell about the Fathers from that great generation, the “Treue Gemeinschaft (True Community) and the Neue Gemenischaft (New Community).” For sure today, in Heaven, not only is the MTA awaiting him, but also for sure our Father is joyful, as in other eras of receiving one of his most faithful children.
Manuel Huapaya, El Callao, Lima
I am very grateful for having known Father Gunther. A counterpoint with a good result between German and Roman wisdom.
Rolando Cori, Santiago, Chile
The one who visited us
Father Boll was one of the first if not the first Schoenstatt Father who visited our Family in Zimbabwe, in our first years, on his return trip from South Africa to Germany. We were so happy to receive him and to hear him. Many years passed until a Schoenstatt Father visited us anew. We will remember him in our prayers.
Marlene Peters, Harare, Zimbabwe
The friend
My husband (now deceased) and Father Gunther Boll were together in the then Federation of Boys’ Youth. My husband was in the first course, Gunther Boll was in one or another of the younger courses. They had a sincere and profound friendship during all these years. My impression in the first encounter was: they are friends. I remember the last encounter of the two friends when my husband – already very weak – and I visited the tomb of Father Alex Menningen on Mount Sion. When Father Boll saw his friend, he ran to him and embraced him so greatly that my husband said to him: “Gunther, Gunther, careful, not so impetuously, you will throw me to the ground!” To which Father Boll embraced him even more greatly, saying: “I’ll hold you up, we are friends.”
E.F., Germany
For the next 100 years
Rest in peace, dear Father! From Heaven, help us to found Schoenstatt anew with the same heart as Father Joseph Kentenich. Speak to God and his Mother for each one of us. May you rest in the peace of the Lord.
Ines Petiti, Goya, Argentina
These are the heroes of our Movement…..Those who went before us to show us the way, the vision which Father Kentenich had for Schoenstatt and the Church…..Men like Fr. Gunther who were so deep into the spirituality of Schoenstatt that they could communicate and live in the same form as our Father and Founder lived and dreamed the Covenant of Love. Likewise, while we are sad for the death of another stone of this Schoenstatt edifice which is now 100 years old, we are called to take his memory, his mission and make it our own so that what is most important of the life of Schoenstatt may come to be a light for the Church and world in the next 100 years. We pray that Fr. Gunther is in the peace of God and united with the others of our Family who have gone on to Heaven before us.
Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
The one who taught us how to live the Covenant
Allow me to express my gratitude to God for the life of Fr. Gunther Boll, a German Schoenstatt Father, who was ordained a priest in the Shrine of New Schoenstatt on the 20th of October 1963 and died this passed July 16th. A true son and ally of the Blessed Mother, faithful disciple of our Father and Founder and a tireless apostle of Schoenstatt. He visited Argentina many times, always giving us his vast wisdom in both the human and the divine, and with his warm priestly fatherliness. He helped us grow in love for Christ, Mary and the Church. He taught us to live the Covenant of Love. On the 40th anniversary of Father Kentenich’s return from exile, he said:
“These are the foundations on which Schoenstatt rests: the unshakeable foundation of the Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother and this inseparable interwovenness of destinies and fusion of hearts between the Founder and Family. If we have gathered here today with the aim of reliving somewhat in ourselves what this event has brought and what it means for others, it is not simply to only look back and contemplate what happened at that time. Our Father, with his lively awareness of history, always counted on each retrospective look into the past, each attempt to relive the experience of a determined historical moment, to reaffirm at the same time, the permanent mission and to project the way toward the future. That is, I believe, what our Father and Founder wants to tell us today, at this time and in this place: Schoenstatt lives from the faith in the reality of the Covenant of Love and of the interwovenness of destinies between the Founder and us, his Family. This is our way. We could ask the Mother Thrice Admirable: accompany us on our journey, we want to go forward!”
Dear brothers and sisters, in the image of Fr. Gunther and of so many brothers and sisters who preceded us in the Covenant, let us be grateful for the gifts received and may our gratitude express itself in a life commitment, especially committed to unity, to grow in missionary spirit and to go forth, sharing and proclaiming the Covenant of Love with Mary. And may our lived Covenant of Love help to illuminate and transform our society.
Fr. Javier Arteaga, Director del Movimiento, Argentina
Original Spanish: Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA
