ARGENTINA, mda. On the 13th of August, during the jubilee year, Nelly Depetris, co-founder of the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign in Argentina, died after a serious and difficult illness. Monina Crivelli, her friend and companion from the founding era, the spread, and consolidation of the Campaign in Argentina and so many countries, described her like this: “She was a pioneer of the Campaign, who captured the spirit as very few had the grace through Father Esteban, and with whom I shared so many experiences in the National Campaign Team, lots of meetings and pilgrimages to Santa María.”
Co-founder of the Rosary Campaign in Córdoba, Nelly never spared any effort in dedicating many hours of the day to serve the Queen, to take care of each and every detail for each member of her Beloved Campaign,” Matilde and Juan Barbosa from Córdoba commented. “We remember her running here and there with Osvaldo in the days before the Celebration of the Campaign bringing the script, adding things, and always with such delicacy… that only the TRULY GREAT ONES have. We are going to miss her smile, her closeness, her affection, her always motivating and familiar words…Her love for others…”
She actively participated in the workshops of reflection in Santa María in 1988, 1989, and 2000, where under Father Esteban Uriburu’s direction, the authentic experiences of the missionaries, the key traits of the Campaign, John Pozzobon’s role, the Campaign as fruit of the 31st of May and the contribution of the Campaign to the New Evangelization were studied – reflections that were condensed in the Document of Consensus of 1989, available in Spanish and German.
For many years, she participated in the EAN, the national advisory team, where she worked developing the modalities of the Campaign, the pastoral of the wayside shrines, the missionary manual and much more that became the basis of the campaign’s fruitfulness and authenticity. In any encounter with her, it took no longer than three minutes to enter into the subject of the Campaign. Her eyes would begin to shine and a great smile of happiness accompanied her words that were always profound, always enthusiastic, always convincing and concerned about carrying out John Pozzobon and Father Esteban Uriburu’s spirit to new generations and new countries, where the Campaign had extended.
In 2002 with a touch of an adventure, she took five pilgrims to Schoenstatt from where they departed to Senegal via contacts made through a youth from Córdoba and schoenstatt.org readers. An article on schoenstatt.org about her visit to Schoenstatt 2006 says: “’To go to the Shrine is the most loved of my life. It was so beautiful to be here again!’ Then she did not stop speaking enthusiastically about the Campaign and the Blessed Mother’s miracles every place where She arrived…”
We must express gratitude to those who invented the Internet for the new quality of attachment it has given us
Although she did not know how to use a PC well, she was a great collaborator of schoenstatt.org during the years of its founding. On her last visit to Schoenstatt in 2008, she said: “I do not know if here you know what schoenstatt.org means. For us it is a new way to live Schoenstatt, to live with the family, of feeling a part Father Kentenich’s wonderful work. We must express gratitude to those who invented the Internet for the new quality of attachment it has given us.”
Dear Nelly, now you live in a new quality of attachment. You do not forget your great love, the Campaign, Schoenstatt’s missionary face, and you do not forget that web of the covenant of love in solidarity that we weave, as we begin Schoenstatt’s second century, a century to which our Holy Father Francis will send us as missionaries.
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA
