Father Esteban Uriburu –tireless sower of the Covenant of Love

ARGENTINA, Roberto Horat. On the way to the Centenary and during the final hours of already preparing ourselves to renew the Covenant of Love with all our Schoenstatt brothers/sisters around the world and of heaven, we believe that this past October 12^th – that was so special – we could not keep from expressing gratitude for the life, the work, the charisma, and the good carried out by Father Esteban Uriburu, the untiring sower of the Covenant of Love with Mary.

He once related how he providentially learned about the Schoenstatt Movement.

“In the mysterious fabric of our life – he said – woven by the work of God and ours, the one who has made the plan, the one who takes the initiative, the one who makes the main contribution, is God. We are always the secondary factor (also necessary), who has the attitude of openness, of willingness, of corresponding to the Divine Plan. As the years pass, my awe grew before the roads of God in my life. Once and again, I return to my first encounter with Schoenstatt, I find that I did not seek it; I did not plan it, where I mysteriously entered. It was the month of January 1957, a key year for me. I was returning from Bariloche, in a Volkswagen “beetle”, driven by Carlos Chevallier Boutell. We had never thought of reaching Chile. A rock was thrown by a truck, on one of the slopes between Neuquén and Zapal that shattered the windshield of the auto; it was catalyst for me to end up in southern Chile, learning about Schoenstatt. Upon arriving at Villa La Angostura, Carlos told me that he had to continue to Bariloche. In Cumelén, I met Luis Menvielle, and he suggested the possibility that the two of us depart with our backpacks and sleeping bags to San Martin de los Andes. On Friday, January 18^th, I set out with Luis, walking, open to the possibility that someone would give us ride. A truck stopped, and it was during this stretch toward San Martin of the Andes, that it occurred to me to ask Luis “Might we go to see the Pacific Ocean in Chile? After acquiring a third class ticket to Puerto Montt, we boarded the train. Once the train was running, Luis got up to go through the cars.

Suddenly a young man, who was seated across the aisle, approached me and he asked me “Are you an Argentinean?” It was Hernán Krause.

We began to converse, and he introduced me to a friend: Cristián Pérez Fernández. Both were Schoenstatters, and they were going to a camp of this Movement. They invited me to participate in it, where it was established at Lake Calfquén.

I told Luis “You go to Puerto Montt, and I will go to the Camp.” Hernán went ahead to find the camp, while I stayed to wait with Cristián. Suddenly I asked myself: “What am I doing here?”

That morning I had departed from San Martín de los Andes, with Luis, to Puerto Montt, and now I was with two Chileans I had just met, on the road to the camp of a Movement whose name – Schoenstatt – I could hardly pronounce.

I remained for four days with eighty university Chilean youths, led by Father Ernesto Durán.

Schoenstatt intuitively captured me. The joy, the family spirit and the tendency to heroic giving of self impressed me. But I thought: “If I join this Movement, I will do it completely.”

Did Hernán Krause completely realize what he spontaneously wrote to me, on a little holy card of the Blessed Mother, when I left the shore of the Calfquén Lake, in the beautiful southern Chile?

“Esteban, close to a lake, the Queen of Heaven has shown you the great mission of your life. She brought you as an adventurer, she sends you as an adventurer. Be faithful to her, heroically loyal to her love, and everything else will be added. May the memory of these days of Calafquén, always maintain your great restlessness and ideals.”

A Covenant of Love that began a new time of Schoenstatt in Argentina

Father Esteban sealed his COVENANT OF LOVE in New Schoenstatt on the 17^th of February 1958, exactly one year after those events.

One could say that his Covenant “began a new time in Argentinean, Latin American Schoenstatt and looking at his life…”even beyond”.

In 1971, he was ordained as a priest, as a member of the Secular Institute of Schoenstatt Fathers. Father Kentenich himself called him “a new Christopher Columbus, because in the future he would be a “conqueror of the world.”

Soul of a conqueror

Father Guillermo Carmona confirms it with these words: “Esteban had the soul of a conqueror, of a founder. He was a pioneer and initiator of works. He knew how to open doors, or at least knock on them. Perhaps few know that he was the first one to sow the dream in all the people for a Shrine in Cordoba. When his desire was fulfilled in 1968, he was already the author of other plans; he confessed in Münster that he had already mobilized his group “Ver Patris” in 1957 to offer capital of grace and to raise money for this Shrine. This holy “vice” betrayed him…and it would be the reason for which he sowed, in many other places in Argentina, the dream of having their Shrine: he wanted for others to also enjoy the privilege of having it. (Source: Estena, así te reCORdamos)

Thank you, Father Esteban

We are grateful to Father Esteban for the many works and endeavors: Carrascal in Santiago de Chile, Confidentia; Belén de Escobar; San Isidro; Comodoro Rivadavia; Mary’s Volunteers, the Father Kentenich Children’s House, Sión del Padre, the Marian Center in the Diocese of Nueve de Julio and the Rosary Campaign, to which he consecrated and gave himself entirely. Like John Pozzobon, he wanted “everyone to know and love” the Blessed Mother, and he dreamed that the graces and Schoenstatt’s message would not be restricted to some groups, but more importantly, that it reach all the people.

It was Father Esteban, who once he understood the mission of the Campaign, took the Pilgrim MTA with the Rosary throughout the entire world, so that she would be loved as “MOTHER OF THE PEOPLE,” just as Father Kentenich had announced in Dachau.

This life of this Covenant and “Adventurer” has opened roads for us.

In Buenos Aires on October 12^th, in gratitude for the gift of Father Esteban’s life, Holy Mass was celebrated at Confidentia Shrine at 8:00 p.m.

Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA