PRESS RELEASE OF THE DIOCESE OF TRIER, Judith Rupp •
Bishop Dr. Stephan Ackermann has announced the appointment of a new commission of historians for the process of beatification of Father Joseph Kentenich. The reason for this is the fact that after the opening of the Vatican archives (up to the end of Pope Pius XII’s pontificate in 1958), there are now documents available that were previously not accessible for diocesan research in the process of beatification of the founder of the Schoenstatt Movement. This is how the diocesan bishop in charge of the process of beatification, Ackermann, explained it on July 7th in Trier. —
The existing laws provide this kind of commission of historians for each procedure of beatification. The new commission will be based on the results of the previous one, which concluded its work in 2007. The task of the new commission of historians, whose members have not yet been appointed, will be to gather especially all the documents from the Vatican archives now accessible, which in some way concern this beatification process, and to evaluate their importance. The documents can be from Fr Kentenich himself or they can be documents that can refer to him and his work.
It will also be the task of the commission to compare the newly found material with documents already collected and evaluated by the previous commission from other files. At the end of its work, the commission will prepare a report – including the results of the previous commission – in which a statement will also be made about the personality and spirituality of Father Joseph Kentenich just as it appears in the gathered documents.
The process of beatification of Father Joseph Kentenich was opened in the Diocese of Trier by Bishop Bernhard Stein on February 10, 1975 and has not yet been closed at the diocesan level.
Translation of the related article in the “Trierer Volksfreund” newspaper
The Bishop of Trier will investigate the accusations against Father Kentenich
By Rolf Seydewitz
The Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, has announced the appointment of a new commission of historians in the process of beatification. The reason for this is the fact that “after the opening of the Vatican archives, documents that were previously not accessible to diocesan research in the beatification process are now available,” said diocesan spokesperson Judith Rupp.
The task of the new commission of historians, whose members have not yet been appointed, is to gather all the documents accessible in the Vatican archives that in some way concern this process of beatification, and to evaluate their importance. The documents could be from Father Kentenich himself or they could refer to him and his work, said the spokesperson.
According to new research by a historian, it is said that the Catholic priest, Father Joseph Kentenich, who died 52 years ago, manipulated massively and in one case also abused the religious sisters. A Schoenstatt representative said that the accusations were known for a long time and had already been refuted.
Bishop Bernhard Stein opened the process of beatification of Father Joseph Kentenich in the Diocese of Trier on February 10, 1975 and it has not yet been closed at the diocesan level. At the end of last week, the diocesan spokesperson Judith Rupp had stressed that if the new material proved “that the moral integrity of the candidate is not assured, then the process of beatification would have to be suspended.
Original: German, 07.06.2020 Translation: Maria Aragón, Monterrey, México.
