P. Alejandro Blanco

Posted On 2020-10-15 In Kentenich, official communiqué

Schoenstatt Movement Establishes International Research Group

Official Communique, Heinrich Brehm (Media Commission, Schoenstatt)•

This summer, the General Presidium of the International Schoenstatt Work established an international research group intended to ensure a coordinated, joint investigation of key themes and processes in the history of Schoenstatt that led to the exile of Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, in Milwaukee. The members of the research group were officially appointed at the Presidium meeting on October 12, 2020.—

The goal is to develop a critical edition of various texts and ways of acting of Father Joseph Kentenich in keeping with the present status of scholarly discussion. In doing so, the pastoral, psychological, and pedagogical theory and practice which he developed during his time and which are rooted in Tradition, theology, and Christian anthropology will be taken into account. The research group, whose work is initially on a two-year timetable, will identify the topics in question and agree on a common approach to handling them.

Fr. Alejandro Blanco, Argentina, Director of the International Schoenstatt Federation of Diocesan Priests, is responsible for the coordination of this work and is the liaison between the research group and the General Presidium of Schoenstatt.

The other twelve members of the research group come from five different countries, and almost all of them belong to one of the core communities of the Schoenstatt Movement:

  • Mónica Asprella and Rodolfo Concia, Institute of Schoenstatt Families, Argentina
  • Manfred Gerwing, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Germany
  • Joachim Söder, Joseph Kentenich Institute, Germany
  • Alicja Kostka, Schoenstatt Women’s Federation, Poland
  • Sr. Virginia Perera, Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, Argentina
  • Myriam de Soto Falcó, Institute of the Ladies of Schoenstatt, Spain
  • Fernando Alliende Luco, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Chile
  • Ignacio Serrano del Pozo, Schoenstatt Men’s Federation, Chile
  • Fr. Raúl Espina, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile
  • Fr. Patricio Moore, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile
  • Daniel Jany, Schoenstatt Federation of Diocesan Priests, Argentina

If necessary, additional persons from the various countries can be invited to research or work on individual topics.

 

Translation: www.schoenstatt.com

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1 Responses

  1. Eduardo Arnouil says:

    Regarding the creation of an Interdisciplinary International Research Group (GIII) “in order to analyze in a coordinated way key issues and processes in the history of Schoenstatt, which caused the exile in Milwaukee of the founder of the movement, Fr. José Kentenich” .
    Until now we knew that Bishop B. Stein, the diocesan visitor until January 16, 1950, had traveled to the Vatican on April 18, 1951 to meet with the prefect of the Congregation for Religious, Cardinal Luigi Lavitrano to request an apostolic visitor, request, which he reiterated in a memorandum of November 6, 1951 following the cardinal’s death. On these two occasions, the reasons for the request are clearly expressed: the recommendations contained in the official written report of the diocesan visitation of April 27, 1949 are not being implemented.
    Both the ordinary bishop of Trier, F. R. Bornewasser, on March 2, 1951, and the president of the German Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Josef Frings, on March 27, 1951 endorsed the request for an apostolic visitor, for the same reasons. The Holy Office appointed Father S. Tromp, s.j. as Apostolic Visitor. in March, 1951.
    The Holy Office, with the approval of Pope Pius XII, issued the decree of separation of Fr. Kentenich on July 31, 1951. Although the visitation ended in August 1953, Fr. Kentenich remained in exile in Milwaukee. On October 6, 1964, the decree to separate Schoenstatt from the SAC was issued, but this did not change the situation of Fr. Kentenich either. When Father Kentenich arrived in Rome on September 17, 1965 he wrote a letter to Pope Paul VI requesting that he enter the Schoenstatt Fathers Institute. The request was denied by the Congregation for Religious. On October 22, 1965 (“fourth milestone” in the history of the Covenant of Love) Pope Paul VI confirmed the Holy Office’s resolution to send the “Cause Kentenich” to the Congregation for Religious, ending the exile. Father Kentenich obtained the dispensation to retire from the SAC on November 15, 1965. On November 16, 1965 he found in Bishop J. Hoeffner a “benevolent bishop” to incardinate himself as a diocesan priest in the Diocese of Muenster. In this way, Fr. Kentenich “returned” to the Church, making the Dilexit Ecclesiam his own. On November 16, 1965, Fr. Kentenich celebrated his 80th birthday as a diocesan priest, in Rome.

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