VATICAN/PARAGUAY, Pamela Fabiano and Maria Fischer •
From 7 to 8 November 2019 an international meeting is taking place in the rooms of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on “Integral Development and a Catholic Prison Pastorate”. Fr Pedro Kühlcke from Paraguay, a Schoenstatt Father, has been invited to attend this meeting, which is dealing with the challenge of tackling the penal system. For years he has been working in the pastoral team of a young offender institution, and for three years with “Casa Madre de Tuparenda”. This is a programme aimed at re-integrating young offenders into society and providing education and training. It is based on the spirituality of the Schoenstatt Movement and the pedagogy of its founder, Joseph Kentenich. —
In actual fact this invitation came from an urgent appeal for financial support for Casa Madre de Tuparenda, this great work in the shadow of the shrine at Tuparenda. This appeal via schoenstatt.org’s social network arrived in the Vatican, and was picked up by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development where a Schoenstatter is working.
At the time she not only advised those responsible to turn to the Vatican, but also recalled the subject in the Dicastery that was considering who should be invited to the International Meeting on the Prison Pastorate. She put up her hand and … Fr Pedro was invited.
On 6 November, the eve of the conference, the Dicastery circulated an infovideo on the Casa Madre de Tuparenda via his Twitter account, and explained that it is a “programme for the social re-integration and development of young people in prison, based on the spirituality of the Schoenstatt Movement and the pedagogy of its founder, Joseph Kentenich.”
Casa Madre de Tupãrenda, Paraguay: reinserción social y #desarrollo de adolescentes presos, con la espiritualidad del Movimiento de Schoenstatt @schoenstattorg y en la pedagogía del fundador #kentenich
…mañana empieza #pastoralcarcelaria19: stay tuned!https://t.co/QgR0KrSokd— Integral Human Dev (@VaticanIHD) November 6, 2019
This conference was suggested as an opportunity to get to know this new Dicastery, and the set up connections between it and the prison pastorate in various countries. It would enable all participants to get to know the situation and the needs of this pastorate in the various countries more deeply. It would promote projects already working in this field and their spread, and facilitate exchange, so that many can use them. Initiatives of prayer and gaining attention for prisoners and victims of violence were also publicised.
Video (spanish)
It is just beginning…. (Photo: P. Pedro Kühlcke)
Original: Spanish, 07.11.2019. Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, UK
