25 years of SCHOENSTATT.ORG!

ARGENTINA, Lilita and Carlos Ricciardi •

Last October 12th – the anniversary of the passing away of Fr. Esteban Uriburu – was also the 25th anniversary of the first article published by SCHOENSTATT.ORG. Taking advantage of the visit to Argentina of Maria Fischer, coordinator and founder of this media, a celebration was organized with the leaders of the City Bell Wayside Shrine on the occasion of such a joyful event. —

25th anniversary of schoenstatt.org, celebration at City Bell: Teresa Fiorucci, P. Javier Arteaga, M. Fischer

First of all, we want to highlight the reception by Teresa Fiorucci and her team of collaborators, who had decorated the Wayside Shrine even more and who told us about the projects and the very praiseworthy task that they carry out…which will be the subject of another article. Before the Wednesday Mass at 6:00 p.m. (it is also celebrated on Sundays at 10:30 a.m.) Maria Fischer told those present about the origins of Schoensatt.org, how the idea of creating this means of communication for the Church and the world came about.

25th anniversary of schoenstatt.org, celebration at City Bell

Inspired by the MTA magazine of the years 1916 – 1923

While studying for a degree in communications in Germany, he thought about how he could apply what he was studying. Father Tilmann Beller suggested the creation of an organ of diffusion of Schoenstatt, not so much from a theoretical point of view, but taking into account the real-life stories and news that were happening. The key inspiration in the creation of this page was the MTA magazine that Father Kentenich wrote to communicate with the youth who were in the war and in different places in Germany at the beginning of the last century. She tells us that this MTA magazine was used by her for her undergraduate thesis.

The narration of the beginnings of Schoenstatt.org and the life it brought to other parts of the world by telling stories of events, circumstances, news of the movement was exciting and gratifying. To see how, thanks to the translators and collaborators of the web page, it was possible to reach 145 countries with the information that is published daily. She relates that at the beginning it was only in German and that on the inauguration of the Shrine of Tucumán-Argentina, Father Ángel Strada gave a chronicle of it to Maria, which was published – in German – as the first article from outside of Germany; he showed the photos of the Shrine and the chronicle in German to the Schoenstatters from Tucumán, they were very excited to see their Shrine presented to the world. But they did not understand the text…

From then on, the articles began to be translated into several languages thanks to the translators and collaborators of the site.

He also clarified that the site is totally independent and free of charge, it does not receive any subsidy.

The article that most impacted her

Maria was asked which article had the greatest impact on her of all those published during these 25 years. She answered that there were many, such as the one about the seminarian from Uganda who contacted her last week when he read an article about the Family Missions and asked her how he could be a Schoenstatt Diocesan Priest in the future…in a country where Schoenstatt is not present….

But the article that impacted her most was the one about the death of Maria Tedeschi, a great collaborator and translator of Schoenstatt.org, who died at the age of ninety-one and who until a few months before her death had been translating the published articles into Italian. Since I knew Maria Tedeschi, I searched in the archives and re-read the article… and I was moved by reading it (07-08-2016) as Maria was moved by talking about it.

Holy Mass

A Mass of thanksgiving for schoenstatt.org

Before the Mass, the candles for the 25th anniversary of Schoenstatt.org were blown out and then we had the celebration presided by Father Javier Arteaga, who has been responsible for the continuity of the web page throughout all this time. During the Mass, Father Javier had words of gratitude for the task developed by Maria Fischer and the entire team of collaborators and translators, inviting them to continue with such a beautiful task of spreading the news and stories of the Church and of Schoenstatt internationally. After the Mass we made a toast for the next 25 years of the web page inviting all those present to tell their stories.

We hope that this page will last in time in order to become a New Man in a New Community… as Father Kentenich used to say… putting our hand on the pulse of time and our ear to the Heart of God.

A rainbow appeared after the Mass

Thank you, Maria, and team, for the work done!

Thank you, Lilita and Carlos Ricciardi, part of the team in twenty-two of these 25 years.

Original: Spanish. Translation: Marcela Fernández, Toronto, Canada