IN A FEW WORDS, Fr. Joaquín Alliende Luco. So, who and what, essentially, is Fr. Kentenich? A philosopher, educator, prophet, theologian, pastor, lawyer? He is a multi-faceted Catholic. His formation for the priesthood took place in a seminary that prepared heroic missionaries for life in Cameroon, and not the life of a theologian in Europe.
I am certain that in the context of the universal Church, he would first and foremost be called “saint.” A more insightful person would say “prophetic” and “prolific founder.” And those who study the bottom of the ocean where the light of day does not reach and everything lies in permanent silence would use two syllables: “father.” Without a doubt, there remains a certain intuition: Joseph Kentenich is hard to describe.
Let me hazard a simple explanation. Joseph Kentenich’s thinking should lie in the flow of the reflexive cultural current called personalism. He is not a Neo-Thomist, as it may appear from some of his language. His basic theme is man in social and religious communion. It is the “I” that is constituted in and for the “you.” He always sees the threats to the identity of the subject. He understands the subtle forms of de-personalized massification. He is the declared enemy of a nobody mentality and the artist of uniqueness (one fragile lamb is more than 100 sheep). Human happiness is Trinitarian. Not only in heaven. The free “I” builds a family, an ecclesial and political “communion” which Christ with Mary implant in the Triune God. In this existential display, the feminine has a role that is always indispensable, in light of the privileged relationship with the New Eve, as the dynamic starting point for all attachments to the “you” on earth and those in heaven….and with the inhabitants of each personal story. The maturity of this proposal gives Kentenich a paternal-maternal personality, born of a fraternal and liberating childlikeness.
In the theological-anthropological as well as the theological, he stands as a precursor to the second Vatican Council and the tutor for some future Council.
Fr. Joaquín Alliende L.
Translated from the Spanish by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
