Audience Tag

By Sarah-Leah Pimentel, South Africa • It’s been ten months since about 5,000 representatives (and thousands more who were watching at home) of the International Schoenstatt Family gathered in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican for an unforgettable encounter with Pope Francis. The audience was more than just the final big event of the two-week celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Schoenstatt Movement and the Covenant of Love in a small shrine in Germany. Fr. José Maria Garcia, in the introduction to the book containing Pope Francis’ messageRead More
Zimbabwe, Marlene Peter • On 29 March 2015, the Zimbabwe Schoenstatt Family began again the nine-week Queen of Africa novena in preparation for the crowning of Our Blessed Mother Thrice Admirable as Queen of Africa on 31 May 2015. This was to be the 35th time they have done so, having first crowned her on 31 May 1981. At the time, Zimbabwe had just come out of a bloody liberation war and the future seemed very uncertain. Zimbabwe was not the only country in Africa with serious problems and fears,Read More
Italy, Sicily Patricia Carollo, journalist • The family is not always and only that of our origin. Jesus said: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold…” (Matthew 19:29). Well, the Schoenstatt Family also exists; it was beloved and thought of by its Founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, who in 1914, in Germany along with a group of seminarians consecrated himself to Mary, in a chapel, which was later transformed into the Schoenstatt ShrineRead More
By Maria Fischer, from Buenos Aires • “I heartily thank you for the books, “Cultura del encuentro” [“Culture of encounter”] designed for this purpose. By doing this you are helping to take in Pope Francis’ message more profoundly,” wrote Archbishop Emeritus, Robert Zollitsch, from Freiburg, Germany in mid-March, after receiving some German edition copies. Auxiliary Bishop, Michael Gerber was also happy to be able to give a couple of copies. A few days later, on 25 March, in Encarnación: Bishop Francisco Javier Pistilli, a Schoenstatt Father, gladly received the copyRead More