VATICAN, Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life • This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, which concluded with a solemn Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter’s Square with Pope John Paul II on May 30, 1998. — The event held great importance for the journey of numerous ecclesial realities, many of which were born in the years immediately preceding or following the Second Vatican Council. It was an event that marked the ecclesial
Read More COSTA RICA, Michelle Ramírez • Can you imagine 19 Movements and 18 pastors, together, talking among themselves? Seated at tables for four, with a digital clock in the center of the auditorium, visible…. very visible, keeping time…. each round of 18 minutes, counting in reverse…. and change! And again in 18 minutes, change! And thus, consecutively until completing nine times the change! No, it is not a game…. It is the Movements vs. the Church. It is the presentation and the offer of their apostolates and mission. It is the
Read More COSTA RICA, schoenstatt.org in conversation with “los tempranitos or early birds of the Universal Apostolic Confederation,” Elizabeth Fields and Alejandro Robles • “Everyone said this was impossible. Then one came that didn’t know, and just did.” As we talked via WhatsApp between Barcelona and Cologne until we ran out of cellphone batteries, my gaze stumbled upon a postcard that had been “residing” on my desk for years that said: “Everyone said this was impossible. Then one came that didn’t know, and just did.” In this case, a married couple came,
Read More An interview with Fr. Marcelo Cervi, Future Rector of the Schoenstatt Shrine and International Center in Rome Belmonte • What does Belmonte in Rome represent? The Belmonte Schoenstatt Shrine and International Center in Rome were a gift from the International Schoenstatt Family to their founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, on the occasion of his 80th birthday in Rome, in 1965. Father Kentenich saw this place as a concrete symbol of the International Schoenstatt Work’s full insertion into the Church. Schoenstatt, as a Catholic Movement, was lacking concrete visibility in the city
Read More TOGETHER FOR EUROPE – Impressions of the Ecumenical prayers on 2 July 2016 • In the morning of 2 July, the morning of the Rally at the Stachus, out in the open and surrounded by shopping, strolling, or telephoning pedestrians on their way to watch football, a participant at the Congress “Together for Europe” managed to visit all six churches within which Christians of very different confessions had gathered simultaneously for ecumenical prayer. It was the conclusion of the Congress and spiritual preparation for the rally. The other participants decided
Read More The Holy See Press Office/AICA • The Holy See Press Office gave the following summary of the Letter by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Iuvenescit Ecclesia (The Church Rejuvenates) to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Regarding the Relationship Between Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts in the Life and the Mission of the Church: The following is a summary of the Letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Iuvenescit Ecclesia” (The Church rejuvenates), to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the relationship between hierarchical
Read More Together for Europe, Press Release • In the framework of the European Congress of the Ecumenical Network “Together for Europe”, speakers from politics, society and the economy will take part in seventeen panel discussions on 1 July with various Christian churches and guests from all over Europe, and interested citizens of Munich, for example, on present-day persecution of Christians with Johannes Singhammer, Vice-President of the Bundestag (German Parliament) and the Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali; or about reconciliation with Yale lecturer Prof. Miroslav Volf PhD; or about the opportunities for the
Read More