Rome Tag

Letter from Belmonte Dear Schoenstatt Family of Belmonte, Rome, There is not much news to relate since the last letter, but the few things that have happened have been very important to me. This concerns visitors which whom I could spend time and share their expectations of Belmonte. We were visited by members of the Focolare Movement, specifically women who live in a Focolare community nearby (sharing a life according to the Evangelical Counsels in keeping with the Focolare spirituality); a group of priests from Brazil who are studying inRead More
GERMANY, Maria Fischer • During the last days of a radiant autumn sun this year, more than 100 Schoenstatters from the Barnberg region came together on the afternoon of 30 October at the Roman Hall in Böbingen, where a large Schoenstatt flag waved in the soft autumn breeze. It was the annual regional gathering although it dealt with a worldwide subject: the mission of Belmonte’s International Schoenstatt Center in Rome and how the region’s Schoenstatters want to be connected and to do more work for this center. An elderly woman,Read More
CHILE, Octavio Galarce • Looking at the official picture of Mother Teresa published before her canonization in Rome, many people noticed the Unity Cross on the rosary she is holding in her right hand. We reproduce the account by Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, who has on several occasions explained the details of this: The memory of the conversation with Mother Teresa of Kolkata about the Unity Cross remains engraved perfectly in my memory. (When I worked in Rome) she attended the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life andRead More
ITALY,  Fr. Rolando G. Montes de Oca Valero • Being a Pilgrim Mother missionary presupposes allowing her to choose the methods. I expected my brother, Marwan – a Maronite rite priest with whom I know at the University – would return the picture with more “solemnity”. She had visited him the previous week, accompanying him at an important time; he was grateful and was willing to “return the visit.” When he took the Pilgrim Mother books out of his backpack and placed them in my hands, along with a “ThankRead More
ROME – CUBA, Fr. Rolando Gibert Montes de Oca Valero • I was not aware there was a Marian Jubilee.  I found out about it from a friend’s invitation.  So I thought: the Church wants to give Blessed Mother a gift… but surely she will give us something better, and I began to ask myself what would be the richest gift that Blessed Mother would want to give us… In conjunction with the Jubilee, some friends from the Neo-catechumenal Way invited me to a “Catechetical Symphonic Celebration.”  It was aRead More
BELMONTE ROME, Maria Fischer • “Let us run to the city of David…” perchance did the author of this beautiful German Christmas carol find himself, at one time, in the daily Roman traffic jam, looking at his GPS, which showed the arrival time threateningly indicating that it coincide with the beginning of the Covenant Mass in the Belmonte Rome International Center, while the co-pilot was saying out loud: “Push, push, push”? Disregarding all the non-Roman traffic laws, we finally crossed through the Center’s entrance gate punctually at 5:30 p.m., whileRead More
Interview with Albert and Aloisia Busch, Germany, Schoenstatt Family Institute • You posed the topic of Belmonte during one of your meetings of the Schoenstatt Family Institute.  In what context? Albert Busch:  Yes, during the annual meeting of the German-speaking region in August of 2016, the topic was the missionary task we have to support in the Church and in the world  – we as the responsible and enlivening nucleus within the Schoenstatt Family Work.  Our meeting took on the character of a re-orientation in agreement with the memorandum, whichRead More
ITALY, Claudia Minici • Yesterday, at 18:10, in the heart of Rome, we commemorated the history of our Covenant with Mary that began just over a century ago in the nearly forgotten, cold Vallendar valley in a small chapel that we now call the Original Shrine. Right here, where the Schoenstatt family saw its beginnings, the Group began the festivities with a large vigil in anticipation of the 18th. It was twenty-four hours of prayer that saw all daughter shrines in the world spiritually united. A meeting of souls withRead More
Belmonte | Newsletter 09/2016 Letter from Belmonte Dear family: August and part of September what a time!  In Schoenstatt, during the General Congress at the Institute of Diocesan Priests’ house, we have dedicated a good deal of time talking about Belmonte.  As the community responsible for carrying out the construction of the International Center, we are concerned, but not discouraged about concluding this great dream. I want to share something with you. When speaking about this Center, we want it to be called Belmonte Rome, so those who do notRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME, Maria Fischer • Pope Francis once again offered a glimpse of the works of mercy he undertakes every Friday as part of the Jubilee of Mercy.  This time he visited the neo-natal unit at the San Giovanni Hospital in Rome and a hospice that houses 30 terminally ill patients. Where babies fight for their lives The man in white dressed in green and visited babies who are fighting for their lives in incubators, and terminally ill patients who are waiting for the end of their lives.  FrancisRead More