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Benedicto XVI, entonces Cardenal Joseph Ratzinger, durante una visita al Santuario de Bellavista, Chile Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, during a visit to the Shrine in Bellavista, Chile Benedikt XVI, damals Kardinal Joseph Ratzinger, bei einem Besuch in Bellavista, Chile Foto: Tagle/Vinculo © 2005 |
SCHOENSTATT, mfk. "The future of the Church will depend solely on the vigor of those who have profound roots and who live only from the abundance of their faith. No, this phrase is not taken from a talk of the Holy Father to the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, nor from the homily in St. Peter's Square during the ceremony that began his pontificate. For those who think it sounds like Benedict XVI, you have good intuition, since it truly is his phrase, but from the time that he was Cardinal...and it is the prologue of the Novena "Love the Church with Father Kentenich". The text of this prologue now has a new significance.
The future of the Church will depend solely on the vigor of those who have profound roots and who live only by the abundance of their faith.
It will not depend on those who accomodate themselves to the moment. It will not depend on those who choose the easy road, nor on those who recoil from the passion of the faith; who consider that it is wrong or old-fashioned, who interpret it as tryanny and legalistic for all it demands of man, and that causes sorrow, what it obliges one to do, and which makes one give himself completely. Let us say it in a positive way: the future of the Church will at this time, as always, be cradled by the saints.
Pope John Paul II during his first visit to Germany, singled out Father Kentenich as a "distinguished priest in recent history".A light radiates from his life, his word, and his work that can be an indication of the way. The axiom which guided him, formed him and with which he formed many is etched on his tomb: Dilexit ecclesiam, He loved the Church. May Mary, the Mother of the Church, by whom he always allowed himself to be guided protect us and help us; may She, through her faithful servant Father Joseph Kentenich, open to many the way of love of the Church so that a new vigor of faith and a new joy of faith will inundate our people and our country.
Rome, 18th of October 1989
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Translation: Celina M. Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA