John Paul II has departed

Audiencia de la Familia de Schoenstatt despues de la bendición del Santuario Matri Ecclesiae, septiembre de 2004

Audience of the Schoenstatt Family after the blessing of the Matri Ecclesiae Shrine. September 2004

Audienz der internationalen Schönstattfamilie nach der Einweihung des Matri-Ecclesiae-Heiligtums

JPII, Fr. Guillermo Carmona. The Pope has just died. The people applauded in the square of St. Peter' on the night of his Easter. Tears were mixed with the joy of the soul. The divine smile and the human cry, as Father Kentenich would say. We as a Movement unite ourselves profoundly with the sentiments of all the Church and we live these moments of mourning with a feeling of gratitude, praise and offering. We know that Mary, Portal of Heaven, whom he loved so much, must have taken him under her mantle, and God the Father received him as a wounded lamb in his paternal arms. I also want to share a brief reflection.

Time of communion with the spirit: 1985

Afternoon fell over Rome that September 20, 1985, when the audience with John Paul II ended. About five thousands persons from different places had arrived. Leaders of other Movements were present among them Giusani, founder of Communion and Liberation, who died not long ago. The Pope's words tugged deeply, pricking the soul and inviting us to hope. I will retrieve three phrases that seemed essential to me: "The secular experience of the Church teaches us that the intimate spiritual union of a person to the founder and the loyalty to his mission - a loyalty that always anew pays attention to the signs of the time - they are the fount of a vibrant life for its own foundation and for all the People of God."

"You have been called to be participants of the grace that your founder received and placed at the disposition of the Church." "In the joining of bonds your founder stressed the importance of the experience of father-child bond and the cultivation of the family spirit as a privileged means for living the revealed message. God is Father, God is not one but is a family."

Time of communion with the spirit: 1980

Years before, on November 17, 1980, John Paul II visited Germany for the first time as Pope. It was an important trip. The bishops and priests were invited to the Cathedral of Fulda, Diocesan Pastor, Monsignor Bolte, Schoenstatt Bishop, received us in the cathedral that holds the remains of the great missionary, the martyr, Saint Boniface. Reviewing the importance of great priestly personalities in recent times in Germany, the Pope expressly mentioned Father Kentenich. It was a public rehabilitation of the Schoenstatt Founder before the Episcopal Conference who detonated his 14 years of exile.

Eleven days later, on November 28th, the Schoenstatt Fathers went on pilgrimage to Rome and we had an audience and Mass with him in his private chapel of the Vatican. Besides unforgettable, I return to some thoughts that have things in common with the Spirit.

"For me this is a happy occasion to express to you and all the International Schoenstatt Work my joy for the fruitful development that the Apostolic Movement founded by Father Kentenich, has experienced, since the years of it founding, with the goal of expanding, defending, and deepening Christian life."

"In the light of some manifestions of crisis in the field of religious and ecclescial life, it was manifested - and it is manifested today -the Schoenstatt Movement in its diverse groups and institutions, with its spiritual and vital strength, and with a blessed apostolate, saturated with the spirit of its founder, of his great love of the Church and of an intimate devotion with the Blessed Mother".

"You have proposed as an Institute - with the other communities of the Schoenstatt work - to help with the education of the new man in a new community, according to the image of Mary and to become yeast and instrument in the hands of God, for the renewal of society"

The different communites of Schoenstatt had many encounters with the Holy Father. Do you remember when so pilgrims asked him at St. Peter's: "Your Holiness canonize Father Kentenich, and he replied "You canonize him?"

Time of communion with the spirit: 2004/2005

The most recent encounter was on the 9th of September 2004, in an audience that Schoenstatters had with him on the occasion of the blessing of the Shrine in Rome, he encouraged us to create a culture of life and of family. Be "luminious signs which the world continues to need", above all through the Homeshrine which he blessed with his words: "Following the advice of your founder I invite you to reserve a place of honor for the cross and the image of the Blessed Mother in your homes, converting them into Shrines of the Church, in which Mary acts as mother and educator,.

A day before, Cardinal Ruini, Vicarial Bishop of the Rome, for Rome and president of the Italian Episcopal Confrence, expressed in the homily a concept that surely was in the heart of the Holy Father: "With the blessing of the International Shrine, a great mission is entrusted to the Schoenstatt Family: to take Schoenstatt to the heart of the Church and to take the Church to the heart of Schoenstatt."

Already in this year 2005 our brothers of the Federation of Families were able to visit him at the end of their international chapter. It was probably one of his last audiences. His appeal came from his heart:

"The future of Humanity is forged in the family!"..."The family is a school of love" transmit your enthusisam for marriage and family to the people! If we forge the sacred institution of Matrimony and the family, in harmony with divine design, love and solidarity will grow among the people!"

Fragments of communion in the charisma

There are many traits that stand out in John Paul II. In the days to come we will have the opportunity to review his Papacy and admire

the action of God through a man full of the Spirit. But there are certain aspects that explain the enormous harmony and affection we have always had for him.

In the first place his love of Mary. We are profoundly happy when we received his "Totu Tuus", words of a son to his Mother, which we share with him, day by day when we renew the Covenant of Love.

Then the certainty that God acts in history through innumerable signs. We call it: faith in divine providence. How many acts in his life, that he knew how to interpret in the light of love and the divine will.

But above all, John Paul II was a father. That is why today we are left with a feeling of orphanhood. It reminds us of a central part of our spirituality: faith in a God who is Father and before who we have rights as sons. That Divine paternity is made urgent for the world through paternal, maternal, instruments among them, , for us, especially Father Kentenich.

When the Pope began his innumberable apotolic trips, we renewed the conscience that the Christian has an apostolic sending forth that cannot be substituted so that the Church can accomplish its mission of being family and soul of the world. And we find ourselves in our world, with the instrumental task of the Founder and the third grace of the Shrine, apostolic fruitfulness. It took us out of lethargy and it awakened us to go to our brothers.

The Father of Christianity has followed the footsteps of the Teacher and he is already enjoying the eternal Easter feast. There is grace and blessing. We pray for him and for our Mother, the Church, in our Shrines.

Translation: Celina M. Garza, Harlingen, USA