SCHOENSTATT, Antonella Cerini. "A few weeks before he died, he called me and told me: Angel, take care of India. I worry a lot about those people. See to it that India knows Schoenstatt," relates Father Strada. Surprising! In the proximity of heaven, Father Esteban is still keeping an eye on his desire that Schoenstatt comes forth in India. Today, we know that this mission is underway with Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary and Schoenstatt Fathers present there, and in addition, for example, with the apostolic missionary work of Edgardo and Rosa Aymerich from Spain.

Father Esteban was a profoundly simple person. That was his most characteristic trait, comments Father Angel Strada. Even though he came from a high society family from the northern part of Buenos Aires and even though he was socially connected with important families, he never used this for his own benefit or as personal prestige. Everything was for the Blessed Mother. Father Esteban loved helping the most needy, the poorest of the poor. He was this way to the extent that in his will he left his belongings to his community and he asked that a part of them be given to the poor.

Two adventurers of the Blessed Mother: Father Esteban Uriburu and Joao Pozzobon

Father Strada relates that from 1962 to 1965, he and his course brothers which included Father Esteban, studied at the Palottine College in Santa María, Brazil. There they had their first contact with Joao Pozzobon. Pozzobon often visited the college since the director of the college was his spiritual director and in addition, he would take advantage of his visit to give them talks and instructions on how they should pray the Rosary and what to take into consideration for meeting with the families in their own homes. The neighborhood where they lived was deeply influenced by macumba (sorcery) and spiritualism, and Don Joao who was very knowledgeable of the popular culture, would prepare them for when they should go out on missionary activity: "Please, please, never kick a skull with lighted candles which is in the street because you will have to be responsible for all the bad things and tragedies which take place on that block" (Joao Pozzobon).

Already at that time, Don Joao had the reputation of sanctity. He was a very respectable man, simple and paternal. These were the qualities and virtues which remained embedded in the heart of Father Esteban who two years later reconnects with him to work together for Schoenstatt and to further the mission of the Blessed Mother….. "I would say that in both personalities (Father Esteban’s and Joao Pozzobon’s) there was a trait which made them brothers: simplicity. Father Esteban loved simple people and Joao was very simple and paternal," continued Father Strada.

It is fitting to specify that Don Joao is the one who initiates the Campaign of the Pilgrim Virgin in Brazil since if it had not been for the work of Father Esteban, the Campaign would not have become world-wide. The internationality of the Rosary Campaign was forged by Father Esteban Uriburu….. "I dare to say, exaggerating, that without Father Esteban, Don Joao’s work would have remained, with much luck, only in the South of Brazil, also taking into consideration that Don Joao was a great man," adds Fr. Strada.

That in the Latin countries a New Schoenstatt may develop

Father Angel Strada tells us of the importance and the ecclesial sense which one of Father Esteban Uriburu’s most interesting books has HUELLAS DE UN PADRE - Footsteps of a Father. This book whose second edition has recently been published after the first edition has been depleted for years, studies a span of the life of the Father and Founder, that is, it entails a very definite period of time: from March 16, 1947, day of his arrival in Rio de Janeiro, to June 20, 1952, when he leaves from Santiago, Chile toward Milwaukee/USA.

These five years in the life of Father Kentenich are key moments not only for the history of Schoenstatt but also for the history of the personal life of Father. He arrives in Latin America after having founded the Schoenstatt International in Dachau. He named himself Minister of Mary’s Exterior Relations; he concretely recognized himself as a representative of Mary. He had a very clear objective: "he wanted to multiply the Shrines; the Shrines are the workshops of the new man and the Blessed Mother is the great educator. Schoenstatt needs allies. The Father and Founder understands allies as winning over the best as far as human qualities and dignity goes. He tries to form a web of solidarity, an international web which is able to take the Gospel and makes a commitment to Mary which later is one of the thoughts of John Paul II" (Father Strada).

During these years, Father Kentenich has a concrete program, a goal: he observes that in Latin America there is a mentality which can complement and enrich the German mentality. To fulfill the mission of Schoenstatt, it is necessary to be fed by other cultures. It is exactly this intuition of the Father and Founder which is concretely worked through in the Second Vatican Council (the Church in missions, all bearers of the mission, all called to holiness, inserted into the world, etc., etc.). Two things about Latin America impress Father Kentenich, or better said, two sides, on the one hand, the spontaneous and great love for Mary; and on the other hand, the sense of family and the easiness for creating personal attachments. From this he concludes that Latin America has a greater predisposition for organic and integral thinking which he wants to develop…..a greater ease for identifying oneself with the mission of Mary and of Schoenstatt.

The Father and Founder thinks of the cultural unity from the exchange between the different countries; thus he speaks of "Trinitarian assistance" in the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. This means the ABC’s: he thought that the provinces of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile should form a community in the image of the Trinity. Partly because when these provinces began defining their ideals and names, Argentina discovered that the mission of their Shrine is the Shrine of the Father, Nazareth Province, and almost simultaneously, the Sisters in Brazil discovered that the mission of their Shrine is Tabor, with the help of Christ and in Chile, Pentecost, with the Holy Spirit. In this way they began a common task.

HUELLAS DE UN PADRE - Footsteps of a Father – Presence and Message of Father Kentenich in Latin America – 1947-1952

Footsteps of a Father constitutes an intense work taking six years of research, gathering of information (conferences, letters, editing reports, etc.), processing and analyzing interviews, testimonies and trips. This book, concretely, intends to deepen the profound legacy that our Father and Founder would leave as he passed through Latin America. In the introduction of the book, Father Esteban said the following: "the writing of this book is only the first step on the road which should be continued in the coming years. It has been like extracting the first raw minerals from a rich gold-bearing site whose dimensions cannot be exactly calculated….. With this book I am opening and unknown path until now since there was no global vision of the gigantic work of Father Kentenich in those years."

The contribution which this book presents for the mission of Schoenstatt in the Church of today is profoundly meaningful. In the 337 pages, the whole of the spirituality and pedagogy of Schoenstatt can be seen; the education of the instrument, the mission of the 31^st of May and the crusade for organic thinking, loving and living, mechanistic thinking installed in the Western culture and the task of the new continent to motivate the counter-current which is done by a work of salvation and reedification of these Western countries, the Father God current, the new man in the new community (ideal of the Church on the new shore), the Marian mission in the world of today, within many other lines of action for the new evangelization.

HUELLAS DE UN PADRE - Footsteps of a Father was depleted during the first years after the first edition. In mid 2005, Editorial Patris Agrentina reissued it. Editorial-patris-argentina@schoenstatt.org.ar

Uriburu, Esteban: Huellas de un Padre; Editorial Patris, Cordoba, Argentina, 2005 ISBN 950-9579-07-6. Sold at Schoenstatt bookstores in the Americas, Spain, also in Schoenstatt, Germany

Translation Carlos Cantú Family Federation La Feria, Texas USA