This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the Schönstatt Fathers on the occasion of the General Chapter
The following is a summary of the Pope’s address to those present at the meeting:
Summary of the Holy Father’s speech
Dear Fathers of Schoenstatt
I thank the new Superior General, Father Alexandre Awi Mello, for his kind words, as well as for his service as secretary in the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life. He was my secretary in Aparecida, then my guide in Rio de Janeiro, then my secretary here. Thank you for your collaboration during these last years in communion with the Successor of Peter, in favour of the whole Church. I wish you a fruitful ministry in this new responsibility entrusted to you. I would also like to thank Catoggio, you are returning to Africa. Thank you, thank you.
The mystery of the redemption which Our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for all humanity and for the whole world has the characteristic note of the Hebrew word berith, covenant, covenant. And you, dear brothers, perform a beautiful service to the Church and to the world, especially by accompanying families in the various events and vicissitudes they are going through, announcing to all the members the beauty of the “Covenant of Love” that the Lord has established with his people. The world increasingly demands that we provide answers to the questions and concerns of the men and women of our time. Moreover, within families, there is often a gap of understanding between the old and the young.
The mystery of our redemption is therefore also intimately linked to the experience of love in families. And let us not forget that, in the final analysis, faith is always transmitted in dialect, through families, through the elderly, through grandparents. I think of the model offered to us by the Holy Family, and especially by the Virgin Mary, who cares with tender and committed love for all her sons and daughters, especially the poorest, in body and spirit. She, in the beautiful hymn of the Magnificat, confesses the exploits of the Lord, who “casts down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the lowly, fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty”, referring to the promise, to the covenant made with “our fathers” in faith.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, venerated with great love by each of the members of the Schönstatt community under the title of “Mother Thrice Admirable”, is a basilar model for all, who urges us to build bridges based on fraternal charity and the communion of goods with those most in need, while at the same time giving us wisdom and courage to go out to meet those who have fallen away from friendship with the Lord, to recover them with the witness of the new life in Christ, which is characterized by mercy. On my bedside table I have enthroned the image of Our Lady, which Alexandre made, and after a fortnight he brought a crown to crown it. I encourage you, dear brothers, to go forward in your apostolates, always renewing yourselves with the grace of the Holy Spirit and being courageous to open new ways in the service of families, to make the beauty of the Covenant shine – Covenant, the beauty of the Covenant – established between God and mankind, with spirituality and the living out of Christian values. May Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the mediation of the Mater Admirabilis, always grant all the members of the Schönstatt community abundant fruits of holiness.
May God bless you, and please do not forget to pray for me.
