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<i>Dear friends and correspondents of schoenstatt.org,</i>
<p>with much joy we forward to you all the beautiful letter written
by Fr José María for the team of collaborators (proudly calling
itself dreamteam), and that is not just for us only.,<br>
It is also published on the website.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/news/1631/53/We-have-a-Father-courageous-and-without-complexes-for-a-culture-of-encounter-or-dialogue-and-covenant.htm">http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/news/1631/53/We-have-a-Father-courageous-and-without-complexes-for-a-culture-of-encounter-or-dialogue-and-covenant.htm</a><br>
</p>
<p>On the other hand, we can joyfully share that our project of<a
href="http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/news/1605/250/A-hundred-homes-for-the-hundred-years-of-our-home-in-Schoenstatt-our-shrine-is-also-there.htm">
</a><a
href="A+hundred+homes+for+the+hundred+years+of+%22our+home%22+in+Schoenstatt+%E2%80%93+%22our+shrine+is+also+there%21%22">covenant
solidarity - offering 100 houses of solidarity for the poorest
of the poor in the streets of Asunción -, one from each shrine,
as jubilee gift for 2014,</a> is advancing and creating
tremendous joy among the poor families and maybe ever more joy
among those sponsoring these houses-shrines of solidarity, in
gratitude for the gift our 100 years of our house in Schoenstatt.
(see
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/news/1605/250/A-hundred-homes-for-the-hundred-years-of-our-home-in-Schoenstatt-our-shrine-is-also-there.htm">http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/news/1605/250/A-hundred-homes-for-the-hundred-years-of-our-home-in-Schoenstatt-our-shrine-is-also-there.htm</a>)<br>
Next to the 30 houses of the initial initiative that are built or
being built these days, the following shrines are present in this
free initiative jubilee gift:<br>
</p>
<p><b>from Schoenstatt (place)<br>
</b>Tabor <b>(men)<br>
from Germany:</b><br>
Ulm, Wuerzburg, Oberkirch, Dietershausen, Aulendorf, München<br>
<b>from Switzerland</b>:<br>
Lucerna, Horw<b><br>
from Spain<br>
</b>Madrid <br>
Pozuelo<b><br>
from Brazil</b><br>
Recife, Florianopolis<br>
<b>from England</b><br>
Manchester<br>
</p>
<p>Further, there are 8 "houses" without destination of a specific
shrine. <br>
Each house of this "settlement of covenant solidarity" will
receive a little plaque indicating: "House of Solidarity 2014 - <i>name
of the shirne</i>". <br>
A real gift from real commitment, in covenant solidarity, soul of
a covenant culture.<br>
</p>
<p>Greetings in the name of the entire dreamteam,<br>
in covenant solidarity<br>
maria<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<h3 id="NewsPostDetailTitle">We have a Father, courageous and
without complexes – for a culture of encounter, or dialogue and
covenant</h3>
<hr id="NewsPostDetailHorizRule">
<div id="NewsPostDetailSummary"> <strong>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><span style="color: #888888;"><em><img style="float: left;
margin: 12px;" title="Copyright: Foto Felici, Roma"
src="cid:part3.03020304.06000301@schoenstatt.org" alt=""
height="180" width="240">Fr. José María García</em> -<em>
Shrine of Madrid, August 2013.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong>Dear Dream Team*
friends,</strong></em><br>
In preparation for a jubilee meeting of one of the university
youth groups from Santiago de Chile, one of those young people
recently wrote to me about our Holy Father Francis <em>as
someone valiant in his fatherhood, someone who is a “father
without complexes” and who leads the Church without
complexes or strange commitments.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p><em> </em></p>
</strong> </div>
<br>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><br>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Although the formulation may not be
very politically correct – by those who might feel referred to
negatively – I believe it is an excellent, simple and strong
description of the fatherhood which Providence is giving to us in
our Holy Father Francis in order to lead the Church toward “the
new shore,” as our Father and Founder would say.</p>
<h4><strong>His recommendation: Go out onto the street!</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><br>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Every part of the Church, and many
others outside of her – believers or non-believers – have received
his clear and hope-filled words. They are also words that motivate
us to assume the responsibility we all have to build a world in
accordance to the Will of God, in the strength of the Spirit and
through the way of Christ.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Cardinals and bishops, priests, men
and women religious, novices and seminarians, families, the youth
and elderly, communities and institutes have received this
challenge to go out “onto the street” to take – not a utopian hope
– but concrete deeds in living evangelization projects to all men
and women wherever they may be. And if they are on the “outskirts”
then we have to go there, with all the risks and dangers it may
include.<em> </em>He repeats to us constantly<em>: I prefer an
injured church, because she goes out to serve, to a Church that
is sick because of her self-absorption</em>. <a
href="http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/schoenstatt-news/francis-for-the-pilgrims-2014.htm">Testimony
to this can be found in the section of Schoenstatt.org where
on a weekly basis texts are selected which motivate us on our
own pilgrimage toward the 2014 Jubilee.</a> Undoubtedly, because
we are the Church, these words are also directed to us. How happy
must our Father not be with this missionary impetus which is given
to us from the very heart of the Church!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“Let us walk like you through
life, let us mirror you forever, strong and noble, meek and
mild, peace and love be our endeavor. Walk in us through our
world, make it ready for the Lord</em>” (HEAVENWARDS, American
Edition, p. 171)<em> – </em>a prayer from our Founder which
embodies our Holy Father's vision.</p>
<h4><strong>Beyond the jubilee </strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Reading the signs of life, the
leaders and those responsible for our International Schoenstatt
Family established in Conference 2014 and in their final
declaration – the <a
href="http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/uploads/documents%202014/9t0291en-messag-konferenz2014.pdf"
target="_blank">“Message 2014”</a> – what they thought should be
our preparation and attitude for the Jubilee. Today, the Church
and the Holy Spirit are ratifying it step by step! We almost dare
to say that our preparation began there not only for the internal
Jubilee, but also to enable us to contribute as Father’s Family to
this Church which has no fear, which has no complexes about
calling things by their name and starting the changes in those
attitudes and institutions which with time have remained decrepit,
and are a burden in their task of evangelization, as our Holy
Father tells us repeatedly.</p>
<h4><strong>A Church that seeks encounter and wants to serve</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However, what is important for us –
after what was so deeply experienced in WYD in Rio in so very many
encounters with our Holy Father Francis – is to see that our
Jubilee can take our Father’s “<em>dilexit ecclesiam</em>”, He
loved the Church, to the “<em>cor ecclesiae</em>”, the heart of
the Church. Each of us in his or her own place, and according to
each one's means and possibilities, by living their covenant of
love in solidarity with everyone, especially with those most in
need and those who are estranged. We do not do it while seeking
recognition or confirmation, but in order to fulfill our mission
to serve. The Church goes out to serve and needs the serving
attitude and action of our Mother and Educator. She has already
done it as “Pilgrim Mother”…..what great evangelization! So much
hope has been sowed in both people and institutions!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">My gratitude goes out to those who
were and are a launching point for the Blessed Virgin in her
service, to the “missionaries/coordinators of the Pilgrim Mother.
God uses those who are the little ones to show us the way – as our
own Father and Founder reminded us – when he asked Fr. Esteban
Uriburu and his course of priests to look at and reflect on the
“evangelization project of the future” undertaken by Don Joao
Pozzobon. If truth be said, it was something that was considered
at that time as having little to do with Schoenstatt.</p>
<h4><strong>The Church is renewing herself with Pope Francis</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is a missionary evangelization
task we can undertake – exactly as was done by the Schoenstatt
Family, because it had a Father who was concerned for the truth in
his gestures and words, in his service to the life of each
individual both within and outside the Family, and in his real and
tangible closeness. We are aware that his mission to be a Father,
and to form fathers so that Schoenstatt could be a Family at the
service of life, both within itself and outside of itself, was to
a great extent what led him into exile in Milwaukee.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is this renewed Church which
impetuously gives Herself to this missionary service, and faces it
bravely and realistically, because She has a Father who motivates
Her to go out from Her strongholds…..to discard Her complexes…..to
look at the truth of life and history, no matter how hard it may
be, and to face life head on, even knowing it includes pain and
sacrifice, troubles and disappointments…..that the cross forms a
part of her existence, but is enlivened by faith in the
Resurrection. How beautiful was Pope Francis’ homily at Aparecida!
And the believers accepted it valiantly, knowing that we have a
Father with us, that the Church has a Father, just as the young
couple said at the <em>favela</em> in Rio and “overlooking
protocol” calling him, Father Francis.</p>
<h4><strong>The real path of the Beatitudes and the Magnificat</strong></h4>
<p>In Europe we are in “crisis”, not only financially, economically
or culturally, but vitally. We are in need of hope and are tempted
to enclose ourselves within ourselves like the apostles in the
Cenacle. We see it in defensive nationalism and lack of
confidence; we are suspicious of one another, of what is strange,
of the foreigner, of the person who thinks differently, of the
person who is not one of us – simply because we re afraid. What
Father Francis proposes to us in the purest style of the Gospel is
the royal highway of the Beatitudes and the Magnificat…..to go out
and give…..to offer our lives, not only our ideas, as disciples of
the Master and children of Mary in the power of Pentecost.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A well-known Spanish academic,
Javier Reverte, recently wrote as a self-defined “Catholic
agnostic” that <em>“in times of social depression/dejection, of
discredited politicians, of unleashed corruption, of voracious
greed by the great financial powers, and moral collapse, a brave
Pope without desires of earthly powers can awaken hope in lay
society and including agostic persons. Because we humans need
heroes and ethical proposals” (ABC, 08,22,2013).</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Let us assume the risk of being
children of a complex-free Father, who is brave, simple and
humble, who serves and makes credible and tangible – not only
himself – but Christ in his Church.</p>
<h4><strong>Where there is a Father there is hope, a family and
strength</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I unite myself to the prayers of our
International Family, asking for the canonization of our Father
and Founder, making our own the words of Jesus: “Whoever sees me,
sees the Father!” We know that as Family we are the guarantee of
his sanctity and of his mission, in truth, justice and love. This
is how many years ago a generation of university youths in Chile
began, and this is how a current of life has broken through,
renewed and hopeful, within the Church. It is the current of the
Father which allows us to be as children, “missionary disciples.”
Where there is a father, there is a family and hope. There is also
the strength not to fall into fear or self-absorption, which are
real dangers for the Church. We have been forewarned by our Holy
Father Francis.</p>
<h4><strong>Serve courageously and without complexes</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We have just celebrated the
“Queenship of Mary”. She is the Queen of each one of us because we
allow ourselves to be formally questioned by the Father, our
Father Francis and our Father. They call us to serve valiantly and
without complexes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">From the Shrine in Madrid and
grateful for your surrender and service to the Family and the
Church, I send you my blessing and love. I am glad to be able to
share with you these reflections, the fruit of all the hope the
Father awakens in me. Thank you to everyone.</p>
<p style="text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;">Yours,</p>
<p style="text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;">Fr. José María</p>
<p style="text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;">August 2013</p>
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