CNA Staff, Nov 5, 2020 / 12:05 pm (CNA).-
A Church historian has published some details regarding the allegations of abuse made against Fr. Josef Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt ecclesial movement. The movement has rejected claims that its founder engaged in sexual abuse, while in July a German bishops announced that a commission would review the priest’s beatification process.
Historian Alexandra von Teuffenbach has published the first of two volumes in a history of the Schoenstatt movement and allegations that Kentenich, who is being considered for beatification, manipulated and coerced community members into sexually inappropriate conduct.
The first volume focuses on the life of Sister Giorgia Wagner, a member of the community who died in 1987. Wagner was assigned to ministry in Chile during her time in the community.
“When Fr. Kentenich visited Chile after the Second World War, in 1947, he abused her and deposed her as provincial superior,” von Teuffenbach wrote in a letter to Vatican analyst Sandro Magister, which Magister published Nov. 2.
“After many months, in a heartbreaking letter, Sister Giorgia described to the superior general not so much the abuse as the effects it had produced. She told how she had tried to oppose the abuses of Fr. Kentenich, who however told her: ‘The ‘Vater’ can do it!’ (in German the word ‘Pater’ is used to indicate a religious, but Kentenich called himself ‘Vater,’ like the father of a family),” von Teuffenbach added.
The historian provided Magister quotes from a letter written by Wagner to another sister in the community:
“I have realized that we are all slaves to him and that no one is completely free with him. Some sisters have made comments to me about when we are with Fr. Kentenich and we are completely under his magic and his power. Why does he treat us this way? […] Why does he preach the most beautiful virginity, both spiritual and physical, and take all liberties with us?,” Wagner wrote.
“We are allowed to speak with him only while kneeling. Then he takes both hands and pulls us very close to him. He has done this repeatedly with me. In this way one enters into close contact with his body,” the sister added.
von Teuffenbach said that when Wagner’s allegations became known in the community, “Fr. Kentenich did not deny anything but publicly stated that Sister Giorgia was ‘possessed,’ ordering her to retract. Later he said she was suffering from gout, thyroid disease, ‘menopause.’ The latest accusation was that she was mentally ill.”
The historian’s letter to Magister cited testimony from other sisters in the Schoenstatt community, who described being manipulated, coerced, or humiliated by Kentenich, with sexual overtimes in some cases.
Sisters apparently sent testimony to the Trier diocese, which considered the priest’s cause for beatification. Two wrote that:
“One of us went through this: she had to kneel in front of him and was supposed to call him ‘father.’ When she hesitated and he repeated his request, still unanswered because it went against her feelings, he nudged her until she – albeit reluctantly – did what he told her. The other went through something else: she was told to kneel in front of him, while he was sitting on a chair, and to put her face in his lap.”
According to Magister, the postulator of Kentenich’s cause for beatification said in October that he had not yet completed studying the documents von Teuffenbach studied and cited in her book. The documents themselves come the archives of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which were opened to scholars this summer.
Kentenich was born in 1885 and ordained a priest in 1910. In 1914, he founded a new ecclesial movement in a chapel in Schoenstatt, Germany.
The Holy See reportedly began to receive reports from alleged victims of the priest in the early 1950s, and dispatched an apostolic visitator, or Vatican observer, to assess the situation. According to von Teuffenbach, Kentenich was sent to the United States after that visitation, but no reforms of the community were subsequently enacted.
Kentenich went to the U.S. in 1951, and was permitted to return to Germany in October 1965. He died three years later. A beatification process for the priest began in 1975.
In July 2, Juan Pablo Catoggio, International President of the Schoenstatt Work, issued a statement on the allegations
“We firmly reject the accusation that Joseph Kentenich was guilty of sexual abuse of members of the Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary.”
“His behavior toward other persons – especially women – was always marked by a pronounced reverence and esteem, as well as by the principle of physical integrity, which he also impressed upon his communities.”
“That there were accusations from the ranks of the Sisters of Mary is not new to us. Fr. Kentenich himself gave a detailed account of his actions to his superior after an accusation became known. In this context, however, there was no mention of sexual abuse, neither literally nor in content,” Catoggio said, citing the return of Kentenich to a leadership role in Schoenstatt as evidence the Vatican rejected the charges against him.
Catoggio said that before a beatification process can begin, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith must issue a “nihil obstat” based on its files. Any “well-founded suspicion of moral misconduct” would have prevented this, but the CDF granted the “nihil obstat.”
“If doubt regarding the moral integrity of the Schoenstatt founder would have remained, his exile would not have finished and the Vatican would have not published a nihil obstat to open his process of beatification,” Catoggio said in a separate statement.
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the German diocese of Tier announced a commission of historians to review the beatification process July 7.
It will be the task of the commission “to reconcile the newly found material with what has already been gathered and evaluated from other archives by the previous commission. At the end of their work, the commission – including the results of the previous commission – will write a report in which a statement will also be made about the personality and spirituality of Fr. Josef Kentenich as depicted in the collected documents,” a diocesan statement said in July.
Catoggia said his community welcomed the work of the commission.
On July 8, he wrote to Schoenstatt community members, saying that “we very much welcome this decision of the bishop, since in this way the clarification of the questions regarding the person and actions of Father Kentenich.”
“We understand that the Schoenstatt Family throughout the world expects initiatives from us that respond to the many justified questions, confusions and demands for transparency. You rightly expect that the history of Father Kentenich, the history of Schoenstatt, and the history of the Sisters be more openly and transparently processed and communicated to the Schoenstatt Family,” Catoggio said.
“We recognize that we have held back for too long out of consideration and for the protection of persons and communities,” he added.
The Schoenstatt movement, which now includes priests, consecrated women, and lay involvement, is active in 42 countries, and focused on spiritual formation and Marian spirituality.
[…]
And under the moral ambivalence of Technocracy, there remain the questions how COVID jumped up to the human species in the first place, and who was financing the experimentation that probably led to the pandemic and deaths of millions (!); and the further questions about the reported use of aborted fetuses to either produce or test the antidote vaccines.
To recognize the “creation” of the vaccine is somewhat like applauding a nuclear test ban treaty after the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb have been used and become mainstream.
No Galileo Incident this time around, and yet there’s always the backstory, better remembered by backwardists than amnesiac forwarists. Broader than the medicines (including under-reported side effects), there’s the even bigger picture that the Academy of Life might think about, e.g., https://www.newsweek.com/its-time-scientific-community-admit-we-were-wrong-about-coivd-it-cost-lives-opinion-1776630
No problem here, however, with who merits appointment to the Academy for Life. My recollection is that it was St. John Paul II who in the 1990s appointed the atheist Stephen Hawking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Better Dr. Kariko than the Catholic Fauci or any other well-placed bureaucrats.
Here, just the added question about the big picture including the ultimate questions…
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/05/17/exploring-the-dark-world-of-vaccines-and-fetal-tissue-research-part-1/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/05/26/exploring-the-dark-world-of-vaccines-and-fetal-tissue-research-part-2/
My question is based upon the fact that it is not necessary, nor is it proper to destroy innocent human life, in order to save innocent human life.
The ratio of FURIN, HEPCIDin, and thus IRON, differs in persons.
Since it is true that the spike of the virus mimics HEPCIDin
https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+19+and+iron+deregulation&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
And it is true that the virus is known to cause inflammation, that in certain susceptible individuals can lead to illness and death, due to iron deregulation
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+spike+protein+of+covid+mimics+hepcidin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
How exactly does this vaccine restore the proper balance of FURIN which regulates HEPCIDIN, which regulates iron and thus correct the iron deregulation given the fact that this proper balance is necessary for both maintaining health and fighting disease?
The Faithful ,who respect and affirm The Sanctity of Human Life from the moment of conception to natural death, need to know.
Sorry, that information is out of order. I suppose that we can know through both Faith and reason, that A.I.certainly does not contain critical thinking skills or it would have had the ability to place my links in the proper order:
My question is based upon the fact that it is not necessary, nor is it proper to destroy innocent human life, in order to save innocent human life.
The ratio of FURIN, HEPCIDin, and thus IRON, differs in persons.
Since it is true that the spike of the virus mimics HEPCIDin:
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+spike+protein+of+covid+mimics+hepcidin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
And it is true that the virus is known to cause inflammation, that in certain susceptible individuals can lead to illness and death, due to iron deregulation:
https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+19+and+iron+deregulation&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
How exactly does this vaccine restore the proper balance of FURIN which regulates HEPCIDin which regulates iron and thus correct the iron deregulation given the fact that this proper balance is necessary for both maintaining health and fighting disease?
The Faithful ,who respect and affirm The Sanctity of Human Life from the moment of conception to natural death, need to know.