17 January 2025 · 2025-01 newsletter
This event is referred to as Schoenstatt’s Second Milestone. Why is it so important in the history of Schoenstatt?
On 20th January 1942, Father Kentenich, a prisoner of the Nazis in the Gestapo prison in Koblenz, Germany, freely chose on this day not to use an opportunity he had been given to have a medical examination which may have allowed him to be excluded from going to a concentration camp.
After much soul-searching, Fr. Kentenich had concluded that God’s will for him and Schoenstatt was to turn down the offer and freely embrace the concentration camp. In this concrete moment of the family’s history, he saw the urgent need to challenge his followers to trust even more radically in God’s power over human power. He was able to write a few short letters on January 20 that were smuggled out of the prison. A few lines from these letters capture the spirit of his decision:
“The answer came … to me during the consecration [at Mass]. Our priests should take the Inscriptio and Blank Check seriously, especially some of the older ones. I will then regain my freedom. Please understand my decision on the basis of faith in the reality of the supernatural and in the interwovenness of fates ofthe members of our Family.”
“Please fulfill one request for me: See to it that the Family takes the Blank Check and Inscriptio seriously… Then I will be free.”
His decision had been combined with the declaration of his belief that his freedom would depend on the family committing to the Blank Cheque (total conformity to God’s will) and the Inscriptio (love of the cross). This expressed the “interwovenness of fates”– which was that his well-being would be determined by his family.
He was convinced that in God’s eyes he and his followers were a family. In this faith, he relied on the reality of the supernatural world, the reality of the covenant they had made and the union of destiny among the members themselves. His concern was not about a particularly heroic act. His intention was to open our eyes to the deep dimensions of our connectedness as a spiritual Family created with him and around him. Without being aware of this background, we will not truly understand our father.
Fr. Kentenich characterized the inner meaning of January 20 as “standing in divine confidence” or an act of heroic hope or trust. He spent much of the rest of his life actively challenging the members and communities of his movement to “get up onto the stage of January 20” and make this milestone their own so as to reach the interior freedom so needed for our times.
The profound effect of this milestone can be seen in Fr. Kentenich’s characterization of January 20 as “the axis of the entire history of the family.” The importance of inner freedom, total self-giving and radical trust in God, always important to Schoenstatt, were now sealed in a way that made them inseparable from Schoenstatt’s identity. The role of Fr. Kentenich also began a new phase of development: whereas he was previously more in the background of the public awareness of the movement, he was now thrust more into the foreground because of a heightened public appreciation for his role as founder.
Moreover, January 20 marked a new stage of growth for Schoenstatt’s experience as a family. The realization of the “inter-wovenness of fates” of founder and followers enhanced the sense of belonging together. Thus the 20th January marked a new stage of growth for Schoenstatt’s experience as a family and this connectedness can also been seen in the events that followed – such as Schoenstatt’s third milestone (31st May, 1949) and father’s exile in Milwaukee for 14 years.
During a four-week Tertianship in Brazil in 1952 Father Kentenich said in referring to the 20th January 1942:
“Seen in a supernatural light, we are a real family: I and my followers — my followers and I. If we are a real family in God’s plans, then our destiny is interwoven, our destiny is interconnected in the supernatural sense. Practically speaking, the sacrifices my followers make on my behalf are really for my person; I count on this reality, and it has proven effective. By the same token, the sacrifices I offer on behalf of the Family are a means to save the Family. This offers a much greater security than if I had the whole Gestapo on my side.
Seen within the framework of the whole Founding Document and the covenant of love, it had to be taken for granted that the condition [for my freedom] was the Inscriptio made by the whole family.
My Inscriptio protected Schoenstatt, and the Inscriptio of the Family gave me back my freedom. This is a classic example of spiritual interconnectedness, of mutual interwovenness. Here you see the new person in the new community, not only talked about but exemplified and lived.”
(rFrom: “In Union with the Father” – JK Brazil, 1952 and, “200 Questions about Schoenstatt”, Fr. Jonathan Niehaus, 2005)
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