19 March 2025 · 2025-03 newsletter
(8 April 1942 – 19 February 2025)
The following are two tributes given at the rosary vigil of Anton’s funeral. The first is from Karin Southgate, the president of the Victorian Schoenstatt Family and the second is from Sr. M Elizabeth who providentially was in Melbourne at the time of the funeral.
Karin shared:
We have joined together to farewell and honour Anton Jansz, who is husband, father, grandfather, friend, and leader in our Schoenstatt movement.
I have known Anton and Jean for the last 30 years or thereabouts, and in all this time, have known Anton to be a friend of absolute loyalty: Loyalty to Our Blessed Mother of Schoenstatt and the Schoenstatt movement. Anton, together with Jean, have given generously of their time and efforts in preserving the Schoenstatt movement in Melbourne.
Anton did an amazing job, particularly in consulting with, and advocating on our behalf with the Pallottine Community at Kew, to ensure that we could have a place there to honour our Lady in the Kew Shrine. Anton was instrumental in negotiating to have the signage with the Schoenstatt name raised at the Pallotti Centre at Kew. Anton also initiated the minor renovations of the Kew Shrine, such as having the floor tiled and the picture of Our Lady restored.
However, my greatest memory of Anton was when he attended the bedside of my father, Vince Dawson, when he promised in 1999, when my father had taken ill, to continue working for the Schoenstatt movement, to carry on the work that Dad had started. He kept true to his promise. In fact, even in his time of illness and frailty, he attended our Schoenstatt Christmas celebration in December 2024, just gone.
Over the years, Anton worked diligently to reach out to people, Pilgrim Mother Coordinators far and near. He would travel distances as part of his job, but during these travels he would not fail to proclaim Schoenstatt and the Blessed Mother, even introducing the Pilgrim Mother Apostolate and Shrine in a place like Lindenow, where he encouraged a lady to become a Pilgrim Mother coordinator. Many would not have heard of Lindenow. It is town near Bairnsdale in country Victoria. On his many travels for work, Anton would approach various wineries and obtain donations of bottles of wine for our annual dinner dance. At our many dinner dances Anton would be the friendly face at the entrance, welcoming patrons.
For several years our Victorian Schoenstatt movement would travel twice a year to Mulgoa, Sydney to our National Shrine. This would be in May and October. Anton was there. In May it would be on a coach together and in October, we would drive to Mulgoa, where on many occasions, Anton would lead the way in his car and me following in mine. They were wonderful spiritual, but also fun times. Throughout this time Anton continued to be an important leader, together with a core group of faithful members, in our Schoenstatt community. We thank Anton for his generosity in giving of himself, and for the significant role he played in forming and maintaining the Schoenstatt community of Victoria. Anton will be greatly missed and may his dear soul Rest in Peace.
Sr. Elizabeth shared:
It is with great sadness that we say farewell to Anton. He has been a very loyal friend and member of Schoenstatt over many years.
Thirty-five years ago, I met Anton for the first time. He and Jean, on the recommendation of friends in Sydney, requested a Pilgrim Mother Shrine for Melbourne. As this was the first Shrine to be sent out from the Shrine in Mulgoa to Melbourne, I was at first a little hesitant, wondering how it would be possible to keep up the contact and the formation of the people whom Our Lady would be visiting through the Pilgrim Mother Apostolate each month. However, the Blessed Mother urged me to trust, and Jean and Anton took the first Pilgrim Mother Shrine to Melbourne. This was in 1990.
Four years later, in 1994, it was possible to contact Jean and Anton again. In the following year, 1995, Anton began to enthusiastically organise meetings with those in the various Pilgrim Mother circles who received the Pilgrim Mother Shrine of our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt. These meetings offered formation for members of the PMA Circles with the support of the Schoenstatt Sisters and Fathers who had begun making regular visits to Melbourne. I was able to meet Anton and Jean in their home on several occasions and many times enjoyed their generous hospitality.
In 1999, when we invited the Blessed Mother to once more take possession of the Schoenstatt Shrine in Kew on 15th August, it was Anton and Jean who entered into the Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother on this significant day in the history of Schoenstatt in Melbourne. Just a month earlier I was privileged to be the witness when Anton promised Vince Dawson, the then leader of the Schoenstatt Family in Melbourne who had only weeks to live, to take care of Schoenstatt in Melbourne. This promise Anton has faithfully kept despite some times of struggle. With the help of the Blessed Mother, Anton and Jean weathered all “storms” and found their way into a much deeper relationship with each other and with God and the Blessed Mother. Anton loved Jean and their children. This was obvious in the way that he spoke of Jean as “his angel” and how he was proud of all his children.
In 2014 Anton spearheaded the renovation of the Shrine in Kew as a gift for the Blessed Mother in the centennial year of Schoenstatt. No task was too great for him and together with the helpers he gathered around him, the Shrine had a face-lift. He also worked hard with Fr. Evans, a Schoenstatt Father from Melbourne, and other loyal helpers, to bring into existence the Incorporated Body of the Victorian Schoenstatt Family.
There are so many other contributions Anton made in building up the Schoenstatt Family in Melbourne – those who live in Melbourne are better suited to recount the loyalty with which he carried out anything he saw as being necessary for the growth of Schoenstatt. One invaluable service to Schoenstatt in Melbourne was his loyal contact with the Pallottine Fathers and Community in Kew. The friendship he fostered there helped us to find our home at the Shrine in Kew. There is so much for which we give thanks today, but we especially thank God for the gift of Anton, for his friendship and loyalty.
It is only left to us now to express our gratitude to Anton by including him in our prayers and trusting in the merciful Love of the Father. May he rest in peace and may Jean, their children and grandchildren find peace in the knowledge of the wonderful contribution he has made to Schoenstatt in Melbourne.
The Funeral
The Funeral, held on Thursday, 27th February was a wonderful send off for Anton, a truly prayerful celebration. It seemed that Anton brought the Schoenstatt Family in Melbourne together.
At the beginning of the celebration Jean placed on a remembrance table the first Pilgrim Mother sent to Melbourne along with other mementos of Anton: a house representing his love of real estate; gardening scissors representing his passion for gardening and a plane, a symbol of his love for travelling and exploring this beautiful world. Two of Anton’s grandchildren played beautiful music at Communion, one playing the clarinet (My heart will go on) and the other played the Ave Maria with the viola. All twelve grandchildren gave tribute to their grandfather whom they obviously loved dearly.
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