Joseph Kentenich

Kentenich observed the rise of Nazism with concern, ranking it among the products of what he called "the idealistic and mechanistic thinking" that engulfed Europe since the nineteenth century. In 1933, when the Nazis took power in Germany and closed several religious houses, Kentenich quickly sent groups of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary to South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay to allow the movement to survive in case the persecution of the Church in Germany intensified.[9]

His opposition to Nazism attracted persecutory reactions towards him. Father Kentenich said about the swastika: "We, it is the Cross of the Christ that we follow." About Nazism, he said, "I see no place where the water of baptism could run there".

At Dachau concentration camp

Kentenich at the Dachau concentration camp (second from the right)

Registration card of Joseph Kentenich as a prisoner at Dachau Concentration Camp

When Kentenich was sent to Dachau in March 1942, there were 12,000 prisoners, including 2,600 priests. He was inmate number 29392.[2] The Germans were grouped in a block where they had the right to attend daily Mass. On 19 March 1943 Kentenich celebrated his first Mass at the camp and later gave nightly talks to his fellow prisoners.

Kentenich came under the protection of the "kapo" (inmate block chief), a communist named Guttmann, after Guttman saw Kentenich sharing his daily bread and soup with another detainee. Guttmann later saved his life; due to poor health, the priest was due to be sent to the gas chamber but Guttmann hid him from the S.S. physician.[5]

In March 1947, Kentenich was received in a private audience by Pope Pius XII. He thanked the Pope for the publication, two days earlier, of the constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, which created the Secular Institutes.

One of the more than 200 Schoenstatt Shrines in the world

In October 1948, the Holy See erected in a Secular Institute the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. At the same time, Kentenich traveled to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the United States, and Africa to establish the movement there, with the construction of replicas of the Schoenstatt Shrine, training centers, and religious houses.

At this time concerns were raised that the role of the founder was deemed too exclusive. The Bishop of Trier, in whose diocese Schoenstatt is located, ordered a canonical visitation. The visitor, auxiliary Bernhard Steinpraised the movement, but made some criticisms pertaining to the perceived lack of autonomy regarding the sisters.[12]

Kentenich responded by writing a long document on the work of Schoenstatt which was presented as a cure for what he saw as the disease of Western thought, idealism.[5] For Kentenich, Schoenstatt was an antidote to this poison, as it is not an abstract theory but a practical application of Christian doctrine. The Apostolic Visitor, sent the file to the Holy Office in Rome. In 1951, Father Tromp, a Dutch Jesuit, was appointed Apostolic Inspector with extensive powers. Puzzled by the unconventional terminology used by Kentenich, he accused him of being an agitator, an innovator, and a sectarian. After being stripped of all his functions in the movement, Kentenich was assigned a residence in the convent of Pallottines in Milwaukee; all further correspondence with the leaders of the work was prohibited.

His exile lasted fourteen years.[7] He accepted the transfer and wrote: "God does not speak clearly by events? The Church wants to test our obedience, to recognize that if the work and the holder of the work are marked by God." More than three decades later, when witnesses were examined for the cause of Kentenich's beatification, a 78-year-old priest still in office declared, "Kentenich never received any official act of indictment. There was no official lawyer and he was never brought before a judge, much less faced a complainant or a witness."

In 1959, Kentenich was appointed as parish priest of the German-speaking Catholic community of Milwaukee.[13]

In 1953, it was suggested to Pope Pius XII that he dissolve Schoenstatt; he declined. The question was raised if the movement should be integrated into the Congregation of the Pallottines, or retain its autonomy. The superiors of the Order advocated for the first option, but other Pallottines agreed with Father Kentenich that Schoenstatt should be fully autonomous. In 1962, under the intervention of several bishops, John XXIII entrusted the case to the Congregation for Religious.

Fr. Kentenich at his arrival in Schoenstatt after the exile

In December 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Höffner, from Münster, as moderator and protector of Schoenstatt. A new apostolic visitor was appointed, who delivered a favorable report. In 1964, under the unanimous opinion of the German bishops, a papal decree declared the separation of Schoenstatt from the Pallottines.

In October 1965, Kentenich was reinstated at the direction of the Movement. Now in his eighties, he was received by Paul VI a few days after the closing of the Second Vatican Council. He predicted that the council "will bear fruit, but will have first negative effects, because of the uncertainty of large sections of the hierarchy, clergy and laity about the image of the Church... This uncertainty can be overcome by turning our eyes to Mary, the first image and Mother of the Church.[5]

His last actions in Schoenstatt: a father to many

On Christmas of 1965, Kentenich was welcomed at Schoenstatt. His work now included five secular institutes: the Schoenstatt Fathers, the Diocesan Priests, the Brothers of Mary, the Sisters of Mary, the Ladies of Schoenstatt, and the Families. This also encompassed the several Federations and Leagues gathering priests, lay people, and families.

Kentenich stressed the fatherhood of God and that of the priesthood in the Church, especially the episcopate. The fatherhood, with the motherly presence of Mary were both essential points of the movement; the practical way to live this was by the covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable.[5]

View of the Adoration Church, where Fr. Kentenich is buried

In a speech at the annual conference of German Catholics in 1967, Kentenich said: "We are living in apocalyptic times... Heavenly and devilish powers clash in this earth... This confrontation is to challenge the domination of the world; today this is clearly visible." The solution is to appeal to the Virgin Mary, "favorite weapon in the hands of the living God".[5]

During the last year of his life he often returned to this theme: "The task of Mary is to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ... We are convinced that the great crises of the present times cannot be overcome without Mary" (12 September 1968).[5]

On 15 September 1968, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Kentenich celebrated Mass at the recently inaugurated Church of the Adoration. Six hundred Sisters of Mary attended the ceremony. Just after Mass, he went into the sacristy for the thanksgiving prayer and suffered a heart attack; after receiving the last sacraments he died minutes later.[5]

Kentenich's tomb in the Adoration Church's sacristy

He is buried in the Church of the Adoration. On his tomb, according to his wish, is the inscription: Dilexit Ecclesiam ("He loved the Church"; Eph 5:25[14]). This was influenced by the same inscription engraved on the tomb of Cardinal Gaspard Mermillod, Bishop of Geneva (Switzerland) who was exiled from his own country for 11 years in the 19th century, for refusing to adhere to a national church separated from Rome.

The process for his beatification was opened on 10 February 1975 in the Diocese of Trier. Life-size sculptures of Kentenich, created by American artist Gwendolyn Gillen, now stand outside Schoenstatt chapels in Lamar, Texas, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, Rome, Puerto Rico and many other countries.[15]

On 3 May 2022 the Bishop of Trier announced that the process had been suspended because of allegations of abuse.[16]

In July 2020, Alexandra von Teuffenbach, a former professor at the Pontifical Lateran University and the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, alleged that Kentenich manipulated and coerced community members, specifically from the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, into sexually inappropriate conduct.[17] Von Teuffenbach cited particular accusations found in documents of the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after Pope Francis had allowed the consultation of documents concerning the pontificate of Pius XII. She also claimed that these accusations were the reason for Kentenich's investigation by Fr. Sebastiaan Tromp (Apostolic Visitator from the Holy See), in the 1950s and eventual separation from the Schoenstatt Movement during his exile from 1951 to 1965.[12]

The possibility of sexual or psychological abuse was strongly denied by the General Presidency of the Schoenstatt Movement. In a formal statement the movement indicated that the allegations had long been known about and the fact that Kentenich was reinstated from exile by the Vatican in 1965 was evidence that the allegations were not considered true. It was also stated that at the opening of Kentenich's process of beatification in 1975 a nihil obstat ("no obstructions") was granted by the church and that this would not have been granted if the previously known accusations were found to have any substance.[18]

The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary also released their own formal statement. The Sisters emphatically rejected the accusations and said that "successive generations of our community have experienced the founder as an authentic and credible personality.” As with the statement from Schoenstatt's General Presidency, the Sisters noted that they were already aware of the allegations made against Kentenich and emphasized that when he was reinstated as the founder and returned from his exile in 1965, all accusations had already been considered by the Church and deemed insufficiently substantiated to make a formal accusation.[19]

A few days after the reports and responses, the postulator of Kentenich's cause and key representatives of Schoenstatt met with Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the Diocese of Trier. The result was an announcement of an independent commission of historians, organized by the diocese, to review the beatification process of Kentenich. It will also 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 "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."[20]

Reacting to the announcement, Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio (international president of the Schoenstatt Movement) issued a statement addressed to the “Schoenstatt Family throughout the world”, 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” can be found.[21]

Fr. Eduardo Aguirre, postulator for the cause of beatification of Kentenich, pointed out that Kentenich was not formally accused by the Holy Office (at that time the highest tribunal of the Church), at any time before, during, or after the exile for immoral conduct of any form, including the mention of sexual misconduct or deviance of any kind. Aguirre claims that "any assertion to the contrary is simple false."[22]

On 3 May 2022, the Bishop of Trier announced that Kentenich's sainthood process had been suspended because of the allegations of abuse.[16]

• Karl Leisner
• John Pozzobon
• Franz Reinisch
• Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa
• Schoenstatt Shrine
• Pilgrim Mother Campaign

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Kentenich.

• Official Secretariat of Joseph Kentenich's canonization campaign
• The founder: Joseph Kentenich
• Heavenwards - collection of writings of Fr. Kentenich during his detention in Dachau
• Fr. Kentenich's writings downloadable at the Schoenstatt Cloud