CNA Staff, Jul 9, 2020 / 16:54 pm
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the German diocese of Tier announced the appointment of a commission of historians to review the beatification process of Fr. Josef Kentenich, founder the Schoenstatt Movement, a decision that was welcomed by Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio, international president of the Schoenstatt movement.
The decision, announced on July 7, follows the recent revelations published by Church historian Alexandra von Teuffenbach, former professor of theology and Church history at the Pontifical Lateran University and the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, who reviewed Vatican-commissioned assessments of the Schoenstatt movement, which reportedly portray Kentenich as manipulative and coercive.
The beatification process of Father Josef Kentenich was opened by Bishop Bernhard Stein on February 10, 1975 in the Diocese of Trier and has not yet been concluded at the diocesan level.
According to a diocesan statement, the task of the commission of historians, whose members have not yet been determined, "will especially be to collect all now accessible documents of the Vatican Archive that in some way relate to this beatification process, and to assess their significance."