Audience with Pope Leo XIV

On February 2, the feast of Candlemas, especially dedicated to the Consecrated life in the Church, our General Superior, Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello, was received for the first time in private audience by the Holy Father Leo XIV. The main objective was to exchange about the reality of the Institute of the Fathers and the Schoenstatt Movement. The pope said he knew Schoenstatt and was grateful for the presence of the movement in his diocese of Chiclayo, including the visits and retreats of Fr. José Luis Correa for the local clergy.

Fr. Alexandre gave the Pope an image of the Pilgrim Mother and a Unity Cross. He thanked him for the decree that declared Deacon João Luiz Pozzobon as Venerable and informed him about the process of the miracle that is being analyzed in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Also discussed were the war situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the first Schoenstatt Shrine in that country was inaugurated a little over a year ago, and the work that the Schoenstatt Fathers carry out in the Great Lakes Region in favor of peace and reconciliation. Fr. Alexandre also explained to him about the work of the General Presidium of the Schoenstatt Work and expressed the hope that a meeting with that organization could take place. He also gave him the jubilee magazine commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary.

Finally, he thanked the Pope for his Petrine ministry and reaffirmed the willingness of the Schoenstatt Family to continue collaborating in the implementation of the ecclesial post-conciliar challenges, as Fr. Kentenich once had promised Pope Paul VI.