Approximately ten members of the Indian Schoenstatt Fathers live in Germany. Fr. Shajan who moves to a new parish introduces his new beginning. P. Xavier who works in a parish, writes about his parish activities. Bijoy, a seminarian, who went to Germany to spend one year there and to learn German writes about his journey through Germany.

Fr. Shajan:
I venture a new start. After a year of interesting experiences in a parish in Munich, I am transferred to the parish Essen-Horst which belongs to the Diocese of Essen. This is a very dynamic parish and has around 8000 Catholics. I am positively surprised to see so many people who attend Church on Sundays. The Children and Youth are specially considered and on every Sunday we have a special Mass for the children and young families. We have three churches here and in all the three churches, we have weekday and Sunday Masses. In the Diocese of Essen, a restructuring of the parishes is being initiated due to the lack of priests and the shortage of finance. In the month April 2008, our parish will be incorporated to a bigger parish and form a union of parishes. The parishioners are a bit disappointed about the emerging new situation. I am staying in the community of the Schoenstatt Fathers in Essen-Kray and drive to the parish which is around 6 km away. It is a blessing that I can stay in our house and experience community life there. It is already two months since I started my ministry in Essen and I feel that I am well-integrated in the parish community.

Fr. Xavier:
Since September 2005 I am chaplain in the parishes St. Georg and St. Josef, Darmstadt in the diocese Mainz. Altogether, we have approximately 4600 Catholics. I work together with Pastor Norbert Kern and pastoral assistant Mrs. Edith Wanka. St. Josef is the eldest Catholic parish in Eberstadt and celebrates it’s 100-year jubilee this year. We have active youth and senior circles in our parish. Furthermore, the two communities have one kindergarten each. Once in the week, I give religion in the Frankenstein primary school, Nieder-Beerbach. Furthermore, I attend the pastoral course of the diocese. I am expected to be in Eberstadt until end March 2008. You can find more info about our parishes under: www.st.josef.de and www.darmstadt-online.de/st-georg

Bijoy reports about his journey through Germany:
I had a quite special opportunity for a practical experience in Germany, in the Schoenstatt-Sommerhaus. I am quite happy about it. I arrived in Germany on March 2nd 2007. The weather, food and the people - all was new for me. I could only speak a little German when I arrived. My primary task was to learn the language. I lived in Bonn with family Smarsly and visited the language school. In Bonn I had my first experiences of German culture, language, meals, and weather. The Schoenstatt-Sommer came after. I collected many experiences during the summer. I traveled much and took part in many programs, namely: ‘Miteinander für Europa’, youth party in Munich, camps, ‘Nacht des Heiligtums’, October week and so on. I won many new impressions of Schoenstatt and P. Kentenich. These wonderful experiences will help me on the way to priesthood.