Mechernich – Schoenstatt Father Rudolf Ammann ISch, a "spiritual man and human priest", according to Professor Franz-Rudolf Weinert, Canon of Mainz, celebrated his diamond jubilee as a priest in the house chapel of the Ordo Communionis in Christo, where Ammann is spiritual director and spiritual companion of the community.
While Weinert quoted the enlightened Catholic reformist priest Johann Michael Sailer, Communion Sister Lidwina herself had an apt description of the Swabian-born priest: “Fr Rudolf Ammann is a man with youthful charm and fatherly kindness.”
The theologian, who has been released by the Schoenstatt Movement for the Communio in Christo in Mechernich and Blankenheim since 2015, is a "wonderful pastor with great vision and many years of experience in dealing with people and with God", said Deacon Manfred Lang, the deputy of Superior General Jaison Thazhathil, in a speech: "His human kindness and goodness are balm for our souls."
Superior General Father Jaison Thazhathil himself said of the priest ordained on 18 July 1964: "Father Ammann's presence is a blessing from God for the Communio in Christo. We are so happy that he lives and works with us, and we will always be grateful to God for the gift of Fr Ammann to Communio in Christo."
Friend and dialogue partner
The Schoenstatter had met Father Karl-Heinz Haus, the first Superior General of the community founded by Mother Marie Therese on 8 December 1984, at a celebration more than ten years ago. An initial conversation developed into a deep friendship. Ammann became an advisor and dialogue partner to the Superior General and moved from Vallendar to the Eifel in January 2015.
"His life experience, his humour, his active support, his care and love enrich us," says Superior General Jaison Thazhathil: "That's why I believe that his path to Communio was no coincidence, but a divine plan. We are grateful to the then Provincial of Schoenstatt and the present Provincial of Fr Ammann for making it possible."
Manfred Lang, who assisted the jubilarian as a deacon at the Holy Mass in the house chapel of the Communio, later said in his speech at the reception in the refectory: "The jubilarian has his heart in the right place - and is the right man in the right place!" Father Jaison concluded: "Dear Rudolf, please stay the way you always are. Many people need you! We wish you God's rich blessing!"
20 priests, the community in Mechernich including the Indian Samaritan Sisters, Mother John Evangelist from the Good Samaritan Sisters in Uganda and numerous lay people from the Communio in Christo and its circle of sympathisers had come to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Father Rudolf Ammann ISch's ordination.
"Discovering passion in frustration"
He was concelebrated at the altar by Professor Dr Franz-Rudolf Weinert, Canon of the Diocese of Mainz, celebrant Christoph Wertenbroch from Essen, Deputy Provincial Frank Riedel from Munich and Superior General Jaison Thazhathil from Mechernich.
"Rudolf Ammann is on fire for Jesus - and like him, he is interested in people," said Christoph Wertenbroch in a sermon with which he wanted to cheer up and encourage his listeners in a time of obvious ecclesial decline and collapse. He thanked his friend Fr Ammann for "opening up a passion for Christ and people in the midst of frustration".
According to Wertenbroch, he was still in his mother's womb when Ammann was ordained on 18 July 1964, but he has now also been a priest for 30 years and is more or less "halfway" along the path of following in the footsteps of his friend and companion. Fr Ammann has the ability to "rekindle the fervour in us and inspire others for Jesus: he searches with us for the traces of Jesus in our lives."
The service was also musically embellished by companions of the active Schoenstatt Father, the two guitarists Dr Peter Mehlem and Alfons Kröper, as well as the singers Rita Krötz and Maria Kröper.
At the subsequent celebration in the refectory, a number of former companions from the priestly life of the jubilarian spoke, including Professor Weinert, Provincial Fr Frank Riedel, Communio-Soziwalwerk director Norbert Arnold, but also the former GDR clergyman Klaus Krenz, and Fr Ludwig Güthlein, whose father Fr Ammann had already accompanied spiritually and whose first sermon he had preached.
"Influenced many people"
Ammann was "not a passive observer of the times, but an active co-creator", said Frank Riedel. The Schoenstatt Father and Communio spiritual director had "influenced many people in secret".
In Mechernich and Blankenheim, the friend of the former Superior General got to know the Communio community and social work, which operates in three parts for the good of the people, said Managing Director Norbert Arnold: "With professional care for residents and the dying, accompanied by the economic and legal expertise of the voluntary chapter members and spiritually strengthened by the prayers of the community."
Klaus Krenz presented a Berlin bear made of chocolate and recalled the conspiratorial handover of spiritual printed matter on the transit motorway through GDR territory. During the journey, the books and files were handed over through open car windows. They had already risked a lot to spread the Schoenstatt Movement in the supposed workers' and peasants' state.
Ludwig Güthlein presented the jubilee priest with an icon of the vine with Mary in the centre and a reference to the constant change in relationships: "Life flows, what remains is love and what you have done..."
Before 2015, Rudolf Ammann worked for decades as publishing director and managing editor, spiritual director and spiritual counsellor. His CV comprises three closely written pages in keywords, his bibliography is hardly less extensive. He is embarrassed by this and when asked about the number of books he has written, Father Rudolf Ammann answers evasively: "I don't know exactly myself..."
However, the Schoenstatt priest, who was sent to Communio in Christo on 1 January 2015, knows exactly how many volumes of mostly spiritual content he has published as managing director of Patris Verlag (1989 - 2014), namely around 250, just over ten titles per year. Since 1998 he has also been the editor in charge of the magazine "basis", which communicates Schoenstatt spirituality and was founded in 1968 by the Swiss Schoenstatt Father Karl Lukaschek.
"Edition Communio" published by Echter Verlag
Rudolf Ammann is also responsible for print products and modern communication platforms at Communio in Mechernich. Together with Echter Verlag in Würzburg, he has created the "Edition Communio", which has already published books by renowned theologians, including Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, now Pope Francis, as well as the 26 books left behind by mystic and Communio founder Mother Marie Therese.
At the invitation of Fr Rudolf Ammann, many visitors have already come to Mechernich, including Matthias Kopp from the German Bishops' Conference, Rolf Pietsch, the former chairman of the Catholic Media Association and now retired publishing director of Bonifatius Verlag, and former editor Sylvia Becker from Deutschlandfunk.
The Schoenstatt Father, who remains a Schoenstatt Father and wants to remain one forever, clearly defined for himself what the Communio in Christo, founded as an order by Mother Marie Therese, is all about: "You will recognise them by their fruits; Jesus already said that." Fr Joseph Kentenich, the founder of the Schoenstatt Movement, which comprises 25 spiritual communities, and the founder of Communio, Mother Marie Therese, knew nothing about each other and yet they anchored three essential elements of Christian existence in their foundations, said Fr Rudolf Ammann.
He stated at the time in an interview with the ProfiPress agency: "They have the same image of God and man, they interpret the Second Vatican Council in agreement as a sign of the truth of the Holy Spirit and have both taken initiatives for federation, for the coming together and uniting of members of different religious orders and spiritual communities, without these members of other communities in the Communio having to give up their respective spiritual identities. Kentenich called this the "Apostolic World Federation", Mother Marie Therese the "Federation"."
The spiritual director of the Communio sees himself and the now quite numerous Samaritan Sisters from the Indian Syro-Malabar Church as well as Father Jaison Thazhathil and other clergy from the Syro-Malankar Church in India as proof of the functionality of such a federation: "Because we all live together in a convent with the priests, religious and lay women of the Communio in Christo without any problems and in spiritual harmony."
Two square metres on "Mount Zion"
Ammann: "We pray together, celebrate Mass together, listen together to the words of Mother Marie Therese and the Superior General - and yet we cultivate the individual spirituality of each of our orders and secular institutes." He himself "already knows the two square metres on "Mount Zion" in Schoenstatt (Vallendar), where I will one day be buried next to my Schoenstatt brothers..."
In addition to the greatest similarities between the foundations of Fr Joseph Kentenich and Mother Marie Therese, Fr Ammann also mentioned the greatest difference in the interview: "Schoenstatt is an educational movement, the Communio in Christo is extremely socially orientated."
Alongside the social work, Father Ammann is still most impressed by the internationality of the Communio in Christo: "The first time I took part in a commemoration of the order - in 2011 in the founding church in Holzheim - I was enormously impressed by how many priests, sisters and lay people from so many different nations were gathered around the altar of Christ."
The internationality of the Church has characterised the "born and professed Swabian" and 1964 ordained Catholic priest throughout his life: "For me, the Council was a new beginning that has stayed with me to this day." After five years as a "world priest", Rudolf Ammann joined the grouping that established the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers exactly one year to the day after his ordination.
pp/Agentur ProfiPress
