Secular Institute of Schoenstatt Fathers
The Secular Institute of Schoenstatt Fathers (ISch) is a Catholic religious institute founded by the German Pallottine priest Josef Kentenich, as a part of the Schoenstatt Movement. It was canonically erected on 18 July 1965. It is a secular institute of pontifical right. History The Schoenstatt Movement arose at the beginning of the 20th century in the Pallottine Seminary in a place named . It initially consisted mainly of Pallottine students (seminarians). The Pallottine Fathers and the Schoenstatt Movement remained closely connected for almost 50 years. Pallottine Fathers held spiritual functions in the Schoenstatt Movement. However, in the 1940s and 1950s tensions arose between Schoenstatt and the Pallottines, which finally led to the legal separation of the Schoenstatt Work from the Pallottines in 1964, as decided by Vatican authorities. As a result, the following year the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life established the Secular Institute of Schoenstatt Fathers for the priestly service of the Movement. The Institute was international and multicultural from its beginning, as groups of former Pallottines from Latin America, the USA, Australia, South Africa and several European countries joined the newly founded community. Soon young men from different countries applied to