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And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Fr. Guido Heyrbaut and Edouard & Marie-Jeanne Legros

(Excerpted from 4th Quarter 1991 Matrimony magazine)

On November 9, 1989 an exceptional event made “page one” everywhere in Europe. It was the fall of the Berlin Wall! The final, painful breaking point was signified in spectacular fashion to the world. It was also the beginning of a new Europe...but which?

Will it be sufficient to replace the values of communism with those of capitalism? Will we pass from one dictator to another? What to do so that democracy will not be but a word? How to discover true freedom? Which is the path that leads in substantial fashion to the blossoming of man, to the true joy which “God dreams for us”?

Our European Marriage Encounter leadership was, as it happened, assembled in the secretary’s office in Deurne, Holland. In joy and emotion the teams responsible for our 17 Marriage Encounter countries celebrated the event around the leadership representatives from East Germany. They had come clandestinely and were present for the first time. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, they could return home freely. The end of the clandestine meetings!! We were finally able to meet one another in complete freedom to build the life of our communities.

Now this is what we have been able to let appear - the fruits of all the underground expansion of Marriage Encounter. It has been specially built from our “missionary communities” of the German Expression (Austria and Germany) for more than 10 years. We have been able to uncover a community in Yugoslavia where about 7000 couples have made Weekends, 2500 couples in East Germany and 1200 couples in Hungary. There also exists retreats for couples, given independently in Poland, but the promoters don’t wish, up to this day, to truly belong to the world community.

Today, these communities are in search of a “second wind”. The economic and social situation in these countries is disastrous. One doesn't pass with impunity 40 years of dictatorship to a life of freedom and respect for others; other demons appear which are not better than the preceding. The style of church life has changed. The “Church of Silence” has progressively become a place where freedom is again guaranteed and that attracted the people. This role filled by the church happened very opportunely but the religious practice is declining heavily.

Our Church is called to purify itself from within. It is for each one to become converted, to discover and build the freedom of the children of God.

We realize today that the “real walls” were not simply in Berlin – the leaders of East Germany told us recently – “We must strike down the walls in each of our hearts, to let go of fear and mistrust and to engage in an open and trustful love.”

With this in mind, we are rediscovering all the richness of our spirituality, by being present to each other through our dialogue, by our sexual meeting, and by our prayer. This “content” of our Sacrament that we are called to live in community, invites us to a fantastic mission: Build beyond peculiarities and ideologies, a Europe of Man where the reference is to the service of Love and Freedom.

Marriage Encounter is an exceptional instrument for evangelizing Europe starting from the sacraments of relationship which are Matrimony and Holy Orders. Nonetheless, in this political, economical, and social unrest, our ”newly free” communities are tossed about in the surrounding imported values of the West: free enterprise, the struggle for power, for profit, for money… and their consequences such as unemployment, the misery of the poor…

Our Marriage Encounter Communities seek to organize themselves differently to continue to live and to give the gift of Marriage Encounter Weekend. It is a critical moment for this part of Europe. However, in spite of the difficulties, the expansion continues.

Hungary is turning towards the Hungarian minorities of Yugoslavia, Russia, and Romania. Austria is in close relations with Slovakia where the Weekend has been founded by 30 couples. A beginning of the pathway is on course.

All these events are rejoiceful and we invite you to carry this life and this Marriage Encounter expansion news in your heart and in your prayers.

In this struggle “to love as He has loved us” we realize that he who stays alone in his corner ends emaciated and becomes sterile, in spite of his courage. To continue to believe and to live, we need to stay in contact with the love and the faith of others. We need to belong to the large European and world community.

For that purpose, we are organizing a European Weekend in Belgium in October 1991. The leadership of our 17 communities will meet and our focus will be specially oriented toward the training of those responsible for and the facilitators of the central and eastern European countries.

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