40 year history of camps at Schoenstatt

youth from around diocese and beyond gather in Sleepy Eye

by Sr. M. Deanne Niehaus

Schoenstatt Girls’ Youth Coordinator-MN

Sleepy Eye, MN - Approximately 400 youth attended nine summer camp events at Schoenstatt on the Lake in Sleepy Eye, MN. The Schoenstatt Boys’ Camp sessions 1 and 2 focused their attention on the Eucharistic Year and the life of one of their heroes: A family man by the name of Gilbert Schimmel. Father Jonathan Niehaus, a Schoenstatt Father originally from Ivanhoe, MN directed the camp. Bishop John Nienstedt accepted the invitation to join each camp for one meal. “I never met a bishop up close!” shared one camper.

During the Schoenstatt Girls’ Camp, the 2005 World Youth Day theme: “We have come to worship him!” helped the girls spiritually participate in World Youth Day. Each of the five weekly sessions had 45 participants. “My grandparents live in Sleepy Eye, so I come all the way from Texas for camp. This is the fifth year I have come,” shared Amanda Schumann from Burleson, TX. During the camps, the girls followed in the steps of the Three Magi as they heard God’s call and found their treasure - Jesus - in Bethlehem where they adored their Savior and King. It might have seemed odd to see Christmas trees up but that helped the campers to unite with those around the world who joined Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne, Germany for World Youth Day.

Schoenstatt summer camp has a forty year history. The first camps began in Wilno, MN soon after the arrival of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary in Ivanhoe, MN in the mid 1960’s. The camps have been held in Lucan, New Ulm, and even St. Mary’s High School in Sleepy Eye before the retreat center was built in 1981. The boys’ camps started out with tenting near Ivanhoe, MN. When the Schoenstatt Shrine was built in Sleepy Eye, the boys moved their camp near the shrine of Mary. The new addition to the retreat center in 2003-2004 helps accommodate the young people more adequately.

Schoenstatt is a German word meaning “beautiful place.” Schoenstatt is also a Catholic lay movement begun by Father Joseph Kentenich in 1914 near Koblenz, Germany. Since its founding, Schoenstatt has spread to all continents with foundations beginning in the USA in 1949. The shrine in Sleepy Eye was built in 1976 as one of presently 180 Schoenstatt Shrine replicas around the world.

Attending the camps were youth from 17 towns of the New Ulm diocese as well as youth from St. Cloud, the Twin Cities, Rochester, Elk Point (SD), Fargo (ND), Sheldon (IA), and several towns in western Wisconsin.