Peter Joseph Kentenich, SAC (16 November 1885[1] – 15 September 1968) was a German Pallottine priest and founder of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement.

Kentenich was a theologian, educator, and founder of a Catholic movement, whose teachings underwent a series of challenges from political and ecclesiastical powers.

Because his parents never married, Joseph was born at the house of his maternal grandparents, Anna Maria and Matthias Kentenich, where he spent the first years of his life.

[6] In his first talk, he said to his students: "I am at your disposal with all that I am and all that I have: my knowledge and my ignorance, my competence and my incompetence, but especially my heart... We will learn to educate ourselves under the protection of Mary, to become strong, free and priestly men.

"[5] Kentenich interpreted the ideas of his order's founder, Vincent Pallotti, as a call for a worldwide effort to involve lay people in apostolic work, and to unite the various factions in the church.

In an old chapel of St. Michael, formerly abandoned and used for the storage of the gardening tools, he gathered about twenty seminarians and they sealed what he called the "Covenant of Love" with the Mother of God.

Venerated under the name Mater ter admirabilis (Mother Thrice Admirable), the picture appears in every Schoenstatt site.

Father Kentenich traveled through all of Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland, to preach retreats and lead training sessions.

[6] Kentenich observed the rise of Nazism with concern, ranking it among the products of what he called "the idealistic and mechanistic thinking" that engulfed Europe since the nineteenth century.

During the interview, the officers quoted some of his private words which had been reported by an informer: "My mission is to reveal the inner emptiness of National Socialism, and by there to defeat it."

[10] In December, Bishop Gabriel Piguet, a French prisoner, secretly ordained a seminarian from Schoenstatt (now Blessed Karl Leisner).

Suffering from tuberculosis, Leisner would celebrate only one Mass before dying a few weeks after the camp was liberated; he was beatified by John Paul II on 23 June 1996.

He immediately restarted his work, in order to establish a barrier against those whom he considered the biggest dangers to the world: communism in the East, and practical materialism in the West.

Schoenstatt priests Albert Eise (who died of illness while in Dachau) and Franz Reinisch, (who was executed by the Nazis) were invoked as heavenly protectors by all members of the Movement.

At the same time, Kentenich traveled to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the United States, and Africa to establish the movement there, with the construction of replicas of the Schoenstatt Shrine, training centers, and religious houses.

The visitor, auxiliary Bernhard Stein, praised the movement, but made some criticisms pertaining to the perceived lack of autonomy regarding the sisters.

[12] Kentenich responded by writing a long document on the work of Schoenstatt which was presented as a cure for what he saw as the disease of Western thought, idealism.

After being stripped of all his functions in the movement, Kentenich was assigned a residence in the convent of Pallottines in Milwaukee; all further correspondence with the leaders of the work was prohibited.

The superiors of the Order advocated for the first option, but other Pallottines agreed with Father Kentenich that Schoenstatt should be fully autonomous.

He predicted that the council "will bear fruit, but will have first negative effects, because of the uncertainty of large sections of the hierarchy, clergy and laity about the image of the Church...

[5] In a speech at the annual conference of German Catholics in 1967, Kentenich said: "We are living in apocalyptic times... Heavenly and devilish powers clash in this earth...

[5] On 15 September 1968, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Kentenich celebrated Mass at the recently inaugurated Church of the Adoration.

Just after Mass, he went into the sacristy for the thanksgiving prayer and suffered a heart attack; after receiving the last sacraments he died minutes later.

This was influenced by the same inscription engraved on the tomb of Cardinal Gaspard Mermillod, Bishop of Geneva (Switzerland) who was exiled from his own country for 11 years in the 19th century, for refusing to adhere to a national church separated from Rome.

Life-size sculptures of Kentenich, created by American artist Gwendolyn Gillen, now stand outside Schoenstatt chapels in Lamar, Texas, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, Rome, Puerto Rico and many other countries.

[19] A few days after the reports and responses, the postulator of Kentenich's cause and key representatives of Schoenstatt met with Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the Diocese of Trier.

Eduardo Aguirre, postulator for the cause of beatification of Kentenich, pointed out that Kentenich was not formally accused by the Holy Office (at that time the highest tribunal of the Church), at any time before, during, or after the exile for immoral conduct of any form, including the mention of sexual misconduct or deviance of any kind.