Closing Diocesan Inquiry Sister Antonieta Böhm

Cuautitlán (Mexico). On 28 April 2024, the day after the 16^th anniversary of her birth into heaven, in the Cathedral of St. Bonaventure in Cuautitlán, Mexico, the diocesan inquiry into the process of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Sister Antonietta Böhm (Bottrop Westphalia, Germany, 22 September 1907 – Coacalco, Mexico, April 27 2008) one of the ten Daughters of Mary Help of Christians on her way to Canonization.

Opened on 7 May 2017, in the cathedral of Cuautitlán, Mexican diocese where St. Juan Diego, the visionary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, was born, the inquiry required patient and lengthy work for the collection and analysis of documents relating to the life and reputation of holiness of the Servant of God. The Vice Postulator, Sister Guadalupe Chávez, of Our Lady of Guadalupe Province (MME), reconstructed childhood, adolescence, but above all the formative spiritual journey and mission of Sister Antonietta, through letters, chronicles, documents of various kinds.

Born on 22 September 1907 in Bottrop, Germany, Antoinette is the penultimate of ten children, from a hardworking and united family who live the faith with simplicity and trust. Sunday Mass, evening Rosary, the simple explanations of mom and dad are the nourishment of a faith that will be unshakeable and will enlighten those who will turn to her. Among the little news of her childhood and adolescence, the episode of Antonietta who at 5 years of age accompanies the priest of the village with a lit candle as he visits the sick who have now come to the end of their earthly pilgrimage, seems to be a prophetic of a mission that she will carry out in various ways until the last day of her life.

Mother, then, told her, “When you were baptized, the priest gave you a candle like the one you bring to that house today. It is a small flame that indicates the great light of Jesus, the light that we must always keep lit in our heart. Our life must be all light for the Lord and for all the people we meet.”

Transferred to Essen to study, she met the FMA who had arrived there in 1922 and was attracted, as she herself would say, “by the amiability of the Sisters. They played in the courtyard; they sang like angels; they were simple and spontaneous. They showed deep joy and they felt that the superior was their friend. They pointed to us the cross of Jesus, but always with a confident smile.”

In 1926, Antoinette began her journey to become Daughter of Mary Help of Christians in Eschelbach as a postulant and then in Nizza Monferrato as a novice. After her first profession, she was in Turin, Pisa, Turin, Novara, Casanova di Carmagnola, and finally, after her perpetual profession (5 August 1934), her missionary dream was crowned and she was sent to Argentina, in Bahía Blanca, then in General Roca, and in 1941, in Junín de los Andes, in the school where Laura Vicuña had lived, in Viedma, in Carmen de Patagonia, at Rosario Santa Fè as Superior and Provincial.

From 1965 to 1969, she was Provincial in Peru and Bolivia, which were then one Province. In 1969, she was sent to Mexico as Provincial of Our Lady of Guadalupe Province. Her motto was, “Cheer up, encourage, overcome obstacles, safeguard communion.”  It was in Puebla, Mexico, on one of her visits to the community that Sister Antonietta met Sister Ersilia Crugnola (1883 – 1973) who gave her the statuette of Mary Help of Christians, saying, “you will not be the one to take care of Her. She will take care of you. You just have to make Her work.”

And thus, Sister Antoinette began a new ministry made through the consolation and blessing that Mary Help of Christians offered to those who turned to Her with confidence. After completing her duties as Provincial, she was the local vicar in Morelia. From 1979 until her death (27 April 2008) she was in Coacalco, Villa Spem.

The closing of the diocesan inquiry is an ecclesial event of grace, but also a moment of celebration. In addition to the Eucharist presided over by Bishop H.E. Msgr. Efraín Mendoza Cruz and concelebrated by the Postulator of the Salesian Family, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, there will be an artistic event as a tribute to Sister Antonietta Böhm.

Sister Phyllis Neves, Visiting General Councilor, will offer a message of greeting on behalf of the Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola.

It will be possible to follow in live streaming the two events on the Facebook page dedicated to Mother Madre Antonieta Böhm https://www.facebook.com/madreantonieta.bohm