Rev. Dr. Leo Maximilian Nikolaus Maria Maasburg (Maschek von Maasburg)
Rev.Leo is the 5 great-grandson of Anton Josef Maschek von Maasburg, he is 6 cousin of Bohumir
Robert and 6 cousin once removed of Martin and Libor.
He
was born in
Rev. Leo’s uncle – Johann
Baptist (Giovanni Battista) Ceschi a Santa Croce (*1827 +1905) was elected
in 1872 – 1879 and from 1879 till 1905
appointed by Pope
Leo XIII as the 74th Grandmaster of The Sovereign Military and Hospitaller
Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
Rev.
Leo also inherited blood, genes and spirit
from the same of the most prominent and finest people in human kind history.
For example, he is the 9 great-grandson of the George Luis I. king of the Great
Britain, France and Ireland; is the 8 great-grandson of the Friedrich Wilhelm and Sophia Dorothea, the king and
queen of the Prussia; is the 5 great-grandson of the Paul I Petrovich Romanov and Maria Fjodorovna Württemberg, the emperor
& empress of Russia…
F-
Nikolaus Friedrich Carl Hugo baron v. Maasburg (*.18.11.1913+13.8.1965)
Christianne
Gfin Ceschi a Santa Groce (*5.7.1914+19.81984)
GF-
Friedrich Carl Nikolaus Hugo baron v. Maasburg (*28.2.1880+11.11.1914)
Irma
Adamovics (*22.9.1882+22.10.1936)
GGF-
Johann Baptist Heinrich Anastasius Maschek baron v. Maasburg (*6.2.1847
+17.1.1923) Rosa Maria Tribuzzi
(*5.4.1852+6.5.1946)
GGGF-
Nicolaus Paul Maschek baron v. Maasburg (*23.11.1810+25.2.1876)
Anna Helene Kneszevic (*7.3.1823+8.10.1854)
GGGGF- Johann Baptist Anton Wenzel Maschek baron v. Maasburg (*24.4.1784,
+1.6.1824)
Maria Anna v. Fabian (*20.1.1788+11.6.1848)
GGGGGF-
Johann Baptist Mathias Franz baron Maschek v. Maasburg (*18.5.1752,
+15.3.1800) Maria Anna Grillot (*27.8.1758+18.4.1830)
GGGGGGF-
Anton Joseph Maschek v. Maasburg
(*2.8.1706+28.1.1785)
Maria Elisabeth Popovsky Edle v. Scharfenbach.
Rev. Maasburg was ordained a priest in Fatima on
13 December 1982. He studied law at Innsbruck
University and has a Masters Degree in Letters and International Relations
from Oxford University. He studied
philosophy, theology and missiology at the Gregorian
University in
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, 26 January 2005 appointed
National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Austria for a five
year term (2005-2009) Rev. Leo Maasburg of the archdiocese of
Interview - Fr. Leo Maasburg: “The
Collaboration Between Mother Teresa and the Grace of Medjugorje is Visible”
Medjugorje
("between the hills") has become well known in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
and the world, because of six young people who claim to have seen visions of
the Madonna. Beginning on June 24,
1981, the Blessed Mother appeared to, and later
told the visionaries God sent her to our world to help us convert our hearts
and lives back to Him. Our Lady's call is one of Peace, Love, Faith,
Conversion, Prayer, and Fasting. We are each challenged to answer Our Lady's
call to change our lives, and hearts back to God. The following articles,
interviews, and testimonies provide a well rounded, and accurate account and
perspective of one of the greatest events in modern history.
During the
International Youth Festival in August 2002, there were about 260 priests in
Medjugorje. One of them was Fr. Leo Maasburg, a priest of the Diocese of
Vienna, presently in Rome, the former collaborator of the “Radio Maria” on the
international level, who was working this year on the case of beatification of
Mother Teresa (as the only member of the team that is not a member of her
Congregation).
After having studied law, political sciences
and theology, he began to work on the evangelisation of Eastern European
Countries. In 1982, when Pope John Paul II consecrated the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Leo, together with a bishop, secretly celebrated
Holy Mass in the Kremlin in Moscow and made the same
consecration in the heart of the Soviet Union. For many years, he accompanied
Mother Teresa on her travels and also was with her while she was opening her
houses on the different continents. Fr. Leo has given retreats to Mother
Teresa’s sisters all over the world. In 1988, when Mother Teresa opened her
first houses in
Fr. Mario
Knezovic spoke with him.
Fr. Mario Knezovic: Fr. Leo, would you be so kind as to tell us
something about yourself and your life?
Fr. Leo Maasburg: I am an Austrian, a
priest of the Diocese of Vienna. I am a priest for about twenty years now. I
have been working for only a few years in a parish in
What are your impressions about the work in a media that announces
Christ and Our Lady?
The experience on radio taught me a very important thing: by nature,
generally, the mass media have a role of education. If men are responsible for
their destiny, then radio is one of the pillars of this responsibility. It
seems, unfortunately, that at our time the mass media, instead of being an
instrument of education, are becoming an instrument of seduction. This is why
the Catholic mass media have a great responsibility. I think that radio has a
privileged place among the Catholic mass media. We live in a time of
consumerism, and radio distinguishes itself from television mostly by the
following: television produces image that is outside of us and we “swallow” it,
and radio produces image inside the person, inside her imagination. This is
why, probably, when Jesus speaks about evangelisation, he speaks about the WORD
that has to be brought. It does not mean that Jesus does not speak about
vision: when he speaks about the glory of the Father, he says that we will see
it.
Does the Church of today know how to make use of the media and are we
sufficiently open for such a way of transmitting the Good News?
I think that Jesus was very courageous when he confided his mission to
men! As always, some are faithful and some less faithful. I believe that the
same happens to the Church in the matter of using the media. If we believe that
there is really question of struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom
of Satan, and that we are all involved in this struggle, then we understand
that mass media, power, money and publicity today are the weapons in that
struggle. We are all submitted to these temptations. Some fall, some win. It is
important that the Church seeks victory, that it makes no compromises with the
world. I will give you a simple example: today, radio stations and televisions
are being financed almost exclusively either by publicity or by political
support, and precisely these are two temptations! If the Church abandons itself
into the hands of the publicity or the political power, the evangelisation will
evaporate. You cannot touch the heart with the Word of God and at the same time
sell stockings! Media are certainly a gift of God for the evangelisation and
let us hope that the Church will make a good use of them!
You are working actually on the preparation for the beatification of
Mother Teresa. Can you tell us something about it?
As you know, the Holy Father has exempted this case from the time of
waiting which takes regularly five years. The diocesan process was immediately
opened in
Father Leo, you come often to Medjugorje. Which is your attitude towards
Medjugorje and the devotion being developed here?
I came to Medjugorje for the first time in 1983. I believe that I have
been here about seven or eight times. Each visit is always a great grace. I
have heard hundreds of witnesses of people who have found conversion and faith
in Medjugorje. As a priest, what impresses me most is that, here, you have no
problem with the confessionals not being used! In
What is your personal attitude towards the apparitions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary here in Medjugorje? Do you think that we can say today: “Our Lady
is present here”?
I have not seen Our Lady, but I have felt here a really exceptional
concentration of grace. I know two visionaries and I can say that I have the
best impression about them, concerning their normality and their serious desire
for holiness.
One can feel the fruits in Medjugorje. How much can these fruits can be
useful for the universal Church and the Christianity?
I am convinced that every grace that God gives is always new. The
collaboration between Mother Teresa and the grace of Medjugorje is visible.
Many sisters of Mother Teresa have received their vocation in Medjugorje.
Priests who are touched by Medjugorje or received their vocation in Medjugorje
are close to the spirituality of the sisters of Mother Teresa.
You took part in the International Youth Meeting here in Medjugorje. Our
Lady calls us to Christ, and the Pope does this unceasingly. Are the priests
working sufficiently to bring the Christ closer to young people who are thirsty
for the real truth?
No, I believe that we do not do enough, because you can never do enough!
I hope that we will grow in all that on what love urges us! I believe that, one
day, we will see all the possibilities that God has offered to us through
different sources of grace, and I believe that our sadness, or in other words
our purgatory, will be in the fact that we will see all that we could have done
and we have not done!
When you come to Medjugorje, you probably have your expectations and
when you go back, you carry with you the fruits. When you go back to your
service, what remains after a pilgrimage to Medjugorje?
I don’t know about the experience of other priests, of other pilgrims,
but I come to Medjugorje just as I used to go back home once or twice a year,
hoping that mum would wash my clothes and mend my stockings. She always did it.
Often it happened that, when I was already far away, on a journey, I find in my
luggage a packet of peanuts or a chocolate. I believe that Medjugorje means
that to me today. Although here we may not have felt anything, later on we
discover gifts. Our Lady is similar to all other mothers.
You can feel Medjugorje from near. What would you advice to pilgrims who
come here?
I have learned one thing from Mother Teresa: it is not important what we
expect and what we desire. The only important is to confide oneself to the
guidance of Jesus and of Mary. There are surely people who come with some big
problem, but the biggest problem is always lack of holiness! We surely bring
with us people who entrust themselves into our prayer, but we should not limit
the Lord and Our Lady to the gifts they give us. This is maybe precisely one of
the characteristics of Medjugorje, because, when one goes to
Thank you, Father Leo!
