La entrada La guerra en las redes se publicó primero en Omnes.

The wonder of anticipation, of the imagination that dreams, invents and creates, is in that colorful paper that wraps the gifts. Just as the cloths that wrapped Jesus protected and safeguarded the Gift of a God made man, or rather, infant, child, defenseless and unarmed, when we unveil the gift of his paper, we remove the veil - we "unveil" it - and that same gesture reveals it to us as a gift.

The moment of the gift is never just the object itself, but the sharing together of the moment in which the surprise of the receiver meets the hope, for the giver, of having understood something important about the soul of the one before him. The cloths with which Mary wraps her Son to give him to humanity in the manger are not meant to hide Jesus, but to protect him. In the same way, the paper of our gifts protects our love from the haste and superficiality with which we too often ruin many of our relationships throughout the year.

The gift has the quality of gratuitousness, that is, it shows a disinterested love. It means that gratuitousness qualifies love: love is only such if it can be said to be gratuitous. But when gratuitousness is embodied in a gift, it expresses a love that, without wanting anything in return, thinks that others should behave in the same way. If I welcome into my home the son of a friend who comes to my city for a competition, I expect him to thank me. This does not mean an obligation to give some kind of "reciprocity" (which is possible, but not in terms of duty, otherwise we would be in the scenario of a mere barter, or even a "mafia" relationship), but the recognition that this behavior has been humane and therefore, when my friend is able, he will also do something similar in his city.

That's why, at Christmas - it can be Epiphany, St. Nicholas or St. Lucia: it doesn't matter..... - all of us, even if we are atheists, agnostics or even of other religions, exchange gifts. Because, even if we don't believe that Christmas is the Savior's birthday, we all feel that Christmas is the birthday of each and every one of us.

La entrada El regalo de Navidad se publicó primero en Omnes.

The meteorological phenomenon prompted me to revisit the history of the traditional miraculous event and, consequently, the figure of a saint who, for centuries, has been acclaimed as one of the most popularly devoted, being "the first" - or among the first - "non-martyr saints". That his figure shines with a special light is shown by the office composed for his feast. There it is emphasized that in order to be "martyr", o "saint"It is not necessary to make a bloody sacrifice of one's own life. "Most holy soul"as it is written in the Antiphon of the Magnificat of his memory, "although the sword has not reached you, you have not lost the glory of martyrdom". His life took place in the years around the Edict of Constantine and this liturgical emphasis is very important. 

It is especially important for those who hold the idea that holiness concerns all Christians, even those of ordinary life, even those who have no possibility of dying as martyrs. Even those who today are called to be saints and to put into practice the many gestures of daily life, which the encyclical Laudato Si (LS) presents as virtuous practices worthy of being promoted because they are oriented to the care of the common home. To cite a few examples, I can mention the invitation to be more careful in the recycling of paper (LS, n. 22), not to waste a precious good such as water (LS, n. 27), not to overcook and not to throw away food (LS, n. 50), not to abuse the environment (LS, n. 50), nor the use of the environment (LS, n. 50). 50), not to abuse the environment (LS, n. 50), not to abuse the use of air conditioners (LS, n. 55), to pay attention to selective waste collection (LS, n. 192), to reduce the use of plastic materials, to plant trees, to turn off unnecessary lights (LS, n. 211), etc. 

Alongside these gestures there are also other examples that have a broader social dimension, since they affect the world of business and research (LS, n. 112) or urban communities, such as the improvement of the public transport system to reduce the use of private cars (LS, n. 153). In short, with his particularly hot summer, perhaps this year St. Martin wanted to encourage us to be saints, not by the sword, but by our commitment to care for our common home.

La entrada El verano de san Martín se publicó primero en Omnes.

The activity in which I participated ended at the beginning of September, so I was able to attend the first General Audience, which was held on September 6. Although his pontificate was very short-lived, he made it clear that, among many other things, it would be necessary to give the figure of the Pope a dimension closer to the people. This was the path already taken by Paul VI and John XXIII, which was later adopted with force by John Paul II.

The surprising fact was the sudden decision to call a child, an altar boy, to dialogue with him. The decision was sudden and the process, as is often the case with children, did not unfold according to the expected canons. The Pope, like any good priest, asked the child questions, expecting the obvious answer that would allow him to continue the discourse according to his expectations. But this was not the case.

"They tell me," he said, "that there are altar boys from Malta here. Come one, please... The altar boys from Malta, who served at St. Peter's for a month. So, what's your name? - James. - James. And, listen, have you ever been sick, you? No. Oh, never? - No. You've never been sick? - No. Not even a fever? - No. Oh, lucky you."

The boy, perhaps moved, said that he had never been sick in his life, and the Pope, not at all disturbed, joked about it and continued without resentment.

It seems little, but it was a revolution. We all understood that, with the election of "father Luciani", God wanted not only "to be" closer to men, but also "to seem" it.

La entrada Con el Papa de los 33 días se publicó primero en Omnes.

The project, which starts from the public life of Jesus, aims to narrate "the real Jesus" especially through the eyes of those who were close to him. The total narrative autonomy, free from the constraints of those who have the capital, is the reason why the promoters of the initiative have chosen to self-finance and distribute it through their website. Who sees The Chosen has the impression of being in front of a professional product, even if it is far from the standards found on Netflix or other major platforms. The actors are not famous and I can't say if they will become Hollywood stars. Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Christ, is Catholic and has an Egyptian father. Above all, he conveys the idea that Jesus is a good person, with a sense of irony and normality: someone you are lucky to find by your side in life. I like this choice, but I can't say it's the most accurate for the general public. Maria, the Lady, is decidedly older than I usually imagine, but in this the director is absolutely right. The breadth of the play allows great freedom in the creation of the "secondary" characters. 

The Chosen will undoubtedly go down in film history for the way it was produced, perhaps also for the quality of its content, and certainly because it testifies once again to the attractiveness of the person of Jesus....

La entrada The Chosen. Narrar “el verdadero Jesús” se publicó primero en Omnes.

We are in the third century, in the first decades of the year 200. Hippolytus was an extremely moralistic and rigorous presbyter who came into collision with the pope of the time, St. Zeferin. The reasons for the disagreements are not clear, partly of dogmatic origin on the nature of Christ (the councils that would clarify it had not yet been held) and partly on the possibility of readmitting into the community Christians who had abjured under torture (the so-called lapsi). Tension erupted when, upon the death of Zeferinus, St. Callixtus, a man of humble origin and deacon of the previous pontiff, was elected pope. Hippolytus did not accept the appointment and, elected by his followers, made himself pope, thus becoming the first antipope of Christianity.

On the death of Callixtus, Pontianus was elected, whom Hippolytus hastened not to recognize for the same reasons. The year 235 arrived and with it the coming to power of Maximinus the Thracian, an emperor opposed to Christianity who, as soon as he had the opportunity, condemned Pontianus to hard labor: ad metallathe mines of Sardinia. Pontian, moved by heroic humility, so as not to leave Rome without a bishop, resigned his office, thus enriching the century not only with the first "antipope" but also with the first "resigning" pope. Shortly thereafter, the emperor, unable to distinguish between popes and antipopes, condemned to the same punishment Hippolytus, who found Pontianus in chains. And here the miracle happened. Surprised by Pontian's humility, patience and meekness, Hippolytus converted and acknowledged his error, thus reconciling the schism. Both died as a result of the ill-treatment and inhuman conditions they suffered, and since then the Church celebrates them together as saints and martyrs.

The past of the saints can provide us with many lessons. Too much rigor and too much certainty in believing that we know, even if dictated by the most perfect good faith, can divide rather than unite and can weaken the Church rather than strengthen it. Above all, in Christianity, weakness is more convincing than strength. Pontian is an instrument of grace not because he clings to power, but because he renounces it, putting into practice Christ's teaching that he who would truly rule must be a servant of all. The last lesson is perhaps the most moving. Hippolytus, who in the name of truth had made himself an enemy of Pontianus, finds the good of the other within a path of pain that unites them both. Only through the cross is it possible to see who each is. Only by walking together in that field hospital which is the Church in true life, is it possible to know each other, to recognize each other and to help each other to build that Good which is the patrimony and desire of every human heart.

La entrada Lecciones de los santos se publicó primero en Omnes.

This boarding school was one of 139 institutions working on behalf of the Canadian government to integrate indigenous communities into society. An estimated 150,000 children from colonized families passed through those residences: although the figure could be higher, between 3,200 and 5,000 indigenous children died there, most of them of tuberculosis. Francis said that the sad discovery should help us to increase our awareness of the pain and suffering of the past and, in particular, to move away from the colonizing model (also ideological colonizations). Beyond economic, military and racial interests, colonialism implies the conviction that it is legitimate for a "superior" civilization to impose itself on an "inferior" one, with the aggravating circumstance of justifying the need for forced conversions.

The Pope emphasized how essential it is today to "to walk together in dialogue and mutual respect and in the recognition of the rights and cultural values of all people.". And this applies not only to Canada.

La entrada Caminar juntos en el diálogo se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Scholas are inclusive pedagogical projects that aim to break down walls: workshops for a culture of encounter that, in addition, work with strong support from sports and art. Membership is very simple: the director of a given institute only has to accredit it on the website www.scholasoccurrentes.org.

The idea came twenty years ago to the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio. It was he who proposed a "rescue plan"for young people who were at risk of becoming a "generation at risk of being discarded". Situated on the margins of the productive system, many of them are confined in an eternal false present: a timeless moment deprived of both memory and the prospect of tomorrow.

More than a school in the canonical sense, "Scholas"is a network of church-sponsored schools that seeks to harmonize the language of the head with the language of the heart and the language of the hands. It says of itself that it is both an institution and a story. Scholas is the story of its own journey towards the encounters it recreates.

Scholas was born on March 29, 2000, when on a beautiful southern autumn morning, Bergoglio, shovel in hand, planted a tree that he would call the "olive tree of peace". Next to him were students from public and private schools, Catholic and of other religions, who began to open up to each other discussing small and large issues related to the city, the country and the world. Since then, that small seed has grown into a plant that integrates students from 190 countries.

La entrada Armonizar el lenguaje de la cabeza con el del corazón se publicó primero en Omnes.

I suggest, first of all, to check on the web what followers the author has. "Where there are truck drivers you can never go wrong"This saying to indicate the quality of the restaurant has always been effective. Only those who use the web know how to explain how to stay on it without getting trapped.

The second criterion is evangelical. Our age, increasingly interconnected, opens new frontiers for sharing positive, educational and, therefore, also evangelical content. Christ must be brought to every creature and in the world of social networks live millions of people, many of them young people. 

And here is the third criterion for choosing books that can help us: a healthy critical spirit. We need that balance in which the author explains that not everything is good but not everything is bad either, and for this he tells with sincerity his recipe for using social networks. With an intelligent guide we will learn to remain free to think for ourselves without plagiarizing our thoughts and actions: willing to move as protagonists in the social universe.

La entrada Orientarse en las redes se publicó primero en Omnes.

The influence of John XXIII is evident in his strong ecumenical spirit and in his attempt to trace a path in which, without detracting from doctrinal solidity, the Church always knows how to offer her most tender and maternal face to mankind. Francis is a Pope, like Pope Luciani, who conquers by his humanity and simplicity; and yet he is also a Pope wounded by controversy like Pius XII, although evidently for different reasons.

Bergoglio, who takes the heritage of many greats, chose for himself the name of St. Francis: with the name of a great saint he gave his ministry a strong imprint of poverty, of attention to the least, of truth always proposed with charity and tact, of apostolate "by attraction", of lived dialogue rather than imposed and shouted.

He told this, immediately after his election, in a historic press conference. "How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor! - He said - That is why I am called Francis, like Francis of Assisi: a man of poverty, a man of peace. The man who loves and safeguards Creation; and today we have a not-so-good relationship with Creation....".

The idea came to him from the reaction of his neighbor in the Conclave, the Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo, Brazilian Claudio Hummes, his great friend. "When two-thirds of the quorum was reached, the applause went up. Claudio hugged me and said, 'Don't forget the poor.' Then I thought of poverty. To wars. St. Francis of Assisi. And I decided to name myself after him. Poverty, peace, and the care of creation were objectives for which the Argentinean Pope worked tenaciously.

The recent trip to Iraq shows how the papacy has perhaps never been so strong when, as now, it stresses that the Church, that is, the Mystical Body of Christ, is a "mystical" reality: something, therefore, that although it touches time and history has its roots in eternity. It thus seems evident how the Holy Spirit gives the pontiff, a man among men, a charism that is a gift, a grace, but also a cross that has nothing to do with the exercise of political, contingent and temporal power.

La entrada Una realidad «mística» se publicó primero en Omnes.

In the message promulgated on February 12, the Bishop of Rome underlines the possibility that fasting does not necessarily refer to food, but to everything that clutters our existence, in particular the saturation of information, whether true or false. How is it possible in practice to live this suggestion? It is not uncommon to meet Christians who proclaim at the beginning of Lent that they want to "fast" from everything that is cluttered in our existence, in particular the saturation of information, whether true or false.fasting from the Internet"But, apart from the fact that this decision often has the consequence of complicating the lives of others, for those who for serious reasons need to relate to these people, it is almost never really applicable.

A realistic and intelligent way to put Bergoglio's advice into practice is to learn to prioritize the things in our day this Lent. It can truly be a revolutionary discovery to learn to "be focused"The first tip is not to keep your cell phone in your hand all the time, but to concentrate, for the right amount of time, on your work or on what you consider a priority in your life (not in a selfish sense, of course). Those who paint a picture need to step away from it from time to time.

It can be very useful to learn to open the iPhone looking at all the apps, emails and so on and then close it for an hour or so as if you were on a plane, keeping only the ability to receive calls open. But then there is the second point. The problem is not the smartphone but oneself: we have to hierarchize our day.

The smartphone is probably a revolution comparable to the discovery of the wheel, fire or writing. It is something wonderful that we are learning to take on board: we are understanding the need to unite the enormous sail with which the network endows our lives with the depth of drift: that strange vertical fin that allows the sailboat not to capsize.

From the metaphor we need to unite speed with depth in order to be open to grasp, to understand the needs that others manifest to us. If we do so, ours will truly be a fruitful Lent.

La entrada Una Cuaresma fructífera se publicó primero en Omnes.

What happened was that, contrary to what had been announced, Bergoglio decided to go very early, to avoid any crowds, to Piazza di Spagna for the traditional homage to Our Lady, and from there he went to Santa Maria Maggiore where, first he prayed in front of the icon of the Salus Populi Romani and then celebrated Mass in the Chapel of the Nativity. While the whole city, battered by rain and cold wind, was still sleeping in the warmth of their homes, the surprising scene happened for a small group of soldiers who were on duty.

This gesture, like all the Pope's, is full of meaning. On the same day, in fact, December 8, 2020, the Bishop of Rome, with the Pastoral Letter Patris Corde, had decided to dedicate the year to St. Joseph, whose humble and hidden service he had remembered, and on the same occasion he had named the forces of order. "Our lives are interwoven and sustained by ordinary people - usually forgotten - who don't make the headlines in newspapers and magazines or on the big catwalks of the latest show."

The cookies that the Pope wanted to give to the soldiers from #stradesicuresymbolically go to all the people who exercise patience every day and instill hope, trying not to sow panic but responsibility. They are fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, teachers; they are the people who go unnoticed. They are all the people who find in St. Joseph the man who reminds us that, for God, there are no people in the "second line" but only in the "first line", the line of love.

La entrada Un gesto del Papa lleno de significado se publicó primero en Omnes.

Entire civilizations have based their way on the ability to know how to weave, in the sense of knowing how to mend, repair or readjust objects to prolong their functioning or to build others. New bronze statues from the casting of other statues, Christian churches from pagan temples, new cities from old cities. Today this is no longer the case because, from an economic point of view, it is often not convenient: how many times have we been told that the cost of the repair is higher than the cost of the new object. 

The relationship, however, often requires the art of knowing how to weave by mending. This is true for everyone, not only for missionaries. If we do not know the value of restoring and mending a broken one, we are condemned to affective isolation. 

It is important to understand that, in the process of breaking and mending, of crisis and overcoming, which concern a vocation, whatever it may be, mending does not spoil but improves. Mending a tear is like making a beautiful embroidery, precious, attentive, tidy, but which, unlike embroidery, will be appreciated not when it is seen, but precisely because no one will see it. Some tailors carry the inscription: "We make invisible patches", and place their pride precisely in knowing how to repair with a light hand so that no one notices. This is something that each of us must learn for our lives.

La entrada El arte de tejer y de reparar se publicó primero en Omnes.

This brilliant definition of the Bishop of Rome is due to what the Gospel tells us. It is she who first sees Christ, it is she who, passing from the sadness of tears to joy, is called by name by Jesus and announces him to the apostles.

On April 2, which was the Tuesday after Easter 2013, Pope Francis, speaking of Mary Magdalene at Mass at Casa Santa Marta, said: "Sometimes, in our lives, the glasses we wear to see Jesus are tears. Before the Magdalene who weeps, we too can ask the Lord for the grace of tears. It is a beautiful grace... To cry for everything: for the good, for our sins, for graces, also for joy. Weeping prepares us to see Jesus. And the Lord gives us all the grace to be able to say with our lives: I have seen the Lord, not because he appeared to me, but because I have seen him in my heart.

For a priest with intense pastoral activity, it is not easy to empathize with the pain of those who come to the parish. Funerals, weddings, baptisms, news of pain, of unemployment, of tensions, follow one after the other and reach the priest's heart in a tumultuous way, one after the other, forcing an emotional alternation that sometimes pushes the priest to protect himself behind an apparent indifference. The eyes of Mary Magdalene, bathed in tears because they find an empty tomb, can become those of a priest who, after meeting Christ, never stop looking at him and are the first to announce him to the unbelieving apostles.

La entrada Ojos bañados en lágrimas se publicó primero en Omnes.

Until two years ago, the procession presided over by the Pope took place on the very central route that led from St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major, and blocked traffic in the center. Last year it was moved to Ostia, on the outskirts of the diocese: this year it will take place on the outskirts of Rome.

The process by which the Pope has changed the direction of the procession goes back a long way. From the beginning Bergoglio, unlike John Paul II and Benedict XVI, did not want to get on the truck next to the Blessed Sacrament, but walked on foot like everyone else. 

Two years ago the procession was moved from Thursday to the following Sunday so as not to create traffic problems, out of respect for civil society. Finally, as I said, last year - in case anyone was still capable of believing that Francis' actions respond to improvisation and not to the implementation of a rigorous logic - it was moved to the periphery of the diocese. 

This year the procession is organized in one of the hottest peripheries of the metropolis and it seems that it can be understood that from now on it will be every year in a different periphery. On the other hand, the core of the meaning of the Corpus Christi procession is to show that Christ is present not only in the tabernacles of the churches, but also in the daily life of the people. n

La entrada Corpus Christi en la periferia se publicó primero en Omnes.

-Priest and writer @mauroleonardi3

In thanking Dom Gianni, Abbot of San Miniato, for the exercises preached to the Curia, the Pope underlined the itinerary that every believer is called to follow. "Faith, he said, is to abandon yourself firmly in what you do not yet see, hope is to hope for what you firmly believe, to love is to be in the presence".

The way of holiness is not to fill oneself with theorems, not even those of theology, but to walk the paths that open before us. During his preaching, Dom Gianni mentioned many important cultural references: we must not forget, however, that the time of holiness is to live the present vigilantly, especially that which seems to have no relevance.   

"Vigilant present." because God is the eternal present, and if we want to live in his footsteps we must live in the present in his image. Vigilance consists in living without melancholy and without blockades towards the past and without escapes towards the future. Yes to memory and hope; yes to the ability to have projects, but without revolutions that want to overthrow everything immediately with the radical intention of "starting from scratch".

The path of holiness thus becomes a prayer to know the beauty and greatness of a path in which God manifests himself to us in a particular way, not by what happens but by how we listen to what happens in the present moment. It is therefore necessary to pray in order to be open to all that God works through us and to be able, in a second moment, to be grateful and rejoice for how much he works in our life and through us. Life is a path that we walk at night, when the sun has not yet risen. So, the lantern we carry with us must light the way and we must overcome the temptation to examine the valley with our little light. If we were to make this mistake, the valley would not be illuminated and, moreover, we would not know where to put our feet.

La entrada El camino de la santidad se publicó primero en Omnes.

MAURO LEONARDI - Priest and writer
@mauroleonardi3

With Gaudete et ExsultateThe Church of the field hospital becomes the kitchen of the MasterChef. We are all called to be five-star cooks. We are all called to cook our egg extraordinarily well, the most difficult of the easy dishes, the one that reveals whether you really have the makings of a chef or are just an amateur.

The fried egg is the true metaphor for holiness. "A woman goes to the market to do the shopping, meets a neighbor and starts talking, and the criticism comes. But this woman says insideNo, I will not speak ill of anyone. This is a step towards holiness. Then, at home, her son asks her to talk about her fantasies and, even if she is tired, she sits beside him and listens with patience and affection. This is another offering that sanctifiesa" (Gaudete et Exsultate, n. 16).

Many saints had said it, a council had proclaimed it, now Francis puts the definitive seal on it: holiness leaves the sacristy and drops anchor among pots and stoves. Holiness, like cooking well, is a simple and profound experience, in which small things are treated with care, not for money, but for love. There was a time when the scholars were the philosophers, today they are the cooks: that is why we see numerous television personalities who are no longer behind desks, but in the kitchen.

Some time ago, one of them, I don't remember who, said on television that those who cook well give back to people the lost time, the time that has been wasted during the day. Very different from Marcel Proust. Whoever cooks does nothing by himself: he needs the store, the one who grows, the one who prepares the recipe, the one who prepares the table and then serves.

As Jesus bears witness to the Father by doing all that the Father wills, so too the cook creates a dish that bears witness to the work of many. The saint knows that he is not good himself, but that he is a witness to the goodness of God in his life. And it is something he does with his hands, with his eyes and with his mouth. With his mouth, yes, made for "ad-orar"to God. Which means "to carry God in our mouths".

La entrada El huevo frito y la santidad se publicó primero en Omnes.

MAURO LEONARDI - Priest and writer

mauroleonardi.it - @mauroleonardi3

March is the anniversary of five years of the first pontificate of the story that takes place entirely in the era of the social networks. Paradoxically, the ease with which everyone can disseminate opinions has made dialogue more difficult: in one time of contrasts and extreme polarizationsIn the papacy, those who have different points of view often do not debate, but argue. The papacy is one of the places where this dynamic is most evident: as with the father of the prodigal son (Lk 15), the Pope's enemies are the "elder brothers", that is, the "catholically correct". The amore poisonous and painful cusation against the Pope is to say that he "divides and is leading the Church towards schism": a statement that would only be laughable nonsense if such a thing did not become a well-founded danger because of some who are on social networks, people who denounce the schism with words, but underneath create it.

With this I do not stigmatize those who feel the urgency to intervene to safeguard the doctrine, because it is quite licit to do so; but it is important not to judge the intentions of those who act otherwise, and not to extrapolate a phrase from the context. Taking distances It is perfectly legitimate and very useful because it ensures that there is unity and multiplicity in the Church. It is quite natural that people with many things in common - such as the Christian faith or the same vocation - can and should, in complete freedom, think differently on matters of opinion. For example, when it is said that today it is more urgent to defend people with respect to values, this opinion, which is shared by many intellectuals, may not be well received by those who have always fought to affirm the importance of principles. Francis' appeals to some resemble Jesus' words to the PhariseesHis openness to the "peripheries" recalls the mercy, often considered scandalous, with which Jesus dedicated himself to sinners. 

La entrada Papa Francisco: cinco años de pontificado se publicó primero en Omnes.

When we make the resolution to be better we do not have to think first of the object to give, but to whom we want to do good. If I want to give a roof to a homeless person, it may happen that the homeless person does not want it. Then I don't explain to him why he is wrong, but I take the car out of the garage and lend it to him for the night. If we lived this way in service to the other, we would have real authority, we would be real".regios"We would truly live the ordinary priestly ministry of baptism: to serve.

We should not strive to improve ourselves, but to love the other: this is - paradoxically, Viktor Frankl would say - the only authentic way to improve ourselves. If my attention is directed to the ultimate recipient of my action, in the end the true beneficiary of the purpose is me, my soul, my heart, my life. To enter into the order of ideas of helping now, in the small, concrete, to the other, with what I have, is also the only way of not transforming good intentions into windy fritters. A good resolution is fulfilled quickly. A good purpose is made with what we have, with what we are.

La entrada El Papa y los sin techo se publicó primero en Omnes.

The only criterion for knowing theology, for studying theology, is the criterion of the Incarnation. If I study it, I must not only reach the final exam, but also my neighbor. I start from a lesson, from a book, but if it is theology, I have to listen to those who are alone, to ask my neighbor what he needs. I must learn that the only book to read is the face of a poor person, the skin of a man who needs to be clothed, a mouth to feed. Not a distant man to be supported with money, but one to whom I become close and must support with my flesh.

Theology is not just a matter for priests: it is a matter for God and, therefore, for man.

An example of these days is the experience of Proactiva Open Arms. They are lifeguards from the Costa Brava -and not only from there- who started walking on the beach and have come, with death in their hearts, to save fugitives. They knew how to be lifeguards, and they have done it: lifeguards for fugitives in rough waters. The first lifeguards to arrive were four.

The first "weapons", neoprene and vests. Now there are many, people of all kinds. They have boats with outboard motors. And the money is what they have collected. They have until March. They have no economic plan, but the hands that have collected 115,000 people from the water are not afraid of not knowing how to collect money.

La entrada No es sólo cosa de curas se publicó primero en Omnes.