"The Pope asks us to live our religious vocation with depth and joy."When María Rita Martín, number 2 of the Teresian AssociationThe Pope, who asked us what they are thinking in this year of the centenary of the approval, has no doubt: they want the renewing force of this commemoration to nourish all that they have to "set in motion, support, encourage, promote..., among all and with the strength of the Spirit.
María Rita Martín Artacho is currently deputy director of the Teresian Associationfounded by saint Pedro Poveda (Linares, Spain, 1874-1936), whose director is the Filipina Gregoria Ruiz. Born in Benamejí (Córdoba), María Rita Martín met the Teresian Association when she was a student teacher in Cordoba and obtained a teaching position by direct access. She worked for six years as a teacher of Spanish emigrants in Belgium.
On her return to Spain, she took a leave of absence to coordinate the ACIT Youth Movement, residing in Madrid, and at the same time studied Theology at the Pontifical University of Comillas where she obtained a Licentiate in Dogmatic-Fundamental Studies. From 2012 to 2019, Maria Rita worked at Loyola Andalucía University as director of the Department of Evangelization and Dialogue. Before being elected Vice-Director, she was part of the Governing Council in the period 2018-2023.
On Friday, January 12, in the Cathedral of Santa María de la Almudena, Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, presided over a Eucharist of thanksgiving for the centenary, and thanksgiving multiplied in Barcelona and other Spanish cities, Holguín (Cuba), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Rome (Italy), Cochabamba (Bolivia), at the University of Bethlehem (Holy Land), Jerusalem, Amman (Jordan), Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Tokyo (Japan), in Iloilo, Davao, the Poveda College of Manila (Philippines), etc., as reported by the Vatican Agency. IT is integrated in the Dicastery The Holy See's International Association for the Laity, the Family and Life, as an international association of the lay faithful, its leaders point out.
Let's go in chronological order, María Rita: In what year did St. Pedro Poveda found the Teresian Association, what was its founding charism?
-Pedro Poveda opened a first "Academy" for student teachers in Oviedo in 1911. The objective was to train female teachers -and teachers, although later the male ones did not crystallize- who united "faith and science", intellectual preparation and a solid Christianity to exercise their work in public education giving a coherent testimony of life. In a few years it had several centers, such as the one in Oviedo throughout Spain and a Residence for university students in Madrid (1914), and a stable group of women who began to dedicate their lives and their profession, as they were teachers or university students, to the nascent work.
Why did he call it Teresiana?
-For the attractiveness of St. Teresa as a woman, as a teacher of prayer and as a person who knew how to embrace the human in her relationships, in her writings, in her ability to make her way in the face of difficulties. "The human filled with God," wrote Poveda. There would be much to say about Teresa and what Poveda was attracted to her, which we can call "temper", the character... These are very brief brushstrokes that I give.
Father Poveda, its founder, martyred in 1936, was beatified in Rome in October 1993, and canonized by St. John Paul II in 2003, together with a woman of the Teresian Association, Victoria. Is this correct?
-What concerns Pedro Poveda is true; what concerns Victoria is not. Victoria Díez y Bustos de Molina, a member of the Teresian Association, was a teacher in the school of Hornachuelos, Córdoba, died a martyr on August 12, 1936 and was beatified with Pedro Poveda in 1993 in Rome.
Can you tell us about your memories of the canonization?
-I was living in Rome at the time, but I had the gift of participating in that event. It was a multitudinous act, in the Plaza de Colón, more than a million people, I think I remember. Five Blessed were canonized: Mother Maravillas de Jesús, Genoveva Torres, Sister Ángela de la Cruz, José María Rubio and Pedro Poveda.
Thousands of members, families, friends, IT collaborators... came to Madrid to share this historic moment. I remember having lived it with serene joy, with deep gratitude, in communion with all the people who felt and feel encouraged and accompanied in their life of faith by the life and work of this priest born in Linares who was instrument of God "and only that," as he used to say. It brings to mind his personal prayer that he left written in his diary in 1933: "Lord, may I think what you want me to think; may I want what you want me to want; may I speak as you want me to speak; may I act as you want me to act. This is my only aspiration.
The Teresian Association was born "in difficult times, and in times of martyrdom," said Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, during the Eucharist on the occasion of the centenary. Any comments?
Well, as the Cardinal himself pointed out, "Educating in difficult times" is the slogan or the title of a socio-educational proposal, a collective effort of the projects and educational centers of the Institution in Latin America to unite criteria and experiences. In difficult times it is necessary to join forces and to propose and project in dialogue and discernment with others who are in the same boat.
I dare not say that this time is more or less difficult than the previous ones, but it is the time we have to live, just as Poveda had to live his time and did not look at the difficulty, but lived it in coherence with his vocation. Today, it is up to us to face the difficulties knowing that we have good tools: prayer, study, mutual accompaniment, always attentive to reality, working with others, the international dimension of the TI, belonging to the Church..., which put us in a privileged situation to live with confidence, with courage, with the desire to contribute to our society the values that Jesus offered in his Gospel so that we all have life and abundant life.
Josefa Segovia met St. Pedro Poveda in 1913, and in 1919 she was appointed Director General. She presented the Teresian Association to the Holy See in 1923.
Josefa Segovia, who was and is recognized as the first general director of the Institution, traveled to Rome in October 1923 when she was 32 years old, with the vice-director, Isabel del Catillo and another member of the board, Eulalia García Escriche, somewhat older, a widowed woman. They carried the documentation that had been carefully prepared by Pedro Poveda and Josefa Segovia.
Once in Rome, they made several visits and consultations looking for the juridical framework of the Institution. On October 27, 1923, they had a private audience with Pope Pius XI in which Josefa Segovia was able to ask the Holy Father, directly, for the blessing and approval of the Institution by means of a Brief.
They returned to Spain and on January 11, 1924, the Brief was received at the Madrid address. Inter frugiferas which recognizes the Institution as a primary Pious Union depending on the then called Congregation of the Council, that is to say, giving it a different canonical character and place from the religious orders. Later the Code of Canon Law would call these works "Associations of the faithful".
Along these lines, can you briefly describe the The itinerary of the Teresian Sisters in the Church, in life and in law, during these years? The Vatican agency has reported the thanksgiving, with one voice and with great joy, in thirty countries where they work.
-The Teresian Association in these more than 100 years since its foundation has lived through many situations, some changes... Always open to the calls of the Church, of reality, of the life of its members. Thus, its development in each of the countries where it is present has the seal, the common denominator, of the charism that we share, but in a certain way also its own characteristics, an expression of the rootedness of the charism in other cultures and contexts.
This is also related to our call to live the faith through education and culture, which asks us to respect the different ways of incarnating the Gospel in each place, but in communion with the universal Church.
Regarding the juridical trajectory, in the Brief of Pope Pius XI, in 1924, a diversity of members was recognized in the Institution: nucleus, cooperators, former students... For a time, due to historical circumstances, this diversity of associations was not reflected. In the 60's of the 20th century - and more with the call of the Second Vatican Council to the lay apostolate - the Institution recovered its original form: to be constituted by a Primary Association, which is universal, and by ACIT Associations, which are regional or local.
The purpose of the Teresian Association is human promotion and social transformation through education and culture, from public and private entities and organizations, you point out. Comment a little.
-The members of the TI carry out their professional task as a mission, wherever they are, trying to be the salt that helps to give a taste of the Gospel to the concrete reality. They may be state officials, workers in a private company or self-employed; each situation is personal, but the commitment is to live it as a mission. This is what is essential.
On the other hand, there are works and projects of the Institution. The Academies of the first period of the IT are today, in some cases, subsidized schools or "Colleges", if we speak of other countries. The boarding schools for teachers that were opened in Spain in the first decades of the 20th century are now University Colleges or University Residences... These entities of the TI may have one or more members and the rest are collaborators who assume their own character.
Society is constantly changing and is asking us for new ways of acting and being present: projects, foundations, NGOs, etc. In the countries where we are, in many cases, the mission we carry out in association and the projects promoted locally require these new formulas. For example, for work with migrants; for school support to children or young people at risk; for the development and promotion of women; for the defense of human rights...
The work initiated by St. Pedro Poveda wants to remain open to evangelize and open roads and future. What are you thinking about now in this year of celebrations?
-No doubt. In the summer of 2023 we had an International Meeting and a General Assembly that set the course for five years. We have some lines of mission, impulses and commitments, rooted in our spirituality of incarnation, which invite us to look, discern and act in the world with the depth with which Jesus does, they invite us to evangelize in the heart of the world in which we live and offer a word of transcendence and meaning.
These are broad lines that then each local reality lands in concrete plans. We talk about: weaving networks of fraternity in the world, promoting diversity, inclusion, dialogue and equality; committing ourselves with families, agents of social transformation; and walking with young people in this changing society that does not always help them to grow as persons.
The plan we are drawing up for the period 2023-2028 goes far beyond the centenary of the pontifical approval and we hope that the renewing force of this commemoration will nourish all that we have to set in motion, support, encourage and promote... among all of us and with the strength of the Spirit.
What do you think it is most necessary to emphasize in the Church in view of the Jubilee of 2025?
-All that the Pope is proposing: synodality, prayer life, ecclesial communion; dialogue with the different confessions and religions, also with those who are far away; commitment to peace and care for creation, without forgetting the real commitment to the most disadvantaged... To underline, as the Pope does, that in the Church we all fit because salvation is for every person who welcomes it and God is waiting for each person.
Have you been with Pope Francis?
-It is a wish that we would like to see fulfilled in the near future.
