The Pastoral Exhortation "Assume the reality of the Homeland".published after the 105th annual Plenary Assembly of the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference, January 7-12, is a call for peace and forgiveness. In it, the bishops advocate for "to work for dialogue, reconciliation and peace. We invite all our institutions to implement, with creativity and courage, gestures and actions that make us live and taste with joy and sacrifice, the fruits of solidarity and fraternity: greater attention to the poor, to the sick, to raise with creativity initiatives for peace and to fill the gaps in the face of shortages of food and medicine, such as 'solidarity pots' or any other form of attention to the needs of the community.". After the meeting we were able to talk with Bishop Juan Carlos Bravo, Bishop of Acarigua-Araure.
Monsignor, at 48, you are one of the youngest bishops in the country.
-Look, I did not want to be a bishop. The nuncio called me and I flatly refused. He was surprised by the determination of my answer. He sent me to pray and think. He called me again and I refused again. I told him that never in my life have I ever wanted, sought or desired to be a bishop. He replied that Pope Francis is looking for bishops who neither want, nor seek, nor desire to be bishops. I insisted that I am a peasant, from the neighborhood and I am not good for that. He answered me: Pope Francis is looking for bishops who have the smell of sheep. In the end I accepted out of obedience. Behind it was the will of God.
What was your formation and first pastoral assignments like?
-I entered the seminary with the Diocesan Operators. I studied philosophy in Caracas and theology in Minneapolis (USA). I studied at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem during the Gulf War. It was a unique experience that strengthened me in my choice of life and in my personal following of Jesus Christ.
I was ordained in Ciudad Guayana in 1992 and worked ten years in the Curia. I went to Mexico for four summers to study Pastoral Ministry. Tired of the organizational work I asked to go to a remote village, where nobody wanted to go. I ended up in Guasipati in the far east of the country. I stayed there for twelve years until my episcopal appointment.
He has also been the pastor of a remote village for twelve years....
-It was the most important experience of my life. There were more than 40,000 souls scattered over 8,500 square kilometers. They had not had a priest for fifty years. At the beginning I took the motorcycle and went everywhere: markets and hamlets, farming fields, getting to know the people, visiting the sick. That helped me to reach all the sectors and organize parish life.
More than organizing the ecclesial structure, the essential thing was the deep relationship with the people. I began to love them very much. I used some "different" initiatives to enter into their lives. I was an elementary school teacher in a very dangerous neighborhood where no one wanted to work. I had the time but, above all, I wanted to show that in order to transform society and people, we had to start from childhood.
I dedicated many hours to the peasants and the poor villages. I worked with them. So we were able to promote them and bring them into the sacramental life, into the life of the church. I had assumed that I would stay there forever. And the people felt that I belonged to them. So when I was asked to become a bishop, I was the first to be surprised. Some in the town considered it a betrayal. It hurts a lot. It is a very strong resignation. I came to Acarigua to exercise my ministry with the same affection, the same intensity and the same love that I put in Guasipati. The same day of the inauguration I went to lend a hand in a neighborhood that had been flooded.
Can it be said that community spirituality is the driving force of pastoral action?
-But for me the most important thing is where we want to go. The great challenge is to make the Church the home and school of ecclesial communion.
The Pope invites "to feel the brother of faith in the profound unity of the Mystical Body and, therefore, as 'one who belongs to me', to know how to share his joys and sufferings, to intuit his desires and attend to his needs, to offer him a true and deep friendship.". Without this disposition, the structures and everything we do will be meaningless and will end up empty. Therefore, our option must be personal holiness and the proclamation of the Kingdom.
If our personal relationship with God is deep, constant, and we discover God in our brothers, community action will not be empty, soulless. We are trying to promote in the whole diocese the spirituality of communion: including priests, religious, evangelizing agents and everyone.
Pope Francis encourages us in the same direction when he says that we should not proclaim ourselves but proclaim Jesus Christ. This spirituality must start from the word of God and from a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
What about priests and seminarians?
-For me, the spiritual and human quality of the priest is fundamental. I want priests who love people. Our raison d'être is service, but sometimes we are not up to the task. We have a project to inspire in the seminarians this spirit of communion. We want them to have spiritual accompaniment, help in their discernment, to form a clear option for Jesus, for holiness, for the Gospel and to be formed inserted in the reality of parish life.
I also want priests to be prepared, to be trained, when they are inserted in a parish for at least three years. Once they organize it, and dare I say, they are able to leave the parish organized in such a way that it can function without a pastor for at least two years, then they deserve to go and study. And when they return they should come to serve the poorest. Because if what we study does not serve us to serve the poor, it does not serve us at all.
Luis, a student of Social Communication, is taking pictures. He follows the interview carefully and asks Bishop Bravo:
How can we young people, who do not have an ecclesiastical title, bring our friends closer to God and the Church?
-This is precisely the point: for me the most important thing is not to be a bishop or a priest. For me, the most important thing is that I am baptized, and that is what makes me a Christian. To the extent that we rely on our Christian condition, we can be heralds of Jesus. Sometimes we think we are "somebody" in the Church when we achieve a status.
Latin America is a mostly young continent, and we must approach them through their own media, particularly social networks.
For his part, Francis knows how to engage with young people and speaks to them in their language. "I want mess". We have to develop a youth pastoral done by the young people themselves: protagonists of their own evangelizing action. Young people have an immense faith and a great hunger for God.
What have been the moments when God has been closest to you?
-I try daily to discover where God has passed through my life today. There are two prayers that help me a lot. Charles de Foucault's: "Lord, here I am. For all that you make of me I thank you.".
And the other prayer is by John XXIII: "Lord, this is your Church, it is in your hands, I am tired, I am going to sleep.".
Sometimes I am asked if this or that issue keeps me awake at night. I don't want problems to keep me from sleeping and I say: "Lord, this is your Church, it is in your hands, I am tired...". With my words I tell you: "That's your problem and let's see what you do to fix it.". I believe that God understands this language. I am also often amazed at the impact our ordinary behavior has on people. It is when God reminds me: in the midst of your miseries you are an instrument to do great things in God.
Caracas
