If there is a Gospel parable that Pope Francis often quotes and meditates on, it is that of the Good Samaritan, from his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, the joy of the Gospel. Until we get soaked. That's what the new archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo, named cardinal the day after taking office as archbishop, after five years as auxiliary bishop (2018-2023), has done.
Monsignor José Cobo (Sabiote, Jaén, 57 years old), fixed his attention on everyone in his inauguration at La Almudena, but especially on the poor and the needy, on the discarded. So much so that fifty people belonging to the Pastoral del Sordo, the Mesa de la Discapacidad, immigrants and the homeless, occupied a preferential place in the Almudena Cathedral last Saturday.
They were there, together with authorities and personalities from the political, social, cultural and judicial life of Madrid, and, of course, ecclesiastical life. Numerous bishops (60), priests (more than 350) concelebrants, consecrated and lay people wanted to be with their new metropolitan archbishop.
Social causes, and "a good Shepherd".
"The Lord is my shepherd: this was the song of Agustin and Pauli (his parents), when they arrived in Madrid many years ago, leaving their village and entering an uncertain city, unknown and full of migrants like them," said the Archbishop of Madrid, opening his heart in La Almudena, already in the concluding rite.
"They came, like so many others, from the village to the city with their young children on their arms and with their faith hardened in their hearts. Without theories, but trusting in the paths that only the Lord would open. We praise you, good Shepherd, for taking care of us with the face of the people, of the family, of grandparents, uncles, aunts and nephews," he added.
These were years in which "roads full of friends, of parishes, of corners where I cannot but be grateful that you taught me, through them, to begin to listen to your present and actual voice in the midst of your People".
"Thanks to all of you who initiated me to discover that God dwells in the city among searches and many processes. You are the friends, priests and lay people who have brought me here, to this new beginning", added the new Archbishop, with special mention to Pepe Reyero, "my spiritual director and friend since the seminary, who prophesied one day, on his stretcher table in Carabanchel, that God had a special cross prepared for me so that I would be more of Him".
He did not miss a nice mention to his ordination by Cardinal Suquía (1994), in the same see "where 29 years ago I knelt to let the hands of Don Ángel Suquía embrace me to take from my heart the promise of obedience and respect. Then, Lord, your shepherding led me to prostrate myself twice on this ground so that the land of Madrid would be the place where you want me to take root, treading the dust of this city, at ground level, first as a priest and then as a bishop, always from the ground. Until today".
Strong social unrest
Some of the people who have dealt with Don José Cobo over the years have contextualized the strong social concern of the new archbishop, who began his pastoral ministry as vice-consecretary of the Brotherhoods of Labor of Madrid, and who also carries out tasks in the Spanish Episcopal Conference, where he is a member of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral Care and Human Promotion.
In his years as parish priest of San Alfonso and as archpriest of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Aluche-Campamento, until 2015, "Don José was more radical in social causes. Then, especially in his years as auxiliary bishop, he has been showing himself to be more moderate, open and welcoming, and with a lot of common sense. There is a certain expectation about what we are going to find now," says a person close to him.
"To the agile and free rhythm of Jesus."
Be that as it may, what is certain is that in Saturday's homily, the Archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo, said things like this, which leave no room for doubt:
"We want to walk always at the agile and free pace of Jesus, the Christ; always attentive to those who are discarded at the edge of the road. Migrations, inequality, loneliness, violence and meaninglessness are the corners where displaced people, the poor, the captives, the blind and oppressed await the united followers of Christ, to be rescued and recognized as children of God".
Because "we do not forget that we are a Samaritan Church. For Archbishop Cobo, archimadrid emphasized, "without the poor there is no way. Without their social and ecclesial inclusion, the joy of the Gospel would be impossible.
We also "aspire that our voice today reaches the whole city. To all men and women of good will who want to hear it," added the archbishop, who will become a cardinal on September 30. "Count on the sincere voice and help of the Church to work for the common good and to promote a culture of encounter," he told the authorities, because "as Christians and citizens, we want to contribute our voice and our vision to integral human development."
In this way, he added, "you will not find the Church of Madrid in the caboose", since "the Gospel is a very powerful locomotive capable of being in the vanguard, contributing transcendence, values and a conception of the human being that helps us to be happier, knowing that we are a gift from God with a dual nationality: pilgrims on earth and called to be citizens of heaven".
Masses and Lisbon
After the first Sunday Mass as Archbishop celebrated today in the small town of Aoslos, in the northern Sierra of Madrid, Monsignor Cobo will go to Vallecas on the next Sundays, on July 16, at 12:00 noon, to the parish of St. Albert the Great, entrusted by the archdiocese to Opus Dei; and then on July 23, at 11:00 a.m., he will celebrate the Eucharist in the parish of Our Lady of the Forsaken, in the district of Villaverde.
The Madrid archdiocese has also informed that "the new archbishop will participate in World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 accompanying the young people of the archdiocese for the first time as their senior pastor".
