Fundación CEU launches 'Haciéndote Preguntas', to analyze current major issuesFamily testimonials, hopeful encouragement from the CEU congress"There was a historical need for a meeting such as the Catholics and Public Life Congress. A formula to give life to the need for a response in society, to move forward in search of the truth," said Cardinal Rouco Varela, in the analysis made on the occasion of the 25th edition of the CongressThe theme of the meeting is "Living, sharing, proclaiming. Evangelize".
Cardinal Rouco Varela recalled the different topics that have been addressed since 1998 in the Congress, "from the sensitivity and evolution of the problems, related to the conception of man, with anthropology, the basic concerns of the Church in Spain".
In his speech, the Cardinal reflected on "what it means to be Catholic: to live the Christian faith in the communion of the Catholic Church". He also stressed that "the visible Church is a community of believers who, through baptism, enter into Christ as members of his Body. To be Catholic is to be in that community, the Body of Christ." "To be Catholic is to belong to Christ," he pointed out.
"Encounter with a Person".
Rouco Varela reminded us of Romano Guardini and the well-known phrase from the introduction to the encyclical of Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas Est": "We have believed in the love of God: this is how a Christian can express the fundamental choice of his or her life. One does not begin to be a Christian by an ethical decision or a great idea, but by an encounter with an event, with a Person, who gives a new horizon to life and, with it, a decisive orientation", "Christ himself", the Cardinal added.
Throughout his presentation, Cardinal Rouco, who was introduced by Professor José Francisco Serrano Oceja, mentioned the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council; he stated that "the Church will never disappear"; and he recalled different moments of the last Popes and of the current Pope Francis.
Last Popes
For example, he recalled that Paul VI was "an exceptional Pope" who appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago de Compostela in 1984, and recalled his suffering due to the "anarchy" in the years following the Second Vatican Council. He also referred at various times to the messages of St. John Paul II in Santiago, "Europe, be yourself".
At the end, in response to some questions, he reiterated that the main thing is "the relationship of personal and public life with God", "the problem of God", he added. He then responded to the question of how to witness to the faith with "a very simple answer: by fulfilling the ten commandments of the law of God. Regarding the charisms, he said: "let them live".
And as for the successive editions of the Congress emphasized that they have always been "in tune with the basic concerns of the Church in Spain and of the Pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis".
Profound significance
After the cardinal, the president of the Catholic Association of Propagandists and the San Pablo CEU University Foundation, Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza, thanked the late president Alfonso Coronel de Palma for founding the congresses, and Cardinal Rouco Varela for his presence: he participated in and celebrated the concluding Mass of the first Congress of Catholics and Public Life in 1998.
The director of the CongressRafael Sanchez Saus, recalled that this meeting The event "has a profound significance", with national and international speakers, and will hear first hand the trajectory and projection of two Catholic congresses that have emerged outside our borders: Puerto Rico and Chile.
This year, special importance has been given to the Youth Congress, and at its conclusion Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary's Meals and Princess of Asturias Award for Concord 2023, will give the closing lecture entitled: "Charity and the art of living generously". Afterwards, the Manifesto with the main conclusions of the meeting will be read.
