A little over a month ago, Tíscar Espigares, the person who started the Sant'Egidio community in Madrid in 1988, emotionally attended a Eucharist of thanksgiving for the 50th anniversary of the movement, celebrated in the Almudena Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro.
They were accompanied by the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia; the Nuncio of His Holiness in Spain, Monsignor Renzo Fratini; Auxiliary Bishop José Cobo; the Nuncio of His Holiness in Spain, Monsignor Renzo Fratini; vicars and priests.

There were many lay people, families and children from the Peace Schools, the elderly, refugees, new Europeans, the Youth for Peace, and a multitude of friends and representatives of various institutions and other religions.

Espigares, as head of the movement in the Spanish capital, addressed everyone. We will continue to be "friends of God, of the poor and of peace," he said. "Friendship is a word of great value for Sant'Egidio and the bond that unites everyone with this community present in Madrid. Friendship with the poor has helped us to be both realists and dreamers. Realists because they make us see reality as it is, often with great harshness; but also dreamers because their pain pushes us every day to fight and dream so that the world may change".

Tíscar thanked in a special way Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant'Egidio "for his great love for the Word of God, a love that he has always transmitted to us with great passion, and that has made it possible for this family of Sant'Egidio to grow here in Madrid".

The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro, denounced in his homily that "the greatest scandal of this world" is "to remain impassive before the misery and injustice of millions of human beings, the aggressiveness, the violence, the destructive disqualifications, the wars, the experience of millions of men and women without work, without wages". And he thanked the Community of Sant'Egidio for combating these situations with works and words from the "radicalism of the following of Jesus Christ".

The Pope in Trastevere

But the highlight of the celebration of 50 years for the Community of Sant'Egidio, on a global scale, was the Pope's emotional visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, of which the Cardinal of Madrid is the titular.

There, in March, the Holy Father addressed the Founder, the leaders and all those present in connection with the international movement: "You did not want to make this feast just a celebration of the past, but also and above all a joyful manifestation of responsibility for the future. This makes us think of the Gospel parable of the talents [...]. Each one of you, whatever your age, is also given at least one talent. In it is written the charism of this community, a charism that, when I came here in 2014, I summed up in these words: prayer, poor and peace. The three 'p's."

The Holy Father referred to the sowing of friendship: "By walking in this way you help to make compassion grow in the heart of society - which is the true revolution, that of compassion and tenderness - to make friendship grow instead of the ghosts of enmity and indifference".

Upon his arrival, Francis thanked everyone for the welcome, with special mention to Andrea Riccardi and Marco Impagliazzo: "I am happy to be here with you on the fiftieth anniversary of the Community of Sant'Egidio. From this Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, the heart of your daily prayer, I would like to embrace your communities scattered throughout the world. I greet you all, in particular Prof. Andrea Riccardi, who had the happy intuition of this path, and the President Prof. Marco Impagliazzo for the words of welcome".

The Pope was moved by the testimony of Jafar, a 15-year-old refugee who fled Syria with his mother and arrived in Italy from Lebanon in one of the humanitarian corridors promoted by the institution. Shrapnel from a bomb that fell in Damascus blinded his mother as she tried to protect her other young son.

With great force, the Vatican correspondents assure us, the Holy Father encouraged them to "continue to be close to the elderly, sometimes discarded, who are your friends. Continue to open new humanitarian corridors for refugees from war and hunger! The poor are your treasure!

Humanitarian corridors

One of the initiatives for which the Sant'Egidio movement is best known are, as the Pope recalled, the humanitarian corridors in aid of migrants and refugees. The Pope said during his visit to Trastevere: "For many people, especially the poor, new walls have been erected. Diversities are occasions of hostility and conflict. We still need to build a globalization of solidarity and of the spirit. The future of the global world is to live together: this ideal demands a commitment to build bridges, to keep dialogue open, to continue to meet".
He also referred to "the great fears in the face of the vast dimensions of globalization" and that fears "are often concentrated against those who are foreign, different from us, poor, as if they were an enemy".

These corridors have allowed in these years to legally transfer to Italy hundreds of refugees coming from countries in conflict, especially Syria. It is a project promoted by Sant'Egidio, the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Valdese Church, which offers people fleeing their countries in conflict legal and safe ways to reach Europe, preventing them from getting into the hands of human traffickers.

Once in the Old Continent, they receive daily assistance, live in parishes, religious institutes, private apartments or with families, learn the language and customs, and begin a process of social and work integration in the host country.

The first agreement of these humanitarian corridors was signed in Italy in December 2015 and allowed until 2017 to bring to the transalpine country one thousand refugees. The pact was renewed with the Italian authorities to repeat this figure again until 2019.

Following Pope Francis, the Community of Sant'Egidio has assured over the years that "we cannot allow the Mediterranean Sea to become a wall, a wall of water that engulfs the lives of men, women and children", "nor a new cemetery of Europe", in the Pope's words.

To sum up, the reality of Sant'Egidio is not limited to the corridors. We must remember here the peace agreements in several countries (Mozambique is emblematic), and the maintenance of the spirit of Assisi - interreligious prayer meetings initiated by St. John Paul II -, the help to thousands of poor people in many places - Sant'Egidio is present in seventy countries -, the training programs for thousands of young people in nations and cities in crisis...

The poor are family
Initiatives around the world have multiplied. Tíscar Espigares, a young university student in 1988, now a biologist and professor of ecology in Alcalá, started out in Madrid with some friends "taking affection and friendship - because we had nothing - to the Pan Bendito neighborhood, where the Toledo road starts: there were many problems, drug addiction...". It was the first Peace School in the capital of Madrid.

Today, the service can be provided to thousands of people, as in Rome and in so many cities around the world, in the same spirit: "For us, the poor are family, they are not just bodies to clothe, to feed, they are people with the same needs we have, of affection, friendship, dignity, someone to call you by name. It is very important. And we would get together to pray. It was the School of Peace, which is the name we give to this service," he explains to Palabra in the vicinity of the church of Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, in Madrid's Calle del 2 de Mayo. If you want to know more, go there.

RelatedThe mystery of Paul VI

"The pontificate of Paul VI has already been defined before History, whatever its final results, whether it fails or triumphs, since, in any case, it will be the pontificate of a Pope who truly tried to dialogue with all men.". These words were written by the philosopher and friend of Paul VI, Jean Guitton, in his book Dialogues with Paul VIpublished in 1967.
It was the first time that a Pope had openly dialogued with a layman. And, in this case, with a layperson to whom he L'Osservatore RomanoThe Pope's newspaper, the Pope's newspaper, had reproached him for daring to write a book about the Virgin Mary. But the Pope did not mind. He had taken seriously the Church-world dialogue and the role of the laity within the Church.

Biographical sketch

Born on September 26, 1897, Giovani Battista Montini grew up in the heat of journalistic and political battles. His father, Giorgio Montini, a journalist and lawyer, was also a member of parliament for the Popular Party founded by Dom Sturzo and president of Catholic Action. At the age of 23, Montini was ordained a priest; at 25 he joined the Secretariat of State and only a year later was assigned to Poland. On his return to Rome, and from his work in the Secretariat of State, he developed a close and trusting relationship with Cardinal Pacelli. When Pacelli became Pope in 1939, Montini became, together with Cardinal Tardini, one of Pius XII's closest collaborators.

In 1954, Pius XII appointed Montini archbishop of Milan. From this archdiocese, he engaged in numerous meetings with workers and trade unions, politicians, artists and intellectuals, which earned him the first criticisms of those who always looked at him with suspicion for being liberal and progressive. It was John XXIII who named him cardinal in December 1958, which took him on several occasions to Africa and the United States. In 1961, when John XXIII had already announced the convocation of the Second Vatican Council, he was appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission, as well as a member of the Commission for Extraordinary Affairs. Only two years later, in 1963, he was elected Pope.

Renovation and refurbishment

They say that when John XXIII announced the convocation of the Second Vatican Council, Montini, then Archbishop of Milan, exclaimed: "This boy doesn't know what a hornet's nest he's stirring up.". It was up to Paul VI, beginning in June 1963, to make it possible for the convocation made four years earlier by John XXIII to bear fruit, and fruit that would last. And so it was Paul VI who made possible the culmination of the Second Vatican Council and its closure in December 1965. And if this task was arduous, the task of accompanying, encouraging and guiding the enormous work that was the post-conciliar period would be no less so.

To Paul VI we owe the ecumenical impulse and the pastoral renewal of Vatican II, the ecclesial reforms in the area of synodality, the creation of the Episcopal Conferences, as well as the reforms of papal elections and the definitive liturgical reform encouraged by the Council. The reforms that Paul VI was orienting towards the interior of the Catholic Church were accompanied by very important reforms also with regard to Church-world relations according to the teachings of the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes.

Paul VI was the Pope of dialogue, as his first Encyclical testifies Ecclesiam Suam (1964). He was the first Pope to make international trips. Let us recall his visit to the United Nations Organization on the 20th anniversary of its foundation, his speech at the ILO headquarters during his trip to Switzerland, as well as his trips to Bombay, on the occasion of the International Eucharistic Congress, and to Medellin to celebrate the II General Assembly of the EC. We cannot forget his transcendental trip to the Holy Land in which he met with the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras I and with whom he expressed his firm commitment to the path of ecumenism, or his trips to Uganda, Iran, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia, among others.

Paul VI instituted the World Day of Peace, created the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, redirected the Social Doctrine of the Church along the lines initiated by the Second Vatican Council, reformed Vatican Diplomacy, deepened the Ostpolitik The first of his six cardinal consistories was held during the pontificate of John XXIII, in which he deepened the internationalization of the cardinalate, just as his predecessors had done.

The Pope's presence and encouragement at the III World Congress of the Secular Apostolate, a meeting of great value for the Spanish laity, which was plunged into a deep crisis as a result of episcopal resistance to deepen the autonomy of the laity, or the convening of the first Vatican Commission for the study of women in the early seventies, should be taken into account.

Paul VI was a reforming Pope who in fifteen years of Pontificate published six encyclicals, fourteen apostolic exhortations, and more than one hundred apostolic letters. Among all his magisterial documents, his first encyclical stands out, Ecclesiam Suampublished on August 6, 1964; Populorum Progressiopublished on March 26, 1967 and, most certainly, Humanae Vitaepublished on July 25, 1968.
In addition to these three major documents, there are two others that have had a significant impact on the general public: the apostolic exhortation Evangeli Nuntiandipublished on December 8, 1975, and the apostolic letter Octogesima Adveniens which, in commemoration of the encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, was published on May 14, 1971.

A look at his Magisterium

Ecclesiam Suamknown as the encyclical of dialogue, is, in a way, the one that marks the pontificate of Paul VI, if we follow, among others, the words of the philosopher Jean Guitton that appear at the beginning of these pages. Paul VI believed and worked from the Papacy so that the encounter between the Church and the world, in the theological-doctrinal wake of Vatican II, would allow a reciprocal knowledge from which sincere relations of friendship could spring.

Paul VI firmly believed in dialogue as a way and a style that allows us to seek the truth in others and in ourselves. Clarity, gentleness, trust and prudence are the characteristics of a colloquy that allows one to make oneself understood from humility and that is only possible if one trusts fully in one's own word and in the acceptance of the other in order to advance on the path of truth.

It is from the logic of dialogue that Paul VI advanced in his social Magisterium. Dialogue with the world requires being attentive to the signs of the times and to the injustices that compromise human dignity. Populorum Progressio, the "magna carta del desarrollo".is a response to the appeal that the Second Vatican Council makes to the whole Church, especially in its pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes (GS), so that he may respond to the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the men and women of his time.

The decade of the 1960s, rich in contrasts and paradoxes, made the world aware of the profound imbalances and inequalities between a rich world of stability and wealth and an impoverished world in which human beings lacked the most basic goods for their survival. In a world in which the logic of economic growth prevailed, Populorum Progressio dared to question the new developmentalist gospel. If economic growth is necessary, wrote the Pope, recalling GS, if our world needs technicians, he added, it needs even more men of profound reflection who seek a new humanism. Development, true development for all human beings and for all peoples, is the passage from less human conditions of life to more human conditions of life. For the raison d'être of development does not lie in having, but in being and, therefore, in the full development of the vocation to which each and every one of us is called.

And Christianity serves this task, the task of full humanization. As the Exhortation states Evangelii Nuntiandi, "(...) between Evangelization and human promotion (development, liberation) there are indeed very strong links. Links of an anthropological order, because the man to be evangelized is not an abstract being, but a being subject to social and economic problems. Links of a theological order, because the plan of creation cannot be dissociated from the plan of redemption that reaches very concrete situations of injustice to be fought and justice to be restored".. Because salvation and sanctification, let us not forget, also involve freeing ourselves from those situations of injustice that impede the full development of our humanity or, which is the same thing, the full development of our vocation which, in the last analysis, is the call to sanctification.

The good press enjoyed by the three documents mentioned above seemed to be overshadowed by the publication of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae. Historical and cultural reasons explain why all the focus on this document was on the question of the morality or immorality of artificial means for making responsible decisions on the issue of parenthood. I sincerely believe that this is unfair. And that the injustice was committed and continues to be committed, in equal parts, by those who continue to insist on reducing this document to this issue when, in fact, it deals with preliminary questions.

Paul VI spoke of conjugal love, the transmission of life and the care of life. Humanae Vitae was a document sequestered for decades that deeply marked Pope Paul VI and that has also profoundly marked the Catholic Church inwardly. The question deserves, after the attention that Pope Francis has devoted to it on its 50th anniversary, a new look in a world in which human life risks being reduced to a force whose value resides in its productivity and, therefore, in the benefits and profitability that it can produce.

Friendships and dialogue

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to reread Humanae Vitae in the light of what only three years later Paul VI published in Octogesima Adveniens with regard to the technocratic paradigm and the invasive mode that scientific-technical reason deploys on human existence. In essence, this same critique was the underlying one in Populorum Progressio in denouncing developmentalism based on technical mastery and economic growth. Approaching the question of human life from these perspectives would help us today to link human life and social justice in order to better respond to the anxieties and sorrows, the joys and joys of the women and men of our time.

Paul VI, as some have maliciously maintained, was not a Hamlettian Pope, but a man of deep prayer and serene reflection, who cultivated the friendship of philosophers and intellectuals. He was a friend who wept and pleaded at the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro, who knew how to meet and dialogue with those who, apparently or avowedly, were far from the Christian faith and the Catholic Church, a man of deep Marian devotion who liked to recite the beautiful verses of Canto XXXIII of the Divine Comedy and who say thus: "Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio, umile e alta più che creatura, termine fisso d'etterno consiglio, Donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali, che qual qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre, sua disïanza vuol volar sanz' ali. In te misericordia, in te pietate, in te magnificenza, in te s'aduna quantunque in creatura è di bontate". (Dante, Divine Comedy, Canto XXXIII): "Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son, humble and loftier than any other creature, fixed term of the eternal counsel. Lady, you are so great and worth so much, that he who desires graces and does not accept you, his desire wants him to fly without wings. In you mercy, in you pity, in you magnificence, in you all that is good in the creature is united". (Dante, Divine Comedy, Canto XXXIII).

RelatedThe mystery of Paul VI

I have thought several times if it would be interesting to share my experience with Monsignor Romero on a specific point: his relationship with Opus Dei.

I intend to offer only a few snippets and details that only I know and I think it is worth sharing them on the eve of his canonization. To do so, I will also use an almost unpublished source: his spiritual retreat notes from before he became bishop until a month before his assassination.

Monsignor Romero and Don Fernando

Father Óscar Romero, like all the bishops of the country at that time, received a visit from the then Father Fernando Sáenz Lacalle -Don Fernando- to ask him to put in writing his support for the canonization of the founder of Opus Dei. The laudatory text written by the future Archbishop of San Salvador is well known. By the way, when he was appointed bishop of Santiago de María, he subscribed all the priests of this small diocese to the magazine Word.

When I was a seminarian I accompanied Father Romero a couple of times to the Doble Vía Residence in San Salvador, where university students lived, mostly from the eastern part of the country, run by the Work. He was very close to the Work and had an Opus Dei priest as spiritual director. I believe the latter was Don Fernando and he consulted with him before accepting the election as auxiliary bishop of San Salvador. It is recorded that he asked Don Fernando for advice in relation to the Archbishop of that time, Luis Chávez y González and, above all, with his auxiliary Arturo Rivera Damas. And, on his part, the Nunciature entrusted him to be attentive to the actions of these prelates and to inform the Vatican in a timely manner if he noticed anything in the pastoral line of these hierarchs that was not in accordance with the norms of the Church.

Years later, when Monsignor Romero succeeded Monsignor Chávez in the archiepiscopal see, we entered a very different scenario: Monsignor Romero, in his programmatic pastoral letter The Easter Church (April 1977), praises his predecessor in a very beautiful way when he affirms that he holds the helm of the archbishop's ship "with the respect and delicacy of one who feels he has received a priceless inheritance to continue to carry and cultivate it across new and difficult horizons." (p. 5).

In the same pastoral letter, right in the middle of the text, he describes his utopia of the Church, taking it from the Medellin documents: "May the face of a Church that is authentically poor, missionary and paschal, detached from all temporal power and boldly committed to the liberation of the whole man and of all men and women become ever clearer". (Youth, 15). The word "paschal" appears in capital letters in the text. We are at the beginning of his archiepiscopal ministry and he has already had to pick up the corpse of the first murdered priest, Father Rutilio Grande.
He made that utopia a reality, signing it with his blood: he left us a martyrial Church, free from all power and totally committed to the poor and the suffering. Monsignor Romero was, as the bull of beatification says, "pastor according to the heart of Christ, evangelizer and father of the poor, heroic witness of the Kingdom of God".

Pope Francis himself completed this beautiful description of the witness of Christ the following day, at the hour of Regina Coeliby pointing out that "this diligent shepherd, following the example of Jesus, chose to be in the midst of his people, especially the poor and the oppressed, even at the cost of his life." (May 24, 2015).

We are at the beginning of three dramatic years marked by a deep polarization even within the Church. In El Salvador, "rereadings" of Medellin abounded; it is good to remember this when we have just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of this capital event for the Church in Latin America. And it is opportune to underline that only in this continent was there an official "reception" of the conciliar documents. It was a time when nuances hardly existed: "You have to define yourself."said the most radical apostles of liberation, "either you are with the oppressed people or you are with the oppressors.".

It was with this reality that the venerable pastor had to struggle. And in this context he confided to me that he was receiving strong pressure to force Opus Dei to assume fully those approaches, which some considered "the archdiocesan line".. In spite of everything, Monsignor Romero maintained his friendship and relationship with the members of the Work, listening attentively to their observations and suggestions. Proof of this is that on the day of his death he had spent the whole morning, at the invitation of Don Fernando, who came to pick him up at the archbishopric, by the sea. They were accompanied by several priests and they devoted themselves mainly to studying documents related to priestly formation. Upon returning from the trip, Monsignor Romero went to the Jesuit house in Santa Tecla and went to confession. This is recorded by several testimonies, the most reliable being that of his confessor, the Jesuit Segundo Azcue. An hour later the sacrilegious murder took place.

Opus Dei appeared again on the scene when, after the unexpected death of Monsignor Arturo Rivera Damas, Romero's immediate successor, Monsignor Fernando Saenz Lacalle, who was born in Spain but arrived in El Salvador recently ordained as a priest, was elected Archbishop of San Salvador. Let us remember that the first reaction of many people was not favorable to Monsignor Saenz. In this context, the magazine Word published a brief note by Rutilio Silvestri in which he argued that it was obvious that the charge fell precisely on one of the best friends of the murdered pastor, since for a long time he had been his confidant and even his spiritual director. It would be interesting to critically explore this facet of the priest and bishop Oscar Romero, as well as his relationship with the Work during the three years of his intense and difficult shepherding of this portion of the Church of God.

The spirituality of Opus Dei in the spiritual writings of Monsignor Romero

As an initial contribution, I will turn to a practically unpublished source: his spiritual retreat notes, which cover the period from 1966, when he was not yet a bishop, to the retreat he made a month before his death, in February 1980. These notes are now available to the public, although still in selective form. They total 324 pages. On each page we find the notes written in his own handwriting and, at the top, the transcription in block letters to facilitate the reading of the handwritten text.

In the retreat he made on the shores of Lake Ilopango in September 1968 (the previous year he had celebrated his silver jubilee as a priest), there were several allusions to The Way, the famous little book of St. Josemaría. In the meditation on sin he notes these resolutions:
"More inner life, more service to others. Negatively: strategy. Moving away from danger (Camino). Plan of life. Fight venial sin: be perfect. Longing for reparation and penance (The Way). Time for spirituality (...). I will die. Autumn... I will be a dead leaf (The Way). Humility. The world will go on. No one remembers those who have passed". And in making an examination of conscience, he notes: "Most importantly, an act of love (Camino)".

In these detailed notes, we find at the end several references to the magazine Wordone while meditating on the Gospel of Martha and Mary (The Way: The Tabernacle in Bethany). In the final part he transcribes this quote from a letter of the Prelate written in 1950: "Each one must sanctify his profession, sanctify himself in his profession, sanctify with his profession.". There is even room for an anecdote of St. Josemaría, which he told in a talk when he heard that his mother had just died: "The mother of the priest must die three hours after the son.".

From November 10 to 14, 1969, he participated in the retreat preached by Father Juan Izquierdo, of Opus Dei. At this time, Romero was serving as Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of El Salvador and could only be present intermittently because he had to fulfill tasks entrusted to him by Monsignor Pedro Arnoldo Aparicio, president of the episcopate. However, he is disappointed that there is not an adequate climate for an encounter with God: "Lack of recollection. The 'mancha brava' definitely broke the silence... I interrupted my retreat on the 11th, which I dedicated everything to prepare the agenda [...]. On the 12th, I wake up again in Apulo. I will do what I can these three days".. E

n the next page, write down briefly: "January 26 (1970). Confession with Father Xavier"..
A few lines below we find this sentence, written on April 21, 1970: "The Nuncio notifies me of the Pope's will. I must respond tomorrow. Consultation with Father Fernando".. The next day he writes down what the latter tells him; it is worth transcribing it in full: "Positive elements: line of spiritual direction. a) Faced with the basic problem: take it as sacrifice, expiation and take seriously the amendment: escape from occasions, intense life of prayer and mortification. b) Faced with the temptation of triumphalism: see it as a serious responsibility, a service that is not easy, a work in the presence of God. c) Faced with the temptation of faint-heartedness: see it as work before God, service and guidance to millions of souls. The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep"..

Next, dated June 8, 1970 (Colegio Belén), he writes: "On April 21 (21 it had to be!) at about 6 p.m. the Nuncio notified me of my designation as auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Archbishop. I was to respond the following day. I consulted Fr. Sáenz, Dr. Dárdano, Fr. Navarrete".. Below is a brief summary of what each of the respondents tells you.

A safe guide in the midst of the storm

What he wrote down below marked the novice bishop with fire: "The Plenary Assembly of the Episcopate of Central America and Panama in Antigua Guatemala: May 27 - June 2. Plenary Assembly of the Episcopate of Central America and Panama in Antigua Guatemala. A true grace of the first order: living together with so many good bishops, the reflection of Bishop (Eduardo) Pironio, the liturgy, my work...".

The beloved Argentinean bishop, whose cause for canonization was introduced several years ago, preached the retreat in the Vatican in 1974 at the invitation of Pope Paul VI. He repeated the same retreat the following year, in July, before the bishops of the Central American Isthmus in Antigua Guatemala. Monsignor Romero was at that time assistant secretary of SEDAC (Episcopal Secretariat of Central America) and he took detailed notes of each of the twelve meditations preached by Pironio.

There Monsignor Romero understood the true meaning of Medellin as a salvific event that embodies in the dramatic Latin American reality the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. And there he strengthened a friendship that would turn the Argentinean bishop into his advisor, his confidant and even into his tears cloth in each of the visits that the martyred archbishop would make to the Vatican. This appears clearly in the Diary of Monsignor Romero and is known to all.

May these lines serve to better understand the first Salvadoran saint. May the aroma of his holiness - rosemary is an aromatic plant - spread throughout the world.

The situation of the subject of Catholic Religion and that of the teaching staff was already uncertain and judicialized last year. Now, after the arrival of the new government, the situation is even more problematic. In the meantime, several authors propose to vindicate the subject of Religion and to attend to the demands of parents, who have the right to choose the religious and moral formation they want for their children.

Text - Francisco Javier Hernández Varas 

If in previous courses we started with judicial appeals, different and disparate situations in each Autonomous Community, reduction of timetables, loss of jobs, etc., this 2018-19 academic year is also joined by the declarations and intentions of the Ministry of Education to "urgent"modifications to the LOMCE.

One of these modifications clearly affects the subject of Religion, which would cease to be computable and will not have any other alternative subject. This means, in short, that Religion will no longer count for the average, nor will it count for the transcript, nor will it be taken into account for access to scholarships. It will be voluntary enrollment for students.

In addition, a compulsory subject of Civic and Ethical Values will be introduced, focused on the treatment and analysis of human rights and civic-democratic virtues. With this background, Religion teachers are living a situation of uncertainty and helplessness that the change of Government has increased.

It is the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, published by Blessed Paul VI on July 25, 1968. The Pope dealt with love and sexuality in marriage, and announced with prophetic vision the consequences if conjugal love was distorted by separating the unitive and procreative dimensions.

Text - Stéphane Seminckx, Brussels
Doctor of Medicine from the University of Louvain and Doctor of Moral Theology from the University of the Holy Cross.

We all dream of a great love. We all aspire to the ideal of founding a united family (or of responding to God's call with the total gift of celibacy). We all think that therein lies the key to happiness. But, as Pope Francis says in Amoris laetitia, "the word 'love,' one of the most frequently used words, often appears disfigured" (89). Many people speak of love without knowing what it is. This is why it is essential to get a true idea of love, through experience and also through prayer and reflection.

The encyclical Humanae Vitae, published in 1968 by Pope Paul VI, said no less when it stated in n. 9 that "it is of the utmost importance to have an accurate idea of conjugal love. We cannot spoil our life - or mortgage the future of the people entrusted to our care - by being mistaken about true love: "To deceive oneself in love is the most dreadful thing that can happen; it constitutes an eternal loss, for which one is not compensated either in time or in eternity" (Sören Kierkegaard).

Current message

For this reason, fifty years later, the message of Humanae Vitae is still very timely. This encyclical does not simply deal with contraception; it is above all an occasion to affirm in a decisive way the sublime grandeur of human love, image and likeness of divine Love. At the time of its appearance, this document gave rise to a long series of debates and numerous tensions. For many Christians, it caused perplexity and incomprehension. Some then broke with the Church, either because they explicitly rejected its teaching, or because they abandoned religious practice, or because they tried to live their faith with their backs turned to the Church.
Since then, much water has flowed under the bridges. Spirits have calmed down, often paying the price of indifference. Today we can examine the question with more serenity and, in my opinion, we have a duty to do so: the coherence of our human and Christian vocation is at stake.

Pope Francis invites us to do so when he speaks of "rediscovering the message of Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae" (Amoris laetitia, 82 and 222). St. John Paul II had already encouraged theologians to "to go deeper into the reasons for this teaching [of Humanae Vitae] is one of the most urgent duties of anyone engaged in the teaching of ethics or in the pastoral care of the family. In fact, it is not enough to propose this teaching faithfully and in its entirety, but it is also necessary to show the deeper reasons for it." (Speech, 17-09-1983).

This deepening is particularly necessary since the ideology of free sex, born in the 1960s, does not seem to have liberated sexuality. A growing number of women are tired of the pill and its many side effects on their body and psyche. They increasingly see contraception as an imposition from the male world.

Counterconception

At the level of international relations, birth control has become a weapon in the hands of the rich countries, which impose it on disadvantaged nations in exchange for their economic aid. At the same time, in these same developed countries, deeply marked by the contraceptive mentality, demography is experiencing a dramatic decline, which is confronting the West with immense challenges. Finally, many moralists believe that "contraceptive language" distorts communication between spouses to the point of encouraging an explosion in the number of divorces.

Parallel to this evolution, since 1968, many philosophers and theologians have worked on a better understanding of the doctrine of Humanae Vitae. Moreover, the magisterium of St. John Paul II has made an essential contribution to this reflection, as have Benedict XVI and Francis.

Why such lively reactions?

The mitigated reception that Humanae Vitae received can be explained in part by the historical context in which the encyclical appeared. The Church was then at the beginning of the so-called post-conciliar period. Civil society was going through the revolt of May '68, and the world was living in the psychosis of overpopulation.

The document was long overdue. Its recommendations challenged the conclusions of a group of renowned specialists (the so-called "majority" group, which broke away from the rest of the Pontifical Commission for Problems of the Family, Birth and Population, created by St. John XXIII in 1962), whose report would be leaked to many newspapers in April 1967.

But this context does not explain everything. It is above all the problems addressed by Humanae Vitae that are at issue. For it is a question of fundamental issues that concern everyone: human love, the meaning of sexuality, the meaning of freedom and morality, marriage.

In the Church, contraception has been reprobated since the first centuries of Christianity (in the 1930 encyclical Casti Connubii, Pius XI speaks of "a Christian doctrine handed down from the beginning and never interrupted"). However, until the end of the 1950s, it had always been identified - in a more or less confused way - with onanism (coitus interruptus) or with mechanical means that prevent the normal development of the sexual act (condom, diaphragm, etc.). For progestogens, discovered in 1956, make women infertile without interfering - at least apparently - in the development of the sexual act. Considered from the outside, a sexual act performed with or without the pill is exactly the same.

The precise question posed in 1968 was the following: does the pill deserve to be called "contraception"? For a certain number of theologians, the answer was and remains negative, because the pill does not disturb the conjugal act in its "natural" development. Moreover, they see in hormonal contraception a confirmation of human dignity, called to take advantage of the laws of "nature" by means of its intelligence. But what do "natural" and "nature" mean when speaking of the human person?

What has changed since 1968?

Blessed Paul VI wrote a rather short encyclical whose content is centered on a kind of axiom, which rests on a simple fact: by its nature, by the will of the Creator, the conjugal act possesses a unitive dimension and a procreative dimension, which cannot be separated. Like all axioms, this one is not subject to demonstration. The arguments supporting it will come later, essentially during the pontificate of St. John Paul II.

It has often been said that Humanae Vitae was a prophetic document, because of its number 17, where Pope Paul VI announces the possible consequences of the rejection of the vision of love proclaimed by the Church. It is striking to reread this number 17 today: the announcement of the increase in marital infidelity, of the general decline in morality, of the growing domination of men over women, of the pressures of rich countries on poor countries in terms of the birth rate... All this has come to pass.

Prophetic

But Humanae Vitae is prophetic, in my opinion, above all because of the axiom that the encyclical has placed as the foundation of its entire reflection: the unitive and procreative dimensions of the conjugal act cannot be separated without denaturalizing the love between spouses. This principle had already been evoked by Pius XI, but it was Paul VI who placed it at the root of his vision of conjugal love.

The thought of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II has contributed much to explaining and enriching this vision. Since 1960, with his famous book Love and Responsibility, he focused the debate on the human person and his dignity, in particular on his vocation to make of himself a disinterested gift. The "law of gift" is for the Polish Pope the whole foundation of the ethics of marriage, of its unity, of its indissolubility, of the requirement of fidelity and of the necessary truth of every conjugal act.

Karol Wojtyla, as a conciliar father, contributed to the drafting of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, especially to the part dealing with marriage. With a group of Polish theologians, he sent a memorandum on the question of birth control to Pope Paul VI in February 1968, a few months before the encyclical was published.

Between September 1979 and November 1984, while he was Pope, he dedicated 129 Wednesday catecheses to what has been called the "theology of the body", a set of "theology of the body".reflections which [...] are intended to constitute a comprehensive commentary on the doctrine contained [...] in the encyclical Humanae Vitae."(St. John Paul II, Audience 28-02-1984).

He also took the initiative for numerous documents that deal extensively with or make important references to conjugal morality and the defense of life: the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio (1981), the instruction Donum Vitae (1987) on respect for nascent human life and on the dignity of procreation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the encyclical Veritatis splendor (1993) on fundamental morality, the Letter to Families (1994), the encyclical Evangelium Vitae (1995), etc.

Chastity is freedom

This magisterium of John Paul II has helped to clarify a number of essential points in the debate on Humanae Vitae.

In the first place, we can point to the notion of the person as a "unified whole" (Familiaris Consortio, 11): the Christian vision of marriage cannot be understood with a dualistic vision of man, where the spirit would represent the person while the body would be nothing more than an appendage, an "instrument" at the service of the spirit. We are one body and marriage is the vocation to give the "unified whole" that we are, so as to form "one flesh".

Then we can indicate the notion of chastity, understood as the integration of sexuality in the person, as the integrity of the person in view of the integrality of the gift (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2337): the conjugal act is not morally good just because it conforms to certain physiological characteristics of the woman; it is good when it is virtuous, when reason orders the sexual tendency to the service of love. Chastity is freedom, self-mastery, mastery over one's own personality in view of the gift of self, with the richness of its physiological, psychological and affective dimensions.

The role of Veritatis Splendor

The contribution of St. John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor, which Benedict XVI considered one of the Polish Pope's most important documents, cannot be overemphasized.

Veritatis Splendor reminds us that conscience is not the creator of the norm, which would lead to arbitrariness and subjectivism, to the postulate of "autonomy" that prevails in most bioethical debates today, where the simple fact of desiring something is enough to justify it. Veritatis Splendor reminds us that conscience is a herald, that is, it proclaims a law, fully assumed, even if it comes from Someone else. True freedom consists in moving towards the good for its own sake, a good that conscience shows us, in the same way that a compass indicates the north. Conscience is like a free and responsible participation in God's vision of good and evil.

The conjugal act: total gift

The question of the object of the act is equally fundamental for understanding what the conjugal act is. It is not a simple sexual act, because in this sense adultery and fornication are also sexual acts, as is the contraceptive sexual act. If language uses different terms for an act that is at first sight identical, it is because, from the moral point of view, an act can have a different meaning, a different "object", and this object is the first element to be considered when judging the goodness of that act.

The conjugal act is defined by the will to signify, consummate or celebrate the total gift of one person to another. The contraceptive sexual act is the negation of this definition, because the person, by not giving his procreative potentiality, does not give himself entirely. This point is essential for understanding the doctrine of Humanae Vitae.

And it is, moreover, linked to the notions of human nature and natural law, which are at the heart of the great current philosophical debates. Many of our contemporaries reject the very idea of "nature" in the name of autonomy and a certain conception of freedom. John Paul II spoke of the rejection of "of the notion of what most profoundly constitutes us as human beings, namely the notion of 'human nature' as a 'real datum', and in its place has been put a freely formed 'product of thought' freely modifiable according to circumstances"(Memory and identity). Gender theory is an extreme manifestation of this rejection.

Respecting the nature of man

Benedict XVI asked himself: why demand respect for ecological nature and at the same time reject the innermost nature of man? The answer: "The importance of ecology is indisputable today. We must listen to the language of nature and respond to it coherently. However, I would like to seriously address a point that seems to me to have been forgotten as much today as yesterday: there is also an ecology of man. Man also possesses a nature which he must respect and which he cannot manipulate at will. Man is not only a freedom that he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature, and his will is just when he respects nature, listens to it, and when he accepts himself for what he is, and admits that he has not created himself. In this way, and only in this way, true human freedom is realized." (Speech in the Bundestag, 22-9-11).

We are creatures

The "true human freedom" is a created freedom, received incarnated, finite, inscribed in a being configured by a nature, a project, some tendencies: "...".Let us not fall into the sin of pretending to replace the Creator. We are creatures, we are not omnipotent. What has been created precedes us and must be received as a gift."(Amoris laetitia, 56). To be free will never consist in wanting to free ourselves from our nature, but rather in assuming personally, consciously and voluntarily, the tendencies inscribed in it. A freedom directed against our nature "would be reduced to the effort to free oneself" (Albert Chapelle).

Behind this objection, we can glimpse the questioning of our origin. The rejection of our own nature would be understandable if each of us were the consequence of a simple contest of circumstances, of a random collision of molecules, of a mutation or of a blind destiny, for then our existence would be absurd, without project or destiny. There would be reasons to revolt, to want to ignore or transform this nature, instead of receiving it as a gift.

But the reality is quite different. At the origin of our life there is a creative Love, that of a God who, from all eternity, has conceived us and brought us into being at a given moment in the history of mankind. We are a fruit of Love, we are a gift of the overabundance of infinite Love of a God who, so to speak, creates beings for the sole purpose of pouring his Love into them. "In him (Christ) he (God the Father) chose us (God the Father) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his presence, for the sake of love" (Eph 1:4).

Rediscovering freedom

It is about rediscovering true freedom. The proper act of freedom is love. But if, in the face of love, the first act of our freedom consists in refusing the gift of our nature, in refusing what we are, how can we possess this "I" that we refuse to assume? And if we do not possess ourselves, how will we be able to give ourselves? And if we are incapable of giving ourselves, where is conjugal love?

The conversion of the intellect presupposes the conversion of the heart: to learn to love, one must accept Love. Certain reactions to Humanae Vitae recall passages in the Gospel where Jesus' discourse on love clashes with people's lack of understanding. When Jesus speaks of the indissolubility of marriage, his disciples react harshly: "If that is the condition of a man's relationship with his wife, it is of no account to marry" (Mt 19:10).

"God always puts us first."

In these two Gospel passages, Jesus speaks of indissoluble marriage and the gift of his Body in the Eucharist; Humanae Vitae refers to the integrity of the gift in the conjugal covenant. All three themes correspond to fundamental features of the covenant love that God reveals to us. And this revelation baffles us. It surpasses us. It even surprises us because, beyond the demands, our myopia sometimes makes it difficult for us to see God's gifts.

God loved us first. As Pope Francis says, "God always puts us first". And this love gives the grace to live the gift of self, fidelity, generous openness to life; it is mercy and gives understanding of God, his patience and forgiveness in the face of our weaknesses and our mistakes. Christ alone brings to the challenge of love the decisive response of "the love of God".hope (which) does not deceive, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"(Rom 5:5). n