Jaime Sanz: "Listening is a way of loving".

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Jaime Sanz: "Listening is a way of loving".

Jaime Sanz, chaplain of the Graduate Campus of the University of Navarra at the Madrid Campus, has focused on the importance of listening in his latest book "The Value of Listening for Good Governance".

Maria José Atienza-May 8, 2024-Reading time: 6 minutes

"It's hard for us to listen; I'm the first," says priest Jaime Sanz emphatically at the beginning of this interview. For that reason, and for many others, Sanz decided to write a book that, in its simplicity, is more than recommendable reading for many people today.

In fact, the listen has become, in recent years, a necessity in a society that hears many things and listens to very few. Beyond a strategic use of listening, Sanz Santacruz, who "as a priest I am professionally dedicated to listening," proposes a change of attitude both personally and corporately.

You have written about love, friendship and prayer. And now, about listening. Why was the book born?

-Talking to a professor at IESE, he told me that listening is one of the great themes of this century. We also see it in the Church; for example, it is one of the great guiding threads of Opus Dei as it prepares for its first centenary.

We are in a society in which we do not listen to politics, we do not listen to listen In the company and even in families, people complain that no one talks or no one listens. In the end, it's all because we are focused on a misunderstood efficiency.

We priests are professionally dedicated to listening. And I have been a priest for more than 25 years. When you listen to such different people you learn a lot. Thanks to this knowledge that I have been accumulating, I was able to write the book.

How to listen in these times of continuous rush?

-In the case of the family, for example, less time is now spent together, and we often see broken family relationships at the outset.

Listening in families is complicated because the time in big cities is very limited, but I think it is about looking for quality time, that rest is also time to listen. As Pep Borrell says "dancing in the kitchen". That means that the time we spend with the family doing certain unavoidable tasks (shopping, cooking, cleaning...) should be a time when we feel at ease.

In addition, you have to know how to disconnect. The cell phone is the biggest enemy of listening. We spend our lives looking at our cell phones, without being interested in the person in front of us. Listening is a way of loving. When you listen to someone, you are loving them. Society, family, organizations... improve when there is this listening environment.

He claims we don't listen, but governments, brands, companies... claim to want to know about citizens. Tactics, necessity, a weapon of war?

-Listening is not the same as hearing. We see many mechanisms of listen In society, for example, in the political parties, which are dedicated to know what is said, but they have a decision made and that knowledge does not influence anything. That is why it is important that in the Church we do not do as in the political sphere, where there is a lot of talk about press the street and then they don't give a damn.

Moreover, listening channels are necessary in all organizations. Also in families: a mother who does not listen to her children or a father who only imposes his opinion is impossible for them to gain the trust of their children, and therefore, for there to be unity. Listening is very important because, as I say in the book, unity is bidirectional, almost circular. Both from those "above" to those "below" and the other way around.

The value of listening for good governance

AuthorJaime Sanz Santacruz

Editorial : Word

Pages: 160

Year: 2023

But the person in charge may argue that he or she "has more data" or "knows more about the subject."

-Listening adds arguments to your own decision. He who does not listen is arrogant. He thinks, indeed, that he "knows about it". But perhaps there are people around him who know much more. The boss who does not allow his subordinates to do anything, nor does he try to get them to train or to move up, does so out of fear, because he is mediocre.

In the book I speak at various points of the government of the mediocre, of those who do not want others to overshadow them. A good ruler promotes his people and this can be applied to all levels: civil government, business, the Church or a family.

Whoever governs has to count on others, to be aware of the feedback that your decisions have. It is very important that, when a suggestion is made to you, the first thing you should always do is to thank them.

Secondly, realizing that this opinion -even if it is contrary to your own- helps to justify every decision very well and, moreover, to leave the door open so that, at some point, the decision can be changed.

In this sense, we find a certain fear - not without truth - of saying something, for fear that this information will "turn against" us.

-This is where trust comes into play. Trust is the basis of true listening. If you distrust - or those at the top make you distrust - because suggestions are used to push aside anyone who doesn't think like the leaders, you lose legitimacy and, above all, the opportunity to improve.

It is enriching to have people who think differently in a government council. If the only people on that council are "the balls" who are there because they don't say what they think, nothing is contributed to society. On the other hand, with the opposite, it may cost a little more to reach some agreements, but they will be much more global and correct.

At the same time, criticism must always be constructive. Simply saying that everything is wrong does not contribute anything, nor does the attitude of the one who criticizes and thinks that only the solution he provides exists. When one thinks that his solution is the only one, then he is becoming the tyrant who criticizes.

Another topic I talk about in the book is transparency. You cannot ask others to join your project in an organization if you do not involve them in the means, the project, the results. When you don't act in this way, it is either because you are hiding something that is not going well, or because of a misunderstood paternalism, which is harmful.

In the Church we have a separate "player": the Holy Spirit and there is also a hierarchy. Have we identified listening with a form of assemblyism?

-Following Luigino Bruni, in the book I speak of Organizations Moved by an Ideal (OMI), in which we can include the institutions of the Church.

In these organizations there is always verticality. In the case of the Church we have the hierarchy according to the sacrament of Holy Orders, but the Second Vatican Council already spoke of opening up to other organisms of the Church. To govern is not to direct an organization in a unipersonal way. That is neither prudent nor efficient.

It is necessary to ask questions before making any decision. It is very important to ask others, especially if the subject affects them in some way. It is about realizing that your opinion is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, but that it is just another opinion, even if you have more data. Obviously, this does not mean that you have to make a kind of dialectic of listening, but to create a culture, a way of listening.

Still at the ecclesial level, do we run the risk of diluting the charisms under the guise of an "adaptation" born of this listening?

-Listening is closely linked to humility. When one has the humility to think that one occupies an important position because "there is no other". Not because I am the best, not because I am the one who best embodies the spirit - in the case of an IMO - but because I have been given it and it is temporary.

I believe that the step that has been taken in the Church to limit the time of government in the international associations of the faithful is very interesting. I am convinced that renewal is fundamental. An organization in which the same people always occupy its governing bodies runs the risk of ending up tyrannizing that form of government.

There is no one whose job is to govern for life. It is much more enriching for people to pass on. When you govern for a specific period of time, you are more capable of continuing what has been done by those who have preceded you and preparing those who will come after you. Basically, you contribute what you know and, when someone else comes along, they will contribute other ideas. All this while being faithful to the way of life in your organization or, if we are talking about Church institutions, faithful to the charism.

In these IMOs, for example, in the institutions of the Church, the founder or foundress are the persons who have incarnated the charism. In this sense, sometimes we can lose the perspective that they are an instrument of God and we think that we have to replicate their life without openness or diversity. The founders and foundresses of ecclesial charisms are instruments. In them, God concentrates a message - a charism - a way of living the Christian life.

Fidelity to the charism is very important, because it is not a question of developing a charism in an assembly way, but to take into account the purpose. It is necessary to focus on the purpose, not to deify the founder. In fact, the founders of the institutions of the Church have been humble. They were aware that this charism was not their own invention, but was given to them by God. Those who follow a charism have to live a fidelity to this path, adapting the charism to the time in which it develops, because circumstances change.

Adapting the charism well to the time in which you live is part of fidelity. The charism in the Church is not for a single moment or a single concrete situation or problem. It is universal and for all times.

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Resilience or the art of starting again

ColumnistsLupita Venegas

To face adversity

In this article, Lupita Venegas offers some advice on how to face adversity supported by faith.

May 8, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

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Are you going through a situation that overwhelms you? Unexpected news, an unexpected diseaseYou wonder why? Do you deny the suffering, the injustice, the pain?

Remember this principle: what you reject becomes your enemy. Carl Jung, pioneer of depth psychology, put it this way: what you accept, transforms you; what you deny, subdues you.

The best thing you can do in the face of adversity is to accept it. Only then will you be able to deal with it effectively.

The Holy Scriptures nourish our hope: "We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good" (Rom 8:28).

We have countless examples of people who have discovered wonderful hidden talents just by facing an unexpected challenge.

Do you know what a dungeon is? The dictionary defines it as a hidden place arranged to illegally hide things or kidnapped people. Bosco Gutiérrez lived in one of them for 257 days. A Mexican architect who was kidnapped, stripped of everything, he lived in this dark place without ever hearing the voice of his guards.

They say that success is not for the strongest but for those who know how to adapt. After the initial shock, Bosco falls into depression as the days go by without being rescued. However, at some point when his kidnappers saw him on the verge of death, they cheered him up by presenting him with a sign that read: "Long live Mexico, today is September 16". It was then that he learned that he had been in these conditions for a month and felt he had to adapt for his own good. He seriously questioned his faith, did he truly believe in God? He nodded and assumed it was in His hands. He thought of his family and wished vehemently to see them again. So he ordered what he needed to perfectly clean that 3 x 2 meter cubbyhole and designed a schedule in which he read the Bible, wrote letters, said Mass from memory, and jogged in his small space.

8 principles in the face of adversity

He wrote down 8 commandments that would govern his day to day life, he stuck them on the wall to keep them in sight:

Limit the imagination. "I won't give a second thought to what's wrong with me, I'll damage my health and accomplish nothing."
Practical intelligence. "I will adapt to circumstances."
Keep the faith. "I will not argue with God, He knows better than I do what is good for me."
I will wait patiently. "This will last as long as God wills."
Take the opportunity to pray. "I will pray for those I love, I will grow in sacrifice and abandonment."
Remembering that there are many people who suffer more than I do. "I'm fine here, I'm not lacking anything."
I will make practical resolutions to be better upon my return.
Be optimistic. I will not lose hope, I will banish negative thoughts.

These principles are undoubtedly supported by the most up-to-date specialists in neuroscience. Each of the actions he set out to carry out helped him to shape a healthy, positive and enterprising brain. In addition, his life of faith and prayer kept his hope alive, so that he was able, at the right time, to escape and be reunited with his family safe and sound.

Today he has published his testimony in book and film. He also gives lectures with profound reflections that motivate thousands to persevere in all circumstances. In the midst of his painful experience, he confirmed what Nietzsche so aptly stated with the phrase: "He who has a why, will always find a how".

Accept your reality with peace, ask God for help and face whatever comes with wisdom.

The authorLupita Venegas

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Feminine mystical figures. The experience of God as incarnation

Edith Stein is on her way to becoming a Doctor of the Church

Last April 18, the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelite Order presented Pope Francis with a petition to name St. Edith Stein a Doctor of the Church.

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When a delegation of the Discalced Carmelite Order visited the Pope on April 18, the Superior General took advantage of the occasion to present the Pontiff with a special request: the appointment of St. Edith Stein as a Doctor of the Church.

As reported by the media outlet "Catholic News Agency"The Carmelites want the Church to recognize the contributions made by the martyred nun. Under the title of "doctor veritatis", doctor of truth, Edith Stein could become the fifth woman Doctor of the Church in recognition of her contributions in the field of theology.

The fact that the Superior General formulates this request to the Holy Father is important, because it is a requirement for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to begin the process of granting the title to Edith Stein. Another indispensable step, canonization, was already facilitated by John Paul II at the end of the 20th century.

Edith Stein and her intellectual career

This saint, also known as Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was born on October 12, 1891 into a Jewish family. Despite her education and growing up in a practicing environment, she declared herself an atheist for several years. At the same time, she pursued a brilliant academic career that led her to collaborate with the German philosopher Edmund Husserl.

A supporter of women having the right to vote and more weight in public life, she led by example, being the first woman with a doctorate in philosophy in Germany. At the same time, she began a period of great literary production, with research and reflections such as "On the Problem of Empathy", which was her thesis; "Introduction to Philosophy"; and "An Inquiry into the State".

In 1921, after reading the biography of saint Teresa of AvilaShe converted to Catholicism and came to the conclusion that she wanted to become a Carmelite nun. It took her a long time to achieve her goal, but she was advised to continue teaching and working in schools and universities. Edith Stein then took the opportunity to translate and study in depth the works of Catholic intellectuals such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John Henry Newman.

Entrance to Carmel

Finally, on October 15, 1933, feast of St. Teresa of Avila, Edith Stein entered the Carmelite Order. Within the Carmelite Order, the philosopher received the support of her superiors to continue her intellectual work.

However, Edith Stein's life suffered an abrupt change when in 1942 the Gestapo arrested her for being Jewish. She then went through two concentration camps before arriving at the place where she would die: Auschwitz.

Edith Stein, saint and co-patroness of Europe

Edith Stein died in the gas chamber on August 9, 1942. Burned by Nazi soldiers, there is no particular grave for her. On October 11, 1998 Pope St. John Paul II canonized her in Rome, and the following year named her co-patroness of Europe.

Among the many contributions that St. Edith Stein made to theology are her analysis of the figure and condition of women, and her spirituality centered on the Cross of Christ.

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Four major sanctuaries in 21st century Poland

The most important Marian shrines in Germany

In addition to the "classic" pilgrimage sites in Bavaria and the Rhineland, the country's traditionally Catholic regions, two shrines in the territory of the former GDR are currently experiencing a significant upswing.

José M. García Pelegrín-May 7, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

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Unlike other countries, which have a recognized national shrine, such as Guadalupe, El Pilar or Aparecida, there is no national pilgrimage site in Germany. If anything, Altötting, the country's main pilgrimage site and the "national" shrine of Bavaria. The figure of the black Madonna made of linden wood has been the object of pilgrimage since the 14th century. Today, more than one million people continue to make the pilgrimage to Altötting each year.

Altötting

Its history dates back to the year 700, when a baptistery was built on the site. According to tradition, Rupert of Salzburg brought a first image of the Virgin Mary to Altötting. Charlemagne's successors in the 9th century built a monastery and a basilica, which were destroyed in the Hungarian attacks. After two miraculous healings in the 14th century, the influx of pilgrims exceeded the dimensions of the small Chapel of Mercy, leading to the construction of a Gothic abbey church in the 15th century. Today, Chapel Square includes the original chapel, the abbey, the baroque church of St. Madeleine, the Congregation of Marian Men and the Rector's offices.

In addition to emperors, kings and nobles, Pope John Paul II prayed here in 1980. In 2006, Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage to Altötting and placed the episcopal ring he had worn until his election as Pope before the statue. Nevertheless, Altötting is a shrine for the common people, as a Bavarian proverb says: "From the door of every house there is a path to Altötting".

The miraculous Virgin of Neviges

In the Rhineland, the other mainly Catholic region of Germany, there are numerous Marian shrines such as the Black Madonna ("Schwarze Muttergottes") in the Kupfergasse, in the heart of Cologne, or the shrine of Neviges, also in the diocese of Cologne. The latter has been a place of pilgrimage since 1681 and has the particularity that the object of the pilgrimage, the "Miraculous Virgin of Neviges", is a page taken from a prayer book, with an engraving of the Immaculate Conception; the book was first published in 1660;

The picture is from the 1664 edition, in which the image was on page 254. At the beginning of the 20th century it was known as the "German Lourdes" because of the large number of pilgrimages. The construction of the present modern church took place between 1966 and 1968, designed by the architect Gottfried Böhm. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła visited Neviges together with other German and Polish bishops on September 23, 1978, 23 days before his election as John Paul II.

Kevelaer

However, the best known Marian shrine in this region is Kevelaer in the diocese of Münster. John Paul II also visited this place in 1987, accompanied by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, on the occasion of the World Marian Congress. Its origin dates back to Christmas 1641, when the merchant Hendrick Busman heard a mysterious voice while praying at a cross, saying: "You will build me a chapel on this spot! A few months later, his wife Mechel Schrouse had an apparition: in a great shining light she saw a holy house with a small image of the Blessed Virgin Mary "Consolatrix Afflictorum" from Luxembourg, which two soldiers had offered for sale to her some time before. Hendrick Busman's experience was thus confirmed and he asked his wife to locate the two soldiers and buy the pictures. She managed to buy one of them. The merchant built the chapel and, on June 1, 1642, the parish priest Johannes Schink of Kevelaer solemnly placed the image. Since the diocesan approval in 1647, the pilgrimages began and also the stories of miraculous healings, which continued until the middle of the 19th century. Today, the shrine receives about 800,000 pilgrims a year.

Eichsfeld

In addition to these "classical" shrines, and several dozen pilgrimage sites of regional scope, two shrines located in the territory of the former GDR have recently gained popularity.

On September 23, 2011, during his last trip to Germany as Pope, Benedict XVI visited the Marian shrine of Etzelsbach, within the Thuringian region of Eichsfeld, a sort of "Catholic island" that, as Benedict recalled, had resisted "two impious dictatorships that tried to uproot the traditional faith." In the Etzelsbach shrine, "the people of Eichsfeld were convinced that they found here an open door and a place of inner peace," Benedict XVI continued.

The first chapel in Etzelsbach, now belonging to the diocese of Erfurt, was probably built in the 15th century. In 1525, due to the Peasants' War, the pilgrimage was interrupted and was not resumed until the year of the Eichsfeld plague of 1555, albeit using a portable altar, as the chapel was still very dilapidated. It was not until 1801 that a new chapel was built on the site of the old one. However, as the pilgrimage was very popular and the chapel could not accommodate the flow of pilgrims, in 1898 the church that still exists today was built and consecrated according to the plans of the Franciscan Paschalis Gratze.

A special feature is the annual "pilgrimage on horseback", which takes place on the second Sunday after the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, and attracts many pilgrims; after the High Mass of the pilgrimage the horses are blessed. In addition, three traditional pilgrimages are held in August and September (Virgen de las Nieves, the Assumption and the Nativity of the Virgin Mary).

Neuzelle

The other sanctuary, in the former GDR, is Neuzelle, not far from the mouth of the Neisse River on the Oder, which forms the German-Polish border. There, in September 2018, a Priory was established under the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) in Austria, after 200 years since the Cistercians, in 1817, had to leave Neuzelle, the only male monastery in this region that had survived the Protestant Reformation.

The image of Our Lady of Neuzelle reflects the history of this sanctuary: it is a Gothic image, to which in the Baroque period - the church, after the damages suffered during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), was restored in the Baroque style typical of southern Germany, something rare in these latitudes - a mantle was added and placed in the center of the altarpiece. Neuzelle is the official pilgrimage site of the diocese of Görlitz, the smallest in Germany, which has a Catholic population of only four percent.

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Migration is not a problem, it is an opportunity

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Xabier Gómez: "The future of the Catholic Church in Spain is one of miscegenation and this shows its catholicity".

The Spanish Church is already a showcase of diverse nationalities and cultures, not only among its faithful but also among its pastors and, especially, in the consecrated life. A reality that shows "the catholicity of the Church and is good news" in the words of the director of the Department of Migration of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Dominican Xabier Gómez.

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The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid. José Cobo; the director of the Migration Department of the EEC, Xabier Gómez; and Melania Flores, Peruvian, from the parish of San Millán y San Cayetano in Madrid were in charge of presenting the Pastoral Exhortation: "Welcoming and missionary communities. Identity and framework of pastoral care with migrants".

This document analyzes the reality of the numerous presence of migrants in Spanish society and proposes "to renew a concrete pastoral care with migrants that encompasses all the pastoral dimensions.

One out of every five people living in Spain are migrants. With this eloquent fact begins the Pastoral Exhortation: "Welcoming and Missionary Communities. Identity and framework for the pastoral care of migrants" presented at the headquarters of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. During the presentation, the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid emphasized that it is a document that is the fruit of an exciting work.

In this regard, Cardinal Cobo recalled the 2007 document, which "has been the landing strip for other subsequent ones", but the "Magisterium of recent years incorporated very valid innovations for a new reflection" that have given rise to this new document for which, in addition, the delegates of the dioceses and the opinions of the bishops have been taken into account. It is about giving "a Gospel look at migration, a different look: that of the human being in the dignity that God has given him".

The Cardinal stressed that "the Church has a great opportunity: to show the world that integration is possible. In this sense, he pointed out that this document focuses on the migrant as an element of enrichment.

Valuing the migrant in the face of fear

Xabier Gómez, for his part, wanted to emphasize that this document addresses "the theme of identity. The identity of a Catholic goes through identification, with whom do I identify myself? For the director of the Migration Department of the EEC "the document is based on the recognition of the contribution of migrants to society and is an alternative to the discourse of rejection or fear".

"We need to rebuild links, rediscover the value of hospitality along with other activities with a future," added Gómez.

In relation to the growing percentage of migrants, not only among the faithful of the parishes but also among the clergy and religious life, Xabier Gómez has affirmed that "the future of the Catholic Church in Spain is of crossbreeding. This shows the catholicity of the Church and is good news".

On the side of the vulnerable

In relation to the document's denunciation of the CIEs in Spain, the director of the Migration Department of the Spanish bishops, Xabier Gómez, recalled that this is not a new petition and that the "Church has a mission of political advocacy, we have criteria that we share with society, and we come with a trajectory in which our position is expressed: always on the side of vulnerable people".

The presentation also included the testimony of Melania Flores, a Peruvian who lives in Spain and works with migrants in the Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid through the projects "Educators in the street" and "First steps workshops" that are developed in her parish.

The document, which was approved at the last Plenary Assembly of the Spanish bishops, has a markedly practical character and is intended "to serve those who want to work with migrants and, in particular, to help them see each migrant, each person, as he or she is and welcome him or her".

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Gospel

Lift up the heart. Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (B)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (B) and Luis Herrera offers a brief video homily.

Joseph Evans-May 6, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

One danger we face is to see the Ascension as a mere anecdote about the life of Jesus and as something irrelevant to our lives, a bit like the end of a beautiful story: "The Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.Everyone lived happily ever after". And then you forget about the story and go on with real life.

But the event of Jesus' Ascension is absolutely essential for our own life: for our eternal life and for our daily life. It is essential to our eternal life because the Ascension of Jesus teaches us a key fact: humanity has a place in heaven. We can enter heaven with our soul and body because Jesus did; and He is there with His soul and body, as man and as God, now. Thanks to Him and in Him, because of His Ascension, we, human beings of flesh and blood, can expect to get to heaven as we are, not as angels which we are not, but as humans, with those glorified bodies we will receive at the end of time.

And the Ascension is a reality that must also affect our daily life. If we want to ascend to heaven at the moment of death, we have to try to ascend to God every day of our life. Every day has to be an ascension. We cannot hope to ascend to God when we die, if during our whole life we have only been looking downward to the things of earth. "Lift our hearts"The priest tells us at Mass, and we respond, "....We have lifted him up to the Lord". But do we?

In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches us that, by the power of his Ascension, we can cast out demons, have the gift of tongues, catch snakes, escape unharmed from deadly poisons and heal the sick. This is not to make us foolishly boast, but to teach us that the grace Christ sends us from heaven really has power on earth.

How do we ascend to God in daily life? Above all, by desiring God more, moving from an earthly vision to an ascending vision. This translates into practical daily actions: we make heaven more our ambition than earthly success; we seek God's glory more than our own; we seek treasure in heaven more than wealth on earth; we aspire more to the real beauty of virtue and love-to God and neighbor-than to the empty beauty of clothes and physical appearance. It is in receiving the Eucharist that God most draws us to himself. In confession, we free ourselves from the sins that oppress us. In daily prayer, our heart ascends to the Lord. Through spiritual reading and meditation on Scripture, the Holy Spirit helps us to direct our gaze toward heaven.

Homily on the readings of the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (B)

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.

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"God loves us as friends," stresses Pope Francis this Sunday.

In the Regina Coeli of this 6th Sunday of Easter, Pope Francis commented on the Gospel of St. John in which Jesus commands love for one another. The Holy Father said that God "loves us as friends", and friends always want to do good and forgive. The Holy Father joined the Orthodox brethren and the Eastern Catholic Churches, who are celebrating Easter today, and prayed for peace.

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The Gospel of St. John (15:9-17), in which Jesus preaches the commandment to love one another, "as I have loved you", was the motif of Pope Francis' reflection on the Regina coeli of this VI Sunday of Easter.

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants [...], I call you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you". This is what can be read in a fragment of this Gospel, and the Pope referred to it.

"Today the Gospel tells us that Jesus said to the Apostles: 'I no longer call you servants, but friends,'" the Pope began. "What does this mean? In the Bible, God's 'servants' are special people, to whom God entrusts important missions, such as Moses, King David, the Prophet Elijah, even the Virgin Mary (cf. Lk 1:38). They are people into whose hands God places his treasures".

Our friends, friendship

"But all this is not enough, according to Jesus, to say who we are for Him: something more is needed, something greater, that goes beyond goods and plans themselves: friendship is needed," he continued. "Let us think for a moment about our friendsAnd let us give thanks to the Lord! Friendship is not the fruit of calculation, nor of constriction: it is born spontaneously when we recognize something of ourselves in the other person. And, if it is true, it is so strong that it does not falter even in the face of betrayal".

"A friend loves on every occasion," says the Book of Proverbs, "as Jesus shows us when to Judas, who betrays him with a kiss, he says: 'Friend, that's what you are here for!' "A true friend does not abandon you, even when you make a mistake: he corrects you, he may reprimand you, but he forgives you and does not abandon you."

"We are friends of Jesus."

"And today Jesus, in the Gospel, tells us that for him we are precisely that, friends: people dear to him beyond all merit and expectation, to whom he reaches out his hand and offers his love, his grace, his Word; with whom he shares what is dearest to him, all that he has heard from the Father (cf. Jn 15:15). To the point of becoming fragile for us, to the point of placing himself in our hands without defense or pretense, because he loves us, wants our good and wants us to share in his.

"For him we are his friends, and he loves us as friends. May Mary help us to grow in friendship with her Son, and to spread it around us," the Pontiff concluded.

Orthodox Easter and dialogue for peace

After praying the Regina Coeli from the window of the Apostolic Palace, and before thousands of Romans and pilgrims gathered in Peter's Square, the Pope joined in the joy of the Easter celebration of our Orthodox brothers and sisters and of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

He also prayed for those who died in the floods in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), and for their families, in union with the whole Church in Brazil. And he prayed "for peace" in the wars in "the martyred Ukraine" and in the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine. "No to war, yes to dialogue", he repeated at least twice.

Frascisco also greeted Italian parishes where young people receive the sacrament of Confirmation, and also mentioned a greeting to Human Life International, and to the Meter Association, committed to the fight against any form of abuse against minors.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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EditorialOmnes

Church in feminine and masculine

Addressing the role of women in the Church, as well as their participation in the tasks of governance has long been an open question.

May 5, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

Addressing the presence of women in the life of the Church today, as well as the ways and degrees of their participation in the tasks of governance, is not simply a question of being in tune with the priorities of the general mentality. On the contrary, it is a question that has been open for some time, which both Pope Francis and the current Synod have wanted to bring to the fore also in the ecclesial context.

What would not be appropriate is to analyze it according to purely human premises, or analogous to those governing the civil order. It would be as reductionist as simply claiming a "substitution" of men for women in the performance of certain tasks. The same would be true if this reflection were limited to access or not to the sacrament of Holy Orders, reserved by Jesus Christ himself to men: it would not help to resolve the questions that the life of the Church raises in the world every day.

It is appropriate to recognize that on more than a few occasions women in the Church have been seen in a short-sighted light, confining their role to a secondary or subsidiary level; this may have happened because of a more or less unconscious way of doing things, or also as an expression of an incomplete or even negatively paternalistic conception. At the same time, it also happens that among some women within the Church, political parameters have taken precedence over ecclesial ones, turning a just request - that of equal consideration of women in terms of responsibility - into an ideologized struggle, in which the request for access to the sacrament of priestly ordination emerges continuously.

In this area, the reflections and experiences of various women who, in different areas of work - the thousand forms of daily life, the understanding of each one's responsibility in the common mission, service in Church institutions, also in the Vatican, the family, teaching, rural initiatives - are interesting in this area, and give an insight into the enormous richness of that "feminine genius" of which St. John Paul II spoke and which is contributed to the Church, day by day, by millions of women all over the world.

The Church cannot be understood without the womanand it cannot be understood without the male. The same complementarity of the two - which show characteristics of the same Creator - is what must guide a relationship of equality and respect that, with continuous work, will be the only way to carry out the mission that has been entrusted to all, men and women.

For this reason, addressing this diversified and precious presence of women in the Church constitutes an ever-present and necessary work, from which fundamental questions emerge for the life of every Catholic, such as the vocation and mission of the laity, the understanding of ministry as service, the inviolable and infinite dignity of every human being, the richness of the diversity of gifts, as well as the need to overcome purely human schemes and structures in order to enter into the mystery of the Church.

The authorOmnes

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"For Ignacio Echeverría, God was always important."

The publishing house Palabra has published a biography about Ignacio Echeverría, "El héroe del monopatín". In this interview, we talk about Ignacio with the authors, editor Julia Moreno and Javier Segura, director of the musical. Skate Hero.

Loreto Rios-May 5, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

Skate hero' The musical inspired by the life of Ignacio Echeverría Related News

We need heroes

Seven years after his death, the legacy of Ignacio Echeverría, the man who confronted terrorists in a London attack armed only with his skateboard, continues to live on. The musical Skate herowhich narrates the last hours of Ignatius' life.

The skateboard hero

AuthorsJulia Moreno and Javier Segura

Editorial : Word

Pages : 168

Madrid: 2024

The publishing house Palabra has added to these awards with the biography The skateboard herowith a prologue by the protagonist's parents. In Omnes we have had the opportunity to interview the authors, the editor Julia Moreno and Javier Segura, director of the musical.

How did the idea of making a biography about Ignacio Echeverría come up?

Julia Moreno: The idea of writing this book was born when Javier was making the musical "Skate Hero", which tells the last 24 hours of Ignacio's life. Until then, of course, what people knew about him was his death, but Javier thought it was time to tell his life story. I just told him that I had just started a master's degree in book publishing and he proposed me to enter Ignacio's world and reconstruct his life on the pages.

What was the research process involved in writing this book?

Julia Moreno: All through interviews in person, in writing and by telephone. The letters written by people close to Ignatius after his death have also been an important source. With all this information we have tried to seek maximum objectivity at all times, always with the challenge of treating the subject with care, since we cannot forget that this is a book about a real person, who really existed and who died a tragic death. That is something that had to be treated with care when contacting the people who were part of his life.

After talking to people who knew him, what do you think about Ignacio's character?

Julia Moreno: Everyone agreed that he was a person who fought for what he believed was right without any fear. He loved to be with his friends and family. He loved to be a child, when he was with them he was one of them and they loved him very much. I believe that in the words of his lifelong friend we can discover what he was like: "Ignacio was not suicidal. A lover of life, of nature, of his family, of his friends, of his work, Ignacio did not know he was going to die that night. Herein lies his greatness, in not knowing, because he could never know. In normal people, what we see, we process, before acting, through a filter, as a kind of survival instinct, where the most basic fears and apprehensions are mixed, but Ignacio processed it through a different filter, that of whether it is fair or not. That's how it always was and that's how it will remain for eternity".

What do we know about his Christian life?

Julia Moreno: For Ignacio, God was always important. From an early age, his parents took him to Mass and, as he grew older, he himself decided to continue to do so, and even took the initiative to take his nephews to catechism classes so that they could make their First Communion in view of the fact that, if he did not do it himself, they could be in danger of receiving the sacrament. This firmness in the faith sometimes cost him displeasure with his father when he disagreed with certain aspects of the Church that Ignatius defended, because above all he knew how to differentiate between the Church and the sins committed by the people who make up the Church. Moreover, he was not afraid to go to confession even in places where he knew it would not be well received, such as in skateboarding environments or on trips with his friends where he made it a priority to go to Mass on Sundays, even if he had to walk a long way to find a church.

Javier Segura: Undoubtedly his faith shaped his whole life. Moral rectitude or the desire to be radically good was born of his life of faith. There are a thousand simple details that speak to us of this. His experience and appreciation of the sacraments, his charity towards strangers, his daily Gospel prayer, his spiritual direction, his Catholic Action meetings in the parish, the catechesis he gave in England... We could define it as the committed Christian life of a young layman today.

The people who had been attacked before Ignacio's intervention and survived, have they ever talked about him or do they remember what happened?

Javier Segura: There were several different reactions. There is a couple who were being attacked, the Dowlings, who survived the attack, who after the trial contacted Isabel, Ignacio's sister. They wanted to thank them now that they knew who had saved them, and they told them that they would remember Ignacio every day of their lives. They did not want to give interviews, but they continued to communicate with Ignacio's family and sent them photos of their wedding and other moments from Australia, where they lived. And also several of the policemen who intervened in the attack were in contact with the family, took pictures or wrote articles in magazines on the subject.

The family has been visited twice by the British police, who have great admiration for Ignacio. And I would add, for his family, because he showed a gesture that honors him by not entering into the current of defamation that arose suggesting that the British police were the ones who had killed Ignacio by mistake.

How was the creation of the musical "Skate Hero" and what fruits has it yielded?

Javier Segura: The musical arose from the Catholic group Milicia de Santa Maria founded by the Venerable Tomas Morales S.I. It is an apostolic group of young people who want to bring the faith to their peers. For some years they have been working this format of the musical as a useful tool to transmit the values of the Gospel. This is the fourth musical of these characteristics. The first was on the occasion of the Year of St. Paul, "Children of Freedom," and the second was for the Year of Mercy, "Contigo. The life and example of Ignacio Echeverría deserved to be told and sung as a model of Christian life for today's youth.

How does Ignatius' courage continue to inspire people today?

Javier Segura: Perhaps the first people it has inspired are the young people who have made the musical. Having to take it to the stage makes you end up living its values. I remember with special emotion the time we performed it in Las Rozas, where Ignacio was from, when we were able to have on stage the same skateboard he used in the attack. It was really moving. Another significant moment was when we were called by the Got Talent program to open the season with the song-prayer 'Dar la vida por amor' (Give your life for love). Seeing Risto Mejide moved by Ignacio's example made us see that his message of unconditional love is universal.

Skate hero' The musical inspired by the life of Ignacio Echeverría Related News

We need heroes

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Christian and human solidarity

Pope Francis indicates that in the reading of the Gospel we discover the attitude of Jesus Christ towards human vulnerability. He teaches us to place ourselves entirely, even in our professional activity, at the service of our neighbor.

Ramiro Pellitero-May 4, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes

"Who will roll away the stone from the grave for us?"Who will free us from fear and bitterness, from suffering and death, and open for us the way of joy and hope, we ask ourselves. The Easter season actualizes the power of God, the victory of life over death, the triumph of light over darkness, the rebirth of hope amidst the rubble of failure. And in that way, it inaugurates our journey with the risen Jesus. This is what the Pope has preached since the Easter Vigil. He then showed us how to make Jesus' attitudes towards others our own: not only in relation to the suffering and vulnerability of people, but also in scientific and educational work, which must be carried out as a service of Christian solidarity to humanity.

Welcoming the Risen Jesus

In its homily of the easter vigil (30-III-2024), Francis has transported us to the heart of the women who went to the tomb in the light of dawn. Her heart is still in the darkness of the night, paralyzed at the foot of the Cross. His eyes can hardly see, clouded with tears. His thought is blocked by a great stone: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” (Mk16:3). But when they arrived, they looked and saw that it had already been removed.

We too, says the Pope: "Sometimes we feel that a tombstone has been placed heavily at the entrance of our heart, suffocating life, extinguishing trust, locking us in the tomb of fears and bitterness, blocking the way to joy and hope.".

But Jesus is risen, has conquered death and has filled our lives with the light and power of the Holy Spirit.

For this reason, Peter's successor advises us to look to the risen Jesus and to welcome him: "Let us look to Him, let us welcome Jesus, the God of life, into our lives, let us renew our 'yes' to Him today and no stumbling block will be able to suffocate our heart, no tomb will be able to enclose the joy of living, no failure will be able to lead us to despair.". "Let us look to Him," he insists, "the Risen One, and let us walk with the certainty that in the dark background of our expectations and of our death there is already present the eternal life that He came to bring.".

Jesus in the face of human suffering

Whoever looks to Christ and lives with him, walks with him and participates in his attitudes. In an Address to the Plenary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (April 11, 2014), the Successor of Peter exhorts us to share in the attitudes of Jesus, especially in the face of sickness and human suffering.

"We all falter under the weight of these experiences and must help each other through them by living them 'in relationship', without withdrawing into ourselves and without legitimate rebellion turning into isolation, abandonment or despair.".

From the experience of the wise and of cultures, we know that pain and sickness, especially if we place them in the light of faith, can become decisive factors in a path of maturity.; for suffering, among other things, makes it possible to discern what is essential from what is not.

The Pope maintains that it is above all the example of Jesus that shows the way, the attitude we must take in the face of illness and suffering, both our own and that of others, and translate it into beneficial steps: "He exhorts us to care for those who live in situations of illness, with the determination to overcome the illness; at the same time, he gently invites us to unite our sufferings to his salvific offering, as a seed that bears fruit.". Caring and trying to overcome, unite and assume.

Specifically, Francis points out, the vision of faith can lead us to face pain with two decisive attitudes: compassion and inclusion.

Compassion that assumes

"Compassion indicates the recurrent and characteristic attitude of the Lord towards the fragile and needy people he encounters.. Seeing the faces of so many people, sheep without a shepherd struggling to find their way in life (cf. Mk 6:34), Jesus is moved. He has compassion on the hungry and exhausted crowds (cf. Mk 8:2) and tirelessly welcomes the sick (cf. Mk 1:32), whose petitions he hears: think of the blind who beg him (cf. Mt 20:34) and the many sick who ask to be cured (cf. Lk 17:11-19); he has 'great compassion', says the Gospel, for the widow who accompanies her only son to the tomb (cf. Lk 7:13). Great compassion. This compassion manifests itself as closeness and leads Jesus to identify himself with the one who suffers: 'I was sick and they came to visit me' (Mt 25:36).".

Let us look closely: Jesus is moved, he sympathizes, he comes close to the point of identifying himself with the one who suffers.

What does this attitude of Jesus reveal to us? Jesus' approach to pain: not with explanations - to which we tend to tend - or with sterile encouragement and consolation, or with good words or a recipe book of sentiments, as we sometimes see in the stories of Sacred Scripture, as in the case of Job's friends, who try to theorize pain by linking it to divine punishment.

"The response of Jesus is vital, it is made up of 'compassion that assumes' and that, by assuming, saves the human being and transfigures his pain. Christ transformed our pain by making it his own to the end: living it, suffering it and offering it as a gift of love. He did not give easy answers to our 'whys', but on the Cross he made our great 'why' his own (cf. Mk. 15:34).".

Thus, Francis points out, by assimilating Sacred Scripture we can purify ourselves of certain mistaken attitudes, and learn to follow the way indicated by Jesus: "To touch human suffering with one's own hand, with humility, meekness and serenity in order to bring, in the name of the incarnate God, the closeness of a saving and concrete support. To touch with one's own hand, not theoretically". The Pope is clear and direct.

Solidarity inclusion

Without being a biblical word, the term inclusion, Francis points out, expresses well an outstanding feature of Jesus' style: to go in search of the sinner, the lost, the marginalized, the stigmatized, so that he may be welcomed into the Father's house and healed completely, in body, soul and spirit (for example, the prodigal son or the lepers). Moreover, Jesus wishes to share with the disciples this mission and attitude of consolation: he commands them to care for the sick and bless them in his name (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 10:9; Lk 4:18-19).

"Therefore, through the experience of suffering and sickness, we, as the Church, are called to walk together with everyone, in Christian and human solidarity, opening, in the name of common fragility, occasions for dialogue and hope.". A clear example is the parable of the Good Samaritan, which shows ".with what initiatives can a community be rebuilt from men and women who make the fragility of others their own, who do not allow a society of exclusion to be erected, but who make themselves neighbors and raise up and rehabilitate the fallen, so that the good may be common"(encyclical Fratelli tutti, n. 67).

The Pope identifies a key principle: "The Word of God is a powerful antidote against all closed-mindedness, abstraction and ideologization of the faith: read in the Spirit in which it was written, it increases the passion for God and for mankind, unleashes charity and rekindles apostolic zeal.". For this reason, the Church has a constant need to drink - and to give to drink - from the fountains of the Word.

Before persons with disabilities

These same attitudes of Jesus, care and inclusion, we must have them, for example, towards people with disabilities, as Francis taught in his Address to the Academy of Social Sciences (11-IV-2024), taking into account the social and cultural factors: "their lives are conditioned not only by functional limitations, but also by cultural, legal, economic and social factors that may hinder their activities and social participation.".

Underpinning these attitudes is "the dignity of persons with disabilities, with its anthropological, philosophical and theological implications".

Bearing in mind that "vulnerability and fragilitybelong to the human condition and are not exclusive to people with disabilities."The Pope directs our gaze once again to the Gospel stories:

In Jesus' numerous encounters with these people, Francis observes, we can see the attitudes that we too must cultivate. Jesus comes into contact with them (he neither ignores nor denies them, neither marginalizes nor discards them); he also changes the meaning of their experience of life, with "the way they live".an invitation to weave a unique relationship with God that makes people blossom anew"as we see in the case of blind Bartimaeus (cf. Mk 10:46-52).

The current culture of discarding and waste, the Pope laments, easily leads these people to consider their own existence as a burden for themselves and for their loved ones. And so this mentality opens up to a culture of death, abortion and euthanasia.

For a culture of integral inclusion

For this reason, Peter's successor proposes, "fighting against the throwaway culture means promoting the culture of inclusion - they must be united - creating and strengthening the bonds of belonging to societyespecially in the poorest countries, "to work," "to work, especially in the poorest countries," "to work, especially in the poorest countries," "to workfor greater social justice and for the elimination of the various barriers that prevent so many from enjoying fundamental rights and freedoms". The results of these actions are more visible in more economically developed countries.

He understands that this culture of comprehensive inclusion is promoted more fully "when people with disabilities are not passive recipients, but participate in social life as protagonists of change.". That is why he argues that "subsidiarity and participation are the two pillars of effective inclusion. In this light, the importance of associations and movements of people with disabilities that promote social participation is well understood.".

Teaching and serving humanity

This walk with the Risen Jesus, making his attitudes our own, is reflected even in the way we approach historical questions. The Bishop of Rome explained it in his Address to the Pontifical Committee on Historical Sciences, on its seventieth anniversary (April 20, 2024).

Both the Church and historians, he noted, are united in the search for and service of truth.. And concretely, as St. Paul VI pointed out, the link between religious truth and historical truth is the fact that "the whole edifice of Christianity, of its doctrine, its morals and its worship, everything rests ultimately on the witness"(Discourse 3-VI-1967). Francis adds that, on the basis of the witness that the apostles bore to the risen Jesus, the Church wishes to enliven all cultures with this witness so as to build with them the civilization of encounter.

This is what St. Paul VI proclaimed at the opening of the third session of the Second Vatican Council on September 14, 1964:"Let it not be thought that (...) the Church stops in an act of self-indulgence, forgetting, on the one hand, Christ, from whom she receives everything and to whom she owes everything, and on the other, humanity, to whose service she is destined. The Church places herself between Christ and the world, not withdrawn into herself, neither as an opaque diaphragm, nor as an end in herself, but fervently solicitous to be all of Christ, in Christ and for Christ, and all equally of men, among men and for men, humble and glorious intermediary....".

So too must historians be teachers and servants of humanity..

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The Pontifical Gregorian University to have new general statutes

Education

Mark Lewis: "My goal is to leave the university better than I found it."

This May the new statutes of the Pontifical Gregorian University will come into force. On this occasion, Omnes spoke with Father Mark Lewis, rector of the Gregorian from September 2022.

Andrea Acali-May 4, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes

The Pentecost holiday, May 19, is approaching, the date on which the new new bylaws of the Pontifical University Gregoriana. It is the oldest and most prestigious academic institution in the Church. It was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, as the Roman College, and in 1873, at the request of Pope Pius IX, it took its present name. Today it has almost 3,000 students from more than 125 countries around the world. Not only diocesan priests, seminarians, religious men and women, but also, in more than 21%, lay people. In 1928, Pope Pius XI wanted to associate the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute to the Gregorian.

We spoke with Father Mark Lewis, a native of Miami, where he was born in 1959, professor of history and rector of the Gregorian since September 2022, who welcomes us to his studio in Piazza della Pilotta, in the heart of Rome.

What are the main novelties of the new bylaws and what will they entail?

The most important change is the unification of the Biblical Institute, the Oriental and the current Gregorian into a new integrated university, to facilitate its three missions, with the organization of an economy of scale, a different organization of an administrative nature, and with the reduction of positions, for example one rector instead of three.

So in addition to facilitating the university's mission there will also be financial savings?

We hope so. At the beginning probably not, because there are integration costs. But, for example, we believe we can save on purchases. For example, we have three libraries, which still have their own spaces, but now there are more and more e-books and e-journals, so if we can buy one subscription for all it will be much cheaper. So is having a single bursar, with centralized purchasing. Little by little we believe we will arrive at this necessary saving.

You have been rector of the Gregorian University for a year and a half. What are the main objectives of your mandate?

My goal, as I said as soon as I was appointed, is to leave the university better than I found it. I believe that the role of the rector is to look to the future, ten years ahead, because the university world is very slow, you don't change direction immediately, and you have to think about what the needs of the moment are and go in that direction. At the beginning of the year I used an image stolen from field hockey, but which can also be applied to soccer. They told me about Messi, who now plays in Miami; they say that in the first half he walks around the field and observes. After a while he knows more or less where the ball is going to arrive. And there it is. It's not easy, I'm not saying I can do it, but this is the challenge, to think about where the Church is going, where the world is going and how we can help both in the future. That's the goal.

And the biggest difficulties?

Probably the fact that an academic institution like this, as I said, is very slow, very traditional. They say that prayer and the Church are the slowest things to change, but I think academia is on the podium! It's about inviting teachers and students to think differently. It's a challenge, but if we succeed it will be a good thing for the future.

The Gregorian is the oldest pontifical university. How does it face the challenges of contemporary culture and globalization today?

In 1551, when it was founded, it was seen as a college, a university for all nations; but then it was Europe: Germany, England, that was the frontier.
Then, little by little, with the missionary success, the whole world came and now we have many countries from which students come. This is a challenge: to create a university community with many cultures. I live here in the Jesuit community and here we also come from all over the world: I think our example, the fact that we are quite happy together, is a good model for everyone, we really see the world from different angles and this is also very important for the university. It is important that the students come to Rome and live this experience in the center of the Church, but also that, through their fellow students, they get to know the whole Church.
I think maybe someone who comes from the United States might know someone else who comes from Burundi, and then when they hear news from that country they might say they know a person from that place, which gives a little more reality to the story and doesn't just make them think of a faraway place. I think this way of contextualizing is very important. The other challenge is teaching theology to diverse cultures. Historically it was in Latin, it was Eurocentric, but now we have to teach Latin American liberation theology, theology that dialogues with many Eastern religions, and this is necessarily our task. I like it because we are "constitutionally" an international university. I hear that many universities in the United States want to have more students from all over the world, we have been like that from the beginning.

And how do you deal with the decline in population and vocations?

It is another challenge because there is a demographic decline in Europe and North America, but here it is very gradual because we welcome students from all over the world and there are countries that are less affected by this phenomenon. For example, we have more and more students from Brazil, and in Vietnam there are also many vocations, so it doesn't affect us as much as some national seminaries. But we also have to think that the number of seminarians tends to decrease. The percentage of lay people cannot grow much more, simply because living in Rome is a bit expensive for our students. We have Italians, we can welcome them quite well, but it is a bit more difficult to invite someone from developing countries. We can give scholarships, but it is not enough for many of them to live.

The Pope has pointed the way for a reform of the ecclesiastical universities and, in particular, has called here in Rome for greater collaboration and synergy among the pontifical universities. What is the status of this work and what are the prospects?

In February last year, students and teachers from the 22 pontifical institutes in Rome met with the Pope and the image I liked the most was that we sang as a choir, not as soloists. Now with this integration of Pentecost there will be two less. But of course, the other side of the coin is to look for more collaboration.
I think it is very important that CRUIPRO, the organization of the rectors of the various pontifical institutes, has already begun to look for situations in which we can collaborate. For example, we have the possibility of exchanging students between universities for the first cycle courses and this allows them to get to know more places in Rome and another way of studying.
Of course, as Jesuits we have done this unification and some say it is a model to follow, but it is much easier when there is only one general, we are all Jesuits, and it is already difficult in itself, but this is the challenge for the others. We know that the six pontifical universities have already begun to reflect a little on this. We do not yet know what the model will be, but we are taking steps in this direction.

You have taught in the United States, where you had a different experience of the way of teaching. Would you like to tell us about it? Can this way be applied here as well? And in general, how can you innovate in teaching while maintaining a high level of quality?

It is the priority of our strategic plan. We had a visit from Avepro, the agency that evaluates the quality of pontifical universities, and we decided that we should try to deepen the quality of teaching. Not to say that we are good, but to study and think about other teaching methods. We are in the process of creating a teaching center for our professors, which will also be open to some of our doctoral students to explore other teaching methods. Pontifical universities have a very strong tradition, like the Italian system, of face-to-face classes with an oral exam at the end. For many years it worked very well and the advantage for the professor is to be able to have 40, 50 or 60 students, but in the age of technology, where students are much more accustomed to individualized teaching, we have to rethink it. One of the things I tried in the United States, and also here until I had to drop the course, is to flip the classroom. We are used to going to the classroom, listening to the lecture, going home and doing written homework. With artificial intelligence this is increasingly problematic. Flipping it around means doing the class online, with a comprehension test, which can also be electronic and checked automatically, so that we come to the classroom with questions, discussions and also homework to do in small groups. It is a possibility, more intensive from the teacher's point of view, and we know that not everyone will follow this modality, but it is my intention to explore this avenue with the faculty.

Collaboration and exchanges, including international ones, are an important element of academic knowledge and dissemination. Is there any plan in this direction? Is it possible to reach a kind of Erasmus also for pontifical universities?

At the moment, as you know, Erasmus scholarships are not available for pontifical universities. We have a network of Jesuit universities and we can take advantage of it, and then the Federation of European Universities has an exchange program that we can also take advantage of. For us, the main obstacle is that seminarians have to be here for priestly formation. The lay people also come to be in Rome: being international students, it is a little less useful for us. At the same time, we welcome many who come from abroad, but even there the challenge is to find a place to live. It's a pity we don't have a residence like other universities, that's an important help.

What is the status of the equivalence of titles with the Italian State?

Steps forward have been taken. We will have a meeting at the Dicastery for Education in the next few weeks, but since the Bologna concordat it was very important for the Church that the universities be part of the European university system. We are and we are not... finally the Italian State has started to recognize the equivalence of courses; it is not a recognition of the degree, but it allows you to go ahead in the state universities.

The Church is preparing to experience two great world events: the second part of the Synod on Synodality and the Jubilee of 2025. The presence of students from all over the world gives the Gregoriana the opportunity to have a very broad vision in this perspective. What can be the contribution of the academic world to these two events?

Many of our professors participate in the Synod as members, experts and facilitators. At the beginning of last year's session we did a conference on synodal theology, at the end we plan to do something based on this experience. I think it is a way to open and close the Synod with an academic and theological slant. The Jubilee is an occasion that I like very much because it is an opportunity to welcome people from all over. I am thinking of doing something here with some embassies to share the art and experience of the Church in their country, maybe in the Quadriportico, so that first of all we celebrate the Jubilee but we also celebrate here, in the center, the Church present all over the world, taking advantage of this movement from the periphery to the center. Not forgetting that we have a diploma in cultural heritage that prepares guides that can possibly be used in the Holy Year.

The authorAndrea Acali

-Rome

The Pontifical Gregorian University to have new general statutes

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Vocations

Joseph Dinh Quang Hoan: "In Vietnam there are many young people willing to serve the Church".

This Vietnamese priest from the diocese of Thai Binh is currently in Rome, studying thanks to a scholarship from the CARF Foundation in order to train future priests in his country of origin.

Sponsored space-May 3, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Hailing from northern Vietnam, Joseph was born into a multi-generational Catholic family that is part of a religious community of about 100 Christians. When he was 12 years old, the example of a seminarian who came to his community moved him and led him to vocational discernment. Now, as a priest, he wants to serve the people in the land where he was born and raised.

How is living with people of other religions in Vietnam?

-There are currently 54 different ethnic groups in Vietnam. My country has a long history of religious diversity, with various religions and belief systems coexisting for centuries. From ancient religious forms such as totemism, shamanism and animism to Catholicism, Buddhism, Protestantism and Islam. This historical context has contributed to a relatively tolerant attitude towards different faiths. So I have to say that, although Christianity is a minority religion, we tend to participate in social and charitable activities that benefit the community at large, regardless of our religious affiliation. This fosters a good impression from others about Christian communities, particularly the Catholic community.

I know that this situation is very different in each region of Vietnam. In my case, my family lived in a small Christian community in a small town and we had no conflicts with our neighbors who do not share the same beliefs. Also, we are proud to be Catholics, but we also respect the beliefs of others.

What are the challenges facing the Catholic Church in a country like Vietnam?

-Today, it can be said that the Church in Vietnam still faces many challenges and difficulties in many aspects, such as atheistic ideology, prejudice towards Catholics, and inaccurate understanding of the Church's doctrine. Despite the difficulties and persecutions, the Church in Vietnam is growing day by day.

Moreover, the market economy and relativistic social theory have caused many young Catholics to have incorrect thoughts, leading them to worship material values and to forget the faith that our ancestors passed on with their precious blood.

I believe that whatever challenges it faces, the Church in Vietnam will always be loyal to the faith and to our Mother Church.

How do you see the future of the Church in your country?

-There are about 7 million Catholics in Vietnam, representing 7.4 % of the total population. There are 27 dioceses (including three archdioceses) with 2,228 parishes and 2,668 priests, and the Church in Vietnam is growing rapidly.

In fact, the number of vocations in the Vietnamese Church is very high. Many young people are willing to commit themselves to the religious path, becoming priests and religious to serve in the land of Vietnam, as well as to undertake missionary missions around the world. In my diocese of Thai Binh, a small diocese, we currently have about 100 seminarians and many religious, nuns and brothers. They are the future of the Church.

What does the formation you receive in Rome contribute to your ministry?

-Coming to Rome to study is not only my dream, but the dream of many Vietnamese believers. In my diocese the major seminary of the Sacred Heart of Thai Binh is being built, so teachers are needed. I want to study as much as I can so that I can return to serve intellectual formation in my diocese.

What do you appreciate most about your stay in Rome?

-Living and studying in Rome I feel more clearly a living, multiethnic, multicultural and mutually respectful Church. I live in a major college for priests from many different countries. This helps me to understand cultural integration, the beauty of fraternity and the exchange of knowledge and pastoral experiences.

I am very grateful to the CARF Foundation for making it possible for me to study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. I always pray and remember those who have helped me on my path of vocation and study.

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Women in the Church, theme of the May issue of Omnes magazine

The May 2024 print magazine addresses, through various contributions and interviews, the role of women in the Church and the debate on the female priesthood. In addition, World Children's Day and the latest Omnes Forum are also included in the magazine.

Maria José Atienza-May 3, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Women in the Church is the theme of the May 2024 issue of Omnes magazine. An approach to the unfathomable richness that millions of women bring to the life of the Church from many different fields.

Special on Women in the Church

The presence of women in the Church is an ever-present and necessary work, from which fundamental questions emerge for the life of every Catholic, such as the vocation and mission of the laity.

This Omnes dossier features interviews with two women who have studied this feminine role in the Church and have experienced it firsthand. First of all, Marta Rodríguez Díaz, a specialist in gender theories and

professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, where she coordinates the academic area of the Institute of Women's Studies, which highlights, among other things, how women in the Church have the challenge of embodying a luminous femininity, from which to open prophetic paths for the Church that respond to the signs of the times today. María García Nieto, jurist and author of La presencia de la mujer en el gobierno de la Iglesia. A juridical perspective emphasizes the need to understand the meaning of a hierarchical institution such as the Church and the role of lay men and women in its government.

In addition to the example of saints from all continents and eras, Omnes includes in this dossier the testimony of Lidia Quispe and Frankie Gikandi, one in the Bolivian highlands and the other from a rural area of Kenya, who with their daily work, their collaboration in the community and their initiatives are building society and the Church in the remote areas of our planet.

Theologian Philip Goyret also delves into the eternal debate on the female priesthood to complete this dossier on women in the Church.

World Children's Day and the Pope at Easter

The celebration of the first World Children's Day, convoked by Pope Francis for May 25-26, is the epicenter of the article written from Rome by our editor, Giovanni Tridente, author of an interesting interview with Fay Enzo Fortunato, who, together with a team of collaborators, is coordinating the organization of this day. This religious emphasizes that this first day will be "a formative experience for the little ones and their caregivers, and a historic day for the Church. One of the most significant events will undoubtedly be the dialogue between the children and Pope Francis at the Olympic Stadium and, the following day, the Holy Mass at St. Peter's officiated by the Holy Father".

The Pope's Teachings this month focus on the Pope's words, which during the month of April have revolved around the readings of the Easter season and have focused on compassion for the poorest and most vulnerable or people with disabilities.

Vietnam

The Church in Vietnam opens the world section of this magazine. A Church marked by martyrdom - from its beginnings and still today - and at the same time, by the steadfast faith of Vietnamese Catholics and their care to keep alive the legacy of so many people who gave their lives for the faith.

Faith at the University and the Omnes Forum

Faith in the University is the theme that Juan Luis Lorda addresses in Theology in the Twentieth Century. It is an intrinsic relationship and not a worn-out one since, as the author points out, theology today has a very important role in the university, with which it was born.

For his part, Jerome Leal, offers the letter that Pope Clement I wrote to the Christians of Corinth to pacify the uprising of some young men against the presbyters or elders of the community. An interesting document that contains a praise to the Corinthians and warns about the seriousness of division and envy.

The Omnes Forum held in collaboration with the Master of Continuing Education in Marriage Law and Canonical Procedure of the School of Canon Law of the University of Navarra, on April 15, is the focus of this magazine's report on Reasons.

In this issue, Omnes also includes an interesting reflection by José Ramón Amor-Pan, Academic Director of the Paul VI Foundation, on the latest document issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Infinita.

The content of the magazine for the month of April 2024 is available in its digital version (pdf) for subscribers of the digital and print versions.

In the next few days, it will also be delivered to the usual address of those who have the subscription printed.

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Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem: "We have to work for the cessation of hostilities."

Cardinal Pizzaballa asks to look at the face of God and the other to build peace

On May 2, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, delivered a lecture at the Pontifical Lateran University in which he called for peace in the Holy Land.

Giovanni Tridente-May 3, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

On the day after taking possession of the titularity of the parish of Sant'Onofrio in Rome, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalemwas invited to deliver a Lectio magistralis at the Pontifical Lateran UniversityThe event was part of the cycle of studies in Peace Sciences and International Cooperation of the Redemptor Hominis Pastoral Institute.

An unprecedented tragedy

From the first lines of his speech there was a cry of pain and a call for peace in the face of the tragic situation tearing the Holy Land apart. "What is happening is an unprecedented tragedy," he began. "To the gravity of the military and political context, which is getting worse and worse, is added the deterioration of the religious and social context. A desolating panorama."

In the face of this profound crisis, in which even the few contexts of interreligious coexistence are disintegrating, the Patriarch called on the Church to reaffirm its action for peace on two fundamental evangelical pillars.

Looking into the face of God

The first is "to look upon the face of God", since peace, before being a human project, "is a gift of God, indeed, it says something about God himself". Citing Paul VI's famous address to the United Nations on October 4, 1965, Pizzaballa reiterated that "the edifice of modern civilization must be supported by spiritual principles, capable not only of sustaining it, but of enlightening and animating it. And for these indispensable principles to be such, they cannot but be founded on faith in God".

Looking at each other's faces

The second pillar is "looking at the face of the other". As the Patriarch explained, "peace, even at the anthropological level, is not only a social convention or the absence of war, but is based on the truth of the human person". Only in the context of integral human development and respect for human rights "can a true culture of peace be born." Referring to the philosopher Lévinas, he insisted that "in the face of the Other, the absolute is at stake" and that "the world is mine to the extent that I can share it with the Other".

Faced with the worsening of the situation and the inertia of international institutions, "increasingly weak" and impotent, the Patriarch also highlighted the lack of local leadership capable of making gestures of trust and of making "courageous choices for peace". However, he warned the Church and all pastoral actors at different levels not to yield to the "temptation to fill the vacuum left by politics" by entering into negotiation dynamics that do not belong to it.

The only reference is the Gospel

The task of the Church, he strongly reiterated, is "to continue to be herself, a community of faith" whose only "reference is the Gospel". Its mission is "to create in the community the desire, the disposition and the sincere commitment to meet the other, knowing how to love in spite of everything". A path that passes through "listening to the Word of God" and witnessing to the paschal mystery of Christ, "the only one who has broken down the barrier between men, the wall of enmity".

The authorGiovanni Tridente

Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem: "We have to work for the cessation of hostilities."

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Why wars activate the Rosary to Our Lady

Initiatives

Praying the Holy Rosary from the shrine of Loreto

Every day at noon the Holy Rosary can be prayed with the faithful who come to the Shrine of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy.

Paloma López Campos-May 3, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

As the month of May begins, it is customary for Catholics to pray more frequently the Holy Rosarya traditional prayer dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Some pray it alone, others with their family or friends, but it can also be prayed accompanied by the faithful who come to the Shrine of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy.

At noon every day the recitation of the Angelus (or Regina Caeli) and the Holy Rosary is broadcast live. Anyone can join in the practice of this devotion via YouTube, on the radio or from the Vatican News website.

The relay to join the Rosary prayer in Loreto began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 6, 2020. As reported at the time Vatican NewsFabio Dal Cin, pontifical archbishop delegate, explained that "the Holy House of Loreto invites us to invoke Mary, so as not to lose hope in the God of life.

Why in Loreto?

The Sanctuary of the Holy House in Loreto is a special place for Catholics. According to tradition, the house where the Virgin Mary received the Archangel Gabriel at the moment of the Incarnation is preserved here.

This little house in the Holy Land began to be in danger at the time of the Crusades. It was then that a member of the Angeli family financed the move, piece by piece, of St. Mary's home. At first the house was in Croatia, until 1294 when they decided to transport it to Loreto, Italy.

This first home of the Holy Family has a special importance for Catholics. Therefore, it is not surprising that joining in the prayer of the Holy Rosary in Loreto is a good way to get closer to the Virgin Mary.

Clicking HERE you can access the YouTube channel from where you can watch live the prayer of the Holy Rosary and the Angelus or Regina Caeli in Loreto. On Sundays it is customary to join Pope Francis, who prays from his window at noon with all the faithful who join the broadcast or who are in St. Peter's Square.

Façade of the Basilica of the Santa Casa di Loreto (Wikimedia Commons / Termauri)

Why wars activate the Rosary to Our Lady

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Iraq: what became of the Garden of Eden?

Ethnicities and religion in Turkey

With this article, historian Gerardo Ferrara concludes a series of three studies in which he delves into the culture, history and religion of Turkey.

Gerardo Ferrara-May 3, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes

In a previous article we speak of the Medz Yeghern (Armenian: "great evil"), the first genocide of the 20th century, a series of brutal campaigns carried out against ethnic Armenians, first by Sultan Abdülhamid II, between 1894 and 1896, and then by the Young Turk government, between 1915 and 1916, which resulted in the death of approximately one and a half million of the two million Armenians living in the territories of the Sublime Porte.

Armenians, Kurds and Greeks: a thorn in the flesh

Despite the fact that historians around the world agree on the atrocity and numbers of this genocide, Turkey refuses to acknowledge it and Turkish intellectuals who dare to speak about it in their country continue to run great risks. Even Turkey's 2006 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Orhan Pamuk, was charged with "vilification of Turkish national identity" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which deals with freedom of expression (or, in this case, lack of freedom of expression), as was anyone who dares to speak about it. The same had happened to Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin already sentenced in 2005 to six months in prison for his articles on the Armenian genocide. Dink, whose life had been threatened on several occasions, was finally murdered in 2007 as he was leaving the editorial office of his newspaper Agos (the trial of his murderer brought to light a whole series of covert links between the State, the secret services and ultra-nationalist groups in a secret organization called Ergenekon which was also allegedly linked to the murder of Father Andrea Santoro in 2006).

Another burning and unresolved issue is that of the Kurds, an Indo-European-speaking people (the Kurdish language is very close to Persian), who live in eastern Anatolia, western Iran, northern Iraq, Syria, Armenia and other adjacent areas, an area generally known as Kurdistan. It is estimated that the Kurds today number between 30 and 40 million.

Originally a nomadic people, the Kurds became sedentary after the First World War (they were induced by the Young Turks to participate in the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides and to settle precisely on the properties of the deported and murdered), when international treaties placed borders on the vast territory in which they had hitherto moved freely to allow the seasonal migration of herds. Although the Treaty of Sèvres, drawn up in 1920 and never ratified, provided for the creation of an independent Kurdistan, the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne (1923) did not mention the subject again, and the historical homeland of the Kurds remains divided among several states, against which various Kurdish separatist movements have arisen over time.

Turkish citizens of Kurdish ethnicity have always been discriminated against by the governments in Ankara, which have tried to deprive them of their cultural identity by describing them as "mountain Turks", banning their language (sometimes described as a simple Turkish dialect) and forbidding them to wear traditional clothes. The various Turkish administrations have also repressed - most often violently - any autonomist push in the eastern provinces (they continue, for example, to intervene by excluding candidates belonging to Kurdish parties in local elections, including the last one in March 2024), while encouraging the emigration of Kurds towards the western and urbanized part of the country, in order to allow a decrease in the concentration of this population in the mountainous and rural regions.

Throughout the 20th century there were several episodes of insubordination and rebellion by the Kurdish population and, in 1978, Abdullah Öcalan formed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (known by its Kurdish acronym, PKK), a Marxist-inspired party whose declared goal is the creation of an independent Kurdistan.

Since the late 1980s, PKK militants, active mainly in eastern Anatolia, have consistently engaged in guerrilla operations against the central government and frequent acts of terrorism.

PKK attacks and government retaliation escalated in the 1980s to the point of triggering a full-fledged civil war in eastern Turkey. After the capture of leader Ocalan in 1999, PKK activities were drastically reduced.

Since 2002, due to EU pressure, Ankara has authorized the use of the Kurdish language in television broadcasting and education. However, Turkey continues to carry out military operations against the PKK, including incursions into northern Iraq, to this day.

The Greeks of Anatolia

Before World War I, the Greeks were a thriving community in Asia Minor, a land they had inhabited since the time of Homer. They numbered an estimated 2.5 million, with at least 2,000 Greek Orthodox churches, mostly in Constantinople, along the Aegean coast (especially in Smyrna) and in Pontus (northern region of Anatolia, along the Black Sea coast, whose capital, Trebizond, was the center of the Empire of the same name, headed by the Comnenian dynasty, the last to fall under Ottoman rule).

The rise of Turkish nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century exacerbated the anti-Greek sentiment that was already creeping into the Ottoman Empire, to the point that the regime of the Young Turks, led by the Three Pashas (the Freemasons Ismail Enver, Ahmed Jemal and Mehmed Talat) ordered, and Enver was mainly responsible for it, the three great genocides (Armenian, Assyrian and Greek) precisely to "cleanse" the Empire of all Christian minorities. Enver, already responsible for the massacre of the Armenians, declared to the British ambassador Sir Henry Morgenthau that he took full responsibility for the death of millions of Christians.

As for the Greeks, the catastrophe took the form of an open genocide, in Pontus, between 1914 and 1923, when the local Greek population was massacred or deported, in forced marches, to the interior regions of Anatolia and to Syria (an event recounted in a beautiful book written by the daughter of one of the victims: "The Greek Genocide").Not even my name"by Thea Halo). It is estimated that at least 350,000 Greeks, about half the population, perished, while the survivors were deported.

In Asia Minor, however, there occurred what Greek historians know as the "Asia Minor Catastrophe", a series of events that led to the final abandonment of the region by almost the entire Greek population that had lived, prospered and inhabited Ionia since the 11th century BC. These events are, first and foremost, the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish war (1919-1922), with the massacres that followed, and the burning of the great city of Smyrna (1922), in which some 30,000 Greeks and Christian Armenians perished in the flames or were thrown into the sea, while 250,000 left the destroyed city for good.

The consequence was the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, sanctioned by the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, which in fact restored diplomatic relations between the two nations: from one and a half to three million Greeks were forced to leave Turkish territory to settle in Greece (according to a Greek census of 1928, 1,221,849 refugees out of a total of 6,204,684 inhabitants, 20 % of the country's population!), while between 300,000 and 500 Turks left Greece to settle in Turkey.

The Jews in Turkey

Before 1492, the date of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, there existed in Turkey a Jewish community known as Romaniotes, because of their mixed Greek-Jewish culture. The Jews who arrived from the Iberian Peninsula contributed greatly to improving the economic and cultural situation of the entire community.

Unlike Christians, in 1908, the Jewish community in Turkey seemed to experience an improvement in its condition with the Young Turk revolution, but it must be said that, at least until 1923, the year of the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, only very few citizens of Jewish confession, despite having lived for centuries in the Ottoman Empire after being exiled from Spain, knew the Turkish language, having continued to proudly speak their mother tongue, Judeo-Spanish, which is still spoken by a few people today.

Between highs and lows, until the proclamation of the State of Israel, Turkey's Jewish community continued to remain in the country until mass emigration, which saw some 33,000 Turkish Jews move to the newly created Jewish state between 1948 and 1952 alone, due to the growing instability of their state but even more to the expectations of life in the new country. Today, of the approximately 100,000 Jews present in Turkey in the 19th century, some 26,000 remain (the second largest Jewish community in a Muslim country after Iran), mostly concentrated in Istanbul.

The Christian minority in Turkey

The importance of Anatolia for Christianity is well known. There, in fact, St. Paul was born in Tarsus; there the first seven ecumenical councils of the Church were held; there, traditionally, Mary, mother of Jesus, lived the last years of her life (in Ephesus, where it has been found what for many is the house where she lived with her disciple John).

However, if before the fall of the Ottoman Empire Christians in Constantinople alone were about half of the population, and 16.6 % in Anatolia, today they are only 120,000 (0.2 %), a dramatic decrease more than in any other Islamic country, mainly due to the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides, massive deportations and population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. Of these, 50,000 are Apostolic Armenians, some 21,000 Catholics (including Latins, Armenians, Syriacs and Chaldeans), only 2,000 Greek Orthodox, 12,000 Syrian Orthodox and 5,000 Protestants.

The life of Christians in the country is not always easy. In fact, although in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) Turkey had formally committed itself to guarantee full protection of the life, liberty and legal equality of all its citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs, and "full protection of churches, synagogues, cemeteries and other religious institutions of non-Muslim minorities" (Art. 42, par. 3, line 1), in fact has not recognized any status to its religious minorities, except for Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek Orthodox and Jewish ones (the latter, however, considered only "admitted confessions"). Consequently, non-Islamic religious communities cannot own or acquire property (only maintain churches, synagogues, monasteries and seminaries that already existed and were in use in 1923, but in fact many properties have been confiscated and nationalized by the Turkish State). Since the millet regime was abolished, religious leaders can no longer represent their respective communities (until 2011 there was not a single Christian deputy in Turkey).

Today there is talk of a growing "Christianophobia" in Turkey, given the increasing number of Muslims asking to be baptized in a Christian church (actually a rather small number, at least officially), in a country where Islamism, nationalism or both are increasingly in vogue.

The authorGerardo Ferrara

Writer, historian and expert on Middle Eastern history, politics and culture.

Turkey

Iraq: what became of the Garden of Eden?

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ColumnistsSantiago Leyra Curiá

Spain, a normal family?

Currently, we find ourselves with a Spanish society that is quite hopeless, as indicated by our mental health indexes, and polarized into two very poorly matched halves.

May 2, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

What is the religious situation in Spain and what are the tasks for the new evangelization?

Some time ago I heard a mother laugh when she told me that her teenage son would tell her from time to time that he wished they were a "normal family". By this she meant that she would like to be able to come in whenever she wanted on the weekend, use the mobile and things like that, typical of his age. This led me to think that those "normal families", as the boy imagined them, do not exist. In all of them there are, to a greater or lesser extent, problems, joys, sorrows, mistakes, successes, greatness, meanness, diversity of characters, temperaments, life situations, crises, etc., that is what real families are like.

Thinking about this figure led me to a vision of Spain as a big family, but not that utopian family, but a real family: with its history, with its successes and its mistakes, with its diversity of approaches to life, with its saints and its criminals, its miseries and its greatness, and also its life situations and crises. Like families, if they want to move forward and not to be blown up and end up slapped in the face or in court, people must try to think of the common good and see the positive in others, recognize their own mistakes and correct with affection and at the right time those of others.

Spain has a long history that sinks in the depths of time where there has been everything: this family has been Celtic and Iberian, Roman, Visigoth, Muslim, Sephardic and Mudejar and, already monarchic and Catholic, reaches west, south and east to America and the Philippines reaching its maximum influence, being the mother of the great Hispanic family. Meanwhile, in the north and east, the struggle for independence from the French neighbors (as they say, that united this family a lot) left us independent in the house and not so much in ideas; and so came the Enlightenment and the French revolution that here was rightly called "liberal", from whose echoes the family became two republics, in two short-lived experiences, with their attempt to "modernize Spain", interspersed between the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and Franco. Those changes were not bloodless, kind or civilized, and there were many internal wars, the one that has left the biggest mark on the family we are today, the so-called civil war.

Already in peace since then (without forgetting the decades of ETA terrorism, although the current forgetfulness towards its victims) and with a transition that other families admired and admire, the family has lived in these last 45 years of democracy where culture and education has been designed by the so-called progressives, with the brief parentheses of governments of the so-called conservatives, the latter dedicated more to the family economy and assuming in practice the cultural leadership of those who sat down to eat on the left at the common table.

I think that all Spaniards could try to do, today and in the future, an exercise like the one I recommended at the beginning to the members of any family, trying to recognize our own mistakes and those of others, and try to correct them equally, seeing the positive in others and trying to seek the common good.

I will give it a try (not without risk and without the intention of being exhaustive):

We can recognize that in the centuries of Catholic monarchy there were great successes and errors. Among the successes, I would highlight the expansion of Christianity and the vision of human dignity proper to this religion throughout the world, as well as the creation of the university, the cathedrals and so many artistic marvels, the transmission of culture through the codices, the works of mercy, etc. Among the errors, clearly the mixture of politics and religion, the persecution and elimination of dissidents and heterodox, the wars for religious motives, clericalism, the cover-up of abuses to preserve the prestige of the institution, etc.

In the liberal progressiveness, among the successes I can see noble desires for social justice and equality and healthy secularism. Among the errors, their belief that the end justifies the means, the religious persecution of the Second Republic and the civil war, the consecration of the right to abortion of thousands of unborn people, suicide through euthanasia of the seriously ill and incurable, to the so-called gender self-determination (which is causing so much irreversible damage in young people and adolescents), the continuous decline in the quality and demands of our education, the coexistence and even complicity with terrorists of different eras, the colonization of public institutions, ideological sectarianism, the waste of everyone's money, etc.

On the liberal conservative side, among the successes I think that they have managed the economy with more austerity and understand better that income must be balanced with expenses for the sustainability of the system and since the Constitution they are more respectful with the religious freedom of the citizens, as well as they believe more in the rule of law and the laws. Among the mistakes, leaving behind the 36 years of Franco (with his executions, post-war exiles and persecution of dissidents), I think it is fundamentally not having been sufficiently firm in the defense of their rightful convictions (the defense of the life of the unborn and terminally ill, the quality of education, the equality of Spaniards without regional or economic privileges, etc.).

In the nationalists, I see among their successes the defense of their own language and culture. Among their mistakes, obviously their sympathy or equidistance with ETA terrorism and their lack of collaboration and sensitivity with the innocent victims (all of them) of so many years of assassinations, kidnappings and extortions, their insistence that former murderers have the right to participate in the political life of their people (something different from reinsertion), their erroneous exclusionary conviction of being superior to the rest of Spain and the world, their obtaining of unjust privileges from the different central governments (guilt shared by conservatives and progressives, of course), etc. We could also include here Spanish nationalism in what it shares of excluding the virtues of other countries.

In the Church, along with the immense good that so many pastors and lay faithful and so many religious institutions have done over so many centuries, we must recognize abuses and sometimes a deficient use of the great educational potential of so many schools and universities of the Church that have not known how or have not been able to fully transmit to their students a true Christian formation with the capacity to transform society for the better.

We could go on with the kings, the various governments, writers, artists, bishops and all those who are part or have been part of this "normal" family that is Spain. But it seems to me that this small summary is enough for the pretension of this modest article.

And now we find ourselves in the present, with a rather hopeless Spanish society, as indicated by our mental health indices, especially among young people (and this is something not only due to the pandemic but to a deeper cultural problem, it seems to me) and once again polarized into two very poorly matched halves.

Maybe we could try to see ourselves more as a real and big family, with its problems and its happy and hard moments, recognize our mistakes and try to see the virtues of the others. We could try to ally ourselves with all honest people of all ideologies to work together for a better Spain to leave to our successors, who do not seem too happy with the country we are leaving them. It is not a question of making laws of memory but of true concord.

I think of St. Augustine when he said in his very current "The City of God" that "among the pagans there are children of the Church and within the Church there are false Christians". It does not matter what labels we put on ourselves or others. The important thing is the union of all the honest people who live in Spain and want to make it truly better for everyone. We must not tire of doing good and fighting evil, in ourselves and in our society. We must ally ourselves with all those who still consider that pluralism is healthy as long as we share a common ethical minimum: we cannot kill, lie or steal.

The authorSantiago Leyra Curiá

What is the religious situation in Spain and what are the tasks for the new evangelization?

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Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai: "The Church suffers alongside the Lebanese people".

The Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and the whole East is the most important Christian figure in Lebanon and plays a central role in the public life of society. Omnes has interviewed Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai in a difficult but key period of his current history.

Bernard Larraín-May 2, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes

A bridge between East and West, between Islam and Christianity, Lebanon is a country that recognizes 18 religious communities in its small territory, between the mountains and the Mediterranean.

In this mosaic of faiths, the Maronite Church has played a leading role. Always united to the Pope, Bishop of Rome, the Maronite Christians are Catholics of the Eastern Rite and represent the largest and most influential Catholic community in the Middle East. At their head is the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and the whole of the East. He is the most important Christian figure in the country and plays a central role in the public life of the society.

Since 2011, the Maronite Patriarch is His Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai. Born in 1940, Monsignor Rai is a religious of the Mariamite order, and was ordained a priest in 1967, consecrated bishop in 1986 and elected Patriarch in 2011. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal of the Church.

His leadership at the head of the Maronites has been characterized by very strong positions regarding the identity and unity of Lebanon and its neutrality in the field of international relations.

Because of its special place in the history of humanity and of the Christian religion in particular, the Popes have felt Lebanon as a country very present in their prayer and concern. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the historic spokesman, diplomatic advisor and friend of Pope St. John Paul II, recounts in his memoirs how the Polish Pope kept his head and heart in Lebanon. Cedar Country during the terrible years of the civil war, which even saw clashes between Christian groups.

St. John Paul II was the one who gave Lebanon the name of "message country". Pope Benedict XVI made a historic visit in 2012, and Pope Francis has expressed his willingness to visit the Lebanese people and mentions Lebanon very frequently in his speeches and prayers.

For decades, Lebanon experienced a period of great cultural and economic development that earned it the nickname "the Switzerland of the Middle East", but for several years now it has been mired in an unprecedented political, social and economic crisis.

This delicate situation has been compounded by the war in the southern part of the territory: since October 7, 2023, with the beginning of the conflict in Palestine, hostilities have restarted in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah militias and Israel.

In this context, the Christians of Lebanon play a very particular role and Patriarch Rai has not ceased to raise his voice, strongly recalling the Lebanese identity.

Located 25 kilometers north of Beirut in the Lebanese mountains, Bkerke is the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate since 1823. In this historic place with an incredible view of the Mediterranean, His Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai welcomes us. It is not the first time that he receives Omnes, since, in 2017, the then magazine Palabra published an interview with His Beatitude.

Lebanon is going through a very serious crisis: a President of the Republic has not been appointed for more than a year, inflation has reached unprecedented levels, there is a lack of basic services and, as of October 7, 2023, war threatens in the south of the country. What is your diagnosis of the situation?

-Unfortunately, our country is sick because it has lost the sense of its mission in the world. John Paul II said that Lebanon, more than being a country, is a "message", and this is its mission: to show the world that Christians and Muslims can and must live together, as brothers. The identity of our country is so particular that a leader of an Arab country said "if Lebanon did not exist, it would have to be created".

There are two important principles of Lebanese identity: the principle of separation of Church and State, and that of cultural multiplicity.

From the first principle follows the principle of citizenship: one is Lebanese not by religion or ethnicity, but through this principle: if one is a citizen, then one is Lebanese. This implies that one is not Christian, Muslim or Druze and, consequently, one has access to citizenship. This principle has been enshrined since the creation of the State of Greater Lebanon in 1920, and is essential because it allows Christians and Muslims to live in peace, without fearing that others will impose their religion on political life.

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai: "The Church suffers alongside the Lebanese people". — Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai with Omnes correspondent Bernard Garcia Larrain

This principle came to fruition in 1943 with the signing of the so-called National Pact in which the powers of the State were divided according to the different confessions. The idea was to give concrete guarantees to each group.

Thus, the President of the Republic must be a Maronite Christian, the head of the government (Prime Minister) is a Sunni Muslim, and the President of the Chamber of Deputies is a Shiite Muslim. This system was confirmed by the Taëf Accords, which put an end to the civil war in the 1990s.

The second principle is that of cultural multiplicity: Lebanon is a democratic country open to the world, where different cultural sensitivities coexist, and where dialogue and neutrality in international relations are privileged.

Currently, our country is sick because within it there are groups that have deformed its physiognomy and do not respect these fundamental principles. They are not loyal to Lebanon. They do not respect its neutrality. Today we have a war in the south of our country, a war that the Lebanese do not want, but which some groups are bent on provoking. This has made our country isolated from the rest of the world.

What is the Church doing to try to remedy this situation?

-The Church is suffering alongside the Lebanese people, who are losing their strength and dynamic elements in this crisis: not only are many young people leaving a country that they do not see with optimism, but also many professionals, already trained and integrated into economic and social life, have also found or are seeking a better future abroad. The loss is immense.

Our population has become extremely impoverished. Inflation is one of the highest in the world. In the face of this drama, the Church opens its doors to all: our schools, universities, social centers (which help in the search for employment) remain open and active, even though people often cannot afford them.

The assets of the Church are at the disposal of our people, and thousands of people benefit from the various aids. We try to create opportunities for everyone to find work. However, the situation is getting worse and that is why I keep shouting at our leaders through the media: "You are criminals, you are destroying the State, you are impoverishing our people!

The Lebanese love their land, their culture and their homeland. Currently, the Lebanese living abroad, who are the majority, support the country economically. And if the situation allows them to return, they will return, because they love Lebanon.

Do you have hope for the future of the country?

-We are Christians and we have hope. Otherwise, we would not be Christians and we would not be here, where we have been for many centuries.

The Lebanese political system is unique in the world in the sense that political representation and high positions are distributed according to religious creeds. There are those who say that this system has reached its end and it is time to change it, to reform the Constitution. What do you think?

-Our political system, embodied in our Constitution, is magnificent and unique in the world. The problem is not the system, but that some do not respect it. I like to compare it to a marriage: a unique partnership between Christians and Muslims.

Lebanon cannot be only Christian or only Muslim, that would not be Lebanon. A divorce, as some want to impose it, would be fatal. This, logically, generates tensions and effervescence.

In the West, bishops have a role that is perhaps different from yours. How would you define your task as Maronite Patriarch in Lebanese society?

-The Maronite Patriarchs have played a fundamental role in the history of Lebanon: it was they who led the way to the creation of the State of Lebanon in 1920, a process during which Patriarch Elias Hoyek played a leading role.

The Maronite Patriarch is a reference in our country, an authority listened to and appreciated, because of this historical significance he has had. Article 9 of the Lebanese Constitution establishes the principle of personal status, which respects not only the so-called natural law, but also the beliefs of each individual in this country.

Our voice is not that of technical politics, it is that of recalling the moral principles that should guide us. In the West, sadly, we govern without regard for God, and this is how we have laws on abortion, euthanasia and same-sex unions.

The Church is independent of political parties and speaks to the conscience of the people. For these reasons I have not ceased to denounce the crime of not electing a President for our country and maintaining the current situation that generates the impoverishment of our people.

Are there different priorities or sensitivities compared to the Latin Church? Recently, the bishops of Africa stated that they would not apply the document Fiducia Supplicans which allows priests to bless, outside of any liturgical form, couples in an irregular situation.

-First of all, we must remember that in the Catholic Church there is freedom of expression; it is a right that the Church defends and promotes.

Regarding the document Fiducia SupplicansIt seems to me that in Europe there are situations that do not present themselves to us in the same way.

The bishops of Lebanon work in a collegial manner, we meet on the first Wednesday of every month. So, we have decided to set up a committee of bishops to study the document, and depending on what this working group advises, we will decide whether it is necessary for an official document to be issued on our behalf.

St. Charbel, the main Lebanese saint, is known worldwide and recognized for his many miracles. On January 19, an image of him was installed in the Vatican. Why do you think devotion to St. Charbel has spread so much?

-Indeed, St. Charbel is very active and very well known, and the answer to your question cannot be explained: it is a mystery. Perhaps, as a good Lebanese, Charbel knows how to negotiate very well with God to obtain countless favors for those who pray to him with faith.

St. Charbel mosaic at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York ©CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

The authorBernard Larraín

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Gospel

"Love one another." Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for Easter Sunday VI and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.

Joseph Evans-May 2, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

"This I command you, that you love one another.". Thus concludes Our Lord's beautiful Gospel that we heard today, and today's second reading, also from St. John, insists on the same idea: "Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.".

But Jesus' logic is also precious, as we discover in today's Gospel text. Loving others begins with knowing that we are loved by God: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.". It also begins with our experience of the Father's love, through the Son's love: "Abide in my love".

Love is not just a feeling. It is constantly doing the will of Christ and following his commandments: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love". And this leads to joy. The joy of living in Christ's love gives joy to others when we share this love with them. "I have spoken this to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.".

The love of Christ not only implies loving others, but also trying to love at the level of Christ: "Love of Christ is not only to love others, but also to try to love at the level of Christ.Love one another as I have loved you.". This includes the willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, even to the point of death, giving our lives for our friends. And we should strive to be friends with everyone, to the best of our ability.

In fact, the love to which we aspire is the love of friendship, elevating everyone around us from servants to friends:"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing: I call you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.". This friendship involves sharing with others our faith, all that we have learned from the Father. A friendship that does not include sharing God with others is only a superficial friendship.

We could even say that true love involves "sending," as Christ sends us. "It is not you who have chosen me, it is I who have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.". Love empowers, brings out the best in others and develops their qualities and talents: it is never reduced to passivity. Our love must lead others to bear fruit in Christ. "So whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you."Our love will ultimately connect others to God the Father so that they too can pray to him in the name of Christ.

Homily on the readings of Sunday VI of Easter (B)

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.

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Pope invites to transform the world through art

"Lord, increase our faith," Pope prays

At today's general audience, the Pope gave a catechesis on the virtue of faith. He also remembered the victims of the wars and floods in Kenya.

Loreto Rios-May 1, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Pope Francis continued this Wednesday with his catechesis on the virtues. In this case, he focused on the virtue of faith: "Like charity and hope, this virtue is called 'theological' because we can only live it thanks to the gift of God. The three theological virtues are the great gifts that God gives to our moral capacity. Without them, we could be prudent, just, strong and temperate, but we would not have eyes that see even in the dark, we would not have a heart that loves even when it is not loved, we would not have a hope that dares against all hope".

The Holy Father then defined faith and gave examples of people who have lived it, beginning with our father in faith, Abraham, and continuing with Moses and the Virgin Mary: "In this faith, Abraham was our great father. When he agreed to leave the land of his ancestors to go to the land that God would show him, he was probably judged crazy: why leave the known for the unknown, the certain for the uncertain? But Abraham sets out on his journey, as if he sees the invisible. And it is still the invisible that makes him go up the mountain with his son Isaac, the only son of the promise, who only at the last moment will be spared the sacrifice. With this faith, Abraham becomes the father of a long line of children. Moses was also a man of faith, who, accepting the voice of God even when more than one doubt could assail him, remained steadfast in trusting in the Lord, and even defended the people who so often lacked faith. A woman of faith would be the Virgin Mary, who, on receiving the Angel's announcement, which many would have dismissed as too demanding and risky, responded: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord: let it be done to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38). With a heart full of trust in God, Mary sets out on a path of which she knows neither the route nor the dangers.

Citing the Gospel of the calm storm, the Pope pointed out the main enemy of faith: "Not intelligence, not reason, as unfortunately some people continue to repeat obsessively, but simply fear. For this reason, faith is the first gift to be welcomed in the Christian life: a gift that we must welcome and ask for every day, so that it may be renewed in us. Apparently it is a small gift, but it is the essential one". In fact, Francis pointed out, on the day of baptism, the priest asks parents, "What do you ask of the Church of God?", to which they reply, "Faith, baptism". "For a Christian parent, aware of the grace that has been given to him, that is the gift that he must also ask for his child: faith. With it, a father knows that, even in the midst of life's trials, his child will not drown in fear. He also knows that, when he no longer has a father on this earth, he will still have God the Father in heaven, who will never abandon him. Our love is fragile, only God's love conquers death," the Pope continued.

At the end, the Pope invited all those present to say: "Lord, increase our faith".

At the end of the audience, the Holy Father did not forget to ask for prayers for peace, recalling the wars in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine and the Rohingya in Myanmar, as well as the victims of the floods in Kenya.

He also asked for the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker to increase our faith.

Pope Francis

Pope invites to transform the world through art

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Initiatives

Paul Christian Tsotie: "Palliative care is urgently needed in Central Africa".

The Cameroonian Palliative Care Association "Soigner la Vie" (SLV) has been presented at the Hospital de Cuidados Laguna in Madrid, in the presence of the Cameroonian ambassador to Spain, Paulin Godfried Yanga, and representatives from Congo, Nigeria and Gambia. Paul Christian Tsotie, president of SLV, tells Omnes that palliative care is needed in Cameroon and Central Africa, and that euthanasia is seen as "sacrilege".

Francisco Otamendi-May 1, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

The Republic of Cameroon is a Central African state of almost half a million square kilometers, with 28 million inhabitants, 40 percent Christian (Catholics and Protestants), 20 percent Muslim, and about 40 percent animist. The country has borders with Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, and to the west with Nigeria.

Known for its geological diversity and its culture, music for example, and also for its sport, having won five times the African Cup of Nationssecond only to Egypt (7), Cameroon is one of only four African teams, along with Ghana, South Africa and Morocco, to have reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

At the presentation ceremony in Madrid of "Soigner la Vie" ("Caring for Life"), people from half a dozen African countries participated. In addition to the Cameroonian ambassador, representatives from Congo, Nigeria, Gambia, and people from Senegal and Morocco, among other countries, attended. The Cameroonian ambassador in Spain, Paulin Godfried Yanga, wanted to support the initiative with the diffusion of the Association among the Cameroonian community in Spain, as real protagonists to help their compatriots in a more precarious situation..

Another "Lagune" in Cameroon

The host, General Manager of the Hospital de Cuidados LagoonDavid Rodríguez-Rabadán, explained the link between Laguna and "Soigner la Vie" in support and training to ensure that in the future there will be another "Lagune" in Cameroon in a few years.

Encarnación Pérez Bret, PhD in nursing and social anthropology, nurse Laguna's palliative care coordinator, explained "the need to promote palliative care as the first way to fight against euthanasia" and the urgency of promoting "the culture of palliative care" in Africa, where it is still in its infancy.

Also taking part in the presentation, led by the actress and writer Eva Latonda, were the representative of Soigner La Vie in Spain, Pablo Pérez-Tomé, the doctor Javier Sánchez Ayuso, and the volunteers Steve Kommengne and Juan Luis García Hermoso, who has been a volunteer for almost 25 years and who, for the first time in his life, at the age of 70, has gone to Yaoundé to help for a couple of months. The testimony of the writer Isabel Sanchez from Colombia. Author of the book "Take care of us."wanted to support the initiative.

To explain the work done so far by SLV, the president of Soigner La Vie, Paul Christian Tsotie (Yaoundé, 1989), spoke from Cameroon and talked to Omnes about palliative care in his country and in Africa. Tsotie is a nurse specialized in palliative care and pain management with 10 years of experience, and associate professor at the School of Health Sciences of the Catholic University of Central Africa (ESS-UCAC).

What are SLV's objectives in Cameroon?

- To spread the culture of pain medicine and palliative care in Cameroon and Central Africa through training/education and promotion of palliative care delivery, and to prevent chronic diseases, mainly cancers.

How is the global need for palliative care.

- According to the Global Atlas of Palliative Care, more than 56.8 million people worldwide need palliative care each year, including 31.1 million before and 25.7 million at the end of life. The majority (67.1 %) are adults over 50 years of age and at least 7 % are children. The majority (54.2 %) are non-deceased who need palliative care before their last year of life.

The burden of serious illness and health-related suffering, and the corresponding need for palliative care, are immense. However, most people in need do not have access to palliative care, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The majority of adults in need of palliative care (76 %) live in LMICs, and the largest proportion are in low-income countries. Noncommunicable diseases account for almost 69 % of adult needs.

Which diseases and areas of the world require the most palliative care?

- Among adults, the diseases and conditions that generate the greatest suffering requiring palliative care interventions are cancer, HIV/AIDS, cerebrovascular disease, dementia and lung disease.

The Western Pacific, Africa and Southeast Asia regions account for more than 64 % of adults in need of palliative care, while the Europe and Americas regions have 30 % and the Eastern Mediterranean region 4 %.

The greatest need by population is found in the African region (related to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS), followed by the European and American regions that have older populations.

In almost all regions of the world, adults whose need for palliative care is generated by non-malignant conditions constitute the greatest need, followed by cancer. Only in the African region does HIV/AIDS predominate over malignant and other non-malignant diseases.

And in Cameroon?

- According to the National Strategic Plan to Fight Cancer (PSNLCa) 2020-2024, there are 15,700 new cases/year, of which 9,335 are women; 80 % of new cases are diagnosed late and almost all will die within a year; there are 10,533 deaths per year; according to "ecancermedicalscience", there are 78,125 people in need of palliative care, i.e. 3,100 HIV patients and 75. 000 cancer-related cases. In addition, there are few organizations committed to this field of medicine, which is not very attractive.

Cameroon's ambassador to Spain (center) at the presentation of Soigner La Vie @Carlos de la Calle

How do you see awareness and training in palliative care?

- The Soigner La Vie Association, together with other associations such as Vopaca, Adespa, Alternative Santé and Santo Domingo, carries out awareness-raising, training and education activities, as well as campaigns in schools, families and communities to inform the masses about the issue of palliative care.

Access to opioids and other pain medications is a problem for...

- Access to opioids, such as morphine, is a real problem in Cameroon. Efforts are being made in this regard. Morphine in oral solution has been available for a few months now, but this analgesic remains inaccessible given the need expressed. This is not only the case in Cameroon, but in Africa in general. Access to other pain medications is relative.

Africa rejects euthanasia, is this correct?

- In Africa, life has a culturally sacred character and all African countries consider the issue of euthanasia as a real sacrilege.

The brief conversation with Paul Christian Tsotie concludes. It should be recalled that some entities have helped in the presentation of SLV in Spain such as the Friends of Monkole FoundationThe Vianorte-Laguna Foundation and the La Vicuña Foundation ARBOR VITAE and IDOC i FTIH. The Adeste Foundation, the Recover Foundation and the French Adespa Foundation were also present in some way with their support.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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"She": The Virgin Mary in contemporary art.

ColumnistsMartha Reyes

The Virgin Mary, a key figure in the history of Salvation

In the Virgin Mary begins the New Testament story of salvation, and in her we are also transported to the end of the story, being able to testify to what the angel promised her: that the Kingdom of Her Son will have no end.

May 1, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

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When a loved one departs, we reflect on his legacy, and those closest to him receive his belongings in a legal will or in an implicit agreement. Arriving at Calvary, stripped even of his clothes, with no assured burial place (only the one lent by Joseph of Arimathea), what would a will written by Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus' will is written in John 1926-27: "Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.

The riches of the Virgin Mary

In Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 26, the angel Gabriel is sent to Nazareth to interrupt 400 years of God's silence, with the words, "Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Fear not, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, and he shall be called the Son of the Most High."

Mary would be entrusted with the most important being in creation to conceive, nurture, protect, form and launch him to his supernatural destiny. During all those years she kept in her heart a diary of memories that would later be consulted by disciples, evangelists and historians.

Let us remember what Luke 1:3 says: "After having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I have decided to write this account in an orderly fashion, dear Theophilus. In this way it will be possible to verify the soundness of the teachings we have received".

It is certain that Luke, the author of this Gospel between 59 and 63 AD, interviewed those who knew Mary personally in order to arrive at the origin of the story of Jesus and to corroborate its validity. Reading the Gospel of Luke, 1, 26-28, we realize that in the visit of the angel to Mary of Nazareth, the great importance of incorporating Mary in the history of salvation is revealed: she is the original witness of the divine origin of Jesus.

Without Mary's testimony, we would not have the evidence that this Jesus, born in Bethlehem, who preached with wonders and miracles throughout the region, was not just another prophet, not just any other righteous or prodigious man, but the only true Son of God. Without Mary's testimony, our faith in the true essence and identity of Jesus Christ is shaken. No one else could testify that Jesus was the Son of God but the mother who conceived the Son of God.

We need the Virgin Mary

God meets his maiden in the arid land of upper Galilee. The angel Gabriel interrupts her life of spiritual quests to introduce her to a life of great supernatural encounters.

The presence of Mary in the Gospels can be read like verses in the psalms: each verse tells us a lot. Each intervention of Mary affirms a prophesied moment: she is the link between the messianic nostalgia and the promise of the Father; the link between the old covenant and the new covenant, between the children of the law and the children of grace.

If we follow Mary's footsteps and her presence in the Gospel, we notice prophetic marks that point to her son as the long-awaited Messiah.

The story begins with the miracle to St. Elizabeth who represented the children of the old covenant, of the Old Testament, whose hearts were infertile wombs that could not obtain or conceive the grace of God.

Mary represents the children of the New Covenant - hearts fertile and docile to the 'seed of God', the rebirth of a new history.

"Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Luke 1:42. "Blessed are you for believing that the promises of God will be fulfilled in you.". This is an announcement of graces to come. Mary represents those who will believe even without having seen.

The Gospel of joy

Mary evangelizes by her example, teaching us to have unconditional trust in God, responding to every invitation and proposal, "let it be done to me according to Your word"; just as 30 years later Her son teaches us to pray, saying, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

In Mary begins this new-testament salvation history, and in her we are transported to the end of salvation history by being able to testify to what the angel promised her: that the Kingdom of Her son will have no end. In other words, He will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

We learn from Mary to live a faith without limits or obstacles. If there is anyone who could affirm to us that for our God there are no impossibilities, it is she. That is why we must dare to take steps of faith in complete trust. Mary's yes cancels out the no of so many who have rejected God's call in their lives.

Mary also evangelizes us in her magnificat of Luke 1:46-55 by assuring us that our emptinesses will be turned into favors, our sorrows into joys, the hunger of the hungry will be satisfied, the fallen will be lifted up with a strong arm, and the humble will be exalted.

The presence of Mary

Today we continue to need Mary's presence and visit so that children can jump for joy in their mothers' wombs and live.

We continue to need Mary's presence and discernment so that she may perceive our external deficiencies and our internal voids and, through her intercession, transform water into wine.

We continue to need Mary's presence and wisdom so that she may continue to evangelize us with word and silence, so that like her, we may feel full hope, manifest unconditional surrender, inexhaustible faith, courage in suffering, peace in adversity, a sense of gain in loss, and a supernatural purpose of life.

The authorMartha Reyes

D. in Clinical Psychology.

Santa Maria

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ColumnistsAntonio Moreno

San José" Reforms

On this feast of St. Joseph the Worker, I think of the lack of renovations in my interior house: of the need to repair the chipping that life has left me.

May 1, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

On May Day, International Workers' Day, since 1955 the Church has celebrated St. Joseph the Worker Day, who has traditionally been identified with a carpenter, but who was much more; he was a "τέκτων". Do you know what it means?

To know the office of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, we must look for the reference in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which relates how, after hearing the people of his town speak to Jesus with such unction and wisdom they could not believe it and asked themselves, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" This is how the Greek term "τέκτων (tekton)", in which the Gospels were written, has traditionally been translated, since it was the common language in the eastern Mediterranean at the time of Jesus.

The question is: would we define tekton as what we understand today as a carpenter? And the answer is an absolute and resounding no. A carpenter, today, we identify with someone who is dedicated exclusively to woodworking. And we would distinguish a carpenter (who builds structures, works with large beams, etc.), from a furniture carpenter (who manufactures and installs doors, cabinets, kitchen furniture...), from a cabinetmaker (who carves, models and turns wood...).

A tekton was all that, but much more, because the word designates a person who exercises a wide range of manual labor, which today would fall into the category of masonry work, including all construction tasks and even stone carving. It is, what we would say today, a handyman, a craftsman, a person with great knowledge and skill for manual trades related to construction.

But what about Jesus, was he also a handyman? A rabbinical sentence stated that "whoever does not teach his son a manual trade, is teaching him to steal", so we can assume that Jesus followed the customs of his people and learned the trade from his Father. And I say well, of his Father, with capital letters, since (oh coincidence!) also his real Father is presented in Genesis as a craftsman who, with the skill of his hands, built the universe and modeled men and animals.

It is easy to imagine Joseph and Jesus, in their workshop, sawing a large beam and, soon after, Joseph, trying to delicately remove the speck of sawdust that had accidentally fallen into the boy's eye; it is easy to see the boy brushing and sanding a yoke as his father had taught him so that it would be smooth and not hurt the neck of the neighbor's ox or carving a stone that the architects had discarded for not being quite perfect to turn it, with two chisel strokes, into the cornerstone of a new building; It is easy to contemplate Jesus as an adult and Joseph, mace in hand, tearing down the façade of the synagogue of Nazareth that had rotted due to humidity and rebuilding it, as the Pharisees had requested, with a wider door, since the original one was too narrow for them to enter comfortably with their sumptuous clothes.

Church tradition has also seen Jesus Christ working hand in hand as tekton, this time alongside his Father God and as the second person of the Trinity, in the following passage from the book of Proverbs: "When he laid the heavens, I was there; when he traced the vault over the face of the deep; when he fastened the clouds on high, and fixed the abyssal fountains; when he set a boundary for the sea, whose waters do not pierce his command; when he laid the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, as architect, and day after day I made him glad, all the while I played in his presence: I played with the ball of the earth, and my delights are with the sons of men."

On this feast of St. Joseph the Worker, I think of the lack of renovations in my interior house: of the need to repair that chipping that life has left me, of the urgency to tear down those walls that I have built against others, to open a window in that room a little sad and to make some good shelves that will allow me to organize so much clutter that I sometimes cause. I know a couple of good handymen who can help me for sure. If you are like me, I have left their number here. Give them a call. They are reliable.

The authorAntonio Moreno

Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.

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Dicastery for the Clergy holds a congress for the formation of priests

Pope prays for the formation of religious and seminarians

Pope Francis wants Catholics to pray during the month of May for the formation of women religious, seminarians and religious around the world.

Paloma López Campos-April 30, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

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Pope Francis asks Catholics during the month of May to join him in praying for a "human, pastoral, spiritual and communitarian" formation for religious and seminarists.

As usual, the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network has made public the Pontiff's prayer intention. After the month of April dedicated to women, the Holy Father wants to focus on the "vocational journey" of women religious, seminarians and religious.

Thanks to an adequate formation in all areas of the person, the Bishop of Rome wants those who have given their lives completely to Christ to be "credible witnesses of the Gospel". Because, the Pope insists, "a good priest, a nun, must first of all be a man, a woman formed, worked by the grace of God". In this way, he continues in his message, they will be "people aware of their limits and ready to lead a life of prayer, of dedication to the witness of the Gospel".

Training with a view to the future

Formation is one of the keys on which Francis frequently insists and warns that it "does not end at a given moment, but continues throughout life". It is an aspect on which he insists a lot, especially when seminarians visit the Vatican and meet with him.

It is customary for the Pontiff's agenda to include audiences with young men preparing for the priesthood. On April 20, 2024, during a reception with the seminary community of Seville (Spain), the Holy Father advised the seminarians to "make good use of this intense time of formation, with God's heart, with open hands and a big smile to spread the joy of the Gospel."

In the same way, the Pope also receives visits from religious men and women, whom he also asks to take care of formation, since it also serves to prepare for life in community, which is "enriching," says Francis in his message for May, "although at times it can be difficult."

Thanks to the care of formation, the Pope affirms in his message, it is possible to "polish" and "work", giving "shape on all sides" to each vocation, which he defines as "a diamond in the rough".

Pope Francis

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Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton

"Wisdom and Innocence," a biography of Chesterton.

Ediciones Encuentro has published "Wisdom and Innocence", a biography of Chesterton written by the convert Joseph Pearce.

Loreto Rios-April 30, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

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On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of G. K. Chesterton, Ediciones Encuentro has released a new edition of the biography written by Professor Joseph Pearce, with an introduction by writer Enrique García-Máiquez.

The biography is of interest primarily because of the author, a convert to Catholicism after reading Newman, Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, among others. This is not his only incursion into this genre: he also signed the study "C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church" or an important biography of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, with whom he was able to meet personally in Moscow and who gave his approval to the book once it was finished.

G. K. Chesterton. Wisdom and innocence

Author: Joseph Pearce

Editorial: Encounter

Pages: 604

Madrid: 2024

"Wisdom and Innocence" is, therefore, a rigorous study of Chesterton that, in addition, places his Christian faith in a preferential place, instead of relegating it to the background, as occurs in some biographies of Christian characters.

On the other hand, Pearce does not limit himself to narrating the life trajectory of the famous English writer, but also delves into some of his most important works.

Of great interest are the fragments that deal with his conversion process, since, although Chesterton became a Catholic in 1922, when he was 48 years old, since he began to believe in Christianity he was at the doors of the Church. In fact, the first collection of stories of Father Brown, the famous Catholic priest and detective invented by Chesterton (based on Father John O'Connor, who would hear his general confession years later), was published in 1910, years before his conversion, as was his famous "Orthodoxy" of 1908.

On the other hand, the text is enriched by letters and writings, both from Chesterton himself and from people close to him, which offer different perspectives on the character. As an example, a letter that the writer sent to his mother after having converted to Catholicism, a step in which he had been preceded by his younger brother, Cecil: "I am writing to tell you one thing before I tell anyone else, a thing which will probably place us in the situation of two inseparable Oxford friends who 'never differed in anything except their opinions'. [...] The story goes back a long way, to a certain extent, for I have come to the same conclusion as Cecil... and I am now a Catholic, as he was, having been claiming that title for a long time from an Anglo-Catholic sense. [...] These things do not spoil the relationship of those who love each other as much as we do; least of all when they did not involve the slightest difference of affection between Cecil and ourselves. [...] The other thing I wanted to tell you is that all this has come from me and has not been a sudden and sentimental impulse. [...] I think it is the truth" ("Wisdom and Innocence," pp. 350-351).

In short, this biography is of interest not only for regular readers of Chesterton, but also for those who want to know more about his figure, the English society of the time and his process of conversion to Catholicism.

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The Teutonic Holy Field in Rome

Since Charlemagne founded a "Schola Franconia" next to St. Peter's, the cemetery has undergone many vicissitudes and now houses, in addition to a cemetery, the buildings of the Archconfraternity - owner of the complex - the Pontifical College of German Priests and the Roman Institute of the Görres Scientific Society.

José M. García Pelegrín-April 30, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

The Campo Santo Teutonico (and of the Flemish, as it is officially called) not only houses the "German" cemetery in Rome, completely walled, but also a series of associated buildings. Its history dates back to the time of Charlemagne, when Pope Leo IV donated this land to the Frankish king on the occasion of his imperial coronation in Rome at Christmas 800.

Charlemagne established the "Schola Franconia" in Rome, one of the many regional organizations that offered lodging to pilgrims and compatriots from a particular region or linguistic area and that were spread throughout the city and, in particular, in the vicinity of St. Peter's Basilica. This Schola soon merged with the cemetery that had existed within the Vatican walls for German-speaking pilgrims since the end of the 8th century.

It is important to note that to speak of "German" language in the 8th and 9th centuries is anachronistic, since the "Franks", the origin of Charlemagne's kingdom and empire, in those centuries were spread over most of the current territories of France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and northern Italy (former Langobard kingdom). Therefore, the term "Teutonic" is more precise, including not only the present-day Germans (tedeschi in Italian, tudesco in Old English), but also all those living in the historical German-speaking cultural area; in turn, the Italian term "fiamminghi" includes the present-day Flemish and Dutch.

In any case, the close relationship between "Germans" and Rome began, which was to be continued when, after the division of the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the East Frankish kingdom - under the so-called Ottons - became the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire at the beginning of the 10th century: with Otto I (king from 936, emperor from 962) begins the tradition of the German king being crowned by the Pope as emperor of the (Holy) Romano-Germanic Empire, a tradition that would last until 1530: Charles V (Charles I of Spain) was the last German king to receive the imperial crown from the hands of the Pope, although the coronation took place in Bologna and not in Rome.

XIV - XVI Century

The institution of the "Teutonic Holy Field" included not only the cemetery, but also a church and adjacent buildings. However, during the Western Schism (1378-1417), the complex suffered significant damage. Only in the mid-15th century did Friedrich Frid, a native of Magdeburg, revive the tradition of burying German pilgrims in the Teutonic Holy Field and repairing the existing buildings.

He gathered around him a group of German and Flemish helpers, which prompted the founding of a Brotherhood of the Poor Souls in 1454, focused on providing a dignified resting place for pilgrims, as well as the Christian commemoration of the deceased, the maintenance of ecclesiastical service, the care of pilgrims and the care of needy and sick compatriots.

The land belonging to the canons of St. Peter's was transferred to the brotherhood. The present church of Santa Maria della Pietà was consecrated in the jubilee year of 1500. In 1579, Pope Gregory XIII elevated the confraternity to the status of Archconfraternity of the Sorrowful Mother of God in the "Campo Santo dei Alemani e Flemish".

XIX - XX Century

When, in the 19th century, numerous non-ecclesiastical hostels began to appear in Rome, the need for pilgrim hostels ceased to exist, at least to the same extent as before. The question of a modern use of the "Campo Santo" thus arose. At the same time, Christian archaeology became a scientific discipline and experienced a considerable boom. In addition, with Prussia's Kulturkampf (or "cultural battle") against Catholicism, Rome became a refuge for German clergymen who could not work in the German Reich.

In 1876, the College of Priests was founded in Campo Santo as a study center with library and paleochristian collection under the rectorship of Anton de Waal (1873-1917). A few years later, in 1888, the Roman Institute of the Görres Scientific Society was also established there. The buildings occupied by both institutions were made available free of charge by the Archconfraternity. With the foundation of the Vatican State in 1929 by the Lateran Treaties, the Campo Santo enjoys extraterritorial status. In 1943/44, during the German occupation of Rome, about 50 people found refuge there.

After World War II, the Archconfraternity, the Priests' College and the Görres Institute resumed their long-standing cooperation. The Campo Santo experienced a rapid boom, which was reflected in a large-scale renovation and expansion of the buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. Under the long rectorship of Erwin Gatz (1975-2010), who was also director of the Görres Institute, a phase of institutional consolidation and academic profiling began.

The Teutonic Holy Field in Rome — Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the chapel of the Campo Santo Teutonico on the feast of All Souls ©CNS photo/Vatican Media

The Teutonic Holy Field today

Today, in addition to the completely walled "German cemetery", the "camposanto" houses the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, seat of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa) of the Germans and Flemish, owner of the Teutonic Holy Field, as well as the Pontifical College of German Priests and the Roman Institute of the Görres Scientific Society.

Although it is the only cemetery within the walls of the Vatican City and is located right next to St. Peter's Basilica, it is not part of the Vatican but of the Italian territory: the Lateran Treaties of 1929 made it an extraterritorial possession of the Holy See. However, it is only accessible through Vatican territory.

Both the cemetery and the church of the Teutonic Holy Field You can attend every day from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon (except on Wednesdays, during the papal audience). It is also possible to attend the Holy Mass celebrated in the church -except in August- every day at 7.00 a.m. (on Sundays, at 10.00 a.m.).

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José Tolentino Mendonça or the conditions of existence

Although no Spanish publisher has so far published a minimal sample of Tolentino Mendonça's poetry, this author is one of the most representative voices of the latest Portuguese lyric poetry, equaling the most prestigious poets of the Portuguese language. In Spain he is recognized for his essays, some of which have reached several editions.

Carmelo Guillén-April 30, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

"I do not theorize: I observe. I do not imagine: I describe. I do not choose: I listen".This approach constitutes the starting point for the Tolentino Mendonça's poetrywho addresses, according to his own words, "the conditions of existence".. I vindicate his lyric poetry which, with a cultured base, astonishes for its eloquent and precise style, the use of visual images and the capacity to integrate in his compositions elements from very diverse sources, besides incorporating aspects of his own life trajectory, without the name of God -which is what is often expected when his biography is known- appearing or giving cause to consider him a manifestly religious poet and, much less, with moralizing purposes.

Moreover, when asked why there are hardly any explicit references in his verses to the divinity -there are, there are-, he has answered: "I believe that God is everywhere. The more material, the more spiritual. I always prefer an open language, even assuming the risk of ambiguity, to a narrow language, incapable of expressing complexity. I confess that sometimes my greatest difficulty is to find a trace of God in typified spiritual discourses. Everything that tries to domesticate God moves away from him". Therefore, if I had to define his poetry, I would say that it is the humanistic expression of a singular poetic creed, illuminated by the reading of his essays, in which, like a palimpsest, multiple cultural layers are superimposed, with which he constantly dialogues, which is why it is so suggestive of interpretative possibilities.

As a single flame

This intertextual world is a rhetorical tool on which he elaborates a poetics based on the din of daily life, with special "attention to reality, a relentless attention, sensitive to the visible and the invisible, to the audible and the unmentionable."In short, his lyrical work is a profound look at the enigmas, scars and hopes of man's intricate existence. That is why, when reading his poems, one knows that they speak of crucial themes related to the human condition and that they embrace the material and the spiritual in complete interrelation, thus showing that poetry is a space where there are no boundaries and where the sublime and the crude, the natural and the artificial, what was and what is can be found together: "The poem may contain: true things, wrong things, poisons to keep out of reach / country excursions [...] / a civil war / a Smiths record / ocean currents instead of literary currents."he writes in GraphiteThis is one example, among many others, where Tolentino Mendonça gives visibility to his way of proceeding when he undertakes a poem.

The same title of his collected poetry, The night opens my eyesrefers to the breadth of vision offered by poetic creation; a title which, as the poet himself has stated, reflects his "cross-border dialect, because it mixes a reference to a song by The Smiths [Tolentino Mendonça is undoubtedly referring to the song There is a light that never goesThere is a light that never goes out.] with a clear evocation of the theology of the 'Dark Night' of St. John of the Cross. The profane and the sacred rise up as a single flame"..

A motionless traveler

For this literary incursion, the Madeiran poet presents himself as a motionless traveler: "Standing still we make the great journeys".. However, although he writes his poetry from stillness, he demonstrates a keen ability to discern what eventually fades with time: "We suddenly cease to perceive / the depth of the fields / the great mysteries / the truths we swore to preserve." of that which leaves an indelible mark on the soul: "...".But it takes years / to forget someone / who has just looked at us."thus making it possible for his poetic activity to be perceived as a search for himself, decidedly enriched by the interaction with others in the construction of his own identity.

This interaction implies the gaze of the other, who not only looks but also is another. In this sense, it manifests itself as a means to share, confront and understand the human experience while contributing to the co-creation of the universe of his poems, adding layers of darkness and beauty. It is an idea, undoubtedly, capital, which gives light to many of his compositions, very similar to that of the late Pope Benedict XVI when he affirmed that: "Only service to others open my eyes [emphasis added by the author of the article]. to what God does for me and how much he loves me."although Tolentino Mendonça presents it in a more subtle way, interwoven in the rhetoric of the verses and using "the night" as the subject of the grammatical sentence.

Living the body

In any case, if poetry is for him a search that requires stillness -and I take, albeit very briefly, one more step in the development of his poetics-, this search is only possible from the body. Or to put it another way: the body is the place or situation in which each person is closest to himself. Although we are not only the body, Tolentino Mendonça believes that in and through it "we live, we move and we exist".more: "The senses of our body open us to the experience of God in this world." or as he announces in the poem What a body can: "We live the body, we coincide / in each of its powers: we move our hands / we feel cold, we see the white of the birches / we hear on the other shore / or above the hazelnut trees / the cawing of the crows.". From this bodily awareness, the importance of being fully connected with somatic sensations and experiences, either through breathing or simply being aware of internal sensations, is emphasized. There are many compositions that abound in this, especially in his collection of poems Frontier theory (2017), where he states, "The body knows how to read what has not been written". o "The body is the state where everyone / breathes closest to himself.".

School of silence

But this is not the end of his lyrical universe. Like the body, silence is another of his great themes. In fact, in the collection of poems The poppy and the monk (2013) even dedicates to him a series of short texts entitled School of silence. It states: "To silence in order to make people say". o "May your silence be such / That not even thought will think it."thus demonstrating that there are more worlds than the dictatorship of noise, and that silence is a form of resistance to the hustle and bustle of life.a place of struggle, of searching and waiting" - a place of struggle, of searching and waiting.expresses in one of his essays-. "Little by little we join the possibility of giving space, of opening our life to the other, allowing ourselves to be inhabited by the revelation of otherness". And it is there, in the otherness, where all his lyrical work converges, either from silence, either from the body, either from stillness or from the cultural intertextuality in which this poetry so in need of a prompt translation into Spanish moves.

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The Pope at the Venice Biennale

Rome Reports-April 29, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute

Pope Francis visited the Venice Biennale on April 28, 2024. The Holy See has a pavilion in this exhibition under the title "With my eyes".

Pope Francis explained why: because all people have the need to be "looked at and recognized".

AhNow you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.

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The Pope in the Venetian canals

Pope Francis waves to young people from the boat that took him from Giudecca Island to the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice on April 28, 2024.

Maria José Atienza-April 29, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute

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Samuel Sueiro: "For Henri de Lubac to do theology was to announce the faith."

A light in the mists. "Theologies of occasion", by Henri de Lubac

"Theologies of Occasion", a volume that collects twenty-four articles by the theologian Henri de Lubac, has recently been published by the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (BAC).

Juan Carlos Mateos González-April 29, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

Perhaps the first thing that catches the attention of this book Why "theologies of occasion"? The volume recently published by the BAC is composed of twenty-four very uneven works that Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) wrote over almost half a century. In 1984, at the request of his readers, the French Jesuit decided to publish this collection of short writings: "All the texts reproduced here are of theological intent. They come, however, neither from an organic teaching on some central point of dogma or its history, nor from a prolonged research on a particular subject". In another book he also confesses that "the reader has been able to realize that almost everything I have written has been a function of circumstances, often unforeseen, within a certain dispersion and without technical preparation". As his friend H. U. von Balthasar rightly points out, the extensive production of H. de Lubac is "a work that opens freely in all directions".

Theologies of occasion

AuthorHenri de Lubac

Editorial: BAC

Pages: 640

Madrid: 2023

The name of H. de Lubac is familiar in the theological world, but for more than one this book can be a good opportunity to have a very complete "cosmovision" of the thought of the French Jesuit. In the theology of H. de Lubac one can sense a lively interest in history and in the social aspects of Christianity. Where history was tragic and hurtful, the young professor from Lyon tried to offer a word of discernment. Thus, many of the events that H. de Lubac had to witness characterized the course of his theological work and this explains the vast variety of his production - in themes and works - a disparity that is also reflected in this book. For this reason, we will try to describe the thematic nuclei of each of the chapters, taking into account the "Lubacan order" of the chapters.

As an approximation, we will only look at the first and last parts of the book "Theologies of Occasion", as both are very representative of the whole content.

The first part, entitled "Theology and Spirituality," consists of six chapters of a theological and spiritual nature. Three of them deal directly with questions of an ecclesiological and sacramental nature, two others deal with spiritual theology and the last one is a valuable contribution to the work of fundamental theology:

"Sanctorum communio. In the first chapter, de Lubac examines the meaning that the expression "communion of the saints" has acquired in the Christian tradition over the centuries. The French Jesuit analyzes the vicissitudes of the expression "mystical body" and its repercussions on the relationship between the Church and the Eucharist. For the author, the "communion of saints" means, above all, that among all those who belong to Christ, among all the members of his body, there is a communion of life, which is what builds up and sustains the Church.

Theologies of occasion can help us to answer some of the spiritual questions of our time.

"Mysticism and Mystery." De Lubac's interest in mysticism became a source of inspiration from which to discern many other theological questions. Since it is not the fruit of ignorance, but of adoration, in Christian mysticism "silence is not at the beginning, but at the end". Unlike other possible paths, Christian mysticism is a mysticism of likeness, which looks towards the God who calls man from his deepest nature to orient him towards himself: "God is not ineffable in the sense that he is unintelligible: he is ineffable because he always remains above all that can be said about him".

"Christian Community and Sacramental Communion." Similar to the first chapter, he presents the history of the understanding of the notion of communio-κοινωνία in relation to the Church, but, in this article, H. de Lubac tries to get out of the way of those who feared that the recovery of the biblical and patristic sense of the notion would imply a lowering of the affirmation of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. With this work, H. de Lubac invites the Christian to immerse himself again and again "in the sacramental origins of the Christian community, in the mystical sources of the Church".

The last part, "In memoriam", contains two articles that refer to "thanking" his great friends and teachers for all that he had received. Those entitled "Philosopher and Apostle" and "The Love of Jesus Christ" are dedicated to the memory of A. Valensin, his philosophy professor at the Catholic Faculties of Lyon. Auguste Valensin (1879-1953) was one of the actors involved in the debates of the Catholic intellectual world between the wars in the wake of the modernist crisis. Undoubtedly, it was Valensin himself who introduced the young Lubac to the thought of M. Blondel. Another common front that further strengthened their friendship was their opposition to totalitarianism. A good part of their epistolary correspondence was published posthumously by H. de Lubac himself, at the request of his superiors.

The last three articles of this last part are dedicated to the outstanding French writer and diplomat P. Claudel: "On a Creed of Claudel", "Claudel theologian" and "The drama of the call". After his religious conversion, which took place on December 25, 1886, during the vespers of Notre-Dame de Paris, Claudel developed a prolific literary work, to the point of being considered one of the main poets and playwrights of the 20th century in the Catholic sphere.

H. de Lubac had begun to read his works since his secondary studies. In fact, P. Claudel will be, along with Ch. Péguy, one of the poets of H. de Lubac's bedside as soon as he enters the Society of Jesus. Claudel and Péguy: two theologian poets, of exceptional stature, too much forgotten in the Church. From their first meeting in 1942, H. de Lubac and P. Claudel shared a mutual interest in the spiritual dimension of the interpretation of the Bible, based on the reading of the Fathers of the Church.

Perhaps the best way to situate the text entitled "On a Claudelian Creed" is to look back to his Memoir, where he explains: "In the prologue that I once placed before a selection of Claudelian texts on the Creed, I tried to show, on the basis of rare examples taken from this selection, what riches Claudel's work offers for doctrinal reflection, what perspectives, sometimes unsuspected [...]. It will astonish by the audacity and the living force of renewal it inspires".

The chapter entitled "Claudel theologian" contains the text of a lecture delivered at the Institut Catholique de Paris in December 1968. The pessimistic aftertaste of some of his notes is perhaps due more to the turmoil and polemics of the immediate post-conciliar period and May 1968 than to the genius of the Lubacian. In fact, his lament does not mourn the eclipse of Claudel, but of the religious and Christian values on which his work was based.

Finally, the article "The Drama of the Call" arose from a review that the Jesuit wrote about a book by A. Becker with the same title. The book tried to highlight the relationship of P. Claudel's work and thought with Christian faith and spirituality, illustrating how the poet had been addressing the theme of the divine call in his lyrical and dramatic work, facing deeply existential and spiritual questions.

At the end of our thematic journey through the twenty-four studies that make up the present volume, we can see the magnitude of this work, built to the rhythm of the work and the days, in a wide range of contexts and occasions in which the French theologian feels challenged to offer a word proper to his work. In this sense, the chapters of "Theologies of Occasion" can help us to answer some of the spiritual questions of our time. Their reading and study will be of great benefit to the reader, to the specialist - and also to the amateur - in theological questions. A reading that is deep and comforting, vital and calm, academic and spiritual. We thank the BAC and the Fundación Maior for their commitment to publish it in Spanish.

The authorJuan Carlos Mateos González

Samuel Sueiro: "For Henri de Lubac to do theology was to announce the faith."

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The "running" nuns of Florida

Initiatives

Ave Maria, the "custom-built" city for Catholics in Florida

In Florida there is a city called Ave Maria, whose objective is to make it easier for all its inhabitants to live the Catholic faith in community.

Paloma López Campos-April 29, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Not many people are familiar with the name Tom Monaghan, but one of his projects is well known: "Domino's Pizza". However, this franchise is not the American entrepreneur's only legacy. At the turn of the 20th century, Monaghan sold his pizza company and set out to promote Ave Maria, an unincorporated community inspired by Catholicism. The term "unincorporated community" refers to a territory that is not organized with a local government and, in the case of Florida, belongs jurisdictionally to a county but retains some independence.

After being converted after reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. LewisTom Monaghan wanted to use his money to "take as many souls as he could to Heaven. Therefore, he invested his fortune in building a large church that would be the center of this new community. Monaghan's initial approach was to build a city exclusively for Catholics. But time proved that it was better to open the doors to people of other faiths.

Despite this, everything built in the city seeks to make it easier for its inhabitants to practice the Catholic faith. The urban plan is organized in such a way that it is easy to walk and reach the center to go to church. On the other hand, the streets are named after saints or other elements of the faith.

Ave Maria Center

The Ave Maria Church in the heart of the territory wants to be "a light in the darkness that illuminates the path to Jesus Christ through the sacraments" as its website says. The aim of the church is to promote community life among Catholics, with special emphasis on giving to others, as evidenced by the museum dedicated to St. Teresa of Calcutta, which belongs to the church.

Near the building there is a chapel of perpetual adoration where it is possible to pray in front of the sacramentalized Jesus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, the parish offers various training courses for adults, youth and children, and encourages the creation of groups such as Emmaus, the Legion of Mary or Bible studies.

Interior of Ave Maria Parish in Florida (Flickr / Steve Knight)

Education at Ave Maria

There are currently several schools near the community, three private and four public. In addition, the founder of "Domino's Pizza" also opened the university Ave Maria in order to offer citizens a higher education based on the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

The university wants to turn "its students into the next generation of saints". On their website they explain that, along with the importance of academic formation, the aim is to nurture the whole person, ensuring students and professors access to the sacraments so that they can "give glory to God".

In its academic offerings, Ave Maria is not very different from any other university. While it is true that it also offers courses that could be described as denominational, such as Family Studies or Catholic Studies, it also allows its students to enroll in courses such as Computer Engineering, Classical Languages, Nursing, Physics, Biochemistry or History.

Difficult balance

Despite the Catholic focus in this Florida community, people of different faiths can also live in the town, in fact, in 2017 the first Baptist church opened. Monaghan's original idea of imprinting the Catholic culture on Ave Maria in such a way that there would be no way to separate from it was abandoned long ago, and today the entrepreneur says Ave Maria is open to everyone.

However, this large-scale project has raised doubts among many people. Overlooking some controversial statements made by Monaghan over the years, there are those who think that a community like this one in Florida blurs the boundaries between religion and politics. Building a city based on the Catholic faith leads to questions such as whether contraceptive products can be sold in pharmacies or whether access to pornography can be condemned.

Beyond these decisions, which Ave Maria has tried to resolve, there are people who also wonder if the creation of such a community does not cause children to grow up in a closed and overly protected environment that does not prepare them properly for today's society.

With these questions on the table, Ave Maria continues to move forward and is even growing, as the project attracts investors who want to build in the area. For the rest, the answers to the questions of the future, as in all cases, only time will tell.

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The "running" nuns of Florida

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"To educate in the contemplation of beauty is to open the mind to its essence."

Pope invites to transform the world through art

During his trip to Venice, Pope Francis held several meetings in which he highlighted the importance of beauty and art in transforming the world.

Paloma López Campos-April 28, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Javier ViverIf art does not generate communion, it will be anything else, but not art". Related News

During his trip to VenicePope Francis held several meetings with young people, artists and the faithful who attended Holy Mass in St. Mark's Square. The Holy Father took advantage of these occasions to address a few words to those present, focusing on the importance of beauty and art in transforming the world.

In addressing the young people, Francis wanted to recall "the great gift we have received, that of being God's beloved children, for which we are called to fulfill God's dream". This desire of the Father for his children, the Pope explained, "is that we be witnesses and live his joy".

To make this dream of God a reality, the Holy Father indicates that it is essential "to rediscover in the Lord our beauty and to rejoice in the name of Jesus, a God of a young spirit who loves young people and who always surprises us."

In the rediscovery of this beauty, Francis continues, it is essential to "detach ourselves from sadness" and remember "that we are made for Heaven". To this end, the Pope encourages us not to dwell on our miseries and sins, but to turn to the misecordia of God, "who is our Father" and when we fall "extends his hand to us". Only in this way can we "accept ourselves as a gift" and look at ourselves, not with our own eyes, "but with the eyes of God".

The art of giving oneself to others

Once this has been achieved, the Pontiff stresses the importance of perseverance and of losing the fear of "going against the current". In this sense, the Pope also points out that we cannot walk alone, but must try to be accompanied by others who also wish to live their lives with Christ.

In this same dynamic of being accompanied, Francis wanted to remind young people that "we are called to give ourselves to others". "The precariousness of the world in which we live," says the Bishop of Rome, "cannot be an excuse to stand still and complain." "We are in this world to reach out to people who need us," the Pope stresses.

The Holy Father explains that "life is only possessed when it is given", so he invites us to escape from questions about the "why" and exchange them for the "for whom". In this way we can enter into God's creative dynamic, a "gratuitous" creativity in a world "that only pursues profit".

Art and the contemplative gaze

In the same vein, in his address to the artists, Pope Francis invited his listeners to fight with art against "the rejection of the other", thus making people "brothers everywhere" thanks to the universality of art.

This can become a reality, says the Pontiff, because "art educates us to a gaze that is not possessive, not objectifying, but also not indifferent or superficial". Art, continues the Pope, "educates us to a contemplative gaze". For this reason he affirms that "artists are in the world, but they are called to go beyond it".

This look that goes beyond can be found even in prison, as Francis said during his visit to some women prisoners. There the Pope pointed out that "paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of an unsuspected beauty in ourselves and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event that he welcomes and to whose project he actively contributes".

The Holy Father took the opportunity to ask that "the penitentiary system also offer inmates tools and spaces for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth, creating the conditions for their healthy reintegration".

Abiding in Christ

Finally, in the homily delivered by the Pope at the Mass celebrated in St. Mark's Square, Francis emphasized that "the essential thing is to remain in the Lord, to dwell in Him. Something that is not static, but implies "growing in relationship with Him, conversing with Him, embracing His Word, following Him on the path of the Kingdom of God".

"By remaining united to Christ," says the Pope, "we can bring the fruits of the Gospel to the reality in which we live." These fruits include justice, peace, solidarity and mutual care, among others. Fruits that, the Holy Father insists, the world needs and that Christian communities must offer to the world.

Pope Francis

Javier ViverIf art does not generate communion, it will be anything else, but not art". Related News

"To educate in the contemplation of beauty is to open the mind to its essence."

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Latin America

Monsignor René Rebolledo: "With a testimony of life, we will be able to attract others to Jesus Christ".

Archbishop René Rebolledo, Archbishop of La Serena since 2013, was elected new President of the Episcopal Conference of Chile on April 17.

Pablo Aguilera-April 28, 2024-Reading time: 6 minutes

Born in Cunco, Monsignor René Osvaldo Rebolledo Salinas will be the head of the Chilean episcopate for the next three renewable years. Monsignor Rebolledo was ordained a priest in 1984. His pastoral work began in the Immaculate Conception parish of LoncocheHe then moved to Italy to do his doctorate. Upon his return, he dedicated himself, in a special way, to formation at the San Fidel Major Seminary.

Seminary formation has been one of the major areas of his work, in fact, he presided over the Organization of Chilean Seminaries (OSCHI) and was part of the board of directors of the Latin American Organization of Seminaries (OSLAM). St. John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Osorno on May 8, 2004 and in 2013 Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of La Serena. The newly elected president has granted an interview to Omnes in which he reflects on the need to promote vocation ministry or issues such as immigration.

In the recent Message from the Episcopal Conference of ChileAt the conclusion of the Plenary Assembly, the bishops expressed their concern about the shortage of vocations to the priesthood in Chile, and invited Catholics to intensify their prayers for this intention. What are the main causes of this notable drop in the last decade?

- There is a notorious advance in secularization in the country, with a progressive distancing of adults in general and young people in particular, from the ecclesial communities. To this must be added the institutional crisis that we have experienced at all levels due to situations of abuse.

However, in this area, I appreciate the serious work in prevention that has been carried out at the national level. Thousands of pastoral agents have been trained in all the ecclesiastical circumscriptions to serve in the installation of healthy and safe environments, as well as in the accompaniment of victims.

And what could be the initiatives to improve this urgent need?

- Above all, intensify our prayer. Aware of the great need for shepherds for our communities, we are invited to make our own the sentiments of Jesus, who "seeing the crowds, was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 9,36). To pay attention, also today, to what the Lord said to his disciples: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few". For this reason, to take on - with even greater perseverance - the imperative to "pray the Lord of the fields to send out laborers for his harvest" (Mt 9,37-38).

I have stated at various levels in the Archdiocese: "Prayer is the only instrument capable of acting at the same time in the field of grace and in that of freedom, allowing man to discern the call and respond to God. Nourished by the Word, it opens the heart of the believer to delve into the deepest truth of himself. In a journey of faith, prayer allows us to surrender ourselves to God's will and to give a generous response to a particular life project to which He is calling us".

In the same way, we should also take up the challenge - as St. John Paul II, Benedict and Francis invited us to do - of creating a "vocational culture" at every level, addressing some priority areas in this regard, such as: families and young people, altar servers and, in our milieu, the many young people involved in religious dances, among others.

In addition, at the request of the young people, the First National Youth Day (NYD 2025), from January 21 to 26, 2025, under the theme: "Young Pilgrims of Hope", in relation to the theme chosen for the Extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption - 2025: Pilgrims of Hope. This meeting is inspired by the phrase of the Psalm119, 105: "Your Word is a lamp to my steps, a light to my path."

The prayer that the young people are praying in preparation for the First World Youth Day states that young people "are God's now" and asks the Lord that young people "pilgrims of hope, animated by the Spirit, help to renew the Church, and build a more just and supportive country, caring for the common home, embracing the poor and marginalized, being witnesses of the Lord's love".

I think that this NYY is a gift from the Lord. What is decisive is that the participants open their hearts to Christ who enchants life. In this way, this meeting can be a propitious opportunity to listen to his call.

Obviously, we bishops must face the challenge of the shortage of vocations with a great sense of co-responsibility together with the laity, consecrated men and women, deacons and priests".

In the Message, the Chilean bishops invite to welcome migrants to our country. The Catholic University Bicentennial Survey indicated that, in 2022, 82 % of Chileans considered the number of immigrants to be excessive. Moreover, due to the involvement of illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes, there is a growing distrust of them by the citizenry. So, how to make this request of the bishops understandable to Chileans?

- A personal and community reflection is in order, which I express in synthesis: We are all migrants! This Homeland of ours is very beautiful, in various aspects, but it is not definitive. A significant percentage of Chilean men and women believe in God. Part of the believers profess the Catholic faith. Leaving one's own land and living as a foreigner goes back to the origins of the human race, as attested to in Sacred Scripture, as does the family life of our Lord. It is therefore necessary to contemplate the biblical witness.

On the other hand, to return the hand. In troubled times of our history, hundreds of Chilean men and women were welcomed in other latitudes, respected in their dignity and treated with appreciation.

It is not fair to link criminality and migration. In fact, thousands of migrants have arrived in our country with the desire for a better future for themselves and their families. They are contributing to the growth of the country and sharing in our communities their faith, their religious traditions and their hope.

Let us seek ways to help one another to build the earthly city in communion and co-responsibility, each one contributing with his or her gifts and the richness of his or her culture, but always aware that we are a pilgrim people. In this sense, I make my own the call of Pope Francis to to welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrantsThis also implies the proper accompaniment and support to the communities that have assumed the arrival of a large number of them, especially in border cities and large cities.

The aforementioned Survey shows that after the big drop in confidence in the Catholic Church in 2018, there has been a slow and steady improvement. Since that year, a greater silence from Catholic pastors has been noticeable. In your opinion, how much should public opinion influence the bishops to convey the Christian message?

- I am aware that we have expressed our opinion on various topics that are important to the country and to the Church. Of course, there are the Messages of the Assemblies of the Episcopal Conference of these years, as well as pronouncements on specific, pressing issues or special challenges. However, it is evident that many of these public words have gone unnoticed by the public in the face of the ecclesial crisis experienced and the consequent fall in confidence in the Church and its pastors.

In this sense, I think that, with a coherent and true witness of life of all the People of God, we will be able to attract others to Jesus Christ and his message. Likewise, being attentive and present in the reality of what people live, their sorrows and joys, will allow us to face the problems and difficulties, to seek together with others, ways of their solution, and thus move towards a path that allows society to trust again.

In March, Chile's main religious denominations - including Catholicism - expressed their concern about the deterioration of civic relations, the increase in insecurity, corruption and the inability of political actors to reach agreements. In view of this situation, they called for a national agreement to solve the serious problems facing the country. What are your expectations in this regard?

- A national agreement would be a privileged and urgent instance to face the great challenges we have as a country.

The common good calls us to act in a co-responsible manner in the face of the enormous challenges regarding the aforementioned issues - deteriorating civic relations, increasing insecurity, corruption, the inability of political actors to reach agreements, among others.

The greater good of the country demands that those who have been invested by the people as authorities be up to the task, placing the welfare of the people above electoral calculations.

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"Love makes us better," Pope's message to thousands of grandparents in Rome

Pope Francis held a festive meeting with thousands of grandparents, grandchildren and the elderly in which he stressed that "love makes us better, enriches us and makes us wiser". And he said this "with the desire to share the ever-youthful faith that unites all generations, and which I received from my grandmother, from whom I first met Jesus".

Francisco Otamendi-April 27, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

In a Paul VI Hall filled with thousands of grandparents, elderly people and grandchildren, on the day on which the Church celebrates the tenth anniversary of the canonization of Popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, the Holy Father said that "love makes us better. This is also demonstrated by you, who make each other better by loving one another".

"And I say this to you as a "grandfather", with the desire to share the ever-youthful faith that unites all generations. I too received it from my grandmother, from whom I first came to know Jesus, who loves us, who never leaves us alone, and who encourages us to be close to one another and never to exclude anyone."

The Pontiff then told a family story about his grandmother. "From her I heard the story of that family in which there was the grandfather who, because he no longer ate well at the table and got dirty, they threw him out, they put him to eat alone. It was not a nice thing to do, in fact it was very bad! So the grandson put in a few days with the hammer and nails, and when dad asked him what he was doing, he replied, 'I'm building a table for you to eat by yourself when you're old!' This my grandmother taught me, and I've never forgotten it since."

The poverty of fragmentation and selfishness

"Don't forget it yourselves either, because only by being together with love, without excluding anyone, one becomes better, more human!" he continued. "And not only that, but you also become richer. Our society is full of people specialized in many things, rich in knowledge and useful means for everyone. However, if it is not shared and everyone thinks only for himself, all the wealth is lost, indeed, it becomes an impoverishment of humanity."

"And this is a great risk for our time: the poverty of fragmentation and selfishness. Let us think, for example, of some of the expressions we use: when we speak of the "world of the young", of the "world of the old", of the "world of this old man"... But the world is only one! And it is composed of many realities that are different precisely so that they can help and complement each other: the generations, the peoples. All the differences, if harmonized, can reveal, like the faces of a great diamond, the marvelous splendor of man and of creation".

Alert to attitudes that create loneliness

In an atmosphere of affection and especially moving for the Pope, Francis recalled that "sometimes we hear phrases such as 'think of yourself, you don't need anyone! These are false phrases, which deceive people into believing that it is good not to depend on others, to do for oneself to live as islands, while these are attitudes that only create a lot of loneliness. As for example when, due to the throwaway culture, the elderly are left alone and have to spend the last years of their lives far from home and their loved ones".

Let's think for a moment, he encouraged: "Do we like this? Isn't a world in which no one has to fear ending their days alone much better? Clearly it is. So let's build this world, together, not only by devising care programs, but by cultivating different projects of existence, in which the passing of the years is not considered a loss that belittles someone, but a good that grows and enriches everyone."

To the grandchildren: grandparents, the memory of the world

"Dear grandchildren, your grandparents are the memory of a world without memory, and "when a society loses its memory, it is finished. Listen to them, especially when they teach you with their love and their testimony to cultivate the most important affections, which are not obtained by force, do not appear with success, but fill life".

The Pope concluded. "It is not by chance that it was two elderly people, I like to think two grandparents, Simeon and Anna, who recognized Jesus when he was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph (cf. Lk 2:22-38). They welcomed him, took him in their arms and understood - they alone understood - what was happening: that God was there, present, and was looking at them with the eyes of a child. They alone understood, when they saw the little Jesus, that the Messiah had arrived, the Savior they were all waiting for".

"Old people see far, because they have lived so many years," he finished, "and they have so much to teach: for example, how bad war is. I, a long time ago, learned this from my grandfather, who had lived through the First World War and who, through his stories, made me understand that war is a horrible thing. Seek out your grandparents and do not marginalize them, for your own sake: 'The marginalization of the elderly [...] corrupts all the seasons of life, not only old age' (Catechesis, June 1, 2022)".

The Pope, "grandfather" of the world

The event began an hour and a half before the Pope's arrival, with the testimony of the so-called "grandfather of Italy", the actor Lino Banfi, and the singer Al Bano, together with Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who chaired the Italian Commission for the Reform of Health and Social Care for the Elderly (or Third Age), created in 2021 by the Italian government's Ministry of Health.

This commission launched a Letter of the Rights of the Elderly and the Duties of the Community, on which he reported Omnes. Monsignor Paglia today called Lino Banfi the grandfather of Europe, who in turn called Pope Francis "grandfather of the world".

Humanizing the world

"We want to try to humanize the world with affectivity, to cure us of isolation and loneliness," he said this week, in the presentation Mario Marazziti, president of the Italian Età Grande Foundation which, inspired by Christian and evangelical values, aims to promote and guarantee the rights of the elderly and the correlative duties of the community.

"With the initiative we want to give a new vision of old age," said Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life." Old age "is not a waste, a burden, but a resource and is not unrelated to all the other ages of life. We want to start from here to rediscover the heritage of the third age, giving the floor to grandparents and grandchildren, among whom there is a special harmony, complicity and affective dimension that does not exist among the other generations".

Increased attention to the elderly

"The elderly must understand that they can still give a lot," he added, explaining that "in Italy, for example, there are 14 million of them, but for them there is no work of political, economic, religious or cultural reflection. And if the Pope, with a cycle of nineteen catecheses, has indicated how to live the third age and has created the World Day of Grandparents, while the Italian State, with the law 33 of 2023 on the reform of non-self-sufficiency, has committed itself to reorganize the assistance to the elderly, the hope is that also in other nations the attention towards the older generations will grow.

Grandparents and grandchildren, the warmth between generations

"The dimension of old age," in his opinion, "becomes decisive to resume, through the bond with the grandchildren, the warmth with the other generations," Monsignor Paglia assured. "Grandparents and grandchildren are the two extreme generations that cannot live without the intermediate ones. This is a magisterium that adults and young people must listen to."

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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El Pilar: basilica and cathedral

Marian piety, nature and culture at Montserrat

In addition to being a Marian sanctuary, the monastery of Montserrat is a destination of great interest as a tourist destination both for its historical importance and its architecture as well as for its natural environment, which offers numerous possibilities for nature lovers.

Enric Bonet-April 27, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

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The 19th century basilica, the Montserrat indoors audiovisual space or the museum of the sanctuary, with works by Caravaggio, El GrecoPicasso, Dalí or Monet are some of the essential places to visit in the sanctuary. There are also the monumental rosary and numerous hiking trails to enjoy the scenery.

Travel and approach

One of the attractions of Montserrat is the journey to the mountain itself, which can be done by train from Barcelona. The approach from Monistrol de Montserrat to the sanctuary can be made by connecting with a picturesque train that climbs 600 meters in about five kilometers. It is the famous rack railway. In Monistrol there is ample parking, if you prefer to get there by car.

At the stop before Monistrol, you can take the cable car, another way to reach the sanctuary. This "Montserrat aerial", as it is also known, makes the journey in five minutes and offers unique views of the mountain. Of course, you can also drive up to the parking lot of the sanctuary itself.

Basilica, atrium and museums

Once there, a visit to the Virgin is a must. You can access the dressing room, where she can be venerated. The basilica is the reconstruction of the nineteenth century of the remains of the Gothic of the late sixteenth century. It is very richly decorated, especially the area of the chapel of Santa Maria. The atrium of the basilica is dominated by the facade of the temple, neoplateresque of 1901 and surrounded by buildings. After the civil war, a new facade was built to close the courtyard. In it we find reliefs alluding to the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, St. Benedict and the representation of the monks martyred in that war.

An inscription on the façade contains a phrase attributed to Bishop Torres i Bages, which summarizes the spirit of Catholic Catalanism of which Montserrat has been the epicenter: "Catalunya serà cristiana o no serà" (Catalonia will be Christian or it will not be).

At the information office you can find directions to the audiovisual space entitled Montserrat indoors, which will introduce the pilgrim to the mountain, the monastery and the sanctuary.

Montserrat also has a museum that contains an important art collection with works by Caravaggio, El Greco, Rusiñol, Casas, Picasso, Dalí, Monet... and some archaeological remains from the Middle East.

Monumental rosary and trails

After the misfortunes of the 19th century, the Catalan cultural world committed itself to the restoration of Montserrat and, thanks to this, many literary and artistic works from the end of that century are dedicated to the Virgin.

We have already mentioned the creation of many poets and writers of those years. The world of the plastic arts also wanted to contribute. Thus, a monumental rosary was built between 1896 and 1916 on the road leading from the Sanctuary to the Holy Cave. Along the way, sculptural groups represent each of the fifteen mysteries. Notable artists such as Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch, Sagnier, Llimona, the Vallmitjana brothers and others participated in this project. It is a pleasant walk to the place where the image was found that harmoniously combines nature and art.

Hiking is a good complement to the visit to Montserrat. The mountain is full of paths that connect hermitages and viewpoints. A traditional excursion is to climb to Sant Jeroni (1237 meters), the top of the mountain; it can also be combined with the ascent in the rack railway of Sant Joan and it is a circular route of just over two hours. It can also be climbed on foot to the sanctuary by trails from Monistrol. The Patronato de la Montaña offers some routes on its website.

The choir and the Virolai

There is evidence of the presence of a choir - a choir of children singers - since the early fourteenth century, which would make us think of one of the oldest in Europe. There were only a few choirboys until the XVII and XVIII centuries when it grew and became a real musical school. In the mid-twentieth century there were fifty singers and they began to record records and tour nationally and internationally.

Therefore, one of the essential moments of the visit to Montserrat is when the Escolania performs the Save and the Virolai.

The Virolai is the musicalization of the poem to Saint Mary of Montserrat that Jacint Verdaguer composed for the millennium (1880) of the discovery of the Virgin. A contest was held as part of the programmed events, to which more than sixty musical versions of the poem were submitted. The winner was Josep Rodoreda, who received the corresponding prize. Since then the Virolai, whose lyrics are beautiful, is part of the cultural heritage of any Catalan.

The authorEnric Bonet

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Lourdes: Mary's visit, source of grace

Montserrat, "el nostre Sinai", a symbol of Mary's fidelity

Our Lady of Montserrat is celebrated on April 27th. Her sanctuary is located in the vicinity of the city of Barcelona, situated in an enclave of great beauty. This Marian monastery was built, according to tradition, in the place where an image of the Virgin was miraculously found.

Enric Bonet-April 27, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes

The history of the monastery Montserrat has not been without its difficulties. At the beginning of the 19th century French troops destroyed it when they tried to invade Spain. However, finally the sanctuary was rebuilt and today is one of the most visited in the region.

The history

About 40 kilometers from Barcelona is one of the most visited places in Catalonia. An abrupt elevation of the terrain that gives rise to a mountain range with a unique morphology. The collective imagination has seen a mountain sawed by someone big who wanted to give it a unique shape. There began the history of Santa Maria de Montserrat.

Where does this image come from?

Sardà i Salvany, in his "Montserrat. Noticias históricas" of 1881, what tradition had passed down about the discovery of the image: "In the year 880, on one of the delightful evenings in April, Saturday the 25th [sic] to be precise, at the hour when the star of the day gives way to the melancholy light of the queen of the night, some shepherds from the nearby village of Olesa were keeping their flocks at the foot of Montserrat, quite unaware of the great happiness that Providence was about to bestow on them. When they were most distracted, they saw some shining stars coming down from the sky at one end of the mountain, and they came to hide in the eastern corner of the same, in the part that falls on the Llobregat. Confused and frightened, much more when several consecutive Saturdays at the same hour they were surprised by the same vision, and in the last ones it was offered to them accompanied by very soft chants.

They communicated the event to their masters, by whom it was also observed and immediately communicated to the parish priest of Olesa, as the place was under his jurisdiction". According to this same tradition, the image that the sky then pointed out, had been hidden at the beginning of the VIII century, in 717, before the nearby Saracen invasion of Barcelona. It was an image -of Jerosolimitan origin- that was already venerated in Barcelona, in the church of San Justo and San Pastor... although we are moving here in the field of non-historical tradition.

The story continues in a very similar way to that of other virgins found. The bishop comes with a retinue to move the image that a few meters from the cave becomes immovable. This is taken as a sign of the Virgin's predilection for this place and the image remains there. The first documentary mention of Montserrat dates from 888: Wilfredo the Hairy donates the hermitage of Santa Maria to the monastery of Ripoll; and that is no longer a legend.

The first wayside shrines

After the discovery of the image of the Virgin Mary in the cave, the first hermits began to settle in the area. These pious men lived in small cells or caves scattered throughout the mountains, leading an austere life dedicated to prayer and penance.

Over time, the fame of the Virgin of Montserrat grew and, as the number of hermits increased, new hermitages and cells were established at different points on the mountain of Montserrat. These hermitages were connected by paths and roads, which allowed the hermits to share moments of prayer and community.

We know that at the end of the 9th century there were four hermitages: those of Santa María, San Acisclo, San Pedro and San Martín.

Devotion to the Virgin of Montserrat grew and the need for a more structured religious community became evident, which led to the official foundation of the Monastery of Montserrat in the 11th century, in the year 1025, in the hermitage of Santa Maria. Some fifty years later the Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat had its own abbot. Of the original hermitages, the hermitage of San Acisclo still stands in the garden of the monastery.

Consolidation

In the XII-XIII century a Romanesque church was built and the carving of the current Virgin dates from that date. The monastery and the miracles granted by the Virgin are taking name and appear in some books, among them, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria de Alfonso X, which makes the monastery very popular and becomes a known place of pilgrimage, with the corresponding increase of donations and income that make it grow. Throughout the 15th century the monastery became an independent abbey, a Gothic cloister was built and a printing press was installed.

At the end of the 16th century, in 1592, the present church was consecrated, larger to accommodate a greater number of pilgrims.

Decadence and destruction

The abbey of Montserrat suffered a series of calamities in the 19th century. The monastery was sacked and destroyed in 1811 by the French troops that had invaded Spain. Xavier Altés - a monk who was librarian for many years - explained that the French were furious with the abbey because it had become a symbol that God would help the peasants of the area, who had already won the first two French attacks. The third time, however, the French won and they burned everything: the library, the archives and the church, the altarpieces, the paintings... It was a way of saying: do you see how that which you thought would save you has ended?

The Virgin was saved because she was naked. A copy was placed in the dressing room, which was smashed to pieces. The original was hidden in one of the hermitages. The French found it, but as it was without the clothes with which the carvings were adorned then, they did not recognize it and, after desecrating it, they left it there. Altés concludes that the press of the time said that it was necessary to put a sign where it was written: "Here was Montserrat".

And as if that were not enough, in 1835 the disentailment laws made the State confiscate the little of value that remained and ordered the monks to vacate the complex, which was left deserted and half in ruins. So much so, that the bishop offered the monks a plot of land in Collbató, giving up the monastery, but they did not accept; they wanted to continue in Montserrat, even if it was in those painful conditions.

Reborn

Montserrat is a symbol of the strength and fidelity of the Virgin. When many of the Catholics themselves did not believe in the possible restoration of the sanctuary, Saint Mary was faithful and performed the miracle. In October 1879 there was a meeting in Montserrat: Abbot Muntades with Jaume Collell, Jacint Verdaguer and Sardà i Salvany. They would take advantage of the millennium of the finding of the image to revive the fervor and help for the reconstruction.

For the millennium, Verdaguer composed the Virolai. The following year, continuing the momentum of the millennium, the canonical coronation of Our Lady of Montserrat was organized.

A century and a half later, that monastery in ruins is a beautiful place; one of the most visited monuments in Catalonia that welcomes almost three million visitors a year. The place where a "here was Montserrat" sign should have been put up is now advertised in all the tourist and religious guides of Catalonia. Santa Maria never fails.

The image

The focus, the origin and the engine of everything that happens in Montserrat is Santa Maria. The image that was found and was in the hermitage of Santa Maria is not preserved today.

The relay to that devotion was taken by the current image, which has survived all the vicissitudes of which we have mentioned in the brief history outlined above. It is a Romanesque carving from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, about 95 centimeters high and made of poplar wood, which presides over the dressing room of the Sanctuary.

The image is known as "La Moreneta" and there is evidence of this appellative since the fifteenth century, so all the iconography and literature about her made us think of a black Virgin. In 2001 -explains Abbot Solé in an interview- a study was made to detect the layers in the polychrome of the image and try to elucidate if it was black from the origin.

The study revealed three levels of color. The oldest level was a layer that was originally white: it is the pigment that was used at that time to imitate the color of the skin, and to prepare it was made with a mixture that included lead, which over time, smoke and oxidation was blackening; but it did so irregularly.

Thus, in the 15th century it was given a pigment to make it brown by making the dark areas uniform.

During the War of Independence, the image, which had been hidden in a hermitage, was found by soldiers. It was not identified as the original, but it was desecrated. It is said that it was left hanging from an oak tree during a very rainy few months. When the monks found it, they saw that the Child Jesus had been torn off and had disappeared. From that period is the current Infant Jesus -more baroque than Romanesque- and the last layer of pigment -darker- that was applied to restore the damage that the color had suffered.

The image, says Abbot Solé, evokes two biblical figures. St. Mary's dress is golden, recalling the bride of Psalm 44 (45): "Standing at your right hand is the queen, jeweled with gold from Ophir. [...] Clothed in pearls and brocade". It speaks to us of the intense love - almost spousal - of God for Mary when he entrusted her with the mission of being the Mother of his Son. The second figure is that of the bride in the Song of Songs, who says: "I am dark but fair, O ye daughters of Jerusalem". A text applied to a multitude of images of black virgins.

Mary is represented holding a ball in her right hand, which is the one venerated by the faithful, as it protrudes through a hole in the protective glass. Some have said that it represents the earth... but this is too much to say for the 13th century, when the planet was still seen as flat. The sphere represents the cosmos; all of creation, which Mary holds in her hands and protects, and, in turn, presents Christ.

The child is dressed in gold and crowned, which reminds us of his royalty. In his left hand he holds a pine cone. The pine cone is the sign of the life that Jesus offers to those who let him into their lives. It is also a symbol of the unity that Jesus gives us and in Him is maintained.

With her right hand, she blesses. The Virgin is included in a dressing room in which, in its upper part, two angels hold a crown, thus representing the fifth mystery of glory. The Virgin Queen is seated on her throne, but, like many Romanesque images, she is herself Sedes Sapientiae: throne of wisdom. For she offers her lap to Jesus, the Word, Wisdom.

The authorEnric Bonet

Lourdes: Mary's visit, source of grace

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German bishops agree with Rome that they will not make decisions without approval of the Holy See

Division among German bishops over the "Synodal Committee".

In disagreement with the synodal principle of consensus, a majority of the German bishops have approved the statutes of the "Synodal Committee", despite opposition by a minority of four bishops.

José M. García Pelegrín-April 26, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Rome halts proposal for a German Synodal Council Related News

The Standing Commission of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) has approved the statutes of the "Synodal Committee", with Cardinal Rainer Woelki (Cologne) and Bishops Gregor Maria Hanke OSB (Eichstätt), Stefan Oster SDB (Passau) and Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg), who have confirmed their decision not to participate in the Synodal Committee, voting against.

As will be recalled, the idea of introducing a synodical committee or commission arose as a response to the Vatican refusal to allow the German "Synodal Way" to establish a permanent "Synodal Council", composed of bishops, priests and laity, which would function as a supervisory body for the performance of each bishop in his diocese and of the DBK at the national level. Both in a letter of January 16, 2023 as in another of the February 16, 2024the principal cardinals of the Holy See recalled that a Synodal Council "is not foreseen by current canon law and, therefore, a resolution in this sense by the DBK would be invalid, with the corresponding juridical consequences." Moreover, they questioned the authority that "the Episcopal Conference would have to approve the statutes," since neither the Code of Canon Law nor the Statute of the DBK "provide a basis for it."

To circumvent the prohibition of the Holy See, the "Synodal Way" approved the creation of a "Synodal Committee"... whose sole purpose is to prepare for the creation of a "Synodal Council". The "Central Committee of the German Laity" ZdK approved its statutes on November 11, 2023; for these to enter into force, approval by the DBK was required; initially, this was scheduled to happen at its Plenary Assembly on February 19-22 of this year. However, following the aforementioned missive from Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Victor M. Fernandez and Robert F. Prevost on February 16 - a letter expressly approved by Pope Francis - requesting that they not be addressed at the Plenary Assembly, the DBK decided to relent. During its visit to the Vatican in March 2024, a DBK delegation agreed to submit the work of the "Synodal Committee" for approval by the Holy See.

For this reason, in view of the approval of the statutes of the "Synodal Committee" by the majority of the DBK, the four aforementioned bishops of Cologne, Eichstätt, Passau and Regensburg have issued a joint statement in which they affirm that they will wait until the end of the World Synod of Synodality to decide how to proceed: "The bishops of Eichstätt, Cologne, Passau and Regensburg wish to continue the journey towards a more synodal church in harmony with the world church". They recall that the objections repeatedly voiced from the Vatican to the constitution of a "Synodal Council" as not being "compatible with the sacramental constitution of the church" leads them to the refusal to participate in a "Synodal Committee", "whose declared aim is the establishment of a Synodal Council".

The four bishops mentioned "also do not share the juridical opinion that the German Bishops' Conference can be responsible for the Synodal Committee if four members of the conference do not support the body". They therefore make it clear that it is not the DBK that is responsible for the "Synodal Committee", but the other 23 diocesan bishops.

In this way, a manifest legal uncertainty is created, since, according to the "Synodal Way" itself, the holders of the "Synodal Committee" should be the ZdK and the DBK. Therefore, from the juridical point of view, the said "Synodal Committee" is flawed or, to put it in a less juridical way, it does not exist, since it moves in a legal vacuum, it is a mere simulation. Besides the fact that a decision "by majority" contradicts the principle of synodality itself, which seeks consensus; and with the refusal of the minority, it is clear that within the DBK there is no consensus in relation to the alleged "Synodal Committee".

On the other hand, it remains to be seen how the participation of 23 bishops in a "Synodal Committee" whose objective is the creation of a "Synodal Council" prohibited by the Holy See can be harmonized with the affirmation that these bishops will submit the work of the "Synodal Committee" to the approval of the Holy See. Finding a solution in conformity with Canon Law for the "Synodal Committee" seems to be the search for the squaring of the circle.

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German bishops agree with Rome that they will not make decisions without approval of the Holy See

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Cardinal Parolin: "Today's situation can be compared to the first centuries of the Church".

Cardinal Parolin and the "five questions that agitate the Church".

On April 24, Cardinal Pietro Parolin presented the book "Five Questions that Shake the Church" by Vatican journalist Ignazio Ingrao of TG1 RAI.

Hernan Sergio Mora-April 26, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

On April 24, Vatican journalist Ignazio Ingrao, of TG1 RAI, presented his book "Five Questions that Shake the Church" together with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. At the end of the presentation of the book, the Cardinal replied to Omnes: "The most beautiful thing about this book is that it puts on the table the big questions that we all carry with us, but about the answers..." (he just shook his head a little as if to say that he was less convinced).

The 160-page book, in Italian, published by the San Paolo Publishing House, was presented at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture in Rome in the presence of ministers, ambassadors, civil and religious authorities. Cardinal Parolin recalled another work, "On the Five Wounds of the Church," by philosopher and theologian Antonio Rosmini.

On the other hand," said the Vatican Secretary of State, "we are obviously dealing here with new issues related to the current times, which, however - I like to emphasize - go in the same direction as the 'reform of the Church' promoted by Pope Francis," he said.

"The Church, as we know, is 'semper reformanda'" - the cardinal pointed out - "that is to say, she must be brought back to her proper form, because, as the conciliar Constitution 'Lumen Gentium', 'Christ is holy, innocent, immaculate... [so] the Church, which has sinners in her bosom, is holy, but at the same time she is 'always in need of purification', therefore she 'continually advances along the path of penance and renewal'."

The Cardinal invited to read the book presented, without forgetting something similar, the "situation of confusion and fear that we find in the Gospel of Matthew: 'At this time there was such a storm that the boat disappeared in the waves; he was asleep. And they came and awoke him, crying out to him, 'Lord, save us, for we perish.

"And yet we, unlike the disciples," Cardinal Parolin continued, "know that the Holy Spirit, that is, the breath of God given by Jesus on the cross and then on the day of Pentecost, makes the Church first and foremost his Church, that is, capable of resisting the storms of cultural upheavals and the sins of the men and women who belong to her."

The cardinal then elaborated on the chapters of the book.

Church on the way out

On the first question: "How far has Bergoglio's Church in departure come; how far is the Church from today's reality, despite his efforts?", the cardinal pointed out how the author describes in a "cold theory of figures" unattractive numbers about the Church in Europe and America, and how Benedict XVI wondered where the momentum of the Second Vatican Council had gone.

"We were happy" - said Benedict XVI on October 11, 2012 - "and full of enthusiasm. The great Ecumenical Council had been inaugurated; we were sure that a new springtime of the Church was coming, a new Pentecost, with a new strong presence of the liberating grace of the Gospel."

The book also points to the vision of Pope Francis in "Evangelii Gaudium" as the program of his pontificate: "To privilege actions that generate new dynamisms in society and involve other persons and groups that carry them forward, until they bear fruit in important historical events". Processes that the author "sees taking shape also in the Pope's choice of new collaborators who are asked to explore new paths".

From the book, the cardinal points out that in this context the Vaticanist Ingrao criticizes "desktop theology, the daughter of a cold and hard logic that seeks to dominate everything", indicating as an example the Declaration "Fiducia Supplicans"The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith considers that it is a text that "always remains open to the possibility of clarifying it, enriching it, improving it and perhaps allowing it to be better illuminated by the teachings of Francis".

The first question closes - the cardinal explains - with a snapshot on young people according to Pope Francis, who are defined by the author as "explorers, outposts in the distracted society of social networks to awaken true feelings, the desire for authenticity, the ability to dream", with ecological sensitivity and a deep attention to the times and the challenges of the pontificate.

Decrease in religious practice

The second issue concerns two problematic elements: the decline of religious practice in the world. In particular, the author focuses on Latin America, where the Catholic Church is no longer the first in number of faithful, but has been surpassed by the Pentecostal churches. Without forgetting the interventions of Benedict XVI and Francis, who affirmed with determination how the Church grows not by proselytism but by attraction, that is to say, by testimonial force, the Cardinal explained.

Openness to the laity

The Cardinal, on the "third question, whether openness to the laity and to women is real or just a façade," points out how the author emphasizes a series of experiences and the Synod of Bishops on synodality. And, finally, he recalls the leadership roles that women occupy today within the Roman Curia.

Anthropological emergencies

"Anthropological urgencies open the fourth question. The beginning and end of life, the frontiers of medicine and gender issues: in fact, writes Ingrao, 'it is not a question of seeking answers more or less in line with the times or aligned in defense of traditional morality. It is rather a matter of bringing to maturity a new humanism that, rooted in Christian personalism, knows how to respond to today's questions,' the cardinal explained.

What will happen with the reforms?

"We thus arrive at the last of the five questions, 'What will happen to the reforms undertaken by Pope Francis?' To which is added one that sounds for some like a threat and for others like wishful thinking: 'Is there a risk of going backwards?'"

"The last chapter," Cardinal Parolin concludes, "dedicated to these questions remains open, as it should be. In fact, it speaks of reforms, as the author defines them, 'undertaken', that is, 'in itinere'". Therefore, "discernment, which is not mere intuition, but the fruit of continuous prayer in the Spirit, will indicate, in the relaxed time of those who know how to be patient, how to continue and what to return to institutionally. Precisely because it is the action of the Spirit, there can be no turning back.

The authorHernan Sergio Mora

The Vatican

Cardinal Parolin: "Today's situation can be compared to the first centuries of the Church".

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The Pope to the Italian Catholic Action: to build a "culture of embrace".

Pope Francis received on April 25, 2024 the members of Italian Catholic Action in St. Peter's Square before the National Assembly. From the Holy Land, Cardinal Pizzaballa invites to overcome polarizations.

Giovanni Tridente-April 26, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

At this meeting, there was once again talk of peace and hope as the path to overcoming the numerous conflicts that are raging in various parts of the world, beginning with the Holy Land and the tormented Ukraine. The occasion was provided by the national meeting of Italian Catholic Action, which on April 25 - the Day of the Liberation of the Italian People from Nazism and Fascism - wanted to gather around Pope Francis in an event entitled "The Liberation of the Italian People from Nazism and Fascism".Open arms".

The initiative was intended as a preview of the XVIII National Assembly of the historic Italian entity, founded in 1867, and was attended by some 80,000 affiliates and supporters from all over the country and of all ages, who gathered in St. Peter's Square to receive the greeting, encouragement and blessing of Pope Francis.

"It is in this world and in this time that we are called to be, by virtue of the baptism we have received, active subjects of evangelization; we are missionary disciples of a Lord who gave his life for the world. Ours too cannot but be given in turn," said Monsignor Claudio Giuliodori, CA ecclesiastical assistant, at the opening of the event.

Hug culture

In line with the theme of the event, Pope Francis stressed in his speech the importance of cultivating a "culture of embrace" to overcome all those behaviors that, among other things, also lead to wars: distrust of the other, rejection and opposition that turn into violence. Missed or rejected hugs, prejudices and misunderstandings that make the other see the other as an enemy.

"And all this is unfortunately before our eyes these days, in too many parts of the world! With your presence and your work, instead, you can witness to everyone that the way of embrace is the way of life," Francis said.

Hence the invitation to the people of Catholic Action to be "the presence of Christ" in the midst of needy humanity, "with merciful and compassionate arms, as lay people involved in the events of the world and of history, rich in a great tradition, trained and competent in what concerns your responsibilities, at the same time humble and fervent in the life of the spirit".

Only in this way will you be able to sow seeds of change consistent with the Gospel that will have an impact "at the social, cultural, political and economic level in the contexts in which you act".

Another invitation of the Pope referred to the collaboration of all the people of Catholic Action - children, families, men and women, students, workers, youth and adults - to commit themselves actively to the synodal journey, in order to finally realize the expression of a Church that uses "synodal men and women, who know how to dialogue, interrelate, search together".

Holy Land in the spotlight

The day had opened with a video message from Cardinal Pierbattista PizzaballaThe Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who thanked those present for shining a light of reflection on the importance of peace, acknowledged that "we must avoid a repetition in the world of the division that we already have here" in the Holy Land. One thinks, for example, of the numerous polarizations, of some against others, through a simplification that does not help to grasp the complexity of reality, of how important it is, instead, to "build relationships" instead of "erecting barriers".

"It is very painful to see how this war has affected everyone's soul, their confidence and their belief that something can still be done in this drift of violence that seems to never end," the cardinal added. What can be done? "The first thing to do is to pray, then it is important to talk about the Holy Land, not to let attention fall on this conflict that is tearing apart the lives of these peoples," and consequently "the life of society in so many other parts of the world." Because "when the heart suffers, the whole body suffers".

Towards a pastoral care of peace

In relation to these themes, Cardinal Pizzaballa himself will deliver a "lectio magistralis" at the Pontifical Lateran University on May 2, as part of the course on the Theology of Peace, entitled "Characteristics and Criteria for a Pastoral Care of Peace".

The authorGiovanni Tridente

Pope Francis

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Monsignor Masondole: "In Africa there is no shame in saying 'I am a Christian'."

Vocations

Natalio Paganelli: "In Sierra Leone, most of the priests are sons of Muslims".

The missionary Natalio Paganelli has lived for eighteen years in Sierra Leone. There, he was bishop of the diocese of Makeni for eight years, a period that served as a transition period to leave the diocese in the hands of a native bishop, Bishop Bob John Hassan Koroma.

Loreto Rios-April 25, 2024-Reading time: 8 minutes

Natalio Paganelli is a Xaverian missionary, of Italian origin, who was ordained a priest in 1980. He spent 22 years in Mexico as a missionary, a time he remembers with great affection because he was "very much appreciated", as he himself says. After a period in London, in 2005 he arrived in Sierra Leone, where he stayed until 2023. In this interview, he tells us with his Italian and Mexican accent about his time in Sierra Leone and how his phase as bishop in the diocese of Makeni was a time of transition to leave the diocese in the hands of a local bishop.

How did you get to Sierra Leone, and what was your work there?

I always had in my heart the desire for Africa. I entered the Xaverian seminary at the age of eleven, after primary school, and Africa was always in my mind, from what I had read and seen in some movies. After my assignment in Mexico, I arrived in Sierra Leone on August 15, 2005.

In 2012, to my surprise, I was asked to be the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Makeni. Why? The diocese of Makeni was founded by the Xaverians in 1950 as a mission, as a diocese in 1962, although the first evangelization was done by the "Holy Ghost Fathers", the "spiritans fathers", but with sporadic presences, there was no religious community of priests constantly present.

When the Xaverians arrived, they used a very interesting strategy. Since there were almost no schools in the north of the country, they began to found them, first primary, then secondary. Through the schools, evangelization entered many families.

The north of the country is Muslim, Catholics are the 5 %, but so far, which has started a little, there has been nothing of fundamentalist presence. It can work well, and at present the diocese of Makeni has about 400 primary schools, 100 secondary schools, 3 vocational schools, and, since 2005, the first private university in the country, with many faculties.

The first bishops were foreigners, until a local priest, but from another diocese, Monsignor Henry Aruna, who was of Mendé ethnicity, was appointed as bishop of Makeni in 2012.

There was a very strong reaction in the diocese of Makeni, where the Temné majority, the second group, the Limba, and the third group, the Loko, did not accept the appointment. It was not possible to make the announcement in the diocese nor, a year later, the ordination. Then the Holy See chose me, not because they knew me, in fact they did not know me in Rome, but because I was the superior of the Xaverians. I think they chose the superior of the congregation that had founded the diocese, to try to settle the matter. It was hoped that in a short time things would be resolved, but it was not possible. After 3 years, Pope Francis decided to change the bishop-elect of Makeni. He sent him as auxiliary to his diocese, and shortly after he became bishop, because the resident bishop died.

He appointed me apostolic administrator with episcopal character, in order to be able to serve as bishop. I spent eight years as apostolic administrator and bishop. My task was to prepare the way for a local priest to be ordained bishop, which we accomplished on May 13 of last year, 2023, with Bishop Bob John Hassan Koroma, who was my vicar general during the eight years of my service. On May 14, 2023, he took possession of the diocese.

The 13th was chosen because it is the day of Fatima and the diocese and the cathedral are dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. That day Bishop Henry Aruna came to concelebrate at the ordination of the new bishop, and he was received with great applause, because what happened was not something against him, against his person, because he had been a teacher in the seminary of many of our priests, and secretary of the Episcopal Conference for almost ten years, he had done a great service. It was an ethnic issue.

Interestingly, the new bishop is a convert, coming from a Muslim family.

Yes, both of his parents were Muslims. He is Limba, which is the second ethnic group in the diocese, but he speaks Temne, the language of the first group, because he grew up in Makeni. His mother was widowed very early and he was taken in by an aunt, his father's sister, who was a Christian and in fact has a son who is a priest, a little older than Bishop Bob John. He received his Christian education from the aunt, who was a nurse, a very generous and very wise woman. It is usual that when children go to live with other relatives, they take on the religion of the family. But when he was studying in Rome, his mother converted without his intervention, and practically the whole family are Catholics now.

The bishop has a very good academic preparation. In Rome, he studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and then did a doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Gregorian University. He did extraordinary service as a professor in the seminary, and was pastor in two parishes in the diocese, including the cathedral.

Is there any difficulty in converting to another religion in the country?

Most of the priests are sons of Muslims. Why? Because of the schools. Most of them, attending our schools, which are very prestigious, thank God, come into contact with Christianity, with the priests, and at a certain point they ask for baptism and take a catechumenal course in the school itself. Generally, there is no opposition from the parents. In fact, we say that there is very good religious tolerance in Sierra Leone. This is one of the most beautiful things that we can export to the world, not only diamonds, gold, other minerals.

We must grow in mutual respect, and it is the most beautiful thing, the important thing is to be coherent with the faith that one professes, and faith always proposes good things, all religions. In 18 years I have never had a single problem with my Muslim brothers. The only strong problem I had was with the Muslim tribal chiefs, because they wanted Catholic schools in every village, but I could not build a Catholic school in every village, it was impossible, because 400 was a very big number.

Are there many vocations in Sierra Leone?

Sierra Leone does not have an exaggerated number of vocations, but right now we have more than a hundred priests in the four dioceses. Makeni has 45 priests, not a very high number, but consistent and destined to increase. It is not like in Europe, where those who arrive are fewer than those who leave.

In Makeni, especially the number of priests is growing, but religious vocations, especially women's vocations, are a little less. That is more complicated, because in their culture women are not very highly regarded, so it is more difficult for them to think about consecrated life. There are some, but not a high number. So we should grow there, because also the presence of religious sisters in the parishes is very useful. It was one of my objectives, and I succeeded, out of 26 parishes, to put religious communities in ten, thank God.

How does one approach evangelization in a country where Catholics make up approximately 5 % of the population?

We use the school as an instrument of evangelization, with great respect. Then there is also charity: the diocese has a hospital where everyone is cared for, recovering a minimum so that the hospital does not collapse, and the sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta serve the poorest, those who nobody wants, those who are in desperate situations.

And when there are very difficult situations, the Church always intervenes. For example, with Ebola. I lived through the two years of Ebola, 2013-2015, which were very, very painful for us. We lost, I estimate, 1,500 people in the diocese. But what we suffered the most was not being able to assist them, not being able to talk to them, not being able to bury them in a dignified way. It was a drama for the country and for us, and there we saw a lot of solidarity. I like to mention that all the houses that were in quarantine received help from all those who were outside, Muslims, Christians, there was no difference.

Also, in the villages where the harvest was in danger, the families who were not in quarantine went to work the "milpas", the fields of those who were in quarantine, so that they could save the harvest. We have seen marvelous things that are the fruit of evangelization. Then, personal contact is also very important. I give an example: in some parishes, after Easter, the house is blessed with the water that was blessed at the Easter Vigil, and also the Muslims want us to bless their house. For them, every blessing comes from God. It is a very beautiful thing, they participate with us in Christmas and there are families who invite the neighbors. And they, on the last day of Ramadan, invite Christians to eat with them.

There is a good relationship. In the official government meetings, also when the parliament session opens, there is a Christian prayer and a Muslim prayer. And in the schools, in the parents' meetings, too. There is a reciprocal acceptance, otherwise it would be a serious problem. Most marriages in our diocese are mixed, between Catholics and Muslims. They say that love solves many problems and creates a lot of unity, and it is true. St. Paul said it, and we see it every day in a concrete way. Vocations come mostly from the schools, yes. Or from the sons of Christian families who are altar boys, as many of us were.

What pastoral difficulties are encountered in the diocese?

This is a very personal opinion, but I believe that we must help to deepen the roots of faith. There is still a somewhat superficial faith, it has only been 70 years, practically, since evangelization began. We are in the first generation of Christians, we cannot expect the Gospel to have entered deeply into the hearts and minds of Christians. We have very good Christians, very good testimonies, but there is still a lack of them. Especially, in my opinion, there is still a need to deepen the moral aspect. For example, polygamy is very widespread due to the cultural context, and moving to a monogamous family is not easy.

Another pastoral challenge for the bishop, in my opinion, is to help couples celebrate Christian marriage. They get married when they already have children and see that everything works. Meanwhile, in Europe, they don't get married at all anymore, many don't even get married civilly. In Sierra Leone they take it seriously, more than we do, they know that they cannot remarry afterwards, and this scares them, because if there is a divorce and they find another partner... And they find one, he immediately, and she a little less quickly, but for them living without a partner is impossible, there is no concept of singles as among us, which is increasing in Europe. This is another very strong challenge.

There are cultural issues, for example, there is a case of a young seminarian whose parents were both Muslims, and his father had three wives. The children of one of the wives were all Catholics, because the grandmother was Catholic, and she loved the Church very much, in fact she donated the land to build the chapel in the village.

The oldest son decided to become a Xaverian seminarian, and is currently working in Mexico. He went to tell his mother that he wanted to be a priest, his father had already died. And the mother said: "Yes, of course, but first you must have a son. You give him to me, and you go away." Because in their culture, for the eldest son not to have children is a dishonor. It's something they don't understand. The eldest has to contribute with children to the family, so that the family continues and doesn't end. The son didn't do it, of course.

However, the challenge that seems to me to be the main one is for faith to help break down tribal barriers. This is a very, very big problem in Sierra Leone. Not only because of the case of the Bishop of Makeni, who was not accepted because he belonged to another ethnic group. But in politics it is the same, there is now a serious political tension in Sierra Leone.

This tribal division, to me, is what weakens the country. Sierra Leone is a rich country with a people in misery. For me this is the strongest commitment of the bishops: to work to destroy the tribal barriers.

Monsignor Masondole: "In Africa there is no shame in saying 'I am a Christian'."

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The true vine. Fifth Sunday of Easter (B)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for Sunday V of Easter and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.

Joseph Evans-April 25, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

"I am the true vine"Jesus says in today's Gospel. But this implies that there can be false vines, which offer fruit that looks succulent but ends up being rotten and even poisonous. Adam and Eve could tell us a thing or two about eating the wrong fruit. Whenever we seek something that does not come from God or that goes against his laws, it is a false vine. It could be some earthly goal that takes us away from God and our family, or a relationship that does not follow Catholic moral teachings. We thought we had found a rich vine, but it turns out to bear bitter fruit.

All the vines of our life must ultimately come from God: He must be the planter and the tiller. We must submit our plans to Him and seek to execute them according to His will. If we do so, He will make them bear fruit. If we do not, they will wither and die. But this also requires God's pruning action. Nothing grows fully unless something is taken away. A great sculptor has to cut, at first, large blocks with heavy blows and then with careful chipping. In a vine or a fruit tree, dead fruit and branches must be cut off. We must never think that we have nothing to cut. There is much in us that needs to be cut: defects, unnecessary goods or certainly our ego needs to be constantly lowered. But any cutting, however painful it may seem, is only for our growth.

"Every branch that does not bear fruit in me is uprooted by me". We should not complain if God takes things away from us. It is only so that we can grow more and better. He may take something away from us because it was hurting us or hindering our spiritual growth. "And every fruit-bearer he prunes, that he may bring forth more fruit.". God takes away so that we can flourish. We tend to be content with ourselves too easily. We produce a few oranges and think we have done well, but God wants us to produce an abundant harvest. We think it is enough to do a little good for our immediate family and the Lord wants us to serve the whole community.

What is it to bear fruit? It is a life of virtue, opening ourselves more and more to the "light of the sun", to the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is to do good to others, to have the children that God wants us to have, to promote Christian values in our environment... But this requires perseverance, to keep us in what we have started, as the branch remains attached to the vine. That is why Our Lord says: "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me".

Homily on the readings of Sunday V of Easter (B)

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.

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Pope urges to ask for the theological virtues, antidote to the ego

During Wednesday's audience, the Holy Father encouraged us to ask the Holy Spirit for the three theological virtues - faith, hope and charity - to grant us the grace to believe, hope and love according to the heart of Christ. The Pope called pride "a powerful poison", and prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, so that Israel and Palestine "may be two free states with good relations".

Francisco Otamendi-April 24, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Following his reflection last Wednesday on the four cardinal virtues -prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance-, the Pope has addressed in his catechesis The three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, were presented in St. Peter's Square under the theme "The life of grace according to the Spirit". The reading was from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians.

The Pontiff said that in addition to the four cardinal virtues, the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues constitute "a septenary" which is opposed to the seven deadly sins, and which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "found, animate and characterize the moral action of the Christian. They inform and vivify all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to enable them to act as his children and to merit eternal life. They are the guarantee of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being" (n. 1813).

The theological virtues are "an antidote to self-sufficiency" and the risk of becoming "presumptuous and arrogant". Pride is "a powerful poison. One drop is enough to spoil "a life marked by good", the Pope pointed out, recalling that the theological virtues help in the fight against the "ego", the "poor self" that takes possession of everything, and then pride is born".

"Antidote to self-sufficiency."

Francis commented in this way: "The cardinal virtues run the risk of generating heroic men and women who do good, but who act alone, isolated; instead, the great gift of the theological virtues is existence lived in the Holy Spirit. The Christian is never alone. He does good not because of a titanic effort of personal commitment, but because, as a humble disciple, he walks behind the Master Jesus. The theological virtues are the great antidote to self-sufficiency. How often certain morally irreproachable men and women run the risk of becoming presumptuous and arrogant in the eyes of those who know them!"

"It is a danger of which the Gospel warns us well, where Jesus recommends to the disciples: 'You also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we ought to have done' (Lk 17:10). Pride is a powerful poison: one drop is enough to spoil a whole life marked by good".

The Pope also pointed out that "the theological virtues are of great help. They are especially so in moments of downfall, because even those who have good moral intentions sometimes fall. Just as even those who practice virtue every day sometimes err: intelligence is not always lucid, the will is not always firm, the passions are not always governed, courage does not always overcome fear".

"But if we open our heart to the Holy Spirit, He revives in us the theological virtues: then, if we have lost confidence, God reopens us to faith; if we are discouraged, God awakens hope in us; if our heart is hardened, God warms it and kindles it with His love."

St. Mark, St. John Paul II

Francis recalled that "tomorrow we will celebrate the liturgical feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist who described with vividness and concreteness the mystery of the person of Jesus of Nazareth. I invite you all to allow yourselves to be fascinated by Christ, to collaborate with enthusiasm and fidelity in building the Kingdom of God".

The Pope also referred to the fact that next Saturday, the Church celebrates the tenth anniversary of the canonization of St. John Paul II. "Looking at his life, we can see what man can achieve by accepting and developing in himself the gifts of God: faith, hope and charity. Remain faithful to your legacy. Promote life and do not let yourselves be deceived by the culture of death. Through his intercession, let us ask God for the gift of peace for which he, as Pope, was so committed. I bless you from my heart".

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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Attendees of the Eucharistic Congress will be able to obtain a plenary indulgence

United States

Jaime Reyna: "The Eucharistic Congress is the best spiritual investment we can make".

Interview with Jaime Reyna, responsible for multiculturalism and inclusiveness at the National Eucharistic Congress.

Paloma López Campos-April 24, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

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Jaime Reyna, responsible for multiculturalism and inclusiveness at the National Eucharistic Congress

The start date of the National Eucharistic Congress is approaching. July 17, 2024 begins a few days of encounter between U.S. Catholics and Christ. The mood of the final preparations is in full swing, but members of the organizing teams still have time to talk about this great historic event.

One of those people who is eager to share what is happening to encourage people to participate in the National Eucharistic Congress is Jaime Reyna. Jaime is responsible for multiculturalism and inclusiveness, but he has a long history of involvement in Church activities. He has been director of the offices of Family Life, Youth Ministry, Social Ministry and Multicultural Ministry in the Diocese of Corpus Christi (Texas).

In this interview, Jaime Reyna talks about the organization of the Congress and the fruits he expects to see from this national gathering of Catholics.

What has been the most exciting thing about participating in the preparation of the National Eucharistic Congress?

– I worked for the Diocese of Corpus Christi for sixteen years and was a director for many of the offices and special projects for the Bishop. And then I got a call to apply for a position and my heart prior to that was longing for a change but I didn’t know what it was. When this invitation happened and this Congress and the job they were asking me to do seemed impossible, but that’s what I love because I think those are the moments when you can see the hand of God.

So it was an easy yes for me, because this new job had to do with the Eucharist, which I love, and the reason for this Congress moved me, I really wanted to put everything into this National gathering. It makes me really excited that I, a humble servant, get a small role to bring my gifts and talents to this.

Why was it important to take care of the Spanish resources for the Congress?

– Especially after being a Hispanic mission director for several years I noticed that the Hispanic community in particular are hungry but also have limitations sometimes, because there are not enough resources in Spanish. When I came on board, I knew we had to make an effort to provide as many Spanish resources as possible. We haven’t done the best job, but we are doing better than before. We are at a better stage but I have to say that we had a bumpy start.

Will Hispanics be able to find elements from Hispanic American countries in the Congress that will help them get closer to their roots?

– The challenge for this is space and schedule, but we will have two stages where people will get a chance to play and listen to traditional music. We are working really hard to make this event as diverse as possible.

We do feel like that people will also see some cultural ambience in the liturgy. We are having a Vietnamese Mass, and a Spanish one, and we are trying our hardest to let people in the Eucharistic procession wear their traditional attire.

What are you working on at the Congress to ensure that multiculturalism and inclusiveness are well integrated into the organization?

– I did several visits to the Indianapolis area to invite parishes that had a multicultural community to participate not only as attendees but also if any of them had gifts and talents that they could put to use, I asked them to collaborate with us. We want to create an ambience of cultural diversity, because that is the actual face of our Church.

We are also making an effort so that the disabled community will feel welcome and invited. Our brothers and sisters who are deaf or blind… We want everybody to feel welcomed.

You define the Congress as a "living encounter with Christ", what will this translate into concretely?

– First and foremost, not a lot of people get to come to a national gathering to come as one body, the Body of Christ. When it comes to parish or diocese life, people see the world basically from their areas and to experience other catholics from different cultural backgrounds it’s going to live up their encounters with Christ among each other. Our diversity unites us as one faith, and to be able to share that is beautiful.

What would you like the participants of this experience to take home with them?

– That is one of the things that the team is working on. We don’t want people to feel like they go to the Congress and that’s the end. The Congress is actually a beginning, we are trying to let everyone know that as we come together, as we renew ourselves, we can go back to our communities and share the fire of the revival of this new encounter with Christ. We are called as Eucharistic missionaries and disciples to take what we learn and experience and share it with others.

What would you like to tell people to encourage them to participate in the National Eucharistic Congress?

– I would encourage them to look at it this way: this is a historic moment. We hadn’t had a National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years. Number two, when we talk about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, you just have to know that it is the first time in our history that something like this takes place. That in itself is also an opportunity.

But if anyone has ever had a moment of doubt about participating in the Congress, I want to tell them that our Bishops, guided by the Holy Spirit, voted to make this happen before even knowing the budget. They knew this was necessary, that our Church needed it. And we, as lay people, need to respond to this call. If many of us come together united in the same cause and faith, we will be witnessing to the world our faith and love for Christ.

I think this Congress is the best investment in a spiritual level that we can make.

You have been a member of a Nocturnal Adoration team for a long time, why do you think it is important to spend time praying before the Blessed Sacrament?

– When I’m with Jesus, everything becomes clear. Even in those times when I struggle, I just go to the Blessed Sacrament and I know that, whether I have an answer or not, He’s accompanying me.

Being part of the Nocturnal Adoration takes me back to the disciples praying with Jesus back then, and it is an honor to take even an hour of the shift to be able to pray for everyone in the world, for our Church, the vocations, those who are dying…

The more I do this, the more I love it. It feels like a part of me.

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Spain

Spanish bishops say "no" to government plan for reparations for abuse victims

The Spanish bishops have harshly criticized the plan approved by the government to repair the damage caused to victims of sexual abuse. They consider it discriminatory, because it leaves out 9 out of 10 victims, and is rejected because it focuses only on the Catholic Church, and the problem is "social of enormous dimensions," they say.

Francisco Otamendi-April 23rd, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

The Spanish government approved on Tuesday a plan that provides for compensation to victims of abuse in the Church whose cases have prescribed, as well as the celebration of a State act of recognition to those affected. However, the bishops have expressed harsh criticism of the government plan.

In a press conference after the council, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, stated that this plan seeks to repair the victims who "for decades have been forgotten and neglected" and to whom "nobody paid attention". To this end, the Government contemplates financial compensation, reports the state agency, and its intention is that the Church will contribute to pay for it.

However, in a couple of hours, the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), presided over by Monsignor Luis Argüello, has made public a note in which it does not accept the government's plan, especially for three fundamental reasons:

Judgment condemning the entire Church

1) "Reparation measures cannot be proposed which, according to the Ombudsman's report, would leave out 9 out of 10 victims. The Church cannot accept a plan that discriminates against the majority of victims of sexual abuse".

2) "The text presented is based on a condemnatory judgment of the entire Church, carried out without any legal guarantee, a public and discriminatory labeling by the State. By focusing only on the Catholic Church, it addresses only part of the problem. It is a partial analysis and hides a social problem of enormous dimensions".

And 3) "Moreover, this regulation calls into question the principle of equality and universality that every process affecting fundamental rights must have. The Church is ahead in the reception of victims, in the formation for prevention and in their reparation. It is up to the public authorities to develop appropriate measures in this task of protecting minors in so many areas of their competence".

"The Episcopal Conference informed Minister Bolaños of its critical assessment of this plan by focusing only on the Catholic Church. It also expressed its willingness to collaborate in the areas of its responsibility and competence, but always to the extent that it addresses the problem as a whole," the note continues. "In any case, the Church maintains its commitment to continue to welcome all victims of sexual abuse, to accompany and repair them."

Coincidences

The bishops add that "the action that the Church has been developing in the face of sexual abuse coincides, in good part, with the five lines of action that this plan proposes. The Church is already working along the lines of welcoming, care and reparation for victims, prevention of abuse, formation of people and raising awareness in society".

"In relation to the plan presented, the EEC considers that, certainly, those measures that refer to all victims are valuable and in that aspect the Church works and will also work, with the experience that she herself can bring to welcome all those who have suffered and suffer from this scourge."

For its part, the government's plan includes the creation of a commission composed of the ministries involved in the implementation of the measures and will seek the participation of the victims and their associations.

Study by the bishops

Francisco César García Magán, Secretary General and spokesman for the Spanish Episcopal Conference, reported at the end of last year that attention to victims of abuse and comprehensive prevention and reparation, from all perspectives, psychological, social, and economic, had been the central theme of the Plenary Assembly of the Spanish bishops that took place from November 20 to 24 last year.

At the end of the work, spokesman García Magán pointed out that the work included several lines proposed by the Coordination and Advisory Service of the diocesan offices for the protection of minors: attention to the victims, and prevention and integral reparation, from all perspectives, psychological, social and economic.

A few days ago, on April 18, the president and the secretary general of the Spanish bishops met with the Minister of the Presidency at the Moncloa Palace, and the tone of the meeting was as follows meeting The meeting was reportedly relaxed and cordial.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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Bishop MumbielaWe have dedicated Central Asia to the Queen of Peace".

Cambodia prepares for Jubilee 2025

Cambodian Catholics in the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh are preparing to experience the Jubilee of 2025. Omnes spoke with Father Gianluca Tavola, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Cambodia since 2007.

Federico Piana-April 23rd, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

Prayer and silence for a year. This is how the Cambodian Catholics of the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh are preparing to experience the 2025 Jubilee. In the Southeast Asian country, where Christians are a clear minority, around 0.2% of the total population, predominantly Buddhist, the Bishop of the Vicariate, Msgr. Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler, wanted the preparation for the upcoming Holy Year to become a tool for strengthening the faith and a useful example for evangelization. "After all, prayer is the foundation of our vocation, of our journey, of our conversion," Father Gianluca Tavola, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), in Cambodia since 2007, explains to Omnes.

The link with Mother Teresa

The Italian-born cleric, rector of the major seminary of Phnom Penh and responsible for the pastoral sector of three small Christian communities in the city of TaKhmao, located south of the capital, stresses that the bishop of the Vicariate wanted to link the celebration of the Year of Prayer to a phrase that Mother Teresa of Calcutta liked to say: "It is a very beautiful expression that says: the fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace."

Involving parishes and families

And precisely following these indications, in all the parishes and communities a prayer for vocations is celebrated every month and time is dedicated to listening to the Word of God, for example, through Lectio Divina. "But Monsignor Schmitthaeusler - says Father Tavola - has also asked the families to plan, at least once a week, to organize moments of common prayer lasting ten or fifteen minutes, accompanied also by some moments of reflection and thanksgiving".

Providential decision

For Father Gianluca Tavola, the convocation of the Year of Prayer and Silence in view of the Jubilee is a providential decision. Because, he says, "the Church in Cambodia - which in the last decade has worked hard for evangelization and the deepening of the faith - needs to come to a time of grace like the Holy Year with a relaxed respite, with a longer breath. Prayer, silence and rest will certainly do us good."

Young church

In Cambodia there are less than 30,000 Christians out of a total population of 16,000,000. The Church has one Apostolic Vicariate, that of Phnom Penh, and two Apostolic Prefectures, those of Battambang and Kompong-Cham. After a period of pain and oppression due to wars and regimes, "the Church was reborn in 1990", recalls the PIME missionary, according to whom "there are now more than one hundred priests, twelve of whom are Cambodians, while there is a good presence of religious and women's institutes, including lay people". A minority that represents a sign of love for our neighbor, concludes Father Tavola: "Thank God, in Cambodia there is freedom of worship, we have our dignity. And in society we are present in education and health care. We are small, but we love with a big heart".

The authorFederico Piana

Journalist. He works for Vatican Radio and collaborates with L'Osservatore Romano.

Bishop MumbielaWe have dedicated Central Asia to the Queen of Peace".

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Evangelization

Cecilia Mora. Sharing God's love

Through her social networks, especially her Instagram profile, Cecilia Mora wants to transmit the love of God and the joy of Christian life.

Juan Carlos Vasconez-April 23rd, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

Her name is Cecilia Mora, but to her friends she is Ceci. The life and experience of this 26-year-old Mexican woman are marked by a constant search for God and a deep desire to share the love of Christ with those around her. She defines herself as "Catholic, daughter, future wife, friend and companion". Like any young person, she loves "singing and dancing, spending time with friends and family".

From an early age, Ceci had God very present in her life. Cecilia was introduced to the path of faith by her parents, who passed on to her their love for God and taught her to live according to Christian principles.

Her childhood and adolescence were permeated by the presence of God, both at home and in her schooling. This solid foundation laid the foundation for her personal relationship with the divine.

A step of maturity

However, when Ceci experienced a transformative encounter with her faith was during a crucial stage in her life: at the age of 18.

At that time she went to live in Paris, and, being far from home, she realized that living without rules "it's very cool." but it implied a greater responsibility for their actions.

He says that one day while walking near where he lived, he came across a church. He went inside and sat in a pew, watching what was going on. It turned out that a mass was beginning to offer the start of the school year. This transported her directly to her school, when she thought that other people were deciding for her, and at that moment, she herself decided to be closer to God.

So she volunteered at a girls' school. That was, by her definition, a "here I am, I won't leave you alone" from God. Even if it sounds special, "this was decisive in my faith, because I confirmed that I wanted to be Catholic, my faith went from a family tradition to a personal conviction."she says, convinced.

Sharing faith in networks

The desire to share her experience of faith and to be an instrument of divine love has led her on a path of service and evangelization.

Through his personal Instagram account, @cecimoraseeks to spread the message of Christ and share his light with those who follow her on social media. For Ceci, digital platforms represent a privileged space to bring the gospel to new audiences and connect with those seeking spiritual answers in the modern world.

In addition to her work online, Ceci finds "inspiration and spiritual strength in prayer, participation in the Eucharist and reading the lives of saints." These moments of encounter with the sacred allow him to renew his faith and continue on his path of spiritual growth.

Cecilia longs for her life to be a witness to Christ's redeeming love. She wishes to be remembered "as one who lived with passion and dedication, always seeking God's will and sharing His love generously." His greatest desire is that his example will inspire others to seek God and find in Him fulfillment and true joy.

Ceci personifies the constant search for the divine presence in daily life and the mission to bring the message of Christ to every corner of the world. In some way she reminds us that faith is a personal and shared journey, a path of encounter with God and with others that invites us to live with authenticity and generosity.

People who count

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Victoria, the young woman who invites the Pope to mate: "It's something simple that I can do to make him feel at home".

Victoria Caranti is a young Argentinean woman who has established a sort of "tradition" with the Pope: to bring him mate during the audiences he attends.

Maria José Atienza-April 22, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

Victoria Caranti is 26 years old and has Argentinian origins, although she grew up in the United States. During Holy Week 2018, she managed to get to Pope Francis a mate Argentine. This casual gesture was not the only one. Years later, in 2021, he moved to Rome to study theology at the University of Rome. Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Over the years, he has invited the Pope to mate on the various occasions on which he has been with the Holy Father.

A few months after returning to the United States, Victoria keeps in her memory several meetings with Pope Francis, marked by the typical Argentine drink. Victoria brings this drink to the Pope because she knows he enjoys it: "It is something simple that I can do for him so that he can rest, enjoy, feel at home and in his land. Mate is for sharing with others, and for me that includes the Holy Father. It is a gift to be able to do it and I hope that everyone can do something for him, even if it is something simple like praying a little more".

How did you come up with the idea of bringing mate to the Pope?

-A few years ago, in 2018, when I came to the UNIV During Holy Week in Rome, I managed to get my mate to Pope Francis during the general audience. It was a great moment and I always remembered it as LA time I gave mate to the Pope.

When I came to live in Rome in 2021 we were still with a lot of COVID regulations. So it didn't occur to me to give him mate until November 2022.

I was in Santa Maria Maggiore with my friend Cami, waiting to see the Pope, who was coming to thank Our Lady for his trip to Bahrain. Then Cami was the one who said to me: "And if you give him mate now? It seemed a bit out of place to drink mate in a basilica, but I decided to jump in when I was on my way out. There is not much of a barrier. I was able to kneel in front of her wheelchair and offer her the mate, which she gladly received and the feisty phrase "You're not going to poison me, are you?".

Since then I always have the mate with me when I get to see him up close.

Victoria, the young woman who invites the Pope to mate — Victoria offers mate to the Pope in Santa Maria La Maggiore

What has the Pope said to you the times you have brought him mate?

-He has told me several things that show his closeness, affection, sense of humor....

The second time I met him in Santa María la Mayor he said to me: "But you, what are you doing here? This shocked me, because it meant that he recognized me as the girl who had given him mate three months before.

Another time he asked me where I was from and when I said "Buenos Aires" his face lit up.

Several times he has told me how the mate is: a little bit cold, too hot, very tasty... or "Cebas very well" (Cebar means that I prepare and serve the mate). It is difficult to have the water for the mate at a good temperature and to pass it through security because they don't let you pass metal bottles...

Once when I went with my parents and my brother to the audience, we also gave him mate. My mother told him that she prayed a lot for him, and he corrected her: "Say the same thing but without the 'a lot'; because those who say a lot are not believed". He repeated this to me on another occasion when I gave him mate in the Paul VI classroom and I made the mistake of saying "much".

The last time we went, one who was with me asked him to say a Hail Mary for her brother. The Pope asked her name and she said she would do it. Twice I have gone with friends on his birthday and he congratulates them and even gives them a rosary!

What does their "fellow citizen" Pope mean to Argentines?

-I don't know if I could speak for all Argentines but, for me, the fact that the Pope is Argentinean is very special. Of course, I love and support and commend the Pope, whoever he is, because he is the Vicar of Christ. But it is very unique to have a Pope from your homeland, who speaks to you with your accent and knows your culture and customs.

Pope Francis is very close and, for me, the fact that he is Argentinean makes him even more so. Being able to know him in this way makes it easier for me to pray for him and to see the person who is the head of the Church.

No other pope would stop the popemobile for a mate! So I realize that this is very unique in my life. I will remember it forever, so that I will not forget that all the Popes that follow will receive the same affection, even if they are not from my country, because the Church is universal.

What strikes you most about Pope Francis' personality?

-His closeness and generosity. He is giving of himself all day long. He has a lot of work and the weight of the whole Church on his shoulders. He is an old man, but that doesn't stop him.

She is always with people and stands with you as if you were the only one at that moment when, in fact, you are nobody!

He is simple and affectionate. He makes jokes like your grandfather would make, but he also talks to you seriously and makes demands. He is a saint. No one his age does half of what he does and with a smile.

Will you continue to bring him mate?

-Yes, I will take advantage of the opportunities I have! I can't go to the hearings as much because I have classes and I'm going back to the United States, but I'll try one more time.

Apart from these occasions, have you been able to meet him at any other time?

-I haven't had the chance yet, but let's see if I get it!

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"The Church's work with people with disabilities is not new."

People with disabilities: towards a culture of "full inclusion".

Pope Francis recently received participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, launching an appeal to promote a "culture of integral inclusion" of people with disabilities.

Giovanni Tridente-April 22, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

"My son with Down syndrome and leukemia transforms hearts." Related News

On April 11, Pope Francis launched a strong appeal to promote a "culture of integral inclusion" of people with disabilities, overcoming the utilitarian and discriminatory mentality of the "culture of rejection", receiving in audience in the Clementine Hall the participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

"When this elementary principle is not safeguarded, there is no future either for fraternity or for the survival of humanity," the Pontiff admonished, referring to the principle of the inviolable dignity of every human being, regardless of his or her condition.

While acknowledging the progress made in many countries, Francis denounced that in too many parts of the world people with disabilities and their families continue to be "isolated and pushed to the margins of social life". A situation that occurs not only in the poorest countries, where disability "often condemns to misery," but also in contexts of greater economic well-being.

Cross-cutting mentality

The "culture of rejection", for the Pope, is transversal and has no borders. It leads to evaluating life only on the basis of "utilitarian and functional criteria", forgetting the intrinsic dignity of every person with disabilities, "fully human subjects, holders of rights and duties".

A particularly insidious aspect of this mentality is the tendency to make people with disabilities feel "a burden to themselves and their loved ones." "The spread of this mentality transforms the culture of discarding into a culture of death," Francis added, recalling that "people are no longer felt as a primary value to be respected and protected."

To counteract this phenomenon, the Pontiff urged to "promote a culture of inclusion, creating and strengthening the bonds of belonging to society". A choral commitment is needed from governments, civil society and persons with disabilities themselves as "protagonists of change."

Subsidiarity and participation

"Subsidiarity and participation are the two pillars of effective inclusion," he continued, underlining the importance of movements that promote active social participation. A path that requires "decisiveness and the ability to find effective ways" to concretize a kind of new humanism, following what has already been reiterated in "The New Humanism".Fratelli Tutti": "Any commitment in this direction becomes a high exercise of charity".

Dignity for all

Earlier this month another document appeared that addresses these issues, the Declaration "Dignitas infinita" of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which stresses that every human being has the same, intrinsic dignity, whether or not he or she can adequately express it.

The theme of disability is specifically addressed in numbers 53 and 54, which highlight the "culture of rejection" of people with different abilities, a current challenge that requires greater attention and solicitude, especially considering that in some cultures these people live in situations of great marginalization. On the other hand, assistance to the most disadvantaged is precisely "a criterion for verifying real attention to the dignity of each person".

Here too there is an inescapable reference to "Fratelli Tutti": "To take charge of fragility means strength and tenderness, struggle and fruitfulness in the midst of a functionalist and privatist model". It means, in short, "taking charge of the present in its most marginal and distressing situation and being able to anoint it with dignity".

The authorGiovanni Tridente

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G. K. Chesterton. On the centenary of his conversion

Chesterton and what men hate... with good reason

From Ediciones Encuentro comes "Cosas que los hombres odian con razón" (2024), which compiles the articles that Chesterton published in 1911 in "The Illustrated London News". This is the sixth volume of the series that Encuentro is publishing by the writer.

Loreto Rios-April 22, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

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From 1905 until 1936, the year of his death, the famous English writer G. K. Chesterton (London, 1874-Beaconsfield, 1936) wrote regularly in the London weekly "The Illustrated London News", founded in 1842 by Herbert Ingram and Mark Lemon and disappeared in 2003.

Ediciones Encuentro has proposed to publish in Spanish all the articles that Chesterton published in this magazine. Currently, the series is composed of six volumes, the first five of which are "The end of an era"(articles from 1905-1906), "Vegetarians, imperialists and other pests" (1907), "The press is wrong and other truisms" (1908), "The threat of hairdressers" (1909) y "Many vices and some virtues" (1910).

The most recent volume, published in February of this year in collaboration with the Chesterton Club of the San Pablo CEU University (Angel Herrera Oria Cultural Foundation), under the title "The Chesterton Club", was published by the Chesterton Foundation in collaboration with the Chesterton Club of the San Pablo CEU University (Angel Herrera Oria Cultural Foundation).Things men rightly hate"The book, published in our language in the same year that marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the writer, born in London in 1874, contains articles published during the year 1911. These publications, therefore, predate Chesterton's entry into the Catholic Church, which took place in 1911. in the year 1922.

Things men rightly hate

AuthorG. K. Chesterton

Editorial: Encounter

Pages: 230

Madrid: 2024

The man who has been called "the apostle of common sense" covers a wide range of topics, from Christmas, literature or war, to family, marriage, religion or the press, among many others, displaying his peculiar wit and irony.

With Chesterton, any occasion can be the starting point to reflect on a subject, whether it is a circular from some people who "wanted to revive in England the religion of the pagan Saxons", to talk about the concepts of modernity or antiquity; women's fashion to comment that polygamy "what it really means is slavery"; or vegetarian food to exemplify how language can be twisted to avoid calling something by its name.

The contemporary reader will find that many of the ideas presented here may well serve our society today, despite the distance of more than a century that separates us from these articles.

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