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Eucharist at the center of Omnes' February issue

The February issue of Omnes deals with topics such as the Eucharist, the Syro-Malabar Church and the formation of American seminarians at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

María José Atienza / Paloma López-February 2, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsWe return with joy to the Eucharist!

Quito will host the next International Eucharistic Congress. The Ecuadorian capital is expecting some 5,000 people to attend the event, which is intended to give impetus to the Eucharistic life of Ecuador and the whole world. Indeed, the Eucharist, the central mystery of the Catholic faith, is the central theme of the February 2024 issue of Omnes magazine.

The dossier begins with an interview with Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus, Archbishop of Quito and Primate of Ecuador, on this event that the country is eagerly awaiting despite the difficult social times the Ecuadorian nation is going through.

Along with this interview, Omnes delves into the history and objectives of the International Eucharistic Congresses, which have been held in the Church since the mid-19th century.

The deepening of the Eucharist continues in the dossier with a series of short articles, of an experiential and catechetical nature, on the Holy Mass, Eucharistic Communion, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sunday celebration and a special contribution - prayer on the Adoration of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Pontifical North American College

In the U.S. version of the Omnes issue, there is a story on the Pontifical North American College in Rome, the seminary where many Americans go for training before returning to their home country to exercise their pastoral ministry.

The report, which tells the history of the College, is followed by an interview with the rector of the seminary, Monsignor Thomas Powers. Throughout the conversation, the rector explains the spirit that inspires the activities at PNAC and delves into the day-to-day life of the young seminarians.

Olivia Maurel, the voice against surrogacy

Omnes also includes an interview with Olivia Maurel, this young French woman, born through surrogacy, has become the spokesperson for the international reference in the fight against this form of exploitation.

Maurel has experienced firsthand the consequences of being the fruit of a "commission" from her parents and wants to make society aware of the flagrant violation of human rights that this practice entails, as well as the consequences that this denaturalization of motherhood has for surrogate mothers and surrogate children.

Although an atheist, she wrote a face to the Pope telling her testimony and the pontiff denounced, in early January 2024, the practice of surrogacy in an address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.

The Syro-Malabar Church conflict

The "World" section focuses on the conflict between the Holy See and a group of four hundred Eastern priests, Syro-Malabar Rite Catholics in India, over the direction in which the priest should celebrate the Holy Qurbana (Eucharistic celebration).

This debate, which has its origin in a provision of the Second Vatican Council for the Eastern regions to abandon Latin customs and rites and return to their traditional Eastern rites, had a partial solution in the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church where a uniform solution was agreed upon, which was not equally welcomed among Syro-Malabar Catholics.

The Pope's key themes

The Rome and World sections, in turn, display the main themes touched upon by Pope Francis in his various public appearances during the month of January. In this regard, the meetings with the members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and with the judges of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the occasion of the inauguration of the Judicial Year stand out. In both, Francis reiterated the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel in response to the needs of the present times.

Likewise, communication was another of the topics addressed by Francis. The Pope asked communicators for three words: witness, courage and a broad outlook.

Poets and theologians

The poet Circe Maia and the influence of the German theologians Johann Adam Möhler and Mathias Scheeben are other topics to be found in the February issue. The content of this magazine is available to Omnes subscribers.

The February 2024 issue of Omnes is now available in its digital version for the magazine's subscribers. In the next few days, it will also arrive at the usual address of those who have this type of subscription. subscription.

The authorMaría José Atienza / Paloma López

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EditorialOmnes

International Eucharistic Congress in Quito. Eucharist, fraternity and unity

The petition included in the official prayer of the Quito Eucharistic Congress "Send us your Spirit of love, so that, seeking paths of fraternity, peace, dialogue and forgiveness". is more topical than ever in the Church.

February 2, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Quito (Ecuador) in September. It will follow the one held in Budapest in 2021, which was attended by Pope Francis.

The objective of the convocation of these congresses, and the experience proven throughout their history, is to contribute to the strengthening of Eucharistic devotion throughout the Church, in the Catholic conviction that the Eucharist, the first among the sacraments, is a source of supernatural life and of human fraternity. In each of the convocations, the emphasis has been placed on the needs perceived at each moment. 

At the same time, the most immediate fruit is naturally produced for the benefit of the particular Church that organizes it and where it is held. In this sense, one can immediately sense the repercussions that the International Congress next September can have for Ecuador, the host country, which is currently in a very difficult situation, caused by the open confrontation that groups linked to drug trafficking have posed to the institutions.

The motto of the Congress is "Fraternity to heal the world"; although it was established before the latest social events and is not reduced to that key, it undoubtedly encompasses the need that the country has for peaceful and fraternal coexistence.

The prayer prepared and disseminated in the country as an aid for the spiritual preparation of the Congress comes to gather this hope, expressed in the form of a petition to God: "You who gather us around your table to feed us with your Body, grant that, overcoming all division, hatred and selfishness, we may be united as true brothers, children of the heavenly Father.".

Monsignor Alfredo Espinoza, Archbishop of Quito, capital of Ecuador, and pastor of the diocese that is the main organizer of the Congress, gave an interview to Omnes in which he explains the state of the preparations and the expectations for the host country.

Almost in parallel, we are witnessing a delicate situation that has arisen in recent years in the Syro-Malabar Church (established in Kerala, India) precisely around the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass.

It is obvious that the problems and their context are very different, but in view of the seriousness of the information on the attitude of some of the priests of this rite, the petition included in the prayer of the Eucharistic Congress seems to be equally necessary. "Send us your Spirit of love, so that, seeking ways of fraternity, peace, dialogue and forgiveness, we may collaborate to heal the wounds of the world."

As reported in the pages of this issue, the resistance of a group of the clergy of the archieparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly to accept the decisions of the Synod of 2021, which wanted to harmonize the way of celebrating Mass in the various zones, emphasizes that we are dealing not only with an issue of liturgical order, but also of obedience and unity.

The authorOmnes

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Cinema

Film proposals: two suggestions for different audiences

An intimate film for a more adult audience and a series for the whole family, from the Disney factory, are Patricio Sánchez Jaúregui's movie recommendations for this month.

Patricio Sánchez-Jáuregui-February 2, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

On low heat, a film aimed at an adult audience and a lover of cinema and the saga of Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus are the proposals of movies and series to watch this month.

On a low flame

At the end of the 19th century, a great French chef lives a relationship of complete devotion to food and to a woman. Through the art of gourmet food, Dodin and Eugénie express their love for each other, a love at once timeless and transitory, like a meal, which persists only in memory.

This is both a hunger-inducing film and an excellent love story superbly acted.

Tran Anh Hung - The smell of green papaya - uses Binoche and Magimel in good measure with the many delicious ingredients in their cinematic pantry to create a beautiful, meaningful and extremely satisfying love story to savor.

A contemplative, precious film that displays an irresistible sensitivity and tenderness.

NotesNudity and partial sensuality : Nudity and partial sensuality : Tobacco

On a low flame

AddressTran Anh Hung
ScriptTran Anh Hung
ActorsJuliette Binoche, Magimel
Platform: Cinemas

Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus

Disney resurrects a stimulating and interesting saga by bringing to our televisions a faithful adaptation of Rick Riordan's novels. Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus is a loving odyssey through adolescence and myth.

A dangerous quest, an adventure, an odyssey. Overcoming monsters and gods, Percy must travel across America to return Zeus' master lightning bolt and stop an all-out war.

With the help of fellow missionaries Annabeth and Grover, Percy's journey will bring him closer to the answers he seeks: how to fit into a world where he feels out of place and discover who he is meant to be.

A series whose first season is an adventure, friendship and adolescence in a hero's journey for all audiences.

Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus

HistoryRick Riordan
Actors: Walker Scobell, Leah Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri
Platform: Disney +
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The Eucharistic Congress in Quito and Olivia Maurel in Omnes February magazine

The Eucharist and the upcoming International Eucharistic Congress in Quito are the focus of the February 2024 issue of Omnes magazine. Along with this, we can find an interview with Olivia Maurel, spokesperson of the Casablanca Declaration against surrogate motherhood.

Maria José Atienza-February 2, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Quito will host the next International Eucharistic Congress. The Ecuadorian capital is expecting some 5,000 people for an event that aims to be a boost to the Eucharistic life of Ecuador and the whole world.

Indeed, the Eucharist, the central mystery of the Catholic faith, is the central theme of the February 2024 issue of Omnes magazine.

The dossier begins with an interview with Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus, Archbishop of Quito and Primate of Ecuador, on this event that the country is eagerly awaiting despite the difficult social times the Ecuadorian nation is going through.

Along with this interview, Omnes delves into the history and objectives of the International Eucharistic Congresses, which have been held in the Church since the mid-19th century.

The deepening of the Eucharist continues in the dossier with a series of short articles, of an experiential and catechetical nature, on the Holy Mass, Eucharistic Communion, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sunday celebration and a special contribution - prayer on the Adoration of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Blessed Sacrament.

Olivia Maurel, the voice against surrogacy

Omnes also includes an interview with Olivia Maurel, this young French woman, born through surrogacy, has become the spokesperson for the international reference in the fight against this form of exploitation.

Maurel has experienced firsthand the consequences of being the fruit of a "commission" from her parents and wants to make society aware of the flagrant violation of human rights that this practice entails, as well as the consequences that this denaturalization of motherhood has for surrogate mothers and surrogate children.

Although an atheist, she wrote a face to the Pope telling her testimony and the pontiff denounced, in early January 2024, the practice of surrogacy in an address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.

The Syro-Malabar Church conflict

The "World" section focuses on the conflict between the Holy See and a group of four hundred Eastern priests, Syro-Malabar Rite Catholics in India, over the direction in which the priest should celebrate the Holy Qurbana (Eucharistic celebration).

This debate, which has its origins in a
The provision of the Second Vatican Council for the Eastern regions to abandon the Latin customs and rites and return to their traditional Eastern rites, had a partial solution in the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church where a uniform solution was agreed upon, which was not equally welcomed among the Syro-Malabar Catholics.

The Pope's key themes

The Rome and World sections, in turn, display the main themes touched upon by Pope Francis in his various public appearances during the month of January. In this regard, the meetings with the members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and with the judges of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the occasion of the inauguration of the Judicial Year stand out. In both, Francis reiterated the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel in response to the needs of the present times.

Likewise, communication was another of the topics addressed by Francis. The Pope asked communicators for three words: witness, courage and a broad outlook.

Poets and theologians

The poet Circe Maia and the influence of German theologians Johann Adam Möhler and Mathias Scheeben are other topics to be found in the February issue.

The content of this magazine is available to Omnes subscribers. The February 2024 issue of Omnes is now available in its digital version for Omnes subscribers. In the next few days, it will also arrive at the usual address of those who have this type of subscription. subscription.

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The Vatican

What the Pope expects from Catholic universities

In recent weeks, Pope Francis has received in audience, at different times, representatives of Catholic university institutions operating in different parts of the world and in different cultural contexts.

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

Recently, Francis has held meetings with representatives of different Catholic universities. He met, for example, with a delegation from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), and before that with the Rectors and professors of the Catholic Universities belonging to the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC). Finally, in mid-January, he addressed some reflections to the academic authorities and students of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem.

In the various meetings, the Pontiff underscored how Catholic-inspired universities have always played an important role in society, promoting the integral formation of persons in line with Gospel values. For this reason, he encouraged them to play an even more significant role in the contemporary world, reconciling the various souls of educational, cultural and social outreach commitment.

Union and collaboration

One of the main challenges the Pope assigns to Catholic Universities is to work together as a global network, to overcome fragmentation and promote more effective collaboration between institutions that, however, were born in different times and contexts.

In their vision, these universities should join together to share resources, knowledge and experience, going beyond the limits of their own institutions. Without forgetting the need to maintain contact with local communities, also contributing indirectly to the construction of a culture of peace and justice.

Christian humanism as a foundation

It is evident that at the basis of these institutions there is and must continue to be a Christian vision of humanism. It is not only a matter of offering a quality academic formation, as the Pope has emphasized on various occasions, but of cultivating each person in his or her integrity. Hence the importance of an education that integrates the intellectual, affective and spiritual development of students.

In essence, the Holy Father called attention to the fact that Christian education is not limited to the acquisition of knowledge, but aims to form people capable of living according to Gospel values, thus integrating faith and reason, and thus developing a deep understanding of the truth in order to then apply it in their daily lives.

Truth and the promotion of peace

This search for truth is also carried out through interdisciplinary dialogue and respect for the diversity of perspectives, striving to find solutions to global problems that are in harmony with all the teachings of the Church.

This certainly includes all efforts to promote peace: in a world marked by conflict and division, these institutions must be key actors in building a culture of reconciliation. This implies a commitment to social justice, respect for human rights and the promotion of the dignity of every person.

Commitment to the most vulnerable

Another central aspect of Pope Francis' vision for Catholic universities is the commitment to the most vulnerable. These institutions can be a beacon of hope for the excluded and marginalized, and ways and means must be found to reflect on how to combat, for example, poverty, discrimination and injustice. Likewise, there is the commitment to the environment and the protection of creation, another central element throughout Francis' pontificate.

As custodians of creation, these institutions have a responsibility to promote sustainable development and raise awareness of the environmental challenges facing the entire world.

Ultimately, only through a concrete commitment and a human-centered vision - this is Pope Francis' thinking in a nutshell - can these formation centers truly play a significant role in transforming society and promoting the better world that everyone hopes for.

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Lent is "time of conversion" and "of freedom", says Pope

Pope Francis has made public his message for Lent 2024, on the theme "Through the desert, God leads us to freedom".

Loreto Rios-February 1, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Wielki post", the great fast: Lent and Easter in Poland

Pope Francis today published his message for Lent 2024This year it will begin on February 14, Ash Wednesday. Palm Sunday will be celebrated on March 24, and Maundy Thursday and Good Friday will be March 28 and 29, respectively.

From slavery to freedom

The Pope opens his Lenten message this year by explaining that from the moment God reveals himself to the people of Israel, he announces freedom: "'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of a place of slavery' (Ex 20:2). Thus opens the Decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The people know well what exodus God is talking about; the experience of slavery is still imprinted on their flesh".

In this context, Francis points out that the people of Israel received the commandments as a path to freedom, not simply as a series of rules to follow: "(The people of Israel) received the ten words of the covenant in the desert as a path to freedom. We call them 'commandments', underlining the power of the love with which God educates his people".

The Holy Father goes on to point out that this path to freedom is a process that matures gradually, it is not reached overnight, and we are all on this path: "Just as Israel in the desert still carries Egypt within itself - often longing for the past and murmuring against heaven and Moses - so too today the people of God carries within itself oppressive bonds that it must decide to abandon".

The Pope points out some signs to detect these "ties": "We become aware of this when we lack hope and wander through life as in a desolate wasteland, without a promised land towards which to set out together".

The desert, promise of something new

However, this desert, this apparently negative state, can be transformed into something more beautiful than it was before, like a land that is being prepared for an orchard to bloom in it: "Lent is the time of grace in which the desert once again becomes - as the prophet Hosea announces - the place of first love (Hos 2:16-17)". In this perspective, the Pope points out that the desert is a phase of the divine pedagogy with man: "God educates his people to abandon their slavery and to experience the passage from death to life".

But this concept could remain "an abstract path," Francis warns. "For our Lent to also be concrete, the first step is to want to see reality. When at the burning bush the Lord drew Moses and spoke to him, he immediately revealed himself as a God who sees and above all listens: 'I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and heard their complaints against their oppressors; I know their sufferings. I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, to bring them out of this land, to bring them into a fruitful and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey' (Ex 3:7-8)".

"Where is your brother?"

The Pope invites us to ask ourselves if this cry also reaches us: "Today, too, the cry of so many oppressed brothers and sisters reaches heaven. Let us ask ourselves: does it reach us too, does it shake us, does it move us? Many factors distance us from one another, denying the fraternity that unites us from the beginning".

Other useful questions for the examination of conscience pointed out by Francis are: "Where are you?" (Gen 3:9) and "Where is your brother?" (Gen 4:9).

The Holy Father invites us to reflect on them and warns us of a possible longing for "Pharaoh's dominion," that is, slavery, even though it is "a dominion that leaves us exhausted and makes us insensitive. And the fact is that, "although our liberation has already begun with baptism, there remains in us an inexplicable longing for slavery. It is like an attraction to the security of what we have already seen, to the detriment of freedom.

Faced with this fact, the Pope proposes these questions for reflection: "Do I desire a new world? Am I ready to break my commitments to the old one?". Because, according to the Holy Father, one of the most important evils of our time is the lack of hope: "The witness of many brother bishops and of a great number of those who work for peace and justice convinces me more and more that what needs to be denounced is a deficit of hope. It is an impediment to dreaming, a mute cry that reaches to heaven and touches the heart of God. It resembles that longing for slavery that paralyzes Israel in the desert, preventing it from moving forward".

The spiritual battle

Lent, however, can be the ideal time to decide "not to fall back into slavery": "God does not tire of us. Let us embrace Lent as the powerful time in which his Word is addressed to us anew. [It is a time of conversion, a time of freedom. Jesus himself, as we remember every year on the first Sunday of Lent, was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested in his freedom. For forty days he will be before us and with us: he is the Son incarnate. Unlike Pharaoh, God does not want subjects, but sons. The desert is the space in which our freedom can mature into a personal decision not to fall back into slavery. In Lent, we find new criteria of judgment and a community with which to embark on a path we have never traveled before".

This return to freedom also entails an attitude of combat, since the Christian life is above all a spiritual battle: "This involves a struggle, which the book of Exodus and the temptations of Jesus in the desert tell us clearly. The voice of God, who says: 'You are my beloved Son' (Mk 1:11) and 'You shall have no other gods before me' (Ex 20:3), is in fact opposed by the lies of the enemy".

Along these lines, the Pope also warns of the danger of "idols": "Feeling omnipotent, recognized by all, taking advantage of others: every human being feels within himself the seduction of this lie". We can also be slaves to the wealthWe can become attached to money, to certain projects, ideas, objectives, to our position, to a tradition and even to some people. "Those things, instead of driving us, will paralyze us," Francis warns.

To act is also to stop

In this fast-paced and unbridled society, the Holy Father also invites us to change the rhythm during these forty days: "It is time to act, and in Lent to act is also to pause. To pause in prayer, to welcome the Word of God, and to stop, like the Samaritan, before the wounded brother. The love of God and neighbor is a single love. To have no other gods is to pause before the presence of God, in the flesh of our neighbor".

For this reason, the Pope points out that prayer, almsgiving and fasting, which are proposed for these days, "are not three independent exercises, but a single movement of opening, of emptying: away with the idols that weigh us down, away with the attachments that imprison us. Then the atrophied and isolated heart will awaken".

Moreover, Lent makes us rediscover "the contemplative dimension of life", which "will mobilize new energies", leading us towards others: "In the presence of God we become sisters and brothers [...]; instead of threats and enemies we find companions on the journey. This is God's dream, the promised land towards which we march when we leave slavery".

Quoting a speech he gave at WYD in Lisbon, the Pope pointed out that it is true that we live in a time with many challenges, but he encourages us to think "that we are not in agony, but in labor; not at the end, but at the beginning of a great spectacle."

"Faith and charity take this little hope by the hand," the Pope concludes, "they teach it to walk and, at the same time, it is it that drags them forward."

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What are new age and pseudo religions?

Without being a religion and without a fixed doctrine, the new age -or new era - is a way of seeing, thinking and acting that many people and organizations have adopted in their lives.

Alejandro Vázquez-Dodero-February 1, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

The development of the personality of the human being has a spiritual component to fully correspond to his nature. This goes beyond the mere fact of not being only matter, and makes him look for a religion -in a broad sense- understanding it as that desired reality where he can hope and deposit his desires.

Our survival instinct is linked to the awareness of the passing of time, and of the fact that the future may come; something that does not happen to the rest of animals, the non-rational ones. This is precisely what makes man a seeker of the meaning of his life, which transcends the immediate, the earthly, the ephemeral and passing. That is precisely where religion -as we say, in a broad sense- comes to the fore, fulfilling such yearnings.

Now, the true religion can only be one, for religions contradict each other, and the truth can only be in one place. If one says that Goya was born in Spain and another says that he was born in Sweden, it is evident that they cannot both be right at the same time. One of the two is undoubtedly wrong.

It would be absurd to think that God has revealed several contradictory religions. The only true religion is the one that God has revealed, and we can know it by certain signs, such as the miracles of Jesus Christ. 

It turns out that the Catholic religion was founded by Christ-God; all the others were founded by men. Neither Buddha, nor Confucius, nor Mohammed, nor Luther claimed to be God.

Jesus Christ Himself affirmed repeatedly in His life that He was God, and from that condition He founded only one Church, which is holy, catholic and apostolic. All other churches and religions are wrong: some, like Buddhism, because they do not recognize the true God; others, like Protestantism, because they separated from the original and true Church.

But, apart from religions, we have other realities that are not religions, and that nevertheless come to take the place of those.

In order to focus the discourse, we will refer to the phenomenon of the new age -This is not a religion, nor a church, nor a sect, nor a fixed doctrine, but a way of seeing, thinking and acting that many people and organizations have adopted to change the world according to beliefs they have in common. For these people, this is their religion. 

How to identify a pseudo-religious reality of the new age? 

The objective of the new age is to introduce man to what its ideologues call a new paradigm, that is, a totally different way of seeing oneself and perceiving reality. The most outstanding characteristic of the new ageThe result of all their beliefs is religious, spiritual and moral relativism.

What it promotes is manifested in music, in cinema, in literature, in the field of self-help, in some therapies.

It is about pushing Humanity towards a new spiritual current, and to procure a new era or epoch -new age- for the former.

The Holy See, in 2003, expressly referred to this reality, and stressed the importance of the difficulty of reconciling the underlying perspective of the new age with Christian doctrine and spirituality. 

This current emphasizes the importance of the spiritual dimension of man and its integration with the rest of his life, the search for a meaning to existence, the relationship between human beings and the rest of creation, the desire for personal and social change.

However, what is being criticized is that the new age does not offer an authentic answer, but a substitute: it looks for happiness where it is not.

New age and the Catholic Church

In fact, the 2003 document of the Holy See stresses that, as a reaction to modernity, the new age acts above all at the level of feelings, instincts and emotions. Anxiety in the face of an apocalyptic future of economic instability, political uncertainty and climate change plays an important role in the search for an alternative, a decidedly optimistic relationship with the cosmos. 

It is not a coincidence - the document continues - that the new age has been enormously successful in an era characterized by an almost universal exaltation of diversity. For many, absolute norms and creeds are nothing more than the inability to tolerate the views and convictions of others. In such a climate, alternative lifestyles and theories have been extraordinarily successful, and therein lies the new age.

With it arises a spirituality that is based more on sensitive experience than on reason, and that puts feeling before truth. In this way, spirituality is reduced to the sphere of the sensitive and irrational: to feeling good, to an exclusive search for one's own individual well-being. Thus, prayer ceases to be an interpersonal dialogue with the transcendent God, and becomes a mere interior monologue, an introspective search for the self.

The characteristic of the new age It is also the spirit of individualism that allows everyone to formulate his own religious, philosophical and ethical truth. It proposes a new consciousness by which man will become aware of his supernatural powers and will know that there is no God outside himself. 

Each man, therefore, creates his own truth. There is no good and evil, every experience is a step towards the full consciousness of his divinity. Everything is "god" and "god" is in everything; all religions are the same and, at bottom, say the same thing. It also holds that all men live many lives, reincarnating again and again until they achieve new consciousness and dissolve into the divine force of the cosmos, which is obviously incompatible with the Catholic faith. 

How is the God of the Catholic faith different from the God of the new age?

The God of the Catholic faith is a person, the "god" of the new age is an impersonal and anonymous force.

The God of the Catholic faith is Creator of all, but is not identified with anything created. The God of the new age is the creation that gradually becomes aware of itself.

The God of the Catholic faith is infinitely superior to man, but he bends down to him in order to enter into friendship with him: he is his Father.

The God of the Catholic faith will judge each man according to his response to that love. The "god" of the new age is the same man who is beyond good and evil. In the new age the highest love is love of self. 

– Supernatural new age holds that Jesus Christ was one more enlightened teacher among many. He maintains that the only difference between Jesus Christ and other men is that he realized his divinity while most men have not yet discovered it. Thus, he denies that God became man to save us from sin. 

The new age concept of divinity

– Supernatural new age has no qualms about mixing religious forms from very different traditions, even when there are fundamental contradictions. It should be remembered that Christian prayer is based on the Word of God, is centered on the person of Christ, leads to loving dialogue with Jesus Christ and always leads to charity for one's neighbor. The techniques of deep concentration and the Eastern methods of meditation enclose the subject in himself, push him towards an impersonal or undefined absolute and ignore the Gospel of Christ. 

He will also want to redefine death as a pleasant transition without being accountable to a personal God, on the assumption that one decides for oneself what is good and what is bad, which breaks down values and leads to an emotional trap.

– Supernatural new age holds that "things as we now see them"-culture, knowledge, family relationships, life, death, friendships, suffering, sin, goodness, etc.-are mere illusion, the product of unenlightened consciousness.Take the step from the assertion that everything is god to the assertion that there is no god outside yourself. 

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ loses its singular and unrepeatable character.Many would be the "messiahs" who have appeared, that is, specially enlightened masters who appear to guide humanity: Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Quetzacoatl, Mohammed, Sun Myung Moon, Osho, Sai Baba and countless others would be prophets of the same stature with the same message.Christianity, thus, turns out to be little more than a passing period in history.  

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ColumnistsAntonio Moreno

My God, have you forsaken me?

There are situations in one's personal history in which one cries out to heaven and finds no answer. The problems and difficulties of life run over one another at times and one seems to find oneself alone, without help.

February 1, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

An illness is followed by the death of a family member and, when one has not yet recovered, the economic or labor problem arrives. There are times when we can only exclaim: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But can God abandon us, and would that be the attitude of a good father, a father who loves his children?

Certainly, there are situations in one's personal history when one cries out to heaven and finds no answer. Life's problems and difficulties sometimes run over you and you seem to find yourself alone, without help, in the very center of the whirlpool that sucks you into the dark waters of the deepest ocean.

It is understood that God is not a fairy godmother who comes to get us out of every difficulty. Nature, in this imperfect world in which we await the new heavens and the new earth, has its rules and acts without asking permission from its creator at every moment. That is why sickness, death or natural misfortunes come. To this we must also add the evil created by man: injustices, quarrels, disappointments....

One by one, the blows are overcome, but when they come one after the other, not even the best sparring partner can withstand them, and the question naturally arises: "Has God rejected us forever and will not favor us again? Has his mercy run out, has his promise ended forever? Has God forgotten his goodness, or has anger closed his heart?

There is nothing like the Psalms - the above quotation is a fragment of the 77th Psalm - to put words to the feelings of abandonment, loneliness and incomprehension of man in the face of evil and the apparent silence of God. If you are all-powerful, why don't you act, why are you silent, why do you allow this to happen to me?

Jesus himself prayed with one of them, number 22, when he experienced the bitterest face of his humanity, nailed to the cross. He who said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," he who could not distance himself from God because he was God himself, also had feelings of remoteness, of abandonment; to a certain extent, of doubt, of uncertainty. This is the human frailty that he assumed to the extreme.

God's silence in the face of the suffering of his creatures has caused rivers of ink to flow and has burned billions of neurons of the most sublime thinkers, but an ancient legend runs through the Internet. norway -I have not been able to confirm if it is really Norwegian and if it is really old, which explains in a very simple way why God is so often silent.

The main character was a hermit named Haakon, who took care of a chapel where the local people went to pray before an image of a very miraculous Christ. One day, the anchorite, full of zeal and love for God, knelt before the image and asked the Lord to replace him on the cross:

-I want to suffer for you, let me take your place," he said.

His prayer reached the Most High, who accepted the exchange on the condition that the hermit should always keep silent, as He did.

Things went well in the early days, because Haakon was always silent up there on the cross and the Lord passed himself off as him without people noticing. But one day a rich man came to pray and, as he knelt down, he dropped his wallet. Our protagonist saw it and kept silent. After a while, a poor man appeared who, after praying, found the wallet, took it and left, jumping up and down with joy. Haakon continued to be silent when, shortly after, a young man entered and began to ask for protection for a dangerous journey he was about to undertake. At this, the rich man came back in looking for his wallet. Seeing the young man praying, he thought he might have found it and demanded it. Although the young man told him that he had not seen it, the rich man did not believe him and beat him up.

-Stop! -Haakon shouted from the top of the cross.

The attacked and the aggressor were stunned and, frightened by the sight of the speaking Christ, fled each in turn, leaving the hermit alone again with Jesus, who ordered him to come down from the cross for not having kept his word.

-Do you see how you were not fit to take my place? -the crucified man scolded him as he returned to his post.

-I could not allow this injustice, my Lord! -replied the hermit, already at the foot of the cross. You have seen that the boy was innocent.

Looking at him with mercy, Jesus explained:

-You didn't know that the rich man carried in his wallet the money to buy the virginity of a young girl, while the poor man needed that money so that his family would not die of hunger. That's why I let him take her. With the rich man's beating of the young traveler, I wanted to have prevented him from arriving in time, as he finally did because of you, to embark on a ship on which he had just met his death, for it had sunk. You did not know anything. I did, that's why I keep quiet.

And so ends this kind of midrash that teaches us to believe that, in God's will, is what is best for us and to trust in the one who we know, with his apparent silence, is also loving us dearly.

If you know someone who is getting beaten up by life, you might want to listen to this story of Haakon to understand the mysteries of the one who never leaves us, especially when we are on the cross.

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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Gospel

Inner freedom. Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.

Joseph Evans-February 1, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

In today's Gospel we see Jesus perform all kinds of miracles: healing Simon's mother-in-law of fever, casting out demons and curing diseases. But this is only a sign that the Holy Spirit is upon Him. Jesus does these actions because He is filled with the Spirit and the deliverance is a sign of the Spirit's action: "He is the Spirit of God.The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor 3:17). The Spirit is like the wind, which cannot be constrained. This is how our Lord described the activity of the Spirit to Nicodemus when he went to visit him (cf. Jn 3:1-8). 

There may be times in life when we feel very constrained, lacking in freedom, like Job in the first reading: "...".Is not man's life on earth a militia, and his days like those of a day laborer; like a slave, he sighs for shade; like a day laborer, he awaits his wages. My inheritance has been wasted months, I have been allotted nights of toil. When I go to bed I think: When will I get up? The night lasts forever and I am tired of tossing and turning until dawn. 

This feeling may be objective or exaggerated. In any case, we must remember that freedom is first and foremost interior. What really takes away freedom are interior limitations: addictions, weaknesses of character. Someone - Christian martyrs, for example - can be locked up in a prison and be interiorly totally free. 

We need the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to find freedom. Lent will soon begin and it is a good opportunity to ask ourselves what we need to change in order to grow in freedom: what needs to be cut in us (a vice to eliminate) or improved (a virtue to grow in)? What defect, bad habit or addiction is taking away my freedom? It could be laziness, attachment to the phone or internet, food or drink, spending, or anything else. Lent is a time of grace to fight more against these addictions and find greater freedom in God. The sacrament of Confession is the sacrament of freedom, as it frees us from our sins.

If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be filled with freedom. Indeed, as St. Paul explains in the second reading, this freedom leads us to willingly make ourselves slaves of others: "...".Because, being free as I am, I have made myself the slave of all in order to win over as many as possible". As Jesus did. Freedom finds its fullest expression in loving surrender.

Homily on the readings of Sunday V in Ordinary Time (B)

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

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Francis encourages forgiveness to overcome anger

The Pope meditated this morning at the General Audience on anger, and encouraged to seek reconciliation with others before nightfall, to the "commitment to forgive, in the art of forgiveness", and to transform anger, in the case of some injustice, into a holy zeal for the good. He also prayed for the victims of war.

Francisco Otamendi-January 31, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Forgiveness is a source of peace," Pope encourages in KinshasaRelated News"Forgiveness is a fundamental condition for the Christian", Francis stresses

In the sixth session of the cycle of catechesis on "the vices and virtues", Pope Francis meditated in the Paul VI Hall, in the Audience of this January 31, the feast of St. John BoscoThe report, on anger, a "visible" vice, "difficult to hide", "capable of taking away sleep", and that "does not subside with time".

Anger transforms our countenance and puts our body in turmoil, and develops in us "the negative perception of the other", the Pontiff said in his meditationin which he offered two prescriptions against anger.

First, "that we do not go into the night without seeking reconciliation, in order to nip this demonic spiral in the bud. And secondly, "to bring to prayer the commitment to forgive others, as God does with us".

Holy indignation of Jesus, zeal for goodness

There is also "a holy anger," the Pope recalled, "of which the Gospel also speaks to us, which is born of our being. It does not allow us to remain indifferent in the face of injustice. The ancients were well aware that "there is an irascible part in us that cannot and must not be denied (...). We are not responsible for anger in its emergence, but always in its development, and sometimes it is good for anger to be vented in a proper way".

If a person never gets angry, if he is not indignant in the face of injustice, if he does not feel something that shakes him to the core when faced with the oppression of a weak person, then he is not human, much less Christian, Francis pointed out. There is a holy indignation, which is not anger. Jesus knew holy indignation several times in his life, he never responded to evil with evil, but in his soul he experienced this feeling, and in the case of the merchants in the temple, he carried out a strong and prophetic action, dictated not by anger but by zeal for the house of the Lord.

It is up to us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to find the right measure of the passions, to educate them well, so that they turn towards good and not towards evil, the Holy Father stressed.

"Let us ask the Lord to be aware of our weakness in the face of anger, so that when it arises, we can channel it positively, so that it does not dominate us, but that we transform it into a holy zeal for the good," he said to the Spanish-speaking pilgrims.

At the origin of wars and violence

Francis has encouraged in the Audience to practice the art of forgiveness. What counteracts anger is benevolence, gentleness, patience. Anger is a terrible vice that is at the origin of wars and violence.

In this regard, the Pope recalled that tomorrow Italy celebrates the National Day for Civilian Victims of War. To the memory of those who fell in the two world wars, he added "the many, too many, defenseless victims of the wars that unfortunately still bloody our planet, such as the Middle East and Ukraine. May their cry of pain reach the hearts of those responsible for the nations, and arouse projects of peace".

The stories of wars these days denote "so much cruelty," Francis lamented. "Peace is meek, it is not cruel."

Priests at the University of the Holy Cross, Feast of St. John Bosco

Before giving the blessing, the Pope welcomed in Italian the more than six thousand faithful present in the Aula, and he made a special mention of the priests who are participating in a training course promoted by the Pontifical University of the Holy CrossThe event was attended by pilgrims from the parish of the Divine Christ the Worker of Ancona, and students from various schools and musical bands.

As always, his thoughts have been addressed to young people, in the memory of St. John BoscoHe quoted him when addressing pilgrims of different languages, the sick, the elderly and the newlyweds.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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Culture

The Flower Shop, the "behind-the-scenes" work of Vatican celebrations

About forty people make up the Vatican Flower Shop, a former service of the Holy See in charge of preparing the Vatican celebrations.

Hernan Sergio Mora-January 31, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Behind the beautiful ceremonies, audiences and events that take place in the Vatican, behind the scenes there is an institution little known to the general public that - quietly and with difficulty - takes care of the logistics that allow these great ceremonies to take place.

We are talking about the Flower Shop, made up of about forty people, who coordinate and prepare whatever is necessary inside the Vatican Basilica, in St. Peter's Square, in the Roman Papal Basilicas, in the Paul VI Hall, in the Pope's apartment, as well as in the audiences inside the Apostolic Palace and in various Vatican buildings.

It also takes care of the decoration and routine maintenance of the furniture and has three restoration laboratories at its disposal: one for furniture and upholstery, another for cabinetmaking and furniture restoration, and a third specialized in gilding. Then there is the assembly department in charge, among other tasks, of setting up to 30,000 chairs when there are celebrations outside the Plaza.

Origin

The name Floreria has an ancient origin. It probably comes from Spanish and referred to those who took care of flowers for ceremonies. The inventories of the 16th century tell us that, from the beginning, there was a Florería (Flower Shop) with tapestries, gobelins and fabrics destined to decorate the rooms and cover large walls. Today the Florist's Shop houses all the non-consecrated objects necessary for pontifical functions.

Formerly it was called Apostolic flower shop and depended on the Apostolic Palace, that is, directly from the Pope, the Secretariat of State and the Prefecture of the Papal Household. In the 1960s and 1970s it was transferred to the Governorate of Vatican City under the name of "Vatican City Governorate".Flower Service"It currently reports to the Infrastructure and Services Directorate, together with the Gardens and Environment service and the Infrastructure sector.

Also spirituality

A tradition of the employees of the entire infrastructure and services management, on which the Flower Shop also depends, is to attend mass every first Friday in the shed of the mechanical workshop.

All employees of the Governorate who so desire can also count on spiritual assistance and can meet with the Pope in various circumstances throughout the year. In addition, this year a family celebration was introduced, which is held outdoors.

Other work

Another task is to take care of removals and restorations present not only in the Vatican, but also in extraterritorial areas and in other parts of Rome, including the headquarters of the Congregations located in via della Conciliazione or in the palace of St. Callixtus.

Not to mention preparations such as, for example, the celebration of the Corpus Dominithe traditional procession that starts from the Basilica of St. John Lateran Lateran to Santa Maria Maggiore.

Conclave

Even knowing that the date of a conclave cannot be predicted, the Flower Shop has an updated plan ready for its organization. From the Sistine Chapel, with the thrones with their mobile canopies, to the iron stove and chimney that will announce with its black smoke and then with its white smoke the election or less of a new pontiff.

In the past they also took care of the 500 rooms that had to be prepared for the accommodation of the cardinals and their entourage, a task now simplified thanks to the accommodation in the Domus Santa Marta, or of other issues such as the task of cutting all the telephone lines.

Floral objects sold for Pope's charity

Today in the Clothing Store, near the train station, there is a section where some of the gifts that Francis receives from the Heads of State and Government during audiences or meetings are exhibited. Even many objects that were stored and dusty in the Flower Shop can now be purchased in exchange for an offering that will go to the Pope's charity.

The Pope's gratitude

Pope Francis in the January 17, 2014 audience with the employees of the Flower Shop expressed his personal thanks for the "care, professionalism and availability" with which they carry out their mission.

He recalled that "organizing the environments for the various meetings of the Pope with pilgrims and the various activities of the Holy See" is an "indispensable" task, in order to obtain welcoming spaces and functional tools.

The authorHernan Sergio Mora

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Pope stresses the work of palliative care

Pope Francis asks Catholics to pray especially for the terminally ill during the month of February.

Paloma López Campos-January 30, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Palliative care should be a right, not a privilege."Related News"Caring for the sick is not an 'optional activity' for the Church."

Pope Francis always shows great closeness to people suffering from illness. So it is not surprising that he asks Catholics around the world to join him during the month of February to pray for "the terminally ill and their families."

The Holy Father shows concern for the "necessary care and accompaniment, both from a medical and human point of view" that is needed for those who are ill.

Francis points out in the video for the Global Prayer Network that there is a big difference between the concepts of "incurable and 'incurable'". Drawing on a quote from Pope St. John Paul II, he affirms that, while cure is not always given, "care is always" possible.

The Pope claims that "even when there is little chance of cure, all the sick have the right to medical accompaniment, psychological accompaniment, spiritual accompaniment and human accompaniment".

Palliative care

The Pontiff takes the opportunity to speak about palliative care. These "guarantee the patient not only medical attention, but also a human and close accompaniment".

Moreover, the Pope recalls in his message that the families of the sick "cannot be left alone in these difficult moments. For this reason, he calls for the promotion of support for those who are close to the sick that is noticeable on the physical, spiritual and social levels.

World Day of the Sick

This intention of the Pope comes precisely in the month in which the World Day of the Sick is celebrated. On February 11, on the occasion of the memory of the Virgin of LourdesThe entire Church unites to pray for those who suffer from the disease.

In its message for this day, published at the beginning of 2024, the Pope pointed out that "the first care we need in sickness is that of a closeness full of compassion and tenderness". He even took the opportunity to encourage the sick to "not be ashamed of their desire for closeness and tenderness."

The Holy Father stressed that "we Christians are especially called to make our own the compassionate gaze of Jesus". In this way, we will be able to "counteract the culture of individualism, indifference and discarding", and change it for a "culture of tenderness and compassion".

Pope Francis' Prayer Intention for February 2024
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RelatedRelated News"Palliative care should be a right, not a privilege."Related News"Caring for the sick is not an 'optional activity' for the Church."
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Truth, charity, courage: the Pope's recommendations to the Catholic media

In a meeting with the media belonging to the Italian Bishops' Conference, Pope Francis outlined the characteristics that, in his opinion, communicators should have.

Antonino Piccione-January 30, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

Journalism as a search for truth, a complex subject that implies the virtue of listening, the capacity for discernment and care in the use of words. A few days after his message for the 58th World Communications DayPope Francis offers a new reflection on the field of information and communication, with the help of an audience with journalists and technicians of Tv2000 and RadioinBlu2000, received on January 29 in the Paul VI Hall, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the birth of the stations of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

The Pontiff stressed the importance of constructive communication, protected from the sins that undermine it, especially that of disinformation, "to tell the good and the beautiful of our communities with closeness", to "make protagonists of those who normally end up as extras or are not even taken into account".

Referring to the audience granted in 2014, the Pontiff noted that since then "much has changed in the media landscape," but that today, as then, both media, along with the daily "Avvenire" and Agenzia Sir, have "a very precise affiliation: the Italian Bishops' Conference." 

This, in the opinion of Francis, is in no way a limitation, "on the contrary, it is an expression of great freedom, because it reminds us that communication and information are always rooted in the human". Crucial, in this sense, is the role and function of witness, so that the journalist is called to tell "stories in which the darkness that surrounds us does not extinguish the light of hope".

Journalists, a "bridge" and not a "wall".

On the involvement of those who narrate the Church through its media, one cannot fail to "start from the heart" to make "closeness" possible and affirm the truth without separating it from charity. "Never separate the facts from the heart! And then, have courage. It is not by chance that 'courage' comes from the heart. He who has heart also has the courage to be alternative, without becoming polemical or aggressive; to be credible, without trying to impose his own point of view; to be a "bridge builder".

To avoid the other sins in which information professionals often engage: slander, defamation and the love of scandal. Because "scandal sells", as the Holy Father said at the end of August when he received the "It's Journalism.".

In the light of these considerations, the audience addressed to Catholics can well be considered a further and more specific contribution that Pope Benedict makes to his magisterium on the subject of journalism, which cannot avoid "responsibility" - another key word - from the perspective of objectivity, respect for human dignity and attention to the common good. "In this way," he points out, "we will be able to repair the fractures, to transform indifference into a lack of welcome and relationship.

The person, in short, is the foundation and the goal "of every service, of every article, of every program". The person must be served and the truth must be told "with respect and competence". Avoid, or rather govern, all instruments of manipulation, of cognitive contamination and of "alteration of reality", because man continues to make the difference.

Information," observes the Pope in his Message published on the liturgical feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, "cannot be separated from existential relationships: it involves the body, being in reality; it calls for reporting not only data, but experiences; it demands a face, a look, compassion, as well as sharing".

Because journalism can only continue to do its valuable work if it does not abdicate its fundamentals. There are overriding issues related to regulation, intellectual property and commercial competition.

There are also deep societal concerns about AI, particularly in relation to misinformation, discrimination and prejudice, and the risks of media manipulation by large corporate or government entities. It is imperative to maintain a holistic view that builds on the recommendations of Pope Francis.

The authorAntonino Piccione

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Culture

Manuel GarridoEvery colleague is a person, not a threat".

Interview with Manuel Garrido, winner of the Bravo! of Institutional Communication 2024 and responsible, for years, for the Information Office of Opus Dei and the Torreciudad sanctuary.

Maria José Atienza-January 30, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

It is called Manuel Garrido González but for communication professionals in Spain it is Manolo.

This journalist from Oviedo, who is almost 68 years old, has dedicated his professional life to institutional communications in the Catholic Church, especially at the Torreciudad Sanctuary and in the Communications Office of the Opus Dei Prelature. Now he combines consulting work with a determined fight against an illness, which he faces with "the confidence that comes from being in the best hands: in those of God, in those of the doctors and in those of so many friends and colleagues, who help me with their affection and closeness.

On January 29, 2024, Manuel Garrido picked up the Award Bravo! of Institutional Communication. Alongside him, names such as Ana Iris Simón, film director Santos Blancoor the creators of the campaign for the ACdP #ThatDoesn'tGetYouSpun in favor of the family and motherhood received this recognition, awarded by the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

On that day, many colleagues wanted to accompany Manuel Garrido in the presentation of an award that he gave to all communication professionals.

How did you receive the award Bravo! What does such recognition mean after years of work and service?

-Surprisingly, I was not expecting it. In any case, I welcome this boost of encouragement that comes from my colleagues in the informative tasks, to whom I offer it. And it is a luxury to receive it together with some extraordinary, high-level award winners, such as Ana Iris Simón, whom I follow on a weekly basis. She recently referred to the importance of looking ahead without losing sight of the past, to appreciate so many good, beautiful and true things. And to have a clean look to know how to appreciate them and tell them. I wrote it down, it seems to me a good advice.

You have experienced firsthand the change in communication paradigms and in the Church. How do you deal with professional problems when they also affect your own faith?

-Faith leads you to prayer to see with God the things you have in hand, to try to work with joy and hope. It is not passivity or laziness, or tododa igualThe aim is to achieve quality without perfectionism, to try to do things well, in spite of mistakes.

Faith gives you a perspective that helps you in the immediate overwhelm, it takes away the limelight and importance and helps you to see things in their right measure. It is more than an ally in the day to day. And at the same time it is comforting to see so many positive behaviors that build and are in the majority. They are the ones we have to tell and share, which will make the face of the Church more friendly.

What communication moments do you take away from your career?

-I could say that I have enjoyed every piece I have prepared, looking forward to seeing it published or broadcast in whatever medium. Having said that, I would choose the beatification and canonization of St. Josemaría, which I experienced in Rome with my fellow Barbastro residents and which was followed by numerous media outlets. And I would also highlight, as a moment, I have been in charge of the communication between Torreciudad and Alto Aragon for 21 joyful years, during which I have been able to see what a great gift the sanctuary is for the Church, the diocese and the territory. And we must continue to take care of it together.

In your opinion, what should be the keys to communication in a Church institution?

-I see two keys. Closeness and personal affection for the professionals and offering the media useful information. Those of us who are in the field of institutional communication must be intermediaries between our institution and the media. Therefore, get to know your house and the media in depth. And then frequent contact with the media to offer them information that is useful to them.

In an increasingly "digital" world, has personal contact been lost in the professional arena?

-I think that journalism is carried inside and lived 24 hours a day, although I understand that this is no longer the case and I'm glad, because now it is being reconciled more with other obligations. But I will say that if you follow a colleague's work closely and talk to him or her, it is easy to share other things. It's caring, not marketing or coaching. Every colleague is a person, not a threat or an instrument, said St. John Paul II, who thought of journalists as people and tried to establish personal contact with them. It is sincere, supernatural and joyful closeness, as we have just seen in Pope Francis and his January 22 audience with accredited journalists at the Vatican.

In your life, do you have any communication reference?

-Joaquín Navarro-Valls. I had the good fortune to know him and follow him. I recently read his personal notes in "My years with John Paul II", in Espasa. I found it very useful and I recommend it for any communicator, because he was a great spokesman for a great pope.

I well remember Navarro's conference on 18 November 2013 at the Rafael del Pino Foundation on John Paul II and human suffering, which was very thought-provoking. And I have at hand some words from 2011 that have helped me a lot: "everything can be communicated and much should be communicated; also pain, illness and even doubts. The only thing that cannot be communicated is a lie, not even to make oneself look good and improve one's image". Quite a challenge.

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The Year of Prayer 2024 will have as its theme "Lord, teach us to pray".

With the words "Lord, teach us to pray" the Apostles addressed Jesus, and these same words have been chosen by the Pope as the motto for 2024, the Year of Prayer, during which we too, disciples of Christ, are called to rediscover the value of daily prayer in our lives.

Arturo Cattaneo-January 30, 2024-Reading time: 14 minutes

When people want to undertake an initiative, they usually start by looking at the organizational aspects: what people or resources they can count on to achieve their goal in the best possible way. Who, however, thinks of praying first? Obviously, it is very difficult for those who have never experienced the power of prayer to understand that, in order to prepare for an important event or choice in life, prayer is not only advisable, it is indispensable.

In this perspective, it is significant and a great lesson that Pope Francis offers us with this initiative. In the Angelus of January 21The Pope has officially launched the Year of Prayer in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025, encouraging us to pray that this Holy Year will have an impact on the whole Church, on the holiness of Christians. It will certainly require the organization and work of many people, but only with remote preparation in prayer will this Jubilee bear fruits of grace and reconciliation.

At the presentation of the initiative in the Vatican press room, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, hoped that this would be a year in which to rediscover "how to pray and, above all, how to educate people to pray today, in the age of digital culture, so that prayer can be effective and fruitful". The Pontiff, at the Angelus, spoke explicitly of an absolute need for prayer, for a "symphony" of prayer at both the personal and community levels. At the press conference of January 23, 2024, he specified what the characteristics of this prayer should be: to be before the Lord in a relationship of trust and friendship, ready to listen to him. And to thank him.

Through prayer we will also grow in our capacity to pay attention to others, to welcome them and to reach out to them with a merciful heart like that of Jesus.

In the preface to "Praying Today. A Challenge to Overcome," the first of eight books that the Dicastery for Evangelization is about to publish, the Pope writes: "Prayer is the breath of faith, it is its most appropriate expression. Like a cry that comes from the heart of those who believe and entrust themselves to God." In this year, with the Jubilee just around the corner, says the Holy Father, "we are invited to be more humble and to give space to the prayer that flows from the Holy Spirit".

Truly, since the beginning of his pontificate, that of prayer has been one of the most recurring themes, a theme to which he has dedicated no less than 38 general audiences throughout 2020 and 2021 with reflections and suggestions that are profound and at the same time simple, concrete, full of common sense and also of that good humor that characterizes him.

In the coming months the Pope will create a "School of Prayer", but it will be above all the local Churches that will be called upon to develop initiatives that will help the faithful to rediscover prayer as "nourishment for the Christian life of faith, hope and charity". For these reasons, I have collected in a small anthology phrases and considerations of Pope Francis that help to better understand why and how to pray.

Pope Francis talks about prayer, explaining why and how to pray

Texts of Pope Francis collected by Arturo Cattaneo

The Holy Father speaks of prayer in practically all his texts, exhortations, homilies, letters, audiences, etc. A theme to which he has also dedicated no less than 38 general audiences during 2020 and 2021. They can be downloaded for example with this link.

Below, you will find his phrases or reflections that I have found particularly significant, arranged in six chapters.

What is prayer

Prayer is the breath of the soul, the breath of faith. In a relationship of trust, in a relationship of love, dialogue cannot be absent, and prayer is the dialogue of the soul with God. It is important to find moments in the day to open the heart to God, even with simple words (Discourse, 14-XII-2014).

The Christian's prayer, on the other hand, is born of a revelation: the "You" has not remained shrouded in mystery, but has entered into a relationship with us... The Christian's prayer enters into a relationship with the most tender-faced God, who does not wish to instill any fear in mankind. This is the first characteristic of Christian prayer. If people have always been accustomed to approaching God with a certain intimidation, a certain fear of this fascinating and terrible mystery, if they have been accustomed to venerating him with a servile attitude, similar to that of a subject who does not want to disrespect his master, Christians turn to him instead, daring to call him with confidence by the name of "Father". Even more, Jesus uses another word: "father" (General Audience, May 13, 1920).

Prayer is an encounter with God, with God who never disappoints; with God who is faithful to his word; with God who does not abandon his children (Homily, June 29, 2015).

To pray is to give time back to God, to get out of the obsession of a life that always lacks time, to rediscover the peace of necessary things and to discover the joy of unexpected gifts (General Audience, 26-VIII-2015).

Why pray

Why do I pray? I pray because I am in need. This I feel, what drives me, as if God is calling me to speak (Interview of Pope Francis with young people in Belgium, 31-III-2014).

The encounter with God in prayer will help you to know the Lord and yourselves better. The voice of Jesus will set your hearts on fire and your eyes will be opened to recognize his presence in your history, thus discovering the plan of love that he has for your life (Message for the XXX WYD, 17-II-2015).

Prayer gives us the grace to live faithful to God's plan (General Audience, April 17, 2013).

Each story is unique, but they all start from an encounter that illuminates the depths, touches the heart and involves the whole person: affections, intellect, senses, everything. It is a love so great, so beautiful, so true, that it deserves everything and deserves all our trust (Meeting with the young people of Umbria, October 4, 2013).

Another important element is the awareness of feeling part of a greater plan, to which one wishes to offer one's contribution (General Audience, 7-XII-2022).

God calls us to struggle with Him, every day, at every moment, to overcome evil with good (Speech, October 20, 2013).

Faith does not take us away from the world, but inserts us more deeply into it. This is very important! We must enter the world, but with the strength of prayer. Each of us plays a special role in preparing for the coming of the Kingdom of God in the world (Address in Manila, 16-I-2015).

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us not to let ourselves be dominated by things that appear: what counts is not appearance; the value of life does not depend on the approval of others or success, but on what we have inside (Homily, 05-III-2014).

Prayer preserves man from the protagonism by which everything revolves around him, from indifference and victimhood (Discourse, 15-VI-2014).

With prayer we allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and advise us on what we should do at that moment (General Audience, 07-V-2014).

Without prayer our action becomes empty and our proclamation has no soul, because it is not animated by the Spirit (General Audience, May 22, 2013).

Prayer is not a sedative to alleviate the anxieties of life; or, in any case, such prayer is certainly not Christian. Rather, prayer empowers each of us (General Audience, October 21, 2020).

The first motivation to evangelize is the love of Jesus that we have received, that experience of being saved by Him that moves us to love Him more and more. But what love is that which does not feel the need to speak of the loved one, to show him, to make him known? If we do not feel the intense desire to communicate it, we need to stop in prayer to ask Him to captivate us again. We need to cry out every day, to ask for His grace to open our cold hearts and shake our lukewarm and superficial lives. Standing before him with an open heart, letting him contemplate us, we recognize the gaze of love that Nathanael discovered the day Jesus appeared and said to him: "When you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (Jn 1:48). How sweet it is to stand before a crucifix, or kneel before the Blessed Sacrament, and simply be before his eyes! How good it is to let him touch our existence and launch us out to communicate his new life. (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium 264).

How to pray

Simplicity, humility, attentiveness, understanding and silence: these are the five qualities that correspond to the five fingers.

The thumb is the biggest finger, so it is also the finger of praise to God. But it is also the finger that is closest to us and tells us to pray for those closest to us, for our loved ones, for our friends. The index finger is the finger that teaches, that shows us the way and the path to follow. We pray for all those who in life teach us or will teach us something.

The middle finger reminds us of those who govern us. To them, God has entrusted the destiny of the nations, and for them we pray that they may always follow the teachings of Jesus in their duty. The ring finger is the finger of promise: we ask God to protect those we love the most, as well as the weakest and neediest.

The little finger is the smallest finger. It teaches and reminds us to pray for the children. It also reminds us to make ourselves small like them and not to fall into pride.

Pray in a simple way, but concrete at the same time. And, since we have two hands, prayer can also be repeated a second time. Because we know that "praying is the oxygen of our soul" and of our spiritual life (Written by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires).

True prayer is familiarity and trust with God, it is not reciting prayers like a parrot... Being in prayer does not mean saying words, words, words: no, it means opening my heart to Jesus, getting close to Jesus, letting him enter my heart and making me feel his presence there. And there we can discern when it is Jesus or when it is us with our thoughts, so often far from Jesus. Let us ask for this grace: to live a relationship of friendship with the Lord, as a friend speaks to his friend (General Audience, 28-IX-2022).

When we pray we must be humble: this is the first attitude to go to prayer. Then our words will really be prayers and not gibberish that God rejects (General Audience, May 26, 2011).

At the origin of every vocation there is always a strong experience of God, an experience that is not forgotten, it is remembered all our lives! God always surprises us! It is God who calls; but it is important to have a daily relationship with Him, to listen to Him in silence before the Tabernacle and in the depths of ourselves, to speak with Him, to approach the Sacraments. Having this familiar relationship with the Lord is like having the window of our life open, so that he can let us hear his voice, what he wants from us (To the young people in Assisi, October 5, 2013).

This is the way to accept God, not ability, but humility: to recognize oneself as a sinner. To confess, first to oneself and then to the priest in the sacrament of reconciliation, one's sins, one's shortcomings, one's hypocrisies; to come down from the pedestal and immerse oneself in the water of repentance (Angelus, 4-XII-2022).

We must take off our masks-everyone has one-and put ourselves on the same level as the humble; free ourselves from the presumption of believing we are self-sufficient, go and confess our sins, the hidden ones, and accept God's forgiveness, ask forgiveness of those we have offended. Thus begins a new life (Angelus, 4-XII-2022).

Prayer unceasingly purifies the heart. Praise and supplication to God prevent the heart from hardening into resentment and selfishness (General Audience, 11.III.2015).

It is the Holy Spirit who gives life to the soul! Let him enter. Speak to the Spirit as you speak to the Father, as you speak to the Son: speak to the Holy Spirit, who has nothing paralyzing about him! In him is the strength of the Church; it is he who carries you forward (General Audience, December 21, 2022).

With a friend we talk, we share the most secret things. With Jesus we also converse. Prayer is a challenge and an adventure, and what an adventure! It allows us to know him better and better, to enter into his depths and to grow in an ever stronger union. Prayer allows us to tell him everything that happens to us and to remain confidently in his arms, and at the same time it gives us moments of precious intimacy and affection, where Jesus pours his own life into us. By praying, we "open the way" to Him, we give Him room "so that He can act and enter and conquer" (Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit 155).

In this way it is possible to experience a constant unity with him that surpasses anything we can experience with other people: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Do not deprive your youth of this friendship. You will be able to feel him at your side not only when you pray. You will recognize that he walks with you at all times. Try to discover it and you will live the beautiful experience of knowing that you are always accompanied. This is what the disciples of Emmaus experienced when, while they were walking and conversing in disorientation, Jesus made himself present and "walked with them" (Lk 24:15). Christus vivit 156).

A young man to the Pope: "Can you explain to me how you pray and why you pray? As concretely as possible...".

How I pray... Many times I pick up the Bible, read a little, then put it down and let the Lord look at me: that is the most common idea of my prayer. I let Him look at me. And I feel - but it is not sentimentalism - I feel deeply the things the Lord tells me. Sometimes He doesn't speak... nothing, empty, empty, empty, empty... but patiently I stay there, and so I pray... I sit, I pray sitting down, because it hurts me to kneel, and sometimes I fall asleep praying... It is also a way of praying, like a son with the Father, and this is important: I feel like a son with the Father (Interview of Pope Francis to young people in Belgium, 31-III-2014).

Jesus, teacher of prayer

Jesus has constant recourse to the power of prayer. The Gospels show this when he withdraws to secluded places to pray. These are sober and discreet observations, which leave us only to imagine these prayerful dialogues. They clearly testify that, even in his moments of greatest dedication to the poor and the sick, Jesus never neglected his intimate dialogue with the Father. The more immersed he was in the needs of the people, the more he felt the need to rest in the Trinitarian Communion, to return to the Father and the Spirit.

In the life of Jesus there is, therefore, a secret, hidden from human eyes, which represents the core of everything. The prayer of Jesus is a mysterious reality, of which we can only intuit something, but which allows us to read his entire mission in the right perspective. In those solitary hours - before dawn or at night - Jesus immerses himself in his intimacy with the Father, that is, in the Love for which every soul thirsts. This is what emerges from the first days of his public ministry.

One Sabbath, for example, the small town of Capernaum is transformed into a "field hospital": after sunset, all the sick are brought to Jesus and he heals them. But, before dawn, Jesus disappears: he withdraws to a solitary place and prays. Simon and the others look for him, and when they find him, they say to him, "They are all looking for you!" What does Jesus reply: "Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring towns, so that I may preach there also; for that is why I have come out" (cf. Mk 1:35-38). Jesus is always beyond, beyond in prayer with the Father and beyond, in other towns, other horizons to go and preach, other towns.

Prayer is the rudder that guides Jesus' route. The stages of his mission are not dictated by success, nor by consensus, nor by that seductive phrase "everyone is looking for you". The less comfortable way is the one that traces the path of Jesus, but that obeys the inspiration of the Father, which Jesus listens to and welcomes in his solitary prayer.

The Catechism affirms: "By his prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray" (n. 2607). Therefore, from the example of Jesus we can draw some characteristics of Christian prayer.

Above all, it possesses a primacy: it is the first desire of the day, something practiced at dawn, before the world wakes up. It restores a soul to what would otherwise be breathless. A day lived without prayer runs the risk of becoming an annoying or boring experience: everything that happens to us could become for us an unbearable and blind fate. Jesus, however, educates in obedience to reality and therefore to listening. Prayer is above all listening and meeting with God. The problems of every day, then, do not become obstacles, but rather calls from God himself to listen and meet the one who is in front of us. The trials of life thus become occasions for growth in faith and charity. The daily journey, including the fatigues, acquires the perspective of a "vocation". Prayer has the power to transform into good what in life would otherwise be a condemnation; prayer has the power to open a great horizon to the mind and to enlarge the heart.

Secondly, prayer is an art to be practiced with insistence. Jesus himself tells us: call, call, call. We are all capable of episodic prayers, born of the emotion of a moment; but Jesus educates us in another type of prayer: the one that knows a discipline, an exercise and is assumed within a rule of life. A persevering prayer produces a progressive transformation, makes us strong in periods of tribulation, gives us the grace of being sustained by the One who loves us and protects us always.

Another characteristic of Jesus' prayer is solitude. The one who prays does not escape from the world, but prefers deserted places. There, in silence, many voices that we hide in intimacy can emerge: the most repressed desires, the truths that we persist in suffocating, etc. And above all, in silence God speaks. Every person needs a space for himself, where he can cultivate his inner life, where actions find meaning. Without interior life we become superficial, restless, anxious - how bad anxiety makes us - that is why we have to go to prayer; without interior life we flee from reality, and we also flee from ourselves, we are men and women always on the run.

Finally, the prayer of Jesus is the place where we perceive that everything comes from God and He returns. Sometimes we human beings think we are masters of everything, or on the contrary we lose all esteem for ourselves, we go from one side to the other. Prayer helps us to find the right dimension in our relationship with God, our Father, and with all creation. And the prayer of Jesus is finally to abandon ourselves into the hands of the Father, like Jesus in the Garden of Olives, in that anguish: "Father, if it is possible..., but your will be done". Abandonment in the hands of the Father. It is beautiful when we are anxious, a little worried and the Holy Spirit transforms us from within and leads us to this abandonment into the hands of the Father: "Father, your will be done" (General Audience, November 4, 2020).

But what if God does not answer our prayers?

There is a radical answer to prayer, which derives from an observation we all make: we pray, we ask, yet sometimes it seems that our prayers are not heard: what we have asked for - for ourselves or for others - does not happen. We have this experience many times. If, moreover, the reason for which we prayed was noble (such as intercession for the health of a sick person, or for the cessation of a war), the non-fulfillment seems scandalous to us. For example, for wars: we are praying for the end of wars, these wars in so many parts of the world, let us think of Yemen, let us think of Syria, countries that have been at war for years, years! Countries tormented by wars, we pray and they do not end. But how can this be? "There are those who stop praying because they think that their prayer is not heard" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2734) But if God is Father, why does he not listen to us? He who has assured us that he gives good things to the children who ask him (cfr. Mt 7:10), why does he not answer our requests? We all have experience of this: we have prayed, prayed, for the illness of this friend, of this father, of this mother and then they have gone away, God has not listened to us. It is an experience of all of us.

The Catechism offers us a good synthesis of this question. It warns us of the risk of not living an authentic experience of faith, but of transforming our relationship with God into something magical. Prayer is not a magic wand: it is a dialogue with the Lord. In fact, when we pray, we can run the risk of not being the ones who serve God, but of pretending that he is the one who serves us (cf. n. 2735). Here, then, is a prayer that is always demanding, that wants to direct events according to our design, that admits no other projects but our desires. Jesus, however, had great wisdom in putting the "Our Father" on our lips. It is a prayer of petitions only, as we know, but the first ones we utter are all on God's side. They ask for the fulfillment not of our project, but of His will in relation to the world. It is better to let Him do it: "Thy name be hallowed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done" (Mt 6:9-10) (General Audience, May 26, 2011).

Our Lady's example and help

Mary does not direct her life autonomously: she waits for God to take the reins of her path and guide her where He wants her to go. She is docile, and with her availability she predisposes the great events that involve God in the world... There is no better way to pray than to place oneself like Mary in an attitude of openness, of a heart open to God: "Lord, whatever You want, whenever You want and however You want". That is, the heart open to the will of God....

Mary accompanies the whole life of Jesus in prayer, up to his death and resurrection; and at the end she continues and accompanies the first steps of the nascent Church (cf. Acts 1:14). Mary prays with the disciples who have gone through the scandal of the cross. She prays with Peter, who gave in to fear and wept in repentance. Mary is there, with the disciples, in the midst of the men and women whom her Son has called to form his Community....

Praying with the nascent Church, she becomes Mother of the Church, accompanying the disciples in the first steps of the Church in prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit. In silence, always in silence. Mary's prayer is silent. The Gospel tells us of only one prayer of Mary: at Cana, when she asks her Son, for those poor people, who are going to look bad at the feast.

Mary is present because she is Mother, but she is also present because she is the first disciple, the one who has learned the best things from Jesus. Mary never says: "Come, I will sort things out". Some have compared Mary's heart to a pearl of incomparable splendor, formed and softened by the patient acceptance of God's will through the mysteries of Jesus meditated on in prayer. How beautiful if we too can resemble our Mother a little! With a heart open to the Word of God, with a silent heart, with an obedient heart, with a heart that knows how to receive the Word of God and allows it to grow with a seed of the good of the Church (General Audience, 18-XI-2020).

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ColumnistsMaria José Atienza

A Bravo! by Manolo

There are few references that unite, almost unanimously, those who make up a profession such as communication in these times. Fewer still, within the Church. Manuel Garrido is one of those exceptions.

January 30, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsBravo! 2023 Awards recognize Manuel Garrido, "Libres" and ACdP

Receiving an award is always a double-edged sword. Along with the recipient's own pride, there is often biting criticism and even distrust of the person who has been left off the list. But there are exceptions.

One of them was the recent presentation of the Bravo! awards, with which the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has been recognizing, for 54 years, the work of professionals and companies in different fields of communication. This year, the Bravo! Award for Institutional Communication was awarded to Manuel Garrido, "for his intense career dedicated to institutional communication in the Information Office of the Opus Dei and, previously, in Torreciudad."

Manolo has been, for decades, "Opus" for journalists, the image that formed in the heads of dozens of communication professionals when they spoke of this personal prelature. Beyond stereotypes, philias and phobias, prejudices and commonplaces, there was Manolo.

Manolo has been able to move in the turbulent waters of a Church that is not at all comfortable for the communicator, but above all, Manolo has been able to become a companion of the communication professionals he has dealt with, whom he has served, even when his work "has not served them at all".

Manolo has received a Bravo Award! a few months after the goring of the bull of ALS hit him full in the face. He had just left professional bullfighting to enjoy a well-deserved retirement and, in a matter of days, he exchanged his motorcycle for crutches. From Torreciudad he wrote to his colleagues and friends telling them the news and asking for prayers. Smiling. With the same smile with which he received his award, in a crowded room where journalists from all the institutions of the Church applauded a colleague, a reference, a friend.

There are few references that unite, almost unanimously, those who make up a profession such as communication in these times and even less, within the Church. Even fewer are the sincere friendships that this work brings you. But when I saw Manolo with his crutches picking up the Bravo! there were many in the room who pointed to the man and said to whoever was next to him "That's my friend over there.". And surely, for Manolo, it is a better prize.

The authorMaria José Atienza

Director of Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.

RelatedRelated NewsBravo! 2023 Awards recognize Manuel Garrido, "Libres" and ACdP
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Experiences

Gustavo Ron, "in love with the work of Nadiesolo's volunteers".

After a life of professional entrepreneurship in the hotel business, Gustavo Ron embarked in 2010 on Nadiesolo, whose two thousand volunteers accompany forty thousand people, with names and surnames, who suffer unwanted loneliness due to illness, dependence, disability or at risk of exclusion. "There is an increasing social demand for accompaniment," he says.

Francisco Otamendi-January 30, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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"Yes, I am Gustavo Ron's father", says with good humor this hotel businessman, who has turned to the management of volunteers to accompany vulnerable and often lonely people. Because his son Gustavo is a well-known Spanish screenwriter and film director. Nor Gustavo Ron senior (Zaragoza, 1945), is unknown. He chairs the board of Nadiesolo Voluntariado, the fourth largest in the sector in Madrid after Caritas, Red Cross and Manos Unidas, and before that he was, for example, CEO of Hoteles Husa and founded Café y Té.

We recently met Gustavo Ron, the father, "I am doing a voluntary 'tournée', that's why I'm from Nadiesolowhich is a volunteer NGO, with two objectives. To make people aware of existing initiatives; and to recruit volunteers, not immediately, but in the medium term, because we need them. "We have 2,000," adds Ron, "but before the pandemic we had 2,300, and we went to 1,500. Now we are going up. There is more and more social demand for accompaniment, that's the reality".

About the beginnings, Gustavo Ron says: "This is a lay foundation, which does not belong to any creed, but it must be said that this foundation was started in 1995 by a group of supernumeraries of Opus Dei, and they continue to promote it. Our board of trustees is made up of a majority of supernumeraries, without this fact being persecuted, because there are trustees who do not belong to the Work, and they are people concerned about what it means to accompany people who are alone.

"Thank God, I was born into a Catholic family," explains this Aragonese. "My father had belonged to the Luises, he was from Malaga, and my mother, born in Zaragoza, was fundamentally a Pilarista, as befits a good maña. We went to the Cardinal Xavierre school of the Dominicans in Zaragoza, for whom I still have tremendous respect and appreciation. My father died when I was 15 years old. This served to direct my professional future, and I ended up at the School of Hotel Management, which placed me in the world of services, which has a lot to do with my current dedication at Nadiesolo. In other words, we are here to serve, and if we serve and fall in love with it, we have a great time working". 

Gustavo Ron explains that he got to know Nadiesolo (Development and Assistance) through its then president, Rafael Izquierdo, a civil engineer. "He was an absolutely endearing person. We met in Fatima, and one day he told me: 'come with me'. Later, when Rafael had passed away, the women, who were the majority on the board of trustees, told me that I had to be president. Ron reveals that "I have accompanied volunteers to visit users, on excursions, to places of leisure, etc., and I have absolutely fallen in love with the task. I defend the work of Nadiesolo's volunteers, because they are enormously available people, and at the same time enormously grateful. And what happens over time, and not much, is that the volunteer becomes a friend of the user, and vice versa, an available friend". 

Last year, the organization's volunteers dedicated 83,000 hours of accompaniment through its programs (see nadiesolo.org). "There is a program that is perhaps the most beautiful and easiest to understand, which is to take disabled children out for a walk. These kids, under 13 years of age, because the older ones have a different program, are taken out for a walk one Saturday a month by a married couple with their children. This is 'family volunteering', beneficial for everyone, and also formative".

We talked about the so-called 'Support for homeless people'. "People who live on the street have dependencies, almost all of them, and they are people who are difficult to live with. The Madrid City Council has three residences, shelters. I know the two shelters we serve, and there we go to spend time with these people: playing cards, chatting with those who want to, and with some we become friends. I remember an excursion to Avila with a group of 50 people. I have experienced what the trip meant, the hotel, the visit to the cathedral, the walls...., we have also been to Segovia, Toledo, etc.".

"This is important for these people because they feel loved, because we give them affection, because I shook hands with 50 people I don't usually shake hands with, and at that moment I regretted not doing it often". They have such a good time, and at least provisionally they feel included in society", Gustavo Ron affirms.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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Photo Gallery

The drama of the border

Unaccompanied minors from Honduras sit on the riverbank in Roma, Texas, after crossing the Rio Grande. Each year thousands of these minors cross into the U.S. at various border points.

Maria José Atienza-January 29, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute
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The Vatican

The Jubilee 2025 "Kit".

   

Rome Reports-January 29, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute
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The Dicastery for Evangelization and an Italian company have created an kit to help people prepare for their pilgrimage to the Eternal City.

The backpack includes badges to exchange with other pilgrims, water bottle, bracelet, rosary, handkerchief and a hat.

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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  • Focus
  • Education
  • Vicente del Bosque: "Soccer is a great tool to educate."
Education

Vicente del Bosque: "Soccer is a great tool to educate."

The coach of the Spanish national soccer team, world champion in South Africa in 2010 and at Euro 2012, Vicente del Bosque, has highlighted to Omnes the educational power of sport and soccer. One million families in Spain live soccer every week, as do many others in many countries.

Francisco Otamendi-January 29, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes
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Vicente del Bosque (Salamanca, 1950), former footballer and winner of five Spanish League titles and four Spanish Cups with Real Madrid, and former coach and trainer of the Spanish national soccer team, which he led to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2012 European Championship, is a legend of the Spanish national soccer team. sport Spanish.

Last week, Del Bosque presented, at the CEU Angel Herrera Awards, the award corresponding to the "Ethics and Values" category to Pau Gasol, another Spanish sports legend, an extraordinary basketball player who played 18 seasons in the NBA, where he was twice champion, and another 3 with FC Barcelona. The other person to receive this award was Mexican producer and actor Eduardo Verástegui.

Del Bosque was awarded by FIFA as the best world's best coach at 2012and from athlete to athlete, he presented the award to Agustí Gasol, father of Pau Gasol, who entered the CEU event via streaming. 

The only eight world champion teams in soccer are Brazil (5), Germany (4) and Italy (4), Argentina (3), France (2) and Uruguay (2), England (1) and Spain (1).

A few days later, far from the hustle and bustle, Omnes spoke briefly with this illustrious and reserved Salamanca native. We chatted about the background of the sport, his family (they have a son, Alvaro, with Down syndrome), and finally, his hometown, Salamanca.

Sport and society: How do you value Pau Gasol's reference?

-The sport that I have practiced, soccer, does a great service to society, we cannot forget that a million boys and girls play soccer every weekend, more than a million federated. This means that sport is of great importance, especially soccer, in which a million families, including parents, grandparents, etc., follow their children. What is needed is for them to take advantage of soccer to become better, better kids.

I think the award we are giving to Pau Gasol's father is very well deserved, because he is an example of what an athlete should be. Besides, it is a discreet family, with two magnificent sons (he also refers to Marc, NBA player for 13 consecutive years), it is an absolutely deserved award.

You led the Spanish national team to victory in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I don't know if the team spirit you instilled has been emphasized enough. Even though there were great individuals, Iniesta, Casillas, Xavi and others, that victory belonged to everyone... 

-No doubt about it. Individuals are part of a team, and what we have to do is convince those very good players that they will be much better and more recognized if we are a team. That is fundamental. And even more so in a Spanish national team where each one comes from his father and mother, a different family, but the truth is that they behaved excellently.

Any comments on this historic world championship?

-We had inherited a group of very good players from Luis Aragonés, from 2008, and we were able to put together a good combination, and then the European Championship. It was a very good moment for Spanish soccer. Without going into details, we saw good sporting examples for everyone.

You talk about the educational power of sport. Educating in admitting defeat, knowing how to win and how to lose, fair play, sportsmanship... Are we losing that, or are we making progress? 

-I think we are aware that as footballers, they not only have the obligation to do their best, but also to be a good reference for everyone, for all young people. It's normal to see good things, but there are also uncomfortable situations, or at least situations that don't benefit anyone. 

For example, that player who is substituted and instead of shaking hands with the player who is about to enter and wishing him the best, he leaves in a bad mood, and gives an example of a bad teammate. These are details... Or that mania of trying to cheat the referee to get a better performance. We put the referees in a situation like the one we are living: with the referee's discomfort and making his task more difficult every day.

Let's go with a family theme. You are the parents of three children. Some values you and your wife have tried to instill in your children.. 

-We have treated the three of them equally. Both Álvaro, who is the middle child, and the oldest, and then the youngest, we have tried to give them the best example. We are delighted with the school they have gone to. I'm not saying they have always been good students, but I think they are good kids, which is the most important thing.

Álvaro, the middle child, was born with Down syndrome. How old is he now? There are parents and siblings of girls and boys with this syndrome who claim to learn a lot from them.

-Alvaro is 33 now, he will be 34 next year, and the truth is that he is a sweetheart in every way (he repeats it twice). We wouldn't know how to live without him. Surely he has been the best thing that has happened to us in our lives. He is a neat, clean, prudent boy. He has all the virtues a boy can have.

Congratulations. 

-Thank you.

Any message you would like to convey. The million members is relevant, it is a lot of people, a lot of families.

-The importance that soccer has in Spanish society. We are not only moved by the professionals we see, but also by the kids, most of whom will never become footballers. Sport, soccer, is a great tool for their education. No doubt about it.

A comment out of program. Happy with Unionistas de Salamanca?

-Yes, the truth is that I have a bit of a contradiction there, because all our lives we have been..., my father was one of the oldest members of the Unión Deportiva Salamanca club, of the original (Salamanca CF UDS). But well, there are people there who have done a good job, and I would like to unite the two teams into one. Things are the way they happen, and maybe it has been good for soccer in Salamanca.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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RelatedRelated NewsSoccer and religion: "Listen to your God and you will not be alone".
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The Vatican

"With the devil do not dialogue!" reminds Pope at Angelus

The Pope encouraged the faithful never to dialogue with the devil "because then he always wins" and reiterated his plea for peace in the many current conflicts.

Maria José Atienza-January 28, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

Good weather marked the Angelus prayer presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. This Sunday, January 24, the Church also celebrates the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and patron of Catholic schools.

Today's Angelus prayer at the Vatican was marked by the presence of a large group of young people and children who participated in the Caravan for Peace organized by Catholic Action in Rome.

In his words before the Marian prayer, the Pope, looking at this Sunday's Gospel, stressed that "what the devil wants is to put our souls in chains. The devil always takes away freedom. Francis encouraged us to "name" some of the many chains with which the devil binds us in our lives: addictions, dominant fashions, consumerism and hedonism, as well as other temptations such as "conditioning that undermines self-esteem, serenity and the ability to choose and love life; fear and intolerance".

The Pope has repeatedly stressed that we must never dialogue or negotiate with the devil. The pontiff highlighted the example of Christ himself who never dialogues with the devil. When tempted in the desert, Christ responds with words from the Bible; never a dialogue".

"You cannot dialogue with the devil because if you enter into dialogue with him, he always wins. Be attentive," the Pope firmly repeated, encouraging the faithful to invoke Jesus in the face of temptations and to have a sincere attitude to ask themselves if they really want "to be freed from the chains that imprison my heart.

Petition for peace and respect

After praying the Angelus, Francis turned his attention to the long conflict in Myanmar. Once again, Francis reiterated his invitation "to all the parties involved, to take steps of dialogue and to clothe themselves with understanding, so that the land of Myanmar may reach the goal of fraternal reconciliation".

The Pope also asked that "humanitarian aid be allowed to pass through to guarantee the needs of every person". Not only in Myanmar but also in "the Middle East, Palestine and Israel, and wherever there is fighting." Francis has again demanded that people be respected, recalling the many victims of conflicts such as those in Ukraine.

In addition to calling strongly for peace for all these areas, he added the request for "the release of all those who are still kidnapped and an end to all forms of violence; that everyone offer their contribution to the peaceful development of the country, for which renewed support from the international community is needed."

The pontiff also recalled the attack perpetrated this weekend against the church of Santa Maria Draperis in Istanbul, which caused one death and several wounded.

In addition to this recurring plea for peace, the Pope, on the occasion of today's World Leprosy Day, encouraged a greater commitment to aid and social reintegration of those who suffer, even today, from this disease "which affects the poorest and most marginalized".

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The World

Higher than expected number of sexual abuses in the German evangelical church

A study commissioned by the Evangelical Church in Germany, conducted by a group of researchers over the past four years, has revealed that there were many more cases of sexual abuse in Protestant churches than previously thought.

José M. García Pelegrín-January 27, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

Six years after the publication of the study on abuse commissioned by the Catholic Bishops' Conference, an important study on sexual abuse in the Protestant Church was presented this Thursday. The analysis was carried out by an interdisciplinary research group called "ForuM - Research on the treatment of sexualized violence and other forms of abuse in the Evangelical Church and Diakonia in Germany" and funded by the EKD ("Evangelische Kirche Deutschlands"3.6 million, which commissioned it in 2020. The EKD consists of 20 "Landeskirchen" ("regional churches") and represents 19.2 million evangelical Christians throughout Germany.

The most outstanding result of this study, which consists of 871 pages, is that the number of victims of sexual abuse is much higher than expected. But before entering into an analysis of this study, it is important to point out two particularities.

First, while the study on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church ("MGH study," 2018) was confined to consecrated persons, the. ForuM" study affects not only Protestant pastors, but also employees of the so-called "Diakonia", the Protestant institution comparable to "Caritas" in the Catholic sphere.

Secondly, the "MGH study" was carried out on the basis of the personal files in the diocesan curias, a total of 38,156 files. In the case of the "ForuM" study, comprehensive data were only available for one of the 20 District Churches of the EKD. A total of 4,300 disciplinary files, 780 personnel files and some 1,320 other documents were examined. According to EKD Council President Kirsten Fehrs, the Protestant churches did not refuse to cooperate, but they did "worse" than the Catholic dioceses: there was no "deliberate unwillingness", but simply an "unfortunate inability".

These are therefore "projections". The study states: "an estimated total number of 3,497 accused persons (including 1,402 herders) and 9,355 affected persons" since 1946.

This is why, although these figures are much higher than previously assumed, since they were based on some 900 victims of abuse, they are only the "tip of the tip of the iceberg" and a "very selective sample", according to the study coordinator, Martin Wazlawik, professor of social work at the Hannover University of Applied Sciences.

The "ForuM" study refers to the fact that the evangelical church had considered sexual abuse ("sexualized violence") as a problem specific to the Catholic Church or, on the contrary, as a problem of society as a whole, but one that did not particularly affect them.

The prologue to the Study also speaks of a "historicist" tendency: to consider it as a problem confined to the orphanages of the 50s and 60s, or as a passing phenomenon of "sexual liberation" after "68".

As one of the "systemic" or specific causes of evangelical churches, the lack of sufficient control is indicated: not having a religious leader grants a wide autonomy to each pastor, which leads to "a diffusion of responsibility in the complex structures of a Church that in many places attaches great importance to building itself up from below and does not provide for strong supervision with possibilities of intervention". In addition, a certain "laissez-faire" in sex education may have been a feature of specifically Protestant abuse. Specifically, the "ForuM" study speaks of a greater rise of "sexual liberation" than in Catholicism, as well as of the influence of pedagogues such as Helmut Kentler, Gerold Becker and Hartmut von Hentig who, with their "overcoming of limits" in adult-child contacts, favored a "paidosexual" influence on Protestant reform pedagogy and sexual ethics. However, the study admits that "a more detailed analysis and reflection on the influence of various reformist pedagogical currents and possible paidosexual currents is still to be done".

In any case, what the MHG and ForuM studies agree on is that the victims of sexual abuse are approximately two-thirds male: 64.7% of the victims in the Protestant Church were male. Of the offenders, 99.6% were also male; specific to the evangelical churches, three-quarters of the sex offenders were married when they committed their first offense.

Celibacy is not the problem

From this result it can be inferred that celibacy is not, as has been repeated in recent years in the wake of the MHG study, a very important factor, let alone the most decisive one. Even a newspaper not exactly known for its sympathy for the Catholic Church, such as Berlin's "Der Tagesspiegel", stressed in its editorial that the Protestant Church cannot cite celibacy as the main reason for sexual abuse, the most recurrent argument, because it does not exist in the Protestant Church.

The Catholic lay initiative "New Beginnings," which has become known primarily for its opposition to the Synodal Way of the Catholic Church in Germany, said in a statement that this new study has finally put an end to the "persistent narrative of the Synodal Way, according to which abuse has systemic causes of a specifically Catholic character." While systemic structures such as "power imbalances, unclear role models, the ability to manipulate potential perpetrators in asymmetrical relationships" can foster abuse, they are "neither specifically Catholic nor denominational." Where work is done with children and young people, these factors could "systemically" favor abuse; but, according to the initiative, there is no indication of additional "specifically Catholic factors of significant and important effectiveness" in either the Protestant ForuM or the Catholic MHG study. The initiative concludes: "Both studies show that the churches have not been addressing and responding well to the problem of abuse for a long time".

In the Catholic weekly "Die Tagespost", Regina Einig commented that although this study "should not be a source of satisfaction for Catholics", the fact that there are also cases of abuse in the Protestant sphere raises objective questions for the German bishops and allows conclusions to be drawn for the Synodal Path, "since the premises under which it began are proving to be unsustainable". The MHG study pointed to three characteristics of the Catholic Church as factors facilitating sexual abuse: celibacy, the hierarchical structure of the Church and the lack of women in leadership. None of these are present in the Protestant churches, and yet this has not prevented abuse here; "even the Protestant parsonage with a married pastor and a traditional family does not guarantee a safe space".

For the editor of "Die Tagespost", the Catholic Church and the Protestants agree on one thing: "they find it difficult to recognize the negative consequences of the sexual revolution and the ideology of 1968." The "aberrations of sex education, which from the 1960s onwards were responsible for the experiments of sexologists on minors" that denied the suffering of those affected, are "inconceivable without the ideological course set by the 1968 movement". In this context he advocates a posthumous rehabilitation of Benedict XVI: "His criticisms of 1968 in relation to the abuse crisis were not exaggerated."

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Family

Silvana Ramos, building the world through marriage and the family

Peruvian Silvana Ramos, an engineer by training, is dedicated to family formation and accompaniment. Her life experience and her own family are, for her, the source of this need to be consistent with the faith and to have the answers to the challenges that, above all, young people pose in the area of marriage and the family.

Juan Carlos Vasconez-January 27, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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Silvana is 46 years old and has been married to Francisco for 13 years. This Peruvian couple has three children, who are their greatest adventure. Silvana is an engineer, but the marriage and the family are the place where she does most of her work. A few years ago, she completed a Master's Degree in Marriage and the Family at the University of Navarra (Spain), which, she tells us, gave her a new perspective. She is in charge of Marriage and Family in two schools in Lima, called Villa Caritas and San Pedro.

Silvana remembers her childhood as a time filled with God, although, by her own admission, it did not last long. Although her mother "made an effort to be there every Sunday at Mass, whether she wanted to be or not," Silvana's adolescence and youth were marked by her religious coldness. It was around her thirties when she "rediscovered her faith and God, who in reality was always there".

The trigger was the decision of one of her brothers who "in the prime of his adolescence, decided to leave home to consecrate his life to Christ". Silvana tried to understand what had made her brother make that choice and "in that journey of understanding my brother and making him 'come to his senses', I was the one who came to my senses!

A "full risk" marriage

One of Silvana's passions is her marriage. She recalls how, due to her parents' separation, "I didn't know any married couples who told me that marriage was a beautiful thing. When we decided to get married, not many people were happy. They suggested that we should live together first, that we should get married with separate property..., in short. It was like preparing for disaster instead of for a life of love together". It was then that Silvana decided with her husband, a man of faith, to prepare themselves "conscientiously to understand more about the sacrament". They began a life of prayer, naturally: "We try to make the subject of faith a natural part of our talks, stories and histories. Now that I have two children in their teens, these talks have become much more interesting and challenging. It's no longer just about telling and explaining, but above all about answering their questions, listening twice as carefully to what they have inside, giving them space, and being as consistent as possible in our life of faith".

This family prayer life has evolved over time, but it maintains some practices that are now traditional: "Morning prayer, which we do together in the car; it is just an ejaculatory prayer and a brief reflection of the Gospel that lasts no more than 10 minutes on the way to school. We bless the food (and in the most unusual ways sometimes), and without fail we pray together every night. I thank God that it is my children who, every time we send them to bed, find as an excuse to earn a few extra minutes awake the phrase, 'We haven't prayed yet!'" Along with this, charity and solidarity are also part of his family's life of faith.

New challenges

The challenges of this new phase are also accompanied by the family's rhythm. mother She is currently finishing a specialization in accompaniment for love and affectivity. She is currently finishing a specialization in accompaniment for love and affectivity.

In addition to this, through training projects, "which include parenting, family, couple, sports, cultural, solidarity and even environmental topics, I seek to positively impact the bond between parents and children".

"I repeat to my children that the greatest legacy I can leave them is my life of faith. And although it sounds simple, it is quite a challenging undertaking," Silvana says of the future.

"It is not a matter of leading a perfect life, nor of showing oneself to be immaculate, that would be impossible. I believe that a life of faith implies knowing oneself to be fragile, vulnerable, in need of others, but above all of God," he says.

Silvana is very clear about what she wants to show her children and the world: "That my children know, because they have seen it, that darkness is overcome with light, and that battles are never won alone. If one wants to go far, it is better to do it accompanied, and what better company than that of God, who shows himself through those who love us the most".

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United States

Diocese of St. Augustine: the origin of the faith in the U.S.

In this article of the "Frontier Dioceses" series, we take a look at St. Augustine, cradle of faith in the United States.

Gonzalo Meza-January 27, 2024-Reading time: 7 minutes
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The city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565. It is the oldest European and African-American settlement in the United States. It was from that city that the faith spread two centuries before St. Junipero Serra built the missions on the West Coast (1769), four decades before the English colonized Jamestown (1607) and 55 years before the first "Pilgrims" landed at Plymouth Rock (1620). The Diocese of "St. Augustine". (St. Augustine) is located in the northeastern part of the state of Florida. It encompasses 17 counties that stretch from the northeast section of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, covering more than 11,000 square miles and encompassing several major cities, the largest of which are Jacksonville, Gainesville and St. Augustine.

History of the city of San Agustín

The European discovery of Florida is attributed to Juan Ponce de Leon, first governor, who would arrive to those lands in 1513 during Easter time, that is why he baptized the peninsula as "Pascua Florida". Ponce de Leon claimed the territory for the Spanish crown. He would return in 1521 but this time bringing priests and missionaries, many of whom would die during the expedition at the hands of the local tribes. Since its discovery and over the course of fifty years Spain sent at least six expeditions to colonize Florida, but they were unsuccessful. It was not until 1564 when a group of Frenchmen managed to settle in what is today the city of Jacksonville. This new settlement posed a threat to the Spanish fleets that sailed along the east coast of Florida.

In response, King Philip II commissioned Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to eliminate the French threat in the area and take control of the city of St. Augustine. This had two primary purposes: to serve as a military post or "presidio" to defend Florida and to be a missionary settlement in the southeast. Maintaining a permanent military colony implied risks, including attacks by English privateers and clashes between the Spanish and British at a time when the English colonies north of Florida (in the states of Georgia and the Carolinas) were slave states that looked askance at the freedom that the Spanish crown gave to those who came to their territories.

The first Mass in the United States

Admiral Pedro Menendez sailed from Spain in June 1565 bringing with him hundreds of travelers and several diocesan priests. They reached the peninsula, making landfall on September 8, 1565. The priest Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales presided the Holy Mass in the place and they called that site "San Agustin" in honor of the saint that was celebrated the day they had the first sighting.

On September 8, the first Mass was held in the North American territory (today a monumental cross is erected in that place to commemorate the event). A few years later the "Mission Nombre de Dios" was established and in 1620 the chapel called "Nuestra Señora de la Leche y el Buen Parto" was built on that site, being the first Marian enclosure in the United States. 

In its beginnings, as an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, St. Augustine depended, along with the entire territory of Florida, on the diocese of Santiago de Cuba (erected in 1518). In 1573 the Franciscans arrived in St. Augustine to establish missions not only in Florida but also to the north, in what is today the state of Georgia. The city of St. Augustine was from its beginnings the center of departure for missionary work in the north and south of the peninsula. In almost one hundred years they built 38 missions in the territory.

The missionaries worked with the native peoples evangelizing and imparting the sacraments, but they were not always well received. Many died at the hands of the local people, as is the case of the Franciscans Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Beráscola, who were killed by members of the Guale tribe between September 14 and 17, 1597. The process of beatification of Pedro de Corpa and companions, called the martyrs of Georgia, is currently underway in Rome.

The city of St. Augustine in the 18th century

The first churches that were built in the city of St. Augustine did not last for many reasons including: the materials used, lack of maintenance, weather conditions and mainly the constant attacks by different groups over two centuries including privateers (Francis Drake, burned the city in 1585), English settlers, for example the governor of Carolina James Moore who destroyed the missions killing three Franciscans in 1704, or General James Oglethorpe who attacked the city in 1740. These attacks on Florida by the English colonies of Georgia and the Carolinas were due to the fact that in the Spanish territory fugitive slaves obtained their freedom upon arrival. In fact, in 1738 the first community of former slaves was established, two miles from St. Augustine, in an enclave called "Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose".

After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the "Seven Years' War" or the "French and Indian War" (as it is known in North America) between France and the United Kingdom, the British took control of the Spanish colonies, causing the departure of thousands of Catholics. Franciscans and secular priests left the peninsula. By 1764 there were only eight Catholics left in the new British colony.

Four years later, workers arrived from Menorca, Italy and Greece to work on an indigo plantation in the city of New Smyrna. They were accompanied by Father Pedro Camps, a native of Mercadal, Menorca. Their presence lasted only 9 years as they could not stand the oppressive conditions of the plantation, so they moved to St. Augustine, where the governor offered them asylum. Father Camps was also allowed to create a makeshift chapel in the city and thus resume worship after 13 years of absence. At the end of the American Revolution in 1783, the United Kingdom returned Florida to Spain, initiating the second period of Spanish rule (1784-1821).

In 1784 two Irish priests, Michael O'Reilly and Thomas Hassett, arrived in St. Augustine, the latter opening the first school for black slaves. In 1793 Pope Pius VI authorized the creation of the "Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas", with jurisdiction over the entire peninsula. This gave a new impulse to the Church and in that same year the construction of a new temple began in the area where the first church of St. Augustine had been erected, this enclosure would become the cathedral in 1870.

Although Spain fought to keep its colonies in America, various reasons, including the Napoleonic wars, prevented it from doing so. In 1819, by means of the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain surrendered the Spanish colonies to the newly created nation: the United States of America. In 1825 the Apostolic Vicariate of Alabama and the Floridas (now the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama) was created with Bishop Michael Portier as the first ordinary.

Florida became the 27th state of the American Union in 1845. Pope Pius IX, in 1857, appointed Augustine Verot, bishop of Savannah, Georgia (north of Florida) as Vicar Apostolic of Florida. Soon after, the "Sisters of Mercy" arrived to open the first Catholic convent in Florida for white girls. They were also allowed to give religious instruction to slaves. The nuns had to be evacuated during the American Civil War (1861-1865). At the end of the war, the "Sisters of St. Joseph" arrived from France to provide education to the freed slaves. 

The Diocese of St. Augustine is initiated

In 1870 the Diocese of St. Augustine was created, being Augustine Verot the first bishop. He was succeeded by John Moore in 1877. In the year of its foundation, the diocese had only three priests, three parishes, seven missions, some religious and 1,328 Catholics. It was a period in which the city had a period of economic and social renaissance. The magnate Henry Flagler, former partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company, wanted to turn the city of St. Augustine into a winter tourist center, especially for those who lived in the northeastern United States. In this way, he extended the railroad of the place connecting it with other more populated cities of the east. In 1887, he began the construction of hotels and infrastructure for the tourist industry. In that same year, a great fire destroyed the cathedral, which was reopened a year later with the support of Henry Flagler. 

In the 20th century, during World War I, Michael J. Curley was appointed the fourth bishop of St. Augustine. The prelate faced a period of anti-Catholic sentiment, marked by several incidents, including the arrest of three St. Joseph's nuns accused of violating a law prohibiting the teaching of black children.

In 1922 Bishop Patrick J. Barry was appointed bishop. During his tenure he lived through the years of the economic depression in the USA. In spite of this, 28 churches and 10 schools were built and the number of priests increased from 29 to 72. In 1940 Pius XII appointed Joseph P. Hurley as the new bishop. During his administration, land was acquired, especially in the 1950s, for the construction of churches and schools. Joseph P. Hurley participated in some sessions of the Second Vatican Council. 

During the era of the civil rights struggle, the city of St. Augustine played an important role with the arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964. The leader intended the city to become a place to bring about national change in favor of civil rights for the African American community, which, as in other parts of the southern United States, suffered from racial discrimination and segregation still written into the laws. The presence of Dr. Martin Luther King increased racial tensions in the city, especially because in 1964 the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine were being prepared. 

In 1979 John J. Snyder was appointed bishop of the diocese, which in that year had 63,000 Catholics. During his administration there was a period of expansion with the creation of 8 parishes, seven schools, retreat houses and the Marywood Catholic Spirituality and Retreat Center. He was succeeded by Bishops Víctor Galeone (2001-20119) and Felipe J. Estévez (2011-2022), born in Havana, Cuba. In May 2022, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier as the eleventh bishop of St. Augustine. His episcopal ordination and installation took place on July 22, 2022. 

The Diocese of St. Augustine today

The Florida peninsula has seven ecclesiastical jurisdictions: Pensacola-Tallahassee, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Venice, Palm Beach, Miami and St. Augustine. The Diocese of St. Augustine has more than 176,000 Catholics out of a total population of 2.4 million. There are 140 priests, 94 permanent deacons and 98 religious sisters, some of whom minister in 54 parishes and 14 missions and chapels. The jurisdiction has 24 parochial elementary schools and 5 high schools where more than 10,000 students study.

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The Vatican

"Let us pray for communion," Pope asks Eastern Churches

The Pope had an audience this morning in the Vatican Apostolic Palace with members of the International Joint Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Loreto Rios-January 26, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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In the framework of this ecumenical meeting, the Pope delivered a speech on speech He began with the words of the Apostle Peter: "To you grace and peace in abundance" (1 Peter 1:2), as he then pointed out: "With these words of the Apostle Peter I cordially greet you, grateful to His Grace Kyrillos for his kind words and to all of you for your presence and commitment to walk together on the paths of unity, which are also paths of peace".

As a sign of this unity, the Pope mentioned the saints and martyrs, many of whom are shared by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches: "Supported by the saints and martyrs who accompany us united from heaven, let us pray and strive tirelessly for communion and to counteract the lack of peace that plagues so many parts of the earth, including various regions from which you come".

The International Joint Commission

This meeting is being held on the twentieth anniversary of the International Joint Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Pope expressed his joy at the presence of a delegation of young priests and monks: "The presence of young people nourishes hope and prayer guides the way!". Francis also recalled the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, with a special mention of those who visited him last year: Tawadros IIThe Archbishop of Alexandria, Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the Syro-Malankar Orthodox Church, and Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.

The Pope recalled that the International Joint Commission held its first meeting in Cairo in January 2004 and that, since then, "it has met almost every year and has adopted three important documents of an ecclesiological nature, reflecting the richness of the Christian traditions that you represent: Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Malankar, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Latin".

On the other hand, the Holy Father indicated that "four delegations of young Eastern Orthodox priests and monks have already come to Rome to get to know the Catholic Church better, at the invitation of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, which I thank, and a delegation of young Catholic priests went to Etchmiadzin last year at the invitation of the Armenian Apostolic Church". Francis pointed out that "involving young people in bringing our churches closer together is a sign of the Spirit, who rejuvenates the Church in harmony, inspires paths of communion." Along these lines, the Pope asked that "this 'dialogue of life'" continue.

Full communion is "urgent and necessary".

Francis pointed out that the "gestures, rooted in the recognition of the one Baptism, are not mere acts of courtesy or diplomacy, but have an ecclesial significance."

Francis expressed his hope that "this anniversary will be an occasion to praise God for the road travelled, remembering with gratitude those who have contributed to it with their theological competence and prayer, and that it will also renew the conviction that full communion between our churches is not only possible, but urgent and necessary 'so that the world may believe' (Jn 17:21)".

Mary, a bridge to the Orthodox Churches

In conclusion, the Pope invited the Commission to entrust its work to Our Lady: "Since the present phase of your dialogue concerns the Virgin Mary in the teaching and life of the Church, I propose that you entrust your work to her, the Holy Mother of God and our Mother.

Also this time we can invoke her together with the words of an ancient prayer, a wonderful prayer that unites us, called in Latin 'Sub tuum praesidium,'" the Pope added, concluding the address with the prayer "Under your protection we take refuge, Holy Mother of God."

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The Vatican

Praying for unity, the main task of our journey

The Second Vespers of the Solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul marked the conclusion of the 57th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Antonino Piccione-January 26, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

Not "who is my neighbor?", but "do I make myself a neighbor?". Reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan, Pope Francis delivered his homily during the Second Vespers of the Solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul, at the conclusion of the 57th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on the theme "Love the Lord your God...and love your neighbor as yourself."

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

It is an ecumenical prayer initiative in which all Christian confessions pray together for the attainment of the full unity that is Christ's will. Traditionally, it takes place from January 18 to 25, because it falls between the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.

It was officially initiated by the Episcopalian Reverend Paul Wattson in Graymoor, New York, in 1908 as the Octave for Church Unity, with the hope that it would become a common practice.

Since 1968, the theme and texts of the prayer have been elaborated jointly by the Faith and Order Commission of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, for Protestants and Orthodox, and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, for Catholics.

For 2024, the theme chosen is taken from the Gospel of Luke: "Love the Lord your God... and love your neighbor as yourself".  

"Love the Lord your God...and love your neighbor as yourself."

The texts of the commentaries, prayers and indications on how to live this moment were prepared by an Ecumenical Group from Burkina Faso, coordinated by the local Chemin Neuf Community. Living this experience together, its members reported, was a true journey of ecumenical conversion that led them to recognize that the love of Christ unites all Christians and is stronger than their divisions.

About 1,500 people were present at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, with representatives of various Christian denominations, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Orthodox Metropolitan Polycarp and representatives of the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the Catholic Church and other Churches.

At the tomb of the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Pope reiterated that "only this love that becomes gratuitous service, only this love that Jesus proclaimed and lived will bring separated Christians closer to one another. Yes, only this love, which does not go back to the past to distance itself or point fingers, only this love which in the name of God places the brother before the fierce defense of his own religious system, will unite us. First the brother, then the system.

Among ourselves," the Pontiff continued, "we must never ask ourselves the question 'who is my neighbor?' Because every baptized person belongs to the same Body of Christ; moreover, because every person in the world is my brother or sister, and we all compose the 'symphony of humanity,' of which Christ is the firstborn and the redeemer. Therefore, not "who is my neighbor?", but "do I make myself my neighbor?". Do I make myself my neighbor and then my community, my Church, my spirituality? Or do they remain entrenched in the defense of their own interests, jealous of their autonomy, enclosed in the calculation of their own advantages, entering into relationships with others only to obtain something from them? If so, it would not only be a matter of strategic errors, but of infidelity to the Gospel".

Like Paul, we need to "set aside the centrality of our ideas to seek the voice of the Lord and leave the initiative and the space to him. We need this conversion of perspective and, above all, of heart. As we pray together, let us recognize, starting from ourselves, that we need to convert, to let the Lord change our hearts. This is the way: to walk together and serve together, putting prayer first. Indeed, when Christians mature in the service of God and neighbor, they also grow in mutual understanding. Together," Francis concluded, "as brothers and sisters in Christ, we pray with Paul, saying: 'What shall we do, Lord?

And in asking the question there is already an answer, because the first answer is prayer. Praying for unity is the first task on our journey. Like Paul, "arise," Jesus says to each of us and to our quest for unity. Let us arise, then, in the name of Christ, from our weariness and our habits, and let us go forward, let us advance, because He wants it, and He wants it so that the world may believe."

After the Pope, Archbishop Welby spoke briefly, inviting everyone to pray for Christian unity at a time when there is no freedom in the world. Before the final blessing, Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a number of pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops, as the Pontiff had anticipated in his homily, "the mandate to continue to bear witness to the unity willed by God for his Church in their respective regions," moving forward together to spread God's mercy and peace in a world in need," so that "where you exercise your ministry, you may together bear witness to the hope that does not deceive and to the unity for which our Savior prayed."

Finally, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, addressed his thanks to the Pontiff.

Desire for Peace

Among the highlights of the Week, it is worth recalling the wish expressed on January 24 by the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francis Patton, during the Vigil for Christian unity celebrated in the Latin parish church of St. Savior of Jerusalem: "It is important and meaningful to tune into the gift of unity already given to us by Christ through baptism and the outpouring of the Spirit in this difficult time in which we find ourselves, characterized by conflict, hatred and the desire for revenge rather than the tension towards unity and reconciliation."

The Custos recalled that "love of God and neighbor has to do with daily life and has to do with our way of entering into relationship with the human person, any human person: suffering, beaten, stripped of his dignity".

For Patton, "the meeting point between us is not to be sought primarily on the theoretical level of ideas (which can unite or divide), but on the practical level of love for the people that God puts in our path, here and today, without distinction of sex, age, ethnicity or even religion". The Custos also invited us to put ourselves "in the shoes of the man who has been robbed, beaten and abandoned on the road". 

This character in the parable teaches us that, as Christians in the Holy Land, we already have an ecumenical element that unites us all and that is the element of common suffering, which in extreme cases is called the ecumenism of blood. When we are attacked, we are not attacked because we are Catholics or Orthodox or Armenians or Syriacs or Copts or Anglicans or Lutherans. They attack us simply because we are Christians."

This, he added, "reminds us that even if we do not yet perceive ourselves as united, those who want to beat us already perceive us as one. I believe that in this there is a request of the Spirit that we too learn to recognize ourselves more and more as part of a single body that is beaten and humiliated and that, therefore, has the possibility of manifesting some form of unity that already exists in the participation in the Lord's passion, given that we are not yet able to share together in his glory."

The authorAntonino Piccione

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Experiences

Peter WaltersI went on vacation and came back with a vocation".

Peter Walters is a British priest who, for more than 20 years, has dedicated his life to the care of street children in Medellín (Colombia). His foundation Vivan los niños / Let the Children Live! has taken thousands of children out of the drama of the street, mafias or prostitution.

Maria José Atienza-January 26, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

"This whole story begins in 1982. I have always been fascinated by Latin America. At that time, there was a special promotion with Avianca to Colombia, and I decided to spend my vacation there". This is how the Catholic priest Peter Walters begins the story of Long live the children!, a foundation that helps street children in Colombia, which was born out of an almost movie-like experience. 

On that '82 vacation, "I went to Bogota and Cartagena," Walters recalls, "everything was going very well until I discovered there was a problem with my return ticket: it was undated. When I tried to arrange my return to the UK I discovered that I had the lowest possible priority, in high season, so I had to stay there longer than I had budgeted for." This setback led to extreme thriftiness and he ate only one meal every two days. 

It was on one of those "forced fasting" days that changed his life. "I met some beggar children. They saw me as a stranger and approached me to ask for alms. When I was able to make them understand that I didn't have any, they thought it was very strange. They had never met a poor tourist before. Then something completely strange happened: these children decided to 'adopt' me. They shared their food with me and their humanity touched me very much". In the days that followed, Father Peter continued to see these children, "We became friends and I was concerned to see how they lived. I, as an Anglican, thought then 'where is the Catholic Church on the street?'"

Fr. Walters with street children in Medellin in the 1990s.

A question that was not just a mere formulation: "I went to look for the local archbishop to give him a good 'slap on the wrist'. Fortunately, I found Monsignor Rubén Isaza Restrepo, then Archbishop of Cartagena, with whom I had several meetings. He told me 'son, the Catholic Church is very committed to the street population. But I also believe that the Lord is calling you to do something. 

That answer took him by surprise, and when he returned to the UK, Peter Walters couldn't forget those words, or those children. "Someone told me, then, that I had gone to Colombia for a vacation and came back with a vocation, and I did," he recalls emotionally.

A new stage 

From then on, Walters returned again and again to Colombia for vacations. Although he was still an Anglican, he worked with Catholic Church institutions in this area.

In those years, Monsignor Isaza retired and retired to Manizales and went there: "In the morning he worked in a battery factory to earn some 'platica' and took care of these children in the afternoon and evening," Walters continues. While in Manizales he was told that in Medellín there were many children in this situation and he decided to go. Those were the hard years of Pablo Escobar.

Violence was a constant in Colombia, and especially in Medellín. As he recalls, "in those years many of the children I knew were killed. They called them 'the disposable ones' and indeed, they were discarded".

Walters' heart was still torn between England and Colombia. He found it increasingly difficult to return to the safety of his home without knowing what was going to happen to the children.

In those years, Peter Walters was ordained as an Anglican priest and "I ended up working at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham". Walsingham is a place of intense Marian devotion. Our Lady appeared there in 1061 and asked for a house to be built, like the house at Nazareth. Today, three Marian shrines converge there: one Anglican, one Catholic and a third Orthodox: "It's a very Marian place, and almost all my predecessors at the Anglican shrine had ended up converting to Catholicism," Walters recalls. "I followed that path and had the awareness that the Lord was asking me to make a commitment. That commitment involved going to Colombia, asking for admission into the Catholic Church and eventually, ordination as a Catholic priest."

The Archbishop of Medellin accepted and, in 1994, Walters moved permanently to Colombia, was received into the Catholic Church and ordained a Catholic priest in 1995. 

He then began a new path in his vocational life and dedication to street children. While in Walsingham, Walters had started a foundation for the through which he raised funds for the Catholic Church's work with street children in Colombia. Once in Colombia, he obtained the legal status to start up a Colombian foundation and also founded in the United States with the aim of raising funds there. These three foundations continue today. Those in England and the United States are dedicated to fundraising and the one in Colombia also serves children. 

Long live the children! 

As of today, Long live the children! is headquartered in a house in Medellín that hosts this facility thanks to St. Joseph. "We were looking for a location and couldn't find a suitable one at an affordable price," says Walters. A priest friend advised him to pray a novena to St. Joseph. He did so and, "on the ninth day, the house we have now appeared, which was suitable for renting. That's how they started. 

"After a few years, the owners wanted to sell the house, but we had 'no money'. We made another novena to St. Joseph and again, on the ninth day, a foundation called from England offering to lend us the money, interest free for ten years. The following year, when I paid them the first installment, they returned the receipt saying it was a gift. We have the house thanks to St. Joseph," concludes Father Walters with conviction. 

Walsingham House is not a residence as such because the children do not stay there overnight "except once a year when we do the 40 hours to the Blessed Sacrament. The boys are on all-night vigil and, the following night, the girls."

At the Walsingham House we serve several groups: "street children, children who work on the street and also girls who become pregnant. We take care of them and their babies, before and after childbirth, offering these girls the possibility of studying so that they can continue training and have a more dignified future". "We also work with children who have special educational needs", in schools generally the teachers cannot give them the individualized attention these children need and they fall into the hands of the more than "400 illegal armed groups that are always looking to capture these minors to introduce them into drug trafficking, delinquency or prostitution. And then we have refugee children, especially from Venezuela". All this, thanks to a team of psychologists, social educators, catechist teachers who carry out this work. 

A group of girls served by the Foundation at their graduation in 2022.

In addition to all this, the foundation has created a choir "to give a voice to our children. They sing in English, Latin and Spanish. Folk songs, liturgical and even Gregorian". 

The fruits have also been coming: "Some of our children are already professionals. We have a boy who used to work on the street, his family recycles garbage, and now he is a doctor; another boy is a lawyer; a girl is a psychologist; another girl is an industrial engineer and several nurses... Most of our children do not go to university, but if we manage to ensure that a child who has been abused or abandoned is not an adult who abandons and abuses his or her children, we have achieved something important".

Need for donations

In these 30 years thousands of children have been helped by Father Walters, although, as he acknowledges, "the foundation has decreased due to lack of resources. In 2007 we attended 900 children and today we have less than 200. After COVID, donors do not have the same donation capacity they had before". This situation has had a direct influence on the foundation's ability to provide care, which does not want public aid that could influence its Catholic principles. 

The foundation is funded by donations. "I live to beg for alms for my children," concludes Father Walters. Children who number in the thousands and whose unknown stories are part of the legacy of this priest with a British accent and a Colombian soul.

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The Vatican

"Without prayer you can't be a judge," Pope says

Pope Francis presided this morning at the Vatican Apostolic Palace at the inauguration of the 95th Judicial Year of the Roman Rota Tribunal.

Loreto Rios-January 25, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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At the inauguration ceremony, the Pope gave a speech on speech before the judges of the Tribunal of the Rota, in which he reflected especially on the theme of discernment.

Discern to judge

"I propose to focus on that specific discernment that it is up to you to carry out in matrimonial proceedings, concerning the existence or non-existence of causes for declaring null a married couple. I am thinking of your collegial trial at the Rota, of the trial conducted by the local collegial tribunals or, where this is not possible, by the single judge assisted perhaps by two assessors, as well as the pronouncement issued by the diocesan bishop himself, especially in the shorter processes, in consultation with the instructor and the assessor," Francis specified.

The Holy Father also pointed out that some measures, such as "the elimination of the requirement of a double sentence of conformity in cases of nullity, the introduction of the shorter trial before the diocesan bishop, as well as the effort to streamline and make more accessible the work of the tribunals." should be understood within the framework of "mercy towards the faithful in problematic situations" and not "be misinterpreted", so that "the need to serve the faithful with a pastoral care that helps them to understand the truth about their marriage must never be neglected".

In this regard, the Pope quoted the proem of his motu proprio "Mitis iudex Dominus Iesus", in which he said that "it is a matter of favoring 'not the nullity of marriages, but the celerity of the processes, no less than a just simplicity, so that, because of the delay in defining the judgment, the hearts of the faithful who await the clarification of their state may not be oppressed for a long time by the darkness of doubt'.

Mercy and justice

In this regard, the Pope pointed out that it is important to combine mercy and justice. "Precisely in the light of mercy, towards people and their consciences, judicial discernment about nullity is important," the Pope stressed, then quoting St. Thomas Aquinas: "Mercy does not take away justice, but is the fullness of justice."

However, Francis recalled that making a judgment is a very complicated task. "Reaching moral certainty about nullity, overcoming the presumption of validity in the concrete case, implies carrying out a discernment to which the whole process is ordered, especially the preliminary investigation. Such discernment constitutes a great responsibility that the Church entrusts to you, because it strongly influences the life of individuals and families."

"If someone does not pray, let him resign."

On the other hand, the Pope pointed out that judging a case cannot be done without "counting on the light and power of the Holy Spirit. Francis then added that if any of the judges do not pray, it is preferable that they stop their work: "Dear judges, without prayer you cannot be a judge. If someone does not pray, please, let him resign, it is better that way".

The Holy Father also pointed out the importance of being objective in judging, and of "being free from any prejudice, whether for or against the declaration of nullity." "This implies freeing oneself both from the rigorism of those who would claim absolute certainty and from an attitude inspired by the false conviction that the best response is always nullity, what St. John Paul II called the 'risk of a misunderstood compassion [...], only apparently pastoral,'" the Pope added.

Prudence and fairness

Francis then pointed out two virtues necessary for the discernment of Thursdays: "prudence and justice, which must be informed by charity. There is an intimate connection between prudence and justice, since the exercise of prudentia iuris aims at knowing what is just in the concrete case. A prudence, therefore, that does not refer to a discretionary decision, but to a declarative act on the existence or non-existence of the good of marriage; therefore, a juridical prudence that, to be truly pastoral, must be just. Just discernment implies an act of pastoral charity, even when the sentence is negative".

In conclusion, the Pope stressed the importance of the indissolubility of marriage and that, therefore, "discerning the validity of the bond is a complex operation, with regard to which we must not forget that the interpretation of ecclesiastical law must be made in the light of the truth about indissoluble marriage, which the Church safeguards and spreads in her preaching and mission. As Benedict XVI taught, 'the interpretation of canon law must be made in the Church. It is not a mere external, environmental circumstance: it is an appeal to the very humus of canon law and the realities it regulates. 'Sentire cum Ecclesia' has meaning also in the discipline, because of the doctrinal foundations always present and operative in the juridical norms of the Church'. This I ask of you, judges: that you listen with the Church".

Francis concluded by asking the judges of the Rota to pray for him, since his ministry is also complex. "Sometimes it is fun, but it is not easy," the Pope indicated, after commending the work of the tribunal to the Virgin Mary.

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ColumnistsJavier Segura

Remaining to evangelize

We live in a world in constant acceleration, in a permanent movement. We all suffer from this culture of haste that leads us to go from one place to another, without wasting time.

January 25, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsArchbishop of Maracaibo: "Evangelizing in time and out of time is the first challenge".

"There is a secret link between slowness and memory, between speed and oblivion". This phrase by the famous Czech playwright Milan Kundera, who recently died in Paris, has been hitting me for the last few weeks. I read it in the essay "Remaining", by the French politician François-Xavier Bellamy, in which he analyzes the fast-paced world we live in and the consequences this fast pace has for our lives.

And I felt challenged.

We live in a world in constant acceleration, in a permanent movement. We all suffer from this culture of haste that leads us to go from one place to another, without wasting time. As Michael Ende narrated in "Momo", "Momo", "Momo", "Momo", "Momo", "Momo"., We seem to be trapped by the gray men who steal the time we think we are trying so hard to save. Change is a constant in our world. Nothing remains. Only what changes seems valid, even if its only virtue is simply that it is new. Progress, advancement, has become a goal in itself, even if we do not know very well where this path is leading us. The important thing is to go forward, wherever we go.

Consequently, we have developed a kind of shame about our past. We have reviewed it and this has led us to discard everything that does not conform to our current way of seeing reality. This is the revisionism imposed by the woke culture., that is tearing us away from our own roots and history.

Thus we have fallen into the trap of the vertiginous speed that leads us to oblivion. A trap that has become a culture and a political proposal. And so we have a fast food, "fast food"., more effective than simmered stew, a policy of marketing and slogans rather than long-term management, a life that is more fun and superficial, less dense and deep.

We Christians live in this world and feel challenged by this cultural tsunami. The waves are tossing us around and everything seems to be telling us that we live precisely in the past and that, consequently, there is no place for us in the society of the future. So the only way to survive seems to be to join this wave, to surf on top of it, and not to insist on being waves in the middle of the swell.

And yet the reality is that, as Chesterton said, "every age and every culture is saved by a small handful of men who have the courage to be unactual". It is not by following fashion that we will give light to the world, but by anchoring ourselves in that which remains, by remaining ourselves.

Today's world needs men and women who bring wisdom, deep knowledge of the heart of the human being, who can guide his life. In the midst of the constantly shifting sands of the desert, the wayfarer finds his destination by looking at the rocks that remain as a reference. It has happened to me many times that when talking with young people who in their early years knew the faith and later moved away, they have thanked me for having remained, even though they were stumbling in life. That gave them security, it served them as a reference.

Our church needs men and women who live at home and spend their lives waiting for the son who left home. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, like the mother in Cesáreo Gabarain's song "A mother never tires of waiting.". Men and women who remain and, therefore, are a legacy of memory.

Our religion is made of grateful memory. We live our being from the memory passed down from parents to children of what God has done for us. "Shema, Israel!". There is a total link between "memory and identity," as St. John Paul II entitled one of his books. To cultivate memory, to serenade the soul, is essential to evangelize our world.

Today more than ever we need wise men who are capable of seeing reality through God's eyes and provide us with the keys to walk in this confusing time. Men who will tear away the appearances of events and reveal to us the true meaning of what is happening to us. Men who are configured by faith and contemplate the world with the heart of God.

We need to recover the wisdom of God that remains, and precisely because it remains it allows us to move forward, because it serves as a guide and reference, a landmark that points the way. We need to move forward without fear, to steer the boat of our life out into the deep - "Duc in altum!, with our gaze fixed on a reference point that does not move and that helps us to discern the direction we have to take.

The pole star always remains, fixed in the sky, guiding the sailors.

May we Christians be the lodestar in the night, the rock in the desert, the abiding home for the men and women of our time!

The authorJavier Segura

Teaching Delegate in the Diocese of Getafe since the 2010-2011 academic year, he has previously exercised this service in the Archbishopric of Pamplona and Tudela, for seven years (2003-2009). He currently combines this work with his dedication to youth ministry directing the Public Association of the Faithful 'Milicia de Santa Maria' and the educational association 'VEN Y VERÁS. EDUCATION', of which he is President.

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The Vatican

What does the future hold for the Vatican judicial system?

On December 15, 2023, only the operative part of the judgment of the well-known "Becciu case" was read. The full judgment, with all the grounds, will not be published until later, presumably in 2024, sometime between June and December.

Andrea Gagliarducci-January 25, 2024-Reading time: 6 minutes
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There is still no word on the end of the trial on the management of the Secretary of State's funds, the so-called "trial. Becciu". The verdict read on December 15 has several acquittals, many redefinitions of crimes, a few convictions, and can leave no one satisfied.

In fact, the only ones who did not appeal were the Secretariat of State and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, both civil parties (and two sides of the same coin, considering that the management of the funds of the Secretariat of State was transferred to the APSA). There was no recourse for Monsignor Mauro Carlino, secretary in substitution first of Angelo Becciu and then of Edgar Pena Parra, the only one to be acquitted of all charges. All the other actors, both defendants and civil parties, and even the Vatican's promoter of justice (the prosecutor), have announced that they will appeal.

Therefore, there will be another trial, no longer with a broad hearing, but with a review of documents, which could rewrite crimes and sentences. And in the meantime, there are two other trials in the Vatican, also on financial matters: the trial involving Libero Milone, former auditor general of the Vatican, who denounced, together with his deputy Panicco, who later died of cancer, that he had been unjustly removed from office and asked for a high compensation, and which ended in favor of the Secretariat of State; and the trial concerning the management of the funds of the Sistine Chapel Choir.

But what do these judgments say about the health of the Vatican legal system?

The Vatican legal system

It should be remembered that these are criminal trials, instituted in the Vatican City State. Although canon law is also a source of law in the case of civil and criminal litigation, these are trials instituted in the State, with their own norms.

Pope Francis has changed the Vatican's legal system several times. In the last two years, there have been two reforms of the juridical system, which have effectively redefined the judicial structure. The Pope unified the office of the promoter of justice, which remains the same in first instance and on appeal. He first defined, also on the basis of requests from international bodies, that at least one of the judges or promoters of justice should be employed full time, and then again accepted that all positions should be part time.

Thus, during the investigation phase of the process on the handling of Vatican funds, the Pope rewrote some norms with four rescripts. A way to overcome a normative vacuum, according to the promoter of justice, Alessandro Diddi. A way to manipulate the investigation by changing the rules, according to the accusation.

In fact, however, we are faced with a legal system that has undergone many reforms, composed entirely of lawyers and prosecutors who have practiced or practice in Italy and who, therefore, do not know the peculiarities of the Holy See or contemplate the broader picture of international law.

The fund management process of the Secretary of State's Office

It is in this framework that the lawsuit on the management of funds by the Secretary of State must be placed. The trial concerns events that occurred between 2012 and 2019, and can be summarized in three different strands.

The first concerns the Secretary of State's investment in the shares of a luxury palace in London. After deciding not to go ahead with the possibility of participating in an oil platform in Angola, the Secretary of State assigned to the broker Raffaele Mincione the management of a fund destined to the purchase of shares in a palace to be developed. He then transferred the same shares under management to the broker Gianluigi Torzi, who - initially unaware of the State Secretariat - kept for himself the only shares with voting rights and, consequently, full control of the palace. Eventually, he took possession of the entire building, which was recently resold.

Thus, part of the trial focuses on the contribution given by the Secretariat of State to Caritas in Ozieri for the development of a project of the SPES cooperative, presided over by the brother of Cardinal Becciu. The accusation against Becciu is that of embezzlement.

The third line of investigation concerns the self-styled geopolitical expert Cecilia Marogna, hired by the Secretary of State, who allegedly used for her own benefit the money paid to her for alleged hostage rescue operations (such as that of the Colombian nun Cecilia Narvaez kidnapped in Mali).

How did the trial end?

As already mentioned, the only absolution was that of Monsignor Mauro Carlino.

Cardinal Becciu was convicted of three crimes, two of embezzlement and one of fraud. One of the embezzlement offenses considers him in collusion with the broker Raffaele Mincione for having allocated 200 million euros (one third of the investment capacity of the Secretariat of State) in a highly speculative fund belonging to the broker.

René Bruelhart and Tommaso Di Ruzza, respectively president and director of the Financial Intelligence Authority at the time of the events in question, only receive a fine of 1,750 euros. Enrico Craso, the broker who, first on behalf of Credit Suisse and then in other functions, managed the funds of the Vatican Secretariat of State, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 euros with perpetual disqualification from public office.

Raffaele Mincione, who was entrusted with the fund that was later used to buy shares in the London property, to five years and six months in prison, an eight thousand euro fine and perpetual disqualification from public office.

Fabrizio Tirabassi, an official of the Secretary of State for Administration implicated by his superiors in the negotiations, is sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, a fine of ten thousand euros and perpetual disqualification from public office.

Nicola Squillace, lawyer, who intervened together with Gianluigi Torzi in the sale and purchase, is sentenced to one year and six months of imprisonment with suspended sentence.

Gianluigi Torzi, the agent who took over the management of the shares of the Mincione property on behalf of the Secretary of State, is sentenced to six years' imprisonment, a fine of 6,000 euros, perpetual disqualification from public office and special surveillance for one year.

Cecilia Marogna, the self-styled "secret agent" who received a commission of 500,000 euros for an operation to free a nun kidnapped in Mali, which the prosecution claims she used for herself, is sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison with temporary disqualification from public office for the same period. Marogna's company, Logsic Humanitarne Dejavnosti D.O.O., will pay a fine of 40,000 euros and is banned from contracting with public authorities for two years.

In addition, the Court ordered the forfeiture of the sums constituting the corpus of the alleged offenses for a total amount of more than 166,000,000 euros. 166,000,000.00. Finally, the defendants were ordered, jointly and severally, to pay damages in favor of the civil party, liquidated in a total amount of more than 200,000,000.00 euros.

Among the damages to be counted, there are also 80 million in non-pecuniary damages for the Secretary of State, while the sentence also aims to recover all the money destined by Becciu to Caritas from Ozieri and that destined to the self-styled intelligence expert Cecilia Marogna. The forfeitures will be enforceable as from the second degree sentence, but there is a rule that provides for the possibility to forfeit the proceeds of crime already with the first degree sentence.

Towards sentencing

However, what was read on December 15, 2023 is only the operative part of the judgment. The full judgment, with all the grounds, will not be published until later, presumably in 2024, sometime between June and December.

The deadline for the appeal is therefore very long, the confiscations are blocked for the time being, and meanwhile the expenses of the Tribunal continue to grow, also because the Pope has recently decided to place Vatican judges in the managerial echelon of the Curia with the corresponding salary.

But how has this season of trials affected the Holy See?

The first risk is that of a decline in the credibility of the Vatican judicial system, both because of the way in which the charges were handled, and because of the way in which the president of the Tribunal himself, Giuseppe Pignatone, decided to redefine several crimes, with a new approach that seemed to disavow the investigations. The question that could be asked, perhaps with too much malice and specificity, is whether this was a political trial, and who it harmed.

The second risk concerns the possible appeal. If, on appeal, there is a substantial reversal of the charges, who and how can compensate the damages suffered by the defendants? These are reputational damages that have enormous repercussions on people's lives, for which compensation would be high. There would be the paradox that in a trial one would seek to recover the money lost and end up paying more than what was lost.

The third risk concerns the position of the judges and the Vatican gendarmerie. If the appeal were to overturn the first sentence, both the ability of the judges and Vatican promoters to conduct a fair trial and the investigative capacity of the Vatican gendarmerie could be called into question. This would be an earthquake for the entire Vatican system.

The authorAndrea Gagliarducci

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RelatedRelated NewsCardinal Becciu sentenced to 5.5 years imprisonment for embezzlement
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Gospel

To be silent and to listen. Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Father Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) and Luis Herrera offers a brief video homily.

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

Several themes run through today's Mass readings. One is the theme of authority, another is that of listening or paying attention to God.

In the first reading, Moses reminds the Israelites of the moment when God had spoken to them on the mountain. That occasion, with its fire and thunder, was to show Moses' authority as a prophet and the authority of the Law that God revealed through him. But Moses announces a future and greater prophet on whose lips God would put His own words. A prophet with even greater authority and power. And this is the Jesus we see in the Gospel: not just a messenger of God, but God Himself.

In the Gospels, God no longer seeks to scare us. The ancient Israelites were rough and primitive and needed harsh treatment to instill faith in them. The new covenant requires new methods. God no longer wants to frighten us, though he does want to terrify the demons. Rather, by terrorizing the demons, who try to terrorize us, he tries to convince us of his mercy. The Gospel shows us the power of Jesus. He is a God who not only controls the forces of nature, but also subdues the forces of evil. With a brief phrase he casts out the devil and twice in today's text reference is made to Jesus' authority: the authority of his teaching and his authority over unclean spirits.

It is this divine authority that today's readings invite us to take seriously. It is not a politician with empty promises or a motivational speaker with empty phrases, it is God himself with divine authority. It is no wonder that Moses tells us in the first reading: "You will hear him".

This brings us to the issue of listening. We listen to someone based on their authority. We will not listen to anyone who does not have the right to speak to us. Jesus Christ has infinite authority. He can be terrifying if he wants to be, as God was at Sinai; he can silence demons with a word. But instead of imposing his power, he prefers to offer us his love in meekness. However, the meekness of his approach should not make us think that his law is something we can take or leave. "To him you will listen." And the psalm insists: "May you hear his voice today: 'Do not harden your hearts [...]'.". The second reading calls us to give our undivided attention to "the Lord's business"Christ's command to the devil to "be silent" is also a reminder to us. If we want to listen to God and obey Him, we must strive to listen to Him, to give Him our full attention and to find moments of silence and prayer in our lives, to "be quiet".

Homily on the readings of Sunday, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

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

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The Vatican

Artificial Intelligence, key to freedom in communication

Pope Francis focuses his message for World Communications Day 2024 on the negative impact of Artificial Intelligence in the information sphere.

Paloma López Campos-January 24, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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In its message For World Communications Day, Pope Francis analyzes the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the world of communication. Given the speed at which scientific and technological advances are progressing, man is facing, in a new light, the "fundamental questions". What is man and how does his future shape up with Artificial Intelligence?

The Pope warns that, in the face of these questions, "catastrophic readings" and "their paralyzing effects" must be avoided. Quoting Romano Guardini, he advises that the problems of this technological era should be solved "by approaching them from the human point of view". However, for this to happen, "a new humanity of profound spirituality, of a new freedom and a new interior life" must emerge.

Wisdom of the heart

This new humanity "can only start from the human heart". Francis encourages us to cultivate "a wisdom of the heart". This will allow us to "read and interpret the newness of our time and rediscover the path of a fully human communication".

The Holy Father defines the heart "as the seat of freedom and of the most important decisions in life". Based on the Bible, the Pope says that the heart "is a symbol of integrity, of unity". And "at the same time it evokes affections, desires, dreams". But "it is above all the interior place of the encounter with God".

In this way, the Pontiff clarifies that when he speaks of "wisdom of the heart" he is referring to "that virtue that allows us to interweave the whole and the parts, the decisions and their consequences, the capacities and the frailties, the past and the future, the I and the we".

Francis affirms that when this virtue is lacking "existence becomes insipid". Wisdom of heart "is a gift of the Holy Spirit, which allows us to see things with the eyes of God". However, the Pope stresses, it is not something we can expect from machines.

Artificial Intelligence and delusions of omnipotence

Despite the capacity of machines and the progress they bring to the scientific race, only man can "decipher the meaning" of the data that machines store. "It is not a question, then, of demanding that machines appear human; but rather of awakening man from the hypnosis into which he has fallen due to his delusion of omnipotence."

Man contaminates progress with "the original temptation to become like God without God. Science, in this way, pretends to "conquer by its own strength what should be accepted as a gift from God and lived in relationship with others".

The Holy Father warns that "every technical extension of man can be an instrument of loving service or hostile domination". He therefore asks everyone to "understand, comprehend and regulate tools that in the wrong hands could open up adverse scenarios". The Pope encourages to "act preventively, proposing models of ethical regulation to curb the harmful and discriminatory, socially unjust implications of Artificial Intelligence systems".

Information in the age of Artificial Intelligence

The Pontiff says that we are faced with the challenge of "making a qualitative leap in order to live up to a complex, multi-ethnic, pluralistic, multi-religious and multicultural society". He warns that the "great possibilities for good go hand in hand with the risk of everything being transformed into an abstract calculation that reduces people to mere data".

The Pope's message stresses that "it is unacceptable that the use of Artificial Intelligence should lead to anonymous thinking, to an assembly of uncertified data, to a collective negligence of editorial responsibility". Pope Francis stresses the idea that "information cannot be separated from the existential relationship". He explains that Artificial Intelligence will only have a positive role in communication "if it does not cancel out the role of journalism on the ground, but, on the contrary, supports it." To this end, it is essential to make the communicator responsible and that its use returns "to each human being the role of subject, with critical capacity, with respect to communication itself".

Because of Artificial Intelligence, says the Pope, over the world of communication "on the one hand, looms the specter of a new slavery. On the other, a conquest of freedom". The resolution of this situation "is not written, it depends on us". For this reason, Francis concludes his message by affirming that "it is up to man to decide whether to become the food of algorithms or instead to nourish his heart with freedom".

This reflection of the Holy Father on Artificial Intelligence comes after several interventions in which he has already spoken on the subject. The Pope has devoted more than one occasion to delve into this new technological era. Without going any further, the World Day of Peace 2024 dedicated it to her, less than a month ago.

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Vocations

The Archdiocese of Toledo celebrates a year for priests

Within the framework of the year dedicated to the vocation to the priesthood, the Archdiocese of Toledo celebrated this Tuesday, January 23, a priestly jubilee in the Primate Cathedral, with the participation of almost 300 priests.

Loreto Rios-January 24, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe Archbishop of Toledo will open the synod in a "spirit of reparation".

The Year for Priests, convoked by the Archdiocese of Toledo, is being celebrated on the 50th anniversary of the publication of the pastoral letter "A New and Free Seminary" by Cardinal Marcelo González Martín. With this letter "the Cardinal renewed our seminary, faithful to the indications of the Second Vatican Council, in a spirit of true love for the Church. The fidelity of that response to the needs of our time in priestly formation has attracted to our Metropolitan Seminary more than a thousand priests who today exercise their ministry in very diverse places of the universal Church", indicates Don Carlos Loriente, Episcopal Vicar for the clergy of the Archdiocese of Toledo.

Witnesses of Divine Mercy

The Year for Priests began on September 23, 2023 with a kick-off meeting held at the Nuestra Señora de los Infantes School, attended by some 700 participants.

The motto for this pastoral year is "Witnesses of Divine Mercy". As indicated on the website of the Archdiocese of Toledo, this motto "will run parallel to the motto of the three years of preparation for the Diocesan Synod of 2024, 'The Joy of Journeying Together'. The biblical icon representing Jesus' dialogue with Peter at Tiberias will serve as the official image for the pastoral course". The painter Carolina Espejo, a native of Toledo, has been commissioned to create this official image for the pastoral year.

Priestly Jubilee

One of the key dates of this year for priests was the priestly jubilee celebrated on January 23, the feast of St. Ildefonso, patron of the primate archdiocese. This jubilee was celebrated in the cathedral of Toledo with a Eucharist in the Hispano-Mozarabic rite, which was attended by various civil authorities, members of the cathedral chapter, seven bishops and almost 300 priests.

The celebration was presided over by Monsignor Francisco Cerro Chaves, archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, while the concelebrating bishops were Monsignor Francisco César García Magán, Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference; Monsignor Braulio Rodríguez Plaza, Archbishop Emeritus; Ángel Rubio Castro, bishop emeritus of Segovia; Monsignor Salvador Cristau, bishop of Terrasa; Monsignor Ángel Fernández Collado, bishop of Albacete and Monsignor Domingo Oropesa, bishop of the Cuban diocese of Cienfuegos.

"The entire presbyterate was invited to participate in the Holy Mass celebrated in the Cathedral, during which the apostolic blessing with plenary indulgence was imparted, as the bishop does twice a year in his see," said the episcopal vicar for the clergy.

In addition, during the celebration, the attendees had the opportunity to venerate a relic of St. Ildefonso.

"Accompanied by eight bishops who have been formed in this house, the Church in Toledo wanted to give thanks to God for so many blessings that are going out to meet so many needs of the men of our days, through the sacramental personification of Jesus Christ that is the life of each priest. For this reason, before the chapel of the Descent of the Virgin, we renewed our priestly promises", said Fr. Carlos Loriente.

After Mass, the priests shared lunch at the seminary. Carlos added, "It was a day to thank the rectors of our seminaries for the work of all those who have striven to give the best of themselves in the service of priestly formation". "It was a day to thank God for so many blessings, as well as to celebrate that holy pastor who is the insignia and banner of Toledo throughout the world, the great Ildefonso, patron of our archdiocese. He who, with immense love for the Mother of God, left forever a Marian imprint in the soul of this particular church and its priests".

Other important dates

Within the framework of the Year for Priests of the Archdiocese of Toledo, the XII Pastoral Conference will also be held on January 26 and 27 at the diocesan college Nuestra Señora de los Infantes, with the presence of Monsignor Andrés Ferrada, secretary of the Dicastery for the Clergy.

Later, from June 5 to 8, a Diocesan Eucharistic Congress will be held in Torrijos, where the remains of the Servant of God Teresa Enriquez, known as "the madwoman of the Sacrament", rest.

At the culmination of this Year for Priests, the priests will go on pilgrimage to Fatima to consecrate themselves to Our Lady on August 22.

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The Vatican

Greed does not affect only the wealthy, says Pope

At today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, Pope Francis delivered his fifth catechesis of the cycle on the vices and virtues, this time focusing on greed.

Loreto Rios-January 24, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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The biblical text of reference for this catechesis on greed was the first letter to Timothy 6:8-10: "Having food and clothing, let us be content with these things. Those who desire to get rich succumb to temptation, are entangled in a snare, and fall prey to many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some, carried away by it, have turned away from the faith and brought upon themselves much suffering."

Greed also affects the poor

The Pope defined greed as "a form of attachment to money that prevents human beings from being generous".

Francis stressed that this vice does not only affect the wealthy, but is a "disease of the heart, not of the wallet". In fact, he gave as an example the teachings of the desert fathers, who indicated that greed could also take hold of monks, even though they had renounced huge inheritances to begin their monastic life. However, they sometimes perceived among them an attachment to objects of little value, and a reluctance to lend or give them away.

The Pope pointed out that it is a kind of return to the infantile phase, when children do not stop saying: "He is mine, he is mine". It is "an attachment that takes away freedom". This leads to an unhealthy relationship with reality, which can lead to compulsive accumulation.

Greed and death

To cure themselves of this vice, the monks proposed a "drastic method": meditating on death. Thus, "the meaning of this vice is revealed", and it becomes clear that our bond of possession with things is apparent, since we are not the "masters of the world", but "strangers and pilgrims on this earth".

But what is the deep root of greed? The Pope has pointed out that, deep down, its origin lies in the "attempt to exorcise the fear of death", it seeks securities, although, in the end, this apparent control crumbles.

The Pope gave as an example a parable from the Gospel in which the foolish man has a great harvest and begins to plan his future and to think about enlarging the storehouses: "'And then I will say to myself: my soul, you have goods stored up for many years; rest, eat, drink, feast joyfully. But God said to him, 'You fool, tonight they will claim your soul, and whose will it be that you have prepared?'" (Lk 12:19-20).

Detachment

Francis once again used an anecdote of the desert fathers to explain the attitude of detachment that is necessary to maintain a healthy relationship with our possessions. In it, a thief steals from a monk while he is sleeping and, when the monk wakes up, he is not disturbed by what happened, but follows the thief and, instead of demanding anything from him, he gives him what little he left, saying: "You forgot to take this".

If we do not live this attitude of detachment, instead of possessing our goods, they possess us. This is why some rich people are not free, the Pope points out, because, on the other hand, goods require safekeeping, and a patrimony obtained with great effort can "disappear in a minute".

Correct administration

The Pope stressed that riches in themselves are not a sin, but a responsibility that must be properly administered. "That is what the miser does not understand," Francis pointed out. His wealth could have been a good for many, but instead it has become a source of unhappiness.

In this regard, Francis, leaving aside the written discourse, recalled the real case of a rich man whose mother was ill. The brothers took turns taking care of her, and he gave her half a yogurt in the morning and half a yogurt in the afternoon, in order to save money and not give her a whole yogurt. Then this man died and the people at the funeral laughed at his greed, saying that they were not going to be able to close the coffin because of how greedy he was.

The Holy Father indicated that we must be detached and "leave everything". "Let us be attentive and generous," he concluded.

Appeal for peace

Readers have then read a summary of the catechesis in different languages. The summary in Spanish has been made by the Pope himself.

Finally, Francis recalled the international day of commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust to be celebrated next Saturday, January 27, indicating that "hatred and violence can never be justified". "War is a denial of humanity," the Pope pointed out, recalling the victims of wars and making special mention of Palestine, Israel and Ukraine and the bombing against areas frequented by civilians. "I implore everyone to guard human life," the Pope asked, adding that "war is always a defeat."

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The Vatican

Pope thanks journalists for their work as "traveling companions

Journalists accredited to the Holy See met with Pope Francis on Monday, January 22. At that audience, the Pope cited a book by the editor of Omnes, Giovanni Tridente, on the work of the Vatican journalist.

Maria José Atienza-January 23, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes

Pope Francis received in audience the members of the International Association of Journalists accredited to the Holy See on Monday, January 22, in the Clementine Hall.

During the meeting, the Pope thanked the journalists, "my traveling companions" as he called them, for their informative work on the activity of the Holy See and asked them to forgive him for "the times when the news that concerns me in various ways has taken you away from your families, from playing with your children and from spending time with your husbands or wives".

The Pope encouraged journalists to return to the roots of a vocation, that of journalists who "choose to personally touch the wounds of society and the world. It is a vocation that arises at an early age and leads you to understand, to shed light and to tell."

The Pope cites a book by an editor of Omnes

Pope Francis quoted, in this speech, some words taken from the prologue written by Vatican emeritus Luigi Accattoli to a book of Giovanni Tridente, editor of Omnes in Rome, entitled Becoming a Vaticanist. Religious information in the times of the web.

The quote referred expressly to the work of the Holy See's reporter, which he defined as "a job that is quick to the point of ruthlessness, doubly uncomfortable when applied to a lofty subject like the Church, which the commercial media inevitably take to their level [...] of the market. "In so many years of Vaticanism," he added, "I have learned the art of seeking out and narrating life stories, which is a way of loving humanity [...]. I have learned humility. I have met many men of God who have helped me to believe and to remain human. Therefore, I can only encourage those who want to venture into this journalistic specialization".

The Pope drew on this book to recall that the Vaticanist "will have to resist the native vocation of mass communication to manipulate the image of the Church, as much and more than any other image of the associated humanity. In fact, the mass media tend to deform religious actuality. They deform it both with the high or ideological register and with the low or spectacular register. The overall effect is a double deformation of the image of the Church: the first register tends to force it under a political guise, the second tends to relegate it to light news".

Without sweetening but without creating noise

The Pope did not hide his gratitude for "the delicacy that you so often have in speaking about scandals in the Church: some and many times I have seen in you a great delicacy, a respect, a silence almost, I say, 'ashamed'" and he also highlighted the work to flee from the superficiality of stereotypes that many professionals of information about the Holy See carry out.

"The beauty of your work around Peter is that of founding it on the solid rock of responsibility in truth," the Pope summed up to conclude his address.

"Not to hide the reality and its miseries, not to sweeten tensions but at the same time not to make unnecessary noise" concluded the Pope who encouraged them, first of all, to communicate with their testimony and, as in every audience, he accepted their prayers.

After the Holy Father's speech, the journalists present were able to greet the Pope who stopped especially with some of them, acquaintances of the pontiff after years of following his travels and events.

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Culture

St. Mariana Cope, a life dedicated in Hawaii

St. Mariana Cope is a saint who moved to the territory of Hawaii, where she dedicated her life to caring for leprosy patients and spreading the love of Christ.

Paloma López Campos-January 23, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
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On January 23, 1838, St. Mariana Cope was born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (now Germany). Her birth name was Barbara, like her mother. When she was only one year old, her family moved to the United States, to the state of New York. In order to integrate better, they changed their original surname "Kobb" to "Cope". In addition, the father of the family became a U.S. citizen, so the children also became naturalized citizens.

In New York, Mariana received a Catholic education in a parochial school. At the age of ten she made her first Holy Communion and, a few years later, as a teenager, she went to work in a factory in order to help her parents financially.

From Barbara to Mariana Cope

From a young age the future saint expressed her desire to enter the convent, but the delicate situation of her family forced her to delay her entry into religious life.

She waited patiently for some time until, at the age of 24, Cope decided to leave everything. In 1860, she was professed as a sister of the Franciscan Third Order and changed her name from Barbara to Mariana.

The religious community she joined opened hospitals in New York. There, the saint made sure that she cared for all those in need. Her determined character enabled her to be elected provincial in 1877 and 1881. But she soon left this position when she received a different call.

Transfer to Hawaii

The king of Hawaii asked for help in caring for the lepers of the islands. Mariana left New York State and moved to Molokai. There she worked as a nurse in an asylum. Her dedication was such that she lived in isolation with the patients on the island of Kalaupapa when a leper colony was established there.

In addition to caring for the health of the sick, St. Mariana Cope promoted the construction of a church and a school for the children of the area. She also organized a laundry to help women and a choir, so that people could occupy their time with useful activities.

Although they claimed Mariana's presence in the United States in 1889, she decided to stay in Hawaii to care for the residents at the asylum. She stood firm in her decision and passed away on August 9, 1918, at the age of 80, in Kalaupapa.

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The Vatican

The Holy See launches a public platform for job applications

The Holy See, through the Secretariat for the Economy, has opened a window on its website to receive applications from those who wish to work at the Vatican.

Giovanni Tridente-January 23, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
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Working at the Holy See is no longer taboo. For some time now, in fact, the Secretariat for the Economy - which, according to the apostolic constitution "Praedicate Evangelium"The Vatican, which is to "exercise control and supervision in administrative, economic and financial matters over the curial institutions, offices and institutions related to the Holy See" in 2022, has opened a platform on its website dedicated to those who want to "work in the Vatican".

"Join the community of professionals who every day support the activities and mission of the Holy Father with their work," reads the preface, complete with an explanation of what it means to work for the Holy See.

Basically, it is about the whole group of people who assist the Pope "in his ministry as Pastor of the universal Church", and even in their different assignments and professions "truly participate in the one and unceasing activity of the Holy See", namely, that of "solicitude for all the Churches".

How to introduce yourself

Those who wish to put their skills at the service of the Pope and, by extension, of the universal Church, can now do so through the online platform created by the PES, which publishes the list of vacant positions on a timely basis, specifying the required curricular information, along with skills, experience and preferences.

At the same time, it is also possible to send a spontaneous request, but always through the online procedure and after creating your own user account. The Secretariat of Economy then guarantees that the data entered will not be disclosed to third parties and will remain in its database for a maximum of two years, before being automatically deleted.

Vacant positions

Current vacancies include, for example, a risk manager working in the financial and real estate sector to assess, for example, market risks, liquidity risks, economic scenarios, etc. At least 5 years of experience in financial companies is required. The contract is permanent and full-time. In the same sector, there are also vacancies for a Junior Auditor, a Senior Auditor and a Compliance Officer.

Other vacancies are for technicians specialized in the fields of thermal, plumbing, air treatment, testing, etc., with a degree in mechanical, electronic or construction engineering. Again, the contract is indefinite and full-time, with availability for emergency and shift work.

Also needed are a broadcasting-television technician (one-year renewable contract); an audiovisual operator specialized in sound engineering (permanent and full-time); a purchasing manager; and a Romanian-speaking editor in a Vatican media outlet.

Each candidacy obviously requires on the part of the future worker adherence to the principles of Church doctrine, given "the pastoral and ecclesial nature of the service".

The portal through which to send the applications is available at this address.

The authorGiovanni Tridente

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Culture

Gasol, Verástegui, educational innovation and values, awarded by the CEU

Pau Gasol, actor and producer Eduardo Verástegui, sisters Marian and Isabel Rojas Estapé (psychiatry and psychology), the innovation and educational collaboration of the Vithas group and the Guardia Civil, or alumni such as Juan José Cano (KPMG), were some of the winners at the 27th edition of the CEU Ángel Herrera Awards.

Francisco Otamendi-January 22, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

These awards celebrated this year's edition with the presentation of awards to different personalities, institutions and companies. The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, presided over the ceremony, in which he expressed "the fundamental role that CEU has played as an educational institution for 90 years". 

The president of the San Pablo CEU Foundation, Alfonso Bullón de MendozaThe President of the Board of Directors, Mr. José Luis Rodríguez, highlighted "the excellent work of all the award winners for their efforts to improve society and their contribution to the common good", and the fact that these awards have been granted to the winners. awards remember the figure of Ángel Herrera Oria, first president of the Catholic Association of Propagandists. 

Ángel Herrera Oria, later bishop and cardinal, was active for years in many fields, education, the media, directing El Debate for 22 years, and promoted important social initiatives, said Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza at the end of the event, which took place in a Madrid hotel in the presence of the nuncio, Bishop Bernardito Auza. 

For this reason, when it came to awarding these prizes, "we wanted to take into account these areas": education, with companies and institutions involved in educational innovation; collaboration between universities and companies, journalists dedicated to education; the media and the dissemination of Catholic culture; people involved in social networks and the Social Doctrine of the Church, and "committed people like the actor and producer Eduardo Verástegui", who has crossed the Atlantic. 

And we also "give awards to our alumni, who have recently graduated (Alejandro Escario), or are consolidated, such as the president of KPMG (Juan José Cano), who received his award from the president of Telefónica, José María Alvarez-Pallete. "We hope that these instilled values are being transmitted," he added.

Helping exploited families and children

Pau Gasol, who entered the ceremony via streaming, and whose award was collected by his father, Agustí Gasol, from the hands of former coach Vicente del Bosque, was awarded in the 'Ethics and Values' category for "his eagerness to help children and families around the world, who have inspired younger generations with his education, humility and leadership," the jury noted. 

In addition, it was recognized for its social commitment to children, promoting values and habits that support the health and well-being of children. In this same category, the prize was awarded ex æquo to Mexican producer Eduardo Verástegui: for "its unwavering defense of the family, life and human dignity, through film productions that raise awareness among viewers and address social issues," such as the exploitation of people.

Verástegui stressed the importance of protecting minors and those who lack the capacity to defend themselves, and referred to her film Sound of Freedom, film that denounces trafficking and child sexual abuse. "Freedom is not doing whatever you want, but doing the right thing," he said, referring to the great movement against the exploitation of minors that has given rise to his film.

Importance of positive disclosure

There was also space to highlight the importance of highlighting positive examples in the dissemination of content based on expert knowledge.

The Guardia Civil has been distinguished in the category "Educational innovation in the technology sector" for its outstanding work in the field of cybersecurity. This award recognizes the institution's commitment to the promotion of digital culture and citizen protection, especially through social networks, evidencing its efforts in the dissemination of cybersecurity. 

Marian Rojas-Estapé, psychiatrist, and her sister Isabel Rojas-Estapé, clinical psychologist and journalist, daughters of the psychiatrist Enrique Rojashave been recognized for their commitment to transmitting fundamental values to society, focusing on crucial issues such as family, marriage and the prevention of mental illness through social networks. 

Work of companies and entrepreneurs

In addition to the others mentioned above, the group Vithas has received its award in recognition of its outstanding business collaboration with the education sector. The award highlights "the hospital group's exemplary performance in patient-centered healthcare, as well as the commitment of its professionals to effective, efficient and effective medicine, characterized by its caring approach". 

Alejandro Escario has been awarded the CEU Ángel Herrera Award in the 'Junior Alumni' category for his commitment to putting his talent at the service of society. His outstanding contribution lies in the design of a low-cost incubator, which has allowed the preservation of the lives of numerous premature babies in developing countries, as well as serving as a source of inspiration for society".

Catholic culture and educational journalism

Hakuna has been distinguished for its outstanding contribution to the 'Diffusion of Catholic Culture'. The recognition is due to "its work in providing young people with diverse spaces where they can glorify God and express their faith through song and prayer". In addition, the award, collected by José Pedro Manglano and young people of the movement, highlights in the opinion of the Jury the work of the group from "the perspective of young people, promoting peace, unity and fraternity among the peoples and nations of the world".

Journalism and communication have also had their winners, as mentioned above. The winner was José Ignacio Martínez Rodríguez, collaborator of Vida Nueva, for a report on Catholic education in Mozambique. And the best journalistic work on the Social Doctrine of the Church was awarded ex aequo to the magazine Mundo Negro and the journalist Luis Ventoso, of El Debate. 

The San Patricio Foundation has also been awarded in this edition in the category 'Solidarity, Development Cooperation and Social Entrepreneurship' for its project Seeds for the Future.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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United States

Radical solidarity is key to the defense of life

The Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In it they highlight radical solidarity and compassion as key to the defense of life.

Paloma López Campos-January 22, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
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January 22 is the anniversary of the judgment. Roe v. Wadewhich marked a milestone in the history of abortion in the United States. In 1973 abortion was declared a constitutional right. However, after almost fifty years, the Supreme Court reversed its decision and overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, thus advancing the defense of life.

Since January 1973, the 22nd has been known as the day of prayer for the legal protection of the unborn. For this reason, the secretary of the committee for pro-life activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement reminding the faithful that the penance and prayer of Christians remains essential for the defense of life.

In the statement, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge noted that "human life remains gravely threatened by legalized abortion in most states and continues to be aggressively promoted at the federal level."

Through the committee, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops affirmed that it remains "committed to working for the legal protection of all human life from conception to natural death. However, the communiqué expressed that the responsibility falls on all Catholics.

Life is everyone's responsibility

Bishop Burbidge's statement called on the faithful to "whatever their role, take action to protect human life." And he encouraged to remain in this certainty, even though "the truth is often not easy, but it is necessary."

A special way of caring for life is "radical solidarity" with pregnant women. The pro-life committee wanted to make it clear that life cannot be supported only in theory, but that reality requires communities to accompany mothers and their children along the way.

At the same time, compassion for those who have already undergone abortion is vital. The statement stressed that "the Church offers Christ's forgiveness, healing and hope" for all those who have made the decision to have an abortion.

Finally, the Bishops' Conference expressed its desire "that all people of faith and good will proclaim that human life is a precious gift from God and that each person who receives this gift has responsibilities to God, to himself or herself and to others."

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Education

With Tolkien, young people trained for the mission.

The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. R. Tolkien, contains many useful lessons for our lives and applicable to the education of our children and students.

Julio Iñiguez Estremiana-January 22, 2024-Reading time: 8 minutes
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At the conclusion of the Council of Elrond, the discussion of who would be in charge of the Mission generated a noisy uproar. Frodo had attended and learned many things about the Ring of Power that he carried. At last, making an effort to make himself heard, he said, "I will carry the Ring... Though I do not know how."

Amidst the silence of all in attendance, Elrond spoke, "If I have understood correctly all that I have heard, I believe that this task falls to you, Frodo, and if you do not know how to carry it out, no other will."

I recently finished reading again The Lord of the Ringsthat masterful book by J.R.R. Tolkien, It is one of the top ten best-selling books in all of history. It is fiction, yes; but it contains many useful lessons for our lives and applicable to the education of our children and students.

That is why today I have decided to draw inspiration from this wonderful work that is the continuation of The Hobbitbut with a much larger geographical and moral construction. Tolkien himself said: "The Lord of the Rings is written with my life's blood". And it is precisely thanks to that great dedication that Tolkien managed to create a story that the more you read it, the more you learn from it. Let's take a look at some of those lessons.

We all have a mission to fulfill

We were not counted on to be born, we did not choose the qualities, few or many, that adorn us, we did not choose to be who we are: all this and much more we received from God and from our parents. When God thinks of each one of us in order to give us life, he also thinks of the mission that we must carry out. What we do choose, however, is whether or not to fulfill the mission entrusted to us, starting with discovering it. Bilbo did not choose to have Gandalf knock on the door of his cave-hobbit, but he said yes to carrying out the mission he was given. So did his nephew, as we tell below. 

Frodo had attended the Council of Elrond where he learned many things about the Ring of Power that he carried. It had become clear to him that destroying it was an absolute necessity for the peace of the free world. And though he felt "an irresistible desire to rest and stay and live in Rivendell with Bilbo," at last he spoke with an effort, and heard his own words in surprise, as if someone else were using his little voice: "I will take the Ring [to Mordor]," he said, "though I do not know how.

Amidst the silence of all the Council, Elrond spoke: "If I have understood correctly all that I have heard, I believe that this task falls to you, Frodo, and if you do not know how to carry it out, no one else will.

Thus it was that Frodo earned the title of Ringbearer, that is, protagonist of the war against Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor, the "Great Peril" who threatened to enslave all the Peoples of Middle-earth: a life and death struggle to preserve the freedom of Elves, Men, Dwarves and Hobbits.

Similarly, we can each make our lives an adventure by choosing to carry out the Mission to which we are sent: a tiny fragment of God's plan for humanity; very small, yes, but also very important, for if you don't carry it out, no one else will.

Another important lesson we can learn from Tolkien: the small -hobbits-, are not out of place next to the great heroes or sages -Gandalf, Elrond, Aragorn...- Although some of us may see ourselves as insignificant to address the problems of our time, we all have a duty to collaborate in their resolution.

The same God who created the mountains, the valleys, the planets, the galaxies..., is the one who gives us life, creates an unrepeatable immortal soul and infuses it into the body that we also receive from Him, through the mediation of our parents. He saw us - one by one - before the constitution of the world and said: "Yes, the world needs you too".

Therefore, the greatness of man consists in knowing God's will and carrying it out, being God's collaborator in the work of Creation and Redemption. Tolkien reminds us that each person has a Mission, a call to participate in something great.

The value of friendship

-But you won't send him alone, Sir," cried Sam, who could no longer restrain himself and jumped up, almost without letting Elrond finish.

-No indeed! -said Elrond, turning to him with a smile. You will go with him at least. It does not seem easy to part with Frodo, though he has been summoned to a secret council, and you have not.

Sam, now become the Ringbearer's faithful squire, sat up, reddening and muttering.

-We've got ourselves into a fine mess, Mr. Frodo! -he said, shaking his head.

In the following days it was decided that there should be nine members of the Mission: Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Trancos and Boromir joined. Elrond took a count and saw that two were still missing.

-I will think about it, perhaps I will find someone among the people of the house whom it would be convenient for me to send. 

-But then there will be no room for us! -Pippin then exclaimed, dismayed. We don't want to stay. We want to go with Frodo.

-That's because you don't understand and can't imagine what awaits them," said Elrond.

-Neither does Frodo,' said Gandalf, unexpectedly supporting Pippin. 'None of us can see it clearly. It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or dare to go, and feel ashamed and unhappy. I think, Elrond, that in this matter it will be better to trust to the friendship of these hobbits than to our wisdom.

The Lord of the Rings

And so it was that Elrond finally decided to complete with Merry and Pippin the nine that left Rivendell forming "The Company" also called "The Fellowship of the Ring".

No one is saved alone, that is something the author wants to make clear. We can appreciate in this story how the friendship between the characters -that of Sam and Frodo, for example-, far from weakening, grows stronger and stronger with the difficulties.

To have friends is a blessing, a gift, a richness for which no man is so poor as not to be able to aspire to it. Let us remember: "he sent them out two by two" (Lk 10:1). In times of conflict, friendship is what saves the world, motivated by an ancient, mystical power, often forgotten: love.

A friend is a treasure! -According to the popular saying, a friend is a treasure that only we humans have; that is why we must "take care" of our friends, and for this it is important to know that the bonds of friendship are based on common affection and on sharing our values, each of us growing as we give ourselves to others. Friendship must be loyal and sincere, and demands an exchange of favors, of noble and lawful services, even if it requires personal renunciations and dedication of time, that scarce good, but which seems to increase to the extent that it is dedicated to others.

Problems, difficulties and temptations. Strength and hope

Soon after leaving Rivendell, because Boromir succumbs to the temptation of the Ring and tries to snatch it from Frodo, the latter is forced to leave and go alone to Mordor to fulfill his mission. Only Sam will take charge of the situation and will manage to join his master and friend in extremis. Let us clarify that Boromir will soon regret his "fall" and dies with honor defending the cause.

In this story the temptation is to possess the One Ring of Sauron, of beautiful appearance, which is shown as granting extraordinary powers and whispers to the hearts of those who are close to him to claim it and use it; but which in reality seeks to enslave them in order to chain them to the power of Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor. 

Sam experienced this when, due to a serious crisis in Mordor, near the Mountain of Doom, he was forced to take on the responsibility of carrying the Ring.

As he drew nearer to the great furnaces where it was forged and fashioned, in the abysses of time, the power of the Ring increased, and it became more and more malignant, indomitable except perhaps to one of a very powerful will. And though he wore it not on his finger, but dangling from his neck on a chain, Sam himself felt as if he were aggrandized, as if enveloped in a huge, distorted shadow of himself.

He knew that henceforth he had but one choice: to resist wearing the Ring, however much it might torment him; or to reclaim it, and defy the Power seated in the dark fortress on the other side of the valley of shadows. 

The Ring tempted him by weakening his will and darkening his reason; wild fantasies invaded his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, the Hero of the Age, advancing with a flaming sword across the shadowy land, and the armies that came to his call as he rushed to overthrow the power of Barad-dûr.

Then all the clouds would dissipate, and the white sun would shine again, and at Sam's command the valley of Gorgoroth would be transformed into a garden of many flowers, where the trees bore fruit. He had but to put the Ring on his finger, and claim it, and all that could become a reality.

In that hour of trial, it was above all his love for Frodo that helped him to stand firm. Moreover, he retained deep within himself the indomitable hobbit's common sense: he knew that he was not made to carry such a burden even if those visions of greatness were not just a lure.

"And besides all these fancies are but a snare," he said to himself, "He would find me out and fall upon me before I could cry out. If I were to put on the Ring now he would find me out, and very quickly, in Mordor."

After the aforementioned crisis, Sam returns the Ring to Frodo; but the road they must travel together is still full of difficulties, dangers and surprises. And there reappears again Gollum, who offers himself as a guide to take them to the Mountain of Destiny, but his deepest and most intense desire is to recover the Ring...

To the hobbits it suddenly seemed to them that their long journey northward had been useless. On the plain, which stretched away to the right, shrouded in mist and smoke, there were no camps or marching troops to be seen; but the whole of that region was under the watchful eye of the forts of Carach Angren.

-Now we might as well give up or try to go back. The food won't reach us. We'll have to hurry! -said Sam.

-All right, Sam,' said Frodo, 'guide me! While you have a hope left. I have none left. But I can't hurry, Sam. I can hardly crawl after you.

-Before you go crawling on, you need sleep and food, Mr. Frodo," said Sam, "come on, get what you can.

He gave Frodo water and a wafer of bread from the road, and taking off his cloak improvised a pillow for his Master's head.

The Lord of the Rings

Another teaching for children and adolescents in The Lord of the Rings: steadfastness, along with the friendshipThe companionship and solidarity with one another is what makes it possible to carry out the Mission. You learn that working together helps to overcome the obstacles and difficulties of life. And also that being small should not prevent you from advancing towards your goals: with the necessary confidence and the best help you can achieve whatever you set your mind to.

The award

I prefer not to anticipate events that may derail surprises and emotions in the reading of the end of the story; therefore, to talk about the prize, I will relate a brief conversation between Gandalf and Pippin in Minas Tirith when it seemed that everything was coming to an end -third film: The Return of the King.

-I never thought of this ending," says Pippin.

-The end? -No! The journey does not end here. Death is just another path we all travel. The gray veil of this world is lifted and everything becomes silvery crystal. That's when you see...

-What? Gandalf, what does it look like? -asks Pippin.

-The white shore and beyond it the immense green countryside stretched out before a fleeting dawn.

-Well," says Pippin, "that's not bad!

-No, no, of course not! -Gandalf concludes.

The Return of the King

Conclusions

To each and every one of us, along with the gift of life, God, in his loving Providence, gives us a task so that we may collaborate with him in perfecting his Creation and completing the Redemption; that is to say, he entrusts us with a mission. This mission is not chosen by us, but is given to us; but we do have the freedom to decide whether or not to carry it out.

Girls and boys must be educated (trained), from childhood and adolescence, so that they can discover their vocation, professional preference, life choice..., so that they are truly free to say yes to the mission that is theirs to carry out; and to overcome the obstacles that will prevent them from reaching their goal.

No one should be so arrogant as to pretend to fulfill his mission without the help of others - nor will he be asked to do so, nor could he do so. In order to carry out the mission, it will be essential to count on friends, and friendship with Jesus will be the surest. And in order not to give up when difficulties arise, we must also develop other virtues, such as, for example, hardiness, the capacity for sacrifice, loyalty, solidarity, optimism, fidelity, etc. And, undoubtedly, we have the most important help, God's help.

As for the Award, a few words of Benedict XVI at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney on July 9, 2008, on the occasion of the World Youth Day held there:

"Faith teaches us that we are God's creatures, made in his image and likeness, endowed with an inviolable dignity and called to the sublime destiny that awaits us in heaven."

Recommended reading: "Demanding to educate". Author: Eusebio Ferrer, Collection: "Hacer familia".

The authorJulio Iñiguez Estremiana

Physicist. High School Mathematics, Physics and Religion teacher.

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The Vatican

Pope launches Year of Prayer for the Jubilee of 2025

Today, at the Angelus of this Sunday of the Word of God, the Holy Father began a Year dedicated to prayer, to discovering the need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church and in the world, in preparation for the Holy Year of the universal Church, which will be celebrated in 2025.

Francisco Otamendi-January 21, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
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The desire is to intensify our prayer to prepare ourselves to live this event of grace well, to experience the strength of God's hope, said the Pope, referring to the 2025 Jubileewhich has as its slogan "Pilgrims of hope"..

For this reason, "today we begin a Year dedicated to prayer, to discovering the need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church and in the world. We will be assisted by the Dicastery for Evangelization, added the Holy Father in his address to the Pope. Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace in St. Peter's Square, in front of about twenty thousand faithful, according to the Vatican Agency.

Precisely the proprefect of this Dicastery, Monsignor Rino Fisiquellawas the main concelebrant, together with the Cardinal Konrad KrajewskiThe Pope's almoner, from the Mass celebrated this morning on the occasion of the Sunday of the Word of God. In addition, the Pope conferred on lay men and women from different countries of the world the ministries of Lector and Catechist. There were nine people from Jamaica and Brazil as Lectors, and from Korea, Chad, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Bolivia and Germany as Catechists.

Christian unity, and peace for children 

Within the framework of this year dedicated to prayer, the Pontiff prayed for Christian Unity during this week. He also asked to invoke peace in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, and in other parts of the world.

"Those who suffer are always the weakest, I think of the little ones, so many children wounded and killed, abandoned, without affection, without dreams, without future, let us feel responsible to pray to build to build peace for them," he encouraged the faithful.

The Pope expressed his sorrow at the news of the kidnapping in Haiti of a group of people, among them six nuns. "I ask with sorrow please for social harmony in the country, and the cessation of violence, which causes so much suffering to that dear population."

For peace in Ecuador

Francis greeted all the Romans and pilgrims from Italy and other countries present in St. Peter's Square, especially those from Poland, Albania, Colombia, students from the Pedro Mercedes Institute in Cuenca, American university students in Florence, young people from Panama, priests, migrants from Ecuador, to whom he assured of his prayers for peace in their country.

"Sinners, but the Lord still believes in us."

As he has done in the homily Before praying the Angelus, the Holy Father reflected on Jesus' call to the first disciples. He said that the Lord loves to involve us in his work of salvation, he wants us to be active with him, responsible and protagonists.

"A Christian who is not active, who is not responsible in the work of proclaiming the Lord and who is not a protagonist of his faith, is not a Christian," the Pontiff pointed out. "This is important, the Lord chose us to be Christians. We are sinners, but the Lord continues to believe in us. This is wonderful," he continued.

"Proclaiming the Gospel is not time wasted."

"Proclaiming the Gospel is not time wasted," the Pontiff stressed. "It is to be happier by helping others; it is to help others to be free; it is to become better by helping others to be better."

Finally, as usual, the Pope invited us to examine ourselves with a few questions. "Do I stop from time to time to remember the joy that grew in me and around me when I accepted the call to know and witness to Jesus? And when I pray, do I thank the Lord for having called me to make others happy? And finally: do I want to make someone like me, with my witness and my joy, to make them like how beautiful it is to love Jesus?"

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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The Vatican

The Word of God arouses the call of Jesus

On the Sunday of the Word of God, Pope Francis said, commenting on the passage of Jesus' call to the first disciples, that the Word of God gives rise to the mission that makes us his witnesses. A call that invites us to set sail with him for others, leaving boats and nets behind. He also encouraged us to carry the Gospel and read it daily.

Francisco Otamendi-January 21, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated News"The word of God in our life". Third Sunday in Ordinary TimeRelated NewsRaymond Studzinski:The Bible is an encounter with the divine".

The Holy Father reflected this morning on the homily of the Holy Mass of the Word of God SundayThe first of the first twelve apostles, Simon and his brother Andrew, who were fishermen, and James and his brother John, four of the first twelve apostles, were called by Jesus in the Gospel.

The Word of God unfolds the power of the Holy Spirit, the Pope pointed out in this III Sunday in Ordinary Time. "It is a force that attracts us to God, as happened to the young fishermen, who were impressed by the words of Jesus. It is a force that moves us towards others, as happened to Jonah, when he addressed those who were far from the Lord. The Word, therefore, draws us toward God and sends us toward others.".

They left the networks and followed him

"Jesus said to them, "Follow me [...]." Immediately they left their nets and followed him" (Mk 1:17-18). The power of the word of God is great, as we have also seen in the first reading: "The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah a second time in these terms: "Go to Nineveh at once [...] and announce it to him [...]" Jonah departed [...] according to the word of the Lord" (Jon 3:1-3).

"As with the first disciples, who, welcoming the words of Jesus, left their nets and began a stupendous adventure, so too on the shores of our lives, alongside the boats of our families and the nets of our work, the Word stirs up the call of Jesus, who calls us to set sail with him for others. Yes, the Word stirs up the mission, it makes us messengers and witnesses of God", the Pontiff encouraged in his homily at the Mass of this Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by the Holy Father Francis in September 2019.

The Word of God, decisive for the saints

If we look at "the friends of God, the witnesses of the Gospel in history, we see that for all of them the Word has been decisive". The Pope cited here the first monk, St. Anthony, who, impressed by a passage of the Gospel while at Mass, left everything for the Lord; think of St. Augustine, whose life was turned upside down when a divine word healed his heart; think of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, who discovered her vocation by reading the letters of St. Paul".

"And I think of the saint after whom I am named, Francis of Assisi, who, after having prayed, read in the Gospel that Jesus sends the disciples to preach and then exclaimed: 'This is what I want, this is what I seek, this is what in my heart of hearts I long to put into practice,'" he added.

"Have I read at least one of the four Gospels?"

After meditating on what the first disciples left behind - "The boat and the nets, that is, the life they had led until that day" - the Pope pointed out that "it is often difficult for us to leave our securities, our habits, because we remain trapped in them like the fish in the net".

Finally, he formulated some questions for the exam, encouraging us to read the Gospel every day. "What place do I reserve for the Word of God in the place where I live? There will be books, newspapers, televisions, telephones, but where is the Bible? In my room, do I have the Gospel at my fingertips? Do I read it every day to guide me on the path of life? Many times I have advised to always carry the Gospel with me, in my pocket, in my purse, in my phone".

"If I love Christ more than anyone else," he continued, "how can I leave him at home and not take his Word with me? And one last question: have I read at least one of the four Gospels in their entirety? The Gospel is the book of life, it is simple and brief, and yet many believers have never read one from beginning to end. Let us allow ourselves to be conquered by the beauty that the Word of God brings to our lives," the Pope concluded.

Ministries of lector and catechist to 9 laypersons

During the Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter's Basilica, before five thousand Romans and pilgrims from many countries, the Pope conferred on lay men and women from different countries of the world the ministries of Reader y Catechist. There were nine people, mostly women, from Jamaica and Brazil as Readers, and from Korea (2), Chad (2), Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Bolivia and Germany (2), in this case from Regensburg, as Readers. Catechistswho have received a Bible and a crucifix from the hands of the Pope.

The Vatican celebration of the III Sunday of the Word of God in 2022 had several novelties, among them, the institution of the first ministers of the Catechesis. Among them were Rosa AbadRosa Abad, a graduate of the Archdiocese of Madrid, a librarian by profession and a catechist by vocation, explained to Omnes, "What the Lord transmits to you cannot be silenced," she said. "I can only give thanks to God, in capital letters," said Rosa Abad.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

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The World

Brother Matthew, prior of Taizé: "The road to unity is slow".

The new prior of the ecumenical Taizé community spoke to Omnes about unity, prayer, fraternity and dialogue, as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Federico Piana-January 21, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes

"An event not to be missed in these times when wars and divisions dominate the world". The thought of the new prior of Taizé on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unitywhich opened on January 18, could be summarized as follows. 

Brother Matthew, an Anglican, has recently begun to lead the Christian monastic and ecumenical community, founded in 1940 in the French village of TaizéThe title of this year's theme is: "The title of the event is Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself'.a verse taken from the Gospel of Luke. It is a theme that invites us to go to the essence of our Christian faith: to love God and to love our neighbor. In essence, we must go to the source which is God to find the strength to love others, even if they are different from us."

One step at a time towards unity

Love between Christians of different traditions, therefore, becomes even more important, essential, and cannot be relegated to the background. We must make it grow, explains Brother Matthew, because if "we speak of a God of love, we must always seek communion with other Christians, even if they are of different denominations". 

The prior of Taizé does not hide, however, the difficulties on the road to unity. "Loving our neighbor," he says, "is not always easy. We all feel the weight of the wounds of history reflected in our gaze towards others. Therefore, we must understand that the road to unity is slow, we cannot achieve everything at once. We need to take one step at a time.

Taizé Community Photo: Tamino Petelinsek

Prayer, an essential tool

Brother Matthew's reasoning goes further. He touches on the limits of prayer, which becomes an essential tool without which unity risks remaining a mere human dream: "It is important to do things to achieve unity, but when we pray for another person something inside us is transformed because we let God, the Holy Spirit, in. 

And this prayer opens all doors. And as a concrete example, he cites the Taizé Community "where there is prayer in common three times a day. And without prayer we cannot seek unity because otherwise we rely only on our own strength without welcoming the grace that comes from God".

Uniting glances

The different Christian traditions and the different approaches to the Bible of the various confessions should not be a source of fear, admits the prior. On the contrary," he specifies, "they make this look at the Word of God more complete. No one can understand everything. Another element of unity among Christians, he adds, is "service to our neighbor. For example, near Paris there is a very poor neighborhood where Christians of different confessions work together to help those who live on the streets and have nothing. 

The challenges for the future of the unit, Frére Matthew saw them anticipated in "Together"The vworld ecumenical church held in the presence of Pope Francis in September of last year. "On that occasion," concludes the prior, "we saw the participation of several Protestant Churches that are not part of the large Christian organizations. This is the challenge: to find a way to walk together. All of them.

The authorFederico Piana

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

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The wings of love

Falling in love between a man and a woman projects each person towards the other as such, it is a way out of self or selfishness to live in the wonder of love for the other. Love gives wings to our life.

Jesus Ortiz Lopez -January 21, 2024-Reading time: 5 minutes

Pope Francis has dedicated a recent catechesis to the vice of lustIn continuity with the plan to teach the evil of the capital vices, as he taught earlier in another catechesis on gluttony, St. Paul said, these are behaviors that harm the human condition and keep a person on a low level because of sensuality or life according to the flesh. These are behaviors that damage the human condition and keep a person on a low level because of sensuality or life according to the flesh, as St. Paul said, because they blind the development of the spirit.

The horizon of chastity

The Pope emphasized that in Christianity, sexual instinct is not condemned and is part of the human condition at the service of love and life. In the Bible, the Song of Songs is a wonderful poem of love between two bride and groom, which serves as a guide for the gift of self to God and neighbor. However, the Pope continued, this beautiful dimension of our humanity is not exempt from the dangers of the sins of the flesh and therefore the conquest of chastity requires effort, an exercise of fortitude, and righteousness when struggling to love God above all things, above all affections, not to nullify them but to bring them to fullness.

He recalled that "The Bible and Christian Tradition offer a place of honor and respect to the human sexual dimension. It is never condemned when it preserves the beauty that God has inscribed in it, when it is open to the care of others, to life and to mutual help. Therefore, let us always take care that our affections and our love are not contaminated by the desire to possess the other".

Voracious appetite

Pope Francis has defined lust on this occasion as "A vice that attacks and distracts all our senses, our body and our psyche. This vice presents itself as a voracious appetite that drives us to use people, to prey on them and to steal from them, seeking in them a disordered pleasure". 

When we understand the greatness of the dignity of the person, we also understand the evil of impurity and abuse that involves objectifying the other, since it is equivalent to stripping him of that dignity, of his intimacy, of his value and of his attractiveness as a person. This is what happens in pornography and prostitution. They are sins against chastity not because love is forbidden but because they impede it, that is to say, it is not a prohibition of the Church nor an imposition of God against personal freedom, but the opposite so that man and woman can develop in true love.

According to the Gospels, the Church has consistently taught that "the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside of normal conjugal relations contradicts their purpose, whatever the motive behind it. Thus, sexual enjoyment is sought here outside "the sexual relationship required by the moral order; that relationship which realizes the full meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love" (CDF, Decl. "Human Person" 9)". (Catechism, n. 2352). It refers primarily but not only to the sins of masturbation and extramarital relations, such as adultery and fornication.

Returning to the Pope's words, he teaches that  "The lustful person seeks only shortcuts: he does not understand that the path of love must be traveled slowly, and this patience, far from being synonymous with boredom, allows us to make our love relationships happy."This is the path of progress in courtship to refine the love affair and cultivate fidelity little by little. Precisely the courtship seeks that synthesis between reason, impulse and feeling that helps them to wisely lead their existence as persons called to holiness, because the virtues opposed to the vices suppose a wide frame of reference; it is not about being supermen or superwomen, but children of God called to bring to fullness the good work of God the Father Creator, following the example of Jesus Christ, perfect man and perfect God. 

For this reason, he adds that "Of all man's pleasures, sexuality has a powerful voice. It involves all the senses; it inhabits both the body and the psyche; if it is not patiently disciplined, if it is not inscribed in a relationship and a history in which two individuals turn it into a loving dance, it becomes a chain that deprives man of freedom. Sexual pleasure is undermined by pornography: unrelated satisfaction that can generate forms of addiction."

Chastity is possible and varied

There are various ways of living the virtue of chastity according to the state of each person throughout his or her vital development; it is learned in childhood, discovered in adolescence, enjoyed in love and prolonged in children as a natural fruit of marriage open to life.

This is the usual way to grow in charity-driven virtues and to form a family as a natural environment for welcoming the love of husband and wife, of siblings, of grandparents, and of other relatives.

Others are also called to live full chastity when they respond to the call of God's love, with an undivided heart and at the service of their neighbor, as priests and religious do, and also in apostolic celibacy.

In today's sensual and sexualized environment, it is difficult to understand celibacy as love elevated as a gift of God for a mission of service to others through the apostolate, although it is true that this witness helps to better understand human dignity, generous love and spiritual life.

As is well known, this virtue of chastity is part of the cardinal virtue of temperance by which the person masters the appetites, integrating them into personal maturity, as the Catechism teaches: "Chastity has laws of growth; it passes through degrees marked by imperfection and, very often, by sin. "But man, called to live responsibly the wise and loving plan of God, is a historical being who builds himself up day by day with his numerous and free choices; for this reason he knows, loves and realizes the moral good according to the various stages of growth" (FC, 34). (n. 2343).

Regarding homosexuality, it teaches that "Homosexuality designates relationships between men or women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction to persons of the same sex. It has taken many different forms over the centuries and across cultures. Its psychic origin remains largely unexplained. Relying on Sacred Scripture, which presents them as grave depravities (cf. Gen 19:1-29; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10), Tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered" (CDF, Decl. "Human Person" 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a true affective and sexual complementarity. They cannot receive approval in any case" (n. 2357). 

However, it recognizes that: "An appreciable number of men and women present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies. This inclination, objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a real trial. They should be received with respect, compassion and sensitivity. All signs of unjust discrimination are to be avoided in their regard. These persons are called to carry out the will of God in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross the difficulties they may encounter because of their condition" (n. 2358). (n. 2358).

Always welcome

With good pastoral sense, the Catechism points out that feeling this tendency is different from consenting to those acts that are especially contrary to chastity, and that these persons, like everyone else, must use the means to flee from the occasions of sin, to have recourse to the sacraments, especially the sacrament of penance, and to prayer entrusted to God the Father, to Jesus Christ and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. These are the means that we must all use as part of the ascetical struggle to overcome our selfish or objectifying tendencies towards our neighbor and to respond to God's call to love at every stage of life.

Jesus Christ himself gave an example of rejecting sin and welcoming the sinner, as he did with the adulterous woman to whom he gave the grace of a firm conversion: "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. And immediately she became an enthusiastic apostle when she was freed from her sins and discovered the Savior Messiah in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

In short, we are moving forward as a missionary Church whose doors are open to all, conscious of being the universal sign or sacrament of salvation and the way willed by God to find and develop the vocation to holiness, which consists fundamentally in union with Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. And so the Christian life continues in a continuous process of seeking Jesus Christ, of finding Jesus Christ, and of loving Jesus Christ.

The authorJesus Ortiz Lopez 

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Culture

The "Children Singers of the Star", a widespread custom in Central Europe

Around the feast of the Epiphany, children dressed as the Three Wise Men bring a blessing to homes and take up a collection to support the development of children in need around the world. They are the Children singers of the Star o Sternsinger.

José M. García Pelegrín-January 20, 2024-Reading time: 4 minutes

We have seen them in the last few years in various media. Among the most widespread Christmas traditions in Germany, as well as in Austria and in the German-speaking Italian regions, the "Dreikönigssingen" (Singers of the Magi) or "Sternsinger" (Star Singers) stand out: around the feast of the Epiphany or Three Wise Men, children dressed as such and carrying the Star of Bethlehem go from house to house carrying the blessing, traditionally written with white chalk on the door. The inscription "Christus mansionem benedicat" ("Christ bless this house") also has the connotation of referring to the initials of the names of the Kings in German: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.

Sticker with the blessing 20*C+M+B+24 on the door of an apartment ©José M. García Pelegrín

According to tradition, the blessing is written in a prearranged way: "20*C+M+B+24"; the asterisk symbolizes the star. It is part of the tradition that, in a blessing ceremony, the bishop or the parish priest sends the children, since each parish, besides the diocesan level, sends its own "Sternsingers". Lately, the Sternsingers carry the "blessing" prepared on adhesive. Afterwards, the inscription or the cartouche is incensed and the "Sternsingers" sing Christmas carols.

Origins of the tradition

This tradition dates back to the middle of the 16th century: the oldest document on this custom is a record from St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg from 1541. It must have spread rapidly: in Wasserburg am Inn there are records of it in 1550, in Laufen and Eggenburg in 1552; in the Benedictine abbey of Ettal in 1569 and in Burghausen in 1577. 

Since the middle of the 20th century, this tradition has been associated with Catholic Church campaigns to raise funds for development aid projects for needy children around the world. In Germany, since 1958 the campaigns have been coordinated by the Aachen-based children's missionary organization "Die Sternsinger" together with the German Catholic Youth Association (BDKJ).

Every year around 300,000 children in Germany participate, who in 2023 collected exactly 45,454,900.71 euros. Since its inception in 1958, an estimated 396 million euros have been collected, with which some 40,000 projects were financed.

With the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his wife, Elke Büdenbender ©Verena Roth / Kindermissionswerk

One goal each year

In order to familiarize the participants in these campaigns with the living conditions of children in need, each year the Epiphany campaign focuses on a different theme and a different country.

The slogan of the 2024 campaign was: "Together for our Earth, in the Amazon and around the world". However, the donations are not only destined for this region, but for 1,179 projects to help children around the world, covering more than 90 countries, from Latin America to Oceania, as well as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Traditionally, the "Sternsingers" are received by the President of the Federal Republic, as well as by the Chancellor, by other members of the Federal Government in their ministries, by some of the Ministers-Presidents of the Federal States, and by some of the Ministers-Presidents of the Federal States. Länder and by mayors. 

The Magi

The number three of the Magi refers to the gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh that the Magi offered to the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Since about the 6th century they appear, for example, in the basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna with the three classical names: Balthasar, Melchior, Gaspar; they have oriental features, accentuated by the Phrygian cap.

Already here there is a certain differentiation of ages. However, since Beda Venerable (VIII century) it is considered that they symbolize the three ages of man, as well as the three continents known until then: the oldest, Asia; the middle-aged, Europe; the youngest, Africa, although this one, in the history of Art, is not represented as black until the XVI century, approximately.

Although until not so long ago, one of the "wise men" used to paint his face black, as a consequence of the culture wokeThe practice has all but disappeared. However, this year, statements by Protestant theologian Sarah Vecera caused quite a stir in Germany: "For black people, it is hurtful that blackness is seen as a disguise and that white people paint their faces black," she said in a conversation with "Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd)".

Sebastian Ostritsch responded to this, for example, in "Die Tagespost": "To describe the depiction of a black king paying homage to Christ and handing out blessings to families as 'blackfacing' makes no sense for both historical-cultural and theological reasons. Historically and culturally speaking, 'blackfacing' refers to the 'minstrel shows' of the 19th century in the United States. In this form of theater, very popular at the time, blacks were portrayed by whites in a way that was not exactly flattering and loaded with negative stereotypes. However, the black among the Magi is placed in a completely different context: it is not about ridiculing blacks, but quite the opposite (...) The diversity of the Magi, which is also manifested in the color of their skin, makes it clear that all peoples without exception are invited to approach the Savior. While the culture woke preaches "diversity," in reality it only promotes a destructive egalitarianism. On the contrary, the Sternsingers reveal the glorious unity in diversity that we can find in Christ."

In 2015, the Sternsingers were included in the list of Germany's intangible cultural heritage.

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Education

Villanueva University organizes a solidarity concert

On January 25, Villanueva University will hold a solidarity concert to finance a volunteer project in Kenya. This initiative is part of the activities of "Villanueva Solidaria".

Loreto Rios-January 20, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Prayer to God and solidarity with the poor are inseparable."

"With the purpose of promoting social responsibility and the importance of leaving a positive footprint on the environment, improving it, Villanueva University promotes different activities and projects, organized and channeled by 'Villanueva Solidaria'," explains Begoña Fornés, coordinator of this initiative.

"The volunteer activities that are promoted are aimed at the entire university community (students, alumni, faculty, administrative and service staff, families and friends). The more we are, the more needs we can meet and, above all, the more people we can reach," he adds.

MAD4Clarinets Concert

One of the initiatives is the MAD4Clarinets solidarity concert, which will be held on January 25 from 7:30 pm to 9 pm in the auditorium of building B of the university.

The concert, which will be performed by the quartet MAD4Clarinetswill be aimed at financing the international volunteer project in Kenya". In addition, this initiative includes the possibility of buying "Fila 0" tickets for those people who want to collaborate with the project but cannot attend the concert. You can find all the information here.

International volunteering

With the contributions from the concert, Villanueva Solidaria will finance one of its most important projects: international volunteering, which will take place in Kenya during the month of July 2024. In order to participate in this activity, it is necessary to complete a personal interview, have volunteering experience and attend at least 80 % of the preparation sessions. "The MaTumaini project (which means 'hope' in Swahili) was born in 2016 with the commitment to promote the training of children, adolescents and teachers of African educational institutions located in very poor rural areas, especially in Kenya, hence the motto of the project, 'forming hope'," says Begoña Fornés.

Other activities

There are numerous volunteer activities available that can be carried out with Villanueva Solidaria, such as the "Win Win" initiative, to offer training to the elderly in the use of cell phones and computers; personal accompaniment in senior centers; accompaniment in leisure outings for children and young people with special needs, in collaboration with the Talita Foundation and the Down Madrid Foundationschool support for children in primary or secondary school, in partnership with International Cooperation, Senara Foundation and the Valdeperales AssociationThe Naím Project, which consists of personalized catechesis for children with special needs; accompaniment of hospitalized children and adults, in collaboration with the Vianorte-Laguna Foundation and the NGO NadiesoloThe program includes: distribution of "basic necessities to families without resources"; solidarity breakfasts; blood donation in collaboration with the Red Cross; painting the houses of families without resources, etc.

Request for information

Information about the activities and registration can be consulted through:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Whatsapp: 659 15 46 04

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Photo Gallery

Prayer Vigil for Life in Washington, D.C.

Msgr. Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington delivers the homily during the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life on Jan. 18, 2024, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Maria José Atienza-January 19, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute
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The Vatican

The Church celebrates Word of God Sunday

Rome Reports-January 19, 2024-Reading time: < 1 minute
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On January 21, the Church celebrates Word of God Sunday. Pope Francis instituted this day in 2019 with the aim of promoting Bible reading and evangelization.

Francis has asked dioceses around the world to treat this day with a certain solemnity. In the Vatican, the Mass will be celebrated at St. Peter's at 9:30 a.m.

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 World

Rome remembers Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (1757-1824)

In the coming days a series of events will be held in Rome to commemorate Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, a key figure in the Catholic Church in the early 19th century.

Giovanni Tridente-January 19, 2024-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsSt. Peter's Basilica undergoes the restoration of the baldachin

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the death of Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, a key figure of the Catholic Church in the tumultuous period of the early nineteenth century, in the next few days will be organized at Rome a series of events involving the Secretariat of State, the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, the Vatican Museums and the English College.

The protagonist of an exceptional political career and of rare strategic finesse - as some experts have described him - Ercole Consalvi was born in Rome on June 8, 1757, son of Marquis Giuseppe di Tuscania and Claudia dei Conti Carandini. After studying at the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles in Rome, his political career began with the conclave opened in Venice on November 30, 1799, after the death of Pius VI. Later, under the pontificate of Pius VII Chiaramonti, he was appointed Prosecretary of State and then Secretary of State in 1800, despite being only a simple prelate.

A skilled diplomat

At the press conference to present the initiatives to be carried out in commemoration of the Cardinal, Father Marek Andrzej Inglot, President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, pointed out that Cardinal Consalvi was a skilled diplomat who acted in a period of great institutional, ideological and economic turbulence. His action extended from the States of the Church to France, England, Austria and America. He was a model as Secretary of State, defending the reasons of doctrine and adapting to the contingencies of the times.

An International Study Day

Among the activities planned for the bicentenary of his death, the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences has accepted the proposal of the Secretariat of State to organize an International Study Day, to be held on January 22-23 in the conference hall of the Vatican Museums. It will address the different dimensions of the Cardinal's work, from his diplomatic action to his cultural policies.

Visit to the United Kingdom

Another aspect of Cardinal Consalvi's experience has to do with a visit he made to the United Kingdom in 1814, which marked a turning point in Anglo-Papal relations. His polished presentation to British society contributed significantly to reducing anti-Catholic prejudice in Britain, paving the way for the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829.

This was pointed out at a press conference by Professor Maurice Whitehead, director of Heritage Collections and researcher at the English College. In this regard, the English College and the British Embassy to the Holy See are jointly organizing two other activities, a symposium and a concert open to the public. The symposium will explore the cardinal's impact on the United Kingdom, while the concert, entitled "Power, Patronage and Diplomacy: Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (1757-1824) and Music," will be performed by the English ensemble Cappella Fede.

An enduring legacy

Ercole Consalvi died in Rome on January 24, 1824. His last words, "I am at peace", resound as an ideal testament of serenity in stormy times. Moreover, he is acclaimed as a tireless servant of the Universal Church and of the Successor of Peter, as his Cenni Biografici, published in Venice in 1824, also attest.

These initiatives to be held in Rome are therefore intended to provide an opportunity to explore the life and legacy of one of the late figures who profoundly marked the course of ecclesiastical and diplomatic history.

The authorGiovanni Tridente

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United States

Respect Life novena begins across the U.S.

Catholics across the country can join this initiative and pray a "Nine Days for Life" novena, which will conclude on Wednesday, January 24.

Jennifer Elizabeth Terranova-January 19, 2024-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsSisters of LifeThe pregnant woman who does not want to be a mother is already a mother".Related NewsAmy Sinclair: "History will judge us for the barbarity of abortion".Related NewsIsabel Vaughan-Spruce: "The damage abortion inflicts on women alone should be enough to make us pro-life".

We all know that when we believe, everything is possible, and that "...faith is the certainty of what is hoped for, the conviction of what is not seen".

We are approaching another "March for Life" and pro-lifers are preparing to gather in D.C. On Jan. 19, Catholics across the country can join together and pray a "Nine Days for Life" novena that begins Jan. 16 and concludes on Wednesday, Jan. 24 to begin another year of work, defense and celebrations for the gift of life.

Participants can "access the novena and also subscribe to receive the daily prayers by email or text message in English or Spanish," as noted on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Since its inception, the Ninth has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over one hundred countries and six continents, which is impressive, but the war is not over, so let's strive to reach a million more people. The intention is to end abortion, but to end it, we must eradicate it from subconscious and conscious minds. And education and being informed is essential to defend the unborn.

Fortunately, each daily prayer intention is accompanied by a reflection, "educational information and suggestions for daily actions." A resource kit is also available, along with other materials.

The annual Respect Life novena is an opportunity for prayer and reward in observance of the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on January 22. "The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), no. 373, designates Jan. 22 as a particular day of prayer and penance, called 'Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children.'"

God heard the cries of the voiceless and vulnerable on June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion. And while we celebrate and praise the Dobbs v. Jackson Women 's Health Organization decision overturning Roe V. Wade, we continue to mourn the millions of children who have lost their lives and the countless families who suffer the wounds of abortion. We must remember that there continues to be a crusade to abort innocent lives, corrupt the minds of young women and men, and promote this "abortion on demand mentality."

Nearly fifty years of ardent prayers and fifty March for Life rallies proved that almighty God and novenas can overturn the most horrible law.

As encouraging and cheerful as things may seem, one would be remiss to forget the blatant hostility abortion providers have toward the unborn; therefore, we must remain steadfast in prayer and continued advocacy. The March for Life website states that while the March is an annual event, pro-life education is a year-round effort.

This year marks the fifty-first March for Life and the second in post-Roe America. The theme is "With Every Woman, For Every Child," which will focus on helping both mother and child during pregnancy and after childbirth. In a recent statement, Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said, "We celebrate the heroic work of Pregnancy Care Centers and Maternity Homes while offering a roadmap for how we will truly achieve a life-affirming culture that respects the inherent dignity of all human life." She was also delighted to announce and welcome the "inspiring pro-life leaders who will speak at this year's March for Life."

In the encyclical of Pope St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitaehe wrote:

"A great prayer for life is urgently needed throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, a passionate plea to God, Creator and lover of life, should be raised from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer".

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RelatedRelated NewsSisters of LifeThe pregnant woman who does not want to be a mother is already a mother".Related NewsAmy Sinclair: "History will judge us for the barbarity of abortion".Related NewsIsabel Vaughan-Spruce: "The damage abortion inflicts on women alone should be enough to make us pro-life".
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