Reflections on the centenary of St. Josemaría's priestly ordination
The celebration of the centenary of St. Josemaría's ordination to the priesthood is an occasion to reflect on the importance of the Eucharist and his legacy of sanctification through work.
St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), founder of Opus Dei, "the saint of the ordinary," was canonized by St. John Paul II in a moving ceremony celebrated in Rome on October 6, 2002. Since then, the private devotion that began on June 26, 1975, his "dies natalis," has spread throughout the world to the present day.
In the Office of the Causes of Saints of Opus Dei we continue to record, investigate and give thanks for those favors and graces that we receive every day, because they manifest the gift of God for his children and express that those who received everything from God for their lives and for Opus Dei, now continue to receive gifts and graces from God to distribute them everywhere and to people of all kinds and conditions.
This is precisely the great gift of the communion of saints. God wants us to come to him through the saints, because it is through the friendship and confidence of the saints that we can more easily touch the heart of God. Moreover, by imitating the prayer of complicity with the saints, we too will learn to be good children of God.
Centenary of ordination
This year we celebrate the centenary of St. Josemaría's priestly ordination by Bishop Miguel de los Santos Díaz Gómara in the Church of St. Charles in Saragossa on March 28, 1925, and, consequently, of the first solemn Mass that he celebrated on March 30 in the chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar. We will celebrate the centenary of St. Josemaría's identification with Jesus Christ, for in that word "identification" is summed up the mystery of the grace that worked in St. Josemaría's priestly soul and in the fruitfulness of his priesthood.
For many years all Opus Dei throughout the world, and consequently men and women of every class and condition, offered their Mass, their lives, for the intentions of St. Josemaría's Mass. This identity of purpose in the one goal of the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary explains the expansion of Opus Dei throughout the world.
Saints next door
In 1933, St. Josemaría wrote to his confessor: "See that God asks this of me and, furthermore, it is necessary that I be a saint and a father, a teacher and guide of saints," which is why several processes have been set in motion among faithful of Opus Dei who have died with a reputation for holiness and favors.
Logically, the models and intercessors for the People of God must be varied, since, as Pope Francis has emphasized in the Exhortation ".Gaudete et exultate"The saints must be "from next door", "neighborhood saints", saints of proximity. Men and women who have listened to the same music, who have enjoyed themselves in the same way, who have celebrated our feasts and suffered our same inconveniences.
Common priesthood of the faithful
The last words that St. Josemaría spoke on earth a few hours before going home to heaven were during a conversation with a group of young professionals at the Roman College of St. Mary in Castel Galdonfo, Rome, on June 26, 1975. In that conversation St. Josemaría spoke to them once again about sanctifying work, sanctifying oneself in work and sanctifying others through work," and he made an explicit reference to the common priesthood of the faithful received in baptism, which enables Christians to be mediators between God and mankind.
In fact, through the common priesthood all Christians bring the gifts of heaven to our family, our friends and our environment. At the same time, every day, as mediators, we participate in the Holy Mass and there, together with the offerings, we bring the material and spiritual needs of the people around us.
This centenary year of St. Josemaría's priestly ordination is a special time to meditate on the meaning and importance of the Holy Mass. St. Josemaría referred to this overwhelming mystery, as Benedict XVI recalled, as the "center and root" of Christian life.
Holiness and Eucharist
How often have we heard him refer to the fruits of the Mass in the soul of the Church and of individual Christians as: "An intratrinitarian current of God's love for mankind". It is enough to pause and savor the words that the priest may utter at the beginning of the Mass: "The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." This is the foundation of the priest's identification with Jesus Christ at the moment of Holy Mass: to be "ipse christus, alter Christus". Truly, humanity has lived from the Mass for so many centuries and will continue to do so until the end of time.
I remember that Cardinal Castrillón, who was Prefect of the Dicastery of the Clergy when he was President of CELAM, came to inaugurate the first Symposium "History of the Church in Spain and America: 16th to 20th centuries" in Seville in May 1990. A climate of great expectation was created when Castrillón, surrounded by all the world press, officially inaugurated the acts of the V Centenary of the Discovery of America, thanking Spain and the Spaniards for having arrived in America and for having celebrated the Holy Mass on the beach of the island of El Salvador and for having reserved the Eucharist in those newly discovered lands. They brought the risen Jesus Christ there and that presence continues to enliven the lives of those peoples.
Everything comes from the Holy Mass. Therefore, let us learn to celebrate and participate in the Holy Mass and in the living liturgy of the Church and we will be able to continue to spread Christianity throughout the earth, filling the world with hope, as you have asked us to meditate in this Jubilee year Pope Francis: "Spes non confundit" (Rom 5:5)". The foundation of our hope is Jesus Christ who gave up on the cross every drop of his precious blood.
Growing number of Catholics but vocation crisis persists
The number of Catholics in the world increased between 2022 and 2023. However, vocations to the priesthood continue to decline, confirming a trend that began in 2012.
The Pontifical Yearbook 2025 indicates that the number of Catholics in the world increased between 2022 and 2023. The continent with the greatest presence of Christians is the Americas, being Brazil the country with the largest number of faithful (13 % of the world total). However, the number of vocations to the priesthood continues to decline worldwide, confirming a trend that began in 2012.
Catholicism in the world according to the Pontifical Yearbook 2025
Africa, faithful despite persecution
It is noteworthy that Africa, despite the persecutions suffered by Christians, is home to 20 % of the world's Catholics. In fact, it is the continent where the number of faithful has grown the most and where more men have entered the seminary. The country with the most Catholics is the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by Nigeria. Another piece of good news for the African continent is the increase in the number of bishops appointed between 2022 and 2023.
America, where nearly half of the world's Catholics are located.
The Americas are home to nearly 50 % of the world's Catholics. The vast majority reside in South America, followed by Central America and 6.6 % in North America. Brazil, as noted, has approximately 182 million Catholics, representing 13% of the world's Catholic population. However, there has been a decreasing trend in the percentage of Catholics in the country. While in the 1970s more than 90 % of Brazilians identified themselves as Catholics, today this figure has decreased to less than 50 %. This decline is attributed to the growth of other religious denominations and the increase of people with no religious affiliation.
Despite the large number of Christians in the territory, there have not been many appointments of bishops in the years reflected by the Annuario Pontificio.
Asia, with the Philippines leading the way
The Catholic faithful in Asia have increased by 0.6 % between 2022 and 2023, with the vast majority of them in the Philippines. Also noteworthy is the presence of the faithful in India, where 23 million Catholics live. Along with the increase in the number of Christians, Asia has also received several new bishops.
Europe stagnates
Europe is the continent with the slowest growth in the number of The VaticanIn some countries, the population of some countries that confess the Catholic faith has increased. Among these nations are Italy, Poland and Spain, which seems to be a mistake, since according to recent data, the percentage of Spaniards identifying themselves as Catholics in 2024 was around 52%, while in Italy and Poland it is at 71%. On the other hand, not many episcopal appointments have taken place between 2022 and 2023.
Oceania, more than 11 million Catholics
There are more than 11 million Catholics in Oceania, and the number of faithful has increased by almost 2 %. However, unlike the rest of the continents, there are no more bishops in Oceania than before.
Decrease in the number of priests
While there has been an increase in the number of Catholics, the same is not true for priestly vocations. The number of men entering seminaries has decreased by 0.2 % worldwide, as numbers have fallen in Europe, Oceania and the Americas. Africa and Asia are the only continents where vocations have increased, with the former leading the way in the number of men receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Considering these data, and in spite of the number of priests in Africa, Africa, South America and Central America suffer from a shortage of priests to serve the faithful of the territory. However, the balance is positive in North America, Europe and Oceania, where there are more priests than laity.
The same downward trend can be observed among seminarians. Fewer and fewer men are candidates for the priesthood, a decline that is taking place worldwide except in Africa, where seminarians have increased by 1.1 %.
Deacons increase, but there are fewer religious
According to the Pontifical Yearbook, permanent deacons are the group that grew the most between 2022 and 2023, with the number increasing especially in Oceania and Africa. But it is striking that in Africa this number has decreased, a trend that is also observed in Europe.
Another noteworthy fact is the decrease in the number of professed religious men and women worldwide, except in Africa, the only continent where vocations to religious life increased between 2022 and 2023.
Miró i Ardèvol: "The press and political parties marginalize the 99% of abuse cases".
The author argues that the Church has been used as a scapegoat in the issue of pederasty and criticizes the lack of political and media attention to abuse in other settings.
Josep Miró i Ardèvol is a prominent Spanish politician and intellectual with a long career in the defense of Christian values and the analysis of social issues. He was Minister of Agriculture of the Generalitat de Catalunya and councilor of the Barcelona City Council in three legislatures. In 2002, he founded the association e-Cristians and, in 2004, the news portal Forum Libertas. In 2008 he was appointed member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
His commitment to the promotion of Christian values and his work in researching contemporary social challenges give him an authoritative perspective to address issues such as sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. He has just published "Pederasty in the Church and society"The report is an in-depth analysis of the research carried out in Spain.
In your book you argue that the Catholic Church has been made a scapegoat with the issue of pederasty. What makes you think this is so?
- The data, the facts, the reality. When considering the last eighty years, a period that includes the greatest number of cases of abuse committed by persons linked to the Church, including those of lay status, a concentrated "peak" is observed between the decades of the seventies and eighties of the last century. However, even at that peak, abuses attributable to these individuals represent less than 1% of the total, and even less than 1% of the total. 0.5% in this centuryespecially in recent decades.
In 2023, the cases registered by the Church, slightly more than 9,000, are marginal and continue a downward trend, well below any other social sphere, where the numbers have increased significantly. In the last seven years, cases in general society have doubled, while in the Catholic sphere they have been reduced to minimal figures.
It makes no sense to use the Church as a scapegoat or to focus on this serious problem while governments and other state agencies maintain a passive attitude, without decisively addressing the necessary responses.
According to the data you present, most abuse occurs in family and educational settings. Why do you think these cases receive less media and political attention?
- I do not know for sure because these are only hypotheses, but the evidence is in not wanting to address this crime. A year before Congress agreed to focus attention only on people linked to the Church, a proposal by Esquerra Republicana was defeated that called for an investigation of the entire school system, something that did make legal sense - it was not constitutionally discriminatory, as is what has been done with Catholics - and that, moreover, quantitatively addressed an obvious and known problem. This proposal was rejected.
Why was the school system not investigated, but the Church was? The parties and the government should explain. Perhaps then we would know something about the reasons for this inaction, which is also scandalous when compared to the amount of media and political and media attention devoted to sexual abuse against adults, when in fact the group with the highest prevalence of this type of crime is minors between 14 and 17 years of age.
To point out a hypothesis, I believe that there is a certain parallelism with prohibiting or restricting prostitution: there are so many subjects affected that the political class prefers to look the other way to avoid problems.
What role does the media play in public perception of child sexual abuse?
- They are decisive. They and the political parties, the Ombudsman himself are responsible for the marginalization of more than 99% of abuse cases and their unhealthy fixation on less than 1%.
What measures do you consider essential to combat sexual violence against minors effectively and without ideological bias?
- First, obviously, what we unsuccessfully asked the Ombudsman for is still pending: a study on the situation and its dynamics based on the data available from the Ministry of the Interior and statistics on court rulings, as well as a good knowledge derived from them on the scenarios and areas most affected.
On this basis, and with the necessary adaptations, I consider that the most complete and successfully verified global model, which unites prevention, intervention, criminal action and reparation, is the one applied by the Catholic Church. Contrary to information hoaxes, it is the institution that has done the most and the best in this field. The State could learn a lot from it.
Having said the above, I also consider it necessary to underline that, if this society, which lives obsessed with the fulfillment of desire and especially with sexual desire as the only hyper-good, does not radically change this orientation - the essential foundation of the untied society - even with the right measures it will be difficult to find a reasonable solution.
Some might argue that your book minimizes abuses within the Church. How do you respond to these criticisms?
- To say so would be a total inversion of reality. Minimizing, in the sense of downplaying a fact, is precisely what happens in our society with the sexual abuse of minors, which often seems invisible despite the fact that statistics indicate more than 25 cases a day, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. This is minimizing. Reflecting this problem in its true context is the opposite, it is to present the truth.
In your opinion, which countries have handled the fight against abuse best?
- I do not believe that there is a particularly good model of state response, although I consider the German decision to open an investigation into this problem that includes all cases to be a step in the right direction. Western society has a structural problem in this matter, that a film, "The Sound of FreedomThe "The child" exposes with clarity and a good knowledge of the facts. When a society is sexually disturbed, as ours is, children and adolescents are not safe.
In Spain there have been four major investigations into pederasty: El País, Para dar luz, the Ombudsman and Cremades. Regardless of how biased, fair or rigorous these reports have been, do you think the Church would have investigated the matter had it not been for media pressure?
- Yes, to the extent that the Church in Spain, must follow and abide by what the authority of the Holy See establishes, and this has sold by providing very specific measures, which in the book I deal with in some detail. It is not necessary that they break your face to decide to go to the gym, normally it is enough to want to feel good about yourself.
The Church is on tenterhooks, with the Pope in hospital. Atheists, agnostics and people who profess other religions do not hide a certain shock for a Pontiff who has broken schemes and has reduced distances in a postmodern world. A Pope who has reached everyone, everyone, everyone.
March 20, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
From the balcony of St. Peter's, as soon as he was elected and after the apostolic blessing, I was moved by his simple words: Buon Pranzo (we would translate it in Spanish as "que aproveche"), as it was close to lunchtime.
A realistic Pope, concrete, simple, humble and with character. A Pope who is suffering a lot due to his illness and is offering all his pains. The media rushed to talk about conclave, and we already know that he is stable and has been released from the hospital.
A surprise election
He never thought he would be Pope, and he admits, in his autobiography, that his appointment took him by surprise and without being prepared for it (if anyone could be prepared to be Pope).
He had gone to Rome with a light suitcase for the conclave and had to stay there, because the Holy Spirit (who encourages the Church until the end of time) wanted it that way.
Pope Francis has been characterized by being a "different" Pope, who has been breaking the mold by wanting to present himself not as a powerful man of the earth but as a shepherd of the sheep.
The Church is in perennial transformation, and some external aspects change with time. Jesus manifested himself, but the revelation is discovered throughout history and the symbols that represent the sacred change according to the mentality of the time.
Today, a pope must be seen as a messenger of the gospel, not as a mighty man of the earth.
In 1964, Paul VI sold the tiara and donated the proceeds to charity, with that gesture, the people understood that the Pope should not be paragonized with the powerful of the earth. The papacy must not assert itself before the temporal powers.
Pope Francis, throughout his pontificate, has made this idea clear from minute one. Francis sees the Church as a field hospitalIn the middle of a battlefield, where, when you are badly wounded, you have to treat the wounds and not look at the glucose level. That is why he has continually surprised us with his direct and concrete gestures, such as phoning the parish priest of a Catholic church in Gaza.
Devotion to the Virgin
He is a Pope who has a great devotion to his mother the Virgin Mary. Once he met a family that educated their children with Christian values, but they forgot about Mary because they considered it a thing of the past, and he felt very sorry for them.
One manifestation of his love for Mary is that on the morning of fumata biancaCardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had gone to pray at Santa Maria la Maggiore, where there is a Byzantine icon: "Salus Populi Romani"which, according to tradition, was painted by St. Luke.
Most Popes are buried under St. Peter's Basilica; but Pope Francis has chosen to follow the example of Pope Leo XIII, who in 1903 was buried of his own free will in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. Also Pius IX, before him, had chosen a Basilica beyond the Tiber, san Lorenzo fuori le mura.
Francis will rest where he has gone to pray hundreds of times for his needs and where he went to pray the morning he was elected. It is, therefore, a sentimental choice.
Community living
Community life is essential for him, and for this reason he did not want to live in the Vatican, but in Santa Marta, together with his brothers and sisters in the faith. He is a "rocker" Pope, who likes to be in contact with other people.
The Holy Spirit blows as he wills and when he wills, and if previously we had a theologian Pope, who was happy with his cats and playing the organ in his free time, this Pope was (while health was with him) one of those who kicked in the streets and climbed in the subway to see the faces of the people.
A new style
He also wants that simplicity that characterizes him in his funeral and has arranged modifications in his funeral rite: he has simplified the funeral rites. On April 20, 2024, in the new Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, which has been updated after twenty years. The Pope jokingly commented that the funeral rite needed a modification to simplify it and he himself will be the first to try it out. The novelties are concentrated in four aspects: the language, the main phases of the ceremony, the modification of texts and music of the prayers, the liturgical celebration following the death of the Pope.
Solemn titles will make room for simpler terms such as PastorThe death will take on a more spiritual tone. The confirmation of death will take place in his personal chapel, and the body will be exposed in a single coffin, eliminating the use of three different coffins. Of all the contributions of this pastoral pope, I would like to highlight his preaching on the family. We all dream of a beautiful, perfect family. But perfection, Francis made it clear, does not exist.
The family
For Francis, the family is something sacred, a place of growth. The Pope advised to call your parents (if you have them). Homosexuals need understanding: "They are children of God and have the right to be in a family. You cannot throw anyone out of the family, nor make life impossible". For the Pope, every family has its problems and its great joys. In a family everyone is different from each other, each person is unique and differences can cause conflicts and painful wounds.
The medicine to heal these wounds is forgiveness, and with God's help we can gain the strength to do it from the heart. God forgives us too, it is we who do not allow God's forgiveness to flood us and heal us. God never tires of forgiving. That forgiveness frees us from resentment and brings peace. Some words pronounced by a Pope that disarm you, but the interesting thing about him is that what disarms is the heart.
A Pope for everyone, everyone
The Pope ironizes with his own death. "Someone is praying for the Pontiff to go to Paradise, but the master of the harvest intends to leave me still here," he joked with Meloni when he went to visit him on behalf of the Italian people on the tenth floor of the Gemelli Hospital.
There were flurries of conclave, although the Pope's life is in God's hands. Candles, Masses, prayers: the faithful seemed to be on tenterhooks, with the Pope admitted to the hospital.
Atheists, agnostics and people who profess other religions do not hide a certain shock for a Pontiff who has broken schemes and has reduced distances in a postmodern world.
A Pope who has reached everyone, everyone, everyone (reproducing the "everyone everyone everyone" that the Pope said to the young people in Lisbon).
Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Third Sunday of Lent (C) corresponding to March 23, 2025.
Joseph Evans-March 20, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
God appeared to Moses and commanded him to lead the Israelites out of slavery. "bring him to a fertile and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.". God's plan was "plant" Israel as a fertile vineyard - spiritually and materially - in her own land, free from foreign oppression. God wanted Israel to bear the spiritual fruit of holiness, as a light to all nations.
Knowing this helps us to understand today's readings. The first reading describes Moses' encounter with God in the desert, where the Lord, in the form of a burning bush, reveals himself to Moses and sends him to liberate the Israelites.
In the second reading, Paul gives us some fragments of this deliverance, describing how God led Israel through the wilderness.
It is in this light that we appreciate the disappointment Jesus feels in today's Gospel. In him, God has not only partially revealed himself as to Moses. Jesus is the full revelation of the Father. Because of their sinfulness, the Israelites were again groaning under foreign rule. The Bible constantly shows God allowing Israel to be invaded or taken into exile as punishment for their sins; the fact that they did not enjoy independence was because Israel stubbornly turned to foreign gods and away from the one true God who alone could offer them freedom. And so we learn of an act of brutality on the part of the Roman governor Pilate towards some Israelites and of a tower falling on others (a hint perhaps that unless we build on God all our projects will collapse).
Israel, often described in the Bible as God's chosen vine, does not bear the fruit that God intended, producing sour grapes instead (cf. Isaiah 5). In this parable, the example is that of a fig tree in the vineyard. Sitting under one's own vine and fig tree was a metaphor for freedom and independence (see Micah 5, 5) that Israel could not enjoy because of their sins. And God had good reasons for giving Israel up: "three years I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree, and I can't find it.". That "three" is an allusion to the Trinity in divine counsel. Divine justice demands that the tree, Israel, be cut down. But God's mercy always triumphs. The vinedresser, who represents Jesus, God the Son, intercedes for him and offers himself, "I will dig around it and throw manure on it." to give it another chance. It will be the digging and fertilizing of the suffering and death of Christ in his Passion. In Lent, God invites us to participate in his digging and composting for the salvation of souls.
Pope improves and launches a vocational message to the Church
Pope Francis continues to improve at the Gemelli. And on the feast of St. Joseph he launched a message on vocation, "a precious gift that God sows in the heart". A text for the World Day of Vocations 2025 (May 11) that the Holy See made public today. "The Church is alive and fruitful when it generates new vocations," he stressed.
CNS / Omnes-March 19, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
Pope Francis' clinical condition continues to improve at the Gemelli Polyclinic, as the Holy Father today delivered a message on vocation to the world and the Church. This morning, on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Holy Father concelebrated Holy Mass.
Doctors have suspended the Holy Father's non-invasive mechanical ventilation and the need for high-flow oxygen therapy has also been reduced. In addition, motor and respiratory physiotherapy progress continues.
The last two nights have been spent by the Pope without a breathing mask, the Vatican Press Office has reported, indicating that his need for supplemental oxygen continues to diminish.
The decision to forgo mechanical ventilation at night aligns with a medical plan to "progressively reduce" the pope's intake of supplemental oxygen, the press office had said the day before yesterday, although that does not mean he will no longer use it at night.
Oxygen reduction
In recent days, Pope Francis has been alternating between high-flow and normal-flow oxygen during the day, and doctors had already been reducing the number of hours he uses mechanical ventilation at night. For brief periods, the pope could do without supplemental oxygen altogether, the press office had noted the day before. In fact, in the picture released on the 16th, the Pope was shown on his side, but without a nasal tube.
On the eve of St. Joseph's Day, Cardinal Major Penitentiary Angelo De Donatis led the prayer of the rosary in St. Peter's Square for the Pope's health. And on the evening of the Feast of St. Joseph, the Marian prayer was led by Spanish Archbishop Alejandro Arellano, Dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.
Audience with the British King and Queen
Although the Vatican has not provided information on the matter, British King Charles III and Queen Camilla confirmed that they plan to meet with Pope Francis in early April. The British Embassy to the Holy See made public on March 18 the Buckingham Palace itinerary for the royal state visit, which includes an audience with Pope Francis on April 8.
"Vocation is a precious gift."
Today, the Feast of St. Joseph, the Holy See has issued the Message of Pope Francis for the LXII World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2025, which takes place on May 11.
A text which reflects on 'Pilgrims of hope: the gift of life', and the response of vocation and hope in the divine plan. I would like to extend to you an invitation full of joy and encouragement to be pilgrims of hope, giving your lives generously," the Pope began.
"Vocation is a precious gift that God sows in the heart, a call to go out of ourselves to undertake a path of love and service. And every vocation in the Church - be it lay, to the ordained ministry or to the consecrated life - is a sign of the hope that God places in the world and in each of his children," the Pontiff explains.
The Pope recalls that, in the face of every adverse circumstance of life, especially in young people, the Lord "wants to awaken in each one the conviction of being loved, loved and sent as a pilgrim of hope".
Welcoming one's own vocational path
"In our time, many young people feel lost before the future (...) For this reason, we, the adult members of the Church - especially pastors - are asked to welcome, discern and accompany the vocational journey of the new generations. And you, young people, are called to be the protagonists of your vocation or, better still, co-protagonists together with the Holy Spirit, who awakens in you the desire to make your life a gift of love", Pope Francis said.
Shortly afterwards, the Holy Father adds: "Dear friends, the Church is alive and fruitful when she generates new vocations. And the world, often without knowing it, is looking for witnesses of hope, who proclaim with their lives that following Christ is a source of joy. Therefore, let us not tire of asking the Lord for new laborers for his harvest, in the certainty that he continues to call with love".
The Pope addresses young people in a special way when he says: "I entrust your journey of following the Lord to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church and of vocations. Always walk as pilgrims of hope along the way of the Gospel! I accompany you with my blessing, and I ask you, please, to pray for me".
Catechesis: Encounters of Jesus, today with Nicodemus
The Holy See has published this St. Joseph's Day morning the catechesis The text of Pope Francis prepared for the general audience that was to be held today, March 19, and which has been cancelled due to the Pope's hospitalization. The text follows the cycle of catechesis on 'Jesus Christ, our hope', planned for this Jubilee year.
The Pope wishes to comment on some encounters narrated in the Gospels, in order to understand the way in which Jesus gives hope, points out the agency the official Vatican. Indeed, there are encounters that enlighten life and give hope, as we read in today's text, which refers to the encounter Jesus had with Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-3).
If we do not accept to change, the risk is to die
Regarding the encounter with Nicodemus, the Holy Father commented at one point that "at certain moments in life (this) happens to all of us. If we do not accept to change, if we close ourselves up in our rigidity, in our habits or in our ways of thinking, we run the risk of dying".
"A new birth"
"Life lies in the ability to change in order to find a new way of loving. In fact, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of a new birth, which is not only possible, but even necessary at certain moments of our journey." Little by little, Nicodemus will understand that these two meanings go together: if we let the Holy Spirit generate in us a new life, we will be born again. We will recover that life that perhaps was being extinguished in us".
"I have chosen to begin with Nicodemus," the Pope explains, "also because he is a man who, with his own life, demonstrates that this change is possible. Nicodemus will succeed: in the end he will be among those who go to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus (cf. Jn 19:39)! Nicodemus has finally come to the light, he has been reborn and no longer needs to be in the night.
Changes frighten us: looking at the Crucified One
The Pope writes: "Change sometimes frightens us. On the one hand, we are attracted to them, sometimes we desire them, but on the other hand we would prefer to remain in our comforts. That is why the Spirit encourages us to face these fears."
"Only by looking squarely at what we are afraid of can we begin to be liberated," Francis teaches. "Nicodemus, like all of us, will be able to look at the Crucified One, the One who conquered death, the root of all our fears. Let us too raise our eyes to the One whom they pierced, let us allow Jesus to meet us too. In Him we find the hope to face the changes of our life and to be reborn".
Raimo Goyarrola: "Finland has a special mission in the Church".
In this interview with Omnes, Raimo Goyarrola, Bishop of Helsinki, not only talks about his book "Breaking the Ice", but offers a hope-filled picture of Catholics in Finland, where the energy of young people meets exceptional ecumenism and the challenges of the poorest Church in Europe.
Raimo Goyarrola is bishop of Helsinki, Finland. Born in Bilbao, he studied medicine before being ordained a priest in 2002. Four years later he moved to Finland to minister to young university students, teach religion classes and even serve as a military chaplain. But everything changed when in 2023 Pope Francis asked him to take the reins of the Church in Helsinki as bishop of the diocese of the country's capital.
Now publishes in the editorial Palabra his book "Breaking the Ice", where he recounts anecdotes from the local Church and highlights personal initiative as the key to spreading the Gospel message throughout the world.
In this interview with Omnes, Monsignor Goyarrola not only talks about his book, but also offers a hope-filled picture of the Church in Finland, where the energy of the young people is joined by a ecumenism and the challenges of the poorest Church in Europe.
What has your experience been like leading the Church in Helsinki?
- The advantage we have in Finland is that the Church is really Catholic. We have more than 120 nationalities, people from all continents. It is a very rewarding experience, humanly speaking, because of the affection you feel.
I travel all over the country, even though I am the bishop of Helsinki. It is a very big territory, with five and a half million inhabitants. What I see is unity, affection, and sometimes I am moved, even though I am Basque. At the end of the Mass, people come to greet me, ask me for photos and share what they have in their hearts. At that moment I realize that I am a pastor, the father of this family or the elder brother, and I thank God for this gift that I do not deserve but it fills my heart.
How do you see the evolution of Catholicism in Finland in recent years?
- The local Finnish population is mostly Lutheran. Unfortunately, many of them leave their church and fall into a kind of half-spiritual, half-spiritual limbo. But it is also true that many of them, after this, come closer to the Catholic Church. I think they see the beauty of truth and goodness, because the three concepts are united and the Catholic Church offers the whole cake. We have the whole cake of two thousand years of history, tradition, Church Fathers, sacraments, morals and anthropology. What people are looking for is the whole truth, that whole cake.
In this sense, the Catholic Church is demanding. Many young Finns are coming to the Catholic faith, perhaps because of this authenticity of the demand for truth. The truth is sometimes not comfortable, but it is beautiful, and its beauty and goodness are very attractive.
The other part of our local Church is a Church from more than 120 countries, which bring their own culture, their own language and their own vision. This is a richness that attracts the locals very much. Many Finns are attracted by the large families coming from other places or by the joy that the Africans bring. Here you see the attractiveness of Catholicism.
How has the relationship between the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations in Finland been, especially in the ecumenical context?
- The relationship is exceptional. To give you an idea, we have Mass on Sundays in 33 cities and there are Catholic churches in only 7 of them. This means that in 25 cities we celebrate Mass in non-Catholic churches, namely 20 Lutheran churches and 5 Orthodox churches that we borrow for Mass.
The relationship is wonderful. We have a joint formation week for Catholic priests and Orthodox priests. Last year we had the first ever joint procession with the Orthodox on the day of Our Lady's birth, September 8. We went together in procession from the Orthodox cathedral to the Catholic cathedral, with the bishops at the head. There was Our Lady of Fatima and a Byzantine icon. The faithful were thrilled. Shortly afterwards, the Lutheran bishop asked me why I had not told him about the procession. I answered that I did not think that they wanted to go to this procession with the Virgin Mary, but he replied that this year they wanted to be there, because the Virgin is still the Mother of Jesus.
In a context of increasing secularization, what strategies is the local Church implementing to connect with the new generations?
- A year ago we founded "Juventus Catholica", an association of young Catholics in which they are free to organize their own initiatives and make their own decisions. Here we see their personal initiative and they become aware that they are the Church.
There are many young people in Finland who are lost and suffering. Spiritual loneliness is hell on earth and thanks to this association and the young people who spread the joy of the Gospel, there are many young people who come to the parishes. As an example, on Ash Wednesday this year we celebrated 6 Masses in Helsinki, last year we celebrated 4 and the year before we celebrated 2 Masses.
Here we see that young people need the authenticity and demand of the Catholic faith. Making demands on young people is positive, because we offer them something much greater: God himself.
What do you see as the main challenge facing the Church in Finland?
- In this sense, I like to talk more about opportunities and adventures. We have two clear and obvious challenges. One is distance. The nearest church for a Catholic family is sometimes 300 kilometers away. As a pastor who wants to feed his children and brothers and sisters, I want to bring the divine food, the Eucharist. That requires driving thousands of kilometers every weekend. There are many families who ask to have tabernacles in the village, but there are no churches. And here is the second challenge: the economy. We are the poorest Church in Europe. We do not manage to cover our ordinary expenses and the war between Russia and Ukraine has complicated the situation.
Besides, it is an adventure to build a diocese. I have 8 parishes in my hands and that's it. We need a diocesan structure, a Catholic school, which God willing we will open in August; a diocesan house, where there will be courses, retreats and classes, which we are going to start building in May; and a residence for the elderly, to take care of our elderly. This is an economic challenge and that is one of the reasons why I am here in Madrid. I have come to look for money, just as St. Paul went around the Churches of the Mediterranean asking for collections for Jerusalem.
I am convinced that Finland has an important mission worldwide, a special work in the Catholic Church. I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I sense that something big is going to happen, and we have to prepare for it, so we need a structure.
But the reality today is that the churches in Helsinki can no longer accommodate people. People have to go home to follow one of the 8 Masses we celebrate through the internet. What we have in Finland is a holy problem, holy because it is a blessing from God, but a problem because we need another church.
What message can the Church in Finland give to the rest of the world?
- I am not going to be the one to say what example we set for others. That can only be said by those who see us. But I do believe that the Church in Finland stands out for personal responsibility. The Finnish faithful know that they are Catholics, they are aware that the Catholic Church is not a sum of parishes, but that the Church is you and me as members of the Body of Christ.
Many Finns are the only Catholics in their environment and, instead of camouflaging themselves with others, they are not afraid to show themselves as Catholics and talk about Christ to people. They speak naturally about the Eucharist and Jesus. They are missionaries and apostles wherever they go, and this is an example for the rest of the world.
Another aspect to highlight is ecumenism. We Christians are very united in Finland. For the world to believe we need ecumenism and this is an obligation for Catholics. It makes no sense for us to criticize other Catholics and be envious. We have to look for unity among us, it is the first ecumenism that God asks of us. If the Church is united, it will be light and oxygen for the rest of Christians and for the whole world.
In your new book, "Breaking the Ice," you talk about various initiatives and projects to evangelize in Finland. Can you tell us about one that particularly touched you or had an impact you didn't expect?
- Every year I organize a trip to Lapland with a backpack of 30 kilos in which everyone carries everything they need: clothes, food, warm clothes and everything necessary for the Mass. We spend 5 days walking and contemplating. This results in conversions, vocations and confessions. It bears incredible fruit, not only because the suffering of walking 100 kilometers in the rain and snow brings a lot of unity, but also because you walk with someone and contemplate nature in silence: the fjords, the hills... God speaks here. In this contemplative silence the young people rediscover the Lord and begin to live as temples, as the tabernacles of the Holy Spirit that they are.
Why does the publication of this book seem important to you, and what conclusions do you want readers to draw from it?
- When I was asked by the publisher to write the book, the reality is that I didn't have time, but I don't know how to say no. In the summer, since I had some free time, I decided that I was going to spend some time every day playing soccer, because I love it. In the summer, as I had some free time, I decided that I was going to dedicate some time every day to play soccer, because I love it. On the second day of this resolution, I was injured for three months. Thanks to that, I made time for the book, which I think is going to do a lot of good. Not because I wrote it. The book itself has done me a lot of good, despite the modesty I feel about writing about myself. But I realize that I am not talking about what I have done, but about what God has done through me.
All Christians are called to write this book about our own lives, talking about the great things the Lord has done in us and through us. If you are faithful to God in your life, without the need to do strange things, this becomes a reality. My intention with the book is to encourage to break the ice of so many hearts that are cold because they are far from the warmth of God.
Our society is like a tailor's box, where there is a ramshackle set of ideas that coexist in a supposed harmony. Until the fashionable dressmaker arrives and arranges his material and tools, fed up with not finding anything in its place, and places everything to his liking. Giving priority to what he thinks has to be more at hand because he understands what is more useful. In such a way that there are ideas of first, second,... according to his personal use.
One of those ideas that has been consolidated in a corner of the social sewing box as something unimportant for some people is fatherhood. Because it seems that being a father is secondary, because what it brings is something dispensable, like fathering children or raising them. Nothing could be further from the truth, since fatherhood is irreplaceable, it is the natural complement to motherhood.
Relegating parenthood
María Calvo Charro, law professor and lecturer, says that "fatherhood has also been distorted. Just as men are required to be feminine, soft, empathetic, sensitive and emotional, fatherhood is required to be like an 'encore mom', to be like a real woman. And this generates a lot of frustration for men. In fact, what are called matrifocal families have developed. In the social scenario or in this social mantra, they are families in which the mother distrusts the father, the paternal masculine style that we have talked about. Of that style that implies giving protection and security to the children". That is to say, they want to sell us that we need an "encore mother", a "pa-mother" and a mother. And what we need is the virility, determination and donation of a good father and the gentleness, understanding and unconditional dedication of a good mother.
A feminism This misunderstanding has led to this reality, in such a way that fatherhood has been relegated to the empowerment of women, who have gone too far in the face of the irrational machismo that has been in place and has been at ease for centuries.
Claiming fathers
But we must be clear that, just as the sky has been overcast for most of March and the situation seemed endless -giving us Noah's perspective- in the end the sun came out. With the subject of parenthood, and with other subjects, there will be a dawning, a pendulum swing and it will be placed in its rightful place, since it is something necessary for a complete education.
In the life process of a person, a father or a mother may be missing, but someone plays this necessary role if we do not want a personal imbalance.
An absent father can provoke identity, referential or integrity problems in children. Hence the need for his presence and proactivity.
For this reason, once again this year, on the day of St. Joseph -We must vindicate this figure of fatherhood. Since we all want to enjoy this figure so necessary for a full development. Whether it is thanks to a biological or adoptive father, or to any relative or person who is a reference of masculinity that gives generously.
Vatican Appeal for the Collection for Christians in the Holy Land
The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches of the Holy See, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, on behalf of Pope Francis, has launched an appeal to support the annual Holy Land Collection in aid of Christian communities, which usually takes place on Good Friday. It is "an indispensable resource," he said.
Francisco Otamendi-March 18, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
The Prefect for the Oriental Churches of the Holy See, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, has made a appeal to help the Christians of the Holy Land with the annual Appeal instituted by Pope Paul VI. This appeal from the Vatican to the bishops and faithful of the dioceses is made in the name of Pope Francis.
"A must-have resource."
"This year the Collection has become 'an indispensable resource' after the pandemic, the almost complete interruption of pilgrimages and the small activities created, especially by Christians, around those, and the exile to which many have been forced," writes Cardinal Gugerotti, who recalls "the images of destruction and death."
"If we want to strengthen the Holy Land and ensure live contact with the Holy Places it is necessary to support Christian communities that, in their variety, offer to God-with-us a perennial praise, also in our name", continues the Cardinal Prefect. "But for this to happen, we absolutely need the generous gift of your communities".
To the bishops: "one of your priorities".
The Cardinal Prefect for the Oriental Churches appeals directly to the bishops of the whole world. "I would like you, my brother bishops, remembering the images of destruction and death that have constantly passed before your eyes in these times of the new Calvary, to become persuasive apostles of this commitment.
The Holy Land, the Holy Places, and the Holy People of God are your familybecause they are the patrimony of all of us. I beg you to make the Collect one of your pastoral priorities: at stake here is the survival of this precious presence of ours, which goes directly back to the time of Jesus".
Everyone has the right to live in peace
"Everyone, beginning with the children, has the right to live in peace and to have homes and schools again, to play together, without the fear of seeing the satanic smile of death again. This is true," the cardinal adds.
"For us Christians, the Holy Places have a particular value, they are the incarnation of the Incarnation. They have been guarded from the beginning by Christian communities, in the variety of their various traditions, and for centuries the Friars Minor of the Custody have cared for them with admirable fidelity," he continued.
Initiatives of great pastoral value
Initiatives of great pastoral value have sprung up around these places: parishes, schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, assistance centers for migrants, displaced persons and refugees. And "this year, the Collection has become an indispensable resource".
The Cardinal's letter adds that "if we want to strengthen the Holy Land and ensure living contact with the Holy Places, it is necessary to support Christian communities that, in their variety, offer to God-with-us a perennial praise, also in our name.
But for this to happen, we absolutely need the generous gift of your communities".
"A truce in force, but fragile."
The cardinal recalls the "weeping", "despair" and "destruction" that have taken place in the Holy Land in these years of violence and conflict.
Although "our hearts are uplifted by the truce in force," we know that "it is fragile and, by its very nature, will not be enough on its own to solve the problems and extinguish the hatred in that area," he says. "But at least our eyes do not see new explosions and the anguish of the irreparable is not perpetuated in them."
The Cardinal also recalls that "the hope of seeing the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ our Lord, who showed the wounds of his passion alive on that very earth, returns to us".
Avoid parallel collections, and send directly to the Dicastery.
Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti finally asks: "prevent our Churches from promoting parallel collections for the same purpose, lest the meaning and efficacy of your charity, which responds to the universal initiative of the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, be compromised".
Everything you have collected can be sent directly to this Dicastery by the Commissariats of the Holy Land of your country, he points out.
Finally, he assures that "Pope Francis sends you all his Blessing: God will not forget, especially in this Jubilee Year of Hope, the one who has become a witness of His Providence and an instrument of His Peace. Our Christians in those lands are waiting for you. Thank you and I wish you a happy Jubilee pilgrimage".
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and doctor of the Church
On March 18, the liturgy celebrates St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a bishop of the early fourth century and doctor of the Church. His writings were cited in constitutions of the Second Vatican Council, such as Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum. The need for doctrinal formation guided his pastoral work.
Francisco Otamendi-March 18, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The Church celebrates on March 18 the bishop Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century), doctor of the Church. His writings were mentioned in two dogmatic constitutions of the Vatican Council II (1962-1965), Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum. He was a great connoisseur of Sacred Scripture. The need for formation in doctrinal matters guided his pastoral work. He succeeded Bishop Maximus in 348.
At the age of thirty he was ordained a priest and dedicated himself to preparing catechumens to receive the sacrament of Baptism. In those years, around 350, he began his famous 24 catecheses, to which Benedict XVI referred in his General hearings dedicated to the Holy Fathers, specifically on June 27, 2007.
Benedict XVI on St. Cyril
"Introduced by a 'Procatechesis' of welcome, the first eighteen are addressed to the catechumens or 'illuminandi ((photizomenoi)'; he pronounced them in the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre." They deal with the dispositions prior to Baptism, the sacrament of Baptism, and the dogmatic truths contained in the Creed or Symbol of the faith. "From 6 to 18, they are a 'continuous catechesis'.at anti-Arian key".
Of the last five (19-23), named mystagogical (of initiation or introduction), the first two develop a commentary on the rites of baptism; and the last three deal with Confirmation, the Body and Blood of Christ, and the Eucharistic liturgy, Benedict XVI pointed out. In 381, he participated in the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople where he signed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or Symbol.
Enter other saintsOn this day, the Church also celebrates Saint Anselm, Bishop of Lucca; Saint Alexander of Jerusalem or Cappadocia (Turkey); Saint Savior of Horta; Saint Braulio, Bishop of Zaragoza; Saint Edward II, King of England, or Blessed John Thules and Rogerius Wrenno, martyrs in Lancaster under the reign of James I.
The German Bishops' Conference insists on its "Synodal Committee".
At the press conference following the Plenary Assembly of the German bishops, the discussion was mainly about politics, but also about the recurring topics of the German bishopric, among them the "Synodal Committee".
Last week, the traditional Spring Plenary Assembly of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) in the monastery of Steinfeld in the Diocese of Aachen. After years of the "Synodal Way", which began in 2019, the bishops now seek to consolidate this initiative through a "Synodal Committee".
The Vatican has repeatedly stated its opposition to the creation of a body composed of bishops, priests and laity that could make decisions on the election of bishops and evaluate their activities. On January 16, 2023, the Cardinal Secretary of State and the cardinal prefects of the dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Bishops, with the "specific approval" of Pope Francis, informed the president of the DBK that "neither the Synodal Way, nor a body appointed by it, nor a national bishops' conference" are authorized to establish such a body, as it would constitute "a new structure of Church governance in Germany, which (....) seems to place itself above the authority of the Bishops' Conference and to replace it de facto".
The Synodal Way attempted to circumvent this prohibition by not directly creating the Synodal Council, but rather a Synodal Committee, whose purpose is to prepare for the creation of such a Synodal Council. In a letter dated November 10, 2023, Pope Francis expressed his concern about "the constitution of the Synodal Committee," warning that its goal of establishing a consultative and decision-making body cannot be harmonized with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church, so its creation was rejected by the Holy See in the communication of January 16, 2023, "which I specifically approved."
The Vatican and the Synodal Committee
In March 2024, a delegation of German bishops met with six representatives of Vatican dicasteries, among them Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. According to the Catholic news agency KNA, the German bishops "have de facto committed themselves not to create new leadership structures for the Catholic Church in Germany against the will of Rome."
However, in June 2024, the president of the DBK, Msgr. Georg BätzingThe Synodal Committee has the approval of the Cardinal Secretary of State and the participating cardinals, and we can move forward with the statute we have drawn up. What more could we ask for?
During the Steinfeld Assembly, Bishop Bätzing declared: "We want to consolidate the synodal path, synodality in all of Germany. Addressing the position of the four bishops - Gregor Maria Hanke (Eichstätt), Stefan Oster (Passau), Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg) and Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (Cologne) - who have refused to participate in this Synodal Committee, he stated that "if there is a national body that has the approval of Rome and is aligned with the World Synod, it will be difficult to justify non-participation". He also mentioned that further talks are planned between the Vatican and a German delegation.
Sexual abuse in Germany
The Spring Assembly addressed a number of issues, including the investigation of sexual abuse. Reportedly, more than 57 million euros have already been paid to victims of sexual violence. Although the bishops acknowledge that psychological damage cannot be compensated financially, they consider the investigation and compensation process to be "the only possibility."
Church and politics
However, in the press conference at the conclusion of the Assembly, political questions dominated. Acknowledging that "as a Catholic Church we are not a political party," Bätzing stated that "the Gospel gives us a clear political mandate, based on our vision of man and God. Ahead of the February 23 general election, a joint communication by "the Catholic and Evangelical Church" drew criticism; for example, former CDU President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer decided to suspend her collaboration in the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and CSU leader Markus Söder urged the churches to adopt a more moderate stance on political issues.
A year ago, in February 2024, the DBK published an official text condemning the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party for its inclination towards "ethnic nationalism," stating that "extreme right-wing parties" cannot be "a place of political activity for Christians nor be eligible."
Now, after the success of the AfD, also in Catholic circles - it is estimated that 18 % of Catholics voted for this party - Bätzing admitted mistakes, acknowledging that the concerns of many people had not been "taken seriously". While stressing that there is nothing in common between the AfD party and the Church, he said the Church must dialogue with the party's voters to understand their motivations and promote its own positions.
But on the other hand, Bätzing warned that the times are over in which "it could be claimed that disgruntled people voted for the AfD and that a distinction must be made between the party and its voters," because those who "voted for the AfD in the Bundestag elections knew what they were supporting and should not count on our solidarity."
In this context, it is striking that Bätzing speaks of "democratic forces", excluding the AfD, but apparently not far-left parties such as Die Linke ("The Left"), heirs of the manifestly atheistic socialist-communist party that dominated the GDR, or the Greens, whose ideology, which includes the defense of free abortion and gender ideology, distances itself from Christian thought.
Current issues discussed at the Assembly
The DBK president also referred to Ukraine, Putin and the new US administration: "If the aggressor achieves his goals, even partially, this will not lead to a lasting peace, but will endanger the whole of Europe". He considers the strategy of the U.S. government "simply irresponsible, to try now a rapprochement with Putin, to exert pressure, even to come to blackmail measures," as this could lead to Ukraine "surrendering to the aggressor, which would be a scandal." He expressed his desire for peace, "but not at a price imposed on Ukraine."
In addition, Bishop Bätzing also spoke about another of the "hot topics": the participation of women in the Church. Although one third of the leadership positions are already occupied by women, he issued a warning: "Do not think that the question of the admission of women to sacramental offices will calm down because they occupy more and more leadership positions in the Church, but the opposite will be the case. There will be more pressure. "And, among all these issues, where is the call to evangelization, which Pope Francis has called for, for example, in his "Letter to the People of God on pilgrimage in Germany" (June 29, 2019), when he stressed the need for prayer, penance and adoration?
Asked how the bishops would respond to this call, Bätzing assured that there was no topic on the assembly agenda that was "related to the Gospel..., evangelization is everywhere." He affirmed that the question of how to "integrate the wonderful attractiveness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the concerns of people and, as a Church, to open ways and establish dialogues" is the "common thread" of all Episcopal Assemblies.
How to make Religion class the best of all classes
It is said that students have lost interest in the Religion class. That may be, but I do not blame them, but their circumstances: in particular, cell phones and secularization.
March 18, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
According to the National Bicentennial Survey UC 2022, a downward trend of Catholicism in Chile is shown. Adherence decreases from 70 % in 2006 to 48 % in 2022. And where do the people leaving the Church go? Evangelicals, those who do not profess religion, the belief in the karma or in the energies located in physical things.
As the desert advances, how do we win over our students so that they will be able to would like to learn about the Catholic faith?
"Sometimes it makes you want to work on something else."said a tired teacher to me. But, for God's sake, if St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua could get the attention even of fish, how can we not be able to capture the interest of our students?
Instead of winding up worry, we could rethink the way we teach. This is what the book addresses Educating for life. Experiences in the teaching of Religioncoordinated by Ronald Bown and published by Eunsa. In the book, teachers from different schools in Chile and Spain share practical ideas to improve their classes. It is a project that will be useful for teachers of all school levels, also for those who have students with special educational needs.
To cite a few examples: Carolina Martinez offers a Bible reading guide. Santiago Baraona has seen many students awaken to the big questions by reading books such as Man in search of meaningby Viktor Frankl, the essay To be freeby José Ramón Ayllón, or Mere Christianityby C.S. Lewis.
There are also ideas for the little ones. Francisca Ruiz and Bernardita Domínguez teach their pre-school students that the sign of the cross is the sign of the cross. "the password of the friends of Jesus". Great. And something even better: to teach that each of us is a treasure for God, they say: "We place a mirror inside a pretty box lined with some shiny paper (...) One by one, each child is invited to see what is inside the box. When they open it and see their reflection, the child gets excited and smiles. It is a very special moment in the awareness of God's love for each one of us". (p. 196).
There are people who have made religion an interesting subject even for the inhabitants of the sea. And we, how are we going to reinvent ourselves, how can we infuse prestige into the Religion class, to make it the most attractive subject in the curriculum?
Lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Licentiate in Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome) and Doctorate in Theology from the University of Navarra (Spain).
Palazzo Barberini in Rome is hosting the exhibition "Caravaggio 2025", one of the most ambitious exhibitions dedicated to the Italian master. Curated by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi and Thomas Clement Salomon, the exhibition brings together an exceptional number of autograph paintings by Caravaggio, including extraordinary loans from prestigious international institutions.
The most relevant works include the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini and the Ecce Homo of the Prado Museum. In addition, two rediscovered masterpieces are presented for the first time, offering a renewed vision of Caravaggio's innovative influence on the artistic, religious and social context of his time.
Now 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 Holy See press office has released a photograph of Pope Francis after concelebrating Holy Mass on Sunday, March 16, in the chapel of the tenth floor apartment of the Gemelli Polyclinic.
Seated almost on his back, seated in a wheelchair and dressed in a purple alb and stole after concelebrating Mass, Pope Francis looks at the crucifix on the altar of the tenth-floor chapel, where he goes daily to pray since his health condition has improved slightly. This is the first image of the Pontiff since his hospitalization.
The situation remains stable, as has been confirmed in recent days, although the clinical picture continues to be described as "complex" by the medical team, according to the latest reports. Because of this stability, medical updates have begun to be less frequent in recent days. Even so, the Holy See Press Office keeps journalists informed on a daily basis, and since the beginning of his hospitalization there have been more than 700 accredited journalists.
A testing moment
In the Angelus text prepared by the Pope, Francis pointed out that illness is a period to love and pray, and encouraged to face this time of trial to unite oneself to God. He also stressed the importance of being light in the midst of suffering, recalling that God never abandons and places at our side people who reflect his love, especially in hospitals and places of assistance.
He thanked those who take care of him with dedication and feels the support of those who pray for him, especially the children, to whom he expressed his affection. From the Gemelli Hospital, he keeps in his heart the countries hit by war, such as Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Sudan.
Finally, he reaffirmed his commitment to a more synodal Church, after approving last week a process to implement the final document of Synod 2024 and move towards a new ecclesial assembly in 2028.
Do you live according to your values or are you dominated by immediate pleasure?
Alfred Sonnenfeld explains how the heart must balance instinct and reason to make free and value-aligned decisions. This is the only way to live with authenticity, transcending pleasure and achieving true love.
Today it is very fashionable to use the expression 'my truth' as if there were as many truths as there are people, as if something is right because "I feel that way". On February 13, Alfred Sonnenfeld, a medical doctor, theologian and writer of "The Art of Happiness" and "The wisdom of the heart", he put words to something many of us are slaves to: the basal or 'reptilian' system.
By basal system, Alfred Sonnenfeld refers to Eros: everything that the body asks for, immediate pleasure, a blind director who lacks the head, which is reason. A person who is guided only by eros is someone dominated by the waves of his whims, who seeks maximum pleasure without thinking of the consequences. Can we hold the basal system responsible for our decisions?
The conflict between pleasure and reason
Alfred Sonnenfeld makes it very clear that actions come from the heart, a king that depends on two advisors to make decisions: the basal system and reason. The heart weighs the options they provide and assesses what it finally decides to do. Its duty is to harmonize the feelings and the head. The problem is when one of the two advisors overrides the other. And it is that many times the basal system is the winner.
Getting carried away by pleasures and emotions can be contradictory to values, which surpass the needs of the basal system because they are channeled to something greater, higher than the short-term consummation of small satisfactions. And the spontaneity and impulsivity of the basal system can interfere with the life we want to lead. Alfred Sonnenfeld argues that there are many people who lead a double life because they have not become familiar with their values, they lack the affective connaturalization with the good.
The doctor explains that, fortunately, we are not our basal system. This is only a part of the whole person, so we should not reduce everything to eros. Sexuality is a language of love, which must take into account the heart and reason. "If I only look at the partiality of sex, the carnal, I am like those in Plato's cave: I miss the totality of the person."
Love as surrender
The doctor also differentiates between falling in love and love, affirming that many people in love do not know what is the love of surrender, that which comes from the heart. "Falling in love is idealizing a person without counting on reason, without really putting one's head into it. It remains in eros. Those in love seem to bond completely, but the imagination dominates this stage by projecting desires, emotions and feelings and designing a future of romantic fantasies." In case these emotions come, Alfred Sonnenfeld encourages to ask oneself the following questions: Is it reasonable? Do these actions of being carried away by emotions correspond to my values? What values do I think I should follow?
So that emotions and feelings do not rule your life, making you a slave to your impulses, the writer recommends inner order, setting priorities, being objective and realistic, not deceiving oneself by blaming others, being tolerant and forgetting prejudices. But, above all, he points out the ability to transcend oneself: "to know that I have Someone above me".
The road to true freedom
We must not forget that we have fragile, imperfect hearts. And in the same way, it is not licit to demand perfection. The only one who is perfect is God. Nevertheless, we are called to do good by putting the virtues into practice: "He who does good knows how to enjoy life. When we do good in a habitual way, we are no longer tyrannized by our basal system or by our head, and therefore we are freer".
Far from a stubborn heart that seeks short-term selfish pleasure and self-deception and a weak heart that avoids deep reflection, Alfred Sonnenfeld encourages aspiring to an open heart, with a firm desire to seek the whole truth, even if it hurts. A heart that becomes strong and overcomes the onslaughts and outrages of the basal system.
The authorTeresa Aguado Peña
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St. Patrick's Day is one of the most celebrated holidays around the world, despite the fact that he is the patron saint of Ireland, a rather small country. However, this paradox makes more sense if you take into account that St. Patrick was not even Irish, so if Ireland celebrates him, the rest of the world has an excuse too.
The patron saint of Ireland was actually born in Scotland, in a small village where he stayed until he was 16 years old. At that time, a group of Irish pirates kidnapped the young man to sell him into slavery. For this reason, during the following years of his life Patrick tended his owner's sheep in the north of Ireland, where he learned the native language and became familiar with the customs.
Long working days allowed St. Patrick to spend many hours in dialogue with God. It was at this time that he learned the value of prayer and took the opportunity to ask Christ to help him discern his will.
France and the call of God
One night, God inspired him to flee to the coast. Arriving at a port, after walking for miles without really knowing what was going to happen, St. Patrick found a ship bound for France. He immediately knew that this was where he had to go, but the captain of the ship refused to let him on board, probably because he realized that the young man was in fact an escaped slave.
After praying insistently, Patrick managed to convince the captain and traveled to France, where he met St. Germain. Again, there God enlightened him and asked him to become a monk. Under the tutelage of his master, Bishop of Auxerre, St. Patrick studied Sacred Scripture in depth and, after several years, set out for Rome to complete his education.
Once in the Eternal City, the monk received priestly ordination and Pope Celestine approached him with a proposal: to consecrate himself as a bishop and return to Ireland to evangelize the pagan tribes of the country.
St. Patrick returns to Ireland
Forgetting the bad time he had had in Ireland, St. Patrick accepted the Pontiff's commission and set sail for the island, where again they did not want to receive him. The tribesmen took Patrick prisoner, tortured him and tried to kill him, but the bishop gradually won the confidence of the chiefs. Through very simple preaching, he succeeded in getting them to accept the Gospel message.
After converting the authorities of the communities, they released St. Patrick, who began to travel throughout the island of Ireland following the same strategy: first approaching the chiefs and their families, so that the other members of the tribes would lose their fear and also sit down to listen to him.
As the priest knew well the customs of the Irish, he was able to adapt to them and, thanks to his work, many inhabitants received the Catholic faith. St. Patrick recorded his preaching in his Confessions, where he also narrated his life before his death on March 17, 461.
Between legend and history
Despite these writings, many elements of St. Patrick's life are part of the legend. The best known of these is his feat of ridding Ireland of snakes: an animal that never actually inhabited the island. Other details are more plausible, such as his famous use of the three-leaf clover as an image to explain the Holy Trinity. From here comes the famous identification of Ireland with this plant.
Despite the fact that St. Patrick never left Europe and spent a long time as a prisoner, his feast day is the most celebrated national event in the world. The fact that millions of Irish people have left the island throughout history to emigrate to other countries means that they have transferred their customs to new places where St. Patrick is still remembered with affection (and one too many beers).
For years, the Catholic Church in Ireland tries to give back to the celebration of March 17 its religious meaning. For the faithful of the country it is a day of obligation on which they go to Mass to give thanks for the courageous witness of that pastor who was not afraid to return to the island to bring the Gospel to a country that even today is known worldwide for its faith, despite the difficulties Catholics in recent years.
On December 24, 2024, an ordinary Jubilee Year began, that is, a year of joy and jubilation for the birth of Jesus. The archangel St. Gabriel when he appeared to the Virgin to announce to her that she was to be the mother of God said to her words synonymous with jubilation, "Rejoice!", "rejoice!".
March 17, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
The word of Latin origin joy has many synonyms, joy, happiness, contentment, contentment, rejoicing, joy, pleasure,... Other words such as jubilee, jubilee, jubilee, are born from it. But its etymological origin is Hebraic and is in the word "jobel" which is synonymous with remission, liberation, forgiveness ... But it is also the ram's horn that transmitted these liberating concepts in the Old TestamentThe sounding of the bell announced the beginning of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), since when it sounded it announced the beginning of this annual celebration.
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
It is a day of repentance, atonement and thanksgiving for Yahweh's (God's) forgiveness of the Jewish people. The grave sin for which they asked forgiveness was not having trusted in God's help, after the seven plagues sent for the rescue of Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea, through the intercession of the prophet Moses. As a result of the lack of trust in God, the Hebrews created a golden calf with the intention of using it as an idol, while Moses received the tablets of the law on the sacred mount Sinai. These ended up being thrown by the prophet against the metallic figure as a result of the courage that such a scene produced in him after his dedication to the divine will, destroying such an offense. After this event the people of Israel repented of their lack of trust in God and began a period of atonement, which culminated with the forgiveness of Yahweh and as an external sign he gave a second copy of the 10 commandments and with the creation of this feast that began with the sound of the jobel.
The Jewish Jubilee Year
This event caused the creation of years of grace and joy every fifty years. In Leviticus it is indicated that seven cycles of seven sabbatical years must be counted, which means forty-nine years. And it is in the fiftieth year when there is a year of rest of the land, condonation of debts, restitution of land, liberation of slaves, ransom of property... This year also began with the liberating sound of the jobel. This would give origin to the Jubilee Years.
The Christian Jubilee Year
On December 24, 2024 began an ordinary Jubilee Year, that is, a year of joy and jubilation for the birth of Jesus, which has been happening every 25 years in the Catholic Church for centuries. The archangel St. Gabriel when he appeared to the Virgin to announce to her that she was going to be the mother of God told her words synonymous with jubilation, "Rejoice!", "rejoice!".
The first Jubilee was proclaimed by Boniface VIII, when he declared the year 1300 as "Holy Year" and "Year of Forgiveness of sins". Instead of the sounding of the jobel in this case holy doors are opened to begin the Jubilee Year. There are four holy doors of the great basilicas of Rome and a fifth in a prison in Rome, which are opened with the intention of winning the jubilee.
When did the doors open?
The Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica was opened on December 24, 2024, with the beginning of the Jubilee, that of the Cathedral of St. John Lateran on December 29, 2024, that of the Basilica of St. Mary Major on January 1, 2025 and that of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on January 5, 2025.
Ways to earn the Jubilee or plenary indulgence.
The Bull of Convocation of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, "The Jubilee of the Year 2025".Spes non confundit"The book explains how there are multiple ways to earn the Jubilee (or cleansing of the soul), with the usual conditions established by the church (Communion, Confession, prayer for the Roman Pontiff and firm resolution not to sin again) and carrying out some actions such as a pilgrimage to the cathedral of the diocese, carrying out some work of mercy, participating in training sessions where the catechism is explained...
Pope Francis' health continues to improve. According to the latest medical report, the Pontiff requires less and less non-invasive mechanical ventilation at night and therapies show gradual improvements.
Pope Francis remains hospitalized but his health continues to improve. According to the latest medical report sent by the Holy See, the Pontiff less and less need for noninvasive mechanical ventilation at night.
The Holy Father continues to perform every day the therapies recommended by the doctors. In fact, the Holy See reports that "these therapies, for the time being, show new gradual improvements". Another clear sign that he is improving is the reduction of reports about his health. The Vatican has explained that they will only publish information from time to time, given the stability achieved by the Pope.
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The last of the seven Sundays of St. Joseph has arrived
The devotion to prepare for the Solemnity of St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church, with the custom of 'The Seven Sundays of St. Joseph', ends today, the 16th. Christians meditate on these Sundays prior to the feast of March 19 on the "sorrows and joys of St. Joseph", who had the mission of being the husband and guardian of the Virgin Mary and father of Jesus.
Francisco Otamendi-March 16, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
The Church, following an ancient custom, prepares the feast of St. Joseph March 19, and dedicates to the Holy Patriarch the seven Sundays preceding that feast, with the consideration of the principal joys and sorrows of the life of St. Joseph. This last Sunday, it is suggested as devotion the meditation of 'The Child lost and found in the temple', reflected in the fifth joyful mystery of the Rosary.
Letter 'Patris corde', from Pope Francis
"When, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they lost Jesus, who was twelve years old, he and Mary searched for him in anguish and found him in the temple while he was arguing with the doctors of the law (cf. Lk 2:41-50)".
This is how Pope Francis sums up this pain and joy in his Apostolic Letter 'The Joy and Sorrow of the Church'.Patris corde(With a Father's Heart), dated December 8, 2020, and made public by the Holy Father "on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of the Declaration of San Jose as patron of the universal Church".
Various texts and meditations can be found around this pain and joy, among which are formulations such as thisSeventh sorrow: They sought him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem in search of him (Lk 2:44-459). Seventh joy: At the end of three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions (Lk 2:46).
Previous Popes
"After Mary, Mother of God, no saint occupies as much space in the pontifical Magisterium as Joseph, her spouse," writes Pope Francis in his 2020 Letter.
"My predecessors have deepened the message contained in the few data transmitted by the Gospels to highlight his central role in the history of salvation: Blessed Pius IX declared him 'Patron of the Catholic Church'; Venerable Pius XII presented him as 'Patron of Workers', and St. John Paul II as 'Custodian of the Redeemer'. The people invoke him as 'Patron of the good death'",
For this reason, on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Blessed Pius IX, on December 8, 1870, declaring him 'Patron of the Catholic Church,' I would like - as Jesus says - that "the mouth may speak of that with which the heart is full" (cf. Mt 12:34), to share with you some personal reflections on this extraordinary figure, so close to our human condition".
And the Pope begins with this central consideration: "The greatness of St. Joseph consists in the fact that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus. As such, he 'entered into the service of the whole economy of the incarnation', as St. John Chrysostom says".
Catechesis on St. Joseph
In the aforementioned Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis contemplates St. Joseph as a beloved father, a father in tenderness, obedience and welcome; a father of creative courage, a worker, always in the shadows.
Ramiro Pellitero commented on Omnes Pope Francis' teachings on St. Joseph in his twelve catecheses. His aim, according to Prof. Pellitero, was to present him as "support, consolation and guide", to "allow ourselves to be enlightened by his example and witness". The Roman Pontiff's catechesis on St. Joseph covered three main areas: the figure and role of the saint in the plan of salvation, his virtues and his relationship with the Church.
Some readings
On the occasion of the anniversary of Pius IX's declaration of 1870, Pope Francis established a Year of St. Joseph, especially dedicated to him, which concluded on December 8, 2021, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
The Letter 'Patris Corde' is thus the first document that can be cited when suggesting some reading on St. Joseph, next to 'Redemptoris custosby St. John Paul II. Others are 'The Shadow of the Father', by Jan Dobraczyński, 'The Silences of St. Joseph', by Henri-Michel Gasnier, etc.
St. John Chrysostom
It is not easy to resist the temptation to mention St. John Chrysostom, one of the four great Fathers of the Eastern Church, when referring to St. Joseph.
In addition to being cited by recent Roman Pontiffs, including Pope Francis in 'Patris corde', other authors have also quoted him. For example, St. Josemaría, in his homily 'In Joseph's Workshop,' included in the book 'It is Christ who passes', and also Francisco Fernández Carvajal, in his meditations of '.Talking to God'.
This is one of the best known and most quoted quotations of Chrysostom: "When Joseph heard this (he refers to the words of the Angel, who orders him to flee from Herod and take refuge in Egypt), "Joseph was not shocked and did not say: this seems to be a riddle. You yourself made it known not long ago that He would save His people, and now He is not even able to save Himself, but we need to flee, to undertake a journey and suffer a long displacement: this is contrary to your promise. Joseph does not think in this way, because he is a faithful man".
St. Louise de Marillac, co-foundress of the Daughters of Charity
On March 15, the Church celebrates the French Saint Louise de Marillac. Born in Paris in 1591, she dedicated herself to the poor and marginalized, and is co-founder of the Daughters of Charity, together with St. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission of the Missionaries of Charity, and St. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission of the Missionaries of Charity. paulles, Vincentians or Lazarists.
Francisco Otamendi-March 15, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
St. Louise de Marillac is the spiritual heir of St. Vincent de Paul and founded with him in 1633 the Company of the Daughters of St. Louise de Marillac. Daughters of Charity. Louise belonged to a family of French nobility, and wanted to become a Capuchin nun. But her parents advised her to marry. She had a son, was widowed, and from then on used her energies to care for the many poor of Paris.
In 1625, when she was 33 years old, she took the priest Vincent de Paul as her spiritual director. The care of her 15-year-old son did not prevent her from working with the poor. He sensed, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the need to regroup young people who were able and willing to dedicate their lives to the service of the poor. His tireless commitment to those most in need continues to be a source of inspiration for the Congregation of the Mission.
The Daughters of Charity are born
On November 29, 1633, St. Vincent, the founder of the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians), and St. Louise created and gave juridical form to the Company of the Daughters of Charity. She organized and led the Daughters of Charity in the communities, and he put a lot of effort into their formation. He died in 1660 and his funeral was a great recognition of his work.
On March 15, the liturgy also celebrates St. Raymond of Fitero, Cistercian abbot; the Redemptorist St. Clement Mary Hofbauer; St. Lucretia, martyred in Cordoba after St. Eulogius; St. Zacharias, Pope of the eighth century; or the blessed English priest William Hart, who was hanged in York in 1583 after the conversion of some Anglicans to the Catholic faith.
Perhaps we have abused the term "responsible paternity". A concept that, poorly discerned, has become an authentic vasectomy of Christian life, whose shadow of sterility is ravaging the Western Church.
Around seminary day, we were concerned about the lack of priestly vocations. Today I dare to point out that the culprit of this crisis is the misinterpretation of one of the terms proposed by Christian doctrine, that of "responsible paternity". The Catechism uses it in the context of the regulation of procreation and wisely affirms that, "for justified reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children. In this case, they should make sure that their desire is not born of selfishness, but is in accordance with the just generosity of responsible parenthood".
We all know that there are some justified reasons, the problem is that, on many occasions, we justify our reasons by trying to constrain God's plan to human logic, and human logic is always so limited!
Human logic and divine plans
The human logic of St. JosephFor example, it was crushing: "The child that Mary is carrying is not mine, I don't want to denounce her. I don't want to denounce her, the best thing to do is to repudiate her in secret" -he thought-. An angel had to come in a dream to get him out of the mistake and make him understand the divine logic. And what was Mary's "let it be done" if not an example of irresponsible motherhood book? A Hebrew girl in her circumstances was literally staking her life. The responsible thing to do, no doubt, would have been to decline the angel's invitation outright and ask him to find another mother in better conditions. Besides, both she and the possibly conceived Son of the Most High would be in mortal danger. How could anyone with two fingers in front allow that?
It was the Holy Spirit, which Mary enjoyed in fullness, and not the more than justified reasons, that made her leave the worldly logic and open herself to the newness of the God of surprises. It seems normal to me that those who do not live in this spirit close themselves to life; the problem is when this worldliness enters the Church. Worldliness, Pope Francis has pointed out, is in fact "the worst of the evils that can affect it".
How many times we Christian couples have let ourselves be carried away by the environment, understanding parenthood as a source of difficulties and problems rather than as, in the words of the Pope, "the opening of a new horizon of creativity and happiness"! How many times confessors and spiritual directors have also fallen into this fear of the life that is opening up, depriving couples of the opportunity to live the happiness that comes from responding generously to God from the vocation that is proper to them!
Clerical paternalism and responsible parenthood
There is a lot of clerical paternalism behind some advice in the name of "responsible paternity", as if the vocation to marriage were of a lower rank, destined to the weakest in faith, and did not drink from the same call to holiness as the rest of vocations. Or have you ever heard of responsible priesthood? or responsible contemplative life? Can you imagine a warning for missionaries to be responsible? They would all have to go back home!
Those who, no doubt with good will, have encouraged Christian marriages, in line with current liberal thinking, not to be too complicated with children and to limit their number, have taken away from them that point of irresponsibility that Christian life needs. You have to be irresponsible to give up a professional career, study for six years and give up raising a family to dedicate yourself to being a priest working 24/7 and earning the minimum wage. You have to be irresponsible to shut yourself up forever within four walls with the idea of spending the day praying to a God who does not always answer, living with companions you have not chosen and obeying a superior in a cloistered convent. You have to be irresponsible to go to a country that is not your own, sometimes to the most dangerous places on the planet, to live among the poor and evangelize them as a missionary.
When we complain about the lack of young people who want to make the irresponsible decision to go to a seminary to study (sometimes for several years, with no certainty that they will end up being ordained), let us look to see what kind of responsibility is lived and transmitted in Christian homes. Perhaps we have gone too far in prescribing responsible parenthood. A term that, poorly discerned, has become an authentic vasectomy of the Christian life, whose shadow of sterility is ravaging the Western Church.
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.
Larry Sanger, co-founder of the digital encyclopedia Wikipedia, has opened up on his blog to tell the story of his conversion to Christianity. His writing is titled 'How a Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian'. In 30 pages and 66 notes, Larry Sanger explains that he spent 35 years in disbelief, and reveals three relevant aspects of his conversion process.
Francisco Otamendi-March 14, 2025-Reading time: 7minutes
The philosopher Larry Sangerco-founder of Wikipedia and president of the Knowledge Standards Foundation since 2020, has told the story of his conversion to Christianity on his blog. The title is 'How a Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian'. It is more than 30 pages of "a methodological skeptic" who for 35 years asked himself "many questions". See here three relevant aspects of his conversion process.
Larry Sanger's long inner and outer process, in a more than interesting intellectual and life confession, you can read it in full. hereIt has two main parts: "I lose faith" and "I am converted".
Confirmation in the Lutheran Church, a lot of questions
"My parents met and married in the Lutheran Church, the Missouri Synod, the more conservative of the two largest Lutheran denominations in the United States. My father was an elder in our church when I was a young boy," recalls the Wikipedia founder.
"Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, I was very given to asking 'too many' questions. For example, as a child, I heard a lot of talk about 'mind,' 'spirit,' and 'soul,' and I asked my parents on the way to church when I was perhaps eight years old to explain the difference between these terms, or if perhaps they were not the same. I debated repeatedly with friends about the origin of the universe... I was confirmed at age 12 in the Lutheran Church, but soon after, my family stopped going to church."
A shepherd with no answers
"Like so many others, I lost my faith in my teens," he admits. "Dad started researching New Age religions (he's now a more orthodox Christian again); this alone made the Bible less of a single point of reference for me." Sometime in my late teens, I remember calling a pastor, I don't remember which one, to ask skeptical questions. (...) But the pastor didn't have clear or strong answers. It seemed to me that he didn't care."
Interview on Fox News (2025)
A few days ago, philosopher Sanger granted a interview to Fox News, and the network has selected some phrases from his speech. For example, when he tells how he lost his childhood faith and became a believer in "methodological skepticism". Or also his re-examination of the philosophical arguments in favor of the existence of God.
The synthesis seems correct, although from a text of almost 14,500 words many things can be selected. This is one version, concentrated in a preamble and three relevant aspects.
Preamble: "slow and reluctant conversion".
The preamble is a brief epigraph of his testimony: "I become, silently and uncomfortably". And it has two parts. The first is that it has not been a flash conversion, which there are, but a process. "I never had a mind-blowing conversion experience," he assures. "I approached faith in God slowly and reluctantly, with great interest, yes, but full of confusion and dismay. In fact, as late as April (2020), I was still saying I had a 'provisional Christian belief.'"
First aspect. Search for truth and intellectual honesty.
What led Larry Sanger to convert? The answer is simple: truth. "I came to college in 1986 knowing that I was going to major in philosophy, and unlike most of my peers (even later in graduate school), I was driven by a personal mission of truth, a moral as well as an epistemological mission." "And I didn't understand why most people weren't interested in the questions I was asking."
"I decided in the mid-1990s not to pursue a career in academia (...) Suffice it to say that I rarely saw any sincere concern for the truth, the kind that had made it my life's mission."
Theist, agnostic, atheist?
There is an anecdote that reflects his thinking during those years. After defending his dissertation in 2000, and returning from California, having started Wikipedia in 2001, he taught philosophy for a few more years at Ohio State and local universities. "It was fun to teach, and I made it a goal to hide my own views from students. I remember asking, 'How many of you think I'm a theist?' A third of the hands went up. 'An agnostic?' Another third. 'An atheist?' Another third. I ended the class by saying, 'Excellent! That's exactly the result I wanted!' I also wanted them to seek the truth for themselves."
Re-examining the arguments in favor of the existence of God
An important section of his text can be placed within the framework of this point 1, concerning intellectual honesty. The one that refers to his re-examination of the arguments traditional arguments for the existence of God. "Even today I deny that, individually, the traditional arguments for the existence of God are particularly persuasive. But I began to examine them in new versions," he explains.
"I was impressed by a lecture by philosopher of science and well-known apologist Stephen Meyer, who presented versions of the cosmological argument and the 'Fine Tuning' argument. Science says the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe. But whatever had a beginning must have had an explanation. Since this is the beginning of matter itself, it cannot have a 'material' cause; therefore, it must have an 'immaterial' (whatever that is) cause."
"In the same way, certain characteristics of the universe that are absolutely necessary to explain how the fundamental natural laws work are physical constants (... ). But scientists have never offered an explanation for these constants".
"As he said EinsteinGod does not play dice" -recalls Sanger-; "rather, all the physical laws and constants, as well as the initial conditions of matter and energy, were chosen by God". ‘for the purpose'.to achieve the incredibly rational universe we see before us. The designer is 'the sourceof the rational order of the universe".
Second aspect. Disappointment with atheists and maturity of Christians in networks.
Some of Larry Sanger's reflections constitute a second argument toward Christian faith. To his "surprise," in online discussions about atheism and agnosticism, "I found myself arguing more about methodology with atheists than about God with theists" (theismBelief in a god as a superior being, creator of the world").
In his view, "some atheists came across as clowns, often simply mocking, and seemingly incapable of addressing anything but the most simplistic versions of the arguments."
Conversely, in the face of "nasty" New Atheism behavior, Sanger observed "Christians on social media often (though not always) behaving with maturity and grace, while their critics often acted like nasty trolls."
Third aspect. "The horrors of the Epstein case" and the occult.
The Wikipedia mastermind notes that "two life events changed my understanding of ethics, and this later mattered for my conversion. The first was my marriage, in 2001, and the second was my first child, in 2006 (...). I was willing to die for them.
And soon he returns to what we point out as the third relevant aspect of his writing. Pedophiles, the Epstein case, "sex magic," the occult. His essay on evil was written "in the summer of 2019, reflecting what had become a temporarily obsessive interest of mine: the horrors of the Jeffrey Epstein case were coming to light."
Prior to 2019, while he had lashed out against the pedophiles on the InternetI had never heard of the notion that wealthy and influential pedophiles could organize themselves into criminal conspiracies to commit this most horrible crime," he said. What kind of world must we be living in, he wondered, "if our institutions allow this to happen with impunity?"
Curbs interest in the occult
"At the same time," says Larry Sanger, "I came to wonder if some of these people were deeply interested in the occult, a subject that had never held the slightest interest for me. A friend of mine spent a lot of time persuading me on this point, recommending books on the occult that would shed light on, for example, certain fashionable Hollywood religious movements."
The founder of Wikipedia drew two conclusions from all this, as he refers. "First, if occultists had invested so much time and risked so much in such strange and reprehensible practices, then perhaps the very idea of a spirit world, which underpins these practices, has some truth to it."
Occultism leads him to read the Bible
The second conclusion Sanger came to is that, "as my friend said and as was evident to me based on what I already knew, many of the occult ideas were perversions of ideas and themes from the Bible, and the practices themselves went back to biblical times." "It was a very weighty consideration. I thought that if I was going to learn anything about the occult, the logical thing to do was to read the Bible from cover to cover first, this time to understand it reasonably well," he reasoned.
Why not start now?
Larry Sanger reflected in these terms in August and September 2019. "But it wasn't until the following December when I was looking for some bedtime reading that it occurred to me, 'At some point I wanted to read the Bible. Why not?' So I decided to go ahead and start."
"I'm not sure why I started reading the Bible as obsessively and carefully as I did," he writes, (....) "I found the Bible much more interesting and, to my surprise and dismay, consistent with what I expected. I sought answers to all my critical questions, thinking that perhaps others had not thought through the problems I saw. I was wrong. Not only had they thought about all the problems, and more the ones I had not thought about, but they had well worked out positions on them."
"The Bible could stand up to questioning, who knew?" thinks Sanger.
"I started talking to God, experientially."
"Also, quite early on, I began to 'talk to God,'" the philosopher reveals. "This was experimental. After having lost my faith as a child, I nevertheless continued occasionally to 'pretend'dialogue with a supremely wise being about various issues in my life. It was a kind of therapy, a kind of pretend play with an imaginary friend (which is more or less how I put it for myself)."
"Then I did it more explicitly, but with God, being of course aware that this is suspiciously like prayer." What he would say now is that "I had already begun to believe in God," he adds, "but I was not ready to admit it to myself, nor could I easily reconcile it with my own philosophical commitments, especially not with my methodological skepticism...."
Ready to believe
Finally, Sanger recounts that there was a period of about two or three months when he would have felt uncomfortable if someone had asked me, 'Do you believe in God?'" And "at some point, however, I would have said, 'If you deny that you believe that God exists 'now,'" he says., you are only fooling yourself". And the time came to start reading the Gospels, towards the end of February 2020.
Under 'Church,' one of the endings, Larry Sanger adds that "I didn't immediately go to church. I tried to go, for the first time as a believer since childhood, maybe in May 2020, and the next time I wanted to go, services had closed because of Covid." Sanger regrets to say that a month ago, in February 2025, "I still haven't adopted a church as a home," although he has visited several local churches and a dozen websites.
St. Matilda, Queen, and Blessed Eva of Liège, promoter of Corpus Christi
Today, March 14, the liturgy celebrates St. Matilda, queen, wife of King Henry I, in the lands of the future Germany (10th century), and Blessed Eva of Liège, friend of St. Juliana. Both sought from Pope Urban IV the extension of the solemnity of Corpus Christi to the whole Church. Blessed Eva helped St. Juliana, and the Pope announced the feast in 1264.
Francisco Otamendi-March 14, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
Saint Matilda, queen, and Blessed Eva of Liège, who together with Saint Juliana promoted the feast of Corpus Christi in the universal Church, together with Saint Alexander and Saint Lazarus, bishop of Milan in the 5th century, are some of the saints of March 14.
Mechthild of Ringelheim was born around 985 to a noble Saxon family. She was educated by nuns in the monastery of Erfurt. She contracted marriage with Henry I who was later Duke of Saxony and King of Germany. They had 5 children, and she was venera because she promoted the evangelization of her people and, after she became a widow, the reconciliation and pacification of the whole family. He helped the poor and the Church.
After the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
Blessed Eve of Liège (present-day French-speaking Belgium) was born at the beginning of the 18th century. Her life was greatly influenced by St. Juliana of the monastery of Mont Cornillon. According to the Roman Martyrology, Blessed Eva del Monte Cornelio was imprisoned next to the monastery of Saint Martin. With St. JulianaPrioress of the same monastery, she worked hard so that Pope Urban IV would institute the feast of Corpus Christi, which she succeeded in doing.
On September 8, 1264, the Pope sent him a bull in which he announced the extension of the solemnity of the Corpus Christi to the universal Church. The inspirational motif of the feast had its origin in Flanders, where the Eucharistic movement against heresies was remarkable. The Eucharistic miracles of Daroca (Sacred Bodies), and Bolsena (Italy) also collaborated. Blessed Eve of Liège died on March 14, 1265.
Although Chile has advanced in its secularization process, the intellectual landscape has a notable presence of Christian thinkers. Young, influential and with a capacity for dialogue that transcends traditional divisions, these intellectuals have managed to insert themselves into the public debate from politics, culture and academia, addressing key issues for society with depth and rigor.
The secularization of Chile has been impressive. In 2012, 64% of those under 35 years of age felt affinity with a religion. Ten years later, 63.6% say they do not identify with any. However, the situation changes notably if one looks at the field of culture, because in the last fifteen years the presence of the Christian intellectuals is greater than ever.
Who are they? Most of them are barely in their forties (some are much younger) and their voice is heard in all possible forums: traditional print media, digital media, very noticeably on radio and a little less on television. They are frequently interviewed, write books, participate in seminars and also carry out academic activities.
Profile of thinkers
These intellectuals are known for their participation in the political debate, but since they grew up in the Chile of the transition, they are not contaminated by the divisions affecting previous generations, who lived under the Pinochet dictatorship. This gives them enormous freedom of opinion and does not pigeonhole them into the traditional molds of Chilean politics.
In general, they maintain a friendly style and cultivate dialogue with people who think very differently, particularly intellectuals of the new left and social democracy. In fact, they are highly respected by them. Most of them ascribe to the Christian-social tradition, but this is evident not from the texts they quote but from their emphasis on "the invisible ones"to use the title of a book by historian Catalina Siles - one of them - and on the communitarian dimension of existence.
Unlike traditional conservatives and liberals, their argumentation is not primarily moral or economic, but usually has a political character. For example, if they are going to discuss abortion, they will not refer first of all to the right to life of the unborn, but to the fact that, by pointing out that the woman is the owner of her body, their interlocutors make their own the logic of the most extreme capitalism they claim to fight against. When they allude to euthanasia or homosexual "marriage", they put in the first place the type of society to which these practices lead.
These intellectuals talk about everything that worries Chileans, from immigration and the security crisis to housing or the demographic crisis, but never in terms of "cultural battle" or the like. Some of them have a more polemic style, as is the case of Pablo Ortúzar, a social anthropologist, former Trotskyist, but the tone of most of them is conciliatory and, in any case, they are always in dialogue with people and authors who think differently.
Influences received
Their Christianity is not merely cultural, although it has become culture in them. They are all people who live their faith, but who are nourished by very diverse intellectual traditions. There are authors, such as Tocqueville, who are present in most of them, but it would be difficult to establish common patterns. Raymond Aron, Chantal Delsol, Hannah Arendt or Robert Spaemann appear in their texts, but also Foucault and de Beauvoir, as well as more classical authors such as Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu or Marx.
There are two Chilean authors who have clearly influenced them. On the one hand, the historian Gonzalo Vial (1930-2009), who in his lucid press columns announced the social crisis that was coming in Chile and was externalized in the serious convulsions that the country suffered in 2019. He also showed the limitations of economic rationality when it came to understanding what was happening in the country, an idea that, in contrast to the more traditional right, these authors have permanently pointed out, because theirs has been a constant insistence on the specificity of political reality, which is not reducible to the economy. Also the sociologist Pedro Morandé (1948) and his vindication of oral culture and the Latin American ethos has been a constant inspiration in his work.
The protagonists
The best known of all is Daniel Mansuy, professor at the Universidad de los Andes, political columnist and permanent panelist on radio and television. In his book Salvador Allende. The Chilean left and the Popular Unity (2023) dealt with one of the most controversial figures of 20th century Chile. Not only has it been the second best-selling non-fiction book in the country since 1990, but it was celebrated by almost all political sectors for the depth of its analysis and its weight. In fact, it was recommended by the President of the Republic himself, Gabriel Boric, a representative of the new left. Mansuy also carries out an active research work on Machiavelli and on the political ideas of the French Enlightenment.
Another well known figure is Josefina Araos, a young historian who published The forgotten people. A critique of the understanding of populism (2021), a book that received very positive reviews for its effort to understand this phenomenon rather than proceeding to its easy disqualification.
Without prejudice to their participation in the public debate, they all carry out extensive research work. Manfred Svensson, known for his studies on the political philosophy of the Reformation (The Aristotelian Tradition in Early Modern ProtestantismOxford University Press, 2024), tolerance and the public presence of religion, as well as Matías Petersen, who deals with various subjects related to the philosophy of social sciences (for example, Political Economy, Institutions and Virtue. Alasdair MacIntyre's Revolutionary Aristotelianism.Routledge, 2024) and Gabriela Caviedes, who researches feminism and gender.
These intellectuals carry out their work in various universities, but also in a number of other institutions. Thinks Tanks that have appeared in recent years.
The best known is the Institute of Society Studies (2006), which conducts research and has a constant public presence. In addition, its publishing house disseminates authors who allow it to bring new topics to the intellectual debate. It has published books by Robert Spaemann, Pierre Manent, Robert. P. George, Jean-Claude Michéa, Daniel Mahoney, the aforementioned Pedro Morandé and Alejandro Vigo, in addition to works by its own researchers.
Young profiles
With a markedly social-Christian stamp, it is worth mentioning IdeaCountrywhose members are particularly young. They also have a strong presence in the media, but in addition to this activity, they add training programs for university students, where they promote the emergence of public service vocations, with very good results.
Closer to conservative liberal thinking is Res Publicaa think tank whose educational activities reach young people from all over the country. It also maintains a publishing house. Its researchers, all very young, have a wide participation in the media, especially in radio.
A large number of these intellectuals support the "New Culture" program of the Universidad de los Andes, which since 2019 provides scholarships to train public intellectuals from all over Latin America.
The Chilean experience of public intellectuals with a Christian imprint shows the importance of intervening in the national discussion, of doing so on a wide variety of topics, with a constructive tone and without radically separating the world of research from the task of participating in the media, because, although they are very different activities, there is nothing to prevent the same people from carrying them out.
The authorJoaquín García-Huidobro
Professor of Philosophy at the Universidad de los Andes and political columnist for the newspaper El Mercurio.
Pope Francis continues to be stable, but there is still no news about his possible medical discharge. On the anniversary of his election as Pontiff, the information given by the Holy See points to the fact that he is gradually regaining his rhythm.
Pope Francis is still in the Gemelli hospital, but he is gradually returning to normal. After spending a quiet night, on the morning of March 13, anniversary of his electionIn the case of the Holy Father, the doctors replaced the non-invasive mechanical ventilation that the Holy Father uses to sleep with nasal cannulas.
The Pontiff is following the Spiritual Exercises of Lent through videoconferences, after which he undergoes the therapies prescribed by the medical team. His state of health continues to be stable, but he will still have to wait a few days before the doctors discharge him.
Many media outlets have echoed rumors that the Holy Father has not yet been able to leave the hospital because Casa Santa Marta, which needs to be renovated to be able to receive the Pope again, has not yet been medicalized. However, the Holy See has denied this information.
At the Vatican the rhythm is not interrupted either. On Thursday afternoon, Monsignor Filippo Iannone, Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, will preside at the recitation of the Holy Rosary for the Pontiff. In addition, on Friday morning, the 14th, Cardinal Pietro Parolin will preside at a Mass to pray for the health of Pope Francis with the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
Saints Rodrigo and Salomon, martyrs of Cordoba under Islam
On March 13, the Church celebrates Saints Rodrigo and Solomon of Cordoba, martyrs for not embracing the Muslim faith in the Emirate in the 9th century; St. Christina of Persia; St. Sabinus of Egypt; and St. Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople in the 8th century.
Francisco Otamendi-March 13, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
Saints Rodrigo and Salomón lived under Muslim rule in the 9th century, and were martyred in Córdoba because they preferred the faith in Christ to embracing Islam. St. Rodrigo, a native of Cabra (Córdoba), a priest, lived under the reign of Mohammed I, son of Abderramán II, and was martyred in Córdoba. Goat pattern.
St. EulogiusBishop of the diocese, talks about the martyrdom of Rodrigo In the Roman Martyrology his martyrdom is mentioned. St. Rodrigo, for refusing to accept Muhammad as the true prophet, was imprisoned. He coincided with Solomon, who had belonged to the Muslim religion. They were beheaded and thrown into the Guadalquivir river for not wanting to convert to the islam.
Persecuted Christians
Saint Sabinus was born in Minya (Egypt). Converted to Christianity, he had to leave his home and possessions to hide with others. persecuted Christians by the governor Arius outside the city. He was discovered, tortured and thrown into the river.
St. Christina was a young Persian martyr who had to suffer from the beginning of her life. serious obstacles because her Catholic faith was frowned upon by her family. She was denounced by her father to the emperor and locked in a cell. She fell ill, and finally died at the hands of her executioners.
12 phrases for the 12 years of Francis' Pontificate
For Pope Francis' 12 years at the head of the Catholic Church, this article recalls 12 of his phrases on the family, God's forgiveness, peace and care for creation.
Pope Francis is celebrating 12 years at the head of the Catholic Church. Throughout this time, he has published many letters and documents, addressed hundreds of speeches to a wide variety of audiences and left "snapshots" for everyone, everyone, everyone.
"The Lord never tires of forgiving, it is we who tire of asking his forgiveness" (Homily at Holy Mass on March 17, 2013).
"True power is service" (Homily of the beginning of the Pontificate, March 19, 2013)
"The joy of the Gospel fills the heart and the whole life of those who meet Jesus" (Apostolic Exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium")
"We can all collaborate as God's instruments for the care of creation, each one from his or her culture, experience, initiatives and abilities" (Encyclical "Laudato si'")
"The family is a factory of hope, of hope for life and resurrection" (Speech of the Holy Father on the Feast of Families, September 26, 2015).
A Church with closed doors betrays itself and its mission, and instead of being a bridge, it becomes a barrier" (Homily from the Holy Mass at the opening of the XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 4, 2015).
"Forgiveness is the most visible sign of the Father's love, which Jesus willed to reveal throughout his life" (Apostolic Letter "Misericordia et misera")
"The hope of the world is Christ, and his Gospel is the most powerful leaven of fraternity, freedom, justice and peace for all peoples" (General Audience September 11, 2019)
"The Social Doctrine of the Church is not just theory, but can become a virtuous way of life with which to grow societies worthy of man" (Speech to the members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, June 5, 2023)
"If God calls you by name it means that to God none of us is a number" (Speech of the Holy Father at the welcoming ceremony of WYD Lisbon, August 3, 2023)
"Our heart is not self-sufficient; it is fragile and wounded" (Encyclical "Dilexit Nos")
"There is no true peace if religious freedom is not also guaranteed, which implies respect for the conscience of individuals and the possibility of publicly manifesting one's faith and belonging to a community" (Speech to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, January 9, 2025)
According to Charles Moeller, Albert Camus creates characters who are "desperate saints.", "faithful to the religion of the Beatitudes" even though they do not believe in Jesus, men capable of selfless love, open to transcendence, who practice honesty and speak of "tenderness" in order not to use the word "charity"..
March 13, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
In the book "Albert Camus, the nostalgia for God"(Javier Marrodán, 2024), the author is astonished that Albert Camus is quoted by very different people. One can discover phrases of his in an incendiary anarchist publication, in the proceedings of a congress of agnostics, in a novel set in the Algerian desert or in a solemn homily by Joseph Ratzinger.
Albert Camus (Algeria 1913 - France 1960) looks through his characters into almost all the abysses of the contemporary world. The Patrice Mersault of "The Happy Death".is a transcript of the restless and audacious young man who explores the paths to happiness. The Sisyphus who descends to pick up the stone and the doctor Rieux who tries to relieve his hopeless patients of "The Plague".their deepest experiences and aspirations.
Agitated souls
The Jean-Baptiste Clamence of "The Fall".is a spontaneous prophet in the desert of the twentieth century because his creator was one too, even if he was not always understood or heeded. They are also children of the spiritual uncertainties of Albert Camus the Daru who sets the Arab of "The Guest" free.and the engineer D'Arrast who plays the role of the Cyrenian in "The Growing Stone"., and Kaliayev delaying the assassination of "The Righteous".to prevent the death of children.
Behind them, with their longings and their despairs and their nostalgia, they allow us to enter into the agitated and generous soul of their creator. They are all "exiles" of the Kingdom. All of them make plausible the possibility of a happy Camus.
Communist Party and anarchism
Camus became interested in the labor and social injustices of the French Algeria where he was born. He joined the Communist Party in 1935 and collaborated in the "Journal du Front Populaire", where he earned a reputation as an indomitable and committed intellectual. He was later accused of being a Trotskyist and preferred to leave the party due to serious disagreements before being expelled "in a scandalous manner".. The anarchist Andre Prudhommeaux introduced him in 1948 to the libertarian movement. In 1951 he published his essay "The Rebel Man"., which provoked the rejection of Marxist critics and others close to him such as Jean-Paul Sartre. At this time he began to support various anarchist movements, first in favor of the workers' uprising in Poznan, Poland, and then in the Hungarian Revolution. He was a member of the Fédération Anarchiste.
It is significant that many of Camus' reflections are acceptable to any Christian. Moreover, many of them offer suggestive stimuli to consider a better life, also from a Christian perspective.. "Please pray for the eternal happiness of Brand Blanshard and Albert Camus, two honest atheists who helped me become a better Catholic.", proposes in the dedication of "Forty Reasons I Am a Catholic"., the book by philosophy professor Peter Kreeft.
"Each generation believes it is destined to remake the world.", said Camus in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. And he added: "Mine knows, however, that it will not redo it. But its task is perhaps greater. It consists in preventing the world from falling apart.".
Christian thought
Charles Moeller deals with Camus in the first chapter of the first volume of his encyclopedic work "Twentieth Century Literature and Christianity.". He explains there that the writer creates characters, such as Tarrou in "The Plague"., that they are "desperate saints"., "faithful to the religion of the Beatitudes" even though they do not believe in Jesus, men capable of selfless love, open to transcendence, who practice honesty and speak of "tenderness" in order not to use the word "charity"..
When in December 1948 the Dominicans invited him to give a lecture in their Parisian convent of Tour-Maubourg, the still young writer explained that he did not feel "in possession of any absolute truth or any message"., so that it could "never" start from the principle that Christian truth is "illusory"., but only from the fact that he had not been able to enter it.
Atheism and ethical demands
The philosopher Reyes Mate has written that Camus "knew".that modern man is the result of the death of God, and that it is only possible to make sense of suffering -one of his most irreducible concerns- if one does not lose sight of the Christian tradition in whose bosom he himself was born. It is understandable then that in the "Letters to a German friend"try to make a Nazi pagan understand how the absence of faith does not lead to arbitrariness in the determination of moral right and wrong, and how his atheism is perfectly compatible with a high ethical requirement to give meaning to human existence. In the spring of 1943 he wrote that, in spite of the "certainty"of that "Everything is allowed".that he made famous Ivan KaramazovIt is possible to impose some renunciations on oneself: for example, that of not judging others.
This same philosopher is convinced that "the greatness"of Albert Camus derives from his way of facing the mystery of evil and the reality of suffering. In the tormented geography of the 20th century - the Marne, Warsaw, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Siberia, Algeria, Prague... - he manages to overcome what some authors have called "the silence of God."to propose a way of living and relating to the world and to others.
Consciousness of the sacred
In an interview he gave shortly after he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Albert Camus was asked about Christianity: "I am aware of the sacred, of the mystery in man, and I see no reason not to confess the emotion I feel before Christ and his teaching" (Albert Camus, p. 4)., he replied, although adding shortly thereafter that he did not believe in the resurrection.
Today it is known that in the last years of his life he frequented an American church in Paris and forged a deep and lasting friendship with Methodist pastor Howars Mumma, with whom he chatted extensively about God, religion, the Bible and the Church. "I have lost faith, I have lost hope. It is impossible to live a meaningless life.", confessed to him in one of their first meetings.
Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Second Sunday of Lent (C) corresponding to March 16, 2025.
Joseph Evans-March 13, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Sleep plays an important role in the two great episodes of today's readings. In the Gospel, after a time of sleep, Peter, James and John glimpse the divine glory of Christ at the Transfiguration. And in the first reading, just before God makes a covenant with Abraham, we are told that "a deep sleep [le] invaded". It seems as if, in our weak and fallen human state, the divine glory is more than we can bear. Just as our body begins to fail under extreme conditions, so our soul seems to fail in the presence of divine power. No wonder, then, that we need a special grace, the elevation of our nature, in order to enjoy the Beatific Vision in heaven.
The Gospel says: "Peter and his companions were falling asleep, but they woke up and saw his glory and the two men who were with him.". Lent also demands that we wake up to God, that we wake up from our laziness, in order to better see his glory. So delightful is this glory that Peter seems almost delirious and expresses to Jesus ("I didn't know what I was saying."), their desire to prolong the experience.
The second reading also speaks of glory and contrasts two possible forms of it: an earthly bad glory, that of those who glory in their shame and make of their own shame the glory of the earthly glory. "their God, the womb"and the true glory of heaven, where Jesus "he will transform our lowly body after the pattern of his glorious body.". We could indulge our body and seek shameful pleasures and celebrity, which will lead us to hell: "his whereabouts is doom". Or we can submit our body, especially in the Lenten penances, in the hope of its eternal glorification in heaven. Self-indulgence only makes us lazy for the things of God. Proper self-denial makes us more attentive to the spiritual.
Thus, today's readings encourage us to emerge from the lethargy of spiritual drowsiness - how often we are drowsy and distracted in our prayer - and from the sluggishness of self-indulgence to experience the glory of God. We can glimpse it on earth, as the three disciples on the mountain glimpsed it, but its full enjoyment comes in heaven. As today's psalm tells us: "I hope to enjoy the joy of the Lord in the land of life."
Context for understanding abuses of power and conscience in the Church
Abuse of power and abuse of conscience take place within the Church. Many structures need to be reformed to improve transparency so that these cases cannot occur so easily, but it is also necessary to discern between real abuses and baseless or exaggerated allegations, without in any case minimizing the legitimate suffering of individuals.
Javier García Herrería / Paloma López Campos-March 12, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
The Church is becoming more and more aware of the fact that the sexual abuse are not the only ones that we must strive to prevent and repair, but we must also pay attention to abuses of power and conscience. So much so that it has typified them in the Code of Canon Law.
Briefly, abuse of power can be defined as the improper use of authority (for example, that of a priest, a teacher, a parent or a boss) to arbitrarily impose decisions that affect the external freedom of persons with whom the former maintain an asymmetrical relationship.
On the other hand, abuse of conscience consists of a manipulation that uses morality or faith to influence the internal will, generating guilt or fear. Although these abuses are different in nature, they often occur together, since the manipulation of conscience facilitates submission to power.
Factors that may facilitate abuse
Why are denunciations of this type of situation on the rise, and what elements facilitate their occurrence? We can distinguish four factors that facilitate abuses of power and conscience in the ecclesial sphere:
- Hierarchical structure: the authority of priests, bishops and superiors, together with a clerical spirit that idealizes their figure, makes it difficult to question their orders and advice.
- Institutional secrecy: fear of public scandal. Many institutions have attempted to resolve cases of abuse through internal processes in which victims are not well attended to and the lack of transparency prevents other members of the institution from learning from the mistakes made.
- Spiritual and doctrinal manipulation: through the distortion of concepts such as "obedience" or "sin", victims of spiritual and power abuse see their freedom coerced.
- Emotional and material dependence: in religious communities and other closed groups, the economic and social power of the group generates asymmetrical relationships that can lead to abuse. On the other hand, due to a natural sense of belonging that is created, the individual will can become repressed for fear of the consequences: social isolation, feeling of betrayal of the community, reprisals, economic inability to lead a life independent of the institution, etc.
When what looks like abuse is not really abuse
Despite all this, it is also true that there are cases in which, although there are those who think that an abuse of power or conscience has been committed, it has not really taken place. When we judge events of past times with today's mentality, many anachronisms are produced that lead us to censure everything with a sensitivity that is unfair to the capacity to act that people had in other times.
There are several areas that facilitate this situation:
- Asymmetrical relationships, which are inherent to society. In many institutions such as the family, the company or the school, there are authority relationships that, although uncomfortable or unwise, need not be considered abuse. A strict parent may seem abusive in the eyes of a rebellious child, just as an employee with low tolerance may think that every demand from his or her boss is abuse. The same can happen with the guidance given by a spiritual director, although at this point, delicacy and respect for personal freedom must always be a fundamental line of action. Trying to influence others is something perfectly naturalized in our society, and we live with examples such as advertising or "influencers".
- Differences in sensitivity and expectations can generate misunderstandings: In this area, for example, many classical customs in spiritual discipline can feel like oppression to those who have not understood their meaning or do not integrate them correctly into their life project.
- In any institution there may be people who commit occasional or even regular abuses of power or conscience, but this does not imply that these particular cases should be taken as the general rule.
- The acceptance and practice of correction in spiritual accompaniment: there are people who, in some contexts, encounter difficulties in the correct discernment of personal or spiritual situations and, at the same time, interpret any type of correction as manipulation. This can be due to real abuses that occurred in the past, to reinterpretations of the facts made a posteriori or to a lack of maturity to withstand the pressure of a demanding Christian life.
- Finally, the human mind naturally subjectively reinterprets the past to justify one's decisions (e.g., because of confirmation bias or self-interest). There are religious norms that are freely assumed but when they are no longer lived they are reinterpreted as oppressive or abusive.
A necessary reflection
Abuse of power and abuse of conscience take place within the Church and its various institutions. Many structures need to be reformed to improve transparency so that such cases do not occur so easily, but it is also necessary to discern between real abuses and baseless or exaggerated allegations, without in any case minimizing the legitimate suffering of individuals.
Moreover, the experience of the Church has led in recent decades to insist on the separation of spiritual direction from the sphere of institutional governance, urging religious institutions to ensure that the persons who provide spiritual accompaniment are not the same as those who exercise institutional governance over those same persons.
From the point of view of the faithful, it is essential to form souls in freedom, so that they may assume the norms of an institution with true interior freedom and be able to discern whether something is a legitimate demand or an abuse on the part of a superior. In this way, Catholics will know how to differentiate between responsible authority and illegitimate control, between good advice and manipulation.
The authorJavier García Herrería / Paloma López Campos
Saint Don Orione, Pope Innocent I, Joseph Zhang, Blessed Angela Salawa
On March 12, the Church celebrates Don Orione, founder of the Cottolengos, Pope Innocent I, the Chinese martyr Joseph Zhang, the Polish Blessed Angela Salawa, St. Maximilian, martyr, beheaded in present-day Algeria, and Blessed Fina de San Geminiano.
Francisco Otamendi-March 12, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Today, March 12, the liturgy celebrates many saints and blessed, including St. Louis Orione, Innocent I, the martyrs Joseph Zhang and St. Maximilian, and the Polish Angela Salawa.
St. Luigi Orione, an Italian priest, was born in June 1872 into a family of humble workers. From an early age he knew the povertywhich I would have you sayCharity and only charity will save the world". While still a seminarian, he began his evangelical social work by creating educational institutes for marginalized youth, and then homes for people with disabilities.
He founded schools, institutions and congregations. Institutions among which we can mention the Little Work of Divine Providence, dedicated to charity and today spread over twenty countries, and the well-known Small Cottolengos for disabled and abandoned, on the outskirts of large cities. He died in San Remo in 1940 and was canonized by St. John Paul II in 2004.
Pope, Chinese martyr, Polish domestic worker
St. Innocent I was Pope from 401 to 417. Ruled the Church in difficult circumstances. He condemned the heresy of PelagiusHe wrote letters to bishops to strengthen faith and discipline. Faced with the invasion of the Goths, he tried to save Rome, but Alaric sacked it in 410. He wrote letters to bishops to strengthen the faith and discipline. He defended St. John Chrysostom when he was deposed and banished. He died in 417.
The Chinese martyr Saint Joseph Zhang or Tshang Dapeng went through Buddhism and Taoism until he came to Christianity. He was newly baptized in 1800, opened his home He helped missionaries and catechists, and helped the poor, the sick and children until, condemned to be crucified, he rejoiced with emotion for having been considered worthy to die for Christ (1815).
Blessed Angela Salawa, born in Siepraw (Krakow, Poland, 1981) in 1881, the eleventh of 12 children, from a family of poor. She was a domestic servant from the age of 16 years in KrakowShe chose to be celibate, working in domestic service. She prayed and participated with faith in the Eucharist and the Stations of the Cross, and venerated the Mother of God. In 1912 she professed in the Secular Franciscan Order. She died in the hospital of St. Zita in Krakow in 1922 and was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1991.
A. Alderliesten: "We want to avoid the marginalization of man in the decision on life and abortion".
"Building good relationships between men and women and involving men in unwanted pregnancies and in the process about abortion", are goals of Arthur Alderliesten, married with 4 children, a Calvinist, and director of the pro-life foundation 'Schreeuw om Level'. Omnes interviewed him at the National Pro-Life Congress in Madrid.
Francisco Otamendi-March 12, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
Arthur Alderliesten, director of the foundation Schreeuw om Level (Cry for life), in the Netherlands, has intervened in the XXVII National Pro-Life Congress with a presentation on the role of the male partners of women who consider terminating the life of the unborn child. In this sense, its objective is to prevent these men from being inhibited when an unwanted pregnancy appears and in the abortion process, since 31 % of them remain neutral if their partner becomes pregnant and wishes to have an abortion.
Faced with such a pregnancy, 42 % of male partners urge or suggest that the woman have an abortion, and 27% suggest that she not do so. But 31 % are silent. "These are the ones we would like to reach," he assures. He and his people are convinced of the impact that men's attitudes can have in saving the life of the unbornand for the woman to continue with the pregnancy.
This is what he defended at the XXVII Pro-Life Congress that, under the slogan 'From the entrails', was held in Madrid and organized by the Federation Spanish Association of Pro-Life Associations, presided by Alicia Latorre, with the collaboration of the CEU and the Catholic Association of Propagandists (ACdP), chaired by Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza. Arthur Alderliesten attended Omnes in the middle of the congress.
What is the current regulation of abortion in the Netherlands?
- The Netherlands is one of two countries in Europe where abortion is available up to 24 weeks. The other is the United Kingdom. In Belgium they are trying to extend the time limit from 12 to 18 weeks.
When the Dutch law was made in 1984, the limit of viability was 24 weeks. And that's why that limit was chosen. But that was in 1984. Today, thanks to medical developments, it is possible for a 21-week child to come through. But now it's not on the political agenda in the Netherlands and it's not debated.
In recent years, the trend has been to have 30,000 abortions a year. But lately there has been an important upturn, and now there are about 40,000 a year. And we don't know exactly why.
Are there any intellectuals, any cultural environment, apart from your foundation, that defend the right to life from conception in the Netherlands?
- About ten associations defend this right, along with ours. A few months ago we had a guest speaker, an American, who came from the United States, and she had a very negative view of the Netherlands: there are hardly any pro-lifers here. However, there are more than nine thousand people, almost ten thousand, in the pro-life environment. This changed her perception of the Dutch society.
You coordinate the Ethics project at the Prof. Dr. G.A. Lindeboom Institute, what is the focus of your research now?
– One of the issues I'm researching at the moment is human dignity, and how to use the narrative, a discourse on dignity that is positive in the European Parliament. Because currently the pro-life factions and prochoiceThey do not speak to each other, they do not understand each other. The objective would be to unite, to look for meeting points thanks to this discourse.
What is the main message of your speech at this congress?
- Building good relationships between men and women will save lives. Through the commitment of the male, the commitment of the man. I want to, I have a specific message for the Church. And that is that they must prepare young men to be fathers.
Actually, the problem is not that men do not assume their responsibility, because I have found many who say: well, I made a mistake, I had sex and now there is the problem of a child, I assume my responsibility by paying for an abortion. So, the problem is not that they don't take responsibility, but that they are not prepared to be parents. It is a matter of them assuming their responsibility as parents. It is the mission of the Church, of all Christian denominations, to form them and prepare them to be parents.
What are the objectives of your foundation??
- With a hopeful approach, we strive for a society in which abortion is unthinkable, and we would like to prevent the death, the murder, of unborn children.
We do this in two ways. By offering psychological support to pregnant mothers, and also after the abortion.
What about the role of men in unwanted pregnancies?
- We offer specific support for men in women's pregnancies. Our experience has been very positive when we have approached the Dutch media. They have given media coverage to the cause we advocate, which is to involve men in the abortion process, and to recognize that it impacts them as well. The marginalization of men's role in the decision about life and abortion is what we have come to fight.
There is a widespread view that men have no interest in abortion. Only in sexual relations, and then they disappear from the equation. But this is not the case.
Arthur Alderliesten, director of the Dutch foundation 'Schreeuw om Level' (Cry for life), at the National Pro-Life Congress held in Madrid.
Explain, if you would be so kind.
- When we approach and listen to men in this abortion decision-making process, we find at least six different situations.
The first is that they did not know about the pregnancy, and perhaps not even about the abortion, which the couple did not inform her about.
The second, knew about the pregnancy, but prefer to hide their feelings and convictions, not wanting to say anything to the woman.
Third, she pressures him to abort.
The fourth, she supports him in his decision to have an abortion.
Fifth, she opposes abortion, although she does not say so openly.
And the last one, it abandons the woman physically and emotionally, by rejecting any kind of responsibility for her and her decisions.
In reality, many men do want to take responsibility, but struggle to find the right way to disagree.
In his presentation he offered some percentages on the influence of men on their partners.
- Yes. In a 2021 study, you can see men's attitude toward abortion, and the influence it may ultimately have on abortion. Here is the outline:
The man's influence on his partner:
1.- I strongly urged her to have an abortion (12 %). I suggested that she have an abortion (30 %).
Total, abortion yes (42 %)
2.- I did not give any advice, I was neutral (31%)
3.- I suggested that she not have an abortion (19%). I strongly advised her not to abort (8%).
Total, no abortion (27 %).
(Lifeway Research: Care net Study of Men whose Partner has had an Abortion, 2021 - n=983)
What stands out from this data?
- The section I would like to highlight is that of men who remained neutral and did not give any advice to the woman, 31 %.
It is precisely that segment of 31 % that we would like to reach, because we realize the impact that the man's attitude can have in saving the life of the unborn, and in convincing the woman to continue with the pregnancy. Many times, the man is not even able to provide good advice.
They do not feel ready to be parents
So much for the conversation with Arthur Alderliesten. The director of 'Schreeuw om Level' also presented some reasons men give their partners for having an abortion. The first or second of them is that they don't feel ready to be fathers. "I have four children myself," Alderliesten revealed, "and I assure you that I still don't feel ready for it," he said in his presentation.
Article 2: In search of the theological foundation of sacred and liturgical music. A history of sacred music
"Sounds perish because they cannot be written", St. Isidore - 1
Does anyone have a recorder?
"After singing the hymn (ὑμνήσαντες), they departed for the Mount of Olives." (Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26).
James McKinnon suggests that this song may have been the second part of the Hallel Oxirr (Psalms 113-118), one of the ritual songs of the Last Supper. Even if it was not - following St. John's chronology - this quotation manifests a link between the singing at Jewish and Christian ceremonial meals. What is clear is that Jesus Christ himself sang with his disciples. However, we cannot know in what way they sang, because at that time music was not written... nor recorded.
This is the starting point for Christian music, which could not be written down until the end of the ninth century. With this, we begin the particular historical journey that we set out in the previous article. We will begin by addressing these nine centuries without writing: the challenge of a music that no one has heard again for centuries and which, moreover, was neither written nor recorded. In the 7th century, St. Isidore of Seville still pointed out the issue (Etymologies III,15): "If sounds are not retained in memory by man, they perish, because they cannot be written down".
The Church in search of its music
The music of the Christians of the first millennium encompassed much more than Gregorian chant. Nor should it be thought that Gregorian chant came into being suddenly. Of particular interest is what is being discovered about the path that led to its creation in the ninth century. Research is still ongoing.
We therefore divide these first nine centuries into three periods:
a) During the first three or four centuriesThe Christian liturgy was celebrated in Greek and with a good deal of "improvisation", since the liturgical texts had not yet been fixed. On the other hand, what we understand by early Christian chant went beyond the liturgy. In any case, the documentation preserved from the first two centuries is very scarce. We have more news of the third century and, above all, of the fourth.
b) From the 4th to the 8th century, certainly from events of the magnitude of the Edict of Milan (313) or the Council of Nicaea (325), different types of chants were created in various Christian communities.
c) In the 9th centuryCharlemagne promoted liturgical unification in his empire. The consequent unification of chant was no easy task and the process resulted in a new type of chant, Gregorian chant (note that St. Gregory the Great had been dead for two centuries!). ) Some time later, in the last two decades of the same century, the first documents with established systems of musical notation appeared.
The result? A chant - Gregorian chant - that today is known as "proper to the Roman liturgy" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116) and some other types of chant, spread throughout the geography. Some of them ceased to be used, such as the Hispanic Mozarabic chant; others have survived to the present day, such as the Milanese chant. John Caldwell argues that the musical art born in the Church was the precursor of modern Western music.
From Semitic chant to Latin liturgy (3rd-4th century)
Excursus: Temple, synagogue and cult
The Bible shows that in the Temple of Jerusalem, especially the first, that of Solomon (destroyed in the 6th century B.C.), the music was very elaborate, with large choirs and a remarkable variety of instruments (cf. 2Chr 5:12-14; 2Chr 7:6; 2Chr 9:11; 2Chr 23:13; 2Chr 29:25-28).
The exile came and, during the 70 years in Babylon, the People of Israel rethought many questions about their relationship with God and their worship. We will return to this point later, given its great importance. For now, suffice it to note that, after the rebuilding of the Temple (516 B.C.), the music in it experienced a significant moderation.
In the synagogue, on the other hand, the singing was austere and, in general, unaccompanied by instruments.
It is important to remember that the Temple was the place of sacrifice, while the synagogue was for the reading of the Word and instruction.
Another relevant fact: at first, Christians continued to attend both the Temple and the synagogue. However, they soon stopped going to the Temple, because the novelty of Christ and his sacrifice were something totally different from the worship celebrated there.
The Semitic influence in the Christian chant of the first centuries
According to recent studies, the earliest Christian chant had a greater presence in ceremonial meals than in the liturgy itself. Whether earlier or later, whether for their liturgy or outside of it, Christians took their cue from two forms of the chants they had known in their original environment: the chanting of the psalms and the cantillation of the readings. The psalms were sung with tones derived from tradition, but simplified: in one voice and, in general, without instruments. The cantillation was a "sung recitation", a declamatory style halfway between speech and song, which gave the text greater expressiveness and solemnity.
These two procedures will be the basis of all Christian chant. Understanding them well is the key to unravel the secrets of later chant. In any case, it seems that the melodies are not a copy of Hebrew chant. Alberto Turco maintains that they are western melodies.
... And the hymns in Greek
With the spread of Christianity, liturgy and chant soon reached other lands as well. Since we want to focus on the West, we turn our attention to events in Greece and Rome. The known world was populated by mystical religions, oriental cults and syncretism. The lingua franca was Koine Greek, even in Rome and among the Jews of the Diaspora. By then, the Greek version of the Old Testament was already in circulation. And the chanting of the Christians, on arriving in each place, was adapted as much as possible to the local context, in its Greek expression.
There was a significant proliferation of new, specifically Christian songs. Pliny the Younger wrote in an official document addressed to the emperor Trajan (c. 110): "They sing Christological hymns, as if it were a god". Joseph Ratzinger suggests that these hymns played an important role in the clarification of doctrine in early times. He goes so far as to state the following:
"The first developments of Christology, with the ever deeper recognition of the divinity of Christ, have quite likely been realized precisely in the songs of the Church, in the interweaving of theology, poetry and music." ("Sing to God with mastery. Guiding biblical indications for sacred music," Collected Works, v. 11, p. 450).
One lime and one sand
One of lime: in spite of everything, there is consensus about a certain Semitic influence on Christian chant, without being able to determine to what degree.
And another of sand: in the eight or nine centuries that we are traveling through, there is only one known exception of a manuscript with musical notation. It is the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1786, discovered in 1918 during excavations in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and published for the first time in 1922. It is a hymn that invites all creation to praise the Holy Trinity. It dates back to the end of the 3rd century. The text is written in Greek and the music follows an alphabetical notation of Greek tradition. It is a one-voice hymn, without instruments. The photograph is available on the webas well as some modern recordingsThe song could have been a rehearsal of what that song could have been.
Papyrus of Oxyrhynchus 1786. @Oxford University
The point is that we cannot know how much this fragment is representative of the songs of the period. Nor is it easy to estimate the degree of local, non-Semitic influences on the chant. Added to this is the fact that many documents use the terms "psalm" and "hymn" interchangeably.
In spite of what we have shown, the new chants brought not only advantages, but also influences contrary to Christianity in some places. It is significant the progressive infiltration of gnosis, precisely through the chant, from the second century. The Church took some measures at the time.
Reservations of the Church and the Fathers
Against this background, it is also significant what we can read in the writings of the Fathers. On this point we will dwell later in the articles of the theological part, but now it is necessary to make a reference. The fact is that there are many writings against chant and, above all, against instruments. We note here that, in spite of the seriousness of the problems, no fundamental reasons are ever put forward concerning music. Let us briefly cite four of these reasons for reservations about music.
a) Possible assimilation to the mystic cults.
b) The entry of sensual elements.
c) The aforementioned influence of Gnostic doctrines.
d) Johannes Quasten points out the Neoplatonic formation of some writers and Fathers.
If these are, indeed, the most important reasons for caution, what they themselves call for is a fundamental criterion that verifies all true liturgical music. This is precisely what we will try to clarify in the course of these articles. Otherwise, why does Joseph Ratzinger explain on different occasions that the liturgy requires the song?
In the next installment, we will continue with the development of this historical period of absence of musical notation. Let's remember that the documents of the 4th century are more abundant and, since then, the facts are shown with less timidity, which allows a better reconstruction of what happened.
Below, we provide some titles of diverse subject matter and technical quality, on which to continue reading.
Bibliographic note:
For a general overview of Gregorian chant, we recommend consulting two key manuals, in Spanish and of different technical depth, by two great authors. Firstly, Gregorian chant: history, liturgy, forms... by Juan Carlos Asensio Palacios (Madrid, Alianza Música, 2003), which provides an abundant introduction to the subject. On the other hand, Daniel Saulnier, another great expert, offers in Gregorian chant (translated by Ernesto Dolado, Solesmes, 2001), an equally profound perspective, although much shorter and in a much more informative style.
For a different, but equally fundamental approach, two other manuals by Alberto Turco can be consulted. The first one, Introduction to Gregorian Chant (Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2016), presents a clear and accessible introduction to Gregorian chant, while the second, Gregorian chant: corso fondamentale (Rome, Torre d'Orfeo, 3. ed., 1996), offers a more technical and structured view.
As for the more strictly historical publications, we can follow the update proposed by Peter Jeffery in Musical Legacies from the Ancient World, in the first volume of The Cambridge History of Medieval Music, edited by Mark Everist and Thomas Kelly (Cambridge, University Press, 2018), or the volume edited by James W. McKinnon, Antiquity and the Middle Ages: From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century(Houndmills and London, The Macmillan Press, 1990).
Although somewhat older, the works of Solange Corbin are still of great value, The church to the conquest of its music (Paris, Gallimard, 1960) and Music & Worship in Pagan & Christian Antiquity by Johannes Quasten (translated by Boniface Ramsey, Washington, D.C., National Association of Pastoral Musicians, 1983). Quasten's book remains a relevant reference on the relationship between music and worship in antiquity.
An important work on the constitution of the medieval chant is With Voice and Pen: Coming to Know Medieval Song and How It Was Made by Leo Treitler (Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, 2007). This anthology brings together the major articles by Treitler, an author who has left an important mark on research on medieval Christian chant.
Finally, two volumes focus on the Carolingian period, important for understanding the development of Gregorian chant and musical notation. The first is Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians by Kenneth Levy (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1998). The second, more recent, is Writing Sounds in Carolingian Europe: The Invention of Musical Notation by Susan Rankin (Cambridge, UK, New York, USA, Cambridge University Press, 2018), an essential work for understanding the creation and impact of musical notation in Carolingian Europe.
The authorRamón Saiz-Pardo Hurtado
Associate Professor, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. MBM International Project (Music, Beauty and Mystery)
The Pope's hospitalization has sparked speculation and theories on social networks, intensified by the Vatican's decision to publish only audio. While his state of health continues to generate uncertainty, the Vatican Press Office is trying to strike a difficult balance with the information.
The Pope's recent hospitalization has generated an expected level of speculation and debate in different sectors of public opinion. Beyond the concern for his state of health, all kinds of rumors and theories have arisen that have forced the Vatican to manage communication with great caution.
A proof of life
One of the most commented aspects has been the Vatican's decision to publish an audio of the Pope, last March 6, instead of an image. Many have been surprised by this strategy, especially because the Holy Father has been seen in a very weak state of health. The reason, surely, was the media pressure to offer a "proof of life", since in some forums it was suggested that the Pope had died days before and that the Holy See was hiding it... Something quite implausible but which has been accepted in many circles of opinion.
Social networks have become a breeding ground for all kinds of theories, with users and commentators questioning the transparency of official information. The decision to release an audio instead of an image only fueled speculation about the Pope's health, insinuating that his appearance could be so deteriorated that it was preferred to avoid showing it, despite the fact that the content of the audio also generated concern. In this regard, it is enough to recall the recent images of the Pontiff with a visibly swollen face during his last general audience, just two days before his admission to hospital.
In this regard, although some have pointed out that there were images of John Paul II convalescing in various hospital admissions, it should be noted that there were none in the last weeks of his life. In fact, in 1996, the Polish Pope established the apostolic constitutionUniversi Dominici GregisArticle 30 of the Pope's Constitution, which prohibits the taking of photographs of the Pope when he is ill. Obviously, this does not prevent a pope from deciding otherwise in his case, the general rule reflects a usual discretion desirable if one is ill.
An important disease
After three weeks in hospital, few doubt that the Pope's health will be greatly diminished if he manages to overcome this situation. And this despite the surprising ad on March 11, which opened the possibility for him to continue his rehabilitation outside the hospital. Throughout his stay at the Gemelli, medical reports have described his condition as "critical" on several occasions, although he has managed to remain stable over the last week. However, doctors have been extremely cautious and have not offered a clear prognosis on his evolution.
It is significant that the doctors consulted by the press to analyze the Pope's health are not very optimistic about his evolution, especially that he will be able to return to the Vatican and resume a life of a certain normality. We are talking about a person whose lifestyle is completely unusual compared to that of any other person of his age and medical condition.
From the Vatican, the discretion is understandable: making a hasty prognosis could increase the pressure for the Pope to resign, which, in turn, would activate a whole wave of rumors about a possible conclave. The mere possibility of a papal succession would trigger all kinds of internal movements in the Church and external pressures from various sectors with an interest in the election of the next Pontiff.
Anointing of the sick
One detail that has hardly been commented on is the lack of information on whether the Pope has received the anointing of the sick. Francis himself explained last year in a catechesis that this sacrament is not exclusively for those on their deathbed, but should also be administered to elderly or seriously ill people. Reporting on whether Pope Francis has received the sacrament could have been a valuable opportunity for a catechesis on the importance of its reception and its effects on Christian life.
Surely the Pope will have received this sacrament, but the Vatican is once again between a rock and a hard place, since reporting it would trigger speculation about the seriousness of his health condition.
Right to be sick in peace
Beyond his medical situation, it is essential to remember that the Pope, like any human being, has the right to live through the process of illness - let alone if it is an illness that debilitates him until death - with serenity and without the media and political pressure that inevitably surrounds him.
Although his condition is delicate, he deserves the time and peace of mind necessary to face his last days, weeks or months with the dignity that befits them. His predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, also publicly lived their illnesses as a testimony of faith and hope. Francis, in his own style, also has the right to give a catechesis on illness and suffering, leaving a legacy in this regard, regardless of how much time he has left in his ministry.
Analyses on the hypothetical conclave and the papabili are particularly indelicate. At this moment, beyond the speculations and tensions inside and outside the Church, the most important thing is that Catholics accompany him with our prayers so that God may comfort him and do what is best for the Church. March 13 marks the twelfth anniversary of his arrival at the papal throne, another occasion to pray for him.
Anton Asfar is the Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem and has been promoting aid in the Holy Land since the beginning of the war. On the morning of March 11, he gave a press conference together with Pablo Reyero, coordinator for Europe, the Middle East and Asia for Caritas Spain.
Caritas has been one of the few organizations that has been providing assistance in Gaza from the beginning, although the difficulties they have encountered have forced them to adapt continuously. In the conflict, a young Caritas worker who was very dear to the organization and a pharmacist with whom they collaborated were killed. Other workers and volunteers were injured.
Asfar describes the international aid that enters the area as a drop in the ocean. If we also take into account that it is often withheld in the strip, the catastrophic consequences are understandable. According to Asfar, famine in the area may soon arrive, as many people have been malnourished for months. In addition to this problem, there are no sanitation systems or drinking water, so disease in the area is growing rapidly.
According to Asfar, most Gazans wish to continue living in their land, despite the destruction it is undergoing. Without wishing to generate political controversy, Asfar commented that he believes that "Trump's proposal to create a large tourist resort is unfeasible."
What does Caritas do in the Holy Land?
For 15 months they have been calling for a cease-fire. It is a fragile truce that continues to cost lives. Caritas staffing in the Gaza area, especially in the southern settlements, is 100 workers and 80 volunteers.
Caritas has a medical center in Gaza, which had to be moved to Catholic and Orthodox parishes in order to continue operating. They have also had mobile medical units in the strip, except at times when it became untenable.
Conflict data
Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has experienced one of the largest escalations of violence in its recent history with more than 47,000 deaths. Nearly 75% of the population, -1.9 million, have fled their homes while massive shelling of homes (72%) has left thousands of families with no home to return to. In addition, the destruction of public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation systems has led to a collapse of basic services.
Caritas Española has been collaborating with Caritas Jerusalem for more than 25 years. Its work focuses on providing humanitarian aid, promoting social development and fostering peace in a region marked by conflict and inequality. Since the beginning of the war, Caritas Spain has allocated 300,000 euros to support various humanitarian assistance projects in Gaza, in addition to having recently approved aid for Caritas Jerusalem amounting to 1.5 million euros.
The Jerusalem Patriarchate has directly assisted more than 8,000 families, while Caritas Jerusalem has directly assisted more than 100,000 people since the war began.
- Javier," a fourteen year old boy asked me not long ago, "to what extent is the masonry infiltrated in the Church?
I took a deep breath before answering. Because when a young man of that age asks you a question like that, there are many resonances that come to mind. The first thing, of course, is where did this teenager get these questions from. I have no doubt that this boy has heard or read this on some website specializing in church news.
And then I cannot forget what a bishop friend told me about the polarization that was taking place in some sectors of the Church: "The problem is that we have a people of God feeding primarily off the Internet."
Obviously I am not going to make an anti-network approach. It would be somewhat paradoxical in an article written in a digital magazine. But I think it is important to warn about what this bishop pointed out. In the Catholic media it is also easy to fall into a sensationalist line and polarizingThe main reason is that for these media the most important thing is to attract the maximum number of entries to their digital portals.
The technique of clickbaitThe cyber-anzuelo in Spanish, is widely spread on the Internet. Also among our media. A headline or a photograph that does not provide information but arouses curiosity and makes the reader surfing that page take the bait and do the following click in the link leading to the article. This adds entries to the statistics that will place a publication above its competitors. If we add to that a certain dose of tension, adrenaline, indignation or morbidity, we have the ideal hook for more Catholics to become consumers of that web page.
This is the dynamic of many general media and it is also the dynamic of some ecclesial information media. The problem, as we were saying, is that this dynamic feeds polarization and tensions within the Church. Especially if we end up getting into a thought bubble and place ourselves on one side or the other of the fence.
These are not easy times for those who pursue a more objective analysis -they will be forgotten as boring-, for those who seek to build bridges -they will be branded as lukewarm-, for those who assume the nuances of reality and, above all, want to nourish their faith and relationship with the Church from the Gospel, rather than from digital publications.
And yet today there is a special need for journalism that approaches the ecclesial reality with rigor and truth. Without sensationalism or playing with the passions of the reader. And, if I may say so, with a deep love for the Church.
-Can I ask you another question? -My young interlocutor continued: "Is it true that the Second Vatican Council Is to blame for what is happening in the Church today?"
I smiled. And I prepared myself for a long conversation. A young person's questions should always be taken seriously and deserve to be answered. Rigorously, truthfully, comprehensively. And with a deep love for the Church. That would take me at least a couple of hours.
- I love that you asked me that question..., do you know what a council and how many have there been throughout the history of the Church?
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.
Archbishop Arbach: "There is fear and uncertainty among Christians in Syria".
Christians from Syria and Nigeria will be the protagonists of a prayer vigil for persecuted Christians in the Cathedral of La Almudena this Friday, the 14th. The Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, will preside and Peter E. Odogo, a Nigerian priest, and the Greek Catholic Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach of Homs (Syria), interviewed by Omnes.
Francisco Otamendi-March 11, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
Persecuted Christians will once again become the protagonists of the '...Night of Witnesseswhich will take place on March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid. A prayer vigil to be presided over by Cardinal José Cobo, organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Fear and uncertainty have gripped Syria.
The ACN Pontifical Foundation wanted to give a voice to Christians from Nigeria y Syriain a few days in which there have been numerous episodes of violence and attacks against innocent civilians and desecration of symbols in the Syria.
The special protagonist of this evening of testimonies and prayer will be Monsignor Jean-Abdo Arbach, B.C. (Jabroud, Syria, 1952), current archbishop of the Melkite Greek-Catholic Archdiocese of Homs, Hama and Jabroud, who has just given an interview to Omnes.
"The Church of Syria and the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches call in their messages for the creation of conditions to achieve national reconciliation of the Syrian people. That an environment be established for the transition to a state that respects all its citizens and lays the foundations of a society based on equality and unity of the Syrian territory, rejecting any attempt to divide it," explains the Archbishop of Homs.
Monseignor Arbach, you have a long history of service to the Church. Could you highlight any aspects that might be useful for Catholics unfamiliar with the Middle East and your country, Syria? Shall we take over?
- Syria is a country in the Middle East. It is the cradle of Christianity, with the arrival of St. Paul, although Muslim majority now. Some 5 % of the total population is Christian, Orthodox and Catholics of different rites such as Eastern and Latin. The government in Syria has been unstable for a long time, but for 50 years President Assad, with his son Bashar, have ruled with a single political party Albatsh.
The faith in this part of the world is of a primitive religiosity, a rock. The Catholics of Syria are the root of Christianity. We have Malula, a very ancient city where the language of Christ, Aramaic, is still spoken, with a very important Saint, Saint Thecla. She was a follower of St. Paul, buried in the Monastery of St. Thecla that presides over the city.
The Catholics have in Syria saints of the IV century: in Homs St. Elian and St. Romanos, there are very important churches such as the Church of the Virgin Mary of the Waist. In the city of Rable the Monastery of St. Elijah from the first centuries of Christianity. Until today people come to visit it.
You have lived through the Syrian war almost from the beginning. Your episcopal see, in the center of Homs, was taken over by jihadist terrorists. How is your country now?
- The situation is very difficult. Since December 8, with the change of government, we have many challenges. First of all, security, there is no security, there is no peace. There is a lot of fear among the Syrian people.
At the economic level it is a total disaster, where 85 % of the population lives below the poverty line, a lot of inflation, the basic necessities are very expensive and there are none (5 hours of queue to get a piece of bread).
At the international level we do not know what will happen because there is still an embargo against Syria: there is no import or export of products, no materials to work with. The future is difficult and dark.
Can you tell us for a moment about the Christian community in Syria?
- The Christian community in Syria is firm in its faith. They go to church every Sunday for prayers, follow ancient traditions, processions, venerate all iconic images. In this time of Lent all Christian religions have daily prayers such as the praises of the Virgin Mary (also Way of the Cross).
Monsignor, you have raised your voice against the religious persecution of Christians by jihadist groups. Have Christian communities gone from about two million to three hundred thousand people?
- Since the beginning of Christianity Syria has been persecuted. The first persecution was with the expansion of the Muslims. Then, the wars of the crusades. And the invasion of the Turks into Syria. At this time, during the first and second World Wars, there was a lot of emigration of Christians to Latin America and Europe. But, in 2011 with the beginning of the internal war in Syria, almost 60 % of the Christians emigrated. They emigrated because of persecution by jihadist groups, economic crisis and lack of work, compulsory military service and entry into the war, and insecurity. Now only 400,000 Christians live there.
Archbishop Arbach at the ruins of the Greek Melkite cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Homs (Syria) (ACN).
You have also pointed out that when they started to restore, with the cooperation of Aid to the Church in Need, everything they destroyed, it gave them a lot of peace to come back. Can you comment on that?
- In 2018, with support from Aid to the Church in Need we started to restore many houses of Christians that were destroyed in Homs. Most of them returned because of their feeling of home, of belonging, because of their work and since there was security and peace, they returned. Those who did not return were because they were in difficult places to live (small towns, in the mountains). Many young people did not return.
On March 14, Christians from Syria and Nigeria will be the protagonists of a Prayer Vigil for persecuted Christians, organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in the cathedral of La Almudena. Tell us about it.
- Thanks to the invitation of my brother Cardinal Joseph to pray together for the dear Christian people and all the people of Syria. This vigil helps us to unite to continue our mission. Prayer, as a saint says, is like water in the drought, like shade in the heat and like a gentle breeze in the middle of summer.
This prayer together helps us to move forward with our mission to serve the Syrian people. We want to bring the voice of the Syrian people, the challenges they have, what are the difficulties and hopes. The people of Madrid need to know this well. I bring the voice of my people to you to know this reality from the hand of Aid to the Church in Need.
Finally, perhaps he can appreciate the importance of religious freedom in the world, so often curtailed and attacked.
- Regardless of our beliefs and sensibilities, we are all children of God and we are all born in the image of God. Each religion has its own physiognomy. Christians learn from their Gospel love, in freedom to live and at the same time to keep God's commandments. "If one of the commandments is you shall not steal. If you do, you will not be able to live in freedom, your conscience will not allow it." That is why it is so important that religious freedom exists, so that we all in conscience act according to God's commandment and trust. To have faith, hope and love is what religions are based on.
As for your country, is the situation one of uncertainty or do you expect respect and tolerance?
There is fear and uncertainty among Christians in Syria. That is why the Church of Syria and the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches call in their messages for the creation of conditions to achieve national reconciliation of the Syrian people, the establishment of an environment for the transition to a state that respects all its citizens and lays the foundations of a society based on equality and unity of the Syrian territory, rejecting any attempt to divide it. In addition, an end to the economic embargo in order to return to rebirth. The Church also calls for a constitution that respects all religions and minorities.
Everything I have told you is aimed at putting an end to violence against all citizens. That is why the Church strongly condemns any act that threatens civil peace and denounces the massacres committed against innocent civilians, calling for an immediate end to these horrendous acts that oppose all human and moral values.
That is why today I ask for a prayer: "God save your people, bless your inheritance, grant your Church victory over her enemies and protect the world through your Holy Cross".
The Holy See Press Office reported on Monday, March 10, 2025, that the Pope spent a peaceful night and was able to rest.
This afternoon's medical report notes that the Holy Father's clinical condition remains stable, but also added that "the improvements recorded in previous days have been further consolidated, as confirmed by blood tests, clinical objectivity and good response to pharmacological therapy."
He then added that the doctors have dared, for the first time, to predict that the Pope could even leave the hospital in a few days: "given the complexity of the clinical picture and the important infectious condition presented at the time of admission, it will be necessary to continue, for a few more days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment", that is, for the first time, the possibility that the Pope could soon return to the Vatican.
Spiritual Exercises of the Curia
In the morning, the Pope followed by video from his armchair the spiritual exercises of the Roman Curia, which began the previous evening in the Paul VI Hall. At the end of today's meditations, at 6:00 p.m., in the Paul VI Hall, a Rosary will be said for his recovery.
The Holy Father has been informed about the recent floods in Argentina and expressed his closeness to the people affected.
Vatican protects reputation of deceased accused of abuse
The Vatican asks to avoid the dissemination of lists of deceased accused abusers that could damage a person's reputation, especially in the absence of a conviction in a civil or ecclesiastical process, and even more so if the accused is deceased.
The document stresses that the presumption of innocence remains a fundamental pillar of justice in both the secular and ecclesiastical spheres. The dicastery warned that diocesan "credibility" assessments are often based on limited evidence and do not guarantee the accused a full legal defense. It also emphasized that the principle of "transparency" must not prevail over essential due process rights.
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Saints Simplicius, Macarius of Jerusalem, John Ogilvie and Elijah of Succour
The liturgy of March 10 welcomes many saints and blessed. Mention is made here of Saints Simplicius, Macarius of Jerusalem, the Scottish Jesuit John Ogilvie, and the Frenchwoman Marie Eugénie de Jesus Milleret; the martyrs Gaius, Alexander and Victor, and the Mexican Blessed Elias del Socorro.
Francisco Otamendi-March 10, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Saints Simplicius, Pope, Macarius of Jerusalem, the Scottish martyr John Ogilvie and the Mexican Elias del Socorro, also a martyr, are included in the Catholic saints' calendar for March 10. St. Simplicius, when the Western Empire was reaching its last days, was bishop of Rome (468-483). As pope, consoled to the afflicted and confirmed in the faith to the faithful. He restored and built churches in Rome, and prevented the destruction of works of art.
St. Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, obtained that the Holy Places were restored and enriched with basilicas by Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother, St. Helena (325). He was opposed to Arianism and participated in the Council of Nicea. The Scotsman St. John Ogilvie, Jesuit priest and martyr, lived in hiding and took pastoral care of the faithful until he was condemned and martyred under King James I.
Santos Cayo, Alejandro, Victor, María Eugenia de Jesus
Saints Gaius and Alexander were martyred in Phrygia (present-day Turkey), at the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd century. St. Victor suffered martyrdom in North Africa, during the persecution of Emperor Decius (250). St. Augustine dedicated one of his sermons to him. The Blessed Elias del Socorroa priest of the Order of the Friars of St. Augustine, was persecuted and martyred for secretly carrying out his priestly ministry, near the city of Cortázar, Mexico. When he was shot he shouted: Long live Christ the King (1928).
The French Saint María Eugenia de Jesús Milleret was born in Metz in 1817 and was baptized even though her family was not a believer. Her father went bankrupt, the marriage broke up and, already in Paris, her mother died and she was left alone at the age of 15. At the age of 19, she was converted to God following Father Lacordaire's conferences at Notre-Dame. Three years later she founded the contemplative and apostolic congregation of the Religious of the Assumption for the human and Christian education of young girls. She died in 1898 and was canonized by Benedict XVI in 2007.
Being barren is not a divine condemnation, but an opportunity to receive a special blessing from the Lord. Moreover, according to the book of Wisdom God will reward in a special way those infertile people who live virtuously and holy lives.
For many couples, infertility is a difficult ordeal, a painful burden that challenges dreams of starting a family. However, the book of the Wisdom offers a profoundly consoling message for those who, despite being unable to conceive, lead a virtuous life and accept God's will.
A text by Agustín Giménez González, director of the Department of Sacred Scripture at the University of San Dámaso, explains this idea very well, which we summarize below (Cfr: Agustín Giménez, Wisdomp 74-82, BAC, 2021).
The joy of fidelity
The book of the Wisdom gives us words of encouragement: "Blessed is the blameless barren woman, whose bed has not known unfaithfulness: she shall obtain her fruit in the day of judgment" (Wisdom 3:13). Barrenness, far from being a curse, is an opportunity to demonstrate fidelity and sincere love, values that God blesses abundantly.
However, the divine reward for those who are faithful to God in spite of not being able to beget is also extended to the male, not only to the female: "Blessed also is the eunuch in whose hands there is no sin, nor has he had evil thoughts against the Lord: for his faithfulness he will receive special favor and an enviable inheritance in the temple of the Lord" (Wis 3:14). The eunuch is the male equivalent of the barren woman. The cited verse points out the temptation to blame God for infertility, something humanly logical, but deeply unjust to the creator.
It is true that the lack of fruitfulness is difficult to accept and tempts man to rebel against God. However, the divine promise for those who accept his will with joy is promising. The prophet Isaiah describes it as follows: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose to do my will and keep my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters, an everlasting name that shall not be cut off" (Is 56:35).
Blame God
Professor Giménez explains that the book of wisdom "also stresses not to have bad thoughts 'against the Lord', because when one has physical defects, it is easy to blame God, and inside to deny him and think that he has been bad or unjust for allowing it. Such thoughts turn away from God, carry the poison of the serpent that accuses God of being the enemy of man, and spoil the wonderful prize destined for the eunuchs. These, thanks to their fidelity, will receive a special favor (...): 'an enviable inheritance in the temple of the Lord'. It is striking that the eunuch will have a special place precisely in the temple of God, since the law of Moses explicitly excludes eunuchs (and other defective men) from priestly service in the temple: 'He may not come near to offer burnt offerings in honor of the Lord. [He may not pierce the veil or come near the altar, for he has a defect and would profane my sanctuary' (Lev 21:21,23). Solomon teaches that whatever he is deprived of in this life, he will receive in abundance in the next".
This promise is an invitation to trust that God has treasures of grace in store for those who persevere in faith. The absence of children is not the end of happiness; the true inheritance in this life is found in the love that is sown and in the virtue with which one lives; in the next life the inheritance will be overflowing.
Self-blame
Parents who cannot have children often suffer from the pain of not procreating. To this natural pain is sometimes added another more subtle and harmful one, thinking that it is a divine punishment, or the cause of some past sin... But nothing could be further from the truth.
As Professor Giménez pointed out in a conference, "God is not like that. God allows everything for our good. And as the book of the Wisdom infertility is a great blessing from heaven, when it is lived with trust and love for the Lord, because the eternal reward in return will be immense. Therefore, one should not blame anyone for these situations, least of all oneself. We must embrace the situation, the cross, with faith, love and hope, offering our pain for the salvation of the world and looking to heaven, where the reward will be infinite".
A timeless legacy: virtue over offspring
Throughout history, many cultures have associated descent with continuity and survival over time. But the Bible offers us a different vision: "It is better to have no children and be virtuosoFor the memory of virtue is immortal: it is recognized by God and man" (Wis 4:1). Thus, the true fruitfulness that we leave in this world is not measured in children, but in the good that we do and in the upright life that we lead.
Scripture does not deny the pain of those who long to be parents and cannot. But it also assures us that God sees beyond our limitations and transforms every situation into an occasion of grace.
The verse that follows the previous one exalts the value of virtue: "When it is present, they imitate it, when it is absent, they long for it; and in eternity it triumphs and wears the crown, victorious in the struggle for incorruptible trophies" (Wis 4:2). When someone lives virtuously, others notice it and want to follow his example. But when he is absent, his absence is felt and missed, because holy people bring light and direction to life. In the end, virtue is not something passing, but transcends; in eternity it is rewarded and recognized with a crown.
If our marriage is not going well, it is necessary to change course. During the Lenten season, the Church proposes three practices that will help us to make a personal change in the direction of Heaven. Let us apply these practices in our marriage and live the experience of seeking first the Kingdom of God.
We are witnessing a period of frequent family breakdown with all its painful consequences. In search of happiness, seduced by the song of the sirens, we have strayed from the safe and certain path offered by a functional family, where each member is loved for his or her own sake. We have put aside our responsibilities and privileged our rights so much that the balance has lost its equilibrium.
Around the month of March we are living Lent. The liturgical calendar marks a compass in our Christian walk, and this time is a sensitive period in which we can pray like St. Augustine asking: "My Father, know yourself and know me".
40 days of penance. 40 days preparing us for the most extraordinary event that has taken place in the history of mankind: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is a path of purification, of conversion, a time to look inside ourselves, to rethink and improve as children of God and brothers and sisters among us.
Today I want to propose a very special Lent, aimed at improving your marriage. I believe that at the origin of social and mental health problems, there are parents who have failed to fulfill their sublime mission: the formation of upright, happy and holy children, of future good citizens of earth and heaven.
We are too preoccupied with material goods and really unconcerned with eternal goods.
May this Lent help us to reflect on the changes we need to make in order to fulfill the mission God has entrusted to us by giving us children.
A basic principle is: "The best gift for children is the visible love of their parents".
If our marriage is not going very well, it is necessary to bring everything necessary to change the course. During the Lenten season, the Church proposes three practices that will help us to a personal change in the direction of heaven. Let us apply these practices in our marriage and live the experience of seeking first the kingdom of God.
These practices are:
Prayer, which perfects our relationship with God;
Limosna, which perfects our relationship with others;
Fasting, which perfects our relationship with ourselves.
Some concrete ways to bring them into our marriage are:
Let us pray for our marriage, let us ask God to help us become the ideal help and encouragement for our spouse. Let us pray for him (her), for his (her) physical, mental and spiritual health, for his (her) needs, his (her) economy, his (her) job, etc.
Almsgiving is a manifestation of charity, that is, of genuine love for our brothers and sisters. To apply it to marriage would mean to have acts full of kindness for the other. Not to wait for our spouse to do something to deserve our attention and affection, to give it to him or her, to give it as a gift. Do it in the name of God. This does not prevent us from setting healthy limits to violent, aggressive or selfish behavior on the part of the other; rather, it implies that we ask for what we want in a good way, without offending, without seeking revenge, on the contrary, saying with words and actions that we want to be well by his side, that we value him and we will do everything in our power to make him feel loved and well appreciated by us.
Fasting forges us in self-control. Fasting as the Church asks of us (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, abstaining partially or totally from food or drink), but in addition, we can offer in favor of our marriage: fasting from bad thoughts about our spouse, choosing to mention a quality when I have thought of a defect; choosing to bring a good memory when a negative one has come to mind; choosing to speak well of him (her) when I have thought of complaining or judging him (her) negatively. Fast from shouting and offensive words, avoid them decisively and when they "come out without thinking", apologize immediately.
I confess that this is something I like very much about the LentThis reminds me of the meaning of carrying the cross and leads me to stop pointing the finger at the other as guilty of everything; it leads me to look at myself with the gaze of God who gave His own Son for me. I look at my littleness, I recognize that I lack much to be worthy of so much love from this merciful God and I decide to offer him my efforts, my small daily sacrifices, in reparation for my faults and for the good of those I love.
Neurosciences confirm that we can change neuronal pathways if we try new habits for 40 days. We will really be renewing our brain, and it is also proven that by changing our thoughts, we will change our feelings.
The word of God says: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are worthy, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are honorable, if there is any virtue or anything worthy of praise, meditate on these things." ( Phil. 4:8). Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:2).
Let us do great good to the world by taking care of this most important institution: marriage.
The negative things about some priests usually attract the attention of public opinion, but the truth is that the good things about them are much more significant.
March 9, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
On February 28th, the Washington State Senate approved a bill which punishes with imprisonment priests who do not violate the secrecy of confession in cases of abuse. Beyond the legal and political debate, there is one thing that shines brightly in the midst of this storm: the unwavering fidelity of priests to sacramental secrecy.
We live in times in which the Church is singled out for its shadows. No one can deny that there are miseries in the past and present, but in this case we are not talking about a negative stain, but an inspiring light. In a world where discretion is scarce and trust is sold cheap, the priest remains a firm rock in the confessional, guarding secrets that do not belong to him, willing even to go to jail rather than break his commitment to God and to souls.
Think about it for a moment: in an age of leaks, rumors, instant news and digital spying, priests are among the few men who still understand what it means to seal lips. Isn't this worthy of admiration?
While some legislate from their comfortable seats and dictate norms that ignore the depth of the sacrament, there are priests who continue to bow down in the confessional to receive with mercy every repentant soul. It does not matter if the one who kneels is a beggar or a king, a stranger or a close friend. The priest listens, absolves, encourages... and keeps silent. He remains silent even under threat, because he understands that what is happening there is a sacred act between God the Father and one of his children.
Long live the faithful priests. Those who, with defects and weaknesses like everyone else, know that their mission is not to betray but to serve, not to speak but to heal. And since we are in Lent, perhaps it is the perfect opportunity for the laity to remember the value of this sacrament and to encourage us to confess. Let us queue up at the confessionals and rediscover the miracle of mercy. For if they risk so much to keep the secret, isn't what goes on in there really important?
The Pope's state of health has experienced "a slight gradual improvement" for the fifth consecutive day, according to the latest medical report. Despite the stability shown and the "good response to therapy", doctors have decided to keep the prognosis "still reserved" out of prudence.
The communiqué notes that the Pontiff "has remained apyretic at all times," indicating the absence of fever. In addition, "gas exchange has improved" and "hematochemical and hemocytocritometric tests are stable," reflecting a favorable evolution in his general condition.
Day of prayer and work
On a daily level, the Pope has continued with his routine within medical limitations. "This morning, after receiving the Eucharist, the Holy Father gathered in prayer in the chapel of his private apartment", while in the afternoon "he alternated rest and work activities", according to the official report.
Jubilee of volunteers
This weekend, Rome is hosting the Jubilee of the Volunteersan event within the framework of the Holy Year which brings together thousands of people dedicated to service and solidarity. During these days, participants will be able to share experiences, reflect on the role of volunteerism in society and receive a special message from Pope Francis, who has on numerous occasions stressed the importance of those who give their time and effort to help others.
There are four women doctors of the Church among the 37 holy doctors. They are St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux. Some others are on the way, like St. Edith Stein. Today is a good day to remember them.
The Doctors of the Church are the saints many of us need to better understand the faith and, more than that, to grow in our relationship with the Lord. Among the 37 great saints are four women doctors of the Church: saint Hildegard of Bingen (German); saint Catherine of Siena (Italian); saint Teresa of Avila (Spanish), and saint Therese of Lisieux (French).
As will be seen at the end, quite a few Catholics consider that there are at least three other women saints who should be doctors of the Church: St. Faustina Kowalska, Polish; St. Edith Stein, German-Polish; and St. Marguerite Marie Alacoque, French.
Find a pattern, or many
As Catholics, we are incredibly blessed to have the communion of saints, and the Church encourages each and every one of us to find a patron (or many) among them.
To facilitate the search for a saint that fits particular needs, the Church has designated saints as patrons of countries, cultures, professions, interests and even illnesses. Among women are, for the moment, the four mentioned above.
St. Hildegard of Bingen
It is not possible to give a complete account of their lives in a single article. Each of them has been the subject of countless biographies and much research. But I hope that a brief sketch of their lives and accomplishments will encourage you to read one of those biographies or, better yet, their writings.
St. Hildegard of Bingen was born into a noble German family in 1098. Already as a child she had mystical visions of the Lord, although it was not until a later age that she was able to understand the meaning of all of them. As a young woman, she entered religious life, and it was there that she really exploited her talents. St. Hildegard was a woman who did everything and did it well.
Authorized to preach publicly
At the age of 43, she asked her spiritual director for advice about her visions, and their authenticity was declared by a committee of ecclesiastical theologians. This led her to write down her visions and meanings in her great mystical work: 'The Scivias'. It also allowed her to request and receive permission from the Pope to travel and evangelize, making her one of the only women of her time authorized to preach publicly. An enduring theme in St. Hildegard's theology is the ability to encounter God through the use of our senses.
In addition, the prolific Hildegard wrote the first known work on morality, lyrical poetry, a cookbook, medical treatises (in her time she was also the equivalent of a physician) and even invented her own language. She also composed music of great beauty, which is still performed today by orchestras all over the world.
St. Hildegard died in 1179. She was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI and declared a Doctor of the Church that same year.
St. Catherine of Siena
St. Catherine of Siena was born in 1347 into a highly respected Italian family. She was the youngest of 25 siblings, most of whom did not reach adulthood. Catherine consecrated herself to Christ as a young woman and refused to marry, even going so far as to cut her hair to stop a marriage proposal.
She reluctantly obtained her parents' permission to renew her vow of virginity and enter the third order of the DominicansThis would allow him to continue living with his family.
For many years, St. Catherine lived as a hermit in her family's home, but eventually she began to venture out, and her ministry spread across oceans. She traveled widely at the behest of both popes and civil leaders, playing an active role in the Church and in Italian politics, both of which were very complicated during her lifetime.
End of the Papacy of Avignon and return to Rome
St. Catherine was lucid about the sins and failures of the Church leaders, but obedience to the Lord and the Church were most important to her. She always strove to draw more and more people to Christ, her husband, while working for peace between the warring parties. In fact, St. Catherine is credited with bringing about the end of the Avignon papacy and the Pope's return to Rome.
She wrote a great deal, mostly in the form of letters, in which she offered frank but loving advice to her spiritual children, as well as to the bishops and cardinals who came to her for wisdom. Nearly 400 of her letters are preserved today.
Deep prayer, and stigmata of the Lord
In a state of ecstasy, St. Catherine dictated a series of conversations she had with the Lord, which were later published under the title 'The Dialogue'. This work, intimately personal and full of teachings applicable to all, perfectly intertwines theology and personal prayer.
St. Catherine's prayer life was deep and full of mysticism, and she received the stigmata of the Lord at the age of 28. She died young, only 33 years old. She was canonized in 1461.
Saint Teresa of Avila
The woman we know today as St. Theresa de Ávila was born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada on March 28, 1515. Born into a family of Spanish nobility, Teresa learned about faith and honor on her mother's lap. The lives of the saints, read to all the children in the family, influenced her childhood, to the point that she and her brother Rodrigo ran away from home, vowing to become martyrs.
At the age of 20, Teresa entered the local Carmelite convent. This particular convent was known for being lax in its practices, and as a result, the outgoing and popular Teresa spent much of her time socializing in the parlor with visitors. In fact, for years she struggled greatly, torn between the mundane and the divine.
Foundation of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns
It was not until the age of 40 that she had a total conversion and the conviction that God was asking more of her. It was this deep spiritual awakening within her that began what would end up being the great restoration of the Carmelite order as a whole and the founding of the Discalced Carmelites.
Teresa's attempts to restore the Order to its original austerity were met with great resistance both within and without, but she still managed to found and nurture 16 new convents.
In addition to this great work, Teresa wrote a great deal, especially to the sisters with whom she lived and whom she counseled, to help them achieve greater intimacy with God. Her best known work is 'The Interior Castle', which follows the journey of a soul on its way to Christ.
Although it deals extensively with great theological truths, it is also very easy to read for the average person, and contains much of the author's personality, which makes it very accessible and interesting. Teresa of Avila died at the age of 67, in 1582. She was canonized 40 years after her death, in 1622, by Pope Gregory XV.
Saint Therese of Lisieux
St. Therese of Lisieux was born the youngest of nine children (five survived infancy) of Saints Louis and Zelie (Celia) Martin and was, by all accounts, a beloved member of her family. After the death of her mother when she was 4 years old, Therese was raised by her father and older sisters.
She knew that God was calling her to religious life at a very young age and was determined to follow several of her older sisters and enter the Carmelite order. During a papal audience while on a pilgrimage to Rome with her father, she asked the Pope to grant her special permission to profess her vows early. Undeterred by his refusal, she entered Carmel at the tender age of 15 and never looked back.
Story of a Soul
Teresa struggled with scrupulosity and depression, but nevertheless maintained a deep, childhood faith in the Father's love for her that would become the cornerstone of her great theological work. Under the orders of her superior, Teresa wrote his doctrine of faith: 'History of a soul'.
This book, which preaches holiness through the ordinary combined with a fearless faith that is total in trust and surrender to God, would later lead her to become the youngest of all doctors of the Church. Teresa died of tuberculosis at the tender age of 24. She was canonized in 1925.
They deserve to be doctors: St. Faustina Kowalska
In my humble opinion, there are certainly other women who deserve to be awarded this title. And I am not the only one who thinks so.
In 2015, the Marian Auxiliatrixes drafted a well-reasoned and thoroughly researched petition to the Holy See, arguing that. Saint Faustina Kowalska should be admitted to the group.
Through his visions and writings, the Church has come to a deeper understanding of Christ's merciful love, and his insights into the Divine Mercy of Our Lord have changed the face of the Church.
Writing just before the outbreak of World War II, it is undeniable that St. Faustina's message was urgent in her time, and no one who attended Mass on the Sunday after Easter, now known throughout the world as Divine Mercy Sunday, can dispute the worldwide and enduring nature of her message.
Saint Edith Stein
The Carmelite nuns have also initiated a petition on behalf of Saint Edith Steina woman who actually had a doctorate degree.
His doctoral thesis was on the subject of empathy, a theme that he would return to in later writings after his conversion to Catholicism. In his 28 volumes of writings, there is a broad theological vision of value to the whole Church.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
And who would argue that the writings of Saint Margaret Mary of Alacoque have they not influenced the whole Church? His name may be less familiar to many than that of other saints, but the devotion to the Sacred Heart, which we owe to him, is not.
These are just three examples. There are more women in the history of our Church and, I am sure, there will be more women doctors of the Church in the future.
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This article is a translation of an article first published in OSV News. You can find the original article here.
On March 8, the Church celebrates St. John of God, founder of the Hospitaller Order of the same name. For his love and care for the sick, he was proclaimed patron saint of hospitals, the sick and nurses in 1886. In 2025 the Order commemorates the 475th anniversary of his death with a Hospitaller Jubilee of Hope.
Francisco Otamendi-March 8, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
– Supernatural Hospital Order of St. John of God is commemorating this year 2025 the 475th anniversary of the death of St. John of God, for which reason the Holy See has granted to the institution the celebration of the Jubilee Year. The official opening of the Jubilee and the Holy Door in the Basilica takes place today, March 8, in the Basilica of St. John of God in Granada, where the remains of the saint, co-patron of Granada, rest.
St. John of God, John the City, was born in 1495 in a small Portuguese village: Montemor o Novo, in the Alentejo (Kingdom of Portugal). In his adolescence he was a farmhand and cattle herder. Until the age of forty, already in Granada (Spain), he worked in various trades, and was a bookseller. One day he listened to St. John of Avila and suffered a spiritual upheaval. They took him for a madman and he was admitted to the Royal Hospital, where he was treated as an insane person.
With the sick that almost nobody wants
Juan approaches the sick that almost nobody wants. He became aware of his mission. After leaving the hospital, since there was no madness, he turned to the spiritual direction of Master John of Avila. He went on pilgrimage to Guadalupe, and in Granada he began to receive the poor and the sick, and to beg for alms to support them. The bishop of Tuy suggested the name of Juan de Dios and to wear a tunic as a habit.
He is soon joined by some companions. He travels to Castile to raise funds for his hospital. A pneumonia after throwing himself into the Genil River to save a drowning boy weakens his health and he dies in Granada on March 8, 1550. After his death, his first companions moved him to what is today the San Juan de Dios Hospital of Granada. Since the written Rule arrived later, it has been said that it was a posthumous' birth from the Order. He was canonized in 1690.
Women have been fooled by feminism. We have been sold so much smoke that it is difficult for us to see anything clearly. We have been fooled that we are the most empowered and free generation of women in history, but at the same time we are still totally subjected to the patriarchal order. But at the same time we are still totally subjected to the patriarchal order. Where do we stand?
A few days ago the image of some women in Spain went viral demanding that girls should be allowed to wear the Islamic veil in schools and universities. It is surprising that there are still those who think that being completely covered, leaving only space for the eyes, is a symbol of freedom.
If you couple this claim with the affiliation to a political party that has covered up for several sex offenders, you realize that the joke tells itself. They want us "free and empowered" amidst the smoke, where we can't even see who we really are or what we need as women.
Feminism by color
At a time when people are trying to eliminate the existence of our sex, claiming that gender is a construction and that being a woman means nothing, it is time to claim a femininity that is perfectly known. And not to know oneself in that perverted sense that they want to inculcate so much in our little girls, but to really know that femininity that goes beyond political and ideological claims, that does not carry a flag or corporate colors.
It makes no sense that the vindication of women's dignity belongs only to certain political signs, as if not agreeing with these ideologies immediately makes you an enemy of your own sex. What today's feminism has brought with it is division among us, perhaps to entertain us while our "allies" get their way at our expense.
The current feminism brings division also with the male, pointing to all as potential enemies. The problem is not men, the problem is bad men (which there are, no doubt). Identifying one part of the group as the whole is a tactic used since ancient times... And from recent history, we know that it has never led to anything good.
Is there such a thing as a woman?
But they continue to try to deceive us, pointing fingers elsewhere so that we do not see that those who denounce the problem are in many cases the creators of it. They continue to sell smoke, while statistics and reality put before us the truth: today's feminism does not work because it is flawed at its roots. Because if women do not exist, if we do not accept that there is something inherent to our femininity, feminism makes no sense (something denounced by the Catholic Association of Propagandists in its campaign for 8M 2025).
It is true that there are feminist currents that do not accept the elimination of women. Perhaps these are a little better on track, but they are still part of the deception. We have to dissipate the smoke and recover the clarity of concepts. We must recover the pride of being a woman, without victimhood and without political colors.
Recovering our femininity
Let us not allow ourselves to be convinced that being a woman is the same as being a victim of the patriarchy. That is submission. Let us not continue to swallow the deception that men are the enemy. Let us not allow ourselves to be eliminated from sports competitions, television and books, as if being a woman meant nothing. Let us not allow ourselves to be considered free and empowered until we, freely, decide get married with a man, have children or quit a job.
The feminist deception lies in the fact that only some seem to have the power to tell us what it is to be a woman, if such a thing exists. Let's recover what is ours, of all of us, regardless of our beliefs and contexts. Less 8M, protests and chants, and more claiming that women exist and there is nothing wrong with that.
There are compositions that, because of their small dimensions and the high value of the music they contain, can be compared to small jewelry boxes. Marc Antoine Charpentier, French baroque composer, enclosed in his "Litanies" a valuable collection of tiny pearls and musical jewels. A beautiful musical gift to the Virgin Mary, who, in addition to great choral works, has dedicated small marvels such as the one that occupies us in this review.
Antonio de la Torre-March 8, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
Those who have followed the Eurovision broadcasts some decades ago will be familiar with the stately fanfare that precedes them, evocative of times of greater luster and grandeur. It is the prelude composed by Marc Antoine Charpentier for his monumental "Te Deum", written in the 1690s. It is certainly the score by this composer best known to the general public, even to those who are not fond of classical music.
However, this very interesting French composer, who lived between 1643 and 1704, has to his credit a much larger catalog, full of charming surprises. One of them is the small composition dedicated to the Virgin Mary that we present in this review, and whose context is interesting to know to appreciate it better.
From Rome to Paris
A large part of Charpentier's musical training took place at Rome. It was there that he discovered the value of the new music developed by Monteverdi at the beginning of the 17th century for evangelization and the aesthetic expression of religious experience. Charpentier knows the Roman environments of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, who, as is well known, gave great importance to music as an element of catechesis, evangelization and promotion of an attractive liturgy. Composers of great talent between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giacomo Carissimi, knew and shared this vision of religious music, which gives more importance to emotion, melody and theological symbolism than to structure, counterpoint and displays of choral or vocal virtuosity.
Therefore, when Charpentier returns to France, to be placed among the musical staff of Versailles, he already has an interesting catalog of religious music, and has developed an elegant, melodic, emotive style of great aesthetic and symbolic persuasion in order to express the faith musically. These traits will appear again and again in small details of the Litanies that we are going to listen to.
A small-format jewel
Among the spaces dedicated to religious music, the Jesuit college in Paris, as in Rome, stood out. From the Oratory the disciples of St. Ignatius had learned the expressive and evangelizing power of the new music, which they were to spread and promote throughout Europe and its American and Asian colonies. It is possible, therefore, that Charpentier composed this musicalization of the Lauretan Litanies for the Marian Congregation of the Jesuit school in Paris. This association in honor of the Virgin is typical of all the colleges founded by the Society of Jesus, and this scholastic, or academic, environment explains why the "Litanies of the Virgin" is a small-format composition. As for the musical staff, it consists of four or five instruments and nine vocal soloists. As for its duration, it can be interpreted in fifteen minutes. We are certainly far from the solemn compositions dedicated to the liturgical functions of Versailles, as can be seen by comparing these "Litanies" with the "Litanies of the Virgin". withfor example, the splendid "Grands Motets" by Lully.
The text of the composition, as is evident, is the Litany of the Virgin Mary which comes from the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto, and which since the time of Clement VIII (decree "Quoniam multi" of 1601) can be considered the traditionally official version of this prayer to the Virgin Mary, which has been set to music countless times since then. This text begins with a brief penitential act and an invocation to the Holy Trinity, which Charpentier precedes with a very short instrumental prelude. In this one we can see the expressive impact that he manages to transmit with only two violas and the continuo (normally played with a viola da gamba, a theorbo and a positive organ).
This serene and prayerful prelude leads us to the penitential invocations by the female soloists, which in the symbolism of Charpentier's music seem to evoke the Church Bride imploring Mercy from the Lord. Next, the same soloists invoke the Holy Trinity in a very elaborate way. The lowest voice, the alto, begins by invoking the Father ("Pater de cælis, Deus"). On its final note, the two sopranos invoke the Son (two voices for the second person of the Trinity: "Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus"). The cycle returns to its origin when the contralto intervenes again invoking the Holy Spirit ("Spiritus Sancte, Deus"). The three voices then exclaim in unison "Sancta Trinitas", after which only the soprano sings: "Unus Deus". With extreme brevity the instruments echo the last bars of the voices and prepare the beginning of the series of praises to Mary.
Praises to the Virgin Mary
In two and a half minutes Charpentier, faithful to the ideals of the Roman Oratorio, has managed to move the feelings, interest the aesthetic taste, move the symbolic reflection and make the listener, in short, listen to this music as a prayerful experience in which to contemplate the Virgin Mary. Precisely the invocation to Mary, sung by the entire musical staff, serves to make present in sonorous form the image of the Virgin, around which a majestic first series of litanies will be sung, in which the four female soloists and the five male soloists will respond.
This style of facing choirs, or antiphons, is very characteristic of early baroque music, as much in Italy (where it comes from) as in France or Spain. In many places in these "Litanies" you will notice its effects of dynamizing the musical expression, and giving greater depth and resonance to the sound.
The litanies beginning with "Mater" are entrusted to the male soloists, who sing them progressively intertwining over the basso continuo, ending with another very brief instrumental intervention. Charpentier marks the transition from one section of the "Litanies" to the next with small instrumental passages. The "Virgo" litanies are sung, again, in the style of antiphonic choruses. After them begins a dizzying series of praises beginning with "Speculum iustitiæ," in which an ingenious game of musical mirroring between the two sopranos illustrates the text. In this series, one can discover how each of the litanies receives a musical treatment that is as brief as it is illustrative, thus being able to enjoy a beautiful series of musical miniatures on the titles with which the Virgin Mary is invoked. As an example, the three "Vas" litanies sung by the male soloists on the continuo, or the luminous melodies dedicated to the most important titles of the litanies, the "Vas", the "Vas", the "Vas" and the "Vas". celestial of the Virgin: "Rosa mystica", "Domus aurea", "Porta cæli", "Stella matutina"...
The following series of litanies, of a more mournful and supplicant character, receive a more serene and melancholic music, which reaches an expressive peak of delightful tenderness in the repetition of the invocations "Consolátrix afflictórum", "Auxílium christianórum". They are the only individual invocations repeated in the whole composition, which seems to suggest that for the author they expressed a special spiritual need, easy to understand and share. In marked chiaroscuro, the gloom of this series is contrasted with the luminous joy of the last section, which praises the Virgin as Queen: of angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins and all the saints (the invocations contained in the text at that time). The astonishing echoing repetition of the word "Regina" throughout these invocations, as well as the repetition of the whole series, lead to an admirable ending of this chain of supplications and praises to the Virgin Mary. In all the sections the group of invocations ends with the petition "ora pro nobis" (it is therefore not sung after each individual invocation, as is customarily done in the recitative), but in the last section, which sings of Mary as Queen, this petition is sung with greater grandeur, thus reaching the final climax of the praises to the Virgin.
As is typical of litanies, the Marian invocations are followed by a triple "Agnus Dei", composed with simplicity and elegance, giving a serene and confident ending to the whole composition. The last of the three, which sings: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundo, miserere nobis", is remarkable for the admirable amplitude of the antiphonic choruses. With this penitential color ends this small chest of praises to the Virgin Mary, which can possibly help to spend a delightful time of musical contemplation with our gaze fixed on the Mother of God.
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