Father S.O.S

Challenges, risks and opportunities in the affective life of a priest

Priests, like everyone else, need to integrate all the dimensions of their life, with particular attention to affectivity, and direct it to the good of themselves.

Carlos Chiclana-December 16, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

In order to better understand the affective aspects of the priestly life and its integration with the other dimensions of the person, we conducted a qualitative research with a survey about challenges, risks, opportunities, what helped and what was missing in the development of their affective life. 128 priests, deacons and seminarians participated, with 605 open-ended responses and 1039 different ideas that were categorized into themes.

The main challenges were: spiritual life, loneliness, mission, psychological difficulties and giving/receiving affection. Risks: loneliness, psychological limitations, affective dependencies, moral defects and spiritual life. Opportunities: dealing with people, spiritual life and priestly friendship. What helped: spiritual life, priestly friendship, witness of other priests and a healthy family of origin. A significant percentage did not miss anything, and others would have liked to receive better formation, better attention to spirituality and psychology.

The variety of responses with different nuances, together with the presence of common categories, points to the personal diversity among priests, together with the participation in the same ministry of Christ, and shows the importance of initial and ongoing formation that addresses both the essential and central elements of the priesthood, as well as the particular needs according to formation, education, social origin, family system and life experiences.

This will allow: an enriching approach to their real life; to develop a personalized program; to adapt to the personal evolutionary cycle according to age, previous experiences, motivations or personality; to be aware of the needs that arise according to assignments, social changes, age, normative crises and the ordinary development of the spiritual life, with its deserts and oases.

We found that the areas of greatest interest were the spiritual life, solitude, interpersonal relationships and formation. Having self-directed formation, with good spiritual accompaniment and in community, may be one of the conclusions of this study, which shows that they would have liked more formation, better accompaniment and a more affectionate and less normative development of the spiritual life.

One of the recurring questions is loneliness, although they do not report that they have lacked training in this regard. Does it refer to the original loneliness of every human being, the physical loneliness that a priest may experience in rural areas, the emotional loneliness of those who dedicate themselves to the care of people? Could it be that loneliness is precisely the place where God waits to meet with that soul? Could it be the loneliness referred to by people who have developed an insecure attachment due to bad experiences?

– Supernatural social loneliness is a lack of close relationships of friendship, which makes the person feel empty, unaccepted, bored, and isolated. Emotional loneliness is the absence of meaningful relationships that provide security. The latter stems from the inadequate development of our bonds in childhood and how early relationships are configured in the first years of life, with the main attachment figure, and conditions the experience in adult life in the configuration of interpersonal relationships; it is associated with feelings of emptiness and can only be alleviated through restoration with the main attachment figure or a "substitute".

Loneliness is related to insecure attachment styles. If these displays of affection are not perceived, the person is unsatisfied in his or her emotional needs and presents insecurity, social or emotional loneliness. Secure individuals have a low level of loneliness, a positive view of self, low anxiety about possible abandonment, comfort with interpersonal intimacy and satisfying personal relationships, and a positive schema of others.

If a priest feels lonely, he will assess whether it is related to childhood shortcomings that have shaped an insecure attachment. If so, he will benefit from specific spiritual accompaniment to heal the attachment or from professional psychotherapeutic help. If not, he will have to discern whether he suffers from social loneliness - which can be remedied with the development of a network of general, priestly and family friendships - or whether it is precisely this loneliness that is the place where he can develop with greater intensity the experience of celibacy and his bond with God.

The study concluded that there are eight dimensions of enrichment of the priest's affective life: relationship with God, friendship, accompaniment, priestly fraternity, formation, personal care, psychological knowledge and mission.

Some aspects that can be worked on are: positive and stable sense of masculine identity; maturity to relate to others; solid sense of belonging; freedom to be enthusiastic about great ideals and the coherence and strength to carry them out; decision making and fidelity to these; self-knowledge; capacity to correct oneself; taste for beauty; confidence; capacity to integrate one's sexuality with a Christian perspective.

Read more
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Pope Francis turns 86 years old

Rome Reports-December 15, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
rome reports88

On December 17, Pope Francis turns 86 years old. An age he reaches after a complicated year in health for the Holy Father due to problems with his knee.

Although he himself acknowledges that he must "slow down" the pace of his travels, at the end of January he will make a week-long trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, and in August he is expected to be in Lisbon for World Youth Day.

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

Read more
More on Omnes
ColumnistsAntonio Moreno

Myrrh, the best gift

At Christmas, what we celebrate is the mystery of the Incarnation, which blows away all our preconceived ideas about God. And, thanks to the myrrh, each one of us was in that portal.

December 15, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

The gold and frankincense is clear, but what about myrrh? Movies and social networks are making jokes these days about the "uselessness" of this gift of the kings, but is it really useless? On the contrary! Perhaps it is the most important. And I explain why.

The first thing to say is that we do not speak of gold, frankincense and myrrh by chance or by tradition. The three gifts are found in Sacred Scripture, specifically in the second chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. They are traditions, for example, the mule and the ox, which do not appear in any of the Gospels; and even the Magi themselves: Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar, since the Bible does not say that they were kings, nor that there were three of them, much less their names. Certainly, since the first centuries of Christianity, their figure was interpreted in this way and we continue to speak of them in this way, but this fact should call our attention to what is really important: that it was not so much the three, five or fifteen magi who arrived at the portal, but the three gifts that we do know they brought with them.

The fathers of the Church saw in the gifts offered by these mysterious personages a prophetic intention that spoke to us of the destiny of the child: gold, as befits a king, for Jesus was destined to be a king in the Kingdom of Heaven; frankincense, as befits God, for just as that perfumed smoke ascends towards heaven thus serving the Jews as an offering to God in His temple, that baby deserved such honor for being the very Son of God; and myrrh (the great unknown), as man in his mortal nature, because this vegetable resin is used to heal wounds, embalm corpses and as an analgesic for the dying, thus foretelling his passion and death on the cross.

That is why it is the most unpopular of the gifts, that is why it is the great unknown because, besides being the least common product of the three in our daily lives, who wants to hear about death in this Christmas of brillibrilli that we have invented?

However, and this is my proposal, on second thought, it may be the most important gift for us, the one that speaks to us of the true meaning of Christmas, the one that shakes off the adhesions that the years have accumulated on this feast and that prevent us from contemplating and celebrating it in all its splendor.

At Christmas, what we celebrate is the mystery of the Incarnation, which blows up all our preconceived ideas about God. At Christmas, he is not a distant God, up there in heaven, but with his feet on earth; he is not a solitary God, but a Trinitarian God in need of a family; he is not an indifferent God, but involved with his people; he is not a just God, but merciful; He is not an overbearing God, but simple, small and poor; He is not a God who is oblivious to pain, but a God who is passive, who suffers with his own; He is not a God who creates to admire his own work, but out of pure love for his creatures.

In the Second Vatican Council, the Church reminded us that "the mystery of man is clarified only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word" and goes on to affirm that "the Son of God by his incarnation has united himself, in a certain sense, with every man".

So, from now on, pay no attention when they joke about the uncertain destiny of the myrrh. Take the opportunity to explain that, thanks to it, each one of us was in the portal that night because that Child was united "in a certain way" with each and every one of us. That is what we celebrate at Christmas, let it be clear: Happy Incarnation! Happy Christmas!

The authorAntonio Moreno

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

More on Omnes
Books

Bishop CamisascaGiussani was a genius of faith and humanity".

"In addition to being a genius of faith and of the human, Giussani was also a genius of the Church," Monsignor Massimo Camisasca, bishop emeritus of Reggio Emilia, said in Madrid, presenting his biography of Father Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. Bishop Camisasca stressed to Omnes that Father Giussani helped us "to see the trace, the sign of the divine, within the genius of man".

Francisco Otamendi-December 15, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe Communion and Liberation movement in audience with the PopeRelated NewsDavide ProsperiGiussani's great teaching was to bring God back to life".

Father Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation (CL) in the 1960s in Italy, died on February 22, 2005 in Milan, after living an "essential" Christianity - as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis would emphasize decades later, his biographer pointed out - and extending the movement to some ninety countries on five continents.

October 15 marked the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1922, and thousands of CL members filled St. Peter's Square for a meeting with Pope Francis. The Holy Father expressed, among other things, his "personal gratitude for the good he did me, Giussani, when I was a young priest; and I do it also as a universal Pastor for all that he did in his life. knew how to sow and radiate everywhere for the good of the Church...".

Last weekend, Monsignor Massimo Camisasca delved into the charism of the Founder at the presentation of the Spanish edition of his book, entitled "Father Giussani. His experience of man and God"in an event moderated by Manuel Oriol, director of Ediciones EncuentroThe historian Ignacio Uría also participated.

Cover of the book written by Massimo Camisasca

As he explains in this interview with Omnes, Bishop Camisasca met the Servant of God Luigi Giussani in 1960, when he was 14 years old, and was at his side for the next 45 years of his life. He is, therefore, a particularly authoritative biographer to speak about the life and thought of the founder of Communion and Liberationabout which he spoke a few months ago in Omnes Davide Prosperipresident ad interim of Communion and Liberation.

Before offering his answers, we take up an idea that Monsignor Camisasca launched during the presentation: "In addition to being a genius of the faith and of the human, Giussani was also a genius of the Church. He led those who followed him to identify with the method of God's manifestation in the world: God addresses himself to some in order to speak to all; he begins with a small seed, a small flock, but he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For Giussani, the experience of election, which was at the heart of his educational method, was never the affirmation of an enclosure, but the affective center of an ecumenical openness.

At what point did you think of writing this biography about Father Guissani? Were you able to meet him and get to know him? What were your first impressions when you met him? Were you already a priest and bishop, or still a layman?

- I met Fr. Giussani when I was fourteen years old, in 1960. Giussani, who had been ordained a priest fifteen years earlier and had left the seminary to teach theology, began to teach religion in order to be in contact with young people and to foster the rebirth of the Christian faith in their hearts.

I was at Fr. Giussani's side for the next forty-five years of his life. Naturally, in different ways: first as a student, then in charge of following the birth of the Movement that was taking its first steps; later, as a priest, in charge of following relations with the Holy See and especially with John Paul II in Rome; finally, at his request, as founder of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles.

When Father Giussani died, I immediately thought of compiling a synthesis of his thought in a small book. Thus was born this text in which, following a chronological order, I try to express in a simple but complete way, the most important reflections he expressed throughout his life.

 "The Church recognizes his pedagogical and theological genius, deployed from a charism given to him by the Holy Spirit for the common good," said Pope Francis of Father Giussani at St. Peter's. Do you deal with these aspects and his charism?

- Deede then. Giussani's charism can only be grasped by following his life and writings and by getting to know the people who followed him. In this book, therefore, one can grasp the centrality of the mystery of the Incarnation, of the event of the Word of God made man, which moved Father Giussani, when he was fourteen years old, to see in the person of Christ the center of the cosmos and of history, as John Paul II would later say. The heart of every human expectation, of every desire for happiness, beauty, justice and truth.

When he was still a seminarian, this perception of the Incarnation as a central event in the history of the world impressed Father Giussani to such an extent that it became the burning heart of his whole life, of all his reflection and of all his educational work.

Deep down, he wanted to be nothing more than a great witness to the human fullness that happens in those who follow Christ, in those who abandon everything to follow him and to find in him the hundredfold of the things they thought they had left behind forever, purified and made eternal by love.

At the same meeting in Rome, the Pope referred to the "educational and missionary passion" of the founder of the movement. His biography is presented as "intellectual", and also as "spiritual". Correct?

- The editor wanted to capture the two main aspects of my writing. It is an intellectual biography because it does not dwell on the external events of Father Giussani's life, but on the itinerary and maturation of his thought. It is a spiritual biography because it wants to show the path that Christ made in Father Giussani and the path that Father Giussani made in the world to make possible the encounter with Christ of the younger generations and then of adults.

Giussani's great desire to "evangelize culture" has been underlined. How do you address this concern of the Founder? The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Giussani grew up in a house-as he himself said-poor in bread, but rich in music. Thus, from the beginning he was touched, indeed, wounded, by the desire for beauty (...) He sought beauty itself, infinite Beauty".

- Father Giussani loved the human. Not only man, but also everything that was the work of man. He loved literature, poetry, music. He loved, in short, the expressions of life. These were also the ways through which he reached the people. He spoke of Christ playing a Brahms, a Beethoven or a Chopin. He found traces of Christ, or of his waiting at least, in the poetry, for example, of Leopardi. He quoted countless great literary authors of all times, to help us see the imprint, the sign of the divine, within the genius of man.

In this way, he opened the lives of those who followed him to curiosity, to a healthy curiosity for everything that lives in the Universe and speaks to us of the Mystery. Culture, for Giussani, did not at all mean the accumulation of knowledge, but, on the contrary, the ability to relate to everything that is alive and human and that carries within itself the question of the infinite.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

RelatedRelated NewsThe Communion and Liberation movement in audience with the PopeRelated NewsDavide ProsperiGiussani's great teaching was to bring God back to life".
More on Omnes
Gospel

Jesus, the definitive sign. IV Sunday of Advent (A)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent and Luis Herrera offers a brief video homily.

Joseph Evans-December 15, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

When, in today's first reading from the book of Isaiah, King Ahaz is commanded to ask for a sign, he seems to show humility and resists doing so. But he was far from being a pious man, and the prophet, knowing that this humility is only apparent, loses patience. Anyway he gives him a sign from God. A "maiden", "almah" in Hebrew, a woman of marriageable age and childbearing age, will give birth and call her son "Immanuel", a name meaning "God is with us". Some scholars think this probably had an immediate application: a princess, daughter of the king, would give birth to a child whose birth would ensure the continuity of the dynasty and thus show that God was still "with" his people. While this is certainly possible, it is interesting to note that the Jewish tradition itself gave it a more prominent meaning. In the Greek translation of the sacred books of Israel, a work called the Septuagint prepared a few centuries before Christianity, the Hebrew "almah" is translated as "parthenos," which explicitly means "virgin." The sign becomes more and more extraordinary.

Acaz had been offered a sign "deep in the abyss or high in the sky."The only one so unique that he can reach beyond death and enter heaven. In today's Gospel we see how God fulfills this sign and gives it its true meaning. A virgin would indeed conceive, and give birth in a miraculous way. The "sign" went far beyond the mere continuation of a dynasty. It not only reached to heaven, but proceeded from it. It would eventually reach beyond death. And God would "be" with his people in a way that no one had ever imagined before. Thus we read: "The generation of Jesus Christ was in this way."

Jesus Christ is the ultimate sign. As God made man, he is truly God with us, in the most literal way. Mary is the virgin who has conceived. The sign of Christ's life would ultimately reach beyond death through the resurrection. And yes, in him the Davidic dynasty would also continue.

So unprecedented was this sign, so unprecedented, that Joseph was not prepared for it. He sensed that Mary had conceived "of the Holy Spirit," that is, of God, but he felt the need to withdraw and was preparing to separate from Mary discreetly, applying the laws of the time with the utmost delicacy. Then, an angel of God revealed to him what had happened, and that he was called to protect Mary and the child, who would be born of her and who would "save the people from their sins". God's extraordinary sign did not crush human freedom and agency. On the contrary, it brought out the best in this man. Joseph's great concern is not to defame a woman. This is also part of God's sign: respect and gentleness towards women. It is a sign that is sorely lacking in our society, and which we are called to live today.

Homily on the readings of Sunday IV of Advent

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.

Read more
More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • Spain
  • Uneven assessment of bishops on the treatment of religious education
Spain

Uneven assessment of bishops on the treatment of religious education

– Supernatural Episcopal Commission for Education and Culture of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has positively valued the fact that some autonomous communities have increased the timetable of the area/subject of the Catholic Religion class, and they appreciate an improvement in their perception of the contribution of school religious instruction, but they regret that "in many cases" it is not given a longer timetable.

Francisco Otamendi-December 14, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsHow does the Religion class look like in the LOMLOE?Related NewsReligion in public school? Yes, thank you!Related News"We ask for an educational itinerary on the person that includes religion."

The bishops' note on the academic ordination of the Catholic Religion class has been made public once most of the Autonomous Communities have published their decrees, defining the consideration of the area/subject of Catholic Religion and its timetable in the development of the LOMLOE (Organic Law for the Modification of the LOE).

With regard to what is regulated in the law by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the Episcopal Commission already stated that "we would have liked that the proposal made by the Episcopal Conference to the Ministry of Education in July 2020 had found acceptance in the legislative approaches and that a better accommodation of the Religion class in the educational system had been achieved", because "the text finally approved (...) is not entirely satisfactory for us" (November 4, 2021).

Regarding the timetable for the area/subject of Catholic Religion, defined in the Royal Decrees establishing the organization and minimum teachings of each of the educational stages, the aforementioned note regretted that "the opportunity to maintain at least the minimum timetable of the LOE, a law to which the LOMLOE gives continuity" had been "lost".  

In addition, the bishops expressed their "surprise" because "the teaching load is limited to a minimum in an area as decisive for the education of the person as is the ERE" (School Religious Education).

In this sense, the Episcopal Commission expressed at the time "to the respective educational Administrations a reasonable extension of the timetable of the area/subject of Religion, without reducing it to that established by the Ministry within the scope of its competencies".

Different actions

Now, the bishops complete the assessment made with an analysis of the schedule of Religion in compulsory education in the "autonomous realities". "Some Autonomous Communities have maintained the minimum timetable established by the Ministry of one hour a week," they point out. "In some cases this means maintaining the existing timetable, and even an increase with respect to the previous regulation, which would now be completed with a few more minutes of class (Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Valencia); in Galicia the timetable has been reduced in the only course where it exceeded one hour per week".

"In other Autonomous Communities," they add, "establishing the minimum set by the Ministry of one hour per week has meant a significant decrease with respect to the schedule that the Religion area/subject had (Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, La Rioja, Navarre)."

Increments

"Other Autonomous Communities have increased the minimum timetable established by the Ministry, regulating an hour and a half or even two hours a week of Religion in some courses of basic education," reports the episcopal note.

"Thus, they maintain the schedules that already had the area/subject of Religion (Andalusia, Castilla y León, Madrid, Murcia); we value positively the regulation of the teaching of religion in the articles of the decrees and not in additional provisions", continues the note. "In other cases, despite the reduction of the timetable in some courses, the increase over the weekly hour that already existed in other courses has been maintained (Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura)".

"Very diverse panorama"

The Episcopal Commission points out that "the panorama of how the timetable of the subject of Religion has been left in the whole of the educational Administrations is very diverse and requires a specific consideration for each territory".

The bishops appreciate "the recognition by some educational administrations of the need to provide the subject of Religion with a sufficient timetable; it seems to us a sign that a better academic consideration of the Religion class is still possible".

However, they add: "on the other hand, we regret that in many cases this regulation has not been taken advantage of to provide the area/subject of Catholic Religion with a broader timetable that would allow it to contribute with its basic knowledge to the Exit Profile, and in particular the lack of consideration of the subject that implies a significant decrease in the timetable in some Autonomous Communities".

In his opinion, "an opportunity has been lost, in these cases, for a better academic consideration of the Religion class, an essential educational area for school education to achieve its own goals".

Some regulate the alternative, others do not

The note also offers an assessment of "the regulation that has been made of the educational care that has to be offered to students who do not choose the Religion class. "We regret," they write, "the disappearance of an alternative that upholds the principle of non-discrimination and equality of students. We maintain the conviction that it is possible to understand the place of school religious education in the integral formation of the person, so that the dichotomy between Religion and 'mirror' subject can be overcome in the educational system".

However, in spite of this disappearance in the LOMLOEThe decrees of minimum teachings demand, for students who do not choose Religion, an educational attention programmed by the centers. Some autonomous communities have regulated, with greater or lesser precision, this educational attention, the note points out, and others, on the other hand, "have not provided a regulatory framework for this educational attention that the law explicitly requests to be programmed in the educational centers".

The bishops value positively "that some educational administrations have established this educational attention through projects that should be part of the annual general programming of the centers, with due information to the families of its content and development".

In general terms, the episcopal note "appreciates an improvement in the perception of some educational administrations regarding the significant contribution of ERE in the integral formation of the student body. And there are also improvements in the school treatment of students who do not choose Religious education, although there is still a risk -in some cases, the reality- of a possible illegal discrimination of students who choose the area/subject of Religion".

In his opinion, "it is necessary to continue the work of explaining and disseminating to families, the educational community and society as a whole the importance of this educational area, which should reflect the plurality of the student body, in the school curriculum as a whole".

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsHow does the Religion class look like in the LOMLOE?Related NewsReligion in public school? Yes, thank you!Related News"We ask for an educational itinerary on the person that includes religion."
More on Omnes
Photo Gallery

Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated at the Vatican

Pope Francis passes before an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe after the Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Peter's Basilica on Dec. 12, 2022.

Maria José Atienza-December 14, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
Read more
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Pope FrancisThe good disciple is vigilant".

The Holy Father held his customary general audience today in the Paul VI Hall to speak about spiritual vigilance.

Paloma López Campos-December 14, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis: "We can love only in freedom".Related NewsPope Francis on the examination of conscience

"We are now entering the final phase of this run of catechesis on discernment"Francis announced. "I consider it necessary to include in this point the reference to an essential attitude so that all the work done to discern what is best and make the right decision is not lost. This is the attitude of vigilance."

If we do not have this disposition, "the risk is that the Evil One can ruin everything, making us go back to square one," the Pope warns. "Jesus in his preaching insists much on the fact that the good disciple is vigilant."

Vigilance consists in "the disposition of the soul of Christians who await the final coming of the Lord. But it can also be understood as the routine attitude to have the proper conduct, so that our good choices, sometimes made after arduous discernment, can continue in a persevering and coherent way and bear fruit".

The Evil One takes advantage of "the moment when we are most sure of ourselves" to foment insidiousness. "When we trust too much in ourselves and not in the grace of God, the Evil One finds the door open."

"The devil comes in with ours, but he gets away with it. Spiritual worldliness goes this way". The Pope affirms that "many times we are defeated in our battles because of this lack of vigilance".

"The devil knows how to dress like an angel. It is necessary to watch the heart", we must ask ourselves what is going on in our heart.

"Vigilance is a sign of wisdom and humility," Francis concluded, "and humility is the master path of the Christian life."

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis: "We can love only in freedom".Related NewsPope Francis on the examination of conscience
More on Omnes
  • Columnists
  • Learning to forgive; teaching forgiveness
ColumnistsIgnacio Valduérteles

Learning to forgive; teaching forgiveness

Sometimes, in small groups and even in brotherhoods or confraternities, resentments and grudges may arise among brothers and sisters or with outsiders, which must also be dealt with and guided in order to live true charity at all times.

December 14, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

Many years ago, while playing, I suggested to my friend that a child who was there watching us join the group; he replied that he could not play with that child because their families were angry. When I asked him why they were angry, his answer was unforgettable: "I was so angry.I don't know; but it has always been like that".

Over time, I have seen that this situation continues to be reproduced, especially in small, very closed groups, sometimes isolated from their environment. There, frictions are magnified and appearances, envy, resentment and the lust for power move passions.

We could think about whether this situation, with greater or lesser intensity, is recognized today among the members of some Brotherhoods, or rather of the small group that lives it more closely, around 4-5%.

In this asphyxiating environment, internal hierarchies become an end in themselves, they are fought for, without valuing personal abilities or the contribution that each one could make to the brotherhood, and leadership is identified with power, forgetting that the maximum expression of leadership is service.

In these closed micro-corporations The vision of the whole, the capacity for analysis, the perspective and the vision of the future can be lost. Everything is reduced to the realization, in the best of cases, of short-term activities, sometimes well planned, but which can be counterproductive if they are not framed in an overall strategy. That's as far as it goes

When a society cuts off the internal roots of its socialitasof its raison d'être, its structuring as a social group is denaturalized and falls apart. From then on, it becomes a toxic, addictive environment in which personal selfishness takes precedence over the common good.

In such a situation it is easy for differences of opinion, even on unimportant issues, to cause problems that turn into mutual offenses and give rise to the emergence of sides that are considered mutually irreconcilable.

The freedom of forgiveness

It is here that forgiveness, the capacity to forgive those "offenses", must appear on the scene. Forgiveness is a human right, since Christ has granted it in a total and irreversible way to every person willing to accept it with a humble and repentant heart (cf. Ps. 51:17), a forgiveness that does not erase the past, of course, but prepares us to prepare for the future.

We cannot remain stuck to the past; if we remain anchored in the pain of the offense we block our development as free persons. In forgiveness I recover my freedom and I also recognize others as free subjects, with whom I can share the Truth and the Good again.

This is not easy, because forgiveness is not a feeling that arises spontaneously, is an act of the willIt is an exercise of personal freedom for those who refuse to be chained by the resentment of an offense that, surely, was more in our pride than in reality. It is also an act of humility and strengthIt is necessary to forgive as the sinners that we are, not as the righteous. Every day we repeat: "...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."For this reason, forgiveness is not granted, it is shared.

Here the role of the Board of Governors must always be to learning and teaching forgivenessto encourage the brothers to commit their freedom in order to search, learn and choose the Good; this sequence necessarily concludes in forgiveness. It is a matter of seeing the life of brotherhood as an encounter of life and freedom, not of backbiting and banditry. Surely no one is free of having caused, by action or omission, situations that have provoked the anger of others, also the members of the Governing Board, perhaps these more than others; but we all always have remedy, despite the mistakes, because we are not what we feel or what we do, that does not constitute us, you are not your mistakesbecause it is free, which allows you to maintain or overcome them.

This is the only way to ensure that the brotherhood is a place with the dynamism proper to the theological life in which the faith begets hope and the hope enables and favors the deployment of the lovein which the forgiveness. A place to which she always comes back because, in the words of Chavela Vargas, "one always goes back to the old places where one loved life". 

The authorIgnacio Valduérteles

D. in Business Administration. Director of the Instituto de Investigación Aplicada a la Pyme. Eldest Brother (2017-2020) of the Brotherhood of the Soledad de San Lorenzo, in Seville. He has published several books, monographs and articles on brotherhoods.

More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • The World
  • Msgr. PezziThe forgiveness and purification of memory are conditions for a just peace for Russia and Ukraine".
The World

Msgr. PezziThe forgiveness and purification of memory are conditions for a just peace for Russia and Ukraine".

In this interview granted to Omnes, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow stresses, among other things, the need to keep the door of dialogue open with the Orthodox Church and a "forgiveness offered without preconditions, like the forgiveness of Jesus on the cross" in order to reach peace in the face of the conflict in Ukraine.

Maria José Atienza-December 14, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Paolo Pezzi is, since 2007, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow. However, the Russian land was already known to this Italian native of Russi, a town located in the province of Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna.

Ordained a priest in 1990 in the Fraternity of Missionary Priests of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop Pezzi moved to the newly formed Russian Federation in 1993 as Dean of the Central Region of the Apostolic Administration for Catholics of the Latin Rite in the Asian part of Russia (the present Roman Catholic Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk) and editor of the Siberian Catholic Newspaper.

In 2006 he was appointed Rector of the Catholic Higher Theological Seminary "Mary - Queen of Apostles". A year later he became the pastor of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God, which covers a territory of 2,629,000 square kilometers and is home to about 70,000 faithful (out of 58,000,000 inhabitants).

In a painful context, with the war in Ukraine still raging and the faithful in pain, Bishop Paolo Pezzi gave an interview to Omnes in which he assured that "it is important to bring an original proclamation and this is embodied in forgiveness".

What is the current situation of the Catholic Church in Russia?

- The Catholic Church in Russia today is living a special moment of grace, because in the situation in which we find ourselves, she is almost forced to recover the sense of her own presence. In this way, the synodal journey, the liturgy, the works of charity become an opportunity for growth in and for the faith. Moreover, the situation demands an effective missionary witness, real, made with one's own life, with one's own vocation, and not only in words.

What are the challenges and opportunities for Catholics in Russia?

- The greatest opportunity we have is to be ourselves, to live our identity with peace and freedom. Certainly, this is an important and dramatic challenge: it asks us to be sincere in our relationship with Christ.

Secularization is a global problem. Despite its Christian tradition, do we find a secularized Russia today?

- Secularization is, in my opinion, a circumstance that God makes us go through. Therefore, it is not something negative a priori. It can become negative, as in secularism, when it goes against: against tradition, against Christianity in order to destroy it. But in principle it is a typical condition of a given epoch.

Secularization also unmasks that Christian countries are no longer Christian, as Péguy wrote; that, more generally, religiosity or religious beliefs have become detached from life. This is a question already raised by the Second Vatican Council for the years to come, although, in the words of the saintly Pope Paul VI, worldliness has entered the Church, instead of the Church leavening the world. This process has long since reached Russia. It can be accepted or denied, but it remains a fact. The question is how to use this situation for the good, the growth of society, with what proposal to reverse it.

Russia is an eminently Orthodox land, what are the relations with our Orthodox brethren at the "ground" level?

- Relations have cooled a bit, but we always try to keep the door open. It must be said, however, that on a more "earthly" level, exchanges of views and mutual help are on the increase.

What points of unity between Orthodox and Catholics can we foster?

- Theological dialogue is currently more "in the swamps", it is important to keep it open, but now it is objectively more difficult. On the other hand, the debate at the academic level is more accessible. Let us not forget that in the Middle Ages the meeting took place precisely at the academic level and relaunched a movement that today we would say ecumenical.

Are steps towards unity being taken or are there still seemingly insurmountable obstacles?

- I believe that this is not the time to think about steps towards the unity of our Churches. At this moment we have to sit at the table, have a glass of good wine, and then it will be more difficult to hate each other and easier to love each other.

How is the Catholic Church, its priests, religious and faithful viewed in Russia?

- In a way, one finds a bit of everything. Welcoming and a desire to judge together the events of this time; a certain cordiality, but without too many implications; indifference and even a certain detachment.

How does the Church in Russia exercise its missionary calling?

- First of all, we must rediscover that our nature is missionary. The Church exists for mission, to bring Christ to those she encounters. However, it is not even an activity, nor is it a duty. Being missionary is the fabric, the skin of our person. One is a missionary, one does not "do" mission.

Having said this, the Catholic Church has beautiful instruments at her disposal for her missionary witness: the liturgy, which, because of its essentiality, its discretion, is extremely fascinating. Then the Social Doctrine, which is one of the most adequate and modern doctrines in the world. And finally, the Magisterium, which allows the Church to live the present with its needs and challenges, like no other constitutive or dogmatic document in the world!

Since the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine, the Pope's calls for peace have been incessant and seconded by you, how are the Catholics of Russia living this conflict?

- For us the situation is quite complex, dictated by the fact that the positions are very diverse, and we prefer a free approach rather than a "dogmatic" one. That said, my experience is to see fear, uncertainty, even despair.

The faithful ask for consolation, accompaniment, they ask not to be left alone, to be helped to judge what is happening. And this is what we try to do from the confessionals, from the pulpit, in personal conversations.

Bishop Pezzi with Pope Francis

What is the role of the Catholic Church at this time and in this situation?

- The Bishops' Conference of the Russian Federation intervened with two statements at the beginning of the military operation and on the occasion of the mobilization to arms. For us, it was and is important to bring an original announcement, and this is embodied, in our opinion, in forgiveness, a forgiveness offered without preconditions, like the forgiveness of Jesus on the cross. We are convinced that forgiveness, the purification of historical memory and dialogue are the conditions for a just peace.

What is your assessment of the Holy See's efforts in this conflict?

- Whether we like it or not, the will of the Holy See is the only real and concrete proposal for peace, because the Pope is the only one who today does not have his own interests at heart, but the good of individuals, peoples and countries. We hope that all those involved will see in it a method of action for themselves.

Read more
More on Omnes
Initiatives

The Manos Unidas challenge for this Christmas

Manos Unidas proposes a challenge to help pregnant mothers who cannot access prenatal care.

Paloma López Campos-December 13, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Manos Unidas projects show that another world is possible."Related NewsClara PardoI am very proud of the work of Manos Unidas in this difficult moment".

"In Bethlehem, many women still have nowhere to give birth", this is the name of the challenge launched by Manos Unidas this Christmas, but it is also a reality. Many women do not have access to prenatal care, resulting in miscarriages, premature births, complications and high-risk deliveries.

Manos Unidas campaign poster.

The Three Wise Men

Like Baby Jesus, these mothers and their babies have their own Three Wise Men. A gynecologist, a nurse and a pediatrician travel miles in a mobile clinic 192 days a year, 4 days a week, to treat pregnant women.

Manos Unidas and this team propose a challenge in order to raise funds to finance their work and improve care for mothers and children.

The challenge

Through the donations made, they will purchase a mobile incubator and a pediatric scanner for the Holy Family Hospital, founded by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

The funds will also be invested in five Bedouin villages and refugee camps in the Judean Desert. At the mobile clinic, women will receive ultrasounds and children under the age of five will be seen by a pediatrician.

In figures, a donation of 20 euros will give a premature child access to the Prenatal Intensive Care Unit. If the donation is 50 euros, a pregnant woman will have access to the medical care she needs. With a donation of 100 euros, more than eight children will have direct medical care from a pediatrician.

Donations can be made through the Manos Unidas website, by making a bank transfer, through a phone call or by making Bizum. The goal is to raise 108,628 euros.

It is estimated that with the money raised, more than 830 women and their babies will be able to be treated at the mobile clinic. As for pediatrics, the doctor will treat more than 410 children.

In the event that more money is raised than the target amount, Manos Unidas will use the surplus for other general purposes of the organization to address needs in Latin America, Asia or Africa.

Read more
RelatedRelated News"Manos Unidas projects show that another world is possible."Related NewsClara PardoI am very proud of the work of Manos Unidas in this difficult moment".
More on Omnes
ColumnistsMontserrat Gas Aixendri

Only trans is trans

The preliminary draft law "for the equality" of persons with disabilities trans The company already has many voices openly against it, also within the left, feminist groups, and the of transactivists.

December 12, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

Much has been said and could be said about the draft bill of the so-called "Trans Law". The -still inexplicably- Minister of Equality has been showcased already previously with the so-called "law of the only yes is yes".

The fiasco of this bungled regulation does not seem to help to promote this new draft bill, which has been processed with too much haste, without social debate, and without taking into account the opinion of the scientific community, which has been systematically silenced. Only ideology counts here. But not only, there is also business, and not a little of it.

There are already many voices openly against, and they do not come precisely from the opposition, but from the left itself, from feminist groups and collectives. detransactivistsThe new technologies, which are gaining strength in our country, as has already occurred in the United Kingdom, are also being used in the United States.

To give just one example, Laura Freixas, known for her feminist militancy, was devastating with the delusions of this preliminary project in a recent edition of the 8TV program The pentagon. As it is in Catalan, I will give you a summary: according to Freixas, the aim is to transform desires and feelings into realities, which amounts to something similar to believing in magic: I go to the Civil Registry, I say I am a man and I automatically come out a man..... And not only that, but also, the camelo We all have to believe it because of this law.

Freixas wonders what interest someone could have in changing sex without changing anything. There are only two answers: fraud of the law, or doing business, or both at the same time. This happens, for example, when one tries to compete in women's tournaments in order to win them, or when one wants to change one's sex without changing anything. sneak in women's prisons to assault them, as has already occurred in the United Kingdom.

It is a kind of neomachism disguised as progressivism, since the only victim continues to be women, who are once again made invisible and victimized.

¿Cui prodest(who benefits?)

The other side of the coin is the trans business. The detransactivista Sandra Mercado denounces it with numerous evidences in her book The transgenderism scam.

Little or nothing is said about the economic interest of the clinics that offer this type of transition surgeries; and even less about the pharmaceutical industry sector that enriches itself by commercializing the hormones that those who undergo these processes will need for life. Hence the interest in the transition of minors: the sooner they start, the more years they will have to live with the hormones they will need for life. les will need.

But Mercado's strongest denunciation refers to the disinformation that trans people suffer. They are promised that after the transition their dysphoria will end, which is not true.

They are only offered psychological affirmation therapies, mutilation of a healthy body and experimental hormone treatments, about whose unfavorable side effects almost nothing is known to date.

What Mercado and many detransitionists The treatments they demand are treatments that address the root causes of dysphoria, which, she says, are not in the body but in the mind.

If not stopped in time, this bill promises to be a new blow-up in the face of Montero and her allies. For it is only intended to promote a pathetic trans fashion (because it's pathetic to play with people's health) and benefit the trans businessaccelerating the erasure of women.

The still Minister of Equality seems to be determined to load your own ministry. From here I would ask you to stop playing at social engineering and be a little serious with those people who truly suffer from gender dysphoria. Help them to regain their balance with something other than selling them lies.

The authorMontserrat Gas Aixendri

Professor at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. She directs the Chair on Intergenerational Solidarity in the Family (IsFamily Santander Chair) and the Childcare and Family Policies Chair of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Foundation. She is also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona.

Read more
More on Omnes
Latin America

Catechesis with and without pandemic

The chaplain of a school in Chile tells Omnes about the pastoral work carried out with the students and their families, and the fruits of these catecheses over the years.

Pablo Aguilera L.-December 12, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsFor Many - For All: Elements for CatechesisRelated NewsPope Francis' trip to Chile

There is no doubt in my mind that one of the treasures of my country -Chile- are Catholic schools, which, in addition to educating children and young people in various subjects, are a school for the faith. 

One of the celebrations of the sacraments at the school.

In the almost ten years that I have been chaplain of a women's school in Chile, classes have been given to hundreds of students who are preparing to receive the sacraments of Penance, First Communion and Confirmation. Their parents also receive classes, with the aim of internalizing their children's faith and supporting them in their Christian life. Rodrigo and Maria told me that doing the Religion homework with their children has been a great catechesis, because they have learned things that have made them feel alive, something they would not have discovered otherwise.

During the most intense period of the pandemic by Covid, when the Chilean schools were closed for a year, classes were implemented through the internet. During that period, in order not to lose contact with the parents and students, I sent them a brief video message every two weeks through the school's website, encouraging them to maintain some practices of piety in the family. Even though the temples were very restricted for a long time, we encouraged the families to keep up their Christian practice.

In the time following the restrictions of the pandemic, we noticed that there were many parents who had not had their children baptized. When we spoke with them and raised this concern, several recognized that this sacrament had been postponed and expressed their interest in receiving the necessary classes and having their children baptized.

In other cases, the children had been baptized in a non-Catholic Christian denomination, and as they got to know our faith better, they decided to incorporate them fully into the Catholic Church, discovering the richness of belonging to it. Luis and Daniela, Jacob and Sofia, are happy with the step their children took.

Paulette, a senior, was baptized last year, and her younger siblings did the same shortly after. Alejandra, in her junior year, is also preparing for this sacrament. I was struck to hear from someone close to her that, since she began to know the faith, she has become a much more open and happy young woman.

There are also parents who have not received the sacrament of marriage and express their interest in training to receive it. Antonio and Alejandra, for example, are grateful to have received the sacrament, with the support of a Catholic couple, Julian and Carmen, who helped them in their preparation.

Throughout the year we deliver religious objects (holy water, crucifix, New Testament, image of the Virgin Mary and the guardian angel). It has been a wonderful opportunity to explain the meaning of these objects and how to make use of them, as well as to catechize and awaken piety in the family.

I am happy to hear from parents of former students that Catholic education has left a mark on them that is difficult to erase, in a world where faith is threatened, and a good dose of courage and conviction is needed.

The authorPablo Aguilera L.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsFor Many - For All: Elements for CatechesisRelated NewsPope Francis' trip to Chile
More on Omnes
Latin America

Matachines. The dancers of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The solemnity of the Virgin of Guadalupe has in Mexico a traditional and curious manifestation of love and devotion to the Virgin. It is the matachines: groups of dancers who, with unique costumes and instruments, approach the place of pilgrimage dancing. 

Citlalli Sanchez and Pablo A. Zubieta-December 12, 2022-Reading time: 7 minutes

"He is God!", shouts Don Felipe in a clear and strong voice, as he raises his cane decorated with brightly colored paper. The group of children, women and men repeat the slogan with the same strength, despite the cold, the tiredness, the light rain that is beginning to be felt. They are ready to start their way to the Basilica of Guadalupe, and there are several kilometers ahead. 

"There are those who express their love to the Virgin with their songs, or with their prayers, there are those of us who prefer to honor her with our dance, we surrender our body and spirit", says Irma, who started participating in Felipe's group 9 years ago after surviving a heart attack. This is her way of giving thanks for another year of life. This is the matachines group "Danzantes de María de Guadalupe", formed more than 30 years ago by Don Felipe's father, who in turn was part of a similar group with his father. 

There is no doubt that the dancing tradition runs in the family. 

This story is repeated throughout Mexico, where the dance tradition inherited from pre-Hispanic cultures has been maintained over the centuries, due to religious syncretism.

The matachines are a group of dancers, with a well-defined structure and functions, whose objective is to make a pilgrimage -while dancing- to the place where the Virgin Mary is venerated. Virgin of Guadalupe. 

Although the dance, the rhythms -percussions, bow similar to a violin, guaje similar to a rattle, and in some regions, reed flutes-, the clothing, and the songs -also depending on the region- have their origin in the war dances performed before or after the battle, the evolution throughout the centuries involves both the evangelization process, as well as the acculturation processes inherent to any historical development.

Jesters or warriors?

Mexico's cultural diversity is reflected from the pre-Columbian period, where each ethnic group had its own way of establishing a spiritual relationship.

These particularities of each pre-Hispanic people were key elements for the evangelization of Mexico, because in the case of the cultures that had dance as a ritual, they were able to integrate their traditional rituals to new meanings and objectives: they stopped being warrior dances to become expressions of love and veneration towards God who loves them and his mother, Mary of Guadalupe, who protects their steps.

The origin of the word "matachín" could seem to derive from a native language of Mexico. However, authors such as Ángel Acuña, a researcher who has specialized in the subject, points out two possible origins: on the one hand, as a derivative of the Spanish "mata moros" or a second origin coming from the Italian "mattaccino", or as it is currently known, "matazin": a man dressed in ridiculous colors, who, wearing a mask, parodies ancient warrior dances.

Dancing prayer

After shouting three times "He is God!" Felipe now asks "Who is she?", and the group of matachines responds "The Virgin Mary!". 

Along the street where more than 20 groups of dancers gather on the eve of December 12, these slogans are heard with their different variations: some accompanied by the name of the group, others more as a melodic song than as a cry of struggle, some more as the beginning of a brief prayer before starting the pilgrimage, but all of them as a manifestation of the Guadalupan faith.

Although the matachines are a tradition throughout the country, northern Mexico has distinguished itself by maintaining both its functions and its "cuadros" - as they call the choreographies - as well as the music, in a way that is closer to its 17th century origins. 

Similarly, in contrast to other variants such as the matlachinesin the center of the country, or the shellsThe matachines prepare throughout the year, but focus on the devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and it is only on December 12 and previous dates that they perform their act of praying while dancing.

Dancers of God

Fernando Valle, parochial vicar of the cathedral in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and chaplain of the Matachines, explains that from a very young age, in his native Guadalajara, he lived very closely the pilgrimages where traditional dances and dances were presented. As time went by, he began to be formed in the way of God and, as a priest in Ciudad Juárez, he found in the Matachines the way in which his parishioners showed a deeper devotion. "They identify themselves with the Church by dancing... but this dancing should take them further, their own name tells them that they are Dancers of God, you should dance to God or make your prayer by dancing... from there with this dynamic I took them, and to date I have taken them in this direction".

When Irma recovered from that heart attack in 2013, the first thing she did was to go to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. She traveled, with the necessary care, from her city to the Shrine, and recounts how she felt in her whole body that feeling of rejoicing for having a new opportunity, and of protection from Mary of Guadalupe, whom she says she had present during the entire recovery process and to whom she entrusted herself during the open heart surgery.

Outside the basilica there were several groups of dancers called "concheros", who are characterized by tying to their ankles and calves a series of "shells" or objects that make noise while they dance, and it was there that she thought that in addition to fulfilling her actions as a Christian, she wanted to commit herself and manifest her faith in another way.

Upon his return to his hometown, he looked for a group of dancers and met Don Felipe, whom he asked for permission to join and with whom he had to commit to participate with the same devotion that involves making a prayer. The Danzantes de María de Guadalupe have become her family, and throughout these 9 years she has increased her functions, since, besides dancing, she collaborates with the elaboration of the costumes, participates in organizing the members for the rehearsals, and seeks to prepare herself to be able to be captain at some moment that is required.. "I do it because she (the Virgin of Guadalupe) took me by the hand and never let me go, that is why I am here, the least I can do is to show the world the testimony of her love and that she never abandons us... I do not know how to sing, I did not learn to pray the Rosary, I have always been very happy, to dance, to exercise... and I found in the dance of the matachines a way to give thanks... St. Augustine said that he who sings prays twice, and yes it is true, and I believe that those of us who dance pray three or three times. and I found in the dance of the matachines a way to give thanks... St. Augustine said that he who sings prays twice, and yes it is true, and I believe that those of us who dance pray three or four times, because we give our body".

Months of preparation

The preparation for the pilgrimages begins months in advance. In some cities it is common to see groups rehearsing in neighborhood squares or public parks as early as July or August. 

Each group of matachines has different rituals in its process, but, in general, before starting the practice, the dancers pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe, asking for the dance to be well executed, to collect the money needed for the costumes, and for all participants to maintain good health and condition and to be able to arrive on December 12 without inconveniences. 

During the previous months, in addition to the practice of the tables to be presented, the functions of each person are also organized: the captain or organizer, who is the one who leads the whole group and assigns the positions and activities to be carried out by each person, is usually the oldest person, and is almost always the one who founded the group.

The "monarcos" or directors are also assigned, who guide the dancers and mark the steps, the direction to be taken, the choreography to be performed, and the slogans, prayers and chants to be carried out during the pilgrimage. 

To become a director or monarcoIt takes practice, of course, but also commitment, as Don Felipe mentions. It's not about dancing well, but about doing it with devotion. 

There is also the figure of "the old man" who in some regions is also "the devil". Unlike the rest of the dancers, he uses a different costume, characterized by wearing a mask of the character indicated, and does not follow the steps of the painting, but uses a whip or rope to scare away those who are spectators, and interacts with them as a game. In the symbolism, the dancers take this "devil" to God, they want to guide him on the right path, although some other groups mention that it is the representation of how evil can always be present, but the matachines have enough devotion not to be tempted and finish their way to God.

On the way to the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the groups of dancers organize fundraising activities to raise funds for the costumes, headdresses, footwear, instruments, ornaments, and food not only for the dancers, but also for the family and friends who accompany the matachines on the pilgrimages, and who provide medical support, repair the clothing and keep them company, preventing spectators and even cars from affecting the route.

A wardrobe full of meaning

The costumes vary, as each part of the country has its own characteristic elements, i.e., there are dancers who use plumes, or high headdresses made with bright beads and ribbons, or just hats and handkerchiefs. However, the "nahuillas"are the traditional element that can be found almost everywhere in Mexico. It consists of two long rectangles of cloth that are tied at the waist and cover the legs in front and back, below the nahuilla jeans are used, or whatever is available. These nahuillas are decorated with reeds, beads, ribbons, and the objective is to make them sound at the moment of dancing; they function as another instrument that accompanies the rattles, violins and drums that accompany the dance.

Martha García, responsible for the costumes of the Matachines in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, explains that each element also has a meaning, as the costume has 5 parts: "the head, the center, the feet, and the two arms of the Holy Cross, which is the same as is done in the laying of the palm, with five candles.". On the chest or back, the groups are identified with their shield, which may be the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, accompanied by the name of the group.

The footwear is variable, although traditionally the ".huaraches"leather sandals used in Mexico. Due to geographical and climatic conditions, dancers have begun to wear shoes, sport shoes, or even shoes made specifically for this purpose.

On the eve of December 12, it is common for groups to gather in the afternoon to eat together and pray before the pilgrimage. Normally one or two Rosaries are prayed to pray for the health and safety of the dancers and their companions during their journey. Once at the starting point, where all the matachines converge to form part of the route that will take them to the Basilica of Guadalupe in their own city, or to the temple of the Virgin that they consider their own. The matachines are organized: a captain in front with the banner of the Virgin, and the rest of the participants in two rows, those who go in front are the monarchs. They all carry drums, bows and rattles, and it is the monarchs who mark the rhythm of the dance.

There is no age or gender to be a matachín. The groups range from children as young as 8 years old to older adults -usually the captain or captain- even 90 years old or older. As Don Felipe says: "Just as there is no age to pray, there is no age to know God, there is no age to serve Him, a child has the most precious prayer and an old man has the most sincere prayer... likewise there is no age to be a matachín, as long as the body holds out... My father danced and was a captain for 40 years, he died dancing almost almost, and so do I, as long as the body holds out I continue dancing".

The authorCitlalli Sanchez and Pablo A. Zubieta

Read more
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Pope Francis: "We never know everything about God".

Pope Francis has once again leaned out of the window to pray the Angelus and comment on the Gospel of the day on this third Sunday of Advent.

Paloma López Campos-December 11, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis Let us ask God to make us see and have compassion".Related NewsAdvent, a time of mercy

In today's reading, says the Pope, we see John the Baptist in prison who sends his disciples to ask Christ if he is the awaited Messiah. Jesus breaks with John's image of "the one who is to come". He is not a severe man who punishes sinners. "Jesus has words and gestures of compassion for all. At the heart of his action is forgiving mercy, by which the blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised and the poor have the Good News preached to them".

We can learn from the crisis that John is experiencing, Francis tells us. "The text underlines that John is in prison and this, besides the physical place, makes us think of the interior situation he is living. In prison there is darkness. The possibility of seeing clearly and seeing beyond is missing. In fact, the Baptist is no longer able to recognize in Jesus the expected Messiah".

John's interior crisis teaches us that even "the greatest believer goes through the tunnel of doubt. These doubts are not always an evil, the Holy Father points out. "What is more, sometimes it is essential for spiritual growth. It helps us to understand that God is always greater than we imagine. The works he performs are surprising with respect to our calculations. His action is always different. He exceeds our needs and our expectations. For this reason, we must never stop seeking him and converting ourselves to his true face".

It is necessary to rediscover God in stages, says the Pope, paraphrasing a theologian. "This is what the Baptist does. Faced with doubt, he seeks him once more. He questions Him, he discusses with Him and, finally, he discovers Him". John "teaches us not to enclose God in our schemes, because there is always the danger and the temptation to make a God to our measure, a God to be used.

"We too, at times, can find ourselves in John's situation, in an interior prison, incapable of recognizing the newness of the Lord, whom perhaps we hold prisoner in the presumption that we already know so much about him". The Holy Father tells us that "we never know everything about God, never. Perhaps we have in our heads a powerful God who does what he wants, instead of the humble and meek God, the God of mercy and love, who always intervenes with respect for our freedom and our choices. Perhaps it urges us too to say to him: are you really, so humble, the God who comes to save us?"

These prejudices that we have towards God we also apply to our brothers and sisters. The Pope warns of the danger of putting "rigid labels" on those who are different from us. To help us grow and overcome these obstacles, the Church gives us the gift of this liturgical season, as Francis says. "Advent is a time of reversal of perspectives, where we allow ourselves to be surprised by the greatness of God's mercy."

The Pope concluded with a brief allusion to Holy Mary: "May Our Lady take us by the hand, as our Mother, and help us to recognize in the littleness of the Child the greatness of the God who is coming".

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis Let us ask God to make us see and have compassion".Related NewsAdvent, a time of mercy
More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • The World
  • Persecutions in India: "Scaring Christians and other communities to bolster support for Hindu nationalist parties".
The World

Persecutions in India: "Scaring Christians and other communities to bolster support for Hindu nationalist parties".

The oppression of Christians in India increases, "not only from year to year, but from month to month". This is what he reported on November 29 Vatican Newsthe Vatican news portal.

Leticia Sánchez de León-December 11, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

As Vatican News reported last November, the United Christian Forum (UCF) published its annual report on religious persecution in India. In it, it referred to an increase in incidents related to religious freedom and worship in India, from 505 in 2021 to 511 so far in 2022.

The number of attacks on the Christian minority in the country has not only not decreased, but continues to increase.

The origin of the conflictsos

In order to understand these conflicts, it is necessary to take into account the process of HinduizationThe report explains the social and political changes that the country has experienced in the last century, especially at the social and political level. A report by the Real Insituto Elcano explains how since 1923, when the work Hindutva (Hinduism), Savarkar began to defend the theory of equivalence of the concepts pitribhumi (ancestral land) and punyabhumi (sacred land), concluding that only religions arising in Indian territory can be considered as religions. national (Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism, etc.). As a consequence, the believers who had their original holy places outside India (Muslims, Christians and others) are strangers to the construction of a single Indian nation with its own characteristics and religion. This idea is the ideological pillar of Hindu nationalism and guides its discourse and actions.

This escalation increased with the coming to power of the BJD, the Hindu nationalist party, in 1996, characterized by an attempt to claim the "Hindu" as its own, seeking to consolidate the national identity and identifying everything that is not Hindu as an external enemy, generally embodied in the figure of the Muslim and also, increasingly, in the Christian.

The so-called "Religious Freedom Laws".

Since then, and especially from the 1970s onwards, the so-called "Religious Freedom Acts" began to be passed in several Indian states, regulating and, above all, restricting conversion from one religion to another. Several states in the north, west and east of India, such as Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, have such laws in force.

Karnataka, in southwest India, became the latest state to enact its own law, in May of this year. The law states that "no person shall convert or attempt to convert, directly or indirectly, another person from one religion to another by false statements, force, undue influence, coercion, enticement, seduction or any fraudulent means, or by marriage; no person shall encourage or arrange for religious conversions of other persons". So read the Karnataka state bill- "In case of violation, imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of INR 25,000 ($307) is envisaged, while imprisonment is increased to 10 years and fine to INR 50,000 ($614) for those who convert minors, women and persons from the communities (...) considered marginalized and vulnerable groups." These are very high penalties considering that the net monthly salary is 44900 rupees, about $551.53 and the great inequality between castes.

"Wherever the anti-conversion law has been passed, it has provided a justification for the persecution of religious minorities and other marginalized groups," says Ram Puniyani, director of the NSF (National Solidarity Forum) and promoter of human rights in India, in an article published on the Fides website on the situation of Christians in India. "The attacks on minorities have increased significantly in recent years since this law is used as a weapon against Christians and Muslims, especially Adivasis, Dalits and women," concludes Punyani.

According to several associations working in India to promote and protect human rights, the conversion of a dalit ("pariah", considered outside the four Indian castes) to Christianity or Islam, causes him to lose the protection of the state, but not if he converts to Sikhism, Jainism or Buddhism. These discriminations act as an incentive for individuals to remain in Hinduism - or to convert to that religion - and violate freedom of conscience.

To make matters worse, the rationale for this law is virtually non-existent. Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, noted in her report on India in 2011 that, "Even in Indian states that have adopted laws on religious conversion, there appear to be only few, if any, convictions for conversions through the use of force, inducements or fraudulent means. In Orissa, for example, district officers and first-level officers in the state secretariat have not been able to cite or adduce a single violation of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act of 1967."

Persecutions against Christians are on the rise

The origin of the persecutions dates back to 2008 in the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa in eastern India), when Swami Lakhmananda Saraswati, a local leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and four other VHP members were killed. Although a Maoist leader had claimed responsibility and Christian leaders had condemned the killings, organized mobs subsequently attacked Christians in communities in the area. dalit and tribals. By the end of September 2008, more than 40 people had been killed in Odisha, more than 4,000 Christian homes destroyed and some 50 churches demolished. Some 20,000 people were living in relief camps and more than 40,000 were in hiding in forests and other places. The UN Special Rapporteur said in 2009 that she was deeply alarmed by the humanitarian situation in the relief camps, where there was reportedly no access to food, clean water, medical care, adequate sanitation facilities or proper clothing.

What happened in Odisha marked a turning point for Christians in India: never before had attacks on Christians by Hindu fundamentalists been so intense. Since then, Odisha has been a symbol of the intolerance of Hindu nationalist movements, although since 2008 the attacks on Christians have spread to other states, such as the state of Jharkhand (north of Orissa), today the epicenter of tensions.

According to UCF's coordinator, A.C. Michael, violence against Christian minorities is growing daily, becoming a trend that is difficult to stop. Thanks to the work of the UCF, it is known what is the modus operandi of the persecutors: the incidents are usually perpetrated by small vigilante groups whose members include extremist Hindus. These groups make accusations of forced conversion activities, and thus break into places where Christians gather, with the aim of frightening them and even attacking some of them on more than one occasion.

What is serious is that many of these attacks take place without consequences for the prosecutors from a legal and/or political point of view. The UCF explains that when cases are registered against the perpetrators, no action is taken. And as the police, administration, politicians and government maintain a studied silence when acts of violence are committed against religious minorities, religious fanatics gain more courage and become extra-constitutional authorities to violate their rights.

The voice of Pope Francis

Pope Francis has repeated on numerous occasions the need to fight religious fanaticism and in particular at his interfaith meetings in Cairo in 2017 and during his recent visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain in November 2022.

During his visit to Cairo, the Pope said that "as religious leaders we are called to unmask the violence that masquerades as supposed sacredness, (...). We are obliged to denounce violations against human dignity and human rights, to expose attempts to justify all forms of hatred in the name of religions and to condemn them as an idolatrous falsification of God.

The authorLeticia Sánchez de León

More on Omnes
Cinema

What to see this month at the cinema or at home?

We recommend new releases, classics, or content that you have not yet seen in theaters or on your favorite platforms.

Patricio Sánchez-Jáuregui-December 11, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsTwo proposals to watch from the living room 

SAS: ROGUE HEROES 

Creator: Stephen Knight 

Cast: Connor Swindells, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Allen, Sofia Boutella

HBO-MAX Series 

Poster advertising the film (FilmAffinity)

During the Second World War, on the African front, a couple of British army officers try to turn the tide of the war and end up creating a chaotic and anarchic commando regiment to parachute into the desert and destroy German supply lines. 

SAS: Rogue Heroes is a first-rate historical drama series, created by the BBC with an ace master of ceremonies, Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), depicting the origins of the British Army Special Air Service (SAS) during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. 

Based on real events, the series combines adventure, romance, war and history in a popcorn mix with a good script, a great sense of humor, and a few too many violent or sexual details. All this sweetened with a cinematic soundtrack. 

God's crooked lines 

Director: Oriol Paulo 

Screenplay: Oriol Paulo, Guillem Clua, Lara Sendim 

Original story: Torcuato Luca de Tena 

Music: Fernando Velázquez 

AT THE MOVIE 

Poster advertising the film (FilmAffinity)

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Torcuato Luca de Tena, nominated for 6 goyas, and filling movie theaters two months after its premiere, Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios has been a surprise of a super-production that has survived a shooting in the covid period and shows a superb excellence in all its technical aspects, especially in its direction and interpretations. 

The story begins when Alice, a private investigator, enters a psychiatric hospital under the pretense of paranoia. As a good thriller, her objective (to solve the death of an inmate under suspicious circumstances) will be hindered by the reality she will face in her confinement, which will exceed her expectations and will question her own sanity.

The authorPatricio Sánchez-Jáuregui

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsTwo proposals to watch from the living room 
More on Omnes
Integral ecology

Working for a better world

International Volunteer Day was celebrated on Monday, December 5. Manos Unidas took advantage of this occasion to focus on those people who give themselves selflessly to others.

Paloma López Campos-December 11, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsFidele PodgaEnd hunger is not a "utopia" : "Putting an end to hunger is not a "utopia".Related NewsManos Unidas campaign: the problem of hunger, a scandalous paradox

What is Manos Unidas?

Manos Unidas aims to fight against hunger, poor nutrition, misery, disease, underdevelopment and lack of education. They define their vision as "that every person, man and woman, by virtue of their dignity, be capable of being, by themselves, responsible agents of their own material improvement, moral progress and spiritual development, and enjoy a life of dignity".

With this in mind, the values of this organization, among others, are the dignity of the person, the common good, solidarity, the culture of peace, volunteerism and quality".

Lines of work

Manos unidas draws its inspiration for its work from the Gospel and the Social Doctrine of the Church. Specifically, it develops two lines of work that can be summarized as awareness-raising and development cooperation.

In terms of awareness-raising, the organization wants to publicize and denounce the existence of hunger and poverty, specifying the causes and possible solutions to these major crises.

Through development cooperation, Manos Unidas seeks to raise the economic resources necessary to finance plans, projects and programs that address the needs of more than 800 million people in the world.

Figures

More than 97% of the people who form part of Manos Unidas are volunteers. In total, the organization has 6,156 volunteers. Of these, 3% are young (people between the ages of 20 and 29). Another 3% are between 30 and 39 years old, but the vast majority are between 50 and 69 years old (47% of volunteers).

All these people who help the organization have made it possible for 1,524,954 people to benefit from their efforts in 2021. In addition to volunteers, Manos Unidas is also grateful for the participation of partners and collaborators, who number 76,928. 

In total, 50,823,998 euros were raised in 2021. Of the expenses incurred by the organization, 83.5% were devoted to financing development projects. In addition, they invested more than 33 million euros to fight hunger. Right now, Manos Unidas has 721 projects underway in 51 countries in Asia, America and Africa, working with more than 400 local organizations.

A new way of looking at volunteering

José Valero, vice-president of Manos Unidas and head of the new People Area, says that "the social moment in which we find ourselves, where individualism reigns and where the future employment of young people is uncertain, we must take a step forward, be brave and make a commitment to young people, without neglecting the rest of the volunteers".

There is a need for young people, to increase the 3% figure a little. To do this, the objective is to work on what young people value most in terms of volunteer organizations, which is "feeling at ease in the organization, valued and loved". To this end, Valero says that Manos Unidas intends "to increase this and give them more weight in decision-making".

"All of this," says the vice-president, "without forgetting the older volunteers. We want to give them "all the recognition, gratitude and support they need, as they are a fundamental part of the organization".

And, with all this, what is the concept of volunteering that Manos Unidas wants to transmit? On their website, they explain that being a volunteer means:

-Being part of an organization.

-Join a group of people who want to change the world.

-Join forces to end hunger and poverty.

-Promoting awareness in Spain.

-To be part of the process through which projects succeed.

-Participate in advocacy campaigns.

-Organizing solidarity events.

-Echoing the information on social networks.

-Improving the planet.

-Transforming society.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsFidele PodgaEnd hunger is not a "utopia" : "Putting an end to hunger is not a "utopia".Related NewsManos Unidas campaign: the problem of hunger, a scandalous paradox
More on Omnes
Resources

Optimistic or hopeful?

Christian hope is not the same as optimism. Celso Morga Iruzubieta, Archbishop of Mérida-Badajoz writes for Omnes about the difference between these concepts in Advent, the season of Christian hope.

Celso Morga-December 10, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Pilgrims of hope": preparation for the 2025 Jubilee beginsRelated NewsCardinal SturlaThe Church encourages a post-pandemic life with more hope".

We are in the liturgical season of Advent, the season of Christian hope. Christian hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism is a state of mind that gives us a positive outlook on the future, on ourselves, on the world around us, but this state of mind can change or disappear if the circumstances that make up our life change or vary. An illness, an economic setback, a failure, a disappointment in love, so many things can ruin an optimistic mood and make it disappear, at least temporarily. 

Christian hope, on the other hand, does not change, does not disappear, does not disappoint, because it is based on faith in God and in the love of Jesus for us, which endures forever. Christian hope is a gentle and sweet gift of God, a supernatural virtue. Hope is based on divine filiation. And in what do we hope? Because the world offers us many desirable goods for our desires that provide us with a relative happiness and Christian hope is also oriented to those goods of the earth, but the longings of the Christian go infinitely beyond and, even if those desirable goods of the earth fail us, Christian hope does not disappear because it is supported and oriented in the love of God itself and in the eternal goods that God has promised us: in enjoying it fully, with an endless joy. 

This supreme good allows us to look at failure, illness and even death with the wings of hope, which encourages our hearts to rise up to God, our Father. The culture we breathe today tends to laugh at death as Halloween does, or to hide it because it dreads it, seeing no solution. 

Christian hope, on the contrary, makes us see it with sadness but with the consolation of the future eternal life and resurrection. This hope makes us cry out to the Lord: "You are my strength" (Psalm 42:2), when everything goes wrong. 

In this journey of hope, the Virgin Mary, whom we celebrate on December 8, accompanies us as our guide, teacher and mother. Immaculate. Among the Holy Fathers it was common to refer to her as "all holy", "all pure", "free from every stain of sin". As the Second Vatican Council affirms: "Enriched from the first moment of her conception with a radiant holiness that is altogether singular, the Virgin of Nazareth is greeted by the angel of the Annunciation, at God's command, as full of grace (cf. Lk 1:28)" (LG, 56). 

I encourage you to live this splendid liturgical season of Advent nourishing in you that marvelous virtue of hope by looking to Mary, through whom life came to us. "Death came through Eve, life through Mary" (St. Jerome, Epist. 22:21). With my blessing.

The authorCelso Morga

Archbishop of Mérida-Badajoz.

Read more
RelatedRelated News"Pilgrims of hope": preparation for the 2025 Jubilee beginsRelated NewsCardinal SturlaThe Church encourages a post-pandemic life with more hope".
More on Omnes
Culture

Face to face with the body of the crucified Christ

Looking at Christ "face to face" is now possible in the cathedral of Salamanca (Spain), thanks to the exhibition The Mystery Man. More than fifteen years of research have resulted in a unique exhibition in which the hyper-realistic representation of the man in the Holy Shroud focuses the interest of visitors. 

Paloma López Campos-December 10, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Face to face with the body of Christ crucified and placed in the tomb. This is how one could define the experience offered by The Mystery mana unique exhibition on "the man of the Holy Shroud". An exhibition that has had its first stop for more than five months in the Spanish cathedral of Salamanca and that was born with the aim of touring the five continents over the next few years, as Francisco Moya, general director of Artisplendore, the cultural management company specializing in sacred art that has been the architect of this unique and impressive exhibition, points out to Omnes. 

The exhibition breaks down, over six exhibition areas, the most important aspects of one of the great enigmas of history: the figure of Jesus of Nazareth, the condemnation and death of Christ, the Shroud, forensic studies on the Shroud, a spectacular immersive room and, finally, the highlight of this exhibition, the room where the body recreated from the Shroud is exhibited. "In fact, this reproduction of the man in the Shroud of Turin is the key differentiating point of this exhibition from others we have been able to see."Francisco Moya emphasizes.

A unique reproduction and one that shows, as Artisplendore's general manager explains "all the signs of the passion and the cross that appear on the Shroud".. The similarity is such that "we are really looking at a man, not a sculpture."he says.

The history of the Shroud of Turin

The Mystery man cannot be understood without knowing everything that surrounds the Holy Shroud, the linen cloth that covered Jesus of Nazareth after his death on the Cross. The body of the man whose body was wrapped in this cloth was imprinted on it, suggesting that it is the image of Christ. This relic is one of the most studied objects in history and arouses great interest among scholars due to its peculiarities. It is precisely this cloth that is the origin of the exhibition, since it has been used to obtain the hyper-realistic image of Jesus.

The exhibition traces the history, not without vicissitudes, of this singular relic. Thus, we go back to the 14th century, when a French knight claims to have the sheet that wrapped the body of Christ after his death. However, he cannot reveal how he obtained it. Before his death in the battle of Poitiers, he donates the cloth to some monks who begin to receive visits from pilgrims who want to see the supposed relic.

During the Hundred Years' War, the religious returned the shroud to the knight's family to protect it. When the war ends, the heiress of the family refuses to return the Shroud and uses it as a passport to Italy, where she seeks refuge in exchange for giving the relic to the later Italian kings, the Dukes of Savoy.

The dukes kept the sheet in the church of their castle, which burned in a fire in 1523. The silver reliquary in which they had placed the cloth melted, a drop of it penetrating the sheet, but without destroying the image. Fifty years later, the relic arrived in Turin, where it is still kept in the cathedral.

Forensic investigation of the corpse

The various investigations on the Shroud, on which the exhibition is based, show that this cloth covered the body of a dead man, a recent corpse. The forensic study of the image shows the position of the body: the head is flexed, the chest muscles contracted, the arms crossed and the legs flexed. In addition, from the tissues that could be obtained, it has been demonstrated that the corpse was that of a Caucasian male, with blood type AB and a height of 178 centimeters.

Among the various injuries that can be seen in the forensic analysis, more than fifty wounds produced by a sharp object can be observed in the skull area. On the face there are also injuries, especially a broken nose and a deviated septum. On the back, torso and legs there is evidence of a Roman flagellation. A post-mortem wound can also be seen, piercing the side through the body. 

The Shroud of Turin was exhibited for the first time in 1898 for two days. Photographer Secondo Pia obtained permission to photograph the relic. At the moment of developing the image, Pia discovered that a positive was developed on the plate. There was only one possibility: that the sheet was the negative.

The entire scientific community was shocked by the discovery, but it was not until 33 years later that the same test was repeated. As expected, the result was identical: that canvas was the negative of an image.

In the mid-1930s, forensic physician Pierre Barbet began studies of the relic. After many tests on cadavers, Barbet concluded that the image was a strangely accurate anatomical model, as it revealed physiological and pathological features that were unknown in the medical world 150 years earlier. 

The analysis of the Shroud continued in 1988, when permission was granted to a group of scientists to perform carbon-14 testing on the cloth. Three different laboratories would carry out the analysis in order to date the shroud. The results indicated that the shroud had been manufactured between the 13th and 14th centuries, implying that the supposed relic was in fact a fraud. 

However, one year later, the scientific journal Nature demonstrated the unreliability of the carbon-14 test. Each laboratory obtained a very different date. The contamination of the linen did not allow the results to be reliable. Therefore, the Shroud could not immediately be considered a forgery.

Given the failures they found in this test, the scientists decided to take a different route. Samples of pollen were obtained to determine more accurately the date of the sheet, since the characteristics of this element allow to obtain many data. These studies place the shroud in Jerusalem, but also prove that it was moved through Italy and France.

Studies of the Shroud have been carried out more than once, but science has not been able to demonstrate how an image with the characteristics of the shroud was produced.

The unique characteristics of the Shroud

The Shroud, of which we can find an exact reproduction in the exhibition, is a very special image, due to nine aspects that are not present in any other image: superficiality, absence of pigmentation, non-directionality, thermal stability, hydrological stability, chemical stability, detail, negativity and three-dimensionality.

Superficiality means that the image barely penetrates the yarns. Absence of pigmentation means that there are no known chemicals. Non-directionality refers to the fact that no trace can be discovered that should have remained when painting. Stability refers to the fact that the image is not affected by temperature, water or chemicals. In terms of detail, the trace of the body is very detailed. Negativity is the characteristic that Pia discovered and three-dimensionality implies that the image has relief.

The exhibition

The centerpiece and highlight of the Mystery Man is, without a doubt, the hyper-realistic representation of the man in the Shroud of Turin.

When people come to her, says Francisco Moya, "emotion, feeling, faith, come to light".. It is the first time that something like this has been exhibited and all those who pass in front of the image say they are shocked.

The life-size body shows the wounds depicted on the Shroud, which are identified with the Gospels' account of the Passion of Christ.

Upon entering the room where the representation of the body of Christ is located, a life-size reproduction of the Shroud can be seen above it. In this way, the spectator perceives, in three dimensions, the results of an investigation that has been in progress for more than fifteen years.

Tickets for the exhibition can be found on the web site of Mystery ManAlthough it will only be in Spain, in principle, until the month of March, since then it will begin its pilgrimage around the world. The project is expected to run for about twenty years, adapting to the exhibition languages of the moment.

In short, as the people in charge say, this exhibition is an "historical, artistic and scientific journey on the studies of the Shroud, its impact on the Christian world and on the representation of the image of Jesus"..

Read more
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Thermal clothing for shipment to Ukraine

Rome Reports-December 9, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
rome reports88

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Vatican's apostolic almoner, has written a letter to Catholics around the world asking for thermal T-shirts to be sent to Ukraine. 

The donations, which are to be sent to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the Cortile of Sant'Egidio in Vatican City, will be delivered during the month in Kiev.

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

A "Catholic wager" from sociology

Chiara Giaccardi and Mauro Magatti see in the ideas of Benedict XVI and Francis a continuity that can bring Catholicism back into contact with a changing reality. This is what they expose in the book "The Catholic Bet", published in 2019 with considerable resonance.

Andrés Cárdenas Matute-December 9, 2022-Reading time: 7 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsInitiatives and books on marriage and the familyRelated NewsRatzinger Awards, a tribute by Pope Francis to his predecessor

Italian sociologists Chiara Giaccardi and Mauro Magatti, married since 1985, with seven natural and adopted children, and both university professors in Milan, have written a book in which they set out their ideas on the characteristics that a "Catholic bet" should have for the future (The catholic commisionIl mulino, 2019). They are authors of about a dozen essays, always around the relationships between faith, society and future, as well as active lecturers. Their latest work, Supersocietàhas been published this year, in which they analyze whether it still makes sense to bet on freedom after the pandemic and in the midst of a world at war.

At The catholic commision distance themselves both from nostalgia for an earlier, supposedly better situation in the Church, and from the uncritical affirmation of all that modernity has brought; they are convinced that we are living in a moment in which there is no room for "it has always been done this way", nor for a simple "ordinary maintenance", but rather to boldly recall that Christianity has something new to say in every historical situation. There is a need," they maintain, "for words on the way, words that seek to give voice and form to the diffuse sensation of precariousness; words capable of transmitting the experience of faith where, as Michel de Certeau says, stability itself means pushing beyond, towards the search for new ways of presence and narration.

Abstraction", a disease of reason

The theses of Giaccardi and Magatti - this "search for new ways" - are difficult to organize systematically, but their trunk could be summarized as follows: we suffer, as a culture, from a disease of reason, atrophied in a purely instrumental use, acutely described on numerous occasions by Benedict XVI; and from this situation we can only be cured if we follow some intuitions of Pope Francis, which are aimed at trying to awaken from this kind of paralysis, putting into action the hands and the spirit.

The path begins by recognizing the crisis suffered by the West, brought about by the double-edged sword of the alliance between Christianity and reason. Certainly, it is an alliance that is at the heart of the Church, but that at a certain moment took a drift that finally distanced us from concrete reality to throw us into what they call "the world of abstraction". Following Romano Guardini closely, they clarify that "it is not a criticism of science, which is an inalienable conquest of humanity, but of the absolutization of scientific language: a language that constructs its own objects and that, when it loses the tension with what is not manufacturable, measurable, available, takes a deadly drift". When this abstraction becomes the only way we use to see reality - as, in fact, has happened - we become accustomed to separate what is united, to oppose what in reality is reciprocal; it happens, for example, with the dichotomies life-death, body-spirit, reason-feeling, form-matter, man-woman, subject-object, good-evil, individual-society, being-becoming, etc. The positive yearning to give a reason for one's faith can end up enclosing everything in theories that are far removed from the concrete.

Perhaps the most painful abstraction happens when we try to understand ourselves, when we study the "I" as something isolated from what surrounds us: family, community, culture, history, God. The inevitable consequence of this "abstract self" is an unprecedented loneliness. According to the studies to which they turn, the percentage of one-person families is growing at an alarming rate of 90% in places like downtown Manhattan, but in large European capitals it is around 50%. We think of ourselves as beings with a great capacity for autonomy, as if happiness depended only on ourselves, but we end up colliding with a reality that, even if we keep it hidden from the networks of public exposure, is always different. It is paradoxical that in the age of transparency, individual suffering is carried in secret.

To get out of this situation, Giaccardi and Magatti conclude that reason alone is not enough, "it is not enough to talk about the good and want to transform it into discourse; especially if the good is so intellectualized that it no longer manages to ignite spiritual energies, not even the most basic ones so that any religious form can generate an authentic life and set reality in motion".

A two-pronged strategy: discarding and mystery

It is then that sociologists see in the Francis-Benedict XVI continuity the key to a "catholic bet" that can get back in touch with reality. Benedict XVI made an accurate diagnosis of our times when he recognized the loss of the ability of reason to illuminate faith. Despite the prophetic announcements of many - including previous popes - about the absolute drift towards a purely technical reason, it was a movement that was difficult to reverse. The question has always been: how to open up our reason beyond its technical functionality? 

And this is where Francis' response comes into play: reason does not open up through intellectual paths. "Reason," write Giaccardi and Magatti, "will open up only if it is ready to allow itself to be questioned by reality. Because it is from reality, listened to and loved, that the indispensable arguments will come in order to flee from the dominion of instrumental reason, associated with the radical cultural nihilism that sustains it and makes it intolerable. It is precisely in this openness that Christianity can and must play its own game. Assuming a dynamic posture that allows itself to be provoked by human experience, above all by that which is abandoned on the margins and which, contrary to what is thought, constitutes the true lymph of regeneration". It is only in contact with the peripheral that new blood can emerge.

To achieve the task that Ratzinger has outlined so precisely on the intellectual level," they explain, "there is no other way than to follow Bergoglio's path". And they outline a possible strategy that unfolds, initially, on two flanks: that of discarding and that of mystery; taking seriously the problem of the neighbor and taking seriously the problem of prayer. On these two frontiers, the Church stakes the recovery of the "religious sense" that often seems to have been lost. 

The first frontier - that of recovering what has been discarded from society - is not a question of a "humanism" or a goodism in which, once again, we ourselves are at the center, but rather of allowing ourselves to be pushed towards that place of encounter that can save us; turning our neighbor, above all our neighbor on the peripheries, into windows from which we can look at the world anew. At the second frontier is that great void that contemporary man, full of all his fulfilled desires, does not know where to fill: to go in search of the lost alphabet of prayer. If Christianity has always started from the desire for God that lies deep within the human heart, the main objective of the dominant economic model is precisely to convince us that there is no desire that cannot be satisfied within its mechanisms - and, therefore, no need for salvation. In fact, the market depends on unquenchable desire, depends on entering into a close relationship with that movement. And this has to do not only with satisfying material needs, but also with the sense of mystery that technology also seeks to hijack. 

For this reason, Giaccardi and Magatti advocate "a prayer that is word, liturgy, sacrament, rite, but also, and above all, silence. This is a great responsibility of the Church in the contemporary public sphere: before and more than the display of granite certainties, before and more than a collective participation, we are called to keep alive in the city the fire of prayer as a capacity to inhabit our solitude, to face the ultimate horizons of existence, to bow before the mystery of life. To contemplate. That is to say, to listen: the original and distinctive act of believing, which flees from the false certainties of idolatry to accept to walk along paths that have not been traced out, following the voice that calls".

People, testimony, freedom, faith

So much for what could be a common thread running through the work of Giaccardi and Magatti. Among the various other themes that emerge from these considerations, there are perhaps four that are particularly important for rethinking a "Catholic bet" on the future. On the one hand, the isolation of the "I" mentioned above, in the midst of a hypermediatized culture in which we rarely have direct contact with reality, hinders the generation of a "people", a concern that the authors also share with Francis. They maintain that the Church has a necessarily popular vocation in the sense that it proposes itself to all, not only to small groups; and, in this task, it must always keep in mind the living conditions of its contemporaries, their hopes and fears, since it is there that the Gospel message is inserted, in the midst of a community that shares the same path. On the other hand, the disease to which an individualized people can fall victim is populism, which takes advantage of fragmentation and abstraction, together with the need to belong. 

Giaccardi and Magatti think that religion has more possibilities than politics to heal the illnesses of an individualized people, also on a small scale, in smaller communities, but as long as it focuses on generating an experience. "No discourse will have the strength to make a hole in the screen, let alone a hole in the European consciousness, if it is not born from an experience, from a reality traversed and loved. That is why we must insist on what has been said from very important chairs: today the only language that can speak is the language of testimony, that is, of the experience that speaks (...). On this point it is possible to speak even without words; and not to give rules, but to inspire new life (...). All this supposing that, as Catholics and as Church, we have actually seen something".

Moreover, they recognize in the Church a very important anthropological challenge, that of reconciling faith and freedom; a conflict whose most specific roots can be traced back at least as far as Luther. It is a challenge to which it is sufficient to respond with generalizations, and less so by falling into the impositions from which it is precisely intended to flee. Quoting Maritain, both argue that it is clearer than ever that "either Christianity is capable of qualifying itself as the religion of freedom or it will simply not succeed in speaking to contemporary man".

Finally, when we contemplate the great cultural shift we have experienced since the 1960s in our understanding of authority, the transformation of communication, liberalism and its emphasis on individual choice, etc., it is logical that there have also been changes in our relationship with faith. In some way, it is no longer possible to think of a "faith of adhesion" that supposed "corresponding as precisely as possible to an external rule of life that the subject assumed as his own point of reference; with the burden of duty, effort, discipline that this implied, in the attempt to conform to this ideal. With the added burden that this model could legitimize a power that guards that "must-be", where violent drift is not unthinkable. Besides the fact that nothing indicates that such a model is the evangelical model, adapting to an external model is unsustainable when the environment stops pushing in the same direction. The "search for new ways" also needs to discover alternatives to this "faith as adherence" -some of them are outlined in his book-: ways that discover in modernity a fertile ground where the Gospel can grow.

The authorAndrés Cárdenas Matute

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsInitiatives and books on marriage and the familyRelated NewsRatzinger Awards, a tribute by Pope Francis to his predecessor
More on Omnes
The Vatican

"Fully human and fully Christian": Pope's invitation to formators

In recent weeks, the Pope has held several audiences at the Vatican with groups and institutions dedicated to civil and religious education. This is the case of the World Union of Catholic Teachers, the Formators of Latin America, the Claretianum Institute and the Nepomuceno College.

Giovanni Tridente-December 9, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Totally human and totally Christian. This is what, in the opinion of Pope Francis, must characterize today's educator, because "there is no humanism without Christianity". and vice versa. 

A task rooted in today's time and culture, through rich and open personalities, "a task rooted in today's time and culture".able to establish sincere relationships". with their students, understanding "your deepest needs, your questions, your fears, your dreams.".

This is what the Pontiff has confided in recent weeks, when he received in audience at the Vatican the participants in the General Assembly of the World Union of Catholic Teachers (UMEC)accompanied by Cardinal Kevin FarrellPrefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life. In fact, the institution has recently elected its new Executive Committee and is in a phase of relaunching, as the Holy Father himself pointed out during the meeting.

Revitalization opportunities

One of the challenges, in fact, is that of the "generational change, which especially affects leaders".. The Pope invited to consider such a renewal "as the beginning of a new mission, as an opportunity to relaunch with strength". the organization's activities aimed at serving and accompanying Catholic teachers around the world, in a network that seeks to cultivate and maintain their identity as committed Christians in the world. 

It is no coincidence that one of the aspects highlighted by the Pontiff is the ability to "to bear witness - first and foremost by our lives and also by our words - that the Christian faith embraces the whole of humanity". and is a carrier of "light and truth in all areas of existence, without excluding anything, without clipping the wings of young people's dreams, without impoverishing their aspirations.".

The educational mission must be understood, in essence, as an opportunity that leaves its mark on people's lives, from the time they are children and later as adolescents and young adults. "responsibility" and at the same time an opportunity "to introduce them, with wisdom and respect, to the ways of the world and of life."by means of an accompaniment that makes them capable of "to be open to the true, to the beautiful, to the good.".

An art to be cultivated

The ability to educate, obviously, is an art that must be "taught".continually cultivate and grow".by constant updating and avoiding rigidity, knowing full well that "you don't work with objects, you work with subjects!" Therefore, it is not secondary to also develop empathic and communicative skills, attentive to the languages and cultural forms of the present time, in order to share with each other. "the joy of knowledge and the desire for truth.". This does not mean falling into the trap of "ideological colonization" -Pope Francis warned - but to know how to discern what is truly edifying for the human personality.

The whole context of the Global Compact for Educationwhich the Pontiff himself launched three years ago as an opportunity to involve multiple educational institutions with a view to an alliance able to "to form mature people, capable of overcoming fragmentations and contrasts". and, consequently, a more fraternal and peaceful humanity. An appeal that is undoubtedly addressed to Catholic educators, and which today acquires all its urgency and importance given the context of war at the gates of Europe.

Continuing with the theme of formation, a Course for Rectors and Formators of Seminaries in Latin America and the Caribbean was held at the Vatican in early November, at the initiative of the Dicastery for the Clergy. The Pope addressed them from a distance and, instead, gave them a prepared text, inviting them to read it and study it in depth at a later date.

Proximity and proximity

One of the aspects he emphasized in his spontaneous speech is that of the "proximity" and the "closeness"that they are a direct emanation of God, who is always near. "with mercy and tenderness.". This is the same attitude that pastors of souls must also assume, and certainly they must be educated for it throughout the whole process of their formation, evidently already from their seminary years. 

In the text prepared for the occasion, the Pope explained, not by chance, that the formation of the future priests "is at the heart of evangelization", quality, and this cannot be achieved without a "integral anthropological vision". that unites the four dimensions of the seminarian's personality: human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral, as has already been explained on several occasions and as is stated in the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis.

From the trainer's point of view, it should not be forgotten that he/she educates "with his life, more than with his words."The "I" is the "I", so he himself must shine with the "I", "I" and "I".human and spiritual harmony".which - according to Pope Francis - is developed and consolidated through "the ability to listen and the art of dialogue, which are naturally anchored in a life of prayer".This is the real area where this capacity "germinates, blooms and bears fruit".. 

Positive and open influence

Even before the professors and formators of the seminaries, Pope Francis had also addressed the Community of the Institute of Theology 'Claretianum', which for more than 50 years has been dedicated to formation in Consecrated Life as an organism of specialization incorporated into the Pontifical Lateran University and in the spirit of the saintly Spanish archbishop and missionary Antonio Maria Claret.

There are similar centers in Madrid, Manila, Bangalore, Bogota and Abuja, and with their service (study days, congresses, magazines, accompaniment in the chapters of institutes and congregations) in recent decades they have contributed, according to the Holy Father, "to offer a more human face to consecrated life".: "your influence has always been positive, always open, always pushing away fears that were unfounded.".

A true "testimony"again- that encourages "the option for the poor and solidarity, fraternity without frontiers and mission in constant outreach".. To be formed in these qualities makes the gift of consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world more appreciable, the Pontiff said with conviction.

Cultivating community life

In this line, we must also cultivate, and cultivate well, community life as a true "fidelity in following Jesus according to the spirit of the Founders". and in contrast to the increasingly widespread individualism. This attitude is expressed in the ability to "living interculturality as a path of fraternity and mission". and also in the intergenerational exchange among the members of the community, especially between "the old men" -which "must die dreaming"- y "the youth" – "that make old people dream" and take their place.

Also to the members of the Claretianum and to the formators of the seminary, the Pope urged the style of closeness, compassion and tenderness, without tiring of "go to the frontiers, even those of thought."thus opening paths and accompanying with audacity. It is fundamental - as St. John Paul II already underlined in Vita consecrata- not to lose sight of theological formation, reflection and study, because this would impoverish the apostolate and make it superficial.

The primacy of conscience

Of the primacy of conscience over any worldly power, the Pope finally spoke to the community of the Collegio Nepomuceno, a Roman pontifical seminary intended primarily for students of Czech nationality, although in recent years it has also been opened to other nationalities, such as Asians and Africans. The idea was linked to the figure and witness of this Saint who gives his name to the College, a Bohemian priest who died a martyr's death for remaining faithful to the secret of confession. This "root of courage and evangelical firmness". -Pope Francis suggested - must become a warning not to fall into the trap of "spiritual worldliness"The worst thing that can happen to the Church and to a consecrated person. 

St. John Nepomucene was also held up as an example for future priests to follow. "build bridges where there are divisions, distances, misunderstandings." and become "humble and courageous instruments of encounter, of dialogue between people and groups that are different and opposed".where you can find a peculiar originality and at the same time a common humanity.

Read more
More on Omnes
Sunday Readings

Patience in the darkness. Third Sunday of Advent (A)

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

Joseph Evans-December 9, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

While John was chained in Herod's dark and dank dungeon, the prophecy from Isaiah that we hear in this Sunday's readings must have been hard for him to believe: "The wilderness and the desert shall rejoice, the steppe shall be glad and blossom [...] with joy and songs of jubilation. He has been given the glory of Lebanon [...] They shall behold the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.". There, in those miserable depths, there were few evident signs of the glory and majesty of God. Would John think of these other words as the soldier went in to cut off his head: "Say to those who are troubled, 'Be strong, do not be afraid, behold your God! Vengeance is coming, the retribution of God. He is coming in person and will save you.'"? There was no obvious salvation.

Let's face it: Advent often sings of a joy that we do not see. "They shall enter Zion with songs of rejoicing; perpetual joy at the head; following them, joy and gladness, sorrow and affliction shall depart."

But, before he died, John had managed to send messengers to Jesus to ask him: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"Was John seeking his own benefit, was he beginning to have doubts, or was it for the sake of his disciples, to point them to Jesus since he, John, knew his own time on earth was running out? We will know in heaven; but Jesus pointed to the miracles he was performing, all of them signs that fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah as the one who would give sight to the blind, make the lame walk and the deaf hear, give life to the dead and preach to the poor. Our Lord then praised John the Baptist for his austerity of life: he had chosen poverty in food, clothing and housing. This fidelity had made him the greatest of all prophets.

And here's the thing: Advent is not yet the full revelation of God. It is the preparation for it. It has an element of darkness, even of dungeon. To triumph on earth - and to prepare for his final and definitive triumph - God needs faithful men and women who are willing to lose even their lives. They are Advent people, the other Johns, who are willing to sacrifice comfort, freedom, light and life to prepare the way for God. They become God's way, his highway, for him to travel. But being a highway is not comfortable: it involves being stepped on and exposed to the elements. God will eventually triumph, but only through the sacrifice and suffering of faithful souls, principally Christ himself and, in him, his martyrs. This requires much patience, as James explains in the second reading. Because John, in his chains and in his darkness, renounced the movement, the light and, finally, his life, others have come to walk, to see and to live.

Homily on the readings of Sunday III of Advent

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.

Read more
More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • The Vatican
  • The ten petitions that Pope Francis has entrusted to the Immaculate Conception during his pontificate
The Vatican

The ten petitions that Pope Francis has entrusted to the Immaculate Conception during his pontificate

This December 8, 2022, is the tenth time that Pope Francis will return to the foot of the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna in Rome for an Act of Veneration. An appointment he did not want to miss even in the darkest moments of the pandemic, the last two years, changing the modality and then presenting himself to the Virgin alone, in the early hours of the morning, privately.

Giovanni Tridente-December 8, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

This year the tradition was revived and to welcome Pope Francis there were once again numerous pilgrims and the sick, who surrounded the square in an orderly fashion, as if in a great embrace, along the sides of the historic Mignanelli Square, which also overlooks the majestic building that houses the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See.

We find it interesting, on this occasion, to review the petitions of commendation that the Pontiff has addressed to the Virgin Mary to date on the day on which we celebrate her Immaculate Conception, a dogma of the Church established by Pius IX on December 8, 168 years ago (1854) with the Bull Ineffabilis Deus.

2022 - The filial love of those who yearn for hope and consolation

In this year's prayer, which followed the more than centenary visit to the Basilica of St. Mary Major before the icon of the Salus Populi Romani, Pope Francis began by recalling the many "invisible flowers" that are the often silent, stifled or hidden invocations and supplications of the faithful to the Immaculate Virgin. And he said to bring to the feet of Our Lady "the filial love" of those who yearn for hope and consolation, "the smiles of children"; "the gratitude of the elderly and the elderly", "the worries of families", "the dreams and anxieties of young people", who suffer from a culture rich in things but poor in values... The reference to Ukraine and the tormented people who implore peace was inevitable. The final hope is that hatred will overcome love, lies will overcome truth, offense will overcome forgiveness and war will overcome peace.

2021 - Healing and curing diseases, wars and climate crises

Last year, with restrictions still in place due to the health emergency, Pope Francis went to the Square in private, around 6:00 a.m., depositing a basket of white roses at the base of the column supporting the Virgin Mary. The prayer he addressed on that occasion referred - according to the account of the director of the Holy See Press Office - "to the miracle of healing, for the many sick; of healing, for the people who suffer harshly from wars and the climate crisis; and of conversion, that it may melt the hearts of stone of those who build walls to keep the pain of others from themselves".

2020 - For those afflicted by discouragement

The previous year, in 2020, there was rain to keep the Pontiff company in an equally deserted square; at first the Holy See had announced that the Act would not take place, so the surprise was great when a few hours later it was known that the Pope had not missed the appointment. Given the circumstances of the pandemic period at its worst, the prayer of commendation referred to all those in the City of Rome and throughout the world who are "afflicted by illness and discouragement". After the Spanish Steps, the Pope proceeded to Santa Maria Maggiore, where he celebrated Mass in the Chapel of the Crib.

2019 - Free from the fiercest addictions and the most criminal attachments.

The prayer recited in 2019 contained an explicit reference to the many types of "corruption," which are much more dangerous than being sinners who later repent, for when it affects the heart, corruption represents "the gravest danger": "evil intentions and petty selfishness." However, the Pope's plea for intercession refers to the lifeline, which through Mary can reach those oppressed by distrust because of sin, so that even in the thickest darkness there may always shine "a ray of the light of the risen Christ," which breaks the chains of evil and frees from the fiercest addictions and the most criminal bonds.

2018 - Experiencing the sweet joy of evangelizing.

That the care of each one may make the city "more beautiful and livable for all" and that those in positions of responsibility may receive "wisdom, foresight, a spirit of service and collaboration". The prayer for 2018 is dedicated to Rome and its diocese, with special attention to parish priests, consecrated persons and lay collaborators, so that all may experience "the sweet joy of evangelizing." The Pope also prays to the Immaculate Virgin so that she may be close to those who, not only in Rome, but also in Italy and throughout the world, live situations of marginalization and indifference.

2017 - Shedding Pride and Arrogance

On the fifth occasion in which the Holy Father venerated Our Lady of the Spanish Steps, the petition referred to support in the capacity to develop "antibodies" against viruses such as indifference, "civic rudeness," "fear of the different and the foreigner," transformism that disguises itself as transgression and the exploitation of men and women. Help also consists in stripping ourselves of pride and arrogance "to recognize ourselves as we really are: small and poor sinners, but your children".

2016 - Close to children, families, workers, the lost and the despised.

At the center of the 2016 prayer are the children - alone, abandoned, deceived and exploited -, the families - who are busy but also suffer the fatigue of so many problems -, the workers - both those who have it and those who have lost it or cannot find it. We must learn to look at everyone "with respect and gratitude, without selfish interests or hypocrisy," but also to touch with tenderness the poor, the sick, the despised, the lost, the lonely. Mary's help consists in making a deep commitment "to renew ourselves, this city and the whole world".

2015 - The Victory of Divine Mercy over Sin

"Looking to you, Immaculate Mother, we recognize the victory of divine Mercy over sin and all its consequences" is the invocation for 2015, where the Pope hopes for the rebirth of hope in a better life for all and liberation from "slavery, grudges and fears", certain of the closeness of Our Lady, who accompanies, is near and sustains her children in every difficulty.

2014 - Learning to go against the current

May humanity free itself from all spiritual and material slavery so that "God's salvific design may prevail in hearts and in events", is the invocation that Pope Francis addressed on the second occasion that he visited Our Lady in the Spanish Steps, and already on that occasion he had spoken of overcoming pride, of becoming merciful to one's brothers and sisters, of learning to "go against the current": to surrender oneself, to keep silence, to free oneself from the superfluous, to listen and "make room for the beauty of God, source of true joy".

2013 - Awakening a renewed desire for holiness

Nine months after the beginning of the pontificate, the first act of veneration recalls the "desire for holiness" that the Virgin Mary arouses in her children, so that they may know how to bring forth "the splendor of truth", to make "the song of charity" resound, to make present "the beauty of the Gospel" through hearts inhabited by "purity and chastity". May they not leave indifferent the cries of the poor, the suffering of the sick, the loneliness of the elderly, the fragility of children, and may "every human life be loved and venerated by all of us".

More on Omnes
The Vatican

Persecution of the Jews during the pontificate of Pius XII

Historian Johan Ickx (Archives of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State) explains Pope Francis' decision to digitize the "Jews" series.

Antonino Piccione-December 8, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsStories of Jews in the Vatican Apostolic Archives

Pius XII is a controversial figure. On the one hand, protagonist of recognized actions to protect the victims of Nazi-fascism, especially in the dramatic months of the occupation of Rome; on the other hand, accused of too many "silences" in the face of the dramatic news that reached the Vatican, already in 1939, from the territories occupied by Hitler, starting with Poland.

In 2020, the Vatican Apostolic Archives made available to scholars the documents of the pontificate of Pius XII. Thanks to this extraordinary research opportunity, it is now possible to carry out a more complete analysis and a more accurate interpretation of a crucial passage in the history of the twentieth century.

By the will of Pope Francis, since June 23, this precious patrimony of documents, which includes 170 volumes, is largely available on the Internet in a digital version, freely accessible to all.

In addition to the photocopy of each individual document, the archive has made available a file with the analytical inventory of the series, in which the names of the grant recipients listed in the documents have been transcribed. So far, 70% of the total material can be consulted, which will be completed later with the last volumes.

During a meeting promoted by the ISCOM Association on the Persecution of the Jews during the pontificate of Pius XII (a meeting attended by more than 30 Vaticanists), Johan Ickx, head of the Historical Archives of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, explained the reasons for Pope Francis' decision to digitize the Jewish archival series, making it available to all.

The Pope's decision, in addition to giving new impetus to historiographical research, will make it easier for the families of the persecuted to reconstruct the stories of their relatives who sought help from the Holy See during World War II.

"The Jewish series is a bit special," Ickx points out, "because normally the series in our historical archives of the Secretariat of State are distinguished by the name of a state, with which the Holy See had normal bilateral relations in a given historical period.

Under the pontificate of Pope Pacelli, around 1938, the following was suddenly created a series of files with this name - "Jews"- as if, for the Holy See, it were a specific nation. The series remained open until '46 and then, with the end of World War II, it was closed."

It is not the first time that Pope Francis has promoted this type of initiative. In the past he had wanted to open in advance the Vatican archives on the years of the dictatorship in Argentina, to help the families of the victims to discover the truths that the archives themselves might have hidden.

The Vatican had already taken a step in this direction in the 1970s, during the pontificate of Paul VI, with the publication of the Acts and documents of the Shrine relating to the period of World War II.

Now it is possible for any Internet user to view, in pdf format, all the requests for help addressed to the Holy See by the persecuted and then the resulting files on the individuals, families or groups who asked Pope Pius XII for help.

In Ickx's opinion, "it will be interesting to see how universities, associations dealing with this type of research, but also Shoah Museums in all European cities, will work on these documents. These documentation centers can now draw on this material more easily and in real time."

In his book "Pius XII and the Jews" of 2021, Ickx demonstrates the willingness of the Holy See to help those persecuted by Nazi-fascism. But also its inability often, because many times the Holy See was hindered: "The Nazis were present in half of Europe at that time and prevented any aid initiative. But also the fascist regime in Italy carried out persecution and therefore often hindered the Vatican's rescue actions. Many times even the national governments did not cooperate."

The idea that turning to the Pope was a possible way of salvation is further accredited by the content and tenor of the letters themselves: 2,800 requests for help or intervention for some 4,000 Jews between 1938 and 1944. Among them, the book refers to Mario Finzi, then head of the delegation of assistance to Jewish emigrants in Bologna, who wrote to Pope Pius XII, referring to a specific request for help from a family: "You are the last one who can do something for this family". Today we know that part of that family, whose members, as was often the case, were scattered throughout the territory, was saved.

One of the most interesting documents in the book is a letter from Cardinal Gasparri, dated February 9, 1916, in which he responds to a request from the American Jewish Committee of New York. A letter, Ickx argues, inspired precisely by Eugenio Pacelli, then Foreign Minister of the Secretariat of State: "In that case, the American Jews asked the Vatican for a position from Pope Benedict XV on the racial persecution that had already begun during the First World War.

Secretary of State Gasparri responded with this text, explicitly authorizing its publication. The newspapers of the American Jewish communities echoed it, describing it with satisfaction as an authentic "encyclical". In the text, Jews are literally defined as "brothers" and it is affirmed that their rights must be protected like those of all peoples.

It is the first document in the history of the Catholic Church and the Holy See to express this principle. "These are the words that - concludes Ickx - we find in the document Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council, published in 1965. These are precisely the principles that Pius XII applied for decades during his pontificate in the face of the great challenge of Nazism and then Communism."

The authorAntonino Piccione

RelatedRelated NewsStories of Jews in the Vatican Apostolic Archives
More on Omnes
Photo Gallery

The Nativity Scene and the tree in St. Peter's Square

The Nativity scene and the Christmas tree decorating St. Peter's Square once they are illuminated after the blessing.

Maria José Atienza-December 8, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
More on Omnes
  • Resources
  • Mary Immaculate: Queen, Mother, and Patroness
Resources

Mary Immaculate: Queen, Mother, and Patroness

On December 8, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, venerated as Queen, Mother and Patroness of all the faithful.

Paloma López Campos-December 8, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated News"Whenever we turn our gaze to the Immaculate Conception there will be fruit."

– Supernatural Immaculate Conception is a dogma of faith proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in the year 1854, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus. In this document the Church officially recognized that the Virgin Mary was preserved from original sin at the moment of her conception, by virtue of the merits of her Son.

Although it took many centuries for the dogma to be declared, the faithful defended the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary from the beginning of Christian communities. Santa Maria. This is demonstrated by the devotion that many countries of the world feel for this invocation of the Virgin.

Mary Immaculate in the world

The Immaculate Conception is the patroness of Guatemala and all of Central America (NicaraguaBelize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Honduras. Panama), and its patronage also extends to the United States, South Korea and Japan. Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is also under his special protection.

December 8 is a national holiday in many places, such as Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal and Spain. In addition, in Panama they also celebrate Mother's Day on the day of the Immaculate Conception, a beautiful coincidence in allusion to the Mother of God.

As Abelardo Rivera, Omnes correspondent in Costa Rica, tells us, the feast of the Immaculate Conception is a precept in the country since a few years ago, it was declared by the Episcopal Conference in 2011. In spite of being a precept, since the 90's there is no longer a civil holiday, since these celebrations were eliminated in many Christian festivities, among them also the feast of St. Joseph's Day (March 19).

In Spain, the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the Infantry of the Army since 1892, although already in the sixteenth century, unofficially, it was considered as such by the military units. The General Staff Corps, the Military Juridical Corps, the Military Chaplains, the Military Pharmacy and the Military Veterinary Service are also considered patronesses of the Virgin. This relationship between the military and the Virgin Mary goes back many years in the history of the country.

The miracle of Empel

On December 7, 1585, the Spanish tercio (today's Infantry) commanded by Francisco Arias de Bobadilla, faced rebels from the Netherlands, led by Admiral Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein. The Spanish soldiers were surrounded by their adversaries and completely lacked food and dry clothes to face the cold weather on the island of Bommel (Netherlands). The Dutch admiral proposed surrender to the Spanish tercios, who refused to capitulate. Faced with such a response, the army of the Netherlands initiated a strategy that would inevitably lead to the defeat of the Spanish: they ordered the opening of the dikes in the area, thus flooding the enemy camp, sweeping away the few provisions that remained. 

The Tercio Viejo de Zamora had to seek refuge in the small hill of Empel, the only place that had not been covered by the water of the rivers. While digging the trenches, a soldier discovered a buried wooden board: it was an image of the Virgin Mary to which they built a makeshift altar. Maestre Bobadilla encouraged the soldiers to renew their spirits, since he considered the discovery a sign of divine protection. 

That night it was so cold that the waters froze and the Spaniards were able to walk on the ice until they reached the enemy camp and attacked when the Dutch army was not expecting it. The tercio achieved victory at dawn on the 8th. That same day, the Infantry proclaimed the Immaculate Virgin their patron saint.

The Immaculate Conception in the Catholic Church

The Immaculate Conception has been in controversy during the last years, although at the beginning of Christianity the faithful knew how to recognize in the Virgin Mary the special grace that had been granted to her. The Popes have also wanted to join in this special devotion to Mary. Thus, St. John Paul IIIn a catechesis on the Immaculate Conception in 1996, he said: "the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary does not obfuscate, but rather contributes admirably to better highlighting the effects of Christ's redeeming grace on human nature".

Benedict XVI, in 2007, pronounced these words on the feast we celebrate today: "Once again, on this solemn day, the Church points the world to Mary as a sign of sure hope and of the definitive victory of good over evil. She whom we invoke as full of grace reminds us that we are all brothers and sisters and that God is our Creator and our Father. Without him, or worse, against him, we men will never be able to find the path that leads to love, we will never be able to defeat the power of hatred and violence, we will never be able to build a stable peace". 

For its part, the Pope FrancisHe said this simple and revealing phrase about this invocation of the Virgin: "The Immaculate Conception is the fruit of God's love that saves the world".

Read more
RelatedRelated News"Whenever we turn our gaze to the Immaculate Conception there will be fruit."
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Pope Francis: "We can love only in freedom".

Today the Pope met with the faithful in the Paul VI Hall for the usual Wednesday general audience. Today's reading is taken from the Ecclesiasticus.

Paloma López Campos-December 7, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis on the examination of conscienceRelated NewsPope Francis: "Consolation makes us bold".Related NewsPope Francis: "You see God in desolation".

Continuing with the catechesis on discernment, the Pope began by saying that "in the process of discernment, the Pope said discernment it is important to remain attentive also to the phase that immediately follows the decision taken".

Francis pointed out the importance of analyzing slowly what happens after making a decision in order to know if it was the right one. In relation to this, he points out that "one of the distinctive signs of the good spirit is the fact that it communicates a peace that lasts in time". This is a peace that "brings harmony, unity, fervor and zeal".

Signs of good discernment

The Pope points out that "the spiritual life is circular. The goodness of a choice is beneficial for all areas of our life". In this sense, certain characteristics can be observed that indicate that the discernment is the right one. First of all, Francis encourages us to consider "whether the decision is seen as a possible sign of a response to the love and generosity that the Lord has for me. It is not born of fear, of emotional blackmail, or of an obligation".

"Another important element is the awareness of feeling one's place in life". Because of the circular condition of the spiritual life that the Pope has indicated, this implies that "man can recognize that he has found what he is looking for when his journey becomes more orderly. He notices a growing integration among his multiple interests. He establishes a correct hierarchy of importance and succeeds in living everything with ease, facing with renewed energy and strength of spirit the difficulties that arise".

"Another good sign is the confirmation of remaining free with respect to what has been decided, ready to question it again, also to renounce in the face of possible denials, trying to find in them a possible teaching of the Lord".

In spite of everything, we cannot be attached to our own decisions, the Supreme Pontiff pointed out, since "being possessive is the enemy of the good and kills affection. We can love only in freedom.

From this freedom is also born the fear of God, respect for the Lord, and this, Francis pointed out, is "an indispensable condition for accepting the gift of wisdom," because the fear of God "expels every other fear" and sets us free. Thus we are prepared to make a good decision during the period of discernment.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsPope Francis on the examination of conscienceRelated NewsPope Francis: "Consolation makes us bold".Related NewsPope Francis: "You see God in desolation".
More on Omnes
  • Columnists
  • Renewing the present, the challenge of creative minorities
ColumnistsLydia Jimenez

Renewing the present, the challenge of creative minorities

Changing the world through the transforming action of Christian commitment and personal witness: these were the central ideas of the congress. Catholics and Public Lifeorganized by the ACdP in Madrid guided the words with which Lydia Jiménez opened this Congress. 

December 7, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

The Christian inheritance does not consist of material things that can be wasted but in the meaning of a life that teaches us how to live. To receive an inheritance means to think of it within a history. Inheritance calls for responsibility. We are the continuators of a previous history that must be brought to fulfillment. It is not a matter of repeating it as a dead letter, but of bringing out all the richness it contains, responding to new challenges. 

Europe's moral identity presupposes a history, and its mother tongue is Christianity, as Goethe said. It is not a plot of land on which to build, as if nothing existed. Looking only at the present, we ignore the possibilities of the future. We only see what is reprehensible and destructive in our own history, and we are unable to perceive what is great. 

At The decline of the modern age, Romano Guardini considers the great change of historical direction that was taking place as an opportunity for the Church. The essential thing is not to change, but to renew, to generate something truly new. To remain in the apparent changes is not to find the true novelty and, so many times, the authentic horizon of the path open to the future is lost. We innovate on the basis of what we are, and our identity is Christian. 

Europe is more than its economy. Our present culture boasts of having no faith and demands the exclusion of all reference to what is not purely material and measurable. Today, no revealed religion has any public influence in the European West, and a faith that is kept locked up in privacy is incapable of really directing life. Europe is, above all, a spiritual and cultural concept: a civilization. The key to understanding Europe, like that of any culture or civilization, is religion. In this sense, St. John Paul II, in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Europawhile noting the existence of many worrying signs on our continent, such as the loss of Christian memory and heritage, does not hesitate to give witness to a vibrant call to hope so that Europe will not resign itself to ways of thinking and living that have no future. The Christian faith bases social life on principles drawn from the Gospel, and its imprint can be seen in art, literature, thought and culture. 

Pope Francis in Lumen fidei, the first encyclical of his pontificate, invited us to reflect on faith as a light that illumines man's entire existence. It is the light of a founding memory that precedes us and, at the same time, a light that comes from the future and reveals new horizons to us. Faith "sees" in the measure in which it walks, it is the firm rock on which to build life. Faith is not static; from its biblical beginnings it appears as a response to a call that makes us set out on a journey. That is why faith demands a continuous conversion. 

We note today that Europe is no longer mainly Christian. However, according to the British historian Toynbee, the changes in civilization that determine a new social paradigm are not promoted by the great masses, but by small "creative" minorities capable of generating a new social fabric. Ratzingerdoes not hesitate to affirm that "the fate of a society always depends on creative minorities".. 

A creative minority may be small but it is not sectarian. What distinguishes it from other types of minorities is its capacity to generate culture, ways of life, social practices. 

A creative minority generates spaces and times in which something new takes root. It penetrates society and transforms it. It does not mean having the same opinion, thinking and even feeling the same. 

What characterizes the creative minority is having received the same gift - a personal relationship - and working hard to build it. They live the same life, they drink from the same source. And this is revealed in the virtues that are generated among its members and that spill outward through practices. 

What is essential among men is what we have in common, not what separates us, and faith unites us, it is a common good.

The creative minority does not produce destruction but the renewal of the present. The creative vision discovers the possibility of healing, of a renewal of the world without the need to destroy it; it is leaven, not dynamite. For this reason, Christians cannot live on the defensive, in small ghettos, and retreat in the face of difficulties does not work. Life is always more, it transcends us, it is impossible for us. To dare with this impossible supposes greatness of spirit, magnanimity, courage. 

Only the one who is grateful for the contradiction overcomes it, and only the one who is grateful for the gift truly receives it. 

The Christian faith can help Europe to regain the best of its heritage and continue to be a place of welcome and growth, not only in material terms but, above all, in terms of humanity.

The authorLydia Jimenez

General Director of the Crusades of Santa Maria

Read more
More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • Culture
  • Nacho ValdésFrom the Incarnation, God himself presents himself with a face".
Culture

Nacho ValdésFrom the Incarnation, God himself presents himself with a face".

Together with his sisters, Ignacio Valdés, is a current reference in sacred painting. His paintings, realistic, close and current, can be seen in churches and oratories around the world.

Maria José Atienza-December 7, 2022-Reading time: 7 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsDiana García Roy: "I look for a sculpture that reflects the spirit, that comes from the heart in a sincere way".Related NewsAntonio López: "With the Crucified, Velázquez observed a body and made a God".

The Christmas season is undoubtedly one of the moments when sacred art shines with special strength. Christmas cards, representations of the nativity, the figures of the nativity scenes... art becomes, more than ever, a path of prayer and contemplation.

Nacho Valdés

Together with her sisters, Maysa and Inma, Ignacio Valdeshas spent years dedicated to capturing images of religious content on canvas. Along with works of costumbrista style, this artist, born in Cadiz and trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville and at the Winchester School of Fine Art in Winchester, has taken scenes of the Holy Family, of present and past saints to hundreds of countries. In addition to Spain, he has works in England, Poland, Ireland, Japan, the United States, Russia, Croatia, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Nigeria, Lebanon, Guatemala and Italy.

His paintings, realistic, close and colorful, center altarpieces and chapels, placing God, somehow, in the middle of the usual environment of the viewer. A materialization of the Way of Beauty that he carries out in a natural way, as he points out in this interview with Omnes: "While I am painting, I think of the people who, when they find themselves in front of that painting, it will help them to love God, or his Mother, more.

Says Antonio Lopez Do you believe that true religious art is the one that moves the viewer because it forgets the "artistic" to focus on the religious dimension? Is faith a premise for a religious work to really achieve its objective?

- It has always been difficult for me to find an answer to the fact that a sacred painting, technically well done, even catalogued as a work of art, does not arouse devotion in the spectator, does not reach the heart of the beholder, even though it is very pleasing to the eye.

And, paradoxically, the opposite is sometimes the case: how many images do we know that are not a "capo lavoro" but to which thousands of people pray! 

I found the answer to this doubt in the book of St. Faustina Kowalska:

"Once, when I was in [the workshop] of that painter who painted that image, I saw. that it was not as beautiful as Jesus is. I was very distressed about that, however, I hid it deep in my heart. When we left the painter's workshop, Mother Superior stayed in town to settle various matters, I returned home alone. I immediately went to the chapel and wept so much. Who will paint you as beautiful as you are? In reply I heard these words: "The greatness of this image is not in the beauty of the color, nor in the beauty of the brush, but in My grace".

Certainly a work of sacred art must have a technical quality, so as not to fall into the ridiculous or the ugly, but on the other hand, in sacred art, the distance between what is represented and the way it is represented is infinite: not even the brushes of Velázquez or Rembrandt are able to come close to the beauty of God Himself. In this episode, St. Faustina speaks to us of an increase that God gives in the contemplation of the work of art, which goes beyond the beauty of the color: it is about the grace that he gives through the contemplation of the sacred image.

How can a painter make his works be instruments of God's grace? Is it a matter of forgetting "the artistic to focus on the religious dimension, as Antonio López says, or painting from faith?

- This belongs to the mystery of God, although I sense that it may be related to the "intention" of the artist when painting. If the underlying intention of the artist when he is painting a specific sacred painting is: love for what you represent, the service you render to God, to the Church, to others; reparation for your sins..., it is easier for God to use it as an instrument to grant his grace to those who contemplate the work. And for this, faith is undoubtedly necessary.

However, if the underlying intention of the artist is: to be praised by others, to be above our competitors, to profit economically... Although artists need praise, a healthy competition makes us improve, and earning money with something that not many know how to do is more than fair, all this is reasonable, but if they occupy the first place in the intentions, it would turn the work into a defective instrument of God's grace, even if that person has faith.

Even so, God can, and so often does, use those imperfect works and "turn stones into children of Abraham", hence my difficulty in answering that question.

Is it possible to praying before one's own workHow is the dialogue between a painter with faith and a religious work that aims at such an intimate sphere? 

- It is very difficult for me to pray in front of a picture I have painted, because I immediately see it in brushstrokes, I can't help it. Sometimes when you are painting, I think of the people who, when they find themselves in front of that picture, it will help them to love God more, or their Mother.

We artists hardly know anything about those intimate stories; and that's a good thing because you might think that all the success is yours, and it's not true.

Sometimes I find myself with a special difficulty in the process or I don't know where to start: I have an infallible trick that consists of asking for help to the one I am representing in the painting. The last straw is when you "cross" that request, for example: I am trying to paint the Baby Jesus, and I say to his Mother: "You want me to paint your handsome son, don't you?" It doesn't fail.

When you approach the painting of the Virgin Mary, of St. Joseph, are you aware that there will be people who will materialize their prayer through these images, that they are "putting a face" to God? Is it a responsibility or a challenge?

- The subject of the mental image we have of God the Father, of Jesus, of the Virgin..., is very interesting. We think with images and we need them. Since the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ, was incarnated in Mary's womb, he already has a concrete body, a unique, singular face, recognizable by those around him.

In the Old Testament, God had forbidden his representation in an image, to avoid the contagion of the neighboring peoples and to avoid falling into idolatry; we already know how the golden calf ended... But, from the Incarnation on, everything changes, and God himself is presented with the face of Jesus. Mary and Joseph also have specific, unique features. Christian art has been creating images of them with the imagination of artists and the devotion of the people.

The image of Jesus Christ was fixed from very early on, thanks to the "mandylion" and the Holy Shroud, but the faces of the Virgin, St. Joseph, the apostles, etc, have been represented in various ways, although there has never been a common thread in the history of art that helps us to recognize the characters represented: elements of costumes, poses, attributes... But each era and each artist has his own way of representing them. 

Adoration of the Magi ©Nacho Valdés

In the end, as it happens in every family, everyone has their own preferences, and I am not only talking about tastes, but also about the devotion they feel or the mystery they perceive: if one prefers a Renaissance Virgin to address Her, then great.

I try to represent the Virgin and St. Joseph as I imagine them, without trying to break the thread I was talking about before, but I know that when you make a new image, at first it can be shocking, because we already had another consolidated mental image, but the passage of time fixes it.

It happened to me, for example, with the actress who played the Virgin in the film "The Passion", at first I was shocked, and now I am no longer. I am an advocate of the idea that sacred art is a service to others, in that sense it is a challenge.

What is the face of the Madonna for you, whom you have portrayed with assiduity?

- Our Lady is first and foremost my Mother. She has the face of a mother and there is no need for me to explain how mothers are because we all know it. Something a little mysterious also happens to me and that is that in every woman's face, I perceive a glimpse of Mary, even if that woman has her flaws, so when a model poses me, I try to reflect that glimpse.

In recent years, we have seen a religious art that could be described as "close": family or intimate scenes of the Holy Family, an incorporation of the new saints, and a new way of seeing the world.. Does painting also adapt to the new language of believers, of society? 

- I don't believe that painting has to adapt to the new language of society, artists are part of that same society, so if we try to be ourselves, we express ourselves with the same language. On occasions, someone has commented to me that my images are too "real" and that they need to be "idealized" a little more. I understand that in sacred painting one cannot be banal and that it is necessary to reflect the mystery of the supernatural, but it happens that when so much emphasis is placed on "the ideal", the images move away from us to an interstellar space: they represent characters who are not with us and we have to go to them. This is the current drama of the Christian: who acts throughout the day thinking that God, the Virgin, the angels, the Saints, are far away from us, on another plane... very far away, and that they don't care much about us: it turns out that the opposite is true. I think it is important to remember this idea of "closeness" also through painting.

Is religious painting experiencing a new golden age or, on the contrary, is it going through a complicated moment?

- I lack the time perspective to be able to give a clear answer. To situate ourselves, in the sixties and seventies of the previous century, an iconoclastic movement began within the Church, the reasons are not relevant, but the fact is that, somehow, we still suffer from that inertia. In those years, in the artistic panorama, the only acceptable thing was the abstract language and the consequent marginalization of any figurative language. This influenced the artistic elements inside the churches, creating the paradox of a "sacred abstract imagery", two terms: image and abstraction, which are contradictory.

The problem is that the absence of images is not a Christian option, as Benedict XVI affirmed. In that context, Kiko Argüello proposed a neo-icon language for images, and somehow, the only figurative paintings we saw in those years in modern churches were precisely of this style: at least they were figurative.

I chose a realistic style for sacred painting, first because I liked it more, and then because I saw it closer to the devotion of the people. As time went by I began to teach at the Sacred Art School in Florence, and from there we are forming promotions of new artists for the whole world, they are students from all countries and they learn first the technique of painting and in a second step, to make sacred painting, which is the most difficult.

I believe that little by little this new proposal is being accepted, because the quality of the painter's craft is getting better and better and the training in Sacred Scripture, Art History, Liturgy, Christian Symbology and Theology, completes a background in the student that makes that when he paints a picture, it is not only a technically well done picture, but one that tries to convey the mystery of our faith.

RelatedRelated NewsDiana García Roy: "I look for a sculpture that reflects the spirit, that comes from the heart in a sincere way".Related NewsAntonio López: "With the Crucified, Velázquez observed a body and made a God".
More on Omnes
Culture

"She": The Virgin Mary in contemporary art.

The exhibition brings together twenty contemporary artists who express their vision of the figure and legacy of the Virgin Mary through painting, sculpture, photography and an installation by Ana de Alvear.

Maria José Atienza-December 6, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

She - Mary in contemporary art is the exhibition on the Virgin Mary that the space O_LUMEN will be open from December 8 until January 20, 2023.

This exhibition, promoted by the delegation of Faith and Culture of the Archdiocese of Toledo and its delegate, Pilar Gordillo, was exhibited to the public for the first time in the spring of 2022, in the exhibition hall of the Archbishopric of Toledo with an impressive reception by the public.

The exhibition, focused on the figure of the Virgin Mary in contemporary art, consists of more than 40 works of great stylistic and technical diversity. Among these works are some that have been created expressly for this exhibition. Along with them, others, also of recent creation, have been summoned for their importance in the national panorama of current sacred art.

The museographic narrative is divided into major iconographic themes: Mary, woman of hope; Mary with the child Jesus in her arms; Mary in the passion of Jesus. Contemporary art at the service of thought, emotion and the demands of meaning.

Virgin Mary

She - Mary in contemporary art brings together works by the artists Javier Viver, Diana García RoyAna de Alvear, Ana de Alvear, Lidia Benavides, Jesús Carrasco, Valeria Cassina, Dalila del Valle, Carolina Espejo, Kiko Flores, Carlos Galván, Alberto Guerrero, Félix Hernández, Francisco Loma-Osorio, Ángel Lomas.

They are joined by Constanza López Schliting, Greta Malcrona, Juan Ramón Martin, Javier Martínez, Vicente Molina, Margarita Monroy, Matilde Olivera, Antonio Oteiza, Pablo Redondo "Odnoder", Paco Paso, Amalia Parra, Ricardo Plaza, Javier Pulido, Alfonso Salas, Ana Salguero, María Yáñez and Rodrigo Zaparaín.

The exhibition, with free admission, can be visited at the O_LUMEN space located at Calle Claudio Coello, 141, Madrid. The opening hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm and from 5 pm to 9 pm and Sundays from 11 am to 3 pm.

Read more
More on Omnes
Culture

"The Night of the 24th". A musical about Christmas

In the midst of so many Christmas offerings, it is worth mentioning the musical The night of the 24thcreated by actor and screenwriter Javier Lorenzo with the contribution of Benjamín Lorenzo and Álvaro Galindo.

Javier Segura-December 6, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

The story is known... or not. Because the true origin of Christmas is increasingly blurred in our secularized society.

Perhaps this is the first and great value of this musical. To recover and show with a current air, fresh and naive at the same time, the authentic origin of Christmas.

The night of the 24th tells the story of the birth of Jesus through the eyes of Aaron, who has been appointed officer of King Herod's guard and has been entrusted with the mission of finding the impostor child posing as the Messiah.

To do so, he must interrogate the witnesses of that strange event that took place on the night of the 24th. All the witnesses will agree that the child has changed their lives forever.

night 24 musical

But neither Zebulun, a goofy shepherd boy who claims to have seen angels, nor the innkeepers, who try to explain to him that the inn was full and that the Romans were to blame for everything, know anything about the whereabouts of the boy and his parents.

A madman who claims to be the angel Gabriel, the donkey Moreno, more stubborn than Balaan's donkey, and the very Star of the East with all her glamour and diva airs, are not much help either.

Things get complicated when his wife, Judith, appears as the next witness.

Aaron fears for her life, but she cannot deny what she has seen: the God of hosts, Yahweh Sebaoth, made a helpless child out of love. Aaron must soon find the false Messiah before Herod's evil advisors discover that his wife is one of the rebels.

This is the starting point of this family-friendly musical comedy about the Mystery of Christmas and its true meaning.

Stars crossing the firmament, angels, magicians and fierce soldiers, songs, dances, tenderness and a lot of humor to tell the story of that first Christmas, that strange and wonderful event in which Heaven came down to Earth.

Ninety minutes in which there is time for humor, for tenderness, in agile and witty dialogues, and a strong message, very well woven with a story that engages.

A script that has, in its simplicity, a great theological load, adapted to all audiences. A truly entertaining story that is equally enjoyable for children and adults who are capable of becoming children again.

To see it you have to move, as in the first Christmas, to a town near the big city, specifically to Torrelodones, to the Fernández-Baldor Theater.

As shepherds, we can go there with the whole family and show our children the event that split history in two.

The night of the 24th is a brilliant attempt to rescue the message of Christmas.

It is in these endearing celebrations, which are rooted in our Christian culture, that we must know how to show the perennial relevance of the Gospel in today's language.

Something that, without a doubt, this musical does prodigiously.

Read more
More on Omnes
Resources

We are always in Advent!

Advent is a time of joyful waiting in which we prepare, together with Mary, to welcome Christ into our lives.

Alberto Sánchez León-December 6, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsAdvent, a time of mercyRelated NewsPreparing for a Christian Christmas. I Sunday of Advent (A)

The Advent motto is well known: God is coming! And we could say that God cannot not be with his children, the human beings, that is why he has stayed with us forever, but in a sacramental way. God is with us in the EucharistBut at the same time he will come, no longer sacramentally, but with his glorious, triumphant body... And it is obvious that his definitive coming is ever closer. We Christians do not cease to implore his coming with a most beautiful act of faith. We want Christ to come and to reign. We say it in the "Our Father": "Thy kingdom come".

God has already established his kingdom. Christ himself must be in every Christian. St. Paul understood this very well at his conversion, when Christ himself said to Saul when he asked him who he was: "Who are you?I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5).. From then on, Saul began to understand that the faith of Christians is faith in a person who already lived in them. 

God is near! God is coming! But... how do we welcome him? The words of St. John's prologue are harsh when he writes: "He came to his own, but his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:11-12). And in another passage of the Gospel, it is the same Jesus who "escapes" a somewhat enigmatic and sad words in the style of those of the prologue of St. John: "But when the Son of man comes, will he find this faith on earth?" (Lk, 18:8).

Advent is a time of joyful waiting. Waiting marks the penitential part of this time and joy is the experience of the nearness of God, a God who wants to be with men, because "it is my delight to be with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:31).

Our faith is full of contrasts: God gives us the salva from sinthe light in the darknessthe grain that dies to give fruitthe death necessary for the lifewhere there is an abundance of sin overabundant grace... These are contrasts full of hope. Because our God never stops "...mercy".because he loved us first, because he loved us "primerea"... Error, confusion and astonishment arise when instead of seeing contrasts we see contradictions. And from contradiction to discouragement there is little distance to travel. That is why Advent is a time of light. The Christian attitude before the coming of God, and I am not only referring to a future coming, but to a daily coming, to a God who does not stop coming to meet us every day, should be one of welcome. May our whole life be an Advent. 

Advent, a Marian season

The time of Advent is also a very Marian time. It is Mary who makes the first coming possible. Mary's womb is the first tabernacle of history; it is Mary who not only opens the gates of heaven (even if the keys are held by St. Peter), but who is the door of eternity in time. Mary, with her "fiat"makes the impossible possible: the mixture, the coexistence of God with men. But a God who at the same time divests himself of his divinity so that the covenant he wants to establish is truly a covenant between equals, between men, overcoming the ancient covenants that were not perfect because there was an infinite disproportion between the parties. St. Paul reminds us of this in his letter to the Philippians: "The covenant that he wants to establish is truly a covenant between equals, between men.Christ, in spite of His divine condition, did not flaunt His category of God; on the contrary, He stripped Himself of His rank and took the condition of a slave, passing for one of many."(Phil 2:6-7). There is no longer any distance between the parties in the New Covenant. This is why this covenant will be definitive and perfect, because God allies himself with his equals. Not only does he ally himself with us, but he involves us in his mission and makes us co-protagonists in his covenant. 

I was saying that Advent is a Marian season because our Mother is the Ark of this beautiful covenant, full of contrasts, because it is a covenant of Blood and Life. 

How wonderful is our faith! With faith, our life takes on a new, hopeful, missionary light. The mission is to bring the joy of faith to all the roads of the earth. Therefore, a Christian without light is an oxymoron, a Christian without light is not a contrast, but a contradiction, but a contradiction that can be repaired by penance. 

We would like to ask our Mother to teach us to wait for with faith at Love, that is, to teach us to live in a continuous Advent. 

The authorAlberto Sánchez León

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsAdvent, a time of mercyRelated NewsPreparing for a Christian Christmas. I Sunday of Advent (A)
More on Omnes
Initiatives

The online lathe

December is beginning and with it Christmas. This season invites everyone to share, but it is also a time for shopping. Both realities can be united by acquiring the products that are on sale by the consecrated people who live in cloistered communities, helping their subsistence through these purchases.

Paloma López Campos-December 6, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe lathe is on the net: convent sweets are sold online

Iesu Communio

The religious institute of Iesu Communio, founded in Burgos in 2010, has its origins in the Poor Clares. They drink from the teachings of St. Francis and St. Clare, being part of their spirituality to respond to the call of Christ "I thirst" for the Cross. They carry out apostolic work with young people, meeting with people who come to the parlors of their convents in Burgos and Valencia. This community of nuns makes a living from their work, which consists essentially of making handmade sweets, floral decorations, watercolors and even books.

Every year, Iesu Communio launches a Christmas special that is available for sale on its website. In addition to the lottery sales, the sisters of Iesu Communio present a wide variety of sweets, such as turrones, roscones de reyes, truffles and chocolates. The products can also be purchased in different lots that vary in size and price. These sweets are a sample of the traditional confectionery that the nuns of Iesu Communio have been preparing for many years, with the legacy they have inherited from the Poor Clares. The Christmas products are not only confectionery, but also decorations, from Advent wreaths to table centerpieces or even greeting cards made with watercolor.

El Torno

In Seville, the "El Torno" store has been selling handcrafted products from different bakeries since 1989, with the aim of helping to support the city's convents and monasteries.

Among the various sweets that can be found in its online store are the Hail Marys, almond hearts, marzipan figurines, polvorones, nougat or alfajores. The purchase of these products can also be done in person by going to the physical store that has El Torno in the Plaza del Cabildo, Seville.

Declause Foundation

The Declausura Foundation is an initiative whose purpose is to help monasteries and convents throughout Spain, providing materials to understand the contemplative life and, of course, selling their products. It was born in 2006 in the bosom of the "Fundación Summa Humanitate". Its mission is "to support contemplative life in order to satisfy any of its needs, bringing this silent reality closer to society". A list of the material aid needed by different convents and monasteries in Spain can be found on its website, giving easy access to the user who wishes to collaborate. On the other hand, the foundation reviews the contracts and energy supplies that the communities have, also training the contemplatives in matters that are essential for the support of the monasteries and convents.

For Christmas they have for sale sweets such as St. Joseph's pebbles made by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Zaragoza, a panettone made by the Poor Clare sisters of Ourense or polvorones made by the Benedictine nuns of León. The entire catalog can be found on the foundation's website, through which you can also place and manage your order.

The sweets of my convent

Another website that facilitates the sale and purchase of handmade products made by the contemplatives is "Los dulces de mi convento" (The sweets of my convent). This initiative was born after the COVID 19 pandemic, when many religious communities began to notice the shortage of means because people could not go to the lathes to buy, so they had no economic income. From that moment, "the sweets of my convent" was born as an online store that would allow the purchase of products made by the religious. In this project they have collaborated with "Mensajeros de la Paz" and have continued with the work even after the return to normality after the pandemic.

 On the web platform you can buy cakes and cupcakes, jams, doughnuts, cookies, pastries and even olive oil. They have added a special Christmas section to their website with products such as wine donuts, egg yolks, chestnuts in syrup, marzipan and nougat. The information on the products includes the convent and monastery where they were made and a brief description of the product.

Contemplare Foundation

The Contemplare Foundation is a project that seeks to bring the contemplative life closer to non-consecrated persons. It is directed by a group of lay people who collaborate with more than 120 convents and monasteries.

Many different products can be purchased on the website. They have gourmet items, such as cheeses, wines, beers, liquors, chocolates or nuts. Also for sale are handcrafted products, altarpieces, nativity scenes, images of the Virgin, medals, crucifixes and rosaries. You can also find gifts of birth, such as layettes, flowers or baby clothes and, in addition, there is a section of natural cosmetics in which there are soaps, creams, essential oils or lip balms. 

The sale of products is not only aimed at individuals, but the Contemplare Foundation also works with more than fifty companies, selling customized products with the image of the brand.

The convent bazaar

The Samaritan Carmelites of the Heart of Jesus, also known as the Samaritan Carmelites of the Fuencisla, have a website called "the bazaar of the convent". On this platform they offer for sale all their products. Among their work is the elaboration of sweets, natural care products, mugs, scented candles, books, liturgical articles (some of them only for sale to priests) and embroidery. Their work is not only on the Internet, but they have opened a physical store next to the Cathedral of Segovia. The aim of this whole project is, as they themselves say, to raise funds for their foundations and projects.

Christmas, being a special season, also implies a different production of items. Therefore, they sell nougat, marzipan, delicacies, candles with nativity scene figures, soaps, tablecloths and books, all of them Christmas themed.

Made in faith

"Made with faith" is an initiative that was born to work, at first, only with the monasteries and convents of Seville and surroundings. Its objective was to give visibility to the products of these communities to help their maintenance. However, there was soon an increase in demand and many other religious wanted to join the project. Currently, they work with convents and monasteries in Seville, Malaga, Badajoz and Cordoba.

Among the products you sell are yemas, almendrados, cupcakes, roscos de vino, tejas, alfajores or empanadas. Although there is no Christmas section on your website right now, many of the items for sale are appropriate for these dates, such as marzipan, polvorones and mantecados.

A gift for everyone

During Christmas shopping it is easy to have in mind to collaborate with the religious communities in Spain, helping their maintenance and acquiring handcrafted and quality products for homes that are a gift for everyone, for those who make the products and for those who receive them.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsThe lathe is on the net: convent sweets are sold online
More on Omnes
Integral ecology

Mensuram Bonam. Economic investments consistent with the Catholic faith

Mensuram Bonam contains a set of principles and criteria, as well as practical and methodological guidelines for those working in the world of finance, both as institutions and as individuals.

Giovanni Tridente-December 5, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsBanco Sabadell and Amundi promote responsible investments

Since a few days ago it is available on the web site of Pontifical Academy of Social SciencesThe Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, whose Chancellor is Cardinal Peter Turkson, who has headed the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development for many years, has published a document entitled Mensuram Bonam (Good Measures), which contains some "faith-consistent measures for Catholic investors."

It is a set of principles and criteria, as well as practical and methodological indications addressed to those who work in the world of finance, both as institutions and as individuals, and who strive to live their faith with coherence, contributing to the promotion of an inclusive and integral development of people.

First guidelines

This document is undoubtedly important, as it contains the Vatican's first real guidelines - a "starting point", reads the cover page - on sustainable and responsible investments, to be taken as a point of reference by those working in the sector.

It is the result of several years of work, at least six, involving various experts from the world of science and finance, as well as drawing inspiration from the main experiences already carried out in various bishops' conferences, especially those of Europe and the United States, or inspired by religious confessions. It is clearly in line with the whole tradition of the Social Doctrine of the Church, obviously with a specific focus on the world of finance.

As Cardinal Turkson explains in the preface to the document, Mensuram Bonam's call for good practices "could not come at a better time," following the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that "brought to light other pandemics due to dysfunctional social systems, such as job insecurity, poor access to healthcare, food insecurity and corruption," issues often denounced by Pope Francis.

Consistency criteria

This is where the opportunity to "look to a future that we can dream together and discover values and priorities in the teaching of our faith and its wisdom to build that future and let faith-consistent criteria inspire our investments" comes in.

The text is intended, therefore, to be an opportunity for discernment, to encourage companies to carry out investment policies in line with Catholic teaching, and to be a stimulus for investment processes where they have yet to be thought through and applied.

A compass, therefore, not only for believers, but also for those who do not explicitly profess any religion; proposals which, if adopted," writes Cardinal Turkson, "will promote in the human family a clearer perception of the fullness of its destiny, and thus lead it to shape a world more in keeping with the eminent dignity of man".

Principles and method

The document is divided into two parts. The first contains the pillars of faith and of the Church's social doctrine, from which the various investment activities are oriented with vision and responsibility, for integral human development (principles). The second part, on the other hand, contains operational answers, presenting a method for investments consistent with the faith (FCI) with indications on how to apply it: steps to follow, tools to use, etc.

The appendix also contains some "exclusion criteria" on sensitive topics requiring careful discernment of faith, which have already been evaluated in the Bishops' Conferences. For example, the areas of armaments, nuclear weapons, pornography, human rights violations, corruption, climate change threats, etc. should be excluded from financial investments.

Good measures, then, which will undoubtedly require further reflection and study, but which represent a first step towards overcoming tensions and improving society, starting with every believer.

RelatedRelated NewsBanco Sabadell and Amundi promote responsible investments
More on Omnes
The World

Atheism, a religion?

An atheist association in Austria has applied to be recognized as a religious community. The competent court has rejected the application, but the Constitutional Court has yet to decide. The question at issue is whether atheism can be a religion.

Fritz Brunthaler-December 5, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe Drama of Atheistic Humanism, by Henri de LubacRelated NewsCommunity and Justice: a different vision of human rightsRelated NewsCelebration of Mary's name in Austria: "Under your protection we take refuge..."

Reflecting a critical attitude towards the Church, in the 1970s and 1980s one often heard in the hitherto traditionally Catholic countries of Europe, including Austria: "Christ yes, Church no". Around the turn of the millennium, if not before, this statement was replaced by the question about God himself: God or something else? or what? or nothing... Although sociologists have been saying all these years that the interest in religion remains, the same is not true for the interest in God. Religion, or spirituality, even without God?

Atheism in Austria

On December 30, 2019, the "Religious Atheist Society of Austria" ("Atheistische Religionsgesellschaft in Österreich"ARG) submitted the application for state recognition as a confessional faith community, the first step towards recognition as a legally recognized religious community. The ARG meets the legal requirements, because it has more than 300 members; and it is not the only atheist group in Austria: there are more than half a dozen of them, which in turn represent only a fraction of all atheists in Austria. Other secular associations criticize the ARG proposal because it would imply complicity with an obsolete system.

This begs the question: can atheism be a religion, is it, or does it become a religion when the state grants a community of atheists recognition as a religious community? What does a state, in this case Austria, mean by religion? There is no precise definition in Austrian law. In general, three elements are mentioned as characteristic of the concept of religion: in addition to an overall interpretation of the world and man's position in it, as well as the corresponding orientations for action, above all the reference to transcendence is decisive. If this is missing, one speaks of a "world view" or "world conception".

But... atheism as a religion, isn't it absurd? Atheism means "without God". And doesn't religion always have to do with God or something divine? ARG representatives do not believe in deities that, according to them, "were created by humans". In spite of that the ARG understands itself as a religious community: for them religion is a kind of lived philosophy, and the practice of religion is a practical help for life. Thus, on the ARG website one can even read about atheistic pastoral care, for example in situations of suffering and death, even in the absence of faith in an immortal soul. Pastoral care then approaches psychotherapy.

Atheism, a religion?

The Vatican Council IIIn "Gaudium et Spes" (nn. 19-21), he speaks of atheism in relation to human dignity: "The recognition of God is in no way opposed to human dignity, since this dignity has its foundation and perfection in God himself". And: "The highest reason for human dignity consists in man's vocation to union with God". On the other hand, according to the words of the Council, "when this divine foundation and this hope of eternal life are lacking, human dignity suffers very serious damage, as is often the case today, and the enigmas of life and death, of guilt and pain, remain unresolved, often leading man to despair".

ARG representatives answer these and other questions on a purely human level, because according to their conception, their "ethos" has been and is developed and agreed upon by human beings, and value concepts are always of human origin. It is true that among them there are also general values, such as "taking responsibility" and "learning from mistakes". But the ultimate questions, in the sense of the Council, are answered from a purely human perspective and experience. Including the question of death: after death there is nothing. Perhaps it will make man feel pain, but at most it will be as long as he lives.

A question about transcendence

Christianity is a religion of Revelation: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", says Yahweh when he appears to Moses in the bush in the desert. God has spoken to man, "in these last times, through his Son," as the Letter to the Hebrews says. Man's faith is always a response of man to God who addresses himself to him. The action of the believing person is guided by the words and deeds of God, insofar as he recognizes them. Although God is the "wholly other" and, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, we ignore much more about God than we know, God remains recognizable: "He who sees me sees the Father," Jesus says to Thomas at the Last Supper, the Upper Room. Even when, in the words of the Council, the believer as a human being remains for himself an unresolved question, only God can give the full and certain answer.

The "Religious Atheist Society" knows nothing of all that. And yet it claims to be a religious society. It sees its reference to transcendence in the fact that it is, of course, concerned with God, although it denies his existence. The Vienna Administrative Court has on June 1, 2022 rejected the ARG's application for recognition as a faith community, and described it as a "worldview community." The court justifies its decision by saying that the ARG's conception of transcendence is insufficient for a religious community, because it does not refer to those realms that are outside of all conscious, plannable and immanent experience, and which are the subject of a "different" reality.

The Atheist Religious Society has appealed this decision to the Constitutional Court, Austria's highest court. In doing so, it primarily invokes Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as the decision of the Vienna Administrative Court would disregard the religious freedom of the ARG. It will be interesting to see how the Constitutional Court rules.

The authorFritz Brunthaler

Austria

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsThe Drama of Atheistic Humanism, by Henri de LubacRelated NewsCommunity and Justice: a different vision of human rightsRelated NewsCelebration of Mary's name in Austria: "Under your protection we take refuge..."
More on Omnes
Sunday Readings

Mary's humility. Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (A)

Joseph Evans comments on the readings for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.

Joseph Evans-December 5, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

Today's readings - on this beautiful feast - contrast the shame that the sin of Adam and Eve brought to humanity with the honor of humanity through the faithful yes, the "yes" of Adam and Eve, the "yes" of Eve, the "yes" of Adam and Eve, the "yes" of Eve and the "yes" of Adam and Eve. fiatof Mary. This feast speaks to us of God's victory over sin, which, in a mysterious way, began in advance in the Blessed Virgin Mary. But all because of God's grace. That is why today's readings speak to us about the "new song". of God, of the "wonders" that he has made and of his blessing "with all kinds of spiritual blessings." in Christ.

All mankind had been corrupted by the fall of our first parents, as he forcefully points out in Psalm 14: "All go astray equally obstinate, there is not one who works well.". All of her somehow shared Adam's shame and could say with him to God: "I heard the noise of you in the garden, I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid.". We all, like Adam, try to blame the woman; and this woman, Eve, certainly shares a large part of the blame: "The woman whom thou gavest me to be my companion, she offered me of the fruit, and I did eat.".

But to prepare the way for the Holy One, God made man who would undo Satan's work, God prepared a holy woman who would listen to God and not to the devil, a woman who would humble herself before God and not rise up, like Eve, in proud rebellion against him. Adam and Eve wanted "to be like God". Maria can only say: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." They tried to escape God, disobeying his will. Mary obediently submitted to his will: "Be it done unto me according to thy word."

There are two ways to be saved: by healing or by prevention. We can be cured of a disease, but it is much better to live a healthy life that saves us from falling into that disease. The Church came to understand that, although we all need the salvation of Christ, Mary was saved in a superior way, by prevention: she was freed, from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother Anne, from any stain of sin. And this, in function of her condition as Mother of God. As the one who was to receive in her womb the Most Holy God made man, as the new Ark of the Covenant, she was preserved from all sin.

In stark contrast to the "blame game" of Adam and Eve - having proudly risen up against God, they proudly try to shirk their own responsibility - we see Mary's humility. In her the words of Christ are realized: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted." (Mt 23:12). While pride stains everything, there is something "immaculate" in humility: it cleanses, purifies, preserves from corruption. The Church teaches us through these texts that, although we will never be able to share fully in Mary's holiness, we can at least approach her by trying to share in her humility.

The homily on the readings of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary

The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.

Read more
More on Omnes
The Vatican

Pope Francis: "Hypocrisy is the gravest danger".

Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square on the second Sunday of Advent.

Paloma López Campos-December 4, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsHonesty and sincerity. Second Sunday of Advent (A)

The Pope focused on the figure of St. John the Baptist, "a man allergic to falsehood". John gives a cry of love, inviting us to bear "the fruit that conversion demands" and not to waste our lives.

Francis, following the teachings of the Baptist, has affirmed that "hypocrisy is the gravest danger, because it can ruin even the most sacred realities". Jesus Christ is also hard on hypocrites, as can be seen in the Gospel.

The Pope points out that "in order to welcome God, it is not skill that matters, but humility. This is the way to welcome God". It is necessary to "come down from the pedestal and immerse oneself in the water of repentance".

The Church proposes the Baptist to accompany us in our journey to the Advent because "John, with his allergic reactions, makes us reflect: are we not also sometimes a little like those Pharisees? Perhaps we look down on others from on high, thinking that we are better than them, that we are in control of our lives, that we do not need God, the Church, our brothers and sisters every day".

"Advent is a time of grace to take off our masks". For this, says the Pope, "the path is only one: that of humility. To purify ourselves of the sense of superiority, of the formalism of hypocrisy. To see in others brothers and sisters, sinners like us, and in Jesus to see the Savior who comes for us".

We cannot despair, Francis points out, we cannot think that our sins are too many because "with Jesus the possibility of starting over is always there, it is never too late. It is never too late. There is always the possibility of starting over. Have courage, He is close to us and this is a time of conversion".

Francis concluded his address by inviting us to "listen to John's cry of love to return to God. Let us not let this Advent pass us by like the days of the calendar. Because this is a time of grace, now, here". The Pope also recommended that we entrust ourselves to Santa MariaMay Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord, help us to meet Jesus and our brothers and sisters on the path of humility".

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsHonesty and sincerity. Second Sunday of Advent (A)
More on Omnes
  • Focus
  • Evangelization
  • "The life of Carmen Hernandez represents the history of the Church in the 20th century."
Evangelization

"The life of Carmen Hernandez represents the history of the Church in the 20th century."

Carmen Hernandez is closer to the altars. On December 4, the Francisco de Vitoria University will host the solemn opening session of the diocesan phase of the cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God. We interviewed, on this occasion, Aquilino Cayuela, author of the biography Carmen Hernandez (BAC, 2021)

Maria José Atienza-December 4, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated News"We have discovered a Carmen deeply in love with Christ."

On July 19, 2016, he passed away in Madrid. Carmen Hernandez. Co-founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, irreplaceable collaborator of Kiko Argüello, this woman, a native of Ólvega (Soria) is getting closer and closer to being the first saint linked to the Neocatechumenal Way.

That apostolic work that began in the shantytowns of the outskirts of Madrid is today a reality, a path through which hundreds of thousands of people meet God and live their faith.

Aquilino Cayuela

Aquilino Cayuela is the author of the biography Carmen Hernandezpublished by the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos in 2021.

This professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the Universitat Abat Oliba CEU highlights "the constancy and intensity of her love for Jesus Christ, at all times, in the darkness and in the joys" in the life of the co-initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Writing a biography of a person whom many consider a saint is always delicate, especially when those who knew her closely will be her readers. What has it meant for you to write Carmen's biography?

For me it was, on the one hand, an honor and, on the other, a great responsibility. I was the initiator, together with Kiko Arguello, of the one of the most important ecclesial realities in the world. after the Council. Indeed, it was a delicate work that I have tried to develop with the utmost rigor.

I have tried to do it with objectivity and balance. Carmen, in a way, was the great unknown, she was shy and reserved and had a very rich experience of Jesus Christ and the Church, before meeting Kiko, that almost nobody knew well. 

How would you define Carmen Hernández?

-She was a woman of great personality and initiative. She has always been characterized by an intense love for Christ and the Church, since her childhood. She was also a restless and nonconformist woman, with a strong personality, a strong missionary vocation and reformism. Her own life and her search is exemplary, in the sense that it represents the history of the Church in the twentieth century, its renewal and the whole environment of Vatican II.

Carmen Hernández's life was not simple. What points of her life are the keys to the catechist and missionary woman we have come to know?

Precisely the turning points in her life: when, as a very young woman, she experienced difficulties in following her missionary vocation and encountered opposition from her father. Later, when the Missionaries of Jesus Christ did not allow her to continue. And then the intensity of her encounter with Jesus on her first trip to the Holy Land.

Their providential meeting with Kiko and their decision to continue with him in a catechumenate experience, which they themselves began to take first to Spain and, a little later, to Italy and other countries.

The success of her own Way as a Christian Initiation is a serious responsibility for her and she experiences moments of anxiety.

Carmen has been for many the woman in the "shadow", however, the reality and scope of the Neocatechumenal Way cannot be understood without her. What does Carmen contribute to the charism initiated by Kiko Argüello?

-Actually, there was an important complementarity between them. She brings the liturgy, the renewal of Vatican II, biblical understanding in the link with the Hebrew translation, prayer and the role of women in the Church today.

Now that Carmen's cause of beatification and canonization is a reality, in what way is Carmen an example for the faithful today?

-I believe that there are different aspects that each one can contemplate in his biography, but what stands out is the constancy and intensity of his love for Jesus Christ, at all times, in the darkness and in the joys.

carmen hernandez

Secondly, her love for the Church and the Pope, her spirit of renewal and her sincere missionary vocation, which makes her a very daring woman. Her frankness also stands out. She is persevering in prayer and has a strong bond with Scripture. She is a very authentic person in her life and her work, she wanted wholeheartedly to renew the Church of this time so that men and women could encounter the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Finally, its proposal of femininity is a very interesting model.

Beatification and canonization

On December 4, the Francisco de Vitoria University will host the solemn opening session of the diocesan phase of the cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Carmen Hernandez.

The session, presided over by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, will be attended by the international team of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Argüello, Mario Pezzi and Ascensión Romero, and the postulator, Carlos Metola. In addition, there will be the swearing in of the tribunal delegated for this cause, formed by the episcopal delegate for the Causes of the Saints of Madrid, Alberto Fernández; the promoter of justice Martín Rodajo, and the assistant notaries Ana Gabriela Martínez, R. C. and Mercedes Alvaredo.

As the postulator of this cause explained, Carlos Metola to OmnesCarmen Hernández's reputation for holiness began at the moment of her death: "In many parts of the world there is a conviction that Carmen lived her life in holiness: during her life, just before her death and after her death". Documentation of all this has been collected. Also from the visits to Carmen's tomb, which has already been visited by more than 35,000 people, most of them from the Neocatechumenal Way, but also many other people who have approached her after learning about Carmen and her life".

RelatedRelated News"We have discovered a Carmen deeply in love with Christ."
More on Omnes
Pope's teachings

Hope and realism on the road

Three themes stand out among the Pope's teachings during the month of November: the hope of Heaven, and its consequences; the disposition for fraternity and peace; attention to the poor and most needy. 

Ramiro Pellitero-December 4, 2022-Reading time: 8 minutes

The first of these is linked to the celebrations of this month of November; the second, to its apostolic visit to BahrainThe third, to the World Day of the Poor.

Waiting and surprise from Heaven 

The Pope's homily at the Mass for cardinals and bishops who have died during the year (2-XI-2022) focused on two words: wait for y surprise.

– Supernatural wait forHe explained, expresses the meaning of the Christian life that goes towards the encounter with God and the redemption of our body, resurrected and renewed (cf. Rem 8:23). There the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah beautifully says, "shall annihilate death forever" and "wipe away tears from all faces." (Es 25, 7). And that, Francis observes, is beautiful. On the other hand, it is ugly when we expect our tears to be wiped away by someone or something that, because it is not God, cannot do it. Or worse, when we do not even have tears. What does this mean?

First of all, we should examine the content of our expectation. Sometimes our desires have nothing to do with Heaven. "Because we run the risk of continually aspiring to things that happen, of confusing desires with needs, of putting the expectations of the world before the expectation of God.". That's like "losing sight of what matters to go after the wind".and it would be "life's biggest mistake". That is why we should ask ourselves: "Am I able to go to the essentials or do I get distracted by so many superfluous things? Do I cultivate hope or do I keep complaining, because I place too much value on so many things that don't count and then will pass away?"

The ability to have tears

The second observation (the ability to have tears) can be seen in relation to compassion and mercy. Francis explains it with the surprise that we find in the Gospel: "In the divine tribunal, the only merit and accusation is mercy towards the poor and the discarded: 'As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me,' Jesus sentences (Mt 25:40). The Most High seems to be in the least of these. He who dwells in the heavens lives among the least of the world - what a surprise!".

And why is this so, one might ask. And one could answer as Francis does: because Jesus was born and lived poor and humble (detached from his divine condition) and gave himself to us gratuitously (without any previous merit on our part). And thus he reveals to us the measure of the value of our life: love, mercy, generosity. 

Consequence, now, for us: "Then, to prepare ourselves, we know what to do: to love freely and freely, without expecting anything in return, those who are included in his list of preferences, those who cannot give us anything back, those who do not appeal to us, those who serve the little ones.". When the final judgment comes, we will find ourselves, then, with that "surprise", which we should have known, because we are Christians. Therefore, Francis advises us, "let's not be surprised too". Let us not sweeten the taste of the Gospel for convenience or comfort, let us not water it down, let us not dilute its message and the words of Jesus. 

Do we want concrete things?"From simple disciples of the Master we have become masters of complexity, who talk a lot and do little, who seek answers more before the computer than before the Crucifix, on the Internet instead of in the eyes of our brothers and sisters; Christians who comment, debate and expound theories, but do not even know a poor person by name, have not visited a sick person for months, have never fed or clothed someone, have never befriended a homeless person, forgetting that 'the program of the Christian is a heart that sees' (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas esto, 31)".

In short, to the question: And when did we see you..., the answer is: now, every day. This is how the successor of Peter explains it. The most personal response, the one that the Lord expects from each one of us, is not the clarifications and analyses and justifications (which are undoubtedly important and He has and will take into account). The most important thing is in our hands and each one of us is responsible for it. 

This is the teaching, which challenges us directly, combining the call to hope with realism: "Today the Lord reminds us that death comes to make truth about life and removes any extenuating circumstance to mercy. Brothers, sisters, we cannot say that we do not know. We cannot confuse the reality of beauty with artificially made-up make-up.".

Ultimately, the measure of our life is none other than love, understood in depth and in truth, as Jesus lives and reveals it: "The Gospel explains how to live the waiting: we go to meet God loving because He is love. And, on the day of our farewell, the surprise will be happy if we now allow ourselves to be surprised by the presence of God, who awaits us among the poor and wounded of the world. Let us not be afraid of that surprise: let us go forward in the things the Gospel tells us, to be judged as righteous at the end. God waits to be caressed not with words, but with deeds.".

Expanding the horizons of fraternity and peace

Francis' apostolic journey to the kingdom of Bahrain (November 3-6) was intended, as the Pope declared when he made his assessment three days after his return (cf. General Audience, November 9, 2010), to broaden the horizons of fraternity and peace in our world. And he asked himself, also that day, why visit a small country with a Muslim majority, if there are many Christian countries... And he answered with three words: dialogue, encounter and path.

Dialogue, because this place - which is advancing in peace, despite being made up of many islands - shows that dialogue is the oxygen of life. And this requires renouncing the selfishness of one's own nation, openness to others, the search for unity (cf. Gaudium et spes82) to move forward, with the guidance of religious and civil leaders, on the major issues that we have raised at the universal level: "the forgetfulness of God, the tragedy of hunger, the protection of creation, peace.". This was the meaning of the forum that the Pope went to close, entitled East and West for human coexistence. Dialogue must foster encounter and reject war. Francis once again referred to the situation in Ukraine, as one among other conflicts that cannot be resolved by war. 

There can be no dialogue without meeting. The Pope met with Muslim leaders (the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar), with the youth of Sacred Heart College, with the Muslim Council of Elders, which promotes relations between Islamic communities, in the name of respect, moderation and peace, opposing fundamentalism and violence.

And so this trip is part of a way. The path that St. John Paul II began when he went to Morocco (in August 1985), to help the dialogue between Christian and Muslim believers, which promotes peace. The motto of the trip was: Peace on earth to men of good will. Dialogue, the Pope explains, does not dilute one's own identity, but demands and presupposes it. "If you don't have an identity, you can't have a dialogue, because you don't even understand what you are."Francis encouraged dialogue in Bahrain also among Christians, in his meeting with Christians of various confessions and rites in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia (4-XI-2022).

And we Catholics also need dialogue among ourselves. This was made clear at the Mass celebrated at the national stadium (5-XI-2022) where the Pope spoke to them of "to love always" (also to enemies) and "love everyone". And also at the prayer meeting at Sacred Heart Church in Manama (6-XI-2022), where he spoke to them about joy, unity and "prophecy" (to get involved in the problems of others, to bear witness, to bring the light of the Gospel message, to seek justice and peace).

In his evaluation of the trip, the Pope called once again to "broaden horizons": the horizons of human fraternity and peace. How to do this concretely? Through openness to others, broadening one's own interests, making oneself better known. "If you are dedicated to knowing others, you will never feel threatened. But if you are afraid of others, you yourself will be a threat to them. The path of fraternity and peace, in order to advance, needs each and everyone. I give my hand, but if there is no other hand on the other side, it is useless".

The temple, discernment and the poor

Five years have passed since Francis instituted the World Day of the Poor. On this occasion (cfr. Homily, 13-XI-2022, and Message for this day, published last June 13), the Pope referred to the reality of the temple in Jerusalem, which many admired in its splendor (cf. Lk 21:5-11). That temple, in the Christian perspective, was a prefiguration of the true temple of God, that is, Jesus as Head of the Church (cf. Jn 2:18-21).

It is something that affects us personally. Because this background of the history of salvation and of the Christian faith must be translated into concrete, in the here and now of our life, through discernment. To show this, on this occasion the Pope focused on two exhortations of the Lord: "do not be deceived" and "bear witness". 

Discernment so as not to be deceived

Jesus' listeners were worried about when and how the dreadful events he was announcing (including the destruction of the temple) would take place. Neither, Francis advises, should we allow ourselves to be carried away by "the temptation to read the most dramatic events in a superstitious or catastrophic way, as if we were already near the end of the world and it was no longer worthwhile to engage in anything good". Jesus tells us, in the words of the Pope: "Learn to read events with the eyes of faith, confident that being close to God not a hair of your head shall perish." (Lk 21:18).

Moreover, although history is full of dramatic situations, wars and calamities, this is not the end, nor is it a reason to be paralyzed by fear or defeatism of those who think that all is lost and it is useless to make an effort. The Christian does not allow himself to be atrophied by resignation or discouragement. Not even in the most difficult situations, "Because their God is the God of resurrection and hope, who always lifts us up: with Him we can always look up, start again and begin again". 

Occasion of testimony and work

And that is why the second exhortation of Jesus after "do not be deceived", is in the positive. He says: "This shall be an occasion for you to bear witness." (v. 13) The Pope dwells on this expression: occasion to bear witness. The occasion means having the opportunity to do something good from the circumstances of life, even if they are not ideal. 

"It is a beautiful art, typically Christian: not to be victims of what happens - the Christian is not a victim and victim psychology is bad, it hurts us - but to seize the opportunity that is hidden in everything that happens to us, the good that can be done, that little good that can be done, and to build even from negative situations.". 

Typical of Francis is the affirmation, which he repeats here, that every crisis is a possibility and offers opportunities for growth (it is open to God and others). And that the evil spirit tries to transform the crisis into conflict (something closed, without horizon and with no way out). In fact, when we examine or "reread" our personal history, we realize that we have often taken the most important steps in certain crises or trials, where we were not in full control of the situation.

Therefore, in the face of the crises and conflicts we witness - related to violence, climate change, pandemics, unemployment, forced migrations, misery, etc. - every day, we cannot waste or squander money, waste our lives, without taking courage and moving forward.

"On the contrary, let us bear witness." (Here we can see a call to works of mercy, to a job well done, in a spirit of service, to the search for justice in our relationships with others, to the improvement of our society). "We must always repeat this to ourselves, especially in the most painful moments: God is Father and He is at my side, He knows me and loves me, He watches over me, He does not fall asleep, He takes care of me and with Him not a hair of my head will be lost."

But that is not the end of the matter (because faith is lived in works): "And how do I respond to this [...] Seeing all that, what do I, as a Christian, feel I should do at this point?". Francis alludes to an old Christian tradition, also present in the villages of Italy: at Christmas dinner, leave an empty place for the Lord who may knock at the door in the person of a poor person in need. But, he observes, will my heart have a free place for those people, or will I be too busy with friends, events and social obligations?

"We can't stay." -concludes- "like those of whom the Gospel speaks, admiring the beautiful stones of the temple, without recognizing the true temple of God, the human being, the man and the woman, especially the poor, in whose face, in whose history, in whose wounds Jesus is. He said it. Let us never forget it"..

Read more
More on Omnes
  • Newsroom
  • Spain
  • "We have discovered a Carmen deeply in love with Christ."
Spain

"We have discovered a Carmen deeply in love with Christ."

On the day that the diocesan phase of the cause for the beatification of Carmen Hernandez begins, Omnes brings back an interview that was conducted last year with Carlos Metola, diocesan postulator.

Maria José Atienza-December 4, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Six years ago Carmen Hernandez, initiator, together with Kiko Arguello, of the Neocatechumenal Way, died in Madrid. Five years that, following the current canonical norms, make possible the request for the opening of the Cause of Beatification of a woman "deeply in love with Christ, as described in this interview with Omnes, Carlos Metola, diocesan postulator appointed by the Neocatechumenal Way.

Just two months ago, at the end of the Mass on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Carmen's death, you gave Cardinal Osoro the libellus of demand, in which you formally requested the beginning of Carmen's cause of beatification. During this time, how has the process of gathering the necessary documentation for this cause been?

- When Carmen died in 2016 I started, together with some collaborators, to collect all the documentation she had generated throughout her life: her writings, letters she had written -of which she made a kind of draft- and other letters she received and that we have recovered.

Carmen wrote a lot. For her catecheses, for example, she prepared drafts well in advance, with many books and notes. Carmen and Kiko have preached the Gospel mainly orally, in retreats, meetings... thanks to God, all this has been recorded and it has been possible to transcribe their words.

All this written documentation has been sub-divided into topics that, from now on, will be studied by the historical commission and the theological censors of the Archdiocese of Madrid.

We have also collected the testimonies of her fame of sanctity and her fame of signs: those signs of Carmen's capacity of intercession in heaven. The graces and favors of these years exceed 1700. We have favors of all kinds: from passing an exam, or that an operation goes well to others that show a help or grace of God through Carmen's intercession that borders on the extraordinary.

We have realized that in many parts of the world there is a fumus, a conviction that Carmen lived her life in holiness: during her life, just before her death and after her death. Documentation of all this has been collected. Also from the visits to Carmen's tomb, where more than 35,000 people have already visited, most of them from the Neocatechumenal Way, but also many other people who have come to her tomb after learning about Carmen and her life.

postulator carmen
Carlos Metola delivers the libel for the opening of the process to Cardinal Osoro

One of the tasks of the postulators is to get into "the soul" of the people they want to elevate to the altars. You have known Carmen in life, but what Carmen did you know through her writings or testimonies that you did not know?

-Carmen wrote every day of her life. She kept diaries for more than thirty years. Each day she would write a short summary of the day. What we have found in these writings is an immense love for Jesus Christ. Every day she has notes such as "Lord, how good it is that we are alone", "Lord I love you", "Lord help me"....

Carmen has gone through many moments of suffering and struggle, because it is not easy to start. The Lord raised up the Neocatechumenal Way as a Christian initiation. Let me explain: for many centuries people entered the Church as children, but when they reached the age of adolescence or adulthood, the faith that was lived became small in the face of affective, sexual, economic and competitive problems, and there arose the doubt: where is the faith, why has the Baptism received not become a big tree full of fruit? Well, because it is necessary that the seed of faith received be watered and grow. And this is what Carmen and Kiko have done: to begin a Christian initiation.

Carmen realized that the Lord had placed in her hands a marvelous instrument for her faith to mature and grow to the stature of Christ. She did not want to create a congregation or a movement, she wanted to renew the Church, the parishes. All this she reflected in her diaries.

Carmen realized that the Eucharist and Reconciliation are fundamental sacraments, because they accompany us in our Christian life. She studied both sacraments for years, down to their roots. In these notes she reflects, for example, the need to rediscover the richness of our Baptism, the richness of the sacraments and the Word of God.

Many times in the meetings it was Kiko who spoke, but what Kiko said he had prepared together with Carmen. She had prepared it, they had discussed it. Kiko himself points out that Carmen was the soul of the Neocatechumenal Way, without her, the Way would not have been possible.

Carmen reflects in her writings a love for Christ, which makes her heroically be in the rearguard, in the back, and also a great love for the Church, for the Pope and a concern for what she called the lost sheep: those people who, within their Neocatechumenal communities, are going through a difficult situation, of special suffering....

Reading Carmen's notes reflects this: a great and intimate love for Christ, for the Church and for others.

Curiously, on days when, for example, there had been a multitudinous meeting with young people, in his notes we find that yes, he thanks the Lord for that meeting, but he immediately returns to his intimacy with Christ, "Lord, I love you, help me, do not let me fall...".

Many times Carmen went through what we could call "dark nights", a kind of feeling that the Lord "was leaving her", which is the struggle of those who proclaim the Gospel. In her notes, on many occasions she speaks to God in this way, asking him to stay with her, as one in love with Christ.

You have pointed out that Kiko, initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, has described Carmen as the soul. The soul "cannot be seen" but without it there is no life?

- Yes. Indeed, there is an aspect of holiness that is external. Not because one glories in it, but because it is noticeable. Those of us who knew Carmen saw her holiness: when she prayed, spoke or asked us questions. But there is another hidden aspect. In the letter to the Colossians, St. Paul says "your life is with Christ hidden in God. That is to say, there is an aspect of holiness hidden in Christ. You cannot be holy if you do not have a serious and deep relationship with Christ.

Carmen prayed the hours of the Psalter and she really prayed them slowly, and she taught us all this: that a Christian cannot begin "quickly", but that it is a process. You have to face the Lord, because God's love changes the way we see life. Carmen had a great love for the Scriptures, she underlined them, she had marked passages... she knew them and always found something new in the Word of God. She had that hidden life in God, and that is what I, as postulator, have to demonstrate, that apart from the human and known side, there is a hidden part: that silent and constant dialogue with God that every Christian must have and that Carmen lived.

The expected opening of the Cause of Beatification of Carmen is the first person of this ecclesial reality who can be publicly declared a saint. How are you living this process in the Camino?

-For the Way this is new. It is true that there is the cause of Marta Obregón, which has concluded its diocesan phase and the documentation is in Rome, but in that case it is by way of martyrdom, because she died for defending her chastity. In the case of Carmen, the way by which the opening of the Cause is requested is the life, virtues and fame of sanctity. We are receiving a lot of help, for example, from the Delegate for the Causes of Saints in Madrid, Father Alberto Fernandez.

There are several things that help and encourage us: to see that favors and graces are coming from all over the world and, of course, to know in depth those writings that, until now, we had somewhat scattered and that, together, form something very serious, historical: Carmen's deep faith, which is an example for all.

Read more
More on Omnes
Evangelization

Disabled persons and participation in the life of the Church

Although the Church's work with people with disabilities is not new, the difficulties encountered by these faithful and their families continue to be numerous. Physical barriers and prejudices are still present when it comes to a full experience of faith and the participation of these people in the ecclesial community. 

Maria José Atienza-December 3, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes

One of the real pending issues for the Church is undoubtedly that of the pastoral integration of women in the people with disabilities. Although steps are being taken, in specific communities and almost always encouraged by the presence of people with various disabilities, physical or intellectual, the reality is that the care of these people, especially in the field of intellectual disability is still scarce and little worked.

A few months ago, as part of the Synodal itinerary, the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and LifeThe General Secretariat of the Synod, in agreement with the General Secretariat of the Synod, invited some thirty people with disabilities from five continents to contribute their diverse experiences to the Synod. From their contributions and reflections was born the document The Church is our home. This document made explicit the need for "distance themselves from certain ideas that have marked the Church's approach to this question. The first is that of those who saw in it the result of guilt; the second is that of those who thought that the disabled were somehow purified by the suffering they experienced and, therefore, somehow closer to the Lord".

This was compounded by the fact that pastoral interest has been centered on "mainly in the families or in the care institutions that cared for them" historically. 

The Church is our home courageously calls for a change of mentality in the Church: to recognize, truly recognize, that "The Lord has assumed in himself everything, but truly everything that belongs to concrete and historical humanity, in all its possible declinations, those of every man and every woman, including disability".

Many people with disabilities are part of our communities. In the case of intellectual disabilities, it is even more noticeable that the lives of these people are respected to a greater extent in faith communities. However, there is still a long way to go. 

Faith is in the air at home

María Teresa and Ignacio know a lot about living the faith with people with disabilities. They have seven children, one of whom, Ignacio, has a mild intellectual disability and the youngest, José María, was born with Down syndrome. Their experience underlines the idea expressed in the document The Church is our home when he affirms that the experience of faith with people with disabilities "can help overcome the idea that it is our intellectual capacity that generates friendship with Jesus." 

In fact, Maria Teresa points out that "People with disabilities have a much broader and cleaner capacity to grasp transcendence than others, including parents". However, a different and adapted language is needed, which in general is not available. In fact, explains María Teresa, "a lot of people are doing it on their own". 

This mother of two children in need emphasizes that "Many times we find that young people are treated like little children, and that cannot be. Each one has a different need for formation, a different expression of their faith. We have to accompany them so that they reach the same point as the others by the path they need. For example, through easy reading. It is not a question of lowering concepts but of how they are exposed and not, because they are more accessible, less serious. We can explain the Trinity or the conversion of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in such a way that they can understand it and we don't need to put little drawings of a small child to a guy of 24 years old", concludes forcefully. 

His affirmation joins the request of these people for "overcome any paternalistic attitude towards those who experience a disabling condition and overcome the idea that we should be taken care of exclusively", in the document of the Dicastery, which qualifies as "urgent a change of mentality that helps to capture the potential of each one." 

As stated by The Church is our home: "A paradigm shift is needed that starts from a theological deepening capable of making explicit in a clear and forceful way the dignity of the person with disabilities as equal to any other human being, promoting their full participation in the life of the Church". 

Read more
More on Omnes
Books

Letters from China

José Antonio García-Prieto writes for Omnes this short review of a book about a missionary in China, very much in keeping with the feast of the saint we celebrate on December 3: St. Francis Xavier.

Francisco Otamendi-December 3, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe lives of missionaries, an example for all CatholicsRelated News"Of me you shall be witnesses", the evangelizing mission of every believerRelated NewsWhich priests do we need? To form missionary pastors

"Fulgencio de Bargota. Letters from Kansu (China) 1927-1930", is the title of the small book of 150 pages, recently published by the Fonte publishing house. It gathers the letters that the Capuchin religious Fulgencio (Jerónimo Segura), at the beginning of his missionary adventure in China, sent to the Capuchin Fathers of Pamplona, and that these were published in their magazine "Truth and Charity". Now they see the light again, thanks to the careful compilation of Magdalena Aguinaga, who learned about them through the Navarrese historian and 2014 Prince of Viana Award, Tarsicio de Azcona, also a Capuchin.   

Fulgencio, born in 1899, took the habit at a very young age and was ordained a priest in Pamplona in 1923, leaving for China in 1927, together with three other missionaries. After praying in Lourdes and embarking in Genoa, it would take them almost six months to reach their final destination, in eastern Kansu, some two thousand kilometers from Shanghai. Providence arranged for him to die very young, of typhus, at only 31 years of age. However, his "Letters" reveal the action of divine grace in his soul, because they reflect a striking harmony between his youthful apostolic ardor, which appears in the frequent and serious circumstances he faced, often risking his life, and the maturity he shows in his judgments and comments on those vicissitudes and on the social and historical situation of China, torn in those years by continuous civil wars in its vast territory.

His missionary zeal is always alive as shown, among others, in this passage from a 1929 letter addressed to the students of Fuenterrabia: "A few days ago we baptized 17 catechumens... What a kick we gave the devil... and those that await him! For Christmas, I made a small foray to Sant Chá during which I was hungry, bitterly cold and in grave danger of falling into the hands of thieves. On Christmas Day itself, my succulent menu consisted of the following dishes: first, a good appetite; second, a pear; third, a piece of bread; fourth, thanks and no tablecloths were raised because they were conspicuous by their absence. Would you believe that I lost my good temper? Nothing could be further from the truth. I was happier than the Easter I was celebrating. What happened to me was what the great missionary, St. Paul, says: Scio et esurire, et penuriam patiAnd what could be better than to get a little closer to this model of missionaries and live his life and follow in his footsteps, even if from afar? There is nothing like his letters.

The exquisite respect for Chinese culture and for the full freedom of the people before allowing them to embrace the Christian faith is very remarkable. Thus, when faced with an elderly catechumen who was exultantly asking for baptism, Fulgentius showed a certain reticence, which he expressed in these terms: "What mysterious spring had moved him to ask for baptism that afternoon and with such fervor? Was it the boisterous joy that the catechumens were showing? And he decided to delay it for some time to make sure that the man had grasped the Christian doctrine well and that he would be baptized with absolute freedom. 

The author of the compilation of the "Letters" introduces numerous and suggestive comments, at the foot of the page, that enrich the already entertaining account of the missionary. Thus, with regard to the event just mentioned of the catechumen anxious for baptism and the prudence of the missionary, the author writes: "It is interesting to note, at a distance of almost a century, the respect for the freedom of the missionaries towards the catechumens, allowing them to freely ask for the sacraments". 

In another letter in which Fulgencio stops to comment on the presence in China of several million Mohammedans and the history of their progressive arrival in the country, the author of the book writes: "In this letter we note the historian facet of Fulgencio de Bargota, who in such a short time in China, is able to elaborate an interesting study of Islamism; we think that with little access to written sources. Also because of the lack of time due to the urgency of the mission".

The "Letters" are not lacking in short stories of people - beggars, blind, orphans - who received a fraternal welcome in the Capuchin mission, full of human and Christian warmth. As a whole, they bear witness, once again, to the human and supernatural richness of the missionary work of the Church in the Far East, begun as early as the 16th century by St. Francis Xavier. May the book reach a wide public and may the direct reading of these "Letters" reach an echo in their lives.

The authorFrancisco Otamendi

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsThe lives of missionaries, an example for all CatholicsRelated News"Of me you shall be witnesses", the evangelizing mission of every believerRelated NewsWhich priests do we need? To form missionary pastors
More on Omnes
Evangelization

St. Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier, a friend of St. Ignatius of Loyola, was a missionary priest who was named the "Apostle of the Indies" for his evangelical work.

Pedro Estaún-December 3, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsWalking with Ignatius of Loyola, the pilgrim of the interior life

Francisco was born in the castle of Javier (Navarra) on April 7, 1506. Son of Juan de Jaso and Maria Azpilcueta. He was the youngest of five siblings. His mother, a very pious woman, knew how to transmit this value to her son and instilled in him a great devotion to Christ represented in an image that is still venerated today in the chapel of the castle.

At the age of 18 he decided to go to study in Paris where he studied Latin, Humanities and Arts. He stayed at the Colegio Mayor Santa Bárbara, where he shared a room with Pedro Fabro and later on with Ignatius of Loyola. He was a good student and in 1529 he passed the Bachelor of Arts exam at the age of 23. That same year his mother died. The following year he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree. From now on he could be called Master Francisco. For three years he taught philosophy at the college of Beauvois and, in the meantime, he studied theology. 

He enjoyed excellent human qualities: clever, a great athlete and an amusing young man; both because of his family's position and his own ability, he was in an excellent position to climb to honorary positions. Little by little Ignatius of Loyola won him over and introduced him into the circle of his friends. He often repeated to him the phrase from the Gospel, "Javier, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, if in the end he loses his soul?" This led him to an authentic conversion that was very well known in the environment in which he moved. 

He then began a new way of life with other young people of Paris with the same concerns, and on August 15, 1534, at the age of 28, he made his vows in Montmatre with his first companions. In September he withdrew for the Spiritual Exercises, finished his theological studies and moved with his eight companions to Venice in 1537. There Ignatius of Loyola was waiting for them with the intention of embarking for the Holy Land. The war with Turkey prevented the departure of the ships and so they opted to work with the sick in the hospitals of Venice. They then went on pilgrimage to Rome where they placed themselves at the disposal of the Roman Pontiff. The Pope received them and granted them permission to be ordained priests and to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On June 24 of the same year, Xavier was ordained a priest in Venice.

The following two years (1538-1540) were decisive in the life of this group of young priests. They wanted to work in the Church and dedicate themselves to helping people, and they wanted to do it as a group in the style of the religious orders, but with more agility, to be where they were most needed at any given moment. On September 27, 1540, Pope Paul III approved the nascent Society of Jesus, in which Xavier played a very important part. Ignatius of Loyola was named Father General and Francis the first secretary and right hand of Ignatius.

The ambassador of Portugal, Pedro de Mascareñas, asked the Pope that year to send missionaries to the East. Simón Rodríguez and Nicolás Alonso de Bobadilla were chosen, but before starting the trip, Bobadilla became seriously ill and at the last minute it was decided that Javier would go. Thus his missionary vocation was born. On April 7, 1541, Javier's 35th birthday, the ship left Lisbon for India. The voyage was long and eventful. At the end of August they arrived in Mozambique, where they stayed for six months because of the monsoon. Xavier devoted himself mainly to caring for the sick. On May 6, 1542, they finally arrived in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India.

He began there working on the coast of Pescheria with the paravas, pearl fishermen, developing an enormous and varied work: he acted as mediator in the war with the Badagas, which was very bloody; he made numerous trips: to Comorin, Travancor, Ceylon..., and to the East coast of India. From April to August 1545 he stayed in Sao Tome, where the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle is located, and decided to travel even further East, to Malacca and the Molucca Islands, in Indonesia, where he spent two years (1545-1547) visiting several islands: Amboino, Ternate, Moro... He returned to his base in Goa, and stayed there for a year and a half, while he prepared his trip to Japan, where he stayed for three years. He visited several cities: Kagoshima, Yamaguchi, Miyako, Kyoto... in the midst of great difficulties of language, political situation, climate, etc. He returns to He returned to Goa, where he had a few months of intense work: he had been appointed Provincial of India. He wrote many letters and solved serious problems, since there was a lack of missionaries and many conversions. In spite of the concrete needs of India, he thought it was essential to open up to China. It was like going to the heart of Asia. On July 21, 1552, he arrived in Singapore, and soon after reached the island of Sancian, 30 leagues from the coast of China and the city of Canton. There he encountered many difficulties and many of those who followed him abandoned him; Xavier was left ill and accompanied only by his Indian servant and the Chinese Antonio.

On December 3, 1552, Francis Xavier died in Sancian, at the gates of China. His only companion and witness, Antonio, tells it like this: "On November 21 he fainted while celebrating Mass. On December 1, he regained consciousness and could be heard repeating: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me". "O Virgin, Mother of God, remember me.". In the early morning of December 3, with the crucifix in his hands and the name of Jesus in his mouth, he surrendered his soul and spirit into the hands of his Creator". He was 46 years old. Two years later his body was transferred to Goa.

On March 12, 1622 he was canonized by Pope Gregory XV. That same year the Deputation of the Kingdom of Navarre named him its patron saint; the Cortes ratified the oath two years later. In 1657, by pontifical decision, St. Fermin and St. Francis Xavier were named co-patrons of the Kingdom of Navarre. In 1927 Pope Pius XI named him, along with St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, patron of the missions.

The authorPedro Estaún

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsWalking with Ignatius of Loyola, the pilgrim of the interior life
More on Omnes
Spain

Bravo! 2022 Awards

The Episcopal Commission for Social Communications of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has awarded the Bravo! 2022 Awards to communication professionals.

Paloma López Campos-December 2, 2022-Reading time: < 1 minute
RelatedRelated NewsBravo Awards 2021 : "Authentic communication is still possible".

The Bravo! Awards were created to reward the work merits of communication professionals in various media, who have distinguished themselves for their service to human dignity, human rights and Gospel values.

Although the winners were announced today, the awards ceremony will take place in February 2023. The jury that awarded the prizes was composed of Monsignor Salvador Giménez Valls, who presided over the body; Silvia Rozas, director of the magazine "Ecclesia"; Juan Carlos Carcía Domene, director of the BAC; José Luis Restán, president of Ábside Media; Rafael Ortega, president of UCIP-E; Fernando Galindo, dean of the UPSA School of Communication; Ulises Bellón, director of the CECS Press Department; Juan Orellana, director of the CECS Film Department; and José Gabriel Vera, director of the CECS Information Office and Secretariat.

Winners 2022

The winners of this edition are:

Bravo! Special: Foundation VIII Centenary of the Cathedral of Burgos.

Bravo! Press Award: Jorge Bustos, columnist for El Mundo.

Bravo! Radio Award: César Lumbreras, from COPE.

Bravo! Television Award: Almudena Ariza, from TVE.

Bravo! Award in Digital Communication: "Ecclesia" for the special "A visit for history".

Bravo! Film Award: Adolfo Blanco, for the promotion and distribution in Spain of "The Chosen".

Bravo! Music Award: Manu Carrasco.

Bravo! Advertising Award: Ogilvy's #30years campaign for Decathlon.

Bravo! Award in Diocesan Communication: Alberto Cuevas, delegate of the diocese of Tui-Vigo.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsBravo Awards 2021 : "Authentic communication is still possible".
More on Omnes
The Vatican

The custom of the Nativity Scene, impregnated with popular spirituality

On December 3, 2022, in St. Peter's Square, the traditional inauguration of the Nativity Scene and the lighting of the Christmas tree will take place. Three years ago Pope Francis signed in Greccio the apostolic letter Admirabile signum on the value and meaning of the Nativity Scene.

Antonino Piccione-December 2, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes

The traditional inauguration of the Nativity Scene and the lighting of the Christmas tree will take place in St. Peter's Square on Saturday, December 3 at 5:00 pm. The ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez AlzagaRaffaella Petrini, President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, in the presence of Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General of the same Governorate. In the morning, the delegations from Sutrio, Rosello and Guatemala will be received in audience by Pope Francis for the official presentation of the gifts. Details in the article by María José Atienza.

To make the crib, Pope Francis writes in his apostolic letter Admirabile signum (signed in Greccio three years ago, on December 1, 2019), "one learns as a child: when father and mother, together with grandparents, pass on this joyful custom, which contains in itself a rich popular spirituality."

Wonder and emotion flow from the manger because "the gift of life, already mysterious to us every time, fascinates us even more when we see that the One who was born of Mary is the source and support of all life". [...] Often children - but adults too! - like to add to the crib other little figures that do not seem to have any connection with the Gospel stories. However, this imagination is intended to express that in this new world inaugurated by Jesus, there is room for everything human and for every creature. From the shepherd to the blacksmith, from the baker to the musicians, from the women carrying water jugs to the children playing...: all this represents everyday holiness, the joy of doing everyday things in an extraordinary way, when Jesus shares his divine life with us".

As always, the Holy Father emphasized, "God is disconcerting, unpredictable, continually outside our schemes. Thus, the manger, while showing us God as he entered the world, provokes us to think of our life as part of God's; it invites us to become his disciples if we want to attain the ultimate meaning of life.

In front of the Nativity Scene, writes the Pope, "one's mind willingly goes back to when one was a child and looked forward to the moment when one began to build it. These memories induce us to be ever more aware of the great gift that the transmission of the faith has given us; and at the same time they make us feel the duty and joy of sharing the same experience with our children and grandchildren."

For this reason, Francis concludes, "the Nativity Scene is part of the sweet and demanding process of transmitting the faith. From infancy and then in all ages of life, it educates us to contemplate Jesus, to feel the love of God for us, to feel and believe that God is with us and we are with Him, all children and brothers and sisters thanks to the Child Son of God and the Virgin Mary. And to feel that in this lies happiness".

The blessing of the images of the Child Jesus

It was Pope Paul VI, during the Angelus of December 21, 1969, who gave the blessing for the first time to the statuettes of the Child Jesus and to the Nativity scenes.

Since then, every Sunday before Christmas, during the Angelus, the crowd gathered in St. Peter's awaits and invokes that blessing. "Because the manger," Montini said, "revives the memory of the great event, the birth of Jesus, the Savior, the Son of God made man; and then because the manger represents with candid and naive simplicity the picture of Bethlehem; and it becomes an evangelical scene, it becomes a lesson of Christian spirit, a message of custom." And then because the manger warms, "like a home of good and pure love, and one feels a little enlightened about all the problems of this mysterious adventure of ours, which is our life in time, on earth".

Finally, a mention to one of the most visited places in Rome at Christmas: its construction began in 1972 with the idea of the ecological operator Giuseppe Ianni.

For 40 years, Ama (the company in charge of urban sanitation in the capital) has made available to the public an ancient deposit for the faithful reproduction of the Bethlehem of more than 2,000 years ago, which gets bigger every year. Institutional and religious personalities, heads of state, pontiffs and thousands of believers have visited and paid homage to the Bethlehem of the Garbage Dump.

Over time, it has grown a lot thanks to the gifts received from all over the world: such as the more than 2,000 stones, 350 of which come from various corners of the planet, each with its own label.

With various scenes from the daily life of the time and countless biblical references: the small sacks of lentils recall Esau, who gave up his birthright for a plate of lentils; the water fountain recalls Moses, who with his staff struck the rock from which water flowed in abundance for the Israelites; the sack of coal is a reference to the prophet Isaiah and then the ever-present sign of bread to represent the Eucharist. It is Jesus who becomes bread for all of us. 

Pope John Paul II, for many years, visited the Bethlehem of the Garbage Collectors. At Christmas 1985, he said: "I am a pilgrim in different parts of the world, in different countries, even here in Italy, in different regions, and in Rome in different parishes. But among all these pilgrimages, there is also the one that is systematic and is repeated every year, which began in '79, this pilgrimage here, in the house where the cleaners of Rome found an idea, a manger. I was invited the first time, and then I come even without being invited, I come every year. It would not be true to say uninvited, because I am always invited, but even without invitation I would make this visit. So with this pilgrimage I want to find myself in an environment very close to the one in which Jesus was born".

The authorAntonino Piccione

More on Omnes
ColumnistsEditorial staff

Invasion of Ukraine, nine months

With the war in Ukraine in the background, Advent emerges as a privileged time to seek the light of peace in all areas. 

December 2, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes

In the nine months since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the war and the destruction, human and material, have confirmed and increased the reasons for revulsion expressed at that time. The war is becoming a nightmare for many people on both sides, especially among the Ukrainians, on whose territory it is disputed.

Pope Francis has followed events closely, from the perspective of father and pastor characteristic of his mission. His steps and decisions in this context have shown a clear commitment to the cause of peace and justice; and his pronouncements and gestures have been clear, courageous and measured.

On the one hand, he is omitting no effort to promote peace, employing a wide variety of diplomatic initiatives, including countless appeals for sanity. At the same time, he has shown countless times his fatherly closeness to those who suffer and his desire to accompany them; thus, has sent special representatives on several occasions. Nor did he hesitate to condemn with great clarity this "sacrilegious massacre", as he called it. At the same time, he has avoided closing doors, creating new enmities, provoking conflicts with Russian Orthodox representatives, damaging what can be saved or occupying positions that do not correspond to him.

Exactly nine months later, on November 24, 2009, the Holy Father has written a letter to the Ukrainian people where he again regrets "so much destruction and suffering". The touching letter represents a significant terminological intensification. 

The pain of the Ukrainians is his own pain, and he carries them every day in his heart and in prayer, the Pope affirms. In addition to expressing a human feeling, their solidarity has a religious meaning: "In the cross of Jesus I see you today, you who suffer the terror provoked by this aggression. Yes, the cross that tortured the Lord lives again in the tortures found on the corpses, in the mass graves discovered in various cities, in those and in so many other bloody images that have entered the soul.". Lists and recalls with "affection and admiration" to the children who suffer or die; to the mothers and wives; to the young, the elderly, the wounded in body or spirit; to the volunteers, shepherds, refugees and displaced persons, to the authorities. It describes the behavior of the Ukrainian people as "bold" y "strong", "noble" y "martyr". Pope encourages Ukrainians to "return to Bethlehem". For that Holy Family the night, which seemed cold and dark, was illuminated by a light not from men, but from God. 

Not only UkraineThe whole world, including each one of us, needs this light, and Advent invites us to seek it. It is a useful guideline that the Holy Father offers when he encourages Ukrainians to turn to the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, so that she may fulfill her promises of peace. "just expectations of your hearts, heal your wounds and give you his consolation."and give them the gift of peace.

The authorEditorial staff

Read more
More on Omnes
Initiatives

Caminito de Belén: Living Advent with the family

What began as a family Christmas play in a large family has become a peculiar initiative to live Advent in family or catechesis groups. It reaches all parts of the world and can be followed through social networks.

Maria José Atienza-December 2, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe other Christmas portalsRelated NewsAdvent, a time of mercyRelated NewsNational School Nativity Scene Contest

Victor and Pilar have celebrated 50 years of marriage this year. This figure is completed with their 10 children, 8 children-in-law and 25 grandchildren. All of them form the López Antolín family, which has a long tradition of Christmas performances. 

As one of the daughters, Pilar, points out, "the 'culprit' of it all is our mother. With her unstoppable ingenuity and her eagerness to help us get into the BelenHe took out of the trunk of memories old costumes, bedspreads, that Mexican poncho that grandfather brought back from his honeymoon, costumes from the end of the school year party... anything he could find, and dressed each one of us as a character from the Nativity Scene, to immortalize the moment in the Christmas greeting. Christmas.

And every night Dad would tell us a bedtime story, in which Victor, the older brother, would meet the rest of the siblings on their way to Bethlehem: Juaco, the footballer shepherd, Javier, the gardener, Ana, the milkmaid... It was a way of helping us to participate in the Advent with imagination". 

As the years went by, those children grew up "Fifty years later, the ten of us are scattered between Madrid, Zaragoza, Paris, London and Melbourne.". 

The López Antolín family has been building their families, but the memory of those Christmas performances has always been present.

The idea of what it is today Caminito de Belen was born among the siblings sharing those same Christmas memories. They wanted to relive that same Christmas preparation together. "to our children and nieces and nephews, in addition to bringing the Advent message to many homes in a graphic way.". "We were trying to find an Advent calendar as close as possible to the story my father used to tell us. We came up with the idea of making our own Advent calendar. If we couldn't find anything like it, we would make it ourselves."Pilar says.

Thus, several siblings started a project in which the whole family became involved: "We got down to work. Victor did the drawings while Pilar wrote the stories. Muka was in charge of raising funds, basically donations and loans from (many!) friends and family and opening a profile on social networks. Jose was in charge of creating the web page and Gonzalo, one of the brothers-in-law, has edited some explanatory videos that you can see in our website www.littlewaycaminito.com", the López Antolín brothers point out. 

The characters of "Caminito de Belén".

During the months of work, the brothers shared the progress of the project with their families. "We would read the book to the children and, depending on their reaction, we would modify it....". In additionEach character has the name of one of the 25 nephews in our family: the star speaks of my nephew Wei, who has Down syndrome; Gonzo represents Gonzalito, who was born at 24 weeks in a very critical condition and kept us awake for 5 months; and the stories of the little donkey, the washerwoman and the baker speak of vocation, confession and receiving Jesus in Communion, respectively".. 

Living Advent "on the road".

All those months of work resulted in the material offered to live Advent: 

- an illustrated book in A4 format with explanations of the symbols of Christmas, and 24 stories, one for each day of Advent, in honor of the 24 stories their father told the brothers following the Advent calendar; 

-a book for the youngest members of the family in A5 format;

-24 figurines of the wooden Nativity Scene;

-24 wooden angels to hang from the Christmas tree;

-A varied list of Christmas carols.

The Advent calendar set is available in English and Spanish. In this way, through the stories collected in the book -or those that may arise thanks to the inventiveness of children and adults-, this path is gradually shaped with a multitude of characters that convey various ideas and virtues with which to prepare for the arrival of the Savior. 

In order to make the route to the portal and enjoy the journey, there are some simple guidelines that allow all pilgrims to get the most out of the experience. During the first stage, read the story of the day. Like Victor, the father, it can be one of the parents who tells the story to the whole family, but one of the younger ones can also take the lead. The second stage, when you have already picked up a little rhythm on the way, is the time to go deeper and meet one of the characters who accompanies the members of the pilgrimage in the adventure. This figure is the one who introduces the next part of the journey, in which one is invited to take one of the little wooden angels that come with the books and add it to the decoration of the Christmas tree, as a companion on the way and as a sign of the purpose that can be lived each day of Advent. 

The last stretch, when the pilgrims can already begin to feel the fatigue of the journey, it is time to cheer up the spirits by singing Christmas carols together, encouraging them to continue their journey. During the moments of rest, the children on the pilgrimage can get to know their companions a little better with the coloring sheets available on the website.

As they stand out in this family, "The purpose of the Advent calendar is that adults and children can identify themselves with the characters of the Nativity Scene". These characters are complemented with thoughts or stories that families can follow through Instagram (@littlewaycaminito) or Facebook (littlewaycaminito). In addition, there are a series of downloadable sheets for the little ones to color.

A solidarity initiative

The Caminito de Belen is also complemented by a solidarity aspect, as 10% of the profits from the calendar are used to help children and families in Cañada Real to escape from social exclusion and poverty through the Capicúa Project. This project has three initiatives underway:

-school support and literacy, to help the children of La Cañada in their learning process and incorporation into society;

-The aim of the program is to instill human values and bring a smile back on their faces by having a good time, through outdoor activities, handicraft workshops and music;

-support to families, through occasional contributions to cover basic needs and through negotiations with the administration to regularize their situation.The López Antolín family concludes "it is called 'Little Way of Bethlehem" because Advent is a little way (like our father's story) to clean the manger of our heart to receive the Baby Jesus. The children love to read it and follow the stories, and each day they are invited to give Jesus a gift, and in doing so put a little wooden angel on the Christmas tree. When December 24 arrives, we are all ready and the manger and our hearts are clean: this is what we learned from our parents and what we try to pass on to our children.

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsThe other Christmas portalsRelated NewsAdvent, a time of mercyRelated NewsNational School Nativity Scene Contest
More on Omnes
Initiatives

Encouraging a tradition in families

The fourth edition of the nativity contest in Puerto Rico will be held from December 15 to 24, and it will be possible to participate both in person and virtually.

Javier Font Alvelo-December 2, 2022-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsChristmas and other devotions in AfricaRelated NewsThe other Christmas portalsRelated NewsEncouraging a beautiful tradition in the family

We all look forward to Christmas. The typical decorations remind us of its arrival, as well as the desire to have details with our loved ones: a Christmas card, a gift, a visit, etc. Upon reflection, we realize that the central character and the first target of our affection should be the Child God, as well as his Mother, the Virgin and St. Joseph. If we go deeper we realize that the best joy we can bring to others is the wonder of putting Christ at the center of their lives, with the assurance of his love for us and the assurance that he knows all things and can do all things.

The tradition of placing a Nativity Scene in our homes helps us to focus on this meaning and help those in our home to have that Christian sense of Christmas. As love is diffusive of itself we wish that other families also feel encouraged to place a Nativity Scene in their homes. belen in the center of their homes, as well as in different places, as the Holy Father Francis recently reminded us in his Apostolic Letter Admirabile Signum from December 1, 2019 on the meaning and value of the nativity scene: "I would like to encourage the beautiful tradition of our families who in the days before Christmas prepare the crib, as well as the custom of placing it in workplaces, schools, hospitals, prisons, squares...." (AS, n. 1). Precisely at the time this Letter was published, I was trying to overcome the difficulties that arose in setting up an initiative to promote the diffusion of this Christian tradition. Nativity Contest. As with any project, it was necessary to get others excited to help. God moved many people to collaborate with this initiative, starting with a friend named William, who for the past 30 years has personified King Melchior, because he is one of the famous Three Wise Men from the town of Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, where the January 6th holiday is celebrated the most. William liked the idea and promised me that the "Three Wise Men"The winners of the contest would attend and present the prizes to the winners.

In addition, we agreed that the winning works would be exhibited in the thematic Museum of the Three Kings built in that municipality 20 years ago. I am told that it is the only one in the world dedicated to them. I was also supported by some painter friends, Felipe and Julio, both to create the call and rules of the contest and to act as jurors in it. The best shopping mall in my city, Plaza del Caribe, collaborated by lending us a place and the school where my two daughters studied was in charge of decorating it. Other friends helped me with the promotion. Teachers friends promoted in their schools the participation of their students. Several families also agreed to be part of the jury, along with school principals in the city. Finally, among other help, friends came to take turns during the exhibition. There are countless anecdotes that took place during the visit of people who went shopping at Plaza del Caribe, but in such a hurry they stopped to contemplate the nativity scenes on display, some of which were in models and others in painting.

For the 2nd edition of the Nativity Contest we found the pandemic that led us to do everything virtually through the Facebook page that we opened: "The Nativity Scene of the Year".PR Nativity Contest". The Holy Kings of Juana Díaz not only awarded virtually all the winners in an activity that was broadcast live from their Casa Museo, but also recorded video messages for the families of the winners.

The 3rd edition, despite the resurgence of the Covid by the Omicron variant, we were able to do it in person again, as well as virtually, and there was a good participation, both of artists who made their cribs and about 300 families who visited the exhibition over 4 days. These days were splendid occasions to talk to the people who visit the exhibition, to get them excited about this tradition and to listen to their feelings about what the different works inspired them. 

Information about the Nativity Contest

From December 15 to 24, 2022 we will have the 4th edition of the Nativity Scene Contest, whose on-site venue for the exhibition of the same will continue to be Plaza del Caribe in Ponce (in store 201 on the 2nd level, next to JC Penney), but you can also participate virtually by sending a photo of your artwork -or if you want the same work by mail-. The email address to send the photos is [email protected]All entries must be submitted on or before December 10, 2022. Those who wish to participate this year can get all the details of the Nativity Contest through our Facebook page. "PR Nativity Contest". To the traditional prizes of previous years we have added this year a ticket from Puerto Rico to Portugal for WYD in August 2023. for the student of "High School"The jury will choose from among the winners. 

We encourage all readers to live with your family this beautiful tradition of putting a nativity scene in your home, regardless of whether or not you can participate in the Nativity Scene Contest. On the other hand, participation in this 4th edition of the Nativity Scene Contest is not limited to making a work and registering, but you can participate by voting for the winners from December 15 to 17, 2022 by giving "like"You can add your favorites on Facebook "PR Nativity Contest", where all the works will be published.

Text Description automatically generated with medium confidence
Winning artwork by Sofia Valeria, 16 years old, who on her own initiative donated it to the Museo de los Santos Reyes Magos in Juana Díaz.
The authorJavier Font Alvelo

Puerto Rico

Read more
RelatedRelated NewsChristmas and other devotions in AfricaRelated NewsThe other Christmas portalsRelated NewsEncouraging a beautiful tradition in the family
More on Omnes