"God, merciful Father [...] to You we entrust today the destiny of the world and of every man" - said John Paul II 20 years ago in Krakow. This event had a global dimension. And it has not lost its relevance. The current Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki is the place where he lived and died. Sister Faustina Kowalska during the last years of his life. Her mortal remains are buried there. Through this simple nun, the Lord Jesus reminded the world of his mercy.
A timely message
In August 2002, Pope John Paul II came to Poland for the last time. One of the main objectives of his trip was the consecration of a new shrine, since the old, small church was no longer sufficient for the multitude of pilgrims arriving there. On August 17, a multitude of the faithful gathered at the shrine and in the spacious shrine grounds.
"How much the world today needs God's mercy! On every continent there seems to arise a cry for mercy from the depths of human suffering. Where there is hatred, desire for revenge, where war brings pain and death to the innocent, the grace of mercy is needed which calms human minds and hearts and generates peace. Where there is a lack of respect for life and human dignity, the merciful love of God is needed, in the light of which the unspeakable value of every human being is revealed. Mercy is necessary so that all injustice in the world may find its end in the splendor of truth," the ailing Pope said at the time. How relevant these words are today!
"That is why today, in this Shrine, I wish to make a solemn act of entrusting the world to the mercy of God. I do so with the fervent desire that the message of God's merciful love, proclaimed here through Sister Faustina, may reach all the inhabitants of the earth and fill their hearts with hope. May this message spread from this place to our beloved homeland and to the whole world", with these words John Paul II expressed the purpose of consecrating the world to the mercy of God.
Some enigmatic words
He also recalled the mysterious words of St. Faustina's Diary in which she points out that from Poland must come forth "the spark that will prepare the world for the final coming of Christ" (cf. Diary, 1732). John Paul II also left us all a task: "This spark of God's grace must be kindled. It is necessary to transmit the fire of mercy to the world. In God's mercy, the world will find peace and man will find happiness. I entrust this task to you, dear brothers and sisters, to the Church of Krakow and Poland, and to all those devoted to God's mercy who come here from Poland and from all over the world. Be witnesses of mercy".
The Pope of Mercy
The spread of the cult of Divine Mercy is one of the fruits of the Polish Pope's pontificate. It was, so to speak, an extension of the work he had begun as Metropolitan of Krakow. At that time, he commissioned an analysis of the "Diary" for the purpose of Sister Faustina's beatification process. This required diligent analysis because the Holy See had banned the dissemination of the Divine Mercy cult according to the forms handed down by Sister Faustina in 1959. The ban was lifted in 1978, even before the election of a Polish pope.
Cardinal Wojtyla closed the process at the diocesan stage. As Pope, John Paul II declared Sister Faustina blessed and then a saint. On the day of her canonization, in April 2000, he established for the whole Church the feast of Divine Mercy, set for the first Sunday after Easter. Previously, this feast had already been celebrated in Poland. John Paul II also contributed to spreading devotion to God's mercy through the publication of the encyclical Dives in misericordia in 1980.
The surrender of the world to the mercy of God in 2002 was, so to speak, the final touch to recall this message to the Church and to all men. It is no coincidence that John Paul II died on Saturday, the eve of the Feast of Divine Mercy.
The authorBarbara Stefańska
Journalist and secretary of the editorial staff of the weekly "Idziemy"
"Friendship and confidences", a game with a lot of background.
"Friendship and confidences" This board game was devised by Father Juan María Gallardo. The objective of this pastime is to get to know oneself, others and Jesus Christ better.
"Friendship and confidences" is a board game that helps to cultivate friendship. The Bible teaches that human relationships are a treasure, but growing in them requires generosity, time and mutual knowledge. This game allows us to open our hearts and make ourselves known to others in a simple way, while at the same time helping us to reflect on our friendship with God and with those around us. In this sense, it can be a useful aid for catechesis.
The creator is the Argentinean priest Juan María Gallardo. This first edition of the game is available only in digital version. Can be printed free of charge by accessing the PDF. The project for the future is to make it available for purchase in physical format.
Inspired by the game of the Goose
This entertainment proposal is similar to the well-known Game of the Goose. The game is played on a board with 150 squares that deal with different episodes in the life of Jesus -the friend who never betrays- and Mary, with miniatures or illuminations from Speculum humanae salvaciónis, a Belgian manuscript from the middle of the 15th century. The way to move forward is through letters that ask questions in which one gets to know oneself.
Becoming familiar with more than a hundred Gospel scenes is certainly a good start to learning about the life of Jesus Christ.
Of course, as in the famous goose game, winning requires a good dose of luck. That is why the game instructions remind us: "We wish you luck. Like the disciple who replaced Judas; the scripture says that there were two candidates and they cast lots and it fell on Matthias.
Pope Francis: "Old age must bear witness to children that they are a blessing".
The Holy Father continued his Wednesday audiences on old age. As on other occasions, he emphasized the special relationship between the elderly and children.
The anecdote of the audience of this Wednesday, August 17, was the Swiss guard who collapsed a few meters away from Pope Francis. He did his duty to the point of exhaustion. Curiosities aside, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on old age with a reflection on Daniel's prophetic dream. This vision at the beginning of the Apocalypse refers to the resurrected Jesus, who presents himself as Messiah, Priest and King, eternal, omniscient and immutable (1:12-15).
Christian artistic tradition has depicted God the Father as a kindly old man with a white beard. Without puerile sentimentality, the Holy Father stressed the validity of the image: "The biblical term most often used to indicate an old man is `zaqen', which comes from `zaqan', and means `beard'. The snow-white hair is an ancient symbol of a very long time, of an immemorial time, of an eternal existence. There is no need to demystify everything for children: the image of a God who watches over everything with snow-white hair is not a silly symbol, it is a biblical image, it is noble and even tender. The figure of the Apocalypse standing in the midst of the golden candlesticks coincides with that of the "Ancient of Days" of Daniel's prophecy. He is as old as all mankind, even older. He is as old and new as the eternity of God."
Children are a blessing
The Pontiff also highlighted the biblical example of Simeon and Anna in the presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. "Old age," Pope Francis pointed out, "on its journey towards a world in which the love that God has infused in Creation will finally radiate without hindrance, must fulfill this gesture made by Simeon and Anna, before taking their leave. Old age must bear witness to the children that they are a blessing". The strength of this sign indicates the dignity and inalienable value of human life, for which the Holy Father underlined that our destiny in life cannot be annihilated, not even by death.
The credibility of the elderly is very great for children, which is why a great complicity is born between them. "Young people and adults," the Pope continued, "are not capable of giving a witness as authentic, tender and moving as that of the elderly. It is irresistible when an elder blesses life as it comes to him, putting aside any resentment for life when he leaves. The testimony of the elderly unites the generations of life, the same as the dimensions of time: past, present and future. It is painful - and harmful - to see the ages of life conceived as separate worlds, in competition with each other, each seeking to live at the expense of the other."
The wisdom of old age
Over the last few months Pope Francis stressed the value of the contribution of the elderly to the family and society today. "The alliance between the elderly and children will save the human family," the pontiff stressed. And he ended his remarks by asking: "Can we give back to children, who need to learn how to be born, the tender witness of the elderly who possess the wisdom of death? Can this humanity, which with all its progress seems like an adolescent born yesterday, recover the grace of an old age that clings to the horizon of our destiny? Death is certainly a difficult passage of life, but it is also one that concludes the time of uncertainty and throws away the clock. Because the beautiful part of life, which no longer has deadlines, begins precisely then".
The government and the different actors of the Panamanian civil society have requested the help of the Church to find solutions to the social conflicts derived from the economic situation of the country.
The Catholic Church in Panama has always enjoyed great social recognition, because at all times, even during the most difficult years of the military dictatorship (1968-1989), it has maintained a conciliatory position. Throughout history - also during democracy - it has been the guarantor, at the request of both the rulers in power and civil society, of fruitful dialogues in search of peace and the common good.
This is what is happening at the moment when the product of more than three weeks of protests The national government, headed by President Laurentino Cortizo, asked the Catholic Church to serve as "mediator" so that both the protesting sectors and the government could reach agreements that would lead to the opening of free transit throughout the country and the reestablishment of social peace.
The causes of discontent
The protests focused on issues such as the high cost of living, mainly the price of fuel that was about to reach US$4.00/gallon, the increase in the basic family basket, corruption, lack of transparency in public finances, among others. It was a national social outburst unprecedented in the Panamanian democratic era. The demonstrators had different leaders in the different regions of the country and this made it difficult for the Government to reach agreements since it did not have a single interlocutor. In fact, the Government's proposal to freeze the price of fuel at US$3.95 was accepted by some sectors, while others rejected it.
At the request of the national government, the Catholic Church in the country, in the figure of the Metropolitan Archbishop, José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, accepted to be a "facilitator", not a mediator, because as the Archbishop explained, "the Church cannot be a mediator". "To be a mediator is to be in the middle, and the Church will always be on the side of those most in need." Through a communiqué dated July 16, "the Catholic Church accepted to be a facilitator of a process that will not only help to resolve the difficult situation that is being experienced but, above all, to initiate a process of structural change that will really make Panama a more just and equitable country".
Mediation conditions
To this end, the Church proposed some principles that conditioned its acceptance, namely: 1) Dialogue at a single table; 2) Consensus on a single agenda with all the actors; 3) A process divided into stages, first the urgent and, later, a more in-depth dialogue; 4) That the actors in the first stage would be the groups that were expressing their unease and discontent through actions in the streets and roads of the country and that, in the second stage, the actors would be the representatives of all sectors of society; 5) That the Church would begin its work when all the actors officially accepted it along with the conditions established for carrying out its role.
The actors accepted the role of the Church and the process began. When asked why the Church accepted to be facilitatorUlloa pointed out: "Faith is daring. We did not think much about it, and if you look at it with human eyes, it was daring. When we were already at the dialogue table, surrounded by dissatisfied and upset people, on the one hand, and the Government on the other, without the necessary resources to attend to both sides, we understood that the only thing left was to put ourselves in God's hands so that everything would work out well".
Concrete progress
And so the dialogue process is progressing. In the first stage, rapid results have been obtained which led to the reopening of free transit by the demonstrators, as well as the freezing of fuel prices at US$3.25/gallon and price controls on more than seventy products in the shopping basket by the national government.
Eight topics were agreed to be discussed at the single table: shopping basket, fuel prices, reduction and supply of medicines in the national health system, education financing, energy reduction, discussion of the Social Security Fund, corruption and transparency, intersectoral and follow-up table. However, although important steps are being taken, there are points on which agreements have not been reached in this first stage.
In addition, there is great pressure from business associations and guilds that were not part of the groups that were expressing their discontent through actions in the streets and roads of the country, with the intention of being included from now on in a dialogue that they consider to be exclusive and of which they express fears of a possible imposition of an economic system that limits free enterprise. The Government has requested that other sectors be included, but for the time being the dialogue is still in the first stage, following the road map initially agreed upon.
Other mediators
The Bishops of the Panamanian Episcopal Conference have joined the work initiated by the Metropolitan Archbishop together with a team of facilitators, including the rector of the Santa María la Antigua University, the president of the Justice and Peace Commission, among others.
Ulloa has invited representatives of other churches, who have also contributed their part in this delicate moment, to show that this is a matter of national unity and not only of a Catholic nature. It is worth mentioning the work of lay people and volunteers who have put their hands to work to support a dialogue on which will depend, to a great extent, the stability and social peace of a small and thriving nation, but at the same time with great challenges, one of them, social inequality.
Ecumenical work in the Middle East between Christians and Arabs is now a reality
Pedro, together with his team, succeeded in forming a community of Arabic-speaking Christians belonging to different rites: Byzantine, Maronite, Orthodox and Latin. He is currently on mission in the Middle East as part of his priestly formation.
Franz Reinisch: "Against my conscience - with God's grace - I cannot and will not act".
80 years ago the Austrian priest from Schönstatt Franz Reinisch was executed: he was the only priest who refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler.
In April 1534, the former Lord Chancellor Thomas More and the Bishop of Rochester John Fisher refused to sign the "Act of Supremacy" passed by the English Parliament, which made King Henry VIII the head of the English Church. More and Fisher were executed for this refusal. John Paul II named Thomas More patron saint of rulers and politicians on October 31, 2000: "From the life and martyrdom of St. Thomas More flows a message that down the centuries speaks to men and women of all times of the inalienable dignity of conscience," said the Motu Proprio for his proclamation.
There have been martyrs of conscience "through the centuries", also in the National Socialist regime. They followed the dictates of their conscience, for example the students of the White Rose as well as other people who refused to obey the anti-Christian and inhuman Nazi system and who paid for their resistance with their lives.
Martyr of conscience
A special form of refusal consisted in the refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler. After the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, the oath formula was changed. Instead of serving "always faithfully and fully my people and my Fatherland", the conscripts were to swear "that I will render unconditional obedience to the Reich and German People's Führer, Adolf Hitler".
Of the 18 million soldiers in the WehrmachtOnly a few refused to take the oath, in contrast to the estimated 30,000 deserters. For desertion there may be different reasons; the oath, on the other hand, was refused for reasons of conscience. Apart from the Jehovah's Witnesses or "Bible Students" - who did not specifically reject Hitler's oath, but military service in general - according to the latest studies about 20 Catholics and nine Protestants took this momentous step.
Along with Franz Jägerstätter and Josef Mayr-Nusser, beatified in 2007 and 2017, respectively, the best known of them is Franz Reinisch, whose beatification process has already passed the diocesan phase. A Pallottine priest from Schönstatt, he was sentenced to death for "undermining the defense force" (Wehrkraftzersetzung) in July 1942 and executed on August 21 of the same year, 80 years ago.
As early as 1939 and in the retreat house in Schönstatt, Reinisch had already said: "One cannot take the oath, the oath to the National Socialist flag, to the Führer. That is a sin, for it would be like swearing an oath to a criminal... Our conscience forbids us to follow an authority that only brings to the world crimes and murders for the sake of conquest. To that criminal we cannot take an oath! He maintained his conviction to the end.
Vocation
Franz Reinisch was born on February 1, 1903 in Feldkirch-Levis (Vorarlberg). His father was a lawyer, so he too began studying law at the University of Innsbruck. After a 30-day retreat in Wyhlen, near Basel, and in view of the moral misery he encountered while studying legal medicine in Kiel in 1923, the desire to "win souls for Christ" was awakened in him. He decided to become a priest. After three years at the seminary in Brixen, Reinisch was ordained a priest on June 29, 1928.
He soon came into contact with the Pallottine Fathers in Salzburg. In November he entered the Pallottine novitiate in Untermerzbach, near Bamberg. Through the Pallottines, Franz Reinisch came to know Schoenstatt in August 1934 (until 1964 the Schoenstatt Movement remained closely linked organizationally to the Pallottines). He had finally found his vocation.
It was precisely at this time that he began his confrontation with National Socialism. He was outraged that, in connection with the so-called "Röhm-Putsch" ("Night of the Long Knives") at the end of June 1934, the regime had people murdered without a court sentence, but also that Hitler had incorporated Austria into the German Reich in violation of international law. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinisch recognizes the alternative: "Either Nazi or Christian", it is not possible to be both.
Road to martyrdom
With the outbreak of the war, the persecution of the Church. Franz Reinisch was forbidden to preach in September 1940, which sealed his fate: since he could not occupy a parish post, he could be drafted. On March 1, 1941, Fr. Reinisch received the order to prepare for conscription; the actual draft order was sent to him on Easter Tuesday 1942.
Franz Reinisch arrives at the Bad Kissingen barracks on April 15, 1942, deliberately one day later than ordered. He immediately declares his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler, whereupon he is taken to Berlin-Tegel Prison. The trial before the Reich Military Tribunal took place on July 7; but the death sentence had already been passed earlier. He was transferred to Brandenburg-Görden prison for execution.
In his closing argument at the trial, he declared: "The condemned man is not a revolutionary, an enemy of the State and of the people, who fights with violence; he is a Catholic priest who uses the weapons of the spirit and of faith. And he knows what he is fighting for. Franz Reinisch understands his death as a sign of atonement. His earthly life ends on Friday, August 21, 1942, at 5.03 a.m.
Strong parents
Franz Reinisch is the only Catholic priest who refused to take the oath to Hitler, of which he was aware: "I know that many priests think differently than I do; but no matter how much I examine my conscience, I cannot come to any other conclusion. And against my conscience - with God's grace - I cannot and will not act." His parents reaffirmed his decision; in a letter his father told him: "Suffering is brief and soon passes. At the end of the suffering imposed is eternal joy. Finis tuus gloriosus erit! The end of suffering and the beginning of eternity will be magnificent". And his mother: "I have nothing to add but to say that I will pray and sacrifice even more; be strong, Franzl; heaven is our reward."
The process of beatification of Franz Reinisch was closed, in the diocesan phase, in June 2019. The files and documents were forwarded to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. As a martyr (of conscience), no miracle is necessary for beatification. This is alluded to by Manfred Scheuer, bishop of Linz and vice president of the Austrian Bishops' Conference, in the one-hour documentary "Pater Franz Reinisch - Der Film" (Angela Marlier, 2016): the martyrdom of Franz Reinisch is "in the line of the martyrs of the early Church who said no to the emperor" and who spelled out the creed saying, "I renounce evil."
Origins of the liturgical celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The theologian Antonio Ducay summarizes in this article how the feast of Mary's falling asleep came into being. The author is an expert who has recently published a book on the subject, "The Assumption of Mary: History, Theology, Eschaton"..
Antonio Ducay-August 15, 2022-Reading time: 3minutes
– Supernatural veneration of the Virgin Mary has existed since the earliest times of Christianity. Already in the Gospels, the figure of Mary, although treated with sobriety, has a great importance. In the second century, Fathers of the ChurchThe apocryphal writings of that time extol her virginal purity and present her with an almost angelic dignity.
The first Marian celebrations
In the 3rd century, the prayer "Sub tuum praesidium" speaks of the power of intercession that Christians attributed to the Virgin. We also know of a series of Marian hymns that were sung towards the end of the 4th century, even before the Council of Ephesus solemnly proclaimed in 431 that Mary is the Mother of God ("Theotókos").
Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century knew of only one liturgical commemoration of Mary. This commemoration took place in a church located halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We know this because the liturgical calendar with the feasts and commemorations celebrated in the Holy City at that time has been preserved in the Armenian language. This calendar also includes the readings for each celebration. One of its entries stated the following: "August 15: Mary Theotokos: on the second mile from Bethlehem". This was not the feast of the Assumption that we celebrate today, nor the feast of the Dormition of Mary, which preceded the Assumption from the 6th century onwards. That day commemorated the repose of the Mother of God ("Theotókos").
Sleep
What kind of rest was it? At that time, there was a legend that Mary, already pregnant, stopped to rest during the journey to Bethlehem. A very ancient apocryphal writing, the "Protoevangelium of James", tells that, halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Mary, already close to giving birth, felt tired and got off the donkey to rest for a while: the moment of the virgin birth was approaching. In memory of this legendary episode, a pious Christian woman, Hikelia, built a church in that place around the middle of the 5th century, which was naturally called the Church of Rest or "Kathisma" ("seat" or "seat" in ancient Greek). This church, the plan of which is still preserved, has as its center the rock on which Mary is said to have sat down to rest. The Armenian calendar referred to it.
This calendar tells us, therefore, that in the church of the "Kathisma" there was a Marian memorial of Mary Mother of God. The readings of that day contained the well-known prophecy of Isaiah about the Virgin conceiving and giving birth to Emmanuel ("God with us") and the text in which St. Paul tells the Galatians that "when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of woman". It was, therefore, a remembrance in which everything was linked to the birth of Jesus and the virgin birth of Mary.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin
But then, how did we come to celebrate on August 15 a feast that does not commemorate the birth of Jesus from a virgin mother, but his Assumption into heaven? A later calendar (probably from the late 5th or 6th century), similar to the Armenian one but preserved in the Georgian language, reports a different practice. In it, the Marian commemoration celebrated in the Church of Repose is still present, but it is no longer on August 15: it has been brought forward to the 13th of the same month. On August 15, instead, this calendar indicates a new Marian commemoration, which this time is celebrated in the church of Gethsemane, near the garden where Jesus had prayed before his passion.
Some apocrypha located there the place where the body of Mary had been deposited after her death, before the Lord transferred it to heaven. According to these writings, this church contained, empty, the tomb of Mary. The readings and hymns of this Georgian calendar show that it is already a commemoration of the Dormition and the transfer of the Virgin to heaven.
A universal celebration
God had not allowed his Mother's body to remain in the tomb. In the church of Gethsemane, at the end of the 5th century, Christians celebrated this beautiful grace. In the following century, the wide diffusion of these apocryphal writings on the Dormition and Glorification of Mary favored the spread of this Marian commemoration of Gethsemane. Thus it began to be celebrated in other places as well, to the point that, at the end of the 6th century, the emperor Maurice decreed that it be celebrated as a feast throughout the empire.
Rome established it half a century later (7th century), calling it the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. The Marian feast of August 15 was soon to become the most solemn and popular of Rome's Marian feasts.
Mary, who is more than the apostles, sits down to listen as a disciple, and helps us to put aside our divisions and to feel, like her, members of the Church.
August 15, 2022-Reading time: 3minutes
The solemnity of the Asunción The feast of the Virgin Mary, in the middle of the month of August, fills our towns and cities with festivities. The whole of Spain comes to a standstill to celebrate, literally, the most popular of our festivities. Popular not only because of its great spread, but because its origin is to be found precisely in the people, in the desire of the simple people to proclaim that Mary was assumed into heaven in body and soul.
This dogma, which dates from 1950, is, in fact, a natural consequence of the immediately preceding Marian dogma (1854), the also defined by popular acclaim of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
This is explained by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution "Munificentissimus Deus"recalling that, "when it was solemnly defined that the Virgin Mother of God, Mary, was immune from the hereditary stain of her conception (Immaculate), the faithful were filled with a more lively hope that as soon as possible the dogma of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven would be defined by the supreme magisterium of the Church".
The text goes on to say that "in this pious competition, the faithful were admirably united with their pastors, who, in truly impressive numbers, addressed similar petitions to this chair of St. Peter".
And it is that the synodalityThe neologism that has become fashionable on the occasion of the process convoked by Francis for the period 2021-2023, and which designates the path that we travel together, faithful and pastors, as the People of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is not something new in the Church, but belongs to her most intimate essence since her beginnings, "it is a constitutive dimension", the Pope points out.
Mary herself, the very Mother of God, also lived synodality. In the book of Acts, which chronicles the birth of the first Christian communities, we see her attentive to the preaching of the apostles, together with the other disciples of Jesus, persevering "with one accord in prayer. The girl from Nazareth, chosen by God to be his most perfect creature, walks as one with the rest of the holy people in following her Son.
Throughout history, too, there have been many occasions in which this journey together of the faithful and their pastors has safeguarded the deposit of faith and the life of the Church.
Today there are many voices, especially outside the Christian community, although sadly also within, that try to break this spirit, trying to sell an image of division within the ecclesial family.
They promote a vision of the Church in which the hierarchy is on one side while the common believers are on the other. Or they focus on the Pope's most controversial decisions or statements with the sole objective of presenting a Church in disunity, and therefore weaker. But this is a false image.
Of course, there is a disparity of opinions and criteria among the faithful and bishops, among bishops among themselves, among the faithful and bishops and the pope, and of course within each Christian community.
There will be decisions of the hierarchy that are accepted better and worse, and there will be pastors who listen more and who listen less to their faithful, but there is a mystery, a glue, the Holy Spirit, that allows to unite what in appearance may seem disunited, like the dry and scattered bones that came together and came to life before the prophet Ezekiel.
Faced with the experts in Vatican intrigues, faced with those who believe themselves to be the owners of the absolute truth and seek to impose it on others, faced with those who slander for gain, the Holy People of God continues to walk together, aware of its limitations and failures, seeking the truth of our faith all together, participating, contributing, "persevering in prayer with one accord" and always under the guidance of the shepherds to whom the Lord entrusted his flock, not to profit, but to lay down their lives for him.
Mary, woman of the people, woman of the people, always attentive to the Spirit, the one who is more than the apostles, but who sits and listens like a disciple, can help us on this her feast to put aside our divisions and to feel, like her, members of the Church.
She precedes us in heaven, and invites us to accompany her. We will achieve this to the extent that we continue to feel part of her people, the one and only Holy People of God.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
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Sunday Gospel brings the words of Jesus in which he explains to his disciples that he has "come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already burning" (Lk 12:49). The Holy Father wondered: "What fire is he talking about, and what do these words mean for us today? As we know," the Pope continued, "Jesus came to bring the Gospel to the world, that is, the good news of God's love for each one of us. Therefore, he is telling us that the Gospel is like a fire, because it is a message that, when it bursts into history, burns away the old balances of life, challenges us to come out of individualism, to overcome selfishness, to pass from the slavery of sin and death to the new life of the Risen One. In other words, the Gospel does not leave things as they are, but rather incites us to change and to live in the new life of the Risen One. invites to conversion".
The fire of the Holy Spirit
Pope Francis stressed that the Gospel does not bring a false peace, but is "exactly like fire: while it warms us with the love of God, it wants to burn our selfishness, illuminate the dark sides of life, consume the false idols that make us slaves (...) Jesus is inflamed by the fire of God's love and, to make it burn in the world, he gives himself first of all, loving to the end, even to death and death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8). He is filled with the Holy Spirit, who is like fire, and with his light and power reveals the merciful face of God and gives hope to those who consider themselves lost, breaks down the barriers of marginalization, heals the wounds of body and soul, renews a religiosity reduced to external practices.
Pope Francis invited the faithful to increase their faith "so that it does not become a secondary reality, or a means of individual well-being, which leads us to avoid the challenges of life and commitment in the Church and in society". Finally, the Pontiff suggested some questions for meditation: "Am I passionate about the Gospel? Do I read it often? Do I carry it with me? Does the faith I profess and celebrate place me in a happy tranquility or does it kindle in me the fire of witness? We can also ask ourselves as Church: in our communities, do we burn with the fire of the Spirit, the passion for prayer and charity, the joy of faith, or do we allow ourselves to be dragged down by weariness and habits, with a dull face and lamentation on our lips?"
Dennis Petri: "Many Christians unconsciously self-censor themselves."
Religious freedom seems to be increasingly under threat in many parts of the world. To discuss this, we spoke with Dennis P. Petri, one of the researchers who has studied the issue the most and heads an institute focused on this topic.
Omnes interviews Dennis P. Petri, director of the International Institute for Religious Freedoma research center responsible for the in-depth study of this fundamental human right around the world. The institution has more than 15 years of experience and has developed a large number of academic studies.
What projects are you working on at the institute?
Among other things, we publish our own scholarly journal, the "International Journal for Religious Freedom". We also publish books and research reports, facilitate trainings, advise policy makers who wish to promote religious freedom and academics who seek to integrate the issue into their educational curricula and lines of research.
Currently, one of our projects in expansion is the Violent Incident Database. It is an instrument for collecting, recording and analyzing violent incidents related to violations of religious freedom. With this data we seek to influence public policies in the various countries we monitor.
For the time being, the staff of the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America (OLIRE), a program I founded in 2018, maintains this database for Latin America. More recently we have taken the first step to make it a global project, starting with data collection in Nigeria and India.
What is your overall assessment of religious freedom in the world? Are we improving?
Today, there is a wide variety of instruments measuring religious freedom. All, without exception, confirm that religious discrimination in the world is on the rise. It is a global trend that affects all religions and geographic areas, including the Western world. While there are improvements in some countries, on average, there are deteriorations in many more places.
There is still a long way to go before religious freedom is fully guaranteed in the world. Many countries are beginning to recognize and understand what it really means to guarantee religious freedom. It is no longer just a matter of enacting this right in their political constitutions, but of developing public policies that integrate the religious diversity of their countries on an equal footing.
In an increasingly globalized and polarized world, religious diversity remains a challenge for the culture and governance of many countries. At the same time, it represents an opportunity to strengthen democracy or a risk to it if this dimension of man is reduced only to the private sphere and relegated from its social role.
Which countries are of particular concern to you at the moment?
One country in the world that is of particular concern to me is Nigeria. It is an extremely complex country. The religious freedom situation is very difficult to interpret because there are so many factors and actors involved. There is some disagreement about whether the conflict is a dispute between farmers and herders over natural resources, or whether there is more to it than that. I think the debate is not whether it is one or the other, but both.
In any conflict there are always multiple factors involved, so we can debate for years whether it is a religious conflict or not, but I think that is not the right debate. In my view, we should recognize that, in addition to a religious conflict, it is also a political, cultural, economic, ethnic and resource conflict. Whether it is religious or not, religious groups are suffering and that is what we should emphasize.
What can you tell us about religious freedom in Latin America, especially in Nicaragua?
In Latin America, the countries to which OLIRE pays special attention are Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua. Mexico, because of what we have been observing during the last few years, due to the special vulnerability experienced by religious community leaders who carry out their pastoral or community work in areas affected by drug trafficking and human trafficking. These are clear examples of how organized crime has conditioned the religious freedom of many people in the world. And, unfortunately, it has come to light at a global level after the murder of priests and pastors in border areas with the United States.
In Nicaragua, the situation has escalated in a worrying way during the last six months. The role played by various members of the Catholic Church as defenders of human rights has exposed them in a particular way to the arbitrary actions of Daniel Ortega's regime. The actions of the government have increased not only in their level of censorship of the free expression of religious expression or opinion of priests and parishioners, but have even manifested a seriously worrying level of violence. From the various arrests, prosecutions of priests, expulsion of religious men and women from the country, to the violent seizure of various facilities, such as a Catholic radio station closed by the government, the police siege of priests critical of the government, the cordoning off of parishioners to prevent them from participating in their celebrations, among others.
These actions have intimidated not only the bishops and priests, but also the parishioners, who are beginning to perceive it as a risk to participate in a certain parish community, given the constant surveillance and harassment by the police.
Is there a politician in any country who stands out for his or her defense and fight for religious freedom?
I had the privilege of working with a Dutch MP, Dr. Pieter Omtzigt, and religious minority rights activist Markus Tozman. In 2012 we organized a public consultation on the situation of the thousand-year-old Syriac Orthodox Mor Gabriël monastery, which was being expropriated by the Turkish government. We called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to agendize the issue internationally. Unfortunately, the initiative was of little consequence due to the geopolitical realities of the world, although the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, continued to raise the issue.
Also noteworthy are the Colombian politicians who promoted the creation of the Comprehensive Public Policy on Religious Freedom in 2017. This is a unique initiative in the world, which generated a framework for the consultation of religious actors in decision-making on relevant issues. It has had very positive applications in several local governments, including the Municipality of Manizales and the Department of Meta.
Of course, mention can also be made of the International Religious Freedom Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998. Following efforts by a broad coalition of religious and human rights organizations, religious freedom became a permanent focus of U.S. foreign policy.
Do you think believers in the West are sufficiently aware of religious persecution in other countries?
I believe that in the West there is a perception that religious persecution is something that is experienced in distant regions such as the Middle East, Africa, India or China. However, the West is facing other forms of limitation to religious freedom, many of which believers in the West are just beginning to recognize. Secularism, religious intolerance or dictatorial regimes are some of the challenges facing religious freedom in our countries. For example, in Latin America it is believed that, because the continent is mostly believers, these limitations to religious expression should not occur.
However, every day western societies seem to understand that this right is not something that is only fought for in conflictive territories. It happens in the vast majority of our countries without us being aware of the level of self-censorship to which we are subjected by various external agents, such as ideological groups or the misunderstanding of the secular state, among others.
What is the self-censorship that your reports talk about?
To better understand what we mean by self-censorship, we must first know what the "chilling effect" is. This term was first developed by the Supreme Court of the United States. This phenomenon occurs when an individual who enjoys the freedom to express himself freely, decides to censor himself in order to avoid the negative consequences of expressing his opinion in a given case.
The "chilling effect" or "intimidation effect" is a term that, in relation to freedom of expression and freedom of religion, can be used to refer to the deterrent effect that arises when people fear the consequences of expressing their religious convictions or even behaving according to their own convictions, which can ultimately lead to self-censorship. Thus, "chilling effect" and self-censorship are two aspects of the same phenomenon.
We have observed that this phenomenon can occur as a consequence of the implementation of laws and/or policies that indirectly reduce freedom of religious expression. Or when an individual perceives a hostile environment, or suspects that expressing his or her beliefs will have negative consequences.
In June we published a report on self-censorship in Christians entitled "Perceptions on Self-Censorship: Confirming and Understanding the "Chilling Effect". After conducting interviews with Christians in Germany, France, Colombia and Mexico, we gathered very interesting data on the factors that influence this phenomenon. Among the findings we can mention that many Christians often find it necessary to be "prudent", to "self-secularize" or to use "democratic language" to express their ideas. Showing faith-based values with transparency implies a very high social cost: being the object of censure, disqualification or even discrimination in the social or even labor sphere.
Moreover, this behavior is often not recognized as self-censorship by the individuals themselves. In short, we have observed that many Christians unconsciously censor themselves.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the idea has spread that religion breeds violence and therefore we should do everything possible to suppress it. How would you respond to this argument?
The unfortunate events of 9/11 marked a before and after in the field. For much of the 20th century, the social sciences were dominated by the so-called "secularization theory," which argued that the world was becoming secularized. Religion would never disappear completely, but the process of secularization would be inevitable. The unfortunate events of 9/11 were a wake-up call for the international scientific community, because they made it very clear that religion was still a relevant factor to be taken into consideration.
The fact that the scientific community is more interested in religion is significant. The problem is that 9/11 also led to the association of religion with terrorism and violence, which is very worrying, as it obscures the positive role that religious actors have had, and continue to have, in promoting development at many levels.
It is important to remember that radicalism of any kind, whether religious, ideological or political, is extremely risky and volatile. The 9/11 attacks were carried out by specific individuals, with a radicalized interpretation of their faith, who ultimately did not represent the totality of Muslims in the world or in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the suffering and bewilderment of millions of people in the world has caused us to lose sight of the values, principles and peaceful contributions that most of the religions present in our civilization have brought.
Can we forget the religious dimension?
The religious, spiritual or transcendental dimension of man is essential to his human condition, which is why it has always been and probably will always be present in the new generations. Religious communities have demonstrated throughout history their relevant role as agents of social cohesion, as mediators of conflicts, providers of humanitarian aid, as well as collaborators in the construction of peace and justice.
To detract from the merit of the various religious communities in the field of humanitarian service, the defense of human rights and the promotion of human dignity, would be to neglect a key strategic actor in the construction of peace. This would be a great loss. Instead of adding peace partners, we reduce the analysis to the idea that all religions lead to violence, when history and facts have shown us that this position on religion is wrong.
Many religions do not accept the gender vision promoted by the UN. How do you think this diversity of opinion will evolve and will religious freedom be threatened by this issue?
It is difficult to predict how the debate will progress in this regard, but I believe that, in order to protect religious freedom in these international arenas, religious advocates and referents must advocate respect for the diversity of religions and religious expressions. It is in this diversity, all together, that they could demand from international agencies consistency with their discourse of inclusion and diversity.
Diversity of opinion on gender will be a threat to the extent that we give up demanding respect for the value of cultural diversity expressed in religiosity. It may sound naïve, but it is important that religious advocates and leaders do not give up on using the human rights advocacy system to assert their voice as one that must be respected.
The argument often used in these instances is that the majority religions impose their hegemonic vision with respect to gender. However, it would be helpful if the majority religions were understood as part of a cultural diversity that must be respected in the same way as other more "modern" religions, so to speak. It is in the brief renunciation of individuality that religious communities could consolidate a unity of the various religions with a similar idea of gender in order to counteract the threat of arbitrary impositions on the matter.
Are there universities or other academic institutions where data on religious persecution is studied in depth? Are any of these universities really relevant?
Indeed, in recent years, many university research programs have emerged that are interested in religious freedom. The best example is the Religion and State led by Dr. Jonathan Fox at the University of Bar-Ilan in Israel. This project is the most comprehensive database for analyzing religious discrimination in the world. With nearly 150 indicators, it is currently the "gold standard" for religious freedom data in academia. It has been used in more than 200 publications, including books, academic articles, doctoral and graduate theses.
We interviewed Father Jafet Peytrequin, current national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Costa Rica. He has also recently been appointed coordinator of the Pontifical Mission Societies for the entire American continent. In his heart he has a great desire, which he does not want to keep hidden: "From the point of view of the Church's mission, I would like America to be an ever more outgoing continent. This has become necessary.
The priest explains that one of his next commitments will be to "promote, with renewed vigor, the mission"Ad gentes", specifically involving the particular Churches and supporting the bishops in their task of missionary responsibility".
In your opinion, what is the future of the mission in the countries of the American continent?
The essential thing to remember is that the pilgrim Church is missionary by nature. In essence, mission is not something the Church does, but mission is what the Church does. Therefore, a missionary Church is a living, breathing Church. Giving a new impetus to mission in our continent means to provoke, in the words of St. John Paul II, "a new springtime for the Church". It is a privileged moment to ask ourselves some important questions: What are the challenges that the socio-religious environment poses to mission today? How are we called to mission in these times? How can the particular Churches promote mission more ardently? "Ad gentes"?
What measures could be taken to strengthen this mission?
In the first place, we must reinforce a common language in order to achieve shared concepts. In addition, we must take advantage of and integrate the work done by the missionary centers of the continent and share all its richness. It is important that the Pontifical Missionary Work be integrated into the ordinary pastoral work of our countries and form part of their pastoral plans. I believe that it is fundamental to insist on the universal responsibility that we all have in the mission and to promote missionary cooperation based on joyful animation. It is also important to make the mission visible in the person of the missionaries: we must show a "mission with a face" and not a mere activity. The next American Missionary Congress, to be held in 2024 in Puerto Rico, could help us in this regard.
How are you preparing for this event and what will be the objectives?
The dynamics and the preparation of this congress have been particular. We have tried to return to the synodal essence of the Church, born precisely from the missionary impulse. For this, the local organization leading the congress has been able to count on continental and worldwide support. The objective of this great event will be precisely to promote mission. "Ad gentes", walking together in listening to the Holy Spirit, and being witnesses of faith in Jesus Christ, in the reality of our peoples and to the ends of the earth.
What value have the American Missionary Congresses had for the entire continent?
In the Americas, they have been the result of great common efforts that have passed through different instances, including continental coordination. These congresses have been an indispensable resource to contribute to reflection and local work, but also to offer contributions at the global level, both in terms of animation and missionary cooperation.
Photo: Jafet Peytrequin in a meeting with Cardinal Tagle.
What is the role of the continental coordinator of the Pontifical Mission Societies that you have recently assumed?
I believe it is a "bridge" service between the different national directorates of the Pontifical Mission Societies and useful to bring together all the national directors to share efforts, expectations, dreams; to support each other and also to reflect on points of common interest and propose joint initiatives.
It is a matter of generating spaces of communion that in turn promote the mission. Communion is in itself missionary and the mission is for communion, as stated in number 32 of the post-synodal exhortation "Christifideles laici" of St. John Paul II. The continental coordinator is also a facilitator of the meeting between the national directorates and the respective world authorities, as well as between the directorates of other continents.
What have the previous coordinators achieved so far?
In the Americas, the previous coordinators, with their delicate and responsible work, have managed to connect the different national leaderships of the continent in an effective and efficient manner.
What is the current relationship between the Pontifical Mission Societies in each country of the American continent?
Today we have fluid continental communication and cooperation networks that help us to make better use of resources and enrich us with the contributions of each one of us. The integration of the entire continent has brought much wealth and, at the same time, has made us feel committed to the specific challenges of each country in the continent.
The authorFederico Piana
Journalist. He works for Vatican Radio and collaborates with L'Osservatore Romano.
Edinson FarfanThe layperson is not second class, we are all part of the People of God".
The Church is on the way to a Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome in October 2023. In each country the conclusions of the regional synods are being finalized. We interviewed Monsignor Farfán, responsible for this task in Peru.
Jesus Colquepisco-August 12, 2022-Reading time: 10minutes
Monsignor Edinson Farfán Córdova, OSA, is the Bishop of the Prelature of Chuquibambilla (Apurímac, Peru) and Coordinator of the Synod in the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. He was born in Tambo Grande (Piura, 1974). He entered the Order of St. Augustine in 1998. He made his religious profession on January 11, 2003 and was ordained priest on July 26, 2008. He has a licentiate in spiritual theology and pedagogy from the Catholic University of San Pablo de Cochabamba (Bolivia).
He has served as coordinator of the International Commission of communications and publications of the organization of Augustinians of Latin America (OALA-2006-2014); master of prenovices of the Augustinian Order (2011-2012); pastor of Our Lady of Montserrat in the archdiocese of Trujillo (2012-2013); professor of theology at Benedict XVI Catholic University in the archdiocese of Trujillo (2013-2015); prior and master of the professed of the Augustinian Order (2013-2017) and secretary general of the Organization of Augustinians of Latin America (OALA-2015-2019). Since April 2018 he was Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Prelature of Chuquibambilla; and on December 7, 2019 he was appointed Bishop of that prelature, in January 2022 he was elected president of the Episcopal Commission for Communication of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference.
Monsignor, you preside the Episcopal Commission for the Synod in Peru, how has the present Synod been received in all the dioceses of Peru, has there been an organized and participative work during the process?
- We have had a good response, the synodal process has been carried out in the 46 ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Peru. First the Permanent Council of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) formed the National Commission that would animate the Synod of Synodality in Peru, we collected all the guidelines and documents prepared by the General Secretariat of the Synod and adapted them to the reality of the country. Then we invited each ecclesiastical jurisdiction to launch the Synod, each one did it from its own reality and context; and then we invited the Bishop to form his Diocesan Commission, which animated the synodal process in its territory. It was also requested that there be a parish synodal commission for the listening process.
What was the purpose of this whole process?
- The objective was to reach all the places, the 95% of the jurisdictions formed their Diocesan Commission. We have worked in an organized manner, with monthly coordination meetings. Peru has responded to the Synodality, it is a Catholic people and loves its missionaries very much, it has felt accompanied by its bishops, priests, religious men and women and committed lay people.
In this listening process the people have responded with gratitude and generosity, the faithful feel that their voices have been heard and valued. It has also been a time to heal wounds, at some point the faithful said that they were not taken into account and now in this time they have been able to express their needs, complaints or hopes. We could say that the Synod is on its way and the Peruvian Church has assumed the commitment to walk together with the challenges that will surely arise along the way.
After listening to the national survey, what issues are of interest or concern to the Peruvian Catholic faithful?
- Reviewing the syntheses of the jurisdictions, there are constant and priority themes that have stood out in this phase of listening, and they are the following: the ongoing formation of the baptized to assume an ecclesial commitment, the pastoral care of families through catechetical formation, the formation of the laity in the field of politics, the prophetic dimension enlightened by the social doctrine of the Church, evangelization through the media and the formation of religion teachers through the Office of Catholic Education.
There was also concern for the celebration of the liturgy, greater clarity and concreteness in lay ministries, the value of popular piety, the faith experience of peoples according to their reality, the lack of missionaries in remote villages, vocation promotion, the option for the poor without excluding anyone, a more protagonist role for women and young people in the Church and society, the consequences of covid 19 and ecumenical dialogue.
There were also reflections on the clericalism that affects the lives of the faithful, sexual abuse in the ecclesial sphere, accompaniment of the elderly, trafficking in persons and migrants, the need for an organic and structured pastoral plan in each jurisdiction, formation in synodality for future priests, mining conflicts, care for the common home and the Amazon, care for indigenous cultures, and welcoming those who are excluded.
These are the constant themes that manifest themselves in most ecclesiastical jurisdictions, which the people of God have reflected upon.
Under this reading, what are the challenges for the Church in Peru?
- In the first place, the ongoing formation of the laity. This has come up in all ecclesiastical jurisdictions. We ask ourselves what kind of formation our faithful want and really need. What are those fundamental topics in which the people of God need to be formed? This is the discernment that the Church must make, obviously, always keeping in mind the centrality of the mystery of Jesus Christ; in this sense, the process of listening is very useful.
This formation should also lead to ecclesial commitment. In Aparecida, a weak faith of the people with little ecclesial commitment was evidenced; and this is due to the lack of formation. This issue is very important and should be addressed in deep discernment.
I see, and what other topics are presented?
- Also, another important issue is the formation of the laity in politics.As a Church we have a great treasure of knowledge in the Magisterium, Pope Francis published his third encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" which invites us to enter the field of politics, we have to form our faithful and teach them that politics is good, politics in itself is to seek the common good. How to encourage our faithful to enter this field is certainly a great challenge.
The Church has to be attentive to the needs of the world, discern the signs of the times, make known the Magisterium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The laity must participate in the field of politics; it is a great opportunity for the integral growth of our peoples. In politics, the common good will always be sought and I am convinced that a well-formed lay person can contribute much to the development of society and the human person.
What about popular piety?
- Popular piety is presented as a strength for our country, but at the same time as a challenge. It is up to us as bishops to accompany the People of God, keeping in mind the culture of the people, we also have to respect and value it. Before there was talk of purifying and extirpating, now we have to accompany and learn from this expression of faith. Obviously we must also take care of the essential: the faith of the people, doctrinal formation; that is to say, popular piety must also lead us to sacramental life and ecclesial commitment.
As pastors, it is our duty to accompany the holy people of God, of which we are also a part as baptized persons, and to form them in the Sacred Scriptures, Tradition, the Magisterium and the Sensus Fidei. Always valuing the richness that exists in each people. Popular piety is the treasure of the Church. In Latin America, in Peru, our people have kept their faith through popular piety, through simple faith. It is a challenge how to accompany these experiences of faith so that they always lead us to a personal encounter with the Lord, to the praxis of sacramental life and to ecclesial commitment.
Photo: Monsignor Farfán in a Marian procession in Chuquibambilla
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about the care of native cultures. What is the situation in Peru?
- The Amazon and the care of the common home and native cultures is an urgent call. Pope Francis repeatedly invites us to a greater awareness of the care of the common home. It can be seen in "Laudato Si", "Dear Amazon", "Fratelli Tuti", also in the Latin American Magisterium: Medellin, Puebla, Santo Domingo, Aparecida and lately in the prophetic voice of the First Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, we cannot close our eyes: nature continues to be attacked.
In 2019 there has been the Synod of the Amazon, our bishops of the Amazon are a prophetic voice for our Amazonian peoples, they feel in their own flesh the mistreatment of the land, the concern of contaminated waters, the pain of some indigenous communities that are outside their lands because these have been degraded. The bishops of the Amazon walk with their people and know their needs. However, as far as everyone is concerned, it is not enough to say that "we must take care" or "we must value and take care of the native or autochthonous cultures", we need to train ourselves in sensitivity in order to be able to act. It is everyone's responsibility to be able to assume a greater commitment in the different areas of action.
Could you give a concrete example?
I live in a place where there are constant mining conflicts related to the issue of environmental contamination. It is the Apurimac region, where the largest copper mining company in Peru, "Las Bambas", is located. There are constant conflicts between the peasant communities and the mining company. However, a major problem in this region is the increase of informal mining. Environmental contamination is alarming, the hills are collapsing, the water is contaminated and people are getting sick on a daily basis.
What to do in the face of this harsh reality? It is our moral responsibility to take concrete steps to take care of our common home; it is a cry from the Peruvian coast, jungle and highlands. The listening process of the synod has allowed the people of God to dialogue on this alarming reality that should lead us to assume concrete pastoral orientations.
Let's change the subject. Clericalism is another issue of concern to Pope Francis.
- Yes, and it has also been a topic that has come up at all times, it is a challenge because we cannot keep the laity in an infantile stage, relegating them and not taking them into account in the decisions. Today we really need to walk together. We are all part of the People of God because we have received the sacrament of baptism; bishops, clerics, religious men and women, and lay faithful. The priest should not have to command and command always, we have to learn to distribute and delegate responsibilities as People of God. It is not a matter of the laity doing what the priest does, and the priest doing what the laity does, but rather that together, from our vocation and ministry, we contribute to the growth of the Church and its mission.
What does Pope Francis mean when he speaks of the People of God or the holy people of God?
- The answer can be found in the Ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, in chapter II: "The People of God" of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium" Who make up the People of God? All the baptized, that is to say, before being bishops, priests, we are first the people of God, our identity card is our Baptism. Many times it has been erroneously understood that the people of God are only the laity. This is an issue that should be further deepened. In the challenges and pastoral orientations of the First Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, it appeared as a priority to be addressed urgently.
How are they going to work on the issue of abuse?
- Another current challenge for the whole Church is abuse in the ecclesial sphere. Every bishops' conference in the world is taking steps through Listening Offices. The people are asking to be heard and, of course, the people who have been affected need to be accompanied. I think this has to be done in a more serious and responsible way. We are taking steps as a Church in Peru. As the Episcopal Conference, we have recognized this problem as a priority because of its importance: to accompany at all times those people who have been affected and mistreated.
Professional help is also necessary to be able to accompany specific cases. We have reflected a lot on this subject, we cannot close our eyes to this painful reality. Some situations of pain are evident, that is why this space of accompaniment is necessary to heal wounds, including the victimizer.
How has the experience of synodality been carried out during the process? What future opportunities open up under this modality of work in the Church?
- We have done what Pope Francis asked us to do in his homily at the inauguration of the Synod for the whole ChurchWe have been able to "create spaces of encounter, dialogue, listening and discernment". In this synodal experience, what has been most striking is the meeting of people, whether virtual or in person, in spaces of communion. This meeting has allowed people to express themselves, to express their points of view, to feel listened to.
Listening makes us mature in our faith, in our commitments, wise is the one who listens and asks for advice. These meeting spaces have made us see different themes according to the local reality. While it is true that the Synod set us some themes, many others have become evident. In our country, with a rich diversity, these spaces have favored communion. This is also the challenge, it is difficult for all of us to walk together, to sit down and listen to each other, it requires a lot of patience.
It is also important to understand the spiritual dimension of the Synod. It is the Spirit who guides and accompanies his Church. He leads us along new paths, towards new challenging topics, where there is room for reflection and even for complaint or complaint. Always with full confidence that if we place ourselves in his hands, he will undoubtedly lead us to a successful conclusion.
Synodality is a great challenge for our Church in Peru..
- In this synodal time of the First Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean and the listening process of the Synod, the desire to walk together has been evident. I see the bishops of Peru very united, reflecting on very current issues. The virtuality in this sense has helped us a lot, there is good communication, we are convinced that synodality must always remain.
Although it is true that the reality of Peru is very diverse -coast, highlands and jungle-, there is a great commitment to communion. One of the challenges that has already been discussed in several Assemblies of the CEP, and that I am sure will soon take concrete steps, is the material help among the Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions, both with the presence of missionaries and economically. There are jurisdictions that can support themselves economically and others that are very poor economically. Others have enough clergy and others lack priests. In short, this is a great challenge to work together in this sense, giving us a hand from the possibilities of each jurisdiction.
How will the Synod be concluded in Peru?
-We are now working on the final synthesis, a richness for the Church of Peru. It is a pleasure to read the simple words of the faithful. Just as it has been expressed in the meetings, in the same way it has been put in writing. The National Commission has now the mission, in a climate of prayer and discernment, to make a national Synthesis. With the information that has reached it from the jurisdictions and with the impressions that it has been able to gather during the pre-synodal or preparatory meetings. Everything is being taken into account for the National Synthesis.
On August 5, we must submit the national synthesis to the Permanent Council of the CEP for approval. Then, before August 15, it has to be delivered to the General Secretariat of the Synod. We are on the right track, we have already organized the timetable. We will also send the diocesan syntheses of the jurisdictions to serve as technical support for information and reference, which is evidence of a serious and responsible work.
The next step will be the continental phase, CELAM, together with the General Secretariat of the Synod, are carrying out the respective coordinations. Synodality must always remain. From Latin America we have to continue working on the challenges and pastoral orientations that the First Ecclesial Assembly has left us.
In conclusion, what is your final reflection on this synodal process?
- My final reflection is that we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the temptation is to want to control everything, but it happens that the Spirit overflows us and uninstalls us from our place of comfort, leading his Church along new and surprising paths. Precisely, having this full trust in the Lord, who walks with his Church and loves her, we have to move forward. It is not enough to say I believe in synodality, we have to take concrete steps, steps in which this synodal spirit is shown in the Church.
Great challenges arise in order to continue growing as a Church of communion, participation and mission; this is achieved when we make a journey together.
Titling a book Better than that is risky and quite a statement of intent. But for José Luis Retegui, a young diocesan priest from Madrid, the Catholic religion is not just one among other religions and visions of existence. It is the best of all because, in his opinion, a better one cannot be imagined.
God, the best possible future
God has been pretentious and wanted to share with us, as Christ affirms at the Last Supper, the glory that He enjoyed before the creation of the world. If we elevate the two protagonists of every religion, God and man, to their maximum expression, we get the truth defended by the Catholic Church.
God has every imaginable perfection (all-powerful, infinite, omniscient...), his creation overflows with wisdom. Man is called to be like God by baptism because God has become like us in the incarnation. Life after death is all God's happiness forever. Can one imagine a better alternative? Christianity is the total union between God and man. Not in the future, but today and now, every time we partake of the Eucharist. By faith we believe in what man would not have dared to imagine or ask God for.
The truest religion
Better than that begins by affirming that the Catholic religion is the truest religion. In the first place, because it is the only one in which God has become man and has communicated to us the truth that only He knows. Moreover, this truth has been demonstrated by miracles and extraordinary deeds, from two thousand years ago to the present day. To think that all the miracles that have been corroborated by witnesses are invented perhaps requires even more faith.
Retegui takes an optimistic approach in a world where there is so much evil and suffering. In his opinion, the Catholic vision of evil is the most positive that can be conceived: Thanks to the Cross, we believe that "evil is good" because it allows us, like Christ, to love God and others more intensely. Moreover, we will suffer in this life only those evils that God permits in order to obtain greater good. Evil has an expiration date: Christ has annihilated it on the Cross, it is like a fish out of water giving its last breath.
Evil
Above all, we Catholics identify and have the tools to fight the only evil that should concern us: sin. All other evils can come in handy in this short period of life on earth. Christ has shown us how to transform pain into love. Evil to some extent is like smelly manure; it can be thrown away, however, if we bury it in our field it will make the plants flourish.
The work has a positive and uncomplicated tone, which brings freshness to the way of transmitting the faith in our time. It shows how Christianity offers the best vision of man, so that we are not just a collection of cells that will disappear after death. Moreover, the most modern movements are actually very ancient. Nature worship, yoga, karma, reincarnation... are much older than Christianity.
Maria
At the end of the book it is argued that the Virgin Mary is the proof that our created world is the best imaginable. This is a long-standing philosophical debate. Leibniz argued that this world is the best of all possible worlds, otherwise God would have created a better one. St. Thomas Aquinas rightly objected that this world is improvable and finite, God could have created a better universe, for example, with a larger size.
Mary is the answer to this apparent contradiction: God could have designed a more perfect universe, but not a more perfect creature than the Virgin Mary. The best of all possible worlds, God has concentrated it in a woman of Nazareth. The human being is called to be like God, she is the only one without any sin or imperfection. Therefore, the Virgin Mary is the reflection on earth of God's perfection.
"And it came to pass, as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the babe leaped in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. The greeting between two people who meet is the most spontaneous and natural action, and most of the time we do not pay attention to it. But if it is missing or a little cold, we feel it. If the greeting is sincere, it communicates many things to us. Mary's greeting, her voice, in addition, provokes something extraordinary. Elizabeth's child not only gasps, which could be the fruit of his mother's emotion, but even dances in her womb. Luke, in describing her reaction, uses the same verb that, in the Greek of the LXX, describes the dance of King David before the Ark of the Covenant.
Mary's voice and her greeting are a means of the infusion of the Holy Spirit, which fills Elizabeth and reaches her son, because that joyful voice is that of a person full of grace, upon whom the Holy Spirit and the shadow of the Most High have descended, and in her already dwells the Son of God. The voice of her greeting acquires the power of the voice of the adult Jesus when he casts out demons or commands Lazarus to come back to life; when he heals from a distance the centurion's servant and the son of Herod's official; when he turns water into wine, and bread into his body and wine into his blood... the voice of Jesus, the Word of God, filled with the Holy Spirit who heals and saves. For now, it is Mary's turn to give voice to the body of Jesus newly conceived in her womb. Her voice manifests the presence of God made man. She is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, an anticipation of the voice of the Church celebrating the sacraments.
The greeting wishes blessing and peace and makes them present. Therefore, Jesus will say to his disciples: "When you enter a house, greet it" (Mt 10:12); "when you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house'" (Lk 10:5), and he will encourage them to greet their enemies as well: "And if you greet only your brethren, what do you do that is extraordinary? Do not the Gentiles also do the same" (Mt 5:47). Greeting is very important in Paul's letters. The last chapter of the Letter to the Romans is a moving list of greetings. "All the churches of Christ greet you." At the end of First Corinthians: "Many greetings, in the Lord, from Aquila and Priscilla, and from the church that meets in their house". At the end of the Second Corinthians: "All the saints greet you". The opening and closing greetings in liturgical gatherings reflect the conviction of the greeting as the bearer of good and grace. Mary, Elizabeth's friend, cannot be aware that she is lending her voice to the first greeting of Jesus, her son. She lives the spontaneous and frank greeting of friendship, which is a manifestation of love.
The homily on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
Hong Kong's bishop emeritus to be tried in September
Now 90 years old, the cardinal was arrested months ago on charges of being the treasurer of a fund to pay bail for protesters arrested in the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations.
In the middle of the 75th anniversary of Cáritas Española, it will soon be almost five years since the launch of the Virgen de África Basic Aid Distribution Center, which is managed by Cáritas Ceuta diocese for hundreds of families. Manuel Gestal tells Omnes.
Francisco Otamendi-August 11, 2022-Reading time: 5minutes
"The key points of Caritas action are people", Natalia Peiro told OmnesWhat has changed and what has remained since its birth, María José Atienza asked her. And Natalia Peiro answered: "The root remains. Our feet are founded on the Gospel, on the Christian community. Caritas is an expression of that Christian community and that continues to be so in all the countries of the world. It remains that raison d'être that tells us that our task is an expression of our faith. And it remains, always, the service to all, without exception, without asking where you come from or how they are".
These words can be applied to the letter to the diocesan Caritas of Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city of 83,000 inhabitants, whose geographic enclave has proved over the years to be not the most tranquil in the world. To discuss the challenges facing this Ceuta diocesan Caritas, Omnes contacted Manuel Gestal, its director.
Rafael Zornoza Boy, bishop of Cadiz and Ceuta, blessed the facilities of the "Virgen de África" Basic Aid Distribution Center, managed by Caritas Ceuta, which has become a reference point in the care of needy families and in the management of resources.
"They are attended to, they are listened to."
"The distribution center is a way of dignifying those in need. They are not given a bag, but they are attended to, they are listened to... Even if they come for the material issue, they take something else and they are treated with the utmost dignity," Manuel Gestal pointed out before the pandemic on the website of the bishopric of Cadiz and Ceuta.
Now, a few weeks ago, the director of Caritas Ceuta underlined to Omnes some of its peculiarities: "It is a center that Caritas Ceuta has put at the service of the parishes. The most important thing is to point out that before, the Caritas teams in the parishes were autonomous, and each one, according to its possibilities, distributed to its users the money they had. With the Distribution Center, we have managed to do away with the terms "rich parish user" and "poor parish user".
"Now, any user, no matter what parish, receives exactly the same. What we basically look at for assistance is the number of members of the family unit. And depending on that, a certain number of points is allocated, and they make a purchase, with small limits, so that it is a responsible purchase. That is what we also intend to do".
"The salary will last for eternity."
Before commenting on the challenges facing the Distribution Center, and Caritas itself in the area, Manuel Gestal explains his trajectory over the years. Next year, in July 2023, Gestal will be six years into his second term as director of the Ceuta diocesan Caritas. But he has been at the helm since 2009. In total, he has spent 14 years promoting and directing the care of the most needy in the autonomous city.
We briefly transcribe this part of the dialogue, because it is thought-provoking: Does it give you time to attend to your other things, to your family? "I retired last year. Before that I have been simultaneously doing everything. The salary is good," he says with good humor, because he is actually a volunteer. "I hope I get it when I get up there. The salary will last for eternity. It's all very rewarding. Feeling useful is important."You can tell that the bishopric has a lot of confidence in you because they don't let you go, we tell him, and he answers: "My goal is to be 70 years old. I am 66, that is, I have 4 years left".
Regarding the current taskGestal explains that "there are seven parish Caritas in Ceuta, and we serve about 600 families a month, with an average of 4 to 5 people per family, so we currently serve about 2,500 people. We have a total of between 40 and 50 volunteers. In the Distribution Center there are 5 workers".
However, we immediately moved on to the immediate challenges, which have to do with the neighboring country. "In terms of needs, right now we are in a "stand by". The border with Morocco has been opened, and we will surely go up. It oscillates a lot with the city's employment plans."
"In 2020, when the pandemic began, we saw a significant drop," he adds, "because many of the people we assisted were living between Morocco and Ceuta. They were caught by the closure of the border in Morocco, and they stayed there. On Monday they opened the border and we will surely notice it. But then, when they closed the border on the 20th, we noticed a drop of more than a hundred families, between a hundred and two hundred. Because we were around 800 or 900 families a month. During the pandemic there have been ups and downs, but today, we are serving about 600 families, with an upward trend," he says.
Reception in parishes, data base
The first step continues to be the reception in the parishes. "They are our base, we cannot do without them. The Caritas teams in the parishes are still functioning and they are responsible for the files, for the reception. They tell the Center when people are going to come the following month. And they tell us: I have seven registrations, or three cancellations. And we are making provisions for the purchase and for the shelves to be full."explains Manuel Gestal.
"The parish directors go to the Distribution Center with the list of those assisted, the users, according to the number they have, and they should not accumulate, because the number of people allowed is eight," he adds. "And what they take is already controlled by us. In some places we have point codes and in others color codes, to see the amount they can receive. At the end, they go through a checkout, just like in a normal supermarket; the cashier, who is a hired person, checks that the points match what they are taking. In this way, any user from any parish receives and it is controlled according to the number of members of the family unit".
In parallel, a national database has been created, which gives transparency to the whole process. "We, all the aids we make, we load them in a database, to which the city, the Department of Social Affairs of the City of Ceuta, and the Department of Finance have access. In such a way that any user of ours, or any registered person authorized by the Administration, or with their own certificate to access it, because these are sensitive matters and cannot be accessed by just anyone. It should be pointed out that any user, naturally authorized, who has access to the national database of his regions, can enter the DNI of one of our people, and he can have everything he has received during the last three years, it seems to me. That database belongs to the Treasury, and it is transparent".
"When a user goes out the door, he enters that national database, and the authorized persons can see, with that ID card, the families that have taken, for example, one hundred euros in food from Caritas Ceuta Diocese. This at the moment it goes out the door, because it is already registered, before leaving".
Main benefactors
To conclude, it seemed natural to ask the director of the Ceuta diocesan Caritas about its main benefactors, those who contribute the most. This was his answer: "The majority is from the FEGA fund (European Agricultural Guarantee Fund), what comes from Europe; then there is the subsidy from the Autonomous City, from Ceuta, almost 200,000 euros; the Ceuta Food Bank as such, because its mission is to serve the entities that we are dedicated to helping end users. and then there are the donations".
Ángel LasherasOne of our objectives is to make Torreciudad known to a wider public".
The Shrine of Torreciudad will once again host the Marian Family Day, a gathering that brings together thousands of families at the beginning of September. This year will mark its thirtieth edition and will be presided over by Bishop Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria. Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria. The program includes the celebration of the Eucharist on the altar of the esplanade, offerings to the Virgin and the recitation of the rosary. We chatted with the rector about this event, the evangelization of the families and the novelties offered by the sanctuary.
On July 1, 2022 don Ángel Lasheras will complete his first year as rector of Torreciudad. At the age of 67, this smiling and friendly Galician received an assignment that has little to do with the dream of retirement that many people at that age are looking forward to. If today there are still those who use the expression that "you live like a priest", it does not seem that the cliché can be applied in this case.
Many Marian sanctuaries are located in geographically inaccessible places, and Torreciudad is no exception, so it is not so easy for crowds to visit. However, there are exceptions to this, and one of these occasions takes place every year -except for the past two years of Covid- during the first days of September, when many families come to participate in a meeting that has already been held for thirty years.
We also chatted with the rector about the family and other issues related to the pastoral work carried out in Torreciudad.
In Torreciudad, the Virgin Mary turns to her children...
Our Mother reaches out to everyone, especially to those who need it most or those who are farthest away from her Son Jesus. In Torreciudad, the affection of the Blessed Virgin Mary is manifested in simple but continuous miracles. St. Josemaría said that the great miracles of Torreciudad have to do with the interior conversion of souls, especially through confession.
In September you will celebrate the thirtieth edition of the Marian Family Day, what is your assessment of these three decades?
– Supernatural Marian Family Day has always been one of the great annual events of Torreciudad. And thanks to God and the Virgin it will continue to be so. This year we are going to live it with special illusion after two years of pandemic. We see that many people are eager to come and are preparing trips in advance.
We would like Torreciudad to be known as the "sanctuary of the family" because of this large gathering and other family-related activities. For example, in the coming months there will be activities aimed at married couples - "project of married love"-, young professionals and even younger people, in order to deepen the importance of the family nucleus, of the parent-child relationship, of courtship, etc. And we hope to expand the offer of this type of plans for people from all over Spain and throughout the year.
During the day there are offerings to the Virgin, what do they consist of and how can I participate?
It is very simple: families, parishes, schools and associations offer the Virgin flowers, some local products, images of the Virgin that they have brought to leave in the gallery of images in the sanctuary, etc. Ordinarily, they write to us through our website to inform us or even tell us directly on the day of the day. The important thing is to facilitate that the families can participate with enthusiasm and joy, and the whole family united...
In thirty years the family has changed a lot.
Of course, I believe it! The Church is aware of the difficulties faced by married couples, for the Christian family spirit has been diluted.
I suppose what will happen in all the shrines of the Virgin, but in Torreciudad we corroborate that many families come - and not only during the Marian Journey, but also throughout the year - who are recomposed inside for having had an encounter with Mary, or with the sacrament of Penance, or for the atmosphere of peace that is breathed in the sanctuary... The grace of God touches them closely.
It is true that we are not a shrine with the influx of pilgrims that El Pilar, Fatima, Lourdes or Montserrat have, for example, where millions of people come, but we want to keep growing the number of people who come here to pray to the Virgin, also from other countries. We can say that Torreciudad is already an international sanctuary -universal, I would say-, although on a small scale.
The new shrine is on the verge of its 50th anniversary, and we want to continue to relaunch this attractive project for 21st century pilgrims started in 2018 with which we are already seeing abundant fruits in this year after the pandemic.
Photo of one of the Marial Family Days
Do you consider that Torreciudad is sufficiently well known?
Yes and no. Since the new shrine is an initiative of the founder of Opus Dei, many people who are members of the Work or who participate in its apostolates know about it and talk about it, and bring their friends and relatives. But this is one of our main objectives right now: to make Torreciudad known to a much wider public, we have to reach many more people, because this is a house of Our Lady for everyone.
And we see it day after day: it is a marvel to see the arrival of two buses with Chinese Catholics coming from Barcelona and who celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe; or to attend to a large group of faithful from the city of Marseille who brought a reproduction of the Patron Saint of their city, Notre Dame de la Garde; or to welcome a group of parishioners from Mexico with their priest, a Legionary of Christ....
We are also very happy that priests from the surrounding area come with their parishioners, with the children who are preparing for confirmation or communion.
And there are also immigrants residing in Spain...
One of the annual events of the sanctuary is the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Quinche from Quito, in which thousands of Ecuadorians gather in November. And many other citizens of many towns of America come in small pilgrimages with their most beloved invocations. Or the Ukrainians, who celebrate their Eucharist here every year in the Greek-Catholic rite. Even from African countries, such as Equatorial Guinea, also visit us. In this last case, they came in July and the Eucharist was celebrated by the Bishop of Barbastro, Msgr. Angel Perez Pueyo.
The truth is that there are more and more communities, of very varied types, that are finding in Torreciudad a second home.
How are the new evangelizing experiences offered by the sanctuary being received?
Very positive. It is noticeable that many pilgrims come for this reason. The space "Live the experience of faith" offers a very catechetical evangelization, centered on the main points of Revelation. It is a way of highlighting the kerigmaThe original proclamation of the faith through totally modern media: interactive videos, three-dimensional vision glasses... And then there is the experience of the video-mappingI believe that its success is based on the fact that it helps us to pray with it, and that it allows us to contemplate the splendid altarpiece of Torreciudad in a different way, perhaps more intensely, and that is helping to value it even more. I think its success is based on the fact that it helps to pray with it. People leave very moved.
They are making an effort to leave an impression on pilgrims.
Yes, that's right. But we are aware of a reality of the supernatural life: you never know what fruit what you sow will bear, because the fruit is of God and of our Mother the Virgin.
A recent example: this year a Mexican couple from the city of Monterrey came with their three children. They came to give thanks for the life of their grandfather, now deceased. It turns out that the grandfather, in the eighties of the last century, made a course of spiritual retreat in a house of formation of Opus Dei on the outskirts of that city, whose hermitage is dedicated to Our Lady of Torreciudad. We did not know it. In front of that image, the grandfather had a spiritual conversion that led him to treat God more closely.
He was very impressed, so much so that he came to visit the shrine. And he returned to his country so moved that he decided to promote the construction of a church to foster devotion to the Virgin of Torreciudad in his city, Monterrey. And today there is a church in that great Mexican city dedicated to Our Lady of Torreciudad. Just go to Google and check it out: "Nuestra Señora de Torreciudad in Monterrey". We did not know it until now, but we can affirm that it is... the first church in the world dedicated to the Virgin of Torreciudad outside the sanctuary!
To tell you the truth, I would like to go and meet her, and I hope to do so early next year.
Pope Francis: "The pretension of stopping time is not only impossible, it is delirious".
In his catecheses on old age in recent months, Pope Francis has highlighted the wisdom of the elderly. Today he has also highlighted this knowledge in the face of the current mentality that seeks to control everything.
During the papal audience on August 10, the pilgrims who arrived in Rome were able to listen to one of the last Wednesday catechesis dedicated to the old age. The Pontiff stressed how the search for "eternal youth, unlimited wealth, absolute power" is an unrealistic pretension. He even described it as delirious.
Christians do not live only for this life, but their goal lies beyond: "On this journey we are invited, with God's grace, to go out of ourselves and to go ever further, until we reach the ultimate goal, which is the encounter with Christ".
The promise of eternal life
The Holy Father's reflection was based on the scene in the Gospel of John where Jesus pronounces the consoling promise of eternal life: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. When I am gone and have prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also". And the Pope continued: "An old age that is consumed in the disconsolation of lost opportunities brings with it disconsolation for oneself and for everyone. On the other hand, old age lived with gentleness and respect for real life definitively dissolves the misunderstanding of a power that must suffice for itself and its own success".
Pope Francis has pointed out how the perspective of old age can be positive. "Our existence on earth is the moment of initiation into life, which only in God finds its fulfillment. We are imperfect from the beginning and remain imperfect until the end. In the fulfillment of God's promise, the relationship is reversed: the space of God, which Jesus carefully prepares for us, is superior to the time of our mortal life. Here it is that old age brings us closer to the hope of this fulfillment.
Old age definitely knows the meaning of time and the limitations of the place where we live our initiation. That is why it is credible when it invites us to rejoice in the passage of time: it is not a threat, it is a promise. Old age, which rediscovers the depth of the gaze of faith, is not conservative by nature, as it is said".
The role of the elderly
Throughout these months, Pope Francis has tried to show how the elderly have a very special mission both in families and in society. Today he has concretized one of the aspects in which this mission can take concrete form: "Old age is the phase of life most suitable for spreading the joyful news that life is an initiation to a definitive fulfillment. And the best is yet to come: may God grant us an old age capable of this.
In the final stretch of the audience, the Holy Father greeted the pilgrims in different languages. In his words in Spanish, he expressed his "closeness in a special way to those affected by the tragedy caused by the explosions and the fire in the Matanzas oil base in Cuba".
Jeremiah is sent by God to try to save his people and Jerusalem, but his message is not heard, and his people will be defeated and deported to Babylon, and Jerusalem destroyed. Jeremiah always obeys the Lord and says what he commands to those he directs; the result is that he is hated and thrown into prison. The story of Jeremiah is a prophecy of the life of Jesus. King Zedekiah, who resembles Pilate, delivers the prophet into the hands of the notables.
Jeremiah, thrown into the mud of the cistern, lives his passion. God approaches him and saves him through a person despised for his condition of foreigner and eunuch, the Ethiopian Ebed-Melech who, having understood the injustice to which the prophet is subjected, is the only one who approaches the king to speak to him on behalf of Jeremiah, who in the besieged city was in danger of being forgotten and starving to death. He risks his life and thus saves Jeremiah's life.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews, after mentioning the innumerable witnesses of faith from Abel to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, refers to the numerous anonymous witnesses who for the faith were willing to suffer the most terrible trials, tortures and executions.
At the beginning of chapter 12 he applies the teaching to all of us, and exhorts us to persevere in our commitment to the Christian life, using the image of the race and that of looking fixedly at Jesus. The decisive example is precisely that of Jesus, which is proposed to the listeners of this masterpiece of the Christian homily, to exhort them: "Do not grow weary or lose heart." and resist to the point of blood, that is, to the point of possible martyrdom.
Jesus reveals to the disciples his state of mind: the desire to light a fire on earth and the anguish until the baptism he is about to receive is fulfilled. The image of fire in some Old Testament passages signifies the efficacy of the word of the prophets: "Then Elijah the prophet arose like a fire; his word burned like a torch." (Sir 48:1); "I will make my words like fire in your mouth." (Jer 5:14). It also has the sense of purification.
The Baptist had prophesied that Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire. The baptism that Jesus is about to receive is an image of his passion, death and resurrection. The weight of that passage already causes him anguish but, knowing that he will set the earth on fire, he approaches that hour also with great desire. Desire and anguish of Jesus, conflicting and coexisting feelings, which can comfort all those who are called to give their lives in fidelity to the will of God, and who experience the same conflicting feelings.
The homily on the readings of the 20th Sunday of the year
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
Keys to a better understanding of "Amoris Laetitia" and its controversy
The publication of "Amoris Laetitia"The Pope's approach to accompanying people in an irregular marriage situation, especially if they have remarried, brought about a certain controversy. In this interview, the author tries to explain the message Pope Francis was trying to communicate, centered on three verbs: accompany, discern, integrate.
In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Amoris Laetitia"The Pope proposed that Christians should accompany people in complex marital situations more closely. His perspective was received with reservations in some sectors of the Church. Omnes interviews Stéphane Seminckx - a Belgian priest, doctor of medicine and theology - to discuss the most controversial issues in the document and shed light on its interpretation.
In chapter VIII of "Amoris Laetitia" Pope Francis proposes to accompany, discern and integrate fragility. His reading has provoked many comments. How to understand these three verbs?
- Of these three verbs - accompany, discern, integrate - the second is the cornerstone of the Church's pastoral approach: accompaniment fosters discernment, which in turn opens the way to conversion and full integration into the life of the Church.
The "discernment"is a classic concept. St. John Paul II already uses this term in "Familiaris Consortio" (no. 84): "Pastors must be aware that, for the sake of truth, they have the obligation to discern well the different situations". Benedict XVI recalls almost literally the same idea in "Sacramentum Caritatis" (no. 29).
How can discernment be defined concretely?
- Discernment means arriving at the truth about a person's standing before God, a truth that, in reality, only God fully knows: "Though I am guilty of nothing, I am not justified: the Lord is my judge" (1 Cor 4:4).
However, "the Spirit of truth (...) will guide you into all truth" (Jn 16:13). The Holy Spirit knows us better than we know ourselves and invites us to know ourselves in Him. Discernment is our effort to respond to the light and power that the Spirit of truth gives us. The place par excellence for discernment is prayer.
Discernment begins with the circumstances that have led to the estrangement from God. Speaking of the divorced and remarried, St. John Paul II gives the following examples: "Indeed, there is a difference between those who have sincerely sought to save a first marriage and have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage. Finally, there is the case of those who have contracted a second union for the upbringing of children, and who sometimes have the subjective certainty in their conscience that the previous marriage, irretrievably destroyed, was never valid." (Familiaris Consortio 84). Knowing these circumstances allows the sinner to evaluate his responsibility and to draw experience from the evil committed, and the priest to adapt his pastoral approach.
Discernment also means assessing - typically in the hands of the confessor - whether there is a desire for conversion in the sinner's soul. This point is decisive: if this sincere desire exists - even in the most basic form - everything becomes possible. A path of accompaniment and return to full communion in the Church can be set in motion.
Thirdly, discernment means discovering the causes of the estrangement from God, which will also determine the path of conversion. "Amoris Laetitia" explicitly recalls number 1735 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "The imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even suppressed because of ignorance, inadvertence, violence, fear, habits, disordered affections and other psychic or social factors."
Could you give us some concrete examples of this point in the Catechism?
- Confessors are well aware of these factors, which often play a decisive role in the situation of a soul. At present, the first and most important is the ignorance of the majority of the faithful. "Today there is a growing number of baptized pagans: by this I mean people who have become Christians because they have been baptized, but who do not believe and have never known the faith" (Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI).
The priest should evaluate the penitent's level of formation and, if necessary, encourage him to form his conscience and nourish his spiritual life, so that little by little he may be led to live fully the demands of faith and morals.
Factors such as depression, violence and fear can affect the exercise of will: they can prevent some people from acting freely. If, for example, a person suffers from depression, he or she will need medical help. Or if a woman is treated violently by her husband or forced into prostitution, it makes no sense to confront her with the precepts of sexual morality. First of all, she must be helped to get out of this abusive situation.
Obsessive or compulsive behaviors, addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, etc. seriously impair the will. These pathologies often have their origin in the repetition of acts that are initially conscious and voluntary, and therefore guilty. However, when addiction sets in, the pastor must know that the will is sick and must be treated as such, with the resources of grace but also of specialized medicine.
The point of the Catechism recalled by Pope Francis also mentions "social factors": there are many immoral behaviors that are widely accepted in society, to the point that many people no longer realize the malice involved or, if they do, find it very difficult to avoid them without endangering their image, or even their professional, family or social situation. On certain moral issues, one cannot express oneself outside a certain single thought without being denounced and pilloried, or even persecuted.
Perhaps we should also remember what discernment is not?
- Discernment does not consist in judging one's neighbor: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt 7:1). The examination of conscience is always a personal exercise and not an invitation to scrutinize the conscience of others. The confessor too will be careful not to see himself as the Supreme Judge who puts the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left (cf. Mt 25:33), but will see himself as the humble instrument of the Holy Spirit to guide the soul to the truth. Therefore, a priest never refuses absolution unless the person consciously and deliberately excludes any will to conform to the law of God.
Discernment does not consist in changing the medication, but in adjusting the dosage. The means of salvation and the moral law are the same for everyone in the Church, yesterday, today and tomorrow. One cannot, under the pretext of mercy, change the moral norm for a particular person. Mercy consists in helping him to know this norm, to understand it and to assume it progressively in his life. This is the so-called "law of gradualness", which should not be confused with the "gradualness of the law": "Since there is no gradualness in the law itself (cf. "Familiaris Consortio" 34), this discernment can never be exempt from the evangelical demands of truth and charity proposed by the Church". ("Amoris Laetitia" 300). As St. John Paul II says, mercy does not consist in lowering the mountain, but in helping to climb it.
Nor is discernment an attempt to substitute for the conscience of persons. As the Pope points out in "Amoris Laetitia," no. 37: "We are called to form consciences, but not to pretend to replace them." This observation is fundamental because we are the actors of our own life, we do not "live by delegation", as if we were suspended from the decisions of a third party or from the prescriptions of a moral code. Each of us is the conscious and free agent of his own life, of the good he does and the evil he commits. Taking responsibility for the evil we do is a proof of our dignity and, before God, the beginning of conversion: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you" (Lk 15:21). (Lk 15:21)
The whole challenge of education - and of our formation as adults - is to forge true freedom, which is the capacity of the person to discern the true good and to put it into practice, because he wants: "The highest degree of dignity of men consists in the fact that they are not led by others to the good, but by themselves" (St. Thomas Aquinas). (St. Thomas Aquinas). This challenge, therefore, also means to form the conscience well, which is the norm of proximate, immediate action.
How can this training be achieved?
- Through education, centered on the virtues, ongoing formation, experience, reflection, study and prayer, examination of conscience and, in case of doubt or complex situations, consultation with an expert or spiritual guide. This formation leads us to acquire the cardinal virtue of prudence, which perfects the judgment of conscience, as a kind of GPS for our actions.
The Ten Commandments have been and always will be the basis of moral life: "Before heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not one tract of the Law shall pass away" (Mt 5:18). They are the revelation of God's law inscribed in our hearts, which invites us to love God and neighbor and points out a series of prohibitions, that is, "acts which, in themselves and by themselves, regardless of the circumstances, are always gravely illicit, because of their object" ("Veritatis Splendor" 80). The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates what grave sins are, in particular in numbers 1852, 1867 and 2396.
The fact that morality includes prohibitions may offend the contemporary mentality, for which freedom resembles an omnipotent will that nothing can hinder. But every right-thinking person understands that, on the road of life, red lights and STOP signs protect us from danger; without them, we would never reach our destination.
Where do you think the differences in interpretation of this chapter of "Amoris Laetitia" come from?
- In my opinion, there is a great misunderstanding in "Amoris Laetitia": morality does not become objective when it limits itself to the "external facts" of people's lives, but when it strives to reach the "truth of subjectivity", the truth of the heart, before God, because "the good man brings good out of the treasure of his heart, which is good; and the evil man brings evil out of his heart, which is evil: for what the mouth says is what overflows from the heart". (Lk 6:45) and "God does not look as men do: men look on the appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Sam 16:7).
For example, one cannot condemn a person for the mere "external fact" that he or she is divorced and remarried: this is, so to speak, a marital status, which does not say everything about the moral situation of the person in question. It may be, in fact, that this person is on the road to conversion, putting in place the means to get out of this situation. On the other hand, a man who appears to everyone's eyes as a "model husband", because he has been at his wife's side for thirty years, but who secretly cheats on her, is in an apparently "regular" marital situation, while in reality he is in a state of grave sin. The truth of these two situations is not what our eyes perceive, but what God sees and makes the person discern in the depths of his heart, with the possible help of the priest.
Pope Francis' recent trip to Canada shows how his messages often reach the public with little nuance. In this case, the negative narrative about the evangelization of America significantly influences how his message is received.
August 9, 2022-Reading time: 2minutes
In recent years a new narrative is growing about the colonization of America and the evangelization carried out by Spain and other countries. Of course, not everything was done well and history must bring all the facts to light. However, it seems that many important nuances are not being taken into account in the public debate. The woke culture is imposing a narrative based on resentment and not very favorable to serene dialogue on many issues.
The headlines in the press often do not help either, as was seen in the Pope's recent trip to Canada. Undoubtedly, the main message was to ask forgiveness from the indigenous people for the collaboration of the Church in the state schools for the re-education of children. The empathy and humility shown by Francis have conquered the hearts of many people of the native peoples of these regions, who have accepted the apology with gestures that have gone around the world in a multitude of photographs.
However, Francis has been far from acknowledging the truth of all the stories that have come to light in recent years about the residential schools, especially the idea that there was a real genocide. The nuance is very important, but perhaps the public has been left with the idea that the Pope has acknowledged more than he has actually said.
I believe that the truly humble and approachable manner that Francis has shown is the image that has remained most impressed by this trip, but it is important not to lose all the nuances of his words. Unlike what big governments and corporations do today when they make mistakes, the Church is not only dedicated to compensating the victims. It also apologizes publicly on numerous occasions and its highest representatives - think Francis or Benedict XVI - have met personally and frequently with those affected.
In my opinion, this way of proceeding is appropriate, but it should not lead us to think that corruption and sin are what abound most in the Church. If that were the case, it would have ceased to exist long ago, because no institution can survive for long if it is nestled in bad things above all. The success of Elvira Roca's great work of historical popularization, "Imperiofobia", and other books of the same style are highlighting the positive aspects of the Church's social contribution, which is undoubtedly a great deal. Moreover, this corrupt perception of the Church is far from being the norm in the daily life of most Catholics when they go to their parishes and deal with their priests.
In conclusion, I think we should be humbly proud of how the Church recognizes and fixes its mistakes, while perceiving that most of the things it does are very positive. Moreover, today's society lives and demands Christian ideals without realizing it.
Experience in the management of the patrimony of a religious congregation
Managing the patrimony of a religious congregation requires combining two languages: the economic or secular and the religious. Michele Mifsud, Assistant Econome General of the Congregation of the Mission of the Vincentian Fathers, shares his experience.
For more than a decade I have been working in the general treasury of a Catholic congregation, where I am in charge of administering goods that are ultimately destined for the service of the poor. In order to understand this, it is necessary to base one's work on an economic system based on value, understood from a religious point of view.
Therefore, economy and finance are considered as a fraternal economy, that is, with a perspective oriented towards helping the poor. Only in this way is it possible to avoid falling into the temptation to mismanage goods. Because, as the Holy Father John XXIII said, we are not yet angels, that is, we can always make mistakes that divert us from the correct use of the goods and properties that are at our disposal.
The common good in the management of a congregation's patrimony
Cardinal Peter Turkson, when he was president of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, said in 2012 that obstacles to the service of the common good come in many forms, such as corruption, absence of the rule of law, greed tendencies, mismanagement of resources; but the most significant for a business leader on a personal level is leading a divided life.
These warnings are important in order to avoid a financial crisis situation with the ensuing panic caused by compromised investments, external debt, poor cash management and the breakdown of systems and accountability structures.
Conjugating the secular and the religious
The important aspect to understand is that there are two languages related to financial aspects, one language of the economic and secular world, and the other of the missionary and religious world.
Economics speaks through the language of the secular world, so it refers to the movement of money in different currencies, considers whether there is a profit or loss, whether there is income or expenditure, prepares and respects a budget, makes investments, monitors financial position and wealth.
The mission speaks purely in religious language, using the terms gratitude, simplicity, justice, sacrifice, sharing, ministry, vow of poverty.
At the center of the two languages are values; obviously, in order to function, the religious mission must use economic language, but only as a means; the value for the religious world is that of missionary language. For the secular world, on the other hand, economic language is both a means and a measure of value.
The values that enable the functioning of a religious congregation are based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Matthew 25:14-30, the parable of the talents on industriousness and work, on administration and management.
Pontifical Magisterium
The teachings of the Church are found in the encyclicals Rerum Novarumby Leo XIII (1891); Centesimus AnnusThe example of Pope Francis, in addition to the personal example of John Paul II, in 1991. The example of Pope Francis, in addition to his personal example, is expressed in Evangelii Gaudiumof 2013; in Laudato Si'2015, and in Fratelli Tuttiof 2020.
In the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis speaks of the social inclusion of the poor, that the heart of the Christian moral message is reciprocal love, which should motivate Christians to share the Gospel, help the poor and work for social justice; to avoid the evil of power that creates and feeds inequality and indifference, leading to spiritual worldliness. Indeed, the role of money is to serve, not to rule humanity.
The life of each person acquires meaning in the encounter with Jesus Christ and in the joy of sharing this experience of love with others, with lives rooted in God's merciful love.
In the encyclical Laudato SiPope Francis speaks of more than just ecology; he speaks of the relationship with God, with one's neighbor, with the earth in a universal communion, with the common destiny of goods. He counterposes the value of human work to an overemphasis on technology, the human ecology that derives from the common good.
Fratelli TuttiThe social encyclical, to be published in October 2020, is a social encyclical by Pope Francis that aims to promote a universal aspiration to fraternity and social friendship, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where good neighbors do not turn their backs on suffering, but act with an open heart, in an open world centered on the person, where encounter is dialogue and friendship.
Priorities in the management of a congregation's patrimony
Values, then, as a bridge between the two worlds, the secular and the religious, complement each other in the mission of Jesus Christ to achieve the kingdom of God. The values are financial responsibility, justice, dedication, sacrifice, transparency, commitment at work, the relationship between the common good and solidarity, communion and fraternity, simplicity through poverty and austerity. This is the fraternal economy, which leads to the need for a good guide.
Challenges to the application of these values and obstacles can be overcome through dialogue, putting in place structures that follow best working practices, but always with the Gospel as a reference.
The authorMichele Mifsud
Assistant Econome General of the Congregation of the Mission of the Vincentian Fathers, registered financial and investment advisor.
12,000 young Europeans made the pilgrimage to Santiago
In recent weeks, two large youth gatherings have taken place in Europe, a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and the Medjugorje youth festival, which was attended by tens of thousands of participants.
From August 3 to 7, the European Youth Pilgrimage. Although it was planned for the summer of 2021, the pandemic forced to delay it for a year. The pilgrimage is organized by the Subcommission for Youth and Children of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Santiago.
Throughout the week, thousands of young people completed the final stages of the road to SantiagoThe event was a great success, as they intensified their catechesis and sacramental life. Hundreds of parishes, movements and religious institutions came to meet the apostle. In addition to Spain, the largest groups came from Portugal and Italy. Thanks to the collaboration of 400 young Galician volunteers, it was possible to attend to a much larger logistics than usual on the Jacobean route.
Reflecting on vocation
The PEJ22 had a space called "The Portico of Vocation", located in the Major Seminary of Compostela, next to the cathedral. The place offered an itinerary for proclamation (kerygma), accompaniment, listening, dialogue and basic vocational orientation. In this itinerary the young people participated in an experience divided into three parts: listening, clarification and personalization. This last proposal consisted of five vocational areas: family, education, charity, apostolate and mission, consecration.
The itinerary took the Portico of Glory as a reference point because, to all the pilgrims of the PEJ22, it announces good news: the beauty of life as a vocation. In this masterpiece of medieval art are represented various forces that are in the initiation to the faith and the Christian journey. And like any vocational proposal, each one has to give an answer, a mission is due.
Closing Mass
Cardinal Marto, special delegate sent by the Pope, presided over the closing Eucharist on Sunday morning, the 7th, at Monte del Gozo. Fifty-five bishops from Spain, Portugal and Italy concelebrated, along with some 400 priests.
In his homily, Marto stressed to the young people that "Jesus proposes a new way of relating to one another, based on the logic of love and service. It is an authentic revolution in the face of human criteria of selfishness and ambition for power and domination: the revolution of fraternity that starts from fraternal love to encompass the culture of mutual care, the culture of encounter that builds bridges, tears down walls of division and shortens distances between persons, cultures and peoples. Our meeting in Santiago is a beautiful example of this".
After the celebration of the Eucharist, the Archbishop of Santiago, Julián Barrio, evaluated the events of these days before the media. In his words he said that he has "met with young people who pray (...), with young people who think, who try to discern the reality in which they find themselves; to which we have to respond at all times (...). I do not know what they can do but with their attitude and their way of seeing things, our society can be better".
Emmanuel LuyirikaRead more : "Africa rejects euthanasia. The focus is on palliative care".
"Both in Africa globally and in each country, euthanasia has been roundly rejected. The focus is on making palliative care accessible to the population, and the main challenge is access to essential medicines," Ugandan doctor Emmanuel B.K. Luyirika, director of the African Palliative Care Association (APCA), which has been in the Foundation Ramón Areces.
Francisco Otamendi-August 8, 2022-Reading time: 5minutes
Opioids such as morphine "are not sufficiently accessible," Dr. Emmanuel Luyirika tells Omnes. "Even in the countries that have made the most progress in palliative care. Access to medicines remains one of the big challenges in Africa. We are working to get governments involved in this issue."
"We believe that if palliative care is accessible and the patient's needs are met, the issue of euthanasia will not arise. There is no big social debate on this issue [euthanasia] in Africa; maybe there is a small debate in South Africa, but not beyond that," he adds.
Dr. Emmanuel Luyirika has participated in the symposium international conference 'Global Palliative Care: Challenges and Expectations', sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), and organized by the Ramón Areces Foundation and the Observatory Global Palliative Care Atlantes, from the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra, which has been designated as a new WHO collaborating center for the evaluation of the global development of Palliative Care.
Panelists from WHO, the African Association for Palliative Care and the International Association for Palliative Care, as well as M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (USA) and Hospice Buen Samaritano (Argentina) participated in the symposium.
The meeting was presented by Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y Torra, Director of the Ramón Areces Foundation; Marie-Charlotte Bouësseau, Team Leader in the Department of Integrated Health Services of the World Health Organization at headquarters (Geneva); Joaquim Julià Torras, Vice-President of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care (SECPAL); and Paloma Grau, Vice-Rector for Research and Sustainability of the University of Navarra.
More need for palliative care
The issue is of increasing concern to specialists because, as noted at the symposium, the number of people in need of palliative care is almost will double in 2060: from 26 million to 48 million worldwide, as has been the case in the past few years. reporting Omnes. Because of the type of illnesses that occur, up to half of the people in the world will need the relief of palliative care in severe and end-of-life processes.
Today, it is estimated that of the more than 50 million people in need of palliative care each year, 78 % live in low- and middle-income countries, while only 39 % of countries report widespread availability of palliative care.
The event provided yet another opportunity to promote palliative care, discuss the challenges it faces around the world and reiterate WHO's commitment to the field, taking advantage of the publication of the report‘Assessing the development of palliative care worldwide: a set of actionable indicators', prepared jointly with Atlantes.
The Dr. Emmanuel Luyirika responds to Omnes on palliative care in Africa.
How is palliative care developing in Africa, and which countries are at the forefront of this development?
- The most advanced countries in the development of palliative care in Africa are mostly located in eastern and southern Africa, including South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The countries at the tail end of this development are the Central African countries, especially the French-speaking ones. A greater effort must be made there to bring them on board in the development of palliative care. In any case, even in those countries that are more advanced, much work remains to be done.
What are the challenges facing countries that are at the tail end of this development?
- The main challenge is access to essential medicines for palliative care. This challenge has two aspects. On the one hand, there are regulations and restrictions on access to these medicines, and on the other hand, there is also the lack of resources to acquire them. The other major challenge is the lack of trained personnel to administer palliative care. Similarly, the tools to collect data on palliative patients are also lacking. Of course, the lack of funding for palliative care is one of the major difficulties, as well as the lack of directives or policies that take this aspect into account.
In these countries is palliative care funded by the government or by individuals and families?
- In most countries there is a government-funded portion. In Uganda, for example, the government funds all the morphine that palliative patients need, so that individuals do not have to pay out of their own money for this medicine. Morphine can be accessed in case of need whether you are in a public or private medical institution at no cost, but this is not possible in other countries.
In Botswana, the government funds palliative care in both public and private facilities. The South African government provides resources for charitable facilities to implement palliative care. These countries are at the forefront in this regard, along with Rwanda, which has national health insurance that provides access to palliative care. The work of Malawi, which is making great efforts and has been well positioned in the latest global rankings, should also be highlighted.
Are opiates such as morphine accessible in Africa?
- They are not sufficiently accessible. Even in the countries that have made the most progress in palliative care. Access to medicines remains one of the big challenges in Africa. We are working to engage the government on this issue. It is a problem that does not respond to a single factor. There are many factors. You have to work on awareness among politicians and people who design regulations, awareness among health centers, among patients... but you also have to get the money to create systems to administer these medicines.
What kind of problems does the patient requiring palliative care in Africa have?
- The patient who requires palliative care in Africa is a patient who has cancer, but it can also be a patient with HIV, or with tropical diseases... or they may have kidney or heart failure due to infection or some other type of disease. There may also be patients with genetic diseases. The profile is very varied.
After Covid-19, how do you see the future of palliative care in Africa??
- The future of palliative care after Covid-19 must rely on technology, on the ability to access services through technology. The cell phone has been widely used in Africa and is now becoming a platform where patients can get in touch with health care workers. It is also important to train staff in palliative care; it is also important to train staff in intensive care units so that they know when to refer a patient to palliative care. The future of palliative care also lies in integrating palliative care into the healthcare system, rather than leaving it in isolated centers.
Are there any African countries that have approved euthanasia?
- No, euthanasia has been roundly rejected in Africa. Both in Africa globally and in each individual country. The focus is on making palliative care accessible to the population: we believe that if palliative care is accessible and the patient's needs are met, the question of euthanasia will not arise. There is no great social debate on this issue in Africa; perhaps there is a small debate in South Africa, but not beyond that.
This concludes the interview with Dr. Luyirika. Another of the panelists at the international symposium, Matías Najún, head of the Comprehensive (Palliative) Care Service at Austral University Hospital and co-founder and current president of Hospice Buen Samaritano (Argentina), stressed that "research shows that poverty reduces access to palliative care, which in turn is a very scarce commodity worldwide".
In his opinion, "in our healthcare systems, conceived for the acute or focused on specialties, palliative patients are avoided, but if they are also poor, they become almost invisible," he lamented. In these cases, in which "the complexity of life is much greater than the disease," he called for "being creative to make them visible, providing care that is accessible and tailored to these patients," because "beyond the social reality, when someone suffers, great poverty is not only an economic issue; the lack of care that dignifies at that moment is also a concern," he stressed.
Arab and Islamic nationalism: the root cause of conflict in the Middle East
It is impossible to talk about Syria, especially in light of the tragic events of recent years, without mentioning the ideology behind the regime and the Baath Party, which has been in power in the country for decades: Arab nationalism. This current of thought saw the light of day at the end of the 19th century, at the same time as the birth of European nationalisms (by which it is influenced).
In fact, until the nineteenth century, that is, before the Tanzimat (a series of reforms aimed at "modernizing" the Ottoman Empire, also through greater integration of non-Muslim and non-Turkish citizens, protecting their rights by applying the principle of equality before the law), the Ottoman State was founded on a religious and non-ethnic basis: the Sultan was also the "prince of the believers", therefore caliph of Muslims of any ethnicity (Arabs, Turks, Kurds, etc.), who were considered citizens of the country. The Sultan was also the "prince of the believers", therefore caliph of the country, who were considered first class citizens, while the Christians of the various confessions (Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Catholics and others) and the Jews were subject to a special regime, that of the millet, which provided that any non-Muslim religious community was recognized as a "nation" within the empire, but with a status of legal inferiority (according to the Islamic principle of the dhimma).
Jews and Christians discriminated against
Christians and Jews, therefore, did not participate in city government, paid exemption from military service through a poll tax (jizya) and a land tax (kharaj), and the head of each community was its religious leader. Bishops and patriarchs, for example, were thus civil officials immediately subject to the sultan.
It is therefore at the time of the Tanzimat that we find the birth, precisely between Syria and Lebanon, of pan-Arab nationalism, or pan-Arabism, whose founders included Christians: Negib Azoury, George Habib Antonius, George Habash and Michel Aflaq. This ideology was based on the need for the independence of all united Arab peoples (language was identified as a unifying factor) and for all religions to have equal dignity before the State. It was, therefore, a form of secular and ethnically based nationalism, and in this, very similar to European nationalisms.
Pan-Arabism vs. Pan-Islamism
Arab nationalism (or pan-Arabism) was immediately opposed to its Islamic counterpart, pan-Islamism: also born in the same period, at the hands of thinkers such as Jamal al-Din Al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, it proposed instead to unify all Islamic peoples (not only Arabs) under the banner of a common faith. Islam, therefore, was to have a preponderant role, greater dignity and full citizenship rights, to the detriment of other religions. Salafist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda or ISIS itself are based precisely on this last doctrine and seek the formation of an Islamic state, in which the only law is Muslim law, the Sharia.
Pan-Arabism, then focused on the independence of each country, triumphed almost everywhere in the Arab world (except in the absolute monarchies of the Persian Gulf) but since then, due to the corruption of its leaders and other factors, it was always opposed, even violently, by movements born of the pan-Islamist ideology which, especially in the last 30 years, has increasingly taken hold in the Arab-Islamic world, culminating in the birth of ISIS in 2014.
Christians in Syria before and after the war
Before the civil war, Syria was a country of 24 million inhabitants, in which Christians represented approximately 10 to 13% of the population (more than half were Greek Orthodox and the rest were Melkite Catholics, Maronites, Syriacs, Armenian Catholics, Chaldeans, etc. or Armenian Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox). Armenians, in particular, both in Syria and Lebanon, were the community that experienced the greatest increase, especially after the Armenian Genocide (the forced marches that the Turks forced the Armenian population of Anatolia to undergo ended in Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria, where the few survivors arrived after hundreds of miles of hardship and where, in memory of the 1.5 million victims of the same genocide, whose bones are scattered throughout the area, a memorial was built, later destroyed by ISIS in 2014).
In a country with an Islamic majority (71% of Sunnis, the rest belonging to other sects such as the Druze and the Alawites, a branch of the Shiites), Christians constituted the tail of the population, a fundamental factor for national unity (and this was known even at the level of the Baathist regime, to the point that Assad protected them in a special way). In fact, they were spread all over the country and, as in Lebanon, they lived side by side and in harmony with all the other communities.
Christian works
The Christian missions and schools (especially the Franciscan ones) were and still are present everywhere, providing assistance, formation and help to all sectors of the population, to all ethnic groups and to all creeds. It is also important to note that some Christian shrines in the country were and continue to be the object of pilgrimage and devotion by both the Christian and Muslim populations.
In particular, we are talking about monasteries such as Mar Mousa (restored and refounded by Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall'OglioThe remains of which were lost during the war), that of Saidnaya (a Marian shrine whose foundation dates back to the Byzantine emperor Justian) and that of Maaloula, one of the few villages in the world, along with Saidnaya and a few others in the same area south of Damascus, where a form of Aramaic is still spoken. All these places have become infamous in recent years for having been besieged and conquered by Islamist guerrillas, who kidnapped and then freed the Orthodox nuns of Saidnaya, devastated the village of Maaloula and its precious churches, killing many Christians, and tried to destroy those same centers that were the beating heart of Syria, because they were loved by all Syrians, regardless of their creed.
However, the Christian villages of Saidnaya and Sadad (in Homs province), besieged by groups close to Al Qaeda and ISIS, respectively, with their energetic resistance to the Islamists helped prevent major centers such as Damascus and Homs from falling into ISIS hands, thanks also to the formation of Christian militias that fought alongside the regular army, the Russians, the Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The present
The current situation, however, is dramatic. After 11 years of war, in fact, the social and economic structure of the country is destroyed, not least because of U.S. sanctions that continue to prevent Syria from recovering from the conflict, sanctions, moreover, opposed by the Vatican. The suffering inflicted by the current economic situation is, as the UN reports, perhaps more appalling than that caused by the long civil war that has resulted in some six hundred thousand deaths, nearly seven million internally displaced persons and another seven million or so refugees in neighboring countries.
Moreover, the fact that Syria is no longer being talked about, due to the emergence of other international emergencies, such as the Lebanese crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, means that the millions of people in need of assistance, including health care, are helped almost exclusively by Christian missions and NGOs linked to them.
Loss of unit
What makes the scenario even more dramatic is the disintegration of the unity between the different communities, which was sustained, as we writeThe Christian population, which often acted as an intermediary between the other components of the population, is now in a critical situation, geographically (entire regions now completely devoid of Christians, such as Raqqah and Deir ez-Zor), demographically and economically (the sectors in which Christians predominated are obviously in crisis due to the massive emigration of this part of the population).
It is therefore crucial that we all keep in mind that the Church has "two lungs," one in the West and the other in the East (according to a metaphor proposed a century ago by Vjaceslav Ivanov and later widely taken up by John Paul II) to remind us once again of our mission as Christians, recalled by the Letter to Diognetus: To be "Catholic," not to think small and only in our little garden, but to found that "civilization of love" so longed for by Paul VI, in the wake of Eastern and Western monasticism, and to be the soul of the world.
The authorGerardo Ferrara
Writer, historian and expert on Middle Eastern history, politics and culture.
Over the next few months we will be publishing a series of articles on great works of Christian literature. Today we begin with Dante's classic, The Divine Comedy.
Speak highly of the Divine Comedyof Dante Alighierimay already be a cliché. It is difficult to find a list, be it extensive or minimal, of major classics Westerners who do not strongly suggest reading it. Here I will not be able to be different in this aspect, because it is indeed a premium work from many points of view. Let us proceed then to the presentation.
It is generally known that it is a long poem "a la medieval", perhaps a little indigestible, but surely very good (although you yourself have never read it, have you?). The intention of this article is to explain the context in which it was written and briefly tell you something of its content. As you discover how incredibly valuable the poem is, let's see if you manage to hold your breath and not start reading the Divine of Dante as soon as possible.
Historical context
We are set in Florence, one of the most prosperous cities in Europe, located between Rome and Milan, in the 13th-14th centuries. Politically, there are three sides: the White Guelphs (where our author militated), who defended the autonomy of Florence; the Black Guelphs, who supported the political aspirations of the Pope, who then ruled the so-called Papal States, lands near Florence; and the Ghibellines, followers of feudalism protected by the Holy Roman Emperor, based in present-day Germany.
Several times in the poem Dante groups the two Guelph factions into a single side, and simply mentions the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, that is, the pro-Italy and the pro-Germany, although these terms are anachronistic, for in that century there were no such countries as we know them today.
Dante
Then, the person of the author. Born in 1265 in a family of merchants, at the age of nine he saw for the first time a girl, Beatrice (in his language), Beatrice), and this encounter marked him deeply. According to Luka Brajnovic, "one can almost certainly identify this character [Beatrice] with Bice, daughter of Folco Portinari, married to Simone de Bardi, who died in 1290", therefore at the age of 25, since she was the same age as Dante.
This premature death of his beloved seems to have been the trigger for the beginning of Dante Alighieri's literary life, since a few years later (1295) he will publish New lifehis first book. But, unlike the fanciful muses that inspired the Greek poets, what Dante nurtures for her goes far beyond mere poetic illumination. He went so far as to promise to say of Beatrice "what has never been said of any woman," the size of the charm and veneration he paid her. And he will not be able to forget her for the rest of his life, for he will fulfill his promise precisely in the Divine ComedyThe work was completed in 1321, the same year of his death.
Our author loved Beatrice in an idealized and platonic way, so that this passion did not prevent him from marrying Gemma di Manetto, a woman of the bourgeois aristocracy of the Donati house (of the black Guelphs), in 1283, when Beatrice was still alive, at the age of eighteen. They had four children: Jacopo, Pietro, Antonia (later a nun, with the significant name of Beatrice) and Giovanni. But a question is forced here: why didn't Dante marry Beatrice, if he loved her since he was nine years old? On the one hand, when you read the Divine ComedyYou notice a Beatriz who corrects Dante, who demands, reprimands him, barely smiles at him, perhaps indicating that he has not reciprocated her love at the time.
On the other hand, it is possible that, even if they had wanted to marry, they could not have done so, given that, at that time and place, it was not uncommon for the spouse to be chosen by the parents, and not by oneself (both in the case of the woman and the man). Perhaps at the age of eighteen Dante no longer had any hope of being able to marry Beatrice, so he agreed to marry Gemma.
Marriage
A small digression - rare in texts of this type - is worth making here. Was Dante's marriage to Gemma a false and pretended thing, since he did not love her, but Beatrice? Let us return to the beginning of the previous paragraph. Beatrice was real, but she was undoubtedly idealized, as good poets know how to do with their muses. Let's keep in mind that Dante begins to compose the Divine Comedy at the age of 39 (1304), more than two decades after he last met Beatrice (1283). Now you tell me, what memories do you have of something strong that you experienced 21 years ago? And 30 years ago (Dante met Beatrice for the first time in 1274)? Well, surely you have many memories of it (if you are old enough), but you must recognize that all this time is gradually changing the real impressions and turning them more and more subjective and affective, rather than impartial and dispassionate.
Besides, Dante and Beatriz had never been boyfriend and girlfriend or anything like that. Therefore, it is possible to suppose that perhaps much of the love he had for his wife Gemma had been poetically channeled towards the figure of Beatriz, in order to centralize everything in a single female figure. It seems impossible to me to affirm that a lifelong faithful marriage with four children would not have been maintained because of true love. It so happens that often a real and, so to speak, "realized" love apparently enjoys less emotional appeal for an epic poem. In this sense, Gemma may have been a second "beatific" of Dante's, a real source of inspiration for what he narrated in the Divine Comedy.
Exile
If the shock of the premature death of that beautiful lady may have caused him to fall in love with her retroactively in his memory, this was not the only factor in his choice of her as the key figure in this epic of the afterlife. We know that in 1302 Dante had to go into exile from Florence. He had gone to Rome as ambassador of his city, and, while he was away, the black Guelphs seized power, and would not let him return.
First he went to Verona, further north of the Italian peninsula, then to various nearby cities, until he ended up in Ravenna, where he died. The beginning of the writing of the Divine ComedyIn 1304, he was already in exile, outside of Florence. Not being able to return to his beloved homeland was heartbreaking, as with the early death of Beatrice.
Thus, Dante has a noble and nostalgic heart: he loves, but what he loves is always definitively taken away from him; he loves, and remains faithful to that love no matter what. In this sense, the city of Florence is like a new inspirational muse for him, a third "Beatrice", far from which he is inspired to create perhaps the most sublime work of Western literature. That is why the book will mix with such closeness his patriotic love (to Florence), his human love (to Beatrice) and his divine love (to God).
We have finally arrived at the book in question. Sorry for the long introduction; I just felt it was necessary. So why "divine" and why "comedy"? Dante had simply titled it "Comedy", not because it would elicit laughter when read, but because, as opposed to the tragedies, the narrative journey went from hell to paradise, that is, it ended well, it had a happy ending.
One gets the impression that the whole long poem had exhausted Dante's creativity and he had none left for the title of the work, so he put just that. But Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), commenting on the work in the church of Santo Stefano di Badia, Florence, for some reason called it "divine", and so it remained for posterity. Just like that: "Divine Comedy".
The parts of the work
After the cover, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. The book is divided into three canticles called hell, purgatory and paradise, that is, the novissimos, according to the doctrine of the Church. The first has 34 canticles (1 introductory and 33 body canticles) and the other two have 33 each, totaling 100 canticles. The symbolism of the numbers indicates the relationship with the Holy Trinity: one God and three divine persons. Literarily, it is included in the tradition of the so called Dolce stil nuovo (Sweet New Style), with accents on sincerity, intimacy, nobility and courtly love. As he explained in De vulgari eloquentia (1305), Dante also saw in the vulgar language (which is something similar to what today we call "Italian") "an instrument to make culture and produce beauty, and not only to be used for commercial exchanges". That is why he preferred to write his poem in the language he spoke: a mixture of Italian and Latin, in short.
If a certain pragmatism can be seen in this choice, the opposite can be seen in the themes of the songs. There we find literary, political, scientific, ecclesiastical, philosophical, theological, spiritual and amorous themes. Since we are in the century following the beginning of the first European universities, whose aim was to achieve the profound unity and universality of knowledge (hence the word "universitas"(from Latin), he tries to encompass everything in his work. Looking ahead to the following two centuries, it will serve as a preparation for the humanism and the Renaissance, whose center was only in the Italian peninsula itself.
The verse
When you start reading it, you realize that all the lines are more or less the same size. They are endecabyllabic, which means that they have eleven poetic syllables, when the last syllable is not stressed (when it is, the verse has only ten syllables, to preserve the musicality of the verse; if you read it aloud half-singing you will perceive this). In turn, the stanzas are strung together in the way that came to be called dantesque terzinethat is, the end of the first line rhymes with the end of the third, and the second rhymes with the fourth and the sixth, and the fifth with the seventh and the ninth... well, it's a little difficult to explain without drawing, but the scheme is this: ABA BCB CDC and so on.
If you want to understand it in detail it is much easier to look it up on the internet. You will be even more amazed at the ingenuity it takes to rigorously follow this scheme during the more than 14 thousand verses that make up the Divine Comedy.
Enough about the form, let's go now to the content. The Dantesque journey through the "other world" lasts a week (from April 7 to 13, 1300) and is in the first person. This biographical trait is already noticeable in the first verse: "In the middle of the path of our life"(In the middle of our life's journey), that is, he sets off when he was 35 years old. At the beginning he finds himself in a dead end, surrounded by three beasts and is rescued by Virgil, his favorite poet, who proposes to guide him through the realms beyond the grave.
Hell
They begin with hell, on the lintel of which it is recommended: "Lasciate ogni speranza o voi ch'entrate"(Abandon all hope, ye who enter). This is not the place to hope for anything good, but a deep precipice that reaches to the center of the Earth, where Lucifer himself is imprisoned. This precipice arose with the fall of Lucifer from heaven, so tremendous that it generated an enormous hole, a void, a nothingness, as if alluding to evil itself, which is not a creature of God, it has no essence, it is only the deprivation of good, as cold is nothing but the deprivation of heat, or as darkness is nothing but the deprivation of light. In fact, Lucifer is there in a dark and frozen place (yes, in the middle of the ice, even if the fire was in other parts of hell). He has chosen to be nothing, instead of being faithful to the Good, and so he suffers unspeakably, he and those who followed him, angels and humans.
All of hell, as well as purgatory and paradise, are ordered by zones, as the scholastic mentality in vogue prescribed (take a look at the index of the Summa Theologica, by St. Thomas Aquinas, to get an idea of the extremes to which the virtue of order can go). Hell is funnel-shaped and is divided into nine circles, each lower and lower until reaching the Luciferian, divided by groups of sinners according to levels of severity of sin.
Sins
The lowest level is that of treason, the most serious sin according to the author, that is why in Lucifer's mouth are Judas Iscariot (the one who betrayed Jesus), Brutus and Cassius (the ones who betrayed Julius Caesar). In canto XIV, verse 51, a condemned man says: "Qual io fui vivo, tal son morto"(As I was alive, so am I dead), that is, the reprobate remains the same after his death, so that the penalties of hell are directly related to his sins on Earth. The consequences indicate their causes.
For example, those who on Earth were slaves of their stomach (gourmands) now find themselves continually with their mouths in the filthy mire. There you will find politicians, ecclesiastics (even Popes), nobles, merchants; all kinds of people. In the midst of this, Dante is greatly distressed and asks Virgil what he does not understand. He feels heavy in hell, he suffers with the suffering of others. He wants to get out of there.
Purgatory
After reaching Lucifer, they both enter through a passage and come out on the other side of the globe (yes, they knew that the earth was spherical, even if they still thought it was the center of the universe), and there they spot the mountain of purgatory. Lucifer's dreadful fall to the other side of the planet had displaced the land mass, generating, on the opposite side, a mountain. In the Bible, the mountain is the place of dialogue with God, of prayer, accessible to the human capacity, in spite of requiring effort and causing fatigue. There are those who suffer bittersweetly, purifying themselves of their imperfections while waiting for heaven sooner or later, already with hope. Seven terraces divide purgatory, according to the seven deadly sins, but now the order is reversed: at the beginning of the mountain are the most serious sins, which are farthest from heaven.
Unlike hell and paradise, in purgatory there are no angels, but only men. The marks that sins left on those people are inscribed on their foreheads, they can no longer be hidden from anyone, and little by little they are erased as they advance in their purgation.
Sky
At the top of the mountain they reach the earthly paradise, where Adam and Eve were and from which Dante accesses the heavenly paradise. And there Virgil is prevented from continuing to guide Dante. As a pagan poet, he is not fit to ascend to heaven, he simply cannot. However, at this point in the journey, his disciple is already sufficiently compunctionate and mended to cross the threshold of paradise.
In canto XXX of purgatory Dante sees a woman crowned with olive branches and dressed in the colors of the three theological virtues: faith (the white veil covering her face), hope (the green cloak) and charity (the red dress). Dante does not distinguish her at first sight, and when he goes to ask Virgil who this lady is, he realizes that Virgil has disappeared, she is no longer with him. Dante cries, meanwhile Beatrice comes to him, calls him by name and reproaches him for his bad life until then. It is his last conversion until he steps into the kingdom of the just.
Hand in hand with Beatriz, whose name means "she who makes blessed, happy", our protagonist enters paradise. The journey now will no longer be made by force of steps, with fatigue. Man's natural world falls short, and he has to turn to the supernatural, to the divine force, to be able to fly through the nine celestial spheres that remain to him in order to contemplate God. There he no longer suffers with what he sees, hears or feels. All is joy, charity, fraternity. The blessed receive Dante and his guide well, they are cordial, light in weight, swift in movement.
The saints
At a certain point, they meet St. Thomas Aquinas, who, being a Dominican, praises St. Francis of Assisi in front of the Franciscan St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, who, in turn, immediately praises St. Dominic of Guzman in front of the Dominican Aquinas. Among other saints, Dante finds in paradise his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida, who had died in the Holy Land in 1147 during a crusade battle. In canto XXIV, Beatrice invites St. Peter to examine Dante's faith. Using rigorous reasoning and scholastic distinctions, our "tourist from beyond the grave" says that faith is the principle on which hope in the future life rests, and the premise from which we must start to explain what we do not see. The prince of the apostles approves of him effusively and they go on. Then he will be examined in hope by James the Greater, and in love by St. John.
Farewell
Having passed the nine celestial spheres, Dante has to face another farewell. Beatrice can no longer guide him in the empyrean, where the rose of the blessed is, the highest amphitheater where the Blessed Virgin Mary and the highest saints are.
In the XXXI canto of Paradise, St. Bernard of Clairvaux assumes the ultimate guidance of Dante, already at the gates of the contemplation of the Eternal. It is in the last canto of the work, XXXIII, where we read: "Vergine Maria, figlia del tuo figlio"(Virgin Mary, daughter of your son), and thus begins one of the most beautiful praises of the Mother of God. Looking directly into the divine light, he finds in it everything for which he hoped, everything that satisfies him. In that light he distinguishes the outlines of a human figure, and finds no words to describe God. All she manages to say is that now her will is moved by "l'amore che move il sole e l'altre stelle"(the love that moves the sun and the other stars).
Contemplation
Thus concludes the Divine ComedyDante's life: with an ineffable contemplation of the divine essence in the form of light. Through art and reason, represented in Virgil, Dante realized his errors; through human love, represented in Beatrice, he prepared himself to be in the direct presence of God; and through friendship with the saints, represented in St. Bernard of Clairvaux, he was able to attain endless beatitude. In hell, Dante's faith is confirmed, as he sees the veracity of so many things in which he believed; in purgatory he shares the hope of the locals for heaven; finally, in paradise, he can lovingly unite with the Creator and his holy creatures. During the passage through hell and purgatory the other creatures affected him inwardly only through the senses, for he did not truly commune with his surroundings. But, once in paradise, the angels and men he encounters are willing to help him, and so Dante opens up and welcomes these gifts. Everyone wins, because there is an inexhaustible source of good, which is Good itself.
Dante wonderfully knew how to capture and transmit the true, the beautiful and the good of reality, in spite of all the difficulties he faced in his life. The early death of Beatrice and the definitive exile from Florence could have left a tragic trait imprinted on his character. However, with the strength of his faith, he learned that the tragic in life - when there is one - is only the first chapter. There are still the next. Do not despair. Wait, follow the path of beauty with patience, embrace your true loves. You will be helped, you will have to repent many times, but, with God's grace, you will soon arrive where your own actions have led you.
Alfonso de la Llama is a biologist with two professions. On the one hand, he has taught biology and religion to teenagers for years. He is also an environmentalist dedicated to the eradication of pests and invasive species. He has never devoted himself to writing, but at the age of 60, he felt the need to bring the figure of Jesus Christ closer to those who do not know him. The surprise has been that Planeta has published his book on the Gospel of St. Matthew under one of its imprints, Universo de letras.
What do you think is so important about the book that such an important publishing house has decided to publish it? From what perspective did you write it?
The Gospel has illuminated the thought, art and customs of the West, bringing equality and freedom to society over the centuries. The publishing house knows this. To think that it is not fashionable is like saying that wisdom is no longer of interest to anyone.
You say in the book that for a long time you read Sacred Scripture superficially. What made you realize that this was the case? Does this awakening of yours have something to do with what you are trying to transmit to your readers?
We run the risk of reading the Gospel as if it were a story we already know. Gradually, you realize that this is not the case. St. Josemaría teaches the importance of being part of the various scenes. Each one can live them and meditate on them again and again, in his own way, the way God shows him.
How do you think the biblical formation of Spanish believers is? I am referring to the practicing ones.
Very educated people have serenely delved into the bible, they know it in depth. Others, the great majority of us, can be defined as people who study a language to get by, without any intention of learning it; we read the leaflets when the problems start, once we feel bad.
What do you recommend for further training in biblical topics?
The inclination to form oneself well is a sign of wisdom. The Old Testament is full of wonderful stories, the parables of Jesus, narrated from a deep knowledge of human nature. No one, like Him, knows what we men need at every moment, He wants to be intimate with us, that we ask Him. Wise men and saints throughout the centuries have contemplated the readings of the Mass in an admirable way. Meditating on them every day can be a good start. It is seldom perceived as something exciting, enriching, a real pity.
Could you give a concrete example to understand why he is interested in further training?
Here is an example. Let us think of the scene of the hemorrhagic woman. Jewish society was very demanding in some points: it excluded lepers, discriminated against sinners, isolated those it considered impure. Many Pharisees pretended to be perfect, hiding their sins. Like the famous one who, when interviewed, affirms that his greatest defect is to be too generous.
The hemorrhoea's situation cannot be hidden. She suffers from a disease that embarrasses her and isolates her from others, probably originating from complications during childbirth. There are no pads or diapers. Every time she gets up from her seat, her flow of blood is evident to everyone, without her being able to conceal it. When she caresses her small child, it is contaminated. The children are cruel and mocking, they do not want to play with him. The Pharisees remind her husband again and again that they cannot have relations. Poor woman, she has not been allowed to enter the synagogue for twelve years. She is almost a stinker.
Confused in the tumult, she pushes everyone until she reaches her goal, she has received a lot of cane in that trance and thinks, "Screw them! She feels great respect for Christ, so, convinced that he makes everything he touches impure, she only dares to touch the edge of his cloak. This minimal contact heals him of his evil. Contrary to what the Pharisees believe, no one can defile God. The rest of the story, we already know.
Now let us imagine what it means for a Christian to receive communion with such faith.
Your book brings the Gospel closer to people's daily lives. Do these stories have something to say to people in the 21st century?
The evangelical message will never go out of fashion, the language of society changes continuously over the years. It has been published a few months ago, it is too soon to make an extensive evaluation. I have tried to avoid all technicalities and pedantry. It is written for simple people of different ages, fathers and mothers of families from all walks of life. The common comment has been: the examples are tremendously current, it is fluid and pleasant to read!
Are there aspects of the Gospel that can be better understood with a simple reflection?
In one scene, one is encouraged to sell what one has to buy the field that hides a treasure. One may think, at what bank is the exchange of earthly currency for heavenly? Will what I have be enough to buy it? What is the effort? Will it be worth it?
In reality, it is about channeling everything we do towards the marvelous goal that God offers us, each one according to his or her circumstances. It cannot be interpreted literally.
Exiled journalist considers that this is one more step in Ortega's repression against the Church.
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It has not appeared much in the international press, but this detail of the Pope making a surprise visit to a center for drug addicts has been echoed in the Canadian media.
Like Omnes reported Francis had a clear Canadian message. "In the face of ideologies that threaten peoples by trying to erase their history and traditions, the Church feels challenged and does not want to repeat mistakes. Its mission in the world is to proclaim the Gospel and to build up the unit respecting and valuing the diversity of each people and each person. For this mission, a key pairing is the relationship between seniors y young peoplea dialogue between memory y prophecy that can build a more fraternal and supportive world." These words were spoken by Pope Francis at the hearing of the Paul VI Hall on August 3.
In continuity with that message, Francis always asks not to be afraid of tenderness (homily of March 19, 2013 at the beginning of his Petrine ministry).
For me, tears came to my eyes when I read in Omnes about the santiagueña Mrs. Margarita. Well, what better coda than the one that follows, from the papal trip of July 24-29.
Meeting drug addicts
"In the house of drug addicts in Québec," entitled Le DevoirOn July 30, the Montréal newspaper reported on Francis' secret visit to a home for drug addicts in the Beauport neighborhood (Québec City) after the July 28 Mass at the Basilica of Sainte Anne.
Redemptorist André Morency, 73, a member of the same congregation in charge of the Basilica, founded the Fraternité Saint-Alphonse 30 years ago to care for drug addicts.
About sixty people were able to greet the Holy Father, away from the cameras. Father Morency was on cloud nine. In addition to an icon of the Virgin and Child, the Pope gave him an envelope with twenty thousand Canadian dollars.
Morency calls those who come to his fraternity the "nameless," people tormented by their demons, wounded by their past and often abandoned, adrift. "They have almost always known rejection and indifference. They have always been mocked with that attitude."
The Pope spent twenty minutes with them. Morency says that the Pope, when he got out of his car, had a huge smile and a radiant face. "During the official ceremonies, I sometimes found that he looked downcast. When he arrived here, it was quite the opposite: he was joking with us, he had light in his eyes."
"I still have chills." "Unbelievable!" comment two of those who greeted Francis. "The papal visit," reports Le Devoirhas allowed them to feel, pour une rare fois, taken into account."
The Pope's Video is an official initiative aimed at disseminating the Holy Father's monthly prayer intentions. It is developed by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network. Since 2016 The Pope's Video has more than 179 million views on all Vatican social networks, is translated into more than 23 languages and has press coverage in 114 countries. The project is supported by Vatican Media.
– Supernatural Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network is a Pontifical Work whose mission is to mobilize Catholics through prayer and action in the face of the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church. These challenges are presented in the form of prayer intentions entrusted by the Pope to the whole Church. It was founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer. It is present in 89 countries and is made up of more than 22 million Catholics. It includes its youth branch, the EYM - Eucharistic Youth Movement. In December 2020 the Pope constituted this pontifical work as a Vatican foundation and approved its new statutes.
The content of the Pope's video reads:
As a consequence of the pandemic and wars, the world is facing a serious socio-economic crisis. We still haven't realized it! And among the most affected are small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Those in commerce, workshops, cleaning, transportation and many others. Those who do not appear on the lists of the richest and most powerful and, despite the difficulties, create jobs while maintaining their social responsibility. Those who invest in the common good instead of hiding their money in tax havens. They all dedicate enormous creative capacity to changing things from the bottom up, where the best creativity always comes from. And with courage, effort and sacrifice, they invest in life, generating well-being, opportunities and work. Let us pray that small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, hard hit by the economic and social crisis, may find the necessary means to continue their activity at the service of the communities in which they live.
The episcopal subcommission for cultural heritage of the Spanish Episcopal Conference organizes every year in June a heritage days. They are aimed at diocesan delegates, treasurers, museum directors, in other words, managers of ecclesiastical heritage. We chatted with one of the organizers of the meeting, D. Pablo Delclaux, who is also the technical secretary of the episcopal subcommission of heritage of the EEC.
The Cultural Heritage Conference on ecclesiastical heritage and local development was held in Barbastro from June 27 to 30. What ideas would you highlight about the reflections of these days?
- This year's theme is a consequence of the depopulation of some areas of Spain. We have been looking for ways for the ecclesiastical heritage to contribute to the growth of these localities and the use that can be made of this heritage so that it does not deteriorate.
I would emphasize that in Spain we have a lot of heritage and given the current situation it is not easy to manage. It is not easy to generalize solutions given the differences between some populations and others. For example, some places have visitors and tourists and for others it is almost impossible.
Parishes, dioceses and religious orders, private institutions (hotels, restaurants, handicrafts) and public organizations must join forces to find the best solution for each place.
Do we value our cultural heritage in Spain?
- We have a lot of heritage, but perhaps we do not value it properly. In other countries they value it more, perhaps because they have less and value it more. In every corner of Spain we have wonders of the highest quality.
The French and Italian mentality is more decorative and detail-oriented, while in Spain we are more austere. Broadly speaking, Italian art is very theatrical, French art is very elegant, German art is very dramatic. Spanish art is characterized by the depth of its meaning. This means that we have an art with a lot of content, although it is not so decorative. It seems to me that we could be more aware of the significant load of our heritage, we focus more on the form and less on the content. I think the content part we should exploit it much more, so that we vibrate more with it.
In the last few months there has been some media hype about the issue of the immatriculations. In relation to this issue, what idea would you have liked the public to understand better?
- Several aspects need to be clarified. In the first place, the property registries were born in the 19th century, and their purpose was to clarify the owners of the different possessions. The question was that the properties of the Church were quite clear and did not generate special legal problems. That is why they were not registered anywhere. As the years went by, doubts and lawsuits did arise regarding the properties of the Church. Therefore, in order to bring order, the Spanish state asked the Church to register its properties.
The problem is that many buildings predated the creation of the registry, so there was no documentation that could be presented. The Aznar government allowed the bishops to give a certificate to these properties, so that this paper would be valid to register these properties before the civil authority.
In many places in Spain there are many temples with hardly any activity. What does the Church plan to do with these temples?
- First of all, it must be said that this depends on each diocese and even then it has many nuances. For example, monasteries belong to religious orders and are therefore outside episcopal jurisdiction. On the other hand, parishes that are closed in urban environments can be transformed into museums or diocesan archives.
In Spain there are many places of worship that have been reused for cultural purposes. We have the case of the Pyrenees Spacewhich is the conversion of a Jesuit residence into an exhibition and training center in Graus. We also have the Lebaniegos Studies Centerin Potes, which reuses the church of St. Vincent the Martyr. Or the San Marcos Cultural Center, which adapts the church of the same name in Toledo.
The Sagrada Familia or the Cathedral-Mezquita of Cordoba are highly visited by tourists. Are there audited or reliable data on the economic income that the Church's patrimony produces for the Spanish state?
- A few years ago, the Bishops' Conference presented a report on the a study that quantified this type of aspects. The work was carried out by the auditing firm KPMG and concluded that the Church's patrimony generated 2.17% of the GDP. In addition, Catholic real estate of cultural interest supports 225,300 jobs, of which 71% are direct. This type of data can be consulted in the transparency portal of the EEC. As can be seen, the contribution is quite remarkable.
In a few weeks, Pope Francis will make a new tripThis time to L'Aquila, Italy. This will officially begin the celebrations of the so-called "Celestinian Pardon", a rite that dates back to 1294.
On August 29 of that year, in the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, Pietro Angeleri was elected Pope under the name of Celestine V in the presence of more than two hundred thousand people. On the same occasion, he granted the gift of plenary indulgence to "all those who, confessed and sincerely repentant", had devoutly visited the same basilica "from the Vespers of August 28 to the Vespers of the 29th".
The pardon bull
The formal bull from the papal chancellery arrived a month later, on September 29, and the following year the first solemn feast was celebrated, which continues to this day. A sort of "jubilee ante litteram" dedicated to forgiveness, since the first real Holy Year was instituted in 1300 by Boniface VIII.
The authenticity of the Bull of Pardon has been questioned several times over time, but it was St. Paul VI who, in 1967, at the time of the general revision of all plenary indulgences, counted that of Celestine V at the top of the official list.
The central concepts of this precious document are peace, solidarity and reconciliation. Today they resonate with more timeliness than ever, precisely because of the events of war that are also shaking Europe. And it is significant that the last trip Pope Francis made was to Canada, precisely to reconcile the Church with the native peoples of those lands.
Pope Francis at L'Aquila
The trip to L'Aquila takes on an additional meaning of rebirth, after the disastrous earthquake of 2009 razed its historic center, including the basilica of Collemaggio. The visit of Pope Francis is also a stimulus for the populations still struggling to regain the normality of ordinary life. It is no coincidence that, after a private visit to the city's cathedral, which is still uninhabitable, the Pontiff also greeted the families of the earthquake victims in the parvis.
Francis will also be the first pontiff in history to open, after 728 years, the Holy Door that inaugurates the acts of the Pardonanza, and it is representative that he does so when he has made mercy a cornerstone of his pontificate.
"L'Aquila, with the image of Collemaggio, will reach the whole world as a city that proclaims the message of Forgiveness, a message that must see us engaged as protagonists, with works and our witness," commented in recent days Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, who has led the diocesan community of L'Aquila since 2013.
The program of the visit The Pope's message has at its center "the spiritual and cultural dimension of an event that should aim at the essential", having forgiveness as its "fundamental nucleus", the Archbishop reiterated.
And one last note. As of 2019, the Celestinian Perdonanza is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Gabriel had been lying on the fine golden sand of La Concha beach in San Sebastian for quite some time when he finally saw his friend arrive. He was wearing a swimsuit, a loose-fitting shirt, bear sizeHe was carrying a backpack on his shoulder, if you could call it that, and he had a backpack over his shoulder. The sun had set, the lanterns on the promenade were being lit, and the calm waves of the sea circled in the bay as if they were being drawn by a compass. After spending 12 years surviving together in high school, the separation imposed on them by the first year of college seemed like a decade.
-Man, Iñaki, it's good to see you! You're stronger, hey! I see you've been hitting the gym," shouted Gabriel, as he put his glasses back in their case, laid them carefully on the sand and got up to prepare the attack against his friend, for when he finished going down the ramp of the clocks.
Gabriel jumped on his neck and grabbed him like a crab to drag him to the ground. A funny idea, almost tender, considering that Gabriel was as thin as an asparagus, while Iñaki looked like a gladiator sculpted in bronze. So instead of bending his back, he hung there like a cat hugging a lamppost on the promenade.
-Haha, Gabriel, you don't even tickle me. Let go better, if you don't want me to catapult you into the sea," Iñaki argued while laughing, he convinced him with that and when he was free of him, he counterattacked with a hug that made him crunch, "How are you, big head? Have you read a lot in your double degree of Philosophy and Law? Who sends you to study so much? You should have come to study mechanics with me in Madrid, we really know how to ride there!
They sat down and continued the conversation they had suspended at the end of the previous summer. Hours passed, they caught up on anecdotes and memories, they bathed in the sea (Gabriel had forgotten his towel, but Iñaki, who knew his friend's distractions well, had brought two in his backpack), and when they lay down on the sand again, around midnight, the conversation had climbed to the higher reaches of friendship. Suddenly, the past had been incorporated into the present: laughter and fists, shared dreams and buckets of reality, adventures and punishments; all that accumulated trust gave them a pleasant and safe atmosphere that encouraged them to open their hearts. Without realizing it, Gabriel and Iñaki were absorbed in that confidential conversation that sounded like the whisper of a stream, albeit one with rapids and waterfalls.
-Wait, wait a bit! Let me see if I understand you, let's recapitulate," said Gabriel, raising his hands and pushing the air with them, as if he wanted to contain the avalanche of words coming out of his friend's mouth. You met Sofia at the Prado Museum. When you went in there by mistake, of course.
-I was also interested in art....
-Yes. You met to go out a few times, you fell in love like a fool and for some miraculous reason, she agreed to be your girlfriend. She's from Pamplona, you said?
-Yes, now he is there with his family, but be careful....
-Wait for me, I tell you! In 6 months you had gotten the best girlfriend in Spain, you lucky bastard, and two weeks later you go to a discotheque, have too many drinks and end up hooking up with another girl you didn't know at all. Sofia, of course, found out: she got pictures, and stopped answering your messages. What else could she do? You wrote her every day for a month and ended up throwing in the towel, right, sort of?
-Yes... it was more or less like that. You'll understand me better when you find a girlfriend too: you don't get to know girls by reading and reading. As for me, what can I say... I'm the dumbest guy I've ever met. I'd give my left hand, I'm not telling you to get Sofia back, I don't deserve that, but at least I'd like to be able to ask her forgiveness in person, you know? And it'll be impossible, because tomorrow she's leaving for some social work in Tanzania, then she'll go on to I don't know where; I'd have to look for her in September, if that's what I'd have to do. And I don't know if I'll have the strength to go on living until then...
It was evident that the latter had escaped him, his face had darkened and anguish had taken command of his wild eyes. The atmosphere seemed indifferent to those signs: the air was serene, Santa Clara Island greeted them with its warm streetlights, it was not hot and a fat man walked past them, very comfortable in his bathing suit, but showing such an ostentatious belly that it distracted the two friends, bringing back the memory of the vanilla flan they used to be served on Mondays at school. Thanks to that somewhat unusual pause, Gabriel let in the air his heart needed to think. So, instead of committing the crime of passing on the advice and giving the badge, he had the prudence to dig a little deeper, pretending that he had not heard the last comment, or that it had seemed to him only a literary figure who drank from Romanticism.
-Why did you drink too much at the disco?
Iñaki was surprised and looked at his friend with a certain admiring amazement. He had not told anyone about the causes, not even himself.
-He was running away.
-Whose?
-Whose is it going to be? From me.
-Why?
-Well, man, what am I going to tell you... out of fear.
Gabriel turned his gaze skyward. He knew he could not ask any more questions, he had no right. His friend's conscience was sacred ground, and in front of it he had to take off his sandals. In such cases it was better to pretend to look at the stars and wait.
-Okay, I'll tell you. You're good at getting things out of people, do you realize that? It's no big deal, don't think I'm very original... When we left school the decline began. I was doing well at school, you know that mechanics is my thing. The problems fell on me at night, when I was alone with my cell phone in the room of the apartment.
Iñaki interrupted himself to take a deep breath with some eagerness. He wanted to talk, but he was having trouble putting his thoughts together. He picked up a handful of sand and began to release it onto the palm of his other hand in a trickle. As he repeated the motion, he returned to his story.
-I lost a lot of money with online gambling. Yeah, it's a shame. Don't judge me, huh? It's pitiful. I was trying to win back and losing more... I don't want to go into details, but it's been a horrible few months. If it wasn't for my father, who gave me a good shake when he found out I was living badly in Madrid, right now I'd be dominated by that addiction. It sucks. You will laugh at me, but I still get some of the scars of that war and I feel ashamed, I have a mood that would knock down a camel!
-I can see that you were affected by it.
-Besides, I stopped going to Mass, first out of laziness, I suppose, but then other sins began to pile up on me and the idea of going to confession became more and more burdensome. When I met Sofia and we started going out, she would invite me to Sunday Mass and I wanted to go just to be with her, to look at her blonde hair, her noble forehead, her shiny little arms, but pride got the better of me, I didn't have the courage to face my conscience! I told her that I needed to study. Come to think of it, it was a lousy excuse, study, me, on a Sunday?
-The pretext is bad, you're right about that," Gabriel tried to joke, but Iñaki paid no attention to him.
-Have you ever felt that you know what you have to do, but you just can't muster the strength to do it? Yes? Well, it's been hard for me to get my head up," he sighed and left the sand to put a hand to his chin. It's funny, I haven't told this to anyone... And while I'm telling you about it, my attitude seems ridiculous, almost childish.
-I follow you.
-I knew my limits, you know what I mean? If I'm honest, I'm not so sure life is worth living anymore.
-Let's not get dramatic! -Gabriel interrupted him with an outburst. I know a priest. Let's go see him now and go to confession. You recommend it and that's it, it's that simple!
-Haha, man, what do you say? It's almost 1:00 in the morning. We're not going to wake up a poor priest at this hour.
-Some things can't wait. He told me so himself some time ago. Besides, tomorrow you will have to travel to Pamplona to apologize to Sofia in person before she leaves for Tanzania. Come on, follow me! -said Gabriel vehemently as he jumped to his feet. He put on his shirt and put on his espadrilles; he moved with such aplomb that Iñaki imitated him mechanically, perhaps thinking that the time had come to return home.
They walked a half hour up the hill, arguing loudly, hoping that the windows of the houses were thick enough so that the neighbors would not wake up.
-I don't confess! -Iñaki shouted, with less and less conviction. -I'll leave you there at the Colegio Mayor and go.
-Do whatever you want, dammit! -Gabriel answered, giving him no respite and accelerating his pace. -At least let me confess," he added in a moment of inspiration.
They arrived at the Colegio Mayor where the priest lived. The gate was closed, the lights were off, not a soul on the street. They rang the doorbell. Iñaki was nervous and wanted to leave; he grumbled, he had already decided to leave confession for another day. Gabriel rang again. Suddenly, a man in a robe and with the face of an anesthetized zombie came out, who listened to the explanation with the same strangeness he would show if he were receiving ambassadors from Mars.
-A priest, now? -He snorted, "Okay, come in," he concluded without waiting for an answer. He opened the gate for them, left them in the visiting room and went upstairs to wake the priest.
The priest was a young man, nice and athletic, who got up instantly, fastened those endless buttons on his cassock, washed his face and went down to the foyer. When he recognized Gabriel and saw his friend next to him, he sensed what it was all about and smiled.
-Sorry for the hour, ahem... can you confess? -asked Gabriel, who had suddenly become very shy.
-The young priest pulled a purple stole out of his pocket as a magician pulls rabbits out of a hat, and they went to the confessional at the entrance of the chapel.
Five minutes later, Gabriel came out laughing. Iñaki, without looking up to avoid the risk of meeting his friend's eyes, entered the confessional as well. Ten minutes later, the priest returned to his room to continue sleeping with the little angels, and Iñaki entered the oratory to pray the Hail Marys that had been imposed on him as penance.
Upon returning to the lobby, Iñaki wiped with the cuff of his shirt a tear that had remained under his eye and looked at Gabriel, who was standing waiting for him trying to conceal his expectation.
-We are going to celebrate, aren't we? -Iñaki asked, as if it were the most normal idea in the world.
Gabriel smiled with relief. They found a bench with a good view of the bay and drank some cans of Coca-Cola that Iñaki had stashed in his backpack.
The next morning, Iñaki bid a fond farewell to his parents (it had been years since he had embraced them so warmly) and set off on his motorcycle, his heart sizzling with clean, oxygenated love, on his way to Pamplona. Come on, Sofía, if God forgave me, you will have to be merciful to me too," he shouted on the road. She was going fast, she felt like she was flying through the clouds, she had never felt so eager to live as she did then, so much to discover, so much time wasted, let's go ahead and conquer the world! But in the right lane a huge truck was moving forward and its route was zigzagging... Iñaki accelerated to move away, the truck did the same, they reached a sharp curve, the asphalt was wet from a recent rain, the truck tapped the rear wheel of the motorcycle and bang, the accident was terrible!
The funeral was in the church of Our Lady of the Choir. Gabriel was in the fourth row, accompanied by his parents; there he held on until the end, holding back tears, wondering why, fighting a new and volcanic kind of pain that burned him from the inside.
On the way out, a blond-haired girl with a noble forehead, wearing a black dress that revealed two shiny little arms, introduced herself as Sofia. As she had traveled alone, Gabriel's parents invited her to accompany them to the funeral in their car. They made the trip in silence. When the second ceremony was over, Gabriel waited for the people to leave and asked to stay a few minutes with Iñaki's grave. His parents and Sofia accompanied him, keeping a few meters away.
-This should not have happened to you, Iñaki. Not to you," his voice was cut off. He decided to leave the conversation for the next day, for the moment he would have to limit himself to the essentials. I suppose you want me to tell Sofía -she felt alluded to and approached him cautiously, with dignity, to stand beside him-, on your behalf, that you were traveling to Pamplona, like a man, to ask for her forgiveness.
Sofia blanched and opened her eyes wide. Gabriel hugged her and repeated those words. She nodded, her cheeks flushed, and let herself be sheltered by his shoulder. Then she went back to where the parents were and asked them for a handkerchief.
Gabriel stood there for a few more minutes, looking at the tombstone, as if he were having a mental conversation with his friend. At the end he gave a half-smile.
-Shall we go? -he said, turning to his parents and Sofia, "I'll buy you a Coke.
The audience that Pope Francis granted to pilgrims arriving in Rome served as a summary to highlight the main achievements of his recent trip to Canada.
On Wednesday, August 3, the Pope has resumed his weekly catechesis. The temperature in Rome was high, so the audience was not held in St. Peter's Square but in the Paul VI Hall. In recent months Pope Francis has reflected on the role of the elderly in the family and in today's world. Today, however, he has preferred to take stock of his recent trip to Canada.
The Holy Father began by underlining the main message of his trip, to recognize that some men and women of the Church "have participated in programs that today we understand to be unacceptable and contrary to the Gospel". With these words he was referring to the state system of schools for indigenous people. However, Pope Francis also pointed out that there have also been Christians who "have been among the most determined and courageous defenders of the dignity of indigenous populations, taking their side and contributing to the knowledge of their languages and cultures".
A balance sheet in parts
Pope Francis pointed out that his trip had three legs: to remember the past, to reconcile and to heal the wounds. Together we have made memory," the Pope commented, "the good memory of the millenary history of these peoples, in harmony with their land, and the painful memory of the abuses they have suffered".
With regard to the second step of his penitential journey, reconciliation, he pointed out that it was not a mere "agreement between us - that would be an illusion, a staging - but a letting ourselves be reconciled by Christ, who is our peace (cf. Eph 2:14). We have done so with reference to the figure of the tree, central to the life and symbolism of the indigenous peoples; the tree, whose new and full meaning is revealed in the Cross of Christ, through which God has reconciled all things (cfr Col 1,20). In the tree of the cross, pain is transformed into love, death into life, disillusionment into hope, abandonment into communion, distance into unity".
Healing
The healing of the wounds took place on the shores of Lake St. Anna. Pope Francis recalled that "for Jesus the lake was a familiar environment: on the lake of Galilee he lived a good part of his public life, together with the first disciples, all fishermen; there he preached and healed many sick people (cf. Mk 3:7-12). We can all draw from Christ, the source of living water, the grace that heals our wounds: to him, who embodies the closeness, compassion and tenderness of the Father, we have brought the traumas and violence suffered by the indigenous peoples of Canada and the whole world.
Any request for forgiveness requires reparations, which is why the Church in Canada has undertaken to compensate the indigenous people, for which it has raised more than 4 million euros.
Current colonizing mentality
In his meeting in Canada with the leaders and the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis emphasized "the active will of the Holy See and the local Catholic communities to promote the native cultures, with appropriate spiritual itineraries and attention to the customs and languages of the peoples. At the same time," the Pope continued, "I pointed out how the colonizing mentality is present today in various forms of ideological colonization, which threatens the traditions, history and religious bonds of peoples, flattening differences, concentrating only on the present and often neglecting the duties towards the weakest and most fragile. It is therefore a matter of recovering a healthy balance, a harmony between modernity and ancestral cultures, between secularization and spiritual values".
In any organization of people, such as a brotherhood, it is more important to reach harmony, working all together in the achievement of a common project.
August 3, 2022-Reading time: 3minutes
This is the title of a short book by the French philosopher Gustave Thibon, published almost forty years ago and which has gone through numerous editions. It gathers a selection of short texts in which he deals with problems of everyday life with simplicity and, at the same time, with great depth.
In the text that gives the title to the book, he explains the difference between the balance, which is the situation that occurs when opposing forces cancel each other, and the harmonyIn harmony there is contained tension, we speak of "nuclear equilibrium"; in harmony the combination of diverse forces produces a situation better than the starting point, as in the case of a symphony. In equilibrium there is contained tension, we speak of "nuclear equilibrium"; in harmony the combination of diverse forces produces a situation better than the starting point, as in the case of a symphony.
In any organization of people, such as a brotherhood, it is more important to reach harmony, working together in the achievement of a common project without renouncing the singularity of each contribution, than to achieve a balance derived from a counterbalance of powers within the brotherhood and between the brotherhood and the institutional Church.
For an organization to function properly, it is essential that its mission, its raison d'être, be well defined. The mission of a fraternity is to form its members, to promote public worship, to foster Charity and to influence society with a Christian spirit. They are organizations of people who collaborate with the Church, under its supervision, in carrying out its evangelizing mission. To direct a brotherhood is to manage an organization that serves hundreds or thousands of associates, of brothers and sisters. That requires more than enthusiasm and good intentions.
Emphasizing these issues is not to downgrade the activity of the brotherhoods, reducing them to companies devoid of soul, on the contrary, it is to ensure that the feeling and doctrine will be able to flow through expeditious ways.
In the management of the brotherhood, two areas of action can be distinguished: on the one hand, the processes of management common to any organization of people: the keeping of accounts and financial management comparable to those of any other organization, which guarantees its sustainability; also a definition of administrative processes that guarantee the attention to the brothers and a communication policy that helps to reinforce the real and perceived image of the brotherhood, contributing to its reinforcement.
The other field of work is that of the activities to carry out its mission. It covers the formation of the brothers, the promotion of charity and the promotion of public worship. This involves the organization of training sessions, the setting up of altars, the organization of worship services, and the care of the disadvantaged through the Charity Commission.
Two complementary lines of work are thus configured in the brotherhoods: the administrative management and the realization of activities. Neither should prevail over the other. Aristotle explained that virtue is in the middle point; but a middle point that is not obtained from the balance between opposing tendencies, but from the harmony between different elements that complement each other and places us in a middle point that is on a higher plane than the two extremes.
It is urgent to overcome the loop of managing the routine, it is necessary to raise new horizons, avoiding the brotherhoods to participate, by action or omission, of the social crises; for it the management and activities have to be the external manifestation of a solid formation that is acquired with exigency and effort. If there is no formation, there are no foundations and one's own prejudices are uncritically projected in the analysis of reality, which is devastating. In a social scenario as liquid as the one we live in, it is necessary to have a solid conceptual model to respond to permanent challenges. Christian worldview based on divine revelation, which perfects reason.
From this worldview a series of decisive affirmations are deduced: the concept of the person, his freedom, his capacity for personal fulfillment, love, happiness and possession of God. A whole universe born of Christian culture and sustained only within it. If the brotherhoods, and those who direct them, do not participate in this global vision of reality, it will be difficult for them to carry out their task. They will be, at most, good managers of organizations without roots and, therefore, without future.
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.
After the parable of the rich man who laid up treasures for himself, Jesus continues to teach on the same theme. He speaks of trusting in God's providence, inviting us to observe the lilies of the field and the birds of the sky, and to trust in the Father who knows what we need. And he concludes with the consoling phrase with which today's Gospel begins: "Fear not, little flock, for your Father has seen fit to give you the kingdom.". The "fear not" of Jesus in Luke we had heard it said to individuals: to Peter, when calling him after the miraculous catch of fish; to Jairus, when he was told that his daughter had died, as the angel told Zechariah and Mary.
This is a "do not be afraid" addressed to a community, even if it is in the singular, to the little flock, a very sweet name that Jesus gives to the group of his own and that is applicable to the whole Church. It is a "fear not" addressed to all of us personally (in the singular), but as participants of the flock, of the Church. The reason for not fearing is even sweeter: because Jesus tells us that the "Father" is ours. In Luke, Jesus prefers not to use the word God when he addresses his people, but rather "your Father". He reveals to us his condition of Father and urges us to have a filial relationship with him. He is not a distant, solitary and abstract God. He has paternal feelings of joy in giving the great gift to his children: it has given him pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The theme of waiting is introduced by the book of Wisdom, which speaks of Israel: "Your people waited for the salvation of the righteous", and by the letter to the Hebrews, which speaks of Abraham: "While waiting for the city of solid foundations whose architect and builder was to be God.". Jesus deals with it in three brief parables centered on the dynamics of the servants' waiting for their master. Twice he reiterates the great beatitude of those servants if the master finds them awake and vigilant when he returns. And the reason is that he himself will place himself at their service.
Peter asks if the parable is only for them as apostles or for all. Perhaps he thought that the metaphor of the servant was suitable only for the twelve, or that only for them was the beatitude reserved. Jesus makes him understand that we are all servants and that we will all be blessed. But for the faithful steward, who is the head of all the servants, as Peter is for the Church, the reward is linked to his giving the right food to the other servants. Then he will be blessed, because he will put him in charge of all his possessions. Jesus, who came to serve and is among us as the one who serves, promises us that he will maintain this attitude for all eternity. And this is and will be for us a source of great joy.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 19th Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
The silent work of Vatican diplomacy to save hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust is consistent with the rejection of Nazism, from the beginning, by Pius XII.
In view of the imminent declassification of documents In the Vatican archives regarding the Jewish persecution by Nazi Germany (the "holocaust"), it is a good time to review Pius XII's responses to this pagan ideology: is it true that he is often reproached for having "kept silent" in the face of Nazi crimes, that he "could have done more"?
When Eugenio Pacelli - elected Pope on March 2, 1939, the same day he turned 63, as successor to Pius XI - died on October 9, 1958, there were many expressions of mourning and recognition. Among these were the declarations of the then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier, who lamented the loss of "a great friend of the people of Israel". It is also well known that when Israel Zolli - who had been the Chief Rabbi of Rome between 1939 and 1945 - was baptized in the Catholic Church on February 13, 1945, he chose Eugene as his first name, in gratitude for the efforts that Pius XII had made to save the Jews of Rome.
The data
During the German domination of Rome, between September 10, 1943 and June 4, 1944, the Pope gave orders to open cloistered convents and even the Vatican itself and the Pope's summer residence at Castengandolfo to shelter Jews persecuted by the SS and the Gestapo: in 155 convents in Rome, 4,238 Roman Jews were hidden.238 Roman Jews were hidden in 155 convents in Rome, to which must be added the 477 others who were received in the Vatican and the approximately 3,000 who found refuge in Castengandolfo, where the Pope's room sheltered pregnant Jewish women: in the papal bed about 40 children were born into the world.
This aid work due to the Pope's direct intervention was not confined exclusively to Rome; through "silent" Vatican diplomacy hundreds of thousands of lives were saved; in 2002 Ruth Lapide, wife of the famous Jewish writer Pinchas Lapide, confirmed that he put the number of Jews saved directly by Vatican diplomacy between 1939 and 1945 at some 800,000 people.
Pius XII, Righteous Among the Nations
Vatican aid to persecuted Jews gave Pope Pius XII a reputation that was embodied in the Yad Vashem committee's recognition of the title "righteous among the nations" for Roman priests such as Cardinal Pietro Palazzini (1912-2000), who during the months of the German occupation of Rome was vice rector of the Roman seminary. When Pietro Palazzini, in 1985, received this honor at Yad Vashem, he referred to the person who had been behind all the Vatican aid: Pope Pius XII.
Germany also showed gratitude to Pius XII after the fall of Nazism; this was expressed, for example, in the official recognition of naming streets after him. Another example of the prestige enjoyed by Pius XII during his lifetime is the cover devoted to him by the magazine Time in August 1943, in which he was recognized for his efforts on behalf of peace.
A play
However, only five years after his death, international public opinion took a 180-degree turn regarding the perception of Pius XII. The black legend about the Pope begins with a play: The Vicar by Rolf Hochhuth, premiered in 1963. Surprising as it may seem, the biased view of that work managed to gain widespread acceptance. This interpretation has continued for decades; in one of the most controversial expressions, John Cornwell went so far as to call him "Hitler's Pope": this was the title of his book that appeared in 1999, Hitler's Pope.
In an article for the newspaper Die WeltIn this regard, journalist Sven Felix Kellerhoff said: "There is probably no other historical figure of worldwide stature who, like Eugenio Pacelli - in such a short time after his death - has gone from being a widely respected role model to a person condemned by the majority. This was mainly due to the play The Vicar by Rolf Hochhuth".
Forgotten facts
In contrast to the species spread by The VicarThe facts speak a different language. Eugenio Pacelli, Apostolic Nuncio in Germany between 1917 and 1929, first in Munich and from 1925 in Berlin, showed a clear rejection of National Socialism from the very moment he met it, on the occasion of the coup d'état perpetrated by Ludendorff and Hitler with his march to the Feldherrnhalle in Munich on Friday, November 9, 1923. In the report he sent to the Vatican on these disturbances, the Nuncio described Hitler's movement as "fanatically anti-Catholic"; during the trial of Ludendorff, Eugenio Pacelli referred to nationalism as the "most serious heresy of our time".
Years later, when he was already Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli officially represented Pope Pius XI in Lourdes, on April 29, 1935, in a multitudinous act to pray for peace; in his speech, Pacelli condemned the "superstition of blood and race", a clear allusion to Nazi ideology.
An encyclical of "Pius XII".
The clearest demonstration of his rejection of Nazism came with the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. Although it was promulgated - on March 21, 1937 - by Pope Pius XI, it bears the mark of the then Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli. The encyclical was a response not only to the many attacks against representatives of the Church, but more specifically to the German government's failure to respond to the protests against the violation of the Concordat, signed on July 20, 1933, between the Holy See and the German government: over the years, Pacelli delivered to the German Ambassador to the Holy See more than 50 diplomatic notes of protest, to no avail.
Eugenio Pacelli left his mark even on the title of the encyclical, the first in history to be promulgated in a language other than Latin, a further proof of the importance attached to it by the Holy See: the draft, prepared by the Bishop of Munich, Michael Faulhaber, began with the words "Mit grosser Sorge" ("With great concern"); Eugenio Pacelli crossed out the word "grosser" in his own hand to replace it with "brennender"; thus the title of the Encyclical was fixed, with which it would go down in history: "Mit brennender Sorge" ("With burning concern" or, in the Vatican's official translation: "With lively concern").
The encyclical, which described Nazi ideology as "pantheism" and criticized the tendencies of the National Socialist leadership to revive ancient Germanic religions, expressed in unequivocal words the rejection of the National Socialist ideology of "race and people" and contrasted it with the Christian faith. The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge was in fact the only major protest in the twelve years of Nazism. It reached the approximately 11,500 parishes that existed in the Reich, previously unbeknownst to the Gestapo.
Nazi reaction
The Nazi leadership considered it a clear attack on their ideology, and responded to it with harsh repression. One example is a conversation between Franz Xaver Eberle, auxiliary bishop of Augsburg, and Hitler on December 6, 1937, which was reported in writing to Rome by Cardinal Faulhaber, on the express instructions of Cardinal Secretary of State Pacelli. In this conversation, Hitler told Eberle that the Germans had only one Cardinal in the Vatican who understood them and "unfortunately, this is not Pacelli, but Pizzardo".
Also interesting is Joseph Goebbels' opinion of Pacelli, who mentions him in his diary more than a hundred times. For example, in 1937 he writes: "Pacelli, completely against us. Liberalist and democrat". On the occasion of the election of Eugenio Pacelli as Pope, on March 2, 1939, the German Minister of Propaganda notes: "Pacelli, elected Pope (...) A political Pope and, possibly, a combative Pope who will act cunningly and skillfully. Beware!". And on December 27, 1939, Joseph Goebbels referred to the Pope's Christmas speech: "Full of very biting and hidden attacks against us, against the Reich and National Socialism". Particularly significant is what he notes on January 9, 1945: "Prawda is once again strongly attacking the Pope. It is curious, almost funny, that the Pope is called a fascist and that he is in cahoots with us to save Germany from its plight."
Causes of discredit
However, with the passage of time, this was unfortunately the case: what Goebbels, and he must have known it well, found "curious, almost funny" - that Pius XII was considered favorable to Nazism - came about shortly after his death. How is it possible that, in view of these actions and condemnations, of what the Nazis themselves thought about Pius XII, the image of the "Pope who remains silent" or even of "Hitler's Pope" is still so widespread?
The jurist and theologian Rodolfo Vargas, an expert on Pius XII and president of the Association Solidatium Internationale Pastor AngelicusIn response to this question, he refers to the "power of fiction": "Fiction is very powerful, and possesses a power of fascination that specialized literature and research do not have".
The aforementioned journalist Sven Felix Kellerhoff offers another explanation, in an article published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the film The VicarThe vision of the Pope given in this play "has nothing to do with reality; but it is more convenient to hold the alleged silence of a Pope responsible for the genocide than the collaboration of millions of 'Aryan' Germans, who - at least - looked the other way, often benefited from it and not rarely participated in it".
A change of opinion
However, for some time now this perception is beginning to change, at least in specialized publications: coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the death of Pius XII, in 2008, several works appeared highlighting his quiet but effective activity. A work that takes on even greater significance if one takes into account the fear that reigned in the Eternal City during the German domination. Ludwig Kaas, who had been President of the Catholic Zentrum party and had moved to Rome at the beginning of April 1933, thought of destroying all the material he possessed from the time of the Weimar Republic because "it was to be expected that the SS would occupy the Vatican".
Historian Michael Hesemann, referring to the question of whether Pius XII protested "sufficiently" against the Jewish genocide, argues that those who accuse Pius XII of not having protested more explicitly against the Holocaust fail to take into account that his relief activities were possible precisely because the Pope did not openly protest: "If the SS had occupied the Vatican, this extensive plan of salvation could not have been carried out and the certain death of at least 7,000 Jews would have occurred.
A decisive precedent
There was a precedent, of which the Pope was well aware: when, in August 1942, German occupation troops deported Jews from the Netherlands, the Catholic bishop of Utrecht protested. The consequence was that the Nazis sent to Auschwitz also Catholics of Jewish origin; the most famous victim was Edith Stein, who had converted from Judaism to Christianity and subsequently entered the Carmelite Order. As early as 1942, when he first learned of the Shoah, Pius XII commented to his confidant Don Pirro Scavizzi: "A protest on my part would not only have been of no help to anyone, but would have unleashed anger against the Jews and would have multiplied the atrocities. Perhaps it would have aroused the praises of the civilized world, but to the poor Jews it would only have produced a more atrocious persecution than the one they suffered".
There has also been a recent effort to disseminate a more objective view of Pius XII. For example, in 2009 an exhibition on him was held in Berlin and Munich; it ended in a room entitled "Here you can hear the silence of the Pope"; indeed, you could hear the radio message of Pius XII at Christmas 1942, in which Pope Pacelli spoke of "the hundreds of thousands of people who, through no fault of their own, sometimes only for reasons of nationality or race, are destined to death or to progressive annihilation". That Pius XII remained silent about the Holocaust, as the writer Rolf Hochhuth had been claiming since 1963, trying to influence the public debate in Germany, has just been definitively refuted by facts.
New perspectives on Pius XII
On the other hand, also in the world of fiction there has been a change of trend in recent years; in addition to some other films, in Germany, the First Channel (ARD) of public television produced between 2009 and 2010 a miniseries that vindicates the role of Eugenio Pacelli, as Nuncio, as Cardinal Secretary of State and also as Pope Pius XII: Gottes mächtige Dienerin (The powerful servant of God), is an adaptation of a novel published in 2007 and narrated from the point of view of Sister Pascalina Lehnert, although it focuses on Pius XII's debate with his own conscience. In the exclusive interview The director, Marcus O. Rosenmüller, told me during the filming that "the Pope found himself in a tremendously difficult historical situation and had to weigh the various arguments in order to act correctly. Our film tries to translate his reflections into images; for example, after the Utrecht raid in July 1942, due to the bishop's protests against the deportations of Jews, Pius XII throws, page by page, a document he had already written into the kitchen stove".
Marcus O. Rosenmüller commented on the biased versions of Pius XII that have been given for some time now: "The accusation of anti-Semitism made against Pacelli seems to me to be absolutely absurd; it is mere provocation. We are presenting a Pope who was intellectually opposed to National Socialism and who, because of certain events - such as the deportations in the Netherlands - did not find it easy to know what the right decision was. Since he was also a diplomat to the marrow of his bones, it is possible that this diplomacy made it somewhat difficult for him to act. But we also strive to take into account the time in which he lived. To demand of the Vatican and in particular of Eugenio Pacelli that they should have seen everything from the beginning with crystal clarity is an anachronism. The "Hitler" phenomenon is also the phenomenon of his underestimation: for a long time, English and French politicians underestimated the dimension of Nazism. When Hochhuth claims that the whole world was against Hitler and only Pius XII turned a deaf ear to those who sought help, he is saying something simply untrue".
Perhaps these fictional works may eventually reverse the distorted image that, almost 60 years ago, provided another work of fiction of a Pope who not only did not remain silent in the face of genocide, but who made efforts to save as many as possible; and who succeeded precisely by doing so in a silent way.
Justice for Father Dall'Oglio after his kidnapping in Syria
Francesca Peliti's book on the Italian Jesuit Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, kidnapped nine years ago in Syria, was presented at the National Federation of the Italian Press.
"Paolo Dall'Oglio and the community of Deir Mar Musa", the book by Francesca Peliti (published by Effatà) was presented yesterday in Rome at the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI). Present with the author were: Cenap Aydin, director of the Tiberian Institute - Center for Dialogue; Immacolata Dall'Oglio, sister of Father Paolo; Giuseppe Giulietti, president of Fnsi; Father Federico Lombardi, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation; and Riccardo Cristiano, Vaticanist.
Nine years without Paolo Dall'Oglio
Nine years after his death, "we have continued to think of Paolo Dall'Oglio and to hope. In the meantime - reads the preface by Father Federico Lombardi - we could not help but wonder countless times about the fate of the Community of Deir Mar Musa founded by him, which has continued on its way, far beyond what many would have expected. Why and how? Why and with what perspectives? This book tells us and explains many things, rightly giving the main space to the personal testimonies of all the members of the Community who have been part of it up to now, or of others who have participated more deeply in its trajectory over the years. Paul is very much present, as the origin, guide and inspirer of this extraordinary adventure, and also with his letters. But there is more than him. And that is precisely why the Community is still there.
Over many years, Father Paolo's theological and spiritual vision has engaged a great number of people, making a mark on them by changing the course of their lives. Since 1982, the monastery of Mar Musa al-Habashi, or St. Moses the Abyssinian, has become a point of reference for the Islamic-Christian dialogue. It has gone through many transformations, surviving war, the threat of Isis and the kidnapping of its founder in Raqqa on July 29, 2013. The book tells their story through the voices of the protagonists. "It is a journey that began at the hand of Father Paolo, but did not end with his disappearance. "On the contrary," point out the organizers of the book presentation, "in these writings the Community renews a vow of faith that transcends historical events to put the thought of its founder back at the center."
Thetimonies and letters
In addition to the testimonies of the monks, nuns and lay people who in various ways have been part of this story, some letters that Father Paolo sent to friends during the early years accompany part of this journey. There are twelve letters in all, the first in 1985, the last in 1995: it is his account of that period. Francesca Peliti wanted to include them among the testimonies regardless of time, so that through the words of Father Paolo the past returns to the present.
"Since the day Paolo Dall'Oglio, then a young Jesuit, discovered, in an ancient guidebook in Syria, the existence of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi," Peliti explains, "there have been many people whose existence has been changed by their encounter with that place, that project, that vocation. Mar Musa has always had the power to attract even those who did not have a clear vision of their faith. It has always had the power to evoke the call, the strong and special vocation for the values it embodies and for which Paolo Dall'Oglio has become the spokesman."
First followers of Paolo Dall'Oglio
In the story of Jaques Mourad, the first monk who together with Dall'Oglio founded the community of Deir Mar Musa, the importance of the vertical dimension emerges, of the relationship with the Absolute that motivates and gives meaning to everything. "The fact of living in the nothingness attracted me," are his words, "it was the realization of a very ancient dream, because for me the desert is the place where I can experience a free encounter with God."
Other testimonies focus more on the physical dimension of being and doing together, on the monastery as a place of passage and formation, a stage of an itinerary susceptible to the most diverse landings and directions. "The accounts of some vocational events are impressive," Father Lombardi points out, "it's not Paul, it's not the charm of a place. It is God. But the path is very demanding. For most Christians in the East, you can live with Muslims, but it is difficult to really dialogue with them, it is difficult to love them as God loves them in Jesus Christ. However, this is the real great novelty that Paul came to sow in the land of Syria".
The community today
At present, the Community of Deir Mar Musa has 8 members, 1 novice and 2 postulants, in addition to the laity who collaborate in the monasteries of Deir Maryam al-Adhra in Sulaymanya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, and of Santissimo Salvatore in Cori, Italy.
As for the kidnapping of Father Dall'Oglio, the siblings Francesca and Giovanni recently requested the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry to investigate what happened nine years ago. Since then, there has been no news: a "request for clarifications and official investigations that is now unavoidable", through a parliamentary instrument that, also because of its political relevance, "could allow us to get to the truth".
A matter on which silence has fallen too soon, also due to the widespread belief that Dall'Oglio was killed by his kidnappers. However, there are still many unclear points, starting from the fact that no one has yet claimed authorship of the action. And again: the motive for the kidnapping, the identity of the perpetrators - the men of the self-styled Islamic State? -and, in the hypothesis of murder, the failure to find the body.
A parliamentary committee
A few days after the request for the creation of the parliamentary commission, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, signed the decree dissolving the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies. The hope is that already during the election campaign, which promises to be more polarized and divisive than ever, all the political forces and their respective leaders will find at least a point of agreement and commit themselves so that the new Parliament will adopt as one of its first measures precisely that of creating the commission on the dramatic story of a truly "great" person, because great was his life, his word, his style, in the sign of peace and dialogue in the midst of differences.
The Middle East, once a Christian land, is now inhabited by a Muslim crowd in which Christian communities are on the verge of disappearing. But the dream of a monastic community in which Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims can live together in harmony does not disappear. In the clarity of faith and strengthened by the visionary courage of all the followers of Father Dall'Oglio.
Twenty-five young astronomers from all over the world will be able to participate in the Vatican summer school next June 2023. This is one of the initiatives of The Specola VaticanaThe Catholic Church's Astronomical Observatory and scientific research center, which reopens its doors after the pandemic.
Leticia Sánchez de León-August 2, 2022-Reading time: 5minutes
The Summer Schools -The Specola Vaticana is back in operation after the pandemic, after five years of being inactive for five years. stand by. The next astrophysics course (the eighteenth edition, by the way) is scheduled for June 2023 and will host twenty-five young astronomers from all over the world for four weeks at one of the Specola's sites, in the town of Castel Gandolfo, very close to Rome.
What is the Specola Vaticana
– Supernatural Specola ("specula" in Latin, from the Italian verb specere "to look at, to observe") Vatican is the Astronomical Observatory and scientific research center of the Catholic Church and one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the world: its history begins in the mid-sixteenth century, when in 1578 Pope Gregory XIII ordered the erection of the Tower of the Winds and invited numerous Jesuit astronomers and mathematicians to prepare the calendar reform promulgated in 1582.
Next June 2023, twenty-five young astronomers will join the more than 400 who have already gone through the Vatican's scientific research programs. This year, the theme of the VOSS (Vatican Observatory Summer School) is "Learning the Universe: Data Science Tools for Astronomical Surveys".
As telescopes have become more powerful and measurement tools more sensitive, the amount of astronomical data scientists need to understand has grown dramatically. Large astronomical surveys have already made thousands of measurements. Thanks to technological and computational progress, new observatories, such as the Rubin Observatory, will produce catalogs of tens of billions of stars and galaxies and trillions of different measurements.
Summer School 2023
The Summer School The 2023 Vatican Council aims to assist the field of science in this regard: by introducing the concepts of Big Data y Machine LearningIn addition, a hands-on experience of data analysis of the observations made will be explored, allowing students to use these data for their own astronomical projects. In addition, the teachers of the summer schools are always prominent astronomers from the most prestigious observatories and universities in the world, such as Vera Rubin or Didier Queloz, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Summer School is open to advanced undergraduate astronomy students and PhD students from all over the world. Most of the selected students come from developing countries. Classes are free of charge and additional financial support is provided by the benefactors through the Vatican Observatory Foundationwhich ensures that all accepted students are able to participate.
The Vatican Observatory Summer Schools have been held since 1986 and are one of the most important initiatives of the Specola. Since their foundation, almost 40 years ago, they have always received the maximum support from the Popes and the participants have always been able to greet the Pontiff during their stay in Italy. In addition to the Summer SchoolsThe Specola also regularly hosts academic conferences, as well as outreach events open to the public.
The history of Specola
The foundation of the Vatican Observatory officially took place with the motu proprio. Ut mysticam of Leo XIII of March 14, 1891. After the foundation, the observatory was equipped with an initial rotating dome of three and a half meters, to which three more were added in a few years, together with more modern instrumentation acquired through donations. Two years later, the Specola was equipped with a heliograph for photographing the Sun, placed on the terrace of the Vatican Museums (later moved to the terrace of the present-day Mater Ecclesiae Monastery where Benedict XVI resides). In 1909, a large refractor was placed on top of the tower adjacent to the Palazzina Leone XIII, protected by a dome of more than eight meters.
One of Specola's first important scientific achievements was its collaboration in the international project Carte du Ciel, the first photographic atlas of the stars. La Specola collaborated with 21 other observatories around the world to complete the mapping of the sky. To carry out this major scientific endeavor, it was necessary to equip La Specola with a large telescope. The San Juan Toweralso located within the walls of Vatican City, where an 8-meter rotating dome was built.
Changes of location
In the late 1920s, the increasing illumination of the city of Rome made it increasingly difficult to observe the sky. The observatory was then moved to the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo. The new facility, completed in 1935, was equipped with the most powerful means, such as an astrograph, laboratories for the study of meteorites and a large library. Years later, a Calculation Center was installed for increasingly advanced astrophysical research.
In the 1970s, the same problem that had forced the Specola to move from Rome to Castel Gandolfo arose again with the increase of artificial lighting in and around the town. The Specola again began the search for a site to house a new observatory, finally opting for Tucson, Arizona. The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) in Arizona was inaugurated in 1993 and is equipped with an advanced telescope and a series of astrophysical laboratories.
Specola's goal: to serve science
Some might wonder why the Vatican is interested in astrophysics and whether it was really necessary to "set up" a whole observatory to study the stars and meteorites. Along these lines, on the occasion of the Year of Astronomy (2009), the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, conducted an interview with the Jesuit Guy J. Consolmagno, the current director of the Specola, who answers some of these questions: "When Pope Leo XIII created the Specola Vaticana, one of his motivations was to show the world that the Church supports and promotes true science. And to fulfill this mandate we are not only obliged to do our scientific work, but also to make it public and share it."
"The science -he adds- is exactly the same. We obey the same scientific laws and publish in the same journals. The difference is in the motivation. We do not work to make money or to gain personal prestige. We simply work for the love of science. And, of course, that is what many other scholars would like to do as well, but it is wonderful that here, in the Vatican, we can fulfill this desire without having to face so many other problems.
A freer science
It may sound idyllic and unrealistic, but the truth is that, as a Vatican institution, researchers working at Specola obtain funding for their projects through the Vatican Observatory Foundation so they don't need to compete with other observatories for government funds: "Those working at NASA have to continuously report the results and progress of their research in order not to lose their funding. We, on the other hand, can devote ourselves to long-term scientific research, which also requires several years of work before a result is achieved.". In addition, "we can work on what we find most interesting and not on projects that are imposed on us by potential financiers.and devote ourselves to research that may last five, ten or even fifteen years."
The director of the Vatican press room, Matteo Bruni, has announced that Pope Francis will travel to Kazakhstan from September 13 to 15. Invited by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the Pope will make a pastoral visit and will also participate in the VIIth Congress of World and Traditional Religionsin the city of Nur-Sultan.
At the press conference on his return trip from Canada, Pope Francis commented on his willingness to make this trip: "Kazakhstan, for the moment, I would like to go: it is a quiet trip, without so much movement, it is a Congress of Religions," he said.
Objectives of the congress
The congress aims to collaborate in the establishment of peace, tolerance among religions, confessions, nations and ethnic groups. To this end, it cooperates with international organizations and structures aimed at promoting dialogue between religions, cultures and civilizations. Among its objectives is "to prevent the prevalence of the thesis of the clash of civilizations, expressed in the opposition of religions and the increased politicization of theological disputes, as well as attempts to discredit one religion by another".
Three months ago Omnes had the opportunity to interview Monsignor José Luis MumbielaBishop of Almaty, Kazakhstan's most populous city, and president of the country's bishops' conference. On that occasion he underlined the enthusiasm that the trip aroused for Catholics: "For the Catholic Church it is always a joy. An ordinary Father does not need special reasons to see his children. He is always welcome. But obviously, the historical circumstances of Kazakhstan and countries close to Kazakhstan (Ukraine, Russia) make this trip very significant. Taking advantage of the International Congress, which seeks precisely to promote peace and harmony between religions and different cultures. It is precisely what the Pope wants to spread, in a world that is suffering the complete opposite. The historical circumstances are conducive to this. It is a very beautiful coincidence".
Perez TenderoI see that there is a great thirst for the Word of God".
Manuel Perez is a biblical scholar who teaches at the seminary of Ciudad Real. Now his classes have been uploaded to youtube and have achieved a more than remarkable success. We chatted with him about this event.
Manuel Perez Tendero was born in Urda (Toledo) in 1966. At the age of 16 he entered the seminary of Ciudad Real, studied theology and another three years in the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome. After his priestly ordination, he taught Sacred Scripture classes at the seminary of Ciudad Real, where he was also the rector. For some months now his classes have been available on the internet and have been surprisingly well received.
When and why did you decide to share your Scripture classes on YouTube?
- It was on the occasion of the pandemic, and thanks to the initiative of a seminarian. Until I started the channel, I taught at the seminary and at the Diocesan Institute of Theology. At the beginning the videos were about the Gospel of the following Sunday, but soon I chose to record more systematic and structured series: the Gospel of Mark or Luke, books of the Old Testament (Genesisthe Novels), the Apocalypse...
What was the reason for the change?
- When it seemed that the pandemic was ending and we were released from confinement, we had to decide whether to continue with the channel or leave it. When we decided to continue, we thought it would be interesting to do something more systematic, taking the books of the Bible as a reference.
Do you spend a lot of time preparing the videos, and do you consider the time you spend teaching online to be well spent?
- There is a long term preparation: the one that has given me these thirty years of being a priest and a teacher. On the other hand, there is a short-term preparation: I have to spend some time preparing each recording and the recording itself. For me, it is a worthwhile job, but I would not do it on my own if it were not for the encouragement and help of others.
Why did you study Sacred Scripture? What do you enjoy most about studying and teaching the Bible?
- At the end of my seminary studies, I was sent to Rome to study. The fact of studying Sacred Scripture was due to the lack of professors of that subject in our Seminary.
What I like the most? To know the Scriptures is to know Christ, says St. Jerome. Christ, the Word of God, is what I like most. Also, the precise human aspect of the Bible: the stories, the profound themes, the forms of expression. The mystery of the Word, which has so much to do with our life and our faithThe main beauty of this is the main beauty.
What do you consider the biblical knowledge of the average Catholic to be like? What do you think your channel brings to it? How do you explain that such long videos are being so well received?
- I believe that we are improving among Catholics. I see, above all, that there is a great thirst for the Word of God. Of course, there can be a mismatch between what the specialists publish and other more popular books on spirituality. I believe that an approach to the Bible that is profound and, at the same time, sapiential, believing, is necessary. This sapiential, believing reading, which raises questions, is what we try to contribute from our channel.
Trailer of the course Captivated by the Word
Some may be surprised to find such well shot and edited Bible videos. What's the secret?
- The secret lies in Martin, who is the editor; it lies in his biblical and computer skills; it lies, above all, in the passion that all of us who work on it put into it.
Surely in these years of channel, with several thousand subscribers and about a hundred videos. Can you share with us some fruit of your YouTube channel especially striking or significant?
- One of the fruits is that I have been able to meet some people and communities who have called me to give Exercises or a Conference. Perhaps, the best fruit is in the fraternal words of so many believers -some of them non-Catholics- who encourage us to continue; many of them, with a sincere prayer. Months ago, in a town of Ciudad Real, a lady whom I did not know came up to me and greeted me with a big smile and said very loudly: "Captivated by the Word!
If our readers want to start their scriptural training with your channel, where would you recommend them to start?
- You could start with a simple book, such as Ruth. Then, we could move on to a book like Genesis, which has 4 videos. There is also Revelation, very current and not so difficult, which has 3 videos. Then, I would start with the Gospel according to Mark, to work slowly on the itinerary of Jesus and the mystery of the Gospels.
Summer vacations allow for one of the most impressive and necessary faith experiences for faith to take firm root: going to a different parish and thus experiencing the Catholicity of the Church.
Summer vacations allow for one of the most impressive and necessary experiences of faith to take firm root: that of the catholicity of the Church. Going to a parish different from the usual one or participating in international meetings such as the next European Youth Pilgrimage, which will gather thousands of boys and girls from August 3 to 7 in Santiago de Compostela.
These are unique opportunities to discover how Christ himself is uniquely present in so many different communities throughout the world.
I confess that I love to "taste" the Masses in the towns and cities I visit, because in them I always discover God and the Church in a new and surprising way.
I love to notice how the community is arranged in the pews, how the faithful are dressed, how they decorate the altar, how the readings sound in another accent or in another language, discover local customs, listen to familiar songs with a different nuance and even do a full-fledged Mr. Bean trying to follow aloud a song absolutely unknown to me.
It is a way of feeling like one more, a member of the one Catholic Church.
Thanks to my childhood vacations, I learned the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed - the long one, so to speak - because it was the custom of the parish priest in the village where I was spending my summer holidays to proclaim this version of the profession of faith instead of the Apostolic (the short one) that was recited in my usual parish. And how much I have marveled at this theological jewel ever since!
I am also fascinated by listening to the most diverse homilies -forgive me for being a "freak"-. However long or short, however profound or superficial, however documented or improvised, in all of them I discover Christ the master in the figure of the priest, who stands out above human gifts and shortcomings.
If, on top of that, the temple is a historical-artistic monument or its architecture or images awaken the devotion of the faithful, the celebration can be highly enriching.
To give peace to someone you see for the first time, but in whom you discover a brother, to receive communion in a line of strangers while feeling like family. One Spirit, members of one body, precious experience of the communion of saints.
The experience is very similar when I have had the good fortune to participate in pilgrimages to international shrines (Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe...) or in events convoked by the Universal Church (WYD, Pope's audiences...).
I recommend parents to send their children to this kind of meetings because our teenagers and young people, for whom the group is so important, feel like weirdos for belonging to the Christian people. The experience of seeing thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of young people who unashamedly profess their faith, who live the joy of knowing they are children of God, who share a spiritual outlook on today's world, in the midst of their doubts and stumbling blocks, makes them change that attitude of rejection typical of the secularized society in which they live.
The Church is not a mere sum of particular Churches, as Paul VI taught us in Evangelii nuntiandibut a single one which, "having its roots in the variety of cultural, social and human terrains, takes on diverse aspects and external expressions in every part of the world".
You know, this summer, wherever you are, be sure to go to church, to your church.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
The pontifical Swiss Guard. History, trade and curiosities
Every May 6, the new members of the Swiss Guard swear an oath of loyalty to the Pope, even at the cost of their own lives. On that day in 1527, 147 guards died protecting Pope Clement VI during the sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V.
They are perhaps the most photographed guards in the world. Their colorful uniforms and their unperturbed faces attract the curiosity of those who come across them at the Vatican. The privilege of guarding the Pope is not easy. Among the requirements that must be met by those who want to be part of this corps are to be Catholic, at least 1.74 meters tall, and have a certificate of good conduct.
What is the Swiss Guard and what are its competences?
The Pontifical Swiss Guard is a military corps in charge of the security of the Pope and the Holy See. Organically it is an army - the smallest in the world - with just over 100 members.
Its head is the Roman Pontiff, sovereign of the Vatican City State. It also has a commander with the rank of colonel, the highest military authority of the corps; a vice-commander with the rank of lieutenant-colonel; a chaplain with the rank of lieutenant-colonel; an officer with the rank of commander; three officers with the rank of captain; and the rest are non-commissioned officers and soldiers or "halberdiers".
Like any military corps, it has training systems and procedures for training in tactics and weapons handling. In addition, the Swiss Guard is instructed in the use of the sword and halberd - we will explain their significance below - and is trained as bodyguards for the protection of heads of state.
It controls the four gates of the Vatican: the Holy Office, the Arch of Bells, the Bronze Gate and St. Anne's Gate, where its headquarters are located.
Within the Vatican City State, the majority of the territory is under the responsibility of the so-called "surveillance corps", composed of a little more than a hundred agents from the police or the Carabinieri, distributed throughout the Vatican gardens, the heliport, the museums and other places requiring special vigilance. This body, in coordination with the Swiss Guard, ensures the security of the Holy See. The Swiss Guard specifically protects the Apostolic Palace and the person of the Holy Father.
Naturally, as is the case in any civilized country, the Swiss Guard It is therefore coordinating some of its functions with the Vatican police and the Italian security forces, given the geographical location of the Holy See, and with the authorities of the States and places where the Pope travels in order to achieve a more efficient and secure protection.
What is the genesis of the Swiss Guard?
The Swiss Guard was created at the beginning of the 16th century, when Pope Julius II asked the Swiss nobles for soldiers for his own protection. At that time the Swiss soldiers had a great reputation, demonstrated in the confrontations in the Burgundian wars.
What does the uniform of a Swiss guard look like?
The military uniform of the Swiss Guard is one of the oldest in the world. The current one was designed in the early twentieth century, and was inspired by the frescoes of Raphael. The colors match the livery of the Della Rovere house, to which the man who became Pope Julius II belonged.
It is composed of a morrion - a helmet that covered the head of the ancient knights, somewhat conical and with an almost sharp crest - decorated with a red or white feather depending on the military rank in question. It also has white gloves and breastplate.
The Swiss guard wears tights held at the knee by a golden garter and covered by gaiters depending on the weather and the occasion. This has the triple significance of showing the joy of being a soldier, of fighting and of being at the service of the Pope.
As for the weaponry carried by a Swiss guard, the halberd or sword, which is a medieval weapon similar to a spear, whose tip is pierced by a blade, sharp on one side and crescent-shaped on the other, stands out. Although, of course, the corps also has modern infantry weaponry, pistols, machine guns, submachine guns and assault rifles.
What are the requirements to become a Swiss guard and what is your daily life like?
Not just anyone can join the Pontifical Swiss Guard Corps. Only unmarried, Catholic, at least 1.74 meters tall, between 19 and 30 years of age, with a professional or high school degree, with Swiss citizenship and in possession of a basic training certificate in the Swiss Armed Forces with a certificate of good conduct.
On our own website -www.guardiasvizzera.ch- can learn more about what it means to be a Swiss guard and what are the requirements for membership in the corps.
Every May 6, the new recruits swear an oath of loyalty to the Pope, even at the cost of their own lives. On that day in 1527 147 guards died protecting Pope Clement VI during the sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V, and since then that is the date chosen for the entrance of the new candidates.
It is an office in which there is a certain rotation, so that those admitted spend a few years in the Holy See and after some time return to their countries of origin, usually Switzerland.
The life of a Swiss guard is a very normal life. Working days of about nine hours, and with holidays and vacations according to the rotation shifts. The basic monthly salaries are somewhat more modest than what an Italian soldier would earn.
In short, an ordinary life, in which, of course, everyone establishes their own social relationships and even - there are already several cases - there are marriages of Swiss Guardsmen with Italian fiancées whom they met precisely during their military tour in Vatican City.
The Pope gave a interpretive key of his Canadian teachings by answering reporters when he flew from Iqaluit to Rome on the evening of July 29. This trip to Canada, he explained, was closely linked to the figure of St. Anne, to the "dialectal" transmission of the faith, which is feminine because the Church is mother and spouse.
I spoke, he said, "about old women, about mothers and about women. And I stressed that the faith is transmitted 'in the dialect' of the mother, the dialect of the grandmothers... This is very important: the role of women in the transmission of the faith and in the development of the faith. It is the mother or the grandmother who teaches how to pray, to explain the first things that the child does not understand about the faith... the Church is woman. This I wanted to say clearly with St. Anne in mind." He added a biblical reference, 2 Maccabees 7, where "it says that the mother encouraged in motherly dialect" her children to accept martyrdom.
Grandparents
Indeed, on July 26, Francis spoke of the transmission of culture and faith in his homily before thousands of families in a stadium in Edmonton: "We are here thanks to our parents, but also thanks to our grandparents... They were often the ones who loved us without reserve and without expecting anything from us; they took us by the hand when we were afraid, reassured us, encouraged us when we had to decide about our life. Thanks to our grandparents we received a caress from history.
Many of us have breathed in the home of our grandparents the fragrance of the Gospel, the strength of a faith that has the flavor of home. Thanks to them we discover a familiar, domestic faith; yes, it is like that, because faith is essentially communicated in this way, it is communicated 'in the mother tongue', it is communicated in dialect, it is communicated through affection and encouragement, care and closeness".
"This is our history to be guarded, the history of which we are heirs; we are children because we are grandchildren. Grandparents imprinted on us the original stamp of their way of being, giving us dignity, confidence in ourselves and in others. They passed on to us something that can never be erased.
Caring for the family
"Are we children and grandchildren who know how to guard the wealth we have received? Do we remember the good teachings we have inherited? Do we talk to our elders, do we take the time to listen to them? In our homes, more and more equipped, more and more modern and functional, do we know how to set up a worthy space to preserve their memories, a special place, a small family shrine that, through images and beloved objects, also allows us to raise our thoughts and prayers to those who have gone before us? Have we kept the Bible or the rosary of our ancestors?
Pray for them and in union with them, take time to remember them, preserve their legacy. In the fog of oblivion that assails our fast-paced times, brothers and sisters, it is necessary to take care of the roots."
Lac Sainte Anne
On the evening of July 26, the Pope was one more pilgrim at the sanctuary of Lac Sainte Anne, a meeting place for the natives. There he returned to the subject at hand.
"I think of the grandmothers who are here with us. So many of them. Dear grandmothers, your hearts are fountains from which the living water of faith flows, with which you have quenched the thirst of children and grandchildren. I admire the vital role of women in the indigenous communities. They occupy a very important position as blessed sources of life, not only physical but also spiritual. And, thinking of their kokum (grandmother in Cree language), I think of my grandmother. From her I received the first proclamation of the faith and learned that the Gospel is transmitted in this way, through the tenderness of care and the wisdom of life.
Faith is rarely born reading a book by ourselves alone in a living room, but is spread in a family atmosphere, transmitted in the language of mothers, with the sweet dialectal chant of grandmothers. I am glad to see so many grandparents and great-grandparents here. Thank you. I thank you, and I would like to say to all those who have old people at home, in the family, you have a treasure! They guard within their walls a source of life; please, take care of them as the most valuable inheritance to love and guard".
Healing wounds
"In this blessed place, where harmony and peace reign, we present to you the dissonances of our history, the terrible effects of colonization, the indelible pain of so many families, grandparents and children. Lord, help us to heal our wounds. We know that this requires effort, care and concrete deeds on our part. But we also know, Lord, that we cannot do it alone. We entrust ourselves to You and to the intercession of your mother and grandmother. ...mothers and grandmothers help to heal the wounds of the heart.
The Church is also a woman, the Church is also a mother. In fact, there has never been a time in its history when the faith was not transmitted, in the mother tongue, by mothers and grandmothers. On the other hand, part of the painful legacy we are facing is born out of having prevented indigenous grandmothers from transmitting the faith in their language and culture. This loss is certainly a tragedy, but your presence here is a testimony of resilience and of restarting, of pilgrimage towards healing, of opening the heart to God who heals our community being."
Sainte Anne de Beaupré
On July 28, at a Mass for reconciliation at the Shrine of St. Anne in Beaupré, Quebec, Francis commented on the Gospel of two disenchanted disciples on their way to Emmaus.
"Let us break the Eucharistic Bread in faith, because around the table we can rediscover ourselves as beloved children of the Father, called to be brothers and sisters. Jesus, breaking the Bread, confirms the testimony of the women, whom the disciples had not believed, that he is risen! In this Basilica, where we remember the mother of the Virgin Mary, and where there is also the crypt dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, we must emphasize the role that God wanted to give to women in his plan of salvation. St. Anne, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the women of Easter morning indicate to us a new path of reconciliation, the maternal tenderness of so many women can accompany us - as Church - towards newly fruitful times, in which we leave behind so much sterility and so much death, and place at the center Jesus, the Crucified Risen One."
Two Canadian women
Of the eight women who asked questions at the air press conference, the first two were Canadian. The answers are translated from Italian.
Jessica Deera descendant of survivors of the residential schools, wanted to know why the Pope had missed the opportunity to publicly reject doctrines and papal bulls from the time of the conquistadors, which led to Catholics taking possession of indigenous lands and considering their inhabitants as inferior.
The Pope referred to the words of St. John Paul II condemning African slavery during his visit to Gorée Island, Senegal (February 22, 1992): [Isola di Gorée, la porta del non ritorno].); to Bartolomé de las Casas and St. Peter Claver; to the colonialist mentality of then and now, and to indigenous values. He ended with the following.
Pope Francis... "This 'doctrine of colonization'... is bad, it is unfair. It is also used today, perhaps with kid gloves... For example, some bishops of some countries have told me: 'In our country, when we ask for a loan from an international organization, they put conditions on us, also legislative, colonialist conditions.
To give you loans they make you change your lifestyle a little bit.' Going back to the colonization... of America, that of the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese: there are four (colonial powers) for which there has always been that danger, indeed, that mentality, 'we are superior and these Indians don't count', and this is serious.
That is why we must work on what you say: to go back and make healthy... that which has been badly done, knowing that even today there is the same colonialism. Think, for example, of a case, which is worldwide... the Rohingya, in Myanmar: they do not have the right to citizenship, they are of a lower level. Also today. Thank you very much".
Canadian Press
Brittany HobsonFrom the Canadian Press news agency: "Good afternoon, Pope Francis. You have often said that it is necessary to speak clearly, honestly, directly and with parresia. You know that the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission has described the residential school system as 'cultural genocide', and this expression has been corrected to simply 'genocide'. People who have heard your words of apology this week have lamented the fact that the term genocide was not used. Would you use this term or would you acknowledge that members of the Church have participated in this genocide?"
Pope FrancisIt is true, I did not use the word because it did not come to my mind, but I described genocide and I apologized, I apologized for this work which is genocide. For example, I also condemned this: to take away the children, to change the culture, to change the mind, to change the traditions, to change the race, let's say, a whole culture. Yes, it's a technical word - genocide - but I didn't use it because it didn't occur to me. But I described that it was true, yes, it was genocide, yes, yes, yes, relax. You say that I have said that yes, it was a genocide. Thank you."
This last answer is going to be something to talk about in Canada. We will have to see if all of the above will also be talked about. Omnes will report.
Summary of the Ignatian Year on the feast of St. Ignatius
On July 31, together with the feast of St. Ignatius, the Ignatian Year, which began on May 20, 2021, comes to an end. An important date, because it corresponds to the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the adventure of Ignatius of Loyola, at the time a Basque soldier who fought in defense of Pamplona, attacked by the French.
The conversion of St. Ignatius originated from a dramatic episode. A cannonball shattered his legs and throughout his life Ignatius walked with a limp. But the most remarkable effects were in his heart, with a long evolutionary process that changed his way of seeing the world and opening himself to a future he had not even imagined before. The paradox is that an episode that at first glance seems like a personal drama, ending his military career as a messenger boy, is actually the beginning of a journey that pushes a man closer to God and opens a new path for him within the Church.
The Ignatian Year
In May 2021, the beginning of the ceremonies was celebrated in Pamplona, where it all began. And it was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Father Arturo Sosa, who led the solemn act that began the course of events.
Among them, an itinerary for young people called "From Pamplona to Rome, in the footsteps of St. Ignatius," an opportunity to explore Ignatius' journey of conversion in an experiential way. Then, in June 2021, a prayer to entrust to God the journey of the Euro-Mediterranean Province of the Society of Jesus was celebrated on the anniversary of the day Ignatius began to recover from the danger of death that had followed the leg wound he had suffered in battle. In addition, a traveling summer camp for young people was held in the mountains of northern Albania in July 2021.
In March 2022, the anniversary of the canonization of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, there was a pilgrimage to "La Storta" outside Rome. In April, there was a three-stage pilgrimage from Formia to Rome, following in the footsteps of Ignatius, who had landed in Gaeta, near Formia, for his first journey to Italy. The closing act is the Mass in the Church of the Gesù in Rome on July 31, 2022, on the Solemnity of St. Ignatius. To these events that are now commemorated, we can add another important event that recalls the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola: his first stay in Rome in March-April 1523. He then left for Jerusalem, where he stayed for about twenty days in September 1523.
The Ignatian Year not only took place in Italy, but there were initiatives in various parts of the world: from the United States to France; from Hungary to Latin America and then also Africa.
In the footsteps of Ignatius
In this year dedicated to St. Ignatius, we will retrace in some way his journey, which from the beginning was distinguished by its Marian character: his stop at the famous sanctuary of Montserrat took the form of a true military vigil dedicated to the Virgin, and like an ancient knight he hung his military vestments in front of an image of the Virgin Mary. Later, from there, on March 25, 1522, he entered the monastery of Manresa, in Catalonia. And in the cave of Manresa he decided to write the Spiritual Exercises, an instrument of modern devotion that has become a characteristic of Jesuit spirituality.
At that time he also changed his name from Inigo to Ignatius, probably because of his devotion to St. Ignatius of Antioch. Father John Dardis, director of the Office of Communication at the Jesuit General Curia, recalls one of the lessons Ignatius taught: "When you love, you are vulnerable: if you don't accept your wounds, your vocation remains a lie: Learning to let go of defense mechanisms is not easy, and Ignatius' discovery was precisely that he could be vulnerable and loved at the same time. His struggle consisted in seeking God, in exercising with all his strength to face any obstacle: in Manresa he even had to overcome thoughts of suicide.However, what he won in the end was a sense of trust in the Father's will. Hence the final thought: "If we lose this, we will cease to be the Society of Jesus",
Universal apostolic priorities
The Jesuits in organizing the Ignatian Year have put in first place what Pope Francis has given them for the decade 2019-2020. Here is a summary of the objectives: to point the way to God, particularly through the Spiritual Exercises and discernment; to walk alongside the poor, the excluded of the world in a mission of reconciliation and justice, something very close to the heart of Pope Francis; to accompany young people in a future of hope; to collaborate in the care of the Common Home. This will make known what animates the apostolic thrust of the Society, that is, its spirituality, which is not only for her, but for all those who experience it as true for them.
Some of the priority notes are a great personal love for Jesus of Nazareth, which leads each one to grow towards fullness in humanity; to see God at work in all things and events in history and to respond with magnanimity to the calls that come from reality, that is, from the Lord.
End-of-year concert
On July 30, the eve of the end of the Ignatian Year was celebrated with a concert by Michele Campanella, in the dual role of concertmaster and first piano, to play Gioacchino Rossini's La Petite Messe Solennelle, composed by the Pesaro-born artist after decades of silence. The term "petite" had a double motivation: the reduced ensemble of two pianos and harmonium and a choir of only 16 singers, but also the attitude of the Christian who becomes small when he dedicates his music to God. The Barber of Seville is far away and Rossini uses for the last time his old style for a new and moving message.
Pope's message
On the occasion of the Ignatian Year, Pope Francis has sent a message highlighting the conversion of St. Ignatius, wishing everyone to live this year as a personal experience of conversion. "In Pamplona, 500 years ago, all the worldly dreams of Ignatius were shattered in a moment. The cannonball that wounded him changed the course of his life and the course of the world. Seemingly small things can be important. This cannonball also meant that Ignatius failed in the dreams he had for his own life. But God had an even bigger dream for him. God's dream for Ignatius was not about Ignatius. It was about helping souls, it was a dream of redemption, a dream of going out into the whole world, accompanied by Jesus, humble and poor.
Conversion is a daily event. It rarely happens all at once. Ignatius' conversion began in Pamplona, but it did not end there. Throughout his life he was converted, day after day. And what does this mean? That throughout his life he put Christ at the center. And he did this through discernment. Discernment does not consist in having certainties from the beginning, but in navigating, in having a compass to be able to take a path that has many twists and turns, but always allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit who leads us to the encounter with the Lord. In this wandering on earth, we meet others as Ignatius did in his life. These others are signs that help us to stay the course and invite us to convert again and again. They are brothers, they are situations, and God also speaks to us through them. We listen to others. We read situations. We are also pointers for others, showing God's way.
Conversion is always done in dialogue, with God, in dialogue with others, in dialogue with the world. I pray that all those inspired by Ignatian spirituality may make this journey together as an Ignatian family, and I pray that many others may discover the richness of this spirituality that God gave Ignatius.
I bless you with all my heart, so that this year may truly be an inspiration to go out into the world to help souls, seeing all things new in Christ. And also an inspiration to let ourselves be helped. No one is saved alone. Either we are saved in community or we are not saved. No one can teach another the way. Only Jesus taught us the way. We help each other to know and follow this way. And may Almighty God bless you, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."
Abel Toraño is the coordinator of the Ignatian Year. In these lines he reflects on the fruits of these months and how the life of St. Ignatius continues to enlighten the men and women of the 21st century.
Abel Toraño SJ-July 31, 2022-Reading time: 4minutes
Fifteen months have passed since the beginning of the Ignatian YearThe saint's feast day, May 20, 1521, commemorates the day on which Ignatius was badly wounded in the defense of Pamplona. Fifteen months that have culminated this July 31, the feast of the saint; a time that has served us to make grateful memory of his life and, above all, of the merciful action of God in his person.
For the depth of this change, for all that it meant in his life and for what it would mean in the lives of so many people, we talk about conversion. Conversion that we have not understood as something alien to us, but as a journey of faith that challenges us and shows us a horizon towards which we feel invited to walk.
A decisive conversion
The itinerary of the conversion of the young courtier, Íñigo, has served as a stimulus for us to propose very diverse apostolic initiatives: theology and formation days, proposals for young people in schools, parishes and universities; congresses and exhibitions; important publications such as the Autograph of the ExercisesWe are also involved in prayer and celebrations, pilgrimages and, above all, the practice of the Spiritual Exercises, the spiritual soul of all that we are and do.
At times I have come to wonder if it might not be many things, perhaps too many; but the real question we must answer is another: to what extent have these proposals helped us to walk a path that leads us to God? Have these initiatives been a stimulus to walk towards the summit?
The conversion of Ignatius of Loyola led him to a summit he did not expect: the encounter with God face to face, heart to heart, which led him to "see all things new". The summit, conversion thus understood, is not the end of the road, but the beginning of all newness guided by the Spirit. Where is this newness and how does it show itself in the life of Ignatius as a pilgrim?
A new look
Conversion, that height of the experience of God that matures in an unexpected way in Manresa, will allow Ignatius to see all things from God's gaze. In that gaze are all things called to the most intimate communion, communion in love.
Love that begins with oneself, recognizing one's own limitations and sins and yet always feeling loved and rescued in Jesus Christ, the face of God's mercy.
A gaze that seeks closeness to the world and not its rejection; so that the movement of Love is always to descend, to give itself in a special way in so many situations of lovelessness, misery and injustice that we could call a-theas (without-God).
The incarnated gaze seeks closeness to those people whom Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, proclaimed blessed, because God himself did not want to be understood without them. How often our works, even our good works, await recognition and applause!
Learning to love
If we are careless, we are more concerned with feeling good about what we do than with actually doing good to those who need it, regardless of how we feel. Ignatius was learning the difficult lesson of "discreet love", that is, discerning love. That which does not seek self-interest, nor does it fatten the self by hiding in supposed acts of kindness.
The important thing, that to which God moves us is to "help souls"; to help so many men and women to live from the hidden and genuine part of their hearts, there where their truth dwells, there where the true encounters with their neighbors and with God take place. And this, most of the time, happens in the hidden, in silence, in prayer.
Thus wrote the saint of Loyola in 1536: "... being [the Spiritual Exercises] all the best that I can think, feel and understand in this life, both for man to be able to benefit himself, and to be able to be fruitful, to help and benefit many others...".
Friendship
On the occasion of the fourth centenary of the canonization of St. Ignatius (March 12), I felt moved to translate his holiness in terms of friendship: "holiness is friendship. This is how Ignatius lived it and this is how the biblical and ecclesial tradition shows it to us.
Friendship with God in the first place. At the beginning of his conversion, Jesus is for Ignatius the new Lord whom he wishes to serve. This image of God, which in a certain way would be maintained throughout his life, would have to undergo a hard process of purification.
Before the lords of this world it is necessary to make merits, to render an account so that they take you into consideration. Ignatius, sunk in the most severe desolation in the town of Manresa, will feel that God's love is unconditional; that mercy is his first and last word.
That this God, this Lord, does not have to be won, because it is He who loves us first and who seeks us out to call us friends. In the book of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius will propose to the retreatant to address God "as a friend speaks to another friend".
Friendship with those with whom we share faith and mission. We know the life and work of Ignatius because he shared them with many people, especially with the first companions who would form the Society of Jesus.
The Ignatian journey
After several years of living together and studying in Paris, Ignatius had to leave for almost a year for health reasons, meeting in Venice. In one of his letters, Ignatius records this reunion with these words: "nine friends of mine in the Lord arrived here from Paris in mid-January".
It is the bond of true friendship that builds us as a community, as a Church. A bond that goes beyond tastes, personal desires and ideas shared by those who are most like-minded.
True friendship makes us appreciate the value and beauty of what is different, what is complementary, what neither I nor my group can or should reach. In true friendship we let the other and the others be who they should be, and we let the Lord work the miracle of communion.
Friendship, finally, with the poorest and neediest. In 1547 Ignatius received a letter from the Jesuits of Padua. They wrote to their Father General expressing the extreme difficulties they were experiencing. The state of hardship was worsening because the founder of the new college had withdrawn most of the financial support necessary to maintain the work.
They write to Ignatius because they need his consolation. The letter Ignatius sends them is a jewel that reveals the intimate (mystical) link between poverty and friendship. The saint writes: "the poor are so great in the divine presence that Jesus Christ was sent to earth primarily for them". And he adds further on: "friendship with the poor makes us friends of the eternal King".
The Inuk face of Jesus Christ. Third stage, Nunavut
Chronicle of the latest events of Pope Francis in Canada. The first balance that can be made of this trip is very positive, both for the Catholics of the country and for public opinion.
Francis came to Canada to listen, as far as possible, to the 1.7 million indigenous people divided into First Nations, Métis and Inuit (the latter numbering less than 50,000). Many of them have suffered many, many abuses, mainly due to misguided education policies, and they are still very hurt. He came to ask their forgiveness.
In Iqaluit
Mission accomplished. It seems to be leaving many Canadians happy. At his last stop, Iqaluit, he met with about a thousand Inuit, a crowd for this territory of Nunavut, and spent more time than expected listening privately to a hundred of them who had suffered under colonialism. This capital of Nunavut has only eight thousand inhabitants.
In his speech, he especially addressed the young Inuit, who have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. With clear concepts and beautiful comparisons, he encouraged the young Inuk to pull up, not to be discouraged, to ask for advice from the elders, to persevere and to want to change the world. He gave them three pieces of advice: to walk upwards, to go towards the light, and to become a team.
He explained what the freedomIf we want to be better, we must learn to distinguish light from darkness... You can begin by asking yourself: what is it that seems to me luminous and seductive, but then leaves me with a great emptiness inside? This is darkness! On the other hand, what is it that does me good and leaves me peace in my heart, even though it has previously asked me to leave certain comforts and to dominate certain instincts? This is the light! And I keep asking myself, what is the force that allows us to separate within us the light from the darkness, that makes us say 'no' to the temptations of evil and 'yes' to the occasions of good? It is freedom. Freedom that is not doing everything that I like; it is not what I can do in spite of others, but for others; it is responsibility. Freedom is the greatest gift our heavenly Father has given us along with life."
Remembering John Paul II
Twenty years after the World Youth Day in Toronto, he repeated to them a phrase that St. John Paul II said then to 800,000 people: "Perhaps there is no denser darkness than that which enters the souls of young people when false prophets extinguish in them the light of faith, hope and love."
Today's speech was to far fewer people than that homily in 2002. What does it matter? It is the periphery. This will rebalance a Church on the way out, a Church that wants to meet every soul wherever it is.
The speech was in Spanish, translated in sections by the priest who has been interpreting throughout the trip (the French-Canadian polyglot Marcel Caron), and then a second time into Inuktituk by a local interpreter.
This is how it ended: "Friends, walk upwards, go every day towards the light, team up. And do all this in your culture, in the beautiful Inuktitut language. I wish you, listening to the elders and drawing on the richness of your traditions and your freedom, to embrace the Gospel guarded and handed down by your ancestors, and to find the Inuk face of Jesus Christ. I bless you from my heart and say to you: 'qujannamiik!' [thank you!]."
Built hope
The Canadian saint François de Laval (1623-1708) is comparable to the Peruvian saint Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538-1606). Both were tireless missionary bishops in a new world. On July 28 in the Quebec cathedral where he is buried, Pope Francis called his namesake, who was the first bishop in New France, a "builder of hope." The bishop of Rome tried to do that by visiting the world's second largest country. He built hope.
He had come here before and Jorge Bergoglio never wanted to be an "airport bishop". He never traveled to the United States until he went, already as pope, in 2015. But he had been to Quebec City as archbishop. He was invited by his friend, the city's then archbishop, Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Bergoglio gave a lecture in 2008 at the Eucharistic Congress of Quebec, which took place on the occasion of the city's fourth centenary.
Now he leaves tired but happy. He was sitting most of the time, due to his knee. But his personal sacrifice and suffering were as inspiring as that of his ailing and elderly predecessor, John Paul II, two decades ago.
Mission accomplished
He, the Canadian bishops and many observers would agree that this path of reconciliation between outraged indigenous people and the Church in Canada is still in its infancy, and that it will take a long time. But the reaction of the indigenous people who received him was very generous.
What can be assured is that once again, providentially, every cloud has a silver lining. In martial arts, it is common to use the opponent's movement to knock him down. Something like that just happened here. When it was thought that the Church would be knocked down, Bergoglio came and took advantage of the move to evangelize.
In this country, in recent years, the media and politicians have wanted to teach ethics to Christians, and lo and behold, the best known Christian on the planet comes to Canada and talks about religion and morals, with such humility, savoir faireThe Church wins with subtlety and sympathy. The journalists could not believe it, but the media could not make a vacuum for the Pope. They had no choice but to transmit the important events of the visit, and the gestures and messages of a great communicator. Because he came to visit the natives (who are "in fashion"), at their request. And because Francis is Francis. Even his very name is attractive to the men and women of today. And his person, and his perfectly calibrated message, too. He does everything he can to be on the same wavelength as those he visits.
The Pope knows how to sew. The needle of the indigenous boarding schools, a real tragedy (which still remains to be investigated academically, and this will take decades), allowed him to put the thread of Christ into the Canadian social fabric.
Enrique RojasMany of today's relationships are made of demolition materials".
Psychiatrist Enrique Rojas talks in this interview with Omnes about the hyperconnectedness of "increasingly lost" society, throwaway relationships and the family as "the first psychological space where one is valued for being there."
Enrique Rojas is one of the "head" psychiatrists in our country. Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Spanish Institute of Psychiatric Research, Rojas has just been awarded the Pasteur Prize for research in medicine by the European Development Association.
Author of numerous books on subjects such as depression, happiness, anxiety and love, he has sold more than 3 million books, translated from English into Russian, German, Polish and Italian.
Married to Isabel Estapé, notary of Madrid, and first woman in the Real Academia de Ciencias de Económicas y Empresariales, Enrique Rojas is the father of 5 children, some of whom have followed in his footsteps in the world of medicine or psychology.
You have been involved in psychiatric research and treatment for more than four decades. In this time, have human beings changed their aspirations and points of reference or are we still the same "in different clothes"?
- The psychiatrist and the psychologist have become the new family doctors. The major psychiatric illnesses, depressions, anxiety, obsessions continue to be treated. But there are three new pathological forms: broken couples, addictions (from cell phones to pornography, including series), and the conversion of sex into a disposable act.
There is a lot of talk about offices being full and confessionals being empty... Is there a simplification of the work of both?
- When the world is emptied of God, it is filled with idols: many of them empty of content. The world is tired of lying seducers.
Is our society more psychologically fragile than before?
- We live in a society bombarded by news that devour one after another. A hyper-informed and interconnected society. But increasingly lost.
In this sense, when the human being lives an openness to transcendence, to God, is he really happier?
- The meaning of life means having answers to the great questions of life: where we come from, where we are going, the meaning of death. The spiritual meaning of life is key and leads to the discovery that each person is valuable.
Is it better to love when one loves God, when one loves for God?
- God is Love. In today's loves, the spiritual sense is lacking and many relationships are made of demolished materials.
If there are two terms that are used beyond their possibilities, it is love and freedom. On this plane, is there a definition of love?
- To love is to tell someone I am going to give you the best I have. Freedom is discovering our possibilities and our limits. My definition of love is this: it is a movement of the will towards something or someone that I discover as a good, as something valuable.
And, therefore, what do we understand by freedom, and is it not the case that the nature of both is often "beyond" us?
- Absolute freedom is given only in God; in that essence and existence coincide. We should aspire not to be prisoners of anything... Today we have replaced the meaning of life by sensations. Many people seek quick, immediate experiences of pleasure, one after the other, and in the long run this produces a great emptiness.
Our first-world society has gone from the Enlightenment and the exaltation of reason to that of feeling, even above biology: everyone "is what he feels". Is this situation psychologically sustainable?
- The Enlightenment was a very important movement in the history of thought that ended in the French Revolution with those three great slogans: liberty, equality and fraternity.
The romanticism of the 19th century was a reaction against the enthronement of reason, putting the affective world first.
Today the answer is the Emotional IntelligenceThe first thing we need to remember is that the first psychological epidemic in the Western world is divorce. Let us not forget that the number one psychological epidemic in the Western world is divorce.
How to achieve balance between nature and feeling when we understand neither one nor the other?
- Feelings act as intermediaries between instincts and reason. The affective life must be piloted by the intellectual life, but looking for an equation between both ingredients.
We speak of friends as the family of choice. But is our own family a burden then?
- The family is the first psychological space where one is valued for just being there. Parents are the first educators and the key is twofold: coherence of life and enthusiasm with values that do not go out of fashion.
What is the role of the family in society, is it replaceable?
- A good father is worth a thousand teachers. And a good mother is like a domestic university. To educate is to give roots and wings, love and rigor.
We have not yet finished going through a pandemic that has shaken the entire world. From this situation, as from a war or a conflict, is it better or worse to come out of it?
- One comes out of the pandemic better if one has really learned lessons from it. All philosophy is born on the shores of death. All happiness consists in doing something worthwhile with one's life.
In the face of these "collective traumas", do individuals and societies change or do they adapt and even proliferate escape routes?
- We must learn to make a positive reading of all the good things that this society has to offer: from the extraordinary technological advances to an increasingly versatile and innovative medicine or the speed of communications, and so on and so forth. But we must know that there is a truth about the human being and this, at present, is quite blurred.
Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, and entrusted to her "our persons, the Church and the whole of humanity." "Make war cease war and provide the world with peace," the Pope asked. Jesus is the Prince of peace, and he encouraged unity. On his return from Ukraine, Cardinal Czerny said: "Religion can demonstrate the unity that war tends to destroy".
The Greek Catholic Church counts in Ukraine with about 3,400 parishes, with about 3,000 priests, out of a total of 4,800, and about 1,100 religious men and women (1,300 in total). They constitute 8.8 % of the Ukrainian Catholics, which together with the 0.8 % of the Latins, reach almost 10 % of the Ukrainian population.
The perception of unity in the Ukrainian nation makes enormous sense in a country of numerous religious traditions, a puzzle in which 60 % of its 41 million people are Orthodox; Greek Catholics 8.8 %; Roman Catholics 0.8 %; Protestants 1.5 %; and "just Christians" 8.5 %.
Faced with some figures about the Orthodox community that have been circulated in some media, Ukrainian priest and journalist Jurij Blazejewski FDP, has reminded Omnes that out of the 60 % of Orthodox, they are "faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (that of Metropolitan Epiphanius), 24.1 %; faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (under Patriarch Kirill) , 13.3%; faithful of other Orthodox Churches (e.g., the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Romanian Patriarchate, etc.), 0.6 %; and as Orthodox without associating with a particular institution, 21.9 %".
The data are as of November 2021, and correspond to the report Specifics of religious and Church self-determination of citizens of Ukraine: trends 2000-2021.about Religion and the Church in Ukrainian society in 2000-2001of Razumkov Center. "This is a high-level survey that has been conducted for 21 years".Jurij Blazajewski, a priest for 10 years, who belongs to the Hogar Don Orione Congregation and is currently studying Institutional Communication at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
Differences between orthodox
The Father Constantin, Ukrainian Orthodox, has been in Spain for 22 years. "In our country we have three Churches: one Greek Catholic, one Ukrainian Orthodox, and a third Russian Orthodox. I am a Ukrainian of the Patriarchate of Constantinople."he said.
As to whether there is a common position of the Churches in Ukraine in the face of the Russian intervention, he replied:"There are differences, because on Ukrainian territory there is the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is supporting Putin.". In his opinion, "any kind of negotiation is not going to satisfy Russia, because what they want is Ukrainian territory. This is politics. I do not want to intervene in politics. For us, for priests, the main thing is to reach out by prayers to our people, to reassure their hearts and their thoughts. And to pray that this war will end as soon as possible, and there will be as few deaths as possible."he told Omnes.
At the end of the conversation, the new Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop Bessarion of Spain and Portugal (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) joined the conversation and referred to the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The latter quickly called at the beginning of "this unprovoked attack by Russia against Ukraine, an independent and sovereign state in Europe"., "to His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, to express his enormous regret for this flagrant violation of any notion of international law and legality, as well as his support for the Ukrainian people fighting 'for God and for the country' and for the families of the innocent victims.".
Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew has also made an appeal for dialogue to the leaders of all States and international organizations, and it should be recalled that he was among the first, together with the episcopates of Italy and Poland, to join the cry for prayer requested by Pope Francis.
Catholics in Ukraine, 2nd and 3rd centuries
Catholics are a minority in Ukraine, although they represent almost 10 % of the population if Greek Catholics and Latinos are added. However, "is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world in absolute number of faithful. It is also a truly global Church, with its officially recognized structure of dioceses covering four continents (without Africa), with a rich presence among the numerous Ukrainian diaspora throughout the world, especially in Europe, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina."Jurij Blazajewski adds.
The Greek Catholic Church, of Byzantine rite, is one of the Oriental Churches linked to the Catholic Church and to Rome through the Congregation for Oriental Churches. "Christianity reached present-day Ukrainian territories in the 2nd and 3rd centuries".Blazajewski recalls. "For example, the holy martyr Pope Clement died in the Crimea. There are sources about the ecclesiastical structure and the presence of bishops in the Greek city-colonies of the Crimea and the northern Black Sea coast since the 3rd century. The official baptism of the King (Grand Duke) of Kiev, Volodymyr, together with his people took place in 988, at the hands of missionaries sent from Constantinople.".
"Baptismal font for three nations."
"Since then."he adds, "the Ukrainian Church has always functioned as an autonomous metropolis of Kiev under the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, the presence of Latin missions is also remarkable. An interesting fact is that the Metropolis of Kiev never officially broke communion with Rome by a solemn act or document. Thus, all Ukrainian Orthodox Churches and the Greek Catholic Church recognize each other as Churches 'of the one baptismal source of Kiev', which in itself constitutes a solid platform for ecumenical dialogue."as St. John Paul II emphasized during his apostolic trip to the country in 2001.
Ukraine is not only the cradle of Russian Christianity, it is also the "one baptismal font for three nations: Ukraine, Belarus and Russia."Jurij Blazajewski adds. "However, reasoning in terms of nationality is not compatible with the medieval situation, since in Europe the very term nation in the modern sense used today dates back only to the so-called 'Peoples' Spring' in the 1840s". On national precedence, the priest and journalist provides the following information: "Kiev, capital of Ukraine, founded in the 5th century; Moscow, capital of Russia, founded in 1147 by one of the younger sons of the Grand Duke of Kiev.".
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St. Faustina Kowalska: Apostle of Divine Mercy
