Cardinal Robert Sarah is presenting a new book on the figure of the priest. The Guinean, a priest since 1969, was appointed Archbishop of Conakri at the age of 34. John Paul II called him to the Roman Curia in 2001, where he held several high positions. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal in 2010, and in 2014 Francis appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, where he has been until June 2020. On May 8, 2021, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Oriental Churches.
In this new book, which the African Cardinal devotes to "to all seminarians throughout the world".The purpose of this book is to give concrete answers to questions about the priesthood, based on various texts of saints, popes and some other authors. "We must look reality in the face: the priesthood seems to be reeling. Some priests are like sailors on a ship violently tossed by a hurricane. They lurch and lose their balance.".
The author of In the Service of Truth, From the Depths of Our Hearts, The Power of Silence, God or Nothing and It's Getting Late and Getting Dark.The book uses great spiritual authors such as St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John Paul II, St. John Henry Newman, Pius XII, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The common thread is the reflection on the marvelous gift of the priesthood and the participation in the priesthood of Jesus Christ: "It is evident"Cardinal Sarah states in the introduction to his book, "that the holiness that must shine in the priesthood is born of the holiness of God. Priests must become perfect and holy in the image of Jesus Christ.".
Sarah shows her remarkable concern by offering this volume, in a simple, brief way, accessible to all. "A book whose aim is for priests to rediscover their profound identity, for the people of God to renew their way of looking at them.". The style of the Guinean cardinal is already well known, profound and at the same time accessible. After reading it, it is clear that it is addressed primarily to priests, but that any Christian can read and apply the teachings of the saints, men and women, laity and clergy, to whom Sarah "gives the word".
TitleFour theories of artistic expression and other writings on cultural relativism.
AuthorErnest H. Gombrich
EditorialRialp : Rialp
City: Madrid
Year: 2021
Delicious booklet that collects several texts donated by the great art historian Ernest Hans Josef Gombrich to the publishing house Rialp, which were published in his magazine Atlántida.
We could say that the first of the four theories of the title would be the one that considers artistic expression as a symptom (frowning or blushing are symptoms of anger or inner turmoil), the second would consider it as a signal (the sound that hens emit to call their chicks to eat or warn them of some danger) and the third would be the symbolic function, which understands art as a symbol (a writer describes a scene and conveys the feelings of the hero). The fourth theory, complementary to the previous ones, would be the one that understands art as an expression of the artist's own feelings.
Also appearing in this volume is a lecture delivered by the Austrian on cultural relativism in the sciences of the spirit, which has not lost its relevance.
Juan José Muñoz García recommends reading I grant you a wise and intelligent heart by Francisco Javier Insa Gómez.
Juan José Muñoz García-May 11, 2022-Reading time: < 1minute
Book
TitleI grant you a wise and intelligent heart.
AuthorFrancisco Javier Insa Gómez
Pages: 319
Editorial: Word
City: Madrid
Year: 2022
The priest makes the Incarnate Truth present through his ministry, and to make visible and credible the sapiential dimension of his mission, in an era marked by an anthropological and social crisis, he needs a careful intellectual preparation that harmonizes with the other aspects of formation: human, spiritual and pastoral.
Cultural formation is indispensable for a deep understanding of God, of other people and of oneself. The transmission of the Gospel message in a post-modern society cannot be reduced to arousing feelings or emotions; study and prayer are necessary to interiorize the faith and live it consciously.
On the occasion of the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudiumand of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis SacerdotalisIn the last few years, a congress for Seminary Formators was held in Rome, organized by the Center for Priestly Formation of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. This book gathers the lectures given at the symposium, with topics ranging from the importance of philosophical and theological studies to pedagogical aspects and communication of the faith in the 21st century.
Titus Brandsma, second patron saint of Catholic journalists?
A group of journalists is asking Pope Francis to name the Dutch Carmelite the patron saint of journalists along with St. Francis de Sales. For them, Brandsma embodied the values of peace journalism understood as a service to all people.
Anton de Wit (editor of the weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, Netherlands), Wilfred Kemp (head of Catholic radio and television programs for the Dutch public broadcaster) and Emmanuel van Lierde (editor-in-chief of the weekly Tertio, Belgium) and Hendro Munsterman (Nederlands Dagblad) are the initiators of a letter to Pope Francis in which they ask the pontiff to declare Titus Brandsma the patron saint of Catholic communicators, together with the current patronage of St. Francis de Sales.
A petition that has already been joined by numerous communication professionals of different nationalities, and to which the promoters of the petition are invite you to join other Catholic media professionals.
A connoisseur of today's journalism
In the letter of petition to Pope Francis, the journalists highlight the figure of Titus Brandsma "for the Catholic community in the Netherlands" and underline his journalistic work.
Brandsma "was editor-in-chief of a newspaper, dedicated himself to the modernization and professionalization of the Catholic daily press in the Netherlands and worked to improve working conditions and the creation of professional training for journalists. Tito Brandsma carried out his work in the context of the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe. In word and deed he opposed the language of hatred and division that was common at the time. In his opinion, what today we call fake news did not deserve a platform in the Catholic press; he got the episcopate to prohibit the printing of National Socialist propaganda in Catholic newspapers".
The petitioners also recall that this work was the cause of the martyrdom of the Carmelite whose writings became a point of reference for the moral and cultural resistance of the Dutch people. In this sense, they also recognize in Brandsma "a professional and faithful man of remarkable stature. Someone who shared the most profound mission of journalism in modern times: the search for truth and veracity, the promotion of peace and dialogue between peoples".
The signatories of this letter add that Titus Brandsma is a journalist in the modern sense of the word. His patronage, along with that of St. Francis de Sales, brings a knowledge of journalism today and the dedication of his life "for the free press to defend human values against all terror".
Death in Dachau
Tito Brandsma was arrested by the occupation forces in early 1942 and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. A diary and several letters sent to superiors, relatives and friends give an account of his days in the concentration camp. In them he described the overcrowded conditions in his cell and the mistreatment, but never expressed sadness. On July 26 of the same year, Brandsma was killed by lethal injection. On the same day, the Dutch bishops had their courageous protest against the deportations of Jews read out in all the churches.
The Dutch Carmelite will be canonized on May 15, together with nine other Blesseds such as Charles de Foucault, the French Maria Rivier or Maria de Jesus, foundress of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes. The outcome of the petition, put on the table by this group of journalists, is not yet known.
Anna Maria Tarantola: "Focusing the company on people is efficient".
The president of the Fundación Pontificia Centesimus Annus, Anna Maria Tarantola, said in Rome that "inclusion and efficiency are not antithetical but complementary" in the company, at a meeting on "Business without leaving anyone behind". CaixaBank executives and entrepreneurs stressed the need to seek a balance between profitable and sustainable business, and to look after society and workers.
Francisco Otamendi-May 10, 2022-Reading time: 8minutes
The need for a model of development that is just, supportive, inclusive and integrally sustainable, as proposed by Pope Francis, was the frame of reference of the day, held at the "Palazzo della Rovere", headquarters of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Rome, and organized by the Rome Reports agency, the Roman Academic Center Foundation (CARF) and Omnes, sponsored by CaixaBank.
Anna Maria Tarantola, who has been General Manager of the Bank of Italy and President of RAI, was a keynote speaker at the event, which was attended by CaixaBank executives such as David Alonso de Linaje, head of Religious Institutions at Caixabank; Albert Riera, Director of International Relations at La Fageda, the leading yogurt company in Catalonia, which has employed young people with disabilities; and Davide Rota, CEO of Linkem, which employs dozens of people in Italian prisons. The Governor of the Holy Sepulchre, Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, thanked the role of "the companies that have managed to mitigate the consequences of the crisis for the most vulnerable".
All brought to the table, moderated by Antonio Olivié, CEO of Rome Reports, the testimony of successful business models that leave no one behind, focused on people. Models that, as Anna María Tarantola pointed out, show "how inclusion can be achieved while obtaining good results".
The encyclical Laudato si', which is above all a social encyclical, as scholars have reiterated, and the Social Doctrine of the Church, with its emphasis on the search for the common good and on considering the enterprise as "a community of persons" and "not only as a society of capital", as underlined by Saints John XXIII and John Paul II, provided the backbone for the arguments of Anna Maria Tarantola.
Distortions that do not disappear
"Seven years ago, with the encyclical Laudato si', Pope Francis addressed to all people of good will the strong and clear invitation to work urgently to remedy the many distortions we were experiencing: the waste of non-renewable resources, the reduction of biodiversity, climate change impacting especially on the poor, the water and food crises, the widening economic gaps and social inequalities, the spread of the throwaway culture of people and things," Tarantola explained.
However, "unfortunately, these distortions have not disappeared," he said. "Improvements have been very slow, uneven and fluctuating. Moreover, the situation has been aggravated by the pandemic that has widened inequalities, impoverished the poor and the rich, and clearly highlighted the failures of the current model of development before which the voice of the Church stands. Pope Francis, acting in the ancient tradition of the Social Doctrine of the Church, in all his numerous interventions calls loudly for a change of era, for a regeneration".
"We cannot help but wonder why, despite the many pressing invitations from the Holy Father and the obvious unsustainability of the current situation, the process of regeneration has not been accelerated by turning things around," posed the president of Centesimus Annuswhich, as is well known, is the encyclical published by St. John Paul II in 1991, one hundred years after Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891).
"I think the reasons are different," he countered. "But above all two are of particular importance: the persistent widespread fear of change and the prevalence of a short-term view that is associated with a deeply ingrained belief that both market forces are capable of finding new equilibria on their own."
Entrepreneurs according to "Fratelli Tutti".
At this point, Anna Maria Tarantola recalled Pope Francis in his encyclical "Fratelli tutti", when he refers to entrepreneurial activity. "The activity of entrepreneurs indeed 'is a noble vocation aimed at producing wealth and improving the world for everyone.' God promotes us, expects us to develop the abilities He has given us and has filled the universe with potential. In His designs each person is called to promote his or her own development, and this includes the implementation of economic and technological capabilities to grow assets and increase wealth. However, in any case, these abilities of entrepreneurs, which are a gift from God, must be clearly oriented towards the progress of other people and the overcoming of poverty, especially through the creation of diversified work opportunities" (Fratelli tutti, 123).
"This step is really important, and it is closely linked to the theme of this meeting, which aims to present testimonies of how one can be a 'good company,'" he said. In his opinion, "being a good company in the 21st century means, as the SDC [Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation] points out, considering the company as a community of people working for a common goal that is not the creation of value, in the form of profit, only for shareholders, but the production of profits with a positive impact on creation and for all those who in some way contribute to the success of the company and, therefore, for employees, customers, suppliers and the territory in which the company operates."
"Good business is a company that feels responsible for the consequences of its work on an economic, social and environmental level, that does not aim to make a high profit by polluting, selling inferior products, treating its employees, customers and suppliers badly... 'Good business' does not impose high human and environmental costs on the community and succeeds, in doing so, in producing long-term shareholder value, as shown by not a few researches," stated among other things Anna Maria Tarantola.
Sustainable business models
Omnes asked David Alonso de Linaje, head of Religious Institutions at CaixaBank, to summarize his contribution to the Roman meeting. The executive's reflections go in the same direction. "We live in a world of great changes. In just a few years the technological world has undergone a great transformation that has caused society to modify its habits of consumption and of living life. To this we must add the bitter experience of the pandemic and, if that was not enough, a war that is keeping the world on tenterhooks because of its human and economic consequences".
"It is time to reflect and evolve. In terms of economics, seeking a balance between profitable businesses that at the same time seek to have a positive impact on society is the perfect thing to do. Examples such as Linkem, La Fageda or CaixaBank and Fundación la Caixa, are sustainable business models that look after society, workers and help the most disadvantaged. The future looks challenging but full of reasons for the business model par excellence to be the one that leaves no one behind," adds the Caixabank executive.
Commitment to peace and the Ukraine emergency
David Alonso de Linaje also provided global data on the bank's humanitarian aid, in response to questions from Omnes, as well as some relating to Ukraine. "In coherence with the founding values of la Caixa and its social commitment, Obra Social aims to be an entity of reference on an international scale, committed to human rights, peace, justice and the dignity of people. In this regard, it should be noted that for 2022 it has a budget of 515 million euros, of which 308 million are earmarked for social programs and calls, 110 million for culture and science, 44 million for education and scholarships, and 53 million for research and health."
"Among its many actions," adds Alonso de Linaje, "it is worth mentioning this year the support measures in favor of the emergency in Ukraine through financial contributions from our foundation, contributions from employees and customers through the various donation platforms and the implementation of a convoy of 10 buses organized in two shifts, and a team of 50 people, including employees of the entity, volunteers, translators and medical personnel, who have transferred people affected by the war who have requested shelter in Spain".
Linkem, La Fageda
As noted above, Davide Rota, CEO of Linkem, a technology company that has developed a modem repair project with Italian prison inmates, assured that "when a company or a group of people have clear principles, making decisions is not difficult", and he knows that most of those in prison are recoverable. Today, in spite of the difficulties, his model is successful in Italian prisons, and some ex-prisoners are already in his company, as reported by Antonio Olivié in "El Debate".
The Roman event also included the presentation of La Fagedaa Catalan company that has hired numerous disabled people from the region. Albert Riera pointed out that "this company started backwards from the way a company should start. First there were the people and, from there, they thought about what they could do together, without 'know how', without a 'business plan', or anything like that". Their ideas can be summarized, as reported by Antonio Olivié, in "not having cheap labor, having contact with nature and not being a mere commercial company, but a social, non-profit company". Today, the yogurt of this company is the best seller in Catalonia.
Alonso de Linaje, from Caixabank, also mentioned the "No home without food" program, to which "between 2020 and 2021 almost six million euros have been channeled, of which two million were contributed by our own Foundation". There have been more than 2,400 tons of food to feed 8,935 families during the twelve months of the year. "The CaixaBank network has made it possible to channel those who have not suffered special problems during the pandemic to help other families".
A management model
In addition, CaixaBank has developed a management model specialized in religious institutions, with a value proposition that revolves around four axes and has been built under the document "Economy at the service of the charism and mission", issued by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
These axes, explains the bank's executive, are "on the one hand, the specialization embodied in dedicated and trained managers for this task. Secondly, a financial advisory model based on independent proposals, free from conflicts of interest, in line with the criteria determined by the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, socially responsible and impact investment. And finally, as a central axis in the advice, financial planning through a unique tool in the sector, based on four objective portfolios (liquidity, income generation, provision for the dependent members of the institutions and portfolio of wealth growth). In addition, it is worth mentioning our commitment to the training of trustees and administrators of Religious Institutions".
What model of capitalism
Among the topics of reflection at the event was capitalism. On corporate responsibility, the president of the Centesimus Annus Foundation, Anna Maria Tarantola, recalled a passage of St. John Paul II in this social encyclical.
"Wondering whether capitalism was the path to true economic progress, he wrote: "The answer is obviously complex. If 'capitalism' indicates an economic system that recognizes the fundamental and positive role of enterprise, the market, private property and the consequent responsibility for the means of production, of free human creativity in the field of economics, the answer is certainly positive, although perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of 'business economics,' or 'market economics,' or simply 'free economics.' But if by 'capitalism' we mean a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not framed in a solid juridical context that places it at the service of integral human freedom and considers it as a particular dimension of this freedom, whose center is ethical and religious, then the answer is decidedly negative" (Centesimus Annus, 42).
"This step, not always mentioned, is in my opinion the foundation on which companies must build their way of being and operating," said Tarantola, who added: "Unfortunately, in the last fifty years a model of super-liberal capitalism has been affirmed, guided by consumerism, individualism, the financing of the economy, the almost exclusive focus on quantitative economic growth, while neglecting the social and cultural, the affirmation of an absolute faith in technology. And there is the mantra of 'creating shareholder value' as the sole purpose of business, as Milton Friedman argued more than 50 years ago in the 'Financial Times'. Pope Benedict XVI in 'Caritas in Veritate' and Pope Francis in 'Laudato si'' have highlighted its degenerations and harms."
"Pope Francis," concluded Anna Maria Tarantola, "who is today the point of reference not only spiritually and morally, but also culturally, economically and socially for all peoples, invites us to urgently change our lifestyle and the goals of business, politics and institutions to strive for a new just, inclusive, supportive and sustainable world."
From John Paul II to Francis: the "multilateral" diplomacy of the Holy See
The role of Pope Francis in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict leads us to reflect on the diplomacy of the Holy See. It is heir to a millennia-old tradition, which has made the papacy the forerunner of modern relations between States, and acts on two particular fronts: on the one hand, the protection of Christians, particularly Catholics; on the other, the promotion of the values of justice, peace and the safeguarding of human rights.
The cruel war between Russia and Ukraine, the thousands of victims, the displaced, the destroyed cities and villages and the madness of increasingly terrible weapons that continue to massacre innocent people are at this point a story that repeats itself over and over again and humanity seems never to want to learn from its mistakes.
Of all the voices that have been raised in the name of peace in recent times, there is one, in particular, that seems to really care about peace itself, if only more than about gas, arms sales or sanctions. And we are talking about Pope Francis.
In fact, among the various world leaders, the Pope has tried, since the beginning of the conflict, to keep a diplomatic channel open with both sides, and he has done so with concrete gestures: personally going to the Russian and Ukrainian embassies, activating the apostolic nunciatures present in both countries, providing material aid and spiritual support, dialoguing with the political and religious leaders (Catholic and Orthodox) of Russia and Ukraine, including the Primate of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, Kirill, whom, in the face of the latter's Caesaropapist nudges to justify his country's aggressive policy towards Ukraine (especially in the famous virtual bilateral meeting between the Pope and the aforementioned patriarch), the pontiff (and let us remember here the etymology of that term: bridge builder) did not fail to recall that the task of ecclesiastics is to proclaim Christ, not to favor or oppose a temporal power, which was reiterated, at the time of writing, on May 6, 2022, when Francis, receiving in audience the participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, once again condemned the "cruel and senseless" war in Ukraine, declaring that, "in the face of this barbarism, we renew our desire for unity and announce the Gospel that disarms hearts in the face of armies."
However, there has been no shortage of criticism, from both Catholics and Orthodox, of the Pope for not taking an openly pro-Ukrainian stance in the current conflict.
Francis' attitude, however, is in perfect continuity, in this as in other cases (the war in Syria or the most recent protests in Myanmar are examples), with that of his predecessors, in particular John Paul II, in wanting to promote certain values of peace, solidarity and social justice throughout the world, regardless of country, ethnicity or religion. For this reason, he dialogues and seeks to establish relations with all governments, regardless of creed or ideology, which is also expressed through the concept of multilateralism, i.e. equidistance (perhaps, however, it would be better to say equidistance) with respect to the subjects involved.
In practice, all this is extraordinarily similar to what happened with Pius XII, the reigning Pope during the entire Second World War, who never openly condemned Hitler, although, continuing the policy of hard opposition to that ideology of Pius XI (who harshly condemned Nazism with the Encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge"), he intervened several times against Nazi policy with different messages, in particular with the Christmas message of 1942 and the consent of the reading of the famous Pastoral Letter "We live in a time of great suffering", written by the Dutch Episcopal Conference and read in all the churches of Holland on July 26, 1942 (in retaliation to which Hitler ordered the arrest and deportation of Jewish converts, until then spared from his fury, as Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).
The subject is quite complex, but equally interesting, since the role of the Catholic Church in national and international affairs is anything but secondary, if we think that it can influence, directly and indirectly, billions of people, not only among the baptized, but also among juridical subjects that can be individuals, States, supranational organizations and that have nothing to do with the faith professed by Catholics.
The need for diplomacy and recognition at the international level
The Holy See's diplomacy is heir to a millennia-old tradition, which has made the papacy the forerunner of modern relations between States, and it acts on two particular fronts: on the one hand, the protection of Christians, particularly Catholics; on the other, the promotion of the values of justice, peace and the safeguarding of human rights: its Ostpolitik, especially since the late 1950s, is a concrete example of this.
This realistic policy, which takes its impetus from Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical "Pacem in Terris" (in which the pontiff explains that world peace is an ideal to be pursued through dialogue and cooperation with all peoples "of good will", even with those who are carriers of an "erroneous" ideology such as atheism and communism), which will also condition the Holy See's international policy from Paul VI onwards.
It is necessary, at this point, to make an essential distinction between the Holy See and the Vatican City State: the first constitutes an abstract sovereignty, i.e. without a well-defined territory, of the Pope over the Catholic faithful (about one billion 345 million people, according to the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae of 2019), but recognized by all international organizations; the second is, on the other hand, the smallest State in the world (its area is only 44 hectares), whose sole function is, by virtue of its creation in 1929 by the Lateran Pacts, to provide material and legal support for the activities of the Holy See, including the safeguarding of its cultural, artistic and religious heritage.
The Holy See and international politics
The Apostolic See, therefore, is the highest authority of the Catholic Church and is governed by the Supreme Pontiff (the Pope) and the Roman Curia, headed by the Secretary of State, who, under the authority of the Holy Father, is the head of the diplomatic structure. Because of its special status, it is the Holy See, and not the Vatican City State, which maintains diplomatic relations with other States and international bodies, and these relations require a large institutional organization.
Papal diplomatic officials, as well as apostolic nuncios and lay people who represent the papacy internationally, come from almost every state in the world and are trained at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the Vatican's foreign policy school.
The purpose of contacts with civil society is to ensure the survival and independence of the Church and the exercise of its specific function (freedom to maintain contact with the center; freedom of movement and responsibility of bishops and priests; freedom of conscience and worship for all). In the absence of these basic conditions, diplomatic relations are normally not established (this is the current case in China, Bhutan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the Maldives).
The Holy See has a wide and capillary diplomatic network. In fact, it maintains normal diplomatic relations with 183 of the 193 UN member states and has permanent observer status at the United Nations, but not full membership, since it is the representative of a spiritual power that opts for total neutrality in international affairs.
John Paul II and his international policy
The international policy of John Paul II is, of course, the most obvious one to take into account when analyzing the Holy See's concept of multilateralism in international politics, since the period of time it covers is remarkably broad and confirms the multiple and aforementioned objectives of the Holy See's action at the global level. John Paul II's pontificate, in fact, was characterized not only by its duration in terms of time (27 years), but also by the large number of important events that marked it, for example, the long dispute with the communist regimes, in particular that of Poland (his country of origin), the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the recognition of Israel and the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Jewish State in 1994, the repeated attempts to normalize relations with China and Vietnam, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the historical dividing line between Orthodox and Catholics in the Balkans, which put Vatican diplomacy in serious trouble and led it to intervene directly in the matter in 1992, recognizing the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, traditionally Catholic nations.
Among the most interesting cases to mention, because of their similarity to current issues, is that of the Philippines, a country visited by John Paul II in 1981 and where the campaign of passive resistance (very similar to what is happening today in Myanmar) led by Cardinal Jaime Sin against Marcos resulted in the exile of the dictator in 1986; or Cuba, where, in 1998, the Pope clearly reiterated his opposition to the U.S. embargo and sanctions that had been suffocating the island's economy for 35 years, criticizing these retaliatory measures against a country by other states and accusing them, as in the case of Iraq or Serbia (similar to Russia today) of only harming innocent citizens without providing any definitive solution to the problems.
Finally, we would like to mention two particular cases in which, during the pontificate of John Paul II and following the intervention of John XXIII as mediator between the United States and the USSR in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the Holy See was particularly active in the search for peaceful solutions to conflictive situations in the international arena: In the first case, Wojtyla and his representatives, in particular the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, succeeded in averting the already imminent conflict between Chile and Argentina over the sovereignty of the Beagle Channel in 1984; in the second, during the international crisis that preceded the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the diplomacy of the Holy See acted in coordination with the representatives of France, Germany, Russia, Belgium and China at the United Nations to avoid armed conflict, and John Paul II even sent the Nuncio to Washington to meet with George Bush Sr. and express the Pope's total disagreement with an invasion of the Middle Eastern country, which unfortunately took place.
All these examples are remarkably reminiscent of more recent events and issues (Myanmar, Syria, the Russia-Ukraine war and its aftermath) and allow us to frame Pope Francis' international policy and his multilateralism, or "equivocity" with all parties involved in conflicts at the international level, as perfectly suited to the needs of the Holy See's diplomacy.
The authorGerardo Ferrara
Writer, historian and expert on Middle Eastern history, politics and culture.
Justice is the first way of charity: I cannot give to others what is mine without having first given them what is rightfully theirs; but justice alone does not provide human beings with all that is rightfully theirs; they also need God.
May 10, 2022-Reading time: 3minutes
Three data: the public deficit for this year is expected to be 5.3%; the Public Debt will reach 116.4% of the GDP; the average annual inflation will be around 7.5%. Translated to a domestic scale, these data would be equivalent to saying that, this year, a typical family will spend 5.3% more than it earns.
As a result, it is going to have to borrow to survive for an amount equivalent to 116.4% of its annual income, with increasingly higher interest rates; moreover, while maintaining the same income, its expenses are going to increase by 7.5%.
Some technical nuances could be made to this comparison, but in general terms this is the situation.
In these projections there is, however, a basic error: considering only the strictly economic aspects, without realizing that the economy is a radically anthropological question, a human action (Mises, "The economy is an anthropological question, human action"). dixit), which is not exhausted or resolved in proposals for public spending, tax increases or aid and subsidies, but in the identification of the human person and respect for his or her unique dignity. Every economic decision has moral consequences.
The left proclaims the need for more social justice, which is concretized in the increase of the welfare state, guaranteed by the public authorities. The other side advocates personal freedom and responsibility in economic activity and market freedom as a means of ensuring the distribution of resources.
Here the sisterhoods have something to say and do in their dual mission as agents of Charity and regenerators of society from within.
The brotherhoods do not pretend to give a technical solution to economic problems; their criteria are contained in the Social Doctrine of the Church, which is not a "third way" between capitalism and socialism, because it does not attend to the "logic of operations", but to the "logic of gift", to the free acceptance of God's love, which is what determines the quality of human action that activates operations.
"It is a matter of promoting justice, not of giving handouts," say some, thus creating a false dialectic pair between justice and charity, which they identify as a concession of capitalism to soothe their conscience. These apostles of the welfare state forget that justice is inseparable from charity, intrinsic to it; it presupposes justice and perfects it.
Justice is the first way of charity: I cannot give to others what is mine without first having given them what is rightfully theirs; but justice alone does not provide human beings with all that is rightfully theirs; they also need God, which implies donation.
The displacement of charity by the attention of the State leaves people's most fundamental moral and spiritual needs unsatisfied and perpetuates material poverty (Benedict XVI).
The ever-expanding welfare state makes the exercise of charity more difficult and relegates the Church, and also the brotherhoods, to the status of philanthropic entities subsidiary to the State.
Charity is not giving, it is "suffering with", that is why the brotherhoods do not give alms, they distribute justice, more love; in them Christian charity is intrinsic to their nature, not an optional extra.
Charity is not only about solving immediate material needs, it is also about attending to the personal dignity of each of those assisted. The left does not understand the individual approach, person to person, it tends to social engineering, but it fails to address each individual person, that is why the welfare state fails at this point.
One last important detail to keep in mind: in this battle to attend to the needs of others, the brotherhoods do not generate resources, nor do they issue "cofrade debt" to attend to their charitable works.
They obtain resources from society, not by the coercive means of taxation, but by appealing to the charity and solidarity of all. They are the "social agents" of charity.
In addition to meeting people's needs, the fraternities thus rebuild the moral foundations of the economy, uniting justice and charity. No more, no less, should be asked of these institutions that have in their hands, to a large extent, the reconstruction of our social values.
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.
"Looking down from on high". A short film about Pauline Jaricot
Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Work for the Propagation of the Faith, germ of the Domund, and inspiration for the rest of the Pontifical Mission Societies, has a short film that brings her figure closer to today's world.
The short film made by Fides and produced by the Pontifical Mission Societies is entitled "Looking down from above" and presents, in the form of a docufilm, the story and faith experience of Pauline Jaricot. All this is narrated through the eyes and life of Claire, a young woman of our time.
The film aims to communicate, through original images and music, the beauty and love that Jaricot found in God and that generated his missionary passion, so that it also generates in those who enjoy it, an effect of attraction, an authentic vehicle of Christian faith. For this reason, the short film - made at the same time in five languages - will be destined for projection with the aim of promoting missionary animation. The ultimate goal is to proclaim the centrality of Christ in Pauline's life so that the public - especially young people - will be challenged by the message in which she believed, the Gospel.
Bringing the life of Pauline Jaricot closer to you
The shooting of the short film took place over eight days during which the team traveled to France to film with the participation of young people from the Chemin-neuf movement, which has a branch dedicated to evangelization through art, and young people from the French Pontifical Mission Societies. The shooting locations included the places in Lyon where Jaricot lived her faith experience, and Rustrel, a town in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, known as the "Colorado of Provence", where Pauline Jaricot had founded the Notre Dame des Anges factory. Mayline Tran, the three-year-old girl who received the miracle of healing through the intercession of Pauline Jaricot, and her family also appear in the final scenes of the short film and tell of their own experience.
The documentary has been conceived as a means for the missio ad gentes, a useful work for the initiatives of "a Church going forth" in non-Christian places and environments, and will therefore be made available to all the National Directorates of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Presentation in Rome
The presentation of this short film will take place on May 13 at the John Paul II Auditorium of the Pontifical Urbaniana University. Giampietro Dal Toso, President of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Father Tadeusz Nowak, Secretary General of the POPF and Nataša Govekar, Director of the Theological-Pastoral Direction of the Pontifical Dicastery for Communication will present this production.
Also present will be the director, the authors of the short film and some actors and collaborators of the production. The production and realization of the short film was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the National Directorates of the PMS, in particular: Catholic Mission Australia, Missio Ireland, Missio UK, OMP Spain, OPM Canada Francophone, PMS in the United States, PMS Korea.
"We Catholics must have knowledge of Sacred Scripture."
This 31-year-old seminarian from Guatemala (diocese of Santiago) is studying theology at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Pamplona, thanks to a CARF scholarship.
Otto Fernando Arana Mont is a 31-year-old seminarian from Guatemala (diocese of Santiago). He is studying theology at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Pamplona.
Although he felt God's call to the priesthood at the age of 11, he put his vocation "on hold" until he was 29, when the chaplain of the school where he taught helped him rediscover his vocation.
The experience of working with families has been very important for him: witnessing the daily yes to the vocation of marriage, of parents who educated their children with dedication and care, thus giving an authentic witness of holiness.
In his country, like many others in Latin America, there is a "danger" of the approval of abortion and euthanasia laws. For this reason, he announces that Guatemala, the capital of his country, will be declared "Ibero-American pro-life capital" in March 2022.
Another issue in his country is the rise of Protestantism. "I think that the presence of the priest in the parish is fundamental: he must be available to the faithful, and like a father, be tireless in forming them and always encouraging them to be missionary disciples.
Catholics must have a solid knowledge of Sacred Scripture, living Tradition and the Magisterium, as well as a formation in Mariology that leads us to feel proud to have a Mother like the Blessed Virgin Mary," he explains.
36 new recruits of the Pontifical Swiss Guard have joined the pontifical corps. The swearing-in ceremony takes place every May 6, to commemorate the 147 Swiss mercenaries who gave their lives defending Pope Clement VII during the sack of Rome in 1527.
In this ceremony, each new recruit places his left hand on the flag of the Swiss Guard and raises his right hand, extending three fingers symbolizing the Holy Trinity, before taking the oath.
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Msgr. Arthur RocheSoon a document on liturgical formation of all the baptized".
Arthur Roche's first year at the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship has been a busy one. The publication of "Traditionis custodes" and of a Letter of the Pope to the bishops on the Tridentine liturgy was followed by a clarification of the doubts raised signed by Bishop Roche. The Prefect is missing a greater liturgical formation of all the baptized, and confirms the forthcoming publication of a document to promote it.
It has been a year since Archbishop Arthur Roche became Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, where he had already been working since 2012. In this year, much of the Dicastery's work has revolved around the new norms restricting the possibility of using the pre-reform liturgical form of the 1960s (the "Tridentine Mass"), and the creation of the new lay ministry of catechist. Now, Bishop Roche has received Omnes at the headquarters of the Congregation, and takes stock of these and other issues.
Almost a year ago, "Traditionis Custodes" limited the possibilities of using the liturgy prior to the Council's reform. The document explained that its goal was to "seek ecclesial communion." Has progress been made toward that goal?
- We must begin by saying that the reason that motivates this decision is the unity of the Church, and this is what has moved the Pope. The previous Popes, John Paul II or Benedict XVI, had never thought that the existing possibilities were intended to promote the Tridentine rite, but only to assist people who have difficulty with the new form of prayer of the Church.
But, in the end, we are formed by the liturgy, because the liturgy carries in itself the faith and doctrine of the Church. "Lex orandi, lex credendi". I think that, in reality, this is not only a difficulty for the liturgy, but a difficulty for ecclesiology, for doctrine. For the first time in history, since the Second Vatican Council, we have in the magisterium an insertion of the nature of the Church, because it is the first time after two thousand years that we have a dogmatic constitution like "Lumen Gentium". "Lumen Gentium" carries with it that it is not only the priest who celebrates Mass, but all the baptized. Obviously, it is not possible for everyone to do what concerns the consecration of the Eucharistic species without the priest; but all the baptized, like the priest, have a position to celebrate. All participate in the priesthood of Jesus Christ and for this reason, as "Sacrosanctum concilium" reminds us, they have the right and the duty to participate in the liturgy. This is in contrast to the rite in the 1962 missal, where the priest was seen as the representative of all others present at the celebration of the Mass. This is the great difference between the two forms: the Church as it is understood in today's ecclesiology, and the nature of the Church as it was conceived by previous ecclesiology.
At the same time, Traditionis Custodes emphasizes the continuity between the current rite and the ancient rite: it states that the new Roman Missal "contains all the elements of the Roman rite, especially the Roman canon, which is one of the most characteristic elements".
- Of course, continuity must also be emphasized. The liturgy is a living gift that the Church has received. But we must not canonize the old for old's sake, otherwise we would find people who want to go back to things simply because they are older, and that could mean going back to liturgical expressions that predate even the Tridentine ones, for example. In reality, the point where we are now, with the new missal of Paul VI, means that we have had the possibility to study all the most fundamental elements, to take advantage of the sources of the liturgy, which were not known during the Tridentine Council in the years 1545-1563.
Pope Francis has said that he is "pained by the abuses" of some current celebrations. What do you think?
- I believe that at this moment there is a lack of liturgical formation. It is very interesting to remember that in the years prior to the Council there was the liturgical movement, with patristic, biblical, ecumenical foundations; and the Council offered the possibility of a renewal of the Church, also with regard to the liturgy.
I think that at this time, the intention is only to comply with the rubrics of the Liturgy, and that seems to me to be a bit poor. Theologically, the reason was the celebration of the Mystery.
For this reason, two years ago the Holy Father asked this Congregation to hold a plenary meeting of all its members to discuss liturgical formation in the whole Church: from bishops to priests to laity. And, indeed, a document on this matter is currently being prepared. Possibly it will take the form of a letter to the Church on the importance of formation. What do we do when we come together every Sunday for this celebration? Not just an obligation to do something every week, but what do we do? What do we celebrate at that time?
Will it be easy to get the contents of this letter across to the laity, to the people in the broadest sense?
- As you know, on the occasion of the publication of the motu proprio "Traditionis Custodes" Pope Francis wrote a letter only to the bishops explaining what they should do. I believe that, at this time, we in the Congregation have a responsibility to think about how to reach a wider audience.
The "mystagogical" catechesis, which introduces the celebrated mysteries, is one of the instruments of liturgical formation. A special occasion are sacraments such as baptism, communion or marriage. Do they fulfill this role?
- Mystagogical catechesis is very important. There is a paragraph in "Sacrosanctum Concilium", number 16, which says that liturgical formation is among the most important subjects in the formation of seminarians, and that teachers of other subjects must take it into account when they teach biblical, patristic, dogmatic, etc. subjects.
There is an abbey in America, Mount Angel, near Portland, where all the subjects of theological formation in the seminary period always have the focus on the liturgy of the day. Everything is oriented according to the great seasons of the liturgy, the liturgical calendar. We have to consider this also in relation to formation: that it is about celebration. It is not only a matter of doing things or participating in some parts of the celebration, but of celebrating worthily with a profound and active participation, as the Council recalled. Through words and gestures we reach the mystery. Rather than engaging in activities such as reading the readings or other things, we should strive for a deep, quasi-mystical participation in the contemplation of the liturgy. It is a matter of identifying with Christ through the words and gestures of the celebration.
The sacrament of Penance is a reference point for this pontificate. Francis has spoken of mercy and forgiveness from the beginning; he has invited to celebrations of confession, and has shown similar gestures. How to revalue this sacrament?
- I think obviously the sacrament of Penance is, in a sense, in a period of crisis at the moment, because there is a loss of a sense of sin. Sins are no less today than they were before, but there is a lack of knowledge of individual sin; I think that is a challenge for so many people. The Pope as a great pastor, before his election as Pope, has evidenced this in his diocese, in the parishes and in his pastoral work.
I will tell you an interesting experience: some years ago I received an invitation from the Sacred Penitentiary to give a conference for the deacons who were preparing to receive priestly ordination. When I arrived and saw that there were 500 people, I asked Cardinal Piacenza: are there so many to be ordained this year? This was not the case, but almost two-thirds of those attending were already ordained priests and had come to this course, in some cases after many years of ordination, to learn again how to celebrate the sacrament of penance. This speaks to us of a lack of formation of priests. In particular, for the sacrament of confession, the availability of the priest is important, but not only in terms of dedication of time, but also as the availability of a person who welcomes penitents, who speaks of mercy, who speaks as a father to a person who is in need of reconciliation with God. All these elements are very important, but they are also integral elements of formation.
How is the ministry of catechist, which was established on May 10 last year, evolving in its first steps?
- At this time the most important thing is for the Episcopal Conference to define who the catechists are. It is a ministry, and not only a participation in the ministry as we have in all the parishes of the world, where some people prepare the children for the first communion, confession, etc. This is a more important ministry, but one that needs to be defined. The person who receives this ministry is a point of reference in the diocese, for the organization of the programs, of the levels, etc., but it depends on how the bishop makes the definition: this is now the responsibility of the bishops' conferences.
There are, for example, some religious women who carry out their apostolate as catechists... but this ministry is not foreseen for them. Even more important: neither is it foreseen for seminarians, who are in preparation for the priesthood. They receive the acolytate, the lectorate, and then the diaconate, but this ministry of catechist is not foreseen for him: it is only for the baptized in general. For the Church, it is a sign of the importance of the laity announcing the Gospel and forming young people.
Let's talk about other aspects of the work of the Congregation for the Liturgy. The Constitution "Praedicate Evangelium" stresses that it promotes the liturgy "according to the renewal undertaken by the Second Vatican Council".
- Certainly, one of its tasks is to promote the liturgy. At the same time, it is also to become a point of reference for all the bishops of the world in their relationship with the Petrine ministry. The Congregation (in the future, the Dicastery) is to serve not only the Supreme Pontiff, but also all the bishops of the world, in the liturgical field. And this is a dimension that we must consider carefully. It is an opening of the Roman Curia, which should not be understood as a bureaucratic structure, but as a service to the universal Church.
How do you collaborate with other Dicasteries?
- With regard to its competencies, it collaborates with all the organisms of the Curia, from the Doctrine of the Faith to the Clergy and almost all the others. Even the new evangelization, the missions, the practice of charity and all other activities have a liturgical aspect. For the liturgy is the life of the whole Church; it is the soul of the Church.
It will soon be 60 years since Sacrosanctum Concilium. This Council document on liturgy wanted the paschal mystery to become the center of Christian life. How is this approach being considered today?
- Sixty years is a short time in the history of the Church. After Trent, there was a great period in which there were difficult circumstances for the whole Church to receive the reform -a reform is a serious thing-; but also now we have many difficulties.
A major difficulty in the Church is the rise of individualism. People express their desires as individuals, but not as a community. Now, the Church is precisely a community, and she celebrates all the sacraments in a communitarian sense; among them, also the Mass, because it is not intended to be celebrated without the presence of another person, and normally the faithful congregate in large numbers.
At this time the liberalism, the individualism that exists in this society is a challenge to the Church. It is easy to think of my personal preference, of a specific type of liturgy, of a particular expression of the celebration, of this priest rather than that priest; but this individualism is not in the character of the Church. And we must consider the effects of these influences on the spiritual life of the Church, as is clearly underlined in "Sacrosanctum Concilium", but also in "Lumen Gentium".
Has the pandemic reinforced the tendency towards individualism?
- I think that this tendency will not last forever, because we know that the need to relate to God and to others is within us, and it is not something that we have the possibility of pushing away indefinitely, by means of television or the internet. We need to be present at the celebration, since the sacraments are about a personal relationship with Christ, and are not a program or a movie. Online or on television we follow something for a moment, but we are not there; we can see everything, but we are not present, and this is the most important thing: the presence of the people.
Let me mention two particular aspects of "Sacrosancutm Concilium". The first is liturgical inculturation.
- The point is that there are some cultures, in certain societies outside Europe, especially in mission countries, in which the Roman rite can be enriched with the genius of each place, which is not always easy.
On this subject, I have often told the bishops that we have spent the last fifty years preparing the translation of the liturgical texts; and now we must move on to the second phase, which is already foreseen by "Sacrosanctum Concilium", and that is the inculturation or adaptation of the liturgy to the other different cultures, while maintaining unity. I think that this work should begin at this time. But I would like to point out that today there is only one liturgical "use", not a "rite", and that is in Zaire, in Africa.
It is important to understand what it means that Jesus has shared our nature, and in a historical moment. We have to consider the importance of the Incarnation and, if we can say so, of the action of grace being incarnated in other cultures, with various expressions that are completely different from what we have seen and appreciated in Europe for so many years.
The second aspect is beauty, especially in sacred architecture. The Pope says "the Church evangelizes and evangelizes herself through the beauty of the liturgy" ("Evangelii Gaudium", 24).
- Beauty is a part of God's nature, and a part of human existence. It is very important for man, because it attracts him: we are attracted by beauty. And it speaks to us not only in a unique way, but also individually.
This aspect of the liturgy, also with regard to the church, was foreseen by the documents issued immediately after the approval of "Sacrosanctum Concilium" and also endorsed by the bishops participating in the Council. These texts indicated what was to be taken into account in the configuration of the church so as to assist the celebration, and the significance and importance of the various elements. I am thinking, for example, of the altar, which signifies the Body of Christ; for the Orthodox it is the tomb, whence the resurrection belongs to the celebration of the Eucharist. Or in the importance of the ambo, by itself and in relation to the altar. In our celebrations we have two "tables": Sacred Scripture and the Holy Eucharist; but without Sacred Scripture we do not do the Eucharist. The two are in balance, and both are the same thing. The Word leads to the Eucharist and the Eucharist is deepened and understood by the Word.
Do you wish to add anything else?
- Yes, I think it is very important that at this moment we think once again about the voice of the Council to the whole world, a prophetic voice for the future of the Church. May we deepen what "Sacrosanctum Concilium" contains, and also the other documents, but above all "Lumen Gentium", about the holiness of the Church and our vocation, because without holiness we will lack an authentic voice to preach the Gospel.
The author begins the book by explaining that this volume responds to the almost impertinent questions that a Baptist pastor posed to him when he learned that he was a Catholic. These questions made Brant Pitre wonder about what he knew about his own faith and, especially, about the foundation of his faith and Christian life: the Eucharist.
With a light and rhythmic pen, the author reviews the Eucharistic prefigurations contained in the Old Testament, not only directly but also in terms of what the Jewish people expected from the Messiah and the different moments in which the institution of the Eucharist as the axis of salvation is confirmed.
Particularly interesting is the description of the meaning of the Bread of the Presence for the Jewish people, not only as food of God but as the face of God himself. Together with this explanation, the fact that Christ did not conclude the Jewish rites of the Passover with the fourth cup opens the reader to an understanding that the cross would be the last cup - the chalice - that would culminate the new Passover of Christ. A very interesting and practical book for those who wish to deepen their understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist not only historically but in the totality of its conception.
Bishop MumbielaWe have dedicated Central Asia to the Queen of Peace".
The president of the new Conference of Catholic Bishops of Central Asia, Bishop Joseph Louis Mumbiela of Almaty (Kazakhstan), explains, in an interview with Omnes, the "bonds of fraternity and unity" created by the conference. He also assures that Pope Francis' trip to Kazakhstan will be "very significant" and comments on the dedication of Central Asia to Mary, Queen of Peace.
Nuncios, bishops and apostolic administrators from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Mongolia, who make up the newly created Conference of Catholic Bishops of Central Asia, dedicated the vast and multi-ethnic Asian region on May 1 to St. Mary, Queen of Peace, at the National Shrine of the Queen of Peace of Kazakhstan in Ozerny.
From "the center of the Eurasian continent, in the place where representatives of many nationalities and religions live together," the archbishops and bishops called the Virgin Mary "Queen of Peace and Mother of the Church!" and commended to her "the Catholic Church of Central Asia, all Christian believers, who recognize the One God, and people of good will, whose faith and devotion are known to the Almighty."
"Queen of martyrs," they prayed, "look upon the blood and tears of those who, like Christ, suffered innocently for truth and justice. Mary, show us and the whole world that you are the Queen of Peace. May all nations proclaim you blessed and through you find the way to God".
The first session of this Conference of Asian Bishops was held in Nursultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, from April 26 to the beginning of May. In this city, formerly known as Astana, the official opening of the plenary session took place, which was attended by the President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ashimbaev Maulen Sagatkhanuly, and Kazakhstan's Minister of Information and Social Development, Umarov Askar Kuanyshevich, according to Fides.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples [until the entry into force of 'Praedicate Evangelium' on Pentecost Sunday], was present in an online connection from Vatican City, expressing his satisfaction for the birth of the Conference, which "is called to play a special role in the life and ministry of the Church in the territories of the countries of Central Asia. Although Catholics in this region are a minority, this does not detract from the importance of the role that the Church plays in society".
Bishop Joseph Louis Mumbiela of Almaty, Kazakhstan's most populous city, and president of the country's bishops' conference, presided over this plenary of the Central Asian bishops, having been elected to preside over the new conference by secret ballot at the meeting of the Central Asian bishops.
Jerzy Maculewicz, Apostolic Administrator of Uzbekistan, and Bishop Evgeny Zinkovsky, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Karaganda, were elected vice-president and secretary general, respectively. On the day of the official opening of the plenary session, the ordinaries of Central Asia visited the Apostolic Nunciature in Kazakhstan, where they met with the Nuncio, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt.
Pope Francis' visit to Kazakhstan has been on the agenda since the Holy Father expressed to the country's president, Kassym Khomart Tokayev, his intention to travel to Kazakhstan., on the occasion of the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which will take place in September in the Kazakh capital.
In this context, Omnes has talked with Monsignor José Luis Mumbiela SierraPresident of the Central Asian Bishops' Conference.
First of all, tell us about the dedication of Central Asia to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Shrine of Ozerny, which you, the bishops, have carried out.
- The text is 99% the same as the one used on June 25, 1995 by Bishop Jan P. Lenga, when he consecrated Kazakhstan and Central Asia to Our Lady. The same text was used by John Paul II in 2001 when in Astana, 21 years ago, he also repeated that consecration with the same words. We have changed two words, because in the original it said that we are at the gates of the third millennium, and we are at the beginning. It has been a little tweaked. Before it was Kazakhstan, and now it is Central Asia. And the rest is what was done in 1995, what John Paul II repeated, and we have insisted.
Can you provide us with the text of the dedication to Saint Mary, Queen of Peace?
- Of course. This is the text:
"Prayer: Dedication of Central Asia to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mother of the Son of God Jesus Christ and our Mother! We want to express to you our love and respect, our trust and gratitude.
We stand before You at the special moment in human history at the beginning of the third millennium, when humanity strives to be one family, but, nevertheless, remains divided, wounded by many conflicts and wars.
We are in front of you in a special place on the globe: in the center of the Eurasian continent, in the place where representatives of many nationalities and religions live together.
Immaculate Mother of God, like the morning dawn foretelling the rising of the sun, You were the forerunner of the coming of the Savior. We believe that You are the best to guide people to God. You gave birth to the Lord of the World, Jesus Christ. Dying on the cross, He entrusted all men to you, to be their Mother and Queen, their Guide to God and Perpetual Patroness.
Queen of Peace and Mother of the Church! We commend to you today the Catholic Church of Central Asia, all Christian believers, who acknowledge the One God, and people of good will, whose faith and devotion are known to the Almighty.
Queen of martyrs, behold the blood and tears of those who, like Christ, suffered innocently for truth and justice.
Mary, show us and the whole world that you are the Queen of Peace. May all nations proclaim you blessed and through you find the way to God.
Amen.
(You can see here the reading of the Dedication to Our Lady by the president of the Conference, Bishop José Luis Mumbiela, in Russian, together with the rest of the bishops, after their words at the conclusion of the Mass (1h. 16')).
How is the organization of theCongress of religions in September?
- The government is doing everything it can to move this congress forward. The Pope has said he is coming to show his presence at the Congress. Steps are being taken to prepare for the Pope's visit. There is no program [for the trip] yet made, but when they tell you to prepare the program, it means he wants to come. In fact, he wants to come.
Then, Pope Francis will go to Kazakhstan...
- Maybe they need to confirm it later, once the Vatican commission comes to Kazakhstan, but in principle the Pope is coming. Health permitting, the Pope will come.
We are working on it. For the Catholic Church it is always a joy. An ordinary Father needs no special reason 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 beautiful coincidence.
I have not asked him about the Russian-Ukrainian war. Maybe there is a deep wound.
- We see here that the population suffers in many cases from this division. There is a lot of suffering, because that divides people, who are suffering. Some more than others.
Where have the meetings of the new Conference been taking place these days?
- The meeting of the new Bishops' Conference was held in Nursultan, the capital, where the office is located. We arrived in Nursultan on the 25th. On the first day, we all went to Karaganda to see the seminary, the church of the Greek Catholics, the new cathedral, where there are also the relics of Blessed Vladislaw Bukowinsky, apostle of Kazakhstan, who was also in other countries of Central Asia; and then we went to say Mass in the Basilica of St. Joseph, which is the first cathedral of Central Asia in the 20th century, where the Catholic community began in Karaganda. Now it is not a cathedral, it is a basilica.
The speaker of the Senate of Kazakhstan, who read a letter from the President of Kazakhstan, was present at the official opening ceremony of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Central Asia, as was the Minister of Information and Social Development, who is also responsible for Religion. The government was represented at the highest level. That was when Cardinal Tagle intervened.
There were two Nuncios, the Archbishop of Astana, four other bishops from Kazakhstan, two apostolic administrators; and from other countries, the Bishop of Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the Bishop of Mongolia, and the Bishop of Baku, from Azerbaijan (as an observer, for the time being); and besides, priests, the apostolic administrator of Kyrgyzstan, and the heads of the 'Missio sui iuris' of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. As of today, the priest from Afghanistan is in Rome, and is doing his best to return, he and the sisters. For the time being, they are outside.
How is the ecclesiastical organization in Asia?
- In Asia there are many bishops' conferences, almost every country has its own bishops' conference, although Cambodia and Laos have a joint conference. But each country has one: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Burma, Philippines... Then there is the FABC ('Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences'),which is like CELAM in Latin America, a continental bishops' conference. Our episcopal conference, that of Central Asia, is part of that Asian confederation.
Can you comment on the role and projects of this new Episcopal Conference of Central Asia, over which you preside?
- The purpose of this Conference is, above all, to create unity among the small Churches, which are all of us, of fraternity and closeness, which gives greater strength in the circumstances of minority in which we live, and this is noticeable in these days, in which it has come out rejuvenated, strengthened, enthusiastic, seeing themselves not alone, but accompanied in the same mission, close, in situations that are also close.
For example, the Bishop of Mongolia, who is now part of our Conference, used to go to Korea, but he feels more identified with our reality. For him, being with us has been a kind of enthusiasm, he has seen himself perfectly, you are like me, in the same economic and social situation, a small flock of the People of God, with difficulties. Here I feel more identified, because of the culture, etcetera.
More than making joint programs or statements, we are different countries and sometimes far away from each other, we cannot carry out joint activities for the faithful, as can be done in the Spanish Episcopal Conference or other similar, because the distances are great, but at the level of relationship between bishops, I think it is very good.
And to create among the faithful an awareness of a broad and close family. Not only in the Church of your country, but that they know that my bishop is in connection with other bishops, that there is a communication, maybe there is a trip, a presence of someone, to feel more accompanied and closer to each other. In these lands, I think it is very useful.
To create bonds of fraternity and unity, also for these new churches that are part of the Bishops' Conference, because Kazakhstan already had it, but those that were without Bishops' Conference, for them, in terms of the institutional relationship with the Vatican, for example, are already within an organization, which they were not before, like islands in the ocean. Now they are more compact, let's say, at the time of an institutional relationship.
It is also now easier to work in an area of large extensions, and the attention to the seminar...
- Yes. Now, for example, we have appointed some of these countries. After the president, who is me, there is the vice-president, who is from Uzbekistan, and others are also part of some small mission. It is already representing a larger group, which gives a little more encouragement. Then, as far as possible, to do things together.
There are some things that are clear. One is the interdiocesan seminary, and we talked a lot about this with Cardinal Tagle. The Karaganda seminary is the only seminary in all of Central Asia. Now they know that if they have diocesan vocations, they can send them to this seminary.
We were in Karaganda the first day, they have visited the seminary, they have seen it; in fact, as of today, there is a seminarian from Uzbekistan, there are also some from Georgia. If there are seminarians from other places, they already know that they can send them, which is good for everyone. For example, the bishop of Mongolia used to send seminarians to Korea. But of course, the ecclesial and social reality of Korea is very different from Mongolia. It is another world. And this is closer and more formative for our people. The issue of the seminary is very important.
Another topic is Caritas. Within Asia, there is the Caritas Central Asia subregion, which also includes the same countries that we are in the Conference. After that, we will see.
We conclude our telematic conversation with Bishop Mumbiela, although we could continue with various topics. If you want more information, you can visit this web of the Catholic Church in Kazakhstan, and of course, the interview to Monsignor José Luis Mumbiela at Omnes, in February of this year.
Emotivists on the inside and utilitarians on the outside
Juan José Muñoz García recommends reading Emotivists on the inside and utilitarians on the outsideby José Manuel Horcajo.
Juan José Muñoz García-May 8, 2022-Reading time: < 1minute
Book
TitleEmotivists on the inside and utilitarians on the outside
AuthorJosé Manuel Horcajo
Pages: 174
Editorial: Word
City: Madrid
Year: 2022
Do it only if you feel it: this is the motto of the emotivist person. It is true that emotions move and drive our lives, and without them we would not feel alive. But they cannot be the only referent for our free decisions. Postmodernity has designed, with the death of reason, the oblivion of the good of the person and the absence of coherent personal narratives, an emotivist and utilitarian subject, whose defining features are: fragility, disorientation and inner rupture.
José Manuel Horcajo, doctor in Theology, professor at the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University and parish priest of San Ramón Nonato in Madrid, dives in this brief essay into the philosophical history of emotivism to offer an alternative from Christian anthropology and theology. All this with a light style, close to the spiritual divulgation so in vogue nowadays, that unifies the intellectual discourse with the primacy of love as a light to discern the daily decisions of Christian life.
Bishop Shevchuk reaffirms religious unity in Ukraine in the war
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has confirmed from Kiev, "ecumenical and interreligious unity in Ukraine as never existed in the past," as Omnes reported in April. "In the mass graves we are all of us," he added, in a act organized by ACN International and Spain, in which he appealed to "resist this unjust ideological invasion".
Francisco Otamendi-May 7, 2022-Reading time: 4minutes
Major Archbishop Shevchuk revealed today that he is "at the top of a list of Russians for delete me"and that it is a "priority target". He said this over the Internet in a connection that he considered "a miracle" as things stand in the Ukrainian capital.
In the same speech, in which he was accompanied by the bursar of the archdiocese, Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk accused the Russian leadership of spreading that "Ukraine is an ideology, not a nation. The invasion is a colonial war. Russia considers Ukraine as a former colony to be reconquered", and Ukrainians as elements to be "eliminated, re-educated in concentration camps, or expelled", in a conflict that "can be compared to World War II", he said.
"Church leaders" are in this situation, in that of people to be "eliminated," he remonstrated. "We have to resist this high-intensity unjust ideological invasion, because "as Putin pointed out, the intention was to wipe out Ukraine in three days." "And in two months" it has destroyed "50 percent of the national economy. People call the Church and ask to eat, but resources are running out," he added. In this line, he reiterated what Javier Menéndez Ros, director of ACN Spain, had pointed out at the beginning of the briefing: "The disaster in Ukraine is not over".
Monsignor Shevchuk reiterated in his words that "religious leaders are united", and that in this line, the Council of Churches is playing a very relevant role, in particular with regard to "humanitarian aid, because people are suffering".
Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Disasterium for the Service of Integral Human Development in the Holy See, had stated on Ukrainian territory: "During my visit to the village of Beregove, in western Ukraine, I was very impressed to see Catholics of the Latin rite, Greek Catholics, Protestants, Reformed, Jews, coming together to share the work of the refugee emergency. A huge emergency that can only be addressed together. 'There are no distinctions, we are all the Good Samaritan called to help others now,' said one pastor during this very frank and fraternal dialogue. It comforted me, it is truly the sign of a living Church."
Times of repression
Omnes magazine warned in its April issue about "a risk that seems real. If it [the Russian invasion] succeeds, the Catholic Church in Ukraine could disappear. Monsignor Shevchuk said in an interview with a Ukrainian radio station. Apparently we are on the list as well as our brothers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,' said the great archbishop, referring to a possible list of organizations to be banned by Russian President Vladimir Putin".
"We know from history," Omnes collected, "that every time Russia conquered our country, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was systematically destroyed," Archbishop Shevchuk added, "God forbid that this should be repeated now." Indeed, in 1946, Stalin forced it to merge with the Orthodox Church, from which it had separated at the end of the 16th century. Many bishops and clergy who opposed the integration were arrested and died in Siberia. It was only in 1989 that the state repression of the Greek Catholic Church ended and it came out of hiding again."
Monsignor Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who thanked the solidarity aid sent by Spain, asked in today's act: "Pray for Ukraine". He encouraged to maintain hope with the Easter greeting of the 'Risen Christ', and affirmed: "We value very much the effort of Pope Francis, to stop this unjust war. He is a very great moral authority, who has offered to travel to Moscow in a mediation task, despite his severe knee pain." "But diplomacy has not been able to stop this unjust war."
New ACN campaign
In Ukraine, a country of about 44 million inhabitants, 60 percent of the population is Orthodox. In addition, about 8.8 percent belong to the Greek-Catholic Church, which together with the 0.8 percent of the Latins makes up almost 10 percent of the Ukrainian population. There are about 4.4 million people, including 4,879 priests and religious, and 1,350 nuns.
In the presentation of a new aid campaign, 'Church in Ukraine, refuge of hope', Javier Menéndez Ros stressed that ACN has been helping Ukraine since 1953 in a preferential way", long before this war, and that "currently, in Ukraine there are more than 7 million people who have fled their homes to other parts of the country in search of a safe place".
"Every parish, convent and seminary has become a reception center. ACN is now promising to send, in a new package, aid of about 2 million euros to assist the Ukrainian Church in its charitable and pastoral mission, especially in the western region of the country where internally displaced persons are being welcomed."
Both Menéndez Ros and Marco Mencaglia, project coordinator for Europe of ACN International, explained that after "sending an initial emergency aid to the Church in that country, amounting to one million euros, to ensure that the thousands of priests and nuns who today live in Ukraine have the necessary means to stay with their people, in parishes, in homes for children, mothers and elderly people, with the refugees", it is now a matter of addressing a second phase. This aid to specific projects of the Church in western Ukraine, "is not only material, but also of spiritual care, of comfort, to displaced families", especially women and children, since men of military age are fighting.
More than 12 million displaced persons
In addition to the seven million internally displaced persons, there are also 5 million externally displaced persons, refugees who have fled the country in a veritable "refugee crisis". exodusThe Archbishop of Kiev, who said he was "proud" of the bishops, priests, religious men and women who have remained in the country to care for the suffering people, stressed that more than 12 million Ukrainians have had to flee and move, inside and outside the country.
Suggestive and entertaining book by Professor José María Torralba. Throughout its pages, he explains the keys of the intellectual movement that both in Europe and America has proposed to repair the academic, cultural and institutional damage suffered by humanistic education at the University.
Without being paralyzed by sterile laments about the fate of the humanities in our time, the author conveys his experience of how it is possible and desirable to implement concrete and non-utopian measures to fill the educational gaps of the new generations. In this sense, the Great Books programs are a key part of this movement.
Humanities subjects for all students and not for a select and dwindling minority: this is the objective of the Core Curriculum projects. The author includes an interesting mention to the fact that it has been precisely Universities of Christian inspiration (in fact, every University is one in origin) that are recovering the humanist tradition of education in order to prevent it from becoming a mere issuer of technical degrees.
The visit of the Holy Father to Malta in the first days of April, and the liturgical cycle of Holy Week and the beginning of Easter are the main moments in which Pope Francis has spoken.
We focus on the apostolic journey to Malta and Holy Week. On Holy Saturday, during the Easter Vigil, Pope Francis invited "raise your eyes"For suffering and death have been embraced by Christ and now he is risen. Looking at his glorious wounds, we hear at the same time the Easter proclamation that we need so much: "Peace to you!".
"With uncommon humanity."
Taking stock of his apostolic journey to Malta (postponed for two years because of Covid), the Pope said on Wednesday, April 6, that Malta is a privileged place, a "wind rose".a key location, for several reasons.
First, because of its location in the middle of the Mediterranean (which receives and processes many cultures), and because it received the Gospel very early, through the mouth of St. Paul, whom the Maltese welcomed. "with uncommon humanity" (Acts 28:2), words Francis chose as the motto of his journey. And this is important in order to save humanity from a shipwreck that threatens us all, because, as the Pope said, implicitly evoking his message during the pandemic, we must not allow ourselves to be shipwrecked. "we are in the same boat" (cfr. A moment of prayer in St. Peter's Square, empty, on 27-III-2020). And that's why we need, he says now, the world to become "more fraternal, more liveable".. Malta represents that horizon and that hope. It represents "the right and the strength of the smallof small nations, but rich in history and civilization, which should carry forward another logic: that of respect and freedom, that of respect and also the logic of freedom"..
Secondly, Malta is key because of the phenomenon of migration: "Every immigrant" -said the Pope that day. "is a person with his dignity, his roots, his culture. Each one of them is the bearer of a richness infinitely greater than the problems involved. And let us not forget that Europe was made with migrations"..
Certainly, the reception of immigrants - Francis observes - must be planned, organized and governed in time, without waiting for emergency situations. "Because the migratory phenomenon cannot be reduced to an emergency, it is a sign of our times. And as such it must be read and interpreted. It can become a sign of conflict, or a sign of peace". And Malta is, that's why, "a laboratory of peace".The Maltese people have received, along with the Gospel, "the sap of fraternity, of compassion, of solidarity [...] and thanks to the Gospel will be able to keep them alive.".
Thirdly, Malta is also a key place from the point of view of evangelization. Because from its two dioceses, Malta and Gozo, many priests and religious, as well as lay faithful, have gone forth, bringing Christian witness to the whole world. Francis exclaims: "As if the passing of St. Paul had left the mission in the DNA of the Maltese!". That is why this visit was intended to be above all an act of recognition and gratitude.
We have, in short, three elements to situate this "compass rose": its special "humanity", its crossroads for immigrants and its involvement in evangelization. However, even in Malta, says Francis, the winds are blowing. "of secularism and globalized pseudo-culture based on consumerism, neo-capitalism and relativism".. For this reason, he went to the Grotto of St. Paul and to the national shrine of Ta' Pinuto ask the Apostle of the Gentiles and Our Lady for renewed strength, which always comes from the Holy Spirit, for the new evangelization.
In fact, Francis prayed to God the Father in St. Paul's Basilica: "Help us to recognize from afar the needs of those who struggle among the waves of the sea, struck against the rocks of an unknown shore. Grant that our compassion may not be exhausted in vain words, but that it may kindle the fire of welcome, which makes us forget the bad weather, gives warmth to hearts and unites them; fire of the house built on rock, of the one family of your children, sisters and brothers all." (Visit to the Grotto of St. Paul, April 3, 2022). In this way, the unity and fraternity that come from faith will be shown to everyone through works.
At the Shrine of Ta'Pinu (island of Gozo), the Pope pointed out that, at the Cross, where Jesus dies and it seems that all is lost, at the same time a new life is born: the life that comes with the time of the Church. To return to that beginning means rediscovering the essentials of faith. And that essential is the joy of evangelization.
Francisco does not beat around the bush, but puts himself in the reality of what is happening: "The crisis of faith, the apathy of the practice of belief, especially in the post-pandemic period, and the indifference of so many young people to the presence of God are not issues that we should 'sweeten', thinking that a certain religious spirit still resists after all, no. We must be vigilant so that religious practices are not reduced to a repetition of a repertoire of the past, but express a living, open faith that spreads the joy of the Gospel, because the joy of the Church is the joy of the Gospel. It is necessary to be vigilant so that religious practices are not reduced to the repetition of a repertoire of the past, but that they express a living faith, open, that spreads the joy of the Gospel, because the joy of the Church is to evangelize." (Prayer meeting, homily2-IV-2022).
To return to the beginning of the Church at the cross of Christ also means to welcome (again, allusion to immigrants): "You are a small island, but with a big heart. You are a treasure in the Church and for the Church. I say it again: you are a treasure in the Church and for the Church. To take care of it, it is necessary to return to the essence of Christianity: to the love of God, the motor of our joy, which makes us go out and travel the roads of the world; and to the welcoming of our neighbor, which is our simplest and most beautiful testimony on earth, and thus to continue moving forward, traveling the roads of the world, because the joy of the Church is to evangelize.".
Mercy: the heart of God
On Sunday, April 3, Francis celebrated Mass in Floriana (on the outskirts of Valletta, the capital of Malta). In his homily, he took his cue from the Gospel of the day, which recalled the episode of the adulterous woman (cf. Jn 8:2ff). In the accusers of the woman one can see a religiosity eaten away by hypocrisy, and by the bad habit of pointing fingers.
We too, the Pope noted, can have the name of Jesus on our lips, but deny it with our deeds. And he enunciated a very clear criterion: "He who thinks he defends the faith by pointing the finger at others will even have a religious vision, but he does not embrace the spirit of the Gospel, because he forgets mercy, which is the heart of God."
Those accusers, the successor of Peter explains,"are the portrait of those believers of all times, who make of faith an element of facade, where what is highlighted is the solemn exteriority, but the inner poverty, which is the most valuable treasure of man, is missing".. Therefore, Jesus wants us to ask ourselves: "What do you want me to change in my heart, in my life? How do you want me to see others?".
In Jesus' treatment of the adulteress -Mercy and misery met," the Pope points out, "we learn that any observation, if it is not motivated by charity and does not contain charity, will further sink the one who receives it.". God, on the other hand, always leaves open a possibility and knows how to find ways of liberation and salvation in every circumstance.
For God there is no one who is "irretrievable", because he always forgives. Moreover - Francis takes up one of his favorite arguments here - "God visits us by using our inner wounds."because he did not come for the healthy but for the sick (cfr. Mt 9, 12).
That is why we must learn from Jesus in the school of the Gospel: "If we imitate him, we will not focus on denouncing sins, but on going out in search of sinners with love. We will not look at those who are there, but we will go in search of those who are missing. We will no longer point fingers, but begin to listen. We will not discard the despised, but will look first to those who are considered last.".
Forgiveness and forgiveness
Francis' preaching during Holy Week began by contrasting the eagerness to save oneself (cf. Lk 23:35; Ibid., 37 and 39) with the attitude of Jesus who seeks nothing for himself, but only implores the Father's forgiveness. "Nailed to the scaffold of humiliation, the intensity of the gift increases, which becomes per-don" (Homily on Palm Sunday, 10-IV-2022).
Indeed, in the structure of this word, forgiveness, we can see that forgiving is more than giving, it is giving in the most perfect way, giving by involving oneself, giving completely.
No one has ever loved us, each and every one of us, as Jesus loves us. On the cross, he lives the most difficult of his commandments: love of enemies. He does not do as we do, who lick our wounds and grudges. Moreover, he asked for forgiveness, "because they don't know what they're doing". "Because they don't know."Francisco stresses and points out: "That ignorance of the heart that all sinners have. When violence is used, nothing is known of God, who is Father, nor of others, who are brothers.". That is how it is: when love is rejected, the truth is unknown. And an example of all this, the Pope concludes, is war: "In war we crucify Christ again.".
In the words of Jesus addressed to the good thief, "Today you will be with me in paradise." (Lk 23:43), we see "the prodigy of God's forgiveness, which transforms the last request of a man condemned to death into the first canonization in history".
Thus we see that holiness is attained by asking for forgiveness and forgiving, and that "with God you can always live again".. "God never tires of forgiving."The Pope repeated several times in recent days, also in relation to the service that priests must render to the faithful (cf. Homily at the Mass of the Holy Father). in Cœna Domini, in the new Civitavecchia Prison Complex, 14-IV-2022).
Seeing, hearing and announcing
In his homily during the Easter Vigil (Holy Saturday, April 16, 2022), Francis looked at the Gospel account of the announcement of the resurrection to the women (cf. Lk 41:1-10). He underlined three verbs.
First, "see". They saw the stone rolled away and when they entered they did not find the body of the Lord. Their first reaction was fear, not looking up from the ground. Something like that, the Pope observes, happens to us: "Too often, we look at life and reality without lifting our eyes from the ground; we only focus on the today that passes, we feel disappointment for the future and we lock ourselves in our needs, we settle in the prison of apathy, while we keep lamenting and thinking that things will never change.". And so we bury the joy of living.
Then, "listen"considering that the Lord "it's not here". Maybe we are looking for you "in our words, in our formulas and in our habits, but we forget to look for it in the darkest corners of life, where there is someone who cries, who struggles, suffers and hopes.". We must raise our eyes and open ourselves to hope.
Let's hear it: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? We must not look for God, Francis interprets, among dead things: in our lack of courage to allow ourselves to be forgiven by God, to change and put an end to the works of evil, to decide for Jesus and his love; in reducing faith to an amulet, "making God a beautiful memory of times past, instead of discovering Him as the living God who today wants to transform us and the world."; en "a Christianity that seeks the Lord among the vestiges of the past and encloses him in the tomb of custom"..
And finally, "announce". The women announce the joy of the Resurrection: "The light of the Resurrection does not want to hold women in the ecstasy of a personal joy, it does not tolerate sedentary attitudes, but generates missionary disciples who 'return from the tomb' and bring to all the Gospel of the Risen One. After having seen and heard, the women ran to announce the joy of the Resurrection to the disciples."They knew they would be taken for fools. But they did not care about their reputation or defend their image; they did not measure their feelings or calculate their words. They only had the fire in their hearts to carry the news, the announcement: "The Lord is risen!".
Hence the proposal for us: "Let us bring it to ordinary life: with gestures of peace in this time marked by the horrors of war; with works of reconciliation in broken relationships and compassion towards those in need; with actions of justice in the midst of inequalities and of truth in the midst of lies. And, above all, with works of love and fraternity".
At the general audience of April 13, the Pope explained what the peace of Christ consists of, and he did so in the context of the current war in Ukraine. The peace of Christ is not a peace of agreements, much less an armed peace. The peace that Christ gives us (cf. Jn 20:19,21) is that which he won on the cross with the gift of himself.
The Pope's Easter message, "at the end of a Lent that does not seem to want to end". (between the end of the pandemic and the war) has to do with that peace that Jesus brings us by bringing "our sores". Ours because we have caused them and because He carries them for us. "The wounds on the Body of the risen Jesus are the sign of the struggle that He has fought and conquered for us, with the weapons of love, so that we may have peace, be at peace, live in peace."(Blessing urbiet orbi Resurrection Sunday, 17-IV-2022).
Mercy, justice and the correct application of canonical norms in the face of abuse
Professor Ricardo Bazán, priest and jurist, reflects on the application of canonical norms in the face of sexual abuse within the Church, starting from the question: "Are norms enough to bring order to society?
One of the great problems Benedict XVI had to face during his pontificate was the cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by priests and religious. Despite the numerous efforts and measures that were taken, it was not enough, indeed, we could say that he did not have enough time. Pope Francis has taken this situation very seriously, as evidenced by the norms he has issued during his pontificate to deal with this cancer within the Church.
Are the rules enough?
As a priest and as a jurist, I ask myself the following question: are norms enough to bring order to a society? The Church is a mystery, it is the Mystical Body of Christ, at the same time, it is composed of men and women, all the baptized, among whom there is a series of relationships and an exchange of goods, not necessarily nor principally of a material nature, but, above all, of a spiritual nature. Hence we speak of the Church as a society and of her having her own juridical order, canon law. However, as in every society, the norms are not sufficient to order it. For example, the fact that in a State there is a penal norm that prescribes that anyone who appropriates someone else's property will be punished with a prison sentence of 4 to 8 years does not mean that theft does not occur.
Since the promulgation of the motu proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (SST), in 2001, with the subsequent modifications, as well as the norms promulgated by Pope Francis, the cases of sexual abuse against minors have not diminished, perhaps they did at the beginning, when the scandals became public, but today sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy continues, and we are not only talking about scandals with minors, but also about acts against the sixth commandment and that imply a breach of the promise or vow of celibacy expected of a priest or a religious.
What is needed then? Many things. The moral problem on the part of members of the Church begins with the formation of priests and religious, in the process of discernment and selection, as well as the accompaniment they should have throughout their lives. Here we are going to deal with the juridical aspect, trying to answer the first question.
"The right sense of justice."
It should be stated that laws are not effective by themselves. For their correct application it is necessary to understand the norm and something else, which we can call "a right sense of justice". Let us give an example. If, in a diocese, the bishop wants to implement all the measures prescribed by Vos estis lux mundi (VELM), SST, Code of Canon Law as reformed in Book VI on penalties by the Apostolic Constitution, "The Code of Canon Law as amended by the Apostolic Constitution Pascite gregem Deietc., a minimum knowledge of the law and of rights is necessary. One of them is the principle of presumption of innocence. That is to say, all these rules must have as a principle the presumption that the cleric or religious person in question is innocent until proven guilty.
Hence the need for a judicial process, with principles, stages, evidentiary means and resources that are aimed at guaranteeing effective judicial protection, that is, that any person can go to the Church's courts when he has suffered a violation of his rights. The counterbalance, as it is of justice and common sense, is that the accused of a crime has the guarantee of just that, that he is an accused, even in the quality of investigated at first, before the complaint is formalized. He will be innocent, and must be treated as innocent, until the sentence, duly grounded on the procedural acts and evidence, says that he is guilty.
What we see in the news and in current practice is that the accused is already guilty and must prove his innocence. As an example, we have the case of Cardinal George Pell, who had to fight for three years for his innocence. It is commendable the attitude of Pope Francis who did not remove him from the post of prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy while the judicial process in Australia lasted, but granted him permission to travel and appear before the justice of his country, precisely because he was innocent until there was a final judgment, until all instances were exhausted.
When these principles and fundamental rights are not respected, the blind application of the norms could lead to serious prejudices, from the point of view of justice and law. Let us think of the severe measures that are usually taken when a priest is accused, and he is immediately suspended from all his assignments. Of course, this precautionary measure has a raison d'être: to remove the possible offender from people to whom he could do harm, since past experience shows us that the pederast was moved to another parish and continued to commit crimes. But prudence is one thing and treating the accused as guilty is another. In other cases, without an adequate distinction between a judicial process and an administrative sanctioning process, the latter is chosen in order to carry out the criminal process more quickly, and it is forgotten that it is an exceptional procedure, when there is sufficient evidence or strong probative elements against the innocence of the accused, which merit taking him through this route, which does not have all the guarantees of the case. Thus, an accused may find that an investigation has been initiated against him and that he is called to testify in what we can call an evidentiary hearing, when the evidence has already been practically acted upon, and with few options or means to defend himself, as would be fair.
Article 2 of the motu proprio VELM prescribes the creation of an office to receive reports or complaints about possible crimes. The idea of this norm is that there should be an obligation to investigate on the part of the Ordinary, for example, the bishop, in addition to the victim having the possibility of being heard. However, it should be specified here that this office is not a judicial body, much less the mere receipt of the complaint is synonymous with guilt, but it is a matter of guarantees or means to avoid cover-up. Throughout this investigation, the principle of presumption of innocence must always prevail, as well as a serious work to collect testimonies or evidence to help discern whether there are sufficient elements to initiate a judicial process in the Church. However, we consider that this is an easy way out of a bigger problem.
If the tribunals of the Church are properly constituted and organized, there would be no need to create these offices of which VELM speaks, since this investigative activity should be carried out by an organ of the judiciary of the diocese, which has adequate preparation, precisely to gather all the necessary information that allows them to make a judgment on the possible existence of a crime or not, but not on the guilt of the person being investigated. At the same time, it is understandable that it has been proposed to create this type of office, since on many occasions some bishops have not been able to respond to the request for protection of persons who have suffered abuse or inappropriate conduct on the part of priests or religious.
Last year was published a report ordered by the Church in France on the abuses committed by the clergy between 1950 and 2020, whose figures have left more than one breathless. It is only fair to clarify that the figure presented, 216,000 victims, is an estimate made by the commission commission from the 2700 victims identified between 1950 and 2020, and another 4800 from files found. However, this does not detract from the fact that not a single abuse should have occurred within the Church, much less should they have been covered up. Something similar is expected in countries such as Spain, where the Episcopal Conference has requested an audit from a law firm.
Principles and natural law
Since the case of the Church in the United States, which came to light with the investigation of the newspaper The Boston GlobeFrom the recent case of the Church in France, we can see the magnitude of the problem that the Church has had to face, for which emergency measures were necessary, with little capacity for reflection, first of all to know the causes and to be able to prevent, starting with a very simple question: why have my clerics and religious committed these abuses or failed to fulfill their promises or vows of chastity? What happened in the process? Next, it is necessary to identify the means at the disposal of the Church, one of them, and the one we are dealing with, is the Law. But law is not a tool that can be used indiscriminately. Law has principles that emanate from natural law and from things.
In this way, it must be used and applied with justice and with a right sense of things, otherwise, we would be committing an injustice again. Thus, it is necessary that the Church, when legislating to deal with the sexual scandals we are talking about, take its time, not too much, to reflect on the phenomenon it is trying to regulate; the principles and rights that must be respected justly for the achievement of the purpose of that norm, as well as the effects that such a norm could generate in the Church. Possibly we are far from putting an end to the problem of abuses, as long as the cause of them is not addressed, which merits a detailed and interdisciplinary study, interdicasterial I would dare to say. Until that happens, canon law can offer some tools, as long as it is done with justice, not only with legality. In this way justice and mercy would be lived with all parties involved, including God's holy faithful people, to paraphrase Pope Francis.
More than 40 experts from different countries and specialties and topics such as affectivity, talking about sexuality with teenagers, pornography or couple relationships will meet at the Love Talksthe digital Congress of the IFFD.
More than 40 speakers from different countries and different specialties, easy access, adaptable and affordable. The congress IFFD Love Talks is being proposed this year, taking advantage of the best of digitalization and with a list of talks of between 10 and 20 minutes in which topics such as infidelity, pornography, sexuality dialogues with teenagers or falling in love are addressed.
A completely adaptable congress. This is how we could define Love Talks on sexuality and affectivity. This is the digital congress promoted by the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD), an independent, non-profit NGO whose primary mission is to support families through training and is present in more than 70 countries.
After the experiences of its face-to-face congresses held in capitals such as New York, Rome, Valencia and London, the arrival of the pandemic and the possibilities of digitalization have led the organization to launch a much broader and more accessible Congress modality. In this way, it facilitates access to high-level training to thousands of people around the world, as the director of IFFD points out to Omnes, Leticia Rodríguez.
At IFFD, we developed our training programs based on the case method," says Leticia Rodriguez, "but we saw that many people were asking for other types of dynamics that would give them clues and show them the beauty of the family.
In fact, the IFFD itself has opened up its training lines, something that is also reflected in this congress, which is aimed at all types of people "from 18 to 98 years of age," jokes Rodríguez.
The fact is that, among the topics the different experts will talk about are interests for young professionals, singles, couples, married couples with few or many years of relationship behind them, parents with children of all ages and also grandparents, educators or trainers... etc...
Why sexuality and affectivity?
"There is a lot of concern about this issue on the part of parents, family members and even among the young people themselves," says Leticia Rodríguez. In addition, "we saw that a lot of training in this field was closely linked to religious areas, which is fine and very necessary, but we must go beyond that. At the congress we wanted the speakers not to base their discourse on a religious theme, so the list is very broad, both in number and in specialties".
Talks to watch in 6 months
The congress is truly "atypical" in its development.
The recorded lectures will be available "two days from June 4 for those who sign up with the model standard and 6 months for those who do it with the model premium"The IFFD director points out.
In this way, if someone is only interested in a few talks, they can watch them in 48 hours while, for a little more, some can spread them out over six months to think about them or listen to them with clamor, between now and December."
Among the speakers we find names such as the North American doctor Meg Meeker, Carolina Sánchez Agostini, director of the Integral Sexual Education Studies of the Austral University, Emerson Eggerich or the Spaniards Carlos Chiclana and Marian Rojas. In fact, as Leticia Rodriguez points out, "three committees were created to select the speakers, one from Spain, one from LATAM and one from the rest of the world, and this is more or less the distribution of speakers and attendees".
Mariano Fazio presents a new volume which adds to his prolific literary and essayistic repertoire. Fazio is a priest, historian and philosopher, and professor of History of Political Doctrines in the Faculty of Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He has also been the first dean of that faculty and rector magnifico of the university. He now serves as auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei.
The choice of the book's theme, freedom, comes as no surprise. In the introduction to the book, the author makes a mention of gratitude to the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz, stating that he is at the origin of the book, due to the abundant personal meditation he has done on his pastoral letter on freedom published in January 2018. Nor is it surprising the way in which he approaches the subject, doing so hand in hand with great classic authors of all times.
Substantially, the author tries to show how freedom is oriented to love, and how this affirmation has an enormous importance for the Christian life. The reader will be able to observe throughout the pages how some passages from the Gospel are intermingled with authors such as Dostoyevsky, Tolkien or Dickens. The tone and the pleasant writing of Fazio invite to a meditative reading of the book, which will offer some guidelines for a true spiritual and human growth.
"We have been created free to love, and when we do not reach the proper end of freedom, we are faced with an existential failure. We all desire a successful, fulfilled, happy life. To achieve it, the key lies in doing everything freely, out of love". This thesis, which the author puts forward in a simple way, -"all great truths are"-is complicated to put into practice. Mainly, as Fazio also points out at the beginning of the book, because contemporary cultural currents abound with conceptions of freedom that are far removed from this thesis.
Taking the classics of literature as fellow travelers, the author confirms that "there is a series of values to which humanity has aspired since its beginnings and which deserve protection and custody". Therefore, Fazio wishes with these pages to present an aid to readers that will enable them to "decipher the profound meaning of this high concept of freedom".
The crisis in the birth rate and the fall in the number of marriages highlight a twofold reality: the lack of interest in education in the period prior to marital cohabitation and the "bad press" of marriage.
May 6, 2022-Reading time: 2minutes
Pope Francis inaugurated about a year ago the so-called States General of Birth in Italy, promoted by the Forum of Family Associations. And in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, he pointed out: "No birth rate, no future". It is necessary to "invest" this trend for "to put Italy back in motion, starting from life, starting from the human being".
The Italian trend is not isolated, but responds to a generalized fact in Europe, a continent that is dying a little more every year, despite immigration. In Spain, for example, the Demographic Observatory of the CEU university institution warned a few days ago about the very low birth rate indicators in Spain, which have been dragging on for some time.
The issue is even more distressing, if possible, because a survey by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) recalled that Spanish women of childbearing age say they want to have a baby. "more than twice as many children as they have.".
Since many women would like to have more children, it is not idle to wonder what prevents them from doing so. The director of the University Observatory, Joaquín Leguina, alludes to the economic and labor situation. "The unemployment rates of the Spanish youth population are very high, wages are very low and many jobs are precarious. A reality that causes motherhood to be delayed and citizens have fewer children, thus decreasing the birth rate."
María Álvarez de las Asturias, of the Coincidir Institutehas gone even further, by requesting in www.omnesmag.com"a rethinking of the labor market" looking at the family, and also pointing to the reputation of the institution of marriage in our days. "Marriage gets a very bad press, and families that have always been pro-marriage have allowed themselves to be contaminated by this mentality that marriage is a complicated thing, and they don't encourage it either."
In delving into the answer to the question of why young people are marrying less and less, and getting older and older, Álvarez de las Asturias also proposes a personal and community reflection on the part of both families and the Church. Why don't they get married? "Because we're still doing terrible." states. "Because the remote preparation that John Paul II asked for, and later Benedict and Francis, we don't do it. There is no remote preparation. And we lose the children after First Communion, or at the most after Confirmation, until they reach the pre-marriage course, when perhaps they have been living together, have children... There is a space in which we do nothing"..
Some appreciate "watertight compartments"adds Álvarez de las Asturias on the Omnes website. "Youth ministry on the one hand, family ministry on the other... And Pope Francis has said that family ministry has to be the backbone of everything. It is from the family that the rest of the pastoral care is hung up..
Intense knee pains have forced the Pope to use a wheelchair for his meetings. In fact, the Vatican has indicated that the Pope, foreseeably, will continue to use that wheelchair and that for the time being there will be no changes in the agenda.
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Everything human should matter to us because, as Terence said, nothing human is alien to me. We must be down the streetWe are not aware of fashions, but we do know what is going on in the daily lives of those we have to talk to.
The Gospel of St. Mark relates in the fourth chapter the parable of the seed that grows by itself, then he narrates another parable, that of the mustard seed, at the end he specifies that with many similar parables he expounded the word to them, adapting it to their understanding. He explained everything to them in parables.
The images and topics of conversation that Christ uses in his teaching are the most varied: He speaks of pearls, treasures, lost coins, the sower, the wind that blows from the south, the fish of the Sea of Galilee, the mustard seed, the son who leaves home, the husband who arrives at the bride's house, a king who is crowned, the yoke of oxen, the field that a lord buys, the face of Caesar on the coin and thousands of other topics.
I believe that if we were to listen to the Maestro today, we could hear him draw divine wisdom while he talks about euros, Rosalía's latest song, the geopolitical situation of the world, the COVID's income from the pandemic or the Super Cup won by Real Madrid with a hat trick by Benzemá.
Let us say that the Lord takes the incarnation very seriously and when he decides to become man, he embraces everything human, looks at it with attention and draws lessons from everything he contemplates in order to, as the Gospel says, accommodate himself to its understanding. I am sure that his great teachers were, as it could not be otherwise, Mary and Joseph. The sharpness of our Mother and the silent depth of her husband knew how to see, and to make others see, much more; they knew, as St. Josemaría points out, how to discover that something divine that is enclosed in the details..
Centuries later the Second Vatican Council will specify:
The joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the people of our time, especially the poor and those who suffer, are at the same time the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of Christ's disciples. There is nothing truly human that does not find an echo in his heart.
In translation: Work and rest, sports, leisure, family and social life, technical progress and expressions of culture, family events and geopolitical movements, everything human, in short, should matter to us because, as Terence said, nothing human is alien to me.
In short, it is a matter of being at the end of the street, not pending fashions, but knowing what is going on in the daily lives of those to whom we have to talk.
In tennis there is a basic rule: You have to bend down. From above you can not hit the ball because the effect you need to give, either cut or lift requires the friction of the strings of the racket on the ball and that can not be done from the top down but the opposite. We could say the same about our preaching, it cannot be done from above, from a distance, but from the humility of those who lower themselves and make the effort to know, to touch, the most concrete reality, the day to day life of those to whom they have to speak. From there he can, he must, raise the ball to the sky, from the bottom to the top, otherwise it is impossible.
An example: St. Thérèse of Lisieux, from her cloister, was able to immerse herself in intimacy with God and at the same time remain very attached to the world for which she offered herself again and again. She, at the end of the street, heard about the progress of technology and knew how to discover something divine enclosed in it. This is how she expresses herself in her Story of a Soul:
We are in a century of inventions. Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to take the trouble to climb the steps of a staircase: in the houses of the rich, an elevator makes up for it advantageously. I would also like to find an elevator to raise me up to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the hard stairs of perfection. Then I searched in the Sacred Books for some indication of the elevator, the object of my desire, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: He who is small, let him come to me.
That is why if we take seriously the people who listen to us, we must make an effort to know the reality in which they move, to understand what happens to them and to use this knowledge in our preaching, in short, to accommodate ourselves to the understanding of those who listen to us. When you are preparing your preaching, think: Who are the people who are going to listen to me, who are they, what happens to them, what concerns do they have, and only then, try to announce the Gospel to them with their own categories, incarnating the eternal word of Jesus Christ, then you will be a good instrument in their hands.
Andrea Mardegan comments on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter and Luis Herrera offers a brief video homily.
Andrea Mardegan / Luis Herrera-May 5, 2022-Reading time: 2minutes
The act of listening, in John's Gospel, often has the meaning of believing in the voice of God and obeying him. The first two disciples listen to the Baptist and follow Jesus. The Samaritans listen to Jesus and tell the woman that this is why they believe in him. Jesus says: "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me possesses eternal life and does not incur judgment, but has already passed from death to life.". The stoners of the adulteress hear what Jesus says and go away, leaving their stones behind.
In the discourse of the Good Shepherd, Jesus speaks a lot about listening: the sheep listen to the shepherd, but not to the thieves and robbers, and those who are not of the sheepfold. "they will listen to my voice and become one flock, one shepherd". Then some of the Jews say that he is demon-possessed and ask: "Why do you listen to him?". Instead, Jesus says of his sheep: "listen to my voice" y "follow me". This is derived from the relationship that Jesus has with them: "I know them.". It is a knowledge so intimate and true that it moves Nathanael in his first encounter with him: "How do you know me?"and leads him to believe in Jesus and to follow him. The experience of the psalmist is repeated: "Lord, you probe me and know me...from afar you penetrate my thoughts...all my paths are familiar to you." The eternal life that Jesus gives to his sheep is the participation in his own life from the beginning, and the future security of love that lasts forever: "They shall not perish forever." They will not be lost because of their intrinsic weakness, but neither will they be lost because of any external intervention that tries to steal them: "No one shall snatch them out of my hand." It is the hand of Jesus that blesses and heals, the crucified and resurrected hand that, shown to Thomas, will bring him back to faith. The hand that catches us if we fall. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hand. The hand of the Son in which the Father has placed "everything" (Jn 3:35). It is the same hand of the Father, because "I and the Father are one".
We will not be torn from the hand of the Son nor from the hand of the Father by the persecutions of the synagogues, like those that the Jews unleashed against Paul and Barnabas out of envy when they saw the joy of the pagans converted by their words. Neither will the persecutions of the pagans, such as that of Diocletian, tear us from the hand of Jesus and the Father, "the great tribulation" who brought to the throne of the Lamb in heaven an immense multitude of people "that no one could count". Revelation quotes Isaiah but with the presence of the Lamb, the shepherd who leads us to the fountains of the waters of life, along with the ancient promise: "They shall neither hunger nor thirst anymore, neither shall the sun nor the heat hurt them... And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.".
Homily on the readings of the Fifth Sunday of Easter
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
The U.S. Supreme Court offices in Washington on May 2, 2022, are looking lit up, following the leak of a draft majority opinion preparing the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision later this year.
"Faith deserves respect and honor: it has changed our lives."
Pope Francis focused his catechesis on Wednesday, May 4, on the figure of Eleazar and the honoring of faith, assuring "with great humility and firmness, precisely in our old age, that believing is not something 'for old people'".
As we enter the month of May, Pope Francis' General Audience on Wednesday, May 4, in St. Peter's Square, focused on the biblical figure of Eleazar and the honor of the faith: "On the path of catechesis on old age, today we meet a biblical figure named Eleazar, who lived during the time of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. His figure gives us a testimony of the special relationship that exists between the fidelity of old age and the honor of faith. I would like to speak precisely of the honor of the faith, not only of the coherence, of the proclamation, of the endurance of the faith. The honor of faith is periodically under pressure, even violent pressure, from the culture of the dominators, who try to debase it by treating it as an archaeological find, an old superstition, an anachronistic stubbornness".
"The biblical story," the Pope continues, referring to the story of Eleazar, "narrates the episode of the Jews forced by a decree of the king to eat meat sacrificed to idols. When it was the turn of Eleazar, who was an old man highly esteemed by all, the king's officials advised him to make a simulation, that is, to pretend to eat the meat without actually doing so. In this way Eleazar would have been saved, and - they said - in the name of friendship he would have accepted their gesture of compassion and affection. After all - they insisted - it was a minimal, insignificant gesture".
Francis emphasizes this point, consistency with the faith is fundamental: "The calm and firm response of Eleazar is based on an argument that strikes us. The central point is this: dishonoring the faith in old age, in order to gain a few days, is not comparable to the inheritance that it must leave to the young, for generations to come. An old man who has lived in the coherence of his own faith all his life, and now adapts himself to pretend to repudiate it, condemns the new generation to think that the whole faith has been a fiction, an outer covering that can be abandoned thinking that it can be preserved in one's own intimacy. Not so, says Eleazar. Such behavior does not honor faith, nor does it honor God. And the effect of this external trivialization will be devastating for the interiority of young people".
"It is precisely old age that appears here as the decisive and irreplaceable place of this witness. An old person who, because of his vulnerability, agrees to consider the practice of faith irrelevant, would make young people believe that faith has no real relationship with life. It would appear to them, from the beginning, as a set of behaviors that, if necessary, can be simulated or disguised, because none of them is so important for life".
Pope Francis alluded to "the ancient heterodox gnosis," which "theorized precisely this: that faith is a spirituality, not a practice; a force of the mind, not a way of life. Faithfulness and honor of the faith, according to this heresy, have nothing to do with the behaviors of life, the institutions of the community, the symbols of the body. The seduction of this perspective is strong, because it interprets, in its own way, an indisputable truth: that faith can never be reduced to a set of dietary norms or social practices. The problem is that the Gnostic radicalization of this truth nullifies the realism of Christian faith, which must always pass through the incarnation. And it also empties its witness, which shows the concrete signs of God in the life of the community and resists the perversions of the mind through the gestures of the body".
Therefore, he affirmed that "the Gnostic temptation always remains current. In many trends in our society and culture, the practice of faith suffers a negative representation, sometimes in the form of cultural irony, sometimes with a hidden marginalization. The practice of faith is seen as a useless and even harmful externality, as an antiquated residue, as a masked superstition. In short, a thing for old people. The pressure that this indiscriminate criticism exerts on the younger generation is strong. True, we know that the practice of faith can become a soulless externality. But in itself it is not at all. Perhaps it is up to us elders to restore to the faith its honor. The practice of faith is not the symbol of our weakness, but rather the sign of its strength. We are no longer children-we are not joking when we set out on the Lord's path!"
The Holy Father concludes by saying that "faith deserves respect and honor: it has changed our lives, it has purified our minds, it has taught us to adore God and love our neighbor. It is a blessing for everyone! We will not trade faith for a few quiet days. We will demonstrate, with much humility and firmness, precisely in our old age, that believing is not something "for old people". And the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new, will gladly help us".
The presentation of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations and Native Vocations Day The celebration of the World Youth Day, which the Spanish Church is celebrating on May 8, has been a sign of unity and common vocation in the Church.
On May 8, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations and the Day of Native Vocations will be celebrated this year under the motto, "Leave your mark, be a witness". A campaign in which the Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Seminaries, the Spanish Conference of Religious (CONFER), Pontifical Missionary Works (PMS) and the Spanish Conference of Secular Institutes (CEDIS) are united.
This unity has been the keynote of the presentation of this campaign that José María Calderón, national director of OMP and Sergio Requena, director of the Episcopal Subcommission for Seminaries have explained in a press conference together with four vocational testimonies: the Cordovan Franciscan Manuel Jesús Madueño Moreno, Inmaculada Fernández, member of the Secular Institute Secular Servants of Jesus Christ Priest, Daniel Navarro Berrios, deacon of the Diocese of Getafe and Sister Justina Banda, a member of the Missionary Daughters of Calvary. Justina Banda, a member of the Missionary Daughters of Calvary.
As Sergio Requena pointed out, "on this day we pray for vocations and for the Christian community to take care of these vocations" and he also pointed out that the fact that several institutions come together on this day for vocations is a joy "because in the Church there is nothing that is indifferent to us".
For his part, the director of OMP Spain recalled that May 3 marked the first centenary of the Pontifical Work for the Propagation of the Faith becoming the work of the Pope, and therefore Pontifical. Calderon wanted to emphasize the need for "the first evangelizers of the territories that are incorporated into the Church to be the natives themselves, people who know the culture, language and tradition of these places.
The footprints I now follow
The presentation of the day was followed by the testimonies of four people with different vocations in the Church: priesthood, consecrated life and a consecrated laywoman. Sister Justina Banda, a native of a Zimbabwean village where Spanish missionaries have been working for the past 50 years, gave a particularly moving testimony.
Seeing the work of these missionaries, Justina considered her vocation. Her father refused and her mother, illiterate, was able to get her to go to the convent by asking her brother to write the letter of permission. Today Justina follows in the footsteps of those Spanish nuns who came to my town, cared for babies and the hungry and evangelized. Now, as a missionary Daughter of Calvary, "we are there where the Calvaries of the world are: the sick with AIDS, orphans... Thanks to this journey we know that evangelization must always be in communion", she concluded.
CARF joins this day
This Day of Prayer for Vocations and the Day of Native Vocations has a special resonance for the Roman Academic Center Foundation. This Foundation has launched a campaign entitled "Let no vocation be lost". with the objective of raising sufficient funds for 20 seminarians from around the world can carry out their studies in Rome and Pamplona. CARF is aware that many vocations are born today in African or American countries, but the lack of material means prevents some of these vocations from reaching the seminaries and encourages Christians to "think that behind every priestly vocation, there is another call from the Lord, who asks us to ensure the means for their formation".
There are many couples who, before entering into a marriage, move in together. A decision, in many occasions, that has not been really matured and that contributes less than it seems to the stability of a couple.
There are people who, despite not having things very clear, go to live with another person, exposing themselves to a great failure and disregarding all advice related to the matter.
Often, human beings have already made up their minds before they start thinking. And this is one of the reasons why the experience of others, in these cases, is worth very little.
Other times it is for not knowing what is really done, the reasons are superficial: "everybody does it", "let's see", "we don't want to fail"....
There is a lack of training and manipulation by the weak culture that surrounds us, misuse of freedom. Underlying all this is the belief that, although others, in general, are doing badly, they will do well... In short, it is all very weak, very superficial, very adolescent.
I would like to dwell on what comes after the "moving in together" because, in most cases, there is a thena "we no longer live together".
Generally the situation is painful. Much worse than if you had left a relationship. Living with a person and then leaving him/her is an experience that marks. It leaves a mark forever, because you have been left forever.
Disillusionment, suffering, the dryness of failure, disenchantment, the feeling of having been rejected as a person. If one has been left, one has the feeling of "not having satisfied" what the other wanted to prove, the feeling of not being worth, of not having been loved, of having played with the deepest feelings, all this together leaves an indelible mark on the human heart.
There are times when self-esteem ends up on the floor, you think you are not worthy of being loved. The ballast is very strong.
Doing life? With whom? Somehow life has broken down. The illusion of a clean, demanding love is gone.
It is likely that the demand when searching will decline, there are situations in which it is enough that someone pays attention to establish a new relationship.
In reality, what we are looking for is perhaps some illusion, to get out of that hopelessness.
Perhaps it starts with a person who has also been left. The value of commitment has declined and the union of two people without that sense is a weak union, at the first setback everything breaks. On the other hand, the biological clock is ticking. Which leads to act with a certain haste.
It is not a question of despairing anyone. In the field of happiness you can always start by asking for forgiveness, to whom it is due and how it is due.
For believers, going to confession, asking for forgiveness and starting from scratch, with the illusion of knowing that they have been forgiven, is a wonderful remedy, also in the human and psychological sense.
Living in accordance with certain beliefs helps a lot.
If this is not the case, we will probably let ourselves be carried away more than necessary by the mood, and this is a very weak grip that is also not controllable.
Flat lives, without beliefs, are not complete, something is missing.
That is why, before making a decision, you should always look at the state you would be in if you were to fail.
In his audience on Wednesday, May 4, Pope Francis addressed the elderly and underscored the power of their example of practicing the faith until the end of their days precisely to counter the idea that faith has no real relationship to life.
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Pope Francis: "I would go to Putin if he would open the door... we must stop the fire of weapons".
Pope Francis has once again expressed his concern about what is happening in Ukraine. In an interview with an Italian media he has assured that before going to Kiev he should go to Moscow and meet with Putin "if he would open the door".
Not a day goes by without Pope Francis calling for an end to the war. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, it has been a constant concern, manifested in every public encounter, from audiences with the faithful to Easter celebrations to the Angelus and Regina Caeli from the window of St. Peter's Square.
The last public appeal was last Sunday, when he confessed to "suffer and cry" thinking about the suffering of the Ukrainian population exhausted by more than two months of shelling.
He then invited us to offer the daily Rosary, especially in this month of May dedicated to Our Lady, for peace. In the face of the "macabre regression of humanity" - this is how the Pope defined what is happening - one wonders, in fact, if we really seek peace and want to avoid "the continuous military and verbal escalation".
"I beg you, do not give in to the logic of violence, to the perverse spiral of weapons. Please, do not give in to the logic of violence, to the perverse spiral of weapons.
Concern and discouragement
In an interview with the editor-in-chief and deputy editor of the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della SeraPope Francis once again showed his concern and discouragement about what is happening, without hiding a vein of pessimism, as his interlocutors said.
He then let it be known, while all the diplomatic steps are being taken to reach an immediate "cease-fire", that he had offered to visit Moscow a few weeks after the conflict began, but had not received a reply. However, he is bitter because he sees no way to stop "so much brutality": "25 years ago we lived through the same thing with Rwanda", the Pontiff says bluntly, comparing the conflict in Ukraine with the African genocide.
The arms trade is a scandal
Asked whether he believes it is right to send weapons to Ukraine, the Pope replied, "I cannot answer, I am too far away, the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians. What is clear is that weapons are being tested in that land." He added: "That's what wars are made for: to test the weapons we have produced. This is what happened in the Spanish civil war before World War II."
So he reiterates, as he has done on many other occasions, that "the arms trade is a scandal" and that there are very few who oppose it.
I would go to see Putin...
He then clarifies also the idea of his visit to Kiev, where in any case he has sent several times as representatives Cardinal Czerny (Dicastery for the Promotion of the Service of Integral Human Development) and Almoner Krajewski, and says that for the moment he prefers to go first to Moscow: "I must first meet with Putin. But I am also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin would open the door...".
The online meeting with Kirill...
As for the meeting with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he revealed that he spent the first twenty minutes reading a series of "justifications for war" from his interlocutor: "I listened to him and told him: I don't understand any of this. Brother, we are not clergymen of the state, we cannot use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus... we must seek ways of peace, stop the fire of weapons."
Knee surgery
The Pope will undergo today a small operation on his knee, an infiltration, to overcome a pain that has forced him to avoid movement for several weeks. It seems that he has a torn ligament: "It takes a little pain, a little humiliation...".
Mª Pilar Lacorte: "We can all, in some way, be families that accompany other families".
The I International Workshop on Family Accompaniment, promoted by the Institute of Higher Studies of the Family of the International University of Catalonia wants to be a meeting point to approach in a practical and realistic way the family accompaniment.
In a few days, the Institute of Higher Studies of the Family of the International University of Catalonia will inaugurate the I International Workshop on Family Accompanimentr. Three days in which psychiatrists, families, counselors and teachers will share reflections and, above all, experiences and training on family accompaniment, which goes beyond offering theoretical content on the family.
As highlighted in this interview Mª Pilar LacorteAccording to the assistant director of Teaching Programs at the University's Institute of Higher Family Studies, "training is still necessary, but it is not enough, and above all we must learn to train in a different way, with a different methodology and a different style, in keeping with the culture in which we live.
How was the idea for this workshop born?
-In the IESF We have been working for years on the need and the way of accompanying families. From our teaching and research experience, we have found that the cultural changes of the last decades have not gone hand in hand with a change in the way of helping families according to their new mentality and their new circumstances.
After these years of work, we thought it would be a good time to share this experience with those who are on the front line with families. It seemed to us that a good way to do this is to convene a Workshop, that is, a meeting with a practical approach, on Family Accompaniment. We see this workshop as an opportunity to promote a change of cycle, giving a more real and concrete response to the needs that families have today.
The fact of celebrating it this year has been motivated by the celebration of the Year of the Family Amoris laetitia, promoted by the Holy Father. We must remember that Pope Francis has especially stressed the need to be close to families, in a practical and realistic way. And this is precisely what family accompaniment is.
We see this workshop as an opportunity to promote a change of cycle, giving a more real and concrete response to the needs of today's families.
Mª Pilar Lacorte. Assistant Director of Teaching Programs of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. UIC
Who is the target audience and what are the objectives of this I International Workshop on Family Accompaniment?
-As a general objective, the workshop wants to help to understand family accompaniment as a change of approach in the way we have been supporting families up to now, as I have already indicated before. It is not about initiating new structures, or making drastic changes, but about understanding the real difficulties that families face and learning how to help them from a new perspective and with a fresh look.
The specific objectives of the workshop are, on the one hand, to offer training on what it is and how to carry out this accompaniment to families from different areas (educational, pastoral, from professional offices, social networks, etc.), in a practical and realistic way.
At the same time, we would like the workshop to serve as a meeting point to make known the accompaniment initiatives that are already being carried out and to make it possible to meet with those who wish to carry out this task, enabling synergies among the participants, and fostering the creation of new initiatives in the different countries.
We are happy to see that so far we have more than 400 attendees from about 50 countries from five continents. We believe that this is going to be a very relevant enrichment for all those who participate in the program.
For a long time, fathers, mothers and counselors have been "instructed" or trained, but is it the same as accompaniment? What makes it different, for example, from a family orientation course?
Mª Pilar Lacorte
-Until a few years ago we believed that it was enough to offer families a "formation" to help them: that is, to give them ideas about how the family should be and how they should do things, with a style that we could call "directive", forgetting that formation is not only giving or receiving information, formation requires the freedom that makes it possible for each person, each family to discover its unique protagonism. Perhaps we have had too much of a moralistic or intellectual idea about the family.
Evidently training is still necessary, but it is not enough, and above all we must learn to train in another way, with another methodology and another style, in accordance with the culture in which we live, which, as I said at the beginning, has changed radically in the last two decades.
It seems that we train a lot in our professional or even social life, but we spend less time training for what will occupy us all our lives, which is the development of our family life. Are we aware of this shortcoming?
-Individuals and families, through our daily actions, are the ones who create the culture that surrounds us, and at the same time, we are influenced by that same culture.
From the Institute of Higher Studies of the Family, we have analyzed how today's families are: the West shows a clear tendency towards the creation of very individualistic societies. It is difficult for us to be with each other, we need immediate answers and actions and when conflict arises, we understand it as a sign of irreparable failure. And obviously, we find it difficult to ask for help.
With these budgets, family life can become very complicated; we find it difficult to understand the importance of family ties and strengthening those ties becomes difficult. Perhaps that is why we are not aware of what is really important in the lives of our families.
Is there a certain idea that one only goes to training or counseling to solve a family problem or to prevent it?
-Our proposal is to accompany families. To accompany means "to be with someone", to walk by their side, not only when there are difficulties, we must be present so that there is the necessary trust that allows us to accompany.
We accompany so that families are able to discover their own protagonism and learn the best way to resolve the difficulties and conflicts that all personal relationships entail. To accompany is above all to establish a personal relationship and, as such, it is based on trust: we cannot impose it, but we can offer the conditions to make it possible.
Family accompaniment is not a single action, but rather a "broad-spectrum" change of perspective that can be applied in different ways and in very diverse settings.
Mª Pilar Lacorte. Assistant Director of Teaching Programs of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. UIC
In our society, the concept of "family" is being lost in many environments, as a unit of mother-father-children, and even of the extended family. How can we face this accompaniment in diverse situations such as those we are currently encountering?
Family accompaniment is not a single action, but rather a "broad-spectrum" change of perspective that can be applied in different ways and in very diverse environments. I do not believe that the concept of family is being lost, we are family beings, because we are human persons.
There is a fundamental, one could say universal core of what it means to "be a family", but then there are many different ways of unfolding it, as I have pointed out before. As there are no "ideal families" or "perfect families", in reality we all need to be accompanied. And we can all in some way be families that accompany other families.
For this it is important to learn to look at the family reality in a different way, to train ourselves and to share with others, so, in a way, all the people concerned about helping families have a place in this workshop.
The stages of Joseph Ratzinger (II). Prefect (1982-2005)
As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger carried out an immense and hidden work, but he also became known for the lucidity of his conferences, courses and interviews, which developed his theological contribution and placed him in the life and reflection of the Church.
When Joseph Ratzinger became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1982), he was a well-known German theologian, with a not very large work, a successful book (Introduction to Christianity, 1968) and a small manual (Eschatology). In German he had quite a few articles and a few books. Little else. It was to be expected that his work as Prefect would put an end to his production. Moreover, he worked intensely and absorbingly for many years (1982-2005): twenty-three, as many as he had been professor of theology (1954-1977). But, fortunately, he did not disappear as a theologian. And this is due, in the first place, to the fact that the position placed him before the great questions raised in the Church; before what John Paul II wanted to do; before the doctrinal problems that came to the Congregation, the work of the ecumenical commissions, of the International Theological Commission and of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and before the concerns and consultations of the world episcopate.
A way of working
Another prefect would perhaps have passed on the responsibility of studying these matters to expert theologians, reserving to himself an ultimate prudential judgment. He counted on other experts, but being himself an "expert theologian" he was obliged to have a clear and personal mind on these questions, and to increase his knowledge and develop his judgment. And it was up to him to explain it in the various forums of work in the congregation and in meetings of bishops. For example, in 1982, he gave a course to Celam on Jesus Christ; and in 1990, another to the bishops of Brazil on the situation of catechesis, collected in The Church, a community always on the way (1991). Most of these interventions, conferences, courses and contributions to tributes (Festschrift) were written by him, unlike what is normal in this type of position. He wrote them in pencil and in small handwriting. And he retouched them for publication. Then, with remarkable perseverance, he would put them together in books with a certain thematic unity, retouching them again and carefully explaining the origin of each text. In this way, the threads of the story, which come from his time as a teacher, are developed, enriched and coordinated over the years. Thus, his work is not a collection of occasional writings to get out of the way, but a powerful body of minds on the great themes.
A media impact
It is certain that, given his personality and shyness, he never thought of a media strategy. However, it did happen. The first was a surprise book interview, Report on the Faith (1985), on the application of the Council, in response to journalist Vittorio Messori. Uncomfortable, because it was still in bad taste in ecclesiastical circles to insinuate that something had gone wrong, despite the tremendous statistics. No one wanted to give reasons to the traditionalist reaction. But Joseph Ratzinger did not like this stupid two-sided scheme. He had no doubts about the value of the Council, but he had misgivings about the drifts. Later, the new magazine 30Giorni, of Comunione e Liberazione, which was born in 1988 and closed in 2012, disseminated his conferences and interviews in many languages, generating a growing interest, and later collected them in Being Christian in the neo-pagan era (1995). In 1996, he published an interview with Peter Seewald, The Salt of the Earth, and in 2002, God and the World, which allowed him to express himself with frankness and simplicity. In 1998, when he was already a well-known personality and his conferences were increasing, Zenit came out, which translated them and immediately distributed them on the Internet in many languages. This helped to multiply the editions of his books, because everything was of interest. And minor works and preaching from his time as a professor and when he was bishop of Munich were recovered. In a difficult time for the Church, Cardinal Ratzinger had become the mind of reference for many intellectual questions, which accompanied the work of renewal of John Paul II. And this grew until he was elected Pope in 2005.
In this way, he went from a few known works (above all, Introduction to Christianity) to a considerable collection of books in many languages, with a certain dispersion of titles. These materials were later reordered, again systematically, for his Collected Works (O.C.).
Work in the Congregation
His work in the Congregation was, in the first place, to follow Pope St. John Paul II in his endeavors. Especially in the encyclicals of greater doctrinal commitment: Donum vitae (1987), on the morality of life; Veritatis splendor (1993), on the foundations of Catholic morality; and Fides et ratio (1998), as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992). On each of these documents, there is much previous work and important subsequent commentary by the then Cardinal Ratzinger. On the encyclicals and moral questions, for example, the book Faith as a path (1988). The whole movement of John Paul II and his initiatives on the millennium, the purification of the historical memory, the thematic synods, and ecumenical relations demanded a lot of work from him. He also had to deal with the most difficult aspects of the Church, the grave sins of the clergy, which were then reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was up to him to clarify and confront the whole crisis regarding pederasty, intervene in cases, demand investigations, renew the protocols of action and promote adequate canonical expression. In addition, there were six major areas of doctrinal tension, which required a great deal of theological discernment. We divided them into two groups: those having to do with the coherence of Catholic theology, and those having to do with ecumenical dialogue and dialogue with other religions.
Discernments on Catholic theology
1. Modern culture produced and produces questions on doctrinal and moral issues, with all that is uncomfortable to believe (Divinity and Resurrection of Christ, Eucharistic presence, eschatology, angels...) or to practice (sexual morality, gender issues, no to abortion and euthanasia). They required constant clarifications, such as, among many, the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) on the impossibility of the female priesthood; and corrections: Küng, Schillebeeckx (1984), Curran (1986)..., which were discussed with the authors, and deformed without limit in the media.
2. During the Council there had been a certain transfer of doctrinal authority from the bishops to the periti and theologians. This sometimes encouraged an unbalanced protagonism. For the faith is not sustained by theological speculation, and is better expressed in the Liturgy and prayer of the faithful than in the offices. Thus was born the Instruction Donum veritatis, on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian (1990). With his commentaries and other writings, the Cardinal would compose The Nature and Mission of Theology (1993).
It also concerned the authentic interpretation of the Council, whether it should be based on the approved "letter" or on the "spirit" of the Council, incarnated in certain theologians, a shocking proposal made by the historian Alberigo. From another point of view, there was Lefevbre's criticism of the Council, which occupied the Prefect a lot, trying to avoid a schism. In addition to the Report on the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger had already written a great deal on the contribution of the Council. All collected in volume XII of his complete works (2 volumes in Spanish).
4. On the other hand, the communist ideology, with points of contact with the Christian soul (concern for the poor) but with very distant presuppositions and methods, pushed towards total, redemptive and utopian revolution, and not towards NGOs, modest and transforming, which would only resurface after the ideological gale. Moreover, in the explosive social situation of some Latin American countries, it had given flight to the Theologies of Liberation and to revolutionary commitments successful in overthrowing governments and disastrous in managing nations. A discernment was needed, which was made in the Instructions Libertatis nuntius (1984) and Libertatis conscientia (1986). Besides correcting the work of Leonardo Boff (1985), who did not admit it, and dialoguing with Gustavo Gutierrez, who never had a process and evolved.
Discernments in ecumenism and with other religions
1. Ecumenical relations required clarification: first with the Anglicans, then with the Orthodox, especially on the meaning of the communion of the particular Churches in the universal Church and on the Primacy. With the Protestants, a historic agreement was reached, with nuances, on the classic theme of justification (1999), and the sacrament of Holy Orders was discussed. The notion of "communion" (and its exercise), very important in the theology of the 20th century, is crucial for the Orthodox to be able to understand themselves in communion with the Catholic Church, apart from the historical and mentality difficulties. Hence the Letter Communionis notioon some aspects of the Church considered as communion (1992). It relates to many of the Cardinal's earlier and later writings on ecclesiology and ecumenism (volume VIII of his O. C.).
2. The dynamism of Christian life, especially in India but also in Africa, demanded a mind on the value of religions, religious syncretism and the place of Christ and the Church, also on liturgical inculturation. The letter Orationis formae (1989) on the form of Christian prayer, and the notification on the writings of De Mello (1998) qualified possible syncretisms. On the other hand, the Declaration Dominus IesusThe Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church (2000) laid the theological foundations for the Church's dialogue with the religions of the world at the beginning of the third millennium. The Cardinal worked extensively on this theme, both before and after the Declaration. His lectures at the Sorbonne (1999) stand out. With this and others, he published Faith, Truth and Tolerance. Christianity and the religions of the world (2003).
Three major topics
In the mind of the prefect and theologian there were, however, three other themes. The first is the Liturgy which, in his growing experience, is the soul of the life of the Church, where he expresses his faith. He collects the many interventions on liturgical themes, relaunched during his time as bishop of Munich. In addition, he is able to compose a new essay, The spirit of the liturgy. An introduction (1999) on the essence and form of the liturgy and the role of art. In parallel, he compiles his preaching on the liturgical seasons and the saints. And he reaffirms that true theology must draw its experience from holiness. They make up volume XIV of his O.C. Then there is his concern for the new exegesis, from which he has learned much, but which seems to him to mediate too much between the Bible and the Church, and which can alienate the figure of Christ.
The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the Bible on The interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993) did not enthuse him. He took advantage of the honorary doctorate at the University of Navarra to speak about the place of exegesis in theology (1998). And he had been shaping a "Spiritual Christology" with a believing exegesis for years. He had already published Let us look at the Pierced One (1984) with the Celam course on Jesus Christ (1982) and other beautiful texts on the Heart of Jesus. And in the book Un canto nuevo para el Señor (1999), in addition to materials on liturgy, he collected two courses on Christ and the Church (one at the Escorial, 1989); he also vindicated the living figure of the Lord in Caminos de Jesucristo (2003). He wants to retire to write this "Spiritual Christology", with an adequate exegetical background, but he will only be able to do so, at times, when he becomes Pope.
Finally, in conferences to specific requests, he develops a "new political thought" on the situation of the Church in the post-Christian world. He collects them in several books: in Truth, values, power. Touchstones of the pluralistic society (1993); in Europe, roots, identity and mission (2004), in which, among other things, there is the famous dialogue with Jürgen Habermas (2004); and in The Christian in the crisis of Europe (2005), with his last conference in Subiaco, on the eve of the papal election.
Famous themes appear: "the dictatorship of relativism", the need for a pre-political moral foundation ("etsi Deus daretur"), the convenience of "broadening reason" in the face of the reductive pretensions of the scientific method, and also that the new sciences function, de facto, with "another first philosophy".
Being a housewife today is much more than just doing the washing machines, preparing the food or cleaning the house, that can be done by an employee, a husband, the children...; being a housewife is being at the service in the broad sense of the term, it is a diakonia.
April 30, 2022-Reading time: 3minutes
On May 1, Mother's Day (the first Sunday of the month of flowers) coincides with May Day, International Workers' Day; a date in my opinion very propitious to remember the mothers who work exclusively at home, those traditionally known as housewives.
It is true that on March 8, Women's Day, some people remember them, but they are the fewest, since it is a day that, in its origin, primarily claimed the labor rights of women. There is also another date, October 9, when the Housewife's Day is celebrated (I don't know why), but for most people it goes absolutely unnoticed. And the fact is that going unnoticed is the housewife's specialty, since housework is always silent and hidden, although essential.
That's why today I want to bring them to light and break a lance for them: the housewives. I don't care if I am criticized by gender ideologists or the gurus of the woke movement: long live housewives!
Because I am not talking about those who had no other opportunity, I am not talking about those who were forced to stay at home in terms of inequality, I am talking about those who freely and voluntarily, aware of the importance of the family as a vital nucleus or perhaps without such deep discernment, but simply guided by practical sense, decided that the best thing for their children, for their husbands and for themselves was to take exclusive care of their own.
There are many highly qualified professionals today who are well positioned in the labor market, with husbands involved in household chores, who live in an egalitarian relationship, but who realize that the promises of happiness that a professional career offered them have not fulfilled their expectations and who, in a revolutionary movement, return to the home to do that work that is not priced in euros, because giving one's life for others cannot be paid for.
Being a housewife today is much more than just doing the washing machines, preparing the food or cleaning the house, that can be done by an employee, a husband, the children...; being a housewife is to be at the service in the broad sense of the term, it is a diakonia.
In his message for the World Day of Peace 2021, Pope Francis called for the promotion of a "culture of care to eradicate the culture of indifference, rejection and confrontation that often prevails today," and affirmed that "education for care begins in the family, the natural and fundamental nucleus of society, where we learn to live in relationship and mutual respect."
Housewives teach us the value of giving one's whole life to care. They reflect the Good Shepherd who defies logic and what everyone else does to care for those in need; they reflect the Good Samaritan, who loses his time, his status and his money to care for those whom no one wants to care for. Because today no one wants to take care of babies (the birth rate is at historic lows), because today no one wants to take care of children and adolescents (educational centers extend their schedules to act as caregivers), because today no one wants to take care of the elderly (euthanasia is making its way as an escape valve from the pressure cooker of the increasingly inverted population pyramid), because the words serve and give for free produce hives.
It is easy to read this article as a battle of the sexes (why women and not men?) or in economic terms (it is impossible with only one salary). Once again, we would miss the opportunity to make them the protagonists. And today I want to focus on you, housewife, who are not a hair's breadth foolish and do not allow yourself to be dominated by anyone, but who have discovered the pearl of which Jesus speaks when he says: "Who is more, he who is at table or he who serves? Is it not he who is at table? For I am in your midst as one who serves" (Lk 22:27).
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.
Labor market and marriage reputation erode birth rate
The high unemployment rates of the Spanish youth population, low wages and precarious employment, discourage young people from marriage and childbearing, has assured these days the Demographic Observatory of the CEU directed by Joaquín Leguina. The fact is aggravated by an image fake and a family penalty, explains consultant María Álvarez de las Asturias.
Francisco Otamendi-April 30, 2022-Reading time: 7minutes
There will undoubtedly be other factors. But precarious employment, as highlighted by the CEU experts, and the "bad press on marriage", in the colloquial expression of María Álvarez de las Asturias (Instituto Coincidir), author of books of excellent diffusion such as 'Más que juntos', 'Una decisión original', or 'La nulidad matrimonial, mitos y realidades', clearly affect the fact that "young people are marrying less and less and marrying older and older", and that "young people are becoming emancipated much older, with high rates of unemployment".
Conclusion, "from the social point of view, Spain has a serious problem with respect to the birth rate," said this week the director of the Demographic Observatory (OD) of the CEU, Joaquín Leguina, in an event organized at the CEU San Pablo University by the Faculty of Humanities and Communication Sciences, the CEU Institute of Family Studies and the Center for Studies, Training and Social Analysis (CEFAS).
You will now see some data, in cascade, extracted in part from the reports presented by the aforementioned observatory, in which the engineer Alejandro Macarrón appears as coordinator, and also from other sources, especially those related to civil and canonical weddings, that is to say, celebrated by the Church, as it is colloquially said. We will offer some comments later.
Emancipation at 29.5 years of age; marriage at 34 years of age
1) Young Spaniards are among those who emancipate the latest in the European Union, with the average age of leaving the family home having been delayed by slightly more than a year (in Spain it takes place at 29.5 years, compared to 25.5 in the Eurozone) as a result of the last major economic crisis that began in 2008.
2) The conjunctural indicator of primonuptiality, which is equivalent to an annual estimate of the probability that people will marry at least once under the age of 60, has fallen by just over 50 %, specifically from 0.99 in 1976 to 0.48 in 2019, according to the University Observatory.
That is to say, "at the beginning of the Transition, the vast majority of Spaniards were married at some time. That is why today only 1 out of every 11 Spaniards who die at the age of 80 or older does so without having married during his or her lifetime. And with the current data, more than half of Spaniards would never get married".
3) "The average age at first marriage has risen from 25.4 years in 1976 to 34.4 years in 2019, a huge delay." In recent decades, "the age at marriage has been significantly delayed, which has a negative impact on fertility, although nowadays not a few couples reverse the traditional order of marrying first and having children later, and celebrate their wedding with one or more children".
4) The number of children per woman, called by experts the synthetic fertility index, plummeted in Spain in 2019, to 1.23, the lowest figure since 2000, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). These days, the aforementioned OD has reported that in 2020, a year that was certainly atypical due to the pandemic, this index was 1.18.
5) Twenty years ago there were 163,000 Catholic weddings in Spain. In 2020, they did not reach ten thousand. In contrast, civil rites went from 44,779 in 1996 to 129,000 in 2019. In 2001, 73.1 percent of marriages celebrated in Spain were Catholic. Eight years later, the percentage had dropped to 45.5 percent. By the middle of the last decade, it had fallen to 31.7 percent. Last year, it barely exceeded 20 percent. Now, only one in ten are Catholic (sources from the Spanish Episcopal Conference, CEE).
Spanish women want to have more children
The low fertility rate mentioned above is even more distressing, if possible, because a survey by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) recalled that Spanish women of childbearing age claim to want to have children. "more than twice as many children as they have.". In fact, the gap between the number of children desired and those had is the largest in Europe, with 1.1 children per woman, according to the report 'Estado del bienestar, ciclo vital y demografía', by the Observatorio Social de la Fundación La Caixa, presented at the end of last year.
The labor factor
We can now review some of the causes of this phenomenon, which much of public opinion has described as demographic winter, or even demographic suicide. That is, why Spaniards who want to have more children do not have them. Although it was mentioned at the beginning, it should be reiterated. It is the economic and labor situation.
"The unemployment rates of the Spanish youth population are very high, wages are very low and many jobs are precarious. A reality that causes motherhood to be delayed and citizens to have fewer children, thus decreasing the birth rate", point out Joaquín Leguina and his team. In their opinion, there is a social and political current against the family. "Anyone who speaks against the birth rate is speaking against Spain. We have to fight against the ideologies that defend women not having children," he says.
On the other hand, consultant and writer María Álvarez de las Asturias explains to Omnes, first of all, her support for the thesis of the CEU experts. "The economic factor is now very important. In other times I have said that the economic issue was not so important, but right now, if a guy is being paid 800 euros a month in a powerful company, it is not enough to make plans. Besides, with very precarious jobs, you don't know if in six months you will be there or not. The economic aspect has a lot of influence at the moment".
"Companies are asking for young people with 2 or 3 years of experience, but those same companies do not give young people contracts in which they can acquire that experience. There is no way," adds Álvarez de las Asturias. "The labor market needs to be rethought if we want young people to be able to make plans. I don't say a contract for life. I also understand the employers, but a minimum... Remunerations of 800 euros do not correspond to the rental market, and neither do they correspond to what top managers are earning. All this needs to be rethought.
I'm not talking about a contract for life, but you have to find the balance between the company being able to pay you, and if not you may have to leave, and providing a minimum of security".
Family discrimination or penalization
But the consulting firm does not stop there, and refers to other factors. For example, to what could be called discrimination or penalization on the grounds of family, although she does not use those terms. She explains it in this way: "The fact is that workers who want to start a family are seen as a chore. The social conscience of forming a family is a problem. It is as if it were a luxury. If you want to have children, get fixed up. It's a whole mentality [that needs to be changed]. I'm not saying pro-family, pro-natalism. That anyone who wants to have a child should have things made easier".
"This doesn't just happen with marriage, but with having a family. You have an employee who has a family and it's not welcome news. In fact, people are very careful not to say it, until they have no choice but to say it. Between a guy who is not married, and another who has family obligations, well, he is freer... But we are putting the work and the economic performance..., and it is in a way an exploitation, because they are contracts in which if you fire one, the next day you have fifty thousand candidates for that position. The labor market needs a complete overhaul," he summarizes.
Adolescence, image
In addition, Álvarez de las Asturias mentions that "the immaturity of adolescence is being prolonged. Some psychologists point out that up to the age of twenty-something is adolescence, when adolescence used to end before, didn't it? Now, when young people get married between 25 and 28 years old, the general reaction is: but they are very young! They are not so young, I say, it is an age in which it is advisable for them to be mature enough to make important decisions".
The writer cites a third argument. "Marriage gets a very bad press, and families who have always been pro-marriage have allowed themselves to be contaminated by this mentality that marriage is a complicated thing, and they don't encourage it either. And then they have at their fingertips living with all the advantages of marriage, without taking on any responsibility. And if we make a pack with all that... Besides, they emancipate themselves, but with the money they earn they go to live in an apartment with several friends. All these things I have mentioned have an influence, I think so".
A reflection in the Church
Álvarez de las Asturias also proposes a personal and community reflection, looking at families and the Church. Why don't they get married? "Because we're still doing terrible." states. "Because the remote preparation that John Paul II asked for, and later Benedict and Francis, we don't do it. There is no remote preparation. And we lose the children after First Communion, or at the most after Confirmation, until they reach the pre-marriage course, when perhaps they have been living together, have children... There is a space in which we do nothing"..
Some appreciate "watertight compartments"adds Álvarez de las Asturias on the Omnes website. "Youth ministry on the one hand, family ministry on the other... And Pope Francis has said that family ministry has to be the backbone of everything. It is from the family that the rest of the pastoral work hangs. If we don't have families, if we don't have children, we can forget everything".
The consultant and writer has been talking for a while about the importance of "showing normal marriages, not perfect couples. Show them with life what a 'real' marriage is like. But imperfect love does not cease to be real love, as Pope Francis says in Amoris LaetitiaHe loves me as he is and as he can, with his limits, but the fact that his love is imperfect does not mean that it is false or that it is not real. It is real, but limited and earthly" (AL. 113).
Face to the next Meeting The World Meeting of Families in Rome and in the dioceses, at the end of June, is an idea that could be explored in depth, although we will not comment on this aspect with the author, because the topic is a lengthy one. We simply pick up the last sentence of this point 113, although all of it has numerous real applications: "Love lives with imperfection, excuses it, and knows how to keep silent before the limits of the loved one".
"No birth rate, no future"
Finally, it may be recalled that some message launched by the Holy Father Francis at the inauguration a year ago of the General States of Birth in Italy, promoted by the Forum of Family Associations. In the presence of the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, he pointed out: "No birth rate, no future". It is necessary to "invest" this trend for "to put Italy back in motion, starting from life, starting from the human being", added the Holy Father in his speech. "Italy has had for years the lowest number of births in Europe, which is being signified in the old continent no longer by its glorious history, but by its advanced age." added the Pontiff.
The same could be said of Spain, Greece and so many other countries. Because Francis spoke in Italy, but he had the world in his mind and in his heart.
It is not often that you find an important exhibition of a painter, in this case a painter, who speaks of faith through contemporary art, and who clearly states that her painting is "prayer". Maria Tarruella does. In this conversation with Omnes, she assures that "the background of my work is faith and the form is very avant-garde".
Francisco Otamendi-April 30, 2022-Reading time: 4minutes
This contemporary painter, who has a curriculum on his back, exhibits from May 5 to June 19 in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid). And he will tell us about his exhibition, and the summer school 'Observatory of the invisible' in the Monastery of Guadalupe, in connection with the Archbishopric of Toledo and the support of various institutions, among which are several universities.
On this occasion, the artist has invited Christian poets who speak of her paintings and the presence of God in them through their pen; and also a young composer of sacred music, who has composed a piece for string quartet inspired by a work of the artist. They will be in Boadilla on May 7 and June 10.
"The exhibition is the excuse for an interdisciplinary meeting of contemporary arts in praise of God, it is something unique," adds Maria Tarruella, who says that "my vocation is contemporary art and faith, to connect the two worlds so that one feeds and exalts the other, as an instrument of evangelization and creation".
During World Youth Day 2011, held in Madrid, it organized its first exhibitionArt + Faith", from which multiple initiatives have blossomed. We talked, although not easily, because this woman really does not stop.
You, María Tarruella, have a personal, family, artistic and faith story. What happened to one of your sons? Santiago was born with severe heart disease.
- My husband and I took a premarital course on the importance of faith in marriage. When difficult times come, the important thing is to have anchored the marriage in faith. We had to give testimony, and we told things. We have four children. It's all on Youtube, in the profile 'Change of needles'.. [28' that deserve to be seen in their entirety. There you can see how they took care of a little boy, Arturo, also with heart disease, whom they found in the hospital when he was six months old, although he didn't come to live with the family until he was two and a half years old. "Arturo is an angel that God brought to our family," says the painter].
Which paintings will be in the exhibition?
- There will be thirty paintings. Those of 2021 and those of 2022, maybe some of 2020, including those listed in my web address, under the title Life 2022. The title is Vebo (Vecinos de Boadilla), because this year I won the contest. [María doesn't like the title, but that's the way it is].
Is your studio a gothic chapel?
- No. That was when I was in Barcelona. I borrowed a chapel from a castle outside Barcelona. I cleaned it and used it. In Madrid it's my garage, in Boadilla.
Tell us a painter, an artist, who has inspired or influenced you in some way.
- Platonic or real, close loves? Let's see, platonic loves I have Anish Kapoor, British of Indian origin, sculptor; and Bill Viola, American, Buddhist, one of the most important artists in the world, in Video Art, I am very inspired by him. I am passionate about him, he seeks silence, contemplation. Last year there was a very good exhibition of his work at the Fundación Telefónica, and it was extended due to its success.
As for Kappor, he has sculptures that are just blue pigment, like a giant circle, and you get close, and it's called Madonna. He's not a Christian, but this sense of attraction to the womb of the Madonna is brutal. He's Indian, he works in London, and he's one of the 'picassos' today.
How does María Tarruella paint?
- With different materials, it is not only painting, it is called mixed technique. They are oxides, earth, iron powders... For example, ashes to talk about our sin, which are swept by crystalline wax mantles to reflect the strength and love of God; I also use minerals such as mica powder to symbolize the precious jewel that we are in the eyes of God; the presence of the Virgin is always latent in my work with iridescent blue paint inspiring flashes of her mantle protecting us...
You are a patron and founder of the Fundación Vía de las Artes, and you are launching the 'Observatory of the Invisible' at the end of June. Tell us about it.
- I have just come from the Francisco de Vitoria University, where we talked about this. We are several artists who seek transcendence through creation. One is Javier Viver, who made the Virgin of Iesu Communio, the Hakuna; myself as a painter; Ignacio Yepes as a musician, and an architect, Benjamín Cano, who seeks the ascension to God through the spaces. How we all seek to express the sublime through art.
The Observatory of the invisible, unique in Spain,is one of the projects of the Fundación Vía de las Artes, a summer school that we held last year, for the first time, in the Monastery of Guadalupe. One hundred young people came, with scholarships from different universities in Spain. There were quite a few who were searching, and they found a place where they could find something in themselves. It was beautiful. We are preparing this year's event, which will also be held in Guadalupe. Last year the Archbishop was there, and this year he will be there too.
One last thing. There are a lot of blue tones in your paintings, what colors do you play with the most?
- Well, if you go into the Life series, it's almost all green. After confinement, it reflected that need of everybody to get close to nature like crazy, and for me it was like an approach to God, to breathe, to greatness and freedom. To me it was like an intrinsic explosion of God in nature to us.
We recapitulate. The exhibition opens on May 5, at 7:30 pm.The poetry recital is on Saturday, May 7, at 7:00 p.m., and on June 10 will be the string quartet recital, based on one of the paintings. Venue, the Palace of Infante Don Luis, in Boadilla del Monte. "Union of music and painting, of poetry and painting", says the Catalan painter María Tarruella Oriol, who in that testimony of 'Cambio de agujas', concluded: "If I want to say something, they are those words of John Paul II: 'Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to love God. It is as if having faith gives us superpowers. Superpowers that will help us in times of suffering, and make us understand that suffering is not something to avoid. It is something to focus well. Because suffering makes you grow, and makes you love much more".
Taking the pulse of issues such as family, abuse and synod, themes of the Spanish bishops' plenary session
The Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and spokesman, Bishop Luis Argüello, gave an account of the work and topics that were the focus of the 119th Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Bishops, which took place in Madrid from April 25 to 29, 2022.
Argüello expressed, on behalf of the EEC, on the day the Church celebrates St. Catherine of Siena, "our desire to pray for peace. A prayer that is not useless because, among other things, it can help us not to become accustomed to the barbarity of war".
In addition to the prayer, he wanted to "express our denunciation of the unjust invasion suffered by the Ukrainian nation and our solidarity with the Ukrainian people who are exercising their legitimate defense" and appealed to the need for the "search for peaceful and just solutions to the conflicts that have been resolved by war".
Argüello, in line with what was expressed by the president of the EEC in the opening speech of this Assembly highlighted the solidarity shown by the Spanish people in the face of this conflict. In fact, the work that the Church, through its different institutions, is carrying out in welcoming and helping the Ukrainians displaced to Spain has been one of the topics of this meeting of the Spanish bishops.
In this sense, Argüello made a call to "transform emotion into virtue, an exercise not only of Christian virtue, but also of civic and political virtue in terms of welcoming these people".
In addition to the work with refugees from Ukraine, as highlighted by the spokesman of the Spanish bishops, the continuous arrival of refugees from Ukraine has been discussed. immigrants to our country through the southern border and, in particular, the problem that the Canary Islands are experiencing with "the accumulation of thousands of young people in the streets".
In this sense, Argüello pointed out, there has been talk of "establishing corridors of hospitality so that other dioceses can welcome these young people who come to the Canary Islands. A help that is impossible without the collaboration of the public administrations".
June 11: General Assembly of the synod in Spain
The development of the work related to the Synod of Bishops was, as it could not be otherwise, another of the points of attention of this Plenary. In this regard, Bishop Argüello announced that the final Assembly corresponding to this first local phase of the Synod will be held on June 11. Synod. This meeting, which will be held at the headquarters of the Paul VI Foundation in Madrid, will be attended by representatives of all the Spanish dioceses. Some 600 people will be joined by bishops and representatives of consecrated life and associated laity.
The Assembly will discuss and approve the final text, prepared on the basis of the diocesan contributions, which will be sent to the Holy See.
Marriage Week
One of the novelties of this Assembly has been the decision to incorporate the week of marriage, whose first edition was held last February, within the pastoral action of the EEC. The good reception of this week and the importance that the pastoral care of the family and marriage has within the lines of action of the Spanish Church have given rise to this decision of the Spanish bishops to encourage the pastoral care of the family.
Taking the pulse of EWC-related institutions
The plenary session held in recent days has been a moment of information about the institutions related to the Spanish Episcopal Conference like Caritasthe Pontifical University of Salamanca or the Ábside group.
In relation to Caritas, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of its creation in Spain in 2022, the bishops were informed of the "current situation of the institution, the work it carries out and it was also a moment to express the link between Caritas and the Church. Caritas is the Church", stressed Bishop Argüello, who informed that representatives of this institution will soon be received in audience by Pope Francis.
Child abuse
The latest decisions taken in the field of prevention and treatment of child abuse committed in the Catholic Church in our country was another of the issues addressed by the bishops in this plenary session and which focused much of the questions from the media at the final press conference. The bishops devoted Thursday afternoon entirely to this topic.
On the one hand, the work of the Cremades - Calvo Sotelo Law Firm has been presented to the plenary of the bishops (the decision for this audit was taken in the February Executive Commission in which about 50% of the Spanish bishops participate).
The office has also informed of the letter addressed to the Spanish bishops and provincial bishops of religious in which it explains the process followed and asks for help in gathering the necessary information.
As Bishop Argüello emphasized, "to know the complaints filed in the dioceses and, if they have been judged, to give an account of the result".
The EEC spokesman also expressed the hope that this work of the Church, through the 70 diocesan offices and the diocesan offices of the dioceses, will be carried out by the 150 offices The report of the General Prosecutor's Office itself has made clear the extent of the problem of abuse, and what these cases refer to the Church".
Once again, Bishop Argüello recalled that the Church approaches this topic with the intention of "wanting to walk face to face, not by anonymous numbers".
Who is in charge of the Church and how is it organized internally?
The Church is a great organization, in need of command and structure - hierarchy - thanks to which it can carry out its mission. It needs an organizational chart with determined functions, which indicates who has competence and must exercise it for its proper functioning.
The present hierarchy of the Church is the result of many historical councils and deliberations. Over time it had to define a series of ecclesiastical figures or titles that would support the Pope and the bishops in their task of governing and caring for the people of Christ. As a curiosity, the word "hierarchy" derives from two Greek words: "hierós" (sacred) and "archeía" (command).
The foundation of this hierarchy is found in Jesus Christ himself, its founder. He himself confers upon the Church the three offices of teaching, sanctifying and governing - the so-called tria munera- The apostolic succession, that is to say, the continuity throughout the centuries of the development of these functions by the one who holds the competent authority.
Jesus himself would design the model from which the Church would begin its mission. The community composed of Him, His apostles and several disciples, would give rise to the appearance of the bishops, whose head would be the Pope, forming all of them a stable college or group.
The hierarchy is based, on the one hand, on the faculty of the clergy - ordained at different levels, as we shall see - to administer the sacraments: certain rites, such as the celebration of the Eucharist, will be exclusive to the presbyters, who, together with other members, form part of the clergy.
The hierarchy is also based on the power to intervene at the level of jurisdiction: for example, determining which priest will be pastor of a given parish.
The clergy - composed of clerics - is organized at different levels in an ascending hierarchy, based on the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders - Episcopate, Presbyterate and Diaconate - ranging from deacon, through presbyter, bishop, archbishop, primate, patriarch - in more particular cases - and cardinal, until reaching the supreme office of pope.
What distinguishes a bishop from a cardinal? And from an archbishop?
At the first level of this hierarchy we have cardinals, bishops and archbishops.
The cardinals are the Pope's most immediate advisors and collaborators, the vast majority of whom are bishops. They must assist the Holy Father in administering the Church. They may also participate in the conclave or election of the new pope. The distinguishing color of the cardinals is purple red, and the term by which they are addressed is eminence.
Bishops, on the other hand, obtain their office through episcopal ordination. Their tasks are to guide the dioceses, that is, the territorial and administrative units that make up the Church, as well as to ordain priests and deacons, and to administer the sacrament of Confirmation. Bishops may administer all the sacraments, including ordination. Their distinguishing color is purple, and they may be called monsignor or excellency.
Finally, it would be appropriate to refer to the archbishop. He is the bishop of an archdiocese, or rather of the diocese at the head of an ecclesiastical province composed of several dioceses. If the archbishop is also the head of the ecclesiastical province, he is called metropolitan. On the other hand, the qualification of archbishop can also be only honorary.
How is a presbyter different from a deacon?
At a second hierarchical level we find the presbyters, also called priests, who, if they are linked to a particular parish, are parish priests.
The parish, by the way, is also an administrative unit of the Church. Several parishes form a vicariate, and thus a pastor may also hold the office of vicar, coordinating several parishes in the area. Priests may administer all the sacraments, with the exception of Holy Orders.
Deacons would form a third level in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Their task is to assist priests and bishops in ceremonies. They can only administer the sacrament of baptism and assist at marriage with particular delegation. They preach the word of God and serve in parish communities.
In some cases -more so in the Eastern Churches- the deacons embrace the diaconate on a permanent basis; in others provisionally and with a view to their subsequent priestly ordination.
Other ecclesiastical titles: apostolic nuncio, vicar general.
In addition to the above, there are other ecclesiastical titles or positions held by those who already hold a position in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
We refer on the one hand to the case of the apostolic nuncio, who is an ambassador of the Holy See to the States; and on the other hand to the vicar general, who represents the bishop in the management of relations between parishes and vicariates, the various circumscriptions into which the diocese is territorially divided.
Does the existence of hierarchy imply inequalities among the different members of the Church?
The hierarchy of the Church does not imply inequality of the faithful, since all, clerics or not, are equally baptized. Thus, the equality of all is prior to the diversity of personal conditions in the Church as a consequence of the sacrament of Orders and the different charisms.
The hierarchy exists within and at the service of the communion of the faithful, not above the Church itself, nor, evidently, outside of it.
In other words, it is not a question of "exercise of power", but of "exercise of functions" in the service of others, on the part of any of the clergy in their various orders. For to hold a hierarchical office is nothing more than to serve all Catholics in this concrete way, no matter what authority that office implies.
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Cardinal FarrellThe lay movements must feel that they are an integral part of the Church".
Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, has given an interview to Omnes where he discusses movements and new communities in the Church.
The annual meeting of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements and new communities is being held at the Vatican to reflect on work as a place of sanctification and civil witness for every baptized person. For its part, the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross has hosted a Study Day also dedicated to the movementsfrom a theological perspective, reflecting on aspects of charism, baptism and mission.
For the occasion, Omnes interviewed the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is responsible for movements and new communities.
Your Eminence, why are movements and new communities important in the Church?
-Movements in the Church, lay groups and new communities are so important in the world in which we live and in the secular culture that characterizes us because they bring an energy, a grace, a spirit through which they can more easily communicate the Word of God to our contemporaries. In essence, the movements were born to grasp and bring the message of the Gospel to all people, but not only with words, but through the witness of life at work and in daily life. This is the essence of the movements.
What perspectives should these groups have in light of the New Evangelization?
-It is essential for the whole Church to realize the importance of the movements for today's world. We live in a reality in which these groups practically carry the burden of evangelization. They are an integral part of the Church and have the task of fully living their mission, which is the mission of the Church itself.
What is the common denominator that makes these Movements a unified fruit of evangelization?
-These realities must collaborate and work together in the dioceses for preaching, for the New Evangelization... There is no movement that is better than another. It is always the Holy Spirit who has inspired the charism in the founders and moderators, but then the bulk of the witness comes from all the other adherents, because the founder was a concrete person who received the gift, but the movement is much bigger than the central organization.
The miraculous catch of fish in John's Gospel takes place after the Resurrection. It is an episode of daily life and of the disciples' work to earn their living, with symbolic meanings. They are seven, a perfect number that can allude to the fullness of the Church. Simon Peter guides these fishermen as he guides the Church and takes the initiative of fishing, an image of the evangelization of the world. There is Thomas, who made the most beautiful act of faith at the end of the Gospel. "My Lord and my God."and Nathanael who did it at the beginning: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God.". There are the sons of Zebedee and two others: we are all there.
Jesus from the shore looks at our life with kindness and concrete interest: do you have something to eat? This is how he looks at the Church every day. The miracle of the catch of fish tells the beloved disciple that "is the Lord." on the shore : the facts of grace move to faith. Peter throws himself naked into the water: like dying and being reborn in the waters of baptism. With the power of grace and of the encounter with Jesus, Peter succeeds in pulling out of the boat the 153 fish that a little earlier all together brought to the shore with difficulty. He used to count the fish to report the feat; now he does it to testify to the miracle. The net is the communion of the Church. Counting the fish one by one is the work of welcoming and treating each one according to his or her different personality and vocation. In the same sense Jesus speaks to Peter about caring for lambs and sheep; he has already spoken to them about the one flock.
To the question: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?", Peter does not dare to answer "I love you" or even "more than these". The experience of denial after having promised "¡I will give my life for you!"He is humbled. He saw the beloved disciple leaning on Jesus' breast and strong under the cross: he no longer dares to think that he has more faith and more love than the others. Answer: "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." and Jesus in the following questions adapts Himself to him. In the second one he no longer compares himself with the others, but continues to ask him, "Do you love me? Peter still does not dare: "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus approaches in the third question: ¿do you love me? Peter understands that he is accompanying him on a journey to erase the three negations. And he responds with confidence: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.". The deeds that Jesus asks as a consequence of this love are always to feed his sheep. With adequate food, as he chose bread, fish and coals adapted for his disciples. Peter would not dare to say as before the passion, relying on his strength: "I will follow youé wherever you go".. Then you can tell Jesus: "Follow me."
Homily on the readings of the III Sunday of Easter
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
Pope Francis has continued his catechesis on different generations.
On this occasion, she referred to the role of daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law and offered some advice to the latter on how to maintain a good relationship with their daughters-in-law.
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It is a sunny morning in Rome on Wednesday, April 27, when Pope Francis is expected to hold the general audience in St. Peter's Square, as he usually does every Wednesday. The Pontiff resumes his agenda after having been forced to suspend it yesterday due to knee pains.
He began his catechesis by referring to a female figure in the Bible: "Today we will let ourselves be inspired by the splendid book of Ruth, a jewel of the Bible. The parable of Ruth illuminates the beauty of family bonds: generated by the couple's relationship, but which go beyond the couple's bond. Bonds of love capable of being equally strong, in which radiates the perfection of that polyhedron of fundamental affections that form the family grammar of love. This grammar carries vital sap and generative wisdom in all the relationships that build the community. With respect to the Song of Songs, the book of Ruth is like the other side of the diptych of nuptial love. Equally important, equally essential, it celebrates the power and the poetry that must inhabit the bonds of generation, kinship, dedication, fidelity that envelop the whole family constellation. And which even become capable, at the dramatic junctures of a couple's life, of bringing an unimaginable force of love, capable of relaunching hope and the future".
"We know that the commonplaces about kinship bonds created by marriage, especially between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, speak against this perspective. But precisely because of this, the word of God becomes valuable. The inspiration of faith knows how to open a horizon of witness against the most common prejudices, a valuable horizon for the whole human community. I invite you to rediscover the book of Ruth! Especially in the meditation on love and in the catechesis on the family".
"This little book also contains a valuable teaching on the alliance of the generations: where youth reveals itself capable of giving new enthusiasm to the mature age, old age discovers itself capable of reopening the future for the wounded youth. At first, the elderly Naomi, even moved by the affection of her daughters-in-law, who are widowed by their two sons, is pessimistic about their destiny in a village that is not theirs. So she warmly encourages the young women to return to their families to rebuild a life for themselves. He says, "I can do nothing for you." Already this is shown as an act of love: the old woman, without a husband and already childless, insists that the daughters-in-law leave her. But it is also a kind of resignation: there is no possible future for the foreign widows, deprived of their husband's protection. Ruth resists this generous offer. The bond that has been established has been blessed by God: Naomi cannot ask to be abandoned. At first, Naomi appears more resigned than happy about this offer: perhaps she thinks that this strange bond will aggravate the risk for both of them. In certain cases, the tendency of the elderly to pessimism needs to be counteracted by the affectionate pressure of the young".
"In fact, Naomi, moved by Ruth's devotion, comes out of her pessimism and even takes the initiative, opening for Ruth a new future. She instructs and encourages Ruth, her son's widow, to find a new husband in Israel. Boaz, the candidate, shows his nobility, defending Ruth from the men who work for him. Unfortunately, this is a risk that is also verified today".
"Ruth's remarriage is celebrated and the worlds are once again pacified. The women of Israel tell Naomi that Ruth, the foreigner, is worth "more than seven sons" and that this marriage will be a "blessing from the Lord". Naomi, in her old age, will know the joy of having a part in the generation of a new birth. Look how many "miracles" accompany the conversion of this old woman! She converts to the commitment of making herself available, with love, for the future of a generation wounded by loss and at risk of abandonment. The fronts of recomposition are the same ones that, on the basis of the probabilities traced by the prejudices of common sense, should generate insurmountable fractures. However, faith and love allow to overcome them: the mother-in-law overcomes jealousy for her own son, loving the new bond of Ruth; the women of Israel overcome distrust for the stranger (and if women do it, everyone will do it); the vulnerability of the woman alone, facing the power of the man, is reconciled with a bond full of love and respect".
Pope Francis concludes by assuring that "all because the young Ruth is determined to be faithful to a bond exposed to ethnic and religious prejudice. All because the elderly Naomi takes the initiative to reopen the future for Ruth, instead of merely enjoying her support. If the young people open themselves to gratitude for what they have received and the elders take the initiative to reopen their future, nothing can stop the blossoming of God's blessings among the people! God grant that we may be witnesses and mediators of this blessing!"
Synod and vulnerability: women religious from all over the world come together
The next Plenary Assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a body that brings together more than 1,900 women religious belonging to general houses in 97 countries around the world, will be dedicated to the theme "Embracing Vulnerability on the Synodal Journey" and will be held May 2-6.
There are many ways to make visible the synodalityOur assembly, with its contents and methods, is an experience of synodality in women's religious life", said Sister Jolanta Kafka, president of the UISGWe really hope to live a privileged space of listening, of common search with the Holy Spirit".
During the Assembly, the 22nd in the history of the organization, the women religious will dialogue on how to contribute to the synodal process of the Church, how to favor listening and how to enter into a dynamic of discernment, "recognizing vulnerability as a typically human characteristic," added Sr.
A great assembly
Some 700 Superiors General have confirmed their participation in the meeting, which will be held in Rome at the Hotel Ergife and also online, of whom 520 will attend. They represent 71 different nationalities, most of them from Europe, where many General Houses of Congregations reside.
The African continent will also be represented, with a greater presence of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Asia, with India; the United States, for North America; Mexico and Brazil, for Central and South America.
There will be meetings animated by more than 10 speakers who will address five key words: vulnerability, synodal process, religious life and synodality, peripheries, call to transformation.
UISG
The UISG has been active since 1965 and was created as a meeting point for women religious who hold positions of governance in the Congregations. Its aim is also to create networks, strategies and synergies that enable sisters to communicate across geographical distances and linguistic and cultural differences, in order to foster communion among consecrated women throughout the Church.
Its members are distributed as follows: Europe (25 countries - 1046 senior); Asia (16 countries - 184 senior); America (30 countries - 479 senior); Africa (22 countries - 166 senior); Oceania (4 countries - 28 senior).
The event will be presented at a press conference on Friday, April 29 at the Holy See Press Office. In addition to the UISG President, the Executive Secretary, Sister Patricia Murray, the Superior General of the Marianist Sisters, Sister Franca Zonta, and the Superior General of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Roxanne Schares, will speak.
"Vladimir Putin's war of invasion of Ukraine has reminded me of another president of Russia, in this case Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, who still has statues and memorial plaques all over the Eurasian country. Founder of the Soviet Union, bloodthirsty revolutionary leader, creator of the political police and selective extermination, his figure is still amazingly praised by many people. And, already among us, his nefarious influence in Spain leaves a long historical list of admirers: from several important socialists of the II Spanish Republic to the current 2nd Vice-president of the Government."
On April 22, 1870 was born in the city of Simbirsk, 893 km from Moscow, the man who would be known worldwide as Lenin. A few decades later, he died at the age of 53, leaving behind him a legendary story, well exploited and spread by his successor Stalin and his followers. The legend tried and still tries to hide an effective criminal work that would spread throughout many countries of the world, without exception to ours.
Today, his figure is still present in the streets and buildings of Moscow and in cities all over Russia. Thousands of tourists, driven by curiosity or admiration, continue to flock to the mausoleum in Red Square that houses his mummy. Nearby you can also see the Rolls Royce he used when he came to power. Today's Russia, the homeland of Dostoevsky and of so many other illustrious Russians of history to honor, does not find the time to bury the old Bolshevik definitively and seems to continue now under his sinister influence.
Only a misunderstood Russian patriotism, which cannot ignore the historical importance of the character, can allow such a tribute to the person directly and indirectly responsible for so many millions of deaths. The communist propaganda has managed to cover with a heroic halo the man who, perhaps initially resentful of the execution of his brother by order of the Czar, shed and caused to be shed so much blood in his land and in half the world.
It is well known that Lenin could not support himself before 1917. He was supported by his mother who periodically sent him money. He failed as a lawyer in St. Petersburg and refused to work in the countryside. His mother and sister spoiled him, and he treated them with contempt afterwards, in a profoundly chauvinistic manner. He maintained a regrettable love triangle between his wife Nadezhda and his French mistress, Inessa Armand, thanks to the apartment Lenin rented in Paris with money lent by his mother.
It was a "petty bourgeois"like many historical revolutionaries, from Marx to Che Guevara. A man without scruples who based his control over the people on terror. The selective extermination, the liquidation of monarchists, Christians, Jews, bourgeois, democrats, social democrats and anyone who did not obey the only leader, began with Lenin. He used the Russian civil war to liquidate his "class enemies" and political adversaries, between the coup d'état of January 1918, when he dissolved the Constituent Assembly after an election that he lost, and the end of 1922.
He created the political police (the one in which a young Putin would come to work years later), the concentration, labor and extermination camps later copied by the National Socialists, and initiated terror as a form of government. In a telegram, dated August 10, 1918, although unfortunately not out of date, Lenin ordered: "It is necessary to give a lesson. Hang (and I say hang in such a way that people will see it) at least a hundred kulaks, rich and known bloodsuckers (...). Do this in such a way that for hundreds of leagues around people will see, tremble, know and say: they kill and will continue to kill". By the way, at that time his cook was the grandfather of the current President Putin.
Although so many years have passed since his death, even today in Spain his life is not completely alien to us. Since the beginning of his revolution, to which he devoted his entire life at the beginning of the last century, there has been no lack of admirers of the dictator in our country. His influence is evident in various phases of our history.
It is famous the anecdote of the trip made in 1920 by the socialist deputy for Granada Fernando de los Ríos to the Soviet Union commissioned by the PSOE. Together with Daniel Anguiano, the purpose of the trip was to see the possibilities of the party joining the Third International. During his interview with Lenin, De los Ríos asked him when his government would allow the freedom of citizens. According to De los Ríos' account, Lenin would have finished off a lengthy answer by questioning "Freedom for what?".
The later Minister of Justice of the Second Spanish Republic would have deduced from this answer that a totalitarian drift of the Soviet Revolution would take place, as it did. For this reason, at the next extraordinary congress of the PSOE, De los Ríos opposed the party's entry into the aforementioned International. This would provoke the subsequent split of a small sector of the party that would found the Communist Party of Spain.
Perhaps less well known is Lenin's idea that Spain was the country in Europe where the communist revolution could triumph first after Russia. The well-known socialist politician Francisco Largo Caballero, who became President of the Government and who has a statue in the Nuevos Ministerios in Madrid, openly preached the need for revolution in Spain and was soon known as the "Spanish Lenin". His dream was to create the Union of Iberian Socialist Republics.
Of course, the leaders of the Soviet Union spared no resources of all kinds since then so that Spain would become a communist Republic as so many countries east of the Iron Curtain became years later. The defeat of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War would frustrate the well-known project of implanting the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country, giving way to the Franco regime.
Today, the 2nd Vice-President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, has expressed on several occasions her pride in belonging to the Communist Party of Spain. May she read and reflect on Lenin's influence on the history of our country and follow the example of other left-wing politicians of a more peaceful and constructive disposition, such as Julián Besteiro. And let us hope that Russia manages to get rid once and for all of that already too long tradition of "strong" and bloodthirsty leaders.
Antonio Hernández Deus: "African women stand out for their hope and optimism".
Education, health, promotion of women and professional development are the main lines of action of Harambee Africa. Its president, Antonio Hernández, highlights the optimism and the example that African women, especially, represent for our society.
On April 26, the Nigerian economist Franca Ovadje will receive in Madrid the Harambee 2022 African Woman Prize. She will join the list of African women, including doctors, teachers and researchers who have won this prize, which recognizes individuals or institutions that have contributed, helped or solved problems relevant to the dignity, rights and equality of African women.
Harambee, an initiative born at the time of the canonization of St Josemaría Escrivá, has from the start promoted educational initiatives in Africa and about Africa, with development projects in sub-Saharan Africa and communication and awareness-raising activities in the rest of the world. In this interview for OmnesHarambee's president, Antonio Hernández Deus, highlights the NGO's commitment to the fields of action of education, health, promotion of women and professional development that it has developed in more than a hundred projects in 22 African countries with a key target: African women.
For more than 10 years, Harambee has been awarding prizes to African women leaders in different fields and who work for women in Africa. Why was the prize started?
This prize was created to make Harambee's objectives visible: to show that women in Sub-Saharan Africa have talent and capacity, and all they need in some cases is a little help to develop them.
With this prize, we want to highlight the trajectory of some women who have been successful in their country. We've already awarded it to fourteen African women from different professional fields: all of them have promoted initiatives in the service of their country and that's why they have received the prize.
In recent years we've been sponsored by René Furterer, which has been a great help in developing the prize.
Why don't you focus on a "welfare" approach to African women?
Welfare for African women is necessary, but it's already being done by other NGOs. We prefer to show the smile of Africa, and that's why we focus our work on long-term projects.
There are different ways of helping in Africa. We can help people by giving them a fish to feed them; or by providing fishing rods so they can get their own food; or by teaching them how to make fishing rods with the materials they have available-this last way of helping is the one we're developing. Those smiles of satisfaction that we receive from the Africans, for having achieved what they need by their own means, with a little help, is our greatest motivation for continuing working for African women and for Africa.
What makes Harambee different from other projects for women in Africa?
There are many other entities that help women in Africa. What makes us different from other organizations is the way we approach development aid.
Our projects are promoted and implemented by Africans themselves, and they aren't intended to be aid-dependent, but rather to finance themselves into the future. We focus our field of action on education, health, promotion of women and professional development.
Ilomba Rural School (Côte d'Ivoire) students with scholarships from Harambee ONGD
Our identity is also very largely defined by the way the projects are carried out. First of all, people from sub-Saharan Africa identify particular problems and propose specific projects to Harambee. At Harambee we do a feasibility study and decide which ones to support, taking into account the possibilities of financing and fundraising that we can undertake. Then these projects are managed and executed by the beneficiaries themselves.
From Harambee we make sure that they're getting the assistance they really need. To avoid money being diverted or wasted, we look for altruistic local collaborators who will accompany the projects and guarantee that they put together the documentation needed in order to be able to send the money requested for them to be carried out. Once a project has been approved for implementation, Harambee ensures that it's carried out as planned and that an account of the expenditure is provided to the funders.
Although we work in the short and medium term, we always ensure that all projects have continuity into the future: that's why we're a Development NGO (NGDO).
Women awarded by Harambee
Since its inception, among the women awarded we have seen educators, doctors, economists... women who are real leaders in their country, and above all concerned about education. Are education and equal opportunities keys to the African continent?
Yes, as we've seen in Harambee over the last twenty years, education is the key to improving people. And improving someone's education improves his family, his environment and his country. And it's very inspiring to see the example of other people. Especially for women, who in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa are the most forgotten of all.
At Harambee NGDO we believe in giving opportunities to all Africans, so they can move their countries forward. But women need more help to achieve this. They're all the hope of Africa.
Do you think they are also an example for European women?
Yes, women who overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties and break through into new areas are certainly an example. In addition, African women stand out especially because they transmit hope and optimism, values that are much needed nowadays.
Do we still have a "charity" vision of the African continent, as if everything "needed aid", instead of considering, for example, many features of their lives-family, appreciation for their children, etc.-as desirable and something to imitate?
In addition to what you mention about family, children, tribal solidarity..., yes, we believe that Africa has a lot to teach us. When you visit Africa, the first thing that strikes you is the number of smiling people you meet. They know how to overcome their difficulties with joy and creativity. This way of living can teach us on the old continent how to regain our youth.
Teaching the virtue of strength from childhood: a challenge in the education of the XXI century.
Today the education to the virtue of strength in schools is a great challenge, because for a correct growth and for the development of children it is necessary that school and family walk hand in hand.
All of us are vulnerable from the moment of conception. This condition entails our susceptibility to receive injuries, which does not imply that we are not capable of resisting and confronting them. It is this vulnerability that allows us to develop the virtue of strength.
This virtue is useful in the midst of difficulties. A strong person is someone who, besides accepting and confronting pain, strives to achieve a difficult good, overcoming the difficulties that arise in the process and persevering despite them.
Thus, in the measure in which we give up the little things that please us but do not involve particular effort, and we prepare ourselves for those that present greater difficulties, we are growing in self-control, in self-control, in perseverance and joy, all virtues directly correlated to strength.
the current problem
Trigo (2002) considers the education to this virtue fundamental, if an orderly and healthy growth in all dimensions is sought, because he affirms that the four cardinal virtues, among which we find that of strength, play a fundamental role in the maturity of a person, and affirms that nothing kills as much as pain or difficulty.
In a consumerist society in which people act on the basis of "mi piace" instead of "lo voglio, anche se mi costa" or "devo, anche se mi costa", this self-control comes into play in the measure in which people allow themselves to be dominated by the outside. In this way, when the will does not act, its failure is produced, increased by the need of immediacy when it is about wanting to achieve any objective.
This situation, together with the fact that in today's families an overprotective educational style prevails, characterized by the purpose of avoiding any kind of stress and sophistication in children, has a negative impact on the development of the virtue of strength in the children themselves.
Taking into account the characteristics of the society of the 21st century, today the education to the virtue of strength in the schools represents a great challenge, because the first educational environment is the family, fundamental cell of society, and for the correct growth and development of the child it is necessary that school and family go hand in hand.
Is it possible to start this operation from the moment of birth?
We know that the best period to develop this virtue is from 6 to 12 years old. However, we believe that it is essential to start putting it into practice at the end of the first years of life, for various reasons. Firstly, because the more the child is small and has fewer resources, the more vulnerable he is and therefore the more he needs to exercise this virtue to overcome a difficulty. And finally, for the fact that the virtue of strength is the basis of the rest of the virtues, since without effort it is not possible to acquire any other virtue.
How is it possible to work starting the education from early childhood?
In early childhood education, the pillars can be established by working on any of the virtues indicated above:
Dall'ordine: a strong person must be able to have a program and to respect it, to plan everything that must be done, and to give priority to what is important and not to what is urgent. When you establish an order in your priorities, if you don't let yourself go from "I will" to "I must", you will build a solid and strong personality. The delicate period to work on ordering goes from 3 to 6 years; therefore, teaching children to return everything to its place we will get the basics so that tomorrow they put order in their priorities and fight for what is really important.
Dall'autocontrollo: this virtue allows us to learn to say no to everything that could be an obstacle to the achievement of our goal, besides enjoying the time we spend making ourselves standards and not taking the decision to abandon ourselves in moments of fatigue. The child can be helped to resist and manage the impulses that manifest themselves in the present moment, if we are able to delay the reward. For example, if he wants a gelato before dinner, we can help him to learn to expect and understand that first he must have dinner and then eat the gelato.
Peace of mind and tolerance in the face of frustration. San Tommaso has related the virtue of strength with peace, showing that this virtue allows to accept the reality of a difficult situation, in which it helps the person to continue to fight and to aspire, without yielding to the decline or to the sadness. For example, do not buy a toy that the child wants at that moment without a reason, but wait for its completion or the Epiphany.
Dalla perseverance. This virtue implies being constant in our efforts to achieve an objective. For example, encouraging the child to try to put on his or her shoes as often as necessary.
Dalla generosity. The child of this age is characterized by being self-centered, and facing a difficult situation in which he must seek the good of the other may help him to grow in strength. For example, to give in and give your brother the last shot.
Working on this virtue will inevitably lead to the growth of other virtues such as joy, because the person who works for something good is always happy. This satisfaction comes from knowing that you are working for something really worthwhile.
In short, by helping children from their earliest years to lay the foundations for the development of this virtue, we will make sure that their will is strengthened in the following years, having a positive impact on their growth and development as people and, therefore, on their happiness. We remember Seneca's words".per aspera ad astra".
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Franca Ovadje: "Empowering women can only be achieved through education".
The Nigerian economist Franca Ovadje has been awarded the Harambee 2022 Prize for the Promotion and Equality of African Women. An edition that also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the NGDO.
– Supernatural NGDO Harambee has presented its award for the Promotion and Equality of African Women. The award was sponsored by René Furterer This year's edition recognized the work that Franca Ovadje, an economist, has carried out through various training programs for women entrepreneurs that have turned hundreds of women into entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
During the press conference, Ramon Pardo de Santayana, vice-president of the NGOD, described the work of this NGOD, which is convinced that Africa is capable of the same than the rest of the developed countries" and thanked the donors and volunteers from Harambee their dedication and commitment.
Carmen Muiños, from René Furterer, stressed that "Franca is an example for the whole world, not just Africa. Because she develops projects with empathy, leadership and breadth".
I am not an activist, I saw needs and looked for resources.
The award winner, Franca Ovadje, wanted to point out that "It is an inspiration to work for African women" and the award has been a surprise for her since she does not consider herself an "activist, I have simply seen needs in my environment and have looked for resources and people who could provide solutions".
100 million women lack opportunities
Ovadje shared that she never felt discriminated against for being a woman thanks to a completely egalitarian education received in her family, but pointed out that "in Nigeria there are more than 100 million women and most of them have not had these opportunities" and pointed out some aspects in which discrimination for being a woman still persists.
Ovadje has pointed to the cultural patterns that exist in certain parts of Africa as the main obstacle to the development of African women's potential. This is why a key boost in women's education is needed: "Empowering women to believe in themselves can only be achieved through education, because after all, if a male colleague wants to discriminate against you, if you don't let him, he will have a hard time".
Women entrepreneurs face greater difficulties, for example, in dealing with banks and obtaining guarantees. This is decreasing, thanks to the good experience of companies started by women.
Among the projects promoted by this Nigerian economist is a leadership program for students at the University of Lagos, Ibadan and Nigeria through which more than a thousand girls have "discovered themselves and found their voice".
Franca Ovadje, Harambee 2022 Award.
Education, a sine qua non condition
Franca Ovadje has been clear on the basis of the progress of African nations: the possibility of "access to good education" which Ovadje has underlined as the key to development in Africa: "Only a woman who considers herself equal to men can empower her children: men and women. Education is a sine qua non condition for economic, social and political empowerment".
The Tech Power Project
The prize money will go towards a new Tech Power project through which Ovadje wants to promote the education and training of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and help them find professional success in these fields.
Ovadje wanted to dedicate this award to his parents "from whom I learned that the dignity of a person does not depend on what he has but on what he is, a child of God".
A recent experience lived by the author reminds him of the drama of the disenchanted guy in Gabriel García Márquez's micro-story, which gives rise to a reflection on his own life.
Vitus Ntube-April 26, 2022-Reading time: 4minutes
Haruki Murakami has a short story entitled "Drive my car". It is a story with which I cannot claim to have things in common with me. I drive, but I can't drive here in Rome and I don't have my own car. The protagonist of the story of Murakami He always sensed a certain tension and felt a kind of friction in the air when he was driven by women. He came to the conclusion, based on the times he had ridden in cars driven by women, that most female drivers fell into one of two categories: they were either a little too aggressive or a little too timid. I can't claim to own his conclusion, but there are certain things I can claim from the story. I can claim that I have "traveled" in many cars on the roads of Rome, and without any nervousness. He "traveled"In these cars not from the passenger seats but from my friend's car. Let me explain.
Whenever I go out with my friend, I sometimes observe what is going on in the other cars around me. It is an experience that I find rich and unique. Of course, I don't tune out the many conversations I have with my friend along the way, but from time to time I tend to look out the window at the parallel vehicle or what I might find on the shoulder.
My recent experience in doing this reminded me of the drama of that disenchanted guy in the micro-story by Gabriel García Márquez. The guy "threw himself into the street from the tenth floor, and as he fell he was seeing through the windows the intimacy of his neighbors, the little domestic tragedies, the furtive loves, the brief moments of happiness, news of which had never reached the common staircase, so that in the instant of bursting against the pavement of the street he had completely changed his conception of the world, and had come to the conclusion that that life which he was leaving forever through the back door was worth living."
I had a similar experience through the windows of the cars on the road. My experience through the windows, instead of being vertical like the disenchanted guy on the tenth floor, was horizontal next to the parallel cars on the road.
The other afternoon, with my friend, we passed by a small car. Fiat, with an older couple having a gentle conversation. I could tell by the rhythm of their lip movements.
At the stoplight, as well as two cars on the pole of a career of Formula 1I could see the other car nearby for the few seconds it took for the red light to turn green. I saw a mother and her young son in their sports clothes. The boy was wearing the clothes of a soccer team from Rome. I saw the shield. It had the image of the she-wolf feeding two small children: Romulo y RowingNostalgic! It conjured up an image of a soccer team I had at the time with my friends. Our team was called Romulus and Remus. It was a name we chose to express the fraternity that existed on our team. The young man had a tired look on his face, watching a video on his phone with his headphones plugged in. Maybe he was watching certain YouTube videos about soccer stuff.
Just then the traffic light turned green and my friend sped out of the line. There was no time to see the tired young man and his mother on their way home. We left them behind. The road was clear, just seconds away from rejoining the group ahead of us. Just then I saw a stone statue. Very common in Rome. I remembered Julius Caesar thanks to the sonnets of Shakespeare have been my dose of poetry these days. I spontaneously repeated these words to myself: "Beware of the ides of March". It dawned on me that the next day was the Ides of March. The words of Gross became immediately relevant: "Isn't tomorrow, my boy, the ides of March?". Could this be fate, what is he telling me? Before I could begin to dissect with my friend what luck and fate might mean-it's the kind of conversation he likes-the words of Casio The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with our stars, but with ourselves, who consent to be inferior"! I quickly abandoned the thought, as the parallel cars kept changing. The next window I could see was that of two young ladies in a small car. Smartall smiling and happy. Delighted for them.
In the next window was a man in a suit and tie, apparently on a phone call, because he was gesticulating as he drove. He must have had a long day at work.
In the next window, or rather, in the car with the window open, there was a guy in his early twenties I guess, with music audible to fellow drivers on the road. I say audible music and not blaring. The difference should not be overlooked.
At that point we passed over a small bridge. I saw again what I have seen many times. Locked padlocks on bridges with names on them. Names like Paolo and Francesca o Romeo and Juliet Isn't it true that young people still think of love between two people as something that should last forever? I don't think this is naivete, but rather a reflection of the innocent yearnings of what surrender in true love should be.
Of course, there were many other windows, but the one that gave my friend another topic of conversation was that of a mother, grandmother and two daughters. The daughters, in the background, conversing with their mother and grandmother. Three generations in a joyful dialogue. The Pope Francis was right when he said recently: "If this sap does not come, if this "dripping" -let us say so- from the roots does not come, they will never be able to bloom. Let us not forget that poet that I have quoted so many times: "What is flowery in the tree lives from what is buried in it" (Francisco Luis Bernárdez). Everything that is beautiful in a society is related to the roots of the elderly.
I turned to my friend and told him in Italian: "¡!La vita è bella!"(Life is Beautiful!) and told me that the film is one of his favorites, thinking of the 1997 film of Roberto Benigni. I told him that I had just seen another version in the last few minutes and that, indeed, life is worth living. Luckily, I didn't need the drama of the disenchanted guy to remind me.
The authorVitus Ntube
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"The Catholic Church is a great unknown to many of our fellow citizens."
The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Juan José Omella, opened the sessions of the 119th Plenary Assembly of the Spanish bishops, highlighting in his speech topics such as secularization, the culture of cancellation and the importance of revitalizing the family.
The Archbishop of Barcelona and president of the EEC, Archbishop Juan José Omella, opened the meeting of all the Spanish bishops being held from April 25 to 29 at the Conference headquarters in Madrid.
In his inaugural address, Bishop Omella wanted to highlight the situation in Ukraine, two months after the beginning of the invasion by Russia. In this sense he wanted to emphasize that the Pope "has not spared words to describe "a senseless massacre in which every day there are repeated ravages and atrocities" and the reminder that "any "religious" justification of this war is absurd. The task of churches and religious communities in the midst of this tragedy should contribute to accelerate the achievement of peace, based on justice, truth and forgiveness". Omella wanted to highlight the exemplary action that the Church, through its institutions and faithful, is carrying out in welcoming and caring for the millions of people displaced by this war, without forgetting the need for "a more coordinated action among all public and private actors".
The challenges of the Spanish Church today
Outside the idea of Spain as a Catholic nation, the Archbishop of Barcelona pointed out that "at present, the Catholic Church is a great unknown for many of our fellow citizens".
This lack of knowledge is accentuated by the image that, on many occasions, is given of it in the media, for which the president of the EEC wanted to recall that "the Church has no particular economic, geostrategic or ideological interests".
In this lack of knowledge, and even distrust, the issue of sexual abuse of minors by some members of the Church has perhaps been one of the turning points experienced in our communities. The president of the EEC has highlighted the independent audit on the management of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church in Spain that is being carried out by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo and that it will address "all the cases documented to date and those that may arise both in that office and in the diocesan offices while the study is being carried out".
In addition, Omella pointed out that "the Church has the opportunity to work so that such abuses are not repeated and to uncover this new form of global slavery that is not being addressed".
Family and freedom
Another of the issues in which the Church is currently "playing its cards" is that of the family and the President of the EEC did not want to miss this opportunity to point out that "the family, as a basic natural society, is not, therefore, in function of society and the State, but society and the State are at the service of the family so that it can carry out its own mission of educating its children". This is a clear allusion to legislation and initiatives that seek, from the State, to invade the competences of fathers and mothers at present, as well as others aimed at the elimination of life, whether in the period of gestation or in the face of old age or illness.
He also referred to the curtailment of "religious freedom in areas such as freedom of expression, the limitation of the public manifestation of one's own creed" and also appealed to the necessary and just exercise of conscientious objection as "a guarantee of true coexistence, since it allows a safe space for all against any attempt of abuse of power or imposition of the majority opinion".
Omella explicitly pointed out four points that "are the object of friction with the modus vivendi of the currently dominant ideologies", which he summarized as follows
-the catholic vision of the human being
-sexual morality,
-the identity and mission of women in society,
-and the defense of the family formed by marriage between a man and a woman.
At this point, Omella asked for respect for the different social and political agents since "we can think differently without having to be attacked".
Need for unity not polarization
The request for dialogue, unity and abandonment of sectarianism has been a constant in the various points of Omella's opening speech. Not in vain, the president of the EEC stressed that "our times demand in all a greater solidarity, as well as greater social and political cohesion that keeps us away from frentism and ideological or political polarizations" and this, he emphasized again at various points when referring to the serious economic and social context Spain is going through with "eleven million people in Spain suffering from poverty and six million of them, severe poverty. Almost three million young people, between 16 and 34 years of age, suffer from work and housing problems".
Omella has appealed to the need for a real work from the government institutions stating that "it is clear that the quarrel between politicians does much harm. There is a social weariness with the lack of agreements between the major parties and the inability to collaborate to promote the common good of the citizens".
Synod and mission
As it could not be otherwise, the synod process was very present in the opening address of this Plenary Assembly. A process in which the Church "is rediscovering the path of synodality, which is not that of simple majorities of votes, but the slower, but safer and firmer path of consensus" and always aimed at the evangelizing mission of the Church in which the Archbishop of Barcelona wanted to highlight the participation of the laity.
"The laity who, according to their own vocation to be in the world, are called today to humanize the world and to show the beauty of faith in all environments," said Omella, who wanted to point out that this missionary vocation is only possible "by remaining in the living bond with Christ within the body of his Church".
The agenda for these days
As usual, the Plenary Assembly will receive information on the activities of the various Episcopal Commissions. Among the topics to be discussed are the status of the diocesan phase of the Synod of Bishops. The initiatives launched to address the current situation of the Ukrainian refugees in Spain or different aspects of the European Youth Pilgrimage (PEJ). The project of the new Vocational Pastoral Service of the Spanish Episcopal Conference will also be presented.
During these days, the bishops members of the Plenary Assembly met with the President of the Episcopal Commission for Evangelization, Catechesis and Catechumenate, as well as the President of the Episcopal Subcommission for Interconfessional Relations.
In addition, the election of the bishop delegate of the Spanish Episcopal Conference for the COMECE (Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union) will take place. The election of the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical University of Salamanca is also scheduled, as well as the election of a new member of the Council of Economy.
We have experienced that the "passion, death and resurrection" dynamic has a certain parallel with our daily lives. In this story, the author replicates this itinerary in an episode of Don Giorgio's life, albeit with a nice touch of humor.
It was Sunday, night was falling and don Giorgio was traveling to his mother's house to spend Pasquetta with her. He had celebrated three long Masses and he longed to be reunited with his pillow. He longed for it not so much for the mark embroidered on the pillowcase, 'Michelangelo'.He suspected that the choice of the character (his mother had given it to him as a gift) could be alluding to the artist at best, or to one of the Ninja Turtles, with whom the priest shares certain physical similarities not recognized by him (good physical condition, so far perfect, but also baldness and short stature).
He boarded the Rome-Viterbo intercity train, miraculously found a free seat on the aisle side and collapsed against the green plastic backrest. The car smelled of bread, sweat and tobacco. He took off his collar, stretched his legs a little in the space left by the three ladies who surrounded him with their packages, one beside him and the other two in front, and cheated his sense of duty by taking the Gospel out of the briefcase. Predictably, he was unable to read more than a line: sleep crept up on his head like foam, his eyelids tended to gather, his feet went numb and his head drooped back and forth like a guitarist's in rock and roll.
The priest was reaching a relative peace: the scent of focaccia that danced up from the lady next door's package stunned him, transported him back to his childhood; let's say it worked like Moses' rod with the rock of Horeb, it made his mouth water.
But life is hard. At the next station, a gang of 5 or 6 teenagers dressed as rappers, an outfit flashier than the clergyman the priest wore under his fleece, burst into the wagon with a vulgarity that wounded the night. They were agitated, smelled of amaro or rum, played with blows and laughed loudly. Don Giorgio looked at them out of the corner of his eye and when he saw them taking bottles out of their backpacks to toast, he wondered whether the clink-clink of the clashing glass could be equivalent to the sound of Satan's bells. He immediately corrected himself and formulated a more benevolent judgment: "It's just a bunch of kids who don't know about friendship, how I wish I could teach them...".
He had, in any case, a bad feeling: he measured the strength of the boys, compared it with what he had left and kept the Gospel to adopt the arcane strategy of pretending to be asleep.
The boys conquered the central space of the wagon and the passengers tolerated their arrogance by walking away and turning up the volume on their headphones. The leader of the gang, a tall young man dressed in a white sweatshirt more appropriate for a toga, sunglasses and combing the bangs of his blond hair with his hand as if in a nervous tic, suddenly raised his arm and pointed at don Giorgio with his index finger, in a posture similar to that of Jesus in the painting "Vocazione di san Matteo"Caravaggio, only this choice seemed to have the opposite meaning. Then, the mane lowered his finger, smiled a cruel smile and conspired with his cronies. The priest began to worry, for he still had a few more stations to go to reach his destination.
The boys seemed to make up their minds. They furrowed their brows, squared themselves, and advanced with military step toward the priest's seat while they hummed, emulating with their lips the sound of trombones and trumpets playing the imperial march from Star Wars: "Tan, tan, tan, tan, tan-ta-tan, tan-ta-tan; tin, tin, tin, tin, tin-ti-tin, tin-ti-tin! ...". Don Giorgio remained in the middle of the show, he did not feel like fighting and kept on with his strategy of pretending to sleep. The young men, for their part, noticed some complicit smiles among the passengers, who, hearing the bells of entertainment, had reconnected with the present.
The boys marched up and down the corridor, increasing the intensity of their provocation to achieve their goal: they raised the volume of their singing, dropped a few insults and stamped their feet on the floor. Until one, shameless or naive, dared more and shook don Giorgio's shoulder. The situation became untenable and the priest opened his eyes. He imagined himself as a dragon being disturbed in the heart of the mountain where he guards the treasure; however, the boys only saw a tired, short, though physically fit, round-headed priest with light blue eyes, of an age similar to that of his parents. One commented that he looked like a stray penguin and they laughed.
The ragazzo The boss gulped down what was left in his bottle and confronted the pastor:
- Stand up.
The train was slowing down and don Giorgio got up... not to accept the duel, but to explain, with his best smile, that, "what a coincidence!", he had to get off the train. The tall young man, however, blocked his way. Don Giorgio turned to the other side of the aisle and met the other gang members who were also beating their chests at him.
- What are you doing here at this time of night, dressed in black? Darth Vader? -roared the leader as he combed his mane with his fingers and tilted his head back, as if gargling to celebrate his wit. The rest of the gang joined him with the din of alienated hyenas.
Don Giorgio felt he was on his own Way of the Cross. But Christ is risen," he said to himself, "and I must also represent him in this version...". Suddenly, his light bulb lit up. He covered his mouth with one hand and began to breathe with difficulty, as if he were wearing an oxygen tank. The young people didn't flinch, but the people in the carriage felt uncomfortable. Then Don Giorgio looked up and, between inhalations and throat-clearing exhalations, tried to speak:
– Ghh, uhh, ghh, ghh, uhh.
- What's the matter with you? -asked the boy with a slight break of fear.
– Ghh, uhh, ghh, ghh, uhh.
- What's up!
- I -ghh- I'm-your-father.
The doors closed. For two or three seconds silence filled every space in the carriage; those moments that every comedian has suffered in the interval between the joke and the audience's judgment.
An austere applause sounded from the lady who was guarding the focaccia, breaking the ice. The other ladies around Don Giorgio followed suit. Other passengers took off their headphones and sought the eyes of the young men to reproach them for their excess... The atmosphere had hardened, but that density began to melt with the laughter of the passengers in the back, who were already commenting on the priest's ingenious stratagem. The young men, seeing that the audience was betraying them and that the spell of intimidation had been broken, lost their assurance and huddled by the door with folded arms and heads down, ruminating on their failure. They got off at the next station, jostling and blaming each other.
The priest returned to his seat and asked permission from the lady at the window to look at the platform through the glass. He saw the lion, obfuscated, raging like a little tyrant, and prayed for him. The train was moving forward again, but don Giorgio was still attentive... At the last moment, three boys from the gang turned their heads, found don Giorgio and, cautiously, smiled at him. Good. Maybe he would meet them another day, and then he would invite them to talk a little. The first topic would be friendship, how much they needed it!
- Would you like some focaccia? -asked the woman, who had noticed the effect her scent had on the priest.
- Yes, thank you," he looked stealthily at the options inside the bag and added, mischievously, "I love the one with olives. But you eat it too and join me.
She was happy and listened to him. Don Giorgio took the bread, pressed it lightly with his fingers to feel its freshness and savored it, dreaming, optimistically, of the future of those boys, and of the well-deserved rest he would enjoy with his mother the next day.
After two years of private celebrations in the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, Divine Mercy Sunday was once again celebrated in the presence of the faithful in St. Peter's Basilica. A recurrence initiated by Pope Francis in the midst of the Jubilee of Mercy in 2016.
"If we take upon ourselves the wounds of our neighbor and pour mercy into them, a new hope is reborn in us, which consoles in fatigue". In this way "we meet Jesus, who Jesus, who from the eyes of those who are tested by life, looks at us with mercy and repeats to us: Peace be with you!". This is what Pope Francis said in his homily at the Mass of the Divine Mercy, on the second Sunday of Easter, which this year returned to St. Peter's Basilica with the presence of the faithful, after two years of private celebrations at the nearby Sanctuary of Santo Spirito in Sassia.
Commenting on the Gospel passage of the day, in which Jesus' "Peace be with you!" appears three times, the Pope suggested the "three actions of divine mercy in us" that follow from this account.
The first is a reaction of joy, which arises from having been freely forgiven in spite of our abandonment and denial. An enthusiasm that arises from having experienced once again the presence of the Risen One, succeeding in diverting our attention from ourselves. Hence the invitation: "Let us put the memory of God's embrace and caresses before the memory of our mistakes and falls. In this way we nourish joy. For nothing can remain as before for those who experience the joy of God".
A second reason for joy is that it must be shared with others, after having experienced it: "if we know firsthand what it means to be reborn, after an experience that seemed to have no way out, then it becomes necessary to share the bread of mercy with those around us. Let us feel called to this," Francis added. And again: "Let us ask ourselves: I, here where I live, in the family, at work, in my community, do I promote communion, am I an artisan of reconciliation? Do I commit myself to calm conflicts, to bring forgiveness where there is hatred, peace where there is rancor?"
Finally, there is the example of Thomas, which is something like "the story of every believer", in which it is common to witness a crisis of faith. The answer lies in the "test" of wounds, as happened between the disciple and Jesus. "Let us ask ourselves then if in this last time we have touched the wounds of someone suffering in body or in spirit; if we have brought peace to a wounded body or to a broken spirit; if we have spent a little time listening, accompanying and consoling." This is the secret, Pope Francis concluded, to feeling the Lord's peace in one's own life and the joy of having met him again.
Anniversary
The anniversary of the Divine Mercy was established, as we will recall, by St. John Paul II during the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, and refers to the cult of the Polish saint Sister Faustina Kowalska, who in her mystical visions had indications of how to paint the image of the merciful Jesus.
Last year marked the 90th anniversary of the revelation of that image, and it was Pope Francis himself who presided at a Holy Mass in Santo Spirito in Sassia - a church that Pope Wojtyla had dedicated to the devotion of the Divine Mercy and elevated to a Shrine in 1994 - in the presence of prisoners, doctors, nurses and refugees from Africa and the Middle East.
Mercy for war
Greeting the Polish faithful at last Wednesday's audience, the Pope recalled that "Christ teaches us that man not only experiences God's mercy, but is also called to show it to his neighbor". He then thanked the people from whom the service being celebrated today comes for their mercy "towards so many refugees from Ukraine, who have found in Poland open doors and generous hearts".
Another reference to the ongoing war and how to live it with a sense of mercy was made by Francis when he received a group of pilgrims in audience on Saturday, to whom he reminded them how God mourns the victims of an armed conflict that "is destroying all the peoples involved," the victors, the losers and those who superficially look at what is happening. We entrust to Mary, Mother of Mercy, all that is happening at this moment in the world.
Missionaries of Mercy
Mercy also refers to the so-called "Missionaries", those priests who have received the special mandate to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation even in difficult situations and "peripheries", both human and geographical. They too are the fruit of the Jubilee of Mercy, desired by the express wish of Pope Francis, and today there are 1040 of them in the world, according to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which animates their coordination.
These days they are meeting in Rome to reflect on their task as a "sign of welcome". They come from various countries of the world, from all continents, and there are also several priests from Ukraine for whom a special visa to leave the country has been obtained.
In addition to several workshops to share experiences and pastoral practices developed during the pandemic, they attended several talks, including one by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household, Capuchin Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa. They then participated in Holy Mass at St. Peter's this Sunday and will conclude the meeting tomorrow by attending an audience with Pope Francis.
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Francis' diplomacy
