In the Roman basilica of Santa Maria MaggioreIn the church, pieces of the manger that, according to the tradition of the first centuries, welcomed the Holy Child of Bethlehem, are venerated. The relics are preserved today in the confessiounder the main altar, in a precious crystal reliquary surmounted by a golden child, the work of the goldsmith Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839).
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In a society where Catholicism is no longer an influential cultural force, Christians are called to strive to inculturate the Christian faith in the world.
The culture of the 21st century seems to be subject to an inertia that is distancing it from Christianity. It certainly maintains, in countries with a Christian tradition such as Spain, links that are manifested in popular festivals and traditions. However, faith is not, as in other times, the driving force of cultural, intellectual or artistic creation. This is particularly worrisome if we recall the thought of St. Paul VI, which John Paul II also made his own: "A faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully embraced, not fully thought out, not faithfully lived.". Faith aspires to be incarnated in culture, to encourage a moral ecosystem that is also more humane.
As University of San Diego professor Steven D. Smith recently emphasized in his essay, "The University of San Diego is the only university in the U.S. to offer a new approach to the problem. Pagans and Christians in the CityThe dominant spiritual habitat in the West is a new immanentist paganism. The critical theory in its different versions (including the woke) proposes a Gnostic pseudo-religion, with new original sins, dogmas and cults, whose objective is the dismantling of an entire civilization. Can the Christian-rooted West survive this challenge, or is it doomed to die as Oswald Spengler predicted?
It is difficult to guess the future. Moreover, Christianity is not irretrievably linked to any civilization. However, it is no less true that in these early years of the 21st century, hopeful proposals have been made regarding the role of Christianity in a cultural renaissance of the West.
Rob Dreher in his Benedictine Option proposes a model that distances itself from the paganized world in order to preserve a strong identity in the face of the surrounding hostility, strong communities that live against the tide. Benedict XVI, for his part, took up again some time ago the idea of "creative minorities" made up of believers and non-believers who find in Christianity (the religion of the Lógos) a first-rate source of inspiration for revitalizing culture. Finally, in some American intellectual circles, another option inspired by the teachings of St. Josemaría has been formulated: The Escriva Option. In a writing dated 1934, this saint compared ordinary Christians to a "intravenous injection, put into society's bloodstream".a healing transformation from within. That is: a transformation that comes from a strong spiritual life and a deep and demanding intellectual formation.
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The Catholic Church celebrates one of the most beloved and deeply rooted solemnities in the hearts of the faithful: the Immaculate Conception.
"Whenever we turn our gaze to the Immaculate Conception there will be fruit.""We have once again remembered that Spain is the land of Mary".There have been numerous writings, studies and apologetics that, especially since the 14th century, have been developed around this dogma of faith that defends the virginal conception of Mary: the preservation of original sin, already from her conception in her mother's womb, to the one who would be the Mother of God.
Already in Genesis, we find one of the foundations, which would later be wonderfully captured in artistic allegories, of this preservation of Mary from original sin: "I put hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring; she will crush your head when you strike her heel".
In the New Testament, the Gospel of St. Luke records how the angel calls to Mary "full of grace"i.e, "who is not in possession of sin". Although already since the first centuries of our faith some Greek and Latin church fathers refer to Mother God as "immaculate"The first news about the celebration of this feast dates back to the 7th century, in several monasteries in Palestine, for example, St. Justin or St. Irenaeus.
The conviction of the virginal conception of Holy Mary has accompanied the Christian people since the beginning of the faith. The proclamation of Mary as the Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus against the Nestorian heresy, in some way, although not explicitly, reflected this conviction.
Although the definition of the dogma in the Catholic Church will take time to arrive, already in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the immaculist question takes a central place in the writings of the faith with figures such as Blessed John Duns Scotus. Pius IX himself in "Ineffabilis Deus", the apostolic letter in which he declared the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, recalls this sentiment of the faithful, emphasizing how "from the earliest times, prelates, ecclesiastics, religious orders, and even emperors and kings themselves, earnestly begged this Apostolic See to define the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God as a dogma of Catholic faith".
Spain was, from very early on, a nation with a clear immaculist sentiment: popular fervor gave birth, from very early on, to the first feasts and artistic manifestations that reflect this fervor for the Mother of God and her Immaculate Conception.
In Spain, as early as the seventh century, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A large number of medieval liturgical texts show that the feast of the Immaculate Conception was kept in the thirteenth century, increased its popularity in the fourteenth century and spread widely throughout Spain during the fifteenth century, especially after the recovery of the territories of southern Spain by the crown of Castile. In the 16th century we witnessed a proliferation of confraternities that were placed under the invocation of the Pure and Clean Conception of Mary.
During these years, there were many embassies that Spanish monarchs, ecclesiastics and nobles presented to the Pope, asking for a formal declaration of what was a universal feeling among the Catholic people. Although the Dogma would still have to wait, the successive Popes endorsed, in an indirect way, the immaculist doctrine, sponsoring and promoting this devotion throughout Europe and the Spanish-American territories.
The peak of the immaculist fervor would be the 17th century, a time when we find examples of a very strong and widespread devotion to the Immaculate Conception with such notable examples as Valladolid or Seville, whose city and clergy stood as an example of this Marian fervor, multiplying, by then, liturgical feasts, associations and brotherhoods and, therefore, the artistic manifestations in painting, sculpture and dedications of temples to the Immaculate Conception. Huelva, belonging to the diocesan territory of Seville, would be the first city in Spain to dedicate a temple to the Immaculate Conception.
In these years there are many known as Immaculate vowsThe University of Toledo, for example, made such a vow on December 10, 1617, to be followed by universities as important as Salamanca (which played an important role in the petition to the Pope for the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception), Granada or Valladolid. Along with these university vows, cities, some religious orders and even certain Hispanic dioceses, made this vow of defense of the immaculist doctrine that would translate into new petitions to Rome in favor of this dogma.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will experience moments of ups and downs in the expansion and strength of devotion to Our Lady in the mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
The influence of French ideas, the wars and invasions suffered in Spain caused problems for many corporations, brotherhoods and religious congregations. Although Charles II, with the approval of Clement XIII, declared in 1760 to the Immaculate Virgin Patron Saint of Spain and all its possessions and in 1800, extended to all universities in Spain the obligation to swear the oath of defense of the Immaculate Conception.
Half a century later, the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Bernadette Soubirous under this name, would lead to an explosion of fervor for the Immaculate Conception in the 19th century throughout the Catholic world.
In 1857, the famous monument to the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. The image, the work of Luigi PolettiThe column, which is 12 meters high, is crowned by a column. Roman firefighters hoisted the column and the image of Our Lady. Hence the annual tradition in which the firefighters of Rome place a bouquet on top of the column every December 8.
Despite the advance of secularism and the tumultuous years of the late 19th and 20th centuries, devotion to the Immaculate Conception continued to be promoted by the Catholic Church and was one of the dogmas with the greatest attention to modern Marian documentation and theology as can be seen in Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, by J.L Bastero.
The first formulas to represent that the Virgin Mary had been conceived free of original sin from the first moment of her Conception were based on the passages of her childhood, narrated in various apocryphal books, and which showed the story of her parents, Joachim and Anne, by means of narrative images such as the chaste embrace, or kiss, before the Golden Gate.
In addition to these narrative types, other images of a conceptual nature were added, such as the types of Santa Ana triple or the Jesse tree. However, it would be the "Tota Pulchra"The representative line inherited from the Middle Ages, which would settle and develop in sculptural and pictorial iconography.
On a regular basis, Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644) is considered the master of immaculist iconography. Although the motif was also treated by other artists such as Francisco Herrera el Viejo who painted a Virgin of the Immaculate Conception in which most of the images alluding to the purity of Mary are located in the lower landscape.
In his work Art of PaintingPacheco dictated the master lines for the representation of the Immaculate that we find in his works: a young woman dressed in white tunic and blue cloak, symbols of purity and eternity respectively, crowned with twelve stars (stellarium), the crescent moon downward and a snake at her feet symbolizing her dominion over sin. The figure of the Virgin would have been surrounded by an oval glow of golden tones.
The influence of this representative line is evident in other artists such as Zurbarán and, with slight variations by his son-in-law, Velázquez and other painters such as Ribera or later, Goya himself.
However, it would be Bartolomé Esteban Murillo who, in the field of painting, would stand out in this field with a work of more than twenty paintings of the Immaculate Conception.
The devotion to the Immaculate Conception has been captured, especially since the 17th century, by numerous artists from all over the world, being, in addition to works of devotion, true plastic catechesis.
The symbols collected in the painting or in the carvings of these images of the Immaculate Conception, serve, to all Catholics, as a reminder and recognition of truths of faith, biblical passages, invocations of the litanies of Laurel and Marian glories. Over time, these symbols vary in their presence and importance in artistic representations, although those referring to the age of the Virgin and the color of her vestments remain constant.
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More than two million children around the world receive a daily meal in an educational institution thanks to Mary's Meals. The founder of this NGO, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, is convinced that physical nutrition and education must go hand in hand to end poverty in the world.
A few weeks ago, Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow visited Spain to talk to the students of the Francisco de Vitoria University to raise awareness of Mary's Meals and its fight to end hunger in the world.
18 euros is what it costs to feed a child every school day for a year and this NGO, linked to the protection of the Virgin Mary and the Shrine of Medjugorje, distributes, through its volunteers, more than two million meals in schools, educational centers, prisons or migrant centers.
In this interview with Omnes, Mary's Meals founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow emphasizes how "Mary's Meals is a beautiful opportunity to be apostles of love and Our Lady continues to invite us to be apostles of love".
How and why was Mary's meals born?
-In 1992, my brother and I launched an appeal to help those suffering from the atrocities of the Bosnian war. The impetus of this appeal led me to set up a registered charity, Scottish International Relief (SIR), where we worked for ten years. Over those years, we did a lot of work in Romania with HIV-positive children, and also in West Africa and Liberia during their civil war: lots of different things and lots of different situations, but no real focus.
The Mary's Meals global campaign was born in 2002, when I visited Malawi during a famine. We were running very simple emergency feeding programs, taking food from the cities to the villages. While we were doing that, I met a family that had a huge impact on me and really sparked the birth of Mary's Meals. They lived in a two-room mud hut, the father had been dead for two years and the mother was dying of AIDS, lying on the floor with her children around her. I started talking to the oldest son, Edward, and asked him what his dreams in life were. Edward replied simply, "To have enough food to eat and to go to school someday."
Edward's response was something we had encountered time and time again, working in the poorest communities in the world. We were continually encountering children who were not going to school because of poverty. And it has been proven, time and time again, that a basic education for all is the key to lifting the world's poorest communities out of poverty. Her words brought this reality into focus and Mary's Meals became a simple answer to this situation.
We are convinced that Mary's Meals is not just an idea but something that we have seen really work.
Mary's meals is supported by thousands of volunteers who make donations that go almost entirely to food and emergency projects. How is an NGO like this managed? Where do your volunteers come from?
-Mary's Meals' work is made up of many small acts of love, and we rely on thousands of volunteers every day to make our program a reality.
Our school feeding programs are owned and managed by the local communities in the countries where we operate.
Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow. Founder of Mary's Meals
The whole model is based on the idea of local ownership. Our school feeding programs are owned and managed by the local communities in the countries where we operate. And it is important that volunteers in those countries have the opportunity to take ownership of the program and learn from the experience, so that they can lead the way in supporting education and school feeding in their own environment.
Sometimes in humanitarian aid there is a danger that those of us in the richer countries are the givers and those in places like Africa and India are simply passive recipients of our aid. At Mary's Meals this is not the case at all. It's about mutual respect and local ownership of the project, where a lot of people from all over the world walk together with the same goal. Whether it's the people in the West who give the money to buy the food or the people in Malawi who get up early in the morning to light the fires to cook the food that is served, we are all united in that same mission.
Mary's Meals makes reference to the Virgin Mary, in fact, Christ is the food of all souls, how has your Christian vision of life influenced this task?
-Mary's Meals is a Madonna project from the beginning. She takes care of it. We carry the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who educated her own son in poverty. I think Mary's Meals is a beautiful opportunity to be apostles of love and Our Lady continues to invite us to be apostles of love. Anyone in any situation can be part of this mission, and that is one of the things I love so much about Mary's Meals. With your help we are feeding more than two million children every school day in 20 countries.
The southwestern city of Medjugorje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, remains absolutely the center of this beautiful project that is growing all over the world. We have an information center in Medjugorje, so many pilgrims who come here meet Mary's Meals. Today, we have Mary's Meals organizations in 18 countries that exist for the purpose of raising awareness and funds and most of those organizations have been born through people discovering Mary's Meals in Medjugorje.
Most of our organizations have been born through people discovering Mary's Meals in Medjugorje.
Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow. Founder of Mary's Meals
Faith, the Gospel and Medjugorje are at the center of my life. The starting point of everything I do is to pray and try to live Our Lady's messages. It's not about going out and doing things, it's about doing what Our Lady asks every day. Then, perhaps, God will call us to do other things.
I continue to be inspired by my Catholic faith and my experience over the years doing this work has strengthened my faith again and again, seeing God's providence at work. When we have needed something to keep feeding the children, God has always provided.
Mary's meals relies on volunteers from many different backgrounds. How can you support Mary's meals campaigns?
-Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, their goods, their skills, their time or their prayers and, through this participation, to provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world's poorest communities.
Without passionate and motivated volunteers, Mary's Meals cannot function. We are a global grassroots movement, and an intrinsic part of our work is to involve as many people as possible, recognizing that each has a unique role to play in this mission.
This incredible movement has grown around the world. We are getting more and more support from companies that do all kinds of creative things. We get support from foundations. Those large donations help us accelerate and move forward. But most of all, we're building a grassroots movement of many, many people who make more modest donations, people who give us that amount of money to feed a child for a year.
As the nature of our intervention is medium to long term and we intend to walk alongside these communities for several years, we believe that building this grassroots movement is the key to enable us to make that promise, to walk with them, until the time when we are
My experience of these years doing this work has strengthened my faith again and again, seeing God's providence at work.
Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow. Founder of Mary's Meals
Do you think that society has been gaining in solidarity in recent years or, on the contrary, have we become "accustomed" to seeing scenes of hunger in the world?
-Unfortunately, when we look at the world today, it's not good. After decades of progress in the fight against world hunger, we are going backwards in a horrible way. Millions upon millions of people falling into chronic hunger. Millions of children facing a new hunger in this world.
There are an estimated 75 million children, like Edward, who need school meals. More than 58 million of them are out of school and many more are in school, too hungry to learn. If we are serious about creating a sustainable solution to world hunger, that's where we need to start - we can't pass these children by.
What kind of sustainable future is there if children don't go to school, if they don't eat, if they can't grow and develop and be the people they are meant to be? In the countries where we are already working, there is a lot more to do, not to mention the countries that are still waiting. So there is no lack of work to be done.
Subscribe to Omnes magazine and enjoy exclusive content for subscribers.
You will have access to all Omnes
Subscribe to Omnes magazine and enjoy exclusive content for subscribers.
You will have access to all Omnes
More than two million children around the world receive a daily meal in an educational center thanks to Mary's Meals. The founder of this NGO, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, is convinced that physical nutrition and education must go hand in hand to end poverty in the world.
A few weeks ago, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow visited Spain to talk to students at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, and to raise awareness of Mary's Meals and its fight to end world hunger.
18 euros is what it costs to feed a child every school day for a year and this NGO, linked to the protection of the Virgin Mary and the Shrine of Medjugorje, distributes, through its volunteers, more than two million meals in schools, educational centers, prisons or migrant centers.
In this interview granted to Omnes, the founder of Mary's Meals, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, underlines how "Mary's Meals is a beautiful opportunity to be apostles of love and Our Lady continues to invite us to be apostles of love".
How and why was Mary's Meals born?
-In 1992, my brother and I launched an appeal for aid to help those suffering the atrocities of the Bosnian war. The momentum behind this appeal led me to set up a registered charity, Scottish International Relief (SIR), which we worked under for ten years. We did a lot of work over the years in Romania with children who were HIV positive, and also in West Africa and Liberia during their civil war - a lot of different things and lots of different situations but with no real focus.
The global Mary's Meals campaign was born in 2002 when I visited Malawi during a famine. We were delivering very simple emergency feeding programs, taking food from the cities into villages. While we were doing that, I met a family that had a huge impact on me and really triggered the birth of Mary's Meals. They lived in a two-bedroom mud hut, the father had died two years previously and the mother was dying of AIDS. She was lying on the floor with her children all around her. I started speaking to her eldest son, Edward, and asked him what his dreams were in life. Edward replied simply: "To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day."
Edward's response was something we had encountered over and over again, working in the world's poorest communities. We continually met children who weren't going to school because of poverty. And it's been proven, time and time again, that a basic education for all is the key to lifting the world's poorest communities out of poverty. His words really brought that into this sharp focus and Mary's Meals became the simple response to that situation.
We believe Mary's Meals is a simple solution to world hunger, and it's not just an idea; it's something we've seen that really works.
Mary's Meals is supported by thousands of volunteers who make donations that go almost entirely to food and emergency projects. How do you manage an NGO like this? Where do your volunteers come from?
-The work of Mary's Meals is made up of lots of little acts of love, and we rely on thousands of volunteers every day to make our program a reality.
The whole model is rooted in the idea of local ownership. Our school feeding programs are owned and run by local communities in the countries in which we operate. And it's important that volunteers there get the opportunity to take ownership of the program and learn from the experience, so they can take a lead in building support for education and school feeding in their own setting.
There's a danger sometimes in humanitarian aid work that those of us from the wealthier countries are the givers and the people in places like Africa and India are simply passive receivers of our aid. It's not like that at all at Mary's Meals. It's about mutual respect and local ownership of the project, where a whole lot of us around the world walk together with the same objective. Whether that be people in the West who are giving the money to buy the food or the people in Malawi who get up at first light to light the fires to cook the food that they serve - we are all united in that same mission.
Mary's Meals makes reference to the Virgin Mary, indeed, Christ is the nourishment of all souls, how has your Christian vision of life influenced this task?
-Mary's Meals is Our Lady's project from the outset. She is looking after it. We are named after Mary, the mother of Jesus, who brought up her own child in poverty. I think Mary's Meals is a beautiful opportunity to be apostles of love and our Lady keeps inviting us to be apostles of love. Anyone in any situation can be part of this mission, and that's one of the things I love so much about Mary's Meals. With her help we are now feeding more than two million children every school day across 20 countries.
The southwestern town of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to be absolutely at the center of this beautiful thing that is growing around the world. We have an information centre in Medjugorje, so many pilgrims who come encounter Mary's Meals. In 18 countries today, we have Mary's Meals organisations that exist for the purpose of raising awareness and fundraising and most of those organisations have been born through people discovering Mary's Meals in Medjugorje.
Faith, the Gospel and Medjugorje are at the centre of my life. The starting point for everything that I do is to pray and to try living Our Lady's messages. It is not about going out and doing things but doing what Our Lady asks every day. Then, perhaps, God will call us to do other things. I continue to be inspired by my Catholic faith and my experience these years doing this work has strengthened my faith over and over again, seeing God's providence at work. When we've needed something to keep feeding the children, God has always provided.
Mary's Meals relies on volunteers from very different backgrounds, in this sense, how can Mary's Meals campaigns be supported?
- Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world's poorest communities.
Without passionate, motivated volunteers, Mary's Meals cannot function. We are a grassroots global movement, and an intrinsic part of our work is to involve as many people as possible, recognising that each has a unique part to play in this mission.
This incredible movement has grown across the world. We get more and more support from corporates doing all kinds of creative things. We get support from foundations. Those bigger gifts really help us to accelerate and go forward. But most of all, we're building a grassroots movement of many, many people making more modest donations, people giving us that amount of money to feed a child for a year.
As the nature of our intervention is mid to long-term and we intend to walk alongside these communities for a number of years, we believe building this grassroots movement is the key to enabling us to make that pledge, to walk with them, until such a time that we are redundant.
Do you think that society has been growing in solidarity in recent years or, on the contrary, have we got used to seeing scenes of hunger in the world?
-Sadly, when we look out there at the world today, it's not good. After decades of progress in the battle with global hunger, we're going backwards in a horrible way. Millions and millions of people sliding into chronic hunger. Millions of children facing new hunger in this world.
There are an estimated 75 million children, like Edward, who are in need of meals at school. More than 58 million of them are out of school and many more are in school, too hungry to learn. If we're serious about creating a sustainable solution to world hunger, that's where we have to begin, we can't go past those children. What kind of sustainable future is there if children aren't in school, if they're not eating, if they're not able to grow and develop and be the people they are meant to be? In the countries where we're already working, there's so much more to do, let alone the countries that are still waiting. So, there's no shortage of work to do.
How and why was Mary's Meals born?
-In 1992, my brother and I launched an appeal for aid to help those suffering the atrocities of the Bosnian war. The momentum behind this appeal led me to set up a registered charity, Scottish International Relief (SIR), which we worked under for ten years. We did a lot of work over the years in Romania with children who were HIV positive, and also in West Africa and Liberia during their civil war - a lot of different things and lots of different situations but with no real focus.
The global Mary's Meals campaign was born in 2002 when I visited Malawi during a famine. We were delivering very simple emergency feeding programs, taking food from the cities into villages. While we were doing that, I met a family that had a huge impact on me and really triggered the birth of Mary's Meals. They lived in a two-bedroom mud hut, the father had died two years previously and the mother was dying of AIDS. She was lying on the floor with her children all around her. I started speaking to her eldest son, Edward, and asked him what his dreams were in life. Edward replied simply: "To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day."
Edward's response was something we had encountered over and over again, working in the world's poorest communities. We continually met children who weren't going to school because of poverty. And it's been proven, time and time again, that a basic education for all is the key to lifting the world's poorest communities out of poverty. His words really brought that into this sharp focus and Mary's Meals became the simple response to that situation.
We believe Mary's Meals is a simple solution to world hunger, and it's not just an idea; it's something we've seen that really works.
Mary's Meals is supported by thousands of volunteers who make donations that go almost entirely to food and emergency projects. How do you manage an NGO like this? Where do your volunteers come from?
-The work of Mary's Meals is made up of lots of little acts of love, and we rely on thousands of volunteers every day to make our program a reality.
The whole model is rooted in the idea of local ownership. Our school feeding programs are owned and run by local communities in the countries in which we operate. And it's important that volunteers there get the opportunity to take ownership of the program and learn from the experience, so they can take a lead in building support for education and school feeding in their own setting.
There's a danger sometimes in humanitarian aid work that those of us from the wealthier countries are the givers and the people in places like Africa and India are simply passive receivers of our aid. It's not like that at all at Mary's Meals. It's about mutual respect and local ownership of the project, where a whole lot of us around the world walk together with the same objective. Whether that be people in the West who are giving the money to buy the food or the people in Malawi who get up at first light to light the fires to cook the food that they serve - we are all united in that same mission.
You started with "small-scale" help but have since become a large organization. Do you think that, when you encounter the reality of poverty, even in our own cities, your sensitivity becomes greater?
-Our mission has always been to help those suffering extreme poverty in the world's poorest communities, where hunger often prevents children from going to school and gaining an education. We make it possible for those children to receive a daily meal and remain in school which, in turn, offers them the chance to reach their potential and fulfill their dreams. There are many great charities across the UK, Europe, and beyond, who work with children and families, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with them in the belief that every child in the world deserves to thrive and to look forward to a brighter future.
Mary's Meals makes reference to the Virgin Mary, indeed, Christ is the nourishment of all souls, how has your Christian vision of life influenced this task?
-Mary's Meals is Our Lady's project from the outset. She is looking after it. We are named after Mary, the mother of Jesus, who brought up her own child in poverty. I think Mary's Meals is a beautiful opportunity to be apostles of love and our Lady keeps inviting us to be apostles of love. Anyone in any situation can be part of this mission, and that's one of the things I love so much about Mary's Meals. With her help we are now feeding more than two million children every school day across 20 countries.
The southwestern town of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to be absolutely at the center of this beautiful thing that is growing around the world. We have an information centre in Medjugorje, so many pilgrims who come encounter Mary's Meals. In 18 countries today, we have Mary's Meals organisations that exist for the purpose of raising awareness and fundraising and most of those organisations have been born through people discovering Mary's Meals in Medjugorje.
Faith, the Gospel and Medjugorje are at the centre of my life. The starting point for everything that I do is to pray and to try living Our Lady's messages. It is not about going out and doing things but doing what Our Lady asks every day. Then, perhaps, God will call us to do other things. I continue to be inspired by my Catholic faith and my experience these years doing this work has strengthened my faith over and over again, seeing God's providence at work. When we've needed something to keep feeding the children, God has always provided.
Mary's Meals relies on volunteers from very different backgrounds, in this sense, how can Mary's Meals campaigns be supported?
- Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world's poorest communities.
Without passionate, motivated volunteers, Mary's Meals cannot function. We are a grassroots global movement, and an intrinsic part of our work is to involve as many people as possible, recognising that each has a unique part to play in this mission.
This incredible movement has grown across the world. We get more and more support from corporates doing all kinds of creative things. We get support from foundations. Those bigger gifts really help us to accelerate and go forward. But most of all, we're building a grassroots movement of many, many people making more modest donations, people giving us that amount of money to feed a child for a year.
As the nature of our intervention is mid to long-term and we intend to walk alongside these communities for a number of years, we believe building this grassroots movement is the key to enabling us to make that pledge, to walk with them, until such a time that we are redundant.
Do you think that society has been growing in solidarity in recent years or, on the contrary, have we got used to seeing scenes of hunger in the world?
-Sadly, when we look out there at the world today, it's not good. After decades of progress in the battle with global hunger, we're going backwards in a horrible way. Millions and millions of people sliding into chronic hunger. Millions of children facing new hunger in this world.
There are an estimated 75 million children, like Edward, who are in need of meals at school. More than 58 million of them are out of school and many more are in school, too hungry to learn. If we're serious about creating a sustainable solution to world hunger, that's where we have to begin, we can't go past those children. What kind of sustainable future is there if children aren't in school, if they're not eating, if they're not able to grow and develop and be the people they are meant to be? In the countries where we're already working, there's so much more to do, let alone the countries that are still waiting. So, there's no shortage of work to do.
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In 2015, Adriana and Miguel, a husband and wife team of publicists, launched Have a God TimeSince then, through small reflections on various social networks and through the sale of gift products, this project helps to live the Christian life and to recover the true meaning of feasts and celebrations.
How and why was Have a God Time born? Since what year have you been working on this project?
-Have a God Time is born of an encounter with the Lord. From a precious path of personal transformation. In 2011 we did the course Alpha and there we discovered the Holy Spirit and our parish. We discovered a community of people transformed and united in Christ and in a joy that was not normal. We wanted to be part of it.
That same year Pope Benedict XVI came and, on the way to Cuatro Vientos, among the crowd excited to meet the Pope and carrying the pilgrim's backpack, the idea of creating Christian products for everyday use came up. We realized that only in those moments, and as a group, we Catholics were brave enough to show our faith. Why not show our faith on a daily basis with current items that can be used every day? Why not show what we are? With joy and simplicity.
We are publicists and we have been working for 10 years in our own communication studio, we decided in our spare time to start sketching and designing Christian products to evangelize. From mugs, aprons, baby baskets, all with a different and modern style. More and more free time we had, and our heart wanted more and more. We felt that this filled us much more than the work we had and at a certain point we decided to put our vocation at the service of the Lord and bet for Have a God Time. In 2015 we launched the website www.haveagodtime.es.
In addition to a "sales channel", HGT launches daily phrases of saints, short resources for prayer or reflection, how do you combine this double aspect of product and "spiritual tips"?
–Have a God time is not just an online store, it is a project to evangelize. When you have an encounter with the Lord, everything changes, your life is transformed, how can you not want to share this with the rest of the world?
In November 2013 Pope Francis published the Evangeli Gaudium and said: "I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the objectives, style and methods of evangelization. Let us be 'street people of the faith', happy to take Jesus Christ to every corner, to every square, to every corner of the earth.". He was confirming our project: We want to take Jesus Christ to every house, to the whole world. It is not only the idea of selling a product, which we also want to be able to make a living from it, but also the message we want to transmit.
The message of a living Jesus Christ who died for us to save us. Every morning we post an inspirational phrase on social media: Instagram, etc. We believe it is a very effective tool to reach everyone. In fact we post more phrases than product. Many people don't know that we are an online store.
HGT not only sells "religious products" but also articles for daily use: bread baskets, notebooks... with phrases of saints, snippets of prayers... Do these little things help to make the Christian life of families more natural?
-Of course, we want God to be present at every moment of the day. This helps us to keep him present, to bear witness to him as well. Not only for those at home, but for those who come and see that in our house the Lord occupies the first place.
God has been taken out of the houses. Nobody hangs a crucifix anymore, nobody talks about God. We Christians have to be witnesses and show our faith without complexes or fears.
A breadbasket Give us today our daily bread to remember who it is that provides for us and to be thankful, an apron of God is poutinga breakfast mug that says FAITH AND COFFEE...Now that Christmas is coming and it seems that only Santa Claus is on the market, to re-enter into the mystery of the child who is born, selling Baby Jesus painted by some nuns... ornaments that they put up God is born... It is important to focus and be consistent with who we are and what we celebrate.
One of the lines you work on is to help cloistered monasteries with the sale of their products. How do they thank you? Which ones do you like the most?
-We would love to collaborate with more convents and nuns because their prayer sustains the world. How important it is! And we are Church, so we have to help them sustain themselves too. They do beautiful work. Some paint, some sew..... People love to know that some of our products are made by them. The ones they like the most are the cloth crosses, to hang, and the little Jesus in his manger.
Do you make packs suitable for Christmas or gifts for new marriages, communions... Do they help to recover the true meaning of Christian celebrations, even for people who are a little more detached from religious practice?
-We want to be consistent with our beliefs. Therefore, when a baby is born, we thank God for the gift of life; when a baby is baptized, we give a gift to welcome him or her into the Church. First Communions, celebration of marriages... what better gift than something that is consistent with that important moment? Even for people who are more distant from the faith or who only fulfill the sacraments for cultural or traditional reasons, we can give testimony of the importance of the moment and help them to reflect on the gift when they have an apron or a mystery or a pencil with a Christian phrase in their home and make it an instrument for God to act.
What feedback do you receive?
-The feedback is incredible! The first thing that surprises us is that people think we are a bigger company, maybe because we take great care of our brand image and we are only 3 people doing everything: design, production, administration, management, customer service, order preparation.
When we tell them who we are, they are surprised; they ask us about our business plan, and we have never made one. The most beautiful thing is the many messages we receive every week, of gratitude, of testimonials for a sentence posted, read, for a gift received at a given moment.
Also, the number of visits we have in the studio from people who come to meet us. As a result of this project we have come to know the diversity of the Church, so many wonderful charisms, so much spiritual richness. We have an open house for those who want to come and chat and listen to our testimony, we pray together. We have made great friends. We thank God for this journey.
In this link you can visit their website: https://www.haveagodtime.es/
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The Observatory of intolerance against Christians in Europe has presented "Under Pressure. The Human Rights of Christians in Europe," its report for the years 2019- 2020 and which has focused its gaze on five European countries.
"Under Pressure. The human rights of Christians in Europe."the study conducted by the Observatory of Intolerance against Christians in EuropeThe report focuses its study on five European countries: France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK). These are the countries in which, the report notes, "Christians encounter the greatest difficulties".
"Most Christians in Europe who actually walk in their faith on a daily basis have encountered some form of discrimination or intolerance, either in obvious or subtle ways" states the study presented.
A study that also reflects how the ignorance, in basic religious matters, of some members of governments is influencing unjust decisions, far from a real spirit of dialogue and coexistence.
The study points to four areas of Christian life as the most affected by this religious intolerance: church, education, politics and work.
In this regard, the research and surveys carried out for the preparation of this report have identified anti-faith legislation, labor impositions contrary to freedom of conscience or a silencing and even persecution by some media towards Christian religious sentiments.
The research identifies two main lines of these attacks against Christians. First, discrimination coming from the governmental sphere manifested in legislation contrary to parental freedoms, education or religious liberties, together with social exclusion and an increase in vandalism or criminal acts against Christians. Spain, the report points out, "shows clear tendencies of a radical secularism that goes hand in hand with governmental authorities as well as the social environment".
In this regard, the legislation on family matters is noteworthy, bioethics or of education which have been approved in recent years in France or Spain, and for which not only has been silenced, but any moral evaluation based on Christian principles has been attacked, causing insecurity in the families and in those affected (elderly or sick people in the case of euthanasia).
The report shows a worrying 70% increase in anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe. Governmental" discrimination predominates in Spain and France while acts of vandalism to religious buildings or personal attacks have increased exponentially in France and Germany.
As for the loss of freedom of expression, the United Kingdom takes the sad medal for judicial persecution for alleged "hate speech". For its part, "the alteration of the conscience clause in Sweden is already affecting Christian professionals, but similar cases are developing in France and Spain". In the latter case, we must not forget the administrative persecution of health professionals. objectors to euthanasia or abortion.
The report warns of what it calls secular intolerance: a dynamic of secularization that leads to a progressive cultural change that seeks religion in the private sphere. Not only does this not sound strange, but it is also taking hold even in people or communities that consider themselves to be Christian.
In reality, far from being a state of respect, this dynamic leads, as is evident in many nations, not only to the denial of the presence of a Christian voice in society but to the "criminalization of public or even private opinions."
One of the issues affecting European countries is the radicalization of certain Islamic population groups settled in Europe.
This Islamic oppression "occurs mainly in areas of concentration, where Christian converts are the most affected group, in addition to other resident Christians."
Christians of Muslim origin often suffer, in European nations, "intolerance and violence from their social environment". A danger "often ignored by state authorities". A growing problem in places in France, Germany and Sweden and which is beginning to occur in some places in Spain.
In all the nations on which the report has focused, the rollback of religious freedoms linked to a supposed control of the Covid epidemic appears.
Although these manifestations differed from nation to nation, in general "the churches were repeatedly discriminated against and religious freedom was denied. One example was France, where "the government took measures that indirectly restricted religious freedom".
On this point, the country with the greatest restrictions on religious freedom under the excuse of Covid was Spain, where "unjustified and disproportionate use was made of the power of public officials by means of disproportionate general prohibitions on public worship".
The report, against creating an atmosphere of unease or fear, shows these realities in order to "improve dialogue and enhance religious knowledge" since, only in this way, it stresses "state authorities can achieve better legislation and build bridges between groups in society, avoiding laws that indirectly discriminate against religious groups".
It also points to the need for Christians to seek "respectful and open dialogue, consciously avoiding prejudices about people with different moral values and showing more interest in participating in public debates."
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An artistic journey through the architecture, ornamentation and heritage of the Minor Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre of Calatayud.
The year 1099 of our era concluded the first Crusade in the Holy Land with the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher of Our Lord. Immediately, its liberator, Godfrey of Bouillon, had a chapter of canons constituted to take care of the cult of that temple, and a group of brave knights to guard it.
Forty years later, the new patriarch of Jerusalem sent one of his canons to Calatayud to take charge of the lands and goods granted to them by Count Berenguer IV as a consequence (and solution) of the inheritance that Alfonso I had left in favor of the three Jerusalemite orders. With these means, in 1156, a new temple was blessed in the Aragonese city, dedicated, like its mother house, to the Holy Sepulcher.
Gothic cloister and Herrerian temple
The remains of the Gothic-Mudejar church, which replaced the first Romanesque construction, are preserved in the remains of a beautiful cloister that, thanks to the restoration work of recent decades, can be visited and admired.
The present construction was erected between 1605 and 1613, promoted by the prior Juan de Palafox, and according to the plans of Gaspar de Villaverde, in the Herrerian style, with a large façade of three doors and flanked by two twin towers of quadrangular plan, joined to the central body by means of fins.
This Juan de Palafox, prior and patron of the collegiate church, should not be confused with his nephew, Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who was viceroy of Mexico, bishop of Puebla and Osma, beatified in 2011 after many inconveniences, thanks to the tenacity of the Carmelite fathers who followed the cause for a historical and institutional friendship.
This second Juan de Palafox was the natural son of the Marquis of Ariza (who had a castle and urban palace in that town 30 km from Calatayud), brother of the prior. When the boy was nine years old, the marquis recognized him and, for his education, he pretended to entrust him to his uncle's custody. This one, with sensible logic, answered that a young clergyman with a natural nephew in his charge (the identity of the mother was always kept silent) would constitute a sure target for slander; and the child was put under the protection of the bishop of Tarazona, fray Diego de Yepes, who had been confessor of saint Teresa, and near the mother, who, repentant, was leading an exemplary and anonymous life in the Carmel of that city.
The most outstanding feature of this temple from the artistic point of view is, without a doubt, the set of altarpieces that are arranged on both sides of the main nave representing the Passion of the Lord. They were commissioned immediately after the completion of the building and paid for by the same prior Juan de Palafox. Later, in 1666, Canon Francisco Yago commissioned two more, which would be on either side of the main altar. The fact that all the side chapels are dedicated to the complete cycle of the passion and death of Jesus is unique in the world. Their quality separately, and especially as a whole, makes them a jewel of the Spanish baroque.
The choir, in the apse, hidden behind the main altar, has two orders of choir stalls carved in 1640, among which the prior's chair with a bas-relief of Saint Augustine, whose Rule was followed until the 19th century by the canons, stands out. In 1854, as a consequence of the disentailment, the chapter was extinguished, and the collegiate church was converted into a parish until, thanks to the efforts of the knights, Rome granted that, henceforth, it would be considered a collegiate church. ad honorem depending on the diocesan bishop, who would appoint the parish priest as prior of the chapter. This happened in 1901. In gratitude, the first parish priest-prior requested and obtained from Rome that the Spanish knights of the Holy Sepulchre could be invested as honorary canons: when they came to take possession, they occupied their respective places in the choir stalls.
On the main altar, in the 18th century, an imposing baldachin was erected that houses, behind the altar, the sculptural group of the Holy Burial with the recumbent Christ flanked by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Above, it is topped with a dome ripped by skylights. At the top, some wood carvings, imitating white marble, of the triumphant Risen Christ and two angels carrying the holy sheet and the tombstone of the sepulcher.
On both sides of the transept there are two very capable chapels: in their time they were sacristy and chapter house. In the one on the Gospel side, there is, among other valuable objects, a 17th century canvas of the Virgin of Bolduc, brought from Brussels by the Gilman family, who were related in Calatayud to the Baron of Warsage and the De la Fuente family, and who are buried in the same chapel.
On the Epistle side, which is larger, the old chapter house constitutes an annexed church-like area, with its own entrance at the back. It is today dedicated to the Virgin of Carmen, and used as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. This Virgin was not always there, and its origin has not yet been completely clarified.
A little more than a year ago, by studying the Annals of the old convent of San Alberto of Discalced Carmelites of Calatayud (that I had just located in the city of Valencia), I read that, on the occasion of celebrating, in 1951, the centenary of the delivery of the scapular of the Virgin to St. Simon Stock, a triduum of acts of worship and popular piety had been organized in the city. On the last of those days, July 1, at seven o'clock in the evening, a "devout procession in which paraded all the most venerated images of the Queen and Mother of Carmel in the city, namely those of the churches of San Pedro de Carmelo, San Pedro de Carmelo, San Pedro de Carmelo, San Pedro de Carmelo, San Pedro de Carmelo, San Pedro de Carmelo and San Pedro de Carmelo: those of the churches of San Pedro de los Francos, San Juan el Real, Santa María, and that of the Holy Sepulcher -where the Brotherhood of Carmel is erected-, because this is the most venerated in Calatayud, due to the tradition that this image was the one that spoke to our father Ruzola".
All this requires an explanation. In the first place, in that chapel had its headquarters at that time, the Third Order and Brotherhood of Carmen, which explains why the bilbilitanos who wanted to receive the scapular went there and why the Carmelites felt it as something very much theirs. In 1955, when the nuns harbored the hope that there would be again friars of their order in the city, in one of their festivities, they recited some verses in which they said: "Do not touch the noble Bílbilis, / which is all Carmelite; / three temples has raised / its so cherished piety: / el Sepulcro, las Descalzas, / y este futuro Carmelo, / que de la Estación se llama" (next to the train station, a family owned a small hermitage that they offered to the friars to found a convent; these, after studying the matter, refused to found for lack of subjects, but they came regularly from Zaragoza to celebrate Mass every Sunday).
But let us come to the venerable Ruzola. He was born in Calatayud in 1559. Orphan of father, he was taken in by his maternal uncle who was prior in the already disappeared convent of Carmen (footwear), which stood in front of the collegiate church of the Holy Sepulchre. Seeing the many qualities of the little one, the provincial took him with him to Saragossa; but this one, inspired by the Virgin, decided to go to the discalced. In this condition, Domingo de Jesús María, as he would be called from now on, first studied, and then held posts in Valencia, Pastrana, Madrid, Alcalá, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Toledo, Calatayud... and then went to Rome, where he contributed to the creation of a Congregation of Discalced Carmelites separated from that of Spain, of which he was elected general. He carried out diplomatic missions in various countries of Europe; he had a decisive intervention with his harangues and prayers in the victory of the Catholics in the battle of the White Mountain at the gates of Prague. His death came in 1630 in Vienna, in the palace of Emperor Ferdinand II, where the monarch had obliged him to stay as papal legate. Solemn funerals were held in the capital of the Empire, attended by all the nobility. In Calatayud, meanwhile, there was no news of his person, much less of his wanderings. Thanks to a letter sent by the Emperor to the City Council of the city, the municipality dedicated a lucid funeral to him a year after his death in the church of San Juan de Vallupié. Later (1670), by cession of his relatives, the house where he was born, in the Plaza del Olivo, was transformed into a chapel dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Buen Parto, which remains open for worship to this day.
Known in his time as the "thaumaturge" for his many miracles, his process of canonization was initiated shortly after his death by the Emperor himself, and resumed, after a long hiatus, by the Carmelites in the early twentieth century, and has been at a standstill since 1940 waiting for someone to take charge of it.
His biographers agree in narrating that, while he was in the convent of Carmen under the protection of the uncle prior, he gave great signs of piety; and at night, frequently, he would go to a chapel where there was a sculpture of the Virgin and a carving of the Crucified with whom he would talk. The Virgin sometimes left the Child in his hands. According to the Glories of CalatayudFor many years afterwards, this Child was brought to the sick, who obtained through him corporal or spiritual graces. These conversations of little Dominic with Jesus and Mary, which are recounted in various stories, are depicted live on an ancient canvas in the chapel of the Plaza del Olivo. The convent of Carmen was demolished in 1835, and its most precious jewels were distributed. It is known where the tabernacle went, and a monstrance...; and, above all, the miraculous Christ, which was given to the convent of Capuchin nuns, where it is venerated by the people of Bilbilitano. But, of the Virgin that granted little Dominic similar favors as the Christ, there is no news of where it ended up. According to a tradition, which Carlos de la Fuente and Rafael López-Melús have collected (and which was echoed by the Annals of the Carmelites in 1951), that image is the one that is now venerated in the collegiate-basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. Many other bilbilitanos remember having heard from their elders that the Virgin of Carmen passed to the Holy Sepulchre of the palace of the Marquises of Villa Antonia.
Both traditions are reconcilable. The so-called palace of Villa Antonia stands opposite the site occupied by the convent of El Carmen: only a narrow street separates them. Perhaps, the friars moved the image from the convent to the palace looking for a safer place for it than the collegiate church that had recently been sacked by the French and feared its forthcoming disentailment. The marquises would cede it in more propitious times to the Holy Sepulchre, where it was probably originally destined. In fact, in that stately home the image did not fit: too large for the private oratory, it would be placed somewhere worthy, but inappropriate for its size. Neither in the collegiate church, when it was moved to this temple, was there room for it. In fact, it was installed in a chapel that was dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, superimposing them: the canvas of the Virgin of Guadalupe was practically covered by the lump of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a dressed statue. The representation of the Guadalupana had been donated by Canon Doctor Tomas Cuber, who had gone to Mexico in 1775 as an inquisitor. Thanks to some photographs provided to me by the lady Isabel Ibarra, historian, the reader will be able to see the two images overlapping, and then separated, as when they take the image of Carmen, for her novena, to the central nave.
If the last inhabitant of the palace were alive, we would have no doubts about the steps the image took. She had a privileged memory for the things of her house. I met her when I was about twenty years old, and she was the grandmother of the friends who had introduced me to her house. They lived regularly in Madrid, and came to Calatayud in summer. I don't know how the strange layout of the entrance to the house came up in conversation one day. In the reforms carried out in the nineteenth century, a facade had been erected to the Plaza del Carmen very well laid out, with a large doorway crowned with a heraldic coat of arms. However, upon entering the entrance hall, the staircase, a bit like a service staircase, and the access to a small vestibule caused surprise. From there, through a corridor, one finally reached the expected succession of spacious and stately rooms. The Marquise explained to me that the house used to be entered from Carmen Street and the main floor was reached by climbing a wide staircase. But in the time of her grandparents, on that staircase were indelible traces of a crime of passion between servants of the house. That was the reason to close that access and open a new one. With this memory and interest in the things of her family, how could she not explain the origin of the Virgin of Carmen! The descendants of the Marquise only remember that in her house the trousseau of the Virgin was kept, and that they came from the collegiate church to look for it every time it was a big feast or the Virgin was taken out in procession. It is also popular memory that until the 70s of the last century, the Virgin, when in procession, made station in the palace, and entered the courtyard, as a former guest of the house. The proximity of the palace and the collegiate church was not only physical. The palace, now abandoned, had been built and inhabited for centuries by the old lineage of the Muñoz-Serrano family - the maternal surname of the marquise I knew, Doña Antonia de Velasco - who were buried at the foot of the presbytery of the Holy Sepulchre of Calatayud.
I have shared all this information with some people who have researched about the Order and this ancient collegiate church, and so far neither they nor I have found a document that allows us to say with certainty that the image of the Virgin of Mount Carmel with Child that is venerated in the Santo Sepulcro of Calatayud is the same one with which the little Domingo Ruzola held mystical conversations in the convent of Carmen, on the border of the collegiate church. To the inconvenience that De la Fuente himself observes -and it is notorious- that the workmanship of the one now venerated seems to be later, it can be objected that perhaps it is a restoration and adaptation to the taste of the 19th century, as happens with so many retouched images. Finally, I do not lose hope that the research that continues to be done in the archives, or a careful examination of the image, will end up providing us with the solution to this hypothesis, or will bring us new surprises.
*The photos in this article are property of the Torre Albarrana Association.
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The priory of Neuzelle, near the German-Polish border, is above all a place of search and encounter with God.
The establishment of Neuzelle Priory, whose name is derived from the Latin term "Nova cella", in September 2018 as a monastery dependent on the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) in Austria, can well be described as a historic event: it marks the return of Cistercian monks to this place near the German-Polish border after more than 200 years, since they had to leave it in 1817. The canonical erection coincided with the 750th anniversary of the first foundation of Neuzelle on October 12, 1268.
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 - which reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic Wars - it was decided that part of the territory of Lausitz (specifically Niederlausitz, Lower Lausitz), where Neuzelle is located and until then belonging to Saxony, would become part of Prussia. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III secularized (in Spain, in this context we speak of "disentailment") this monastery in 1817: the Catholic parish church was transformed into an evangelical church; the Cistercian monks were expelled.
Neuzelle, precisely because it was not part of Brandenburg-Prussia until then, had survived the Protestant Reformation in these territories, but in 1817 the almost 550-year presence of the Cistercians in Brandenburg came to an end. In contrast to Neuzelle, two Cistercian monasteries for women in Lausitz have managed to remain uninterrupted since their foundation in the region of this territory, which remained part of Saxony: St. Marienthal (Latin: Abbatia Vallis) - the oldest female monastery of the order in Germany, founded in 1234 - and St. Mariastern (Latin: Abbatia Stellae), since 1248.
The beginnings of Brandenburg's own history are closely linked to the Cistercian order. After centuries of fighting between Germanic and Slavic peoples, the Brandenburg Mark was created in 1157, which - after the union with the principality of Prussia - was to become the nucleus of the Kingdom of Prussia, one of the great European powers. Only a few years later, in 1180, the first of the 16 Cistercian monasteries to be built in Brandenburg until the middle of the 13th century was founded: the monastery of Lehnin.
The Cistercian monasteries were not only centers of evangelization, of the expansion of Christianity, but also centers of culture, beginning with the original meaning of this term: Brandenburg was a very marshy region - the Slavic suffix -in in Lehnin, but also in many others such as Chorin or even in the name Berlin itself, refers precisely to marshy land - so the work done here by the Cistercian monks began with the draining and ploughing of the land, to turn it into arable land.
However, with the Protestant Reformation in Brandenburg, the Cistercians were forced to abandon these monasteries: Lehnin, southwest of Potsdam, and its branch monastery Himmelpfort in Uckermark, Chorin, Zinna, Dobrilugk... were secularized already in the middle of the 16th century. The Cistercians survived the Reformation only in Neuzelle.
Today, the municipality of Neuzelle - including the brewery that bears the name "Kloster-Bräu" (monastery brewery) - has 4,280 inhabitants; it is located eight kilometers south of Eisenhüttenstadt and not far from the mouth of the Neisse River on the Oder, which forms the German-Polish border. From the point of view of art history, the church has a special feature: after being damaged during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), it was restored in the Baroque style typical of southern Germany, which is rare in these latitudes.
After several vicissitudes - most recently it was part of a Foundation of the Land of Brandenburg since 1996 - Neuzelle Priory was canonically erected in September 2008. The canonical document reads, "Today, September 2, 2018, in the 750th year of the first foundation of the monastery, we found a new monastery and establish it as the monastery of Our Lady of Neuzelle dependent on the Cistercian abbey of Our Lady of Heiligenkreuz."
The abbey of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) is located in Lower Austria and has existed without interruption since its foundation in 1133; Neuzelle becomes the third priory dependent on Heiligenkreuz, together with Neukloster, also in Austria, and Bochum-Stiepel, located in the Ruhr area.
In the diocese of Görlitz, in which Neuzelle is located, only four percent of the population is Catholic, so Neuzelle - which remained a center of pilgrimage during the years of the Cistercians' absence - is something of an "oasis". The new Prior of Neuzelle, Simeon Wester, comments: "We believe that in a restless time, in a restless world, people need and seek places where silence reigns. This is what we want to offer. Our experience in Heiligenkreuz and in the priory in Bochum-Stiepel, which was founded thirty years ago, shows us that it is attractive to many people. It is not we, but Christ, who draws them into the mystery. Especially those who are far away, through contact with a prayer community, find the strength to search coherently for the meaning of life. This is what we want to do here.
Wolfgang Ipolt, Bishop of the diocese, also encouraged them to do the same: "Show by your monastic life, both to Christians and to the many who do not yet know God, that the search for God is worthwhile, that it can make a person happy and fulfilled. Accompany with joy the people who come to Neuzelle in search of answers for their lives. I am sure that if you yourselves continue to search for God, it will spread and invite others. God and God's people expect no more and no less from you".
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Andrea Mardegan comments on the readings for the Immaculate Conception and Luis Herrera offers a brief video homily.
The "fear not" of the angel gave me peace. The heartbeat, however, continued and increased when he said to me: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." Jesus means Savior: a name that comes from God. My intuition had not been wrong: it is an immense thing!
When the desire appeared in me to offer God the renunciation of motherhood, I did so by asking God to hasten the coming of the Messiah, which our people needed so much, by renouncing what every girl in Israel desired: to be his mother. I offered her, for that wait, the public humiliation of barrenness. Everyone would have said: God does not love her. No one would have been able to know because no one would have been able to understand. But God inspired me and asked me to keep this resolution only for myself and then share it only with Joseph.
"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." Extraordinary words, but what the angel said next struck me even more: "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end." That "forever." that his reign that "there will be no end" suggested to me a whole new dimension of what was being revealed to me. "Joseph is of the house of David," I thought, "so is he within this promise?".
Those big words told me that there was so much more that eluded me. What I heard revealed to me a personal love and choice of God over me that overwhelmed me. I had no intention of refusing; I just didn't understand how all this could be done. If God had asked me, I was ready to leave Joseph, even if it would have cost me blood and I would not have known how to do it. Or did Joseph have to participate in all this? But how? What did the Lord want to tell me? I pondered and could not understand. I thought I was before God's messenger: I could ask him what God's plans were. It was not easy.
Those sudden, intimate and brief words came to me as an extreme synthesis of what was going on in my heart: "In what way shall this be done, for I know not a man?". The angel only partly cleared up the mystery. But he gave me absolute confidence. I reflected afterwards that I would have to learn the next steps to take, one at a time. If he had explained everything to me at that moment, it would have been too much, I would not have been able to take it on. He said to me: "The Holy Spirit will descend upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, he who shall be born Holy shall be called the Son of God.". I was understanding: it was something absolutely unthinkable and infinitely new. God was making all things new. I felt the immensity of God's love and his nearness.
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
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The meeting with young people at the St. Dionysius School of the Ursuline Sisters of Marusi in Athens was the finale of Pope Francis' extensive trip to the nations of Cyprus and Greece.
"Greece invites to a life towards God and the other," Pope encouragesPope encourages Church in Greece to "renew confidence in God"The Pope in Lesbos, five years later: "We must address the root causes".Pope Francis arrived early in the morning at the school to meet with a large group of young people. There he was greeted with the famous Jesus Christ You're my life and applause.
After the greeting of the Catholic Bishop of Athens, Msgr. Sevastiano Rossolato, the Pope enjoyed some regional dances that gave way to the testimonies and questions of the young people: Katerina, Ioanna and Aboud, a young Syrian who recounted his flight "from the beloved and martyred Syria", together with his family, with serious danger to his life on several occasions.
The Pope wanted to respond to the questions raised by the young woman about the doubts that sometimes arise within her about her faith or the Christian life. "I would like to say to you and to all of you: do not be afraid of doubts, because they are not a lack of faith. Do not be afraid of doubts. On the contrary, doubts are 'vitamins of faith': they help to strengthen it," said the Pope, who compared the Christian life to a "love story, there are moments when you have to ask yourself questions. And that is good.
However, the Pope wanted to warn young people that, many times, that doubt that leads us to think that we have made a mistake with the Lord is a temptation of the devil that must be rejected: "What to do when that doubt becomes suffocating and does not leave you in peace, when you lose confidence and no longer know where to start? We have to find our starting point. What is it? Amazement," the Holy Father recalled.
"Astonishment is not only the beginning of philosophy, but also of our faith," the Pope wanted to emphasize in the cradle of the great Greek thinkers. "When someone encounters Jesus, he is amazed," continued the Pope, who reaffirmed this idea by recalling that "our faith does not consist first of all in a set of things to believe and precepts to fulfill. The heart of faith is not an idea, it is not a moral, the heart of faith is a reality, a beautiful reality that does not depend on us and that leaves us speechless: we are God's beloved children!
The Pope wanted to emphasize this idea of not allowing oneself to be carried away by pessimism, despite the weaknesses and failings of each one of us. In this line, he recalled how the sense of divine filiation is rooted in the awareness that God loves us infinitely, that he looks at us with eyes different from our own: "if we place ourselves in front of the mirror, we may not see ourselves as we would like to, because we run the risk of focusing on what we do not like. But if we put ourselves in front of God, the perspective changes (...) God does not regret us. God always forgives. It is we who get tired of asking for forgiveness".
The Pope, using a simile familiar to those present: the Iliad, wanted to warn young people of the current "siren songs" that "with seductive and insistent messages, which focus on easy money, on the false needs of consumerism, on the cult of physical well-being, on entertainment at any cost... They are so many fireworks, which shine for a moment and then leave only smoke in the air", and in the face of these temptations, he encouraged young people to "nourish the wonder, the beauty of faith. We are not Christians because we have to be, but because it is beautiful," he concluded.
Another of the ideas that the Holy Father wanted to emphasize is the need for community, to encounter Christ in "the other". "To know God, it is not enough to have clear ideas about Him - that is a small part, it is not enough - you have to go to Him with your life," the Pope said.
"Jesus is transmitted through concrete faces and people," said Francis, in an affirmation that is especially linked to the moments experienced during this trip with migrants in Cyprus and refugees in Mytilene, as well as in his frequent calls for unity and understanding with the faithful of other confessions. "God makes himself present through people's stories. He passes through us", he wanted to emphasize to the group of young people gathered there highlighting that "I am happy to see you all together, united, even though you come from such different countries and histories".
One of these young people from other countries is Aboud, who told the Holy Father about his difficult and dangerous flight from Syria to Greece in which he almost lost his life. The Pope addressed him, urging him to have "the courage of the hope you had" so as not to be paralyzed by the fears that haunt all of life and especially, he stressed, addressing all those present, "the courage to take risks, to go towards others. With this courage, each and every one of you will find yourselves, you will find each other and you will find the meaning of life".
This meeting, which ended with the greetings of several young people, including the three witnesses, to the Holy Father, was the last act of this apostolic journey to Cyprus and Greece. Shortly after, at around 11:00, Francis took off from Athens International Airport to end a trip marked by the ecumenical impulse, the call for solidarity and aid to migrants and displaced persons, and the call for dialogue.
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The Vatican is holding an exhibition of more than 100 nativity scenes during the Christmas season.
The exhibition, located under Bernini's colonnata and organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, brings together unique pieces from 15 countries such as Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Venezuela.
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In the first centuries of Christianity, there were pandemics of singular virulence. Church Fathers such as St. Cyprian, bishops and historians recall how Christians cared for the sick and dying, while pagans abandoned them.
In the third year of the pandemic, when perhaps we can pause to reflect on what should be the specific Christian contribution to this crisis, history can serve as a teacher, for before us, when medical knowledge was still rudimentary, there were already those who had a very clear idea of how to take advantage of occasions.
In 165, a smallpox epidemic devastated the Roman Empire, including Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself. The plagues caused extremely high mortality rates - up to a third of the population - as they afflicted people who had never been afflicted by these diseases. Modern historians refer to these epidemics as one of the possible causes of Rome's decline, together with the drop in the birth rate.
A century later, in 251 came another measles epidemic, which afflicted both rural areas and cities. At the peak of its spread, it is said that in the city of Rome alone, 5000 people died every day. Of this second epidemic, we have testimonies of the time, especially from Christian sources. Cyprian writes from Carthage in 251 that "many of our people also die of this epidemic", and Dionysius - Bishop of Alexandria - writes in his Easter message that "this epidemic has fallen upon us, more cruel than any other misfortune".
Medicine was rudimentary and unable to offer any effective treatment, which led to the abandonment of the sick and isolation for fear of contagion. Galen himself refers above all to the first of these epidemics because, once he managed to survive, he escaped from Rome and took refuge in a country village in Asia Minor.
And yet the Fathers of the Church refer to these plagues in a surprisingly positive way, as a gift for the purification and development of the Christian cause, with reflections charged with hope and even enthusiasm. In contrast to the pagans' neglect of the sick, love of neighbor was taken to heroic extremes, and this led to a remarkable growth in the number of Christians and, surprisingly, a much higher survival rate than among the pagan population.
This is the context of the letter of the bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, in 251: "Along with the unjust die also the just, and this does not happen so that you think that death is the common destiny of the good and the bad. The just are called to eternal rest and the unjust are dragged to torment (...) How opportune and necessary that this epidemic, this plague, which seems horrible and lethal, should test the sense of justice of each one, that it should examine the feelings of the human race; this scourge will show if the healthy really put themselves at the service of the sick, if the relatives love their relatives as they should, if the heads of families have compassion for their sick servants, if the doctors do not abandon their sick ..... And if this dire circumstance had brought no other consequence, it has already served us Christians and servants of God by the fact that we begin to ardently desire martyrdom, while learning not to be afraid of death. For us, these events are exercises, not mourning: they offer the soul the crown of firmness and prepare us for victory thanks to the contempt of death. (...) Our brothers have been freed from the world thanks to the call of the Lord, for we know that we have not lost them definitively, but that they have only been sent ahead of us and precede us, as happens to those who travel or embark. These dear brethren are to be sought in thought, not in lamentation (....). The pagans, moreover, are not to be offered an occasion of deserved mockery if we mourn as dead and lost forever those whom we claim to live in God."
A few years later, Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, wrote in his Easter letter: "The greater part of our brethren, without any compunction for themselves, in an excess of charity and fraternal love, united with one another, carelessly visited the sick and served them in a marvelous way, helped them in Christ and died joyfully with them. Contagious of the sickness of others, they attracted the sickness of their neighbor and joyfully took on their sufferings. Many, after having cared for and given strength to others, ended up dying themselves. (...) The best among us lost their lives in this way: some priests, deacons and lay people were justly praised, to the point that this kind of death, the fruit of great piety and courageous faith, did not seem at all inferior to martyrdom".
"Completely opposite," writes Eusebius of Caesarea, "was the conduct of the pagans: they drove away those who began to fall ill, avoided loved ones, threw the dying out into the street, treated unburied corpses as refuse, seeking to escape the spread and contagion of death, which was not easy to drive away in spite of all precautions.
He was not exaggerating about the contrasting attitude of Christians, who did not fail to go to the sick at the risk of their own lives. A century later, Julian (the apostate) launched a campaign to institute initiatives in imitation of Christian charity.
In a letter to the (pagan) high priest of Calata, the emperor lamented the unstoppable growth of Christianity, due to its "moral qualities, although fictitious" and its "benevolence towards strangers and its care for the tombs of the dead". In another letter, he writes: "I think that when the poor were forgotten and rejected by our priests, the impious Galileans saw it and decided to dedicate themselves." "The ungodly Galileans," he adds, "do not offer support only to their poor but also to ours; everyone sees that we do not care for our people."
Julian hated the "Galileans," but he recognized the efficacy of the surprising state of well-being they had achieved by putting into practice the commandment of Christian charity. Thus they overcame the fear of suffering and death.
The testimony of the first Christians, encouraged by their Shepherds, surprises us and fills us with admiration. And above all, it raises the question of whether the first reaction of people of faith should always be fear. They did not invent epidemics; they brought a new way of life, capable of overcoming all human difficulties with joy.
(Based on Rodney Stark, Epidemics, Network ad the Rise of Christianityin Semeia56, 1992, pp 159-175).
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Ethan and Emma are high school students. Both are responsible teenagers who work hard in class and in their extracurricular activities, be it sports or theater. After meeting and liking each other, they will start dating, and as a result of this relationship, Emma will become pregnant. Soon the dilemma of what to do with this new life will come into play: abort, or move on.
Through a sober but forceful opening, A question of rights introduces with a flashback one of the main themes of the film: an excerpt from the case that opened the doors to abortion in the US, Roe vs Wadein which we can listen to a conversation according to which the fate of the unborn child is marked by not being considered a person -in which case it would be protected by the fourteenth amendment-. However, he then states that there are cases in which the life inside the pregnant woman does count for legal purposes. Grasping at this burning nail, Ethan will begin a legal battle for the recognition of his son, and his rights as a father, which would introduce another of the important themes of the film: to make visible the figure of the father, which in these cases is usually irrelevant for almost all purposes.
We are faced with a work that follows the canons of legalistic cinema, which fails to create tension but clearly exposes the arguments presented to us, both in and out of the trial (special mention to the cameo of the grandniece of Martin Luther King, Alveda c. King, who was about to be aborted). The work moves away from passion and emotionality, showing a film with content, but somewhat weak in form. However, the range of characters on both sides of the process makes us empathize with them and feel involved in the story.
The director's first work on the big screen, A question of rights is a cinematographically sober film, with acceptable performances and with no pretensions other than to tell a story and provide facts and arguments against abortion. Through a prism that avoids antagonizing anyone, the film shows the double standards when judging a new life as such.
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The main protagonist of Sunday's day was the Pope's visit to the refugee camp in Mytilene, Lesbos, where he addressed some very powerful words. In the afternoon, he presided the Holy Mass where he called for conversion and hope, because "life is called to flourish".
On Sunday morning, Pope Francis traveled from Athens to Mytilene, Lesbos, where he arrived around 10.10 a.m. to go to the "Center for Reception and Identification", for the meeting and his speech to the refugees hosted there. In this refugee camp live about 3000 people, mostly from Afghanistan.
During his visit to the Kara Tepe refugee camp, the Pope listened to the testimonies of some volunteers and refugees such as Tango Mukalya, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He arrived in Lesbos on November 28, 2020. He is 30 years old and has three children. "I am addressing you," he said to Pope Francis, "first of all, to thank you for the fatherly concern and spirit of humanity you show towards us, your migrant and refugee children, currently in Lesbos, Greece, and all over the world. May God reward you a hundredfold. At the same time, I thank the government and the people of Greece for the humanitarian spirit with which they have welcomed me, giving me peace, shelter and the necessities of life, despite some difficulties. I cannot forget the parish of the Catholic Church, my present parish of Mytilene in Lesbos, which lovingly supported me as a child and where I pray to God our Lord. I entrusted our difficult moments to God. With the strength of prayer and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, our Mother and Mother of the Church, I was able to overcome the difficulties I encountered in my life as a refugee."
Pope Francis, after thanking the testimonies heard, addressed to humanity some words of considerable harshness. In particular, he appealed to stop talking about the problem of migration and to talk more about the problem of arms trafficking that encourages it. He also strongly criticized nationalism and called on the international community to seek coordinated solutions because global problems such as pandemics and migration require global responses.
"They do not speak of the exploitation of the poor, of the forgotten and often abundantly financed wars, of the economic agreements made at the expense of the peoples, of the covert maneuvers to traffic arms and proliferate their trade. Why do we not speak of this? We have to address the root causes, not the poor who pay the consequences, even being used for political propaganda!". "Shutting down," he said, "and nationalisms - history teaches this - lead to disastrous consequences. It is sad to hear that the use of community funds to build walls or barbed wire fences is proposed as a solution. We are in the age of walls and barbed wire fences". "The Mediterranean, which for millennia has united different peoples and distant lands, is becoming a cold cemetery without tombstones. This great space of water, cradle of many civilizations, now seems a mirror of death. Let us not allow the 'mare nostrum' to become a desolate 'mare mortuum'".
At the end of the meeting, he returned to Athens. There, in the afternoon, at 4:45 p.m., the Eucharistic celebration took place in the Megaron Concert Hall, where about 1,000 people were able to participate. During the homily, Pope Francis reflected on the figure of John the Baptist. He also recalled that the Church is in the period of preparation for Christmas and therefore spoke about personal conversion and how to carry it out.
"We ask for the grace to believe that with God things change, that He heals our fears, heals our wounds, turns dry places into springs of water. We ask for the grace of hope. For it is hope that rekindles faith and revives charity. For it is hope that the deserts of the world are thirsting for today".
"And while this meeting of ours," he continued, "renews us in the hope and joy of Jesus, and I rejoice to be with you, let us ask our Mother, the All Holy One, to help us to be, like her, witnesses of hope, sowers of joy all around us - hope, brothers, never disappoints, never disappoints - not only when we are happy and together, but every day, in the deserts we inhabit. For it is there that, with God's grace, our life is called to conversion. There, in the many deserts within us or around us, life is called to flourish. May the Lord give us the grace and courage to accept this truth".
At the end, he returned to the nunciature where he received the courtesy visit of His Beatitude Ieronymus II.
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St. Paul the Apostle was "cornered" in the Athenian Areopagus, but "he did not let himself be overcome by discouragement, he did not give up the mission". Francis yesterday encouraged the Church in Greece to "a serene trust in God". In parallel, he sought "communion" with Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos II.
Francis leaves Cyprus praying with young migrants"Luminous Christians are needed" with hope, Pope urges in Nicosia"We need a fraternal and patient Church," Pope says in CyprusThe courtesy visit to His Beatitude Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, at the Greek Orthodox Archbishopric, and the subsequent meeting in the Throne Hall of the same archbishopric, was an important act of his visit to Greece, the first in chronological order. Also important was the meeting in the Cathedral of St. Dionysius with the Catholic community: bishops, priests, religious men and women, seminarians and catechists, all of whom he encouraged to keep their trust in God, like St. Paul. We will tell you about the Pope's visit to Lesbos.
In the Orthodox See, before Archbishop Ieronymos II, Pope Francis again noted, as he did in Cyprus, that "as Catholics, we have just begun an itinerary to deepen synodality and we feel that we have much to learn from you; we sincerely desire it. It is true that when brothers and sisters in the faith draw close to one another, the consolation of the Spirit is poured into their hearts".
In his speech, the Holy Father explained the reason for his visit, and asked for forgiveness. "Praying before the trophies of the Church of Rome, which are the tombs of the apostles and martyrs, I felt impelled to come here as a pilgrim, with great respect and humility, to renew that apostolic communion and nourish fraternal charity," he said.
Shortly after, he recalled that "five years ago we met in Lesbos, in the emergency of one of the greatest dramas of our time, that of so many migrant brothers and sisters who cannot be left in indifference and seen only as a burden to be managed or, even worse, to be delegated to someone else". And "now we meet again to share the joy of fraternity and to look at the Mediterranean that surrounds us not only as a place that worries and divides, but also as a sea that unites us".
However, after evoking "the common apostolic roots that we share," he added that "we have grown apart: we have been contaminated by deadly poisons, the weeds of suspicion have increased the distance and we have ceased to cultivate communion. With shame - I recognize it for the Catholic Church - actions and decisions that have little or nothing to do with Jesus and the Gospel, based rather on the thirst for profit and power, have made communion wither".
"In this way we have allowed fruitfulness to be threatened by divisions. History has its weight, and here today I feel the need to renew the plea for forgiveness to God and to our brothers and sisters for the mistakes that so many Catholics have made," the Pope said, stressing that "it is a great consolation to know that our roots are apostolic and that, despite the distortions of time, God's plant grows and bears fruit in the same Spirit. And it is a grace that we recognize each other's fruits and that together we thank the Lord for them.
"I pray that the Spirit of charity will overcome our resistance and make us builders of communion, because 'if love succeeds in completely expelling fear and the latter, transformed, becomes love, then we will see that unity is a consequence of salvation,' Francis said, quoting St. Gregory of Nyssa in his homily 15, on the Song of Songs.
On the other hand, he asked: "How can we give witness to the world of the concord of the Gospel if we Christians are still separated? How can we proclaim the love of Christ that gathers people together if we are not united among ourselves? Many steps have been taken to bring us together. Let us call upon the Spirit of communion to impel us in his ways and help us to found communion not on the basis of calculations, strategies and expediencies, but on the one model to which we must look: the Most Holy Trinity".
In his meeting in the Athenian Cathedral of St. Dionysius with the Catholic community, the Pope was welcomed at the main entrance by the Archbishop of Athens, Theodoros Kontidis, S.I., and by the parish priest who handed him the cross and holy water. After the entrance hymn, Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos, Archbishop Emeritus of Athens and President of the Greek Bishops' Conference, greeted the Holy Father. After the testimonies of a Sister of the Incarnate Word and a layman, Pope Francis delivered his address, which focused on the figure of St. Paul the Apostle, with a historical reference to the figure of St. Dionysius, titular of the Cathedral.
"Here in Greece," Pope Francis said, "St. Paul manifested his serene trust in God and this made him welcome the Areopagites who were suspicious of him. With these two attitudes he announced that God who was unknown to his interlocutors, and he came to present to them the face of a God who in Christ Jesus sowed the seed of resurrection, the universal right to hope".
"When Paul announced this good news, most ridiculed him and left. However, 'some men joined him and embraced the faith, among them Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris and some others,' the Holy Father continued, quoting Sacred Scripture.
"Most of them left, a small remnant joined Paul, among them Dionysius, incumbent of this Cathedral. It was a small portion, but this is how God weaves the threads of history, from then until today. I heartily wish you to continue the work in your historic workshop of faith, and to do so with these two ingredients: trust and welcome, so as to savor the Gospel as an experience of joy and fraternity."
The circumstances of St. Paul's mission in Greece "are also important for us: the Apostle was cornered," Francis pointed out. "A little earlier, in Thessalonica, he had been hindered in his preaching and, because of the tumults aroused among the people, who accused him of procuring disorder, he had to escape during the night. Now, in Athens, he was taken for a charlatan and, as an unwelcome guest, was led to the Areopagus. He was not, therefore, living a triumphant moment, but was carrying on the mission under difficult conditions."
The Pope then introduced a central message of his address. "Perhaps in many moments of our journey, we too perceive the weariness and sometimes the frustration of being a small community or a Church with little strength that moves in a context that is not always favorable. Meditate on the story of Paul in Athens: he was alone, outnumbered and had little chance of success, but he did not let himself be overcome by discouragement, he did not give up the mission or allow himself to be trapped by the temptation to lament."
"This is the attitude of the true apostle," he stressed. "To go forward with confidence, preferring the uneasiness of unexpected situations to habit and repetition. Paul had this courage, where did it come from? From trust in God. His courage was that of trust, trust in the greatness of God, who loves to work in our weakness. Dear brothers and sisters, we have confidence because being a small Church makes us an eloquent sign of the Gospel, of the God proclaimed by Jesus who chooses the little ones and the poor, who changes history with the simple exploits of the humble.
Pope Francis then encouraged the representatives of the Catholic Church in the Hellenic country: "Dear friends, I would like to say to you: bless smallness and embrace it, it disposes you to trust in God and in Him alone. To be a minority - and in the whole world the Church is a minority - does not mean to be insignificant, but to walk the path opened by the Lord, which is that of littleness, of kenosis, of abasement and condescension. He descended to the point of hiding himself in the folds of humanity and in the wounds of our flesh. He saved us by serving us. He, in fact," Paul affirms, "emptied himself, taking on the condition of a slave. We are often obsessed with wanting to appear, to attract attention, but 'the Kingdom of God does not come in such a way that it can be visibly detected' (Lk 17:20).
"Let us help each other to renew this trust in the work of God, not to lose the enthusiasm of service. Courage and forward!" concluded His Holiness the Pope, who, after the meeting, made a brief stop in his car to admire the Acropolis of Athens, which he had spoken about upon his arrival in Greece. The Holy Father is today in Lesbos, with the migrants.
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The so-called summer of St. Martin, in mid-November in Rome, which this year has been particularly hot, reminds us of the call to be saints caring for our common home.
In Rome this year, the summer of St. Martin was particularly hot. Perhaps this is to make more evident to all the need for a common effort to combat climate change: the truth is that during the days around November 11 in the capital of Christianity the temperature reached 20 degrees, equaling the historical records of 1978 and 2005.
The meteorological phenomenon prompted me to revisit the history of the traditional miraculous event and, consequently, the figure of a saint who, for centuries, has been acclaimed as one of the most popularly devoted, being "the first" - or among the first - "non-martyr saints". That his figure shines with a special light is shown by the office composed for his feast. There it is emphasized that in order to be "martyr", o "saint"It is not necessary to make a bloody sacrifice of one's own life. "Most holy soul"as it is written in the Antiphon of the Magnificat of his memory, "although the sword has not reached you, you have not lost the glory of martyrdom". His life took place in the years around the Edict of Constantine and this liturgical emphasis is very important.
It is especially important for those who hold the idea that holiness concerns all Christians, even those of ordinary life, even those who have no possibility of dying as martyrs. Even those who today are called to be saints and to put into practice the many gestures of daily life, which the encyclical Laudato Si (LS) presents as virtuous practices worthy of being promoted because they are oriented to the care of the common home. To cite a few examples, I can mention the invitation to be more careful in the recycling of paper (LS, n. 22), not to waste a precious good such as water (LS, n. 27), not to overcook and not to throw away food (LS, n. 50), not to abuse the environment (LS, n. 50), nor the use of the environment (LS, n. 50). 50), not to abuse the environment (LS, n. 50), not to abuse the use of air conditioners (LS, n. 55), to pay attention to selective waste collection (LS, n. 192), to reduce the use of plastic materials, to plant trees, to turn off unnecessary lights (LS, n. 211), etc.
Alongside these gestures there are also other examples that have a broader social dimension, since they affect the world of business and research (LS, n. 112) or urban communities, such as the improvement of the public transport system to reduce the use of private cars (LS, n. 153). In short, with his particularly hot summer, perhaps this year St. Martin wanted to encourage us to be saints, not by the sword, but by our commitment to care for our common home.
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The large glass star crowns the new tower dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which measures 138 meters and has 800 windows and completes the first tower of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona.
The star, illuminated from the inside at night, weighs 5.5 tons and is 7.5 meters in diameter.
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Looking at the Acropolis and the sea, Pope Francis launched in Athens a message of a "renewed humanism", because "Greece invites us to direct the journey of life towards the highest, towards God", and "towards the other". Today there is "a regression of democracy", he affirms.
"Some specimens of Mediterranean olive trees testify to a life so long that they predate the birth of Christ. Millennia-old and long-lasting, they have withstood the passage of time and remind us of the importance of preserving strong roots, endowed with memory. This country can be defined as the memory of Europe and I am happy to visit it twenty years after the historic visit of Pope John Paul II and on the bicentenary of its independence," Pope Francis said in his address to the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps of Greece, a few hours after his arrival in the country.
"I come as a pilgrim to these places that overflow with spirituality, culture and civilization, to perceive the same happiness that excited the great Father of the Church [St. Gregory Nazianzen]," the Holy Father added. "It was the joy of cultivating wisdom and sharing its beauty. A happiness, therefore, that is neither individual nor isolated, but which, born of wonder, tends to infinity and opens itself to the community; a wise happiness, which from these places has spread everywhere. Without Athens and Greece, Europe and the world would not be what they are: they would be less wise and less happy".
In this context, the Pope quoted the "well-known phrase of General Colocotronis: 'God has put his signature on the freedom of Greece. God gladly puts his signature on human freedom; it is his greatest gift and what, in turn, he values most in us. He has indeed created us free and what pleases him most is that we freely love him and our neighbor. Laws help to make this possible, but also education in responsibility and the growth of a culture of respect".
In the presence, among other personalities, of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Pope affirmed his desire to "renew my thanks for the public recognition of the Catholic community and assure it of his will to promote the common good of Greek society, directing in this direction the universality that characterizes it, with the desire that in practical terms the conditions necessary to carry out its service well may always be guaranteed."
Then the Holy Father Francis continued one of the main themes of his first speech in Greece: the gaze towards transcendence and towards others. "From here [Greece], the horizons of humanity have expanded. I too feel invited to raise my gaze and to stop at the highest part of the city: the Acropolis. Visible from afar to travelers who have reached it over the millennia, it offered an indispensable reference to divinity. It is the call to expand the horizons upwards, from Mount Olympus to the Acropolis and Mount Athos. Greece invites man of all times to direct the journey of life towards the highest: towards God, because we need transcendence to be truly human," the Pontiff said.
"And while today in the West, which was born here, there is a tendency to obfuscate the need for Heaven," he added, "trapped by the frenzy of thousands of earthly careers and by the insatiable greed of a consumerism that depersonalizes, these places invite us to let ourselves be surprised by the infinite, by the beauty of being, by the joy of faith."
"Through here have passed the paths of the Gospel that have united East and West, the Holy Places and Europe, Jerusalem and Rome; those Gospels that, in order to bring to the world the good news of God the lover of man, were written in Greek, the immortal language used by the Word - the Logos - to express itself, the language of human wisdom turned into the voice of divine Wisdom," he added.
But in this city, Francis pointed out, "the gaze, in addition to being directed upwards, is also directed towards the other. We are reminded of the sea, to which Athens looks out and which orients the vocation of this land, located in the heart of the Mediterranean, to be a bridge between people".
"Here democracy was born," the Pope recalled, with an appeal to history: "Here great historians were passionate about narrating the histories of peoples near and far. Here, according to the well-known affirmation of Socrates, the feeling of being citizens not only of one's own country, but of the whole world, began. Citizens, here man became aware of being "a political animal" (Aristotle, Politics, I, 2) and, as part of a community, he saw in others not only subjects, but citizens with whom to organize the polis together. This is where democracy was born. The cradle, millennia later, became a house, a great house of democratic peoples: I am referring to the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for so many peoples".
And yet, Francis stressed, looking at the world, "one cannot fail to note with concern how today, not only on the European continent, there is a decline in democracy. Democracy requires the participation and involvement of all and therefore demands effort and patience; democracy is complex, while authoritarianism is expeditious and the easy promises proposed by populism are appealing. In many societies, preoccupied with security and anesthetized by consumerism, weariness and unease lead to a kind of "democratic skepticism".
However, the Pontiff recalled, "the participation of all is a fundamental requirement, not only to achieve common goals, but also because it responds to what we are: social beings, unrepeatable and at the same time interdependent". "There is a skepticism in relation to democracy", which he considered "caused by the distance of the institutions, by the fear of the loss of identity and by bureaucracy. The remedy to this does not lie in the obsessive search for popularity, in the thirst for visibility, in the proclamation of impossible promises or in the adherence to abstract ideological colonizations, but in good politics".
"Because politics is a good thing and must be so in practice, as the supreme responsibility of the citizen, as the art of the common good," the Pope added, but he set a condition, a key requirement: "For the good to be truly shared, particular, I would say priority, attention must be given to the weakest strata. This is the direction to follow, which a founding father of Europe [A. De Gasperi] indicated as an antidote to the polarizations that animate democracy but threaten to exasperate it: 'There is much talk of who is on the left or on the right, but what is decisive is to move forward, and moving forward means moving toward social justice.
"In this regard, a change of pace is needed, while every day fears are spread, amplified by virtual communication, and theories are developed to oppose others. Let us help one another, instead, to move from partisanship to participation; from mere commitment to support one's own faction to active involvement for the promotion of all," the Holy Father appealed.
"From partisanship to participation". With these words the Pope charted the course to follow. "It is the motivation that should drive us on various fronts: I am thinking of the climate, the pandemic, the common market and above all widespread poverty. These are challenges that call for concrete and active collaboration; the international community needs it, to open paths to peace through a multilateralism that is not stifled by excessive nationalistic pretensions; politics needs it, to put common demands before private interests." In this sense, Francis renewed his "appreciation for the difficult journey that has led to the 'Prespa Agreement', signed between this Republic and that of North Macedonia".
Although the Pope will go this Sunday to Mytilene-Lesbos to meet with refugees, as he did five years ago, in this speech he also made a reference to the issue of migration: "I would like to exhort once again for an overall, communitarian vision of the migration issue, and encourage that attention be directed to those most in need so that, according to the possibilities of each country, they may be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated with full respect for their human rights and dignity".
One of the issues addressed by the Pope to the Hellenic authorities was the right to life. He did so in the following terms: "Some words of Hippocrates' oath seem written for our time, such as the effort to 'regulate the tenor of life for the good of the sick', to 'abstain from all harm and offense' to others, to safeguard life at all times, particularly in the womb (Hippocratic Oath, ancient text). The right to care and treatment for all must always be privileged, so that the weakest, especially the elderly, are never discarded. Indeed, life is a right; death is not; it is welcomed, not provided.
In his conclusion, Francis referred to Athens as "the cradle of civilization", from which "a message has risen - and may it always continue to rise - a message oriented towards the highest and towards the other; which responds to the seductions of authoritarianism with democracy; which opposes individualistic indifference with care for the other, for the poor and for creation, essential pillars for a renewed humanism, which is what our times and our Europe need. O Theós na evloghí tin Elládha! [God bless Greece!"
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It is one of the most venerated images in the region. The simple icon venerated in Hungary, from which tears had flowed, was brought to Vienna. A cup painted to take its place also wept. In the 20th century its fame has spread due to the prayer of St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, before the icon, on December 4, 1995.
In St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, many people pray every day before a simply painted icon of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. It is the miraculous image from the small town of Máriapócs in Hungary, which shed tears in 1696. The icon was then immediately transferred to the capital of the Habsburg Empire; but the extraordinary events in the small Hungarian town where the grace had occurred did not end there.
Hungary, late 17th century. Much of the country has just been liberated from Turkish rule, and large areas were still depopulated after 150 years of constant warfare. The country is now owned by the Austrian Habsburgs, but many of the nobles and much of the people are unhappy that the king of Hungary no longer resides in the royal castle of Buda (a part of present-day Budapest), but in distant Vienna.
In the small wooden church, of Greek-Catholic rite, in the village of Pócs - today located in the northeast of the country - there was then a simple icon of St. Mary painted by the brother of a priest. It belongs to the type of the "Hodegetria" ("she who shows the way") and shows Mary as she points with her finger to the child Jesus on her arm. One day, on November 4, 1696, a peasant who was present during the Sacred Liturgy noticed that tears were flowing from the icon's eyes. The phenomenon, which continued intermittently until December 8, was immediately investigated by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Hungary is very fragmented confessionally, but this circumstance is providential in relation to the examination of the miracle: not only Catholics, but also numerous Lutheran and Calvinist Christians attest to the authenticity of the event.
Emperor Leopold I and, above all, his wife Eleanor Magdalena also heard about the event. Soon the decision was made: the miraculous image had to be taken to the center of the empire, to the imperial seat in Vienna! On March 1, 1697, the icon was dismantled in Pocs against the will of the population and moved to Vienna, where it was venerated for months with numerous solemn masses and processions. It was finally given a permanent place in St. Stephen's Cathedral. The veneration of the miraculous image in the Empire grew even more when, only a few months later, on September 11, 1697, Prince Eugene of Savoy won the victory over the Ottomans at the battle of Zenta (then in Hungary, today in Serbia). The imperial family and the preachers of the time attributed the triumph to the intercession of Our Lady of Pötsch, as the Hungarian town is known in German.
The local inhabitants are initially disappointed that "their" miraculous icon has been taken away from them. After no less than ten years, Pócs will receive a copy of the miraculous image. But lo and behold, while the original from Vienna had not shed a tear since then, the next miracle of tears occurred in Pocs as early as August 1, 1715, this time in the eyes of the copy. The bishop concerned had the event re-examined and after a very short time had already approved the veneration of the second miraculous icon in Pocs, which this time was allowed to remain in the village.
The village soon took the name of Our Lady, and since then it has been called Máriapócs. In the middle of the 18th century, a baroque sanctuary church was built to accommodate the great multitude of pilgrims, and a monastery of the order of the Basilians, Greek Catholics, was erected for pastoral care. The miraculous behavior of the icon reaches even to modern times: from December 3, 1905, the image began to weep for the second time; the miracle continued until the end of the month and was again confirmed as authentic after a study.
In 1991, Pope St. John Paul II visited Máriapócs and celebrated the liturgy there according to the tradition of the Eastern Church. Today, several hundred thousand faithful flock to this place of grace in northeastern Hungary every year, making it one of the most important places of worship in the region.
Although the original icon of St. Stephen's Cathedral has not wept again since 1696, its subsequent history is no less significant. In the last days of World War II, when the 400-year-old roof truss of St. Stephen's Cathedral caught fire and the vault of the church collapsed, the icon remained unharmed. In 1948 it was placed on its own altar on the right side of the nave under the magnificent "Öchsel canopy" from the early 16th century.
The miraculous image later acquired international fame thanks to the visit of a saint: on December 4, 1955, St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, prayed before the "Our Lady of Pötsch". This image of the Mother of God, coming from a village that was then behind the "iron curtain," moved him in a special way. It was for him the gateway to the spread of the faith in those areas that were under communist rule. "Sancta Maria, Stella Orientis, filios tuos adiuva!" (Holy Mary, Star of the East, help your children!), he implores her. This ejaculatory prayer spread throughout the world in the following decades. St. Josemaría's petition was answered in 1989-1980, and communism fell in Eastern Europe. On January 9, 2002, on the centenary of Escriva's birth, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, dedicated a commemorative plaque next to the altar. Today, Our Lady of Máriapócs unites Christians in the East and West, in Central Europe and throughout the world.
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"The Lord Jesus comes to meet us in the face of the marginalized and discarded brother, in the face of the despised, rejected and oppressed migrant," the Pope said. The prayer with the migrants was his last act in Cyprus. Today he arrives in Athens.
"We need a fraternal and patient Church," Pope says in Cyprus"Luminous Christians are needed" with hope, Pope urges in NicosiaIt was in the parish church of the Holy Cross, a reference point of the Catholic community in Cyprus. Yesterday afternoon, Pope Francis had his long-awaited meeting with the migrants. There he listened to the testimonies of four young people who arrived in Cyprus seeking refuge, and before them he delivered a new and forceful speech calling for dignified conditions for those who have been forced to leave their land.
Afterwards, they raised together an ecumenical prayer and prayed the Our Father. Francis thus concluded his official activities on the island of Cyprus, and this Saturday he flies to Athens, the Greek capital. Almost simultaneously, the Pontiff will relocate 50 immigrants from Cyprus to the Vatican, the Cypriot Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
"The Ministry of Interior wishes to express its sincere appreciation for the important initiative of Pope Francis and the Holy See to relocate 50 migrants from Cyprus to the Vatican," the note can be read in the note. The Cyprus Administration hopes that the Pope's move will help increase solidarity at the European level.
In his speech, the Pope thanked the testimonies of the migrants "with an enormous 'thank you' from the heart." "I had received the testimonies in advance, about a month ago, and they had moved me very much, and also today they have moved me," he said.
"But it is not only emotion, it is much more, it is the emotion that comes from the beauty of the truth, like that of Jesus when he exclaimed: 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have revealed all these things to the little ones and have hidden them from the wise and the crafty' (Mt 11:25). I also praise the heavenly Father because this is happening today, here, as in the whole world, God is revealing his Kingdom to the little ones: a Kingdom of love, justice and peace.
"After listening to you," Francis added, "we better understand all the prophetic power of the Word of God which, through the Apostle Paul, says: 'You are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and family of God.'"
They were words written to the Christians of Ephesus - not far from here - the Holy Father said. "Very distant in time, but so close that they are more timely than ever, as if they had been written for us today: 'You are not strangers, but fellow citizens'. This is the prophecy of the Church, a community that embodies - with all human limits - God's dream."
The protagonists of the four testimonies were quoted by the Pope. These are their names: "Mariamie, who comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and you have defined yourself as 'full of dreams'; "Thamara, who comes from Sri Lanka, and you say that 'I am often asked who I am'; "Maccolins, who comes from Cameroon, and you say that throughout your life you have been 'wounded by hatred'; and "Rozh, who comes from Iraq, and you say you are 'a person on a journey'."
The Pope also assured in his words that "the Lord Jesus comes to meet us in the face of the marginalized and discarded brother, in the face of the despised, rejected and oppressed migrant. But also, as you said, in the face of the migrant who is on the way to something, to hope, to a more human coexistence. And so God speaks to us through his dreams.
"That this island, marked by a painful division, may become, with the grace of God, a workshop of fraternity. And it can be so on two conditions," he said. "The first is the effective recognition of the dignity of every human person (Fratelli tutti, 8); this is the ethical foundation, a universal foundation that is also at the heart of Christian social doctrine," he pointed out.
"The second condition is trusting openness to God, Father of all, and this is the 'leaven' we are called to be as believers. With these conditions it is possible for the dream to be translated into a daily journey, made up of concrete steps that go from conflict to communion, from hatred to love," the Pope added. "A patient journey that, day after day, makes us enter the land that God has prepared for us, the land where, if you are asked: 'Who are you,' you can answer with your face uncovered: 'I am your brother.'"
In parallel to the trip, the Holy See has released a message from Pope Francis to the participants in the VII Med Dialogues Conference. The Holy Father points out, according to official Vatican media, that the migratory phenomenon in the Mediterranean shows that everything is connected, and warns us that a stable solution requires an approach capable of taking into account the multiple aspects linked to it.
The Rome MED Dialogues Conference is promoted annually by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Institute for International Policy Studies, and aims to rethink the traditional approach to the Mediterranean area and seek new and shared responses to the important challenges it poses.
The Pope pointed out to them that the "mare nostrum" has a central geopolitical importance, the Mediterranean is the border, and therefore the meeting place of three continents, which are not only bathed by it, but touch each other in it and are therefore called to live together.
The Pontiff warns that politics and diplomacy must do everything possible to prevent the process of globalization from degenerating into the globalization of indifference. Above all, as demonstrated by the climate crisis and the pandemic, "proof that not only States, but even more so continents, can no longer ignore each other".
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In Vienna's Stephansdom, every day, many people are standing in front of a twinned Ikone, with its beautifully carved walls, which depicts the Virgin Mary with the Jesus Christ. This is the image from the Dörfchen Máriapócs in Ungarn, which was destroyed in 1696. The wonderful Ikone was then transferred to the capital city of the Habsburg Empire - but this was not the end of the story in the small Hungarian village.
Ungarn in the end of the 17th century. The country has been largely occupied by the Turks, some parts of it have been destroyed during the 150 years of the ongoing war. The Austrian Habsburg men are now over the country, but many from Adel and Volk are unhappy that the König of Hungary no longer resides in the Königsburg of Buda (a part of the present Budapest), but rather in modern Vienna.
In the small Greek-Catholic church in the village of Pocs - today in the northwest of the country - there is now a simple Marienikone, which was built by the Bruder of a farmer. It belongs to the type of the "Hodegetria" (Wegweiserin) and shows Maria, how she with her finger on the Jesus Christ on her arm weist. On one day, on November 4, 1696, during the Holy Liturgy, an anwesender Bauer, dass dass aus den Augen der Ikone Tränen fließen. The phenomenon, which will be marked by intercessions up to 8 December, will be marked by both physical and worldly events. Ungarn ist konfessionell stark zersplittert, doch dieser Umstand erweist sich im Fall der Prüfung des Wunders als Glücksfall: Nicht nur nur Katholiken, sondern auch auchas zahlreiche lutherische und calvinistische Christen bezeugen die Authentizität des Ereignisses.
Auch Kaiser Leopold I. und vor allem seine Gattin Eleonore Magdalena werden aufmerksam auf das Ereignis. The decision is clear: The wonderful picture must be used in the center of the Kingdom, in the Residenzstadt Wien! On March 1, 1697, the Ikone in Pocs was assembled and sent to Wien, where it was to be mounted with numerous festivities and events. Your final stop is the Ikone in the Stephansdom, the cathedral of the city. Even more important will be the coming of the Gnadenbildes in the Reich, when, on September 11, 1697, Prince Eugen of Savoy at the Schlacht of Zenta (then Ungarn, now Serbien) makes a siege over the Osmanen. The triumph will be celebrated by the Kaiserhaus and the predecessors of the damned time of the Muttergottes of Pötsch - as the unique place in the German language will be known.
The owners of the farm are first and foremost concerned that they have been given "their" wonderful Ikone. After ten years, Pócs first made a copy of the painting after ten years. But here's the thing: While the original in Vienna was no longer in use, on August 1, 1715, Pócs already had the next three-year anniversary, this time from the days of the copy. The right-handed bischof was the first to take up the idea and after a short period of time, he already made use of the second most beautiful Ikone of Pocs, which remained in the area. The town has lost the name of the Gottesmutter and is known as Máriapócs. In the middle of the 18th century, a baroque wall church was built in order to fill in the large number of pilgrims and a church of the Order of the Greek-Catholic Basilians was erected. The wonderful history of the Ikone remains until the modern era: From 3. December 1905, the picture began a new era - the mystery was still alive until the end of the year and was first published as authentically as possible. In 1991, the beloved Pope Johannes Paul II visited it. Máriapócs and there he celebrates the liturgy according to the most cherished tradition. Today, many hundreds of thousands of people are coming every year to the northwestern Hungarian city, which is one of the most important in the region.
If the Original-Ikone in Stephansdom has no longer existed since 1696, its further history is no less important. In the last days of the Second World War, as the 400 year old high priest of the Stephansdoms Feuer fing and the Pope of the Church began to die, she became a hero. In 1948, she was then placed at an altar on the right side of the Langhauses, under the original "Öchsel-Baldachin" from the 16th century.
Internationale Berühmtheit erhielt das Gnadenbild dann durch den Besuch eines Heiligen: Am 4. December 1955, the son of Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, visited the "Madonna of Pötsch". The portrait of a priest from a church, which he sees in the background of the Eisernen Vorhang, is an example of this. Es ist für ihn das Tor zur Ausbreitung des Glaubens in jene Gebiete, die unter kommunistischer Herrschaft stehen. "Sancta Maria, Stella Orientis, filios tuos adiuva!" (Heilige Maria, Stern des Ostens, hilf deinen Kindern!), fleht er zu ihr. This stock is growing in the last decades in the whole world. The 1989/90s saw the death of the former Josemaría and the spread of communism in Eastern Europe. On January 9, 1902, on the 100th anniversary of Escrivás' death, the Viennese Cardinal Erzbischof Christoph Schönborn made a donation next to the altar. Today, the Muttergottes of Máriapócs Christen from East and West, from Mitteleuropa and the whole world.
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Learning from the Orthodox synodal experience and the need to be "luminous Christians" cured by Jesus of the "blindness of the heart" are some of the main messages of Pope Francis from Nicosia (Cyprus).
The meeting with the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, and with the Holy Synod in the Orthodox Cathedral; the Holy Mass at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, and the ecumenical prayer with migrants, have marked the agenda of Pope Francis in his Friday stay in the Cypriot capital.
In his homily at Mass in memory of St. Francis Xavier, the Pope encouraged the need to be "luminous Christians" who "bring the light received from Christ to illuminate the night that often surrounds us". The starting point was the Gospel of St. Matthew, which speaks of the healing of the blind men who go to Jesus, together bring him their sufferings and joyfully announce their healing. They do so because "they perceive that, in the darkness of history, he is the light that illuminates the world".
"Son of David, have mercy on us!" The two blind men in the Gospel," said the Holy Father, "trust" in Jesus and follow him in search of light for their eyes. And they do so because "they perceive that, in the darkness of history, he is the light that illuminates the nights of the heart and of the world, that defeats darkness and overcomes all blindness".
"We too, like the two blind men, have blindness of heart. We too, like the two blind men, are travelers often immersed in the darkness of life. The first thing to do is to turn to Jesus, as he himself said: 'Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Mt 11:28). Who among us is not in some way weary and burdened?" the Holy Father asked. "But we resist going to Jesus; many times we prefer to remain closed in on ourselves, to be alone with our obscurities, to pity ourselves, accepting the bad company of sadness. Jesus is the doctor, He alone, the true light that enlightens every man (cf. Jn 1:9), gives us light, warmth and love in abundance. He alone frees the heart from evil".
The "first step" indicated by the Pope was, therefore, "to go to Jesus": to give him the possibility of healing our hearts. If everyone thinks of himself, blindness cannot be cured, he added. The "second step" is to bring "together" our wounds to Jesus. "In the face of every personal darkness and the challenges we face in the Church and in society," Francis pointed out, we are called "to renew fraternity," since, "if we remain divided among ourselves, if each one thinks only of himself or his group, if we do not come together, if we do not dialogue, if we do not walk together, we will not be able to fully cure blindness."
It is the "eloquent sign of the Christian life, the distinctive feature of the ecclesial spirit," the Holy Father stressed, which is "to think, speak and act as a 'we', leaving behind the individualism and the pretension of self-sufficiency that sicken the heart."
Although Jesus had recommended to the blind men, after healing them, not to say anything to anyone, they, however, did the opposite. It was not to "disobey the Lord," but simply because they "failed to contain the enthusiasm" of the encounter and their healing.
Hence the last step indicated by the Pope was to "proclaim the Gospel with joy," the distinctive sign of the Christian. "The joy of the Gospel, which is irrepressible, fills the heart and the whole life of those who encounter Jesus (Evangelii gaudium, 1), frees from the risk of an intimate, distant and complaining faith, and introduces into the dynamism of witness." Living the liberating proclamation of the Gospel with joy, Francis assured. "It is not proselytism, but witness; it is not moralism that judges, but mercy that embraces; it is not external worship, but lived love."
This was his appeal at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia: "We need enlightened Christians, but above all luminous ones, who touch with tenderness the blindness of their brothers and sisters, who with gestures and words of consolation light lights of hope in the darkness; Christians who sow shoots of the Gospel in the arid fields of daily life, who bring caresses to the loneliness of suffering and poverty".
Renewing trust in Jesus, who "hears the cry of our blindness" and who "wants to touch our eyes and our heart," "draw us into the light, make us be reborn and reanimate us interiorly" was the Pope's final recommendation, who invoked, at the end of his homily, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
Before the Holy Mass at the GSP Stadium, early in the morning, Pope Francis went to greet the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, and the meeting with the Holy Synod in the Orthodox Cathedral. During his courtesy visit, the Catholic Pontiff signed in the Book of Honor of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Cyprus, with the following text, which highlighted the path of dialogue to move forward together:
"Pilgrim to Cyprus, pearl of history and of faith, I invoke from God humility and courage to walk together towards full unity and to give to the world, following the example of the Apostles, a fraternal message of consolation and a living witness of hope.
Your Beatitude, thank you for speaking of Mother Church among the people. This is the path that unites us as pastors. Let us go forward together on this path. And thank you very much for speaking of dialogue. We must always advance along the path of dialogue, a laborious, patient and sure path, a path of courage. "Parresia and patience" (in Greek)".
Later, in his address to the Holy Synod of Orthodox Bishops, Pope Francis began by stressing that "we have a common apostolic origin: Paul crossed Cyprus and then came to Rome. We therefore descend from the same apostolic ardor and are united by a single path: that of the Gospel. I am pleased to see that we continue to walk in the same direction, in search of ever greater fraternity and full unity".
"In this piece of the Holy Land that spreads the grace of the Holy Places in the Mediterranean, the memory of so many biblical pages and figures comes naturally". The Pope reflected once again on 'Joseph, whom the Apostles called Barnabas' (Acts 4:36): this is how he is presented in the Acts of the Apostles".
"Barnabas, son of consolation, exhorts us his brothers to undertake the same mission of proclaiming the Gospel to men, inviting us to understand that the proclamation cannot be based on general exhortations, on the repetition of precepts and norms to be observed, as has often been done," the Holy Father said.
"It is necessary to follow the path of personal encounter, to pay attention to the questions of the people, to their existential needs. To be children of consolation, before saying anything, it is necessary to listen, to allow oneself to be questioned, to discover the other, to share: because the Gospel is transmitted through communion".
"This is what we, as Catholics, wish to live in the coming years, rediscovering the synodal dimension, constitutive of the being of the Church. And in this we feel the need to walk more intensely with you, dear brothers, who through the experience of your synodality can truly be of great help to us".
"Thank you for your fraternal collaboration, which is also manifested in the active participation in the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church," he added.
Tomorrow, already in the Greek capital, the Pontiff will visit His Beatitude Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, at the Orthodox Archbishopric of Greece, where a meeting will take place in the Throne Hall of the Archbishopric.
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"Body, love, pleasure: does it make sense to separate nature and person? This is the title of the conference that, next Thursday, December 16, 2021 from 13:00 h. will be given by the German philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz at the Omnes Forum.
"We have to have the courage to explain faith."Ratzinger Awards, a tribute by Pope Francis to his predecessorAwarded, together with Prof. Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, the Ratzinger Prize in the last edition, Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz studied philosophy and German political science. She has taught at the universities of Munich, Bayreuth, Tübingen and Eichstätt. Since 2011 she has been directing the European Institute for Philosophy and Religion at the Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological University located at the Cistercian monastery Stift Heiligenkreuz near Heiligenkreuz.
The study of Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz's long career has focused on the philosophy of religion and cultural anthropology, with special attention to the figures of Edith Stein and Romano Guardini. Gerl-Falkovitz combines these two great figures with the method of phenomenology, i.e., exact observation and description.
In his own words, Gerl-Falkovitz has maintained his faith and has increasingly delved into it through philosophy. His studies provide, moreover, a counterbalance to the Gnostic leveling of the male-female polarity.
The meeting "Body, love, pleasure - does it make sense to separate nature and person?" will be held, in person and following the relevant health guidelines, in the Aula de Grados of the Universidad San Dámaso de Madrid. The meeting will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 16, 2021 and will be moderated by David Torrijos Castrillejo, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Madrid. San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University.
The meeting will be available online at Omnes YouTube channel.
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Critics question "the methodological weaknesses and sometimes dubious analyses" of the CIASE report. The gesture of the academics who resigned would have provoked the postponement by the Vatican of a meeting between the Pope and the members of the Sauvé commission initially scheduled for December 9.
After the shock caused by the revelations of the CIASE (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church) of the exhorbitant number of sexual abuses (more than 300,000) on minors in the Church since 1950, almost two months later, criticisms are slowly emerging.
It all began at the beginning of the week. Eight eminent members of the Catholic Academy of France, created in 2009 to ensure better visibility of the "intellectual production linked (...) to Catholicism," sent a letter of about fifteen pages to Bishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the CEF, and to Bishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio to France, direct representative of the Pope. The document is signed by a large part of the leadership of the Academy, such as Hugues Portelli (president), Jean-Dominique Durand and Yvonne Flour (vice-presidents) and Jean-Luc Chartier (secretary general).
First of all, the document denounces a questionable evaluation of the number of victims, since two studies had been carried out with very different results: 27,000 victims at the most by the researchers of the EPHE (École Pratique des Hautes Etudes) by extrapolating data from archives and surveys, and 330,000 by the researchers of the INSERM from an Internet survey of 24,000 people, to which 171 people had replied that they had been abused, which became, by a very questionable extrapolation, 330,000.000 by INSERM researchers from an Internet survey of 24,000 people, to which 171 people had responded that they had been abused, which became by a very questionable extrapolation 330,000 when extended to the national adult population. This 330,000 figure was the only one retained and the EPHE study was discarded without explanation. From this huge figure, CIASE was able to posit an explanation based on the "systemic" nature of the plague, inherent in the nature and functioning of the "institution" of the Church.
From then on, the most radical recommendations were formulated, questioning the spiritual and sacramental nature of the Catholic Church, attributing to it an image of intrinsic corruption. Thus, the "recommendations" called for a "revision" of confession, absolution, Catholic sexual morality, "the hierarchical constitution of the Church", "the concentration of the powers of order and government in the hands of one person", and also to invoke the civil and social responsibility of the Church because of the "systemic" nature of this scourge (even when the consultation of juridical specialists on the question had dissuaded them), to abolish the secrecy of confession, etc.
Dissensions have torn the Catholic Academy in recent days following these criticisms that question "the methodological weaknesses and sometimes dubious analyses" of the CIASE report. Although the document was not presented as the official position of the Academy but the personal opinion of some of its members, several members of the Academy have resigned from this institution. Eric de Moulins-Beaufort himself, president of the French Episcopal Conference, and Sister Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious of France (Corref). This new document disqualifies the position they had previously taken publicly, of unreserved acceptance of the conclusions of the CIASE.
However, the initiative of the protesting academics is only the tip of a broader movement of criticism of the Sauvé report. A wave that is reaching the highest levels of the Church. The gesture of the eight academics would have provoked, according to some media, the postponement sine die The Vatican has cancelled a meeting between the Pope and the members of the Sauvé Commission initially scheduled for December 9 due to the Pope's scheduling problems, it was reported.
In the midst of this confusing climate, the Church in France has recently received with dismay the resignation of the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, from his position at the hands of the Pope, provoked by an intentional leak to the press of an accusation of irregularities in government and of having had intimate relations with a woman nine years ago. Archbishop Aupetit has denied the allegations.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Michel Aupetit from his pastoral office as head of the Archdiocese of Paris on Thursday, December 2. In turn, the Holy Father has appointed Archbishop Georges Pontier, Archbishop Emeritus of Marseille, Apostolic Administrator of Paris.
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It is important to create or foster intellectual elites, groups of people with prestige, recognition and influence within their field, who act as referents in the orders of social life, in order to rebuild the European cultural model.
It is provocative to talk about intellectual leadership now that the single thought prevails and that those who claim to have their own voice are frowned upon because they supposedly endanger social cohesion.
It is curious that it is precisely those who complain that the Church unifies thoughts and impedes freedom, who insist on subjecting citizens by any means to the uniformity of the single thought, of closed and all-encompassing, totalitarian ideologies.
In Spain, the slogan par excellence of the sanctimonious left, which accepts dogmas without foundation or analysis, is that the left is morally superior to an immoral by nature and selfish right wing, as well as fascist, a term that serves for everything.
From this pretended superiority, an elaborate project of social engineering is set in motion: deconstruction of the family, abolition of merit and effort, manipulation of language, free disposal of life (abortion and euthanasia), misrepresentation of history, manipulation of education, gender self-assignment and many other things. This, continuously hammered in the populist media, ends up internalizing and shaping a cultural model (Goebbels dixit).
Not long ago the concept of the "Thucydides Trap" was coined to explain that when the hegemony of a dominant power (the left) is disputed by an emerging power (the right), there is a great probability that a war will break out between the two. That war has broken out: the battle of culture, a great opportunity, since one asserts one's being when confronted with the will of the other and has to refine one's opinions and substantiate them.
In order to promote this task, it is important to create or encourage intellectual elites, groups of people with prestige, recognition and influence within their sphere, acting as referents in the orders of social life, to rebuild the European cultural model based on Greek thought, Roman law expanded, where appropriate, by the Judeo-Christian tradition, revelation, reason complemented by faith.
This insubordination to the alleged intellectual superiority of the left is already taking place. It is no coincidence that opinion groups are spontaneously emerging, think-tanks or simple gatherings, engaged in this task. There is also a tribe of writers, mostly young, most of them in digital media, who are making their voices and opinions heard. Curiously enough, they are all popular, spontaneous movements, emerging from society, outside of subsidies and official recognition.
The cofrade world cannot be a mere spectator in this cultural battle, although there are still brotherhoods in which anyone who dares to step outside the common thinking dictated by the self-appointed leaders of the tribe is marginalized. However, when the individual assumes as true the moral superiority of the left and considers that there are only a few morally acceptable ideas, a single label of good citizen, or good brotherhood, granted by the hierarchs, he is renouncing his moral autonomy, basic to the foundation of any free society and to avoid falling into the "kakistocracy", the government of the worst, in society and in the brotherhood.
There are still brotherhoods that continue to take refuge exclusively in the traditional as a safe value; but this is not the way. Brotherhoods, which are called to "sanctify the world from within" (LG. n. 31; CIC c. 298), they cannot shy away from the battle of ideas by making themselves supposedly impervious to cultural changes, arguing that they are in another sphere, that theirs is not politics, taking refuge in tradition and in a misunderstanding of popular piety. This approach is fatal in the medium term, because the brotherhoods can only carry out their mission in a free society.
The ethics of the Grand Inquisitor (Dostoyevsky) assumes that citizens are incapable of bearing the burden of their own morality and freedom and must be supplied with uniform models, in the form of totalitarian ideologies. Assuming such an approach and trying to annul the freedom that Christ won for us is fatal for society and for the brotherhoods. It is urgent to fight the cultural battle from the "moral superiority" and in that effort must be the brotherhoods, constituted in intellectual elites.
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.
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The first thing the Pope did in Cyprus, at the beginning of his 35th international apostolic journey to the Cypriot country and Greece, was to embrace the Catholic community, which he praised because it "welcomes, integrates and accompanies", and to look at the "great apostle Barnabas".
The Holy Father has defined the apostolic journey to Cyprus and Greece as a "pilgrimage to the sources". It is the third this year (after Iraq and Budapest/Hungary and Slovakia), and follows in the footsteps of Benedict XVI (2010) and St. John Paul II (2001) in these lands. There are five days, until Monday 6, with nine speeches, two homilies and an Angelus. These are the numbers that mark this trip of the Pope to two countries with a large Orthodox majority and with waters to the Mediterranean, another great protagonist of this trip.
On the flight to Nicosia, the Pontiff told journalists: "It is a beautiful trip, but we will touch wounds". There was no need to speculate too much, because the Holy Father, before leaving Santa Marta, had greeted some refugees accompanied by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. They were immigrants, now residing in Italy, from Syria, Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan, and had been in Lesbos, where the Pope will travel on Sunday. Some were brought to him by Francis himself in 2016.
After the official reception at the airport of Larnaca, even before the welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, the first meeting of the Pope in Cyprus was with the Catholic community: priests, religious, deacons, catechists, associations and ecclesial movements, in the Maronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Grace.
We will now summarize Pope Francis' first message concerning the Apostle Barnabas. First, it is worth remembering that the Holy Father, a few days before his departure, communicated in a video message "the joy" of visiting "these magnificent lands, blessed by history, culture and the Gospel", in the footsteps of "great missionaries", such as "the apostles Paul and Barnabas".
"Pilgrimage to the sources," Francis advanced as a key. "The first is fraternity, 'so precious' in the context of the synodal journey. "There is a 'synodal grace,' an apostolic fraternity that I desire so much and with great respect: it is the expectation of visiting the beloved Blessed Chrysostomos and Ieronymos, Heads of the local Orthodox Churches. As a brother in the faith, I will have the grace to be received by you and to meet with you in the name of the Lord of Peace".
In fact, the Pope will visit His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, this Friday in Nicosia at the Archbishop's Palace, followed by a meeting with the Holy Synod in the Orthodox Cathedral of Nicosia, to which Pope Francis will address a speech.
Already on Saturday, in the Hellenic country, the Pontiff will also greet His Beatitude Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, at the Orthodox Archbishopric of Greece, where a meeting will take place in the Throne Hall of the Archbishopric, and the Pope will deliver another speech.
The "small Catholic flock", a minority in Cyprus and Greece, was the first to receive an embrace from the Pope, after the greeting of Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, who referred to the echo of the millenary presence of the Maronites on the island. "Migration from Lebanon took place in the 8th century, long before the arrival of the Crusaders (1192)," he recalled.
"I am happy to be among you. I wish to express my gratitude to Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï for the words he addressed to me and to greet with affection Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa," the Pope began his address.
Thank you all for your ministry and service. [...]. "I share my joy in visiting this land, walking as a pilgrim in the footsteps of the great apostle Barnabas, son of this people, disciple in love with Jesus, intrepid proclaimer of the Gospel," he added. An apostle who "passing through the nascent Christian communities, saw how the grace of God was at work and rejoiced in it, exhorting 'all to remain united to the Lord with firmness of heart'".
"I come with the same desire," the Holy Father continued. "To see the grace of God at work in your Church and in your land, rejoicing with you for the wonders that the Lord works and exhorting you to persevere always, without tiring, without ever becoming discouraged. I look at you and see the richness of your diversity".
Francis greeted the Maronite Church, "which in the course of the centuries has arrived on the island on various occasions and which, often undergoing many trials, has persevered in the faith". And "also to the Latin Church, present here for millennia, which has seen the enthusiasm of the faith grow over time, together with her children, and which today, thanks to the presence of so many migrant brothers and sisters, presents itself as a 'multicolored' people, an authentic meeting place between different ethnic groups and cultures".
Pope Francis then wanted to "share something with you about St. Barnabas, your brother and patron, inspired by two words from his life and mission".
He then stressed: "We need to a patient Church. A Church that does not allow itself to be disturbed and disconcerted by the changes, but serenely welcomes the newness and discerns the situations in the light of the Gospel. On this island, the work you carry out in welcoming new brothers and sisters arriving from other parts of the world is precious. Like Barnabas, you too are called to cultivate a patient and attentive gaze, to be visible and credible signs of the patience of God who never leaves anyone away from home, deprived of his tender embrace".
"The Church in Cyprus has these open arms: she welcomes, integrates and accompanies. It is an important message also for the Church throughout Europe, marked by the crisis of faith," the Holy Father said. "It is no use being impulsive and aggressive, nostalgic or complaining, it is better to move forward reading the signs of the times and also the signs of the crisis. It is necessary to begin again and to proclaim the Gospel with patience, especially to the new generations."
"In the story of Barnabas, there is a second important aspect that I would like to emphasize: his meeting with Paul of Tarsus and their fraternal friendship, which will lead them to live the mission together," the Pope said, recalling that Barnabas took St. Paul with him after his conversion, presented him to the community, told what had happened to him and vouched for him. And the Pope said: "It is an attitude of friendship and sharing of life. To 'take with oneself', 'to take upon oneself' means to take charge of the other's story, to take time to get to know him without labeling him, to carry him on one's shoulders when he is tired or wounded, as the Good Samaritan does".
"This is called brotherhood, and it is the second word. Barnabas and Paul, as brothers, traveled together to proclaim the Gospel, even in the midst of persecutions" and disagreements. "But Paul and Barnabas did not separate for personal reasons, but they were arguing about their ministry, about how to carry out the mission, and they had different visions," Francis noted.
"This is the fraternity in the Church, it is possible to discuss different visions, sensibilities and ideas. And to say things to each other's face with sincerity in certain cases helps, it is an occasion for growth and change. [...] We discuss, but we remain brothers".
And here comes the Pope's second invitation in his address to the Catholic community:
"Dear brothers and sisters, we need a fraternal Church to be an instrument of fraternity for the world. Here in Cyprus there are many spiritual and ecclesial sensibilities, various histories of origin, different rites and traditions; but we should not feel diversity as a threat against identity, nor should we be suspicious and worried about the respective spaces".
"With your fraternity you can remind everyone, the whole of Europe, that to build a future worthy of man it is necessary to work together, overcome divisions, tear down walls and cultivate the dream of unity," the Pope said.
"We need to welcome and integrate, to walk together, to be brothers and sisters. I thank you for what you are and what you do, for the joy with which you proclaim the Gospel, for the fatigue and renunciation with which you support it and move it forward. This is the path traced out by the holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas".
The Holy Father's final exhortation was this: "I wish you always to be a patient Church, which discerns, accompanies and integrates; and a fraternal Church, which makes room for the other, which discusses but remains united. I bless you and please continue to pray for me. Efcharistó!"
The first "source" of pilgrimage of the trip cited by the Pope in the video was fraternity. The second he referred to as constituting "the ancient source of Europe": Cyprus represents "a branch of the Holy Land on the continent", while "Greece is the home of classical culture". Europe, therefore, Francis stressed, "cannot do without the Mediterranean, a sea that has seen the spread of the Gospel" and the development of great civilizations." This is how the Pope puts it:
"The mare nostrum, which connects so many lands, invites us to sail together, not to divide ourselves by going our separate ways, especially in this period in which the fight against the pandemic continues to demand great commitment and the climate crisis looms over us. The sea, which welcomes many peoples, with its open ports reminds us that the sources of coexistence are in welcoming".
And immediately came the Pope's intense appeal not to forget migrants and refugees:
"I think of those who, in recent years and still today, flee from wars and poverty, who land on the coasts of the continent and elsewhere, and find not hospitality, but hostility and are even exploited. How many have lost their lives at sea! Today, the Mare Nostrum, the Mediterranean, is a great cemetery".
The third source of the papal journey, in this line, will be humanity, and it will be visualized in Mytilene - Lesbos, where the Pope will go on the morning of Sunday, December 5, to meet with the refugees. This is what he did five years ago on the same island, and this is how the Pope recalled it:
"Pilgrim at the source of humanity, I will go again to Lesbos, with the conviction that the sources of life in common will only flourish again in fraternity and integration: together. There is no other way, and with this illusion I go to you".
The Pope's visit to Cyprus and Greece has been the subject of analysis and commentary by Vatican authorities and various experts. Among others, Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, or the analyst Nikos Tzoitis, stand out.
"Pope Francis will bring to Cyprus and Greece the joy of the Gospel and the light of hope, exhorting Europe and all humanity to unity and not to abandon those in need," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in an interview with Vatican media.
The Pope "feels like a pilgrim, a pilgrim to the origins of the Church. Let us remember that these countries were marked by apostolic itineraries of great importance, those that refer to the apostles Barnabas and Paul. It is a return to these origins, "rediscovering - he says - the joy of the Gospel", which is a theme that has run through the entire pontificate, beginning with the first document. The Pope, as always, entrusts his pilgrimage to prayer and asks for prayers from everyone".
As for the Mediterranean, which Francis mentions in his message, Cardinal Parolin emphasizes that "the Pope will bring the light and hope of Christ, and the exhortation that the Mediterranean should move from being a space that divides to being an opportunity for encounter".
"What should be the effort of all countries, of all peoples living around this basin, is to transform it from a space that divides into an opportunity for encounter. Unfortunately, today we are witnessing the opposite phenomenon: so many tensions at the geopolitical level that have the Mediterranean at their center and then the phenomenon of migration," he points out.
"The Pope says something very beautiful that takes up a bit the idea that he developed during the time of the pandemic," adds the Cardinal Secretary of State: "Specifically when he says: 'We are in one boat'... And now he says: 'We must sail together'. In my opinion, this invitation to sail together means: look, we face so many problems, we have emergencies, like those of the pandemic, from which we have not yet fully emerged, like those of climate change - we heard it in Glasgow these last few days - or we have chronic phenomena, like war, poverty, hunger... So, in the face of these great phenomena, these great problems and difficulties, we must present a united front, we must have a common, shared, multilateral approach. This is the only way to solve the problems of today's world", he assures.
With regard to Cyprus, which has seen the division of the two communities, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, Cardinal Parolin said that "it is a very, very delicate and worrying situation. I believe that the Pope will reiterate the position, the hope, the exhortation of the Holy See: that is, that the Cyprus problem can be resolved through a sincere and loyal dialogue between the parties involved, always taking into account the good of the whole island. It is, therefore, a confirmation of the Holy See's line, reiterating it in situThe hope is that it will have a different effect than proclaiming it from afar".
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The Pope's catechesis on the Letter to the Galatians occupied fifteen Wednesdays, from June 23 to November 10 of this year 2021. We now complete the presentation we made of the first five audiences in the September issue of Omnes.
St. Paul opposes the "hypocrisy" (Gal 2:13). In Sacred Scripture there are examples where hypocrisy is combated, such as that of the old man Eleazar. And, above all, the appeals of Jesus to some Pharisees.
"The hypocrite" -Francisco points out. "is a person who pretends, flatters and deceives because he lives with a mask on his face and does not have the courage to face the truth. Therefore, he is not capable of truly loving - a hypocrite does not know how to love -, he limits himself to living on selfishness and does not have the strength to show his heart with transparency". (General Audience 25-VIII-2021).
Today we also have many situations in which hypocrisy can occur, at work, in politics and also in the Church: "To act contrary to the truth means to endanger the unity of the Church, for which the Lord himself prayed." (ibid.). Hypocrisy is one of the dangers of clinging to the formalism of preferring the old Law to the new Law of Christ.
The apostle Paul wishes to warn the Galatians of these dangers into which they may fall and goes so far as to call them "foolish" (cf. Gal 3:1), that is, they are senseless. They are senseless, the Pope explains, because they cling to "a religiosity based solely on the scrupulous observance of precepts." (General Audience1-IX-2021), forgetting what justifies us: the gratuitousness of Jesus' redemption and that holiness comes from the Holy Spirit.
And so, Francis observes, St. Paul also invites us to reflect: how do we live the faith? Is Christ with his newness the center of our life or are we content with formalisms? And the Pope exhorts us: "Let us ask for the wisdom to always be aware of this reality and to expel the fundamentalists who propose to us a life of artificial asceticism, far from the resurrection of Christ. Asceticism is necessary, but wise asceticism, not artificial." (ibid.).
Christian wisdom is rooted in the new of Christian revelation. Through baptism, we are made children of God. Once we "faith has come" in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:25), a radically new condition is created that immerses us in the divine filiation. The sonship of which Paul speaks is no longer the general one that involves all men and women as sons and daughters of the one Creator. The apostle affirms that faith makes it possible to be children of God. "in Christ" (v. 26).
That is the "novelty": "Whoever accepts Christ in faith, through baptism is coated and filial dignity (cf. v. 27)".. And it is not a question of an external "putting on". In the Letter to the Romans, Paul will go so far as to say that, in baptism, we died with Christ and were buried with him in order to live with him (cf. 6:3-14). "How many receive it" -Francisco points out- They are profoundly transformed, in their innermost being, and possess a new life, which allows them to address God and invoke Him with the name 'Abba', that is to say, 'Abba', dad" (General Audience, 8-IX-2021).
It is, therefore, a new identity that transcends ethno-religious differences. Thus, among Christians, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female (cf. Gal 3:28), but, in fact, there is only brothers. And this was revolutionary at the time and continues to be so. Christians," Francis proposes, "must first reject among ourselves the differences and discriminations that we so often make unconsciously, in order to make concrete and evident the call to the unity of the whole human race (cfr. Lumen gentium, 1).
In this way we see how the love of truth that the Christian faith proposes is transformed into wisdom and promotes fraternity among all people.
In his catechesis of September 29, the Successor of Peter explained the meaning of the justification by faith and grace, as a consequence of the "God's merciful initiative that grants forgiveness." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1990). It is not we who are saved by our efforts or merits. It is Jesus who "justifies" us. That is, he makes us righteous or holy (for Scripture identifies God's righteousness and holiness).
But from this we must not conclude that for Paul the Mosaic Law no longer has any value; in fact, it remains an irrevocable gift of God. saint (Rom 7:12). Francis observes that it is also essential for our spiritual life to fulfill the commandments, but we cannot count on our own strength alone. grace of God that we receive from Christ: "From Him we receive that gratuitous love that allows us, at the same time, to love in a concrete way." (General Audience, 29-IX-2021).
In this way we can understand a statement of the Apostle James that could seem to be the opposite of what St. Paul says: "You see how a man is justified by works and not by faith alone [...] For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead." (James 2:24,26).
This means that justification, which faith works in us, demands our correspondence with our works. This is why the teachings of the two apostles are complementary. From there, we must imitate God's style, which is one of closeness, compassion and tenderness: "The power of grace needs to be combined with our works of mercy, which we are called to live in order to manifest how great God's love is." (ibid.).
Christian freedom is a gift that springs from the Cross: "Precisely where Jesus allowed himself to be nailed, where he became a slave, God placed the source of man's liberation. This never ceases to amaze us: that the place where we are stripped of all freedom, that is, death, can become the source of freedom." (General Audience, 6-X-2021). In complete freedom, Jesus gave himself up to death (cf. Jn 10:17-18) in order to obtain true life for us.
Therefore, Christian liberty is based on the truth of faith, It is not an abstract theory, but the reality of the living Christ, who illuminates the meaning of our personal life. Many people who have not studied or even know how to read and write, but have understood the message of Christ well, have that wisdom that sets them free.
This Christian path of truth and freedom, Francis points out, is a difficult and tiring path, but not impossible, because in it we are sustained by the love that comes from the cross, and that love reveals the truth to us, gives us freedom and, with it, happiness.
The following Wednesday Francis showed how the Christian faith, which St. Paul preached with a heart inflamed by the love of Christ, does not lead to renouncing the cultures or traditions of peoples, but rather to recognizing the seeds of truth and good that are contained in them, opening them to the universalism of faith and bringing them to their fullness.
This is called inculturation of the Gospel: "To be able to announce the Good News of Christ the Savior while respecting what is good and true in cultures", although it is not easy, because of the temptation to impose one's own cultural model (General Audience, 13-X-2021). And its foundation is the Incarnation of the Son of God, who has united himself in a certain way with every man (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 22).
That is why, Francis deduced, the name Catholic Church is not a sociological denomination to distinguish us from other Christians."Catholic is an adjective that means universal: catholicity, universality. Universal Church, meaning Catholic, means that the Church has in herself, in her very nature, openness to all peoples and cultures of all times, because Christ was born, died and rose again for all." (General Audience, ibíd.).
What does this mean in our present moment of technological culture? That the freedom granted to us by faith - he proposed - asks us to be on a constant journey, to "inculturate" the Gospel also in our digital culture.
And so we see how the Christian faith, which lives in works, opens itself to cultures with the message of the Gospel, encourages dialogue among them and brings out the best in each one.
Through baptism," the Pope insisted, "we are baptized. "we have passed from the slavery of fear and sin to the freedom of the children of God." (General Audience, 20-X-2021). But according to St. Paul, this freedom is in no way "a pretext for meat" (Gal 5:13): a libertine life that follows instinct and selfish impulses. On the contrary, the freedom of Jesus leads us, writes the Apostle, to be at the service of one another out of love.
In fact, it is worth noting that Christian freedom expresses the horizon and goal, the path and the very meaning of human freedom: service out of love; for we possess life only if we lose it (cf. Mk. 8:35). "This" -Francisco points out. "is pure Gospel". This is "the freedom test".
The Pope explains that there is no freedom without love. He warns what kind of love it is: "Not with intimate love, with soap opera love, not with the passion that seeks simply what suits us and pleases us, but with the love that we see in Christ, charity: that is the love that is truly free and liberating" (cf. Jn 13:15). A selfish freedom, without end or reference points," he adds, "would be an empty freedom. On the other hand, true freedom, full and concrete, always sets us free (cf. 1 Cor 10:23-24).
Freedom makes sense when we choose the true good for ourselves and others. "Only this freedom is full, concrete and gets us into the real life of every day. True freedom always frees us. (cf. 1 Cor 10:23-24). It is the freedom that leads us to the poor, recognizing in their faces the face of Christ (cf. Gal 2:10). It is not, as is sometimes said, the freedom that "ends where yours begins," but on the contrary: the freedom that opens us to others and to their interests, that grows when the freedom of others grows.
Well, Francisco proposes: "Especially in this historical moment, we need to rediscover the communitarian, not individualistic, dimension of freedom: the pandemic has taught us that we need each other, but it is not enough to know it, we have to choose it every day concretely, to decide on that path.".
This is the way it is. Christian freedom is not a gift received once and for all, but requires our collaboration in order to unfold in a dynamic way. Freedom is born of God's love and grows in charity.
Contrary to what St. Paul teaches - the Pope pointed out the following week -, today "many seek religious certainty rather than the living and true God, focusing on rituals and precepts rather than embracing the God of love with their whole being." This is the temptation of the new fundamentalists, which "they seek the security of God and not the God of security." (General Audience, 27-X-2021).
But only the Holy Spirit, who flows for us from the cross of Christ, can change our heart and guide it, with the power of love, in the spiritual combat (cf. Gal 5:19-21). The apostle opposes the "works of the flesh" (cf. Gal 5:19-21), the consequence of a behavior closed in worldly instincts, to the "fruits of the Spirit" (cf. Gal 5:22), which begin with love, peace and joy.
Christian liberty, as St. Paul says to the Galatians, calls for walk according to the Holy Spirit (cf. 5:16.25). This," explained the Pope in the penultimate of his catecheses, "means letting oneself be guided by him, believing that God "is always stronger than our resistances and greater than our sins." (General Audience, 3-XI-2021).
The apostle uses the plural we to propose: "let us walk according to the Spirit".(v. 25). "How beautiful it is." -Francisco then points out. "when we meet shepherds who walk with their people and do not separate from them." (ibid.), who accompany him with meekness and solidarity.
The Pope concludes his catechesis with an exhortation not to let ourselves be overcome by weariness, encouraging an attitude of realistic enthusiasm, knowing our limitations.
For times of difficulty, two pieces of advice. First, in the expression of St. Augustine, "awakening to Christ" which sometimes seems to sleep in us as in the boat (cfr. Speeches 163, B 6): "We must awaken Christ in our hearts and only then will we be able to contemplate things with His gaze, because He sees beyond the storm. Through His serene gaze we can see a panorama that, alone, we cannot even imagine." (General Audience 10-XI-2021).
Second, we must not tire of invoking the Holy Spirit in prayer. "Come, Holy Spirit." as Mary and the disciples did.
Thus, service out of love makes full freedom under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And that freedom is accompanied by joy and maturity.
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The well-known Spanish painter shared his memories, opinions and experiences at a dinner-colloquium organized by Omnes, which brought together a large group of people in the center of Madrid.
Antonio López, master of Spanish realism, is one of the most recognized painters and sculptors of the Spanish artistic scene. He is a native of Tomelloso, where he was born in 1936. Together with friends, collaborators and those close to Omnes, he shared a dinner and a lively discussion last Friday in Madrid.
The meeting started with an introduction and welcome by Jorge Latorre, Professor of Art History at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid who, during the meeting, combined, in a natural way, the memories of the painter and the numerous questions from the audience.
One of the most important names in Antonio López's life, as he himself explained, was his uncle, the painter Antonio López Torres, whom he defined as "a truly extraordinary painter". It would be López Torres who changed the course of the life of the boy from Tomelloso when "at the age of 13, he convinced my father and I came to Madrid to prepare to enter Fine Arts. At that time I was preparing to work in an office... That changed my life. After that, it is like being Mozart's nephew, it was the strength, the presence and the example that sustains you".
The arrival in Madrid meant a radical change in the life of the painter who, at the age of 14, arrived in a big city "full of cars, with many priests" and where he began to paint to prepare for the entrance to Fine Arts. In Madrid "I met people who, like me, wanted to be painters or sculptors, and I met my family. I thought 'I've arrived at my place'.
The time in Madrid and the study of Fine Arts was, in López's words, "the most wonderful time of my life". In Madrid he met Mari, his wife, and was fascinated by the classical art that he painted and copied thanks to the reproductions that, at that time, could be seen in the Casón del Buen Retiro.
With a certain irony, the painter recalled that "although I knew very little about art, I had a great instinct to know who among my classmates knew the most. We didn't trust the teachers very much. We would have needed them to talk to us about modern art. When I started to know more, I realized that art was a mystery and how do you get in there, who gives you the key? The teachers, then, were not ready for that, they were overwhelmed by the times. There was no Picasso, Paul Klee, Chagall... That's what we dreamed of.
I realized that art was a mystery, and how do you get in there, who gives you the key?
Antonio López. Painter
"For me, for example, I had no trouble understanding modern art, but it was very difficult for me to understand Velázquez, or the great Spanish art of the Baroque. When I understood modern art I understood the art of the Prado Museum, not the other way around. That's why I think that in fine arts schools you have to teach first what is done in the moment in which you live".
The varied questions from the audience were an opportunity for the painter to share his memories, reflections and opinions on pictorial trends, the role of the artist, the importance of the spectator and his experiences of faith through art.
In response to a question about expressionism or the image of the "tormented artist", Antonio Lopez said that "the cliché that artists are sad people is horrifying, we have to say no. I think other people live worse than we do, because artists are motivated by a job we like. I think other people live worse than we do, because we artists are motivated by a job we like. If you can live from it, of course. I see the news and I get scared. I think life is worse than art. Art seems to me a beauty for life". In this sense, he stressed that "I have experienced art as a liberation. The one who starts with the will to learn finds the best of life. I think it is a torture in the case of the painter, musician, filmmaker..., who does not find an audience, but sometimes what I see in the faculty or in the workshops are people who are there wrong and should not be there".
Antonio López also wanted to remind us that you have to have the strength to dedicate yourself to the artistic field because "in art everyone has doubts, but now, painters, for example, have the freedom to do what they like. Until Goya, painters used to make commissions, they lived depending on the commissions. Not now. Before the artist was a servant of society, now also, but the first step is taken by him".
If it is a matter of transmitting what is religious, what is necessary is to feel it. If you feel it, you transmit it.
Antonio López. Painter
"I am a man of faith," Antonio López repeated on several occasions. In this sense, he spoke of his visits to the Prado and the contemplation of that "great religious art" that he found difficult to understand. When asked about a painting that reflected his faith, Antonio López stated categorically: "The Crucified Christ by Velázquez". This work, he stressed, "wonderfully reflects religious art. I think there is no other figure of Christ crucified at that level. So immense, so real and so supernatural. Velázquez looked at a body and I don't know what he did, but he made a God. It is a miracle.
The painter wanted to point out, in this area, that religious art has to lead to prayer, that is why he admires "popular art, the carvings of the virgins: the Rocío, the Macarena... Those dressed virgins that the people decorate and put jewels on them, all that seems subjugating to me because it is not distracted in making art. He goes directly to the religious and he gets it right. If you try to transmit the religious, what you need is to feel it. If you feel it, you transmit it. Velázquez achieves it in this Christ in an impressive way".
Who creates art? Art historian Ernst Gombrich said that art does not exist but artists do. Antonio Lopez defends something similar when he emphasizes that the creator of art is emotion: "when I am in the Puerta del Sol painting, it is expected of me, and I hope, that there is something more than a reproduction of the Puerta del Sol, because for that we have a photo". That more, said Lopez, is "to capture the emotion, the important thing is the emotion. Emotion is what justifies art. Once the emotion is there, language doesn't matter." "Emotion is what created art. I believe that the painters of Altamira made those paintings because something in nature caught their attention... and it is not the emotion of the painter but the emotion of the beholder."
When I am at the Puerta del Sol painting, I am expected, and I hope, that there is more than just a reproduction of the Puerta del Sol.
Antonio López. Painter
"Art has arisen from a need of man, like religion, I believe they go together. My starting point is precision. I measure things so that the proportion is exact... at the beginning I do things as a craftsman and then there comes a moment when it is the painting that speaks, that makes it have something that photography does not have, something that belongs to me. If it doesn't have that, it will be a display of skill but it is not an art that transmits emotions, like the great art from Bach to flamenco".
The dinner, which continued throughout the evening, culminated with the presentation of the Omnes multiplatform project to those present and a few words from Jorge Beltrán, member of the board of trustees, as well as a small raffle.
As is well known, the launch of omnesmag.comThe first of the year, the information and analysis portal on the Church, was launched by the Roman Academic Center Foundation (CARF). In addition, the Omnes magazine continues its monthly publication, along with various forums and thematic meetings with personalities from different disciplines, and the publication of periodic newsletters, such as The Compass.
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These awards, granted by the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, are given each year to people and projects that stand out for their "service to human dignity, human rights or evangelical values".
The Jury designated by the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications (CECS) and constituted in Madrid on December 1, 2021 has granted the "Bravo Awards!" awarded annually by this Commission.
With these awards is recognized "on the part of the Church, the work meritorious of all those who communication professionals in the various mediathat have been distinguished by the service to the dignity of man, human rights or gospel values"(Standards, art. 2).
In the long history of these awards, personalities such as the journalist Luis del Val, the singer Rozalén, the film director Pablo Moreno or diocesan delegations of media such as that of Córdoba.
In this edition, the awardees are the following:
Award Bravo! Special: Ages of Man Foundation on its 25th Anniversary.
Award Bravo! from Press: Laura Daniele.
Award Bravo! from Radio: Eva Fernandez.
Award Bravo! for Television: Vicente Vallés.
Award Bravo! of CinemaJosé Luis López Linares for the film "Spain, the first globalization"..
Award Bravo! in Digital Communicationby: "Asking you questions" by CEU Media.
Award Bravo! for Music: Hakuna Group Music.
Award Bravo! for Advertising: Juegaterapia Foundation for its "Disney Princesses" campaign for children with cancer.
Award Bravo! in Diocesan CommunicationSantiago Ruiz Gómez, of the Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada-Logroño.
The award ceremony The Bravo! Awards Ceremony will take place at the headquarters of the Episcopal Conference on the following day. May 26, 2022The event will take place on Sunday, May 29, prior to the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the 56th World Communications Day.
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On the occasion of the death of Brother Jean-Pierre Schumacher, we recall the interview that Miguel Perez Pichel conducted with the last survivor of Tibhirine. This Cistercian, who died at the age of 97 on November 21, recalled the days of persecution and kidnapping in 1996, which led to the martyrdom of his 7 companions.
On March 27, 1996, a group of terrorists allegedly linked to the Armed Islamic Group kidnapped and subsequently murdered seven monks from the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria. The events were narrated in the film Of gods and menwhich achieved great notoriety a few years ago. One of the survivors was Father Jean-Pierre Schumacher, who sees in the example of his murdered brothers a testimony of friendship towards Islam and forgiveness towards their kidnappers.
The father Jean-Pierre Schumacher was one of the survivors of the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Cistercian monks of the Tibhirine Monastery (Algeria) in 1996. He is currently 89 years old and lives in the monastery of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas. Kasbah Myriemin the Moroccan town of Midelt. During a conversation with Palabra, he recalls those events and reflects on martyrdom and monasticism.
What does it mean to be a Christian monk in a Muslim-majority country?
To be a monk in a Muslim country is to have a Christian presence in these lands in the name of Jesus and the Church. A presence through which we do not seek any satisfaction beyond allowing ourselves to be inhabited by Him, and to participate in the best of the lives of the people who have welcomed us, as much as the Cistercian contemplative vocation allows us. In this way we become part of their lives, we share their worries and their hopes, their needs and their joys, their sufferings. Therefore, it is a gratuitous presence in which we receive everything through prayer. This desire to live with the people of this place leads us to learn their language, to know their cultural heritage and to make the most of the material resources at our disposal according to our possibilities.
-How is life in the monastery?
Life in the monastery is structured in three areas of activities: on the one hand, the Divine Office and daily Eucharist, as well as time for individual prayer; secondly, the reading of the sacred texts during times of rest; and finally the work that each religious has been assigned according to his or her aptitudes: administration, relations with suppliers and public authorities, liturgy, welcoming visitors and people who come for spiritual exercises, accounting, and so on. We dedicate eight hours a day to each of these three activities.
-How long have you been a monk?
I entered the Abbey of Notre Dame de Timadeuc (Brittany, France) in 1957. I made my solemn profession on August 20, 1960, the Solemnity of St. Bernard.
I had felt called to the monastic life during my novitiate with the Marist Fathers in 1948. This intimate call continued during my studies of philosophy and theology at the seminary of the Marist Fathers in Lyon, and also later, during the four years that I served as an educator at the vocation center for young aspirants to the priesthood of Saint Brieucin Brittany. It was then that, in agreement with my superiors, I made the decision to enter the abbey of Timadeuc. When I arrived there, in October 1957, I did so with the intention of spending the rest of my life with the brothers participating in community life, which is, according to the Benedictine rule followed by the Cistercian order, a "school of divine service". Therefore he had no other pretension than to learn to love God. I could not imagine at all that divine providence had other ways for me. As the proverb says, "man proposes and God disposes".
-When did you arrive at the Tibhirine monastery?
It was September 19, 1964. I was part of a group of three religious appointed by the community of Timadeuc to respond to an urgent request from Cardinal Duval, Archbishop of Algiers, to maintain the small monastery of Tibhirine, which was about to close. The archbishop wished that, despite the massive departure of Europeans and Christians at the end of the Algerian war of 1962, the Church would remain in place, and at the same time offer a new face: that of a Church at the service of all Algerians, whatever their religion. The monastery, according to the cardinal's thinking, should have its own space. I liked the direction my life would thus take: while maintaining its monastic character, it took on the face of a Christian presence in the midst of the Muslim community. It was necessary to discover, through the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, the most suitable mode of presence.
The small group from Timadeuc was not alone. A group of four monks sent by the monastery of Aiguebelle (Rhone) joined us. Then two other monks arrived from the abbey of Citeaux (Burgundy), including Father Etienne Roche, who became our first prior. Upon our arrival we met three monks from the old community established there. Among them was Father Amédée. Thus began the Tibhirine adventure; or rather, it "restarted" but with a new face. An adventure that lasted 32 years, from 1964 to 1996.
-What was life like in the Tibhirine monastery?
The rhythm of the daily routine was as I have explained above. There was also a particular relationship with the neighbors of the small village of Tibhirine: it was necessary a process of inculturation, of discovering each other with our differences of language, culture, religion and nationality. We managed to be accepted as Christian monks through joint activities, such as work in the garden or medical care for the poor and sick in Brother Luc's clinic inside the monastery. There was also the retreat house, monastic prayer for religious and priests, in which lay people also participated, and, later, the biannual meetings with Sufi Muslims. Through all these activities we were interested in the life, concerns and joys of the people. In short: as Father Charles de Foucauld pointed out, the witness to the Gospel was realized more by our way of being and doing than by our words.
The term "conversion" implies "converting" ourselves, rather than trying to convert others. The purpose of our presence there was to live for the people of Tibhirine, to share their experiences, to cultivate their friendship, to walk together towards God in coexistence, respecting the religious and cultural identity of our neighbors and identifying with them, accepting as our own the diversity of religion or nationality.
-When did the problems start?
The situation became difficult and dangerous when the Algerian government interrupted the electoral process when it perceived that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) could take control of the country. The FIS then took to the bush and began guerrilla activity. Those were the black years, between 1993 and 1996.
-Why did you decide to stay in Tibhirine despite the danger?
First of all, it seemed to us totally wrong to opt for a solution that would imply withdrawing to a place free from danger, as the authorities of the French embassy in Algeria and the governor of Médéa (the province to which Tibhirine belongs) were asking us to do, while the local population, our neighbors, did not have the option of leaving to escape the violence. Moreover, our presence gave them security.
The second reason is linked to our vocation. We were sent by the Lord to ensure a Christian presence among the Muslims. To flee under the pretext of danger seemed to us to be a serious breach of trust in the Lord: it would have been like doubting that He had really sent us.
-What happened the night of the kidnapping?
The kidnapping of the monks took place during the night of March 26-27, 1996, between 1:00 and 1:30 in the morning. A group claiming to belong to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) had entered the monastery grounds by jumping over the wall, and then entered the building through the back door that connects the garden with the basement. They first detained the monastery guard, a young family man, and forced him to lead them into the prior's office, and then into the room of Brother Luc, the doctor.
Father Amédée looked through the keyhole in the lock of his door and saw two of the kidnappers in the room to which his cell overlooked and who were shuffling around. They did not try to enter the cell, for they saw that the door was locked. That was how Amédée escaped from the kidnapping. Then they went up to the second floor and took prisoner the five monks who slept there. In the guesthouse, adjacent to that floor, there were some guests who had arrived the night before. One of them, intrigued by the complaints of the fathers, wanted to find out what was going on. He left his room and met the monastery guard, who discreetly warned him of the danger and told him to leave. In the meantime, the kidnappers removed the monks from their rooms, but did not enter the area where the guests were.
I, being the porter, slept in the monastery porter's lodge. The assailants, led by the guard directly to the second floor, did not try to enter the porter's lodge and, as soon as they got hold of the seven monks, they left the place believing that they had already caught the whole community. Father Amédée and I were still there, but they did not know we were there. For the same reason, we also did not witness how they took our brothers out of the building. They probably did it through the back door of the cloister.
Shortly after leaving his cell, Father Amédée first noticed the disappearance of Brother Luc and Father Christian, our prior. Then he went up to the second floor and saw that the other monks had also disappeared. On his way back to the first floor, he called me - I was still in the porter's lodge - to tell me what had happened. "Do you know what happened?"he told me; "our brothers have been kidnapped. We are alone.".
-What did they do next?
Father Amédée, two priests staying at the guesthouse and I decided to pray Vespers. Then, when the curfew was lifted at sunrise, we sent all our guests to Algiers. Then I went with Father Thierry Becker - one of our guests - to Draâ-Esmar to report the events to the military in charge of local security, and then to Médeá to warn the gendarmerie. We did not manage to warn them first by telephone, because all the lines had been destroyed by the kidnappers. On our way back to the monastery we met a group of military security who interrogated the guard and Father Amédée. Father Amédée, Father Thierry Becker and I were then forced to spend the night in a hotel in the village.
Finally, we were transferred to the diocesan house in Algiers. We prayed to the Lord for our confreres, that He would give them sufficient strength and union with Him so that they could remain faithful to their vocation, come what may. On May 27, we were informed of his death by means of a cassette of the GIA addressed to the French government. We have the intimate certainty that they gave their lives in perfect offering to the Lord, as stated in Father Christian's will.
-What did you and Father Amédée feel when you found yourselves alone after the kidnapping?
We were shocked, even though we knew that, in that context of violence, something like this could happen at any moment. We did not want to die martyrs. Our vocation remained to remain among the Muslims and among our Algerian friends, for better or for worse.
-Why do you think God did not call you to martyrdom, like the other monks?
The life of each religious is dedicated to the Lord according to his religious profession. Each one of us has to ask himself that question, and find the answer that the Spirit suggests to him. It was not the time to think about it. We had to get down to work to face the new situation: as far as possible, not to lower our guard in the face of what happened to our confreres, and to ask ourselves what the Lord wanted of us for the future.
-What do you think of the terrorists who murdered the monks?
We still do not know who killed the monks and why. The investigations have not yet provided definitive data. However, I think the exact answer to your question should be based on Father Christian's will: "And to you too, friend of the last instant, who will not know what you are doing, yes, because also for you I want to say this thank you and this 'a-god' in whose face I contemplate you. And may it be given to us to meet again, thieves filled with joy, in paradise, if it so pleases God, our Father, Father of us both. Amen.".
-What is the point of dying a martyr today?
It seems to me that martyrdom is not something that can be sought as a life project that one offers oneself. To be a martyr means to be a witness. The term is often used for anyone who remains faithful to the Lord, who neither fears nor hesitates to bear very painful affronts, and even to expose one's life if necessary. Martyrdom is something that happens without being chosen for oneself, but in which we freely engage out of loyalty. It requires the grace of God.
-Are you homesick for Tibhirine?
I continue to show my love and best wishes to my friends in Tibhirine. I keep in touch with them via phone and email. In any case, I believe that a feeling of homesickness is not appropriate; it is unnecessary and unhealthy. We should be body and soul where the Lord wants us to be. While it is true that, from the very beginning, when we started in Morocco, we have looked with hope at the possibility of resettling in Algeria as soon as circumstances permit.
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Andrea Mardegan comments on the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.
In the first words after the Gospel of the infancy of Jesus and John, Luke follows a frequent custom in the prophetic books of the Old Testament and begins by quoting the civil and religious authorities of the time when the word of God "befalls" John.
Like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos and others, who begin their book by defining the historical time in which the word of God was manifested to them. This means that the Word of God enters history to save it, and its event is historically verifiable. Luke also reveals in this way that he wants to present John as a prophet sent by God. Already in the passages dedicated to the infancy of Jesus and John, Luke had accustomed us to this structure: historical situation and the word of God that arrives. "In the time of Herod, king of Judea." says Luke, the word of God, brought directly by the angel Gabriel, came to Zechariah and then to Mary of Nazareth. He introduces the birth of Jesus by quoting the decree of Caesar Augustus about the census issued "in those days", and that "was made when Quirino was governor of Syria".
Human history and the Word of God are intertwined, and the Word of God who becomes man in the womb of Mary enters history in a completely new and hitherto unimaginable way. The names of the authorities are seven, five civil and military and two religious. A number that in the Bible recalls the fullness. Luke lets us understand that all the authorities of every type and of every epoch, and all human history, will be inhabited in a new way and forever by the word of God, with extraordinary force and efficacy. "Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made level; the crooked shall be made straight, and the inaccessible shall be made level."
We remember the words of Jesus who defines John as "the greatest among those born of women", but also adds: "The least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." We too are in this littleness. Let us remember, then, the prophetic dimension of our Christian vocation. We recognize that it is God's initiative, and that his word received provokes as a consequence: to go, to act and to speak. It is the same process that occurs in Mary and, with more difficulty, in Zechariah. They receive the word and act, and then they prophesy. This is what happens at baptism and throughout the Christian life. To make it easier for us to listen to the word, we are called to reproduce the desert of John: silence, listening, distancing ourselves from the things that shout and do not allow us to listen to God who speaks and sends us in his name. And let us allow his word to take us wherever he wants us to go.
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
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The reading of "Feria", Ana Iris Simón's first work, confirms something that today many do not want to hear: that the family is not the patrimony of any ideology.
I have just read Fairthe first book of Ana Iris Simón. The work transpires the reasonableness that distinguishes what is permanent and common to all human beings, and that is part of the authentic wisdom of the people, with which -like so many others- I have felt identified. I celebrate the success it is having and sincerely congratulate the author for this suggestive invitation to rethink about the things that are really worthwhile, about progress.
Prominent members of progressivism have shouted out loud, for daring the author -a militant left-wing- to offer a sincere and endearing account of the family, an institution that is avowedly right-wing. Those who preach tolerance the most do not seem to be able to accept that someone who is a militant in their ranks deviates from the dictates of what they believe in. politically correct on such a fundamental issue.
According to the speech progressiveThe family is the consecration of heteropatriarchy, which must be demolished for the sake of an egalitarianism that eliminates difference; and of the emancipation of the individual. Some - at least in theory - would like the first human community to be a contract between asexual and autonomous individuals. Unfortunately, some of the fruits of this approach are already more than evident: loneliness and precariousness, not only economically, but above all emotionally.
The author wonders if it is really progress renounce the authentic values of family relationships, such as lasting and unconditional love, or motherhood and fatherhood. I liked this book above all because it confirms something that many people today do not want to hear: that the family is not the patrimony of any ideology.
Ortega said that "to be of the left is, like being of the right, one of the infinite ways that man can choose to be an imbecile". These forms of "moral hemiplegia," show the inability to think in a way that is extensive and realistic, beyond the filters of ideology, analogous to the person who suffers from motor paralysis in half of his body. It is therefore time to put an end to ideologies, which stiffen and immobilize ideas and, above all, obscure our view of reality.
Family - whether it works better or worse - is what we all have in common. We all come from a family, which is our network of support and mutual care. Family love is the most democratic and egalitarian, since it is essentially a love without preferences. In the words of Fabrice Hadjadj, the family is the community of origin, given by nature and not only established by convention. That is why it is in the family that the most authentic freedom is lived: the freedom to consent and to want what is given to us. The family is what always remains with us, even if we fail in any other area of our life. It is the place to which we can always return.
Not having a family is the only true uprooting. We all have a desire for family, including -although they do not want to recognize it- those who suffer from this sad moral hemiplegiaand insist on putting ideology above evidence.
Professor at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. She directs the Chair on Intergenerational Solidarity in the Family (IsFamily Santander Chair) and the Childcare and Family Policies Chair of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Foundation. She is also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona.
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Feasts are an essential part of humanity and it is even a commandment to sanctify them. We are not made only to work and lament for living in this valley of tears, we are made for heaven, for the great celestial banquet.
Four months ago, when I was enjoying my summer vacation, the radio, TV, print and digital press reminded me every day that I could already buy a Christmas lottery number because: "What if it comes here, in my summer vacation spot?
Three months ago, when I had not yet had time to put away my bathing suit, the bakery in my neighborhood began to display in its windows the typical Christmas sweets: mantecados, polvorones, roscos de vino...
Two months ago, when here in Malaga, my city, we were still wearing short sleeves, the first workers began to install Christmas trees, decorations and lights in the main streets and squares of the capital.
A month ago, when we went to the cemeteries to honor the deceased as is traditional, the campaign of the shopping malls with special offers for Christmas time began.
We are looking forward to Christmas, and that's great, but if we anticipate it so much, when it finally arrives, what we want is for it to be over as soon as possible.
To avoid Christmas fatigue, and to really live these holidays, I impose at home the rule of zero traditions until the first Sunday of Advent. Once that limit has been crossed, the ban on sweets, visits to the center to see the lighting, the first suggestions for letters to the kings, etc., gradually opens.
And no, I am not going to go into the hackneyed discourse that Christmas has been commercialized and that it is the holiday of consumerism, because I am not ashamed to say that I, at Christmas, consume much more than at any other time of the year. Of course I do!
Of course consumption is not the meaning of Christmas, of course the Nativity of the Lord brings us a message of closeness to the poor, of simplicity, and of course there is nothing further from charity than squandering when others are in need, but beware of falling into puritanism.
Feasts are an essential part of humanity and it is even a commandment to sanctify them. We are not only made to work and lament for living in this valley of tears, we are made for heaven, for the great celestial banquet. Eating something that we can only afford from time to time, giving a gift that we know someone else is looking forward to, or entertaining family and friends with the best we have are ways of living our faith in a festive spirit, because the bridegroom is with us. The days of fasting and penance will come, but Christmas?
As a good son of the Mediterranean culture, Jesus was very much given to feasting and, for this reason, was much criticized; he was branded as an eater, a drinker and a spendthrift. And this is precisely the mystery of the Incarnation that we are going to celebrate: that God becomes man just like you and me, that he enjoys the same things as you and me, that he eats, drinks, laughs, sings... A God who does not live in the clouds, but who comes at Christmas to sit at our table. Are we going to put a little lettuce so that he does not get indigestion?
As a recommendation for this Advent season, the film that Pope Francis quotes in Amoris Laetitia: "Babette's Feast" (PrimeVideo). It will help us to see the importance that we Catholics give to the feast. Because now, yes, it is time to prepare for the feast.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
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The 10th St. Josemaría Symposium, held in Jaén on November 19-20, dealt with the relationship between freedom and commitment. Politicians, thinkers, influencers, theologians and religious gathered to reflect on these aspects of St. Josemaría's teachings in today's society.
"Freedom and commitment are two inextricably linked concepts, as long as we understand the meaning of freedom correctly.". Thus began the former Minister of the Interior, former MEP and now Promoter of the European Federation. One of UsJaime Mayor Oreja, in his address at the inaugural conference of the 10th St. Josemaría Symposium, which was held in Jaén on November 19 and 20. Freedom and commitment.
The St. Josemaría International Symposium is a meeting that aims to reflect on the teachings of St. Josemaría in today's world. It has been held every two years since 2002, with themes such as education, coexistence, the family and freedom. The Symposium is organized by the Catalina Mir Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes welfare and orientation activities for families and young people in formation. It promotes social volunteering and development in Third World countries. It is inspired by the ethical values of Christian civilization. This year, as in previous editions, it was attended by a large number of young people.
The list of speakers at the Symposium was wide and varied, including prominent names, in addition to former Minister Mayor Oreja, such as philosopher Jose Maria Torralba; Professor Rafael Palomino; Isabel Rojas, psychologist and psychotherapist; Juan Jolín, priest in charge of caring for COVID patients during the pandemic at IFEMA; Rosa María Aguilar Puiggrós, coordinator of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar; Víctor Petuya, president of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar; and Víctor Petuya, president of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar, among others. European Parents AssociationHarouna Garba, migrant from Togo; Toñi Rodríguez, auxiliary numerary member of Opus Dei; Joaquín Echeverría, father of Ignacio Echeverría; Enrique Muñiz and Jesús Gil, authors of the book Let Jesus alone shine; and Javier López Díaz, Director of the St. Josemaría Chair from 2013 to 2019 at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
At the same time, a program was held exclusively for young people, titled Millennials of faith. Among the speakers were, among others, the engaged couple Marieta Moreno González-Páramo and Iñigo Álvarez Tornos, Pietro Ditano, Carla Restoy, Teresa Palomar, or Mother Verónica Berzosa, founder of Iesu Communio.
Mayor Oreja spun his speech using two antagonistic expressions, as a proposal to define two ways of understanding freedom: the first one is the evangelical sentence ".the truth shall set you free". The second is the misrepresentation of this aphorism, "freedom will make you true". It is about "two attitudes of life that confront each other in the main debate before us today". Consider that freedom makes us true ".constitutes a lie". What's more, living like this, thinking that doing what you "do" is the best thing you can do.It approaches selfishness, caprice, superficiality, materialism and banality. It constitutes the expression of moral relativism. That is, nothingness. It leads to believe in nothing or almost nothing. And in this way it has become the dominant fashion."said the former minister.
However, "embrace the evangelical saying the truth shall set you freewill mean a profound and total change in life."Mayor wanted to emphasize. Even so, he considers that the current dominant fashion is based more on the misrepresented sentence than on the evangelical saying. For this reason, "we have to ask ourselves why this prevalence of lies over truth, especially in recent times. We have not known how to manage our improvement in material well-being. We have gone from the prestige of truth to resentment towards it. The dominant fashion has transformed the hierarchy of values.".
Consequently, the former MEP recalled that years ago we used to point out those who did not have a foundation as a "no-foundationsand now it is labeled as "...".fundamentalistsThe "I am not a "I" but a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I".
The crisis in Western society, said Mayor, ".it is not a political or economic crisis; it is a crisis of civilization, a crisis of truth, a crisis of foundations, a crisis of conscience.". It is therefore that "when this crisis penetrates the individual, the result is a society presided over by social disorder, which is the main characteristic of current Spanish and European politics and society.".
Therefore, the speaker continued, "We all have an obligation to seek the truth, but those of us who do not hide our faith have a higher degree of obligation than others, because we believe in an absolute truth. This fact of our faith does not constitute a reason for a supposed and absurd moral superiority or of any kind. What it does mean is a greater degree of obligation and service to our society as a whole.". Therefore, it is an obligation for the Christian "not to remain on the surface of the facts, without knowing anything about what is really going on in our society.".
"We do not live at any time in Western society", Mayor Oreja assured. "After the political and social fracture that the United States is undergoing, many are trying to replace in Europe an order based on Christian foundations with a social disorder.". He stressed that this is the main challenge facing Christians in today's society. A challenge that faces a "accelerated cultural offensive that began some time ago, which has accelerated in the last decade.". A cultural process that in legislation began by legitimizing abortion, he assured. Paraphrasing the Spanish thinker and philosopher Julián Marías, "it is a cultural process that in legislation began by legitimizing abortion.has been the most serious thing that has happened in the 20th century: the social acceptance of abortion, even to the point of believing that it is an advance and not a regression to the darkest forms of history such as torture or slavery.". Abortion, therefore, would constitute "the first expression of evil in this process. After a few years came the sophistication of evil, in a second phase, more difficult to combat: gender ideology. And in a third moment, the socialization of evil: euthanasia. Which means the expansion and extension of the culture of death.".
This crisis of fundamentals, Mayor Oreja concluded, is based on another crisis. It is a "crisis of faith". "Disregard for the spiritual and religious dimension of the individual and of society"he continued. Therefore, it is necessary to combat this "unhealthy obsession that persecutes us against the Christian foundations of Europe and against the culture of life.". "The most important debate in Europe will take place, in the face of the advance of relativism, between relativism and Christian fundamentals. Between those who believe in nothing or almost nothing and those who try to believe, even if they call us fundamentalists. Neither Europe nor Spain will regenerate by despising its spiritual dimension. They will not regenerate with a vengeance against the foundations that have been the core of our civilization.". On the contrary, he concluded, "we have to search for the truth. We want to confirm that the truth will set us free, from the authenticity of our convictions, of our foundations. And above all from commitment. Freedom and commitment".
The relationship between freedom and commitment were the framework themes of the conference held in Jaén on November 19-20. "Teaching how to live freedom today is the greatest challenge of education."said Professor Josemaría Torralba in one of the main lectures.
Professor Torralba explained that "freedom can be understood as the view of a 'pilgrim', one who walks through life from one origin, leaving his home and going to another place, to a goal, another home that awaits him. The pilgrim knows where he comes from and knows where he is going. Therefore, for him, freedom is the ability to reach the goal he has set for himself. On the other hand, the other way of going through life is that of the 'wanderer'; the one who goes from one place to another without any end, and has no home. The wanderer understands freedom as simply deciding things without a clear end, without a goal, without orientation. He goes through life without clear direction".
The professor assured that nowadays it is more and more frequent to find this thought about freedom. The fact of being able to live without ties, "the ties offered by a home, bonds, a family".
Precisely these links, "the commitment"said Josemaría Torralba, ".is a path to freedom". Commitment, therefore, is not something that simply limits us. "Commitment allows us to achieve goods, such as friendship or family.". "And you could say", he continued, "that through commitments we acquire a realized freedom. One gets to make freedom real". The professor of ethics considered that we live in a society where it seems that freedom is achieved as soon as it does not limit one's own life, that which consists in not acquiring commitments. However, "this is a fallacy, a deception, a delusion, a mirage.". On the other hand, "It could be said that the person who has known how to make a good commitment is freer. He has known how to choose the commitments that are worthwhile. Friendship, love, family, society, religion, etc.".
Torralba reasoned that "today, this ability to direct one's own life produces a certain sense of unease.". A feeling that is given because "it is not easy to find one's way around among so many options". He asserted that the solution lies in discovering that freedom is not reduced to autonomy. "We need to learn to walk through life as pilgrims, who have a home and know where they are going. And not as wanderers, who think they are free because they are unattached, but in reality they are not.".
The philosopher used a very illustrative image to consider the true meaning of freedom: "Freedom in the full sense could be defined with this image, feeling at home in the world.". Feeling at home because you "fits into the circumstances of one's own life. The ones you have chosen, but also the ones that have come about". "The greatness of freedom is to know how not to let oneself be conditioned by the difficult circumstances that arise in life, but to overcome them.".
It is common to associate the dominant relativism with freedom. The speaker conveyed the idea that freedom makes us capable of the lowest, but also, and this is the important and valuable point, freedom makes us capable of the highest and noblest. Therefore, "without freedom there would be no love". And so, in its deepest meaning, "...".To love is to give and share life with another person. It is the most valuable thing we have. It is the ultimate answer to why we have freedom. We are free to be able to love. Today it is more necessary than ever to vindicate freedom.".
To love is to give and share life with another person. It is the most valuable thing we have. It is the ultimate answer to why we have freedom. We are free to be able to love. Today it is more necessary than ever to reclaim freedom.
Josemaría TorralbaPhilosopher and director of the Core Curriculum at the University of Navarra.
At the end of his speech, Professor Torralba made a digression on the idea of good, which is precisely pursued with freedom. "The good", he said, "always has a person's name. It has the name of a friend, of a child, of a spouse, of God. The good is paradigmatically and principally in the actions we perform for these people or together with them. The good cannot be understood as something abstract. It is convenient to avoid the frequent confusion of thinking that the commitment is free exclusively because no one has forced us and because we can undo it.".
Thus, "he is freer who has committed himself". This is "the freedom of the pilgrim, who with each step is approaching his end. The freedom of the wanderer, in its extreme version, is the one who does not make important decisions or establish deep bonds. He is less free because he does not know where it is worthwhile to go. Precisely because freedom is an uncertain opening to the future, it requires, if we want to grow in freedom, a look capable of finding meaning in the situations in which life places us. He who loves, suffers".
The meaning we give to our life "allows us to integrate into our own life what has happened and to adapt to circumstances we cannot change". "The wanderer always remains unsatisfied. And this is a reflection of what abounds today. The wanderer fails to find meaning in what he does. And meaning is not a superficial feeling. It is the experience that one fits into one's life situation".
"It's free." concluded, "the person who, in the situation in which he lives, manages to fit the pieces together, to make sense of the situation, to find a way to make sense of it".".
Following the lecture, the Symposium program included three panels, the first one entitled Are these times good? the second Freedom from pain and fearand a third with testimonials.
In the first, the intervention of Professor Rafael Palomino, himself a collaborator of Omnes, was particularly noteworthy. His reflection was based on faith in the culture of the 21st century. A reflection that can be encompassed under the words of Bishop Javier Echevarría, predecessor of the current Prelate of Opus Dei: "The faith in the culture of the twenty-first century is a reflection on the faith in the culture of the twenty-first century.Let us not allow the healthy challenge of encouraging many people and institutions throughout the world to promote -pushed by the example of the first Christians- a new culture, a new legislation, a new fashion, coherent with the dignity of the human person and his destiny to the glory of the children of God in Jesus Christ, to fall into a void.".
Professor Palomino framed his words with data from the barometer of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). In June 1979, according to these data, 90.03 % considered themselves to be Catholics in Spain. Of these, 55 % considered themselves practicing, and 34 % non-practicing. In September 2021, the same barometer indicates that only 57.4 % consider themselves Catholic and the relationship between practicing and non-practicing is inverted: 18.4 % consider themselves practicing and 39 % non-practicing. We found 2.5 % of believers in other religions and the remaining 38.9 % consider themselves agnostic, indifferent or atheist.
Therefore, it can be seen that Catholicism has ceased to be an influential cultural force. And this is evident because "one of the elements to measure the culture of a country," reflected Palomino, "which is legislation, since 1981 has been introducing social engineering, an experiment to change Spanish society. It began with the modification that introduced causal divorce, which started a process in the legislation. It continued with the decriminalization of abortion, non-causal divorce, same-sex marriage, euthanasia". And the drama is that "legislation makes that which in itself is contrary to human dignity seem totally normal.".
It can be said, in this sense, that ".we are experiencing a spiritual glaciation in the west, and a cultural climate change, also for religions.". "The Christian religion needs to be inculturated, to live in the flesh of the people who profess it.".
Professor Palomino offered some specific considerations about this situation: firstly, "it is important that in the public debate, we know how to change the conceptual frameworks. If they tell you 'don't think of an elephant', what you are doing is thinking of an elephant. When they impose the frameworks of reflection on you, they are already setting the limits of the debate.". Secondly, that "the medium is the message. Let not the interposition of the media impede the exposure to the people. What communicates in a community is the joy of being Christians, is a smiling family.". Thirdly, it is necessary to "always have a formation plan in place. Our faith is the faith of the Logos. We are obliged to have a solid formation. To always have a formation plan open.". And finally, that "if you are neither part of the solution nor part of the problem, you are part of the landscape. And a Christian cannot be part of the landscape. For evil to triumph, it is enough for good men to do nothing.".
The Christian religion needs to be inculturated, to live in the flesh of the people who profess it.
Rafael PalominoProfessor of State Ecclesiastical Law.
He concluded by stressing that we must "make faith present in culture. And it is not the same as always. It is about "a new evangelization".
At the closing of the Symposium, the Vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei in Eastern Andalusia read the Message of the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz. In his message he stated that "the concepts of freedom and commitment are often presented as opposites and yet they are complementary. What is more, they require each other. Without freedom I cannot commit myself, and commitment always implies a free decision". He also assured that, precisely if "we are clear about the reasons for our commitments, the whys and wherefores of our daily obligations, we will be able to fulfill them freely, out of love, even if at times we tire of them and they become difficult for us.
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Pope Francis addressed a message on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, where he insisted that as lay and baptized people, they are "sharers in the same vocation as all Christians", and their presence "challenges the pastoral care of the family and is at the heart of the Church's concern for the defense of all life".
The Pope, in the new catechesis on St. Joseph: "He is a true master of what is essential".Accompanying people suffering from depression"The Church loves you and needs each one of you to fulfill her mission at the service of the Gospel." These are the opening words of the message that Pope Francis addressed to people "living with some kind of disability" on the occasion of the International Day dedicated to them, which is celebrated on December 3.
It is an anniversary introduced by the United Nations in 1992 to increase awareness and understanding of disability-related issues, as well as efforts to ensure the dignity, rights and well-being of those living with this condition.
From the Vatican, the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, which in recent times has initiated a reflection and pastoral action in this area, "a new theme in which we have decided to commit ourselves and invest a lot of energy," explained Father Alexandre Awi Mello in a press conference when presenting the Pope's Message. It is a commitment that concerns the three main competencies of the Dicastery, because persons with disabilities, as lay and baptized persons, are "sharers in the same vocation as all Christians", and their presence "challenges the pastoral care of the family and is at the heart of the Church's concern for the defense of all life".
The theme chosen for this year's Message is taken from Chapter 15 of the Gospel of John, "You are my friends," and it is precisely on these words of Jesus that Pope Francis based his "greeting" and his reflection.
"Having Jesus as a friend is the greatest of consolations and can make each of us a grateful and joyful disciple, capable of bearing witness that our own fragility is not an obstacle to living and communicating the Gospel." explains the Pontiff in the document, recalling that precisely this "trusting and personal friendship with Jesus" can be "the spiritual key to accepting the limitations we all experience and to living our condition in a reconciled way."
In addition to the personal relationship, community is necessary, and people with disabilities are full members of the Church - Pope Francis reiterates - precisely because of their Baptism and because of Jesus' choice to "be our friend".
It is therefore necessary to banish every form of discrimination, still present at various levels of society, linked to prejudice, ignorance and a culture that struggles to understand "the inestimable value of each person." In the ecclesial sphere, this absence of discrimination translates into greater "spiritual attention", beginning with access to the sacraments.
In the final part of the Message, the Pope reiterates the need for these people to be protagonists in the light of the Gospel: "the Gospel is also for you. It is a Word addressed to all, which consoles and, at the same time, calls to conversion". This translates into a profound appeal to trust in God - as witnessed by the Gospel accounts of the people with disabilities who met Jesus in his day - and a willingness to pray, as a specific mission entrusted by the Pope: "dear brothers and sisters, your prayer today is more urgent than ever."
"I am happy that the Pope has written that I am important for the Church, that I am necessary. Certainly, because of my situation I need many things, but I also have my task as a disciple of Jesus," commented Antonietta Pantone, of the "Faith and Light" Community, as she presented this year's Message to journalists.
Meanwhile, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life has prepared a collection of five videos for the #IamChurch (I am Church) campaign, to be launched on December 6, with the testimonies of some Christians with disabilities from different countries, among them some young deaf people from Mexico or some nuns with Down syndrome who live their vocation in a monastery in France.
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Pope Francis' dream of a "synodal Church", with three fundamental keys - communion, participation and mission - has been the focus of the work of the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, which concludes today, Sunday, in Mexico.
Last Sunday, Pope Francis addressed the participants of the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, gathered in Mexico City, with the desire "to promote a Church in synodal outreach, to revive the spirit of the V General Conference of the Episcopate which, in Aparecida in 2007, called us to be missionary disciples, and to encourage hope, glimpsing on the horizon the Guadalupan Jubilee in 2031 and the Jubilee of the Redemption in 2033"..
In its MessageThe Pontiff thanked everyone for their presence at this Assembly, "which is a new expression of the Latin American and Caribbean face of our Church, in harmony with the preparatory process for the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which has as its theme: 'Latin America and the Caribbean,'" he said. For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission".
On the basis of these keys that "vertebrate and orient synodality", the Pope exhorted "to take into account two words in a special way in this journey that you are making together: listening and overflow". And he briefly explained their meaning.
On "listening", he affirmed: "The dynamism of ecclesial assemblies is in the process of listening, dialogue and discernment". "The exchange facilitates listening to the voice of God to the point of listening with him to the cry of the people, and listening to the people to the point of breathing in them the will to which God calls us." "I ask you," the Pope added, "to seek to listen to one another and to hear the cries of our poorest and most forgotten brothers and sisters."
Regarding the "overflow", the Holy Father pointed out that "community discernment requires much prayer and dialogue in order to find God's will together, and it also requires finding ways to overcome differences so that they do not become divisions and polarizations.
In this process, I ask the Lord that your Assembly may be an expression of the "overflow" of the creative love of his Spirit, who urges us to go out fearlessly to meet others, and who encourages the Church to become ever more evangelizing and missionary through a process of pastoral conversion".
The Pontiff thus encouraged everyone to live these days "welcoming with gratitude and joy this call to the overflowing of the Spirit in the faithful People of God on pilgrimage in Latin America and the Caribbean".
Numerous Cardinals and Archbishops
Thousands of participants took part in the Ecclesial Assembly, some in person and others online. You can see here a guide to the Assembly in a popular version. The presence of cardinals from the Vatican Curia and other cardinals and archbishops from Latin America and elsewhere was notable.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops; the Honduran Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga; the Peruvian Pedro Barreto, President of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM); the Archbishop of Luxembourg, Jean Claude Hollerich, President of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe; the Archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Gracias; the Burmese Archbishop Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences; the Burmese Charles Maung Bo, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences; and, of course, the Archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Gracias; Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; the Burmese Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences; naturally Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos, President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), and also the Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, among other prelates, together with the Secretary General of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Rodrigo Guerra.
Listening to the Holy Spirit
"What is the dream of a synodal Church? A new fad? A communication strategy? An ideology disguised as a pastoral program? A method for the missionary conversion of the Church?" With these questions, Cardinal Marc Ouellet began by explaining in his intervention that beyond the questions and doubts that may arise about Pope Francis' dream of a synodal Church, the reality is very simple.
"The Pope believes in the Holy Spirit," the cardinal noted, and "wants us to learn to listen to him better at all levels of the Church, from the last neighborhood of the great metropolises of Latin America to the top of the college of pastors, passing through parishes, universities, associations, peasants, popular, cultural and social movements, etc."
According to the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Ouellet, "the central point is to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to each and everyone with attention, "without haste, without preconceived ideas or prejudices, without inducing at the moment of consultation what we would like to promote as a model of the Church," Vatican News reported.
In this sense, the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America emphasized that the Pope hopes that, from the experience of faith, "we can all contribute to renew our hearts, our pastoral care and our structures so that the Church may live more and more in accordance with the style of Jesus.
Dimensions of the Synodal Church
The Vatican Cardinal also emphasized the three dimensions of a synodal Church, which Pope Francis has outlined to guide us in listening to the Holy Spirit. They are communion, participation and mission.
"Participation means awakening faith, so that we all set out on a journey, that we go to Jesus, that we meet Mary at her Cross, that we gather in the Cenacle to commune in his Body and Blood, that we go out into the streets to bear witness to his resurrection and to proclaim the wonders of his Spirit of new and eternal Life, the Life of the Risen One shared and celebrated in our baptism," said Cardinal Ouellet.
Before concluding, the Cardinal congratulated CELAM for the effort made in organizing this Assembly in times of pandemic, in which the figure of the Virgin Mary plays a fundamental role, beyond popular devotion, since, he added, "the Synodal Church in Latin America will be Marian or it will not be".
"I do not say this out of mere devotion," he added, "I say it because of the facts that impose us to think about the future of Latin America in the light of the Marian path of our churches throughout the centuries. The experience of St. Juan Diego in meeting the Virgin of Guadalupe, in bringing good news to Bishop Zumárraga, and in the end, in being available to build communion and reconciliation; educates us in the true synodality that can renew the Church", he concluded.
Relationship between synodality and mission
Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, highlighted the enormous value of deepening the link between synodality and mission. "These two dimensions of the Church can be one of the most significant contributions of this Assembly and of the synodal journey of our Church," he said.
Taking into account the history of this Assembly and citing the phases of Medellin, Puebla, Santo Domingo and Aparecida, "as the stages of a post-conciliar journey, in which the Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean have lived an extraordinary experience of ecclesial communion", Cardinal Grech underlined the approach of pastoral conversion promoted also by the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium.
"This event represents an expression of the pastoral vision of Pope Francis. This Assembly also represents a bridge between the Synod on Amazonia - Dear Amazonia as a truly transformative experience for its region and the Synod on Synodality. They are explicitly connected through the periphery-center approach and the Ecclesiology of the People of God," the Cardinal added.
In his opinion, there is a close relationship between synodality and mission. "These are two constitutive dimensions of the Church, which - precisely because they are constitutive - stand or fall together. Try to think of the mission scenario of a non-synodal Church; a Church in which we do not walk together, we do not proceed in any particular order, each claiming the right to mission," he specified.
Cardinal Grechcitó also to Pope Francis in the Evangelii gaudium (nn. 115 and 117), to underline the idea of "translating the one Gospel of Christ in the Latin American style". This "will not threaten the unity of the Church," he said, but will enrich it, "showing that Tradition is not a unison chant or a melodic line of a single voice, but a symphony, where every voice, every register, every vocal timbre enriches the one Gospel, sung in an infinite possibility of variations," the official Vatican agency reported.
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In the parish of San Agustín de Guadalix, in Madrid, there is a group of people who, on the first Saturday of the month, meet at 7:30 a.m. to pray the rosary through the streets of the municipality.
"The Rosary is a stairway to Heaven"said St. John Paul II, who prayed it so much and encouraged us to pray it. In the popular imagination this prayer seems destined only to old ladies who mumble it in the darkness of a church to pray for their relatives. But to think of men going out into the town to pray it, after an early start, in the middle of the weekend and without fear of human respect because those who contemplate the peculiar scene laugh, that does seem something impossible. Well, in the parish of San Agustín del Guadalix, a municipality north of Madrid with less than 15,000 inhabitants, it is something that happens with some frequency. It is not a punctual experience, it is something that has been done for years with constancy and with true piety and affection for the Virgin.
Early risers is a group of men who get together on the first Saturday of the month at 7:30 a.m. to pray the Rosary walking through the streets. Alberto Pascual is one of the happy members of this unusual adventure that is pouring so many blessings into the lives of those who take the opportunity to walk it: "I am very happy to be part of it.We gather at the door of the church to greet each other and to wake each other up. The one who arrives to the group for the first time is received in a special way by each of the members. We distribute the mysteries. Then we enter the Church to be in recollection in front of the Tabernacle. We begin by praying the Angelus and then we go out to the streets to pray the Rosary slowly.". The village is quietly dawning and few souls are on the streets: the weekend has just begun! That's why such a scene is so striking. Alberto proudly admits: "The people looked very surprised, because it is not usual to see thirty men praying Hail Marys and Our Fathers at that time of day. At the end we sang the Salve Regina and finished with a simple breakfast prepared by a member of the parish.".
Early risers consists of three moments: the prayer of the Rosary, a restorative breakfast and a talk on some formative point. This talk is prepared by a person who for fifteen minutes exposes the current topic, always trying to illuminate it with the Magisterium of the Church. When the presentation is finished, a colloquium begins in which everyone contributes their feelings on the topic. The group concludes at 9:30 a.m. and everyone goes home. Alberto insists that "the role of the priest is fundamental in moderating or correcting erroneous approaches, because it is a formative meeting and not a mere debate.".
Early risers was born years ago, in July 2013. "We had our first meeting by chance. A few of us men got together. There are about 60 people from the parish in the group, but not everyone always participates. There is a lot of freedom to attend.". Alberto tells me that once a year they have a get-together at the monastery of Silos, in Burgos. They spend the weekend there and strengthen their personal bonds of friendship and faith. They also make some cultural excursions. All very familiar in an atmosphere of faith. All very God-like.
This parishioner from San Agustín del Guadalix feels that he has been blessed with the prayer of the Rosary and tells me that members of this group belong to Schoenstatt and have made the covenant of love with the Blessed Mother for several years.Month after month, year after year, I have the feeling that this group was not formed by men but comes from God. The Holy Spirit in a mysterious way touches the hearts of those of us who are there, either because of what a companion says, or because of a mystery of the Rosary that marks you, or because of the atmosphere of affection that exists. It is a holy, special atmosphere. You can feel that God is in the midst.
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Leire, a young woman from San Sebastian, had an abortion in 2009 under the slogan "we give birth, we decide". In 2010 she had a miscarriage, which she considers closely related to the first one, and little by little, she decided to oppose this "destruction",
Leire's story is moving. She does not want to be the protagonist of anything, but this Sunday she will be one of the testimonies at the rally of Every Life Mattersat 12:00 noon, at the Puerta de Alcalá (Madrid). The platform, together with the attendees, will demonstrate against the lack of public aid to maternity, the Euthanasia law, the unborn, the attack on the conscientious objection of doctors, and the reform of the Penal Code against the freedom of expression of pro-lifers.
"We are morally obligated. If we don't talk now, when? If we don't do it ourselves, who?" said the president of the Spanish Family Forum, Ignacio García JuliáThe event took place at a press conference held this week by the platform Every Life Matters. In it, the organizers (Foro Español de la Familia, Fundación +Vida, Provida España and Fundación Más futuro - Rescatadores Juan Pablo II) have offered details of this Sunday's rally, along with a video that you can watch here.
"Our experience is that no one is indifferent when this subject is discussed. It is important to show the truth, because the truth and the good in itself, have an impressive value. The culture of life is very strong, this is unstoppable," he said. Alicia LatorrePresident of the Spanish Federation of Pro-Life Associations in Spain.
"In the event, the protagonists will be the women, the sick and the doctors. Why not let the women who have had abortions speak? We want society to see that these new laws, reforms, laziness and attacks are harming our families," she said. Marta Velardepresident of More Future- John Paul II Rescuers.
Among the adhering associations are the following: Assembly for Life, Liberty and Dignity, European Federation One of Us, Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection (ANDOC), Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, Catholic Association of Propagandists (ACdP), Association in Defense of Human Life (ADEVIDA), Association of Researchers and Professionals for Life (CÍVICA), Educatio Servanda Foundation, 40 days for Life, Spanish Association of Catholic Pharmacists, Fundación Villacisneros, AESVIDA, Fundación Valores y Sociedad, Asociación Deportistas por la Vida y la Familia, E- Cristian, Cristianos en Democracia, Asociación de Ayuda a la Madre y al Bebé (AMABE), AYUVI, Asociación Voz Postaborto, Plataforma por la Familia Catalunya-ONU, Asociación Cinemanet , Associació Catalana d'Estudis Bioètics (ACEB), ANDEVI y PROVIDA Alicante, Alcalá de H., Badajoz, Barcelona, Bilbao, Castellón, Gijón, Santander, Valencia, Valladolid, Zaragoza, Guadix, Sevilla, Torrejón de Ardoz.
Leire Navaridas, communication and marketing consultant, will be at the Puerta de Alcalá rally. The young woman describes herself on social networks as "mother of 3, only 1 alive that gives me the strength to fight for the defense of love, truth, life and the union between woman and man. Victim of the IVE".
In conversation with Omnes last Tuesday, in addition to telling her story, she brought out the best in herself by talking about motherhood, "the greatest gift in the world." Then we see it. And 48 hours ago, she wrote on LinkedIn: "From my experience, not only as a victim, but also as a companion to other women, I know how important and necessary it is, today more than ever, to make post-#abortion pain visible (not easy, by the way, because it is traumatic). This Sunday I will be there, as always available to go anywhere that allows me to dismantle the lies surrounding #IVE, to highlight the consequences of the loss of a son or daughter, and to share the experience of saving the #maternity and with it the #happiness".
From now on, it is the Leire who continues her story. "In 2009, in Donosti, I let myself be violently intervened in my pregnancy. I say this very consciously. Because the word IVE is used, which they say means Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, but I not only do not agree with it, but I completely reject it because it contains a very big lie, well two: one, the idea of "interruption" as if it could somehow be resumed. And second, and more importantly, the "voluntary" thing. And this is fundamental and critical for the women who go through it, because for it to be "voluntary", they would have to give us: first, all the information, then awareness, and third, alternatives". "And the IVE I was telling you about before, I call it Violent Pregnancy Intervention, and for me that is the acronym IVE. I always refer to it with those terms".
"They did not even show me that what I was carrying in my womb was the life of my son, who already had his little heart and his "everything", much less did they tell me what I was going to go through, because when you are subjected to a violent action, which is the case, trauma sets in. It is impossible for violence not to have traumatic consequences and thirdly, I was not given any other alternative. Then, with the idea that if I continued with that, I would have mental problems, they denied me that doing so would not cause them. It is an unbelievable trap", she assures.
I call the IVE a Violent Pregnancy Intervention.
Leire
"My case of miscarriage was one of the most typical ones," Leire recalls. "It's when you get pregnant and you say 'it doesn't suit me': because it wasn't in my plans, because I still have an idea of professional development that hasn't materialized yet, and sometimes because we're not in good terms as a couple. This happened to me when I was in Macau, which is an island next to Hong Kong," the young woman tells Omnes. "We were living with my partner and I in Australia, and we had decided to come to live in Spain, for which we got married there in Australia, but he got a job, I went with him, but we were in a tremendous crisis, and the mistake was to have sex in a crisis, but it happened and as a result of that came my first pregnancy".
"I was totally unprepared, in a state of shock, and above all, and this is very relevant, with an absolute sense of loneliness in the face of the problem. So what did I do? I was in Macao, which is the cradle of perversion, of gambling and a very sordid world. A very sick world. It's like a mini Chinese island, a replica of Las Vegas, and that's where all the gamblers come from the mainland to spend their savings, ruin their families, smoke and drink as much as they can and then go home a mess. The situation is that I got pregnant, I lived it as a brown and knowing that for that I was alone, I had the feeling that I didn't count neither with my husband, nor with my family, nor anything", the young woman openly admits.
"So what do I do with that? Well, I happen to call a friend in Donosti who is very closely related to a man I also knew who has an abortion clinic. Well, it's a gynecology clinic, but I knew they performed abortions. At that time, I could have gone to a pro-abortion demonstration under the slogan "We give birth, we decide". And since what we have inside us seems to be nothing more than a jumble of cells, which has no other value, it can be removed like a cyst or a wart.
"I took that on as the viable solution to resolve my situation, and also with the idea that it was going to be harmless and that it was going to return me to the situation before I was pregnant, without any consequences or any more stories," Leire reveals. "I went back to Donosti, I tell my parents. It was 2009. My mother accompanies me, pays for the intervention, I sign that I do it, because it is supposedly going to cause me psychological problems, and there, like someone who is going to have a waxing, I let my pregnancy be violently intervened".
Leire had been having vertigo since college, and already in Madrid, she decided to go to a therapist who recommended her. The first thing she understands is that "I feel more alone than one, which in fact is the origin of the dizziness, and that treated that, they disappeared". At the second session with him, "I was already pregnant again in 2010, and somehow I experienced it again as unwanted news, let's say bad news. What I did know was that I could not go through the same thing again," she reveals, "but not because I was aware of what I had gone through, but because of an idea I had that if I went through it again, my reproductive system would be destroyed and somehow I would not be able to be a mother again.
I saw that I had an alternative, which was to build, and being aware that what was inside was the life of my daughter or son.
Leire
"I had the illusion of being a mother, then I saw that it was not possible. But at the same time I had no way out, no options. And then I called the therapist who told me: 'don't worry, come here, don't do anything'. It was my partner and I, and I only remember one sentence that worked magic. He told me: 'Leire, stop destroying and start building'.
With that phrase, I could understand the drift of destruction that I had in my life, because I consumed everything: drugs, sex, relationships... and when I was not hurting, I let them hurt me and so a constant dynamic. But I saw that I had an alternative, which was to build, and being aware that what was inside was the life of my daughter or son, I suddenly connected all the illusion for what was going to happen: I loved the idea of being able to read beautiful stories to be able to tell them to him, learn songs...
Suddenly, a halo of light and hope opened up for me and life was wonderful. I had a lot of joy and enthusiasm for life. The bad working conditions I was in seemed irrelevant to me, I was ready to do anything so that my son would have everything. I remember the first ultrasound, hearing his heart, crying with emotion, everything was very beautiful and very exciting, except that at a check-up at 3 months, the gynecologist told me that the heart was no longer beating and that my son was no longer alive".
"Everything was a very hard blow again", reveals the young woman from San Sebastian. Cold as a stone, I said to myself: 'it was nice while it lasted', I didn't shed a tear and this was never spoken of again, neither in my partner, nor in my family, nor in the whole world that knew I was pregnant, this loss faded away again, it was erased from the map of the face of the earth and we moved on".
It went on like that for a couple more years, she continues. "I had gone through the abortion, I had gone through this miscarriage and somehow, moving forward without any kind of mourning and awareness of loss. And after all this, the couple broke up, but I continued on a path of personal development, thanks to the therapist, where I got to know myself better and was peeling back layers, until I reached that layer where all the immense pain that I carried inside came out, and it was also very graphic, because the pain came out of my belly and I couldn't stop crying and crying, like a terrible catharsis.
But it was very nice, because let's say that the love I felt for those children, for my children, came out. Then I was able to reestablish my love relationship with them, I was able to see that after all that pain, there was the love I have as a mother and a new door was opened as well. I felt very guilty because I was already very aware of what had happened, I was very aware that I had lost my children and I felt very guilty about it.
I have offered myself as a testimonial to dismantle all these lies and to try to prevent other women from making the same mistake.
Leire
"Then comes the guilt, you can't forgive yourself, you think you are the worst, that you are a heartless, cruel woman, that you don't deserve anything and somehow, I was looking for punishment. And I started to have relationships with men, which was basically so that they would finish destroying me completely. But well, thanks to the fact that I am still in that therapeutic environment, I am keeping a little bit the conscience that this is a very bad path, and also thanks to my current partner who encourages me and encourages me to give myself a second chance".
"It was when I finally managed to forgive myself, also thanks to understanding, which was very hard for me to accept, thanks to assuming that I had been a victim of a system that promotes violence in such a hidden and sibylline way. Because a priori [abortion] is a right and a solution, and very far from that, it basically destroys you and has the potential to end your life; well, that's when I became a little indignant with the idea of how a woman has to end up going through something like that for lack of social support, and because of such an unsocial deception that I had believed, because I was a feminist, pro-abortionist and all; and then, when you practice it you see that it destroys you, apart from the fact that you cannot recover the life of your lost children".
"But Lander arrived," we commented. "Yes, it's the happy ending. When I give myself a new opportunity to return to life, to return to love, not only do I fall in love with my partner, but he gives me Lander, which is the most wonderful thing in the world. Motherhood is the greatest gift in the world, or if not I would say the most, because what I experience with Lander is that it is almost difficult for me to explain it".
"Lander was born in December 2017," Leire specifies. "I was at the 8-M demonstration in 2018, with Lander already a baby of a few months in his little backpack attached to me, and of course, when I see that the claims many are based on promoting abortion, I was so indignant, I refuse. And then I started to raise my voice: I have offered myself as a testimony to dismantle all those lies and to try to prevent other women from making the same mistake I did, because the women who are promoting those posters promoting free abortion, free and super accessible, are not aware of what destroys women".
"In fact, since my testimony reaches many women, many others contact me, because they finally understand that someone will understand them, they know that I can understand them, that I have gone through the same thing, that it is possible to return to life. Many have had several suicide attempts, and those who have not because they already had living children, but there is no way out for what they have done and many cases of women that I have accompanied are terrible".
It has happened to me with women I have accompanied and there has also come a time when they have told me: "this is it". In the end, the key is love.
Leire
"Motherhood, a lot of love."
The last part of the conversation is about motherhood. It is almost impossible to stop Leire. Her arguments come pouring out. "Motherhood, far from destroying your life, is an opportunity where you will receive a lot of pure love, because babies are like that, and you will have the opportunity, thanks to that inspiration, also to transcend any kind of problem, any difficulty, in which you could even be blocked throughout your life. So, for love of them, a woman is capable of doing anything. So, far from tearing you apart and subjugating you or depriving you of anything, on the contrary".
"For me, motherhood is already a reality, let's say, because I have been a mother since the first day, but when Lander came, what I can say is that I am a woman with many resources, which gives me an incredible power to overcome everything and to achieve everything, and also a joy and a love that I feel, and an illusion to be with him every day, that has no comparison with anything I have ever experienced in my life".
In addition, thanks to the awareness of how vulnerable and how valuable life is, Lander is a super respected, super loved child, and everything that his older siblings have not been able to take, he is taking with him, he is a happy child. And for me, bringing happy children into the world, I think it is not only a beautiful act, but also a very necessary one, given the state of society.
"It has happened to me with women I have accompanied and there has also come a time when they have told me: "this is it". In the end, the key is love. The lack of love destroys a lot and what saves is love," concludes Leire.
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Phillip and Nicholas prepare an Advent wreath in New York. In the reading for the Third Sunday of Advent, December 12, 2021, it says, "Do not be anxious at all, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
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A few weeks before the end of the year dedicated to St. Joseph, Pope Francis wants to focus a cycle of catechesis on the figure of the holy patriarch.
Year of St. Joseph: good husbandYear of St. Joseph: good fatherYear of St. Joseph: good workerPope Francis began his catechesis by recalling that "on December 8, 1870, Blessed Pius IX proclaimed St. Joseph patron of the universal Church. Now, 150 years after that event, we are living a special year dedicated to St. Joseph, and in the Apostolic Letter Patris corde I have collected some reflections on his figure. Never before as today, in this time marked by a global crisis with different components, he can serve us as a support, consolation and guide. That is why I have decided to dedicate to him a series of catecheses, which I hope will help us to allow ourselves to be enlightened by his example and his witness. For a few weeks we will be talking about St. Joseph".
"In the Bible," the Holy Father stressed, "there are more than ten characters who bear the name of Joseph. The most important of these is the son of Jacob and Rachel, who, through various vicissitudes, went from being a slave to becoming the second most important person in Egypt after Pharaoh (cf. Gn 37-50). The name Joseph in Hebrew means "may God increase. May God make grow". It is a wish, a blessing based on trust in providence and referring especially to the fruitfulness and growth of children. In fact, precisely this name reveals to us an essential aspect of the personality of Joseph of Nazareth. He is a man full of faith in his providence: he believes in God's providence, he has faith in God's providence. Each of his actions, as related in the Gospel, is dictated by the certainty that God "makes increase", that God "increases", that God "adds", that is, that God arranges the continuation of his plan of salvation. And in this, Joseph of Nazareth is very much like Joseph of Egypt".
Francis affirmed that also the main geographical references that refer to Joseph: Bethlehem and Nazareth, assume an important role in the understanding of his figure, and he wanted to dwell on the environment in which he lived to give us some light on his figure.
"In the Old Testament," he said, "the city of Bethlehem is called by the name of Beth LehemThe name is also Efratá, that is, "House of bread", or Efratá, after the tribe that settled there. In Arabic, instead, the name means "House of meat", probably because of the large number of flocks of sheep and goats present in the area. In fact, it is no coincidence that, when Jesus was born, the shepherds were the first witnesses of the event (cf. Lc 2,8-20). In the light of Jesus' account, these allusions to bread and flesh refer to the mystery of the Eucharist: Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven (cf. Jn 6,51). He himself will say of himself: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life" (Jn 6,54)".
"Bethlehem is mentioned several times in the Bible, as early as the book of Genesis. Bethlehem is also linked to the story of Ruth and Naomi, told in the small but wonderful Book of Ruth. Ruth gave birth to a son named Obed, who in turn gave birth to Jesse, the father of King David. And it was from David's line that Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, came from. The prophet Micah foretold great things about Bethlehem: "But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, though you are the least among the families of Judah, out of you shall come forth to me one who is to be ruler in Israel" (My 5,1). The evangelist Matthew will take up this prophecy and link it to the story of Jesus as its evident fulfillment".
"In fact, the Son of God did not choose Jerusalem as the place of his incarnation, but Bethlehem and Nazareth, two peripheral towns, far from the clamor of the news and the power of time. Yet Jerusalem was the city beloved by the Lord (cf. Is 62,1-12), the "holy city" (Dn 3:28), chosen by God to inhabit it (cf. Zac 3:2; Ps. 132:13). Here, in fact, dwelt the teachers of the Law, the scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and the elders of the people (cf. Lc 2,46; Mt 15,1; Mc 3,22; Jn1,19; Mt 26,3)".
"For this reason," the Pope continued, "the choice of Bethlehem and Nazareth tells us that the periphery and marginality are God's favorite places. Jesus was not born in Jerusalem with all the court... no: he was born in a periphery and spent his life, until he was 30 years old, in that periphery, working as a carpenter, like Joseph. For Jesus, the peripheries and marginalities are his favorite places. Not taking this reality seriously is tantamount to not taking seriously the Gospel and the work of God, who continues to manifest himself in the geographical and existential peripheries. The Lord is always at work in the peripheries, also in our soul, in the peripheries of the soul, of feelings, perhaps feelings of which we are ashamed; but the Lord is there to help us to go forward".
"The Lord continues to manifest himself in the peripheries, both geographical and existential. In particular, Jesus goes in search of sinners, enters their homes, speaks to them, calls them to conversion. And he is also rebuked for this: "But look at this Teacher - the doctors of the law say - look at this Teacher: he eats with sinners, he gets dirty, he goes in search of those who have not done evil, but have suffered it: the sick, the hungry, the poor, the last ones. Jesus always goes to the peripheries. And this should give us great confidence, because the Lord knows the peripheries of our heart, the peripheries of our soul, the peripheries of our society, of our city, of our family, that is, that dark part that we do not let be seen, perhaps out of shame".
"In this respect," Francis concluded, "the society of that time is not very different from ours. Even today there is a center and a periphery. And the Church knows that she is called to announce the good news starting from the peripheries. Joseph, who is a carpenter from Nazareth and who trusts in God's plan for his young betrothed and for himself, reminds the Church that she must fix her gaze on what the world deliberately ignores. Today Joseph teaches us this: "not to look so much at the things that the world praises, to look at the angles, to look at the shadows, to look at the peripheries, at what the world does not want". He reminds each one of us that we must give importance to what others discard. In this sense, he is a true master of the essential: he reminds us that what is truly valuable does not call for our attention, but requires patient discernment to be discovered and valued. Discovering what is valuable. Let us ask him to intercede so that the whole Church may recover this gaze, this ability to discern and this capacity to evaluate what is essential. Let us start again from Bethlehem, let us start again from Nazareth".
"Today I would like to send a message to all men and women who live in the most neglected geographical peripheries of the world or who live in situations of existential marginalization. May they find in St. Joseph the witness and protector to look to. To him we can turn with this prayer, a prayer "made at home", but which has come from the heart":
San José,
you who have always trusted in God,
and you have made your decisions
guided by his providence,
teach us not to count so much in our projects,
but in his plan of love.
You who come from the peripheries,
help us to convert our gaze
and to prefer what the world discards and puts in the margins.
Comforts those who are lonely
And sustains the one who is bent on silence
For defending life and human dignity. Amen
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Msgr. Luis Marin de San Martin, O.S.A., is one of the undersecretaries for the Synod of Bishops. This Augustinian friar from Madrid, together with the Secretary General of the Synod, Cardinal Mario Grech and the French nun Nathalie Becquart, forms the visible nucleus of the Secretariat of the Synod that coordinates and animates the whole Church in this synodal journey.
Translation of the article into English
To walk together, united, to rediscover the essence of the Church, its own synodal way of being. This is the goal of a synod We spoke with Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín about the project, which has begun in parallel in Rome and in all the dioceses of the world. keys and risks and, especially, about the need for everyone to participate in order to recover the essence of the Church from the life of each Catholic.
-How do you experience a Synod from the inside?
My experience is that it is lived with mixed emotions knowing that you are in front of something big.
First of all, it is lived with a sense of wonder, of gratitude to God because it really is a crucial moment in history, a time of the Spirit that makes you a participant.
Secondly, it is also lived with a certain fear, especially at the beginning, when the question of how to manage everything arises. But this question is immediately resolved with enormous confidence. I have enormous confidence, and for this reason, you put yourself in God's hands and let yourself be carried along with all the enthusiasm possible.
Thirdly, it is lived with great gratitude. Thankfulness because, even though we are small, the Lord does his work.
You live it, then, with all these feelings... and a lot of work. The Synod is a work that has involved us a lot. Those of us who collaborate in the Synod secretariat have worked, and are working, a lot, but we do it with the conviction that it is worthwhile. Besides, the more you get involved and get to know it, the more enthusiastic you become.
-What is the work of the undersecretaries of the Synod?
For the first time, we are two undersecretaries and, also for the first time, we are both religious, with two complementary spiritualities: mine is Augustinian and Sister Nathalie Becquart's is Ignatian. Our task is to collaborate with the Secretary General, Cardinal Mario Grech, and to accompany him in his functions. It is not only a matter of preparing for the Synod of Bishops, but especially of promoting synodality in the Church: to make the Church synodal. We form a team in which we must be the first to live this synodal style: of collaboration, communion and dialogue with Cardinal Grech and among ourselves.
-Synodal Church": you allude to a term that has entered our vocabulary in recent months, but what is the synodal Church?
Until now, traditionally, preparations were made for the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which, from time to time, met in Rome to discuss certain topics. Now, the Pope has opened this up much more. It is about going to what is the Church itself. This is not an invention of the Pope. The Church is synodal, just as it is communitarian or missionary. It belongs to the essence of the Church.
What does the synodal Church mean, what is this "walking together"? To be a Christian is to participate in what Christ is. Through baptism we are incorporated into Christ and this means that we make our own and participate in that salvific reality which is the reality of Christ the Redeemer. We are missionaries through baptism, we bring Christ's salvation to others because Christians do not live our faith in solitude, but in community: the Church is family, this is "together", walking together. This is what the Church is.
As Christians, united to Christ and to one another, we go forward bearing salvific witness in the midst of the world until the fullness of the end of time.
To live the Church is this: to live the Church is to live synodality. Promoting this synodality is the task of all Christians. This synodality is manifested in various ways: the Synod of Bishops is the way in which synodality is manifested for the bishops, but it is not the only one. There are pastoral councils, parish councils, episcopal councils... and there can be other manifestations and concretizations of synodality. It is necessary to make a discernment and see what the Lord is asking of us to live communion, participation and mission as Church.
–Both the Holy Father and the documents published for this Synod point to the passage from an "event" to a process.
We must not identify "Synod" with the Synod of Bishops. What is important is the journey. In October a Synod was opened, not a preparation. The whole Church has begun the journey and we are advancing along this path of listening, of discernment, seeing how we can participate, what the Holy Spirit is asking of us at this moment in history, what our mission is.
This journey is made from below: all Christians, parishes, dioceses, episcopal conferences, continental episcopal conferences, the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, and then we will return again to all the faithful, because decisions, ideas, etc., will return to the dioceses.
The Synod is not an administrative issue, it is not a project to reach an agreement or to "share power", it is not a matter of "doing".
Msgr. Luis Marín. Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops
-Are we talking about what we could call a change of mentality, and do you think it will be possible?
I believe that this is the beginning of a journey, but we do have to go to a change of mentality. The basic essential change is to recognize that we are facing an event of the Holy Spirit.
The Synod is not an administrative issue, it is not a project to reach an agreement or to "share power", it is not a matter of doing.
The Synod is a time of the Holy Spirit with all that this means, that is, what Pentecost meant for the early Church. What did Pentecost mean? To change the mentality, to break down the walls, the fears, to launch us to preach to the ends of the earth. That is why putting ourselves in the hands of the Spirit is the fundamental change. From there we will discover the way, the things that need to be changed.
There will be changes, yes. Sometimes fundamental and basic, which will not lead us to outlandish things but to live the essence of our faith, to what the Church is.
With the passage of time, in the Church we have become accustomed to it, we have lost our enthusiasm, our enthusiasm,... we do not reach everything, in short, we have become stagnant.
We are in a moment of awakening with a great impulse from the Holy Spirit that will lead us to be truly what we are. The bishop and the priest to be truly bishop or priest, and the layman to be truly lay.
The beauty of the Church lies in the fact that each one brings his charism, brings his vocation, in unity with all, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. The laity are not "granted" certain tasks "so that they will be happy and thus help us clergy". It is not that he "helps", it is that the laity has to participate in the Church, and to do it as laity, without being clericalized. Let us not clericalize the laity nor laicize the clergy: each according to his function in the Church.
The Church is not a system of power, but of service. We all have the same rank, neither above nor below, but we have different tasks. That is why in the logo of this Synod we are all walking equally.
The lay person "helps" in certain tasks of the Church. The lay person must participate in the Church and do so as a lay person.
Msgr. Luis Marín. Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops
-All changes are scary and in the Church as well....
The Pope often refers to the danger of "it has always been done this way" to avoid change, because we are afraid of novelty, of losing our securities... This is a time of change, of novelty and of losing our securities and placing ourselves in God's hands.
We must trust in the Spirit, who "makes all things new" and who will make us happier, because he will make us more coherent... We must shake off our fears, it is a time of renewal from within.
Indeed, fear is one of the problems we face in this process. Fear is very human and we have to open ourselves to the divine, to the Spirit that transforms us. I think that this synodal time is a time of God, because it is a time of authenticity. It is not a time to think that "this is the way it has always been done", but "what is God asking of us? That is what we are talking about when we talk about discernment. Let us listen to one another and also listen to the Holy Spirit. In this synodal journey, the prayerful dimension is indispensable. Without a prayerful dimension we will not be able to move forward or overcome our fears and insecurities.
-In the world of closed schedules and hurry, how can we recover that necessary prayerful dimension?
Obviously, this requires a conversion and, above all, a beginning. Recently, a major difficulty was posed to me: why doesn't the Christian message reach people? We produce very good documents that remain on the shelf, wonderful gestures that do not reach the people. Although it may seem paradoxical, this is a time to stop and move forward. To be silent, to stop the noises and to rediscover the value of prayer.
At times we realize that we have lost not only the ability to pray but also the taste for praying and, as a result, we give ourselves over to activism, to "doing things" or to "knowing things". However, Benedict XVI said that we are Christians because of our personal encounter with Christ, not because we say or do a lot of things. This is what it is all about, the personal encounter and friendship with Christ. Without this encounter and this friendship, nothing we do or say will have any meaning.
It is necessary to return to the personal encounter with Christ because from there we begin the journey. Sometimes we want to tell the Lord what to do, we want to control, to follow a program... The beauty of this process is that we do not know where it will lead us. Sometimes I am asked "what is going to be the end of this Synod? And I answer: "Ask the Holy Spirit, because I don't know".
What do we have to put in the light of the Holy Spirit? Our world of noise, of doing, of power... those constructions that we have made for ourselves and from which we have to see what we have to change in order to return to what is essential, to rediscover the basis of our faith.
We Christians must be a seed of hope. To bring the salvation that is Christ in the midst of the world. It is very beautiful to see that this synodal process arises at the time of the pandemic, at a time when the Church is marked by scandals, at a time of empty temples, of a crisis of secularism... We have all asked God to help us in these moments and here we have an answer: synodal Church, going to the essential, listening to the Holy Spirit, united among us... And we are going forward.
It is a response from God and a great responsibility for all of us, because this response of God in history passes through us. If we do not participate, if we think that this "complicates our lives", we may be frustrating the action of the Holy Spirit. It is a very important moment for which we need a lot of humility, a lot of trust and a lot of love, and we receive this in prayer.
-There are Catholics who say they do not feel that they belong to the Church or that the Church does not listen to them....
Every Catholic is part of the Church because he is part of Christ. There is no Christ without the Church. The risen Christ is Christ the head of the Church, united to her, inseparable. Uniting yourself to Christ unites you to the Church. It is true that we live in an age where there are many Christians who do not participate in the life of the Church, who are on the margins due to various circumstances. For this reason, the Pope encourages us to reach out to those on the margins, to go out to meet them. We have to listen to everyone, not only to those who come to Mass or are with us, but to everyone: to offer these people the possibility to participate, to speak and to listen to them, uniting them to us. This moment of listening is also a very beautiful moment of evangelization.
How to start doing this? By starting. We learn to swim by swimming. We learn to walk together by walking together in the Holy Spirit. And we experience that they come, that they ask: how can I participate? By approaching their parish, asking the pastor. Going to the simple, which is to live our Christian faith that is community, listening to the Spirit and united to Christ.
Of course, we have to be patient. Our times are not God's times. Christianity spreads by contagion, by the enthusiasm of the first Christians. I believe that every Christian must be an apostle in the sense of being an enthusiast of his faith, because he knows Christ experientially and carries Christ in the midst of the world. By living the authenticity of our faith we will be "contagious" and we will be integrating more people, even those who insult us, as the Pope has told us.
To listen to everyone and, from there, to discern, and to make the necessary decisions that the Holy Spirit will indicate, not the will of each one of us. Many things will have to be changed and renewed, yes, and it will be a path of hope for all.
We must listen to everyone, not only to those who come to Mass or are with us.
Msgr. Luis Marín. Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops
-How can we carry out this discernment, knowing what God is asking for and not falling into fads or ideologies?
Discernment requires openness to the Holy Spirit, the vertical axis that puts us in communication with God, and the participation of our brothers and sisters, of everyone, the horizontal axis. This is the way to trace the path together that will lead us to discern what God is asking of the Church today.
The theme of the Synod places us before three themes that God is asking of the Church: communion, participation and mission.
The first is communion. We have to ask ourselves how I personally live it when in the Church itself there are opposing groups, when ideologies are imposed, etc.
Communion means that together we are enriched. It is very good that we do not have the same personality, the same sensitivity, the same culture ... because otherwise life would be impoverished. Sometimes we forget that we are brothers and we behave like enemies, like members of a kind of political party and Christianity is not an ideology. There are as many ways to follow Christ as there are people in the world.
Then, participation. Each one has to participate according to his condition and charism, as we have pointed out before. We cannot have a passive or clericalist attitude, that is, that the clergy do everything and know everything while many lay people are passive or want to become "little clerics". The structures of participation in the Church must be developed much more.
And finally, mission. In this difficult world, do we bring the good news to others or do we create a kind of ghetto in which we speak a language that no one understands? Do we go out to the peripheries, that is, to all areas of life? These are the questions of the Synod, the challenge. We cannot reduce the Synod to looking for some recipes or four points of examination but it is a movement of the Spirit, it is something deeper.
-How has this new Synod been received throughout the Church?
I have to say, and I am very happy to say that, in general, it has been very well received, with great enthusiasm. From the Secretariat of the Synod we are in contact with the Bishops' Conferences all over the world, with assemblies of religious and lay associations. There is a lot of expectation, eagerness and, I would say, enthusiasm. We are also aware that in many areas there are doubts, how we are going to do, where we should go, how to start... there has been a very strong initial impulse. In the vast majority of dioceses it has been assumed as what it is, a time of God and an extraordinary opportunity for Christian life.
The Pope told us that we have to prepare ourselves for surprises. The Holy Spirit will surprise us. In our society we like to have everything "all tied up", but at this moment, we are asked to be open to the surprise of the Spirit. For example, the Secretariat of the Synod has sent us a preparatory document that is a help, but if it does not work... that's okay. We have placed ten themes. At the beginning there were ten clear, broad questions... and someone pointed out to us that it looked like an exam, that it ran the risk of being reduced to answering a series of questions; and what we want is an experience of listening, not closed answers. That's why we changed it to ten thematic nuclei, which cover a greater possibility of reflection. If they work, fine. If not, we will have to look for others.
From the Secretariat of the Synod we are trying to have a connection of materials, of help... so that we can all help each other in this journey, that is why the different materials are available on the web. The key is that the whole Church is involved in this listening and discernment and that it serves.
In addition, the Synod Secretariat has very intense contact with the bishops' conferences around the world. For the first time we have had large online meetings, divided by language. There have been two, and in the next one we want the Synod referents and coordinators of all the episcopal conferences to participate as well.
We are meeting with the presidents and secretaries of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. We have also met telematically with the patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, and with the union of superiors of religious institutes, and we are in contact with the communities of contemplative life and lay associations. It is an intense work but it has created a great connection with churches all over the world.
-Has the Roman Curia also initiated this synodal process?
If we say that the Church is synodal, everything that is Church is synodal, it is Synod, therefore, also the Holy See. Indeed, also in the Vatican Curia we are in this process of thinking, of seeing what the Holy Spirit is telling us at this moment and being able to respond to it.
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Gustave Thils belongs to the golden age of the University of Louvain in the 20th century, and was a pioneer and author of great theological themes, such as ecumenism and dialogue with religions, but especially on temporal realities.
Along with Gerard Philips, Charles Moeller and many others from other disciplines (Delhaye, R. Aubert, Coppens, Onclin...), Gustave Thils (1909-2000) is basically the fruit of Cardinal Mercier's concern for the intellectual and spiritual preparation of the diocesan clergy of Brussels (Mechelen) and for the intellectual and Christian revival of the University of Louvain.
Thils was educated in the diocese of Brussels, in its minor and major seminaries, and in Louvain, where he completed his degrees and his doctoral (1935) and habilitation (1937) theses on The Church's Notes on Apologetics since the ReformationThe first of these, showing the changes they had undergone as they moved from patristics and the Creed (one, holy, catholic and apostolic) to the confessional controversy with Lutheranism, was one of the classic subjects of the apologetics course. It was one of the classic subjects of the subject of apologetics. And this subject was the first one he taught when he was asked to be a seminary professor (1937-1949). He was also one of the most appreciated spiritual directors of that seminary, then with more than two hundred candidates. He then became professor of Fundamental Theology in Louvain (1947-1976).
Thils was characterized by being thoroughly informed on the subjects he had to teach or wanted to introduce. He was not satisfied with the usual manuals. In each case, he composed a history and a thematic overview. And since, especially in the seminary, he was involved in several subjects, he soon produced a set of very informative works. This earned him an early reputation and was quoted throughout the French-speaking theological area. Until almost the end of his long life, he maintained his ability to write clearly and synthesize well. And he was widely translated.
The seminary spirituality talks became a synthesis of priestly spirituality, Diocesan priesthood (1942-1946), later expanded in Christian holiness. Compendium of ascetic theology and, later, in Existence and holiness in Jesus Christ (1982). They continue to be inspirational and with a lay spirituality.
Some courses on virtue morality in the seminary gave rise to the interesting essay Current trends in moral theology (1940). The thematic expansions of the Apologetics and Fundamental Theology (and of his thesis) led him to synthesize a celebrated History of the ecumenical movement (1955). And, putting it all together, to a Current orientations of theology (1958). It also prompted him to study historically the role of the primacy in the Church, in Pontifical infallibility (1969) y The papal primacy (1972). And, always in the line of Fundamental Theology, to enter the world of religions, Purposes and problems of the theology of the non-Christian religions. (1966). And, seeing them coming, syncretism or Catholicity? (1967). And this is just a small selection of his books, to which we must add many articles and many reviews and reviews. He wasted no time.
But his most recognized contribution was his early Theology of terrestrial realities (Theology of terrestrial realities (Desclée 1946, edition for which we will quote). This was later accompanied by other complementary essays, such as Transcendence and incarnation (1950), y Theology and social reality (1963).
He was original because he approached the subject systematically, and with sensitivity to the way of thinking of professionals and workers, whom he knew because he led groups and gave courses.
At the time of the Council (1962-1965) and especially in the work of the Gaudium et speshe was counted on. Apart from the fact that he was a colleague of other Lovanians such as Gerard Philip and Charles Moeller, who had a great influence on the final form and the writing of Lumen Gentium and other documents (they were all good Latinists). He made good comments on the progress of the Council and several of its documents. And he worked in the Secretariat for the Union of Christians.
The medieval world has disappeared. Christianity (the Church) is no longer accorded an official place in the constitution of states. But how can Christians be disinterested in the temporal city? Do they not have their mission and vocation there, especially the laity? What is to be done, without falling into clericalism?
"Give to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's". Agreed, but shouldn't there be a theology, a thoughtful faith, that serves to train future priests to enlighten Christians? Could it be left to Marxism alone to interpret "temporal realities" and their progress?
As he explains in the prologue, this reflection justifies this remarkable essay in two volumes. The first volume, PreludesThe second one is dedicated to the Theology of history (1939) and we will comment on it later. As always, Thils makes a great map of the subject, which is, in itself, a contribution.
It is divided into four parts. The first three are the preparation and framing of the questions; the fourth is an outline of a Christian judgment of the main "terrestrial realities". It takes into account Maritain's essay (Integral humanism1936), on the Christian role in a society that is no longer officially Christian; and an article by the Jesuit Montcheuil, Christian life and temporal action (1943), in addition to other writings that express the concern to be present in the configuration of the new world.
He begins by pointing out that Christian philosophers, theologians and sociologists "form a very homogeneous chorus to require from theological science indications about the value of the world, of the universe of human societies, of civilization." (14). Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox (Boulgakov, Berdiaev). He even quotes Donoso Cortes: "A civilization is always the reflection of a theology.".
The second part provides theological elements of judgment, entering into the oppositions and paradoxes: God and the world, the sacred and spiritual and the profane, spirit and matter, flesh and spirit. It takes meditation and a lot of nuance to bring things into focus.
The third part shows the great movement that goes from the creation of God, with the mystery of sin and redemption, to the consummation in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit. This is where these realities must be framed.
There is a creative design of God for human action in the world (which prolongs his creation), there is sin that deforms and redemptive action that heals, and there is eschatological and transcendent tension towards the end: it is not possible to make a world that remains closed in on itself.
In this context, Gustave Thils is convinced that the action of the Holy Spirit in the world is not limited to the interior sanctification of individuals or to the liturgical action of the Church, but embraces the whole of creation wounded by sin. Christians must participate in this movement from their place in the world.
The fourth part, called "simple sketches"The longest section of the book applies everything we have seen to some great earthly realities: the constitution of societies, culture and civilization, technology, the arts and human work. In each case it is a matter of understanding their place in the extension of God's creative action, of thinking about how they are affected by sin, healed by redemption and directed by the Spirit towards the glory of God.
For example, on work. Relying on St. Thomas, he says that all work participates in the divine action, in his causality, and is an extension of his creation. The creative aspect underlines that the human being is the image of God. Certainly, he is touched by sin, but work is not a consequence of sin, it is only a consequence of its painful aspect. And precisely for this reason, it can also have a redemptive aspect. "To restore a society, culture or art is to transfigure it according to the Holy Spirit: this is not only a promise, it is actually realized. [...] That is why the human activity that transmits redemption to the earthly world is, by the same token, a redemptive activity." (191).
"By uniting all the forms of earthly redemptive activities and joining them to the theological and theocentric activities of the inner life, a fairly complete view of what the 'Christian life' as a whole is, with all the universality it possesses in God and in the Spirit, will be achieved." (194). It is necessary to flee both from a "The humanization of Christianity that turns it into a force of moralization [...] as of a total disembodiment of Christianity by the unilateral insistence on a grace that would not mix at all with the world to penetrate it and transform it. [...] It is necessary to think in the light of Christ the treatise on Christian anthropology, whose reform will be, perhaps, the greatest work of the twentieth century." (198). These are the last words.
Twelve years later, in its Current orientations of Theology (1958), summarizes the subject. We are no longer in the times when the idea of perfection was linked to that of "monasticism" or "convent" [...]. The laity are immersed in the temporal and tied to earthly tasks. Their duty of state - which is the first means of sanctification - leads them to give visible attention and vital interest to the development of the profane world [...]. This world, in a precarious and transitory way, is the place in which they must sanctify themselves." (quoted from the translation by Troquel, Buenos Aires 1959, 133). Orientations are needed for "to consider this world with the eyes of revelation, helping them to adapt their gaze to God's gaze.". "A theology of temporal realities can help to understand the end of temporal work and to fulfill it." knowing how the image of God is realized in the world. "In the last analysis it is a 'Christian anthropology'."but "integral", not reduced to the description of the soul and the inner role of grace. "If our theological anthropology had been 'integral,' there would never have been the problem of the theology of temporal realities." (135).
It is extended by collecting bibliography that had grown. First the "everyday theology".where he quotes Jesús Urteaga (The divine value of the human), Mouroux, Scheler, C. S. Lewis. Then on the body (Mouroux, Poucel), work (Haessle, Chenu), family and society (Dubarle, Journet); also art and technique.
As mentioned above, the second volume of the Theology of terrestrial realitiesis dedicated to the Theology of history (1949) and to the eschatological aspect, i.e., whether human action in the world and its progress have any relation to the establishment of the Kingdom of God now and at the end of time (the new heavens and the new earth).
Histories of theology usually divide authors into "eschatologists" and "incarnationists". "Eschatologists" (Daniélou, Bouyer) would be those who center the meaning of history in the spirituality and life of the Church, the rest being accessory or even, to a different degree, subsumed to the "world" as a reality opposed to salvation. "Incarnationists" (Thils, Chenu and later Metz and liberation theology) would be those who give transcendent and eschatological value to human realities, where they understand that the Kingdom is initiated. They differ and, in fact, Daniélou criticized Thils as "too optimistic". But the issue, so rich and complex, is not well reflected in such a simple bipartite division.
Gaudium et speswhich devotes a chapter to human action in the world (nn. 33-39), prudently echoes all this in n. 33: "We must carefully distinguish temporal progress and the growth of Christ's kingdom."but the first one can help "is of great interest to the kingdom of God".. In addition, "the goods of human dignity, fraternal union and freedom; in a word, all the excellent fruits of nature and of our efforts, after having been spread over the earth by the Spirit of the Lord and in accordance with his command, we shall find them again."transfigured in the consummation of
Christ.
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The demand for psychologists and psychiatrists has grown in the pandemic, and how to help in the face of vital fractures is sometimes ignored. Psychologist and therapist Teresa Barrera reviews seven tools for psychological and spiritual accompaniment. She speaks, for example, that "wounds can generate strengths", or to look "in an integrated way".
Psychological Strategies for Spiritual Accompaniment (I)Psychological strategies for spiritual accompaniment (II)Psychological strategies for spiritual accompaniment (III)What does it mean to look at people in an integrated way? "Taking into account their three dimensions: psychological, biological and spiritual". We all have our fractures throughout our history, "it is something that we must assume and that also generates in us strengths". This is what the psychologist Teresa Barrera, collaborating specialist of the Dr. Carlos Chiclana Consultation, assures.
"Living in an integrated way allows people to be happy and to know what they have been called to do", said Teresa Barrera at the conference. Psychology and spiritual lifein a session entitled Addressing fractures in the coherence of life of the Christian subject, which he gave to more than 300 people at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra.
The issue of mental health, especially in these times of pandemic, is of increasing concern to some specialists, who warned as early as 2020 that the Covid-19 pandemic would be followed by problems of the mind. For a good accompaniment, Barrera considers it important to know what the person does, how he does it, why and for whom: "This way we will understand the causes of the rupture, to be able to reorder his behavior and that the person lives in freedom. Often it is not a question of attitude, and this makes the patient feel much less guilty.
Regarding the origin of the incoherence, he distinguished two cases: when it has a psychiatric root, such as cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); or when the incoherence has a psychological root, in which case it is helpful to know the personal history.
These are some of the questions that psychologist Teresa Barrera discussed with Omnes, following her intervention at the University of Navarra.
-The American Psychological Association (APA) warned in late summer last year that psychologists and psychiatrists were seeing an increase in consultations in the pandemic. Some said at the time that Have these demands continued to grow?
Yes, it is evident. There are things that were already in people, they were already adapted, and the situations we have lived through of uncertainty have destabilized them, and they have become more present, and that is why they have asked for help. And then there is a lot of grief to live through. Not only personal mourning, but also things that we have lost in our relationship with others, the time we have been away from others, projects that have had to be closed..., These are also mourning that we have to live through. There have been many variables. There have been people who have been destabilized by the instability of the moment, and by the situations they have had to face.
-What type of fractures are you referring to? Because there can be different kinds of fractures. Life is hard and many things can happen.
They do not have to be big fractures. For a Christian, a difficulty in communication; in marriage, a lack of intimacy is a fracture in coherence. We don't have to talk only about addictions, or infidelity, or serious things. And that can have an origin, from a psychiatric point of view, or from a psychological point of view.
For example, laziness can be a symptom of depression, and it is a fracture in coherence, but it has an origin, it has an explanation. Overwork, for example. People who live more for work than for their family.
-You have spoken of the fractures in the coherence of life of the Christian subject, but it is assumed that the psychological tools you propose are also valid for non-Christians.
The title of the presentation spoke of the fracture in coherence. That is, when a person acts inconsistently. That is what we were referring to. Where is the explanation of incoherence, which can have a psychiatric origin or a psychological origin. A person who is dependent on another person. It can have a psychological origin in the first family relationship, and emotional dependencies are generated. That is why it is a fracture in the coherence. Maybe it is a person who does whatever it takes to be loved by the other person.
And the fracture is not in the wound, but in the coherence, in this case. Although my presentation had the title of fractures of the Christian subject, these are things that are also valid, logically, for non-Christians. It is the fracture in coherence. Although here we are talking about Christian values.
-Let's go to the psychological tools for a good accompaniment of the person. You spoke of seven, and you started with this one: 'The relationship that heals'.
The therapeutic relationship in itself is healing, therefore, in spiritual accompaniment it is also fundamental. This therapeutic relationship generates a stable and safe relationship, where emotional expression is allowed, where the person can show him/herself as he/she is, without being judged.
-Second, the framework of spiritual accompaniment, can you summarize it?
A framework is needed to help the person being accompanied to understand what spiritual accompaniment is and its limits: what aspects are to be dealt with, areas of life to be discussed, times, place, frequency and mode of communication.
-Third, what does it mean to 'make a life line, which we will then join to the work on strengths and emotions'? These are his words.
Ordering one's life is key to know oneself and allows to align life events. It can be done in different ways, by years, by crisis...
-Fourth. Strengths.
Our wounds can generate strengths. It is important to reflect this, because if we only show where the problems are, the person becomes frustrated in the end. If we reinforce the attempts at solutions and the things he or she has learned along the way, the person becomes empowered.
-Fifth. Emotional awareness and regulation.
It consists of helping to detect which emotions the person has in important moments, so that he/she integrates them in life and learns to regulate them. Naming emotions, defining them and expressing them allows the person to know him/herself.
-Sixth. Enabling and reflective questions.
We can use questions that help the person to reflect on him/herself, the consequences of his/her actions, what he/she feels and get a glimpse of the strengths mentioned in the previous section.
-And seventh. The ideal self versus the actual self.
To allow the person, through the map of his history where are the shortcomings and strengths, to know his originality and love himself, to know where he wants to direct his life in freedom. We can translate it by working on the ideal by relying on reality. The idea is to work the person from how he/she is, not only from the ideal; to work the ideal based on reality.
-Let's talk for a moment about 'doing whatever it takes' to get attention, as you mentioned before. It often happens sometimes that after a breakup, for example, you can think of anything crazy...
When we reach these extremes, we need therapeutic accompaniment. Because what one feels and what one does is not proportionate to the vital fact. In these cases, when the person does not tolerate the anxiety, the discomfort or the pain of separation, therapeutic accompaniment is necessary, because it is not proportionate. When emotions are disproportionate, they mean that something is not working well. Another thing is that a person is sad, and cries, or gets angry because of the circumstances, but can continue with his or her life.
We conclude the conversation. In case you are interested, the academic conference was also attended by Dr. Jorge Iriarte, doctor, priest and professor at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra; Montserrat Lafuente, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, professor at the Abat Oliva-CEU University and at the seminary of Barcelona; Professor Wenceslao Vial, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome); and university professors José María Pardo and Martiño Rodríguez-González Rodríguez, professor at the University of Navarra; Professor Wenceslao Vial, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome); and university professors José María Pardo and Martiño Rodríguez-González, who moderated the presentations.
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Two journalists have received, from the hands of Pope Francis, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Plan, which is usually awarded to heads of state. During the award ceremony, the Pope took the opportunity to address a few words to the world of journalism.
Massimiliano Padula: "Journalism must reflect the truth".What are we going to do at Omnes? JournalismFor the first time in the history of the Holy See, two journalists received from the hands of Pope Francis, on November 13, the Grand Cross of the Piana Order, which is usually awarded to heads of state. They are Valentina Alazraki, of Mexican television Televisa, and Phil Pullella, of Reuters, professionals who have been covering the Vatican for several decades. Both are, in fact, "deans" of the so-called "Vaticanists", the group of journalists who live in Rome and follow daily all the activities of the Vatican and the Holy See, and fly with the Pope on his international trips around the world. Alazraki, for example, has made more than 150 trips following the last three pontiffs.
For the occasion, the Holy Father addressed a message to the entire community of information professionals, of whom a representation was present in the room, to tell them that with this honor he intended to "pay homage to your entire working community", as well as to show "that he loves you, follows you, esteems you, considers you precious".
On this occasion, Pope Francis gave a short lesson in journalism, recalling the fundamental elements that characterize - or should characterize - a profession truly at the service of good and truth, lived as a natural "mission" of "explaining the world", "making it less obscure", so that "those who live in it may be less afraid of it and look at others with greater awareness, and also with greater trust".
This true vocation must be based on three important pillars. Firstly, listening to the protagonists of the stories being told, which also means seeing, being there, to capture nuances and sensations through a necessary "irreplaceable" personal encounter.
The second pillar refers to in-depth analysis, to the ability to penetrate the context of situations in order to avoid simplification and contrast, very much in vogue today in the media and web landscape.
Finally, telling, which does not mean "putting oneself in the foreground, nor setting oneself up as a judge", but acquiring the attitude that leads to "allowing oneself to be hit and sometimes hurt by the stories we encounter, in order to be able to narrate them with humility to our readers".
The Pope's wish, therefore, is to deal with journalists and communicators "who are passionate about reality, capable of finding the treasures hidden in the folds of our society and of telling them, allowing us to be impacted, to learn, to broaden our minds, to grasp aspects we did not know before".
This ability to empathize with people's problems, to grasp the elements of truth, to contextualize them and to relate them with kindness also applies to all events related to the Church, which "is not a large multinational company run by managers studying at the table how best to sell their product", but was born and exists "to reflect the light of Another, the light of Jesus".
Pope Francis is no stranger to giving useful indications to journalists so that they can better fulfill their delicate task of service. Very often, in speeches, interviews, messages and greetings, he has highlighted some of his "communicative convictions" and "virtuous advice" as a remedy to what he has defined on some other occasion as the "sins of the media." Among them are disinformation, slander and defamation.
In the face of these "violations of truth," the Pontiff has reiterated on several occasions the need to prioritize the love of truth, goodness and beauty, an "existential triad" as he defined it in his first audience with journalists once elected in 2013.
Listening is also part of that "proximity and culture of encounter" typical of other pronouncements of his Magisterium, aware that personal involvement thus becomes the very root of the communicator's reliability.
In all this arises responsibility, the attitude that leads to maintain a high ethical level in the work, avoiding superficiality and always being respectful with people, both with those who are the object of information as well as with those who receive the message.
The Pope also speaks of hope, referring to a type of information and communication that is constructive. In the face of defeatist or pessimistic views, the right attitude-which is a task and also a commitment-must be positive, leaving room for the good things that happen.
Finally, the Pope is aware that the nerve centers where most of the news is concentrated are in the big centers. However, this should not make us forget the countless stories of those who live far away, at a distance, in the now famous suburbs, where alongside the suffering and degradation there are certainly stories of great solidarity, which can help everyone to look at reality in a renewed way.
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Andrea Mardegan comments on the readings for the First Sunday of Advent and Luis Herrera offers a short video homily.
We begin Advent with Jesus' discourses on the end times and his second coming. Jesus speaks of cosmic upheavals. His listeners were convinced of the connection between nature and history, and saw in the stormy sea an image of chaos opposing the order of the stars and the heavens. If disorder and chaos reach the heavens, then the end is near.
Luke, a good physician, highlights the reactions of "anguish", "anxiety" and "fear" that provokes death. In this dramatic picture, which reminds us of real events - earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions - appears the image of the second coming of the Son of Man "in a cloud with great power and glory".
The cloud is in the Bible a sign of God's presence. A cloud envelops Jesus with the three apostles, Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Luke describes the Ascension as follows: "As they watched him, he rose and a cloud hid him from their eyes." (Acts 1:9). Two men dressed in white say to the apostles: "This same Jesus, who from among you has been taken up into heaven, will come in like manner as you have seen him go up into heaven."
As they entered the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration, the apostles "they were afraid"; Jesus, on the other hand, after speaking of the cloud of his second coming, urges us to stand up and raise our heads, attitudes that express an expectation full of hope: "For your redemption draweth nigh.".
But Jesus also warns us that we could still lose that salvation, and that is why he invites us to watch and pray to prevent our heart from "obfuscate" because of "the drunkenness, drunkenness and the cares of life". The verb used by Luca recalls the hardening of Pharaoh's heart when Moses asked him to let his people go (Ex 7:14).
We watch to keep our hearts awake with the hope that the Lord transmits to us with Jeremiah: "I will raise up David a righteous shoot, who exercises justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in peace, and shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.".
Paul's words to the Thessalonians, the oldest New Testament writing that has come down to us, immersed in the expectation of the second coming of Christ, suggest to us how to pray in this expectation: "May the Lord fill you and make you overflow with love for one another, and with love for all, as is ours for you, so that your hearts may be confirmed in blameless holiness.".
In addition, the Lord will not come alone, but "with all his saints", his friends, our fellow travelers, our brothers in faith and in glory, who are our intercessors.
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
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Seville hosts the XLIII Spanish Social Week under the title "Social Week of Spain The regeneration of public life. A call for the common good and participation.
The Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral and Human Promotion is celebrating in Seville, from November 25 to 27, the XLIII Social Week of Spain, under the title The regeneration of public life. A call for the common good and participation.
As Jesús Avezuela, president of the Social Weeks of Spain, points out to Omnes, "the celebration of the Social Weeks of this year 2021 have a special importance after a process of revitalization of this institution.".
The Seville meeting is also preceded, for the first time, "by the work of a series of debates and deliberation forums in various dioceses throughout the Spanish geography during the whole of 2021".
The next Social Week, which takes the baton from the last one held in Orihuela-Alicante in 2015, will begin on November 25 with the inaugural session attended by the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, Bishop Bernardito Auza; the Archbishop of Seville, Archbishop José Ángel Saiz Meneses, Jesús Avezuela himself; and the Mayor of Seville, as well as the Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Luis Argüello, in charge of the inaugural address.
Friday will be the working day for the participating dioceses through working groups, while on Saturday two round tables are scheduled: A policy perspective y A view from business and the social sector moderated by journalists Diego García Cabello and Juan Carlos Blanco Cruz, respectively.
Saturday's program also includes the presentation of the conclusions before the final act, which will be attended by the Archbishop of Seville and the President of the Junta de Andalucía.
Avezuela also emphasizes the importance of this meeting for the Social Weeks and considers that "it is a very opportune moment, within the path undertaken by the Episcopal Conference for the coming years, to renew these initiatives of meeting and social and cultural dialogue by putting together the very different approaches of the deliberation forums of the various working groups of experts in political, economic and socio-cultural issues of the dioceses that are very varied among themselves but that share this search for the common good".
The so-called "Social Weeks" are based on the encyclical "Social Weeks". Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII. It will be in Lyon, in 1904 when the first Social Weeks with this name and with the aim of bringing together representatives of different religious, social, political and economic organizations. The Social Weeks of Spain, whose organization dates back to 1906, are a service of the Spanish Episcopal Conference for the study, dissemination and application of the Social Doctrine of the Church to relevant and current social issues.
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At the plenary assembly of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the report of a commission of historians on sexual abuse in the diocese of Münster was presented, in which the authors question the foundations of the Catholic Church. In addition, the conference of the "archbishopess" of Uppsala dazzled the majority of the assembly members. Does the German Synodal Way consider the Lutheran Church of Sweden as a model for its discussions?
Today's conversions, ways out of paganismSynodal path in Germany reproached for "abusing abuses".On November 19 and 20, the plenary assembly of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK for short), the body that together with the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) leads the Synodal Way. Apart from the election of the new president Irme Stetter-Karp, 65, as successor to Thomas Sternberg (who had chaired the ZdK since 2015), and other positions, the highlights were two: the presentation of the provisional results of a new study on sexual abuse - in this case in the Church of Münster, prepared by a group of historians, and the lecture delivered by the "archbishopess" of the Swedish Lutheran Church.
The project on the sexual abuse in Münster, which began two years ago under the direction of Thomas Grossbölting and Klaus Grosse Kracht and is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2022, the results so far are roughly in line with those of the so-called MHG report (because professors from the universities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Gießen participated in it): about four percent of the clergy in that diocese have been accused of abuse since 1945.
Overall, these figures - according to Grossbölting and Grosse Kracht - correspond to the share of abusers in Germany's population, which is estimated to be between three and five percent. "In other words, Catholic priests are neither more nor less likely to commit sexual abuse. Neither their training nor their priestly ordination protected them from it."
Surprisingly, the directors of this project do not draw from these results any conclusions for prevention during the training period of priests. And neither do they do so from a fact of particular relevance: as they mention, three quarters of the victims are boys, which is in stark contrast to the structure of victims in the general population, where it is estimated that girls are affected three to four times more often than boys, i.e. just the opposite. It seems that the relationship between abuse and homosexuality remains a taboo subject.
Instead, they conclude: "It is possible that the Catholic Church does not have a quantitative problem with sexual abuse, but a qualitative one. Because the facts, but also the cover-up of abuse, have a profoundly Catholic character in many facets." In other words: according to Grossbölting and Grosse Kracht, the abuses have "systemic causes": in the sexual morality of the Church (this is also surprising: doesn't Catholic sexual morality prohibit sexual abuse?), as well as in the "Church's conception of the ministry in general", in that "the priest is not only superior to the laity in the leadership of the community, but also in his nature" because, with ordination, he acquires a part of the authority of Jesus Christ and represents him "in persona".
"This is the transcendent basis of the pastoral power that the 'holy man' has over his victims. From this context results the failure of the bishops' leadership."
In their interpretation of the results of the study, Grossbölting and Grosse Kracht argue for a different Church: "We are referring to something fundamental, the understanding of the priestly ministry, the relationship between priests and laity and between women and men, we are referring to the control from the outside of bishops and personnel managers and, essentially, to the limitation of pastoral power". In this way, sexual abuse provides an opportunity to question the foundations of the Catholic Church. In this regard, it is surprising that Thomas Söding, theologian and member of the ZdK presidium, felt compelled to describe the term "abuse of abuse" as a "poisoned word".
In this context, the enthusiasm with which the participants in the ZdK assembly welcomed the lecture given by the Lutheran "archbishopess" Antje Jackelén from Uppsala (Sweden) is also understandable. Originally from Germany, she has been living in Sweden for 40 years; and since 2014 she has been at the head of the Swedish Lutheran Church. The ZdK presidency had asked her to provide an "outsider's view" of the synodal journey in Germany.
Although she considers that it would be "insolent" to indicate a goal for the synodal path, because "the Church of Sweden does not have the solution", Antje Jackelén outlined how synodality is understood in this Lutheran church: "There is what we call two 'lines of responsibility': on the one hand, the 'episcopal line', with bishops, presbyters and deacons: bishops are elected in each diocese by presbyters and deacons, as well as by the same number of lay people; on the other hand, the 'synodal line', whose representatives are elected in direct and democratic ballots. The key concept is common responsibility.
That it is "widely accepted in Sweden that both men and women can be ordained" is another aspect that fell on fertile ground at the ZdK assembly. Irme Stetter-Karp, its newly elected president - who is also vice-president of Caritas in Germany - said after her election: "As a woman, for me this exclusion [of women from ordination to the priesthood] is not acceptable, but not only since the 2000s, but always. I do not think it is reasonable for my Church to ordain, by decree or according to sex, some yes and others no. I do not think it is acceptable for my Church to ordain women to the priesthood.
This is my perspective as a woman, but it is also shared by many men. An equally decisive reason seems to me to be the pastoral question. For this I often use a simile: one cannot roll out dough indefinitely when one wants to bake a cake; at some point it will break. This is a risk I see in many communities. For me, faith is so important that it leads me to say: it would be good if we reconsidered this".
It is not surprising, therefore, that at the end of her presentation Irme Stetter-Karp invited Antje Jackelén to the Convention of German Catholics in 2022; but also other participants in the Assembly were quick to invite her to participate in the deliberations of the synodal journey. It seems that at least some members of the ZdK Assembly consider the Swedish Lutheran Church as a model for the German synodal path.
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Francis leaves Cyprus praying with young migrants"Greece invites to a life towards God and the other," Pope encouragesThe recent apostolic journey of Pope Francis to Greece and Cyprus has left several moments etched in the retina, such as his meeting with the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Hieronymus II, where he asked forgiveness for the historical treatment by Catholics of the Orthodox, or his visit to the refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
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The Sauvé study, commissioned by the French Bishops' Conference, was not limited to a numerical count, but called for a detailed analysis of the causes and possible remedies to the drift of abuses. The bishops did not want to "dispute the bill" but to assume their responsibility and call for a profound conversion.
"Sexual abuse is a bombshell in French society."Pope's sorrowful plea for forgiveness for abusesThe recent devastating revelations of the Sauvé Report suggesting a significant number of victims of sexual abuse by priests and religious over the past 70 years in France have been analyzed by the French bishops at the meeting held in Lourdes last week.
The study commissioned by the Bishops' Conference was not limited to a numerical count, but called for a detailed analysis of the causes and possible remedies for this drift. The hierarchy had given freedom to M. Sauvé, formerly vice-president of the Council of State, to form his team and to follow the methods he deemed appropriate. The independent character of this commission, which included personalities with multiple and complementary competencies and diverse philosophical and religious opinions: believers, non-believers, agnostics and atheists, was emphasized. The Church wanted to show absolute transparency and its desire to take the necessary measures to eradicate these crimes.
On the other hand, the recovery of credibility in the eyes of public opinion was perceived as a necessity requiring extraordinary means. In the background, the case of Abbé Preynat - now resigned from the clerical state - had shocked public opinion because of the exorbitant number of young scouts assaulted and had put the Cardinal of Lyon himself, Mgr Barbarin, in the dock for the crime of non-denunciation, sentenced in the first instance to six months in prison and finally acquitted on appeal. A film entitled "Thanks be to GodFrançois Ozon's "The Affair" was widely publicized in the country.
Having made public the results of the report already known, the bishops have unreservedly accepted these conclusions, wishing to make public a profound change of mentality and a sincere repentance. The episcopal body as a whole recognized the institutional responsibility of the Church and the systemic character of these acts of violence, "in the sense that they are not only the acts of isolated individuals, but were also made possible by a global context", in the words of Mgr de Moulins Beaufort, president of the French Bishops' Conference: "a degraded ecclesiastical system".
The measures voted on November 8 by the bishops recognize that the treatment of these situations in the past, only internally, had not helped to clarify them. Wishing to redress any injustice, an independent Church body for the recognition and redress of sexual violence has been set up to compensate any victim "whatever the cost". The practical means of raising the necessary funds has not yet been determined, but the sale of real estate or movable property in solidarity among the dioceses is not excluded. The bishops of France are asking the Pope to send apostolic visitators to analyze the way in which each diocese is working in this area. Nine working groups, led by lay people, have been set up, according to the recommendations of the Sauvé report, with the aim of renewing the form of governance.
At the end of the plenary assembly, on the esplanade of the Basilica of Lourdes, in the context of a penitential celebration, the bishops and the faithful present asked the Lord on their knees for forgiveness for all the abuses committed in the Church, while the bells rang out for the dead for all the victims.
The reaction of the episcopate corresponds to an awareness of the responsibility before God and mankind for this serious perversion that the Church has not been able to deal with within herself, apart from the behavior of other secular social institutions. The bishops did not want to "dispute the bill" but to assume their responsibility and call for a profound conversion. And this is perhaps the most significant thing to be retained by the ecclesiastical authorities.
From the point of view of an outside observer, recognizing the seriousness of the problem and without minimizing it, it is legitimate to suggest some questions that could qualify in some sense, the conclusions of the Sauvé report in order to make them more relevant to the transformation of the French ecclesial society.
The staging of the delivery of the report to the bishops on October 5, 2021 showed the awareness that the Commission had taken from its mission of advice and counsel, transforming it into a sanctioning mission in the manner of a moral Tribunal of society without possible appeal, exceeding the mission entrusted to it. It is commendable that the Commission is independent, but any independent audit work requires a phase of confrontation before the publication of the report. Everything indicates that the bishops did not have the opportunity to study the report before its public presentation.
Independent does not mean incriminating. Mr. Sauvé gave the first quarter of an hour of the presentation to the president of a victims' association who did not spare any reproaches to the bishops: "you are the shame of our humanity"; repeating and making the audience repeat: "you must pay for all these crimes". Faced with the results of the report, he said, "the best thing you can do is to shut up and start working hard and fast to thoroughly overhaul the system". A week later, he called for the resignation of all the bishops of France.
Apart from these violent manifestations, certainly in relation to painful experiences, the report's recommendations for the future are largely relevant, without excluding some isolated recommendations that are less relevant or rather impertinent in contrast to the specificity of the Church, such as, for example, abolishing the sacramental secrecy of confession or reconsidering the celibacy of priests.
The report indicates that most of the abuses took place between 1950 and 1970. When it comes to evaluating the causes and proposing recommendations, there is undoubtedly an anachronism in considering these past events with today's mentality and parameters, without considering the long road that the Church has made and society is trying to make to unmask these behaviors and the cultural and spatio-temporal coordinates that allow them. The report makes a detailed analysis for periods of 20 and 30 years, however, the global synthesis blurs the differences and could lead one to think that the average of this long period of 70 years of aggressions against minors constitutes the current average. Thus, it could be falsely concluded that currently 3 % of priests are abusers and that religious institutions are more dangerous to children than any other, when in fact the darkest period, with 56 % of assaults, was identified in the 1960s.
From an objective point of view, an overall assessment should have been made of the pederasty practices in France since 1950, and of the cultural parameters underlying them, in all the sectors linked to youth (national education, sports clubs, etc.) and not focusing only on the Church.) and not to focus solely on the Church, forgetting that in those years a certain intellectual elite in France defended these practices (suffice it to recall Jean-Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles et Fanny Deleuze, Francis Ponge, Philippe Sollers, Jack Lang, Bernard Kouchner, Louis Aragon, André Glucksmann, François Châtelet and many others).
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