"In experiencing the death of my father, a normal and profoundly good man, I have been able to reflect on the transcendence of the lives of so many people who may not be famous but who leave a deep furrow with their wisdom in establishing the priorities of their existence. As Stephen Covey's famous phrase says: the most important thing is that the most important thing is the most important thing. And it seems to me that this is especially true at the end of someone's life".
September 20, 2021-Reading time: 4minutes
This past July I was able to take my parents, aged 83 and 79 respectively, to the Jubilee in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It was a particularly beautiful day and my father, a Ferrol native who studied law in the city of the Apostle many years ago, was especially happy and was telling us about the places he had frequented in his distant youth. Weeks earlier he had published an article in Omnes on The Tomb of St. James the Greater, one of his most studied themes.
A little over a month later, a bad fall in the house where he was spending his vacations fractured his hip and, after 18 days of complications, he died in a hospital in the city where he was born. Fortunately, during the previous days he was able to say goodbye to his wife and children, with a peace and tranquility of conscience that are the greatest treasure in those decisive moments. Earlier, he had been able to receive the last sacraments from his son, a priest.
In the many conversations I had with him over the years that I was able to enjoy his company, because in addition to being my father I can say that he was my best friend, he knew how to transmit to me the priorities he had had throughout his life. A deeply believing man, for him the first thing was his dealings with God, immediately after his family and then his work, and then everything else. And I believe that this order of priorities allowed him to die with peace and serenity.
He was estranged from God in his youth, but he regained his faith after graduating from college and, since then, he has based his life on the rock of faith in Jesus Christ, God and Man, within the Catholic Church. Then he met my mother, a courageous woman of firm convictions, and that was decisive for his life and that of all his children. The fact that they both belonged to Opus Dei was a great help for his life and for the Christian education of his children, as my father gratefully acknowledged on his deathbed.
She did not lack difficulties and heartaches in life, such as the death of a son a few days after his birth or of another young daughter, mother of four children, due to cancer, or various illnesses of her own and of some of her seven children. Or work difficulties, which she also had. All of them he faced with fortitude and serenity, confident that God "squeezes but does not suffocate". and that, as St. Teresa of Avila used to say, "harshly God treats those he loves".
A civil servant in the public administration of the State, he was a great lover of the humanities, especially history. In his scarce free time he took advantage of his free time to read and enrich his library, which he was excited that his children and friends took advantage of. He knew how to transmit his love for reading to his children because he was convinced that it is something fundamental if one wants to achieve critical thinking and not be manipulated by the fashions of the moment.
A great lover of the classics, he liked to quote the "aurea mediocritas" Horatio as the ideal of his life, something like the life of the common man. A passionate movie buff, he greatly enjoyed the films of Frank Capra, who so well profiled that common American man, deeply honest, even naive, and profoundly human. In his youth he painted beautiful watercolors of Galician landscapes, a hobby inherited from his father, and won several painting prizes in Santiago, Madrid and Portugal.
Born at the end of the Spanish Civil War, he lived through the post-war period and was educated by his parents in austerity and the need to work and strive to get ahead. During the Franco regime, he was not a sympathizer of the regime, but like many of his generation, he was later bothered by some of the lies that were told about those years. The Transition aroused in him great hopes and some disappointments. At the end of his life he was aware that politics is difficult and warned about the unfulfilled promises of many politicians who promise simple solutions to complex problems.
Being a reserved man, he was very cordial and was appreciated by his bosses and co-workers, as well as by all the neighbors who attended his funeral in good numbers. A person of firm convictions, he knew how to dialogue and respect those who did not think like him, especially in the last years of his life. He did not tolerate fanatics of one sign or another.
There are many good and honest people who die every day without making noise, but who contribute infinitely more to the common good than other people who spend a few years in the limelight.
Santiago Leyra
I make this review of his life aware that very probably nothing worthy of being transferred to film or literature can be found in it. He was a normal man, with many virtues and some defects. He did not like to speak in public or to be the center of attention, because of his temperament. One of his main characteristics was his inability to lie.
And I am also aware that my father's life was not unique. I am convinced that there are many good and honest people who die every day without making any noise, but who contribute infinitely more to the common good than other people who spend a few years in the "candlestick" and who sometimes trade their soul for a stint in power or under the spotlight of the cameras.
With my father, a generation is leaving, and I believe that those of us who come after him have a lot to thank for. Ordinary people, who have tried to do their duty and bring their families forward. At a time when there is a certain pessimism about the present and the future, I wanted to highlight one of those good lives that manage to reach the goal of every honest man: to be loved by his loved ones and to be sent away with gratitude.
Ah, my father's name was Ángel María Leyra Faraldo.
Families and educators are faced with a complex ecosystem of screens in which, at times, the management of time, freedom and necessity seems difficult. The technologization of life is already a reality with which we coexist and before which, as in everything, the main thing is to "get our heads on straight".
In the first quarter of 2021 alone, the number of cell phones sold reached 354.9 million worldwide, and an estimated 70% of the world's population has a cell phone. According to data published by DitrendiaMore than half of the world's web traffic is done from mobile devices, and the average time of use already exceeds 3.5 hours. Adding up the hours, we spend more than a month and a half a year - 48 days - on our cell phones, whether for business, online shopping or leisure consumption through mobile devices.
Our world is a world of screens, and this does not mean that it is worse or better than the previous or future ones. It is what it is, and therefore, knowing and understanding this digital environment, as well as being aware that technology can be an ally and not an enemy in our daily lives, cannot be seen as a utopia but rather as a"a necessity". So thinks María Zalbidea, trend analyst and mother of 4 children who has become a reference in the field of what we could call "digital education".
For years, through his blog Bridging the digital divide, the book of the same title and collaborations with different entities, María helps families and educators to understand and manage the digital world in which we find ourselves and the behaviors derived from this reality that affect, to a great extent, family relationships.
With great clarity he explains to Omnes that "It is an exercise of parental responsibility to know what your children are doing on the Internet, what they like to see, share, what they vibrate with...from there you will have material to educate, chat with them and really connect with your children. If we do not understand that technology can be an ally instead of an intruder and an enemy, we will continue to turn our backs on the reality of the world in which our children live. That doesn't exclude that we have to be aware and work hard in families on the good that we can extract from the technology that has been installed in our homes and learn to use it to our benefit".
The technological pandemic
The first quarter of 2020 precipitated the digitization of many of our behaviors. The arrival of the pandemic, the confinement and the alteration of the work and social routines of millions of people meant that, during the first stage of the pandemic, the time spent using mobile applications grew by 30 % in China, in Italy by 11 % while in countries such as Chile or Spain the growth experienced was around 6 %.
It should be noted that, during these months, technology enabled and facilitated such important aspects as the continuity of work and study or online classes. It also served, on many occasions, to get to know and be aware of the technological habits of the people with whom we live.
To a certain extent, the almost obligatory coexistence with technology has cut distances in many families in which, on occasions, parents were almost overcome by the speed and volatility of digital advances and fashions, victims of what Zalbidea calls "the intergenerational digital divide", that as she points out "It exists and will always exist. But as parents we cannot throw in the towel and we must begin as soon as possible to sew it with stitches, with a basting stitch or with staples if necessary. Otherwise, we would miss a magnificent opportunity to educate our children. The digital transformation we are living makes everything go too fast, and today's parents are among the first generations to educate in a hyperconnected world, but it is an exciting adventure that we must take with enthusiasm. The secret is the same as always: time, dedication and love. With these ingredients we will be able to overcome this digital tsunami and even ride the wave".
Today, digital behaviors aimed at making our lives easier have become established, such as banking or online shopping in large businesses, but also in local environments; the cell phone is also emerging as the main leisure device, especially among young people. All these data show us a clear picture: we live in a technologized society. Habits have changed, tasks have been simplified and professions have been born that did not exist not just ten years ago, but five years ago. At the same time, as is natural, problems arise from the omnipresence of devices in our daily reality and at increasingly younger ages.
Family conflicts are frequent due to inappropriate use of technology, either because of excessive use of time or more worrying problems, such as addiction to online games, relationships with strangers, access to inappropriate content and overexposure of minors (and adults) or cyberbullying, which, according to data offered by GAD3 for EmpantalladosThe digital behavior of their children during confinement was at the forefront of parents' concerns.
In this sense, Zalbidea points out a key issue: if parents or educators do not have, and show, a healthy relationship with the digital world, the younger ones will not have it. "We talk too much about minors' use of technology and look too little at ourselves." notes this trend analyst. "I am increasingly convinced that, as parents and educators, we are the ones who determine the relationship we want to have with technology in our family. How you use the devices depends on how the little ones relate to them. Children observe us, they have to see that we try to have a certain self-control over the devices, that we also struggle to disconnect, that we understand technology as a complement in our lives, that we try to make good use of the media...".
Knowing your digital identity
Making a "digital census" of devices and drawing a "technological profile" of the family members are two of the recommendations that, as an expert in this field, María Zalbidea makes to parents when talking about a healthy digital life. For Zalbidea, "it is essential to collect data, and more data... We live in the era of big data and we all know that data is the oil of the 21st century. The more in our homes we need to know what's out there."
How many cell phones do each member of the family have, do I know my children's social network profiles, what information do I share about my family members and to whom, how many times a day do I look at my cell phone? All these data, put on paper, can be frightening, because, on many occasions, we are not even aware of our own relationship with technology... but it is essential to carry out this personal and family study to get to know our children or students better and better, with the purpose of "We are able to accompany them in this digital environment in which they grow up and to launch them to eat the world in analog and digital. Once we measure the technological temperature of our home we are able to draw a medium, short or long term plan that fits us and helps us".
You cannot educate with fear
At this point, another key question arises in this relationship: how can we overcome the fear that we may have of our children feeling watched and achieve the opposite of what we are looking for? "Dare".Zalbidea responds sharply, "spend time on that platform called Twicht that your teenager likes so much, ask him who Ibai Llanos is, what app he uses to make those cool videos he makes for his friends' birthdays... That will give you many clues and will bring you closer to your children.
But, above all, get rid of your fears. You cannot educate well with fear. Parents know much more about everything than they do: they can't beat us in terms of life experience, even if they know how to configure the devices better. They don't know so much, really, we have to manage not to lose authority in front of them making them see so many times how digital immigrants we feel. It is time to take a course, read a good book, listen to a podcast... There are many resources on the web that can help us to approach digital education as an accompaniment. We can't spend all day thinking that we have to watch what they do: it's more a matter of guiding and accompanying to connect with them and thus be able to protect them."
Leading by example
The concern of parents and educators is not in vain. In addition to the physical problems related to obesity or vision loss caused by overexposure to screens, there are no less worrying mental health problems: anxiety, stress, insomnia, harassment, eating disorders, cyberbullying and depression that are directly related to the constant presence on social networks.
The need for a healthy diet in the digital realm is just as important as in the physical realm. And the reality is that the "lack of head" in the network is not only the heritage of adolescents. Around 25 % of children have a presence on the Internet even before they are born, because their parents post images of ultrasound scans during pregnancy. This figure rises to more than 80 % of children from birth to 6 months of age. Not only photographs are shared and published, but also explanations of places, hobbies, games they like, meals and even "embarrassing" moments such as tantrums or baths are exhibited on the network. A clear situation of real digital insecurity to which we expose our children.
María Zalbidea is clear about this type of behavior: "It has never been more important to educate by example. We are the first ones who have to demonstrate that we are capable of caring for and managing our children's digital footprint, from the time they are very young, without subjecting them to excessive overexposure.
If we do not take care of our reflective attitude towards what we read and share on social networks, how can we expect a teenager to do it? If we are always looking at the updates on our smartphones, how are we going to ask them to have measure and responsible times of use?
However, if they see that we intend to take care of our digital well-being and that of our family members, it will help our children look forward to managing their relationship with technology in a responsible and healthy way.".
The initiative of German Claudia Langen aims to promote prayer for the bishops, and already has more than 2,000 people involved. This is what she explains in this interview for Omnes.
A year and a half ago, Claudia Langen - 53 years old, married with 21-year-old twins and living in Wachtberg near Bonn - launched an initiative to pray for the bishops: "prayer sponsors" already has more than 2,000 members. We spoke with Ms. Langen about this initiative.
- How did this initiative come about?
It began concretely with a conversation, within the framework of spiritual accompaniment, with the Auxiliary Bishop of Cologne Dominik Schwaderlapp; he told me that it would be good to pray more for the bishops, as he was concerned about internal divisions and the need for inner renewal in Germany. It was - a second, which I check in the diary - March 6, 2020.
On the way home I said to myself: the solution would be to find a "prayer sponsor" for each of the 69 bishops in Germany, including the ordinaries and auxiliaries. On the train I was thinking about the "locomotives" (the multipliers) that we have at our disposal in the initiative with which we distribute spiritual films in German cinemas (e.g., "The Prayer of the Bishops"). The last peak; Fatima: the last mystery; The greatest giftetc.). They are people from all over Germany, many of them with an intense prayer life. I immediately got on the phone.
- How long did it take you to find those 69 people?
In just a week and a half I got 69 people to commit to it. It was amazing! Then I asked myself the question of how to distribute them. If I had let everyone choose his or her "sponsor" I would never have finished. It occurred to me, and so I told Bishop Schwaderlapp, that we should draw lots: he had a box with the names of the sponsors on strips of paper and I had another box with the names of the bishops in the same way, and so we drew alternately the name of the sponsor and the name of the corresponding bishop. On March 17, 2020 we had the first round of prayer sponsorships.
- But they didn't stop there...
Indeed, many of these people told me that they had a relative or friend who would also like to sponsor a bishop. So I said to Bishop Schwaderlapp: "What do we do? I don't want to stop anyone from praying. His answer: "Start with a second round". We made it better known, for example through the Catholic news agency KNA. So, in one day I received 160 e-mails.
Also the Catholic weekly Die Tagespost published a text online and a paper article, which got a lot of people writing in. We gave interviews to Aid to the Church in Need and television EWTN; Radio Horeb discussed the matter on several occasions. It happened at the right time: due to the closure of the cinemas because of the pandemic, I had more time to devote to it.
- How many people are now participating in the initiative?
We are on round number 33; specifically - wait a minute, I'm opening the Excel table - we have 2,275 people.
- What do you say when you propose to someone to be a prayer sponsor for a bishop?
Now I no longer call anyone; on the contrary, they call me. But at the beginning I simply told them that the bishops have a lot of responsibility and even more so now, in difficult times, that it would be very nice if they would pray for them.
- What do you mean by difficult times?
In the year and a half that I have been involved in the initiative, I have seen that many people have become more critical, more skeptical. At the beginning of the pandemic, churches were closed, no Masses were celebrated... This has hurt people a lot, but it has given rise to many conversations about faith and the Church.
- Apart from the Catholic media, does the initiative reach out to new circles of people?
It is very difficult to reach other media, beyond Catholics. Actually, I didn't want to leave a personal level, but when the circle widened, we started to print some brochures and we also launched a web page of the initiative (https://betenfuerbischoefe.de), for which we founded an association called Glaube versetzt Berge (Faith moves mountains). We have distributed more than 36,000 brochures throughout Germany, mainly through sponsors, from person to person. For me, the most important thing is that it is done on a voluntary basis and that there is joy in prayer. The range of sponsors is very wide: the youngest sponsor is 11 years old - before I appointed her, I spoke to her grandmother to ask her permission - and the oldest is 96.
Among them are many young people. For example, Lukas Klimke, who was part of the first round and who will enter the priestly seminary in Paderborn next week. There are many religious sisters and some 80 to 100 priests. Moreover, the initiative is becoming more international: not only Germans are praying; people from Mexico and Brazil have joined us, through a Spanish community in Freiburg; but there are also sponsors from England, France, Spain... In some cases they are Germans living abroad; in others, people from these countries, who pray for the German bishops. The most exotic cases are those of a person living in Tokyo and another in China, who learned about the initiative from the article in Die Tagespost.
- Does the initiative extend to other countries?
After an interview I had with Claudia Kaminski on K-TV in January, Anna Reindl wrote to me from Austria to launch the same initiative there; since March 25 there has been an initiative "prayer sponsors" to pray for the Austrian bishops. And there are already more than a thousand people. This is a gift from heaven; you can't do it on your own.
All this has come from the hand of God: that through the Vicar General of Cologne, Markus Hofmann, I began to have a devotion to Our Lady that I did not have before - now I organize with him the pilgrimages of the Diocese of Cologne to Fatima, to which the film of Andrés Garrigó about Fatima has also contributed -, that later I continued the spiritual direction with Bishop Schwaderlapp....
- How do you maintain contact with what we could call the sponsorship network?
We send each of these people an informational email, every six to eight weeks, to keep the "prayer family" going. In the spring, shortly before the Assembly of the Bishops' Conference, we organized a livestream from the parish here in Wachtberg (near Bonn), which one of my sons took care of. It was the first time that more than 300 prayer sponsors had come together, at least virtually. On June 5, the feast of St. Boniface, we had a Holy Mass at the Marian shrine in Kevelaer, which was broadcast on the radio. Radio Horeb y EWTN.
On September 20, a new Assembly of the Episcopal Conference will begin. At that time I will be with my family on vacation, but we will travel to Gräfelfing, in Bavaria, where, together with some priests of the Emmanuel community, we will organize an evening of prayer for the bishops on Friday, September 17. We have already prepared a livestream and will probably delay it as well EWTN. We will not stop praying for the bishops, even if we reach ten thousand sponsors.
Torreciudad dresses the Virgin with flowers on Family Day
More than 15,000 white carnations offered by families and individuals have adorned the presbytery of the Shrine of Torreciudad, which today celebrated the Day of Families.
The Sanctuary of Torreciudad celebrated today its traditional Family Day, with both in-person and distance participation. The day began at 12:00 noon with the celebration of the solemn Holy Mass, officiated by the rector of the sanctuary, Angel Lasheras. In his homily he asked to live in close union with Pope Francis, praying for him and his intentions, and commented on a phrase pronounced by the Holy Father at the opening of the Year dedicated to the Family, which he convoked last March: "Let us support the family, let us defend it from everything that compromises its beauty. Let us approach this mystery of love with wonder, discretion and tenderness".
In the afternoon, the faithful prayed the Rosary through the arcades of the esplanade, accompanying the pilgrim image of the Virgin of Torreciudad. The day concluded with the Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament from the outdoor altar. The largest groups of participants came from Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia, Huesca, Burgos, Granada, Santander and San Sebastian, in a trip organized by parishes and several educational centers.
A blanket of carnations
A group of young volunteers has been working all the day before to place the flowers on the steps of the presbytery of the temple, under the image of the Virgin of Torreciudad to form a mantle of 15,000 white carnations offered by families from all the autonomous communities of Spain and 23 other countries: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Philippines, Guatemala, Honduras, England, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico and Switzerland.
Where is the concept of nature that we use, for example, when we speak of natural law, natural food or natural theology? Why does the Church speak of ecology? How are nature and the finality of things related? These are some of the elements addressed in this article.
Emilio Chuvieco and Lorenzo Gallo-September 18, 2021-Reading time: 7minutes
A few years ago, while searching for information on the internet, I came across a website called ecosophywhere they provided information on topics related to philosophy and the environment. I was struck by some of the answers that appeared there about what the followers of the site understood by nature. I transcribe two of them: "Nature is everything that man did not create with his own hands, that is: air, water, earth, animals, plants and others"; "Nature is everything we have around us except what man has made, of course".
It seems that these people, undoubtedly interested in the conservation of nature, understand nature as an external entity, alien to human beings. Now, if human beings are not part of nature, what are they part of? On the other hand, in this approach, the concept of nature is reduced to the biophysical elements that form the environment that surrounds us. Where is the concept of nature that we use, for example, when we speak of natural law, natural food or natural theology?
It can be seen that the word nature can be applied with very different meanings, which may seem equivocal, but which have a unity if we think about things more deeply. Following Greek thought, nature would be that which constitutes something as such: canine nature explains what a dog is and does, just as arboreal nature allows us to understand and differentiate a tree from other plants or inanimate beings. Nature is the environment, no doubt, with all its components: humans, animals, plants, soil, climate, etc., but it is also what makes one environment different from another. To conserve nature is to conserve the intrinsic characteristics of that environment, what makes it a wetland, a beech forest or a grassy meadow, in the face of the transformation that human beings might introduce (we must not forget that non-human beings also introduce changes in ecosystems, which are by definition dynamic).
Thus, to conserve nature is to conserve what things are, and this applies to landscapes, but also to animals, plants and, why not, to human beings. Hence it is reasonable to speak of a human ecology, which would lead us to seek a vital balance with the deepest characteristics of our constitution.
For several decades, different authors -in their eagerness to deconstruct any classical concept- have denied the existence of a human nature, understood as the set of universal values that affect all human beings. In line with this approach, the only thing left to do is to embrace moral relativism, in which each person defends his or her own values without claiming to extend them to others. In practice, this relativism makes it extremely difficult to establish universally valid moral principles and, therefore, to establish any declaration of human rights that would guarantee equal dignity for any person, regardless of the place and time in which he or she lives.
Thus, to conserve nature is to conserve what things are, and this applies to landscapes, but also to animals, plants and, why not, to human beings. It is therefore reasonable to speak of a human ecology.
Emilio Chuvieco and Lorenzo Gallo
In our opinion, nature conservation, increasingly linked to the concept of integral development, should also be linked to a revaluation of nature as an objective criterion of moral sanction.
Following the ethical approach proposed by Aldo Leopold, one of the pioneers of conservationism: "Something is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends to something else" (An Ethics of the Earth, 1946). Following this idea, we could affirm that something is morally right when it is natural, when it follows what corresponds to the nature of a "biotic community". If we apply this to human beings, we could use this "ecological" criterion to qualify something as morally good if it is natural to human beings. Of course, identifying the moral with the natural requires us to agree on what the concept of "natural" means in depth and then how it applies to human nature.
Meanings of "natural"
We use the word natural in several contexts that do not, in our opinion, have a univocal moral sanction. On the one hand, we use natural as a synonym for normal, for what is usually done. Of course, someone who does unusual or even anomalous things, such as dyeing his hair green, need not be committing immorality.
Nor does it seem morally reprehensible when we qualify as natural a behavior that occurs spontaneously in certain people. It is natural for an autistic person to speak little and that does not make him a worse person. Nor does it imply the opposite: that all spontaneous behavior is morally good. A thief can have such an ingrained bad habit that leads him to do it spontaneously, and that does not make him a better individual.
Thirdly, we can qualify as natural something that is produced without human intervention. In this sense, neither can we assign a moral qualification to this naturalness, or to this lack of naturalness in the case of artificial actions, since there are human interventions that are very good, even if they are not natural, such as operating on a sick person or building a house. Finally, when we use the word natural to refer to phenomena that occur following the laws of nature, we should not qualify them morally either. An earthquake or a volcanic eruption are not in themselves bad or good, although sometimes they have effects that can be qualified as such.
We have left to the end what we consider to be the core of this reflection. What qualifies that something natural is good in itself is not because of any of the four meanings indicated above (the normal, the spontaneous, the non-artificial or that produced by the environment), but because it corresponds to the nature of that being, mainly of the human being. In this sense, and extending Leopold's previous quote, something would be good when it is proper to human nature and it would be bad when it goes against it. In short, something that goes against our nature would be unnatural, and therefore morally reprehensible. This principle has been present in classical culture, as can be seen in Antigone's voluntary surrender to Creon's unjust law or in the writings of Cicero, and continued with Christianity until the rupture brought about by empiricism and the Enlightenment, where alternative sources of morality were proposed, which have ended up being empty proposals of concrete content, and have given way to the ethics of agreement (what we agree to be moral is moral) or legal positivism (what the law says is moral is moral).
What qualifies that something natural is good in itself is the fact that it corresponds to the nature of that being, mainly of the human being.
Emilio Chuvieco and Lorenzo Gallo
The Catholic Church continues to consider that naturalness, understood in the deepest sense of the term, is a valid moral principle, as stated in the latest edition of the Catechism: "To respect the laws inscribed in Creation and the relationships that flow from the nature of things is, therefore, a principle of wisdom and a foundation of morality" (Compendium, n. 64). It can be applied to many morally controversial issues, such as, for example, abortion, euthanasia or birth control. After all, what differentiates natural regulation from contraception, for example? Basically, one is natural (it respects the natural cycles of female fertility) and the other is not (it prevents them, in fact), and hence the former is morally admitted by the Church and the latter is not (here we are talking about the object itself, not the intention of the agent, which can make a good act morally inadequate, but never the other way around).
Does this mean that any human intervention (therefore, not natural) is morally reprehensible? No, it will only be so when it is properly unnatural, or in other words, when it contravenes the deepest sense of our nature. To operate on an eye to restore a patient's sight or to perform kidney dialysis is unnatural, but it is aimed at recovering a natural function that has been lost or weakened (therefore, it is not unnatural). For their part, medical interventions linked to contraception are the only ones that are performed to repress what is functioning properly, contravening its natural course: it seems obvious to remember that being pregnant or fertile is not a disease. In the same vein, it is one thing to intervene to prevent pain in a chronically ill person and another to eliminate him or her.
These reflections also seek to connect natural ecology with human ecology, of which recent popes have spoken, which involves applying to our nature the profound respect that is also due to the environment. Benedict XVI underlined this approach in Caritas in VeritateWhen "human ecology" is respected in society, environmental ecology also benefits (...) If the right to life and natural death is not respected, if conception, gestation and birth of man are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed for research, the common conscience ends up losing the concept of human ecology and thus of environmental ecology.
It is a contradiction to ask the new generations to respect the natural environment when education and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible, both with regard to life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations, in a word, integral human development" (n. 51). Pope Francis has also recalled the need to approach ecology from an integral perspective, which affects not only the environment but also people, including their moral sphere: "Human ecology also implies something very profound: the necessary relationship of the life of human beings with the moral law written in their own nature, which is necessary in order to create a more dignified environment" (n. 155).
It is a contradiction to ask the new generations to respect the natural environment, when education and laws do not help them to respect themselves.
Emilio Chuvieco and Lorenzo Gallo
Finally, why should we consider the natural as a moral category? Precisely because it is what is most genuine to the person, what defines him most intimately and, consequently, what guarantees the attainment of his own perfection.
If we are believers, because human nature has been willed by God: it is not up to us to "improve" it (as transhumanists pretend); if we are evolutionists (believers or not) because it is the most advanced state of natural development, and it would be very pretentious on our part to alter it. In both cases, an additional reason would be that the natural has no negative side effects, precisely because it is in perfect balance with what we are.
We are well aware that maneuvering against nature always has negative consequences. It does in environmental ecology (deforesting a forest in the headwaters of a river will lead to flooding downstream), and also in human ecology (the decline of the family is a consequence, in large part, of the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s). Conserving nature, therefore, not only involves conserving ecosystems so that they continue to function stably, but also conserving our own nature, avoiding those actions that deteriorate it, seeking a balance between the three dimensions that compose it: animal, social, rational-spiritual.
Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic for palliative care.
Every year in Europe more than four million people need palliative care, but soon there will be five million, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Rafael Miner-September 18, 2021-Reading time: 7minutes
The Covid-19 pandemic and its variants have forced us to take a fresh look at death and all that surrounds it. A reflection is needed to draw positive consequences from the experience. And in addition to health institutions, professionals, nurses and caregivers, academic experts are already doing so.
For example, the physician and priest Pablo Requenaa Vatican delegate to the World Medical Association, member of the Ethics Committee of the Bambino Gesú Pediatric Hospital in Rome, and professor at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome, has just written a 140-page book titled The good deathwith the suggestive subtitle Human dignity, palliative care and euthanasia.
The book will be reviewed in the October issue of Omnes magazine, but we can already glean some ideas that serve the purpose of these lines. Pablo Requena says: "In many of the current debates, euthanasia and palliative care are pitted against each other. Is this confrontation appropriate, and could euthanasia or assisted suicide not be considered a last instrument in the arsenal of palliative care? The following pages attempt to explain why the answer to this last question is in the negative. Euthanasia should not be part of medicine because it goes against its purpose, its methods and its practice".
Palliative care is notoriously supported by the Holy See, being considered as a comprehensive care of patients with intense suffering in a serious illness, in an interdisciplinary way, in order to maintain their well-being and quality of life. This was reflected in the White Book for Global Palliative Care Advocacy, White Paper in which experts from all over the world, convened by the Pontifical Academy of Life, and coordinated by the Atlantes research team of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS)of the University of Navarra, studied formulas to promote palliative care.
Requena refers in the book to pioneers of palliative care, such as Jeanne Garnier, a young woman from Lyon who in 1835 lost her husband and two small children, and who, on the verge of despair, her strong anchoring in faith helped her to move forward, to the point of starting a welfare work for the dying abandoned by society. Thus was born the Association of the Ladies of Calvary (1842).
The author also mentions Rose Hawthorne Lathtrop, Florence Nightingale, and of course Elisabeth Kübler Ross, "a Swiss physician who did much of her work in the United States, and who is best known for her book On death and the dying (1969), in which he recounts the experience of many years and thousands of hours spent at the bedside of the sick, many of them dying".
Pablo Requena also mentions arguments of Dr. Marcos Gómez, who has dedicated his long professional life to palliative careThe company, which presented at the end of July, together with the President of the Spanish Medical Council, Dr. Tomás Cobo Castro, aPalliative Sedation Guide 2021The event was held at the Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Médicos (General Council of Medical Associations), prepared together with the Spanish Society of Palliative Care (Secpal).
The book also stresses, in case there was any doubt, that "The World Health Organization explains that 'palliative care improves the quality of life for patients and families coping with life-threatening illness by mitigating pain and other symptoms, and by providing spiritual and psychological support from the time of diagnosis to the end of life and during bereavement' (WHO 2020)."
In Europe, in America...
Pablo Requena's reflections and arguments help to contextualize the growing demand for palliative care, and Secpal's analysis. Europa tThe number of patients to be cared for by 2030 will be almost 5 million. with severe suffering and serious illness, compared to the current 4.4 million, while 65 % of the population still does not have access to palliative care. Thirty-eight percent will have oncological diseases, cancer; 33 percent, cardiovascular; 16 percent, variants of dementias; 6 percent, chronic; and 7 percent, others.
In Latin America, seventeen Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, with 630 million people, have 1,562 palliative care teams, a ratio of 2.6 per million inhabitants. Progress is being made, but not enough, because it is estimated that only 7.6 % of people in need of palliative care in Latin America receive it, although there are already five countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico and Peru) that have a palliative care law, which Spain, for example, does not have.
Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, data are provided for the Americas, because the American continent, out of a world total of 225.2 million infections, leads the number of confirmed cases (86.6 million), ahead of Europe (65.4 million) and Asia (64.8 million). In addition, out of a total of 4.6 million deaths up to September 12, America exceeds 2.1 million, Europe 1.2 million, Asia 1 million, Africa 202,911, and Oceania 2,582.
By country, the United States leads the list of deaths (674,639), followed by Brazil (589,277), India (442,238), Mexico (266,150), Peru (198,621), etc. Spain officially recorded 85,237 deaths on that date. In summary, of the five countries with the most deaths, four are American.
Need for specialized care
With these data, it seems logical that some organizations and institutions have begun to draw some preliminary conclusions, even lessons, learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, with implications for the treatment of patients in the face of future pandemics, and what remains of this one and its variants. Two of the most painful issues on which the experts have focused are specialized care to alleviate intense suffering, and the loneliness of the sick.
Some conclusions formulated by the Spanish Society of Palliative Care, chaired by Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva, at the 71st Meeting of the European Regional Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO), which took place from September 13 to 15, are the following:
1) "The needs for palliative care in Europe are increasing rapidly," and the health crisis "has made the imperative for its integration into health systems more urgent than ever."
2) "Pandemic preparedness should include the provision of integrated palliative care services for both those affected and non-Covid patients, including the chronically ill elderly."
3) "Basic palliative care focused from Primary Care can alleviate a significant symptom burden," but the system "needs resources."
On the other hand, Secpal demands that "all health professionals be trained to respond to patients with palliative care needs. This education should be at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Currently, only 9 out of 51 European countries have palliative care as a compulsory subject in medical schools, and just over half of the countries provide official accreditation. Spain is one of these countries in which the lack of official accreditation in palliative care The lack of access to this care increases the barriers to access to care.
The society of palliative physicians also calls for "all essential controlled medications for symptom management, including pain and psychological distress, in particular, opioid analgesics to relieve pain and shortness of breath and benzodiazepines for sedation (Covid) to be available, accessible and affordable."
Palliative specialists denounce that "some European countries have experienced shortages and stock-outs of controlled drugs (opioids and benzodiazepines) used in Covid and palliative care." In prepandemia, for example, "25 % of European countries reported that immediate-release oral morphine was not available, and some countries have no oral morphine at all. Kazakhstan has reported having only injectable morphine and fentanyl."
Training and preparation
The training of healthcare professionals is one of the most important aspects. In this regard, Secpal points out that "thirteen European countries have recognized the specialty of Palliative Care, while in Spain there is no specific formal training to ensure that patients and their families will be cared for by the most qualified professionals to respond "to the changing, critical and complex situations generated by the process of advanced disease or end of life".
It also adds that "the Spanish Society of Palliative Care defends that the Specific Training Area (ACE) and the Advanced Accreditation Diploma (DAA) are "compatible, complementary and necessary" formulas to create an effective care structure that ensures the population "the best possible quality of life until the end"..
"One of the structural reasons for this precariousness in access to palliative care in Spain, although not the only one, is the lack of recognition of a specialty or super-specialty in the field of knowledge of palliative care, which is the most characteristic of the palliative care field. care and should meet the needs of the patient wherever he or she is, whether at home, in a hospital or in a residential center," explains Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva, president of Secpal. He therefore argues that "the ability to offer a structured response to human suffering related to the dying process "should be present at all levels of healthcare: primary and hospital care and emergency services."
The same organization and the Spanish Association of Palliative Care Nurses (Aecpal), issued in unison a press release in which they demanded that people be accompanied so that they would not die alone.
As an approximation to what happened during the pandemic, the Aecpal Research Group has published in the journal Palliative Medicine a study which, based on the experience of 335 nursing professionals from all over the country, shows that 49.8 % of Covid 19 patients in the last days of life that they attended during the months of April and May were unable to say goodbye to their loved ones. Only in 6.8 % of cases did this farewell take place at the time of death.
These and other data show, according to the same sources, that, despite the existence of accompaniment protocols and the great effort made by healthcare professionals to humanize care, even to the point of giving their lives, "loneliness has been very present in patients in the last days of life, which entails a significant emotional cost for the bereaved families, as well as for the professionals themselves".
And they add that "this reality continues to occur, has increased to unbearable limits the suffering of patients and their loved ones, and can in no case be considered as dying with dignity".
The painful events of the past few weeks show that weakness is always present in our Church, both in the person who errs and in those who turn this very weakness into a reason for attack and public humiliation.
September 18, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
Several weeks have already passed since the painful news of the resignation of the incumbent of Solsona, for strange reasons to say the least, which has shaken the general and religious newsrooms in Spain.
For most of the world, even within the Church, Solsona was one of those dioceses that you have to look for on the map. An ancient and historic see for many forgotten that has starred, and still at this point remains in the limelight, covers, gatherings and opinions around the world.
If this story has revealed some things, it is how weakness can always be present in our Church and how, for many and especially within this Church, instead of being a reason for personal and community examination, the fact becomes a weapon and a reason for attack, scorn and public humiliation.
Evidently, this fact, or at least what we know about it, has been a scandal in its true meaning: because of the characteristics, the connotations or the lack of knowledge... but no less scandalous is the morbidity, the sacristy gossip and the "blood" that is being made with this case and its protagonists, especially in the "religious" media.
That there are those who, from outside the Church, take this type of matter to attack or mock the faith is normal, we could say that it comes almost as a matter of course. But that those of us who confess to be Catholics, and every Sunday we beat our chest proclaiming our guilt, have launched ourselves, within hours, to the jugular, judging intentions, hearts and lives of others, without showing a minimum of charity or supernatural sense, that really feeds the scandal.
I read, in the account of Twitter of a well-known communicator, how the reaction of certain media considered to be of religious information to this case had led him to think of the evangelical passage of the adulterous woman. I agree with him. With the circumstantial difference that, nowadays, we have exchanged stones for keyboards and cameras. As this same journalist maintained, especially in religious media, information on issues that directly affect people must be based on an exquisite respect for the person with charity.
The history of the Church is written with the ink of sinners and saints, or rather, with the ink of saints who know they are sinners and sinners who can become saints.
In the face of the miseries of one or the other, the strongest and most effective word we can say or write is prayer, which, because of the communion of saints, is not lost even in the most extreme cases... even if the liver wants to throw the keyboard at the other person.
Director of Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.
Engaged couples and Catholics. The challenge of example and formation
Schools for engaged couples, courses, testimonies... accompanying couples in the time leading up to marriage is one of the spearheads of family pastoral care today.
"Friends, let's not trivialize love, because love is not just emotion and feeling, this in any case is at the beginning. Love is not having it everything and fastdoes not respond to the logic of the disposable. Love is fidelity, gift, responsibility". This is how Pope Francis addressed the young people in the meeting with them that he kept on his trip to Slovakia.
Growing together in a Christian engagement is a challenge for those who are on this path and also for the pastoral care of the family which, on many occasions, has tiptoed over these moments, limiting itself, in the best of cases, to the pre-marriage course. However, in recent years, there have been many and increasingly varied projects of schools for engaged couples, or groups of engaged couples who, bearing in mind the reality of today's world, accompany couples during the time of engagement.
The impetus of Amoris Letitia
The publication of Amoris Laetitia was a further step in the updating of family pastoral care in the Catholic Church. The apostolic exhortation dedicates several paragraphs to the time of courtship and encourages, especially in the pastoral care of this stage. Not in vain, it points out that "all pastoral actions aimed at helping married couples to grow in love and to live the Gospel in the family are an invaluable help for their children to prepare themselves for their future married life and points out that "premarital and marriage pastoral care should be above all a pastoral care of the bond, where elements are contributed that help both to mature love and to overcome difficult moments. These contributions are not only doctrinal convictions, nor can they be reduced to the precious spiritual resources that the Church always offers, but must also be practical ways, well-incarnated advice, tactics taken from experience, psychological orientations".
Amoris Laetitia together with the Itinerary of formation and accompaniment of engaged couples "Together on the Road, + Q2 " published by the Spanish Episcopal Conference have been a starting point or reinforcement of this line of pastoral accompaniment.
At present we find examples such as the bride and groom groups in the diocese of Vitoria, Road to Cana in the Diocese of Cordoba or the various experiences addressed to engaged couples of the family delegation of the Archdiocese of Madrid.
All of them agree on one point: it is a path of accompaniment for the time of engagement without necessarily approaching the wedding date. It is a time of affective maturation, human formation, dialogue and reflection with the objective of affirming the basis of the future marriage and providing spiritual support tools to live one's own vocation as a married couple.
Bride and Groom 3.0
Social networks have become one of the main means used in formation for young people. Accounts such as Catholic Bride and Groom offer reflections, formation, prayers and testimonies of engaged couples who live this time in a Christian way on networks such as Youtube or Instagram.
In addition to these, there are personal accounts of young people or engaged couples who naturally offer their testimony of Christian life in courtship. Among them we find that of Ana Bini Sesé, from Barcelona. @princespequitas or Teresa García Ledesma from Seville. @teregl99 who share moments of their lives and answer with simplicity the doubts of engaged couples like them.
France, mission land? The impact of a proposal (1943)
In the midst of World War II and with France occupied, two chaplains of the Young Catholic Workers, with the encouragement of Cardinal Suhard, led many to reflect on the evangelization of the slums.
In World War I, French seminarians were forced into military service and so, at a stroke, they learned about the reality outside the parishes. The older fellow soldiers were still Christians, but most of their age group knew nothing. The next generation would necessarily be pagan, especially in the proletarian slums, which were full of uprooted people and, in general, with a strong distrust of the bourgeoisie and the Church.
French Catholicism promoted and supported large missions in the 18th and 19th centuries in many African and Asian countries (Vietnam, Cambodia) with the Société des Missions ÉtrangeresThe French protectorate over the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire was established by Francis I, and the secular republic continued.
It was clear that there was also a need for missionary work in France. Immediately, the association was extended Young Catholic Workers (JOC, 1923) and its female branch (JOCF, 1924), founded in Belgium by Joseph Cardijn two years earlier (1921). It was a specialized apostolate to gather groups of young workers and form them, to which some chosen priests dedicated themselves.
Cardinal Suhard, Archbishop of Paris (1935-1949) will join this evangelization effort with the Mission of France (1941) and the Paris Mission (1943), and the book France, mission land? (1943), of two YCW chaplains.
Cardinal Suhard
Emmanuel Suhard (1874-1949) is a leading figure of 20th century French Catholicism. Of very humble origins, he stood out for his abilities. He was formed in Rome, having as a companion the future Pius XII (and getting better grades). After many years of teaching at the seminary of Laval (1899-1928) and having refused once, he was made bishop of the small town of Bayeux and Lisieux (1928), then of Reims (1930) and cardinal (1935). Perhaps he was influenced by the fact that he was opposed to the melange of politics and Catholicism of L'Action FrançaiseThe "Catholic Church," which had been condemned by Pius XI in 1926 to the scandal of many traditional Catholics and many bishops.
On May 9, 1940 Cardinal Verdier of Paris died, and on the 10th the Germans invaded France. The Holy See immediately appointed Suhard Archbishop of Paris. A bad start. At first, they arrested him and requisitioned the archbishop's palace. Soon he would be released, it was a warning. Suhard had condemned the Nazi regime before, like Verdier himself. And throughout the period of occupation, he held his place with dignity and protested energetically against abuses. He also had to live with and distance himself from the Pétain regime, to which many Catholics and more traditional bishops had adhered, seeking relief from so many contradictions.
Far from being blocked, he thought that the real solution to so many ills was evangelization. It was more urgent than ever in France, with so many wounds from the revolutionary past, so many devastated dioceses, so many sectors alienated or opposed to the faith. And now humiliated by defeat and occupation. On July 24, 1941, he convoked the assembly of cardinals and archbishops, and presented to them the project of the Mission of France, The seminary was to serve both to distribute the clergy between the dioceses that had the most and those that had the least, and to reach those that had not been reached or had been lost. A seminary was set up in Lisieux and was begun, to this day.
In addition, there was his immense diocese, Paris. On the afternoon of Easter Monday 1943, his secretary passed him a paper of some fifty pages. It was a well-documented report by two YCW chaplains, Henri Godin and Yvan Daniel, on how to evangelize the popular and working class sector. He read it in the evening. He called them, asked them to prepare it for publication. And, directly, he launched the Paris Mission (July 1, 1943), aimed at evangelizing the working class neighborhoods. He looked for priests and lay people, and dedicated some temples, which ceased to be parishes.
The authors and the book
Henri Godin (1906-1944) provided the ideas, an agile style, and many testimonies that make for powerful reading. Yvan Daniel (1906-1986) is said to have taken care of the data and sociological analysis.
Godin did not want to take any position in the new Mission, because he preferred to remain in grassroots work. He looked for other candidates. He died a few months later (January 16, 1944) in a domestic accident: during the night a stove burned his mattress and the fumes intoxicated him. The massive attendance at his funeral testified to the stupendous work he had done in the working class milieus. Yvan Daniel remained at the Paris Mission and published several essays and memoirs.
The book was published on November 11, 1943, and 140,000 copies were sold up to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. It impressed John XXIII (nuncio in France from 1944 to 1953) and John Paul II, who, while studying in Rome, traveled to Paris to learn about this apostolate. The book bore a preface by Guerin, General Consiliary of the YCW in France and at that time arrested by the Gestapo. It has been republished by the editions Karthala (Paris 2014), with an extensive preface by Jean Pierre Guérend, biographer of Cardinal Suhard, and other additions. This is the edition we are quoting.
General approach
They begin by distinguishing three types of populations:
-traditional ones where faith regulates culture and life, even if it does not penetrate much or convert personal behavior;
-de-Christianized areas, with low practice and a Christianity of great occasions (feasts, weddings and funerals); although it may seem little, it is very different from paganism;
-pagan areas, such as some deeply de-Christianized rural areas and, above all, the proletariat, the new uprooted urban class, formed since the mid-19th century in the large industrial cities.
Increasing secularization had caused the most practicing Christians to concentrate in the parishes and separate themselves from the rest: Christian schools, Christian meetings and Christian relationships. But the atmosphere of a normal parish in Paris, with a middle-class tone, is neither attractive nor comfortable for workers, with a different language and customs. Nor was it possible to mix the young people of these parishes with young people of another extraction, with another language and other customs. Parents protested. The authors multiply the examples of initiatives that have only succeeded in extracting some people and families from the working class milieu and integrating them with difficulty into the existing parishes. But in this way they have ceased to belong to their milieu and can no longer be a leaven for this uprooted "mass". But the poor are the Lord's favorites and must be evangelized. How can this be achieved?
It is necessary to think about what a Christian mission is, and what it can be when it is done in these neighborhoods.
The mission
A mission "It is the renewal of Christ's gesture of becoming incarnate and coming to earth to save us. It is the proclamation of the Good News to those who do not know it." (p. 90). "The true missionary is going to build a Church. He is not going to increase the Christian community to which he belonged, he is not going to create a branch." (p. 93).
It is necessary to remember a sociological and ecclesial fact: although conversion is individual, the mission is aimed at creating and establishing "churches", communities, which Christians need in order to breathe as Christians, because the human being (and the Christian) is profoundly social.
"The ultimate end of a mission can only be the re-Christianization of the masses: environments [milieux] and individuals. The mass of individuals thanks to the influence of the environment, the environment thanks to a few elite individuals with the help of all kinds of institutions" (p. 244).
"The first thing is the direct preaching of the Gospel. This is proper to a Christian priest [...]. The second means is personal influence. In the priest it is called addressin the educator, educationin the partner, influence" (p. 245).
"We think that a large part of the elite of the proletariat, with the grace that comes upon them, can be won by preaching, the same as in St. Paul's time. People raise religious problems and although they reproach the Church for many things, they want to know 'what the priests think'" (p. 250). But "a priest who leads two hundred people is terribly overburdened." (p. 245).
Creation of Christian communities
It is necessary to form a small Christian community, because it sustains the faith and, by its very presence, raises the religious question for others. "We allow ourselves to insist on this point of the founding of Christian communities in all natural communities because it seems to us that this is the key to the whole problem of urban missions. It seems to us proven that 80 % of the townspeople can only practice the Gospel in and through these communities. They cannot even live a human life if it is not in community." (p. 253). And they cite in their support Gustave Thibon (Retour au réel, 1943).
Precisely, one of the major causes of de-Christianization was the massive dis-rooting of people from their rural communities of origin, motivated by the crisis of traditional peasant society and the development of urban industrialization. At the same time, they have lost their insertion in society and in the Church. They need to be helped to create communities. Many have already created communities of neighbors, of jobs, of hobbies. It is a matter of reaching out to them. These communities are also the field of development and natural influence of Christians, who thus do not leave their milieu. This must be accompanied by an indispensable work of Christian public opinion in this milieu.
With the standards of other missions
It is good to remember how other peoples have been evangelized. Inspired by what Pius XI said to the missionaries, they insist that it is a matter of transmitting the Gospel and nothing more: "We must not demand as a condition of their incorporation into Christianity that the pagans become Europeanized, we must not ask more of them than they are able to give. It is necessary to be patient and to know how to start again as many times as necessary." (p. 159). Sometimes, it will be necessary to wait until a second or third generation. Slum environments are no easier to convert than older villages.
In addition, "The man of our time is sick, sick to the core of his nature. To pretend that first it is necessary to heal them in order to then converting them to Christianity seems to us a somewhat semi-Pelagian method. They will not be healed (at least the average man) except by Christianity, and being healed will allow Christianity to develop all its effects." (pp. 175-176). "We insist that this Christianity of our converts is not always complete. It is still too human, too impregnated with the enthusiasm of the beginning. It still recognizes, however, the evidence of the action of grace. It is not a Christianity of a faithful, it is a Christianity of a catechumen, a marvelous grain that promises a harvest, but it is only a grain." (p. 176).
Conclusion
In the conclusion, they criticize unnatural individualism and the predominance of money in modern life. But you can't wait to evangelize to get things right. The early Christians also evangelized slaves.
"We have no illusions. The ultimate goal is not to convert the proletariat, but to suppress it, but this is the task of the whole City. We are not only trying to bring the masses to Christ, but to make them cease to be informational masses." (268).
And then?
This mission awakened a wave of authentically Christian generosity, especially in many priests and young people. Many priests went with the French deportees to the forced labor camps in Germany to accompany them. Others formed communities in the working-class neighborhoods.
The intense influence of communism, since the late forties, with its crazy mysticism, its propaganda and its shameless manipulation of institutions, disoriented many Christian aspirations, diverting them towards purely political and revolutionary options. As a symbol, in 1969, the YCW took a turn towards the class struggle, incorporating Che Guevara and Mao as models. This distorted and diverted everything.
All that remains is the sacrificial testimony of so many who did good. And, after the communist hurricane, the same healthy inspirations of the beginning. The proletariat, as the authors wished, has disappeared with progress (and not with communism), although marginalization remains. Evangelization is more necessary today than yesterday, but not for the slums, but for society as a whole. We must go to them, as Cardinal Suhard said then, and Pope Francis repeats today.
The Marian heart of Austria: Mariazell, the "Magna Mater Austriae".
The sanctuary of Mariazell, houses in its interior the venerated carving of the Virgin Mary, Magna Mater Austriae. A place of pilgrimage and devotion for nine centuries.
According to tradition, around 1157 Abbot Otker of the Benedictine monastery of St. Lambert sent one of his monks to what later became known as Mariazell, then part of the monastery's domain, to take care of the souls of the inhabitants of the area.
With the abbot's approval, Brother Magnus set out on his journey, carrying with him a small figure of the Virgin and Child carved in lime wood. On the night of December 21, while he was on his way to his destination, a large rock appeared in the road, preventing him from continuing his journey.
As he turned to the Virgin for help, the rock split in two and left the way clear. When he finally reached his destination, Brother Magnus set about building a small cell (ZellThe name seems to have been derived from this small room, which served as his lodging as well as a place of prayer. It is from this small room that it seems to derive its name; Maria by the carving that the monk brought with him, and Zell by the cell where it was located at the beginning: Mariazell.
Romanesque temple, Gothic extension
However, according to the inscription above the main portal, it seems that the first Romanesque church was not built until 1200, almost half a century after her arrival. Throughout the following years, the fame of the place spread thanks to the numerous faithful to whom the Virgin granted her graces, becoming the place of pilgrimage par excellence for the inhabitants of the Austrian territories. This was helped by the granting of a plenary indulgence by Pope Boniface IX in 1399, which favored the development of celebrations and processions, which survived even in spite of the religious restrictions imposed by Emperor Joseph II (1765-1790).
The geographical location of the sanctuary undoubtedly favored that throughout the 15th century Mariazell was not only a place frequented by inhabitants of the Austrian area, but also by French, Swiss, Germans, Bohemians, Poles, Hungarians, Croatians or Serbs. This is the main reason why a Gothic-style extension was built on the original Romanesque church. It seems that this began with the addition of a choir and continued with the construction of a new central nave and two side aisles.
But not only the "common people" would go to Mariazell to implore the intercession of the Virgin or in thanksgiving for favors granted. The imperial family would also become protectors and devotees of the Mother of Mariazell, especially after the Counter-Reformation. It was then that an extension of the Gothic church became necessary, which was largely sponsored by the Habsburgs. The reconstruction and enlargement began in 1644, under the direction of the builder Domenico Sciassia. It was not until forty years later that the colossal project, which Sciassia would never see completed, was finished. The immense work and the challenges involved in combining the Gothic elements with the new Baroque introductions have made Mariazell an architectural jewel and the largest church in Austria.
Among the most difficult parts of the church is the facade, which manages to combine the great pointed portal and the original Gothic tower that, according to tradition, was built by the Hungarian King Ludwig I, and the two Baroque towers designed by Sciassia. A fact that goes unnoticed, but that was a way to honor also the Hungarians, regular pilgrims to Mariazell.
Dangers and difficulties
It was in those years of great change and movement that Emperor Leopold I visited the shrine and named the Virgin of Mariazell generalissima of his imperial army. The year was 1676 and, at that time, the Austrian territories needed all the help they could get, due to the constant threat and progressive advance of the Ottoman troops towards the Habsburg territories. An enemy that over the years had become a permanent danger, which would not subside until 1683 when, thanks to the military genius of Prince Eugene of Savoy, they managed to stop the siege of Vienna, expel them from the Austrian territories and put an end to their hegemony in southeastern Europe.
As mentioned at the beginning, the fame of Mariazell managed to survive even the restrictive laws of the enlightened emperor Joseph II and popular piety, although no longer encouraged by the monarchy, continued to see the Virgin of Mariazell as its protector.
Throughout the 19th century the sanctuary would not undergo any further enlargements, but it did have to be deeply restored due to the damage caused by the great fire that occurred on the night of All Saints' Day in 1827. Given its importance, there were numerous financial contributions that helped its rapid restoration between 1828 and 1830. However, the previous plans were not followed, but rather a greater simplification of the construction was sought. Lessons learned, lightning rods were installed for the first time on the roof of the church. Although the damage was extensive, the Romanesque statuette of the Virgin was saved and remains today in its original place, the Chapel of Grace, the heart of the sanctuary. The chapel has become the oldest part of the temple (1690) and contains the 48-centimeter carving of the Virgin and Child, which today is honored as the Magna Mater Austriae and with which Brother Magnus would begin his evangelical work in 1157. Well into the 20th century, the church would be elevated by the Pope to the category of minor basilica in 1907.
Visited by Popes
A few years after being elected Pontiff, St. John Paul II visited Mariazell on September 13, 1983. Years later, his successor, Benedict XVI would return on September 8, 2007 to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the shrine and honor the site with the papal award of the "Golden Rose", a flower forged in gold and filled with aromatic essences such as balsam, incense and holy water. Other shrines that received this same honor, at the time under John Paul II, were Loreto, Lourdes and Czestochowa.
In the homily preached at the time, Benedict XVI spoke about the meaning of the pilgrimage and its relationship with Christ and his Church. But also of that Child God in the arms of his Mother, who at the same time is crucified on the main altar: "We must contemplate Jesus as we see him here in the shrine of Mariazell. We see him in two images: as a child in the arms of his Mother and, on the main altar of the basilica, crucified. These two images in the basilica tell us: truth does not assert itself by external power, but is humble and only gives itself to man by its inner strength: by the fact that it is true. Truth proves itself in love".
Although at times transmitting this message and preaching it in a world hostile to the love of God can be hopeless. Let us not lose heart, as Benedict XVI expressed so well in that same homily: "To go on pilgrimage means to be oriented in a certain direction, to walk towards a goal. This confers a beauty of its own on the journey and the weariness it entails".
Pope does not dismiss Hamburg Bishop Stefan Hesse in favor of a new beginning
Bishop Stefan Hesse had presented his resignation to the Holy Father last March. Since it was not accepted by the Pope, the bishop promised to start again on the basis of mutual trust.
With a communiqué from the Apostolic Nunciature in Germany, reproduced by the German Bishops' Conference and dated September 15, it was made known that Pope Francis has not accepted the resignation of Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg.
Prior to his appointment as Archbishop of Hamburg in January 2015, Msgr. Hesse - born in Cologne in 1966 - had been in charge of the Personnel department of the diocese of Cologne from 2006 to 2012; he then served as Vicar General from 2012 to 2015. In the period of vacant see of the diocese - between the resignation of Cardinal Meisner in February 2014 and the appointment of Cardinal Woelki in September of the same year - he was the Diocesan Administrator, elected by the Cathedral Chapter of Cologne.
It is precisely in connection with his positions in the Diocese of Cologne - and not for his ministry as pastor of the Diocese of Hamburg - that Bishop Hesse submitted his resignation to the Holy Father: on March 18, a law firm presented an expert report on sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cologne. The fundamental question for that report centered on whether the ecclesiastical authority - in the period between 1975 and 2018 - reacted adequately when possible sexual abuse of minors or entrusted persons (e.g. in residences) was reported, in accordance with the norms in force in each case. The expert opinion exonerated Cardinal Woelki, but left the actions of some ecclesiastical leaders in question; for that reason, the Cardinal relieved auxiliary bishop Dominik Schwaderlapp and judicial vicar Günter Assenmacher of their posts; the following day both another auxiliary bishop of Cologne, Ansgar Puff, and Msgr. Stefan Hesse tendered their resignations.
On March 27, at Hesse's request, the Pope granted his "request to withdraw provisionally from the direction of the diocese". Bishop Hesse retired to a convent; the direction of the diocese was assumed provisionally by Vicar General Ansgar Thim.
In the above-mentioned communiqué, reference is made to the fact that "Bishop Hesse's actions were discussed in the context of the Apostolic Visitation of the Archbishopric of Cologne, held from June 7-14, 2021 by Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, and Bishop Johannes van den Hende, Bishop of Rotterdam."
The communiqué goes on to say: "After a careful examination of the documents received, the Holy See has ascertained that during the period in question there were errors in the organization and working methods of the General Vicariate of the Archbishopric, as well as personal procedural errors on the part of Archbishop Hesse. However, the investigation has not shown that these were committed with the intention of covering up cases of sexual abuse. The basic problem, in the broader context of the administration of the archdiocese, was a lack of attention and sensitivity to those affected by abuse."
In the last paragraph, the letter communicates the Pope's decision: "Considering that the Archbishop has humbly acknowledged the mistakes he made in the past and that he made his office available, the Holy Father, after considering the evaluations that have reached him through the visitators and the dicasteries of the Roman Curia involved, has decided not to accept the resignation of Msgr. Hesse, but asks him to continue his mission as Archbishop of Hamburg in a spirit of reconciliation and service to God and to the faithful entrusted to his pastoral care. To this end, the Holy Father invokes God's blessing on Archbishop Hesse and the Archdiocese of Hamburg, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Ansgar".
In a letter addressed to the faithful of the Archdiocese, Bishop Hesse thanked the Holy Father for "his clear decision and the trust he has placed in me. At the same time, he announced that he is taking up again - "at the express will of the Pope" - his functions; but he acknowledged: "I am fully aware that it will not be easy".
Bishop Hesse assures that "it will be necessary to start over" and that he will do "everything in my power to respond to the challenges that present themselves. To concretize how this new beginning will be, "I will first consult with the members of different commissions and people of the archdiocese. In an open conversation we will share disappointments and doubts, but also hopes and expectations for a good future". In concrete terms, Bishop Hesse announces that in these conversations, consultations and decisions for the future "the criterion for our action will be the overcoming of sexual violence; my and our efforts will be directed towards doing more and more justice to those affected by sexual violence and their painful experiences".
For his part, the President of the Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, has issued a statement that reads: "The Pope's decision made public today puts an end to a difficult period of uncertainty for the Archdiocese of Hamburg and for Archbishop Stefan Hesse. That is good and I am grateful for it. Archbishop Hesse will remain in Hamburg and thus remain a member of the German Bishops' Conference. I wish the archdiocese and its archbishop a good new start in joint responsibility, carried by mutual trust. Much of what had to be left undone in the last six months can now be tackled with renewed vigor. To all those who may now feel confused, I ask them to trust that the Pope has made a well-considered and well-founded decision on the basis of consultation."
In his public life, Jesus travels a lot. His school is itinerant, a sign that life with him is a journey, and that his disciple must follow him. The Gospel also speaks of the women who follow him. "had followed" and, therefore, they were his disciples. It is surprising to see that Jesus does not want it to be known that he passes through Galilee. It was his homeland, that of his family and that of most of his disciples. Perhaps because he does not want interruptions in his journey? Or because he does not want to feel again like a despised prophet in his homeland? Or because he knows that his own people have not yet taken that inner leap, have not understood the first announcement of his defeat, death and resurrection, nor the reproach he made to Peter when he objected: "Depart from me Satan."and you want to dedicate yourself to them?
Then, for the second time, he announces the end of his mission, so different from his expectations: "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and after He is dead, after three days He will rise again.". The disciples still do not understand anything of this mystery, so distant from their perspective.
Since we are Christ's disciples, it helps us to meditate often on the models presented to us in the Gospel: they did not understand anything, they argued about who was the greatest, they betrayed him, they denied him, they all fled. Here too they are afraid to question him, lest they be reproached like Peter. It is difficult to do worse. Perhaps the word of God tells us these things to encourage us, and the evangelists do not hide and do not lie. We are also comforted to see Jesus who, with all the power of his word, fails to get inside those hard heads. He trusts in the intimacy of the house of Capernaum to try to continue the dialogue. But, even protected by the walls of their house, the disciples do not have the courage to say what they were discussing on the road. They were thinking about who should lead their group when Jesus died, as he had already predicted to them twice. They feel that such a discussion is not good and, therefore, they keep silent. This time Jesus does not scold, but takes the opportunity to teach again. With calm and lapidary words: if anyone wants to be a leader in the church, at any level, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.
And immediately afterwards, Mark, as the only one among the Synoptics, describes the gesture of Jesus' embrace of a child, whom he shows to the disciples as the object of his attention and indirectly as a model. He encourages them to welcome the children in his name: because in this way they welcome Jesus and the Father who sent him. Caring for them will help them to forget the allure of power. The children were among the last: those who want to be the first among Jesus' disciples must also do the same.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 33rd Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
One of the snapshots from the trip to Slovakia: Pope Francis speaks during a meeting with the Roma community in the Luník IX neighborhood in Košice, September 14, 2021.
Sanctifying the world from within: Brotherhoods and their place in the Church
Brotherhoods are more than relics of anthropological or ethnographic interest. They represent a decisive contribution to the task of "sanctifying the world from within," which requires a delicate harmony between the heart and the head, popular religiosity and doctrine, in order to develop their full potential.
I would not know if the current society is the most convulsive in history, surely not, but it is the one we have to live and we have to try to improve and move forward. In this situation, in some circles people turn their attention to the brotherhoods and confraternities. Surely it is a good resource, but first we must objectify them, study their nature, aims and potential, beyond stereotypes, sentimentalism or prejudices.
Although many were born with a guild and mutualist character, in the Counter-Reformation the Council of Trent emphasized "the necessity and advantages derived from the worship of images, true effigies of Jesus and his Mother and thinks [the Council Fathers of Trent] that these images should go out into the street, so that those who by their will do not enter the churches, when they meet them in the streets, think of the moment of the Passion of Our Lord that this image represents" (T.C. Session XXV, 4-12-1516). This recommendation prompted the creation of brotherhoods with a more pastoral orientation, without abandoning the dimension of charity and mutual aid.
For this reason, although there is news of brotherhoods since the fourteenth century, the sixteenth century is that of the emergence of new brotherhoods, institutions that have been consolidated over the centuries, subject to the political ups and downs and currents of thought of each era.
It is surprising that in spite of their antiquity and relevance, they always had an imprecise fit in the canonical order, which led them to complicated relations with the hierarchical Church on some occasions and with the public authorities on others. Agreements and disagreements have been happening over the centuries. In the archives of the brotherhoods are kept documents that elaborate very precise chronicles of the lawsuits maintained between the brotherhoods and the Church, some bordering on the grotesque, also with the corregidores.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, which for the first time constructs a complete legislative system proper to the Church, resolves the existence of the brotherhoods with a brief reference (c. 707) in which it defines them as "unions of the faithful", without specifying the scope of this definition.
The Second Vatican Council in proclaiming the "universal call to holiness, sanctifying the world from within" (LG) and the "explicit recognition of the faithful to associate" (AA), opens a new avenue that is reflected in the 1983 Code, which dedicates Title V of Book II, on the Associations of the Faithful to this subject, in addition to some references in other canons.
Curiously, this normative text does not mention brotherhoods or confraternities at any time, but it provides them with a perfect fit when referring to associations of the faithful. It distinguishes three types of associations: public, private and without legal personality.
Associations public shall be those whose purpose is to transmit Christian doctrine in the name of the Church, or to promote public worship, or to pursue other ends reserved by their very nature to ecclesiastical authority. By reason of their purposes, it is exclusively for the competent ecclesiastical authority to establish these associations of the faithful.
They are Private those whose purposes are not reserved to ecclesiastical authority, although they must be compatible with Christian doctrine. They may acquire juridical personality if their statutes are known and approved by the hierarchy.
The following are considered partnerships without legal personalityThe members of a congregation, any group of the faithful united for a pious purpose. They must be known by the Hierarchy, to avoid dispersion and to guarantee their suitability.
In this panorama, where do the brotherhoods fit in? Since their purpose is to transmit Christian doctrine in the name of the Church, to promote public worship, the promotion of charity and the formation of the brethren, purposes reserved by their very nature to ecclesiastical authority, it must be concluded that the brotherhoods are public associations of the faithful of the Catholic Church, established by ecclesiastical authority, with their own juridical personality, which receive from the Church the mission to work for the ends they propose to achieve in its name.
They do not act in their own name, but on behalf of the Church, which reserves to itself functions of orientation and supervision. It is the Hierarchy that has to confirm the elected officers of the brotherhood; appoint the Spiritual Director; supervise its plan of action; examine and approve, if appropriate, its Rules; has sanctioning capacity; verifies the economic administration, since the goods of the brotherhoods are "ecclesiastical goods", and some other functions aimed at the better fulfillment of its purposes.
Brotherhoods are therefore more than relics of anthropological or ethnographic interest. They represent a decisive contribution to the task of "sanctifying the world from within", which requires a delicate harmony between the heart and the head, popular religiosity and doctrine, in order to develop their full potential. It is worthwhile to deepen our knowledge of them.
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.
The Pope's visit to Slovakia: "A message of peace in the heart of Europe".
During his visit to the Slavic country, Pope Francis encouraged Christians in Central Europe and throughout the world to know how to show the beauty of the Gospel with their lives.
Andrej Matis-September 15, 2021-Reading time: 7minutes
The preparations for Pope Francis' apostolic trip to Slovakia were marked by the issue of health security. Initially, only people with the double vaccination schedule completed would be allowed to attend the events. These indications in a country where only slightly more than 40 % of the population has been vaccinated caused great discouragement. On September 4, the Bishops' Conference, after negotiating with the government, announced a change in the restrictions, opening the possibility of registering for the meetings to people with a negative PCR test or people who have passed the virus. Despite this initial difficulty, many did not back down. Mária, a young lawyer from Bratislava, commented: "I came to the meeting with the Pope in Šaštín with people from my parish. I wanted to come, because it is a unique opportunity to be with Christ's representative on earth. I said to myself: 'If the Pope wanted to be with us, I surely want to meet him too'".
A hidden treasure in the heart of Europe
Mária, the young lawyer from Bratislava
For many, Slovakia is another Eastern European country; however, Slovaks feel totally Central European. In this sense, the Pope won everyone over when he spoke of "a message of peace in the heart of Europe". It is remarkable that the change from the communist to the democratic system in 1989 was so peaceful that it earned the name "velvet revolution". Also the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993 was an example of a political process that attracted the admiration of the international community. Vladimír, a young industrial engineer from Bratislava, says: "I was struck by the fact that the Pope commented on how peaceful the Slovaks are and the fact that the Slovaks can contribute a lot to fraternity among peoples also thanks to their geographical position, being in the center of the continent". The Pope also played a mediating role, celebrating the Catholic liturgy of the Greek rite. Slovakia is not only the country whose eastern border marks the borders of the European Union, but also marks in some way the borders of Catholicism. The majority of Christians in the countries to the east of Slovakia confess the Orthodox religion.
Kindness and contradiction
However, although the Pope appreciates the kindness and serenity of the Slovaks, it needs to be complemented with some character. The Pontiff said in his homily in Šaštín: "Let us not forget this: faith cannot be reduced to sugar that sweetens life. It cannot. Jesus is a sign of contradiction. [...] In the face of Jesus we cannot remain lukewarm, we cannot remain indifferent. [It is not a matter of being hostile to the world, but of being "signs of contradiction" in the world. Christians who know how to show, by their lives, the beauty of the Gospel. Christians who are weavers of dialogue where positions become rigid; who make fraternal life shine where society is often divided and hostile; who spread the good fragrance of welcome and solidarity where personal selfishness and collective egoism often prevail; who protect and preserve life where the logic of death reigns".
The true center of the Church
The Pope, using the image of the Bratislava castle that towers over the capital of Slovakia, invited in his meeting with priests and religious to promote a Church that is not self-referential. According to the Pontiff, "the Church is not a fortress, [...] a castle perched on high that looks at the world with distance and sufficiency. [...] A humble Church that does not separate herself from the world and does not look at life with detachment, but dwells in it, is beautiful. Living within, let us not forget: sharing, walking together, welcoming people's questions and expectations. [When the Church looks at herself, she ends up like the woman in the Gospel: bent over, navel-gazing (cf. Lk 13:10-13). The center of the Church is not herself. Let us move away from excessive concern for ourselves, for our structures, for how society looks at us".
Training in freedom. A risk. A challenge.
Pope Francis at the same meeting also raised the issue of formation in freedom. According to the Holy Father, people who lived for decades under the Communist yoke cannot be expected to learn to use freedom overnight. However, this is not an excuse to think that "it is better to have everything predefined, laws to comply with, security and uniformity, than to be responsible and adult Christians, who think, question their consciences, allow themselves to be questioned. It is the beginning of casuistry, everything regulated... [...] Dear friends," the Pope said, "do not be afraid to form people to a mature and free relationship with God. [...] Perhaps this gives us the impression of not being able to control everything, of losing strength and authority; but the Church of Christ does not want to dominate consciences and occupy spaces, she wants to be a "source" of hope in people's lives. It is a risk. It is a challenge.
Life's greatest dream
The Pope met in Košice not only with the Roma community of Luník IX, but also with young people. The Pope did not hesitate to address a very topical issue. To invite young people to live cleanly the stage of courtship, the Pope said: "Love is the greatest dream of life, but it is not a cheap dream. It is beautiful, but it is not easy, like all the great things in life. [New eyes are needed, eyes that are not deceived by appearances. Friends, let us not trivialize love, because love is not only emotion and feeling, if this is even the beginning. Love does not consist in having everything at once, it does not respond to the logic of the disposable. Love is fidelity, gift, responsibility. The true originality today, the true revolution, is to rebel against the culture of the temporal, is to go beyond instinct, beyond the instant, is to love for life and with all your being".
A group of young scouts
Everything of value costs
That same day, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Pope broadened the horizons of young people, inviting them to set themselves on fire for heroic ideals. "All of you will have in mind great stories that you have read in novels, seen in some unforgettable film, heard in some moving tale. If you think about it, there are always two ingredients in great stories: one is love, the other is adventure, heroism. They always go together. To make life great you need both: love and heroism. Let us look at Jesus, let us look at the Crucified One, there are the two things: love without limits and the courage to give one's life to the end, without mediocrity. [...] Please, let us not make the days of life pass like the episodes of a soap opera.
The languages of the liturgy
St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the apostles not only of the Slovaks, successfully asked Pope Adrian II for permission to celebrate Holy Mass in the Slavic language. The visit of Pope Francis to Slovakia had as a special feature another similar event. Dominik, who was at the Mass with the Pope in Šaštín, comments: "I was struck by the fact that the prayers of the faithful were read in some language unknown to me. After a while I realized that it was Romani, the language of the Gypsies." This is the first time in history that a Pope has introduced this language into the liturgy, which he himself celebrated.
Vojtech, from Dolný Kubín, who also participated in the liturgy in Šaštín, emphasized not only the Romani: "One thing that especially caught my attention was the liturgy, how well it was taken care of. The Mass was in Latin and the readings in Slovak. The hymns were the same: some in Latin, others in Slovak. I thought it was a perfect mix. The choir and the orchestra sounded wonderful. All very dignified, very elevated and very beautiful. I loved it.
History repeats itself
The Pope closed his apostolic visit to Slovakia by praying, as is customary, before the image of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani in Santa Maria Maggiore, in the same church, where the Slavic apostles, St. Cyril and Methodius asked for the approval of the Slavic language for the liturgy.
Pope Francis closes visit to Slovakia at the shrine of Šaštín
The Pope celebrates the Eucharist on the last day of his visit to Slovakia, at the national shrine of Šaštín, on the feast of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, patroness of the country. At the same time, in Argentina, Francis' native country, there was a special connection.
The best for last. Today, Wednesday, September 15, is the day of the traditional national pilgrimage to the shrine of Šaštín, where the patroness of Slovakia, Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, is venerated. The particularity of this year's pilgrimage is that one of the pilgrims was Pope Francis himself. The Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass outdoors in the morning, after presiding over a prayer meeting with the bishops inside the shrine.
The city
Šaštín is a town with a long fame in the history of Slovakia. Its history dates back to the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the ancient homeland of the Slovaks. It was an important fortress for the protection of trade routes at the crossroads of the Danube, Bohemian and Znojmo roads. The name of the castle and the settlement comes from the words "Šášie" and "Tín", which means: castle of the cut trees. It was built by the Myjava River on a marshy ground. The castle was the seat of the county and archdeaconry governors, representatives of the bishop. The archdeaconry of Šaštín administered the deacons from Moravský Ján to Čachtice. Thus, Šaštín was always the seat of the dean and archdeacon, who resided in the castle. The first church, the castle chapel, was probably located there. The first written mention is from 1204, when Imrich II gave the Győr family a property called "Sassin". Later, the property was acquired by Imrich Czobor I. His son Imrich Czobor II settled here permanently.
The pilgrimage
The tradition of pilgrimage to Šaštín is closely linked to Marian veneration. Angelika Bakičová, the wife of Count Imrich Czobor, used to pray for her husband before an image of the Virgin Mary that hung from a tree near the castle. In gratitude for his conversion, she had an image of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows made in 1564. The people greatly venerated this Virgin and prayed to the new image to heal their body and soul. After examining 726 miraculous cases, the statue was declared miraculous in 1732 by an investigative commission established by the bishop of Esztergom. In 1762, the statue was solemnly moved to the main altar of the Basilica. Empress Maria Theresa participated in the ceremony as a supporter of the construction of the basilica itself. In 1927, Pope Pius XI proclaimed Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as the patron saint of Slovakia.
The Basilica
In 1733, the Pauline Order (Order of St. Paul, first hermit) arrived in Šaštín and undertook to build a pilgrimage church and monastery. Construction began in 1736 with the blessing of the foundation stone. In 1748 the building and the roof of the church part were completed, and three years later the monastery was also covered. In 1786, the Pauline monastery was suppressed by order of Emperor Joseph II, and the monks left for Poland. Both the church and the monastery came under the administration of diocesan priests. From 1924, the Salesian Order was present in Šaštín, and was active until 1950, when it was forcibly expelled. In 1964, Pope Paul VI elevated the Shrine of the Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows to the status of a Minor Basilica. The Salesians returned to Šaštín for a brief period in 1968-1970 and then for a longer period after the change of political regime in 1990. At the monastery they ran a Catholic high school (gymnázium) for boys until 2016. In 2017, the Salesians were replaced again by the original administrators: the Paulines.
At the present time
The most significant visits of modern pilgrims were those of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1987) and the Holy Father St. John Paul II, who prayed in the Basilica during his second pastoral visit to Slovakia (1995). Currently, Šaštín hosts every year about 200 national and 40 foreign pilgrimages (besides believers from neighboring countries, those from Spain and Mexico are no exception). In total, there are about 200,000 pilgrims a year, of which about 40,000 come during the main national pilgrimage. The feast of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows on September 15 is also a national holiday in Slovakia.
In addition to the national pilgrimage and the pilgrimage of Greek Catholics, thematic pilgrimages are traditional in Šaštín: the pilgrimage of lovers, the pilgrimage of men, the pilgrimage of mothers, the pilgrimage of ministers, the pilgrimage of motorcyclists, the pilgrimage of broken hearts and others.
Francis in Šaštín
During his homily, the Pope insisted on not reducing the Christian life: "Let us not forget this: faith cannot be reduced to a sugar that sweetens life. It cannot be. Jesus is a sign of contradiction. He came to bring light where there is darkness, bringing the darkness to the light and forcing it to surrender. That is why darkness always fights against Him. Whoever accepts Christ and opens himself to him rises; whoever rejects him closes himself in darkness and is ruined."
More than 50,000 people came to Šaštín to celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, patroness of Slovakia, at the Holy Mass with Pope Francis today. It was the crowning moment, which the Pope presided over at the end of a very important four-day pastoral journey in Slovakia. After the Mass, the farewell ceremony will take place at the airport and he will fly to Rome.
A connection between Slovakia and Argentina
On this last day of the Holy Father's visit to Slovakia, there will be a spiritual arc between Slovakia and Argentina: the Eucharistic celebration for the Patron Saint of Slovakia, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows at the National Shrine in the Basilica of the Virgin of Luján in Argentina, the home country of Pope Francis. This initiative has been promoted by the Ambassador of Slovakia in Argentina, H. E. Rastislav Hindický; and the Mass will be celebrated by Father Lucas García, Rector of the Basilica of Luján.
Image of the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows, in the Crypt of the Basilica of Luján.
The celebration will take place at 11.00 a.m. on the same day that Pope Francis is celebrating Mass at the National Shrine of Slovakia in the Basilica of Šaštín. The Mass will be followed by a speech by the Ambassador of Slovakia, who will also offer the floral offering in the colors of Slovakia to the image of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows on display in the Crypt of the Basilica. The image of the Patron Saint of Slovakia is in her chapel in the crypt of the Basilica of Lujan, where it was inaugurated in November 1996, 25 years ago.
María and José Solana. Faith encounters with teenagers
The Solana couple, Maria and Jose, fill their home with teenagers every Friday to talk to them about their faith, help them share their lives and create great friendships among them.
Charlo with María and José, married, six children. They are both teachers: María in primary school and José in secondary school. They live the faith in the parish of Santiago and San Juan Bautista in Madrid but they never wanted to stay in a minimal Christian experience. They always wanted more. That is why they participate as "godparents" in a novel pastoral with teenagers. "For the children at this time of their lives, the reference to their home, their house, takes a back seat and their friends take on a special role."José points out. That's why they are looking to alleviate the problem that they are "in the middle of a crisis".lack of reference away from home". This ministry keeps them linked to the parish after Confirmation, a period when there is a kind of vacuum in the children - who tend to break the link with the Church. A few groups are formed so that they can participate together in the faith and thus begin to generate people of reference who are their age. Their peers. "It is a friendship group in the parish"says Maria.
In these meetings, topics about the Christian faith are discussed: some theological virtue, capital sin or the gift of the Holy Spirit, for example. Almost all the meetings are held outside the parish. Herein lies the grace and perhaps the secret of success: they meet on Fridays at the home of Mary and Joseph. "The idea is that they see that our house is their home, that our doors are open to them and that they are one of us. Our children have a great time with them. We get together while our children watch a movie. We have dinner together. Bonds are generated between them, with us and with our children. You help them to find people like them, with concerns like them, whom they will see later in the parish.The couple is so enthusiastic about their task," says the couple. Then they take them home late at night.
The feedback The children transmit a taste for this type of meetings. They are excited. They are eager. They know they are important. That these meetings are partly theirs. They are not configured as a usual catechesis in which they receive with a certain laziness what the catechist tells them as if it were just another class at school. These meetings are very experiential. They participate. They live what is being discussed and can express their own experiences. They are involved, they feel everything in the first person. "For us it is a demanding ministry: every Friday you pick them up at the parish, take them to your house, prepare them a good dinner with love and then take them back home. We make a trip delivering children all over Madrid, which sometimes takes us two hours."Joseph points out. It is the paradox of Jesus Christ: he who loses his life finds it. That's how this married couple feels. "Seeing how the children live the topics that are dealt with, how they expose their own experiences, how it helps them returns in that we are satisfied. God gives us joy, peace in marriage. It brings us closer together. It helps us to be generous, to not keep life to ourselves. We are amazed to get into the lives of these kids."Both agree.
The kids are with them from the time they are 12 until they turn 18."They can express with us what they cannot express at home or with their friends at school. We talk freely about many topics that are essential, such as sexuality, envy, honoring parents, the importance of respect. We draw heavily on the Catechism of the Church to enlighten them on these topics.". They think this activity will be a treasure for their children when they are teenagers tomorrow. "We hope that when we are not able to explain it to them - because it is always difficult to talk about some subjects with our own parents - there will be another couple to enlighten them, to teach them to open their souls, to take care of them, to create great friendships...."concludes Maria.
Faced with the palpable polarization in society, the United States Conference of Bishops has launched the "Conversing Civilly" campaign to promote and cultivate the "culture of encounter" of which Francis speaks.
In the United States there is a palpable polarization in all sectors of society, from the Church to politics, a fact that became more evident in the last presidential elections. In response to this climate, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched on September 7 a campaign called "Conversing Civilly.
Towards a culture of encounter
This initiative is based on the call made by Pope Francis in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti: to seek "a better politics at the service of the true common good" (no. 154). The project aims to offer a model of politics that helps cultivate a culture of encounter and seek perspectives based on truth, justice and solidarity. Even if we have divergent opinions and ideas, "we can see ourselves as members of one family. We can identify common values, listen to each other for understanding and seek truth together. We can jointly devise creative solutions to the problems facing our world," the campaign says.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and chairman of the USCCB's National Justice and Human Development Committee reflected on the importance of the initiative at this time in the life of the country: "The project aims to give Catholics elements to address the division and polarization in society that is also reflected in the Church. Such division among the faithful jeopardizes the Church's ability to give effective witness to the life and dignity of the human person in the family, in the parish and in the political sphere."
Charity, clarity and creativity
Many dioceses in the country will be joining this project, but anyone can join -through the webpage https://www.usccb.org/es/civilizeit - making a commitment on a personal level in three areas: charity, clarity and creativity. Charity to recognize that every person is created in the image of God, even those with whom one disagrees. Clarity to ensure that one's opinions are rooted in the truth of the Gospel and reliable sources of information. In this area the participant commits himself to form his conscience "through prayer, the study of the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church".
Finally, creativity in building bridges and dialogues based on shared values as well as humility in seeking the good. A number of resources are available on the website including guidelines for an examination of conscience, short reflections, prayers and a guide that will help individuals, families and communities to build bridges of fraternity and dialogue, even when they have divergent perspectives.
Politics and faith. Recovering the Christian voice in public life
The proposal born of faith is an integral proposal that translates into a vision of the economy, the political system, or the understanding of the family linked to love and the transmission of life.
September 15, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
The first weekend of September was celebrated in Madrid the II International Meeting of Catholics with political responsibilities, organized by the Archdiocese of Madrid together with the Academy of Catholic Leaders and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Politicians from 19 countries of all sensibilities participated in this meeting.
There was a time when national parliaments used to seat politicians enrolled in confessional parties. Today, all parties, some to a greater extent than others, are sprinkled with believers. However, we often complain that legislation is moving further and further away from Christian principles. Often the person is not at the center of decisions, we find a great permissiveness, if not promotion, of abortion or euthanasia, with the delegitimization of the role of parents in the education of their children together with obstacles to Catholic education, gender policies are promoted....
What happens to our Catholics who deal with public affairs? Do they have no weight in their political formations or have they become accustomed to "splitting", on the one hand public life and on the other private life? Often we Catholics, politicians or not, say that we believe in God but we live as if God did not exist.
It is true that there is an undercurrent of Christian affinity, unseen but slightly perceptible, which sometimes moderates or shapes certain laws, but there is a lack of a believing tone in the great discourse. It is not a matter of embracing a kind of moral superiority for the fact of believing, but neither is it a matter of being ashamed of what we are to the point of hiding it. We are what we are naturally and we offer what we have to enrich our world.
Perhaps in the Church we have sinned by omission when it comes to forming children and young people in the evangelical importance of public service. We have thousands of catechists, we work in the field of health and prison pastoral care, in the exercise of charity, education, culture in the broad sense, but service through politics has perhaps been a bit of a chore, even when we have tried it, we have seen too many desertions that have discouraged us.
Last week, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) and Archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Juan José Omella, together with the Secretary General of the Episcopate, Monsignor Luis Argüello, presented the document 'Faithful to missionary sending', which contains the orientations and lines of action for the EEC in the next four pastoral courses (2021-2025). Cardinal Omella asked us not to be discouraged and to continue "bearing witness to our faith in Jesus, not so much with words, but with deeds", something, I am convinced, that has a privileged vantage point in the vocation to public service.
The Secretary General and Spokesman of the EEC, Monsignor Luis Argüello, questioned in the same presentation that "at times we can be progress or conservative in one of the folders and the opposite in others, when in reality the proposal that is born of faith and that which is seen in the dominant culture is an integral proposal of economy, political system, of understanding of the family linked to love and the transmission of life in moments of such surprising 'demographic winter'".
The subject is a difficult one, with no easy answer, but it is important to consider it.
Love, affectivity and feelings: themes of the II Virtual Congress for Catholic Educators
The Congress, organized by the Instituto Desarrollo y Persona of the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, will be held from September 23 to October 3 in online mode and will be attended by María Lacalle, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre and the collaborator of Omnes, Carlos Chiclanaamong other speakers.
The education of the heart: love-me to love you' is the title of the II Virtual Congress for Catholic Educators organized by the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, through the Instituto Desarrollo y Persona.
This Congress, focused on affective education, already has more than 20,000 registered participants to date, who, during one week, will be able to delve into the beauty of human love and sexuality from sciences such as theology, sociology, philosophy or medicine.
Javier Martinez, Archbishop of Granada, and from that day until October 3, those registered will be able to enjoy the contents throughout the week, without timetables in order to facilitate access and broaden the scope of this Congress.
The speakers
This II Congress focused on the education of the heart has a wide range of speakers who address the education of affectivity from different points of view.
Msgr. José Ignacio Munilla AguirreBishop of San Sebastian
Amar-me & Amar-te
Alfonso López Quintás, School of Thought and Creativity (Madrid)
Title pending confirmation
Ángel Barahona PlazaFrancisco de Vitoria University (Madrid)
The strange condition for loving one's neighbor
Angel Camino LamelasEpiscopal Vicar, Vicarage VIII (Archdiocese of Madrid)
Love me so I can love you
Carlos Chiclana ActisDr. Carlos Chiclana's office (Madrid, Seville)
Addicted brains, yearning hearts
Carmela Baeza Pérez-Fontán, Raíces Family Care Center (Madrid)
Neuroscience and epigenetics: in the image and likeness of Love
Carmen Álvarez AlonsoSan Dámaso Ecclesiastical University (Madrid, Spain)
Sex education between tensions and opportunities: how to accompany adolescents?
Diego Blanco Albarovawriter, screenwriter and TV producer
I love you. Me neither.
Elena ArderiusSanchezCentro de Acompañamiento Integral a la Familia de la Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid, Spain).
Mindless teens: why suicide is an option
Enrique Burguete MiguelUniversidad Católica San Vicente Mártir (Valencia, Spain)
Love me to love you?
Enrique Rojas Montesprofessor of Psychiatry
Five tips to be happy
Fernando Vidal FernándezUniversidad Pontificia de Comillas (Madrid, Spain)
Four men who revolutionized fatherhood
Francisco Javier Insa GómezPontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome)
A psychologically healthy celibacy
Franco Nembriniprofessor and writer
To educate is to introduce reality
Higinio Marín Pedreño, CEU Cardenal Herrera University (Valencia)
The narrative structure of identity
Jaime Rodríguez DíazPontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (Rome)
Intimacy: how to discover and educate it
Jokin de IralaEstévezUniversity of Navarra (Pamplona)
You are not his better half: you are an apple and an orange.
María Lacalle NoriegaFrancisco de Vitoria University (Madrid)
Gender and legislation, an integrative proposal
María Pilar Lacorte TierzInternational University of Catalonia (Barcelona)
Links, parent "influencers
María Pilar Ruiz MartínezBEITU! Association Recognize your Fertility (Vizcaya)
The Natural Methods to love-me and love-you
María Zabala Pinojournalist and head of iWomanish
The heart the Internet needs
Mariolina Ceriotti Migliaresephysician and writer
Erotic and maternal: the complexity of the feminine
Mónica Campos AlonsoInstituto Desarrollo y Persona, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid, Spain).
Assertiveness and self-esteem: which comes first?
Larragán Cendra DoveVillanueva University (Madrid)
Changing the look, changing the marriage: the secret to rediscovering love
Pedro García CasasEpiscopal Delegate for University Pastoral Care (Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia)
Love is a person's name
Pilar Nogués GuillénInstituto Desarrollo y Persona, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid, Spain).
Capaces de amar: affective-sexual education in intellectual disability.
Pilar VigilTeen STAR International
Are we free to choose to love and be loved?
Ruth de Jesús GómezFrancisco de Vitoria University (Madrid)
Affectivity and identity, reciprocal dependence
Vicente Soriano VázquezInternational University of La Rioja
Sexually transmitted infections
Xosé Manuel Domínguez Prieto, Instituto da Familia (Orense)
Philautía: the necessary love of self
The Instituto Desarrollo y Persona
The mission of the Instituto Desarrollo y Persona of the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria is to train train trainers to discover and transmit the beauty of love and human sexuality. At present, two projects are part of the Institute: Aprendamos a Amar and the Centro de Acompañamiento Integral a la Familia.
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Frater España re-elects Enrique Alarcón with a message of joy
The Fraternidad Cristiana de Personas con Discapacidad de España (Frater), a specialized Catholic Action movement integrated in the Federation of Catholic Action Movements in Spain, has re-elected Enrique Alarcón as president for two years, in its XI Fraternity Week, held in Malaga.
Rafael Miner-September 14, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
The first face-to-face meeting of Frater Spain since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 took place in Malaga at the beginning of September. It was the 11th Fraternity Week, held under the theme "The city was filled with joy", which "reflected on this dimension of the Christian faith. Joy of living, joy of the Gospel, hope and the conviction that pain and sadness do not have the last word", says the president of Frater, Enrique Alarcón, who has been reelected together with the general team for the next biennium.
Enrique Alarcón has been with the Christian Fraternity of People with Disabilities of Spain (Frater) for 43 years, the last four as president, and has had quadriplegia since he was 20, as he explained to Omnes in July.
Also ratified by the assembly were Antonio García Ramírez as national councilor, Blas López García as secretary-treasurer and Ana Quintanilla García as vice-president and responsible for the social function of the movement. For personal reasons, Francisco San José Palomar and María Teresa García Tébar left their positions in the team and were thanked by all those present. Frater representatives from more than 35 dioceses from Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and Leon, Catalonia, Valencia, Madrid and the Basque Country attended the event.
Antonio Gómez Cantero, coadjutor bishop of Almeria and general councilor of Spanish Catholic Action, spoke at the inaugural session of the week on August 31, stating that the city of joy, which is welcoming, needs to be built today, and encouraged the participants in this task. In addition, Francisco Pomares, councilor for Social Action and Equality of the City Council of Malaga, and Rocio Perez, president of Andalusia inclusive COCEMFE, who defined Frater as the "mother" and key player in the beginnings of the associative movement of disability in our country, which while denouncing the shortcomings of this group, must reach out to collaborate in its solution.
Jesús Catalá, Bishop of Malaga; Francisco Torres Hurtado, Mayor of Malaga; and Anxo Queiruga Vila, President of the Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities (COCEMFE).
"Between suffering and hope".
The meaning of the 11th Frater Week was framed through the inaugural lecture given by the theologian, priest, writer and Frater member in Castellón, José María Marín, entitled "between suffering and hope". He posed questions that, as Enrique Alarcón explained, are always present in every human being and at any time in history, and perhaps even more topical today due to the reality of latent and global suffering: Is hope possible in the darkness of our own and others' suffering? Is it worth being "born" to live in suffering? Is it possible to find happiness in the garden of death? Is it possible to live in fullness while dying every day? To what extent is hope possible?
The bulk of the work of the Fraternity Week has been structured in four participative workshops, according to the movement:
1) "Taller del Maestro, dedicated to finding the tools that Jesus, our Gospel Teacher, offers and facilitates to heal pain, awaken hope and achieve the joy that he spreads throughout the city. It was animated by Antonio García Ramírez and Marisol Quiñonez Quintero".
2) "Media and presence. The pandemic, with its restrictions, has been the breeding ground for strengthening the media and social networks: what is not in the media and networks does not exist: presence in them to express what we are, our experiences of hope, our demands and complaints..... Encouraged by Enrique Alarcón García".
3) "Inclusiveness. An inclusive Church and society. Inclusion makes us citizens with dignity and rights, as well as apostles involved in the tasks of the Proclamation of the Good News. It was animated by Ana Quintanilla García".
4) "Fraternity in Mission: Everyone counts in the Church and in the world". Today our Pope Francis presents fraternity as a fundamental element of socialization and human encounter through justice and peace. It was animated by Felipe Bermúdez Suárez".
Enrique Alarcón summarized the Malaga assembly as follows: "They have been days full of work and life, of sharing and joy, of present and future, with renewed enthusiasm to work for the synodality of the Church as Pope Francis asks of us".
Processions return to Andalusia after a year and a half
The bishops of the dioceses belonging to the Ecclesiastical Province of Seville have made public a communiqué in which they give the green light to the return of external worship, especially in reference to the processional outings that were suspended at the beginning of the pandemic.
In a communiqué published today, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Seville (Seville, Asidonia-Jerez, Cadiz and Ceuta, Canary Islands, Cordoba, Huelva and Tenerife) highlight "the favorable course of the health situation derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, with a decrease in contagions and the advance of vaccination as the most outstanding aspects of this positive trend". A situation that, within the prudent actions and always "taking into account the provisions and recommendations emanating from the competent authorities" in health matters, has led the prelates to consider updating the canonical provisions in force in these dioceses regarding the celebration of external worship.
In this sense, the note continues, "the dioceses have considered the convenience of resuming the normality of external worship, as it has begun to do in a timely manner in some places". The diocesan bishops have wanted to recall, however, the need to act with prudence and attend to the relevant health standards that they describe as "fundamental to be able to face the return to normality in worship".
The bishops also wanted to thank "the collaboration of the faithful in these months in which the internal and external worship has been affected in a relevant way".
External worship celebrations were suppressed in March 2019. Especially painful has been the two Weeks of Passion without these manifestations of worship that have been lived since the beginning of the pandemic. A situation that has led the Brotherhoods and Confraternities to a remarkable effort of spiritual care of their brothers as well as a huge social work to care for those most affected by the crisis arising from this pandemic.
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Amal (meaning "hope" in Arabic), is a 3.5-meter-tall puppet representing a 9-year-old girl fleeing the Syrian-Turkish border to the United Kingdom. The intention was to symbolize the plight of millions of children fleeing wars and seeking refuge. It left Gaziante on July 27 and is traveling through several European cities "in search of her mother" until it reaches Manchester.
On September 10 - at the initiative of the Diocese of Rome and with the support of the Section for Migrants and Refugees of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development - it stopped in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on the eve of Migrants and Refugees Day (September 26). It then moved to the courtyard of St. Damasus in the presence of Pope Francis, who spoke affectionately with several hundred children participating in the initiative.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, Undersecretary of the Vatican Dicastery, and the Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, Delegate for Charity and Migrants, Benoni Ambarus, were there to welcome her. A refugee child hosted in one of the Caritas Rome facilities gave his testimony, while the children participated in a kite-making workshop organized by the Scalabrinian Agency for Development Cooperation.
Obviously, the children's participation was intended as an opportunity to raise awareness of the painful plight of their fellow migrants, very often unaccompanied, and of the need to raise awareness of the need to welcome them in order to give these little creatures a future.
The puppet was created by the Handspring Puppet Company, made of molded cane and carbon fiber; the team that animates it consists of ten puppeteers, two of whom have refugee experience.
The message of the initiative - which bears the name of The March, conceived as an extensive international arts festival - is "Don't forget us". It is no coincidence that, in his message for the upcoming World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis appeals "to all men and women of the world", "to walk together towards an ever greater us, to rebuild the human family, to build together our future of justice and peace, ensuring that no one is left out".
"Precisely because the world's attention is currently directed elsewhere, it is more important than ever to refocus attention on the refugee crisis and change the narrative. Yes, refugees need food and blankets, but they also need dignity and a voice," explained The Walk's artistic director, Amir Nizar Zuabi, as he launched the initiative.
For Cardinal Czerny, Amal is a reminder that "encountering the vulnerable migrants, precarious workers and asylum seekers in our midst requires more than just a glance." Each of them "with their own baggage of sufferings and dreams is waiting for us to open our ears, our minds and our hearts...and to extend our hands."
"Esperanza" will continue its tour of other Italian cities, France, Germany and Belgium in the coming weeks, before arriving in the UK in November.
"Big or small, you can be a saint." The Pope, at the Bethlehem Center
We offer a testimony from the Bethlehem Center in Bratislava, of the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) where the Pope has been on his visit to Slovakia on Monday. Francis encouraged the caregivers to always keep smiling.
František Neupauer-September 14, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
Monday, September 13, 2021. The Holy Father Francis arrives to visit the Missionaries of Charity, who work in the Petržalka neighborhood of Bratislava. There are currently six nuns working in the Bethlehem Center, in the midst of apartment blocks. They will soon be joined by a seventh nun from India. During the week they care for about thirty homeless people, or those in other difficult situations. During the weekend, the number increases to between 130 and 150. The sisters prepare food parcels for them, and talk to them.
"You can be a saint."
Pope Francis greets the faithful and enters the first floor of the building. Outside, the children chant: "It doesn't matter if you are big, it doesn't matter if you are small: you can be a saint". Inside, away from the cameras, is the moment of the meeting. During these moments, the television stations talk about the life and work of Mother Teresa, who opened her first house in Calcutta precisely when the forced liquidation of religious orders and congregations was taking place in Slovakia (in 1950). In Slovakia, the communist regime of the late 1980s assumed that all the nuns would soon die out and the process of atheization would continue. This did not happen, among other things thanks to the illegal admission of religious men and women to the path of consecrated life. In 1987, Mother Teresa came to Slovakia, where she wanted to set up her house, but at that time, when her sisters were already working in Cuba or in the Soviet Union, she was not allowed to help the weakest in Czechoslovakia.
What goes on behind the closed doors of the Bethlehem Center? The Pope meets with the people served at the center and with the nuns. "He put his hand on my head and blessed me. I wished him good health," Juan tells me about his experience. Joseph is still drawn to the Holy Father's words. "He said to us, 'Look at me!' And we all looked at him..., but we didn't understand what he meant. He was pointing to his smile. He wanted to tell us to keep a smile on our faces despite the pain and suffering." Jose also gave a television interview. "When I talked about what I lived through when my father died, my brother... I saw the cameraman's tears fall," he added emotionally.
"I'm thirsty."
A nun from Poland from the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, who has been working in Slovakia for several years, guided me through the rooms where the Holy Father was. "You know, it's not that we needed this visit so much; but for people whom the world considers no one, it means a lot." We talked about the situation in Slovakia before 1989, and how St. Padre Pio had visible stigmata for 50 years and St. Mother Teresa experienced the stigmata of a forced emptiness, of loneliness, of the stigma of Christ crucified on the cross, crying out, "I thirst!" also for 50 years.
In the community of the Missionaries of Charity in Petržalka there are no Slovaks, but during the visit of the Holy Father there was among them a Slovak woman: a doctor, Maria Sládkovičová, who has the religious name of John Mary. During the communist regime, she smuggled in religious literature, and participated in the secret Church. She met Mother Teresa during her visit to Slovakia in May 1990 and later became one of her sisters. For many years, she devoted herself to children suffering from AIDS. Today she is experiencing the presence of a serious illness in her life. She was sitting in a wheelchair. Pope Francis addressed a special word to her....
The cross, those two plain, unadorned crossed sticks, are the clearest declaration of God's love for mankind.
September 14, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
Marcos has never liked going out with the boys at school and this afternoon's plan - to go to the parish to receive the Lisbon WYD cross that is traveling around the world - is not that much for him, but Teté is going and that's enough to make it a perfect plan. It is true that he will have to put up with the little jokes of his companions, especially Germán who has a special grudge against him, but having the opportunity to be close to the girl of his dreams is worth it.
-Man, Mamamarcos, I didn't know you were coming too, what's up man! -greets Germán, offering his fist.
-Well, you see, Germán. H-here I am. -Marcos answers, shaking his hand and ducking his head to the complicit chuckles of the two friends of the school bully who also welcome him.
The girls, who were chatting in a circle on the bench in the square, approach when they see him arrive.
-Hi Marcos, how cool are your Converse, are they new? -Teté asks him, planting two kisses on him that leave him dizzy, he doesn't know if it's because of the intense smell of bubble gum perfume that his secret love gives off or because of the sudden rise in heart rate he experiences every time she is less than half a meter away.
-Yes, yes, they're cool, aren't they? -laughs Marcos, proud to have brand new shoes as he greets, charming as always, the rest of the female sector of the gang.
Marcos is handsome, the handsomest in high school in fact. He's attentive, funny and, although his stuttering puts him at the bottom of the complex teenage social ladder, many girls pine for him in private.
-Come on, let's go, we're late," says Teté, to which everyone responds by setting off.
On the subway on the way to the parish, while apparently holding the insubstantial conversation (music, teachers and video games) of the group, Marcos gets distracted and begins to think about what he is doing going to see a cross next to a guy who insults him by calling him Mamamarcos...
-A penny for your thoughts," Teté assaults him, sitting down next to him.
-Nothing, my-my-my-my-my stuff
-I know, you're thinking, what's the point of going to see a naked cross traveling around the world? -It seems as if I had read his mind. Marcos is not a churchgoer, he hasn't even made his second communion, although he likes the images of Holy Week and admires the art of the brotherhood. But a naked cross, two crossed sticks, what beauty do they have?
-Well, some of that I do think. Without a Christ it's a bit soooo-sa," he laughs.
-Hahaha, yes, I understand you perfectly. But it is that..." -she becomes serious to say the following sentence- "In this cross the Christ is you, it is me, it will be each one of us.
Well, don't count on me for the claaaavos- -Well, don't count on me for the claaaavos-.
-Pfff, what a beast! But hey, you're not far off the mark, or aren't the difficulties we experience in our day-to-day lives nails? I don't know about you, but I have my problems, don't you? You know that I'm having a terrible time with my parents' divorce, Carmen's mother has cancer, Manuel has a fat complex and even Germán's pimp, you can see, has anxiety attacks because his parents are unemployed and they're going to kick them out of the house. I know this because his sister told me. In this cross we are not only going to see how Jesus saved us, but that He accompanies each one of us in our crosses. Forgive me for giving you a hard time, but the God that Jesus showed us, the one I believe in, is not a God who does not care about us, whom we contemplate from the outside, but who joins us even in the hardest moments and says I love you!
-I-love-you-I love you," she repeated aloud, admiring her friend's words. It was the first time he had understood that the Cross was a declaration of love, a place to rest from the cross, a place to relieve himself from so many complicit chuckles all around, from so many scorns and humiliations. He was so shocked by this good news that he did not even notice the misunderstanding that his stuttering had provoked in his friend.
-I beg your pardon, Marcos? -Teté answered him, red as a tomato.
-I love you," he replies, surprising himself by his words.
The girl excitedly brings her hands to her face, wraps her arms around his neck and, to the astonished gaze of the rest of the group, kisses him and declares: "And me, Marcos! I love you too!
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.
This is Luník IX, the gypsy ghetto visited by the Pope in Slovakia
We interviewed Salesian Peter Žatkuľák, who is in charge of the pastoral care of the Gypsy community of Luník IX, about his work and the preparation for the visit of Pope Francis.
Andrej Matis-September 14, 2021-Reading time: 4minutes
Peter Žatkuľák is a Catholic priest. He is 40 years old and has been a Don Bosco Salesian for 21 years. When the pastoral care of Luník IX was entrusted to his religious community in 2008, he did not hesitate to accept the challenge, together with his congregational brother Peter Beshenyei. Thus he began to write a new chapter of his life. Despite the fact that the pastoral conditions in the district, where the vast majority of the population belongs to the Roma (Gypsy) minority, are not easy, and after a break in a Salesian institution in Žilina, Peter returned to Luník IX where he has remained ever since. Today he is responsible for the pastoral care of the Gypsies, together with three other Salesians.
This is how he explains his work, in this interview for Omnes.
Peter, what is Luník IX?
Luník IX is an urban ghetto, with its own rules. And it is these very rules that produce the misery here. A small minority thinks that the majority should respect the tone they set: loud music until late at night, children running out of the house after dinner, burning containers, garbage on the street...
How is it possible for a ghetto to emerge in a city like Košice, which was awarded the title of European City of Culture in 2013?
Originally, Luník IX was to be an ordinary housing estate in Košice, like the other districts called Luník that exist and function normally in the city. Luník IX is even very well located. Around the year 2000 there were also Slovaks living here. But then a change occurred. The city needed to "clean up" the historic houses in the city center where the Gypsies lived, and offered them alternative social housing in the new Luník IX neighborhood. As I said, at the beginning there were also Slovaks living in the neighborhood, but after the arrival of the Gypsies they gradually began to leave.
When we arrived in 2008, there were about 8,000 people, and now there are 4,300 people. Those who wanted to leave and could leave, left. On the one hand, we are happy for the people who have made it, but on the other hand, it means that the overall situation is getting worse and worse.
How do you perceive the relationship between our society and the situation of the Roma community?
Luník IX is a mirror of society. It reflects us whether or not we allow people with problems to sink deeper and deeper into even bigger problems, or whether we give them a helping hand. Or whether we give them everything for free and do not make them stronger so that they can provide themselves with what they need.
Do you think Slovakia is really interested in Roma integration into society?
We still do not accept them. But there are also communities where they are accepted. It's like a round trip. I wouldn't say that Gypsies are a problem or that they are not inserted. It is our common problem. Of the Gypsies and of the whites. We are not open to accept someone different. But most of the Gypsies in Slovakia are integrated; we are talking about a minority of Gypsies.
Peter Žatkuľák, first from the right, in front of the Luník IX settlement.
What did you think when you heard that Pope Francis was coming to Luník IX?
That it is an excellent choice. We are aware that we do not know how to do pastoral work with the Gypsies. For more than 30 years the Catholic Church in Slovakia has been working among the Gypsies, but we have not seen great fruits. We see individual Gypsies, tens or hundreds of people who have accepted the faith. But it is not something massive. Francis communicates this: it is about meeting these people, each one of them personally. To give them your smile. If we do not befriend them, the Gypsies will not accept the faith.
You mentioned that some gypsies manage to stand up and others accept the faith. What is it that makes some of them convert?
All of the gypsies who have converted and managed to get ahead have had someone in their life who was worthwhile, someone who gave them a sense of dignity, someone with whom they formed a long-term relationship. These people grew. The personal relationship, the friendship, is key. If I don't give to myself, I won't be able to give to my God either. Unless I win them over as a person, unless I become their friend, there is no point in talking to them about faith.
How do the Gypsies perceive the Pope's gesture of going to visit them?
With the arrival of Francis, people are more open. He comes to create personal relationships, and we have to continue with this openness. After the visit, we will be Pope Francis to them. This is a powerful thing.
Do you think the Pope's visit is an opportunity for change?
As I mentioned before, in Lunik IX the starting point is that the minority dictates the rules to the majority, and pulls it down. The majority has had enough of that. Now, before the Pope's visit, it is felt that those who are good, but before were afraid to express themselves, are starting to act, to express themselves outwardly. For example, they are working to fix the exteriors and similar things.
One of the Pope's themes is the periphery. You have personal experience in the periphery. What is it about?
The periphery alludes to inner self-acceptance, to self-confidence.
What about poverty?
Poverty is not only a question of money. Sometimes I ask the children in Lunik IX: why don't you have shoes, ask your parents for them; because I know that if a child asks for shoes, he gets them. The problem is somewhere else. You have to want them.
The greatest poverty is the poverty of relationships. Children suffer abuse and neglect. At home we hear shouting and no talking. Often they learn to talk to us or at school.
At the beginning we tried to help the Gypsies more from the material point of view as well. But then we realized that we didn't have the means for that. We set priorities. Our priority is not material help. We are mainly interested in spiritual help. Material help may be there, but it is not the main reason why I am in the Church.
As a result of the polarization in Hungary, one or the other political tendencies have tried to get hold of the Pope's message in Budapest on Sunday. For example, the opposition parties had distributed posters in Budapest with the Pope's messages, which they consider opposed to the policies of Prime Minister Orbán, and no one ignores that the electoral perspective also moves the government party. Also on the basis of other criteria, the media offered varied interpretations of the visit according to their own criteria or interests.
The real key to interpretation is to be sought in the Eucharist, which was the motive and theme of the visit. The Pope's invitation in his homily at the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress was: "Let us allow the encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist to transform us, as it transformed the great and courageous saints whom you venerate, I am thinking of St. Stephen and St. Elizabeth. Like them, let us not be content with little, let us not resign ourselves to a faith that lives on rituals and repetitions, let us open ourselves to the scandalous novelty of God crucified and risen, Bread broken to give life to the world. Then we will live in joy; and we will bring joy".
The underlining was provided by the organization. Those present emphasized the care taken in the liturgical aspects, with a special reverence for the Eucharist. The ceremonies were well prepared and were celebrated in simple (Die Tagespost considered them "functional") but solemn settings, adjectives that can also be applied to the songs and vestments of the celebrants. In addition to the Mass with the Pope, the other highlight was the Eucharistic procession through the streets of the city, accompanied by thousands of people, including many young people. In addition, the recollection in the liturgical ceremonies was evident, especially in the moments of silence provided by the liturgy: "it was an overwhelming silence, even the babies were silent", said one of the participants.
A parish priest in Budapest, and not only him, appreciated the Pope's many details towards the Hungarian people, whom he addressed directly on several occasions, also in their complicated language ("thank you to the great Hungarian Christian family, which I wish to embrace in its rites, in its history, in the Catholic sisters and brothers and those of other confessions," he said while praying the Angelus). The editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, titled his article in L'Osservatore Romano: "Francis in the heart of the Hungarians".
If we add the large number and the level of commitment of the volunteers, from the organizational point of view the convocation has fulfilled its objectives well. And the program of the International Eucharistic Congress, also in the days preceding the Pope's brief stay in Hungary, has put it in a position to be, in the eyes of many observers, a new impetus for Catholics in the center of Europe, starting precisely from Eucharistic faith and devotion. The motto of the congress, taken from Psalm 87, invited us to look at it: "All my springs are in you". The catechesis, the working groups and the presence and testimonies of many people, including representatives of society and ordinary people, with a special emphasis on the Eucharist and the family, helped to make this possible.
Francis is now in Slovakia, on a pastoral visit that links naturally with the Budapest message. It is obvious that it will not be easy to estimate his real influence. In the meantime, the baton passes to the Archbishop of Quito, Ecuador, where the next Eucharistic Congress will be held in 2024. Cardinal Peter Erdö, who is largely responsible for the smooth running of things in Budapest, presented him with a miniature of the Mission Cross that has accompanied these days.
The Pope in Budapest: "How different is Christ, who proposes himself only with love!"
Pope Francis celebrated the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest (Hungary) and held several meetings there. After this stay of only seven hours, he is now in Slovakia, where there will be events in four cities for four days.
Pope Francis celebrated an impressive Holy Mass at the end of the World Eucharistic Congress in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Although he was only in the country for a few hours, the visit was a special gift for the faithful of Hungary.
"That the Vicar of Christ on earth comes to us is a special gift," Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, who is a devout Catholic, said of the Pope's visit to Hungary on Sunday. Other believers interviewed by the media expressed similar sentiments. After all, no pope had been to the Eastern European country since the 1990s. St. John Paul II had visited the country twice - in 1991 and 1996 - so this visit, which came at the end of the week-long International Eucharistic Congress, was all the more significant.
Also the Hungarian secular media have reported in great detail about this event. The news portal TelexThe left-liberal newspaper published an article on the occasion, including an article by the well-known Hungarian priest and youtuber András Hodász, in which he explained the essence of the Eucharist.
At the Plaza de los Héroes
A la Pope's Mass in Budapest's Heroes' Square 75,000 registered and many unregistered people attended. The media especially highlighted the contrast with which the Pope opposed the actions of the powerful of the world and the silent and non-violent reign of God on the cross: "The crucial difference is between the true God and the god of our self. How far is He who reigns silently on the cross from the false god who we would like to reign with force and reduce our enemies to silence! How different is Christ, who proposes himself only with love, from the powerful and triumphant messiahs, flattered by the world!"
Naturally, Hungarian politicians also tried to use the Pope's visit for their own purposes, especially since parliamentary elections will be held next spring. This autumn the hitherto very fragmented opposition is preparing to run for the first time with a joint candidate against the seemingly almost invincible government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his party. Fidesz. Opposition supporters must choose an opponent for Orbán from among five candidates by October 10.
One of these candidates is the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony. In the days leading up to the Pope's visit, the municipal government team put up posters in Budapest with quotes from the Holy Father that can also be understood as a criticism of the Orbán government's policies: for example, related to solidarity, tolerance or charity, or against corruption.
But also the governmental side has strongly underlined the importance of the Pope's visit. Prime Minister Orbán and President János Áder met with the Holy Father on Sunday morning in a Romanesque-style room of the Museum of Fine Arts, located in Heroes' Square itself. Orbán gave the Pope a copy of a letter sent in 1250 by the then Hungarian King Béla IV to Pope Innocent IV. In it, the latter complains that Hungary is surrounded on all sides by hostile forces-"pagans and heretics [i.e., Orthodox]"-following the Mongol storm of 1241-1242, and asks the pontiff for help.
"I have asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary disappear," Orbán wrote on Facebook after the meeting. The reference to the 13th century king's letter was obvious.
By the way, Béla IV had in his immediate family several women saints: his sister was St. Elizabeth of Hungary, his daughters were St. Kinga (Kunigunda) of Poland, St. Margaret of Hungary - who lived in a Dominican convent on today's Margaret Island, which is in the center of Budapest - and Blessed Jolanta, who, like Kinga, spent most of her life in Poland.
Within the framework of the Eucharistic Congress
Apart from the great interest in the visit of Pope Francis, the events of the Eucharistic Congress were almost lost in the public perception. The organizers had planned numerous important and inspiring events for the whole week in the Hungarian capital. Well-known personalities and ordinary faithful from Hungary and abroad testified about their faith or about their conversion. At an event for young people entitled "Boiling Point" on Friday evening, the well-known pop singer Ákos Kovács emphasized: "We believers do not want to offend anyone. Let us pray for those who think otherwise." The evening was marked by several testimonies: for example, German human rights expert Sophia Kuby described how, at the age of 18 and still unbaptized, she was able to experience the presence of Christ in the Eucharist at a Holy Mass in Amsterdam, totally unexpectedly. Father Róbert Proszenyák, in turn, told the audience how he had encountered God as a young man through a near-death experience.
At the beginning of the International Congress, 1,200 students from Catholic schools gathered at the Esztergom Basilica, the traditional cathedral of the Primate of Hungary. Here they were welcomed by the Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest. The young people then formed a huge multicolored cross in front of the monumental church building.
From Monday to Friday, every morning after Lauds, a cardinal of the Catholic Church gave a catechesis; the background of these representatives of the Church from five continents showed the diversity and global character of the Church. Various people gave witness to their faith on stages throughout the city. There were also numerous cultural and musical events, as well as a family day on Margarita Island. A special highlight was the Holy Mass with Cardinal Erdő on Saturday evening in front of the Hungarian Parliament, followed by a solemn Eucharistic procession.
Of special importance in the context of the celebrations was the Missionary Cross, made of oak and covered with elaborate bronze ornaments, which the well-known and deeply devoted goldsmith Csaba Ozsvári (1963-2009) made for the Urban Mission of the city of Budapest in 2007. The Cross had been blessed by Pope Francis in 2017, during an ad limina visit of Hungarian bishops to Rome.
The work of Baldassare Peruzzi, this magnificent tomb shows the Blessed Virgin and Child, and below the recumbent figure of the Pope, framed by the four cardinal virtues. A relief shows the Pope entering Rome and being greeted by allegorical figures.
Johannes Grohe-September 13, 2021-Reading time: < 1minute
Encouraged by Pope Francis and Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, and urged by the international community, the country of cedars - Lebanon - has announced the formation of a new government, following the brutal attack of August 2020 and thirteen months of negotiations.
Rafael Miner-September 12, 2021-Reading time: 5minutes
Lebanon had been without a government for more than a year, following the resignation of the cabinet in August last year, a week after the tremendous explosion in the port of Beirut, which left nearly 200 dead, more than 6,000 injured, and around 300,000 affected.
The new government will be headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a Sunni Muslim leader, considered the richest man in the country, and will have 24 members, according to the decree signed by Najib Mikati with Maronite Christian President Michel Aoun, in the presence of the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri.
New government
The new team includes personalities who enjoy a good reputation, such as Firas Abiad, director of the Rafic-Hariri government hospital, who is leading the fight against Covid-19 and will be in charge of Health; or Yusef Khalil, the next head of Finance. According to initial reports, the cabinet includes only one woman, Najla Riachi, former Lebanese ambassador to the UN. The government, with 22 portfolios plus the prime minister and vice president, is expected to hold its first meeting as early as Monday.
Of the 22 cabinet ministers, eleven are Muslims and eleven are Christians of various denominations. At present, Maronite Christians account for about 40 percent of the population, while 60 percent are Muslims, including Shiites (27 %), Sunnis (24 %) and Druze (5%).
"While it is true that the Lebanese political system may facilitate a partisan and confessional use of office, in reality it is not so much the system that fails as the use made of it. [...]. On the other hand, to pretend, in a country like Lebanon, to leave religion aside when it comes to structuring institutions is nothing short of utopian, since in this part of the world religion is part of personal and (in many cases) social identity", explained Ferrán Canet, Omnes correspondent in Lebanon.
Serious economic situation in Lebanon
Lebanon currently has around 4.5 million inhabitants, and hosts more than one million Syrian refugees, and more than half a million Palestinians. It is arguably on the edge. The country's severe economic crisis since the summer of 2019, has been getting worse and worse, to the point that the World Bank has called it one of the worst in the world since 1850. Nearly 80 percent of the Lebanese population now lives below the poverty line, according to the UN.
"If in any country in the world the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic have left the feeling of living a special moment, in Lebanon the confinement and the other problems derived from the pandemic have actually taken second place, behind an economic crisis that has caused many Lebanese to lose half of their purchasing power, and the prices of products have tripled in many cases," wrote Ferran Canet in October 2020 from Lebanon. And in these months, the situation has worsened enormously, with a serious financial crisis, inflation, and strong labor instability.
No light
The panorama is now one of a "free fall of the local currency, unprecedented banking restrictions, fuel and medicine shortages... The country has been plunged into darkness for several months, with power cuts of up to 22 hours a day. The generators in the neighborhoods, which usually take over, also ration energy for homes, companies and institutions due to lack of sufficient gasoline. The price of this product has increased and oil is becoming increasingly scarce in a country with little foreign currency and in the midst of the lifting of subsidies for several basic products", describes AFP.
The patriarch Raï
Everything possible must be done to create a new Lebanese government before August 4, the first anniversary of the terrible explosion that devastated the port of Beirut a year ago. That was the last urgent appeal of Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, to Lebanese politicians not to let this symbolic date pass without providing the country with a new executive.
According to the Fides AgencyThe appeal came during the homily of the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the patriarch on Sunday, July 25 in Diman, in the church of the patriarchal summer residence, just on the eve of the new round of consultations between the national political forces and the Lebanese President Michel Aoun, which was to begin on July 26. If the politicians had not managed to reconstruct in one year the dynamics and responsibilities of the port catastrophe, they should at least feel the duty to give the Lebanese people a new government, said Cardinal Raï.
The appeal of the Catholic patriarch, a person of great moral authority in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, came a few weeks after Pope Francis gathered Christian, Orthodox and Protestant patriarchs in Rome in early July for a day of prayer and reflection, during which the Holy Father appealed to Lebanon's vocation as a "land of tolerance and pluralism".
Francis: "Urgent and stable solutions".
"In these times of misfortune we want to affirm with all our strength that Lebanon is, and must continue to be, a plan of peace," the Roman Pontiff noted at the Vatican. "Its vocation is to be a land of tolerance and pluralism, an oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where diverse communities coexist, putting the common good before particular advantages."
Then, in an ecumenical prayer in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope made a solemn appeal to Lebanese citizens, political leaders, Lebanese in the diaspora, the international community, and addressed each group in particular:
"To you, citizens: do not be demoralized, do not lose heart, find in the roots of your history the hope to flourish again."
"To you, political leaders: that, in accordance with your responsibilities, you may find urgent and stable solutions to the current economic, social and political crisis, remembering that there is no peace without justice."
"To you, dear Lebanese in the Diaspora: to put the best energies and resources at your disposal at the service of your homeland."
"To you, members of the international community: with your common effort, may the conditions be in place so that the country does not sink, but embarks on a path of recovery. This will be good for everyone.
The Pope's wish
Following his trip to Iraq earlier this year, Pope Francis has said in recent months that he would like to travel to Lebanon, but would wait for a government to be formed. In a Memorandum on Lebanon and Active Neutrality In the August issue of last year, the main lines of which were reported by Omnes, Cardinal Patriarch Raï formulated a proposal for the stability of the country. The patriarch is convinced that neutrality guarantees the maintenance of Lebanon's identity, for which he advocates a policy of "non-alignment". It is now logical that the formation of the new government should allow the international community to provide emergency humanitarian aid.
In July, the Pope encouraged us to ask for peace without tiring. "Let us ask for it with insistence for the Middle East and for Lebanon. This beloved country, a treasure of civilization and spirituality, which over the centuries has radiated wisdom and culture, which has witnessed a unique experience of peaceful coexistence, cannot be left at the mercy of fate or of those who unscrupulously pursue their own interests."
On two occasions, the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John narrate that the disciples who were fishermen, guided by Jesus, made very abundant catches, after a night of unsuccessful fishing: they are called the miraculous catches. In this article the miracle of how it could have happened is exposed.
Alfonso Sánchez de Lamadrid Rey-September 11, 2021-Reading time: 12minutes
The two miracles probably took place in present-day Tabgha. The boats they used may have been similar to the boat of the time discovered near Ginosar. It seems that the species of fish they caught on both occasions was the "St. Peter's fish", the tilapia. Sarotherodon galilaeus. The fishing gear perhaps used was the trammel net in the first fishing, and the tarraya in the second.
Finally, the dates can be well defined, at the beginning of Jesus' public life, in the winter of the year 27, and at the end, after his resurrection, in the early spring of the year 29 AD.
Introduction
We are used to reading interpretations of facts and sayings of Jesus in the Gospels. But, for a person who loves Jesus, it may not be enough. He needs to know more, like a person who loves his parents wants to see pictures of when they were young and to know all the details of their life. Many times we would like to know the environment where Jesus lived, his customs, and many details that the Gospels only outline or present as circumstances to explain what is of interest: to foster faith in Jesus Christ in their readers. Therefore, we will approach the Gospel scene from a different point of view than usual; it will be more scientific, that is, taking into account verifiable facts, both from the Gospel narrative as historical, as well as through data of the time, archaeological remains, geographical places or biological data.
The first miraculous catch
The only Evangelist who narrates the first miraculous catch of fish is St. Luke (5:1-11): "Now when the people were crowding around him to hear the word of God, as he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, he saw two boats standing on the shore; the fishermen, who had landed, were washing their nets. Going into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to draw it a little from the land. From the boat he sat down and taught the people.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered and said, "Master, we have been struggling all night and have gathered nothing; but at your word I will let down the nets."
And when they had set to work, they made such a great haul of fish that the nets began to burst. Then they beckoned to their companions, who were in the other boat, to come and lend them a hand. They came and filled both boats, so that they almost sank. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' feet, saying, "Lord, depart from me; for I am a sinful man.
And it was because amazement had seized him and those who were with him, because of the haul of fish which they had caught; and the same thing was happening to James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's companions. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you shall be fishers of men." Then they drew their boats to land, and leaving everything, they followed him.".
Location
The scene takes place in the usual docking place of the boats of the two pairs of brothers: Peter and Andrew, James and John, the fishermen disciples of the Lord. Nun (1989) places it in Taghba. The scene occurs when they are cleaning the nets after an unsuccessful night of fishing, work for which the home port is always chosen, since it requires instruments and materials that are kept on the coast.
The greater abundance of fish in the northern part of Lake Galilee, where there are more harbors and villages than in the southern part of the lake, is well known (Figure 1).
Taghba locality is the closest to the most important area for fishing, especially in winter and spring, also currently. The main reason is that warm water streams flow there where food grows easily that attracts fish (Troche, 2015), especially tilapia and lake sardines (Masterman, 1908; Nun, 1989). This area of the lake has most likely not changed from a climatic, hydrological, geological and fishery point of view since Roman times, the one Jesus knew (Troche, 2005). When the Gospel uses the expression "paddle out to sea"The fact that the fishing at that time was carried out relatively close to the shore, at a maximum of several hundred meters from the coast (Troche, 2015). Some archaeological remains have been found in Taghba that may belong to the ancient port (Nun, 1989), although other authors doubt that these remains are so ancient since most probably the lake level was higher than the current one (Troche, 2015). Since this is a steep area, where a certain depth is quickly reached, the shore constructions were at a similar distance from the water to the present ones.
Figure 1. Lake Galilee in first century Palestine.
Another possibility for the miracle would be the port of Capernaum, where Peter's house is preserved (Gil and Gil, 2019), although that would imply having to sail a distance of about 3 kilometers more each day, both on the way there and on the way back, something that the fishermen avoid as much as possible. For these reasons, the Taghba option seems to us to be the most likely for the miracle to occur (Figure 1).
Boats
According to St. Luke's account, before the fishing, Jesus preached in St. Peter's boat and told him to cast the nets for the fish. He also relates the presence of a second boat, which helps to bring the fish to land, probably that of the brothers John and James, expressly mentioned by the evangelist.
Figure 2. Magdala mosaic artistically depicting a 1st century lake boat.
The remains of the only surviving ancient vessel from Lake Galilee were found buried at the bottom of the lake, between Magdala and Ginosar, in December 1985, a year when the waters were very low due to lack of rain.
The vessel was in relatively good condition, perhaps protected by being mostly buried and submerged in fresh water, where the wood is better preserved than in the sea. The vessel was removed, and is now on display in the museum of Ginosar; it has been dated to the 1st century AD. It is 8 meters long, 2.3 meters beam and 1.3 meters depth (Wachsmann, 1988). The bow is tapered and the stern is rounded; both were probably covered. In the center it had an area that was used for rowing, fishing and transporting goods and people. It had a central mast for sailing, and also oars: four. The sail was probably of the square-rigged type (Lofendel and Frenkel, 2007; Troche, 2015; Wachsmann, 1988).
In an excavation at Magdala, a mosaic was found with a boat of the period that confirms the description made. Although it appears to have three oars on each side, the rear one was actually used as a rudder (Figure 2, Wachsmann, 1988).
This boat is operated by at least four oarsmen and a helmsman, although it can carry more people. The historian Flavius-Joseph describes that Jews used such boats in the first Jewish revolt against Rome (Wachsmann, 1988). In some cases, the capacity can reach 8-12 people, which corresponds to the largest boats that in ancient times fished on the lake, although boats of a smaller size, for 1 or 2 people, have also been described (Troche, 2015).
It seems to us that the characteristics of this boat coincide very well with the one that could have belonged to Peter. The gospel narrative uses the plural for the number of fishermen, in addition to Peter and Jesus himself, who was on board during the miracle. Therefore, we think that the boat corresponds to the largest of the boats on the lake, similar to the one previously described.
Of the second boat of the Gospel narrative, that of John and James, we also have some data in the Gospels. The Gospel of St. Mark, in narrating the vocation of John and James, says (Mk 1:19-20): "A little farther on he saw James of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in the boat going over the nets. Then he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.".
There would, therefore, be five persons in the boat's crew: Zebedee and his two sons, plus two or more servants. Therefore we deduce that the second boat of the story is of the same type as the one described for the miraculous fishing. From the remains found we can draw a fairly close model to what may have been the real one, which is in the museum at Ginosar. The boat has been well described by several authors (Wachsmann, 1988; Lofendel and Frenkel, 2007; Fig. 3).
Figure 3. Reconstruction of the 1st century Ginosar ship. The central mast for the sail, the four oars and the two supporting rudders can be seen.
Fishing gear
The fishing gears that we consider as possible are the three types of nets that were then used in the lake (Troche, 2015; Nun, 1989; Masterman, 1908): the tarraya, the trammel net and the sweep net.
– Supernatural tarraya (Figure 6) is a round net, with weights at the ends and a line in the center with which it is cast. There are several types of tarraya, depending on the size of the fish to be caught, in which the mesh size and the diameter of the net vary. In the lake there were at least three types: for sardines, for tilapia or for barbel (Mastermann, 1908). Its mode of use is to throw it over the school of fish, from a boat or from the shore, where they are caught by the net when their ends fall to the bottom when dragged by the weights.
The trammel (Figure 4) is a rectangular triple net, with buoys at the top and weights at the bottom. It consists of three meshes, the central one with a smaller mesh size than the lateral ones, trapping the fish when it meets the central net. Two boats can be used for fishing. The first one stealthily sets the trammel net parallel to the coast. Once the operation is finished, the second boat scares the fish with noises and movements, which flee hastily towards greater depth, being caught by the trammel net. This operation can be done many times (up to twelve) in one night (Nun, 1989). Skilled fishermen, like the disciples of Jesus, could set a trammel net in a few minutes. This type of net has been used throughout the Mediterranean since time immemorial, and there are indications that it was also used in the lake at that time (Cottica D. and Divari L., 2007; Troche, 2015).
Figure 4. Modern trammel net. Essentially unchanged since antiquity except for the materials from which it is constructed.
– Supernatural sweep net (figure 5) is a unique u-shaped net, with buoys at the top and weights at the bottom, and long lines at the ends that allow several people to pull it from the shore. It is a long net that allows the following operation: a boat departs from the shore, where it has left a group of men with a line connected to one end of the net. From the boat, the net is released, first perpendicular to the shore, then parallel to the shore and finally back to the shore, leaving the net fully deployed. When it is reached, the men in the boat go ashore and begin to pull at the same time on both sides of the net until they pull it ashore, concluding the fishing once the captured fish are pulled ashore.
According to the gospel account, we can rule out the sweep net for the miracle, since a minimum of 10-12 people were needed to set it. The trawl is a singular net, so the use of the plural of the text would lead us to rule it out as possible.
Figure 5. Modern sweep net.
Among the three arts, Nun (1989) thinks that in this miracle a trammel net is used. Gospel's explanation may support this hypothesis, since it presents the two boats of the two pairs of brothers after an unsuccessful night of fishing, when they are cleaning the gillnets on the boat, as it is usually done when it is fishing season (in times of less fishing the cleaning is done in the port or on the shore: Nun, 1989).
As Luke uses the word "networks"The name "trammel net" may refer to the trammel net, which, being made up of several parts, is named in the plural. The catch is so great that they have to ask for help from the other boat so that theirs does not sink under the weight of the fish caught and the wet net. In addition, the presence of a second boat coincides with the trammel net fishing system, which remains to this day in shallow coastal areas. For all these reasons, we agree with Nun that they probably used a trammel net to make the miraculous catch.
Species of fish caught
The only species native to Lake Galilee and of large size that can be caught in such quantities in a single fishing haul is the St. Peter's fish, Sarotherodon galilaeus (Figure 5), along with the other less abundant species of tilapia from the lake, known in the local language as musht.
This species has an annual cycle, with two distinct seasons, one dedicated to feeding and the other to reproduction. During the first, they gather in shoals in the winter months and early spring in the area near Taghba, for feeding reasons (Mastermann, 1908 and Nun, 1989). During the breeding season, breeding pairs disperse throughout the lake. Reproduction takes place by external fertilization of the eggs in a hole made in a rocky area and defended by the parents. As soon as the fry hatch, one of the parents takes care of them, using its mouth as a shelter, and the pair is discarded (Fishbase.us). At the moment of independence, the parent expels the juveniles from the mouth by rubbing stones in it (Nun, 1989).
Nun, a professional fisherman on the lake, comments amusingly that the story as told in the Gospel is a true fisherman's story, because it is a bit exaggerated, as was common on Lake Galilee even in the last century, when there was no overfishing of St. Peter's fish and large catches were made with a single set of trammel nets.
Figure 6. Sarotherodon galilaeus. Common name musht or St. Peter's fish.
Date of the miracle
The miracle could have occurred in the first winter of Jesus' public life, since just after he calls the four fishermen brothers to follow him as disciples. That is to say, it would probably be the winter of the year 27 of our era.
The second miraculous catch
The second miraculous catch of fish is narrated only by St. John (21:1-14): "After this Jesus appeared again to the disciples by the lake of Tiberias. And he appeared in this manner: Now there were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, called the Twin, and Nathanael of Cana of Galilee, and the Zebedee's, and two other of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing". And they said to him, "We also will go with you. So they went out and embarked; and that night they caught nothing.
It was already dawning, when Jesus appeared on the shore; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus says to them, "Boys, have you any fish?" They answered, "No."
He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find. They cast it, and they could not draw it, because of the multitude of fish.
And the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord. When Simon Peter, who was naked, heard that it was the Lord, he tied his tunic and threw himself into the water.
The other disciples approached in the boat, for they were only about two hundred cubits from land, towing the net with the fish.
When they jumped to the ground, they saw some coals with fish on them and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter got into the boat and dragged to shore the net full of large fish: one hundred and fifty-three. And though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, "Come, eat your lunch". None of the disciples dared to ask him who he was, for they knew well that he was the Lord.
Jesus comes and takes the bread and gives it to him, and the fish.
This was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after rising from the dead."
Location, vessel and species
The miracle happens again in the usual port of Pedro's boat, Taghba. An important difference is that in the previous miraculous catch Jesus is in the boat, and in the second one he is on the shore. The boat is again Peter's boat. From land, Jesus could see a school of tilapia, Sarotherodon galilaeus, as is often the case in that area in winter and early spring, indicating where to cast the net.
Figure 6. Launching of the dredge from the shore. It can also be launched from the boat.
Fishing gear
The story narrates an almost immediate temporal relationship between Jesus' command and the miraculous catch of fish. To catch a school of fish in areas close to the shore, the tarraya can be used, either from land or from the boat (Figure 6). As mentioned above, there are specific trawls for tilapia fishing. The gear was cast with great skill by Pedro, and 153 large fish were caught. Normally, a tarraya does not catch that many fish, as they are too many for a net cast with one hand. This fits with the indication that part of the miracle is that the net did not break. We would have to rule out the trammel net, as the school of fish would have easily escaped while setting, or the sweep net, as it would have required at least two boats and many more fishermen.
Date of the miracle
It takes place after the resurrection of Jesus, probably in the spring of the year 29.
TO CONTINUE READING
Cottica D. and Divari L., Spheroid clay weights from the Venetian Lagoon, in: Ancient nets and fishing gear, T. Bekker-Nielsen and D. Bernal., University of Cadiz, Aarhus 2007, pp. 347-363.
Lofendel, L.-Frenkel, R., The boat and the Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem-New York 2007.
Masterman, E. W. G., "The Fisheries of Galilee," in: Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 40, n. 1 (January 1908), pp. 40-51.
Nun, M., The sea of Galilee and its fishermen in the New Testament, Ein Gev 1989.
Troche, F.D., Il sistema della pesca nel lago di Galilea al tempo di Gesù. Indagine sulla base dei papiri documentari e dei dati archeologici e letterari, Bologna 2015.
Stefano Wyszyński and Mother Elizabeth Rose Czacka, the eyes of faith.
In Poland, summer is usually associated with sun and rain, sea and mountains, pilgrimages and trips abroad. But this summer of 2021, the history of Poland and its Church is associated with the beatification of the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński together with the blind nun Mother Elizabeth Rose Czacka, which will take place in Warsaw on September 12.
Customs vary from country to country and place to place, but they always have something in common: they express the idiosyncrasy of the people who live there. In Poland summer is usually associated with sun and rain, sea and mountains, pilgrimages and trips abroad. But the summer of 2021, in the history of Poland and its Church is associated with the beatification of the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński together with the blind nun Mother Elizabeth Rose Czacka, which will take place in the new pantheon temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw on September 12. The purpose of these lines is to explain something of these two great figures and the reasons that led to their joint beatification.
Following one of the above-mentioned summer customs, the young priest Wyszyński went on a trip to Europe in early September 1929. It was not only a vacation, but also part of his theological studies on the social doctrine of the Church and its application in different European countries. He was in Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His main idea was to collect material for the study of Catholic Action and the different European Christian initiatives in the social field, and to unite it with the idea of the lay apostolate that would serve as a basis for explaining Catholic Action, so promoted by Pope Pius XI.
In Rome
It was in Rome where Wyszyński stayed the longest. At the Institute of Social Sciences of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas, the Angelicum, he participated as a listener in the classes of Catholic social ethics. He himself recounts in his diary: "In Rome, at the Angelicum, in the classes of Father Gillet there were six colored Africans and the rest were like in the tower of Babel: English, French, Dutch and others. I counted forty people of thirty different nationalities. The Africans sat alone at the back of the classroom. All around them there were empty seats because no one wanted to sit next to them. So I decided to sit next to them. Then the others came up to me and said: "What are you doing, how come you are sitting with them? And I answered: well, because nobody wants to sit there. It's an invented reason - a Frenchman answered me. And I answered: go on, you go and sit with them. And indeed he did not go. Father Gillet spoke in a really wise way. Once in the corridors of the University I commented to him: Father, why don't you say something that moves the students in such a way that they want to sit with the Africans? Father Gillet who knew languages answers me in Polish: Polaki zawsze walczą za naszą wolność i waszą - Poles always fight for their freedom and ours. I left Rome for Paris and the Africans were still sitting alone...¨.
This episode in the life of the future Primate, Cardinal and Blessed gives an idea of his talent: he was a man determined for freedom, a freedom that has its foundation in the dignity of the human being according to Christian doctrine. He would later write: "At present two worlds, two orders, are fighting against each other: atheistic communism and Christianity. For the Church the struggle is neither new nor extraordinary, for she has never been afraid of confrontation and has never withdrawn from the combat. The Church carries within itself the tradition of the Gospel boat, capsized by tides, from which Christ continues to teach. The Church boat is accustomed to storms and setbacks, and is calm about the outcome of the new and international war of humanity. Why? Because the outcome depends on the foundation. Two great principles are confronted: hatred and love.
Blessed Mother Czacka
Of the life of Cardinal Wyszyński we have a certain knowledge. In this magazine I have published, if memory serves me correctly, two articles on the Primate of Poland explaining his figure and importance in the Polish history of the 20th century. Perhaps it would be good to briefly present the biographical profile of the new Blessed Mother Czacka, her charisma and what unites her with Wyszyński, since she is surely a figure almost totally unknown to the Spanish-speaking reader.
Rosa Maria Czacka was born in 1876 in Biała Cerkwa, in what is now Ukraine. She belonged to a noble, wealthy and intellectual Polish family. She herself was a countess. From childhood she received a deep Christian formation and careful instruction, she spoke five languages. The copy of the Imitation of Christ that she read in French in her childhood is preserved. At the age of seven her family moved to Warsaw where she actively participated in the life of the Warsaw high society at the end of the 19th century.
As a result of a fall from her horse and a congenital disease, she became totally blind at the age of twenty-two. And here is shown one of the main facets of her character and her holiness: fortitude and a determined spirit to get out of evil goods. She learned the Braille system and adopted it to the phonetics of the Polish language, continued her education and wanted to achieve maximum independence from the very beginning. At the same time he dedicated himself to helping other blind people so that they could be useful to society, as he later wrote: "From the intellectual point of view, the blind are not inferior to the sighted. Their intelligence and clarity of judgment, their capacity for abstraction and proper reasoning are not diminished by their blindness, they are on the same level as those who have the visual capacity¨. In his efforts to help the blind, he traveled to Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Germany to study the new teaching methods used in those countries for the blind. He also obtained information from specialized magazines and books on this subject from England and the USA.
As a result of this work, in 1911 he founded the Society for the Care of the Blind. The fundamental criterion of the new society was realized in the maxim - The blind man, a useful man. Contrary to the usage of the beginning of the 20th century, that the blind person was incapable of working and of a life full of usefulness to society, Rosa Czacka wanted this association to promote the human dignity of the blind and help them to integrate into society. A few years later she discovered her vocation as a religious in the work she was doing. She became a Franciscan changing her name from Rosa Maria to Isabel Rosa and in 1918 she founded the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross whose charism was related to that association but with a vision of the Christian faith as true light. She wrote in her statutes: "The main purpose of the congregation is to make reparation to our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blindness of men. We observe the third rule of our father St. Francis, obtaining graces for our blind, we serve them to help them in their own and our support.
With the passage of time, Mother Isabel Rosa was directing her formation so that the blind would want, as she herself did, to accept the weight of the cross of blindness as an offering to God to make reparation for those who see but do not have faith, and in this way be apostles of the blind in the soul, making them see the values of the spirit. We want to realize the ideal of the blind person who totally assumes his blindness and carries it as a cross of which he is neither ashamed nor rebels, but accepts it as coming from the hands of God and in this way, by his good acceptance, becomes a source of grace and strength for himself and for others. We do not want to treat the affairs of the blind only in a supernatural way or as alms. Seeing things in a modern way we want to understand the psychology of the blind person to show him all the human possibilities he has, his place in society, his work and obligations. We also treat the problem of the blind person as a social problem. In 1922 he bought a large estate on the outskirts of Warsaw, near the Kampinoska woods in Laski. And to this day they have their main center of action there, to which they gave the name Triuno in honor and glory of the Triune God. In this center, since its beginnings, three groups of people are gathered and formed: blind people, sisters of the Congregation and lay people, among the latter, Mother Isabel Rosa dedicated special attention to the intellectuals. Its three goals are: education, apostolate and charity.
What unites Blessed Mother Czacka and Wyszyński.
What unites Mother Elizabeth Czacka with Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński? The war, and in particular the Warsaw Uprising. At the beginning of the world conflict, in September 1939, Mother Elizabeth suffered severe wounds as a result of Nazi bombing. She offered all her ailments so that the evil of war would cease and love would overcome hatred. She said to her spiritual daughters: "We must not allow the least bitterness or bad feelings against anyone, not even against our enemies whom we are obliged to love and pray for. Let us ask the Heart of Jesus to fill us with his grace, a grace so great that we can love everyone and especially our enemies. Her attitude of Christian love towards the invading army did not consist in a total resignation before the unjust occupation, Mother Elizabeth always defended the right to self-defense. She encouraged to pray and offer sacrifices so that the "animosity of the enemies" would change and when a necessary encounter arose, it would always be necessary to behave before them "with the dignity proper to a man who is virtuous, well educated and knows how to treat his neighbor".
These were not empty words. In fact a few wounded soldiers or lost parachutes of the German army were cared for in Triuno. In the archives of the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross is a letter from a German officer thanking them for the help given to wounded German soldiers in September 1939. In the first months of the beginning of the war, this German officer approached Laski to thank her for the humane care the wounded had received. The Foundress, unaware of the reasons for his presence, did not want to receive him. She agreed to attend to him when she learned the reason for his visit. From then on the German officer always addressed her as 'sehr heilege Mutter' - very holy Mother.
With the Warsaw Uprising, in the forests of Kampinoska began the battle on the part of the National Army AK (Arma Krajowa). For the reader unfamiliar with the Second World War, I would like to remind that in Warsaw there were two uprisings against the Nazi occupation. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (19.IV-16.V 1943 - 7000 Jews killed and 40.000 deported to concentration camps - German casualties: certainly less than a hundred soldiers - ghetto in a 100% destroyed) and the Warsaw Uprising (1.VIII-2.X 1944 - 70.000 Polish soldiers killed, 200.000 Polish civilians killed, 550.000 civilians deported from Warsaw - 30.000 German soldiers killed - city in a 85% destroyed). The data give an idea of the drama experienced.
Isabel Czacka gave her full consent for her employees in Laski to collaborate with the AK guerrilla soldiers. Despite the risk she ran, she allowed weapons and supplies for the guerrillas to pass through her land. To the doubts of the AK commander, if they did not risk the lives of the nuns, the children and the blind of Laski, Mother Elizabeth replied: "The decision to fight was resolved in 1939: fight for freedom, and that decision obliges us today and now". However, as the person in charge of the entire compound, she did not allow any violent action against the enemy to take place within the vast grounds of Triuno. The complex was guarded and frequently searched by the Gestapo who were looking for AK soldiers. Even in the moments of greatest danger no AK soldiers who took refuge there were ever surrendered. Mother Elizabeth with her presence and dignity gave courage and security to all, and she also made sure that everyone would be confessed in case the worst happened.Mother's availability was also manifested when the German troops sent their division consisting of Ukrainians and Mongols through that area. Many young girls and women with children came to the Laski complex seeking protection and were always welcomed there. One of them recalls that "Mother Elizabeth had a strong faith that nothing bad would happen in her compound. And so it was: the madness of the soldiers did not reach us, there was like an invisible barrier protecting Laski.
This article will be continued with a second part.
Afghanistan. The thousand faces of a land scarred by war.
Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, Afghanistan has been embroiled in numerous wars and conflicts, which have driven millions of Afghans into exile. At the same time, its population has tripled in 40 years, and has grown by 90 percent in the last 20 years.
Rafael Miner-September 11, 2021-Reading time: 4minutes
The relationship between economic progress, stability and employment, and a nation's fertility is not usually correlated, not even in Afghanistan. In a country like Afghanistan, embroiled in endless wars and conflicts from 1979 until now, more than four decades, the population has tripled. And under Western occupation with an end that we are seeing these weeks, its population has grown by more than 90 percent, to almost 40 million inhabitants, plus 2.6 million refugees, most of them in Pakistan (1.4) and Iran (1). It is therefore approaching Spain, which had 47 million inhabitants in 2019.
In the middle of the 20th century, in 1950, Spaniards numbered 28 million, and Afghans, just under 7.8 million. Now, Afghans number about 43 million, including refugees, only a few million less than the Spanish population. "Sixty years ago, large European countries had many more children and young people than Afghanistan, then sparsely populated. Now, those European nations have the same or fewer children or young people than then (they would be even fewer without the children of non-European immigrants), while Afghanistan has many more than any of them. There, much poorer and with less life expectancy, they have had many more children," explains Alejandro Macarrón, founder and general director of Demographic Renaissance.
Without the children of immigrants from outside the European Union at 28 (Africans or Asians, as well as many Ibero-Americans in Spain), there would be even fewer children under the age of 20 in Europe now. And "the spectacular turnaround" 1960-2020 in this age segment that represents the future in relation to Afghanistan would be even more noticeable, the consultant adds, especially in countries such as France and the United Kingdom, "whose total child and youth population today is more or less the same as in 1960, but which would be nowhere near the same without the children and grandchildren of African and Asian immigrants".
Another interesting fact is that in 1950, "the median age of the population (which divides it into two equal halves), was 27.5 years in Spain and 19.4 years in Afghanistan. While in 2020 it was 44.9 years in Spain, and 18.4 years for the Afghans (less than in 1950!)".
In relation to the wars, the birth rate and demographics, Alejandro Macarrón states that fertility in the United States began to grow incipiently even before World War II, and continued after the end of the conflict. This phenomenon also occurred in other allied countries such as France, especially during Nazi-occupied France.
Brief radiography
Four decades of conflict and violence have driven millions of Afghans into exile. The wars have caused enormous suffering, and the humanitarian situation in the country is critical, notes the UN agency for Refugees (UNHCR).
Since the beginning of the year, some 400,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, joining another 2.9 million Afghans who remain displaced inside the country.
These decades have made Afghanistan "the least peaceful country in the world," says UNHCR. The Afghan country is also one of the territories most exposed to natural disasters, such as drought, which affects 80 % of the population. "In addition, because of the pandemic, nine million people have lost their livelihoods, and new waves threaten to further exacerbate chronic poverty. All of this has an impact on the nutrition of the population: 45 % suffer from malnutrition."
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has warned that once the evacuations in Afghanistan are completed, the millions of Afghans remaining in the country will need humanitarian aid from the international community.
Discrimination against women
Journalists and analysts of various tendencies have analyzed what has happened in recent years in the Afghan nation. Since the arrival of the Taliban to power between 1994, when they took Kabul, and 1996, when they controlled 90 % of the territory, the discriminatory treatment of women, derived from a strict application of the 'Sharia', which seriously affects human rights, began to be perceived.
Among other provisions are the prohibition of women working outside the home, with some medical exceptions; the prohibition of leaving the house for any activity if not accompanied by a close male relative; or the veto of women's sports and the closing of business dealings with men, as reported by several media outlets.
Sociologically, the low life expectancy of Afghan women (66 years), almost 20 years less than in Spain; the figure of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births (638), or the high rate of teenage mothers, according to data collected by newtral.es of the World Bank and UN Women.
Walls for immigrants
A few days ago, Pope Francis once again greeted with affection homeless people and numerous Afghans who had recently escaped from Kabul after the arrival of the Taliban regime, as reported by this portal. Among them were four brothers between 20 and 14 years old, who arrived in Italy thanks to the support of the Community of Sant'Egidio. According to the Sala Stampa of the Holy See, "at the end of the screening of the documentary 'Francis,' organized by the director and the Laudato si' Foundation, the Holy Father arrived in the atrium of the Paul VI Hall and spoke with approximately 100 people, homeless and refugees, invited to watch the film." Afterwards, the Pope returned to Casa Santa Marta and the organizers distributed food packages to everyone.
It is an example of the attitude that, once again, the Pope shows towards migrants and refugees, in this case Afghans, or in 2015 Syrians also fleeing from war. Welcoming and integration.
In the meantime, however, anti-immigrant walls erected by European countries to prevent the arrival of migrants from Africa, the Middle East or other neighboring countries are proliferating. In recent days, Greece has completed 40 kilometers of wall on the border with Turkey, while Poland and Lithuania have approved the construction of new barriers along the border with Belarus.
On the other hand, there are already 200 kilometers of barbed wire, turrets, etc. between Bulgaria and Turkey. Hungary has erected several hundred kilometers of fences along the border with Croatia and Serbia, while Austria has built a three-kilometer fence with Slovenia, which erected another 200 kilometers with Croatia. In addition, as is well known, fences of several kilometers separate the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla with Morocco, and Great Britain was considering placing nets in the English Channel to prevent the arrival of small boats.
If we refer to America, the best known is the one that affects part of the U.S.-Mexico border, which has a total of 3,142 kilometers. Before Trump came to the White House, there were already barriers or separation fences on about 1,000 kilometers. Due to funding difficulties, and other factors, the former president was only able to build 300 miles (480 kilometers) of the border wall," as reported by the BBC.
To love the world around us with a maternal heart requires a formative effort to understand it. For one cannot love what one does not understand. Each person must consider the means and the time available for this formation.
Luis Herrera-September 11, 2021-Reading time: 9minutes
Continuation of the first part of these reflections on the Christian presence in today's society. If the first part focused on the analysis of the situation of our society, this second part highlights attitudes and possible ways to understand this reality and arrive at this assessment.
Understand
What is relativism? In a very simple and brief way, we could say that it is a negative, totalitarian and self-destructive religion.
Religion in negative
It means that it is not, as one might think, an egalitarian stance. It is not a mother who opens her arms and welcomes all cultural proposals indistinctly. Relativism is the positive exclusion of the opinion in favor of the existence of absolute truths. It is not that it "relativizes" Christianity, but that it is openly anti-Christian, anti-religious.
Totalitarian
This excluding position is self-justified in the name of science, peace and freedom. Of science, because only the experimental would deserve the category of truth. Of peace, because absolute affirmations would be potentially intolerant. Of freedom, because only relativism would allow everyone to live as they see fit, without arbitrary external impositions.
In short, a consecration of moral self-determination. So that the individual who possesses the necessary intellectual and moral stature to dissent, instead of being considered a hero, will be singled out and expelled from the system.
Relativistic ideology colonizes the notion of "law". It cuts some that were considered fundamental, such as individual conscientious objection (as in the case of doctors in the case of abortion) or institutional objection (as in the case of certain health institutions in the case of euthanasia), the right to parental authority (of parents with respect to their children over 14 years of age in matters of gender), or educational freedom (imposing programs without regard to the moral and religious convictions of the parents).
On the contrary, relativism indefinitely expands the portfolio of "individual subjective rights".. Every desire must be elevated to the category of right, as long as it does not harm social coexistence: abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, the equalization of all affective unions, gender self-determination, etc.
And going a step further, relativism allies itself with neo-Marxist thought in what has been called "woke culture". It consists of the generation of identity groups that consider themselves retaliated against and rise up to demand justice from their victimizers. These groups may be made up of women, or people of color, or of a certain affective inclination, or indigenous people, or atheists... And in front of them, as a common enemy, those who for centuries have had the cultural and political monopoly.
Self-destructive.
Every day, the news reports contain news of gender violence, racism, illegal immigration, political corruption, demographic winter, school failure, youth suicide, or botellones in the middle of covid... Dysfunctions that become chronic, because their moral roots are not recognized, and only the symptoms are fought.
We need only think of the scant success that the tightening of laws, the establishment of courts, telephones, restraining orders and bracelets are having on gender violence... Or the surprising survival and even periodic resurgence of racism. If the absolute dignity of persons is not recognized, all the rest are insufficient means.
Atheist philosopher Douglas Murray believes that post-Christian society is faced with three choices. The first is to abandon the idea that all human life is precious. Another is to work frantically to create an atheistic version of the sanctity of the individual. And if that doesn't work, there is only a return to faith, like it or not.
Jesus reproaches their unbelief to the cities where he has lived, preached and performed miracles: Woe to you Chorazin, woe to you BethsaidaOn the other hand, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, famous for their estrangement from God, will be judged with less rigor because they have received less. The history of Israel progresses through cycles of infidelity to Yahweh, chastisement and return. A paradigmatic episode is the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the deportation of its inhabitants to Babylon. The Western Roman Empire also paid for its moral decadence with its invasion by barbarian peoples.
Even today, the West is in a phase of decomposition. Many years ago, St. Josemaría prophetically warned that "an entire civilization is tottering helplessly and without moral resources. In the curricula of the high school graduates of 2050, relativism will probably not be a cross-cutting criterion, but a subject of contemporary history.
In short, if today's world generates in us bewilderment, insecurity, fear, anger, or the desire to defend ourselves with the same weapons, perhaps we do not understand it. We lack training.
If, on the other hand, it provokes mercy, tenderness or pity in us, we understand it, and we participate in the same feelings of Christ. Something like what a father or mother feels before a child who is anorexic, or drug addict, or who is simply at the age of turkey, and makes life very difficult, impossible even, is very irritating, goes against the grain in everything. If they understand his problem, they will feel mercy, they will try to help him with strength, but they will not consider him an enemy: it is precisely in these situations that the uniqueness of the family bond is manifested.
Loving the world around us with a maternal heart requires a formative effort to understand it. Because one cannot love what one does not understand. Each of us must consider the means and the time we have available for this formation: participation - in person or not - in courses and talks, reading, listening to podcasts, spiritual direction....
Reality
To the extent that we understand and love our world, we will be able to help it. The desire to do so is not enough. We have to be right about what it needs. Relativism is an autoimmune system, which fights its defenses, and therefore can only be helped from the outside. This means two things:
1. As opposed to the woke culture, which promotes the identity confrontation of groups and ideas, to pay attention first to the concrete person.
2. Faced with the post-truth that shamelessly manipulates the discourse in favor of ideology, appeal first of all to real experiences.
This summer I had the privilege of making a pilgrimage to Santiago. After praying at the tomb of the Apostle, walking through the city we were surprised by a young woman who offered to all passers-by the tasting of a famous sweet. The next day, when we were about to return, someone suggested buying some typical product to take to the families. We remembered the establishment from the day before, we went and we were attended by someone with an extraordinary commercial talent. Almost without exchanging words, he took some little crystal glasses out of the fridge and offered us a delicious herb liqueur, followed by the best Santiago cake imaginable, and a series of tastings so long that it would be impolite to describe it. Such magnanimous treatment resulted in us leaving the establishment laden with packages. I was later able to verify on Instagram that this is house policy. The same saleswoman explained it to us like this: "I know that, if they try it, they will take it".
The time has come for Christians to have the same business policy: to offer the possibility of tasting what we have, because many will take it. Others will not appreciate it, but if our product is really good, in the face of their rejection we will feel tenderness, mercy; not anger, failure or frustration.
The post-truth era is the era of reality. Truth is a statement about something; reality is that something that truth is about. If I write that it is cool here in Burgos today, whoever reads me in another time and place may or may not believe it. But whoever is in Burgos today will experience it, will say: "this is real, I am feeling it myself". Today it is necessary to experience faith as reality. These experiences can be multiple, but I would like to focus on three.
Love. God's love for everyone is experienced in charity. It is felt in the friendship of the authentic Christian I meet; in the hospitality of the Christian group, which is not exclusive, but welcomes everyone with open arms - regardless of their political thinking, or their affective inclination; in the love of Christian marriage: because logically we have the right to propose love between a man and a woman, faithful and open to life: whoever wants to try this product will find that it is very good (on the other hand, to confuse it with "homophobia" is a worrying symptom of "logophobia"); and finally, preferential attention to those most in need: the poor, the sick, the elderly... If these loves born of faith are superior to conventional loves, then they will produce a kind of wound, like that of the arrow that pierces the heart. The heart will be moved and will say: "this is true, this is superior".
The light
In the old comics, when a character came up with an idea, a light bulb would be drawn on. Sometimes, in the middle of a walk or under the shower, you discover the solution to a problem you didn't know how to solve before. This feeling of "I've seen it!" is also produced by faith when it illuminates existential questions: the meaning of life, of pain and pleasure, or what there is after death, or what happiness consists of. These questions, which everyone asks because they are natural, do not receive any answer today. But a life that turns its back on these questions is inauthentic. And yet the proposal of faith fits perfectly with reason and the heart. It is like the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot. As Tertullian said, "anima naturaliter christiana".
In addition to answering existential questions, faith also provides a framework for scientific progress. Neuroscience and paleoanthropology, astronomy and physics, are constantly making discoveries. But their data are partial and specialized, and if they claim to explain everything, they cease to be science and become ideology. Science is like a balloon of knowledge that is swelling, and in that same measure its surface of contact with mystery increases. The more science, the more mystery.
Science and faith cannot conflict if each respects its own method. Otherwise, one and the other degenerate into ideology. An economist turned artist titled one of his books: "Do you really believe that you are just skin and bones? Surely not. As a young woman said to her materialist boyfriend: "If you think I'm just a bundle of cells, then you don't love me". I am the subject of unique and unrepeatable ideas, convictions, projects, virtues and loves.
The Event
The essence of Christianity is neither a moral nor an idea, but a Person. In Capernaum, after the Eucharistic discourse, all are scandalized and leave. Jesus does not qualify his words, but places his Twelve on the threshold of abandonment: "Do you also want to go away? Peter replies, "Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life." He does not say "where would we go?": very close by, in Capernaum, he has family, house and profession, like those who have left. What distinguishes them is the experience of Christ. Neither do they understand the promise of the Eucharist, but they have seen him multiply loaves, calm storms and raise the dead, and they know that what the Lord says "goes to Mass".
As Benedict XVI masterfully taught, even today one begins to be a Christian through an encounter with the glorious Christ, contemporary and fellow citizen of every person. An event that takes place in the Sacraments, the liturgy and prayer. This summer, on a stage of the Camino, a pilgrim confided to me that he was unemployed and that his wife had just left him. But, surprisingly, he added that when things were going well for him he did not remember God, whereas now he had discovered that only God understood and helped him. I advised him to take advantage of his stay in Santiago during this Holy Year to make a good confession, and he replied: "Yes, I have to do it because I have never gone to confession". We can imagine the joy of this man, after the merciful embrace of Christ, what a unique experience: who else can forgive sins, who else can reconcile with oneself and with God!
It is also through the contemplation of the Gospel that Christ becomes palpable. A way of entering the scenes that highlights their topicality for me. Chekhov was rather agnostic, but among his stories he had a predilection for one entitled "The Student". It tells the story of a bachelor of theology who returns home for the Easter vacations. On Holy Thursday he attends services, and on Friday he takes a long walk. On his way back, he crosses the grounds of a house, on the porch of which a mother and daughter are warming themselves by the fire. He approaches them to converse, and they recall a similar scene that the three of them know well and have just heard in the services of the previous day: when Peter, warming himself by the fire, denies the Lord three times, Jesus looks at him, goes outside and weeps bitterly. To his surprise, those women - the two of them - begin to weep also. The student continues on his way, reflecting: If Vasilisa burst into tears and her daughter was moved, it was evident that what he had told, what had happened nineteen centuries before, was related to the present, to the two women and, probably, to that deserted village, to himself and to the whole world. If the old woman burst into tears it was not because he was able to tell it in a moving way, but because Peter was close to her and because she was interested with all her being in what had happened in Peter's soul. A sudden joy stirred her soul, and she even had to stop to catch her breath. "The past," he thought, "and the present are linked by an unbroken chain of events that emerge from each other. And it seemed to him that he had just seen the two ends of that chain: when he touched one of them, the other vibrated. Then he crossed the river on a raft and then, as he climbed the hill, he gazed at his native village and the west, where a cold purple light shone in the sunset streak. Then he thought that the truth and beauty that had guided human life in the garden and in the palace of the high pontiff had continued without interruption to the present time and would always constitute the most important thing in human life and in the whole earth. The events of Christ's life happen today, and they happen to me.
***
Perhaps after the current Christianophobia will come a post-secular stage, and then the Christian springtime that St. John Paul II already announced in 1987. The saints see very far ahead. It is not infrequently necessary for something to break down completely before it can be fixed. In any case, "the apostle is not more than his Master", and the agents of the new evangelization have to show Christ. They must be saints rather than intellectuals. Martyrs rather than social warriors. Witnesses rather than teachers. Friends before polemicists. Proactive rather than reactive. Cheerful rather than cantankerous. Hopeful rather than overcast. Laymen rather than priests. Women rather than men. Leon Bloy used to say: "When I want to know the latest news, I read the Apocalypse". There we are given the sign of a fragile Woman, about to give birth in front of an enormous dragon, "clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and crowned with twelve stars".
Professor, doctor and head of the cardiology department of a Budapest hospital, a charismatic Klaus Maria Brandauer (Memories of Africa) is forced into a retirement in which he feels empty. Drowning in his free time and feeling useless, he returns to his hometown to become a family doctor, following in the wake of his late father. There he finds meaning, reunions, music, beauty, and the condemnation of a man of judgment.
Although the starting gun of the film is a well-worn story, The Budapest doctor is a complex film, disguised as a simple fable with bucolic overtones, where the veil of quiet country life is gradually torn away by the growing witch-hunt of the mediocre and dull, the gossipy and envious ("Small town, big hell"However, the film combines ups and downs with mastery, escaping from this dullness and desolation with great performances of some charismatic protagonists, and sweetening everything with music.
The play displays a cast that is not to be missed, each character being a subject worthy of interest: A possessive mother eager to be relevant again; a mayor who takes advantage of people's illusions and crushes with slander anyone who opposes him; a congregation of bored, envious and fearful people who serve as spokesmen for the regime.... A priest who tries to do good in the midst of a flock whose fear and envy is greater than love; a widowed, attractive, fulfilled and happy music teacher who ignores what people ruminate behind her back; an anonymous and lonely man always sitting on the same bench in the village.
Academy Award winner for Mephisto and a Catholic from a Jewish family, István Szabo directs and writes this feature film with biographical overtones (a frustrated medical vocation and having been a Soviet informer) where music rises as muse, beginning and end ("...").you were always faithful to the music."The film's main character's wife tells him) and there are many ethical and moral conflicts that arise. However, perhaps the most important is the denunciation of the new repression, which also occurs from the power and weaving webs of social censorship that result in the suffocation and ostracism of its victims.
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The months of pandemic have shown precisely that, in education, there is an essential tandem: that of the teacher-student, and that this relationship requires closeness, contact and presence.
Javier Segura-September 10, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
The new school year begins with a desire to start over, as José Luis Garci would say in his mythical film. And we begin again with that tension of the desire to return to normality and the necessary prudence required by the pandemic situation that our educational administrations have regulated.
This desire to recover normality, which involves many facets of school life, has for me a particularly important element: rediscovering the transcendence of the figure of the teacher and, more specifically, the need for presence in the educational process.
We have lived through a time of pandemic that has forced us to work telematically and in which videoconferencing has become a common working tool, both among ourselves and with students.
But, although we have been dazzled by the possibilities they opened up to us (being able to meet without leaving home, saving on travel, being united from all points of the planet...), we have also realized that this on-line work entails limitations (the non-separation of work and personal areas, talking to black screens behind which we assumed our students were, the disconnection of work dynamics and effort....).
Technology has an almost magical breath. For many, it is the panacea for all of humanity's needs, including those of education. But these months have shown us precisely that in education there is an essential tandem: the teacher-student, and that this relationship requires proximity, contact and presence.
Basically, education is a communication of life rather than of knowledge. And life is not transmitted in the same way through a screen. The teacher, just by standing in front of the disciple, is already telling him 'this is the way the world is'. He shows him in his way of speaking, in his evaluations, in his way of behaving and relating, how people should be and how they should live in society.
In education, there is an essential tandem: that of the teacher-student, and that this relationship requires closeness, contact and presence.
Javier Segura
Most teachers experience this in a joyful way when you meet former students, perhaps already with their own children, who are visibly happy to see you and tell you how important you were in their lives. Because for a child, for an adolescent, the teacher is undoubtedly one of those reference figures, a teacher of life.
Recovering presentiality means returning to the essence of education and rediscovering the value of the teacher in this process. The child does not educate himself alone, although he is the main protagonist of the process. His parents, his teachers, play a key role in this growth. They are guides, references, they teach, they provide keys to the interpretation of reality, they unite with their roots and traditions, they provide security and confidence... And no machine, no matter how intelligent it may be, can replace this action.
That presentiality that makes you live with the master, learn from him, that his ways of seeing life stick to you, is what St. Ignatius of Loyola proposes in his Spiritual Exercises, when he asks us to contemplate the scenes of Christ's life with the five senses, as 'if we were present', which I have taken as the title of the article.
The saint from Guipuzcoa, like all the great masters, was well aware of the shaping value of this presentiality. May we also discover it and know how to recover it, combining it with all the positive contributions that, undoubtedly, technology also brings.
"Young people are needed to resist the aging of the soul."
In his audience with the General Chapter of the Claretians, Pope Francis urged them to be bold in their mission and to "put their lives on the line" for the defense of human dignity.
The Holy Father Francis addressed an audience with the participants in the General Chapter of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, also known as Claretians, this morning in the Apostolic Palace.
"It is a great joy for me to welcome your General Chapter," the Pope began, referring to the renewal of the Superior General, Father Vattamattam: "I congratulate Father Mathew Vattamattam, to whom the capitulars have renewed their confidence by re-electing him as Superior General. With him, I greet the confreres who have been elected to form the new government of the Institute. May the Spirit of the Lord be upon you at all times so that, as missionaries, you may proclaim the Good News to the poor (cf. Lk 4:19) and to all who hunger for the Word that saves (cf. Is 55:10-11).
Taking the theme of the Chapter, "Rooted and bold," as a guiding thread, the Holy Father commented that this means being rooted in Jesus: "This presupposes a life of prayer and contemplation that leads them to be able to say like Job: 'I knew you only by hearsay, but now my eyes have seen you' (Jb 42:5). A life of prayer and contemplation that allows them to speak, as friends, face to face with the Lord (cf. Ex 33:11). A life of prayer and contemplation that allows you to contemplate the Mirror, which is Christ, so that you may become a mirror for others.
Pope Francis listens to Father Mathew Vattamattam, superior general of the Claretian Missionaries, on September 9, 2021.
Moreover, the Pope emphasized the Claretian missionary character: "You are missionaries: if you want your mission to be truly fruitful, you cannot separate mission from contemplation and a life of intimacy with the Lord. If you want to be witnesses, you cannot stop being adorers. Witnesses and adorers are two words that are found in the heart of the Gospel: "He called them to be with him and to send them out to preach" (Mk 3:14). Two dimensions that nourish each other, that cannot exist one without the other".
The Pope also commented on the second part of the Chapter's motto, explaining that this "orientation will make them audacious in the mission, as audacious was the mission of Father Claret and of the first missionaries who joined him. Consecrated life requires audacity and needs older people who resist the aging of life, and young people who resist the aging of the soul".
Francis assures that "this conviction will lead you to go out, to set out and go where no one wants to go, where the light of the Gospel is needed, and to work side by side with the people. Your mission cannot be "from a distance", but from closeness, proximity. In the mission, you cannot be content to stand on the balcony, to observe with curiosity from a distance. We can balcony in front of the reality or commit ourselves to change it. Following the example of Fr. Claret, you cannot be mere spectators of reality. Take part in it, to transform the realities of sin that you find on the way. Do not be passive in the face of the dramas that many of our contemporaries live, but rather play your part in the struggle for human dignity and respect for the fundamental rights of the person. Let yourselves be touched by the Word of God and the signs of the times, and in the light of the Word and the signs of the times reread your own history, your own charism, remembering that consecrated life is like water, if it does not flow it rots. Making a deuteronomic memory of the past, let yourselves be replenished with the lymph of the charism. This will make of your lives a prophetic life that will also make it possible to awaken and enlighten the world.
Play your part in the struggle for human dignity and respect for fundamental human rights.
Pope FrancisAudience with the General Chapter of the Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Holy Father again urged them to put the center in Jesus, and to "place your security in Him and in Him alone who is all good, the highest good, the true security. I believe that this could be one of the best fruits of this pandemic that has called into question so many of our false securities. I also hope that the Chapter has led you to focus on the essential elements that define consecrated life today: consecration, which values the relationship with God; fraternal life in community, which gives priority to an authentic relationship with our brothers and sisters; and mission, which leads you to go out, to decentralize yourselves in order to go out to meet others, especially the poor, to bring Jesus to them.
Finally, he thanked them for "all the apostolic work and reflection on consecrated life that you have carried out during these years. May the Spirit guide you in this noble task.
Keys and challenges for the Spanish Church in the coming years
The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Juan José Omella, and the secretary general and spokesman of the institution, Bishop Luis Argüello, have presented Faithful to the missionary sending, the document that marks the lines of pastoral action of the Spanish Church in the coming years.
To recover the Catholic presence and voice in today's world with a true missionary thrust. To welcome the concerns of so many people who pursue the desire for eternity in ideological postulates. To transform confrontations into calls for dialogue and reconciliation. These are some of the key objectives that the Spanish church, through the document Faithful to the missionary sending, is set for the coming years. The document was presented at the Casa de la Iglesia by the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Juan José Omella, and the secretary general and spokesman of the institution, Bishop Luis Argüello.
Referring to this document that gathers the lines of action for the Spanish Church in the coming years, the President of the Spanish Bishops, by way of introduction, gave an analogous example of a "family house, solid, which is valid but which, with the passage of time, needs new reforms" and encouraged a necessary renewal of missionary zeal in today's society in which Catholics can encounter so much resistance before which they must proclaim their firmness in the faith. We need courageous witnesses in our world", stressed the Archbishop of Barcelona.
An idea that has subsequently stressed to the media in attendance: "Sometimes we have a bit of cowardice and we have to say with normality what we think, or live as values" . In this sense Omella has recovered the phrase of Pope Francis in the interview granted to Cadena Cope on September 1 "to reconcile with one's own history. Love what you are: these are my values and I want to live them. Without imposing them
Our world lives as if God did not exist
The most intense explanation and reflection on the document was given by the Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, who began his speech by affirming that the work on this document was "an exercise of internal collegiality that helps, in this great ecclesial moment, to recognize that we are making the history of the Church together" as Pope Francis asks in view of the next Synod of Bishops that has been presented these days.
"The Lord goes ahead of us" stressed Bishop Arguëllo who emphasized how the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the Magisterium of the last pontiffs, from Paul VI to Francis, and the work of the Spanish Episcopal Conference itself, especially in the Congress of the Laity held in 2019, have been the basis of preparation for these lines of action of the Spanish Church.
In this line, he stressed that the Church looks "with concern and benevolence" at the reality of a society "that lives as if God did not exist," in which ideologies have triumphed over reality and which shows an integral detachment of the person who becomes an individual separated from any family, social or even personal bond with his own body.
Recovering the family
Argüello also wanted to highlight how "The new neoliberal capitalism, the anthropological turn, the destruction of family ties, the enthronement of feelings, have, as a whole, a catalyzing element: the understanding of the family as an expression of human anthropology" and with it, also the change in the concept of society as a family of families.
The Secretary General of the EEC wanted to emphasize that the Church's proposal is an integral proposal and that it is a mistake to separate into compartments of "moral issues" or "political issues" matters that concern human dignity such as the fundamental rights of life, freedom translated into issues such as abortion, euthanasia, freedom of education, etc... etc.
Dialogue and welcome
Bishop Argüello emphasized that "all the new rights that we see society demanding are rooted in the deepest fabric of human existence, which is why they are attractive to young people." "Our challenge is to welcome those who have these concerns and to initiate a dialogue with society." To do this, it is necessary to set aside the idea that currently persists in many sectors that "the proposal of dialogue carries with it phobic behavior when the opposite is true."
All this, with the aim of overcoming the constructivist proposal that is observed in much of the world and that presupposes "a total destruction of everything that has gone before".
Argüello pointed out - following the text of the document - the obvious difficulty of this task, with internal and external difficulties, although he stressed that the task of the Church goes beyond the temporal situation.
In relation to the reform of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Argüello emphasized the importance of the fact that each Episcopal Commission has indicated in this document which tasks and action plans "it assumes as its own and which it will share with other commissions".
Surprise and sorrow for Solsona
The case of the recent resignation of the Bishop of Solsona has been one of the questions raised by the media. A matter of which Omella has pointed out that he knew nothing about. "I was surprised by the fact, like everyone else. I share the pain of his family, of the church of Solsona and the whole church of Catalonia". The president of the EEC and Archbishop of Barcelona has encouraged "not to make a morbid novel and crush people" but to "value so many bishops, priests, fathers of families who live faithfully their vocation".
Return to dialogue in education
Asked about a possible meeting with the Minister of Education, the president of the EEC, said that there are meetings planned and is hopeful about this possibility of dialogue that opens in relation to the LOMLOE, processed in an express way and without the consensus or input from educational employers, teachers and parents' associations. In this sense, Omella has reiterated his confidence in the dialogue because "we are all working for the common good and we want to contribute from our place".
An Afghan girl waits with her family to board a U.S. Air Force plane at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Following the Taliban takeover of the country, thousands of people have fled Afghanistan as refugees.
St. Josemaría Escrivá titled one of his homilies: "Passionately loving the world". Today it could be paraphrased: to love to this world passionately. A commitment that, far from being something good or voluntary, requires serious personal work.
Luis Herrera-September 9, 2021-Reading time: 4minutes
In this first part, the author makes a first analysis of the reality in which the Western world is moving from a society based, more or less, on Christian principles and values to a situation of rejection of these bases.
Post-Christianity
The "mysteries of light" of the Holy Rosary have the common denominator of the Twelve. Jesus devoted himself for months, perhaps years, to their formation. On one occasion he sent them out on apostolic practices two by two, giving them instructions. They returned enthusiastic, because the demons submitted to them in his name. Finally, on the day of Pentecost, he sent them out to preach the Gospel throughout the world.
Since then, the history of this region we call Europe has been marked by Christianity. However, four stages should be distinguished.
1. Evangelization
With the coming of the Holy Spirit the Church was born. The apostles and their successors spread in all directions, preaching communion with the incarnate God and brotherly love. In hiding, and periodically persecuted, they carried the faith to the ends of the Empire.
–Christianity. Things changed substantially in the fourth century, when a Rome in decline declared Christianity the official religion of the Empire. The end of the persecutions and the consequent expansion of the Church brought with it positive but also negative effects, such as the confusion between the religious and political spheres, or the massification of Christianity and a decline in the "quality" of its spiritual life.
After the invasion of the barbarian peoples, a new mode of social organization was forged. The population is structured in three estates. The nobility, in charge of government. The common people, in charge of production. And the clergy, dedicated to spiritual, but also cultural and scientific tasks: astronomy, biology, physics, music, literature... This medieval mode of organization lasted until modernity.
–Modernity. Statal and guild civilization became permeable with the emergence of the bourgeoisie. Modern culture and science were born from the hands of lay people, all of them Christians, but without the spiritual life and formation necessary to cultivate them in dialogue with the faith. The spectacular successes of these disciplines ended up modifying the very concept of truth. In classical culture, what was real was considered true, and was apprehended through contemplation.
In modernity the canon of truth passes to the achievements of science and reflection. And advancing a little further to the Enlightenment, it is considered that truth is not to be found in the past or in the present, but in the future: truth is what science may one day achieve. Reality appears as indefinitely moldable by man. The concept of creation is replaced by that of nature.
–Postmodernism. Painful experiences - especially the two world wars - showed that scientific progress is ambiguous, and the modern utopia of building a paradise on earth was abandoned. A further "anti-civilizational" step was then taken: the rejection of all meta-relationships (not only religious, but also philosophical, political or scientific), in order to limit oneself to technological development that would make life as pleasant as possible. This is what is called "post-modernity", or "relativism".
2. Christianophobia
Anyone of a certain age is a witness to the great de-Christianization that has taken place in a short time. There is no need to recall here the drop in the statistics of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and lately also religious funerals.
This has been an intra-generational phenomenon, not inter-generational, as epochal changes usually are. A kind of explosive cyclogenesis. The relativistic ideas that were in the minds of some intellectuals, with the help of new technologies, have descended on the popular imagination, eventually permeating civilization.
But it is becoming increasingly evident that the process goes beyond de-Christianization and evolves towards Christianophobia. In post-modernity, Christians experience a growing hostility: they are harassed, harassed, cornered, singled out. It is easy to recognize certain personalities, forces, colors, interests... forging a new world order. It is obvious. But we must not forget that ideas have more power than institutions and people. And the idea that sustains postmodernity is relativism.
For this reason, political self-defense, the reactive attitude in the face of each new demolition of Christianity, is surely not enough. Politics has a great dissolving power but a very limited capacity to create human realities.
The Diocese of Burgos celebrates this year the eighth centenary of the first stone of its cathedral, which was not consecrated until 1260. It takes a lot of time and effort to build such a temple. However, it could be demolished in a few seconds with a charge of dynamite. Politics can also destroy very quickly, but it builds little and slowly.
On the other hand, the centers of political decision-making are becoming more and more distant and global.
Moreover, if we look around us we will see that the people around us, despite being good people, are mostly favorable to the laws imposed by relativistic social engineering.
It even happens that some of the most active social warriors in favor of a civilization of Christian matrix are not themselves exemplary in their methods or in their personal lives.
In short, we are facing a "new evangelization", and what we need to do is to look to the Lord to follow his instructions. That first time, he chose his Apostles from among the simple: they were not wise, they did not speak languages, nor did they know the world... He ordered them not to carry a saddlebag, nor a spare tunic, nor money. He announced to them that in some houses and villages they would not be well received... Christ did not form "warriors", but men in love and vulnerable. He did not instill in them a reactive attitude, but a proactive one. And a love for the world and for each person, even unto death.
St. Josemaría entitled one of his homilies: "to love the world passionately". Today we could paraphrase it: to love the world passionately. this world passionately. This is not something good or voluntarist, but requires serious personal work to achieve two basic conditions. In the first place, to understand the world in which we live to the extent of our possibilities. As Unamuno said: "We do not know what is happening and that is what is happening to us". And secondly, to serve this world as it needs to be served.
Virtual meeting on anthropology, affectivity and sexuality
The foundation Roman Academic Center has organized a virtual meeting which will address the anthropological, affective and biological dimensions of sexuality and fertility centered on the person.
The meeting will take place on September 16, Thursday, starting at 8:30 p.m. h. and can be followed online in advance. registration on the website of the Centro Académico Romano Foundation.
Dr. Luis Chiva, director of the Department of Gynecology at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and organizer of the Symposium International Multidisciplinary Meeting on Natural Fertility Recognition which will take place at the university in a few days, will be the speaker at this virtual meeting.
Last July, Luis Chiva granted an interview to the extensive and interesting interview with Omnes in which he emphasized that "sexuality brings into play the most intimate part of our being, bodily and spiritually. Separating it from affectivity turns us into providers of pleasure or soulless animals seeking to satisfy an instinct". He also pointed out how "the natural recognition of fertility is not only for Christians. Natural methods do not fit in the daily life of those who consider their sexual relations without affectivity. But there are many people who, without being Christians, feel that in their sexual relations they compromise much more than a moment of pleasure".
The University of Navarra will host on September 22, 23 and 24 an interesting and multidisciplinary symposium dedicated to the natural recognition of Fertility. A meeting, which can be attended free of charge, not only aimed at those who work in the field of health or family counseling but to everyone who is interested in knowing "the anthropological, affective and biological dimensions of the Natural Recognition of Fertility (RNF) as an instrument of a much broader reality framed in the Theology of the Body".
"It is decisive to rediscover the beauty of being children of God."
The Pope reflected on the condition of divine filiation that we acquire in Baptism, through which we come to "participate in an effective and real way in the mystery of Jesus".
On Wednesday, Pope Francis took up again the "itinerary of deepening the faith in the light of the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians. The apostle insists that these Christians should not forget the newness of the revelation of God that has been announced to them. In full agreement with the Evangelist John (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2), Paul stresses that faith in Jesus Christ has enabled us to become truly children of God and his heirs. We Christians often take this reality of being children of God for granted. However, it is always good to remember with gratitude the moment when we became so, the moment of our baptism, in order to live more consciously the great gift we have received.
Speaking of divine sonship, Francis says that "in fact, once 'faith has come' in Jesus Christ (v. 25), the radically new condition that leads to divine sonship is created. The sonship of which Paul speaks is no longer the general one that affects all men and women as sons and daughters of the one Creator. In the passage we have just heard, he affirms that faith makes it possible to become children of God "in Christ" (v. 26). It is this "in Christ" that makes the difference. By his incarnation he has become our brother, and by his death and resurrection he has reconciled us to the Father. Whoever welcomes Christ in faith, through baptism is "clothed" by Him and by filial dignity (cf. v. 27)".
"In his Letters, St. Paul refers on more than one occasion to baptism. For him, to be baptized is to participate in an effective and real way in the mystery of Jesus. In the Letter to the Romans he goes so far as to say that, in baptism, we have died with Christ and have been buried with him in order to live with him (cf. 6:3-14). Baptism, therefore, is not a mere external rite. Those who receive it are transformed in their depths, in their innermost being, and possess a new life, precisely that which enables them to turn to God and invoke him with the name "Abba, Father" (cf. Gal 4:6).
"The Apostle," the Holy Father affirms, "affirms with great boldness that the identity received through baptism is an identity so new that it prevails over the differences that exist on the ethnic-religious level: 'there is neither Jew nor Greek'; and also on the social level: 'neither slave nor free; neither male nor female' (Gal 3:28). These expressions are often read too hastily, without recognizing their revolutionary value. For Paul, writing to the Galatians that in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek" was tantamount to an authentic subversion in the ethno-religious sphere. The Jew, because he belonged to the chosen people, was privileged with respect to the pagan (cf. Rom 2:17-20), and Paul himself affirms this (cf. Rom 9:4-5). It is not surprising, therefore, that this new teaching of the apostle could sound heretical. The second equality, between "free" and "slaves," also opens up surprising perspectives. For ancient society the distinction between slaves and free citizens was vital. The latter enjoyed by law all rights, while slaves were not even recognized as having human dignity. Thus, finally, equality in Christ overcomes the social difference between the two sexes, establishing an equality between men and women which was revolutionary at the time and which needs to be reaffirmed even today".
"As can be seen, Paul affirms the profound unity that exists among all the baptized, regardless of their condition, because each of them, in Christ, is a new creature. Every distinction becomes secondary with respect to the dignity of being children of God, who by his love brings about a true and substantial equality."
"We are therefore called," Francis concludes, "in a more positive way to live a new life that finds in filiation with God its fundamental expression. It is decisive also for all of us today to rediscover the beauty of being children of God, brothers and sisters among ourselves because we are inserted in Christ. Differences and contrasts that create separation should have no place among believers in Christ. Our vocation is rather to make concrete and evident the call to the unity of the whole human race (cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Const. Lumen Gentium, 1). Whatever aggravates the differences between people, often causing discrimination, all this, before God, no longer has any consistency, thanks to the salvation accomplished in Christ. What counts is the faith that works along the path of unity indicated by the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to walk resolutely along this path.
Papst Franziskus in Ungarn: Freude und politische Spekulationen vor dem Kurzbesuch
The Holy Father visits the unique city of Budapest at the end of the Eucharistic World Congress. The "statio orbis"-Messe with him will be the high point of the Glaubensereignisses. However, there were also misunderstandings in the world.
The 52nd Eucharistic World Congress in the Hungarian capital of Budapest began on Sunday - with an initial community of 1,200 children. However, the main highlight of the event will be the opening ceremony with Papst Franziskus on the main Budapest Heldenplatz on Sunday morning. It will be remembered as a "statio orbis" - in other words, it is based on the cold-Christian tradition of the "statio urbis", when a city's streets celebrate a unique festival, in which all the glories of the city are reflected. In the Ereignis am Sonntag, this union of the Gläubigen with the Heiligen Vater on the church itself is to be celebrated.
Papst Franziskus is in Budapest for a visit of several hours, before he continues to visit the Slowakei on the same day for a longer period of time.
The Catholic Church in Ungarn was very successful in the Congress, which was supposed to take place as early as September 2020, but because of the Crown-Pandemie was closed. It is not at all possible to be able to celebrate in a relatively heavily populated country such as Hungary a large-scale celebration, which also promotes the faith of non-Catholics and non-Christians. If even a Pope comes to visit, the faith is even more secure.
The Catholic Bischofskonferenz has therefore been able to avoid a confrontation of the Eucharistic Congress through political issues - which in the past did not quite succeed, however. In early June, the US Catholic Register's US Catholic Portal reported that the Pope did not want the representatives of the Hungarian state, in particular Minister-President Viktor Orbán, to meet. The Polish media will soon follow suit: The reason for this is Orbán's restrictive migration policy, which is not even in line with the Papal line. This was also the reason that Franziskus would only have to spend a few hours in Hungary, was speculated.
These news reports contain a wide range of accurate and open Papstkritik from a number of commentators, which the Hungarian government's Fidesz party is holding. Finally, the Bischofskonferenz must itself be considered and officially emphasize that a meeting of the Papists with the highest representatives of the Hungarian state is planned on a "self-evident" basis. The meeting of the Heiligen Vaters with Orbán and State President János Áder should now take place in the background of the Heiligen Messe in the Museum der Schönen Künste.
The Fidesz government party, in which Orbán is a member, has been governed since 2010 with a two-thirds majority in the country. Some of the parties' companies and enterprises dominate various areas of public life, the economy, culture and the media. The right-wing nationalist party has a worldwide conservative outlook and is very conservative in its approach. Orbán, who himself is a member of the reformed (Calvinist) Church, is always interested in Catholic institutions and liturgies and is committed to his Christian beliefs in the openness of the Church. First of all, he was briefly arrested in Rome during a meeting of Catholic parliamentarians. However, in migration policy, he has again and again been subjected to severe criticism of the Pope's line - not by the government itself, but by his own people.
The media speculation about the relationship between the Vatican and the Hungarian state should not be allowed to change the credibility of the Congress and the papal cases, as the organizers would like to see. For this reason, one thing has been mentioned: Twenty-five prominent personalities from culture and science have been given the opportunity to show their appreciation for their creations during the presentations as "winners". At the beginning of the Papal Mass on the Budapester Heldenplatz there is a twofold concert, in which the musicians will perform their devotion to Jesus Christ. The missionary missionary cross, which was originally planned for the 2007 mission, was decorated with a cross-shaped cross and several relics of Hungarian pilgrims and self-sacrificing people and brought to the country.
The hymn of the congress has a special significance: it indicates that Budapest has already hosted a World Eucharistic Congress in 1938. It was decided to use the damned hymn, if not with modern orchestration. In May 1938, however, there was no visit by a former Pope in the Hungarian capital, as the Cardinal of the Vatican, Eugenio Pacelli - the later Pope Pius XII - spoke of. - the opening remarks. In recent years, he has become a "bullfighter" against communism and national socialism in Hungary.A few years before the Second World War, this radical radical change of attitude was clearly overshadowed by political conflicts: Adolf Hitler hatte kurzerhand ein Sondervisum für alle Deutschen eingeführt, die in der Zeit des Kongresses nach Ungarn reisen wollten, um die Teilnahme deutscher Katholiken an der Feier zu verhindern. Since only two months before the Kongress meeting the Austrian "Anschluss" to Germany was held, this also applies to the Austrian Catholics, who have been heavily represented in large numbers. In the end, however, 50,000 international visitors still made their way to Budapest, and many hundreds of thousands of people were sent to the celebrations after the celebrations. More than 75,000 people have already registered for the current Papal event, and many more groups will be formed.
On the way to Caesarea Philippi, Mark relates, Jesus asks one of those characteristic questions of his, to facilitate the dialogue: "Who do people say I am?". He is interested in public opinion, and that his own know it. But he is more interested in his true thought: and you, who have been with me from the beginning, who have heard what I say and seen what I do, who have left everything to follow me: who do you say that I am?
We are in the middle of Mark's Gospel and at the heart of its development. The purpose of the Gospel, to say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, is expressed in his first words (Mk 1:1). But up to now only the unclean spirits had cried out "you are the son of God"Jesus had commanded them to tell no one. The culmination of the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God will be expressed by the Roman centurion under the cross: "Truly this man was the Son of God.". An important detail for the Romans, the first recipients of Mark's Gospel.
In his account, considered the oldest of the four Gospels and a reflection of Peter's preaching in Rome, in the phrase with which Peter responds to Jesus "you are the Christ"There is not the addition that we read in the parallel passage in Matthew: "The Son of the living God.". Peter here only declares that Jesus is the Messiah awaited by Israel, the Christ, the anointed one. It goes beyond the popular views that see Jesus as an impetuous prophet like Elijah, or think of him as the Baptist risen from the dead. But it is still not a statement of faith in Jesus' divine nature. In any case, Jesus tells them not to reveal that conviction to anyone, because their idea of the Messiah is still incomplete, like that of all the people, who would try to make him king. They do not associate it with the prophecies of the suffering servant of Yahweh. Even less do they know how to link it to his being the Son of God. According to them, the Messiah will have a path of glory and earthly power; on the other hand, Jesus reveals to them that he will have great suffering, will be rejected by the religious leaders of his country, will die and, after three days, will be resurrected.
Peter does not hear the word "resurrection", and rejects Jesus' prophecy. Thus it is confirmed that he was right when he told them: do not tell anyone. Peter, follow me! Everyone who follows me will have to take up his cross. It is precisely thanks to that cross, revealed here for the first time by Jesus and rejected by Peter, that the centurion will recognize the Son of God. Every disciple of Christ, not only Peter, has the same path as the master, personalized: to take up his cross and follow him. No cross is the same as the other, but they all resemble the Master's and all "attract" to Him.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 24th Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
The law known as the "Heartbeat" law went into effect in Texas on September 1 and prohibits abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, which generally occurs at six weeks gestation.
According to the association "Texas Right Pro Life", since abortion was decriminalized in 1973 with the "Texas Right Pro Life" decision, the "Texas Right Pro Life" association has been a "very important" organization.Roe v. Wade"more than 62 million abortions have been performed in the United States. In 2017 alone, approximately 862,320 abortions were recorded of which 55,540 occurred in Texas.
On Wednesday, September 1, the "Heartbeat" law went into effect in the state of Texas, which prohibits abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, which usually occurs in the sixth week of gestation. This law - one of the strictest in the country, also known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) - was introduced in March in the Upper House by Senator Bryan Hughes and then sent in May to Texas Governor Greg Abbott for ratification.
Prior to its entry into force on September 1, abortion providers, including Whole Woman's Health, had filed an "emergency petition" with the U.S. Supreme Court to block its implementation. However, on September 1, the nation's highest court rejected the request and the law went into effect in the state of Texas.
Prior to this law, Texas prohibited abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. However, the new law now prohibits abortions from being performed or induced once the heartbeat of the unborn child is detected. The only exceptions are clearly defined medical emergencies. Thus, when the heartbeat is detected, the physician is prohibited from performing or inducing an abortion. If he performs it, he can be sued civilly. Another peculiarity of this law is that it authorizes any citizen to file a civil suit against a person who performs or induces an abortion in violation of this law. This means, for example, that a person who drives a woman to the clinic for an abortion after 6 weeks, or who helps her financially to perform it, can end up in court. The same applies to medical personnel. The interesting thing about this law is that any citizen can denounce, and even legal and financial incentives are given to those who do so.
Another peculiarity of this law is that in order to avoid ambiguities, which can induce error in medical practice, SB 8 makes a series of very precise definitions of several terms, among them: pregnancy, unborn child and fetal heartbeat. The law defines pregnancy as "the human female reproductive condition beginning with fertilization, which occurs when the woman is pregnant with developing human offspring and which is calculated from the first day of the woman's last menstrual period." Unborn child is defined as "a human fetus or embryo at any stage of gestation from fertilization to birth." Fetal heartbeat as the "constant and repetitive rhythmic cardiac activity or contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac".
The Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops supported the first bill in March, stating that "the protection of life is a fundamental priority for the Church and for society. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said on Sept. 2 that "this law reflects the scientific reality that unborn children are human beings with beating hearts at six weeks. We are grateful for Governor Abbott's leadership, the courage of the Texas Legislature and the support of all our pro-life allies in state governments across the country who continually fight for the unborn and their mothers.
The battle will not be easy. Already President Joe Biden - who declares himself a Catholic, attends Sunday Mass and takes communion - promised on September 2 to implement an all-out onslaught against the law using all the resources at the government's disposal: "The Supreme Court's sudden ruling is an unprecedented assault on the constitutional rights of women outlined in the Roe v. Wade decision, which has been law in this country for nearly fifty years...One of the reasons I became the first president in history to create a Gender Policy Council was to react to attacks on women's rights. So I am directing the Council and the White House Counsel's Office to launch a comprehensive, whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision."
Abortion groups and providers are supported not only by the current Democratic (pro-abortion) administration, but also by economically powerful and influential interest groups that support all kinds of "reproductive health" initiatives and institutions, including Planned Parenthood (PP), one of the largest abortion clinic networks. After the law went into effect, PP indicated that it will do "everything possible to continue to provide and protect access to abortion and other reproductive health services" and added that if a woman cannot be provided care to obtain an abortion in Texas, they will assist her in obtaining out-of-state care, including financial assistance. The battle will not be easy, however this does not discourage hundreds of Catholic and Christian pro-life groups that for almost five decades have supported the unborn and pregnant women with all kinds of initiatives, from prayer groups praying in parishes or outside PP clinics to pro-life institutions working on bills in favor of the unborn. There are currently 540 pro-life bills in the U.S., 69 of which have already become law.
Each diocese will organize the Meeting in its own area in order to bring its objectives closer to the greatest possible number of people, even if they cannot travel to Rome. The objective is that the families are the protagonists, collaborating with the pastors to carry out the pastoral care of the family.
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Pope Francis sharply criticized abortion and euthanasia during a meeting with participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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Preparatory document for the Synod of Bishops is presented
The preparatory document and the vademecum will be two fundamental instruments for the work of the Ordinary Synod of Bishops, which begins in October of this year.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 7, in the Sala Stampa of the Holy See the preparatory document for the Ordinary Synod of Bishops, as well as the Vademecumor, as it has been called in English with a very significant title, the Official Handbook for Listening and Discernment in Local ChurchesThe official Manual for Listening and Discernment in the Particular Churches.
These two documents are instruments prepared by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops for the work of the first phase of the synodal journey, in view of the celebration of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which has as its theme: "For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission".
The presentation was made by Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod Secretariat; Monsignor Luis Marin, Undersecretary of the Synod Secretariat; Dario Vitali, consultant to the Synod Secretariat; Myriam Wijlens, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Erfurt; and Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod Secretariat.
Stages of the synodal journey
The preparatory document is intended primarily as a tool for working in the first phase of listening to and consulting the People of God in the particular Churches, which will begin imminently in October 2021 and end in April 2022: "A kind of pilot work or experience".
Instead, the Vademecum is conceived as "a handbook," as it is titled in English, that offers "practical support" to diocesan leaders in preparing and gathering the People of God. It includes liturgical and biblical resources, plus prayers, as well as examples of recent synodal exercises and a glossary of synodal process terms. "It is not a rule book," it is specified, but "a guide to support the efforts of each local Church," taking into account different cultures and contexts, resources and constraints.
Pope Francis in Hungary: joy and political speculation ahead of the short visit
The Holy Father visits the Hungarian capital, Budapest, for the closing of the International Eucharistic Congress. The "statio orbis" Mass with him will be the highlight of this faith event. But in the run-up there were disagreements.
You can read the original article in German by clicking here.
The 52nd International Eucharistic Congress being held in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, began on Sunday with the first communion of 1,200 children. But the highlight will be the closing Mass with Pope Francis in Budapest's magnificent Heroes' Square next Sunday.
It will be conceived as a "statio orbis", that is, it refers to the early Christian tradition of the "statio urbis", when the bishop of a city celebrated a single Mass in which all the faithful participated. In Sunday's act, this unity of the faithful with the Holy Father will be extended to the whole Church.
Pope Francis will stay a few hours in Budapest before continuing on to Slovakia for a multi-day visit later that day.
The Catholic Church in Hungary has been looking forward to the Congress, which should have been held in September 2020, but was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It does not happen every day to be able to celebrate a feast of faith of such magnitude in a rather secularized country like Hungary, a feast that also attracts the attention of non-Catholics and non-Christians. When even a Pope comes to visit, the attention is even more assured.
For this reason, the Catholic Bishops' Conference has made every effort to prevent the Eucharistic Congress from being conditioned by political issues, but this objective has not been fully achieved in the preparatory phase. At the beginning of June, the U.S. Catholic portal National Catholic Register reported that the Pope did not want to meet with representatives of the Hungarian state, in particular with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The Polish media added shortly afterwards: the reason was Orbán's restrictive migration policy, which is not at all in line with the Pope. That would also be the reason why Francis, according to speculation, only wants to spend a few hours in Hungary.
Previous disagreements
This news immediately provoked fierce and outspoken criticism of the Pope from some commentators close to the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz. In the end, the Bishops' Conference itself had to intervene and publicly emphasize that "of course" a meeting of the Pope with the highest representatives of the Hungarian State was planned. The meeting of the Holy Father with Orbán and President János Áder will take place shortly before Holy Mass at the Museum of Fine Arts.
The ruling party FideszOrbán has ruled the country with a two-thirds majority almost uninterruptedly since 2010. Personalities and companies close to the party now dominate wide areas of public life, the economy, culture and the media. It is a right-wing nationalist party, with a markedly conservative ideology, and presents itself as very respectful of the Church.
Orbán, who belongs to the Reformed (Calvinist) Church, enjoys attending Catholic events and celebrations, and publicly emphasizes his Christian faith. He recently attended a meeting of Catholic parliamentarians in Rome. But in the matter of migratory policy, strong criticism of the Pope's line has been repeated from Hungary, although not by the government itself, but by personalities close to him.
The organizers hope that media speculation about relations between the Vatican and the Hungarian state will not obscure the faith message of the Congress and the Pope's visit.
Much has been done to achieve this: twelve personalities from culture and science have given testimony of their faith as "heralds" during the preparations. Before the Pope's Mass begins in Budapest's Heroes' Square, there will be a two-hour concert in which well-known musicians will bear witness to their fidelity to Jesus Christ.
The artistic missionary cross, originally carved for Mission City in 2007, was provided with a relic of the cross and numerous relics of Hungarian saints and blessed, and carried throughout the country.
The Congress hymn has a special significance. It brings to mind that a World Eucharistic Congress has already been held in Budapest, namely in 1938, and it has been decided to reuse the hymn of that time, albeit with a modern orchestration.
In May 1938 there was no visit of a sitting Pope to the Hungarian capital, but Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli - later Pope Pius XII - delivered the opening address. In his speech, he called Hungary a "bulwark" against communism and National Socialism.
A year and a half before the outbreak of World War II, this important ecclesiastical event was clearly overshadowed by political conflicts: Adolf Hitler had authoritatively introduced a special visa for all Germans who wanted to travel to Hungary during the days of the Congress, in order to prevent German Catholics from participating in the celebration.
Moreover, as the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria to Germany took place only two months before the start of the Congress, the demand also applied to Austrian Catholics, of whom a large number were expected to participate.
In the end, however, 50,000 international visitors came to Budapest, and it is estimated that several hundred thousand people participated in the events. More than 75,000 faithful have already registered for the current papal mass, and numerous other groups are expected.
Pope Francis celebrated Mass with the presidents of the European Bishops' Conferences whom he encouraged during the Mass to devote less energy to sterile criticism and to follow the Gospel after the example of great saints such as St. Francis or St. Dominic of Guzman, St. Catherine of Siena, Cyril and Methodius or Padre Pio.
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Roads of Europe: Germany. Germanic roads
