The Christian life is not based on "doing good things". This is fine, but above all, we Christians respond with our lives to a choice of love made at Baptism. We say yes to God, we choose God above all else, even ourselves.
I often recall a friend's account of her conversion. She called it that, her conversion, as if she had met God "all over again". And she was not a distant person, far from it, a young person of daily mass, of frequent prayer... a "white blackbird", we could say... and she was converted.
In this case, it was on a trip to the Holy Land, on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, when, listening to John's Gospel account, he noticed that, like Peter, Christ asked him directly, without anesthesia: "Do you love me more than these?"He had heard it hundreds, thousands of times, at Mass, reading the Gospel, in retreats and various pilgrimages.
But the words turned - "conversus" - towards her and, for the first time, she noticed that yes, God was indeed asking her if she really loved him. God already knew that she was good, that she tried to do things well, that she was even "exemplary", but he brought her face to face with the true reason that would move her life: love.
Do you love me more than these, more than these, more than the vanity of seeing how great you are, more than even all the good things you do...?
And there, on that not at all paradisiacal beach, that good person became.
He took the reason of love for God, which is what matters in this life and the measure of judgment in eternity. He continued to go to Mass, he continued with his usual life, but under a different perspective: that of loving-loving Christ.
The Christian life is not based on "being good" or "feeling good". The basis, what gives meaning to it is to choose Christ, to love Christ. As Benedict XVI affirms, "one does not begin to be a Christian by an ethical decision or a great idea, but by an encounter with an event, with a Person, who gives a new horizon to one's life and, with it, a decisive orientation".
We are in this world for love (for the love of God, of our parents in most cases, for the love of those who care for us) and to love, and look where, the sequence is quite similar. We are all clear about this maxim and yet, its oblivion is recurrent in the history of mankind: we forget that God loves us and we deform, manipulate and degrade the meaning of love and then we choose other things, which must not be bad... but which are not God.
With great mastery, the Cardinal related, in this regard, that Fco. Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan a light he had, when, as a young bishop, he was imprisoned 1,700 km away from his diocese in a tiny cell. There, suffering for all the good he had begun to do and could no longer continue, "One night, from the bottom of my heart I heard a voice suggesting to me: 'Why do you torment yourself like this? You have to distinguish between God and God's works. All that you have done and wish to continue doing: pastoral visits, formation of seminarians, religious men and women, laity, young people, construction of schools, of homes for students, missions for the evangelization of non-Christians... all this is an excellent work, they are works of God, but they are not God! If God wants you to abandon all these works, putting them in his hands, do it soon and have confidence in Him. God will do infinitely better than you; He will entrust His works to others who are far more capable than you. You have chosen God alone, not his works'".
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.
Cardinal Parolin asks politicians to bear witness to their personal conduct
The Secretary of State of the Holy See spoke this weekend at the II International Meeting of Catholic Politicians, organized by the Archbishop of Madrid and the Latin American Academy of Catholic Leaders, with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
This weekend, from September 3 to 5, the Moncloa campus of the CEU San Pablo University hosted the II International Meeting of Catholic Politicians, organized by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, and the Latin American Academy of Catholic Leaders, with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Presentation of the meeting
The theme of the congress A culture of encounter in political life for the service of our peoples summarizes the ideas that were discussed during the conference. Seventy-four Catholics with public responsibilities, from different parties and from 18 countries, have held these days "a fraternal and constructive dialogue that, in itself, shows how the Gospel facilitates the possibility of thinking differently, respecting each other and discovering together the common good and a better future for all, especially for the most vulnerable people," said the general director of the Latin American Academy of Catholic Leaders, José Antonio Rosas.
During the presentation press conference, Cardinal Carlos Osoro stressed that "it is essential to face the present in a constructive dialogue" and that, in order to dialogue, "it is always necessary to lower the defenses and open the doors"; it is a matter, he insisted, of speaking "from the identity we have", but "without presuming that the other is wrong".
In similar terms, Clara López Obregón, a leftist political leader in Colombia, who was a minister, mayor of Bogotá and presidential candidate, has called for working "from the common humanity" to put an end to "the throwaway economy" of which Pope Francis speaks, and has opted for a State that can "guarantee fundamental rights: health, dignified life...".
At his side was the Christian Democrat Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echeverria, who was president of Costa Rica, secretary general of the Organization of American States and president of the Christian Democratic Organization of America (OCDA). He recalled that "human life is one, we are one person, although we perform different activities", and that, therefore, "one cannot separate the transcendent faith" from the tasks that one has.
To raise the bar
José Luis Segovia, Vicar for Integral Human Development and Innovation of the Archdiocese of Madrid, assured that the II International Meeting of Catholic Politicians wants to be "a vindication of Politics with capital letters", so that this "does not become a space in which there are confronted interests", but in the end "human dignity is not safeguarded".
He wanted to emphasize to the audience of more than seventy Catholic politicians from nineteen countries, the desirability of having believers like them in politics not to "neo-colonize public spaces", but to "raise the bar" so that values such as solidarity, dialogue and forgiveness can emerge.
As he pointed out, although sometimes politicians are "quite reviled", in his case it is important that they feel that "the Gospel is an invitation to the sublime, to realize the dream of God on Earth" and, therefore, he has shown his "recognition towards the action that you develop, from mediations of all kinds, at the service of the general interest".
Cardinal Parolin to politicians
What can a Christian vision bring to politics? This question was the starting point for the keynote address given by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, on Saturday morning.
Using correct Spanish, including some Latin American expressions, with a noticeable Italian accent, he addressed the 70 or so politicians from 19 countries present in the auditorium, whom he encouraged to try to be "joyful messengers of proposals for improvement".
The main theme of Cardinal Parolin's speech, entitled Culture of encounter and civic friendship in a world in crisisThe theme of the meeting was "culture of encounter" and "social friendship. He stressed that these ideas should not remain generic concepts or "mere propaganda slogans", but should be translated into practical decisions.
The culture of encounter seeks to discover in diversity "an added value, an enrichment," and therefore tends to integrate the diverse; and if acting in this way is "difficult and slow," "this cannot prevent us from working," said the Secretary of State. It is natural the existence of oppositions and conflicts, which have to be assumed, as Pope Francis affirms, but without being trapped in them, but transforming them "in the link of a new process".
As for social friendship, it is "the effect of the best policy". It includes a concern for those who suffer most, and makes it possible to translate programs into concrete actions. For this. "a creative courage, a firm will" to act must find its way. Precisely, in Fratelli tutti n. 14 Francis asks himself "what is the meaning today of certain expressions such as democracy, freedom, justice, unity", which "have been manipulated and disfigured to be used as an instrument of domination, as titles empty of content that can be used to justify any action" and are thus reduced to "mere components of political language", without being considered true values.
On the contrary, political action should include "a well-founded anthropological dimension, which places the person at the center" and recognize the value of justice as a "social regulator". In addition, he asked that authority not be exercised with "a personal, partisan or national vision", but with "an organized system of people and shared and possible ideas" in search of the common good.
Referring to Catholic politicians, Cardinal Parolin stressed that it is up to them to identify "the possible and concrete applications of social friendship and the culture of encounter"; and, even more decisively, to understand that "these are two components that are transmitted through individual behavior," that is, through personal witness.
All this constitutes, he said, "an interesting and feasible itinerary," based on certainties capable of leading to the common good.
After Cardinal Pietro Parolin's lecture and the interventions of the other authorities present, the participants continued their discussions at tables and in working groups. The Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, closed the meeting with the celebration of Holy Mass.
"We all have ears, but we are not always able to listen."
Pope Francis recalled that "there is an inner deafness that today we can ask Jesus to touch and heal. It is worse than physical deafness, it is the deafness of the heart".
During the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis commented on the episode of the healing of the deaf and dumb man in St. Peter's Square: "The Gospel of today's Liturgy presents Jesus healing a deaf and dumb man. In the story, what is striking is the way in which the Lord performs this miraculous sign: he takes the deaf-mute aside, puts his fingers in his ears and touches his tongue with his saliva, then looks up to heaven, sighs and says: 'Ephphatha', that is, 'Be opened' (cf. Mk 7:33-34). In other healings, of equally serious illnesses, such as paralysis or leprosy, Jesus does not make so many gestures. Why does he do all this now, even though he has only been asked to lay his hand on the sick person (cf. v. 32)? Perhaps because that person's condition has a particular symbolic value and has something to say to all of us. What is it about? Deafness. That man could not speak because he could not hear. Jesus, in fact, to cure the cause of his discomfort, first puts his fingers in his ears".
Francis draws a parallel with what can happen to all of us: "We all have ears, but many times we are not able to listen," he said. "In fact, there is an inner deafness," he continued, "that today we can ask Jesus to touch and heal. It is worse than physical deafness, it is the deafness of the heart. Caught up in haste, with a thousand things to say and do, we do not find time to stop and listen to those who speak to us. We run the risk of becoming impervious to everything and of not making room for those who need to be heard: I am thinking of children, young people, the elderly, many who do not so much need words and sermons as to be listened to. Let us ask ourselves: how is my listening going, do I allow myself to be touched by people's lives, do I know how to dedicate time to those who are close to me? Let us think of family life: how often do we speak without listening first, repeating our own refrains which are always the same! Unable to listen, we always say the same things. The rebirth of a dialogue often comes not from words, but from silence, from not remaining stagnant, from patiently beginning again to listen to the other person, to his struggles, to what he carries within. Healing of the heart begins with listening".
"It is the same with the Lord. We do well to flood him with requests, but we would do better to listen to him first. Jesus asks this. In the Gospel, when he is asked what the first commandment is, he answers: "Hear, O Israel". Then he adds: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart [...] and your neighbor as yourself" (Mk 12:28-31). But first of all he says: "Listen". Do we remember to listen to the Lord? We are Christians, but perhaps, among the thousands of words we hear every day, we do not find a few seconds to let some words of the Gospel resonate in us. Jesus is the Word: if we do not stop to listen to him, he passes us by. But if we devote time to the Gospel, we will find a secret to our spiritual health. Here is the medicine: every day a little silence and listening, a few less useless words and a few more words of God. Let us listen today, as on the day of our baptism, to the words of Jesus: "Ephphatha, open yourself". Jesus, I desire to open myself to your Word, to open myself to listening. Heal my heart from closedness, from haste and impatience".
The 10th World Meeting of Families will be held in Rome in June next year. Among the initiatives of the Year of the Family Amoris Laetitia the Global Catholic Covenant on the Family has been launched.
To work on a shared program of actions to promote the family throughout the world, in fidelity to the Social Doctrine of the Church. These are the objectives of the Global Catholic Covenant on the Family announced in recent weeks by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
The project will be carried out in partnership with the International Center for Family Studies (CISF) and will count on the participation of various Family Research Centers present in Catholic Universities of the five continents.
From the technical point of view, information will be collected and research will be conducted on the cultural and anthropological relevance of the family, with special attention to family relationships, the social value of the family and good family policy practices.
The Pact is one of the initiatives promoted on the occasion of the Year Family Amoris laetitia proclaimed by Pope Francis; it is no coincidence that the results of the survey are being presented in the context of a closed event, prior to the World Meeting of Families in June 2022.
"At the heart of this will be the work of listening and gathering the information needed to understand the state of family health around the world."explained Francesco Belletti, director of the CISF Center. Each university will receive questionnaires prepared by an international team, to which comments and evaluations can be added.
Listening and information gathering are, in fact, intended to "identify best practices"to encourage the adoption of concrete actions".to reaffirm that the family is a resource for all societies", Belletti added.
This initiative will benefit associations, institutions and the entire ecclesiastical world, which will thus be able to promote and enhance the family as a "social capital of any community".
Already in the second chapter of Amoris laetitiaPope Francis underlined the need to confront the ".new challenges"affecting the family on all continents, as also emerged after the two Synods held in 2014 and 2015.
From the issue of education to economic insecurities, social uprooting and domestic violence, not to mention women's rights and many other issues that are closely related to the Church's social doctrine.
By reflecting and imagining development perspectives, the Pact therefore seeks to identify ways to support and promote family relationships, which are the true "family of the family".strategic resource for the well-being of individuals and the community, especially in conditions of fragility and vulnerability.", Belletti went on to explain.
X World Meeting of Families
In view of the Tenth World Meeting of Families, which according to the wishes of the Holy Father will culminate in Rome (June 22-26, 2022), but which will also be held in a "....multicenter and generalized"In all the dioceses of the world, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life publishes a monthly series of 10 videos dedicated to the beauty of the family as a pastoral resource.
It is the Pontiff himself who rereads and explains the chapters of the Apostolic Exhortation published in 2016, accompanied by some families from different parts of the world. Each video is accompanied by an aid that can be used for family and community reflection and prayer.
The official image of the meeting has also been chosen, a work by theologian Marko Ivan Rupnik, entitled This mystery is great. In the background, the scene of the wedding at Cana; on the left, the bride and groom are veiled. The servant serving the wine has the face of St. Paul, according to ancient Christian iconography.
The image wants to point out how the sacramental love between man and woman is a reflection of the indissoluble love and unity between Christ and the Church: Jesus shed his blood for her.
Subscribe to Omnes magazine and enjoy exclusive content for subscribers. You will have access to all Omnes
Lux, visual metaphor for the divine presence in the Church
Burgos, Carrión de los Condes and Sahagún are the venues of Luxthe exhibition of the Ages of Man Foundation, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021. A unique exhibition, spread over three cities and five venues that intertwine the celebrations of the Jacobean Holy Year and the VIII Centenary of the Cathedral of Burgos.
Information and tickets: : http://lux2021.com / https://articketing.vocces.com/
LuxThe light, like the eternal light of the Morning Star, the Virgin Mary, the protagonist of the story of the exhibition that this year the Ages of Man Foundation is developing in five venues spread between the capital of Burgos, Carrión de los Condes and Sahagún.
The multiplicity of venues as well as the breadth of the works that comprise Lux The main purpose of this exhibition, in the words of José Enrique Martín, Technical Secretary of the Fundación Edades del Hombre, "the most ambitious and complex of all those held so far". and which celebrates the first quarter century of life of a unique cultural project in Spain which, as Martín Martín highlights "has been consolidated as a brand thanks to the twelve million visitors that have accompanied us to date, and also as a result of the work of research, conservation and dissemination of religious cultural heritage, especially in Castilla y León"..
The topics
Lux brings together two major themes: the meaning and importance of the great cathedral constructions and the figure of the Mother of God under whose invocations many of these cathedrals were consecrated between the years 1000 and 1550 in Spain.
The Marian presence, as highlighted by the Technical Secretary of the Ages of Man Foundation, is especially important from the eleventh century onwards when "The Virgin Mary is the patron saint of many cathedrals and her image appears with great prominence on the episcopal see, presiding over altarpieces and also in the representation of different passages or moments of her life, collected in the Gospel, such as the Annunciation but also other moments narrated in apocryphal texts".
This Marian devotion did not remain only in the great cathedrals but is materialized in a multitude of monasteries, chapels and sanctuaries, with special presence in the Camino de Santiago with landmarks such as the towns of Carrión de los Condes and Sahagún and their temples.
The locations
The Cathedral of Santa María de Burgos is the setting for the first of the major themes of this exhibition: the one dedicated to cathedrals. 'Faith and art in the age of cathedrals (1050-1550)'. consists of seven chapters that cover the important work of bishops, cathedral councils, workers, patrons and craftsmen in the construction of cathedrals, together with the artistic manifestations of a pilgrim Church on earth, which looks to eternal life after death and enjoys the divine presence and the action of God through his saints. All this together with an extensive chapter dedicated, as it could not be otherwise, to the Virgin Mary.
For their part, the Carrión de los Condes and Sahagún sites focus their exhibition on the figure of the Mother of God. Under the subtitle 'Ecce Mater Tua', this second part of Lux shows a selection of works that highlight how the scenes and devotional titles of the Virgin Mary focus the artistic manifestations, with an important presence in the Castilian-Leonese heritage.
A selection of unique works
Lux has the contribution of works from all over Spain. Not in vain, 37 cathedrals have collaborated with various pieces in the first part of the exhibition, dedicated to the development of the cathedral venues. A wealth of exhibits that continues in the cathedrals of Carrión de los Condes and Sahagún. In this sense, Enrique Martín points out, "we can find works by famous masters of our art. Medieval exponents Fernando Gallego, or Renaissance as Gil and Diego de Siloe or Pedro Berruguete, without forgetting Juan de Juni. Delving into the Baroque we find works by Pedro de Mena, Gregrorio Fernández, Luis Salvador Carmona or painters of the stature of Alonso Cano and Ribera himself.".
The quality of the exhibition design is always one of the hallmarks of the Ages of Man exhibitions, a hallmark of which is the quality of the exhibition design. Lux is deserving. This is how José Enrique Martín describes the way in which, on the basis of his leitmotif, the exhibition makes a significant "The play of external light that invades the interior of the temples as a visual metaphor of the divine presence in the Church. Of that light that emanates from God and that leads us through Christ, with the mediation of Mary, along the path of life"..
Among Pope Francis' recent objectives is that of achieving a greater role for women and the laity in general, as evidenced by recent appointments to Holy See bodies.
September 5, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
To achieve a greater protagonism of women - and of the laity in general - in the life of the Church. This seems to be an objective of the pontificate of Francis, in continuity with the development of the theology of the laity, the cornerstone of the Second Vatican Council, and with the work of his predecessors.
While society is moving towards equality of rights and opportunities, the Pope seems to have opted for a discreet measure: to take small but significant steps that favor the path of facts, beyond theoretical discussions about the role of the baptized or the power of ecclesial government.
A reflection of this has been seen in the last month, with the appointment of several prestigious women scientists as members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. A gesture that not only gives visibility to the work of women in science, but also broadens the view of the role of the laity and the contribution they can make to the Church through their professional achievements. Not to mention the recent appointment for the first time of a woman as number two in a dicastery: Alessandra Smerilli in the Dicastery for Human Development.
Among the latest appointments are two winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020: the French Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier and the American Jennifer Anne Doudna. The news was preceded by other also recent appointments such as the Canadian Dona Theo Strickland - Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for pioneering research in the field of lasers -, the American chemist Susan Solomon, and the Dutch astronomer and chemist Ewine Fleur van Dishoeck. The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was joined on August 4 by the South African anthropologist Mpilenhe Pearl Sithole.
All of them are renowned professionals who, beyond their contribution to knowledge, allow the Church to communicate an important message.
P.R.A.Y. Station. See what God wants and how God wants it.
To learn about the different vocations in order to be able to respond to concerns about God's call in life and to accompany vocational discernment in young people who are concerned about it. This is how it was born, in Bilbao, P.R.A.Y Stationa vocational pastoral projectthat is inserted into the lives of today's young people.
Stop, Recharge, Host And... this is how it is presented P.R.A.Y StationThis vocational project, launched in the Diocese of Bilbao, has completed its first year accompanying people with very different situations in the process of vocational discernment, whether it be for the laity, the priesthood, the consecrated life or entry into a religious congregation.
Borja Uriarte, one of the people in charge of this project in the diocese of Bilbao, "P.R.A.Y. Station was born out of the desire to propose and work on the vocational dimension among young people in the diocese of Bilbao.
In a closer and more contemporary way, taking care of the communion between vocations. The original idea was the same project landed in the parishes. And thus, to accompany groups where the concerns for any vocation in the Church can be present.
Knowing that in common we have the vocation of being baptized. And from there to be able to share testimony and prayer".
A project with a double dimension: group and personal which, although it was originally conceived especially for young people between 16 and 35 years of age, also serves, and this has been the experience, to respond to the questions that other people, perhaps older, can ask themselves about vocation and their path within the Church. In this sense, Uriarte points out, "Throughout the course and the various sessions, we met adults who also wanted to participate in these meetings. Certainly, vocational discernment does not have to have an age. Vocation is always present and so is being able to grow in it. At the beginning, this project was dedicated only to young people. And the idea is that it will continue to be dedicated to them. However, it is open to those who want to deepen their vocation.
P.R.A.Y Station is articulated in a series of monthly meetings, lasting an hour and a half. This year, because of the pandemic, these meetings have been held virtually and, on occasion, the priest points out, "at some point we have been able to experience it in person". with all the pertinent sanitary measures.
Despite the difficulty of the online meetings, as Borja Uriarte points outWe were able to generate spaces where we could share the testimony of people who live the different vocations in the Church and to pray with what they proposed to us. Each testimony was linked to a moment of prayer, and the truth, to be able to pray with the testimony of a father of a family, a permanent deacon, a priest, a religious, and so many people who shared their vocation has been a gift from God.
During the course, participants from P.R.A.Y Station were able to learn about and reflect on various vocations within the Church: marriage and family, religious, missionary. Especially interesting, for example, was the testimony of a Mercedarian sister from a convent of the diocese who shared first hand her experience as a member of the contemplative life at present. Joseba Segura, Bishop of Bilbao, who spoke about missionary life, a work that he himself carried out between 2006 and 2017 in Ecuador, working pastorally in Quito.
There have been many positive experiences during this first year of P.R.A.Y Station. "It has been a course that has surprised us." Uriarte points out. "We have been learning as the sessions progressed. We have found that there was a desire to talk about vocation, to share testimonies, to pray in a vocational key... We are happy for the space that has been generated, now we have to take care of it and keep it alive and thus be able to reach more people little by little".
P.R.A.Y Station wants to be a space for the approach of vocation in a broad sense and, later on, singularized in the different ways that exist in the Church, in order to "put legs" to the sanctifying call of each Christian. Despite the amount of information that we can find today about vocation, even today, we can find too many "watertight compartments" or ignorance of this wealth of charisms that make up the Church. Borja Uriarte points out that, in fact, "we do not know what we are talking about.we have found that there is a certain lack of knowledge. One of the objectives of this project was to bring all vocations into communion. To show that they accompany each other and that they are all present in the Church and that the sum of all of them generates an impressive richness. Much of what we ended up sharing in each session was precisely what you ask. It was surprising how concrete each vocation was. And especially those that we are not used to seeing on a daily basis, such as the contemplative life and the permanent diaconate.
After the first start-up, the organizers and promoters of the P.R.A.Y Station look to the future with hope and illusion. As they themselves point out "As in all these things, if they are of God, they will go ahead. We have to work on it and accompany it. P.R.A.Y. Station wants to be a space in different parishes where young people can come together to deepen and share their vocation. Where a personal accompaniment can be proposed from the vocation of each one. It wants to be an experience with a beginning and an end, in which the person goes through in different sessions all the vacations present in the church where one can pray with the testimony of each vocation and where one can discover that vocation is a gift called to put it at the service of others"..
How to participate in P.R.A.Y. Station? The reality is that, although due to the circumstances, last year's course was not widely publicized, the reception by the young diocesans has been very positive. This year, in addition to giving it more publicity, we are planning a mixed experience - (face-to-face / online) to facilitate the participation of those who are interested.
In social networks, they have a presence on Instagram and also have a small section on the website of the Diocese of Bilbao, where you can find the mail to request invitations to the sessions.
How to develop the attitude to get out of the crisis in which we have embarked better than we have entered? This is the question the author asks herself, and she proposes an answer based on spirituality.
September 4, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
The Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be long and multifaceted: it has affected us globally and has put us to the test on a personal and family level. For the vast majority of people, the pandemic is posing a threat in many areas of life, such as health, economy, lifestyle (personal, family and social), etc. And it is resulting in increased stress and worry, with significant health implications.
We are facing a full-blown crisis, which globally threatens the immediate future of our society, and which we must confront with all available resources. It should come as no surprise that the most useful and effective resources in circumstances such as these are not precisely material ones. In the context of a crisis, the concept of "crisis management" is often used. resiliencedefined by experts as the ability to adapt positively to a context of adversity, emerging stronger from it.
But how can we develop this attitude in order to come out of this crisis better than we entered it? Recent studies have shown that religiosity plays a very positive role in the development and maintenance of resilient behaviors, which also favors people's quality of life. We know that spirituality is a human need, but perhaps we are not aware that in adverse situations it becomes a resource that favors emotional well-being and helps us to draw strength from direct contact with suffering. Religious beliefs provide support and stability, as well as an ultimate meaning that brings coherence and security to people's lives. The Institute of Higher Studies of the Family of UIC Barcelona has verified, in a research carried out at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, that also in this context of health crisis in Spain this positive relationship between religiosity and resilience of people is produced. The study also shows that some antecedents that favor this positive reaction to the crisis are good family relationships.
In the face of the postmodern cultural panorama, characterized by a high level of technological development and by a growing existential emptiness and individualism that leads to isolation, it is once again confirmed that spirituality is the greatest rebelliousness of the human being, as St. Josemaría Escrivá affirmed. It helps us to overcome the limitations, failures and crises inherent in our existence and restores to us the authentic meaning of personal and family life.
Professor at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. She directs the Chair on Intergenerational Solidarity in the Family (IsFamily Santander Chair) and the Childcare and Family Policies Chair of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Foundation. She is also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona.
European Bishops' Conferences to celebrate their 50th anniversary in Rome
The Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. On this occasion, Rome will host the annual Plenary Assembly of the CCEE, attended by the Presidents of the Bishops' Conferences of all Europe, from September 23-26, 2021.
The inaugural session of the Plenary will begin with the Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica on September 23 at 5:00 pm. At the end of the Holy Mass with the Holy Father, the participants will visit the tombs of the Popes for a moment of prayer. In addition, the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe will be received at the Quirinale by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the 24th.
The theme chosen for the Plenary, "CCEE, 50 years in the service of Europe, memory and perspectives on the horizon of Fratelli tutti".The European Council's theme, "The European Union," is intended to be an opportunity to analyze the situation in Europe, to identify the most significant elements affecting the ecclesial and civil fabric of our continent and to recall the Christian roots inherent in its history. And to renew the Church's commitment to the construction of Europe, following the exhortation of Pope Francis who, in his message to the European bishops on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences in Santiago de Compostela, October 3-5, 2019.He invited them to work "for a new European humanism, capable of dialogue, integration and generation" so that Europe can "grow as a family of peoples, a land of peace and hope".
In Puerto Rico, which has been in a process of rapid and aggressive secularization, gender ideology began to establish itself as state policy around 2001.
Fernando Felices-September 3, 2021-Reading time: 9minutes
On Saturday, August 14, 2021, we had a demonstration, march and rally at the State Capitol in San Juan, Puerto Rico to demand that the progressive governor, Pedro Pierluisi of the New Progressive Party (NPP), withdraw the implementation of gender ideology from the country's public policy and especially from the school curriculum. It was a massive rally initiated by the Pro Life and Family Coalition, led by an evangelical singer. The demonstration was a great success and attracted close to 100,000 people. It brought together many Protestants (pastors and faithful) and Catholics. Even a small group of legislators attended. Daniel Fernandez Torres of Arecibo, several priests, nuns and thousands of lay people who wanted to defend the natural and divine rights of parents to educate their children according to their own convictions.
Agustín Laje, a young Argentine political scientist, lecturer and writer, also addressed the crowd. He pointed out that there are small but very powerful groups that impose their ideologies in an outrageously anti-democratic way. Instagram recently censored him and closed his account with more than half a million subscribers, for not agreeing with his excellent arguments.
Genesis and development of gender ideology
Gender ideology (GI) is an intolerant, anti-scientific, elitist (i.e. anti-democratic) and rabidly anti-Christian proposal that has been growing especially in the last quarter of the 20th century and has reached its political apogee in our days. Although it appears to defend isolated initiatives and promotes "new rights", it has a well-structured political agenda and well studied and carefully implemented means and processes, especially through the judiciary.
Like any ideology, it has a basic creed that cannot be questioned, that pretends to explain everything in a reductive way. It denies all evidence, data or experiences that are contrary to it, excommunicating or denying it the right to offer alternatives and directs towards specific solutions to be implemented with the seizure of power. In the case of IE, it is necessary to "deconstruct" the concept of the family, of human nature and finally of religion. It is a kind of cultural Marxism. It has changed the oppressors and the oppressed of the 19th century Marxists, who are no longer the capitalists and the workers: the real oppressed are women and all those who do not fit into the heterosexual binary.
The well-known and powerful Bolshevik leader Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) believed that both the state and the family would be extinguished with the advent of a more advanced communism. The working woman could not be free unless she was guaranteed the right to choose whether or not to become pregnant. She would have the right to terminate unwanted progeny, so the free right to abortion had to be guaranteed. Marriage and the traditional family were legacies of the selfish and oppressive past based on property rights. Under communism both men and women would work and be supported by society, not by the family. Children would also properly belong to society, which would be responsible for raising them.
EI was revived on the occasion of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Simone de Beauvoir, as well as the American psychiatrists John Money and the psychoanalyst Robert Stroller and the American feminists Juliet Mitchel, Nancy Chrodow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, Bracha Ettinger, Shoshana Felman, Griselda Pollock, Jane Flax and Sulamith Fireston, among others, have assumed, disseminated and promoted it. The main objective of this ideology is to make the biological distinction between male and female disappear. One is not born male or female, but rather society assigns or imposes a role, a "gender". Exclusively binary sexual differentiation (like class differentiation for the Marxists of the 19th century) is part of a structure of oppression that has also invented marriage. These roles are functions that can and must be changed socially. The new society without biologically fixed sexes will be made up of people liberated from the old moral norms. In its many varieties of genders (the LGBTQ+) all these equally valid options will coexist in a peaceful paradise.
Marxist feminists insist on developing policies that highlight the oppression of women by patriarchal male chauvinists. For many feminists it is best to exclude males from all family roles. The popular culture generated by Hollywood and the Mass Media? (MCS) has often generated a negative image of men as fathers, urging young men to rebel against inept dads. This has accelerated the war against fathers: they are ridiculed, criminalized and marginalized. With the de facto exponential growth of single-parent families, assisted reproduction and express divorce, more and more children are living in families without a father figure. This combination of new de facto families and new models of "families" has borne much fruit in the United States, the European Union and even the United Nations. In the United Nations, especially since the summits on population in Cairo in 1994 and on women in Beijing in 1995, many of its agencies have adopted and promoted EI as part of their official policy.
During the 21st century the LGBTQ+ "collective" has joined the "new normal." They join protests against racial oppression, imperialism and gender identity issues. Laws, with their manifest pedagogical force, as well as educational policies, are two means of profoundly changing the functioning of a society and of limiting the right of the family in the educational mission, favoring state control. The promoters of EI have succeeded in getting many Western states to demand indoctrination in their theories or paradigms in both schools and colleges. Any individual who questions these new "dogmas" runs the risk of being disqualified with labels that denigrate those who oppose them and are punished economically and socially, ruining their image and reputation and even their survival.
Gender ideology spreads in Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, which has been in a process of rapid and aggressive secularization, gender ideology began to become official as state policy with the advent of the first governor, Sila María Calderón, of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) from 2001 to 2005. This party identifies with the Democratic Party of the United States. In April 2001, she created the Office of the Women's Advocate and charged her with the duty of ensuring that public policy is based on a gender perspective. It also redefines the family in the laws and even redefines domestic violence from a gender perspective. With Law 108 of 2006, alliances begin to be created to give the Women's Advocate the power to train and review all curricula of the Department of Education to encourage critical analysis of the curriculum with a "gender perspective", provide tools to develop curricula based on gender equity, and identify how the gender perspective can be integrated into education. This is Contract Number 2008-000075 between the Department of Education and the Office of the Women's Advocate. Circular Letter No. 3 2008-2009 indicated that it was the Public Policy of the State to incorporate the Gender Perspective in Puerto Rican Public Education. The reform of the Civil Code that ran in parallel also sought to redefine the family and make room for this change in language.
Governor Luis Fortuño, of the New Progressive Party (NPP) 2008-2012, ordered the repeal of the circular letters to the Dept. of Education that endorsed such gender orientation. But when the PDP returned to power with Governor Alejandro García Padilla (2012-2016), another circular letter, CC 9-2013-2015, reinstated the official nature of gender ideology as a necessary reference in public education, favoring the diversity of affective-sexual orientations. In addition, an attempt was made to limit domestic education (homeschooling). This circular sparked the massive demonstration of February 16, 2015 in front of the country's Capitol.
Today Puerto Rico is experiencing political fragmentation. In the November 2019 elections, the two hegemonic parties (the PDP and the NPP) that have alternated in power since 1969, now have to seek support from three small parties, the always minuscule independentistas and two of them entirely new, the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana and Proyecto Dignidad in order to legislate. Unfortunately, only one new party, the Christian-inspired Proyecto Dignidad, fully supports respect for family and parental rights. The other parties, including the more conservative NPP, whose candidate, Pedro Pierluisi, is the current Governor (2020-2024), have officially biased their government platforms in favor of gender ideologues.
Principle of subsidiarityand the rights and contribution of the family
Gender ideology ignores the principle of subsidiarity. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church reminds us that this principle protects people from the abuses of higher social levels and urges the latter to help individuals and intermediate bodies to carry out their tasks. Each person, family and intermediate body has something original to offer to the community. Experience shows that the denial of subsidiarity, or its limitation in the name of an alleged democratization or equality of all in society, limits and sometimes even cancels out the spirit of freedom and initiative. It ends up being a kind of official state monopoly.
Any social model that seeks the good of man cannot do without the centrality and social responsibility of the family. Society and the State, in their relations with the family, have the obligation to abide by the principle of subsidiarity. By virtue of this principle, the public authorities must not take away from the family the tasks which it can perform alone or freely associated with other families; on the other hand, the same authorities have the duty to assist the family, assuring it the help it needs to assume adequately all its responsibilities.
Pope Benedict XVI also warned us in his Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate that in today's social and cultural context, in which the tendency to relativize what is true is widespread, living love in truth leads us to understand that adherence to the values of Christianity is not only a useful element, but indispensable for the construction of a good society and true integral human development. A Christianity of love without truth can easily be confused with a reserve of good sentiments, useful for social coexistence, but marginal. In this way, there would be no true and proper place for God in the world. Without truth, charity-love is relegated to a reduced and private sphere of relationships. It is excluded from the projects and processes for building a human development of universal scope, in the dialogue between knowledge and operativity. It is necessary to unmask the false slogan that love is love and that it is necessary to celebrate all the "loves" that individuals may desire.
An essentially secular group is demanding respect for the family from the State and many of the leading components of society are not interested in the demand. This march affirmed the priority of the family with respect to society and the State. The family, subject of inviolable rights, finds its legitimacy in human nature and not in the recognition of the State. The family is not, therefore, in function of society and the State, but society and the State should be in function of the family. The family, a community of persons, is therefore the first human "society". A society tailored to the family is the best guarantee against any individualistic or collectivist tendency, because in it the person is always the center of attention as an end and never as a means.
The family, the natural community in which human sociability is experienced, contributes in a unique and irreplaceable way to the good of society. The family community is born from the communion of persons: "Communion" refers to the personal relationship between the "I" and the "you". The "community", on the other hand, goes beyond this scheme by pointing towards a "society", a "we". Without families strong in communion and stable in commitment, peoples are weakened.
The media are unaware of the demonstration.
Puerto Rico's mass media showed their contempt for these outraged citizens. None of the mass media, television channels in their newscasts, radio programs and newspapers mentioned the rally. It is as if it did not exist. The synchronized punishment of the managers with their silence and indifference is very effective. What is not published does not exist.
On the other hand, if five members of the LGBTQ+ community make a protest somewhere, it is on the front page with photos and with the support of the editor. Nearly 100,000 citizens gather to make their complaint to the Governor and the Governor does not listen to them and the press does not admit that a mass event happened. How dishonest! It is not that the reporters agree with the claim, it is a matter of notifying a remarkable event... We see once again that the Taliban of the gender ideology demonstrate their unquestionable power in the management of public opinion.
Several days passed until some radio commentators pointed out the dishonest silence of the media... But the saddest part of this whole process is that all the governors who have supported gender ideology claim to be Catholics... A tremendous task is still pending: that the Catholic laity of the country know and implement the Social Doctrine of the Church.
The authorFernando Felices
Pastor of the Grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes.
Praying for the Synod and discerning God's action in the Church
On October 9 and 10, the Ordinary Synod of Bishops will begin, which will last two years, until October 2023, and will include the first "mother synod" since this type of assembly was established, Nathalie Becquart. The preparatory document and the vademecum are expected to be published in the coming weeks.
In these weeks, the preparatory document and the vademecum for the next Ordinary Synod of Bishops, which will last two years, until October 2023, are expected. The opening celebration, as will be recalled, is scheduled in Rome, with the presence of Pope Francis, on October 9 and 10, while the following week it will be repeated in all the dioceses of the world.
There will be three preparatory commissions (theological, methodological and consultative) composed of a total of forty-one experts, ten of whom are women, including Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops and the first "synod mother" since this type of assembly was established.
In previous days, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Mario Grech, sent a heartfelt letter to monastic communities around the world, asking them to pray that the synodal journey maintain its own "spiritual dimension", so as to "know how to discern God's action in the life of the universal Church and of each of the particular Churches".
"Prayer opens hearts. It opens the ear to a listening that is more than hearing and makes us attentive to the action of the Spirit in our lives. There is no true discernment without prayer," the Cardinal explained.
The Undersecretary of the Synod and Coordinator of the Theological Commission, Luis Marín de San Martín, also spoke of "unity, ecclesiology of communion and space for discernment", presenting some keys to better understand the synodal process that will be inaugurated in October 2021.
Among them, the fact that it is not "an event, but a process: the act of walking together". That is what Synod means". And to walk this path "we need not only a change of mentality, but a change of heart", in other words "a conversion".
The other undersecretary, Becquart, also emphasized on several occasions the aspect of spirituality as an essential element of synodality: it is not possible to "walk with Christ" without listening to the Holy Spirit.
In this sense, the numerous ecclesial and lay movements also play an important role: "throughout history, the action of the Holy Spirit has been creative and the Church is rich in a great diversity of experiences, of communities, some of them centuries old", he stressed. For this reason, all these experiences of life and apostolate will be involved in the synodal process in the phase in which the consultation concerns the Episcopal Conferences and the Dioceses.
The video of Pope Francis' prayer intention for the month of August, launched by the World Network of the same name, was dedicated to "the Church on the Way". Francis recalls that the Church's "proper vocation is to evangelize" and that "we can only renew the Church by discerning God's will in our daily lives." "And by undertaking a transformation guided by the Holy Spirit."
Themes, as we can see, all of them related to the process that will be undertaken in the coming months and that will involve all ecclesial realities, from the base to the top, in order to concretize communion, participation and mission, as the motto of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops states. Happy journey to the whole Church.
From time to time, government agencies launch, without any real and legal basis,"smoke bombs" about the suppression of the Concordat between the State and the Catholic Church or the repeal of the Organic Law on Religious Freedom.
September 3, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
A bit upset, on the verge of the summer vacations, a good friend sent me a message on my cell phone with one of the news of the day: "The PSOE proposes to review the agreements with the Vatican and guarantee 'religious freedom'". I had to force myself to look up the date of the news, because for a moment I felt transported back many years... And the fact is that when the socialist governments have nothing better to do, they launch two "fairground rockets" to the public opinion: the revision (suppression) of the Concordat with the Catholic Church (read, the block of Agreements of 1976-1979) and the repeal-substitution of the Organic Law of Religious Freedom of 1980.
With respect to the "concordat" (read, the agreements) it can be subject to revision when both parties deem it necessary. Whether the time has come for its revision is for the agreeing parties to determine. Has that time come? It seems that for the government it has. Or rather that the time comes whenever it has nothing better to do. As to whether the Church thinks the same way, it seems that what the Spanish hierarchy wants is to build bridges and that what has been agreed upon is complied with -that it is fully complied with-.
And with respect to a new Organic Law on Religious Freedom, what surprises me is that the socialist governments have it in for this fundamental right. Because they are not concerned about the revision of other organic laws on fundamental rights. The obsession with religious freedom is already tiring, like a kind of clericalism in reverse. Is it worth it for the government to launch itself into battle again? I think not. And not so much because it is necessary or not, because it is a requirement of non-discrimination or not, because religious freedom must yield to a right that can be extended to believers and non-believers... But because, if it opens the melon, it will have to determine once and for all the content and scope of conscientious objection. And the Constitutional Court has not even dared to do so.
It is a pity that the government's religious policy is still anchored to the last century. That it has not convened the Advisory Commission on Religious Freedom (or the main religious denominations in Spain) to coordinate efforts and wills in the struggle and overcoming (moral and economic) of the pandemic. That he continues to imagine a social actor of the first order as the enemy to be defeated. It wastes time, loses resources, loses allies. And as with fireworks, in the end it all remains just noise and little more.
Bogdan Teleanu was born in Zarnesti, Brasov, Romania. He is 46 years old. He is not a Catholic, but an Orthodox priest of the Romanian Patriarchate, but he decided to study at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome, a Catholic and Pontifical university, and then return to his country to help the Romanian Church and thus face the many current difficulties. He has a degree in Institutional Church Communication. He is married and has three children. In the Orthodox Church they can receive priestly ordination after marriage, although they cannot become bishops.
His studies qualified him to work at the Press Office of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate. Some of his most beautiful experiences have been covering the visit to Romania of Pope Francis in 2019. "Thanks to the tools acquired in communication studies at Holy Cross I have been able to become a better communicator and spokesman," says Fr. Bogdan.
He also holds a doctorate in theology from his home country, specializing in catechetics and homiletics. "I have focused my communicative activity on intensifying the dialogue between the Church and culture, because the Church is the creator of authentic cultural values. This is very important in a country like Romania, where we still face the problems created by the communist dictatorship that lasted for so many years," he says. One of the problems in his country is emigration, "because there are so many Romanians abroad. The Orthodox Church in Romania is very committed to supporting the families of those who emigrated, especially taking care of children who are left alone in the country because their mothers and fathers are forced to go abroad to work to send money home," he says.
These children in Romania are called "white orphans". According to estimates, out of 5 million Romanian children, 750 thousand are more or less violently affected by the departure of their parents. Of these, 350,000 have been deprived of one of their parents, while 126,000 have been deprived of both parents. But there are more than 400,000 children who have experienced, for a period of their lives, a form of loneliness.
St. Gabriel de Córdoba Residence: a family home after prison
Returning to society through a family, this could be the summary of the work of the St. Gabriel residence, inaugurated last August in what used to be the former "Santa María de los Ángeles" Seminary in Hornachuelos, belonging to the diocese of Córdoba (Spain).
The new house is the fruit of "an idea that was put forward some time ago in the prison ministry," says Father José Antonio Rojas Moriana, the director of the Cordoba Prison Ministry, in an interview with Omnes. "We detected the need to have a resource for people who are leaving prison and who have no type of help: neither family nor social. People for whom it was going to be very difficult to reintegrate properly into society without anyone who could accompany them in this return to normality."
José Antonio Rojas and Msgr. Fernández at the inauguration of the house
On August 2, the Bishop of Cordoba, Bishop Demetrio Fernandez, blessed the facilities of the St. Gabriel Residence. It is not a reception center "as usual", as Rojas Moriana explains, "it is a community of life where the people who are welcomed will be part of this family".
A normal family, with responsibilities, obligations, affection and accompaniment. In this sense, the people who are welcomed there "will take part in the decisions of the house, in the administration, in the daily work, in whatever needs to be done. It is, above all, to offer a family, with whom you live, where you are helped, accompanied and are part of this project".
The San Gabriel residence will house people who, after serving their sentence, want to rebuild their lives and do not have any family or social support to help them at this stage.
It is a difficult job, due to the profile of its recipients, which will be directed by the Pastoral Penitenciaria de Córdoba together with Cáritas diocesana de Córdoba, which provides professionals to accompany and train the people received, and the congregation of the Hermanas Hospitalarias de Jesús Nazareno which, as the priest in charge of this work points out, "has placed a community of nuns at the service of this project, who live in the house and who will accompany these people".
The house occupies what was once the Seminary "Santa Maria de los Angeles" of Hornachuelos, located in the natural environment of the same name, a unique location to develop the work of assistance and rehabilitation of those who are welcomed there. The house has three floors: the ground floor is dedicated to common areas such as the dining room, bathrooms and office. The second floor houses the chapel and some of the seven rooms, which are completed on the second floor, dedicated solely to bedrooms. The third floor has a nature classroom and an activity room.
A project that, as José Antonio Rojas points out, materializes the work of the prison ministry "from the Gospel and the Church, seeking the best in each person and offering them a channel of freedom, of inner reconstruction and bringing out the best in them so that they do not have to return to the life they had before".
The world we live in, with viruses that threaten humanity, has made us think about the fragility of our species.
September 2, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
That movie, which later spawned a TV series and is now a major franchise, had a profound impact on my childhood. Planet of the Apes narrated a dystopia in which the human species had succumbed to the superiority of the apes that dominated the earth in an imaginary future. At the origin, the great failure of man since Adam and Eve: wanting to be like God, this time through the misuse of genetic engineering and nuclear energy, to end up realizing that he is naked.
The human being, made in the image and likeness of God, has the power to give life and to take it away, to reproduce or to become extinct. He is the only living being who can break the law of self-preservation, which is inscribed in all creation, in order to follow the law of self-destruction. Created for life, in our freedom we are capable of condemning ourselves to death. This is in fact what, in theological terms, we call sin, although the word in popular language has other connotations that are often erroneous.
Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, have the power to give life and to take it away, to reproduce or to become extinct.
Antonio Moreno
The dystopian world we are living in this 2020-2021, with mutant viruses threatening the human family, has made us think about the fragility of our species and about the real possibility that Hollywood fables may end up becoming something more than entertainment.
Let this introduction serve as an argument to explain why the other night I had trouble falling asleep after reading this data: in Spain there are 6.2 million children under 14 years of age while there are more than 7 million registered dogs. The illusion of young couples is no longer to have offspring, but to share a dog. The human being is born, grows up, adopts a dog and dies without a trace. This is the reality of 21st century men and women, condemned to a dog's life where the love of a family, open to eternity, is replaced by the uncompromising affection of adorable animals.
And we must not forget that the dog is a species created by humans, crossed for generations to satisfy our needs and, today, the most basic need (look at the much-vaunted welfare society) is affection.
On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, I am reminded of the words of the Pope in Laudato si'The human being cannot have a real feeling of intimate union with the other beings of nature if at the same time there is no tenderness, compassion and concern for human beings in the heart. It is evident the incoherence of those who fight against the trafficking of animals at risk of extinction, but remain completely indifferent to the trafficking of human beings, or are indifferent to the poor, or are bent on destroying another human being they dislike".
And before the inequalities of our world, before the superiority of the throwaway culture, which despises the poor, the elderly, the sick and the children, while supposedly loving animals more and more; that final scene of the film with which I opened the article comes to mind: A masterful Charlton Heston discovers at last that, after the destruction of the human race, there is no other guilty party than man himself in the use of his freedom. And on all fours, lying like a dog on the shore of the beach while being shaken by the waves, he exclaims: "Maniacs! You have destroyed it! I curse you!".
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
The Time of Creation begins, a call to care for the common home
On September 1, at the initiative of the Pope, the Catholic Church, together with other denominations, will join in the Time of Creation, which will be celebrated in a special way until October 4, the feast of St. Francis.
Driven by the Laudato si' movement the Time of Creation is presented as a time of grace that all Christian churches, in ecumenical dialogue, offer to humanity so that it may renew its relationship with the Creator and with creation "a celebration that allows all people to recognize ourselves as "the work of the Lord's creative act", to contemplate nature and all that dwells in it, and to care for our Common Home". A time that wants to be a call for reflection for all Christians around the world on the theme "A home for all? Renewing God's Oikos".
An initiative framed within the concern for the future of the planet and the conditions of all its inhabitants, which is one of the pastoral and magisterial lines of Pope Francis and which has given rise to initiatives such as the Laudato si' Platform for Action.
Individuals and communities are called upon to participate and push forward through three avenues:
Prayer: Organize an ecumenical prayer meeting that unites all Christians to care for our common home.
Sustainability: Leads a cleanup project that helps all creation thrive.
Advocacy: Raise your voice for climate justice by participating in or leading an ongoing campaign, such as the fossil fuel divestment movement.
Through timeforcreation.org you can find the official guide to the celebration of the Time of Creation, a wide range of resources and a form to register events and activities in this regard.
This time of creation looks especially to the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), to be held next November, where countries must announce their plans to meet the goals of the historic Paris climate agreement. In fact, on the occasion of this Conference, Monsignor Bruno-Marie Duffé, Secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, invited Catholics to sign up to and promote the Healthy Planet, Healthy People" petitionwhich tells world leaders how they should care for God's creation.
Mark relates that Jesus "went out of the region of Tyre, came through Sidon, toward the Sea of Galilee, crossing the territory of the Decapolis.". Jesus liked to enter the territories inhabited by pagans.
His mission was not to proclaim the Gospel to them, but rather to focus on the ".lost sheep of the house of Israel": He would entrust this task to his own, before leaving them. Confident in the power of the Holy Spirit, he would send them to preach and baptize all nations. But he could not resist the possibility of visiting those lands inhabited by pagans, especially those that had access to the same lake of Gennesaret, where he began his public mission. Thus he manifested his desire to bring them salvation.
Mark had told of the possessed man of Gerasa who went to meet Jesus, who had docked in that area, and after being released from the legion of demons that possessed him - who took refuge in the pigs, which died in the lake in a frenzy - he told Jesus that he wanted to follow him, but was given the task of staying and talking about "the great things the Lord has done."in his house. That man, strengthened by the incontrovertible truth of his deliverance, did not limit himself to speaking of Jesus to his own people, but spread the good news throughout the Decapolis.
So in that territory Jesus was known. Perhaps some who had heard of him noticed his arrival, and aware of Jesus' healing power presented him to the deaf-mute begging him to lay his hand on him. Perhaps they just wanted a blessing or hoped that healing could come from that gesture alone. Jesus took him in. And he did much more than they asked him to do. "He took it to the side, away from the crowd.". With this detail, in this circumstance, he wanted to emphasize confidentiality, discretion, respect for the privacy of this man so affected by disability. He wanted to give him personalized attention. "He put his fingers in her ears and touched saliva to her tongue.": the whole body of Jesus, almighty God who became man, in contact with the sick brings healing. "Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to her, 'Effetha,' which means, 'Open up!'". He sighs for all the sufferings of humanity and asks the Father to open our capacities to listen to the words of men and the words of God, and to pronounce the words of men and the words of God. It is the commandment and the blessing that we all receive at baptism with the repetition of that Aramaic word of Jesus: "...".Effetha!", and that today Jesus repeats to each one of us: have an open ear, an open mouth, listen to me and speak of me, you who believe in me.
Homily on the readings of Sunday 23rd Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
"Do we settle for some religious formality to have a clear conscience?"
Pope Francis encouraged, in this Wednesday's audience, to follow Christ with determination, knowing that "the ephemeral often knocks at the door, but it is a sad illusion, which makes us fall into superficiality and prevents us from discerning what is really worth living".
Pope Francis commented on another passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians during this Wednesday's audience. "In the preceding catecheses," Francis began, "we have seen how the Apostle Paul shows the first Christians of Galatia the danger of abandoning the path they have begun to walk in welcoming the Gospel. In fact, the risk is that of falling into formalism and denying the new dignity they have received. The passage we have just heard begins the second part of the Letter. Up to this point, Paul has spoken of his life and vocation: of how the grace of God has transformed his life, placing it completely at the service of evangelization. At this point, he directly challenges the Galatians: he confronts them with the choices they have made and their present condition, which could nullify the experience of grace they have lived.
"The terms with which the apostle addresses the Galatians are not polite. In the other Letters it is easy to find the expression "brethren" or "dearly beloved", but not here. He says generically "Galatians" and on two occasions he calls them "foolish". He does not do this because they are unintelligent, but because, almost without realizing it, they run the risk of losing the faith in Christ that they have embraced so enthusiastically. They are foolish because they do not realize that the danger is that of losing the precious treasure, the beauty of the newness of Christ. The wonder and sadness of the Apostle are evident. Not without bitterness, he provokes these Christians to remember the first announcement made by him, with which he offered them the possibility of acquiring a hitherto unexpected freedom".
"The apostle addresses questions to the Galatians in an attempt to shake their consciences. These are rhetorical questions, because the Galatians know very well that their coming to faith in Christ is the fruit of the grace received through the preaching of the Gospel. The word they had heard from Paul focused on the love of God, fully manifested in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul could not find more convincing expressions than the one he had probably repeated several times in his preaching: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). He did not want to know anything other than Christ crucified (cf. 1 Cor 2:2). The Galatians must look to this event, without being distracted by other announcements. In short, Paul's intent is to put Christians on the spot so that they realize what is at stake and do not allow themselves to be charmed by the voice of the sirens who want to lead them to a religiosity based solely on the scrupulous observance of precepts".
"The Galatians, on the other hand, understood very well what the apostle was referring to. Certainly, they had experienced the action of the Holy Spirit in the community: as in the other Churches, so also among them charity and various charisms had been manifested. When they were put on the spot, they necessarily had to respond that what they had experienced was the fruit of the newness of the Spirit. Therefore, at the beginning of their coming to faith, there was the initiative of God, not of men. The Holy Spirit had been the protagonist of their experience; to put him now in the background to give primacy to their own works would be foolish".
"In this way, St. Paul also invites us to reflect on how we live our faith. And the Pope poses some questions to all the faithful: "Does the love of the crucified and risen Christ remain at the center of our daily life as a source of salvation, or do we settle for some religious formality to have a clear conscience? Are we attached to the precious treasure, to the beauty of the newness of Christ, or do we prefer something that at the moment attracts us but later leaves us with an emptiness inside? The ephemeral often knocks at the door of our days, but it is a sad illusion, which makes us fall into superficiality and prevents us from discerning what is really worth living. Therefore, let us hold firm to the certainty that, even when we are tempted to turn away, God continues to bestow his gifts. This is what the apostle reiterates to the Galatians, recalling that it is the Father "who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you" (3:5). He speaks to the present - "bestows", "works" - not to the past. For, notwithstanding all the difficulties we may place in the way of his actions, God does not abandon us but remains with us in his merciful love. Let us ask for the wisdom to always be aware of this reality".
Afghans. Some ideas on how to ensure the defense of human rights
The most important thing is to ensure the safety of the Afghan population. After the evacuations, it is necessary to deal with the reception of these people in Spain and different EU countries. Mobilization and commitment of the civil society are crucial for a real reception.
September 1, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
The recent events in Afghanistan are a further illustration of the world we are building. Western society boasts of its rule of law and its commitment to human rights worldwide, which was embodied in the Bonn Agreements of 2001, signed by Western states with a commitment to create a new Afghanistan based on these premises. However, the outcome has been very mixed.
After the collapse of the Afghan reconstruction government and in the absence of a withdrawal strategy, the most important thing in the coming days for the international community is to ensure the safety of the Afghan population, especially those people who, due to their profession, vocation or situation, are more vulnerable to the new Taliban government. Spain has set itself up as an example of effectiveness in managing the evacuation of these people. The coordination of our diplomats and military in the work of departure and arrival to our country, with the establishment of accommodation in the bases of Torrejón, Morón and Rota is being commendable and can mark a turning point in our foreign policy, demonstrating the great capacity and preparation of senior officials of the Spanish State in crisis situations and in international relations of the XXI century.
However, evacuation is only the starting point, because now we have to deal with the reception of these people in Spain and in different countries of the European Union. The 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1978 Protocol define a refugee in Article 1 as a person who "with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.". This implies that once the Afghan population has been rendered safe in the countries participating in the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force of Afghanistan) and its allies, they must apply for this refugee or asylum status according to the respective national regulations of the host country.
Therefore, the arrival of the Afghans at the Spanish bases will mark only the beginning of their new life. Now, they will have to determine the final host country, deal with the regulatory procedures that recognize them as refugees, the social and political acceptance in these countries and the adaptation to a new life, with the uncertainty of not knowing when they will be able to return to their homes.
In the United States and some European states, voices have already emerged that are not so favorable to the reception of the Afghan population, both for economic, social and political reasons and for fear that among the evacuated Afghans there may be terrorists who could introduce cells into the West. Politicians are often the first to show these reservations, largely out of fear and for short-term, electioneering purposes. Fears that can be countered as long as a good reception and adaptation strategy is put in place. To this end, the mobilization and commitment of civil society is crucial to ensure a real and effective reception. It is essential to raise the awareness of both the host and the receiving society in order to favor the adaptation of both in exceptional circumstances.
In Spain, Law 12/2009, of October 30, 2009, regulating the right to asylum and subsidiary protection, sets out the procedures, requirements and rights of refugees in Spain in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The work of entities such as UNHCR, Caritas, Pueblos Unidos or the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), among others, is impressive and key to the accompaniment of Afghans arriving in Spain and to ensure the obtaining of refugee status and their adaptation to the host States. The European Union has once again the opportunity to be an example of guarantor and defender of human rights, having the urgent task of organizing the reception of this Afghan population and establishing a practical and effective international strategy based on human rights.
The current situation in Afghanistan shows that every time there is a humanitarian catastrophe anywhere, states act according to their interests and politicians and society respond with thousands of reactions on the networks, eager to collect a lot of money. "likes". This individualistic and instantaneous tendency of society means that the response to a critical situation is often not adapted to the real needs due to a lack of collective vision and transversality. It is time to believe that every society is enriched by putting itself at the service of others and that collective action, breaking distrust, is the best investment to ensure the defense of human rights.
The authorJavier Benavides Malo
Teacher of dnternational law pThe public of theVillanueva University
Francis in September: Eucharistic Congress in Budapest and pastoral visit to Slovakia
During several days in September, the Holy Father's activity will take place in two countries in the heart of Europe, Hungary and Slovakia.
September 1, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
In the first, the Pope will close the International Eucharistic Congress of Budapest, held the previous days in the Hungarian capital, as well as a Theological Symposium in preparation for the convocation. Some have focused their attention mainly on the internal political context - the decisions of the Hungarian government, the Pope's alleged support or rejection of certain initiatives - or the international context - the tense relationship between Hungary and the European Union. These are inevitable dimensions, but not central to Francis' brief but very intense visit to Budapest. More relevant is the explicit occasion for his presence: a Eucharistic Congress, the impetus for the faith of the Hungarians and others interested in this international event. "All my sources are in you."This verse from Psalm 87, chosen as a reference for the Congress, indicates it precisely.
Pope Francis will visit the Marian shrine of Šaštín.
In Slovakia, the Pope will stay longer, visiting the capital, Bratislava, the cities of Košice and Prešov, and the Marian shrine of Šaštín. The program is extensive and is organized under the motto "With Mary and Joseph, on the way to Jesus."This includes meetings with the authorities, other religious denominations, Greek Catholics, young people and gypsies ("Roma" in the local language). This last meeting takes the Pope to an area he particularly appreciates, a "periphery" located on the margins of social life, which poses great challenges also for his pastoral care, which is very laborious. The settlement of Luník IX and its inhabitants, with an unemployment rate of almost 100 %, will be unexpected for those who follow this trip, and will probably remain engraved in the memory of the pontificate.
While under communism the situation in both countries had common factors but also differences, even now, thirty years after the fall of the communist regime, they have common challenges but also their own specificities. Two countries, two occasions, two manifestations of Pope Francis' interest in these countries located in the heart of Europe.
Fesemyer, a member of the U.S. track and field team at the Tokyo Paralympics, says he owes much of his success to the support he received during his years at St. John's Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois; and he is an example of Christian steadfastness and fullness of life.
In many female literary figures we find the embodiment of what John Paul II called the "genius" and "prophetism" of women, born of their constitutive openness to motherhood.
The American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), who worked hard for the abolition of slavery and for the inclusion of women in the suffrages, narrates with great sensitivity the lives of the four daughters of the March couple (Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy), in the popular Little Women and in its two sequels: Good Wives y Jo's boys (Little Men). It describes the gentle and strong pedagogy of a Christian home, which must face various sufferings and difficulties. Overcoming class prejudices, excesses of temperament, illnesses, separations due to war, as well as economic hardship, the young women become responsible professionals and cultivated wives and mothers.
In turn, the Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) created the charming figure of Anne Shirley, in the famous novel Ana de Tejas verdes (Anne of Green Gables) and in the seven subsequent books in the series: the orphan girl - adopted by the farm owners named Green shinglesThe story is told in a lively, intelligent, original, impulsive, affectionate and stubborn way by a woman with a great personality, who illuminated the minds and hearts around her with her sharp wit and ardent love. It tells the gripping story of this woman gifted with great personality, who illuminates with her sharp wit and ardent love the minds and hearts around her, and who went on to form a beautiful Christian family with many children and grandchildren.
The genius of women
In these female literary figures we find the embodiment of what John Paul II called the "genius" and "prophetism" of women, which is born of their constitutive openness to the maternity: that is to say, of its vocation to receive, engender, care for and educate incipient, weak and needy human life (cf. apostolic letter Mulieris dignitatem on women's dignity and vocation, 15-8-1988, nn. 29-30; see also: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, 31-5-2004, III: Actuality of feminine values in the life of society).
In summary, we can consider that the identity and the mission specific to women include these values: their peculiar capacity and intuition to discover with promptness and amazement the unique and sacred value of each person; his or her peculiar gift for host responsibly and affectionately life to understand and live with joy the true human being that is entrusted to him; his ability to understand and live with joy the true orderof love and of beauty; his understanding of the original call to the service and free of charge to others; his inner strength and maturity, developed through the perseverance in the achievement of good in the midst of difficulties and hardships; their dedication, tenderness, cordiality and sensitivity, especially for accompany and promote with affection, patience and demand to the specific people in their training spiritual and also in their suffering; his clairvoyant understanding of the language filial, spousal and generative of the human body in their masculinity and femininity, with their different implications in attitudes and human relationships; their experience of the importance of the commitment and the fidelity, experienced and affirmed as a profoundly agreeable requirement in the dealings between people; his wise insight and diligent care to keep in his heart the grateful memory family history and the gifts received; and, finally, its delicate religious sense, with a prompt orientation to the relationship - intimate and trusting (from you to you), obedient and generous - with the revealed God, which allows him to grasp in the vicissitudes and actions of temporal existence the perspective or the transcendent horizon of the eternal life.
Thank you, woman!
John Paul II himself concluded his Letter to women(June 29, 1995), with a heartfelt song of thanksgiving for the gift of women to the world and to every man:
"I thank you, woman-mother, that you become the womb of the human being with the joy and pains of childbirth in a unique experience, which makes you God's smile for the child that comes to birth and makes you the guide of its first steps, support of its growth, point of reference on the subsequent path of life.
I thank you, woman-wife, that you irrevocably unite your destiny to that of a man through a relationship of reciprocal self-giving, at the service of communion and life.
I thank you, woman-daughter and woman-sister, that you bring to the family nucleus and also to the whole of social life the riches of your sensitivity, intuition, generosity and constancy.
I thank you, woman-worker, that you participate in all areas of social, economic, cultural, artistic and political life, through the indispensable contribution you give to the elaboration of a culture capable of reconciling reason and feeling, to a conception of life always open to the sense of "mystery", to the building of economic and political structures richer in humanity.
I thank you, consecrated woman, that following the example of the greatest of women, the Mother of Christ, the Incarnate Word, you open yourself with docility and fidelity to the love of God, helping the Church and all humanity to live for God a "spousal" response, which wonderfully expresses the communion that He wants to establish with His creature.
I thank you, woman, for the very fact of being a woman! With the intuition of your femininity, you enrich our understanding of the world and contribute to the full truth of human relationships".
Msgr. Jozef Haľko: "The fundamental objective of the Pope's visit is to deepen faith in Jesus Christ".
Omnes talks with Bishop Jozef Haľko, auxiliary bishop of Bratislava, Slovakia, on the occasion of the Pope's upcoming pastoral visit to the country, September 12-15, 2021.
Alfonso Riobó-August 30, 2021-Reading time: 7minutes
"From September 12 to 15 next, God willing, I will go to Slovakia for a Pastoral Visit," Pope Francis announced. "I will first concelebrate in Budapest the concluding Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress," the Pope added. "I heartily thank all those who are preparing for this trip and I pray for them. We all pray for this trip and for the people who are working to organize it."
On the occasion of this trip, which marks Pope Francis' second after the COVID-19 pandemic, after visiting Iraq in a historic trip, Omnes talks with Bishop Jozef Haľko, auxiliary bishop of Bratislava, Slovakia.
Did the announcement of the Pope's visit come as a surprise to Slovaks? Not long ago it seemed unrealistic to think about this possibility....
We were not only surprised by the announcement of the visit, but also by its duration, since it will last for three days. However, there was no time to remain in surprise, because it was necessary to get down to work immediately so that the visit would go as well as possible and, above all, produce good spiritual fruits.
St. John Paul II visited Slovakia briefly in 1990, before the country's independence, and then twice more, in 1995 and 2003. This will be the fourth visit by a pope.
The three visits of Pope St. John Paul II have been indelibly engraved in the history of the new post-communist Slovakia.
It is interesting to remember that already during communism, in the 1980s, a large signature campaign was conducted to invite Pope John Paul II to come to Slovakia. The communists reacted very irritated, but the signatures reached Pope John Paul II anyway, and he was moved.
Monsignor Jozef Haľko is auxiliary bishop of Bratislava, Slovakia.
Not so long ago, until 1989, Slovakia was under communist totalitarianism. Society has changed a lot since then. What are the challenges for the Church today?
The challenges of the Church today are to build a healthy society, based on a healthy and strong family, in which children are educated according to the normal traditional values. At the same time, it is very important to face the various experiments in the field of relationships in the family, in couples, in children. The evangelization of the younger generations, including through social networks, is also a great challenge.
The challenge of the Church today is to build a healthy society, based on a healthy and strong family, in which children are educated according to normal traditional values.
Monsignor Jozef HaľkoAuxiliary Bishop of Bratislava
The motto of the papal visit is: "With Mary and Joseph on the way to Jesus". Can you explain it?
The motto of the Pope's visit is inspired by the Marian devotion, which is widespread in Slovakia, and by the Year of St. Joseph that has been proclaimed, while the fundamental objective of the visit of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope and Supreme Pastor of the Church remains the deepening of faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, our Redeemer and Protector.
The fundamental objective of the visit of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope and Supreme Pastor of the Church is the deepening of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Monsignor Jozef HaľkoAuxiliary Bishop of Bratislava
Marian devotion is expressed, for example, in the patron saint of the country, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, venerated in Šaštín. What is the significance of the Pope's presence at the September 15 pilgrimage?
The Pope's visit to Šaštín, and his presence at the national Marian shrine of the Vigren of the Seven Sorrows, has a profound message, with various aspects: there we will pray together in union with the successor of St. Peter, in the awareness that we have only one Mother, who is therefore "Mother of the Church", the Mother of the Seven Sorrows. And so there we will experience in a very special way a communion based on Marian piety, which is the surest way to Jesus.
An index of vitality is the high number of people who go to the sacrament of confession, or the many young people who attend Mass on weekdays. The Pope will meet with young people in Košice on September 14. What fruits do you expect?
The young generation is very receptive, and also critical. At the same time, they are searching for the meaning of their lives, and perhaps never before have they been subjected to the pressure of so many alternative offers in this regard. That is why the solemn voice of the High Priest, Pope Francis, will also be very important for them. There is an enormous spiritual potential in Slovak youth, and it is important not only to grasp and awaken it, but also to develop it steadily.
There is enormous spiritual potential in Slovak youth, and it is important not only to capture and awaken it, but also to develop it steadily.
Monsignor Jozef HaľkoAuxiliary Bishop of Bratislava
The Pope will meet with priests, religious and catechists in Bratislava. In the first years after the fall of communism, the number of vocations was relatively high. What is the situation of vocation ministry now?
Vocation ministry requires constant attention to young people at all levels of contact that life naturally brings them. Vocation ministry is unthinkable without family ministry, without pastoral care and evangelization also in social networks, which are the contact platforms of today's youth. For example, of great importance are the altar boy camps organized by the seminarians and supported by the dioceses. There, the boys see young men, close to them in age, who have already decided to take the step, study theology and prepare themselves spiritually for the priesthood.
St. Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava will host Pope Francis' meeting with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and catechists.
A peculiarity of Slovakia is the presence of a significant number of Greek Catholics; historical reasons have made Slovakia as a bridge between East and West, but always linked to Rome. Francis will meet with Greek Catholics in Prešov.
Already at a meeting in Rome Pope Francis invited the Slovak Greek Catholics to preserve and maintain their identity, including their specific Byzantine rite. Undoubtedly the meeting in Slovakia will continue along these lines, and that will be a great satisfaction for the Greek Catholics who in the communist era were persecuted and excluded for 18 years: they were not allowed to exist.
The meeting with the Gypsy minority in the Luník IX neighborhood will take the Pope to one of the main "peripheries" of Slovak society, and to an important pastoral challenge.
The Pope invites the Gypsies to become a gift to society with their culture, to receive at the same time all the positive aspects of the society in which they live. The Pope's presence at the Luník in Košice will also be a great encouragement for those who work every day to care for the Gypsies.
Bratislava, the capital, has its own particular features. What are the priorities of the archdiocese?
The evangelization of Bratislava, both as a capital and as a large city, certainly has its peculiar aspects.
It is important that Catholics, in all areas of civil life, give open witness to the living Christ, that his Gospel can be lived in everyday reality. The city, of course, presupposes the evangelization of student environments, of business environments, of the political environment. The Gospel has in itself the power to inspire every sphere of social life.
Is the Pope's visit related to the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, from where the Holy Father will come to Slovakia?
It is possible to note a certain symmetry between the events of the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest and the Pope's visit to Slovakia. Because the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest will deal with the themes of the Gypsies, the Jews, the peripheries, the youth, in relation to the Eucharist, and all of them are the subject of various meetings of the Pope in Slovakia. The fact that the Pope will close the Eucharistic Congress with a solemn Holy Mass, from which he will immediately leave for Slovakia, creates a very inspiring link between the two events.
You are responsible for the spiritual preparation for the Holy Father's visit. What is that preparation like?
The main goal of spiritual preparation is to experience the Pope's presence in Slovakia as a highly spiritual event, after which we will have been strengthened in faith by the successor of St. Peter. With the help of spiritual preparation, we are, so to speak, "tuning in" to the "wavelengths" of Pope Francis, in order to be able to listen to him attentively, without being distracted by irrelevant or less relevant issues, and to desire to be strengthened in faith, in our personal faith in Jesus Christ.
The bishops have proposed three prayer intentions in preparation for the visit: for the Pope, for the Church in Slovakia and for all people on earth.
Of course, prayer is an essential and indispensable element of preparation, because without it we really "can do nothing," as Jesus himself says. These three prayers have their logic: we pray for the one who will come; we pray for those to whom he will come; and, finally, we pray for all people, because every visit of the Roman Pontiff, that is, of the bridge-builder, is also to build bridges in human relations and to build the great family of Christ's faithful.
To prepare ourselves, we pray for the one who will come; we pray for those to whom he will come; and, finally, we pray for all men, because every visit of the Roman Pontiff is also to build bridges in human relations and to build the great family of Christ's faithful.
Monsignor Jozef HaľkoAuxiliary Bishop of Bratislava
Regarding the future of Catholicism in the country, in a pastoral letter the bishops invited us to ask ourselves two questions: "What does Slovakia look like today? Allow me to ask you those same questions....
These two questions are inseparable, and constitute the dynamics of the spiritual development of each individual and of society as a whole. For if we do not truly call reality by its name, including mistakes, failures and shortcomings, we cannot adequately move forward into the future, in the effort to improve and deepen what has gone wrong.
When Jesus said to the rich young man: "You still lack something," he repeats the same thing to all of us today. We cannot remain stuck in lethargy and passivity, but - as Pope Francis says - we have to be able to dream. And we have to be able to make dreams gradually disappear, making them come true.
Pope's program in Slovakia
Sunday, September 12 15:30 Arrival in Bratislava from Budapest, and official reception 16:30 Ecumenical meeting at the Apostolic Nunciature 17:30 Private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus
Monday, September 13 9:15 Welcome Ceremony (Presidential Palace, Bratislava) 9:30 Courtesy visit to the President of the Republic 10:00 Meeting with representatives of the State, civil society and the diplomatic corps (presidential palace) 10:45 Meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated persons, seminarians and catechists at St. Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava 16:00 Private visit to the Betlehem Center, Bratislava 16:45 Meeting with the Jewish community at Rybné námestie Square, Bratislava 18:00 Meeting with the Speaker of Parliament at the Apostolic Nunciature 18:15 Meeting with the president of the government at the Apostolic Nunciature
Tuesday, September 14th 9:00 Arrival by plane to Košice 10:30 Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in the municipal sports hall in Prešov 16:00 Meeting with the Roma community at Luník IX. in Košice 17:00 Meeting with young people at the Lokomotíva stadium in Košice 18:30 Departure to Bratislava
Wednesday, September 15 9:10 a.m. Prayer meeting with bishops at the national shrine in Šaštín 10:00 Holy Mass in the open air at the sanctuary of Šaštín 13:30 Farewell ceremony at the airport and departure to Rome.
Pope Francis calls for prayer and fasting for Afghanistan
Pope Francis has called for intensified prayer and fasting for peace in Afghanistan, following Sunday's Angelus prayer, since "in historic moments such as these we cannot remain indifferent."
Before the beginning of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis commented on the Gospel of Sunday Mass: "The Gospel of today's Liturgy shows scribes and Pharisees astonished by the attitude of Jesus. They are scandalized because his disciples take food without first performing the traditional ritual ablutions. They think to themselves: 'This way of doing things is contrary to religious practice' (cf. Mk 7:2-5)".
Faith that touches the heart
"We could also ask ourselves: why do Jesus and his disciples neglect these traditions? After all, they are not bad things, but good ritual habits, a simple washing before taking a meal. Why doesn't Jesus pay attention to them? Because for him it is important to bring faith back to its center. We see it again and again in the Gospel: to bring faith back to the center. And to avoid a risk, which is as valid for those scribes as it is for us: to observe external formalities while leaving the heart of faith in the background. Too often we "make up" our souls. The external formality and not the heart of faith: this is a risk. It is the risk of a religiosity of appearances: to appear to be good on the outside, while neglecting the purification of the heart. There is always the temptation to "fix God" with some external devotion, but Jesus is not satisfied with this adoration. Jesus does not want external things, he wants a faith that reaches the heart".
"In fact, immediately afterwards, he calls the crowd together to tell them a great truth: "There is nothing outside a man that, entering into him, can make him unclean" (v. 15). Instead, it is "from within, from the heart" (v. 21) that evil things are born. These words are revolutionary, because in the mentality of that time it was thought that certain foods or external contacts made one impure. Jesus inverts the perspective: it is not evil what comes from outside, but what is born from within".
"Dear brothers and sisters, this also concerns us. We often think that evil comes mainly from outside: from the behavior of others, from those who think badly of us, from society. How often we blame others, society, the world, for everything that happens to us! It is always the fault of "others": it is the fault of the people, of the rulers, of bad luck, etc. It seems that problems always come from outside. And we spend our time apportioning blame; but spending time blaming others is a waste of time. You get angry, you get sour and you push God away from your heart. Like those people in the Gospel, who complain, are scandalized, polemicize and do not welcome Jesus. You cannot be truly religious by complaining: complaining poisons you, it leads you to anger, resentment and sadness, the sadness of the heart, which closes the doors to God".
"Let us ask the Lord today to free us from blaming others, like children: "No, it wasn't me! It's the other person, it's the other person...". -We ask in prayer for the grace not to waste time polluting the world with complaints, because this is not Christian. Rather, Jesus invites us to look at life and the world from the heart. If we look within, we will find almost everything we hate on the outside. And if we sincerely ask God to purify our hearts, then we will begin to make the world cleaner. For there is an infallible way to overcome evil: to begin by defeating it within oneself. The early Fathers of the Church, the monks, when they were asked, "What is the way of holiness? How do I begin?" the first step, they said, was to accuse ourselves: to accuse ourselves. Accuse ourselves. How many of us, at some point in the day or in the week, are able to accuse ourselves inside? "Yes, this one did this to me, that one did that to me... that one did a barbaric thing to me...". But what about me? I do the same, or I do it like this... This is wisdom: learning to accuse oneself. Try it, it will do you good. It's good for me, when I can do it, but it's good for me, it's good for everybody".
"May the Virgin Mary, who changed history by the purity of her heart, help us to purify our own, overcoming above all the vice of blaming others and complaining about everything."
Intensify prayer and fasting
After the Angelus prayer, the Pope assured that he follows "the situation in Afghanistan with great concern, and I share the suffering of those who mourn for the people who lost their lives in the suicide bombings last Thursday, and of those who seek help and protection. I commend the deceased to the mercy of Almighty God and thank those who are working to help the people who have been so sorely tried, especially women and children. I ask everyone to continue to help those in need and to pray that dialogue and solidarity will lead to the establishment of peaceful and fraternal coexistence and offer hope for the future of the country. In historic moments like these we cannot remain indifferent; the history of the Church teaches us this. As Christians, this situation commits us. That is why I appeal to everyone to intensify prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting, prayer and penance. Now is the time to do it. I am serious: intensify prayer and fasting, asking the Lord for mercy and forgiveness."
"I am close to the inhabitants of the Venezuelan state of Merida, affected in recent days by floods and landslides. I pray for the deceased and their families and for all those who are suffering because of this calamity".
"I wish you all a good Sunday," he concluded. "Please don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy the meal and see you all again."
Christian attitudes, the Gospel and the commandments: on the Pope's catechesis on the Letter to the Galatians
Seen in context, the Pope's teaching at the Wednesday audiences on St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians is a good explanation of the relationship between Jesus Christ and his Gospel, the law and the commandments.
Humility, gentleness and obedience; faith in the Holy Spirit
In the General Audience On June 23, 2011, the Pope introduced his catechesis on the Letter to the Galatians. A first feature that stands out in this letter is the evangelizing work that St. Paul carried out with those people located in what is now Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Paul stopped there partly because of some illness (cf. Gal 4:13) and also led by the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 16:6). He began by establishing small communities, moved by the fire of his pastoral fervor.
Some Christians from Judaism arrived there, who began by belittling his work and later tried to take away his authority. "It's about" -said the Pope, "of an ancient practice, to present themselves on some occasions as the sole possessors of the truth - the pure ones - and to pretend to belittle the work done by others, even with slander". Also now some "strongly affirm that the authentic Christianity is theirs, often identified with certain forms of the past, and that the solution to the current crises is to go back in order not to lose the genuineness of the faith.". It is the temptation, today as then, of "locking oneself into some certainties acquired in past traditions."linked to a certain rigidity.
How does St. Paul react? He will propose the liberating and ever new way of the crucified and risen Christ. "It is the way of the announcement". -Francisco points out, "which is realized through humility and fraternity: the new preachers do not know what humility is, what fraternity is; it is the way of meek and obedient trust: the new preachers do not know meekness and obedience". This path of humility, meekness and obedience is supported by "the certainty that the Holy Spirit is at work in every age of the Church.". This is the conclusion of the first catechesis. "faith in the Holy Spirit present in the Church carries us forward and will save us.".
Initiative of God, primacy of grace, call to responsibility
In his second catechesis (cf. General Audience, 30-VI-2021), the Pope presents the figure of Paul, true apostle.As such, he does not allow himself to be involved in the arguments of the Judaizers, regarding circumcision and the fulfillment of the Old Law. He does not remain on the surface of the problems or conflicts, as we are sometimes tempted to do in order to reach an agreement. Paul underlines, we could say, the rectitude of his intention (cf. Gal 1:10).
First of all, the apostle reminds the Galatians that he is a true apostle not by his own merit, but by the call of God. He evokes the story of his vocation and conversion (cf. Gal 1:13-14; Phil 3:6; Gal 1:22-23).
"Paul" -Francisco points out, "thus shows the truth of his vocation through the striking contrast that had been created in his life: from persecutor of Christians because they did not observe the traditions and the law, he was called to become an apostle to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ". And now Paul is free. Free to proclaim the Gospel and free also to confess his sins. And precisely because he recognizes this change, he is filled with admiration and recognition.
"It is" -interprets the Pope. "as if he wanted to tell the Galatians that he could have been anything but an apostle. He was brought up from childhood to be an irreproachable observer of the Mosaic law, and circumstances led him to fight the disciples of Christ. However, something unexpected happened: God, with his grace, revealed to him his dead and risen Son, so that he could become a herald in the midst of the pagans (cf. Gal 1:15-6).".
And here comes the conclusion of his second catechesis: "The ways of the Lord are inscrutable! We touch him every day, but especially if we think about the times when the Lord called us."
For this reason, he proposes that we should never forget the time and the way in which God entered our life:Keep fixed in our hearts and minds that encounter with grace, when God changed our existence. May we continue to wonder and marvel at his mercy; for there is nothing accidental, but everything has been prepared by God's plan that has "woven" our history, leaving us at the same time free to respond with trust.
Along with this, there is a call to responsibility in the Christian and apostolic mission: "The call always involves a mission to which we are destined; this is why we are asked to prepare ourselves seriously, knowing that it is God himself who sends us, God himself who sustains us with his grace.".
The true and only message of the Gospel
On the third Wednesday (cfr. General Audience, 4-VIII-2021) the Pope has focused on the one "gospel", i.e., the kerygma or proclamation of the Christian faith according to St. Paul. We know that at that time none of the four Gospels had been written. The proclamation of the faith consists in proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus as the source of salvation (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-5).
Faced with the greatness of this gift, the apostle wonders why the Galatians are thinking of accepting another "gospel", perhaps more sophisticated, more intellectual... another "gospel".
"The Apostle" -Francisco points out. "knows that they are still in time not to make a false step, and warns them strongly, very strongly.".
And what is the apostle's argument? His first argument is directly that the preaching done by these new "missionaries" distorts the true gospel because it prevents them from reaching the people. freedom -key word- that is acquired from faith.
What lies at the heart of the matter - the Pope observes - is the fact that "the Galatians are still 'beginners' and their disorientation is understandable. They do not yet know the complexity of the Mosaic Law and the enthusiasm to embrace faith in Christ pushes them to listen to these new preachers, under the illusion that their message is complementary to that of Paul. And it is not so.".
The apostle, far from negotiating, exhorts the Galatians to keep away from the community what threatens its foundations. And this is how Francis sums it up, also for us: "Either you receive the Gospel as it is, as it was announced, or you receive something else. But you cannot negotiate with the Gospel. You cannot compromise: faith in Jesus is not merchandise to be negotiated: it is salvation, it is an encounter, it is redemption. It is not sold cheaply".
Hence, Francis concludes, the importance of know how to discernThe company will apply this criterion to subsequent situations: "Many times we have seen in history, and we also see it today, some movement that preaches the Gospel with its own modality, sometimes with true, proper charisms; but then it exaggerates and reduces the whole Gospel to the 'movement'.". It is certainly a matter of underlining some aspect of the Gospel message, but in order to bear fruit, it must not cut its roots with the fullness of Christ, who is the one who gives us light (revelation) and life.
In fact, St. Paul explains to the Galatians that it is not the Old Law that "justifies" (that which makes us just or holy before God), but only faith in Christ Jesus (cf. Gal 2:16). And it is up to the hierarchy of the Church to guide this discernment in such decisive matters as the authenticity of a charism or the orientation for its historical unfolding.
The meaning of the ancient Law
In his fourth catechesis (cf. General Audience(11-VIII-2021), the Pope pauses to discern the meaning of the Old Law, that is, the Law of Moses, in order to answer the question posed by St. Paul:"What's the law for?" (Gal 3:19).
The Law, the Torah, was a gift from God to guarantee the people the benefits of the Covenant and guaranteed the particular bond with God. "For at that time." -Francisco observes. "there was paganism everywhere, idolatry everywhere and the human behaviors that derive from idolatry, and that is why God's great gift to his people is the Law to go forward.". In this way that "the link between Covenant and Law was so close that the two realities were inseparable. The Law is the expression that a person, a people is in covenant with God"..
But," the Pope points out, "the basis of the Covenant is not the Law but the promise made to Abraham. And it is not that St. Paul was opposed to the Mosaic Law. In fact, in his letters he defends its divine origin and its precise meaning, but this Law could not give life. But this Law could not give life, so what is, or was, its precise meaning?
Francisco explains:"The Law is a path that leads you forward toward the encounter. Paul uses a very important word, the Law is the 'pedagogue' toward Christ, the pedagogue toward faith in Christ, that is, the teacher who leads you by the hand to the encounter. Whoever seeks life needs to look to the promise and its fulfillment in Christ".
In other words, the Law leads us to Jesus, but the Holy Spirit frees us from the Law, while leading us to its fulfillment according to the commandment of love.
Now, the Pope asks, does this mean that a Christian does not have to keep the commandments? No, he answers.Today, the commandments continue to have the sense of being "pedagogues" that lead us to the encounter with Jesus. But one cannot leave the encounter with Jesus to go back and give more importance to the commandments. This was the problem of those "fundamentalist missionaries" who opposed Paul. And so the Pope concludes with a simple prayer: "May the Lord help us to walk along the path of the commandments, but looking at the love of Christ, to the encounter with Christ, knowing that the encounter with Jesus is more important than all the commandments."
And it is understandable that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, while maintaining a broad explanation of the Ten Commandments (cf. part three, second section, nos. 2052-2557), precedes it with an explanation of the Beatitudes, which are like "the face" of Christ and, therefore, of the Christian (cf. nos. 1716-1727).
Jesus Christ and the commandments
Prolonging the previous one, Francis reaffirms, in his fifth catechesis (cfr. General Audience18-VIII-2021), "the propaedeutic value of the Law". whose meaning is salvation in Christ.
Dealing with the situation before Christ (Old Testament), St. Paul uses the expression "to be under the Law". And the Pope explains it this way: the underlying meaning involves the idea of a negative subjection, typical of slaves ("to be under"). This is why the apostle says that to be "under the Law" is equivalent to being "guarded" or "locked up", like - in Francis' terms - a kind of preventive prison for a certain period of time.
Well, that time, according to St. Paul, has lasted a long time - from Moses to the coming of Jesus - and is perpetuated as long as one lives in sin.
This relationship between the Law and sin will be more systematically explained by the apostle in his letter to the Romans, written a few years after the letter to the Galatians. The Pope also summarizes it in this way: the Law leads to the definition of transgression and makes people aware of their own sin: "You have done this, therefore, the Law-the Ten Commandments-says this: you are in sin.".
And as a good connoisseur of human psychology, Francisco adds: "Moreover, as common experience teaches, the precept eventually encourages transgression.". This is what the apostle writes in his letter to the Romans (cf. Rom 7:5-6). In this sense, we have now been freed, through the justification that Christ has won for us, also from the "prison" aspect of the old Law (see also 1 Cor 15:56). Now that the time of preparation is over, the Law must give way to the maturity of the Christian and his choice of freedom in Christ.
The Pope insists that this does not mean that with Jesus Christ the commandments are abolished, but that they no longer justify us. "What justifies us is Jesus Christ. The commandments must be observed, but they do not give us righteousness; there is the gratuitousness of Jesus Christ, the encounter with Jesus Christ who justifies us gratuitously. The merit of faith is to receive Jesus. The only merit: to open one's heart".. "And what do we do with the commandments?"he still wonders. And he answers: "We must observe them, but as an aid to the encounter with Jesus Christ.".
As a practical conclusion, Francisco proposes: "It will do us good to ask ourselves if we still live in the time when we need the Law, or if instead we are aware of having received the grace of being children of God to live in love." It therefore encourages two questions. First: "Or do I also live with that hope, with that joy of the gratuitousness of salvation in Jesus Christ?" And the second: "Do I despise the commandments? No. I keep them, but not as absolutes, because I know that what justifies me is Jesus Christ.".
In this regard, the thirty numbers that the Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes to introducing the Ten Commandments (cf. nos. 2052-2082) are very instructive. There it is explained how Jesus reaffirms the way of the commandments and their perennial value, also for Christians, and presents himself as the fullness of the commandments. The commandments, which were already understood as a response to God's loving initiative and a preparation for the Incarnation (St. Irenaeus), are fully assumed in Christ, who "becomes, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the living and interior norm of our actions".(n. 2074).(On the relationship between Christ and the commandments, see also Francis' catechesis on the commandments, June 13-November 28, 2018).
Subscribe to Omnes magazine and enjoy exclusive content for subscribers. You will have access to all Omnes
Having a "mind 10": the sum of virtues, peace and joy
Feelings and the education of the heart was the central theme of the XVII Updating Course of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the University of Navarra, with the participation of Jaime Nubiola, professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Fernando Sarráis, psychiatrist and psychologist, Carlos Beltramo and María Calatrava.
The participants, many of them teachers of Religion in different educational environments, were able to enjoy the intervention of Professor Fernando Sarráis, psychiatrist and psychologist, who emphasized the importance of forming strong personalities, the basis for achieving emotional stability and happiness.
In this sense, he stressed that having a "mind 10" consists morally in virtues, but psychologically it means having peace and joy unconditionally: "It is a task that is exercised every day, starting with the little things. Not only on the beach when someone goes on vacation, but on Monday, when you have to get up early and the previous Sunday your team has lost the game. Being negative about everything only leads to a life of bitterness". During his intervention he also offered some guidelines to understand and train people with certain affective imbalances.
Five training sessions
The course was developed through five training sessions on the subject from different academic fields. The professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Jaime Nubiola, who opened the course, focused his presentation on intellectual freedom, in which he pointed out that the will, which loves the good, can be empowered by the affections if they are educated by the virtues, and is directed by the knowledge of the truth.
María Calatrava, a researcher at the University's Culture and Society Institute, gave the second session and emphasized that the formation of a heart until it reaches the maturity of virtues is a slow, patient and sometimes painful process, but it can be an exciting adventure for parents and educators.
Also from the Culture and Society Institute, Professor Carlos Beltramo spoke on how to help people become masters of their sexuality. He pointed out that the relationship between mind and heart seems especially necessary to ensure that people can give themselves to others on the road to marriage or celibacy.
The last session of the course was given by the professor of the Faculty of Theology, Tomás Trigo. He explained that, in the relationship with God, all the capacities of the person must be brought into play: intelligence and will, reason and affections. But the first one who loves people, and who carries them in his heart, is God.
Afghanistan crisis, a touchstone for human dignity
The flight from Afghanistan of thousands of terrified Afghans, the anguish to leave the country of so many Afghans and Westerners, for whom August 31 is a deadline at Kabul airport, and the obstacles to reception in Western countries, reflect a dramatic attack on human dignity and fraternity.
Rafael Miner-August 26, 2021-Reading time: 3minutes
A little over six thousand kilometers separate Madrid from Kabul, 14 hours by plane. From Rome and the Vatican, slightly less. And from Geneva, headquarters of the United Nations office in Europe, similar. But the distance in terms of human rights has become almost infinite these days.
John Putzer, who, speaking at the 31st special session of the Human Rights Council, urged "to recognize and defend respect for human dignity and the fundamental rights of every person, including the right to life, freedom of religion, the right to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly".
"At this critical moment," he added, "it is vitally important to support the success and security of humanitarian efforts in the country, in a spirit of international solidarity, so as not to lose the progress made, especially in the areas of health and education." According to the Holy See, "inclusive dialogue" is "the most powerful tool" for achieving the goal of peace, and it wishes to appeal to the entire international community to "move from declarations to action" by welcoming refugees "in a spirit of human fraternity."
Monsignor Putzer thus recalled the call to prayer of Pope Francis last August 15, imploring to seek solutions at the table of dialogue, and for the noise of arms to cease. His textual words at the Angelus prayer, were the following: "I beg you to pray with me to the God of peace that the noise of arms may cease and that solutions may be found at the table of dialogue. Only in this way will the martyred population of that country - men, women, the elderly and children - be able to return to their homes and live in peace and security with full mutual respect."
The seizure of Kabul affects us
The return to power of the Taliban has meant the end of twenty years of presence of the United States and its allies. And as Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, wrote, "the seizure of Kabul also affects us" (Famiglia Cristiana). The return of the Taliban affects everyone in every sense, but certainly first of all in the purely physical sense, the struggle for life, the first human right. It is enough to see the images of hundreds of Afghans stuffed in the holds of planes, or the words of Afghans who have recently arrived in our country, such as the captain of the Afghan wheelchair basketball team, Nilofar Bayat, who said in Bilbao: "I am proof that in Afghanistan there is no future and no hope".
Indeed, August 31 is getting closer and closer. This is the date agreed between the United States and the Taliban for the withdrawal of troops, but thousands of people are still awaiting evacuation and it may be necessary to extend it. For the Taliban this possible extension "is a red line", "or there will be consequences". Instability and suspicion of attacks are growing at an airport where thousands of people are desperately trying to gain access.
Human fraternity
The Taliban regime's threats to the life, dignity and freedom of individuals are a source of great concern for thousands of people in a country with a small number of Christians, and certainly for Pope Francis, who held a historic meeting in Iraq in March of this year, in Abraham's ancient hometown of Ur of the Chaldees, with representatives of Jewish and a larger number of Muslim communities, and urged them to walk a path of peace, fraternity and forgiveness.
The Afghan crisis is also, in the same vein, a blow to the teachings of Pope Francis in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, signed by the Holy Father on October 4 last year in Assisi. As Professor Ramiro Pellitero underlined in this portal, in dealing with fraternity and social friendship, "the Pope states that he dwells on the universal dimension of fraternity.. It is not in vain that one of the key points of the document is the rejection of individualism. We are all brothers and sisters, members of the same human family, which comes from a single Creator, and which sails in the same boat. Globalization shows us the need to work together to promote the common good and care for life, dialogue and peace.
The reception and efforts to integrate the many thousands of refugees fleeing in terror from their own country will be a touchstone for visualizing support for the dignity of the human person, regardless of race, religion or nationality, and adherence to the teachings of the Pope.
The episode of the Pharisees and scribes who come from Jerusalem to ask Jesus why his disciples eat with unclean hands, is preceded by this scenario: "When they got out of the boat, they immediately recognized him. And they went through all that region, and wherever they heard that he was, they brought the sick to him on stretchers. And wherever he went, into towns or cities or villages, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him to let them touch at least the hem of his garment; and all who touched him were healed.". Shortly before he had fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. What a contrast with those who have problems with ablutions and the observance of external prescriptions. As if salvation depended on these things. Jesus applies to them the prophecy of Isaiah: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They uselessly worship me, while they teach doctrines that are the precepts of men.". It is a prophecy that can always be applied throughout the history of humanity and the Church to all the followers of formalisms, spiritualisms, legalisms. Their heart is far from God.
Jesus is very interested in clarifying these truths, and in fact he calls back to himself the crowd that had left, because he did not care about these pharisaical disputes, which certainly did not attract the crowds. Instead, Jesus wants to speak clearly to the whole crowd so that his teaching reaches everyone throughout history and he says: "Listen to me all of you and understand me well!".
These two verbs together - listen and understand - in the imperative form are used only in this episode and in the parallel passage in Matthew. It means that it is a subject that urges him and he does not want to miss the opportunity to make it clear out loud. "There is nothing outside of man that, by entering into him, can make him impure.". Thus he makes all food pure, Mark explains further on, but it can also be said that he remembered that everything created by God is good and, in the case of the human being, it is very good. On the other hand, "from within the hearts of men proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders...".
And how, then, can the heart of a man so capable of sinning be purified? Benedict XVI recalls, in the chapter You are pure of his work Jesus of Nazareth (II), that in other passages of the New Testament it is explained that we are purified by faith (Acts 15:5-11), by the word that Jesus has proclaimed to us (Jn 15:3), by his love (Jn 13), by the truth that is himself and in which we are immersed (Jn 17:17). Also by hope in Christ who purifies us, as he is pure (1 Jn 3:3).
The homily on the readings of Sunday 22nd Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
During the general audience this Wednesday, Pope Francis commented on an attitude that can occur among Christians: hypocrisy. And he encouraged the development of a coherent conduct, recalling the words of the Lord: "Let your language be: 'yes, yes'; 'no, no'".
Pope Francis focused today's audience on the episode in the Letter to the Galatians where St. Paul uses the term "hypocrisy." "The Letter to the Galatians," Francis began, "reports a rather surprising fact. As we have heard, Paul says that he made a correction to Cephas, that is, Peter, before the community of Antioch, because his behavior was not good. What had happened so seriously to oblige Paul to address himself in harsh terms even to Peter? Perhaps Paul had exaggerated, had left too much room for his character without knowing how to restrain himself? We will see that this is not the case, but that once again the relationship between the Law and freedom is at stake".
"Writing to the Galatians," continues the Pope, "Paul purposely mentions this episode that had happened in Antioch years earlier. He intends to remind the Christians of those communities that they absolutely must not listen to those who preach the need to be circumcised and thus fall 'under the Law' with all its prescriptions. The object of the criticism of Peter was his behavior in the participation at the table. A Jew was forbidden by the Law to eat with non-Jews. But the same Peter, in another circumstance, had gone to Caesarea to the house of the centurion Cornelius, even knowing that he transgressed the Law. Then he affirmed: 'God has shown me that no man is to be called profane or unclean'".
Francis paused at this point when St. Paul, in his reproach, uses a term that allows us to enter into the depths of his reaction: hypocrisy (cf. Gal 2:13). The observance of the Law on the part of Christians led to this hypocritical behavior, which the apostle intends to combat with force and conviction. What is hypocrisy? It can be said to be fear for the truth. One prefers to pretend instead of being oneself. Pretending prevents one from having the courage to speak the truth openly and thus easily escapes the obligation to always tell the truth, wherever and whatever. In an environment where interpersonal relationships are lived under the banner of formalism, the virus of hypocrisy spreads easily".
"In the Bible we find different examples in which hypocrisy is combated. A beautiful testimony is that of old Eleazar, who was asked to pretend to eat meat sacrificed to pagan divinities to save his life. But that man with fear of God answered: 'For at our age it is not worthy to pretend, lest many young men believing that Eleazar, at ninety years of age, has gone over to pagan customs, they too by my simulation and by my attachment to this brief remainder of life, go astray on my account and I bring stain and dishonor to my old age.'"
"The hypocrite," Francis concluded, "is a person who pretends, flatters and deceives because he lives with a mask on his face and does not have the courage to face the truth. For this reason, he is not capable of true love: he limits himself to living out of selfishness and does not have the strength to demonstrate his heart with transparency. There are many situations in which hypocrisy can be verified. It is often hidden in the workplace, where one tries to appear to be friends with colleagues while competition leads to beating them behind their backs. In politics it is not unusual to find hypocrites who live a split between public and private. Particularly detestable is hypocrisy in the Church. We should never forget the words of the Lord: "Let your language be 'yes, yes'; 'no, no'; for whatever comes from here is from the Evil One" (Mt 5:37). To act otherwise is to jeopardize the unity in the Church for which the Lord himself has prayed".
Pope Francis sends economic aid to Haiti, Bangladesh and Vietnam
The Holy Father has decided to send a financial contribution to help countries that for various reasons are in an emergency phase, such as Haiti, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Pope Francis has decided to send to Haiti a first contribution through the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development to help the population that after the earthquake has been affected in an emergency situation. The note from the Sala Stampa of the Holy See expresses it as follows: "Following the earthquake that has struck Haiti with extraordinary vehemence, causing - according to data from the local authorities - at least 2,200 victims and more than 12,000 injured, as well as substantial material damage, Pope Francis, through the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, has decided to send a first contribution of 200,000 euros to help the population in this emergency phase, which joins the already difficult situation caused by COVID-19."
This sum, which will be distributed, in collaboration with the Apostolic Nunciature, among the dioceses most affected by the catastrophe, will be used in works of assistance to the victims of the earthquake and "wants to be an immediate expression of the feeling of spiritual closeness and paternal encouragement towards the people and the affected territories, manifested by the Holy Father on the sidelines of the Angelus in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, August 15, 2021 with the invocation of the protection of the Blessed Virgin".
"This contribution," the Holy See assures, "which accompanies the prayer in support of the beloved Haitian people, is part of the aid that is being activated throughout the Catholic Church and which involves, in addition to various Episcopal Conferences, numerous charitable organizations."
In addition, the Holy Father "has also decided to send an initial emergency aid of about $69,000 to the people of Bangladesh, recently hit by Cyclone Yaas; and 100,000 euros to the people of Vietnam, who are in a state of serious distress due to the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic."
In the year of St. Joseph and on the feast of the Patron of the Universal Church, March 19, 2021, the former convent church of St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas, today St. Joseph Church, in San Juan de Puerto Rico, was re-consecrated and inaugurated for worship. This was the culmination of a 20-year rehabilitation process in which specialists from all over the world intervened. In 2001 it had to be closed because its Elizabethan vaults built in 1532 threatened to collapse. Special scaffolding had to be put in place to stabilize them, in addition to ventilating and drying out the entire building whose walls, due to the failure of the drains, were rotting the altarpieces and frescoes attached to them. The World Monument Watch put it on its list of heritage in serious danger of being lost. It required intensive attention.
Although theologically the cathedral of the old walled city is the most important temple in the country, this temple of San José is the oldest and most important in the country because of its artistic, spiritual and cultic treasures as well as for being the most extensively studied. It is perhaps the third oldest church in the New World still in use. It was part of the first stone building to be built by the Spaniards on the islet of San Juan. The site where it stands, on the highest point of the urban area, overlooking the Atlantic and the San Juan Bay, was donated by the conqueror and first governor of the island of San Juan del Boriquén, Don Juan Ponce de León. Bishop Damián López de Haro, at the beginning of the XVII century, describes it: "it lords over the whole city". With this he refers not only to the physical location of the convent and its church, but also to its influence in all areas of the evangelization of the country.
Stages of its construction and mishaps
Its construction in limestone and brick began in 1532 and was built up to its transept by 1539, when the gold production crisis stopped it. It used the same scheme of a single nave with collateral chapels that was used in the Dominican conventual temple in Santo Domingo, in Hispaniola. Its architect is not known for certain, but there are important indications that it was Rodrigo Gil de Lienzo. The second major construction campaign was from 1635-1641. The third phase was to cover the central nave with a barrel vault made of brick between 1773-1774 and the last phase was to enlarge the Chapel of Bethlehem in 1855. It is the only church in the country for which 4 kings of Spain gave alms: Charles V for its initial construction, Charles III for the 18th century, Isabella II for its marble floors in 1858 and Juan Carlos I who donated its current main altar in 1987.
The church was devastated twice by the iconoclastic fury of the English in 1598 and then by the Dutch in 1625, by hurricanes and earthquakes, and by the plagues of the tropics: humidity, termites, moths and, let's face it, by clerical negligence. It was deprived of its living lung, the convent, by the disentailment of Mendizábal, that larceny of the liberal government, which was executed in San Juan in 1838. It was restored and renovated by the Jesuits (1858), when it was entrusted to them as the "formal chapel" of the Conciliar Seminary. The Vincentian Fathers, in charge since 1886, endowed it with three large neoclassical altarpieces (1908-1911) and made other improvements around 1954. Cardinal Luis Aponte Martínez remodeled it from 1978 to 1982. The last restoration, (2001-2021) was interrupted three times, by mishaps in lime supplies, then by the consequences of the terrible Hurricane Maria (2017) and by the pandemic of COVID 19. It cost about 11 million dollars to rehabilitate it.
Important people and saints associated with its history
The first Bishop to arrive in America, the Bishop of the island of San Juan, Don Alonso Manso (1460-1539), brought the Dominicans to the city, recently moved to the island in 1921, to help him as the first Inquisitor of the New World. The convent was founded by Fray Antonio de Montesinos (1475-1540), the first defender of the rights of the Indians. Fray Luis Cancer, OP, prior, as well as Fray Pedro de Córdoba and Fray Antonio Dorta, taught grammar and theology, and Fray Bartolomé de las Casas also lived in this convent, experiencing one of his first failures in one of his projects of "pure" evangelization. The inhabitants of the city took refuge in this convent when they attacked the city in their canoes in 1528. It housed the first school of higher studies on the island, the Estudio General de los Dominicos, where generations of Creoles studied and prepared for the priesthood and religious life. Like other Spanish-American convents, it provided important cultural services in the walled city, the modest stronghold of San Juan. It provided the opportunity for musicians and choirs, painters and sculptors, orators and scholars, to exhibit their skills and thus recreate the most demanding spirits of the city.
If the bishops were buried in the Cathedral, the chapel of this temple dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, patroness of the order of preachers, was the pantheon of the governors of the island from the mid-seventeenth century. There are perhaps 4,000 burials under its floors and in its five crypts.
The first important personage in the history of America to be buried under its main altar was its patron saint, Don Juan Ponce de León. His remains were brought in 1547 from Havana, where he had died victim of an attack by Florida Indians, by his grandson, namesake and first cornista of the island, who after being widowed, became a priest. The deceased members of the conquistador's family were also buried there.
A Puerto Rican widow with a reputation as a saint, Blessed Gregoria Hernández of Arecibo (c.1560-1639), who imitated the life and virtues of the Venerable María Raggi, enjoyed the esteem and admiration of the friars and the inhabitants of the city, and attended daily Mass in this church. Blessed Mother Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña (1848-1918), the foundress of the Lady Catechists, who lived in San Juan from 1871 to 1873, was the spiritual director of the Jesuits and attended Mass there. In this church she founded the first group of Daughters of Mary on the island. The Puerto Rican Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez (1918-1963), a self-taught lay liturgist, used to pass by the church when he went to the first Catholic bookstore in the country, La Milagrosa (1942), attached to the church.
From this community, the Vincentian Fathers attended to the poor of the neighboring suburb outside the walls of La Perla, whom the Daughters of Charity also catechized and educated academically in the "San José" school. Next to the church was the first Catholic printing press of the island from which the magazine "Revista de la Caridad" was published. La Milagrosa (founded in 1922). The famous patron saint festivities are still celebrated in the neighboring street of San Sebastián, which in 1950 was inaugurated by a well-known Vincentian parish priest, Father Juan Madrazo, CM.
In it is buried the Dominican tertiary, the first and best known colonial rococo painter of the island, the brown José Campeche y Jordán (1751-1809). Here rests the first Puerto Rican millionaire, the privateer Miguel Henríquez (c. 1674-1743). This ingenious Brown, also a native of San Juan, went from being a salesman and simple retail merchant to being a businessman and merchant. The King gave him a privateer's license and he was a slave trader. In the first three decades of the 18th century he became the richest and best known Puerto Rican. In 1710 the King of Spain, for the services rendered to the Crown in defense of the overseas provinces, with an armada of his own ships, named him "Captain of Sea and War". A biographer says of him: he was the most notable character that Puerto Rico engendered throughout its Hispanic history. For the first time in the history of the country, one of his sons became part of the world of the capitalist bourgeoisie and was known and feared by the Dutch, French, Danes and other enemies of Spain. Faced with the harassment of the Royal Treasury, he took refuge in the Dominican convent in 1735 and was buried in that church in 1743, with a pauper's burial.
Center of irradiation of Marian devotions
This temple was the most important focus of irradiation of Marian devotions of the island. The first important devotion, popular patron saint of the city, was the Virgin of Bethlehem, the work of an outstanding workshop of Flanders in the late fourteenth century, to whom the chroniclers indicate that the angels sang matins. Then the Virgin of Candelaria, who had her own altar and crypt. The cult of the Virgin of the Rosary also spread from her chapel throughout the island. That is why many Puerto Ricans are accustomed to wear the Rosary around their necks as a kind of scapular. And the PP. Paúles, who ran it from 1886 to 1967, promoted the cult to the Milagrosa, who came to preside over its main altar.
Artistic importance
Scholars of Hispano-American art have catalogued it as the temple of most artistic interest in our colonial history. It has archaizing aspects and other novelties. The double vaults of its presbytery and transept were built with the so-called cantharite vault, a late Roman and Byzantine technique that continued to be used in the Gothic and Elizabethan periods of the Spanish Mediterranean. Between the mortar that fills the sálmer or kidney of the vaults lie embedded a great quantity of imperfect clay jars that were light fillings.
Our convent church in San Juan is a prelude and also a companion of this late blooming of the Elizabethan style with Plateresque elements in the New World, which will leave hundreds of extraordinary conventual sister temples, especially in the Valley of Mexico. The most distinguished scholars of Spanish-American art who have had the pleasure of visiting it almost unanimously emphasize it above all for the sensation of spatial amplitude accentuated by the happy solution of the central vault in rampant form to counteract the thrusts. The Marqués de Lozoya emphasizes the "effect of imposing grandeur... (with) Byzantinism... in the transept of the church...: the application as a covering system of clay pots fitted one into the other as in Santa Sofia in Constantinople".
Historian and artist Osiris Delgado indicates that "the main aspect that justifies the architectural excellence of the church of San José and that distinguishes it as one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in America is that a relatively reduced space, such as the transept, manages to give a sensation of amplitude by counterbalancing both sides of the main vault with quarter spheres whose keystone is common to that of the formero arch. And although it is not a formula completely foreign to Elizabethan architectural solutions, it is perhaps the first feature of our Island that responds to a spatial conception differentiated from those of other parts of the New World". That is to say, it is a first original solution in America, of an imported European style.
In its patrimony stands out the small panel of the Virgin of Bethlehem, from the last quarter of the 14th century, perhaps by a follower of Van der Weyden, the Brussels master of the History of St. Joseph or Jacob van Laethem. It was stolen in 1972. It also housed 6 rococo paintings by Campeche, some of them ex votos. Among them was his most important religious work: Santo Domingo Soriano (1796). It has the first fresco painting made in the country, San Telmo (c. 1545), as well as the first sculpture made on the island, the Renaissance coat of arms of the Ponce de León family (c. 1541). It keeps works of some notable Spanish sculptors: the miraculous Christ of the Ponce family, from the mid-sixteenth century, a San Vicente Ferrer, by Juan de Mesa, a disciple of Martínez Montañes, a Christ tied to the column from Cadiz from the eighteenth century, a St. Joseph and a Heart of Mary by Gabriel de Astorga y Miranda from Seville. In the last restoration were found in the pendentives of the chapel of the Rosary some mysterious baroque sirens of the mid-seventeenth century, with bouquets of roses in the outstretched arms, alluding to the battle of Lepanto.
This restoration confirms the teaching of St. John Paul II: "The Church has always considered that through art... the infinite beauty of God is reflected... The organic nature of cultural goods... does not allow us to separate their aesthetic enjoyment from their religious purpose. For example, the sacred building reaches its aesthetic perfection precisely during the celebration of the divine mysteries, since it is precisely at that moment that it shines in its most authentic meaning. The elements of architecture, painting, sculpture, music, song and lights are part of the unique complex that welcomes for its liturgical celebrations the community of the faithful, constituted by 'living stones' that form a 'spiritual building'".
The authorFernando Felices
Pastor of the Grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes.
Where Our Lady hides: a Sanctuary in the valleys of Slovenia
Among the valleys of northwestern Slovenia, is the sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy, in Ptujska Gora. A place full of history and can be considered a jewel of Slovenian Gothic.
Located between the valleys of northwestern Slovenia, stands the minor basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, in Ptujska Gora. A place full of history since it was erected in the 14th century by the feudal lords of the region. Since then its popularity was spreading, becoming one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in the surrounding area. Its long existence and various historical events have also tested the faith and devotion of its pilgrims. For all these reasons, the church was consecrated a basilica in 2010.
Our dear Mother has always had a place in the hearts of men and on many occasions, even in the hearts of those most distant from Christ and his Church. That is why I would like to show the wonders dedicated to Our Lady that are hidden in the heart of Europe.
A jewel of the Slovenian Gothic style
On the way between Vienna (Austria) and Zagreb (Croatia) - if not by plane - one crosses the region of Ptuj in Slovenia, where one finds Ptujska Gora, a small village located in the traditional region of Lower Styria and which has been, since ancient times, a frequent place of pilgrimages. For there, on the top of a hill and overlooking the valley, stands the church dedicated to Mary, the Virgin Protectress.
Of typical Central European appearance, it is considered a jewel of Slovenian Gothic. Its long history and the countless pilgrims who have come here to pray to the Virgin have made this place one of the lungs of the region. Since then, this place of pilgrimage has been continuing a tradition that dates back to the end of the Middle Ages, when, as the sources seem to indicate, it was erected under the patronage of the feudal lords of Ptuj. Later it seems that it would be known as "Mons Gratiarum" or Mount of Grace, until the time of the Turkish incursions, when, due to the influence of a legend, it would be known as Black Mountain.
It was not until 1615 when the place began to register a greater influx of pilgrims, coinciding with the date on which the Jesuits took over the regency of the church, as well as the house for the pilgrims built. ad hoc. But a little more than a century later, the ideas of the Enlightenment, which progressively penetrated the various courts of Europe, also reached Vienna. Empress Maria Theresa decided in 1773, following the same line as the monarchs of Spain and Portugal, to suppress the Society of Jesus. Ptujska Gora thus became a diocesan parish. Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of its parish priests, the pilgrimages were maintained despite the adversities and restrictions imposed by Maria Theresa's successor, Emperor Joseph II, who sought to drastically reduce the presence of the Church in society by limiting the usual practices of piety of the people, such as processions, pilgrimages, patronal feasts, etc.
In 1938 the church passed to the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), who maintain the church to this day. They were in charge of preparing the 600th anniversary of the church in 2010, the year in which it was declared a basilica under the patronage of Mary, Mother Protector, or Our Lady of Mercy.
A baroque style with gothic elements
As a whole, the temple has a marked baroque style, with gothic architectural elements. Among these, the famous image of the Virgin with the mantle stands out. An image that the Jesuits decided to move from the portico to place over the main altar. This relief, of great beauty, made from a single block of stone, shows Our Mother with the Child in her left arm and with her mantle extended, under which she protects numerous figures: up to eighty-two people can be counted, an allegory of the constant intercession of the Virgin. Although the names of those represented by these figures are not known, experts seem to have recognized the founders of Ptujska Gora, Bernhard III. of Petau and his wife Walburga, daughter of the Counts of Cilli, the most important aristocrats during the Middle Ages in Slovenia. The altars of the Virgin of the Rosary and of St. Sigismund are also in the church, made by the same artists. In the latter chapel is the tomb of the knight Sigismund of Neuhaus, who paid for the altar dedicated to his patron saint.
Since the arrival of the Franciscans in Ptujska Gora, some novelties have been introduced. In the presbytery we can see a newly built sanctuary, very appropriate for the whole. Modern stained glass windows and the portraits of several saints have also been incorporated, such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan who, being a prisoner in Auschwitz, voluntarily decided to die in place of another prisoner father of a family, who would later attend his canonization. The entrance has also been decorated with reliefs of the Virgin Mary, St. John Paul II and Blessed Slomsek, Slovenian bishop beatified in 1999. Likewise, the place of the Eucharistic reservation has received a new configuration, with a beautiful tabernacle on a column, placed under a Gothic canopy.
After these brief brushstrokes, there is no doubt that this basilica should be an obligatory stop for any traveler who decides to cross or enter the former possessions of the Austrian Empire and thus discover the numerous vestiges that still exist dedicated to Our Mother. Perhaps it is also the occasion for the traveler to link in his route the different basilicas that are spread throughout the region, such as Mariazell in Austria and Marjia Bystrica in Croatia, which have become today almost national symbols. All these places, which will be dealt with in other articles, have in common the fact that they have lived moments of splendor, under the patronage of kings and great lords, but also dark moments, such as the different Turkish invasions or the restrictions imposed by the court on any form of externalization of popular piety.
The first known pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela from a German territory comes from the second half of the 11th century: according to a documentary source, Count Eberhard VI of Nellenburg - north of Lake Constance - made a pilgrimage to Santiago with his wife Ita in 1070, after his second pilgrimage to Rome. On his return from Santiago, Eberhard VI "the Blessed" entered the monastery of All Saints, which he himself had founded, as a lay brother, while Ita retired with a group of pious women to Schaffhausen.
During the Middle Ages, Central European pilgrims used commercial and military roads to reach the Spanish-French border, particularly the "Via Regia" (Royal Road), whose origins date back to the 8th and 9th centuries and which crossed the entire Holy Roman-Germanic Empire. With the Protestant Reformation, pilgrimages declined, especially in northern Germany.
After the revitalization of the Way of St. James from the 1980s onwards, in Germany, too, various paths began to be marked - currently there are about 30 in total - with the particularity that it was precisely a Protestant pastor, Paul Geissendörfer, who in 1992 marked a St. James' Way that went from Nuremberg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and which would be the nucleus of the "Franconian Way of St. James" (1995). The last to be added in 2005 were the "Pilgrims' Roads of St. James in Northern Germany", with two branches, the Via Baltica and the Via Jutlandica, which is the result of a German-Danish cooperation.
The autobiographical story by the well-known comedian Hape (Hans-Peter) Kerkeling, published in 2006, called Ich bin dann mal weg - Meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg (I'm leaving: my journey on the Camino de Santiago), contributed greatly to the dissemination of the Camino de Santiago in Germany; with a circulation of more than seven million copies, it topped the most prestigious German bestseller list, that of the weekly Der Spiegel, for 103 weeks (from 2006 to 2008); in addition, a film version was made in 2015. Kerkeling sets out to delve into the search for the meaning of life, but to do so he avoids the "classic" Christian pilgrims ("They will end the journey the same as they began") and seeks out the "rare and exotic". The success of this book shows that most Germans do not walk the Camino motivated by a traditional pilgrimage. Yet it contributed to a 74 percent increase in the number of Germans walking the Camino in 2007.
On the other hand, the immense popularity enjoyed by the Camino, regardless of religious denomination, is reflected in its spread precisely in traditionally Protestant regions; thus, for example, in 2011 the St. James Society of Brandenburg-Oder Region was founded, which deals - according to its own website - with "the interests of the pilgrims and pilgrims to Santiago in Berlin, Brandenburg and neighboring regions". And it adds: "the diverse composition of its members reflects what was the occasion for its foundation and the aims of the association: the interest and joy of walking the roads to Santiago de Compostela". Like other regional associations, they specifically seek to signpost the routes, place information panels and connect them with the European network of the Camino "to contribute to European cooperation and international understanding".
Christianity was established in Sweden well into the second millennium. The holy King Erik died in 1160 leaving a Christian country. Evidently the traditions of pilgrimage to holy places also arrived here: Holy Land, Rome and also Santiago.
Andres Bernar-August 23rd, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
In the Nordic countries there was also a tradition of pilgrimages to Nidaros (today's Trondheim in northwestern Norway). The medieval tradition of pilgrimages was well received in the Nordic countries, also because of its adventurous character.
St. Bridget, the Swedish national saint and patron saint of Europe, gave them a boost when she herself and her husband made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1343. They made the whole way on foot over several months. Today the distance is 3200 km by the shortest route. We do not know exactly how far the saint walked, but it may have been even longer. On the return journey - in Arras, France - her husband Ulf fell ill. St. Dionysius appeared to the saint and told her that her husband would not die on that occasion. He did so shortly after his return to Sweden and this marked the beginning of St. Bridget's activity as foundress of the new order.
The saint's pilgrimage aroused popular fervor and gradually pilgrimages to both Rome and Santiago became more frequent. In Stockholm the church of St. James (St Jakobs Kyrka) was built in the early 14th century in the present-day Kugsträdgården park, then north of the old city. This simple wooden church was replaced by a larger, three-nave brick church in 1430. From it pilgrims set out on their long journey with the saint's blessing and protection.
Protestantism literally erased Catholicism and its customs, including pilgrimages, during the 16th and 17th centuries. From the eighteenth century onwards, a new openness was glimpsed, which would not be complete until the end of the last century.
The Way of St. James was officially resumed in 1999 when the Association of St. James was established in Stockholm under the auspices of the diocesan bishop; its president was permanent deacon Manuel Pizarro. The initial idea was to help rediscover the spirituality of pilgrimages among the Catholics of Scandinavia, and pilgrimages to the classic places of Christianity were encouraged: the Holy Land, Rome, Santiago and also Lourdes and Fatima. In 1999, a pilgrimage to Santiago was organized as the "First Scandinavian pilgrimage" since the Protestant Reformation. This was recognized by the Archbishop of Santiago when the pilgrims arrived at their destination and were received by the prelate, as Manuel tells us. A few years later the same bishop of Stockholm accompanied them on another pilgrimage. From the beginning, many Protestant Swedes joined these pilgrimages, seeing in them a wonderful opportunity to discover something different from what their church was telling them. They were searching for their personal path and their own vocation. In the twenty years of this initiative, more and more Lutherans have become interested. The fact that they are an Association also makes it possible to subsidize the pilgrimage for people who have difficulty paying for a long trip.
Roads of Europe: France. The Via Podiensis of Le Puy en Velay
The Via Podiensis, also called the "Route du Puy", is one of the 4 main roads that cross France and converge towards Spain and then towards Santiago de Compostela.
José Luis Domingo-August 23rd, 2021-Reading time: 2minutes
It starts in Le Puy en Velay and crosses the Pyrenees via the Roncesvalles pass. If it is by far the most "popular" of the great pilgrimage routes to Santiago in France, it is undoubtedly due to this first section: from Le Puy to Conques, which has become almost a "pilgrimage" in itself. A part of the road with which many are satisfied. With a length of approximately 300 kilometers, which represents about fifteen days of walking for the "classic" hiker, this route can indeed be a very beautiful journey in itself. Indeed, for its exceptional sites, beauty and diversity of landscapes, it can fulfill many expectations. And then, between wild spaces, riversides and bucolic places, it plunges us perhaps more than any other in a "sweet France" dreamed but very real.
The Via Podiensis has its origin in the name of the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, from where Bishop Godescalc set out for Compostela in 950 AD, accompanied by a large group of people such as troubadours, minstrels, pages, barons, seneschals and, of course, archers and spearmen to protect them. The bishop was then the first non-Spanish pilgrim to make the pilgrimage to Compostela.
The route from Le Puy en Velay to Conques crosses 4 regions rich in flora, fauna and geological diversity: the volcanic Velay, the Margeride plateau, the heights of Aubrac and the Lot valley. Landscapes of breathtaking beauty, such as the view of the gorges of the Allier or the wild plateau of Aubrac.
Arrived in Conques, for many it will be the end of the journey. It will be time to get back on a bus and return to their professional life, to their daily life. It is true that this almost perfect route, certainly frequented, but without reaching the multitude of people who walk the Camino in Spain, can really be a journey in itself. But continuing, or returning later to continue walking, is also worthwhile. First of all, because a few stages later, you can walk through the beautiful valley of the Célé, and also because the road to Compostela continues, simply, through very beautiful regions and less convenient corners, but that is also part of the journey! Le Puy-Conques is certainly very beautiful, pleasant and full of surprises. But it is almost too perfect to fully appreciate the very contrasting character of the pilgrimage to Santiago, which sometimes immerses the pilgrim, in a monotonous environment, to perhaps make it easier for him to confront himself. The nomad does not set out if he does not have a promised land to dream of; which often ends up being a large or small conversion of the heart of the pilgrim who proclaims himself the herald of his own transformation.
The pilgrim, like the hero of Greek mythology, ventures out of the world of ordinary life and enters a place of supernatural wonders; there he confronts fabulous forces and wins a decisive victory; the hero returns from this mysterious adventure endowed with the power to bestow benefits on man, his fellow man.
Camino de Santiago, on the way to a sacred place, pilgrims feel every church they pass through as their own home and atheists light candles and receive blessings.
Day of the Virgin in Torreciudad: "Together with Her, everything is arranged".
Torreciudad hosted yesterday the celebration of the Day of the Virgin, whose feast is commemorated on the Sunday after the Assumption of the Virgin. The celebration was also the framework for the inauguration of the new rector of the Sanctuary, Ángel Lasheras.
Ignacio Barrera, Vicar of Opus Dei in Spain, was in charge of presiding at the Holy Mass in which he encouraged the faithful to turn to the Virgin Mary with the confidence of children: "Together with her, everything in our life is arranged".
For his part, the new rector also indicated his desire to "give continuity to the work of my predecessors and develop new projects to spread devotion to the Mother of God to many more people".
The Eucharistic celebration was followed by the recitation of the Rosary and the procession of the image of the Virgin through the arcades of the sanctuary, which was carried by neighbors from the nearby towns of Secastilla, Ubiergo, Bolturina, Graus, La Puebla de Castro and El Grado.
After the procession, it was time for the traditional offering of babies to the Virgin in front of her image. Each family was able to pray the offering prayer and presented an offering to the Virgin that will be distributed among needy families in the area in collaboration with Caritas Diocese of Barbastro-Monzon.
"Let us not be surprised if Jesus Christ puts us in crisis."
Pope Francis commented on today's Gospel during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square, encouraging the faithful to allow themselves to be provoked and converted by Jesus Christ's words of eternal life.
Pope Francis prayed the Angelus from St. Peter's Square on the Sunday of St. Mary Queen. "The Gospel of today's liturgy," the Holy Father began, "shows us the reaction of the crowd and the disciples to Jesus' discourse after the miracle of the loaves. Jesus invited us to interpret this sign and to believe in him, who is the true bread come down from heaven, the bread of life; and he revealed that the bread he will give is his flesh and blood".
The Pope notes the reaction of many disciples, who leave him from that moment on. "These words sound harsh and incomprehensible to the ears of the people, so much so that, from that moment on, many disciples turn back, that is, they stop following the Master (vv. 60.66). Jesus then asked the Twelve: "Do you also want to go away?" (v. 67), and Peter, in the name of the whole group, confirms the decision to be with Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (v. 67).Jn 6,68-69)".
"Let us dwell briefly on the attitude of those who withdraw" Francis encouraged, "they turn back and decide to no longer follow Jesus Where does this unbelief come from? What is the reason for this rejection?"
"Jesus' words arouse great scandal. He is telling us that God has chosen to manifest himself and bring about salvation in the weakness of human flesh. The incarnation of God is what causes scandal and what for these people, but often also for us, represents an obstacle. In fact, Jesus affirms that the true bread of salvation, the one that transmits eternal life, is his own flesh; that to enter into communion with God, before observing the laws or fulfilling religious precepts, it is necessary to live a real and concrete relationship with Him. This means that we must not seek God in dreams and images of greatness and power, but we must recognize him in the humanity of Jesus and, consequently, in that of the brothers and sisters we meet on life's journey. God became flesh and blood: he lowered himself to be man like us, he humbled himself to the point of taking upon himself our sufferings and our sin, and, therefore, he asks us to seek him not outside of life and history, but in our relationship with Christ and with our brothers and sisters".
"Today," the Pope assures us, "even the revelation of God in the humanity of Jesus can cause scandal and is not easy to accept. This is what St. Paul calls the 'foolishness' of the Gospel in the face of those who seek miracles or worldly wisdom (cf. 1 Co 1, 18-25). And this "scandal" is well represented by the sacrament of the Eucharist: what sense can it make, in the eyes of the world, to kneel before a piece of bread? Why should we eat this bread assiduously?"
"Before the prodigious gesture of Jesus who feeds thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish, everyone acclaims him and wants to carry him in triumph. But when he himself explains that this gesture is a sign of his sacrifice, that is, of the gift of his life, of his flesh and blood, and that whoever wants to follow him must assimilate him, must assimilate his humanity given for God and for others, then no, this Jesus is no longer doing well. Dear brothers and sisters, let us not be surprised if Jesus Christ puts us in crisis. On the contrary, let us worry if he does not put us in crisis, because perhaps we have watered down his message! And let us ask for the grace to allow ourselves to be provoked and converted by his "words of eternal life". May Mary Most Holy, who bore her Son Jesus in her flesh and united herself to his sacrifice, help us to always give witness to our faith with our concrete life.
On September 12, Cardinal Wyszyński and Mother Rosa Czacka will be beatified in Warsaw. We now offer the second part of an article on these two key figures in the recent history of the Church in Poland.
(The first part of the article can be read by clicking here. here).
During the Warsaw uprising Mother Elizabeth decided to organize a field hospital within her compound. There also took refuge the priest Wyszyński continuously persecuted by the Gestapo. Stefan Wyszyński remained in Laski for two years serving as chaplain of the Sisters and priest of the AK. It was then that he met and treated Mother Elizabeth Rose and would later recall, "I would look at Mother and wonder: where does this woman get such strength and audacity to do this work facing continuous danger with her cooperation to the Uprising? It was not only the hospital, but there was also a supply and liaison center, a continuous coming and going of people. Mother thought that it was necessary to be filled with strength, for that is what the world needed at that time. She made me discover then the figure of a totally new woman, dedicated before to prayer and to the care of the blind and now, in a continuous mortal danger, she was still doing all the acts of piety but actively helping everyone. She was for us in Laski a Mother, a source of peace, serenity and promptness in service".
Mother Elizabeth Rose always, but especially in those moments, encouraged us to unite ourselves to the Cross of Christ: "At the feet of the Crucified One we cannot be inactive. Jesus Christ does not only want us to meditate on His Passion, to have compassion before His image, but to help Him save souls. Jesus wants us to use His redeeming blood to cleanse our sins and the sins of those around us, the sins of our enemies and those of the whole world. We must allow ourselves to be soaked by this Divinity. We must let ourselves be soaked by this Blood, and offer it to God for our salvation and that of the whole world".
Peace and joy at the Cross
Mother Elizabeth's motto is on the Congregation's coat of arms: Pax et gaudium in cruce. For the new Blessed, those words were rooted in trust in God and in uniting herself ever more intensely to the passion of Christ. "Suffering is inevitable. One cannot attain holiness without suffering. The man who wants to live with God needs to carry his cross, the cross that God sends him. That is why to remain close to the cross of Jesus is our way and our vocation. And I am referring to the cross that comes from the hands of God: the loss of health, of freedom. It is a hard cross, but it is good, it is a saving cross that we need to embrace".
We have in these two new Blesseds, so closely linked to the city of Warsaw, similar characters. Stefan Wyszyński always began his homilies with the greeting "Dear children of God" and his figure full of strength and dignity, especially in the face of the communist system imposed in Poland after the Second World War in Yalta, stands out with one trait: paternity. He was a Father. Mother Elizabeth Rose, also full of fortitude in the face of the Nazis and defender of the dignity of the handicapped is shown for many with a continuous reference: she was for all a mother full of fortitude, the Mother.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski officiated at the 1961 Mass of suffrage on the occasion of the death of Mother Elizabeth. In his homily he said among other things the following words: ¨Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis! - God is admirable in his saints. The life of Mother Elizabeth, for many of us had only this title: Mother, speaks to us of the wonders that God does in his saints. There is always in the life of every person the hidden mystery of God. He himself is the Deus absconditus. He acts silently in the depths of the soul. He is never inactive, he is continually at work. He forms, chooses and helps people. He sends them out and causes them to be surrounded by others to serve. God chooses the instruments to cooperate. No man of God is alone, for God himself causes many to be found beside him, like bees around the queen mother of a panel¨.
Wyszyński, a man of the Polish people, Czacka, a woman of the aristocracy. Both were intellectuals, Christians of deep faith and constant prayer, full of admirable fortitude for the defense of the rights of God and of the person. I conclude with a few words of the new Blessed speaking of the Christian layman who acts in the world: "It is not a matter of being a man dominated by feverish activity, tired and mercilessly tiring others, absorbed by continuous occupation. The modern man of Christian action must have in himself more than the peace and measure of a diplomat, he must have the assurance that comes from conscience, that he helps God to save the world to the same extent that he allows God to act in his own life.
Stefan Wyszyński was ordained alone because he was unable to do so on the scheduled day of ordination, whether because of a relapse of his tuberculosis disease or because he was a few days short of his 23rd birthday, is not known for sure. The minimum canonical age was 24, but the bishop could grant a dispensation of one year, no more. Stefan was therefore ordained on his 23rd birthday, August 3, 1924. However, with all his companions, many of them future martyrs of the world war and some of them beatified, he made the obligatory spiritual exercises before ordination. He wrote down ten resolutions in his notes. He always kept this sheet in his breviary and every day he examined himself on these ten maxims or resolutions:
1. Speak little - live quietly - silence.
2. Do a lot, but without haste, with peace.
3. Work systematically.
4. Avoid dreams - don't think about the future, it is in God's hands.
5. Do not waste time, for it does not belong to you; life has a purpose and so does every instant.
6. In all things discover a good intention.
7. Pray frequently when you are at work - sine me nihil potestis facere (without me you can do nothing).
8. Respect every person, for you are worse than every person: God resists the proud.
9. Omni custodia custodi custodi cor tuum quia ex ipso vita procedit (Guard your heart with all care, for from it comes life).
10. Misericordias Dei in aeternum cantabo (I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever).
His devotion to the Virgin
An interesting anecdote about Cardinal Wyszyński, is the following:
There is a photo in which Cardinal Wyszyński is seen smiling and next to him the two future bishop prelates of Opus Dei, Blessed Álvaro del Portillo and Javier Echevarría. It was in September 1979. They traveled by car and were accompanied by the priest Joaquín Alonso and Javier Cotelo as driver. The latter recounts his memories in a family recorded interview. Here is the transcription:
"That is the photo of Cardinal Wyszyński with don Álvaro and don Javier. -Do you remember anything about that meeting? - Yes, of many things. That meeting took place the day before we left on September 7. They wanted to see the Cardinal simply to tell him that we had passed by and that the President General of Opus Dei wanted to greet him. We arrived at the bishop's palace and were met by the secretary who spoke Spanish. He told us: the cardinal is about to leave by car, he is about to leave because he has a meeting with bishops in another diocese and of course, he cannot receive them and if he does receive them, it will only take a minute.
Blessed Álvaro del Portillo and Javier Echevarría with Cardinal Wyszyński
And indeed he came out and put us in the hall of the photo. Behind us there was another picture, if I remember correctly, of Częstochowa in which you see a seat, an empty chair in the middle and a lot of people, a lot of people in front of that throne. It was his throne, the seat of the Cardinal, but it was empty because he was in prison. While we were looking at these and other photos, the Cardinal soon arrived. He received us a little dryly, saying: "What are these Italian priests coming to Warsaw doing here? I am very grateful that they come dressed in cassock, because usually the priests who come from Italy come dressed in any way". He liked the fact that they were in cassocks, but he liked Don Alvaro's answer much more: "I don't want to take a minute away from you. We have come to pray to Our Lady of Częstochowa to pray for Poland and to pray above all for Pope John Paul II, and to bring Opus Dei to Our Lady's feet, renewing the Work's consecration to her Most Sweet Heart.
Then the Cardinal was moved when he heard about the prayer and Our Lady and placed his hands on the shoulders of Don Alvaro and Don Javier at the same time. And he was transformed, he totally changed his appearance. Before, he was a bit dry, as if tired of receiving tourist priests. And when he heard about prayer, about Our Lady, he got excited and told them that he had enjoyed hearing about Our Lady and that they had come to pray, that he was happy to meet people from Opus Dei and its president general and those accompanying him, and that he apologized for not being able to be with them any longer because he was about to take the car and go to another province, to another city where he had a meeting.
He gave each of us a rosary and then said goodbye with a hug and a kiss to the priests. He only gave me a hug. Then don Joaquín said to him: "And could we take a picture of him? -Yes. Get in right away. And as you can see, he put himself between Don Álvaro and Don Javier. I took two pictures of him because Don Alvaro said to me: "Take another picture just in case the first one didn't come out well. We left there very happy and rejoicing as if we had really been with a saint because he reminded us of our Father by his smile and his gaze. When we were with Cardinal Wyszyński we had the impression that it was like with our Father: you could really feel that we were with a saint".
"The Church needs economic resources to achieve spiritual ones."
Omnes talks to Anastasio Gómez-Hidalgo, diocesan treasurer of the Archdiocese of Toledo since 2011. He talks to us, among other things, about the importance of co-responsibility or about the economic management of the dioceses.
Anastasio Gómez Hidalgo, married and father of four children, has been diocesan bursar of the Archdiocese of Toledo since 2011. He has just been appointed for the next five years. His training is completed with the recent award of the degree of Doctor of Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha with a doctoral thesis qualified with Excellent cum Laude and entitled "Towards a comprehensive system of Transparency for the Catholic Church in Spain. A practical proposal". This thesis was born from the illusion of providing the entities of the Catholic Church in our country with legal tools for the better establishment of a culture of transparency and good governance. Guest professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the Complutense University, he publishes articles, gives lectures and participates in various organizations to help the Church to manage its resources in the most professional way possible.
How does a doctor of law get along with the numbers of a diocese?
Well, it is too early to take stock of this relationship, but I have to thank the numbers of the diocese because without them I would not be a doctor of law. The economic field of the Catholic Church has allowed me to ask myself questions, to find answers and above all it has led me to have a great illusion that I have transformed into research. Numbers are stubborn, they speak with exactitude, but law admits discussion, analysis and opinion. It is fascinating to unite both realities in a doctoral thesis and if this union is produced talking about the Catholic Church the degree of interest rises to indescribable heights. It has been fascinating for me to be able to investigate this amalgam of concepts and give them a common thread.
What helps people to be more generous to the Church?
That we tell them what we do. Let them know how their entities work and, above all, let them see that their resources are well managed. The Church must have economic and human resources to achieve the most important ones, which are the spiritual ones. Some time ago I wrote an essay on the Balanced Scorecards for a diocese and in that work I explained that the economy and the law are not important in evangelization but without them evangelization would have to be done in a different way. To form the economic councils as true organs of opinion and debate on the matters that affect the administration of goods and money is key. The Code of Canon Law obliges to it.
It helps people to know how their entities work and, above all, to see that their resources are well managed. The Church must have economic and human resources to achieve the most important ones, which are the spiritual ones.
Anastasio Gómez-HidalgoBursar of the Archdiocese of Toledo
How has the pandemic affected the needs of dioceses?
Well, a good article could be written on this subject, but trying to summarize it, even at the risk of not being precise, we could say that the dioceses are going to come out as entities with more debt due to the subscription of loans because of the fall in income; I also understand that the extraordinary projects or initiatives are going to be suspended for some years to focus efforts on the day-to-day and to be able to assume the day-to-day commitments and finally to say that the parishes have learned, almost definitively, that the subscriptions of the faithful are the key to support the real needs in the medium term.
Will we come out of this more co-responsible?
The fact that we have not been able to go to the churches during the pandemic has sharpened our wits and the parishes have been strengthened by the longing we have felt at not being able to celebrate the sacraments. We have learned that the real treasure in the parishes are not the altarpieces or the church itself but the sacraments that are celebrated there. Co-responsibility has usually been understood as the sense that the faithful have of belonging to the Church and that leads them to collaborate financially and in other ways to support it. For me, the pandemic has changed the sense of co-responsibility and I think that now it will be the Church entities that will have to demonstrate that their management is adequate and professional. These months of pandemic should have served to establish work dynamics capable of facing the next five years with clear guidelines of what to do and how to do it. The entity that does not establish it and does not make it known will have failed in the necessary co-responsibility.
Advice for a pastor overwhelmed by bills?
Burden in a parish doesn't just come from bills. Pastors are overwhelmed by other things. It is exemplary to see priests give of themselves and mimic the pain of their parishioners during these rare and difficult times. The burden of a priest comes from the burden of his parishioners and their problems. To relieve them of the burden of their bills, there must be adequate ways for the diocesan administrations to articulate simple procedures for resolving financial problems. Ah! sorry! I forgot my advice. Better suggestion: before doing, ask. When in doubt, ask. The verb to ask well conjugated avoids many problems. Today, all economic management is wrapped in a very accentuated technical role and asking before doing becomes a must.
Why does money keep us awake at night?
What is disturbing is not having it or having too much of it. That is why the management of money in Church entities has to be adequate. I would say that in any field having adequate resources is an objective that a manager must have. In the face of scarcity, look for where to get.
Money management in Church entities has to be adequate. I would say that in any field having adequate resources is an objective that a manager must have.
Anastasio Gómez-HidalgoBursar of the Archdiocese of Toledo
Toledo has traditionally been at the forefront of Church economic management since the 16th century. Can the Church speak on equal terms with experts in economics and management?
Every day there are more and more models of economic management in the ecclesial sphere that deserve to be studied. The longed-for self-financing has given way to models of economic profitability of the heritage bequeathed to us by past generations. A clear example is the models of management of visits to the monuments of ecclesiastical ownership. They are so relevant and are part of an economic reality of generation of economic impacts that in cities like Toledo are decisive in shaping the economy of the city. We know that when the Cathedral closes, the economy suffers and that is due to the positive influence that generates having it open 365 days a year and 313 in a schedule that favors the visits in very wide schedules. Also the phenomenon of the Tourist Bracelet of Toledo that brings together 7 monuments open 363 days a year to tourism and that complements the tourist offer of the City constitutes a path towards self-financing. Talavera de la Reina also has its Tourist Bracelet around the ecclesiastical heritage and other dioceses such as Burgos, Barbastro-Monzón or Calahorra-Logroño-La Calzada where this project is already a reality are exportable models. Cities such as Segovia or Cordoba have already copied us.
Is it easy for a pastor to get along with his bursar?
In the end, the Bursar is a person who takes care of the priests, mostly parish priests, as a matter of priority, and he takes care of them to the best of his ability and gives the best of himself. With this formula it is easy to get along.
To what extent should resource management in the Church be professionalized?
It must be professionalized. You must have professionals who are responsible, and someone can only be responsible if they have sufficient training to be able to face management challenges as if they were a company. The savings when it comes to having good professionals are obvious. On the other hand, it costs millions of dollars to have at the head of certain entities people who come from other sectors or who are not permanently dedicated to the management and administration of the assets. In the end, it turns out that this second option is more expensive than if a good professional had been hired and his or her salary had been in line with the labor market in relation to his or her responsibilities. Attracting talent to religious entities is a challenge and talent is attracted by people's commitment, but also by how their work is valued from an economic point of view and the facilities they are given to work with.
Can a bursar advance the mission of the Church from his position?
This is, in fact, the verb that best fits its mission: to drive. Also to prop up or support. A bursar must know that his mission is to the side or behind. The impulse is made from behind, it is supported from behind and shored up from below, but the economic work in these entities cannot be the first or stand out from the others. The mission must be based and cared for from the economic point of view, but the mission of the Church transcends all areas. What is important is what is important.
The twentieth Sunday has coincided with August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, and so we have not read verses 51-58 of John chapter 6, in which Jesus says: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." and then, to the Jews' unbelief -"How can this one give us his flesh to eat?"-Jesus reiterates six times in six verses that we really must "eat" his flesh and "drink" his blood to have life in us, to have eternal life already in the present, and to be resurrected by him on the last day; to take up our abode in him and he in us, to live for him as he lives for the Father, to live eternally.
And that he is the bread that came down from heaven, that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. At the beginning of the discourse on the bread of life, Jesus' interlocutor is "the multitude". Then "the Jews" stand out as objectors and murmurers.
Now, however, the test of Jesus becomes even more difficult because it is "many of his disciples" who, having heard him speak in this way, take the side of the Jews, murmur and cannot believe that what he promises and reveals can really happen. To the point of deciding to break with him and follow him no more. They explicitly say to each other: "This word is hard! Who can hear it?". Jesus knows what they say in a low voice and do not have the courage to affirm in front of everyone. He tries to argue so that they change their minds: as in our body the flesh without the spirit, with death, decays, so the spirit that gives life to the body is able to change the bread into his body, and therefore make the bread give us his life, if we eat it. But it is not the arguments that change the minds of the hearers, but the Father, who grants to believe in the Son and to dwell in him. In saying this, Jesus removes the blame from those who do not believe in his words, and "they were no longer with him". He gives them this freedom and increases it with his words.
As proof of this style, he also reiterates and increases the freedom of the twelve who stayed with him. "Do you guys want to leave too?". Peter, answering this question, shows that he has been drawn by the Father to Jesus and enlightened by His Spirit upon him: "....Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".. These two phrases together mean that there is no one else who has the words of eternal life: only you, only you! We have no one to turn to who can tell us about eternal life. "We have believed and known that you are the Holy One of God.". Blessed are you, Simon, who believed in what the Father has revealed to you.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 21st Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
The Holy Father reflected on the value of the Law according to the Letter to the Galatians, stressing that "it will do us good to ask ourselves whether we still live in the time when we need the Law, or whether we are instead aware of having received the grace of having become children of God to live in love".
Pope Francis held the general audience in which he asked about the role of the "Law" commenting on the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians: "St. Paul has taught us that the "children of the Promise" (Gal 4:28), through faith in Jesus Christ, are not under the bond of the Law, but called to the arduous way of life in the freedom of the Gospel. But the Law exists. Therefore, in today's catechesis we ask ourselves: what is the role of the Law according to the Letter to the Galatians? In the passage we have just heard, Paul maintains that the Law has been like a pedagogue. This is a beautiful image that deserves to be understood in its true meaning.
"The apostle," says the Pope, "seems to suggest to Christians to divide the history of salvation, and also their personal history, into two moments: before they became believers and after they received the faith. At the center is the event of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which Paul preached to arouse faith in the Son of God, the source of salvation. Therefore, starting from faith in Christ, there is a "before" and an "after" with respect to the Law itself. The preceding history is determined by being "under the Law"; the successive history is lived following the Holy Spirit (cfr. Gal 5,25). This is the first time Paul uses this expression: to be "under the Law". The underlying meaning carries the idea of a negative subjection, typical of slaves. The Apostle makes it explicit by saying that when one is "under the Law" one is as it were "guarded" or "closed", a kind of preventive custody. This time, says St. Paul, has lasted a long time, and is perpetuated until one lives in sin".
"The relationship between the Law and sin will be exposed in a more systematic way by the apostle in his Letter to the Romans, written a few years after the Letter to the Galatians. In synthesis, the Law leads to define transgression and to make people aware of their own sin. Moreover, as common experience teaches, the precept ends up stimulating transgression. Thus he writes in his letter to the Romans: "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were at work in our members, so that we bore fruit unto death. But now we have been freed from the law" (7:5-6). In a lapidary way, Paul fixes his vision of the Law: "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law" (7:5-6).1 Cor 15,56)".
"In this context", Francisco continues, "the reference to the pedagogical role developed by the Law acquires its full meaning. In the school system of antiquity, the pedagogue did not have the function that we attribute to him today, that is, to support the education of a boy or a girl. At that time he was a slave who had the task of accompanying the master's son when he went to the teacher and then accompanying him back home. He had to protect him from dangers and watch over him so that he would not behave inappropriately. His function was more of a disciplinary one. When the youngster became an adult, the pedagogue ceased his functions".
"Referring to the Law in these terms allows St. Paul to clarify the role it played in the history of Israel. The Torah had been an act of magnanimity on the part of God with his people. Certainly he had had restrictive functions, but at the same time he had protected his people, educated, disciplined and sustained them in their weakness. This is why the apostle pauses successively in describing the phase of minority: "While the heir is a minor, he differs in nothing from a slave, being master of all, but is under tutors and stewards until the time appointed by the father. In the same way, we too, when we were minors, lived as slaves under the elements of the world" (Gal 4,1-3). In summary, the apostle's conviction is that the Law certainly has its own positive function, but it is limited in time. Its duration cannot be extended beyond all measure, because it is linked to the maturation of persons and their choice of freedom. Once faith is attained, the Law exhausts its propaedeutic value and must give way to another authority".
In conclusion, Pope Francis stressed that "this teaching on the value of the law is very important and deserves to be carefully considered so as not to fall into misunderstandings and make false steps. It will do us good to ask ourselves whether we still live in the age in which we need the Law, or whether we are instead aware of having received the grace of having become children of God in order to live in love."
In the United States, there are federal laws that protect the conscience of healthcare professionals, but what happens when a healthcare professional feels that his or her conscience rights have been violated?
In 2017, a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMC) was called to participate in what she was told would be a pregnancy that failed to go to term through no fault of the mother's own. However, upon arriving in the operating room, she realized the story was different. It was an elective late-term abortion. "You're going to hate me for this," one of the assistants in the operating room told her. The nurse had to assist in that abortion, even against her conscience.
Some time later she left that position but also decided to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS/OCR), which is the agency in charge of receiving, processing and filing this type of complaint in this country. Her case was not isolated; ten other nurses also had to participate in abortions against their will and conscience. In the initial phase, the lawsuit was successful and ran its course. But on July 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against CMUV without obtaining any binding settlement that would restore or acknowledge the nurses' violation of their conscience rights.
In the United States, there are federal laws that protect the conscience of health professionals (doctors, nurses, researchers, etc.). Under these rules, healthcare institutions (hospitals, clinics, medical research centers) that receive federal funds are prohibited from forcing their employees - healthcare personnel - to engage in professional practices contrary to their moral or religious convictions, including abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, sterilization and related research activities. Nor may such institutions retaliate or discriminate against those who refuse to participate in such procedures. These federal regulations are primarily grouped into three laws: "Church Amendments" to the Public Health Service Act; the "Weldon Amendment"; and a section of the "Affordable Care Act," passed under President Barack Obama in 2010. Although they appear to be infallible laws, they have not been fully effective and their implementation seems to depend on the presidential administration in office.
What happens when a health care professional feels that his or her conscience rights were violated, as in the case of the CMUV nurse? One should go to the HHS/OCR Office to initiate the complaint. If the case proceeds, the agency will contact the government or facility involved and send a "notice of violation" in order to achieve voluntary compliance with the federal conscience protection law. In the event that the hospital or health care provider ignores the notice, HHS/OCR may request law enforcement agencies to take various legal actions against the facility, which may result in a total cut-off of federal funding as well as fines in varying amounts. The third option, depending on the presidential administration in office, is to dismiss a legitimate claim, as happened in this case of the CMUV nurse.
After reviewing the complaint filed by the nurse and deeming it appropriate, HHS/OCR sent CMUV a conscience rights violation notice in August 2001.9 The notice noted that the Church Amendments created an unconditional right for health care personnel to refuse to participate in abortions. That alert noted that the Church Amendments created an unconditional right for health care personnel to refuse to participate in abortions. The text indicated that the duty to enforce the law and allow accommodations rested with health care institutions, not health care professionals. Following the violation issue issued by HHS/OCR, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against CMUV on December 16, 2020. The complaint stated that the violation was due to a pattern of discriminatory CMUV practices and policies against health care professionals who refused to participate in abortions because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions. However, on July 31, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DJO) dismissed the lawsuit and HHS/OCR withdrew the notice of violation without obtaining anything or reaching a binding settlement or action to redress the harm caused to the nurse and correct the illegal practices.
In response, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York and Chairman of the Committee on Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Archbishop of Kansas City and Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), noted that the DOJ was failing in its duty to enforce federal law: "It is hard to imagine a more appalling violation of civil rights than being forced to terminate an innocent human life. HHS/OCR found that CMUV forced a nurse to do just that against her religious beliefs. This is not only profoundly wrong, it is also a violation of federal law. We call on the administration in office to uphold the basic dignity of our nation's health care workers by reopening this case; and we call on Congress to pass an (effective) Conscience Protection Act so that doctors and nurses can defend their own conscience rights in court."
For their part, a group of 80 Republican lawmakers from both chambers, including Marco Rubio of Florida, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Andy Harris of Maryland sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garlanda and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, asking for explanations: "Your handling of this case constitutes a profound miscarriage of justice and a repudiation of your commitment to enforce federal conscience laws for Americans of all religious faiths, and especially for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who oppose abortion. Their actions send a signal to employers that they do not need to comply with the law because law enforcement agencies will not force them to comply. We demand a full explanation of these actions by your agencies." This letter from the congressmen was also supported by the USCCB and several physician associations and pro-life civic groups, including the American Center for Law and Justice, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Family Policy Alliance.
Due to the strong earthquake that has shaken Haiti, which has caused numerous deaths, injuries and extensive material damage, the Pope wanted to express his closeness during the Angelus prayer on Sunday, "to those dear people who have been hard hit by the earthquake".
The Pope raised his "prayers to the Lord for the victims," offering his word of encouragement "to the survivors, in the hope that the international community will show a shared concern for them and that the solidarity of all can alleviate the consequences of the tragedy."
The earthquake that struck Haiti had a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale and was recorded in waters near Haiti with epicenter about 12 kilometers northeast of Saint-Louis du Sud. There is also a Tsunami warning. The country was affected yesterday by two strong earthquakes of 7.2 and 6.6 magnitude respectively. So far, more than 300 people have been killed and about 2,000 injured, but the numbers are still rising.
The Military Ordinary, D. Carlos Jesús Montes, has asked all the chaplains and faithful to "offer the Eucharist and prayers in the Liturgy of the Hours and in personal prayer for the success of the mission and the happy return home of our companions, compatriots and collaborators".
The complicated situation in Afghanistan affects, in the first person, the Spanish military deployed there for years. In addition, the Military Archbishopric itself has informed the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, of this request.
At last Sunday's Angelus, Pope Francis underscored his "concern for the situation in Afghanistan" and asked the faithful "to pray with me to the God of peace that the clamor of arms may cease and that solutions may be found at the table of dialogue. Only in this way will the tormented population of that country - men, women, the elderly and children - be able to return to their homes and live in peace and security with full mutual respect".
What were the main points of the Pope's speeches in Spain? During the Rome-Madrid flight, Benedict XVI gave a preview of what he expected from WYD Madrid-2011: "For many people it will be the beginning of a friendship with God and with others, of a universality of thought, of a common responsibility that really shows that these days bear fruit." This trinomial that can structure the message that the Pope has left not only with his words, but above all, with his prayers and his affection.
Friendship with Christ
Friendship was the point of departure and arrival. Friendship among young people has originated from the reason for the summons of the great Friend, Christ; and it has been strengthened and widened according to the dimensions of the world. For this reason, Benedict XVI told them to strengthen the core of this friendship, which alone is rooted in them and guarantees happiness and joy, prudence and wisdom, and the union of truth, love and freedom: "Do not settle for less than Truth and Love, do not settle for less than Christ." because in Him is salvation and hope (homily at the closing Mass). Rooted in Christ, "we give wings to our freedom" (welcome party in Cibeles).
Universality of the Church
Second, universality. Indeed, through their friendship with Christ and with each other, young people have discovered the universality of faith in the family of God. "To follow Jesus in faith is to walk with Him in the communion of the Church. One cannot follow Jesus alone. Whoever gives in to the temptation to go 'on his own' or to live the faith according to the individualistic mentality, which predominates in society, runs the risk of never encountering Jesus Christ, or of ending up following a false image of Him."(homily at the closing Mass).
Responsibility and strength
Third, the responsibility to feel part of that "network" that communicates the world with God, and that "is an important reality for the future of humanity, for the life of humanity today". Responsibility that grows by looking at the cross (which was not a failure, but an expression and gift of love), and translates into the "capacity to love and sympathize".suffering with others, for others, for love and justice (Stations of the Cross, and speech at St. Joseph's Institute). The Pope leaves them an assignment: "Do not keep Christ to yourselves. Communicate to others the joy of your faith."(homily at the closing Mass). Friendship, universality, responsibility; following Christ, love for the Church, witness of faith and love. The day after WYD-Madrid-2011, a new stage begins, from the heart of each one of us and of the Church, towards God and towards others.
How promising is the future of the Church in Africa?
The African continent is experiencing situations of advancing secularization, and the question that arises is whether the Church will be able to withstand these cold winds blowing across Africa.
Nearly a year and a half ago, when the first cases of Covid-19 began to appear, the main Monday morning headline in a Nairobi newspaper, referring to a crowded open-air gathering of Pentecostals the day before, exclaimed in bold letters "Agents of Death." Since then and until today, churches and mosques have been either completely closed or open to one-third capacity. Services have been broadcast over the Internet. Last year schools were closed for many months. This meant that students in Catholic schools were deprived of sacraments and religious classes. Instead, they were more exposed to social networking and the like, some of which is quite damaging - and, yes, social networking is as widespread in Africa's urban centers as anywhere else in the world.
When things return to the way they were before the pandemic, if they return, will young people return to the churches with the same interest and fervor as before?
Unlike Europe or America, where the Church has always been open to the faithful, in Africa it has been a case of open-close-open-open-close since apostolic times, but during those 2,000 years the Church has always kept the light of faith burning somewhere in the vast continent.
As St. John Paul II reminded us in Ecclesia in Africa (30-37), the beginnings go back to St. Mark the Evangelist, and despite the pressure and advance of Islam, they left flourishing communities in Egypt and Ethiopia until the present day, and in Nubia (present-day Sudan) until the 17th century.
The second phase took place in the late 15th, 16th and 17th centuries with Portuguese voyages of exploration to the west coast, and the establishment of a Christian kingdom in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo - a fascinating story in itself - but one that came to an end in the 18th century. And on the east coast, where Francis Xavier celebrated Mass on his way to India, and the 300 African and Portuguese martyrs of Mombasa whose cause is now being investigated. Another touching story. By that time, the first Dutch and French Huguenots had arrived at the Cape to settle.
The last chapter took place in the 19th and early 20th century, the huge missionary surge into the interior of the continent, the momentum of which is still being felt. The flow of missionaries has almost dried up and the Church is not only in the hands of the local clergy, but Africa is exporting clergy to fill vacant parishes in heavily secularized Europe.
The question now is this: will the Church be able to withstand the cold winds of secularization blowing across Africa, initially in the large urban centers and very quickly everywhere else?
The African population is young and curious about the outside world, especially new gadgets and technology, which puts them on the same level as young people anywhere in the world and, they hope, if possible, even ahead of them. Social media content is beyond the reach and control of parents, even the best of them, and can dilute the values and wisdom that parents have imparted; add to this peer pressure.
Pope John Paul II spoke of this almost 30 years ago when he warned against "materialistic seductions of all kinds, a certain secularization and an intellectual agitation provoked by an avalanche of insufficiently critical ideas spread by the media."
And Pope Francis, meeting with the youth of Uganda in Kampala on November 28, 2015, in a similar vein, pricked their consciences by warning them against the fear of going against the tide, of giving in to gratification and consumption alien to the deepest values of African culture. What would the Ugandan martyrs say about the misuse of our modern media, where young people are exposed to distorted images and visions of sexuality that degrade human dignity, causing sadness and emptiness?
However, Pope John Paul II had great faith in Africa. In Ecclesia in Africa, n. 42, he praised Africans for their "profound religious sense, a sense of the sacred..." (which African philosophers and theologians such as the Protestant John Mbiti and the late Fr. Charles Nyamiti had analyzed and acclaimed). The Pope continued: "...of the existence of God the Creator and of a spiritual world. The reality of sin in its individual and social forms is very present in the consciousness of these peoples, as well as the need for rites of purification and expiation."
Until Covid-19 changed things, young Africans traveled more than ever outside of Africa and were exposed to and familiar with other "values" and "lifestyles" or at least read about them on social media. What about them? Have they been irretrievably affected? Or will common sense, parental and extended family pressure and life experience let them steer in the right direction once they stop spinning?
Perhaps a little anecdote can give us an indication. The founder and president of the Kenyan Society of Atheists left everything in the hands of a successor and joined a group of evangelical Christians, realizing that this was where he had belonged all along!
The death of King St. Stephen in 1038 was followed by a period of instability, which made it advisable to transfer his remains to a safe place. At that time his right hand, which had remained incorrupt, was separated from the body. Today the relic of the "Holy Right Hand" is venerated in this reliquary in St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Hungarian capital.
The Spanish pilgrimage of the Cross and the WYD icon
The symbols of World Youth Days: the Youth Cross and the Icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani will tour the Spanish geography in the coming months of September and October.
The cross and the icon will be received next Sunday, September 5 at around 12:15 am in the parish of María Auxiliadora de Fuentes de Oñoro (Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo) where a welcoming ceremony will be held and it will be sent on its way to Ciudad Rodrigo. This is the starting signal for the preparation of the next World Youth Day that will take place in Lisbon in 2023 after being delayed due to the pandemic. This will be a very special journey because, as the nation is adjacent to Portugal, many young Spaniards will participate in the next World Youth Day.
In the following days he will go on pilgrimage to different dioceses:
5-sept Ciudad Rodrigo
6-sept Ciudad Rodrigo - Oviedo (Covadonga)
7-sept Oviedo (Covadonga)
8-sept Astorga
9-sept Leon
10-sept Palencia
11-sept Zamora
12-sept Santander
13-sept Calahorra and La Calzada- Logroño
14-sept Zaragoza
15-sept Trip to Mallorca
16-sept Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca
17-sept Trip to Alicante
18-sept Orihuela-Alicante
19-sept Cartagena
20-sept Guadix
21-sept Jaén
22-sept Ciudad Real
23-sept Trip to Loyola for the National Meeting of Youth Pastoral Delegates and Leaders (ENPJ)
24-sept Vitoria
25-sept ENPJ Loyola. San Sebastián (Aránzazu)
26-sept ENPJ Loyola
27-September CEE-Madrid (day dedicated to Charity)
28-September CEE-Madrid (day dedicated to Life)
29-sept Spanish Episcopal Conference in the morning and in the afternoon at the Castrense cathedral
30-sept Castrense Diocese
1-oct Madrid
2-oct Pamplona
3-oct Barcelona
4-oct Barcelona
5-Oct Valencia
6-Oct Valencia
7-Oct Albacete
8-Oct Trip to Guadeloupe
Oct 9-Oct Toledo (Guadeloupe)
10-oct Mérida-Badajoz
Oct 11-Oct Cáceres
12-Oct Plasencia
13-Oct Salamanca
14-Oct Osma-Soria
15-Oct Avila
16-Oct Burgos
17-Oct Valladolid
18-Oct Bilbao
Oct 19-Oct Trip to Tenerife
Oct 20 Tenerife
21-Oct Canary Islands
Oct 22-Oct Trip to Seville
Oct 23-Oct Seville
24-Oct Cordoba
25-Oct Granada
Oct 26-Oct Almeria
27-Oct Jerez
Oct 28-Oct Cadiz
29-Oct Huelva
The diocese of Huelva will be in charge of bidding farewell to the WYD symbols in Spain with a Eucharist at 6.30 pm in Ayamonte, a border town with Portugal and later, at 7.30 pm, the farewell ceremony will take place and at 8.30 pm both symbols will cross the border through the Guadiana River to Portugal.
WYD Cross and icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani
World Youth Day has two symbols that accompany and represent it: the Pilgrim Cross and the icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani. These symbols accompany in a very special way the young people who are preparing their way to World Youth Day in their country.
As in every WYD, the symbols go on pilgrimage through all the dioceses of the country that will host the great event. In this case, it will go on pilgrimage through all the Portuguese dioceses in preparation and motivation, and also, on this occasion, through the Spanish dioceses.
I would like to dwell briefly on the story of two saints, unknown to most, but who really have much to say to the Church today. I am referring to the martyrs Pontianus and Hippolytus, whom we celebrate on August 13, with a very humble free memorial, which in the world of the liturgy is the minimal way of remembering someone.
We are in the third century, in the first decades of the year 200. Hippolytus was an extremely moralistic and rigorous presbyter who came into collision with the pope of the time, St. Zeferin. The reasons for the disagreements are not clear, partly of dogmatic origin on the nature of Christ (the councils that would clarify it had not yet been held) and partly on the possibility of readmitting into the community Christians who had abjured under torture (the so-called lapsi). Tension erupted when, upon the death of Zeferinus, St. Callixtus, a man of humble origin and deacon of the previous pontiff, was elected pope. Hippolytus did not accept the appointment and, elected by his followers, made himself pope, thus becoming the first antipope of Christianity.
On the death of Callixtus, Pontianus was elected, whom Hippolytus hastened not to recognize for the same reasons. The year 235 arrived and with it the coming to power of Maximinus the Thracian, an emperor opposed to Christianity who, as soon as he had the opportunity, condemned Pontianus to hard labor: ad metallathe mines of Sardinia. Pontian, moved by heroic humility, so as not to leave Rome without a bishop, resigned his office, thus enriching the century not only with the first "antipope" but also with the first "resigning" pope. Shortly thereafter, the emperor, unable to distinguish between popes and antipopes, condemned to the same punishment Hippolytus, who found Pontianus in chains. And here the miracle happened. Surprised by Pontian's humility, patience and meekness, Hippolytus converted and acknowledged his error, thus reconciling the schism. Both died as a result of the ill-treatment and inhuman conditions they suffered, and since then the Church celebrates them together as saints and martyrs.
The past of the saints can provide us with many lessons. Too much rigor and too much certainty in believing that we know, even if dictated by the most perfect good faith, can divide rather than unite and can weaken the Church rather than strengthen it. Above all, in Christianity, weakness is more convincing than strength. Pontian is an instrument of grace not because he clings to power, but because he renounces it, putting into practice Christ's teaching that he who would truly rule must be a servant of all. The last lesson is perhaps the most moving. Hippolytus, who in the name of truth had made himself an enemy of Pontianus, finds the good of the other within a path of pain that unites them both. Only through the cross is it possible to see who each is. Only by walking together in that field hospital which is the Church in true life, is it possible to know each other, to recognize each other and to help each other to build that Good which is the patrimony and desire of every human heart.
The beneficial effects of the great spiritual earthquake that passed through Spain ten years ago are still being felt. Madrid, its epicenter, was flooded by almost two million young pilgrims. There were, however, no casualties or incidents. And it was an unforgettable week for this new generation of Benedict XVI who thoroughly enjoyed their encounter with Christ, with the Pope and with the wonder of the universality and communion of the Church.
Ten years have passed since that World Youth Day (WYD). It is no longer the time to go back over what everyone was able to follow live, either on television or by reading the press. It is time, rather, to take stock and draw conclusions about what this great event of grace has brought us. -which finally exceeded all forecasts- has meant for the life of the Church and, in particular, for Spain, the host country.
Pope's balance sheet
On August 24, Benedict XVI, already at Castelgandolfo, made his own personal assessment of WYD. He emphasized that WYD had been a "An unforgettable celebration, a wonderful manifestation of faith for Spain and for the world", where youth had been able to "to reflect, dialogue, exchange positive experiences, pray together and renew the effort to dedicate one's life to Christ".
He also stressed the "A formidable experience of fraternity that was joyfully lived there by some two million young people". And he remembered how that The "crowd of young people in celebration was not at all intimidated by the rain or the wind".
Cardinal Rouco's assessment
On August 23, the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio María Rouco Varela, also gave his personal assessment. He said that the WYD had been, above all, "a great feast of faith - and of the joy born of faith - of the young people of the Church".in which "The witness of Christ has been given in enormous dimensions and intensity".
On the Day, the Archbishop of Madrid added, "We experienced in a very special way the communion that exists within the Church; we saw so many young people living a communion in faith, hope and charity. Then it became visible in giving and sacrificing for one another".
He stressed that the Madrid edition "has reinforced the conviction that these Days are already part of the life of the Church, as an instrument for the mission of the Church in the evangelization of young people.". He also stressed that more priests have participated than in any other WYD (about 15,000), almost doubling the previous numbers, especially young clergy. The number of cardinals and bishops (800) has also been higher.
The WYD of confession
With approximate statistical data, Cardinal Rouco Varela confirmed to this journalist that WYD Madrid could well go down in history as the WYD of confession: "In the 200 confessionals installed in the Retiro Park alone, more than 40,000 faithful confessed".he said. "And counting confessions in Madrid parishes, places of catechesis, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and, of course, in Cuatro Vientos." (particularly around the 17 Eucharistic tents-chapels), "the figure may reach several hundred thousand".
At no other WYD had the young people come so close to the sacrament of Reconciliation as at this one. The daily celebration of forgiveness in the Retiro Park was certainly one of the greatest successes of the organizing committee. The Pope's visit to the site on the morning of the 20th to hear the confessions of four young people also highlighted the Holy Father's interest in making the practice of the sacrament of Confession an integral part of World Youth Days.
Some priests, noting the steady stream of penitents during WYD, concluded that perhaps the practice of confession is not always a problem for the faithful. Indeed, as was the case at WYD, when there are plenty of priests available to hear confessions, many young people come in droves.
Two Colombian priests set up portable confessionals in Cuatro Vientos. After attending to several penitents in that area, someone from their group came to request their presence. They were then seen walking through the crowd with the confessionals on their backs.
Antonio, another priest who was hearing confessions at Cuatro Vientos, told a young penitent from the Canary Islands that he too was from the islands. The boy then brought the whole group that had come with him from the Canary Islands to confession.
Emilio Úbeda, the carpenter and cabinetmaker from Avila who made the 200 confessionals of the Retiro, based on a design by the architect Ignacio Vicens, showed "very proud as a Catholic" of their contribution to this feast of forgiveness; and also of the fact that "Benedict XVI will use a confessional made by him."The confessional was, by the way, somewhat different from the others, to ensure even more the reserved character of the sacrament.
The Archbishopric of Madrid rightly granted license to all priests so that during the days of WYD in Madrid they could remit, within the sacrament of penance, the excommunication of the priests. latae sententiae corresponding to the crime of procured abortion. The Apostolic Penitentiary also granted plenary indulgence to all the faithful who participated in any sacred celebration or act of piety in Madrid during WYD.
Prayer climate
Along with the phenomenon of confessions, the intense climate of prayer during some moments of WYD caught the attention of many. Both locals and strangers were overwhelmed at the Vigil on Saturday night, the 20th, by the thunderous silence that fell at Cuatro Vientos when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the majestic monstrance of Arfe. One and a half million people knelt in adoration on the damp earth. Rarely has it been possible to see such a multitudinous Exposition with the Blessed Sacrament.
In a sector at the back of the airfield, the young people were unable to see or hear the Pope: the nearby screen and the public address system were out of order. However, they prayed with great intensity before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the nearby tents-chapels, from 11:00 am until after 2:00 am.
The climate of prayer in the uninterrupted adoration held at the Madrid Seminary was similar, as well as in the retreat chapel run by the Missionaries of Charity and in other places in Madrid.
WYD during Holy Week
With the help of Spanish imagery and the deep-rooted traditions of popular piety that are experienced during Holy Week, WYD Madrid made it very easy for the young people to enter into the atmosphere of the Stations of the Cross, which is that of the Passion of Christ, on Friday the 19th. It was another of the great successes of the organization. In the vicinity of Paseo de Recoletos, not only the young pilgrims of WYD, but also a good part of the population of Madrid gathered.
Victor, a young professional who had not yet seen the Pope up close, invited three of his friends - one of them a senior manager in a large multinational company - to see him pass through the Plaza de Colón and then, after the Stations of the Cross, to watch the Easter processions. They were also joined by the girlfriend of one of them. During the wait at Colon, the conversation revolved around the figure of the Pope and some aspects of the Church's doctrine. Everyone was very receptive: they were moved and pleasantly surprised by the crowd of young people.
The WYD of social networks
WYD in Madrid has also stood out in other aspects. It has been, for example, a very mediatic WYD, not in vain were 5,000 journalists accredited to cover the event (2,900 Spaniards). In Spain alone, 15 million television viewers followed the WYD events (34 % of the audience).
The Madrid WYD was undoubtedly the WYD of social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Tuenti). No previous WYD has ever been so thoroughly employed to be present in these communication channels. Nearly 350,000 Internet users followed WYD through social networks. The official WYD profiles appeared in more than twenty languages. In the seven channels that WYD had at its disposal in YouTube video sharing has surpassed 1.2 million views.
The WYD of the crisis
WYD Madrid was also characterized by the fact that it was held in a context of severe economic crisis, with very high youth unemployment figures. Perhaps that is why some groups were very reluctant to organize the event and were stubbornly opposed to the State financing it at least minimally. This opposition did not make much sense, because the WYD Organizing Committee and the public administrations involved (the State, the Autonomous Community and the Madrid City Council) had already foreseen that WYD would not entail any cost for the taxpayer.
The unquestionable success of the event ended up overcoming these misgivings: it became evident that WYD had not only not entailed any expense for the administrations, but had generated wealth.
According to the regional government's calculations, the WYD represented an increase of 148 million euros in the regional GDP. The Confederation of Commerce of Madrid estimated that of the tickets 39 million euros had been derived for the hotel and catering sector. Hotel occupancy on those days reached 70 %, 30 points above the same period of the previous year.
The Confederation of Businessmen of Madrid indicated that WYD had generated 3,000 direct jobs and 7,000 indirect jobs. 10.4 million trips were registered in the Madrid Metro (62 % more than the previous week and 4 million more passengers).
WYD in figures
1.9 million people in Cuatro Vientos
500,000 registrants (193 countries)
30,000 volunteers
14,000 priests
800 bishops
5,000 journalists
4,000 disabled
350,000 followers in social networks
300 cultural events
200 confessionals at the Retreat
68 booths at the Vocations Fair
Of the 50.5 million euro budget for the Day, 31.5 million euro were covered by pilgrim registrations, mostly from abroad; 16.5 million euro were financed by sponsorships from private companies; and almost 2.5 million euro were financed by donations from private individuals, contributions by smssales of products and others.
Moreover, for people of faith, the use of economic means by the Church, when necessary, is quite understandable. Suffice it to recall the Gospel scene in which Jesus Christ himself consented in Gerasa that a huge herd of swine should rush into the sea after driving out a man's legion of demons. He put the spiritual good of that person first, even if it meant an economic loss for the herdsmen of the area. Because the order of grace comes before material goods.
Benedict XVI, moved
Cardinal Rouco commented that "Benedict XVI had lived those days with enormous intensity and joy." In many moments of WYD I had seen him visibly moved. He highlighted of all of them "the vigil at Cuatro Vientos; those 20 minutes of downpour: if anyone did not want to leave the young people despite the inclement weather, it was the Pope. He only wondered if perhaps he should shorten his address, because the wind prevented him from reading it.".
Also during the Sunday Mass he saw the Holy Father very moved, "especially for those moments of recollection and silence". According to the Cardinal of Madrid, "the Pope was also pleasantly surprised by the music of the ceremonies; he became interested in the musicians of the WYD orchestra and choir, with an undertone of praise". Never before had a WYD organized its own orchestra and choir, made up of volunteers.
The Pope was also impressed to meet so many Madrilenians in the streets who had stayed in Madrid to see him. Cardinal Rouco commented that "On many occasions the popemobile drove at a very slow speed, so that Benedict XVI could spend more time with the people".
An encouraging and demanding father
Benedict XVI, now 84 years old, "he acted like a real father to everyone.". Yago de la Cierva, executive director of WYD, told an anecdote about this. A couple from Tenerife traveled to Madrid, coinciding with the WYD, to receive medical attention for their four-year-old son who was seriously ill. Although they had not planned it, someone encouraged them to go to the Nunciature. There, the Holy Father learned of the case and made time to receive them.
The messages that Benedict XVI addressed specifically to young people during his 78-hour stay in Madrid were simple, clear and demanding. As soon as he stepped off the plane, the Pope encouraged them to face the current challenges (superficiality, consumerism, hedonism, lack of solidarity, corruption and unemployment) by leaning on God, without anything or anyone taking away their peace; without any adversity paralyzing them, without fear of the world, the future or their own weakness.
He asked them not to be ashamed of the Lord and to base their lives on Him, who has always loved us and knows us better than anyone else. He warned them that it is not possible to believe without being supported by the faith of others; that the Church needs them, but they also need the Church; that it is not possible to follow Jesus alone and that, therefore, they must love the Church. He encouraged them to seriously consider holiness and to reject the temptation of believing themselves to be gods and to think that they have no need of roots or foundations other than themselves.
Benedict XVI insisted to the young people that Christ's self-giving on the Cross calls for a generous response and means not turning a blind eye to the pain of others.
He also reminded them that faith does not oppose the highest ideals; on the contrary, it exalts and perfects them. And he asked them not to settle for less than Truth, Love and Christ.
He called on the young people to remain in the love of Christ, because believing means entering into a personal relationship with Jesus and in communion with others.
Finally, Benedict XVI asked young people not to keep Christ to themselves, but to communicate him to others; and to allow themselves to be led by the Lord to volunteer in his service.
A very special youth
Now it is up to the young people, once they have returned to their ordinary life, to respond to these requests of the Pope. During WYD, the great majority of them have given eloquent testimony, at least visibly, of their good disposition. Cardinal Rouco Varela suggested it when he underlined the testimony of kindness, of spirit of service, of coexistence that they had given, something that has been a characteristic of all the WYD. In none of them were there any alterations to the rules of coexistence.
The cardinal emphasized that in Madrid progress had been made on this point, because although the pilgrims suffered provocations this time, "not even for that: at all times they behaved in a Christian spirit, without responding to provocations.".
Commenting on the absence of accidents and the small number of pilgrims who remained hospitalized in Madrid hospitals at the end of WYD (five in total, one with cancer who became ill upon arrival in Madrid), he also acknowledged that it had been noticed "God's special providence for WYD".
Young people, protagonists
For the Cardinal of Madrid and for many others, the most outstanding aspect of WYD was undoubtedly the young pilgrims themselves and the witness of faith and joy they gave from the moment they arrived until they left.
De la Cierva commented that "some public personalities took to the streets, camouflaged with glasses and caps, to see with their own eyes the magnificent and comforting spectacle of this joyful youth that changed the face of Madrid for a few days.". Indeed, it was a sight to behold. This was, indeed, "the Pope's youth", as the young people themselves shouted with amusement; or "the generation of Benedict XVI", as the Archbishop of Madrid described them at the opening Mass of WYD.
In summing up the intense days spent in Madrid, Yago de la Cierva emphasized the "the example of civility and capacity for suffering of the pilgrims and volunteers in the heat". On August 20, the young people had to deal with "on the hottest day of the summer and in the hottest place in the community of Madrid".
However, Juan, a university student and volunteer in one of the chapel tents, was always attentive so that the six or seven priests who spent hours confessing on the sides of the altar could drink water from time to time. One priest asked another priest in surprise where these extraordinarily helpful volunteers, who also encouraged people to come to confession, had been trained.
Despite the heat, they did not lose heart. They even encouraged others. This was the case of two girls from Kazakhstan who, after praying in one of the tents, greeted a priest and a seminarian who were there, quite tired, and after making use of the universal language of smiling, gave them each a "mini-book" with colored beads.
The exemplary behavior of the young people has made it possible to "no incidents were recorded at Cuatro Vientos, a remarkable fact given the enormous number of people who had gathered there". and that the airfield evacuation was carried out with surprising speed and order.
It is not excessive that the Sámur attended to 2,500 young people during WYD, taking into account the hot conditions in which it took place and the extraordinary number of participants. Those responsible for the Sámur had commented in this regard that it was the largest and longest event they had ever had, and that they did not attend any case of ethyl intoxication of any young person at WYD.
A WYD with news
The WYD in Madrid was also the occasion for the Holy Father to communicate his decision to declare St. John of Avila, Patron of the Spanish secular clergy, a Doctor of the Universal Church. Benedict XVI took advantage of the Holy Mass he celebrated for 1,500 seminarians in the Almudena Cathedral to make this announcement.
Also original with respect to other WYD were the meetings that the Pope held in El Escorial with 1,600 young religious and 1,000 young university professors. Cardinal Rouco, referring to these meetings, commented with amusement that, contrary to what it might seem, "university professors were less form-observant than the religious".
A fruitful WYD
Saturday, August 20. It is barely two hours before Benedict XVI joins the 1.5 million young people at the WYD Vigil. A young girl from Salamanca, looking like a schoolgirl, talks to a priest in one of the 17 chapels set up at the Cuatro Vientos airfield. She tells him that in October she will enter a cloistered convent in Huesca.
Anecdotes like this, not uncommon in WYD, lead us to think that the first fruits of these days, translated into vocations, have already begun to be harvested. This is corroborated by the vocational meeting that the Neocatechumenal Way convoked in the Plaza de Cibeles, on the afternoon of August 22. According to the Police, the meeting, already traditional in the WYD, gathered 210,000 people. Kiko Argüello, initiator of the Way, surrounded by almost a hundred cardinals and bishops, had asked for 20,000 vocations needed to evangelize China. He prayed and asked for prayers that God would raise up these vocations. He then encouraged those who felt God's call to stand up and come to the podium. A veritable flood of young people (5,000 boys and 3,200 girls) did so. It was a very moving moment. Of course, these young people will now begin an itinerary of discernment of their vocation.
And now what?
Yago de la Cierva expressed his conviction that WYD will be a great success. "Now is the time to read and reread the beautiful messages that the Pope has left us, to develop the vocational questions that many have asked themselves during these days, to incorporate the practice of confession, which many have approached during these days, into their regular Christian life".
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting, or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The storage or technical access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The storage or technical access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
Technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.Storage or technical access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a request, voluntary compliance by your Internet service provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved solely for this purpose cannot be used to identify you.
Marketing
The storage or technical access is necessary to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
The club of the unsuccessful
