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Catechists: an indispensable service in the Church

The apostolic letter of Pope Francis in the form of a motu proprio "Antiquum ministerium" institutes the ministry of the catechist for the whole Church, a concretization of the lay vocation, based on baptism and in no way a clericalization of the lay faithful.

Ramiro Pellitero-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 5 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsApostolic Letter of Pope Francis Antiquum ministeriumRelated NewsPope institutes the ministry of catechist: "Fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present".

Pope Francis' apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio "Antiquum ministerium" (signed on May 10, 2011, the memorial of St. John of Avila, theologian and qualified catechist) institutes the ministry of the catechist for the whole Church. 

Since the earliest Christian communities, the task of catechists has been decisive for the Church's mission. Although today the word "catechesis" refers primarily to the formation of children and young people, for the Fathers of the Church it meant the formation of all Christians at all ages and in all circumstances of life. 

Now "the Church has wished to recognize this service as a concrete expression of the personal charism that has greatly favored the exercise of her evangelizing mission" (n. 2), taking into account the present circumstances: a renewed awareness of the evangelizing mission of the whole Church (new evangelization), a globalized culture and the need for a renewed methodology and creativity, especially in the formation of the new generations (cf. n. 2), and the need for a new methodology and creativity, especially in the formation of the new generations (cf. n. 3)..5).

Although catechesis has been carried out not only by lay people, but also by religious men and women (for this reason it would perhaps be preferable to describe it as an ecclesial service or task), this ministry of the catechist is conceived here as something typically and predominantly lay. Thus the document states: "Receiving a lay ministry such as that of catechist gives greater emphasis to the missionary commitment proper to each baptized person, which in any case should be carried out in a fully secular way without falling into any expression of clericalization" (n. 7).

The task and mission of the catechists

The ministry of catechists is now being instituted along these lines. It is worth recalling here what Francis pointed out in a letter addressed to Cardinal Ladaria a few months ago, regarding non-ordained ministries: "The commitment of the lay faithful, who 'are simply the vast majority of the People of God' (Francis, Evangelii gaudium102), certainly cannot and should not be exhausted in the exercise of non-ordained ministries".

At the same time, and with explicit reference to catechesis, he maintained that the institution of these ministries can contribute to "initiate a renewed commitment to catechesis and to the celebration of the faith".. It is a matter of "making Christ the heart of the world", as the mission of the Church demands, without closing oneself up in the sterile logics of the "spaces of power". 

Consequently, even now the institution of the "ministry of the catechist" is not intended to change the ecclesial condition of those who exercise it for the most part: they are still lay faithful. Nor should the ministry of the catechist or any other non-ordained ministry be considered as the goal or fullness of the lay vocation. The lay vocation is situated in relation to the sanctification of the temporal realities of ordinary life (cf. n. 6 of the document, with reference to the Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Church and the Church, Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). Lumen gentium, 31).

Having said this, let us return to the beginning. The importance of catechesis in the Church and in the service it renders to Christians, their families and society as a whole. Paul VI considered Vatican II as the great catechesis of modern times (cf. John Paul II, apostolic exhortation Catechesi tradendae, 1979, n. 2). In the conciliar assembly the mission of catechists was underlined: "In our days, the office of catechists is of extraordinary importance because there are not enough clerics to evangelize so many people and to exercise the pastoral ministry" (Ad Gentes, 17).

In the wake of the Council, the Church is now rediscovering the transcendence of the figure of the catechist, which can take the form of a vocation in the Church, supported by the reality of a charism, and within the broad framework of the lay vocation. This highlights the complementarity, within communion and the ecclesial family, between ministries and charisms. 

In fact, for its mission, and especially in some continents, the Church relies daily on the many catechists - millions at present, according to what was said at the official presentation of the document to the press - men and women, in this discreet and self-sacrificing task of hers. This has been the case throughout the history of Christianity. "Even in our days, many capable and steadfast catechists are at the head of communities in various regions and carry out an irreplaceable mission in the transmission and deepening of the faith. The long list of blessed, saints and martyr catechists has marked the mission of the Church, which deserves to be known because it constitutes a fruitful source not only for catechesis, but for the whole history of Christian spirituality" (Antiquum ministerium, 3).

Now the Church wishes to organize them more effectively for their mission (and this is one more reason for the institution of this task) and will establish the corresponding liturgical rite, committing herself to prepare and form them, not only at the beginning of their mission, but throughout their lives, since they too, like all Christians, need ongoing formation. 

Catechetical formation 

The contents of catechesis are ordered to the "transmission of the faith". This, as the document in question points out, is developed in its various stages: "From the first proclamation that introduces the kerygmaThe teaching that makes people aware of their new life in Christ and prepares them in particular for the sacraments of Christian initiation, to the ongoing formation that enables each baptized person to be always ready to 'give an answer to all those who ask them to give a reason for their hope' (1 P 3,15)" (n. 6). "The catechist," he continues, "is at the same time a witness to the faith, a teacher and mystagogue, a companion and pedagogue who teaches in the name of the Church. This identity can only be developed with consistency and responsibility through prayer, study and direct participation in the life of the community" (Ibid., cf. Directory for catechesis, n. 113). 

Not every catechist is to be instituted through this ministry, but only those who meet the conditions for being called to it by the bishop. It is a matter of a "stable" service in the local Church, which will have to conform to the itineraries established by the episcopal conferences.

In this way the conditions for future catechists are specified: "It is desirable that men and women of deep faith and human maturity be called to the instituted ministry of catechist, who participate actively in the life of the Christian community, who can be welcoming, generous and live in fraternal communion, who have received the necessary biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be attentive communicators of the truth of the faith, and who have already acquired a previous experience of catechesis" (n. 8).

For all this, the catechist needs a specific formation, the catechetical or theological-pedagogical formation.

As our times have shown, this catechetical formation is necessary, in various ways, in the Church as a whole. Not only for catechists, but for all the Catholic faithful, whatever their condition and vocation, their ministry and charism. It is a specific formation, within the theological-pastoral formation. A theology in pedagogical format, we could say, which requires a certain knowledge of the human sciences (anthropology, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, etc.), seen and evaluated in the light of faith. 

This also applies to the teaching of religion in schools. Although this task is not "catechesis" in the modern sense of the word, every Christian educator needs to situate himself in this broad catechetical perspective, which today falls within the framework of Christian anthropology. 

The renewal of catechesis, the document reminds us, has been accompanied by important reference documents, such as the exhortation Catechesi tradendae (1979), the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997) and the Directory for catechesis (third edition of March 2020). All this is "an expression of the central value of catechetical work, which places the instruction and ongoing formation of believers in the foreground" (Antiquum ministerium,4).

The ministry of the catechist, in short, is conceived as a concretization of the vocation baptism, and in no way as a layman, based on baptism and in no way as a clericalization of the lay faithful. It is an ecclesial service that comes to consolidate a task long exercised and examined as such. And which requires, especially in our time, a training qualified.

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RelatedRelated NewsApostolic Letter of Pope Francis Antiquum ministeriumRelated NewsPope institutes the ministry of catechist: "Fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present".
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"The Church has an answer for the real problems that are on the street."

The Spanish Episcopal Conference has presented the annual report of activities of the Catholic Church, with data corresponding to the year 2019.

Maria José Atienza-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

Luis Argüello, Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, and Ester Martín, Director of the CEE Transparency Office, were in charge of presenting this report on the Church's activities. A presentation that constitutes, in the words of Bishop Argüello, an exercise of "duty and gratitude" to society and to those who make possible the work of the Church in all the fields included in this Report.

"Faces give meaning to the numbers."

Luis Argüello, auxiliary bishop of Valladolid and Secretary General of the EEC, emphasized the effort that the Report on Church Activities makes to "put faces" to the data collected, with the aim of emphasizing the millions of people who make possible and benefit from this activity of the Church, whether sacramental, pastoral, charitable or welfare.

The Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference wanted to emphasize that the pandemic makes us see these data with a "characteristic color. The work of the Church in so many people and fields of society is more valued".

Ester Martín, director of the Transparency Office of the EEC, explained one of the main novelties included in this year's Report, which is that, when requesting data from the 69 Spanish dioceses and the diocese of Castile and León, "the declaration of corporate taxes has been requested" and she highlighted the progress that is being made throughout the Spanish Church in terms of transparency and auditing of accounts.

Martín emphasized the continuous improvement of this summary of ecclesiastical activity, which this year includes more than 100,000 pieces of information that require a considerable effort of analysis and processing.

"In education alone, the savings from Catholic schools to the State is ten times the amount received through the "x" of the Renta."

Ester MartinDirector of the Transparency Office of the EEC.

The director of the Transparency Office emphasized that what these data show us is how "the Church is present in the problems and needs of our society: the loneliness of the elderly, help for couples with problems, care for women victims of violence, minors or unemployed people... The Church has an answer to these real problems that are on the street.

Martín also highlighted the work of economic efficiency carried out in the Spanish Church, especially in recent years: "In education alone," he said, "the savings made by Catholic schools to the State are ten times greater than the amount received through the "x" of the Renta (Income Tax).

Ester Martín also wanted to point out some of the fields in which the work of the Church has made a greater effort in 2019, among which are the assistance to immigrants, the centers for the protection of women, or the centers for poverty alleviation and labor promotion.

In fact, the data show that, in the last 9 years, the Church's welfare centers have increased by 71.69% and how, in the last known fiscal year, that of 2019 the expenditure allocated in the Spanish dioceses to welfare work increased by 9 million euros.

4 million people assisted with health care

Not surprisingly, the Report includes truly significant figures, taking into account that they predate the Covid19 pandemic. In the section on beneficiaries of social centers and assistance from the Church in Spain, more than 4 million people were served in 2019. These include, for example, the centers for poverty alleviation, legal advice, defense of life or promotion of women, to which the director of the Transparency Office referred at the press conference.

One of the curious data included in the Report is the 9 million people who regularly attend Mass, although the percentage of reception of sacraments such as Marriage or Baptism continues to fall in our country.

The Renta data

The economic part of this Report is linked to the 2019 economic activity and includes the tax allocation data recorded in favor of the Church in the 2020 Income Tax Return.

DATO

301.208.649€

Received by the Catholic Church in Spain through the 2019 tax allocation.

With regard to the 2019 income, taxpayers allocated 301,208,649 euros to the Church, which represents an increase of 16,092,852 euros in relation to what they allocated in 2018. Of this amount, 70%, some 206 million euros, was distributed among the various Spanish dioceses for their support.

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Bishop Joseba Segura is the new bishop of Bilbao

The hitherto auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Biscay has served as diocesan administrator since the inauguration of Bishop Iceta as Archbishop of Burgos last December.

Maria José Atienza-May 11, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute

At noon today, the appointment of the new Msgr. Joseba Segura Etxezarraga as bishop of Bilbao. Segura is currently auxiliary bishop and diocesan administrator of this same diocese, which was vacant after the transfer of Bishop Mario Iceta to Burgos, the see of which he took possession on December 5, 2020.

In his first greeting to the Diocese as titular bishop, Bishop Segura expressed the hope that this appointment will be good news "for this community of faith to which I have always belonged and which now receives me as bishop". The Bishop of Bilbao also referred to the current situation of our society that poses "increasingly demanding challenges" to the Church.

Auxiliary Bishop of Bilbao from 2019

Bishop Joseba Segura, 63, was born in Bilbao on May 10, 1958. He entered the seminary of Bilbao at the age of 17. He was ordained a priest on January 4, 1985. He has a degree in Psychology (1983) and a doctorate in Theology (1989) from the University of Deusto. Between 1992 and 1996 he completed a Master's degree in Economics at Boston College in the United States.

He carried out his priestly ministry in the diocese of Bilbao, although between 2006 and 2017 he was in Ecuador, working pastorally in Quito and as a member of the national Caritas of Ecuador. 

On February 12, 2019, his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Bilbao was made public and on April 6 of the same year he was ordained bishop. Since December 6, 2020 he is also diocesan administrator.

In the Spanish Episcopal Conference, he is a member of the Economic Council since March 2020. It also belongs to the Episcopal Commission for Missions and Cooperation with the Churches from November 2019

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Pope institutes the ministry of catechist: "Fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present".

Pope Francis institutes through the new "motu proprio" Antiquum ministerium the lay ministry of catechist. A ministry that "has a strong vocational value" and "requires due discernment on the part of the Bishop and is evidenced by the Rite of Institution.

Giovanni Tridente-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 4 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsApostolic Letter of Pope Francis Antiquum ministerium

A new piece is added to the general spirit of awakening in the Church "the personal enthusiasm of each baptized person". After the "motu proprio" with which Pope Francis opened the possibility of access to the ministries of lector and acolyte to women by virtue of their baptism just four months ago - modifying canon 230 of the Code of Canon Law with the letter Spiritus Domini from January 10, 2021-today institutes the "lay ministry of catechist" with Apostolic Letter Antiquum ministerium.

As can be seen from the title itself, this has been recognized in the Church since the earliest times. A path that today reaches its maturity given the urgency "for the renewed awareness of evangelization in the contemporary world," which the Holy Father had already opportunely highlighted in his "programmatic document" Evangelii gaudium in 2013.

Involving the laity

Reading the new "motu proprio" one can glimpse an array of reasons that led to the Pontiff's decision, which evidently find a solid basis for discussion and motivation in the Second Vatican Council, which in many documents had called for the direct participation of the laity "according to the various forms in which their charism can be expressed".

Obviously, it was up to Paul VI to begin to sediment this awareness in the Church of the last half century, as Pope Francis explains in his document, knowing full well that all this involvement of the laity is aimed at imprinting "greater emphasis on the missionary commitment proper to each baptized person, which in any case must be carried out in a fully secular manner without falling into any expression of clericalization" (Antiquum ministerium, 7).

Strong vocational value

Today Pope Francis imparts to this historic ministry, although never formalized until now through a Rite of Institution - to be published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments - a "strong vocational value", leaving to the Bishops the due discernment on to whom to assign this service which, in which case, becomes stable.

There is a passage in the Apostolic Letter that suggests that in the background of this decision could have been - perhaps even a little unconsciously - the recent experience of the Synod on Amazonia, in particular when it highlights, in n. 3, that multitude of men and women who "animated by a great faith and authentic witnesses of holiness" over the years have founded Churches, "and went so far as to give their lives", or who still in our days "are at the head of communities in various regions", carrying out "an irreplaceable mission in the transmission and deepening of the faith".

One can also better understand, in this way, the approach with which Pope Francis decided to come to this institution: "fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present" (n. 5), with the sole intention of reviving the mission of the Church in the world, being able to count on credible witnesses, active and available in the life of the community and adequately formed.

Custodian of the memory of God

Already a few months after taking office Pope Francis had offered a portrait of the catechist, at the Mass celebrated on the occasion of the Day of Catechists in the Year of Faith (September 29, 2013): the catechist "is the one who guards and nourishes the memory of God; he guards it in himself and knows how to awaken it in others".

An attitude that "engages the whole of life", that can only work through a vital relationship with God and neighbor: "if he is a man of charity, of love, who sees everyone as brothers and sisters; if he is a man of "hypomone"He is a man of patience, perseverance, who knows how to face difficulties, trials and failures, with serenity and hope in the Lord; if he is a kind man, capable of understanding and mercy".

Sowers of hope and joy

At the Jubilee of Catechists, in the Extraordinary Year of Mercy, on September 25, 2016, the Pope had spoken of sowers of hope and joy, with broad vision, learning to look beyond the problems, always in closeness with our neighbor: "faced with the many Lazaruses we see, we are called to be restless, to seek ways to find and help, without always delegating to others."

The importance of the first announcement

In 2018, in a video message addressed to participants at the International Conference of Catechists promoted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, the Pontiff stressed the importance of the "first announcement" made today by a catechist in a "context of religious indifference," which even if unconsciously can come "to touch the hearts and minds of many people who are waiting to encounter Christ."

This means that catechesis should not be understood as a lesson, but as "the communication of an experience and the witness of a faith that enkindles hearts" because it finds its sap in the liturgy and the sacraments.

Church Vanguard

The last time the Pope referred to catechists was on January 30, during an audience in the Clementine Hall for participants in a meeting organized by the National Catechetical Office of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Here he spoke of catechesis as "the vanguard of the Church", which carries out "the task of reading the signs of the times and of welcoming the present and future challenges", learning to listen to the questions, frailties and uncertainties of the people, always in a communitarian dimension.

And the fact that today the ministry of catechist has become something stable and formally instituted, with the accompaniment of pastors and through a formative process, goes precisely in the direction of rekindling apostolic enthusiasm in small and large communities.

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Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis Antiquum ministerium

Pope Francis has instituted by means of this letter the lay ministry of catechist. A ministry that "has a strong vocational value" and "requires due discernment by the Bishop and is evidenced by the Rite of Institution.

David Fernández Alonso-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 9 minutes

APOSTOLIC LETTER
IN THE FORM OF A "MOTU PROPRIO" OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF FRANCISCO 

Antiquum ministerium

INSTITUTING THE MINISTRY OF CATECHIST

1. The ministry of Catechist in the Church is very ancient. It is a common opinion among theologians that the first examples are to be found in the writings of the New Testament. The service of teaching finds its first germinal form in the "teachers", to whom the Apostle refers when writing to the Corinthian community: "God has appointed everyone in the Church in this way: first of all there are the apostles, secondly the prophets, and thirdly the teachers; then come those who have the power to work miracles, then the charisms of healing sickness, of assisting the needy, of government and of speaking a mysterious language. Are they all apostles? or all prophets? or all teachers? Or are they all prophets, or are they all teachers, or can they all work miracles, or do they all have the charism of healing illnesses, or do they all speak a mysterious language, or do they all interpret these languages? Prefer the more valuable charisms. Moreover, I want to show you an exceptional charism" (1 Co 12,28-31).

At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke himself affirms: "I too, illustrious Theophilus, have carefully investigated everything from its origins and it seemed good to me to write you this orderly account, so that you may know the solidity of the teachings in which you were instructed" (1:3-4). The evangelist seems to be well aware that with his writings he is providing a specific form of teaching that allows him to give solidity and strength to those who have already received Baptism. The apostle Paul returns to this theme when he recommends to the Galatians: "Let him who is instructed in the Word share all good things with his catechist" (6:6). The text, as can be seen, adds a fundamental peculiarity: the communion of life as a characteristic of the fruitfulness of the true catechesis received.

2. From its origins, the Christian community has experienced a broad form of ministry that has taken the form of the service of men and women who, obedient to the action of the Holy Spirit, have dedicated their lives to the building up of the Church. The charisms, which the Spirit has never ceased to infuse in the baptized, found at certain times a visible and tangible form of direct service to the Christian community in multiple expressions, to the point of being recognized as an indispensable diaconia for the community. The apostle Paul is an authoritative interpreter of this when he testifies: "There are different charisms, but the same Spirit. There are different services, but the Lord is the same. There are diverse functions, but it is the same God who works all in all. To each one, God grants the manifestation of the Spirit for the benefit of all. To one, through the Spirit, God grants to speak with wisdom, and to another, according to the same Spirit, to speak with intelligence. To one, God grants, by the same Spirit, faith, and to another, by the same Spirit, the charism of healing diseases. And to others to work miracles, or prophecy, or the discernment of spirits, or to speak a mysterious language, or to interpret those languages. All this is done by the one and only Spirit, who distributes to each one his gifts as he wills" (1 Co 12,4-11).

Therefore, within the great charismatic tradition of the New Testament, it is possible to recognize the active presence of the baptized who exercised the ministry of transmitting the teaching of the apostles and evangelists in a more organic and permanent way, linked to the different circumstances of life (cf. ECUM. VAT. II, Dogmatic Const. Dei Verbum, 8). The Church has sought to recognize this service as a concrete expression of a personal charism that has greatly favored the exercise of her evangelizing mission. A glance at the life of the first Christian communities that were committed to the spread and development of the Gospel also today urges the Church to understand what new expressions can be used to continue to be faithful to the Word of the Lord in order to bring his Gospel to every creature.

The entire history of evangelization over the past two millennia shows how effective the mission of catechists has been. Bishops, priests and deacons, together with so many consecrated men and women, dedicated their lives to catechetical teaching so that the faith could be a valid support for the personal existence of every human being. Some, moreover, gathered around themselves other brothers and sisters who, sharing the same charism, constituted religious Orders dedicated entirely to the service of catechesis.

We cannot forget the countless lay men and women who participated directly in spreading the Gospel through catechetical teaching. Men and women animated by a great faith and authentic witnesses of holiness who, in some cases, were also founders of Churches and went so far as to give their lives. Even today, many capable and steadfast catechists are at the head of communities in various regions and carry out an irreplaceable mission in the transmission and deepening of the faith. The long list of blessed, saints and martyr catechists has marked the mission of the Church, which deserves to be known because it constitutes a fruitful source not only for catechesis, but for the whole history of Christian spirituality.

4. Since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the Church has perceived with renewed awareness the importance of the commitment of the laity in the work of evangelization. The Council Fathers have repeatedly stressed how necessary is the direct involvement of the lay faithful, according to the various forms in which their charism can be expressed, for the "evangelization of the world".plantatio Ecclesiae"and the development of the Christian community. "Worthy of praise is also that most worthy legion of the work of the missions among the Gentiles, that is, the catechists, men and women, who, full of apostolic spirit, give with great sacrifices a singular and entirely necessary help for the propagation of the faith and of the Church. In our day, the office of catechists is of extraordinary importance because there are so few clerics to evangelize so many people and to exercise the pastoral ministry" (CONC. ECUM. VAT. II, Decr. Ad gentes, 17).

In addition to the rich conciliar teaching, it is necessary to refer to the constant interest of the Supreme Pontiffs, the Synod of Bishops, the Episcopal Conferences and the various Pastors who, in the course of these decades, have promoted a notable renewal of catechesis. The Catechism of the Catholic Churchthe Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi tradendaethe General Catechetical Directorythe General Directory for Catechesisthe recent Directory for Catechesisas well as many Catechisms The national, regional and diocesan catechetical programs are an expression of the central value of catechetical work, which places the instruction and ongoing formation of believers at the forefront.

5. Without detracting in any way from the proper mission of the Bishop, who is the first catechist in his diocese together with the presbyterate, with whom he shares the same pastoral care, and from the particular responsibility of parents with regard to the Christian formation of their children (cf. CIC c. 774 §2; CCEO c. 618), it is necessary to recognize the presence of lay men and women who, by virtue of their baptism, feel called to collaborate in the service of catechesis (cf. CIC c. 225; CCEO cc. 401. 406). In our own day, this presence is even more urgent because of the renewed awareness of evangelization in the contemporary world (cf. Evangelii gaudium163-168), and to the imposition of a globalized culture (cf. Encyclical Letter, p. 4). Fratelli tutti100. 138), which calls for an authentic encounter with the younger generations, without forgetting the need for creative methodologies and instruments that make the proclamation of the Gospel coherent with the missionary transformation that the Church has undertaken. Fidelity to the past and responsibility for the present are the indispensable conditions for the Church to carry out her mission in the world.

Awakening the personal enthusiasm of each baptized person and rekindling the awareness of being called to carry out one's own mission in the community requires listening to the voice of the Spirit who never ceases to be present in a fruitful way (cf. CIC c. 774 §1; CCEO c. 617). Today too, the Spirit calls men and women to go out to meet all those who hope to know the beauty, goodness and truth of the Christian faith. It is the task of Pastors to support this journey and to enrich the life of the Christian community with the recognition of lay ministries capable of contributing to the transformation of society through "the penetration of Christian values into the social, political and economic world" (Evangelii gaudium, 102).

6. The lay apostolate possesses an indisputable secular value, which calls for "seeking to obtain the kingdom of God by managing temporal affairs and ordering them according to God" (CONC. ECUM. VAT. II, Dogmatic Const. Lumen gentium, 31). Their daily life is intertwined with family and social ties and relationships that make it possible to verify to what extent "they are especially called to make the Church present and active in those places and circumstances where it can only become salt of the earth through them" (Lumen gentium, 33). However, it is good to remember that in addition to this apostolate "the laity can also be called in various ways to a more immediate collaboration with the apostolate of the Hierarchy, just like those men and women who helped the apostle Paul in evangelization, working hard for the Lord" (Lumen gentium, 33).

The particular role of the catechist, however, is to be specified in the context of other services in the Christian community. Catechists, in fact, are called in the first place to show their competence in the pastoral service of transmitting the faith, which is carried out in its various stages: from the first proclamation that introduces the kerygmaThe teaching that makes people aware of their new life in Christ and prepares them in particular for the sacraments of Christian initiation, to the ongoing formation that enables each baptized person to be always ready "to give an answer to all who ask them to give a reason for their hope" (1 P 3,15). Catechists are at the same time witnesses to the faith, teachers and mystagogues, companions and pedagogues who teach in the name of the Church. This identity can only be developed with consistency and responsibility through prayer, study and direct participation in the life of the community (cf. PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION, Directory for Catechesis, 113).

7. With foresight, St. Paul VI promulgated the Apostolic Letter Ministeria quaedam with the intention not only of adapting the ministries of Lector and Acolyte to the new historic moment (cf. Spiritus Domini), but also to urge the Episcopal Conferences to be promoters of other ministries, including that of Catechist: "In addition to the ministries common to the whole Latin Church, nothing prevents the Episcopal Conferences from asking the Apostolic See to institute others which for particular reasons they consider necessary or very useful in their own region. Among these are, for example, the office of Ostiarioof Exorcist and of Catechist". The same urgent invitation reappeared in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi when, asking to know how to read the current needs of the Christian community in faithful continuity with the origins, he exhorted to find new ministerial forms for a renewed pastoral care: "Such ministries, new in appearance but closely linked to experiences lived by the Church throughout her existence - for example, that of catechist [...] - are precious for the establishment, life and growth of the Church and for her capacity to radiate around her and towards those who are far away" (SAINT PAUL VI, Exhort. appendix II, p. 4). Evangelii nuntiandi, 73).

It cannot be denied, therefore, that "awareness of the identity and mission of the laity in the Church has grown. There is a large number of laity, although not enough, with a deep-rooted sense of community and great fidelity in the commitment to charity, catechesis and the celebration of the faith.Evangelii gaudium, 102). It follows that receiving a lay ministry such as that of Catechist gives greater emphasis to the missionary commitment proper to each baptized person, which in any case should be carried out in a fully secular manner without falling into any expression of clericalization.

8. This ministry possesses a strong vocational value that requires due discernment on the part of the Bishop and is evidenced by the Rite of Institution. In fact, this is a stable service rendered to the local Church according to the pastoral needs identified by the local Ordinary, but carried out in a lay manner as required by the very nature of the ministry. It is desirable that men and women of deep faith and human maturity be called to the instituted ministry of Catechist, who are actively involved in the life of the Christian community, who can be welcoming, generous and live in fraternal communion, who have received the proper biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be attentive communicators of the truth of the faith, and who have already acquired a previous experience of catechesis (cf. CONC. ECUM. VAT. II, Decr. Christus Dominus14; CIC c. 231 §1; CCEO c. 409 §1). They are required to be faithful collaborators of priests and deacons, ready to exercise ministry wherever necessary, and animated by true apostolic enthusiasm.

Consequently, after having weighed each aspect, by virtue of apostolic authority

institute
the lay ministry of Catechist

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments will soon publish the Rite of Institution of the Lay Ministry of Catechist.

9. I therefore invite the Bishops' Conferences to make the ministry of catechist effective by establishing the necessary itinerary The members of the Institute will be able to identify the most coherent forms of formation and the normative criteria for accessing it, finding the most coherent forms for the service that they will be called to carry out in conformity with what is expressed in this Apostolic Letter.

10. The Synods of the Oriental Churches or the Assemblies of the Hierarchs may adopt what is established herein for their respective Churches. sui iurisbased on its own particular law.

11. Pastors should not fail to make their own the exhortation of the Council Fathers when they recalled: "They know that they have not been instituted by Christ to assume alone the whole salvific mission of the Church in the world, but that their eminent function consists in shepherding the faithful and recognizing their services and charisms in such a way that all, in their own way, cooperate unanimously in the common work" (Lumen gentium, 30). May the discernment of the gifts that the Holy Spirit never ceases to bestow on his Church be for them the necessary support to make the ministry of Catechist effective for the growth of their own community.

That which has been established with this Apostolic Letter in the form of a "Motu Proprio", I order that it be firmly and stably in force, notwithstanding any contrary disposition, even if worthy of particular mention, and that it be promulgated through its publication in L'Osservatore RomanoThe following day, and subsequently to be published in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on the 10th day of May in the year 2021, the liturgical memorial of Saint John of Avila, priest and doctor of the Church, ninth of my pontificate.

FRANCISCO

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  • "To limit the exercise of journalism is to limit the exercise of freedom."
Spain

"To limit the exercise of journalism is to limit the exercise of freedom."

The bishops wanted to remember reporters who "have given their lives" in fulfilling their mission, noting that "they gave their lives for our freedom" in their message on the occasion of World Communications Day.

Maria José Atienza-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 5 minutes

The Spanish bishops, members of the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications, have made public their message on the occasion of the World Communications Day to be celebrated in our country on May 16.

In their message, the prelates expressed their gratitude for the service of communicators "essential for the development of individuals and free societies".

A message in which he did not want to forget the service of communication professionals who died while performing this service, in memory of journalists David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile, killed a few days ago in the exercise of their profession.

Communication for human dignity

In the message, the bishops stressed the need to "renew the effort to know the reality first hand", in this sense, they wanted to emphasize how "in communication, nothing can completely replace the fact of seeing in person. Therefore, it is necessary to make visible the news with a face, especially those that put in value the dignity of the person, as gestures of solidarity that we have known in the midst of the harshness of this health crisis".

The danger of "political finger-pointing

Recent events, such as the accusations against journalists by some political personalities in Spain, have not gone unnoticed in this Message. In fact, the bishops point out two dangers for freedom of information and access to the true reality of citizens: on the one hand, the "false news that is spread especially in social networks, has wanted to be countered with a proclamation of official truths from public institutions" and, related to this "constructed truth" the "pointing out from political positions of journalists and media, or the prohibition for news coverage of political acts". In this line, in their message, the bishops recall that "to limit the exercise of journalism or to point it out is to limit and point out the exercise of freedom".

Finally, the prelates did not want to forget the difficulties faced by communication professionals because of the "frenetic pace of current events and the poor quality of some sources of information. A danger against which they urge to "verify sources, verify information, correct errors, rectify information". The bishops also wanted to encourage all communicators in these difficult times to carry out their indispensable work. At the same time, we invite news companies to put access to the truth above other legitimate interests, since their first and great responsibility is to the truth and to society.

Full text of the Message

The effort to find and tell the truth

World Communications Day, which we celebrate each year on the Lord's Ascension Day, is a good time to look at the world of communications from the perspective of the times in which we live. We look at this service with deep gratitude. Communication is essential for the development of individuals and free societies. As the Gospel points out, we believe that without truth there can be no freedom (cf. Jn 8:32), and without freedom there can be no dignified coexistence. Communication helps us to know the reality and the environment in which we live, to form criteria on social and cultural currents, to develop the playful and solidary dimensions of the person. All this is necessary for the vital development of a people.

Many people work to make this service possible. Communicators, reporters, broadcasters, technicians, journalists, and so many other communication professionals give a good part of their time with professionalism and rigor to serve society. Sometimes this service has its origin in a personal vocation, a call received to contribute to the common good. At times, we see with sadness that the pursuit of personal interests unrelated to the common good has attacked this freedom with verbal or even physical violence. Some journalists, also recently, have given their lives in fulfilling their mission. Our recognition, gratitude and prayers go out to them now. They gave their lives for our freedom.

In his message for World Communications Day, which was made public on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Pope Francis encourages journalists to renew their commitment and enthusiasm for this profession. With the motto "Come and sees" (Jn 1:46). Communicate by meeting people where they are and as they are, the Pope encourages us to "get going, go and see, be with people, listen to them, pick up the suggestions of reality, which will always surprise us in every aspect".

Precisely at this time, in the midst of the difficulties that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to all of us, it is necessary for journalists to renew their efforts to know the reality first hand. We ask not to fall into the temptation of a journalism of editorial office, desk and computer, a journalism without going out into the street, without the personal encounter with the news and its protagonists. In communication, nothing can completely replace the fact of seeing in person. For this reason, it is necessary to make visible the news with a face, especially those that value the dignity of the person, as gestures of solidarity that we have known in the midst of the harshness of this health crisis. Some values can only be learned from the testimony of those who live them narrated by communication.

We are aware that this service to society is beset by multiple dangers. The chaos caused by the false news that spreads especially in social networks, has wanted to be countered with a proclamation of official truths from public institutions. In reality, this idea increases the risks against truth and offers a scenario quite close to the one described in some disturbingly topical dystopian novels. No lesser risk to freedom is posed by the political targeting of journalists and the media, or the prohibition of news coverage of political events. To limit the exercise of journalism or to point it out is to limit and point out the exercise of freedom.

Another risk of the profession is the frenetic pace of current affairs and the poor quality of some sources of information, which can undermine the essential principles of the profession. However, even in these difficult times, it is necessary, perhaps more than ever, to verify sources, verify information, correct errors and rectify information.

It can be stated with conviction that truth implies a great effort to find it and a greater effort to offer it. But, as Pope Francis says, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the work of the journalist is "useful and valuable only if it pushes us to go and see the reality that we would not otherwise know, if it networks knowledge that would not otherwise circulate, if it allows encounters that would not otherwise take place". Communication professionals must be, with their work, generators of spaces of encounter with the truth of people and events.

For all these reasons, we, the bishops who are members of this Commission for Social Communications, wish to encourage all communicators in these difficult times for the exercise of an indispensable work. At the same time, we invite news companies to place access to the truth above other legitimate interests, since their first and great responsibility is to the truth and to society. Finally, all of us who benefit from this work are also co-responsible with the truth, especially in the environment of social networks and in the dissemination of true news that help to improve our society.

May the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, whom we know as Truth, help all professionals in the exercise of a worthy and honest mission for the good of society.

José Manuel Lorca, Bishop of Cartagena and President of CECS

Bishop Salvador Giménez, Bishop of Lleida

Bishop José Ignacio Munilla, Bishop of San Sebastián

Bishop Sebastià Taltavull, Bishop of Mallorca

Bishop Antonio Gómez Cantero, Coadjutor Bishop of Almería

Bishop Francisco José Prieto, auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Compostela

Msgr. Joan Piris, Bishop Emeritus of Lleida

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  • Education, a right of children, of parents... of society
ColumnistsJavier Segura

Education, a right of children, of parents... of society

We must not forget that it is society that must mobilize to defend its rights: in the streets, in the bars and at the ballot box.

May 11, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

The last elections in the Community of Madrid have stirred the political waters of our country. And, of course, the most varied analyses have immediately emerged to explain what happened. I would like to add some key points regarding education, which, in my opinion, has had a lot to do with it.

On the very night of the electoral victory, in the midst of the euphoria, President Ayuso did not forget to remind the parents of special education and, in general, to remember the freedom of families to choose the center they want for their children. And these days we have been able to read in the press as 'Isabel Díaz Ayuso will turn Madrid into the epicenter of the rebellion against the Celaá Law' and similar news.

In the days of the campaign when I was reading the slogan 'Freedom' could not but remind me of the cry of citizens in the two large demonstrations organized by the platform 'More Plural' precisely in the face of the imminent approval of the Celaá Law at the hardest moment of the pandemic. And the coincidence was no coincidence.

Some say that Díaz Ayuso has a nose for what is moving in the street and is attuned to it. Undoubtedly this action proves it. Because the campaign against the Celaá law was not launched by the political parties, but it was the civil society -families, unions, teachers, employers...- which moved against an interventionist law that curtailed the basic freedoms of families in the choice of center and the type of education they want for their children. It was only in a second moment, seeing the boom that this campaign was taking and how it was soaked in the citizenship, that all the political parties of the opposition joined en bloc to the orange tide against the Celaá Law.

celaa events

They joined in so much that they even took as their own the cry of 'freedom', which more than a cry became a clamor. The minister, with a certain contempt, said at the time that it would be necessary to see how many families were mobilized in those demonstrations. There were many, no doubt. And the government itself acknowledged sotto voce that it was the first time in the legislature that something had made a dent in them.

And yet, undoubtedly, the government miscalculated the consequences of that action. It believed that once the demonstrations had passed and the new education law had been approved, these voices would be silenced. Nobody can be in the streets all day long, they thought. But people do not forget, and in the first occasion they have had to raise their voice, this time through their vote, they have once again said that they want the right of parents to choose the education of their children to be respected, whether it is a concerted center, special education, Religion class, differentiated education, in Spanish...

It is likely that the government will not mend its ways. And with that, it will move even further away from what people care about. Because when it comes down to it, we vote to a large extent thinking about our children, about our work, about the realities closest to us. And education is, as we have seen, one of the basic concerns of families.

That is why we must not forget that it is society that must mobilize to defend its rights. And if it does so, there will always be politicians who sooner or later will know how to listen to them. That is the road we have traveled and that is the path we must continue on.

To promote a lively and mobilized society that defends the freedom of parents to choose their children's education in freedom. To defend it in the streets, in personal conversations with acquaintances, in bars and bakeries, in television programs... and even at the ballot box, if necessary.

The authorJavier Segura

Teaching Delegate in the Diocese of Getafe since the 2010-2011 academic year, he has previously exercised this service in the Archbishopric of Pamplona and Tudela, for seven years (2003-2009). He currently combines this work with his dedication to youth ministry directing the Public Association of the Faithful 'Milicia de Santa Maria' and the educational association 'VEN Y VERÁS. EDUCATION', of which he is President.

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Uruguay: progressive secularism

The author reflects on the concept of secularism based on an episode that took place decades ago in the Legislative Palace of Montevideo, where all the senators had to make a statement and express their opinion on a cross. A debate that is not distant, but that today is indisputably topical. 

Jaime Fuentes-May 11, 2021-Reading time: 6 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsUruguay: surviving in a secular country

On Thursday, May 14, 1987, no senator was absent from the Chamber's meeting at the Legislative Palace in Montevideo. The respective political parties had left their representatives free, so that each one could vote in conscience on this really crucial issue: to approve or not the law, so that the cross that, a little more than a month before, had presided the Mass of Pope John Paul II in the Uruguayan capital, would remain in its place.

The session had a high level of interventions: 21 of the 31 members of the senate spoke. Some confessed to being baptized, but not practicing; others, agnostics; others, seekers of the truth without having found it... In short, they all had to manifest themselves in front of the Cross. It was a historic debate, as several senators described it, surprised themselves to be debating such an unusual topic.

What is the secularity of the State?

The intervention of Senator Jorge Batlle aroused particular interest, for two reasons: first, because if times had certainly changed, his last name immediately evoked the anti-Church rage of his great uncle, José Batlle y Ordóñez; but his words were especially interesting, because it was already known that, as far as secularism and laicism were concerned, Jorge Batlle thought "differently".

The starting point of his extensive speech was, as other senators had already stated, to respond negatively to this key question: Article 5 of the Constitution states: ".All religious cults are free in Uruguay. The State does not support any religion".. Would approving the permanence of the Pope's Cross be a violation of this constitutional provision? 

Based on this principle, Batlle recalled, first of all, that "If there is something that exists with strength and validity in Uruguayan society, it is an authentic and essentially secular feeling, insofar as secularism means, among other of its many meanings, the respect of all for the thoughts of others and the freedom to decide without being subject to any dogma or belief that forces us to think in a certain way or to act according to them." 

The problem is that, as time goes by, "that sentiment of secularism, which prevails in national life, has been transferred or transformed into an attitude which, extended to all forms of activity, I do not believe is good or good for any society. Secularism consists, for some, in limiting their way of thinking, in not exhibiting their way of feeling or believing". He then does not hesitate to highlight the consequences of this attitude: "In fact, over time the philosophies that have prevailed and the sciences and technologies that have accompanied them havehave transformed secularism into a profound skepticism and therefore secularism has become an instrument of character, let us say, denying the spiritual force, the reason or the spiritual root of each one of us".

No to inhibition

I highlight these words because, in my opinion, they reflect a very common attitude among Uruguayan Catholics. If we ask ourselves why they have reached this inhibition, this not exhibiting their own way of thinking or believing, in my opinion we would have to answer that there were many years of state secularism during which, under the pretext of "neutrality" towards religion, Catholics were unjustly treated and discriminated against.

In turn, the vast majority, educated in state schools, where, as we have already seen, religion cannot be discussed, thus coercing the natural expression of their faith under the pretext of "secularism", the "average Uruguayan" does not know how to answer the basic questions of the person: where do I come from, where am I going, does God exist, what is the meaning of life, in a word, he is skeptical... In a word, he is skeptical.

From another point of view, Batlle insisted in his proposal: "I consider that it has been good for the Catholic Church, and for all of them, that the State does not profess any religion. It seems to me that this is the best and the healthiest thing for the Catholic Church as for all the others, but I also understand that it is not good that whoever has a feeling, does not express it. Therefore, I believe that secularism must have, in this sense, a meaning of respect, but not of denial, an attitude with which and from which the way of thinking is expressed".

These and other arguments were heard that historic day in the Senate Chamber of the Legislative Palace. Jorge Batlle also confessed in his dissertation: "Neither my siblings nor I were baptized; neither did my parents go to church. Neither my sister nor I were married in church. But I recognize that a Christian sentiment prevails in the life of the country and if any symbol of spirituality can represent us, not to confront us but to claim through this and other ways that these issues return to have a presence in the life of the people, perhaps this is the most appropriate"....

When the time came to vote, the bill received 19 votes in 31, in favor of leaving the Cross as a permanent reminder of the visit of the first Pope to Uruguay.

Progressive secularism

Jorge Batlle had to try five times to be elected president. He finally succeeded and began his government on March 1, 2000. Two years later he had to face a very serious economic crisis which, in the following elections, was the main factor in the defeat of the Colorado Party and the rise to power of the Frente Amplio, a conglomerate of leftist parties that, under the common denominator of "progressivism", embraces diverse ideologies: communism, Marxism, socialism... From 2005 to 2020, during three electoral periods, the Frente Amplio has governed Uruguay. 

Times have undoubtedly changed a lot; state secularism is no longer the same as the one the country knew at the dawn of the twentieth century, but the secularity of the state and its practical interpretation is, to this day, the subject of much discussion. In fact, secularism is the civic religion that unites Uruguayans.

Tabaré Vázquez, a Freemason, was the first president of the Frente Amplio. On July 14, 2005, just four months after beginning his mandate, he visited the Grand Lodge of Freemasonry of Uruguay and gave a lecture, precisely, on secularism. He stated that she "is a framework of relationship in which citizens can understand each other from diversity but in equality. Secularism is a guarantee of respect for others and of citizenship in plurality. Or to put it another way: secularism is a factor of democracy". And further on: "Laicism does not inhibit the religious factor. How can it inhibit it if, after all, it does not inhibit the religious factor? the religious fact is the consequence of the exercise of rights enshrined in so many universal declarations and in so many constitutional texts".

It is not so: the religious fact is well before any statement. However, it is interesting his statement, advanced by Batlle, that laicism does not inhibit, it should not inhibit, the religious factor. What did he mean by "religious factor"? He did not clarify.

When his government ends (noblesse oblige to remember that Vázquez, a medical oncologist, had the courage to veto in 2008 the bill to decriminalize abortion, approved by the parliament, "because life begins at conception"), José Mujica, former guerrilla fighter, Marxist at heart, saint turned popular "philosopher", is elected. During his government, abortion and the so-called homosexual "marriage" will be legalized (2012). Two years later, Mujica enacted the marijuana regulation law. Likewise, in those years, gender ideology is imposed in education, with the consequent attack on the Catholic Church, "repressor" of women's "rights": the March 8 demonstrations express it by throwing ink bombs against the parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, which is on its route along the main avenue of Montevideo. 

A NO to the Virgin

Yes, times have changed and, here as almost everywhere else in the world, the change has been very rapid. The bishops, in different circumstances, have always raised their voices trying to make people understand the true freedom that the Church teaches, but in the midst of the clamor, their voices are hardly heard. In the social networks and in other media the debates are multiplying... (Currently the attention is focused on the project of legalization of euthanasia, presented by the deputy Ope Pasquet, Mason, of the Colorado Party).

An episode that occurred during the second presidency of Tabaré Vázquez (2015-2020) is indicative of how things stand on the issue of "secularity of the State". Since 2011, in Montevideo, in a public property in front of the sea, in the month of January hundreds of people, who have become thousands, began to gather to pray the Rosary. Six years later, they decided to ask the Municipality of Montevideo for authorization to permanently install an image of the Virgin in that place. According to the procedure, the request was submitted to the Departmental Board, the legislative body of the Municipality, composed at that time, in 2017, by 31 councilors, of which 18 were from the Frente Amplio and 13 from the opposition. For the Board to approve the installation of the image, it needed 21 positive votes.

The climate which, thirty years before, had dominated the Uruguayan political and social environment, on the occasion of the Pope's Cross, was revived: all the media talked about laicism, secularism, Jacobinism, positive laicism... But the Frente Amplio ordered all its councilors to vote against the project. They obeyed the order and, with 17 votes against and 14 in favor, they said no to the Virgin. You have to survive!Pope Benedict XVI had warned me. Is it possible? We will analyze it in the next and last installment.

The authorJaime Fuentes

Bishop emeritus of Minas (Uruguay).

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Initiatives

Discover Barcelona's religious heritage

The Catalan archdiocese has launched a peculiar initiative of religious tourism to make known to locals and foreigners, the material and immaterial religious heritage of the archdiocese and to be evangelizers through beauty.

Maria José Atienza-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 4 minutes

The skyline of the city of Barcelona cannot be conceived without the intricate cut of the domes of the Sagrada Familia. The architect Gaudí's crowning temple has always been, along with the Mosque of Cordoba and the Alhambra Palace in Granada, at the top of the most visited monuments in Spain. 

Before the pandemic, one out of every three tourists visiting Barcelona's monuments and places of interest opted for the city's ecclesiastical heritage, especially the Sagrada Familia and the Cathedral. 

The arrival of the Covid pandemic radically changed the situation: the closure of some temples in the state of alarm, the suspension of visits and the lack of foreign tourism have taken their toll on the entire national tourist scene, hitting the Catalan Church hard. 

For this reason, one of the latest initiatives of the Catalan archdiocese, its Secretariat for the pastoral care of Tourism, Pilgrimages and Shrines, has been the creation of the website https://turismoreligioso.barcelona, a pastoral tool that puts its cultural heritage at the service of the recovery of the tourism sector in the diocese. 

Priest Josep Maria Turull, director of this Secretariat, emphasizes that this website "offers information on religious elements of the Catholic Church: international masses, masses in foreign languages, emblematic churches, music in churches, religious accommodations, religious events. The objective is that they can adequately celebrate their faith in Barcelona or that they can know where it is celebrated if they want to know it".

In fact, through the website you can know the Mass schedule of the Sagrada Familia or the Sacred Heart of Tibidabo... etc, as well as the Mass schedules in languages such as English, French, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese or Tagalog. 

The website is not only intended to be used by those who visit the city, but, as Turull points out, "for the parishioners of the archdiocese, it offers a list of all the pilgrimages that are organized by the archdiocese to facilitate their participation in them and also the list of all the shrines available to facilitate the maintenance of these multi-secular devotions". Therefore, the pilgrimages are offered in agenda, according to the date of their celebrations, as well as a brief history and information links for each one of them. 

A way of evangelization

In addition to being a support for tourism, the Secretariat for the Pastoral Care of Tourism, Pilgrimages and Shrines is very clear that the different artistic manifestations echoed in the new website: temples, festivities or music, can be a way of encountering God or a starting point for the rediscovery of the faith. As the Pontifical Council for Culture pointed out in the document dedicated to the Via pulchritudinis: "Works of art of Christian inspiration, which constitute an incomparable part of the artistic and cultural heritage of humanity, are the object of authentic enthusiasm on the part of multitudes of tourists, believers or non-believers, agnostics or those indifferent to the religious fact". In this line, Josep Turull expresses himself: "Pope Benedict XVI was a great promoter of the 'via pulchritudinis' (the way of beauty) as an access to God in our time. That is why he himself came to dedicate the basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. We believe that the contact with the beauty of the churches, allows to open the heart to the mystery that is celebrated in them. The "admiration" is a door of access to God". The commitment of the Secretariat for the pastoral care of Tourism, Pilgrimages and Sanctuaries joins previous initiatives such as Catalonia sacra, a project created and directed by the Interdiocesan Secretariat for the Promotion and Custody of Sacred Art (SICPAS), a secretariat of the Episcopal Conference of Tarragona (CET) that brings together the Episcopal Delegates for Cultural Heritage of the ten bishoprics with headquarters in Catalonia.

The post covid era

Barcelona has suffered, as in the rest of the world, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic that led to the suspension of tourist visits in temples such as the Cathedral or the Sagrada Familia since March 2020. In addition, the virulence of the pandemic in the diocese has led to having to close the doors to tourist visits on several occasions in recent months. 

Josep Turull emphasizes that indeed "the pandemic has affected Barcelona enormously in the whole tourist area and also in the tourist area of the church, since the income from this concept has been drastically reduced. The situation is being faced by preparing for the recovery of tourism, bearing in mind that it is not expected to be either rapid or total". 

The Barcelona diocese is convinced that "the pandemic situation will increase the desire for religious tourism, a tourism that brings peace and comfort at a time when this is more necessary than ever".

As symbols of hope, also in this time of pandemic there are hopeful projects such as the progress in the works of the Sagrada Familia that, presumably, will be able to enjoy the completion of the tower of the Virgin. A tower, of which work is being done on the shaft, and which is expected to begin next December with the placement of the twelve-pointed star that will illuminate the temple from the inside. An added curiosity is due to the fact that this Tower of the Virgin will raise the profile of the Sagrada Familia to 127 meters in height.

Bringing faith to life in the temples

The director of the Secretariat for Pastoral Ministry of Tourism, Pilgrimages and Shrines of the Archdiocese of Barcelona points out another challenge for the faithful: the need to "make the faith alive in the temples" so that they do not become mere museums or art spaces, empty of content. Initiatives such as the tourism website can help Catholics themselves to be witnesses of the faith lived in their temples. This is the idea emphasized by Turull: "The most important thing is to continue going to churches to pray and to practice one's devotions, so that tourists can see and experience the purpose for which these temples were built. It is very convenient for tourists to experience how believers live their faith in churches". 

You can access the website through this address:
https://turisme.esglesia.barcelona/es/turismo/

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Cinema

A history of divine grace

Patricio Sánchez-Jáuregui-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

"Amanece en Calcuta" is a documentary that revolves around the person of Teresa of Calcutta, passing the microphone to people who at some point have been close to her or have been influenced by her. It has a clear testimonial vocation and is an audiovisual piece that transpires love. 

It is a work treated with sobriety, which lets the interviewees unfold in front of the camera, telling a story with the strength of being a lived event.

The work is a film open to all audiences, with a vocation to stir and appeal to everyone. Above all, it is a story of divine grace, which fills with plenitude an audience that can easily understand and empathize with those characters who are the protagonists of the film. Among them, we find a priest who survived his illness through the mediation of the Virgin Mary; a professional athlete in search of the meaning of her suffering; a university professor of philosophy who finds God in everyday acts; a nurse at an abortion clinic; a convert from a mostly Buddhist country who finds the path to the priesthood after meeting Mother Teresa on a plane; and a woman who tells us about the miraculous healing of her husband from brain cancer. All these testimonies have a revitalizing magnetism, which makes it inevitable to surrender to the film, and to aspire to a better world, where faith is not spoken but transmitted through deeds.

Jose María Zavala Chicharro (1962), a journalist by profession and a writer converted to cinema, has a small but well cared for film biography, all of it with a religious theme. 

Thus, after several films on Padre Pio, and one on Pope St. John Paul II, he arrives at the cinema with this authorial project, which he treats with an affection that is evident on the screen. His training as a journalist ignites with fluency the documentary genre, and his passion for beauty makes the work an experience full of restlessness and strength. Beyond an omnipresent music, he has a careful and refined journalistic style, which makes the film flow with simplicity and good taste. 

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Latin America

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Puerto Rico

Marian devotion in Puerto Rico permeates the life of Christians. Its expression is manifested in a diversity of deeply rooted devotions, in a rich popular piety and in a developed Marian literature and painting. Leonardo J. Rodríguez, who has first-hand knowledge of Puerto Rican devotion.

Bishop Leonardo J. Rodríguez Jimenes-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 9 minutes

Puerto Rico was born Christian more than five hundred years ago and that Christian birth made it equally Marian from its beginnings. Puerto Rican Catholicism is essentially Marian from its origins. Devotion to Mary is rooted in the history of our evangelization and the expressions of our piety and culture. In our terroir we have some 27 sanctuaries, although not all of them canonically erected, of which 15 have a Marian title. 

In spite of our modest size, our mountainous geography meant that the districts into which Puerto Rico was divided in the 16th century, then towns erected throughout history and overseas territories, were, from the beginning, sociologically isolated and incommunicado until the development of better transportation and means of communication in the 20th century. So much so that, at the end of the 19th century, the then bishop, D. Juan Antonio Puig y Monserrat wrote to the Holy See that, among the most serious pastoral problems of his diocese was that the majority of the population lived in the countryside and it was very difficult to reach them for their spiritual attention.

The first invocation

The first colonizers manifested their love for Mary by giving Marian titles to parishes, towns, rivers, to their daughters, etc. In the chronicles of their visits to Puerto Rico, Fray Iñigo Abbad (1774), Miyares González (1775), André Pierre Ledrú (1788) and don Pedro Tomás de Córdova (1831) testify to the devotion to the Blessed Virgin that existed among the Puerto Rican people: "Religious ceremonies are very numerous on this Island, and particularly those dedicated to the cult of Mary." 

The first Marian invocation that reached our shores, came in the hands of the first Bishop to arrive in America, D. Alonso Manso (arrived in San Juan on December 25, 1512), was the Virgin of Bethlehem. It is attributed to this Marian invocation to have intervened in the retreat of the Dutch in 1625, in the victory over the English in 1797 and on other occasions.  

In the 16th century in Hormigueros, a town in the southwest of the island, Giraldo González was miraculously saved from the attack of a wild bull by imploring the help of Nuestra Señora de la Monserrate. In gratitude and devotion to her, he built a hermitage dedicated to Mary under that invocation. Years later, the chronicle of Diego Torres Vargas tells that a daughter of Giraldo was lost in the forest and fifteen days later she appeared in good health saying that during those days she had been cared for by "a lady", an event that was also attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of La Monserrate. Since the end of the 16th century, both chroniclers and historians have emphasized the Marian devotion in this sanctuary where "The faithful from all over the island concur to hang the vows they have made to save themselves in the storms and labors; the walls are filled with these vows, with some pictures representing the great dangers from which divine mercy has freed them through the intercession of this Lady. And these islanders, guided by the best principles, devoutly imitate the piety of their parents, frequenting this sanctuary to pay to Mary sincere gratitude for the divine benefits they have obtained through the intercession of this image". This is how Fray Iñigo Abbad expressed himself in 1782. 

Since the 18th century, Bishop Fernando de Valdivia y Mendoza declared this hermitage a sanctuary, which has served as a meeting place for the Puerto Rican people with Jesus and Mary. Before last year's pandemic, this holy place was frequented by thousands of pilgrims, who expressed their devotion by praying the holy rosary, wearing habits, presenting votive offerings, offering flowers and even climbing the steps of the sanctuary on their knees, sometimes wearing suits made of sackcloth, as penitents and offering alms to the poor.

Richness of invocations

Another Marian devotion present in our homeland is the Virgin of Valvanera. Before the cholera epidemic in 1683 that struck the town of Coamo, Don Mateo Garcia, gathered the few who remained unaffected and told them: "Inhabitants of Coamo... the Blessed Virgin is Mother of mercy. If we go to her with living faith and true piety, she will surely remedy our ills...". The people with deep faith cried out for divine help before the Mother of God, promising to build a temple in her honor, and to celebrate every year on September 8 a mass in honor of the Virgin of Valvanera. The miracle of faith occurred, the cholera stopped and the plague disappeared. Good anecdote for what we are living in this last year with the COVID pandemic.

The invocation of the Virgen del Carmen is one of the most celebrated in our archipelago. In our town, since the XVII century, there was a Confraternity of the Virgen del Carmen in the Cathedral and the convent of Carmelite nuns (first of the primitive observance of the Order in America). When the Carmelite Fathers arrived in Puerto Rico in 1920, devotion to the Virgen del Carmen was already widespread and was a favorite of the Puerto Rican people. She is loved and venerated as Patroness of nine towns and her feast is celebrated, not only where she is the patroness, but throughout the length and breadth of our coasts and even in towns in the center of the island, although she is usually associated with sailors, fishermen and coastal areas.

The invocation of Mary, Mother of Divine ProvidenceThe first of its kind in Italy in the 13th century by St. Philip Benicio, SM, who upon seeing the need of the friars of one of his convents in Italy, implored the help of the Virgin and promptly found a basket of food at the doors of the convent. Not knowing its origin, he raised a prayer of gratitude to the Virgin of Providence for answering his request. The invocation developed and spread throughout Europe until it reached Spain, where one of its devotees was named bishop of Puerto Rico in the middle of the 19th century. Thus on October 12, 1851 the Bishop of Puerto Rico, D. Gil Esteve y Tomás, chose this title Nuestra Señora de la Providencia as the invocation of the Virgin for his diocese and commissioned an image of her in Barcelona as a votive offering. This request is due to the fact that the bishop found a diocese in great pastoral and economic difficulty, so his faith in Providence and in the intercession of the Virgin was fundamental to face this situation. His faith and tenacity were manifested when he was able to finish the construction of the Cathedral in a few years, as well as to face some pastoral situations. 

The image of the Patroness

The image was enthroned in the Cathedral of San Juan on January 2, 1853. In 1913 Bishop D. Guillermo Jones, O.S.A., minted a medal with the inscription "Our Lady of Providence, Patroness of Puerto Rico". Luis Aponte Martínez, the new Archbishop of San Juan (the first Puerto Rican Archbishop), asked the Pope that Our Lady, Mother of Divine Providence, be canonically declared the Principal Patroness of Puerto Rico. On November 19 of the same year, Pope Paul VI granted this petition. On December 5, 1976, the image of the Patroness, who arrived in 1853, was canonically crowned. On this occasion, the bishops of the country published the pastoral letter on Mary in God's saving plan. In it they affirm that the faith of our people cannot be properly understood or properly attended to without taking into account the deep Marian devotion that has always animated it. 

During his visit to Puerto Rico on October 12, 1984, St. John Paul II, in his homily at Mass, recalled the centuries-old Marian devotion of Puerto Ricans and urged the faithful to build a sanctuary dedicated to their Patroness. On November 19, 1990, Cardinal Luis Aponte Martínez blessed the first stone of the future sanctuary. On November 19, 2000, the monumental cross erected in the plaza built on the grounds of the future Sanctuary of Our Lady of Providence was blessed. On November 19, 2009, the old image, recently restored in Seville, was received and publicly exhibited on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its patronage over Puerto Rico and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the same, a Marian year was proclaimed from November 19, 2019 to 2020. During the same, despite the pandemic and after overcoming the difficulties brought by the same, pilgrimaged, for the second time in recent years, a simple image of Our Lady of Providence, by the vicariates of the Archdiocese of San Juan. This practice of pilgrimage of an image of Our Lady of Providence, as well as other invocations, is common in the country. 

In 2012, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the founding of the Diocese of San Juan and the arrival of its first bishop, a large gathering of the faithful from all over the island was held in the largest coliseum in the country (full to capacity), with the special presence of the canonically crowned image of our Patroness, to be venerated by the attendees. The celebration was an expression of great fervor of the Catholic Marian people of Puerto Rico.  

Popular piety

The prayer of the holy rosary has been fundamental in the popular piety of the country. Even when its family prayer has declined, it continues to be one of the most common popular devotions of Puerto Rican Catholics. With time, the prayers of the rosary were musicalized with typical rhythms, making possible the creation of the "rosarios cantaos" (sung rosaries), which are still heard especially in our countryside. 

In our people, faith, devotion to Mary, popular piety and culture are manifested in a special way during the month of May (the month of flowers, of mothers and dedicated to the Virgin) in what we call Rosaries or Fiestas de Cruz. Miguel A. Trinidad tells us that the origin of this devotion dates back to May 2, 1787, when a great earthquake struck the country on the eve of the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross. The custom was very popular in the 19th century. There are vestiges of festivities in honor of the Cross in Spain, but the way it is celebrated in Puerto Rico is autochthonous.    

Although they are called Rosaries, we are not talking about the meditation of the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, with the recitation of Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be, but the same consists of the interpretation of 19 canticles in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Cross, Jesus Christ and the month of May before an altar formed by nine drawers or steps crowned by a cross (without crucifix) adorned with flowers and ribbons. The rhythms that predominate in these songs are the festive march, the guaracha and, above all, the waltz. The authorship of these songs is unknown, although they are probably descended from medieval motets. The songs are known only in Puerto Rico, with the exception of a refrain of the fifth canticle: Sweetest Virginwhich has been found in Mexico.  

The tradition is to celebrate them in the interior or patio of a house, but they can take place in a public square, church or other locale. Originally the Fiestas de Cruz are a "novenario", as they were sung for nine consecutive nights. Today there are few places that celebrate the novenario; in many places they celebrate a "triduum" or at least one night.

Another way for Puerto Ricans to express their piety is to pay promises. One way to do this is by using "hábitos". This is usually done for sins committed publicly or in thanksgiving and testimony of a favor granted. The devotee for a determined time for his promise to the saint or in this case to the Virgin or for all his life wears the habit corresponding to the Marian invocation to whom he made his promise. For example, white with a blue cord for the Immaculate Conception or brown for the Virgin of Mount Carmel, etc.

Marian devotion and culture

Another expression of our Marian devotion is given in the plastic arts and literature. The disconnection from the religious centers in which many people lived in the rural areas and due to the scarcity of clergy and the difficult access to temples, the peasants built altars in their homes before which they prayed the Holy Rosary at nightfall and sang songs to Mary. The lack of images promoted that neighborhood sculptors carved wooden images of Jesus and Mary under different invocations, as well as of the saints. In this way, the carving of wooden saints and the profession of "santeros", understood as the carvers of these images, developed. This tradition that was falling a little into oblivion has been recovering in the last years, appearing even young carvers of images of the Virgin and the saints.

Among the country's painters who have approached the theme of the Virgin are 
José Campeche, man of deep religious convictions, maximum expression of the religious painting between the XVIII-XIX centuries. Of his 500 works of art, most reflect the spirituality of the San Juan society of the time and express their Marian devotion: the Virgin of Bethlehem, the Virgin of Mercy, the Virgin of the Divine Aurora and many others. Another famous painter in the 19th century was Francisco Oller, who, in spite of not being a practical Catholic, felt, like so many Puerto Ricans, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among his religious works are: La Virgen de las Mercedes, La Inmaculada, La Dolorosa, La Virgen del Carmen, La Visitación and La Virgen de la Providencia. These works demonstrate that, not being a fervent Catholic, like Campeche, Marian devotion is firmly rooted in the Puerto Rican soul. 

In literature, and more closely related to the invocation of Our Lady of Providence, we have Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, writer, poet and playwright, who, to the newly arrived image of Our Lady of Providence, wrote for 1862 the "Himno- Salve, a La Virgen de la Providencia". 

Francisco Matos Paoli, poet and writer, in his book: Decimario de la Virgen, presents five beautiful tenths to Our Patroness. 

However, the most moving poem ever written to Our Patroness was written by Fray Mariano Errasti, OFM following the burning of the image, prior to its canonical coronation. On the cover of the booklet The Burnt Virgin the emotional poetry appears.

In conclusion

What is connatural to Christianity, since the disciple of Jesus must receive the Mother of the Master among his most proper things (cf. Jn 19:26f.), in Latin America and particularly in Puerto Rico has been evident for more than 500 years; welcoming Mary in our piety, as well as in our methods of evangelization and culture.

I hope that this very brief historical, devotional and cultural journey will help our readers to understand and continue to express our faith, devotion and fidelity to Christ through the one He chose to be His Mother and Mother of His disciples, the star of the new evangelization. Hail Mary most pure!

The authorBishop Leonardo J. Rodríguez Jimenes

Vicar for the National Shrine of Our Lady Mother of Divine Providence, Patroness of Puerto Rico. Executive Secretary of the Archdiocesan Commission of Liturgy and Popular Piety and National Liturgy.

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The Vatican

Interview with Lucia Capuzzi. Christ points to Amazonia

Omnes interviewed the journalist in charge of foreign affairs at the newspaper Avvenire of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Lucia Capuzzi, who has long experience in Latin American affairs.

Giovanni Tridente-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

If the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed anything, it is the inseparable link between the human crisis and the environmental crisis. And there is one area that for the Church represents a central node in this regard, and that is the Amazon, to which Pope Francis dedicated a Synod and an Exhortation just before the outbreak of the global health emergency.

-What has the synodal experience meant for the Amazonian territories?

Preceded by a long process of listening to and gathering the voices of the territory, the Synod on the Amazon (October 2019) has had an impact of immeasurable depth for that region. Pope Francis catapulted to Rome, the symbolic place of Christianity, peoples considered for too long in history as "the most important people in the world".savages to be civilizedThe Pope called them "survivors of a bygone era to be endured with ill-concealed annoyance or, at best, pariahs to be helped. The Pontiff, on the other hand, called them "teachers"of integral ecology. And he proposed an alliance with them as "equals"in a logic of fraternal exchange. Its message, therefore, goes far beyond the confines of the Amazon. 

-What are things like today in these lands, which are also affected by the pandemic?

As a global emergency, Covid-19 is also a metaphor for contemporary contradictions. If it is true that "we are all in the same boat," some are in the hold, others on deck, others in equipped cabins. The fragile health systems of the Amazon have not been able to withstand the impact of the virus. Intensive care is concentrated only in the cities. 

However, excess demand has caused the system to plummet and has fostered the birth of a black market. The greatest burden has fallen on indigenous peoples, the perennial outcasts and those most exposed to contagion due to their historical isolation. The pandemic on their lands, moreover, has been spread by the intrusion of hunters - legal and illegal - of Amazonian resources: timber traffickers, illegal miners, employees of large mining companies. 

-In the documents of the Magisterium, the link between environmental crisis and human crisis is frequently repeated. 

On the one hand, the health emergency has captured the attention of international public opinion. And of the even more distracted media. But on the other hand, the pandemic has shown us that the ecological crisis is not an abstract issue for rich philanthropists, naive and radicals. chic. It is a real threat to everyone's life. Covid-19 comes from a zoonosis: the destruction of ecosystems brings previously isolated species into contact with humans, multiplying the risk of spreading the virus. This is why the UN has warned that we must prepare for an era of pandemic. Unless we make an integral ecology, respectful of all Creation.

-Is the Amazon also emblematic of this?

I share a personal experience. I read Laudato si' immediately after its publication. I immediately found it beautiful and poetic, but somewhat abstract: I found it difficult to understand the inseparable link between the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. I understood Laudato si' three years later: it was the Amazon that revealed it to me. When I went there in 2018, I expected to see the forest, green and majestic. Instead, I found a desolate wasteland. Illegal gold mines had devoured the forests, just as they devoured the lives of the humans who depended on them. The workers are forced to work in inhumane conditions without any protection from the mafias that control the extraction. The girls, brought under false pretenses from the Andean areas, were sold to the miners by the same mafias. The ecological crisis was the other face of the ongoing social crisis.  

-What hope do you have for the future of the Amazon and how can the Church contribute to it?

Amazonia shows the world the power of Resurrection. In the determination of lives so wounded that they are reduced to a formless pottage to go on living. In the obstinacy of the poor to rise again after each fall into indecipherable abysses, showing a strength that is not and cannot be human. The Amazon, with its overflowing vitality, stronger than any blow, is a theological place that helps us, at this time, to "see"the Resurrection.

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The Vatican

"The joy of knowing that we are loved by God makes us face the trials of life with faith."

Pope Francis commented on Sunday's Gospel by reflecting on God's love for us and how being aware of it leads to a joy in facing the difficulties of life.

David Fernández Alonso-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated News"The catholicity of the Church, asks to be welcomed and lived in every age."Related NewsPope Francis: "In today's dramatic situation, Mother of God, we have recourse to you".

"In this Sunday's Gospel," Pope Francis began this Sunday, commenting on the Gospel, during the prayer of the Regina Coeli in St. Peter's Square, "Jesus, after having compared Himself to the vine and us to the branches, explains what it is to be a vine and what it is to be a branch. the fruit that those who remain united to Him bear: this fruit is love. Once again, take up the key verb: remain. He invites us to remain in his love so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be full (vv. 9-11)".

Jesus treats us as friends

Francis asked a fundamental question: "What is this love in which Jesus tells us to remain in order to have his joy? It is the love that has its origin in the Fatherbecause "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). Like a river, it flows in the Son Jesus, and through him it reaches us, his creatures. In fact, he says: "As the Father loves me, so I love you" (Jn 15:9). The love that Jesus gives us is the same love with which the Father loves him: pure, unconditioned, gratuitous love. By giving it to us, Jesus treats us as friends, making the Father known to us, and involves us in his own mission for the life of the world".

And he continued with another question: "And what must we do to remain in this love? Jesus says: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love" (v. 10). Jesus summarized his commandments in only one, this one: "Love one another as I have loved you" (v. 12). To love as Christ loves means to place oneself at the service of the brethren, just as he did when he washed the disciples' feet. It means going out of oneself, detaching oneself from one's own human securities, from comforts, in order to open oneself to others, especially to those who are most in need. It means to make oneself available with what we are and what we have. This means to love not in word, but in deed".

Dwelling in God's love

"To love like Christ means to say no to other "loves" that the world proposes to us: love of money, of success, of power... These deceitful ways lead us away from the love of the Lord and lead us to be more and more selfish, narcissistic and overbearing. Self-importance leads to a degeneration of love, to abuse others, to make the loved one suffer. I think of the sick love that turns into violence - and how many women are its victims today! This is not love. To love as the Lord loves means to appreciate the person at our side and to respect his or her freedom, to love him or her as he or she is, gratuitously. In short, Jesus asks us to dwell in his love, not in our ideas, not in the cult of ourselves; to abandon the pretension of directing and controlling others in order to trust and give ourselves to them".

Love leads to joy

And continuing with this examination of conscience, the Holy Father asks: "Where does this abiding in the love of the Lord lead?" And he responds with the words of Jesus: "That my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full" (v. 11). The Lord wants the joy that he possesses, because he is in full communion with the Father, to be also in us insofar as we are united to him".

"The joy of knowing that we are loved by God in spite of our infidelities," Francis concluded, "makes us face the trials of life with faith, makes us go through the crises and come out of them better. To be true witnesses consists in living this joy, because joy is the characteristic sign of the Christian".

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RelatedRelated News"The catholicity of the Church, asks to be welcomed and lived in every age."Related NewsPope Francis: "In today's dramatic situation, Mother of God, we have recourse to you".
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Evangelization

"The panorama that opens up is that of the clear and explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ."

The reality of a secularized society has given rise to a set of catechetical materials to deepen the baptismal vocation and to receive the first Eucharist coordinated by the priests José Antonio Abad and Pedro de la Herrán.

Maria José Atienza-May 10, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

A few days ago, Pope Francis announced the creation of the ministry of the Catechist to be instituted with the publication of the Apostolic Letter in the form of a "Motu proprio". Antiquum ministerium.

The need for evangelization in our society is as pressing today as it was in the first centuries. The realization of this reality led the priest José Antonio Abad, together with Pedro de la Herrán and a group of authors, to produce a series of catechumenal materials conceived as complementary material to the official catechism of the Spanish Episcopal Conference "Jesus is Lord". In fact, these materials have counted on the supervision of Msgr. José Rico PavésAuxiliary Bishop of Getafe and responsible in the EEC for the area of Catechumenate.

In this interview with Omnes, José Antonio Abad reviews the importance and work of those responsible for diocesan catechesis and the unavoidable task of first proclamation in a society far removed from the Christian humus.

How long were you in charge of the diocesan delegation of the Catechumenate in the diocese of Burgos?

In 2007, the catechumenate began in the diocese in its two modalities: adults properly speaking - adults of age - and children of catechetical age, and a Secretariat was created, of which I was appointed director and which I directed until a few months ago.

How would you describe the task of the diocesan catechetical director, do you think this figure is known?

I believe that the general public, that is, the People of God of the dioceses, is still unaware of this new pastoral figure. Among the clergy, it is known and they value the recovery of this pastoral.

As for the tasks of the diocesan leader, they are, above all, to support the work of the parish priests in the promotion and formation of the catechumens and, if necessary, to make up for what they cannot do at the parish level.

Priests know that the task of "making new Christians" is inextricably linked to their parish community. Because a family in which there are only deaths and no new children is slowly but inexorably dying out. At present, it is evident that there are many more "absentees" than new members.

In Spain, for example, we have gone from a "Christian" society to a society in which almost half of the children are not baptized at an early age.

It is clear to no one that we are no longer in a society of Christianity. The panorama that has opened up for us is that of the clear and explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ and that of making disciples of him to so many adults and children of catechetical age who are not baptized.      

In this sense, it does not seem risky to think that this tendency will grow. It is enough to think of the religious practice of the new generations, from the age of fifty downwards, of the situation of marriages and of the ethical and anthropological deterioration of ever larger sectors of the population....

But this panorama is not something terrible and desolate but an opportunity given to us by Divine Providence to carry out a new evangelization in depth. When Pope Francis insists that "we are not in a time of change but in a change of epoch", he indicates that the time has come to move from a pastoral ministry of conservation to a radically missionary one. From a Church "of bishops, priests and religious" to one of the people of God, in which all the baptized are witnesses of Jesus Christ through their ordinary life. It is the hour of the "saints next door".

Catechesis of Catechumenal Orientation InformationDownload
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Integral ecology

Bishop José Mazuelos: "The reification of life only brings suffering".

José Mazuelos, Bishop of the Canary Islands and president of the Episcopal Subcommission on the Family and Defense of Life, on topics such as the care of the most vulnerable, the euthanasia law or the Living Will proposed by the EEC. 

Rafael Miner-May 9, 2021-Reading time: 4 minutes

– Supernatural  Sick person's Easter is being held this year under the eloquent motto "Let's take care of each other.". A call to redouble efforts from society, and especially from Catholics, to foster a true society of care for the most vulnerable.

Msgr. José Mazuelos, Bishop of the Canary Islands and president of the Episcopal Subcommission for the Family and the Defense of Life has granted an interview to Omnes in which he discusses aspects such as the need for a pastoral care ministry and the dangers of laws such as the recently approved Euthanasia law in Spain.

How can we inculcate more effectively in Spanish society that life is a gift? Something we Catholics do not do or do not explain well....

This is one of the great challenges we have, as human beings and as Catholics, to show the truth of life as a mystery and to educate in the truth of the social dimension of the human being. We have to try to show children and young people that the reification of life only brings suffering. It is necessary to educate in responsible freedom.

You have urged the promotion of palliative care in Spain, and comprehensive support. We all want to suffer less when an advanced disease occurs... How can we move forward along these lines? Perhaps with a specialty in palliative medicine in the faculties?

Spanish society is not prepared to face a euthanasia law based on the freedom of the individual for the simple reason that there are no palliative care services to offer to all patients.

Today we still lack such care and the terminally ill continue to suffer unbearable pain and suffering that would be solved with good palliative care.

Many families with terminally ill patients have no help, something that in many patients causes guilt that leads them to ask for euthanasia.

Bishop José Mazuelos

This lack of palliative care can lead to the request for euthanasia and its unjust application, since it has been medically proven that 99% of patients who request euthanasia when palliative care is administered stop requesting euthanasia. Likewise, society is not prepared, since families with terminally ill patients do not have any help, neither financially nor in terms of assistance, which in many patients causes guilt that leads them to ask for euthanasia.

Therefore, the solution lies in offering palliative care therapy that helps patients in their physical, family, psychological and spiritual dimensions.

hospital_palliative_care

In this regard it is good to listen to the experience of palliative care physicians and for this nothing better than listening to Dr. Sanz Ortiz, who, after describing the physical and spiritual sufferings of the terminally ill, states that: "There is no doubt that any human being who cannot have adequate relief of all his symptoms in the situation described will almost certainly ask for his life to be ended. But not because he desires death, but as the only way to control his symptomatology. The sick person's pleas for termination of life are almost always anguished requests for assistance and affection. They indicate a need for help. If we exchange fear for security, abandonment for companionship, pain for relief, lies for hope, and therapeutic ingratitude for symptom control. If we help him to solve his problems with God, with himself and with others, it is very likely that the request for euthanasia will be forgotten by the patient in almost 100% of cases.". He concludes by stating that there have been no cases of euthanasia requests in the approximately 1,000 patients who have died in his palliative care service.

The law on euthanasia includes the right to conscientious objection in Art. 16. How do you view the Registry of conscientious objector healthcare professionals provided for in the law? Doctors and other experts consider it a deterrent.

The imposition of the right to self-determination brought about by the euthanasia law, based on a doctor-patient relationship, understood as an opposition of interests, as well as the imposition of a medicine of desire, cannot forget the autonomy and rights of physicians.

The freedom of healthcare personnel and their right not to do to the patient what they consider undesirable or harmful, for just reasons, cannot be coerced. In other words, the freedom of the physician and of all those responsible for the medical act cannot be annulled in the name of the patient's freedom. This is why conscientious and scientific objection is essential. That is, the right of the physician, in the face of an exaggerated claim of autonomy, not to administer a treatment that he/she considers harmful or disproportionate from his/her science and experience.

The freedom of the physician and of all those responsible for the medical act cannot be annulled in the name of the patient's freedom.

Bishop José Mazuelos

Why is it important to make a living will or advance directives about medical care? What exactly do you call a living will?

The Living WillWe can say that it arises to defend the patient from therapeutic persistence or therapeutic obstinacy. In most cases, the Living Will is seen as the exercise of the autonomy of man for the moments in which he cannot exercise it. However, it has been used to claim absolute patient autonomy in order to introduce euthanasia through the back door.

The Living Will is a procedure that assists the family and physicians in making decisions in favor of the patient's life and well-being.

Bishop José Mazuelos

Today, bearing in mind that the new regulations state that euthanasia cannot be applied if the person has previously signed a document with instructions, living will, advance directives or legally recognized equivalent documents, it is necessary, as stated by the Episcopal Conference, to register advance directives specifying that therapeutic obstinacy and euthanasia should be avoided when the patient loses rational capacity, thus preventing the physician, the family or the State from anticipating death. We could consider it as a procedure that helps the family and physicians to make decisions in favor of the life and well-being of the patient who is unable to express his or her Informed Consent.

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Integral ecology

"The euthanasia law almost makes the objecting physician look like an offender."

Oncologist Manuel González Barón, palliative physician Ángel José Sastre and professor María José Valero criticized the new law regulating euthanasia at Villanueva University. Valero pointed out that the law almost makes the objector seem "an offender", as if he were "a persecuted hero" who must be "registered".

Rafael Miner-May 8, 2021-Reading time: 4 minutes

There is a way of dealing with conscientious objection in the law, which is to invite "considering the objecting physician as a suspicious category of a person who is not advanced, not progressive or who does not follow the ideology in vogue". And this mode of regulation is the one chosen by the legislator in the new law on euthanasia, said the professor of Roman Law and Ecclesiastical Law of the State, María José ValeroThe Core Curriculum Department of Villanova University organized a round table discussion on the topic.

Applied to the new Spanish law, the solution, explained María José Valero, has been to incorporate clauses in the law itself. In this way, "the objector's reproach to the ideology of the law tends to weigh down the clauses, to the point that it almost seems that the conscientious objector is the offender". 

In the opinion of the professor, the text practically turns objectors into "persecuted heroes", so they must be "registered". In her opinion, registers "are always dangerous, not because of the register itself, but because of the use that is made of them", so she warned of the "not remote possibility that these registers become employment criteria".

María José Valero's presentation followed two medical interventions on the new law, which provided a clinical and ethical perspective. The setting was the round table on 'And after the Spanish euthanasia law, what next?', organized by the Villanueva University and moderated by Professor Santiago Leyra, who offered various perspectives on the euthanasia law that comes into force on June 25, and whose real debate is beginning now, as the May issue of Omnes magazine points out on its cover.

"Against suffering, love".

The well-known oncologist and professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Manuel González Barón, pointed out that "what most concerns us physicians is not physical pain, which can be combated with painkillers, major opioids, etc., but suffering, and its younger sister, hopelessness".

"We must try to help the patient to find his or her own resources, investigate his or her personality to help him or her cope with suffering," he explained. In his opinion, pain can be combated medically nowadays, and it is suffering that must be approached in a different way, summarized in a maxim: "Against physical pain, opioids. Against suffering, love. 

Talking to the sick

For the oncology patient, "the loss of hope is a source of enormous suffering". "The patient puts his hope in what the doctor says, and we doctors want to tell the patient that he can be cured. The downside comes when time passes and there is no relief of symptoms."

González Barón considers, after decades of professional experience, that "when a patient is in pain and it does not go away, he should change doctors, because that means that those who treat him do not know how to do so. Not all oncologists know how to handle suffering well".

In his opinion, we must speak of palliative sedation in very precise terms: "It has an ethical framework and is not a right of the patient or the family: it is an indication as precise and important as open-heart surgery. It must have certain conditions: there must be a refractory symptom, informed consent and a conversation with the patient; the drugs must have a short life in the blood and there must be antidotes, because palliative sedation must always have the possibility of reversion, and the process must be monitored".

The oncologist, who has been head of Oncology at La Paz Hospital, also insisted on the importance of "talking, of psychotherapy. There are many doctors who do not talk to patients about their problems. That is where resources can come from to face the suffering, to help". If the disease is serious, and even irreversible, the patient must be able to "say goodbye to his or her loved ones, forgive and forgive, give thanks, take stock, reach the end with serenity, with peace, and if the patient is a believer, with God.

Finally, González Barón harshly criticized the law regulating euthanasia since its preparation and processing in numerous aspects, such as "the institutions that have been skipped out of the law", its incompatibility with art. 15 of the Spanish Constitution and Declarations of human rights, and with the Code of Ethics of the medical profession, or the absence of a law on Palliative Care, as other experts have pointed out in omnesmag.com.

"Change doctor...."

In a similar vein, the family physician and palliative care physician Ángel José Sastrewith extensive professional experience accompanying the terminally ill, stressed that "the Euthanasia Law gives the patient the feeling of being a burden", and wondered: Are we moving towards a progressive or regressive society? Societies advance when they take care of their weak", he said.

Sastre insisted, for example, on the problem of the irreversibility of a decision to kill a patient. The doctor evoked several cases from his personal experience with patients who, after being on the verge of giving up, later thanked him for not heeding their request. "When someone asks you to end their life, it makes you want to tell them to change doctors," said the specialist in Family and Community Medicine, agreeing with Dr. González Barón.

Dr. Sastre had stated at the beginning of his intervention that "we cannot repeal the law, but we can treat people well enough so that they do not ask for euthanasia", and he persuaded physicians to "be prepared to suffer with the patient". Like González Barón, Ángel José Sastre reiterated that the rupture of the doctor-patient relationship of trust is very serious with this law.

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The Vatican

Feeling comfortable in the complexity of the communication.

On the occasion of the 55th World Communications Day, the author, the editor of Omnes and professor of opinion journalism at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, reflects on the challenges that the disintermediation society poses to us as communicators and as citizens.

Giovanni Tridente-May 8, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsWhat is happening in the digital world?Related NewsMessage for the World Communications Day

May 16 marks the 55th World Communications Day, the only one since the Second Vatican Council. In the Message written for the occasion, Pope Francis draws inspiration from Jesus' invitation to the disciples "Come and see" (Jn 1:46), and insists that in order to communicate, it is necessary to meet people where they are and how they are.

In little more than half a century of social communication, the information landscape has changed completely, and with it the journalistic profession, which today is crushed by the disintermediation and the infodemiaThese are terms that, if not taken in their proper dimension, can distract attention from the real problem. And that is: the responsibility of each professional to do his or her job well.

First of all, we must always ask ourselves about the ethical impact of the journalistic profession, in particular the "reader service" character that characterizes it, despite - and perhaps even more so - in the era of global and disintermediated communication.

The infodemic belongs to us

Regarding the term "infodemia"which has been very much in vogue in recent months, even more so because of the pandemic we are experiencing, if we look back in time and study the different processes of media culture that have taken place, we realize that the term had already been coined in 2003 by journalist David J. Rothkopf in an article in the Washington Post. It was the first months of the spread of SARS (the younger sister of "our" Covid-19) and the author described the term as "a complex phenomenon caused by the interaction of traditional media, specialized media, Internet sites and so-called informal media", the latter identified as cordless phones, text messages, pagers, faxes and e-mails.

As we can see, there is nothing new, except for the fact that the protagonists of this phenomenon are always people, both as "feeders of chaos" and as somewhat voracious and often distracted consumers. Certainly, the social has increased, and Covid-19 has tragically plunged us back into something that perhaps we should have looked at more carefully. This confirms that the key to "fixing" what is wrong is not in the processes - which are taken for granted - but in the people. From there we have to start again, or simply begin again.

A personal work

Faced with a hyper-connected society, it would be a real shame - a real impoverishment - not to take advantage of the amount of possibilities that this world offers us, starting with the tools to know how to distinguish what is good for our existence from what limits it. As you can see, this is a job that belongs to each individual and cannot be delegated to some "other organism", as if it were hidden somewhere in the ether, which then, at best, is just an empty container or the landing place of misguided expectations.

Risks are part of life, but they must be faced, managed, governed and accompanied. No individual can escape this need - and task - to choose for himself what is good for him (and for others). And this is called freedom.

Journalists are people like everyone else, immersed in the complexity of today's world like each of us. It is neither useful nor productive to throw stones at one category rather than another. But it is undeniable that a general examination of conscience must be made, taking into account the complexity of the situations and the global panorama we are experiencing.

Complex answers to complex problems

Complex problems require complex answers, so the time has come, like good "mechanics", to go first to identify the faults that make society's "engine" impracticable, and repair the broken components piece by piece. It is a task that falls to everyone, from the information and communication operator to the ordinary citizen, from educational organizations to politics, from the Church to all the other organizations that operate in society. It is a complex task, a global task, a task that cannot be postponed. But it is also the best challenge we can face, to give meaning to our lives.

Do not settle

So a piece of advice for young people: never settle! Don't settle for study, for the desire to understand reality, for the possibilities of offering those who receive the fruits of our labor. There is no single model of communication, just as there are no uniform individuals.

Each of us is unique and communication "to the world" must start from the awareness that there is not just one aspect to take into account, but a complexity of elements.

A good communicator is the one who feels at ease in this complexity, rather than uncomfortable, and tries by all means to intercept the individual causes that lead to outline the overall design of people's lives. Best wishes.

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Family

Love always wins

Bleak House, Dickens' novel, is a good example of how in married life you have to "learn to lose": to give in, to forgive, to give your all, even if it is not what "sells" in the market. 

José Miguel Granados-May 7, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsMarital friendshipRelated NewsConflict overcome by conjugal love

In marital cohabitation one must "learn to lose": to give in, to forgive, to give oneself freely, without seeking material gain or reward, without counting hours of work or services rendered, to sacrifice oneself willingly for others... The novel by Charles Dickens Bleak House shows that he who loses in appearance, wins. Also the glorious cross of Christ, which might be considered a failure, in reality, supposes the complete triumph of love.

Bleak House ("Gloomy House") is the somber title of one of Charles Dickens' greatest novels. It contains several intertwining stories, with a thrilling suspense plot and a wide gallery of characters from very diverse social backgrounds.

Stories of overcoming

As usual, the author severely criticizes personal and institutional hypocrisy and corruption, especially of the judicial system, which in the brilliant opening of the story is compared to the London fog ("Fog everywhere..."). Moreover, he describes with psychological subtlety each moral character.

Along with the profuse collection of subjects who behave vilely, portrayed with crudeness, sometimes to the point of exaggeration or histrionic caricature, there stand out some men and women capable of overcoming very adverse circumstances with admirable courage. Their perseverance in doing good in the midst of difficulties always finds reward, if not in history, at least in the narrator's judgment.

Bleak House

AuthorCharles Dickens
Year of publication: 1853
Pages (approx): 445

Thus, Caddy Jellyby manages to overcome the burden of a chaotic home, in which the mother is obsessively and ridiculously occupied with missions in Africa while completely neglecting her disastrous family. She marries Prince Turveydrop, a kind and hard-working dance teacher, who patiently tolerates the burden of a manipulative, deceitful and shameless father, who spends his good son's income on eccentric whims.

Another sweet woman, the beautiful young Ada Claire, faithfully accompanies her husband, Richard Carston, in his downfall and degradation, as he puts his trust in obtaining an inheritance entangled in a tortuous and interminable judicial process, while he abandons professional work and sadly loses his health. His uncle, the charming John Jarndyce, always excuses the grievances he receives by refusing to listen to his prudent advice, and benevolently welcomes the one who brings about his own ruin and that of his unfortunate wife. Mister Jarndyce is also the guardian of the young orphan Esther Summerson, who heroically risks her health in the care of the poor brickworks workers and their families, afflicted by lethal epidemics.

On the other hand, there is the simple and noble Colonel George Roncewell, who does not hesitate to jeopardize his modest shooting academy to maintain loyalty and to take in Jo, a miserable street child persecuted for no reason by the authorities. Or, finally, Baron Sir Leicester Deadlock, capable of coming down from the pedestal of his noble arrogance to mercifully and tenderly help his wife in a tragic and dishonorable situation.

All these "losers" from the pragmatic or utilitarian perspective, in the end win: they find the reward of their honest and kind behavior.

He who loves always wins

In married life, too, we must "learn to lose," to accept minor defeats for a greater victory: to give in, to forgive, to understand, to forgive, to forgive, to give our all, without seeking material gain or reward, without counting the hours of work or the services rendered, to live the joy of gratuity, to willingly sacrifice ourselves for others... He who seems weak or foolish in the race for success or worldly dominion and power is in reality wise and consistent in his discreet and altruistic self-giving. For the Master has already repeated that the last will be first (cf. Mt 19:30).

In reality, he who loves always wins: he who knows how to resist with courageous patience in the way of justice and love, in the midst of tribulation; he who responds to evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21); he who does not let himself be carried away by discouragement or sadness, hatred or resentment, without taking account of grievances, but who maintains peace and inner joy with fortitude, with a smile on his face, even when he suffers; he who knows how to be grateful, affectionate, positive, meek and humble of heart... In short, as Jesus Christ teaches, he who loses his life for love will be the one who will find it in the end (cf. Mt 10:39).

The greatest paradox in history

The glorious cross of Christ constitutes the greatest paradox in history. Apparently it can be considered a failure, a curse. In reality, it is the complete triumph of love, the greatest blessing. It is the destiny of the grain of wheat that dies in order to rise again and give life (cf. Jn 12:24). Spouses and parents also have to die, to spend themselves, to give their lives for their neighbor, to sow the seed of their fruitful communion with full hands, in order to leave their children and the generations to come a trail of light and hope.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta recalled the wisdom hidden in the Hindu saying that she proposed as a rule of life: "What is not given is lost". For only what is given flourishes. Only he who participates in the annihilation of Jesus Christ, the divine Redeemer, will produce fruits of holiness for this world and receive the gift of eternal resurrection.

RelatedRelated NewsMarital friendshipRelated NewsConflict overcome by conjugal love
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  • "The catholicity of the Church, asks to be welcomed and lived in every age."
The Vatican

"The catholicity of the Church, asks to be welcomed and lived in every age."

This is what the Holy Father says in his Message for the 107th Day of Migrants and Refugees, in which he emphasized that "in the encounter with the diversity of foreigners, of migrants, we are given the opportunity to grow as Church".

Maria José Atienza-May 6, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

The Holy See has made public the Message on the occasion of the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. A message in which Pope Francis fixed his gaze on the common future of humanity, recalling that "we are all in the same boat and we are called to commit ourselves so that there will be no more walls separating us, that there will be no more walls separating us, that there will be no more walls separating us, that there will be no more walls separating us, that there will be no more walls separating us, and that there will be no more walls separating us. othersbut only a wegreat as the whole of humanity. For this reason, I take the occasion of this Day to make a twofold appeal to walk together toward a we I will address myself first of all to the Catholic faithful and then to all the men and women of the world".

The Holy Father wanted to emphasize the Catholic and universal identity of the Church, which must lead Catholics to "go out into the streets of the existential peripheries to heal those who are wounded and to seek out those who are lost, without prejudice". In this sense, the Pope made a call to "rebuild the human family, to build together our future of justice and peace, ensuring that no one is excluded".

The Message was also presented at a press conference by Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.I., Undersecretary of the Section for Migrants and Refugees of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, Rev, Undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, Rev. Father Fabio Baggio, Undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, Rev. Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A. Undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, and in a virtual way, H.E. Msgr. Paul McAleenan, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and Ms. Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK.

In his speech, Cardinal Czerny pointed out the idea reflected in the Pope's message that "'we are all in the same boat' with regard to the covid-19 emergency. We all suffer differently. What happens when all the survivors in a lifeboat must contribute to rowing to shore? What if some take more than their share of the rations, leaving others too weak to row? The risk is that all will perish, both the well-fed and the hungry."

For its part, Fabio BaggiThe company wanted to develop in four points the dimension of the wewhich must aspire to be as great as humanity, in full correspondence with God's creative and salvific plan. The second point is an application of the we to the Church, called to be a home and a family for every baptized person. The third point is a reference to the "Church going out", so dear to the Holy Father, called to go out to meet "to heal those who are wounded and to seek out those who are lost, [...], ready to widen the space of her tent to welcome everyone."

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ColumnistsJavier Segura

Recovering the essence of dialogue at the University

The summer course "El hecho religioso en la España actual" (The religious fact in today's Spain) approaches in a scientific and systematic way, far from the dialectic fight marked by ideologies, the religious fact in today's Spanish society.

May 6, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

The summer course "El hecho religioso en la España actual", Civil society, religiosity and education in Spain today addresses, in an interdisciplinary manner, the historical role and the legal-political, sociological and cultural consideration of the religious fact and experience in Spain.

During the academic year 2020-2021 professors of the Complutense University of Madrid and some other collaborators of the Research Department of the European Foundation Society and Education, have addressed, in an interdisciplinary way, the historical role and the legal-political, sociological and cultural consideration of the fact and the religious experience in Spain. It is a study in which I have had the possibility of participating throughout this time and which I sincerely believe may have an interesting relevance.

The aim is to approach in a scientific and systematic way, far from the dialectic fight marked by ideologies, the religious fact in the current Spanish society. A rigorous study that has been carried out over more than a year and that can help to shed light on a topic of constant actuality.

The summer course, which is organized in El Escorial by the Complutense University, represents an important milestone in the development of this study. As the organizers point out 'this meeting presents and deliberates on the results of these lines of research in the context of the inclusion policies of the 2030 Agenda and the relevance of education in the reciprocal influence between the religiosity of individuals and society, as well as in the effects of that influence on the creation of cultural, civic and relational capacities'.

camille-minouflet-

And it is true that we have to take a little distance in order to be able to dialogue properly on these issues which, when put in the political arena, are difficult and create tension, but when dealt with in the university environment, they generate spaces for dialogue and the healthy contrast of thoughts. Undoubtedly, this should be the true university spirit.

The University as an institution and the university spirit that should be formed in those of us who have passed through its classrooms should bring to our society values such as the sincere search for truth, respect for the ideas of others because it is a sign of respect for each person and their freedom, shared work and the search for the common good, and an authentic vocation of service to society.

The regeneration of society requires a return of the University to its roots as the cradle of knowledge.

Javier Segura

But let us recognize that to a large extent the University has diluted this identity and has become a 'machine for issuing degrees' that then enables access to the labor market. This commercialization of the university spirit is, in my opinion, one of the causes of its waning prestige and influence in society, which should be above all moral and intellectual and cannot be measured simply in terms of efficiency.

A regeneration of society also requires a return of the University to its roots as the cradle of knowledge, as an 'alma mater' as it was once defined, a mother who nourishes with her knowledge all those who participate in her life. This type of course recovers that university spirit and puts us all in an attitude of respectful listening and constructive dialogue to approach, on this occasion, the religious fact and its personal and social value.

In this sense, it is paradigmatic and significant that an institution, the University, which was born of the Church itself and is one of the richest projections of the historical and cultural relevance of the faith, should be the setting for this reflection on the same religious fact and its relevance in today's Spain.

The authorJavier Segura

Teaching Delegate in the Diocese of Getafe since the 2010-2011 academic year, he has previously exercised this service in the Archbishopric of Pamplona and Tudela, for seven years (2003-2009). He currently combines this work with his dedication to youth ministry directing the Public Association of the Faithful 'Milicia de Santa Maria' and the educational association 'VEN Y VERÁS. EDUCATION', of which he is President.

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Initiatives

Jacques Philippe to speak at the next Omnes Forum

The priest and well-known author of works on spirituality, Jacques Philippe, is the guest of the next Forum organized by Omnes, which will take place next Wednesday.

Maria José Atienza-May 6, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute
RelatedRelated NewsJacques Philippe: "To pray is, above all, to welcome a presence".Related NewsThe heart of holiness

The presence or absence of God, prayer, or questions that have arisen in the life of every person during the pandemic, such as the meaning of suffering, will be some of the points around which this meeting with one of the most important authors of spirituality in our society today will revolve.

The forum, which will be broadcasted by Youtube will take place on Wednesday, May 12, starting at 7:30 p.m. on the Omnes live channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TADk7OM8cYo

Jacques Philippe

Jacques Philippe, a native of Metz, is the author of numerous books on the spiritual life, including titles such as "Inner Freedom", "Time for God" and "The Spiritual Fatherhood of the Priest".

A member of the Community of the Beatitudes, after living in the Holy Land for a few years, studying Hebrew and the Jewish roots of Christianity, he moved to Rome where he was responsible for the new foundation of the Community in Rome and studied Theology and Canon Law.

A priest since 1985, his current work focuses on spiritual formation, both in his community and through his works, distributed throughout the world.

RelatedRelated NewsJacques Philippe: "To pray is, above all, to welcome a presence".Related NewsThe heart of holiness
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Photo Gallery

The Virgin waiting for Jesus

The seated image of the Virgin is located at the entrance of the grotto of Our Lady of Mantara (Lebanon), the place where, according to tradition, Mary waited for Jesus in his preaching in Tyre and Sidon. 

Omnes-May 6, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute
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Family

Marital friendship

Conjugal friendship constitutes a specific vocation, a gift and a task to be built. It requires effort, learning and patience, to which is added the grace of the Holy Spirit. In literature, this story and drama of love is reflected in the great novel "Jane Eyre".

José Miguel Granados-May 6, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

Jane Eyre is the protagonist of the best story of the great Victorian novelist Charlotte Brontë. It tells the story of a young orphan who, after suffering a harsh childhood of abuse by her distant relatives, who end up leaving her in a miserable boarding school, comes to work as a boarder, a teacher of a girl in a noble house.

Even as a child, she had already shown her sensitivity and intelligence. On one occasion she responds with character to her cruel tutor: "You think I can live without a little love; but I can't live like that". Then she will find the love of a good man, although of difficult temperament and circumstances; she will have to suffer various tribulations along the way and overcome arduous obstacles. To the attractive and tempting proposal of an immoral and unworthy relationship, she will answer according to her delicate and firm Christian conscience: "I must renounce love and the idol". To the invitation to contract a marriage of convenience, based on a rigid religiosity, without affection or tenderness, she will answer: "He is not my husband and never will be. He does not love me; I do not love him; he is severe, cold as an iceberg; I am not happy at his side".

Intimate communion

Marriage constitutes "the intimate communion of conjugal life and love," as the Second Vatican Council accurately teaches. In reality, only true love, based on the spousal covenant between a man and a woman, on reciprocal and faithful self-giving, on total self-giving, on sharing the project of forming a welcoming and fruitful home, does justice to the greatness of the person, to his or her unique value, and also to the beauty of the attraction and the promise of "eros".

If this desire for full marital commitment is lacking - perhaps because of a harmful hypertrophy of the utilitarian, economic, hedonistic, emotional dimensions, or because of serious immaturity - the relationship becomes debased and mercenary, contrary to what every human being deserves, who must always be treated as an end and not as a means, in conformity with the personalist norm, as John Paul II taught (cf. Letter to Families, n. 12).

Friendship and virtue

Conjugal friendship constitutes a specific vocation, a gift and a task to be built with wisdom, tenacity and hope. It is a work of formation in virtue, which cannot be left to mere capricious and volatile spontaneity. It requires the education of the heart, the will and the intelligence, with the help of teacher-witnesses and communities that strive for human excellence.

It also requires the exercise of prudence to find at every moment and in every situation the best way to cultivate conjugal affection, the patience to persevere in the good of family communion in the midst of trials and crises, the effort to find ways to renew the illusion of love, to improve again and again the forms of life together.

Moreover, whenever we have recourse to the Lord, the grace of the Holy Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness (cf. 2 Cor 12:9). The union of friendship with Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom of the new covenant, infuses supernatural sap that regenerates human friendships, beginning with that very special one that must be cared for within each marriage. God's gift makes possible the conjugal and family self-giving longed for and sealed with the covenant. The sacrament of marriage contains a permanent divine blessing, which simply requires recourse to the abundant means we have in the Church-continuous formation, prayer life, frequency of the sacraments, participation in the community, works of service and mercy-to fulfill the Master's command: "Abide in me" (Jn 15:4).

After a tortuous journey, in which the audacious Jane Eyre maintains with serenity and fortitude the inner orientation towards authentic love, supported by the Lord, she joyfully finds the reward for her efforts and her coherence in the path of goodness, going so far as to affirm: "I consider myself extremely blessed; for I am my husband's life as completely as he is mine".

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Sunday Readings

Readings for Easter Sunday VI

Andrea Mardegan comments on the readings for Easter Sunday, Sunday VI 

Andrea Mardegan-May 5, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

Peter reacts to Cornelius, who prostrates himself at his feet, making him stand up and saying to him: "I am also a man.". Peter is aware of his smallness. Also the fact that he has brought him to Cornelius is eloquent. God has arranged everything. He recognizes with humility that he is understanding that "God makes no distinction of persons."God is open to all, he came for all, he loves all. 

The great problem of the opening of Christianity to the pagans is solved with facts that come from God's initiative. While Peter speaks, the Holy Spirit spreads over the pagans who, together with Cornelius, listen to him. They have not yet received Baptism or Confirmation. It is clear that God can give his grace also without the sacraments. This requires humility from Peter, God could not need him, even though he prefers to let himself always be helped by Christians, because he has asked us to love one another as he has loved us. Love among us is the way for God's love to live in us. 

In the house of Cornelius is the love of Peter, who has set out and who has not been afraid to enter the house of a pagan, has accepted the vision of the food, which is all pure, has let his mind be changed by the Holy Spirit. He becomes the means by which the Holy Spirit comes. Also Christians who come from Judaism notice that the Holy Spirit has come down upon the heathen. They hear them speaking in different languages and glorifying God. Their conviction of being the only ones to be loved by God is defeated by the very gestures of God. Peter obeys God and orders them to be baptized. Thus, the first Christians coming from Judaism know the power of the love of the Holy Spirit. 

John, in his first letter, reveals to us other aspects of God's love. God himself is love, and love means to love first, as God has done with us, and to love not only with words but with the fact of giving the Son, himself, to give us life and atone for our sins. Therefore, if we have received God's love, we can love one another; and if we love, it means that we have been generated by God and that we have known God. 

Jesus declares that He loves us as the Father loves Him, and asks us to abide in His love. He asks us to observe his commandments in order to remain in his love, as he has observed the Father's commandments and remains in his love. In reality, the Father's commandment to Jesus is only one: that of coming among us and giving his life for us, out of love. And the commandment of Jesus to his disciples is only one: the new commandment, to love one another as he has loved us, laying down our lives for one another. 

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The Vatican

Pope: there is no contradiction between contemplation and action

Contemplation has sometimes been seen as opposed to action and works of charity, but this dualism does not belong to the Christian message, Francis clarified at the general audience on May 5.

Maria José Atienza-May 5, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

A presumed opposition between contemplation and action does not belong to the Christian message, and possibly comes from the influence of Neoplatonic philosophers. This was explained by the Pope at the general audience, which once again took place in a non-presential manner, broadcast from the Apostolic Library.

In reality, in the Gospel there is but a single call, "to follow Jesus on the way of love. This is the apex and the center of everything". Considered in this way, "charity and contemplation are synonymous, they say the same thing".

Contemplative prayer was the central theme of the Pope's address during the audience. The starting point was the contemplative dimension of human life, which in the natural sphere is already reflected in a gaze at the world around us that comes more from the heart than from the eyes, and is more a way of being than a way of doing. This natural gaze is not yet prayer, but prayer also participates in this contemplative dimension.

The contemplative dimension of prayer clarifies our gaze and allows us to accept reality with a different perspective, which is a perspective of faith. For this reason, it allows us to see reality with different eyes, and consists above all in a feeling of being looked at with love. In this context, the Pope recalled what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in n. 2715: "Contemplative prayer is the gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus", and also the words of the peasant who prayed before the tabernacle to the holy Curé of Ars: "I look at him and he looks at me".

"Jesus was the master of this gaze"; "his secret was the relationship with the heavenly Father", which he cared for with the necessary times, spaces and silences. A particularly revealing example is the scene of the Transfiguration, where "the light of the Father's love, which fills the Son's heart and transfigures his whole Person" is shown.

At the end of his address, the Pope greeted the faithful in several languages. To the Spanish-speaking faithful he made a suggestion that concretized his words on contemplation: "I encourage you to take a break and go to the nearest church, to sit for a while in front of the tabernacle. Let yourselves behold the infinite and patient love of Jesus, who awaits you there, and contemplate him with the eyes of faith and love. He will speak many things to your heart.

He encouraged everyone to join in the Rosary prayer that the Church throughout the world raises to God in this month of May, as in a network, to ask for an end to the pandemic. On this Wednesday, May 5, he is leading this prayer at the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in Namyang, South Korea.

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ColumnistsMaria José Atienza

That chubby old man who smells of sweets is not God.

To mature in faith means to know God in order to love him more and, at the same time, to love God in order to know who he is.

May 5, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes
RelatedRelated News"We have to have the courage to explain faith."Related NewsThe truth makes us strange

A little over a month ago, Tracey Rowland, jurist, philosopher, theologian and one of only four women to be awarded the Ratzinger Prize for Theology, encouraged, in this medium to "to have the courage to explain the faith". These words were not exactly a toast to the sun.

Explaining the faith is not just "talking" about the faith, nor even doing it in the name of the faith; nor is it simply repeating creedal formulas.

Explaining faith presupposes knowing and loving it. For love is a necessary form of knowledge in our relationship with God. It is not for nothing that, in the words of Benedict XVI "We have believed in God's loveThe Christian can thus express the fundamental choice of his life".

Surely you, like me, have heard more than once that "you cannot love what you do not know" and, at the same time, knowledge broadens the gaze of love. To know God in order to love him more; to love God in order to know who he is.

This is the only way to avoid being left with an image of God as a kind of super Santa Claus to whom we ask for things and who brings them to us leaving a trail of jelly beans. No. That chubby, kind and good-natured old man, who smells of sweets, is not God. Even if he is kind (or rather, if he is Love), and we also need to put heart and feeling into our life as Christians, the sentimentalization of faith is perhaps one of the most common traps of our eternally "teenager" society.

As Ulrich L. Lehner points out in his book God is not cool: "I have found that a good deal of parish life is centered on sentimentality, or the search for feelings. Children are invited to 'feel' and 'experience' this or that, but rarely are they given a content, a reason for their faith. I am not surprised that they leave the Church if they can find better feelings outside it."

Feelings obviously have their place in faith, but they must be supported by a content so that the tears that may come to our eyes when contemplating scenes of Christ's passion, for example, do not end up drowning the gift of faith in a meaningless sea; just as we cannot live a faith reduced to a stoic and intellectual attitude that would end up forgetting the key to this same faith: the incarnation of that same Love: God who becomes man, indeed, perfect man.

The commitment to get our faith back on track is today an unavoidable demand that encompasses practically all areas of our lives: from religious education in school, to the life of faith in the family, to the danger of erasing God from our culture, reducing our culture to a simple succession of unimportant events.

Believe it or not, today more than ever, the "altar to the unknown god" stands at the center of our squares and it is up to us to name it and give it life, to make our faith deeper, to be disciples and witnesses in a deaf world. And also to accept with humility that, probably, we will not be thanked.

The authorMaria José Atienza

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.

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The Vatican

Prayer for the end of the pandemic continues every day

Since the beginning of the month, shrines around the world have been praying the Rosary for the end of the pandemic. Join daily live, from May 1 to May 31, the Marian temples praying the Holy Rosary in the marathon of prayer to the Virgin.

Maria José Atienza-May 4, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

The prayer marathon promoted by the Dicastery for the New Evangelization, unites the Shrines of the world in invoking Our Lady so that humanity may be freed from the drama of the pandemic. Below you will find a list of the Shrines from which the Rosary is prayed every day at 18:00 hours (CET) and a link to join the prayer live:

Tuesday, May 4th6:00 p.m.: Basilica of the Annunciation (Nazareth), Israel - Live broadcasting

Wednesday, May 5or, 6:00 p.m.: Blessed Virgin of the Rosary (Namyang), South Korea - Live broadcasting

Thursday, May 6th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Aparecida (Sao Paulo), Brazil - Live broadcasting

Friday, May 7th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage (Antipolo), Philippines - Live broadcasting

Saturday, May 86:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Luján, Argentina - Live broadcasting

Sunday, May 9, 6:00 p.m.: Santa Casa de Loreto, Italy - Live broadcasting

Monday, May 10th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Knock, Ireland - Live broadcasting

Tuesday, May 116:00 p.m.: Our Lady of the Poor (Banneux), Belgium - Live broadcasting

Wednesday, May 12th, 6:00 p.m.: Notre Dame d'Afrique (Algiers), Algeria - Live broadcasting

Thursday, May 136:00 p.m.: Our Lady of the Rosary (Fátima), Portugal - Live broadcasting

Friday, May 14, 6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Health (Vailankanni), India - Live broadcasting

Saturday, May 156:00 p.m.: Our Lady Queen of Peace (Medjugorje), Bosnia - Live broadcasting

Sunday, May 16, 18:00 hours: St. Mary's Cathedral (Sydney), Australia - Live broadcasting

Monday, May 17th6:00 p.m.: Immaculate Conception (Washington), U.S.A. - Live broadcasting

Tuesday, May 18, 6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Lourdes, France - Live broadcasting

Wednesday, May 19or, 6:00 p.m.: Meryem Ana (Ephesus), Turkey - Live broadcasting

Thursday, May 20th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba - Live broadcasting

Friday, May 21, 6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Nagasaki, Japan - Live broadcasting

Saturday, May 22nd6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Montserrat, Spain - Live broadcasting

Sunday, May 23rd, 6:00 p.m.: Notre Dame du Cap (Trois Rivières), Canada - Live broadcasting

Monday, May 24, 6:00 p.m.: National Shrine of Our Lady, China - Live broadcasting

Tuesday, May 25, 6:00 p.m.: National Shrine of Our Lady Ta' Pinu, Malta - Live broadcasting

Wednesday, May 26th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico - Live broadcasting

Thursday, May 27th, 18:00 hours: Mother of God (Zarvanytsia), Ukraine - Live broadcasting

Friday, May 28th, 6:00 p.m.: Black Madonna of Altötting, Germany - Live broadcasting

Saturday, May 29th6:00 p.m.: Our Lady of Lebanon (Harissa), Lebanon - Live broadcasting

Sunday, May 306:00 p.m.: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, Italy Live broadcasting

Monday, May 31st, 6:00 p.m.: Vatican Gardens, Vatican City - Live broadcasting

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  • Art and spirituality meet at the "Observatory of the Invisible".
Culture

Art and spirituality meet at the "Observatory of the Invisible".

Students of artistic disciplines such as photography, sculpture or music come together in this summer school through an immersive experience of art and spirituality, which this year takes place in the Monastery of Guadalupe.

Maria José Atienza-May 4, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute

The Observatory of the Invisible is organized, in this edition, within the Guadalupe Holy Year with the support of the Archbishopric of Toledo and the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe and its Hospedería.

qr observatory

The summer school planned for this year is made up of eight practical disciplinary workshops whose teachers include the composer and orchestra conductor Ignacio Yepes, the photographer Lupe de la Vallina, the architect Benjamín Cano, the painter María Tarruella and the sculptor Javier Viver.

There will also be a series of transversal activities such as talks with guests such as Francisco Cerro Chaves, Archbishop of Toledo or José Alipio Morejón, Director of Raices de Europa, guided visits to the Monastery of Guadalupe with attention to different parts of the monastery's collection or artistic evenings.

Observatory of the Invisible is a project of the Fundación Vía del Arte that aims to promote art and artists, the renewal and integration of the various artistic disciplines and the research, training and exchange of experiences and knowledge.

Registration

In addition to general registration, the Observatory of the Invisible has a number of universities that collaborate with the provision of scholarships to their students who are interested in the Observatory so that they can enjoy a reduced registration fee. More information at  www.observatoriodeloinvisible.org

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Integral ecology

Pope invites you to participate in this month's Laudato si' Week

The call to care for Creation is constant in Pope Francis. Now he invites everyone to Laudato si' Week, which will take place from May 16 to 24, 6 years after the encyclical, with the slogan "We know that things can change".

Rafael Miner-May 4, 2021-Reading time: 5 minutes
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Laudato si' Week will be the culmination of the special year called by the Pope on May 24, 2020, the five-year anniversary of the promulgation of the encyclical on care for the common home, to "reflect on the encyclical."

In addition, Laudato Si' Week will be a time to think about what the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us and to prepare for the future with hope. To learn more about the contents of the event, can be consulted here.

In a brief video message, Pope Francis begins by asking: "What kind of world do we want to leave to those who succeed us, to the children who are growing up?" "I renew my urgent appeal to respond to the ecological crisis. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor can take no more." The Holy Father then encourages everyone: "Let us take care of Creation, a gift of our good Creator God. Let us celebrate together Laudato Si' Week. May God bless you. And do not forget to pray for me".

Laudato si' 2021 Week is sponsored by the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and promoted by the World Catholic Climate Movement, in collaboration with Renova+, Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE, the International Union of Superiors General, the Union of Superiors General, the Society of Jesus and the General Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Friars Minor, along with other partners.

Prayer for this special year

At the convocation of this special year, held on May 24 last year, Pope Francis invited "all people of good will to unite in caring for our common home and for our most fragile brothers and sisters". And he announced a prayer dedicated to this year, noting that "it will be beautiful to pray it." It is as follows:

"Loving God,

Creator of heaven, earth and all that is in it.

Open our minds and touch our hearts, that we may be part of creation, your gift.

Be present to those in need in these difficult times, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable.

Help us show creative solidarity to address the consequences of this global pandemic.

Make us courageous to embrace changes aimed at the pursuit of the common good.

Now more than ever, may we feel that we are all interconnected and interdependent.

Do in such a way that we may hear and respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

May the present sufferings be the birth pangs of a more fraternal and sustainable world.

Under the loving gaze of Mary Help of Christians, we pray for Christ our Lord.

Amen.

As is known, the papal encyclical, dated May 24, 2015, began thus:

"Laudato si', mi' Signore" - "Praise be to you, my Lord," sang St. Francis of Assisi. In that beautiful canticle he reminded us that our common home is also like a sister, with whom we share existence, and like a beautiful mother who welcomes us in her arms: "Praise be to you, my Lord, for our sister mother earth, who sustains us, and governs us and produces various fruits with colorful flowers and grass".

"It's time to act!"

Last April 22, the Pope published a video message to join in the commemoration of Earth Day, a date established by the United Nations to strengthen global awareness of the interdependent relationship between human beings, living beings and the environment that surrounds them.

In the video, the Holy Father noted that for some time now humanity has been becoming more aware that nature "deserves to be protected," if only "for the fact that human interactions with the biodiversity that God has given us must be done with the utmost care and respect." "When the destruction of nature is unleashed, it is very difficult to stop it," the Pope said.

Lessons from the pandemic

The Pontiff also stressed the importance of caring for biodiversity and nature, something that in this time of pandemic we have learned much more about:

"This pandemic has shown us what happens when the world stops, pauses, even if only for a few months. And the impact that this has on nature and climate change, with a sadly positive force, right? In other words, it hurts."

Similarly, the Pope said that the arrival of Covid-19, "which affects us all, albeit in multiple and diverse ways," also shows us "that global nature needs our lives on this planet, while teaching us more about what we need to do to create a just, equitable and environmentally safe planet," the official Vatican agency reported.

The Holy Father added that this new global challenge posed by the current health crisis teaches us the value of interdependence, "this sharing of the planet." 

For the Pope, both global catastrophes, the pandemic and the climate catastrophe, "show that we no longer have time to wait. That time is pressing and that, as Covid-19 taught us, we do have the means to meet the challenge. We have the means. Now is the time to act, we are at the limit".

Francis concluded by calling for unity to launch an appeal to the world's leaders to "act with courage, with justice and to always tell the truth to the people, so that people know how to protect themselves from the destruction of the planet and how to protect the planet from the destruction that we too often cause."

"The adversity that we are experiencing with the pandemic, and that we already feel in climate change, should spur us on, should push us to innovation, to invention, to seek new paths. We do not come out of a crisis in the same way, we come out of it better or worse. This is the challenge, and if we do not come out better off, we are on the road to self-destruction," the Pope added.

Challenge and opportunity, according to Msgr. Gallagher

In June last year, on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si', the Secretary for Relations with the States of the Holy See, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, gave a lecture at the presentation of the document "On the Way to Care for the Common Home", prepared by the Holy See's Interdicasterial Bureau on Integral Ecology.

"The Covid-19 pandemic pushes us even more to make the socio-economic, ecological and ethical crisis we are experiencing a propitious moment for conversion and for making concrete and urgent decisions, as is evident in the text that you have before you," Bishop Gallagher began.

"For this, we need an operational proposal, which in this case is integral ecology," he said. And this ecology requires, in his opinion, an "integral vision of life to best develop policies, indicators, research and investment processes, evaluation criteria, avoiding erroneous conceptions of development and growth"; and a "vision of the future, which must be concretized in the places and spaces where education and culture are cultivated and transmitted, awareness is created, political, scientific and economic responsibility is formed and, in general, responsible action is taken."

This represents, said Archbishop Gallagher, a demanding challenge, but also a very timely opportunity to "design and build together a future that sees us united in the stewardship of the life we have been given and in the cultivation of the creation entrusted to us by God so that we can make it bear fruit without excluding or discarding any of our brothers and sisters."

RelatedRelated NewsOn the fifth anniversary of Laudato si', the fifth anniversary of Laudato si'.Related NewsA path for the care of the common home, 5 years after Laudato si'.
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Calvin and the world: key ideas and dissemination of the "second reformation".

What are the main points of the Calvinist doctrine, what influence did it have in Europe and how does it relate to other confessions? These are some of the questions that appear in this in-depth article on the figure of the Swiss reformer. 

Pablo Blanco Sarto-May 4, 2021-Reading time: 9 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsFree Churches of Protestant originRelated NewsThe Eastern Orthodox Churches Today

A little over a year ago, the cathedral of Geneva hosted the first Eucharistic celebration after five centuries of no Catholic ceremony. A celebration that brought the ideas of reformed theology back to the table. In this article we refer to those communities that were part of a "second Protestant reformation", sponsored in Switzerland by Zwingli and Calvin. From there it spread throughout the world, until it reached the 75 million Christians belonging to the worldwide Reformed Alliance.

Their influence in the world of ideas and in society is even greater. They are also sometimes called Puritans, Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The development of these communities not only in Switzerland, but also in France, Holland, Scotland, the United States, Latin America and Korea. Calvinism has thus become a worldwide phenomenon.

Swiss origins

In German Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) preached a radicalism that displeased Luther himself. The latter clashed with the Swiss reformer at the Marburg Disputation in 1529, who defended only the symbolic dimension of the Eucharist. Zwingli belonged to the same generation as Luther, and therefore never wanted to be called a Lutheran, although he accepted the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Moreover, Zwingli saw in Christ the teacher and model, while for Luther, Christ was the Savior who forgives and gives eternal life out of pure mercy. Luther's mentality was always marked by the theology of the cross; Zwingli's by humanistic philosophy with its methods, logic and intellectualistic demands. The spiritualistic and intellectualistic tendencies of humanism were exaggerated.: no images or sacraments, but above all liturgy of the Word.

John Calvin (1509-1564) broke new ground in Protestantism. He had received a juridical formation that would influence the exposition of doctrine and the civil and ecclesiastical organization. A tireless worker, he sought to establish in Geneva the living conditions of the primitive Church. Thus, all aspects of social life were regulated: not only preaching and religious songs, but also punishing with the death penalty for blasphemy, adultery or offense to one's parents. This iron organization to which he subjected the city had some positive consequences, such as the improvement of heating, the textile industry or health care. On the very day of his death, he gathered his friends around his bedside to preach a sermon to them. When he died on May 27, 1564, the whole of Geneva wept before his coffin. He thus achieved a true theocracy under the direct rule of the word of God.

Calvin has the same conception of justification as Luther, and even intensifies it, with the "doctrine of predestination".

Pablo Blanco

Calvin expounded his doctrine in the treatise called la Christian Institutionone of the most influential works of world literature, together with the Small catechism of Luther. Calvin has the same conception of justification as Luther, and even intensifies it, with the "doctrine of predestination". He writes: "What is most noble and praiseworthy in our souls is not only wounded and damaged, but totally corrupted". Calvin identifies original sin and concupiscence, understood as the opposition between man and God, between the finite and the infinite, as Karl Barth would later say. Man is born sinful and, after Baptism, he continues to be so: "Man in himself is nothing but concupiscence". Therefore, a) man is not free, but is totally subject to evil; b) all the spiritual works of man are sin; c) the works of the just are also sin, although Christ knows them and hides them; d) justification is the mere non-imputation of sin.

2. Calvinist theology

"Calvin was a multifaceted and brilliant personality," wrote Lortz. The doctrine taught by him, even if it bears the influence of Luther, is an original product". He also had a systematic head, typical of one who has been trained in juridical science, but he also had a tender and delicate heart. Moreover," writes Gómez Heras, "Calvin knew how to imprint on his Protestantism a more universalist character than Luther," from which came the missionary dynamism of the Calvinists, their love of risk and adventure, and even their ecumenical disposition. Theologians such as Zwingli, Bucer, Bullinger, Laski and Knox have contributed a proprium to the Reformed faith, which takes on a different physiognomy in each ecclesial community. In spite of everything, there are some common elements, among which we can highlight the following, as a synthesis of the above:

a) In the reformed area, the principle of sola Scripturaand tends to the literal interpretation of the Bible. Alongside it, professions of faith are time-bound testimonies in which the community acknowledges its beliefs. The Reformed tradition has produced numerous confessions of faith, such as the Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934), the Fundamentals in perspective of the Credo of the Dutch Reformed Church (1949) and the profession of faith of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States (1967).

Although these do not enjoy the authority of the confessional writings of Lutheranism (particularly the Augsburg Confession and Luther's catechisms). There is thus no confessional writing that is binding on all Reformed communities. The congregationalist principle of the autonomy of each community even provides for the right to establish the foundations of one's own faith.

Calvinism is more concerned than Lutheranism with the concept of personal sanctification, which leads to the fulfillment of the law and the task of sanctifying the world.

Pablo Blanco

b) The concept of the person's election in Christ is nuclear: human salvation does not depend on good will or one's own dispositions, but only on faith: he who believes is predestined. In Calvin, however - unlike Luther - one finds a certain subordination of the divinity of Christ, with a certain Nestorian tendency. The classical Reformed teaching of "double predestination" (to salvation or damnation) has little relevance today. But equally the themes of faith and holiness, penance and conversion are still fundamental in Reformed theology. Calvinism is more concerned than Lutheranism with the concept of personal sanctification, which leads to the fulfillment of the law and the task of sanctifying the world.

c) The reality of the living God revealed in Scripture is also fundamental. The sovereign and gratuitous revelation of God in Jesus Christ was incisively explained by the most important Reformed theologian of modern times, Karl Barth. He shows well what is meant by the soli Deo gloria, For the Swiss Reformer was interested only in the glory of God, and not so much in his own salvation, as was Luther. This can be recognized in the teaching on the sovereignty of God: God accomplishes his will in the world in only one way, by the sovereignty founded in Jesus Christ and exercised through him.

d) – Supernatural "covenant theology". Reformed Christianity develops the thought of God's sovereignty in the perspective of salvation history and considers the Old and New Testament as a unity: the "covenant of works" and "of grace" are ordered to each other. The value of the Old Testament in Reformed Christianity finds its foundation here. The Christian's commitment to the covenant established with God is at the basis of Christian ethics ("covenant ethics") as a consequence of God's sovereignty in the world. From this positive perspective Reformed Christianity finds strength to act in the world.

e) The sacraments -Baptism and the Supper are united to the Word; they are signs and seals of the preaching of grace. Baptism is not necessary for salvation, but it is a serious commandment of Christ, which is why it is sometimes delayed for adulthood according to the Anabaptist proposal. The doctrine on the Supper - celebrated four times a year - lies between that of Luther and Zwingli. The forms of the classical doctrine (Calvin's spiritual presence and Luther's con-substantiation) are understood as attempts to understand the same Eucharistic faith, so it is no longer seen as a source of division. That is why they practice intercommunion or so-called "Eucharistic hospitality" among themselves. If in the Lutheran conception, the Eucharist is the body of Christ; in Calvin isand in Zwingli only the means.

f) In contrast to a certain anthropological pessimism typical of Lutheranism, we find a Calvinist optimism that understands the world as a task. In Calvinism, one can find a ethics of action and successwhich will bring him great success in his missionary activity. Not surprisingly, the sociologist Max Weber formulated the theory of Calvinist ethics as the foundation of the capitalist spirit, although this theory has been deeply discussed.

If for Luther religion is something fundamentally interior, in Calvin it has a markedly social dimension. In contrast to a certain Lutheran quietism, we find a Calvinist activism that favors the democratic structure: "the Calvinist," Algermissen affirms, "who acts successfully for the glory of God feels himself as chosen, as predestined. This principle would explain the economic development in Anglo-Saxon countries, where Calvinism quickly triumphed. Here, too, there are differences with the Catholic vision, which seeks to combine personal success with the principle of solidarity.

If for Luther religion is something fundamentally interior, in Calvin it has a markedly social dimension.

Pablo Blanco

The Calvinist ideal is characterized, on the one hand, by simplicity and sobriety of manners and conduct and, on the other hand, by a lively interest in social and political questions, science and art. It is the so-called "Puritan morality", which has marked - for better and for worse - the development of some countries. Ethics is seen as obedience and realization of an ecclesial order together with the social and political order. As we have seen, Calvin advocated collaboration between Church and State: they are two distinct powers but subordinate to the sovereignty of God, which must collaborate for the good of the same and unique human society. The Lutheran dualism that distinguishes between secular and spiritual power is alien to Reformed thought. Temporal power is almost identified with religious power.

Frans Hogenberg. The Calvinist iconoclastic riot of August 20, 1566.

3. Church and ecumenism

According to Calvin, the Church is the invisible community of the predestined, but it becomes visible in its mission to lead all. The reign of Christ is to be manifested and enforced through ecclesial ministries, and the ecclesiastical structure is therefore of decisive importance. Faith and discipline take on a priority character in the community, and the State must help the Church. This usually constitutes National churches. While in Lutheranism the temporal power prevailed over the spiritual, in Calvinism it will be the opposite, to the point that dissenters in matters of religion are offered the privigelium emigrandi.

For Calvin, faith and discipline take on a priority character in the community, and the State must help the Church.

Pablo Blanco

As far as ecclesiology is concerned, Calvin was more interested than Luther in the visible Church, its doctrine, legislation and order. In his later expositions he emphasizes the importance of the invisible Church, but he does so in order to distinguish himself from Rome: for him too, the idea that there is an invisible Church that gathers together the elect of all times is valid. But only the members of the visible Church can belong to the invisible Church, even though not all its visible members belong to the invisible Church. Christ builds his Church with Word and sacrament, and the formation of the faithful for holiness plays a fundamental role, so that ecclesial ordering is very important in his ecclesiology.

Ecclesiology is the subject of almost half of its Institutio of 1559, and in relation to the ministry, he sustains what he understands to be a New Testament testimony; that is, a ministry of four levels: pastors, doctors, elders and deacons. The episcopal ministry is not, however, necessary for the Church, hence the later "Presbyterian" developments as opposed to "Episcopalian" or Anglican.

This teaching of Calvin has been carried out in various ways in the Reformed ecclesial orders and the number of ministers has been modified, remaining at three: the pastor or servant of the Word, the presbyter (elder or servant of the Table) and the deacon or servant of the poor. These three ministries guide the community in the presbytery or ecclesial council; but the only head of the Church continues to be Christ.

However, the Christological-pneumatological ecclesiology of the Reformed claims to abandon the hierarchical structure, since the various ministries are understood as elements that are reciprocally integrated on the basis of the lordship of Christ. No ministry is subordinate to the others, and no community prevails over the others. This allows for an "open ecclesiology" and a more congregationalist or presbyter-synodal structure of a markedly participatory type. This is not, however, a system of democratic representation of the faithful, but an expression of the spiritual communion of the community founded by Christ in the Spirit.

No ministry is subordinate to the others, and no community prevails over the others. This allows for an "open ecclesiology" and a more congregationalist type of structuring.

Pablo Blanco

Synods, which were originally meetings of ministers to discuss common issues, give great weight to the "laity" (non-theologians) and local presbyteries of the local churches. elders. These are not mere advisors but have the same rights and duties in the central or community government. With this organization the reformed communities have maintained their original identity and independence, especially where - as in the Netherlands - there was no regional church government. They have thus come into being as movements of opposition to state regulation or confessional majority, as in Scotland, France, England and the Lower Rhineland. In relation to a binding magisterium, the same applies as in the Lutheran communities: the synods have a particular role, and the open character of Reformed ecclesiology has led to the first unions of Reformed Christianity.

Reformed ecumenical theology is above all of a federalist type, since it seeks the union between the different separated communities by uniting among them. Thus, the "united churches (unierte Kirchen) in Germany were the state-sponsored unions between Reformed and Lutherans in the 19th century in mixed confessional territories. They are distinguished from the "Union Churches" by their top-down origin. (Unionskirchen) which arose as a consequence of the ecumenical movement born from the grassroots in the 20th century. Those alliances, born with popular opposition and separate from the Lutheran communities, are administrative unions that have achieved Eucharistic intercommunion among the different Protestant denominations.

Thus, the Reformed Churches in Europe took an essential step in the Leuenberg Concord of 1973, between which there is doctrinal and Eucharistic communion. Therefore, a Calvinist can receive communion in a Lutheran Community, and vice versa. The Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullmann (1902-1999), on the other hand, proposed the formula of "reconciled diversity", which is widely accepted in ecumenical circles. This proposal promotes unity without compromising one's own identity.

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Charles de Foucauld, "the universal brother," to be canonized on May 15

He discovered his religious and missionary vocation at the same time as his faith, and put himself at the service of the most destitute in the Algerian Sahara, where he died a martyr. A biographical sketch.

José Luis Domingo-May 3, 2021-Reading time: 5 minutes

May 15, 2022. This is the date announced by the Pope for the canonization of Charles de Foucauld and seven other blessed: Lazarus Devasahayam; César de Buspriest, founder of the Congregation of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine; Luis Maria Palazzolopriest, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of the Poor; Justino Russolillo, founder of the religious order of the Vocationists; María Francisca de Jesúsfoundress of the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto and the Mother Maria Domenica Mantovani, co-foundress of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.

Biography of Charles de Foucauld

Charles de Foucauld was born on September 15, 1858 into an aristocratic family in Strasbourg. At the age of five he lost his mother and five months later his father. The orphans were entrusted to his maternal grandfather, Colonel de Morlet.

During his studies, Charles gradually loses his faith. "At the age of 17 I was pure selfishness, pure vanity, pure impiety, pure desire for evil, I was like mad...", "I was in the night. I no longer saw God or men: I was only interested in myself," he recalls.

After choosing a military career, with a fiery temperament, he multiplied his excesses. Nicknamed the "fat Foucauld", he admitted: "I sleep too much, eat too much, think too little". Having inherited a large fortune after the death of his grandfather, he squandered it organizing parties. In 1880, his regiment was sent to Algeria. A few months later, he was discharged for "indiscipline coupled with notorious misconduct". On 8 April 1881 he was discharged from the rolls but, learning that his regiment was to take part in a dangerous action in Algeria, he asked to be reinstated and was readmitted. For eight months he proved to be an excellent officer, appreciated by both his commanders and soldiers. His squadron returned to Mascara on 24 January 1882; but garrison life bored him....

Seduced by North Africa, he resigned from the army and moved to Algiers. For more than a year, he prepared scientifically and at his own expense the exploration of Morocco, which he traveled for eleven months, disguised as a rabbi. There he was overwhelmed by the encounter with Muslims who lived "in the continuous presence of God". On his return to France, he began to take a new interest in Christianity. At that moment, the young officer's life changed. On October 30, 1886, he went to confession, following the advice of his cousin, in the Parisian church of Saint-Augustin. The young convert chose to give everything to God. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he entered the monastery of Notre-Dame des Neiges, with the Trappists of Ardèche, on January 16, 1890: "As soon as I believed that there was a God, I understood that I could do nothing but live only for Him; my religious vocation dates from the same hour as my faith. God is so great. There is so much difference between God and all that is not Him...", she wrote.

The prayer of abandonment

In 1897, desiring to "follow Our Lord in his humiliation and poverty," he left the Cistercian order to lead a hidden life for three years as a servant of the Poor Clares of Nazareth. "In my wooden hut, at the foot of the Tabernacle of the Poor Clares, in my days of work and my nights of prayer, I found what I was looking for so well that it is evident that God was preparing that place for me." It was during these years that she wrote her famous text that would become the Prayer of Abandonment:

My Father
I abandon myself to You.
Make of me what you will.
What you make of me
I appreciate it.
I am ready for anything,
I accept everything,
As long as your will
be done in me
And in all your creatures.
I wish for nothing more, my God.
I place my life in your hands.
I give it to you, my God,
With all the love
of my heart.
Because I love you
And because for me
to love you is to give me,
To give myself into your hands
without measure,
With infinite confidence,
For you are my Father.

In 1900, he returned to France to begin studying for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest on June 9, 1901, at the age of forty-three.

At his request, he was sent to the Trappist monastery of Akbes. "I felt called immediately to 'the lost sheep', to the most abandoned souls, to the most forsaken, to fulfill with them the duty of love: 'Love one another as I have loved you. By this all will know that you are my disciples'. Knowing from experience that there was no people more abandoned than the Muslims of Morocco, of the Algerian Sahara, I asked and obtained permission to go to Béni Abbès, a small oasis in the Algerian Sahara near the border with Morocco," he wrote to his friend Gabriel Tourdes in 1902.

Later, from 1905, he lived in Tamanrasset, in the Hoggar desert. In the hermitage he built with his own hands, he lived "offering his life for the conversion of the peoples of the Sahara". He records his feelings in this biographical note of the beginnings : "Today, I have the happiness of placing - for the first time in the Tuareg area - the Holy Reserve in the Tabernacle". "Sacred HEART of JESUS, thank you for this first Tabernacle in the Tuareg zone! May it be the prelude to many others and the announcement of the salvation of many souls! Sacred HEART of JESUS, radiate from the bottom of this Tabernacle on the people who surround you without knowing you! Enlighten, direct, save these souls whom You love!".

By dint of generosity, hard work in translating the scriptures, including the production of a Tuareg-French dictionary, acting in a completely disinterested manner, he won the recognition and esteem of the Tuaregs, who even took care of him when he fell seriously ill. "My apostolate must be the apostolate of kindness. If I am asked why I am meek and good, I must say, 'Because I am the servant of someone much better than I am.'"

He fought against the slavery that still existed in this village, and used the money that his relatives sent him from France to buy slaves and free them. "He discovered that Jesus" - in the words of Benedict XVI in 2005, during the beatification ceremony - "came to join us in our humanity, inviting us to the universal brotherhood that he experienced in the Sahara, to the love that Christ gave us as an example". Faith, hope and charity without fail: "Tomorrow it will be ten years since I said Holy Mass at the hermitage of Tamanrasset, and not a single convert! We must pray, work and wait". Incessant work that eludes subterfuge: "I am persuaded that what we must seek for the natives of our colonies is neither rapid assimilation nor simple association nor their sincere union with us, but rather progress that will be very uneven and that must be achieved by often very different means: progress must be intellectual, moral and material".

Fearing bands of looters, with more or less political objectives while Europe was torn apart by the First World War, the hermit had an "bordj" (fort) built in Tamanrasset for the Tuaregs to take refuge. It was there, on December 1, 1916, that he died, killed by a shot fired by his guardian. He was 58 years old.

His desire for martyrdom, always present, was expressed in a spiritual note of 1897: "Think that you must die a martyr, stripped of everything, lying on the ground, naked, unrecognizable, covered with blood and wounds, violently and painfully killed... And wish it to be today... So that I may grant you this infinite grace, be faithful in watching over and carrying the cross. Consider that it is to this death that your whole life must lead: see by this the unimportance of many things. Think often of this death to prepare yourself for it and to judge things at their true value".

"Charles de Foucauld, at a time when there was no talk of ecumenism and even less of interreligious dialogue, without having to speak on a theological level with those who did not share his faith, was an interlocutor who was the man of charity. That is Charles de Foucauld the universal brother," Father Bernard Ardura, postulator of the cause of canonization of Father de Foucauld, explained to Vatican News in 2020.

Since then, communities of priests, religious and lay people have emerged to form the spiritual family of Charles of Jesus. Through their diversity, these communities show the unity of their origin and mission.

The authorJosé Luis Domingo

Omnes correspondent in France.

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ColumnistsAntonio Moreno

Letter to Mom

At the beginning of May, the month of Mary, the month of the Mother, a letter to the one whom, every day, we call Mother with the certainty that she listens to us. 

May 3, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

Hi Mommy, how are you?

I'm still here, inside this huge ball, how I wish I could see your face already! To caress your cheeks, to feel your hugs and smell your hair; but, for now, I think I have some time left to stay here. I like talking to you, because I know that you listen to me, that you are watching over me, and that you tell daddy things about me.

I can't imagine how others don't do what you and I usually do: chat; give each other a little touch to know that we are together, even if one is on one side and the other on the other; explain our things to each other, even if I can't hear you clearly as people hear each other when they talk. Sometimes it is a burden to be here, you know? There are many things that oppress me, there are days when I feel bad and I would like to leave at once, but as soon as I explain it to you, it goes away. I feel wrapped up by you, protected, safe.

My words are very poor in here. Sometimes, all I do is repeat and repeat the same thing 50 times, but you love it because, at that moment, I am with you and many words are unnecessary when what we say to each other is "I love you".

I am so lucky to have a mother! I believe that nothing is more like God than a mother. You create life within you and give yourselves as nourishment; you correct, but always forgive; you help your offspring in their needs and provide them with everything they need; you stake your life on each new creature and, when the time comes, you are able to give it for them. There is no word that resembles mother more than love.

Photo: Fernando Navarro

But you are a special mother, because you are not only my mother, but the mother of all, and your name is the sweetest of names: Mary.

Those of us who live inside this enormous ball that is the world, we address you in a special way in this month of May where, in the middle of the planet, spring is blooming. We long to meet you on the other side, in heaven, and to be able to see you in person because you are already there in body and soul. We multiply our prayers because we know that you hear us and intercede for us before God our Father.

Millions of people would not know how to live without having contact with you, without invoking you often. Faced with the hardships of life, we turn to you for comfort and we like to feel wrapped under your mantle. Among the ways in which we turn to you, in this month that we dedicate to you, we do so mainly with the RosarioIn which, by your hand, we contemplate how much your Son loved us and we repeat up to 50 times words full of affection.

How lucky I am to have you as my mother! In the height of the gift, when your Son had already given me everything, He wanted to leave me in your care and that I also had the privilege of being able to call you Imma (mom).

Dear Imma:

In this month of May I want to tell you again how much I love you and need you; and I want to ask you to help me to become small, as small as a baby, so that I can, with you as my mother, and as your Son invited us to do, be born again.

The authorAntonio Moreno

Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.

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Culture

Relics of Our Lord: the Holy Robe of Jesus

The series dedicated to the relics of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ continues, this time focusing on the tunic that, according to the Gospel, Christ wore and was chosen by lot among the Romans.

Alejandro Vázquez-Dodero-May 3, 2021-Reading time: 6 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsThe True Cross and the meaning and significance of the relics of Jesus ChristRelated NewsRelics of Our Lord: the holy places

The Holy Robe or Holy Tunic is a garment that Jesus wore before being crucified. He would wear it inside other outer garments, and therefore it was not visible.

According to the custom of the time, a Jew - Jesus Christ was a Jew - would wear three garments: an undergarment - an underrobe - an undergarment - an undergarment - an undergarment - an undergarment - an undergarment - an undergarment.interula- more or less long depending on the economic position of the individual, with short sleeves or half sleeves; a long tunic -tunic- and long to the feet; and finally, a cape - a cape that istoga- that was dressed to go out of the house. The tunic could be made of wool, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

The Catholic Church has endowed the holy robe with a very particular symbolism, based on the way it appears in Sacred Scripture. Specifically, from the reference made in the Gospel of John 19:23-24: "When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and made four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his robeAnd it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Then said they among themselves, Let us not divide it, but cast lots for it, to see whose it shall be. This was that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots. And so did the soldiers".

Traditional meaning and tokens of piety.

As we will see below, there are three specimens that claim to be the authentic sacred tunic. Faced with this uncertainty -which one would be the true one- the Church can only consider it as a symbol.

The fact that, as the Holy Gospel says, it is a single woven piece, without seams, has led to the allegory of unity as a fundamental feature of the constitution and vitality of the Church. In certain sources it is mentioned that Jesus' garment may have been woven by his Mother, St. Mary.

Also the fact that the holy tunic was not distributed - cut up - among the soldiers, but raffled, has traditionally invited us to consider the confluence in the Church of the human and visible element on the one hand, and on the other the spiritual aspect, the continuous assistance of the Holy Spirit that vivifies it.

There are those who associate the holy robe to the modesty and dignity of man, as opposed to the meaning of the violent outburst by the soldiers when they stripped Jesus, as referred to in the Holy Gospel, which would represent the degrading treatment of the human body according to the vice of impurity.

There are many pious traditions that venerate the holy tunic, such as the multitude of pilgrimages to Trier that have taken place since the early sixteenth century, where, as we shall see below, the most renowned relic of the holy tunic is preserved. It should be noted that since the 20th century these pilgrimages have had an ecumenical character, that is, any Christian, and not only Catholics, are called to them.

Different specimens of the holy tunic. Provenance according to tradition, authenticity and state of conservation.

There are several relics that claim to be the tunic that Our Lord wore before the beginning of his passion or via crucis. They are found in Germany, France and Russia. Each one comes from a different tradition that justifies why they are found where they are.

The Church has not pronounced on the authenticity of any of them, although it admits their veneration as long as they are considered representations that help to live the faith devoutly.

Trier (Germany):

According to tradition, it was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, St. Helena, who in the fourth century recovered the holy tunic on one of her pilgrimages to the Holy Land. However, the accounts that have come down to us of the saint's stay in Jerusalem refer only to the encounter with the cross of Christ, and say nothing about the holy tunic.

It was not until the ninth century that the existence of the holy tunic in Trier was written about, and it is indeed attributed to St. Helena. But between that century and the 19th century it was taken from one place to another -Coblenz, Cologne, Augsburg, among other cities- until it returned to Trier, where it is today.

It is worth noting that Luther himself in the 16th century strongly denigrated the authenticity of the relic and its provenance. He wondered - ridiculing its devout venerators - how it could be that a garment of Christ could be discovered several centuries after the death of Christ, and how it could have come from Palestine to Trier, which was not at all clear. He would accuse the emperor of forging the holy robe in order to reinforce his authority.

In favor of the veracity of the tradition of this version of the holy robe it should be noted that archaeologists have discovered in the excavations of the ancient cathedral of Trier several graffiti attesting to a series of prayers or petitions to Jesus Christ, and in a place separate from the temple, which would justify that there was the relic for the veneration of pilgrims.

As for the state of conservation of the relic, it should be noted that this version of the holy tunic has several layers superimposed on the original for its preservation. And about its age, already in the twentieth century an examination was carried out that dated it to the first century.

Argenteuil (France):

Since the middle of the ninth century we have evidence of the existence of this copy of the holy tunic in the church of the Benedictines of Argenteuil. It also seems to have been in Constantinople and Jerusalem, but Charlemagne transferred it to Argenteuil for its final custody.

Due to Viking attacks, during a certain period the relic was hidden inside a wall of the church, during which time it was not exhibited to the public for veneration. In the middle of the 16th century the Benedictine abbey was burned down; however, the holy robe was preserved, and illustrious personages such as King Henry III, Maria de Medicis, or Louis XIII were able to venerate it. In the 17th century, Pope Innocent X officially recognized such veneration, from which time the relic received many more visits.

At the end of the French Revolution, the Benedictine monastery of Argenteuil was abolished and the holy robe was transferred to the parish church. However, in view of the attacks that other relics were suffering, the abbot decided to cut the tunic into pieces and hide the different parts in different places. The abbot was imprisoned, and when he was released he recovered practically all the pieces of the tunic, and was able to reconstitute it almost in its entirety.

In the 19th century, in order to protect it, its different parts were sewn into a white silk tunic, as a support for these recomposed pieces.

Several studies have been carried out to date it. The most decisive conclusions of its authenticity are those related to its dyeing, which would be from the 1st century. In addition, it was concluded that it was woven in a single piece, and through a procedure similar to that used in Syria and Palestine in the 1st century.

Unlike the Trier Holy Shroud, the Argenteuil one has blood stains. The analyses carried out conclude that they are similar to those of the Turin shroud, even in the blood group, although the first one would present drops of blood from a body in movement - external layer - while the Turin shroud - internal layer - would be that of a static body.

In the 21st century, carbon-14 tests were carried out on the holy tunic, and the date reached was from the 7th century, but it was justified by pointing out that it could be due to a possible contamination of the sample taken into account.

Mtskheta (Georgia):

Finally, after having referred to the holy robes of Trier and Argenteuil, which, although not authentic, do exist, we have a third copy of this relic, which in turn has several versions.

Shortly after the death of Jesus Christ, the relic came into the hands of Sidonia, a young woman living in the Georgian town of Mtskheta, in the Caucasus, today's Georgia.

As with the other versions - German and French - of the Holy Robe, the Mtskheta version would be cut up and distributed throughout St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and other Russian cities. Always for reasons of preservation against possible attacks to its integrity.

Tradition has it that when the Romans cast lots for the tunic of Jesus, a Georgian subject, Elioz, was in Jerusalem. He managed to get hold of the robe and took it to his country, giving it to his sister, Sidonia. The latter, who would be proclaimed a saint, when she saw it, grabbed it with such fervor and impetus that she died on the spot, being buried with her. There would grow a cedar of Lebanon, which would last for centuries and centuries, and before which generations and generations would pray. The first Georgian church would be built on that site, and through the wood of the cedar a series of miracles were worked.

It was from the 11th century that the fame of the relic began to spread. In the 14th century the church of Mtskheta in which the holy robe was deposited was destroyed, but the relic was saved by being preserved until its reconstruction in the treasure chamber.

In the 16th century, an event took place that again reflects the existence of this version of the holy robe: the delivery of the so-called "Georgian holy robe" from the church of Mtskheta to the Muscovite patriarch is documented. It was then that the monastery of the new Jerusalem of Istra was erected in his honor, to which the holy robe was brought.

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RelatedRelated NewsThe True Cross and the meaning and significance of the relics of Jesus ChristRelated NewsRelics of Our Lord: the holy places
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The Vatican

Pope Francis: "In today's dramatic situation, Mother of God, we have recourse to you".

The Pope's prayer at St. Peter's has launched the Rosary prayer chain, to ask the Blessed Virgin for an end to the pandemic, which will last throughout the month of May and will connect Marian shrines around the world.

Emilio Mur-May 2, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

At 6:00 p.m. Rome time, in St. Peter's Basilica and before the image of Our Lady of Help, venerated since the 7th century, the Pope began the chain of prayer of the Rosary to pray for the end of the pandemic, which will last until May 31. On that day, the last day of May, the Holy Father will also close the prayer chain, which each day of the month will be dedicated to a different Marian shrine around the world. 

After praying the five mysteries and singing the Salve and the Litany of the Laurel, Francis addressed a special prayer to the Blessed Virgin: "In the present dramatic situation, full of suffering and anguish that envelops and besets the whole world, we turn to you, Mother of God and our Mother, and seek refuge under your protection. The Pope then blessed the rosaries that will be sent to the thirty shrines that will be responsible for leading the prayer of the Rosary in their countries, and which everyone will be able to join through the media. 

The monastery of Montserrat, in Spain, has been selected for the prayer on May 22, and among the other shrines are those of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, Częstochowa in Poland, the Annunciation in Nazareth, Aparecida in Brazil, Luján in Argentina, Loreto in Italy or the Immaculate Conception in the United States.

Also at the Regina Coeli today, May 2, when Mother's Day is celebrated in many places, the Pope once again turned his gaze to Mary to ask her to "help us to remain in Christ, in his love, in his word, so as to bear witness to the Risen Lord in the world". 

From the pontifical apartments overlooking St. Peter's Square, the Pope addressed those present, limited in number due to known health reasons, and the whole world. In his remarks after the midday Marian prayer, he echoed the request of Myanmar Catholics to dedicate one Hail Mary of the daily rosary to pray for peace in their country.

In his commentary on the Gospel of this Fifth Sunday of Easter, which contains the parable of the vine and the branches, the Holy Father highlighted Jesus' insistence on the verb "to remain": "Remain in me and I in you" (John 15:4), Jesus says; and he repeats it six other times in the passage proposed by the liturgy. Francis explained that it is a question of an "active" permanence, he explained, and also of a "reciprocal" permanence. In fact, "without the vine the branches can do nothing, they need the sap to grow and bear fruit; but the vine also needs the branches, because the fruit does not sprout from the trunk of the tree". 

We Christians need Jesus, because without Him we cannot be good Christians. But also, "Jesus, like the vine with the branches, needs us". In what sense? The Holy Father answers: "He needs our witness". 

This is precisely the fruit that we must bear, like branches. To proclaim to the world the good news of the Kingdom in word and deed is the task of all Christians, ever since Jesus ascended into heaven with his Father. And it is union with Christ, especially in prayer, that assures us of "the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we can do good to our neighbor and to society, to the Church. The tree is recognized by its fruits. A truly Christian life bears witness to Christ". 

Other mentions of the Holy Father after the Regina Coeli were for the recent beatification in Venezuela of the physician Jorge Gregorio Hernandez, and for the Orthodox Christians and those of the Eastern Churches who celebrate Easter today, in accordance with their liturgical tradition.

The authorEmilio Mur

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Evangelization

Avenues of evangelization: Has science buried God?

A science without openness to human and divine wisdom becomes a perverse, terrible power. On the other hand, good humanism rightly directs the meaning of science to the service of man.

José Miguel Granados-May 2, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes
RelatedRelated NewsWays of evangelization: the light of God's Word

This is the question posed in the title of one of his books (Rialp, Madrid 2020) by the mathematician, emeritus professor of philosophy of science at Oxford University, John C. Lennox.

He affirms that sometimes some people confuse the true God with mythological divinities, with gods fabricated to "...".plug the holes". That is to say, religion would be the explanation of what we do not understand, until science arrives and explains it; and, then, there are no more magical gods.

But, in reality, the revealed God is the one who created everything, not only what we do not understand: he is the one who gives reason for everything that exists. Faith is not a superstition to fill in the gaps, but the first foundation and the ultimate meaning of life. The question "who created god?" serves for idols, mere unreal deformations, not for the true uncreated God. He is the cause of all that exists.

Materialists pretend that there is an unavoidable alternative between science and God, but in reality this image of God that they propose is nothing more than a caricature. Moreover, their science claims to be reductively the only consistent and verifiable knowledge, capable of explaining everything, excluding other sources of knowledge; and this in an aprioric and dogmatic way, with no scientific basis to support it.

Certainly, scientific explanations are valid, but partial and limited. There are other types of plausible and complementary explanations. Wise scientists avoid the absurd arrogance of pretending that their knowledge and method is the only acceptable one. There are other valid and necessary approaches and perspectives.

The book

TitleScience has buried God?
AuthorJohn C. Lennox
EditorialRialp : Rialp
Pages: 278
Year: 2021

Indeed, science does not answer questions of meaning or of anthropology and ethics; it cannot do so because its method of working does not allow it. Philosophy, morality and culture, on the other hand, based on metaphysical logic, on the best traditions of peoples and on common experience, provide answers to the search for meaning in human life and action, including scientific activity. A science without openness to human and divine wisdom becomes a perverse and terrible power. On the other hand, good humanism rightly directs the meaning of science to the service of man.

The great deception of exclusionary positivism is the claim that the laws of nature explain the very reality of nature. This is the case, for example, with gravity, energy, time: science investigates their structure, but does not reach their essence and ultimate cause in the universe as a whole. For science explains at a certain level. But it must have humility and openness to other sources of knowledge, because to affirm that science is the only valid knowledge is false, ridiculous and unscientific.

Science explains at a certain level. But it must have humility and openness to other sources of knowledge.

José Miguel Granados

Moreover, it is also wise to welcome the supernatural revelation of the personal God who communicates with mankind. The Christian faith is not a mere fiction contrary to the evidence: it is not blind but luminous. In fact, it offers abundant signs and proofs for belief, such as miracles, prophecies, the logic and beauty of Christian doctrine, which satisfies the deep desires of the heart, the admirable figure of Christ, the holiness of so many believers' lives, the human and civilizational fulfillment brought about by the Gospel.

The reductionism of materialistic and atheistic scientism, which claims that the world lacks purpose and creative intelligence, leads to chaos or absurdity. However, genetic codes, with billions of signs in perfect order, speak of a superior ordering mind. Chance or randomness as an explanation of nature is irrational, illogical and impossible. There is an intelligent design that refers to a personal Designer. There is a language in creation that refers to its transcendent Author.

Atheistic and materialistic scientists claim to trust their brain as a mere organic function, but paradoxically they do not believe in a creative Reason at its origin. Human rationality is also evidence of a personal creative Reason as its cause. Without a God who is the supreme Reason of nature, who is the Mind of the universe, science does not emerge from pure irrationality, and is doomed to determinism, fatality or meaninglessness.

As stated in the prologue of St. John's Gospel, "in the beginning was the Word", the Logos, which is the divine Reason and the original Meaning of the cosmos. "By him all things were made." In all creatures he leaves the imprint, the imprint of his harmony and balance, according to a purpose, to an original intelligent design. He is the key to the cosmos and to history.

The sciences discover and describe the laws of nature, with great efforts and achievements, but also with enormous limitations. On the other hand, God creates those laws, that order: he is their cause. In short, true science buries the pretendedly scientific materialistic atheism, because to do science requires the personal God-eternal and wise, all-powerful and good-as the foundation of rationality and the order of nature.

RelatedRelated NewsWays of evangelization: the light of God's Word
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Twentieth Century Theology

"Theology: a before and after in my way of conceiving the world".

The longing for God beats in hearts, whether we know it or not. Many lay people are looking for ways to get closer to the faith and know it better. Isabel Saiz, who studied Law and Business Administration and Management (ADE), explains how studying Theology influenced her way of conceiving the world, and talks about the desire for God.

Rafael Miner-May 2, 2021-Reading time: 11 minutes

For centuries, several exclamations of St. Augustine have been known in his works, especially in the Confessions. One of them can be seen in many Catholic temples: "You made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you". Another is the famous "Late have I loved thee, late have I loved thee, O beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved thee! And behold, thou wast within me, and I was without, and without I sought thee; and deformed as I was, I threw myself upon these beautiful things which thou hast created. You were with me, but I was not with you".

When reviewing those phrases, a few days ago, I remembered a poem by Nietzsche, dedicated to the unknown God. There, when he was 20 years old, the German philosopher said in 1864: "I want to know you, Unknown One, you who delve into my soul, who furrows my life like a storm, you, ungraspable, my fellow man! I want to know you, I want to serve you". I have seen it commented by the professor of Theology, Ramiro Pellitero, collaborator of Omnes.

Pope Francis reflected a few years ago, on August 28, on the restlessness of St. Augustine, and said that "in these words is the synthesis of his whole life". And he asked himself: "What fundamental restlessness does Augustine live in his life? Or perhaps I should say rather: what restlessness does this great man and saint invite us to awaken and keep alive in our lives? I propose three: the restlessness of spiritual search, the restlessness of the encounter with God, the restlessness of love".

These days I have been engrossed in a book written by Fulgencio Espa, entitled A path to be discovered. Introduction to theologyby Ediciones Palabra. It is included in an ambitious collection directed by Professor Nicolás Alvarez de las Asturias, Seeking to understandbut could be called, for example, Theology for allor within everyone's reach. It is aimed at anyone interested in deepening their faith, without needing more initial formation than that received on the occasion of the reception of the sacraments of Christian initiation. There will be five volumes per year, until 2024.

TitleA path to be discovered. Introduction to theology
AuthorFulgencio Espa
Editorial: Word
Pages: 122
Year: 2021

Knowing the faith better

Some people used to say to St. Augustine: "I must understand in order to believe". And the holy Bishop of Hippo replied: "Believe in order to understand". In the end, as he himself acknowledged, "we both speak the truth. Let us agree. Indeed, "one believes in order to understand and one understands in order to believe. Theology is precisely that knowledge: the science dedicated to deepen the faith and its mysteries: the Trinity, Christ, grace, the Virgin, the Church...", writes Espa.

Increasingly, it is true that many lay people are looking for ways to come closer to the faith and to know it better. In parishes, in groups, with friends. There are materials available. For example, the Compendium of the Catechism of Christian Doctrine, many works... This Collection of the Word can be one of these aids.

"We have to have the courage to explain faith," said University of Notre Dame professor Tracey Rowland at an Omnes Forum a few days ago. Well, today we chat with Isabel Saiz Ros, who writes a couple of books in the Collection, on Theological Anthropology, and who will soon explain what that consists of.

This Madrilenian is a good example of a person with civil studies, Law and Business Administration, who works in a business consultancy, and who explains how studying Theology in Rome has "changed" her, to the point of obtaining the Baccalaureate of Theology with university rank, in this case at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

Before entering into the conversation, Isabel Saiz acknowledges at the outset: "It is true that this has meant a before and after in my way of conceiving the world... In this sense, I would love it if everyone could 'access' theology and make 'their personal discoveries'".

First of all, a brief review of its trajectory...

-I studied law and business administration mainly for a practical reason, thinking about the breadth of career opportunities. Maybe also because it was the fashionable career and because my parents have a business consultancy. I liked the career, although it cost me a lot (especially the number subjects).

As I progressed through my studies, it seemed to me that, on the one hand, I was more capable of understanding how the world we live in works: the reasons for economic crises, the functioning of political systems, the legal relationships behind each reality, etc. But, at the same time, the underlying ideas - the whys, let's say - that I managed to grasp in each subject seemed to me contradictory, biased and insufficient, sometimes too ideological.

Each teacher spoke according to his own way of understanding the world, his own vision of man, his personal philosophy or ideology. The great contrast I saw between the way of understanding the world that had been transmitted to me at home and the one I could perceive around me, fueled my desire for a deeper Christian formation, so I considered the possibility of going to Rome to study theology.

Certainly the study of Theology has exceeded my expectations, and by far.

What has studying theology brought you?

-Theological studies have given me a complete and unifying vision of reality. They make you able to see everything in unity, to build a clear story, with a beginning and an end, in which each piece fits. Dogmas are not as "dogmatic" as they seem, because they are "to a certain extent" explainable, morality is actually the way to become truly happy, evil can be explained and pain and suffering acquire a deep value and meaning... Theology allows you to acquire a knowledge that penetrates the reasons, to see reality with a new depth and beauty. In the end, you find the reason for everything in a God who is Love and whose Face is Christ.

At the same time, paradoxically, although it seems that "everything could be explained," in reality nothing can ever be fully explained. God seems to show Himself and to veil Himself at the same time. Theology has helped me to understand that the proper attitude to approach things is humility, for the Mystery can never be fully apprehended. Reasonableness and mystery go hand in hand.

In the classes they repeated a lot this idea that when a theologian reached a summit he always found a saint there. It is true, in order to enter into the mysteries of the merciful heart of God, theology is not enough, but prayer is also necessary. Doctrine and piety. Theology and personal relationship with Christ.

You also teach theology, can you tell Omnes visitors and readers about the interest you have found in teaching it to ordinary people, and the difficulties you encounter?

-I think that interest is something you have to know how to awaken and for that it is important to play the right keys. Although we may not express it in the same way or we may not be aware of it in the same way, in reality we all long for the same thing. To bring out that deep desire for God that we all have, it is important to know, on the one hand, what we men and women of today connect with, what worries us, what hurts us, what frightens us....

And also, on the other hand, the languages and ways to use to connect and transmit the message. Basically, it is to be able to know who you have in front of you and to get to know them. For example, when explaining Creation, you could start from evolutionism, since it is something we all understand, and from there, explain how God creates from nothing, which is perfectly compatible with evolutionism.

In this sense, the difficulties are exactly the same as those I may have. In order to be able to understand the faith in all its beauty and depth, one must start from an adequate philosophy, but philosophical formation is increasingly poor, so we must start from the bottom, from the basics, without taking anything for granted.

Interest is something you have to know how to awaken and for that it is important to play the right keys.

Isabel Saiz

The study of the Trinity, for example, is based on a series of philosophical concepts -substance, accident, person...-, which I need to know beforehand. One of the consequences of the loss of philosophical realism is the relativism in which - consciously or not - we live. This is another great difficulty, to come to understand that things are as they are, and I discover them.

In order to be intellectually open to know the faith, I have to start from the idea that it is a matter of making a journey to go deeper into the truth of things. The truths of faith are not just another vision of the world, a theory like any other, but realities that I am invited to discover.

What challenges do you perceive in trying to explain to people theological anthropology, of which you are going to publish a book? I don't think people know what it means?

-I believe that the great challenge in teaching theology is no different from the challenge facing the Church: to be able to show the true face of Christ to men and women of every time and place.

What was said above is valid for this. It is important to get to know the person in front of you and, starting from his conception of the world, try to show him Christ. It is a matter of connecting not only intellectually but also affectively: to reach the head and fill the heart.

Let's go to theological anthropology...

-When I told my family that I had been asked to collaborate in the preparation of a book on theological anthropology, one of my brothers asked me if theological anthropology consisted of studying how different peoples and cultures have seen and view God, the divinity.

I was amused because it is just the opposite. More than studying how men see God (what could be called "anthropological theology"), it is about deepening the vision of God towards man: it is about understanding the human being in all his depth and beauty, from God.

And this understanding passes through the study of the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God, created for happiness, which is identified with communion with the Creator, with the free response to God's love, with collaboration with Him in the perfection of the world, through their work and procreation.

And further down the road?

-Secondly, theological anthropology studies how, at the beginning of time, human beings freely decided to reject God. This sin committed at the beginning (original sin) explains evil, pain, death and the deep wounds that each of us can see in our heart, in our being: our difficulty to know what is good, to desire it and to realize it.

But God's love and mercy do not stop at this rejection of man; on the contrary, they lead God to give himself to him to the point of becoming man and dying on a cross, so that with his Life, Death and Resurrection man can once again be in communion with God, can once again become a child of God and participate in his eternal happiness.

It is about discovering that each one of us is called to happiness with capital letters.

Isabel Saiz

Theological anthropology delves into the meaning of the life of grace: that great gift that God has given us to make us his children, to make us sharers in his own life.

In Christ man discovers what he is called to, to communion with the Father through union with Him, to be truly man, woman, which is nothing other than allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into Christ. In Christ I can see what I am called to be, my best version, my fullest and most authentic self, and it is Christ himself who transforms me, through grace and my free collaboration.

 How could you synthesize it?

-In short, it is a matter of discovering that each one of us, despite our wounds and our weaknesses - and often thanks to them - is called to happiness with a capital letter, to communion with God, to the life of grace given to us in Christ.

 Comment on what comes to your mind about some current issues. It seems that the reception of the sacraments is decreasing, do we know what the sacraments are?

-The secularization of Western society -not only in Spain- is an indisputable fact. It is not surprising that the data reveal less and less affection for the Church and less religious practice. This is the trend in our societies, not for decades, but for centuries.

There are many studies that analyze the ultimate causes of this secularization, the philosophical roots that have caused the "paradigm shift", the passage from medieval "Christianitas" to modern secularism, passing through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Modernism, etc. I think it is necessary to know how things have been happening historically, how and why we have arrived at the society in which we live. But not so much to "look for culprits" and lament for a past that perhaps never existed, but to be able to understand today's world and today's man in all his depth. With its lights and shadows. With his weaknesses and his strengths. With his sins and his virtues. We cannot look at the past with regret, at the present with rejection and at the future with dread.

Perhaps knowing history also helps to relativize "the drama of secularism," which is not to deny it and look the other way, but to put it in its place. In every age, Christians have had to face a multitude of difficulties, misunderstandings and inconsistencies both "inside" and "outside. Christianity is scandalous because Christ is scandalous and always will be.

In some countries, persecution may follow.

-I believe that this situation of secularization, even intellectual, legislative and cultural persecution, can be an opportunity that God gives us for Christians in the West to rediscover precisely this, that persecution-whether violent and conspicuous or silent but even more insidious-is part of the Christian's life.

It is also a time for us to grow in trust in God, in hope. If we can no longer expect anything from social structures, from the State, from laws, we will have to expect it from God. And from a God who is the Lord of History and directs it. It can also be a good moment to grow in the responsibility that each one of us has to bring the world to God, to bring the world closer to God and God to the world, through our work, our prayer, our sincere dedication to all, our social concern, etc. Perhaps God will also allow this so that we go to the essential, so that we rediscover that what is truly important is my personal relationship with Christ.

I don't want to sound negative, but the interest of young people in religion is low, according to several studies..

-When I studied, religion was compulsory and counted for the average -which was an incentive to study it, which is not the case now. Religion teachers have it very difficult, they are real heroes because they have everything against them, especially in certain environments.

Photo: CNS

But all that effort is not in vain, as Pope Francis says in Evangelii GaudiumSince we do not always see these sprouts, we need an inner certainty and that is the conviction that God can act in any circumstance, even in the midst of apparent failures [...]. It is knowing with certainty that those who offer and give themselves to God out of love will surely be fruitful (cf. Jn 15:5). Such fruitfulness is often invisible, unsearchable, it cannot be counted. One knows well that his life will bear fruit, but without pretending to know how, or where, or when. He has the assurance that none of his labors carried out with love are lost, none of his sincere concern for others is lost, none of his acts of love for God are lost, no generous fatigue is lost, no painful patience is lost [...]" (Evangelii Gaudium, 279).. 

My experience is that the Christian proposal continues to fill with light the hearts of young people who encounter Him, sometimes in the most unexpected way. In any case, the "apparent failure" of religion classes, of catechesis, of the different ways and instruments to show Christ, serves as an apprenticeship and encourages us to think of new ways and means, to rethink, to reinvent ourselves again and again, which is not to say something different, but the same message in new ways. 

 And solidarity in our country is, however, high, and has been shown during the pandemic.

-I believe that we young people have been inculcated, in one way or another, with concern for the needy. At least that is my experience. I don't remember anyone telling me, right off the bat, "no, I'm not into that" or anything like that, to a proposal to do something as a volunteer. And of course it is incredible how many initiatives there are and are emerging, of all types and modalities, to try to help the needy in some way (from bringing hot coffee to the homeless to spending two months in Calcutta with the poorest of the poor).

The pandemic has also seen an explosion of solidarity: young people who have taken food to the most affected neighborhoods, non-practicing doctors who have volunteered to care for covid patients, even volunteers for clinical trials of vaccines, and so on. 

In this sense, the latest reflections of Pope Francis on universal fraternity in his encyclical "Fratelli Tutti", and his personal example of sincere and profound love for those most in need, are a continuous stimulus to look at others, not only those closest to me, but everyone.

We conclude our conversation with Isabel Saiz, whose positive and hopeful outlook is encouraging. You can read it in the collection Seeking to UnderstandEdiciones Palabra, directed, as mentioned above, by Professor Nicolás Alvarez de las Asturias. Through him, you will be able to contact the authors, among whom are, among others, José Manuel Horcajo, doctor in Theology as Fulgencio Espa, and parish priest also in Madrid.

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The Vatican

The seven invocations that the Pope added to the Litany of Saint Joseph

The Holy See today published the letter that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments sent to the episcopal conferences around the world to announce the introduction of seven new invocations in the Litany of St. Joseph.

Maria José Atienza-May 1, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

These invocations, as indicated by the letterThe Pope's speeches were taken from the interventions of the Popes who reflected on some aspects of the figure of the Patron of the universal Church. The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was the framework for this announcement, which is part of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as patron of the universal Church and the year dedicated to the Holy Patriarch.

New invocations

Lan invocations that will join the current ones are the following:

Custos Redemptoris (cf. St. John Paul II, Exhort. Apost. Redemptoris custos);

Serve Christi (cf. St. Paul VI, homily of 19-III-1966, cited in Redemptoris custos n. 8 y Patris corde n. 1);

Minister salutis (St. John Chrysostom, quoted in Redemptoris custos, n. 8);

Fulcimen in difficultatibus (cf. Francis, Apostolic Letter. Patris cordeforeword);

Patrone exsulum (Patris corde, n. 5).

Patrone afflictorum (Patris corde, n. 5).

Patrone pauperum (Patris corde, n. 5).

The letter further states that "it is up to the Bishops' Conferences to translate the Litanies into the languages of their competence and to publish them; such translations shall not require the confirmatio of the Apostolic See. According to their prudent judgment, the Conferences of Bishops may also insert, in the appropriate place and preserving the literary genre, other invocations with which St. Joseph is particularly honored in their countries."

Litanies to St. Joseph (Guiding translation)

Lord, have mercy on us

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ hear us.

Christ hear us.

God our heavenly Father, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Illustrious descendant of David, pray for us.

Light of the Patriarchs, pray for us.

Custodian of the Redeemer, pray for us.

Bridegroom of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Chaste guardian of the Virgin, pray for us.

Nourishing Father of the Son of God, pray for us.

Jealous defender of Christ, pray for us.

Servant of Christ, pray for us.

Minister of Salvation, pray for us

Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.

Joseph, most just, pray for us.

Joseph, most chaste, pray for us.

Joseph, most prudent, pray for us.

Joseph, most courageous, pray for us.

Joseph, most faithful, pray for us.

Mirror of patience, pray for us.

Lover of poverty, pray for us.

Model workers, pray for us.

Glory of domestic life, pray for us.

Custodian of Virgins, pray for us.

Column of families, pray for us.

Support in difficulties, pray for us.

Comfort of the unfortunate, pray for us.

Hope of the sick, pray for us.

Patron of exiles, pray for us.

Patron of the afflicted, pray for us.

Patron of the poor, pray for us.

Patron of the dying, pray for us.

Terror of demons, pray for us.

Protector of the Holy Church, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world: forgive us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world: hear us, O Lord,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
V.- Established him as master of his house.
A.- And head of his entire estate.

Let us pray: O God, who in your ineffable providence, deigned to choose St. Joseph as the Spouse of your Blessed Mother: grant, we pray, that we may merit to have as our intercessor in heaven the one whom we venerate as our protector on earth. Thou who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.

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ColumnistsRafael Palomino

Legalized" companies

Western societies are intensely juridified. State law invades everything. Citizens are crowding the courts, waiting for the oracle of justice to solve their problems.

May 1, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

A few years ago, many problems were solved without the need to go to a judge or a court of law. This was possible because there was a shared moral substratum. This is not the case today.

Religious groups cannot escape this juridification. And not because religions want it, but because what Carl Schmitt called "motorized legislation" (i.e. the unbridled production of state norms to fix everything) is present in sectors of civil society that were previously entrusted to the free arrangement of individuals and groups, including the religious sector.

That is why, in view of the judicial news that populates the press, I am increasingly convinced that churches do not only need fervent believers, exemplary ministers of worship or beautiful places of worship. They also need good lawyers. And no small dose of legal mindedness.

One example among many. On February 22, 2021, the Spanish Supreme Court had to rule, in the face of a resolution of the Spanish Data Protection Agency unfavorable to the Jehovah's Witnesses, on what specific personal data of a former member can be kept by a religious denomination. What is less important is the ruling, ratifying that only the minimum data can be kept so that the religious denomination can fulfill its purposes. What is more important is the substantive debate. That is to say: it could be argued, not without some foundation, that religions are autonomous or independent of State Law: they enjoy autonomy in the management of their internal affairs, the libertas ecclesiae that made its way in the Middle Ages against the temporal power. But at the same time, every action carried out by a religious group or a part of it has a juridical dimension that cannot be ignored, indeed, that must be taken into account... This leads us to a delicate operation of demarcation of competences between the sacred and the profane.

The authorRafael Palomino

Professor of State Ecclesiastical Law

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  • After the pandemic, what's next for the Church?
ColumnistsGreg Erlandson

After the pandemic, what's next for the Church?

As the United States struggles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, the Church in the United States is wondering what its future will look like. With many churches closed for months and attendance still down, some bishops fear that post-pandemic attendance could fall between 20% and 40%.

May 1, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

The bishops' concern in the U.S. has been heightened by a recent Gallup poll that showed that the percentage of Catholics who say they are members of the Church has fallen from 76% to 58% over the past 20 years, double the percentage drop for Protestants. 

And even before the pandemic, a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center suggested that as many as 70% of American Catholics believe that the bread and wine used for Communion are "symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ," contrary to Church teaching. 

It's not all bleak. The Vatican's Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church says that in 2019 the United States was fourth in baptized Catholics, including children under the age of seven, and tied for the lead in priestly ordinations, along with India. Cross-sectional studies show a decline in sacramental marriages and baptisms, and there is no doubt that the Catholic Church in the United States faces growing challenges as it struggles to maintain a large infrastructure of parishes, schools and hospitals. 

According to the Gallup poll, church membership of any kind in the U.S. has declined dramatically over the past 20 years, an unprecedented drop below 50% for the first time and extending across all demographic groups. At the same time, the number of "nones" - those with no religious affiliation - is growing, with nearly one-third of those under 35 in this category. This suggests that there are broader cultural forces affecting all religious groups. 

The Church's response is the subject of much debate. Although the bishops struggle with their own divisions, they seem to be united in their desire to focus greater attention on the Eucharist as a necessary starting point. The auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, Robert Barron, has been encouraging a Eucharistic renaissance and a greater evangelization effort. 

Barron, who called the results of the Pew Survey a "a massive failure on the part of Catholic educators and catechists, preachers and teachers", has also expressed concern about the ideological divisions that divide the American Church. The difficult challenge facing U.S. Church leaders as they attempt to chart a post-pandemic future is to find a way to renew the Church internally and engage with an increasingly secular and diverse public culture. 

One point of encouragement: The U.S. Church is not alone. Pope Francis and many Church leaders in developed countries are also trying to address what the Pope calls this "change of era".

The authorGreg Erlandson

Journalist, author and editor. Director of Catholic News Service (CNS)

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Pope's teachings

The Pope in March. Letting oneself be resurrected to be a witness of mercy

April began during Holy Week. It moved forward in awe, between the cross and the resurrection. Amazement before the Lord's surrender, the strength of his life now with us, and his mercy, which is poured out through his wounds, always open for us for all.

Ramiro Pellitero-May 1, 2021-Reading time: 5 minutes

The pandemic, the social and economic crisis and armed conflicts continue, Francis reminded in his message urbi et orbi. But in the risen Christ is our wonder and our hope. He urges us to allow ourselves to rise with him to a new life (more coherent from now on), to a life of witness and mercy. 

Awe and confidence before the cross

Already during the Palm Sunday liturgy, as an introduction to the whole celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the Pope had expressed, and proposed to all, a sense of wonder for "the fact that he comes to glory by the way of humiliation." (homily 28-III-2021). "God is with us in every wound, in every fear. No evil, no sin has the last word. God wins, but the palm of victory passes through the wood of the cross. 

That's why the palms and the cross are together." (ibid.). This is why we must ask for the grace of wonder; without it, Christian life becomes gray and tends to take refuge in legalism and clericalism. We must overcome routine, remorse, dissatisfaction and, above all, lack of faith. We need to open ourselves to the gift of the Spirit, to that "grace of wonder". Astonishment at discovering that we are loved by God, that we are loved by God, that we are loved by God, that we are loved by God. "knows how to fill even dying with love". (ibid.).

On Holy Wednesday, Pope Francis presented the celebration of the Paschal Mystery - in the context of these days - as a renewal or reliving "the way of the innocent Lamb slain for our salvation." (general audience, 31-III-2021). 

The following day, at the Chrism Mass, he explained the necessity of the cross, as Jesus manifested in his preaching, in his life and in his self-giving, "the hour of joyful proclamation and the hour of persecution and the Cross go together." (homily, April 1, 2011). As a consequence, the Pope proposed, especially for the priests present, two reflections. In the first place, the presence of the Cross as a horizon, "before" those unfortunate events were unleashed, as an "a priori" (something prophesied and foreseen, accepted, assumed and embraced). And not as a mere consequence or collateral damage determined by circumstances. "No. The cross is always present, from the beginning. In the cross there is no ambiguity." (ibid.).

"We will be amazed at how the
God's greatness is revealed in the
smallness, how its beauty shines
in the simple and the poor".

Secondly, if it is true that the cross is an integral part of our human condition and of our fragility, the cross also contains the bite of the serpent, the poison of the evil one who seeks to do away with the Lord. But what he achieves, as St. Maximus the confessor explains, is the opposite. For in encountering infinite meekness and obedience to the will of the Father, it became a poison for the devil and an antidote that neutralizes his power over us.

In short: "There is a Cross in the proclamation of the Gospel, it is true, but it is a Cross that saves.". Therefore, we should not be frightened or scandalized by the cries and threats of those who do not want to hear the Word of God; nor should we pay any attention to the legalists who would like to reduce it to moralism or clericalism. For the proclamation of the Gospel receives its efficacy not from our words, but from the power of the cross (cf. 2 Cor 1:5; 4:5). For this reason we must also have recourse to prayer, knowing that "to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for, but he does it in his divine way.". And that is not masochism, but love to the end.

"Go to Galilee": to start again

In the Gospel, and also in our lives, all this leads to the Easter invitation: "He goes ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him." (Mk 16:7). "What does it mean for us to go to Galilee?"Francis asked in his homily at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday (April 3, 2011).

Going to Galilee means three things for us. First of all, to always start again, despite failures and defeats, from the rubble of the heart, even after these dark months of the pandemic, never to lose hope, because God can build with us a new life, a new history. 

Third, it means going to the frontiers: to those who have difficulties in their daily lives., their enthusiasm or resignation, their smiles and tears: "We will be amazed at how God's greatness is revealed in littleness, how His beauty shines in the simple and the poor.". And so we will be able to break down barriers, overcome prejudices, overcome fears, discover "the grace of the everyday".

Be merciful and become merciful

The risen Christ appears to his disciples. He consoles and strengthens them. They are "merciful" and become merciful. They are merciful "by means of three gifts: first Jesus offers them peace, then the Spirit, and finally the wounds." (homily on the Second Sunday of Easter, April 11, 2011).

Jesus brings them peace, peace of heart, which makes them move from remorse to mission. "It is not tranquility, it is not comfort, it is going out of oneself. The peace of Jesus frees from the paralyzing closures, breaks the chains that imprison the heart.". He does not condemn or humiliate them. He believes in them more than they believe in themselves; "He loves us more than we love ourselves." (St. John Henry Newman).

"The peace of Jesus frees from the
paralyzing closures,
breaks the chains that
imprison the heart".

He gives them the Holy Spirit and, with Him, the forgiveness of sins. This helps us to understand that "at the center of Confession is not us with our sins, but God with his mercy." (ibid.). It is the sacrament of the resurrection: pure mercy. 

He offers them his wounds. "The wounds are open channels between Him and us, pouring mercy on our miseries." (ibid.). At every Mass we adore and kiss those wounds that heal and strengthen us. And there the Christian way always begins again, to give something new to the world. 

They used to argue about who would be the greatest. Now they have changed because they have discovered that they have in common the Body of Christ and, with Him, forgiveness and mission. And so they are not afraid to heal the wounds of those in need. And Francis encourages us to ask ourselves if we are merciful or, on the contrary, if we live a "half-belief". To let ourselves be resurrected in order to be witnesses of mercy. 

Overcoming the virus of indifference

In the same vein, the Pope encouraged the bishops of Brazil - one of the largest episcopal conferences in the Church - to be instruments of unity. Unity that is not uniformity, but harmony and reconciliation. 

In a video message on April 15, he urged them to "work together to overcome not only the coronavirus, but also another virus, which has long been infecting humanity: the virus of indifference, which is born of selfishness and generates social injustice."

"Working together to overcome not
only coronavirus, but also
the virus of indifference, which
is born of selfishness and generates
social injustice".

The challenge - he reminded them - is great; but with the words of St. Paul, the Lord "he did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of fortitude, charity and temperance." (2 Tim 1:7). And there, in the risen Jesus, in his forgiveness and his strength, is our hope. 

To be open to wonder before the life of Christ and to rise with Him, beginning again through the confession of sins. And to be witnesses of love and mercy that transforms life. Such is the proposal for this Easter in hard times.

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ColumnistsMauro Leonardi

Orientation in networks

May 1, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute

Social networks - I am referring to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch... - are companies with the goal of making business by collecting our information. The discovery of this truth can push us to instinctive reactions that are completely ineffective. It happened months ago worldwide, for example, when millions of users decided to abandon WhatsApp to subscribe to other applications such as Telegram or Signal: in doing so, however, they did not reflect on the fact that the logic of algorithms is the same. And so? How to survive algorithms by using them to our advantage? How to take advantage of the enormous potential of technology without falling into the traps it presents? Many books try to answer this very topical dilemma.

I suggest, first of all, to check on the web what followers the author has. "Where there are truck drivers you can never go wrong"This saying to indicate the quality of the restaurant has always been effective. Only those who use the web know how to explain how to stay on it without getting trapped.

The second criterion is evangelical. Our age, increasingly interconnected, opens new frontiers for sharing positive, educational and, therefore, also evangelical content. Christ must be brought to every creature and in the world of social networks live millions of people, many of them young people. 

And here is the third criterion for choosing books that can help us: a healthy critical spirit. We need that balance in which the author explains that not everything is good but not everything is bad either, and for this he tells with sincerity his recipe for using social networks. With an intelligent guide we will learn to remain free to think for ourselves without plagiarizing our thoughts and actions: willing to move as protagonists in the social universe.

The authorMauro Leonardi

Priest and writer.

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TribuneJosé Carlos Martín de la Hoz

The first 500 years of the Gospel in the Philippines

In 1521, five hundred years ago, the first Mass was celebrated in the Philippines, beginning a process of evangelization that would bear great fruit both in that country and elsewhere in Asia and around the world. The author explains the historical significance of this date.

May 1, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

On March 31, 1521, Easter Sunday, the first Mass was celebrated in the Philippines, and since then the Word of God has spread throughout those islands, to successive generations and in the lands of the Far East, up to the present day. The words of Sacred Scripture have been fulfilled to the letter: "By their fruits ye shall know them." (Lk 6:43), because there are not only faithful communities of Filipinos in the archipelago, but throughout the world, evangelizing so many nations with their example and their word. 

Pope Francis wanted to join in the joy of the whole Church with a solemn Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter's Basilica on March 14. In his homily he wanted to highlight two great features of that evangelizing task, which involved the whole Church in Spain.

First, he referred to joy and trust in God as part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which have taken root in the soul of the Filipino people: "You have received the joy of the Gospel: that God so loved us that he gave his Son for us. And this joy is seen in your people, in your eyes, faces, songs and prayers.". Immediately, he pointed out how the call of Jesus Christ to preach to all nations soon found an echo in the Filipino people, who from the beginning became the missionary people of Asia, and expressed his gratitude: "I want to thank you for the joy you bring to the whole world and to Christian communities.". 

(CNS photo/Cristian Gennari)

There were two very significant events in the ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica: the representatives of the Church in the Philippines went on pilgrimage to Rome with the Santo Niño of Cebu and with the processional cross that they took to the Magellanic Islands. Precisely, the evangelization of those islands was characterized by the impulse of devotions and popular piety: invocations of the Virgin in all the cities, to St. Joseph, to the saints, as well as the constitution of confraternities. Regarding the processional cross of Magallanes, it is a gesture of gratitude to Spain and, specifically, to the Patronato de Indias, which mobilized the material means and people to bring the faith to the Philippines by sending missionaries of the regular and secular clergy, and works of art, altarpieces, gold and silver work, to decorate the first Christian temples with dignity, as well as the construction of hospitals, orphanages and asylums for the elderly. Likewise, the name Magellan recalls the Spanish sailors who led the ships to those remote lands and who, thanks to Legazpi and Urdaneta, found the sea currents that made it possible to open a maritime route from Mexico to Manila in 1565.

Since then, evangelization gained new momentum and missionaries from various religious orders arrived from Spain, via Mexico: the Augustinians, who in 1572 had already built their first convent in Manila; and in 1579, the Franciscans. In 1579 the first episcopal see was erected in Manila and the first bishop of the archipelago, the Dominican Fray Domingo de Salazar, was consecrated. 

Finally, the Jesuits arrived in the archipelago. By the end of the 16th century there were already almost five hundred missionaries from different orders working alongside priests of the secular clergy. The evangelizing method they followed was the same that had been implemented in America years before: the call of the twelve apostles, consisting of learning the language of the natives and their customs and, immediately, speaking to them directly about Jesus Christ and his saving doctrine, to finally invite them to believe in Him and, if they did, to prepare themselves to receive baptism, and then the other sacraments. In the middle of the 17th century, there were two million native Christians in the Philippines.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II, in his Pastoral Exhortation Redemptoris missio, the various steps of evangelization up to the establishment of the diocesan Church, the application of the Tridentine Decrees, the establishment of diocesan synods and the first diocesan seminaries. 

The high positions that governed those lands -virreyes, presidents of the Audiencias, governors- were selected by the Council of the Indies among honest people of good intellectual level and, after a few years, they returned to Spain after being submitted to the so-called judgment of residence. Thanks to these mechanisms and other experiences incorporated into the laws of the Indies, it must be recognized that it was a much less controversial colonization than the American one.

On the other hand, the laws of the Indies were applied according to the spirit of the testament of Isabella the Catholic, and the natives were treated as true free men and subjects of the crown of Castile, evangelized according to the requirements of the donation of Pope Alexander VI in the Bulls. Inter Coetera 1503 to the Catholic Monarchs. Finally, another milestone in the evangelization of the Philippines, in continuity with that of America, was the early erection (1611) of the University of Santo Tomas de Manila, a sign of the importance given to university education and literacy.

The authorJosé Carlos Martín de la Hoz

Member of the Academy of Ecclesiastical History. Professor of the master's degree in the Causes of Saints of the Dicastery, advisor to the Spanish Episcopal Conference and director of the office of the Causes of Saints of Opus Dei in Spain.

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EditorialOmnes

Euthanasia. Running to one's own destruction.

May 1, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

At the same time that children and adults applauded the health workers from the balconies, while doctors and nurses were described as heroes, at the very moment when the struggle for life, for health, seemed to be the center of concern in Spain, the government approved, through the back door and with worrying haste, the law on euthanasia, raising assisted death to the category of a right. The approval of a law with the characteristics of the Spanish one is worrying from all angles and, therefore, its approval, apart from being a failure, should be considered, for all those who recognize the dignity of the human being, an incentive to continue changing the utilitarian and "throwaway" framework that gives rise to a law of these characteristics. 

The entry into force of the new law on euthanasia not only decriminalizes the option of taking one's own life (which means euthanasia, even if the expression is more aseptic than throwing oneself out of a window) but, by considering it a right to a service, transforms the "right to die" into an action for which the State must provide the means, both material and "formative". It is shocking if one takes into account the fact that, in Spain, palliative care has no law to protect it: the elimination of life is considered a right, while the care and protection of life is at the mercy of "the market". Today, the development of palliative medicine and palliative care completely shatters the idea that death is accompanied by suffering. Compassion is shown by helping not to suffer and not by helping to die. In fact, as the president of the College of Physicians of Madrid, Manuel Martínez Sellés, points out, "the problem is that the population is being presented with the duality of euthanasia or suffering. But that is not the duality.

Sick hands

Those who consider life as a gift that deserves to be cared for and respected from beginning to end are now faced with the exciting challenge of working to change the current frameworks of interpretation with which public opinion works on this issue. These frameworks of interpretation include such delicate points as the approach to compassion, the concept of "dignified life", the trivialization of death, the commercialization of life or the consideration that progress is nothing more than a mad race to conquer supposed individual rights. In the words of Professor Torralba, "we must all be moved by the conviction that there are truths such as the value of life, which society should not forget". 

Forcing doctors and health professionals to work for death and not for the care and improvement of life seriously injures the spinal cord of a healthy and truly humane society whose characteristic should be the attention, care and promotion of the weakest. 

As described by one of Omnes' collaborators, Javier Segura, "those who throw the weakest as a burden will walk faster, they may even run, but they will do so towards their own destruction".

The authorOmnes

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The Vatican

The Vatican procedural system will be the same for everyone

Cardinals and bishops will be judged by the Tribunal of Vatican City State, like everyone else, eliminating the possibility of recourse to a Court of Cassation presided over by a cardinal as in the past.

Maria José Atienza-May 1, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

The Holy See has published a new Motu proprio of Pope Francis, effective May 1, which modifies the judicial system of Vatican City State.

The change occurs in Article 24 of the ordinance, which provided that cardinals and bishops accused of criminal offenses in the Vatican State could appeal to the Court of Cassation.

From now on they will be judged by the Tribunal of Vatican City State, like everyone else. The need for the prior authorization of the Pontiff to bring cardinals and bishops to trial remains in force, however.

The Pope himself has recalled in the publication of this Motu Proprio the words pronounced last March 27 during the Opening of the Judicial Year and in which he appealed to the need to establish a system of "equality of all members of the Church and their equal dignity and position, without privileges".

Text of the Motu Proprio

According to the Conciliar Constitution Lumen GentiumIn the Church all are called to holiness and have attained to the same faith through the justice of God; in fact, "there is an authentic equality among all in the dignity and action common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ" (n. 32). (n. 32). The Constitution Gaudium et Spes also affirms that "all men ... have the same nature and the same origin. And because they are redeemed by Christ, they enjoy the same vocation and the same destiny" (n. 29). This principle is fully recognized in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which states in canon 208: "there is among all the faithful ... a true equality in dignity and action...".

The awareness of these values and principles, which has progressively matured in the ecclesial community, demands today an ever more adequate conformity with them also in the Vatican order.

In this regard, in my recent address at the opening of the Judicial Year, I wanted to recall "the priority need that - also through appropriate normative changes - in the current procedural system the equality of all members of the Church and their equal dignity and position come to the surface, without privileges that date back to other times that are no longer in keeping with the responsibilities that correspond to each one in the aedificatio Ecclesiae. This requires solidity in faith and consistency in behavior and actions.".

On the basis of these considerations, and without prejudice to what is provided for in universal law for some specific cases expressly indicated, it is now necessary to proceed with some further modifications to the judicial system of the Vatican City State, also to guarantee to all an articulated trial of multiple degrees in line with the dynamics followed by the most advanced legal experience at the international level.

Having said this, with this Apostolic Letter in the form of a Motu Proprio, decree that:

1. In the Law on the Judicial Order of 16 March 2020, n. CCCLI, in art. 6, the following paragraph is added after paragraph 3: "4. In causes involving the Most Eminent Cardinals and the Most Excellent Bishops, outside the cases provided for in canon 1405 § 1, the tribunal judges with the prior assent of the Supreme Pontiff";

2. In the Law on the Judicial Order of 16 March 2020, n. CCCLI, art. 24 is repealed.

I so decree and establish, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary.

I decree that this Apostolic Letter in the form of a Motu Proprio be promulgated by publication in L'Osservatore Romano and enter into force on the following day.

Given at Rome, from the Apostolic Palace, on April 30, 2021, the ninth year of my Pontificate.

Franciscus

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Initiatives

Tui Vigo releases a musicalized version of Patris Corde

The Liturgy Delegation of the Galician diocese has prepared a prayer set to music with texts from the apostolic letter Patris Corde of Pope Francis.

Maria José Atienza-May 1, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute
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This work has been carried out by the prefect of music of the Cathedral of Tui, Daniel Goberna, with the collaboration of María Mendoza in the arrangements and several young diocesan parishioners and the Colegio San José de Cluny in the recording.

The Vigo parish of St. Joseph the Worker and St. Rita will be the setting for this presentation during the Eucharist that will be presided over on Saturday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. by Bishop Luis Quinteiro Fiuza, Bishop of Tui-Vigo. Luis Quinteiro Fiuza, Bishop of Tui-Vigo.

It is not the only action around the year dedicated to the Holy Patriarch in the Galician diocese. In addition to 5 temples dedicated to St. Joseph, the Pastoral Vicariate has dedicated the entire month of March to pray the prayer recommended by the Pope. And so, during the 31 days of March, the text has been published accompanied by one of the images of the holy patriarch among those venerated in the diocese of Tui Vigo.

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Integral ecology

Martínez-Sellés: "The deadlines of the euthanasia law are accelerated".

The Spanish euthanasia law has been drafted "behind the back of the medical profession", and "the deadlines are very short, accelerated", said Dr. Manuel Martínez-Sellés at an online meeting of the Centro Académico Romano Fundación (CARF).

Rafael Miner-April 30, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes
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The regulation of euthanasia that will come into force on June 25 "will mean a breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship of trust", and has been prepared "behind the back of the medical profession", by being processed "without consulting the doctors", said the dean of the College of Physicians of Madrid, Dr. Manuel Martínez-Sellés, in an online meeting organized by the CARF on "The truth about euthanasia".

"It is also surprising that the procedures provided for in the law are so accelerated," said Martínez-Sellés, who is head of Cardiology at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid. In his opinion, "all the deadlines that are given are very short". For example, two days are prescribed to the physician between the first request for what the law calls "assistance in dying" and "a deliberative process" on the diagnosis, therapeutic possibilities and expected results, as well as on "possible palliative care," a specialty that does not exist in Spain or in the Netherlands, he stressed.

The dean of Madrid physicians reiterated that euthanasia "is not a medical act. We are not in the business of killing, but of curing", and the law goes "against the very essence of medicine". He also recalled that the World Medical Association has condemned euthanasia and assisted suicide, "most recently in October 2019." "We physicians must remain faithful to our Hippocratic oath," concluded Manuel Martínez-Sellés before answering the numerous questions from those attending the meeting, which was attended by nearly 700 people.

In the May issue of Omnes Dr. Martínez-Sellés' statements are included, especially in relation to conscientious objection. The Madrid dean considers "a blacklist of euthanasia objectors" to be "unacceptable". In his opinion, "conscientious objection is obviously recognized. What worries us are the possible consequences of this conscientious objection, that is what I find most worrying, the Register of objectors, we do not know what consequences it could have, and we are analyzing proposals".

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Latin America

The Church beatifies José Gregorio Hernández, the "doctor of the poor".

The Venezuelan doctor José Gregorio Hernández, known as the "doctor of the poor", to whom there is great devotion in the country, will be beatified today, April 30. Cardinal Parolin will not be able to attend because of the pandemic.

Rafael Miner-April 30, 2021-Reading time: 8 minutes

As announced by the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV), the beatification ceremony of Venerable Dr. José Gregorio Hernández will take place on April 30 at the university stadium of the Central University of Venezuela. The beatification mass will be presided over by Monsignor Aldo Giordano, Apostolic Nuncio in Venezuela. Yesterday, the Pope named him Co-Patron of the Cycle of Studies in Peace Sciences of the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome.

The ceremony will not be attended by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, who "for reasons of force majeure," according to a communiqué from the Holy See Press Office, "linked above all to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not be able to travel to Venezuela, as was his wish, on the occasion of the beatification of the Venerable Servant of God José Gregorio Hernández."

The Cardinal hopes that this event "will contribute to deepen the faith of Venezuelans and their Christian life, in imitation of the new Blessed, to face together the humanitarian crisis and to promote plural and peaceful coexistence".

At the press conference held at the headquarters of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Baltazar Porras, Archbishop of Merida, Apostolic Administrator of Caracas and President of the National Commission for the Beatification of Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez, explained that the Apostolic Letter signed by Pope Francis, set the date for the liturgical celebration of Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez as October 26 of each year, which coincides with the date of his birth and that "it is already a tradition for Venezuelans to celebrate him on that day".

More than 70 years of process

On June 19, 2020, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree with the authorization of Pope Francis for the beatification of Venerable Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, the fourth Venezuelan Blessed. More than 70 years have passed since the beginning of the process of beatification and canonization of the "doctor of the poor", in 1949, by the then Archbishop of Caracas, Monsignor Lucas Guillermo Castillo.

Subsequently, on January 16, 1986, José Gregorio Hernández was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II. Already under the pontificate of Pope Francis, on January 9, 2020, the Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, approved the miracle attributed to his intercession, the healing of a girl hit by a bullet in the head, shot by men who wanted to rob her father. The same happened on April 27, 2020 with the Theological Commission.

The beatification of José Gregoria Hernández should mean "a transformation for the Venezuelan people".

Bishop Tulio Ramirez. Vice-postulator of the case

Tulio Ramirez, vice-postulator of the Cause, pointed out that the beatification should mean "a transformation for the Venezuelan people", since he is a reference of peace for all. He emphasized the spiritual sense of the Beatification ceremony, and the importance of "not remaining a festive act; the transcendence that this act carries with it is very essential for the conversion of the heart".

Surrender to others

Dr. Hernandez's career has been summarized as "a life dedicated to the people he cared for", especially at the time of the epidemic known as 'Spanish flu', whom he supported with his dedication and for whom he gave his life. Born in 1864, he was run over by a car as he was leaving a pharmacy in Caracas on June 29, 1919, where he had bought medicines for an elderly patient.

Cardinal Baltazar Porras pointed out that "the beatification comes at the most opportune moment", "in the midst of a global crisis and a pandemic that highlights the weakness of the human condition and the need to care for and preserve integral health, there is no better balm than to have recourse to the intercession of the doctor of the poor (...). José Gregorio is at this time the best point of convergence of all Venezuelans, without distinction of any kind. He summons us to work together for the good of the people".

Reproduced below is an article and interview published in Palabra by Marcos Pantin in 2013.

Dr. José Gregorio Hernández: a man of science and a doctor of the poor.

The life of every saint points to a path that leads to God. When that life is so normal that it could well be mine, my neighbor's or that of millions of Christians, the saint can drag us with him on the road to God. And if he exercises this influence today, it is well said that he is a saint of today.

In these lights we can appreciate the life of Venerable José Gregorio Hernández, a Venezuelan physician who died in 1919. His cause for beatification was opened in 1949 and Blessed John Paul II approved the Decree of the heroicity of his virtues in 1986.

Msgr. Fernando Castro AguayoAuxiliary Bishop of Caracas and current Vice Postulator of the Cause of Beatification gives us some information about the life of the venerable servant of God.

Monsignor, how can you draw a profile of Dr. José Gregorio Hernández?

-The life of Dr. Hernandez is very rich. It can be said that he excelled in the practice of medicine as a service. He attended rich and poor, and he treated all with the same dedication, even making use of his personal assets in favor of the neediest. José Gregorio Hernández has been recognized in every way: as a citizen who rendered admirable services to his country, as a medical professional, as an academic and rigorous man of science, and above all as a man of faith who practiced the Christian life heroically in every moment of his life.

A professor of great stature and a lover of the university, he was always a tireless physician with a deep vocation for service. Dr. Razetti affirms "As a practical physician, Dr. Hernandez has had in Caracas one of the most brilliant clientele and his patients have a special affection for him because of the gentleness of his character, the culture of his manners and the interest with which he attends his patients", and then he praises, with affectionate envy, his accurate diagnoses.

Being a rigorous academic and scientist, how did he harmonize his science and his faith?

-Everyone who knows the life of Dr. Hernandez is attracted by his manhood, his citizenship and his Christian life. He is an example of faith in Jesus Christ and of availability to God in the exercise of his profession, promoting medical science, in the midst of the theories and scientific advances of the time.

The most complimentary testimonies come from his scientific colleagues, many of them won over to materialistic positivism and atheistic evolutionism. Luis Razetti, a physician and researcher of international stature, with whom he became close friends when they started medical research in Venezuela, stated: "Even though Dr. Hernandez and I belong to diametrically opposed philosophical schools, a sincere friendship has always united us and I have been pleased at all times to proclaim the indisputable merits he possesses as a professor, as a man of science and as a citizen of immaculate conduct". And Dr. Rafael Caldera adds: "It would be enough to read the judgments about Hernandez, of most of the most renowned scientific values of his time to see how they considered miraculous that a man of so many and so versed knowledge in experimental sciences could be a Christian.

So renowned as a physician and scientist, what is his reputation for sainthood?

-Devotion to Dr. José Gregorio Hernández is extremely widespread. In the middle and popular sectors of Venezuela, practically, 90% have turned to his intercession, and approximately 10 or 15% claim to have received some favor or miracle through his intercession. In the public hospital or in the modern private clinic, there is no lack of prayer cards for private devotion, at the patient's bedside, in the nurses' station or in the Intensive Care Unit.

People gather outside the church in Caracas, Venezuela, where the remains of Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros rest, Oct. 26, 2020. Hernandez, a Venezuelan doctor known for treating hundreds of poor patients for free and who died in 1919, will be beautified in Caracas April 30. (CNS photo/Fausto Torrealba, Reuters)

The fame of sanctity of Dr. Hernandez is touched from the moment of his death. A doctor of the poor, he was laid to rest with the honors of a professor in the auditorium of the University. From there he was taken to the Cathedral. After the funeral, he was carried on his shoulders to the Cemetery. The news flies through the streets and the moved city waits in front of the temple. In the cathedral the people shouted at the doors: "Doctor Hernandez is ours...! When the coffin came out, the people snatched it from the students who were carrying it and there was no way to avoid it". It was the most crowded and sincere funeral procession ever recorded in Caracas.

If his devotion is so widespread, shouldn't the cause for his beatification be moving faster?

-It is surprising the abundance of favors obtained through the intercession of José Gregorio Hernández. However, the reason why he has not yet reached the altars is that everyone considers him a saint and few feel the obligation or desire to put in writing the miracles or favors they receive through his intercession.

What can you tell us about your work as Vice Postulator?

-Since a year ago I have been appointed Vice Postulator of the Cause. During this time many small communities have been created in different parts of Venezuela that are committed to pray, spread devotion to the Servant of God and collect the necessary data to support the miracles.

In addition, a new impulse has been given to the Cause with the printing of four million stamps for private devotion that are being distributed throughout Venezuela and some countries of America.

And what is expected from the diffusion of the print as an evangelizing element?

-First of all, the prayer of the prayer card is addressed to Our Lord Jesus Christ so that He may grant a favor through the intercession of the Servant of God. Then, we hope that the use of the prayer card will encourage prayer in the family, among neighbors and friends, that is, communal prayer. And thirdly, through the prayer card we aspire to collect data to support the miracles and introduce them to the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Is it easy to keep the general fervor for the Physician of the Poor within the canons of private devotion?

-For many people who have a devotion to Joseph Gregory, it has been a real discovery to see that the prayer on the prayer card is addressed to Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and mankind. This reference has been a very important evangelizing element. It has oriented many simple people who possibly take the devotion to Dr. Hernandez in a somewhat superstitious way. This insistence on directing private prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ has helped them to rekindle their faith, because personal and community prayer directed to Jesus Christ is always a source of good and orients man to the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of humanity and Lord of History.

How does the Venezuelan Hierarchy support this promotion of the Cause of Beatification?

-Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop of Caracas, last October addressed a rather extensive pastoral letter in which he underlines the heroic life of the Venerable, gives guidelines for a righteous devotion and encourages the Catholic people of Venezuela and other countries to collect the data to support the miracle required for beatification.

This pronouncement is very timely. It comes to light at the beginning of the Year of Faith. Certainly, the beatification of Dr. José Gregorio Hernández would be a great good for Venezuela because it would recognize the sanctity of an honest citizen, a rigorous scientist, a man of faith and diligent charity, very Creole, very Venezuelan, who lived the Christian life to the last consequences.

José Gregorio Hernández

Born in Isnotú (Venezuelan Andes) on October 26, 1864. He received his Doctorate in Medicine in Caracas in 1888. In 1889 he was sent to Europe to specialize and bring to Venezuela the latest advances in Medicine. For two years he worked in the laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. He accumulated experience in Berlin and Madrid where he received academic recognition.

In 1891 he brings to Venezuela the equipment to build the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine of the Central University. Founded three new university chairs and the Institute of Experimental Medicine. Founding member of the National Academy of Medicine, however, he maintains the medical practice, hospital care and university teaching.

He died in Caracas on Sunday, June 29, 1919, run over by an automobile during his usual round of visits to the sick poor.

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Photo Gallery

St. Joseph who has accompanied two Popes

The image, the work of sculptor Enrico Nell Breuning, was in St. Peter's with Pope Pacelli in 1956 and has accompanied Francis on several occasions. The image belongs to the Christian Association of Italian Workers.

Maria José Atienza-April 29, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute
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The Vatican

New Vatican anti-corruption law: gifts of more than 40 euros banned

Pope Francis has issued a new apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio with new anti-corruption measures for the leadership of the Curia.

David Fernández Alonso-April 29, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes
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"He who is faithful in a little is faithful also in much; he who is unjust in a little is unjust also in much" (cf. Lk 16:10). With this verse begins the Apostolic Letter in the form of a motu proprio of Pope Francis with some provisions on transparency in the management of public finances. It sets the tone for the reforms being carried out in the economic and financial sphere of the Holy See.

A new "anti-corruption law

With this new "anti-corruption law," the Pope requires all employees at managerial levels of the Holy See, and all those in active administrative, jurisdictional or control functions, to sign a declaration assuring that they have not received any final convictions, that they are not subject to pending criminal proceedings or investigations for corruption, fraud, terrorism, money laundering, exploitation of minors and tax evasion.

Likewise, the motu proprio requires these persons not to have cash or investments in countries with a high risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, in tax havens or holdings in companies that operate contrary to the Social Doctrine of the Church.

A commitment of Francis

This measure is a consequence of the tireless work being carried out to achieve greater transparency in Vatican finances, and the commitment that the pontificate of Francis has proposed in this area.

The new law is in line with that of May 19, 2020, when Pope Francis promulgated the new public procurement code. It was necessary, the Pope explains, because corruption "can manifest itself in different modalities and forms, even in sectors other than public procurement, and for this reason the regulations and best practices at the international level provide for those who perform key functions in the public sector particular obligations of transparency in order to prevent and combat, in each sector, conflicts of interest, clientelistic modalities and corruption in general." For this reason, the Holy See, which has acceded to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, "has decided to conform to best practices in order to prevent and combat" this phenomenon "in its various forms."

The Holy See has adhered to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, "has decided to conform to best practices to prevent and combat" this phenomenon in its various forms.

The measures

Pope Francis has therefore decided to to add articles to the General Regulations of the Roman CuriaThe new system, with a measure that concerns all those at the functional levels, from cardinal heads of dicasteries to vice-directors with five-year management contracts, and all those with active jurisdictional administration or control and supervision functions, will have to sign a declaration at the time of hiring and every two years thereafter, so as to ensure commitment to good practices. They will have to sign a declaration at the time of hiring and every two years thereafter, so as to ensure commitment to good practices.

In addition, they are required to testify that they have not been convicted by a final judgment, either in the Vatican or in other States, and that they have not benefited from a pardon, amnesty or grace, and have not been acquitted due to statute of limitations. In addition, they must also declare that they are not subject to pending criminal proceedings or investigations for participation in a criminal organization, corruption, fraud, terrorism, laundering of proceeds of crime, exploitation of minors, trafficking or exploitation of human beings, tax evasion or avoidance.

Transparency statement

They must also declare that they do not hold, even through intermediaries, cash or investments or shares in companies or enterprises in countries included in the list of jurisdictions with a high risk of money laundering (unless their family members are resident or domiciled for proven family, work or study reasons).

They must guarantee, to the best of their knowledge, that all goods, movable and immovable, owned or held by them, as well as remuneration of any kind they receive, come from licit activities. Also significant is the request to "not have" shares or "interests" in companies or enterprises that operate for purposes contrary to the Social Doctrine of the Church.

No 40 euro gifts

The Secretariat for the Economy may carry out checks on the veracity of the declarations made on paper by the declarants, and the Holy See, in case of false or mendacious declarations, may dismiss the employee and claim damages.

Finally, it is forbidden - and this novelty affects all employees of the Roman Curia, the Vatican City State and related bodies - to accept, by reason of their office, "gifts or other benefits" of a value greater than 40 euros.

It is forbidden to accept or solicit, for oneself or for persons other than the Entity in which one serves, by reason of or on the occasion of one's position, gifts, presents or other goods whose value exceeds forty euros.

General Regulations of the Roman CuriaArticle 40, paragraph 1, n)

Undoubtedly, the Holy See is being a reference with the reforms it is carrying out in the area of financial transparency, perhaps because it had much to change in this area. This new law adds to the already good number of reforms that have been taken in this sense. And it seems that they will continue to work along the same lines.

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More than 10,000 people found employment in 2020 thanks to Caritas

Caritas Spain has presented its annual report on the Solidarity Economy, which includes the actions carried out in 2020 in the employment sector.

Maria José Atienza-April 29, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

On the occasion of the May Day, International Workers' DayCaritas has made public its annual Solidarity Economy Report in which it reports on the work of Caritas delegations throughout Spain in relation to employment in the year 2020. The report highlights the difficulties that the Covid pandemic brought to the development of Caritas programs. However, Caritas was able to maintain the pace of response of its employment and social economy programs.

DATO

60.055

people participated in Caritas employment and social economy programs in 2020.

In 2020, a total of 60,055 people participated in these programs, of which 10,153 managed to find a job, which represents more than 17% of the total number of participants. An action that involved an investment of 85,685,576 euros in the 70 Diocesan Caritas throughout Spain and the work of 1,195 people hired and 2,166 volunteers, leading activities in four complementary areas: reception and job orientation, training, labor intermediation and self-employment initiatives.

Among the participants in these programs, more than half are women, accounting for 65.61 PTW2W and 34.41 PTW2W men (20,674). By national origin, 45.8% are Spanish (27,492), 48.5% are of non-EU origin and another 5.7TP2T are from EU countries (3,417).

As the report itself highlights, Caritas' commitment to accompanying vulnerable people in search of employment focuses on four objectives:

- Promote employability through the improvement of personal, transversal and basic labor competencies for job search and job maintenance.

- Promote the implementation of training actions adapted to the characteristics and real needs demanded by the productive fabric.

- To promote learning experiences through internships in a real work environment, through collaboration with companies and organizations.

- Bringing people closer to the business network through intermediation and raising awareness of inclusive employment among companies.

- Generate protected employment through the implementation of Social Economy initiatives (Insertion Companies and Special Employment Centers).

Other aspects included in the Report focus on the areas of Fair Trade, Social Economy and Ethical Finance.

Key aspects for the future

In addition to this, the Caritas Study Team has analyzed the effects of the crisis caused by the pandemic in the field of employment, which would be defined by three major factors: the significant destruction of employment as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the strong exposure of essential productive sectors to contagion and precariousness, and the serious difficulties for labor and social integration.

In this sense, they wanted to emphasize how the destruction of employment has affected women and young people under 30 years of age much more intensely.

Caritas also wanted to point out key points for a sustainable and fair development in the field of employability in Spain, highlighting, among others, the need to create inclusive employment that really allows a decent life as well as a necessary adjustment of retraining and adaptation to the future production model and wanted to point out the negative consequences of the rupture of the social contract for the vital development of young people for whom work is blurred as a key element for their integration as well as the reality that employment is not the way of social integration for all people.

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