Bravo! 2023 Awards recognize Manuel Garrido, "Libres" and ACdPReceiving an award is always a double-edged sword. Along with the recipient's own pride, there is often biting criticism and even distrust of the person who has been left off the list. But there are exceptions.
One of them was the recent presentation of the Bravo! awards, with which the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has been recognizing, for 54 years, the work of professionals and companies in different fields of communication. This year, the Bravo! Award for Institutional Communication was awarded to Manuel Garrido, "for his intense career dedicated to institutional communication in the Information Office of the Opus Dei and, previously, in Torreciudad."
Manolo has been, for decades, "Opus" for journalists, the image that formed in the heads of dozens of communication professionals when they spoke of this personal prelature. Beyond stereotypes, philias and phobias, prejudices and commonplaces, there was Manolo.
Manolo has been able to move in the turbulent waters of a Church that is not at all comfortable for the communicator, but above all, Manolo has been able to become a companion of the communication professionals he has dealt with, whom he has served, even when his work "has not served them at all".
Manolo has received a Bravo Award! a few months after the goring of the bull of ALS hit him full in the face. He had just left professional bullfighting to enjoy a well-deserved retirement and, in a matter of days, he exchanged his motorcycle for crutches. From Torreciudad he wrote to his colleagues and friends telling them the news and asking for prayers. Smiling. With the same smile with which he received his award, in a crowded room where journalists from all the institutions of the Church applauded a colleague, a reference, a friend.
There are few references that unite, almost unanimously, those who make up a profession such as communication in these times and even less, within the Church. Even fewer are the sincere friendships that this work brings you. But when I saw Manolo with his crutches picking up the Bravo! there were many in the room who pointed to the man and said to whoever was next to him "That's my friend over there.". And surely, for Manolo, it is a better prize.
Editor-in-Chief at Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.
