Bethlehem of Judah

Although only 8 km from Jerusalem, the city of Bethlehem was never among the most populated of the kingdom of Judah, which lasted from 928 to 586 BC. The earliest recorded extra-biblical mention of Bethlehem today is in a letter found at the archaeological site of Amarna, Egypt, from the 14th century BC. In this document Abdi-Heba, the Egyptian governor of Jerusalem at the time, asked Pharaoh Amenhotep III to send him archers so that he could recapture the city of "Bit-Lahmi," where the Hafiru had revolted.^[2].

However, its reference in the Bible is more abundant. The first is in Gen 35:16-19, when it is narrated that Jacob and his family were passing through there after leaving Bethel. In this passage the city Ephratah is first mentioned, and then it is mentioned again, but with the clarification "i.e. Bethlehem". Also the prophet Micah called it "Bethlehem Ephrathah" (cf. Mic 5:1). The point is that "ephrata", in Hebrew, indicates the fertility of the land, which had already given the name to this city in Canaanite times, although referring to the god of fertility, and not to fertility directly. What the Hebrews did was to substitute the name of the god of fertility for a Hebrew word with a phonetic similar to the aforementioned "lahama", such as "lehem" (bread, which somehow also alludes to the wheat and barley plantations of the city), and to add a kind of surname that translated the substituted word. From there came the "ephratah". In addition, in Jos 19:15 a Bethlehem is mentioned, attributed to the inheritance of Zebulun, located therefore to the south of Galilee.^[3]. However, "efrata" could also be used to disambiguate them.

Due to the little importance of this other Bethlehem, with the passage of time the one in Judah became famous, making the surname "Ephratah" dispensable. This is implied by the inscription "Bethlehem" on a seal from the 8th-7th centuries BC found in 2012 by the archaeologist Eli Shukron, of the Israel Antiquities Authorityon the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem.^[4]. Apparently it was an administrative or fiscal document sent from the capital.

Continuing with the question of the fertility of the region, a fundamental factor for there to be life, Francisco Varo explains that "the city was located on a hill, and at its foot were the wheat and barley fields, as well as olive groves and vineyards. Economically it was of some importance, being a market for small livestock, since the shepherds of sheep and goats, who roam with their flocks the neighboring desert of Judah, used to camp on the outskirts of the town."^[5].

In the same line, the book of Ruth refers that "Boaz came from Bethlehem" (Ruth 2:4) and that he was the owner of cultivated land, in which, by the way, Ruth herself worked when she met him. And 2Sm 23:16 speaks of a "well that is by the gate of Bethlehem", from which those who went with David gave him to drink and he refused, even after saying: "Who would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate? About that, Gonzalez Echegaray says that "lacking fountains in its enclosure, Bethlehem was supplied with rainwater contained in fresh cisterns dug in the rock, already famous since ancient times."^[6]. According to Cabello, "it seems that the Roman aqueduct that passed through the city made it improve its situation a little as there were no water sources in its precincts. Being a city of passage to the fortresses of Herodion and Masada in the time of Herod the Great and controlling the main route connecting Jerusalem with Hebron also gave it some life."^[7]. These last two cities were about 30 km apart, and it was very convenient to make a stop almost halfway in Bethlehem to replenish energy and rest a little.

Its historical importance for the Jews, in fact, comes precisely from the great-grandson of Boaz and Ruth, David, who was born there and was to reign over Judah and Israel from 1013 to 966 BC, when the monarchy was still unified, according to the biblical account of the First and Second Books of Samuel and the First Book of Kings. For Christians, on the other hand, it is also added that the birth of Jesus also took place there, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Below we will analyze the relationship between the two most central biblical characters of each Testament.^[8] with the city of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem of David

In Judg 17:7, when the sacred author says "Bethlehem of Judah", he is referring to the region rather than to the tribe. In fact, the tribe of Judah had occupied a large part of what later became the southern kingdom, that is, from near Bethlehem to Kadesh-Barnea, in the Negev desert, excluding the vicinity of Beersheba, inhabited by the tribe of Simeon. As great cities of Judah, Hebron, in the mountainous region, and Lachish, in the plain of the Sephelah, stood out. 

Another factor that made Bethlehem a relevant city is that the tomb of Rachel, the matriarch, wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and the third holiest place in Judaism, is venerated there.^[9]. At the birth of her second son, she happened to be in Bethlehem, and there she died (cf. Gen 35:16-19). 

But by far the Jewish personage who made Bethlehem most famous was David. That is where his family comes from (cf. 1 Sam 17:12-15) and that is also where he was anointed by the prophet Samuel. From that time on, the young shepherd boy put himself at the service of Saul, the now aged king of Israel, and played lyre for him when the latter was feeling unwell, which calmed him down. After David's victory over Goliath, in a context in which Saul no longer enjoyed such prestige among the people, David became the king's son-in-law and a great friend of Jonathan, Saul's son. In short, after pursuing David, Saul commits suicide when he is wounded in a battle against the Philistines. Some divisions arise over the possible successor, but David gains the confidence of the chiefs and is appointed king in Hebron. He then chooses as a neutral city to be the capital of the kingdom the one called Jebus, that is, the city of the Jebusites, which corresponds to part of what would become Jerusalem. And there he reigned for decades. 

An interesting episode is that later Bethlehem was besieged by the Philistines, when King David was there (cf. 2Sm 23:14). González Echegaray adds that "it seems that in the high eastern part of the city [of Bethlehem], where today the basilica of the Nativity is located, the memories of David's family were still preserved, and probably there lived some who considered themselves his descendants" (cf. 2Sm 23:14).^[10]. David died and is buried in the ancient Jebusite area of Jerusalem, today called the "City of David".

He was succeeded by his son Solomon, who reigned from 965 to 928 BC. At the end of his reign, his sons were divided, as was the kingdom. In Jerusalem, Gibeon and Jericho, very close north of Bethlehem, lived the tribe of Benjamin, whereupon the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were summoned by Rehoboam after the death of his father Solomon (cf. 2Chr 11:1-12). The tribe of Simeon, in turn, with the passage of time dwindled until it was assimilated into the tribe of Judah. Thus Rehoboam unified the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and became king of Judah, with his capital in Jerusalem, while the general Jeroboam became king of Israel, with his capital in Samaria, ruling over the territory of the other Israelite tribes.

Apart from the ancient Canaanite walls, the Bethlehemite city was fortified and walled by Rehoboam, David's grandson (cf. 2Chr 11:5-12). In this context, the most prominent cities were Jerusalem, Lachish and Beersheba, the latter in the desert area further south of Hebron. "The city [of Bethlehem] had been repopulated on the return from the Babylonian exile with exiles native to the place (cf. Esd 2:21; Neh 7:26), and one of its sources of income must have been trade in sheep, which grazed, as they do today, in the vicinity of the adjoining desert of Judah (Lk 2:8,15; 1Sm 16:11,19; 17:15,34-35)"^[11].

Although already quoted above for another purpose, historically it is at this time that the prophet Micah, who lived in the 8th-7th centuries BC, is situated. In Mk 5:1 we read: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though so small among the clans of Judah, out of you shall come forth to me one who is to be ruler in Israel; his origins are very ancient, from days of old". Made centuries after David, this prophecy is interpreted as messianic, and applies to Jesus.

Bethlehem of Jesus

Numerous studies were made on the relationship between the city of Bethlehem and Jesus, which allowed a greater precision in the data, in comparison with David and all the previous characters. From the precise date and the concrete site of his birth within the city, to the reason why Mary and Joseph were there. In this section we will also talk about the Basilica of the Nativity which is located in the elevated part of the Bethlehemite city.

Although the Gospels of Mark and John do not say that Mary gave birth in Bethlehem, neither do they say otherwise, nor do they place this event in another locality. Therefore, no further disputes arise on this matter. However, the Matthean and Lucan Gospels, when locating the birth of Jesus in that city, do it in the context of a census, and on this there are divergences.

The first Gospel simply says: "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the time of King Herod" (Mt 2:1), and a little further on quotes the well-known prophecy of Micah. On the other hand, Luke contextualizes more the journey of the Holy Family to the city of David: "In those days an edict was promulgated by Caesar Augustus that everyone should be registered. This first census was made when Quirinus was governor of Syria. Everyone went to register, each to his own city. Joseph, being of the house and family of David, went up from Nazareth, a city of Galilee, to the city of David called Bethlehem in Judea, to register with Mary his wife, who was with child" (Lk 2:1-4). Since the birth of Jesus took place between the years 6 and 4 BC, and the census of Quirinus took place ten or twelve years later, it seems that the information does not add up.^[12].

Citing Pierre Benoit's study, González Echegaray summarizes it as follows: "The census referred to in the Gospel is due, in effect, as it says, to a general attempt to census the population of the empire, at least in its eastern zone, in accordance with the dispositions of the emperor Augustus. It also included the associated states, such as the kingdom of Herod. It must have begun around 7 BC, Saturninus being governor of Syria, and then continued under the government of Varus at the end of the reign of Herod, to conclude in the time of P. Sulpicius Quirinus (year 6 AD) with the change of administration (...). This census therefore bore in Judea the name of Quirinius, and so the Gospel cites it, although in fact it had begun earlier, even some years before the birth of Jesus."^[13].

The same author clarifies why the trip to the place of origin of each family was necessary: "The fact that the Gospel of Luke points it out as the reason for the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem implies, in effect, that it was a census prior to the one directly related to the tributum capitisThe census was not a census, since it affected the inhabitants of Judea and Galilee equally. Moreover, one might think that in some way it was also related to the cadastral situation, since it would not be necessary to go to the 'place of origin' to register only for a census of an individual character, if it were not linked to the problem of identifying family properties in the countryside".

In turn, Murphy-O'Connor does not hesitate to affirm that "Mary and Joseph were natives of Bethlehem, and only went to Nazareth because of the atmosphere of insecurity generated by the Herodian dynasty (cf. Mt 2). Their long residence in Galilee gave Luke the impression that they had always lived there, and so he had to find a reason to place them in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth (cf. Lk 2:1-7). He mistakenly invoked the census of Quirinus, but this took place on 6 AD."^[14]. On the other hand, another author mentions a certain plan of Judaization of Galilee, which Joseph and many other Jews would have been part of, and that is why he went there with his family.^[15]. In any case, for the moment we can only keep the question open, given the limited information available.

Moreover, according to the Lucan account, the birth of Jesus took place in a stable (cf. Lk 2:6-7): "And when they were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her [Mary] to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the room". The study of the terms used by the evangelist leads us to understand that the birth took place not in an inn, but in a house built in a cave in a mountain.^[16]. Perhaps the house in question or part of it served as a stable, since a manger was located in it. According to Pfeiffer^[17]The tradition that Jesus was born in a cave in Bethlehem dates from the second century, i.e., it is not properly from the apostolic period. But Murphy-O'Connor, in turn, picks up on the fact that "pre-Constantinian pottery and masonry suggest that these caves [the cave traditionally thought to be the one in which Jesus was born and other caves further north] were in use in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD."^[18]. In this sense, the thesis that it was a conventional house built in front of a cave, and not an inn, is plausible. The fact that the birth took place in the portion dedicated to the animals may have been to preserve the intimacy of the family moment, because it is possible that they were not alone in that house.

Finally, as a curious fact, in spite of Jesus having been in so many cities during his public life, among them many near Jerusalem, there is no record that he visited Bethlehem as an adult. Perhaps that is why Mary's son is not known as "Jesus of Bethlehem", but as "Jesus of Nazareth", notwithstanding the convenient link with King David that this would entail.^[19].

However, upon arriving in Bethlehem, the visitor will find the Basilica of the Nativity. If in Roman times the cave where Jesus was originally born and its surroundings had been covered by a "sacred wood" of Adonis, in 325 AD the emperor Constantine had a basilica built on the site of the Nativity.^[20]. According to Eutychius of Alexandria (9th-10th centuries), after the Samaritan revolt of 529 AD, "the Emperor Justinian ordered his envoy to demolish the church of Bethlehem, which was small, and to build another with such splendor, size and beauty that no other church in the Holy City could surpass it".^[21]. In fact, in 1934 archaeologists William Harvey, Ernest Tatham Richmond, Hugues Vincent and Robert William Hamilton confirmed that the building dates back to the time of Justinian, and were able to reconstruct the floor plan of the Constantinian basilica, which was located on the same site as the current one.^[22]. The Justinian work was completed in 565 AD, and the present basilica of the Nativity is essentially the structure built by Justinian with some minor maintenance alterations or non-structural additions.

^[1] Cf. Pedro Cabello, Biblical archeology. Córdoba: Almuzara, 2019, p. 494.

^[2] Cf. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, The Holy Land. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 229.

^[3] Adrian Curtis, Oxford Bible Atlas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 132.

^[4] Hair, op. cit., p. 494.

^[5] Francisco Varo in: The Bible in your environment. Estella: Verbo Divino, 2013, p. 48.

^[6] Joaquín González Echegaray, Archaeology and gospels. Estella: Verbo Divino, 1994, p. 99.

^[7] Hair, op. cit., p. 494.

^[8] This is the opinion of John Bergsma in the book The Bible step by step (Madrid: Rialp, 2019), that David is the central character of the entire Old Testament, since Jesus is better known as the son of David than as the son of Abraham or the son of Moses, for example. And obviously Jesus is the central character of the New Testament.

^[9] Hair, op. cit., p. 494.

^[10] González Echegaray, op. cit., p. 100.

^[11] González Echegaray, op. cit., p. 99.

^[12] González Echegaray, op. cit., p. 70.

^[13] González Echegaray, op. cit., p. 70.

^[14] Murphy-O'Connor, op. cit.p. 230 (my translation).

^[15] González Echegaray, op. cit., p. 40.

^[16] González Echegaray, op. cit.., p. 100.

^[17] Charles Pfeiffer, Biblical-archeological dictionary. El Paso: Mundo Hispano, 2002, p. 68.

^[18] Murphy-O'Connor, op. cit.., p. 237.

^[19] Curtis, op. cit.., p. 149.

^[20] Pfeiffer, op. cit.., p. 68.

^[21] In Murphy-O'Connor, op. cit., p. 233.

^[22] Hair, op. cit., p. 494.

La entrada La ciudad de Belén: historia y arqueología se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

TitleThe great book of creation

Author: Gianfranco Ravasi

Pages: 250

EditorialSt. Paul's

City: Madrid

Year: 2022

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi is one of the most prominent international exegetes. Since 2007 he has been president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Commissions for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and Sacred Archaeology. 

This new book is about caring for our common home in the light of the Bible. The author's starting point can be summed up in the quote from Pope Francis in the encyclical Laudato si': "God has written a precious book, 'the letters of which are the multitude of creatures present in the universe'.".

For those interested in Christian ecology, these pages are intended for believers, but also for non-believers, with Creation as a common interlocutor. 

The book is divided into eight chapters that go from the moment of creation, to a chapter where the praise to the Creator is commented, passing through chapters on light, water, etc. 

For believers, it can serve as a kind of guide for personal life. For non-believers, as a code for interpreting cultural life and embracing the common home, the earth.  

La entrada El gran libro de la Creación se publicó primero en Omnes.

Contrast in the Church in Africa

This contrasts with the Church in Africa, which is growing in number to the point of arousing the interest of the great Western European secularist or secularist newspapers (Le Monde, Le Figaro, etc.). The number of priests is increasing with impressive and very enviable figures. In some parts of the continent, the number of priests has increased by 85% in twenty years, that of nuns by 60% and that of bishops by 45%. The recent publications of the statistical yearbooks of the Holy See highlight this real vocational boom in the African Church. A crisis of the priesthood in Africa appears then as an absurd and incoherent thesis, a nonsense and therefore difficult to defend.

The congress on the priesthood held last February made it possible to see beyond the mere numerical and statistical manifestation of the crisis that the priesthood is going through and that only affects some churches. The systemic and empirical crisis is much deeper and more damaging. In this sense, African communities are facing a crisis of substance, form and substance. The fundamental crisis occurs when the doctrinal basis of the priesthood is not correct and, consequently, affects the very identity of the priest, his human and spiritual life and his priestly action.

The crisis of form is certain when the multiple faces assumed by the priesthood are out of step with the expectations of the people and the objectives of the mission, and when they deviate from what is essential to build on marginal issues or those alien to their purpose. The crisis is substantial because the priesthood is becoming conventional, that is, according to the convenience of a world whose desires are blindly followed.

The congress allows us, once again, to examine Africa, a continent that is not experiencing a decline in vocations because the vocation crisis is not a major concern compared to vocations in crisis. If several African pastors recognize that all vocations are a gift of God, they have questioned several times the authenticity of vocations. In fact, in an African society that is changing, that has evolved a lot, and that asks a lot of young people, especially those who desire an ideal of life, the risk for some that the priesthood is a way to advance in social status is more evident.

Coveted continent

Africa is today the market coveted by the epigones of the spiritual and evangelical barons who claim to fight against poverty in favor of prosperity. There is talk of a terra nulliusdivided into zones of influence, businesses and corporations. Poverty and the harshness of life, the father of all other challenges, the depravation of morals, the endemic unemployment of young people, even if they are graduates, who are now willing to do anything to make a living, even if it means throwing themselves into the Mediterranean, have been in the news for decades. This situation obviously has repercussions on the action of the Church. It influences the model of the priest and even dictates the profile of the priest to be formed. The precarious, deleterious and approximate social condition has indeed had repercussions on the ministerial priesthood.

The situation of the African clergy depends on the diverse context in which the ministry is exercised, the social and cultural dispositions and the varied investments of the priests. Ignace Ndongala Maduku describes the conditions of some African priests today as vagabonds in whom old age rhymes with distress, sickness with misery. We meet many functionaries of God, a state clergy and not pastors of the people. A constant concern of the African clergy is the material subsistence of the priests, which leads to the tacit establishment of privileges.

The language is often unusual and chilling in describing this aspect of the quality of life of African priests: ecclesiastical Darwinism. Moreover, their attitude to the elite and authority is castigated: bowing to superiors and stepping on inferiors, being humble before the authorities and authoritarian before the humble. In this context, appointments are perceived as advances, promotions that sometimes seem like plebiscites, sources of material advantages and various real or imaginary privileges. The lack of equality among priests and the deficit of social, material and financial security create a scandalous inequality and injustice among priests.

Training priority

There is, therefore, a real educational challenge in relation to the formation of future priests. The topic emerges more sharply in the face of current scandals, but in reality it must be brought to the attention of the entire Christian community, avoiding the logic of the scapegoat or that of the emergency. There is a very real risk that the priesthood is an escape route to achieve a social status that young people would not have in ordinary life. Some questions are essential today: Is the model of formation of future priests, inherited from the missionary era, still effective with regard to the profile of priests to be formed? Which priests? For which society? Does the framework of small and large reclusive seminaries that still exist today represent a stable guarantee for the maturation of priestly vocations?

The formation of true pastors is a priority for the African Church, it is the priority of priorities. It is a work that requires important men and means. The quality of formation and discernment is a permanent challenge with the necessary exigency. Moreover, the seminary is not the only "branch" responsible for the formation of candidates to the priesthood. The work of the seminary cannot be that of offering "finished products". A systemic vision is needed that involves pastors, formators, but also priests and the entire Christian community. Formation in the seminary involves, in an ascending sense, youth ministry and should favor a serious verification of the conditions of possibility for the development of specific persons in all areas of formation.

The vocational discernment of young people should closely follow the evolution of pastoral needs, ordering concrete actions in a precise direction. Much attention must be paid to good and holy discernment. It is true that not all seminarians become priests, but the speed of choice and the lack of discernment can lead young people today not to live their vocational discernment in depth, since society offers facilities and shortcuts.

"Examples lead."

An important and critical point, too often neglected in improving the quality of formation of future priests, remains the quality and concrete witness of priests, of bishops as a whole. Seminarians are often more sensitive than one might think to the general climate of clerical life. As an Italian saying goes: words teach, but examples guide. Since the horizon of formation is prospective and "future priests receive a formation in keeping with the importance and meaning to be given to their consecration", there are important reconstitutions of the role of the priest in African society according to the tria munera (to teach, to sanctify and to govern) which call for a redefinition and updating of the pastoral office.

Missionary animation and awakening, the biblical instance of the prophet, the memory of the universal call to holiness: baptism and not "sacramentalization" to the extreme seem to be the basis of a fruitful deepening and examination for an authentic priesthood also for the African Church.

La entrada ¿Qué sacerdote para qué África? se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

TitleHistory of the Ancient and Medieval Church

AuthorFermín Labarga

Pages: 210

Editorial: EUNSA

City: Pamplona

Year: 2022

The ISCR Manuals Collection, which offers study materials in theology, philosophy and other sciences, already has a wide repertoire of volumes. The collection has been a response to the interest of many people in acquiring a serious and profound philosophical and theological formation that enriches their Christian life and helps them to live their faith with coherence. In this case, they present a new book on Church History, ancient and medieval, essential for the integral formation of those who study any humanistic discipline. 

In this manual, Fermín Labarga, professor of Church History in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Navarra, covers the main events from the birth of the Church in apostolic times until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, focusing also on theological and spiritual currents. The resources that accompany the bulk of the text are a great support to the main content: tables with the list of the Popes, tables with quotes from the protagonists of each era, self-made maps, and self-evaluation exercises, and lists of supporting bibliography.

La entrada Historia de la Iglesia antigua y medieval se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

Title: Silent wagon

AuthorAna Medina

Pages: 115

Editorial: PPC

City: Madrid

Year: 2021

The "silent carriage", that space on the train reserved for the serene journey, which allows reading, contemplation, or simply the passing of time in silence, is the allegory used by Ana Medina to title her new poetic work. 

The author is a journalist, writer and poet, developing her work in the written press, radio and television. She has been awarded in 2020 with the First Prize of Poetry of the contest Poetry for hope in times of difficulty organized by the Ángel Herrera Oria Cultural Foundation.

In this new collection of poems, its pages "help us to realize that our life is an extraordinary journey full of faces and names, of details so simple that they sometimes go unnoticed.". Through the 93 poems, we will be able to deepen ourselves, while praying, to strip ourselves of what is not essential, to discover the journey of our lives. 

Origin, Journey and Destination. In these three stages are included his verses, as a vital itinerary, in which we can say to the Lord that "Being You / You chose to walk the way of the cross / embrace with me the pain, / weep my tears, bleed my blood.".

La entrada Vagón silencio se publicó primero en Omnes.

The London apartment and the Diocese of Becciu

So how can one define this trial that began last July at the Vatican? At the heart of the trial is the issue of the Secretary of State's investment in a luxury London property. Initially, the investment was entrusted to the broker Italian Fabrizio Mincione. Then, dissatisfied with the return on the investment, the Secretary of State turned to the other broker Gianluigi Torzi, who had retained 1,000 shares of the property, which were, however, the only ones with voting rights, exercising de facto total control of the property. Finally, the Secretary of State took the decision to take over the building, putting an end to all relations with Torzi.

To this matter must be added others. Cardinal Becciu is accused of embezzlement, since as deputy to the Secretariat of State he allegedly sent funds from the latter to the Caritas of his diocese, Ozieri, whose president was his brother, and also to the SPES cooperative, also linked to the diocese. The Cardinal is also accused of having "hired" the consultant Cecilia Marogna for mediation operations (and, as it is known, for the payment of a ransom to free Sister Cecilia Narvaez, kidnapped in Sudan), and finally for "bribery", that is, for having pressured the former head of the administration of the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, to change the tone of the statements against him.

Accusations, obviously, all to be proven, in a trial that is expected to be very long. The trial covers at least three lines of investigation: the one concerning the investment of the Secretariat of State in the London property; the one concerning the alleged embezzlement of Cardinal Becciu; the one concerning the relationship with the "intelligence" consultant Cecilia Marogna.

Three keys to understanding the trial

Similarly, there are three key readings to understand the Vatican's judgment, and the most important one is not even the financial one.

The first is procedural. The investigation arose from a report by the Vatican auditor general, following a complaint by the director of the Istituto delle Opere di Religione, the so-called "Vatican bank."

This fact has been repeatedly pointed to as a clear example that the financial reforms pushed by Pope Francis are working. However, these allegations rather attest to the weakness of the Vatican's judicial system.

The allegations led to investigations by the Financial Information Authority and the Secretariat of State. These are two independent bodies within the Holy See. The Authority exchanges intelligence data and maintains international cooperative relationships with similar authorities abroad that have been implicated by the investigations, as documents belonging to foreign and sovereign entities were also seized. Since the Authority could not supervise the operations of the Secretariat of State, but had to supervise financial transactions, the investigations not only created a small wound, but also may have blocked investigations that could have been decisive in the trial of the London building.

The Secretariat of State was completely autonomous from the financial point of view. It is not a dicastery like any other, nor could it be, because it is the Secretariat of the Pope, and represents the government. Can there be crimes if a sovereign body, with full financial availability, decides to make investments? And is a bad investment a crime?

The result of this handling of the investigations has ultimately weakened the Church's governing body, which has also been stripped of its financial autonomy by the Pope.

The Vatican legal system

The second line concerns the Vatican's legal system. Pope Francis intervened in the investigations with four rescripts (documents written in his own handwriting) that in some cases also suspended procedural rights. This created a problem for the Holy See. The Vatican City State is, in effect, a state with its own laws, an absolute monarchy where the Pope is the first judge and legislator. However, the Holy See adheres to treaties and upholds the principles of due process in international arenas. For this reason, the Popes have never intervened too much in judicial matters, in order to keep the authority of the Holy See unaltered. Moreover, the government of Vatican City State itself is delegated to a governor and a commission of cardinals.

With the rescripts, Pope Francis has carried out a "Vaticanization" of the Holy See, turning around the paradigm whereby the State serves the Holy See and not the other way around. This could have consequences at the international level, if the accused were then to go to European courts for human rights violations. This is a possible path.

The financial issue

Finally, there is the financial issue. Without going into details, it is enough to know that the Secretariat of State had judged the investment to be profitable, to the point of wanting to regain control. Until now it has come to light that everything had been done precisely so as not to lose an investment considered profitable, and that the Pope was informed. The Vatican tribunal itself admitted that the Pope was in the room where the exit of the intermediary Gianluigi Torzi was being negotiated.

Therefore, it will be seen whether Torzi has been guilty of extortion, and the role of Cardinal Becciu, who has always stressed that he had acted in use of his prerogatives, will also be defined.

It will also be seen where the testimony of Monsignor Mauro Carlino, secretary of the Substitute (formerly Angelo Becciu, now Edgar Pena Parra), has made it known that checks were also being made on Mammì, director of the IOR, who was the one who gave rise to the investigations.

And it will also have to be explained why the IOR had first agreed to finance the Secretariat of State with a loan that would help to regain control of the London building, and then unexpectedly refused, even leading to the denunciation of the director.

It will be seen if there has been corruption, if some measures were taken without reason. However, the way in which the process was carried out, for its part, could also create problems with international partners. And so, after the government of the Holy See, the credibility of the Holy See itself would be endangered. These issues are perhaps too little present in the current debate, but they should not be underestimated.

La entrada Juicio en el Vaticano a Becciu: tres claves de interpretación se publicó primero en Omnes.

The speaker is Santiago Leyra-Curiá (Madrid, 1980), coordinator of the Core Curriculum for the Villanueva University of MadridProfessor Leyra-Curiá is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain and Professor of Information Law at the University. Professor Leyra-Curiá is one of the people determined to take advantage of the current situation to learn from past mistakes and help the new students who are now arriving at the University to acquire a solid formation that will allow them to form their own opinions and participate constructively in the great issues of contemporary debate.

He has just returned from the annual congress organized by the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) in the University of Notre DameThis course, in which professors from American and European universities with Core Curriculum programs are participating, was organized by Professor Leyra-Curiá. In addition, Professor Leyra-Curiá has organized this course at the Universidad Villanueva de Madrid, in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Personalism, the congress "Engendering Beauty: the person in art and creativity"."which concluded with the inauguration of a pictorial exhibition of Joaquín Planell's work.. 

In times of crisis of reason, the beauty of art can be a good way to recover the moral north in a society that is already looking for different ways out of its current situation of existential perplexity. As Dostoiesvsky says in "The Brothers Karamazov", beauty will save the world and it seems that he was referring to moral beauty, to the Good and to good people, in short. It is an example of the actions that are developed to provide students with intellectual and moral resources to develop their full potential.

As the rector of the Universidad Villanueva de Madrid, José María Ortiz Ibartz, said at the first opening ceremony of the academic year as a private university: "In a university, we should not think only in terms of opportunities for those who know how to take advantage of new scenarios. It is true that disorder, volatility, randomness and uncertainty can generate more benefits than losses for someone. But the main contribution of a University is oriented towards building a new civilization, because it thinks about the common good: in generating the conditions for the possibility of better goods for all, and not only for a few who are able to adequately read the nature of events while the rest remain stunned trying to explain why such highly improbable events have occurred".

Santiago Leyra-Curiá talks about these and other current issues in this interview.

Professor, briefly, how would you introduce yourself?

- I studied Law at the Complutense University of Madrid and I am passionate about Philosophy and Spiritual Sciences in general.

I work as coordinator of the Core Curriculum at Villanueva University in Madrid, where I also teach Information Law to communication students.

A few months ago I published a book on "Political participation and the right to conscientious objection to abortion" and another on "Pluralism and freedom of expression, information and thought" is about to be published. I have always been interested in the trajectory of citizen movements in favor of human rights.

What is the Core Curriculum?

- As he explained Professor Jose María Torralba in this same magazineThe Core Curriculum is the humanistic training aimed at students of any degree program at the university. It is a simple and brilliant idea that does not reserve humanistic knowledge for a small and dwindling elite, but rather argues that humanistic education is the backbone of any university education that claims to be one. If we want a more humane society, we need more humanistic education.  

Through a few cross-cutting subjects taken by all students at the University, we try to provide them with intellectual resources so that they stop to think and read about the great questions of mankind, beyond the price of gasoline and electricity, which are also relevant issues, of course.

For example, we are all now moved by the war of invasion of Ukraine started by Russia. If we had a good humanistic education, we would know the history of these two countries in the last centuries, we would know how to distinguish Putin from the Russian people and the great cultural contributions that Russia has made throughout history without demonizing now everything Russian as is being done in many places. We would also be able to distinguish the different versions of the conflict that are reaching us without being left only with what one side tells us, even if it is the side that is suffering most unjustly and with which we all spontaneously empathize.

"If we had a good humanistic education, we would be able to distinguish the different versions that come to us from the conflict in Ukraine."

Santiago Leyra-CuriáVillanueva University Core Curriculum Coordinator

What specific subjects are taught?

- These are subjects such as Personal Leadership, Culture and Civilizations, Anthropology, Creativity and Artistic Experience, Information Society and Ethics and Deontology. Through presentations and debates in class, we try to help students acquire a culture and knowledge of the main sciences of the spirit, to stop and think about what their opinion is on major current issues, to value the part of reason that those who do not think like them have, to dare to defend what they think without fear of being in the minority as long as they do it peacefully and with respect for those who do not think like them, etc.

Another key element is the seminars on the transforming power of music, integral ecology or leadership, given by experts who know how to transmit with their experience the humanistic way of dealing with these issues.

Which of these seminars could you highlight?

- Leadership seminars, for example, are attended by real leaders from different areas of society who show how it is worthwhile to step out of the comfort zone to enter professions with the greatest social impact and to face the difficulties that are never lacking with optimism.

The Great Books seminars, which already exist in other universities in Europe and the Americas, aim to encourage students to read the great works of world literature as a concrete way of acquiring some of the wisdom conveyed by these literary treasures. The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy, Les Miserables, Moby Dick, Woman in Red on a Gray Background, are the titles that we have discussed with the students this year. In addition, each Core subject requires critical reading of a classic work related to the subject. 

Finally, the students' presentations at the end of the course, in which they themselves prepare an intervention before their classmates on one of the major topics covered in the course, seem to us to be useful for them to learn to speak fluently about these topics without fear of addressing conflictive issues, which are often the most interesting ones to deal with. We cannot accept that with friends we can only talk about trivialities to avoid hurting sensitivities. As long as it is done with respect and affection, it is possible to talk civilly about any issue and even learn from others in these conversations.

"We cannot accept that with friends you can only talk about trivialities to avoid hurting sensitivities. As long as it is done from respect and affection, you can talk civilly about any issue and even learn from others in these conversations."

Santiago Leyra-CuriáVillanueva University Core Curriculum Coordinator

How would you summarize, in a few words, the objective of the project?

- In short, it is a question of the University serving the purpose for which it was created: to help students to form themselves, to acquire a good culture, to help them to think, without fear of seeking the truth, even if sometimes that truth is uncomfortable for us and makes us change our opinions or lifestyles. I notice in today's students a hunger to be able to form an informed opinion about what they really want for their lives, without having to be subject to fashions or to what the new contemporary inquisitions establish, and that seems to me to be an invitation to optimism. 

La entrada <b>Santiago Leyra-Curiá</b>: «Las nuevas generaciones desean formarse para no ser manipuladas» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Cardinal Zen was one of the administrators of the 612 Fund organization, which ceased operations last October. Authorities have arrested him along with other promoters of the fund, including well-known lawyer Margaret Ng, academic Hui Po-keung and singer-songwriter Denise Ho. The law enforcement investigation is reportedly focusing on whether the 612 Fund "colluded" with foreign forces in violation of the national security law imposed by Beijing in the summer of 2020.

Cardinal Zen has long been in the crosshairs of the Chinese government. In January, the pro-regime press published several articles accusing him of inciting students to revolt in 2019 against a series of government measures.

The cardinal is disliked in Beijing for his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party's control over religious communities. He has condemned the removal of crosses from outside churches in China and has over the years celebrated masses in memory of the Tiananmen martyrs in Beijing: the young people massacred by the authorities on June 4, 1989 for demanding freedom and democracy. The cardinal is also against even the Vatican-China agreement on the appointment of bishops.

In response to questions from journalists, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, said that "the Holy See has learned with concern the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the development of the situation with extreme attention."

La entrada El cardenal Zen es detenido en Hong Kong se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

TitleFor eternity

AuthorRobert Sarah

Pages: 287

Editorial: Word

City: Madrid

Year: 2022

Cardinal Robert Sarah is presenting a new book on the figure of the priest. The Guinean, a priest since 1969, was appointed Archbishop of Conakri at the age of 34. John Paul II called him to the Roman Curia in 2001, where he held several high positions. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal in 2010, and in 2014 Francis appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, where he has been until June 2020. On May 8, 2021, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Oriental Churches. 

In this new book, which the African Cardinal devotes to "to all seminarians throughout the world".The purpose of this book is to give concrete answers to questions about the priesthood, based on various texts of saints, popes and some other authors. "We must look reality in the face: the priesthood seems to be reeling. Some priests are like sailors on a ship violently tossed by a hurricane. They lurch and lose their balance.".

The author of In the Service of Truth, From the Depths of Our Hearts, The Power of Silence, God or Nothing and It's Getting Late and Getting Dark.The book uses great spiritual authors such as St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John Paul II, St. John Henry Newman, Pius XII, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The common thread is the reflection on the marvelous gift of the priesthood and the participation in the priesthood of Jesus Christ: "It is evident"Cardinal Sarah states in the introduction to his book, "that the holiness that must shine in the priesthood is born of the holiness of God. Priests must become perfect and holy in the image of Jesus Christ.". 

Sarah shows her remarkable concern by offering this volume, in a simple, brief way, accessible to all. "A book whose aim is for priests to rediscover their profound identity, for the people of God to renew their way of looking at them.". The style of the Guinean cardinal is already well known, profound and at the same time accessible. After reading it, it is clear that it is addressed primarily to priests, but that any Christian can read and apply the teachings of the saints, men and women, laity and clergy, to whom Sarah "gives the word". 

La entrada Para la eternidad se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

TitleFreedom to love through the classics

AuthorMariano Fazio

Pages: 155

EditorialRialp : Rialp

City: Madrid

Year: 2022

Mariano Fazio presents a new volume which adds to his prolific literary and essayistic repertoire. Fazio is a priest, historian and philosopher, and professor of History of Political Doctrines in the Faculty of Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He has also been the first dean of that faculty and rector magnifico of the university. He now serves as auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei.

The choice of the book's theme, freedom, comes as no surprise. In the introduction to the book, the author makes a mention of gratitude to the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz, stating that he is at the origin of the book, due to the abundant personal meditation he has done on his pastoral letter on freedom published in January 2018. Nor is it surprising the way in which he approaches the subject, doing so hand in hand with great classic authors of all times. 

Substantially, the author tries to show how freedom is oriented to love, and how this affirmation has an enormous importance for the Christian life. The reader will be able to observe throughout the pages how some passages from the Gospel are intermingled with authors such as Dostoyevsky, Tolkien or Dickens. The tone and the pleasant writing of Fazio invite to a meditative reading of the book, which will offer some guidelines for a true spiritual and human growth.  

"We have been created free to love, and when we do not reach the proper end of freedom, we are faced with an existential failure. We all desire a successful, fulfilled, happy life. To achieve it, the key lies in doing everything freely, out of love". This thesis, which the author puts forward in a simple way, -"all great truths are"-is complicated to put into practice. Mainly, as Fazio also points out at the beginning of the book, because contemporary cultural currents abound with conceptions of freedom that are far removed from this thesis. 

Taking the classics of literature as fellow travelers, the author confirms that "there is a series of values to which humanity has aspired since its beginnings and which deserve protection and custody". Therefore, Fazio wishes with these pages to present an aid to readers that will enable them to "decipher the profound meaning of this high concept of freedom".  

La entrada Libertad para amar a través de los clásicos se publicó primero en Omnes.

"The biblical story," the Pope continues, referring to the story of Eleazar, "narrates the episode of the Jews forced by a decree of the king to eat meat sacrificed to idols. When it was the turn of Eleazar, who was an old man highly esteemed by all, the king's officials advised him to make a simulation, that is, to pretend to eat the meat without actually doing so. In this way Eleazar would have been saved, and - they said - in the name of friendship he would have accepted their gesture of compassion and affection. After all - they insisted - it was a minimal, insignificant gesture".

Francis emphasizes this point, consistency with the faith is fundamental: "The calm and firm response of Eleazar is based on an argument that strikes us. The central point is this: dishonoring the faith in old age, in order to gain a few days, is not comparable to the inheritance that it must leave to the young, for generations to come. An old man who has lived in the coherence of his own faith all his life, and now adapts himself to pretend to repudiate it, condemns the new generation to think that the whole faith has been a fiction, an outer covering that can be abandoned thinking that it can be preserved in one's own intimacy. Not so, says Eleazar. Such behavior does not honor faith, nor does it honor God. And the effect of this external trivialization will be devastating for the interiority of young people".

"It is precisely old age that appears here as the decisive and irreplaceable place of this witness. An old person who, because of his vulnerability, agrees to consider the practice of faith irrelevant, would make young people believe that faith has no real relationship with life. It would appear to them, from the beginning, as a set of behaviors that, if necessary, can be simulated or disguised, because none of them is so important for life".

Pope Francis alluded to "the ancient heterodox gnosis," which "theorized precisely this: that faith is a spirituality, not a practice; a force of the mind, not a way of life. Faithfulness and honor of the faith, according to this heresy, have nothing to do with the behaviors of life, the institutions of the community, the symbols of the body. The seduction of this perspective is strong, because it interprets, in its own way, an indisputable truth: that faith can never be reduced to a set of dietary norms or social practices. The problem is that the Gnostic radicalization of this truth nullifies the realism of Christian faith, which must always pass through the incarnation. And it also empties its witness, which shows the concrete signs of God in the life of the community and resists the perversions of the mind through the gestures of the body".

Therefore, he affirmed that "the Gnostic temptation always remains current. In many trends in our society and culture, the practice of faith suffers a negative representation, sometimes in the form of cultural irony, sometimes with a hidden marginalization. The practice of faith is seen as a useless and even harmful externality, as an antiquated residue, as a masked superstition. In short, a thing for old people. The pressure that this indiscriminate criticism exerts on the younger generation is strong. True, we know that the practice of faith can become a soulless externality. But in itself it is not at all. Perhaps it is up to us elders to restore to the faith its honor. The practice of faith is not the symbol of our weakness, but rather the sign of its strength. We are no longer children-we are not joking when we set out on the Lord's path!"

The Holy Father concludes by saying that "faith deserves respect and honor: it has changed our lives, it has purified our minds, it has taught us to adore God and love our neighbor. It is a blessing for everyone! We will not trade faith for a few quiet days. We will demonstrate, with much humility and firmness, precisely in our old age, that believing is not something "for old people". And the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new, will gladly help us".

La entrada «La fe merece respeto y honor: nos ha cambiado la vida» se publicó primero en Omnes.

He began his catechesis by referring to a female figure in the Bible: "Today we will let ourselves be inspired by the splendid book of Ruth, a jewel of the Bible. The parable of Ruth illuminates the beauty of family bonds: generated by the couple's relationship, but which go beyond the couple's bond. Bonds of love capable of being equally strong, in which radiates the perfection of that polyhedron of fundamental affections that form the family grammar of love. This grammar carries vital sap and generative wisdom in all the relationships that build the community. With respect to the Song of Songs, the book of Ruth is like the other side of the diptych of nuptial love. Equally important, equally essential, it celebrates the power and the poetry that must inhabit the bonds of generation, kinship, dedication, fidelity that envelop the whole family constellation. And which even become capable, at the dramatic junctures of a couple's life, of bringing an unimaginable force of love, capable of relaunching hope and the future".

"We know that the commonplaces about kinship bonds created by marriage, especially between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, speak against this perspective. But precisely because of this, the word of God becomes valuable. The inspiration of faith knows how to open a horizon of witness against the most common prejudices, a valuable horizon for the whole human community. I invite you to rediscover the book of Ruth! Especially in the meditation on love and in the catechesis on the family".

"This little book also contains a valuable teaching on the alliance of the generations: where youth reveals itself capable of giving new enthusiasm to the mature age, old age discovers itself capable of reopening the future for the wounded youth. At first, the elderly Naomi, even moved by the affection of her daughters-in-law, who are widowed by their two sons, is pessimistic about their destiny in a village that is not theirs. So she warmly encourages the young women to return to their families to rebuild a life for themselves. He says, "I can do nothing for you." Already this is shown as an act of love: the old woman, without a husband and already childless, insists that the daughters-in-law leave her. But it is also a kind of resignation: there is no possible future for the foreign widows, deprived of their husband's protection. Ruth resists this generous offer. The bond that has been established has been blessed by God: Naomi cannot ask to be abandoned. At first, Naomi appears more resigned than happy about this offer: perhaps she thinks that this strange bond will aggravate the risk for both of them. In certain cases, the tendency of the elderly to pessimism needs to be counteracted by the affectionate pressure of the young".

"In fact, Naomi, moved by Ruth's devotion, comes out of her pessimism and even takes the initiative, opening for Ruth a new future. She instructs and encourages Ruth, her son's widow, to find a new husband in Israel. Boaz, the candidate, shows his nobility, defending Ruth from the men who work for him. Unfortunately, this is a risk that is also verified today".

"Ruth's remarriage is celebrated and the worlds are once again pacified. The women of Israel tell Naomi that Ruth, the foreigner, is worth "more than seven sons" and that this marriage will be a "blessing from the Lord". Naomi, in her old age, will know the joy of having a part in the generation of a new birth. Look how many "miracles" accompany the conversion of this old woman! She converts to the commitment of making herself available, with love, for the future of a generation wounded by loss and at risk of abandonment. The fronts of recomposition are the same ones that, on the basis of the probabilities traced by the prejudices of common sense, should generate insurmountable fractures. However, faith and love allow to overcome them: the mother-in-law overcomes jealousy for her own son, loving the new bond of Ruth; the women of Israel overcome distrust for the stranger (and if women do it, everyone will do it); the vulnerability of the woman alone, facing the power of the man, is reconciled with a bond full of love and respect".

Pope Francis concludes by assuring that "all because the young Ruth is determined to be faithful to a bond exposed to ethnic and religious prejudice. All because the elderly Naomi takes the initiative to reopen the future for Ruth, instead of merely enjoying her support. If the young people open themselves to gratitude for what they have received and the elders take the initiative to reopen their future, nothing can stop the blossoming of God's blessings among the people! God grant that we may be witnesses and mediators of this blessing!"

La entrada «Que los jóvenes se abran a la gratitud por lo recibido» se publicó primero en Omnes.

In the grotto of St. Paul

The pontiff entered the basilica at the top of the grotto before descending into the grotto itself, which was also visited by Pope Emeritus Benedict XIV and St. John Paul II. The Pope lit a candle in front of the statue of the Apostle Paul and prayed that the spirit of welcome that the islanders had for the saint may continue for the migrants arriving on the shores of the island.

After saying the prayer, he wrote in the Book of Honor: "In this sacred place, which commemorates St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles and father in the faith of this people, I thank the Lord and ask him to always grant the Maltese people the Spirit of consolation and the ardor of proclamation".

Holy Mass in Floriana

The Pope then travelled to the city of Floriana, Malta, to celebrate Holy Mass. Some 20,000 people were present at the celebration, including representatives of the Christian Churches and other religious denominations. The Granary Square in Floriana is located outside the walls of Valletta, the capital of Malta, and overlooks the Church of St. Publius, considered the first bishop of Malta and who, according to tradition, welcomed the Apostle Paul to the island after he was shipwrecked.

Commenting in his homily on the behavior of the characters in today's Gospel passage, Pope Francis recalled that "these characters tell us that even in our religiosity the worm of hypocrisy and the vice of finger-pointing can creep in. In every age, in every community. There is always the danger of misunderstanding Jesus, of having his name on our lips but denying him in fact. And this can also be done by raising banners with the cross. How can we then verify if we are disciples in the school of the Master? By our look, by how we look at our neighbor and how we look at ourselves. This is the point to define our belonging".

A look of mercy

The Holy Father indicated that the Christian's gaze must be that of Jesus Christ, "a gaze of mercy," not that of accusers, "in a judgmental, sometimes even contemptuous way," "who set themselves up as champions of God but do not realize that they are trampling their brothers and sisters underfoot." Franciso recalled that, "in reality, those who believe they defend the faith by pointing the finger at others may have a religious vision, but they do not embrace the spirit of the Gospel, because they forget mercy, which is the heart of God."

Francis gave another key, - in addition to our gaze towards others - to "understand if we are true disciples of the Master": how we see ourselves. "The woman's accusers are convinced that they have nothing to learn. Indeed, their external apparatus is perfect, but the truth of the heart is missing. They are the portrait of those believers who, in every age, make of faith a façade, where what stands out is the solemn exterior, but inner poverty, which is man's most precious treasure, is lacking. In fact, for Jesus what counts is the voluntary openness of those who do not feel that they have arrived, but are in need of salvation. Therefore, when we are in prayer and also when we participate in beautiful religious services, we should ask ourselves if we are in tune with the Lord".

"Jesus, what do you want from me?"

"We can ask Him directly: 'Jesus, I am here with You, but what do You want from me? What do You want to change in my heart, in my life? How do You want me to see others?' It will do us good to pray like this, because the Master is not content with appearances, but seeks the truth of the heart. And when we truly open our hearts to him, he can work wonders in us."

At the end of the homily, the Pope encouraged us to imitate Jesus Christ in this way, and assured us that "if we imitate him, we will not be forced to concentrate on denouncing sins, but to seek out sinners with love. We will not count the number of those present, but we will go in search of those absent. We will no longer point fingers, but begin to listen. We will not discard the despised, but we will look first to those who are considered last. This, brothers and sisters, Jesus teaches us today by his example".

"Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by him and welcome his newness with joy," Francis concluded.

La entrada El Papa anima a mirar a los demás como Jesús: con una «mirada de misericordia» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Text of the interview in German

On April 1, 1922, one hundred years ago, Charles of Habsburg, the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, died on the island of Madeira (Portugal), at only thirty-four years of age. Charles I of Austria (Charles IV of Hungary) had been on Portuguese soil for a few months, where, exiled during the First World War, he had been welcomed in November 1921 with his family. A few months after his arrival, the emperor's health deteriorated until pneumonia ended his life. His wife, Empress Zita, who was expecting their eighth child, took care of him until the end of his days. His body rests in the church of Our Lady of the Mount, in Funchal, Madeira, far from the Crypt of the Capuchins in Vienna where the members of this dynasty that reigned in Europe for centuries are buried.

His name achieved special prestige in the Catholic world when he was declared Blessed on October 3, 2004 during a ceremony presided over by Pope John Paul II in Rome. Emperor Charles was recognized as a Christian model for his virtues and for his actions in favor of peace, supporting the efforts of Pope Benedict XV during the First World War. The Church also saw in his figure a model of a good Christian ruler, committed to the common good and the teachings of Christian social doctrine: Charles cared for his poorest and most abandoned subjects, reduced the luxuries of the Court and established the first Ministry of Social Development in the world. Not for nothing was he known as "the emperor of the people". 

Georges de Habsbourg-Lorraine, grandson of Emperor Charles is, since December 2020, Ambassador of Hungary to France. This Austrian citizen (where his official German name is Georg Habsburg-Lothringen) and Hungarian (in Hungarian he is called Habsburg-Lotaringiai György), would have received the title of Imperial Highness and Royal Archduke of Austria, Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia, if the Empire still existed. The ambassador receives us in a room of the Hungarian embassy in Paris. 

A century after the death of the emperor, your grandfather Charles, Central Europe is at war again. What reflection does this event inspire in you? 

- There are two elements that seem to me primordial to understand my grandfather's government. Charles was first and foremost a soldier. We must remember that he never thought he was going to be emperor, because the line of succession was far from him. He knew the war and its consequences very well. This is an important element to consider in his efforts for peace: he knew what war was, so he wanted peace. 

Another element that I like to highlight is the fact that he was very young when he became emperor: he was 29 years old. When he took over, it is necessary to consider that he succeeded his great-uncle Franz Joseph I of Austria who spent no less than 68 years in power, with all that this entails: it is a whole system that he inherited. The generals of Franz Joseph wanted the war, because they trusted in the power and in the greatness of the imperial army. Charles then had a lot of opposition in that system. The empire was immense and Charles quickly understood that with the war the integrity of the empire was in danger, and that is exactly what happened. 

Despite this opposition in the state apparatus, my grandfather achieved some reforms, especially of a social nature. Because of his adherence to the Christian social doctrine, he had understood very well that some social transformations were necessary, as well as a new style of government that had to be adopted. This led him to travel a lot within the Empire, which was not so easy at that time, to get to know the reality of the people, their problems, their aspirations. This is how he conceived the first Ministry of Social Development in the world and also promoted a protective legislation for tenants that was very appropriate to the times of war where many people were left without money to pay their rents. 

Because of his adherence to Christian social doctrine, my grandfather Emperor Charles I of Austria had understood very well that some social transformations were necessary, as well as a new style of government that had to be adopted.

George of HapsburgAmbassador of Hungary in Paris

Is the figure of your grandfather still relevant in these times of war? 

- There is something that particularly impresses me in my grandfather's life that can inspire many people around the world. It is something I heard in the Vatican on the days of his beatification. Emperor Charles was not beatified because he was successful or because he achieved a great feat, because in fact, politically he failed because he did not achieve peace and ended his life in exile. What counts for the Christian vision of life is the daily journey, what one does or tries to do every day to do good, to work for the common good. And in this aspect my grandfather was exemplary. This is for me, personally, the great message he leaves us and which is very relevant in today's society in which we tend to give too much importance to results and not so much to effort. 

In a more concrete and spiritual way, I think my grandfather is interceding for peace to return to Europe. There are many people who are praying to him for this intention. There are several relics of him. In Hungary I don't think his figure is so well known. Curiously, I was very struck by the fact that in France he is more so. There is, for example, a college named after him in the city of Angers. It seems to me that it is the only school in the world that has been given the name "Blessed Charles of Austria". Another example: a few days ago at an official lunch in Versailles, one of the guests remarked that his son was named Charles after my grandfather: he was very impressed when he learned who I was!

In a more concrete and spiritual way, I think my grandfather is interceding for peace to return to Europe. There are many people who are praying to him for this intention.

George of HapsburgAmbassador of Hungary in Paris

It has been said that Hungary has opted for a neutral position in this war. What is your government's position? 

- It seems to me that this criticism is not well-founded. My country is a member of the European Union and NATO and as such we follow the sanctions and resolutions that have been adopted. On the other hand, we have sent a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and have already taken in about 500,000 refugees. In Budapest, the consequences of the war are already visible with the presence of these displaced people. Without going any further, in my own house in Budapest we are hosting two Ukrainian families. 

On the other hand, we have decided not to contribute weapons to the conflict. We do not want to put our citizens at risk. It should be noted that after the First World War, with the dislocation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire made official by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, more than three million Hungarians stopped living in Hungary. Today there are about 150,000 Hungarians in Ukraine that we want to protect. We have already mourned the death of six Ukrainian soldiers of Hungarian origin in this war. 

Finally, from the point of view of energy dependence, our situation is not exactly the same as that of the other members of the European Union. Indeed, we are 80% dependent on Russian energy. Entering into a conflict with Russia would be a serious danger for our population. Whether we like it or not, this dependence is real and is a legacy of recent Soviet history.

Today, in the midst of war in Central Europe, a Habsburg is ambassador in Paris during the French Presidency of the European Union. In your career as a diplomat, has your grandfather been a role model?

- Historical coincidences amuse me a lot. For example, a few days ago I presented my credentials to the Prince of Monaco, because in addition to being ambassador to France, I am also ambassador to the Principality. And I thought: "the twists and turns of history, a Hapsburg presenting his credentials to the Prince of Monaco!". Beyond the historical anecdotes, I have to say that my grandfather is a constant source of inspiration, but I have to admit at the same time that my father has had a much greater influence on my career. My father, Otto of Habsburg, the eldest son of the emperor and leader of the house of Habsburg, was a visionary politician and MEP for more than 20 years. He played an important role in the process of European construction and the inclusion, in the European Union, of the former nations that were part of the empire.

He was well aware of the historical responsibility of our family in the 21st century, which had been active in European politics for almost a thousand years, and taught us to live in modern society, to study and work like everyone else. I did university studies in law, history and political science in Austria, Germany and Spain. In the latter country, I was at the Complutense University of Madrid to study contemporary Spanish history and Islamic culture, which was not taught in Munich. I started working in audiovisual communication companies. Thirty years ago, I took up residence in Hungary, where I have been an ambassador since 1996. In particular, my father attached great importance to languages. Thanks to him, like him, I speak six languages (German, Hungarian, French, English, Italian and Spanish), which has obviously been very useful to me in my work as a diplomat. 

What activities are planned for April 1, 2022, the 100th anniversary of the death of your grandfather Charles? 

The main activity of this centenary will be a Mass that will take place in the church where my grandfather is buried, on the island of Madeira. More than one hundred members of the family will be present. At first I was not planning to attend because on Sunday, April 3, we have important elections in Hungary and at the embassy in France we have a lot of work to do to organize the elections. However, the Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary was kind enough to ask me to be present in Madeira for this occasion. So I will have the joy of being able to participate in this great event. 

La entrada <b>Jorge de Habsburgo</b>: «Pienso que mi abuelo está intercediendo para que vuelva la paz a Europa» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Illuminates the senses

"What can we learn from these two elderly figures full of spiritual vitality?" asks Francis rhetorically. "First," he answers, "we learn that the fidelity of waiting sharpens the senses. On the other hand, we know that the Holy Spirit does precisely this: he enlightens the senses. In the ancient hymn Veni Creator Spirituswith which we still invoke the Holy Spirit today, we say: "....Accende lumen sensibus"It lights a light for the senses. The Spirit is capable of doing this: it sharpens the senses of the soul, notwithstanding the limits and the wounds of the senses of the body. Old age weakens, in one way or another, the sensibility of the body. However, an old age that has been exercised in waiting for God's visit will not lose its pace: indeed, it will also be more ready to welcome it".

The pontiff affirms that "today more than ever we need this: an old age endowed with living spiritual senses and capable of recognizing the signs of God, indeed, the Sign of God, which is Jesus. A sign that puts us in crisis - it is a "sign of contradiction" (Lc 2,34) - but which fills us with joy. The anesthesia of the spiritual senses, in the excitement and numbness of the bodily ones, is a widespread syndrome in a society that cultivates the illusion of eternal youth, and its most dangerous feature lies in the fact that it is mostly unconscious. It does not realize that it is anesthetized".

Spiritual Senses

Using the parallel with the loss of the sensibility of touch or taste, in which one notices it right away, he recalls that with that of the soul one can ignore it for a long time. "This one does not simply refer to the thought of God or religion. The insensibility of the spiritual senses refers to compassion and pity, shame and remorse, fidelity and devotion, tenderness and honor, self-responsibility and sorrow for another. And old age becomes, so to speak, the first victim of this loss of sensitivity. In a society that mainly exercises sensibility for the sake of enjoyment, attention to the fragile diminishes and the competition of the winners prevails. Certainly, the rhetoric of inclusion is the ritual formula of all politically correct discourse. But it still does not bring a real correction in the practices of normal coexistence: it is difficult for a culture of social tenderness to grow. The spirit of human fraternity - which I felt it necessary to reiterate with force - is like a dress in disuse, to be admired, yes, but... in a museum".

Referring to young people, he affirms that "in real life we can observe, with moving gratitude, many young people capable of honoring this fraternity to the core. But precisely here is the problem: there is a discard, a guilty discard, between the testimony of this vital sap of social tenderness and the conformism that imposes on youth to tell themselves in a completely different way. What can we do to fill this discard?"

Simeon and Anna

The Pope brought up the story of Simeon and Anna, mentioning also other biblical stories of the Spirit-sensitive elderly. From this story "comes a hidden indication that deserves to be brought to the foreground. What, concretely, is the revelation that ignites the sensitivity of Simeon and Anna? It consists in recognizing in a child, whom they had not generated and whom they see for the first time, the sure sign of God's visit. They accept not to be protagonists, but only witnesses. God's visitation is not incarnated in their lives, it does not bring them on the scene as saviors: God does not become flesh in their generation, but in the generation to come. No resentment and no recrimination for this. However, great shock and great consolation. The shock and consolation of being able to see and announce that the history of their generation has not been lost or wasted, precisely thanks to an event that becomes flesh and manifests itself in the generation that follows".

In conclusion, the Pope stressed that "only spiritual old age can give this humble and dazzling witness, making it authoritative and exemplary for all. Old age, which has cultivated the sensitivity of the soul, extinguishes all envy between generations, all resentment, all recrimination for the coming of God in the next generation, which comes along with the farewell of one's own generation. The spiritual sensitivity of the old age is capable of abating the competition and conflict between the generations in a credible and definitive way. Something impossible for men, but possible for God. And today we need it very much!"

La entrada «Hablar con los ancianos nos ayuda a aprender la fidelidad, la piedad o la ternura» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Otto prepared for the priesthood with the Vincentians and was ordained a priest on the Solemnity of St. Peter in 1907. He then wanted to join the Jesuits to work in the far-flung missions they had in various parts of the world, but his frail health prevented them from accepting him. 

For fifteen years he was parochial vicar of St. James (1917-1932), where he worked as a teacher of religion in the parish schools. 

Appointed parish priest in Goetzens (1932), in addition to the specific care of souls in his parish (Saints Peter and Paul Apostles), he provided spiritual services to the Christian Social Movement (aligned with the recent and impactful encyclical Rerum Novarum), which meant displeasure with the superiors who did not look favorably on the basis of the nascent Social Doctrine of the Church, and a high risk of death when the annexation of Austria by the Nazis (1938) took place, which involved the arrest and murder of many priests.

Already in his parish, with courageous apostolic zeal, he decisively advised a girl not to unite with a divorced man, atheist and of dissolute life. The young woman not only did not follow the parish priest's advice, but made it known to her lover. This man, a personal friend of Franz Hofer, the Nazi head of the district, had Neururer arrested on December 15, 1938, on the charge of "defamation of Germanic marriage". In giving his advice Neururer was aware of the risks. 

Then, shortly after the beginning of the war, in September 1939, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp (practically an extermination camp, due to the cruelties and mass shootings suffered by many prisoners). 

For being a priest (in odium fidei) he was often tortured; his reputation for holiness was highlighted by the fact that he shared his meager food rations with the weakest prisoners; and, above all, because when a prisoner asked him to be baptized, despite many indications that it could be a trap (the action was punishable by death), because of his awareness of his priestly mission, he agreed. Indeed, it was a trap. 

The event took place at the end of April 1940. As punishment, after several tortures, a month later he was hung upside down, naked. There he suffered cruelly, without complaining in the least, praying for his executioners, until his death after thirty-four hours of long agony (May 30, 1940). He was the first priest to be murdered in a Nazi concentration camp. The priest who assisted him in his torments, Alfred Berchtold (died in 1985), declared that, while hanging, he never complained, and always prayed for his executioners muttering prayers. His cruel death sentence was directly ordered by the famous and sadistic Sergeant Major Martin Sommer, the "Executioner of Buchenwald".

He was beatified as a martyr in odium fideiHis remains were burned by St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica on November 24, 1996. His remains were vilely cremated in a civil crematorium to erase the evidence of the brutal torture. The Nazis claimed that he died of a heart condition. Fortunately his faithful recovered his ashes, which today are deposited under the altar of the parish over which he presided.

Today the Catholic Church proposes him as an intercessor for preachers, for the sanctity of Christian marriage and for the spirit of priestly service. Blessed Neururer, like the Holy Innocents, preached the Gospel. non loquendo sed moriendo. Moreover, taking into account that St. Francis of Assisi said "Preach the Gospel, if necessary with words", Neururer followed this advice exemplarily, so he is a worthy intercessor for preachers. He is also a worthy defender of the sanctity of marriage, and of indissolubility, like St. Thomas More. And in relation to the spirit of priestly service, his death for administering a risky baptism, challenges all priests not to value physical life as the supreme good, or at least not above the spiritual life of the faithful.

Remarkable were the words of the holy Pope John Paul II in his homily at his beatification: "Today, as Roman Pontiff, I have the honor of beatifying one of the most faithful sons of the Church; and in doing so I will honor his noble decision to prefer death to kneeling before the Beast and his image (Rev. 13:1). With his death, Neururer made shine before the darkness of contemporary relativism that so affects marriage, a sovereign ray of Christ's kingship over history." In 2019 a film was promoted that tells the story of the life and murder of this venerable priest, who, if he were alive today, would surely prefer to die murdered rather than bend his knee to the Beast and his most visible contemporary image, gender ideology, and who would also not hesitate to prefer to die executed so as not to bend his knee to all proposals to annul or weaken the indissolubility and heterosexuality of Christian marriage.

La entrada Sacerdotes santos: beato Otto Neururer se publicó primero en Omnes.

You have been sent on this "special mission" in Ukraine entrusted by the Pope for several days, what has been your impression and how have you seen the situation from there?

-In these three days of mission I came into contact with different situations, but they all had pain in common: single mothers with their children without husbands, elderly people forced to move even if it is difficult for them to walk; children, many children; students from Asia and Africa evacuated from one day to the next, forced to freeze their studies. I have been able to reflect on how different is the war lived through the media and the war transmitted by the suffering of the people. The latter is a pain that directly attacks the stomach and the heart. And also how this conflict is causing enormous damage to a world that was already experiencing conditions of vulnerability due to the pandemic and the environmental crisis.

Your intention was, above all, to bring the Pope closer to Christians, how did you manage to convey this?

-What the Holy Father said at the Angelus in which he announced my mission and that of Cardinal Konrad Krajewski was exactly the objective of the mission: to bring to the people the attention, the hopes, the anguish and the active commitment of the Pope in the search for peace. I tried to achieve this goal, first of all, through what I call the "sacrament of presence", that is, by being physically in the places of pain, which in Budapest were stations, reception centers, parishes. Sometimes words are not necessary. For example, on the last day in Hungary I met some women from Kiev and other Ukrainian cities: it was enough for me to listen to their stories, assure them of my prayers and give them a blessing to give them obvious consolation.

I tried to achieve this goal through what I call the "sacrament of presence," physically being in the places of pain.

Cardinal Michael CzernyPrefect ad interim of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development

Were you also able to bring material assistance as you wished?

In Hungary and during my stay in Ukraine last Wednesday, I was able to bring material and spiritual aid.

Is the spiritual care of Christians guaranteed, despite the difficulties?

-Absolutely, and this is one of the things that struck me most during the trip. To see a Church that really "goes out", as the Holy Father wishes. The priests, even those of the Eastern Churches with their families, who do not leave the territory to be close to the people. Or communities such as Sant'Egidio who, in addition to creating a shelter in the parish, take care to organize prayer initiatives together with the refugees they welcome. Or the Jesuit Refugee Service, which offers training to volunteers so that they can better respond to the real needs of people fleeing. It is an important work and it is good to see that not only the Catholic Church but also all the other confessions are doing it.

What role does religion play in the conflict?

-Religion can demonstrate the unity that war tends to destroy. For example, during my visit to the village of Beregove in western Ukraine, I was very impressed to see Latin Rite Catholics, Greek Catholics, Protestants, Reformed, Jews, coming together to share the work of the refugee emergency. A huge emergency that can only be addressed together. "There are no distinctions, we are all the Good Samaritan called to help others now," said one pastor during this very frank and fraternal dialogue. It comforted me, it is truly the sign of a living Church.

How do you see the future of the war?

-War has no future, in fact it is the destruction of the whole future. We must learn another way to resolve conflicts and tensions. I hope in the good God who puts the fate of the world in poor human hands.

La entrada <b>Cardenal Czerny</b>: «La religión puede demostrar la unidad que la guerra tiende a destruir» se publicó primero en Omnes.

It is now the thirteenth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has triggered a very serious dispute between the two countries and an international crisis at different levels. Pope Francis is following the situation closely. in Eastern Europe and is making efforts to broker peace in the region. He recently announced that he had sent to two cardinals as an expression of the Church's solidarity with the suffering Ukrainian people, as reported by Omnes: in particular, to Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Apostolic Almsgiver, and Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Prefecture of the Church of Ukraine. ad interim of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. The Holy See is clearly placing itself at the service of the establishment of peace in Ukraine.

Cardinal Krajewski arrived in the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Lviv), in the west of the country, on Tuesday, after yesterday approaching the border between Poland and Ukraine, according to the Holy See Press Office. Cardinal Czerny, for his part, has also arrived today in Budapest, Hungary, to visit some reception centers for refugees coming from Ukraine. Both Cardinals will launch humanitarian operations with Ukraine.

La entrada El cardenal Parolin telefonea al ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Rusia: «Cesen los ataques armados» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Cardinal Krajewski arrives at the Polish-Ukrainian border on Monday, March 7, the Holy See Press Office said, and Cardinal Czerny will arrive in Hungary on Tuesday, March 8, to visit some reception centers for refugees coming from Ukraine. Both are on their way to Ukraine and depending on the situation will arrive in the country in the next few days.

Presence of the Christian people

The cardinals will be "the presence not only of the Pope, but of all the Christian people who want to come forward and say: 'War is madness! Please stop! Look at this cruelty! Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine. This is not just a military operation, but war, which sows death, destruction and misery." In addition, they will bring aid to the needy.

At the same Angelus, Pope Francis affirmed that "the number of victims is increasing, as are the people fleeing, especially mothers and children. In that tormented country, the need for humanitarian aid is growing dramatically by the hour. I urgently appeal for humanitarian corridors to be truly secured and for aid access to besieged areas to be guaranteed and facilitated in order to provide vital relief to our brothers and sisters oppressed by bombs and fear. I thank all those who welcome the fugitives. Above all, I implore that armed attacks cease, that negotiations prevail - and common sense prevail - and that international law be respected once again."

Similar situations

Pope Francis also wanted to draw attention to the many similar situations around the world. As the Pontiff had already recalled the previous Sunday: "With my heart torn by all that is happening in Ukraine - and let us not forget the war in other parts of the world, such as Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia... - I repeat: let the weapons be silenced! God is with the peacemakers, not with those who use violence".

The Holy See states that Cardinal Czerny will continue to point out the sad similarity between the sufferings of Ukrainians and long-standing conflicts that no longer attract the world's attention. In addition, he will raise his concern that African and Asian residents in Ukraine, who also suffer fear and displacement, be allowed to seek refuge without discrimination. There are also worrying reports of increased human smuggling activities and smuggling of migrants across borders and into neighboring countries. Since the majority of those fleeing are believers, he will affirm that religious assistance must be offered to all, with sensitivity to ecumenical and interfaith differences. Finally, in the laudable efforts to provide humanitarian responses and organize humanitarian corridors, there is a great need for coordination, good organization and shared strategy, to embrace the suffering of the people and provide effective aid.

La entrada El Papa Francisco muestra su cercanía a Ucrania enviando a la frontera a dos cardenales se publicó primero en Omnes.

La Pincoya was born in the 1930s from occupations by workers and it seems that time stopped a few years later: wooden houses built on the slopes of the hills, precarious and almost non-existent green spaces, crime and drug trafficking are the daily bread of the inhabitants. On a hot January day, it is summer in the southern hemisphere, at the Misericordia de La Pincoya center, the French architect-missionary Romain de Chateauvieux welcomes us and tells us his story for Omnes. More than an interview, it is a conversation between a Chilean living in France and a Frenchman living in Chile... the twists and turns of life. We go from Spanish to French and from French to Spanish without realizing it, maybe when we discover the accent that each one has in the other's mother tongue. Romain is one of those people with whom you speak as if you have known each other all your life.   

Romain de Chateauvieux is late for his appointment. This is something that often happens to people who dedicate their lives to solving other people's problems. They are not masters of their time, their schedules are flexible because they do not depend on them. Romain is about 40 years old, comes from an aristocratic French family, is married to Rena, Brazilian, with whom he has 5 children. In France, his name is associated with a whole generation of young social entrepreneurs such as Yann Bucaille, founder of the Cafés Joyeux (where the employees are people with disabilities), and Etienne Villemain who promoted the Association pour l'Amitié and Lazare (apartments where students or young professionals cohabit with homeless people). The waiting time gives me the opportunity to visit the Misericordia center - its chapels, classrooms, dining rooms, conservatory - and talk to some of the people who work there, in order to understand their motivations. You don't have to be a genius or come from far away to realize that more than a few buildings, what the French architect-missionary has built is an oasis. An oasis in La Pincoya. 

How does a Frenchman come to settle in La Pincoya? 

-God has acted in surprising ways in my life. As a student of architecture in Paris, I was traveling in South America. At that time, although I came from a Catholic family, I had abandoned the life of faith. In Brazil, accompanying a priest friend in a very poor area, I had a deep and personal conversion experience, I felt Jesus very close to me and I understood that He wanted me to serve the poor: it would be in the service of the poor that I would find the happiness I was looking for. I thought of becoming a priest, but at that time I met Rena. She is Brazilian, from a very humble social background. We became close friends and discovered our vocation to marriage and mission. That is how we traveled together by bus all over the continent, and we settled in Chile to serve the Church and the poorest of the poor 10 years ago. Our story is told in detail in our book "Misión Tepeyac". 

What is it like to be a father of five, a missionary, an architect, and an entrepreneur? 

-I try to unite everything in my life of prayer and relationship with God. Our children share our mission and are major players at the Misericordia center. In parallel, they lead a normal life of kids their age, they go to school, they have their friends, etc. My main occupation is to direct Misericordia internationally from Chile, we have activities in many countries and we have projects to continue growing. This activity allows me from time to time to exercise my passion for architecture, for example in the design of these buildings, classrooms, or the chapels that we build with wood brought from my French homeland. And finally, I am a missionary all day long because that is what being a Christian is all about. Concretely, in La Pincoya we are constantly visiting the families, talking to them about God and the Sacraments. Every year we have many baptisms, marriages, etc. 

 What is Mercy? 

Misericordia International is an institution that develops social and pastoral projects in the area of health and education in the peripheries of large cities in France, the United States, Chile and Argentina. We want to open soon a center in Spain and in England. In a more profound way, the Mercy Project is born of our conviction that mercy changes the world. By making our own the two great apostolic priorities of the Church, which are service to the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel, we want to be a generous and daring response to the exhortations of Pope Francis to launch a true revolution: that of tenderness!

Something very nice in Misericordia is that we work with many Catholic institutions and people of many sensibilities within the Church. This is also evident in all the saints that we try to put as examples in the classrooms, images, books: Mother Teresa, Father de Foucauld, Sister Faustina, the Chilean saint Alberto Hurtado, etc. With time I have realized that all the saints, even if they were very different from each other, had this constant concern for the poorest. These days, for example, I have been reading a biography of St. Josemaría, who began his apostolate in the poor neighborhoods of Madrid. 

On one of the walls is written the famous phrase of Pope Francis: "Mercy changes the world". Has Mercy changed La Pincoya?

-With God's grace, I think so. In this neighborhood, we are a place of welcome and formation for children and their families, for the elderly, pregnant mothers and street people. We give the children training, music, dance, literature, etc. classes. It seems to me that something important that we achieve is to keep them away from bad influences when they are no longer in classes, because they can come here to play, to learn, to grow, instead of being on the street. We take care of the sick and the elderly and clean them up. As Mother Teresa used to say, this is a drop in the ocean, we still have so much to do if we really believe that Jesus lives in the poor!

What differences do you see between your action in France and in Chile? 

-First of all, there is a clear difference in the way religion is mentioned. In France, there is a very strict secularism, institutional and legal, which sometimes causes Catholics to hide a little. In Chile, this is very different. Although Church and State have been separated for almost a century, the relationship with religion is not conflictive. Here, for example, our Catholic identity is very clear: the chapels, our message, the formation we give, and this does not cause any problem to anyone as it could be the case in France. 

It is also necessary to say something about poverty. I would say that it exists in both countries, but that in Chile it is more visible. We should not think that in France, because it is a more developed nation, poverty does not exist. On the contrary, it is very present but it is more hidden, it is less evident and that is part of the challenge because it has to be discovered.

Finally, with regard to our mission of evangelization, the contexts are very different. Chile is still a country very much marked by Christian culture and religion. On the other hand, our work in France takes place in an environment where Islam, anticlericalism and communism are very present. It could be said that in France we carry out a "first evangelization" so that our missionary zeal leads us, for example, to present Jesus, Way, Truth and Life, to Muslims or other people who have never heard of Him. 

For years, Chile has been undergoing a very strong political and social transformation. How do you see the current situation in the country? 

-As in the rest of the Western world, Chilean society has been secularizing little by little and this is a great challenge for Catholics in this country. The crisis in the Chilean Church has also been very strong and this has caused that a very respected institution has been losing its prestige and importance as a social actor. At the same time, for several years now, many immigrants, mainly Venezuelans, have been arriving in Chile. As we know, these migratory phenomena are not easy to channel, but I think that from the spiritual point of view, many of these people who arrive, who are very poor, have the great richness of faith and a sense of family: they can contribute a lot to Chile. Finally, the world has also witnessed the political crisis, the constitutional process and the last presidential elections. I sincerely think that we all have to be more supportive, to think about how to make this model of society more fraternal and humane. In particular, we Catholics have to do our bit in this process of reconciliation. 

Do you see your future in Chile? What other projects do you have? 

-We are doing very well in Chile, but our vocation as missionaries pushes us constantly to look for new challenges, to be always on the move, to not stay in our comfort zone. What I like are the beginnings of a project because I believe that I have the spirit of a pioneer, of an entrepreneur. In La Pincoya, I have probably reached a certain point of comfort: I already have my routine, I know everyone, I speak the language, etc. I am ready for whatever God wants and I am ready to do what God wants. I am ready for whatever God wants and maybe at some point He will ask me to leave this beautiful land that is Chile.

La entrada <b>Romain de Chateauvieux</b>: «La misericordia cambia el mundo» se publicó primero en Omnes.

"In the biblical passage of the genealogies of the ancestors," Francis began, "we are immediately struck by their enormous longevity: they speak of centuries! When does old age begin here? And what does it mean that these ancient fathers live so long after having generated their children? Fathers and sons live together for centuries! This secular cadence of the age, narrated in ritual style, gives the relationship between longevity and genealogy a profound symbolic meaning."

"It is as if the transmission of human life, so new in the created universe, called for a slow and prolonged initiation. Everything is new, at the beginning of the history of a creature that is spirit and life, conscience and freedom, sensibility and responsibility. The new life - human life - immersed in the tension between its origins "in the image and likeness" of God and the fragility of its mortal condition, represents a novelty completely undiscovered. And it requires a long period of initiation, in which reciprocal support between generations is indispensable, in order to decipher the experiences and confront the enigmas of life. In this long time, slowly, the spiritual quality of man is also cultivated".

"In a certain sense, every epochal passage in human history offers us this sensation: it is as if we had to take up again our questions about the meaning of life from the beginning and calmly, when the stage of the human condition appears full of new questions and unpublished interrogations. Certainly, the accumulation of cultural memory increases the familiarity necessary to face unpublished passages. The times of transmission are reduced; but the times of assimilation always call for patience. The excess of speed, which already obsesses all the passages of our life, makes each experience more superficial and less "nourishing". Young people are unconscious victims of this split between the time of the clock, which wants to be burned, and the times of life, which require an adequate "fermentation". A long life allows to experience these long times and the damages of haste".

"Old age, certainly, imposes slower rhythms: but they are not only times of inertia. The measure of these rhythms opens for everyone spaces of meaning of life unknown to the obsession of speed. Losing contact with the slow rhythms of old age closes these spaces for everyone. It is on this horizon that I wanted to institute the grandparents' festival, on the last Sunday of July. The alliance between the two generations at the extremes of life - the children and the elderly - also helps the other two - the young and the adults - to bond in order to make everyone's existence richer in humanity".

"Let us imagine," the Pope proposed, "a city where the coexistence of different age groups is an integral part of the overall design of its habitat. Let us think of the formation of affective relationships between old and young that would radiate in the general style of relationships. The overlapping of generations would become a source of energy for a truly visible and livable humanism. The modern city tends to be hostile to the elderly (and not by chance to children as well). Excessive speed pulls us into a centrifuge that sweeps us away like confetti. The overall view is completely lost. Everyone clings to his own piece, which floats on the flows of the city-market, for which slow rhythms are losses and speed is money. Excessive speed pulverizes life, it does not make it more intense".

"The pandemic," the Holy Father recalled, "in which we are still obliged to live, has imposed - very painfully, unfortunately - a setback for the obtuse cult of speed. And in this period, grandparents acted as a barrier to the emotional "dehydration" of the little ones. The visible alliance of the generations, which harmonizes times and rhythms, gives us back the hope of not living life in vain. And it restores to each one of us the love for our vulnerable life, closing the way to the obsession of speed, which simply consumes it. The rhythms of old age are an indispensable resource for grasping the meaning of life marked by time. Thanks to this mediation, the destiny of life in the encounter with God becomes more credible: a design that is hidden in the creation of the human being "in his image and likeness" and is sealed in the becoming man of the Son of God".

The Pope concluded by affirming that "today we are witnessing a greater longevity of human life. This offers us the opportunity to increase the alliance between all the stages of life; and also with the meaning of life in its totality. May the Spirit grant us the intelligence and strength for this reform: the arrogance of clock time must be converted into the beauty of the rhythms of life. The covenant of generations is indispensable. May God help us to find the right music for this harmonization".

La entrada «El exceso de velocidad pulveriza la vida, no la hace más intensa» se publicó primero en Omnes.

We reproduce in full below Pope Francis' Message for Lent 2022:

"Lent is a favorable time for personal and communal renewal that leads us toward the Easter of Jesus Christ dead and risen. For our Lenten journey in 2022, it will do us good to reflect on St. Paul's exhortation to the Galatians: "Let us not grow weary in doing good, for if we do not lose heart, we will reap the rewards in due season. Therefore, while we have the opportunity (kairos), let us do good to all" (Ga 6,9-10a).

Sowing and harvesting

In this passage the Apostle evokes the image of sowing and reaping, which Jesus was so fond of (cf. Mt 13). St. Paul speaks to us of a kairosWhat is this favorable time for us? Certainly, Lent is a favorable time, but so is our whole earthly existence, of which Lent is in some way an image.[1] All too often, greed and pride prevail in our lives, the desire to have, to accumulate and to consume, as shown in the Gospel parable of the foolish man, who considered his life safe and happy because he had accumulated a great harvest in his barns (cf. Lc 12,16-21). Lent invites us to conversion, to change our mentality, so that the truth and beauty of our life do not lie so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sowing goodness and sharing.

The first farmer is God himself, who generously "continues to pour out into humanity seeds of goodness" (Encyclical Letter, p. 4). Fratelli tutti, 54). During Lent we are called to respond to God's gift by welcoming his "living and effective" Word (Hb 4,12). Assiduous listening to the Word of God makes us mature a docility that disposes us to welcome his work in us (cf. St 1:21), which makes our life fruitful. If this is already a reason to rejoice, even greater is the call to be "God's co-workers" (1 Co 3,9), using the present tense well (cf. Ef 5:16) so that we too can sow by doing good. This call to sow good must not be seen as a burden, but as a grace with which the Creator wants us to be actively united to his fruitful magnanimity.

What about the harvest? Isn't all the sowing done with a view to the harvest? Of course it is. The close link between sowing and reaping is corroborated by St. Paul himself when he affirms: "To a stingy sower, a stingy harvest; to a generous sower, a generous harvest" (2 Co 9,6). But what is the harvest? The first fruit of the good that we sow is in ourselves and in our daily relationships, even in the smallest gestures of kindness. In God no act of love is lost, no matter how small it may be, no "generous fatigue" is wasted (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 279). Just as a tree is known by its fruit (cf. Mt 7:16,20), a life full of good works is luminous (cf. Mt 5:14-16) and brings the perfume of Christ to the world (cf. 2 Co 2,15). Serving God, freed from sin, brings forth fruits of sanctification for the salvation of all (cf. Rm 6,22).

In reality, we only see a small part of the fruit of what we sow, since according to the Gospel proverb "one sows and another reaps" (Jn 4,37). It is precisely by sowing for the good of others that we participate in the magnanimity of God: "It is a great nobility to be capable of unleashing processes whose fruits will be gathered by others, with the hope placed in the secret forces of the good that is sown" (Encyclical Letter, 4:37). Fratelli tutti, 196). Sowing good for others frees us from the narrow logic of personal benefit and gives our actions the broad scope of gratuitousness, introducing us to the marvelous horizon of God's benevolent designs.

The Word of God broadens and elevates our gaze even more, announces to us that the truest harvest is the eschatological harvest, that of the last day, the day without sunset. The complete fruit of our life and our actions is the "fruit for eternal life" (Jn 4:36), which will be our "treasure in heaven" (Lc 18:22; cf. 12:33). Jesus himself uses the image of the seed that dies when it falls to the ground and bears fruit to express the mystery of his death and resurrection (cf. Jn 12:24); and St. Paul takes it up again to speak of the resurrection of our body: "The corruptible is sown and rises incorruptible; the dishonorable is sown and rises glorious; the weak is sown and rises full of strength; in short, a material body is sown and a spiritual body is raised" (1 Co 15,42-44). This hope is the great light that the risen Christ brings to the world: "If what we hope for in Christ is reduced only to this life, we are the most miserable of all human beings. What is certain is that Christ has risen from the dead as the first fruit of those who have died" (1 Co 15:19-20), so that those who are intimately united to Him in love, in a death like His (cf. Rm 6:5), let us also be united to his resurrection for eternal life (cf. Jn 5,29). "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father" (Mt 13,43).

2. "Let us not grow weary of doing good".

The resurrection of Christ enlivens earthly hopes with the "great hope" of eternal life and introduces the seed of salvation already in the present time (cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter, p. 4). Spe salvi, 3; 7). Faced with the bitter disappointment of so many broken dreams, with concern for the challenges that concern us, with discouragement at the poverty of our means, we are tempted to withdraw into our own individualistic selfishness and take refuge in indifference to the suffering of others. Indeed, even the best resources are limited, "the young grow weary and tired, the young stumble and fall" (Is 40,30). Nevertheless, God "gives strength to those who are weary, and increases the strength of those who are exhausted. [Those who hope in the Lord renew their strength, they fly like eagles; they run and do not grow weary, they walk and do not grow tired" (Is 40,29.31). Lent calls us to place our faith and hope in the Lord (cf. 1 P 1:21), because only with eyes fixed on the risen Christ (cf. Hb 12:2) we can welcome the Apostle's exhortation: "Let us not grow weary in doing good" (Ga 6,9).

Let us not tire of praying. Jesus has taught us that it is necessary to "pray always without becoming discouraged" (Lc 18,1). We need to pray because we need God. To think that we are sufficient on our own is a dangerous illusion. With the pandemic we have felt our personal and social fragility. May Lent now allow us to experience the consolation of faith in God, without which we cannot have stability (cf. Is 7,9). No one is saved alone, because we are all in the same boat amid the storms of history;[2] but above all, no one is saved without God, because only the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ enables us to overcome the dark waters of death. Faith does not exempt us from the tribulations of life, but it enables us to go through them united to God in Christ, with the great hope that does not disappoint and whose pledge is the love that God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rm 5,1-5).

Let us not tire of removing evil from our lives.. May the bodily fasting that the Church asks of us during Lent strengthen our spirit for the fight against sin. Let us never tire of asking for forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, knowing that God never tires of forgiving[3]. Let us not tire of fighting against concupiscence.The fragility that drives us to selfishness and to all kinds of evil, and which throughout the centuries has found different ways to plunge man into sin (cf. Encyclical Letter, "The Eternal Life of Man"). Fratelli tutti, 166). One of these ways is the risk of dependence on digital media, which impoverishes human relationships. Lent is a propitious time to counteract these insidiousnesses and cultivate, instead, a more integral human communication (cf. ibid., 43) made up of "real encounters" (ibid., 50), face to face. Let us not grow weary of doing good in active charity towards our fellow man. During this Lent let us practice almsgiving, giving joyfully (cf. 2 Co 9,7). God, "who provides seed for the sower and bread for food" (2 Co 9:10), provides each of us not only with what we need to subsist, but also so that we can be generous in doing good to others.

If it is true that our whole life is a time for sowing good, let us take advantage especially of this Lent to care for those close to us, to be neighbor to those brothers and sisters who are wounded on life's journey (cf. Lc 10,25-37). Lent is a propitious time to seek out - and not avoid - those in need; to call - and not ignore - those who wish to be heard and receive a good word; to visit - and not abandon - those who suffer loneliness. Let us put into practice the call to do good. to allWe must take time to love the least and defenseless, the abandoned and despised, those who are discriminated against and marginalized (cf. Encyclical Letter, p. 4). Fratelli tutti, 193).

3. "If we do not falter, we will reap in due time".

Lent reminds us every year that "goodness, as well as love, justice and solidarity, are not achieved once and for all; they must be conquered every day" (ibid., 11). Therefore, let us ask God for the patient constancy of the farmer (cf. St 5:7) so as not to give up doing good, one step after another. Whoever falls, reach out to the Father, who always raises us up again. Whoever finds himself lost, deceived by the seductions of the evil one, let him not delay in returning to Him, who "is rich in forgiveness" (Is 55,7). In this time of conversion, relying on the grace of God and the communion of the Church, let us not tire of sowing good. Fasting prepares the soil, prayer waters, charity makes fruitful.

We have the certainty in faith that "if we do not lose heart, in due time we will reap" and that, with the gift of perseverance, we will attain the promised goods (cf. Hb 10:36) for our salvation and that of others (cf. 1 Tm 4,16). By practicing fraternal love with everyone, we unite ourselves to Christ, who gave his life for us (cf. 2 Co 5:14-15), and we begin to savor the joy of the Kingdom of heaven, when God will be "all in all" (1 Co 15:28), that the Virgin Mary, in whose womb the Savior was born and who "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Lc 2:19) obtain for us the gift of patience and remain at our side with her maternal presence, so that this time of conversion may bear fruits of eternal salvation."

La entrada Mensaje del Papa para la Cuaresma: «Un tiempo para la renovación» se publicó primero en Omnes.

The telegram reads as follows:

"Upon hearing the sad news of the shipwreck of the fishing boat Villa de Pitanxo, which occurred on February 15, off the coast of Canada, and in which several people lost their lives, the Holy Father expresses his heartfelt condolences, as well as his solidarity, in these moments of sorrow. 

His Holiness Francis raises to God his prayers for the eternal repose of the victims and also expresses his closeness to the families who mourn their loved ones. He also commends to the mercy of the Lord and to the maternal care of the Mother of God those affected by this mishap, while imparting the Apostolic Blessing, as a pledge of the constant help of the Most High and a sign of sure hope in the Resurrection". 

La entrada El Papa envía un telegrama por el naufragio del pesquero gallego en Terranova se publicó primero en Omnes.

In his opening address, the Holy Father, in fact, wanted to start from his more than fifty years of priestly life, finding in them God's passage through his life and the light to illuminate the ultimate meaning of the ordained ministry. In this way, his words move away from any hint of academicism and point out those essential elements that allow the priest to aspire joyfully to holiness, even in the midst of his own weaknesses and the misunderstandings of others. It seems to me that these essential elements pointed out by the Pope can be summarized in three:

At the forefront of the mission

First, "Offshore"(cf. Lk 5:4), as the proper horizon of the priestly mission. In the Pope's mind, priests are not in the rearguard but, together with the rest of the baptized, in the vanguard of the Church's mission. The fear of difficulties is warded off by anchoring themselves in the "wise, living and living Tradition of the Church".

Responding to God's love

Secondly, knowing oneself to be a baptized person called to holiness implies seeking to respond every day to God's love, which always precedes us: "even in the midst of crisis, the Lord does not cease to love and, therefore, to call".

Four "commuter trains

And the third element is enveloped in four "closenesses" that give joy and fruitfulness to his life: God's closeness, which "allows us to confront our life with his"; the closeness of the Bishop, presenting obedience as "the fundamental choice to welcome the one who has been placed before us as a concrete sign of that universal sacrament of salvation which is the Church"; closeness with priests, because "fraternity is deliberately choosing to be saints with others and not in solitude"; and closeness to people, grace before duty and which invites to a lifestyle in the image of Jesus, Good Samaritan.

In short, words that are born from a heart grateful for the gift of the priesthood and from a mind convinced of the importance of both the mission of priests and their need to seriously seek holiness within the Church they serve. A masterly portico for a Congress in which, certainly, we will have the opportunity to hear many things and very good things.

La entrada El Papa Francisco explica la figura del sacerdote en un importante Congreso en Roma se publicó primero en Omnes.

Pope Francis has modified the structure of the Congregation through this motu proprio in order to make its work more effective. Specifically, he wanted to distinguish the Congregation into two sections: the Doctrinal Section and the Disciplinary Section. 

The Doctrinal Section

On the one hand, the Doctrinal Section, through the Doctrinal Office, will deal with matters related to the promotion and protection of the doctrine of the faith and morals. It also fosters studies aimed at increasing the understanding and transmission of the faith in the service of evangelization, so that it may help in the understanding of the meaning of life, especially in the face of the questions raised by the progress of science and the development of society.

With regard to faith and morals, the Section will be responsible for examining documents to be published by other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, as well as writings and opinions that appear to be problematic for the right faith, encouraging dialogue with their authors and proposing appropriate corrections to be made, so that these documents may be easily accessible to the public.

In addition, this Section is entrusted with the task of studying questions relating to the Personal Ordinariates established by the Apostolic Constitution Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. The Doctrinal Section is also responsible for the Matrimonial Bureau, which has been created to examine, both in law and in fact, all matters relating to the ".privileium fidei"and shall examine the dissolution of marriages between unbaptized persons or between a baptized person and an unbaptized person.

The Disciplinary Section

On the other hand, the Disciplinary Section, through its corresponding office, deals with infractions reserved to the Congregation and those which the latter deals with through the jurisdiction of the Supreme Apostolic Tribunal established there. Its task is to prepare and elaborate the procedures foreseen by the canonical norms so that the Congregation, in its various instances (Prefect, Secretary, Promoter of Justice, Congress, Ordinary Session, College for the examination of appeals in matters of delicta graviora), can promote the proper administration of justice.

The current configuration

The configuration of the Congregation was established by St. Paul VI, who in his motu proprio Integrae Servandae had changed the name of the Dicastery to the present Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. St. John Paul II also collaborated with its configuration, which, in the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus specified its competencies.

La entrada El Papa Francisco reforma la estructura de Doctrina de la Fe se publicó primero en Omnes.

"Pope Benedict XV," Francis began, "a century ago, wrote that 'through Joseph we go directly to Mary, and, through Mary, to the origin of all holiness, Jesus.'" And encouraging pious practices in honor of St. Joseph, he advised one in particular: "Being deservedly considered as the most effective protector of the dying, having died in the presence of Jesus and Mary, it will be the care of the sacred Pastors to inculcate and foster [...] those pious associations that have been established to beseech Joseph on behalf of the dying, such as those of the 'Good Death', of the 'Transitus of St. Joseph' and 'for the dying'" (Motu proprio Bonum saneJuly 25, 1920)".

The Holy Father assures us that "our relationship with death never refers to the past, but always to the present. The so-called culture of 'well-being' tries to eliminate the reality of death, but in a dramatic way the coronavirus pandemic has once again brought it to the fore. Many brothers and sisters have lost loved ones without being able to be near them, and this has made death even harder to accept and to deal with".

The pontiff recalls that the Christian faith helps us to face death. "The true light that illumines the mystery of death comes from the resurrection of Christ. St. Paul writes: "Now if Christ is preached as having been raised from the dead, how do some among you go about saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, neither was Christ raised from the dead. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty, your faith is also empty" (1 Cor 15,12-14)".

"Only through faith in the resurrection can we look into the abyss of death without being overwhelmed by fear. Not only that: we can give death a positive role. In fact, thinking about death, illuminated by the mystery of Christ, helps us to look at the whole of life with new eyes. I have never seen a moving van behind a hearse! There is no point in accumulating if one day we will die. What we must accumulate is charity, the ability to share, not to remain indifferent to the needs of others. Or, what is the sense of fighting with a brother, with a sister, with a friend, with a relative, or with a brother or sister in faith if one day we will die? In the face of death, many questions are re-dimensioned. It is good to die reconciled, leaving no grudges and no regrets!"

Referring to the parallelism made in the Gospel, "it tells us that death comes like a thief, and no matter how much we try to keep its arrival under control, perhaps by programming our own death, it remains an event to which we are accountable and in front of which we also have to make choices".

Finally, the Pope wished to underline two considerations: "the first: we cannot avoid death, and precisely for this reason, after having done everything humanly possible to care for the sick person, therapeutic incarceration is immoral (cfr Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2278)".

And "the second consideration has to do with the quality of death itself, of pain, of suffering. In fact, we should be grateful for all the help that medicine is striving to give, so that through the so-called "palliative care", every person who is preparing to live the last stretch of his or her life's journey can do so in the most humane way possible. But we must be careful not to confuse this help with unacceptable aberrations that lead to euthanasia. We must accompany death, but not provoke death or assist assisted suicide. I recall that the right to care and care for all must always be privileged, so that the weakest, in particular the elderly and the sick, are never discarded. In fact, life is a right, not death, which must be welcomed, not provided. And this ethical principle concerns everyone, not only Christians or believers".

He concluded his catechesis by invoking St. Joseph so that "he can help us to live the mystery of death in the best possible way. For a Christian the good death is an experience of God's mercy, which becomes close to us also in that last moment of our life. Also in the Hail Mary prayer, we pray asking Our Lady to be close to us "now and at the hour of our death". Precisely for this reason I would like to conclude by praying together a Hail Mary for the dying and for those who are in mourning.

La entrada «Privilegiar el cuidado para todos, para que los más débiles no sean descartados» se publicó primero en Omnes.

With the letter and the accompanying document, Benedict XVI responds to the comments and accusations, some of them even aggressive, that have circulated in the media, and in particular from some sectors of the Church in Germany. 

The pontiff emeritus reiterates, first of all, his sorrow and request for forgiveness for the abuses committed while at the head of the archdiocese. In the missive, Benedict assures us that "I am sorry for the abuses committed while I was at the head of the archdiocese.I can only express to all victims of sexual abuse my deep shame, my great sorrow and my sincere request for forgiveness. I have had a great responsibility in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my sorrow for the abuses and errors that have occurred during the time of my mandate in the respective places. Each case of sexual abuse is terrible and irreparable. To the victims of sexual abuse goes my deepest sympathy and I regret every single case.".

For the study of the report of the Munich law firm and for the drafting of the document that has just been published, the Pope Emeritus, who is now 94 years old and in frail health but with a clear mind, has been assisted by a group of collaborators. 

The case of priest X

The report accused Ratzinger of being present at a meeting of the Ordinariate of the archdiocese on January 15, 1980, in which the priest X was allegedly mentioned as a sexual abuser and was nevertheless entrusted with a pastoral task. However, the pontiff emeritus reiterates that at that meeting there was no mention of this priest having committed sexual abuse, but that it was only a question of providing an accommodation for this priest in Munich, where he had gone for therapy.

In addition, regarding the discrepancy between what Benedict XVI stated when responding to the arguments of the report before it was published and what he stated after its publication, he clarifies once again that it is explained by a transmission error in the work of his group of collaborators. And it is clear that "a transcription error cannot be imputed to Benedict XVI as a conscious misrepresentation or as a '.lie'".

At the press conference on January 20, 2022, at which the legal experts presented their report, no evidence could be presented that Joseph Ratzinger had any other involvement. Moreover, in response to a journalist's question as to whether the experts could prove otherwise, the law firm's representative openly confirmed that there is no evidence that Ratzinger had any further data on that priest; quite simply, in his opinion, it would "more likely"that he would have had them. Therefore, the document of Benedict XVI's collaborators concludes that "as archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse.".

Finally, regarding the also unfounded assumption that Benedict XVI has downplayed the importance of acts of exhibitionism by stating that ".parish priest X was known as an exhibitionist, but not as an abuser in the proper sense of the word."it is specified that "Benedict XVI did not minimize the exhibitionist behavior, but rather expressly condemned it"They blame the accusation on a decontextualization of the phrase, which was part of a legal consideration of the punishment of such behaviors in canon law. On the contrary, "in the memoir presented, Benedict XVI affirms with the utmost clarity that abuses, including exhibitionism, are 'terrible', 'sinful', 'morally reprehensible' and 'irreparable'.". 

Three other cases

On the other hand, the report accuses Benedict XVI of having mishandled the situation in three other cases as well. Without being able to adduce evidence, the report "assumes" that in these cases, too, he would have known that the priests were abusers.

However, the document of Ratzinger's collaborators replies, ".in none of the cases analyzed by the report was Joseph Ratzinger aware of sexual abuse committed or suspected to have been committed by priests.". And indeed, the report does not provide any evidence to the contrary.

Truthfulness of Benedict XVI

All this confirms the attitude of Benedict XVI, who in the course of his years as a cardinal and as pope, has been a pioneer in the commitment to the fight against abuse sexual abuse within the Church.

Benedict XVI points out in his very personal and painful letter that ".I have been deeply moved that the oversight was used to doubt my veracity, and even to portray me as a liar. I have been even more moved by the many expressions of confidence, warm testimonials and touching letters of encouragement I have received from so many people. I am especially grateful for the confidence, support and prayers that Pope Francis has expressed to me personally.".

In addition, the letter includes the prospect of the upcoming end of the pontiff emeritus, who faces, it says, "with a joyful spirit because I firmly trust that the Lord is not only the just judge, but at the same time the friend and the brother who has already suffered my inadequacies and therefore, as judge, is at the same time my advocate (Paraclete).)".

La entrada Benedicto XVI expresa su dolor pero rechaza todas las acusaciones se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Eucharistic celebration took place on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and in his homily, Monsignor Peña underlined some important aspects for that portion of the Church: "The physical presence of an Apostolic Nunciature is one more sign of the pastoral solicitude of the Holy Father for the people of this country, especially for the Catholic community, since it is rightly called the House of the Pope".

Referring to the Feast of the Presentation and the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, the Assistant to the Secretary of State said that "this annual celebration offers us a beautiful opportunity to pray for those who have already responded to the Lord's invitation to serve him in this vocation, as well as to ask the Lord of the harvest to send even more laborers into the field. As we offer our prayers, we also reflect on the important role that consecrated life plays in the mission of the Church. This land has been blessed by the service of many religious men and women over the years, including Bishop Hinder, who is a member of the Franciscan Order.
Consecrated life is a reminder of the goodness and love of God, our Father. As he has done throughout history and continues to do today, the Lord sees what his children need and consequently calls men and women to serve the Church and society, inspiring them to embrace different charisms. No charism is the same, but each is a gift from God."

The prelate affirmed with hope that "responding to the Lord's call to follow him and serve his Church is not without its challenges. One of them, which applies to all vocations in the Church, is to fall into discouragement (...) However, we know from history that this has always been the case. We need only think of the Lord himself, who came to offer us salvation, but who often met with rejection and incomprehension, not to mention betrayal and death. In spite of everything, the Lord patiently endured and won for us the crown of victory. We should look to his example, for it offers us hope and encouragement."

Monsignor Peña Parra wanted to encourage the Arabian people by assuring them that "the Catholic community of Abu Dhabi and of the entire Arabian Peninsula is also an example of patience full of hope and Christian life. In this regard, I recall the words of gratitude expressed to you by the Holy Father during his visit in 2019 for the way in which you put the written Gospel into practice (cf. Homily, 5 February 2019). You too may be a "little flock," but every part of the Body of Christ, the Church, has a role to play. No part is better or more important than the other."

La entrada Inaugurada la nunciatura en Abu Dhabi, para los Emiratos Árabes Unidos se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Pontiff assured that at times "Christianity can also fall into forms of devotion that seem to reflect a mentality that is more pagan than Christian. The fundamental difference lies in the fact that our prayer and the devotion of the faithful people is not based on trust in a human being, or in an image or an object, even when we know that they are sacred. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us: "Cursed be he who trusts in man [...]. Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD" (17:5-7). Even when we entrust ourselves fully to the intercession of a saint, or even more so to the Virgin Mary, our trust has value only in relation to Christ. And the bond that unites us to him and to each other has a specific name: "communion of saints". It is not the saints who perform the miracles, but only the grace of God that acts through them".

"What is the communion of saints?" the Pope asks. And he answers by turning to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, when he states, "The communion of saints is precisely the Church" (n. 946). "What does this mean," he continues, "that the Church is reserved for the perfect? No. It means that it is the community of saved sinners. Our holiness is the fruit of God's love manifested in Christ, who sanctifies us by loving us in our misery and saving us from it. Always thanks to him we form one body, says St. Paul, in which Jesus is the head and we are the members (cfr. 1 Cor 12,12). This image of the body makes us understand immediately what it means to be united to one another in communion: "If one member suffers," writes St. Paul, "all the others suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the others share in its joy. Now you are the body of Christ, and its members each of you has its part" (1 Cor 12,26- 27)".

Francis affirmed that "the joy and pain that touch my life concern everyone, just as the joy and pain that touch the life of the brother and sister next to us concern me. In this sense, even the sin of a single person always concerns everyone, and the love of each person concerns everyone. By virtue of the communion of saints, each member of the Church is united to me in a profound way, and this union is so strong that it cannot be broken even by death. In fact, the communion of saints concerns not only the brothers and sisters who are with me at this historical moment, but also those who have completed their earthly pilgrimage and have crossed the threshold of death. Let us think, dear brothers and sisters: in Christ no one can ever truly separate us from those we love; only the way of being close to them changes, but nothing and no one can break this union. The communion of saints holds together the community of believers on earth and in heaven".

In this sense, the Pope continued, "the relationship of friendship that I can build with a brother or sister next to me, I can also establish with a brother or sister who is in Heaven. The saints are friends with whom we very often build friendships. What we call devotion is in reality a way of expressing love based precisely on this bond that unites us. And we all know that we can always turn to a friend, especially when we are in difficulty and need help. We all need friends; we all need meaningful relationships to help us face life. Jesus also had his friends, and he turned to them at the most decisive moments of his human experience. In the history of the Church there are constants that accompany the believing community: above all the great affection and the very strong bond that the Church has always felt in relation to Mary, Mother of God and our Mother. But there is also the special honor and affection she has paid to St. Joseph. Deep down, God entrusts to him the most precious thing he has: his Son Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It is always thanks to the communion of saints that we feel close to us the saints who are our patrons, by the name we have, by the Church to which we belong, by the place where we live, and so on. And this is the confidence that should always animate us when we turn to them in the decisive moments of our life".

The Pope concluded his catechesis with a prayer to St. Joseph "to whom I am particularly attached and which I have recited every day for many years":

Glorious Patriarch St. Joseph, whose power knows how to make impossible things possible, come to my aid in these moments of anguish and difficulty. Take under your protection the grave and difficult situations that I entrust to you, so that they may have a good solution. My beloved Father, all my trust is placed in you. Let it not be said that I have invoked you in vain and, as you can do everything with Jesus and Mary, show me that your goodness is as great as your power. Amen

La entrada «Con los santos podemos tejer una relación de amistad» se publicó primero en Omnes.

He recalled that "in the Apostolic Letter Patris corde (December 8, 2020) I was able to reflect on this aspect of St. Joseph's personality. In fact, even if the Gospels do not give us particulars about how he exercised his fatherhood, we can be sure that his being a "just" man translated also into the education given to Jesus. "Joseph saw Jesus progress day by day "in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lc 2,52). As the Lord did with Israel, so he 'taught him to walk, and took him in his arms: he was to him as a father who lifts up a child to his cheeks, and stoops down to feed him' (cf. Os 11,3-4)" (Patris corde, 2)".

"The Gospels," the Holy Father continued, "testify that Jesus always used the word 'father' to speak of God and his love. Many parables have as their protagonist the figure of a father. [1] Among the most famous is certainly that of the merciful Father, recounted by the Evangelist Luke (cfr. Lc 15,11-32). Precisely in this parable, in addition to the experience of sin and forgiveness, the way in which forgiveness reaches the person who has made a mistake is also emphasized. The text reads: 'While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and, moved, ran and threw himself on his neck and kissed him effusively' (v. 20). The son was expecting a punishment, a justice that at the most could have given him the place of one of the servants, but he finds himself enveloped by the father's embrace. Tenderness is something greater than the logic of the world. It is an unexpected way of doing justice. That is why we must never forget that God is not frightened by our sins, by our mistakes, by our falls, but that he is frightened by the closure of our hearts, by our lack of faith in his love. There is great tenderness in the experience of God's love. And it is beautiful to think that the first one to transmit this reality to Jesus was precisely Joseph. In fact, the things of God always reach us through the mediation of human experiences".

The Pope then encouraged us to "ask ourselves whether we ourselves have experienced this tenderness, and whether we in turn have become witnesses to it. In fact, tenderness is not first of all an emotional or sentimental question: it is the experience of feeling loved and welcomed precisely in our poverty and misery, and therefore transformed by God's love".

"God does not trust only in our talents," Francis affirmed, "but also in our redeemed weakness. This, for example, leads St. Paul to say that there is also a project on his frailty. Thus, in fact, he writes to the community of Corinth: 'Lest I should be puffed up with the sublimity of these revelations, a sting was given to my flesh, an angel of Satan buffeting me [...]. For this reason three times I begged the Lord to depart from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is shown perfect in weakness"' (2 Cor 12,7-9). The experience of tenderness consists in seeing the power of God pass precisely through that which makes us most fragile; provided that we are converted from the gaze of the Evil One who "makes us look at our fragility with a negative judgment", while the Holy Spirit "brings it to light with tenderness" (Patris corde, 2). Tenderness is the best way to touch what is fragile in us. [For this reason it is important to encounter God's mercy, especially in the sacrament of Reconciliation, by having an experience of truth and tenderness. Paradoxically, even the Evil One can tell us the truth, but, if he does, it is to condemn us. We know, however, that the Truth which comes from God does not condemn us, but welcomes us, embraces us, sustains us, forgives us' (Patris corde, 2)".

Already at the end of the catechesis, the Pope assured that "it does us good then to look at ourselves in the fatherhood of Joseph and ask ourselves if we allow the Lord to love us with his tenderness, transforming each one of us into men and women capable of loving in this way. Without this "revolution of tenderness" we run the risk of remaining imprisoned in a justice that does not allow us to rise up easily and that confuses redemption with punishment. For this reason, today I want to remember in a special way our brothers and sisters who are in prison. It is right that those who have made a mistake should pay for their error, but it is equally right that those who have made a mistake should be able to redeem themselves for their own error".

In conclusion, the Pontiff prayed the following prayer to St. Joseph:

"St. Joseph, father in tenderness,
teach us to accept to be loved precisely in what is weakest in us.
Make sure that we do not put any impediment
between our poverty and the greatness of God's love.
It arouses in us the desire to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
to be forgiven and also to be able to love with tenderness
our brothers and sisters in their poverty.
Be close to those who have made a mistake and for this they pay a price;
help them to find, together with justice, also the tenderness to be able to start again. And teach them that the first way to begin again
is to sincerely ask for forgiveness.
Amen.

La entrada «Nos hace bien mirarnos en la paternidad de José y permitir al Señor que nos ame con su ternura» se publicó primero en Omnes.

He died of leprosy on January 26, 1914. The disease lasted for many years, and "devoured" him little by little. He had contracted it as a result of his persevering assistance to an old man suffering from the disease, in spite of all the warnings he was given. He did not want to abandon him, since he was aware that he was the only person who visited him. His feast day is celebrated every year on March 16. He was beatified on September 14, 2013 and canonized on October 16, 2016.

His priestly ministry

Regarding his priestly work, on November 4, 1866 he was ordained priest in the Cathedral of Córdoba (Argentina). The following year he showed his priestly guts by standing out for his courageous generosity in assisting the sick and dying during the cholera epidemic that struck the city of Cordoba in 1867, killing a significant percentage of the population (2,300 people out of some 30,000).

At the end of 1869, the bishop entrusted him with the extensive "Curato" of San Alberto: ten thousand inhabitants scattered in desert and mountainous areas, across 4,336 square kilometers, in an area cut off by the interposition of the "Sierras Grandes", a 2,200 meters high stone massif, whose traverse, although not very high, was very dangerous and inhospitable, which is why it was isolated from the most civilized places.

In his "Curato" the places were distant, and there were almost no roads or schools. In addition, the moral state and material destitution of its inhabitants was lamentable. Nevertheless, Brochero's apostolic heart turned that area into a center of spirituality and a flourishing productive zone.

The seat of the Curato was called "Villa del Tránsito" (today "Cura Brochero"), it consisted of only twelve precarious houses, with no services whatsoever. In that place illiteracy, concubinage, alcoholism, theft and poverty were raging, to which was added the absolute lack of religious instruction and the lack of sacraments.

The Cura Brochero, aware that the state authorities of the provincial capital would not show any interest in those abandoned places, understood that if he did not organize the population so that they would raise their own human dignity, he could not preach the Gospel effectively; Therefore, with remarkable spiritual, sacramental and moral leadership, he organized the inhabitants in teams to build chapels and schools, to lay out roads in rocky and steep places, and to open irrigation ditches that would bring water from the mountain rivers to the crops, transforming the area into an orchard. 

Many of these works still survive today, and among them is the "Camino de las Altas Cumbres", which was used in international rally competitions.

On muleback

Unlike the holy Curé of Ars, whom the Holy Spirit impelled to develop a notable "static" pastoral ministry, centered on confessions and preaching to the faithful, Cura Brochero was impelled by the Holy Spirit to the "dynamic" task of parish ministry, For this reason, on the back of a mule, he traveled thousands of kilometers ("thousands" in the literal sense) to visit all his parishioners and bring them the Faith, consolation and the sacraments, bearing cruel wounds on his incurably wounded backside. 

One day he understood that his efforts would never bear solid spiritual fruit if he did not achieve the profound conversion of the souls entrusted to him; and he also understood that the only way to convert so many poor and abandoned people was to make them participate, "everyone" (and especially the illiterate, concubines, alcoholics, bandits persecuted by the law, etc.), in batches of spiritual exercises of at least eight days (with less than eight, he considered that "nothing serious" could be done). 

In those batches there were four days dedicated to formation in basic Christian doctrine, and another four to the prayer life itself. 

In pursuit of this goal, he built a huge retreat house on the site of his parish, which was almost abandoned. Although all his parishioners considered the proposal crazy, it was done: they say that there is no holiness without some magnanimity.

It was built in a short time, and in the first year of use alone, a total of 2,240 retreatants (adding together the men's and women's groups) participated in those spiritual exercises in a "mysterious" way. Anyone who knows the place today would find no human explanation for this fact. And this practice remained firm, in that unpopulated area, from 1877 to 1914 (the year of his death). There were exercise batches of up to 900 participants.

If we take into account that in those years there was no radio, no TV, no WhatsApp, no social networks, and no freezerSince there were no refrigerators, no cold food chains, no gas, no drinking water, and the means of transportation were on foot or blood traction, there is no doubt that the breath of the Holy Spirit in that place, and the correspondence to the grace of the saintly priest, were two undoubted realities. 

His faith, as Jesus Christ asked us to do, was capable of "bring forth children of Abraham from the very stones". (Matthew 3:9). On the other hand, the population of the place where the retreat house was built was only a hundred people, so that the rest of the retreatants had to go out to isolated and distant areas, which made success completely inexplicable without the action of the Spirit and the correspondence to grace.

The most important lesson he gave us priests can be summarized as follows (these are not his words): "To convert the ignorant and the rude: Eight days of retreats... at least!" He was a great promoter of popular spiritual retreats for simple people, and also a great inspirer of those parish priests who consider it fundamental to have retreat houses in their own parish: no more making spiritual retreats depend on the free availability of dates in other retreat houses!

To all that has been said, we must add the countless number of anecdotes collected that reflect his good humor, his trust in grace, his faith in the need for the sacraments, and the importance of human promotion as a basis for the action of the Holy Spirit; these anecdotes are inexhaustible and very interesting, but brevity prevents us from presenting them.

His death

When he died he was seventy-three years old. The last part of his life he was blind and very deaf, and abandoned by almost everyone... because of the panic of leprosy, which chilled good feelings. Let us remember that if today we are afraid of the "coronavirus"... how much more was the fear of leprosy then!

He died with all the sacraments, enduring severe pain. They buried him four meters deep in the chapel of the retreat house, and covered the coffin with quicklime, after which they burned all his belongings, except the parish books. 

Today those books that record his living faith in the sacraments survive, proof of which is the immeasurable number of people he served, as well as the silent fruits that persevere in that area which he extracted from geographical abandonment and spiritual poverty, which is why all its inhabitants (believers or not, Catholics or anti-Catholics) unanimously esteem him as a historic leader in all areas: human, spiritual, moral and religious. 

In the area where he carried out his ministry, it is said that the priest Brochero, as a priestly image of Christ, is worthy of a fame and affection that have made him an "untouchable", a worthy title for one who consumed his life as do the candles that worship God the Father on the altar.

Distinguished Argentine folklorists honored Cura Brochero with a beautiful song, which can be heard below, "A step here a stride there", that summarizes his life very well.

La entrada Sacerdotes santos: José Gabriel Brochero, el Cura Brochero se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Pope reflected on the office of Joseph: "The Greek term tektonused to indicate Joseph's work, has been translated in various ways. The Latin Fathers of the Church did it with "carpenter". But let us keep in mind that in the Palestine of Jesus' time wood was used, besides for making plows and various furniture, also for building houses, which had wooden windows and terrace roofs made of beams connected together with branches and earth".

"Carpenter" or "woodworker" was therefore a generic qualification, indicating both wood craftsmen and workers engaged in activities related to construction. It was a rather hard job, having to work with heavy materials such as wood, stone and iron. From the economic point of view, it did not assure great profits, as can be deduced from the fact that Mary and Joseph, when they presented Jesus in the Temple, offered only a pair of turtledoves or pigeons (cfr. Lc 2:24), as prescribed by the Law for the poor (cfr. Lv 12,8)".

In relation to Jesus as an adolescent, the Pope says that therefore, "he learned this trade from his father. That is why, when as an adult he began to preach, his astonished countrymen wondered: "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miracles?" (Mt 13:54), and they were scandalized because of him (cf. v. 57)".

"This biographical information about Joseph and Jesus" made the Pope think, he said, "of all the workers in the world, especially those who do hard work in mines and in certain factories; those who are exploited through undeclared work; the victims of work; the children who are forced to work and those who scavenge in landfills in search of something useful to exchange... But I also think of those who are without work; of those who rightly feel their dignity wounded because they cannot find work. Many young people, many fathers and many mothers live the drama of not having a job that allows them to live serenely. And often the search becomes so dramatic that it leads them to the point of losing all hope and desire for life. In these times of pandemic, many people have lost their jobs and some, crushed by an unbearable burden, have gone so far as to take their own lives. Today I would like to remember each one of them and their families".

Work, the Holy Father stressed, "is an essential component in human life, and also in the path of sanctification. It is also a place where we experience ourselves, where we feel useful, and where we learn the great lesson of concreteness, which helps to ensure that the spiritual life does not turn into spiritualism. But unfortunately work is often hostage to social injustice and, rather than being a means of humanization, it becomes an existential periphery. I often ask myself: in what spirit do we go about our daily work? How do we face fatigue? Do we see our activity as linked only to our destiny or also to the destiny of others? In fact, work is a way of expressing our personality, which is by its nature relational".

"It is beautiful," Francis concluded, "to think that Jesus himself worked and that he learned this art from St. Joseph. Today we must ask ourselves what we can do to recover the value of work; and what contribution, as Church, we can make so that it can be rescued from the logic of mere profit and can be lived as a fundamental right and duty of the person, which expresses and increases his dignity".

The Pope wanted to pray with those present the prayer that St. Paul VI raised to St. Joseph on May 1, 1969:

"Oh, Saint Joseph,
patron saint of the Church,
you who together with the Word incarnate
you worked every day to earn your bread,
finding in Him the strength to live and work;
you who have felt the restlessness of tomorrow,
the bitterness of poverty, the precariousness of work;
you who today show the example of your figure,
humble before men,
but very great before God,
protects workers in their harsh daily existence,
defend them from discouragement,
of the denying revolt,
and from the temptation of hedonism;
and safeguards the peace of the world,
that peace which alone can guarantee the development of peoples. Amen"

La entrada «El trabajo es esencial en la vida humana y es camino de santificación» se publicó primero en Omnes.

The building was rebuilt in the sixteenth century under the pontificate of Sixtus V who made it his summer residence. It currently houses the offices of the diocese of Rome. Its interior has been opened to the public with guided tours organized by the Missionaries of Divine Revelation.

AhNow you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.

La entrada Se abre al público la antigua residencia de los papas se publicó primero en Omnes.

If for Quevedo "all the everyday is much and ugly", Guillén Acosta's poetry is a hymn to "the value / of each thing, however fragile it may be" (13), to the sacredness of matter and the prosaic, in which he aspires to "feel the snap of the insignificant, / its everydayness", "that which drives me not to long for / another life different from this one in which I now live" (16), because in it everything is "tightly woven into our workmanship" (61). 

Book

Title: In a state of grace

AuthorCarmelo Guillén Acosta

Editorial: Renaissance

Pages: 72

City and year: Seville, 2021

If it were not a cliché, and if the author had not already given ample evidence to say so, we would have to consider that we are before a book of full maturity, of mastery of expressive resources, always, of course, at the service of the core of meaning. 

In the pages of this book the reader encounters the most categorical lie to an "ojalatera mysticism". The poet surrenders himself "point-blank to the tiny instant, / to the fleetingness of time, to so many facts / that barely peek out and fall into oblivion" (22); all this "in a present / that tastes like eternity" (23), "that never ends, similar / to the love of God, whose exercise / I discover without ceasing in this world / to the rhythmic beat of my life" (25). In order to discover this God who "disguises himself as routine" (Insaustiti dixit), it is necessary to be "contemplative, / that clairvoyance that silence brings, / that final harmony with everything created" (27), which allows us to remain "faithful to the insignificant, / to the palpitation of daily life", and "to see how life / impels me to give myself to the little things, / to its simple and fragile breathing" (29). 

In times like those of today, with the advent of the "non-things" of the digital sphere, in which the real becomes liquid, loses density and vanishes, and in which we have become blind to the silent, habitual, minute realities (Byung-Chul Han), the poetry of Guillén Acosta invites us to anchor ourselves in being, in the solidity of the living rock.

The general celebratory tone, with the mastery of rhythm to which the author has accustomed us, bursts out on occasions in songs like this one: "Who would have thought / that these tiny things, / microscopic almost, / without any interest [...], would accompany me / in my daily struggle / until the end of my days, / and that they would be the key / that would open the door / narrow after my death" (30).

Guillén Acosta's poetry is not a way of expressing himself: it is a way of living, a contemplative, hopeful, grateful life, open to the great gift of human existence. A life, in short, dedicated, that "to give oneself to another person is, without a doubt, / the shortest way to reach happiness" (57). It is a poetry that speaks to the deepest human needs, because it springs from the "very living waters of life," as St. Teresa of Avila says.

If it is true that, as F.-X. Bellamy writes, time devoted to contemplation is the only thing that can save our world today, the book of poems In a state of grace operates in the reader the perlocutionary effect of making him value his own life, "revealing to him in time what escapes time", that is, what is permanent, actual, eternal. Here, precisely, lies, as Hölderlin warned ("what remains is founded by poets"), the essence of poetry. It is a necessary function today more than ever, when we are moving here and there, with the vertigo of an ambulance, but without fixed points and firm ground to anchor ourselves to. It is no wonder, then, that there is such a sense of absurdity and hopelessness. And so much dispensable medicalization.

If someone were to ask me why I like this book by Guillén Acosta, the answer that comes to me spontaneously is: because it helps me to glimpse the thickness of what, in my daily life, seems trivial and inane; because it helps me to better understand my life and my vocation as an ordinary Christian; because it helps me to live.

When turning the last page of this collection of poems, the reader does not know for sure whether he has been reading or praying. In any case, he has experienced that what he has in his hands at any given moment, no matter how often or how painful it may be (because "from time to time it happens: pain gives mouthfuls"), has an unprecedented density if he knows how to conjugate it with the verbs to love and to serve, in active and passive; and he has "made up his mind / that there is no other eternity" (44). 

La entrada En estado de gracia se publicó primero en Omnes.

I received adult baptism in the fall of 1982. Every Sabbath we had an hour of prayer and an hour of Bible study, plus the reading of Adventist writings, Ellen Gould White and others. Later I joined a subgroup, the "Adventist Fellowship". Sabbath Rest", also called of the "Message for Our Time". But I soon realized that almost everything there revolved around money. Since - unlike the Catholic and Evangelical churches - they do not collect church tax, they have to collect donations. 

Something that had always caused me a big problem is that, with the regeneration they preach, I cannot get deliverance from sin. Of course God forgives sins, but how can I be sure? I also had no one with whom I could talk about these things. Besides, I was alone, because I was the only member of the sect in Berlin. Many things were forbidden to me, such as going to the cinema or eating out, alcohol, smoking... and I was also instructed to limit contact with "people of the world" as much as possible. At a certain point, from one second to the next, I broke with them. At first I dedicated myself - as they say - to enjoying life, to doing everything I had missed for decades.

The Benedict XVI's speech at the Bundestag in September 2011 made a deep impression on me. From then on I tried to read everything he said. Although for a few years I did not seem to make any progress, I felt more and more sympathy for the Catholic Church. In 2014, I set up my own business with a partner, in whom I initially had a lot of confidence. But a few months later, I realized that the product we were selling was not good, which led me almost to ruin. So I put an end to that freelance work.

By the end of 2014, I had hit rock bottom. I had been participating for some time in the meetings of a "smoking club"; but because I was so demoralized, I sent an email to excuse myself from attending on a certain occasion; however, the organizer phoned me and encouraged me to attend, because we were also talking about issues of a certain depth. I attended and thus met a member of the Catholic Church who, as I could see, was characterized by great spiritual depth. He turned out to be a member of the personal prelature Opus Dei. He soon invited me to attend a Holy Mass. I went with some expectation; in my youth, I had been led to see in the Catholic Church the "Antichrist".

I didn't understand much of the liturgyI was impressed from the very beginning. What I saw helped me to concentrate: Christ crucified, the Stations of the Cross and the Blessed Virgin Mary made me see that there was something special there, a closeness to God such as I had never experienced before. I was able to witness the administration of Holy Communion: on my knees and in my mouth. What a gesture of humility! I decided to buy a catechism book. I read it and went through it with the help of the two priests at the Opus Dei center for two years. Through conversations, participation in Holy Mass and praying the Rosary, I came to know the Catholic faith.

An enormous step was to know the sacrament of confession and therefore the certainty of forgiveness, as well as to be able to receive the body of Christ from an ordained priest. So many things were weighing on my mind and heart that I felt the urge to become a Catholic. So I received the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation in May 2019; since then I continue to develop spiritually. Shortly before that, I had already renounced some sins that I had been deeply rooted for decades and that I have not committed again.

I have felt God's blessing, unprecedented grace. "Where, death, is your victory, where is your sting?". I also prayed a lot to get a professional perspective, and my prayers were heard: little by little things started to improve after I changed the focus of my freelance activity at the end of 2014. I am so happy and content that I don't mind at all the accusations that certain media pour out about the Catholic Church. Everywhere there are sins, and I have known of worse things that others have committed; but the only one being persecuted is the Catholic Church. It hurts me, but it does not make me feel insecure that I have made the right decision.

La entrada “Mi camino a la Iglesia católica” se publicó primero en Omnes.

In a joint letter sent on October 28, 2021, to all bishops responsible for ecumenism, Cardinal Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, presented some suggestions for implementing the ecumenical dimension of the synodal process in the local churches. "In fact, both synodality and ecumenism are processes that invite us to walk together," the two cardinals wrote.

Synod in an ecumenical spirit

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2022, prepared by the Near East Council of Churches, under the motto "We have seen his star appear in the east and have come to pay him homage" (Mt 2:2), offers a good opportunity to pray with all Christians for the Synod to take place in an ecumenical spirit.

Reflecting on the subject, the two cardinals affirm: "Like the Magi, Christians also walk together (synodos) guided by the same heavenly light and facing the same darkness of the world. They too are called to worship Jesus together and to open their treasures. Mindful of our need to be accompanied by our brothers and sisters in Christ and of their many gifts, we ask you to walk with us during these two years and we earnestly pray that Christ will lead us closer to Him and that we will thus draw closer to one another."

For this reason, the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity offer this prayer, inspired by the theme of the Week 2022, which could be added to the other proposed intentions, and which can help to join the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:

Heavenly Father,
as the Magi went to Bethlehem guided by the star,
may your heavenly light also guide the Catholic Church during this synodal period, so that she may walk together with all Christians.
Like the Magi they were united in their worship of Christ,
bring us closer to your Son, so that we may be closer to one another,
let us be a sign of the unity you desire for your Church and for all creation. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

La entrada Comienza la Semana de Oración por la Unidad de los Cristianos se publicó primero en Omnes.

We encouraged families to participate by valuing teamwork and offering the opportunity for the winners to receive their award and a gift from the hands of the Holy Kings of Juana Diaz. In addition, the winning works would be temporarily exhibited in the Museum of the Holy Magi in Juana Diaz, the only one in the world dedicated to these saints. This not only allowed many other people to contemplate these scenes represented in painting or in three-dimensional form, but it would also awaken in the participants themselves concrete purposes of generosity, as we discovered at the conclusion of this year's third edition of the Nativity Contest. 

Sofia Valeria, a 16 year old girl who won one of the painting categories with a work full of tenderness, informed us of her desire to donate her valuable work to the Museum. She, like all the participants, was asked to write down on the Registration Form "¿?What is the newborn baby God telling me?", seeding the good advice of Pope Francis that in the making of nativity scenes ".what counts is that it speaks to our life". (Admirabile Signum n. 10). With this work, Sofía Valeria expressed her desire to achieve that "the viewer is able to see and feel the bright and warm light that Jesus emits. A light that embraces us and guides us to God.".

In the case of Maria Paula, another 16 year old who came in second place with a painting of a nativity scene in which she was included with her 7 siblings, she expressed that she placed the 3 youngest ones closer to the Baby God ".since it is the children who are closest to Jesus"and the 4 eldest, who all sing, I draw "on the way to the stable, because for Christmas we have to travel a long road called Advent (...) with masks, which represent the current difficulties that should never hinder our approach to Jesus this Christmas.". 

The exhibition of nativity scenes also awakened other expressions in the artisans who were selling outside and to many passers-by. The craftswoman Carmen approached the exhibition to ask: ¿?how can i help?". We told him that his work offered for the fruits of it was enough, but that generous soul came back after a while with one of his beautiful works on paper and donated it: "this is what I know how to do and what I want to donate".

A lady who had entrusted the healing of her son from cancer or his march to Heaven to the Holy Magi came forward to narrate how God granted her a special grace when on the feast of the Three Kings following the death of her son she was able to cross paths with the Magician King Melchior, who stopped before her during a procession and filled her with hope with his attentive and profound gaze. 

That more intense look at Bethlehem, capable of filling us with hope and joy, is what we encourage in every family through this beautiful tradition. 

La entrada Alentando una hermosa tradición en la familia se publicó primero en Omnes.

During the meeting, Card. Ayuso Guixot recalled the special mission of this committee, aimed at promoting the good of all humanity, especially the young.

António Guterres expressed the appreciation and willingness on the part of the United Nations, and his own, to support the initiatives of the High Committee in promoting the content of the "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Common Coexistence" signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019 by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. The members of the High Committee thanked the Secretary General for the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to proclaim February 4 as World Day of Human Fraternity. In the afternoon of December 7, a meeting was also held with Miguel Angel Moratinos, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, to check the possibility of cooperation in various initiatives.

The atmosphere of lively cordiality was the ideal setting to present the UN Secretary General and Mrs. Latifa ibn Ziaten with the Zayed Prize for Human Fraternity, which they received on February 4, 2021, for their commitment to the promotion of a culture of peace, coexistence and solidarity.

La entrada El cardenal Ayuso agradece a la ONU su labor por la fraternidad humana se publicó primero en Omnes.

This new exhibition space constitutes a new chapter in the centenary history of the Vatican Apostolic Library's mission of conservation and diffusion. The exhibition, prepared for the occasion, recalls the reflections proposed by Pope Francis in the encyclical Fratelli Tuttiand proposes a journey that goes from "traveling" cartography to utopian and allegorical maps.

A new chapter

"The Vatican Apostolic Library inaugurates a new exhibition hall to support the culture of encounter. Our commitment is to strengthen the cultural role of the Vatican Apostolic Library in the contemporary world.", explained Cardinal Librarian José Tolentino de Mendonça. "From a large library", continuesThe "commitment is expected to achieve what Pope Francis prophetically calls a '....culture of encounter'.. Let the books go out to meet the readers, tracing original paths. That knowledge preserved as memory can answer the questions posed by the present. May history meet the present, opening new perspectives not only on what we have been but also on what we can be". Realized in collaboration with Pietro Ruffo, a Roman artist present in important national and international collections, the exhibition is commissioned to Giacomo Cardinali, Simona De Crescenzo and Delio Proverbio, with the aim of establishing a dialogue between the treasures of the Vatican Apostolic Library and new trends in contemporary art.

Encounter with contemporary art

"The encounter with the immense patrimony of the Vatican Apostolic Library has been for me a journey into the knowledge, geography and history of humanity.", states artist Pietro Ruffo. "Analyze the great work that is the Earth through the precious maps preserved here.", he adds, "has given rise to a series of unpublished works. The dialogue between my research and the terrestrial and celestial maps of different epochs and cultures draws a humanity that is increasingly interconnected and responsible for its fragile relationship with its own ecosystem.".

The exhibition will feature, among other works, Evliya Çelebi's 17th century map of the Nile, a unique work of travel cartography about six meters long, in dialogue with Pietro Ruffo's reinterpretation of it. The artist will propose an installation in the Sala Barberini, integrating it into the 17th century wooden structure. site-specific that transforms the space into a lush tropical jungle. 

"The theme of the exhibition is that of 'non-geographical cartography': throughout its history, in fact, man has used the representational scheme of the map not only to describe the objectivity of the Earth, but also his own interiority, his ideals, his travels, his discoveries and his convictions.", explains Giacomo Cardinali, curator of the exhibition space. "The public, says, "you will find allegorical, theological, satirical and sentimental maps. Maps of desire and protest, of man's dreams and despair.".

The Pope inaugurates the space

Pope Francis visited the Vatican Apostolic Library to inaugurate the new permanent exhibition space in which the exhibition is displayed All. Humanity on the way. The exhibition, as has been said, recalling the reflections proposed by the Holy Father in the encyclical Fratelli Tuttiproposes a path that starts from the cartography of the journey to reach the maps of the world.

"Also for these reasons"said the Pope during his speech to inaugurate the new space, "....I am happy to inaugurate today the exhibition hall of the Vatican Library, and my wish is that its light will shine. It will certainly shine for science, but also for beauty. And I thank all those who have worked so hard to create this space, which has been made possible by the generosity of friends and benefactors, and the architectural and scientific care of professionals.".

Referring to the intended relationship between the works of the Library and contemporary culture, Pope Francis commented that the new space is conceived "as a dialogue built around works belonging to the Library and works by a contemporary artist, whom I greet and thank. I am grateful for this challenge to create a dialogue. Life is the art of encounter. Cultures fall ill when they become self-referential, when they lose their curiosity and their openness to the other. When they exclude rather than integrate, what advantage do we have in becoming guardians of borders rather than guardians of our brothers and sisters? The question that God repeats to us is: 'Where is your brother' (cf. Gen 4:9)?".

Those who travel to the eternal city, or have the possibility of passing through it, will be able to visit the exhibition in the new space, which will be open until February 25, 2022, every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m., upon reservation on the Vatican Apostolic Library website (https://www.vaticanlibrary.va).

The Vatican Apostolic Library

The Vatican Apostolic Library is an ancient institution, a place of conservation and research belonging to the Pope and closely connected to the government and ministry of the Apostolic See.

As of Scrinium attested since the fourth century, the Vatican Apostolic Library began its modern history with Nicholas V, who in the mid-fifteenth century decided to open the collections of the pontifical library to scholars (pro communi doctorum doctorum virorum commodo(Brief of April 30, 1451), and with Sixtus IV, who gave a more stable organization to the library with the bull Ad decorem militantis ecclesiae June 15, 1475.

Its vast collections of manuscripts, archival material, ancient and modern printed volumes, coins and medals, engravings and drawings, cartographic and photographic material have always been open to qualified scholars from all over the world, regardless of race, religion, origin or culture. The Library specializes in philological and historical disciplines and, subsequently, also in theological, legal and scientific disciplines.

Pietro Ruffo

Ruffo's relationship with the image is an integral part of her research trajectory, which stems from a series of philosophical, social and ethical considerations, and is developed through a profound conceptual dimension of art that derives from her training as an artist.

For Ruffo, drawing and carving are research tools that sublimate ideas and concepts in installations that acquire environmental dimensions. The works are based on natural landscapes and human forms, geographical maps and constellations, geometries and traces of writing.

The result is a layered work, with multiple visual and semantic readings, that investigates the great themes of universal history, in particular freedom and human rights.

La entrada La Biblioteca Apostólica Vaticana. Un nuevo espacio para la cultura del encuentro se publicó primero en Omnes.

In Lesbos, five years later

During his visit to the Kara Tepe refugee camp, the Pope listened to the testimonies of some volunteers and refugees such as Tango Mukalya, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He arrived in Lesbos on November 28, 2020. He is 30 years old and has three children. "I am addressing you," he said to Pope Francis, "first of all, to thank you for the fatherly concern and spirit of humanity you show towards us, your migrant and refugee children, currently in Lesbos, Greece, and all over the world. May God reward you a hundredfold. At the same time, I thank the government and the people of Greece for the humanitarian spirit with which they have welcomed me, giving me peace, shelter and the necessities of life, despite some difficulties. I cannot forget the parish of the Catholic Church, my present parish of Mytilene in Lesbos, which lovingly supported me as a child and where I pray to God our Lord. I entrusted our difficult moments to God. With the strength of prayer and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, our Mother and Mother of the Church, I was able to overcome the difficulties I encountered in my life as a refugee."

"Addressing the root causes."

Pope Francis, after thanking the testimonies heard, addressed to humanity some words of considerable harshness. In particular, he appealed to stop talking about the problem of migration and to talk more about the problem of arms trafficking that encourages it. He also strongly criticized nationalism and called on the international community to seek coordinated solutions because global problems such as pandemics and migration require global responses.

"They do not speak of the exploitation of the poor, of the forgotten and often abundantly financed wars, of the economic agreements made at the expense of the peoples, of the covert maneuvers to traffic arms and proliferate their trade. Why do we not speak of this? We have to address the root causes, not the poor who pay the consequences, even being used for political propaganda!". "Shutting down," he said, "and nationalisms - history teaches this - lead to disastrous consequences. It is sad to hear that the use of community funds to build walls or barbed wire fences is proposed as a solution. We are in the age of walls and barbed wire fences". "The Mediterranean, which for millennia has united different peoples and distant lands, is becoming a cold cemetery without tombstones. This great space of water, cradle of many civilizations, now seems a mirror of death. Let us not allow the 'mare nostrum' to become a desolate 'mare mortuum'".

In Athens, "life is called to conversion".

At the end of the meeting, he returned to Athens. There, in the afternoon, at 4:45 p.m., the Eucharistic celebration took place in the Megaron Concert Hall, where about 1,000 people were able to participate. During the homily, Pope Francis reflected on the figure of John the Baptist. He also recalled that the Church is in the period of preparation for Christmas and therefore spoke about personal conversion and how to carry it out.

"We ask for the grace to believe that with God things change, that He heals our fears, heals our wounds, turns dry places into springs of water. We ask for the grace of hope. For it is hope that rekindles faith and revives charity. For it is hope that the deserts of the world are thirsting for today".

"And while this meeting of ours," he continued, "renews us in the hope and joy of Jesus, and I rejoice to be with you, let us ask our Mother, the All Holy One, to help us to be, like her, witnesses of hope, sowers of joy all around us - hope, brothers, never disappoints, never disappoints - not only when we are happy and together, but every day, in the deserts we inhabit. For it is there that, with God's grace, our life is called to conversion. There, in the many deserts within us or around us, life is called to flourish. May the Lord give us the grace and courage to accept this truth".

At the end, he returned to the nunciature where he received the courtesy visit of His Beatitude Ieronymus II.

La entrada El Papa en Lesbos, cinco años después: «Hay que abordar las causas de fondo» se publicó primero en Omnes.

The St. Josemaría International Symposium is a meeting that aims to reflect on the teachings of St. Josemaría in today's world. It has been held every two years since 2002, with themes such as education, coexistence, the family and freedom. The Symposium is organized by the Catalina Mir Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes welfare and orientation activities for families and young people in formation. It promotes social volunteering and development in Third World countries. It is inspired by the ethical values of Christian civilization. This year, as in previous editions, it was attended by a large number of young people.

The list of speakers at the Symposium was wide and varied, including prominent names, in addition to former Minister Mayor Oreja, such as philosopher Jose Maria Torralba; Professor Rafael Palomino; Isabel Rojas, psychologist and psychotherapist; Juan Jolín, priest in charge of caring for COVID patients during the pandemic at IFEMA; Rosa María Aguilar Puiggrós, coordinator of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar; Víctor Petuya, president of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar; and Víctor Petuya, president of the Fundación Aprender a Mirar, among others. European Parents AssociationHarouna Garba, migrant from Togo; Toñi Rodríguez, auxiliary numerary member of Opus Dei; Joaquín Echeverría, father of Ignacio Echeverría; Enrique Muñiz and Jesús Gil, authors of the book Let Jesus alone shine; and Javier López Díaz, Director of the St. Josemaría Chair from 2013 to 2019 at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

At the same time, a program was held exclusively for young people, titled Millennials of faith. Among the speakers were, among others, the engaged couple Marieta Moreno González-Páramo and Iñigo Álvarez Tornos, Pietro Ditano, Carla Restoy, Teresa Palomar, or Mother Verónica Berzosa, founder of Iesu Communio. 

The truth shall set you free

Mayor Oreja spun his speech using two antagonistic expressions, as a proposal to define two ways of understanding freedom: the first one is the evangelical sentence ".the truth shall set you free". The second is the misrepresentation of this aphorism, "freedom will make you true". It is about "two attitudes of life that confront each other in the main debate before us today". Consider that freedom makes us true ".constitutes a lie". What's more, living like this, thinking that doing what you "do" is the best thing you can do.It approaches selfishness, caprice, superficiality, materialism and banality. It constitutes the expression of moral relativism. That is, nothingness. It leads to believe in nothing or almost nothing. And in this way it has become the dominant fashion."said the former minister. 

However, "embrace the evangelical saying the truth shall set you freewill mean a profound and total change in life."Mayor wanted to emphasize. Even so, he considers that the current dominant fashion is based more on the misrepresented sentence than on the evangelical saying. For this reason, "we have to ask ourselves why this prevalence of lies over truth, especially in recent times. We have not known how to manage our improvement in material well-being. We have gone from the prestige of truth to resentment towards it. The dominant fashion has transformed the hierarchy of values.". 

Consequently, the former MEP recalled that years ago we used to point out those who did not have a foundation as a "no-foundationsand now it is labeled as "...".fundamentalistsThe "I am not a "I" but a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I", a "I". 

A crisis of civilization

The crisis in Western society, said Mayor, ".it is not a political or economic crisis; it is a crisis of civilization, a crisis of truth, a crisis of foundations, a crisis of conscience.". It is therefore that "when this crisis penetrates the individual, the result is a society presided over by social disorder, which is the main characteristic of current Spanish and European politics and society.". 

Therefore, the speaker continued, "We all have an obligation to seek the truth, but those of us who do not hide our faith have a higher degree of obligation than others, because we believe in an absolute truth. This fact of our faith does not constitute a reason for a supposed and absurd moral superiority or of any kind. What it does mean is a greater degree of obligation and service to our society as a whole.". Therefore, it is an obligation for the Christian "not to remain on the surface of the facts, without knowing anything about what is really going on in our society.". 

A unique moment in history

"We do not live at any time in Western society", Mayor Oreja assured. "After the political and social fracture that the United States is undergoing, many are trying to replace in Europe an order based on Christian foundations with a social disorder.". He stressed that this is the main challenge facing Christians in today's society. A challenge that faces a "accelerated cultural offensive that began some time ago, which has accelerated in the last decade.". A cultural process that in legislation began by legitimizing abortion, he assured. Paraphrasing the Spanish thinker and philosopher Julián Marías, "it is a cultural process that in legislation began by legitimizing abortion.has been the most serious thing that has happened in the 20th century: the social acceptance of abortion, even to the point of believing that it is an advance and not a regression to the darkest forms of history such as torture or slavery.". Abortion, therefore, would constitute "the first expression of evil in this process. After a few years came the sophistication of evil, in a second phase, more difficult to combat: gender ideology. And in a third moment, the socialization of evil: euthanasia. Which means the expansion and extension of the culture of death.". 

This crisis of fundamentals, Mayor Oreja concluded, is based on another crisis. It is a "crisis of faith". "Disregard for the spiritual and religious dimension of the individual and of society"he continued. Therefore, it is necessary to combat this "unhealthy obsession that persecutes us against the Christian foundations of Europe and against the culture of life.". "The most important debate in Europe will take place, in the face of the advance of relativism, between relativism and Christian fundamentals. Between those who believe in nothing or almost nothing and those who try to believe, even if they call us fundamentalists. Neither Europe nor Spain will regenerate by despising its spiritual dimension. They will not regenerate with a vengeance against the foundations that have been the core of our civilization.". On the contrary, he concluded, "we have to search for the truth. We want to confirm that the truth will set us free, from the authenticity of our convictions, of our foundations. And above all from commitment. Freedom and commitment". 

Freedom as pilgrims or as wanderers

The relationship between freedom and commitment were the framework themes of the conference held in Jaén on November 19-20. "Teaching how to live freedom today is the greatest challenge of education."said Professor Josemaría Torralba in one of the main lectures. 

Professor Torralba explained that "freedom can be understood as the view of a 'pilgrim', one who walks through life from one origin, leaving his home and going to another place, to a goal, another home that awaits him. The pilgrim knows where he comes from and knows where he is going. Therefore, for him, freedom is the ability to reach the goal he has set for himself. On the other hand, the other way of going through life is that of the 'wanderer'; the one who goes from one place to another without any end, and has no home. The wanderer understands freedom as simply deciding things without a clear end, without a goal, without orientation. He goes through life without clear direction". 

The professor assured that nowadays it is more and more frequent to find this thought about freedom. The fact of being able to live without ties, "the ties offered by a home, bonds, a family".

Precisely these links, "the commitment"said Josemaría Torralba, ".is a path to freedom". Commitment, therefore, is not something that simply limits us. "Commitment allows us to achieve goods, such as friendship or family.". "And you could say", he continued, "that through commitments we acquire a realized freedom. One gets to make freedom real". The professor of ethics considered that we live in a society where it seems that freedom is achieved as soon as it does not limit one's own life, that which consists in not acquiring commitments. However, "this is a fallacy, a deception, a delusion, a mirage.". On the other hand, "It could be said that the person who has known how to make a good commitment is freer. He has known how to choose the commitments that are worthwhile. Friendship, love, family, society, religion, etc.". 

Torralba reasoned that "today, this ability to direct one's own life produces a certain sense of unease.". A feeling that is given because "it is not easy to find one's way around among so many options". He asserted that the solution lies in discovering that freedom is not reduced to autonomy. "We need to learn to walk through life as pilgrims, who have a home and know where they are going. And not as wanderers, who think they are free because they are unattached, but in reality they are not.". 

Feeling at home in the world

The philosopher used a very illustrative image to consider the true meaning of freedom: "Freedom in the full sense could be defined with this image, feeling at home in the world.". Feeling at home because you "fits into the circumstances of one's own life. The ones you have chosen, but also the ones that have come about". "The greatness of freedom is to know how not to let oneself be conditioned by the difficult circumstances that arise in life, but to overcome them.". 

It is common to associate the dominant relativism with freedom. The speaker conveyed the idea that freedom makes us capable of the lowest, but also, and this is the important and valuable point, freedom makes us capable of the highest and noblest. Therefore, "without freedom there would be no love". And so, in its deepest meaning, "...".To love is to give and share life with another person. It is the most valuable thing we have. It is the ultimate answer to why we have freedom. We are free to be able to love. Today it is more necessary than ever to vindicate freedom.". 

To love is to give and share life with another person. It is the most valuable thing we have. It is the ultimate answer to why we have freedom. We are free to be able to love. Today it is more necessary than ever to reclaim freedom.

Josemaría TorralbaPhilosopher and director of the Core Curriculum at the University of Navarra.

At the end of his speech, Professor Torralba made a digression on the idea of good, which is precisely pursued with freedom. "The good", he said, "always has a person's name. It has the name of a friend, of a child, of a spouse, of God. The good is paradigmatically and principally in the actions we perform for these people or together with them. The good cannot be understood as something abstract. It is convenient to avoid the frequent confusion of thinking that the commitment is free exclusively because no one has forced us and because we can undo it.". 

Thus, "he is freer who has committed himself". This is "the freedom of the pilgrim, who with each step is approaching his end. The freedom of the wanderer, in its extreme version, is the one who does not make important decisions or establish deep bonds. He is less free because he does not know where it is worthwhile to go. Precisely because freedom is an uncertain opening to the future, it requires, if we want to grow in freedom, a look capable of finding meaning in the situations in which life places us. He who loves, suffers".

Integrating everything in life

The meaning we give to our life "allows us to integrate into our own life what has happened and to adapt to circumstances we cannot change". "The wanderer always remains unsatisfied. And this is a reflection of what abounds today. The wanderer fails to find meaning in what he does. And meaning is not a superficial feeling. It is the experience that one fits into one's life situation". 

"It's free." concluded, "the person who, in the situation in which he lives, manages to fit the pieces together, to make sense of the situation, to find a way to make sense of it".". 

Faith in the culture of the 21st century

Following the lecture, the Symposium program included three panels, the first one entitled Are these times good? the second Freedom from pain and fearand a third with testimonials. 

In the first, the intervention of Professor Rafael Palomino, himself a collaborator of Omnes, was particularly noteworthy. His reflection was based on faith in the culture of the 21st century. A reflection that can be encompassed under the words of Bishop Javier Echevarría, predecessor of the current Prelate of Opus Dei: "The faith in the culture of the twenty-first century is a reflection on the faith in the culture of the twenty-first century.Let us not allow the healthy challenge of encouraging many people and institutions throughout the world to promote -pushed by the example of the first Christians- a new culture, a new legislation, a new fashion, coherent with the dignity of the human person and his destiny to the glory of the children of God in Jesus Christ, to fall into a void.".

Professor Palomino framed his words with data from the barometer of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). In June 1979, according to these data, 90.03 % considered themselves to be Catholics in Spain. Of these, 55 % considered themselves practicing, and 34 % non-practicing. In September 2021, the same barometer indicates that only 57.4 % consider themselves Catholic and the relationship between practicing and non-practicing is inverted: 18.4 % consider themselves practicing and 39 % non-practicing. We found 2.5 % of believers in other religions and the remaining 38.9 % consider themselves agnostic, indifferent or atheist. 

Therefore, it can be seen that Catholicism has ceased to be an influential cultural force. And this is evident because "one of the elements to measure the culture of a country," reflected Palomino, "which is legislation, since 1981 has been introducing social engineering, an experiment to change Spanish society. It began with the modification that introduced causal divorce, which started a process in the legislation. It continued with the decriminalization of abortion, non-causal divorce, same-sex marriage, euthanasia". And the drama is that "legislation makes that which in itself is contrary to human dignity seem totally normal.". 

A cultural climate change

It can be said, in this sense, that ".we are experiencing a spiritual glaciation in the west, and a cultural climate change, also for religions.". "The Christian religion needs to be inculturated, to live in the flesh of the people who profess it.". 

Professor Palomino offered some specific considerations about this situation: firstly, "it is important that in the public debate, we know how to change the conceptual frameworks. If they tell you 'don't think of an elephant', what you are doing is thinking of an elephant. When they impose the frameworks of reflection on you, they are already setting the limits of the debate.". Secondly, that "the medium is the message. Let not the interposition of the media impede the exposure to the people. What communicates in a community is the joy of being Christians, is a smiling family.". Thirdly, it is necessary to "always have a formation plan in place. Our faith is the faith of the Logos. We are obliged to have a solid formation. To always have a formation plan open.". And finally, that "if you are neither part of the solution nor part of the problem, you are part of the landscape. And a Christian cannot be part of the landscape. For evil to triumph, it is enough for good men to do nothing.". 

The Christian religion needs to be inculturated, to live in the flesh of the people who profess it.

Rafael PalominoProfessor of State Ecclesiastical Law.

He concluded by stressing that we must "make faith present in culture. And it is not the same as always. It is about "a new evangelization".  

At the closing of the Symposium, the Vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei in Eastern Andalusia read the Message of the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz. In his message he stated that "the concepts of freedom and commitment are often presented as opposites and yet they are complementary. What is more, they require each other. Without freedom I cannot commit myself, and commitment always implies a free decision". He also assured that, precisely if "we are clear about the reasons for our commitments, the whys and wherefores of our daily obligations, we will be able to fulfill them freely, out of love, even if at times we tire of them and they become difficult for us.

La entrada Libertad y compromiso, claves para el mundo contemporáneo se publicó primero en Omnes.

"In the Bible," the Holy Father stressed, "there are more than ten characters who bear the name of Joseph. The most important of these is the son of Jacob and Rachel, who, through various vicissitudes, went from being a slave to becoming the second most important person in Egypt after Pharaoh (cf. Gn 37-50). The name Joseph in Hebrew means "may God increase. May God make grow". It is a wish, a blessing based on trust in providence and referring especially to the fruitfulness and growth of children. In fact, precisely this name reveals to us an essential aspect of the personality of Joseph of Nazareth. He is a man full of faith in his providence: he believes in God's providence, he has faith in God's providence. Each of his actions, as related in the Gospel, is dictated by the certainty that God "makes increase", that God "increases", that God "adds", that is, that God arranges the continuation of his plan of salvation. And in this, Joseph of Nazareth is very much like Joseph of Egypt".

Francis affirmed that also the main geographical references that refer to Joseph: Bethlehem and Nazareth, assume an important role in the understanding of his figure, and he wanted to dwell on the environment in which he lived to give us some light on his figure.

"In the Old Testament," he said, "the city of Bethlehem is called by the name of Beth LehemThe name is also Efratá, that is, "House of bread", or Efratá, after the tribe that settled there. In Arabic, instead, the name means "House of meat", probably because of the large number of flocks of sheep and goats present in the area. In fact, it is no coincidence that, when Jesus was born, the shepherds were the first witnesses of the event (cf. Lc 2,8-20). In the light of Jesus' account, these allusions to bread and flesh refer to the mystery of the Eucharist: Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven (cf. Jn 6,51). He himself will say of himself: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life" (Jn 6,54)".

"Bethlehem is mentioned several times in the Bible, as early as the book of Genesis. Bethlehem is also linked to the story of Ruth and Naomi, told in the small but wonderful Book of Ruth. Ruth gave birth to a son named Obed, who in turn gave birth to Jesse, the father of King David. And it was from David's line that Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, came from. The prophet Micah foretold great things about Bethlehem: "But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, though you are the least among the families of Judah, out of you shall come forth to me one who is to be ruler in Israel" (My 5,1). The evangelist Matthew will take up this prophecy and link it to the story of Jesus as its evident fulfillment".

"In fact, the Son of God did not choose Jerusalem as the place of his incarnation, but Bethlehem and Nazareth, two peripheral towns, far from the clamor of the news and the power of time. Yet Jerusalem was the city beloved by the Lord (cf. Is 62,1-12), the "holy city" (Dn 3:28), chosen by God to inhabit it (cf. Zac 3:2; Ps. 132:13). Here, in fact, dwelt the teachers of the Law, the scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and the elders of the people (cf. Lc 2,46; Mt 15,1; Mc 3,22; Jn1,19; Mt 26,3)".

"For this reason," the Pope continued, "the choice of Bethlehem and Nazareth tells us that the periphery and marginality are God's favorite places. Jesus was not born in Jerusalem with all the court... no: he was born in a periphery and spent his life, until he was 30 years old, in that periphery, working as a carpenter, like Joseph. For Jesus, the peripheries and marginalities are his favorite places. Not taking this reality seriously is tantamount to not taking seriously the Gospel and the work of God, who continues to manifest himself in the geographical and existential peripheries. The Lord is always at work in the peripheries, also in our soul, in the peripheries of the soul, of feelings, perhaps feelings of which we are ashamed; but the Lord is there to help us to go forward".

"The Lord continues to manifest himself in the peripheries, both geographical and existential. In particular, Jesus goes in search of sinners, enters their homes, speaks to them, calls them to conversion. And he is also rebuked for this: "But look at this Teacher - the doctors of the law say - look at this Teacher: he eats with sinners, he gets dirty, he goes in search of those who have not done evil, but have suffered it: the sick, the hungry, the poor, the last ones. Jesus always goes to the peripheries. And this should give us great confidence, because the Lord knows the peripheries of our heart, the peripheries of our soul, the peripheries of our society, of our city, of our family, that is, that dark part that we do not let be seen, perhaps out of shame".

"In this respect," Francis concluded, "the society of that time is not very different from ours. Even today there is a center and a periphery. And the Church knows that she is called to announce the good news starting from the peripheries. Joseph, who is a carpenter from Nazareth and who trusts in God's plan for his young betrothed and for himself, reminds the Church that she must fix her gaze on what the world deliberately ignores. Today Joseph teaches us this: "not to look so much at the things that the world praises, to look at the angles, to look at the shadows, to look at the peripheries, at what the world does not want". He reminds each one of us that we must give importance to what others discard. In this sense, he is a true master of the essential: he reminds us that what is truly valuable does not call for our attention, but requires patient discernment to be discovered and valued. Discovering what is valuable. Let us ask him to intercede so that the whole Church may recover this gaze, this ability to discern and this capacity to evaluate what is essential. Let us start again from Bethlehem, let us start again from Nazareth".

"Today I would like to send a message to all men and women who live in the most neglected geographical peripheries of the world or who live in situations of existential marginalization. May they find in St. Joseph the witness and protector to look to. To him we can turn with this prayer, a prayer "made at home", but which has come from the heart":

San José,
you who have always trusted in God,
and you have made your decisions
guided by his providence,
teach us not to count so much in our projects,
but in his plan of love.
You who come from the peripheries,
help us to convert our gaze
and to prefer what the world discards and puts in the margins.
Comforts those who are lonely
And sustains the one who is bent on silence
For defending life and human dignity. Amen

La entrada El Papa, en la nueva catequesis sobre san José: «Es un verdadero maestro de lo esencial» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Book

TitleThe good death. Dignity, palliative care and euthanasia.

AuthorPablo Requena

Editorial: Follow me

City and year: Salamanca, 2021

The postmodern approach to the end of life, while appearing to expand individual freedom, is a double fraud. First, because immortal life is not only a chimera but a nightmare. The epic of human existence is associated with our vulnerable and mortal condition. And second, because no one renounces life and asks for euthanasia if his or her life is worth living. And all life has meaning if we are convinced as a society that this is so and that we act accordingly. One asks to die because one is alone, in pain or because one's life is very limited. But if the person is accompanied, his pain is alleviated and he is given the possibility of being himself, however limited he may be, he will not consider asking for his life to be ended. 

If it were not for the abuse that is made of the expression, I would not hesitate to emphasize that this book that Pablo Requena has just published is essential for anyone who wants to think about euthanasia and, in general, about the end of life. It will be enjoyed not only by health professionals and public policy makers but by all those who are encouraged to read it. Because the subject cannot be approached with greater clarity, serenity, rigor and open-mindedness. The author is a physician by training, professor of bioethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and currently the Holy See's representative to the World Medical Association. This training and experience, together with a writing that is in keeping with the best tradition of physician-humanists, has enabled him to offer a brief but enlightening book that is not erudite but up to date, that deals with many issues but all of which are assembled with great coherence. 

The book is divided into two parts. In the first, the author asks why we have come to consider euthanasia as an end-of-life option. He focuses on the problem of loneliness, which is the great epidemic of the present time (and much more difficult to combat than Covid-19); on the prolongation of life in often distressing conditions, to which the triumph of medicine over death has led us in the last century; on the existence of a variety of therapeutic options that need not necessarily be exhausted in all cases and which are sometimes abused; on the worrying and growing phenomenon of "feeling a burden to others" that overwhelms many people at the end of their lives. For each of these challenges, he proposes a specific response, based on the defense of the unconditional value of each human being, and presented in such terms that it invites us to think and dialogue rather than to confront each other.  

In the second part, he examines the two alternatives proposed in the face of "the cry for help in asking for death": either to accompany to the end or to apply euthanasia. Pablo Requena insists that both logics are opposed to each other. If we care until the end, it is because we are convinced that the person's life is sacred and does not cease to be so because his or her capacities are diminishing. The logic of palliative care, based on the Hippocratic medical tradition, consists in providing effective care that avoids suffering and never in giving death. The euthanasia logic, on the contrary, is based on the acceptance that one human being can give death to another under certain circumstances.

Precisely because the origin of Hippocratic medicine, the basis of today's medicine, consisted in separating the physician who cures from the guru who can also procure death, the author is extremely concerned about the fact that it is normalized for physicians to practice euthanasia. In this regard, he quotes the father of modern medical deontology in Spain, Gonzalo Herranz, who stated that "euthanasia is not medicine, because it does not complete it, but replaces it".  

Aware that euthanasia is not a right but the abandonment of the person in one of the most critical stages of his or her life, the book ends by insisting on the need to reverse this situation, repealing euthanasia laws whenever possible and advocating comprehensive assistance to people at the end of life, leaving no one behind.

La entrada Para que llegue la buena muerte se publicó primero en Omnes.

For many centuries, the Semmering Pass has been an important link between the Austrian states of Lower Austria and Styria. Cars currently drive through a tunnel underneath the pass. A railway tunnel is also being completed, which will relieve freight traffic from 2028 onwards from the colorful Semmering Railway, the world's first mountain railroad, which winds its way to the harbor over numerous viaducts.

Very close to this hiking region, at the foot of the Sonnwendstein mountain, is the shrine of Maria Schutz (Mary Help of Christians). Its two baroque towers are clearly visible from the freeway on the way to the Semmering. They were already there when the Semmering was not yet frequented by tourists, but rather by merchants. This place of prayer and worship dates back to a chapel that was erected here in 1721 to fulfill a vow made during the plague epidemic of 1679. Apparently, at that time the water from the Maria Schutz spring - known as the "holy spring", the "Heiliges Bründl" - cured many plague patients.

The foundation stone of the present church was laid in 1728. Its magnificent baroque decoration testifies to the deep faith of the people and the large number of pilgrimages that came here in the south of Lower Austria in the 18th century. In addition to the fountain, whose water is nowadays poured into a marble basin at the back of the high altar, an image of Our Lady with the Child Jesus is also venerated in Maria Schutz. In a side chapel, next to the main entrance, there are numerous representations testifying to the gratitude of people who have been cured, or saved from mortal danger, thanks to the intercession of Mary Help of Christians.

Over the centuries the church has also suffered greatly; in 1826 the towers burned down, and an earthquake damaged the church building. It was not until 1995 that the domes of the towers could be rebuilt in their original baroque form. In 1945 there was heavy fighting here between Soviet and German troops, but the ensemble remained largely intact. "Maria Schutz defends against all enemies", "Maria Schutz steht allen Feinden zum Trutz": the motto of this pilgrimage site reflects its history.

The Passionist religious have been living in the building adjacent to the monastery since 1925, and serve pilgrims. It is the only monastery in Austria of this order, founded in Italy by St. Paul of the Cross in 1720. At present, three Fathers and one Brother live in the monastery. They offer a rich spiritual program, with adoration for several hours each day, regular reparation evenings and "Fatima Days" (the 13th of each month). Almost every time one enters the church one hears the sound of the prayers, the words of the rosary or adoration. The highlight of each year is the dedication of the church on August 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, which is a public holiday in Austria.

In 2020 was the 300th anniversary of the foundation of the Order, but because of the Coronavirus pandemic the Passionists were not able to celebrate it properly, and the celebrations of the anniversary of the foundation could not take place until this year.

The "Marienhof" (House of Mary), a retreat house located in front of the church, is run by the Teaching Sisters of Our Lady of Auerbach, who collaborate with the Passionists in caring for the shrine. Up to 15 people can participate in the retreats, and the house does not have fixed prices, but lives exclusively on the donations of the faithful.

Maria Schutz not only attracts pilgrims; it is also a frequent hiking destination for tourists visiting the Semmering. Several hiking trails start from the church, and from the esplanade there is a breathtaking view of the beautiful landscape all the way to the Schneeberg, which at 2,076 meters is the highest mountain in Lower Austria. It is a sanctuary that combines the beauties of faith, art and nature in a fascinating way.

La entrada Maria Schutz, un santuario austriaco en un paisaje pintoresco se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Archbishop of Seville wanted to emphasize that these weeks are inserted in the work plan of the Episcopal Conference assumed for the period from 2021 to 2025. The president of the Social Weeks, Jesús Avezuela, underlined that the Social Weeks are like a "traveling university", in the sense that today, in the century of the Internet, this concept is aimed more at continuing to promote and foster spaces for dialogue and debate on issues addressed by the Social Weeks: political, social and moral concerns; the role of Catholics in public life; the role of religions in the public sphere, etc.

In response to a question, Sainz Meneses wanted to emphasize that "the Church is of Christ and of the Gospel, it is neither of the right nor of the left". And that the Social Doctrine of the Church is very rich, which illuminates the situations of the people.

What are the Social Weeks

The Social Weeks of Spain, whose organization dates back to 1906, are a service of the Spanish Episcopal Conference for the study, dissemination and application of the Social Doctrine of the Church to social issues of notorious importance and topicality. These conferences, which are being held this year in Seville, aim to continue to be a milestone in the Church's social thought, and make a valuable contribution to the discernment of the here and now of the Church, of its contribution to the present moment and of its contribution, from reflection and practice, to the common good of society. To this end, they count on great experts in politics, economics and solidarity who make their contributions in the light of Christian humanism.

Numerous dioceses held their working meetings last September and October under the title "The regeneration of public life. A call to the common good and to participation". The final meeting will take place in Seville next week, November 25-27.

The program

The conference will begin on Thursday, November 25, at 7:00 p.m., with the inaugural session at the Real Alcazar of Seville. Bernardito Auza; the Archbishop of Seville, José Ángel Saiz Meneses; the President of the Social Weeks of Spain, Jesús Avezuela Cárcel; and the Mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas Cejas. The inaugural address will be given by the Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Bishop Luis Argüello.

The meeting on Friday, November 26, will be held at the San Isidoro Faculty of Theology and will be reserved for the spokespersons of the diocesan working groups. They will be welcomed by the Dean of the Faculty, Manuel Palma Ramirez.

Saturday 27 will host two round tables: "A view from politics" and "A view from business and the social sector". The moderators will be journalists Diego García Cabello and Juan Carlos Blanco Cruz, respectively. 

The first round table will be attended by Manuel Alejandro Cardenete Flores, vice-counselor of the vice-presidency and of the Ministry of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration of the Regional Government of Andalusia; Carlos García de Andoin, director of the Diocesan Institute of Theology and Pastoral of Bilbao; and Sol Cruz-Guzmán García, deputy of the Popular Group in the Congress of Deputies. 

The second round table will feature the former Spanish Minister of Employment and Social Security, Fátima Báñez García; the President of the Andalusian Confederation of Employers, Javier González de Lara Sarriá; and the Secretary General of Cáritas, Natalia Peiro. 

Saturday's program also includes the presentation of the conclusions, before the final act in which the archbishop of Seville and the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, will be present.

La entrada «La Iglesia no es de derechas ni de izquierdas, es de Cristo» se publicó primero en Omnes.

"This image," Francis said, "can be useful for entering into the depths of the Apostle's words: 'walk according to the Spirit,' 'be guided' by him. These are expressions that indicate an action, a movement, a dynamism that prevents us from stopping at the first difficulties, but provokes us to trust in the "power that comes from above" (Shepherd of Hermas, 43, 21). Walking this path, the Christian acquires a positive vision of life. This does not mean that the evil present in the world has disappeared, or that the negative impulses of selfishness and pride have disappeared; rather it means that believing in God is always stronger than our resistance and greater than our sins.

"As he exhorts the Galatians to walk this way, the apostle puts himself on their level. He abandons the imperative verb - "walk" (v. 16) - and uses the "we" of the indicative: "let us also work according to the Spirit" (v. 25). As if to say: let us stand along the same line and let us allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul feels this exhortation is also necessary for himself. Even though he knows that Christ lives in him (cf. 2:20), he is also convinced that he has not yet reached the goal, the summit of the mountain (cf. Phil 3:12). The apostle does not set himself above his community, but places himself in the midst of the journey of all, in order to give a concrete example of how necessary it is to obey God, responding more and more and always better to the guidance of the Spirit".

The Pope went on to make reference to the fact that this "walking according to the Spirit is not only an individual action: it also affects the community as a whole. In fact, building the community following the path indicated by the Apostle is exciting, but arduous. The "lusts of the flesh", i.e. envy, prejudice, hypocrisy and resentment, are still felt, and resorting to a prescriptive rigidity can be an easy temptation, but in doing so one would step off the path of freedom and, instead of climbing to the top, would go back down. To travel the path of the Spirit requires first of all giving space to grace and charity. Paul, after having made his voice heard in a severe way, invites the Galatians to take charge of each other's difficulties and, if someone makes a mistake, to use gentleness (cf. 5:22). We hear his words: "Brethren, even if someone makes a mistake, you who are spiritual correct him in a spirit of gentleness, and take heed to yourselves, for you also may be tempted. Help one another to bear your burdens" (6:1-2)".

"In fact," Francis concluded, "when we are tempted to misjudge others, as often happens, we must above all reflect on our own frailty. It is good to ask ourselves what impels us to correct a brother or sister, and whether we are not in some way co-responsible for their error. The Holy Spirit, in addition to giving us meekness, invites us to solidarity, to bear the burdens of others. How many burdens are present in the life of a person: illness, lack of work, loneliness, pain... And how many other trials require the closeness and love of our brothers and sisters! We can also be helped by the words of St. Augustine when he comments on this same passage: "Therefore, brethren, if a man is involved in some fault, [...], instruct him in a spirit of gentleness. And if you lift up your voice, let there be love within. If you exhort, if you caress, if you correct, if you show yourself harsh: love and do what you will" (Sermons 163/B 3). The supreme rule of fraternal correction is love: to want the good of our brothers and sisters".

La entrada «Debemos reflexionar sobre nuestra propia fragilidad» se publicó primero en Omnes.

On September 25, 1943, a second voyage set sail. This time it was to occupy the land and was made up of 14 caravels and 3 galleons. The contingent was 1,500 men, including 13 missionaries. They found that the fort had been destroyed and, bordering the north coast, they found a place to settle and founded La Isabela, the first settlement in these lands. There, Friar Bernardo Boíl celebrated the first Mass in America on January 6, 1494. Among the religious was Friar Ramón Pané, who evangelized the Guaticaba Indian and his family, already inland, in the foundation of La Concepción de La Vega, currently at the foot of the Santo Cerro, where the Virgin of Las Mercedes, Patron Saint of the Dominican people, is venerated. The cacique Guaticaba was given the name of Juan Mateo, because he received the baptismal waters on September 21, feast of the Apostle San Mateo. 

From this brief summary we can see how God, who wants everyone to be saved, set his sights on this continent and it was the caravel La Santa Maria that ran aground precisely on Christmas Eve, and with its debris the Fortress of Christmas was built. The need to return to this same place and the celebration of the first Mass on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord - of the manifestation to those who were not God's people.

And the first baptisms on the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, of whom St. Bede Venerable comments on the account of the vocation of St. Matthew, Our Lord misernado atque eligendo, looking upon him with mercy chose him. God had mercy on all these people and chose them to be his children. Other Indians had already been baptized in Spain, but this was the first time that baptism was administered on the American continent, in the second settlement, which would be abandoned by the earthquake of 1562. Guaticaba and his family would also be the first martyrs of indigenous origin because they were sacrificed by other Indians and they remained faithful to their faith. 

Preparation for the Jubilee

The Dominican Episcopal Conference decided that the Jubilee celebration would be held in the ruins, now called Vega Vieja, and that a commemorative chapel would be erected there. 

In the diocese of La Vega the preparation for the Jubilee has been logically more intense. The limitations imposed by the pandemic have not been an obstacle for a capillary catechesis and the use of radio, television and social networks. There have been virtual conferences given by specialists, catechesis on the sacrament of Baptism and the meaning of the various rites of the ceremony, and programs aimed at the renewal of faith and baptismal promises, which have been done in the parishes, plan of Sunday homilies until the next celebration of the Baptism of the Lord in January 2022, celebration of baptisms in the parishes, parish visits to the ruins of the Vega Vieja, where the first baptisms took place, etc. 

A concelebration was also held in the Cathedral, presided by Bishop Rafael Rodriguez, Bishop of La Vega, in which the presbyters and deacons, who exercise their ministry in the diocese, renewed their baptismal promises. A press conference was held at the City Hall of La Vega with the participation of the Bishop and Mr. César Arturo Abreu, historian, to promote the Jubilee.

Jubilee Celebration

On September 21, in the esplanade of the ruins of La Vega Vieja, the place where the first baptisms took place, at 9:00 a.m., the Solemn Concelebration took place, presided by the Apostolic Nuncio in the Dominican Republic, Mons. Rafael Rodríguez, Bishop of La Vega and the other Bishops of the Dominican Episcopal Conference, as well as the clergy of the Diocese of La Vega and Pastoral Vicars of the other dioceses. Some civil and military authorities and a small number of faithful attended, due to the circumstances of the place and the pandemic.

The Solemn Concelebration was transmitted to the entire American continent by numerous television, radio and social media. Many Bishops from the American countries sent messages of congratulations, unity and joy for this event.

At the beginning of the Concelebration, Bishop Rafael Rodriguez, Bishop of the Diocese of La Vega, welcomed the attendees and the television, radio and social media audience, and went on to read the message sent by the Holy Father on the occasion of this Jubilee. He announced his desire to build a modest but significant temple where the baptismal promises are remembered and renewed, and invited the Ministries of Culture and Tourism to collaborate in this project. 

The Concelebration was presided over by Bishop Ghaleb Bader, His Holiness' Nuncio to the Dominican Republic. In his homily he pointed out the transformation that the administration of the first baptisms brought to this part of the world. The first Eucharist and the first baptisms gave this New World Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the Church. 

Then the water was blessed and the baptismal promises were renewed and the Sacraments of Christian Initiation were administered to twelve adults. After the reception of the Holy Eucharist, the engineer Kelvin Cruz, Mayor of La Vega, addressed some moving words and joined the desire of the Bishop of the diocese that a commemorative temple be erected in this very dear place, and that this ceremony would not be inconsequential. The Pastoral Vicar of the diocese gave thanks and ended the Concelebration after the solemn blessing.

La entrada 525 años de los primeros bautismos en América se publicó primero en Omnes.

Sir David was born and raised a Catholic, and his faith was palpable in his life of public service, which spanned nearly 40 years.

When Sir David entered the House of Commons in 1983, there were very few Catholics on the Conservative benches of Parliament, but he demonstrated that his Catholic faith and his Conservative principles could easily be combined.

A review of his parliamentary record gives an idea of the areas in which he campaigned: poverty, homelessness, social welfare. He was also a strong advocate for the dignity of life, even openly criticizing abortion.

His contributions in the House of Commons, numerous, have been only a small part of his work in Parliament. Sir David's deep faith fueled his sense of justice and his instinct to do the right thing, regardless of the political consequences.

His assassination at Belfairs Methodist Church while he was addressing a political rally has shocked all those who work in Parliament. The greatest loss is to his wife and five children, whom we remember in our prayers. But we have also lost a dedicated local MP, and our country has lost a fine Catholic parliamentarian.

In 2006, Sir David established the All Party Parliamentary Group for Relations with the Holy See, a group that was set up to improve relations with the Vatican and continues its work today chaired by Sir Edward Leigh.

Sir David was instrumental in Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to Parliament in 2010, and in the return of representatives of Her Majesty's Government to Rome the following year. During his speech in Westminster Hall as part of his visit, Pope Benedict said that "religion...is not a matter for lawmakers to regulate, but a vital contribution to the national conversation." Sir David put those words into practice.

Sir David was a strong supporter of a number of Catholic groups, such as the Catholic Union of Great Britain and the Caritas Social Action Network, groups that helped him put his faith into practice.

When places of worship were forced to close as part of a second national closure in England in October last year, Sir David was one of the first MPs to put his name to a letter to the Prime Minister calling for them to reopen. In fact, it was his idea to promote a joint letter on the matter.

He was one of the so-called "four knights," a group of four knighted MPs that Christian groups used to rely on to fight some of the toughest battles in Parliament. When others retreated, Sir David would step forward. He was the knight who fought the good fight, and he will be sorely missed at Westminster.

Sir David never tired of championing the causes he believed in, regardless of the political risks. His vocation for political life has benefited us all and he remains an example to others.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

La entrada Sir David Amess, cuando el ruido de la política se detiene se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Cardinal Major Penitentiary, Mauro Piacenza, commented in an interview that this is a "very heartfelt form of devotion, which is expressed by participating in Mass and visiting the cemeteries", and therefore, so that people can dilute their visits without creating a crowd, "it has been decided to dilute in time the possibility of using the indulgences, and so during the whole month of November it will be possible to acquire what is planned for the first 8 days of November".

"The Apostolic Penitentiary," reads the decree, "having heard the various requests recently received from various Sacred Pastors of the Church, because of the current state of the pandemic, confirms and extends for the entire month of November 2021 all the spiritual benefits already granted on October 22, 2020, by Decree Prot. N. 791/20/I with which, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Plenary Indulgences for the faithful departed were extended for the entire month of November 2020."

The decree also affirms that "from the renewed generosity of the Church, the faithful will certainly draw pious intentions and spiritual vigor to direct their lives according to the evangelical law, in filial communion and devotion to the Supreme Pontiff, visible foundation and Pastor of the Catholic Church".

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the indulgence is "the remission before God of the temporal punishment for sins, already forgiven, as far as guilt is concerned, which a faithful person willing and fulfilling certain conditions obtains through the mediation of the Church, which, as the administrator of redemption, distributes and applies with authority the treasure of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.".

God forgives their sins to those who, after having committed a sin, repent through the sacrament of confession. However, there remains a "pending responsibility" for the consequences that the sin has had for the same person or for others, or even for society in general. This consequence is called "temporal punishment" and is a debt that persists and must be paid either in this life or in Purgatory.

It is then that the Church, the administrator of redemption, can grant indulgences that can fully or partially suppress (depending on whether it is a plenary or partial indulgence) this temporal punishment for sins committed and confessed up to that moment.

La entrada Noviembre: mes para rezar por los difuntos y ganar indulgencias se publicó primero en Omnes.

The recently approved regulation legalizes, for the first time, active euthanasia in Spain, that which is the direct consequence of the action of a third person. It thus becomes the seventh country in the world to do so, after Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Colombia (through the Constitutional Court), New Zealand, and some states of Australia.

The new law introduces the "aid in dying benefit"This can be produced in two different ways: either through the direct administration of a substance to the patient by a health professional, or through the prescription or supply of a substance, so that the patient can self-administer it to cause his or her own death, which is a kind of assisted suicide, although the regulation does not mention it in these terms.

On this issue, Omnes was able to speak with Federico de Montalvo Jaaskelainen, professor of law at Comillas Icade and president of the Spanish Bioethics Committee, an advisory body to the government's Ministries of Health and Science. A interview by Rafael Miner and which can be read in its entirety on our website www.omnesmag.com. 

In that conversation, de Montalvo points out that there is no right to die based on dignity, but there is a right not to suffer. That what would have been congruent would have been a law on the end of life, where this right not to suffer, which derives from article 15 of the Spanish Constitution when it states that "everyone has the right to life and to physical and moral integrity, without under any circumstances being subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".but that the most extreme alternative of the end of life has been chosen. Medicine does not respond to the criteria that society wants at any given moment, as happened in the national-socialist and communist regimes, but has to combine the interests of society and the values that it anthropologically and historically defends.

"Everyone has the right to life and to physical and moral integrity, without, in any case, being subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment."

Article 15 of the Spanish Constitution

Likewise, the professor believes that the solution to the end of life involves alternatives to euthanasia: palliative care or any form of sedation. He also defends institutional conscientious objection, and argues for it.

There is no right to die

One issue highlighted by the president of the Spanish Bioethics Committee and which serves as a premise for us to raise the issue is that in Spain the euthanasia law was going to be processed by means of a bill, which would mean that it could be approved without the participation of any consultative body, such as the General Council of the Judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Council, the Council of State.... And not even the Bioethics Committee, when all over Europe, when a law has been considered, or at least the debate on euthanasia has been considered, there is a report from the National Bioethics Committee. There is one in Portugal, in Italy, in the United Kingdom, in France, in Sweden, in Austria, in Germany...

It is mainly for this reason that the Committee drew up a report on the parliamentary procedure for the regulation of euthanasia. A report that could be summarized in three ideas: firstly, the Committee states in this report that there is no right to die. It is a contradiction in itself. And, in fact, "the rationale on which the law has been based is contradictory."says de Montalvo. Contradictory, because it is based on dignity, and then limited to some people - as if only the chronic and terminal ones were dignified. "If legislation is based on a right to die in dignity, it must be recognized for all individuals, because we are all dignified. Therefore, it was a contradiction in itself. That is why we said that there is no right to die based on dignity. Because it would mean that any citizen can ask the State to end his or her life. In this way, the State loses its essential function of guaranteeing life and becomes the executor of the right to die.", he adds.

"There is no right to die based on dignity. Because it would mean that any citizen can ask the state to end his or her life."

Federico de Montalvo JaaskelainenPresident of the Spanish Bioethics Committee

Secondly, the Committee raised in the report an existing error in the processing of the law. Because it was based on a presumed freedom, when in reality the person requesting euthanasia is not really asking to die. The patient assumes death as the only way to end his or her suffering. What the person really wants is not to suffer, to make the suffering he or she is undergoing pass. And to resolve the right not to suffer in Spain, the full development of alternatives is still lacking.

Finally, this report suggests that, instead of a legal solution, which is what the law proposes, medical solutions should be explored. Medical solutions also in chronicity, that is to say, also in situations of chronic, non-terminal patients, where there is the possibility of palliative sedation.

Pablo Requena, professor of Moral Theology and Bioethics and Vatican delegate to the World Medical Association, assures that euthanasia should not be part of medicine precisely because it goes against its purpose, methods and practice. "It would be a way of forcing the figure of the physician back to the time of pre-scientific medicine, when the physician could cure the disease or cause death.".

A fundamental right

This legislative situation presents a particular and not very optimistic situation in this regard. "It is true that euthanasia"de Montalvo assured Omnes, "is the extreme or very exceptional measure. Even for those in favor of it. What does not seem very congruent is to pass a law on that measure. The euthanasia law is not an end-of-life law, it is a euthanasia-only law. It does not address the end of life, it addresses the most extreme alternative at the end of life.".

In this context, therefore, a fundamental right comes into play: conscientious objection. It is a right that is not in the hands of the legislator. What is in their hands is to decide how it is exercised. The new law recognizes it in article 16, stating that "health professionals directly involved in the provision of aid in dying may exercise their right to conscientious objection.".

In general, conscientious objection is understood as the attitude of a person who refuses to obey an order from an authority or a legal mandate, invoking the existence, in his or her inner self, of a contradiction between moral duty and legal duty, due to a rule that prevents him or her from assuming the prescribed behavior. Along these lines, Rafael Navarro-Valls, professor of law and vice-president of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain, points out that "the law of the law is not a legal duty.conscientious objection is an exercise in health and democratic maturity".

Conscientious objection, therefore, pursues the exception of a certain legal duty for the objector, because the fulfillment of the same conflicts with his own conscience. It cannot be affirmed that it is directed neither against the normative set nor against certain legal institutions, which would result in other different typifications such as resistance or civil disobedience. It is, therefore, an active or omissive behavior in the face of the obligatory nature of the norm for the objector himself.

Conscientious objection is particularly noteworthy and current when it refers to the medical field, since it is understood as the refusal of the health professional to perform, for ethical and religious reasons, certain acts that are ordered or tolerated by the authority; and such a position expresses an attitude of great ethical dignity when the reasons given by the physician are serious, sincere and constant, and refer to serious and fundamental issues, as stated in article 18 of the European Medical Ethics Guide, and in article 32 of the Spanish Code of Medical Ethics and Deontology: "Recognition of physicians' conscientious objection is an essential prerequisite for guaranteeing the freedom and independence of their professional practice.".

De Montalvo strongly defends it, and also defends the conscientious objection of institutions or organizations as a whole. In the same conversation with Omnes he affirms that "Conscientious objection is a guarantee, an expression of religious freedom, and the Constitution itself recognizes religious freedom in the communities (it says so expressly), then, if conscientious objection is religious freedom, and religious freedom is not only of individuals, but also of organizations, communities, why is institutional conscientious objection not allowed?". 

"The recognition of conscientious objection by physicians is an essential prerequisite for guaranteeing the freedom and independence of their professional practice."

Article 32 Spanish Code of Medical Ethics and Deontology

In the new law, the refusal of institutional conscientious objection is tacitly implied, because the law states that conscientious objection will be individual, when it declares in the paragraph f) of article 3 on Definitionsthat the "conscientious objection to health care is the individual right of health care professionals not to meet those health care demands regulated in this Law that are incompatible with their own convictions.". The law, therefore, does not expressly exclude it, but it is understood that, implicitly, by referring to the individual sphere, it excludes it. "That's not that it's right or wrong."says the president of the Bioethics Committee, ".Why do the Jewish people have the right to honor and the commercial companies have the right to honor, and for example a religious organization does not have the right to conscientious objection? It is religious freedom, and the Constitution speaks of communities. It seems to me a contradiction".

In addition, legal entities are entitled to all rights (honor, privacy), and even criminal liability, since according to Article 16 of the Constitution, "the ideological, religious and worship freedom of individuals and communities is guaranteed without any limitation in its manifestations other than that necessary for the maintenance of public order protected by law."and in its paragraph number 2, it states that "no one may be compelled to testify about their ideology, religion or beliefs.". Therefore, says de Montalvo, "Do we now deny them conscientious objection, which is a guarantee of a right expressly recognized by Article 16 of the Constitution? I think there is no need for further arguments".

Faced with this situation, it is worth continuing to reflect on these issues, even if one has a well-defined idea about their morality. Moreover, healthcare professionals are at a crossroads that generates conflict in their personal, professional and moral spheres. Professor Requena states that it is a priority to debate these issues, euthanasia and conscientious objection. "I have witnessed serious, serene and enriching debates at meetings of the World Medical Association. Sometimes heated dialogues, but where reasoning and argumentation have outweighed ironic and contemptuous commentary.".

La entrada La objeción de conciencia. Un derecho frente a la eutanasia se publicó primero en Omnes.