The truth is that every pontiff goes off script, in one way or another. But we, the media, always try to leave our opinion in print, in order to confirm our own perspectives, even by making verbal filigrees. Thank God, the Holy Spirit does not consult us. 

Leo XIV has visited Spain in what was his first long trip to a mostly Catholic European country. And so it seemed to be confirmed because, in each act, Leo XIV was accompanied by tens of thousands of people, reaching more than 1 million in the Holy Mass and Corpus Christi procession, which he presided in Madrid.

Leo XIV was “at ease” with the family. He skipped the script, he stopped with children and couples, he allowed himself to be embraced and he approached those who, because of age or condition, found it more difficult to see him.

There have been many who have said that Leo XIV reminded them of John Paul II, or Francis, or even Benedict XVI, in some of his gestures.

The Pontiff knows he is a link in the chain of succession of St. Peter and perhaps, for this reason, he reminds us of those who shepherded the Church in the past. Like those children who pick up gestures from their grandparents, or from their older siblings, almost without knowing it, Pope Prevost was reminiscent of his predecessors.

What we have been able to see, has been a Pope with a deep, thoughtful speech, The lecture, with a broad theological depth that, at certain moments, was reminiscent of the lucid words of Benedict XVI.

We have seen a Pope close to us, the Pope of children, of babies, who has blessed more than two hundred during these days.

A Pope who, like John Paul II, has not hesitated to go off script by making encouraging appeals to discover one's vocation, in whatever state of life, or to look more closely to the Lord in the Eucharist.

A Leo XIV who was young in the midst of young people, speaking their language and answering their questions.

And we have seen a social Pope, who weeps with those who suffer most, with those who have had to leave everything behind, with those who have been, for one reason or another, on the brink of death, with those who have despaired because God did not seem to answer their cries. 

Leo will always remind us of John Paul II, Benedict, Francis, Leo XIII, Paul VI... Or Peter. Because, in the end, the reality is that all of us - each one with his or her own nuances - are shaping the face of Christ in the Church, whose visible head on earth, “the sweet Christ on earth” in the words of St. Catherine of Siena is, and will always be, the Holy Father.

La entrada El carisma de Juan Pablo, la profundidad de Benedicto, la cercanía de Francisco se publicó primero en Omnes.

This is how long the applause of thanks to Papa lasted from the attendees of the historic Speech of Leo XIV in the Spanish Cortes.

7 minutes and 5 seconds.

Not even the proclamation of Princess Leonor as heir to the Spanish throne, or the signing of the Constitution that today governs the Spanish nation, had garnered more than four and a half minutes of applause. 

Leo had not entered the Spanish Congress as a political leader but “as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Catholic Church”.

The Pope has delivered, before the so-called ruling class, one of the clearest and most committed speeches of his pontificate (so far, evidently), and which has become, like those remembered speeches of John Paul II The report, which was presented at the United Nations, is part of the reference framework of the role of the Church in society, the defense of human dignity and the call to political responsibility. 

The Pope's words left nothing behind: the role of the Church as a voice of dignity respecting the powers and public exercises, the defense of life from conception to natural death, the need for freedom of choice of parents in the education of their children and the freedom of conscience, respect for the sacramental secrecy from the State.

He also addressed the problem of interference between the Church and politics; the dignity of those who seek a new life elsewhere; and peace. Peace is not the “absence of war,” but peace born of conscience. 

The Pope has clearly outlined the main lines of the Church's dialogue with the political powers today. But he has also left us, who serve society from other points: the clothing store, the bar, the chair or the media, the open question of our real commitment to the dignity of each person, to “social” peace, to the construction, no longer of a future, but of a present.

Perhaps that is why, even if we think that we “speak for the other”, we may think that we will always be the “other” of our neighbor.

And perhaps because of that, or in spite of that, we also join in those 7 minutes of applause that, when they end, will give way to the minutes, 7, or seventy times seven, that we have to start making these wishes come true.

La entrada El aplauso más largo de la democracia se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Pontiff was received at the main entrance of the Palacio de las Cortes by the President of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol, the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán Ojeda, and six other members of the Cortes. 

Before entering the Congress, the national anthems of Spain and the Vatican were played and then the Holy Father entered the Hall of the Lost Steps where he signed the Book of Honor. 

At the time of the gift exchange, the Papa presented silver medals of the Apostolic Journey to the President of the Senate and the President of the Congress. 

A Pope at the heart of Spanish politics 

A resounding applause accompanied the entrance of Pope Leo XIV to the Plenary Hall of the Spanish Congress of Deputies. 

The president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol welcomed the Pope with a speech in which she stressed the willingness of the House to “listen with the conviction that understanding is irreplaceable” and defending the “multilateralism as a condition for international peace”. Armengol described the political activity as the “fight against poverty, precariousness and violence” and expressed her wish that political activity be “the search for the dignity of people and the good of the people, not the power struggles that we are now witnessing”. 

The Pope addressed a plenary session in which, in addition to the current political representatives of the Spanish people, there were politicians of different political persuasions, the former presidents of the Government, except José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Ombudsman, and various representatives of Spanish civil society. 

A long and comprehensive speech

In a long speech, the longest of those delivered by Leo XIV to date in Spain, The Pope introduced himself, “before all of you as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Catholic Church,” showing that, as he responded to Trump a few weeks ago, he is not a politician, but speaks from faith. 

The Church, the Pope recalled, “when she addresses herself to public life, she does so with respect for the proper mission of institutions and the legitimate responsibility of those who have received the mandate to legislate. She recognizes «the autonomy of earthly realities» and «the distinction between ecclesial community and political community»; and, precisely from this awareness, she offers a reflection”. 

What conception of man does the law translate?

“My presence among you wants to be a gesture of closeness to Spain, within the framework of mutual cooperation, and a word offered from the service to the human person,” continued the Pope, who praised the history of Spain and the humanist thought of which it has been the cradle, with examples such as the school of Salamanca, one of the Pontiff's favorite quotes.

In this line, Leo XIV defended that “every legislative task ends up facing a decisive question: what conception of the human person inspires the laws and what type of society builds those laws” and wanted to collect some of the answers that, historically, the Spanish nation has given to this question, emphasizing the defense of freedom and the recognition ”of the human being as something more than a piece of the social, economic or political order: it has recognized him as a creature open to the truth”. 

The humanist revolution of the School of Salamanca

One of the central themes of the papal speech in the Spanish Cortes was the profound and reflective memory of the Pontiff to the importance of the school of Salamanca in the development of the legislative and social order at the time when the world became bigger, when, with the arrival in America “Spain was placed before historical responsibilities of universal scope”. 

At that time, the Pope stressed, “some masters understood that reason could not be invoked to clothe with legitimacy whatever force or interest presented as convenient. They thus introduced into historical discernment the question of the irreducible value of every human being and the moral limits of power”. 

The Pontiff did not overlook the fact that “society and the Church itself were not always up to the task”, Leo XIV emphasized that “the reflection of the School of Salamanca - and in a particular way Fray Francisco de Vitoria, together with other Dominicans and Jesuits - contributed to the formation of a juridical and moral conscience capable of remembering that authority always carries with it a responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties”. 

Updating this question, the Pope underlined how today, with technological advances and, in particular, Artificial Intelligence, the limits can also become blurred. He also recalled Benedict XVI's address to the German parliament to assess that human dignity “precedes every concession of the State and cannot be subordinated to social consensus”.

Can a nation be called just? Respect for life, family and freedom of education.

“It falls to me today to speak a serene and firm word to those who have the grave responsibility of juridically ordering social coexistence,” continued the Pope, who did not avoid mentioning some of the most serious issues that plague today's juridical and social systems. Can a community be called fully just if it leaves in the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence or those who depend entirely on the care of others? The defense of human life is not a partial question or a denominational interest: it is a goal of civilization: every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end. 

The Pope referred to the family as “the first human reality and the natural foundation of the community”, and to educational institutions in which “many parents, desirous that their children learn to relate to one another, to think critically and to acquire solid values, place great hopes in them as valuable allies in their education”.

A particularly interesting point in the Spanish Parliament before which the Pope has defended “the ‘primary and inalienable right’ of parents to ‘choose the type of education and formation their children receive, in coherence with their own moral, cultural and religious convictions’.”.

The migration issue 

The migration issue, one of the fundamental lines of this trip, has entered fully into this speech in which Leo XIV has affirmed that “wherever a person is discriminated against because of his national, ethnic, religious or linguistic origin, or because of his economic or social condition, the universal principle of the equal dignity of all human beings is seriously violated”. 

In this line, the Pontiff defended the need to “strengthen prevention, rescue and assistance to victims, especially within the framework of regional and multilateral cooperation”. 

Prevost called for international cooperation in the face of a drama that cannot be tackled by a single nation. 

Plurality does not mean attacking the adversary 

“The world is going through a profound spiritual and cultural crisis,” the Pontiff said. “Peace requires diplomatic courage, ethical responsibility and a vision of the future grounded in respect for the identity of each people and in the obligation of States to resolve their disputes by the peaceful means offered by international law,” said the Pope, who expressed his concern over the advance of rearmament as “an almost inevitable response to the fragility of the international scene.”. 

Faced with this international scenario, the Pope called for “a rediscovery of the indispensable value of dialogue”.

Peace, internal and external, marked the last large part of the speech in which the Pope defended that “political plurality should not degenerate into permanent disqualification of the adversary”. 

Protection of and respect for religious freedom

The Pontiff went further, calling for a clear and firm protection of religious freedom and personal conscience: “The freedom on which the contemporary State is built, if it is authentic, recognizes the religious dimension of the human being, respects it and protects it legally; and prevents anyone from having to renounce contributing to the society in which he lives because of his faith”.

“In this context,” Leo XIV pointed out, “the sacramental seal of confession is of special importance for the Catholic Church. It falls within the broader sphere of religious freedom, which guarantees to believing communities a proper space of life, organization and internal discipline”. To protect it juridically, he indicated, “means preserving a sacred space of inner freedom, where the believer can open his soul before God without fear of external pressures”.

At the same time, he stressed that “faith is not intended to be imposed through privileges or coercion, but neither can it be relegated to silence as if it were irrelevant”. 

The law must appear before human dignity 

Making a visual tour of the images of the Spanish Chamber, the Pope pointed out forcefully that “a law does not reach its true greatness by the mere fact of having been formally approved; it reaches it when, in addition to being valid in its form, it can appear before the dignity of the person and emerge from that examination without embarrassment”, encouraging Spaniards whose “cultural, juridical and spiritual tradition has known how to put faith and reason, law and conscience, unity and plurality in dialogue” to be part of this path of social progress. 

The longest applause of democracy 

The Pope concluded this historic speech to the accompaniment of what could already be described as the longest applause of democracy. 

The applause began at the end of the papal speech and continued for about ten minutes until the Pontiff left the room, accompanied by the president of the chamber and various authorities. 

Several “Long live the Pope!” could also be heard, which were seconded by those attending this historic intervention.

During all this time Leon XIV has been especially moved. He thanked the deputies and guests with gestures for a token of affection that has gone down in the history of the Spanish Chamber.

La entrada El Papa en las Cortes españolas: “¿Puede llamarse plenamente justa una comunidad que deja en la sombra al niño aún no nacido, al anciano?” se publicó primero en Omnes.

Personalities from the world of communication, art, culture and sports participated in this event, which the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid emphasized as “our times present a dangerous crack: the lack of questions and meaning. Faced with this, Your Holiness, we are called to seek answers together. 

Christ, the heart of the creative impulse 

“The relationship between the Catholic Church and art has not only been fruitful: it has been decisive. We are not afraid of being wrong when we say that the Church has been the greatest producer of art in the history of mankind,” said the actor Antonio Banderas, who continued, “at the heart of this creative impulse is the one who crosses centuries, styles and cultures, and who has certainly been the most represented figure in the history of art: Jesus Christ. A Christ who, as the actor from Malaga wanted to point out, is ”a constant presence. Not as a repeated image, but as an icon of peace, love and sacrifice.

The actor concluded by arguing that “this meeting between the church and civil society is not only opportune: it is necessary. We need to continue to create and share, to continue to ask questions. And he closed his words by paraphrasing St. Augustine: ”You say that times are bad. Be better yourselves and times will be better. You are the time.

For his part, the Rector of the Complutense University, José María Coello de Portugal, focused his words on the need to safeguard an education that respects “diversity but also truth, with full respect for the ethics of research” and advocated for universities that are “academically excellent but socially inclusive, environments in which the culture of effort and competitiveness is developed but presided over by full respect for the dignity of each person”.

Coello de Portugal thanked the Pope for “the recent designation by His Holiness for the first time in history of a university professor as a doctor of the Church, in the person of John Henry Newman”, and presented the Pope with two challenges facing universities today: “how to contribute to building a peaceful society and how to lead through education and research the scientific changes inherent in the technological revolution in which we are immersed”. 

The academic's speech was followed by an exciting and complex performance by the dancer Sara Baras and her team. The Pope, who wanted to greet all the members of the tablao, showed his affection and admiration for the dancers. 

The need for a transformative and profoundly humanistic vision of the company

Antonio Garamendi, president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE); Unai Sordo, secretary general of the Comisiones Obreras; Pepe Álvarez, secretary general of the General Union of Workers (UGT); and Ángela de Miguel, president of the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) shared with the Pope a broad reflection on the world of business, the economy, and the role of AI in the world of work.

In this area, they have defended that “in the social dialogue, Artificial Intelligence ceases to be a tool for labor substitution and becomes a collective project, of shared values, transparency in algorithms and useful to the just transition and respect for the dignity of working people”.

The trade unionists and businessmen have committed themselves to “face what is undoubtedly a real epochal change. Technological transformation, artificial intelligence and global competition are redefining the way we produce, work and relate to each other. And that is why we need to reinforce a transformative and profoundly humanistic vision of the company.

All agreed on the need for a new social pact in today's unstable and fragmented labor environment. 

“Accepting our fragility makes us human.”

Among the most awaited were the testimonies of Carolina Marin and Teresa Perales. Both athletes arrived happy. Both Marín and Perales have often declared their faith, especially in moments of victory but also of injury, or challenges, as in the case of the Paralympian, Teresa Perales, who said that “accepting our fragility and our difficult moments does not make us weak, it makes us human. True victory is not being invincible, but learning to get up with the help of others.

Along the same lines, badminton champion Carolina Marín explained that “the opponent is not an enemy; he is an indispensable traveling companion who, by giving his best, forces us to give the best of ourselves. To compete is to grow with the other, never against the other”.

The Pope went downstairs to greet, with great affection, Teresa Perales and Carolina Marin, who gave him a badminton racket.

“The Church wants to be in dialogue with the world.”

After the speeches of these personalities, the most awaited and central moment of the afternoon arrived: the speech of Leo XIV. 

The Pope, once again, did not hide his appreciation for Spain, emphasizing that in “this beautiful country it is impossible not to admire the trace of creativity that runs through its history”. 

Referring to Spain's rich historical heritage, the Pope asked “what kind of heritage are we leaving to the future and, therefore, what kind of community are we building? And he underlined how ”our society, in fact, possesses an extraordinary capacity to produce, innovate and communicate, yet it seems that we still need to learn to guard the soul of what it generates. Otherwise, we run the risk of being experts in the means and effective in producing, but uncertain about why, for what, with whom and for whom it is produced. In this context, the Church, aware of both her successes and her mistakes throughout history, longs to remain in dialogue with the contemporary world“. 

Christ answers the big questions 

The Church, the Pope recalled, is an expert in humanity in the face of the decisive question of our time: “What does it mean to be truly human? And it is so, the Pope said, because ”Jesus Christ answers the great questions about human life and its fullness“.

To respond to these questions of our time, the Pope advocated “a social dialogue that can be compared to the art of weaving networks, which involves meeting, listening, dialogue and respect”.

Weaving nets: its three meanings 

The image of weaving, the title of the meeting, was a constant theme in the Pope's speech, who wanted to explain that “weaving networks is a dialogue between institutions centered on human dignity that “entails, for example, that the university should not turn its back on the world of work or renounce the truth; that business activity should not see the employee as just another factor in the equation of its interests; that art should not be aimed only at the elite; that sport should not be reduced to a spectacle or turned into a mere business; that technological progress should take into account the elderly, the poor and those who have no voice.

“Our contribution to dialogue, from a Christian vision of life, knows that the Creator has woven human beings with threads of love,” stressed the Pope, who wanted to emphasize how “weaving networks means creating together. And he defended the union that art brings about ”between the material and the spiritual. Finally, the Pope pointed out that “weaving networks means, thirdly, to serve in a disinterested way. And so the Pope recalled the key importance of faith in the shaping of Europe.

As he did at the Vigil with the youth, the Pope recalled his predecessors with that call to audacity: “Do not be afraid, open wide the doors to Christ! Jesus Christ takes nothing from us and gives us everything”, referring to that first and recognizable speech of John Paul II, a memory accompanied by a great applause among the attendees. 

But he went further, asking “Who are being excluded in spite of their virtues and abilities? We cannot ignore that the condition of the poor represents a cry that, in the history of humanity, constantly challenges our lives”.

New threads to weave a new society 

“Christ restores the common good to its rightful place” emphasized the Holy Father, who ended his speech with a special appeal to sport as “a luminous witness of cohesion and peace”.

The Pope concluded with an appeal to those present to be “new threads to weave new networks that harmonize all areas of life, to weave a renewed society where time is imbued with eternity, culture safeguards memory and favors dialogue, education promotes the search for truth with a critical spirit, art awakens wonder and generates noble emotions, business recognizes the dignity of the person and work continues to be the engine of hope”.

La entrada El Papa anima a la sociedad civil a ser “hilos nuevos para tejer redes nuevas que armonicen todos los ámbitos de la vida” se publicó primero en Omnes.

From 5:00 p.m. onwards, there were many people walking the streets around the Bernabeu area, asking about their area. A huge white cross, visible from almost everywhere, presided over the vigil, next to the image of the Virgin of the Almudena.

Enric Chenoll and Estenez (formerly Grilex) were the hosts of the “preview” to the arrival of the Pope. A few moments in which fragments of previous papal visits, testimonial videos and the hymn were played on the screens, placed along the Paseo de Castellana. 

Preliminary music and animations 

The vigil with the young people began at around 6:40 p.m., led by Guillem Climent and Aysha Rua. Young people from all parts of Spain, and also some from nearby countries, filled the area around the Plaza de Lima, in Madrid. 

The music, by artists such as Lola Tuduri, Ignacio Serrano, Inazio, Besmaya + Malmö, Beret or Siloé, enlivened the wait, before the recitation of the Holy Rosary, the Marian prayer par excellence, which contemplated the Luminous Mysteries, included by St. John Paul II. 

The Pope arrived at the Plaza de Lima after 8:45 pm. Leo XIV received the affection of hundreds of thousands of young people as he took the stage set up in the heart of Madrid. Together with him, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, and about thirty young people, who have enjoyed the privilege of accompanying the Pope in these hours. 

Cardinal Cobo: “We want to learn to respond as a Church”.”

The Archbishop of Madrid, Archbishop José Cobo, presented the young people who “arrive with the thirst of those who seek Christ, his Church and the embrace of a fraternity that gives meaning to life”. 

The Cardinal asked the Pope that “from his hand we want to learn to respond as Church, walking together and offering paths of accompaniment and life” and ended by thanking the Pope “for coming to help us raise our gaze. Thank you for confirming us in our faith, encouraging us in our mission and reminding us that the Spirit continues to act and that the Church continues to be sent”. 

The Pope became young with the young people. With great joy he thanked the young people for the fact that they were sharing their faith “with all young people”. 

The Holy Father's dialogue with the young people touched on various topics, such as the missionary past of Pope Prevost, but, with special emphasis, the young people wanted to know from the Pontiff how to listen to the voice of God and the mission of young people in the world. 

A new Don't be afraid! 

The Pope wanted to share with young people the impact on their lives of three saints: St. John Chrysostom, St. Thomas of Villanova and St. Toribio of Mogroviejo. 

Here the Pope reminded himself of St. John Paul II, when he forcefully shared with young people a new “Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to think about a vocation to the priestly or religious life or to any other service in the Church,” the Pope stressed.

Of the former, the Pope recalled that he was impressed by “his splendid catecheses, which unite love for the truth and righteousness of life, and his courage in speaking before the Emperor, always telling the truth”. 

As for St. Thomas of Villanova, an Augustinian who “undertook an intense work of reform of the Church, especially of the clergy, exhorting his brothers to perseverance in prayer, chastity and obedience”, the Pontiff wanted to highlight the influence of his “ardent charity” that “has encouraged me in times of trial”. 

Finally, Robert Prevost pointed out how the life of prayer, together with the commitment to justice of St. Toribio de Mogroviejo, are for him “a model of dedication to the people”.

His memory of Peru, the Pope wanted to share, is mainly, “the testimony of faith of the people, marked by many difficulties, but full of hope. The encounter “with the wounds and joys of the people made me grow in the way of following Jesus. 

“God knows you and will answer you.”

Then, questioned about how to recognize the voice of God, the Pope stressed the need to seek “silence, which favors attention and recollection. When we seek silence, we decide what not to listen to and what noises not to allow ourselves to be distracted by. 

In addition to the silence, He called for a search for the truth, because “in many things in the networks the truth is not there”. 

“Be certain that God knows your voice well: He hears you and will answer you,” continued the Pope, who encouraged young people to move from interior monologue to prayer: “Our interior speech becomes prayer, praise and supplication when it is entrusted to the only one who can hear it. Prayer is a free voice precisely because it does not speak to give an account, to show that we are ready or to make us feel important. When we ourselves become prayer, the Lord answers us with his Word, who became man for us, affirming that he loves us with his whole being”.

The Eucharist, the “place to free the heart”.”

Thirdly, he encouraged young people to “listen to his living Word” and to cultivate Eucharistic devotion. “Eucharistic adoration, which we share tonight, is precisely the right place to keep silence, free our hearts and “be” ourselves before the Lord, dialoguing with him, so that he becomes eloquent in his love, made food for humanity”. 

In a context that some call a Catholic turn and in which young and not so young people are multiplying and are not afraid to manifest their faith, the Pope invited them to share “your spiritual journey, bearing witness to it with coherence of life: the will to follow Jesus will constantly renew you, especially in the hour of fatigue”. “No one is alone in following Jesus,” the Pope encouraged “Look how many of you are here!”

And he added, “If you pray with love, young people will appreciate the importance of prayer. If you burn with faith, you will transmit its living fire. If you remain faithful to your vocation, you will reflect its attracting grace”.

Royal saints 

The Pope also made a defense of real holiness, with the falls and turns to God of all kinds of people: “The faces of passionate husbands and fathers, of wise priests, of religious men and women dedicated to God to serve their neighbor do not shine in an idea, but in the holiness of a life put to the test”. 

Finally, the young people asked the Pope how to live a committed life and what is the mission that the Pontiff gives to young people. The Pope called them to overcome “fashion”, stressing that Christians “are free from fashion, because we are disciples of the truth; we are open to the future, because we know that death does not await us”.

Our freedom has its source in faith 

The Pope was happy and it showed, especially in his amusing and endearing “exits from the script”, as when he congratulated Fernando, the last young man to ask about his marriage and reminded the young people that “marriage is a great Christian vocation! Do not be afraid of marriage!”

Leo XIV made an impassioned appeal to faith and unity: “To live in this way, it is necessary first of all to interpret present society, living wisely, so that we can then transform it as witnesses to the Gospel. The young Christian, in fact, becomes luminous both in joy and in trial, giving flavor to reality because he inhabits it as a person who enjoys life within himself, without waiting for the taste to be given to him by wealth, pleasure or power. This is our freedom, which has its source in faith”. 

“Be human!” The Pope asked the young people “men and women of flesh and blood. Not appearances, but reliable faces”, looking “to the Apostles, to the first Christians, inhabitants of a pagan world”. This faith is what changes history, concluded the Pope, who was almost “knocked down” by the applause, before the Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. 

The Holy Father signed the back of the cross of the young people before the moment of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the blessing, which were the centerpiece of this meeting of young people.

The Holy Father signed the back of the cross of the young people before the moment of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the blessing, which were the centerpiece of this meeting of young people. 

A blessing in which we have been able to see the Pope moved, as well as the hundreds of thousands of people who have made an impressive silence when the priest entered with the Monstrance. 

The reading of the Gospel was followed by a moment of emotional prayer and the singing of the Augustinian song “Tarde te amé”. The prayer continued for several dozens of minutes until the Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament during which the sound of the security helicopters could be heard. A special and emotional night that concluded with the hymn “Alzo la mirada” after a long and heartfelt applause from all those present. 

La entrada León XIV, un joven más, que pide a los jóvenes “¡No tengáis miedo! se publicó primero en Omnes.

This Augustinian Province is made up, in addition to Spain and Portugal, of 7 other vicariates (Argentina, India, Iquitos in Peru, The Antilles, Panama, Tanzania and Venezuela) and two delegations (Central America and Cuba). A reality that strengthens the ties of Pope Leo with his Augustinian friars present in Spain.

Leo XIV, a «son of St. Augustine», as he defined himself on the day of his election, is visiting Spain and, in this context, he will meet with his Augustinian brothers. It is a moment of special joy for the Augustinian family, which is preparing this trip with special enthusiasm: schools, monasteries and the different realities linked to the spirituality of the Augustinian Recollects. St. Augustine, will accompany the Pope on these days.

In the midst of this din, Fr. Domingo shared with Omnes his joy and enthusiasm for a fraternal and festive meeting and the importance of the Pope's visit to Spain.

How is the Augustinian family living these days of preparation for the coming of the Pope, «son of St. Augustine»?

- The Order of Saint Augustine and the entire Augustinian Family in Spain, known as the Spanish Augustinian Family, are living these days of preparation for the visit of the Pope with great joy and, at the same time, making a great effort to prepare for the visit as the Church in Spain is doing, to organize the participation of many young people and families in the events that will take place in Madrid and other cities. Concretely the Spanish Augustinian Family has organized a web page (agustinosconelpapa.es) to motivate and follow the Pope's visit to Spain.

A prayer vigil for the Augustinian Family is scheduled for June 5 at 8:00 p.m. in the Church of the Comendadoras de Santiago in Madrid. Later, on June 6, at 12:30 p.m., there will be a sending Eucharist for the Augustinian Family at Colegio San Agustín, in Madrid. There will be a morning of sharing and celebration of sending forth for the pilgrims of the Augustinian family before participating in the vigil with the Pope.

In addition to all the events mentioned above and other acts of the visit in which we will participate, there are two that have a special resonance for us. They are the meeting that we will have with the Holy Father on June 7 at the Nunciature and the visit of the Pope to the Parish of St. Augustine in Barcelona, which we Augustinians attend. In this parish, on June 10, there will be a meeting of the Holy Father with the diocesan charity and assistance realities.

What will you convey to the Pope during your meeting on Sunday?

- The Augustinians will have a meeting with the Holy Father at the Nunciature on the afternoon of June 7. It is a great joy for us.

Most of us Spanish Augustinians know Pope Leo from his visits of renewal to the communities, from his participation in the provincial chapters and from other presences on the occasion of important events of the Order in Spain. Some of us have had the opportunity to greet the Pope during the General Chapter of the Order, celebrated in Rome in September 2025.

However, most Augustinians have not been able to meet with the Holy Father since he was elected and this fact makes us very grateful to have this meeting.

In this meeting, first of all, we want to listen to the Pope; listen to his words and see what he says to the Augustinians in Spain. We will transmit to him a message of gratitude for his visit; a message of fraternity, of support and of attentive listening to his words and indications.

Leo XIV knows very well the reality of the Spanish Augustinian family. What memories do you have of Robert Prevost's frequent visits to Spain?  

- The Province of San Juan de Sahagún arose in 2020 from the union of the four provinces that the Order had in Spain. In the years that Fr. Robert Prevost, being Prior General of the Order, visited Spain there were more provincial chapters than now. This fact made him come more times for this reason. He was also present in the visits of renewal to the communities and in other important events for the Order in Spain. 

The greatest memory that I can point out is that of meeting a close and cordial person; a well-prepared person as he manifested in the chapters or in other meetings. Fr. Robert Prevost lived the fraternity with the brothers in a very normal way when he visited the communities, participating in the events of the houses and taking care of the tasks and activities of the brothers and the communities.

Among the significant memories we keep are his presence at the Intermediate General Chapter held in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 2004, his presence at the Provincial Chapter of the Province of Spain in 2010 and the visit to the Monastery of Silos with the capitulars and his presence at the Monastery of El Escorial to receive Pope Benedict XVI, on the occasion of World Youth Day in 2011.

The Pope frequently quotes St. Augustine. Are Catholics rediscovering this Father of the Church and his spirituality?

- I am convinced that these facts will contribute to making St. Augustine much better known.

St. Augustine has been well known in the Church throughout the centuries and, concretely, he has been much quoted in the Second Vatican Council. Pope Benedict XVI, an expert on St. Augustine, has also widely disseminated his thought.

I believe that the fact that Leo XIV is an Augustinian and frequently quotes St. Augustine will increase his knowledge much more and reach many more people, beyond the world of theology. 

La entrada P. Domingo Amigo, OSA: «El P. Robert Prevost vivía la fraternidad con sus hermanos agustinos con mucha normalidad» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Fernando Giménez Barriocanal highlighted the more than 550,000 registrations for all the events, especially those taking place in the Spanish capital. 

More than 25 million euros total budget 

Giménez Barriocanal also wanted to announce the total budget for this trip. 25 million euros is the total budget for this trip. The 85 % has been allocated to the events, while the remaining 15 % has covered the logistics or communication needs. 

As for the origin of this 25 million, 45% has been donated by benefactors, especially companies and foundations, as Barriocanal pointed out. 

These companies include large groups from the financial, insurance, communications, telecommunications, new technologies, transportation, electrical construction, food and catering, hotel and catering and logistics sectors. Companies from the educational world have also played a key role in financing this trip. 

Along with this, Fernando Giménez pointed out that another 30 % of this budget comes from the dioceses' and the EEC's own resources. The public administrators of the Canary Islands and Catalonia have contributed around 20 % of this money while small donors have added 5 % of this total budget. 

Fernando Giménez Barriocanal highlighted the support that the declaration of this visit as an event of public interest by the government has brought. He also pointed out that, as was the case in 2011, the return on this investment always exceeds the amount invested, although, as he emphasized, “the main return is spiritual”. 

Kings and politicians 

For his part, Rafa Rubio, communications coordinator for the visit, shared some details of the Welcome Ceremony at the Royal Palace and the speech at the Spanish Parliament. 

In this regard, the King and Queen will receive the Pope at the airport, although the official welcoming ceremony will take place at the Palace of the Orient. 

As a detail, the Infanta and Queen Sofia will have a personal meeting with the Holy Father before the greetings of the authorities in the Hall of the Kingdom and then, in the Hall of Columns, the King and the Pope will address some speeches to those present. 

As for the Pope's historic visit to the Spanish Cortes, Leo XIV will be received by the presidencies of the Congress and the Senate. It will be in the Sala de los Pasos Perdidos where he will greet all the representatives before delivering his speech from the presidential area of the Congress.

Enrollees value the Pope highly but know little about him 

At this press conference, the first results of a survey conducted by GAD3 among the people registered for the trip were announced. 

Among the results of this survey, it is worth noting the evidently positive opinion of those registered with respect to the figure of the Holy Father, although more than half, 57 %, recognize that they do not know much about the life and teachings of Robert Prevost. 

In terms of motivations, the expression of faith and the experience with family and friends stand out. 

For the registrants, Leo XIV is clear, “pulls” close, is considered more pastoral and is “in the middle”, between traditional and modern. 

Asked about the topics they consider most interesting for the Pope to address, the respondents, some 10,000, pointed to “Youth and the future“ and “Family and life.”.

La entrada Más de medio millón de inscritos en la visita del Papa León XIV a España  se publicó primero en Omnes.

Spain has been one of the nations most visited by recent pontiffs.

Since 1981, the Spanish nation has received all the Popes, with the exception of Francis. Although there was much speculation about a possible trip of the Argentine Pope to the Canary Islands, focused on the migration issue, the reality is that such a trip never took place.

Leo XIV, in fact, in this trip, picks up the baton of that intention of his immediate predecessor with the visit to the Canary Islands. It was the first visit of a Pontiff to this part of Spain. 

Leo XIV's first great voyage to a Catholic nation

Leo XIV's visit to Spain is considered the “first of the great papal visits” of Pope Prevost. The Pope's previous trips have either been shorter, as in the case of European Catholic nations like Monaco or, on the contrary, have been developed in interreligious environments, as in the case of its recent trip to Algeria and Tunisia or the important trip to Turkey and Lebanon. 

In these countries where the Church had a minority role, the meetings and events presided over by the Pope have been marked by the idiosyncrasies and limitations of the host nations. 

In the case of Spain, Leo XIV knew the country and its idiosyncrasies, perhaps in a much deeper way than his predecessors. By family roots, His mother, Mildred Martinez, is of Spanish descent and in his youth, in the summer of 1982, before being sent as a missionary, he traveled the north and northwest of Spain by van with a group of Augustinian students.

Later, as Prior General of the Augustinians, he visited the different communities of Spain on several occasions, the last one being Cardinal, in 2024.

Spain, land of missionaries

Prevost is also familiar with the deep missionary imprint of many Spaniards in Latin America. During his missionary work in Chulucanas and, later, as bishop of Chiclayo (Peru), Robert Prevost maintained a close and direct relationship with numerous Spanish religious.

Shortly before his election, as President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America as well as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he addressed these “Spanish missionaries who give their lives for the Gospel in Latin America”.

Spain, historically a bastion of historic Catholicism, is currently undergoing a profound process of secularization, but continues to be a world leader in sending missionaries, with some 9,650 active in more than 140 countries. 

Migration: the challenge of the 21st century

The last stop of the papal trip, the Canary Islands, is the most symbolic and political point of the trip. Not in vain, the events planned in the islands are totally unprecedented in any of the previous papal trips.

Of the Pope's six major events in the islands, half are directed at or centered on the migration issue. 

In this sense, the Pope wants to reinforce the Church's message on this issue and the need to continue working on the reception and promotion of those who must leave their land and, fundamentally, on the elimination of the causes that lead people to flee their places of origin.

In this sense, the Pope defends that States have the right to control their borders and establish migratory rules, but demands that migrants be treated with human dignity and respect at all times, avoiding the “stigma of discrimination” and any treatment that undermines the dignity of these people. 

The new Catholic generation

Another of the key points of this papal visit will be the youth and families as key axes of the life of the Church. 

The multitudinous meetings planned in the three venues: Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands will serve to address head-on some of the problems of today's western youth that the Pope has repeatedly mentioned in his speeches, most recently in the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. 

In this regard, it is expected that the Pontiff will not avoid issues such as polarization, social exclusion, the impact of AI or the loss of faith.

Spain receives the Pope in a social context that some have called “a social context".“of Catholic turn”.”, The active presence of Catholics, especially young Catholics, in social life has been normalized. 

Politics in times of polarization

One of the most eagerly awaited events of Pope Leo's trip to Spain is the speech that the pontiff will deliver at the Spanish Parliament on Monday, June 8. It will be the first time that a Pontiff will speak to Spanish politicians. 

Although the subject has not come up, Leo XIV has made it clear in his first year of pontificate that he is not a politician, but speaks of Jesus Christ.

 Even so, the Vatican head of state, in his first encyclical, denounced how “politics easily resorts to disinformation, to the ridiculing of the adversary and to the systematic building up of fears and resentments” and made repeated calls for responsibility to those who occupy positions of responsibility in the government of nations.

La entrada Las claves de la “primera gran visita” del Papa:  España evangelizadora, migraciones y nueva generación católica se publicó primero en Omnes.

Magnifica Humanitas is presented as an encyclical addressing the challenges of society in times of AI, not as an encyclical on Artificial Intelligence, an era described by some as the fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, the reference to Rerum Novarum, the encyclical of Leo XIII, from whom Pope Prevost takes his name, is a constant in this document.

If Rerum Novarum marks the beginning of what we know as the systematization of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the social, labor, relational and cultural change that humanity is experiencing, especially with the irruption and universalization of the use of Artificial Intelligence, is the key to reading Leo XIV's first encyclical, which begins by stating that: “the power and omnipresence of emerging technologies intertwine with the fabric of everyday life, mold the processes of decision-making and profoundly affect the collective imagination”.”

The Pope begins his first encyclical with a quick summary of all the aspects that he will develop in this document: the history of the development of the Church's Social Doctrine, the magisterial work in the path of accompanying and guiding people in the different situations of their existence, the prophetic denunciation of the dangers of “progress without God” and the call to “build a city centered on the common good” which “demands, above all, building on the rock of a relationship with God (...), accepting the limits and fragility of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected (...), accepting the limits and fragility of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected (...), accepting the limits and fragility of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected (...).), to accept the limits and fragility of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected (...) and to build a world in which all can ‘flourish’”. 

The role of the Social Doctrine of the Church

“IA must be understood not as a thematic appendix, or as an emergency to be managed, but as a transformation that challenges from within the categories of Social Doctrine and demands its further development, in fidelity to the Gospel,” the Pope stresses in the first chapter of the encyclical, in which he retraces the Church's path in the development of Social Doctrine. 

Here, the Pope recalls, in the words of Pope Francis, that, “on many specific questions, the Church does not claim to offer «a definitive word», but recognizes the importance of paying attention to scientific research and of fostering a serious and loyal dialogue among scholars, accepting the diversity of opinions”.

Robert Prevost clearly affirms the nature of social doctrine, “which does not claim to replace the responsibilities of politics and institutions, but offers itself as a support for common discernment, helping to recognize and promote what contributes to the dignity of persons, to the vitality of communities and to the good of all”.

In the first pages of this encyclical, Leo XIV offers a broad and profound overview of the key documents of the Church's Magisterium on the Social Doctrine of the Church, beginning with Rerum Novarum, followed by documents such as Quadragesimo anno by Pius XI, published in 1931, the radio messages of Pius XII, Mater et Magistra and Pacen in Terris by John XXIII; the important apostolic constitution Gaudium et Spes, and after the Second Vatican Council, Populorum Progressio, by Paul VI, author also of Octogesima adveniens, written on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Rerum novarum, and closer to the present time, the Encyclical Laborem exercens, written ninety years after the publication of Rerum novarum, by St. John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei socialis and Centessimus annus. Of Benedict XVI, the Pope recalls the key political and social application in his Caritas in veritate and, finally, Evangelii Gaudium, Laudato Si’, Fratelli tutti and Dilexit te of Pope Francis.

In the Pope's eyes, all this forms a clear and harmonious pedagogy: “Each one, taking up the challenges of his own time and interpreting historical changes in the light of the Gospel, has highlighted different aspects of a unique heritage: the dignity of the person, the value of work, the universal destination of goods, solidarity and subsidiarity, care for creation, the centrality of peace and fraternity. The result is a harmonious development, although not always linear, marked by different accents, by progressive deepening and, at times, by changes of perspective that do not break with what has gone before, but rather bring its implications to maturity”. 

Human dignity

In the second chapter, the Pope dwells on the foundations of the Social Doctrine of the Church, recalling that “the Social Doctrine of the Church leads us to the very heart of our faith: the mystery of the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ as a communion of persons”. 

In this sense, he emphasizes that the dignity of the person “does not depend on the abilities he possesses, on the wealth or the role he plays, nor on the right or wrong decisions he makes, but is a gift that precedes and exceeds him, given by God,” denouncing ideologies that consider people as mere means to obtain results. 

The Pope warns of the danger that the protection of human rights may remain a mere formal declaration and that, in addition, its foundation of universality may be avoided because it is not based on solid principles. Here the Pope makes a special denunciation of the conditions of many women in the world, recalling that “doubly poor are the women who suffer situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, because they often find themselves with fewer possibilities of defending their rights” (...) “As long as this disparity exists”, emphasizes Pope Prevost, “we cannot say that society truly and profoundly recognizes that women have the same dignity as men”. 

The Pope, in this chapter, reviews the implications of the search for the common good in the political sphere, recalling that “when politics renounces a long-term vision and is reduced to short-term calculations or sterile polarizations, discourses on the common good lose credibility, and at the same time inequalities and social fractures grow”. Here, the pontiff invites us to “think of forms of cooperation and more effective international institutions, capable of caring for the global common good without nullifying the legitimate plurality of peoples and states”. 

In this line, he updates this call made for decades by the Church to emphasize that “where the wealth of nations increasingly depends on knowledge and technologies, when these goods remain concentrated in the hands of a few, without adequate forms of exchange and access, a new imbalance is created that contradicts the universal destination of goods and feeds the gap between the included and the excluded, between those who can participate in the digital revolution and those who remain on the margins”.

The Pope dwells specifically on the principle of solidarity, explaining that fraternity is “a social and political form that must be incarnated in shared decisions and itineraries. Solidarity, then, is the concrete recognition that the destiny of each is linked to the destiny of all; truly «no one is saved alone»” and stressing that “solidarity is both a principle and a virtue. As a principle, it expresses the objective order of relationships between individuals, groups and peoples, and alludes to the awareness of interdependence, so that the good of each passes through the good of others. As a virtue, on the other hand, it requires a «firm and persevering determination »102 to work for the common good. 

“Social justice must be confronted with digital technologies.”

In this chapter, he recalls the teachings of St. John Paul II and his immediate predecessor in explaining the concept of social justice: “The recent Magisterium has insisted on the fact that social justice demands an outlook whose starting point is the last. St. John Paul II spoke of a preferential option for the poor that must mark personal and social decisions, while Pope Francis denounced a «throwaway culture“ (...) The idea of ”social justice“ helps to recognize that injustices are not only born of wrong decisions of individuals, but also of structures, mechanisms, economic and cultural systems that produce inequality almost automatically. St. John Paul II spoke in this sense of structures of sin that are opposed to the will of God and require an effort of personal and social conversion”. 

For Pope Leo XIV, “at this time, social justice must also be confronted with the environment created by digital technologies. The spread of global networks, platforms and AI systems changes the way we inform ourselves, communicate and access services (...) A just social order in the digital age is one that guarantees equal access to opportunities for all, protects the smallest and most vulnerable, opposes hatred and disinformation, and subjects the use of data and technologies to public control, so that the criterion is not only profit but the dignity of each person and the good of peoples”.

Migrant reception

An updating of the concept of social justice that, of course, refers directly to migrants, towards whom we must “protect the right to hope of those who are forced to leave, guaranteeing them safe and legal channels, dignified reception conditions and real processes of integration. On the other hand, we must also promote the right to remain in one's own land in peace and security, addressing the root causes that force people to migrate, including those linked to economic injustices and the climate crisis.

True social development

Leo XIV addresses in this chapter the concept of Integral Human Development. At this point, he explains that “development which increases the consumption of some at the expense of costs and wounds others, or which relegates whole regions to subordinate roles and prevents them from expressing their own potential, is not human”. On the contrary, the Pope affirms, “The quality of development, in fact, is measured by its capacity to maintain together, without separating, justice towards persons and the care of the common home, favoring conditions of dignified life, access to necessary goods, just social relations”. 

Along these lines, he states emphatically that “technological innovations - including artificial intelligence - are not neutral; they can increase participation and justice, or widen inequalities, control and exclusion. For this reason, they must be examined with a decisive question: do they really contribute to the growth of individuals and peoples in humanity and fraternity, in respect for the common home and future generations?. 

Service-oriented power, also in the Church 

In what is his first encyclical, the Pope did not wish to evade responsibility and, therefore, the need for the Church to examine and ask forgiveness for her errors throughout history. 

On this point, the Pope also defends an authority at the service of the community: an authority of the community. diaconiaThe following is to be promoted: “Regular forms of evaluation of the exercise of ministerial responsibilities should be promoted, which are not a judgment on individuals, but instruments of formation and correction oriented to the mission”. 

Building Jerusalem, not a new tower of Babel

The Pope uses two powerful images to illustrate the possible ways of human progress: the selfishness and incommunication of Babel “where the common work is guided by a project of domination that ends up dehumanizing (cf. Gen 11:1-9); on the other hand, the ruins of Jerusalem, which with Nehemiah are rebuilt piece by piece, as a work of shared responsibility (cf. Neh 2-6)”.

“The danger of humanity becoming a victim of its own achievements had already been lucidly perceived by St. Paul VI, when he warned that «the most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astonishing technical prowess, the most prodigious economic growth, if they are not accompanied by authentic social and moral progress, are ultimately turned against man”, the Pope emphasizes in this third chapter of the encyclical.

The Pope calls for “a discernment of the anthropological vision” of technological progress. “If technological development advances without adequate ethical and social maturation, it can happen that the means increase without humanity growing in the same measure: one “has more”, but does not “be more”, and the person runs the risk of being valued primarily on the basis of the performance he or she offers.”. 

Artificial Intelligence 

As already announced, Magnifica Humanitas is not an encyclical on Artificial Intelligence, and this is what the Pope affirms in this third chapter. “I limit myself to recalling some essential elements for a moral and social discernment that protects the primacy of the person, so that it will always be human intelligence, with its conscience and its freedom, that guides technical innovations and responsibly establishes their use and their limits,” Leo XIV emphasizes. 

The Pope clearly points out, in point 99 of this encyclical, that “it is not possible to give a single and complete definition of AI. What we can say is that we must avoid the misunderstanding of equating this “intelligence” with human intelligence”. In this line, the Pope recalls: “AI is based on data processing but “they do not go through joy and pain, they do not mature. Nor do they have a moral conscience: they do not judge good and evil. They can imitate languages, behaviors, evaluations; they can simulate empathy or understanding, but they do not know what they produce, because they do not reside in the affective, relational and spiritual horizon in which the human being becomes wise”. 

Some dangers of AI

The pontiff does not hide the areas in which we can grant a kind of absolute criterion to Artificial Intelligence. In this regard, he dwells on three aspects, “in particular, must be taken into special consideration: the ease of achieving the result, the impression of objectivity and the simulation of human communication”. The first “can accustom us to delegate too much and to look for quick answers”, the second “risks making us forget that they reflect the cultural parameters of those who have projected them” and the third “can be dangerous when introduced in a poor context of relationships and real affection”. 

The Pope calls for ethical governance and special transparency to the mechanisms of this Artificial Intelligence: “For AI to respect human dignity and truly serve the common good, it is essential that responsibilities be clear at all stages: from those who design and program the systems to those who use them and those who decide to entrust them with concrete decisions (...) Calling for prudence, rigorous controls and, at times, also a slowdown in the adoption of AI does not mean being against progress, but exercising responsible care towards the human family”.

New riches and new poverty

In this new social context of data, “to speak of universal destination of goods means finding ways to ensure universal access to technologies and training. To speak of subsidiarity requires protecting the ability of communities to decide and correct, without relegating their intervention to later monitoring, once the standards have been established elsewhere”. 

Disarming AI and guarding humanity

The Pope speaks of “disarming” AI, which “does not mean renouncing technology, but preventing it from dominating the human. It means subtracting it from monopolies, making it debatable, refutable, and therefore habitable, restoring in it the plurality of human cultures”. 

Along these lines, the Pope makes a “vehement appeal to those who develop AI systems. Technological innovation can be, in a certain sense, a human form of participation in the divine act of creation”, therefore, for the Pope, these developers have an “ethical and spiritual weight, since each choice of project expresses a vision of humanity”.

Leo XIV encourages us not to lose our humanity. To be clear that “the quality of a civilization is measured not by the power of its means, but by the care it knows how to offer, by the ability to recognize a face in the other and not a function”. 

Transhumanism and posthumanism 

In this encyclical, in which the Pope gathers magisterial documents, the magisterium of recent pontiffs and external references, there is also an interesting reflection on two “background narratives” present in our society: transhumanism and posthumanism. “Transhumanism,” explains Leo XIV, “imagines an empowerment of the human being by means of technologies - biomedicine, body engineering, devices, algorithms - with the aspiration to increase performance and capabilities. Posthumanism, especially in its more radical versions, goes further: it criticizes anthropocentrism and proposes a form of hybridization between the human being, the machine and the environment, to the point of imagining that it will cross the threshold where humanity will surpass itself, entering a new evolutionary stage.”. 

Both intellectual systems directly attack human dignity, leading even to “accepting that some are considered less useful, less desirable, less worthy. In the name of progress we can even think of “necessary sacrifices”, and make the most vulnerable pay the price of an alleged optimization of the species”. 

On this point, the Pope considers it “necessary to make a clear distinction: it is one thing to integrate technologies into a human and relational vision; it is another to allow oneself to be guided by an imaginary that scorns the limit and promises a purely technical “salvation””.

Here, the pontiff reminds us, we must remember that the human being “does not flourish in spite of the limit, but often through the limit”. For it is in the limits that we exercise clearly human acts: care, compassion, love. At this point, the Pope takes a hopeful look at history in which we find how the commitment of a man or woman can change society, referring to figures such as Luther King or Dorothy Day, but also to St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. Oscar Romero or Francois-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận. 

Our “most human” is Christ

Thus, concludes the Pope, “humanity - magnificent and wounded - must not be replaced or surpassed; it can welcome the progress of technology to alleviate suffering and open up new possibilities, provided that it does not renounce that which makes it itself, namely, the capacity for relationship and love. At this point a decisive question arises: if there is an authentic “more than human”, where is it to be found? The Christian faith responds by indicating a fullness that does not derive from a technological divinization, but from that which is produced by the grace of God, received in Christ.

Ecology of communication: transparency also in the Church

The fourth chapter focuses on the nature of work and its role in human development and freedom. 

A chapter in which Robert Prevost sets his sights on the polarization, often created and fed through algorithms, that pervades our society. “The

disinformation”, the Pope affirms, “does not arise with AI, but finds in it today a powerful multiplier”. In this regard, he recalls that “those who control the digital platforms and the media have a remarkable ability to influence the collective imagination and present a certain vision of reality as desirable”. A scenario that makes desirable, for the pontiff, ”an ecology of communication” that establishes rules that make more transparent the criteria by which content is selected and amplified.

The Church too, the Pope points out, must “commit itself to transparent communication and to an honest search for the facts. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. We have witnessed, with shame, the arduous uncovering of painful truths even about members of the Church and about ecclesial realities. In particular, some journalists committed to the truth have played a fundamental role in bringing to light injustices and abuses”.

Educate not to use AI

Likewise, the Pope makes an interesting call to “educate in the use of AI implies, therefore, educating to decide when and for what not to use it”. 

In this sense, he encourages an educational task that teaches to “dispense with AI and protect our young people from the promise of the perfect machine, from that subtle seduction that makes human thought seem useless precisely when it is most needed.”.

Education is one of the key points to read in this papal document, which advocates care for access to education and the right of families to an education in accordance with their beliefs. 

Encouraging work, not welfare

On the subject of work, the Pope recalls that “work is not simply an instrument, but expresses and enhances the dignity of our life” and for this reason, “economic aid to the poor is still sometimes necessary in emergency situations, but it cannot become the only response, since the goal is to offer each person the conditions to live in dignity through his or her own work”. 

In this field, the pontiff is also particularly clear when he recalls the need to promote decent and accessible work and to avoid “exacerbated capitalism” that leads to “justifying decisions that systematically sacrifice employment” for the sake of greater profits. He also makes a singular appeal to trade union organizations to “open themselves to new forms of work and to new workers, to represent and defend them”.

The true parameters of wealth

Leo XIV echoes in this letter the growth of world wealth, noting, however, that “world wealth has grown in absolute terms, but its concentration in the hands of a few has increased and imbalances have become more marked, both between countries and within countries. A reality that takes on new perspectives in times of AI and that make necessary ”economic-technological dynamics towards the common good, promoting decent work, social inclusion and an equitable distribution of the benefits of innovation“. 

The family, the center of society

Although it might seem a digression within the text, the Pope focuses on the family as “the primary social good. Founded on the stable union between a man and a woman, it is the first environment in which each person develops his or her potential, becomes aware of his or her dignity and learns the first forms of truth and goodness”. 

This is the framework for the call to the states to promote and encourage socio-labor models that help families, allowing the reconciliation, their formation and the maintenance of these families. “It is necessary to support social bonds: networks and educational communities that accompany life choices and prevent uncertainty from generating loneliness and dependence,” the Pope concludes. 

New slavery and new colonialism

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, the Pope makes a special reflection on the new slavery, whether it be the slavery generated by algorithms that trap and “decide” the lives of many people or the fact that “in the world of AI, nothing is immaterial or magical. Every response that seems immediate and perfect comes from a long chain of mediations, from an extensive network of natural resources, energy infrastructures and, above all, people. A significant part of the functioning of the digital economy is sustained by the silent work of millions of human beings, employed in activities that are not very visible”, with little pay and, above all, women. 

In this sense, he highlights the power of networks in new forms of slavery such as human trafficking or the emergence of “new colonialisms”: “vital information that, once correlated, can be used to train predictive models, guide investment strategies, anticipate crises and, above all, select who and what matters”.

“It is here,” the Pope emphasizes, “that one of the most urgent moral questions of our time is at stake: to transform shared knowledge into a common good, not a tool of domination; to give back to the people not only the data that describe them, but also the possibility of deciding how it will be used, who will use it and for whom.”.

Pope Leo XIV closes this first encyclical with a call to build the civilization of love. In this sense, he brings back the image of the Tower of Babel as “the globalized technocratic paradigm, but also the confrontation at a distance between opposing imperialisms, between powers that want to preserve their primacy and powers that aspire to conquer it, with a multiplicity of local conflicts”. In the face of this, a large part of humanity emerges that wants to continue safeguarding that human nature founded on divine filiation. 

AI cannot act as a moral agent 

The Pope does not evade the evidence that “we are witnessing a real paradigm shift in public discourse and rearmament decisions, with a worrying rehabilitation of war as an instrument of international policy”, a warmongering thinking that feeds on social polarization and the growth of the war industry itself. 

In this sense, the Pope explains, AI cannot have control over moral decision making since “moral judgment cannot be reduced to a calculation, it implies conscience, personal responsibility and recognition of the other as a person.”.

Five areas of personal responsibility

Here, and to close this diagnosis of today's society and its moral implications, the Pope makes a strong appeal to personal responsibility, proposing “five ways of daily and public responsibility: disarming words, building peace in justice, taking on the gaze of the victims, cultivating a healthy realism and relaunching dialogue and multilateralism”. 

Leo XIV recalls how “the power of words is enormous and we experience it in our daily communication, when someone tells us something that changes our state of mind, whether for better or for worse” and encourages us to “give space, in information and education, to the gaze and voice of the victims; it helps to become truly aware of the abyss of evil that war and, in general, all forms of violence contain; not to accept the logic of conflict as normal; not to look away when an affront to human dignity is committed; and to restore to the people affected the dignity of being recognized and heard.

As he has been doing since the beginning of his pontificate, Robert Prevost, appeals to the need for a real dialogue: from everyday circumstances to high diplomacy and in which “dialogue between religions has a decisive role, because at the heart of the great spiritual paths lies a message of peace. Whoever uses the name of God to legitimize terrorism, violence or war betrays his face; to fight in the name of religion means, in reality, to strike at religion itself”.

Eucharistic Spirituality

In conclusion, the Pope emphasizes that “there is no moment or human condition that is not worthy of God”. An affirmation that he further develops in the invitation to “contemplate in the face of the Son a magnificent humanity that also illumines the age of AI. In Christ we understand that man is called to be a collaborator in the work of creation”.

The Pope emphasizes that “the spirituality we need is a Eucharistic spirituality, that is, a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love (...) This gift remains present and operative in the Eucharist, in which the Lord communicates himself and gathers the Church, so that his self-giving becomes the principle of unity and the source of new life. Christian solidarity is also born of this communion” since “the Eucharist moves us to justice and sharing, with a preferential attention to those who suffer the burden of poverty and marginalization”. 

The encyclical ends with a profound Mariological reflection in which the Mother of God is shown to us as “poetess and prophetess of redemption” who sings in the Magnificat despite the fact that nothing had apparently changed in her world. 

La entrada ¿Qué nos dice Magnifica Humanitas a los católicos hoy?  se publicó primero en Omnes.

Born in Stryi (Lviv region) in 1970, Shevchuk was formed in the seminary during the clandestinity of his Church under the Soviet regime, his vocation is both spiritual and scientific: he is a medical doctor by training and has a doctorate in Moral Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

After a stint as a bishop in Argentina-where he forged a close friendship with then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio-he was elected in 2011, at just 40 years of age, as the youngest head of his Church. It is this combination of clinical rigor and pastoral compassion that he uses today to diagnose the state of a nation that, in his words, has learned to «overcome fear with hope.» In this interview with Omnes, Shevchuk discusses the upsurge in Russian attacks on civilians, the heroic role of Ukrainian mothers and the power of the word in a besieged city.

On May 25, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk will present his “Chronicle of a sacrilegious war”, with Omnes in the Salón de Grados of the CEU San Pablo University in a unique meeting.

On February 24, 2022 Ukraine woke up invaded, what do you remember about those first hours? 

-Yes, that's right. We have been going on for almost 5 years now what we call full-scale war. Actually the conflict began in 2014, with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of the territory of Dombas by Russia.

But it was on February 24, 2022 that a full-scale war really began. That means that more than 200,000 Russian troops invaded the country. The target was Kiev. Russia wanted a quick attack, to destroy the country. Destroy the country as a subject of international law. To occupy the capital and then to dominate the whole territory. 

We woke up that day with a completely different reality, which we are still living. Every day, on the Ukrainian side we receive news of the fallen of the Russian troops. About a thousand a day. This means that the Russian troops have not been able to defeat Ukraine. We survived and that was a miracle. I can testify to that. The Russians thought they were going to conquer a territory and they found a nation. Ukraine is really a great country. 

At that time, in Ukraine There were about 36 million people living in the country. Such an attack was not expected. There was no diplomatic dialogue. Our government also did not believe that Russia would carry out such a military invasion. 

I remember the great perplexity that the attack produced because, in a few hours, the city of Kiev was surrounded by the Russians. There was only a small way out of the city. I stayed, obviously. But it was really a mass exodus.

Kiev had about 4 million inhabitants. And after these first days, it was down to 800,000. The city became a desert. 

... and the church became a makeshift shelter.

-From the very beginning, churches became the main refuge of the people. Our cathedral is located on the left side of the Dnieper River. With the attacks, the bridges were closed. The Russians were advancing from the eastern side and the river itself was a natural barrier.

We were in the “pass”, as if in a trap, and almost 3,000 people came to take refuge in the cathedral. We could hear the Russian helicopters flying over the cathedral; the earth was shaking. 

I remember how I saw, from the stairs of the cathedral, the burning city on the other side of the Dnieper River (where, for example, the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev or the seat of government are located) and I had the feeling of seeing what Jeremiah saw when he had the vision of Jerusalem razed to the ground by the Babylonians.

I asked myself, ”Lord, why? why did you bring me here from Buenos Aires? why did you elect me head of the Church in Buenos Aires? UkraineYou put me here to see this, what's the meaning of it all? But we were able to resist!

We have saved so many lives..., and we have lost so many others. We still don't know for sure how many people have lost their lives over the years. There is talk of millions. Not only military but also civilians. 

The war in Ukraine no longer occupies foreign front pages, what is the situation like today?

-In the last eight months the situation has been getting worse. We live in a paradox: the more there is talk that the United States is negotiating with Russia, the worse we are. The front line is more or less stable, although the intensity of the confrontation is very high. The worst is being suffered by the civilian population, systematically hit by Russia.

According to UN monitoring, in the year 2025, just when there was a lot of talk about peace in Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties increased by 35% compared to the previous year. Not a single day goes by without shelling of major cities: not only Kiev, but also Kharkov and Odessa, or further south, Dnipro, Donetsk or Zaporiyia. These are attacks that do not have military targets but hit apartment blocks, civilians. 

This winter in Ukraine we have experienced a very difficult, very hard winter. The year the war started, the river did not freeze. It was a miracle. But this year it did not. On the contrary, the ice layer on the river measured more than 25 centimeters. Temperatures dropped below minus 20 degrees Celsius.... 

The Russians then began a systematic destruction of the heating structure, turning the city of Kiev into a cold trap to freeze and kill people. I can testify to this because I live here. Every neighborhood in the city of Kiev has a heating system that starts from a central plant that sends hot water to the houses.

These plants were built in Soviet times. Moscow holds all the cards. Imagine the situation. At minus 25 degrees Celsius, they destroyed heating plants, and within hours the whole neighborhood was freezing. Moreover, when water freezes in these pipes, they burst. That means that now the entire heating system has to be rebuilt in many places. 

It has truly been a humanitarian disaster. We call it a new holodomor, Like that artificial famine that Stalin caused in Ukraine that killed 12 million people. Now people are being killed by the cold. In this context, the Church became again the center of salvation for many people. Despite the situation, there was no great exodus. 

How has the population been able to survive an increasingly complicated situation?

-I tell you two stories so you can see how they have survived. A boy about five years old came to the cathedral. He was wearing a very heavy coat, very fat. I asked him, “Is it very cold in your house?” and he answered, "Yes, it is very cold. But I am going to beat the cold, and Ukraine is going to beat it". I will never forget this image, of this child who was cold, but who was proud to have the courage to overcome it. 

Another of the images we have lived in the resistance centers: some camps that have been set up in front of these buildings in which the pipes have burst and are frozen. There, with generators, we were able to offer slightly warmer places and people came to have tea, to recharge their cell phones....

There, we have experienced many times, that people started to sing, to dance.

Russia wanted to destroy the spirit, the spirit of the Ukrainians, and it did not succeed. 

At this time, as a pastor, what do you find the hardest?

-As a pastor, as a bishop, I have to say that the most difficult thing is to bury new victims. Every day we cry with so many mothers who are losing their children. We are discovering a new kind of pastoral care of the Church: the pastoral care of mourning, or bereavement. 

I am a doctor and I remember that the pastoral care of bereaved people was the work of hospital chaplains: the priests had to know the psychology, the state of mind, in order to offer an adequate pastoral care to these people. Today, this type of pastoral care touches all of us: whether in parishes, in monasteries, in cities, in small towns. We are a suffering and long-suffering nation. But we are a believing people. Faith gives us hope, and hope gives us strength.

How does one live this time of trial in faith?

-According to recent statistics, 52 % of the Ukrainian population professes to be Orthodox. Among the Orthodox in Ukraine, there are two confessions: the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and another group belonging to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. We Catholics are a minority. Within the Catholics we are the Byzantine rite Catholics, who are the majority of Ukrainians, the Greek Catholics, 12 % of the population, and on the other hand, the Latin rite Catholics who are about 1 %.

There is also the presence of Protestant groups: Baptists, Pentecostals..., among the Christians. We also have a significant Jewish population and Islamic groups in the south, especially. So, when we talk about the role of the Church in Ukraine, we always talk about interfaith and interreligious cooperation. Today, the Church is playing a key role in Ukraine's resistance and care for the victims of the war. where international organizations do not reach, the Church reaches. 

I want to emphasize that these moments of pain are also moments of conversion. The churches, especially those in the eastern part, which experienced communism the hardest, are full of people. Why? Because the pain makes the great questions emerge. And they are finding the answer in the Word of God transmitted to them by their priests. 

I have been a priest since 1994. And I must say that, until now, I have never experienced so strongly the power of the Word of God. It is not simply concepts, nor is it a human ideology, it is the power of God that saves you. 

In Crónica de una guerra sacrílega, you collected the messages that, almost daily, you sent by video, how were these messages born? 

-When the war started, faced with the sight of a burning city, the screams..., the last thing you could think of was to write something. However, after one of the first attacks on Kiev, the cell phone kept ringing with the same question “How are you?”. I didn't have time to answer them all. I told my secretary that we had to record a video to tell people how we were doing. A kind of “proof of life”. 

We could not compromise our safety or that of the people who were taking refuge with us, so we chose a very “neutral” background, a curtain. In front of it we recorded all the messages that make up the book. The “success” of the video was impressive: millions of people around the world shared those words. The next day they asked for another one; and another one,... That is how this service of the Word, of the testimony, of saying that we are alive, began. 

I became the voice of life speaking to the world from a city under siege. 

After about two weeks I thought about quitting. But then I went to visit the community in a town about 100 kilometers from Kiev. There, an elderly lady grabbed me by the hand and said, “Monsignor, we are terrified, we are very afraid but thank you for those videos.” I said, “I don't know what else to say, what can I say?” and she replied, “The important thing is that he speaks to us. Not so much what he tells us”.

I then recalled an event that happened to me when I was a practicing physician: a man was admitted after being hit by a train. We had to amputate both his legs and we did not have the necessary painkillers for his pain. His wife came in and he begged her, “Maria, talk to me.” She picked up a book and began to read it. And that beloved voice became a painkiller for that man's pain. 

I understood that the Church had to speak to those people who were suffering. And I began, every day, to transmit the Gospel through these messages. The book shows how these messages were, at the same time, a diary of pain and a word of hope. I explained the whole Catechism of the Catholic Church. I also spoke about ecology, because Ukraine is experiencing an ecological catastrophe with the war.

In his messages, he often refers to those priests who live the war with their communities and encourage them. 

-The presence of the priest for the people meant the living and visible presence of God. If they saw that a priest began to prepare to flee, the people left the city. For us it meant a painful and complicated question “What should we do?”. 

One third of my diocese was occupied, but I am very proud that none of my pastors abandoned their faithful. They have suffered, also psychologically, but they have been with their people. 

He also speaks frequently of the role of women, of mothers, in these times.

-In these years I have been able to witness the heroic motherhood of many Ukrainian women. In the subway, turned into a shelter, you saw so many mothers protecting, trying to feed their children. 

I tell you a story. One of our priests, who is married (in the Greek Catholic rite there are married priests), lives in an area near Chernobyl, about 20 kilometers from Belarus. This area was quickly besieged because, being almost unpopulated, the Russian troops encountered hardly any resistance.

I knew that this priest was expecting his third child soon after. I called him to “encourage” him to evacuate the city with his family and he told me: “In front of my parish I have 40 women with small children. We are cooking for those children because these young mothers stopped producing milk because of the stress of the war.”.

His wife did not want to leave these girls. She gave birth on the fifth day of occupation, in a hospital where there was no electricity, the doctors lit with candles. I was able to visit this family soon after and I hugged this woman and told her “you are really the image of heroic motherhood”.

In the context of the greatest death, mothers continue to be sources of life. With their courage they protect their children. We have come across so many corpses of mothers who had tried to cover their children with their bodies in the rubble! 

Most of the people who have left Ukraine are women with young children. The young mother is today the face of the Ukrainian emigrant. 

Do you see the end of the war near? 

-It is a difficult question. The Ukrainian war will end as it did when that giant with feet of clay, the USSR, fell. The war will end, but we don't know when. But there is a feeling, a spiritual feeling that the war will end when we least “expect” it.

Ukraine's victory is resistance. We resist because we have no other way to act. It is very easy to say “agreements must be made”, but the truth is this, the war can end in two minutes, when the Russians stop killing us. Because then Ukraine will stop its defense.

In a way, it is an ascetic experience of the monastic life. How can we overcome the devil when he attacks us? Because we cannot defeat him totally, but we can resist his attacks. If one resists evil, evil eventually flees. I think that is going to be an image of our victory. 

La entrada Sviatoslav Shevchuk: “Me convertí en la voz de la vida desde una ciudad asediada” se publicó primero en Omnes.

The T-shirt, designed by Patite, features the Leo XIV praying smiling over a world that is held in the hands of the Virgin Mary.

An inscription reads “Mary, Queen of the Missions, we are in your hands”.

The design of the garment is by Alvaro Moreno and includes this illustration on the back, with the sign of the keys of St. Peter, the flags of Spain and the Vatican and the title “Domund 100”.

The T-shirt, on sale at stores of Álvaro Moreno, 12.95 euros and the full amount - excluding 21% tax - will be donated to the Pontifical Missionary Works (PMO) to support the missionary work of the DOMUND.

A few days before the arrival of Leo XIV to Spain, OMP encourages to receive the Pope, who has been a missionary in Peru and is responsible for these works that support the missions, with this solidarity t-shirt.

Selfless collaboration

This original and modern way of joining the centenary of the work of the DOMUND, carried out by the Pontifical Mission Societies, wants to celebrate these «one hundred years in which Christians around the world dedicate a day to pray, all together, and to raise awareness that... the Church is missionary! José María Calderón, OMP's director in Spain. 

Both Álvaro Moreno and the designer have made this collaboration in a completely disinterested manner: Patricia has donated the illustration, and Alvaro Moreno has assumed the design, production, manufacturing and logistics costs.

100 years of Domund

The Domund (World Mission Sunday) was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1926. With this initiative, the pontiff wanted the mission to be not only a matter of the missionaries, but that the whole Church would join one Sunday a year (the penultimate Sunday of October) in prayer and economic cooperation with them.

The Pope entrusted the PMS to channel the generosity of all the faithful to help in his name in an equitable way each year to the dioceses that had been created by the missionaries, known as Mission Territories.

Since then, the DOMUND has been lived with intensity in the Spanish society, being one of the countries that, annually, contributes more money to this work. In addition, Spain currently has about 9,000 missionaries around the world. The centenary of the DOMUND pays tribute to their dedication and silent service.

La entrada Alvaro Moreno y Patricia Trigo «Pati.te» se unen para celebrar los 100 años del DOMUND con una camiseta muy especial se publicó primero en Omnes.

He is Pedro Manuel Salado Alba, “a lay faithful, member of the «Hogar de Nazaret» Association, born on January 1, 1969 in Chiclana de la Frontera (Spain) and died on February 5, 2012 in Playa de Tonsupa, near Atacames (Ecuador)”.

With this step, only a miracle performed by God through the intercession of this man from Cadiz is needed to see Pedro Manuel Salado on the altars as Blessed of the Catholic Church. 

The «offering of life» is a path to beatification and canonization introduced by Pope Francis in 2017 through the. Motu Proprio «Maiorem hac dilectionem».». This way allows the elevation to the altars of Christians who, driven by charity, heroically offered their lives for their neighbor, accepting certain death, as was the case of Pedro Manuel Salado. 

Omnes has spoken with the postulator of the diocesan phase of the cause of Pedro Manuel Salado, Miguel Varona, who sent the archives of this first phase to Rome and whose work has been continued in the Holy See by Friar Alfonso Ramirez Peralbo, OFMcap. 

Pedro Manuel Salado died in Ecuador, why is his trial being initiated in the Spanish diocese of Cordoba? 

-Normally, the causes of beatification and canonization are initiated in the dioceses where the person died. However, permission was requested from the diocese of Esmeraldas, in Ecuador, where Pedro Manuel Salado died, to initiate it in the diocese of Cordoba.

In Cordoba there were quite a few witnesses of his life, including some of those who were present at the moment of death.

In addition, Pedro Manuel lived for some time in Córdoba. So the case was initiated in Cordoba. During the process, the court was sent to Esmeraldas to take testimony from some people who lived there in Ecuador.

In fact, the seven children who were saved by Pedro Manuel were interrogated and some people were also present at the time. 

Pedro Manuel gave his life in a heroic act, but was his life extraordinary?

-Saints are not superheroes, they are not strange people who do strange things. The saint is not levitating all day long, nor is he or she dedicated only to prayer.

The saints make the ordinary extraordinary: love, faith, hope, fortitude, justice, in addition to the virtues attached to their own state in life, married or celibate, etcetera. 

I have seen in Pedro Manuel -and I said it on another occasion- that he is like an iceberg. He shows tremendous humility. 

He is sent to Ecuador, and accepts by obedience, to serve there in the mission of Hogar de Nazaret. He also has an enormous charity, which is demonstrated in how he treated, cared for, educated and watched over the children of his Hogar de Nazaret group. 

I believe that, above all, it was this love for children that made him cry out at the supreme moment of this surrender, of this offering of life. “I have to save my children!” .

That is not an impulse, it is not an outburst, it is the consequence of a lifetime. At that moment, he says the exact word, “I give my life for my children, I have to go save my children.” and went into the sea to save these seven children. 

How did Pedro Manuel Salado get to know Hogar de Nazareth? 

-Hogar de Nazaret was founded in Cordoba in 1976, and has had ecclesiastical approval since 1978. It was founded by María del Prado Almagro, who is also in the process of beatification. 

Pedro Manuel became acquainted with this association of the faithful in 1987 and saw his vocation. He arrived in Cordoba in 1988 to serve in a home of the Hogar.

He lived in Cordoba until 1999, when he was appointed secretary general of Hogar de Nazaret. A little later he was even appointed general councilor. 

In 1999 he was assigned as a missionary to Ecuador, to a children's home in Quinindé, Ecuador, an area of the Prelature of Esmeraldas. 

There he lives a very different reality. There is a school for boys and another for girls. Some time later he was appointed director of an educational unit in Quinindé. 

The work is very big because they have a huge number of children in schools and homes. So he gives his life, little by little, until he offers his whole life. 

For those who do not know Pedro Manuel's death, what was that moment like?

-From the Hogar they would go, from time to time, to a house they borrowed on the beach in Atacames. We are talking about February 2012. They are very beautiful beaches, but they have surprising and treacherous currents.

There were children from 17 years old to toddlers playing on the shore and suddenly a wave came and swept seven children, of various ages, out to sea. 

At that moment, Pedro Manuel says that shout “.“I have to save my children!», and threw himself into the sea. It should be pointed out that, although Pedro Manuel was from Chiclana (Cádiz), and knew how to swim perfectly well, he had a sovereign respect for the sea. He himself had taught many of his children to swim, in fact.

Faced with the force of the current, he jumped in, while other people on the shore were paralyzed. 

Pedro Manuel began to bring children out little by little, someone threw him a surfboard on which he rides some of the minors. 

In the end there were two siblings left, Selena and Alberto, and with great effort, he took them to the shore. That is where he died, from a cardiac arrest produced by the mixture of exhaustion, the swallowed water, etc. 

What does the life of Pedro Manuel Salado say to Christians today? 

-I think what it tells us is that giving one's life out of love, following the example of Christ, is something that Christians should feel compelled to do. 

Certainly there are people who give their lives for others as part of their profession or their work, but in the case of Pedro Manuel it is not an isolated gesture, but a growth, a progress in love. 

His testimony tells us that life is to give it, to give it away, in many ways, in daily life, yes, but also in those extreme moments in which, with God's strength, we can give our lives for others.

La entrada Miguel Varona: “Pedro Manuel Salado nos habla de que la vida es para darla” se publicó primero en Omnes.

“We want to renew our desire to serve God, the Church and society during the 500 days from October 2, 2028 to February 14, 2030,” this video emphasizes, since, although the founder of Opus Dei “saw” the Work on October 2, 1928, The beginning of the work with women dates back to February 14, 1930. 

Three main lines of action: contemplation, friendship and work

As the Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocárizin its letter dated March 19, 2026, During 2027, 2027 and the first year of the centenary, 2028, the faithful of Opus Dei will focus on three central aspects of their vocation: contemplation in the midst of the world, the apostolate of friendship, and work as a means of sanctification. “Three central teachings of St. Josemaría, with the desire to better serve the people around us, the Church and society as a whole,” Ocáriz said in his message.

Thus, next October, contemplation in the midst of the world will be the focus of prayer, work and examination also of all those who form Opus Dei and those who participate in its apostolic work.

“We begin this October, to be contemplatives in the midst of the world to discover that something divine hidden in the most common realities of work, family and civic life. Next year we will continue with the value of friendship to be Christ who passes by and to discover Christ in others, because it is in these bonds that we share the Gospel from heart to heart. And during the centenary we will reflect on work as a place where, united with God, we inspire the transformation of the world according to the heart of Jesus. Sanctify work, sanctify ourselves through work, sanctify others through work”.

These topics emerged as a synthesis of all the messages received as a result of the Regional Assemblies which, over the course of a year, brought together several thousand people in almost 70 countries to prepare for this centennial. 

Gratitude, request for forgiveness and unity

“In addition to deepening and reflecting, we will celebrate all the people who have brought us here and all those who are yet to come, giving thanks to God for the gifts we have received and for all that we continue to learn,” Opus Dei points out in this video. 

A thank you and a request for forgiveness for “we have not managed to foresee and solve every detail, but we continue to work and be together”. 

The call for unity among the members of the Work and of the Work with the Church and the Roman Pontiff has been a constant in these years. 

The new bylaws, not yet confirmed

Since the entry into force of the Motu Proprio Ad charisma tuendum (2022) and the reform of Canon Law in 2023, Opus Dei finds itself in a period of adaptation and redefinition of its “juridical fit”. 

Currently, the bylaws The definitive proposals are still being studied and evaluated with the Holy See after the General Congress of 2025, which led to the proposal of the prelature.

La entrada El Opus Dei centra el foco en su I Centenario: «No va a ser una fiesta sin más» se publicó primero en Omnes.

A unique opportunity to hear the testimony of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk and how they continue to face, each day, the hardship of a war which, despite not making headlines, continues to bleed the Ukrainian nation.

This volume collects the homilies and appeals of the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyć during the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The spiritual testimony of the first year of war is revealed in its pages, a difficult time in which Shevchuk seeks to accompany his people, offering comfort, compassion and strength in the face of barbarism. It also shows the closeness of Pope Francis, who, in his continuous telephone calls with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, conveys to him his spiritual unity and the material help that is possible.

In this seminal work, His Beatitude offers first-hand testimony and deep reflection on the reality of the conflict in Ukraine, analyzing the human and spiritual impact of the war from a faith perspective. 

REGISTER HERE or on the form that you will find at the end of the news item

The presentation, which will take place on May 25 at 7:00 p.m.in the Salón de Grados de la CEU San Pablo University of Madrid (Julián Romea 23, Madrid), is organized jointly by Omnes and His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and is sponsored by the CARF Foundation y Banco Sabadell, in addition to the collaboration of the Ángel Herrera Oria Cultural Association. 

La entrada Su Beatitud Sviatoslav Shevchuk presenta en España su libro libro «Crónica de una guerra sacrílega» se publicó primero en Omnes.

A long visit, lasting 6 days, which is being prepared against the clock and which today, in a crowded press conference, Yago de la Cierva y Fernando Giménez Barriocanal, The national coordinators of Leo XIV's visit to Spain; Sara de la Torre, Episcopal Delegate for the Media of the Archbishopric of Madrid, and Josetxo Vera, The director of the Information Office of the Spanish bishops, the Bishop of the University of Madrid, wanted to give a few more details and present, now yes, the web page and the logo of this event. 

The slogan: “Raise your eyes” and an inclusive logo

The theme of this papal visit “Lift up your eyes.” , was already unveiled by Luis Argüello in an Easter greeting video, published on Easter Sunday. 

The organizers have pointed out that the motto responds to “the words of the Lord to the disciples after the encounter with the Samaritan woman” as Josetxo Vera recalled. It is a call to «get out of the daily worries, go beyond, and give oneself to others».

Another of the novelties presented at this press conference was the image that will officially illustrate Pope Leo XIV's first visit to Spain. Here also is the thirst for God and also reflects the idiosyncrasy and the key meaning of the places the Pope will visit: Unit (Madrid), beauty (Barcelona) and charity (Canary Islands). 

The image was made by María del Mar Chapa. It contains an open circle in action, where the human figures are linked, projecting above, a community that is supportive and moving forward. 

The logo symbolically includes Madrid's Puerta de Alcalá, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the sea of the Canary Islands: both Gran Canaria and Tenerife, a sea that “can be an object of rest but also where some people find death”.

This image converges in a sun that represents the Eucharist. In the center, the outline of the Virgin of the Almudena is drawn “as a symbol of the heart that drives and reminds us of the definition that John Paul II gave of Spain as the land of Mary”. 

A renewed website 

The official website of the papal trip has also changed. The website www.conelpapa.es, The new website now has more information about the visit, the Pope's biography, frequently asked questions and the possibility of accreditation for the media. 

The previous page, which had been active for a few months, barely contained any information about the visit and its navigation and usefulness were, until now, very limited. 

The unknown of the agenda 

The official confirmation of the agenda that León XIV will follow in his Spanish tour is perhaps one of the most awaited news in Spain. 

As in the press conference just a month ago, the papal events in Spain have not been confirmed this time either, which are still ”up in the air”, less than two months before Leo XIV's arrival in Madrid.

Yago de la Cierva said that “we have proposed many events of many types. We want the Pope to listen and talk to many people. 

For the moment, all that seems confirmed about the papal agenda is reduced to the days of stay and transfers. “We don't have the agenda approved, for a logistical reason, the team is focused on the

Algeria's trip”, explained De la Cierva, who added that “generally, the Holy See communicates the agenda of the trips one month in advance”. 

«In 2011 we proposed that Fernando Alonso drive the popemobile.»

In the absence of confirmation, De la Cierva has pointed out that, evidently, given that the Pope has picked up the baton of a trip wanted by Pope Francis and focused on the theme of migration, “there will be something with migrants in the Canary Islands. Just as, if he comes invited by Cardinal Omella to bless the Tower of Jesus Christ, there will be something in the Sagrada Familia on June 10”. 

However, Yago de la Cierva wanted to point out that “in all papal trips there are surprises and we want to work so that in this one, there will be. In 2011, for example, we had a meeting with 200 authorities in the field of security, we wanted the popemobile to be driven by Fernando Alonso and they shouted to the skies”. De la Cierva pointed out that “the agenda has large blocks, these large blocks we want to be clear and then, in the small events, we want to introduce those variables that give flavor. 

Open and restricted events 

The national coordinator Fernando Giménez Barriocanal explained that “There are going to be two types of events, in each of the venues, some of which are open to anyone”. 

Along with these events, there will be other more restricted ones “that will require an invitation for reasons of capacity. For the open events there will be a system for groups to register, so Barriocanal has encouraged “parishes, movements and other ecclesial realities to form these groups”, although it will also be possible to attend the open events without registering. 

A QR code will subsequently be provided for the location, etc. of these events.”

Madrid will also provide reception areas for pilgrims and specific sites for people with disabilities. Registration is free, although everyone is encouraged to collaborate with donations through the website. 

More than 5000 volunteers signed up (and more are needed)

All the dioceses involved in the visit have been encouraging volunteers of all ages to sign up for weeks. At this moment, according to the organizers, there are more than 5,000 volunteers registered in the different sites. 

These volunteers will be needed for the preparatory work as well as for the organization and support during the various events. 

It also calls for “collaboration in kind, providing transportation, services, materials or your professional expertise in the service of the organization”, as highlighted in the canary diocesea or, as requested in the archdiocese of madrid, The event will be held in the city, welcoming as a family some of the thousands of pilgrims who are expected to travel to the capital during these days.

A high cost, but ten times the economic impact

The cost of the papal visit has been, undoubtedly, one of the most commented points to date. “The visit has a cost,” said Fernando Giménez Barriocanal, who recalled that, to begin with, it is already known that “more than 50 giant screens will be needed throughout Spain, more than 6000 toilets, more than 8000 canopies, audio towers, kilometers of fences...”.”

The organization expects to cover the expenses of this visit with the contribution of the faithful, large donations and the sponsorship of companies and entities, as was done, for example, in the World Youth Day of 2011. In fact, Yago de la Cierva affirmed that “we are repeating the same sponsorship plan as for WYD 2011”. 

It is estimated that the visit of Pope Leo XIV will cost more than 15 million euros, although the economic impact of this visit is expected to exceed 100 million euros, in addition to the social impact. All this will be made known on the Transparency portal of the EEC. 

Giménez Barriocanal has broken down the two types of collaboration through which you can help this visit: monetary and in kind. Regarding the former, Giménez Barriocanal stressed that we encourage the faithful to collaborate and then explained the contribution in kind as the “work of volunteers and prayer”.

The contribution of public entities

Giménez Barriocanal highlighted the joint work being done by civil society, pointing out how “companies and foundations will be able to contribute money. There are already major benefactors, foundations and donors who are helping to make this visit a reality», he also pointed out how collaboration with public administrations «is also being very fluid and necessary». 

Regarding the participation of governments, Barriocanal pointed out that, in this trip, a mixed financing system is being used. For example, “in the Canary Islands, the public administrations have decided to contribute because they consider that it is a historic event and because there is little time for the organization”, while, so far, there is no financial contribution from the Madrid or Catalan governments. 

La entrada Yago de la Cierva: “En los viajes del Papa siempre hay sorpresas” se publicó primero en Omnes.

This law graduate, married and father of three daughters, has been linked to this Brotherhood since his birth. “I have been a child of La Esperanza since I was born,” he tells Omnes, not in vain, his grandfather was one of the initiators of this Brotherhood without which the Jerez Madrugá would not be understood today.

His affection has also led him to research the history of the Confraternity and to write a book with these researches entitled ‘Illusions of Hope, Men of Legend’.

The Brotherhood of La Yedra

The origin of this Brotherhood, which performs its penitential station in the early morning of Good Friday in Jerez, dates back to the late seventeenth century with the devotion to the Holy Christ of La Yedra, an image that originally received worship in a public niche in the Plazuela de Orellana.

This devotion was united with Marian piety and, on October 1, 1928, the corporation was officially founded under the title of Brotherhood of the Santísimo Cristo de la Yedra and Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza (Holy Christ of La Yedra and Our Lady of Hope).

In 1939, was the first procession of the Virgen de la Esperanza, although the key date to understand this brotherhood today is in 1952 when the brotherhood made its first Penitential Station in the early morning of Good Friday, a schedule that remains to this day and that gives it its distinctive character in the city.

A few hours before the penitential station of 2026, César A. Díaz Narváez has talked to Omnes about how he lives his faith within this Brotherhood, the importance of the popular piety in a secularized world and the task of the brotherhoods beyond the penitential station.

A characteristic of the Sisterhoods At what age did you start in the Brotherhood? What does the task of being a Big Brother in such a distinguished brotherhood mean in your life?

-Obviously, family tradition is an important part of the world of the brotherhoods. I, as they say in my family, I was born a child of the Esperanza.

My grandfather was one of the founders of the brotherhood. My father is part of it, my uncles, many relatives. Me too, as a third generation. Siblings, cousins of mine are closely linked to the Brotherhood. In fact, my three daughters and my wife are also sisters.

One of the most important challenges I have is to know how to transfer this affection for the institution and devotion to the images of the Lord of the Sentence and Humility and the Virgin of Hope to my daughters so that they can continue this family legacy.

La Esperanza de la Yedra is one of the most beloved and most devoted images in Jerez. How do you explain the deep emotional connection that Jerez has with its Mother of Hope?

-Devotion to the image of the Esperanza de la Yedra is an accumulation of several facets. In the first place, it is an image of unquestionable artistic historical value. It is attributed to Diego Roldán, in the middle of the 18th century, around 1750-52. And that already makes it an image with a special unction, which attracts each of the devotees who pass through our chapel. But it also has an explanation, since it has always been a pilgrim image. 

Due to the circumstances of our small chapel, we could not leave from that place and we had to leave from different points of the city of Jerez: the convent of Madre de Dios, the parish of San Miguel, the Colegio Oratorio Festivo and then we returned to the chapel of La Yedra.

In addition, the image of the Esperanza seems to be that it was part of an old brotherhood that was called de los Dolores and was in several temples as well. After the disentailment of Mendizábal, it was moved from the convent where it was located to the church of San Lucas and the asylum of San José. And that has made the image travels through the different corners of the city and has been able to go stealing hearts of many Jerezans which has caused it to be the image of sorrow of more devotion in the city.

One of the pillars of every Brotherhood is its social and charitable action. In an environment of socioeconomic contrasts, such as Jerez, how does this action translate throughout the year?

-Many times, the brotherhoods are negatively valued by those people who do not know the depth of the 365 days and the work that the Brotherhoods do throughout the year. 

One of these aspects is social action. 

The Hermandad de la Yedra has a special commitment in this sense. We, at the time, had a self-managed kitchen that was at the forefront of Caritas at a national level and developed a very important work for many years.  

Today we have a direct collaboration with various institutions here in the city, among which we can highlight Caritas Parish, where we have a very close collaboration, and the Hogar San Juan, here in Jerez de la Frontera, where we are always taking all kinds of needs, clothing, food ..., any economic circumstance that needs, is there the Brotherhood of La Yedra to contribute. 

We are also collaborating with the children of an association here for children with oncological problems, and with an autism association in Cadiz with which we are collaborating directly in many areas. 

The work of the Brotherhood of the Yedra in terms of welfare works is very important. All this work is not well known by the rest of society and the brotherhoods are at the forefront of social assistance.

Some call the brotherhoods the “dikes of contention” in the face of the advance of secularization. Do you live this reality in Jerez society? What does the Yedra offer to the new generations?

-In recent years, the Brotherhood of La Yedra has undergone an important revolution with the access to the list of brothers of many people, among which young people stand out. 

Kids today live in a world without roots, where they want to detach them from the family, from Christian values, from the idea of Spain. This makes people -like plants that have no roots- easy to dominate. However, in the bosom of a brotherhood, where what prevails is the word of Jesus Christ, the Church; where family values and tradition prevail, where there is a series of anchors to hold on to..., these are very important places for young people, where they can settle and develop as persons.

That is why the confraternities, with their capacity to engage the youth, have become a containment dike for secularization. With secularization, the aim is to isolate the individual from all this baggage of tradition and family and Christian teaching that we have. What the confraternities do is, precisely, to fight against this tendency.

Jerez attracts thousands of visitors for its Holy Week. How do you work so that the penitential procession does not become a mere tourist spectacle and maintains its sense of faith?

- The confraternity has the virtue of getting or even “returning” to the Church through different paths. The path can be tourism, music, photography... There are many, many aspects that are concentrated in the world of the confraternities, and each one can reach them through different paths. 

The important thing is the formation that takes place in the confraternities. We have conferences through which we try to form, for example, liturgically in the knowledge of the Word of Jesus Christ. Everything is done so that those who arrive in a more superficial way, in the end, find in this formation the sense of faith.

We have, every year, many people, even adults, who were not baptized, children of parents who left the Church because of anticlericalism or any other circumstance. Well, these young people who are being baptized now, at a certain age, in their twenties, in their twenties, are bringing back these families that separated from the Church.

I believe that this is a value that is not yet being recognized in the confraternities and, in this impulse among young people to return to religion and faith, I believe that the spearhead are the confraternities.

As a Christian living your apostolic mission within a Brotherhood, how do you express the testimony of Christian life in your daily life and, especially in your penitential station?

-I live the penitential station in a special way. In a world where everything is frenetic, where there are no moments to reflect, where everything is focused on a mobile, tablet or television terminal, where what they do is to tell us what others want..., the penitential station is an ideal moment to be with oneself. I live it behind the mask, in anonymity. This allows me, for about ten hours, to pray, to reflect a lot and, in the end, to strengthen my Christian values.

La entrada César A. Díaz Narváez. “En la vuelta de los jóvenes a la fe, las cofradías son punta de lanza” se publicó primero en Omnes.

For this reason, we bring up to date this reflection on the limits of a society whose «compassion» has given birth to an injectable guillotine that evidences, however, dehumanized cruelty, the horror of institutionalized violence and the denial of selfless love to those who need it most.

The excessive bet on death is one of those symptoms of our destructive path as a society. It is paradoxical that they want to present as progressive laws that underlie the same ideas and reasons used by the National Socialist government of Germany in the 30s of the last century.

Because no, Hitler did not begin by killing Jews and Gypsies, he began by applying “mercy” killing to a handicapped child at the beginning of 1939. From then on, a program was set up to apply these criteria to similar cases, shortly afterwards it was extended to the mentally ill and then..., well, we all know the story.

With the euthanasia, What we are saying to other people is: “it is better for you to die”.

Yes, you... for being old, for being depressed, for being handicapped, for having this or that syndrome... “It is better for you to die..., because I am not going to take care of you”.

Moreover, the approval of this law, together with the scant support existing in Spain for the development and universalization of access to palliative care, carries an additional message: “It is best if you die..., because I am not going to take care of you and I am not going to help others to do so”.

Thank God, yes, there are those others, health professionals, many and very good, who dedicate their lives to caring for those whom this law wants to kill because it has decided that a life in such and such a way is unbearable. 

Life, when there are means, not cruelty, when there are possibilities and, above all, when there is love, deserves to be lived.

The voice of health professionals, family members and people who find themselves in situations that are not exactly idyllic is unanimous when they emphasize that a terminally ill person does not ask for death: he or she asks for the elimination of suffering, not of life.

Euthanasia does not seek to put an end to the problem; it eliminates the person suffering from the problem, creating a situation of medical regression by limiting or preventing the search for new solutions to the ailment.

Yes, indeed, there are lives with greater or lesser dignity and truly unworthy deaths, such as those of those who remain at the bottom of the sea trying to reach a better life. What does not exist are unworthy people.

Our duty as a society is to help them to live. We are very clear about this, for example, in the prevention of suicide. Inducing death, and even more, wanting to force doctors to certify a provoked death as “natural”, seriously wounds the spinal cord of a humane society whose characteristic should be the attention, care and promotion of the weakest. Even if it is more comfortable to give a lethal injection and go out for drinks, than to spend a night holding the hand of an almost unconscious person.

However, what should be proper to man, to woman? I do not think I am wrong in the second option, because, in the words of the Dr. Martínez Sellés, A society that kills, even with a smile, is no longer humane“.

La entrada La «compasión» de la guillotina se publicó primero en Omnes.

Dated on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, monsignor Ocáriz wanted to address a few words to his “sons and daughters” in a message framed in the next centenary of the institution, which will take place on October 2, 2028.

 Opus Dei “in your hands”.”

In this letter, monsignor Ocáriz makes a strong appeal to the personal responsibility of each of the members of the Work to carry out the mission of this Catholic institution: “the Work is in our hands”.

At the same time, he recalled and thanked the participants for their participation in the preparatory listening work for this anniversary: “Young and old, members of the Work, cooperators, friends and many people who were part of the Work at some point in their lives, you have stopped to consider how to incarnate today, with dynamic fidelity, the spirit that St. Josemaría received from God to serve the Church.

From the results of this participation, the prelate highlights three themes that he emphasizes in this message as the keys to living the vocation to the Work today: family, the work and training.

Bylaws still undated

Nor does Ocáriz avoid in this message the reality of the Statutes of Opus Dei whose process of revision and adaptation to the new apostolic constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” began “almost four years ago, and is still under study at the Holy See“.

The approval and publication of these bylaws, therefore, does not seem particularly imminent.

More vocations to family life, less to celibacy

The Prelate's words reveal a reality that is repeated in many ecclesial institutions: the growth of “people who seek him and who participate in the means of formation, the conversions that the Lord brings about through friendly relationships and new apostolic initiatives” and, at the same time, “the difficulties for young people to perceive the beauty of the call to apostolic celibacy”.

For this reason, Fernando Ocáriz points out that “with the passage of time, we will have to face the difficulty of the replacement of our elders, lay people and priests. This will make it necessary to look for new ways of continuing to fulfill our mission in each region. This situation will require - as has been unanimously pointed out in the Regional Assemblies - a priority focus on the apostolic work with young people and a genuine protagonism of the supernumeraries: to continue improving their formation so that we are all in the front line in this apostolate”.

Divine sonship, Eucharist and work

The prelate also wanted to look at the example of “the first Christians: men and women of every condition and origin who gave witness to their faith in Jesus Christ to the point of transforming society,” an analogy often used by the founder of Opus Dei.

Against this background, he points to the need to reflect on “central aspects of the spirit of Opus Dei: divine filiation, the Mass as the center and root of our existence, the value of ordinary life and the beauty of discovering that «something divine» hidden in the most common realities of work, family and civic life”.

Finally, Ocáriz called to consider “these three central teachings of St. Josemaría, with the desire to better serve the people around us, the Church and the whole of society” and to join in the Pope's intention for peace in the world in a special way.

La entrada Ocáriz traza las líneas de trabajo ante el centenario del Opus Dei  se publicó primero en Omnes.

As already announced, the cities visited by the pontiff will be Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Although there are less than 100 days left for this visit, the official agenda remains unknown.

This morning, Rafael Rubio, in charge of communications for the Pope's visit; Sara de la Torre, Episcopal Delegate for Media of the Archbishopric of Madrid; and Josetxo Vera, Director of the CEE Information Office, have released some information, especially dedicated to the press, of a visit that is being prepared against the clock and of which there are still many points to be worked on.

Data in drips and drabs

So far, very little data has actually been confirmed and those few have been released in dribs and drabs.

Robert Prevost will land in Madrid on June 6 and will be in the capital until the morning of June 9. During this stage, the celebration of Corpus Christi, with an open-air Mass on Sunday, June 7, and the celebration of a Vigil with young people, will be the key events. Although «the request of the Congress and the Senate» has been made, the Pontiff's address to the Spanish parliamentarians on the morning of June 8 has not yet been officially confirmed.

From Madrid, Leo XIV will travel to Barcelona, where he will stay until the morning of the 11th. On the 10th he will inaugurate the new tower of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia and will more than likely visit Montserrat.

Canary Islands receives a Pope for the first time

The Canary Islands is, without a doubt, the historical milestone of this long papal trip. It is the first time that a pontiff visits the archipelago.

In this visit, Leo XIV takes up one of the «unfinished journeys» of his predecessor. The pontiff will fly back to Rome for about 24 hours, from the afternoon of the 11th to the evening of the 12th.

Pope Francis, in fact, in his concern for the migratory situation, had stated on some occasions that, if he were to travel to Spain, he would do so to the Canary Islands to make this situation visible and show his closeness to the people of the Canary Islands.

The islands will be the last stop of Leo XIV's trip on June 11 and 12 and, according to the information that has come to light, the pontiff will visit the dock of Arguineguín, epicenter of the Atlantic migratory crisis, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna.

Urgent needs: funding and volunteers

Among the few data offered by the official website of the trip, www.conelpapa.es, which does not have a profile on social networks - shows the two main needs of the organization for this trip: economic funding and the need for volunteers.

Financial support is necessary for a visit, whose budget is estimated at several tens of millions of euros, while the dioceses and the EEC are also looking for volunteers to help coordinate the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the various events, especially in Madrid.

On this occasion, the official website of Leo XIV's trip has set up a system for personal donations - which redirects to the Episcopal Conference website «Donoamiiglesia«- as well as for companies and organizations who can collaborate or sponsor this event financially or in kind.

The last papal visit, that of Benedict XVI in 2011 for World Youth Day, was financed, for the most part, thanks to private entities, sponsorships and personal donations, and had an economic impact of more than 100 million euros for the Spanish economy, especially in Madrid, the site of that WYD.

La entrada La visita del Papa a España: pocos datos confirmados y mucho interés se publicó primero en Omnes.

His knowledge of the world, both in its Eastern and Western spheres, and his experience as a religious man are shown in his works with great naturalness and an exceptional open-mindedness.  

Author of books such as “A few words before the apocalypse.”, “Hope for castaways.”, “Christian Freedom: From Paul to Philemon.” o “Fanaticism: When Religion Makes Sick”.”, In this interview with Omnes, Candiard talks about God's grace as the key gift of our Christian life, freedom or the resurgence of faith in secularized Europe through the hand of «On the mountain.», his latest work published in Spanish. 

Your last book, “On the Mountain” speaks of grace. Being the engine of the Christian life, why does it seem distant from daily life? 

- The problem with grace is that we often believe in it “in a theoretical way”. We know it exists, that God loves us freely, unconditionally... , etc., etc. But, in practice we do not believe it because we live in a world in which there is nothing free and, although we think that yes, of course, God loves us freely, deep down, we are left with the doubt if, as in all human contracts, there are small characters that say the opposite of what they affirm. We can live our relationship with God in this way, based on duty, not on love. We often live with the idea that we have to do this and that to deserve God's salvation and love. 

In the Gospel, Jesus Christ tells us that God loves us and asks of us very difficult, very demanding things. In fact, the discourse on the mountain gives us a very demanding law. And we can ask ourselves, how do we do it? Are we not asked for an impossible perfection?.

For this reason I wrote “On the mountain”, to see if we can believe this discourse of grace, if it is serious or not. If we can accept it without limit without living a servitude, a Christian life made of duties.

When we read the discourse on the mountain in a non-superficial way, we can understand that this requirement is also a gift of grace and is not contrary to it, it is not a condition for attaining the gift of God, but it is a result of God's gift. We do not have to live the Christian life in order to obtain God's love, but we can live a Christian life because God, first of all, has loved us. 

Many Christians have, however, put the focus on “deserving” eternal life, perhaps with a bit of unconscious Pelagianism. 

- Yes, Pope Francis has often reminded us that, on so many occasions, we are Pelagians. It is evident because, despite what it may seem, what is difficult in the Christian life is not to love one's neighbor - which is not easy - but to accept being loved. To accept that we have received everything, that it is a gift, that we do not deserve it.

We prefer to deserve things because they are ours. Whereas a gift is something that, in a certain sense, is not ours 100 % . Salvation is not just having divine life; it is receiving it as sons and daughters of God, receiving it as a gift from God and not appropriating it. Adam and Eve want to appropriate it. This is sin.

In the mountains

AuthorAdrien Candiard

Pages: 104

Editorial: Encounter

Year: 2025

In fact, in the book, you state that Aphan's sin was not wanting to “be like God” but “wanting to be God without God”. 

- It is a temptation that appears frequently in the Bible. We see it throughout the Bible, with Babel, for example, too: Humans want to go up in heaven without God. Meanwhile, God wants to give us his divinity. And we see it even today, when we meet transhuman movements that want to abolish death, to give humanity with technology a form of divinity always without God and we know the result of all this: It cannot work. 

The heart of man will always long for the divine life because we are created for this, but not without God. For us, divinity is obtained in the fact of being sons and daughters, of divine filiation. 

In fact, this reminds me a bit of another of your books, “Fanaticism” in which you explain how the fanatic is a religious person without God. 

-Yes, and it's the worst thing you can do. Religion without God is a system of oppression of people. There are criticisms of religions that are perfectly valid because religion without God is meaningless.

It also happens that it is always easier to comply with a command than to be responsible for an action. How can we unite the freedom that God has given us with the faithful fulfillment of commands or rules?

- I believe that, at this point, the key concept is that of friendship. Jesus says to his disciples “I no longer call you servants: I call you friends”, in Greek, the word used is “slaves”. He says “I call you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you”. He tells us that he wants to live with us in a relationship of responsibility. We do not have to obey, we do not have to do what he wants, because he is stronger. This would be the relationship between master and slave. Christ does not want this. He wants to live with us in a relationship of friendship, a little strange perhaps, because it is a relationship in which we do not know everything.

In moral matters we have the elements to know what is right and what is wrong. Good makes us good, evil is what makes us bad. These are not arbitrary commandments. Walking with Christ means walking with our eyes open, knowing what we do and choosing to do it because it is right. God wants us as adult friends who walk with Him in a free way, not out of fear.

You also point out how that narrow door is so because it has our measurements. How much of us and how much of grace are balanced in the Christian life? 

- It is complicated, sometimes, to live our responsibility without moralism, without falling into a moral “of merit”, because it is not about deserving anything, we do not “deserve” eternal life. Every day, at Mass, we say that we are not worthy “I am not worthy for you to enter my house...”. In general, when we say this I sense a kind of sadness, a kind of hopelessness like “how unworthy I am”. But we are going to receive Christ soon after. He is coming, and this is great. It's wonderful and we should receive Him with joy, with gladness, because He is coming, even though we don't deserve it. 

The point is that we don't have to deserve that gift, because the gift is here. The question is, then, how do we want to live? What do we want to do? What's right for us? We, sons and daughters of God, what do we want to do? It is the Gospel question that Jesus asks everyone.

Although you live in Cairo, you are French. France, like other places in secularized Europe, is experiencing a moment of llegacy of young people to the Church What are those who approach you looking for, what do you find or what should you find? 

- It is clear that there is a new movement and we have yet to see what it is. We should not exaggerate the numbers, for example. But it is something and it is something unplanned. This is interesting because it is not explained. In France, this arrival of people in the churches cannot be explained. This movement started in the middle of the abuse crisis. While the image of the church in the media world was terrible, people came to ask for Baptism. In these people who come, there is everything. There is also a certain prevention to the advance of Islam and perhaps, there have been those who have wondered when they have seen this, what is my religion.

For us, for Christians, I think it is important to open the doors and be able to think of the Church as truly missionary, missionary at home, and to accept that we are not God's owners. We are not “owners” of the Church even if we have been in charge of the flowers or the songs for 30 years. He asks us for a conversion. It also asks us to be able to speak about God: not to want to transmit only a Catholic “way of being”. We speak of God. 

The search for meaning in life cannot be answered with an identity, it can be answered with faith. It is clear that faith alone contains an identity, but identity alone is a corpse. We must be able to propose something more than a discourse: an encounter with the living God. The challenge of the Church today is to speak of God and God alone.

La entrada Adrien Candiard: “La búsqueda de sentido de la vida no se responde con una identidad, sino con una fe” se publicó primero en Omnes.

In Spanish, this Bible is published by the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos in conjunction with the publishing company San Pablo.

The biblical text, approved by the Spanish Episcopal Conference in its Spanish version, is enriched in this new edition with complete introductions to each biblical book, quotations connecting the texts of the New and Old Testament, notes on translation and interpretation of the text, as well as a chronological table, a small atlas and an index of theological topics of reference, all updated with the most recent historical and archaeological discoveries. 

This comprehensive presentation of the biblical text proposes three phases for entering into the word of God: the Scrutatio o scriptural writing: to deepen the text through quotations, notes and parallels. Meditation of the texts in order to interiorize them and prayer, personal and communal, with the Word of God, living it as a dialogue between God and man. 

In a conversation with Omnes, one of the coordinators of this work, Italian priest Francesco Voltaggio, stressed “I scrutinize the scriptures, but in the end, it is Christ who, through his Word, scrutinizes me. It is a living encounter. This characteristic of a living and inexhaustible source is what we want to emphasize in this work.”. A work that highlights, in its entirety, the figure of Christ as the “key to reading” the whole of divine revelation: “We must understand that the Bible is truly the Word of God and truly the human word. It is the infinite revealed in the finite. The Bible contains more than what it says, because in human words it contains the infinite. It is an analogy with what Christ is, God and man, a totally divine and, at the same time, totally human dimension.". 

A biblical text designed for both personal and community reading and prayer, and therefore, its recipients are as broad as the profiles of any Catholic community: parish groups, parish priests, religious, consecrated, seminarians, catechists, confirmands, married couples, teachers of Religion and all the faithful.  

The Bible, search the scriptures

Author: Pedro Ignacio Fraile Yécora

Editorial: BAC

Number of pages: 3024

La entrada La Biblia, escrutad las escrituras se publicó primero en Omnes.

Its subject matter and presentation have opened up an interesting debate in the Spanish cultural and social world about the presence and influence of the faith and the so-called «.«Catholic turn«The positions, statements and attitudes were varied and even opposed to each other.

Within this framework of conversations, the priest and professor of Theology at the University of Navarra, Lucas Buch, offers an in-depth analysis of the film by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, focusing mainly on the vocational process of the young Ainara, analyzing her family context and the way in which those around her accompany her.

The family environment, the limitations with which the spiritual accompaniment is represented, or the life of prayer essential in every vocational process, as well as the value of a tape as a «Los Domingos» for the examination of the Christian communities themselves are some of the axes of this text that, because of its interest, we have wanted to offer to our readers.

Read the document «Some reflections on ‘Los Domingos'».»

La entrada Algunas reflexiones del profesor Lucas Buch sobre «Los Domingos» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Lent 2026 will have a special significance in Assisi. There, the basilica that houses the remains of one of the most important saints in the history of the Church, St. Francis of Assisi, will experience historic days with the public exhibition of the saint's remains for veneration. 

It will be the first time that the faithful will be able to see the mortal remains of the poor man of Assisi in 8 centuries since, although he has been studied and seen by specialists, his remains have never been exposed in this way. 

On this occasion, Omnes was able to speak with the Director of the Communications Office of the Holy Convent of St. Francis, Friar Giulio Cesareo, OFMConv, who emphasized the topicality of the saint of Assisi and his desire that Leo XIV could be one of the people who come to pray before the remains of St. Francis. 

In the coming weeks, we will witness a historic moment with the public exposition and veneration of the remains of St. Francis of Assisi. Why did you decide to organize this public veneration?

-There are two fundamental reasons: the veneration of the relics of the saints is a constant in the history of Christianity, at least in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In fact, in Christian theology, the life of a saint is not the result of an extraordinary commitment of a hero of the spirit, but the fruit of docility to the Holy Spirit who, according to the letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul (Rom 5:5), pours into us the love of the Father and thus makes us his children in dignity and conduct of life. 

In this sense, the veneration of the relics of the saints is veneration of the Holy Spirit, who has filled with his grace and action the life of that man or woman of God. In other words, the holy man or woman is a miracle of God and not of human effort. To venerate these relics, so poor and worn out, means to recognize that true life is that which is received from God himself and which is manifested in our life in the love received and shared.

Secondly, we believe that this logic of veneration of relics can also be a cultural contribution in a broad sense, if properly understood, both among believers and among those who do not share our faith. In fact, what remains of the body of St. Francis, a few bones, testifies to the life of a man who spared nothing and gave himself completely, following the logic I mentioned before: by welcoming the love of God, “we become imitators of his goodness.” (says the ancient patristic text of the Letter to Diognetus). Jesus, in the Gospel, expresses this logic of the gift of self in the parable of the seed: “If the seed that falls to the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn 12:24). 

The 800 years of the history of Franciscan life after the death of St. Francis are, in our opinion, an eloquent sign that in him this parable of Christ was truly fulfilled: precisely because Francis died for love, giving himself and spending himself completely, he lives and bears fruit. In fact, he is alive among all of us, who recognize him as teacher, friend, brother and father. Here is the cultural contribution of which I spoke earlier: given that we find ourselves in a cultural context - at least the Western one - in which in many ways we are told and we are told that we must spare ourselves, that we must not love too much because otherwise we will be consumed, St. Francis gives us witness to exactly the opposite: that in loving we die, yes, but that this death is in fact the cradle of true life, that of the communion of those who truly bear fruit. 

What can we learn today from the poverello of Assisi?

-For us friars of Assisi, the most synthetic and profound heart of the Franciscan experience is this life totally involved in an experience of benevolence - that of God, which manifests itself not in an abstract form, but in the concrete relationships with the people he met every day - which led him to live according to the same dynamic, that of the gift of self. To live in this way means to spend oneself, to consume oneself, to give oneself precisely. 

The life of Francis is summarized by Giotto in four images that stand out just above the altar of the lower church, and therefore on his tomb: Francis lives in poverty (he shares with the needy), in obedience (he listens to the other, so much...) and in chastity (he is faithful to relationships, he does not betray). He who lives this way, in the eyes of our mentality, is a loser, is someone who deprives himself of the taste for life, is a little deluded; in the eyes of God, instead, he who lives this way, as Giotto shows us, is seated on the throne, he reigns. To love, that is, to give oneself, is not a defeat, but our true greatness. And I believe that to all, to all without exception, believers and non-believers, friars and non-friars, Franciscans and non-Franciscans, this testimony of St. Francis is good for us.

Love for the poor, care for creation... in recent years these have been fundamental themes in the preaching of the Church. Is St. Francis of Assisi a saint who is always relevant? How do the Franciscan friars bring this message up to date?

-Francis is this - love for the poor, care for creation - but also much more: I like to define him as a kind of «positive» Pandora's box. What I want to say, however, is that Francis is not alone and does not communicate only what seems urgent and/or current to us today. 

Francis is a mystic, a man of prayer, a person full of mercy and patience with those who make mistakes, he is an itinerant preacher, he is a promoter and mediator of peace, he is a man of dialogue with everyone, he is an artist, a poet, but also a great educator, etc. 

We friars, without being in any way at his level, try to share his testimony (which, in my opinion, is much more than a simple message), sharing above all the root of his human and spiritual depth, which for us is the bond with Christ, Love made man.

From this, in every context, in every fraternity, in the actions of every friar, we seek to share his person, his intuitions, so that they may become an inspiration for those who enter into relationship with us. I, for example, am entrusted by the fraternity to deal mainly with cultural activities: in this way I try to reveal the cultural implications of the charism of Francis. 

It is not for nothing that the cultural festival we organize every year in Assisi, the Cortile di Francesco, The event is conceived as a cultural expression of fraternity, the heritage of Francis: the event is conceived and oriented as an experience of mutual enrichment around the themes that are addressed or celebrated, because there is no one who does not have something to contribute to others, nor who does not have something to learn from others, regardless of whether he or she is an expert or a simple person. Y mutatis mutandis, similar dynamics exist in the various contexts in which the friars operate, to share solidarity with those in difficulty, to promote the rights of those whose rights are trampled upon and denied, to promote peace, to invite them to be our guardians of creation, and so on.

How was this exposition and veneration of the body of St. Francis prepared? How can those who visit Assisi venerate and pray before it?

-The veneration of the remains of Francis was prepared with much reflection, exchange of opinions and seeking the experience and expertise of many people, ecclesiastical and otherwise, because we realize that it will be a truly special event, unique in its kind. We have also reflected on the meaning of the legacy of Francis and on the intuitions that his companions of the first Franciscan century had about him from the beginning. There are people who have prayed especially for this, we have dialogued with the authorities of the local Church - the Bishop of Assisi - and with the other Franciscans of the city, with our superiors, as well as with the Holy Father, first Francis and then Leo XIV. 

To participate in the veneration it is necessary to make a reservation on the following website www.sanfrancescovive.org or, for Spanish-speaking persons, at www.sanfranciscovive.org, The texts on the website are only in Italian or English. Reservations are required, free of charge, for security reasons and to ensure peace of mind for everyone. There are two possible itineraries: option A, aimed at small groups and accompanied by a friar; and option B, designed to make the tour autonomously.

All information and clarifications are available on the website. From the website you can also contact customer service by e-mail, after booking or to assist you in the booking process.

 The Pope signed his first Apostolic Exhortation on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Is Pope Leo XIV expected to participate in this historic moment?

-We wish it with all our might. But, apart from this wish, I cannot tell you anything else for the moment. 

La entrada Fra Giulio Cesareo: “Lo que queda de san Francisco da testimonio de un hombre que no se ahorró nada” se publicó primero en Omnes.

This search for spirituality, increasingly present in our society in spite of everything, can lead to wrong paths. Therefore, in this short book, conceived in a very practical way and which includes links to videos related to the subject, the priest Ignacio Amorós wanted to explain clearly the nature and root of the practice of Yoga and its relationship with Christian prayer. 

This is a volume, published and distributed through Amazon, It is very useful for all those who want to know more about the relationship between these Eastern techniques and Christianity and, above all, it highlights the teachings of the Church on this issue. 

In addition to explaining what Yoga, Reiki and transcendental meditation are, the priest, promoter of Rebels Wanted, makes a clear distinction between Yoga and Christian prayer, focusing on key points: the concept of God, who Christ is, the invocations, the postures, the purpose of each of the practices, the interiority or the fruits that are born from the exercise of one or the other: in the case of Yoga it is not the union with God, or the personal relationship with Him, but the fusion with an impersonal absolute for whom we are nothing. 

For its clarity, brevity, and expository mode, the book is highly recommended for people of any age, and also especially for those who perform this type of meditation or meditative practices as a way of “prayer”. 

Amorós highlights how there is no such thing as “Christian Yoga but there are Christians who do Yoga.” and, in this line, he turns his eyes to the need for prayer. In this regard, he also looks at prayer practices such as the Lectio Divina, The need for a spiritual life plan as a Christian means of finding the peace that only Christ can give, or mental prayer, the recitation of the Holy Rosary or the need for a spiritual life plan as a Christian means of finding the peace that only Christ can give. 

Book

Title of the workYoga, New Age and Christian prayer

AuthorIgnacio Amorós

Pages: 90

EditorialAmazon Self-Publishing

La entrada ¿Existe un Yoga cristiano? se publicó primero en Omnes.

Throughout seven short chapters, the author establishes a relationship between different passages of the Gospel with real situations in the professional world and proposes a series of practical exercises through which the reader can evaluate and recognize attitudes and decisions in his daily life.

On the occasion of this publication, Omnes spoke with Portas about this conception of leadership, the importance of Christian coherence in the professional world and the challenge of forgiveness and reconciliation in a world of «sharks».

Why and how was a book like «70 times 7» born?

- The book is born from the concrete experience of leading people in real contexts. As I explain in the prologue, it does not arise from an editorial plan, but from years of accompanying teams, making difficult decisions and learning -sometimes through mistakes- that leadership is a responsibility with human consequences.

Over time I came to understand that categories such as forgiveness, correction and discernment were not just spiritual notions, but profoundly practical skills. The book attempts to sort out this learning and show that it is possible to exercise authority without losing humanity.

To lead is to accompany people. How to do it today?

- To accompany is not to control or invade, but to dedicate real time. In chapter 1, I spoke of time as a measure of love: leadership is not only sustained by decisions, but also by presence.

Accompanying means helping to grow, listening before correcting and always distinguishing between the person and his or her error. In a fragmented society, this form of leadership becomes especially necessary.

How do you distinguish a leader with stated values from one who actually lives them?

- The difference is seen in day-to-day consistency. Values are noticed when there is pressure, conflict or risk. They are noticed in the tone of a correction, in the way merit is distributed, in the ability to assume one's own mistake. At the beginning of the book, I quote a phrase from St. Josemaría Escrivá of Balaguer which sums up this idea well: “Don't live a sterile life. -Be useful. -Leave a legacy.” This invitation to “leave a legacy” connects directly with the leadership of which the book speaks: not to seek prominence, but fruitfulness.

Are practical exercises born from experience?

- Yes, they are not theoretical. They arise from real situations: unresolved wounds, poorly planned corrections, excessive control, decisions made in haste. They are pauses of conscience. Leadership is impoverished when we stop reviewing from where we act.

Is the right decision the one that brings peace?

- In chapter 2, I explain that peace is neither comfort nor absence of difficulty. Sometimes the right decision is uncomfortable, but it leaves inner serenity. This peace is built with silence, listening and right intention. It is not always immediate, but when it appears, it sustains even demanding decisions.

What is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation?

- Forgiveness is an inner, unilateral decision. It frees the leader from resentment. Reconciliation requires conditions: truth, change and reparation. It is not always possible. Forgiveness does not eliminate responsibility; it allows it to be exercised without resentment.

Forgiveness is not allowing the same thing indefinitely. How to apply it in management?

- Forgiveness is not tolerating without intervening. It means not letting the repetition of the error destroy the relationship or the common purpose. This implies naming the error, correcting with clarity, establishing limits and deciding from the mission, not from the wound.

70 times 7: Leading from Forgiveness, Truth and Reconciliation

AuthorSantiago Portas

Editorial: Self-published by Amazon

Pages: 54

Year: 2026

Correcting in a hypersensitive society, is it possible?

- It is more necessary than ever. Healthy correction protects dignity. It is done alone, with clarity and from a clean intention. It does not humiliate, it does not ironize, it does not expose. Correcting well not only improves results; it builds people.

Is it hard for us to ask for forgiveness also in the Church?

- It costs us wherever there is authority. But asking for forgiveness does not weaken authority; it humanizes it. Moral authority is not born of infallibility, but of coherence.

Have we fallen into a spiral of productivism?

- There is a strong pressure for immediate results. When leadership is measured only by external metrics, the inner self is emptied. Without silence there is no discernment. Without discernment there is no sustainable leadership. The question is not how much we do, but from where and for whom we do it.

La entrada Santiago Portas: «Es posible ejercer autoridad sin perder humanidad» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Reducing love to a box of chocolates is symptomatic: it will expire, run out or even “throw away what we don't like”, like the dark chocolate and rum chocolates that always end up in the trash with the box.

A few years ago, with the laudable idea of “redirecting” this vision of love, the EEC began to promote, on these February dates, the Marriage Week. The aim is to invite you to discover -or rediscover- this wonderful, funny, complicated and sometimes a little bit «trashy» adventure of the marriage, Because there must be everything in a shared life based on love, admiration, respect and the determination to build the future together through our family.

In these years we have seen good campaigns, in which couples of all ages shared their experiences or in which we have seen “adaptations” of the formats of realities more or less fun.

This year, however, the surprise has been a “game”The aim is to “offer an authentic vocational campaign” that “enters into dialogue with the gamified society in which we live and, at the same time, makes it possible and simple to reflect on the deep and essential elements in the gift of human love, necessary for the marriage that satisfies the yearning for happiness of the human heart”.

On the one hand, the effort to innovate in an area in which, as the magnificent dialogue between Frank and Colleen in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), everything has been invented. I don't see the idea of “playing house” in 2.0 mode to reflect on something so serious. Maybe I'm closed-minded, but I don't see it.

On the other hand, this need to “gamify” or take as a game something key in the life of every human being, and even more so of every Catholic, such as marriage, is astonishing.

No military officer is promoted in his career because of his exploits in the Call of Duty; no player signs for Real Madrid with the endorsement of his points in the FIFA; and I promise you that, no matter how good you are at the Mario Kart, they do not validate your driver's license.

The Church has all the “skills”It can offer society the keys to this magnificent adventure that is marriage: to reinforce good affective education in its schools, to accompany married couples at all stages of their lives by adapting to the vicissitudes of a chaotic world. It can promote a real renewal of the premarital courses, make of the family pastoral a focus of creativity and not a “hiding place”, ally itself with new realities that, whether or not of our profile, work in favor of a marital renewal... etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

Marriage is a lot of fun, as we are well reminded. Pep Borrell, But it is also something very serious, so much so that we stake EVERYTHING on it. And no. It is not a game.

La entrada El matrimonio no es un juego se publicó primero en Omnes.

Monsignor Bustillo was the speaker at the first day of the Convivium, the presbyteral assembly convened by the Archdiocese of Madrid, which brought together for two days the priests of the diocese to reflect on its identity and mission in the current context. 

In this context, Omnes was able to interview the French-Spanish cardinal on priestly identity, the care of vocations and the need to care for those who come to faith.

In such a complex society, marked by change, what are the challenges for priests today?

-The priest has to remember that he was anointed by the Holy Spirit and has to awaken creativity, audacity, to be able to give to the world the best he has. The Gospel says “you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world”. I believe that our society needs to find the joy of life and in those phases of life where we see many rather gloomy pages, it needs to find light and courage.

How to develop a demanding priestly life without ending up “burned out”? 

-When I speak, especially in France, to priests, I tell them that there is a binomial that we have to take care of very carefully: health and joy. If a priest, in his ministry - which is indeed demanding and many things will be asked of us - loses his joy, or if he loses his health, he will lose his health. loses its health, loses heart and loses efficiency in its mission as well.

The priest of the 21st century, and in a city like Madrid, has to take care, with great care, of his health and joy, otherwise they will be lost. He has to work on his inner life and his humanity. If you work on your humanity and your inner life, you go further.

You have highlighted the importance of priestly fraternity. At a time when polarization is also infiltrating the Church, how do you balance the difference of each sensitivity with that fraternity?

-We see polarization today, unfortunately, in Spain, in France, in the West in general and also within the Church. It is sad that the political and ideological application of society sometimes occurs in the Church.

Our ideal is communion, it is union. Jesus said “that you may be one”, that you may be united. If we are divided in the Church, it is a problem of coherence with the witness we have to give.

When we look at the apostolic college, we find very different characters. We have Matthew and we have Simon. And Jesus calls them. Today that there are differences in the Church: that one is traditional or the other charismatic, the other modern, instead of being a problem for the church, it is a richness.

Instead of setting ourselves against each other, which is not evangelical, we have to walk with each other and celebrate that each one has his own path, each one has his own life, each one has his own journey and we are all different. And these differences are not an obstacle, but they are a good fortune and a blessing for the Church. 

You come from France which, in recent years, has been making headlines with the return to faith of so many young people. How do you ensure that this return to God does not remain a spark but is life-changing? 

-The first thing we see is the vacuum in French and Western society, after 60 years with the motto “Neither God nor Master”: we don't need anyone, we do what we want. There has been a lot of technological, scientific, human progress. Much emphasis has been placed on power, knowledge, doing, having, but being has been left on the periphery. That which the person is, that which the person lives. Today's young people are looking for meaning in life.

I have in my diocese, which is small, more than 303 who are going to be baptized now at Easter. This means that the young people, who are a bit virgin spiritually, are looking for an identity, they are looking for a family. 

The first thing is to welcome them, to celebrate their presence. Then, we have a responsibility. We cannot simply say, how lucky we are that they all come to ask to be baptized in the Catholic Church! But we have the responsibility to welcome them, to accompany them and to guide them so that they are really part of the family of the Church and so that they can bring a little freshness.

La entrada Cardenal Bustillo: “ Los sacerdotes tienen que cuidar la salud y la alegría” se publicó primero en Omnes.

The classroom of the Paul VI Foundation was not enough to accommodate the priests of Madrid gathered for the priestly assembly, who had to spread out in three rooms.

The key days of meetings began with a joint prayer, a video on Madrid accompanied by the voice of Joaquín Sabina, the singing of the hymn composed for this Assembly and the reading of the letter that Pope Leo XIV addressed the priests of Madrid on the occasion of this meeting. 

The Pope to the priests of Madrid: “No one should feel alone”.” 

The Pope appreciates, in this letter, He also pointed out that the priests that Madrid needs must be “men configured to Christ, capable of sustaining their ministry from a living relationship with Him”. 

“It is not a matter of inventing new models or redefining the identity we have received, but of re-proposing, with renewed intensity, the priesthood in its most authentic core - being alter Christus -, letting Him be the one who shapes our life”, the Pope emphasizes in this letter in which, taking as a model the Cathedral of Madrid, the Pontiff wanted to point out how “no one should feel alone in the exercise of the ministry” and encourage priests to confess and to drink from the Fountain that they must then give. 

The Pope also recalled the need for different charisms in the Church, “with the different charisms and spiritualities through which the Lord enriches and sustains your vocation. Each one receives a particular way of expressing the faith and nourishing interiority, but all remain oriented towards the same center,” which is Christ. 

Cardinal Cobo: “We are not Gospel snipers”.”

For his part, Cardinal Cobo gave St. Isidro Labrador as an example and also emphasized priestly fraternity, stressing that “the miracle that the Lord gives us today is not having to “plow alone’. 

“We also work in fields that we do not see flourishing, but we know that we are not snipers of the Gospel, but brothers in a diocese,” the prelate recalled. 

“Let us pray that this time may make us ‘more priests,’” the Archbishop of Madrid stressed in conclusion. 

Cardinal Bustillo: “A shepherd does not manage his flock, he loves it”.” 

Cardinal Francisco Javier Cardinal Bustillo OFMConv, Bishop of Ajaccio (Corsica), was in charge of the inaugural lecture “The situation of priests in the present time”. The Franciscan developed an interesting presentation structured around 5 phrases, some taken directly from the Gospel, to highlight the profile and challenges of the priest today.

The points developed have been: 

The priest is an authentic man

The priest cannot be artificial or superficial. He must be coherent with the Gospel. On this point, the Franciscan, giving as an example some literary titles, emphasized the need to ask oneself “Have I really lived? This question is important for us priests. We have a frenetic life, but does it fill us or empty us? We can fall into the tyranny of the social or ecclesial gaze. Act in order to be looked at”. 

God's word to Jonah: set out on your journey 

Cardinal Bustillo encouraged priests to take advantage of a time when “There are young people thirsting for better lives. Many lives need guidance. The world of faith is there in spite of everything, the Christian Faith is still alive and Christian spirituality helps man to emerge from emptiness and find meaning”. To this end, he appealed to the need for the “vitamin C of the priest: the energy of the Holy Spirit” and encouraged them to take care of joy and health to respond to the challenges of today. 

Feed them yourselves. We have only 5 loaves and 2 fish

This third point was perhaps the most extensive and profound of the talk given by the Bishop of Ajaccio, who repeatedly stressed that “the priest is a man of faith, not a manager”. The priest must be able to integrate changes and passages. Jesus always risks, he leaves the ‘we have always done it this way’.” In this sense, he advocated “to get out of an all too human conception of faith, often linked to tactics and statistics, and to develop a paschal mentality, capable of creating and believing in the opening of new passages.”. 

Priests, Bustillo reiterated, have to avoid three dangers 

Amnesia to forget the first love that was strengthened at his ordination. The priest does not receive these gifts to accumulate them but to share them.

TibiezaLukewarmness turns our life into a cemetery, it is the peace of cemeteries. Lukewarmness is the crisis of non-choice. 

AnemiaThe logic of gift, in vocation, leads us to imitate Jesus, who gave everything. The logic of gift, in vocation, leads us to imitate Jesus, who gave everything. Priests are there to give their lives, not a 20 %.

Peter, do you love me? Shepherd my sheep

On this fourth point, François-Xavier Bustillo emphasized that “we are priests to love, not for the organization. The priest is not a leader, he is a shepherd, a disciple of Jesus. Jesus raises the question of love, because love precedes the mission of leading the flock. From the primacy of love for the Lord flows the mission and not the other way around. The pastor is the opposite of a civil servant. A pastor does not manage his flock, even if he is efficient. He loves him. Within this primacy of love, the Bishop of Ajaccio stressed that ”priestly fraternity is the manifestation of this love“. 

I make all things new

Finally, Bishop Bustillo emphasized that “Jesus is a novelty for us. He says ‘You have heard,...but I say to you’, he proposes a new life to us”. In this line, “the Church has to make us dream, not cry. It is not a matter of erasing tradition but of enriching the life of the Church” and for this, “to live the priesthood with fidelity. In fidelity and joy there is always fruitfulness”.

The day continued with a series of group meetings and, in the afternoon, will continue with Focus groups on the topics proposed in the pre-assemblies, to which the priests will have signed up according to their preferences, followed by the Plenary and Holy Mass in the Almudena Cathedral. 

During the previous weeks, several working groups organized in 28 thematic groups have been held to discuss specific issues, such as:

• The holiness and affectivity of the priest.
• The care of elderly priests.
• The challenges of migration and poverty in Madrid.
• The exercise of authority and synodality.
• The mental and relational health of pastors.

La entrada Convivium: Los sacerdotes de Madrid reflexionan sobre su misión en una jornada marcada por la fraternidad se publicó primero en Omnes.

As a result of this experience, these experts have published «Crisis, not rupture», a book published by Palabra, in which the basic foundations for a healthy marital relationship and key lines to prevent and face possible crises during marriage are collected.

A useful and realistic book, aimed at engaged couples and married couples at any point in their relationship and in which the authors have wanted to emphasize the need for communication in the couple, honesty, the need to ask for help or advice before «going through a bump» and the awareness that crises are not always a synonym of a breakup, but an opportunity for growth.

Against this backdrop, Omnes spoke with the authors about marriage, dating, key issues and how to detect early that «snowball» that may be forming in a relationship.

At a time when terminology is badly flawed, what differentiates marriage from any other love relationship? 

M.A.A. -What differentiates marriage from other types of unions is that it is a commitment to live love forever. That commitment, which is often frightening because we think it takes away our freedom or that we won't be able to keep it, is actually a help.

Commitment gathers the elements of love: “how comfortable we are together” and, as we are comfortable together, we spend time together to see what we think about life, about love, about marriage, about family, about work..., about everything. When the two things fit together, -I am comfortable together and I am discovering more things that make me more comfortable with you- then we decide if this is what we always want to live: commitment.

Commitment is a compass. I have decided this, I will go in this direction, and the difficulties that may come we will overcome them together. That is commitment and that is marriage. 

So..., what is courtship? 

M.A.A. -Dating is a relationship that has to end somehow. A good courtship is the one that ends either in marriage or in the thoughtful and meditated decision of “this has no future”. That is a courtship. 

Choosing the person if the other person does not want to be chosen. uh 

Well, if the other person does not want to be chosen, you can only respect the other person's freedom, you cannot impose yourself. Therefore, you have to move away from that person. And be careful, falling out of love is not automatic. It takes time, you have to go through a mourning process to get that person out of your heart and that place can be occupied by another person. This always, obviously, when we talk about courtship. The case of marriage is completely different. 

Crisis, not rupture

Author: María Álvarez de las Asturias and Mercedes Honrubia

Pages: 240

Editorial: Word

Year: 2025

Is it possible to promise love “forever” - are we not being idealistic?

M.H. - What a good question! I think the longing we all have is to love and be loved. That to love and be loved is something one longs for forever. Circumstances change, just as people change. 

It is not about staying in the butterflies of the beginnings, but it is a free choice where I update that yes, every day. Updating that yes every day, -in the present-, implies building a future. If I get to know the other person and I get to know myself, I accept my circumstances and I accept the circumstances of the other person, it is from there that I can update that yes. That is why it is a yes forever. 

When we hear “marriage counseling”, it seems that we always think of “marriage problems”, is that so? 

M.A.A. -The personal accompaniments, The professional family and marriage counseling programs have arisen because there are people who have asked for them. Until a relatively short time ago, in families, more or less, there was a unity of thought on important issues.

Now we find that there are many people who have a way of seeing family and marriage that they do not share with the rest of their environment. And, when they have a small doubt or a difficulty that is not very serious, they do not find someone with their values and principles to turn to within this close environment. We have been approached by people who have asked us for this accompaniment because they know that we share their way of understanding life, love and marriage. 

Many times, couples do not come because they have a difficulty, but also to reaffirm themselves in the path they have chosen, to lay a good foundation before marriage or because they have already laid that foundation and want to expand their knowledge and the way to put it into practice. 

Saying things in front of a neutral third party is much easier. First of all, because you can say things objectively and see if it was really important or not. In addition, the pact of the coaching session is to listen to the other.

Many times, when these things that were kept quiet are manifested, in front of a third party, the other person is surprised because “he/she had no idea about this”. That is why the accompaniment is not necessarily for the moments when you are thinking about a breakup, but much earlier, to avoid these ruptures.

When there is something that is getting stuck, something that is getting stuck in a couple, an accompaniment session is requested and these little knots are untied.

How to distinguish an insurmountable situation from a “growth” crisis in the relationship?  

M.H. -This is a subject we dealt with in “Crisis, not rupture”. It is important to know that there are evolutionary crises: just as the person is changing, the marriage is also evolving, growing and maturing.

Knowing those moments, those stages of life, places you in a perspective from which, when you see the crisis appear, it does not scare you, because you know that it is part of your own growth. Knowing gives you the security to be able to overcome. 

Another thing is the circumstances that do not depend on one, but come and we do not know how to deal with them. That is where two positions can be adopted.

The first is to consider that it is a crisis, but not in a negative sense, but it can allow me to know myself better in order to overcome this difficulty.

The second, on the contrary, is that in a couple, when faced with this situation, one of the partners does not want to work on the relationship and this implies a breakup. 

Sometimes, we encounter situations like this, in which one of the parties does not want to and, no matter how much the other is committed, it cannot be overcome. In the book we also talk about those situations in which you can no longer have control, for example in the face of a pathology, or an illness or alcohol dependence, and in which you may have to opt for a separation. 

There are stages in which marriages have many fronts open at the same time: raising children, professional deployment, parents are getting older... So it is very good to keep in mind that marriage is a long-distance race.

There are stages that are like a succession of hurdles in the race, but we have to be aware that this is temporary, but that our union is definitive. That it is a long-distance race and that we have a lot of time to continue working on what is ours. 

What key issues do we need to be clear about already in the courtship?

M.A.A. -When, in courtship, we think of “a life together”, it is about choosing the person and what kind of love relationship I want to live with him/her. To choose the person, I have to get to know him or her. That's why we talk a lot about time dating relationship. We can't go too fast, because you don't meet people overnight. 

We need to spend time in courtship to know how the other is, what he thinks, what illusions he has, what fears, what hurts, what things he likes, what things he worries about in all this. Once it is clear to you that this is the person, whom you know with his or her positive and negative aspects, then you have to talk about what type of relationship we want. 

If we choose the marriage, This is the foundation on which we build. We cannot later “remove” elements of the relationship we have chosen. That is, if we go to a de facto union, we can later add the commitment forever. But if we choose a union forever, it is not fair play to remove the element of commitment. And this is immutable. 

Everything else, -which comes around this union of the two of us and which we have called “family project” to distinguish it-, does not depend on us. We cannot foresee everything because, maybe we wanted children and they don't come, or one of us is out of work, or the parents are suddenly not there.

It is in all this, which is changing, that crises will occur, because they are alterations of the reality we are living that we cannot control. As we cannot control them, it is a matter of knowing them together, facing them together, solving them together. 

In courtship, we can talk about “what we would like”, but these are not decisions we can make. a priori. Talking about “what we would like”, we know a lot about each other.

That is why, in courtship, we have to know the person, the type of relationship we want and the elements of the family project that each of us likes. Because, if they are radically incompatible, surely that will make me decide that this is not the person I can commit to. 

In your latest book you touch on two painful and complicated topics, what you call the “sudden death” of marriage and infidelity. How do you deal with such complex realities?

M.H. -In the book we have a separate chapter where we deal with both infidelity and the sudden death of marriage. These are two different issues. 

Perhaps in the sudden death there may even be infidelity, which is what leads to that decision and the other person is faced with it without seeing it coming. 

Many times, the sudden death What it implies is having been silent for a long time, not having said what one needed to say. Then, the other person believes that everything is going well, it continues to work because he/she believes that everything is going well. 

Sometimes, people do not speak to avoid a conflict, because of wounds or circumstances that have accumulated from the past and that prevent them from having that assertive communication. That is why in the book we talk a lot about the importance of communication. When someone says “it's over”, they have already gone through a grieving process to make that decision, and many times it is irreversible. 

Infidelity is a different matter. There are different types of infidelity and I believe that none is justifiable. Infidelity is a betrayal. A betrayal of the person, whether male or female, and a betrayal of the relationship. There you are really hitting the waterline of commitment. 

It is true that it is possible to overcome an infidelity, but the wound of betrayal is very difficult to heal. It requires a lot of time and to recover a trust that is absolutely devastated. For that it is necessary, not only that the person who has been betrayed wants to work on that relationship and wants to work on forgiveness towards the other, but also that the person who has committed that infidelity also needs to work on recovering trust and, above all, to work on being a team, because there we are both committed.

Many questions will arise, many doubts, many issues of which, perhaps at a given moment the person who has been unfaithful already wants to turn the page because he has asked for forgiveness and it seems that everything is already restructured and, however, the person who has been unfaithful needs to constantly ensure that the other person is really here.

Sometimes, infidelity is not the cause but can be “the consequence”. It is usually the consequence of poor communication within the relationship: not trusting the other, not being able to say how I am at a given moment, what I need from you..., can cause us to put our heart in a person who is not the one we have chosen.

It is never justifiable and can be worked through, it can be forgiven, but it is a wound that is difficult to heal. 

The wound of infidelity strikes at the waterline of self-esteem. It is necessary to work a lot on that self-esteem and that way of communicating. Everything that sometimes needs to be said, even if it hurts, so that the other person also puts all the meat on the grill. 

That hackneyed phrase from the world of celebritiesIs it true: “Our love has worn out from using it so much”..., is it real? 

M.A.A. -The love really grows when it is used. What happens is that you have to take care of it. We talk a lot about gestures of affection. Love, not “butterflies”.

On the one hand, we receive queries from people who say, “I don't feel those butterflies”. It seems to me that we have greatly exaggerated the effervescence of falling in love. 

Falling in love, more than an effervescence, is a warmth of the heart that you have with one person and you do not have with another. And this warmth of the heart must be maintained throughout the life of love.

And how is this done? With gestures of affection, with a little note, with a WhatsApp, with a handshake..., with all the gestures of courtship. If the courtship has been well used, it has gone slowly and all the steps that can be taken have been taken, we will have learned to value these small gestures.  

Then, we have to know that, if there are moments in which we are both very tired, -because many times more than wear and tear in the relationship, what we have is a lot of tiredness-, then we have to accept it and talk about what we can do -realistically- to continue reviving this. 

We also say that, from the union of the heart we go to the union of the body, and from the union of the body the union of the heart resurfaces, that is why we ask couples who come “worn out”: How long has it been since you have been together? That you don't talk? That you don't have half an hour for yourselves? When they recover those moments to reconnect, love is used again and not worn out. 

La entrada María Álvarez de las Asturias y Mercedes Honrubia: «El amor de verdad crece cuando ‘se usa'» se publicó primero en Omnes.

Together with the director of Omnes, María José Atienza, the three experts will address the reality of couple crises and how to manage them to make them a step of emotional maturity and solidity in relationships from their different perspectives. A topic that addresses, in a practical and profound way, «Crisis, not rupture», edited by Palabra and axis of this dialogue. 

REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT CLOSED ON JANUARY 31 DUE TO FULL CAPACITY.

This dialogue has the collaboration of the CEU San Pablo University and will take place in person, the next February 11, 2026, at 7:00 pm. in the Aula Magna de la Universidad CEU San Pablo (C/ Julián Romea 23. 28003, Madrid).

La entrada AFORO COMPLETO – Pep Borrell, María Álvarez de las Asturias y Mercedes Honrubia conversarán sobre noviazgo, crisis y matrimonio se publicó primero en Omnes.

In the meantime, Ediciones Encuentro gives us The Lord takes us by the hand, a volume containing the private homilies of Benedict XVI, delivered at the Masses he celebrated in his chapel and which were attended only by the most important women in the world. Memores Domini who looked after him and his secretaries. 

The book does not collect the homilies chronologically, but in relation to the different liturgical seasons and feasts in the Church's calendar. In this way, the reader can immerse himself in prayer in a continuous and appropriate way to the readings of the different times of the Church. 

This is a Benedict XVI who is closer, more simply contemplative, who combines reflections on the Gospels of an impressive theological and moral height, with a trusting piety, with a filial, almost childlike tone. 

In the homilies collected in The Lord takes us by the hand, the Bavarian Pope confidently turns to the Lord, with a special emphasis on the prayer of petition and always placing Christ at the center and root of his homiletic reflection. As an example, these words that he addressed in the homily of the VII Sunday of Easter in 2013, just a few weeks after his resignation from the See of Peter: “It seems to me that these two things remain always important for us: the centrality of God - recognizing God as the reference point of our life, not losing sight of God as Creator, as Redeemer, as Judge - and creating space for God.”.

A wonderful book, more than recommendable for every Catholic and of great help for a deep contemplative and evangelical prayer, but which, at the same time, does not forget the problems of the Church and society today. 

A way to know and share the prayer from the heart of one of the great theologians of our time.

The Lord takes us by the hand

AuthorJoseph Ratzinger

Editorial: Encounter

Number of pages: 316

La entrada Benedicto XVI más íntimo se publicó primero en Omnes.

Shortly before, the Trappist monk and Norwegian bishop spoke with Omnes about the proposal of prayer and Christian reflection through the wounds of Christ that he makes in his latest publication in Spanish, as well as other current issues. 

At once close and profound, Varden stresses that the universal experience of suffering and limitation changes, completely, under the prism of faith, through which “it takes on a totally different dimension and we begin to have the possibility of seeing our own wounds as potentially life-giving and life-enhancing.”.  

At the beginning of Wounds that heal, You point out - as one of the characteristics of our society today - the number of people who identify with their wounds. As Christians, how do we balance the awareness of being wounded but also saved?

-To some extent, I think that's where we need faith, or at least some high moral ideal; some perception of life that allows us to transcend ourselves to see meaning outside and beyond my own experience.

Because, if I believe that I am the ultimate reality of my existence, if I suffer, that is the totality of my reality. Then, of course, I want to tell everybody about it and I shut myself up. But that's where we need something to aspire to that is outside of ourselves.

I refer to transcendence in general terms because, obviously, there are people who are not Christians or non-believers and who sometimes live with great courage wounds, illnesses, losses.

Obviously, if you are a Christian and you believe that God has entered into our human nature and has allowed himself to be wounded in our nature, in order to heal our wounds, then, of course, it takes on a whole different dimension and we begin to have the possibility of seeing our own wounds as potentially life-giving and life-enhancing, and potentially also as sources of healing. That is the fundamental paradox. 

That is why I put, in the book, as an epigraph that phrase from Isaiah: “By his wounds we are healed”. To the extent that we allow our wounds to join their wounds, then our wounds can also be sources of healing for ourselves and for others. 

As Christians, the Passion does not end in itself, but in the Resurrection. How can we live these two sides of the same coin - the Paschal faith and the way of the Passion - without excluding one or the other? 

-What you point out there is the fundamental Christian challenge: Not to lose ourselves in a vague cloud of optimism, which would be a caricature of the resurrection, and not to lose ourselves in the depths of darkness and pain. 

The best remedy is to enter deeply into the life of Christ as it is presented to us in the Scriptures and as it is presented to us in the liturgy of the Church. To live the liturgy fully.

Ultimately, this is a tension that is resolved in every Mass, which is a living presence of the Passion and yet an absolutely resolute affirmation of the Resurrection. So I think the key would be to live deeply the Eucharistic life.

Have we lost the Catholic reflection on the suffering of Christ out of fear, rejection or misunderstanding of this possibility that later, however, emerges in every life? 

-There is some truth in that. One of the wonderful things about being Catholic is that we have a long experience to draw on, which, if we care to remember it, helps us to see ourselves in perspective. Most of the time, we don't bother to remember, so we become obsessed with our own reflection. 

When you look at the history of the Church there have been times and periods when the mystery of the Passion has been at its highest expression and times when it has been partially eclipsed by other parts of the Mystery. That's natural, because it's extremely difficult to keep those extremes we talked about earlier in constant tension. And, you know what, I'm happy to reproduce it in the book in the image of the smiling Christ in the monastery of Lerins, in the south of France. Because that image is, to some extent, the crystallization of a collective perception. He has achieved gentleness, a gentleness in the midst of the Passion that is totally insensitive. He has managed to internalize this idea that the Passion is a source of joy, which is what we proclaim on Good Friday.

That phrase hits me like a punch in the stomach every Good Friday. It is through the cross that joy enters the world. From the perspective of someone who has no faith, that seems like an absurd, even perverse statement, but we Christians believe it to be true. 

After the Second World War - which was obviously an immense trauma, and more so in Spain, with the trauma of the Civil War - there was in Europe a very determined effort to rebuild, to move forward. And that will to rebuild and rebuild coincided, obviously, with the 50s and 60s, when industry and technology made great strides forward, when suddenly there was a new prosperity. And there was great faith in a new world, which was a healthy and necessary conviction at that time. 

This thought, to some extent, is present in part of the thrust of the Second Vatican Council, perhaps especially in Gaudium et Spes, on the Church in the modern world. In a way that is not at all naive, but takes for granted that we are in the midst of this great process of moving forward and renewal, rebuilding relationships, reconciliation, so many things that seemed possible.

In the context of that sentimental cultural movement, it became natural to focus a lot on the resurrection. We can think of those banal and somehow now charming liturgical refrains of the 1970s, “we are a people of joy, alleluiaaaa”. We are not, but there is some truth to that.

In terms of our collective sensibility, no one was very much inclined to obsess about wounds, because what we were concerned with was getting out of illness and into new health. So it is not a matter of reducing Theodicy to sociology, but Theodicy is conditioned by the moods, aspirations and challenges of the time. 

I think we are in a totally different space now. That's why, Candem, Gracie Abrams' song that I've sometimes talked about, is so interesting, because many of our young people now are not hopeful, not optimistic at all. 

We live in a world that is so exposed and endangered in so many ways, with so many things fragile; so many things collapsing; so many structures that used to be reliable that just disappear overnight. So all of a sudden, the whole iconography of the wound takes on a different form. 

What we must avoid as Christians, and particularly those of us who preach, teach and write, is to make sure that we somehow connect this mood of our times with Christian mystery and wholeness, and not let it become merely sentimental.

In Spain there is talk of a “Catholic turn”, perhaps due to an awareness of the futility of the empty answers of a society without God and the evidence of these wounds, especially in young people. Do you believe in this return to faith?

-I think it's real and I think it needs to be taken seriously. Whether it will last is another question. 

Within the Catholic world in Europe, we have been acutely aware for several decades that all the statistics were going down: Mass attendance, baptisms, vocations, the terrible legacy of abuse and financial scandals, and so on. Everything was going wrong.

We have become accustomed to living in a state of emergency. We are desperate for reassurance and tell ourselves, “It was a little bump in the road! Now everything is back to normal.” I think, therefore, we have to be cautious but I also think there is a great authenticity in this turning of young people, particularly now, towards faith. 

There is great authenticity and sincerity in the questions they ask, in their search. The question is: will they find in our parishes, our communities, our monasteries, our dioceses, a reality whose authenticity corresponds to their authentic search? 

This is potentially a moment of great grace and, as always, a moment of grace is a moment of conversion. So the great challenge for the Church now is not to say: “We can relax again”, but: “We have to start living a good, coherent, Christ-centered and credible life”.

La entrada Erik Varden: “Creo que el giro católico es real y hay que tomarlo en serio” se publicó primero en Omnes.

Calls 2026 premiered on the Madrid stage with an afternoon of worship, praise, testimonies and prayer rarely seen in Spain. 

Mercy prayer, praise and testimonies. This is the summary of Llamados 2026, an initiative of Alpha Spain, next to the parish Santo Domingo de la Calzada de Algete and the diocese of Alcalá de Henares, The Movistar Arena in downtown Madrid was packed to capacity.

A novel combination of prayer and worship, a path that seems to have settled in Spain as a privileged means of evangelization in an era marked by audiovisual language and the need for healing. 

More than 6000 people from different parts of Madrid, such as Algete or Villaverde, but also from Colombia, Miami and Italy, were able to enjoy the testimonies of René ZZ, María Lorenzo and Quique Mira and Casilda Finat. 

«Do not be afraid to talk about faith.”

Content creator René ZZ was in charge of opening the meeting with a short speech in which he shared with those present his conversion experience through a dream: “I dreamed that God loved me, and only that, the love of God”. 

René also stressed the importance of letting God mold us: ”When God gave me the gift of his love, I thought, “If God exists, he wants something from me. I have already tried for myself, now I am going to leave my will aside and allow his will to shape me. God works in a mysterious way, when you let his will be molded, you don't care about the rest”. And this, he concluded, “we cannot do it alone. You can be the light for many people. Do not be afraid to speak of faith.

 «There is an upsurge of the authentic Holy Spirit.»

After his words, Casilda Finat, María Lorenzo and Quique Mira de Aute, and René himself shared a conversation in which they shared their experiences as “Catholic influencers”.

Among other things, Mira, one of Aute's promoters, stressed that the “Catholic turn” or this return of young people to God “if it is something superficial, time will tell. A true faith is lived every day. I believe that there is a boom of the authentic Holy Spirit, but each one has to respond”. 

Looking ahead to 2033

Another highlight of the evening was the intervention of Nicky Gumbel, promoter of Alpha, a reality through which more than 30 million people in 175 countries and 100 languages have passed over the years.

Gumbel shared his dream that in 2033 “everyone will be able to make themselves heard of Jesus and made a strong call for Christian unity.

His intervention revolved around four considerations: a new vision, that of Christ, to be shared by all Christians; the motivation rooted in the love that God has for each of his children; the key of prayer and the immense potential of a “privileged” time: “The fields are ready for the harvest” encouraged the Anglican pastor who initiated Alpha, “there is a great interest of young people for Jesus”. 

Eucharistic Adoration

After the interventions and testimonies, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the Mercy Prayer took place.

A few moments of impressive silence in a concert hall and in which several young people shared testimonies of healing to end with a Eucharistic procession inside the enclosure and the personal prayer of the thousands of attendees. 

The afternoon of prayer culminated with a farewell to the organizers and the recitation of an Our Father, which was joined by the thousands of attendees of this first Called 2026 meeting.

La entrada Llamados 2026: El Movistar Arena se convirtió en una insólita catedral se publicó primero en Omnes.

Bolaños explained that the agreement reached, after two years of «arduous and complicated negotiations» and in which in difficult moments «the Vatican advocated for an agreement», establishes that reparations will be made to all victims of abuse in the Church, provided that they cannot resort to legal proceedings, because most of them are time-barred. 

How will these repairs work?

As explained by the Minister, the State will create a processing unit in the Ministry where support will be given to these victims, respecting their privacy, to present their request for reparation, which can be economic, moral, psychological, restorative or all four simultaneously.

This request will be transferred to a victims' unit, under the guardianship of the Ombudsman who will present it to the victim and to the Church; if they have the approval of both, the Church will pay (in the case of financial reparation, the amount fixed).

If any of the parties is not in agreement, it will go to a second instance in which the Church, the State and victims will meet again, and there, in a joint work, an attempt will be made to reach an agreement. If there is no agreement either, the Ombudsman's criteria will prevail.

The Minister has reiterated on several occasions that, in this agreement, it is established that the compensation is fixed by the Spanish State and paid by the Church.

The agreement, which is limited only to victims of abuse within the Catholic Church in Spain, has been signed for one year, extendable for one more year.

Luis Argüello: «A new way to repair».»

After the appearance of the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, the President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference explained the role of the Church in this agreement, which joins «the steps that the Church is taking in this sense in its dioceses and congregations».

Argüello wanted to highlight the fact that, in the work of the diocesan offices and religious congregations, «we have found some important circumstances to incorporate into this agreement: people who have suffered abuse in other areas: sports, state education, centers for the protection of minors, etc. For this reason, it has seemed important to us the commitment that in the development of the law for the protection of children and adolescents, a proposal similar to the one made by the Church with the PRIVA commission should be made, so that other sectors can offer reparation to the victims in spite of being prescribed cases». 

Likewise, the president of the Spanish bishops emphasized his interest in tax exemptions for the indemnities.

Jesús Díaz Sariego: «society must support the victims, including those who have not been abused in the Church».»

In this appearance, the president of CONFER, Jesús Díaz Sariego, highlighted the moral commitment of the Church that assumes the reparation of cases that are already prescribed and that «a new way is opened for those people who do not want to access the PRIVA commission, but we must recognize the work that this commission is doing».

Díaz Sariego highlighted the value of the compensation already paid, the work of prevention and the work of the Church and its religious congregations in this area and emphasized that «we are in a position to demand that society as a whole support the victims, including those who have not been abused in the Church».»

La entrada España: Las indemnizaciones a las víctimas de abusos en la Iglesia las fijará el Estado y las pagará la Iglesia se publicó primero en Omnes.

Comprehensive redress for all minors abused in any area of public life.

The agreement has achieved the approval of all parties once “the Government has committed itself, as requested by the Church, to address the integral reparation of all minors who are victims of sexual abuse in any area of public life”. The agreement determines that it will be the Ombudsman who will fix, in the case of economic reparation, the amount that the victim will receive and it will be the Church who will pay it.

According to the note issued by the Spanish bishops, the system “will have the technical criterion of the Ombudsman's Office, the evaluation of the PRIVA Commission, The agreement is based on the consensus between the Catholic Church and the State and the participation of the victims”. For the time being, the agreement is limited to one year (extendable for another year), “for those cases that have not had and cannot have a judicial course either due to the statute of limitations of the crime or due to the death of the victimizer”.

Unity of criteria

Based on this new agreement, “the Ombudsman's Office will study the cases presented” -those that do not wish to be dealt with by the PRIVA commission directly- “and will propose a channel of redress that will be studied and evaluated by the PRIVA Commission established by the Church”. 

One of the key points of this agreement is the unity of criteria for the “evaluation of the cases and the assessment of the reparation of the Ombudsman's Office and the PRIVA Commission. In case of discrepancy in the evaluation, a mixed commission will study the case which, in the last instance, will be established by the Ombudsman after listening to the president of the EEC or of the CONFER, as the case may be”.

Another key point is that financial compensation will be exempt from taxation, especially income tax.

First joint agreement

This is the first step of joint collaboration between the Government and the Church in Spain in this field, since the Government has systematically defended that the reparation to the victims must be guaranteed by a public, mandatory, effective and supervised system by the State, while the Church implemented its own reparation system through the PRIVA commission.

In its first year of operation, this commission has handled a total of 89 requests for integral reparations (as of September 2025), of which 32 belong to cases in dioceses and 57 to cases within religious congregations.

Of these, “almost half were resolved with a proposal for comprehensive reparations of between 3,000 and 100,000 euros, in addition to a series of other in-kind reparation concepts and commitments on the part of the institutions”.

Minister Bolaños himself had warned the EEC that the government would not accept a reparation formula for the Church without state control.

The successive conversations between the Government and the Church have been marked at various times by the difference of criteria until reaching today's agreement which, according to the EEC note, is not based on “the imposition of a legal obligation, but on the moral commitment of the Church and the mutual agreement of the parties”.

La entrada La Iglesia española y el Gobierno logran un acuerdo para reparación de víctimas de abusos sexuales  se publicó primero en Omnes.

On January 12, 2026, the Movistar Arena in central Madrid will host Calls, “a day of praise, prayer, music, testimonies, and fellowship, to prepare the way for the year 2033, when we will commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord.”

Omnes spoke with one of the organizers, José María Sánchez de Lamadrid, parish priest of Santo Domingo de la Calzada in Algete, who shared the origins and significance of this historic gathering. 

To get to Llamados, the event that aims to bring thousands of people together in Madrid to worship Christ and strengthen their faith, there has been a journey. What has that journey been like?

–The Lord is always at the beginning of these things. He inspires us, and we do what we can to respond. In our case, in 2013 we began a process of renewal in the parish of Santo Domingo de la Calzada and La Inmaculada in Algete. We did this using Alpha as the driving force behind this renewal. We had started using this method in 2011, and by 2013 it was well established. In its program, Alpha It includes a healing session, which is, in essence, Jesus“ method: Jesus proclaims the Gospel, not in theory, but through his actions. As he reminds John the Baptist when he asks him if he is the Messiah, ”the lame walk, the blind see, the poor are evangelized." Jesus' method begins with the word, with the explicit proclamation of the message: his speeches, his words; and then his deeds. Words and deeds.

2013 was also the Year of Faith, which had been proclaimed by the Pope Benedict XVI. On the occasion of the Synod on the New Evangelization, we held a week of evangelization that coincided with the election of Pope Francis. 

It was during that week of evangelization that we considered how to respond to the human suffering of the elderly, the lonely... A first experiment emerged: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in which the sufferings of people are presented. Starting in October 2013, we began to do this on the first Monday of every month. This prayer of mercy has evolved since then. The Lord has inspired us, and we have refined it, fine-tuned it, modified things, and each time, more people come. During the pandemic, it also skyrocketed. YouTube channel And today we have a worship service in which some 800 people are participating in person, and there are approximately 1,500 connections from Spain and other parts of the world. 3,000 people praying to the Lord.

Last year, in response to the Jubilee Year of Hope, We asked ourselves, why not offer a great prayer of mercy? We wanted to do something big to close the Jubilee of 2025 and begin the journey to 2033, the 2000th anniversary of the Lord's death and resurrection, Pentecost, and the beginning of the Church. An event that, as many say, will probably be the event of the century, and many realities in the Church are focusing their efforts there.

Who will we see in Llamados, and why did you choose them? 

–The filmmaker Juan Manuel Cotelo y Olatz Elola, The creators of Blessings will be the masters of ceremonies, the presenters. On the musical side, we will have Hillsong Spain, considered one of the most famous and influential Christian music bands in the world, and there will be Quique Mira and María Lorenzo, Casilda Finat and René ZZ as guests. And they're coming without charging anything. With them, we'll have a kind of panel of experiences, to get ideas.

And, of course, Nicky Gumbel, the initiator of Alpha. Listening to Gumbel is amazing. He is a man of great faith and, although he is not Catholic, for example, last year he ended by asking for a prayer for the conclave at the Leadership Conference. There is a great sense of unity. 

In Spain, we perhaps have a more limited experience of ecumenism. I have many friends from different Christian denominations, and they are people of tremendous faith. Ultimately, we have much more in common than divides us, and we can do many things together, especially in this part of the first proclamation, as Rainiero Cantalamessa reminds us and as the Leo XIV on his recent trip to Turkey, 

Nicky Gumbel isn't here to talk about Alpha; he's here to talk about evangelism, about bringing Jesus to the world. He wants to reach 100 million people through Alpha, and he's focusing the last years of his life on this dream. He's one of those visionaries who dreams big. 

In terms of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I believe that, apart from World Youth Day, we have never had such a large gathering for adoration in Spain. And we want to offer that as well. Let it be an occasion for us all to pray together. May it help us to see that we are not alone, that there are many more people of all ages, children, young people, adults, etc., because the event has that family perspective. We will also have the musical support of the Catholic music group Salve.

How does one arrive at such a “crazy” decision as choosing the Movistar Arena as the venue?

–We are very much in agreement with Alpha and Nicky Gumbel He always talks about giving something special to God in 2033. That's how it came about. CallsWe wanted a large venue so that those who are unable to attend the Mercy Prayer regularly could come, and we thought about offering something more. We spoke with Monsignor Antonio Prieto, the Bishop of Alcalá de Henares, and with those responsible for Alpha Spain. 

The first part of Calls is very much inspired by the Leadership Conference that Alpha does in May. Hence the combination of music and testimonies. 

The second part is the prayer of mercy, pure and simple, as we do here every month: putting the Lord at the center, praying, and allowing Him to heal us. 

We wanted a place where anyone who wanted to come could enter. That's why we chose the Movistar Arena, which is an iconic venue in the heart of Madrid, and also a place where culture is generated. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of these courtyards of the Gentiles. So why not put the Lord in these spaces where there are events and music?

If anything is rejuvenating the face of the Church, it is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, music, and personal relationship with Christ. In this sense, does Llamados contribute anything new? How can we make the seed of affection effective?    

–I think it's not about stepping on anyone, but rather about adding value. Indeed, thank God, there are many events with different perspectives, from music, such as concerts, to Hakuna, or other Catholic events, and we want to join in.

There is another idea that also inspires us, which is that the Lord, in his public life, worked at different levels, and the transmission of faith also occurs at different levels. From small groups, one-on-one, Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus and the Samaritan woman; small groups, Peter, James, John, the 12 Apostles, the 72, and then there are the crowds. The Lord uses all these models or ways of transmitting the faith. This encounter is part of one of those great events, we might say, or of “the crowds” that the Gospel speaks of.

Then there is the day-to-day, and what we always strive for is that these types of meetings do not remain an emotional high but rather generate ideas and projects.

May each person who participates think, “How can I prepare for the 2000th anniversary of the Lord's death and resurrection?” That's where the mind and ideas come in. May we come out with our batteries fully charged so that each of us, in our own place, in our own reality, in our parish, in our family, in our school, in our university, wherever we may be, can carry that flame. 

It is not merely rationalistic, which would be only the head, nor is it merely sentimental or emotional, coming from the heart, nor is it merely voluntaristic. Rather, it is putting the Lord at the center, listening to the testimony of other people who are doing much good and who can give us clues in the face of the difficulties of life that we all have, how to carry that flame of faith. That is where the name comes from. Calls, It is a play on words because we are loved and we are called to pass on that flame of love. 

La entrada José María Sánchez de Lamadrid: “Llamados nos recuerda que somos amados, llamados a transmitir esa llama de amor” se publicó primero en Omnes.

There are currently 245 cardinals from around the world who make up the College of Cardinals. Those summoned will experience moments of “common discernment” and will offer “support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and serious responsibility in the government of the universal Church.”.

Pope Francis' last extraordinary Consistory was on August 29 and 30, 2022, where he summoned all the cardinals to discuss and present the reform of the Roman Curia with the new Apostolic Constitution., Praedicate Evangelium. Although there were ordinary consistories and the creation of new cardinals afterwards, that meeting in 2022

La entrada León XIV convoca su primer Consistorio extraordinario se publicó primero en Omnes.

The Forum, organized by Omnes in partnership with the Ángel Herrera Oria Cultural Foundation  y Ediciones Encuentro will feature the participation of the bishop and writer Erik Varden, head of the Norwegian diocese of Trondheim and author of books such as Chastity, On Christian conversion o Wounds that heal, his latest publication with Ediciones Encuentro and the focus of this event.

In conversation with the journalist Ana Zarzalejos, At this meeting, Varden will address the transcendent view of human suffering through a journey through the wounds of Christ himself. A bold and necessary proposal in a society marked by these inner wounds and their need for healing.

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The Omnes Forum, sponsored byCARF Foundation y Banco Sabadell and the collaboration of the CEU San Pablo University, will take place in a manner on-sitethe next January 9, 2026at 7:00 p.m.. in the Aula Magna of the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid (C/ Julián Romea, 23, Madrid 28003).

The presentation will be in English. Those who require translation are advised to bring their cell phones and headphones to connect to the room's translation system.

La entrada Erik Varden disertará sobre sufrimiento y mirada trascendente en el Foro Omnes se publicó primero en Omnes.

On one occasion, a young convert was at a conference, surrounded by “lifelong Christians”They only complained about the problems surrounding the faith: priests had little pastoral zeal, society banished faith from the public sphere, there were no Christian policies... When asked how she saw “that view”, that young woman replied “Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. Because I come from outside and you have no idea how cold it is there.”His answer hit the nail on the head: outside, without God, it's colder.

One of the worst lies that the devil has successfully implanted in the minds of many Christians is that those who are far from God “outside the vineyard”, enjoy life more than we do, or even that they are happier here on Earth. It is the foolish mentality of those who exclaim upon a late return or discovery of God: “With all the good times he's had in life, now he's converted and going to Heaven, isn't he?”. But that's not the case. No. It's very cold outside. 

Life is worse without God. It is colder outside the vineyard, far from the Father. We fall into the devil's trap when we think that those outside “they are fortunate" o "have experienced the best of life”, instead of giving thanks for having been called “at the first hour”The laborers, who had never known the house of the Lord, suffered from the cold; the prodigal son, who had fled from it after the devil's false promise, suffered from cold and hunger. 

Because the weight of the day and the heat exist, of course, but it is a heat with meaning, a weight with a future. It is not the forced labor of a slave without hope. Otherwise, we Catholics would be like the older son, a “to love without meaning to”, a lukewarm, mediocre “being inside.” And so we will not hear the cry of those outside, who ask us to go out in search of them, to be the agents of change in the world.

La entrada La vida es peor sin Dios se publicó primero en Omnes.

Koch takes on this task from the Pope with a long career behind him in the field of interreligious and ecumenical relations, a task on which the pontifical foundation bases much of its charisma. Not surprisingly, Koch became interested in ecumenism at a very young age. He studied theology in Munich (Germany) and Lucerne and was ordained a priest at the age of 32.

In 1995, he was appointed bishop of Basel by Pope John Paul II and was created cardinal in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, who also appointed him president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which would later become a dicastery under the reform brought about by the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium.

In expressing its gratitude to the Pope for this appointment, the pontifical foundation itself highlighted Cardinal Koch's relationship with ACN over the years, particularly with the Swiss and German offices, participating in conferences and pilgrimages, among other events.

La entrada Ayuda a la Iglesia Necesitada tiene nuevo presidente: el cardenal Kurt Koch se publicó primero en Omnes.

In this letter, which is not particularly long, the Pope compares the times when the Council of Nicaea was convened in 325 with the present day, pointing out how those times «were no less turbulent» than today.

The pontiff recounts the main historical milestones that led Bishop Alexander of Alexandria to summon the bishops of Egypt and Libya to a synod to combat Arian teachings and, subsequently, Emperor Constantine to call «all bishops to an ecumenical, that is, universal council in Nicaea to restore unity. The synod, called the “318 Fathers,” was held under the presidency of the emperor: the number of bishops gathered was unprecedented.

God «has come to meet us in Jesus Christ.»

The Pope elaborates on the debate that arose at this council, which was «due to the need to respond to the question raised by Arius about how the statement “Son of God” should be understood and how it could be reconciled with biblical monotheism.».

At this meeting, «the Fathers confessed that Jesus is the Son of God insofar as he is ‘of the same substance (ousia) of the Father […] generated, not created, from the same substance (of the same substance) of the Father.' This statement is completely distinct from Arian theory and, in practice, means »reaffirming that the one true God is not unreachably distant from us, but rather has drawn near and come to meet us in Jesus Christ.«. 

God from God, light from light, true God from true God

León XIV then focuses on the statement in the Creed that God is «God from God, light from light, true God from true God.» Explaining each of these points, he emphasizes: «The Council then adopts the biblical metaphor of light: ‘God is light’ (1 Jn 1.5; cf. Jn 1:4-5). Like light that radiates and communicates itself without diminishing, so the Son is the reflection (apaugasma) of God's glory and the image (character) of your being (hypostasis) (cf. Hb 1,3; 2 Co 4:4). The incarnate Son, Jesus, is therefore the light of the world and of life (cf. Jn 8:12). Through baptism, the eyes of our hearts are enlightened (cf. Ef 1:18), so that we too may be light in the world.».

It also states that «the Creed affirms that the Son is ‘true God from true God’. The true God is the God who speaks and acts in the history of salvation,» «The Christian,» continues Leo XIV, «is therefore called to convert from dead idols to the living and true God.».

The Creed is not a philosophical formula.

The Pope has placed great emphasis on live out the Creed, In this apostolic letter: «The Nicene Creed does not formulate a philosophical theory. It professes faith in the God who has redeemed us through Jesus Christ,» emphasizes the pontiff, who recalls how, by virtue of the incarnation of the Son of God, «we find the Lord in our brothers and sisters in need.».

«The Nicene Creed does not speak to us, therefore, of a distant, unreachable, immobile God who rests in himself, but of a God who is close to us,» the pontiff recalled.

In this regard, quoting St. Athanasius, emphasizes that «having himself become man, he divinized men. It is not that, being man, he subsequently became God, but that, being God, he became man in order to divinize us.».

A deification that, far from being a self-deification of man, «protects us from the primordial temptation of wanting to be like God (cf. Gn 3.5). What Christ is by nature, we become by grace. Through the work of redemption, God has not only restored our human dignity as the image of God, but He who created us in a wonderful way has made us participants, in an even more admirable way, in His divine nature (cf. 2 P 1,4). Divinization is, therefore, true humanization.

Path of unity and witness of life

The letter concludes with a strong call to continue and intensify the journey toward unity with other Christian denominations.

In this regard, Leo XIV recalls that the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed became a bond of unity between East and West. In the 16th century, it was also upheld by the ecclesial communities born of the Reformation. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is thus the common profession of all Christian traditions. It has been a long and linear path that has led from Sacred Scripture to the Nicene profession of faith, then to its reception by Constantinople and Chalcedon, and again to the 16th century and our 21st century.«.

At the end of the letter, the Pope reiterates the need for the Creed to come alive in the lives of Christians, serving as a guide for witness: «The liturgy and Christian life are therefore firmly anchored in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: what we say with our mouths must come from the heart, so that it may be witnessed in our lives. (...) The Nicene Creed invites us, then, to an examination of conscience. What does God mean to me and how do I bear witness to my faith in Him?».

Along with this call to bear witness to the Creed with our lives, the Pope has focused on the ecumenical task of the Church. In this regard, he recalls how «Saint John Paul II continued and promoted the conciliar message in the Encyclical Ut unum sint (May 25, 1995). Thus, with the great commemoration of the First Council of Nicaea, we also celebrate the anniversary of the first ecumenical encyclical. It can be considered a manifesto that has updated those same ecumenical foundations laid by the Council of Nicaea. In this letter, Leo XIV wanted to call for »walking together to achieve unity and reconciliation among all Christians,« noting further that »the Nicene Creed can be the basis and reference point for this journey.«.

The Pope does not hide the fact that this path of unity «is a theological challenge and, even more, a spiritual challenge, which requires repentance and conversion on the part of all. For this reason, we need a spiritual ecumenism of prayer, praise, and worship, as happened in the Nicene and Constantinople Creeds,» in order to arrive, as he emphasizes in this Apostolic Letter, at «a future-oriented ecumenism of reconciliation on the path of dialogue, of exchange of our gifts and spiritual heritage.».

La entrada León XIV: «El Credo niceno nos habla de un Dios que está cerca de nosotros»  se publicó primero en Omnes.

In his traditional opening speech, the president of the Spanish bishops, Luis Argüello, did not avoid several of the topics that mark these days of the meeting, both because they are matters of work and because of the current situation in which this Plenary is taking place. 

Catholic revival, a manipulable fad?

One of the topics that Argüello did not want to forget is the spiritual rebirth that, in recent years, seems to have gained strength in Spain. In this sense, he emphasized that “There are signs that warn that Catholicism is in fashion or, if you prefer, that there is a return to spiritual coordinates that seemed outlawed. The process is constant and is increasing” and has given as an example the album of the singer Rosalía, Luz or the film “Los Domingos“. 

This return to the faith was the theme of much of the first part of this speech in which the president of the bishops warned that “listening more intensely to the rumor of God and the «Catholic turn» can be a fashion or an object of ideological manipulation of the confusion and difficulties that young people are experiencing today,” and attacked the “‘technological authoritarian complex’ that has in Vice President James David Vance, a Catholic convert, its political link. With all this, the power of money and algorithms at the service of money and power emerges with force”. 

Abortion, the issue “hidden” by sociopolitical powers

“In recent weeks the issue of abortion has reappeared in various ways: the pretension of elevating this supposed right to constitutional rank; the conscientious objection of health personnel; the information to mothers of all that the intervention that causes abortion means; data offered by the Ministry of Health, in 2024 there were 106,173 abortions and 322,034 births.” With these data, the president of the bishops addressed the terrible reality of abortion in Spain. 

Argüello quoted Matthieu Lavagna, interviewed by Omnes a few weeks ago, who emphasizes in his book “La raison est pro-life” how “daring to talk about it in public has become a taboo, almost an intrusion into people's private lives. To state publicly that abortion is objectively immoral, because it means ending the life of a person other than his or her mother and father, is to risk hearing strong personal, social and political disqualifications: «To question this conquest, to doubt this right? It is the paroxysm of fascist and authoritarian thinking that deserves the immediate label of extreme right»”. 

The President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference recalled that “it is enough to open any medical embryology manual to see that scientists unanimously affirm that from the moment of fertilization a living and independent human organism is created in the mother's body with its own genetic patrimony. It is not necessary to go to the Bible to affirm this, even if it does provide that its dignity is sacred and that it is endowed with an immortal soul”. 

The Archbishop of Valladolid has put his finger on two key issues in this matter: the hiding of the reality, selfishness and consequences of abortion “under the carpet” and the servility of certain bioethics committees “at the service of biopolitics”. 

She also pointed out that in every pregnancy it is necessary to take into account not only the unborn child but also its parents and circumstances. For this reason, he wanted to “extend a hand of closeness to pregnant mothers so that they do not hesitate to ask for help if they have to deal with the drama of a pregnancy that may be unwanted; that the solution to a situation, so often very difficult to cope with alone, is not the elimination of the life that is in their womb”. In this sense, he denounced that “the normalization of abortion expresses the normalization of social Darwinism” in which not all lives are worth the same.  

“The Church does not sponsor any political form.” 

Another of the topics addressed in the speech of the President of the Spanish Bishops was the anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco and the beginning of democracy in Spain. On this point, Bishop Luis Argüello recalled how “fifty years ago most of the bishops of Spain, men who had known war and post-war, dedicated words of praise and gratitude to Franco”, without avoiding the unequal development of the relationship of the Spanish bishops with the Franco regime. 

The speech was especially clear when the president of the bishops quoted Cardinal Tarancon when, in his homily on November 27 at the Hieronymites, he stressed that “the Christian faith is not a political ideology nor can it be identified with any of them, given that no social or political system can exhaust all the richness of the Gospel nor does it belong to the mission of the Church to present concrete options or solutions for government in the temporal fields of social, economic or political sciences. The Church does not sponsor any political form or ideology and if someone uses her name to cover his or her own factions, he or she is usurping it”. The president of the Spanish bishops has asked that “the next three years should be of ‘purification of the memory’ contaminated by the ideological biases of the laws of historical and democratic memory that, rightly, want to rehabilitate and honor the victims of the dictatorship and to bury with dignity those who were still in graves and ditches, but are, mainly, an instrument of ideological polarization at the service of the political interests of the present rather than a channel to deepen the reconciliation that the years of the Transition achieved, to a large extent”. 

It is not enough to be a conscientious objector 

The president of the Spanish bishops especially encouraged the lay faithful to be present in public life. In this sense, he emphasized that “it is not enough to be a conscientious objector. It is necessary to promote conscience from one's own conscience”.  

Argüello wanted to point out that the latest information regarding alleged cases of abuse within the Church “enlivens in us the desire to continue promoting the work to eliminate these behaviors from two areas: The presumption of innocence, also for members of the Church, and also the freedom of denunciation and its course” in case it is considered true.

La entrada Mons. Argüello: “Normalizar el aborto es normalizar el darwinismo social”  se publicó primero en Omnes.

Since then, The Way has been translated into 142 languages and has sold more than five million copies. The famous prayer application, Hallow, The book was chosen as a guide book for Lent 2025, and among many of the anecdotes that this book has featured, during the era of persecution of the faith by the communist government in Bulgaria, a clandestine edition of The Way, helped in his spiritual life the faithful Catholics and those of other Christian denominations.

The Way

Title: Camino

AuthorJosemaría Escrivá: Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer

Pages: 506

EditorialRialp : Rialp

Year: 2025

Edition 100 of The Way in Spanish

The National Library of Spain hosted the presentation of the 100th edition of this book in Spanish. book, edited by Rialp and coordinated by Fidel Sebastián Mediavilla, a specialist in Golden Age literature. This edition adds, to the original text, explanatory notes and an introduction that places the reader in its historical and spiritual context. 

A “mysteriously alive” book”

The director of Ediciones Rialp, Santiago Herraiz, pointed out that “Camino is still alive, mysteriously alive. A book that is almost 100 years old, that supports the weight of the years, is not easy. We have made a small edition of Camino, like a leather diary, with 5,000 copies and they are almost sold out.

For her part, the poet Marcela Duque, pointed out that, in The Way, St. Josemaría “achieves a unity between the form of expression and what is expressed, and this is also what Opus Dei does, as the saint himself pointed out: ‘making hendecasyllables out of daily prose.

The editor of the centenary edition in Spanish, Fidel Sebastián, emphasized that “a critical edition seeks the author's will, and is illuminated with whatever is necessary”.

Sebastián also affirmed that, “when I reread Camino, I discovered the mystic. To know more about this we will have to wait until the Intimate Notes are published. I think St. Josemaría was a great mystic, as we see, for example, in the point 555”The author's prayer experience is the fruit of his own experience.

Finally, Fernanda Lopes, coordinator of the Committee for the Centennial of the Opus Dei, He wanted to emphasize the “thousands of paths of intimacy with Christ that this book has produced. There are a hundred editions, but thousands of paths.

Drawing a parallel, Lopes stressed that “the centenary of Opus Dei is presented as a path, performative, transforming for each person of Opus Dei”.

La entrada “Camino”, un “libro vivo”, cumple 100 ediciones en castellano se publicó primero en Omnes.

In this book, beautifully edited by Palabra and illustrated by hundreds of photographs, many of them little known and even unpublished, Xuereb reviews conversations with Benedict XVI or with his immediate superior, Msgr. Georg Ganswein. In his pages there are anecdotes full of humor, closeness and familiarity with the Holy Father during his time at the head of the Church. Xuereb recalls, for example, Pope Ratzinger's well-known love of music, his fondness for cats (even though he never had one) and amusing humorous touches about small details of daily life and work. 

The story, written with the vividness of the most recent memories, also delves into the backroom of key moments in Ratzinger's life: the suffering of a Pope who decided to step aside when he became aware of his physical limitations and the months full of tension; also the Pope's suffering in the face of problems generated by a misinterpretation of his words or misunderstandings, such as the Regensburg episode. Along with these perhaps better known episodes, Xuereb also recounts small tests of fortitude to which the Pope reacted in a surprising way, as when a small fire burned a nativity scene belonging to the Ratzinger family and to which Benedict XVI was particularly fond of. The delicate dealings with his older brother, or the Pope's concern that both he and the first secretary could attend to their families and the details with the Mémores Domini who attended him are also a constant in a book that is a pleasure to read and contemplate as a family photo album. 

A book accessible to all levels of reading and that will especially appeal to those who have followed the life and work of Pope Benedict XVI, thanks to which new details of his figure and his pontificate are extracted that underpin the idea of a papacy led by one of the most privileged heads of the XX -XXI century together with an unforgettable humility and closeness to God. 

My days with Benedict XVI

AuthorAlfred Xuereb

Editorial: Word

Number of pages: 376

La entrada Mis días con Benedicto XVI se publicó primero en Omnes.

In the final stages of the Jubilee Year of Hope, this has been the theme chosen as the focus of the conference in which, as its coordinators, Maria San Gil and Jose Masip, emphasize, “we want to spread and proclaim our faith in all aspects of our life. We want to show that we are a university, that we are Catholics and that we are in public life. 

Soft-spoken Catholics?

The congress, now in its 27th year, has touched on numerous themes in this more than quarter of a century, although reflection on Catholic identity in the various spheres of public life continues to be a hot topic. 

In this sense, Masip emphasizes that “there are ideologies that have prevailed, especially in Europe, in the West, and that have influenced the ‘party’ politician to be afraid to identify with certain positions on very specific issues: the family, life..., but I believe that this gap is being overcome. Catholics must commit themselves in life, in society and, therefore, act and do so in accordance with their principles. Principles are proposed in public life, they are not imposed”.

In addition, the congress coordinator points out, “apart from party politics, there is another politics, another public life that is not strictly speaking politics, such as journalism, life in associations, in movements that transmit and capillarize society much more”. 

The motto of this edition, “You, hope.”, has different readings. The hope placed in action and personal responsibility, the hope of God, which is the end of the life of Christians... First you have to be Catholic, you have to be the hope that you must be, the rest, commit yourself to it and act accordingly.

Young people are responding to God more than ever before

The Catholics and Public Life Congress coincides, this year, with the publication of a trend that seems to be settling in Spain: the return to the religious sphere, to the spiritual life, especially among the youth. 

Commenting on this situation, José Masip stresses that “worse times will come. That's for sure. I am not saying this in an ashen way, it is what the Gospel says. But fortunately, we are now at a time when young people are responding more sincerely to the word of God than in the past”. 

A position shared by María San Gil: “I am Basque. There the secularization has turned what was once a land of vocations into a wasteland. As it happens in Catalonia, for example. I think they are very different realities depending on where you live and how you live it. We want to tend, of course, to what happens in cities like Madrid, where you enter a church and it is normal to find young people. What do we have to do? Sow. But the important thing in this sowing is not the quantity, but the quality,

This year, as in the last edition, there will only be one congress without a “division“ of young people. A clear commitment by Masip to “include young people in everything. They are as responsible for this as the older ones. I always say that the divisions of young people in political parties are for ‘not to bother’, and that can not be. Of course, we have pointed out the need for more young people on the organizing committee. There are, but there could be more. 

A congress with a Eucharistic presence

One of the highlights of this conference will be the eucharistic adoration that will take place during the three days of the Congress. A possibility of prayer that highlights, in the words of Maria San Gil “that the Blessed Sacrament is the center. The theme of presence in public life is clear to us, because the speakers are public figures, very well known, but we wanted to give the importance of God present in the Eucharist”.

Also, in this edition, the Masses will be central points of the program and there will be priests to hear confessions. Something that, as San Gil says, “was born almost naturally, because last year, it was announced in one of the conferences that there was a priest to confess and there was a flood of confessions”. 

The success of the Congress? To continue to do so

27 years after the first Catholics and Public Life Congress, The success of this event is, for its organizers, “the very fact of doing it one more year”. The political, social, cultural and religious circumstances in Spain, since November 1999, have changed a lot, “however, the Catholic Association of Propagandists and CEU continue to support this congress. This is very commendable,” said María San Gil.

“We continue to walk, adds Masip, “when Pope Francis, declared the Year of Hope wrote that ‘the solution to weariness, paradoxically, is not to stop and rest, but rather to set out on the road and become pilgrims of hope’. This is what we seek and do with Catholics and Public Life. 

La entrada Maria San Gil y José Masip: «Queremos proclamar nuestra fe en todos los aspectos de la vida» se publicó primero en Omnes.

The scene is not neutral within the film. It requires positioning: either she is crazy, or here is God.

The scene requires a response, and a life-changing response at that. That of the protagonist and, to a certain extent, that of the spectator.

To say «There is God» is to accept that this God is not us, that there is an «other», a real Other whom we can truly love, and give him our life: the one of blood and sweat, the one of laughter and itchy feet.

“Los Domingos” draws today's society as it is, with its lights and its noise, with its shadows and darkness, with the incomprehension it shows in the face of “silence”, the freely chosen concealment. 

“Los Domingos” thus speaks of filial abandonment. An attitude that we have forgotten even within the Church itself. The film approaches the experience of faith, the relationship with God “like a husband, like a boyfriend”, that is to say, real. And it does so from the outside, but with a delicacy, dignity, respect -and perhaps, a bit of astonishment-, which gives it complete verisimilitude. 

Every Christian has his Gethsemane; that moment in which you can fall asleep and hide the responsibility, draw the sword and attack it in an unconscious and hurtful way, or say, like Christ, “Thy will be done”: abandoning yourself to a God who is a father.

Our society lacks parents and has too many “tips”. We have confused being adults with “having everything under control” or having everything done “as planned”.

Total surrender to God, in a convent, in the lay life, in marriage, is today a revolutionary cry that changes the “Do it!” for “Do me! A cry so loud that it is not heard, but which shakes the cracked and wounded clay foundations of a society that longs to discover the Lord of ”Sundays“. 

Oration of abandonment of Charles de Foucauld

My Father,
I abandon myself to You.

Make of me what you will.

Whatever you make of me I thank you,
I am ready for anything,
I accept everything.
As long as Your will be done in me
and in all your creatures,
I wish for nothing more, my God.

I place my life in Your hands.
I give it to you, my God,
with all the love in my heart,
because I love you,
and because for me to love you is to give myself to you,
to give myself into Your hands without measure,
with infinite confidence,
for You are my Father.

Amen.

La entrada El abandono de «Los Domingos» se publicó primero en Omnes.

This celebration, presided by the Bishop of Rome, is usually held in one of the cemeteries that exist in the Italian capital. In recent years, the French Military Cemetery of Rome, the Teutonic Cemetery or the Laurentine Cemetery have hosted this celebration of the Holy Mass.

The following day, the Pope will preside at Holy Mass in suffrage for the late Roman Pontiff Francis and for the cardinals and bishops who have died during the year in the papal chapel of St. Peter's Basilica at 11 a.m.

La entrada El Papa visitará el Cementerio de Verano en la conmemoración de los fieles difuntos se publicó primero en Omnes.

One of the "highlights" of this day will be Pep Borrell. This dentist, married to Mercè and father of 5 children, has put "Dancing in the kitchen" to thousands of couples around the world and has been the "cupid" of many others through social networks.

His prescription? Little things every day to make the road to marriage a happy one and to live the courtship to get to know each other. With him we talked about how to learn to be engaged, to be exemplary marriages (and not preachy) and happiness in the marital relationship.

How can we be teachers of our children without being "parent teachers" at home, giving lessons all day long? 

- Parents always set an example. We set an example even when we don't want to set an example. That is, not only do we set an example on the day we set out to be "exemplary"; that Saturday when you get up, prepare breakfast for everyone, go on an outing and, "wow, what a great day!

Too many times, married couples give much more importance to how we want to raise our children and we don't keep each other in mind. I always say that one hug to your wife in front of your children is worth a hundred hugs to each child.

What the children see is beyond doubt: that the father and mother love each other and the children see it, feel it, notice it, that is the 100 % of education. 

Sometimes we become obsessed with "doing things". And what we need to do is to live quietly, with a lot of peace.

It is said that young people are marrying less and less. Do you think you have received particularly negative images of marriage? 

-I think that many times we speak very badly about marriage: we give bad examples, we make jokes... How many times before a young person who wants to get married we have not said things like: "Don't get married, you are still too young! Another thing is when we say to our children, in their last years of school or first years of college, things like: "don't fall in love now, you have to study". They are 16 or 18 years old, their hormones are at their peak and of course they are going to fall in love! 

Of course, but they also have to study! How do we combine both?

-Without obsessing and talking to them. Sometimes we focus only on talking to them about sexuality. Not only at home, eh? also in very good schools. There comes a year when we say, "We are going to talk about the subject"..., but we stay in the pipes, in the functioning and one thing is sexuality and another, very different, is to talk about affectivity. And it is more difficult for us to talk about affectivity and it is fundamental. We have to talk about affectivity to children.

Series, movies..., even the good ones, treat this very badly and, what happens, we find that for many boys and girls sex comes first and then, if anything, we get to know each other. In order for them to know how to put things in their place, you have to talk. you have to tell 15 or 16 year old boys and girls "Yes, you are going to fall in love, and don't worry. It's a soufflé, it happens and we can make missteps ....". These are topics that need to be a recurring conversation in families.

Natalia Barcáiztegui says that we must live in the present so that, in the future, we do not have to regret the past.  

In this regard, don't you think that the gap Haven't we gone from reason to heart without balancing?

-Yes, we used to live in a society that was very rationalistic. People asked why something was done and the answer was "because I say so, or because the Church says so...". From this, we have moved on to a totally emotivist and sensationalist society in which things are done because they feel like it, because I feel it or I don't feel it. Today's society tells you to "feel" and when you "stop feeling... go for something else", or another sentimental relationship.

Feelings are important but reason is also important. I insist a lot on this in my affective talks. Many young people come to me and say "I have fallen in love with a guy or girl who does not suit me at all... I tell them "like" Why? Because that boy or girl is going through a very strong feeling in his or her head and that is very important, it is a discernment. 

You cannot fall in love with a person you are not attracted to, nor the other way around. There are people who tell you "there is one who would suit me very well, but I don't like him"... These are the topics we have to talk about in the family! 

How do you start talking about this with your teenage children? 

-We have to "put ourselves in the situation", ask them what they think, for example, of falling in love with someone very handsome but very superficial, how they would experience it... See how they breathe, talk about the subject, make it something to talk about, without obsessions, without sermons. 

Parents never have to give sermons, what we have to do is to be the example, to be very coherent.  

How do you learn to be a bride and groom?  

-Our society confuses courtship with marriage. And we experience courtships that are like miniature marriages. There are many people who base courtship exclusively on "I feel good, I have a good time", and since I feel good and I have a good time, I will always have a good time. And therein lies the big mistake, in that the stages are burned. 

In mathematical multiplication it is said that the order of the factors does not alter the product. Well, in affectivity it is the opposite: the order of the factors greatly alters the product. 

Most of the inputs that reach the youngest alter the order of the products: sex first and then, if anything, personal knowledge. I see it even in very well-educated people. 

Many young people talk to me about their relationships and I ask them: "Do you go out, are you going out, are you dating? We've met three times and we've kissed,"... that's not dating. They haven't even told each other how they feel about each other. 

It is very important to explain what a courtship is: a courtship is for getting to know each other. A courtship is to leave it. I always say, in a courtship, either you get married or you leave. In courtship, it is essential to get to know each other very well and not to burn stages. The courtship stages are very important: attraction, falling in love, discernment. 

Nobody can say, on a Saturday night, "today I'm going to fall in love", because you don't control this deep down, what you can say on a Saturday night is "today I'm going to get into bed with the first person I meet". They are different things. You fall in love when you fall in love. 

Jose Pedro Manglano in "Construir el amor" (Building love) says that falling in love should let us see at the beginning what should be the end. It is a flash that makes you say "what a great thing", and now, work it out! With this person, do you see yourself capable of sharing your life? Talk about the topics that need to be talked about, don't burn stages, have marriage as your goal. 

Marriage is the beginning, not the end. We see many couples who are engaged for a thousand years, live together for another 2,000 years, get married, and separate a few months later. How can this be? Because they didn't know each other. Because, for example, there were difficult or important issues that, as a couple, every time they talked about it, they argued and the solution was not to talk about it. 

And, once married? 

-In marriage, it's the little things of every day that are important. When you make a commitment, you say "for all the days of our life". This is very nice. I don't commit myself to be faithful all the days of my life. I mean, today. You don't need to say, "20 years from now." Today. And I have to see what I have done for the other person today: Did I love him/her? Did he/she notice?

For me, marriage is about very small but very constant things. From time to time there has to be an extraordinary, as in everything in life: a good dinner, a nice trip, a getaway.... But this is not a solution.

I see marriages that are not going well and they say "we need a trip". No. If you're not doing well, you don't need a trip. If you're not doing well, you need to stop, think... Because if you're not doing well and you go on a trip, you're going to be angry and the trip is going to go badly and you're going to spend a lot of money. What can you do? Prepare a special breakfast, pick up one thing you haven't put you....

What about those who have gotten into a "holding on" routine?

There are many such marriages. And many that are Catholic and very good marriages, but they don't enjoy it, and it's a shame. I always think that, when they die, St. Peter will say to them, "Come in, but you are a fool. Because you could have had a great time on earth and you have been making a fool of yourself". I come back to the same thing: to the little things of every day and to stop, think, propose and ask for help if necessary. 

José Fernández Castiella in "Marriage, the great divine invention", says that marriage is not a matter of tips, Neither of advice, it is the firm conviction of loving a person with a love that transcends us. This is clear to many of those people who put up with it, but do not enjoy it.

God thought of us as a man and a woman and we have to stop and think, which "in Christian" means to pray. To take out the consent form and read it to him, even if you have been married for 40 years; to look at each other more, to make ourselves more beautiful for each other, to have details of service. 

We see a new generation that, more and more, wants to be prepared for marriage and is looking for referents Is the future better?

-Totally. St. John Paul II saw spring buds, I see forests! During the week I am a dentist and I dedicate the weekend to this and a lot of young people write to me.

It is not true that young people do not want to commit themselves. There are those who don't, because there are people for everything. But there are many who do want to commit themselves and many who want to do things well. And these, who want to do things well, are much more convinced than those of my age, those of us who are 60 years old. Because at that time everyone thought the same way, or it seemed so, as if by inertia.

What I see is that the world has become too small for young people. They think they are going to find a prince charming that does not exist. They have their fears and we also live a very comfortable life, where everything comes true in a click... and the subject of love is a complex one.

La entrada Pep Borrell: «El 100 % de la educación es que los hijos vean que su padre y su madre se quieren» se publicó primero en Omnes.

The report, whose first edition published last year, this time focused on how the Church is doing with regard to existing reparation practices in the local Churches and their pastoral and theological foundation "understood as the Church's responsibility to accompany victims/survivors on their journey of healing and reparation". 

40 victims participating in the study

In his presentation, the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Bishop Thibault VernyArchbishop of Chambéry, stressed that "the annual report is intended as a tool to accompany the Church's mission of protection" and that it "takes subsidiarity into account.

This second report has seen an expansion and improvement of the victim listening system from one region to four (Africa, America, Asia-Oceania and Europe) and reiterates its "commitment to continue to welcome contributions from victims/survivors" for future reports. Forty victims from these various regions have contributed to this second report and it also includes the report of a lay association: The Work of Mary - Focolare. 

An experience that Bishop Verny highlighted by emphasizing how "walking alongside victims and survivors, we have acquired the deep conviction that the road that leads to a culture of protection is not traveled simply by victims and survivors, but with them". 

For her part, Dr. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, a jurist in charge of the Annual Report, emphasized the need to give "an honest response to the countless victims and survivors, known and unknown, who have had the courage to raise the alarm about abuses, despite unimaginable obstacles."

The need to listen and for the victims to feel heard by the Church has been a constant call in this presentation as well as in the report itself. We have to overcome some internal or cultural resistance, as Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, secretary of the Commission, pointed out, who also showed his awareness that there may be "a certain fatigue" about this issue, and that we have to overcome it.

"The Church must broaden its understanding of reparations." 

"Our study clearly revealed that the Church must broaden its understanding of reparations beyond mere financial compensation," Boer-Buquicchio said. This broadening includes the need to embrace what he describes as "critical means of reparations" that go beyond economic reparations. "A truly comprehensive approach to reparations includes (1) welcoming, listening and caring; (2) public and private communications and apologies; (3) spiritual and psychotherapeutic support; (4) economic support; (5) institutional and disciplinary reforms; and (6) safeguarding initiatives throughout the ecclesial community," she enumerated. 

The person in charge of preparing this report wished to stress the importance of the Church's organization in collecting data on this issue in order to continue the fight against abuse. In this regard, she stressed the importance of collaboration with apostolic nuncios who "are in a unique position to offer a deeply insightful perspective on the protection challenges facing a given country."

The II Annual Report 

Each section of the Annual Report provides the analysis of various church entities, presenting the following aspects: a profile of the area or community, an overview of safeguarding, the Commission's critical observations on the safeguarding challenges facing each region or community, and a series of recommendations from the Commission. 

The nations that have participated in this II Report are: Italy (including a regional breakdown), Gabon, Japan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea (Conakri), Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia, Malta, Korea, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia, Regional Episcopal Conference of North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Libya, Tunisia), Mali, Kenya and Greece. 

The religious institutes included in this Report are: Brothers of Christian Instruction of St. Gabriel - Montfortians and the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa as well as the report of the Work of Mary (Focolare).  

La entrada El Vaticano presenta el II informe sobre procedimientos de tutela en la Iglesia se publicó primero en Omnes.

The presentation was also attended by Franciscan Frédéric-Marie Le Méhauté and Sister Clémence of the Little Sisters of Jesus. 

Dilexi te, signed by the Pope on October 4, 2009.The Apostolic Exhortation on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi is the first magisterial document of Pope Leo XIV, who inherited this text from Pope Francis, as explained at the beginning of the Apostolic Exhortation. 

Robert Prevost has finalized and revised this apostolic exhortation, which consists of 121 points and largely reflects the Church's main messages on social inequality, poverty and the responsibilities of the most developed countries. 

A social and theological issue

Bishop Czerny wanted to emphasize how the document shows that "poverty is a social theme and a theological theme, because the Lord speaks to the Church, faith becomes real" through them. He also wanted to underline how "poverty comes from the structures that perpetuate differences, from that economy that kills, that measures human value by productivity".

"The Church," continued the Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, "denounces the false impartiality of the market and focuses on the conversion of structures. It advocates a form of social repentance that restores dignity to invisible people."

The poor are the face of Christ

For its part, Msgr. Konrad Krajewski, Prefect of the Dicastery for Charity and Apostolic Almoner, wanted to emphasize how Pope Leo XIV, at the beginning of his pontificate, confirmed him in his work as the person in charge of charity in the Holy See and highlighted the "two thousand year history" of the Church in its attention to the most vulnerable. A history that is made today, as Jesus did "in the Gospel there is today. Christ goes to Zacchaeus' house 'right now', he orders to feed the crowds 'right now'".

"Love for those who are poor is the evangelical guarantee of a Church faithful to the heart of Christ," Msgr. Krajewski recalled. "Attention will be diverse, as has been seen over the centuries, but it will always have to exist because it is in the poor that the Church recognizes the face of Christ." In this regard, the apostolic almoner recalled an anecdote with Pope Francis: Krajewski complained that he did not reach everything, despite the showers in the Vatican, medical care, etc., and the Pope told him: 'You help Christ directly and you regret it?'

Finally, the apostolic almoner wanted to emphasize the importance of almsgiving, which occupies the last part of the Apostolic Exhortation, and that almsgiving, "which today does not enjoy a good reputation, often
even among believers. Not only is it not practiced, it is despised."

Being Church with the poor

The presentation concluded with a testimonial intervention by Sister Clémence, of the Little Sisters of Jesus, who was able to share her experience with the Roma communities. Sister Clémence emphasized how, through this document, "the Holy Father invites us to recognize the 'mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them'. Following their example, we rediscover solidarity, which we often quickly forget in our eagerness to preserve our riches".

The presentation concluded with a reflection by Friar Frédéric-Marie Le Méhauté, a Franciscan, who gave a summary of Dilexi TeHe especially emphasized how it is a document that highlights the work of the Church for the poor and with the poor: "Dilexi Te reminds us of the need to commit ourselves to the poor, to give to the poor, especially through almsgiving. However, he stresses that it is essential to learn how to act with them".

In the coming hours, Omnes will publish a complete reflection on this first apostolic exhortation of Pope Leo XIV by the priest and theologian, Ramiro Pellitero.

La entrada El Vaticano presenta la exhortación apostólica ‘Dilexi te’ se publicó primero en Omnes.