A name with content

Silence and emptiness once again dominated the atmosphere in the immense Basilica of St. Peter on the evening of Good Friday. At six o'clock in the evening, Pope Francis presided at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica for the celebration of the Offices of the Passion of the Lord.

After the initial procession, the Pope prostrated himself under the steps of the presbytery, leaving an iconic image, like the one we would see later when he kissed the Cross. The triple unveiling of the Cross preceded the act of adoration, and, after adoring the Cross, the Holy Father presented it to the silent adoration of the small gathered assembly. During the Liturgy of the Word, the account of the Passion according to St. John was read, and the homily was given by the Preacher of the Pontifical Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap:

"Last October 3, at the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi, the Holy Father signed his encyclical on fraternity "Fratres omnes". In a short time, his writing has awakened in many hearts the aspiration towards this universal value, has highlighted the many wounds against it in today's world, has indicated ways to arrive at a true and just human fraternity and has exhorted everyone - individuals and institutions - to work for it.

The encyclical is ideally addressed to a very broad public, inside and outside the Church: in practice, to all humanity. It covers many areas of life: from the private to the public, from the religious to the social and the political. Given its universal horizon, it rightly avoids restricting the discourse to what is proper and exclusive to Christians. However, towards the end of the encyclical, there is a paragraph where the evangelical foundation of fraternity is summed up in few but vibrant words. It reads:

Others drink from other sources. For us, this source of human dignity and fraternity is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From it springs "for Christian thought and for the action of the Church the primacy given to relationship, to the encounter with the sacred mystery of the other, to universal communion with the whole of humanity as the vocation of all" (FO 277).

The mystery of the cross that we are celebrating obliges us to focus precisely on this Christological foundation of fraternity, which was inaugurated precisely in the death of Christ.

In the New Testament, "brother" (adelphos) means, in the primary sense, the person born of the same father and mother. Secondly, members of the same people and nation are called "brethren". Thus, Paul says that he is willing to become anathema, separated from Christ, for the sake of his brothers according to the flesh, who are the Israelites (cf. Rom 9:3). It is clear that in these contexts, as in other cases, "brethren" indicates men and women, brothers and sisters.

In this broadening of the horizon, we come to call every human person a brother, just because he is a brother. Brother is what the Bible calls "neighbor". "Whoever does not love his brother..." (1 Jn 2:9) means: whoever does not love his neighbor. When Jesus says, "Whatever you have done to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done to me" (Mt 25:40), he means every human person in need of help.

But along with all these meanings, in the New Testament the word "brother" indicates more and more clearly a particular category of persons. Brothers among themselves are the disciples of Jesus, those who embrace his teachings. "Who is my mother and who are my brothers? [Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Mt 12:48-50).

In this sense, Easter marks a new and decisive stage. Thanks to it, Christ becomes "the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom 8:29). The disciples become brothers in a new and very profound sense: they share not only the teaching of Jesus, but also his Spirit, his new life as the Risen One.

It is significant that only after his resurrection, for the first time, Jesus calls his disciples "brothers": "Go to my brothers," he says to Mary Magdalene, "and say to them, 'I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'" (Jn 20:17). In the same vein, the Letter to the Hebrews writes: "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one origin; for this reason [Christ] is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb 2:11).

After Easter, this is the most common use of the term brother; it indicates the brother of faith, a member of the Christian community. Brothers "of blood" also in this case, but of the blood of Christ! This makes the brotherhood of Christ something unique and transcendent, compared to any other kind of brotherhood, and is due to the fact that Christ is also God.

This new fraternity does not replace other types of fraternity based on family, nation or race, but crowns them. All human beings are brothers and sisters as creatures of the same God and Father. To this the Christian faith adds a second decisive reason. We are brothers not only because of creation, but also because of redemption; not only because we all have the same Father, but because we all have the same brother, Christ, "the firstborn among many brothers".

In the light of all this, we must now make some current reflections. Fraternity is built exactly as peace is built, that is to say, starting from up close, for us, not with grand schemes, with ambitious and abstract goals. This means that universal fraternity begins for us with fraternity in the Catholic Church. I also leave aside, for once, the second circle, which is the fraternity among all believers in Christ, that is, ecumenism.

The Catholic fraternity is wounded! The tunic of Christ has been torn by the divisions between the Churches; but - what is worse - each piece of the tunic is often divided, in its turn, into other pieces. I speak naturally of the human element of it, because the true robe of Christ, his mystical body animated by the Holy Spirit, no one will ever be able to wound it. In the eyes of God, the Church is "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" and will remain as such until the end of the world. This, however, does not excuse our divisions, but rather makes them all the more culpable and should impel us all the more strongly to heal them.

What is the most common cause of divisions among Catholics? It is not dogma, it is not the sacraments and ministries: all the things that by the singular grace of God we keep integral and unanimous. It is the political option, when it takes advantage of the religious and ecclesial option and defends an ideology, forgetting completely the sense and duty of obedience in the Church.

This, in many parts of the world, is the real factor of division, even if it is silently or contemptuously denied. This is sin, in the strictest sense of the term. It means that "the kingdom of this world" has become more important, in one's own heart, than the Kingdom of God.

I believe that we are all called to make a serious examination of our consciences on this matter and to convert. This is, par excellence, the work of the one whose name is "diabolos," that is, the divider, the enemy who sows tares, as Jesus defines him in his parable (cf. Mt 13:25).

We must learn from the Gospel and the example of Jesus. There was a strong political polarization around him. There were four parties: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians and the Zealots. Jesus did not align himself with any of them and vigorously resisted the attempt to drag him to one side or the other.

The early Christian community followed him faithfully in this choice. This is an example especially for pastors who must be shepherds of the whole flock, not of just one part of it. For this reason, they are the first to have to make a serious examination of conscience and ask themselves where they are leading their flock: whether to their side, or to Jesus' side.

The Second Vatican Council entrusts in particular to the laity the task of putting into practice, in different historical situations, the social, economic and political teachings of the Gospel. These can be translated into choices that are even different, when they are respectful of others and peaceful.

If there is a special charism or gift that the Catholic Church is called to cultivate for all Christian Churches, it is precisely unity. The Holy Father's recent trip to Iraq has made us feel firsthand what it means for those who are oppressed or who have survived wars and persecutions to feel part of a universal body, with someone who can make the rest of the world hear their cry and revive hope. Once again Christ's command to Peter has been fulfilled: "Confirm your brethren" (Lk 22:32).

To the One who died on the cross "to gather together the scattered children of God" (Jn 11:52) we raise, on this day, "with contrite heart and humbled spirit," the prayer that the Church addresses to him at every Mass before Communion:

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and according to your word grant her peace and unity, you who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

Pope Francis

Pope at Chrism Mass: "The Cross is not negotiable". Related News

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A name with content

Looking back over eight years of his pontificate, it is clear that Francis' mission has been to bring back to the heart of the Church a central aspect of the Gospel: love for the poor.

April 2, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

March 13 marked a new anniversary of the moment when a bishop of Rome arrived "from the end of the world"We prayed for the first time in the loggia of the Vatican Basilica. On that rainy afternoon we prayed with the Pope, whose name was Francis, and heard the phrase that has become the ritornello with which he concludes each one of his interventions: "pray for me".

Perhaps we did not perceive then the transcendence of the choice of name. Now, looking back on eight years of pontificate, it is clear that Francis' mission - as he did nine centuries earlier - was to give the Pope a new name. il poverello di Assisi- has been to return to the heart of the Church a central aspect of the Gospel: love for the poor. All his words, gestures and pastoral action have revolved around this axis of mercy.

The Holy Father has given us unique images such as the Mass he celebrated in Lampedusa, on his first trip as pontiff and in the midst of the migratory crisis, carrying a staff made from the wood of a shipwrecked cayuco. Or the opening of the holy door in the cathedral of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Or his tour of the refugee camp of Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, together with Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos. Not to mention the blessing urbi et orbi which he gave in a deserted St. Peter's Square, March 27, 2020The pandemic has claimed millions of lives in little more than a year.

In his first meeting with the press, on March 16, 2013, the Pope expressed this wish: "How I would love a poor Church for the poor!"and spoke of St. Francis as "the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and guards creation". Taking the mendicant saint as a model, he signed encyclicals such as the Laudato Si' or the Fratelli Tutti.

The authorMaria Candela Temes

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Pope at Chrism Mass: "The Cross is not negotiable".

The Holy Father Francis presided at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, where he recalled that "the Lord embraced the Cross in its entirety".

David Fernández Alonso-April 1, 2021-Reading time: 8 minutes

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At 10:00 a.m. on Holy Thursday morning, the Holy Father Francis presided at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica for the Chrism Mass, a liturgy celebrated in all cathedral churches. The evening Mass was not presided by Francis, as initially planned, but by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops and President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The Chrism Mass was presided over by the Holy Father and concelebrated by some Cardinals and Bishops, with the Superiors of the Secretariat of State and the members of the Presbyteral Council of the Diocese of Rome. During the Eucharistic Celebration, the priests renewed the promises made at the moment of their sacred ordination.

This was followed by the blessing of the oil of the sick, the oil of the catechumens and the chrism.
We publish below the homily delivered by the Pope after the proclamation of the Holy Gospel:

"The Gospel presents us with a change of feelings in the people who listen to the Lord. The change is dramatic and shows us how much persecution and the Cross are linked to the proclamation of the Gospel. The admiration aroused by the words of grace that came from the mouth of Jesus did not last long in the minds of the people of Nazareth. A phrase that someone muttered in a low voice went insidiously "viral": "Is this not the son of Joseph?

It is one of those ambiguous phrases that are dropped in passing. One can use it to express with joy: "How wonderful that someone of such humble origins speaks with such authority". And another might use it to say with contempt: "Where did he come from? Who does he think he is? If we look at
Well, the phrase is repeated when the apostles, on the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, begin to preach the Gospel. Someone said: "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" (Acts 2:7). And while some received the Word, others gave them up as drunkards.

Formally it would seem that an option was left open, but if we are guided by the fruits, in that concrete context, these words contained a germ of violence that was unleashed against Jesus. It is a "motivating phrase", as when one says: "This is already too much!" and assaults the other or leaves.

The Lord, who sometimes was silent or went to the other side, this time did not let the comment pass, but unmasked the evil logic that was hidden under the disguise of a simple village gossip. "You people will tell me this saying, 'Physician, heal thyself!' You have to do here in your own land the same things we heard you did in Capernaum" (Lk 4:23). "Heal thyself...". "Let him save himself...". There's the poison! It is the same phrase that will follow the Lord to the Cross: "He saved others! Let him save himself!" (cf. Lk 23:35); "and let him save us," one of the two thieves will add (cf. v. 39). The Lord, as always, does not dialogue with the evil spirit, but only responds with Scripture.

Neither were the prophets Elijah and Elisha accepted by their compatriots, but they were accepted by a Phoenician widow and a Syrian suffering from leprosy: two foreigners, two people of another religion. The facts are convincing and provoke the effect that Simeon, that charismatic old man, had prophesied: that Jesus would be "a sign of contradiction" (semeion antilegomenon) (Lk 2:34).

The word of Jesus has the power to bring to light what each one has in his heart, which is often mixed, like wheat and tares. And this causes spiritual struggle. Seeing the Lord's overflowing gestures of mercy and listening to his beatitudes and the "woe to you" of the Gospel, one is forced to discern and make a choice. In this case his word was not accepted and this caused the crowd, in a rage, to try to put an end to his life. But it was not "the hour" and the Lord, the Gospel tells us, "passed through the midst of them and went on his way" (Lk 4:30).

It was not the hour, but the speed with which the fury and ferocity of the fury was unleashed, capable of murdering the Lord at that very moment, shows us that it is always the hour. And this is what I would like to share with you today, dear priests: that the hour of the proclamation
and the hour of persecution and the Cross go together.

The proclamation of the Gospel is always linked to the embrace of some concrete Cross. The gentle light of the Word generates clarity in well-disposed hearts and confusion and rejection in those who are not. We see this constantly in the Gospel. The good seed sown in the field bears fruit - the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, the thirtyfold - but it also arouses the envy of the enemy who compulsively sets about sowing tares during the night (cf. Mt 13:24-30,36-43).

The tenderness of the merciful father irresistibly attracts the prodigal son to return home, but also arouses the indignation and resentment of the elder son (cf. Lk 15:11-32).

The generosity of the owner of the vineyard is a reason for gratitude in the workers of the last hour, but it is also a reason for sour comments in the first ones, who feel offended because their master is good (cf. Mt 20:1-16). The closeness of Jesus who goes to eat with sinners wins hearts like those of Zacchaeus, Matthew, the Samaritan woman..., but also arouses feelings of contempt in those who believe themselves to be good (cf. Mt 20:1-16).
fair.

The magnanimity of the king who sends his son, thinking that he will be respected by the vinedressers, nevertheless unleashes in them a ferocity beyond measure: we are before the mystery of iniquity, which leads to the killing of the Just One (cf. Mt 21:33-46). All this makes us see that the proclamation of the Good News is mysteriously linked to persecution and the Cross.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the contemplation of the Nativity, expresses this Gospel truth when he makes us look and consider what St. Joseph and Our Lady do: "how it is to walk and work, so that the Lord may be born in great poverty, and after so many labors, hunger, thirst, heat and cold, insults and insults, to die on the cross; and all this for my sake. Then," Ignatius adds, "on reflection, draw some spiritual profit" (Spiritual Exercises, 116). What reflection can we make to draw profit for our priestly life in contemplating this early presence of the Cross - of misunderstanding, rejection, persecution - at the beginning and at the very center of the preaching of the Gospel? Two reflections come to mind.

First, we are astonished to see that the Cross is present in the life of the Lord at the beginning of his ministry and even before his birth. It is present already in Mary's first confusion at the Angel's announcement; it is present in Joseph's sleeplessness when he felt obliged to abandon his betrothed wife; it is present in Herod's persecution and in the hardships suffered by the Holy Family, the same as those of so many families who have to leave their homeland.

This reality opens us to the mystery of the Cross lived beforehand. It leads us to understand that the Cross is not an a posteriori, occasional event, the product of a conjuncture in the life of the Lord. It is true that all the crucifiers of history make the Cross appear as if it were collateral damage, but it is not so: the Cross does not depend on circumstances.

Why did the Lord embrace the Cross in its entirety? Why did Jesus embrace the entire passion, embrace the betrayal and abandonment of his friends as early as the Last Supper, accept the illegal arrest, the summary trial, the unconscionable sentence, the unnecessary evil of gratuitous slaps and spitting...? If the circumstantial affected the saving power of the Cross, the Lord would not have embraced everything. But when it was His hour, He embraced the whole Cross, because on the Cross there is no ambiguity! The Cross is not negotiable.

The second reflection is the following. It is true that there is something about the Cross that is an integral part of our human condition, of our limits and fragility. But it is also true that there is something that happens on the Cross, which is not inherent to our fragility, but it is the bite of the serpent, which, seeing the crucified one helpless, bites him, and seeks to poison and disprove all his work. It is a bite that seeks to scandalize, immobilize and render sterile and insignificant all service and sacrifice of love for others. It is the poison of the evil one who keeps insisting: save yourself. And in this cruel and painful bite, which pretends to be mortal, God's triumph finally appears.

St. Maximus the Confessor made us see that with Jesus crucified things were reversed: by biting the Flesh of the Lord, the devil did not poison him - he only found in Him infinite meekness and obedience to the will of the Father - but, on the contrary, together with the hook of the Cross, he swallowed the Flesh of the Lord, which was poison for him and became for us the antidote that neutralizes the power of the Evil One.

These are our reflections. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to profit from this teaching: there is a cross in the proclamation of the Gospel, it is true, but it is a Cross that saves. It is a Cross endowed with the Blood of Jesus, it is a Cross with the power of Christ's victory that overcomes evil, that frees us from the Evil One. Embracing it with Jesus and like Him, "before" going out to preach, allows us to discern and reject the poison of scandal with which the devil will want to poison us when a cross unexpectedly comes into our life.

"But we are not of those who shrink back (hypostoles)" (Heb 10:39) is the advice given to us by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. We are not scandalized, because Jesus was not scandalized to see that his joyful proclamation of salvation to the poor did not resound pure, but in the midst of the cries and threats of those who did not want to hear his Word.

We are not scandalized because Jesus was not scandalized by having to heal the sick and free prisoners in the midst of moralistic, legalistic, clerical discussions and controversies that arose every time he did good. We are not scandalized because Jesus was not scandalized by having to give sight to the blind in the midst of people who closed their eyes so as not to see or looked the other way.

We are not scandalized because Jesus was not scandalized that his proclamation of the year of the Lord's favor - a year that is the whole of history - provoked a public scandal in what today would occupy only the third page of a provincial newspaper. And we are not scandalized because the proclamation of the Gospel does not receive its efficacy from our eloquent words, but from the power of the Cross (cf. 1 Cor 1:17).

From the way we embrace the Cross in proclaiming the Gospel-with works and, if necessary, with words-two things become clear: that the sufferings that come for the sake of the Gospel are not ours, but "the sufferings of Christ in us" (2 Cor 1:5), and that "we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus as Christ and Lord" and we are "servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor 4:5).

I want to end with a memory. Once, in a very dark moment of my life, I was asking the Lord for a grace to free me from a hard and difficult situation. I went to preach Spiritual Exercises to some nuns and on the last day, as was usual at that time, they went to confession. A very old sister came, with clear eyes, really luminous.

She was a woman of God. At the end I felt the desire to ask her for me and I told her: "Sister, as a penance, pray for me, because I need a grace. If you ask the Lord for it, he will surely give it to me". She paused for a long moment, as if praying, and then she told me this: "Surely the Lord will give you the grace, but make no mistake: he will give it to you in his divine way". This did me a lot of good: to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for, but he does it in his divine way. This way involves the cross. Not out of masochism, but out of love, out of love to the end".

Pope Francis

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The True Cross and the meaning and significance of the relics of Jesus Christ

Culture

Relics of Our Lord: the holy places

The land that Jesus Christ walked on is a real relic, and helps us to get closer to his person and message. We review some of the places related to his life, together with scenes from his biography.

Alejandro Vázquez-Dodero-April 1, 2021-Reading time: 7 minutes

The places where Jesus Christ lived or visited are authentic relics. As we pointed out in a previous fascicle, any element that formed part of his life or with which he was in contact, invites us to approach his person and message with greater piety and is considered a relic. The same happens with any saint in the history of Catholicism: what he wore or where he lived acquires the character of a relic.

In those places related to the biography of Our Lord, churches have been built over time to commemorate his presence and invite us to contemplate the passage of the Son of God through those places and, in some way, to pray and give thanks for such graces.

Among the various criteria that can be used to describe these places, we have opted for the chronological one. That is to say, we will refer to the places where Christ was, in order, from his birth to his crucifixion, death and resurrection. In addition, in order to contextualize, we will refer to some event in the life of the Lord in each of these places.

Nazareth

The Arab city of Nazareth, now the largest in Israel, is located in a natural valley 320 meters above sea level, about 25 kilometers from the Sea of Galilee.

At the time of Jesus, it would have been a discreet city, with very few of the cave houses in the area. Today it would have about 50,000 inhabitants, Muslims and Christians. It would have been inhabited in the Bronze Age, and several cave-houses have been discovered which would have been dwellings with the typical facilities of the time. Over time, after the death of Jesus, the Judeo-Christian community would emerge, transforming some of these cave-houses into churches where the first disciples of the Lord would gather for worship.

The miracle of the Incarnation of the Lord took place in Nazareth. There Miriam, a young Jewish girl, would have the honor of becoming the Mother of God by conceiving Jesus Christ in her womb through the work and grace of the Holy Spirit. The archangel Gabriel would appear to her with this unique mission, which she fully accepted.

Angelus Domini nuntiavit hic Mariae

In that city stands out the Basilica of the Annunciation, commemorating the Incarnation of the Lord and where tradition holds that the Virgin Mary lived. This basilica is the center of Nazareth, and within it the grotto, in which a variation to the text of the Angelus prayer is allowed: it means that right there the angel of the Lord announced his embassy to Mary with the Angelus Domini nuntiavit. hic Mariae. This inclusion of the "hic", which is engraved on the front of the altar of the basilica, signifies that this mysterious act of love of God for humanity took place right there, incarnating himself in her immaculate womb.

Jesus spent his childhood in Nazareth with Joseph and Mary. He would work in his father's workshop, since he was known as "the carpenter's son" (cf. Mt. 13:55).

In addition to the great basilica of the Annunciation we also have the church of St. Joseph, where the saint would have his workshop; and the Synagogue church, where the Lord would preach, inside the synagogue or Jewish temple of the time.

The house of Nazareth where, according to tradition, the Annunciation took place and where Jesus, Mary and Joseph would later live, is located in Loreto. During the Crusades, faced with the advance of the Muslims, the Christians thought that the best way to protect the "holy house" would be to move it. At the end of the 13th century, the Angeli family was in charge of the transfer, first to present-day Croatia, then to Ancona and finally to Loreto, where it is today. Scientifically it seems to be ruled out that the house was moved by men, and the tests carried out on it confirm that it is a 1st century building. Thus, tradition holds that it was moved by angels, and hence the Virgin of Loreto is the patron saint of aviators.

Aim Karim

It is an ancient town in the district of Jerusalem, where, according to Christian tradition, Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, when she was already pregnant and awaiting the arrival of Jesus.

Thus, referring to this episode in the life of Jesus, we place the Lord there because his Mother was there awaiting his birth in her womb.

Belen

Palestinian city located in the region of the West Bank, in the mountains of Judea. It is the place attributed to the birth of Jesus. It is also the place attributed to the birth and coronation of King David.

It is currently surrounded by walls installed by the Israeli government, and several checkpoints, as a security measure against the Palestinian people.

The Magi arrived in Bethlehem to adore the newborn baby Jesus. From Bethlehem St. Joseph would flee with Mary and the Child to Egypt, taking into account the order decreed by Herod to kill children under two years of age, after feeling deceived by the Magi after questioning them about their presence in his domain and the answer received.

Cana

City located 10 km south of Tyre -now Lebanon- and 12 km from the northern border of Israel.

Famous for being the place where Jesus performed the first miracle: the transformation of water into wine during a wedding celebration. Many Christian couples come to this city to renew their marriages.

Jordan River

This river rises in the northern foothills of Mount Hermon, flows through southeastern Lebanon to the south, enters Israel and empties into the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee.

In it St. John the Baptist baptized Jesus just before he began his public ministry.

Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias or Lake Gennesaret

It is a 21 km long north-south and 12 km east-west lake, at an altitude of 212 m below sea level, making it the lowest freshwater lake in the world.

It is important for Christians because Jesus developed much of his public activity around it, taking up residence in the city of Capernaum, north of the lake.

There he chose his first disciples, mostly fishermen. In addition, Jesus performed many miracles there, such as calming the storm or walking on water.

Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes

Capernaum is a fishing village located in ancient Galilee, Israel, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Very close to Capernaum is the mountain where Jesus gave the discourse on the Beatitudes or the synthesis of the morality of Christ's message.

Betania

It is a village located on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, now called Al Azariyeh.

In Bethany lived the brothers Lazarus, Martha and Mary, friends of Jesus, whom he visited on several occasions. We do not know how this friendship originated, but we do know that they were united by a sincere and great friendship, because of the various details of closeness that the Gospels show. These three brothers would repeatedly host the Lord in their home.

It was precisely in that city that the great miracle of the resurrection of his friend, Lazarus, took place. Such was the devotion they had at the time to this holy place that a sanctuary was built next to the tomb of Lazarus. In it are represented several scenes of those encounters of Jesus with that family friend.

In Bethany also lived Simon the leper, in whose home a woman -Mary, sister of Lazarus, already mentioned, or another Mary, that of Magdala- anointed Jesus with perfume on his head as a sign of veneration.

Jerusalem

The holy city of Jerusalem is located in the Near East, in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Dead Sea. A city afflicted since ancient times by continuous disputes over its sovereignty and capital, today it is the capital of the State of Israel, although the State of Palestine claims the eastern part as its own capital. In 1980, as a result of a UN Security Council resolution and in response to Israel's attempted annexation of the eastern part of the city, several countries decided to move their embassies from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, which administratively and politically became the capital of Israel.

Jerusalem has a profound religious significance, and the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - consider it a holy city. For Judaism, it is where King David established the capital of the kingdom of Israel, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed and where the temple was built to which prayers should be directed. For Christians, it is where Jesus preached, was crucified and resurrected. For Islam it is the third sacred city, from where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, and it was there that Muslims first turned their gaze when praying, before moving on to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.

Highlights in Jerusalem

In the city of Jerusalem there are many churches that commemorate some event linked to the life of the Lord. For Christians, among others, the following stand out:

Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre: it houses Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, and the tomb where he was buried. It is also known as the Basilica of the Resurrection, because it is also where the resurrection of the Lord took place.

Cenacle: where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, instituting the Eucharist; it was also where he appeared to the apostles and where they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Basilica of the Agony: located on the Mount of Olives, it commemorates the moment when Jesus spent his last moments before undertaking the Via Dolorosa on his way to Calvary.

Church of Domus Flevit: commemorates the place from where on Palm Sunday the Lord gazed upon Jerusalem and wept in sorrow for it.

Church of the Flagellation: it is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, where the Lord was scourged at the beginning of his ascension to Calvary.

Church of the Lord's Prayer: in that place Jesus taught the disciples this Sunday prayer.

Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu: it recalls the place where the house of Caiaphas, who judged Christ for his subsequent death sentence on the Cross, was located.

Litostrotos: where Jesus was crowned with thorns and outraged by Roman soldiers.

Via Dolorosa: refers to the path that Jesus followed to Calvary, with the cross on his back. Along this way are marked the stations or moments of his torture towards the place where he would be crucified.

Abbey of the Dormition: this abbey commemorates the place where Mary fell asleep before being assumed into heaven.

Church of St. Anne: commemorates the place where the Virgin Mary was born, dedicating the name of the temple to that of her mother, Anne.

Edicule of the Ascension: from there Jesus ascended to heaven.

The True Cross and the meaning and significance of the relics of Jesus Christ

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"Live Holy Week with all your senses", exhort the pregoneros

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To console Jesus, to accompany Mary

These days we can not accompany the Dolorosa through the streets, to alleviate somehow her pain, her helplessness, her loneliness, to see her Son sewn to the wood. But we can do it with our hearts.

Rafael Miner-April 1, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

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Each year the Stations of the Cross take on a new light. Sometimes they are scenes from Calvary, sometimes others. The Passion of Our Lord is an inexhaustible source. The other day I was amused looking at Michelangelo's La Piedad, with a surprisingly young Mother of Jesus; La Dolorosa, by Murillo, and so many Dolorosas and Soledades that have been carried on the shoulders of costaleros throughout Spain. How can one not be moved by the tears of our Mother!

I will now dwell on three stations: Jesus meets his Blessed Mother (Station IV), the Death of Jesus on the Cross (Station XII), and Jesus is unclothed and given to his Mother (Station XIII). We will try to do so with the help of two universal saints, St. Teresa of Jesus and St. Josemaría Escrivá, and an archbishop who recently died as a result of the pandemic, Don Juan del Río, surely one of those saints who died of the pandemic. "saints next door", as Pope Francis calls them.

Moaning in the epidemic of 1580

In 1580, a flu epidemic ravaged Europe, and carried off many people; among them, several friends of Teresa of Avila, such as the knight Don Francisco de Salcedo, the archbishop of Seville Don Cristóbal de Rojas, and Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, her former confessor, whom Teresa mourned greatly. Her brother and spiritual son, Lorenzo de Cepeda, also died that same year.

"The wound was deep and tore moans from him.", writes Marcelle Auclair in her biography of the saint. "I know not what God leaves me for but to see the deaths of God's servants, which is great torment."Teresa of Jesus wrote at the age of 65, almost always ill and yet with astonishing endurance.

She became depressed, without courage, like so many today, and was reluctant to found the monasteries of Palencia and Burgos. Until "One day, after receiving communion, the Lord reproachfully said to him: 'What do you fear, when have I ever failed you? The same as I have been, I am now; do not fail to make these two foundations.' To which the Mother exclaimed: 'Oh, great God, and how your words are different from those of men! Thus I was determined and encouraged, so that the whole world would not suffice to contradict me".

"Teresa of Jesus uttered her favorite word: determination." notes the biographer. "The will has become so strong in her that as soon as she decides a thing can be taken for done." because "the Lord helps you determine how to serve and glorify Him.". These are the words of Teresa of Jesus.

"We don't want to leave her alone."

In these intense days, in which we relive the mysteries of our faith, many of us ask ourselves how to console Jesus and accompany Mary. The encounter of Jesus with his Blessed Mother on the Via Dolorosa, through the streets of Jerusalem, gives us a clue. It is the fourth station.

St. Josemaría refers to this will of God in his book Way of the Cross: "In the dark solitude of the Passion, Our Lady offers her Son a balm of tenderness, of union, of fidelity: a yes to the divine will. From the hand of Mary, you and I want to console Jesus, accepting always and in everything the Will of his Father, of our Father", writes.

On Calvary, how much we would like to have the strength of the young apostle John, to stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary, and receive her as our Mother. Because "the Blessed Virgin is our Mother, and we do not want to and cannot leave her alone", exclaims the founder of Opus Dei in this posthumous work, which came out in 1981, six years after his death.

We want to accompany her during these days, with love, as she is overwhelmed with sorrow and with her Son in her arms.

"Our loneliness, defeated"

On January 1, 2018, Pope Francis said on the Solemnity of the Mother of God: "In his Mother, the God of heaven, the infinite God became small, became matter, not only to be with us, but also to be like us.

Here is the miracle, the novelty: man is no longer alone; he is no longer an orphan, but a son forever. The year opens with this newness. And we proclaim it, saying: Mother of God! It is the joy of knowing that our loneliness has been defeated".These words bring to mind so much loneliness in our world. Don Juan del Rio, the recently deceased Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, referred a few years ago to the drama of loneliness. "Hence the family must be rehabilitated in the primacy of love and unity; also feeling part of that other family, the Church, which accompanies us in all our loneliness and existential emptiness, offering us the company of Someone who never abandons us, even beyond death: Jesus Christ, the Lord." Holy Mary, Sorrowful Mother, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

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Winners and losers

We are entering the Easter Triduum. What will one's supposed death in Jerusalem have to do with my life in April 2021? It is a mystery, but that is how it is: faith is a gift.

April 1, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

We are entering the culmination of the Christian year. The Easter Triduum immerses us in the historical events from which Christianity springs: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

It is the synthesis of faith, the proclamation of which we call kerygma and that it consists of good news: that death has been defeated, that there is someone who has loved us so much that he has been able to give his life for us to save us from the clutches of death.

That we don't die! That death has become a step towards life!

The news is good, isn't it? The pity is that not everyone believes it. They think it's a fake newWhat will one's supposed death in Jerusalem have to do with my life in April 2021? It is a mystery, but that is how it is: faith is a gift.

Jesus spoke in little stories, in parables "so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand". It is a way of leaving us free, of not forcing us to believe. Being God, he could explain his mystery to us in such an evident way that we would have no choice but to believe, but he explains it with analogies because freedom is necessary to truly love, and faith is, eminently, to love God. In this sense, the life of Jesus is the great parable. You can stay in the story and be a mere spectator of the life of Jesus, as one who only goes to see the processions of Holy Week for its spectacularity and beauty, or take the step, believe it and your life will change in these days and forever.

In a sinister coincidence, last Thursday, March 25, Day of the Annunciation of the Lord and Day for Life, the BOE published the new law regulating euthanasia and assisted suicide in Spain, which will come into force in a few months. It is a new victory for the culture of death, which affirms that there are lives that are not worth living. If a life is useless, it is thrown away; because, if there is no life beyond, only what is useful here is worthwhile.

For this reason, faith in the Resurrection is transcendental, because it opens the gates of heaven for us, giving us infinite dignity, just as the new life that is given to us is eternal. This concept that each person is infinitely valuable is why Christians have always been at the forefront in accompanying those who, according to society, matter the least: the poor, the sick, the elderly, orphans, prisoners, prostituted women... It is the culture of life, which proclaims that every human being has an inalienable dignity.

The approval of the euthanasia law was greeted with four minutes of applause from the deputies. They were aware that this was a historic moment. And indeed it was. Believing they were winning, they were being defeated by death. Seeing, they do not see.

At the Easter Vigil we will celebrate the definitive victory of life. Will we be able to celebrate it in such a way that the whole world becomes aware of it? It is in our hands to witness this: that we are victors, not vanquished!

The authorAntonio Moreno

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

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Evangelization

Jacques Philippe: "To pray is, above all, to welcome a presence".

Jacques Philippe is undoubtedly one of the best known spiritual authors of our time. Through his numerous works and retreats, this author has led thousands of people, lay people, priests, converts or even non-believers on paths of prayer and Christian life in today's world.

Maria José Atienza-March 31, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

Omnes The printed issue of the April 2021 issue contains an interview with this Frenchman, a member of the Beatitudes community, who answers current issues such as pain, freedom and the need for prayer in our world.

The experience of the pandemic has "unsettled" many non-believers, but also many others who have faith but who are now asking themselves: "How can God allow this situation?

We are faced with the eternal question of the existence of evil in the world. The real question we have to ask ourselves, in my opinion is not, "Why this situation?", since there is always an unknown part... but, "How can I live this situation in a positive way and welcome it as a possibility for human and spiritual growth?"

I have noticed that this situation has caused many people to make a spiritual leap, a greater intensity of prayer, a stronger commitment to proclaim the Gospel, thanks to the Internet, for example. It is up to each person to discover how this situation invites him or her to progress in faith, hope and charity.

As a society, did we think that we were capable of doing whatever we wanted? Hadn't we also brought this human experience into the realm of Christian life?

Sometimes we do. The fragility, even helplessness, that we experience reminds us that faith is not the exercise of power, but the surrender of our weakness and fragility into God's hands. This situation of weakness that we are going through invites us not to find our security in our power, in our ability to solve it or to understand it, but to place our security in the trusting abandonment into the hands of our Heavenly Father, as the Gospel proposes to us.

How does a person like Jacques Philippe, who dedicates his life to talking about God, talk to God?

I often use the words of Scripture, especially the psalms, and the prayers offered to us by the Church. I believe that the most profound prayer is not so much about talking to God, but simply about being in his presence in an act of faith, welcoming his love and offering oneself to him in return. All this, through a very simple attitude of the heart, beyond words and sensitive experiences. To pray is, above all, to welcome a presence.

One of the characteristics of our world is the selfie culture: we look at ourselves all the time. How can we prevent this from happening in our relationship with God?

There is a certain obsession with self-image in our world. We try to give others a good image of ourselves. We end up existing only in the eyes of others. Prayer helps us to live under the gaze of God. Our true identity, our deep beauty, is not something we have to produce, to fabricate, something we have to convince others of, but it is something we receive freely from God.

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Evangelization

The saints: living gospel

The lives of the saints constitute a powerful argument of credibility, since they demonstrate in a concrete and effective way the truthfulness of the Gospel.

José Miguel Granados-March 31, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

The young Carlo Acutis, recently beatified, said: "I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on things that do not please God. The lives of the saints constitute a powerful argument of credibility. They demonstrate in a concrete and effective way the truthfulness of the Gospel, which does not remain merely a theoretical doctrine, much less an ideology, but contains the divine seed for developing excellence in personal existence, in societies and in cultures.

Close and powerful

Their intense lives, driven by faith, show in a close and powerful way the definitive humanism contained in the Christian message, which makes present in the world the supernatural newness of the Kingdom of God. Their existence, filled with the fire of the Spirit, refutes not only the imposture of a pretended atheistic humanism, disproved by the terrible totalitarian regimes of the contemporary world, but also the pretension of a lukewarm and mediocre Christianity, worldly, incapable of transmitting the life of faith.

Living Gospel

The saints are really the living, lived Gospel, expressed in the history of people from all walks of life: they are an extension or continuation of Christ himself and of his work in time and space, in the widest variety of circumstances, forms and options. The Church presents all these astonishing but accessible, tangible testimonies-the saints "next door" (Francis), "of ordinary life" (St. Josemaría)-as the fundamental driving force of her evangelizing mission.

Attraction to Jesus

The luminous and simple lives of the saints, truly virtuous, convince us of the fullness that Christ offers. They are "the most beautiful face of the Church, the bride of Christ" (Francis); they are a glimpse of divine beauty incarnate. They strongly attract people to Jesus, the cause of universal redemption and the ultimate model for all, by their superior, eternal wisdom; they powerfully influence by their life of prayer, intercession and hidden sacrifice; they regenerate peoples by their example of generous, audacious and heroic charity.

Thus prayed St. Faustina Kowalska: "Help me, Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never be suspicious or judge according to appearances, but seek the beautiful in the soul of my neighbor and go to help him."

The saints "have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances of the Church's history" (St. John Paul II). They stand out as "stars of hope" and point to Christ as the only Savior (Benedict XVI). They are a clear luminary and a sure guide on the earthly pilgrimage towards heaven.

Carlo Acutis

Ways to evangelize today: Jesus Christ

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Sunday Readings

Readings for Easter Sunday

Andrea Mardegan comments on Easter Sunday readings

Andrea Mardegan-March 31, 2021-Reading time: 2 minutes

At the Easter Vigil we read the resurrection according to Mark. Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James the younger, and Salome, who had followed and served Jesus from Galilee, have seen his cross and his burial. The men have escaped and are dismayed. The women, bearers of life, go where their hearts lead them, to the tomb, with the strength of the love they want to manifest to the end, with the ancient desire of all mankind to fill with affection the already cold body of a loved one, with the aromatic oils bought in advance, who knows when. With the ingenuity of love, which is stronger than death.

But death had the final word until that day. They had watched Joseph of Arimathea wrap the body of Jesus in a new sheet, lay him in a tomb hewn out of the rock and rolled a stone to cover its entrance. They had memorized everything.

They went at dawn: they made an appointment, got up at night and, as soon as they could move, they went. Strong for the love of Jesus, and for the friendship between them. They are not stopped by the physical impossibility of moving the stone, the impossibility of humanity to move the granite certainty of death. And so the gesture of their body "looking up" becomes for believers a gesture of faith: if you look up, you will see that the stone of death has been destroyed by this day of resurrection. They enter without fear, indeed, with the desire to caress that beloved body with aromatic oil: they are experts in death, like all mankind. And instead of a mangled corpse, they find a young man, not lying, but seated; not naked, but clothed in glory, and then they become afraid.

That young voice of heaven on earth encourages them: "Do not be afraid."The crucified one is risen! Look at his tomb, it is empty. It is you who announce it to the disciples and to Peter, who is the leader. It does not matter that he has disowned him, for God does not cast out the traitor, but forgives and rehabilitates him. You, women, who cannot be witnesses, are the ones chosen by God as witnesses of the resurrection of his Son, before the leaders of the Church. Jesus of Nazareth awaits you all in Galilee, where he began this Gospel. Remember all that he has done and said in the light of this morning. In the Gospel of the Vigil we do not read a verse like the following: "They went out and fled from the tomb, for they were overcome with trembling and beside themselves. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were terrified". May our human fear in the face of the mystery of new life in Christ be converted into courage, may silence be transformed into words, and may flight be changed into return and closeness.

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"Live Holy Week with all your senses", exhort the pregoneros

While in 2020 most of the Easter Week pregones in Spain were suspended, this year they have taken on new life, also through the networks, despite the pandemic and the perimeter closures.

Rafael Miner-March 31, 2021-Reading time: 4 minutes

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Holy Week begins

The confinement in which the Spaniards lived Easter last year, in the middle of a first wave of contagions and deaths in maximum, has given way this year, with the beginning of the vaccination, to resume the Easter processions, although the processions or the living passions have been suspended due to the sanitary measures of prudence.

Among the formulas chosen in 2021 are the traditional one of the lecturer or town crier in a temple, usually the cathedral, such as that of Cardinal Carlos Amigo in Madrid, or that of the historian and university professor of Art History, María Antonia Fernández del Hoyo, in Valladolid; the one pronounced through the networks, as was the case of the journalist Cristina del Olmo in the diocese of Barbastro-Monzón, who gave the proclamation from her parish of Santa María la Antigua de Vicálvaro (Madrid); or those of Seville and Cordoba, which took place in theaters.

In the capital of Seville, an act of homage to the Easter Week proclamation was organized at the Maestranza Theater, with the participation of several of the great pregoneros of the last thirty years, in addition to Julio Cuesta, appointed for last year. And in Cordoba, the great Theater was the scene of a certainly original proclamation, presented by Rafael Fernandez, who was to deliver the one suspended for 2020, and composed of texts selected from the proclamations of various years.

"The creativity of love".

As noted Cristina del Olmopresented by the editor in chief of the magazine EcclesiaSara de la Torre, "this Holy Week which, for the second consecutive year will be celebrated with more or less presence in the churches, according to the restrictions established by the evolution of the pandemic, leads us to put into practice more than ever the 'creativity of love'".

"It will be a Holy Week without processions", added Del Olmo, "but I am sure that your brotherly heart will go out into the streets and you will continue to bear witness to your faith in the resurrection with your gestures of joy and tenderness towards others", added the journalist, who currently works for the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE).

"I have carried you all this year in my heart with a special emotion. I would like to mention here each and every one of you who have lost a family member, who are going through difficult situations due to lack of work, loneliness or illness. For you especially, the experience of the Passion and Resurrection will have more meaning than ever", he added, concluding this call to evangelization: "Let us be street apostles, able to proclaim the living God, the one who walks with us. Let us be apostles who bring joy to the life of our neighbor".

"Unite with the feelings of Christ."

"Here and now, we will place gratitude in yesterday's celebration and live today's with faith and devotion."with "rules that we have to abide by", because "if we want to be good Christians we will have to be honest citizens", began by pointing out in the Almudena Cathedral the Cardinal Carlos AmigoArchbishop Emeritus of Seville. In his words, he emphasized that Holy Week links with the "Good News of the Passion, Death and Resurrection."and that "a Christian is united to the feelings of Christ and wants to identify with Him".

His practical advice focused on the experience of these holy days. "Holy Week must be experienced with all the senses".meeting with the Lord. "We will see his gestures, his wounded face, we will hear his words, which speak of his submission to the will of God the Father, we will touch his wounds and make his pain our own." he said.

Cardinal Amigo, who is Grand Prior of the Lieutenancy of Spain of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, added that Holy Week is an occasion for "to reconnect with the best of our condition as believers". and stressed that the "battered face" of Christ "does not leave indifferent"but leads to be "witness" in the midst of pain and uncertainty, also in this time of pandemic, with "misunderstandings, stumbles and slips of all kinds."as reported by the Cope radio station and the website of the Archbishopric of Madrid.

"Prepare minds and hearts, feelings and faith to honor and live with the most sincere and profound devotion the Easter of the Risen Lord. And may everything be to the praise of God, of Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer, and of his blessed Mother the Virgin Mary.", he concluded.

In his presentation, the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, emphasized that Cardinal Amigo, among other things, knows how to "to establish bonds of communion with people".to the point that it is "the bishop in Spain who has done the most for interfaith relations"..

"He gave us the gift of freedom."

Next to the figure of the Ecce Homo of Gregorio Fernández, belonging to the Penitential Brotherhood of the Santa Vera Cruz, the historian María Antonia Fernández in the cathedral of Valladolid: "Holy Week is the remembrance and experience of the one who, with his death, gave us freedom and authentic life. We proclaim aloud love in the face of selfishness, hope in the face of passivity. We proclaim a new world, always becoming, in transformation, where man is the key piece, for being redeemed by Jesus".

"Holy Week has a deep meaning for the cofrades and for all believers much more", in the opinion of the historian, to whom she "It seems absurd to oppose the devotional sense, the religious content of a sculpture, to its artistic interest. The more beautiful a work of art is, the more it will reach the sensibility of those who contemplate it".

"There is much that the history of Art owes to the Catholic religion." noted, as reported by El Norte de Castilla. "The patronage of the Church, also of so many lay believers, has allowed the creation of an immense artistic heritage." added María Antonia Fernández in a ceremony attended by the mayor of the capital city of Valladolid, Oscar Puente, together with the archbishop and cardinal Ricardo Blázquez, and the auxiliary bishop, Luis Argüello, secretary general and spokesman of the EEC.

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Card. Cañizares: "The challenge of the Church today is that people believe".

Antonio Cañizares Llovera is one of the prelates who best knows the Church, both universal and Spanish. Pastor of dioceses such as Granada, Toledo and Valencia, his work in the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments made him one of the best known prelates of the Church, both universally and in Spain. "to see the Church as it is: mystery of unity and to meet the young and needy Churches of the Third World.".

Maria José Atienza-March 30, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

Omnes The printed version of this April's issue is available in Spanish, a lengthy interview with the Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia who, in the last few months has made headlines with initiatives such as the departure of Our Lady of the Forsaken in a car through the streets of Valencia, or the creation of the Foundation Pauperibus through which the bishopric will dispose of various assets to put the money at the service of the needy.

"Our Lady came out because she wanted to come out."

In recent weeks, we have seen him touring hospitals and other places in Valencia with the pilgrim image of the Virgin of the Forsaken in the so-called "Virgen de los Desamparados" (Our Lady of the Forsaken). Mare-Mobile Where did the idea for this peculiar Marian outing come from?

Our Lady went out because she wanted to go out. She wanted to visit the people, to be with the people and we have listened to the Virgin. What we have done is simply what Our Mother wanted and what the Valencian people also wanted. At the beginning of the pandemic they already asked me, but, in these last weeks, the call that the Virgin was making to us was so insistent, this desire of hers to see her people, that I said to myself "We have to consent to this request, because it is not ours, it is Our Mother's". That is the most beautiful thing about this outing. It has not been a simple outing. I was able to accompany her one day and it was, for me, a day of grace, light and hope.

There have been precious anecdotes. Anecdotes that express how the Valencian people are and how they live what is said in our hymn to the Virgin "la fe per Vos no mor": faith does not die thanks to Her.

One of the initiatives that you have announced is the creation of the foundation PauperibusWhat is the reason for a new initiative of this kind?

In Valencia we have the examples of saintly bishops such as Saint Thomas of Villanova or Blessed Cardinal Ciriaco Maria Sancha, who died after visiting the poorest of the poor in a freeze in Toledo... How could I, being the successor of these bishops, not do something similar? Pauperibus is just that: a foundation for the poorest. That is why it has been warmly welcomed by priests and faithful alike. It is a matter of making some of the bishopric's goods, specifically several paintings, pay for themselves. Where is the money of the poor better? hung up? or put at the service of the most needy, making us negotiate what we have received from the Lord?

We have received everything, nothing is ours, everything is God's, and God loves the least. The Church is poor and must appear as what she is: poor. Her wealth is God and nothing but God.

"In Rome I saw the Church as it is: mystery of communion".

You have developed your pastoral work in the heart of the Church, among others, as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. What do you remember about the work of those years?

I remember everything. My deep communion with Pope Benedict XVI, also with Pope Francis. There I saw the Church as it is: mystery of communion, mystery of unity.

For me, my time in Rome has been a gift, to get to know the churches of the third world, the poor churches, the churches in need.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges facing the Church?

The main challenge of the Church today is that people believe. That people come to know and follow Jesus Christ. It is the challenge of the first times, to evangelize, to make disciples, followers of Jesus who really follow that new life that we find with Christ.

The full version of this interview can be found in the April 2021 print issue of Omnes.

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"Have hope, a thief was saved": the ACdP campaign for these days.

Ángel López Berlanga's testimony of conversion will be visible on 400 billboards and advertisements in the subways of more than forty Spanish cities. A drug trafficker who changed his life as a result of a procession in the center where he was imprisoned.

Maria José Atienza-March 30, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute

It is the good thief of the XXI century, who met the Cross unwillingly in the worst conditions, but, as a result of that encounter by procession in the center where he was imprisoned, his process of conversion began with the same words of more than 2000 years ago "...".Remember me,....."

The creativity of the campaign is an illustration of Golgotha, with the message Have hope, a thief was saved and, through the QR code you can access the testimony of Ángel López Berlanga. It is a message of hope to remind us that we are all called to eternal life, just like St. Dimas, the good thief.

The campaign will be present throughout Holy Week until Easter Tuesday in the cities of Santander, Vigo, Seville, Malaga, Salamanca, Burgos, Valencia, Zaragoza, Alicante, Almeria, Cadiz, Castellon, Oviedo, Murcia, Pontevedra, Vitoria, Gijon, Granada, Huelva, Valladolid, Pamplona, Leon, Logroño, Gerona, Lleida, Cuenca, Albacete and Madrid. In addition, it will also be in Sabadell, Badalona, Elche, Alcoy, Lorca, Alcobendas, Boadilla del Monte, Coslada, Getafe, Leganés, Móstoles, Pozuelo de Alarcón, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Torrejón de Ardoz and in the Madrid Metro.

Via Crucis the marquees of Malaga:

In addition, in the center of the city of Malaga, the ACdP has arranged a Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross will be available in the streets in several marquees with a QR code that links to the texts proposed by the Vatican for this practice of piety typical of the days of Holy Week.

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Alejandro Arellano, new Dean of the Rota Tribunal

The Holy Father has published today the appointment of Bishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, who until now served as Auditor of this same Tribunal.

Maria José Atienza-March 30, 2021-Reading time: < 1 minute

Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, a native of Olías del Rey, was ordained a priest on October 25, 1987 in Toledo. He holds a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome. Among the tasks he has carried out are those of Adjunct Judicial Vicar in the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Madrid and Judge of the Tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain. He is a professor of Canon Law and Jurisprudence. Since 2007 he has been Prelate Auditor of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. He is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University. As Dean of the Rota, he replaces Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, 79 years old.

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Towards a new Religion curriculum

Education

Would you change the Religion class if it were competency-based?

Depending on the application of one or the other pedagogical model, this would affect the focus of the Religion curriculum itself.

Javier Segura-March 29, 2021-Reading time: 3 minutes

How does the Religion class look like in the LOMLOE? Related News

Education has been in the news again these days. The reason is that the new curriculum model has been proposed within the framework of the LOMLOE education law. We have been able to read in the press that the Government is planning a turnaround in education so that it will not be memoristic and that the central axis of education will be the process of learning by competencies. There is also talk in the media about how Minister Celaá wants to promote the model of learning areas in the education system, breaking in some way the concept of subject. And with these many other topics and debates specific to the educational field are occupying the pages of the newspapers, such as co-teaching, service-learning projects and many others.

All this will affect the teaching of Religion in school. It cannot be otherwise, since it is fully inserted in the school environment. What repercussions could this new model have? How would school religious education change if it is based on competencies or if it is proposed within a learning environment and not as a subject?

Of course, there would be consequences in terms of organization, work or approach to the Religion curriculum itself, depending on the way in which these pedagogical models are applied.

The use of our memory, not only in learning but in life in general, is an aspect full of nuances that deserves a much broader reflection.
Javier Segura

I would like to analyze what is perhaps the most fundamental approach of the new law, which is learning by competencies. In various media, learning by competencies has been presented as the opposite of learning by rote. It should be pointed out at the outset that this dialectic is totally false. They are not opposed to each other, but should be mutually reinforcing. And in any case, the issue of the use of our memory, not only in learning but in life in general, is an aspect full of nuances that deserves a much broader reflection.

What does learning by competencies consist of? The central idea is that it is a learning process in which the child must be able to apply the contents learned in the classroom to life, in such a way that they become transformers of his or her own person. Moving from simple abstract content disconnected from life, to learning in which the student is able to apply it to his or her daily life in a natural way. The European Union proposes eight key competencies for the entire educational system, but the dynamics of learning competencies is the model to be followed in the different subjects.

Two conclusions can be drawn from this approach. The first is that it is necessary to have a certain amount of knowledge if it is to be applied to life. Intellectual contents and their memorization are not only not contrary to learning, but are necessary. The second conclusion is that learning by competencies is another way of referring to that education for life that, from the subject of Religion, we have always had as an objective. A learning that does not remain only in the concepts but that is taken to the day to day, that transforms our way of being in the world. That leads us to understand the world and interact with it with the gaze and criteria of Jesus of Nazareth.

The subject of Religion has always had the objective of educating for life.
Javier Segura

This approach, in reality, is not new. It has been the key used by the great Christian educators throughout history. They have always spoken of the need to form the intelligence, but also to educate the heart and the affections. And thus to take into account the totality of the person, also his scheme of values and how he applies them in his ordinary life.

The LOMLOE with its proposal of competent learning offers us in this aspect a pedagogical and legal support for an integral education in which we propose without fear and in a renewed way the integral formation of the person from the Christian humanism and its interaction in society according to the vision that starts from the Gospel.

A real challenge. A real opportunity.

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