The architect of Torreciudad, Heliodoro Dols, passed away.
The Valencian Heliodoro Dols Morell, architect of Torreciudad, died today at the age of 91 in Zaragoza. A native of Madrid by training and Aragonese by adoption, he was part of the famous CX promotion of the Madrid School of Architecture, graduates in 1959, among others, Fernando Higueras, Curro Inza, Miguel de Oriol, Eduardo Mangada, Luis Peña Ganchegui and Manolo Jorge.
Francisco Otamendi-May 28, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Heliodoro Dols Morell, architect of Torreciudad, and master architect, died today in Zaragoza at the age of 91. In his long professional career, the quality of his architecture has become more evident with the passing of time.
Precisely this year, Javier Domingo de Miguel has published a book entitled 'Heliodoro Dols. Tradition, authenticity, modernity', in which he explains in a pleasant and exhaustive way his entire professional career.
A native of Madrid by training and Aragonese by adoption, he was a member of the CX class of the Madrid School of Architecture, graduating in 1959. Among others, Fernando Higueras, Curro Inza, Miguel de Oriol, Eduardo Mangada, Luis Peña Ganchegui and Manolo Jorge.
National Architecture Award
Next to Antonio LopezIn 1965, Heliodoro won the National Architecture Prize with the design of a fountain in the monumental square of Pedraza. Between 1963 and 1975 he devoted himself almost exclusively to the Torreciudad project, so Dols took up residence in Zaragoza in 1973. His work has been developed mainly in Aragon.
Work in Torreciudad: "to do something for the Mother of God".
About his work in Torreciudad, Heliodoro wrote: "The five years spent on site were an extraordinary experience, both professionally and in human terms. I tried to make it human in size, I liked to do something for the Mother of God and I tried to put my affection in the study of the assemblies of those stones and bricks".
St. Josemaría: "with humble material, you have made divine material".
"Thanks to all the people who collaborated there, Torreciudad could be built. And thanks to the commitment, care and affection they put into its construction, it became a reality. This was the reason why St. Josemaría, the founder of Opus Dei, told us when he saw it finished: with humble material, from the earth, you have made divine material," said Heliodoro Dols.
The quality of Torreciudad's architecture has been endorsed by architects such as César Ortiz-Echagüe, Antonio Lamela, Francesc Mitjans, Regino Borobio Ojeda and Fernando Chueca Goitia, among others. It is a project based on the tradition and popular architecture of Aragon. A complex and organic project whose identity is achieved through the use of ceramic materials typical of the region, seeking, on the scale of the landscape, to emulate the surrounding villages.
Panoramic view of Torreciudad (@OpusDei).
Torreciudad's contribution
"The great contribution of Torreciudad is the beautiful agreement between an architecture of undeniable modern affiliation and a more traditional setting," said the Sanctuary.
"It is certainly the most important work of his career, but not the only one. There is the Colegio Mayor Peñalba -a true brick sculpture-, the restoration of the basilica of Santa Engracia and the houses and square of San Bruno in Zaragoza". Also "the building for ERZ in Jaca -today headquarters of the Jacetania region-, the Courts building in Boltaña and the convent of Carmelitas Descalzas in Huesca. In 2014, the Fernando el Católico Institution awarded him the distinction for his professional career".
Pope encourages compassion: "It is not a religious question, but a human one".
Leo XIV dedicated his catechesis on Wednesday 28 to the parable of the Good Samaritan and to compassion. He said in the Audience that compassion for others is "a question of humanity, before being religious". And that "before being believers we must be human". He also prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.
Francisco Otamendi-May 28, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
Pope Leo XIV continued this Wednesday in the Audience The second session of the series of catechesis on 'Jesus Christ, our Savior', in the Jubilee of Hope 2025, focused on the theme of the Good Samaritan and on compassion, which "before being a religious question, is a question of humanity".
The theme of meditation was precisely the parable of the Good Samaritan, narrated by St. Luke: a person is assaulted and beaten by robbers, and a Samaritan took pity on him. Earlier, a Levite and a priest had passed by and went on their way.
In the minutes before the Audience, Leo XIV traveled around St. Peter's Square in the Popemobile, where he greeted and blessed numerous pilgrims and faithful who came to listen to the Holy Father. As usual, many mothers and fathers brought babies to him for his blessing.
Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
Among perhaps the most significant notes this morning were, in addition to the Pope's words on compassion and mercy, the preparation for the feast of the Ascension of the Lord tomorrow, Thursday, May 29, which in quite a few places is moved to Sunday.
Also the affectionate welcome, as last Wednesday, "to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors participating in today's Audience, especially those from England, Scotland, Norway, Ghana, Kenya, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Canada and the United States of America".
"As we prepare to commemorate the Lord's Ascension into Heaven," he told them, "I pray that each of you and your families will experience a renewal of hope and joy. May God bless you."
Peace in Ukraine and Gaza Strip
At the end of the Audience, before addressing the Italian-speaking pilgrims, praying the Our Father and giving Benediction, the Pope showed his "closeness and prayer" for the Ukrainian people", and prayed for the war to stop. He also made an appeal for peace in the Gaza Strip, from where one can hear the cries of mothers and fathers with their children in their arms. Leo XIV asked for a "cease-fire", the release of all prisoners, and prayed to the Queen of Peace.
In his greeting to the Arabic-speaking pilgrims, Pope Leo XIV said that "we are called to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful. His mercy consists in looking at every human being with eyes of compassion. May the Lord bless you all and always protect you from all evil.
Parable of the Good Samaritan: changing perspective, welcoming others
In his brief catechesis, the Pope began by noting: "In this catechesis we reread the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Lord addresses it to a man who, despite knowing the Scriptures, considers salvation as a right that is due to him, something that can be acquired".
"The parable helps him to change his perspective, and to move from focusing on himself to being able to welcome others, feeling called to become a neighbor to others, no matter who they are, and not just judge close to the people he appreciates."
Afterwards, the Holy Father summarized: "The parable speaks to us of compassion, of understanding that before being believers we must be human. The text asks us to reflect on our ability to stop on the road of life, to put the other person above our haste and our travel plans".
"He asked us to be ready," he stressed, "to reduce distances, to get involved, to get dirty if necessary, to take on the pain of others and to spend what is ours, returning to meet them, because our neighbor is for us someone close to us.
A question for reflection
At the time of the examination, the Pontiff asked a question: "Dear brothers and sisters, when will we too be able to interrupt our journey and have compassion? When we will have understood that this man wounded on the road represents each one of us. And then, the memory of all the times Jesus stopped to care for us will make us more capable of compassion.
Let us pray, then, that we may grow in humanity, so that our relationships may be truer and richer in compassion. Let us ask the Heart of Christ for the grace to have more and more of the same sentiments", he concluded.
The authorFrancisco Otamendi
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Pope appoints Renzo Pegoraro president of the Academy for Life
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Renzo Pegoraro, a bioethicist with a degree in medicine before entering the seminary, as the new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Renzo Pegoraro worked since September 2011 as chancellor of the Vatican body.
CNS / Omnes-May 28, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
- Cindy Wooden (Vatican City, Catholic News Service). Renzo Pegoraro has been appointed by Pope Leo XIV as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. He had been chancellor of the Academy since 2011. He succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 80 in April.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper 'La Stampa' on May 26, Archbishop Paglia said that he submitted his resignation to Pope Francis when he turned 75, in accordance with canon law. But that the Pope asked him to stay on until he turned 80.
The appointment of Renzo Pegoraro was announced by the Vatican on May 27. A week earlier, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo had appointed the Cardinal Baldassare Reina to succeed the Archbishop Paglia as Grand Chancellor of the John Paul II Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family.
Defense and promotion of the value of human life
Pope Francis updated the statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2016. At that time, the Pope said that the primary goal of the Academy, founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II, would continue to be "the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person."
The new statutes added, however, that achieving the goal would include studying ways to promote "care for the dignity of the human person in the different ages of existence" as well as "mutual respect between genders and generations, the defense of the dignity of every human being. And likewise, "the promotion of a quality of human life that integrates its material and spiritual value in view of an authentic "human ecology". An ecology that "helps to restore the original balance of creation between the human person and the entire universe.
Pegoraro, a graduate in medicine and moral theology.
Renzo Pegoraro, who will be 66 years old on June 4, will be licgraduated in Medicine from the University of Padua (Italy) in 1985. Before that, he received a degree in Moral Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1989.
He earned an advanced degree in bioethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Italy and has taught bioethics at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy. He has also served as secretary general of the Lanza Foundation of Padua, a center for studies in ethics, bioethics and environmental ethics. He taught care ethics at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome. And he was president of the European Association of Medical Ethics Centers from 2010 to 2013.
On May 28, the Church celebrates Saint Germain, Bishop of Paris. To observe the imprint of this saint, it is enough to see the places in Paris that bear his name. For example, the Boulevard Saint-Germain, the Paris Saint-Germain team, of course the church of Saint Germain-l'Auxerois, near the Louvre. Saint Mariana de Jesus, patron saint of Ecuador, is also celebrated.
Francisco Otamendi-May 28, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Today, the liturgy celebrates St. Germain of Paris, who left a strong imprint on the Parisian capital. To cite the above examples, the boulevard owes its name to Saint-Germain, bishop of Paris in 555. The soccer team, founded in 1970, took its name from the French capital and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the club was founded. And the church, near the Louvre, is dedicated to the saint.
The text dedicated to St. Germain by the Vatican Agency is concise, although it offers data. It says that he was born in Autun (Burgundy, France), at the end of the V century. That he took his vows and was entrusted with the monastery of Saint Syphronianus, which he recovered from decadence. That he was advisor to the king in Paris and became bishop of the city. And that his monastery was singled out as a model throughout France and was dedicated to him at his death.
You could to be added to that St. Germain lacked small He was in danger of being aborted first and then poisoned. Then, with a relative, he received a solid formation and was ordained a priest, became abbot of the monastery of St. Symphorian, cared for the needy, built churches, tried to sow peace in civil strife, denounced vices of the court, and ruled his diocese with prudence. He died in 576.
Mariana de Jesús de Paredes, Patroness of Ecuador
The Franciscan Family also celebrates on this day Mariana de Jesús de Paredes, born in Quito in 1618, and patron saint of Ecuador, together with the Virgin Mary. Virgin of Quinche. Orphaned since childhood, she was a virgin, and unable to enter any monastery, she led a life dedicated to prayer and fasting at home. The Roman Martyrology says that "she consecrated her life to Christ in the Third Order of St. Francis and used her strength to help the poor Indians and blacks (1645)". She is the first Ecuadorian saint: she was canonized by Pius XII in 1950.
The authorFrancisco Otamendi
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His father Louis Marius Prevost, an administrator in several educational centers, was also a catechist. His parents were emigrants from France.
His mother Mildred Prevost, librarian at Mendel Catholic Prep School.
Brothers: Louis, a military veteran currently residing in Florida, and John, a retired Catholic school principal.
1969. He entered the minor seminary at the age of 14, leaving his parents' home.
1973. He finished high school at the St. Augustine Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers.
1977. Degree in Mathematics from Villanova (Augustinian) University, along with a major in Philosophy.
1977. In September he entered the novitiate of the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis, Missouri.
1978. First profession of religious vows on September 2.
1978-1982. Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
1981. Solemn profession on August 29.
1981. Ordination to the diaconate on September 10.
1982. Ordination to the priesthood on June 19.
Rome
1982-1984. Rome. Canon Law at the Angelicum University
1984-1987. Doctorate with thesis The role of the local Prior of the Order of St. Augustine.
Peru
1985-1986. After his ordination he was assigned to work in the mission of Chulucanas, in Peru, being parochial vicar of the cathedral and chancellor of the diocese.
United States
1987-1988. Vocation Ministry in the United States and Director of Missions for the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Illinois. In addition, he was dedicated to raising funds for the missions of his province.
Peru
1988. Peru, mission of Trujillo. Director of common formation for Augustinian aspirants. There he served as prior of the community (1988-1992), director of formation (1988-1998) and master of the professed (1992-1998).
1989-1998. In the archdiocese of Trujillo, he served as judicial vicar and professor of canon law, patristics and morals at the Major Seminary.
1992-1999. Administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat Parish.
United States
1999. Provincial of his province, Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago.
Rome
2001. Prior General of the Augustinians.
2007. Re-elected for a second term.
Peru
2013-2014. Director of Formation at St. Augustine's Convent in Chicago and Vicar Provincial of the Province.
2014. On November 3, Pope Francis appoints him apostolic administrator of Chiclayo. On December 12, he was ordained bishop. In 2015 he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo and obtained Peruvian nationality.
2018-2023. Second Vice President of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference.
2019. Member of the Congregation for the Clergy.
Rome
2023. On April 12, he was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
2023. Cardinal on September 30.
2023. On October 4, he becomes a member of various Dicasteries: Evangelization, Doctrine of the Faith, Oriental Churches, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and Culture and Education, Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
2025. Grand Cross of Honor and Devotion of the Order of Malta.
Believing in apostolic succession implies believing that God does not improvise, leaves nothing to chance and that yesterday's Pope is, like today's, a gift and a mystery. Whether he likes it or not. Whether or not he is the one we would have chosen.
May 28, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The echoes of the requiem for Francisco and enthusiasm for the next pontiff was already boiling throughout Christendom. During the conclave, we all, in public and in private, heard repeated the prayer that "the Holy Spirit will choose whoever he chooses.
What seemed, however, to be an authentic prayer ended up revealing itself as a hidden vow: may the one God wants come out, yes, but may it be mine, or if not, at least may the other one not come out. Showcase piety, directed prayer, ballot-box faith.
And I say this because now that Leo XIV -The veil of neutrality seems to have been lifted, with an air of controlled restoration and a certain recovered liturgical gravity. One begins to perceive, and not in an isolated way, the tone of "now yes", as if at last the Church had a legitimate Pope, as if the previous had been nothing more than a long parenthesis in the magisterium. And then begins, of course, the unbearable litany of comparisons: "Francis said this here and Leo there", "at last he speaks clearly", "this is how a Pope dresses".
It will not be superfluous to remember that Francis was also chosen by God, that he was not an interference in the system or a failure in the matrix. That in the history of the Church, Popes do not succeed one another by correction of errors, but by pure divine providence; and that to compare one with the other is to put the gifts of the Holy Spirit in competition.
I wish for a long papacy, of course, because I wish the Supreme Pontiff a long life. What I do not wish is for it to be long because I have to put up with, for years, this whole legion of professional opinionators who feign piety and obedience while it is clear - because it is obvious - that their fidelity was never with Peter, but with their own idea - often flat, capricious and reduced - of what the primacy should be.
I am enthusiastic about the election of Leo XIV, but honesty with my own faith obliges me today to say out loud that believing in apostolic succession implies believing that God does not improvise, that he leaves nothing to chance and that the Pope of yesterday is, like the Pope of today, a gift and a mystery. Whether he likes it or not. Whether he fits in or not. Whether or not he is the one we would have chosen.
St. Augustine of Canterbury, evangelizer of England
On May 27, the Church celebrates St. Augustine of Canterbury, sent with other monks by Pope St. Gregory the Great to evangelize England. There he converted the same king and many others to the Christian faith, became Archbishop of Canterbury, and founded churches and monasteries.
Francisco Otamendi-May 27, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
While Augustine was prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, he was sent by Pope St. Gregory the Great, at the head of about forty monks, to evangelizing England. He landed at Thanet and sent word to King Etelbert of Kent. The king, who had married Bertha, a Christian princess of the Frankish royal family, allowed them to settle in Canterbury, the capital of the kingdom, and gave them freedom to preach. Soon the king was converted, baptized in 597.
The Pope rejoiced at the news and sent new collaborators and the appointment of Augustine as archbishop primate of England. At the same time, he told him not to be proud of the successes and honor of the high office. Following the Pope's directions, St. Augustine erected other episcopal sees, London and Rochester, and consecrated Melito and Justus as bishops. The missionary saint died in 604 and was buried in Canterbury in the church that bears his name.
Four English priests and two Korean women
Four diocesan priests are also being celebrated today martyrs Englishmen, Edmund Duke, Richard Hill, John Hogg and Richard Holiday, hanged and quartered at Dryburne, near Durham, on May 27, 1590, during the reign of Elizabeth I.
On May 27, the liturgy also commemorates Saints Barbara Kim and Barbara Yi, Korean martyrs. The two women, because they were Christians, were arrested and imprisoned together in Seoul. They refused to apostatize despite torture and died in prison in 1839.
Strong campaign of French bishops against the 'assisted death' bill
The 'assisted dying' bill, championed by President Emmanuel Macron, is up for a key vote this May 27 in the National Assembly. On this occasion, French bishops have launched an intense campaign urging Catholics to oppose the bill. Leaders of all religions have also opposed it.
OSV / Omnes-May 27, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
- Caroline de Sury (OSV News, Paris). In the face of the controversial 'assisted dying' bill, French Catholic bishops have launched an unprecedentedly strong public campaign urging Catholics to oppose the bill.
The bill, championed by President Emmanuel Macron, is set for a major vote in the National Assembly this May 27 and subsequent days.
The bishops have called on all Catholics in France to take personal action to challenge their representatives in Parliament who are preparing to vote on the bill.
Now separate: palliative care and assisted dying
In June 2024, a previous bill in favor of the euthanasiaThe 'end-of-life' bill was about to be approved in Paris. Macron, who initiated the bill, called it an 'end of life'.law of fraternity'. But on June 9, the president decided to dissolve the National Assembly, and all ongoing legislative processes were halted.
In January, the newly appointed Catholic Prime Minister, François Bayrou, requested that the issues of palliative care and assisted dying, which had previously been united in the same 'end of life' bill, be examined by Parliament in two separate texts. Therefore, since April 9, the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly has been examining two separate bills.
While the bill in favor of the palliative carewhile the other bill, which guarantees access to end-of-life care for all patients, enjoys a broad consensus, the other bill, which calls for the legalization of medical assistance in dying, is causing deep divisions within French political parties.
Bishops: opposition to reform
The bishops have been strongly mobilized on the issue of "aid in dying" for more than a year. "It has been years since a social problem or a reform project has mobilized them to this point," noted 'Le Monde' on March 19.
"Through interviews, opinion pieces and appearances on television and radio programs during prime time, the clergy are mobilizing to express their clear and unequivocal opposition to the reform sought by Emmanuel Macron."
"The choice to kill and help kill is not the lesser evil."
In recent weeks, French bishops have intensified their efforts to call on parliamentarians to oppose the introduction of the 'right to die' bill.
On May 6, the outgoing president of the French bishops' conference, the Archbishop of Reims, Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, responded in X to Macron's comments on the 'assisted dying' bill. Macron had addressed the Masons of the Grand Lodge of France the day before, referring to active assistance in dying as a 'lesser evil'.
"No, Mr. President, the choice to kill and help kill is not the lesser evil," Archbishop Moulins-Beaufort replied. "It is simply death. This must be said without lying and without hiding behind words. Killing cannot be the choice of brotherhood or dignity. It is the choice of abandonment and refusal to help to the end. This transgression will weigh heavily on the most vulnerable members and loners of our society".
"No to a pseudo-solidarity to help them disappear".
For his part, the Archbishop of Lyon, Olivier de Germay, appealed to members of Parliament in a May 12 statement: "We need politicians who have the courage to go against the tide" and "have the courage to say no to a pseudo-solidarity that would be tantamount to telling the elderly that we can help them to disappear.
Joint opposition from religious leaders
On May 15, France's religious leaders, including Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Orthodox and Buddhists, published their first joint opposition to the proposal. Signed by Archbishop Moulins-Beaufort and published by the Conference of Bishops, the joint statement denounced "grave abuses" and the "radical change" that the introduction of the "assisted dying" bill would entail.
The following day, in the Catholic newspaper 'La Croix', the Archbishop of Tours, Vincent Jordy vice-president of the Conference of Bishops, explained the reasons for the church's opposition to the bill.
One out of two French people do not have palliative care
"We really help people die when we accompany them to the end of their lives," he said. "There is an obvious shortage of caregivers, and one in two French people could say they still don't have access to quality palliative care, which we know reduces requests for death in the vast majority of cases," he said.
Parishes throughout France
On May 17, legislators approved an amendment to the bill to be voted on May 27, creating a new "right to die with assistance". They refused to use the terms 'euthanasia' - because "it was used from October 1939 onwards by Hitler and the Nazis" - and "suicide", to avoid confusion with suicide prevention as it has been commonly understood until now.
On May 18, parishes throughout France distributed posters and leaflets during Sunday Masses, which were also posted on diocesan and parish social media accounts. The parishes thus reinforced the bishops' campaign to oppose the bill. The bishops expressly asked the Catholic faithful to contact their representatives personally.
"Let us not remain silent."
"Let us not remain silent," they insisted. "Let us say no to the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. ... If adopted on May 27, this bill, one of the most permissive in the world, would threaten the most vulnerable and call into question the respect due to all human life."
However, three days later, on May 21, the deputies of the National Assembly adopted the article defining the outlines of the procedure for requesting assistance in case of death, which will be made available even to those who have not yet had access to palliative care.
Vigil and testimonies
That same evening, 12 bishops from the Paris region participated in a vigil and heard testimonies for life at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
In the National Assembly, the debate continued until May 25, before the formal vote on May 27.
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Caroline de Sury writes for OSV News from Paris.
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This article is a translation of an article first published in OSV News. You can find the original article here.
A few days ago a famous Spanish singer said that she is afraid of becoming a mother, because she does not want to lose her freedom. Honestly, I am not surprised. With all those things that we have not been told (or that are taboo) about motherhood, the most logical thing to do is to be afraid of it.
There are many things that go unsaid about this topic and that you only find out when you become pregnant. For example, you will wake up many nights when the twins come up, and that you were finally starting to overcome insomnia. Few people tell you that your sense of smell becomes a superpower and everything starts to disgust you, even that cologne you loved so much.
The doctor doesn't want to tell you that there are 18-hour deliveries... And many more. And no one, absolutely no one, wants to admit that your hormones are on such a trip that even a video of Donald Trump awarding an honorary degree to a boy with a disability will make you cry more than "A Walk to Remember."
Secrets about motherhood
But they also don't tell you about the indescribable sensation of noticing your baby's first kicks, which timidly catches your attention. No one tells you that your mother and your mother-in-law will share with you a wisdom that comes from years of accumulated experience and affection.
Few will tell you about the lump in your throat when your father looks at you with a gesture that mixes joy and nostalgia, at what moment his little daughter has become a mother? The doctor keeps as part of the professional secret the smile that escapes your husband when he is told he is going to have a baby and hears the heartbeat of his baby.
Freedom and motherhood
Motherhood will undoubtedly take away your freedom of movement, even to tie your shoes. But it will make you aware at a higher level of the true freedom, the one for which men give their lives. A freedom that goes beyond doing what you want, because it becomes loving what you do.
It is a paradoxical freedom (God has a strange sense of humor) in which all the discomforts of pregnancy are transformed into a more and more determined yes: yes to life; yes to a future with hope; yes to realizing that pregnancy should not be romanticized or demonized, it must be lived to know that there are many things that we have not been told, but that by becoming a mother the concepts that we change take on their true meaning.
Motherhood denounces the injustice we commit by reducing ourselves to feelings and poor material freedom. Being a mother opens the door to a generosity and dedication that are far removed from the servility and subordination that many say motherhood is. But of course, if they don't tell you about it, it's normal to be afraid of it.
Therefore, it is up to us to remind the world what it really means to be a mother. And our life, our future, is at stake. As the Pope Francis’ January 1, 2019: "A world that looks to the future without a maternal gaze is short-sighted (...). A world in which maternal tenderness has been relegated to a mere sentiment may be rich in things, but not rich in the future."
On Sunday, May 25, Pope Leo XIV took possession of the Cathedral of Rome, St. John Lateran. It is the oldest papal basilica and one of the four most important in the capital of Italy.
This step makes Leo XIV the Bishop of Rome, celebrating his first Mass as such on Sunday at 5:00 p.m.
Now you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.
Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, Antonio María Rouco Varela (Villalba, Lugo, 1936), has developed throughout his life an intense and fruitful pastoral work in various dioceses.
We now wish to refer to his academic life, where he has had a great dedication to canon law and, especially, to a special and certainly novel branch of it, called "Theology of Canon Law". A pioneering subject in the canonistics and truly consistent with the doctrine and spirit of the Second Vatican Council and its application to the problems and difficulties of contemporary Christianity.
It is logical that, in the development of canon law throughout its existence and in its application to the life of the Church, of the faithful and of ecclesiastical institutions, novel questions and intricate juridical problems have arisen, since the Church has a divine origin, but is constituted by human beings with rights and obligations.
Dimensions of the Church
Precisely, as St. Augustine affirmed, the fact that the Church is part of civil society -since she lives and acts in it- and, at the same time, belongs to the world of God -by her ends and her way of acting, received from Jesus Christ- is one of her essential characteristics. The Church, therefore, must combine the natural and the spiritual, the theological and the juridical, under the perspective of Christian anthropology and history where the salvation of the human race takes place.
In this interesting work, Rouco Varela will bring up important theological issues for a solid foundation of canon law, such as the concept of the Church, the dignity of the human person as the image and likeness of God, and the relationships within the Church as the family of God and as an institution (p. 33).
At the same time, Cardinal Rouco recalls that in the face of the provocation of modernity (p. 116) represented by juridical positivism in civil law, canon law is not reduced to juridical practice in relations within and outside it and in the exercise of the rights and obligations of Christians.
A theology that makes law
Professor Rouco Varela has collected, therefore, in this volume of the BAC, within the collection of manuals of canon law, "Sapientia iuris", various research articles that he had published on the theology of canon law in various specialized journals both in Spain and Europe.
Thus, throughout this work, our professor will illuminate with great skill various juridical questions that have arisen throughout history to show how, through the contribution of theology, a true and profound juridical resolution could be found. Rouco Varela will make explicit many times throughout this manual an affirmation of the canonist Mörsdorf: "canon law is a theological discipline with a juridical method" (p. 140).
Let us now point out a juridical question resolved by theology so that the reader can glimpse how the theology of canon law has come to resolve, in practice and theory, questions of canon law.
An example
We take it from Rouco Varela himself, when he affirms that one of the great lights of the Council contained in the Apostolic Constitutions "....Lumen Gentium"(Rome, 21.XI.1964) and "Gaudium et spes" (Rome, 7.XII.1965), is the concept of the Church of communion. This aspect is developed extensively in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the subsequent magisterium of the Church and, especially, in the theological works of the Holy Father Benedict XVI.
It can truly be said that the 1983 Code of Canon Law is the juridical expression of the theology of communion of the Second Vatican Council: "The Church is in Christ as a sacrament or sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race" (LG n. 1).
Likewise, in the proem of "Gaudium et spes" it is stated: "The Christian community is made up of men and women who, gathered together in Christ, are guided by the Holy Spirit on their pilgrimage towards the Father's kingdom and have received the good news of salvation in order to communicate it to all" (GS, n. 1).
Finally, let us note that the Catechism of the Catholic Church once again reflects the ecclesiology of communion: "In the one family of God, all the children of God and members of the same family in Christ, by uniting ourselves in mutual love and in the same praise of the Most Holy Trinity, we are responding to the intimate vocation" (n. 959).
In basic questions such as the one we have just raised, the one true divine and human reality of the Church and of her faithful as human persons endowed with the dignity of having been called by baptism to be children of God and of the Church are reflected in unity (77).
Precisely, the Church of communion will overcome theologically the vision of Pius XII in his Encyclical "Mystici corporis" (Rome, 12.VI.1943), because for Canon Law the theology of communion is easier to express in the juridical order and will emphasize a relationship of the human person with God and with the authority of the Church.
It is of great historical interest to recall with Rouco Varela the post-conciliar times as moments of "hopeful ecclesial springtime" and also as "widespread indiscipline", especially in some parts of Europe, which is why the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law came at a providential moment when St. John Paul II was applying the true Second Vatican Council in the universal Church through his writings, his government and his travels (144). Thus Rouco reminds us of the words of Mörsdorf: "Canon law is 'ordenatio fidei'" (147)....
St. Philip Neri, like so many saints before and after him, was one of those leaders, or fathers in the faith, whom Paul urges to refer to by looking at the outcome of their lives in imitation of their faith.
May 26 is the feast of St. Philip Neri, co-patron saint of Rome and a saint to whom Christianity owes so much.
Life
Florentine by birth (he was born in 1515), he moved to Rome at the age of nineteen and never left it again, leading for about ten years an austere lay life of intense prayer (which he alternated with his work as a tutor for children). He spent entire nights keeping vigil in the catacombs of San Sebastiano, where, in 1544, on the eve of Pentecost, he was the protagonist of a sensational event: an orb of fire - it is said - entered his chest through his mouth.
From then on he began to manifest a physical anomaly: his heart beat loudly and irregularly, audible to those around him and, when he died, an examination of his body revealed that his ribs had arched outwards, precisely because of the pressure of his heart, which had dilated two and a half times more than normal (which would make his survival impossible, while Neri lived 50 years in those conditions).
From that Pentecost, Philip intensified his work of evangelizing reform "from below": he frequented young adults and professionals (not children or adolescents, as is often thought), he went to hospitals, prisons, public squares, markets, approaching people with simplicity and a direct, ironic, but always profound style.
Despite much reluctance on his part, he was ordained a priest in 1551, at the age of 36, and then exercised his ministry with great dedication (he spent ten hours a day in the confessional).
A great admirer of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, he distanced himself from his rigorism: for him, it was not excessive penances, devotions and mortifications, but joy, simplicity and self-irony that were antidotes to pride and an effective aid to spiritual growth.
Friend and advisor to several Popes, he died on May 26, 1595. He was canonized in 1622 along with Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier (his friends and companions in Rome), Teresa of Avila and Isidore the Labrador.
Legacy
Although effervescent in character, Philip Neri loved discretion and always tried to divert attention from himself, as true leaders do (anthropologist Paulo Pinto defines detachment as the transfer of a spiritual leader's charisma to his community after his death, when followers unite around the values he embodied, not his person). In fact, far more famous than he were the lay people who grew up, humanly and spiritually, under his aegis. Just think of musicians like Giovanni P. da Palestrina or Giovanni Animuccia (the Spanish priest and composer Tomás Luis de Victoria also frequented the Oratorio).
Another "Oratorian" figure worth mentioning, in addition to the saintly priest John Henry NewmanThe great Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, a devotee of St. Philip Neri and an assiduous layman of the Oratory of Barcelona (he was run over by a streetcar on his way to evening prayers), whose beatification process is underway.
In short, Neri was characterized by a spirituality marked by joviality, but also by nonconformism towards his own person or towards a preconceived norm. In fact, he never wanted to be considered a "founder", stressing, rather, that holiness is accessible to everyone according to their own characteristics and that true spiritual reformation, as well as true penance, begins with love, smiling, accepting one's own life and that of others for what they are and not for what we would like them to be.
The Oratory
The Congregation of the Oratory, officially born in 1575, was a new institution for the time, to guarantee a stable form to the priestly community that had arisen around Philip Neri, in which the priests lived in community but without religious vows to dedicate themselves to the service of the laity and to the needs of the apostolate in the Oratory.
In a Rome still marked by the sack of 1527 and by a widespread moral and religious crisis, Philip, still a layman, had in fact "invented" the Oratory to foster a daily relationship with God and with his brothers in the faith, characterized also by prayer meetings with friends in his small room in the church of San Girolamo della Carità (where he lived). Oratorio, in fact, comes from the Latin "os", mouth, to indicate the intimate relationship, mouth to mouth, between God and man. In these daily meetings, the Word of God was treated familiarly and shared, with the active participation of the laity (not as passive listeners, as in Mass homilies) in prayer, reflection and sharing, something unheard of at the time (as was the daily Mass).
Music
One of the distinctive features of the oratorio is its music. In fact, there is talk of "oratorian" music, and even of Felipe Neri as a precursor of the musical genre known as oratorio.
Philip's genius was to have understood that music is a universal language and favors the spread of the Gospel message, even among the popular classes who were then illiterate and unable to understand Latin or liturgical music. For this reason he began to use songs and melodies famous at the time, often modifying their verses or their writing, or having new ones written.
From this idea arose the musical genre of the oratorio (often a sacred alternative to opera), whose most famous composers were Carissimi, Charpentier, Haydn and, in Protestant circles, Handel (his is the most famous oratorio of all: "The Messiah") and Bach ("Passion according to St. Matthew" and others).
People are often convinced that to reintroduce baroque musical forms (or niche ones, such as folk) to contemporary audiences is to retrace the steps of St. Philip Neri, nothing could be more wrong. Such works are certainly musical masterpieces, but the original idea is to speak to people in a language they are familiar with, so pop/rock music, or musical music, in the non-liturgical realm, are the forms that would come closest to what Philip was thinking. It's a bit like what a number of Protestant or Catholic (especially charismatic) groups do today: contemporary musicality, professionally composed and arranged songs, Christian texts and meanings. All this, however, outside the Mass, where, precisely, there is the possibility of "making oratorio".
Modern devotion
Philip Neri is the son of modern devotion, a spiritual renewal movement of the 14th-15th centuries that sought to build a more intimate and subjective religiosity, an "individual spirituality", as opposed to the collective piety of the Middle Ages.
Its birth is due in particular to Geert Groote (1340-1384), a Dutch Catholic deacon and preacher, who adopted as his Magna Carta the book of Thomas of Kempis The Imitation of Christ, centered on the importance of recollection and individual prayer, personal reading of the Bible and the imitation of Christ in ordinary life: mysticism incarnated in reality. This movement also focused on the lay apostolate, spreading from Holland to Belgium, Germany and France, and then to Spain and Italy, and influencing some of the pillars of the Catholic Counter-Reformation: Jan van Ruusbroec, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola and, in fact, Philip Neri, with Francis de Sales as his continuator. These last two later inspired St. Josemaría Escrivá to found Opus Dei.
The concept of modern devotion found its definitive legitimization with the Second Vatican Council and the apostolic exhortation "....Christifideles Laici" of John Paul II.
Philip Neri, like so many saints before and after him, was one of those leaders, or fathers in the faith, whom Paul urges to refer to by looking at the outcome of their lives imitating their faith (not imitating them directly, then). I would go on to say that he was a "Homo sapiens" par excellence, if we take into account that the human being, made of earth (humus), is also sapiens (from the Latin "sapere"), a term that indicates, more than erudition, wisdom: the having and giving of taste.
The three "H's
In his life we find what I call "the three H's": "humilitas"; "humanitas"; "humor". They are the three ingredients that make it possible to be "homo sapiens", therefore men and women who have and give flavor (and wisdom), and they all derive from the same Latin root, "humus", which is also that of "homo" (man):
"Humilitas" (humility): awareness of one's own limitation. Despite being made of earth and being poor and defenseless before age, death and God, one must be aware of one's divine nature, with the dignity that goes with it. True humility is thus the right balance between earth and heaven, healthy realism;
"Humanitas" (humanity): consequent to humility, it is the respect for oneself and for others that can only come from knowing oneself in relationship first with God and then with one's neighbor. Only with humility and humanity (relationship) can one be a gift to others;
"Humor" (humor): true humility, united to the joy of relationship with others, but above all to the happiness of being looked upon and loved by God (who "looked upon the humility of his servants") leads to an inevitable lightness: one does not take oneself too seriously and, when one makes mistakes, one forgives oneself and moves on, laughing at one's own and others' faults, but a laughter that is not mockery or ridicule, but simply "turning a blind eye".
Leo XIV takes office as Bishop of Rome, and the city pays homage to him.
VI Sunday of Easter, an intense one for Pope Leo XIV. First the Regina Coeli in St. Peter's Square, intoned, and not only prayed, by the Pontiff. Then he received the homage of the city of Rome, through Mayor Gualtieri. Leo XIV then presided at the Eucharistic Celebration of his inauguration as Bishop of Rome in St. John Lateran. And there remained the visit to Santa Maria Maggiore.
Francisco Otamendi-May 25, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
On a splendid day, Pope Leo XIV has been sworn in as Bishop of Rome in the Basilica of St. John Lateran with a Eucharistic Celebration. Bishops, priests, men and women religious and lay people paid their homage to the Bishop of Rome. After the liturgy, the Pontiff was scheduled to stand in the central loggia of the Lateran Basilica to bless the city of Rome.
A city that just a short time before, in the Piazza dell'Ara Coeli, at the foot of the steps of the Campidoglio, had conveyed its homage to him from the hands of the Mayor, Roberto Gualtieri. In this brief act, the Pope expressed his wish that "Rome, incomparable for the richness of its historical and artistic heritage, may always be distinguished also for those values of humanity and civilization that draw their lifeblood from the Gospel".
"Mother of all churches".
In his homily, the Pontiff said that "the Church of Rome is heir to a great history, consolidated in the witness of Peter, Paul and countless martyrs, and has a unique mission, perfectly indicated by what is written on the façade of this cathedral: to be 'mater omnium ecclesiarum', mother of all churches".
Maternal dimension of the Church
Leo XIV continued, "Pope Francis often invited us to reflect on the maternal dimension of the Church. And on the characteristics that are proper to her: tenderness, availability, sacrifice and that capacity to listen that allows her not only to help, but often to foresee needs and expectations, even before they are formulated. These are traits that we hope will grow in the People of God everywhere, including here, in our great diocesan family, in the faithful, in the pastors, and first of all, in myself.
In his words, the Pope stressed that "we are all the more capable of proclaiming the Gospel when we allow ourselves to be conquered by the Spirit. Also, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Hope in 2025, he referred in particular to the work of the Diocese of Rome and what many who come from afar perceive: "a large, open and welcoming house, and above all, a home of faith."
After the blessing in St. John LateranThe Pope was to finish the day in another of the great Roman Basilicas. Santa Maria Maggiore, where the burial Pope Francis, in front of the icon of Santa Maria, Salus Populi RomaniThe dedication, so venerated and loved by the Romans.
Thus, Pope Leo XIV has already visited the four great papal basilicas. A few days ago he visited the fourth, St. Paul Outside the Wallswhere he venerated the tomb of St. Paul.
Pope's thanksgiving during his first Regina coeli
At 12 o'clock sharp, Pope Leo XIV appeared for the first time at the study window of the Apostolic Palace to pray the Marian prayer of the Regina coeliThe relative surprise was that he sang it again, in what may be a tradition. The relative surprise was that he sang it again, in what could be a tradition.
On this Sixth Sunday of Easter, at the beginning of his address, the Pope expressly thanked "above all for the affection that you are showing me, and at the same time I ask you to support me with your prayer and closeness".
Focus on the Lord's mercy, not on our own strength.
He went on to say that "it is precisely this Sunday's Gospel (cf. Jn.14:23-29) tells us that we should not look to our own strength, but to the mercy of the Lord who has chosen us, confident that the Holy Spirit guides us and teaches us everything".
We are two weeks away from Pentecost, June 8, and the Pontiff is already turning to him. In this way, he stressed: "To the Apostles who, on the eve of the Master's death, were troubled and anguished, wondering how they could be continuators and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, Jesus announces the gift of the Holy Spirit, with this wonderful promise: 'He who loves me will be faithful to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and dwell in him' (v. 23)" (v. 23)".
"Do not fret, do not fear!"
In this way, Jesus frees the disciples from all anguish and worry and can say to them, 'Do not be anxious and do not be afraid'" (v. 27).
In the same vein, he launched another message, one more in these days, of abandonment and trust. "Although I am fragile, the Lord is not ashamed of my humanity; on the contrary, he comes to dwell within me. He accompanies me with his Spirit, enlightens me and makes me an instrument of his love for others, for society and for the world".
He concluded by encouraging us to "walk in the joy of faith, to be a holy temple of the Lord", "entrusting ourselves all to the intercession of Mary Most Holy".
Beatification in Poland, prayer for China
After the recitation of the Regina Coeli, the Pope recalled the beatification yesterday in Poznań (Poland), of "Stanislaus Kostka Streich, a diocesan priest murdered out of hatred for the faith in 1938, because his work on behalf of the poor and workers disturbed the followers of communist ideology. May his example inspire priests in particular to spend themselves generously for the Gospel and for their brothers".
Leo XIV recalled yesterday's liturgical memorial, the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians, and the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, instituted by Pope Benedict XVI. In churches and shrines in China and around the world, prayers were raised to God as a sign of solicitude and affection for Chinese Catholics and their communion with the universal Church. "May the intercession of Mary Most Holy obtain for them and for us the grace to be strong and joyful witnesses of the Gospel, even in the midst of trials, so as to always promote peace and concord," Leo XIV said.
The Pope also prayed for all peoples at war, and for those who "are engaged in dialogue and in the sincere search for peace".
10 years of Laudato si': "listening to the double cry of the Earth and the poor".
The Holy Father also recalled the ten years since Pope Francis signed the Encyclical Laudato si', dedicated to the care of the common home, on May 24, 2015.
Leo XIV recalled that Laudato si' "has had an extraordinary diffusion, inspiring countless initiatives and teaching everyone to listen to the double cry of the Earth and of the poor. I salute and encourage the Laudato si' movement and all those who pursue this commitment".
Peace comes from a trusting surrender to God and not so much from "doing a lot of things".
May 25, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
The utilitarian mentality in which we are immersed could lead us to think that time dedicated to God is time wasted, or on the contrary, that by doing "many pious things" we earn heaven, sometimes losing peace.
We live in a cold and indifferent world. Juan José Millás said during the conclave that it was all a staging of these days, very attractive but to mask the emptiness... I think that's how many people think. However, on seeing Robert Prevost's face for the first time, Leo XIVI personally felt that God was giving us a gift that exceeded my expectations. A man who gives peace.
"Peace begins with each one of us: with the way we look at others, listen to others and speak to others" (Leo XIV). Peace is accepting differences, having the ability to listen to and appreciate others. Peace brings unity.
Some of our readers will know the story of María Ignacia García Escobar, who in 1933 after four months of agony (she suffered a real ordeal, sore from head to toe, wasted, the last vertebrae deformed and protruding, her height was decreasing every day) died of tuberculosis in the Hospital del Re (Madrid) at the age of thirty-four.
In some of the notes he made during his illness we read: "Everything in the world is vanity. Only serving and loving Our Lord will last forever". He chose the path of love, living in a continuous springtime.
Almost a century later, the life of this young laywoman from Córdoba teaches us that peace is a gift from God, as she wrote: "I will smile these days in the midst of all the droughts and tribulations you want to send me. I will be able to do everything with you".
DR Congo: Christians persecuted in the east, resources plundered
Camille and Esther Ntoto, born in Kinshasa and co-founders of the organization 'African New Day', have denounced in the European Parliament the open persecution of Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In an interview with the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), explain the intention of terrorist groups to establish an Islamic state in the east of the country.
Francisco Otamendi-May 24, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
The Congolese Camille and Esther Ntoto, co-founders of African New Day, denounced this week, in an interview with the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), in the European Parliament, the violence and persecution of terrorist groups and armed militias against Christians. This is taking place in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the eleventh largest country in the world and the second largest in Africa.
The drivers of African New Day in the United States and Belgium, working in partnership with organizations based in Goma, have referred to the causes of this conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), armed groups and Rwandan militias, mentioning which armed groups are persecuting Christians and taking away the natural resources of the country.
Thanks to ECLJ's support, Camille and Esther Ntoto were able to meet with some fifteen influential members of the European Parliament, as well as representatives of the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Balance and consequences of a deadly war
His speech could be divided into a few sections: What is happening in the Congo. Europe. Whether there is religious persecution. The role of Rwanda. Raw materials. Let's follow this thread, but with some premeditated disorder, according to the statements of the promoters of 'African New Day' to ECLJ.
More than 6 million dead and 7 million internally displaced persons is the terrible balance of thirty years of conflict, the deadliest war since World War II.
In summary, it could be noted that among the dozens of terrorist groups and armed militias present in the area, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have joined the Islamic State and are persecuting Christians in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Camille Ntotostates that "This ongoing war is the most serious humanitarian crisis since World War II. There has never been a conflict in the world that has provoked the kind of crisis we are now experiencing in eastern DRC. It is curious to note that Rwanda is a leader in exporting materials from the soil and subsoil."
Consequences of the Rwandan genocide
"For 30 years there has been a war that is, in fact, the consequence of the Rwandan genocide that took place in 1994 and the genocidaires left Rwanda to take refuge in eastern DRC, where there has been instability ever since, instability and insecurity, with the interference and involvement of foreign forces, along with the Congolese army's attempt to defend its soil," Camille assures.
"I have talked about the humanitarian crisis. There are several armed groups operating now. One of the groups we hear most about is M vingt-trois, which is supported by the Rwandan government, with Rwandan soldiers."
"The chaos in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has made it possible", in his analysis, "for another group that initially stood against the legitimacy of the Ugandan government to take refuge in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and to initiate terrorist and intimidation operations".
And that it mixes with other entities on the ground, "to then seize economic resources, in particular cocoa production. In another stage of its evolution, this ADF group joined forces with the Islamic State, AISSIS".
Threatened Christians
There, "their effort is now to be able to suppress the expression of faith of Christians through the churches, but also of the other Christian entities that exist. Through the destruction of these churches, threaten Christians and claim that forced conversions to Islam are their hobbyhorse. Thousands of people have been victims of this. Many people, still today, because of their faith in Jesus Christ, are targeted by the ADF group. Unfortunately, many have perished and Esther has testimonies about this."
Elderly Jean-Pierre
Esther Ntoto now takes the floor. She recounts dramatic scenes, reminiscent of the early Christians.
"There are people who have come face to face with a group of ADF and have been burned alive for refusing to renounce their faith. We have photos of the burned body of the elderly Jean Pierre, last March and today his wife and children have traumas and his wife faints very often almost every day.
This is also the case of one of our sisters who was in charge of the women's group in a church who went, as she did every week to meet with the other women and when she came back from church, Deborah met a group that asked her to renounce her faith. She said no several times and they told her: we are going to make you suffer before you die".
Deborah
Esther continues: "And she began to sing to God. They raped her, stabbed her, and then put leaves and sticks all over her, and left her naked, thinking she was already dead. Some time later people returning from their fields found her there and were surprised to see her still alive. They took her to a medical center where she was able to tell them what had happened to her. She died there a few hours later.
Esther criticizes the fact that some people do not believe the stories.
"It is deplorable in this visit we have had here to the European Union and the European Commission especially, to hear that there are people who do not believe these stories," says Esther Ntoto in the video.
"They don't believe that thousands of men and women have been massacred because the ADF don't use firearms, they use bladed weapons, axes, knives and machetes. It breaks my heart. It is outrageous to even think that someone could make up a story like this. It's time for this to stop, it's time for this to end, it's time for people to know that there are Christians in Congo who are being beaten, who are being massacred because of their faith. This is a reality and it has to stop."
Esther and Camille Ntoto, at the gates of the European Parliament.
"Christians in the spiritual space of Europe, of the world."
The founders of 'African New Day' "are grateful that leaders of the European Union, of the European Commission, have wanted to take a step forward to review the agreements that have been signed with aggressors, and today we are talking about the Rwandan government that was the beneficiary of an agreement with the European Commission".
"A review has been put in place to prevent some of these crimes that are being committed in broad daylight, with impunity. This must stop. These Christians, even if they are not in the European space, they are Christians in the spiritual space of Europe, in the spiritual space of the world church. And we believe that there is hope for a resolution and an end to this situation, so that Congo can finally turn the page to an era of prosperity, they point out.
Very rich in raw materials: "let's not be hypocritical".
There is hardly any time left for economic analysis. Just some reference to what Camille and Esther Ntoto have commented. "We have to stop being hypocritical, because if Congo did not have the wealth it has, we would be at peace. We wouldn't even be here, but that's because Congo is a rich country and has all the wealth the world needs. We are talking about minerals, but we also have to talk about our biodiversity. The world needs it, and the future of the world cannot be counted without Congo," they say.
"If you have a mobile device, if you have a computer, an iPad or an electric car, chances are every day you use a little bit of Congo in a very ordinary way.Why? Because there are minerals that are used to make all the objects and gadgets I just mentioned, and they come from the Congo." "The minerals we are talking about are needed in the energy transition. Cobalt, coltan, lithium, copper and so on, they come from Congo, from Congolese soil."
In his opinion, "Rwanda is not the right country to deal with mining agreements. It is from Congo that the mineral resources come. "In Rwanda, we are talking about a tiny state with a population that cannot be compared to the 100 million Congolese," Camille says.
The authorFrancisco Otamendi
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Every May 24, we gratefully celebrate Mary, Help of Christians, because Our Lady always responds to the petitions of her children.
May 24, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
History is full of examples of petitions to Our Mother the Virgin Mary, answered with effective protection of her children. The title of the Virgin Mary as Help of Christians is more than four centuries old. It is also one of the litanies that are prayed at the end of the Rosario.
Christians at Lepanto
In 1571 Pope Pius V asked all Christians to pray, specifically, the Holy Rosary. He proposed that they invoke Our Lady under the title Auxilio de los Cristianos (Help of Christians). The objective was that the Christian army, led by John of Austria, would win in the battle that was to take place against the Turks in the Mediterranean Sea. Constantinople had been in the hands of the Turks since 1453. In this way they dominated the Mediterranean and threatened the conquest of Rome.
Despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, the Christian fleet defeated the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The following year Pius V instituted a feast in honor of the Blessed Virgin, on the same day, annually, with the name of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Ottomans and Bonaparte
A little more than a century later, in 1683, when Vienna was besieged by the Ottoman Turks, Pope Innocent XI also asked that the Rosary be prayed, again under the title Help of Christians. The battle began on September 8, the day on which we celebrate the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Four days later, on the feast of the Sweet Name of Mary, the battle ended happily with a new victory for Christianity.
In 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte, proclaimed emperor of France, began to persecute the Church. Pope Pius VII excommunicated him. However, in 1809, Napoleon stormed the Vatican, arrested the Pope and transferred him in chains to Fontainebleau. There he held him prisoner for five years. The Pope tried to communicate to the whole Church to pray to Our Lady, Help of Christians, for his release.
Once again, with the help of the Rosary, the Pope's wishes were granted. On May 24, 1814 Napoleon abdicated. That same day the Pope was able to return to Rome. In his first official act he proclaimed the feast of Mary, Help of Christians. Since then, every May 24, we celebrate Mary Help of Christians with gratitude.
St. John Baptist Rossi, a Roman priest from Genoa, was an example of apostolic commitment to epilepsy. The Church also celebrates on May 23 the Capuchin Saint Crispin of Viterbo, two Polish priests, Blessed Joseph Kurzawa and Vincent Matuszewski, murdered by the Nazis, and numerous martyrs.
Francisco Otamendi-May 23, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
On May 23, the liturgy commemorates priests, religious and various groups of martyrs. Among the former are St. John Baptist Rossi and the blessed Polish priests Joseph Kurzawa and Vincent Matuszewski, killed by the Nazi police. And among the religious, the Capuchin Saint Crispin of Viterbo.
The Church also celebrates on this day Saints Lucius and his companions martyrs in Carthage (Tunisia), in the time of Emperor Valerian, for confessing the religion and faith learned from St. Cyprian.
The saints martyrs of Cappadocia (Turkey), Christians whose names are not recorded, tortured and killed in 303 for their faith, during the persecution of Emperor Maximian, are also in the saints' calendar of the day. And the martyrs of Mesopotamia, executed under the same emperor.
St. John the Baptist, apostle in poor health
St. John Baptist Rossi was born near Genoa (Italy) in 1698. As a young man he moved to Rome, to the home of an uncle who was a priest. He studied with the Jesuits and was ordained a priest. As a student he suffered his first epileptic seizures, which lasted his whole life. He showed a generous apostolic commitment in Rome in spite of his illness, in the confessionspiritual accompaniment, spiritual accompaniment, care for the poor in Rome and in the hospices.
St. Crispin, cheerful Capuchin
St. Crispin (Viterbo, Italy, 1668), was called Peter. He approached the Capuchin Order, and there he discovered his path of sanctification. In the face of problems, he was optimistic, and his joy He made himself felt at every moment, helping the sick who came to see him. Like St. Francis of Assisi, he discovered the presence of the Lord in created things and in nature. He died in 1750 and is the first saint canonized by St. John Paul II.
Before becoming the Pope Leo XIVIn the late 1980s, the then Bishop of Chiclayo (Peru), Robert F. Prevost, created a commission to help women escape forced prostitution, according to a trafficking survivor who worked with him.
Silvia Teodolinda Vázquez, 52, told Argentine newspaper La Nación that she met Pope Leo when he created a diocesan commission on human migration and human trafficking in 2017.
Claiming that he affectionately called him "padrecito," or "Father Rober," Vázquez told La Nación in a May 17 interview, "The day I met him he told me something very nice."
They had just finished a meeting about the commission's work, she says, and "he came up to me and, with that warm tone in his voice, he said, 'Silvia, I know this work is very hard for you because of all you went through when you were young. I'm so grateful for what you're doing for these girls, and I bless you.' It was very touching."
The pope created the commission, which is still active, in 2017 to bring together lay people, religious men and women and parishes to help advocate for and assist vulnerable migrants, refugees and victims of trafficking. He was the driving force behind all their work, he said.
Assistance to immigrant women
Then Bishop Prevost was concerned about the connection between the huge flow of Venezuelan migrants into Peru and the growing number of sex workers, so he met with members of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, who were dedicated to helping women forced into prostitution, and asked them to join the commission he was forming, Vazquez told La Nacion.
The sisters had long been fighting human trafficking and offering women ways to remain free from exploitation; the congregation was awarded the U.S. State Department's TIP Award in 2005 for its work.
Vazquez, a survivor of sexual abuse, human trafficking and forced prostitution, said one of the sisters repeatedly reached out to her, helping her find shelter and a new job. "I am eternally grateful to them because thanks to them I was able to get ahead and become what I am today. They were my second mothers," she says.
She then spent 15 years working with the sisters, providing health education to sex workers and promoting workshops offering alternative trades. That's how she met Bishop Prevost.
The sisters worked for years with the commission until they had to close their convent in Chiclayo and return to Lima. Bishop Prevost's commission then took over the sisters' work in assisting trafficking victims, and that is how Vazquez began working directly with the commission, reported La Nacion.
Vázquez and others walk the streets and go to bars, where they get permission from the owners to talk to the women, he explains.
"The first thing we ask them is how they are doing and what they need," he explains. He also gives out his phone number, "and many of them call me when they want to talk or need something."
Women's shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo
The commission also built, with the help of Vincentians and Caritas, a St. Vincent de Paul shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo for women, he said. More than 5,000 people, mostly migrants from Venezuela, have passed through the shelter.
The future Pope Leo supported all the commission's efforts and organized spiritual retreats for trafficking victims and sex workers, "very well attended at the time," Vazquez says. He also celebrated Masses and confessions at the retreats.
"We coordinated everything with him," she said. The commission gave him monthly reports on their work, "which included everything from talking to girls in brothels and bars to offer them help and job opportunities, to helping them regularize their immigration status and assisting them with treatment for illnesses and clothing for their children."
The new pope is "kind, very affectionate and has a very nice way with people," he said.
When he saw who had been elected pope on May 8, "he cried with joy," he said. She had gone to a neighbor's house to watch the announcement on television and "my neighbor didn't understand. I told her I knew the Pope very well. I had to show her the photos to make her believe me."
This article was first published in OSV News. You can read the original article HERE.
Diversity is a richness for the Church, which is a mother; and her children, who are brothers and sisters by faith, are capable of discovering the experience of community in every corner of the world where they meet another baptized person.
May 23, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
On April 24, two decades ago, the Mass for the enthronement of the Pope was celebrated Benedict XVI and, this year, we witness the moment in which Pope Leo XIV inaugurates his pontificate by receiving the fisherman's ring.and the archiepiscopal pallium in which, in one way or another, all believers, all members of the flock of the Eternal Shepherd, are represented. We entrust to him as the Church militant or pilgrim Church this task of guiding all Christianity with his words, his actions and his teaching to the great goal of Christians, to be the Church triumphant in Heaven.
Living this moment must be a moment of joy for all Catholics; an event that marks the continuity of the Apostolic Tradition and whose particular symbolism, today more than ever, is centered on the Chair of St. Peter, who bears witness to Christ before the world. Its symbolism is even a reality, it is the experience, the assumption of a power entrusted to him by Christ himself: to rule, to teach, to bind and to loose.
These words should really impose themselves on our senses and should make us think that the person himself and his universal vocation to holiness are at stake when listening to the Shepherd and the one to whom he himself has entrusted the flock. To rule is closely linked to obedience, obedience to faith and doctrine, and no longer to one's own or personal ideas, but to the obedience of the true faith.
Unity in diversity
It is curious that Pope Benedict XVI recognized in his magisterium that "unity is the sign of recognition, the calling card of the Church throughout her universal history" (Benedict XVI. "In this sense, unity in diversity has manifested itself repeatedly throughout history, and it is a diversity that is not provoked and encouraged by eminently human forces; on the contrary, the enclosure of the Church is a sign that the Holy Spirit does not dwell in them: for this reason, to live as brothers is the work of the third person of the Trinity. The Church in her diversity is majestic, living, present and militant, she has a goal which is none other than Heaven; meanwhile, God himself maintains his Church through the sacraments.
Henri de Lubac emphasizes that since we are children by baptism, which is born of the same side of Christ, we will never finish contemplating this mystery, we will never exhaust it, for "It advances like a river and like a fire. It catches up with each one of us at the right moment, to make new springs of living water gush forth in us and to light a new flame. The Church is an institution that endures by virtue of the divine power received from its founder" (Henri de Lubac, "Meditation on the Church", 2011).
Diversity is a richness for the Church, which is a mother; and her children, who are brothers and sisters by faith, are capable of discovering the experience of community in every corner of the world where they meet another baptized person. This faith, the same faith on the other side of the world, the same experience of faith that has been transmitted by the apostles and that makes us followers and lovers of the truth. Only by discovering the gift can we bring Christ to others; only by constantly nourishing ourselves with his Word and the Eucharist can we have the strength and the moral disposition to make him known so that what we say about him is eminently credible.
The Pope's mission in the Church
Christ, after showing his majesty and power in the Resurrection, never abandons his people, but rather institutes the Church in Peter, as its visible head, as the one to whom he entrusts the mission of "feeding his sheep".(Jn 21:17), only because he loves him and loves us. The project of Jesus, he himself entrusts it to men, the Lord trusts in those who, despite their weakness, he knows will be assisted by a power that surpasses them, that surpasses us, it is a project that is not human, it is divine, almost like an antechamber of heaven on earth, and through his Church, the means are within reach so that "all men may be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth".
"This Church, established and organized in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him" (LG 8). Now, communion implies a collaboration of the hierarchy, in virtue of the fact that they also possess the power to rule the people of God, to rule them so that they always discover that the center of the Christian life, in the different circumstances, is to see Christ, to contemplate him, to be with him (cf. Mk 3:13).
"Now I say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of hell shall not overthrow it" (Mt 16:18). So it has been for almost two millennia. The house is built on stone, not on sand; it stands firm on the foundation of the apostles. The union between heaven, which is the Church, starts from her already triumphant at the wedding of the Lamb.
Power in Heaven and on Earth
The power of the Supreme Pontiff reaches the whole earth, but at the same time it also reaches Heaven: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:19). Therefore, the office of representing Christ is necessary in every time, "walking together",to a large extent means that we all have the same faith.
If we look at Peter's profession "You are the son of the living God" (Mt 16:16), Peter's task is to make those words resound throughout the world, in every time and circumstance, it is to carry the Cross, also the victory of the Resurrection, waiting for the promise of the "Μαραν αθα".
To pray for the intentions of the Holy Father is to unite ourselves as Church to the one to whom the Lord entrusts the flock, it is an obligation to pray every day for him, for his life and for the many evils he may suffer. Obedience is not something that is something "past", neither is respect, it is to see how Jesus himself continues to lead the Church towards him, where one day we can see him "as he is" and that the veil that covers the Church is uncovered and we can see her true face with the one who is the head, Christ.
St. Joseph and St. Mary, protectors of the Church
Finally, let us not forget the powerful intercession of St. Mary Mother of the Church, of St. Joseph the Patron of the universal Church, who protect the Church on pilgrimage in this world. Holy Mary, Virgin and Mother, Virgin by Divine Grace and Mother of sinners, without Her who is "Θεοτόκος", Mother of the Church, model of holiness for all the faithful by trusting fully in God, without Her ─repito─ we could not assume the vocation to live the communion in the Church, in a particular way, in the case that concerns us in our days, with the Pope, to live fully the communion of saints.
As St. Josemaría said with great confidence and radicalism about the present times in which Pope Leo XIV is beginning to make his way: "Omnes cum Petro ad Iesum per Mariam," that is, "All with Peter, to Jesus through Mary" ("It is Christ who passes by," 139).
Pope appoints Sister Merletti secretary of dicastery for religious
Pope Leo XIV appointed Sister Tiziana Merletti, canon lawyer, secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
OSV / Omnes-May 22, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
In his first appointment of a high-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, as secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Sister Merletti, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, succeeds Sister Simona BrambillaBrambilla, a Consolata Missionary Sister, whom Pope Francis appointed prefect of the dicastery in January. Sister Brambilla is the first woman to head a Vatican dicastery.
The International Union of Women Superiors General (UISGin Italian) thanked Pope Leo and congratulated Sister Merletti on her appointment, which the Vatican announced on May 22.
Experienced profile
As a member of the union's canon law council and the Commission for Safeguarding, jointly managed by the unions of superiors and superiors, "her contributions are a contribution to our global network, promoting justice, care and integrity in consecrated life," the group of superiors stated. "We congratulate Sr. Tiziana on this important mission and assure her of our prayers as she assumes this new responsibility in the service of consecrated life worldwide."
The dicastery, according to the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, is called "to promote, foster and regulate the practice of the evangelical counsels, their living out in the approved forms of consecrated life and all that concerns the life and activity of the Societies of Apostolic Life throughout the Latin Church".
According to Vatican statistics, there are about 600,000 professed religious in the Catholic Church. The number of religious priests is about 128,500 and the number of religious brothers is close to 50,000.
Canonist and teacher
Sister Merletti, 65, was born in Pineto, Italy, and earned a degree in civil law before taking her first vows as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1986. In 1992 she earned her doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
From 2004 to 2013, she was Superior General of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. At the time of her appointment, she was teaching canon law at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome and practicing as an expert in canon law at the UISG.
The authorOSV / Omnes
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St. Rita of Cascia, Augustinian, "saint of the impossible cases".
On May 22, the Church celebrates the Augustinian saint Rita of Cascia (Italy), "saint of the impossible cases". Born in 1381, she lost her husband and children, and was a woman of faith, humility and perseverance. Finally she was admitted among the Augustinian nuns of the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene of Cascia. She asked the Lord to participate in his Passion, and had a stigma for 15 years.
Francisco Otamendi-May 22, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Margarita Lotti, called by the diminutive "Rita", was the daughter of farmer and cattle rancher parents, who made an effort to give her a good training She was a school and religious in Cascia, where she was taught by the Augustinians. There he matured his devotion to St. AugustineSt. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas of Tolentino, whom Rita chose as her patron saints.
In a climate of rivalry, with love and understanding Rita's relationship with her husband improved and she was blessed with two sons. However, her husband was murdered. Rita forgave those who killed him. At the same time, an illness caused the death of her children. Alone, Rita intensified her prayer and at the age of 36, she asked to be admitted among the Augustinian nuns from monastery of St. Mary Magdalene of Cascia.
Santa Rita: saint of the roses
However, her request was rejected: the nuns thought that she could endanger the security of their community. But in the end she was admitted, and Rita was a humble religious, with zeal in prayer and in the works entrusted to her. Her virtues were known outside the convent.
Immersed in the contemplation of Christ, Rita asked to participate in his Passion, and in 1432, absorbed in prayer, she found on her forehead the wound of the crown of thorns of the Crucified One. The stigma persisted until her death, for 15 years. She is called the saint of the roses because while she was in bed before her death, she asked a cousin to bring her two figs and a rose from the garden of her father's house. It was January. The woman thought she was delirious. However, she was astonished to find the figs and the rose, and took them to Cascia.
Rita died on the night of May 21-22, 1447. The Vatican website notes that, because of the odor of sanctity, immediately after her death, her body was never buried. Today it is kept in a glass urn. The testimonials The graces and miracles that happen through her intercession are very numerous.
The love story of the Ortiz de Landázuri couple Busca
Laura and Eduardo. A love story is a posthumous tribute by Esteban López Escobar that narrates the spiritual and marital journey of the Servants of God Laura Busca and Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri.
Now that we have an Augustinian pope, Leo XIV, who reflects in his shield the burning heart of St. Augustine, it is a good time to reread the extraordinary book of "Confessions" of St. Augustine.
I would like to recall the magnificent edition prepared by Pedro Antonio Urbina for Palabra editions, which provides many Christians with a personal encounter with one of the most important Church Fathers in history.
When the Holy Father Leo XIV mentioned on the day of his election in St. Peter's Square that he was a son of St. Augustine, he was calling all Christians to a new conversion, a conversion to love, as did the saint of Hippo.
The first messages of the new Holy Father were, as we all remember, a call to the unceasing search for peace in the world. Certainly, as St. Josemaría Escrivá said, for there to be peace in the world there must be peace in consciences, and for this there is nothing better than the permanent conversion of each one of us to love.
Precisely, I wish to present now the posthumous work of the former professor of communication at the University of Navarra, the Valencian Esteban López Escobar (1941-2025), who undertook this last work of his life with great illusion and a galloping leukemia that killed him only to deprive him of seeing the book published in the street, because a few weeks before his death he had given us the manuscript perfectly revised.
The Ortiz de Landázuri couple
When a year before I went to him, as a friend of many years in Pamplona, and as diocesan postulator of the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servants of God, I was able to see him, as a friend of many years in Pamplona, and as the diocesan postulator of the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servants of God. Laura Busca Otaegui and Eduardo Ortíz de Landázuiri, we could not have predicted this fatal outcome.
In fact, Esteban had already prepared two editions of a biographical book on Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri, the former professor of pathology at the Faculty of Medicine, dean and vice-rector of the University of Navarra. The admiration and friendship they had during his lifetime allowed him to enter deeply into Eduardo's soul and family. Those semblances were reprinted several times.
In the course of time and life, Esteban had known and treated his wife Laura, a Basque from Zumarraga, always smiling, a pharmacist, mother of seven children and an accomplished cook.
With this background and the perspective that the diocesan investigation had already been closed and that both processes, Eduardo's and Laura's, had entered the Roman phase, Esteban decided to undertake the work.
The beatification process
Let us remember that the "Positio" on the life, virtues and reputation for sanctity of these Servants of God had already been delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and, therefore, now it only remained to await the judgment of the Church and, in the meantime, to continue disseminating the prayer card for private devotion.
Precisely in the print for private devotion Laura and Eduardo appear together in a photograph taken in Granada when they were a young married couple who were joyfully welcoming their first children and, while Eduardo was making his way in the practice of medicine and university teaching.
Esteban was struck by the fact that she told him that they appeared together, since both were in the process of beatification and, therefore, the graces and favors that God Our Lord in his particular providence decided to give us, would be attributed to the intervention of the couple.
Therefore, if one day a miracle were to occur, by means of that event, both could be beatified or canonized. That is to say that in the causes of marriage the phenomenon occurs that with one miracle you have two saints.
The question is obvious: why does the Church demand two rigorous processes of virtue separately for the two spouses and, on the other hand, why with only one miracle for beatification and another for canonization, would we obtain two saints? The answer given by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is quite simple: marriage is a "theological place".
This is the origin of this biographical sketch of Laura and Eduardo's marriage and, in a way, also of the tribute to a professor, writer and journalist such as Esteban López Escobar.
The proposal I made to Estaban was to write the story of the love between Laura, Eduardo and God, for as we know, married love is a matter of three, since all human love is based on divine love: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mt 18:20).
A careful reading of this work shows how human love is transformative. Indeed, the lives of Eduardo and Laura and the intertwining of their desires for mutual love and self-giving appear throughout this book in the form of the children who are the crystallization of the spouses' love in a new life with God's grace.
Likewise, in a very delicate way, Esteban Lopez Escobar relates the becoming of Christian virtues; the conjunction of God's grace and the free correspondence of each one of them and of both of them to reflect in their lives God's gift of the beatitudes and the procession of moral virtues.
It is true that men are not born saints, but that they become saints through God's grace and personal effort, but it is also completely true that without God's grace we can do nothing. In fact, the anecdotes described in this book show how this couple, not only were happy and created a bright and joyful home, but were transformed by God's grace.
Laura and Eduardo. A love story
AuthorEsteban Lopez Escobar
Editorial: Word
Year: 2025
Number of pages: 318
Language: English
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Alejandra Martinez is the content manager for Latin America and Spain for the prayer and meditation application Hallow, where he has found the place to unite marketing and theology.
How do graphic design, marketing and theology intertwine to build bridges to faith in the digital world? Alejandra Martinez, originally from Monterrey, Mexico, is an example of this fascinating convergence. A graduate of the University of Monterrey with studies in graphic design and marketing, Alejandra began her professional career in advertising agencies and communications departments.
However, his life took an unexpected turn when God gave him the opportunity to study Institutional Communications and Theology at the University of California at San Diego. Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. There, he discovered "the beauty of the universal Church"finding "people from so many different cultures, accents and movements, united by the same longing to know and live close to God".. This experience strengthened his desire to put his talents to work. "in the service of something bigger than myself.". Later, he completed a master's degree in Corporate and Political Communication at the University of Navarra.
It was during a stay at the George Washington University that Alejandra met Hallowthe world's number one Catholic prayer and meditation app. She was captivated by its mission, its creativity and the real possibility of accompanying souls digitally.
The way to God
Alejandra grew up in a Catholic family and is very thankful to her parents for "the love, education and faith they sowed." in her. Her mother says that it all began when Pope St. John Paul II visited Monterrey in 1990. While she was pregnant with Alejandra, she had the opportunity to speak with the Pope and receive his blessing. "with his hand on my belly.". For this reason, both Alejandra and her mother think that this blessing is a blessing for them. "it surely marked, without knowing it, the beginning." of their way.
Alejandra's path to get closer to God is"very concrete and at the same time very everyday.". Starts with "daily prayer - even if it is brief, even if sometimes I don't know what to say - and with the desire to let myself be looked at by Him.". It also approaches God through "beauty: an image, a Gospel story, an uplifting song... because I believe that everything true, good and beautiful speaks to us of Him.". And, of course, "through people: those who have accompanied me in my spiritual life, those who inspire me by their simple and deep faith"..
Alejandra felt the desire to be better trained to serve the Church, and remembers going to the wayside shrine of the University of Navarra to ask the Blessed Mother for a scholarship to be able to study for her master's degree. "If you give it to me, I promise you that everything I learn I will use to serve the universal Church."he told her. A year later, she graduated from her master's degree with her scholarship and signed her contract with Hallow.
Working in Hallow has been a way to get closer to God: "accompanying others on their prayer journey reminds me every day that I too need to return to Him, again and again.". On the other hand, his studies of Theology and Communication made him "understand the urgency of telling the faith well.".
Creating impactful content
As content manager for Latin America and Spain, Alejandra "coordinates, produces and manages Spanish-language content within the app"including "novenas, consecrations, meditations, music, bedtime prayers and much more.". His work begins "listening: what is our audience looking for, what wounds does it bring, what does it need to meet God again?".
Alejandra believes that "impactful content is born from deep listening".looking for "to understand what is going on in people's hearts: what they are looking for, what they need, what wounds they carry and how God can enter there.". At HallowThe aim is to communicate the message of hope, faith, and conversion with authenticity and excellence, involving "priests, nuns, psychologists, influencers and moms of families."and taking care of every production detail. "In one sentence: get it perfectly right.".
God also touches hearts in the digital world: a funny prayer, word or song can be the spark for a profound change, even a miracle!
The Holy Spirit acts in the Church in many ways. He guides the Church into all truth (Jn 16:13), but, as we see in today's Gospel, he also "reminds" the Church of the words of Christ: "the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will be the one to teach you everything and to remind you of all that I have said to you.".
That remembrance of Jesus works in two ways: it reminds us how demanding his call is (e.g. Mt 16:24; 19:21), but also how understanding it is. God's presence in our souls "we will come to him and make our abode in him."- at the same time disturbing and comforting: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be troubled.". The message of the Gospel is as far from fanaticism as it is from lukewarmness.
And this calm and balanced approach of Jesus is seen in today's first reading in a historical decision made by the early Church that managed to be radical and reasonable at the same time. Some converts from Judaism to Christianity had "disturbed" converts from paganism by insisting that they had to be circumcised and adopt all the ritual practices of Jewish law. In a sense, they had to be Jews to be Christians, these people claimed. But the apostles, after meeting and discussing this, issued an important decree. In the first place, they made it clear that those people who "they have stirred you up with their words, unsettling your spirits." had no mandate from them: "without our order" to do so. And then they give their decision, which is a clear break with Judaism (in that very radical sense), while respecting some convictions that Jewish Christians would have felt very deeply: the rejection of idolatry, of eating animal blood and strangled animals, and of sexual immorality. The first and last are obvious, the middle two were more Jewish dietary beliefs of the time that the apostles respect (for example, Jews believed that a creature's life was contained in its blood, so eating the blood of an animal was somehow seen as trying to have power over its life, which only God really has). Thus, the decision was ultimately a sensible compromise, affirming essential moral teaching while respecting contemporary concerns. This is always the Church's approach: to "remember" Christ is to be both radical and reasonable, affirming perennial and immutable values, yet sensitive to contingent ones.
Pope Leo XIV emphasizes the outpouring of God's love and remembers Francis
In his first General Audience, held in St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo XIV emphasized God's outpouring of love for us, considering the parable of the sower. He also recalled with gratitude "our beloved Pope Francis" and encouraged us to pray the Rosary during this Marian month.
Francisco Otamendi-May 21, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
On the morning of May 21, Pope Leo XIV held his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, with more than forty thousand faithful, in which he meditated on the parable of the sower.
Some special notes of the Audience were "the gratitude to our beloved Pope Francis"; the words in English to the English-speaking pilgrims; his invitation to pray the Rosary for peace in this Marian month of May, formulated to the Portuguese-speaking faithful (with express reference to Our Lady of Fatima) and to the Arabic-speaking faithful; and the greeting after the Blessing to various ecclesiastical personalities, whom he received standing, with a handshake.
He has also prayed for peacewith express mention of the Gaza Strip. He focused in particular on the need for humanitarian aid, especially for children, the elderly and the sick, and added that "we are called to sow hope and build peace".
Gratitude to Pope Francis
The words about Pope Francis were the following: "And we cannot end our meeting without remembering with such gratitude our beloved Pope Francis, who just a month ago returned to the Father's house."
The new Pope Leo XIV said that he was resuming the cycle of catechesis for the Jubilee Year, 'Jesus Christ, our hope', and focused his meditation on the theme '....The sower He spoke to them of many things in parables', taken from St. Matthew, 13.
Catechesis on Jesus Christ, our hope
"I am happy to welcome you to my first general audience. I am resuming the cycle of Jubilee catecheses on the theme 'Jesus Christ, Our Hope,' initiated by Pope Francis," he said.
"Today we will continue to meditate on the parables of Jesus, which help us to recover hope, because they show us how God works in history."
And he stopped at "a parable that is a bit particular, because it is a kind of introduction to all the parables. I am referring to that of the sower (cf. Mt 13,1-17). In a certain sense, in this story we can recognize Jesus' way of communicating, which has much to teach us for the proclamation of the Gospel today".
Pope Leo XIV has stated: "Parables are a way in which the Lord communicates his Word to us so that it questions and challenges us, provoking in us a response to the question that underlies the narrative he is telling us: Where do I fit into this story? What does it say to my life?"
Calculation is not valid in love
Commenting on the parable of the sower, the Pope pointed out that it is about a "sower, quite original, who goes out to sow, but does not worry about where the seed falls. He throws it even where it is unlikely to bear fruit".
"We are accustomed to calculating things - and sometimes it is necessary - but this does not apply to love! The way in which this 'wasteful' sower throws the seed is an image of the way in which God loves us," the Pope said.
"God trusts and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom," he reiterated. "He loves us like this: he does not wait for us to be the best soil, he always generously gives us his word."
Van Gogh, 'The Sower at Sunset', image of hope
The Pontiff referred here to "that beautiful painting by Van Gogh: 'The Sower at Sunset'. That image of the sower under the scorching sun speaks to me also of the peasant's effort. And I am struck by the fact that, behind the sower, Van Gogh has represented the ripe wheat. It seems to me an image of hope: one way or another, the seed has borne fruit. We don't quite know how, but that's how it is.
Finally, Leo XIV encouraged us to "ask the Lord for the grace to always welcome this seed which is his word. And if we realize that we are not fertile ground, let us not be discouraged, but let us ask him to continue to work in us so that we may become better ground".
25 years since the canonization of 27 Mexican saints
Today the Church celebrates 25 years since the canonization of 27 Mexican saints during the Jubilee of the year 2000 by St. John Paul II. Cristobal Magallanes and 24 others were martyred in the first third of the 20th century. In addition, the liturgy celebrates saints Eugene de Mazenod and Hemming, St. Virginia, and the Pentecostal martyrs of Alexandria.
Francisco Otamendi-May 21, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Today the Church commemorates 25 years since the canonization that took place during the Jubilee of 2000 in Rome. On May 21, St. John Paul II canonized 27 Mexicans. "The Church rejoices in proclaiming these sons of Mexico saints," the Pope said. "Cristobal Magallanes and 24 fellow martyrs, priests and lay people; José María de Yermo y Parres, priest founder of the Religious Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and María de Jesús Sacramentado Venegas, foundress of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart".
"Most of them belonged to the secular clergy and three of them were lay people seriously engaged in helping priests," the Pope added. "They did not abandon the courageous exercise of their ministry when the religious persecution The Mexican people's hatred of the Catholic religion was unleashed in the beloved land of Mexico. All of them freely and serenely accepted martyrdom as a testimony of their faith, explicitly forgiving their persecutors, (...), and today they are an example for the whole Church and for Mexican society in particular".
The Church in Mexico: intercessors in heaven
In its homilyThe Polish Pope said that "the Church in Mexico rejoices to have these intercessors in heaven, models of supreme charity following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. All of them gave their lives to God and to their brothers and sisters, by the way of martyrdom or by the way of generous offering in the service of the needy (...) They are a precious legacy, fruit of the faith rooted in Mexican lands". The particular feast of each one is celebrated on the day of their death.
In St. Peter's Square the name of the Indian Juan Diego was heard loudly, canonized in 2002, to whom the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.
Saint Eugene, founding bishop
St. Eugene de Mazenod, Bishop of Marseille, was the founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was saved from the French Revolution, and instead of court life, he chose the priesthood. This day is also commemorated, among others saints and blessedThe following are also mentioned: St. Hemming of Sweden, and Saints Hospice of Nice, Mantius and Paterno.
St. Hemming and St. Virginia
St. Hemming was born north of Upsala, in Sweden, at the end of the 13th century. Once ordained a priest, he went to Paris to complete his studies. On his return to his homeland, in 1338 he was elected bishop of Abo, today's Turku in Finland. He had numerous initiatives in liturgical and educational matters, and established free services for the poor.
Saint Virginia Centurione (Genoa, XVII century), had to accept her father's decision and marry a rich young man with a disorderly life. At the death of her husband, widowed at the age of 20, she received the vocation to "serve God in his poor and needy". His work was developed in two congregations religious. She was enriched by the Lord with ecstasies, visions and interior locutions.
The last book from Giovanni Maria Vian, The last daddy, see the evolution from papacy from the century XVIII to the present time, highlighting the voltages on tradition y modernity. Vian critique the reforms incomplete from Papa Francisco y notes the need from a more collegiality y consistency at the leadership ecclesial.
Giovanni Maria Vian, professor of history at the University of La Sapienza of Rome and former director of L'Osservatore Romanohas written an interesting work, half historical and half journalistic, about the development of the papacy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, focusing on the work and organization of the Roman Curia. The book is presented journalistically as an allegory of the famous apocryphal prophecy of St. Malachy about the last pope who would reign in history and who, "theoretically", would usher in the end of the world and who, according to the prophecy, would be called John XXIV. In reality, apart from the cover, prologue and epilogue, the book is a work of history based on documentary sources from the Vatican Archives and on testimonies of varying rigor.
A reading of the Church
The book has been presented in certain press as a critique of some facets of the pontificate of the last Popes from St. John Paul II to the present day, although in reality we are dealing with an analysis of variable value.
In fact, Professor Vian, a connoisseur of the Roman Curia and of the contemporary history of the Church, echoes an appreciation abundantly developed by the great Christian intellectuals of recent history such as Merry del Val, Romano Guardini, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Rahner, Ratzinger and more recently by Andrea Riccardi.
According to Vian, the Church should abandon the style and ways proper to the society of Christianity, that is to say, those corresponding to the connivance with the State from the time of Emperor Constantine to the present day, to recognize that the separation of Church and State is irreversible and that the Christian roots of society are disappearing at great speed, to enter fully and in a few years into a new post-Christian globalized civilization and culture.
In this sense, when St. John Paul II affirmed that the new evangelization was "new in its ardor, method and expressions", he was referring to a society still with Christian roots that could be "de-secularized" and become Christian again to a considerable extent, that is, a human society still with Christian roots founded on the Gospel, Greek philosophy and Roman law.
Church and dialogue with the world
Surely, although he does not say it explicitly, what Giovanni Maria Vian is proposing, deep down, would be the convenience of celebrating a new Vatican Council III that dialogues with today's world. To rewrite "Gaudium et spes", to analyze the current western society in order to help it find educational, anthropological, philosophical and spiritual approaches that revalue the dignity of the human person and open horizons of hope to a society in decadence. He wants the Curia to emerge from self-referentiality (p. 205) and return to the rule of law (p. 213).
It is important to realize that the liberal society, like the social-democratic one, has perished and we are moving towards a new culture and civilization in which cultural and social parameters are different.
It must be discovered that there are immense layers of today's society that have no other major interests than personal self-affirmation, moral autonomy, pleasure and comfort, and that the first world, in fact, despises solidarity and emigration because it has become cruelly unsupportive precisely because it has abandoned spiritual values.
First world society is self-destructing at great speed: fundamental values such as love, family, friendship, work, culture, serenity of judgment, spiritual and transcendent vision, and even ecology and the environment, peace.
The solution
Vian seems to forget that the Catholic Church has the solution: the human and divine person of Jesus Christ and his saving doctrine. His capacity to drag and transform, to ignite and open horizons of happiness, of unlimited love and concern for others, the family, the world, the needy, the discarded. Benedict XVI said it in a very graphic way: "The Holy Spirit is the source of all our faith".We have believed in God's loveThis is how a Christian can express the fundamental choice of his or her life. One does not begin to be a Christian by an ethical decision or a great idea, but by the encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives a new horizon to life and, with it, a decisive orientation" (Deus Caritas est1).
In any case, Vian reminds us that it is necessary to rewrite part of the Christian doctrine in order to give an answer from Christ to the real problems that afflict men and especially those of the ruling classes of this world of ours: a new anthropology, attractive and consistent with the dignity of children of God, endowed with freedom and dignity (p. 25).
In this regard, Vian will devote a few pages to highlighting the final document by which the Pope endorsed the conclusions of the "synod of synodality" on November 24, 2024, a few months before his death. This extraordinary post-synodal document connects very well with current sensitivities, also with other religious confessions and in the social organization of the economy - of business - and in the way of working in teams that has been imposed. Precisely, the final document underlined Vian speaks to us of putting the shoulder and to feel the Church as our own. At the same time, the bishops of the whole world and the Pope, as fathers of the family, will watch over the course of the universal Church (p. 39).
Logically, many of the futurist proposals that are exposed throughout this work are completely opinionated and touch sensitive points of the tradition of the Church, for what it is necessary to take them with freedom, as well as they have been expressed with naturalness as, for example, the proposal of destruction of the works of art made by certain artists of our time entangled in terrible juridical causes (p. 47). Finally, he will directly address the reform of the Pontifical Curia, its working methods and the contribution of ideas that have continued since the code of 1917 (p. 98).
The comments on Opus Dei are biased, imprecise and subject to a false dynamic: Opus Dei has never wanted to be an exception, nor to live apart from the bishops, nor to be an institution of power, but to serve the Church and souls (p. 218).
The Last Pope. Present and future challenges of the Catholic Church.
Fabrice Hadjadj arrives in Spain with a new project: the INCARNATUS Institute, an initiative that wants to revolutionize the Hispanic-American cultural scene and present the humanities as the right way to find the answers to the questions that society is asking itself.
Fabrice Hadjadj is a French philosopher and author known for works such as "The Luck of Being Born in Our Time", "The Faith of Demons (or Atheism Overcome)" or "Why Give Life to a Mortal: and Other Lessons".
For several years he has been living in Fribourg (Switzerland), where he directs the Philanthropos Institute, an initiative that aims to give young people a solid foundation in philosophy, theology and manual work, all strongly inspired by the Benedictine mentality.
Now, Fabrice Hadjadj and his wife Siffreine Michel are moving to Spain to start a new business venture. INCARNATUS Instituteinspired by the Swiss project. Through INCARNATUS, Fabrice and his wife want to delve deeper into the Hispanic American culture and, from the humanitiesto help those who feel called to delve deeper into reality, far beyond what technology can offer.
The institute is still in full development, but Fabrice Hadjadj shares in this interview with Omnes the keys that make him think that the humanities are the answer to the questions we ask ourselves today, and the secret to achieving what we long for so much: freedom.
Why do you think that today more than ever it is urgent to rediscover the humanities, especially in the face of the advance of a technocratic and utilitarian vision of the human being?
- The word "humanities" already gives the answer, because to be interested in the humanities is to discover your humanity. Although when we talk about humanities we talk about reading texts by ancient authors and the question is: if we are men of today, why do we have to read ancient authors?
The reality is that to be free you have to distance yourself from your time. If we are immersed in our time, we are convinced that everything that is done in our time has always been done this way. When I read ancient authors, not only do I enter into a very deep human wisdom (deep because it has come to cross time), but I also take distance from my time and become free.
We often think that freedom comes from revolution, but freedom comes from tradition. When I read Plato or St. Augustine, I take distance from my time and I can criticize it. Even the French revolutionaries read the ancients and referred to the Roman Republic. Marxist revolutionaries, too, read Marx, and Marx read Aristotle. From Aristotle's texts Marx criticized capitalism.
The revolution, the good revolution, has to be understood in a relationship with tradition in order to find freedom and to tear ourselves away from our epoch to see it objectively.
How do you see the role of beauty in awakening the desire for truth and for a truly human life?
- When I talk about theater and singing, I am not only talking about beauty, but also about a practice. Many times people talk about beauty as a spectacle, but what interests me is to do things in beauty.
Beauty calls for beauty and what interests me is not the fact of loving poetry, but of becoming the poet of your own existence. So when I speak of singing and theater, it is to speak of a practice of beauty that enters our body and is carried in our veins and in our gestures.
In this bringing beauty in us there is a question of freedom. The problem of the modern world is to believe that we start being free and that we do not have to learn to be free. But, precisely when learning an art, especially a demanding art such as one linked to beauty, it is understood that freedom is a learning process.
If you want to play flamenco guitar, you have to learn, you can't do it all at once. You don't need to go to a school or an academic institution, but you need a teacher and a living tradition, which is not a reconstructed ideological tradition. This is what I see in theater and singing, not only the embodiment of beauty, but the development of freedom.
Are INCARNATUS and Philanthropos also projects for married people?
- The projects are aimed first at students, people who are rather unmarried and do not have a regular job. But engaged couples have been welcomed and this year for the first time there is a married couple who were willing to enter into this adventure and who do not have children. These are projects to create your own community, not so much to be in your community.
There will be times when people who already work on a daily basis will be able to participate. We have seen people transformed by seeing what we lived, that is what the word of Christ says: "Come and see". We are in a world in which there are so many words and signs sent in all directions, that the word "come and see" is very important for there to be a transformation.
What is the contemporary crisis of meaning? Why can God and philosophy respond to this crisis?
- We can take the word "sense" in its most elementary meaning. There is a crisis of sense and a crisis of sensation. In a digital world we do not know how to feel, we have lost the sense of touch and smell. We have ears to distinguish signals, but not to listen. Our eyes are wide open like mouths that would like to swallow images that destroy each other, so that we cannot even see.
That is why I insist on creating places where sensations can be recreated, through manual work, musical instruments or by being around a table where a conversation can be had.
The crisis of meaning is a crisis of feeling. It is really a crisis at the most basic level. Then there is another level, which is the crisis of hope, because meaning is also an orientation, a path towards.
Modernity was progressive and was persuaded that the world was going to be better. The meaning was not eternal but temporary and that meaning was "tomorrow there will be a better society". Today this progressive project of a better society has created threats that are worse than any that have ever weighed on humanity.
The world made better by consumption is destroying the world. Thus, modern hopes have collapsed and so, apart from having to find the base, we have to find the summit, which is a hope that comes from further away than the world itself: an eternal hope where things are not done because tomorrow will be better, but because God has asked us to keep and cultivate the garden.
Today, hope is no longer an option. As worldly hopes have collapsed, religious hope is not an option. Therefore, let us find both the body and the spirit at the same time, to get out of this limbo.
Pope appoints Cardinal Reina Chancellor of the Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family
The cardinal succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who turned 80, the mandatory retirement age at the Vatican, on April 20. The archbishop had served as Grand Chancellor since 2016.
OSV / Omnes-May 20, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
By Cindy Wooden, OSV
Pope Leo XIV appointed Cardinal Baldassare Reina Grand Chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family. The cardinal succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who turned 80, the Vatican's mandatory retirement age, on April 20. The archbishop had served as grand chancellor since 2016.
Cardinal Reina, as papal vicar for Rome, is automatically the grand chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, where the institute is based.
The Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family was established by St. John Paul II in 1982 after the 1980 Synod of Bishops on the family called for the creation of centers dedicated to the study of the Church's teaching on marriage and the family.
The last 10 years
Following the recent meetings of the Synod of Bishops on the family in 2014 and 2015, which called for a more pastoral and missionary approach to modern family life, Pope Francis updated the statutes in 2017. He pointed out the need for greater reflection and academic formation from a pastoral perspective and attentive to the wounds of humanity, keeping alive the original inspiration of the ancient institute.
By broadening the scope of the institute by making it a "theological" institute dedicated also to the human "sciences," Pope Francis wrote, the institute's work will study - in a "deeper and more rigorous way - the truth of revelation and the wisdom of the faith tradition."
The anthropological and cultural changes underway affect all aspects of human life, he wrote, and that calls for a new approach that is not limited to pastoral practices and mission "that reflect forms and models of the past."
Pontifical Academy for Life
Archbishop Paglia is also the president of the Pontifical Academy for LifeHe is also expected to retire from this position now that he is 80 years old.
Pope Francis also updated the statutes of that body in 2016. The main objective of the academy, founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II, remains "the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person," according to the new statutes.
The new statutes add, however, that achieving the objective includes studying ways to promote "care for the dignity of the human person in the different ages of existence, mutual respect between genders and generations, the defense of the dignity of every human being, the promotion of a quality of human life that integrates its material and spiritual value in view of an authentic '....ecology human' that helps to recover the original balance of creation between the human person and the entire universe".
Saints Bernardine of Siena, Lydia of Thyatira, Chong Kuk-bo and M. Crescentia
On May 20, the liturgy celebrates St. Bernardine of Siena, a Franciscan who spread the figure of Jesus, and St. Lydia of Thyatira. Also included in the saints' calendar of the day are the Korean layman St. Protasius Chonk Kuk-bo, persecuted for his faith, the Argentinean Blessed Maria Crescencia Perez and the Polish Franciscan Blessed Anastasius Pankiewitz, among others.
Francisco Otamendi-May 20, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The well-known Franciscan St. Bernardine of Siena, preacher and reformer, is celebrated on May 20 by the liturgy, together with St. Lydia of Thyatira, referred to in the Acts of the Apostles. The Church also celebrates on this day St. Protasius Chonk Kuk-bo of Korea, Crescencia Perez of Argentina, and one of the martyrs of World War II, Anastasius Pankiewitz of Poland, also a Franciscan.
Bernardino of Sienawho, as a young man, helped the plague patients where 30 years before she had been a saint, and who, as a young man, helped the plague patients where 30 years before she had been a saint. Catherine of Sienawas a preacher, missionary and Franciscan saint of the 15th century. He spread devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and played an important role in the intellectual and spiritual promotion of his Order, according to the Franciscan Directory. Before his death in 1444, left founded more than 200 monasteries.
Saints Lidia and Maria Crescencia
The Apostle Paul met Lydia of Thyatira in Philippi of Macedonia, now Greece, according to the Acts of the Apostles: "On the Sabbath we went out of the gate to the bank of a river... We sat down and began to speak to the women who were present. One of them, named Lydia, a seller of purple, a native of the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart to adhere to the words of Paul. When she and those of her household were baptized..." (Acts 16:13-15).
Blessed Maria Crescencia was born in San Martin, province of Buenos Aires, in 1897. Her parents came from Galicia (Spain) and were Christians. In 1918 she took the habit of the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Most Holy of the Garden. Her life as a religious was marked by simplicity, prayer, care for the poor and the sick and devotion to the Virgin Mary. She died young in Chile in 1932.
Chong Kuk-bo confessed Christ to death
St. Protasius Chong Kuk-bo, Korean Christianwas born in 1799. At the age of thirty he became a Christian and years later he was baptized. He married a Christian woman. In 1839 the persecution against the Christians was unleashed. He was arrested and faced the tortures with firmness, but abandoned the faith when he was promised freedom. He repented, returned to the faith, was imprisoned, but confessed Christ until death, in Seoul in 1839.
The author analyzes the document published by the International Theological Commission on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
May 20 marks the 1700th anniversary of the opening of the Council of Nicaea, considered the first ecumenical council in the history of the Church. On the occasion of this date, the International Theological Commission (ITC) published in early April the document "The Church and the Church".Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. 1700 years since the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. 325-2025".
The International Theological Commission
In order to understand the importance of such a document, it is useful to recall the nature of the ECI. The ECI, instituted by the Pope St. Paul VI The Council, established in 1969, is composed of a maximum of thirty "specialists in the theological sciences from different schools and nations who are distinguished for their knowledge, prudence and fidelity to the magisterium".
The members of the ECI are appointed by the Pope to serve on the Commission for a renewable five-year term, and their mission is to "study doctrinal questions of particular importance, especially those that are new, in order to assist the Magisterium of the Church, and especially the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in whose sphere it has been established" (Statutes, art. 1).
This means that the documents of the ECI contain a theological reflection that the members of the Commission place at the service of the Magisterium of the Church, without being itself official magisterium. When these documents are approved by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, they are made public and accessible to all interested parties.
Starting from the Council of Nicea
The ECI had already dealt with Christological questions in the documents of 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1995. The current document starts from the teaching of Nicea and from it refers to various aspects of the Christian mystery such as creation, the Church, anthropology, eschatology and, of course, the doctrine of God the Trinity and Christ the Savior.
Perhaps because it deals with so many issues, the final document, fruit of the work of the subcommission in charge of drafting the text and approved by the plenary of the ECI and by the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, is very extensive. In this sense, the text of the Nicene Symbol (although it is indicated that they have before them the Nicene Constantinopolitan Symbol of 381, which completes aspects of that of 325) and the canons approved at the council, which together constitute a rather brief text, have served as a starting point for offering a broad reflection on various central aspects of theology.
The structure of the document
The document is structured in four chapters. The first is a doxological reading of the symbol in the light of Christology, soteriology and the Trinity, with a view to Christian unity. The second chapter is patristic in content and also covers the liturgy and Christian prayer. The third chapter aims to show that the event of Jesus Christ offers an unprecedented access to God, and brings about a true transformation of human thought.
Finally, the fourth and last chapter analyzes "the conditions of credibility of the faith professed at Nicaea with an approach based on fundamental theology, which will update the nature and identity of the Church as the authentic interpreter of the normative truth of the faith through the Magisterium, guardian of believers, especially the smallest and most vulnerable" (n.5).
The intercultural dimension of the Council of Nicea
The document does not explicitly allude to the accusation of the Hellenization of Christianity. With this term some Protestant theologians referred to the process of dogmatic formulation using terms from Greek philosophy, such as - in the case of Nicaea - "ousia" and "homousios". According to A. von Harnack, dogmatic formulas are a corruption of the purity of the Gospel.
ECI, on the other hand, refers positively to the encounter between cultures that took place at the Council, to the "intercultural dimension of which Nicaea is a foundational expression". This dimension can also be considered as a model for the contemporary period. Nicaea made use of Greek categories such as "ousia" from which comes "homousios" to express the true divine nature of the Son. "The Church," we read in n. 89, "has expressed herself in these Greek categories in a normative way and ... they are therefore forever united to the deposit of faith.
At the same time, "in fidelity to the terms proper to that epoch and which find their living root there, the Church can draw inspiration from the Nicene Fathers to seek today meaningful expressions of the faith in different languages and contexts". And he concludes: "Nicaea remains a paradigm of any intercultural encounter and of the possibility of receiving or forging new authentic forms of expressing the apostolic faith".
The Council of Nicaea and the saving work of Christ
Another issue that appears underlined in the document of the ECI is the soteriological aspect of the teaching of the Nicene symbol. It is an aspect well worth noting in order to avoid a one-sided consideration of Christology as if it could exist separately from soteriology, the saving work of Christ.
The ECI subcommission that prepared the document has done a very praiseworthy job because it has tried to cover various nuclear questions of Christian theology through the relationship that they can have with the teaching of Nicaea. The task was not easy, because the documents of Nicaea (the symbol especially, but also the canons) are a short text, and it is not possible to go to the acts of the council to contextualize its teaching, because they are not preserved.
Theological pluralism
In attempting to reach conclusions on different aspects of the Christian mystery from the reduced documentary base of Nicaea, it is difficult not to force theological reasoning to some extent. A greater concreteness of the object, which implies delimitation of the field of analysis, would surely have made it possible to present a shorter and clearer text.
The reading of the document we are commenting on places us before a theological text in which its authors present value judgments and explanations that they receive from other theologians (it is enough to look at the references, in the notes, that serve as a basis for their affirmations). In this sense, they show legitimate theological pluralism. In some cases, however, what is affirmed could be more nuanced. I will give just one example. In n. 87 we read that "the author of Acts draws inspiration from the epic poetry of the Odyssey to narrate Paul's travels"; or that "certain passages of the New Testament bear traces of a Greek ontological vocabulary", and the note indicates: "For example, the "egō eimi" of IV.Gospel, or the terminology of Heb 1:3 or 2 Pet 1:4". The discussion that such statements would provoke would undoubtedly be of interest, but I wonder if the most appropriate place for them is a document of the ECI which, although it is not an expression of the magisterium, enjoys a certain official authority.
The authorCésar Izquierdo Urbina
Doctor of Theology. Professor Emeritus of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology.
Camille Costa de Beauregard, first Blessed proclaimed with Pope Leo XIV
The French presbyter Camille Costa de Beauregard became the first blessed proclaimed during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV last Saturday. The Pope mentioned him in Sunday's Regina Caeli. On May 19, the Church celebrates the saints Popes Celestine V and Urban I, and the Swiss St. Maria Bernarda Bütler, who evangelized in South America.
Francisco Otamendi-May 19, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Mass for the beatification of the priest Camille Costa de Beauregard, committed to education and first blessed proclaimed during the pontificate of Leo XIV, was celebrated on Saturday, May 17, in the presence of many faithful from Savoy and other regions of France.
In his homily, the Archbishop of Chambéry, Msgr. Thibault Verny, explained that Camille Costa de Beauregard was not "an alien", but that he "let himself be loved by Jesus in order to, in turn, love with the same charity". More than 4,000 faithful participated in his beatification, among them more than 300 members of his family, including grandnieces and grandnephews, in a ceremony presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Monsignor Celestino Migliore.
In 1867, at least 135 people lost their lives in a few months in the city because of a cholera epidemic. Faced with this tragedy, the young diocesan priest decided to open an orphanage to take in the children who had been left alone: Le Bocage.
St. Camille: "Great pastoral charity".
After the Mass of initiation of his Petrine Ministry, Pope Leo XIV referred to the Communion of Saints. And he revealed before praying the Regina Caeli and giving the Blessing, that "during the Mass I strongly felt the spiritual presence of Pope Francis, who accompanies us from heaven".
He then added: "In this dimension of communion of saints, I recall that yesterday in Chambéry, France, the priest Camille Costa de Beauregard was beatified, who lived between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, witness of great pastoral charity".
St. Mary Bernarda Bütler: Evangelizer in South America
In addition to other saints and blessed, some Popes, the liturgy celebrates on May 19 the nun saint Maria Bernarda BütlerBorn in 1848 in Switzerland, in a humble peasant family. In 1867 she entered the Franciscan monastery of Mary Help of Christians in Altstätten (Switzerland).
The bishop of Portoviejo (Ecuador) invited them to mission in his diocese, and in 1888 Maria Bernarda and six companions embarked for America. In 1895, in the face of religious persecution in Ecuador, they left for Colombia and settled in Cartagena de Indias. What at first was a filial foundation became the new congregation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians. She was canonized by Benedict XVI in 2008.
On May 18, 2025 Pope Leo XIV took his first ride in the popemobile, greeting the thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square and the surrounding area.
On May 18, 2025 Pope Leo XIV took his first ride in the popemobile, greeting the thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square and the surrounding area to attend the Mass at the beginning of his pontificate.
After the return in the official car, the Holy Father received the fisherman's ring and the imposition of the pallium, thus inaugurating his ministry at the head of the Church.
Now you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.
One of the problems that any pope elected to govern the Catholic Church in 2025 would have to face is continuing to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis. What's next?
OSV / Omnes-May 19, 2025-Reading time: 10minutes
- Paulina Guzik and Junno Arocho Esteves (Rome, OSV News)
Continuing to address the sexual abuse crisis in the clergy is a matter that any pope in the Catholic Church should confront. What's next? Cardinal Sean O'Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was among the first prelates Pope Leo XIV received in audience on May 14. It is fair to say, therefore, that this crisis seems to be at the top of their list of priorities.
In the first week of Pope Leo XIV's pontificate, the leading expert on the abuse crisis, as well as several abuse survivors and victims, have come out in defense of the newly elected Roman Pontiff. They have done so after two organizations advocating for abuse victims raised concerns about Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost's record on the matter after he was elected pope.
"Very aware" of the issue of child abuse.
Jesuit Father Hans ZollnerPrevost, director of the Institute of Anthropology (IADC) at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, is a leading expert on the abuse crisis. He first met the then Father Prevost when Prevost was serving as the former general, the chief authority of the Order of St. Augustine in Rome. At that time, the future pontiff participated in the inauguration of the Child Protection Center (now IADC), as well as a safeguarding summit in the Gregoriana.
"Along with several other superior generals, he represented the male major superiors. And that in itself was already a sign that he, at that time in 2012, was very aware of the issue of child sexual abuse," Father Zollner told OSV News in a recent interview. He added that Prevost "was willing to learn more, both in terms of protection and in terms of canonical procedures."
Then Bishop of Chiclayo, Robert Francis Prevost (second from left), now Pope Leo XIV, with Fr. Hans Zollner S.J. (center), and now Cardinal Castillo Mattasoglio, in January 2020 at the Catholic University of Lima, Peru (Photo OSV News/Courtesy Father Hans Zollner).
Eight years later, in early 2020, their paths crossed again, when Father Zollner was invited by the Episcopal Conference of Peru to give a workshop on protection. At the time, then Bishop Prevost was the vice president of the Conference.
Pastoral, governance, canon law experience
The Father Zollner told OSV News that he welcomed Pope Leo's election, and valued his experience as a missionary in Peru, as a bishop and as head of the powerful Dicastery for Bishops in the church's central government. These experiences "are vital for what we need now in terms of church leadership, when it comes to transmitting the faith in a challenging environment."
He also noted that, with his expertise in canon law, Pope Leo can bring a balanced approach to the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Because "focusing only on a canonical approach is not enough if you really want the church to move globally." "Especially when it comes to a change of mentality and attitude."
"He had silently supported us, he was always there."
While meeting with several journalists on May 12, during an audience with those who had been covering the papal transition, Pope Leo met with Peruvian journalist Paola Ugaz. She was smiling from ear to ear as the Pope shook her hand. He handed her a stole made of alpaca wool, which he placed briefly on her shoulders, and Peruvian chocolates. The two shared a few words.
"The gifts I gave him I had originally brought for my friend, Cardinal Prevost, who along the way became the Pope," he told OSV News later, with a smile.
Paola Ugaz, Peruvian journalist, presents Pope Leo XIV with a stole made of alpaca wool during the Pope's audience with journalists on May 12, 2025, at the Vatican (CNS photo/Vatican Media).
For Ugaz, this was not just a happy meeting with the new pontiff. Rather, it was a surprising reunion with someone who had been among the few who had supported her during a decades-long persecution. As she and survivors of abuse sought to expose wrongdoing within a controversial movement in her country.
Bishop Prevost "had supported us quietly, not in front of the cameras, since 2018," he said. "He never did it for recognition. He just helped. He was always there."
'A deeply symbolic message'
In 2015, Ugaz, along with survivor and fellow journalist Pedro Salinas, co-wrote a book titled 'Half Monks, Half Soldiers' ('Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados'). There they detailed the alleged psychological and sexual abuse, as well as corporal punishment and extreme exercises. Everything that the young members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a society of apostolic life founded in Peru in 1971, were forced to endure by others in the community, including the leadership.
Since 2018, Ugaz and Salinas have faced a defamation campaign they attributed to Sodalitium, which included lawsuits and the publication of materials aimed at discrediting their work.
Pope Francis: dissolution of the Sodalitium
Given the movement's continued attempts to silence victims, as well as its questionable financial practices in Peru, Pope Francis launched an investigation into the Sodalitium in July 2023. And he sent Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, assistant secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, also of that department.
The investigation resulted in the expulsion of several high-profile members of the movement, including Archbishop José Antonio Eguren of Piura, as well as its subsequent dissolution by Pope Francis in January 2025, just a few months before his death on April 21.
"Justice came thanks to the Church."
Recalling the moment when the Papa Leo was announced as St. Peter's 267th successor, Ugaz told OSV News that the news "hit me like a ton of bricks."
"It was beautiful," he added. "I don't know if he was looking for it, but for the survivors, it's a deeply symbolic message."
Ugaz said that during his time as head of the Chiclayo diocese, then Bishop Prevost was one of the few bishops in the country who stood by his and Salinas' side, as well as that of the Sodalitium victims, when the group used questionable and unethical methods to silence them.
While "in Peru, the abusers and the powerful usually get away with it," Ugaz said that in his particular case, justice came from outside. "Not because the country suddenly realized that the Sodalitium had abused its members, stolen land from farmers and gone after journalists. Justice came because of the church, not because of the courts."
What we know about the allegations
Not long after the announcement of Pope Leo XIV's election on May 8, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement accusing the new pope of failing to act against abuse in two separate cases: one in Chicago, when he served as Augustinian provincial in 2000; the other in Chiclayo in 2022, when he was bishop of the diocese.
In Chicago, the group said, then-Father Prevost allowed Father James Ray, a priest restricted from ministry in 1991 after being accused of molesting minors, "to live at St. John Stone Augustinian Convent, 2000." "Despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school."
On May 9, Crux reported that a Chicago Augustinian said, "as background, that earlier this year the archdiocese had asked the order for permission for Father James Ray to be interned in that house after he was removed from ministry, because his superior was a licensed counselor acting as supervisor of a security plan imposed on Ray, and therefore Ray would be under a more watchful eye."
Security plan
In her report, Elise Allen wrote: "The Augustinian said that the location of a school two blocks away was not considered a risk at the time, given that there was a security plan in place, and the criteria for not placing accused priests near schools was a product of the 2002 Dallas Charter, which had not yet been issued when the Ray decision was made."
"This decision, they said, was an agreement between the archdiocese and the superior of the convent, but one that Prevost had to formally sign, since it was an Augustinian community house." The Archdiocese of Chicago has yet to respond to the recent allegations stemming from the 2000 incident.
Made decisions
As bishop of Chiclayo, SNAP accused the newly elected Pope of failing to open an investigation and sending "inadequate information to Rome" in the case of abuse of three women. The group alleged that the priest was allowed to continue his ministry despite the accusations.
SNAP said it filed a complaint against then-Cardinal Prevost "under Pope Francis' 2023 decree 'Vos estis lux mundi' on March 25, 2025."
The Chiclayo diocese denied the allegations made by SNAP, saying that then Bishop Prevost met with the victims in April 2022, and subsequently dismissed the accused priest, suspended him from ministry and forwarded the results of the investigation to the Vatican.
Smear campaign
"All the media have tried to discredit the cardinal, claiming that he did nothing, that is a lie. That is a lie. He has listened, he has respected the procedures and this process continues its course," said the bishop of Chiclayo, Monsignor Edinson Farfan, in a press conference in a town where the now Pope Leon was bishop, reported EFE agency on May 10.
Mass at the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Chiclayo in Peru on May 10, 2025, celebrating the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8 (OSV News photo/Sebastian Castaneda, Reuters).
When asked about the accusations made by SNAP against Pope Leo, Ugaz said that while the victims' stories of abuse are undeniable, the accusations of inaction were part of a smear campaign orchestrated by members of Sodalitium, who wished to discredit the former bishop after he supported the movement's victims.
Accusations: "were part of the campaign"
Father Zollner also suggested that the "accusations against then Bishop Prevost were part of the campaign instigated by members of Sodalitium."
"I have not seen any compelling evidence or documentation that SNAP or (watchdog website) Bishop Accountability or whomever has presented in support of the allegations," Father Zollner told OSV News.
The allegations about the Chiclayo case were picked up on September 8, 2024 by the television news program Cuarto Poder, capturing attention in Peru and abroad.
Request to a program to rectify the situation
"What the program Cuarto Poder claimed, that Cardinal Robert Prevost covered up for the priest, Eleuterio Vasquez Gonzalez, and that he remained silent in the face of complaints, is not true," the diocesan statement said at the time.
"From the moment of receipt of the complaint, and maintaining the right to the presumption of innocence, the Church has proceeded in accordance with its guidelines, both in the preliminary investigation and in the application of the precautionary measures: removal from the parish and prohibition from the public exercise of priestly ministry."
No turning its back on alleged victims
The diocese also asked Cuarto Poder to "rectify" its report, adding, "It is not true that the Catholic Church turned its back on the alleged victims. On the contrary, they were left free to file complaints in the civil courts and were offered the necessary psychological help if they needed it."
Cuarto Poder's investigation focused on the accusations of three women, who alleged that they were touched inappropriately by Father Vásquez when they were children.
The alleged victims issued a statement on September 11, 2024, in which they contradict the diocesan statement. They claim that, in fact, after reporting the story to the then Bishop Prevost on April 5, 2022, until November 2023, when one of them made it public on social networks, "no investigation was carried out, nor were precautionary measures taken for the protection of the faithful, boys and girls...the case was archived," they stated.
In their Sept. 11 statement, the alleged victims posted several images of the accused priest, Father Vasquez, celebrating Mass in public spaces on important occasions such as Easter, despite the restrictions the diocese asserted in its Sept. 10 statement.
In process
However, in its Sept. 10 statement, the Chiclayo diocese said that "the case was sent to the Holy See and archived for lack of evidence. Then, after a public appeal by one of the plaintiffs, the case was reopened, investigated again and is currently underway at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It should be added that, although it was publicly stated that there would be more alleged victims, only two of the three who initially complained came to testify."
OSV News has requested confirmation of this, as well as of the Dicastery's response, from its prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. At the time of going to press, there was no response.
Testimonials
Those who worked with then Bishop Prevost also contradict the allegations. "Roberto (now Papa Leo), when these accusations occurred, knew how to act immediately," Cesar Piscoya, former executive secretary of the pastoral vicariate under then-Bishop Prevost in the Chiclayo diocese, told OSV News May 12.
Piscoya explained that the then bishop addressed the canonical aspects of the complaint, adding, "When there had to be a complaint in a civil context, he also promoted it." Piscoya worked alongside the future Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo from February 2015 to December 2022.
"Unfortunately, there are naysayers. Unfortunately, there are people with bad intentions," he said. "But when you identify who is writing and who is publishing this, we find out that they are precisely the ones who were accused."
The Peruvian bishops' conference barred a canon lawyer, Father Ricardo Coronado Arrascue, from representing the victims in August 2024. In December of that year, a decree issued by the Dicastery of the Clergy, and seen by OSV News, confirmed that the priest had been secularized (lost the clerical state), for sins against the sixth commandment, causing scandal and forcing "someone to perform or submit to sexual acts."
Same challenges, new pontificate
Father Zollner said that in light of Pope Francis' summit to address clerical sexual abuse in February 2019, in his view, the following is crucial. That Pope Leo XIV "promote awareness of the need to engage and continue to engage in safeguarding measures." Particularly with regard to the three pillars of addressing abuse: compliance, transparency and accountability.
One of the most pressing cases on the table for the new Pope to handle in canonical terms is the case of Slovenian priest-artist Father Marko Rupnik, who was expelled from the Jesuit order in June 2023.
"I hope that, as soon as possible, we will have a verdict. Many of us are looking forward to hearing about that, because it has been a long time, especially for those who have brought the accusations, for there to finally be clarity on this," Father Zollner said.
For any Pope, he added, the issue of abuse is critical, as it becomes "a question of the credibility of our existence and our message".
"The message of Jesus Christ (is) that we have to be there for our brother and sister, and especially for our brother and sister. those who are wounded and are in danger of being wounded," Father Zollner said. "This is the core of Christian existence."
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- Paulina Guzik is international editor of OSV News. See her at X @Guzik_Paulina. Junno Arocho Esteves writes for OSV News from Rome. David Agren contributed to this report from Chiclayo, Peru.
In Illo Uno Unum (In Him who is the One we are One)
They are many men and only one Man; many Christians and only one Christ: "In Illo Uno Unum". He is the sole recipient of the divine blessing.
May 19, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The motto of the Holy Father's coat of arms Leo XIVIn Illo Uno Unum" (In Him who is the One we are One) may seem to us like a Latin riddle. The motto - as is well known - is taken from St. Augustine's homily on Psalm 127.
This type of expression is frequent in St. Augustine's writings. For a bishop, it is important to choose his motto Episcopal motto and, later, in the case of Leo XIV, to ratify it as his papal motto. He himself has confessed that this motto reflects his way of thinking and living as a Christian and as a bishop.
In an interview with the Vatican media in July 2023, two months before he was created a cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost explained the importance of this motto in his life and ministry. As an Augustinian, he said, unity and communion are central tenets of his vocation. To be in no doubt about this fundamental importance of communion and unity in the Church one need only read and meditate on chapter 17 of the Gospel of St. John.
St. Augustine and Psalm 127
But let us go to the source from which the motto is taken. St. Augustine wrote an extensive exposition on Psalm 127. The saintly bishop of Hippo emphasizes in his exposition the importance of counting on God in the protection of the city and in the construction of the family home. Without God's help, human efforts are in vain. It is a hymn to the family of those who fear the Lord. Everything depends on God's help, even the future of the children. The prosperity of the children is a divine blessing.
But St. Augustine wonders if this blessing of Yahweh is not also fulfilled in those who do not fear the Lord. It is evident that there are families with children in which the Lord is not feared. For this reason, St. Augustine proposes to his faithful a Christian interpretation of the psalm, looking to Christ as the fullness of Revelation. "Let us couple spiritual things to spiritual things," is how the homily begins. To this end, he turns to a theological reality dear to him and constantly preached by him: the unity of the faithful with Christ.
We form one Body with Him, and what is His Body? His Church, as the apostle says, "We are members of his Body" and "ye are the body of Christ and his members". Now there is only one man who is thus blessed with the blessing to which the psalm refers: it is Christ.
Only he fears the Lord who is among the members of this One Man. They are many men and one Man alone; many Christians and one Christ: "In Illo Uno Unum". He is the only recipient of the divine blessing.
The Netflix miniseries "Adolescence" shakes the foundations of a family and opens a disturbing portrait of childhood in the digital age.
Pablo Úrbez-May 19, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Series
Series: Adolescence
AddressPhilip Barantini
DistributionOwen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Faye Marsay
PlatformNetflix
Country: United Kingdom, 2025
Adolescence - NetflixOne morning in an ordinary neighborhood, the police break down the Miller family's door and climb up to 13-year-old Jamie's room to take him to the police station. He is accused of murdering a girl from his school. His parents, incredulous, go to the police station and enter an unknown spiral of lawyers, evidence, videos, photographs, silences and witnesses. The police, for their part, discover a world unknown to them:
Philip Barantinidirector of the feature film Boil (2021) and the Boiling Point (2023), directs this four-episode miniseries, which features Jack Thorne, author of Wonder (2017) y Enola Holmes (2020), and actor Stephen Graham, who plays Jamie's father Eddie. The performance as Jamie by newcomer Owen Cooper, who endows his character with innocence, immaturity and terror, expressing a grim psychological complexity, is surprising.
The miniseries has sparked much public debate, bringing to the forefront issues such as social media addiction, the detriment of social networking and the technologyand the role of parents, teachers and institutions in the digital education of minors. So much so that the UK Government has proposed its compulsory viewing in schools, while other sectors have branded the story as exaggerated and tremendist. It is good that an audiovisual work enriches the conversation in public forums, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it is a fictional story.
It would be wrong to equate it with a journalistic report. The purpose is to tell a story, and that story entertains, works and shocks the viewer.
Its four chapters oscillate between the perspectives of Jamie, the police officers, a psychologist and the parents, offering a complex mosaic of the phenomenon. The question of why, the difficulty of explaining the motive for the murder, continually arises. As for the technical aspect, the four chapters have been shot entirely in sequence shots, in order to give more realism to the story, and to insert the viewer in a maelstrom in which the action never stops.
Leo XIV asks to bury "prejudices" at the opening Mass of his pontificate
In his homily, Pope Leo XIV, visibly moved, called for unity and peace in the presence of leaders from all over the world and hundreds of thousands of faithful gathered at the Vatican.
On the morning of May 18, in St. Peter's Square, a ceremony of Initial Mass of the Pontificate of Leo XIV. Before 150 official delegations, representatives of other religions and Christian confessions, and some 150,000 faithful, the Pope preached a homily that seems to be the program of his recently inaugurated magisterium: "I would like this to be our first great desire: a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world".
Faced with a time in which "we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of what is different, by an economic paradigm that exploits the earth's resources and marginalizes the poorest", he expressed how the Church wishes to be "a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity".
First ride in the popemobile
Although the Mass at the beginning of the Petrine ministry began at 10 a.m., an hour earlier, around 9 a.m., Pope Leo made his first tour of the square in the popemobile, reaching the end of Via della Conciliazione. The crowd accompanied him with great enthusiasm and shouts of "Long live the Pope" and "Leone!
He then descended to the tomb of the Apostle Peter, in the heart of the Vatican Basilica, accompanied by the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches. There he paused for a few minutes in prayer. The faithful followed everything on the screens installed in the square and at various points in the adjacent streets.
Two deacons then took the pallium, the ring and the Gospel, and went in procession to the altar of the celebration, in the atrium located in St. Peter's Square. As the Pope entered the atrium, amidst the applause of those present, the choir sang the "Laudes Regiæ"., a litanic prayer in which the intercession of the canonized Popes, martyrs and saints of various centuries is invoked.
A tapestry depicting the scene of the second miraculous catch of fish hung from the central door of the basilica. The dialogue between the risen Jesus and Peter was also the Gospel passage read at Mass. Next to the altar was placed the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, which came from the Marian shrine of Genazzano, guarded by the Augustinian Fathers. The Pope is very devoted to this image and went to visit it two days after his election.
Imposition of the pallium and ring
After the rite of blessing and sprinkling of holy water, and the proclamation of the Word of God, a moment of great symbolic value took place: the imposition of the pallium and the presentation of the fisherman's ring. The pontiff was accompanied by three cardinals from three orders and three continents: Mario Zenari, Italian, who gave him the pallium - symbol of the mission of shepherding the Church and of Christ as the Paschal lamb; Fridolin Ambongo, from Congo, who made a petition to the Holy Spirit for the new Pope; and Luis Antonio Tagle, from the Philippines, who gave him the fisherman's ring.
This moment concluded with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, and then Leo XIV blessed the assembly with the Book of the Gospels, while the Greek chanted: "For many years to come! The Pope responded with a touching smile - the same one we saw a week ago when he first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's as soon as he was elected - and the people present joined in with a round of applause.
The ceremony continued with the rite of "obedience" rendered to the Pope by 12 representatives of the people of God: Cardinals Frank Leo (Canada), Jaime Spengler (Brazil) and John Ribat (Papua New Guinea); the Bishop of Callao (Peru), Luis Alberto Barrera Pacheco; a priest and a deacon; two religious: Oonah O'Shea, an Australian missionary in the Philippines, superior general of the religious of Notre Dame de Sion and president of the International Union of Superiors General; and the superior general of the Jesuits, Venezuelan Arturo Sosa, as president of the male congregations. The laity were represented by a married couple and two young people, all from Peru.
With fear and trepidation
In his homily, Leo XIV began by quoting some famous words of St. Augustine, written in the "Confessions": "You have made us for yourself [Lord], and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. The Pope used these words to express the feelings that have overwhelmed the Church in the last month, "particularly intense" since the death of his predecessor: "The death of the Pope Francis’ has filled our hearts with sadness and, in those difficult hours, we have felt like those crowds that the Gospel describes 'like sheep without a shepherd'".
He then referred to the conclave, where the college of cardinals met "in a spirit of faith" and in which he was voted as the successor of Peter to lead the Church. With great simplicity, he said: "I was elected without any merit and, with fear and trepidation, I come to you as a brother who wants to become a servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God's love, who wants us all united in a single family".
Peter's mission: love and unity
Commenting on the readings of the Mass, the Pope broke down the essential characteristics of the pontiff's ministry: "Love and unity: these are the two dimensions of the mission that Jesus entrusted to Peter". And he added: "How can Peter carry out this task? The Gospel tells us that it is possible only because he has experienced in his own life the infinite and unconditional love of God, even in the hour of failure and denial".
"To Peter," he continued, "is entrusted the task of 'loving even more' and of giving his life for the flock. Peter's ministry is marked precisely by this oblative love, because the Church of Rome presides in charity and her true authority is the charity of Christ." Therefore, "it is never a matter of trapping others with submission, with religious propaganda or with the means of power, but it is always and only a matter of loving as Jesus did".
In the presence of various "sister Christian churches," Leo XIV made a strong appeal for unity and communion. He also had a few words for those who seek God and for "all women and men of good will", inviting them to "build a new world where peace reigns". The request for peace was once again met with resounding applause.
"This is," the Pope pointed out, "the missionary spirit that should animate us, without closing ourselves up in our own little group or feeling superior to the world; we are called to offer God's love to all, so that this unity that does not cancel out differences, but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of each people, may be realized."
His preaching ended with the exclamation: "Brothers, sisters, this is the hour of love!" and a quote from "Rerum Novarum", written by the pontiff who inspired the choice of his name: "With my predecessor Leo XIII, today we can ask ourselves: if this charity prevailed in the world, 'would it not seem that every struggle would soon be extinguished wherever it came into force in civil society?'"
Petition for peace
The ceremony proceeded normally. Before the final blessing, Pope Leo XIV again addressed a few words to the assembly. He thanked the "Romans and faithful from so many parts of the world" for their presence, with a special greeting "to the thousands of pilgrims who have come from every continent on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Confraternities". To them he said: "Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for keeping alive the great heritage of popular piety". And he commented, opening his heart: "During the Mass I strongly felt the spiritual presence of Pope Francis, who accompanies us from Heaven".
There was also a thought for "our brothers and sisters who are suffering because of the wars. In Gaza, children, families and elderly survivors are going hungry. In Myanmar, new hostilities have destroyed innocent lives. The tormented Ukraine awaits at last negotiations for a just and lasting peace."
Before the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Leo XIV entrusted "to Mary the service of the Bishop of Rome, Pastor of the universal Church", and concluded: "Let us implore through her intercession the gift of peace, help and consolation for those who suffer and, for all of us, the grace to be witnesses of the Risen Lord".
Six years since the beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri
On May 18, 2019, thousands of people attended the beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, professor, numerary of Opus Dei and, since 2024, patroness of the Official College of Chemists of Madrid.
On May 18, 2019, thousands of people flocked to the Palacio Vistalegre Arena in Madrid. It was nine in the morning, but joyful smiles and excited voices surrounded that venue in Carabanchel with a single motive: the beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri.
Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri (Office for the Causes of Saints. Prelature of Opus Dei)
D. in chemistry, professor of industrial master's degree and numerary professor of the Opus DeiGuadalupe stands out, in the words of Pope Francis, for being an example of the "sanctity of normality. 44 years after her death, citizens from Singapore, Mexico, the United States, Nigeria and other countries traveled to Madrid to celebrate the great step in the cause of canonization of this woman.
What was it about Guadalupe that brought so many people together in one place? It is not only that she was the first beatified laywoman belonging to Opus Dei. For José Carlos Martín de la Hoz, diocesan postulator of the cause of canonization of the professor, one of the reasons can be found in the words that Pope Francis said about her. The Pontiff defined her "as the saint of joy, but a joy with content, because she always sought to love God and others, and therein lies the source of the peace she spread around her.
Saint of joy and normality
That smile of Guadalupe is precisely what was seen in all the posters of Vistalegre. Those who attended the event met the face of a woman who shone for her "virtue of patience," the diocesan postulator emphasizes.
Vistalegre was attended by those who at some point were impressed by this "scientific researcher", "laboratory woman" and "patient teacher", a person "gifted with a great understanding for listening and guiding others".
And while there is no doubt that Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri is important for those close to Opus Dei, her life also has something to say to all Catholics. As the postulator of the cause of canonization points out, "we are going through a complex stage in the history of Western civilization, for we are at the end of one stage and the beginning of another. The new culture of globalization that is emerging will be Christian and, therefore, in accordance with the dignity of the human person, if we Christians follow the examples of life and enthusiasm of the saints".
Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri and Opus Dei
These are examples like Guadalupe, whom St. Josemaría Escrivá invited to travel to Mexico to promote the work of Opus Dei and share the faith with those he met. After leading several projects in Spain, the founder of Opus Dei wanted him to work on the other side of the Atlantic. And so he did. In 1950 he traveled to Mexico to open the first residence for university students in the country.
From that moment on and for five years, Guadalupe continued working for the women of Mexico, helping peasant women, young and adult women, not only spiritually, but also professionally and personally.
In 1956, St. Josemaría again asked for her help and, on this occasion, the professor traveled to Rome to assume some tasks of government in Opus Dei. Regarding the collaborative relationship between the founder of the Work and Guadalupe, José Carlos Martín de la Hoz says that "St. Josemaría always treated Guadalupe with particular confidence, since she was one of the first women who followed him after the Spanish Civil War and, as she was a professional and mature woman, he was able to rely on her".
Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri was well aware of her vocation to Opus Dei. Her commitment to her work was united, as the diocesan postulator explains, with "the mandate of charity". For this reason, Martín de la Hoz believes that "she will undoubtedly go down in history as a woman who knew how to be attentive to detail with everyone she met, and that is what Opus Dei is all about: loving God and others in the midst of the world".
In the middle of the world
That knowing how to be in the middle of the world is what those who came to Vistalegre on May 18, 2019 admired. It is also the reason why the Official Association of Chemists of Madrid has named Guadalupe as its official patron saint. A decision that the dean, Iñigo Pérez-Baroja, justifies "for her love of chemistry, for her strong Christian conventions, for her example of the sanctity of normality, for being the first expatriate entrepreneur of social works, for her ability to communicate and disseminate her scientific knowledge".
Therein lies part of the legacy of Guadalupe, who did not want to be a woman of science or a woman of faith. Like St. Therese, she wanted everything: God, the world, contemplation and action....
Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri dedicated herself to loving the world passionately, responding to the invitation of St. Josemaría Escrivá. That is what was celebrated at Vistalegre, joy in normality. It was a celebration of a woman whose words could be uttered by any Christian today: "I want to be faithful, I want to be useful and I want to be a saint" (Letter to St. Josemaría Escrivá, February 1, 1954).
On that May 18, 2019, in Vistalegre, the life of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri was celebrated, who "with the joy that flowed from her conscience as a daughter of God (...) put her many human and spiritual qualities at the service of others, helping in a special way other women and their families in need of education and development" (Letter Pope Francis to the prelate of Opus Dei for the beatification of Guadalupe).
The Palacio Vistalegre Arena during the beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri (Flickr / Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei
Miguel Ferrández Barturen (Methos Media): "The media play a key role in the transmission of values".
Interview with Miguel Ferrández Barturen, CEO of Methos Media for the launch of the Summer School together with The Core School, the Audiovisual School of Planeta Formación y Universidades.
Methos Media has launched, together with The Core School, the Escuela Superior de Audiovisuales de Planeta Formación y Universidades (Planeta Training School and Universities) a summer program aimed at those who dream of a career in film and audiovisual production. An activity that adds to the initiatives that Methos Media supports in the cultural and audiovisual field.
Miguel Ferrández Barturen, CEO of Methos Media, spoke with Omnes about this launch, stressing that young creators should not "be afraid to be faithful to the values they have received, and to put their creativity at the service of an art that inspires, questions and builds".
What was the reason for your interest in a course like this? How does this initiative align with Methos Media's goals?
-Interest in the training of future filmmakers is in our mission. "We aspire to promote a new generation of filmmakers committed to the defense of human dignity" and we have been doing so since the beginning with many collaborations with universities.
Do you consider it important to provide a good all-round training to those who will be the audiovisual content creators of the future?
-I think it is essential to have a good comprehensive training for future creators of audiovisual content. We live in a world in constant change, in which cinema and the media play a key role in the construction of collective imaginaries and in the transmission of values. Therefore, technical training is not enough; it is also necessary to educate in critical thinking, social sensitivity, ethics and commitment to truth.
If we aspire to have filmmakers committed to their time and to the society in which they live, we must offer them an education that helps them understand the world in all its complexity and encourages them to narrate it with authenticity.
As Pope Leo XIV said to young people, "Do not be afraid!". This call invites young creators not to be afraid to be faithful to the values they have received, and to put their creativity at the service of an art that inspires, questions and builds.
Why have you opted for the scholarship system and how to access them?
-We have opted for a scholarship system because we firmly believe in democratizing access to quality cultural training. This summer film directing course is designed to identify and train new talents, and we do not want the economic situation of the applicants to be an obstacle. With the scholarships, we guarantee that any young person with vocation and potential can benefit from this opportunity, thus contributing to a solid and diverse generational relay in the world of cinema.
Our goal is not only to train filmmakers, but also to identify profiles with projection and connect them with professional and creative networks. The scholarships allow us to attract the best candidates and facilitate real opportunities within the cultural sector.
To access them, all you have to do is contact us and prove the need. We take into account all the characteristics that are a disadvantage for any candidate when assessing the requests.
At the end of last year, provisions came into force in the United Kingdom that criminalize the peaceful presence and pro-life prayer of people in the vicinity of abortion centers. Bishops and jurists consider the restrictions to be discrimination, criminalizing fundamental freedoms and rights.
Francisco Otamendi-May 18, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
Two months after she was arrested in Birmingham for "praying in her mind" in front of an abortion center, which performed some 10,000 abortions a year, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce told the Omnes director in February 2023 that "our basic freedoms are being criminalized." "This should be of concern to everyone, whatever their position on the abortion debate," he added.
Indeed, in September 2024, the new UK Labour government announced that legislation to enact so-called "safe access zones" wouldor "buffer zones" outside abortion facilities in England and Wales, would come into effect as of October 31.
The legislation, contained in Section 9 of the Public Order Law from 2023criminalizes a range of activities within a 150-meter perimeter of an abortion facility. These criminalized activities potentially include peaceful presence, prayer, thought, consensual communication and offers of practical support to women in vulnerable situations, should any of these be deemed to influence or interfere with access to the clinic, the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales reported.
Almost immediately, on September 18, Monsignor John Sherrington, senior bishop for life affairs at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, now appointed Archbishop of Liverpool by Pope Francis, called the legislation "unnecessary and disproportionate," and a "discrimination against people of faith."
These were his words: "As the Conference of Catholic Bishops stated repeatedly during the passage of the Public Order Bill last year, the 'safe access zone' legislation is unnecessary and disproportionate. We condemn all harassment and intimidation against women and maintain that, as accepted in a Home Office review, laws and mechanisms already exist to protect women from such behavior."
Religious freedom, fundamental in a democratic society
"In practice, and despite any other intent, this legislation is discriminatory and disproportionately affects people of faith," added Bishop Sherrington, representing Bishop for Life Issues., y progressively increased the scope of its argumentation.
In his view, "religious freedom is the fundamental freedom of any free and democratic society, essential to the flourishing and realization of the dignity of every human person. Religious freedom includes the right to manifest private beliefs in public through testimonies, prayers and charitable activities, including outside abortion facilities."
"In addition to being unnecessary and disproportionate," he added, "we have deep concerns about the practical effectiveness of this legislation, particularly given the lack of clarity regarding the practice of private prayer and offers of assistance within 'safe access zones.'"
One step back
The British bishop also recalled, among other things, a reflection of Pope Francis on religious freedom. "A healthy pluralism, which truly respects differences and values them as such, does not imply privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the silent obscurity of the individual's conscience or to relegate them to the closed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques," the Pontiff noted.
"This would, in effect, represent a new form of discrimination and authoritarianism. By legislating and implementing so-called 'safe access zones', the UK government has taken an unnecessary and disproportionate step backwards in protecting religious and civic freedoms in England and Wales", the bishop recalled.
"Unique thinking"
In addition to the clear condemnations of abortionist and antinatalist policies that he has frequently made, Pope Francis denounced single thought and ideological totalitarianism. He did so before the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See on several occasions.
In January 2023, for example, he denounced the "increasing polarization and attempts in various international forums to impose a unique way of thinkingThis prevents dialogue and marginalizes those who think differently".
In the same speech, he pointed to "an ideological totalitarianism, which promotes intolerance towards those who do not adhere to supposed positions of 'progress'" and which employs "more and more resources to impose, especially in relation to the poorest countries, forms of ideological colonization, creating, moreover, a direct link between the granting of economic aid and the acceptance of such ideologies".
Human rights
In this debate and in others concerning restrictions on fundamental rights, the Catholic Church has been unequivocally in favor of international human rights instruments, from the Universal Declaration The 1948 Convention, which is widely recognized, includes "freedom of thought, conscience and religion" (art. 18), in addition to the "right to life, liberty and security of person" (art. 3).
On the other hand, various experts have recalled the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000), which recognizes "the right to conscientious objection", albeit in accordance with national laws. A legal framework that is also applicable to the assisted suicide bill, whose passage through the British Parliament in November last year was given the green light, as reported by OmnesThe 'Terminally III Adults (End of Life)' program, for people with less than six months to live. The 'Terminally III Adults (End of Life)'.still requires time for processing, and gave rise to a heated debate in the Palace of Westminster.
St. Paschal Bailon, great devotee of the Eucharist, and St. Peter Liu Wenyuan
On May 17, the liturgy celebrates St. Pascual Bailon, an Aragonese Franciscan with great devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin. The Italian saint Julia Salzano, religious foundress, is also celebrated today. The Chinese father of a family, St. Peter Liu Wenyuan, and the Polish Redemptorist Blessed Ivan Ziatyk, who died in a concentration camp near Russia.
Francisco Otamendi-May 17, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
On May 17, the Church commemorates the Franciscan friar Aragonese St. Pascual Bailon, of the 16th century, characterized by an ardent love for Jesus in the Eucharist and for the Virgin Mary. The saints' calendar also celebrates the Italian saints Julia Salzano and Antonia Mesina (15 years old), St. Paul and St. Paul (15 years old), St. Paul and St. Paul (15 years old). chinese family man St. Peter Liu Wenyuan, and the Polish Redemptorist Blessed Ivan Ziatyk.
The Martyrology Roman describes St. Pascual Bailon as follows: "In Villarreal, in the region of Valencia, in Spain, St. Pascual Bailon, a religious of the Order of Friars Minor, who, always showing himself diligent and benevolent towards all, constantly honored with ardent love the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist († 1592)".
St. Paschal: few studies, but gifts of advice and wisdom
In fact, St. Paschal Bailon, who was called Paschal because he was born on the eve of Pentecost, was a shepherd as a young man. In 1564 he entered the Order of St. Francis. He wore the Franciscan habit in Elche (Alicante).
He was of humble origins and had little education, and was assigned to the offices of the lay brothers. But he had the gifts of counsel and wisdom, and great devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin. Pope Leo XIII named him patron of Eucharistic Associations and Congresses. He was beatified in 1618 by Pope Paul V, and canonized in 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII.
St. Peter Liu Wenyuan: pursued and arrested several times
Saint Peter Liu Wenyuan was born in China, of a pagan family, around the year 1790, according to the franciscan directory. Through a friend he learned about Christianity and was baptized. He was soon arrested and condemned, but was released. In 1814 he was arrested again and banished to Mongolia, where he was sold into slavery. He fell ill, and again friends managed to bring him home. He wanted to help his relatives who were persecuted for being Christians, and ended up imprisoned himself. He died in Guizhou (China) in 1834.
The authorFrancisco Otamendi
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Leo XIII, from whom the Pope took his name. Leo XIV, composed a beautiful prayer to the Archangel Michael, which is recommended to be prayed daily.
May 17, 2025-Reading time: < 1minute
In addition to the reasons explained by the Pope, for the choice of his name, I dare to add one more, which is perhaps present in the Holy Father. Leo XIII was Pope from 1878 to 1903.
One of his collaborators told how, on one occasion, while he was praying, he remained completely motionless. His face expressed horror, and at the same time amazement. Half an hour later he wrote the prayer to St. Michael, which some Christians pray at the end of Mass.
This prayer is a petition to the archangel to cast satan into hell. Nothing more to be chosen, Leo XIV has filled us with hope, reminding us that good will overcome evil.
Prayer to St. Michael continues to be very important.
122 years later the newly elected Pope has taken up the baton, also in this fight against evil, proposed by Leo XIII.
May the diffusion of this prayer be greater and greater, in order to obtain help in the fight of every Christian against evil.
This is how the prayer reads:
Archangel Michael, defend us in the struggle; be our protection against the wickedness and wiles of the devil. We imploringly ask God to keep him under his empire; and you, Prince of the heavenly militia, cast into hell, with divine power, Satan and the other evil spirits who go about the world trying to lose souls.
The words of the Blessed Virgin in her Visitation to Elizabeth have inspired the prayer, contemplation and artistic expression of Catholics throughout the centuries. Also among Christians of the Lutheran confession, the words of faith and praise with which Mary addresses God have nourished the spiritual life of many, including Johann Sebastian Bach.
Antonio de la Torre-May 17, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
One of the few works that Bach composed in Latin is, paradoxically, one of his most famous and valuable: Magnificat BWV 243, composed in his first months as Cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig (1723) and retouched later (1733) until it reached the form in which it is usually heard today. A work in which the fervent Lutheran Johann Sebastian Bach sets to music the divinely inspired words with which the Virgin Mary sings to God: the Magnificat, which the Catholic Church sings daily at Vespers.
For an important occasion
In Leipzig, tradition demanded that the Magnificat be sung at evening services, in German on ordinary Sundays and in Latin on the most important feast days. That is why Bach chose to set to music the Latin text from Lucas 1, 46-55, according to St. Jerome's Vulgate. The weight of liturgical tradition explains why an inveterate reader of Luther's German bible set a Latin biblical text to music.
On his first Christmas as Cantor in Leipzig, Bach presented a Magnificat in E-flat major, his first major liturgical work in his new post, which was performed on Christmas Day evening 1723 along with his cantata BWV 60. This first Magnificat, intended for the Christmas season, was composed incorporating four short Christmas hymns in German, which were interspersed between the stanzas of the Latin text.
Ten years later, Bach slightly retouched this first Magnificat, giving rise to the work that concerns us in this article. He transposed it to D major, eliminating the Christmas hymns and modernizing the orchestration. Indeed, he replaces the recorders with the then recent flutes, and enriches the woodwind by adding to the two oboes of 1723 two oboes d'amore, an instrument that was beginning to be incorporated into the orchestra at that time and that Bach preferred for some of his most emotional melodies.
This orchestration of the Magnificat is, in any case, truly magnificent, and includes the largest orchestral staff that could be found in Saxony in 1733, so complete that it lacks only two horns to reach the orchestral maximum of the early 18th century. This magnificence leads one to suppose that it was premiered on a great feast, probably in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig for the Vespers service of the Visitation Day of 1733, which the Lutheran liturgy celebrated on July 2. For the same festive occasion Bach also composed in other years two important cantatas: the very famous BWV 147 (usually heard at almost every wedding) and BWV 10 (simpler, with its text based on Luther's German Magnificat).
The biblical text is presented in eleven musical numbers, followed, as is typical of the Vespers liturgy, by a final doxology. The sequence of numbers shows the composer's predilection for symmetry and rhythmic and timbral variety. This can be seen in the following.
A Lutheran painting of the Virgin Mary
In its first verses (Luke 1, 46-50), the biblical text expresses in its words as a portrait of the Heart of Mary, which Bach will paint with the color and expression of his music. If there are not many images of the Virgin in the austere Lutheran iconography, this is perhaps the most expressive of all.
The first number, like the last and central one, is composed by a large five-voice choir (two sopranos, altos, tenors and basses), accompanied by the splendor of the entire orchestra. It begins and ends this first number as a concert, with a wide and jubilant intervention of the orchestra, which prepares and closes the intervention of the choir. The choir sings the first word Magnificat, with exultant and rhythmic joy, an image of Mary's intense joy when she discovers the fulfillment of the divine promise in Elizabeth's pregnancy.
In the second number, where the musicians are suddenly reduced to the soprano and strings, the joy of the Virgin continues to be sung, but this time as if from the bottom of her humble heart, with an atmosphere full of intimacy and cordiality.
The third number, the first in minor mode, features the melancholy, silky and delicate timbre of the oboe d'amore, which gradually intertwines with the soprano to express the contemplation of Mary's humility. With a delicate, descending melodic line, the word "humilitatem" paints the fundamental feature of Mary's Heart in a way that beautifully evokes the purity and simplicity of the Virgin. When the text indicates that the Humble Virgin will be congratulated by all generations, a tremendous four-voice choir (omnes generationes) bursts forth over a thundering bass line, describing the fervent multitude that throughout the ages has devoutly congratulated the Virgin Mary.
Again by contrast, the fifth number is entrusted to the lowest and most serious possible staff: solo bass accompanied by basso continuo. In a surprising musical minimalism, Maria praises the greatness of the Mighty and Holy God, who draws near to the lowliest to favor them with His Mercy. In fact, the following number sings of the Divine Mercy in an ethereal and nostalgic spirit. Only the alto and tenor duet, with a very delicate accompaniment of violins on muted violins doubled by the flutes. A serene contemplation of the Mercy of the God who has shown his Power, his Goodness and his Wisdom in the Virgin Mother.
God's work
In the following verses of the biblical text (Luke 1:51-55) Mary describes God's action in favor of the humble people of Abraham's descendants. The seventh number is the central one of the whole work, and symmetrically reproduces the same musical template as the first one, but this time to cause an intense earthquake with the whole orchestra. In this catastrophe, diverse expressive figures and dynamic coloraturas in the voices show how the superb ones are dispersed to the four winds. As if this were not enough, the end of this number slows down the tempo to express how the superb mente cordis sui are crushed, as evoked by the forceful blows of the orchestra.
In the next number, a lively aria for tenor and two violins brings down the mighty amid the descending pulls of the violins' melody, then exalts the lowly to the heights with the tenor's rapid ascending coloratura. Calming the mood, but with similar content, comes perhaps the most famous aria of this composition, entrusted to the alto and two flutes. With these humble resources, the ninth number confirms that the hungry (esurientes) will be filled with good things, while in rapid musical descents the rich are sent away empty. The wealth with which God fills the wretched is depicted in the very long melisma that the soloist has to make on the word implevit, the longest of the whole work.
The last verses focus more closely on the kindness with which God has treated his people. Thus in number 10, a trio of two sopranos and alto sings with a peculiar harmony how God has remembrance (recordatus) for his servant Israel, while two oboes in unison intone the melody of the Lutheran Magnificat, as if evoking a choral prelude for organ.
The closing is provided by a four-voice choir with the perfect and fluid Bachian counterpoint on God's promises to Abraham, at whose name the counterpoint stops to underline in unison the name of the patriarch who is our father in faith, and, therefore, from whom the Virgin Mary descends.
The final doxology begins with two invocations sung by the choir and the entire orchestra in unison to the Father and the Son, in musical equality, followed by an invocation of greater dynamism, but similar style, for the Holy Spirit, a resource that shows the precise musical formulation with which Bach usually approaches in his works to the faith in the Holy Trinity. It all culminates with the repetition of the first number, thus closing the symmetrical structure of this monumental composition, but this time singing sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
St. Simon Stock and the Scapular, St. Gemma Galgani, and St. Isidore's Mass.
On May 16, the Church celebrates St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite devotee of the Virgin Mary, to whom, according to tradition, she gave the scapular of Carmel. Also today, since the 14th, the young Italian saint, St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite devotee of the Virgin Mary, is commemorated. Gema Galgani. Yesterday was celebrated St. Isidro Labrador, patron saint of Madrid and farmers.
Francisco Otamendi-May 16, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Among other saints and blessed, the liturgy celebrates the following on May 16 St. Simon StockHe was one of the first priors general of the Carmelite Order, who is known because the Virgin Mary, according to tradition, gave him the scapular of Carmel. It is also commemorated today, since the 14th, to the Passionist (see below) Italian saint Gemma Galgani. And yesterday Madrid celebrated its patron saint, saint Isidore the farmer.
On July 16, 1251, the Virgin Mary said to St. Simon Stock, who was Prior General of the Carmelite Order: "He who dies with it (the scapular) will not suffer eternal fire". Pope Pius XII pointed out: "It is not a matter of little importance, but of the attainment of eternal life in virtue of the promise made, according to tradition, by the Blessed Virgin".
Mary's maternal protection
"There are different traditions about the place where the vision of Our Lady with which the Lord graced St. Simon Stock supposedly took place. Aylesford, or else Cambridge, are usually proposed as privileged spaces with this supernatural apparition of the Virgin," notes the carmelite portal.
It also adds: "Although the historicity of the vision is not credible, the scapular has remained for all Carmelites as a sign of Mary's maternal protection and of their own commitment to follow Jesus Christ as their Mother, perfect models for all his disciples". Other references to the apparition of the Virgin and the scapular can be consulted, for example, here.
St. Gemma Galgani, stigmata on hands and feet
Santa Gema was one of the daughters of the apothecary Enrico Galgani and his wife Aurelia Landi, who died when she was only seven years old, explains the official biography. She was orphaned at the age of 18.
The young woman was characterized by her piety and her love for Christ and the Eucharist. She was one of the first stigmatized women of the 20th century. Three days a week, for at least three years, Gemma showed stigmata on her hands and feet, which then disappeared. She was also famous for her visions of her Guardian Angel.
At the age of 20, Gemma was miraculously cured of severe meningitis. Because of her poor health she was not accepted as a Passionist Sister, but she received the honors of the Order and was especially popular. Gemma probably died of tuberculosis in Lucca in 1903, at the age of 25. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1940. Since 1985 a relic of the saint's heart has been venerated in the Shrine of St. Gemma in Madrid.
San Isidro Labrador in Madrid
Madrid celebrated its patron saint, Saint Isidro Labrador, yesterday with a Campaign MassThe celebration was attended by a large number of families. The celebration was presided over by Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, with his auxiliary bishops. Also concelebrating were Cardinal Baltazar Porras, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas (Venezuela), and the Archbishop of Ciudad Bolivar (Venezuela), Ulises Gutierrez, among others.
Cardinal Cobo explained that "no branch can bear fruit if it is separated from the vine", and encouraged "to continue building your communities and making them places and houses of hope for all our neighbors".
He also stressed that "we cannot be witnesses of the Gospel if we live divided by ideologies or selfishness". Precisely "San Isidro reminds us that true holiness does not divide, but unites". "Sow hope, sow unity," he said.
Pope Leo XIV, deeply linked to Latin America and devoted to St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, is emerging as a new promoter of evangelization with a spirit of unity and doctrinal clarity. His pontificate, in the year of hope, evokes the mission of the saints who brought the Gospel to the peripheries.
P. Manuel Tamayo-May 16, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
Those who are writing about Pope Leo XIV, refer to his predecessor Leo XIIIThe Pope himself has endorsed several similarities, which allow us to presage that Leo XIV would be the Pope of unity.
It turns out that this Pope is an American with years of work and experience in Peru, which has allowed him to know well the idiosyncrasies of these Spanish-American lands.
At the beginning of this year, which is the year of hope, I was in Spain promoting the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo film.
Revitalize your figure
Twelve years ago Pope Benedict XVI said to the Archbishop of Lima, "What are you doing with Santo Toribio? The Holy Father said that Saint Toribio had to be made known because he was the Charles Borromeo of America.
In fact, Santo Toribio brought to the American lands, and especially to the diocese of Lima, the Council of Trent, which was of the Counter-Reformation, to clarify Catholic doctrine from the confusion that had arisen from Luther's reform.
The Latin American touch that Leo XIV has, makes him very skillful to produce in this continent a re-evangelization, like the one that Saint Toribio did in the XVII century, on the back of a mule, With the Gospel, the catechism, translated into Quechua and Aymara, and with the sacraments, the extensive territory he was given, to evangelize and confirm as many people as he could. He was a man who went out to the peripheries to take the Word of God to the farthest corners of the world.
The black legend
Spanish Catholics told me a few months ago, that the time had come for twinning in Latin America, to erase the black legends, which had been woven for years by the enemies of the Church, and that we should rather highlight the evangelization made by the saints who preached in these lands with great sacrifice and giving their lives so that everyone would know the Gospels and could live an authentic Christian life of love for God and others.
We are in similar times. Pope Leo XIV speaks of the challenges we face in the face of Artificial Intelligence and ideologies that have forgotten about Christ and have him as just another leader and not as the Son of God.
Santo Toribio clarified things giving many lights to all the people, to the clergy, to the civil authorities and to the people. His work was impressive.
Pope Leo XIV is a devotee of Saint Toribio, he was Grand Chancellor of the University of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo in Chiclayo.
The Road to Santo Toribio
Today, those of us who are promoting a feature film of the saint, with "Goya Producciones" are encouraging, with several universities, to design "the way of Santo Toribio" for pilgrimages, something similar to the "Camino de Santiago" in Spain.
There is an urgent need to re-Christianize our continent and the entire world. This father has that mission. We all accompany him with our prayer and an action similar to that of Saint Toribio to reach everyone with the clarity of doctrine.
The Roads of Santiago and of Santo Toribio are roads that lead to God. Saints lead us to God and God wants us to be saints. That is why we need the Sacraments.
Now Leo XIV, and all of us, with the intercession of St. Toribius and Leo XIII, will strongly ask St. Michael the Archangel to "cast out with his Divine power Satan and the evil spirits that are scattered throughout the world for the perdition of souls".
In the year of hope, new times will come, times of light and unity in Peter's boat.
The need to discover the sources, to go to them, to renounce the morbidity of ecclesial politics, to have reliable intermediaries: these are all skills that serve us even for life beyond the religious sphere, especially in times of artificial intelligence.
May 16, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
I have read three quarters of the book written by Javier Cercas, a Spanish atheist writer, about Pope Francis in general, and about his trip to Mongolia in particular.
A recurring question arises in the numerous interviews he does with people around Francis, and we could formulate it something like this: if the Pope has been chosen to be a spiritual leader, why does he only talk about earthly topics? The doubt is even more pertinent if we know that the whole book is Cercas' attempt to ask about the resurrection of the flesh and life after death, both of which are indeed purely spiritual topics.
The drifts that this question follows throughout the book are various and interesting, but, above all, they allow us to talk about a theme: that Pope Francis made it clear that we have a problem as readers in the times of algorithms and superficial reading.
I remember once, conversing with a priest friend of mine, who was not very attuned to Pope Francis - or to whom he thought was Pope Francis - he reproached aloud precisely this: that the Pope did not speak about the central themes of the Catholic faith, while he devoted himself to speaking about "political" issues, such as migration, care for nature or concern for the poor. This second statement of his sentence we will leave for another time. But that day, dismantling that parallel reality created by some web page was not difficult, since a few hours earlier the Pope had dedicated his tenth consecutive general audience to a catechesis on the Holy Mass, the central mystery of the Christian faith. Logically, this did not appear in the Vatican information blog that my priest friend read, nor in the headlines of the common press that he saw fleetingly on social networks.
If it was already a problem for the truth that we consume only the information we receive from the algorithms of social networks or from some blog with questionable intentions, now this complication has multiplied with artificial intelligence.
A few days ago it was Mother's Day in many countries of the world and I received several times a fake video of Pope Leo XIV reflecting on the maternal task. Just as my priest friend thought that Francis never spoke about spiritual life, others may now think that Leo XIV is a specialist in cheesy congratulations for the world days of every member of the family.
The task of forming ourselves as readers of news is urgent, because the image we form of the world depends on it. And the same goes for religious information: the task of forming ourselves as readers of news about the Pope is urgent, because the image we form of his person and of the Church depends on it, with clear repercussions also in our spiritual life.
Should we ask a common newspaper, with eminently political themes, to report on the Church with a spiritual sense? Obviously not.
Can we ask the media to give us a breakdown of the Pope's meetings with the religious of the country he is visiting? Obviously not.
Can we ask him to summarize each catechesis dedicated to the different sacraments? Neither.
Each medium looks for what interests its readers. Such a media will look for what is political in the Pope's activities and, passed through the filter of its editorial line, transmit it to its readers. That is its job. If we ask for pears from the elm tree, the problem is ours, not that of this or that newspaper.
A perhaps even more delicate terrain is that of Church information sites. For one might think that one solves one's problem as a reader by visiting websites that are specifically devoted to these topics. However, it is not that easy either.
If one has a little familiarity with these media, one will know that there are those that are often called more "conservative" and those of a more "liberal" bent, with the infinite limitations that these terms have in the religious world. And precisely that we can use those labels is part of the problem.
In most cases, information about the Pope is not given there with a spiritual and supernatural vision of the Church, but rather information about the Church, but soaked with an earthly view, as if everything there were a political struggle, as if the objective in the Church were also to eliminate the enemy, even if, logically, they have to disguise their texts with pious ornaments.
Can we ask them to be open to what the Holy Spirit blows, even if it is something that does not align with their thinking, even if it generates fewer clicks, and even if it does not feed their readers, eager for constant confirmation of their own vision of reality? No.
Everyone is free to produce information as they see fit, but we cannot expect a truly religious perspective from all religious media.
This was one of the realities that Francis unmasked, if only because of the times in which he lived: the need to form ourselves as readers of news. The need to discover the sources, to go to them, to renounce the morbidity of ecclesial politics, to have reliable intermediaries: these are all skills that serve us even for life beyond the religious sphere, especially in times of artificial intelligence.
In those conversations with people who were not in tune with Francis - again: with who they thought Francis was - it was not uncommon to come to this question: How much time have you spent reading the Pope's writings firsthand, and how much time have you spent with the news media that want to keep you hooked on the religious soap opera? Very few people went to the real source and, logically, they were fighting in their minds with a stereotype created in some newsroom.
May this not happen to us with Leo XIV. Thank you," the Pope said in his meeting with the media a few days ago, "for all you have done to abandon the stereotypes and commonplaces through which we often read Christian life and the very life of the Church. It was a polite gesture that perhaps, in reality, conceals an elegant request.
Érase Publishing House, reviving fairy tales in the West
The Érase publishing house aims to bring a breath of fresh air to the world of literature, offering quality works with a careful moral and anthropological background.
María Loreto Ríos and Pedro Lara are the founders of Érase publishing house. This project seeks to bring literary quality back to the world of books, through a very careful selection and production of works.
As the founders explain, with their publications they want to "offer a literature that helps to understand reality through fiction". To do so, they look "with a magnifying glass at the moral and anthropological background of each work".
In this interview with Omnes, they talk about the origins of the editorialThe company's catalog and the current situation of literature aimed at children and young people.
Editorial Érase
What was the main motivation for founding this publishing house?
- Loreto]: Our main motivation was to note that the original structure and symbology of fairy tales had been lost in contemporary literature, mainly that aimed at children and young people, with few exceptions. This may not seem to have much relevance, but art and literature leave a lasting and deep impression on the reader. Disrupting the meaning and symbolism of fairy tales and stories can have many effects on society, even if only in a subtle way.
That said, our aim is not to offer pedagogical stories or books whose main purpose is to convey a moralizing message, but works with literary value, but which are in line with the line of fantastic and mythical literature initiated, for example, by authors such as George MacDonald, Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. S. Lewis.
Your catalog focuses on untranslated contemporary authors and works that have not been published for a long time. What criteria do you use to select authors and works? How do you balance literary quality with a focus on freshness and novelty?
- Pedro]: First of all, we pay close attention to the literary quality of the works we wish to publish; in this we are no different from other good narrative publishers. What does differentiate us is that we also look closely at the moral and anthropological background of each work.
The market of children's and young adult literature is today flooded with novels that blur, if not directly eliminate, the reality of good and evil, that disguise vice as virtue and present villains as heroes. In our works, good exists and is in continuous struggle with evil, which is nothing but the absence or deprivation of good (it has no entity of its own), and vice enslaves and destroys all those who practice it.
Closely related to the above are symbols, which have a profound influence on man, nowadays often ignored. There are many stories of magnanimous dragons and friendly wolves, apparently innocent and harmless, but which have devastating effects on the moral imagination of children, subtly undermining their ability to distinguish good from evil. That is why we always try to keep our works in line with the symbolic tradition of the West, which is a guarantee of sanity and moral health.
Finally, we are extremely concerned about the ever-increasing eroticization of young people's literature, promoted through TikTok and sponsored by the publishers who profit from it. From this, of course, we flee like the plague.
As for the balance you mention, we do not seek it, nor do we intend to seek it. We want all the works we publish to be literarily excellent and, at the same time, fresh and new. This quote from Péguy comes to mind: "Homer is new every morning, and there is nothing older than today's newspaper. In other words, freshness and novelty are characteristics of the classics, of the best literature, because it is interwoven with yearnings, aspirations, concerns and perennial and universal human experiences.
Who is the target audience of your publishing house? Who do you want to appeal to with the selection of your catalog?
- Loreto]: Érase Publishing is aimed at children and young adults, but the truth is that we believe that these types of stories can reach many other age groups. We are advocates that adults can also enjoy fairy tales and good fantasy.
Tolkien himself defines "The Lord of the Rings" thus in letter 181: "It is a 'fairy tale,' but a fairy tale written for adults, in accordance with the belief, which I once expressed at length in the essay 'On Fairy Tales,' that they constitute the right audience. For I believe that the fairy tale' has its own way of reflecting 'truth', different from allegory, satire or 'realism', and is, in some sense, more powerful. But, above all, it must succeed as a tale, excite, please and sometimes even move, and, within its own imaginary world, it must be accorded (literary) credibility. To achieve this was my primary objective.
How do you take care of the editorial process to ensure that the works are presented in the best possible way?What value do you place on the work of translators and physical editions of books?
- Loreto]: Regarding the physical editions, first of all we want to highlight the value of the illustrators and the importance of the design being in the hands of an artist and not an artificial intelligence, even if that means making the production of the book more expensive. We have a wonderful illustrator, with a degree in Fine Arts, who is in charge of the illustration and cover design, as well as the interior decorations in the case of "Once Upon a Queen".
In addition to that, we take great care that the materials of the book (paper, cover, binding, etc.) are good. We consider it very important that the book as an object is beautiful and attractive, as well as having quality and durability.
- Pedro]: And with translations we are picky to say the least! Before being editors, we have been translators, that's why we have decided to take personal charge of the translation work. And I must say that it has been a great pleasure to translate books that we love and that we have been reading, rereading and enjoying for years.
You mention the desire to encourage reading from an early age, how do you plan to bring young people closer to reading and to contemporary authors who may not be so popular yet?
- Pedro]: Unfortunately, to achieve that it is not enough to publish good books. In fact, we don't think we are discovering the gunpowder if we say that a large part of what children and young people read today (and also many adults) is literary trash.
We are convinced that, in order to face this painful situation, we must all become aware of the vital and irreplaceable role that good stories play in the education of the young. Good stories are food for the soul; they are like maps and compasses that help us to orient ourselves in life; they help us to reject evil and choose good. If we want our children and students to know the truth, we must tell them the truth. If we want them to love the truth and live by it, we must tell them good stories.
At Érase we want to collaborate with parents, teachers and educators to ensure that the imagination of our children and young people has the nourishment it needs.
What kind of relationship do you seek to establish with your authors? How do you plan to handle the issue of collaboration with emerging writers and their participation in the editorial process?
- Loreto]: With foreign authors it is very complicated to establish a relationship, since all the arrangements are made through literary agencies or the publishing house of origin itself. They are usually authors who already have a more or less consolidated trajectory in their countries.
But we do plan to focus on emerging and Spanish-speaking authors in the future. There is no specific date for this yet. We want to wait until the publishing house has a little more experience, among other things because the process of choosing an already published and finished work and translating it is very different from the work of receiving, selecting and editing an original manuscript.
What is your long-term vision for the publishing house, how do you expect your catalog to evolve in the coming years and what kind of impact do you want to have on the publishing world and on readers?
- [Peter]: Like Rick Blaine in "Casablanca," we don't plan that far in advance. I say that half jokingly, but also half seriously. We are fully aware that Érase is a tiny drop in a vast publishing ocean, a David against an army of Goliaths. That is why, rather than with a vision of what we want to be in the future, we always work with our minds and hearts set on a mission, on what we must be today, every day, in the present.
We have a long list of books that we would love to translate and publish, books that we have been wanting to see published in Spanish for years. But we are taking one step at a time. Each work we publish is like a "paper child", a gift to us and, we hope, to our readers as well. If just one of our books makes a child yearn to be a hero, or a young person regain their sense of wonder at reality, or a family come together again night after night to enjoy a story read aloud, then our work will not have been in vain.
Pope Leo XIV pledges strengthened dialogue with the Jewish people
Among his first messages, Pope Leo XIV has expressed his intention to strengthen the Catholic Church's dialogue with the Jewish people. The Chief Rabbi of Rome will attend the inauguration of the Pontificate on Sunday the 18th.
OSV / Omnes-May 15, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
- Justin McLellan (Vatican City, CNS)
The new Pope Leo XIV wishes to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people. He has expressed this in a message addressed to Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
"Trusting in the assistance of the Almighty, I pledge myself to continue and strengthen the Church's dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people," the Pope affirms. "In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council's declaration 'Nostra Aetate'" he adds. The papal message was posted on the AJC's X account on May 13.
The declaration 'Nostra Aetate' ('In Our Time'), dated 1965, was authored by St. Paul VI. "Nostra Aetate" affirmed the spiritual kinship of the Catholic Church with the Jewish people, and condemned all forms of anti-Semitism.
Israel's "right to exist in peace".
AJC is an advocacy group that "defends Israel's right to exist in peace and security. It confronts anti-Semitism, no matter the source. And it defends the democratic values that unite Jews and our allies," according to its website.
Pope Leo did not explicitly address the war between Israel and Hamas after praying the "Regina Coeli" with pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on May 11. But he did call for an "immediate cease-fire" in the Gaza Strip. "That humanitarian aid be provided to the affected civilian population, and that all hostages be released," he said.
Pope Leo also sent a personal message to Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, "informing him of his election as the new pontiff". The statement was published on May 13 on the Facebook page of the Jewish community of Rome.
In its message, the statement said: "Pope Leo XIV undertook to continue and to strengthen the dialogue and the church's cooperation with the Jewish people in the spirit of Vatican II's 'Nostra Aetate' declaration."
Chief Rabbi to attend inauguration of Pontificate
"The Chief Rabbi of Rome, who will be present at the celebration of the inauguration of the Pontificate (May 18), welcomed with satisfaction and gratitude the words addressed to him by the new Pope," the communiqué added.
The Jews have lived in Rome since long before Christ was born. Centuries of interaction between the city's Jewish community and the popes mean that Jewish-Vatican relations have a unique history, much of it sad.
A special exhibition
In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI visited the synagogue in Rome, the staff of the Jewish Museum of Rome planned a special exhibit illustrating part of that history.
The centerpiece of the exhibition was composed of 14 decorative panels made by Jewish artists to mark the inauguration of the pontificates of various Popes. They were Clement XII, Clement XIII, Clement XIV and Pius VI in the 18th century.
Humiliations
For hundreds of years, the Jewish community was forced to participate in the ceremonies surrounding the enthronement of new Popes. Often in a humiliating manner.
Several groups in the city were assigned to decorate different sections of the Pope's route between the Vatican and the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Pope's cathedral.
The Jewish community was responsible for the stretch of road between the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus, which celebrates the victory of the Roman Empire over the Jews of Jerusalem in the first century.
The Roman victory included the destruction of the Temple, the holiest site in Judaism. The triumphal arch depicts Roman soldiers carrying away the menorah and other Jewish liturgical elements.
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Motherhood, on the social podium
