Ash Wednesday is one of the key days of the liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church. In some dioceses, it is the day when most of the faithful attend Mass.
The beginning of the Lent sets the faithful on a path of conversion and dedication which, despite what it may seem, looks to the Resurrection and Easter, the new birth, and not only to the Passion of Christ.
From the beginnings of the early Church, the example of Christ, praying and living in a mortified way in the desert before beginning his public preaching, was present in the faith life of the first communities in different ways.
Ashes and penance
– Supernatural penance, The presence of ashes, whether public or private, has always been a way of reminding man of his fragility, of his condition as a redeemed creature, therefore hopeful. The presence of ashes, with evident biblical connotations, also in the stories of repentance of David, the king of Nineveh, or the Jewish people in the first book of the Maccabees, has always been present as a symbol of this penitence and repentance.
The season of Lent was liturgically consolidated in the Church throughout the 6th century. In the last years of St. Gregory the Great, the custom of Lenten fasting began on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent.
In those times, the custom of public penance was customary: penitents presented themselves before designated priests, confessed their sins and, if they were serious and public, received, as penance, a cilice sprinkled with ashes. Their penance lasted the whole of Lent, sometimes in places of prayer such as monasteries or hermitages.
In the early Middle Ages was also born the statio or penitential procession that takes place in Rome and consists of a procession presided over by the Pope, Bishop of Rome, and that goes from the parish of San Anselmo to that of Santa Sabina, both located on the Aventine at a distance of about 200 meters, every Ash Wednesday.
With the disappearance of public penance, the custom arose that both clergy and religious, as well as the faithful, received the imposition of ashes on the Wednesday before the beginning of Lent. In 1901, the Council of Benevento ratified this practice and the custom of imposing ashes spread throughout the Catholic world.
The specification «of the ashes» is related to the liturgical rite that characterizes the mass of that day: the celebrant places a small amount of blessed ashes on the forehead or head of the faithful.
According to custom, the ashes used for the rite are obtained from the burning of the olive branches that were blessed and used in the procession of palms on Palm Sunday of the previous year.
Vatican II Reform
Until the liturgical reform that took place at the Second Vatican Council, the imposition of ashes could also take place on the following Sunday, provided that the ashes had been blessed on Ash Wednesday.
In addition, the prayers for the blessing of the ashes were reduced and updated, going from four old formulas to two main options in the new missal, and the meaning of the ashes as the beginning of Lent as a time of conversion and Easter preparation was reinforced.
The temptation of the first parents. Albrecht Dürer: «Adam and Eve».»
Adam and Eve, depicted by Dürer in two memorable panels, are much more than studies of the human figure. These works merge Renaissance perfection and Christian spirituality to narrate, from the technical mastery of the German painter, the moment before the original sin.
Eva Sierra and Antonio de la Torre-February 18, 2026-Reading time: 7minutes
ARTISTIC COMMENTARY
God created man and woman as the culmination of creation, the final touch. The figures of Adam and Eve, depicted here life-size, transport us to paradise, and remind us of the perfection of paradise before original sin took place. The uniform black background and the very low horizon line enhance the beauty and elegance of the bodies, ensuring that our attention is focused on the figures. These are two masterful works that encapsulate the ideals of Renaissance humanism and Dürer's technical skill.
As usual, Adam and Eve are depicted naked, covering their genitals with branches, a detail that accentuates their vulnerability and humanity. The two figures subtly lean towards each other, in a silent dialogue, closing the composition; Eve looks at Adam, although he has his eyes fixed on a distant point, perhaps on God. The serpent coiled around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil reinforces the biblical narrative of original sin, reminding viewers that this depiction is more than a mere study of the human body: it is a detailed study of the fall of humanity.
Before original sin
Dürer captures the purity of man before the original sin, with a scene charged with Renaissance symbolism and beauty. Dürer's attention to detail is extraordinary. Eve's hair, the different skin tones that distinguish the man from the woman, the meticulous rendering of the hands, the stones in the foreground, reveal his mastery of oil painting, a skill learned in his native Germany. Both panels bear Dürer's signature; that of Adam with his monogram AD, and that of Eve with a tablet indicating that the work was painted after the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, thus placing the painting in a specific temporal context and alluding to Mary as the new Eve, redeeming humanity from original sin.
In 2004, both panels were restored at the Prado Museum. Previous interventions had caused the surface to darken with layers of varnish and dirt, distorting the original colors and flattening the images. The supporting structures, particularly that of Adam, were in poor condition, which had created shadows, irregularities and vertical cracks. The restoration process involved meticulously removing the damaged structures from the Adam panel and stabilizing the Eve panel before addressing the painted surfaces.
The results can now be seen at El Prado, where Dürer's technical mastery shines once again.
Classical Renaissance in the work of Dürer
Dürer painted this pair after his trip to Venice, where he immersed himself in the study of human proportions. The results are visible in these paintings, with a much simpler composition than the engraving with the same subject (1504) on which they are based: the paintings move away from the detailed background of the engraving to focus solely on the human form. The classical ideals that Dürer encountered in Italy, particularly the revival of classical aesthetics, profoundly influenced the realization of these tables. The discovery of statues such as Venus, Apollo or the Laocoon with his children inspired Renaissance artists, including Dürer, who studied these models to emulate their perfect proportions and ideal beauty and adapt them to new characters, as in the case of these works.
The Adam and Eve panels are a sample of this classical renaissance, showing idealized human forms that contrast with the more gothic figures typical of northern European art. For Dürer, perfectly measured and proportioned beauty is synonymous with the good, and this in turn reflects the creative power of God. The depiction of Adam and Eve before their fall serves as a testament to immaculate human beauty, not yet tainted by sin.
The origin of these panels remains a mystery. There is no documentation of the commission or the specific reasons why Dürer painted them. They are not part of any altarpiece or other religious work. After the death of the artist's wife, the paintings were acquired by the city of Nuremberg. In 1624 Queen Christina of Sweden gave them as a gift to King Philip IV of Spain, securing their place in the Spanish royal collection.
These panels are not just works of art; they are cultural objects that unite the Renaissance traditions of Northern Europe and Italy, and invite viewers to reflect on human nature, beauty and the creative power of God.
Adam and Eve, by Albrecht Dürer. Prado Museum. @Wikimedia Commons
CATECHETICAL COMMENTARY
The story of the Creation narrated in the first chapter of the Genesis culminated with the presentation of the human being, created male and female as the image and likeness of God. This completion of the opus ornatus In short, he presents humanity as the supreme ornament of divine creation, brimming with harmony, beauty and order, as Dürer shows us in his panels on Adam and Eve. In them we see a perfect pictorial representation of how the human being has been created in goodness and harmony, not only in bodily proportions, but in full balance with himself, with creation and with God, his Creator. If Bosch emphasized this threefold harmony more in The Garden of Earthly Delights, Dürer seems to invite us to contemplate the harmony of the human being, diversity of male and female, in itself.
The original perfection of the human being
The figures of Adam and Eve, therefore, can help us to contemplate the harmony and perfection of the last of God's creatures, his masterpiece, a harmony that reflects his initial state of righteousness and holiness. Christian revelation reminds us that all the greatness, beauty, order and faculties of the human being derive from the participation that God has given him in his very life. Therefore, contemplating this apotheosis of the human being leads to discovering an epiphany of the glory of God.
In this initial state, the human creature, united to God, enjoyed special gifts, both in the spirit and in the body; the freshness and beauty of Dürer's strokes express how Adam and Eve were free from suffering, sickness and death. Their perfect classical, humanistic and Renaissance order evokes the solid order that both live in their existence, as those who are not yet infested by the triple disorder of concupiscence: the submission to sensuality, the desires for earthly goods and the selfishness that hijacks reason. None of this is seen in the immaculate beauty of these kings of creation, whose dominion extends not only to all creatures but especially to themselves. The power granted by God to the human being is exercised particularly in his self-mastery, in being master of himself, so that he can properly exercise his power over the whole of creation.
As much as original sin, which is insinuated again in this panel with the serpent as it was in Bosch's, has ruined this divine power and order in the human being, leading him to his present fallen state, Adam and Eve do not lose their capacity to recover the divine image. Thus, just as a ruined Romanesque cloister is not contemplated as a heap of rubble, but as an evocation of a beauty and a constructive order that can be restored, so the present state of humanity is contemplated by Christian faith as a ruin that can be restored to its original condition, even improved, by its Creator. Without this, as we see in transhumanist or antihumanist theories, the human creature, marked in its fallen state by evil and selfishness, is simply a defective being to be removed and replaced by another new being, or else a harmful animal to be relegated and controlled.
A fall called to salvation
The fallen state has arrived precisely in the same scenario where God models the first human couple. The second chapter of the Genesis narrates the creation of Adam and Eve within the framework of that marvelous garden, so splendidly contemplated in the work of Bosch. There he receives from God his first Covenant: he can receive everything from the Creator, he can take care of everything, as long as he renounces to take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, planted by God in Paradise next to the tree of life. We have a Covenant between God and humanity that promises some goods, prescribes some tasks and establishes a prohibition, as a first sample of the successive covenants that God will complete with humanity throughout the Old Testament.
And, as in all alliances, the presence of sin will ruin the covenants between God and man. This first sin is present in the serpent, artfully coiled on the branch that hangs over Eve. We can notice that, following a medieval tradition, Dürer paints this tree as an apple tree, because the name of its fruit (called malus in Latin) clearly evokes the fruit that will bring humanity its first sin. But we can also look at the color of the serpent, a disturbing tinsel, or false gold, that evokes the deception of temptation.
The temptation of the first parents of humanity, fanned by the diabolical serpent, consists precisely in the fact that Satan presents to them as gold what is in reality ruin; he makes them see that the act of disobeying God (and therefore breaking his Covenant and his goods, both being reduced to rubble) will lead them to acquire the gold of full equality of nature with God (you will be gods, he whispers to them), thus surpassing with their own actions their condition of image and likeness.
The cunning serpent, then, appears in this painting deceiving Adam and Eve and preparing their ruin, although Dürer himself also includes in his work the promise of their restoration. Even before they both eat the fruit, -which is the moment chosen by the painter to represent the two figures-, it is already being announced that a New Adam and a New Eve would restore the human being from his ruin, raising him to a state even greater than that of the original justice. The inscription on the cartouche containing the date is sufficiently expressive: the painting is not dated simply with the year of its execution, as is usually done, but the precision is added post virginis partum.
This discreet presence of Mary (Virgin) and Jesus Christ (the birth of the Virgin) in the painting is what provides the fundamental meaning of the painting. The human being, created as a radiant divine image, was deceived by the serpent, so that his freedom, still innocent and tender (as some Fathers of the Church used to say) succumbed to temptation. At the very moment of the temptation, however, God wants to remind us that he had already disposed ab aeterno a project to redeem the fallen human couple with a new couple. The New Adam and the New Eve, living their freedom toward full obedience to God, would lead humanity not only to a new paradise and to recover the original gifts, but to share the same divine nature by being adopted as sons in Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father.
The work
NameAdam and Eve
Year: 1507
TechniqueOil on panel
Measures: 209×80 cm
Location: El Prado National Museum (Madrid, Spain)
Vatican geopolitics could be summarized in five concepts and images that, in the author's opinion, describe its essence and modalities, at least since the end of World War II. In his opinion, there is no doubt that the Church is the strongest ‘soft power’ in existence.
February 18, 2026-Reading time: 12minutes
Vatican diplomacy is one of the oldest in the world. For this reason, the nuncios - ambassadors of the Holy See to various countries and international organizations - act as deans of the diplomatic corps, at least in countries with a Catholic tradition.
Certainly, the Holy See represents an institution of an eminently spiritual character as the Catholic Church, but it has an enormous influence throughout the world, since the Vatican maintains relations with more than 180 countries.
Although often used interchangeably, it is useful to distinguish between the Holy See, the Vatican and the Catholic Church. In brief, the Holy See is the central government of the Catholic Church, composed of the Pope and the Roman Curia, with international juridical personality to represent the Church in the world.
The Vatican (or Vatican City) is the sovereign state, the physical place or territory that serves as the seat and guarantor of independence for the Holy See. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, is the global community of the faithful who follow Christ, governed by the Pope through the Holy See, and has its physical and spiritual center in the Vatican, where the See of Peter is located.
Macro-politics and micro-politics
Although these lines are mainly dedicated to Vatican macro-geopolitics, I am convinced of the power and influence, even greater, of its micro-geopolitics, whether through nuncios and local ecclesial representatives (bishops, religious superiors, spiritual leaders, etc.), or through the actions of Christian communities and individual Catholics in their countries, cities and neighborhoods, according to their vision of man and society.
In fact, while the Vatican is only a small structure of the Church, there are many baptized and each one has the responsibility to carry forward the mission of the Church, entrusted to it by its founder.
The Church, a strong ‘soft power’
In this sense, there is no doubt that the Church is the strongest ‘soft power’ in existence. We all remember the famous anecdote in which Stalin wondered how many divisions the Pope had, and Pius XII, as soon as he heard of the death of the Soviet leader, replied: ‘Now Stalin will see how many divisions we have up there (heaven)’.
Jokes and micro-geopolitics aside, it is obvious that the Church, the papacy and the Vatican play a determining role in world geopolitics, and if Rome is important at the political level it is, above all, because it is the seat of the successor of Peter, the global moral authority par excellence.
In confirmation of the geopolitical role of the Church, Pope Leo XIV, last December 6, in an audience to receive the credentials of several new ambassadors, declared that the Holy See will never be “a silent spectator in the face of grave disparities, injustices and fundamental violations of human rights.”.
The essence and modalities of Vatican geopolitics: 5 concepts and images
One could summarize in five concepts and images the characteristics that, in my opinion, describe the essence and modalities of Vatican geopolitics, at least since the end of World War II.
Specifically, I have called them: geopolitics of mediation, geopolitics of forgiveness, geopolitics of sincerity, geopolitics of peace and geopolitics of patience and discretion.
These five dimensions are interwoven and are present in one way or another in all the diplomatic and political action exercised by the Holy See in the world. Let us look at them one by one.
Geopolitics of mediation
The events of April and May 2025 - the death and funeral of Pope Francis, the conclave and the election of Leo XIV - were events of such magnitude that they became geopolitical scenarios in themselves. A geopolitics that occurred almost by chance, without being sought after.
In those moments, the Church became a central actor, subject and object of communication. Without detracting from the informative work carried out by the Vatican Dicastery for Communication or by the thousands of journalists present - there were more than 6,600 accredited journalists - it can be said that the events spoke for themselves. The director of the Sala Stampa Vaticana himself, Matteo Bruni, acknowledged this, explaining that the role of his office was “not to stand in the way, but to let reality speak for itself” (a commentary in a special volume of Church, Communication and Culture, published last October).
Precisely because of the attention, weight and interest that moments like the ones mentioned above acquire, things like this can happen...
Meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at St. Peter's Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, April 26, 2025. (OSV News photo/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service handout via Reuters).
What the two presidents said to each other is partly unknown to us (although the social media irony about Zelenskyy confessing to Trump escaped no one), but only an occasion like the funeral of a Pope (Francis) could bring these two figures together and do it in this context.
This is not the first case, nor will it be the last, of bilateral political meetings facilitated by religious contexts. We see, therefore, in action what we could call the geopolitics of mediation: even before being an actor, the Vatican is a stage and mediator of geopolitics.
In fact, in the case of the Russian-Ukrainian war the Holy See has offered itself as mediator and the current Pope has recalled on several occasions that the doors of the Vatican are open for both contenders to meet and dialogue.
In the case of the war in Ukraine, the Church's role as an impartial mediator has not been incompatible with Pope Francis' decision to send Cardinals Krajewski (Limosnero of the Pope) and Zuppi (president of the Italian Bishops' Conference) to the conflict zone on several occasions for humanitarian reasons.
Priority to multilateralism
However, it is worth remembering that the Church has always defended and given priority to multilateralism. An example of its major results was the birth of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to which the Vatican contributed significantly with ideas and proposals.
Certainly, today the role of the OSCE has been greatly compromised by the war in Ukraine, as the unanimity-based decision-making mechanism makes any agreement impossible when the contenders in a conflict are members of the organization.
It is not possible to present here all the cases of Vatican mediation in various political conflicts in contemporary history. Suffice it to cite the Holy See's mediation between Chile and Argentina in the late 1970s in their territorial dispute over the Beagle Channel, which was resolved with a peace and friendship treaty signed definitively in 1984, or the leading role of the Community of Sant'Egidio in the peace accords for the civil war in Mozambique, signed in Rome in 1992.
Geopolitics of forgiveness
A second teaching is provided by another striking image: that of Pope Francis kissing the feet of South Sudan's political leaders in April 2019.
(Vatican Media).
Images such as this have a powerful communicative and geopolitical impact, and could be considered examples of a geopolitics of forgiveness. In the face of a conflict with terrible consequences for the civilian population, the Pope summoned the leaders in dispute to promote their reconciliation.
In the global political context, the Church is practically the only institution that speaks of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Many others could be added to this episode, such as, for example, the one represented by the photo of John Paul II listening to his assailant, Ali Ağca, in prison, in 1983, after the 1981 attack.
Pope St. John Paul II, seriously wounded in his jeep in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, after being shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca (OSV News file photo).
The geopolitics of forgiveness is closely linked to the concept of gratuitousness and service: although the Church speaks and does geopolitics, it proceeds following the example of its founder, Christ, who died on the cross offering his life out of love for humanity.
As is evident, this gratuitousness is opposed to the predominant social behavior and explains in part why the Church is and will always be a sign of contradiction.
Geopolitics of sincerity and coherence
In the above-mentioned meeting with various ambassadors (December 6), Leo XIV recalled that “the diplomatic work of the Holy See, modeled on Gospel values, is constantly oriented to serve the good of humanity, especially by appealing to consciences and remaining attentive to the voices of the poor, of those who find themselves in vulnerable situations or are pushed to the margins of society.”.
It is a diplomacy of clear and declared objectives, a sincere and coherent geopolitics. To carry it out, the Church does not need or want to change its identity or the doctrine received from Christ, but to renew human relations.
Most of the world's problems are “ecumenical”, that is to say, they affect many and must be tackled with the collaboration of all. And it is precisely a clear and honest institutional identity that facilitates dialogue and enables the Holy See to collaborate with geopolitical actors of very different ideological orientations: religious denominations, political governments, international associations, etc.
Among other aspects, this approach makes it possible to work together on such essential issues as religious freedom (not only of Christians) or the dignity and defense of the most vulnerable (ethnic minorities, the sick, the elderly, the unborn, etc.), and many of them expect and desire - not always in a declared way - the prophetic voice of the Pope and the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIV, center, leads an ecumenical evening prayer service in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome on Jan. 25, 2026, at the closing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Photo by OSV News/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media).
The identity given by the Christian faith also has consequences for the consistency of the Vatican's geopolitics. While civilian governments change their foreign policy according to the ideology of the party, or worse, of the ruling leader, the Church acts in diplomacy without betraying its principles.
This openness can also be seen in the fact that Vatican diplomacy does not feel conditioned by the size or political importance of its interlocutors.
Among other examples, he is not afraid to reject ambassadors proposed by world powers (as the Holy See did with the three initial candidates proposed by Barack Obama as successors to Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon), to speak his mind about injustices and ongoing conflicts (such as
the invasion of Gaza by Israel in the interview of Cardinal Pietro Parolin to Vatican News and harshly contested by the Israeli government), or to establish agreements with small islands in the Indian Ocean (such as Timor-Leste).
In fact, it is very significant how the newspaper of the Holy See, L'Osservatore Romano, shows so much interest and analytically addresses the politics of remote areas of the world, because for the Church all men are children of God and have the same dignity.
Precisely because of this, and because of its ethical dimension, the Holy See is recognized as having a fundamental role in international forums, even those that might seem far removed from “spirituality”, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), located in Vienna.
Geopolitics of patience and discretion
To the above dimensions, a new one can be added: the geopolitics of patience and discretion.
The expert former Italian ambassador and current ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta to the Holy See, Antonio Zanardi Landi, has defined this Vatican geopolitical dimension as “strategic patience”, exemplified in the constant and prudent diplomatic action of the Holy See in countries with a Christian minority (such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan) or an Orthodox majority (such as Russia or Serbia), where progress is slow but evident, or in the countries of the Middle East, where any departure from the norm provokes new tensions.
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at a meeting with Saudi Arabian leaders on the occasion of Expo 2030 in Riyadh (Vatican Media).
In many of these places, the representatives of the Catholic Church act through reserved channels, behind the scenes, with the objective of achieving the maximum possible, in a wise, patient and artisanal geopolitics, almost handmade, which is often more successful than that carried out through great public declarations that humiliate those involved in dynamics of winners and losers.
And, undoubtedly, although real history does not always leave traces, many diplomatic results are the fruit of the “fork diplomacy” that often accompanies personal relationships.
Magisterial documents also have their weight and influence, often indirectly, since they lay the foundations for debate on relevant geopolitical issues. Suffice it to mention here cases such as the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891), by Leo XIII, which addressed the social and economic question and gave rise to the modern social doctrine of the Church, or in recent times, Laborem exercens (1981), by John Paul II, on the value of work, Caritas in veritate (2009), by Benedict XVI, with its criticism of an unregulated financial market, and Caritas in veritate (2009), of Benedict XVI, with its critique of an unregulated financial market, and Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2013), with its renewed critique of the thesis of the positive effects of capitalism - taken up in part by Leo XIV in his recent exhortation Dilexi te. Or Francis' encyclicals dedicated to respect for creation (Laudato Si', 2015) and peace among peoples (Fratelli tutti, 2020).
Geopolitics of peace
Pope Leo XIV addresses his first greeting of peace in the Central Loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, May 8, 2025 (@CNS photo, Lola Gomez).
Finally, the geopolitics of peace. From the beginning of his pontificate, Leo XIV insisted on what we might call a geopolitics of peace.
As soon as he was elected, his first words from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica were “peace be with you”. This greeting of Christ to his apostles (John 20:19) has become the guiding thread of his pontificate.
In the audience he granted to journalists following the conclave, a few days after his election, the Pope proposed to those present to promote peace through “unarmed and disarming communication”.
On numerous occasions, as in his recent address before the Urbi et Orbi blessing on Christmas Day, the Pope has recalled so many active conflicts in the world, always asking for a peaceful solution.
And he does not speak of a theoretical or ideal peace, but is convinced that “peace is possible and that Christians, in dialogue with men and women of other religions and cultures, can contribute to building it” (Angelus, December 7, 2025).
In this sense, for Leo XIV peace is not only the absence of conflict but “an active and demanding gift that comes from the heart” (Speech of December 6, 2025, during the presentation of credentials of some ambassadors).
Of course, the Holy See seeks a lasting peace, not just a freeze on existing conflicts.
In this sense, Pope Leo XIV follows the concept of peace of his saint of reference, St. Augustine: Pax est tranquillitas ordinis, that is, true peace is not so much the absence of problems, but the serenity that results from everything being in its right place and oriented towards God, its ultimate goal, implying an interior order of the soul and a social order based on justice and charity, where all love each other and seek mutual good.
In the end, peace is the fruit of justice, freedom and solidarity, and it is not possible where there is injustice.
To achieve this peace, the Pope sees the Church and its members as a fundamental instrument. “This, brothers and sisters,” he said at the Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry, “is our first great desire: a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, a leaven for a reconciled world. Not for nothing is the motto of the papal coat of arms In illo unum uno (”In the one Christ we are one“).
Personalities count
We have summarized the main features of the geopolitics of the Holy See. If I have insisted on the consistency of its orientation, however, I cannot ignore that there are evident differences between pontificates, whether for personal or circumstantial reasons.
For example, while St. John Paul II was a pontiff who promoted the fall of communism in Europe (think of his public support for the Solidarnosc trade union), Benedict XVI concentrated on containing the onslaught of relativism, and Francis shifted the axis of geopolitical interest towards the peripheral world, mainly visiting countries with a Catholic minority or appointing cardinals from almost unknown cities, among others.
It is still too early to say what his approach to world geopolitics will be, but his North American geographic origin and, at the same time, his international background (he has visited almost 50 countries as superior of the Augustinians), will probably make it easier for him to face global challenges with a broad vision and a less personalistic approach than his predecessor.
Successes, failures... and more successes
Certainly the moral authority of the Pope or of the Church as a public institution does not guarantee the success of his interventions in favor of peace or reconciliation.
As history shows, there are cases in which the voice of the Pope and the Church have produced the desired effect: for example, the efforts of John XXIII in the Cuban missile crisis (1962) or the aforementioned territorial conflict between Argentina and Chile (1978). But there are not few failures of papal initiatives in this area.
geopolitical, especially in the case of war conflicts: such as the interventions of John Paul II against the Second Gulf War, or the personal initiative of Pope Francis before the Russian embassy in Rome to stop the invasion of Ukraine.
Certainly, the actions and words of the pontiffs and other ecclesial leaders can have very different and even opposite results. But this human geopolitics is accompanied by a dimension that cannot be forgotten and that is always successful: the supernatural geopolitics of prayer.
We know, because Christ has said it, that prayer always bears fruit and is always successful, even if it is often not visibly perceived. For example, the fruits of holiness of the numerous prayer vigils and fasting days promoted by the various pontiffs for the sake of peace are and will always be incalculable.
For all these reasons, it is possible to end up remembering that the Church is the most powerful ‘soft power’ that exists and will continue to be so if it is faithful to its evangelical principles.
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Daniel Arasa is Dean of the School of Institutional Communication (Pontificia Universidad de la Santa Cruz).
CaixaBank strengthens its specialized management for the Church in Barcelona
CaixaBank's commitment to the Church in Spain was reinforced once again with the “Committed to society and investments according to the criteria of the Social Doctrine of the Church” held in Barcelona..
CaixaBank has taken a further step in its accompaniment of the Church in Spain with the celebration in Barcelona of the day “CaixaBank, committed to society and investments according to the criteria of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”, The purpose of the meeting was to present a specialized management model and to deepen the integration of the ethical principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church in financial activities.
The meeting was attended by more than 70 Church executives and financial managers. This is the second event of similar characteristics that CaixaBank has organized in Spain, thus reinforcing the dialogue between the bank and religious institutions.
A specialized model at the service of the mission
The territorial director of CaixaBank in Barcelona, Maria Alsina, opened the conference by stressing the importance of offering highly specialized attention to religious institutions, based on experience, knowledge of their specific needs and a long-term relationship of trust. As she explained, the bank seeks to provide tailor-made financial solutions to support their pastoral, social and patrimonial activity.
Patricia Rubio, Director of Institutional Banking in Barcelona, explained the comprehensive service model that coordinates the relationship with this type of client. The proposal combines expert advice, training and a highly specialized team, in order to offer a differential service that responds to the identity and mission of each institution.
During the session, legal, economic and pastoral church documents were also discussed, highlighting the need for professional management based on transparency, accountability and responsibility, principles that are increasingly relevant in the administration of ecclesiastical goods.
Ethical finance and social commitment
One of the main themes of the meeting was the integration of ethical and sustainable criteria in investment decisions. In this context, representatives of Fundación la Caixa presented the institution's social action, highlighting its work with vulnerable groups and the convergence of objectives with the humanist mission of the Church.
The day concluded with a round table discussion in which experts from CaixaBank Wealth Management and CaixaBank Asset Management analyzed how to apply the criteria proposed by Mensuram Bonam, The workshop was a reference document for investments consistent with the DSI. Sustainability policies, controversy analysis, specialized portfolios and investment vehicles specifically designed for religious institutions were addressed.
The importance of having strategic financial plans that include short-, medium- and long-term objectives and that help to align economic profitability with positive social impact was also emphasized.
Economy at the service of the common good
Those responsible for the entity reiterated that professionalism, commitment, trust and quality of service are the pillars for accompanying religious institutions in their operational, investment and insurance needs. The objective, they pointed out, is to promote an economy at the service of the charism and the mission, and not the other way around.
The event closed with a clear message: when finances are managed from ethical and responsible criteria, they can become an effective tool for promoting human dignity, social justice and the common good. Along these lines, CaixaBank reaffirmed its desire to continue collaborating closely with Church institutions, strengthening their spiritual and social work through asset management that is consistent with their values.
The prelate of Opus Dei gave Pope Leo a book on the reception of Gaudium et Spes by six holy shepherds. In this article, the author of the work summarizes part of his contributions.
Ramón Sala González-February 17, 2026-Reading time: 13minutes
The image of a missionary «Church on the move», promoted and popularized by Pope Francis (Evangelli Gaudium nn. 20-24), has a precise historical origin. It arose a little more than sixty years ago when the «road map» of the Second Vatican Council was being prepared. Interpreting the desire expressed by Pope St. John XXIII that the Church should be open to the world, the Belgian Cardinal Leo Suenens (1904-1996), in an applauded intervention in the Council Hall (December 4, 1962), introduced the expression «Ecclesia ad extra». He proposed that the Council «on the Church» should also deal with her mission in the world. The idea was accepted by the bishops and bore fruit, at the end of Vatican II (1965), in a single document: the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (GS).
This document «on the Church in today's world»The "The example of pastors, together with the faithful and religious, shows the world the authentic face of the Church, whose witness it so badly needs" (GS 43). With these lines I would like to briefly evoke the figures of six holy pastors of the post-conciliar Church, whose life and thought are closely related to the teaching of the GS.
They are two Popes (St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II), three prelates (Saints Josemaría Escrivá and Oscar Romero, and Blessed Eduardo Pironio) and a religious superior (Father Pedro Arrupe, SJ). The latter is in the process of beatification. They are all contemporaries, most of them knew each other personally and some of them were great friends. Each one of them knew how to read the Pastoral Constitution with a personal view and to extract from it valuable orientations, always at the service of the People of God.
Paul VI and John Paul II: Popes of the Gaudium et Spes
It is true that the Pastoral Constitution is the document expressly willed by St. John XXIII. But it is due to his successor, St. Paul VI (1897-1978), the conception, gestation and birth of GS, after its long and complex elaboration process. It was not among the outlines prepared for the Council. It was decisively supported by the words of the «wise helmsman» of Vatican II (Francis) to the Council Fathers, at the beginning and end of the last two sessions. Also contributing to its promulgation from outside the Council was the encyclical Ecclesiam Suam (1964) and Paul VI's famous speech to the UN (1965).
Presenting himself as spokesman for the Church and «expert in humanity» before the representatives of all countries, in that speech the Pope conveyed to them his recognition of their work. And he extended his hand to all to collaborate together in «the paths of history and the destinies of the world» for the good of the individual and of the community of peoples. «Never more than today,» he said, "in an age of so much human progress, has it become so necessary to appeal to man's moral conscience!".
Paul VI was also the driving force behind the initial reception of the Pastoral Constitution. Since its solemn Closing message of Vatican II, In his theological anthropology, he saw in his theological anthropology the foundation of a new humanism, with which he fully identified himself. In fact, in that last message he summarized in this way what the Council had discovered:
Perhaps never as in this Synod has the Church felt the need to know the society that surrounds her, to approach it, to understand it, to penetrate it, to serve it and to transmit to it the message of the Gospel and to approach it by following it in its rapid and continuous change [cf. GS 4-8]....
The Church, gathered in the Council, has really turned her attention - besides herself and the relationship that unites her with God - towards man, man as he presents himself today... The whole of phenomenal man - to use a recent expression -, clothed in his innumerable circumstances, has presented himself before the Council Fathers, they too men....
The immediate post-conciliar years were not easy for Paul VI. Various circumstances caused him grief and worry. In spite of this, he was not the circumspect man that some have imagined. In an audience, he gave to a group of priests the book with the meditations of the retreat that one of the editors of GS (B. Häring) had preached to the Roman Curia (1964). And, he commented: «It sells very well. Everyone wants to know how to convert the Pope». Convinced of the need for the Church's dialogue with the world, in his magisterium he developed some of the main themes outlined in Part Two of the Pastoral Constitution: marriage (Humanae Vitae), culture (Evangelii Nuntiandi) and economic and social development (Populorum Progressio).
The first Polish Pope, St. John Paul II (1920-2005), was one of the most prominent protagonists of Vatican II. He actively participated in its four sessions and worked directly in the process of drafting his «particularly beloved» Pastoral Constitution. In fact, before the beginning of the last stage of the Council, Karol Wojtyla was part of the group in charge of realizing the new outline on the Church in today's world. He left his personal mark, above all, in the drafting of its «Preliminary Exposition», and in the chapter on the «mission of the Church in the world», which condenses the theme of the whole document, and with which its first part closes.
After the fleeting pontificate of John Paul I (1978), Cardinal Wojtyla was elected his successor at the age of 58. From the beginning, the teachings of GS inspired his entire Petrine ministry, as he himself had the opportunity to acknowledge on several occasions. For example, when commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Pastoral Constitution: «Precisely the intimate knowledge of the genesis of Gaudium et Spes has allowed me to fully appreciate its prophetic value and to assume its contents in my magisterium, already from the first encyclical, the Redemptor hominis".
In this programmatic document, taking up the legacy of the Pastoral Constitution, John Paul II closely linked the Church's mission in the world and the destiny of humanity in the light of the crucified and risen Christ the Redeemer (RH 14; GS 10).
The serious attack he suffered on May 13, 1981 in St. Peter's Square only temporarily interrupted his public presence. A group of Polish pilgrims visited him during his convalescence. They asked him to take good care of himself and not to travel so much. John Paul II commented that his mission was to be with everyone. Then a fellow countrywoman told him that they were praying for His Holiness. Smiling, the Pope replied: «I thank you very much. I am also concerned about myholiness». He soon resumed with renewed energy his daily commitments, his magisterial teaching and his continuous apostolic journeys as Pastor of the universal Church. During his long pontificate, the charismatic personality of St. John Paul II transcended the frontiers of the Church.
The themes of the defense of the dignity and rights of the human person (Evangelium Vitae), marriage and family (Familiaris Consortio), intercultural and interreligious dialogue (Faith and Reason, Redemptoris Missio), economic and social justice (Sollicitudo rei Socialis, Centesimus Annus), the building of the community of peoples and peace in the world, constituted the basic pillars of his mission to lead the Church into the new millennium. For the last year of preparation for this event (1999), St. John Paul II wrote:
A fundamental question must also be asked about the style of relations between the Church and the world. The conciliar directives - present in the Gaudium et Spes and in other documents - of an open, respectful and cordial dialogue, accompanied by careful discernment and courageous witness to the truth, are still valid and call us to a further commitment (Tertio Millennio Adveniente 36).
Msgr. Escriva and Card. Pironio: Pastors of the Apostolate in the World
A contemporary and personal friend of both Paul VI - his «helping hand» - and Card. Wojtyla, the founder and first President of Opus Dei, St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), was a fervent promoter of the active presence of the Church in the midst of temporal realities. In his memorable «Campus homily»(1967) said to the thousands of teachers and students of the University of Navarra who attended the Eucharist:
Do not doubt it, my children: for you, men and women of the world, any form of evasion of honest daily realities is opposed to the will of God. On the contrary, you must now understand - with a new clarity - that God calls you to serve him in and from the civil, material, secular tasks of human life: in a laboratory, in the operating room of a hospital, in the barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the field, in the family home and in the whole immense panorama of work, God awaits us every day.
Pope Francis has recognized him as a «precursor of Vatican II. Bishop Escrivá joyfully welcomed the convocation of the Council and closely followed its development. In a discreet way, without intervening directly in the work of Vatican II, the debates and various conciliar documents, among them the GS, echoed his spirituality. Interviewed by the newspaper The New York Times (December 7, 1966) on the meaning of the Council, St. Josemaría considered it an event of the Spirit for our times.
A «great movement of renewal» had been set in motion as a result of his life-giving action in the world. «Reading the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, it is clear that an important part of this renewal has been precisely the revaluation of ordinary work and of the dignity of the vocation of the Christian who lives and works in the world.».
Those who knew the founder of Opus Dei closely attest to the intense prayer life of this «down-to-earth» saint. When he heard that the rumor had spread that he had been seen levitating in the chapel, he limited himself to commenting with good humor that it would be a great miracle because he was too fat....
In addition to defending the dignity of the human person, many of Bishop Escrivá's writings and addresses address central questions of the Pastoral Constitution. Among the main ones are the just freedom of the person and the value of work (Part One); the dignity of marriage and the family; and the encounter between faith and culture (Part Two). On the occasion of his canonization (2002), John Paul II emphasized his passion for the world and the fruitfulness of his teachings for the Church's evangelizing mission: «Josemaría Escrivá understood more clearly that the mission of the baptized consists in raising the cross of Christ above every human reality and he felt the passionate call to evangelize all environments.
Perhaps the figure of the Blessed Card. Pironio (1920-1998) is less known outside the ecclesial sphere. However, he was surely «one of the greatest personalities of the Church at the end of the millennium» (Cardinal C. M. Martini). His compatriot and friend, Pope Francis, defined him as a «humble pastor according to the spirit of the Vatican Council». Bishop Pironio was an eyewitness to that event as an expert and conciliar father. He had an oral intervention in the discussion of the outline on the lay apostolate and worked in several commissions. In 1964 he presented a document with observations on the first text of the future GS. He proposed that it should include two fundamental themes for the mission of the Church: hope and peace.
The Church's response is found in the genuine notion of «Christian hope» and of «true and integral peace». Theological hope-an essentially dynamic and active virtue that tends toward heavenly things by building up the earthly city in a Christian way-should be at the center of the whole exposition in the scheme of things. On the Church in today's world. And then «true peace» which surpasses all meaning, and which is an internal act of charity, the effect of sanctifying grace and the fruit of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
Card. Pironio was also a pioneer in the reception of Vatican II by the Latin American Church, first as secretary and president of CELAM and, later, at the head of the dicasteries for religious and for the laity. In addition to being «sacrament of God» as Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit, he called the Church «sacrament of the world»: «Distinct from the world, the Church nevertheless feels inserted in it as leaven and soul [cf. GS 40b], profoundly attuned to its earthly lot, savingly responsible for its destiny».
As stated at the beginning of the Pastoral Constitution, the Argentine Cardinal understood that the Church makes her own «the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the people of our time, especially the poor and those who suffer» (GS 1) as the incarnation of Christ. The Church's response to the joys and hopes of humanity was the permanent stimulus of Bishop Pironio's work and ministry. He believed in the prophetic timeliness of GS and understood that the Church's mission in the world must be fully human in order to be truly religious. His attunement with young people made him one of the main inspirers of the «World Youth Days» introduced by John Paul II.
Until the end of his life he kept an affectionate and cheerful character. His personal secretary (F. Verges) tells us that shortly before his death he was visited by a young friend to whom he whispered: «This afternoon I will see your grandmother, what do you want me to tell her? As a »Witness of faith in joy« (John Paul II), Blessed Pironio enthusiastically encouraged both pastors and lay faithful to give a credible witness of hope.
Archbishop Romero and Father Arrupe: Apostles of Social Justice
The prophet and martyr of the poor, St. Oscar A. Romero (1917-1980), was canonized on October 14, 2018 at the same celebration as Pope Paul VI. He did not participate in the Council, but he perfectly embodies the figure of the Vatican II bishop. As a pastor who felt with the Church (his episcopal motto), he made a point of bringing the teachings of Vatican II to the people, especially through his Sunday homilies. Gathering the hopes and anguish of the poor, he was the «voice of the voiceless» and became the «microphone» of the Word of God for the Salvadoran Church.
Like the prophets, Archbishop Romero raised his voice against the powerful, denouncing violence and calling for justice and reconciliation. This way of proceeding provoked serious false accusations against him (getting involved in politics, promoting communism). Unforgettable are the energetic words he pronounced in the Cathedral of San Salvador, the day before his assassination, imploring in the name of God the cessation of repression. «Although I remain a voice crying in the wilderness,» he said, "I know that the Church is making the effort to fulfill its mission. He gave the supreme witness with his martyrdom, while celebrating Mass (March 24, 1980). Because of his preaching he had received continuous threats. He was well aware that his life was in danger, but he overcame his fear even with good humor.
A Mexican nun (Sister Luz Isabel Cueva), from the community of the hospital where the Archbishop was living when he was murdered, told the following anecdote. One morning, at breakfast, she confessed to them that she had hardly slept because she had heard loud footsteps, «like military boots», on the roof of the house. And he told them, «Here I have the evidence.» «We thought he was going to show us bullets or something,» the sister recalled. But he took two avocados out of his pocket. The noise had been produced when they fell from the tree onto the roof's uralite.
From the Pastoral Constitution, one of the Council documents most present in his homilies, he not only adopted the language and methodology, but also its principles and contents. The magisterium of GS, often through its reception in the documents of CELAM (Medellin and Puebla), was a constant reference for the thought of Archbishop Romero. Already at the beginning of his pastoral ministry as archbishop, in the homily of August 6, 1977, he affirmed:
The Church understood that she was living with her back turned to the world and she converted herself to dialogue with the world. At the Second Vatican Council, she wrote a beautiful Constitution entitled: The Church in Today's World. The Church is not a stranger to the world. All that is human touches her heart and she feels that she must be converted to a more evident dialogue with this world which must be of interest to her. It is you, especially the poor, those who suffer, those who are trampled upon, the marginalized, the voiceless. And the Church identifies with this suffering world, but not exclusively. With all the people who build the world.
The texts of the Pastoral Constitution were reread, meditated upon and put into practice during the years of his episcopate, in a particularly difficult socio-political and ecclesial context. In the exhortation Dilexi Te (2025) Pope Leo XIV, recalled his testimony as a living exhortation of the Church's love for the poor: «He felt as his own the drama of the great majority of his faithful and made them the center of his pastoral option...» (DT 89).
He also had to live through very hard times at the P. Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991), a former Jesuit missionary in Japan. As a young priest and doctor, he personally suffered the horror of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. He was elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus a few months before the beginning of the last stage of Vatican II (1965).
Fr. Arrupe had a deep spirituality and an extraordinary capacity for work. He also possessed a fine sense of humor. His first biographer (Fr. M. Lamet), tells that on the very evening of his designation as successor of St. Ignatius, when asked by the sacristan about the time to celebrate Mass the following day, the newly elected Jesuit replied «very early in the morning». When the Jesuit asked if 7:30 would be good for him, he smilingly told him: «Please, brother, don't break my morning».
In spite of many misunderstandings and conflicts, Father Arrupe made his own and carried forward the option for justice, in total fidelity to the origins of the Society. According to him, this commitment was an «integral part» of the evangelizing task. On the eve of suffering the thrombosis that paralyzed him until the end of his life, he explained it in a conference at the Catholic University of Manila (1981). The commitment to «The service of faith and the promotion of justice»far from betraying the founding purpose of the Jesuits' mission (the defense and propagation of the faith), better responded «to the present needs of the Church and of humanity, to whose service we are committed by vocation».
At the end of the Council, the newly elected General of the Society addressed the bishops when discussing the outlines of the Gaudium et Spes and the Decree Ad gentes. His first intervention focused on the attitude of the Church towards the phenomenon of atheism (GS 19-21). In the last one, after evaluating positively the foundation of the outline on the missionary activity of the Church, Father Arrupe underlined the urgency of the missionary apostolate «as the main one in the Church». Among others, he made the following proposal:
May it be more clearly understood, for profound theological reasons, the very serious obligation that falls on the entire People of God and on each of its members - of whatever condition - namely, that they take as their own the missionary task in its different aspects, so that all may be moved to collaborate, the Word of God may be spread and He may be glorified (2Thess 3:1).
In addition to his participation in Vatican II, Fr. Arrupe became a «prophet of the conciliar renewal» (Fr. H. Kolvenbach) during the post-conciliar years, leading the Jesuits and the Union of Superiors General. Because of his deep-rooted spirituality and missionary experience he was convinced of the urgency of a fruitful dialogue of the Church with the contemporary world. The themes of unbelief, inculturation and commitment to justice and peace were among his constant concerns.
Towards the midpoint of the 21st century
The Second Vatican Council showed the face of a Church «that desires to open her arms to humanity, to echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples and to collaborate in the construction of a more just and fraternal society. Pope Leo XIV recalled this at the end of the Jubilee Year, during the presentation of the series of catecheses on the documents of the Council (General Audience, January 7, 2026). Now «we are called to continue to be attentive interpreters of the signs of the times, joyful heralds of the Gospel, courageous witnesses of justice and peace,» he stressed.
Without hiding the polyphony of their own accents in their approach to the GS of each of the pastors mentioned above, several convergences are also evident among all of them. In particular, the following can be highlighted:
The openness of the Church to the world. This implies a willingness to engage in a cordial and critical dialogue, with a pastoral language, abandoning prejudices and closed or defensive positions.
The value of each human person and his or her dignity. It is part of the Church's mission in the world to defend the sacred value of human life, especially of the most vulnerable, against any threat.
Recognition of the rightful autonomy of temporal realities. The Church is situated in the world, not above it or in front of it. This implies a new way of being present in it: not by imposition or condemnation, but with a proposal of hope and salvation.
Willingness to a fruitful encounter between faith and culture. In order to carry out its pastoral mission, the Church must promote both the evangelization of cultures and the transmission of the faith with the values proper to each culture.
The great common legacy of these saintly pastors of the Church is undoubtedly their condition of models of holiness. All of them personally embody the five traits described by Pope Francis in chapter 4 of the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (2018) «on the call to holiness in today's world.» That is to say: 1) they were men of God, faithfully leaning on Him; 2) they overflowed with joy and a sense of humor; 3) they evangelized with their lives; 4) they were aware that the road to holiness is traveled accompanied; and 5) they were men of prayer, who dealt assiduously with God. For this reason, I believe that they should rightly be venerated today as the holy fathers of the «Church on the move».
The Church in the street
AuthorRamón Sala
EditorialRialp : Rialp
Year: 2026
No. of pages: 264
The authorRamón Sala González
Augustinian priest and professor of theology at the Augustinian Theological Study of Valladolid.
On Sunday afternoon Pope Leo XIV made his first visit to a parish in the Diocese of Rome, Santa Maria Regina Pacis (Queen of Peace) in Ostia Lido. There he met with children, young and old, encouraged them to “form a team”, celebrated Holy Mass, and gave them various pieces of advice.
“This is the first visit to a parish in my new diocese. I am very happy to start here, in Ostia (16 miles from Rome). Moreover, in a parish that bears the name of St. Mary Queen of Peace, so important in these times in which we are living.” This is how the Pope expressed himself during the visit, during which he offered some advice,
Although it was his first visit to Ostia as pope, he had been to the area many times as an Augustinian friar, due to the port city's close connection to the history of St. Augustine and, especially, his mother, St. Monica, who died there in 387.
In the homily During the Mass, Pope Leo emphasized the need to convert the heart so that there may be peace in the world. In addition, he suggested some points in a meeting, at the request of the pastor.
1- An authentic Christian community knows welcome with sincerity and joy all: Catholics, non-Catholics and people of no faith at all, Pope Leo XIV affirmed. “A true parish” is where “we all learn to say ‘welcome’, not just in words, but in a spirit of hospitality., opening the door and welcoming everyone.”, he said, speaking to members of the community.
2. The Pope encouraged the faithful to cultivate hearts that are humble, peaceful and open to Christ, because “the evil we see in the world has its roots precisely there, where the heart becomes cold, hard and lacking in mercy”.
3. I invite all of you, as a parish community, along with the other virtuous organizations that operate in these neighborhoods, to to continue to contribute generously and courageously to spread the good seed of the Gospel in their streets and homes.
“Spread respect and harmony!”
4. Do not resign yourselves to the culture of abuse and injustice. Instead, spread respect and harmony, starting by disassembling the language and then investing energy and resources in education, especially for children and youth.
Pope Leo XIV addresses young people during a visit to the parish of Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido, Italy, Feb. 15, 2026, accompanied by Bishop Renato Tarantelli Baccari, vice regent of the Diocese of Rome (left), and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome (right). (CNS Photo/Lola Gomez).
5. That children and young people “learn honesty, acceptance and a love that transcends boundaries in the parish; that they learn to help not only those to whom they are entitled, and to greet not only those who greet them, but to approach everyone freely.
6. Learn coherence between faith and life, as Jesus teaches us when he says: “If you present your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come back and present your offering." ( Mt 5,23-24).
7. The Pope reiterates the joy of “being here” and of “celebrating the Eucharist,where we all renew our faith in Christ”. “Jesus is alive with us and gives us this hope of living in peace, love and friendship,” he said. And precisely peace is the desire he offers to those present.
“Peace in families”.”
8. “May there be peace in our families, may the Lord bless all our families, all the families of this parish and may peace truly reign among us all”.
9. Addressing young people, the elderly, people with disabilities, Caritas volunteers and the people they serve, the Pope told those gathered that. “We are all part of this parish family and we all have something to say, something to give, something to share.”.
10. “May they have the courage to say ‘yes’ to the Lord!”he said. Then, addressing the members of the parish pastoral council, the Pope said to them. thanked them for the generosity with which they offered their time and talent, helping the local clergy, the Church and the faithful.
“I encourage them to go out and find others.”
11. However, “I also encourage them to go out and find others.”.“Don't stay inside the church saying, ‘Okay, those who come are enough.’ It is never enough. Invite, welcome, accompany.”, said Pope Leo.
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This information was originally published in OSV News. You can consult it here.
Leo XIV calls for caring attitude for sustainable health systems
In his address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Leo XIV called for two attitudes. Care as support and closeness to others, and the understanding and practice of the common good, so that it is not neglected under the pressure of individual and national interests.
Francisco Otamendi-February 17, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
Pope Leo XIV has vindicated in his speech before the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, presided over by the Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, two behaviors. “The fundamental attitude of care as support and closeness to others, not only because they are in need or sick, but because they share an existential condition of vulnerability, common to all human beings.”.
And the need that, “in a world torn apart by conflicts, which absorb enormous economic, technological and organizational resources to produce weapons and other war devices, it is more important than ever to devote time, energy and expertise to protecting life and health. Health, as Pope Francis said, ‘is not a commodity, but a universal right.
The common good, a fundamental principle
“We need to strengthen our understanding and practice of the common good, so that it is not neglected under the pressure of particular, individual and national interests,” the Pontiff added yesterday.
The common good - one of the fundamental principles of the Church's social thought -, said Leo XIV, “risks remaining an abstract and irrelevant notion if we do not recognize its roots in the concrete practice of the close relationships between persons and the bonds that are lived among citizens.
This is the basis on which a democratic culture can grow, one that encourages participation and is capable of combining efficiency, solidarity and justice,” he said.
Restoring confidence in medicine and professionals.
In connection with the care, The Pope added that only with this fundamental attitude of support for others “will we be able to develop more effective and sustainable health systems. Systems ”capable of meeting health needs in a world of limited resources and of restoring confidence in medicine and health professionals, despite misinformation and skepticism about science.“.
Conflict prevention, supranational organizations
Given the scope of the problems, Leo XIV stressed that he had to reiterate “the need to find effective ways of strengthening international and multilateral relations”. So that they can “regain the strength necessary to play the role of encounter and mediation needed to prevent conflicts, without anyone being tempted to dominate the other by the logic of force, whether verbal, physical or military” (Address to the Diplomatic Corps , January 9, 2026).
This perspective also applies to the cooperation and coordination carried out by supranational organizations committed to the protection and promotion of health”.
This is my last wish, the Pope said. “May your commitment be an effective witness to that attitude of mutual care that expresses the way God treats us, because He cares for all His children.”.
“Not focusing on immediate profit. Build bridges.”
Shortly before, the Pope reiterated that we must focus not “on the immediate benefit, but on what will be best for all. Knowing how to be patient, generous and in solidarity, creating links and building bridges, working in a network, optimizing resources, so that everyone can feel that they are protagonists and beneficiaries of the common work” (Speech to the participants of the Seminar on Ethics in the Management of Health Care Enterprises, November 17, 2025).
As for prevention, “it implies a broad perspective: the situations in which communities live, which are the result of social and environmental policies, have an impact on people's health and lives”.
The Pope has noted “enormous inequalities when we examine life expectancy - and healthy life expectancy - in different countries and social groups.”.
“Wars, the most absurd attack on life.”
These inequalities depend on variables such as, for example, salary level, educational qualifications and neighborhood, he reflected. But “unfortunately today we cannot ignore wars, The ”most absurd attack that man himself directs against life and public health", involving civilian structures, including hospitals, constitutes the most absurd attack that man himself directs against life and public health.
Leo XIV quoted the encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, to recall that “all beings in the universe are united by invisible bonds and form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion that moves us to a sacred, loving and humble respect” (n. 89).
And “this approach is in tune with the global bioethics that your Academy has repeatedly addressed and that it is good to continue to cultivate,” he said.
Exaggeration regarding anthropogenic global warming, gender ideology, pandemics, or any crisis or issue presented as a "global" problem, has nothing to do with the environment, identity or health.
February 17, 2026-Reading time: 7minutes
Since the 1970s, globalists have been pursuing two main objectives: (1) the ceding of national sovereignty to global supranational organizations, which implies the progressive suppression of private property and freedom; (2) the reduction of population and the management of this reduction.
Global warming“ and ”climate change“ are concepts promoted by the globalist neo-Malthusians of the Club of Rome since at least 1991. It is then that global warming began to be used as a pretext for the public to accept supranational global governance.
The Club of Rome literally says in its 1991 book «The First Global Revolution»:
«In the search for a common enemy against which everyone could unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would be the solution.».
These dangers are exclusively man-made and therefore the conclusion, explicitly stated in the book, is clear: «The real enemy then is mankind itself”.
If the very existence of humanity is the great threat, it will be easy to rally public opinion and convince it to sacrifice its own rights and submit to global control under the belief that the human species is too dangerous to be allowed freedom.
The Club of Rome describes in its official history that the 1992 UN Rio Summit and Agenda 21 «echoed many of the Club's founding ideas,” such as the need to place limits on growth, the interconnectedness of global problems (climate change, population expansion and resource scarcity), and the urgency of balanced development.
The 2030 Agenda
The 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN in 2015 (whose origins lie in Agenda 21 of 1992 and the Millennium Goals of 2000), took up that banner and developed its objectives around climate change and the “sustainability” of the economy, through the concept of «global governance» that will appear in subsequent UN documents developing the Agenda.
Thus, the Agenda mentions the word «sustainable» 223 times, «climate change» 20 times, «gender ideology» 15 times; while «freedom of expression», «free market», «private property», «freedom of worship», or «transcendence» are mentioned... 0 times.
The promoters of the 2030 Agenda propose a catastrophic climate scenario similar to the one proposed by the Club of Rome, in order to make us believe that the only solution is the acceptance of «global» measures decided by non-democratic organizations.
Concrete proposals
The Agenda claims to want to put an end to hunger and double agricultural productivity, but proposes measures that promote just the opposite. Under the alibi of climate change, the 2030 Agenda proposes a real declaration of war against farmers and livestock breeders, as well as against the industrialization of many countries.
He claims to want to fight poverty, but his policies only increase it by suppressing freedom and private property and growth, which are the essence of economic progress.
It pretends to make people believe, against all evidence, that it is states and not individuals that create wealth.
It poses a neocolonialist attitude towards the inhabitants of the poorest countries, making it impossible for them to use their energy resources and thus denying them the ability to be the protagonists of their own development.
The promoters of the 2030 Agenda do not seem to care that, with almost the entire deadline having passed, progress in achieving its 17 goals is described by many analysts as “insufficient” or even “deficient”.
They are not concerned because the real objectives of Agenda 2030 are the same as those of the globalists: the surrender of the sovereignty of peoples, the reduction of the world population and the management of decline. To achieve these objectives, they know that it is necessary to control minds and, very specifically, to control energy sources. And in these respects the globalists have come a long way.
Indeed, globalism has succeeded in turning “climate environmentalism” into a secular «new religion». The various supranational globalist organizations, from the IPCC to the Davos Forum to the WHO, have used climate change with great success in the formation of what is called “mass psychosis”.
The process of formation of mass psychosis requires first that a good part of society feels lonely, disconnected, isolated, without meaning in their lives. For that it is first necessary to detach society from its religion, from God, from the transcendent meaning of their lives. In the West this means de-Christianization.
When some establishment or organization subjects that part of the population that has lost the raison d'être of their lives to an intense «state of fear» through propaganda (on any subject), a critical state is reached from which, if these people are offered something to fight for, however irrational it may be, their lives will make sense again and they will immediately feel connected.
Often, such people will become radically intolerant. They will be willing to sacrifice anything to achieve what propaganda has presented to them as a common goal that will solve their fears.
Once this type of psychosis has taken root in the most susceptible population (no more than one 20% or 30% of a society is needed), a large part of the rest will follow them by mimicry, and the majority of society will end up participating in the same psychosis, closing the cycle of the mass formation process.
The end result of mass formation is equivalent to collective hypnosis.
This process of manipulation, which begins with propaganda about a minority, is used by the elites so that it is society itself that persecutes those who disagree with the official narrative - in different spheres. But the persecution itself is not the important thing, it is merely instrumental for the elites to achieve the goals of their hidden agenda.
The process of de-Christianization first and then of propaganda and exaggeration regarding anthropogenic global warming, gender ideology, pandemics, or any crisis or issue presented as a «global» problem, has nothing to do with the environment, nor with identity, nor with health. It has to do with that process of forming mass psychosis to deconstruct society, so that certain groups or non-democratically elected people can impose their Agenda. And gain more power and money.
They have been particularly effective with respect to population control, because the world is already close to the time when the population, as a whole, will begin to decline.
Decreased fertility
The world fertility rate is already less than 2.2 children per woman, which is the true global replacement rate (not 2.1 as is usually considered, given the high mortality in developing countries). If things do not change much, from 2050 onwards, the world population will begin to decline rapidly. The native population has already begun to decline significantly in almost all European countries, in China, South Korea, Russia, Japan, Cuba and Thailand.
It is estimated that in countries that now have fertility rates close to 1 child per woman or lower and that do not accept immigrants, such as China, the fall of their population in a few decades will be greater than during the Black Death.
The reduction of the native population has also started in France in 2025 (in Spain it started in 2015). That is why Macron has just asked the French to have more children. It seems an irony in bad taste (of the «you pay, it's on me» type), because Macron has not had children and is the main promoter of the «right» to abortion being included in the French Constitution.
The collapse of the fertility rate is already occurring in all social classes: For example, Hispanic America as a whole already has a lower fertility rate than the U.S., contrary to what has historically been the case. And the greatest contributions to this fertility decline are coming from young, uneducated women, not among the more educated Hispanic women, as was the case until now.
Demography is not only important for those of us who believe in the transcendence of the human being (having children so that they can enjoy this wonderful world, full of beautiful forms of life, so that they can be happy first here on earth -helping others with their ideas and their work-, and then be much happier with God in eternity). Demography is essential for the economy. Because the economy only grows if productivity or population grows.
The decline in the birth rate is not due to the Pill, as many simplistically claim. The Pill is a symptom, not the cause. The reason people want to use the pill to avoid having children is deeper. The loss of the transcendent meaning of life has made society more selfish and hopeless. The Pill is an excellent drug for that mentality. Thus, it has been easy for climate environmentalism to replace transcendent meaning and hope.
Food production
The mass psychosis of degrowth is so profound that they are unable to accept how irrational it is to think that the planet is overpopulated and that further growth is unsustainable. Most of planet Earth is uninhabited and food production has been growing much faster than population for decades.
Food production has multiplied since 1961 much faster than the population, on all continents; and this with a minimal increase in the area of land used in absolute terms and with a drastic reduction in terms of hectares used per inhabitant. According to various studies, this large increase in agricultural productivity is not so much due to improvements in cultivation techniques (although this is also the case), but mainly to the higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, which boosts agricultural productivity very significantly (and with lower water consumption).
The area occupied by human settlements, including all roads, represents only 1,56% of the planet's continental land area (not counting a single cm2 of land area).2 of the seashore), or 2,93% if we eliminate the continental areas that are not habitable today (deserts, frozen areas, mountains, rivers, lakes and marshes). The areas dedicated to cultivation occupy 10,56% of the continental land, but these are areas where a lot of wild fauna also lives, they are not lands occupied exclusively by man.
Some say that AI and humanoid robots will improve productivity so much that the economy will grow exponentially without any push from population growth. In my opinion, to argue that this is what will happen in the long run in a world increasingly full of old people and with sharply declining populations is extraordinarily speculative, not to say naïve. Perhaps sectors such as diapers for the elderly, Imserso trips and robots for geriatric care will grow for a few decades, but from the point at which the vast majority of society is old and the population is declining rapidly, I can't think of any industry that can grow, not even supported by AI and humanoid robots.
There is nothing more important for the Earth (and for Heaven) than reversing the birth rate.
Ousman Umar survived the desert, two trips on a boat and the indifference of the street, and transformed his experience into a mission: to create real opportunities in Africa through education. Today he runs the NGO Nasco Feeding Minds.
Ousman Umar did not leave his village thinking he was going to Spain. “I was going to paradise,” he repeats. He was born in a small rural community in northern Ghana, surrounded by jungle, with no access to formal education and less than 100 inhabitants. There, information was passed down from generation to generation and the world was explained through stories. His began marked by loss: his mother died during childbirth and, according to the beliefs of his tribe, that made him an “evil” child, the bearer of a spirit that was too powerful. In many cases, that stigma meant death. Ousman survived because his father was the village shaman and no one dared touch the healer's son.
Since he was a child, he had an inexhaustible curiosity and great ability to build things with his hands. When he was only nine years old, he was sent to the city to learn sheet metal work and welding. He built cars and trucks without ever having seen a real one. He didn't know then that that first trip would be the beginning of a journey that would take him halfway across the African continent and across the sea by boat.
Towards «paradise».»
In the port of Ghana he discovered ships, cranes and goods from the West. He wondered why the “whites” could create all that and they could not. That question, coupled with a lack of information and opportunities, pushed him into the hands of a network of human traffickers. Hiding in trucks, he crossed borders at night until he reached Niger.
«Then we went up to Gades and there they offered to take us in Land Rovers to cross the Sahara desert. After six hours of travel they abandoned us in the middle of the desert and never came back, so we had to cross the desert on foot».
Ousman says that there were 46 of them when they started walking and only 6 made it to Libya alive, «not counting the corpses we found along the way». He describes the 21-day journey as a living hell. Without food and drink, Ousman says that «whoever could pee was lucky.
At the age of 13, he arrived in Libya without family or protection. There he spent four years «practically enslaved» until he gathered the necessary money ($1800) to pay the traffickers. He was promised that in 45 minutes he would reach “paradise”. The reality was a new three-month ordeal through Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Western Sahara.
A patera, or a coffin
«Between Mauritania and Western Sahara they hid us in the dunes, and there they gave us wood and we made two small boats. I say »pateras" for the sake of argument, but we were really making a coffin".
«I took two boats. In the first attempt between 150 and 180 people drowned. Mine went back to land. We were in the desert for almost a month and a half until they brought us more wood so we could make a second attempt. We set out on two boats again and in the middle of the sea one of them sank. Mine, after two and a half days, reached Fuerteventura».
The journey of Ousman Umar
Indifference
Once in Spain, the CIE (Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros) confirmed that he was a minor. In Malaga he was asked where in Spain he wanted to go. He only knew one word: «Barça». So he arrived in Barcelona on February 24, 2005, alone, with no language and no one waiting for him. He slept on the street for almost a month. “The worst thing was not the hunger, it was the indifference,” he recalls. The feeling of not existing for anyone.
«It was terrible to live on the street. In the desert, at least, there were five people surviving with me with whom just looking at their eyes, their looks, gave me back my humanity. But on the street no one looks you in the face. When I tried to ask for a glass of water, people would hide their bags, thinking that you were going to rob them».
Ousman's angel: Montse
Ousman's life changed when one day the woman he calls his «guardian angel» appeared: «I had just got up on Navas de Tolosa street, a very short street, and a lady who lived half an hour from Barcelona was there that morning. Suddenly, something told me ‘get up and talk to that lady who is going to save you’. I got up enthusiastically and followed her as if I knew her from somewhere. When she noticed, she turned around, and instead of getting scared, she grabbed my hand. I had been on the street for more than a month, with the same clothes, dirty... And she took my hand!».
Montse, who is now his foster mother, took him into her home that day. She fed him dinner and tucked him in «like a 5-year-old» and kissed him. Ousman says that despite having gone from the cold of the street to a comforting home, it was the worst night of his life. «It was the first time I didn't have to fight, it was all over. But I kept asking myself, ‘What was the need to suffer so much, what did I do wrong, why did my best friend die, why me?'» Ousman thus came to the conclusion that the question should not be «why» but «what for».
Today Ousman is clear about his «what for» and that is to give a voice to those who did not reach «paradise» alive, and to those who continue to die every day in that infernal journey. «And to work to prevent others from suffering what I have suffered» he adds. This is how the NGO he founded was born: Nasco Feeding Minds. «I understood that all of us who came, came for lack of training, information and an opportunity. It is necessary to generate an opportunity there.
Nasco Feeding Minds
With his own savings, and with help from friends, Ousman went to Ghana and bought 42 computers, hired two teachers and opened the first computer school at St. Augustine June High School. «Today, after 13 years, we have almost 17 computer centers used by more than 58 schools and, this year alone, we reached more than 6,000 students.».
In 2021, when the first graduating class graduated, they created a small outsourcing and programming social enterprise. Now 23 people work at Nascutec, their social enterprise in Ghana, and 13 of them already work for Banco Santander in Spain, «with a decent salary, without the need to get on a boat or jump over any fences.».
«We believe this is the only truly transformative aid: not just giving food for a day, but feeding the mind. Because education allows them to build their own future with dignity,» Ousman says with conviction.
«Africa does not need charity, but prosperity.»
Ousman argues that aid to Africa should be based on respect, dignity and equality, not charity or paternalism. He criticizes the idea of “going to save” anyone or imposing solutions from outside without knowing the local reality. For him, before acting, we must listen, ask questions and treat people as equals, understanding that they know better than anyone else what they need.
Its commitment is clear: “feeding minds”. In other words, investing in education, training and employment so that people can create their own prosperity with autonomy. For Ousman, teaching, training and generating decent work is the only way to bring about real and lasting change, because it is not a question of feeding one day, but of providing tools for life.
What to do with «our poor»?
Ousman suffered firsthand the indifference of passersby in Barcelona. «Many passed by and threw things at me. No one saw me, rather they pretended not to see me. A trash garbage can was worth more than me.»
When asked what can be done for «our poor» his answer is clear: «even if it is only five minutes of your time. What does he need? Don't draw your own conclusions about what you think he needs. Listen to him. And if you don't have time to listen to him, give him a smile: it's free! Give him back his humanity. That's what I missed more than the food.
On February 14, the Josemaría Escrivá Study Center and the Josemaría Escrivá Historical Institute will launch a new digital platform on the history of Opus Dei, with the collaboration of the Josemaría Escrivá Foundation.St. Josemaria Institute (Chicago).
The site combines academic rigor, an informative narrative and digital resources. Its purpose is to offer keys to understanding the history of the Work in its various historical, social and ecclesial contexts.
Preparation for the centenary of the foundation of Opus Dei (2028-2030)
The platform proposes a progressive journey through the history of the Work, and mixes short narrative texts with documentary resources and multimedia materials.
This is a long-range project, designed to prepare for the centenary of the foundation of Opus Dei (2028-2030).
As the editorial team points out, “we offer reliable and accessible content that allows to understand and contextualize the history of Opus Dei. This project is born with the vocation of reaching a global audience. Our goal is to progressively translate these materials into different languages and to reach increasingly diverse audiences”.
The website is divided into sections of gradual and contextualized reading. A News section gathers current contents, ephemeris and new publications. A monthly section, entitled In a few lines, narrates in a synthetic and chronological way the history of the Work, reviews episodes and contexts and discovers key details in view of the centenary.
St. Josemaría: life, message and priesthood
A space on St. Josemaría Escrivá breaks down his life, message and priesthood, and goes into their successors.
Historias con nombre propio is a series of microbiographies (published monthly) with profiles of the first members of Opus Dei, which puts a face to history and shows very diverse personal and professional trajectories.
These sections are completed with interactive and multimedia content, including a timeline and an interactive map of Opus Dei's presence in different countries, as well as podcasts and audiobooks.
The platform also provides access to the Josemaría Escrivá and Opus Dei Virtual Library, an open digital repository with more than 15,000 bibliographic records and 8,000 documents in PDF format. Among them are articles from scientific journals, book chapters and publications by Josemaría Escrivá in various languages, available for consultation and free download.
Singapore leads the 10 most religiously diverse countries. France, tenth.
Singapore tops the list of the most religiously diverse countries, according to Pew Research's ‘Religious Diversity in the World’ report. France, the leading European country, is in tenth place.
Francisco Otamendi-February 16, 2026-Reading time: 4minutes
Most of the 10 most religiously diverse nations in the world are in the Asia-Pacific region (Taiwan, South Korea and Australia) or in sub-Saharan Africa (Mauritius, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Benin). And Singapore is the most religiously diverse country on the planet in 2020, according to a new study of the Pew Research Center.
Buddhists (31%) are the largest religious group in Singapore, but its population also includes substantial proportions of people not affiliated with any religion (20%), Christians (19%), Muslims (16%), Hindus (5%), and followers of all other religions (9%), as can be seen in the graph.
France is the only European country in the top 10. Its population is mostly Christian (46%) and not affiliated with any religion (43%), with a sizeable Muslim minority (9%).
Seven categories in the Index of Religious Diversity (IDR), with 201 countries
The analysis The Pew Research Center divides the world's population into seven categories (Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, followers of all other religions, and people with no religious affiliation). And it measures fairly how these groups are represented within each country or territory.
Pew has ranked a total of 201 countries and territories using its Religious Diversity Index (RDI). Possible scores range from 0 (for a country that has exclusively one religious group) to 10 (for a country with a perfectly balanced distribution of the seven groups, each representing approximately 14 % of the population).
With a score of 9.3, Singapore comes closer to an equal distribution of religious groups than any other country. By comparison, South Korea's score is 7.3, France's is 6.9 and the United States' is 5.8.
Suriname, Latin American country after Singapore
After Singapore, Suriname (capital Paramaribo), ranks second in religious diversity and is the only Latin American country in the top 10. Suriname is located in the north of South America and the Caribbean, has more than 633,000 inhabitants, and is the least populated independent country in South America.
Approximately half of Suriname's residents (53%) are Christians. The rest are Hindus (22%), Muslims (13%) and people with no religious affiliation (8%).
United States, the most diverse among the most populated countries
The United States is not among the top 10 most religiously diverse countries in the world (it ranks 32nd overall). However, if we consider only the 10 most populous nations, the United States ranks first in religious diversity, followed by Nigeria, Russia, India and Brazil, according to the report.
Christians are estimated to account for 64% of the U.S. population in 2020, while people with no religious affiliation account for about 30%. The remaining 6% are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and people in the ‘other religions’ category, with each of these groups accounting for between 1% and 2%.
Muslims, majority in less religiously diverse countries
Nigeria is the second most religiously diverse of these large countries. Muslims and Christians, the largest groups in Nigeria, each represent more than 40% of the population.
Pakistan, where Muslims account for 97% of all residents, is the least religiously diverse of the 10 most populous countries.
Overall, Muslims account for at least 99% of the population in eight of the ten least religiously diverse countries and territories. The other two - East Timor and Moldova - have almost entirely Christian populations.
The IDR Index scores of the world's most populous countries span a wide range, from 5.8 in the U.S. to 0.8 in Pakistan. Together, these 10 countries account for nearly 60 % of the world's population.
European countries
In addition to France, mentioned above, the table Pew Research reflects the following rankings from most to least religious diversity in European countries. United Kingdom (12), Belgium (13), Netherlands (15), Germany (20), Sweden (22), Estonia (23), Switzerland (27), Luxembourg (33), Austria (40), Slovenia (43), Russia (47), Spain (53), and then Norway (56), and others.
Spain has, according to Pew, 69.5 percent of Christians, 3.6% of Muslims, 26.4% of unaffiliated, and the rest of religions, with a rate of less than 1 percent.
In 173 countries, two majority groups
In 173 countries and territories, at least 90% of the population falls into only two of the seven religious categories cited above.
Eritrea ranks first on this measure, with an almost even split between Muslims (52%) and Christians (47%), as of 2020.
Nigeria and Bosnia and Herzegovina - second and third on the list, respectively - also have large proportions of Christians and Muslims.
Among the 10 countries with the most balanced religious composition, six have a division between Christians and Muslims. In the remaining four, the division is between Christians and unaffiliated (Uruguay and Estonia) or between Buddhists and unaffiliated (Mongolia and Japan).
This morning, Pope Leo XIV received in audience Bishop Fernando Ocáriz, who was accompanied by his Auxiliary Vicar, Bishop Mariano Fazio. This is the second official audience between the Pontiff and the prelate, after a first meeting on May 14, 2025, barely a week after the election of Leo XIV as successor of St. Peter.
According to the website of the prelature, The Prelate «assured the Holy Father of the union and affection of the members of Opus Dei with the Pope and with the whole Church, as well as their prayers for his person and for the intentions that he carries in his heart.
Issues addressed
During the meeting, several topics were discussed, «in an atmosphere of great trust,» related to the work and challenges of Opus Dei's work.
Regarding the approval of the new statutes, the Holy Father pointed out that they are still «in the study phase and that it is not yet possible to foresee a date of publication».
On the other hand, «the institutional perspective on some specific controversies in Argentina was explained to the Pope,» where for years the Prelature has been facing the claims of a group of former auxiliary nuns and has a lawsuit in the process of being admitted for processing.
Finally, they also discussed «the situation of vocations in the Church and, in particular, the contrast between the African and European continents».
Finally, the Holy Father «imparted his apostolic blessing, which he extended to all the members of Opus Dei and to all those who participate in its apostolates».
Canonical situation of Opus Dei
Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, whose charism and juridical structure are regulated by specific canon law. With the reform dictated by Praedicate Evangelium and, especially, since the promulgation of the motu proprio Ad charisma tuendum In 2022, the Prelature has been immersed in a process of adapting its statutes.
After several years of internal work and consultations, Prelate Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz formally presented the proposal for the new statutes to the Holy See in June 2025. Since then, the text has been in the hands of the competent dicastery in the Roman Curia, which is responsible for studying its contents and issuing a definitive opinion on its approval.
Meanwhile, Opus Dei continues to operate under its current juridical regime and maintains that it is working in a spirit of trust and unity with the Church to complete this canonical process which, in its opinion, will allow it to consolidate its identity and apostolic mission in the context of the ecclesial reform promoted by the current pontificate.
The musical inspired by Tolkien's life comes to Spain
Getafe will host a special event on February 28th. It is a musical inspired by the British writer J.R.R.Tolkien, which addresses the deep crisis suffered by the soldiers who survived the war.
Javier Segura-February 16, 2026-Reading time: 2minutes
The musical inspired by Tolkien's life will be held at the Santa Maravillas de Jesús parish in Getafe (Spain), and has been previously performed in Wales, Great Britain, where it premiered as part of an ecumenical event.
On this occasion, it will be held in the context of the Diocesan Teaching Day, which will have as its central theme the education of children and young people in times of fragility. It will address the issue of mental health, offering educational keys to manage it.
‘A light in the darkness’.’
Starting at 5:00 p.m., the musical ‘A light in the darkness’which deals with the crisis that J.R.R. Tolkien experienced when he lost his best friends at the Battle of the Somme in World War I. The musical reveals how, through literature and faith, the British author managed to overcome the trauma he suffered in the trenches when, as an adult, two of his sons participated in World War II. The musical reveals how, through literature and faith, the British author managed to overcome the trauma he suffered in the trenches when, as an adult, two of his sons participated in the Second World War.
This musical was created by the youth group of the Militia of Santa Maria, founded by the venerable Tomás Morales S.I. It follows in the footsteps of previous musicals such as Skate Hero, which dealt with the life of Ignacio Echeverría, known as the skateboard hero.
A musical of hope
The musical, born within the framework of the Jubilee Year of Hope, shows a Tolkien as a deep believer, while addressing the profound crisis suffered by the soldiers who survived the war. A crisis that will lead him to consider his own relationship with literature, as a means of therapy while being able to express in a fantastic story his vision of life and the great questions raised by his work.
Tolkien's close relationship with C. S. Lewis is one of the keys that is also addressed in this musical, which plays the role of confidant of that inner struggle. Thus, the musical shows the passage from the “darkness” to the “light” of the author of the Lord of the Rings y The Hobbit.
Psychologist Gloria Howard: screening for mental health problems
The day will also include a presentation by British psychologist Gloria Howard, who has advised on this psychological dimension of the musical. She will talk to educators about how to detect mental health problems in students and how to help them deal with them.
In addition, throughout the day you can enjoy the exhibition of paintings by Taiwanese artist Ester Tsai, inspired by the philosophical work of the rehumanization of Dr. José Luis Cañas.
Likewise, the didactic units that the Ignacio Echeverría Association has prepared for both primary and secondary education will be presented, in order to make known the legacy of one of our heroes.
Protecting children from screens, the battle of Carolina Perez Stephens
One of Chile's most recognized influencers, Carolina Pérez Stephens, with more than 160,000 followers on Instagram,talks about the risks reflected in his widely distributed books “Secuestrados por las pantallas” and “Atrapados por la red”. She also reveals the heartbreaking testimony of a young woman.
Juan Ignacio Izquierdo Hübner-February 16, 2026-Reading time: 9minutes
I arrived fifteen minutes early at the Starbucks, but I didn't count on my guest arriving early as well. So when I handed her my recently published book, “Ojos nuevos. El amor es más fuerte que la pornografía” (Semillas Ediciones, 2025), the first page lacked a dedication. It didn't matter: my omission was eclipsed by Carolina Pérez Stephens' enthusiasm when she greeted me and received the gift.
-It was nice to meet you in person," he said.
I felt lucky. I would have the opportunity to speak with one of the influencers I was struck by the way she ordered the coffee: she used a very complex formula that showed her expertise. Maybe that's why I was struck by the way she ordered her coffee: she used a very complex formula that showed experience. What did she ask for? I don't know, for me, a novice in American coffee shops, it was like witnessing a joke: “Decaffeinated coffee, with skim cream; and, oh, sweet, but without sweetener”.
He said something like that. To complete the joke, I would have given him a glass of water. Instead, they brought him a long, steaming, seductive glass, which I envied. When it was my turn, I asked for a Coke. light. An unconscious stroke of sobriety, the point of rebellion, a sign of my worth... But my smirk collapsed when the vendor made me see that we were in a Starbucks and that, therefore, (“idiot”, he might as well have interjected), they didn't sell cans there. So, a little embarrassed at the look on Carolina's face, who was already on her way to the armchairs in the corner, I ordered the slushy suggested by the sign in front of me. And, as it was 2 p.m., I added the most expensive sandwich of the year to my order.
Two books: “Kidnapped by screens” and “Trapped by the network”.”
With that we went to sit down. Carolina, smiling, and me too. We had connected from the first minute. She has been fighting for seven years, with all kinds of initiatives, while I have only been fighting for two, with my work as a school chaplain, a book and a couple of opinion columns. That's why it was so good for me to ask her advice.
-Actually, this is our third conversation," I said, "because the first and the second we had while I was reading your books.
I was referring to “Secuestrados por las pantallas” (Zig Zag, 2022) and “Atrapados por la red” (Zig Zag, 2024). Two titles that have been widely distributed in our country.
She smiled.
-Yes," he said, "that's exactly what the publisher asked me to do: to write the same way I speak in my talks.
The risks of three hours of social networking
He did well. They are short books that evoke the conversation of a class of proxies. But Carolina does not digress, nor does she beat around the bush, but relies on neuroscience. Children suffer all kinds of problems,“ she teaches, ”but not because they are to blame," she says, "but because their brains are still immature. He points out, for example, that "three hours of daily use of social networks doubles the probability of suffering mental health problems".
It is up to the adults to protect them from threats and guide them in their education. To do that, the best thing we can do is to delay handing out cell phones. For how long? As long as possible. Even if it costs, even if it is countercultural, even if you have to resist tantrums, it is worth facing the issue, because what is more valuable than your own child's brain? This is the author's approach.
Relationship between education and neurosciences
In this sense, it is appreciated that in these written conversations, Carolina Pérez takes advantage of her university education. She is an early childhood educator, has a degree in aesthetics and a master's degree in education from Harvard, where she gained in-depth knowledge of the relationship between education and neuroscience.
She now works as the director of Starfish Kindergarten, has more than 160,000 followers at Instagram and she is frequently invited to give talks in schools, radio stations, television programs, etc. At Youtube, for example, is available a very entertaining Ted Talk she gave in Frutillar, in November 2024. Listening to her, I was struck, again (along with her preparation and handling of the storytelling), his enthusiasm.
-How did you become so successful in spreading your message? -I asked.
-I started writing columns in the magazine Smile mom. Time went by, I never thought it would escalate, until they called me from Zig Zag publishing house to ask me to write a book about the topics I dealt with in the articles. I couldn't believe it. I accepted, thinking that with the money I would earn I could travel to Kiev. Then I realized that it is very difficult to make a living from books, but it doesn't matter.
We laughed.
-And you have sold more than six thousand copies of your first work, which is a lot for the educational genre.
-I was lucky. I was lucky, because the Ministry of Education was interested and bought copies for schools.
“I'm getting more and more attention.”
-And how has the public's reception been? Do you feel that your books are helping people?
-They pay more and more attention to me. When I started, 7 years ago, I was alone. Many people thought I was crazy when they saw me talking about screens and their dangers for children's brains. But, little by little, awareness has become more widespread and now restriction is a global purpose.
-It must have been difficult in those early years, I can imagine," I empathized. Today there is a global wave of prohibitions, even at the legislative level. But in spite of that, parents continue to give screens to their children...
Energy from Dostoyevsky's books
Where do you find the strength to keep going?
-From Dostoyevsky. Reading his books gives me the energy I need to row against the current, to face the resistance of skeptics, to give my talks with a sense of humor. Sometimes I feel I am doing Stand Up Comedy, haha. After reading Fiodor, one feels capable of any adventure. In fact, I am so fond of this author that I named my puppy after him.
That's more or less how our first live conversation went. I learned, I had a good time. I hope we will see each other more often.
Heartbreaking testimony of a teenage girl
To finish, I bring you a letter that Carolina copied in her first book. It is a heartbreaking testimony, which explains, perhaps, the author's energy to keep going, to smile in the TV matinees, to try so hard to convince parents, or to swallow saliva and keep her 16 year old daughter without smartphone even though all her friends already have one. With these lines we can keep thinking, suffer a little and join the campaign to protect children.
This is the testimony of a teenage girl:
“I am fifteen years old and at twelve years old I was given my first smartphone, They did it simply because I told them that all the moms and dads in my class were giving them to my classmates. At first they told me no, that I didn't need it because my mom was going to pick me up from school, but I insisted, since all my friends were agreeing on homework assignments and meetings by WhatsApp. I told them that I had not been invited to three meetings because I did not have a telephone. That same day they bought me one. Now I think I wish they hadn't, because I look back and see how immature I was. In any case, I don't blame them.
The first thing I did when I received it was to download WhatsApp e Instagram, (...) The only demand they made was that they were going to follow me on my social media account (...) The only demand they made was that they were going to follow me on my social media account (...) The only demand they made was that they were going to follow me on my Instagram, to know what my friends and I were posting.
I was happy, I spent hours taking off selfies I really wanted to see myself as I looked with the filter!
“My phone was more entertaining than classes.”
Some time went by and my parents started to bother me about reading, since I never really liked reading, but I read what they asked me to read at school. My teachers would send them emails saying that my grades were dropping and saying that I no longer checked out the required books in the library. I didn't really care, my phone was a thousand times more entertaining than school classes.
How much I loved uploading pictures! My friends told me that they all had other accounts that their parents didn't know about and therefore didn't see, so I made up another separate account, and there I could post without thinking about whether my mom or dad would like it or not (...).
When I turned thirteen my life became too complicated. All day long I was on my phone, day and night. My friends did the same thing and we had a competition of who had more likes in publications.
The more body we showed, the more likes We had and I was very embarrassed and afraid (...).
Switching to direct messages and photos
As the competition was who had the most likes, I started to accept anyone who sent me a friend request, without even checking their profile (...). One day one of my followers started to write me direct messages, I checked his profile, he was my age and in the pictures he looked quite pretty. Every day he wrote me, he told me he was from Arica and that hopefully someday we could meet. He was very sweet and I really felt him as a good friend. I started to tell him my problems and he always had a kind word.
We started dating.
Videos on TikTok
I also started posting videos on TikTok as they all did, and the shorter my shirt or the tighter my pants were, the more likes and more followers he was getting.
I used to feel ashamed when in various confessional groups at my school they would ask questions about who was the best bitching in TikTok, because one day my name came up. At first I felt great, but then the teasing started. They made fun of my hair, that I was a little fat, that my clothes looked bad. I really wanted to die. On the one hand, I was happy that everyone was talking about me, but on the other hand, I didn't want to leave my house.
My mom and dad would ask me all day why I was eating less and why I was looking sad. I knew why it was, but I didn't want to tell them. If I told them that they were making me bullying I was sure that they were going to go to the school to plead and then they would take my phone away. I preferred to keep quiet than to have it taken away. Several of my friends were just like me and one of them recommended an account on Instagram where they told you what to do so you wouldn't eat and no one in your family would notice. All I wanted was to lose weight so they wouldn't say my videos were bad because I was fat.
“Who went the longest without eating anything.”
We found so many beads! We couldn't stop looking at them. With my friends we started doing challenges to see who could go the longest without eating anything. I quickly lost weight and my clothes fit much better, they could no longer criticize me for my weight, I was thinner than many of my classmates.
My boyfriend used to tell me I looked great and every day I would send him pictures so he could see the changes. In the end the best technique was to eat when I was with my family and then I would throw it up. All the time I was away from home I just didn't eat anything. I became friends because of Instagram of many using the same technique.
My parents didn't understand why I was getting thinner, according to my mom it was because I was growing up. It was my history teacher who called me one day to talk to me because she was worried about me. She told me that she was surprised to see me so pale and with my dull eyes; that I could trust her, that we could talk about anything I wanted, that she had known me for many years. But I didn't want to tell her anything. I had one life and things I told at home and school, but I had another on my phone. I didn't want anyone meddling in my life.
Proposals for less clothing
One day my boyfriend started asking me for pictures with less clothes on and I didn't want to, I was embarrassed. He told me that he would soon come to Santiago and that he wanted to get to know me better, that we had been in a virtual relationship for a long time and that he had an aunt with a house in Santiago where we could go. How angry he got when I said no! He didn't write me for four days. I was so sad that I went to the bathroom, took off my clothes and sent him the photo. He sent me a thousand hearts and I was happy. Problem solved, plus I gave in so we could see each other when he came.
(...) The problem exploded when I had to have my cell phone fixed due to a battery issue. My mom, suspecting things, told the technician to unlock everything and checked my photos, videos, other accounts, everything!
ER...., and detoxification of social networks: “I smiled again”.”
I have erased from my mind the conversation I had with them after that, because when they told me that they had unlocked the phone and that they had checked everything, I had a panic attack. I cried non-stop, screamed and couldn't stand anyone touching me. That's when I was rushed to the clinic. They gave me something to calm me down and I spent the night there. My mother slept with me. The next day a psychiatrist arrived and explained that I had had a decompensation due to my anxiety and depression. I cried a lot and my mom cried with me.
Now I am in therapy. They took away my cell phone and I thought I was going to die, I thought about killing myself. It was a month of terror, they had to give me medicine to sleep, I was shivering and the psychiatrist told me that I was going through a period of detoxification from social networks. I thought that life had no meaning, but little by little, with the help and love of my family and the medical team, I smiled again”.
Almost on the eve of the beginning of Lent this coming Ash Wednesday, and of the Spiritual Exercises next Sunday, the Pope has stressed that true justice is love. Yesterday he completed appointments and renewals of the Dicastery for Bishops.
Francisco Otamendi-February 15, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
Pope Leo XIV did not want to enter into the Lent with Ash Wednesday on the 18th, nor begin his Spiritual Exercises on Sunday the 22nd, without first completing appointments or confirmations as members of the Dicastery for Bishops.
This Saturday, February 14, the Vatican made the following announcement public Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and appointed her as a member of the Dicastery for Bishops. Raffaella Petrini, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Governatorato, and Maria Lia Zervino, appointed by Pope Francis in 2022.
Confirmed members of the Dicastery
In addition, the Pope has confirmed several cardinals and bishops as members of the Dicastery of which Archbishop Filippo Iannone, O. Carm. is Prefect.
Among them are Cardinals Parolin, Koch, Braz de Aviz, Da Rocha, Cupich, Tobin, Omella, Arborelius, Advincula, Lojudice, Aveline, Ryś, Cobo, Tolentino de Mendonça, Grech, Roche, You Heung-sik, Gugerotti, Fernández, Tscherrig, Makrickas, and several archbishops and bishops, such as that of Zagreb, Buenos Aires, Münster or Málaga.
Angelus: “True justice is love”.”
In the Angelus of this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Pope meditated on the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:17-37), in which, after proclaiming the Beatitudes, “Jesus invites us to enter into the newness of the Kingdom of God and, to guide us on this path, he reveals the true meaning of the precepts of the Law of Moses”.
Jesus says that he did not come to abolish the Law, “but to fulfill it” (v. 17). “The fulfillment of the Law is precisely love, which realizes its deepest meaning and ultimate end.”.
“Jesus teaches us that true justice is love,” he told the Romans and pilgrims, very numerous in St. Peter's Square, “and that, in every precept of the Law, we must perceive a requirement of love.”.
It is not enough not to kill or not to commit adultery
As an example, he pointed out that “it is not enough not to kill a person physically, if I then kill him with words or do not respect his dignity (cf. vv. 21- 22)”.
“In the same way, it is not enough to be faithful to one's spouse formally and not to commit adultery, if in that relationship there is a lack of mutual tenderness, listening, respect, mutual care and walking together in a common project (cf. vv. 27-28.31-32).”.
The Pontiff has thus highlighted the importance of the words of Jesus. On the one hand, Jesus affirms: ‘You have heard that it was said to the ancestors’, and, on the other hand: ‘But I say to you’ (cf. vv. 21-37). This approach is very important (...). The Gospel offers us this precious teaching: we do not need a minimum of justice, we need a great love”.
“Let us together invoke the Virgin Mary, who gave the world Christ, the One who brings to fulfillment the Law and the plan of salvation,” he concluded. “May she intercede for us, helping us to enter into the logic of the Kingdom of God and to live in his justice.”.
Closeness to Madagascar, and message for the Lunar New Year in Asia
After the recitation of the Marian prayer of the Angelus, the Pope expressed his closeness to the people of Madagascar, affected in such a short time by two cyclones that have caused floods and landslides. “I pray for the victims and their families, as well as for all those who have suffered serious damage.”.
In addition, Leo XIV noted that in the coming days the Lunar New Year will be celebrated, “a feast that will be celebrated by billions of people in East Asia and other parts of the world. May this joyful celebration serve to strengthen the bonds of family and friendship, bring serenity to homes and society, and be an occasion to look together towards the future, building peace and prosperity for all peoples”.
“With my best wishes for the new year, I express to all my affection and invoke upon each one the blessing of the Lord,” he said.
Elena Egea: «sculpting sacred art is a way of evangelizing in silence».»
Sacred sculpture is still alive! Elena Egea, a young sculptor from Madrid, proves it by giving form to scenes from the Gospel scarcely treated in the artistic tradition, such as the pregnant Virgin and Jesus writing on the ground.
Dear artists, you are the guardians of beauty; thanks to your talent, you have the possibility of speaking to the heart of humanity, of touching individual and collective sensitivity, of awakening dreams and hopes, of widening the horizons of knowledge and human commitment. Therefore, be grateful for the gifts you have received and be fully aware of the great responsibility of communicating in beauty and through beauty. You too, through your art, be heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity".
With this quote from Pope Benedict XVI began the Master's Thesis of the sculptor from Madrid. Elena Egea. His great obsession, he says, is that his works should be a testimony and a bridge to beauty: «the artist is called to create beauty».
In an artistic context of visual immediacy, AI and mass production, it might seem that sacred art is outdated or even belongs to another time. However, Elena proves the opposite: religious imagery is not only still alive, but it urgently needs new looks. Her work proposes to renew the sacred sculptural language from a contemporary sensibility, technical research and spiritual reflection.
Elena wonders why sacred art insists on representing the same biblical scenes when there are many other passages, equally relevant and full of meaning, that have barely been explored by sculpture. Far from reproducing traditional models or inherited formulas, Egea understands religious sculpture as an opportunity for experimentation, humanity and creative risk.
Creating without solemnity to reach the sacred
One of the most surprising aspects of his process is his approach to the devotional image. Unlike what might be expected, he does not work from the symbolic weight or the spiritual pressure of the commission.
During creation, avoid thinking that you are sculpting a Madonna or a Christ.
“If you treat the work as something sacred from the beginning, you block yourself from the responsibility that implies. It is important to let your way, your gesture and the conception you have of the image flow. For me, when I make a Virgin or a Christ, I am not aware that I have made a religious image until I finish it and see people praying to it.”.
This distancing allows him to preserve his expressive honesty. Only later, when the work leaves the workshop and enters the liturgical space, does he become aware of its impact: the faithful kneel down, their gazes are moved, silences are generated in front of the piece. It is then that he understands the true dimension of his work: he has created an image capable of provoking devotion.
A Madonna in today's world
Elena's pregnant Virgin hides a peculiar story. To represent a Virgin in today's world is to go completely against the current. And even more so in a university like the Complutense. Elena sculpted it as part of her Final Degree Project and says that opting for sacred art in that context was, in a way, «a way of evangelizing in silence».
So much so that one of her closest companions confessed to her: «Elena, I can no longer mess with the Virgin because now I put a face to her». She was impressed to see that sometimes there is no need for words, but the images themselves speak for themselves.
The artist's challenge: to update without losing essence
For Elena, the challenge for artists is to renew sacred art without losing its essence: “Today's society does not need the same as it did a hundred years ago. We live in a very visual world in which everything is represented with images. If sacred art wants to continue to connect, it has to be updated”.
While religious architecture has evolved towards modern and luminous spaces, sculpture has remained anchored to serial and repetitive models, heirs of industrialization and mass reproduction workshops.
New iconographies
Returning to Elena's pregnant Virgin, it can be said that she tackled a representation almost nonexistent in the history of art. An intimate, human, vulnerable image.
Elena wanted to sculpt the period of recollection and waiting of the Virgin for the arrival of Jesus: “For me it is when she had to think the most. She was pregnant with the Holy Spirit and would have some uncertainty. That emotional tension is almost not represented”.
The work was exhibited in a parish in Madrid and received an unexpectedly warm welcome. It confirmed that there was a real need for new images.
Later, in his Master's thesis, he created a sculpture that represents the moment in which Jesus kneels before the stoning of Mary Magdalene. Again, a passage barely treated, focused on compassion.
Contemporary technology, ancestral spirituality
Formally, his work also breaks with tradition in terms of the materials he uses.
Egea uses casts from life, plaster-impregnated canvases, metallic structures and semiotic concepts linked to «indexical» art. The canvases preserve the trace of the absent body, like a physical trace of something that was there. The work thus becomes the “presence of an absence”, an idea close to the Shroud of Turin: a simple cloth evokes the presence of Jesus.
This technical approach connects sculpture with its spiritual function by seeking the symbolic charge of the material.
Representing the ineffable
Elena's goal is not to break with tradition, but to reactivate it: to give it back authorship, risk, emotion and critical thinking. Because, in her vision, the modernization of sacred art does not consist in making it more modern, but more human.
«The church needs art. Art is the most spiritual means by which contemplation and prayer can be united in a material entity that manages to attract the divine and the spiritual as a direct path to God. It has the capacity to make possible that which in itself is ineffable».
And perhaps therein lies the key to his work: sculpting not to impose the divine, but for the divine to emerge, unexpectedly, in the viewer's gaze.
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Perhaps we should focus on a sin that is now almost invisible: disobedience. In a society that distrusts all authority and absolutizes the “I decide”, we Christians also run the risk of living the faith in our own way, forgetting that following Christ necessarily implies learning to obey.
February 15, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
In a few days we will celebrate Ash Wednesday. Lent begins, a time in which it is our turn to examine our conscience, so I would like to call attention to a normalized sin among Catholics, that of disobedience.
This is one of the dangers of the worldlyization of the Church, when we adopt within the Christian community customs or behaviors contrary to the Gospel because everyone else does it that way. The truth is that, in our society, the very word «obey» is already taboo. Authority, so closely related to the figure of the father, is at its lowest ebb and its serious consequences are suffered by groups that traditionally had enjoyed it, such as teachers or health workers who, today, suffer aggression and lack of respect day in and day out.
Disobedience as a norm, authority in crisis
Much has been said about the origin of this evil of incalculable social consequences as a paradigmatic example of the «Overton window», that concept that says that an idea or practice that today is inadmissible, in a short time will be considered a radical option, but then it will become acceptable, to be understood as sensible and then popular before becoming a norm or even a law.
Literature, cinema and television have been presenting us, little by little, with models of parents or established authority that are less and less respectable. So much so that the best thing to do is not to obey.
The books of Harry Potter, films such as ET y The Goonies and its current tribute in the form of a series Stranger Things, or animation series such as The Simpsons or children's Peppa Pig they present us with moronic or outright evil authority figures. For the record, I consider myself a true fan of many of these pop culture icons, but admittedly, one ends up thinking poorly in general of parents, police or governments because, according to their arguments, they really hinder the protagonists' fulfillment.
Sowing doubt about authority is what a famous snake did in an also iconic story when he said (and not in Parseltongue), «No, you will not die (if you taste the fruit); it is that God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God in the knowledge of good and evil.» I'm sure that rings a bell too.
Disobeying is «appetizing» like that fruit of Eden because who is anyone to tell me what I should think or how I should behave? No one better than oneself (says the individualist in all of us) to know what I should think, how I should behave or decide what is good or bad.
Christian conscience and obedience
The social networks, blogs and Catholic-yellowish websites, from the left and the right, have fostered this little culture of mistrust, sowing doubts about the good intentions of this or that pastor, starting with those of Rome.
That gossip, that slander makes a dent, although we believe it does not, in the faithful people to the point that many of them confuse their own ideology mixed with null formation with heroic prophetism and believe they are Catherine of Siena when they speak against the Pope or the bishops. Others think that the Doctrine of the Church is a kind of limitation to 50 on the freeway, a sign for the gallery but that no one, in fact, complies with.
So, I take from here and there what suits me or fits my individuality and here peace and then glory. There are those who go from group to group, from movement to movement, from parish to parish, from experience to experience, looking for who fits their scheme. But, hey, they never feel satisfied, because what they are told, what they are advised, or the dynamics that are carried out there according to each charism do not end up pleasing them because it means to obey and they only obey their God, who is themselves.
And yes, yes, there are also abuses of power and soulless people with spiritual authority, and we must be vigilant, watchful and defenestrate them if necessary; and above all, we must obey our conscience, that tabernacle that we all have inside; but let it be clear that there are also many ill-formed consciences and arrogant people who do not admit any kind of discipline.
The exemplary obedience of the saints
I am left with the testimonies of the saints, such as Teresa of Jesus, who had many reasons to disobey and to rebel against the injustices of her superiors, but who, even so, taught that «in obeying is the greatest perfection», affirming on her deathbed that she died happy as a «daughter of the Church»; or St. Francis of Assisi, who was also unjustly treated by some superiors, but who advised obedience because it means renouncing one's own will for the love of God.
Teresa, Francis and so many others did not do it on their own merit, but because they received the grace of being configured to Him who was «meek and humble of heart», who gave «to Caesar what is Caesar's» and who said: «Father, if you will, take this cup from me; but not my will, but yours be done». And so it is.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
Julia Mª González Peña was born in the town of Revilla del Campo, Burgos, and graduated in Chemical Sciences in 1948, obtaining her doctorate in 1953.
Alfonso Carrascosa-February 15, 2026-Reading time: 2minutes
Julia Mª González Peña (1925 - 2010), born in the Burgos town of Revilla del Campo, graduated in Chemical Sciences from the Central or Complutense University of Madrid in 1948, receiving her doctorate in 1953 thanks to scholarships granted by the CSIC, the largest scientific institution in the history of Spain, founded by Catholic scientists. The CSIC also granted him pensions to Belgium and Holland (Ghent, Leuven, Vageningen and Delft), to train in techniques that did not exist in Spain, such as electron microscopy, which he taught both at the Institute of Ceramics and Glass of the CSIC and to industrialists in the sector.
In his thesis he studied the conductivities of soils and characterized many types of clays, collaborating with Vicente Aleixandre, founder of the current Institute of Ceramics and Glass of the CSIC.
In 1962 and 1963 he traveled to Paris with Dr. Madame Oberlin, author of the Encyclopedia of Electron Microscopy, with whom he learned transmission electron microscopy (TEM). He then directed four doctoral theses that opened up lines of research unpublished in Spain in the 1970s, such as glass-ceramic materials or fast-firing pastes. He even founded the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of the Institute of Ceramics and Glass of CSIC.
In addition, he directed research projects included in the Development Plans and the National Materials Plan, on dolomites, sericitic slate, Toledo clays, recycling of wastes for the manufacture of ceramic composites, etc., and produced more than 60 publications and numerous plenary lectures between 1967-1985. He also promoted and founded the Raw Materials Section of the Spanish Society of Ceramics and Glass, where he organized several meetings and courses.
He also collaborated with the Spanish Society of Ceramics and Glass, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Electron Microscopy Society and elected representative of the scientific staff in successive CSIC Governing Boards, elected member of the CSIC Scientific Commission in the field of Technology and of the CSIC Governing Board, acting in numerous advisory or decision commissions: research management, scientific policy, human resources and external relations.
Her Catholic faith never prevented her from developing a scientific activity of the highest international level. Science and faith were compatible in her, as in Copernicus, Galileo and so many others.
Cyril and Methodius: the evangelization of Slavic Europe
On February 14, together with St. Valentine, the Church remembers St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the brothers who evangelized Slavic Europe, giving their peoples a language, a culture and a Christian identity. That is why John Paul II proclaimed them co-patrons of Europe, the bridge between East and West.
February 14 is known for being St. Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day, but it is also the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who contributed so much not only to the spread of the Christian faith in Eastern Europe, but also of culture, law and writing, even inventing an alphabet.
That is why John Paul II proclaimed them co-patrons of Europe, along with St. Benedict. In fact, their contribution was as important for Eastern Europe as Benedict's was for Western Europe.
From Thessaloniki to Slavic Europe
Cyril and Methodius were brothers and were born in the late 8th and early 9th century in Thessaloniki (formerly known as Tessaloniki, a beautiful city I have visited several times), then an important city of the Byzantine Empire with Greek and Slavic populations.
Methodius (ca. 815-885), the elder of the two brothers, had initially chosen an administrative career in the service of the Empire, but later devoted himself to the monastic life. Cyril (ca. 827-869), on the other hand, the brain of the family, was born Constantine and studied in Constantinople, where he received a very high level of training in philosophy, theology and philology, later becoming librarian of the patriarchate and professor, which earned him the nickname of «Constantine the philosopher».
They were brothers in the flesh, but also spiritual, very united and complementary: on the one hand, Methodius, with his pastoral pragmatism and his administrative and organizational skills; on the other, Cyril, with his depth of thought, his eloquence and his capacity for cultural mediation. This incredible synergy proved decisive for their mission.
The mission in Moravia
Moravia is a region of the present-day Czech Republic that was populated, beginning in the 5th century, by the large ethnolinguistic group of Slavs, i.e. the ancestors of the peoples living in many Eastern European countries and divided thus: Western Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles); Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians); Southern Slavs (hence Yugoslavia, literally «South Slav»: Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Slovenians, Bulgarians, Macedonians).
Like other Slavs, the Moravians were characterized by their tribal social structure and highly developed oral culture, but they did not yet have their own alphabet.
Between the 9th and 10th centuries, there was a process of Christianization of the region, both in Byzantine and Latin form, mainly by «Frankish» (Latin, precisely) missionaries.
In this context, Rastislav, prince or duke of Moravia between 846 and 870, wishing to free the country from the Carolingian Empire and its long religious manus, the «Frankish» bishops, asked the Byzantine emperor Michael III for missionaries able to speak the language of the Slavs and to form a local clergy.
The Byzantine emperor and Patriarch Photius entrusted this mission to Cyril and Methodius because of the proven linguistic, theological and pastoral skills of the two brothers.
The Paleo-Slavic language and the birth of Church Slavonic
The mission of Cyril and Methodius was arduous from the beginning: just as today's modern missionaries of communication must «translate» the contents of the Christian faith into a new language, that of the media and social networks, the two brothers were faced not only with the task of preaching the Gospel message, but also with the task of creating a language to transmit it.
Although what is known today as Paleo-Slavic (or Ecclesiastical Slavic) is not an artificial language, but a cultured and literary form of a South Slavic dialect (as Italian is from Florentine), it is certain that it was chosen by the two missionaries because it was understandable to a large number of Slavic populations and, therefore, suitable for their purpose.
Thus, it was standardized through the translation of the Gospels, Psalms, liturgical and canonical texts, and for the first time a Slavic language was written and used for worship, teaching and administration.
But how was it written? With its own alphabet! Yes, because Cyril realized that a specific one was needed for the particular sounds of the Slavic languages, especially those that did not correspond to Latin or Greek letters. So he invented a new one (in Constantinople, around 863), but not the one known today as Cyrillic (which will be an evolution of it), but the Glagolitic (from the Slavic term glagol: «word», «speech», exact translation of the Greek logos).
Cyril's idea was not only to give the Slavs an alphabet to express simple concepts, but to enunciate and transmit the Word.
Glagolitic letters had a complex and symbolic form, a combination of Greek and Oriental influences with original elements, but they provided a group of peoples with a specific identity and linguistic and cultural dignity.
Oppositions and accusations: nothing new under the sun
The «novelties» introduced by the two brothers did not please many (think of the Second Vatican Council, the Council of Trent, the debates on the «Chinese rites», the "Chinese rites", and the "Chinese rites"). Guadalupe and in the commotion they caused).
The Frankish clergy, in fact, rebelled and accused them of attacking the ecclesiastical order based on the exclusive use of Latin. Tensions became so acute that the two brothers were forced to travel to Rome to present to Pope Adrian II their work and the fruits it had produced: according to them, the very evangelization of Eastern Europe was at stake.
In Rome they were well received: Hadrian II not only approved their mission, but sanctioned the legitimacy of the use of the Paleo-Slavic language in the liturgy and even consecrated Methodius as bishop.
Thus, the Church of Rome embraced a principle that became fundamental: ecclesial unity does not coincide with cultural uniformity, but quite the contrary, e pluribus unum: plurality of languages, rites, traditions and different sensibilities.
Only Methodius returned to Moravia. Cyril, seriously ill, remained in Rome and took his vows. He died there in 869 and was buried in the basilica of St. Clement (his tomb is still today a destination of pilgrimages of Slavic Christians and not only).
It was not only the death of his beloved brother that marked Methodius, who later became Archbishop of Sirmium (today Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia). In fact, he did not lack more opposition and persecutions, to the point of being imprisoned for more than two years. But neither did he lack faith and constancy: he continued until his death (in 885 in Velehrad, Moravia) translating sacred texts, training the local clergy and laying the foundations of an autonomous Slavic Church.
From Paleo-Slavic to Church Slavonic and the Cyrillic alphabet
The life and work of Cyril and Methodius are an example of how dramatic the process of inculturation, The company's business model, which inevitably provokes disagreements, forces self-questioning, and affects balance and political and economic interests.
However, the mission of the two brothers contributed in an essential way to the formation of Slavic identities, also favoring the development of national literatures, cultural traditions and an autonomous historical consciousness.
After Methodius' death, his disciples continued his work in much of Eastern Europe and the Paleo-Slavic language gave rise to Ecclesiastical Slavonic, a liturgical and literary language comparable to Latin in the West and used to this day by many Eastern Churches.
The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually replaced by the alphabet developed by the disciples of Methodius, which was called Cyrillic (more similar to Greek).
The legacy of the two brothers thus goes far beyond the religious sphere. As John Paul II recalled in the Apostolic Letter Slavorum Apostoli (1985), in which he proclaimed them co-patrons of Europe together with St. Benedict, their work «demonstrates that evangelization does not destroy cultures, but assumes and transfigures them» and that «the unity of the Church does not require uniformity, but is realized in the communion of the different traditions,» underlining also the right of peoples to express their faith in their own language and the European value of the encounter between East and West.
Catholics and people around the world associate Valentine's Day with love and romance. Here are five couples (and a sixth as a gift) who are saints today because they lived a vocation of love for each other and for God.
Catholics and people around the world associate Valentine's Day with love and romance. Here are five couples who are saints today because they lived a vocation of love for each other and for God. And a sixth as a gift.
- Katie Yofer, OSV News
On February 14, the Church and the popular culture celebrate the day of Valentine's Day, and its feast is associated with love and romance. They have here five holy couples who lived a vocation of mutual love and love for God.
1. Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin (Zélie)
Pope Francis canonized the French couple formed by Louis Martin (1823-1894) and Celia Guérin (1831-1877) in 2015. Louis, a watchmaker, and Celia, a lacemaker, attempted to enter religious life before discerning their marriage. They are perhaps best known for being the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, their youngest daughter.
St. Therese was one of nine children in the Martin home. Four died in infancy, the other five - all girls - joined religious orders (four Discalced Carmelites). The couple's journey to sainthood embodies the “little way” for which St. Therese is famous: doing little things with great love.
“The holy spouses Louis Martin and Marie Azélie Guérin practiced Christian service in the family, creating day by day an atmosphere of faith and love that nourished the vocations of their daughters,” Pope Francis recalled at their canonization.
His feast day is July 12.
2. Saints Aquila and Priscilla
Saints Aquila and Priscilla played an important role in early Christianity. Jewish weavers who converted to Christianity, they traveled to Corinth after being exiled from Rome. There they met St. Paul, a fellow weaver, whom they welcomed into their home.
The first century Christian couple appears several times in the Bible because of their faithful witness.
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who laid down their lives for me. To whom not only I am grateful, but also all the churches of the Gentiles,” writes St. Paul in Romans 16:3-4.
The Acts of the Apostles, 18, reveals that the two saints accompanied St. Paul from Corinth to Syria and then to Ephesus, where they instructed others in “the way of God.” They also opened their home as a church to the local Christian community, where together they read the Scriptures and celebrated the Eucharist.
From their example, said Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, the faithful can learn how “every home can be transformed into a small church.”.
According to some traditions, they died as martyrs. Their feast day is July 8.
3. St. Mary and St. Joseph, parents of Jesus
Catholics honor St. Mary and St. Joseph as the parents of Jesus. Throughout their lives, they always said “yes” to God's plan: from the time Mary consented to be the Mother of God until Joseph, a carpenter, took Mary as his wife after the appearance of an angel.
The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, is celebrated on January 1. The feast of St. Joseph is March 19.
4. Saints Joachim and Anne
St. Joachim and St. Anne are revered as the parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus. Although their story does not appear in the Bible, tradition remembers them as a faithful and holy couple who struggled with sterility before becoming parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
His feast day is July 26.
5. Saints Zechariah and Elizabeth
Saints Zechariah and Elizabeth are the parents of St. John the Baptist. The couple also had difficulty conceiving until the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and promised them a son in their old age.
When Zacharias doubted the angel, he was unable to speak until after the birth of his son, when he confirmed in writing that his name was John. His first words were words of praise to God.
Before giving birth, Elizabeth is visited by her kinswoman, Mary, while they are both pregnant. Today, Catholics repeat her words of greeting in the Hail Mary: «Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.».
The couple's holiday is November 5.
Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi became the first couple in the history of the Church to be beatified together. This early 20th century Italian couple had four children and lived in Rome. He was a lawyer and she was a housewife (Photo by OSV News/CNS Archive).
Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Blessed Maria Corsini
Luigi (1880-1951), a lawyer, and Maria (1884-1965), a catechist, were the first marriage beatified at the same time by the Catholic Church. They had four children at home, three of whom entered the consecrated religious life.
When doctors recommended they abort their youngest daughter, Enrica, due to pregnancy complications, they refused. Today, she too is on the road to sainthood.
The couple lived “an ordinary life in an extraordinary way,” said Pope St. John Paul II during their beatification in 2001, even embracing a rich spiritual life.
“At the center of their life was the daily Eucharist, as well as devotion to the Virgin Mary, to whom they prayed every night with the rosary, and consultation with wise spiritual directors,” he said.
His example, he said, serves as an inspiration to all.
“Dear families, today we have the clear confirmation that the path of holiness lived as a couple is possible, beautiful, extraordinarily fruitful and fundamental for the good of the family, the Church and society,” he added. “This impels us to pray to the Lord that there may be many more couples who can reveal, in the holiness of their lives, the ‘great mystery’ of spousal love, which is born in creation and fulfilled in the union of Christ with his Church.”.
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Katie Yoder is a correspondent for OSV News. She writes from Maryland.
This article was originally published in English in OSV News, and can be found at here.
CARF Foundation, 37 years supporting vocations in 130 countries
February 14th marks the 37th anniversary of the birth of the CARF Foundation in 1989, “integral formation to support vocations around the world”. Nearly 30,000 students in these years, to serve the Church. This is how Omnes described its work last year: “CARF Foundation: 35 years collaborating with 1,256 dioceses and 300 religious orders”.
On February 14, 1989, the CARF Foundation (acronym for Centro Academico Romano Foundation) was established and celebrates its 37th birthday in 2026.
The project had been in the making for five years, in 1984, when St. John Paul II encouraged Blessed Alvaro del Portillo to found the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, to promote the excellent formation of seminarians and diocesan priests and religious men and women from any country in the world, without their economic capacity being an impediment.
Although the University of Navarra's ecclesiastical faculties had already been working on the project since 1951, it was launched in 1989.
“EThey are God's smile on Earth”.”
On the occasion of this anniversary, FundacionCARF has prepared a short video (1’ 15”) in which she recalls, first of all, the beginning: ”Inspired and driven by three great saints, was born in 1989, 37 years ago”.
And then, the mission: “to pray and promote throughout the world the good name of priests; we also seek to flood the world with diocesan and religious priests, because they are the smile of God on Earth, and the face of his mercy in our lives”.
“Nearly 30,000 students from 130 countries have benefited from comprehensive training. And they have returned home to give back the training they received,” the video continues.
And a request to the benefactorsHelp us form seminarians, diocesan priests and religious men and women to serve the Church throughout the world. Donate and deduct in fundacioncarf.org/donate and in Bizum 33420.
More than 1,500 bishops from 130 countries seek training assistance
According to the annual report 2024 presented last year, the CARF Foundation has been “collaborating with 1,256 dioceses and 300 religious orders” for 35 years.
Indeed, “the CARF Foundation has firmly maintained its commitment to the Church throughout the world and to the integral formation of seminarians and diocesan priests and religious men and women,” said Fernando Martí Scharfhausen, president of the CARF Foundation, at the presentation of the report.
Currently, more than 1,500 bishops and generals of religious orders from 130 countries want some of their priests, seminarians or religious to study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome or in the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra. They complete their human and spiritual formation in the international seminaries Sedes Sapientiae (Rome) and Bidasoa (Pamplona) and in other priestly residences and colleges up to 17 buildings.
Today's priest is torn between exhausting administrative management and his true essence as a “father”, where personal accompaniment takes precedence over bureaucracy. The key lies in the co-responsibility of the faithful and in a deep spiritual life.
Manuel Blanco-February 14, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
After a management for Diocesan Caritas, The volunteer subtly said goodbye: “Goodbye. I'm sorry you have to remain a wrong priest; and that is not at odds with being a good person, which he is...” The look on the priest's face showed that he did not understand whether it was a compliment or a “joke”. “Don't worry, I'll explain.”, The collaborator tried to reassure his parish priest. And there began a “theoretical” about practical things to try to elucidate the essential from the accessory in the presbyters.
The impractical, interminable and “disembodied” meetings occupy the first reflections. The impetus of the first years of priesthood gives way to more direct and decisive meetings. With age, “reflection” and casuistry increase... The heavy workload of today's parish priests makes some (sometimes valuable) choose not to attend the meetings, with the danger of isolating themselves and others spend the meeting like those who put “wedges” when sawing a tree trunk to see if it “falls...".", cutting “rolls” and moving forward. Some people prepare their meetings like a “quarterback”: outlines, time limits, A-B-C plans, questions, calendar, contacts...
Observation: “Look, if we start at 1 p.m., we won't have time.”. Intelligent response: “That's why. Let's wake up and then, let's eat.”. Some use them as a place to let off steam, others as a place of influence. The more parishes and responsibilities, the more meetings: exhausting.
Accompanying the faithful
Synodality has reminded us that the Church is a shared task. We are co-responsible and that requires walking and working together on many fronts.
But sometimes, building a team requires patience. It takes time. A parish priest told of his odyssey to raise funds to fix the church: “The priest has his palm up, to ask. It's his thing. Otherwise, he would be dead, palm down.”.
One day he was asked to join a group of parishioners to go door to door soliciting donations. “If you hadn't come with us, we wouldn't have made it.”. Initially, he had not liked the idea at all. It was very risky and he thought it would waste a lot of time. But that gesture earned him great prestige; a reputation for courage and concern for the heritage.
This “poster” allowed him to get to know all the houses in the parish, to strengthen ties with several families through shared work and even, with some people, to go deeper into religious or personal questions.
Economic concerns
The works, the maintenance and the economy occupy an important part of the mental efforts, managements and worries of the priest, especially when he has not yet achieved the collaboration of the parishioners suitable for this sensitive work. A priest summed it up in one of his fraternal meetings: “What a man: to speak about God and prayer, one speaker has come to this conference. And to talk about economics, three have come!”.
The devilish machinery of property permits, damages, accountability, transparency, charities or details with collaborators; the parish books depending on whether or not there is the help of a “secretariat”; living one's own poverty and detachment... These are issues that generate stress and test both order and supernatural vision (it is not easy to “see” God behind these assignments).
Without a deep spirit of prayer, persevering and improving “hurts” too much. Without the help of the diocesan institution, temptation is “let them take care of it”.
Looking to the long term
Today, the indispensable personal contact demands preparation in every way. Rarely is the sacrament of penance administered at the first conversation. People need dedication and one can consider as “shocks” the lack of response, the informality, or the “exclusive appropriation” that some people mistakenly claim from the priest. It is probably more tiring to “deal” with people than with any other mechanical task. But therein lies the key: it is not about “people”, but about “family”. The priest is a father. It is in his “genes” and in his sacramental grace. He knows that it will be “hard”; that it will not be easy. He was not born learned. But he will always be there for his “sons” and “daughters”: they have priority. That is what many expect to find. Perhaps they have been looking for it elsewhere like crazy.
The Catholic identity of educational institutions is back at the center of the debate following the departure of sociologist Christian Smith from the University of Notre Dame. This is not a marginal voice. Smith, a professor for twenty years at the US university, held the Kenan Chair, garnered $15 million in external funding, directed top doctoral dissertations and was, in his words, “an enthusiastic advocate for the Catholic mission of the university.”.
Smith has explained the reasons for his departure and the decline of his university in a long article published in First Things, where he regrets leaving the university for not being true to his principles, when at 65 years of age “almost any professor in a similar situation would continue working five, ten or fifteen years more.”.
1. True Catholic teachers
For Smith, the core of a university is not in its religious aesthetics or marketing, «but in its intellectual life.” And there, he argues, is “precisely where Notre Dame, to a large extent, fails to be Catholic.”.
The official mission statement is clear: “The University requires of all its scholars [...] respect for the goals of Notre Dame and a willingness to participate in the dialogue that gives it life and character.” Moreover, there is “a special obligation and opportunity [...] to deepen the religious dimensions of all human learning.” The problem, however, is that “these fine words are not consistently and rigorously put into practice.”.
One of the most delicate points is the faculty. Former President John Jenkins stated, “We must have a majority of Catholic faculty and scholars.” The goal was to have “dedicated and committed Catholics predominate in number among the faculty”.
Smith charges that, in practice, this criterion is met “through a ‘check the box’ approach, whereby a candidate who was baptized Catholic but now despises Catholicism is considered Catholic.” A Catholic educational institution will maintain its identity only if the majority of its workers are truly Catholic, formed in the tradition and willing to uphold it intellectually.
2. Confronting inconsistencies with ideology
Another serious element is the lack of institutional courage. Smith speaks of “a lack of vision and courage among leaders” and of a leadership “terrified at the prospect of conflict”. When tensions arise over identity and mission, the reaction is to avoid the problem. “Instead of confidently promoting the stated Catholic mission [...], leaders [...] speak with enthusiasm and then shrink back.”.
Not to fight against employees or managers who “actively resist and [...] subvert” the mission is, in the long run, devastating. And if those who denounce public inconsistencies are met with silence or evasions - as happened with his book on Catholic higher education, to which there was “resounding silence” - “it will end badly”.
Obviously, this does not detract from the fact that there may be non-believing professors or professors of other religions who can collaborate positively with the aims of the university, the problem that he denounces refers to those who openly hold anti-Catholic positions.
3. The danger of looking for the world's applause.
Smith identifies a third corrosive factor: “the yearning for general acceptance.” The university “desperately yearns to belong” to the club of large secular institutions. But “only one factor makes Notre Dame suspect: Catholicism.” Hence the temptation to minimize it.
Jenkins“ own question resonates as a reproach: ”If we fear being different from the world, how can we make a difference in it?" Seeking the world's applause, acceptance and political correctness is not the way for an institution that claims to have a specific mission.
4. Q1 publications and neglect of mentoring
The ambition to become a major research university accelerates the problem. The dean's priority was for the faculty to “publish in prestigious journals”. The logic of hyperspecialization ends up displacing the intellectual integration proper to a Catholic mission.
The result is “niches of mission-oriented activities” instead of real integration. Moreover, research and bureaucratic pressure reduces the shared intellectual life: “We are expelling technicians with PhDs, not intellectuals with a solid background”. Focusing exclusively on publications in academic impact journals means neglecting personal mentoring, which is decisive for the integral development of students.
5. Marketing and appearance: “Appearing instead of being”.”
Smith also denounces the hypertrophy of marketing. The university lives more and more in “a world of neat appearances”. The symbolic example is the bookstore turned merchandising store. In contrast to North Carolina's motto, “Esse Quam Videri” (“To be rather than to appear”), he observes that today the opposite imperative prevails: “To appear rather than to be”.
Beware of making marketing and image a permanent distraction: when the brand supplants the mission, identity is diluted.
6. Intellectual formation and Social Doctrine
One of the most eloquent episodes recounted by Christian Smith is that of a brilliant senior finance student - a committed Catholic concerned about environmental issues - who confessed to him that she had not heard of the Social Doctrine of the Church as applied to economics for four years.
For Smith, this is a “mind-boggling oversight”: training future business leaders at a Catholic university without seriously introducing them to the Catholic social tradition is a structural contradiction.
A warning that challenges Spain
Notre Dame is not an isolated case. In Spain, too, there are many schools and some formally Catholic universities whose identity has become tenuous, with little effective transmission of the faith to students and families.
The warning is clear: if there is no real majority of committed teachers, if internal inconsistencies are not addressed, if external applause is sought and mission is replaced by rankings and marketing, Catholic identity becomes a mere label. And, as Smith implicitly concludes with his exit, a label does not sustain an institution.
How to live fully this Lent? The Pope Leo XIV has drawn up a simple road map of three attitudes to better live the "mystery of God" and place him at the center of our lives.
Pope Leo XIV proposed three very concrete attitudes for living Lent as a true journey of conversion.
In a message addressed to the whole Church, the Pontiff encourages us to recover the center of Christian life - the mystery of God - «so that our faith may regain its momentum and our hearts may not be scattered among the worries and distractions of everyday life».
Listen to
«This year I would like to draw attention, first of all, to the importance of giving space to the Word through listening, since the willingness to listen is the first sign with which the desire to enter into relationship with the other is manifested» the Pope begins by pointing out.
Giving space to interior silence and to Scripture is not just another devotional gesture, but the condition for recognizing the voice of the Lord in the midst of so many voices. This listening, he explains, also educates the heart to perceive the cry of those who suffer, the poor and the victims of injustice, so that faith does not remain theoretical, but that the cry of those who suffer «constantly challenges our life».
Fasting
The second proposal is fasting, understood not only as deprivation of food, but as an integral exercise that involves the body and orders desires.
Fasting helps to discover what is really essential, awakens the hunger for justice and frees from resignation. Leo XIV insists that this practice must be lived with humility and united to prayer, to prevent it from becoming mere formalism: «in order that fasting may preserve its evangelical truth and avoid the temptation to make the heart proud, it must always be lived in faith and humility».
He also invites us to concrete forms of daily abstinence, especially in the use of words: «Let us begin to disarm language, renouncing hurtful words, immediate judgment, speaking ill of those who are absent and cannot defend themselves, and slander. Let us strive instead to learn to measure our words and to cultivate kindness.
«Together.»
Finally, the Pope recalls that Lent is not an individualistic itinerary, but a communitarian journey. Parishes, families and communities are called to walk it together, sharing in listening to the Word, fasting and conversion of life.
It is not only a matter of personal changes, but also of transforming relationships, dialogue and the style of living together, so that the Church may be a place where suffering is welcomed and paths of hope are born.
Leo XIV concludes his message with an invitation to prayer so that we can make these three keys our own: «Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to live a Lent that will make our ears more attentive to God and to those most in need. Let us ask for the strength of a fast that also reaches the tongue, so that the words that hurt may diminish and the space for the voice of others may grow. And let us commit ourselves so that our communities become places where the cry of those who suffer is welcomed and listening generates paths of liberation, making us more willing and diligent to contribute to build the civilization of love».
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Is the pro-life movement dead in Europe? The president of ProLife Europe answers
Far from political debates, Maria Czernin, president of ProLife Europe, explains how her organization promotes the culture of life in Europe through dialogue and education.
Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves-February 13, 2026-Reading time: 7minutes
As pro-abortion campaigns gain ground across Europe, many Catholics have begun asking whether the continent’s pro-life movement still exists at grassroots level.
In that context Omnes interviewed Maria Czernin, the president of ProLife Europe, a student-focused organisation headquartered in Weißenhorn, Germany. They have spent the past six years building a campus-based model of pro-life outreach, focused on calm, one-to-one dialogue in parks, universities and public spaces. They also provide free online training that coach young people to make the case for life using ethical, philosophical and biological arguments rather than party politics.
Now operating through local groups in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and Switzerland, the network says its aim is not to win protests but to form persuaders, equip local leaders and plant what it calls “seeds” for a long-lasting culture of life.
What led to the creation of Pro-Life Europe?
ProLife Europe grew out of a gradual realization rather than a single dramatic moment. While working in communication and culture, I became aware of how abortion was no longer treated as a tragedy, but as a neutral, even responsible, solution to a problem. What struck me most was not hostility toward life, but indifference toward vulnerability. Together with friends, we sensed that political arguments alone were insufficient, because the deeper issue was how people understood the human person. ProLife Europe was founded to work at that cultural level, where ideas, language and conscience are formed long before decisions are made. It began as a desire to resist resignation and to offer an alternative vision of responsibility, dignity and care.
Many people encounter the pro-life movement only through political headlines or social media arguments. What is something about this work that outsiders almost always misunderstand?
What is most often misunderstood is that pro-life work is not primarily about winning arguments or imposing rules. Much of this work is quiet, relational and slow. It unfolds in conversations with people wrestling with fear, pressure and conflicting values, while also offering resistance to ideologies of deadly indifference disguised as ‘freedom.’
Outsiders often assume certainty where there is actually a great deal of attentiveness to complexity and human suffering. Another misunderstanding is the belief that pro-life engagement ignores women’s realities. Many of the people we encounter are not ideologues, but thoughtful individuals who have simply never been invited to think differently. Our work is less about confrontation and more about reopening moral imagination.
Many people associate pro-life advocacy with slogans and confrontations. Can you describe a moment, a conversation, encounter, or experience that permanently changed how you understand what it means to defend life?
One defining moment for me was a long, quiet conversation with a student who did not initially agree with our position, but who stayed because she felt respected rather than judged. She told me she had always assumed abortion was simply what one does when life becomes unmanageable. What changed the conversation was not a slogan, but the realization that no one had ever asked her what kind of support would make life feel possible instead. That encounter clarified for me that defending life often means restoring the question before offering an answer. It taught me that moral clarity does not require moral pressure. Since then, I’ve understood pro-life work less as persuasion and more as presence. A lightful, steady one.
How do you personally sustain moral clarity without becoming hardened or cynical as the state of European politics moves closer towards being Pro-abortion rights?
For me, moral clarity comes from staying close to concrete human encounters rather than abstract debates. Cynicism grows when politics becomes the only lens through which reality is interpreted. I try to remain grounded in relationships, a simple life, prayer and silence, which prevent outrage from becoming my primary motivation. It is also essential to accept limits, understanding that we are responsible for faithfulness, not outcomes. When politics feels overwhelming, I return to the conviction that cultural change is generational and often invisible. This perspective allows clarity without bitterness and commitment without despair.
ProLife Europe operates across very different cultural contexts. What has surprised you most about how questions of life, family, and conscience are understood differently across European countries?
What has surprised me most is that resistance to pro-life dialogue does not always correlate with economic hardship or religious decline. In some highly secular and affluent contexts, questioning abortion is more socially taboo than in places with fewer resources. Interestingly, our outreach experience with students is often remarkably similar across European countries. I’ve noticed that students share similar moral intuitions, even when public language discourages expressing them, suggesting that lived moral intuitions have not been erased by public discourse. Institutional resistance often comes not from peers, but from administrative or ideological structures. This reveals a gap between official narratives and the quieter moral reasoning people still carry. Beneath cultural differences, there is a shared unease about reducing life to utility.
Europe is often described as “post-Christian,” yet moral language persists, especially around rights, autonomy, and justice. Do you think Europe is rejecting Christianity, or unconsciously living off its moral capital?
Europe is less consciously rejecting Christianity than it is continuing to live off its moral and intellectual capital. Concepts such as human dignity, equality and human rights are deeply rooted in a Christian understanding of the person as inherently valuable, not because of capacity or utility, but because of being. When these concepts are detached from their source, they gradually lose coherence. Human rights language remains, but it becomes increasingly selective, expanding autonomy while weakening responsibility and relational obligation. What we are witnessing is not the disappearance of morality, but a form of moral fragmentation. Europe still speaks a Christian moral language, including the language of human rights, but increasingly without the anthropology that once grounded it.
Advocacy can consume one’s identity. Outside of public life, what practices or habits help you remain rooted as a person rather than a cause?
I am very conscious of the need to remain a person before becoming a representative of an idea. Ordinary life — friendships, family, meals, walks, painting, writing, beauty and silence — plays a crucial role in that. Prayer and reflection help me remember that my worth is not tied to effectiveness or recognition. I also protect spaces where abortion and activism are not the subject at all. At the same time, my identity does not come from how others perceive or label me, but from what I believe myself to be; I’ve learned to accept that we cannot fully control our “own brand,” especially in a culture that is quick to categorize.
Even if I were to be misunderstood or reduced to a label I do not recognize, I can live with that if it means standing against injustice and ignorance, that matters more than public perception. Meditating and reflection help me remember that my worth is not tied to effectiveness, recognition, or approval. I also spend time with people who think differently from me and are concerned with entirely different questions, which I find deeply enriching and grounding. Creativity, reading and time present in nature keep my inner life from shrinking. These practices remind me that life is something to be received, not managed.
Critics sometimes say pro-life movements are oriented toward restriction rather than care. What is something you believe your critics misunderstand not about your arguments, but about your motivations?
What is often misunderstood is that our motivation does not come from a fear of freedom, but from concern about isolation. Defending life is not about controlling choices; it is about asking why so many people feel they have no real choice at all. At the heart of our work is the conviction that vulnerability is not a defect to be eliminated, but something profoundly human, even beautiful, that calls for tenderness, care and support. Critics often assume distance where there is, in reality, deep proximity to suffering. Much of pro-life work consists of listening, accompanying and connecting people to help that already exists.
Looking ahead twenty years, what would success look like to you, not politically, but humanly? What would you hope Europe has remembered, rediscovered or protected?
Humanly speaking, success would mean that Europe has rediscovered the courage to face vulnerability without outsourcing it to technical solutions. It would mean rediscovering beauty in fragility and simplicity, not as demagogy or a marketing strategy, but in reality.
I would hope that pregnancy is no longer experienced primarily as a threat, but as a shared responsibility of parents, extended family, and communities. Success would look like a culture where women are not left alone with impossible decisions, and where dependence is no longer seen as failure, but accepted as a human condition, perhaps even as a joy: how good it is that we need each other and can rely on one another. I would want our beloved, beautiful Europe to remember that human dignity does not depend on timing, capacity or choice. Even if political outcomes remain uncertain, protecting that moral memory would already be a victory.
Marriage is a lot of fun, but it is also very serious, so much so that we stake EVERYTHING on it. And no. It is not a game.
February 13, 2026-Reading time: 2minutes
Valentine's Day is an exhausting date - what's the point? In a way, this romantic-emotional weariness is contributed to by the hypercorazonization of the consumer offer that has turned the so-called Valentine's Day into an embarrassing date.
Reducing love to a box of chocolates is symptomatic: it will expire, run out or even “throw away what we don't like”, like the dark chocolate and rum chocolates that always end up in the trash with the box.
A few years ago, with the laudable idea of “redirecting” this vision of love, the EEC began to promote, on these February dates, the Marriage Week. The aim is to invite you to discover -or rediscover- this wonderful, funny, complicated and sometimes a little bit «trashy» adventure of the marriage, Because there must be everything in a shared life based on love, admiration, respect and the determination to build the future together through our family.
In these years we have seen good campaigns, in which couples of all ages shared their experiences or in which we have seen “adaptations” of the formats of realities more or less fun.
This year, however, the surprise has been a “game”The aim is to “offer an authentic vocational campaign” that “enters into dialogue with the gamified society in which we live and, at the same time, makes it possible and simple to reflect on the deep and essential elements in the gift of human love, necessary for the marriage that satisfies the yearning for happiness of the human heart”.
On the one hand, the effort to innovate in an area in which, as the magnificent dialogue between Frank and Colleen in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), everything has been invented. I don't see the idea of “playing house” in 2.0 mode to reflect on something so serious. Maybe I'm closed-minded, but I don't see it.
On the other hand, this need to “gamify” or take as a game something key in the life of every human being, and even more so of every Catholic, such as marriage, is astonishing.
No military officer is promoted in his career because of his exploits in the Call of Duty; no player signs for Real Madrid with the endorsement of his points in the FIFA; and I promise you that, no matter how good you are at the Mario Kart, they do not validate your driver's license.
The Church has all the “skills”It can offer society the keys to this magnificent adventure that is marriage: to reinforce good affective education in its schools, to accompany married couples at all stages of their lives by adapting to the vicissitudes of a chaotic world. It can promote a real renewal of the premarital courses, make of the family pastoral a focus of creativity and not a “hiding place”, ally itself with new realities that, whether or not of our profile, work in favor of a marital renewal... etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
Marriage is a lot of fun, as we are well reminded. Pep Borrell, But it is also something very serious, so much so that we stake EVERYTHING on it. And no. It is not a game.
Director of Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.
After ten years in prison for killing his best friend, Daniel Brennan returns to a community that rejects him. Reunion is an intense British drama that explores, from the deaf world, guilt, grief and the search for redemption.
Pablo Úrbez-February 13, 2026-Reading time: 2minutes
Daniel Brennan, deaf since birth, is released from prison ten years after serving time for murdering his best friend, Ray, who is also deaf. Reintegrating into society will not be easy, as neither his daughter Carly, nor his parents, nor any of the members of the deaf community, especially Christine and Miri, Ray's wife and daughter, respectively, want anything to do with him.
This British miniseries, composed of five episodes, is a surprising dramatic gem that invites us to an immersive exercise in the conflicts, ghosts and hopes of deaf people. Many of the characters in the story are deaf and, as such, communicate mainly by signing, so that subtitles predominate to follow their dialogues, as well as other guttural sounds to make themselves understood. In addition to this formal reality, a true exercise in realism to present difficult situations of everyday life, there is the ideation of complex characters. Especially in Meeting there are wounded characters, dragging a lot of pain from the past, frightened characters, afraid of the present and the future, misunderstood.
The pace is generally slow. Although there are some, there are few sequences of action and acceleration of events. Dialogue and, even more, silences prevail. But, despite all this, the script is skillful enough to generate plot twists, unexpected surprises, distressing situations, arguments, screams and fights. Thus, despite these moments of transit through narrative wastelands and valleys, the emotion does not wane nor does it end up generating boredom.
Although the story begins linearly, it is soon structured in different temporal moments. Daniel Brennan's difficulties in reintegrating into society are overlapped with scenes of what happened ten years earlier (that which led him to prison) and others referring to a more remote past of the protagonists. The performances, of course, are magnificent, and it is worth mentioning that of Daniel, a truly tormented character, with continuous mood swings and no self-control, and that of his daughter Carly, who both desires and rejects an exemplary father, while also trying to find her place in the world.
Series
Title: Meeting
AddressWilliam Mager and Luke Snellin
Distribution: Matthew Gurney, Lara Peake, Anne-Marie Duff
Vatican makes dialogue with Lefebvrians conditional on suspension of new episcopal ordinations
Rome proposes to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X a theological dialogue on the Second Vatican Council in order to achieve "full communion" and a canonical status.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued an official communiqué following the meeting held this February 12, 2026 between the Prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and the Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX), Rev. D. Davide Pagliarani. The meeting marks a turning point in relations between the Holy See and the traditionalist group.
A theological dialogue under a «precise methodology».»
According to the document, the meeting was “cordial and sincere” and sought to address issues that have strained the relationship for years. Cardinal Fernandez has formally proposed a “percorso (journey) of specifically theological dialogue”, structured under a “very precise methodology”.
This dialogue will focus on issues of high dogmatic complexity which, according to Rome, still lack sufficient precision. Among the key points to be discussed are:
The technical distinction between the “act of faith” and the “religious gift of will and understanding”. The act of faith is the full and theological adherence to the truths revealed by God, while the religious gift of the will and understanding is the internal assent given to the teachings of the authentic Magisterium that have not been infallibly defined.
The “different degrees of adherence required by the various texts of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and their interpretation”.
The controversial question of the “divine will regarding the plurality of religions”.
The «brake» on ordinations: The risk of schism
The Vatican has been explicit about the purpose of this rapprochement. The ultimate objective is “to evidence, in the topics discussed, the minimum necessary for full communion with the Catholic Church”. Once these minimums have been reached, the plan contemplates “outlining a canonical statute for the Fraternity”, thus resolving its juridical situation after decades of irregularity.
However, the Holy See has drawn an insurmountable red line. Rome warns that any ordination of bishops without pontifical mandate - which enjoys “supreme ordinary power, which is full, universal, immediate and direct” - would mean a “decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism)”.
The communiqué stresses that such acts would have “grave consequences for the Fraternity as a whole”. For this reason, the Vatican has made the initiation of talks conditional on a concrete gesture:
“The possibility of developing this dialogue presupposes that the Fraternity suspends the decision on the announced episcopal ordinations.”.
Expectation of the Fraternity's response
The future of this process now rests in the hands of the FSSPX. The Superior General, Don Davide Pagliarani, “will present the proposal to his Council and will give his response to the Dicastery”. Only in case of a “positive response”, both parties will proceed to establish “by common agreement the steps, stages and procedures to be followed”.
The communiqué concludes with an appeal to the faithful to pray to the Holy Spirit, whom it defines as the “principal architect of the true ecclesial communion willed by Christ,” in what appears to be a last effort to avoid a definitive rupture.
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Why Europe requires TikTok to change its “addictive” design”
The European Commission has issued preliminary findings accusing TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form video platform, of breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to its addictive design, according to an investigation launched in 2024.
Francisco Otamendi-February 12, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
The EU executive has preliminarily determined, according to a statement issued in Brussels, that TikTok is in breach of the DSA (Digital Services Act) by failing to adequately assess and mitigate the risks arising from its design, which is designed to encourage compulsive use. The Chinese platform could face fines of up to 6% of its global turnover if it does not make structural changes to its interface.
TikTok, a Chinese social network, includes features such as infinite scrolling and personalized recommendations, potentially harmful to the wellbeing of users, especially minors, according to the note made public by the Commission.
Virkkunen: “addiction to social networks can have detrimental effects on developing minds”.”
Henna Virkkunen (Joutsa, Finland, 1972), Executive Vice-President for Technology Sovereignty, Security and Democracy of the EU executive, stressed that “addiction to social networks can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and adolescents. The Digital Services Act holds platforms responsible for the effects they can have on their users. In Europe, we enforce our legislation to protect our children and our citizens online.”.
Six key points
Below are six key points that explain the Commission's rationale:
1. Addiction-promoting design features. TikTok incorporates elements such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and a highly personalized recommendation system. These constantly “reward» users with new content, activating an “autopilot mode” in the brain, which reduces self-control and encourages compulsive behavior, according to the Commission.
2. Inadequate risk assessment. TikTok did not conduct a thorough assessment of how these features could harm the physical and mental well-being of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults. The DSA requires VLOPs (Very Large Online Platform) to analyze systemic risks such as mental health impacts, but the platform ignored this.
3. Ignorance of key indicators of compulsive use.. In its analysis, TikTok omitted the time minors spend on the app overnight, the frequency with which they open the app, and other signs of addiction. This violates the DSA's obligation to identify risks to the protection of minors and the general welfare.
Mitigate risks
4. Insufficient and ineffective mitigation measures. TikTok's current tools, such as screen time management and parental controls, do not appear to mitigate risks in a reasonable, proportionate and effective manner, as required by the DSA for VLOPs. “Similarly, parental controls may not be effective because they require additional parental time and skills to enter the controls”.
5. Need for structural changes in the design. “The Commission considers that Tik Tok needs to change the basic design of its service. For example, by disabling key addictive features such as ‘infinite scrolling’ over time, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks’, including overnight, and adapting its recommendation system.”.
6. Context of the research and possible consequences. The Commission's preliminary findings are based on an investigation initiated in February 2024. “TikTok now has the opportunity to exercise its right of defense. It will be able to examine the documents in the Commission's investigation files and respond in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings.”.
In parallel, the European Committee for Digital Services will be consulted. “If the Commission's views are finally confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision, which may result in a fine (...) up to a maximum of 6 %” of its annual global turnover, according to the Commission.
Valuation of TikTok
At press time, TikTok had not issued an official statement in its European press room (newsroom.tiktok.com/en-en-u/. However, the company has denied the allegations through statements to the media.
A TikTok spokesperson described the Commission's preliminary findings as “a categorically false and completely unfounded representation of our platform,” and stated that the company will take “all necessary steps to challenge these findings.” In a similar statement, TikTok plans to challenge the findings “through all available means.”.
The authorFrancisco Otamendi
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Cardinal Bustillo: “Priests have to take care of health and joy”.”
The Franciscan cardinal, bishop of Ajaccio, spoke to Omnes about the challenges facing priests in today's world after his participation in "Convivium".
Cardinal Francisco Javier Bustillo, OFM Conv. is Bishop of Ajaccio in Corsica, a diocese that currently has some 280,000 faithful, served by some 80 priests.
Monsignor Bustillo was the speaker at the first day of the Convivium, the presbyteral assembly convened by the Archdiocese of Madrid, which brought together for two days the priests of the diocese to reflect on its identity and mission in the current context.
In this context, Omnes was able to interview the French-Spanish cardinal on priestly identity, the care of vocations and the need to care for those who come to faith.
In such a complex society, marked by change, what are the challenges for priests today?
-The priest has to remember that he was anointed by the Holy Spirit and has to awaken creativity, audacity, to be able to give to the world the best he has. The Gospel says “you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world”. I believe that our society needs to find the joy of life and in those phases of life where we see many rather gloomy pages, it needs to find light and courage.
Card. Bustillo speaks to the priests of Madrid
How to develop a demanding priestly life without ending up “burned out”?
-When I speak, especially in France, to priests, I tell them that there is a binomial that we have to take care of very carefully: health and joy. If a priest, in his ministry - which is indeed demanding and many things will be asked of us - loses his joy, or if he loses his health, he will lose his health. loses its health, loses heart and loses efficiency in its mission as well.
The priest of the 21st century, and in a city like Madrid, has to take care, with great care, of his health and joy, otherwise they will be lost. He has to work on his inner life and his humanity. If you work on your humanity and your inner life, you go further.
You have highlighted the importance of priestly fraternity. At a time when polarization is also infiltrating the Church, how do you balance the difference of each sensitivity with that fraternity?
-We see polarization today, unfortunately, in Spain, in France, in the West in general and also within the Church. It is sad that the political and ideological application of society sometimes occurs in the Church.
Our ideal is communion, it is union. Jesus said “that you may be one”, that you may be united. If we are divided in the Church, it is a problem of coherence with the witness we have to give.
When we look at the apostolic college, we find very different characters. We have Matthew and we have Simon. And Jesus calls them. Today that there are differences in the Church: that one is traditional or the other charismatic, the other modern, instead of being a problem for the church, it is a richness.
Instead of setting ourselves against each other, which is not evangelical, we have to walk with each other and celebrate that each one has his own path, each one has his own life, each one has his own journey and we are all different. And these differences are not an obstacle, but they are a good fortune and a blessing for the Church.
You come from France which, in recent years, has been making headlines with the return to faith of so many young people. How do you ensure that this return to God does not remain a spark but is life-changing?
-The first thing we see is the vacuum in French and Western society, after 60 years with the motto “Neither God nor Master”: we don't need anyone, we do what we want. There has been a lot of technological, scientific, human progress. Much emphasis has been placed on power, knowledge, doing, having, but being has been left on the periphery. That which the person is, that which the person lives. Today's young people are looking for meaning in life.
I have in my diocese, which is small, more than 303 who are going to be baptized now at Easter. This means that the young people, who are a bit virgin spiritually, are looking for an identity, they are looking for a family.
The first thing is to welcome them, to celebrate their presence. Then, we have a responsibility. We cannot simply say, how lucky we are that they all come to ask to be baptized in the Catholic Church! But we have the responsibility to welcome them, to accompany them and to guide them so that they are really part of the family of the Church and so that they can bring a little freshness.
With the turn of the year and the closing of the Jubilee of Hope, it is time to look back with gratitude on the progress made in the defense of human dignity and on the path towards the universal abolition of surrogacy.
February 12, 2026-Reading time: < 1minute
With the turn of the year and the end of the Jubilee of Hope, it is important to remember the progress made in the defense of human dignity and, in particular, in the cause of the universal abolition of the surrogacy market.
First of all, it is worth remembering our beloved Pope Francis, who passed away in 2025, and who made an important “call for the international community to commit itself to a universal ban on this practice”and proclaimed a Jubilee Year of Hope, which constitutes an impulse in the defense of human dignity.
His prophetic call has been heard, as the year 2025 was marked by milestones in the cause of universal abolition:
In June, the Third Casablanca Conference for the Universal Abolition of Surrogacy took place in Lima, Peru, focusing on the protection of Latin American women, with the participation of international experts.
In July, Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, released a landmark report declaring that all forms of surrogacy constitute violence against women and recommending the development of an international treaty to abolish this market.
In September, Slovakia became the first country to ban the practice in its constitution.
In November, the European Parliament, in its resolution on the Gender Equality Strategy, explicitly condemned surrogacy.
These important developments are hopeful signs that there is already a long way to go in the compelling cause of abolishing the surrogacy market.
In this Sunday's liturgy we find Jesus seated on the chair on the mountain. We continue the reading of the same chapter of Matthew proclaimed in previous Sundays, the great “Sermon on the Mount”. After announcing the Beatitudes and revealing the identity and mission of Christians as the salt of the earth and light of the world, today we find our Lord speaking with the authority of the Lawgiver himself: “You have heard that it was said to those of old ... But I say to you.".
This decisive expression -“But I say to you” - reveals the authority with which Jesus teaches. He does not limit himself to interpreting the law; he is the law. He knows it from within and leads it to its true and definitive height. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. In his own person, the law reaches its fullness.
The law given by God to the chosen people through Moses and the prophets was a sign of God's loving revelation, and fidelity to the law expressed Israel's fidelity to him. Obedience to the law was, at its deepest core, an act of love. Now Jesus declares that he himself is that to which the law and the prophets pointed. The relationship of love between God and his people is now definitively linked to the person of Christ.
From the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is clear: he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to give fullness. What does this fullness mean, then? It is not a subtraction, but a plus; not a weakening of the law, but its deepening. Jesus leads us beyond mere external observance to an interior adherence of the heart. This is why he can say: “For I say unto you, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”. This “more”is not a competition, but a call to a more radical conformity to Christ himself and to what is good. The Christian vocation goes beyond avoiding sin or doing only the minimum. We are called to a continuous growth in our relationship with Christ, to a deeper friendship with him, to an interior communion that transcends external observances. It is a joyful and positive affirmation of following Christ more closely.
In today's Gospel, the expression “but I say to you”.” is repeated several times, and on each occasion Jesus raises the level, exhorting us to reject sin at its root. This harmonizes with the conclusion of the first reading from the book of Sirach, which affirms that God does not incite anyone to sin: “God does not incite anyone to sin.“He compelled no one to be wicked, and gave no one permission to sin”. God desires our holiness and therefore clearly reveals to us what separates us from him. Avoiding sin is an act of fidelity, a grateful response to the love God has shown us. The Christian is called to reject every form of sin, even venial sins, and to strive to live the virtues in a heroic way. Every sin, no matter how small it may seem, is a form of infidelity to the love we have received.
Finally, Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom of God is at stake in our obedience to the law. Our relationship with the Lord, and indeed our eternal destiny, are implicated in what may seem like small things. Our actions in this life resonate into eternity. Not to identify ourselves with the Law-that is, with Christ Himself-is to choose separation from Him. Hence the gravity of Jesus“ words: "For I say unto you, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”, and also: “it is better to lose a limb than to go to the gehenna”.
Fidelity to the commandments is fidelity to Christ himself. We are called to live this fidelity fully -inwardly and outwardly-, letting the law, fulfilled in Christ, shape our life and lead us to the Kingdom of heaven.
“Love, the most epic adventure” is the message launched by the Episcopal Conference in the “Marriage is more” campaign. And what better than a video game to show it. “Level Up!” is the audiovisual product produced by Artex Games, at the suggestion of the Episcopal Subcommission for the Family and Defense of Life, and is available -and free of charge- at the following address. matrimonioesmas.org/game. From next Friday the 13th, it will also be available on the web. matrimonioesmas.org.
“The Episcopal Conference creating a video game is crazy,” said Lía Jurado, an advertising student at the Pontifical University of Salamanca and a member of the creative team that developed the product. The “madness” is an initiative that came out of the classrooms of the advertising students of the Pontifical University of Salamanca, who were consulted.
It is intended to validate if the player is ready for a definitive love, for a full commitment.
How it works
The video game, which works by touching the screen, proposes a journey that, through virtuous choices, validates the decision to make a definitive commitment to the couple. The protagonists are two normal young people, Fran and Elena, who experience various adventures, understood as everyday situations faced by a couple: the figure of the ex, the tribulations in a shared apartment, the traditions of families, how to cope with economic burdens... There are also couple virtues, presented as “Collectable Gifts”, obtained through different actions.
The story, which unfolds over seven levels, is conceived as a romance novel, rather than an action video game. And there are different endings (there may or may not be a wedding), depending on the decisions made by the player and his freedom, as in real life.
“Level up! The game of two”is presented around the date of St. Valentine's Day (February 14), in the context of the “Marriage is +” campaign of the Episcopal Conference. Taking advantage of this feast, all dioceses celebrate Marriage Week, in which multiple proposals are developed to show the beauty of Christian marriage.
This is the fifth year of the campaign. The first one was “Marriage is more than you think”, followed by “Forever dates” (the most successful), “Forever match”, “Fill her heart, make it beat”. In this one, the title is very significant: “Level up! The game of two”. And the message: “Love, the most epic adventure”.
The video game was professionally designed by Federico Peinado, from Narratech Laboratories, and executed by Artax Games. The idea came from Advertising students Lía Jurado, Eva Gangoso, Dana Sierra and Carolina González.
The campaign wants to show the beauty of Christian marriage. Miguel Garrigós, of the Episcopal Conference's Subcommission for the Family and Life, stressed that “marriage is a treasure. We wanted to convey the idea that when something is worthwhile, one considers doing whatever it takes to overcome difficulties. We wanted the game to transmit this idea”. He also believes that the videogame “helps to understand what makes love grow”.
More proposals to follow
In addition, Garrigós explained that, at the end of the videogame, a link to the website www.matrimonioesmas.org with resources, proposals, links and the “marriage” app of the Episcopal Conference, with different initiatives of accompaniment. The campaign is not addressed primarily to those “already convinced” but aims to encourage couples who want a stable commitment to consider the option of a marriage in the Church.
Level up! The game of two will be presented at a public event at the Centro Príncipe Pío in Madrid on February 14, where attendees will be able to play online from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
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Rome-Lourdes-Chiclayo, the axis of Our Lady's protection of the sick
The invocation of Pope Leo XIV to the Virgin of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens, and the celebration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, in Chiclayo (Peru), of the World Day of the Sick, presided over by Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.I., mark the petition for the sick and their families to the Virgin Mary this February 11, 2026.
Francisco Otamendi-February 11, 2026-Reading time: 4minutes
Pope Leo XIV, with his appeal to the Virgin of Lourdes in the grotto of the Vatican Gardens this morning, after the General Audience. And the solemn celebration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo (Peru), on the World Day of the Sick, will be the focus of the Church's prayers for the sick and their families on the 11th.
In the Audience Pope Leo XIV prayed for the sick and for all the Romans and pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall, asking “that Our Lady of Lourdes, whom we celebrate today, may accompany you maternally, intercede for you before God and obtain for you the graces that will sustain you on your journey”.
Afterwards, he announced: “At the end of the audience, I will go to the grotto of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens and light a candle, a sign of my prayer for all the sick, whom today, World Day of the Sick, we remember with special affection”.
“I unite spiritually with all those gathered today in Chiclayo, Peru”.”
Addressing the Spanish-speaking pilgrims, one of the nine languages in which the Pope offers his Wednesday catechesis, Pope Leo said: “I unite myself spiritually with all those who are gathered today at Chiclayo, Peru, to solemnly celebrate the World Day of the Sick and I entrust all, especially the sick and their families, to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
At the same time, he commended” the victims and all those affected by the severe floods in Colombia, “while I urge the entire community to support the affected families with charity and prayer. May God bless you. Thank you very much.
Peru: sick people to offer “the pains of their lives” for peace
In the Letter sent by the Pontiff to the special envoy to Chiclayo, Cardinal Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, the Pope referred on January 21 to the “beloved land of Peru, whose faithful, guided by piety and love, confidently seek refuge under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
Leo XIV confided to the faithful that since twelve years ago, when “in the cathedral dedicated to Our Lady, Mother of God, we were elevated to the sacred order of the episcopate for the diocese of Chiclayo, so dear to us”, “we have unceasingly entrusted with solicitude to the Blessed Virgin not only our apostolic mission, but also the progress in the Christian faith of the holy people of God and, now in a special way, of the whole Church”.
“We humbly pray for them.”
And he formulated his request: “in special union of prayer with the Church throughout the world for all the sick faithful affected by illness, pathologies or pain, we humbly ask that they, supported by this maternal intercession, may want to offer all the discomforts of their lives to the merciful God, through Mary, for the peace of this world”.
“In fact, as St. Augustine rightly teaches, the human spirit is restless, and only in the ineffable charity of God and in its application to daily and spiritual life can it find true and lasting peace (cf. St. Augustine, Confessions, I, 1, 1).”.
Lent begins next Wednesday
In the Audience, addressing the English-speaking pilgrims, the Holy Father recalled that “next Wednesday, the 18th, the season of Lent begins. It is a time to deepen our knowledge and love of the Lord, to examine our hearts and our lives, and to refocus our gaze on Jesus and his love for us”.
“May these days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving,” he encouraged, “be a source of strength in our daily effort to take up our cross and follow Christ. Upon you and your families I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!”.
From the Holy Land, Poles, Saints Cyril and Methodius, European Unity
The Pope greeted the “Arabic-speaking faithful, especially those coming from the Holy Land, from the school of the Sisters of Nazareth of Haifa”. And referring to the Poles, he said that “these days we remember Saints Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slavs and patrons of Europe, fathers of Christianity, of the language and culture of the Slavic peoples”.
“Let us return to his apostolic work - as St. John Paul II exhorted - in building a new unity of the European continent, to overcome tensions, divisions and religious and political antagonisms (cf. Slavorum Apostoli). My blessing to all!” he greeted.
In his words to the Italian-speaking people, the Pope greeted “the participants in the priestly formation course promoted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the parish of the Sacred Heart of Andria and the Community of the Resurrection of Rome”.
“Deep link between the Word of God and the Church”. Frequent reading of the Bible
In his catechesis, the Successor of Peter pointed out that “the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum reflects on the profound bond that exists between the Word of God and the Church. The Bible has its origin in the People of God and is addressed to them; this means that its power and meaning are fully manifested in the life and faith of the Christian community”.
In this vein, after quoting Benedict XVI and St. Jerome, he said to the German-speaking pilgrims and faithful: “Dear German-speaking brothers and sisters, the Church has been entrusted with the mission of guarding and proclaiming the Word of God so that it may reach all people and nourish the lives of believers. Therefore, I invite you to read the Bible frequently in order to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and to bear witness to the living Word of God with your life”.
Love and familiarity with the Holy Scriptures
Earlier in his address, the Pope had stated that “Christ is the living Word of the Father, the Word of God made flesh, our Savior.
Therefore, all the faithful are called to approach the Sacred Scriptures with love and familiarity, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments”.
Leo XIV concluded by affirming that “all the Scriptures proclaim his Person and his saving presence for all of us and for all humanity. Let us open our hearts and minds to accept this gift, following Mary, Mother of the Church.
Brother George Sabe is today the only Marist Brother stationed in Syria. From Aleppo, he coordinates a wide network of aid to Christians and Muslims through the Blue Marists.
George Tabeé was born in Aleppo, Syria, and discovered his Marist vocation as a student at a Marist school in his hometown. Today he belongs to the Mediterranean Province of the Marist Brothers and his career has taken him to various countries of the Middle East and Africa, including a period in the Ivory Coast. He is currently visiting Spain to present the Manos Unidas campaign, which supports educational, development and social reconstruction projects in the country.
He speaks Arabic and French as his mother tongues and retains a fluent Spanish learned more than fifty years ago, when he made his novitiate in Spain. “I learned Spanish there and continue to practice it,” he explains with simplicity at 74 years of age.
In 2012, at the beginning of the war in Aleppo, he returned permanently to Syria. Since then he has been living and working in a city devastated by more than a decade of conflict.
The hand of God
Among the harshest memories of his mission, Brother George recounts the kidnapping of a father of a family in 2013. He himself negotiated with the armed group and brought the money for his release, directly confronting armed men.
At that moment, he recalls that “the words of Jesus came to him: ‘Do not be afraid. Days later, the kidnapped man was released. ’There we discovered that the Lord was present, accompanying and illuminating our decisions.”.
An experience that, like so many others, sustains his conviction that even in war it is possible to educate, accompany and sow hope.
Blue Marists: a Church at the service of everyone
Currently, Brother George is part of the Blue Marists association, born in 2012 as a direct response to the war and the massive displacement of the population. The project has its roots in an earlier initiative, “Ear of God”, created in 1986 to support the poorest Christians in Aleppo.
With the outbreak of the conflict, the action was expanded and transformed. Today, the Blue Marists develop 14 active projects, centered on three fundamental axes: education, human development -especially for women- and emergency assistance.
“We are 160 volunteers,” he explains, “and we believe in a local Church at the service of the local population, Christian and Muslim.”.
The only Marist in Syria
George is currently the only Marist Brother present in Syria. “It takes speaking Arabic and accepting the reality of war,” he says. However, he stresses that he is not alone: a wide network of lay people trained in Marist spirituality supports the daily work.
Most of the projects serve both Christians and Muslims. Some educational programs even target 100% Muslim children, as an expression of a mission based on service rather than religious affiliation.
The support of Manos Unidas has been key to sustaining and expanding these projects. The NGO decided to enter Syria hand in hand with the Marists, financing educational initiatives, development programs for women and economic micro-projects.
“Education is essential to educate in peace, non-violence and respect for those who are different,” Brother George stresses. As for women's development, he stresses its transformative impact in a society where female identity is often defined in relation to others. “We believe that women have their own identity and capabilities.”.
The microprojects, promoted since 2014, seek to prepare the population for a peaceful future, allowing families to make a decent living from their own work.
Christians in Syria: respect, but open wounds
According to George, Christians are not a community persecuted by the current regime, which, despite its Islamist character, has shown respect for Christian life. “We celebrate the Eucharist, we live our faith normally,” he says.
The attacks that occasionally occur, he explains, come from groups linked to the Islamic State, not from the authorities. “What Christians are suffering is the same as what the entire Syrian population is suffering,” he sums up.
Elise Ann Allen: “Leo XIV is not a Francis II, he has his own style”.”
Elise Ann Allen was the first journalist to interview Leo XIV. Her work was collected in a book that was published worldwide. Omnes talks to her about the first months of his pontificate.
In the first months of his pontificate, Leo XIV has begun to outline his own style: continuity with Francis in social and pastoral priorities, but with a more collegial way of governing and an explicit desire for dialogue. To better understand the profile of the new pope - his roots, his global outlook and his ability to “build bridges” - Omnes talks with journalist Elise Ann Allen, one of the U.S. Vaticanists in Rome who conducted the first interview with Robert Prevost after his election.
His background also offers a particularly valuable perspective: to his knowledge of the Vatican he adds a direct familiarity with Peru, a decisive country in the biography of Pope Leo XIV. In this interview, Allen reviews gestures, priorities and challenges: from synodality and mission to peace, artificial intelligence, communication and the delicate chapter of abuse.
You were the first to interview Leo XIV after his election and to dedicate a book to him. When did you realize that you were no longer simply narrating a life, but that a pontificate was beginning to take shape?
-During the interview, when we began to talk about the period he spent and his work in Peru, it became clear to what extent that experience was decisive for his entire pastoral vision. It shaped him as a person, but above all as a priest, superior and bishop. His work with the poor, the many social projects he was involved in, the way the Augustinians structure their parishes, his way of relating to the local and national political leadership, and his perspective on Vatican II and liberation theology are all key insights that offer a unique look into his mentality and his instincts.
You are an American and have been a Vatican correspondent in Rome for years. What does your experience bring to understanding Leo XIV better than other analysts?
-It allows me to understand it. Like Pope Leo XIV, I am also an American and I know the Vatican, but I also know Peru from personal experience, prior to my work as a Vaticanist. That is why I know the three worlds of Robert Prevost, today Leo XIV, and I think that gives me a privileged perspective to interpret what he will say and do.
What elements of Prevost's roots-his family in Chicago, dual U.S.-Peruvian citizenship, his multicultural sensitivity, and recent findings about his African-American origins-help to understand the way he is Pope today?
-All of them. You can't take just one element and pretend to know and understand Leo XIV. He is a profoundly open person: open-minded, open to new ideas and perspectives, but also to new experiences and to the people around him, including new people he encounters. He has been - and continues to be - shaped by the people and cultures he has met throughout his life, including his childhood experiences of racism. Therefore, to understand him, it is essential to know his background and that fundamental openness.
In the portrait that emerges from your book, Leo XIV is often described as a “bridge-builder” and a “citizen of the world.” What gestures - even small but significant ones - seem to you to best reveal that attitude?
-I believe that his first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's and his first words were the most eloquent signs. Even his mode of dress is, in a way, a “bridge”, because it combines the simplicity of Francis and, at the same time, recovers some elements of the Pope's traditional attire, which many associate with the Petrine ministry and which they regret to have seen disappear. He has also wanted to meet with figures perceived as very different from each other: for example, with Father James Martin, considered by some as “progressive” and close to the LGBTQ+ community, and also with Cardinal Raymond Burke, seen as “conservative” and favorable to the elimination of restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass. He wants to talk to all sides.
I also think that his meeting with King Charles III and their prayer together in the Sistine Chapel were particularly significant gestures in building ecumenical bridges, as were his trips to Turkey and Lebanon.
The Holy Year that has just ended and the death of Pope Francis mark the beginning of the new pontificate. Where do you see the main continuities and where, on the other hand, do you see some new accents?
-Most of Leo XIV's priorities are in full continuity with those of Francis: attention to the poor, pastoral care of migrants and refugees, climate and criticism of inequalities. In our conversation he even spoke of the growing wage imbalance between employers and employees, which I believe will continue to be one of his flagships. The novelty will be above all in the style: Francis governed in a very direct way; Leo XIV, on the other hand, prefers to work as a team and collaborate closely with the cardinals and the curia.
In addition, new themes will emerge, such as attention to artificial intelligence and a new approach to Vatican finances. He is also very concerned about the family and polarization: he wants to heal divisions and will make unity a hallmark of his pontificate.
«Most of Leo XIV's priorities are in full continuity with those of Francis: attention to the poor, pastoral care of migrants and refugees, climate and criticism of inequalities...»
Elise Ann Allen
A first session of Leo XIV has already taken place. What is your reading of this meeting and the issues that were put on the table?
-It was a consistory designed to go deeper into various topics: Evangelii gaudium, The Pope left it to the cardinals themselves to choose two, and they opted for two. However, the Pope left it to the cardinals themselves to choose two, and they opted for Evangelii gaudium and along the synodal path.
To me it says a lot that they wanted to prioritize the missionary identity of the Church and a more collaborative, more listening and less clerical way of being Church. It also shows the distance between the media agenda and what really concerns the Catholic people.
And this consistory also shows the style of Leo XIV: it is not common to begin a pontificate by taking the magisterium of the predecessor as a guiding thread. Leo XIV has seen in Francis a great visionary and wants to continue that work. Many present him as a “Francis II”, but this is not so: he has his own style, although his agenda is in full continuity with Francis.
In your book, you deal bluntly with the chapter on abuse and the case of the diocese of Chiclayo. What do the Pope's words - the suffering for the slowness of justice and the desire for reform - reveal about his way of exercising authority and asking for forgiveness?
-His words show a wide experience in positions of authority and in dealing with the abuse crisis. He has dealt with such cases for almost his entire career: as a judge, as a superior and as a bishop, and later in Rome as a cardinal and prefect, also in sensitive situations involving bishops for abuse or cover-ups.
Leo XIV has listened to many victims and understands well what hurts them in these processes. That is why he insists on the importance not only of listening to, but of believing the victims. At the same time, as a canonist and judge, he knows that a judicial system must be objective and protect the rights of all parties: it is a difficult and slow balance.
Ukraine, Gaza, relations with Russia and Israel, dialogue with the Islamic world, ecumenism, the anniversary of Nicaea: what, in your opinion, is the “hallmark” of Leo XIV in the area of peace and dialogue, compared to his predecessors?
-We can say that the “hallmark” of Leo XIV, in this field, is precisely to build bridges and facilitate dialogue. This is not something new, but he will carry it forward with all the strength and energy at his disposal. He is not a man of polemics: he wants to reduce aggressiveness and bring a sense of calm, both in political rhetoric and in the field of arms.
Regarding Gaza and Ukraine, we have already seen that his position is perhaps somewhat clearer than Francis'. Already in our interview he said publicly - without expressing it directly - that what happened in Gaza was genocide. And he is meeting frequently with the Ukrainian authorities: he has met three times with President Zelenski since his election. So he is very involved and will always look for ways out that respect international law and avoid further escalation.
«Leo XIV is a very approachable communicator. He knows how to speak today's language with today's media... He expresses himself directly and clearly, and offers prudent but honest answers.»
Elise Ann Allen
The pope has linked his name to Leo XIII and to Rerum novarum, What vision of AI emerges from his language and priorities, and what contribution can this pontificate offer to the Church's social doctrine?
-The contribution that Leo XIV can offer is, above all, a search for balance. Already in his words - both in what he said to me and in his public speeches in recent months - he has spoken of human creativity and of all the possibilities that exist for doing good and helping humanity through artificial intelligence, but also of the many risks. Among them is the risk of forgetting our own humanity: that which distinguishes human beings from other creatures. But there is also the risk of losing sight of the truth. We live in an age of “fakes": fake news, The technology, false images, false content that is difficult to verify. And then there is the whole economic component: there are billions behind this technology, enriching a few while an increasing number of people live in poverty, with land and labor exploited by large companies dominated by the “1 %”, so to speak.
Leo XIV is a man who wants to foster human creativity, also in the field of technology, but in a just way that respects human dignity and in which people - especially the poor - are not forgotten.
You remember that Leo XIV, even before the election, was already using social networks, including WhatsApp. What kind of communicator does he seem to you and to what extent does this style influence your way of exercising the Petrine ministry?
-He is a very close communicator. He knows how to speak the language of today with today's media, even with a very competent use of the emojis in mobile applications. He expresses himself directly and clearly, and offers prudent but honest answers. He is a very capable person, very attentive to what is happening in the world, and someone who dialogues and knows how to dialogue with the world.
He knows where the people are and he knows how to be present there, with them. He wants to continue to promote that dialogue and, in fact, he is especially prepared to do so.
If I had to point out to the readers of Omnes a single scene from your book that best “tells” who Leo XIV is, which one would you choose and why?
-I would choose the moment in which Leo XIV relates his arrival in Peru for the first time, in 1985. That, for me, is the key to understanding him. He speaks of the culture shock of moving from Rome to Chulucanas in those years, of poverty and terrorism, of being sick with typhus and having to drive three hours to get to the nearest clinic. It was in those conditions - sick and suffering, in the midst of nothingness and extreme poverty - that he clearly understood God's call and decided to accept it without looking back. After his “yes” to the priesthood, that was his first “yes” to the mission: to a call from God that would take him to the whole world and, finally, to the See of Peter.
Alfonso Carrascosa: “Catholic women scientists have existed and do exist”.”
“Catholic women scientists have existed, exist and will continue to exist. Faith is not lost by doing research,” says Alfonso Carrascosa, author of ‘100 Spanish Catholics and Women Scientists’. The researcher reflects on forgotten female trajectories,the science and faith, and references that expand the historical account of science.
On the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is celebrated on February 11, we talked to Alfonso Carrascosa, author of ‘100 Spanish Catholics and Women Scientists’. With a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a scientist at the CSIC, Carrascosa considers that “Catholic women scientists have existed, exist and will continue to exist».
Alfonso Carrascosa began his professional career in the field of microbiology. Over time, his interest turned towards the history of science, where he has developed a unique line of research: the recovery and visibility of Spanish Catholic women scientists whose careers have been, in many cases, relegated to oblivion or narrated in a fragmentary way.
The researcher has now published the book‘100 Spanish Catholics and scientists’The book brings together more than a hundred biographical sketches and highlights a central conviction of his work: that science and faith are not only compatible, but have coexisted fruitfully throughout contemporary history.
In this interview, Carrascosa reflects on the reasons that led her to explore this field of study, the historiographical challenges involved and the importance of offering female references that integrate scientific vocation and believing life.
What inspired you to research and write about Spanish Catholic women scientists?
This topic has always been of deep interest to me. I realized that no one was addressing it in a systematic way, even though there are many women who clearly fit this profile. Making them visible makes it possible to demonstrate, with concrete facts, that science and the Catholic faith are not only compatible, but that they have coexisted and mutually enriched each other over time.
My goal has been to provide names, trajectories and contexts: practicing Catholic women who developed a first level scientific or teaching work, many of them in the university environment.
In ‘100 Spanish Catholics and Women Scientists’ you propose an unusual look at these trajectories. Where do you think the main novelty of your approach lies?
- The main novelty of the project lies in the articulation of these three dimensions: women, scientists and Catholics. These are not secondary features, but constitutive aspects of their life and professional trajectories. Until now, the religious dimension of these women had been largely ignored or directly eliminated from the historiographical narrative. In some cases, their spiritual life was completely unknown; in others, it was considered irrelevant to understanding their scientific work.
The objective is not to add an anecdotal fact, but to recover an essential dimension of their biographies. A history of science that systematically disregards the religious fact necessarily offers a partial and incomplete vision.
What have been the main challenges in researching these trajectories?
- Undoubtedly, to demonstrate their status as practicing Catholic believers. This is true for both women and men. Many people have avoided publicly manifesting their faith for fear of possible professional or academic consequences. Today, in many areas, expressing one's faith is a testimonial, almost martyr-like attitude.
Paradoxically, this silence reinforces the dominant secularist narrative that there are no Catholic women scientists. My work shows that this is false. In order to reconstruct these trajectories, interviews with family members, work in personal archives and consultation of unpublished documentation have been fundamental.
The CSIC features strongly in your research. Why is it a key area?
The Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas marks the birth of the professional scientist in Spain. Between its foundation in 1939 and 1975, the female presence in its staff triples and exceeds 30% of the total. This is an objective fact that is hardly talked about.
Most significantly, the vast majority of these women were practicing Catholics. However, the idea persists that during that period science in Spain was paralyzed, which is false. The development of the CSIC demonstrates exactly the opposite.
What role does the Church play in the intellectual formation of these women?
- A decisive role in many cases. The book includes relevant groups of women scientists linked to ecclesial realities such as Opus Dei, the Catholic Association of Propagandists or the Teresian Sisters, founded by St. Pedro Poveda. These institutions offered many women spaces for high-level intellectual, academic and professional training.
An emblematic case is that of Ángeles Galino, the first university professor in contemporary Spain, who was a Teresian. Until I documented her trajectory, this fact was practically unknown.
How has the reception of your work been?
- Overall, very positive and, above all, surprising. Many people were unaware of the existence of so many women believers dedicated to scientific research. In academia and beyond, these biographies are valued as living examples of the compatibility between science and faith.
That is why I have a strong vocation for writing and publishing these portraits: I believe it is a way to enrich historical knowledge and to offer a more complete and honest narrative.
From your experience, how would you describe the relationship between science and faith?
- As a complementary and, in many cases, synergistic relationship. God lets himself be known through his works, and science seeks to describe and understand them. I have never seen a scientist lose faith because of research; on the contrary, in many cases research reinforces openness to transcendence.
The alleged incompatibility between science and the Catholic faith reflects rather the expansion of certain atheistic discourses, not a real contradiction between the two.
In closing, what advice would you give to young women scientists who wish to integrate their faith with their professional vocation?
- I would tell them not to be afraid. Catholic women scientists have existed, exist and will continue to exist. Faith is not lost by research; it can be a source of strength and meaning.
I would encourage them to rely on the ecclesial realities offered by the Church and not to hide, even in a simple way, that faith and science are compatible. This witness can be a great good for others and also for themselves.
Catholic businessman Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong
Well-known media entrepreneur, pro-democracy advocate and Catholic, Jimmy Lai, whose arrest nearly six years ago sparked outrage around the world, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A Hong Kong court sentenced Catholic media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on February 9 after finding him guilty of conspiring with foreign forces to endanger national security.
It is believed to be the harshest sentence imposed under China's so-called national security law, which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Law used to silence dissent
The law has been criticized for its vagueness and its use to silence dissent, limit press freedom and prosecute opposition figures, such as Lai, who was convicted of sedition and two counts of conspiracy to reach agreements with foreign forces on December 15.
“Today is another dark day for justice,» Lai's family said in a statement released shortly after the sentence was handed down.
“Sentencing my father to this draconian prison sentence is devastating to our family and endangers his life,” said Lai's son Sebastian. “It means the total destruction of Hong Kong's legal system and the end of justice. After more than five years of relentless persecution of my father, it is time for China to do the right thing and release him before it is too late.”.
‘A heartbreakingly cruel sentence’
Lai's daughter Claire called the 20-year prison sentence «a heartbreakingly cruel sentence.».
I have seen my father's health deteriorate drastically and the conditions in which he is being held get worse and worse. If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr's death behind bars, he said.
Lai, a British citizen who founded the now defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, campaigned in Hong Kong for press freedom and free speech for decades. Hong Kong was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, when British rule ended after more than 150 years.
“High degree of autonomy”
Hong Kong's Basic Law would supposedly allow the region to “exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy independent executive, legislative and judicial power, including final decision-making.”.
However, after a year of pro-democracy protests in 2019, China imposed the national security law, under which Lai was arrested in August 2020 and has been imprisoned since December 2020.
Following the sentencing, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the 20-year prison term was “a life sentence in practice.” And she called his conviction “a politically motivated prosecution under a law that was imposed to silence China's critics.”.
An appeal to the Hong Kong authorities
“I once again call on the Hong Kong authorities to put an end to this ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he can be reunited with his family,” Cooper wrote Feb. 9 in a statement posted on X.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who visited China from January 28-31, was criticized for not doing enough to secure Lai's release. According to BBC News, the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Issues issued a statement saying that the failure to secure the release of the British businessman had been “wasted by weak diplomacy.”.
“These opportunities will cost Jimmy Lai his life,” the statement said.
Starmer raised Lai's case with Xi
However, Cooper said Starmer had raised Lai's case “directly with (Chinese President Xi Jinping) during his visit,” which had “opened up a discussion about our most acute concerns directly with the Chinese government at the highest level.”.
“Following today's ruling, we will quickly address Mr. Lai's case further,” he said.
The sentence was also condemned by Amnesty International, calling it “another grim milestone in Hong Kong's transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one governed by fear”.
“With this sentence, we see once again how Hong Kong's National Security Law is being used to distort fundamental freedoms into criminal acts,” the human rights organization stated. “The imprisonment of Jimmy Lai is a vicious attack on freedom of expression that exemplifies the systematic dismantling of the rights that once defined Hong Kong.”.
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Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him at @jae_journalist.
This information has been published in OSV News, and can be viewed at here.
The tilma of the Virgin of Guadalupe: the eyes and more unexplained issues
Since 1531, the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the indigenous Juan Diego has fascinated Catholics and non-Catholics, as well as researchers. The tilma or mantle on which the Virgin left her image imprinted has at least 9 facts inexplicable to science.
Francisco Otamendi-February 10, 2026-Reading time: 4minutes
The Virgin Mary appeared on several occasions to the Indian Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac, today Mexico City. In one of her visits to the Franciscan bishop Fray Juan de Zumárraga, Our Lady left her image printed on the tilma de ayate, a thin fiber cloth, of the Indian Juan Diego.
There are numerous facts, at least nine, that experts have concluded as scientifically inexplicable, when analyzing the ayate or tilma of the indigenous Juan Diego, with the printed image of Our Lady. These conclusions concern the tilma itself and, above all, the eyes of Our Lady.
These facts are mentioned below, as explained by Dr. Andres Brito in a documented exposition contained in a video of Nazareth TV, which you can see below. Due to its length, 1h.14’ 53”, a synthesis is included.
Photograph of an image of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, taken in 1994 (Lyricmac, Wikimedia commons).
Brief history
Before providing a summary, please see a brief synopsis of the well-known historical facts recalled by Dr. Andres Brito in the video.
According to the guadalupana tradition, In December 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared several times to the indigenous Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac. In these apparitions, the Virgin asked him to go to the bishop Fray Juan de Zumárraga to request the construction of a temple in that place, and to transmit his message of love. The bishop asked for a sign as proof of the authenticity of the message.
In the next apparition, our Blessed Mother Mary of Guadalupe instructed Juan Diego to cut roses of Castile that miraculously bloomed in Tepeyac -something impossible in that time, December, and place- and to take them to the bishop wrapped in his tilma.
When he unfolded it before Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the flowers fell and the image of the Virgin Mary was printed in a prodigious way in the tilma Juan Diego, revealing his face and figure. Faced with this sign, the bishop believed and ordered the construction of the requested temple, giving rise to the deep devotion guadalupana in Mexico, in all America, and in the world.
9 conclusions in the light of science
“It gives the impression that the tilma is indestructible,” says the speaker. And that is where the first conclusions come from. In fact, he says, “the following is scientifically inexplicable”:
1. “That the ayate (the cloth, the tilma itself), has survived for 480 years., of which 116 were without any protection whatsoever.
2. “That the image has not deteriorated at all.”.
3. “That it resisted contact with nitric acid in 1795.”.
4. “That it remained intact after the explosive detonation of 1921.”. He survived a dynamite bombing that year.
5. “That the codices present in the tilma are a codex addressed to the Mesoamerican Indians of the 16th century. St. John Paul II called it “a perfect inculturation”.
“No known pigments”
6. “That there are no known pigments or the procedure by which the image was “impressed” onto a canvas on which there are no brushstrokes.
Dr. Richard Kuhn, Nobel laureate in chemistry, stated in 1938 that “no such pigments are known in nature on this planet. The pigments in the image are neither of animal origin, nor of vegetable origin, nor of mineral origin, nor of synthetic origin”.
Ophthalmologists
7. “That the eyes respond to the characteristics of a living human cornea.”.
8. “That there are 13 human figures in the corneal reflections only visible with contemporary technology, which excludes any possibility of chance or fraud.”.
Dr. Enrique Graue, ophthalmologist, rector of the Autonomous University of Mexico, “an authority on the subject, discovers that the eyes of the Virgin of Guadalupe reflect light exactly as a living human eye would (...) which is impossible in a painting made by a human hand”.
Since 1950, a score of well-known ophthalmologists have studied the eyes of the Virgin Mary in the tilma, and have confirmed their observations, says researcher Dr. Brito.
Dr. Rafael Torija, ophthalmologist, pointed out that the images appear reflected in both eyes, and that they “respect the Samson-Burkinje optical proportions” (in a living eye up to three images of what is in front of it can be reflected due to the curved surfaces of the cornea and crystalline lens). “It's not pareidolia, they are real images,” he adds.
Dr. José Aste Tonsmann: thirteen figures in the Virgin's eyes
“Where the incredulous definitely throw in the towel,” the speaker points out in the video (53’), is with Dr. José Aste Tonsmann, an engineer specializing in Computer Science at Cornell University, also a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana de México, who died in 2024.
Dr. Tonsmann is the one who discovered thirteen tiny, almost microscopic figures in the eyes. To do this, he needed a computer to produce “one-mm-square grids in the corneas. 1,600 grids of 15 x 15 microns. to enlarge the image 2,500 times. And to capture two hundred shades of gray, as opposed to the 30 that the human eye captures” (57′ et seq.).
“Thirteen 8 mm figures, among them that of Fray Juan de Zumárraga, that of Fray Juan González, the interpreter who was at his side, that of the Indian Juan Diego himself unfolding the tilma, which can also be seen, that of a seated Indian...”.
The images are published in Dr. Tonsmann's book, the same figures in the right eye and in the left eye, respecting the Samson-Burkinje laws, and a family group, to complete the thirteen figures”.
9. (Also unexplained): “That the stars of the mantle show with mathematical precision the constellations visible on December 12, 1531”. This and other aspects can be consulted in the video.
St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, indigenous seer of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, was canonized by St. John Paul II on July 31, 2002 in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the new Basilica (Karla T. Beltrán, Wikimedia commons).
Anxiety can paralyze daily life, but faith, action and magnanimity show ways to regain peace and hope.
February 10, 2026-Reading time: 4minutes
Carlos felt a tightness in his chest for fear of losing his job, such was his fear that he acted in such a way as to provoke his own dismissal. Magdalena imagined the worst scenarios if her husband was late in arriving; her mortification took her to the hospital thinking she was having a heart attack...after the crisis she returned home, she had experienced a panic attack. Jorge, a 13-year-old teenager, feared interacting with others, locking himself in his room most of the day. If he had to talk to anyone, his heart would flutter and he would be short of breath. He hated to feel this but could not control it, he lived in isolation. These scenes are repeated more and more every day. These are various manifestations of anxiety disorders which are the most common mental illness worldwide. Latin America reports that 7 % of its population suffers from it and only one in four people are receiving treatment.
Fear rules the mind and body
Anxiety is an adaptive response that our body uses to respond to threatening situations (real or imaginary), they are disproportionate responses, there is an excessive activation that comprehensively affects the life of the sufferer.
The anxious person is afraid of what will happen, imagines the worst possibilities and enters a loop of negative thoughts from which he/she experiences that he/she cannot get out.
If you are suffering from anxiety there are some basic first aids that have to do with deep breathing, knowing how to stop negative thoughts by paying attention to the present moment (what I am hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling); a change of healthy habits (taking care of your sleep, doing some exercise every day, reducing alcohol and caffeine consumption, consuming omega 3...). Professional therapeutic care is of great help.
Faith, a firm rock in the face of anxiety
But all these efforts must be made on the bedrock of our faith, which is why it is advisable:
Increase your knowledge of God's Word, exemplary lives that inspire, and
engage in a good cause worth giving your life for.
No longer present in our belief system is a Good God who watches over our good. We do not read the scriptures that contain these words spoken by Jesus Christ: “Do not worry about your life, how you will feed yourself; do not worry about your body, how you will clothe yourself. Look at the birds of the air, knitting is not their occupation; nor did Solomon in his glory clothe himself with such beauty. Seek first the kingdom of God and his divine righteousness, and from his hand you will receive the rest besides.” (Mt.6:27-32).
The criteria of the world have drowned out the Divine Word and have taken away our peace. Where fear grows, there is no place for faith. Our confidence is placed in ourselves, and something is really lacking. It is not that a person of faith cannot suffer from anxiety, but when it comes, he knows how to give it its place, he questions it, confronts his fears with the Truth, and promptly frees himself.
The saints with their lives remind us that the first activity of the believer is not the fight against evil from a negative attitude, but from a confident, creative and restorative attitude. In this way the believer, even if he suffers, builds peace and gives himself to a sacrificial path of continuous offering; only in this way can we free ourselves from the limits imposed by anxiety: by widening the heart.
Magnanimity: the way to enlarge the heart
St. Thomas Aquinas made an excellent suggestion that today is supported by science. He said that anguish and anxiety make you feel small and lost. To change this and recognize your potential and value there is an attitude to develop.
The word “anxiety” comes from the Latin, anxietas, which means a state of agitation, restlessness or anxiety. It derives from the Indo-European root angh-ank, which carries the sense of tightness, pain or pressure (suffocation). This Latin root is associated with words such as angor and angus, while the word angustia also comes from Latin and means narrow, strait, difficult.
Its opposite is the exit door!
To confront this paralyzing sensation, St. Thomas Aquinas proposed cultivating the magnanimity which is a broadening of the spirit, means that you can go out of yourself and give yourself to something great, that overcomes you and pushes you. To think of doing a greater good and to undertake it.
Martha's testimony
This is how Martha healed her anxiety. She was afraid of everything, that the child would fall, that she would damage the food, that there would be an accident if they used the car; if she was invited to collaborate with something she felt that she would not do it well, she constantly thought that others would see her in a bad light. She feared she might have thyroid or hormonal problems. She had check-ups that were fine but she doubted the results.
One day she met Almudena, a good friend from her youth who invited her to join a social cause: supporting pregnant and homeless women and defending unborn babies.
Martha accepted with fears included, but when she convinced a young mother to receive her baby, she felt her heart expand. She felt the joy of having saved a life, accompanied this young woman through her pregnancy and met the little baby girl who almost didn't make it. She felt she had done something valuable. During this time she had no time to feed her fears; she said to herself: this fear will not prevent me from doing good for someone else today. Magnanimity!
You are as big as the things you care about. Be victorious: look high, think noble, act brave!
In Peru, Father Ranera's poor people help the poorest of the poor
Father Miguel Ranera (Pastrana, Guadalajara, Spain, 1960) has done an enormous amount of work for the poor in different parts of Peru. From the “rescue” of “pirañitas” (lazy kids who stop in the streets to steal whatever they can), to schools, medical centers and housing for the poorest, through his NGO, Coprodeli.
P. Manuel Tamayo-February 10, 2026-Reading time: 4minutes
Coprodeli, a non-profit, Christian-inspired NGO in Peru, whose name stands for Communion, Promotion, Development and Liberation, has been fighting poverty and social exclusion in Peru for decades, as well as in Ecuador, the United States and Spain.
But it does so with a peculiarity: it mobilizes many women and young people in situations of poverty, as volunteers. They are poor people who help the poorest, and parishes that become “communities in action” to solve the problems of their own people. It is “people helping people”.
It currently benefits more than 100,000 people per year, 60% of whom live in extreme poverty, mainly in the regions of Callao and Lima.
Poor people in one of Coprodeli's centers (@Coprodeli).
P. Miguel Ranera: from Alcalá de Henares to Callao, Peru.
Its promoter and president is Father Miguel Ranera, a Spaniard from Pastrana (Guadalajara), who was educated in a convent founded by St. Teresa of Jesus, led by Franciscan missionaries. At the age of 14 he went with his family to Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), and discovered his vocation after two years of formation and apostolate in the oratory of the “hospital of Antezana”, where St. Ignatius of Loyola had lived and developed his charity.
At the age of 17 he entered and was formed in a religious community. After finishing his ecclesiastical studies, he came to Peru in 1982 and was ordained a priest on July 23, 1983, incardinating himself in the diocese of Callao at the age of 23. In Callao he began his work in the poorest neighborhoods of the diocese. He formed a dining room, a small workshop, a kindergarten and little by little it grew.
Fr. Miguel Ranera and people from one of Coprodeli's centers (@Coprodeli).
In urban-marginal sectors and rural areas
The social work ended up going beyond the parish, and in 1989, he founded Coprodeli with people from the same parish, who were poor but wanted to help the poorest. The mission was, and is, to contribute to the integral development of the urban-marginal sectors and rural areas and to eliminate poverty and social exclusion in Peru and Ecuador. And to contribute to the integral development of marginal urban sectors and work for the right of people to a dignified life.
Miguel Ranera set up the NGO by mobilizing many women and young people as Christian-inspired volunteers who organize soup kitchens, distribute humanitarian aid and solve the problems of the excluded. The poor helping the poorest.
Rescuing “los pirañitas” in Lima
Fr. Miguel began to rescue the “pirañitas” (lazy kids who stop in the streets to steal whatever they can), from the center of Lima, to give them clothes, food and advice. Thus was born the first school of Coprodeli, the Agustín de Hipona, recognizing education as an engine for the integral development of people.
As time went by, the number of cooperators, who were American and Spanish volunteers, increased in order to make these aid initiatives viable. Now, Coprodeli has schools, medical centers and housing for the poorest. More than a thousand have been built in different urbanizations in Cañete, Chincha, Pisco and Ica.
Women in another center (@Coprodeli).
The Coprodeli school, Cristo Sacerdote, in Lurin, Peru.
The “Coprodeli, Cristo Sacerdote” school was founded in Lurin, in the province of Lima, 15 kilometers from the capital. The new school, classified as “privately managed public”, offers kindergarten, primary and secondary education. It has 14 classrooms, science laboratories, a library, dining room, chapel and sports fields, on land provided by the diocese of Lurin.
The project has been promoted by the Coprodeli Association, an entity that is part of a network of 30 charter schools in the south of Lima. This educational model, supported by an agreement between the Association and UGEL 01, seeks to guarantee accessible and quality education for the most vulnerable families.
P. Miguel Ranera (@Coprodeli).
Project in El Callao
On the other hand, in the province of Callao, the Project for the Construction of Classrooms was inaugurated at the San Juan Macías Private Public Educational Institution, located in the Ciudadela Pachacútec Settlement Center, district of Ventanilla, Callao.
The work was carried out by the aforementioned association Communion, Promotion, Development and Liberation, within the framework of the Non-Reimbursable Financial Assistance Program for Community Projects for Human Security (APC).
Convivium: Madrid priests reflect on their mission in a day marked by fraternity
The presbyteral assembly Convivium brought together more than 1,000 priests from the diocese of Madrid for a day of reflection on their identity and mission.
The Diocese of Madrid has about 2,500 incardinated priests. A large number of them, more than 1,200 were registered, gathered at the Fundación Pablo VI for the two key days of Convivium, the presbyteral assembly convened by the Archdiocese of Madrid, and that these days brings together the priests of the diocese to reflect on their identity and mission in the current context.
The classroom of the Paul VI Foundation was not enough to accommodate the priests of Madrid gathered for the priestly assembly, who had to spread out in three rooms.
The key days of meetings began with a joint prayer, a video on Madrid accompanied by the voice of Joaquín Sabina, the singing of the hymn composed for this Assembly and the reading of the letter that Pope Leo XIV addressed the priests of Madrid on the occasion of this meeting.
The Pope to the priests of Madrid: “No one should feel alone”.”
The Pope appreciates, in this letter, He also pointed out that the priests that Madrid needs must be “men configured to Christ, capable of sustaining their ministry from a living relationship with Him”.
“It is not a matter of inventing new models or redefining the identity we have received, but of re-proposing, with renewed intensity, the priesthood in its most authentic core - being alter Christus -, letting Him be the one who shapes our life”, the Pope emphasizes in this letter in which, taking as a model the Cathedral of Madrid, the Pontiff wanted to point out how “no one should feel alone in the exercise of the ministry” and encourage priests to confess and to drink from the Fountain that they must then give.
The Pope also recalled the need for different charisms in the Church, “with the different charisms and spiritualities through which the Lord enriches and sustains your vocation. Each one receives a particular way of expressing the faith and nourishing interiority, but all remain oriented towards the same center,” which is Christ.
Cardinal Cobo: “We are not Gospel snipers”.”
For his part, Cardinal Cobo gave St. Isidro Labrador as an example and also emphasized priestly fraternity, stressing that “the miracle that the Lord gives us today is not having to “plow alone’.
“We also work in fields that we do not see flourishing, but we know that we are not snipers of the Gospel, but brothers in a diocese,” the prelate recalled.
“Let us pray that this time may make us ‘more priests,’” the Archbishop of Madrid stressed in conclusion.
Cardinal Bustillo: “A shepherd does not manage his flock, he loves it”.”
Cardinal Francisco Javier Cardinal Bustillo OFMConv, Bishop of Ajaccio (Corsica), was in charge of the inaugural lecture “The situation of priests in the present time”. The Franciscan developed an interesting presentation structured around 5 phrases, some taken directly from the Gospel, to highlight the profile and challenges of the priest today.
The points developed have been:
The priest is an authentic man
The priest cannot be artificial or superficial. He must be coherent with the Gospel. On this point, the Franciscan, giving as an example some literary titles, emphasized the need to ask oneself “Have I really lived? This question is important for us priests. We have a frenetic life, but does it fill us or empty us? We can fall into the tyranny of the social or ecclesial gaze. Act in order to be looked at”.
God's word to Jonah: set out on your journey
Cardinal Bustillo encouraged priests to take advantage of a time when “There are young people thirsting for better lives. Many lives need guidance. The world of faith is there in spite of everything, the Christian Faith is still alive and Christian spirituality helps man to emerge from emptiness and find meaning”. To this end, he appealed to the need for the “vitamin C of the priest: the energy of the Holy Spirit” and encouraged them to take care of joy and health to respond to the challenges of today.
Feed them yourselves. We have only 5 loaves and 2 fish
This third point was perhaps the most extensive and profound of the talk given by the Bishop of Ajaccio, who repeatedly stressed that “the priest is a man of faith, not a manager”. The priest must be able to integrate changes and passages. Jesus always risks, he leaves the ‘we have always done it this way’.” In this sense, he advocated “to get out of an all too human conception of faith, often linked to tactics and statistics, and to develop a paschal mentality, capable of creating and believing in the opening of new passages.”.
Priests, Bustillo reiterated, have to avoid three dangers
Amnesia to forget the first love that was strengthened at his ordination. The priest does not receive these gifts to accumulate them but to share them.
TibiezaLukewarmness turns our life into a cemetery, it is the peace of cemeteries. Lukewarmness is the crisis of non-choice.
AnemiaThe logic of gift, in vocation, leads us to imitate Jesus, who gave everything. The logic of gift, in vocation, leads us to imitate Jesus, who gave everything. Priests are there to give their lives, not a 20 %.
Peter, do you love me? Shepherd my sheep
On this fourth point, François-Xavier Bustillo emphasized that “we are priests to love, not for the organization. The priest is not a leader, he is a shepherd, a disciple of Jesus. Jesus raises the question of love, because love precedes the mission of leading the flock. From the primacy of love for the Lord flows the mission and not the other way around. The pastor is the opposite of a civil servant. A pastor does not manage his flock, even if he is efficient. He loves him. Within this primacy of love, the Bishop of Ajaccio stressed that ”priestly fraternity is the manifestation of this love“.
I make all things new
Finally, Bishop Bustillo emphasized that “Jesus is a novelty for us. He says ‘You have heard,...but I say to you’, he proposes a new life to us”. In this line, “the Church has to make us dream, not cry. It is not a matter of erasing tradition but of enriching the life of the Church” and for this, “to live the priesthood with fidelity. In fidelity and joy there is always fruitfulness”.
The day continued with a series of group meetings and, in the afternoon, will continue with Focus groups on the topics proposed in the pre-assemblies, to which the priests will have signed up according to their preferences, followed by the Plenary and Holy Mass in the Almudena Cathedral.
During the previous weeks, several working groups organized in 28 thematic groups have been held to discuss specific issues, such as:
The holiness and affectivity of the priest.
The care of elderly priests.
The challenges of migration and poverty in Madrid.
Arregui, a pastor with a vision of eternity and feet on the ground
Some pastors leave their mark not only for what they did, but also for how they lived their dedication. Antonio Arregui was one of them: a life of service to Ecuador for more than six decades, with the soul of a mystic and the determination of God's “007 agent”.
More than 30 years ago, when I was just a student, a professor told me something that I never forgot: «I've never forgotten.«I know a bishop who looks like a super agent.«. When I met him personally shortly after graduating, I understood that this was not an exaggeration. Don Antonio Arregui possessed that rare and admirable blend of mystical depth and astonishing practical efficiency. I always thought of him as Agent 007.
His commitment was not improvised; it had deep roots. He asked for admission to the Opus Dei in 1957 and, after his ordination to the priesthood in 1964, he arrived in Ecuador in 1965, never to leave again. It was here that his vocation of service was forged in moments of surprising spiritual density. He spent 62 years serving the country.
In 1974, he experienced the paradox of faith when he received St. Josemaría in Ecuador: the immense joy of the encounter in the face of the weight of the pain caused by the Founder's health. Those were days in which the joy of having our Father was mixed with constant vigil, because the altitude sickness struck hard on his already tired body. It was a great teaching of how to serve in fragility.
Don Antonio accompanying St. Josemaría on his arrival in Quito together with Blessed Alvaro
We saw that same fidelity when he succeeded Bishop Juan Larrea as Vicar of Opus Dei in Ecuador, and later following in his footsteps as Bishop of Ibarra and Archbishop of Guayaquil. In spite of the difficulties -which were never lacking- he never lost his smile nor did he stop extending his hand to offer a detail, a word or a consolation to whoever needed it.
He followed in the footsteps of Bishop Juan Larrea Holguín.
Don Antonio was a builder in the broadest sense of the word. Thanks to his vision and his close relationship with the German Church and several international foundations, he managed the necessary resources to build numerous churches and finance emblematic projects such as the improvement of the Guayaquil Cathedral. But his legacy went far beyond stone: he gave a strong impetus to the management of the Diakonia Food Bank, the network of Redima health clinics and strengthened the educational network of Catholic schools, convinced that charity, health and education are the pillars on which human dignity is based.
He was, without a doubt, the great champion of the pro-life cause in our country. With a subtle intelligence and tireless perseverance, he dedicated himself to form leaders and defend the truth about marriage and the family. To his prudence and good arts we owe, to a great extent, that our Constitution maintains a pro-life essence. I remember how he insisted that I dedicate my time to get something done in this area, which, thank God, was achieved. consolidatedsome projects.
In 2008 with the pro-life movement
In the face of difficulties, he never gave in to discouragement; he continued to work in silence, with the peace of one who knows that he is doing God's will, to reverse the throwaway culture.
An impeccable man who cannot be implicated in any scandal.
Beyond his great management achievements, I prefer to remember him as the gentleman he was. I have witnessed his pastoral dedication in recent years. He attended to the scheduled activities with great care, and we rarely had to replace him.
I cherish with special affection the memory of his sharpness and his fine sense of humor, reflected in those witty and affectionate letters that he personally wrote to celebrate the birthday celebrations. In those small details we could see the man who knew how to love concretely.
I thank God for his life and because Bishop Antonio Arregui was a living reflection of the promise of the prophet Jeremiah in Jer 3:15: “Then I will give them shepherds after my own heart, who will guide them with knowledge and understanding”.
Thank you for so much, Don Antonio! Rest in the peace of the Lord and intercede for us, Agent 007.
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Bible for Zoquetes: when the Bible looks at you and says «you didn't think of this».»
Bible for Zoquetes 2 does not pretend to please everyone. It aims to provoke, to awaken questions and to restore to the Bible something that is sometimes lost: the capacity for wonder.
Reading the Bible can be an awe-inspiring, enlightening... or downright intimidating experience. María Vallejo-Nágera does not intend to solve this dilemma with an academic treatise or a pious manual. Her proposal is something else: to provoke curiosity, to unsettle the reader and, if all goes well, to leave him or her wanting to go straight to the biblical text. Thus is born Bible for Zoquetes 2, the second installment of a series that is as unconventional as it is deliberately personal.
A series that is not at all neutral (and proud to be so).
In the last two years, Vallejo-Nágera has published the first two volumes of this series designed to teach people about the Bible and encourage them to read it, not to explain it exhaustively. This is not a typical popular essay, nor is it a catechism in disguise. Bible for Zoquetes is a narrative bet, with a very recognizable voice: casual, feminine, sharp, provocative and entertaining.
The author writes from a specific place: after two years of biblical study at Harvard and Comillas Pontifical University, and after teaching courses on biblical popularization, she decides to put in writing a part of what she has learned. The result does not aspire to completeness, but to impact.
Vallejo-Nágera explains that her path as a biblical communicator began almost spontaneously, when she was “so fascinated by the Bible” that she couldn't stop talking about it. “I devoured it,” she recalls, and she told all her friends about it until she thought: “this can't be”. So she decided to set up “a tiny little school”, with no academic or institutional pretensions, designed solely “for a small group of friends”. They were all Catholics, but, as she humorously acknowledges, “they didn't have a clue”, so she looked for an unexpected hook: art. “Since they love art, I began to explain the Bible to them in front of the paintings in the Prado”. Thus was born the «Escuelita Virgen de Guadalupe», a project that began informally and that, “nine years ago now”, became the germ of a different and very personal way of bringing the Bible to new readers.
Few core ideas and many surprises
And what do we find in the pages of the «Bible for Dummies 2»? A handful of key ideas and a shower of interesting curiosities. The goal is to surprise the reader: to discover details he had never noticed before and a veritable gallery of secondary characters with stories of all kinds - disturbing, funny, noble, miserable - that populate the biblical text and usually go unnoticed.
The author's eye for asking uncomfortable or unexpected questions is simply brilliant. Vallejo-Nágera looks right where many read too long... and wonders: Why does it happen this way? What is behind it?
If you connect with the style, you have a great time.
This point is key and should be stated bluntly: this book is not for everyone. And that's okay. Vallejo-Nágera's narrative style is very marked. If you connect with it, you will enjoy it a lot. If you don't, you'll put the book down after a few pages, but it's definitely worth giving it a chance and experiencing it firsthand.
There is no middle ground. It's like that brilliant friend who makes jokes all the time: either you laugh with him or you'd rather sit at another table. In my case, I enjoyed the book immensely, although I didn't connect with the graphic jokes the author intersperses in the narrative. But the whole thing works. And it works very well.
Stories that whet the biblical appetite
Bible for Zoquetes 2 is not intended to replace the reading of Scripture, but to whet the appetite. It already does so, for example, when it approaches the Jewish tradition of Lilith, The author's work is also interesting when he dwells on figures scarcely mentioned in the biblical text, but fundamental for its comprehension.
In several scenes, the author completes the biblical context with references to the particular revelations of Blessed Catherine Emmerich, which often shed surprising light on difficult passages. Particularly illuminating is her contribution to understanding the famous episode of the struggle between Jacob and God, a text as fascinating as it is puzzling.
Or when he presents Melchizedek, a character who appears in just one line of the Bible and yet is a key figure in the Jewish and Christian priestly tradition. Vallejo-Nágera explains why his figure is so relevant, «to the point where the Church ordains priests as «priest forever according to the rite of Melchizedek».
The recourse to Emmerich, used freely and without complexes, reinforces the personal character of the book: Vallejo-Nágera does not hide from where he looks or what traditions help him to read.
In this second volume, Vallejo-Nágera recognizes that she has “spilled her guts” with one of those “tiny” characters that appear in the Bible and before which the attentive reader is forced to stop in his tracks: «Wait, wait, wait... what did the text just say about this poor girl? It is about Dinah, »the little sister of the twelve tribes“, an almost forgotten figure whose story - marked by violence and silence - often goes unnoticed.
From “the small verses that speak of her, which are very few”, the author decided to “dig deep” to investigate what the Talmud said, to consult articles recommended by her professors and to reconstruct a story that she describes as “fascinating”. The result is a very complete chapter that restores Dinah's place in biblical history. The surprise came later, when Vallejo-Nágera discovered that Catalina Emmerich also mentioned her: “I was totally amazed,” she confesses, confirming that even the margins of the sacred text hide stories that ask to be read with different eyes.
Understanding the human heart without anachronisms
One of the book's greatest strengths is its ability to explore human nature as it appears in the Bible. Jealousy, revenge or resentment are familiar to us; not so much personal and family honor, a decisive category in the biblical world and deeply transformed in contemporary culture.
Far from projecting current sensibilities on ancient texts, this work does just the opposite: it strives to understand the characters in their context, without sweetening them or judging them from modern parameters. In that sense, the treatment of the human heart, especially that of women and their historical situation, is worked with intelligence and sensitivity.
Bible for Zoquetes 2 does not pretend to please everyone. It aims to provoke, to awaken questions and to restore to the Bible something that is sometimes lost: the capacity for wonder. If the reader enters the game, the journey is well worth it. And, hopefully, you will end up where the author wants to take you from the beginning: opening the Bible on your own.
Anti-Trafficking Day: “Peace begins with dignity,” Pope stresses
In the memory of santa Josefina Bakhita, Pope Leo XIV has recalled in the XII World Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking, that “peace begins with dignity”. He also praised Blessed Valera as ‘an encouragement for priests’, and prayed for Nigeria, and for Italy, Morocco, Portugal and Andalusia (Spain), affected by floods.
In an Angelus with numerous prayer intentions, the Pope focused on “rekindling joy with concrete gestures of openness and attention to others”. Then, he recalled the feast of the Sudanese nun saint Josephine Bakhita, The first time she was enslaved as a child, she reaffirmed that “peace begins with dignity”.
He also thanked “the nuns and all those who are committed to eliminating the current forms of slavery”.
In its message for the XII World Day of Prayer and Reflection against Hunger and Poverty Human Trafficking, The Holy Father reaffirms the Catholic Church's commitment to combat this scourge. He also thanks those who serve with delicacy and consideration in approaching victims of trafficking, including international networks and organizations. “I strongly renew the Church's urgent call to confront and put an end to this grave crime against humanity.”.
‘Cura Valera”: encouragement for priests, “to be faithful in daily life”.”
Along with this appeal, the Holy Father reported on the recently beatified Don Salvador Valera Parra, ‘priest Valera’, in Huércal-Overa (Almería, Spain), “a parish priest fully dedicated to his people, humble and solicitous in pastoral charity. May his example as a priest focused on the essentials be an encouragement to the priests of today, so that they may be faithful in daily life lived with simplicity and austerity”.
The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, said yesterday that the new Blessed, diocesan priest, archpriest and parish priest, in all circumstances, even the most risky, always stood by the weakest. «The sick, the poor and the needy who walked the streets and inhabited the houses of this land.”.
Pope Leo XIV prays the Angelus in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, February 1, 2026. (Photo by OSV News/Matteo Pernaselci, Vatican Media).
Prayer for Nigeria, and solidarity with those affected by floods
“It is with pain and concern that I have learned of the attacks in Nigeria, which have caused great loss of human life. I express my prayerful closeness to all the victims of violence and terrorism. I hope that the competent authorities will continue to act with determination to ensure the safety and security of every citizen,” the Pope added.
The Pope also assured his prayers for the populations of Portugal, Morocco, Spain, in particular Grazalema in Andalusia, and southern Italy, especially in Niscemi (Sicily), affected by heavy floods. “I encourage the communities to remain united and in solidarity, with the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary,” he said.
“God never discards us”, “attention to others to rekindle joy”.”
After having proclaimed the Beatitudes, the Pope meditated today on the Àngelus on this message of Jesus: “You are the salt of the earth. [You are the light of the world» (Mt 5:13-14)”.
“It seems that Jesus warns those who listen to him not to renounce joy. The salt that has lost its taste, he says, ‘is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by people’ (Mt 5:13).”.
The Successor of Peter said that “Jesus announces to us a God who never discards us, a Father who guards our name and our uniqueness”, and that “concrete gestures of openness and attention to others are what rekindle joy”.
Jesus himself was tempted, in the desert, by other ways, he stressed: to assert his identity, to show it off and to have the world at his feet. “But he rejects the ways in which he would have lost his true flavor, that which we find every Sunday in the breaking of the Bread: the life given, the love that makes no noise.”.
“Mary, Gate of Heaven”.”
“To Mary, Gate of Heaven,” the Pope concluded, “let us now direct our gaze and our prayer, that she may help us to be and remain disciples of her Son.”.
Alfonso Aguiló: “In education, perhaps there has been a lack of communion between charisms”.”
Alfonso Aguiló addresses some of the challenges facing Catholic schools today: the need to combine Christian identity with academic excellence, the authority of parents and teachers, overly protective regulations and the importance of public funding.
We interviewed Alfonso Aguiló Pastrana, one of the most recognized voices in the educational field in Spain and abroad. He has dedicated a large part of his professional life to educational management, pedagogical reflection and the promotion of projects with a Christian identity. He has been director of the Tajamar School in Madrid and currently chairs the Arenales Educational Network, which brings together more than thirty centers in Europe, Africa and America, as well as the Spanish Confederation of Educational Centers (CECE), which represents approximately one third of the country's private and state-subsidized education. In addition, he advises educational institutions in dozens of countries and is the author of more than four hundred articles and a dozen books on education, society and anthropology.
From your experience as a manager, what would you say is the most difficult thing today in providing a truly Catholic education?
-It is difficult to make a general diagnosis, because different things happen to each project. But, globally, we see various scenarios. There are projects that are doing very well; others, on the other hand, have lost a lot of their Christian identity; others maintain it in the pastoral area, but less so in the basic issues; others the other way around; and others have lost almost all public manifestation of the faith.
In addition, there is another important problem: there are people with a very clear Christian identity but who are not good managers. There are also good managers with a weak Christian identity. The challenge is not to choose between one thing or the other, but the unity of all aspects. The Christian vision attends to the person and the school as a whole.
If I had to underline something today, I would say that the Catholic school should distinguish itself especially for its good formation in the use of reason and for its interest in all knowledge. There are moral problems, yes, but I think there are even greater problems related to the lack of rigorous thinking. If a person learns to think well and to be a good person, Christian identity finds a well-fertilized path for growth.
«Here there is a growing problem: a minority of very demanding families, protected by overly protective regulations, is generating a culture of distrust. The teacher feels unprotected, loses authority, and that deteriorates the personal encounter, which is the most valuable aspect of education.».
Alfonso Aguiló
You mentioned the intellectual and academic dimension. What other elements do you consider essential for a school to be truly Christian?
-The viability of the project is essential. If a family provides an excellent Christian education but mismanages its resources, something is wrong. The same is true of a school. Economic and organizational viability is also part of making the talents work. Christian identity does not consist in being a character out of reality, with very lofty speeches, but who then ruins the projects he directs.
I relate it very much to the parable of the talents. We have received talents and we are called to make them work: in the more strictly business management aspect -because a school is also a business- and in the aspect of identity, purpose and mission.
In your opinion, what is the key role that parents should play at school, and what problems or conflicts currently arise in the relationship between the family and the school?
-It is fundamental to achieve the protagonism of parents, in line with the magisterium of the Church: family and school must act in a coordinated manner. But sometimes this protagonism is confused with the government of the center.
In a good hospital, the patient and his family are at the center, but they are not the ones who diagnose, operate or manage. In the school, something similar happens: the family must be central in educational care, not necessarily in technical management.
Here there is a growing problem: a minority of very demanding families, protected by overly protective regulations, is generating a culture of distrust. The teacher feels unprotected, loses authority, and this deteriorates the personal encounter, which is the most valuable aspect of education.
This is not a problem in Catholic schools or in education in general; it also occurs in medicine and other professional fields.
Do you think the current regulations are influencing this situation?
-There is a tendency to protect -with all good intentions- the rights of the child, but with a collateral effect: the teacher feels legally too vulnerable. Without authority it is not possible to generate culture, and without culture there is no real education. School is not only the transmission of content -that is clearly a downward trend-. What is on the rise is the human community that is created, and this is affected by an excess of defensiveness.
I believe that it is necessary to revise certain regulations to give authority back to the teacher. Without authority, a healthy educational culture cannot be generated. I am not talking about eliminating norms, but adjusting them. All laws need revision; that is democracy.
In many countries, the idea seems to be growing that anyone who wants Catholic education should pay for it in full. What is your opinion on this matter?
-That idea is profoundly mistaken. In almost every country in the world there is public funding of private education because, after World War II, it was understood that in order to move away from the horrors of totalitarianism, more must be done to make society plural, and for that it needs plural education. And for access to it to be plural, it must be financed.
Only between 7 % and 10 % of the population can afford private education without public support. If there is no funding, there is no real freedom of choice. The State does not finance the Church: it finances families who want an educational project in accordance with their convictions. Not to do so would be discriminatory. Just as political parties or trade unions -private institutions that operate in the public sphere- are financed, it is natural that there should be private educational centers financed with public money that guarantee pluralism, freedom and democracy. To deny this is neither modern nor democratic; it is a step backwards in terms of rights.
«There is a tendency to protect - with all good intentions - the rights of the child, but with a collateral effect: the teacher feels legally too vulnerable.».
Alfonso Aguiló
In the United States there are organizations that evaluate the “catholicity” of universities and educational centers through qualitative analysis and objective data. Do you think something like this would help in other countries?
-I am in favor of metrics, because they help to complement impressions. But measuring who is “more Catholic” is risky. It would be like ranking who is a better person.
The criteria for “being Catholic” should not be set by a private entity, but by the Church, and I sincerely do not think it is in its interest to do so. What does seem reasonable to me is to analyze objective elements: presence of the sacraments, prayer, social action, quality as a human community, care for creation, etc. Then each family will give more weight to some or others according to its sensibility. This plurality is very healthy in the Church.
You are part of the General Council of the Church in Education of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. What fruit do you expect from this work?
-I believe that one of the most interesting fruits is to generate a culture of collaboration among the institutions. Historically, each charism has taken great care of its own, which is logical and very positive, but there has been a lack of communion between charisms. The Christian message of fraternity should also be manifested in greater institutional collaboration within the Church.
Nerea Castellanos after overcoming cancer: «the only thing that calmed me was to offer the suffering».»
The young woman from Alicante, Nerea Castellanos, faced a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball. She overcame cancer with optimism, a lot of faith and by the hand of her guardian angel.
For years, Nerea Castellanos (Alicante, 1995) lived with a tumor the size of a tennis ball without knowing it. What began in April 2023 as headaches, vomiting and vision problems - initially attributed to migraines and a cervical contracture - ended in a life-changing diagnosis: a grade 3 astrocytoma in the right frontal lobe of the brain. Despite two surgeries, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, Nerea says she shared her testimony at Instagram, Among other things, because I wanted to remember all that.
From the beginning she had a certainty that never left her: «I knew she was going to be cured». Indeed, in just nine months, on January 25, 2024, she received the good news: «there is no disease». The first thing she did was to pray before the tabernacle of the San Juan University Hospital. Today she looks back on all that and testifies to the faith that sustained her and the meaning of her suffering.
In this interview, Nerea tells us how she coped with her cancer. We can glimpse her optimism in small everyday gestures, such as the decision to dress up and dress in cheerful colors every time she went to the oncology department, a simple but firm way of facing an environment marked by sadness and suffering.
When you were told you had a brain tumor, what was the first shock like? What role did faith play?
He has had the whole role. As soon as I was told about it, I thought «what should I do now». Maybe without being aware of it, the Holy Spirit and the Lord were in me, because at no time was I worried.
People told me that my attitude was not normal. Now I am even more aware that this peace was a gift that the Lord gave me at that moment, and I have always been very positive and very cheerful. In fact, I was like the one who had to console everyone because I knew I was going to be cured.
Why did you decide to share your testimony in networks?
I was living so many things that I didn't want to forget anything: anecdotes from the hospital, my siblings coming from abroad to see me, deep conversations with my family... I made a second private Instagram account as a diary to keep everything there, but I never uploaded anything. I felt it didn't make sense to separate a “nice Instagram” from the real thing.
Deep down, the only thing that held me back was the fear that it would seem that I was looking for pity or attention. In the end I thought: «this is my reality, I want to keep it for myself and also share it in case someone else finds it useful or feels identified. And if it bothers anyone, they can always stop following me».
In fact, when I was diagnosed with the tumor I read the book by Elena Huelva, the girl who died of cancer. Her testimony helped me a lot, because I felt that, in a way, I was talking to her. No matter how much I talked to my friends or other people, it was not the same. She was describing trials, feelings and moments that I was also going through, and I felt very identified. Even if I couldn't talk directly to her, she was very much with me. So I thought that maybe I could also help someone by telling my story, especially because brain cancer, as was my case, is very scary, and it doesn't always have to end badly.
Have you seen fruits after sharing your testimony?
Yes, there have been some very special cases. One of them is a father I am very fond of. He contacted me because his one-year-old daughter had the same tumor as me. In fact, worse. And it had come to his attention when I told him that the only thing that gave me peace was to offer suffering. He wanted to understand this better.
She felt guilty, she thought her daughter's illness was a punishment from God and we talked about it. I finally got to meet them in person when they came to Alicante for treatment. I spent time with the child, playing with her, and it was a gift. To this day we still write to each other.
What was it for you to offer that suffering?
What I get the most out of everything that has happened to me is the offering of suffering. For me it was a revelation.
One day, after telling me that they had removed practically all the tumor, I had my mind set on going home. But, at the last minute, they told me that they had to give me an injection in my stomach. It may seem silly, but I had a panic attack: I felt that I could not go on any longer, that I had no strength for anything else. And to top it off, they explained that I would have to take it every day for at least fifteen days.
The next day I woke up in anguish, waiting for the moment when someone would come through the door to prick me. I cried, tried to distract myself with music or drawing, but nothing calmed me. Until something did click inside me and I thought: “I'm going to offer it”.
It was instantaneous. Suddenly the suffering made sense, it gave me peace. I understood that it was not in vain, that I could offer it for someone, for the Lord. And that changed everything.
Before the first operation, you were told that you could come out lifeless. How did you face the possibility of dying?
At that time I was alone with my father and we started talking about it. I said, “Dad, if I die, I'm not going to know. I'm not going to suffer, I'm going to be asleep.” Also, I explained to him that if I died, I would have reached the goal, the best place I can be, I would have reached heaven with the Lord and that I would be better off than here.
He understood what I was saying, even if it hurt. I knew they would suffer because of the human attachment we have, but for me it was a very real peace. I wasn't playing hard to get: I really felt it. Now I think it was the Holy Spirit sustaining me, because, if not, it cannot be explained.
Have you seen how this illness has strengthened your relationship with God?
Yes, now I am more aware of the trust I had in Him and the grace He gave me. I see His presence in my life and I am more grateful.
A few months before all this, I was already very strong in my faith. In fact, a friend even told me that it seemed that the Lord was preparing me for that moment. I am not overflowing with faith by any stretch of the imagination, but even then I felt very strong.
Other aspects were also strengthened, such as my relationship with my guardian angel. Before the operation, a priest suggested to my father that I talk a lot with my angel and the guardian angels in the operating room, and I did. Since then I am much more aware of him and talk to him many times a day.
What place has Our Lady occupied in this process?
I slept every night in the hospital with my rosary rolled up in my hand. After all, she is my mother, literally.
Every day my earth mother slept with me and held my hand; she almost always stayed with me. On the day of the operation, however, I had to spend the night in resuscitation and I could not go in there.
That night I really felt that Our Lady was with me, as if she was holding my hand. I couldn't see well or use my cell phone, but I managed to put on music and spent the whole night listening to Am I not here, who am your mother? of Athens and Quiet by Luis Po. I didn't sleep at all, but those songs sustained me, especially the one about the Virgin, which says something like: “I am here, I am your mother, don't be afraid”.
After receiving the news that there is no illness, what do you feel God is asking of you?
I'm still figuring that out. But I felt very clear that I wanted to do something that would really help, both at work and personally. I had a lot of uncertainty, but also the conviction that the Lord had saved me because he had a plan for me. I kept asking him, “Lord, what do you want from me?.
Eventually he gave me the job where I am now, in a foundation for people with mental health problems, where I am very happy. There I also met my partner, whom I will marry next year, and I live it as a gift from God.
I feel that He has saved me for this plan and that I will continue to discover more things, but it is clear to me that I cannot stop talking about Him and trying to help and be His instrument.
Forgiveness in a couple: what psychology reveals about trusting again
A study published in a scientific journal Q1 (Scopus) validates in Spain a key tool to measure forgiveness in couples. The research dismantles myths and shows that forgiveness is an inner, free and complex process.
Forgiveness is neither forgetting nor automatic reconciliation, but an inner, complex and deeply human process. This is demonstrated by recent research led by psychologist Agata Kasprzak and Maria Pilar Martinez-Diaz, which has just been published in Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, a scientific journal of international reference in family and couple therapy.
The study validates in the Spanish population the Marital Offense-Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS), an international instrument that allows rigorous measurement of how people deal with forgiveness after a specific offense within a couple's relationship. The work has been carried out by researchers from the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria and the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and represents a relevant advance for both psychological research and clinical practice.
Measuring forgiveness to better understand it
Far from reducing forgiveness to a superficial attitude or a well-intentioned formula, the validated scale makes it possible to analyze it as a profound motivational change. As Agata Kasprzak explains, “from psychology we understand forgiveness as a change in motivation towards the other: when there is forgiveness, avoidance, resentment and the desire for revenge decrease, and a different disposition towards encounter and reparation may appear”.
The tool assesses two major dimensions. On the one hand, avoidance and resentment, which reflect the tendency to withdraw emotionally, ruminate on the damage or keep the wound alive. On the other, benevolence, understood not as naivety or justification of what happened, but as “an internal willingness to look at the other without hostility, once the wound has been recognized and elaborated”.
Forgiveness is not forgetting or denying the damage
One of the main contributions of the research is to help dismantle simplistic ideas about forgiveness, which are widespread in society. “Forgiveness is not forgetting what has happened, or pretending it never happened, or automatically reconciling,” Kasprzak stresses. “Forgiveness is first and foremost a free response to the harm. It does not stem from the event itself, but from the position I take in the face of what has happened to me.”.
In this sense, the psychologist insists that forgiveness does not imply minimizing the wound: “Forgiveness does not mean denying the pain, but recognizing it without letting the wound define me. For this reason, she adds, forgiveness can occur even when the relationship does not continue: ”It is an inner act. I can forgive even when there is no reconciliation“.
A slow, cumbersome and unenforceable process
The research, supported by years of clinical work with couples, highlights that forgiveness is a long and sometimes uncomfortable process. “It's a very complex human experience,” Kasprzak explains. Against the idea that time heals everything, he warns: “Time can alleviate the intensity of the pain, but it does not replace the process of forgiveness, which is only possible from the freedom of the one who has been hurt”.
For this reason, he stresses, forgiveness cannot be demanded. “Forgiveness always belongs to the freedom of the one who has been hurt; that is why it cannot be claimed as a right, but received as a gift”. In many cases, when relationships become blocked in dynamics of silence, distance or mutual reproach, the intervention of a third party, such as a therapist, can be key to unblock the process.
Scientific rigor and clinical application
The study was conducted with more than 700 people in stable relationships, who were asked to recall a specific offense and to respond to the items of the scale based on that actual experience. In addition to statistically validating the instrument in Spain, the researchers tested its equivalence with U.S. samples, allowing international comparisons of results.
Publication in a Q1 journal (Scopus) reinforces the scientific value of the work and its impact on the field of couple psychology. But, beyond the academic indicators, the study offers a fundamental contribution: to help to better understand what forgiveness is - and what it is not - and why it is so decisive for the health of human bonds.
As Kasprzak concludes, “Forgiveness is not submission or naivety; it is an active process that allows me to decide what I do with what happened to me and how I want to continue living.
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Pope to formators: “without sacraments there is no Christian life”.”
Pope Leo XIV said in the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life that the formator is more “father” than “pedagogue”: “to beget in faith” is “to share what we live, with generosity, sincere love for souls”. With Benedict XVI, he said that “without sacraments there is no Christian life”.
Leo XIV reflected this morning on Christian formation, following a theme dear to St. Paul, he recalled. At the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, likened the task of the formator more to that of “a father capable of engendering in the faith” than that of a “pedagogue”. And he conveyed with Benedict XVI that “without sacraments there is no Christian life”.
After quoting St. Paul, the Successor of Peter recalled that “after the Resurrection, Jesus entrusted the missionary mandate to the Apostles, telling them to ‘make disciples of all nations,’ to ‘baptize them’ and to ‘teach them to observe his commandments’ (cf. Mt 28:19-20).”.
“Baptism and Sacraments, or their rediscovery.”
“I remember these expressions,” he stressed, “because in them we find summarized other fundamental elements of the formator's mission, which I would also like to emphasize.”.
“First of all, the need to favor constant, involving and personal life itineraries that lead to Baptism and the Sacraments, or to their rediscovery, because without them there is no Christian life (cf. Benedict XVI, Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, February 22, 2007, 6).”.
“Our mission is higher: as parents who sacrifice for the sake of their children.”
In the Church, at times, the figure of the formator as ‘pedagogue’, committed to the transmission of instructions and religious skills, has prevailed over that of the ‘father’ capable of engendering in the faith, the Pope recalled.
However, “our mission is much higher, so we cannot limit ourselves to transmitting a doctrine, an observance, an ethic, but we are called to share what we live, with generosity, sincere love for souls, willingness to suffer for others, unreserved dedication, like parents who sacrifice themselves for the good of their children”.
St. Paul: “it is I who have begotten you in Christ Jesus”.”
The Pontiff pointed out at the beginning some well-known words of St. Paul to the Corinthians that guided his brief address.
“This is a theme dear to the Apostle and present in several passages of his letters. For example, when he addresses the Corinthians and says: ‘You may have ten thousand pedagogues in Christ, but certainly not many fathers: it is I who have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the Gospel’ (1 Cor 4:15).”.
The Apostle addresses the Galatians and calls them ‘my children’, referring to the ‘childbirth’ with which, not without suffering, he led them to welcome Christ, the Pope meditated.
“Formation is thus placed under the sign of ‘generation,’ of ‘giving life,’ of ‘giving birth,’ in a dynamic that, although painful, leads the disciple to vital union with the very person of the Savior, living and acting in him or her, capable of transforming ‘life in the flesh’ (cf. Rom 7:5) into ‘Christ's life in us’ (cf. 2 Cor 13:5; Gal 2:20).”.
“Respect for human life in all its stages”, and prevention of “all forms of abuse”.”
The Pope went on to exhort, in an “indispensable” way, to “take care in our communities of the formative aspects oriented towards respect for human life in all its stages, in particular those that contribute to preventing all forms of abuse against minors and vulnerable persons, as well as to accompany and support the victims”.
He also referred to the community dimension. “Just as human life is transmitted thanks to the love of a man and a woman, so too Christian life is transmitted by the love of a community. It is not the priest alone, nor a catechist or a charismatic leader, who engenders in the faith, but the Church (cf. Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 24 November 2013, 111).”.
It is about “the Church united, alive, made up of families, young people, singles, consecrated people, animated by charity and, therefore, eager to be fruitful, to transmit to all, and especially to the new generations, the joy and fullness of meaning that it lives and experiences”.
“The art of training is not easy and is not improvised.”
This is how Leo XIV expressed himself at the Assembly of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, whose Prefect is the Cardinal Kevin Farrell.The art of formation requires patience, listening, accompaniment and verification, both on a personal and community level, and cannot do without the experience and company of those who have lived it, in order to learn and take an example”.
Thus, over the centuries, “giants of the spirit such as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Philip Neri, St. Joseph Calasanz, St. Gaspar del Bufalo and St. John Leonardi have emerged. And it is in this perspective that also St. Augustine, recently elected bishop, composed his treatise ‘De catechizandis rudibus’, whose indications continue to be useful and valuable to this day”.
Pope Leo XIV kneels in prayer in the Church of San Pellegrino at the Vatican, in a video released Feb. 5, 2026, by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, for his February prayer intention: for children with incurable diseases. (Screenshot from OSV News/Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network).
World meetings
At the beginning of his speech, the Pope had mentioned the World Encounters, which “involve a large number of participants and require complex organizational work, in listening and collaboration with local communities and with people and organizations, many of whom have long and valuable experience in evangelization”.
“You must not be discouraged.”
In concluding, the Pope acknowledged that “the challenges you face at times may seem beyond your strength and resources. But you should not be discouraged.
Start small, following, in faith, the Gospel logic of the ‘mustard seed’ (cf. Mt 13:31-32), confident that the Lord will never let you lack, at the right time, the necessary energy, people and graces.
And “look to Mary: in giving us Christ, ‘she has cooperated through love to engender the Church of the faithful, who form the members of that head»” (St. Augustine, De sancta virginitate 6, 6). Imitate her faith and always trust in her intercession".
«At least read!»: The dangerous mirage of the juvenile erotic novel.
As a society we have recognized the harm that pornography can cause; let us not now ignore its printed version, disguised as sensitivity.
February 6, 2026-Reading time: 3minutes
For years, educators, psychologists and families have been warning about the massive consumption of pornography among adolescents. We know -because studies confirm it- that exposure begins earlier and earlier, that it affects the perception of the body and distorts the understanding of consent. That concern is legitimate. But as we look to that shore, another phenomenon has been quietly growing that deserves the same attention: the popularization of erotic novels disseminated through social networks, book clubs and platforms such as BookTok.
Today, it is enough to go into any bookstore to see for yourself. The “juvenile” section is flooded with covers with warnings of spicy, and labels that classify the level of explicit content. Sometimes they are works of fiction for young people; others are clearly aimed at adults, but massively acquired by adolescents. In almost all of them, the plots revolve around hypersexualized bonds, normalized jealousies and a dependency presented as the ideal of romantic love.
This editorial turn is not random. It responds to the explosion of communities on TikTok, where the hashtag #BookTok has transformed algorithms into the most powerful showcases of the decade. Under tags such as Dark Romance o Romantasy, titles that until recently would have inhabited adult niches now lead the global sales rankings. In Chile, it is enough to observe the prominence of these works in fairs and large chains: luxury editions with painted edges and irresistible aesthetics designed to capture the collecting desire of a generation that, paradoxically, consumes fantasies of possession and emotional violence under a cotton candy appearance.
And here a disturbing ingredient appears: the naivety -or resignation- of some parents. While their children devour bulky books, they sigh with relief: at least they are not in front of a screen. They ask few questions and check less. Sometimes they don't want to know. But reading is not an absolute good in itself: content matters and how it shapes a child's affective imagination.
This is not to demonize literature; the written word has the power to open worlds and heal wounds. However, books educate -even unintentionally- and the mass consumption of certain narratives shapes the idea of desire and bonding. When an adolescent girl reads, over and over again, stories where loving means losing herself in the other or justifying any excess in the name of physical attraction, the message is not neutral. She will learn, by osmosis, that love absorbs and controls.
Contemporary erotic narrative does not only eroticize: it also pedagogizes. It teaches what is acceptable in a couple and what can be demanded or tolerated. For many young people with no real experience, these works function as emotional manuals. And if the models are toxic, the print will be too. Some will say that “they are just fictions,” the same as is often argued about pornography. However, both build unrealistic expectations. When sexuality appears without human context, the boundaries of consent become blurred: what in reality would be aggression, on paper is celebrated as “irresistible passion”.
And in the midst of this phenomenon, the publishing industry has found a vein of gold.: the boundary of “fit” while making up the content as "fit". women empowerment. Relationships of control, asymmetrical power or emotional dependence are packaged under the discourse of freedom and self-desire. But if empowerment consists of enduring harm in the name of love, we are confusing something serious. The market sells an affective education of very low ethical cost and very high emotional profitability.
We cannot leave all the responsibility on the child's judgment or on the weary eye of the parent. When a plot that contains dynamics of abuse and romanticized dysfunctional relationships is labeled as juvenile, sales are prioritized over the protection of emotional development. And the result is that many adolescents are receiving, without adult mediation, a “sex education” that is not recognized as such..
What to do? Prohibition is not enough; the clandestine always attracts. What we need is conversation and emotional literacy. Just as we ask for comprehensive sex education, we also need a critical look at cultural consumption. To read with them, to ask: is this love or control? Where does respect appear? What image of the body and of women is transmitted?
As a society we have recognized the harm that pornography can cause; let us not now ignore its printed version, disguised as sensitivity. It is not enough to celebrate our children turning the pages: the real challenge is to help them read with lucidity so that they do not confuse a heart on fire with a bond that consumes them. Because to love is not to possess, nor to annul oneself, and no novel -no matter how successful it may be- should teach us otherwise.
The authorMaría Paz Montero
Journalist and Language and Literature teacher. She combines her teaching work -in high school and university- with cultural dissemination, reading and writing projects.
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Dr. Chiclana: "Let's go deeper into loneliness and priesthood".
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