“It is vicious barbarity by Hamas in response to even more serious, vicious barbarity by the Israeli government,” was my first thought that came to mind. I find Hamas’s action repugnant in its atrocity and senselessness. I can only understand it as an evil expression of hatred, revenge, despair and powerlessness accumulated over eight decades. […]
I never wanted to be important, just the lesser brother of the smallest ones and of all the forgotten ones. But, due to circumstances of history, the day on which I passed from this mortal life to the full Life became an important date for many sisters and brothers of evangelical dreams. My passing –which […]
Many animals –ranging from worms to mammals, including insects, molluscs, amphibians, fish, reptiles and birds– feel pain. And they do not simply feel a specific, isolated pain, but rather a general malaise of the organism. In different ways and to different degrees, but they suffer nevertheless. We human beings are part of an immense planetary […]
“That’s the way it is” we say, not knowing if we mean a realistic lucidity or a defeatist abandonment. That’s the way it is, and anything else is not possible. That’s the way it is, and it is impossible to stand up, wait, breathe, hope, create: to be or to make being more. What is […]
[Text of de Lecture given in the Library of the Autonomous Community of Navarra, March 27, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pYHo5j3NE&t=614s] When my friends who organize this series of lectures on “spirituality and suffering” asked me to talk about loneliness and suffering, the first thing that came to my mind –as it often occurs to me- was the […]
Easter arrived again. It is the Easterof Jesus, the crucified prophet, the singular image for Christians of the universal hope for all crucified people. It is the Easter of the first full moon of spring that so many cultures have celebrated thousands of years before our Christian Era: Chinese, Indians, Sumerians, Babilonians and Jews, and […]
“Do we educate to achieve serenity and peace?” These are the opening words of this brief, dense book; they end with a black question mark and are surrounded by a white, empty space. In that white space of the question, the reader becomes trapped, suspended, attentive to silent, white emptiness. And calmly. That is where […]
Taking stock of Pope Francis’ 10 years Eight months following his election in November 2013, Pope Francis published the first of his major documents, which I believe is the best of all the texts written or signed by him: the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. It was like a programmatic proclamation. Like a spring proclamation. It […]
In October 2022 the Organic Law guaranteeing sexual freedom, more widely known as the “Only yes means yes” law, came into force in Spain. It stipulates that any sexual act without consent is now regarded as a crime of sexual assault, and the concept of mere “abuse” has been eliminated. The law covers any kind […]
Is it still worth talking about “God”? I do not honestly know, but, in spite of all doubts, for many people –and for myself- it is still a good way to speak about the deepest and best unspeakable Mystery of the universe, and an inspiring source of justice and peace in a world that needs […]
