Posts

Thoughts in the interim between the death of Pope Francis and the Conclave

Pope Francis rests in peace.  It matters little whether his worn-out body rests in St. Peter’s Basilica or in that of St. Mary Major or in a humble niche in any Rome cemetery. May he rest in peace, in the deep peace of Mother Earth, in the eternal creative peace that sustains and moves the […]

Four Synods and clericalism remains intact

I cannot say that I was disappointed by the Synod’s Final Document on Synodality, because disappointment is only possible when there are expectations. But I feel deeply sorry for so many men and women (especially women) who had said to themselves, “This time yes, the Synod will succeed! May God be blessed!” Yes, may Life, […]

Personal, not institutional, support for Pope Francis

I agreed to express my support for Pope Francis, but not without misgivings. “It will be personal, not institutional, support,” I warned. Let me explain: my misgivings have nothing to do with him as a person, but with the institutional figure –the absolute papacy– that he continues to represent, with the clerical, masculine model of […]

From the rotating Synod to the statements of Bishop Omella

These are harsh winter days for those who thought there were springtime signs for reform in the catholic ecclesial institution. May they not lose their hope, or their breath! On Saturday, October 28, the synthesis of the first phase of the “Synod on Synodality” of the Catholic Church, the fourth in the 10 years of […]

From the brother of Assisi to the brother of Rome

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 […]

In memory of Jacques Gaillot, Bishop of the Excluded

Yesterday, April 12, at the age of 88, Monsignor Gaillot, Bishop of Evreux (France) from 1982 to 1995, died. He was a peaceful and energetic man, passionate about justice for all the excluded, a prophet of the Good News of Jesus, of a fraternal world, of a human Church. He supported conscientious objection against military […]

Reflections on the diocese and the Church after Munilla

Bishop José Ignacio Munilla presided over the diocese of Donostia-San Sebastián from 2010 to 2022. The following is a response to the questionnaire proposed by the editor of RELIGIÓN DIGITAL, but is intended more as an in-depth reflection on the situation of the Catholic Church in general: 1) What has Monsignor Munilla left behind? After […]

Fire in the Catholic Church

In April 2019, while the world stared with astonished eyes, the flames destroyed a seizable part of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, the most beautiful cathedral in the world, the one I had visited so many times with deep emotion. But those flames were nothing compared to the devastating fire the Sauvé Report just set on, […]

A bishop falls in love and resigns: where is the problem?

The still spreading mediatic circus about the already emeritus bishop of Solsona (Catalonia) annoys me deeply. The morbid fascination, gloating, mockery, malicious or unfair personal attack is disgusting to me. Not to mention the serious distortion of human and theological criteria revealed by all that. Xavier Novell –what a relief not to have to add […]

The sign of Saint Merry’s

In Les Halles de Beaubourg, the old Parisian farmers’ market, completely redone in the 1970s and turned into the commercial, cultural and artistic heart of contemporary Paris, there is a singular jewel: Saint Merry’s, a beautiful gothic church from the 16th century, in flamboyant style, called “the little Notre-Dame”. It is a museum of architecture, […]