Posts

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, […]

The Synod at a dead end

I did not expect that this fourth Synod of Pope Francis’ pontificate, like the first three, would take a decisive step towards the urgent and absolutely necessary institutional reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Considering what we have seen so far, I could not think that he could carry out the indispensable condition of such […]

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 […]

Awaiting the Spring

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 […]

Pope Francis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“Take your hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo, do not touch Africa. Stop suffocating it, because Africa is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be plundered. Let Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny.” “The poison of greed has bloodied its diamonds.” “We cannot get used to the blood […]

LGTBIQ+: Impure in the Church

Recently, James Martin, well-known United States Jesuit and writer, sent a letter to Pope Francis with the three questions that he most often receives from Catholic LGTBIQ+ people (lesbians, gays, transexuals, transgenders, bisexuals, intersexuals, queer and other sexual identities and orientations).  A few days ago the Pope’s response was published. Here you have the questions […]

Pope Francis and the [Spanish] 15M Movement

Because of the 10th anniversary of the 15M that started the movement of the outraged, today loaded with more reasons than 10 years ago, I have been asked to answer two questions: 1) Can Pope Francis be considered as one of the outraged?; 2) Does Francis’s synodality correspond to the time of the public squares […]

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, […]