A New Year to Rejuvenate Ourselves and Renew

"New year, new life," the familiar saying goes. The start of a new calendar year is a great opportunity to review, evaluate, adjust, straighten up, heal, move on, forgive ourselves and others, forget and rid ourselves of the old and what hinders us, reinvent, undertake, and begin anew... An opportunity to feel that we can renew and start again with new courage, hopes, and energies on the road we are driving toward the realization of our best hopes and ideals ... a new opportunity to build hope. A new year, in short, is an auspicious occasion to make us “new” like the year that’s beginning.

And this hope for the "new" has never been as necessary as it is now in our current social, national, and global circumstances. Every minute, the media gives us news riddled with bad news, discouraging news about the lives of men and peoples: senseless news of life, suicides, crimes, family conflicts and breakups, corruption in the lives of political leaders and the religious, corruption in the administration of public affairs, neglect and poor quality in the administration of essential public services  (health, housing, education, etc.), impoverishment of the majority versus the scandalous enrichment and excesses of some elites, national internal conflicts and the threat of conflicts and wars between nations, the arms race, electoral and political disappointment in many nations about the poor performance of their leaders, hopelessness, injustice, a thousand forms of violence and death.

What can be said amidst this anguishing panorama that, in the daily reality of the world and in the news, seems to suffocate the signs of goodness, truth, justice, righteousness, and honesty that also survive— who can deny it—in many men and women in every corner of the earth?

We all have to rethink each day and with great seriousness and honesty: What is the individual life purpose we want for each of us? What type of society do we want to build for ourselves and for those who come after us? What type of society do we want to live in? What type of political system do we yearn for, choose, and want for our people? In what type of economic system do we want to live and enjoy the gift of our human existence every day? And, very importantly, what is the planet that we want to inhabit in order to deliver it, with the best possible conditions for human life, to future generations?

The overwhelming, worldwide failure of political and economic plans is resounding and undeniable. The uprisings, demands, and justified social protests among so many peoples and in so many nations are also obvious. The divide between the few who have so much and the many who have nothing has not been reversed or overcome. Still, there are threats to world peace that remain dormant. The excessive macro-economic growth of large corporations and multinationals in the face of the misery of so many. The suffering of the millions of men and women who, emigrating from their homelands in order to seek a better future, is approaching us and beckoning to us from all parts of the world. The hunger of millions against the indifferent comfort of a few. The dishonest and corrupt management of propaganda, elections, and the agenda of politics and politicians. The inequity, injustice, and violence scattered across the globe demonstrate our failures, selfishness, and social frustrations and, at the same time, point out our greatest challenges.

And at the bottom of all this lies, in praxis, in daily life and in the relationships of our individual lives, the absence of the most basic and profound values of human beings and a lack of authority, transparency, and consistency between what we believe and what we practice, between what we live and what we aspire to. A hypocritical inconsistency that translates into institutions and social structures that have been corrupted by the unbridled selfish and hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, greed, and ambition at all costs for possessing and the desire for the power to crush and repress the best ideals of humans.

What do we have to do? Where do we have to walk together and join the best efforts and hopes of all? The time has come to change stereotypes and social models that no longer work because they produce the adverse, inhumane, and catastrophic fruits and circumstances aforementioned. The time has come to put the common good before the individual good. To prioritize the common goals and objectives (environmental, social, and governmental) of all before the individual profits of large companies and financial corporations. The time has come to say yes to life and abundant life against a culture of death. It is time to say yes to solidarity, freedom, truth, honesty, dialogue, participation, peace, respect for different cultures, and for nature and to turn our backs to selfish individualism, consumerism, intolerance, injustice, discrimination, marginalization, moral and administrative corruption, and all forms of inequity and violence.

If we want to overcome the abundant and very serious evils that assault today’s human community, we must aspire to live a new year where respect for the person and for human life supersedes any other value or interest, in order to achieve the construction of a new society and a better world in which ethics prevail over technology, service trumps power, the worker is more important than the capital, and the transcendent supersedes the immanent and ephemeral.

I wish you all a happy new year 2020, which will be happy as long as we, all of us, want it and build it!

A Christmas for Everyone

 

In the Christian world, Christmas represents an important celebration commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. But, at the same time, Christmas is a universal celebration and commemoration that marks the value and historical legacy that the life, work, and message of Jesus represents and holds for all humanity.

Jesus of Nazareth, who as Christians, we confess as the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God, the Lord of History, light of the world, bread of Life, Good Shepherd, the beginning and end of history, was—undoubtedly—a unique, peculiar man or, in the words of his apostle Paul, a "new" and novel man.

The journey of Jesus on earth was so impactful that we count the years of the official history of humanity, that of the West, and that of almost all the peoples of the earth starting from his birth.

And what did Jesus do to cause such an impact on the history of humanity? What is so great and monumental about the story of his life that makes it so valid twenty centuries after his birth? What was so impressive and monumental about his existence resides simply and uniquely in living and loving, in living to love, in understanding life as a gift from God in order to dedicate it in service—also as a gift—to all, especially the weakest, the impoverished, those who have been "discarded" from our society.

His experience of love, the gift of his own life to all, sprang from the recognition of God as the Father of all and, consequently, the recognition of all men as brothers, sons of the same God, Creator, and Father of compassion and mercy.

A human being like us, deeply human, this Israelite male, from the land of Judah, a colony—at the time—of the Roman Empire—a son, from a manger and later a carpenter’s workshop, of the peasants Joseph and Mary, an emigrant, being a child in Egypt and then in Nazareth, he reached his thirties on the dusty roads of his homeland to preach what— from his own experience—can make us happy: to live the purpose of man that God has for every man who comes to this world, to live as children of God and brothers of all, loving each other.

He met with some fishermen friends, who later spread throughout the then-known world the teachings of their teacher, the Nazarene. The people followed him because no one had ever spoken with his authority, that is, with his coherence between what he preached and what he lived, between what he demanded and what he delivered, between what he believed and what he proclaimed.

Loving heals all kinds of physical and spiritual diseases. Those who meet Him, discover and meet the love of God and feel relieved, healed, liberated, happy, saved. ... He spends his time doing good. He lives and preaches a good and new life that sprouts from within, from the heart of man, because he understands that if man is good, he will bear good fruits. ... With his novel, and therefore, scandalous, facts and words, he announces and denounces and enters into conflict with the authorities of his people and of his time who kill him on a cross, in the same way they had killed the great prophets of his people and as they continue killing all those involved with the man and the truth throughout history and in every corner of the world.

But his life’s purpose did not die with him in the tomb; it continued through twenty centuries of history, being vindicated, followed, and, hopefully, lived by those who are called his disciples: Christians, who confess him alive and resurrected, present in the life of each believer and in the life of each Christian community faithful to his "gospel."

The greatness, then, of the life of Jesus of Nazareth consists and paradoxically coincides with his smallness, with the simplicity of living that for which we were created: for and because of love and to live our daily lives extraordinarily well doing good.

Before everything and everyone, Jesus of Nazareth is a free man. He is a liberator in the face of ambition and greed, in the face of hatred and resentment, in the face of what the powerful will say, in the face of selfishness and lies, in the face of pride and hypocrisy, in the face of servility and injustice, in the face of violence and death ... A man who, with the trust, hope, and dependence of his life placed in God, lives bravely and fearlessly. Jesus, thus and also, is a man for us.

Because of all this, the life of Jesus consisted of—not only for his disciples—a model of life, a "Way, Truth and Life" for every man and woman of good will. In the presence of the life and message of Jesus, all our best yearnings, our deepest human tendencies, our best desires for good are clarified and enlightened.

But at the same time, amidst our current and difficult circumstances at the national and global levels, how we lack the authenticity of Jesus of Nazareth in today’s men and women! How the world needs men and women with the authority and coherence of life shown by the carpenter of Nazareth! How distant and lacking in the world today are the criteria, principles, and values lived and preached by Jesus of Nazareth! How far we are from realizing the Christian utopia of a world in which we can all live together as brothers! How much we need to live in the truth, love, justice, forgiveness, hope, and abundant life lived and preached by Jesus of Nazareth!

The life of Jesus of Nazareth and his message are, then, an obligatory reference, a call, a path, a task for all of us who long for a happy existence and a better world, living in peace, living more justly—a world that is more livable, more fraternal, supportive, compassionate, and humane.

For all these reasons, Christmas is a big feast day, a Christian holiday, and a universal celebration, because the purpose and message of the life of the child in the manger in Bethlehem are still valid, because today the deeds and words of the Nazarene are needed more than ever, in a world that cries out for justice, truth, peace, and abundant forms of life and humanity and because the carpenter's gospel of Nazareth is about to start.

  

Merry Christmas!

GIVE THANKS: A Permanent Attitude and Conquest.

Every year in November, North American tradition, culture, and society contemplates the celebration of THANKSGIVING: “Thanksgiving Day”. On this day, the most beloved and the most anticipated, the most important and the most celebrated by the American people, we recall a foundational historical event of the United States as a Nation: the first harvest and first meal shared between the natives and the pilgrims in the year 1621. I cannot fail to recognize that those who revise history tend to have another interpretation to this so-called celebration.

The emotion evoked by this historical event provides all of us who live in this Country with a reason to travel and gather together with our families and with those who are dearest to us, to indulge, to rejoice, to break bread together, but, above all, to GIVE THANKS for all that we are and all that we have.

And within this opportunity to GIVE THANKS, at this pause, meeting and annual holiday that, as a Nation, we observe to BE THANKFUL, lies the importance and worth of this celebration. It is a celebration that summons us to a GIVING OF THANKS to be happy.

Because the original vocation and the primordial and unceasing search of humans is to be happy and only he who is able to be thankful, who is able to live finding reasons in everyday life to be thankful can be happy. Therefore, Thanksgiving is a day for happiness, it is a day when we feel happy and when we are happy, because it is a day to evoke, collect and bring out all the reasons we have to be thankful, all the reasons we have to be happy.

But gratitude cannot be relegated or limited to one day, to one date every year, because daily life is itself a gift ... so GRATITUDE, beyond this annual celebration, must be a permanent attitude in our lives and in the work of each one of us and of all of us as a family and a Nation.

It gives us the possibility to be thankful, to be happy, a historical existence seen, conceived and lived with a sense of transcendence: with the possibility of discovering life and everything within it as a gift and as evidence of the presence of God's love: the possibility, definitively, to live life as a space-time of blessings…. But, while also remaining vigilant against the gratitude for, and the possibility of being happy in, a life lived in the immediacy of money, in the ephemeral nature of buying and selling, in the tangible utilitarianism of supply and demand, in consumerist materiality and in exhausting, innate, and passing mercantilism.

All of us who live here have many reasons to be thankful and to be happy. Because all the good that we are, have and that happens to us is something for which we can be thankful, or at the very least, something good from which we can learn and then move on. 

Our lives, our families, our loved ones, our health, our educational and work opportunities, our dreams and goals, our daily efforts and our personal and community achievements reflected in the greatness of this Nation and in the quality of life we ​​can enjoy ... these are all reasons we see daily and for which we can be thankful and live with a permanent attitude of thankfulness.

But, we do not ignore and we all know that here and in all of humanity there is a lot of room for improvement, a lot to humanize, many reasons for pain, anguish, and suffering, many experiences of injustice, of violence and of death, many frustrated dreams and many failed hopes, many ways in which evil manifests in human selfishness.

Then, on THANKSGIVING and on every day, we are presented and offered  an opportunity to give thanks but, also and especially, we are offered a challenge to be happy, to build reasons to be thankful. Gratitude is a daily attitude and conquest: an attitude that is conquered.

Gratitude, then, is an attitude, a challenge, and a permanent construction. THANKSGIVING gladdens and challenges us, brings us together, but sends us out to build reasons every day to keep thanking, to remain happy. ... We have much to celebrate, but we have many more reasons to keep living and constructing every day the existences, families, relationships, communities, and abundant living spaces around us that will allow us to continue giving thanks. ...

Without this ongoing search for happiness, to find, build, give, and offer other reasons to GIVE THANKS, Thanksgiving is just another day on the calendar that, on the next day, is gone and forgotten. ... Because there cannot be a true and authentic THANKSGIVING when there are still people in the world who suffer and languish because they lack the minimum conditions to live, believe, love, wait, thank and be happy ...

THANKSGIVING DAY is an annual holiday of our homeland, a day on the calendar to GIVE THANKS, but especially a celebration to remind us that this must be our permanent attitude: an attitude of gratefulness to be happy and to relaunch ourselves not into the egotistical and frantic search and selfishness of another passing holiday, but into the construction of a better, fairer and more humane world; a world in which all inhabitants of the earth—not only those of this Nation—live and have the opportunity to celebrate and give thanks. 

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving Day! May you always find and build many reasons to give thanks and be happy!

For a Purposeful and Well-led Hispanic Presence in the United States

Like a waterwheel, year after year, September arrives, the month decreed by the US government for the celebration of Hispanic Heritage. And, also like a waterwheel, year after year, we rejoice in this celebration as we acknowledge the presence of Hispanics and our Hispanic heritage in this Nation.

We deserve to have our presence recognized in this society as well as the contributions that, through our daily lives and work and over the decades, we have made to the construction of this great Nation.

And it is very good that we celebrate, that we rejoice, that we have parades and processions, that we display our traditional clothing and our joy, that we show our customs and traditions and our jubilation. But, this important annual occasion cannot exist in just external gatherings. … There are many problems that humanity faces, many very serious problems that our nations of origin are discussing, and many, also very serious problems that Hispanics face at this historical and political juncture in this Nation, like wasting the opportunity presented by this official and national recognition of our heritage in this Nation by lending ourselves to the vain game of simplistic formalities...

As Hispanics in this Nation, we must be more serious and more profound, less superficial, more thoughtful and committed to our present and to our near future in the United States.

I put forth, here, in these lines, some of the problems that we should approach seriously, that we should face together and decisively, issues for which we should pause, reflectively and purposefully, so that we achieve, here and now, in this Nation, a presence that is not only physical and symbolic, but also strong and decisive. So that our presence and heritage in the United States is not remembered just one month a year, but rather, is a presence and heritage that is respectable and respected, a presence that is strong, united, solidary, and powerful for the harvesting of our best aspirations for today’s Hispanic community, for the Hispanics yet to come and for the future generations of Hispanics in the United States.

The ancestral account of our Hispanic origins tells us that we come from the "cosmic race" of Vasconcelos. That Hispanics carry in our blood the alchemy of all races of humanity. That we are, all at the same time: blacks and whites, aborigines and Indo-Europeans, Asians and Moors. ... We are ecumenical and Catholic in the most literal sense of these words: we are universal. In our hearts and in our minds, all colors, shapes, expressions, and cultures fit. ... Because we are a cosmic race, social and ideological positions as well as racist and discriminatory politics do not fit in our hearts and minds. There is no place in our existence and our lives for a world of walls and divisions; there is no place for separation or segregation. ... We do not discriminate against anyone, but we cannot allow discrimination, division, separation, labeling..

Therefore, I appeal to the conscience of the Hispanic community so that, I repeat, in addition to our annual Shrovetide gatherings, we focus on fighting, with our deeds and our words, with our votes and our laws, the anti-immigrant positions and prejudices that we suffer today and that results in millions of our Hispanic brothers and families finding themselves in endless situations of enormous suffering.

Communism, guerrillas, internal revolutions are not, here and now, our threat. Our real problems, our real threats come—among other extensive issues and problems that fall outside the scope of this discussion—from the enormous and unmeasurable administrative and political corruption that, along with drug trafficking, corrodes the foundations of our nations of origin and that, as a ruthless and immediate consequence, causes a thousand forms of violence and death, impoverishes millions of Latin Americans and forces them to emigrate to this Nation, among others, in search of better living conditions.

The solution to all of this and the successes that we urgently need for our Hispanic heritage and presence in this Nation, therefore, require a Hispanic leadership here and in our homelands, that is intelligent and honest, serious and combative, generous and altruistic, and that is trained in and committed to the best hopes of Latin Americans and Hispanics residing in this Nation.

We urgently need leaders who are in tune with Hispanics and with all things Hispanic, trained, intelligent, and knowledgeable about the functioning of this American society and our socio-historical roots.

We need a leadership that is capable of tuning into all things American and into the needs and common good to which Hispanic residents in this nation aspire. We urgently need leaders who are capable of knowing and tuning in to our frustrations and desires, our anger and our values, and the best of our heritage as well as the best of this American society. Leaders capable of defending our integration into this society above and against any form of submission, surrender or assimilation. Leaders, in short, who will fight to achieve more just, equitable, and respectful political and diplomatic relations between this Nation and our nations of origin and with our Hispanic presence and heritage in the United States of America. We have a lot to think about and to reconsider during this month when we celebrate our Hispanic heritage! There is much we have done, built and achieved, but we have much left to do!

EASTER: Everyone CROSSES OVER, every day ...

Easter Sunday is an essential Christian holy day. Easter is a liturgical season lasting approximately six weeks, starting at the most significant Sunday of the Catholic liturgical year, when we celebrate Christians’ greatest confession of faith – proclaiming Christ risen and alive in the life of Christians and in the ecclesial community – and lasting until the solemnity of Pentecost.

Although it is the most significant annual holy day for Catholic Christians, the celebration of Easter has a universal message, i.e., a valid message for all men and women of good will, from any location, race, religious creed, political ideology, socio-educational level, social position, etc.

The Spanish word for Easter, PASCUA, comes from a Hebrew word meaning "CROSSING OVER". Easter was already celebrated by the men and women of the Old Testament when they commemorated the "crossing" of the Red Sea (cf. Ex 12-15), through which they were freed from the oppression to which they had been subjected for several centuries by the Egyptians. Later, the men and women of the Old Testament, converted now to Christianity, continued celebrating Easter, but with a new essence and meaning: the triumph and "transition" of life over death, the victory and "triumph" of good over sin in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was crucified (cf. Ac 5:30), the first Christians who witnessed his Resurrection and confessed and proclaimed him as Living God (Mt 28:6) in their midst; these same first disciples made the transition from the old to the new (2 Cor 5:17), from selfishness to love , from those who are capable of recognizing themselves as brothers of the same God and Father (Gal 4:6), from sadness to joy (Jn 20:1- 18), from disbelief to peace (Jn 20:27), from cowardice to courage, from life alone to an existence where we can share bread with others (Lk 24:13-35), from the oppression of a life lived according to the law to a life lived in service and freely and generously given toward others (Mt 16:25), especially to those most in need (Mt 25:31ss).

This was understood, lived and theologized, at the time, by men like Paul of Tarsus or John the Apostle when they wrote that Easter consists of the renewal of the mind (Rm 12:2) or in the "crossing over" from death to life, if we love one another (1 Jn 3:14ss).

It is enough to see and hear the news that the media and social networks give us to make us aware of all the deep problems and  serious crises and conflicts now facing mankind in all the institutions that make up society and in all its facets.

These are conflicts that touch and involve the individual, the family, society, international relations, etc. Problems, conflicts and crises that manifest themselves in the loss of the value and meaning of life, in the solitude of many, in the use of psycho-addictive substances , in the breaking down of values, in the impermanence of family structures (divorces, de facto unions, infidelities, lack of commitment in marital couples, job instability, lack of social security for the family in many countries, intergenerational conflicts between parents and children, etc.); in administrative corruption; in lack of public services; unemployment; the loss of prestige, leadership and credibility of the religious institutions governing moral and social values; the lack of social opportunities for a personal and family life of dignity; the loss in the  quality of education; the pursuit of personal and social fulfillment through hedonistic and pansexualist pleasure; by recognizing selfishness and materialism as supreme values and through abusive and confrontational power; in scandalous forms of social inequality; injustices; a thousand forms of violence and death; drug trafficking; arms races; exploitation, and irreversible damage to ecosystems; internal and international war conflicts; famines; epidemics and pandemics; moral relativism according to which nothing is worth anything or everything is equal; and, a total lack of the existential meaning of transcendence.

This list of personal, family, social, national and world ills represents the manifestations of a greater evil: the evil that lives within man, in the very heart of the human being (cf. Mk 7:21ss). The crisis of structures is first and foremost a crisis of men and women. The rotten fruits of our human coexistence and our societies are the product of bad trees, with diseased sap. Because "the tree is known by its fruits ... " (Mt 7:15ss).

The first and deepest causes of our personal and social discomfort must be sought in the gaps, deficiencies and losses within the human spirit. While we have made significant advances in science, in technology, in the capacity to telecommunicate amongst ourselves, in the globalization of markets and in the accumulation of great capital and lifestyles full of luxury and comfort, we have diminished the importance of the great principles and values ​​that define the essential, intrinsic, innate spirit of the human being, that is, everything that makes us truly "human" and not inhuman.

EASTER has a message and a call for all to change and renew from within, to improve everything within us. EASTER is an auspicious time to pause on our journey and to start again. In Pauline terminology, we may cross over from the old man to the new man (cf. Col 3:10).

Today, the greatest emergency facing society and humanity demands of every human being an "Easter" experience, that is, an experience of "crossing over" inhumane, sub-human, or less humane circumstances and conditions to reach those that are more humane and worthy of people.

The desire for everyone, around the planet, to build  better societies and a better world in which we achieve the happiness we relentlessly seek, challenges us all to a daily and ongoing Easter experience: that of being better human beings, better families, better professionals, better citizens in order to build the apocalyptic utopia of "a new heaven in a new land" (cf. Rev 21:1-8).

Thus, the celebration of Christian EASTER is not merely a Catholic liturgical celebration, but also a birthright of all humanity, a call to all and a daily task while we are living: to be men and women, new and renewed, capable of transforming ourselves, our personal lives, and through those, our institutions and social structures to be more just, more solidary, and more humane.

HAPPY EASTER!

 

SIX YEARS OF POPE FRANCIS

On March 13^th and the 19^th, the Catholic world will celebrate the sixth anniversaries of the 2013 election and inauguration, respectively, of Pope Francis’ Pontificate.

Six years is a long way to look back and to evaluate what has been accomplished but, above all, to project the near future that awaits and challenges us under the guidance of this man, this Christian, and this pastor, recognized as a spiritual leader by and for all humanity.

Some Information About His Profile ...

His Pontificate has elicited admiration, and no one remains indifferent about it, either by the novelty of his genuine personality as a human being and as Pope or by the themes, accentuations and emphases of his Petrine ministry.

Francis is, above all, a Latin American man, a Christian, and a Jesuit priest who embraced and embraces the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in integrating them into his own life and his own teachings. And, this desire to want to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ authentically, simply, transparently and without airs, is not foreign to him, nor has it escaped the amazement and admiration of all, both within and outside the Catholic Church.

His own temperament and his life as a Christian also make him an intimate man and pastor – simple and humble – one who is like us. Jorge Mario Bergoglio is, as a man and as Pope, a daily, simple, and authentic being in his words and gestures, in the topics he addresses, in his attitudes and in his way of communicating and getting close to everyone. ...

His way of being in the Church and in the world shows him as a man who is conservative in his doctrine, but progressive in his attitudes and approaches; as a good pastor, welcoming, compassionate, and inclusive, and not exclusive (for example, in his approach to the position of women and homosexuals in the life of the Church) and as a Pope who has, wants and proposes a new way of understanding the forms of government within the Church, to the point of appearing and presenting himself as "anticlerical".

His Challenges and How He Has Answered Them ...

Restoring the trust and credibility of the world and of the Catholic faithful in the Catholic Church, in its hierarchies, in its institutions, and in its message is, without a doubt, the great challenge facing the Church in this era of the Pope Francis’ government. The Pontificate of Francis is challenged by important issues and problems – within and outside the Church – that must be confronted and resolved for the life, existence, and work of the Church in the world.

To these problems and challenges, Francis has responded by confronting them, without fuss or noise, but with all the determination and seriousness that these challenges demand from the Leader and Shepherd of the Universal Church.

In the remainder of this article, I briefly enumerate the big challenges that I see facing the Pontificate of Francis and the responses that the Pope has delivered in each case, during the six years of his Pontificate.

First, it is urgent that the Catholic Church, its authorities, especially its universal leader and guide, develop and lead positions on the major issues concerning the Church and all humanity. It is urgent that the light "does not stay under the bed, but that it gives light to all those who are at home". It is urgent that the light "shines amidst the darkness". It is urgent that the preaching of the Church leaves the sacristies to illuminate the path of all men and women of good will in the great issues, of all types, relating to human existence and to life in society.

Responding to this challenge, Francis, as a Latin American man, knows first-hand the various sounds, pains and profiles that the very serious social problems facing today's man have, and, from the first hours of his Pontificate, he has asked the Church to "go out to the peripheries".  What this means and implies is not to only go to the geographical peripheries, but also and, above all, to the central issues of the world and of all humanity where the Church, perhaps, became peripheral. ... Francis, in all his messages, is interested in everyday problems of all kinds where human beings live with the certainty and conviction that the Gospel of Jesus may enlighten and clarify the existence of every man and all men, with its mystery, its problems, its lights and shadows (cf GS 22).Francis's openness to any topic that interests everyone has been demonstrated in his many trips, messages, and meetings with political and religious leaders from around the world.

Second, Francis has pledged much of the last six years of his Pontificate to a major reform within the Church that starts from the very heart of the Vatican State organization  and, in particular, from the Roman Curia, its dicasteries, its organizational chart, accounts, etc. With the conviction that the testimony begins at home, Francis appointed, at the beginning of his Pontificate, a commission of Cardinals in charge of this reform, who serve as his immediate consultants and advisors. This reform has not been easy for the Pope due to the resistances that, in the very bosom of Vatican life, have arisen and have become evident.

A third challenge, the most mediatic of all, concerns the scandals that, in sexual matters, have undermined the credibility of the Church, especially through the sexual abuse committed against minors(pedophilia) by ordained ministers and of consecrated men and women (bishops, priests, religious men and women). These sex crimes committed, an immense majority of them decades ago and many others in recent times, today come to light thanks to accusations, the payment of lawsuits and, above all, the immediacy of the events in which we live today due to communication through the media and social networks.

In this, as in the most important matters of the life of the Church, Francis has taken the reins, has faced the issues, and has put the cards on the table so that the subject can be discussed and aired openly and without fear. The government of Pope Francis has made drastic decisions, legislated, met personally with the victims, has asked for forgiveness, has punished, has reduced many clerics to lay life, has decreed zero tolerance, but - above all – it has denounced the hypocrisy of our current life in society in which hedonism and pansexuality prevail. It is a pansexualist society and one that is libertine in sexual matters in which priests and clergy are born, in which they are raised and from which they come and, then, lose their minds in sexual crimes - of all kinds - that occur daily by the hundreds throughout the world and that are committed not only by the clergy, but also by men and women of all conditions and stations of life.

Finally: all of this sets a challenge more, and not less, important to the Catholic Church: the current and growing scattering and/or fall in the number of Catholic faithful in all latitudes, due to - in most cases - the problems mentioned above. Francis is aware of this and with his personality, his accentuations, his life, and his Pontificate, gravitates, above all, toward a Christian and ecclesial life in which the authenticity and quality of Catholicism and discipleship in Christ among believers prevails over mere quantity; and this quantity is a result of the testimony and Christians’ authentic following of Christ.

May God bless Francis so that, with the human and Christian authority and authenticity he has shown in these six years of his Pontificate, he may continue to guide the life of the Church and illuminate the path for all humanity for many years to come.