Christmas and God’s Logic

In the Catholic liturgy, Christmas is a time when each year, we commemorate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, who we confess to be our Lord and Savior. Christmas, the memory of that first nativity is, therefore, a past which becomes real in our present and commits us to the construction of a “Christian” future.

Two Gospels (Matthew and Luke), in the New Testament give a glimpse of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; both have as the theological intention of the authors, the confession of Jesus as Messiah. This was experienced in the living, the teaching, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus; and later verbally confessed and put into writing.

The historical data concerning the birth of Jesus, distant in time for the authors of these two Gospels and with less theological importance --when we consider the public ministry, the passion, the death and resurrection of Christ-- should be read, as all the Good News and especially the four Gospels, under the light of the “Birth celebration”. It should be told, based on the life transforming experience which the first disciples lived right after the death of Jesus. This experience caused that group of men and women to confess that “Christ is alive”, “is resurrected from the dead”, and “is the Messiah”; the one waited for, and in whom were fulfilled --in a new context-- all the messianic promises of the Old Testament.

But, what about real historical data in the so called “infancy accounts”? The oral tradition goes all the way up to the time when Luke writes these accounts (gospel writer of this new liturgical cycle, which just began with the first Sunday of Advent), and who assures that Jesus was born a boy, in conditions of poverty; the only son of Joseph and Mary; born during the time of the census ordered by Cesar Augustus, while Cyrenius was the governor of Syria.

This historical data, —as happens with all human stories and with all the historical data which appears in the Gospels about Jesus— is wrapped in the theological intention of the authors, and is in the confessions of faith of the primitive Christian community: of David’s lineage (which is in the hereditary line from which the Messiah was suppose to come; and because of this, the ancestry of Joseph and the mention of Bethlehem); the participation of the angel (whose intervention tells of a happening /birth where the main character is God himself, as it should have been according to the prophesies of the Old Testament in reference to the Messiah).

In this manner the shepherds, Simeon, Hanna, the Temple erudites, the neighbors in Nazareth, the first Christians and Christians of all times, recognize “the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger” as the Lord and Savior of all times: beginning of, central to, and culmination of our happiness and eternal life.

This confession, as later taught and written by Paul of Tarsus, shatters Greek and Jewish logic and breaks all the wisdom molds in the world. It breaks the power schemes in the Roman Empire and establishes a new logic, new wisdom –the wisdom of God-- according to which “anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”, “he has filled the hungry with good things” . . ., and the “rich he has sent away empty”. By this logic God “chooses what is not, to confuse what is”.

That is why Christmas is a commemoration, but it is also protest. During Christmas, from the manger (as much as from the foolishness and craziness of the cross) Christians protest against the logic by which the world and relations among humans are constructed. During Christmas, from the humble manger, Christians protest against the ostentation which leaves so many hungry; against the consumerism which leaves so many in inhumane situations; and against the luxury, the waste and the squandering which insults so many who have nothing.

Christmas is, because of this, an event and confession of solidarity from God to those who need him and place in him all their trust, confidence and hope. Also because of it, in Baby Jesus and in his manger is reborn the hope of the majority: which are the rejected and marginalized by the present social systems.

It is this hope, which gives meaning to the joy manifested throughout the world during Christmas time. But it is God’s act and his wisdom which makes, in the present, that Christians construct a world according the will of God and the logic of the manger (and the cross), and not according the logic of the world. Because we, the disciples “are in the world, but do not belong to the world.”

Friends, I rejoice together with you during this 2009 Christmas; and ask the God Child to bless us all, to illumine us and to give us the strength to construct our lives, our families, our work and labors, and all our personal and social projects, following the logic which had its beginnings during Jesus’ birth in the manger in Bethlehem. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A “River of Light” in New York

To the right of the Main Altar in St. Patrick’s Cathedral –that is, in a privileged place— during the last 18 years and for the veneration of believers, is placed a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

How did the image make it there? Who was the main person responsible for this incredible act? What happened so that the image of Our Lady of Tepeyac would reach a place of veneration today in New York City is a story that should be told and written. I intend, through these lines, to make known the incredible story that established this landmark.

The painting was done by an unknown artist in the XVIII Century. It is believed that it was the work of a successful painter, student of the great Mexican painter Miguel Cabrera. It is a present from the Archdiocese of Mexico to Catholics of the metropolitan Cathedral in New York. It was acquired in the Art Gallery of Enrique Romero in Mexico City and brought to New York, personally, by the then Archbishop of Mexico His Eminence Ernesto Cardinal Corripio Ahumada.

On the 8th of December of 1991, in the solemn Mass of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Corripio presented to his brother, the then Cardinal of New York, Archbishop John Cardinal O’Connor, during the solemn liturgical celebration, the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
During that liturgical act were present the Consul General of Mexico, Mr. Manuel Alonzo and Mrs. Rosa María Quijano, protagonist and principal donor so that this historical event would take place.

The miraculous impression of Our Lady of Guadalupe, among roses, on the poncho of the Indian San Juan Diego, in the apparition of December 12, 1531, is permanently on display in the new Basilica, built in her honor and for her veneration in Mexico City.

The word “Guadalupe” means “river of light.” Today we can say that there is a constant “river of believers” who go daily to honor Our Mother and Mother of God, under the invocation of the Mexican, Latin-American, American, and Amerindian “Virgen Morena,” in the beautiful painting now in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. For the visit of his Holiness Pope John Paul II to New York, the painting of the Guadalupana was moved to the main altar to preside over the visit of His Holiness to the Cathedral, and for the prayer of the Holy Rosary directed by the Universal Pastor before the venerated image.

It is worth stating that the prominent placement that the painting has today, within the context of the Cathedral, in the place where the Tabernacle of the Cathedral was, to the right of the main altar, has its own history. All of it is intertwined with signs and miracles, which point to the fact that after a series of difficulties encountered in the placement of the painting --due to the construction and style of the Cathedral--, the Virgin has found a prominent place where to be revered and where she can accompany the life of its children.

Mrs. Margarita Perusquia has a primary placement in this story. As a founder of the organization “Mensajeros de María de Guadalupe” (Messengers of Maria Guadalupe), she has dedicated herself and the Institution to spread in New York and throughout the world the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. This Marian devotion embodies the Latin-American spirit and puts together, in the best symbiosis, the most valuable of our origins, our history, our faith and our culture.

The request of Margarita Perusquia to the then Archbishop of New York: Terence Cardinal Cook was to allow her to build an altar in the Cathedral for the veneration of the “Guadalupana.” This act began this story which today inspires and brings so many devotees, not only from New York, but from the whole continent and across the seas.

The same request, with the best show of Christian patience and perseverance, was made by Margarita several times to Cardinal Cook and Cardinal O’Connor. Each, in their moment, referred her to the Cathedral’s rector, who –in turn—denied the request, usually for the reasons mentioned previously: the lack of consonance between the style of the painting, the construction and architectural style, and the art within the Cathedral.

As it was stated on the 8th of December, 1991, the Cardinal of Mexico: Ernesto Cardinal Corripio Ahumada, while celebrating the Eucharist in the Cathedral gave the painting of the Virgin to John Cardinal O’Connor, who –full of emotion— asks the multitudes where they would want the painting: his house, his office or in the Cathedral. To that the crowd of believers answered, at one voice: “Here, in the Cathedral.”

For one-and-a-half years the painting of the Guadalupe was stored in inadequate corners of the Cathedral. But soon, the daily crowd of pilgrims, the offerings, the candles, and flowers pressured the authorities in the Cathedral to find a better and more adequate place for the veneration of the image of the “Virgen Morena.” May these lines become written evidence of that story; and may they help to honor and give thanks to those who made this religious gesture possible. I would like to congratulate all my Mexican and Latin-American brothers and sisters on this day, in which Catholics happily celebrate the solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of Mexico and Mother of the Americas.

Advent: The Hoping for Hope

With the Advent Season begins another year in the liturgical life of Catholics. Adviento is a latin word which means “to wait for what is coming, expectation of something that is waited for, something expected which will come and shape the present.”

What would human life be without hope? We would sink in a sea of uncertainty, of suffering, of pain and of evil without something to encourage us to continue trusting, trying, working, projecting, loving, believing and hoping . . .

We, Christians, are essentially and fundamentally men and women of hope. In other words, men and women who live in a permanent advent: waiting that the birth of God comes at Christmas; waiting for the daily encounter with God through his creation, through our brothers and sisters (especially the poorest in society), through liturgy, through the sacraments; through the many signs and circumstances by which God comes near to us and meets us each day. Christians live waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled; that God’s Kingdom overcomes the kingdoms of the world; that God’s mercy overcomes the lack of love; and that God’s power triumphs over the mean power of man.

But the fulfillment of this hope –as the Advent Psalm says-- for “justice to flourish and peace to be abundant” it requires that we Christians construct, with our acts and our words, with our announcements and denunciations, and with our behaviors, attitudes, and works, a time and space in which Christian hope is possible; in other words a time and space in which God’s Kingdom becomes evident through us.

In this way, the hope we are waiting for takes us out of a passive attitude of resignation, and brings us to construct the hoping attitude we are wishing for --the new heaven and the new earth we wish for! Even more so, Christians know that the daily wish for happiness becomes true only in the real hope: which is Christ and his life in us. Christian hope is not a hope that can be reduced to ephemeral and temporary satisfactions; but one that pushes all our present lives towards a full and total future in God.

Advent, this liturgical time, just before the anticipation of Christmas is –more than just a liturgical time-- a life attitude and a personal and communitarian commitment of the believers and those from the Church who believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also the belief in a world in which the divine starts, shows, and stays in the most humane and every day aspects of our present history.

Liturgy, in this time of Advent, speaks to us of a hope which does not die in the day to day; a hope that lightens up each moment of our lives; a hope that is infinite and without conditions; a hope which has no limits and is eternal; a hope that opens up for us the beyond of our limited intra-history; and a hope which overcomes all forms of evil, pain and death.

Circumstances today, more than ever, urge us to live in the spirit of Advent. All around us there are manifestations of crisis: crisis of the human spirit; crisis of goals which humanity dreamed of; crisis of trust and confidence in men and institutions; crisis of trust in governments, regimes, political and economic models; lack of trust between peoples and nations; lack of trust and belief in spiritual leaders. There is disillusion and mistrust because there is a hunger and a thousand forms of inequity, injustice, violence and death. There is a collective feeling that our present has no future. There is uncertainty, a loss of the sense of life and much anguish. We live in difficult times for all spheres of life. Nevertheless, Catholic liturgy, in this time of Advent, once more invites us to the wait for Hope, the commitment and construction of better times . . .

I wish for all of us that this Advent 2009 fills us with hope; fills us with an always renewed strength to make possible our hope: which is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ be among us. That the Gospel be lived and announced by us for the construction of a better world; a world which is more just, more humane and more according to God’s wish.

The Heart’s Memory

Each year, as Thanksgiving Day arrives, I remember the Gospel story in which only one out of ten cured lepers --a foreigner-- returned to Jesus to express his gratitude and to give glory to God for being cured.

This nation’s historical tradition invites us to give thanks during one day each year. Without doubt, it is the date which gets the most people together. It is the most familiar and nationally recognized of all celebrations in the United States. The tradition of this celebration goes way back to a historical gesture of which not all know the story but the majority celebrates. It is all due to the fact that the attitude and action of being grateful and giving thanks is a profoundly human tendency, and because of it, profoundly divine.

In the Eucharist, we Christians have the fountain, the base, and the beginning and end of the Christian life. The Greek word “eucaristía” means precisely, “to give thanks”. That is to say that the most authentic and genuine Christian posture is to live giving thanks to God who gives us all we are and all we have.

In the present “consumer driven society”, the importance we give to money, the importance we give to having instead of to being, impedes us from remembering that always and in all circumstances we are not self-sufficient; that we do not auto-provide ourselves. We do not remember the fact that others work to give us things and services which we enjoy; that to live, we all need each other; that we are, beyond rational animals, beings which are solidary in good and evil; social beings that, as human beings and believers are part of the creative work of God, and that the main dynamic is to serve.

When we become conscious of our social nature and our importance in a creation in which everything created serves to help us live each day in the spirit of service and gratitude.
What allows our hearts to be thankful is the capacity for opening our senses and being conscious of everything we have and everything we are. The consequences of this thankful understanding come without delay: the grateful human being is a joyful man or woman, confident, humble and hopeful . . . and waiting on that loving presence which surrounds us, and which Christians call Holy Trinity.

When Jesus teaches us to see all good things as gifts from God, he at the same time teaches us to give all things as gifts. In other words, every good gift received from God commits us to place all at the service of our brothers and sisters, following a lifestyle that does not hoard life selfishly but favors all, especially the needy. Therefore, gratitude and gratefulness are attitudes which require of each of us a time and space in which all human beings can have the capacity, the possibility and the joy of being grateful.

Gratitude is an attitude, but because it is an attitude it is also an obligation. Therefore on Thanksgiving Day we are grateful but also give away . . . May it be that, more than things we give our time, our presence, our lives –and not only one day a year—but each day of our lives.

May you all have a Happy Thanksgiving Day! May we all be able to always be grateful and to aid others in having a reason to always be grateful!!

Buliding a Hispanic Heritage

Between September and October of each year and coinciding with the holiday of Mexican Independence and ending with the celebration of the “Encounter of Two Worlds”, in the United States, we celebrate “NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH” a nationally recognized observance which has been enacted into law.

Today, to speak of the significant Hispanic presence in this country is to speak of something obvious. The National Census Bureau indicated that there are close to forty seven million Hispanics residing in this Nation in addition to the three million people residing on the Island of Puerto Rico.

Hispanic presence in the life of this Nation is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, Hispanics have been here even before the arrival of the pilgrims. Since 1550, men like Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, together with other explorers, travelled and explored the width and length of the territories which today constitutes the American Union. Hispanics had established themselves in what today is called “Florida”, many years before the British founded Jamestown. Without a doubt, Hispanics have made a mark in the history of this Nation. We have participated in many of the heroic deeds during its formation and have greatly contributed to the overall development of the United States.

Because of our substantial and growing numbers, subjects such as immigration or the legalization of undocumented immigrants are today on the front pages of the media; and rank amongst the principal preoccupations of the institutions which have in their hands the destiny of this Nation.

It is important to note that there is one U.S. Senator and thirty two House representatives of Hispanic origin in Congress. This speaks loudly to the undeniable Hispanic contribution in today’s North American society.

Our presence here is a reality, but the mere simple existence of a large population does not give authority. Authority comes from authorship of our own destiny; we must be protagonists and not simply spectators of our own historical and social destiny within this Nation. Only then would we have gained respect and recognition from others.

It is not enough that we are many, big numbers give not true rights; what is needed and urgent is for us to shape the quality of our contributions.

We must define our existence as Hispanics in this Nation in a meaningful way by integrating the Hispanic Community into the greater American Life and to have social, religious, political, economic, cultural and academic influence in the life of this Nation.

During the celebration of HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, we allow ourselves the opportunity to reflect and truly understand our present situation and its challenges; and to be on the alert about the best way we can develop a future as a Hispanic Community and be of influence and contribute to the everyday life of the American Union.

Some of the questions we must ask of ourselves are as follows:

• Why can’t we have a well lead, organized, reasonable and respectful debate on immigration?


• What relationship (and recognition) is there between our enormous purchasing power (nine hundred billion dollars a year) and our competent and competitive presence in the economy and the commercial life of the United States?


• Knowing that the future is formed in the years of childhood, what can be done about the high percentage of drop-outs amongst the children and youth of Hispanic origin? At the same time, what can be done to address the many Hispanic youth also plunge into the world of gangs, the use of drugs and alcohol, and other forms of vices and violence in very large numbers?


• While academic preparedness amongst Hispanics born and raised in our country is on the increase, great numbers of us still have very low standards of living and live in poverty. How can this be addressed?


• How do we integrate into the working world of this Nation the massive influx of illiterate youth who are in the possession of little formal education in Spanish, let alone English? These youths have arrived from extreme poverty in their home countries and become easy prey to the culture of consumerism and materialism and can easily cast aside their altruistic or transcendent values resulting in truncated ideals. How do we keep our youth from becoming perfect targets for those who traffic in human misery?


• It is important today to raise the question of where are the Christian values that have inherited. Such as humanism, integral development, solidarity, spirituality.

The work that is in front of us is difficult and requires conscious, responsible and generous participation of all Hispanics. Hispanics need to develop internally the required leadership to thrust ourselves as a voice in the building of the present and future of this Nation.

This effort implies a focus on encouraging our youth to obtain a higher degree of education; to develop skills in organization and respect for one another and the ability to develop a higher degree of communication with the dominant culture, so that together we can make this society more viable and humane.

In a Nation which proclaims freedom, there are still many situations of slavery and licentiousness. In a Nation which claims to be the empire of rights and law, there are many situations of injustice and abuse to the most elemental rights of man. We can still verify many inhumane situations, all within a society which preaches respect for the human being.

We Hispanics must take the lead in the rebirth of a new American society, truly tolerant and fraternal. We should be proactive protagonists in the emergence of a new society which will finally discover the integrated and harmonious values of the whole American Continent.
Such a society that discovers the true value of American Union --that is “Pan-Americanisn” will become a Society that is richer as a result of the diversity of nations, with its diverse ethnicities, histories, languages and cultures but also become united in one territory. We become a society with the same aim to be happy, with the common goal to be prosperous people, more humane and humanized, with fewer borders and divisions and more solidarity.

For the Hispanic community to be able to reach adulthood in this society, it needs to engage in a deep reflection of its history. The celebration of HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH should not pass as a simple “fiesta”; but should be a call for a serious commitment from all Hispanics with the aim of constructing a true, great and noble “hispanicity” in the life and development of this Nation. If we do this, we will no longer be drifting at the mercy of those who do not accept us, who exploit us, or in the worse case scenario, want us to be without identity or completely assimilated to the culture of this great Nation that still needs to discover the beauty of Hispanics.

How great it is that HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH exists! For while there is much we have accomplished there is still much more left to be done!!

To my Friend Cardinal Sean O’Malley On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of His Episcopal Ordination

On August 2nd of 1984, Cardinal Sean O’Malley was named Coadjutor Bishop of Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

I am thankful to God and to the Church for the gift of life and for the blessing that the priestly and Episcopal ministry of Cardinal Sean O’Malley is for all. I desire that these words not be a simple and cold chronology and account of biographical facts; but that, above all, they be a

testimony of the life of Sean O’Malley given by a friend who has been blessed with his friendship over the last four decades.

My close relationship with Cardinal O’Malley goes back to the early 70’s, when he had the position of Director of the Hispanic Apostolate in the Washington, D.C. Archdiocese whose pastor at the time was, the well remembered William Cardinal Baum.
Since then the pastoral work of the priest, later on Bishop Sean O’Malley, has never slowed down in his aim to open evangelical spaces of compassion and mercy in the Catholic Church in the United States. This always with the poorest among the poor in mind: The immigrants and, among them, with special care, attention and dedication, the men and women arrived from the Latin-American countries.

His evangelical and pastoral desire was that immigrants –and I repeat— especially Hispanic immigrants, would find in the Catholic Church a mother that would welcome, protect, defend and represent them in North American soil. At the same time, that the Hispanic Catholic immigrants could be recognized and could identify themselves as children and members, in equality of condition, of the Catholic Church which journeys in the United States. Father Sean O’Malley gave his best efforts founding the Hispanic Catholic Center in Washington, D.C., with its Headquarters in an ancient building where I remember his intervention organizing and trying to secure the basic services and better living conditions for the residents, who in its majority were very poor immigrants.

With this same spirit, authentically missionary and evangelical, I remember Father O’Malley coming closer to the domestic workers --most of them from Central-America— who worked in the accredited embassies before the White House and the OAS in Washington; or worked in the most diverse national and international organizations established in the city. He would come near to assist them and accompany them in the promotion and attainment of human dignity as they found their proper places in society as worthy laborers.

The living conditions of those domestic workers: mistreated and subject to conditions and practices of slavery, gave the opportunity to Father Sean O’Malley, with the help of Hispanic nuns, to organize and claim the right and needed protection for those women in the face of the exploitation, the abuse, and the injustice of their employers.

These original incursions into the world of the Hispanic immigrants allowed Father O’Malley to discover innumerable situations, conditions, circumstances and realities which, because of its inhumanity were, and still are today, completely incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anointed by the spirit of the founder of his religious community, the poverello de Asís; and moved by the same compassion as the one from Nazareth, who is moved to pity by those who live like sheep without a shepherd, Father O’Malley laboured, and still toils today, so that immigrants can know –and be better integrated to-- the lifestyle of the society in the United States and the way in which what we can call its “system” functions.

In an almost anecdotal way, I am trying to underline here two true and prominent characteristics in the life of the man and the Christian Sean O’Malley:

• His capacity for compassion and mercy which –like the Teacher of Nazareth-- have always moved him to act and resolve the urgent needs of his brothers or sisters in Christ, and
• His evangelical and Franciscan option to live in poverty and pastoral dedication to the poorest, smaller, marginalized and rejected by society.

It seems to me that these two characteristics --compassion and poverty-- define and sufficiently explain what has been the vital and existential trajectory of this man, this friend, this brother, this priest, and this Bishop for whom we today cheer and give thanks to God for his abundant life.

In order to give direction to the Hispanic immigrants in the process of adaptation and integration to the life and Church in the United States –and in general-- to the North American society, Father Sean O’Malley established in the Washington Archdiocese, a radio program and a written communication tool El Pregonero (The Proclaimer). These foundations, which would later extend to the Virgin Islands, etc. show us the permanent and growing interest of Father O’Malley for the communication media as instruments for Evangelization. He then became the first Archbishop in the United States, who maintains communication with his flock through a personal internet “blog”.

The difficult and agitated situation lived by the peoples of Latin America during the 70’s and 80’s: revolts, coup d’état, revolutions, etc. was followed by the special interest of Father O’Malley who, in his preaching and celebrations with the Hispanics in the Archdiocese of Washington, did not neglect to mention the abuses to the human rights which, at that time, were happening in the southern part of the American continent. This brought mistrust on the side of the Latin American governments and organisms against the person and pastoral work of Father O’Malley.

During these “hot years” in Central America (Sandinista government, civil war in El Salvador, etc.), Father O’Malley travels to Central America and establishes relationships with leaders such as Cardinal Obando y Bravo, in Nicaragua; Rivera y Damas in El Salvador; and Oscar Rodriguez in Honduras, and created a program of Pastoral cooperation with specific churches in Latin America, looking to get more and better attention to the problems and required need for solutions for the immigrants originating in those nations.

Cardinal William Baum is succeeded by the good and unforgettable Cardinal James Hickey who, just as his predecessor, encourages the pastoral and missionary work of Father O’Malley, and recommended him --twenty-five years ago-- for the office of Bishop to the Holy See.
In the year 1974, Father O’Malley takes part in the First Regional Pastoral Encounter of Hispanics for the North East Region of the United States, which is formed by thirty-six Dioceses. During that occasion, and in the presence of Cardinals Baum of Washington, Kroll of Philadelphia, Cooke of New York; Medeiros of Boston, Aponte Martinez of Puerto Rico (invited as an observer) and the Apostolic Delegate of the Holy See Archbishop Jadot, Father O’Malley proposes the creation of a Regional Office for Hispanic Catholics, with its central offices in New York. This Pastoral Center opens its doors in 1976, offices and pastoral center which I founded and directed for more than twenty-five years. Beginning with the above mentioned encounter, Father Sean O’Malley was elected as President of the Board of Directors of the North-East Regional Office, while at the same time, President of the Directors Association for the Diocesan Apostolate to Hispanics in the North-East Region of the United States.

Under the Leadership of Father O’Malley, in his positions in the Hispanic Apostolate, is established a permanent line of cooperation between the different dioceses in Latin America and the Hispanic Apostolate Offices in the North-East. All with an important interchange of agents for evangelization (priests and nuns), programs for intercultural formation, abundant production of materials for the cathequesis, liturgy and the evangelization and missionary work among Hispanics. Also from this time are the creation of the School of Languages with the cooperation of the Diocese of Brooklyn and the publication of the first official lectionary in Spanish for liturgical use in the United States. Also, the first sociological studies on the Hispanic integration to the Church in the United States took effect, directed by Father Joseph Fitzpatrick, S.J., and a national study by Father Roberto Gonzalez, today Archbishop in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

To the pastoral and priestly work of Cardinal O’Malley we must add his virtues and intellectual accomplishments. In this area, allow me to point out his doctorate in the Portuguese and Spanish languages from the Catholic University of Washington. This doctorate was accomplished through the acquired and profound knowledge of the great works of the most prominent artist in the world of the arts and the literature in Latin America.

From the Christian authenticity of Cardinal O’Malley, of his intellectual and spiritual richness, of his friendship, his generous and fruitful ministerial, and episcopal work, have benefited, been blessed, and can give grateful testimony the recipients of his pastoral work in the Diocese which he, through the years, have headed: Virgin Islands, Fall River, Palm Beach, and Boston.
In essence Cardinal O’Malley is a true Christian humanist, of great intellect and a great love for the Church. A definitive characteristic of the Cardinal is his great love and loyalty for his friends, among whom I consider myself grateful and blessed.

Ad multos annos Cardinal O’Malley!! May God continue blessing us with the certainty of your friendship, with the joy of your presence, with the generosity of your humanity, with the light of your wisdom, and the mercy and presence of God in our midst, manifested in your Priesthood!

Through Various Paths…

This June 29, 2009, with the celebration of the solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, ends the named PAULINE YEAR, called for by Pope Benedict XVI. Its aim was to deepen our knowledge of the life and works of the man, the convert, the Christian, the theologian and the writer, the missionary Saul/Paul of Tarsus.

Christians owe an immense gratitude to the life and works of these two pillars of Christianity who illumined with their being and example the first dawn of the Church; and who marked, with their style and vision, the diverse but always Christian work of evangelization. Those were the first paths where the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would follow, starting in Jerusalem and making it to all the ends of the earth.

PAUL, in his insistence to tell the world about the Good News of the Gospel which marked his own life as a saving happening, opens the first doors to the work of evangelization in the known world, and for that is more than worthy to receive the title of Apostle to the Gentiles. In contrast with Peter, Paul brings out the Christian experience from its regular Jewish vetero-testamentary mold, and dedicates himself to the adventure of making known the Good News, which for his own life, was the happening of the coming of the Christ.

If something is clear and evident in the life, preaching, writings and journeys of Paul, it is his deep experience of the absolute gratuitousness of faith. According to Paul, it is Christ who takes the initiative of making the encounter and the new Christian religious experience completely “free.” That is why all reflection about faith, in the preaching and writings of Paul, is of personal nature, experiential, free and for the salvation/happiness of all men. This is in contrast to what later (and up to this day) were and are certain types of theology, excessively rational and ethereal.

In our day, and especially in our social and cultural context, it is very meaningful what could be called the “Pauline multi-culturalism”; in other words, the capacity which Paul had to know well, to live, and to reconcile with the prevailing and preponderant cultures of his day: the Semitic or Jewish, the veterotestamentary, the Hellenistic and the roman cultures. This capacity is evident and best shown in his preaching and in his writings, but most of all in his apostolic and missionary fervor.

Paul understood well that the point of the “catholicity” or “universality” of the Church indeed includes the real possibility that all men and women, recognizing each other as brothers and sisters --children of the same Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ—will construct the world as a single table around the only Bread of Life, who is Christ.

This catholicity/universality of the Church, because of its nature, doesn’t know of discriminations, of differences, of stratifications, of frontiers, of barriers, of color, of lifestyles, or of social levels or conditions etc. Today, this catholicity is of outmost importance for the Catholic Church itself, in relation to other Christian churches and in relation to the culture of the United States itself, where so many men and women –for the betterment of the Nation— come seeking better living conditions while originating in the four corners of the earth.

Therefore, this note on catholicity/universality, essential for the Christian life when lived according to Peter’s or Paul’s ideals contains, in itself, the seed and the fruits of an authentic ecumenism which fulfills the wish of Christ himself: That all be as one.”

PETER, on the other hand, head of the Ecclesial Community, starting during those days of fishing and walking the roads of Galilee with Jesus and the other eleven, was ahead in announcing the life transforming act of the first Christians through confessing the crucified as living and resurrected. He is the head of the first Christian communities, as we can see in the neotestamentary testimonies; and he teaches us –among other things—that the responsibility and authority of the heads of the Christian communities are directly related with their capacity of: recognizing their own sin, sincerely repenting, authentic conversion, true love, and the power gotten through service and complete surrender to Christ and his Gospel, up to giving their own lives for their communities.

The Eucharistic Preface in the Solemnity in which we give tribute to the memory and sanctity of Peter and Paul, in fact, sings well to the unity in the diversity which should compose the Church of Jesus Christ:

“Peter, the first in confessing the faith,
Paul, the distinguished teacher who interpret it,
Peter, founder of the primitive Church with the rest of Israel,
Paul, who extended it to all peoples.
Through different paths
both put together the only Church of Christ
and to both, who were crowned by martyrdom
your people celebrate today with the same veneration.”

Today we can say that the work and lives of PETER AND PAUL summarize well the promise, the yearning for renovation and the recovery of the authentic being, vision and mission of the Church of Jesus Christ as expressed in the Ecumenical Council Vatican II: “That the Church be evangelical inside and prophetic to the outside, that is to the world.”