Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, exhorted the priests of the diocese yesterday, February 9, to strengthen communion and priestly fraternity in the face of social and ecclesial polarization, during the Mass celebrated within the framework of the Presbytery Assembly Convivium, as reported by the Archdiocese of Madrid.
In his homily, delivered in the diocesan cathedral, the cardinal emphasized that the evangelical question “How many loaves do you have?” continues to challenge the Church today and, in particular, the presbyters. A question that, he affirmed, invites us not to lose sight of “the crowd we have before us, hungry and thirsty for meaning”, beyond parishes or specific assignments.
The Eucharist, center of priestly fraternity
Cobo highlighted that the Presbytery Assembly finds its full meaning in the Eucharist, which he defined as “the summit and source of the energy that makes it possible for us to be an Assembly and a priestly fraternity”. In this context, he recalled that “the Eucharist builds the Church and is what generates the bond of communion” among priests.
He insisted that the presbyter’s mission does not arise from one’s own initiative, but from God’s prior action: “The initiative is always the Lord’s, who is already at work and precedes us with his grace”, he affirmed, pointing out that the Assembly is at the same time a response to a call and a “prophetic provocation for the time we live in”.
Warning against polarization and divisive narratives
During the homily, Cobo warned that one of the “darknesses” of the current moment is polarization, “which also creeps into our Church and sometimes wants to turn us into rivals or competitors”. In his view, when faith is relegated and ideologies, suspicions, or particular ways of seeing things are imposed, ecclesial communion is weakened.
He also warned against “narratives that want to impose a distorted perception of what the Church is”, emphasizing that those discourses “do not come from God because they divide” and do not help with an evangelical gaze either on the Church or on the world.
Common response to a wounded world
At another point in his address, the Archbishop of Madrid acknowledged that, in the face of a humanity “wounded and urgently in need of peace and meaning”, priests may feel overwhelmed or discouraged. However, he recalled that Christ’s call remains clear: “You give them something to eat”, an invitation not to yield to comfort or loss of hope.
And he concluded by encouraging presbyters to live their ministry from fraternity and mutual care, reminding them that “we are not a team of technicians, but a community of faith convened by God’s love”, and that only from that communion is it possible to offer a faithful response to the current pastoral challenges.