Ya estamos en el domingo Gaudete, el 2025, año jubilar, toca a su fin, lo empezamos con el Papa Francisco y lo terminamos con el Papa León XIV, un pontificado no acaba de terminar y el otro no termina de comenzar. El mundo, la iglesia, se encuentran en una encrucijada en la que todos estamos convencidos de que las viejas fórmulas no sirven y las nuevas no terminan de aparecer. La generación del ‘espíritu conciliar’ no encuentra donde encarnarse y va desapareciendo de forma acelerada con sus primaveras, los brotes verdes, que los hay, siguen sis poder desarrollarse con fuerza rodeados de cizaña muerta. Pero es Gaudete, la Navidad está a las puertas y no es tiempo de mirar hacia atrás. El contador interno de nuestro blog nos dice que hoy llegamos al Specola 3.300, nada mal, seguimos: «Gaudéte in Domino semper: íterum dico, gaudéte».
In the Paul VI Hall Pope Leo XIV received in audience the participants of the Jubilee of Italian Diplomacy and framed his speech focusing on the importance of the Jubilee for those who work in international relations. «In diplomacy, only those who truly hope seek and support dialogue between the parties», linking hope with the capacity to «trust in mutual understanding even in the face of difficulties and tensions». Hope is not generic optimism , but a concrete disposition that impels us to seek «the best paths and words to reach an agreement». The diplomatic mission must be at the service of the common good, but he pointed out the « deviations » of «calculation for personal benefit» or the balance between rivals who, in negotiating, «hide their respective distances».
A central point of the speech focused on the cultural dimension of language. Leo XIV recalled that «we call our mother tongue our mother tongue», because it expresses the culture of the homeland and «unites the people like a family». Through language, he observed, each nation manifests «a specific understanding of the world», from its system of values to its everyday gestures. Hence the focus on multi-ethnic contexts: «it becomes indispensable to foster dialogue, promoting mutual and intercultural understanding» as a concrete sign of «welcome, integration, and fraternity». «Only when a person is honest, in fact, do we say that he is ‘a man of his word’», he affirmed, because keeping one’s word is a sign of «constancy and fidelity, without turning back». «Like the senses and the body, language must also be educated», because being Christians and honest citizens means «sharing a vocabulary capable of saying things as they are, without distortions». «In an international context wounded by abuse and conflict, the opposite of dialogue is not silence, but offense».
We are in Italy and the audience with Pope Leo XIV began with the celebration of Holy Mass presided over by Parolin in the Paul VI Hall, an unusual setting. In his homily he reflected sobre la «complejidad geopolítica de nuestro tiempo», sus «profundas tensiones» y sus «escenarios cambiantes», el cardenal repasó varios de ellos, empezando por Tierra Santa, «donde el dolor de poblaciones enteras se entrelaza con la dramática historia de un conflicto que parece no tener tregua». También habló de Ucrania, donde el prolongado conflicto está causando «destrucción y desconfianza», y el silencio de las armas parece ser un horizonte que se aleja, justo cuando cada vez más personas perciben su urgencia vital.
Pope Leo XIV has written a message to the participants of the meeting of Latin American priests, nuns, and seminarians studying in Rome. The text, dated December 9, 2025 (Memorial of St. Juan Diego), identifies the evangelical phrase «Follow me» as the criterion for formation and consecrated life. Vocation arises from a free choice of the Lord and cannot be reduced to self-realization or social recognition. Leo XIV recalls that the call is directed to «sinners and the weak»: the chosen ones are not separated from the world, but sent. Following is not the path of the «perfect», but of those who allow themselves to be lifted and guided in the logic of the cross. We need disciples who proclaim the primacy of Christ with a clear voice in their hearts.
Georg Gänswein has been the object of Pope Francis’s mercies for years. It is not strange that his reappearance in Rome, after his forced exile, and in the Vatican is in all the media. He was officially received by Pope Leo XIV in his private office on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, where the pontiff receives heads of state and government daily, as well as bishops and cardinals of the Curia. He was written off and repatriated after the death of Pope Benedict, Pope Francis exiled him to Germany without any charge. After a painful reconciliation he agreed to assign him a new position: Apostolic Nuncio to the Baltic Republics, a Nunciature that covers three states: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Gänswein declared to the attending journalists at the presentation of his book «God is the True Reality» that he feels Roman, after having lived in the capital for 26 years, and also revealed that he had reconciled with Francis before his death. Will he return to the Vatican?.
Four deaths in 24 hours, in the midst of the Jubilee of Prisoners, have once again put the prison emergency at the forefront of the national agenda in Italy. A woman died of overdose in the women’s prison of Rebibbia, in Rome, and another was hospitalized. A man committed suicide in Viterbo, while another took his own life in the Lecce prison. And a 45-year-old man from Formia died in Tor Vergata after months in a coma and arduous periods of rehabilitation from a beating he suffered while incarcerated in Rebibbia. The Pope has not mentioned these events that we suppose are repeated and hidden all over the world, but Fisichella has: «I learned of the death of a woman in Rebibbia prison just as several magistrates and I were beginning a conference on prisons. We observed a minute of silence, also to reflect». «It is truly sad news, but it forces us once again to examine the situation of penury, suffering, and lack of dignity in which prisoners live».
Cada vez son más frecuentes y, por el cabreo que provocan en lo peor de nuestra sociedad, vemos que son muy eficaces. Las reuniones de hombres, de rodillas, en oración en lugares públicos son realmente revolucionarias. In Croatia, the phenomenon of the so-called «klečavaci», literally «the kneelers», has regained prominence with force . This is how they define with some disdain men associated with the movement defined as ultracatholic «Muževni budite» («Be manly», in reference to the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians). For three years, this movement has attracted a growing number of men of all ages to the streets throughout the country. Every first Saturday of the month, the faithful—all men—gather in public prayer sessions in central squares like Trg Jelačić , the heart of Zagreb, to pray the rosary, often carrying flags and placards with invocations to the Virgin Mary. The Croatian men have expressed their opposition to abortion rights, have demanded that women dress in a non-provocative way, and oppose premarital sexual relations. They categorically reject accusations of nostalgia for the Ustaše regime—«we are apolitical»—and of being anti-women— «we pray to be better men, husbands, and fathers». Feminists are angry and have signed a petition, already presented to Parliament, demanding the prohibition of public prayers only for men, «in the name of the eighteen women murdered in 2025».
We have a petition to Pope Leo XIV that can be signed at En Tua Justitia Libera me Domine. «As the People of God, we ask you, Holy Father, to direct your attention to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. In these first months of your pontificate, you have offered us the image of a man of God who listens, discerns, and, when necessary, intervenes by radically reviewing previously held positions. Everyone appreciates the delicacy with which you try to «fix» discreetly some decisions of your predecessor. This is undoubtedly very beautiful and offers an image of true Christian charity. Now, Holy Father, welcoming the “feeling” of so many members of the People of God, we ask you, for the good of the Church and also of the person concerned, to replace the current Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Fernández. We do not want to go into the substance of the reasons that led Pope Francis to want him in that position. However, we cannot ignore the fact that from the beginning, when it was announced that he would be the prefect, many expressed their disappointment, especially in his native country, Argentina. Over the years since he assumed the position of prefect, many pronouncements have been plagued by ambiguity; this has necessarily required ever new interventions to clarify, deepen, and review what had been said previously. Furthermore, in light of what has been known from the beginning and has regained prominence in these last days, Cardinal Fernández, due to his personal propensity for a certain literary style, is certainly not the most suitable person to perform that role».