In October, many eyes will be focused on the second part of the Synod, the Church’s roadmap in which aspects such as the participation of women in the ecclesiastical hierarchy or celibacy will continue to be debated. The last word will be Pope Francis, who at 87 years old faces the final stretch of his papacy.
It will also be the year in which reparation measures for victims of sexual abuse within the Church must be carried out and the Ordinary Jubilee will begin in December. Aside from these milestones, communities and entities also address the main challenges facing the Church in 2024 and their demands to make a better world.
Peio Sánchez, the rector of the Santa Anna church in Barcelona, ??where 400 people are fed every day, asks, given the increase in homelessness, to deploy small housing initiatives so as not to leave anyone homeless. He demands, in the face of “the growing wave of migrants, to facilitate hospitality in Christian communities,” and warns that the arrival of Christians from several Latin American countries will be a challenge this year. He also advocates renewing the option of being a Church that “following Jesus becomes poor, for the poor and with the poor.”
The entity dependent on the archbishopric of Barcelona, ??which emerged 35 years ago as a space for dialogue between Christianity and culture, considers that one of the main challenges of the Church is the culmination of the current synodal path “with theological and practical contributions that increase the openness and quality of participation and the commitment of the laity to the evangelical message and the Church.” They also ask that the Church maintain a moderating participation in the polarizations and conflicts of the world and enhance dialogue with the cultural world, the cultural creativity of the Church and its capacity for listening and understanding, beyond its essential assistance work.
The Fundació Pere Tarrés is a non-profit entity of the archdiocesan church of Barcelona with 450,000 beneficiaries from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Its general director, Josep Oriol Pujol, asks for peace for the world. Peace – he says – for Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan and the African continent, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries where there is war and violence. Peace, but also social justice so that everyone has food and health to live fully. “The deficiencies are experienced in the global south and in our neighborhoods,” he points out. “Is the existence of tax havens admissible while a third of our children are below the poverty line?” he asks.
Guaranteeing access to housing is, according to Càritas, the “great unfinished business of society” since it understands that not having a home leads to the social exclusion of the most vulnerable. They estimate that 70% of the people served reside in housing that is not decent. In this sense, they advocate expanding the public stock of social rentals and guaranteeing minimum income to be able to have a decent life. They ask that in 2024 the law on urgent measures to eradicate homelessness be approved, which was brought to Parliament by various social entities and representatives of the academic world.
Montserrat has its sights set on the monastery’s millennium celebration that will begin on September 7 and 8 and will last until December 8, 2025. For prior Bernat Juliol it is the occasion “to look back at the past and be grateful for these thousand years of Benedictine monastic life”, but above all he believes that “it is time to orient ourselves towards the future and remind the world of the beauty and relevance of a life based on faith in Christ”. Following the path outlined by Abbot Oliba, he advocates spreading the values ??of welcome, dialogue, encounter and peace.
