The diocese of Girona has experienced a long time of waiting and orphanhood. Two years without a bishop. Nobody knew why. There was a fatalistic argument: “Girona is a very difficult diocese: several candidates have resigned.” In the years when Catholicism was a hegemonic religion, being a bishop had many worldly attractions. The much-missed Miquel Pairolí evokes in the novel Cera the importance enjoyed by Bishop Cartanyà, whose funeral procession crossed the city of Girona, becoming a great event.
Now, in the 21st century, being a bishop in Girona is a sacrificial act, which does not give worldly satisfactions and, on the other hand, entails numerous headaches. Not only due to the internal problems: decrease in the number of believers; lack of vocations and aging of the clergy; tensions between progressive and fundamentalist Christianity. But as a consequence of the rapid penetration of postmodern culture, hegemonic in a Girona that has blocked, in a single generation, the transmission of Christian faith and culture.
The wait of these two years had given the Girona Catholic communities, more numerous than one wants to believe, a feeling of abandonment, which confirmed the feeling of the end of the journey of the ancient Christian tradition in Girona (documented by the wonderful early Christian sarcophagi from the pre-Constantinian period, preserved in the Basilica of Sant Feliu).
However, this feeling of abandonment has not caused, as would be expected in any civil institution, neither defection nor depression. For the Catholics of Girona, these years have meant something like a purifying journey through the desert. A long, patient and reflective Lent, which led to a burst of resurrection joy as soon as the news broke of the appointment of the abbot of Poblet, Brother Octavi Vilà, as the new bishop. Last Sunday, in the cathedral, the 1,300 attendees at the prelate’s ordination ritual exuded a sober enthusiasm, a contained joy that overflowed from time to time in long applause.
The liturgy of the bishop’s ordination distilled enormous symbolic force. Friar Octavi prostrate on the ground while the kyrie eleison plays and while supplications are raised to the saints. The powerful simplicity of the laying on of hands on the new bishop by the other prelates. The anointing and delivery of the gospels and episcopal insignia. The symbolic visit to the chair called Charlemagne. The embrace of peace that the officiants give to the new bishop. This long and symbolic ritual converged in the popular chant of the Crec en un Déu, which united, as is typical of religion, the thousand-plus attendees in the same shared faith.
I have attended, it is one of the privileges that this newspaper granted me, many ceremonies in St. Peter’s in the Vatican: funeral of John Paul II, conclave of Benedict XVI, his resignation, conclave of Francis. The symbolic force of the songs and rituals, the massive participation, the grandeur of the basilica, the weight of the historical moments, everything contributed to causing an ineffable experience in those attending. The Catholic liturgy has that force. I caught a similar impact the other day in the Girona cathedral. Nothing to do with the easy emotionality that a movie, a concert, a rally provides. We talk about how the Spirit is present among the members of the community by virtue of a sum of ingredients: the imposing place, with the grandiose Gothic vault; the delightful cathedral choir, which helped the faithful enthusiastically sing the scores, a mix of modern and ancient (Veni creator, in Gregorian); the rituals; the ornaments; the texts (parable of the good shepherd), the words of the archbishop of Tarragona, the Pope’s nuncio and Brother Octavi himself.
They did not hear words of success or euphoria, like those that the world today receives from leaders, but of service (even suffering), of faith, of prayer. The nuncio and the new bishop referred to the motto chosen by Brother Octavi: “Praesis ut prodes.” Preside to serve. And in a profound and severe speech, which expressed the difficulty of the present and the value of faith, Archbishop Planellas stated: “You will have no other strength or shield other than that of the Gospel.” Previously, Mn. Lluís Sunyer, in welcoming the bishop, had already invited those present to row, alongside the new bishop, to be “bearers of hope” in this “exasperated society.”
