To be a parent today
In a large crowded room of the Senate House a meeting is held
to discuss about " how to be a parent when you are in a
very precarious situation" There is in the audience Social
workers, judges and many psychoanalysts. I am invited to speak
first about my own experience. Sitting beside me a psychoanalyst
strikes me by the relevance of his remarks: the exclusion of
the parents is transmitted to the children. Parents abusing children
had always been abused themselves. They did not received what
is necessary for building themselves as parents. To be a parent
is not a status but a function. Are we born parents? We become
parents; sometimes we are not anymore parents. Parenthood is
not exclusively biological, and looking at me, the psychoanalyst
refers to Jesus to stress what he means: " Who is my mother
and who are my brothers?"
Mgr. Romero, 20 years later
He came to Bruges in January 1980 a few weeks before his assassination.
Twenty years after, Bruges remembers. Videotape shows him transformed
from a priest into a prophet and converted at the sight of the
poor when the Church in Salvador was persecuted.
Mgr. Romero was in conflict with the military, the government
and also the Episcopal Conference, the Nonce and Rome. He managed
to go through this conflict always in solidarity with his poor
people.
In my speech I recalled some prophetic words of Mgr. Romero in
his speech in Leaven when he received the title of Doctor "honoris
causa "(February 2, 1980).
"We are preaching the poor hope to give them back their
dignity and to encourage them to be the actors of their own destiny"
" The part of the Church which has put itself on the side
of the poor and defended them has been persecuted and criticized"
"To be with the poor is the condition for the Church to
be able to exist for all."
In its homily on February 17, 1980, he spoke about his own experience,
a kind of a last will.
"A Church which is not able to associate with the poor to
reveal the injustices they suffer, this Church is not the true
Church of Jesus-Christ."
"There is no honor for the Church to entertain good relationships
with the powerful. It is the honor of the Church if the poor
feel that the Church belongs to them".
On March 24, 1980, Mgr. Romeo was killed by the bullets fired
by the military during he was celebrating mass. Nobody can stop
justice. His blood is a seed of liberty. I recognize myself in
his message, alive here in Bruges as in Partenia.
Unusual Liturgy
A mass was planned in my native town of Saint Dizier. A mass
not specifically prepared. This allows flexibility and unexpected
character. How not to see all these people coming with their
emotions, their pounding hearts, their pains, their struggles.
An air of liberty was blowing on this assembly. Such a rare event
in our liturgies! The words were emerging, not expected, giving
rise to other words, like the flame of a candle that is communicated
to others
The Gospel was bread on the table: it was nourishing. The Gospel
was coming alive while taking a human face.
Surrounded by my brother's priests, I was looking to this assembly
with joy and thankfulness. Christ was amid them, like the tree
of life on which every body was grafted to bear fruit.
Iranians in resistance
I am "kidnapped" by three of them in the middle
of Paris to be brought to their lair. After one hour's car drive,
I am introduced in their entrenched camp under permanent Police
watch. I consider as a privilege to be able to penetrate into
this sanctuary. The person in charge welcomes me heartily. I
attentively listen to him speaking with passion for his country.
Then we go to the refectory for a community meal. About thirty
men and women are waiting for me. I recognize most of them. Have
I not often met them during the past fifteen years? All have
a member of their family in prison, tortured, killed or gone
missing. They hope that the Mollah dictatorship will be replaced
by a laic and democratic regime. There is not a day when they
do not think about Iran.
Very determined, they keep the resistance in liaison with the
international Diaspora, they stay united to keep the courage
of the future.
Under the Embassy windows
When it was first known of a possible participation of the
extreme right to the Austrian government, a demonstration was
organized in front of the Austrian Embassy in Paris.
We were a few and with no media. But the most important was to
be there, to meet the Ambassador and to address him our protests
in order he transmits them. This was done at once. The Ambassador
meets our delegation for an hour. He seemed to me to be hurt
by the political events of his country. He did not like us to
call Haider's party an extreme-right party. It is a "Populist
Party". He was sure that the measures announced by European
Union will not achieved the goal they look for but on the contrary
they will help the party of Haider. "Let the future government
proves itself".
In the contrary we thought that the political interference of
Europe was justified and even was a milestone.