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En esta página se ofrecen testimonios de gran valor histórico. Es una recopilación de artículos publicados en la prensa internacional entre los años 1975 (fecha de fallecimiento del fundador del Opus Dei) y 1990, muy cerca ya de su beatificación por Juan Pablo II. Enlaces Romana (Boletín de la Prelatura del Opus Dei) Obras de San Josemaría Escrivá Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer - Fundador del Opus Dei Iniciativas sociales promovidas por personas del Opus Dei Documentos, artículos y testimonios sobre el Opus Dei y su fundador |
Maurice Michael Otunga, Arzobispo de Nairobi, Presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Kenya, Ordinario Militar para Kenya, en Sunday Nation (Nairobi), 3.2.80.
Texto
Opus Dei in Africa . SUMM YNATION 1!*uw,3 1O Nairobi 4 ' vrc e ror "•kvfiY has Christianity 4enimost2,OOO yéàrs to .reach Africa?" "How is it that Europe :1ßS been the prviIeged continent over se Centuries?" ... lose ale questions that-now and then •trke African Chris tianah answer, Ilike to remind people that Christianity did not in in 1umpe. Where ft began __ • was in fct cloaer to'Afrka than to Europe. . • ,Sò4se that Our Lord himself spent• some years of his' early life on African soil - a privilcgee for which we -Cfl nòVer be too grateful! . Hut . perhaps, we can : find a betteE. answer if we look forward Mead of looking back. After all, 2,OOO:yar ISa very short period i•n the 'history of salvation. God as #,~ own rr for eaéh people .And if Hebas "waited" 29 tunes toname. to Africa, ..perhaps it i, ho use 14e has special hopes about what Africa can offer to the world at thus moment of history. Africa is me of the 20th CantUry's reservoirs of youth, for tbe'worjd andd for the.Church. . Our young people - wino forni moan than half of oar population - are open to ideals. They WlthU$aStiCalty and generously take • up goç ones, though, in their absence; tbetOO can tnfortunately be led ayy biy false ones. . seems providential that a né spirit of youtb«a spiritual • ithMnse for people. of X11 •. with generous Gospel . Ideals of love and service, is ping through. the Church an is • already well established in parts if Africa, including my wn beloved Kenya. • I refer to Opus Dei, which in the words of Pope Paul VI, ha been called into existence by God "for the perennial youth of the Church and of all mankind". Over the 21 years since Opus Dei was established in Kenya in 1958, I have met meiers from many different countries. Impressed by. all, I have been specially impressed by its Mricap members. Men .an 4 women who retain all the marvellous simplicity of the Faith they learned in their homes or in the Mission schools, and at the same time carry with them the stamp of .a deeper formation -,- a level of formation which, to me, is new in Africa. Professional people, farmers, university students, workers, they have a deep knowledge of the Faith combined with a deep knowledge of thé world and - what is even more important -.a deep love for Our Lord and His Church combined with a deep love for the world. Their saintly founder used to malst that the world, as God's creation is good and if properly. good . QPU- DEI, the International Catho1jc Associa tion, celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the foun dation of the Women's Section of the Association on February 14, 1980. Kenya's Maurice Cardinal Otunga wrote this article to mark the occasion. mg founder of Opus Dei, Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, in a get-together in Rome with a group of - . - Kenyan women shortly before his de*th. . . . - used, leads to God. Headded that tioned earlier, . *hoFeCenrti All who had the privi o4 it is we men by our sins, who can rent -- precisely at the moment testify tst make it evil. But he was f j "awakening" -'is being when lié did in 1975, at the age optimisticaboutman. . strongly solicited by a q . He had He was convinced that man is more powerfully drawn by good than by evil (and how much the Christian apostolate needs this conviçtki today!). But he also believed that it is up to Christians to put good into the world; "to submerge evil in an abundance of good", he liked to say: . And so he taught his followers that to sanctify one's life means to try indeed to live it for the love of, God, but also to fill . it with human goodness; and that -therefore they must be good workers, good professional people, good students, good friends, good neighbours,• good husbands and wives, good parents, good children. It gives me great joy, and fills me with hope for the future, . think of these married members of Opus Dei. They seek to maintain the brightness and cheer fulness of self-sacrificed lové; they-try to create the warmth of real home life;; they regard the children Gal sends them as blessing• (how readily this too fits with African tradition!); and their resin concern is to rear their children to know, love, and serve God. What an abundance of socatiOi!s - for the diocesan clergy, . for sanctified Christian life in the world and for religious life one sees coiunfrom such families! The soul of Africa is attracted byy the Christian faith. In Kenya, Catholics alone have grown, in this century, to be one fourth of the population. But, as I men ffiaterilistic conceptoflife, not grown old with the passageáf The members of Opus Des, as . the àontrary, bss apint normal lay people who bare to had yo. Y i year, agro their living, 1pursue their witji. an incredible -vitality of several paths along the ways of youthfujness and,, cheerfulness,, our technological age. Since what ,ma y fashion but ovr a moves diem is love for God, it is lifetime of heroic struggle which. logical that they strive to carry brought him closer day by day to ut their work as perfectlyas they jj the God (as be lov - can and many take a . lead in repeat with the Church) "who scalar affaire• my gives joy to youtb"' . . . The deep . motive they õe in. Faith, love, wor, service, joy.. their job or profession •not only andyouth are Christian treasures makes them.. .all. the more that the life of Monsignor klWrlicated to it; it also helps them' de Balaguer, o avid' self-seeking. 1LIhiT . and the association founded byy work, and îher to turn it into a him can rediscover for the means ofserving others. - . modern world. . . This same Christian spirit He himself believed that the helps them particularly to user, . youeg soul of Afrià would par:j modern technology for true ticularly respond to these ideals, human advancement. So, p even foresaw a time when working from within the various generation of Africans, in a sort trades and prqfessions, they can ii go out help to avoid uses and practices m Africa to bring the joy -and that are not in keeping with youth of the Çatholic faith to . l*ans personal and natural other parts oftheworld. d!gnity or with his supernatural like to think that the end. greatnis of his heart skid the A nation could not have better his mind will soon be citizens, more dedicated to the justified by historyy common good. The Church could not lieve better witnesses to its Faith or hatter apostles. . In October last year, Opus Dei celebrated its 50th, anniversary. 'l'bis is a young age for an institution. But even when centuries have passed, I believe it will have. .kept that youthfulness of spirit it inherited from its founder - who undoubtedly was one of the great saints of all time. 48 Opus Dei: opiniones de protagonistas |
