From all parts of
the earth: welcoming, listening, blessing.

Fuensanta. Valencia. ODS 10

German Padin cmf

Parish priest of
Our Lady of Fuensanta

Claret Fuensanta
School Pastoral Coordinator

Our mouths are full when we
talk about ODS in today’s world, and even the logo and, why not say it, the
development of the different projects and programs that are carried out around
the world, are very suggestive. But I ask myself: What is beyond all that the
ODS presents to us? One of the great challenges we face is Inequality.

Social inequality is a
socio-economic circumstance in which a group or community is treated differently
by other subjects or groups in its environment. 
This definition is centred on the economy, in my opinion important, but
where is human inequality?

Surely you have heard more
than once about social inequality, a term that in recent years has taken on
special prominence when it comes to analysing international geopolitical
relations or the inclusion of social sectors that, for various reasons, have
been historically marginalised.

What does social
inequality imply?

In almost all cases, social inequality
entails, in addition to a situation of marginalization and isolation, the
identification of those social groups that have been directly affected by this
circumstance; they are identified and marked. Stay with this idea and reflect:
how can this fact affect families with children? There is much more to tell…
Let’s continue!

The experience in the La
Fuensanta neighbourhood (Valencia, Spain) is based on the diversity of
nationalities present in the area. The Claret Fuensanta School has, at this moment,
students of 36 different nationalities.

The experience of the
Claretian Missionaries in the barrio always starts from the person. The person,
each person, is the one who sets the guidelines for the work. There are three:
Welcome, Attentive listening and Farewell (blessing).

Let us talk about concrete
cases. The Muslim world, peace, dialogue and welcome, is set in motion from the
moment we take into account that we, Christians, start from a common father,
Abraham; moreover, we have the same end: peace, salvation… There can be no
reproaches among us, everything adds up; there can be no “you plus”,
all that subtracts and does not make us grow; inequality disappears when
borders are broken. Today the Muslims who live in the neighbourhood enter the
parish church without any problem. They may not understand many things, but
they do understand that they are welcomed and, most importantly, they are
trusted, and this challenges us about a reality: “that the land we walk on
is sacred”; that they are also children of God, children of Abraham.

Another group where inequality
is palpable in all senses is the gypsy ethnic group. I won’t deny that many
times they disorientate me and I don’t understand their way of acting;
certainly, many times, they are the ones who separate themselves from society.
But in the Roma world we have to discover the value of the family, respect for
the elderly, their own scale of values. We have to break with archaic
stereotypes that lead nowhere; with the Romany world we have to listen a lot,
but we also have to speak out and make them see that many times it is they who
take a step backwards. Here we no longer speak of “the land we walk
on”, but rather of “being nomadic pilgrims” in search of a
common and concrete encounter which is coexistence.

I am very concerned about and
hurt by today’s Latin American migration; many of them migrate for political
reasons. Today in our neighborhood this migration is not for economic
necessity, but for stability of life. It hurts to see how doctors, engineers,
teachers migrate… With all that this means in terms of loss of cultural level
for their countries of origin, here the land is really impoverishing. Most of
them have in the horizon to return to their countries when the situation there
improves.

The three words
that are part of our work in the Parish.

Welcoming – inequality is
marked by the papers of legalization of stay in Spain … and I wonder what is
more important a certificate or instance or a name that is associated with a
particular person? what is more important documents 036, 037, models to fill in
data, or the name-person of Mary, Luis Alberto, Mohamed … To welcome is to
embrace, to empathise, not to put up barriers. To welcome, is to invite to the
table and share what we have and fight in this “common house” that is
our land. Even if the legalization papers are wet, or do not have an owner.

To listen. To allow oneself to
be challenged, to listen to the different cries that are presented to us, cries
that seek peace, encounter, tranquility; cries that ask for bread in today’s
world; cries of sickness. We must be attentive in order to listen; to welcome
the truth, which is the truth of the disinherited of the earth.

To bless. Finally the
blessing, to say well. I may not have much to give you, but I offer you the
open doors. Blessed are those who seek and do not find, and those who seek and
feel welcome. Blessed are the men and women with names and no papers. Blessed
are men and women without papers, but with dignity. Blessed are all!

German Padin cmf

Parish priest of
Our Lady of Fuensanta

Claret Fuensanta
School Pastoral Coordinator

Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)