“The Church must move towards social service”

After obtaining his diploma and making his professional debut as an intern at the university institution and in a project studio, he entered the seminary in 1980: his first destination was Priego de Córdoba, where he remained for eleven years, and from there he returned to the capital to launch the University Pastoral and the Pilgrimage to Guadalupe. Since 1999, he has been pastor of La Consolación, created by the diocese to attend religious services in the then-burgeoning Arroyo del Moro neighborhood. Joaquín Pérez has therefore just completed a quarter of a century in his position and to celebrate it, he brought together the parishioners on Thursday of last week in a mass in which there was no room in the church, the only one in the city ​​to have a perpetual mass. Eucharistic adoration chapel. The meeting with ABC took place the next day.

-In yesterday’s homily [por el jueves día 14] He said that “the Church is a marvel, even if it is criticized, but we cannot turn a blind eye to its failures.” What are these failures?

-The Church is a marvel because it collects the heritage of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ is God and we are animated by the Holy Spirit which he promised and poured out on the day of Pentecost. This ideal but possible project with the help of the Holy Spirit is carried out here. What makes the Church wonderful is that it makes a real offer to all men, and when a person discovers it, they see in their life the transformation that the Church represents and the life of the Gospel of community way, because other Christians welcome him and accompany him. Man seeks true happiness everywhere, and everyone finds it where he can. We can offer it reliably, in continuity with a tradition of great business men who lived the Gospel to the fullest and who did much good to humanity, and I am talking about intellectuals, people committed to the poor or the sick. It’s a big thing. We make mistakes: and the more responsibility you have in the Church, the greater and more visible your errors are. Paul VI precisely stated and sent the message to the Church that it must always reform: “Semper reformanda”. People often fall into routine, institutions and thinking become static and must be updated. There are problems in the Church that society itself denounces.

– What problems are you talking about?

-The Pope launched the idea of ​​synodality. Something that is criticized from within and without is clericalism, according to which the layman has almost no voice or vote. The Pope, with the Synod, wants to promote a Church already stated in Vatican II: the Church, the people of God, we all have the same dignity through baptism; Here the Pope is only the last baptized, in dignity we are equal. The Church must open itself to the new ministries of the laity, so that they are in the forefront with the priests. Then there is the question of the economy, in which the Church has been opaque: in economic management, there has been everything. The Church today loses a lot of factual power to appear as the essence of what it is: a service rendered to society; This is what we must move towards. We already know: he who wants to be first must put himself last and be the servant of all. In this sense, the Church purifies itself. And then there are the personal sins of each of us: this has been greatly exaggerated, but we cannot deny that there have been pedophile members in the Church. It is there, although it is true that the reaction of the Church has been very strong and is at the forefront of the dismissal of priests who fall into this situation and the implementation of protocols to avoid these situations.

-For the celebration of the memorial mass, he chose the Gospel of the Good Shepherd by Saint John. And in the homily he insisted on the following: “I know my sheep”.

-This task of knowledge is always open: when a person arrives here, you have to sit down and talk to them, see where they come from, follow them. Knowledge is not acquired in an interview: it must be experienced with her, thinking about her, seeing how she reacts to problems, what her abilities are, how she gets involved. The fundamental message that a priest and the Church in general must give to those who reach out to them is to convince them that they are loved; Give this person reason to think, “They love me here and accept me as I am,” so that they display what they want or can bring to the table.

Enrichment

-Because society is not made to give affection to people, is it?

-No… Work relationships… Well, many people feel exploited and have relationships with colleagues in which there is jealousy, this or that. We all have our inner circle of friends in which we feel protected, but it is true affection, which asks nothing more of the person than to offer affection, is the key, and of course it can be found elsewhere, but the Church has it. .by obligation.

-During these twenty-five years as pastor of Consolación, have many people come to you with broken lives that you helped to recover?

-We were enriched by all those who came. Some people came with all kinds of problems, and they continue to come: with loved ones who are suffering, with families in need… And when they are here, they feel relief and joy for which they thank us . A parish, it is also true, is not a specialist in specific problems and I have referred many people to specialists.

-On the role of the laity: in your parish there is a community of Emmaüs and another of Effetá. What role do you think these movements play?

-Well… I believe that Emmaus is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the great Church. What God does, he does well, and when we touch him, we either agree with his will or we fail. We are in a moment in the Church which obliges us to go to the essentials of the Gospel and to allow people to experience the encounter with God, who always heals. We have this in the Gospel: Zacchaeus, the adulterous woman, the Samaritan woman, Peter… This encounter was a little lost and Emmaus comes to help and encourage the first impact, the kerygma. Another great advantage of Emmaus is that it is run by lay people and is therefore in line with the whole spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Emmaus has a facilitator who organizes everything, including the retreats, and we, priests, are there for the Eucharist, confession and witness to the sacraments, and we also have the responsibility to ensure that Emmaus does not go astray . More than a movement, it is a catechetical action: it arises in the Church with this vocation, that of being an instrument of the parishes, because there then exist other supra-parochial movements, such as the Cursillos of Christianity. Emmaüs does not have a legal personality, because it is given by a parish. What happens is that the Emmaus retreat has such an impact that whoever does it feels part of it, of Emmaus, but a balance must be maintained, because it depends on a parish.

-What was your personal situation when you discovered your vocation?

-GOOD. He was in a relationship with a girl for two years…

-And what’s that moment like when you sit your girlfriend down and tell her you’re going to become a priest?

-I really didn’t make him sit down. (Laughs).

-Anyway, he had to tell her…

-Yes yes. I talked to him about it while walking. So we didn’t go out every day, far from it, but on weekends. One day, while walking… She knew what was on my mind. And that day… I said goodbye to him at the corner of his house. It was Sunday. The previous Wednesday, I had made this decision during a time of prayer in the Corpus Christi chapel, on Ambrosio de Morales street, where there was then a community of contemplative Dominicans, which is now behind the provincial hospital: that moment, while praying, I saw with clarity and with great strength that this was my path. And I told her, and she responded in a way that seemed very edifying to me: she told me that for her the joy was greater than the pain. I cannot forget these words he said to me, because they revealed a great soul, because he put mine before his happiness. It was something beautiful.

-Have you heard from him yet?

-Yes of course. At the same time, she found another boy and when they wanted to get married, they asked me to marry them.

-Oh yes?

-Yeah. It’s like this: I married my girlfriend. I was even at his first birth. It was a great gift. We continue to have a great friendship.