He Pope Francis awarded this Saturday the title of Primate See of the country to the province of Santiago del Esteroand therefore, Monsignor Vicente Bokalic was promoted to the dignity of Archbishop Primate. The ceremony was conducted by Monsignor Jorge García Cuerva, Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Bokalic gave a speech at the event held at the Cathedral Basilica Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmelwhere he detailed: “The Church, like Jesus, feels the call to go out to the frontiers, to look at reality not from the centers, but from the peripheries.” The church of the province of Santiago focuses specifically on vulnerable sectors of society.
Bokalic also said that “lack of communication is one of the great miseries of our days, which seems to be accentuated with the progress of civilization,” and He expressed his hope that Santiago del Estero, as the new primate seat, could be a beacon of hope for the entire nation: “We are called to be signs of hope in the midst of so much discouragement, fatigue and loss of meaning.”
For his part, García Cueva also took the floor as the host of the event that undoubtedly leaves a strong mark on Argentine Christian history: ”Just as there are wax plugs, which popular culture recommends using paper cones to remove them, we can also have ideological bottlenecks, that make us intolerant; plugs of intellectual pride that make us owners of the truth, that have an opinion on all subjects; plugs from the story, because we build our own reality ”giving answers to questions that no one asks.”
The ”need to heal wounds”
The archbishop of Buenos Aires mentioned the “need to heal wounds,” referring to the current political situation that the country is going through. He also stressed: “Here is the Primate in the city, mother of cities; in the diocesan Church, mother of dioceses. Because this is a historical and ecclesiastical reparation for our country. It is to give this title of honor to the first diocese in Argentine territory, the diocese of Tucumán, erected in these lands of Santiago in 1570.
Based on this background, the Pope announced that ”the diocese of Santiago del Estero be elevated to the rank and dignity of archiepiscopal see, remaining suffragan of the metropolitan see of Tucumán”, becoming the second province to have the honor in the ecclesiastical sphere, since the only one that had it was Buenos Aires, when in 1936 it began to bear the title. At that time, the bishop Santiago Luis Copello became the first cardinal of Argentina.
“Today we are making the return journey, but we want to do it like she did: barefoot and with the crucifix. Barefoot of prejudices and intolerance, barefoot of resentment and selfishness, barefoot of fear and confrontation, barefoot and walking with respect and care because we enter holy landin this fertile land that gave birth to the Homeland. And with a crucifix, because like Mama Antula, we want to renew ourselves in the announcement of God’s love to all men and women,” he added.
He also referred to the situation of retirees, one of the sectors hardest hit in recent months: ”Listen to the clamor of the sick and the elderly who are alone and cannot afford their medicines and the pain of the tears of the migrant brothers far from their land and their loved ones; that also we can listen to so many children “who in their sad eyes silently denounce hunger and abuse.”
Finally, he asked for the country: “Argentina has been hurting us for years, Argentina is bleeding and we need to heal wounds. Please, Lord, give us another chance.”
Source: Ambito
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