Romana

On Saturday, October 26, three thousand people went to the Grand Theater of Rome, on the northern outskirts of the city, to take part in a gathering of Roman families with the Prelate of Opus Dei.

Bishop Echevarría spoke about Pope Francis in his opening words, and also later, when responding to a question from a university student. “The Pope doesn’t want anything for himself,” he said; “he wants your charity, your help, your affection, which has to be shown in your daily prayer for him.”

Responding to a young student who asked a question about Don Alvaro del Portillo, Bishop Echevarría recalled the generosity and courage of his predecessor at the head of Opus Dei. Specifically he referred to an episode from Don Alvaro’s youth, when he went to a neighborhood on the outskirts of Madrid to help some disadvantaged people there, and was accosted by a group of agitators and struck on the head with a monkey wrench.

At the end of the get-together, many of the families had arranged to have a picnic in a park and then go to the Vatican in order to take part in the meeting of families with the Pope for the Year of Faith.