Romana

Jerusalem (Israel)

Portico to the Bible

Jesús Gil and Joseángel Domínguez have compiled in a single book the key elements that help to understand each of the books of Sacred Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, in their historical, geographical and literary context, with ample support of chronologies, maps and graphics.

With the advice of various experts in Sacred Scripture, the authors have taken on the challenge of helping believers and non-believers alike to immerse themselves in the greatest bestseller of all time, offering a gateway for anyone to delve deeper into the Word of God.

The Portico of the Bible can be seen as a small atlas with high quality graphic content. The images include maps from the Oxford Bible Atlas, illustrations from National Geographic Magazine and museum material from the Saxum Visitor Center.

This volume is meant to be a complementary reference work to the available editions of the Bible, to the manuals of Sacred Scripture, to the books for teaching religion and, in general, to any didactic material related to the Word of God. The text is published by Saxum International Foundation and is currently available in Spanish, English and Polish.

Rome (Italy)

Vaccines for All

On Monday, September 27, the round table “Vaccines for all: from words to deeds” was held in Rome at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Representatives from various associations and institutions met to discuss the importance of the fair distribution of vaccines, especially for the most vulnerable.

Among the organizers of the event were the U.S. based SOMOS Community Care and the Rome Reports agency, in collaboration with Harambee Africa International andCaritas Internationalis. A key point of the discussion was the need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among private institutions and to continue providing health support for those most in need.

Professor Cristian Mendoza, from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, presented the general teachings of the Church on this topic. Dr. Maria Amparo Alonso of Caritas Internationalis focused on the specific challenges and needs related to coronavirus vaccines, with a practical look at how to move from ideas to deeds.Harambee coordinator Linda Corbi explained that, according to World Health Organization data, only 1.4% of vaccines have been administered in Africa, a continent with 16% of the world’s population. Among the main threats, she pointed to the clear shortfall in funding by governments, the weakness of the health system and the lack of a defined criterion that would allow immediate vaccination of the most vulnerable people. She said that these are three important criteria that must be evaluated and resolved in order to guarantee good health for all.

Finally, SOMOS Community Care founder and president, Ramon Tallaj shared an overview of the effects of the pandemic in the United States. He lamented that protocols and long wait times cause serious health problems, and called for global unity in responding to the need for vaccines. “This is about caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, treating the sick the way we would like to be treated,” he concluded.

Guadalajara (Mexico)

Priestly Leadership Course

From October 18 to 22, 2021, a Priestly Leadership course was held at the Universidad Panamericana, on the Guadalajara campus. This program was the result of the collaboration of the School of Business and the Institute of Humanities with the Archdiocese of Guadalajara and its Department of Ongoing Formation of the Clergy. It was attended by 64 priests. The topics covered ranged from integral maturity, personality development and the profile of the leader, to authority and leadership. More technical aspects related to communication and assertiveness, as well as conflict management and decision making were also studied. Bishop Manuel González, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese, attended one day of the course.

Bogotá (Colombia)

Solidarity and Leadership Directed to the Care of the Person.

Students at Los Cerros School (Colombia), in collaboration with the Food Bank, collected more than 9,600 cans of food for needy families in Bogota. Solidarity and leadership focused on service are some of the values promoted among the school’s educational community. Within this framework, since October, families from Los Cerros have been working on an initiative to provide food to 50,000 vulnerable people.

The rector of Gimnasio de Los Cerros, Eduardo Manrique, said that next year they want to involve other schools and commercial centers in this initiative, so that the collection of food will continue to grow. On its part, the Food Bank collects the food shipments and is responsible for identifying the neediest communities and distributing the resources collected.

The school’s social sciences coordinator, Felipe Gómez, emphasized that the activity not only served to help those most in need, but also strengthened the bonds between the families at the school who worked as a team to achieve this goal.

The Gimnasio de Los Cerros was founded in Bogota in 1964 and receives the spiritual assistance of Opus Dei.