“A Reason for Thanksgiving,” Mundo Cristiano, Madrid, Spain (April, 2023)
The sixtieth anniversary of the birth of Mundo Cristiano is a reason to give thanks. The magazine has been present without interruption in the homes of many families during these past six decades. It has reported on many current events, as well as new developments in books, movies, shows, theater and music. And it has guided and offered cultural criteria in these areas with a perspective consistent with the Catholic faith.
It is well known that it was St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, who inspired Mundo Cristiano as a publication with evangelizing and apostolic aims. The initiator of the magazine, Javier Ayesta, and the first editor, Fr. Jesús Urteaga, accepted his suggestion in the early 1960s to create a publication for the general public with Christian inspiration. It is wonderful to see how Mundo Cristiano continues in the same spirit with which it began. But it is even more remarkable to consider the good that this work has done during these years.
I think of so many families, schools and associations of various types, where young and old have grown up and matured with a copy of the magazine on the table or on the shelf, which has helped them to have, on important current issues, a point of view focused on truth and the defense of freedom.
Noting the good that the magazine is doing, it is only just to highlight, first of all, the efforts of the Palabra publishing house, which since it bought the masthead from the now defunct SARPE publishing house at the end of the seventies, has overseen the publication of the magazine.
Secondly, we should highlight the professional work of the journalists and other persons who have dedicated their energies and efforts to producing a magazine that lives up to its original aim. Thirdly, for many reasons, the loyalty of the subscribers, who have made this initiative a reality.
We have a duty to give thanks to all of them, and first of all to God who in his Providence has enabled us to carry out this important service for so many decades. I ask you now that Mundo Cristiano may continue its voyage in this exciting sea of the media, with the desire to continue guiding and entertaining thousands of families. This is a noble task that is always necessary.
Romana, n. 76, January-June 2023, p. 61-62.