Romana

Be Do Care 2024 (São Paulo, Brazil)

From October 10 to 12, some two hundred people committed to change in Latin America, representatives from the business world, non-governmental organizations and universities, met in São Paulo to share ideas, challenges and solutions for moving towards a more just and sustainable development. For three days, panels and conferences were held on various aspects of the social transformation that the world, and especially Latin America, requires.

The meeting, in continuity with the meeting of social entrepreneurs convened in Rome in 2022 as part of the preparations for the centenary of Opus Dei, took place on the fiftieth anniversary of St. Josemaría’s trip to Latin America in 1974. The name given to it, also in continuity with that event two years ago, is Be Do Care 2024.

Monsignor Mariano Fazio, Auxiliary Vicar of Opus Dei, gave a conference on the first day on the legacy of St. Josemaría stay in Latin America. Other interventions included “The Legacy for Future Generations” (Andréa Gomides, from the Ekloos Foundation, Brazil), “Integral Sustainable Development in Latin America” (Hector Rocha, from the IAE Business School, Argentina), “The Legacy of Peace and Development for Future Generations” (Michelle Scobie, from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago) and “The Family and Sustainable Development” (Maria Sophia Aguirre, from the Catholic International University, United States).

The meeting concluded with a reflection by María José Murcia, member of the BeDoCare Scientific Committee. Employing the metaphor of a journey, she reviewed the content of the plenary sessions and said that BeDoCare is not a point of arrival but a point of departure for everyone to continue moving forward in fostering a broad-reaching development.

Fifty Years of the Darca Club (Lisbon, Portugal)

Throughout the past fifty years, hundreds of girls have attended the activities of the Darca Club in Lisbon. To celebrate this first half-century, in addition to a Mass of thanksgiving and other events including a gala dinner for those who have assisted the club or received formation there, a commemorative evening was organized on Sunday, October 6. This was a great opportunity for former members to meet together again. About 1,500 people filled the aula magna of the Rectorate of the University of Lisbon to relive the festivals that the club had organized for its own members and for those from clubs in other Portuguese cities. Many people sent messages of thanks, and several mothers said they would like their daughters to receive the same formation they received at the club when they were younger.

Apostolic Nuncio to Ivory Coast Visits Yarani Vocational School

On December 3, Archbishop Maurizio Rueda Beltz, Apostolic Nuncio to the Ivory Coast, visited the Yarani vocational school in Abidjan. He was accompanied by the regional vicar of Opus Dei, Abbé Serge Abdoulaye Sissoko. The Nuncio toured the premises and entered some of the classrooms, greeting the students. He then met with all the teachers, directors and students of the center, addressing a few words to them and giving them a blessing.

17 children Baptized in the Parish of St. Josemaría (Alcorcón, Spain)

In Alcorcón (Madrid, Spain) an association assists pregnant women who, often against the opinion of their family and friends, wish to carry their pregnancies to term. 17 babies who, thanks to the moral and material help of this association, have escaped the tragic fate of abortion were baptized on October 5 in the parish of St. Josemaría Escrivá by the Bishop of Getafe, Ginés García Beltrán.

The celebration was filled with joy and, above all, life. In his homily, the bishop praised these mothers – and also the fathers – who couageously, despite many difficulties, chose not to resort to abortion. He also reminded people that “no one is in this world by chance.” And addressing the parents, he added: “God has thought about and loved your children since before the creation of the world.”

Oakcrest School Launches a Teacher Institute for the Specific Training of Its Teachers (Washington D.C., United States)

In August 2024, the Oakcrest Teacher Institute was launched, which aims to define and explain the mission of Oakcrest School to the school’s teachers and, at the same time, to train them in some central aspects of Christian anthropology and in the philosophy of education at Oakcrest, a Catholic school for girls inspired by the charism of Opus Dei.

After a week of theoretical and practical sessions for this year’s new teachers, during the following week there was a new series of sessions both for them and for the teachers already on staff and for the management team. Mary Warren, professor of theology, gave a session on the nature and vocation of women, while Christina Friddle, professor of science, and Laurie Duncan, director of one of the school’s sections, spoke about forming students in virtues and truth, among other speakers.

The Oakcrest Teacher Institute will continue to train the Oakcrest School faculty through periodic meetings throughout the academic year. The goal is to also gradually involve educators from outside the school who may be interested in having a direct experience of what makes Oakcrest School different.

Construction of Homes for Needy families (Lima, Peru)

Pamplona Alta, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Lima, in the district of San Juan de Miraflores, was the target of a volunteer campaign in which young people and teachers from the Salcantay and Alpamayo schools took part. Moved by the injustice of these precarious human settlements where many families are forced to live, they helped construct homes for these families, making use of resources supplied by a fundraising campaign. For the moment, ten homes have been been built.

Nicole Garván, a Salcantay student, says she is aware of having gone to Pamplona Alta not only to build houses, but to help forge a new future: “What we are trying to give these families is a future of hope, where support for others should not be strange, but a reality experienced every day,” she said.

Scientific Advances in the Research Centers of the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain)

Researchers at the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute (DATAI) at the University of Navarra have developed an artificial intelligence tool to personalize cancer therapies.

By analyzing data from more than 3,000 lung and bladder cancer patients and using machine learning models, they have identified new genetic signatures specific to each stage of the disease and developed a system, called the “IFIT index” (index of “physical immunity”), which will allow them to personalize therapies and improve their effectiveness.

The IFIT index is a measure or score that evaluates a patient’s “immune fitness,” allowing patients to be classified according to their risk at each stage of the disease. “This can help predict responses to therapy based on the activity of their immune system at different stages of cancer treatment,” Rubén Armañanzas, leader of DATAI’s Digital Medicine Laboratory, explained to the press.

The research is based on the analysis of the cancer immunity cycle (CIC), which determines how signals from the immune system influence the effectiveness of immunotherapy treatment. Presented in Houston (USA) at a conference of the Society for Cancer Immunotherapy (SITC 2024), it has been nominated as one of the 100 most important developments of the year in the field. The researchers have stated that the technique will continue to be refined in future joint studies with other types of cancer.

Also having some resonance in public opinion is a study by two young researchers from the CIMA (Center for Applied Medical Research) at the University of Navarra, Iker Ausejo-Monleón and Marta Alonso, which has led to the discovery of a new therapeutic target for pediatric cancers with the worst prognosis. Alonso and Ausejo have demonstrated in experiments with mice that, if the TIM-3 protein is blocked, the immune system attacks the tumor cells and 50% of the animals survive in the long term. The breakthrough lays the groundwork for trials in patients diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic stem glioma (DIPG), a type of childhood cancer affecting the nervous system for which there is currently no treatment.

Marta Alonso, the project director, began her career studying adult brain tumors, but decided to focus on pediatric tumors after receiving a donation from a family while working at MD Anderson Cancer Hospital in Texas (USA).

Work Camp in Nyeri (Kenya)

The town of Nyeri is about 100 kilometers north of Nairobi. That’s the distance a group of young people from Eastlands College of Technology, Strathmore University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa and Strathmore School traveled in vans on a Thursday afternoon to spend a weekend volunteering at St. Pius Church, a branch of the sprawling Our Lady of Consolata parish. Once there, they were joined by some friends from a local university, Dedan Kimathi University.

Their main work involved painting some existing structures. The parish staff (catechists, seminarians, lay leaders, etc.) welcomed them with great affection and exemplary dedication of time. On the first day, when the young “painters” came to Mass at 6:30 a.m., the parish priest, attentive to them, delivered the homily in Swahili and not in the local dialect. The local families also prepared breakfast and lunch for them every day.

On the last day, Sunday, at the end of the Mass, the team of volunteers planted several trees around the church and took pictures with the pastor and all the parishioners.

XVII Ivorian Family Day

The 17th edition of the Ivorian Family Day (Journée Ivoirienne de la famille, JIF) was held on December 7 and 8 at the Etimoe and Makore family schools in Abidjan. Its central theme was “The Family and Virtual Addictions.” The event was organized by the Association Famille et Education (AFE), promoter of the schools, and was attended by about two thousand people.

In addition to lectures by experts and a variety of stands that that families could visit, there were games and sports competitions that helped make this already family-oriented day even more fun and heart-warming.

Jean Louis Allue, secretary general of the Journée, expressed his satisfaction with the results. Among other things, he says, it has helped both parents and children to become aware of the dangers of addiction to social media.

Tunisia: Training of Workers by Centro Elis

Within the framework of Piano Mattei, an international collaboration program of the Italian government, and the THAMM Plus project, promoted by the European Union, an agreement was signed on July 2 for the training of Tunisian workers wishing to work in Italy in the construction field. Besides government agencies from the two countries involved, the agreement was also signed on the Italian side by the Associazione Nazionale Costruttori (ANCE) and Centro Elis in Rome, which has been entrusted with the implementation of the training program.

The objective is to train 2,000 Tunisian workers who can then move to Italy to be hired by construction companies. The courses will last 300 hours. They are aimed at Tunisian residents between 18 and 35 years of age. The program also foresees specific care and assistance in the months following the arrival of the young workers in Italy.

On November 5, the first course was inaugurated in Tunis with twenty students. Present at the event were the Tunisian and Italian Ministers of Labor, Riadh Chaoued and Marina Calderone. Pietro Cum, managing director of Elis, expressed the hope that this program will contribute to overcoming the problem of illegal migration, and create opportunities for individuals and companies: “for individuals, because they can find in our country the conditions to build a better future for themselves; for companies, because they will be able to meet their own demand for personnel, which is currently unsatisfied.”