It had been taken for granted for months that Luis Argüello, 69, would be the natural successor to Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez as archbishop of Valladolid. The predictions were fulfilled on Friday, June 17 at noon. The diocese of Pisuerga gains a pastor and the Episcopal Conference loses its general secretarywho immediately communicated that he saw it as “incompatible” to continue in office due to the “exclusive” dedication required by his new mission.
QUESTION.- Back to the past. If you ran into that young professor of Administrative Law and told him that he would end up wearing a miter and staff, would he believe it or would he think you were crazy?
RESPONSE.- Surely the latter. I have commented on it sometimes with my colleagues from that time; none of us would believe it. Now, a posteriori, you are discovering to what extent the cloth of your history and the embroidery that is being carried out in each one of us is being interwoven. I left the world of law, but later I had to meet him again as vicar general of a diocese and now as general secretary. Somehow, what you seem to lose at a certain moment, you recover later transfigured. It is my experience and I sense that, in this time that I now face with a renewed strength in Valladolid, I will recover much of what I have experienced now in a renewed way.
God’s Advocate
Q.- Is it then worth being God’s advocate?
R.- Of course. And, moreover, more and more convinced. What worries me the most is not being able to transmit it. And not just me. We must be capable, as God’s people, of spreading that belief in God humanizes, that it is good for relationships with others and for the care of the Common Home… My wish for this new stage that I am now beginning is to generate fraternity and friendship., generate concern for the cry of the earth and generate commitment for the cry of the poor. I think that, if we were able to transmit this, it would do us so much good and that it could be good for others.
Q.- I don’t know if you subscribe to this phrase: “Poor little thing, the one that awaits the next secretary general…”.
R.- The general secretary of the Episcopal Conference has a good work team around him, real support. The secretary does not stop being the secretary of a Plenary Assembly, of a Permanent Commission and of an Executive Commission that meets every month. In addition, there is a president of the bishops. If he is also a spokesperson, he has a media and institutional dimension that is a plus in the life of any bishop. I don’t want to scare anyone, because I hope that next November a candidate can be elected and I can be replaced. In that sense I can say, with my testimony ahead, that the team of people who work at the Conference is a wonderful team.
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