Back to Rome. VI World Ultreya 2025.
Raúl González Hurtado.
Diócesis of Córdoba (España).
Former representative of the International Relations Office – National Secretariat of Spain.
Almost sixty years have passed since the first World Ultreya, celebrated in Rome in May 1966. Sixty years since Pope Paul VI gave us the “letter of citizenship” to travel the roads of the world, to activate in us the pilgrim spirit that characterizes our method, to imbue our spirit with the primitive Christianity of the first communities, to welcome the mystery of Christ with greater intensity in our lives, to become aware of being Church and to allow ourselves to be enkindled by the fascination of the Pentecostal moment that has invaded our profound reality, our movement and our vital expressions.
These instructions of the Pope were addressed to those cursillistas who had come from all over the world to confirm what was then an evident sign from God: the coming of age of the Cursillo Movement.
The Second Vatican Council had just concluded, and the people of God felt the enthusiasm of those who knew that something new was about to come. The doors were opening to a renewed Church, where the laity and the purely lay movements were called to play a much more important role in the evangelization of the world. The insertion of Christianity in daily life, through the encounter and personal friendship with God and in communion with the brethren, was the task entrusted by the Pope, from the conclusions of the Council, to those who gathered in Rome to live their first World Ultreya together with the Holy Father.
He exhorted them to take their faith out of the exclusively private sphere and bring it to their environments, to groups of friends, to the world of work, to social life. He asked them to rescue from disillusionment and sadness those who had never encountered Christ, young people and adults who lived without a Christian ideal to serve as a point of reference or goal, so that they could aspire with hope to be the best version of themselves.
To go out into the world from our comfort zone, towards those farthest away, always as Church, always bearing in mind that the “Sensus Ecclesiae” is the north that guides us, the lever that moves us, the light and the spring that inspires us and gives us life.
Those gathered there committed themselves before the Pope to be apostles who would live the commitment of baptism with the fundamental requirement of personal holiness, to be apostles believing in the pious action of the Holy Spirit and in the charisms that he bestows for the renewal of the world. Apostles who knew that the fruitfulness of the mission depends on total union with Christ, apostles convinced that in their lives nothing should be alien to our being Christian.
They committed themselves to be apostles who would make their lives a continuous exercise of virtues such as faith, hope and charity, apostles who would firmly believe that the virtues that sustain social mores – such as honesty, the spirit of justice, sincerity, gentleness and fortitude of soul – can only flourish from a true Christian life.
Apostles who would pursue the evangelization and sanctification of men through faith, grace, witness and word, apostles who would strive to permeate with Christianity the thinking, customs and laws of the society in which they lived, aware that many men could not hear the Gospel or know Christ except through the example of their neighbors.
Are not these commitments still completely current? Are we not called today’s cursillistas to work for the Kingdom in the same way? Do we not firmly believe in the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in his power to renew the world through us? Are we not willing to live the commitment of our baptism with the same intensity, always seeking personal holiness?
Sixty years is enough time to return to Rome. To renew our commitments before the Pope. To be present again to tell the successor of Peter that our charism is still valid, more useful than ever, for our Church, bringing God closer to the men and women of this society in which we live.
Cursillista, your prayer will be the lever that will support the VI World Ultreya in Rome. God and your Church trust in you.
