On the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Julián Gómez del Castillo (1924-2006), to whom this magazine owes its existence and orientation to a great extent, we present in this issue some key interpretations of one of the most outstanding protagonists of the Spanish Church in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
Julián was born in Spain, at a time where most people went hungry, in a working-class family devoted to the ideal of justice and having to work at a very early age. For him, all the suffering of his generation will make sense from his conversion and subsequent baptism at the age of 18, where he begins his path of growth downward to be every day more humble, poor, and self-sacrificing. From there, he began to live what can be called the tripod of his spiritual life, inherited from his teacher Guillermo Rovirosa: love and fidelity to Christ, the Church, and the poor. He described himself: “My life has tried to follow Jesus from an increasingly radical militancy of incarnation in the world of the poor and therefore of their liberation. This has filled my life and I believe that in this I have not only met God, but I have also met this God in my brothers and sisters…”. All this lived in marriage with his wife Trinidad Segurado and their children.
Love for Christ, for the God-Solidarity that incarnates for the salvation of mankind, allowed him not to fall into the false dichotomy between faith and life, but to unite in himself how the Christian faith is not only informative but also performative of the heart of man and the whole social reality.
Following the logic of incarnation for redemption, translated in his life into contemplation and struggle.
Love for the Church led him to discover and promote authentic Catholicity, in its double and complementary reality: as possessor of the fullness of the means of salvation, through faith and the sacraments, together with a universal solidarity-communion with the Christians of the world. Love for the poor converged in a promotion of the sacred dignity of the person, denouncing the causes and consequences of the serious problems that enslave and exploit people. For this reason, he understood that the authentic liberation of the poor will only be possible from below and from within, in the promotion of a culture and conscience of solidarity that promotes the person integrally, that is to say, in a personal and collective way. For this reason, he set in motion an evangelizing strategy based on solidarity and self-management with poor means, promoting associated life and a critical analysis of reality, assimilating a tension capable of complementing the contemplation of the mystery of God, especially in the Eucharist, together with the struggle in solidarity with the poor.
The essential contribution of Julián Gómez del Castillo has been a faith-based view of reality from the perspective of the impoverished, which allowed him to integrate with radicalism and enthusiasm their legitimate struggles and aspirations for integral liberation. To this end, he dedicated long hours and many kilometers promoting Christian militancy in the life of the laity through political charity. For him, there is nothing more important in the life of a Christian than to see, judge, and act from faith, seeking the recapitulation of all things in Christ. His testimony shows us that a permanent conversion to Jesus and no one and nothing else is possible, that solidarity is possible by giving ourselves completely to the love of our brothers and sisters, and that self-management is possible for the liberation of the chains that oppresses humanity today. All his militant heritage, as a response to the world of the hungry, the exploited, and the slaves of his time, an issue that continues today in a more bloody form, continues to be current in the life of new Christian militants, both in Spain and especially in Latin America in many poor neighborhoods that continue to cry out for liberation.