A vegan with star

"Help men to discover the real star that shows us the way: Jesucristo!" "We ourselves try to know him more and better to drive each other into a convincing way". (Homily of Pope Benedict XVI in the WYD in Cologne, August 21, 2005).

was born in a rural community of La Vega, Barranca, the last day of October, 1936. He baptizes him father Felipe Sanabia in his parish of la Inmaculada Concepción de La Vega. Parents: perfect Ramón López Salcedo and Delia Ramona Rodriguez.

, Of gentle and quiet temperament of temperament, strong and determined to raise and educate 16 children: 8 men and 8 women.

1 ° stage: birth
for doña Delia, pregnancy number ten was not easy. Concerned by the warning from your doctor that could not have more children without serious danger, he climbed the mountain of the Holy Hill, the "upper room" of the Church u000aVegan, where father Fantino educated, catequizaba and counseled.

Perfect gift had been a student of el father Fantino in La Vega and doña Delia, troubled, found in him the Angel told him 'No topics'. The mother of the future Cardinal came down the slope of the Hill more quiet and safe, after listening to the advice of the Holy priest. And so how on Saturday, October 31, 1936 she gave birth to his son, who was by name Nicolás de Jesús.

Delia doña returned up the hill with your child in arms, that father Fantino presented to the Virgin and blessed with fervor. The first stage of the life of Nicholas of Jesus were 14 years of experience and family education of peasant soul, between ordinary people and lucid.

To better appreciate the itinerary, the personality and the work of the Cardinal López Rodríguez, it might be interesting to know also, albeit out of curiosity, that he was born under the pontifi cado of el Pope Pius XI, a man of u000acharacter strong and very consistent with his principles.

Es Pius XI who formalizes ofi elite condemnation of Nazism and communism. He was a person so sincere, so true, maintained inflation exible with what he considered that it was the truth.

Just one example: the only Pope who dared to demand the renunciation of a cardinal from those times, the cardinal Billot, to maintain its support to L´ Action Francaise, representing the nationalism of the extreme right in French Catholicism disapproved of by the Holy See. Cardinal Billot had to renounce his investiture and died in the novitiate of the Jesuits from Civitavecchia.

2 ° stage: receive
in the summer of the Holy Year of 1950 begins the second stage in a demanding life for Jesus Lopez Rodriguez Nicholas School. A teenager of 14 years, rather than start your Bachelor's degree in the renowned Liceo Pepe Álvarez de La Vega, arriving with about thirty youngsters to the loving fl u000aMinor seminary Santo Tomás de Aquino of Geffrard Avenue (today, Lincoln Avenue) CNR Bolívar of the Capital.

One-third of this group of seminarians became sort of priest. Classmates of the cardinal Nicholas of Jesus, monseñor Jesús María of Jesus Moya, Monsignor Vinicio Disla, parents Juan Montalvo were sj and Luis Domingo Toribio, and many more. Months earlier they had come to the seminar, they were also partners of the Cardinal, Monsignor Agripino Núñez Collado, Monsignor Antonio Camilo, Fr. Santiago Hirujo, etc. A generation of well notable priests, with whom will culminate an ecclesial cycle in Dominican Republic.

At this stage of his teenage years and his first youth inflation protected uyeron in Cardinal López Rodríguez their trainers Jesuits, sons of San Ignacio de Loyola of considerable human stature and religious.

Entering the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary found the Jesuit fathers, Luis González Posada, of u000aRector; Manuel González Quevedo, of spiritual Director; Ten Faez, as perfect discipline; Mateo de Celis, Mariano Vásquez, Antonio Valle Llano and José Maria Uranga. For a moment, in their vocational search, the seminarian Nicolás de Jesús tried to enter the society of Jesus. But still its Rodriguez family not well viewed by the Trujillo regime and living exiled his close relative Juancito Rodriguez in Havana, he could not leave the country and continued its process of priestly formation in the seminar Santo Tomás de Aquino.

Although Cardinal López has always been a fan of baseball and specifically of the Águilas Cibaeñas in the years of seminarian was interested not so much for sports such as languages, Gregorian (becoming choirmaster) music and for the reading

A character that felt particular interest was Pope Pius XII, the Pope of his youth, a banner, a huge, very popular prestige and u000aadmired.

He was the Pope who saved Rome from destruction in World War II and which approached more culture to the Church.

He opened the Vatican in the presence of people, gave true splendor to the Church.

The young seminarian Nicolás de Jesús learned to love him and admire him as a charismatic great culture and vigorous personality. Even after using the visit to the country of a Spanish priest who worked in Rome, was able to send a letter to Pius XII, that this answered kindly by Monsignor Dell'Acqua, the Roman curia official close to the Holy Father.

3 ° stage: give received
at the end of his formation of eleven years in the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Cardinal López began its third stage of life. What sort of priest in the Cathedral of La Vega, brave and austere cappuccino, Monsignor Francisco Panal, March 18, 1961, in a very difficult stage u000afor the Church with the dictatorial regime, as little as two and a half months before the death of Trujillo. Even don Perfecto, father of the Cardinal, had to spend in jail vegan, for having given the face to the atrocities of the dictatorship to Monsignor honeycomb.

A Monsignor honeycomb succeeded him years later Monsignor Juan Antonio Flores, priest of the Diocese of Santiago, which having been the first Vice-Chancellor of the University mother and teacher, was then Rector of the seminary Saint Pius X in Licey.

These two bishops, of whom father Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez was close associate, as Chancellor and Secretary of the Curia, Vicar General of the diocese and parish priest of the Cathedral, left strong traces in it, especially with his strong example of life priests.

El 16 de January 1978 was elected first bishop of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of San Francisco de Macorís by Pope Paul VI, a great believer, who played the easy task of u000aconclude and implement Vatican II, with great success and great suffering.

4 ° stage: "The age in which we become who we are" (Charles Péguy)
the young Bishop opens the fourth stage of his life at age 41, entering his diocese on February 26 of that year and already in may took a courageous performance in the long electoral crisis of 1978.

Laying the foundation of the diocese promising caused impact a significant cativa letter to their seminarians.

While on pastoral visit in the vast parish of Villa Riva, received a message from the Nuncio who wanted him to tell an unexpected news for him, the youngest Bishop in the country and with just three years in the Diocese: Pope John Paul II was appointed Archbishop of Santo Domingo on 15 November 1981 to replace the seybano and veteran Cardinal Octavio Antonio Beras.

The Pope who first named him Archbishop and later Cardinal, has been in the memory of u000aall characteristics of courage, responsibility and consistency, his enormous contribution to the socio-political and religious transformation of the world in the last section of the Millennium and its fi mye commitment to human rights and the new evangelisation. It is worth saying that the Cardinal López Rodríguez was felt in its waters next to John Paul II. Blessed Karol Wojtyla gave many samples of confi anza and inflation uyó spiritual and pastorally it with his style so own.

Maybe this quick tour of the 75 years of Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús, arbitrarily divided by me in four stages, help assess what appears as a man disciplined, radically committed to orthodoxy, worker from the early hours of the day, which begins with the exercises and the Psalms of the Breviary.

Point like most, a man of agenda with a strong temperament and an enviable gift of people able to work alone and also u000aknow surrounded by a staff efficient and durable.

Leave no one indifferent, positive or negative, fidelísimo to his Ministry in detail, e.g. in correspondence: letter that receives letter answers, sometimes very humble people who will pose a problem or ask a favor. In these cases the cardinal is handled with discretion who advises the Gospel: "The left hand doesn't know what makes the right".

Also, Cardinal López marks, as in all human beings, which repeated with much common sense Miguel de Unamuno "each is each and every one has their cadaunadas".

El Cardinal López is a priest of vigorous and enlightened faith and pastoral options of long-range. If in La Vega he prioritized the Youth Ministry and family, two passions that moved and conmovían his heart of young priest, 50 years later in Santo Domingo is a stuck Archbishop of squarely in the media of social communication, which u000aIt is precisely those who most influence in the family and the youth of today.

The Cardinal López Rodríguez is the thirtieth segundo Archbishop residential Santo Domingo (the sixth Dominican with this title and Office) with 30 years of practice and someone said that the Archdiocese has changed more in the last 50 years than in the 450 years earlier.

Los 50 years of Vatican II give us next year an occasion to re-read the story and take stock. We have good historians of the Church (José Luis Sáez sj, for example, with its luminous book "The work of the Dominican Church") that could help us in this task

"Continue for a few years" said the Pope to the cardinal Nicolás de Jesús, Friday October 28 last in Rome, in an intimate dialogue with taste of sending missionary on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias (John 21). "Go ahead!" Seems to be the watchword sends us Benedict XVI through the u000aCardinal, a priest with star.

Offers its 75th birthday with a bottle of good wine, "that which is saved for the end" (John 2: 10). congratulations and good job, Mr Cardenal!.

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