When we talk about the real situation of the Catholic Church in the West, in Europe, in Spain, among us, we tend to focus everything or almost everything on the lack of vocations to the ministerial priesthood, to the permanent diaconate, and to consecrated life.
We have reflected less on the lack of faith, charity, and hope among Christians themselves, and it seems to me that this is where the lack of evangelizing and missionary passion that we suffer within Christian communities and especially outside of them derives from.
Vatican II had already warned us that the Church is not a perfect society, but the entire People of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
And that the Church does not properly have a light of its own, but reflects the true light that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, our Lord and our brother.
Therefore, the Council says that the Church “ardently desires to illuminate everyone, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to all creatures.”
Precisely because the Church is in Christ “like a sacrament, that is to say a sign and an instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity of all humankind” (Cf. G.S., 1)
The vocation of all the baptized is holiness and the mission of all the baptized is evangelization: this applies to both men and women.
Why do we so frequently forget most of the members of the Church who are the faithful lay Christians?
Are they second-class or third-class Christians?
Not at all.
All members of the Church are called to live fraternally among ourselves and with other people, whether they are believers or not.
Our faith in the Son of God who became flesh moves us to become brothers and sisters to others.
All of us, absolutely all of us, need each other and need to learn to live together in true brotherhood, in a great fraternity, in the large human family whose Father is God himself.
Instead of looking outward to blame others or the complex situation we live in, it seems to me that we should first examine ourselves, personally and communally, to recognize that we do not always live or act in the style of Jesus, but that worldliness has penetrated our hearts and the interior of our parishes and Christian communities.
Do we truly show that we are disciples of Christ?
Do we live as salt of the earth and as light of the world?
Do we act as leaven in the dough?
Do we try to permeate all realities with the Spirit of Christ?
Have we made the Beatitudes the program of our community and personal life?
Isn’t it possible that we are too focused on certain matters that are not truly relevant to non-practitioners or non-believers?
The Synod on Synodality, opened by Pope Francis and which will likely be closed by Pope Leo in the year 2028, insists on three issues that are vital for the life of the Church and the world: communion, participation, and mission.
Communion with the Holy Trinity and among ourselves.
Participation of all members of the Church in the life and mission of the one People of God.
An open and shared mission that we must all carry out as members of the Church of Christ.
The truth is, it hurts me to hear and read negative comments regarding the Synodality and everything it entails for the Church and our relationship with the men and women of our time.
We haven’t really grasped the “everyone, everyone, everyone” of the beloved Pope Francis.
I am pained by the criticisms of his person and his pontificate, his gestures, attitudes, words, and writings.
Who has read and deeply meditated on the documents: Lumen fidei, Laudato Si’, Fratelli tutti, Dilexit nos, Evangelii gaudium, Amoris laetitia, Laudate Deum, Patris corde, to name a few?
Furthermore, it must be added that Pope Leo will continue implementing the reforms that Francis indicated and pointed out, aiming for the Church to appear to the world as what it is: the Family of God’s children.
Although Leo’s and Francis’ styles are different, the path is laid out, and the current Pope will not reverse the reforms initiated under the pontificate of Francis.
The key issue for the life of Christians and the entire Church is to place Jesus and his Gospel at the center of everything.
We do not preach ourselves, nor an ideology, nor empty words, and we do not want to impose our beliefs or our morals on others.
Simply, we desire to be able to profess our faith in Jesus Christ with our lives, our attitudes, our works, and our words, so that other people have a real opportunity to know, love, and follow the Lord Jesus in the communion of his Church, with a clearly evangelizing and missionary attitude, with apostolic boldness, without fear, with humility and courage.
To all members of the Church, without excluding anyone, the evangelizing and missionary task that our societies need today corresponds to us.
To move from a pastoral care of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral care, it is necessary to be filled with the Holy Spirit, it is necessary that we pray communally and personally, it is necessary that we are formed in the ecclesial faith we profess, it is necessary that others can see how we love each other and how we love also those who do not think like us.
Mutual respect, collaboration, solidarity, a fraternity rooted in Christ, a real communion of goods, and a preferential option for the poorest, migrants, marginalized, exiled, rejected, those who do not count in the eyes of the world must prevail.
It seems to me that in order to begin putting into practice the suggestions and intuitions of the final document of the Synod on Synodality, it is necessary that we begin by embracing the letter and spirit of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent Magisterium, which invite us to a profound personal and ecclesial conversion.
It is necessary that Christians gather together to discern what the Lord is asking of us in these turbulent and difficult times.
When I say Christians, I mean all the baptized, not only cardinals and bishops, but all the members of the Holy People of God, including women, without whom most parishes would be closed.
I wish we were all aware of these realities that I allow myself to comment on here, without pretending to cover the entirety of the issues.
The method of: seeing, praying, discerning, and making decisions is the responsibility of all.
Will we be able to carry it out under the impulses of the Spirit of the Father and the Son?
Go for it everyone, let’s not be afraid, let’s trust in the Lord, let’s not fall into defeatist or negative attitudes, let’s listen to the voice that assures us that for God nothing is impossible and let’s move forward together and united, that is, in synodality!
José Vicente Martínez,
diocesan priest of Valencia.
February 2026.
English version translated with AI