The Navarre journalist Ángel María Pascual (1911-1947) was a man committed to improving the society in which he lived. This is one of the conclusions of Mariángeles Artázcoz, a professor at the University of Navarra, who has obtained the Degree of Doctor with A laude for a thesis on this journalist, whose death was 54 years ago on May 1.

Pascual worked at Diario de Navarra and co-founded the newspaper Arriba España in 1936. In addition, he was deputy mayor of Pamplona City Council during the post-war period and delegate in Navarra of the Ministry of Education and Science.

Mariángeles Artázcoz maintains that this journalist had a "marked political personality. It could be said that in the last years of his life, his loyalty to the ideology for which he had fought led him to maintain a politically incorrect position. Throughout his journalistic career he tirelessly denounced those who were comfortable, those who did not want to commit themselves, those who criticized but did not work hard to improve things, those who were the racketeers who prospered by swindling their fellow citizens during the years of shortages".

According to Professor Artázcoz, Catholicism was a core topic in the life and work of Ángel María Pascual. "His staff coherence led him to fight for a justice that reached all social strata, but directed especially towards those who had less; he strove to implement a new order, although far from the totalitarianisms prevailing at that time in Europe".

In this line of coherence with his principles -he comments-, he considered that "his effort to improve things should be directed, in the first place, towards his fellow citizens, which led him to an attachment to his land, which prevented him from leaving when he was able to do so". But it is worth noting this attachment in the positive sense that it had for the journalist from Navarre. In his opinion, the improvement of society had to begin with the circle closest to oneself: the family and the city.

Finally, Professor Artázcoz defends that Ángel María Pascual "was an intellectual and not only because of the breadth of knowledge he attained, but also because of that spiritual restlessness that led him to acquire diverse knowledge. To all this we must add his sense of responsibility that pushed him to commit himself publicly, through the media, and politically, in order to guide doctrinally and morally".