"The European nation that supports the family the least is Spain. There are no births. It is not that the quarry of priests has a handicap in the future, it is that there will not be so many doctors or teachers and they will have to come from outside". This was stated at the University by the Cardinal and Archbishop of Barcelona, Monsignor Juan José Omella.

The statements were made at the closing session of the VII Pastoral VII conference of update Pastoralof the School of Theology, where he spoke to more than 300 people about the different reasons for joy in priestly life, in this moment of history that he himself described as "complicated".

For Cardinal Omella, the great challenge that Catholics have today is "to evangelize our society by explicitly announcing the message of Jesus". A task that, as he explained, does not correspond only to priests, but is a task for all Christians: "It is the Church going out, to which Pope Francis refers. We have gone from a very Catholic Spain to a country of mission statement. We have to go with our testimony of word, and above all with our deeds, to show the beauty of the Gospel, which has always been and will always be a novelty".

He assures that for this "there is no recipe", but he did highlight three elements that Christians must live to carry it out: "humility", to pray perseveringly and let the word of God convert them; "the sacraments", to receive strength; and the "works of charity with today's needs, whether cultural, material or of faith".

He also expressed his desire that the partnership between the Church and the State "grow and become greater for the common good of society", always with "a healthy autonomy".

"There have always been divisions, but in the end unity and good sense prevails."

For the Archbishop of Barcelona, the German synodal path "is a complex and difficult status " from which he trusts that "we will emerge victorious": "I hope that in the end the waters will return to their course. There have always been divisions or crises after the councils, but in the end union and good sense always prevail. In moments of crisis our values come to the surface and when the opportunity arises we give the best of ourselves".

Asked about the state of health of the Pope, with whom he was at the end of August in the Consistory of Cardinals, he pointed out that, although he has seen him with a limited mobility , he still has a "very good" head and "a prodigious report ". And he recalled that as the Pontiff himself says "one does not govern with one's legs but with one's head".