AGORA XXI: BLOG OF THE COMMUNITY OF SAINT PAUL

AGORA XXI: OUR BLOG DEBUTS ITS NAME

We began this blog two years ago. Since then, it has been a means through which we have been regularly sharing information related with the Community of Saint Paul: meetings, priestly ordinations, news from the places where we are working, pastoral initiatives, projects of human development that we are carrying out… Likewise, we have shared short reflections about life, faith and the Gospel with those who follow us.  Also, as of a few months ago, we have included more extensive articles about the Church, society and the challenges that our world raises for us.  As such, this blog has become a forum by which we keep in contact with many friends, followers, benefactors and supporters spread throughout the world. Today, we wish to give it a new impulse, “baptizing” it with the name that you see on the screen: Agora XXI.

Of course, the word agora was used in ancient Greece to refer to the public space or square, in the middle of the city, that served as a place of encounter and dialogue for all the citizens.  Why have we chosen this name for our blog?

As they are expressed in our statutes, among the objectives of the Community of Saint Paul is the following: “To promote the spirit of dialogue with the world according to the Second Vatican Council.” We are convinced that both the civil world as well as the Church need to constantly recall the hope in dialogue that the Council promoted: only persons and groups with a sincere desire to converse amongst themselves, and with those who think differently, will know how to find the ways to peace, justice and solidarity.  And so that such a dialogue may develop, it is necessary to create settings, fora, agoras, where we can sit and listen to the other. This is the reason for our name: we hope that, from its simplicity, this blog of the Community of Saint Paul may be a space of open and peaceful conversation for today, for the 21^st century.

We hope that you enjoy our blog, and that our new agora may be, truly, a place of encounter and sincere dialogue.