In autumn she will turn sixty, but the energy of this nun born in Argentina and settled in Manresa for more than three decades is overwhelming. In fact, in this interview, Sister Lucía Caram assures that she is possibly at her best moment. Her tireless presence in the media defending the voice of the vulnerable and questioning certain aspects of the Church proves it. She is direct and involved, and that has made her one of the most media-famous religious figures in the country.
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A Dominican nun, activist, and promoter of numerous social projects, Sister Lucía felt the vocation very young and at eighteen began volunteering with immigrants and terminally ill patients, but a personal crisis led her to choose the contemplative life. The congregation assigned her to Spain and, when she met the Dominican community of the Convent of Santa Clara, very close to the Abbey of Montserrat, she was fascinated by their joy and their way of working with the most needy. And she decided to stay.
How do you see life at the doorstep of 60?
The change of decade impresses me, but it is a gift to arrive discovering that I am possibly at the best moment of my life. I have health, I have strength, and I have projects that encourage me. When you are young, you think you can change the world and that you have the strength to do it, and today, realizing that you cannot change the world, but that the area you have is commitment until the end, fills your life. I am at a very good moment.
Where do you get so much energy?
I am lucky to live in community, to get up early, have some time of silence and then start my hectic day. What gives me energy is living passionately the commitments with people. I cannot save the world, but if I stop doing certain things, there are people who are left behind. When I see mothers who have sick children, for example, I wonder where they get strength from, and it is from love, from the passion for the other to be well. This is also my strength. My life is lives and my strength comes from the lives I am sharing. It is impressive to make a call, have so many volunteers who come together to collaborate and realize that, when we come together, we can reach many people who are not lucky enough to live like us.
Is it not hard for you to maintain hope in this complicated world we live in?
We do not hope against hope, we have to hope against all despair. If we look at the news, if we listen to certain conversations, if we see how everything is politicized, we can get discouraged. But when the hope we live is not ideological, it is not naive optimism: it is a decision, it is getting up and fighting against everything, against all odds, and it is continuing to sow even if the fruit is not seen at the moment. We must not wait for change to come from outside, but from within. The challenge is to enamor many people with the projects we are in.
In some of these projects you work with elderly people. What do you learn from them?
The first thing I see is that it is often said that social entities have avoided a social fracture and it is not true. It is not us, it is our elderly people, the wise who today could be enjoying retirement and peace, but who have to continue supporting the family, be the babysitters of the grandchildren and maintain the family economy with the miserable pensions they have. What you learn most from the elderly is totally free love because they are used to always thinking of others. During the pandemic, when suddenly so many elderly people were left without even being able to say goodbye, everyone said we had to value them, but the pandemic has passed and we have forgotten them again. We do not listen to them, but they continue to be the wildcard of families. They love without expecting anything in return and, in a world where everything seems to have a price, we have to recover this free love. Here, in the community, I always think that the older sisters are the people from whom I have learned the most.
During the pandemic, everyone said we had to value the elderly, but we have forgotten them again, although they continue to be the wildcard of families
Sister Lucía Caram
How do you see young people?
Young people are fantastic, yes, but today there is no commitment and I am very worried that they do not even want it at work. It is another style, another way. They are also used to speed and immediacy, and this has a lot to do with the issue of screens, which in some way has frozen affectivity and empathy. They can spend hours swiping without listening or seeing those next to them. Virtual relationships have distanced them from the heart of people and have made them colder, indifferent.
You are very present on social media and have managed to maintain a balance…
I am present on social media to make people remember the reality we are living in, but I am very critical, especially of Catholic influencers, who try to be positive by telling you: “You will achieve everything you want and God will fill your paths and your heart.” Listen to me, this is about commitment, not words. They give an easy message, but it is not real either. “You will achieve everything you want, everything you set out to do.” Or not! The important thing is to stand up straight, work and fight.
Where does this awareness and determination come from?
I grew up in Tucumán, Argentina, in a context of war and guerrilla. Precisely in Tucumán was where the fight was strongest and where most people died. Possibly that war, that military dictatorship, and living in a society where inequalities were very large and I happened to be in the privileged part, has marked my commitment. Since I have lived it always, I am concerned about education. Today they try to give everything to children… But everything that is material! Sometimes they have to leave their comfort zone, have contact with reality because this also helps them mature. We have a very big challenge and it is how we humanize the generations to come.
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Young people today do not have it easy…
They have a very hard time becoming independent, they have to take care, they carry many frustrations… but it hurts me to see studies that reveal the number of people taking antidepressants and the very high percentage of suicide attempts among young people. What have we done wrong for so many young people to have tried to commit suicide or have had suicidal thoughts in our environment? A group of psychiatrists has agreed on the large number of young people tending towards euthanasia as a solution. There is something sick in society, and deep down it is a lack of affectivity, closeness, feeling. The screen does not make them feel loved. It makes them feel like colleagues, but not loved.
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Be honest with me, Sister Lucía. Have you been able to keep your hope intact? Or have you gradually lost it?
No, I think when you are young you have dreams and now, as an adult, you realize that you can fulfill dreams by fighting and working. If everyone asks themselves what they can do, hope will not fail. But it is the question we all have to ask ourselves. In my case, my faith is my hope. To believe is to create. When one creates, hope becomes possible.
And faith, does it evolve over the years?
Totally, it has nothing to do with it. The most important thing my parents gave me was life, siblings, and faith. But my faith is not my parents’, because they do not believe for me. Not even my faith is the church’s, because the church does not believe for me. They transmit values, references, but until you have a personal option and decision, it is a borrowed faith, and a borrowed faith can become ideology, dogmatism, and fanaticism. I live faith as following or identifying with someone who went through life doing good, who in my case is undoubtedly Jesus. For me, Jesus lived compassion, which is shared passion. When you see what he did with others, you ask yourself what we have done with our brothers.
An uncomfortable question…
Faith is demanding, it is not fleeing from reality. I do not understand all these new movements of people who live spirituality without commitment. Commitment forces you to take sides for the most vulnerable, for the victims of injustice. Faith cannot be comfortable. In these new movements that arise, there is much fervor, but very little commitment. It is a generation that seeks likes, when what must be achieved is the click, that people make a change.
I do not understand all these new movements of people who live spirituality without commitment
Sister Lucía Caram
In the midst of this noisy society we live in, you seek moments of silence. What do they bring you?
Silence is what allows all the things we live to rest. Sometimes we are troubled and restless, and in these moments silence is what allows us to see things with the original transparency they have. If you take a jar of water, put a little sand in it and stir it, you see the water is cloudy. If you try to move it to make it still, you stir it even more. Silence is leaving this jar, which is us, so that everything rests, and when it rests is when we recover the original transparency and see things differently. Silence helps us make the way back to our own heart, to find ourselves again and give meaning to our life.
Sister Lucía, you who have a jar with waters so stirred by all the activity you do, do you see yourself slowing down someday?
No! In one year in my car I have driven 68,000 kilometers! But for me driving is a moment of reflection, of silence. I do not put on the radio or music because I take advantage of the silence… But I have a frenetic activity and I do not see myself doing nothing! I cannot imagine it!
In these moments of silence you manage to find… Do you think about death?
No, I do not think much about it. In this valley of tears I am very well and I do not want to leave, but I am not afraid of death. Possibly because I have the certainty that love can never die. Is there life after? If I have loved, this love will not disappear. I do not know how, but it will not disappear. I believe that in some way the people I have loved and who have loved me are alive. Two months before dying, Pope Francis, who for me was my father and my friend, told me: “Lucía, I promise I will always help you.” And I feel he is alive. How? I do not know, I have no idea. But I feel it, I talk to him, I get angry with him. Faith is not the proof of what we do not see, it is the certainty of what we sense.
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