Ángel Olaran: Where Are They Leading Us?
The text written by Ángel Olaran: Where Are They Leading Us? raises a profound reflection on global indifference to the human tragedy in Palestine and other corners of the world, where the lives of thousands of children and women are reduced to cold statistics. It denounces the contrast between the real pain of the victims and the passivity of those of us who watch from afar. With harrowing images etched in memory, it reminds us that every life is unique and unrepeatable and confronts our lack of empathy and commitment. It also criticizes the hypocrisy of Western democracies, which promote values of freedom and hospitality while building walls of hatred against migrants.
Father Olaran points out the contradiction between the enormous resources allocated to weaponry and the abandonment of the most vulnerable. Likewise, he warns about the role of transnational capitalism in perpetuating conflicts and inequalities. In the face of this, he proposes a return to the root: human dignity, care for Mother Earth, and personal and collective commitment to a fairer future.
Below, the text by Ángel Olaran, in which he calls for conscience and solidarity against the indifference, injustice and dehumanization of our time.
A heartfelt reunion with Father Ángel Olaran at our headquarters, on July 18, 2025.
Written by Ángel Olaran: Where Are They Leading Us?
Palestine: lives reduced to statistics and global indifference
If from Palestine, instead of exposing us to the deaths of children and women, they showed us the deaths of horses, dogs, cats… The cry would have “pierced the clouds” – I pray to God I was wrong in my assessment.
Whether it is 10 or 100 deaths daily, it is reduced to pure statistics: the genocide has already reached around 65,500 deaths. What horror! – we have reached that point. The images of mothers, fathers, brothers, relatives, neighbors crying, devastated, clinging to the small bodies of their little ones, of the elderly, barely create a temporary feeling of compassion in us.
Every person: an unrepeatable edition, three times unique
We are presented with thousands of replicas of “The Pietà,” with torn mothers embracing the skeletal little bodies of their children who still breathe – I once heard: the mother is still God’s best invention. In El espejo del cerebro, Nazareth Castellanos explains that we have 11 million chemical letters in our genome, which makes every person, every little body no matter how famished, three times different from the rest of humanity: A SUPER UNIQUE EDITION. With the same rights, the same pride and personal history, just like those of us who watch their end from a distance. Who would have thought! Added to this is the fact that each one of these persons is the Bride, upon whom her enamored Bridegroom, God, pours himself, “Song of Songs.” What more can be asked! And still, many of us will blame God – may that accusation not distort our responsibility.
The inconsistency of our humanity: between abortion and indifference
What difference is there between a young woman who has an abortion, not doing so joyfully, and us who, passive and indifferent, witness and consent to the shameful, humiliating death of so many children – 3 times unique – before the anguished eyes of their mothers, to whom, after applauding them for not aborting, we don’t even offer a single coin. It is difficult to qualify us as human; all adjectives, however pejorative, fall short and leave us unmoved. Our humanity is nauseating: with those coins that never arrive, the lives of many, many children – 3 times UNIQUE – could be saved in hundreds of other human scenarios.
Many of us look for diets, however expensive, so as not to gain weight; and yet, we still ask: “GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.” – do I share mine? A cartoon from years ago showed two starving old men, with one commenting: they say there are places where people pay to lose weight.
Democracy, hatred and contradictions in the West
It seems that the word DEMOCRACY acquires its full meaning only within my PARTY, and so we hurl it at each other with pride cloaked in HATRED, the counter-virtue imposed on us as a currency of exchange; the sad thing is that this counter-value arises from WESTERN CIVILIZATION, of which we boast so much.
And thus the violent movements of young democrats, civilized, even Catholics, grow against young people who leave their land, rich in raw materials; and leave their families, chasing the wealth, that very raw material which, plundered from their countries of origin, creates wealth in the West and other nations where they are rejected with HATRED, all in the name of PATRIOTIC values. National Sovereignty demands it.
Migration and youth: papers between hatred and love
Their green light is papers. Without exception, all those who set off into the desert or the sea do so without papers. They know they must face mafias. Ignorant they are! They are unaware of the welcoming spirit of the European Union, which, through its various open embassies, is there to welcome them, offering all possible help so that they can be legal migrants. Thus, these young people who now shout (Voxiferate) and act violently, motivated by those same patriotic values, knowing them to be legal migrants, would embrace them. Sadly, a piece of paper is the barrier between HATRED and LOVE.
Even so, these young defenders of patriotic values can still be asked to collaborate by supporting national institutions that work so that migrants, already present in the nation, can obtain their papers and pay contributions. VOX presents itself as the only Catholic party, staunch defender of legality, heir to the legacy of Jesus: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” and could play an essential role in this case. Who knows!
Silenced tragedies and the rejection of cultural diversity
On August 6 we learned that, from the boat in which they were traveling to Saudi Arabia, 162 young Ethiopians, 140 died when the boat sank, after paying €3,000. Was it news in any newscast?
“True Spaniards” accuse migrants of not accepting our culture. In almost all the nations of South America, I would say in all, there is the Spanish house or center, the Basque house, the Galician… even though language unites us. My nephews born in Chile are and feel Chilean, but they still celebrate festivals and other events at the Casa de España, with flamenco shows, jotas… costumes included. Would we accept here a Moroccan house, Senegalese house…? Most of these young migrants, if they felt minimally welcomed in their jobs, neighborhoods, churches, would fully integrate. I know several of them with knowledge of Catalan, Galician, and Basque.
Europe between weapons, economy and loss of values
A question to politicians: how many of their relatives have gone to “seek their fortune in the Americas”? How many are scattered across the EU?
What strings move the EU? In the face of the human, cosmic catastrophe, the EU proposes, as the most correct and professional option, to have its own army and thus become independent from Americans, Russians and others – at the outset, an offer contrary to the nature of the EU. Something does not add up: they are disoriented by Trump’s rules, by what his laws will mean for the Spanish economy in this case; yet there are plenty of millions of euros for heavy and other weapons, as well as all the budget for salaries, allowances and renewal of destructive material, for maaaany years. What principle of the EU supports the right to this substantial change in the EU constitution? Has it been thought to ask the population? Does the fact of being democratically elected authorize them to grant themselves this right?
The problem does not lie with that man mentioned above, or similar ones, but with the democratic, legal – irreplaceable – system that allows humanity to be dominated by people of such a character. In the EU it is coming to the point that, in each of the 27 nations that compose it, HATRED is sinking deep.
The precariousness of youth and the contradictions of the system
Migrants are already on the same level as drugs and terrorism. They appear in all European parliaments as a scourge to be eradicated, without sentimentality in the means used against them. Africa is worth only as much as it can be bled dry.
A couple of years ago I read that the Global Police State supports transnational capitalism, offering opportunities in which to invest its immense capital. They invest that money in drugs, terrorism and against migrants, but falsely, so that neither drugs, nor migrants, nor terrorism ever cease to exist – whatever they label as such. It would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
According to that institution mentioned in the previous paragraph, whatever does not bring profit to their capital must disappear, which is yet another reason why Palestine must disappear – it brings no benefit to the transnational economy. Indeed, from the start of this war, Netanyahu announced that Palestine was going to disappear.
We move on quicksand: nuclear weapons, AI. And our politicians with their: “and you more, fool, come on!” Apparently, no party, nor politician, has thought to turn to the wise, to nonpartisan statesmen, moved by ethical principles, higher than those of any party, in which the cosmos and the poor are the prevailing norm. They decide based on the votes at stake: let our voters see that we are close to Vox – in this case – so they don’t leave us. Pure and hard proselytism. This is the direction being taken within most countries of the EU. Something that, in its own way, has also happened in the Catholic Church; and at times, without scruples about the means employed. Let us hope that the Concordats do not condition the freedom of the Gospel.
Unaccompanied minors, public resources and the paradox of labor
Allow me: the condition of most young nationals today is humiliating. Given the precariousness of their wages they cannot leave their parents’ home. In Wukro, accompanied by social welfare staff, without prior notice, we visited more than 100 homes. Even if you know what you are going to find, when you see the precariousness, your perspective changes. Add to this the inhuman conditions in which many seasonal workers live during the harvest campaigns. According to the employers it is a minority. Have they visited them?
Google explains that in Catalonia, unaccompanied minors between 18 and 23 years old receive €750 per month, of which they must contribute €260 per month for rent. They are housed in assisted living homes for which the government “invests” €1,200 per youth-month. The same support is received by Catalan youths.
In the Canary Islands there is a group of 5,000 abandoned minors, both nationally and at the EU level. The Canary region can hardly attend to them and more keep arriving. The other regions are not willing, due to the budget. The budget corresponds to the central government. Spain is one of the gateways to the EU. It makes us think that if the EU were to take charge of them, it would unbalance its military and anti-migrant budget. Which would require them to pay even less for raw materials. Even so, the agricultural economy, social services, as well as forest fires that require forest maintenance work during winter to prevent fires in summer, all cry out, demand labor: we have them at home, inside, youths in whom not a penny has been invested, strong, eager to work and contribute, for which they beg for papers, and we treat them like nuclear waste that we dumped along the African coasts, not without first plundering them of fish.
From Covid-19 to the business of war and artificial intelligence
Covid-19 made the world stop. The current situation demands that also the world of weapons, xenophobia, profit at all costs… yield to the cosmic. With Covid, IT WAS POSSIBLE.
Even so, the nine giants of Silicon Valley, upon learning that Trump communicated his commitment to spend a trillion dollars on computerizing the army, all changed their original laws of not engaging in war, to contribute elegantly, insisting on human values for peace, inherent in AI and others. They know that this is a lie, that profit and power demand it.
One health: humanity, animals and Mother Earth
Towards a single health: we all depend on Mother Earth. She generously, over millions of years, has been nurturing from her womb healthy vegetation, and this vegetation contributes to the health of animals, and both plants and animals contribute so that humanity too partakes directly in this health that comes from Mother Earth. Plants, animals and people need each other. We must do it together, loving our MOTHER.
Constitution, politics and disunity in the face of adversity
It seems politicians don’t need advisors.
NB:
Treasury, the army, the traffic fine service in no country have failed due to lack of personnel or low wages. In their jobs and services they are exemplary – they never fail. They don’t need to organize strikes. They have everything; the government anticipates their needs. I can imagine the healthy envy of healthcare staff, teachers, and countless civil servants.
The soul created in the image and likeness of God. Temple of the Holy Spirit. Marriage, sacrament of the unity of God with the soul of each person. God invades us from the innermost being – He is our very root. According to St. John of the Cross, God delights in every moment of prayer we offer Him: our will is with Him, even if our thoughts wander.
Constitution: Natural difficulties, such as wildfires, instead of uniting politicians in a common program, are used to separate them further, creating more barriers among the population. The spectacle staged by politicians is as desolate as that of the fires. And all of them, basing their criteria on the same Constitution: they annul it – anything goes.
Ángel
August, 2025
A future that depends on us
Humanity is going through a critical moment: endless wars, forced migrations, inequality, hatred and dehumanization. We cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of others nor allow numbers to replace the faces and stories of thousands of children, women and men. Each life is unique, unrepeatable, and deserves dignity and respect. The question “where are they leading us?” is, in reality, a reflection of our collective responsibility: towards where we decide to lead the world. Indifference is complicit, action is hope.
A call to your solidarity with Wukro, Tigray (Ethiopia)
In Wukro, Tigray (Ethiopia), thousands of children, youth and families struggle every day to survive the consequences of war, hunger and lack of resources. The CIS Ángel Olaran Foundation works alongside missionary Ángel Olaran to provide education, health, food and hope to a population that resists in minimal conditions.
Your donation is not only material aid: it is a gesture of humanity that becomes food, medicine, schools and real opportunities for those who need it most.
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