A new work has been published about Carmen Hernández, co-initiator with Kiko Argüello of the Neocatechumenal Way, which deserves our full attention. It is the work Corazón Indiviso, misión y virginidad en Carmen Hernández [Undivided Heart, mission and virginity in Carmen Hernández], by Josefina Ramón, a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, who, following in Carmen’s footsteps, is also celibate and an itinerant missionary, and having been nourished by the life and richness of Carmen Hernández’s thought, she now offers it on a plate, through this book, as substantial nourishment.
To understand who Carmen Hernández is, whose cause for beatification and canonization in the Madrid diocesan phase is about to conclude, we refer to the prologue of the work where we emphasize that in Carmen’s life, mission and virginity are united in an undivided heart, in love with Christ. A virginity lived in total gratitude, in the security of the love of the one who seduced her; a virginity that led her to be an eschatological woman, as Father Mario Pezzi likes to say, because she lived events looking at the sky. Carmen was, above all, a missionary. For 50 years she lived with Kiko Argüello proclaiming the Gospel. Together they have traveled the world, inspiring hundreds of vocations to the priesthood, to religious life and to missionary life, both for celibates and for families. She has spent and worn herself out to bring the joy of the Good News to as many people as possible… because Carmen only cared about doing God’s will; that gave her the freedom of spirit and the courage typical of the greats in the Church. She was gifted with exceptional intelligence and a capacity for work; she received a scientific and theological training that was providential for the mission to which God chose her together with Kiko Argüello: the itinerary of the Neocatechumenal Way. The life and catechesis of someone who never wanted to found anything, but only to help the Church, can teach many young people today to live in chastity: the sure way to discern the vocation to which God calls each person personally, and which is none other than happiness through an encounter with the Lord.
The book is not only aimed at consecrated persons, nor even only at women, because in a society in crisis where femininity has lost the sense of its value and dignity, the words of Carmen that are collected in “Corazón Indiviso” are of essential help for everyone, since the mission of women affects the future of all history; that is why it is very important that women, in all stages of life, find themselves. Because as Carmen says: Women hold the key to life, therefore they are extremely important in God’s work… and they are extremely important in all societies… Because the history of salvation is the history of God’s glory and his fight against the devil’s actions on women, which are presented generation after generation, as Carmen points out: Today, the whole attack is against women, but not from the perspective of a simplistic feminism that puts women in conflict with men, but as a ruthless attack on life, whose image is the woman who carries life in her womb. Motherhood is even more fruitful and full in virginity because, as Carmen says, virginity represents the creativity of God. A great mystery of power and grace enclosed in a woman’s body. It is understandable, then, that, in the face of such greatness, she suffers persecution because the virgin woman represents in herself, physically, in her womb, which is the enormous greatness that the woman has, having the factory of life and of history, represents all human potential, male and female. In this sense it is as if the woman’s womb were a sacrament, a symbol in her virginity of the creative power of God. What Carmen said in 1985 continues to become more relevant every day. They are prophetic words of hope for this generation, which hopes that in the victory of the virginal woman it will discover the presence of God the Father present in history.
The life and work of Carmen Hernández is rich, and little by little it is coming to light to be a help and guide for contemporary man. An example of this are the works already published in recent years:
- Carmen Hernández, Diarios 1979-1981(BAC, Madrid 2017)
- Cayuela, Aquilino, Carmen Hernández – Notas biográficas (BAC, Madrid 2021)
- Carrascosa, Alfonso V. y Orozco, Raúl. Carmen Hernández, La necesidad de la oración en el pensamiento de Pío XII (Desclée de Brouwer, Bilbao 2022)
- Voltaggio, G. Francesco – Alfieri, Paolo, Están en ti todas mis fuentes. La sierva de Dios Carmen Hernández en Tierra Santa (1963-1964) (BAC, Madrid 2023).
- Ricci, Giorgio, Símbolos Judeocristianos entre Ciencia y Fe. Reflexiones con Carmen Hernández (Chirico, Nápoles 2023).
This list is joined by CORAZÓN INDIVISO, misión y virginidad by Carmen Hernández [Undivided Heart, mission and virginity in Carmen Hernández], which reflects theological depth, an intimate love of Jesus Christ together with admiration and concern for the VIRGINAL MISSION of women.