Cardinal D. Tolentino Mendonça: “Human beings are a mystery that is solved by walking”
It was at the headquarters of the Universidade Católica in Lisbon that Cardinal José Tolentino Mendonça presented his new book, Para os caminhantes, tudo é caminho (For travellers, everything is a journey), published by Quetzal.
In his speech about the work, the author, who is also Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, explained that "to be interested in the human is to realise that the human being is a question, an enigma, a mystery. But, as the Latins said, it is a mystery that is solved by walking.‘ Therefore, Tolentino Mendonça argued, it is a matter of ’seeking enlightenment for existence from the experience of the path,‘ not least because ’the path is a dimension that unites us all deeply," whether they are inner paths or paths in the landscape.
The Cardinal, who was Vice-Rector of Católica, also mentioned that the book ‘is made up of fragments, with short narratives’ because ‘it includes listening’. ‘It is a book where I talk about what I find, the people I meet, what I find in my encounters with others. That is why it is a book full of names and full of stories,’ he revealed.
D. Tolentino Mendonça further explained that it is a work that ‘says that we need to look at the protagonists of our time as total masters,’ through the ‘ability to put everything in relation.’ According to the author, it is essential to ‘understand that Fernando Pessoa is an important master for the paths of inner life, that a scientist can shed light on the great philosophical questions, or that a philosopher can be a companion who encourages us to find a broader horizon for life. All these contributions are important, not only from a cultural or scientific point of view, but from a human point of view.’
The President of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, also highlighted the book's main message, which she considered to be ‘an offering of a path’. ‘“For walkers, everything is a path” is a title that could not be more faithful to what D. Tolentino Mendonça always taught us: that every step, every pause, every doubt, every discovery is part of a journey that is built with attention, generosity and openness to the unexpected,’ she stressed.
Professor Teresa Bartolomei shared the same opinion. In presenting ‘For walkers, everything is a path’ in more detail, she stated that ‘all who read this book will be accompanied by it on a journey. This book is a path, a journey, and we walk with it.’
Emphasising that several passages in the book refer to gratitude, Quetzal's editorial director, Francisco José Viegas, said that ‘for publishers, each book is a way of sitting down and contemplating the world’.
According to the publisher, in this book, already in bookshops, D. José Tolentino Mendonça addresses life, love, death and forgiveness and questions hope and giving up, the need for silence and the urgency of inner space. In a tone that is both confessional and poetic, he reflects on the individual search for a path and the ability to transform expectations into hope.