{"id":9672,"date":"2020-10-30T11:29:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T17:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legionariosdecristo.org\/?p=9672"},"modified":"2025-08-12T19:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:51:43","slug":"interview-p-jose-luis-segovia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subdir.legionariosdecristo.org\/en\/blog\/2020\/10\/interview-p-jose-luis-segovia\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abRestorative justice is designed from the victims’ perspective. Not to defend oneself against them but to look them in the eyes\u00bb \u2014 Interview with P. Jos\u00e9 Luis Segovia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Alter Christus Awards<\/a> with which Regnum Christi aims to highlight the service of priests to the Church and society as a whole, recognized this year 2020 the dedication and commitment to Social Pastoral of Don Jos\u00e9 Luis Segovia Bernab\u00e9. Josito<\/em>, as his friends know him, is a priest seasoned in the world of those existential peripheries where prisons, drugs, and crime are not absent\u2026 Where \u201cthe Reign of God is not a conquest of mine, but a humble -in the little I reach- collaboration in something that God builds much better than I do and that will culminate -in a way that now seems incomprehensible to me- with success on the other side.\u201d In this interview given to the website of Regnum Christi Spain<\/a>, he shares his experiences in restorative justice with people from Vallecas, but also with ETA prisoners, how the relationship with those in need should be, the commission given to him by Cardinal Suqu\u00eda when he ordained him, how his vocation was formed, and what his life of prayer is like.<\/p>\n

How was that intense encounter with the Lord you spoke of in the interview for the Alter Christus Awards? And how did He tell you that He wanted you to be a priest?<\/h4>\n

It is an indelible event from which I draw strength in moments of doubt or despair. It\u2019s indescribable, it\u2019s embarrassing to verbalize, but it has given me forever a very firm conviction: knowing your place in the world and that this place is \u201ccalled,\u201d that you are summoned by Someone greater, stronger than you. I tried to erase that experience in vain. I endured several years in \u201cresistance,\u201d but ultimately I was defeated. It imposed itself on me and constitutes an experience I return to in moments of crisis to regain strength and \u201cin Your name and by Your Word, cast the nets again.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the reception of the Awards, you mentioned a beautiful aspect of social pastoral: that it requires an approach to those in need not as recipients of aid, but as \u201cfriends with whom you share\u201d what is important to you. How can this be achieved? How did you discover this?<\/h4>\n

I discovered it when my friend Tom\u00e1s, whom I had helped out of legal and drug problems, insisted \u2014without having a school diploma\u2014 on helping me with my doctoral thesis that I had to defend during a low moment. He learned the \u201ctwisted letter\u201d (italics), the \u201cbig\u201d (uppercase), and the \u201cstained\u201d (bold), and corrected hundreds of footnotes. Genuine love, charity, and friendship are bidirectional when authentic. Jesus touches and heals, but He also allows Himself to be touched and marvels at the faith of some surprising characters. Pope Francis speaks to us about friendship with the poor, about that complicity that drinks from loving and being loved\u2026 Daring to be within reach of the love of excluded people changes everything. The same happens with God.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted that the Church, during these pandemic times, has helped the most needy a lot. What has been the key to this, according to your experience?<\/h4>\n

Probably we all have felt vulnerable and pressed by the needs of the poorest. That has brought out the best in each of us. So we abandoned foolishness and boring sacristy disputes and went \u201call together\u201d to assist those demanding urgent help. We have managed to be simply the Church of Jesus Christ, renouncing our particular achievements. The love of God has shone through very different people and institutions, but in the communion that results from a mission lived as urgent and with little room for wasting time on trivialities.<\/p>\n

You are part of the Repara team, the office of the Diocese of Madrid for the attention and accompaniment of victims of sexual abuse, abuse of power, and conscience in the Church or other areas. And you are knowledgeable about restorative justice, a reality little known in Spain. What is restorative justice, and what does it contribute to processes of reconciliation, reparation, and healing for victims and all those affected by abuse?<\/h4>\n

Restorative justice is a model rooted in the Gospel. It is often known as the justice of the three \u201cR\u2019s\u201d: Responsibility<\/strong> of the offender, Reparation<\/strong> of the damage caused to the victim, Restoration<\/strong> of social dialogue and peace broken by crime. It is a justice designed from the victims. Not to defend oneself against them as we have too often done in the Church, but to look them in the eyes, take responsibility for the hell they suffer, and initiate a healing process, complex but\u2014happily\u2014possible!<\/p>\n

And how did you get involved in restorative justice? What has been your experience?<\/h4>\n

The first case involving adults in Spain took place at the parish of San Buenaventura in Vallecas where I was. It made the media. Since then, it has been formalized and generalized. A disabled young man from a very dysfunctional family, who used to serve as an altar boy for me, \u201coverdosed\u201d on pills and alcohol and stole a car from his owner, who turned out to be the catechist of the premarital courses. Within a few months, they appeared in court\u2014and I had both at the Eucharist! \u201cDo not do so among yourselves\u201d<\/em>. Jos\u00e9 asked Vicente for forgiveness. Vicente reproached him and made him realize the consequences. We agreed in writing that the young man would wash his car over three weekends as compensation. The trial surprised the judge and the prosecutor. The true defense lawyer was the victim of the crime, who even angered the judge with his arguments in favor of the accused. It then became more widespread, and Catholic Pastoral Penitentiary took it on. I have also participated in restorative meetings between former ETA members and victims of terrorism (widows, mainly of murdered persons). In some cases, the ex-member of the terrorist group wore the cross of the murdered Civil Guard around his neck, and the victim\u2019s family carried the wooden cross of the prisoner during his lifetime. Both exchanged crosses. \u201cTerrorism was a cross like a heavy stone, but there is another cross that embraces us and reconciles us,\u201d the victim told him. [For more information on this topic, you can consult this article by Don Jos\u00e9 Luis Bernab\u00e9 titled \u201cPrison, a place of reconciliation? Considerations from restorative justice<\/a>\u201d. The article is taken from E. Pascual (coord.) \u201cThe eyes of the other\u201d Ed. Sal Terrae, 2014].<\/p>\n

You are also involved in various civil and Christian organizations supporting the most marginalized sectors of society. What kind of work do you do in organizations such as: Asociaci\u00f3n Apoyo, Coordinadora de Barrios, Inmigrapenal\u2026?<\/h4>\n

Currently, very little. But these have been non-confessional spaces of civil society in which I have been very active as a professional in Law and Criminology. When I was ordained a priest, Cardinal Suqu\u00eda told me: \u201cYou have the advantage of having one foot inside the Church and another outside. Stay like that. With both inside, many of us are. With both outside, you are not the Church. Use your training to maintain that difficult balance. Do not give it up.\u201d That\u2019s what I\u2019ve tried to do. That\u2019s why I went to trials with the Bible and the Criminal Procedure Law.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis speaks about rediscovering the meaning of fraternity in the encyclical \u2018Fratelli Tutti\u2019: \u201cFraternity is not only the result of conditions of respect for individual freedoms, nor even of a certain managed equity. Fraternity has something positive to offer to freedom and equality.\u201d Based on your experience, what meaning does this word take on, and how can we live these words of the Holy Father today?<\/h4>\n

I believe that Christian fraternity is not mere philanthropy, nor does it stem from an autistic \u201cI,\u201d absorbed in sterile freedom, which quickly turns the cult of autonomy into terrible loneliness, leading to despair. Fraternity involves stopping speaking in the first person singular (\u201cI\u201d) to speak in the plural (\u201cwe\u201d), with the clear awareness that only \u201cHe\u201d makes this possible. Fraternity offers warmth, hope, and meaning to freedom and equality.<\/p>\n

What is the prayer life of a priest so dedicated to the most needy like? The Pope Francis quotes Blessed Charles de Foucauld in \u2018Fratelli Tutti,\u2019 and summarizes it as \u201cPray to God that I may truly be the brother of all.\u201d<\/h4>\n

It is a clearly a prayer that lacks the calm and dedication it should have. But I experience in it the Lord Himself, who hovers over me with His infinite tenderness and gently presses me to realize His dream. Silence amid the noise of the city and contemplating God\u2019s footprints in broken lives sometimes calms me, sometimes outrages me, other times questions me and causes conflicts, but it is always a source of grace and reminds me that the Reign of God is not a conquest of mine, but a humble -in the little I reach- collaboration in something that God builds much better than I do and that will culminate -in a way that now seems incomprehensible to me- with success on the other side.<\/p>\n