The given of Grace

I read in ARA Balears with surprise —with sad surprise— that the Bishopric of Mallorca has decided to dispense with the caretakers of the sanctuary of Gràcia, Sebastià Amengual and Francisca Miralles, and by means of a cold administrative letter has given them until the end of June to leave this sanctuary in Llucmajor which has been their home for 55 years.It is a decision that the Bishopric should reconsider. This departure, communicated abruptly and in such a short timeframe, is not only an evident injustice from a purely human point of view, but also a lack of respect for the exemplary, enormous work that these two people have carried out at the sanctuary of Gràcia for more than five decades. Furthermore, to forcefully remove Sebastià Amengual and Francisca Miralles from Gràcia would also be to disrespect the memory and the last will of Bishop Antoni Vadell, one of the most brilliant men of the Church that Mallorca has produced in recent decades, who died prematurely four years ago just before turning 50, and who asked to be buried at the hermitage of Gràcia precisely to encourage the Bishopric to protect this very special place with the mention and care it deserves. Even more so: it is an attack against a good that the people of Llucmajor, and many Mallorcans, and many people from outside the island, enjoy and love as intensely as Monsignor Antoni Vadell. This good is precisely Gràcia. A place of prayer and devotion for believers and of recollection, serenity, contemplation, and enjoyment of nature for everyone who approaches it.Anyone who doesn't know it might wonder what makes the sanctuary of Gràcia a special place, as I say. They are a diversity of things, but one of the main ones is the work that Sebastià Amengual and Francisca Miralles have done in this place. When they arrived, in 1970, the place was abandoned and in a deplorable state: with the energy of youth and idealism (it was a time of boom tourism, and it would have been much easier for them to go work on the coast and earn easy money), they settled in a place that was then hostile and abrupt and that over the years, thanks to a tremendous effort impossible to summarize in an article —stonemasonry, gardening, laboring, electrical work—, they have restored, maintained, and made it shine anew. They have also carried out an activity as a restaurant (but restricted, never giving in to the temptation of more or less touristy and gentrified hotel exploitation). An infinite number of weddings, baptisms, and communions have been held there, as is right in a religious place, but also splendid concerts (Maria del Mar Bonet, Ara Malikian, Joan Pons, Joan Miquel Oliver, and Miquel Serra, among others), book presentations, and cultural and social events, always with the motto of maximum respect for the natural environment and for the faith and devotion of many people to Our Lady of Gràcia.What I will say now is more difficult to define, but it is perfectly perceptible to anyone who approaches it: the sanctuary of Gràcia is a place of beauty, a space where we can feel protected and sheltered from the evil that men do, as Shakespeare said. We are not short of such places, and if we have it now it is thanks to the donors Sebastià Amengual and Francisca Miralles. The least that the Bishopric of Mallorca can do is to recognize this task as it should and protect this sanctuary as Bishop Vadell would have wanted.