In January 2021 Portugal entered a second lockdown in an attempt to cope with the consequences of Covid. The first lockdown happened between March and May 2020; and this second one, starting mid-January, is still effective as of today. For the last 12 months, Portugal was under lockdown for roughly 5 months. For Brotéria, a brand-new cultural center the Jesuits opened in downtown Lisbon in January 2020, the succession of lockdowns was both an extreme nuisance and a challenge readily accepted by a team eager to work. With all its hardships, this was a most fruitful time in terms of exhibitions, conferences, and new partnerships.
In particular, the last couple of months allowed for Brotéria to experiment with new online models. Starting in January, three online courses were offered under the titles “The Enigma of Evil”, “Discernment in a Time of Pandemic”, “Architecture, Transcendence, and the Liturgical Space” and “Christian Philosophers”. All four courses were offered by Jesuits, with three sessions each running between 9pm and 10:30pm, Tuesday through Thursday. The response was strong: the first course counted roughly 90 participants; the second one 863 (!); the third 101 and the fourth 65. Not giving in to tiredness and boredom too quickly, but keeping an attitude of curiosity and intellectual rigor towards the world: that was the purpose of these courses and the reason why they were so well accepted.
Brotéria was born out of the intuition that in order to remain relevant, Catholic faith has to be able to connect and engage in a permanent dialogue with our contemporary urban cultures. Proximity is key for that. Our work with contemporary artists, or with political, social, or economic agents, can only be successful as long as the Church engages in a process that asks questions and that actually seeks dialogically for the most appropriate answers. We walk alongside those who share similar concerns to ours, regardless of their vantage point.
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