There “are no recipes” in pastoral work with gipsies. Only “by experience can we discover what needs to be done in the various places and at the various times”: that’s one of the conclusions of the meeting that brought together over a hundred Spanish gipsies (gitanes), priests, religious and laity at Alcalà de Henares from 12 to 14 September, to celebrate together the 18th Gitane Pastoral Day. After the document on “The Church of Spain and the gipsies” published by the Bishops’ Conference last year, the gipsies attending the present meeting emphasised some of the salient aspects of their own culture and their way of celebrating the faith. These include “their pride of being gipsies”, the value they attach to the family, and in particular to the elderly, the importance of personal relations and the life of the community; their characteristic attitude of “not living for work, but working to live”; their particular aptitude “for festivity, art, good taste”; and their gift for “passionately living life”. All these “gipsy values” need to be reconciled with the rapid changes taking place even within their own population, while in their contacts with Spanish society as a whole they need to enrich each other by mutual exchange, while taking care not to “lose their own identity”. From a pastoral point of view, there can be no “recipes”. What’s needed is “a flexible and effective organization” to turn the gipsies “not only into the beneficiaries but into the protagonists of evangelization”.
