HOLY JOURNALIST

 

Our next writer was  BL. MANUEL “LOLO” LOZANO GARRIDO,  a Spanish  journalist  and  Missionary.

 Manuel, known as “Lolo”,  was born in 1920 in Linares, Jaén, Kingdom of Spain.  He had seven brothers and one sister.  His father died in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War.  At that time, Manuel served as a Eucharistic Minister in his community, taking Communion to people in their homes.  He did this until he was arrested for this activity.

When Lolo was 15, he lost his mother as well. Lolo found strength in his faith, in the Eucharist. From a young age, he was part of the Catholic Action Movement. 

When he was 22, Manuel became a soldier but always had time to attend daily Mass.  Unfortunately, he suffered from spondylitis a degenerative disease.and had to leave the military because of increasingly poor health.  The next year, Lolo was paralyzed and spent the rest of his life in near-constant pain and wheelchair-bound.

Despite his pain, Lolo devoted his life to serving God as a journalist.  Not only did he have hundreds of his articles published, he also wrote nine books that he dedicated to his only sister, Lucia. The constant pain he experienced didn't extinguish his curiosity and love for the written word. Those who knew him said he never complained. 

The doors of his house were always open to everyone. When he could no longer write with one hand, he used the other. If he kept dropping his pen, he would attach it to his wrist. Then he moved to the typewriter, which he could use because he still had some mobility in his fingers. 

During Mass, he would set it on the altar. That's how he wrote the “Journalist's Decalogue,” which Pope Francis remembered during an encounter with the media.

 In his 'Journalist's Decalogue,' he recommends “paying with the coin of frankness,” “kneading the bread of clean information with the salt of style and the yeast of eternity,” and to serve “neither pastries nor spicy dishes, but rather a tasty bite of the clean and hope-filled life.” 

Because of his intense love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Lolo sought, and received, permission to have the Blessed Sacrament on his home altar.  He put his typewriter in front of the Blessed Sacrament for guidance from the Lord as he wrote.

One of the ways Lolo did missionary work from his home was by founding a magazine for those who were sick.  He called the magazine Sinai. In 1958 he travelled with his sister to Lourdes. In 1962 he lost his sight but continued his writing.

Lolo died on November 3, 1971 in his hometown of Linares, Jaén, Francoist Spain, at the age of 51.

On 19 December 2009, Pope Benedict XVI  authorized the recognition of a miracle attributed to Manuel's intercession in the cure of Rogelio de Haro Sagra (aged two) in 1972; the child had suffered from multiple organ failure due to Gram-negative sepsis.

Lolo was beatified on June 12, 2010. His feast is November 3. 

  Blessed Manuel is a patron of journalists.