The choice of Catalan by the Pope on his visit to Montserrat is a very important gesture because of its "logic". In the monastery, there were groups of fervent people who made themselves heard a lot. The "jóvenes del Papa", who rhymed "León" with "mola mogollón" or the gentleman who shouted "¡Viva el Papa y viva la virgen!". Alongside this, the parishioner who tried a local "Visca sa santedat el Papa!", had a lot of merit, because Catalans - as they knowurbi et orbi- are not so expansive.
A Montserrat Catalan is "natural", like snails in a snail dish. The
Virolai, with lyrics by mossèn Cinto, who is one of the key figures in the history of Christianity, speaks with surprising familiarity of the Virgin of Montserrat, La Moreneta. Without this word in Catalan, the history of the monastery is not understood. "El Papa habla italiano y muchas lenguas, y que haya hablado en catalán es porque viene del latín", I heard a parishioner say, on the way back on the rack railway. In his mind, the Pope's words (speaking precisely of the virgin) in Catalan legitimized the language.
Catalan is natural, it is normal and it is structural in Catalonia and absolutely necessary in the conformation of the identity of the Mediterranean arc. When they ask me what I am, I say I am Catalan and when they ask me where I am from, I say I am from the Mediterranean. We are a group of people, around this sea that is almost a lake, who share a way of life that resembles no other. We eat together and festively, with excuses from Christian tradition. We make bread, wine and oil, the three foods of this culture, from which we come. Our languages, music, and food complement each other. Bread, pain
, pane, wine, vin, vino, oil, huile, olio...
