Interview-Dr.Jose Luis Perez Lopez
You are married: how many children do you have?
My wife, Carmen, and I have four children, the eldest a girl and the others boys.
How did you approach the question of getting married?
In this I believe all the merit came from God who gave me the wife I needed. If I didn’t do things wrong it was because God didn’t want me to. I say this because when one falls in love one doesn’t always consider what is best, and we have to pray to God to fall in love with the woman who is right for us. I hope you understand me. This is about looking for a woman who is Christian, simple, sober, etc.. In other words, as virtuous as possible.
What is the key to the stability of your marriage?
I suppose it has to be the grace of God received in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Then there’s the human maturity that we both had when we got married, and the fact that we love one another. I had an intuition, when I got married, of what a great person my wife was, but as the years pass I discover more and more values in her, and I love her more and more. When there’s love there’s stability, everything else is easily resolved.
Is it fundamental that both think the same way?
I think it is fundamental that both think the same in the fundamental issues, such as the generous acceptance of the children that God gives, the radical rejection of artificial contraceptives, the formation of the children in the faith... In other things it doesn’t matter if there is diversity, and there usually is, because the spouses complement one another humanly. Instinctively we tend to look for what we lack in the other.
Does the woman have a decisive role in the family? Why?
It is true that the role of the woman in the family is decisive, but I don’t know if it’s more or less so than that of the man. Perhaps the woman, with her particular spirit of sacrifice, of courage, very superior to those of the man, is in the end more decisive in the family.
Your wife works: how do you harmonise your family life with the fact that both of you are working?
My wife works different shifts and my schedule is in the mornings, so that almost always when she is not at home, I am. It is very unusual for our children to be on their own with the lady who helps us. We’ve been very lucky in this and it’s very important for the upbringing of the children. It goes without saying that this entails sharing the household chores, something I don’t always do as I should. My wife always wins when it comes to abnegation and the capacity for work.
What does it mean to you to be the father of a numerous family?
The first thing I wish to say is that we are as numerous as God wanted, neither more nor less. This is a great joy for me, because each child is a proof of God’s trust in us. This beautiful fact is something I have learned, like so many other things, from St. José María Escrivá, Founder of Opus Dei. It also entails a great responsibility, because we have to respond by bringing them up the best way possible humanly and spiritually, and this means effort, means being attentive to so many things, means above all giving them example of what it means to be Christian in the world we live in. But to sum up, being the father of a numerous family is a constant source of satisfaction and joy. This is not only compatible with the self-denial, effort and difficulties involved; it is directly related to them.
Does the father have a specific role to play in the family?
I suppose so. The rôle of the father complements that of the mother and vice versa. Both are necessary for the proper human psychological development of the children. Nowadays the mother also plays her part in bringing economical resources to the home, but there are always specific facets of the father or of the mother, related to their psychology. These are variable in each case, every family is a world of its own.
In the education of the children, what are your priorities?
The first thing is the transmission of the faith, that they receive the sacraments when the time comes, that they receive the formation suited to their age, that they attend schools where orthodoxy in religious doctrine is guaranteed. And then that they receive the most complete human formation possible. In other words, I would consider myself a failure if a child of mine were not to learn in this life that he is a child of God and that we are called to live the eternal life after death, even if in human terrain he were to win a Nobel prize in any area.
What difficulties does the family face nowadays?
Perhaps the first would be the contraceptive and anti-birth mentality that has been imposed for so many reasons, too many to go into here and now. This is destroying the love between the spouses and behind this comes the destruction of the family. Other difficulties derive from the consumerist, materialist, atheist atmosphere that we breathe in. Nor should we forget other, more immediate factors like the lack of policies to help the family with housing, education, economy, etc..
How do you defend your children from the worldly ways of thinking?
We have been very careful since we got married to ensure that in our home the television doesn’t take over. My children see very little television, and we make sure that what they do see has healthy moral criteria. This means being attentive. The children understand it and live it naturally, turning off the t.v. as soon as something is said or done that doesn’t correspond with the human or spiritual atmosphere that we have in the home. The same applies to magazines and newspapers. I have no complex about censoring the newspapers or press supplements when they publish something that goes against the faith and morality. We parents are responsible for ensuring that rubbish doesn’t enter our nest. There is enough rubbish outside the home. We also have to give reasons and explanations for acting this way, so that our children form the right criteria to be able to choose for themselves what is best.
Is the education of the youth difficult?
I would say that the education of the youth in the Christian family, which counts on the help of God and the supernatural means, is not difficult. To form oneself as a person and as a Christian adult entails effort, time, money, etc.. And this is the first condition for being able to educate the youth: that the adults around them be their models. Then there is also the need of schools and other centres that support this work of the parents outside of the home.
In your work as a neurologist, can you only help people with their illness or can you help them also in some other way?
As a doctor I think I help my patients by investing all the affection I can in my relations with them. I think this forms part of my medical vocation, although this, unfortunately, is something that is much neglected nowadays. I see that the young doctors are contaminated with technicism and dehumanisation, as a consequence of the general environment. Opportunities also arise to suggest spiritual attention to a family or to a patient that one is attending, to offer for example to a dying patient the attention of the hospital priest. Other times I get to form friendships with the patient and the family and the possibilities to help are amplified in personal conversations.
What does your apostolate consist of?
As a normal Christian, it consists of being a good professional and a good Christian at the same time, without ever hiding my beliefs. Then I also procure to have the necessary doctrinal formation to be able to give reasons for my faith in personal conversations with my colleagues and friends.
Have you ever had problems in your work for being Catholic?
Yes. A director of the hospital prevented my receiving sponsorship for a Masters in bio-ethics because I was a member of Opus Dei. In other words because I was a responsible Catholic. He tried to have the grant given to another doctor less qualified for it than I was, but I lodged a complaint before the hospital board and he chose to cancel the grant so that I wouldn’t get it. The hospital was left without a Master in bio-ethics. I have also had to listen to comments from colleagues along the lines that I wasn’t the suitable person to preside the bio-ethics committee for the same reasons.
Have you always thought the same as you do now from the religious point of view?
Yes. I was born, thank God, in a Catholic family, very pious. I suckled the faith in the home and, when the majority of my classmates were swept away on the tide of confusion that assaulted the Church in the seventies, God put me in contact with Opus Dei, and there I found the refuge and the formation I needed to conserve and increase my faith.
Can you tell us about the importance your upbringing has had?
Well, as I have said, I feel blessed, spoilt by the Lord and his Mother. I could have been lost but, thank God, I have kept the faith. They have taught me to have a personal relationship with God, which is the most important thing one can have in this world.
You work in the Pro-Life Association of Cantabria: what does this work consist of?
Resisting the culture of death, spreading healthy ideas about life whatever way we can. Then, in the measure of each one’s possibilities, we give material help to mothers or to pregnant girls with problems.
Why did you decide to do pro-life work?
A friend of mine who is a member of the Association invited me and I thought it was right and necessary to do what I could for human life. It is a duty as a human being, as a doctor and as a Christian.
Observing the world we live in... isn’t it easy to fall into despair and to think that little or nothing can be done?
Yes, it’s easy to fall into that, especially if we only see things from a human perspective. Our hope is based on our trust in God. With Him our victory is sure.
Why do you think life is so attacked in the present civilisation?
I think the cause is that God has been forgotten. Without God the law of the fittest rules and the life of the weakest either doesn’t interest or is bothersome to those who are strong.
To what point are people aware of the civilisation of death we are living in?
I think that very few people are really aware of it. The majority are manipulated by the propaganda and the ideological trends directed by pressure groups.
What would you say to young people regarding the defence of life?
That they can never do enough to defend life. That they speak up, write, pray very much for this cause. That they read and memorise the writings of John Paul II, above all “Evangelium Vitae”.
Would you risk your job to defend life? Would you risk your life?
Yes. I pray to God that I would be courageous enough if that situation were to arise.
Where do you find the foundation of your hope?
In God.
Where do you draw the strength to keep going?
In Opus Dei I have learned to do personal prayer every day, to recieve the Lord in the Eucharist every day, in the Holy Mass, to have devotion to Our Lady. This is where I draw strength. Then there’s the help I get from all the people who show me the way with their example.
Not long ago the Pope presented to us the Encyclical about the Eucharist: can you live without the Eucharist?
If the Lord chose to remain in the Eucharist it is because it is indispensable for us.
How can we awaken people’s conscience?
I think the example of a life of integrity is a way of doing this. But sometimes I think it is only by prayer, because if Jesus said “these things... God has revealed to the humble”, then it depends on God giving them his grace and on our “falling off the horse”.
Are people simply being deceived or are they letting themselves be deceived?
Our conscience tells us that we are being deceived but our love of comfort advises us not to react, so we let ourselves be deceived.
What do you think the world most needs?
To convert and believe in the Gospel.
What do you think are the clichés that most influence the majority of the people?
That all opinions have the same value. That to be happy you have to have a lot of things, etc..
You are currently cooperating with H.M. Television and H.M. Radio: what lead you to do this?
They invited us, the Pro-Life Association, to record a programme. That’s how I got to know them. I saw how they treat the Lord in the Eucharist, how they love Our Lady and the Pope, how they pray - slowly and with devotion - how joyful they are... and I didn’t need to know more to decide to help them however I can.
Why do you think the communications media are so important?
Because they are a stupendous means of reaching people with ideas, examples, lives, that we all need to know in order to be better. They are necessary in our times for spreading the Gospel.
We can’t conclude without a reference to the Virgin Mary: what is her rôle in your life?
The rôle the Lord wished for Her. That of being my spiritual Mother, always attentive to ensure that I don’t go too far astray, and to bring me back when I do.
Do you think that Our Lady is fundamental in the life of a Christian?
The Lord gave Her to us as our Mother: therefore She must be fundamental. Without a biological mother there is no human life, without our Heavenly Mother, there is no supernatural life. “To Jesus one goes and returns through Mary” (St. José María Escrivá de Balaguer).
© HM Magazine #119 - July/August 2004
