THE MEETING
"MEN AND RELIGIONS"
in the words of

FR. GIANPAOLO SALVINI

        


courtesy of Rita Salerno
 
 

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Italian version

We have addressed some questions, on the recent meeting in Assisi, to the Jesuit Fr. Gianpaolo Salvini, director of “La civiltà Cattolica” (Catholic civilisation). He has most kindly answered our questions with his usual competence.

The meeting “Men and religions”, which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the inter-religious dialogue among religions, wanted by John Paul II, went on in Assisi. To you, what is the orientation of the inter-religious dialogue among the priorities in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, in line with the dictates of Vatican II?

“I think that the spirit of Assisi remains unchanged, though without the euphoria and the mass-media enthusiasm of 1986. The then Cardinal Ratzinger, refined theologian, helped John Paul II to avoid the syncretistic temptation of making people think that we are trying to acknowledge the existence of a universal religion. That people might not think of a religion, which pools all men and women in the same prayer, ignoring the deep differences between a religion and the other. Cardinal Ratzinger explained that we went to Assisi together to pray, but not to pray together. In fact, in the Assisi meeting, each prayed one’s own divinity according to the modalities and belief of one’s own creed, often deeply different from the others. I would not say that all have been able to perceive the subtlety of this language. This is why, as we know, many criticised the initiative also in the Roman Curia. I think that Benedict XVI wants to emphasise the ecumenical dialogue with the other Christian Churches and confessions, without omitting the dialogue with other religions

      The spirit is that of favouring the meeting of religions so that they may be instruments and protagonists for the building up of peace, while in the past they were often a motive of war and of bloody conflicts. Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, does not get tired in repeating that it is not possible to make a war in the name of God. In today’s understanding of faith, God is always a God of peace, of encounter, clemency and mercy, never of violence, intolerance and imposition. This perspective becomes even more necessary in an epoch in which, having the relevant ideologies disappeared, it seems that only the great religions are the depositaries of a comprehensive vision of man and society. Among other things, they have re-acquired the public role that many, mainly in the West, judged as already overcome and set aside

In a confrontation theme of getting peace strategies going, which differences do you glimpse on the diplomatic plan between John Paul II and Benedict XVI? 

“In the Church History there is a providential alternating of Pontiffs very much present in public, full of even diplomatic initiatives, followed by more spiritual and less “political” Pontiffs. This distinction is not always strict, because every Pope naturally accomplishes political gestures and exquisitely religious. I am of the opinion that this is happening also today after the latest conclave. Benedict XVI has been a privileged and authoritative counsellor of John Paul II in the theological field and, obviously, he continues his journey. However, he is certainly less prone to use mass media. So to say, he sends less pieces of news to the press. It seems also that he lowers the political profile of the Holy See (without denying the work of his predecessor at all), in order to improve the religious profile of the Christian and Catholic identity. In fact, he does not dedicate his first encyclical letter to a social phenomenon of our time, so that we may read it in the light of the Gospel or condemn it, but to the very centre of faith, the love of God to be lived and to go deep into. Some read the appointment of a State Secretary in the same line, which does not come from diplomacy but from studies and pastoral work

In the past, we have been discussing a lot on the “spirit of Assisi”, as a central subject matter of theses and books. What will the “wind of the Poverello’s city” be in future”?

“A wise Indian used to say that predictions are always difficult, mainly if they concern the future. I thing that Assisi, because of the universal symbolic charge it represents, will continue animating meetings for peace, constructive projects and concrete benefits around which all men and women of good-will can meet: peace, fight against poverty, respect due to creation, etc. However, we must underline that the Christian takes its specific motivations to it, particularly motivations of religious and evangelical type. As usual, whenever we create signs, each can interpret them instrumentally, without understanding them at all. But it did not happen differently to Jesus.”

Can the religious play any crucial role in this field?

“Yes, they can do it as testimonies of the Absolute Being and of the will to offer themselves, body and soul, to an ideal, realising it in a life of fraternity. I feel that the ideal of religious life is not extinguished at all, though, to be sincere, I think that contemplative or monastic life is more understood than the forms of active religious life devoted to the apostolate”.

What are your expectations from the Verona event, at less than a month from the appointment, which will gather the Italian Church in that city?

“I hope that the Italian Church may re-discover that she is much more vital than what the statistics say, mush more present in the territory than what we can imagine and in a healthier society than the one appearing in the TV. I hope also that it may re-discover the need of deeply evangelising the baptised themselves. In particular, that they may translate faith into testimony, formulations and language at the level of today’s culture, near the problems of today’s daily life. I mean the concrete problems, which people face and for which we do not always find in the Church a pastorally adequate answer, which may allow us to perceive God’s love for man and woman”.

The attention we pay to the theme of safeguarding the environment is not new in the Church. From St. Francis up to date, we have done a lot, starting from the countless proposals blooming in many Italian dioceses. However, why do we always speak so little of the original contribution of the Church to nature?  

“The theme of safeguarding the creation is deeply Christian, a very clear thing for those who know the Bible. However, the ecological battles started in non-Catholic areas, and often, in extreme formulations, they have turned into a new absolute ideology, as devastating as the ideologies, which afflicted XX century. In particular, they seem to reduce man to a particle of nature, without acknowledging his unique role of wise administrator, which is specific of the Christian conception.  Teilhard de Chardin saw the peak and the seemingly end of evolution in the appearance of man of earth. Therefore, because of this thematic, we perceive a sense of annoyance in many areas of the Church, as it happened, in the past, also for man’s rights, wholly Christian and today defended everywhere in the Church, though they were born in the area of the anti-Catholic illuminist ideology. 

Benedict XVI repeatedly invites the religious to witness to God’s love in their daily life. Is this “mission possible” in the ever more fragmented and multi-cultural actual context? How can we incarnate hope in the reality of a global society?

“The Christian is by definition bearer of hope. This is why we speak of the Gospel as Good News. I think that the most eloquent language to diffuse it today is always that of testimony. Those who can see through the limpid sight of faith can see the signs of hope after every step. The life of many humble lay and religious persons, who think only of donating themselves, manifest them in a particular way. This happens despite many tragedies, enormous problems of poverty, of injustices under solution and many failures of even actual human history. With the Help of the Lord of history, the journey of the world moves forward, never backward. It does not only knock down, but it also builds up. In human terms we can say that the average life becomes longer everywhere. This is a sign that food and health, at least, have enormously improved, naturally if we speak of the average. It is a matter of not going back to the past, but of using in a constructive way the marvellous modern instruments, so that the world may become more humane”.

The theme of the study symposium carried on with the presence of the Pontiff recently, with shut doors in Castel Gandolfo, is”Salvation and evolution”. This is a debated subject matter, which keeps on fascinating man. Are the positions in this field always irreconcilable as they were in the past?  

“The theme continues to be fascinating and debated, but I think that there are no longer deep substantial differences. The hypothesis of the evolution is fully compatible with the Christian faith, tough with God’s intervention in the creation of the human soul. Pius XII forbade condemning the evolutionist hypothesis, stating that only one Galilean case was enough in history. There are many declarations of the Magisterium on this regard. This does not mean that everything is clear, neither in the philosophic-theological field, nor in the scientific one, where, often contradictory, hypotheses keep on following one another. Creation has still many things to reveal to man’s curiosity, aiming at making us appreciate the project of God in its fullness and in its laws. We have still a lot to study and to research”.

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