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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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