Over the past few days, the Italian church has been having a mega-gathering in Verona.
The website for the gathering (in Italian, of course)
Transmitting the faith therefore also means attention to “the quality of the faith” – as the preparatory document for the Verona conference puts it – particularly in the administration of the sacraments.
On this point as well, two opposite approaches in the Italian Church confront each other.
Cardinal Ruini detailed these two approaches in the address he gave in Valencia, Spain, on July 7, 2006, on the occasion of the world meeting of families, in which the pope also took part:
“In recent years, special attention has been dedicated to the catechesis of families whose children are to be baptized, not only to prepare them for baptism, but also to accompany them after baptism, in such a way that the many families that by themselves are hardly able to give a Christian formation to their children may also be assisted in doing so, and so that their children, after being baptized, may not be left to themselves in terms of education in the faith. […] This kind of catechesis permits the offering of an alternative to the temptation, which is pastorally destructive but nonetheless present in a certain percentage of the Roman clergy, to not admit for baptism the children of families – or of couples not validly married – that do not provide any guarantee of offering their children a Christian formation.”
The “pastorally destructive tendency” that Ruini denounces – that of denying baptism to those children whose parents and godparents are thought to have little or no faith – is, in effect, widespread.
The Pope arrived today to speak at the gathering. Here’s the text of his talk in Italian, from the Vatican website. And here’s the AsiaNews report on his talk:
In a long speech to participants of the fourth national Convention of the Italian Church, which is taking place in Verona, the pope once again tackled the relationship between modern culture and Christianity, and hence between faith and reason, which was at the heart of his speeches throughout his trip to Germany in September. Benedict XVI today repeated that in modern society, “God is excluded from culture and public life, and faith in Him becomes more difficult, not least because we live in a world that presents itself ever more as our work. It is a world in which, so to say, God no longer appears directly; he appears to have become superfluous and extraneous… In the same way, ethics are brought back to within the borders of relativism and utilitarianism, with the exclusion of any moral principle that is valid and binding.” This type of culture is not only a “deep and profound cut” with Christianity, but “more generally with religious and moral traditions of mankind”. It is unable to establish true dialogue with other cultures, in which the religious dimension is strongly present, and it is unable to respond to the fundamental questions on the meaning and direction of our lives. This is why this culture is marked by profound deficiencies and also by a large, uselessly hidden, need for hope.”
This culture also draws attention to the insufficiency of a “rationale closed in on itself” that refuses transcendence and hence any moral principle valid in itself. Of this culture, “the disciples of Christ recognize and willingly take in the authentic values, like scientific knowledge and technological development, human rights, religious freedom and democracy”. However they “do not ignore or underestimate the dangerous fragility of human nature that threatens the journey of man in all historical contexts. In particular, they do not neglect the interior tensions and contradictions of our time.”
“The human being is not, on the other hand, only reason and intelligence. He carries within himself, inscribed in the deepest part of this being, the need of love, of being loved and of loving in his turn. This is why he asks questions and often becomes confused when faced with the hardships of life, with the evil that exists in the world and that seems to be so strong, and at the same time, so senseless.” So the question returns persistently, whether our life can be a safe space for authentic love and in the ultimate analysis, whether the world is really the work of the wisdom of God. Here, much more than any human reasoning, the moving news of biblical revelation comes to our rescue: the Creator of heaven and earth, the only God who is the source of every creature, loves man personally, loves him passionately and wants to be loved by him in turn.”
Affirming this truth “is indispensable to give the Christian witness concrete and feasible content, assessing how it can be implemented and developed in each of the great fields in which human experience is articulated.”
A more detailed summary of the talk from Vatican Information Service
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