Missionary Pope launches 'Court of the Gentiles'
for dialogue with non-believers:
Another Benedict is here
to lead a new missionary age.
By Deacon Keith Fournier
3/29/2011
The God Whom believers learn to know invites you to discover Him and to live in Him. Do not be afraid! On your journey together towards a new world, seek the Absolute, seek God, even those of you for whom He is an unknown God.
May He Who loves each and every one of you bless and protect you. He relies on you to show concern for others and for the future, and you can always rely on Him!
- Benedict XVI
Videomessage to Paris, March 25, 2011
CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - This past February Pope Benedict XVI ordained five priests to the office of Bishop. He called them to an "ecclesial existence" proclaiming "The harvest is great but the laborers are few! Pray then to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers for his harvest!" (Luke 10:2).
The Lord sends you, Dear Friends, to his harvest. Precisely in this hour working in God's fields is especially urgent and precisely in this hour the truth of Jesus's words -- "The laborers are few" -- weighs painfully upon us.
Set out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. You are called to cast the net into the troubled sea of our time to bring men to follow Christ; to draw them out, so to speak, of the salty waters of death and darkness into which the light of heaven does not penetrate. You must bring them to the shore of life, into communion with Jesus Christ."
Missionary zeal has characterized this Pontificate. When Benedict XVI succeeded John Paul II few expected it. I was numbered among those who did.
But his choice of the name Benedict, the Monk whose movement reclaimed Europe for the Church in the last millennium, signaled a prophetic papacy. I recalled a passage from Alasdair MacIntyre's
(British philosopher, born 1929) After Virtue (written in 1981) wherein he opined on the decline of the West.
It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the most misleading of such parallels are those which have been drawn between our own age in Europe and North America and the Epoch in which the Roman Empire declined into the Dark Ages.
Nonetheless, certain parallels there are. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another-- doubtless very different-- St. Benedict.
[NB: Shortly after the April 2005 Conclave, a couple of other Catholic writers immediately recalled MacIntyre's oddly prophetic words, written in the third year of John Paul II's Pontificate. With his systematic and tireless ways of calling attention to the Christian message in all his actions and words, Benedict XVI more than makes up in missionary ardor for the physical impossibility of emulating his predecessor's prodigious missionary travels.]
What I suggested was that another Benedict was here to lead the recovery and reform of the Church and summon her into this new missionary age. I reaffirm that assertion today.
The Church is Christ's plan for the entire world. The early Fathers called her the "world reconciled", a term embraced by the
Catechism of the Catholic Church which, citing St Augustine, declares "To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church.
The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood." (CCC #845)
The contemporary culture has thrown off almost every remnant of Christian influence and embraced a new paganism. What Pope Benedict calls the "dictatorship of relativism" is the bad fruit of a rejection of the very existence of truth. Given the current state of moral decline we need to see the West as ripe for the New Evangelization.
We are all called to be "fishers of men in the ocean of our time." We are living in "the time of mission." Another Benedict is here, leading us into a new missionary age of the Church.
In his very first homily he referred to Christian unity as his impelling duty and he has acted upon it with extraordinary conviction and bold initiatives.
His are the modern missionary journeys of the Vicar of Christ. They are chosen strategically, led by the Holy Spirit and have a prophetic purpose as part of a missionary plan. His "Encyclical" (circulating) letters contain wisdom from heaven which can help to heal and rebuild the Church - and through her the world.
His work to restore the Catholic unity of the Church - including the bold overture toward Anglican Christians which birthed the Anglican Ordinariate, his pastoral efforts with the SSPX, and his humble rapprochement with our Orthodox brethren shows his dedication to healing the divisions within the Church.
His continual encouragement to the ecclesial movements are part of a blueprint to resuscitate the Church as one New Man, breathing with both lungs, East and West, in a new Christian missionary age.
His erection of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization charged with evangelizing countries where the Gospel was announced centuries ago but where its presence in peoples' daily life seems to be all but lost shows his missionary intention to re-evangelize Europe and the West.
His continual exhortations to the faithful to live at the heart of the Church for the sake of the world reveal a missionary plan and methodology.
Playing off of the title of Dr. Thomas Woods's book,
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, I believe the Catholic Church will rebuild Western Civilization as she comes back together again in the fullness of Christian communion under the leadership of this Pope.
This missionary Pope now continues this momentum, by reaching out now to non-believers. He has instituted a "Court of the Gentiles" through the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Two days of meetings occurred in Paris, France, on March 24th and 25th as the beginning of this initiative. The Vatican released the complete text of the Holy Father's video message to participants in the "Courtyard of the Gentiles" which closed in Paris at the courtyard in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame where the Pope's message was broadcast on giant screens
[after which participants could take part in a Vesper service inside the Cathedral prepared by the Taize community].
[Fournier then reprints the Pope's videmessage.]
Sandro Magister today also has an article about the Paris events
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1347285?eng=y
which adds little to the sparse facts we have but does include two interviews conducted by Avvenire with Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and with Bulgarian-born French philosopher-sociologist Julia Kristeva, who took part in one of the dialogues in Paris. I will post after I have compared the available English translations with the originals.
Atheists and Catholics in Paris
examine the question of God
By Alan Holdren
Paris, France, Mar 28, 2011 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI called for a greater sense of brotherhood in the world as the first official modern forum for dialogue between believers and non-believers was inaugurated last week in Paris.
“Religions cannot be afraid of a just secularism, a secularism that is open and allows individuals to live according to what they believe in their own consciences,” he said.
“If we are to build a world of freedom, equality and fraternity, believers and non-believers should feel themselves to be free, with equal rights to live their individual and community lives in accordance with their own convictions; and they must be brothers to one another.”
The Vatican's first-ever “Courtyard of the Gentiles” event was held in Paris, France from March 24-25.
[Actually it was not. The Paris events marked the international launch, but a significant pre-launch was held - fittingly at the world's oldest university 0 in Bologna last March 12, as posted in a few reports on this Forum.]
The Pontifical Council for Culture, led by president Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, organized the two-day discussion between believers and non-believers in historically important cultural sites in the French capital.
The Courtyard was formed by the Vatican's culture department after the Pope hoped for such a forum to foster dialogue on religion in a Dec. 2009 speech.
Catholics and atheists examined themes of enlightenment, religion and shared reason during gatherings at the offices of the UNESCO, the Sorbonne University and the French Academy during the inaugural event.
The evening of the second day was capped off with a large gathering at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Taize community held a prayer service inside the Church as people gathered for music and mixed in the square outside. A light show beamed onto the cathedral facade was part of the festivities.
In a pre-recorded message addressed to youth in the square, Pope Benedict XVI said that the “question of God” must not be absent from contemporary discussion. He called all young people - believers and non-believers - to “rediscover the path of dialogue” in Europe.
Dialogue, he said, will help both to overcome fears of the unknown.
The Courtyard project, he said, “is to foster such feelings of fraternity, over and above individual beliefs but without denying differences and, even more profoundly, recognizing that only God, in Christ, gives us inner freedom and the possibility of truly coming together as brothers.”
He told the youth not to be afraid. “On your journey together towards a new world, seek the absolute, seek God, even those of you for whom he is an unknown God.”
For his part, Cardinal Ravasi was pleased with the product of months of preparation. He went through highlights of the inaugural event with Vatican Radio.
The cardinal found “a particular attention and sensitivity” in the city of Paris, historically "the city of secularism, ... liberty, independence between Church and State."
The subjects of discussion, he said, were chosen "with much passion" and he came away with the sensation that the Parisian encounter could be a model for others.
For the future, he said, Courtyard activities may aim not only to engage atheism and non-believers, but "superficiality and the absence of questions towards faith that are often noted at the lowest levels."
He noted that there was an unexpected result to the encounter. Non-believing philosopher Luc Ferry asked him to collaborate in writing a book on the Gospel of St. John.
Tirana, the capital of Albania, is slated to host a similar Vatican-sponsored event for dialogue in October. [
The venue is significant. Albania was the last holdout of Stalinist Communism/atheism in Europe, but it has since become a parliamentary democracy. with a population that the CIA Factbook estimates is roughly 70% Muslim, 20% Orthodox and 10% Catholic. However, freethinkers abound from the decades under Communism, and CIA also notes that actual religious observance comes to only about 35-40%.]
Stockholm, Prague and Florence will also see individualized events in coming years, each tailored to the city and culture that surrounds them. Interest has also been expressed for hosting Courtyard events in cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C, but also Moscow, Russia and Geneva, Switzerland.
Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, commented during his weekly television editorial on Vatican Television that the Pope has emphasized since the first day of his pontificate that the "question of God" is the most important one for all for all people.
The Courtyard, he said, is "an optimal point of departure" for deepening the study of such questions together.
I think it is a shame that the Anglophone Catholic media failed to provide the coverage that the two-day launch in Paris demanded. The Vatican newspaper itself, apart from reprinting the text of the Pope's message, had no news summary about it.
Emblematic of this neglect is that I have not yet seen a single picture taken at Notre-Dame showing the Pope addressing the youth assembly from a jumbo screen, though it was the first thing I looked for after it took place last Saturday. Shouldn't OR have assigned at least a photographer to document the events in Paris which were, after all, historic and not just for this Ponitifcate?
Avvenire ran a special, I now see, so I have to look through their material to see what must be translated.
I understand now why AFP, the premier French inernational news agency, said not a word about it, because apparently, even the French secular media did not condescend to acknowledge the event.
When leading French intellectuals - almost the prototype for 'non-believers' - take part in discussions at the UNESCO, the Sorbonne, the Institut Francais and the College des Bernardins about the question of God, in general, it is almost criminal for the Catholic media, at least, not to pay attention. Surely, they have journalists who speak French...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/03/2011 15:31]