Cardinal Ravasi speaks about
coming 'Courtyard' events
Translated from the Italian service of
05 FEB 2011 (RV) - A little over a year ago, on December 21, 2009, speaking to the Roman Curia, Benedict XVI expressed the desire for the Church to open a kind of 'courtyard of the Gentiles' - a place, the Pope said, "Where men can in some way connect to God, even without knowing him and before they have found a way to his mystery".
These words inspired the creation within the Pontifical Council for Culture of a new permanent structure which will promote the encounter and exchange of ideas between believers and non-believers.
The 'courtyard of the Gentiles' was the open space next to the Temple of Jerusalem in Jesus's time, where non-believers could assemble. And its modern-day Catholic counterpart will be launched officially in Paris on March 24-25, with a preliminary presentation in Bologna on Feb. 12.
Fabio Colagrande spoke to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, for more information.
CARDINAL RAVASI: The launching in Paris is a particularly complex and major undertaking which will involve the presence of many prominent figures of contemporary French culture. There will be four fundamental events.
The first will be at the Sorbonne, with a dialog among intellectuals. The second wil take place at UNESCO headquarters, where the discussion will be on the social, political and cultural aspects of the dialog. The third will be held in an exclusive place, the famous Coupole (Dome) of the Academie Francaise, where some of its most eminent members will hold the discussion.
And for the fourth event, we wanted an actual courtyard, a physical space, which will be the immense plaza in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
[When the Pope visited Paris in September 2008, some 60,000 young people gathered there to listen to him;]
It will be a gathering for young people, who will certainly watch a show first. But those present will have the chance to cross over from the courtyard into the Temple itself. Because in the cathedral, the Taize community will present a model of community prayer which can show non-believers how believers invoke God.
Who will be participating in these events?
The list is obviously quite long. Starting with names like Julia Kristeva, Luc Ferry, Jean-Luc Marion, Alain Besançon, etc - varied personages from the world of French culture. I will be there to welcome the participants. And the Pope will be present, through a videoconference to be broadcast to the young people in the piazza of Notre Dame on the evening of the 25th.
The Paris launch will have an Italian prelude in Bologna on Saturday, Feb. 12....
Yes, the initiative was born from the university itself. When they learned about the Sorbonne event, they noted that Bologna was, after all, the first great European university
[antedating the University of Paris, better known as the Sorbonne]/
So they wanted to revive the medieval tradition of 'questioni disputate', as they called it then, in which people discussed various subjects and various theses. This time obviously, between believers and non-believers. Four professors - in law, philosophy, literature and science - will be the discussants.
An actress will interpellate at appropriate times with readings of great voices from the past - St. Augustine, Pascal, even Nietzsche - which shows that this kind of dialog has its roots in the distant past.
But the events in Bologna and Paris are only the first of a series of international initiatives. Could you say where it has drawn the greatest interest?
The interest that the idea has aroused has been very surprising, even to me, who had some reticence about it at the start. I thought that it should be launched in Paris which is the emblematic city of secularism, but I was thinking of a Catholic venue like the College des Bernardins.
But since then, I have seen the idea branch out, with various typologies, and we must be able to follow up. However, we must also let others do their own thing along this line.
Now we are thinking of holding an event in Tirana (capital of Albania,) and then, in November, in Stockholm, where many of the participants will be Lutheran ministers, theologians and laymen, even though sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Across the Atlantic, there is interest already from Chicago and Washington, DC. And naturally, there are those nations where Catholicism is not present in any significant way but where there is a native religiosity, although of other faiths, as in Asia.