The transmission of the faith and attention to its “quality” are at the center of a major conference of Italian Catholics. The key point will be an address from the pope. The controversy over “Christian distinctiveness”
by Sandro Magister
An excerpt:
Both the title of the meeting – “Witnesses of the Risen Jesus, the hope of the world” – and one of the five topics for discussion have at the center “tradition”: the proclamation, the transmission of the Christian faith to the generations of today and tomorrow.
But, naturally, there is not unanimous agreement in the Italian Church over what to do about “tradition.”
The dominant approach – personified by Benedict XVI, by his predecessor John Paul II, and by their cardinal vicar Camillo Ruini, for many years the leading figure in the bishops’ conference – is opposed by an approach whose leader is cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a Jesuit and the former archbishop of Milan, now in retirement in Jerusalem but not out of the spotlight.
The latest manifestation of this second tendency is a little book written by Enzo Bianchi, the prior of the monastery of Bose, entitled “La differenza cristiana [Christian distinctiveness].”
For Bianchi, the transmission of the faith “does not mean imposing the Gospel and church membership upon Italy and Europe.”
On the contrary:
“The way of ‘kenosis’, of humble self-effacement, that Christ took is the example that individual Christians and the churches are called to follow. [...] It is a Church that listens before it speaks, that welcomes before it judges, that nourishes itself with creativity rather than fear, that knows how to give prophetic witness instead of accusing.”
An indirect reply to these notions came from Benedict XVI on Wednesday, October 11, in his last general audience before the conference in Verona:
“Of course, the path of tolerance and dialogue, which Vatican Council II fortunately took, surely must be followed with firm constancy. But this path of dialogue, necessary as it is, must not make us forget our duty to consider and express with just as much force the major, irrevocable features of our Christian identity. In addition, we must be keenly aware that this identity of ours demands strength, clarity, and courage in the face of the contradictions of the world in which we live.”
Less talk, more action. Unless the Faith of some bishops is so poor, that they do not even know what Tradition teaches but hold their private opinions to be orthodoxy. In which case, is this conference going to do much good for them?
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