25 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
In the light of the Christian faith, humankind is shown to be the image of God. The Old Testament teaches that God made humankind in his own image and likeness. This origin in God confers upon humankind’s raggedness, woundedness and spirit a beauty that is above human. This beauty becomes even greater in Christianity, because humankind is seen not only as the image of God, but also as God’s creation and worthy of the Creator, the artwork is worthy of the artist. The Omnipotent could not but create beings worthy of Him. In humankind, He created a masterpiece that makes one dizzy to behold, bestowing upon him an admirable form to last and to generate, an intelligence to enlighten, a heart with which it could project itself on its fellow beings, a soul to evade the limits of time and space, with the angels in Eternity. Humankind fell, it’s true, abusing its freedom; but it’s also true that the most exalted prodigy of Divine Love came attached to that Fall: Redemption through the Blood of Christ. Seen in this way, humankind – albeit a poor wretch you zoom by on the sidewalk, or a native who lives miles and miles away – is such a grand being, such a noble being, such a divine being that you should want to kneel down whenever you were in its presence, to tremble and be overwhelmed, as you recognized in it the majesty of the One who imagined it and made it the prodigy of Creation, the object of the supernatural life in the life of nature. It immediately becomes clear what such a vision does in you. It makes it impossible and absurd for you to exploit human beings, to degrade them, to tamper with them, to supress them, without violating the work of God, without affecting the very patrimony of the Creator. Humankind is Son of God, and any offence against the son is an outrage to the Father: murder becomes an attempted God-killing, tantamount to killing God in effigy. Humankind barters its dignity when it bends to evil. And among the sins is the pride that is put in place of humankind’s humble gratitude at realizing it is God’s masterpiece. From pride comes exploitation, which is an antisocial impetus; whereas, Christian humility creates service and, also in this, humankind is a copy of that other Son of Man who came not to be served, but to serve. And herein comes the welding of the individual to society: its integration, its expansion. Humankind does not exist in the abstract: fathers exist, citizens exist, believers, and so on…the social animal exists. Only that human beings enters into society boosted by. Because human beings love, they come out of the shell of their egos, they expand, they integrate – in the life of the others. By the mere fact that human beings love, he and she already reveal that they are naturally Christian. Christianity then lifts up and supports this love, saying that love takes the person into society, saying that the vital principle of society is love: without which society, rather than protection, compliment and joy of the human person, becomes a constriction and a mutilation of a person. It can become a threat to human dignity. Social exploitation begins when you no longer love humanity; when you no longer respect its dignity; because you see the muscles and you don’t see the spirit. Igino Giordani, La società cristiana, (Rome: Città Nuova, 1942), 32-36.
24 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
Today, 24 June, marks the end of the Ramadan, the period of 29 or 30 days during which the Muslims recall «the month in which the Koran was revealed as a guide for humanity and which is a clear proof of the right way and salvation» (Koran, Sura II, verse185). During this period, fasting from dawn to sunset constitutes the fourth of the five pillars of Islam. The spiritual meaning of fasting accompanied by prayer and meditation, sexual abstinence and renunciation in general, according to many theologians, refers to the capacity of man to self-discipline himself, exercising patience and humility and remembering to help the more needy and those who are less fortunate. Ramadan is, therefore, a sort of exercise in purity against all worldly passions, the benefits of which will fall on the faithful all year round.
23 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
115 parliamentarians of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.) are expected to attend the 24th General Assembly, hosted on 26 and 27 June 2017 by the Italian Parliament in Montecitorio. They are representative of parliaments in 46 countries across 5 continents. The delegations include participants from Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Syria and Hungary. The assembly will start with a visit on Sunday, 25 June to the Byzantine monastery of San Nilo in Grottaferrata (Rome), followed by a meeting of the IAO International Bureau with Maria Voce, President of the Focolare, at the International Centre in Rocca di Papa (Rome). See press release
23 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
The event featured a new format punctuated by three distinct elements, the venue and religious context of a pilgrimage of dialogue, a common journey, which is an image dear to the Pope Francis who often invites us to walk together across the vast landscape of interreligious dialogue. Part one of the event was held at Fu Jen University, which is the most prestigious Catholic university on the island. The title of the event was inviting: Buddhists and Christians in Dialogue: from the writings of the missionaries to interreligious dialogue. It provoked reflection on how much has changed in the world of the religions from when the first missionaries arrived in the East at the start of the fifteenth century until today when we are working on one of the fundamental needs of humankind: dialogue between people who believe, whatever their faith may be. 
The day of reflection was co-organized by the Catholic University of Taiwan, by Sophia University Institute and the Focolare Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, and by Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Monastery and University, one of the renewal centres of Chan Buddhism of China. Seventy of the attendees were experts in the field: a large number of Theravada monks, Buddhist and Catholic lay people from Thailand, a group from Taiwan, the president of the Dharma Drum Institute for Liberal Arts, along with people from the academic world. The topics raised much interest. The presentations that regarded the writings of the missionaries were from between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. But the nerve centre of the reflection was Matteo Ricci, the great Jesuit apostle of Christianity in this part of the world, a master of that art of adapting that allowed him to reach the soul of the Chinese people. Yet, precisely Ricci was the centre of interest for his anything but accommodating position towards Buddhism, which he and many of his contemporaries saw as a hodgepodge of rites and pagan manifestations. The missionaries from the fifteenth to twentieth century were anything but open to the followers of Buddha and, in their debates, were set on showing who the followers of the true God and true religion were. The workshops also examined the critical position of the followers of Buddha towards Christians. It came into evidence how such sentiments were quite mutual. This historic context, for which we Christians cannot deny the need for an adequate examination of conscience for the errors committed and discriminatory actions, highlighted the positive value of the experience of the past sixty years. Today, dialogue is soaring with relationships of mutual trust and esteem, even though there are still points that always need to be kept clear and eventually defend against in order to preserve precise identity and avoid syncretism. Over the course of the workshop sessions concrete experiences of dialogue were shared from Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Philippines – and new actors were proposed, such as ecclesial movements and protagonists that are recognized pioneers of an experience of dialogue that then followed the tracks they had set. The example of spiritual friendship between Chiara Lubich and Nikkyo Niwano, the respective founders of the Focolare Movement and of the Rissho Kosei Kai, demonstrated how renewal movements that have become part of several religions for a century now, have become vehicles of encounter and friendship among people from different cultures and communities. These two sentiments marked the work of the first day of the symposium/pilgrimage in a serene examination of the journey accomplished over the centuries, opening to the hope for a future of reciprocal sharing and collaboration regarding the great challenges of the human race: social justice, the environment and peace. (To be continued) By Roberto Catalano
20 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
June 20: Pope Francis visits two Italian towns,Bozzolo and Barbiana, “to pay homage to Fr Primo Mazzolari and Fr Lorenzo Milani, the two priests who today offer us a timely message. I thank those, especially the priests, who will accompany me with their prayer,” said the Pope at the Angelus on Sunday, 18th June. The visit to the tombs will be a significant gesture as both priests had reputations of being anti-establishment and therefore marginalised. They were precursors of the Second Vatican Council and forerunners of the Church of the Poor, as Pope Francis himself pointed out, holding them up as examples to follow.
20 Jun 2017 | Non categorizzato
In 2000,on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Convention related to the status of refugees, the UN established that this Day would be celebrated each year on 20 June. The aim of this assigned day is to make the public aware of the condition of migrants. This concerns millions of people who are forced to escape from wars and violence, leaving their loved ones, homes and all that are part of their life. Behind each one there are stories that are worth listening to, full of suffering, humiliations and the desire to rebuild a future. The Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017 report affirms that in 2017 the forecasted number of people in need of resettlement will reach 1.19 million, 72% more than in 2014. Along with voluntary return to their countries, this is one of the best solutions for the refugees, including integration into the host societies.
