Pope: Only when reason has a historical and moral identity can it speak to others
(Vatican Radio) In an interview for film "Bells of Europe", Pope Benedict says
Europe has two souls: One abstract anti-historical reason, the other Christian
and anchored to the roots from which this Europe was born.
On Monday evening,
several Synod Fathers watched the film, Bells of Europe – a journey into the faith
in Europe, which was produced by the Vatican Television Centre (CTV) in partnership
with RAI Cinema, and with the support of the Gregorian Foundation and Intesa San Paolo.
Directed by Carlos M. Casas and with a soundtrack that includes music by Arvo
Pärt, the film is the brainchild of Fr. Germano Marani, SJ.
In introducing
the film, the Director of CTV, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, said “the importance
of the film lies in the way it brings together a series of exceptional interviews
regarding the relationship between Christianity and Europe, its history and culture.
Various prestigious personalities, including the highest religious authorities
of the major Christian denominations, generously granted original and exclusive interviews
to the filmmaker.”
These included His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, His Holiness
the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian
Orthodox Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Anglican Primate, Rowan Williams,
and the former President of the Council of the Lutheran Churches of Germany, Bishop
Wolfgang Huber.
Below is the full transcript of the interview with Pope
Benedict XVI:
Q. – Your Holiness, your Encyclicals present a compelling
view of man: a man inhabited by God's charity, a man whose reason is broadened by
the experience of faith, a man who possesses social responsibility thanks to the dynamism
of charity received and given in truth. Holiness, it is from this anthropological
standpoint - in which the evangelical message exalts all the laudable aspects of humankind,
purifying the grime that covers the authentic countenance of man created in the image
and likeness of God - that you have repeatedly stated that this rediscovery of the
human countenance, of evangelical values, of the deepest roots of Europe, is a cause
of great hope for the European continent and not only for the European continent.
Can you explain to us the reasons for your hope?
A. – The first reason
for my hope consists in the fact that the desire for God, the search for God, is profoundly
inscribed into each human soul and cannot disappear. Certainly we can forget God for
a time, lay Him aside and concern ourselves with other things, but God never disappears.
St. Augustine's words are true: we men are restless until we have found God. This
restlessness also exists today, and is an expression of the hope that man may, ever
and anew, even today, start to journey towards this God.
The second reason
for my hope lies in the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ,
is quite simply true; and the truth never ages. It too may be forgotten for a time,
it may be laid aside and attention may turn to other things, but the truth as such
does not disappear. Ideologies have their days numbered. They appear powerful and
irresistible but, after a certain period, they wear out and lose their energy because
they lack profound truth. They are particles of truth, but in the end they are consumed.
The Gospel, on the other hand, is true and can therefore never wear out. In each period
of history it reveals new dimensions, it emerges in all its novelty as it responds
to the needs of the heart and mind of human beings, who can walk in this truth and
so discover themselves. It is this reason, therefore, that I am convinced there will
also be a new springtime for Christianity.
A third reason, an empirical reason,
is evident in the fact that this sense of restlessness today exists among the young.
Young people have seen much - the proposals of the various ideologies and of consumerism
- and they have become aware of the emptiness and insufficiency of those things. Man
was created for the infinite, the finite is too little. Thus, among the new generations
we are seeing the reawakening of this restlessness, and they too begin their journey
making new discoveries of the beauty of Christianity, non a cut-price or watered-down
version, but Christianity in all its radicalism and profundity. Thus I believe that
anthropology, as such, is showing us that there will always be a new reawakening of
Christianity. The facts confirm this in a single phrase: Deep foundation. That is
Christianity; it is true and the truth always has a future.
Q. – Your Holiness,
you have repeatedly said that Europe has had, and continues to have, a cultural influence
on the entire human race, and it cannot but feel a particular sense of responsibility,
not only for its own future, but also for that of humankind as a whole. Looking ahead,
is it possible to discern the contours of the visible witness Catholics, Orthodox
and Protestants in Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals must show as, living the
Gospel values in which they believe, they contribute to the building of a Europe faithful
to Christ, more welcoming and united, not merely safeguarding their cultural and spiritual
heritage but also committed to finding new ways to face the great challenges that
characterise the post-modern and multicultural age?
A. – This is an important
question. It is clear that Europe has great weight in today’s world, in terms of economic,
cultural and intellectual importance; as a consequence of this it also has great responsibility.
But Europe, as you said, still has to find its true identity in order to be able to
speak and act in keeping with her responsibility. In my opinion, the problem today
does not consist in national differences which, thank God, are differences not divisions.
In their cultural, human and temperamental differences, nations are a rich asset which
together give rise to a great symphony of cultures. Basically, they are a shared culture.
The problem Europe has in finding its own identity consists, I believe, in the fact
that in Europe today we see two souls: one is abstract anti-historical reason, which
seeks to dominate all else because it considers itself above all cultures; it is like
a reason which has finally discovered itself and intends to liberate itself from all
traditions and cultural values in favor of an abstract rationality. Strasburg’s first
verdict on the crucifix was an example of such abstract reason which seeks emancipation
from all traditions, even from history itself. Yet we cannot live like that and, moreover,
even "pure reason" is conditioned by a certain historical context, and only in that
context can it exist. We could call Europe's other soul the Christian one. It is a
soul open to all that is reasonable, a soul which itself created the audaciousness
of reason and the freedom of critical reasoning, but which remains anchored to the
roots from which this Europe was born, the roots which created the continent's fundamental
values and great institutions, in the vision of the Christian faith. As you said,
this soul has to find a shared expression in ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic,
Orthodox and Protestant Churches. It must then encounter this abstract reason; in
other words, it must accept and maintain the freedom of reason to criticise everything
it can do and has done, but to practise this and give it concrete form on the foundations
and in the context of the great values that Christianity has given us. Only by blending
these elements can Europe have weight in the intercultural dialogue of mankind today
and tomorrow. Only when reason has a historical and moral identity can it speak to
others, search for an "interculturality" in which everyone can enter and find a fundamental
unity in the values that open the way to the future, to a new humanism. This must
be our aim. For us this humanism arises directly from the view of man created in the
image and likeness of God.