The story of Benedict XVI in northeastern Italy

Showing how to do the New Evangelization

Travelling north on the high-speed FrecciArgento, headed from Rome to what is today the extreme north-eastern corner of the Italian Republic, my colleagues were concerned with planning, practicalities and logistics: how are we going to meet? Who is going to sign for the rental car (that would take us to Aquileia on the Thursday afternoon ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival)? Should we leave our equipment for the technical crew? They knew they were going to cover Pope Benedict XVI's visit to an historically important area of Italy, one facing social, economic, political and ecclesial challenges with regional repercussions. That was all true, but they had the background, as did their audience. The question pressing itself on me, the Anglophone who does not usually cover that beat, was rather that most basic, twofold one for all journalists: “What’s the story?” and "how do I tell it?"

To be sure, the loci of the Pope’s visit were and are beautiful, magnificent sources of literary and other inspiration.

Aquileia: today a quaint and quiet town, the place was founded in 180 BC during Rome’s wars to end piracy in the Adriatic, secure the Italian peninsula and expand Roman control into the western Balkans. The settlement grew to become one of the most important cities in the Empire, a centre of commerce and a cultural crossroads for centuries. The gospel came early to Aquileia: the earliest worship building on the site where stands today the soaring, thousand year-old structure of the Basilica was a “house church” – a domus ecclesia from the time of Augustus. No humble abode, the house was rather a sprawling Roman villa belonging to a wealthy and important family in one of the wealthiest and most important imperial cities. Patient and painstaking archaeological work has preserved and continues to preserve the precious artistic treasures found there - treasures that are doubtless part and parcel of the contribution Christianity has made to the common cultural patrimony of Western civilization. More to this: they are testament to the Christians who pledged their all: their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honour, to practice and to spread the faith throughout the whole world.
Venice: to say it out loud is to conjure images, memories and fantasies of romantic adventure, political intrigue, war, wealth, daring, triumph and tragedy – all these, paradoxically, almost synonymous with la serenissima, the city of St. Mark and Our Lady, which human genius has made to rise from the sea, which Divine providence has often chastised and ever spared from destruction by fire, plague, or invasion. Impossibly wealthy and opulent, the city was for centuries desired as a prize by Christian princes and Turkish sultans alike. It is truly the pearl of the Adriatic.

The Radio, however, did not send me to write a sight-seeing essay or a travelogue.

Enter Pope Benedict XVI: he wasted no time in establishing both the themes and the tone of the visit. The Holy Father’s first public remarks were rhapsodic praise of the Church in Aquileia, in which he recalled the ancient roots of the Church, the Aquileian Church’s pivotal role in the evangelization of central Europe and in the defence of the true faith against the Arian heresy. Pope Benedict did not, however, merely praise Aquileia’s past glories: he also encouraged the faithful of Aquileia and all her daughter Churches in thrilling language, calling the faithful of the present generation, “[C]hildren and heirs of the glorious Church of Aquileia,” and explaining that his purpose among them was to confirm them in the deep faith of their fathers. “In this hour of history,” he said, “rediscover, defend, and professes with warmth of spirit [the] fundamental truth,” of Christ’s holy Gospel, amid the myriad cultural changes and social insecurities of modern life. This rhythm of praise and challenge would form the pattern of the Pope’s public remarks throughout the visit.

What’s in a word?

“In this hour of history,” he said: and here, I found the key. The modern world is the world mox hodie, the world that is 'just today', i.e. the world without history. The claim of the Church, however, is that Christ is the culmination of the history of salvation. A world that has no history is a world for which yesterday is meaningless, by definition unthinkable. Such a world will not be able to understand that it needs saving. Pope Benedict XVI went to Italy’s northeast to help the people there recover the sense of history, so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can once again be preached and received – or better, recognized for what it is: the fulfilment of life and all creation, and at once the leaven and the bonding agent for a cultural and a civilizational project of which the people of that region, and by extension, Europe, are heirs and carriers. In short, Pope Benedict XVI went to Italy’s north-east to show the world how to do the New Evangelization.That is the story.

It has only begun to tell itself.

Christopher R. Altieri