Exploring the Words of Pope Leone XIV
Dear Editor, we are getting to know Pope Leone XIV and, I must say, his initial speeches have been extraordinary. When he appeared on the Balcony of Blessings, he spoke about “peace,” not a sentimental peace or as a result of political strategies (which are crucial), but as the “peace of the risen Christ.” His homily in the Sistine Chapel was powerful as well, calling for a mission in a society that deems the Christian faith “absurd.” “This is the world entrusted to us,” said Leone XIV, “therefore, it is essential for us to repeat: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'” His address to journalists also seemed rich in insights, but I leave the floor to you, as it was directed to you.
Mirko Dellicarri
Dear Mirko, I share your impressions. Leone XIV has amazed everyone with the clarity and depth of his words, much needed in confusing times, even within the Church (the “Church of maybe,” as George Weigel defined it in an interview with Corriere yesterday). The call to seek “truth” to “promote communication capable of leading us out of the ‘Tower of Babel'” was beautiful. Above all, we found the quote from St. Augustine extraordinary, when he said: “We live in times that are difficult to navigate and narrate, challenging all of us not to succumb to mediocrity. The Church must accept the challenge of the times, and likewise, there cannot exist communication and journalism outside of time and history. As St. Augustine reminds us, who said: ‘Live well, and the times will be good’ (cf. Discourse 311). We are the times.” Joking, but not entirely, we were saying in the editorial office yesterday: the Pope has shown us what our commitment as “peace operators” should be and has given us the title for our next promotional campaign.
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If every true reform, as Benedict XVI stated in his historic address to the Curia on December 22, 2005, is always a renewal in continuity and never rupture (let alone revolution), the words and actions of Leone XIV in his introduction to the Church and the world already hint at a clear direction. That of a pontificate predictably in continuity with that of Francis for the attention to social issues that the choice of the name Leone indicates, but at the same time, a discontinuity for a more decisive anchoring to what is and remains the proprium of Catholicism. Which are not, precisely, social issues, but the salvation of souls (salus animarum suprema lex). What struck in this sense were not only the gestures, which are not negligible details since in the Church form is substance, such as presenting himself in papal vestments or greeting the crowd not with a simple “good evening” but with “peace be with you all”; but especially the speech delivered. Even though the theme of peace was predominant, it was not a peace “as the world gives it,” to refer again to the words of Jesus. In short, a speech that appeared from the outset exquisitely theo-logical, centered on God and Christ. God and Christ, not by chance, were cited a total of fifteen times by Leone XIV, while they were entirely absent in Francis’s first greeting. Instead, there was a reference to a vaguely defined (precisely because of the absence of theological framing) “brotherhood,” enough to prompt none other than freemasonry, a never-before-seen event, to applaud Bergoglio’s election (something we can be sure will not happen for Leone XIV’s election). Small clues of a more than welcome change in perspective for a Church that urgently needs to first seek the things above, then those below.
Luca Del Pozzo
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Professor Vito Mancuso’s article, far from being a rigorous theological reflection, appears as an ideological operation that masks, under an apparently profound language, adherence to a philosophical paradigm radically incompatible with Christianity. The fundamental error lies in assuming a vision of truth as an unresolved tension or dialectical reconciliation of opposites. What Mancuso celebrates as “complexio oppositorum” is not the analogy of being nor the unity in distinction typical of Thomistic metaphysics but a principle of relativistic synthesis, where opposition is not judged but encompassed and, therefore, emptied of content. Christianity, on the other hand, is based on the absoluteness of being and the identity of truth with Being itself: “I am who I am” (cf. Ex. 3:14). In this perspective, truth is not an open-ended search for the multiple without a criterion but an intellect’s adjustment to being, following the teachings of Aristotle and Thomas. Unity does not arise from the fusion of the contradictory but from the subordination of parts to a higher principle. This is what grounds the real order of the cosmos and intelligence. Mancuso’s proposal, instead, dissolves order into the indeterminate, confusing transcendence with the inexpressible and faith with an aesthetic-existential sensibility. The praise of the “nobly pensive” atheist is only the corollary of this view: the atheist becomes not someone who denies God but a figure even paradigmatic of authentic thought because unstable, restless, non-dogmatic. However, it is forgotten that atheism, in its essence, is not just a psychological or existential fact but an ontological rejection of being as a gift. It is the will to found being on nothingness, reason on itself, freedom on indeterminacy. It is an, so to speak, anti-metaphysical act. Therefore, it cannot be assumed as a figure of thought but only as a symbol of its decline.
Faith does not arise from the inner desert or noble uncertainty but from the grace that enlightens the intellect and moves the will towards truth and goodness. Saying that religion must “awaken humanity” and “not possess it” is ultimately to deny that truth has a historical, visible, sacramental form. But this is precisely the essence of the Incarnation: truth has become flesh.
In questo affascinante articolo, Daniele Trabucco e Aldo Rocco Vitale ci conducono in un profondo viaggio alla scoperta della Chiesa come il corpus veritatis, fondato sul Logos fatto uomo. La Chiesa non è solo una delle tante espressioni spirituali dell’umanità, ma la fonte stessa della verità.
Mancuso, nel suo articolo, viene criticato per ridurre la Chiesa a un simbolo di apertura infinita, senza criterio, tradendo così la logica dell’essere. Questo atteggiamento riflette una gnosi contemporanea che preferisce l’indefinito al definito, il possibile al reale e l’esperienza soggettiva alla verità oggettiva.
Ma la verità, come ci ricorda Agostino, non si trova in se stessi ma nell’essere che si dona. Questo essere ha parlato una volta per sempre in Cristo, e questo è il cuore della verità che la Chiesa rappresenta.
In un mondo che spesso privilegia l’incertezza e il relativismo, è importante riscoprire la solidità e l’inalienabilità della verità che la Chiesa custodisce. Come ci ricorda il motto del nuovo pontefice Leone XIV, “veritas non quaeritur in se ipsis, sed in illo uno sunt unum” – la verità non nasce dall’uomo che pensa, ma dall’essere che si dona.
Attraverso questo articolo, Trabucco e Vitale ci invitano a riflettere sulla profondità e la bellezza della Chiesa come baluardo della verità eterna, fondata su Cristo.
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