Christianity and Islam: for a pacific cohabitation in the Europe of tomorrow

The emotional recoil, that we are daily subjected to, in front of the pictures of the refugees looking for safety inside our dear, old Europe (that in this historical period introduce itself to the world as the EU with 28 states) leaves us astonished and without words. A lot of thoughts occur to us instead, and we inquire ourselves about how and why all of that could have happened and, above all, what can happen tomorrow. 

Something we often take into consideration concerns the religious faith of the people crossing the boundaries of our continent in this days. Is fair to suppose that the religion of the majority of refugees is Islam. What the Muslim world didn't succeeded in doing with the armies in the XVI century (we all remember the famous battle of Lepanto that put an end to the Ottoman reign in Europe) might achieve in a different way today. We are not trying to say that there is an Islamic "strategy" to invade Europe with million of refugees and then, once they are set up and stabilized, they try to Islamize the all continent. However, due to the actual situation and some other scenarios we are later talking about, not to faraway in the time some cohabitation issues between the two world, ours and their, could occur. 

Let's begin by saying that the actual situation comes from the wrong choices of the European countries. The origin of the conflict that today are causing a multitude of exiles and refugees, wandering through the Mediterranean and around half Europe, depends from the centennial hegemonic policies of the West in Asia and Africa. On this matter we could discuss for days, but is not the point now. Let's just highlight the fact that the last act of this hegemonic presumption of the West, which has been named, tragically ironic for the outcome, as "Arab spring", which presumed to bring democracy to people and nation, governed by brutal tyrants and dictators, has produced death and destructions thousands of times superior; the same has opened the way to the most radical and warlike Islam. (As the self-proclaimed Islamic state, born from the lack of power, demonstrates.) 

However, the actual situation, beyond its origin, has to be dealt with. Is possible to think that the resolution of the conflicts now in act and a normalization of the politic and civil life of the countries from which today we are escaping, will need years, decades. In the meantime, the people that are now coming to live in Europe will be settled and more or less integrated in our environment. The need of integration that should logically be more perceived by the old inhabitant, that are the actual European citizens, assumes that meeting points will be built where the newcomers, adding themselves to the Muslim already in Europe, can be received and start a new life respecting the founding principles of our culture and of our idea of living together in peace. We have to teach to the newcomers that Europe is a place that welcomes the victims of wars and persecutions. There is place for everybody, provided that they want to live in peace, honestly working and respecting the ideas and the beliefs of all. 

Is not longer possible to ignore this problem, and not to solve it. In the European metropolitan cities mosques has been built of different dimension, to permit to the newcomers to practice their rituals. Is, indeed, the religious liberty the first that must be promised to the people as the fundamental of the human being and as the one form which can start a dialogue between men of different faith, but with the same tension of the religious sense. It is necessary that even in Italy, left behind on solving this problem, people would start to reflect and act. The example of Milan, in this case, is significant. The municipality has decided to permit to the exponents of other religious the construction of places of worship, and the Islamic associations have won two of the three areas the administration had made available. At this point we occur in a problem. Which Islam are we dealing with? Islam hasn't got a figure that, as the Pope for Catholicism, represents all the devotees of Mahomet. Historically, different types of Islam have developed, which gave birth to different interpretations of the holy tests and consequently different ways of living and follow the Islamic faith. 

It is not a factor of secondary importance because, depending on the Muslim communities towards which the dialogue will open, the more radical or the more moderate Islam will rise its voice. It is certainly not the case to risk that the first type would prevail, if anything, we must starts a relationship even stronger with the second type to make possible that our society will remain the place of peace development and of cultural and religious growth to every citizens. So, the answer we will give to the religious matter for the millions of Muslims that will leave on our territories in the next years is contributing to keep a spirit of peace and politic and civil stability in Europe, that will permit at the same time an economic and social progress for everybody. But only if the moderate and responsible Islam will develop and the violent one will be ostracized. If not, the risk for the European nations, that today are opening their boundaries to the refugees, will be the possibility of having raised enemies that, once they are integrated inside the countries, using the democratic rules of the hosting nation and after they have acquired the politic, civil and religious rights, they would attempt the enforced islamization of the country. 

The danger exists, also because the secularization has produced in Europe the abandonment of the religious practice by millions of people that do no longer perceive Christianity as a datum point in their lives. The existential nihilism permeate millions of Europeans and a religious way, as the one expressed by the radical Islam, could definitely enter in the existential emptiness of our days and result attractive above all by the European youth. 

Depending on how we will be able to organize this epochal challenges, the future of our continent and our sons will be determinate. 

Translation of Michela Quaglia 

    

La Fabbrica del Duomo

Milan Cathedral, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, has a unique feature: its construction is still in progress. The first stone was laid in the year 1386 under the supervision of Simone da Orsenigo, general engineer appointed 16 October 1387 and since then the Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano is still in business.

If we think about it, the yard of the Milan Cathedral is open for over six hundred years. There is no similar case in the world.

A work of this kind could not be carried out without the contribution of all the milanesi. Many over the centuries have worked and continue to do so for the Fabbrica del Duomo, but many have donated their property or inheritance, large or small, in the belief that the construction of the Cathedral expresses the ideal that gives meaning to life, personal and of the community. The construction and maintenance of the cathedral is still financed in this way.

The construction of the cathedral departed from the apse and from there through the centuries until the development facade built in the nineteenth century. Between 1756 and 1774 we are building the spire topped by a gilded copper Madonnina that blesses the city of Milan, 108 meters in height.

The Cathedral was consecrated the first time October 16, 1418 by Pope Martin V and solemnly rededicated October 20, 1577 by St. Charles Borromeo who gave the definitive implant inside the Cathedral.

The numbers of the Duomo di Milano will leave you speechless: 52 columns (one for each week of the year), in over 400 statues of saints, while overall the statues of the Cathedral are more than 3,500, the last positioned in our day; the spiers are 135.

A curiosity. The material used for the construction of the Duomo, the precious marble that gives luster to the Cathedral Church, it was not even in town and nearby. The marble used for the Cathedral was one of the quarries of Candoglia on Lake Maggiore in Val d'Ossola. For centuries, thousands of stonecutters have extracted from the quarry, inside the mountain, not in the open, then the marble through a complex river route along the waterways natural and artificial (the canals named Navigli ) reached the lake of St Eustorgius, then the port of Milan. On the stones destined to the construction site was engraved: AUF, Ad Usum Fabricae. Only the material that carried these three letters engraved did not pay the duty due to transport, customs duty paid instead the other cargo.

As you can see from this brief exposure, the construction of the Cathedral is the result of the effort of the people of Milan that over the years has been united in its desire, at work and in our efforts to complete the construction of the cathedral church, place of faith and the center, not only religious but also civil city.

Even today when two milanesi want to give an appointment in the city center say I'll see you in the Cathedral, not wishing to see you within the Church, but we find ourselves in that place the symbol of the city center.

For those visiting Milan, wanted to learn more about the history of the Cathedral and visit his factory, we point out the website where you can find all the relevant information and also help, as has been done for over six hundred years, the construction and maintenance Church Cathedral:  http://www.duomomilano.it/

We thought it useful today to tell the story of the construction of the Cathedral of Milan, as the history of a people working together for a common good larger Ideal for giving answer to the life of the individual and that of the community. As he said Antoni Gaudi, the great architect of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, "while I built the Sagrada, Sagrada built me", so you can say the same thing about the people of Milan: while the people edified the Duomo, this generated and shaped the 'cultural and political identity of the milanesi.

Translation of the post of May, 15

Storytelling: the path of humanization

I just finished reading an interesting essay by Massimo Diana entitled "Narrare - perchè e come raccontare le storie ai bambini".

The book contains the articles that appeared in the last three school years 2008/2009/2010 and 2011 in the journal The time religion.

The result was a work very interesting for us as parents, to teachers, but also for those who want to deepen existing ties and connections between telling a story, a fable and the human being, adult or child.

The author writes at the beginning of the book: "We can, in general, include all the stories and narratives of humanity as simultaneously a way to God, the afterlife, the world of sense and meaning, the Absolute , but also a path to his own humanity: narratives are paths of humanization. They teach that change is possible, that men and women become the best you can and will be affordable to one and all. "

But what they talk about the stories? What are the eternal and universal problems that all of us, men or women, sooner or later we meet in our lifetime? Two are by the author, in the final analysis, the topics covered in the narratives: learning to love and be prepared to die. Since the volume of this central topic delves into the cultural implications, providing acute psychological and historical reflections and different points of view that educate us to open our eyes to new thoughts. There are several examples taken from the Bible, from literature, cinema and from ancient myths to better describe the concepts.

Besides the title, the book is intended for all educators, professionals and vocation. What does it mean to educate, then, would the end of the work the author? Diana's answer: "it means helping to imagine otherwise. This is the great nobility and human dignity: it is always possible in any situation, to imagine otherwise, that is, seeing things from another perspective and gain a new view of reality. "It is certainly not, to my way of seeing things, a comprehensive definition of the term education, but it is a good starting point for all.

For those wishing to read the work (reading that Board):
Massimo Diana, ",Narrare - perchè e come raccontare le storie ai bambini" publisher Elledici, Turin 2011

Translation of the post of May, 8

Web, is a land of mission?


In March 2012, released the new work of Antonio Spadaro: Cyberteologia, subtitled think Christianity at the time of the network. With this Spadaro confirmed among the leading scholars of Italian relationships between the w.w.w. and the Christian religion, between the network and Catholic theology, that is, universal, like the network.

In just over a hundred and thirty pages, the Jesuit Director of "The Catholic Civilization" analyzes the changes that will inevitably set in the way we think and act by the emergence of the network. "The network" Spadaro writes in the introduction, "is not a tool, but an environment in which we live." ... "And if we have a smartphone in your pocket are always turned into the net."The question is, if the network changes the way we think, change, or has already changed, even the way we live our faith? From this incipit starts deep analysis, shrill, and the original author.

They declined the "paradigms" that characterize the network and that at the time, they determine the development: search engines, vision shuffle, the push and the pull, applications and so on Instapaper.What Spadaro interested in highlighting is that "the challenge is not to be so well how to use the network, as often believed, but how to live well at the time of the network. In this sense the network is not a new means of evangelization, but above all an environment in which faith is called to speak not as a mere desire to be present, but for a connatural of Christianity with the lives of men '"(p. 22).

What kind of church is on line? A Church liquid, without authority, a church hub? Spadaro, while sensitive to the news that the network carries, remains in communion with what the Church has always taught to men-that it is impossible that virtual reality will replace the real experience of a Christian community visible and historical, as well as you can not experiment on the net the sacraments and liturgical celebrations. In the book are many references to Vatican documents that testify to this.

What emerges from the pages of the book is the love that the Church leads to creation, created by God, and desire that nothing remains unexplored and forgotten. It follows that the Christian is called to bear witness to the glory of God in the network and the living answer to the needs of man which is Christ. In this sense, the concept of "witness" and "witness" in the network deserves serious consideration by every Christian who surf the web.

To conclude: "The digital culture poses new challenges to our ability to speak and listen to a symbolic language that speaks of transcendence. Jesus in proclaiming the Kingdom has been able to use elements of the culture and environment of his time: the flock, the fields, the banquet, the seeds and so on. Today we are called to discover, even in digital culture, symbols and metaphors meaningful for people who can help in speaking of the Kingdom of God to modern man. " This book is an exaltation, in the sense of appreciation, the positive aspects that are in the network and is written with so much passion for the genius of the man who created the w.w.w. new frontier, new ground for the Christian mission of the twenty-first century.An extensive bibliography complete the work further demonstrates that, if ever it were needed, the importance of this work that brings with it the gift of synthesis.

For those interested in reading (recommended):
Antonio Spadaro, Cyberteologia, Casa Editrice Vita e Pensiero- Milan 2012

Translation of the post of March 11

Religion transverse

This editorial was the title of "The Saturday" on newsstands January 20, 1990 (found published in the "documents" of the blog). For those, young reader, not familiar, "The Saturday" is a weekly from 1978 to 1993 said the Italian events, but also from an international point of view of original, outside the usual patterns, a Catholic.  By chance I happened to hand an old wallet where I kept it the more I read the editorials had caused.The provocation of that January 1990 concerned the following question: was there any sense of the ancient Christian claim considered the only answer to man's expectations? Re-reading the editorial of "The Saturday", then denounced the fear, there is now real:  "in the background the advent of a super cross religion, humanism and ethics spiritualist not undo all the various rites, and the many cultures, the various hierarchies, but lives and is embodied in each of them.  Do not invent new doctrinal formulas, or so it seems not.  More modestly professes the truth in all religions in the Fund participate, and that all people of good will, beyond denominational barriers, albeit with different languages ​​and symbols, can recognize:  belief in God or at least in spirit, respect for law moral, promotion of certain human values. "No denying, we now live, breathe an atmosphere of "political correctness" in all fields which surround our daily lives: at work with colleagues, friends with whom we meet and exchange general views, but also in family with spouse and children to pass on such opinions that may be spent for their time with all the comrades. The important thing is not to offend the sensibilities of others. The more society has become multi-ethnic and multi religious, most Catholics, for a false conception of accepting others, and different from us, we stopped to witness the uniqueness of the coming of Christ, the Savior of the world, the Son of God became man and truly lived on earth in a specific historical epoch. Truth has become a multi truth and then in a thousand opinions, all valid and to be proposed to the multicolored, multi ethnic society of today. The important thing is to get along with your neighbor, not to offend his sensibilities and his personal religiosity (which, moreover, no one wants to hurt either).This "politically correct" is well represented in political life in recent years where, among other things, resulted in the flattening of the popular programs of the major parties, so that today it is very difficult to understand what differentiates one from the center-right political a center-left politics.  Instead on the big issues such as abortion, euthanasia, right to life, the idea of ​​family, school, education, freedom of conscience that is left is like saying the party on these issues to think like you think, we do not have a truth, a position to propose, you decide in your opinion but then continues to votarci because together we will build a better world!What follows from this? It follows that the best of worlds will come if all goes well tomorrow, but today the person is alone in front of his relativism and his choice of one hundred possible truth, all the same, all equally useless. Besides, today, compared to 1990, we can choose between 1000 TV channels and if we move the dish can capture a new satellite with 1000 channels ... but the other question, the desire to know why my heart is sad today, remains unanswered .