Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
Posted on 06/24/2011 4:05:20 PM PDT by NYer
.- The Vatican’s new initiative aimed at sparking dialogue with atheists and agnostics may soon be coming to North America.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told CNA in a recent interview that the “The Courtyard of the Gentiles” may come to three cities.
“Quebec in Canada, which is one of the so-called ‘most secular’ places there is, where it seems like these days the question of faith is almost bothersome,” he said.
“And, also, we’re thinking about two U.S. cities--Chicago on the one hand and Washington on the other.”
The project was launched as an answer to the Pope’s call for a “new evangelization.” It draws upon the Church’s insistence that faith and reason are wholly compatible and can therefore form the basis for dialogue with non-Catholics, non-Christians and even atheists and agnostics.
The invitation list for the event is generous and includes a whole host of intellectuals drawn from both the arts and sciences.
“So it is a real and proper dialogue between reason and faith. And given that freedom you also get some conflict, some mutual disagreements, which is foreseeable,” said Cardinal Ravasi.
Cardinal Ravasi explained that his council is looking at Chicago and Washington as the two possible U.S. locations primarily because of their intellectual and cultural significance.
“Chicago is one of the liveliest of cities from a social and cultural point of view,” Cardinal Ravasi said, going on to explain the Vatican’s working links with scientists at both Notre Dame University and Harvard.
“And Cardinal Wuerl of Washington has already involved us in a series of specific events, most of all for science and faith, and he’s also my companion of the cardinalate. We became cardinals together at the same time!”
“And it is perhaps a city, being the capital, which is another emblem of the United States,” he said.
The title “Courtyard of the Gentiles” is a reference to a part of the Temple of Jerusalem. It was the furthest non-Jews could enter into the compound and a place where they could interact with Jews. In the Gospels, Christ clears the money-changers from this area.
Pope Benedict has said previously that it was “cleared of extraneous affairs so that it could be a free space for the Gentiles who wished to pray there to the one God, even if they could not take part in the mystery for whose service the inner part of the Temple was reserved.”
Any visit of the Courtyard of the Gentiles to North America is likely to take place next year.
Ping!
I'm sure they will find a lot of non-believers there.
The DC discussion should be held in the White House which is Ground Zero for the non-believers.
If it’s a place you’ll find a lot of non-believers ... it’s a good place to go preach the Gospel! Please pray for the success of their efforts.
Rock on. If this approach worked for the early church it will most definitely open up hearts here too.
How about working on their own devils in Chicago like Pfleger?
The wheels are turning on Pfleger, albeit too slowly. However, for maximum effect, the Church should reach out to the OPC. That is a bastion of non-Christianity that is waging an aggressive war on Christianity in an effort to stave of its ultimate demise and could use the loving interface with the Church Jesus established.
Yeah, but he's got a blessed Cross and the Body of Christ between himself and the devil. I think that the steward of Christ is safe from Obama.
Yeah, but he's got a blessed Cross and the Body of Christ between himself and the devil. I think that the steward of Christ is safe from Obama.
I look at it as an opportunity to witness to those who have no faith.
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How about an excommunication of Cuomo for signing the gay-marriage bill? When faithful Catholics see some POSes receive Communion, it isn’t a question of “He who has no sin may cast the first stone”; it is a sacrilege, an abuse of the Body of Christ. Those who administer the Host, and those who allow them to, are complicit in the sacrilege.
Most non-Catholics think there is only one kind of excommunication, ad jure excommunication, which must by inflicted by an ecclesiastical prelate, either when he issues a serious order under pain of excommunication or imposes this penalty by judicial sentence and after a criminal trial. In actuality there are several kinds of excommunication. Excommunication is either a jure (by law ) or ab homine (by judicial act of man, i.e. by a judge).
By Canon Law ad jure is automatic (latae sententiae), and is incurred at the moment of committing the offence for which canon law imposes that penalty. It does not require action or recognition by the Church. By this standard Cuomo and his ilk are already excommunicated.
“It does not require action or recognition by the Church.”
I don’t think an excommunicated person is allowed to receive Communion (until they address it).
What is the OPC?
The Church does not have a police arm nor albino monks to enforce these things. It is between the sinner and God.
It is not between a sinner and God when it is a public figure; a public sacrilege is exactly that, and there is a big difference between a priest unknowingly administering the Eucharist to a sinner and openly giving it to someone who has publicly excommunicated themselves (and brought scandal to the Church - it compounds the scandal).
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