MSGR. LANZA, NO TO THE CHURCH AS “GHETTO” ” “

If she wants to be credible in the eyes of the young, the contemporary Church must overcome the temptation of the “small flock” and adopt an “apostolate of open arms”, that focuses attention on interpersonal relations. The point is made by Msgr. Sergio Lanza, professor at the Pontifical Lateran University, according to whom the young, “with their cosmopolitanism and mobility, decree the end of fixed frontiers and declare their decided opposition to ghetto communities that resemble more orphanages, prisons or lunatic asylums than they do places of freedom”. The appeal made by the youth planet, said Lanza in his report to the 10th Symposium of European bishops, is thus that in favour of “communities in search”, able to respond to the demand for a “expansion of faith” that comes from the young generations: “The fascination of the exotic, of ‘experience’ – said Lanza – signals a deeper need”. Success, happiness, objects of desire, themes that sound so remote from the tone and language of preaching. In the search for faith, the young easily fall into the hands of magicians and seducers, or turn to far from distinterested counsellors and comforters”. The young, in Lanza’s view, have a need today for new “languages of the faith” but words alone are not enough: “authority and authoritativeness” need to be combined through a style of “mission” that “is not proselytism, but that reaches man in the place where he was born, where he studies, works, suffers…”. All this leads to the need for a “global review of the cultural coordinates in which the faith is called to express itself” and a strong “cultural commitment” of Christians to formation. Giving rise to “ecclesial places of political dialogue”, concludes Lanza, means thinking of a “more incisive and qualified presence” of believers, beginning with catechesis and in particular the catechesis of adults. Catechesis is called to “become the original and appropriate place where Catholics dialogue on perspectives for the common good, based on the fundamental values of the faith. It must be characterized by a “new vitality of dialogue within the Church” and also have positive effects “for the concrete life of society”.