So long as faith…

“So long as the Christian faith is alive and succeeds in generating culture, neither the reduction of man to nature nor a totally relativistic or nihilistic perspective shall prevail”, declared Cardinal CAMILLO RUINI , Vicar of the Pope for the diocese of Rome in his address to the European meeting of university teachers now being held in Rome (until 24 June) on: “A new humanism for Europe. The role of the universities”. According to Ruini, “the question of man is undoubtedly inevitable for man himself”, but “our options and our personal involvement have an influence on the response we give to it”. “No one, therefore, believer or non-believer, relativist or non-relativist, scientist or philosopher or theologian – said the cardinal – can presume to be exonerated from this human condition and consider his own convictions about man to be purely ‘neutral’ and ‘secular’, contesting others for proceeding on the basis of pre-established options or even of prejudices”. Over 2,400 university teachers from 44 European countries are participating in the conference, promoted by the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe and organized by the Office for university pastoral mission of the Vicariate of Rome. A “GENETIC CODE”. “ In a world convulsed by too many conflicts, and yet ever more intercommunicating and interdependent – continued Ruini – the Christian faith and the humanism that springs from it find themselves having to confront, in new and often difficult terms, other great and ancient religions and civilizations emerging, or rather re-emerging, on the world scene”. According to the cardinal, therefore, “with a view to the construction of a future as good, peaceful and viable as possible for everyone, it is essential that those peoples who have their fundamental cultural matrix in Christianity do not abdicate from their own historic role and perform it in fidelity to their own ‘genetic code’”. Christian humanism, the cardinal recalled, “gives us a precise image and interpretation of man. And yet it is capable of being embodied in the most diverse historical situations and contexts, while preserving its specific character”. That’s why – Ruini observed – “Christianity is a generator of cultures and civilizations that are highly differentiated and yet maintain an unmistakable kinship and similarity with each other”. THE RISKS OF “POST-HUMANISM”. “The naturalistic interpretation of man is not only incompatible with the Christian faith”, but “leads to a genuine overturning of the point of departure of modernity”. It “spells the end of humanism” and opens a “post-humanistic” phase in the current cultural climate, characterized also by such phenomena as the “primacy of the body” and the two predominant general tendencies of our time, “relativism” and “agnosticism”. Ruini pointed out, however, that “the rejection of the naturalistic interpretation of man cannot be the last word of the Christian faith, in response to the new anthropological question”. This is because, according to the cardinal, “Christian humanism does not in any way imply any kind of aversion to the empirical sciences”: on the contrary, the “typically humanistic” programme of “widening the scope of reason”, forcefully enunciated by Benedict XVI, “favours a genuine development of the sciences, liberating them from the ever-present danger of being enslaved by scientific reductionism”. BIOETHICS, PERSON AND GLOBALIZATION. “The temptation of selecting embryos on the basis of their genetic profile opens potential eugenic scenarios towards which we need to remain vigilant”, warned the geneticist BRUNO DALLAPICCOLA , commenting on the “debate on the social, ethical and legal repercussions of the new genetics”. According to Dallapiccola, the medicine of the years ahead ought to regard the “genetic revolution” “as an extraordinary opportunity to improve our control over diseases and increase individual well-being, on condition that the information and awareness-raising of the population help to control its abuses and potential risks”. The universities “best suited” to respond to the challenges of the “globalization of production” and “diffusion of knowledge” are those “able to be very open to the world” and at the same time able to testify to “a deep rooting in a national or regional history, culture and society”, said MICHEL WIEVIORKA , of the School of Higher Studies of the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. His view was echoed by PETER KOSLOWSKI , of the Free University of Amsterdam, who expressed the hope that “anthropological and theological reflection would mutually stimulate each other in a deeper understanding of the person”, on the basis of the tradition of Christian personalism”.