The Church must “expose” itself

In 2015 Milan (Italy) will be hosting the Expo. Is this an opportunity also for the Church? Msgr. Josef Homeyer, bishop emeritus of Hildesheim, who experienced Hannover’s Expo 2000 is sure it is. He spoke about it exclusively for Sir. New religiosity, new culturality. As is known, experience is more effective than arguments and statistics. The experience of the Church and with the Church at the Expo (in Hannover) isn’t only related to the religious realm but also to the cultural one. The Church at the Expo is the corner stone not only of a new religiosity but also of a new cultural expression. This is testified mostly by the experiences related to the Church of Expo 2000 in Hannover, which are living and effective still today in our diocese of Hildesheim. Many people – 2.5 million, 15% of all Expo visitors – have visited the Christian pavilions: people who during the day often have no relationship with the Church and have therefore returned to live – or have started to live for the very first time – both the Church and the liturgy. These people have experienced the sacral accomplishment of Christ’s pavilion and the liturgical celebration, which represents a spiritually strong moment, a path leading to the knowledge of God, a way of discovering the hidden experience of God in their lives. This mistagogical experience evidently enabled the perception of a primordial relationship with God pertaining to man’s daily life and which represents the mystery. In fact, vistor’s comments to this regard are quite astonishing: “so the Church is much more than a mere institution, it’s a mystery, a secret stemming from Jesus Christ, in whom God’s salvation for the whole of humanity is manifested”. Or comments like: “in the Christian pavilion we met people waiting for us. They listened to us and took their time talking to us at length”. Often visitors were struck by the diversity of the ecclesial service in the different social sectors and throughout the world, which they discovered thanks to exhibitions and showcases inside the Christian pavilions. Visitors often underlined how liberating it was for them, considering the presumptuous and one-sided beliefs expressed by the economic and political worlds, to concretely experience a Church which proclaims a message which paves the way to transcendence, a world which stems from God, where situations of iniquity are addressed as major issues and where priority is given to the poor and the disadvantaged. Being able to talk. From a cultural viewpoint, these contacts are made possible by the Church’s ability to “speak” a cultural language, a skill it certainly proved to have in meeting the Expo challenge. In fact, the Church was asked to present an aesthetically convincing project, modern and light at the same time. As relates to music, it had to be able to communicate both to expert and uninitiated listeners and keep into account those driven by an inner motivation. This is the most long-standing experience from the cultural viewpoint: a Church which is able to speak because it is able to translate while preserving its original message; a Church that reaches far beyond the surface. In an era seeking the recovery of tradition, long-lasting elements should be preserved. In fact, conventions are not traditions! This approach, which is positive and critical at the same time, is what we learned from the Expo experience. A thrust for pastoral care. This and other similar experiences which refer to the Church’s presence in Hannover’s Expo 2000, fruit of devoted theological and pastoral work, were unexpected by many visitor to who discovered unexpected experiences: perceiving another dimension of the individual and of the world, i.e. the truthfulness of God and his act of redemption through Jesus Christ in his Church. This alone should constitute a good enough reason to bear witness to the Church of Jesus Christ in those places where the global community can be drawn close, such as World Exhibitions. The significant experience of the Church’s witness within the world exhibition is an occasion to reconsider daily pastoral care to the light of this experience. In any case, for our diocese of Hildesheim, the presence and the service of the Church at the Expo 2000 of Hannover, and similarly, the experience of the exhibition, triggered a new thrust to the importance of Eucharistic celebration, to mystagogic and missionary-based pastoral care, along with an emphasis to category and territorial pastoral care. In other words: the Church must “expose” itself.