Words also to Europe

It was eagerly looked forward and desired, this visit of the Pope to Poland, with a packed programme of events, full of suggestions and gestures. And Benedict XVI had been explicit right from the start, offering a challenging message to the Polish nation: “Remain strong in the faith”. Right from the start he had explained that “it is not merely a sentimental journey, however valid even from this point of view that might be, but a journey of faith”. Poland has become exemplary of a historic transition, crucial in Europe, that is now taking place: the Christian identity put to the test by the passing from one generation to another. It needs to be turned into a resource for society. The legacy of John Paul II is thus revived, deepened and re-invigorated. It is the style of Benedict XVI, the “meek but firm” pastor, characterised by this capacity to keep together Christian identity, doctrinal clarity and capacity for openness and love. From a journey full of symbolic meanings, from the places associated with Karol Wojtyla to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, two teachings stand out. They are at the same time compasses to guide Christians and creatively involve them in the great historic process of our time. Two teachings of freedom and of love, the freedom of Christians in a changing world, synthesis reflected by Benedict both as theologian and pastor. The first teaching is on history, resuming the historic work of John Paul II in closing one century and millennium and opening a new one. “Beware of the claim of arrogantly setting yourself up as judges of past generations, who lived in other times and other circumstances. You need humble sincerity not to deny the sins of the past, and yet not to indulge in facile accusations in the absence of real proofs or by ignoring the different conditions of that time”, he told the Polish clergy and religious at the start of his visit. There is realism and Catholic freedom in this teaching: “In asking forgiveness for the evil committed in the past – he stressed – we must also recall the good that was done with the help of divine grace that, although deposited in vessels of clay, often produced excellent results”. This open and creative attitude permits us to revive the reasons of the Christian faith, in its originality, as a font of civilization. That’s the second lesson of Benedict XVI, spelt out in the symbolic place of the death camp, a message of hope on the basis precisely of the Christian identity: “The God in whom we believe is a God of reason – a reason, to be sure, that is not a kind of cold mathematics of the universe, but is one with love and with goodness. We make our prayer to God and we appeal to humanity, that this reason, the logic of love and the recognition of the power of reconciliation and peace, may prevail over the threats arising from irrationalism or from a spurious and godless reason”.