The reasons of hope

“Calling Italian Catholics to bear witness, with a credible lifestyle, to the Risen Christ as the good news capable of responding to the deepest hopes and yearnings of contemporary man”: that, according to Cardinal DIONIGI TETTAMANZI, archbishop of Milan and chairman of the preparatory Committee of the 4th Meeting of the Italian Church (CEC), due to be held in Verona from 16 to 20 October, is the objective of the meeting, which has as its theme “Witnesses of the Risen Jesus, hope of the world”. The President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal CAMILLO RUINI , in his address to the Permanent Council held in Rome in recent days, also spoke of the forthcoming Church meeting, which is the fourth of its kind over the last two decades (the previous ones were: “Evangelization and human promotion”, Rome 1976; “Christian reconciliation and community of man”, Loreto, 1985; and “The Gospel of charity for a new society in Italy, Palermo, 1995). Its highpoint will be the visit of Benedict XVI on 19 October. The Pope will give an address to the participants and preside over a eucharistic celebration. The hope expressed by Cardinal Ruini is that the meeting in Verona, “would be a great opportunity for communion and sharing, free and brotherly expression, and willingness to listen to each other and especially to the Lord”, to “identify, with the fundamental help of the Holy Father who will be among us on Thursday 19 October, the best ways for the stretch of road that lies before us”. OUTLINE REFLECTION. In May 2005 the preparatory Committee published an outline reflection articulated in four questions: “How can the Risen Jesus regenerate life in hope? How can faith in Christ “make us witnesses of hope? How can we be men and women who bear witness to hope in history? And how can hope help us to understand and experience the situations” of life? These questions will, in turn, divide the conference into four phases: the first leads to the meeting with the Risen Lord, source of hope; the second highlights the foundation of the Christian witness; the third describes the witness given by the Christian in the ecclesial community and in the world; and the fourth focuses on the exercise of discernment and the capacity of Christians to master the situations most relevant for people’s lives. FIVE FIELDS. The outline reflection also defined five anthropological fields for the CEN: affective life, work and celebration, fragility, tradition and citizenship, as part of a process of preparation aimed at overcoming the risk of fragmentation and directed at an “integrated pastoral service” that considers the person and the community as a whole. Five preparatory meetings have been devoted to exploring these five fields. Starting out from Palermo, venue of the 3rd national meeting of the Italian Church in 1995, they have led to Verona in a kind of “itinerant route”. The Sicilian meeting (November 2005) on the theme of the transmission of the faith was followed by a series of others: in Terni (February 2006) on “Love makes history” (affective life); in Novara (March – April 2006) on “Passio” (human fragility); in Arezzo (May 2006) on “Piazzas in May. The cry of the city: from wounded citizenship to healed citizenship”; and, lastly, in Rimini (June 2006) on “Work and celebration”. All these meetings were occasions to gather and compare ideas and experiences. LOCAL ITINERARIES. Proceeding by anthropological fields also represented a new impetus for the 226 Italian dioceses and for the various Church groups and associations, which have promoted many initiatives in recent months, in preparation for the Meeting in Verona. The theme was inserted in the pre-existing programmes of dioceses, but sometimes inspired new approaches in pastoral planning. At the centre of the activities has been the importance of the communication of the Gospel, understood as the translation of the missionary spirit into terms of “pastoral conversion”, and the prospect of hope. Meanwhile, in view of the forthcoming meeting in Verona, the 16 Italian Ecclesiastical Regions have sent their own contributions of reflection to the preparatory Committee. THE PROGRAMME . Moments of prayer (including an ecumenical prayer meeting with representatives of the Orthodox and Protestant Churches), reflections on the five anthropological fields from the spiritual, cultural, social and pastoral viewpoints with authoritative Catholic exponents of the Italian world of culture and the professions, and study groups will punctuate the days of the meeting in Verona. On the programme is also an evening debate with some representatives of European culture: Margaret S. Archer, professor of sociology at the University of Warwick (Great Britain); Michel Camdessus, president of the Semaines sociales de France (France); and Ján Figel, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture and Multilingualism (Slovakia). Info: www.convegnoverona.it