A new synthesis

"Challenges of new culture" was the title of an international conference that took place on 24 February in Bratislava, with presence of the distinguished guests from several dicasteries of the Holy See. The event, hosted by the local Bishops’ conference and Studio Morandini e Associati, attracted attention of more than 200 representatives of ecclesial, politicial and social life from Slovakia and abroad, and brought deeper insight into the matters of communication, digital culture, new evangelization and mission of the Church in contemporary world.Synthesis between Christian values and new culture. "Search for the truth about a man and its expression represent the highest vocation of social communication", affirmed Mons. Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Social Communication. Ways of proclaiming the Gospel change in accordance with place, time and human cultures and "provoke our ability to discover and adapt to new conditions". Mons. Celli explained that in this regard we need to dispose of "courage and wisdom" and recalled the words of pope Paul VI, that communication is above all a matter of "deep Christian testimony". Mons. Lucio Ruiz, responsible for the Internet office of Vatican, emphasized the need to learn well the "cultural keys" for a new "synthesis" between stable values and new culture. In this regard, the attention should be paid to integral formation of a person, as well as to "specific formation of conscious and responsible use of liberty". Mons. Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Social Communication, pointed at tendency of contemporary people to live only for themselves, without any wider horizon. In this regard he emphasized that new evangelization "arises from the conviction that grace transforms up to the conversion of the heart and from the credibility of our testimony".Towards more cultural and human society. President of the Bishops’ conference of Slovakia, Mons. Stanislav Zvolensky, affirmed that "Catholicism, in its essence, is a bearer of the culturality that understands people in their integrity and critically refuses everything that destroys it". When talking about "new culture", we must admit that Slovakia has been through big social, cultural and political changes during the last 20 years, from building of socialism the country has got to parliament democracy and market economy. "There have always been opinions that religion should not be a part of the public sphere", said the archbishop pointing to the paradoxical harmony between communism and radical liberalism: "Communists had tried to limit the religion to the churches. Also today many people say that the Church has no right to express opinions in regard to the public matters". Our society is very fragile because of growing individualism. Although the Catholic Church respects the lay state and appreciates the balance and independence existing between state and Churches in Slovakia, experiences of the last decades show that secular society is "not capable of generating the values that would make it more cultural and human". Mons. Zvolensky pointed to trends that have become a part of Slovak society in the recent years: attacks against life and marriage, growing divorce rate, irresponsibility of some politicians and economists, corruption, new debts, demotivating social systems; emphasizing that the key to transformation "lies in a change of mentality and return to traditional Catholic values". Example of St. Cyril and Methodius. Slovakia prepares to celebrate the 1150th anniversary of St. Cyril and Methodius’s arrival to the region of Great Moravia in 2013. President of the Bishops’conference exhorted all believers and members of society to search for inspiration in their life and missionary zeal, to make evangelization truly new and real. This new evangelization – affirmed Mons. Zvolensky – is not only a religious matter: "It represents an effort to return to the natural law of God, written into each heart. New evangelization is an effort to return to the values that could make the society more human". If we ask about the challenges of new culture for the Catholic Church in Slovakia, we need to realize that this question is not addressed only to the Catholics but to all people of good will. "Freedom is important but without the primacy of truth it can change to a parody. We want to live in the society that feels respect towards everything that transcends its borders", concluded Mons. Zvolensky, expressing conviction that the Catholic Church can offer new impulses for the development in this sense.