” “” “"We are the heirs, perhaps unwittingly, of an as ancient as precious and vast heritage, like the one that the two-millennium-old history of art and architecture leaves us": these are the words of Enzo Bianchi, prior of the monastic community of Bose, as he opened the V International Liturgical Meeting yesterday about "The Baptistery", (Bose, until June 2nd). The meeting, in cooperation with the Office for the Ecclesiastic Cultural Heritage of the Italian Bishops Conference, gathers this year 180 experts from Italy, Belgium, France, Greece, Germany, Malta, Salvador, United States and Hungary. As in the past, this meeting has been set up as a veritable workshop of ideas, a space of historical, theological and architectural research, with a view to the skilful, well-considered opening to new forms of liturgical areas adapted to today’s faith". In contemporary thinking, added Bianchi, "baptism is certainly a more topical and somehow more urgent issue than others". Actually: "The context in which Christianity is called to live today, especially in the West, sees a yearly rise in the adults’ demand for Christian initiation: in more and more European countries, this demand is the most significant ecclesial phenomenon which arouses interest and hope" (continued).” “” “” “
