0318

15 March 2018 Monthly Year 2

“Generating the Future”: Francis’ apostolic journey to and Peru

The and the Holy .3 o City

Bullying and Cyberbullying: Two phenomena on the rise

OLUME 2, N 2, OLUME Martin Luther’s Vocation V

2018 Dialogue and Proclamation in Catholic Universities

Discerning Faith in a Post-Christian Culture

What Future for Christians in Indonesia?

Aggiornamento of the Chinese Catholic Church

CONTENTS 0318

BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS

Copyright, 2017, Union of Catholic Asian Editor-in-chief News ANTONIO SPADARO SJ

All rights reserved. Except for any fair Editorial Board dealing permitted under the Hong Kong Antonio Spadaro SJ – Director Copyright Ordinance, no part of this Giancarlo Pani SJ – Vice-Director publication may be reproduced by any Domenico Ronchitelli SJ – Senior Editor means without prior permission. Inquiries Giovanni Cucci SJ, Diego Fares SJ, should be made to the publisher. Francesco Occhetta SJ, Giovanni Sale SJ

Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editor Virgilio Fantuzzi SJ, ISSN: 2207-2446 Giandomenico Mucci SJ, GianPaolo Salvini SJ ISBN: 978-1-925612-39-4 (paperback) Contributing Editor 978-1-925612-40-0 (ebook) Luke Hansen SJ 978-1-925612-41-7 (kindle) Contributors Published by Federico Lombardi () Union of Catholic Asian News George Ruyssen (Belgium) Fernando De la Iglesia (Spain) P.O. Box 80488, Cheung Sha Wan, Drew Christiansen (USA) Kowloon, Hong Kong Andrea Vicini (USA) Phone: +852 2727 2018 Neuhaus () Fax: +852 2772 7656 Camilo Ripamonti (Italy) www.ucanews.com Vladimir Pachkow (Russia) Publishers: Kelly SJ and Arturo Peraza (Venezuela) Robert Barber Bert Daelemans (Belgium) Production Manager: Thomas Reese (USA) Rangsan Panpairee Paul Soukup (USA) Grithanai Napasrapiwong Friedhelm Mennekes (Germany) Marcel Uwineza (Rwanda) CONTENTS 0318

15 March 2018 Monthly Year 2

1 “Generating the Future”: Francis’ apostolic journey to Chile and Peru Diego Fares, SJ - Antonio Spadaro, SJ

19 The Catholic Church and the Holy City David Neuhaus, SJ

34 Bullying and Cyberbullying: Two phenomena on the rise Giovanni Cucci, SJ

48 Martin Luther’s Vocation Giancarlo Pani, SJ

59 Dialogue and Proclamation in Catholic Universities David Hollenbach, SJ

69 Discerning Faith in a Post-Christian Culture Paolo Gamberini, SJ

81 What Future for Christians in Indonesia? Franz Magnis-Suseno, SJ

99 Aggiornamento of the Chinese Catholic Church Thierry Meynard, SJ - Michel Chambon ABSTRACTS

CHURCH LIFE 1 “GENERATING THE FUTURE”: FRANCIS’ APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO CHILE AND PERU

Diego Fares, SJ - Antonio Spadaro, SJ

Pope Francis made his 22nd international apostolic journey, January 15- 21, 2018, in two stages, the first to Chile, then Peru. Throughout this journey, the invited people to look ahead and to prioritize unity, cultural integration, peace and justice. He did so on the basis of a memory that stretches back beyond current affairs or the 200 years of independent life of the Latin American nations. His gaze is open to a future to be generated and built together while combating clericalism and corruption, a future rooted in the values of ancestral cultures that have transformed into a sincere and profound popular Christian spirituality.

ARTICLE 19 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

David Neuhaus, SJ

The article aims to illustrate the ’s stance on and how this position has developed over the last century. Two fundamental issues have remained constant: the protection of Christian Holy Places with free access to them, and the well-being of Jerusalem’s Christian communities. In recent times, two concerns have been added, namely, the promotion of justice and peace, and the growth of interreligious dialogue. The Holy See continues to work tirelessly to promote its vision of Jerusalem as a city of peace and a place where Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together and be witnesses to a God who loves everyone. The author is professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem. ABSTRACTS

ARTICLE 34 BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

Newspapers and research data reiterate the dramatic increase in behavior linked to bullying and cyberbullying. They both pose educational challenges at all levels (family, school, leisure, social life). The article presents some data on the subject, a possible terminological clarification, and a cluster of different elements and dynamics underlying such behavior. There is a need for an educational intervention by adults. Silence implies complicity and is a powerful and constant ally to bullying. Promoting awareness and providing information are certainly the first steps to be taken in education in this area.

ARTICLE 48 MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

A topic like the vocation of Martin Luther does not capture the attention of biographers. It is taken for granted. Yet it is fundamental for understanding his intentions. The facts are not straightforward. Luther entered a monastery at age 21. Frightened by the prospect of sudden death when nearly struck by a lightning bolt, he made a vow, invoking St. Anne, that he would become a monk. Neither he nor the Augustinians who received him questioned the validity of his vow. Was it an authentic vocation? In response this article discusses several of Luther’s documents from the years before 1517 concerning the relationship between him and his father who was opposed to his entrance into the monastery. Historical documentation clearly affirms the authenticity of Luther’s religious vocation. ABSTRACTS

ARTICLES 59 DIALOGUE AND PROCLAMATION IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES

David Hollenbach, SJ

Dialogue and proclamation are not alternative options today; they are closely connected in a perspective of credible and effective evangelization. Catholic universities should be places where Catholic tradition enters into dialogue with other traditions. They must respond to the intellectual challenges of the world today. They must help students appreciate some great non-Western insights that have enriched humanity. And they have to help students become aware of the injustice and suffering that afflict the world today. The author is a professor at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington.

ARTICLE 69 DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

Paolo Gamberini, SJ

Being rooted in one’s own traditions and being open to those of others are both constituent aspects of the Christian faith. The author shows how the logos of Christian faith, which is not a monolithic doctrine, can be understood as a “process of discernment” in the world and in the history of human cultures. This different form of understanding is neither a compromise nor an easy way to avoid intellectual rigor. Rather, it is a speculative quality. It gives the Christian logos “catholicity” and the inclusiveness of the “both-and” instead of the “either-or.” Jewish-Christian dialogue shows that the logos of the Christian faith revises its own doctrinal conceptions when it comes to defining the doctrine of faithwith others. The author is a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco (USA). ABSTRACTS

CHURCH LIFE 81 WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

Franz Magnis-Suseno, SJ

Indonesia has long been considered the model country of Islamic toler- ance, but in recent times it has suffered a wave of Islamic populism that has aroused concern. The article examines the history of Indonesian Islam and looks at the direction it might take in its future development. It shows the missionary task of Indonesian Christians and hopes for an agreement among religions on three points: the rejection of violence in the name of religion; living and putting religions into practice in a non-threatening way; creating environments where people and communities of every religious faith can live and practice worship without fear. The author is professor emeritus of the Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

CHURCH LIFE 93 AGGIORNAMENTO OF THE CHINESE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Thierry Meynard, SJ - Michel Chambon

In recent decades, China has undergone enormous social, economic and political transformations. The development of the Chinese Catholic Church is subject to challenges that force it to rethink its structure and develop new responses. The article addresses the issue by presenting and evaluating the prevailing approaches to the presence of the Catholic Church in China; it considers the implementation of the aggiornamento desired by Vatican II and, finally, the broader framework of Christianity in China, presenting the main currents of Protestantism in this country. The authors are Thierry Meynard, professor of Philosophy at the National Sun Yat Sen University of Kaohsiung (Taiwan), and Michel Chambon, researcher at the University of Notre Dame (USA). LCC 0418:

APRIL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Concerning Jerusalem as Capital

• Poaching: a moral issue and a failure of the market Annual Digital • Soap Operas: History and Subscription development of a cult genre $79 • More Walls between Peoples Annual Print Subscription • The Future of Europe Asia: $160* • African Migrants: Where to Australia/NZ/Oceania: $200* make a home? USA/UK/Ireland/ Europe: $220* • ‘Do not put us to the test’: A difficult petition in the Lord’s Rest of the world: $260* Prayer Print + Digital Bundle • ‘Detroit’ a film by Kathryn Asia: * Bigelow $200 Australia/NZ/Oceania: $240* USA/UK/Ireland/ Europe: $260* Rest of the world: $280*

Prices in US Dollars * Rates include postage & handling

For educational and bulk rates, please email [email protected] “Generating the Future”: Francis’ apostolic journey to Chile and Peru

Diego Fares, SJ - Antonio Spadaro, SJ

On January 15, 2018, at 8:30 a.m., a flight with , the papal entourage and accredited journalists on board departed Rome for de Chile. Thus began the pope’s 22nd apostolic journey overseas, this time to Chile and Peru. Here we will try to illustrate two particular focal points – future and 1 unity – that can act as interpretative keys of the entire apostolic journey, before presenting in further detail some moments and concluding with a synthesis.

The two fires: the future to be built and the unity that fears no conflict A pivotal and constant theme throughout this apostolic journey was the opening up to tomorrow. In Chile, “a nation full of hope for the future,” Francis commenced his visit by expressing his vision for the country to the authorities: “A nation, more than its borders, more than its land, its mountain ranges, its seas, more than its language or its traditions, is a mission to be fulfilled.” He repeated this in his first homily: “The Beatitudes are that new day for all those who look to the future, who continue to dream, who allow themselves to be touched and sent forth by the Spirit of God.” And again: “We must forge a future of peace, weave a fabric that will not unravel.” “Generating the future” was also an invitation to the female prisoners in the Penitentiary Center of Santiago. This dynamic vision is aimed at young people above all, and the pope spoke to them of the dreams that God places in their hearts: “dreams of freedom, dreams of joy, dreams of a better future.” The pontiff defined the university as “a laboratory for the future of the country.” And in talking about the people, the family and the nation, he always included “the ‘us’ of the future, our children and tomorrow.” DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

In Peru, he urged the peoples to forge a country “with space for people of all bloods” and “where the promise of Peruvian life can be achieved.” He did so by quoting two protagonists who have deeply touched the soul of Peru: the anthropologist José María Arguedas and the historian Jorge Basadre. In his speech to the authorities and in his final salutation he pointed out on several occasions that young people are the present, not just the future: a present capable of dreaming of a “future of hope.” In his second Peruvian meeting, he also stressed that people who emigrate to the Amazon region are looking for shelter, a land and a , “a better future for themselves and their families.” The “good life” that South American cultures aspire to includes that “better future,” that “future built with 2 dignity” which is the yearning and driving force of people’s lives. In the final Mass in Lima, Francis noted with pain that in the human “leftovers” of today “lies the face of the future.” The challenge posed to each and every one is that of the unity of peoples and cultures. He asked on the same occasion: “How will we face the future if we lack unity?” The question of unity is therefore fundamental for thinking about the future, and it was the second focal point of the journey. The pope visits each country and every Church as it is, with its wounds and its dreams. In the midst of conflicts, he brought to Chile the message of a peace that seeks justice without violence, as he said to the peoples of Araucanía and to the authorities. The spirit of unity overcomes every evil spirit of desolation – he said in his speech to the and religious of Chile – wherever it may be: in the radicalization of the struggle of the indigenous peoples or in the falsehood of governmental agreements, in the corruption of politicians or members of the Church, in the disinformation of the media or in the tensions between victims and perpetrators ... It is a peace that involves conflict and confronts it without masks or timidity. Francis chose both the places where unity tends to be impaired because of the lack of respect for the Mapuche culture, and those places where there is a grace that integrates different cultures, as happens in the north. But in Chile, from the outset, he also praised democracy that is working in ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU the direction of rehabilitation from the wounds left by the military coup in 1973 and in the process of overcoming of internal conflicts. The visit to Peru saw unity emphasized in its motto: “United by hope.” Politics in Peru suffers from endemic institutional corruption, and the pope has continually referred to the suffering yet vibrant hope of Peruvians, who cannot be robbed of it. So the pope developed the motto: “Safeguard hope, that it not be stolen from you. And there is no better way to safeguard hope than to remain united.” In Peru, cultural integration is indeed one of the historical challenges.

The first Chilean mosaic: Santiago On January 15 at 7:30 p.m., while a warm and persistent 3 wind blew from the Chilean sea, Pope Francis’ flight landed at the international airport of Santiago de Chile. The flight’s arrival was received by the outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet, and a song sung by a Chilean girl, which brought a beautiful smile to Pope Francis’ face. The first significant gesture of the apostolic journey was to stop on the way from the airport to the Nunciature to pray in the church of San Luis Beltrán, in Pudahuel, at the tomb of Don Enrique Alvear Urrutia, “the of the poor” who died in 1982. On Tuesday, January 16, Francis began the day by traveling from the Nunciature to the presidential seat, the Palacio de la Moneda, in an open-air popemobile. The president-elect, Sebastián Piñera, was also present at the ceremony. President Bachelet referred to the pope as a friend, recalled John Paul II’s visit 30 years before, and affirmed that Francis was now visiting a Chile which had progressed from pain to hope and from fear to trust. He added jokingly, while looking at the pope, that Chileans are “very wary.”1 In turn, Francis took up this line in

1.Many took it for granted that this was Francis’ most difficult journey, above all because of ongoing secularization and a certain liberal mentality. Some night- time activists had launched incendiary bombs at the gates of certain churches which caused material damage. On the other hand, the same thing had been said of his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh and even other journeys. In one way or DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

his speech in which he described the Chilean soul in the words of the national poet Gabriela Mistral,2 saying that the soul of the Chilean character is not characterized by distrust; instead, “the Chilean soul is a vocation to being, a stubborn will to exist.” In particular, in a substantial civil and political speech addressed to all citizens, the pope affirmed that “Chile has distinguished itself in recent decades by the growth of a democracy that has enabled steady progress,” and that the recent political elections had been a manifestation of the “strength and civic maturity” that had been achieved. He affirmed that the homeland is “the most beautiful work” that begins before us and cannot grow without us. The “great and exciting challenge” is that Chilean democracy be “a true place of encounter for 4 all. “Ethnic, cultural and historical diversity must be preserved from all partisan spirit or attempts at domination, and inspire instead our innate ability to replace narrow ideologies with a healthy concern for the common good.” The pope’s words demonstrated the need to discern and effectively transform the neoliberal experience of the country. From the Palacio de la Moneda, Francis moved on to the Parque O’Higgins where he celebrated Mass “for peace and justice” in front of a crowd of over 400,000 faithful. The homily had the Beatitudes as its theme. These “are not the fruit of passivity in the face of reality, nor of a mere onlooker gathering grim statistics about current events. They are not the product of those prophets of doom who seek only to spread dismay. Nor are they born of those mirages that promise happiness with a single ‘click’ in the blink of an eye.” On the contrary, the Beatitudes are born from the encounter of Jesus with faces and people. From Pablo Neruda3 the pope drew the image of “being shaken”: with his Beatitudes, the Lord wants to eradicate the

another, all of Francis’ journeys are “difficult,” as they are made to hotspots con- sidered to be the most conflicted on the planet: for example, those to the Central African Republic or to Egypt where several bloody episodes had occurred a few days before his arrival and which had claimed many lives. 2.Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), Nobel Prize 1945. The pope quoted a short and rarely cited text by the author: Elogios de la tierra de Chile. 3.Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). The pope quotes from Neruda’s first and only novel published in 1926. In fact, the quotation is from the publisher’s text which ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU paralyzing immobility of those who believe that things cannot change. From Cardinal Silva Henríquez4 he took the injunction: “If you want peace, work for justice.” And from St. Alberto Hurtado5 the consideration: “It is very good not to do wrong, but very bad not to do good.” Peace is built and worked at! This was Francis’ message to a Chilean society in which structural injustices exist. He said it again the following day at the Maquehue (Temuco) airport, quoting a song by Violeta Parra6: “Arauco has a sorrow that cannot be silenced, the injustices of centuries that everyone sees taking place.” In the afternoon, Pope Francis went to the Women’s Penitentiary Center in Santiago. He had a heart-rending meeting with 500 women deprived of their freedom but, as he told them, never of their dignity. The pope knew that half of 5 the prisoners are serving sentences for crimes directly related to poverty. He was touched by the testimonies, but also by the in the prologue of the book shows how the protagonist shakes off his inertia and confronts his monsters. 4.Cardinal Silva Henríquez, a Salesian, played an important role in the and was a defender of human rights during Pinochet’s dictatorship (1974-1990). 5.St. Alberto Hurtado (1901-1952) was a deeply spiritual man, tireless in his work for the young and for workers, and a versatile writer. Most of his Jesuit training took place in Europe, where he achieved a doctorate in psychology and pedagogy in Leuven. He returned to Chile in January 1936 and dedicated himself to young people as a professor of religion and spiritual director of the college of Santiago. In the meantime he taught pedagogy at the Catholic University. Extremely dedicated to the Spiritual Exercises, he founded a retreat house, promoting courses which gave rise to many vocations for the whole Church. In 1940, in his first book, titled Is Chile a Catholic country?, he offered a sociological analysis of the Church in Chile, which in fact caused a storm of reactions, shaking the conscience of Catholic Chileans. Working in the capital, Fr. Alberto was struck by the situation of the homeless and talked about it during a retreat. This is how the work for which he is best known was founded: the Hogar de Cristo, an institution where the poor can find food and hospitality and the newly born a chance to live. In addition, the younger ones receive basic training and learn a trade. Fr. Hurtado also founded the Chilean trade union association to train leaders in this field. He died at the age of 51, and was beatified by John Paul II on October 14, 1994, and canonized by Benedict XVI on October 23, 2005. 6.Violeta Parra (1917-1967), Chilean singer-songwriter with deep popular roots. The pope quoted her song Arauco tiene una pena, in which the injustices suffered by the Mapuche people throughout history are recounted. DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

festive atmosphere created by the songs and the colored banners that promoted Francis’ words on the subject of incarceration and prisoners. During the press conference on the return flight to Rome, he came back to the issue: “About the visit, I would like to say something that I found very moving. The women’s prison: my heart was there.” And more: “Seeing these women, the creativity of these women, their capacity to change, to change their lives, to get back into society with the strength of the Gospel [...] touched me, I was really very touched by that meeting. It is one of the most beautiful things about the visit.” At 5:15 p.m. the pope met priests, religious men and women, consecrated persons and seminarians at the Santiago Cathedral. This was one of the encounters that best expressed Francis’ heart. 6 The pope addressed them with thoughtful and profound words in which, describing disheartened Peter who was “mercified” and transfigured, he exhorted them to love “the everyday Church,” a wounded and sore Church, capable of letting itself be transformed by the Lord. He began by saying: “I have always liked the way the Gospels do not adorn or soften things, or paint them in nice colors. They show us life as it is and not as it should be. The Gospel is not afraid to show us the difficult and even tense moments experienced by the disciples.” Moreover, recalled the pope, “Peter had denied him; Judas had betrayed him; the others had fled and hid themselves. Only a handful of women and the beloved remained. The rest took off.” The pope has taken away from all the people of the Church any illusion of being “superheroes,” because it is from feeling hurt and recognizing the wounds that the ability to understand the wounds of the world is born. And above all he warned against the temptation to “dwell on how disheartened we are.” After meeting the priests and religious, Francis met the in the cathedral sacristy, exhorting them to be close to their priests and to remember they belong to the faithful people of God as servants and not as masters. Clericalism, a constant temptation, the pontiff underlined, extinguishes the life of the Church. Then he went to the sanctuary of St. Alberto Hurtado where he had a meeting with 90 Jesuits based in Chile, answered some of their questions, and visited the tomb of the . The text ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU

of this conversation has been made available.7 Finally, he took refreshments with people from the various Hogares de Cristo of all Chile, an institution founded by St. Alberto.

The issue of abuse In his two meetings with the clergy, the religious and the bishops in the cathedral, the pope referred to the scourge of child abuse. In clear words he said he recognized the pain that these cases meant and “the harm and sufferings of the victims and their families who saw the trust they had placed in the Church’s ministers betrayed.” This is why he invited priests and religious “to ask God to grant us the clear-sightedness to call reality by its name, the strength to seek forgiveness and the ability to listen to what God tells us and not dwell on our discouragement.” 7 In addition to this, the pope spoke about the issue of abuse on other occasions during his trip. In fact, in Peru, he touched on the theme twice publicly in Puerto Maldonado, when meeting the people of Amazonia, and in the meeting with the Peruvian bishops and with the Peruvian Jesuits in the conversation that has also been published. He also received privately in Santiago, in the Nunciature, a group of victims who had suffered abuse by priests. On the other hand, Francis refused to give in to pressure concerning the case of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, accused by some, but without any evident proof, as being guilty of having covered up cases of abuse because of his connection with Fr. Fernando Karadima – whose guilt has been recognized and who has indeed been condemned. On his return journey, while being repeatedly questioned by certain journalists about the injuries and divisions caused by members of the clergy’s abuse, the pope confirmed the line adopted with determination by his predecessor Benedict XVI. Francis’ position has been to place himself as a just judge who needs evidence to judge. He also made it clear that covering up abuse is an abuse, adding: “In these five years, I have received – I don’t recall the exact number – perhaps

7.Cf. Pope Francis, “Where have our people been creative?” February 15, 2018, in laciviltacattolica.com/people-creative-conversations-jesuits-chile-peru/ DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

20 or 25 cases where they presume to ask for clemency. I signed none of them.” Concerning the case of Bishop Barros he said: “It is a case where I called for an examination, an investigation. I made them work thoroughly.” Having found no evidence, the pope said: “I apply the basic rule of every court of law: nemo malus nisi probetur, no one is guilty until proven otherwise.” Renouncing the logic of scapegoating, even at the cost of exposing himself to severe criticism in the media, the pontiff said he was ready to receive testimonies about it if there were any. He has acted on these declarations, and on January 30 he decided to send to Chile one of the chief experts on the subject, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, former promoter of justice, who earlier carried out the investigation into the 8 founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel. The fact remains that the Karadima scandal is a real trauma for the country to overcome, not least because of the enormous popularity of this man. Many were fascinated by him, both at the ecclesial level and at the social level. About 50 seminarians came from the parish led by him, and the esteem he is held in by the Chilean high bourgeoisie is notable. Healing from this wound must be evangelical and cannot involve shortcuts. It calls for a radical overcoming of clericalism and its subtle forms of power, including the submission of judgment which is the true root of the problem. Regarding clericalism, Pope Francis has repeatedly been critical.

Temuco, young people and the university among diversity, dreams and dialogue On the morning of Wednesday, January 17, the pope left for Temuco, the capital of Araucanía, where he celebrated Mass at Maquehue airport. In the past, serious violations of human rights have occurred there. Members of the Mapuche people were present here, but the pope recalled all the peoples who make up the mosaic of these southern lands: Rapanui, Aymara, Quechua, Atacama and many others. It was precisely the question of the Mapuches that was among the thorniest of the journey, as their land which had resisted Spanish conquest for over 300 years was occupied by Chile in 1862, partly because it divided the country ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU

into two parts, preventing territorial continuity. Massacres were committed. The claims did not go away, and even the pope’s visit was involved. At the beginning of the celebration, a group of Mapuche, in their traditional clothes, paid homage to the pope by playing traditional instruments, among which was the pifilca. The group consisted of three Lonkos men the leaders within the Mapuche community and fiveGnimin women, who deal with the health of the community through their special bond with the land and the natural environment. The drawings on their mantle (chamal) recount the past and present history of their community. And the image used by the pope was precisely that of a diverse mantle which “requires weavers who know the art of blending the different materials and colors, who 9 spend time with each element and each stage of the work.” The whole, a unity, is a handcrafted product that “requires true artisans who know how to harmonize differences in the ‘laboratories’ of towns, roads, squares and landscapes. Unity is not ‘desk art,’ or paperwork; it is a craft demanding listening and understanding.” There is no need for artificially planned “elegant” agreements which “will never be put into practice. Nice words.” This too is violence which frustrates and “deforests” hope. Then Francis participated in a simple lunch with some inhabitants of the region at the Madre de la Santa Cruz house, giving the meeting with the local population a familiar, direct and personal character. In the afternoon, when he returned to Santiago, in the Maipú sanctuary he met the young people, inviting them to be protagonists in a creative way: “I know that the hearts of young Chileans dream, and that they dream big dreams,” he said, urging them to connect dreams with real life, so as to recharge the “battery of the heart.” Afterward, there was an encounter with the world of culture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, an institution founded in 1888. The pope recommended “the grammar of dialogue that prepares us for encounter,” because true wisdom is “the fruit of reflection, dialogue and generous DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

encounter between persons.” The educational process must be an inclusive force, of integration and rehabilitation of the public space and national coexistence.

Iquique and the integration of peoples On Thursday, January 18, Francis set off once again, this time to the city of Iquique8 in the north of Chile where in the Campus Lobito he celebrated Mass, dedicating it to the integration of peoples. Iquique means “land of dreams” in the Aymara language. “Iquique is a region of immigrants, which reminds us of the greatness of men and women, entire families, who, in the face of adversity, refused to give up and set out in search of life.” The issue of immigration is a strong theme of 10 Francis’ pontificate. The place where the Mass was celebrated is a unique location for it is where the desert and the sea meet. The pope had before him the people participating in the celebration, held in front of a huge sand dune, the Cerro Dragón. For the occasion, the statue of the Virgen de la Tirana was transported to the site from the sanctuary where it is venerated. After lunch, at the house where Spiritual Exercises of the Nuestra Señora de Lourdes sanctuary take place, at 4:45 p.m. Francis bade farewell to Chile and took a flight to Lima, after having recalled the global meaning of his itinerary in both countries, Chile and Peru: “I now continue my pilgrimage towards Peru, a country that is a friend and brother to this

8.“During the transfer by plane from Santiago de Chile to Iquique where he went to celebrate Mass for the integration of peoples – on the morning of Thursday 18 January, Pope Francis celebrated the marriage of Carlos Ciuffardi Elorriaga (41) and Paula Podest Ruiz (39), the steward and head hostess of ‘Latam’ airline. The Chilean couple, who had already been civilly united for some time and who have two children, had set the date for the religious ceremony on the day of the tragic earthquake in 2010, which had caused the collapse of the church chosen for the ceremony. During the flight, which lasted a couple of hours, the two crew members requested a blessing from the pope, who asked if they were married. After learning about their story, Francis offered to celebrate the wedding and after having obtained their consent, he confessed and questioned them about their intentions. After their marriage the pope also signed as a celebrant the document attesting to the validity of the marriage, which was also signed by the newlyweds and witnesses, Msgr. Mauricio Rueda Beltz and the president of the ‘Latam’, Ignacio Cueto” (Oss. Rom., January 19, 2018). ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU

Patria Grande (great land) that we are called to cherish and uphold. A land that finds its beauty in the many and varied faces of her people.”

The first day in Peru: Puerto Maldonado and the Amazon lung The pope reached Lima airport at 5:20 p.m. The Peruvian population immediately expressed a very warm welcome. Each neighborhood of the city had prepared their own posters, with amply decorated statues of the Madonna and , and even improvised musical bands. All along the route, people gathered on the streets to celebrate the pope’s presence. The morning after his arrival, at around 10 a.m., Francis left by plane for Puerto Maldonado, a city in the southeast of Peru, located on the confluence of the Madre de Dios and the 11 Tambopata rivers. It boasts the official title as Peru’s “capital of biodiversity” because of the important varieties of flora and fauna identified in the forests of its province. The pope held a meeting with 22 indigenous groups from the region. He wanted to commence with them his journey in the Andes. The representatives of the Amazonian people received Francis with traditional dances and songs. A significant moment was when they spoke, reading passages from the encyclical Laudato Si’ in their languages. The young apostolic vicar, Bishop David Martínez de Aguirre Guinea, a Dominican, thanked the pope for having paid them great attention and seeing them as no others had done: a way of seeing that is able to marvel at creation; capable of recognizing the richness of the Amazon not only for its minerals and forests, but above all in its peoples. He thanked him in particular for having convened the Synod for the Amazon Region, which will take place in 2019. In his speech, Francis stressed the importance of all peoples: “We need urgently to appreciate the essential contribution that they bring to society as a whole, and not reduce their cultures to an idealized image of a natural state, much less a kind of museum of a bygone way of life. Their vision of the cosmos and their wisdom have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture.” In fact, every culture and DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

every vision of the cosmos that welcomes the Gospel enriches the Church with the vision of “a new aspect of Christ’s face.” The pope named the different Amazonian peoples one after another. He asked that everyone receive recognition and not as “minorities” but rather as authentic dialogue partners. And he asked the bishops to promote intercultural and bilingual education. He said that the disappearance of a culture is a catastrophe of greater proportions than the extinction of an animal or plant species. Francis urged everyone to “shape a Church with an Amazonian face, a Church with a native face”: this is the spirit of the Synod for the Amazon. The speech was followed by the conferring of gifts. The pope received Amazonian insignia for leaders, and amid the enthusiasm of everyone present, 12 he immediately put them on. One of the most important aspects of this meeting was the possibility for representatives of all the peoples of the region to meet each other. At 1 p.m. Francis went to the Jorge Basadre Institute, and here he repeatedly commented on the beautiful image of the Church that appeared before his eyes: people coming not only from the different areas of the Peruvian Amazonia, but also from the Andes and from other neighboring countries. “What a beautiful image of the Church without borders, where all peoples have a place! How much we need moments like these, to be together and, regardless of our place of origin, to inspire us to build a culture of encounter that renews us in hope!” God’s gaze “creates bonds and generates family and community” overcoming anonymity and waste. Then the pope visited the Hogar El Principito where orphaned children and those in vulnerable situations are hosted. Francis was welcomed with great warmth by the children, witnessed a dramatized representation of the violence that accompanies human trafficking, and he listened to some of their testimonies. After the meeting, he had lunch with representatives of the Amazonian peoples in the Apaktone Pastoral Center. Then he left for Lima where he met the authorities at 4:45 p.m. The president of the country, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, was elected in 2016 with 50.1 percent of the vote; last December ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU he was summoned by the Congress, which had initiated an impeachment procedure against him. For lack of the necessary quorum, he was confirmed there as head of state.9 The speech to the authorities focused on hope: “Peru is a land of hope that invites and challenges its people to unity. This people has the duty to maintain unity, among other things, precisely to defend all these reasons for hope.” There were two shadows that Francis highlighted: corruption and a now-outdated model of development that continues to produce human, social and environmental degradation. In one sentence he quoted two great Peruvians, José Arguedas and Jorge Basadre, with an invitation “to forge a Peru that makes room for people of ‘all bloods’10 in which ‘the promise of Peruvian life’11 can be achieved.” At 6 p.m. Francis met Jesuits in the church of St. Peter. There, 13 seated on a chair created from what was originally the architrave of a window dating back to 1672 and made specially for this occasion, he conversed with them, entrusting the mission of “teaching to grow in discernment” once again to the Church.

Trujillo, between earth and heaven On Saturday the 20th at 7:40 a.m. the pope left for Trujillo, the “city of the eternal spring” where he celebrated a Mass in the coastal esplanade of Huanchaco. Last year the city suffered the devastating consequences of the Niño costero. During the

9.The accusation was that the Brazilian company Odebrecht paid, between 2004 and 2007, about $800,000 to Westfield Capital, Kuczynski’s consulting company, through certain consortiums of which it was part. In the vote, the promoters of the dismissal did not reach the 87 votes needed, so the decision was not ratified. Three days later the president granted a humanitarian pardon to the former President Fujimori, imprisoned for crimes against human rights, and whose daughter is the head of the opposition party, which Kuczynski had defeated by a few votes in the elections. In public opinion these events appeared to be the consequence of a questionable negotiation. 10.José María Arguedas (1911-1969), writer and Peruvian poet, one of the three representatives of Peru’s indigenous narrative. His work poses the problem of a country divided into two cultures – that of Quechua origin and the Castilian one – which must be integrated into a harmonious hybrid. 11.Jorge Basadre (1903-1980), historiographer; his work Historia de la República del Perú is considered the most significant of Peruvian historical writing of the 20th century. DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

homily he said: “In Jesus, we have the strength of the Spirit not to treat as natural the things that hurt us, not to make them natural, not to ‘normalize’ what dries up our spirit and, what is worse, robs us of hope.” To the image of the Niño storm, Francis contrasted that of the oil of the Spirit. After the Mass, he traveled to the Buenos Aires district, which in its precariousness still shows the consequences of the cataclysm that hit the area. At 3:30 in the afternoon at the Seminary of Trujillo a meeting with priests, religious and seminarians from the north of Peru took place. Here Francis emphasized a double dimension: “roots in the earth and hearts in heaven.” When one of these two is missing, “something begins to go wrong and our life gradually withers, like the tree that has no roots, withers. I tell you that 14 it is sad to see a bishop, or nun, wither. I am even more saddened when I see seminarians wither.” He then affirmed that “the faithful People of God have a sense of smell that enables them to distinguish a functionary of the sacred from a grateful servant,” between those who use authority in a self-referential manner and those who are the makers of unity and communion. Then Francis moved on to the Plaza de Armas, where he held a Marian celebration and crowned the Virgen de la Puerta. To be able to place the crown on the and Child, he had to hoist himself effortlessly onto the three high steps of apredella . The packed and festive square was a jubilation of multicolored roses. The pope affirmed: “The language of God’s love is always spoken ‘in dialect’; there is no other way of doing it, and what is more, it inspires hope to see how the Mother takes on the features of her children, their way of dressing and their dialect, in order to make them share in her blessing.” And he went on to define Mary as a“ mestiza Mother” because in her heart all races find a place. In this speech he recalled and strongly condemned the killing of women, a plague from which the country suffers: in 2017 there were 121 murders of women and 247 attempted murders in Peru, a total of 368 cases.

The lesson of St. Toribio de Mogrovejo On Sunday the 21st the pope was once again full of vigor to start a day rich with meetings. He began at 9:15 a.m. with the ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU recital of the Liturgy of the Hours with over 500 contemplative nuns in the sanctuary of the Señor de los Milagros. About 160 of them had spent the night sleeping on the ground, waiting for the pontiff, and after the encounter with Francis, everyone ate a “packed lunch” all together. The enthusiasm of the nuns was palpable, and it was expressed in festive songs, with chants of Te queremos Papa, te queremos (we love you!) and with the waving of flags. The pope quoted “his” four Carmels of Buenos Aires, and wanted to include in the meeting the sisters who had accompanied him on his mission as archbishop. He entrusted the unity of the Church to the sisters. He recalled that the prayer of the contemplatives is always a “missionary prayer.” It is not a prayer that bounces off the walls of the convent and comes back, but it is a prayer that goes forth and passes through the 15 walls. Finally, he urged the nuns to be “without shame,” like the friends of the paralytic, who brought his misery before the power of the Lord. Then he went to the cathedral where he prayed before the relics of the Peruvian saints: St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, St. Rosa da Lima, St. Martín de Porres, St. Francisco Solano, St. Juan Macías. Immediately afterward he met the bishops. His speech focused on the figure of St. Toribio.12 Recalling a picture exhibited in the Vatican that portrays him in the middle of a river while trying to reach the other side, the pope listed six shores that St. Toribio struggled to reach. Among them, we mention the shore of those who were distant and those who were missing, which the saint wanted to reach out to by covering his vast diocese three times during the 22 years of his episcopate. And we also mention the cultural shore, since St. Toribio pushed the clergy to learn the languages ​​and cultures of different peoples: he had arranged for catechisms to be prepared in Quechua and Aymara, the main indigenous languages, and he had strongly supported the creation of a native clergy. Let us also mention the shore of unity here. In this regard, the pope said: “We know very well that this unity and consensus emerged

12.Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538-1606) was appointed archbishop by Philip II. His pastoral work took place in his vast diocese of about 450,000 square kilometers. In 1726 he was proclaimed saint by Pope Benedict XIII. DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

from great tensions and conflicts. We cannot deny tensions and the differences: they exist, and life is not possible without conflict. Yet they require us, if we are humans and Christians, to face them and to deal with them. But to deal with them in a spirit of unity, in honest and sincere dialogue, face to face, taking care not to fall into the temptation to ignore the past, or to remain prisoners, lacking the vision to discern paths of unity and life.” The meeting ended early due to an accelerated schedule. The pope then proposed a spontaneous conversation that took place with a frank and open dialogue on the situation of the Church, the country and, in general, Latin America.13 At the moment of the Angelus, which was predominantly 16 directed to young people, Francis once again recalled their ability to dream and the need to avoid “the cosmetics of the heart.” Using an image, he said: “I know that we all like to see digitally enhanced photographs, but that only works for pictures; we cannot ‘photoshop’ others, the world or ourselves. Color filtering and high definition only function well in video; we can never apply them to our friends. There are pictures that are very nice but completely fake. Let me assure you that the heart can’t be ‘photoshopped,’ because that’s where authentic love and genuine happiness have to be found and that’s where you show who you are: How is your heart? You can’t photoshop the heart.” At 4:15 p.m. the pope celebrated Mass before 1,300,000 people gathered at the Las Palmas Air Base. His homily was directed to action, proposing an extremely dynamic image of a Church on the move: “Jesus walks through the city with his disciples and begins to see, to hear, to notice those who have given up in the face of indifference, laid low by the grave sin of corruption.” And again: “He calls his disciples and invites them

13.In this conversation, the bishop emeritus Luis Bambarén, a Jesuit, had proposed: “Your Holiness, we must translate his words [those of St Toribio] into a new pastoral program for the Peruvian Church which goes out.” The pope commented: “He is a revolutionary bishop!” Msgr. Bambarén replied: “This you told me in Rome, and I called you ‘revolutionary pope’ and you told me: ‘So let’s go forward together.’” ‘GENERATING THE FUTURE’: FRANCIS’ IN CHILE AND PERU

to set out with him. He calls them to walk through the city, but at a different pace; he teaches them to notice what they had previously overlooked, and he points out new and pressing needs. Repent, he tells them. The Kingdom of Heaven means finding in Jesus a God who gets involved with the lives of his people. He gets involved and encourages others not to be afraid to make of our history a history of salvation.” In his farewell greeting, the pope spoke of Peru as a “land of hope.” At 7:10 p.m. the papal plane took off from Lima for Rome.

The character of a journey Francis had chosen to travel to what he considers to be the “Great Fatherland”14 of Latin America. Moreover, in general, in his geopolitical perspective, which is intrinsically linked to mercy 17 and evangelization, it is never enough to define as “countries” the geographical places that he chooses for his visits. It is true that he visited Chile and Peru, and as head of the Vatican State, he was received by the presidents and authorities of each nation, but, as pastor, he visited the region with a more ample memory and a wider view of the future than those circumscribed by the current geographical limits. He visited the Araucanía, which the Mapuche culture inhabited before the Spaniards arrived and claimed a territory which embraced a large part of the south of the current Argentine and Chilean nations. He visited the north of Chile, where a large number of immigrants live. He went to Peru, commencing his visit in the Amazon, a region where dozens of peoples and cultures live together; in Puerto Maldonado, Francis mentioned 22 different peoples. The pope, therefore, chooses geographical, cultural and political frontiers that are suitable lands to spread the seed of a culture of encounter. And his dominant theme is that of unity in diversity, and overcoming conflict.

14.The term “Great Fatherland” refers to a political vision of integration of Latin America which, overcoming the various national splits of the Hispanic- American wars of independence, envisages a united Latin America. The Hispanic-American projects were supported by libertadores like Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. DIEGO FARES, SJ - ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

Throughout his itinerary in Chile and Peru, Francis consistently invited those present to look ahead and focus on unity, cultural integration, peace and justice, and he did so on the basis of a memory that stretches back beyond current affairs or the 200 years of independent life of the Latin American nations. His gaze is open to a future to be generated and built together while combating clericalism and corruption, a future rooted in the values of ancestral cultures that have transformed into a sincere and profound popular Christian spirituality.

18 The Catholic Church and the Holy City

David Neuhaus, SJ

Pope Francis spoke about Jerusalem at his general audience on December 6, 2017, just a few hours before US President Donald Trump affirmed that his government recognizes Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel.”1 Pope Francis said: “I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in 19 recent days and, at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.” He noted that “Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace. I pray to the Lord that such identity be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the entire world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail, to avoid adding new elements of tension in a world already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts.”2 How has the Holy See’s position on Jerusalem developed over the last 100 years?

The Holy See’s position on Jerusalem Jerusalem is more than just a geographic location or a socio- political reality for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Jerusalem is a holy space where God’s revelation of God’s self unfolded

1.Recall that on December 21, 2017, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved the resolution presented by Yemen and Turkey that condemned the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel by the United States. The resolution was passed with 128 votes in favor, 9 against (including the US and Israel) and 35 abstentions. 2.Francis, General audience, December 6, 2017, in w2.vatican.va. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

over the generations. Ancient Israel’s direct progeny, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all look toward Jerusalem, lovingly venerating the Holy Places in the city’s precincts but also zealously watching that the faithful of other religions do not overstep the invisible boundaries set by tradition and history. Christians, Muslims and Jews have all had their turn ruling the city; however, Jerusalem’s vocation to be “city of peace” has yet to be realized. The Catholic Church looks upon Jerusalem with love and concern. John Paul II devoted his 1984 apostolic letter, Redemptionis Anno, to Jerusalem and in it he expressed the depth of Christian attachment to the city. “Christians honor her with a religious and intent concern because there the 20 words of Christ so often resounded, there the great events of the redemption were accomplished: the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. In the city of Jerusalem the first Christian community sprang up and remained throughout the centuries a continual ecclesial presence despite difficulties. Jews ardently love her and, in every age, venerate her memory, abundant as she is in many remains and monuments from the time of David who chose her as the capital, and of who built the Temple there. Therefore, they turn their minds to her daily, one may say, and point to her as the sign of their nation. Muslims also call Jerusalem ‘holy,’ with a profound attachment that goes back to the origins of Islam and springs from the fact that they have there many special places of pilgrimage and for more than a thousand years have dwelt there, almost without interruption.”3 The question of Jerusalem is also a political question and, while the Catholic Church does not see itself primarily as a political reality, considering itself as remaining outside of any “temporal rivalries” and while neutral, it does intend “to exercise its moral and spiritual power.”4 Moreover, the Church gives the faithful guidelines regarding their political behavior, summoning Christians “to cooperate, under the help of Christ the author of

3.John Paul II, Redemptionis Anno, April 20, 1984, in w2.vatican.va. 4.Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, February 11, 1929, art. 24. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY peace, with all people in securing among themselves a peace based on justice and love and in setting up the instruments of peace” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 77). In the past century, the Roman pontiffs have repeatedly expressed their concern for Jerusalem. The modes foreseen for achieving this aim have shifted over the past century as political realities have changed and the principal concerns of the Church have broadened in their scope. First and foremost, two basic concerns for Jerusalem have remained constant: 1) the protection of the Christian Holy Places and free access to them; 2) the well- being of Christian communities in Jerusalem. In recent times, another two concerns have been clearly formulated and provide a context in which the Church’s position on Jerusalem is formulated: 1) the promotion of justice 21 and peace; 2) the nurturing of interreligious dialogue. The Holy See hopes for a negotiated settlement that is fruit of a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians with the involvement of all the parties affected and the international community. In this sense over the past century, two different prospects can be seen for Jerusalem: 1) the city as a corpus separatum; 2) the city enjoying a “special statute internationally guaranteed.”

From 1917 to 1962 On December 10, 1917, the British conquered Jerusalem. Just a few weeks before, the British government had published the Balfour Declaration that promised “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Although Pope Benedict XV welcomed the return of Jerusalem and the Holy Places to Christian hands,5 he expressed concern that the arrival of large numbers of Jews would endanger the Christian communities and even replace them.6 In his first address to the cardinals, Benedict’s successor Pius XI also expressed his concern, echoing that of his predecessor, that the rights of the Catholics in Jerusalem

5.Cf. Benedict XV, Allocution to cardinals “Antequam Ordinem,” March 10, 1919, in w2.vatican.va. 6.Cf. Benedict XV, Discourse to the cardinals gathered in the consistory, June 13, 1921, ibid. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

might be negatively affected by the change in the status of Jews, Muslims and non-Catholics.7 The Holy See, although not invited to be party to the League of Nation’s definition of the British mandate for Palestine, explicitly formulated its position and relied on the French administration to bring this position to the attention of decision-makers. The Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, wrote to the Secretary General of the League of Nations that although the Holy See had no objection to the British receiving the mandate for Palestine, it had great reservations about the implied change in the status of Jews. Article 4 of the Mandate foresaw the involvement of an “appropriate Jewish agency” in “the establishment of the Jewish national home” and the 22 evolution of the country. Gasparri, while stressing that “the Holy See does not oppose that the Jews in Palestine have equal civil rights to those of other nations and religions,” stressed that it could not accept that the Jews be granted a privileged position in comparison with others.8 During the three decades after the First World War, the Church continued to insist on the protection of the Holy Places and the Christian communities. The most effective way to protect Jerusalem according to the Holy See was to guarantee the city an international regime. In these years, the idea of a corpus separatum, a separate body, became the basis for the Church’s vision of Jerusalem as a city that was a safe home for Christians, accessible to all and outside the realm of territorial conflict. The Holy See not only made this vision clear through declarations but also began to lobby for this idea particularly in the League of Nations and later in the United Nations. Avoiding taking any position on Zionism or Palestinian nationalism, the Church insisted that the Mandate not be used as a means for changing the character of the Holy City. The United Nations’ partition plan in 1947 also proposed a “corpus separatum” for Jerusalem and Bethlehem, under the jurisdiction

7.Cf. Pius XI, Consistory allocution “Vehementer gratum,” December 11, 1922, ibid. 8.Cf. S. Minerbi, Il Vaticano, la Terra Santa e il sionismo, Milan, Bompiani, 1988, 37f. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

of the United Nations. In part III of Resolution 181 (1947), the UN proposed: “The City of Jerusalem shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations. The Trusteeship Council shall be designated to discharge the responsibilities of the Administering Authority on behalf of the United Nations.”9 The resolution proposed that after a 10-year period the situation should be reviewed. This resolution is definitive for international law and remains foundational for discussion of the status of Jerusalem. As violence escalated in Palestine, Pius XII dedicated the month of May 1948 to special intercession for Palestine, praying that “concord and peace might triumph”10 but to little avail. During and after the 1948 War, Pius XII, clearly pained by the 23 war and the human suffering it caused, also expressed outrage on hearing reports of the desecration of churches and other Catholic institutions. He clearly outlined the idea that Jerusalem be guaranteed a status that would put it outside of the ongoing conflict between the newly established State of Israel and its Arab neighbors. His encyclical, In Multiplicibus Curis, was devoted entirely to the question of the war in the Holy Land. At the end of this encyclical, the pope insisted that “it would be opportune to give Jerusalem and its outskirts, where are found so many and such precious memories of the life and death of the Savior, an international character which, in the present circumstances, seems to offer a better guarantee for the protection of the sanctuaries.”11 A few months later, after the end of the first Arab-Israeli War, Pius XII wrote that “the time has come when Jerusalem and its vicinity, where the previous memorials of the Life and Death of the Divine Redeemer are preserved, should be accorded and legally guaranteed an ‘international’ status, which in the present circumstances seems to offer the best and most satisfactory protection for these sacred monuments.”12 He called

9.United Nations, General Assembly, Resolution 181, November 29, 1947. 10.Pius XII, Encyclical Auspicia quaedam, May 1, 1948, in w2.vatican.va. 11.Pius XII, Encyclical In multiplicibus curis, October 24, 1948, ibid. 12.Pius XII, Encyclical Redemptoris nostri, April 15, 1959, ibid. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

on Catholics everywhere to use their influence “to persuade the rulers of nations, and those whose duty it is to settle this important question, to accord to Jerusalem and its surroundings a juridical status whose stability under the present circumstances can only be adequately assured by a united effort of nations that love peace and respect the right of others.” The Holy See did not establish diplomatic relations with Israel or Jordan after the January 1949 ceasefire. However, the Apostolic Delegation in Jerusalem (established as the Holy See’s representation in Jerusalem and Palestine on February 11, 1948) and the local Church authorities and religious communities kept the Holy See up-to-date with the facts on the ground, and Pius XII continued to protest the desperate 24 situation of the refugees, displaced by the war, as well as the desecration of various holy sites. The idea of corpus separatum for Jerusalem was taken up by the United Nations in resolution 303 in December 1949 but Israel and Jordan rejected the idea, both having annexed parts of divided Jerusalem into areas under their full jurisdiction. The international community never recognized the validity of such annexations, and proof of this is seen in the presence in the city of consuls general from various countries, like France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

From 1962 to 1992 The convocation of the Second Vatican Council in 1962 by John XXIII was to be a turning point in the history of the Church. The promotion of ecumenical relations with Orthodox and Protestants, the budding dialogue with both Jews and Muslims and the call to dialogue with the modern world would have an impact on how the Church formulated her position on Jerusalem. At the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII’s successor, Paul VI, announced that he would visit the Holy Land. This was the first time that a pope had gone beyond Italian territory in the contemporary era. The voyage was conceived as a return to the roots of the Church. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

Without explicitly mentioning Israel or Jordan by name, Pope Paul explained that this pilgrimage, primarily motivated by piety, would also be to “implore divine mercy in favor of peace.”13 The most important encounter in Jerusalem was not with political authorities, with Jews or Muslims, Israelis or Arabs, but with the Greek Orthodox of Constantinople and Jerusalem, Athenagoras and Benedictos – an enduring symbol of the desire for Christian unity. Three years later, on the outbreak of the 1967 War, Paul VI repeated this wish: “It is a supreme interest for all the descendants of the spiritual seed of , Jews, Muslims and Christians, that Jerusalem be declared an open city, free from military operations, immune from causes of war, which have already caused such damage.”14 He added that Jerusalem 25 should be spared “the regime of war” and remain “the Holy City, a refuge for the helpless and wounded, a symbol for all of hope and peace.” The new situation, created after the war, was seen as yet another blow to attempts to leave Jerusalem outside of conflict. After the 1967 War and the conquest of East Jerusalem by the Israelis, a subtle change in the formulation of the position of the Holy See became perceptible. No longer insisting on corpus separatum, that is, the internationalization of Jerusalem, the Holy See began to promote a special statute for the Holy Places and the religious communities with international guarantees, which would shield them from the ongoing conflict. At the end of 1967, in an address to the Sacred College, Paul detailed the Holy See’s vision regarding the necessity for an international regime that would ensure “the liberty of cult, respect, conservation and access to the Holy Places,” taking into account the “historical and religious physiognomy of Jerusalem.”15 The request for a special regime for the Holy Places was coupled with a concern for the welfare of the Christian

13.Paul VI, Speech at the solemn closure of the Second Session of the Council, December 4, 1963, ibid. 14.Paul VI, General audience, June 7, 1967, ibid. 15.Paul VI, Address to the Sacred College and the Roman Prelature, December 22, 1967, ibid. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

communities that lived in the city. The pope insisted on “the free enjoyment of the legitimate civil and religious rights of persons, residences and activities of all communities.” Other subtle changes can be noted in Catholic discourse about Jerusalem after the Second Vatican Council. The Holy See was no longer uniquely concerned with Christian Holy Places and Christian communities, but also with questions of justice and peace and the dialogue with Jews and Muslims. In August 1969, Paul VI “vividly deplored” the attack on the Al- Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.16 The pope stressed “the duty, more than the right, which we are obliged to work on, because any resolution touching the state of Jerusalem and the Holy Land [...] responds to the needs of the particular character of that city, 26 unique in the world, and to the rights and legitimate aspirations of those who belong to the three great monotheistic religions who have, in the Holy Land, sanctuaries among the most precious and dear to their hearts.”17 The pontificate of Paul VI saw an increasing acceptance of the reality of the State of Israel (he received many Israeli political leaders even if the Vatican still had no diplomatic relations with Israel) and a recognition that the Palestinians were a people with the right to a homeland in Palestine (in the mid-1970s the Palestinians were no longer referred to as “refugees” but as a “people”). The successor of Paul VI, John Paul II, promoted the new vision of relations with Jews and with Muslims, a fraternal dialogue that had implications for the position on Jerusalem. The Holy See, however, continued to insist on a special status for Jerusalem and it was this message that Pope John Paul II brought to the United Nations in 1979: “I also hope for a special statute that, under international guarantees – as my predecessor Paul VI indicated – would respect the particular nature of Jerusalem, a heritage sacred to the veneration of millions of believers of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”18

16.Cf. Paul VI, Angelus, August 31, 1969, ibid. 17.Paul VI, Address to the Sacred College, December 21, 1973, ibid. 18.John Paul II, Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, October 2, 1979, ibid. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

In 1979, Archbishop Giovanni Cheli, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, made a detailed declaration on Jerusalem: “On this subject, the Holy See endeavors to keep in contact not only with the religious authorities of the various Christian Churches but also with the principal leaders of Islam and Judaism” (declaration, December 3, 1979). He went on to say that “whatever solution be found to the question of sovereignty over Jerusalem (not excluding the hypothesis of the “internationalization” of the city), the satisfying and safeguarding of requirements must be ensured and, at the same time, the international community ought to be the guarantor of interests that involve numerous and diverse peoples.” The Holy See insisted upon a solution that would ensure 27 justice attained by peaceful means. According to the Holy See, the “special statute internationally guaranteed for Jerusalem” had to include: - parity of the religious communities, freedom of worship, access to the Holy Places, protection of rights and safeguarding of the historical and urban aspects proper to the city; - enjoyment of rights for all religious communities guaranteeing the promotion of spiritual, cultural, civil and social life. In the light of this, it was not surprising that the Holy See, in harmony with most of the international community, firmly rejected Israel’s formal annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 and the proclamation of the city as the “eternal and indivisible capital of Israel.” John Paul II’s 1984 apostolic letter on Jerusalem recalled the pilgrimage of Paul VI of 1964 and expressed his own desire to visit those places: “Indeed, there should be found with goodwill and farsightedness a concrete and just solution by which different interests and aspirations can be provided for in a harmonious and stable form, and be safeguarded in an adequate and efficacious manner by a special statute internationally guaranteed so that no party could jeopardize it.” Underlining the demand that Israelis might live in security and that the Palestinians might be accorded a homeland, he wrote: “I am DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

convinced that the failure to find an adequate solution to the question of Jerusalem, and the resigned postponement of the problem, only compromises further the longed-for peaceful and just settlement of the crisis of the whole Middle East.”19 This Letter, eminently sensitive to Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, insisted that Jerusalem be allowed to accomplish her spiritual and universal vocation.

From 1992 to today Further subtle change in the nature of the discussion was due to the initiation of direct negotiations between the Holy See and both Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization after 1992, undertaken in the light of the beginning of 28 negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leadership. While the Holy See maintained that its basic position on Jerusalem had not changed, a new element had become apparent in the Holy See’s discourse: encouraging direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and accepting that these negotiations would ultimately decide the territorial fate of Jerusalem, all the while insisting on international guarantees for the safety and well-being of both the Holy Places and the communities that worship there. The signing of the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel in 1993 raised much controversy regarding possible imminent changes in the Holy See’s position on Jerusalem. In fact, the agreement made no mention of Jerusalem and the Holy See insisted that no change in position had been made. In a summary of the Holy See’s position on Jerusalem published by the Secretariat of State in May 1996, the Holy See underlined its “right to exercise its moral and spiritual teaching office.” In fact, the Holy See does not enter into the merits of the issue of the disputed territories or of non-defined borders that are the object of negotiations between the parties. But it does have the right and duty to express its own judgment with regard to the religious dimension of the Holy City, which requires the safeguard of international guarantees.

19.John Paul II, Redemptionis anno, cit. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

This position was summarized as follows: “The part of the city militarily occupied in 1967 and subsequently annexed and declared the capital of the State of Israel is occupied territory, and all Israeli measures which exceed the power of a belligerent occupant under international law are therefore null and void.” The declaration also acknowledged that the Holy See’s interest in Jerusalem went beyond territorial issues and touched upon a religious dimension. The declaration explained how Holy See policy had first supported thecorpus separatum idea and had then come to call for an “internationally guaranteed special statute.” Quoting at length John Paul II’s apostolic letter on Jerusalem, the declaration explained that the Holy See firmly held that “no unilateral claim made in the name of one or other of the 29 religions or by reason of historical precedence or numerical preponderance is acceptable.” Safeguarding the identity of Jerusalem means that the “historical and material characteristics of the city as well as its religious and cultural characteristics must be preserved.” The declaration also made clear that this safeguarding should not only be understood as applying to the Holy Places but needed to include the communities that live around the sites. Relating to the Oslo peace talks, the declaration quoted the pope calling on the international community to offer “the political parties most directly involved, the juridical and diplomatic instruments capable of ensuring that Jerusalem, one and holy, may truly be a crossroads of peace.”20 In November 1997, the bilateral Legal Personality Agreement: State of Israel-Holy See was signed in order to facilitate the recognition of the Catholic Church’s institutional life in the State of Israel. Although Jerusalem was not mentioned in the text of the agreement, controversy was stirred because the list of institutions attached to the document included those in East Jerusalem, territory occupied after the 1967 War. This touched directly on the definition of sovereignty in Jerusalem. On this issue, the Holy See continued to insist that it strictly abided

20.Il negoziato su Gerusalemme, in www.peacelink.it/cd/a/17479.html. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

by international law, making a distinction between the part of Jerusalem that was part of the State of Israel and that part of Jerusalem that was occupied by Israel during the 1967 War. In the agreements with Israel, the Holy See, while accepting that Israel administered the territories that had been occupied, did not consider them an integral part of the State of Israel. Jean-Louis Tauran, at that time Archbishop and Secretary for Relations with States at the Secretariat of State, in a conference in Jerusalem in 1998, explained how the Holy See saw the interrelationship between the political claims on the city and its universal religious vocation: “There is nothing to prevent Jerusalem, in its unity and uniqueness, becoming the symbol and the national capital of both the peoples that claim it as their capital. 30 But, if Jerusalem is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, it is also sacred to many people from every part of the world who look to it as their spiritual capital” (discourse, October 26, 1998). He insisted that “the whole international community is responsible for the uniqueness and sacredness of this incomparable city.” The signing of the Basic Agreement between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organisation in February 2000 refocused attention on Jerusalem. The text of the agreement spoke of Jerusalem at length, declaring “that an equitable solution for the issue of Jerusalem, based on international resolutions, is fundamental for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and that unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable; calling, therefore, for a special statute for Jerusalem, internationally guaranteed, which should safeguard the following: a) Freedom of religion and conscience for all. b) The equality before the law of the three monotheistic religions and their institutions and followers in the city. c) The proper identity and sacred character of the city and its universally significant, religious and cultural heritage. d) The Holy Places, the freedom of access to them and of worship in them. e) The Regime of ‘Status Quo’ in those Holy Places where it applies.”21

21.Basic Agreement between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization, in www.vatican.va. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

Diplomatic relations established with both Israel and Palestine paved the way for three more visits of a pope to Jerusalem. During these visits, the pontiffs were able to draw particular attention to Jerusalem’s fundamental identity and vocation. For example, Pope John Paul II, at an interreligious gathering in Jerusalem in March 2000, said, “For all of us Jerusalem, as its name indicates, is the ‘City of Peace.’ Perhaps no other place in the world communicates the sense of transcendence and divine election that we perceive in her stones and monuments, and in the witness of the three religions living side by side within her walls.”22 Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Jerusalem in May 2009, spoke repeatedly of Jerusalem and the vocation of the local Christians and in the Mass celebrated at the foot of the 31 Mount of Olives, he said: “Jerusalem, in fact, has always been a city whose streets echo with different languages, whose stones are trod by people of every race and tongue, whose walls are a symbol of God’s providential care for the whole human family. As a microcosm of our globalized world, this city, if it is to live up to its universal vocation, must be a place which teaches universality, respect for others, dialogue and mutual understanding; a place where prejudice, ignorance and the fear which fuels them, are overcome by honesty, integrity and the pursuit of peace. There should be no place within these walls for narrowness, discrimination, violence and injustice.”23 In May 2014, Pope Francis became the fourth pontiff to visit Jerusalem in modern times. During his visit to the Israeli president, he said: “I am happy to be able to meet you once again, this time in Jerusalem, the city which preserves the Holy Places dear to the three great religions which worship the God who called Abraham. The Holy Places are not monuments or museums for tourists, but places where communities of believers daily express their faith and culture, and carry out their works of charity. Precisely for this reason,

22.John Paul II, Address on the occasion of the Interreligious Meeting at the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem, March 23, 2000, ibid. 23.Benedict XVI, Homily, May 12, 2009, ibid. DAVID NEUHAUS, SJ

their sacred character must be perpetually maintained and protection given not only to the legacy of the past but also to all those who visit these sites today and to those who will visit them in the future.”24 Flying back to Rome, the pope commented on the various proposals regarding a solution to the question of Jerusalem and formulated clearly that negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians must resolve the status of Jerusalem: “The Catholic Church [...] has its own position from a religious perspective: it will be the city of peace of the three religions [...] The concrete measures for peace must emerge from negotiations [...] I believe that one has to enter into negotiations with honesty, a spirit of fraternity and mutual trust. And there everything 32 is negotiated: all the territory, also the relations. Courage is needed to do this, and I fervently pray to the Lord that these two leaders, these two governments, will have the courage to go forward. This is the only path to peace. I only say what the Church must say and has always said: Jerusalem should be preserved as the capital of the three religions, as a point of reference, as a city of peace.”25 The Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine was signed on June 26, 2015. This agreement calls for an “equitable solution for the issue of Jerusalem, based on international resolutions,” stating that “unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable.” It is expected that a final agreement will be signed with the State of Israel in the near future, after 25 years of negotiations. Unfortunately, negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians have not yet brought about a lasting peace and Jerusalem remains an arena of ongoing conflict. The Holy See insists on its neutrality with regard to territorial claims, to the chagrin of the Palestinians, and on its strict abiding by the definitions of international law and UN resolutions, to the chagrin of the

24.Francis, Address during the courtesy visit to the President of the State of Israel, May 26, 2014, ibid. 25.Francis, Press conference during the return flight from the Holy Land, May 26, 2014, ibid. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE HOLY CITY

Israelis. It sees its role as preserving a dimension of Jerusalem, as holy city, where three religions converge and where Christianity has its origins, a dimension too often marginalized in the national conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Undoubtedly, the Holy See continues to work tirelessly to promote its vision of Jerusalem as a city of peace and a place where Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together and bear witness to a God who loves all of those children, called to make Jerusalem a place where God’s name is venerated.

33 Bullying and Cyberbullying: Two phenomena on the rise

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

Some points of reference A non-profit telephone helpline set up in Italy in 1987 to guarantee the rights of children, Telefono Azzurro, recorded 270 cases of bullying and cyberbullying in the course of nine 34 months (September 2015 to June 2016), practically one call a day leading to 619 consultations. The victims of physical bullying are for the most part male (55 percent); girls, on the other hand, are the object of most cases of cyberbullying (70 percent). The perpetrators are above all male (60 percent of cases) and, in contrast to cyberbullying, they mostly know the victim. Even age is an alarming factor because bullying is seen beginning in earliest childhood (22 percent of victims are 5 years old), while cyberbullying begins around the age of 10.1 These numbers demonstrate the undoubted impact and gravity of the phenomenon of bullying among the young and even the youngest people in Italy. They represent, in reality, just the tip of the iceberg, not only as regards the data but above all for serious underlying educational problems: difficulty in academic understanding and performance, low self-esteem, impulse management, domestic violence, suicide attempts, trauma, difficult relationships with parents, separations, abandonment, jail, theft, alcoholism and drugs.

What is meant by bullying? The episodes and situations that can be called by the name of “bullying” are many and not easily classifiable. At times

1.http://www.azzurro.it/it/content/bullismo-e-cyberbullismo-il-report-di- telefono-azzurro. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE

the gravity of the situation depends on the sensitivity of the victim, the personality of the offender, the duration and the circumstances: being made fun of in front of others may be experienced in a way equally as traumatic as a physical one-on- one conflict with a classmate. Recreation and being in company with others, from the first years of life, have always been aggressive and competitive. Among the games ordinarily chosen by children are ones often based on war or relationships with the law (as in “cops and robbers”), but this does not mean that these could be problematic or that all this masks a tendency toward criminal behavior or to being overwhelmed. But it may become an issue when violence is an obsession and the only way of release or relating to others. The Italian Federation of Societies of Psychology reports the 35 characteristics which permit a particular episode to be defined under the category of bullying: “The intentional nature of the aggressive behavior perpetrated, the systematic nature of the aggressive actions, to the point of becoming persecution (a single episode is not enough for something to constitute bullying) and the asymmetry of power between victims and persecutor.”2 The concrete behavior in which bullying is manifested, for the same Federation, are the following: 1) giving offense, cursing and insults; 2) belittling another’s physical appearance or way of speaking; 3) defamation; 4) exclusion for one’s own opinions; 5) physical aggression. If these episodes seem today more serious and common than they were, it is not because the boys or girls are worse but because of the lack of educational figures and the precocious use of instruments whose power and effects are unknown to the boys or girls. Secondly, it must be specified that, if aggression and violence have always been around, especially in the age of development, today however the danger and the devastating consequences such behavior may have are more accurately understood, as are other analogous phenomena (violence in the family, mob violence, racism, discriminatory behavior, abuse of minors).

2.Cf. “Bullismo,” in State of Mind, www.stateofmind.it/tag/bullismo. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

The motivations behind the diffusion of the phenomenon may be of various types. Above all, there is the increase in students and especially the diversification of the social academic map, which is more varied than ever and brings different characteristics and problems. Moreover, one sees diminished attention to the disciplinary dimension, not only at school but also at home and in public places. Finally, the progressive shrinking of spaces reserved to children and adolescents for the possibility of amusing themselves or recreation (like sports centers and meeting places with an educational purpose). In this way, school ends up being the only place for socializing of an ever higher number of young people. Another important variable is the place of origin. Those who 36 grow up in a violent environment easily acquire the tendency to replicate the received model, developing violent behavior toward themselves and others. In her autobiography We Children from Bahnhof Zoo, Christiane F. remembers the laws of life that reigned in her neighborhood: “At the age of 6-8 years old I did not understand a thing. My father simply confirmed the life rules which I had already learned on the street and in school: hit or be hit. My mother, who in her life had received a lot of blows, had arrived at the same conclusion [...]. I learned the game little by little: exercise power over others or be crushed. At school I began with the weakest teachers. During class, I was always yelling something. The others laughed because of what I was doing. When I did that even to the most severe teachers, I finally had real recognition from my classmates.”3 This reflects a growing spiral of violence which will carry her to the tragedy of a life under the influence of heroin. It is in this constellation of human and affective misery that bullying easily takes a foothold as the most accessible way to self-affirmation and confirming one’s own worth. Another missing point is the lack of cooperation between adults – in particular between parents and teachers – that was once much more solid. Academic problems become the source

3.Christiane F., Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, 1979. The description of the squalidness of the neighborhood where the protagonist passes the years that preceded her drug addiction is also significant. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE of conflicts between school and family rather than an occasion of dialogue, penalizing the young person and reducing the spaces of intervention.

Possible signs The signs of being a victim of bullying may be different, distinct, but all emblematic, and they should all be monitored with care, especially if they appear together. They may appear in a sudden mood swing, with the decision to not want to go to school anymore (as compared with a short time before), with nightmares, anxiety, abrupt and persistent psychosomatic symptoms, especially when leaving the house (headache, stomach ache, nausea, panic attacks), plummeting academic performance, sudden explosions of anger toward parents and 37 teachers, and even suicide attempts.4 If not noticed by adults, such behavior may become the source of episodes of violence toward themselves, but also toward others. The clearest case is what happened in April 1999, when two armed adolescents burst into Columbine High School in the United States, killing a teacher, 12 classmates and wounding another 24, before committing suicide. The two authors of the massacre were loners and in the course of the previous years were repeatedly the objects of bullying by their classmates because of their modest social status (they rode bicycles to school) and of their limited physical stature. In the aftermath of the event, a federal investigation revealed that in the USA, out of the 37 massacres occurring in schools, two thirds were linked to bullying.5 Greater attention to these signs would probably have prevented such tragic consequences. The physical and psychological trauma of those who have suffered from acts of bullying, it should also be remembered, may last a long time, well beyond the school-age years. Even the witness or spectator may later feel at fault for not having intervened or for failing to be sympathetic to the victim.

4.Cf. S. Sharp - P. K. Smith, Bulli e prepotenti nella scuola. Prevenzione e tecniche educative, Trento, Erickson, 1995, 12. 5.Cf. S. Boodman, “Gifted and Tormented,” in The Washington Post, May 16, 2006. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

The violent behavior usually includes a sense of shame, of personal worthlessness and, alongside this, internal punishment for what you are doing; therefore, some react in an extremely brutal way even to a small negative comment made about them, in a way entirely disproportionate to the reality of what happened. Those words may unleash a storm of resentment which has for a long time eaten away at the subject, who sees in them the confirmation of their own sense of unworthiness.6 But what the bully tries to hide is not just negative: there is also the desire to be different, to bring out abilities up until now unused and of which they are ashamed, feeling themselves incapable of expressing them. It is important to unmask this for the future prognosis. Using all this as leverage, one will be able 38 to construct an alliance and break the vicious circle of violence/ self-punishment.

The culture linked to bullying We know how much violence captures our interest. This is the reason why it is so largely present in the media, which dedicates to it a space entirely disproportionate with respect to how often it actually happens in ordinary life. It is a very dangerous message and pregnant with consequences for the collective imagination, which must be engaged in finding an effective way to prevent bullying. To send the message that only violence can resolve issues is certainly not helpful for those who find themselves face-to-face with injustice. The film director Michael Moore, in a documentary (Bowling at Columbine, 2002) taking impetus from the events of Columbine, asks himself why homicides are so common in the USA (11,000 per year, a proportional average 30 times greater than any other country). He identifies one of the principal causes, beyond the easy accessibility of firearms, in the obsession with which the media confront the twin factors of violence and fear. In the course of 1999, the year of the Columbine massacre, notwithstanding a 20 percent decrease in crimes, the

6.Cf. P. Fonagy, et al., Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self, New York, Other Press, 2002, 425f. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE news transmitted in the United States with regard to armed aggression and homicides reported a 600 percent increase. Fear was the background message that accompanied the American citizen during the day. A reason which adds to the vicious circle is that the more one speaks of acts of violence, without offering sufficient reflection, the more fear and the impulse to be armed increase, thus generating a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Even the subject of bullying was unfortunately marked with the same twinning of “fear/spectacle.” This is what happened with the television series 13 Reasons Why, broadcast on March 31, 2017, by the online and on demand platform Netflix in all the countries in which it is present. The series – which already foresees a second season beginning in 2018 – is inspired by the novel of the same name by Jay Asher,7 39 which narrates through the recorded voice of the protagonist, Hannah Baker, the reconstruction of her bullying by 13 different people, culminating with her death by suicide. Baker had taken care to prepare for that gesture, recording 13 audiocassettes, one for each of her tormentors, who then have to pass it on to the next, in a sort of “chain of St. Anthony,” on the pain of the revelation of what happened by someone who has all the material in their possession. The book however, and even more so the television series, although wanting to treat the drama of bullying, tended to transform it into a spectacle. There is no analysis of the aggressive dynamic and the complicity behind the suicide of the protagonist: a dynamic put into action as much by the persecutors as by the victim. The “chain of transmission” of the 13 cassettes becomes in its turn the source of further bullying and violence: a vendetta accomplished on a varied group of persons whose effective responsibility remains entirely to be established. In this way a disturbing double message is sent that ends up exalting “passive bullying,” the situation in which the group is provoked by the victim to continue their bullying behavior. This

7.Cf. J. Asher, Tredici: Se mi stai ascoltando sei arrivato troppo tardi, Milan, Mondadori, 2017. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

dangerous dynamic is amplified in the television series, which limits itself to turning the event into a spectacle. But without an adequate critical reflection upon the motivations and the possible prevention of these elements, the program, exalting the heroic and romantic significance of the suicide (a sort of settling of accounts post mortem), actually sets off a tragic mechanism of emulation.8 For this reason, at the beginning of the first episode some warnings of the possible danger of the program were inserted, and some countries at high risk of suicide among adolescents, like New Zealand, vigorously recommend that the program is only seen in the presence of an adult.9

Cyberbullying 40 Another relevant chapter of the contemporary manifestation of bullying involves the internet. The web is a universe rich in unlimited possibility but, as in real life, it may present menaces and dangers that are even more insidious because of the greater ease of access and anonymity: two characteristics that tend to avoid the inhibitory brakes that usually emerge in real contact with people. The concealment of otherness may favor the increase of behavior linked to bullying, as this high school student confesses: “I think that people say things that they would not usually say in person because online, when you write something, you are not face-to-face with the person. So I wrote an email to a friend of mine and said things to her that I would never have said to her face, because I would have felt like a bad person to say it to her in person. So, by using email you feel less guilty.”10 Invisibility brings an increase in the sensation of omnipotence and a decrease in the awareness of what you say and post on the web. On the other hand, all of this is accompanied

8.Cf. M. Balingit, “Educators and school psychologists raise alarms about ‘13 Reasons Why,’” in The Washington Post, May 2, 2017; B. Carmody, “Headspace issues warning over graphic Netflix series 13 Reasons Why,” in The Sydney Morning Herald, April 18, 2017. 9.Cf. B. Pagan, “Tredici: In Nuova Zelanda la serie di Netflix sarà vietata ai minori di 18 anni,” in BadTV.it, April 29, 2017. 10.J. Palfrey - U. Gasser, Nati con la rete: La prima generazione cresciuta su Internet. Istruzioni per l’uso, Milan, Rizzoli, 2009, 133. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE by an accentuated sensitivity toward the messages received, which, when they are negative, are experienced in a still more devastating manner than in a physical conflict. It is as if the roles were inverted: the offender does not perceive the gravity of the message, which, on the other hand, becomes for the victim interiorly amplified because of the value that they attribute to it because of their lack of self-esteem. This risk is still more elevated if one keeps in mind that children and young people, being in a phase of growth, have not yet adequately developed the control and management of powers of affection and aggression.11 This lack of development is at the base of the tendency to film and publish online scenes of violence inflicted on classmates at school. “The authors, both adolescents and young people, are often entirely unaware of the 41 real harm done to the victims and present a dangerous confusion between the virtual image, where the pain is fake, and reality, where the pain is all too real.”12 All this remains inexplicable even in the perspective of the bully. To post films that quickly serve as proof against them tells us just how much they lack the awareness of the gravity of the actions committed, even at the criminal level, and how the fact of appearing on the screen ends up being the most important element.

The mimetic effect of the web Another aspect of bullying online is that it favors emulative phenomena. An eloquent example in this regard is given by the events linked to the social network Ask.fm – an abbreviation of Ask for me, created in Lithuania in 2010 on the model of the American Formspring — based on a free association of questions and answers expressed completely anonymously. Ask.fm grew exceedingly quickly until it became available in 150 languages, arriving at 60 million members, for the most part adolescents between 13 and 16 years old, and an estimated worth of around $70 million. In theory, access is prohibited to minors less than 13

11.Cf. J. Suler, “The Online Disinhibition Effect,” in CyberPsychology and Behavior 7 (2004) 321-326. 12.S. Bonino, Altruisti per natura, Rome - Bari, Laterza, 2012, 118. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

years old, but on the web it is very easy to lie and this makes that environment even more attractive to the very young. According to the data of the digital ranking company ComScore, after three years of its existence Ask.fm was found among the 80 most clicked web addresses and among the 10 most downloaded apps on iTunes. But together with the rapid growth, there is a parallel degeneration on the part of those who post messages, with devastating consequences: the situation became so grave that in the United Kingdom authorities decided to close the platform following numerous suicide attempts, up until the suicide in August 2013 of 14-year-old Hanna Smith following a barrage of insults, threats, and invitations to kill herself posted on her Ask. 42 fm profile. But hers is only one link in a long chain of desperation and death. The victims are all very young: 12 years old (Rebecca Ann Sedwick, USA), 13 years old (Ciara Pugsley, Erin Gallagher, Ireland), 14 years old (a girl from Padua, Nadia, and one from Venaria, near Turin, Aurora), 16 years old (Jessica Laney, USA). The Lithuanian social network also seems to be at the base of mass violent behavior. In Bologna, in the night between September 13-14, 2013, a violent riot which involved more than 250 adolescents between the age of 14 and 16 years old was set off by a growing series of insults and threats (more than 800) on the same network. Ask.fm is only one example among the thousands of sites that are multiplying on the net, too easily frequented by children and adolescents who enter without aid and protection into a world too big and complex to be managed with responsibility, because they belong to an age range when you tend to act before thinking, impelled by emotion or the impulse of the moment.13 That online bullying can kill is a fact that has been revealed to the public even in Italy, when in January 2013 the media reported that a girl of 14 committed suicide after repeated

13.To understand more deeply cf. G. Cucci, Internet e cultura: Nuove opportunità e nuove insidie, Milan, Àncora - La Civiltà Cattolica, 2016, 81-98. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE episodes of bullying, consisting above all in the placement online of some of her intimate photos and messages by unknown persons: “Words hurt more than blows,” she wrote in her last post.14 In a brief time the news had made the rounds of the social networks; a tweet that expressed the pain and anger was retweeted 2,600 times in a few hours. A video made by some of her friends to remember her on YouTube was accompanied by the following comment: “This very beautiful girl is dead. She committed suicide. It is said that she did it because of bullying. But also for other family reasons. She alone knows what she had in mind that night between the 4th and 5th of January. She continued to ask for help in an indirect way, but no one wanted to listen. In any case, words hurt. And we have proof of that. Think before you speak.”15 According to the National 43 Center for the Prevention and the Fight against Cyberbullying of the Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan (created in 2016), every year in Italy 1,030 new cases of cyberbullying are recorded (72 percent of the episodes of bullying being via the web), but the majority remain hidden.16

The web as mirror of life The cause of these phenomena is certainly not to be attributed to the new technology. These situations, however, do become magnified in their effects by powerful and fascinating instruments, which, as with every reality, present traps and dangers that should be recognized but of which users are mostly unaware. For this reason, it is good that the very young who venture onto the internet be educated in the prudent and constructive use of the multiple and hidden aspects of the web that can be summarized by the fundamental warning: “Handle

14.Cf. A. Mangiarotti, “I tweet per Carolina ‘uccisa dai bulli,’” in Corriere della Sera, January 7, 2013. 15.Cf. “Suicidio Carolina Picchio: gli amici la ricordano con un video su YouTube,” in Today, January 8, 2013, www.today.it/video/suicidio-carolina- picchio-amici.html. 16.Cf. F. Massara, “Un centro aiuterà vittime e carnefici del cyberbullismo,” in La Stampa, July 1, 2016, http://archivio.lastampa.it/articolo?id=5dd7e233280ad0 9f145ed0d2077e7bacd7501384&dal=&al=&pubblicazione=&edizione=&dove=& testo=Un+centro+aiuter%3F+vittime+e+carnefici+del+cyberbullismo&page=1. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

with care.” This is something that doubtlessly remains difficult for a child who has the tendency to act before thinking. The web has not invented bullying, just as it has not created pornography, addiction, violence, gambling or social isolation. It is not necessary therefore to put on trial an invention that, like every other, may be used for good or for evil. The virtual world manifests in a more evident way what was already present before its coming. For this reason, in order to adequately confront such a problem, one must explore the offline life of the victim, as well as that of the persecutor. This will involve their history, family, significant relationships and interests, environment, and way in which they tend to confront difficulty. Carolina, the 14-year-old Italian girl mentioned above, 44 had a situation of great solitude on her shoulders: the beauty and attractiveness that are evident in the photos in which she appears were not enough to support the weight of the bullying, above all when the image and the attitude of another become, especially at that age, the prevalent problem and interest. Hence the origin of the attempt to fill these voids in the most diverse and desperate ways. This inability to express her own interior suffering finds confirmation in the fact that those who were near to her had in no way perceived her state of discomfort. She frequented different settings, but no one had grasped what she was living: “‘Sunny, clever, and beautiful,’ those who knew her say. ‘Sunny, clever, and beautiful,’ the president of Libertas Atletica Oleggio also says. She had the physique of a jumper, beautiful to see compete, beautiful with friends, beautiful… none of us ever thought that she could be a victim of bullying.’ The mother of a companion puts it succinctly: ‘Never any sign, no word.’ And also her teacher of psychology at Bellini: ‘No signal, no confidential information. I hope that the motive is not connected with bad mouthing.’”17 This difficulty in picking up on the uneasiness on the part of adults often emerges in these episodes, and not only because of bullying.

17.A. Mangiarotti, “I tweet per Carolina ‘uccisa dai bulli,’” quotation on the link between bullying, school, and family, cf. G. Boncori (ed.), Pedagogia e famiglia: Assenzepresenze-correlati-strumenti, Rome, Universitalia, 2016, 137-237. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE

The role of educators The actions of bullies may easily get worse if they are not challenged by adults: many of them and their victims know a tragic escalation that leads them to jail, alcoholism, drug addiction and a violent death. Those who, for various reasons, are called to be educators – parents, teachers, social workers, school administrators, sports coaches, priests – must acquire competence and give much attention to these signals, not only to prevent tragic outcomes, like that of Columbine, but also because the consequences of these acts will continue to make themselves felt in the course of successive phases of life, provoking great suffering, and inhibiting the capacity and desire to give the best of one’s self. The difficulty of an adequate reading of the phenomenon 45 is given not only by the rather discreet mode of these signs, but above all by the fact that the majority of young people and adults tend to minimize episodes of serious violence out of fear or the inability to manage the situation. Following a series of suicides and attempted suicides due to episodes of bullying, the psychologist Dan Olweus conducted wide-ranging research on the schools of Norway and Sweden, discovering not only that 17 percent of students were victims of bullying, but also that parents and teachers alike, when they were made aware of the facts, had ignored what was happening (60 percent of the responses); and, above all, that the subject of bullying was almost never the object of discussion between teachers and students (85 percent of the responses).18 This was a situation very similar to what was encountered in Columbine High School: due to the intense competition in sports, the episodes of bullying were frequent, but the school personnel, once informed, never implemented any intervention to discourage it, limiting themselves to comment that “boys will be boys.”19

18.Cf. D. Olweus, Bullismo a scuola: Ragazzi oppressi, ragazzi che opprimono, Florence, Giunti, 2007, 23. 19.“Some parents and students believe that the indulgence shown by the school to some athletes – their criminal intentions, physical abuse, sexual and racial bullying – had intensified the sense of impotence of the assassins and GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

Elliot Aronson, one of the social psychologists who developed a recovery program for those who survived the massacre at Columbine, had been in his time an object of bullying. Once he was knocked to the ground and beaten bloody by Tommy Foster, a much larger boy, without anyone having intervened to help him. The majority of the bystanders – teachers included – seemed rather amused, as if they had assisted at a sort of spectacle: “I survived that event, but it remains traumatic at the distance of more than 50 years. I still cannot understand why the school had not done anything to prevent this type of situation. This would not have only been helpful to me, but also Tommy Foster.”20 Silence is always a powerful ally of bullying. In fact, violent behavior is encouraged when there is no counteractive 46 intervention and the silence of the bystanders, as in the case of Aronson, is interpreted as approval on the part of the aggressor: a situation often revealed by social psychology.21 It is therefore extremely important that the educator intervene immediately on becoming aware of confirmed episodes of bullying, that this subject becomes the object of a deliberate education program; and that a specific team should be created to address the question in an adequate manner, even under its juridical and penal aspect. The implementation of these interventions permits the breaking of the contagious dynamic (the “pack”), and also passivity and collusion (the “spectators”) that often accompany and encourage violent action.22 Within an arc of two years, the school program for the prevention of bullying created in Norway and Sweden brought about the reduction of more than 50 percent of cases and an improvement of the general school climate, both with

galvanized their fantasies of vendetta.” L. - D. Russakoff, “Dissecting Columbine’s Cult of the Athlete,” in The Washington Post, June 12, 1999). Cf. B. Brooks - R. Merritt, No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine, New York, Lantern Books, 2002, 20-22. 20.E. Aronson, Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine, New York, Freeman, 2000, 76. 21.Cf. B. Latané - J. Rodin, “A lady in distress: Inhibiting effects of friends and strangers on bystander intervention,” in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 5 (1969) 189-202. 22.Cf. G. Cucci, “È possibile contrastare l’odio?” in Civ. Catt. 2016 I 553-555. BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING: TWO PHENOMENA ON THE RISE regard to understanding and socialization and an increase in the degree of the satisfaction of the students. All this will be reflected in the coming years in the decrease of drop outs, crime and antisocial behavior outside of school. Increased awareness and information are certainly the first steps to be taken in the sphere of education.23

47

23.Cf. D. Olweus, Bullismo a scuola..., quotation, 109-111. Martin Luther’s Vocation

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

A topic like Luther’s vocation does not capture the attention of his biographers. It is taken for granted. Everyone talks about it, but only in a generic way. In truth, the facts are not so apparent. Luther entered the monastery when he was 21 years old, 48 after a storm. On July 2, 1505, while returning to Erfurt from Mansfeld where he was visiting some relatives, he was caught in a storm near Stotternheim, a few kilometers from home. Lightning struck nearby and he was terrified by the possibility of his imminent death. So he made a vow to St. Anne (the mother of Mary) that he would become a monk if he survived.1 The saint was patroness of miners and he had heard her name many times at home as his father had worked as a miner. In any case, two weeks later, on July 17, Luther entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and began the path of religious life as a novice. His father had convinced him to study law. He came from a poor family and was dependent upon his father’s work in the mines. At about the same time, his father’s entrepreneurial spirit improved their position and he sought a good career for his son and a high position in society to help improve the family’s situation. In 1501 Luther enrolled in Erfurt, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued his studies, eventually graduating as a Master of Arts (magister artium) in 1505. He then started to study Law. During these years he was removed from the domestic environment and immersed in the world of culture and of university studies which no doubt held great appeal for

1.Cf. M. Luther, Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimarer Ausgabe [WA]), Weimar: H. Böhlau, 1883 pp., Tischreden 4, 440, No. 4707 (July 16, 1539). MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION

the enthusiastic young Luther. He did not, however, like the study of law. Perhaps when in July he found himself in the terrible storm, the young man – a poetic soul, lover of music, sensitive to the wonders of nature – felt an impulse toward the spiritual and contemplative life, but also toward religious life as a guarantee of salvation of the soul and inner peace. It certainly changed both his life and history. His father was opposed to Luther’s decision to become a monk and did not consent even when he learned about the lightning-inspired vow, doubting the authenticity of the vocation and of the “sign from the heavens.” Luther spoke often about his father’s objections to his vocation, even recalling it on the occasion of his presbyteral in 1507. In the preface of De votis monasticis, written a few years later in the form of a 49 letter addressed to his father, he confesses: “I told you that I was called by the terror of the heavens. In fact, neither willingly, nor from my own desire, did I become a monk, much less from the desire for material advantage, but was persecuted by the terror and anguish of a sudden death. So, I took a vow, which was forced and not free.”2 The decision to become a monk was experienced then as a sudden and unexpected event. In 1519 his friend Crotus Rubeanus compared the lightning strike of Stotternheim with the calling of St. Paul as an apostle: Luther had been struck down “like a second Paul on the road to Damascus.”3 An impulsive decision then? Not at all. Nothing legitimates such a conclusion. If it is true that Luther had some hesitation and perhaps even brief second thoughts,4 he did not question his vow or attempt to undermine its legitimacy in any way. His conscience bound him. This would suggest that it was not the first time that Luther had thought about monastic life, and that in some way his decision was, even if not formed, at least considered as a hypothetical possibility for his future. It is true that a man in the Middle Ages was easily led to such promises, but this affirmation does not explain

2.De votis monasticis Martini Lutheri iudicium, 1521, in WA 8, 1889, 573 pp. 3.WA Briefe 1, 543, 105 pp. 4.Cf. O. Scheel, Martin Luther. Vom Katholizismus zur Reformation, vol. 1, Tübingen, Mohr, 1916, 237 pp.; 296 footnote 8. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

why a young law student, whether satisfied or not with his life, would suddenly make such a radical decision. In any case, Luther had no doubts about the validity of his vow, even if it had been formulated in a moment of fear and danger. In fact, he knew very well, as did all Christians of that time, that any vow extorted in a moment of grave danger did not oblige, and perhaps he also knew it would have been unnecessary to ask for any dispensation, as stated by some biographers. What is more surprising is that the Augustinians who welcomed him in the monastery of Erfurt did not express any doubts as to the authenticity of his religious vocation. We also know that the monastery where he asked to be welcomed had many aspirants and was not actively seeking out new 50 vocations. Luther’s decision, even if sudden, involved an interior serenity. In the first years of his life in the monastery, there is nothing we can observe that makes one think there was any constraint or reservation to the beginning of his monastic life.

The commentary on the ‘Letter to the Romans’ It would be interesting to enter Luther’s soul to know his thoughts and feelings. His biographers have developed the most diverse theories that would be impossible to summarize here. We want to focus our attention on a page of his commentary on the Letter to the Romans, a university course he offered in Wittenberg in 1515-1516, about 10 years after his religious profession. As pointed out by Giovanni Miegge in his biography of Luther: “In the lectures on the Letter to the Romans, he dedicates some beautiful language to the excellence of religious life and monastic vows.”5 This is in the commentary on the final part of theLetter , on chapter 14, where Luther directly discusses the problem of religious vocation, in a clear and singularly concrete way, asking himself: “What does it mean to become a monk today?”6

5.G. Miegge, Lutero giovane, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1977, 27; Ibid., Lutero: L’ u o m o e il pensiero fino alla Dieta di Worms (1843-1851). Turin: Claudiana, 2008 (original 1946), 51. 6.WA 56, 497 pp.; M. Lutero, Lezioni sulla Lettera ai Romani, II, G. Pani, Ed., Genova, Marietti, 1992, 257. MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION

The chapter is an exhortation on the Christian life, to welcome the weak in faith and to be a cause of their edification. The interpretation of the chapter spontaneously orients Luther to the practice in use in the Church of the early 16th century, so the question arises: how do such customs, regulated by ecclesiastical laws, agree with the principle of evangelical freedom reiterated with such force by Paul in this Letter? The first answer seems to be one that could be given by theologians of our own day. Luther immediately admits the principle of Christian freedom, of the non-necessity of all customs and prescriptions opposed by the radicalism of his interlocutors. Paul spoke at length about the topic of Christian freedom in relation to very specific adversaries, the- so called “Judaizers.”7 Outside such a context, concludes Luther, the legal 51 observations are licit and useful. As we can see, he looks for intermediate solutions: For the early Church, as for his own time, the external observations, even if licit, were marginal, and constitute risky distraction for those who find in them the guarantee of salvation while completely ignoring what is essential: faith and charity. Therefore, in defining the relationship between what is essential and what seems to be marginal, Luther affirms that it is permissible to abide by the laws and ecclesiastical customs according to the conscience of each individual,8 in accordance with the commitments undertaken personally with God and with inner aspirations. For him, however, the insistence on exterior behavior leads us to not take into account interior virtues, like faith and charity, which are necessary for salvation. Luther here still considers the religious vow in traditional terms, even if such a concession involves a note of intransigent radicalism. He notes that whoever observes a vow without

7.The Judaizers were Jewish-Christians, observant of the Mosaic Law, circumcision, kashrut, believing that these things are necessary for salvation. Christ’s baptism and the new economy would not be sufficient. For them, this was an imitation of the life of the Lord, since Jesus was circumcised and faithfully observed the Law. 8.The Latin phrase is very precise and theologically exact: secundum uniuscuiusque votum (WA 56, 495, 27). GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

realizing the reasons of charity that motivated the vow commits the sin of sacrilege, renounces their own freedom and becomes a slave to the self because they act without love and against their will. It would be better for that person not to have taken the vow in the first place.9 At this point Luther realizes that he did not consider the most relevant aspect in the topic of freedom in the spirit: if the Christian life is purely and simply freedom in the spirit and if even the fundamental law of the Decalogue is reduced in the New Testament to charity alone and charity is full freedom, what use are the ecclesiastical laws, the general precepts, the prescribed fasting periods and the obligatory feast days? His answer is quick and decisive: “What is imposed by the ancient 52 consensus of the universal Church, for the love of God and just motives, must be observed: not because it is necessary and immutable, but because the obedience inspired by love which is due to God and the Church is itself necessary.”10 In other words, obedience is due to God and the Church and is essential for salvation. At the same time, the faithful find that this obedience to the Church out of love11 is an operative image and an opportunity to exercise their fidelity to God. At the heart of this, for Luther, is a pastoral consideration: that the norms of the Church should be few, indeed very few, and should always be directed toward the end of charity – since ecclesial communion is charity – and that they should be modified and redefined at the proper moment for this purpose. The discussion now focuses on the painful reality of time. It emerges from the lack of appropriate intention in observing ecclesiastical laws, in the dangerous illusions generated by the abundant external practice of the precepts – both for the faithful

9.The comment: “The fact is that, having left behind charity and the other duties necessary for salvation, we instead attach ourselves to those externals (as now happens everywhere among priests and religious, especially among the secular clergy) [...] There is nothing strange if we return to Jewish superstition and reestablished slavery to the law of . And we stick to these obligations not only willingly, but with the illusion that without them we cannot be saved.” (M. Luther, Lezioni sulla Lettera ai Romani, II, cit., 256). 10.Ibid. 11.Ex charitate: The expression is repeated several times in this chapter. MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION and for the pastors – and above all in a religious practice that is often distant from any consideration of faith and charity. Luther’s point of view, despite the polemical interpretation of the religious behaviors of the time, is in itself traditional. Besides, on the practical side he contents himself with just a few things: a liturgical reform that lightens the load of the ceremonial aspect of religious life.

The religious vocation A contemporary issue pervades the conclusion of the discourse and has to do with the monastic vocation: “Today [nunc], does it still make sense to become a religious?” Here we should pay attention to the nunc because it concerns a defined historical situation and not an absolute evaluation of religious life. 53 In his discourse, in an irony of history, Luther starts with a common saying of his time, according to which desperatio 12 facit monachum. One becomes a monk because desperation leaves you no other choice in life. Luther strongly opposes this traditional proverb: he states that desperation only produces demons and not monks. One becomes a monk exclusively out 13 of love: ex charitate, that is, out of gratitude toward God and the desire to express this gratitude after the many sins by which one had previously expressed ingratitude. The formula used by Luther, though traditional in its content, in its time – as both before and after – has a particular accent that reveals something especially interesting. Luther is struck not by the humility and the apparent insignificance of the tasks that are required of a monk, but by the lack of historical relevance of the monastic habit, by its lack of current meaning. And he returns to this topic several times without dramatization; on the contrary, he manages to recover some positivity for that habit in the name of Christian paradox. Two hundred years previously, he says, the tunic of a monk or friar gave prestige and a kind of honor, with an intrinsic

12.“Desperation makes the monk.” WA 56, 497, 20-21. Actually the proverb said: Militem aut monachum facit desperatio, “Desperation makes a soldier or a monk.” 13.WA 56, 496, 14. 16. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

relevance linked to the spirit and the perspective of the times. Today instead it is an occasion of ridicule; this humiliation can be a good thing, but it should be sought ex charitate, for that love of God that continuously requires a large measure of self- emptying and self-love. In the contemptuous opposition that bishops and priests display against religious, the lack of esteem is inspired by the senseless habit of the monks and the gratuitous humiliation that it inspires. Here there is an implicit assertion that bishops and priests dress rather opulently, conforming to the secular values and the customs of the early 1500s, and that they know how to take care of their own worldly dignity. Luther lingers on the polemical contrast since, by vocation, the religious wants to 54 be despised and rejected for love of Christ who was the first to be rejected and despised in the extreme. Therefore Luther surprisingly recovers a value in the testimony to the faith in such strange clothing, which seemed to testify only to the ineptitude of monks and friars to live in wider society. But as Luther writes, there are few religious who rejoice because “they are exposed to shame and to the cross.”14 Between the lines there emerges a debate on the theme of right intention (bona intentio), that is, the act of orienting one’s will in conformity to God’s will. In monastic spirituality this is what was suggested to overcome the natural discontinuity of the motions of the will, which occur, for example, during prayer (forgetfulness, distraction, incoherence, etc.). At this point Luther poses a basic objection: the right intention, the good intention of will, cannot be given (cf. Rom 7:14-24). The traditional doctrine takes for granted that it is accessible to the human person, that God loves us and is always near and ready to give us all the good that we are willing to receive, that is, interior fidelity. Against these certainties, Luther’s well-known tirade is hurled. We cannot speak of our fidelity if it is not accompanied by spontaneous and joyful adherence. According to him, the

14.M. Luther, Lezioni sulla Lettera ai Romani, II, 257. He then comments: “But today – How sad! – there are no more arrogant people than they” (ibid). MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION

following criterion is decisive: if the Church were to abolish the obligatory nature of certain spiritual practices (rites, rules, prayers, fasting, etc.) and one immediately abandoned them, this would mean that one had not been expressing their own will, but on the contrary, they were practiced out of fear or habit. He concludes: “It would take a year for the churches and altars to become almost completely deserted. And so it should be, to be able to access them with freedom and joy, as people dedicated to the service of God, and not out of fear of conscience or punishment, nor for the hope of gain or honor.”15 From this page, paradoxically bright, it is clear that Luther’s judgment on monastic life is, at that moment, strongly positive. This ends the course on the Letter to the Romans, probably around the middle of 1516 when he had already been a monk 55 for 11 years.

The authenticity of a vocation This page also reveals the authenticity of the religious vocation of the future reformer. That is what we should keep in mind when we consider whether Luther had a real vocation to religious life, a matter debated several times even after the Dominican Heinrich Suso Denifle16 and the Jesuit Hartmann Grisar17 denied that Luther did. The fundamental study on the youth and vocation of Luther has been made by Otto Scheel with his erudite biography

15.M. Luther, Lezioni sulla Lettera ai Romani, II, 259. 16.H. S. Denifle, Luther und Luthertum in der ersten Entwicklung; quellenmäßig dargestellt, Mainz, F. Kircheim, 1904. Denifle, Vatican under-archivist, who had studied the decadence and corruption of religious orders in the 15th century, could trip up the future reformer in some of his statements. But he portrays a Luther dominated by lust, ignorance and lies. For him, it would have been better had Luther never entered the monastery. At the time, the work caused a scandal, even a provoking a parliamentary inquiry in Germany. 17.H. Grisar, Luther, 3 vols., Freiburg i. Br., Herder, 1911-1912. Luther is considered by him, from the moment of his entering the monastery, as someone unsuitable for monastic life. The very vow he made and stubbornly held had no value. Entering into monastic life in such circumstances, he did not have the skills to remain. His was not a vocation. Grisar concludes that Luther had an unhappy and psychopathic character. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

18 Martin Luther. He dismantles all the legends about the reformer, but he is very capable of maintaining the traditional story, eliminating obvious fabrications and absurdities. For the life of Luther in the monastery, he quotes a witness like Flacius Illyricus, in which the sincerity of the religious calling and his spiritual life are evident.19 It is important to recall several authors who, in the middle of the last century, contributed to the study and reevaluation of Luther’s vocation. First of all, the historian Lortz with the volume The Reformation in Germany, published in 1939- 40, represents a turning point in the Catholic consideration of the reformer.20 On one hand, he highlights the authenticity of Luther’s religious vocation and the intensity of his spiritual life, 56 and on the other hand his passion for knowledge of the Bible. The reformer here looks like a “spiritual giant” and above all as a strongly religious man in his own profound and original way. The author also reiterates his prayer life, which is wonderfully reflected in his liturgical hymns and frequent confession. He identifies the central point of Luther’s theology, which is the theologia crucis. Of course, there is no lack of criticism of Luther: for example, the fact that he had a deeply subjectivist personality, to the extent that this attitude would be the reason for his errors. Today, Lortz’s volume is in some respects dated, but it remains fundamental for several reasons, not least that it shows Luther as having an authentic vocation to monastic life. Then there is Giovanni Miegge with his monograph Luther, published a few years later, in 1946. The Waldensian scholar speaks of Luther’s novitiate, which “was a period of relatively happy initiation. He brought to his new vocation the strength of a young man anxious for perfection. The beneficial influence of regular life, the continuous occupations of the spirit ...

18.O. Scheel, Martin Luther: Vom Katholizismus zur Reformation, vol. 2, Tübingen, Mohr, 1916, 6; 337, note 36. 19.Ibid., Dokumente zu Luthers Entwicklung (bis 1519), Tübingen, Mohr, 1929, 201, note 534. 20.Cf. J. Lortz, La Riforma in Germania, I, Premesse, inizio, primi risultati, Milan, Jaca Book, 1971 (or. 1939-40). MARTIN LUTHER’S VOCATION participation in the divine office, frequent confession, spiritual conversations with his “pedagogue,” the edifying readings to which he dedicated himself by his own motivation, must all have given the young novice the impression of having truly found the way of peace for his soul.”21 Miegge’s affirmation is supported by several references. One of these is the following. Luther says: “I have been a pious monk, I dare to say so, and I have observed the rule so strictly, that I can say: if a monk had ever reached heaven in virtue of his way of living the monastic life, probably I would do so as well. All of my confreres, who knew me, can attest to it.”22 Many other witnesses confirm that Luther entered the monastery to follow the way of evangelical perfection. In the end of the volume, Miegge reaffirms his conviction: 57 “We can affirm with certainty that the Reformation was not born out of a crisis of the monastic vocation of Luther, that on the contrary, this was a consequence, neither desired nor appreciated, of the Reformation.”23 Another scholar, M. Lienhard, also notes that, unlike many other monks of his time, Luther did not enter the monastery because he had no other means to live. His decision therefore was truly a religious choice. If this perspective were the meeting point of an anguished conscience before a demanding and majestic God, monastic life was the best that the Church could offer. Also his leanings toward Ockhamism (Nominalism), which he learned while studying philosophy, and toward the sovereignty of God offered him the possibility of being accepted in his commitment to the ascetic life. Finally, the monastery which Luther chose to enter was known for its strict observance.24 Also R.H. Bainton, in his biography of Luther, emphasizes that he “entered the monastery to seek, as others have done, and

21.G. Miegge, Lutero..., cit., 59. 22.Ibid., 83. The author refers to the Kleine Antwort to Duke George in 1533. Cf. M. Brecht, Martin Luther. I. Sein Weg zur Reformation. 1483-1521, Stuttgart, Calwer, 1983, 76 pp. 23.G. Miegge, Lutero…, cit., 460f; M. Miegge, Martin Lutero (1483-1546). La Riforma protestante e la nascita delle società moderne, Turin, Claudiana, 2013, 34. 24.Cf. M. Lienhard, Martin Luther: La passion de Dieu, Paris, Bayard, 1999, 21-26. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

even more than most, to be at peace with God.”25 He notes the abundance of conflicting judgments that have been issued on his vocation. “Those who deplore the fact that he later repudiated his vow explain this decision by saying that he should not have pronounced it in the first place. If he had been a real monk, they say, he would never have thrown off his habit. His critique of the monastic system has been like a burden on him, as he is depicted as a monk without vocation, and his vow is interpreted not as a true divine call but rather as the solution of an interior conflict.”26 *** The opinions of these scholars are confirmed by the analysis made in the pages of his commentary on the Letter to the 58 Romans of 1516. The accuracy of certain formulae, the criticism of the traditional proverb according to which desperatio facit monachum, the problem of the validity of the vow, the conflictual relationship with his father, and the context in which it has been examined lead us to conclude that he had an authentic vocation. Luther was a good monk at the beginning of his religious life. There is nothing that could lead one to conclude it was a false vocation or that he chose the monastic life to escape the world as some of his contemporaries may have viewed it.

25.R.H. Bainton, Lutero, Turin, Einaudi, 1960, 15. 26.Ibid., 5. Dialogue and Proclamation in Catholic Universities

David Hollenbach, SJ

The many Catholic universities spread around the world have an important role in allowing their students to obtain a better understanding of the Christian faith. So, in view of the Synod of Bishops that will be held in October 2018 on the theme, “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment,” it 59 is good to look at the way these universities carry out their intellectual and educational work. One thing that has important implications for the work of Catholic universities is the relationship between dialogue and proclamation: a decisive connection for their contribution to the Church’s call to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world, especially to the young. Dialogue and proclamation, in fact, are not alternative elements today. They are integrally linked in a credible and successful approach to evangelization today. The importance of the connection between dialogue and proclamation for the role carried out by Catholic universities can be seen in light of several considerations. First, there are important aspects of the Catholic intellectual tradition that show how much the link between dialogue and proclamation shapes what these institutions can contribute to the mission of the Church. Second, commitment in dialogue will be fundamental in addressing students of today about the importance of religious faith and its role in their existence. Empirical data confirms this, showing that for university students the proclamation is less likely to be received if it is not made in a spirit of dialogue. Finally, the role of dialogue in promoting greater appreciation of the Christian faith has implications for the curricula, research and other programs of Catholic universities today. DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ

A reflection on this argument can help understand the way they offer an aid to the Church in its mission, nurturing the understanding of the Christian faith in the students. It can also indicate how these universities, through their research activity, can contribute to a deeper appreciation of what Christianity offers the intellectual life.

Resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition The Catholic intellectual tradition brings important resources that allow the Church to respond to the key intellectual challenges of our day. We live in an increasingly interdependent global society. Globalization is occurring economically, politically, culturally and environmentally.1 It also has religious 60 and educational implications. Religious traditions and communities are interacting in ways that are unprecedented in human history. Catholic higher education possesses intellectual resources that could help Catholicism play an important role in efforts to address this interaction of traditions. Catholic intellectuals have long sought to explore the relation between their belief in Christ and the diverse cultures the Church is facing. St. Augustine wove together the Gospel with the neo-Platonic and Stoic thought of the late Roman Empire, and St. learned the thought of Aristotle through dialogue with Muslim thinkers like Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroës). Of course, Augustine and Aquinas did not simply accept neo-Platonic and Aristotelian thought without critique. They made important revisions in these Greek and Roman traditions in light of the Gospel. But the Catholic tradition knows from experience that the Gospel and non-Christian traditions need not be simple adversaries.

1.For an in-depth analysis of the diverse dimensions of globalization, cf. D. Held – A. McGrew – D. Goldblatt – J. Perraton, Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture, Stanford (California USA), Stanford University Press, 1999. Similar though not identical dimensions of globalization are analyzed in J. S. Nye – J. D. Donahue (eds.), Governance in a Globalizing World, Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution Press, 2000, in particular in Part One. DIALOGUE AND PROCLAMATION IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES

Thus in the Catholic intellectual tradition, proclamation and dialogue go hand in hand. As Pope John Paul II put it in Redemptoris Missio: “Dialogue is not in opposition to the mission ad gentes; indeed, it has special links with that mission and is one of its expressions” (No. 55). The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue recalled Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate and its affirmation that “the proclamation of Jesus Christ should itself be carried out in the Gospel spirit of dialogue.”2 This emphasis on the dialogic dimension of proclamation reflects what historian John O’Malley has called the “style” of dialogue adopted by the Second Vatican Council.3 This dialogic style has shaped Pope Francis’ way of proclaiming the Gospel during his pontificate. Pope Francis’ reflection on the new evangelization in Evangelii Gaudium 61 uses the word “dialogue” some 59 times. Francis describes the style that should characterize our efforts to bring the Gospel to others as a spirit of “accompaniment” and he calls the Church to grow in the “art of accompaniment.” The art of accompaniment, the pope says, “teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Exod 3:5)” with “loving attentiveness” and “true concern for their person” (EG 169 and 199). This is a form of friendship; indeed it is a reflection of the loving friendship that God extends to us in Jesus Christ. Dialogue and accompaniment are thus ways of making visible the merciful love that God has for us and of proclaiming the good news about how God is with us. It is a way of proclaiming the Gospel marked by humility, listening as well as speaking. Indeed Pope Francis insists that listening is “a profound and indispensable expression” of Christian faith. A dialogic or relational approach to proclaiming the Gospel to other people calls us to recognize that the deepest truth is God’s embrace and possession of us, not our possession of

2.Cf. Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation: Reflection and Orientations on Interreligious Dialogue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1991), No. 77, www.vatican.va. 3.Cf. J. W. O’Malley, “The Style of Vatican II,” in America, Vol. 188, February 24, 2003, 12-15. DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ

God: we are neither the masters nor owners but the guardians, heralds and servants of this truth.4 Thus we are on a “journey” or “pilgrimage” with believers and non-believers, Christians and non-Christians. Indeed Pope Francis uses the term “pilgrim” many times in Evangelii Gaudium. The reciprocal relation of proclamation and dialogue has special relevance for the task of Catholic educational and cultural institutions today. The university is the premier place where diverse worldviews and commitments confront one another and interact intellectually. Thus the Catholic university will be the place where the Catholic tradition carries out dialogue with other traditions and with the intellectual and ethical challenges that arise from challenging new social conditions in a world that 62 is more and more interconnected.

The challenge of addressing students in today’s culture The reality of religious and cultural pluralism has become particularly evident to today’s students due to the shrinking of our globalizing world. How this pluralism is shaping the receptivity of today’s students to the Gospel deserves special consideration. First, today’s students have become particularly sensitive to the need for dialogue as an expression of respect for others. For example, they often oppose what they see as efforts to “impose” religious or moral values on another in a way that limits the freedom of that person. Students today quickly see such efforts to share religious or moral values as objectionable forms of proselytization. Nonetheless, we need to recognize how their attitudes have been shaped by the way some religious communities are clashing with each other today, sometimes in quite violent ways. Today’s students are very aware of the denial of religious freedom occurring in some parts of the world today. They know that lack of respect for religious freedom is a factor in the wars that have killed millions and turned many millions more into

4.Cf. Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, No. 146, quoting Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. DIALOGUE AND PROCLAMATION IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES

refugees. Thus they have good grounds for being suspicious of any sign that a religious community is leaning toward intolerance or, worse, toward harmful action against those with different beliefs. This suspicion needs to be counteracted by helping students see that most religious communities are in fact more deeply involved in the promotion of human rights and peace in our world than in fomenting intolerance or conflict. Today one-fifth of the. U S. public has no religious affiliation, the highest percentage recorded in modern polling. A third of those under 30 have no religious affiliation compared with just one-in-10 of those over 65. Young adults today are much less likely to be affiliated with a religious community than were earlier generations at a similar stage 63 in their lives.5 About one-third of those raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic. Why has this happened? General cultural openness to religious change among the youth is part of the reason. So is the fact that in the past those who had fallen away from their family traditions were reluctant to admit this even to pollsters, while today they are more ready to do so. Also, it is because Catholic doctrine makes demands that seem particularly burdensome to young people in the context of the culture of today. If this is the reason, the rise of the number of young people with no religious affiliation could in fact be due to the authentic proclamation of the Gospel with all its demands. On the other hand, it is also possible that the Gospel is being communicated with insufficient attention to the spirit of dialogue and accompaniment that involves listening as well as speaking, learning as well as teaching. A major empirical study of U.S. religious trends by Robert Putnam of Harvard and David Campbell of Notre Dame suggests this may be the

5.Cf. Pew Research Center of Religion and Public Life, “‘Nones’ on the Rise,” October 9, 2012, at www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise; cf. also G. A. Smith – A. Cooperman, “The Factors Driving the Growth of Religious ‘Nones’ in the U.S.,” September 14, 2016, at www.pewresearch.org/ fact-tank/2016/09/14/the-factors-driving-the-growth-of-religious-nones-in-the-u-s. DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ

case. Putnam and Campbell concluded that the rise of those with no religious affiliation from the 1970s through the 1990s is largely due to the way “religiosity and conservative politics became increasingly aligned,” leading many young Americans to view religion as “judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical, and too political.”6 If this is right, communicating the Gospel to the Millennial Generation in universities today will call for a more dialogic style. In a similar way, in Latin America young people are in ever closer contact with followers of other religious traditions. Latin American Catholics today have, for example, more relations with Evangelicals than what occurred in the past. Empirical research shows that they sometimes react to this coexistence 64 of different religious traditions by subtracting themselves from public discussions on faith.7 There is no need to be surprised if this kind of privatization of religious belief will lead in the future to the decline of faith itself. It is also well-known that a large number of young African Catholics are joining Evangelical communities, perhaps because they see Catholicism as too restrictive and Evangelical communities as more welcoming.8 This suggests that, both in Latin America and Africa as well as in the North Atlantic region, a more dialogic style is needed for ecclesial life and worship. There is no single exhaustive set of data to explain why many Catholics in the US and less so in Latin America and Africa have been leaving the Church. But statistics show the issue is very serious and that we have to consider new strategies to present the Gospel to the young people if we want to engage them in an active commitment in the life of the Church. This raises central challenges for the Catholic university.

6.R. D. Putnam - D. E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2010, 121. Citing D. Kinnemann – G. Lyons, Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… And Why It Matters, Baker, Grand Rapids, 2007. 7.Cf. G. Morello, “Modernidad y Religiosidad en América Latina,” in Razón y Fe 118 (2017) 327-338. 8.L. Unah, “Church Crossings: In Nigeria Pentecostal Movements Are Winning Over Young Catholics,” in America, 217, November 27, 2017, 18-25. DIALOGUE AND PROCLAMATION IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES

The first step must be to enable students to see that a serious and respectful intellectual engagement among those who hold different assessments of religious and moral issues is not only possible but is actually put into practice by the Catholic community. Students can be attracted more easily by an ecclesial community that uses the path of dialogic accompaniment to share its beliefs with both students and the surrounding culture. Indeed, it seems that Catholic universities are in fact having a positive effect on the active engagement in the Church by the young people who attend them. A study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has shown that those who attended Catholic university were notably more likely to attend Mass weekly than peers who did not study at a Catholic institution.9 65 This helps us understand that the young people are attracted to ecclesial communities whose way of life is marked by dialogue and active commitment. In the university setting we can define this spirit of active engagement with those who differ from us as the “virtue of intellectual solidarity.”10 This virtue seeks understanding across cultures and moral positions by listening as well as speaking. It requires a genuinely intellectual commitment to understanding others, as well as their moral convictions and deep religious beliefs. It seeks insight into what our society is doing to the most vulnerable and how to transform our increasingly interconnected societies so they serve all members of the human race. Following the call of the Catholic intellectual tradition, the virtue of intellectual solidarity takes commitment to the common good as its guiding principle, particularly in the field of the intellectual life. This virtue can only be developed in an atmosphere of freedom and intellectual humility. In a pluralistic and divided society, nothing will prevent the development of this virtue more surely than the conviction that one already knows

9.Cf. M. M. Gray – P. Perl, Sacraments Today: Belief and Practice among U.S. Catholics, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University 2008, 22. 10.Cf. D. Hollenbach, The Common Good and Christian Ethics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, Chap. 6. DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ

all that one needs to know. Moving without the dialogue to categorizing other religious traditions as simply false or broad categories of actions as “intrinsically evil” will not manifest the humility required. This does not mean that all religious beliefs are equally true or that all moral ways of life are equally good. But in light of the ways that religious violence and moral self-righteousness are causing conflict and suffering today, great humility is required if we are proclaim the Christian faith in a way that is simultaneously true to the Gospel and persuasive to young people.

Some programmatic and institutional implications Catholic universities possess distinctive institutional 66 resources that can enable them to address the growing interdependence of global society with creativity. Together with the Catholic tradition that formed them, they should find themselves in a position that is particularly suitable to facing up to the reality of globalization. For example, we should note that the Catholic community sustains a network of universities and colleges that reaches across the entire world. The International Federation of Catholic Universities has 221 members, located in virtually all of the religious and cultural settings around the world. These numerous institutions could help the Church proclaim the Gospel more effectively if they were to collaborate with each other in the exploration of how the Catholic tradition can help shape the values and institutions of our globalizing world. If multinational companies like the Coca-Cola Company and Exxon-Mobil have learned that success in business calls for simultaneous local inculturation and global networking, Catholic higher education could make significant advances if it were to enhance the collaboration of Catholic universities that already exist around the world. In addition, Catholic higher education has long been known for its commitment to the liberal arts as the core of the way it helps students develop their understanding of what it is to be fully human. Several decades ago Jesuit scholar Michael Buckley argued that an essential dimension of the humanities and liberal DIALOGUE AND PROCLAMATION IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES arts that is central to Catholic higher education should be making students perceive both the heights to which human life can ascend and also the abyss of suffering into which human life can precipitate. This concern for the degradation of the human person leads the Catholic tradition to the belief that an essential dimension of the humanities and the liberal arts has to be a deep intellectual commitment to understand the reality of justice and injustice. In Buckley’s words, this “care to develop a disciplined sensitivity to human misery and exploitation” is central to a Christian humanism shaped by the Gospel.11 Concern for those who suffer will in turn grow into a critical effort to understand how their misery might be alleviated. This commitment can also be attractive for the young people of today. 67 In our globalizing world, all of this can lead one step further. Following the example of the great, early-modern Catholic pioneers of encounter with the non-European world, like Matteo Ricci, Catholic universities should help students learn what it means to live a fully human life by studying at least some aspects of the vision of humanity to be found in non-Western cultural and religious traditions. Catholic education for our globalizing world cannot be simply education in the traditions of Christianity and Western humanism, indispensable as these surely are. It must also aid students to come to some insights into human flourishing discovered outside the West. This will have implications for our curricula in ways that are both important and complex. It implies we should be asking ourselves fundamental questions, like what the liberal arts mean in a truly global society. How can we design a liberal arts education that responds to global interaction, pursues adequate depth of knowledge of our own traditions, and avoids the dangers of superficiality and eclecticism? These are intellectual

11.M. J. Buckley, “The University and the Concern for Justice: The Search for a New Humanism,” in Thought 57 (1982) 223. Cf. also M. J. Buckley, “Christian Humanism and Human Misery: A Challenge to the Jesuit University,” in F. M. Lazarus (ed.), Faith, Discovery, Service: Perspectives on Jesuit Education, Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1992, 77-105. DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ

challenges for all higher education today. Catholic universities around the world could be leaders in the effort to respond to these challenges. Catholic universities should also be helping open the eyes of students to the suffering and injustices of our world, by developing volunteer and cooperation programs. They should also help young people see how the Christian faith calls them to respond to unjust suffering. Accompanying those in need can lead students to long-term commitment to a vocation of service, aid or policy-making that can make a real difference. Ensuring that the young people profit from all of this could be an important contribution from the Catholic universities.12

68

12.As this text first went to press, the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium by Pope Francis was announced which focuses on ecclesiastical faculties and universities. There is a need – the pope affirms – for a “radical paradigm shift,” or a “courageous cultural revolution” where the “worldwide network of ecclesiastical faculties and universities is called to bring the decisive contribution as the leaven, the salt and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the living Tradition of the Church that is always open to new situations and new proposals.” Discerning Faith in a Post-Christian Culture

Paolo Gamberini, SJ

In his address to the participants at the International Peace Conference at Al-Azhar (Cairo, Egypt) on April 28, 2017, Pope Francis reminded his listeners that dialogue on a global level may occur if three basic duties are observed: the duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, the courage to accept 69 differences, and the willingness to recognize the sincerity of the intentions of other people.1 In Evangelii Gaudium (EG), his apostolic exhortation on “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis recalled that “true openness involves remaining steadfast in one’s deepest convictions, clear and joyful in one’s own identity, while at the same time being ‘open to understanding those of the other party’ and ‘knowing that dialogue can enrich each side’” (251). Being rooted in one’s own tradition and being open to the others are both constitutive features of Christian faith.

The ‘logos’ of faith From the very beginning, the logos of Christian faith has been influenced by different cultural settings: Hellenization, Medieval Scholasticism, Reformation, Enlightenment, Modernism, Ressourcement and Pluralism. How can the logos of Christian faith remain faithful to its identity and at the same time be open to the cultural processes that are going on in our global and multi-faith setting?

1.Pope Francis, Address to the participants in the International Peace Conference, Al-Azhar Conference Center, Cairo, April 28, 2017. Cf. also A. Spadaro, “Egypt, Land of Civilizations and Alliances: Francis’ dramatic, therapeutic and prophetic journey,” in Civ. Catt. 2017 English edition. PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

One way to answer this question is by calling to mind the address that Pope Benedict XVI gave at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. In that speech, he highlighted how Christian faith must adhere to the conviction that violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of reason: not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω), therefore, acting violently, is contrary to God’s nature. Pope Benedict XVI has thus indirectly united logos to agape, reason to nonviolence, affirming that “the truly divine God isthe God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf.” We are reminded of Augustine’s epistemological condition: “Non intratur in veritatem nisi per caritatem” (One does not enter truth except 2 70 through charity). Agape makes it possible that the logos of Christian faith remains open to the processes that the Church is living in the modern world without yielding to forms of fundamentalism and avoiding any kind of “Benedict Option.”3 In his first interview given to La Civiltà Cattolica, Pope Francis remarked that “God manifests himself in historical revelation, in history. Time initiates processes, and space 4 crystallizes them. God is in history, in the processes.” The logos of Christian faith must be prepared to give up any form of crystallization and rigidity, and be ready to become more of a process of discernment in the world and in the history of human cultures. Pope Francis describes this process as welcoming “differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice” (EG 40). The logos that shapes Christian faith “is not a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance” but is shaped in a substantive plurality and diversity that helps “bring out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel.”

2.Augustine, Contra Faustum 41, 32, 18; PL 45, 507. 3.The choice to retreat from the world. The “Benedict Option” refers to St. Benedict of Nursia (d. mid-sixth century) who strongly influenced religious life in the West. Cf. A. Gonçalves Lind, “The ‘Benedict Option’: What is the role for Christians in society today?” in Civ. Catt. 2018 English edition, https:// laciviltacattolica.com/3463/. 4.A. Spadaro, “Intervista a papa Francesco,” in Civ. Catt. 2013 III 468. DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

We will formulate three principles for this process of discernment that can guide us in our ecumenical task and help us to reconcile doctrines of faith among Christian Churches. The first principle is that of the “hierarchy of truth”; the second, the principle of the “evolution of dogma”; and the third, the principle of “living faith.” For the purpose of our argumentation, the terms “doctrine” and “dogma” are considered synonyms, leaving aside the question of the authority by which the latter is distinguished from the former. On one side, not all doctrines of faith and morals have become dogmas, but only those doctrines that have been declared as revealed by God, or intrinsically tied to Revelation by the highest authority of the Church, the Councils and the infallible Magisterium of the pope. On the other side, both 71 doctrines and dogmas are considered teachings of the Catholic Church that are binding on all the faithful.

The discernment ‘of’ and ‘in’ doctrine In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis highlights the first principle in discerning doctrine. Quoting paragraph 11 of the Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, Pope Francis points to the “hierarchy of truths.” Dogmas of faith and morals “vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith” (EG 36). Dealing specifically with ecumenical dialogue in the same exhortation, Pope Francis emphasizes this principle of discernment: “if [...] we keep in mind the principle of the hierarchy of truths, we will be able to progress decidedly toward common expressions of proclamation, service and witness [...] How many important things unite us! If we really believe in the abundantly free working of the Holy Spirit, we can learn so much from one another!” (EG 246). The second principle in discerning doctrine is the principle of the evolution of doctrine, as John Henry Newman explains in his essay On the Development of Christian Doctrine. The development of doctrine does not simply consist in a change of the outward formulation of the doctrine, with the core and essence remaining immutable. Such evolution would only consist in a movement from old to new, making explicit only PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

the implicit that was already present in the doctrine, without paying attention to external factors. In such a case, the process of tradition would not influence from within the revelation of the truth. Walter Kasper explains: “Tradition cannot be compared to a dead coin that is passed down from hand to hand; it does not consist in dead formulations that you only need to repeat. It is not simply to develop premises already given. The vitality of a tradition is not even in a change of expression more suitable to the changing times but keeping the same content. We theologically understand historicity when we comprehend that the one and the same tradition is once again always called into question while facing new historical situations.”5 The third principle of discerning doctrines of faith, the living 72 faith, may be inferred in Evangelii Gaudium where Pope Francis recalls that: “There are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one another. With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God and humanity, we sometimes give them a false god or a human ideal which is not Christian. In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance” (EG 41). We must keep in mind that the evidence of faith is not rational evidence, since the act of faith requires the consent of the will in order to be realized.6 The dynamic tension between the evidence of faith, moved by the external faculty of the will, and rational evidence, can never be overcome. Such tension creates situations of disagreement between intelligence adhering to faith doctrines and intelligence adhering to incontrovertible truth. It is a difference that leads to research, investigation and exploration within the same irrepressible and unshakeable attachment of faith. The act of faith does not remove the movement of intelligence to the evidence of what is believed and, therefore, the recognition of the difference between “believing” and “thinking.” The above-mentioned tension defines the

5.W. Kasper, Wahrheit und Freiheit. Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit des II. Vatikanischen Konzils. (Heidelberg: Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag, 1988), 37. 6.Cf Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q.2, a. 1, ad tertium. DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

believing bond between conscience and belief as a living bond, whereas dead faith blurs the difference between “believing” and “thinking,” considering “doctrines” as incontrovertible. Such perversion of the truth of faith makes doctrines of faith into rigid formulations. Between the “objective” (fides quae) and the “subjective” reality of faith (fides qua) there is an interpenetrating perichoretic movement, so that the “objectivity” of the dogmatic statement (belief) is within and not outside the act of faith (believing). A strictly well-defined proposition of faith (belief) is not correctly understood and interpreted if it does not intrinsically imply the existential involvement of believing. The “truth” in dogmatic formulations is not something to be objectified and reified, outside of the believing process and the free consent of the 73 subject that professes it. Any dogmatic expression loses its value, even its “essence,” if it is unable to awaken the act of faith in the believer. Thomas Aquinas clearly states: “Actus credendi 7 non terminatur ad enuntiabile sed ad rem.” At the Convention of the Italian Church in Florence in November 2015, Pope Francis reminded Catholics that “Christian doctrine is not a closed system that cannot raise questions, doubts, inquiries, but is alive, knows how to unsettle the mind, knows how to animate the soul.”8 In Amoris Laetitia (AL), the apostolic exhortation on “The Joy of Love,” Pope Francis recognizes the decisive task that the faithful have in “carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them” (AL 37). Discernment does not simply mean applying doctrines or rules to real life; discernment is dynamic and “it must remain ever open to new stages of growth and to new decisions which can enable the ideal to be more fully realized” (AL 303). Recent common declarations between the Catholic Church and other Churches, for example, the Common Christological

7.ST II, 1, 2 ad 2. 8.Francis, Address to the representatives of the Fifth National Convention of the Italian Church, Florence, November 10, 2015, in www.vatican.va/. PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East (1994) and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999), have clearly shown how discernment does not engage the life of the Church only on a pastoral and individual level but also on the dogmatic and ecumenical levels. In the Common Christological Declaration, it is stated that the process of dialogue and discernment has brought Churches to understand better that the doctrinal differences of the past are not today understood as contradictory. Those differences were mostly due to misunderstandings and should not be considered without investigation as unorthodox beliefs. In the Joint Declaration between Catholics and Lutherans it is 74 said that both Churches “are now able to articulate a common understanding” that makes possible “a consensus on basic truths of the doctrine of justification and shows that the remaining differences in its explication are no longer the occasion for doctrinal condemnations” (No. 5). Discerning and reconciling differences in pursuing the unity of the body of Christ belongs to the core of the logos of Christian faith. During his homily at the Lutheran Cathedral of Lund on October 31, 2016, Pope Francis acknowledged that at the time of the Reformation on both Catholic and Lutheran sides there was a sincere will “to profess and uphold the true faith,” but at the same time “because of fear and bias we were closed toward the faith that others profess with a different accent and language.”9 During his more recent journey to Egypt, he addressed Pope Tawadros II on April 28, 2017, and recalled that “it is no longer possible to take refuge behind the pretext of differing interpretations, much less of those centuries of history and traditions that estranged us one from the other.”10 The logos of Christian faith urges Christians to move beyond an apologetic form of logos, defined by Parmenides’ principle of

9.Francis, Homily, at the ecumenical prayer in the Lutheran Cathedral of Lund, October 31, 2016, in www.vatican.va/. Cf. G. Pani, “Il viaggio del Papa in Svezia,” in Civ. Catt. 2016 IV 381-392. 10.Francis, Speech, during the courtesy visit to H.H. Pope Tawadros II, April 28, 2017, in www.vatican.va/. Cf. A. Spadaro, “Egypt, Land of Civilizations…,” cit. DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

identity where tertium non datur (no third possibility is given), and embrace a dialogical form of logos – the subject of the cross (ὁ λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ) – in which the logical argument (elenchus) is given by a kenotic, a self-emptying logos. The logos of faith becomes theo-morphic or Christo-morphic when it gives up holding the truth as something to possess, and chooses to let go of any grasp, giving up the “dual-thinking” of the tertium non datur. Such a different form of Christian self-understanding is not a compromise or a way of escaping intellectual rigor but a speculative quality, a paradoxical method of thinking imbued with Trinitarian logic that does not proceed by “either/or” but rather by “both/and” and in which the Spirit is given (datur). By doing this, the Christian logos will rediscover the “catholicity” and “inclusivity” of the “both/and” instead of the “either/or.” 75 We find a narrative example of this different logos in the answer Jesus gives to the question of the Samaritan woman. “The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24). The opposition between Mount Gerizim and Mount Zion (Jerusalem) symbolizes the dual thinking in which one party is winning (we know what we worship) and the other is losing (you worship what you do not know), whereas the non-dual thinking is well illustrated by the answer Jesus gave to the woman. In order to know God we need to move beyond the logic of which is greater (symbolized by the mountain) and put on the mind of Christ (cf Luke 9:46-50), a “non-dual” logos which embraces opposite and contradicting sides “in spirit and truth” and moves forward to define doctrines with the other and not without the other so that a process of discernment of and in doctrine may take place, for “who is not against you is for you” (Luke 9:50). In his homily during the celebration of Vespers on the Solemnity of the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25, 2015, PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

Pope Francis commented on these words to the Samaritan woman, saying that Jesus “does not side with the mountain or the temple, but goes deeper. He goes to the heart of the matter, breaking down every wall of division. He speaks instead of the meaning of true worship: ‘God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth’ (John 4:24). So many past controversies between Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic approaches and seek instead to grasp more fully what unites us, namely, our call to share in the mystery of the Father’s love revealed to us by the Son through the Holy Spirit. Christian unity – we are convinced – will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their 76 opinions. When the Son of Man comes, he will find us still discussing! We need to realize that, to plumb the depths of the mystery of God, we need one another; we need to encounter one another and to challenge one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who harmonizes diversities, overcomes conflicts, reconciles differences.”11

God is not ‘Catholic’ In order to discern doctrine and reconcile dogmatic differences, two conditions must be kept in mind. First, Catholics must remember that truth can never be possessed in its fullness; second, knowledge of truth is conditioned by its reception in time. In his “Letter to a Non-Believer” (September 4, 2013) Pope Francis responded to Eugenio Scalfari, former editor and journalist of the newspaper La Repubblica, and remarked that for believers “truth is a relationship. As such, each one of us receives the truth and expresses it from within, that is to say, according to one’s own circumstances, culture and situation in life.”12 The logos of Christian faith is sustained by both the notion of truth as relationship and of God as magis. Both notions identify the “object” of doctrine (the Trans-cendent), the ever

11.Francis, Homily at the Celebration of Vespers on the Solemnity of the Conversion of Saint , in www.vatican.va/. 12.Francis, “Lettera a chi non crede,” September 4, 2013, in www.vatican.va/. DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

unfolding mystery of God (Deus semper maior), and the “way” (trans-cendere), the ongoing process of transcending any grasp of the mystery. Truth does not overtake us as a statement, but as Someone we experience and who needs to be encountered over and over again. The need for transcending doctrines and dogmatic formulations is well expressed in Evangelii Gaudium: The Church “needs to grow in her interpretation of the revealed Word and in her understanding of truth. [...] For those who long for a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as undesirable and leading to confusion. [...] In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance. This is the greatest danger. Let us never forget that ‘the expression of truth can take different forms. 77 The renewal of these forms of expression becomes necessary for the sake of transmitting to the people of today the Gospel message in its unchanging meaning’” (EG 40-41). We may say that Pope Francis has been inspired by the principle of “consolation without preceding cause” which Ignatius of Loyola explains in the eighth rule of discernment for the second week of the Spiritual Exercises (no. 336). The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner speaks of this “consolation without preceding cause” as an athematic experience whose object is God alone. “God” is meant not as a definition or a concept but as the horizon which is beyond any concept and definition. Consolation without preceding cause is a critical and transcendental presupposition which makes everything else relative. Ignatius carefully distinguishes the transcendental moment, when God is active as first cause, from the categorical moment, when human responsiveness appropriates and translates God’s direct action by means of thoughts, images and words.13 Such a distinction makes any doctrinal formulation relative and subject to the dynamic transcendence of God that is implied in the Ignatian notion of magis.

13.W.H. Longridge, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Translated from the Spanish with a commentary and a translation of the Directorium in exercitia, Robert Scott, London, 1922, 193. PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

In such a context Karl Rahner advocates for a sound and appropriate understanding of agnosticism.14 In the above- mentioned interview in La Civiltà Cattolica Pope Francis recalls the Jesuit mystical tradition: “The Jesuit must be a person whose thought is incomplete, in the sense of open-ended thinking. There have been periods in the Society in which Jesuits have lived in an environment of closed and rigid thought.”15 This “transgressive” character of “mystical” thinking defines and (re) forms any experience and any understanding of the mystery of God. The meaning of the word “transgressive” derives from the Latin transgredior which means “to move on and proceed beyond.” Pope Francis recognizes that the more we approach God, the greater is our uncertainty. “If a person says that he 78 met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions, then that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble. Uncertainty is in every true discernment that is open to finding confirmation in spiritual consolation.”16 The vacuum or the “not-yet” that is left open by this uncertainty, defines theareopagus, the public arena of dialogue, in which faith communities convene and converse, and discernment is exercised. Discernment has, therefore, a mystical dimension, since only an apophatic knowledge of God (deus definiri nequit) makes possible a process of transcending. In an interview with Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis acknowledges that the God he believes in is not “catholic.” “I believe in God. Not a Catholic God, a Catholic God does not exist. God exists.”17 And in the interview given to the director of La Civilità Cattolica: “God is encountered

14.K. Rahner, “Justifying faith in an Agnostic world,” in Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, vol. XXI, New York, Crossroad, 1988, 130-136, at 136. 15.A. Spadaro, “Interview with Pope Francis,” cit., 455. 16.Ibid., 469. 17.E. Scalfari, “Papa Francesco a Scalfari: così cambierò la Chiesa. ‘Giovani senza lavoro, uno dei mali del mondo,’” October 1, 2013, in www.repubblica.it. DISCERNING FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE

walking along the path. [...] Discernment is essential. If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God. Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists: they have a static and inward-looking view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies. I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in the life of every person.”18 In the letter to Scalfari, Pope Francis comments on Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John (14:26): “I am the way, the truth, and the life”: “The truth, being completely one with love, demands humility and an openness to be sought, received and 79 expressed. Therefore, we must have a correct understanding of the terms and, perhaps, in order to overcome being bogged down by conflicting absolute positions, we need to redefine the issues in depth. I believe this is absolutely necessary in order to initiate[a] peaceful and constructive dialogue.”19 In Dialogue and Proclamation (1991), the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue affirmed that the knowledge of the truth received in Jesus Christ is “an unending process.” “While keeping their identity intact, Christians must be prepared to learn and to receive from and through others the positive values of their traditions. Through dialogue they may be moved to give up ingrained prejudices, to revise preconceived ideas, and even sometimes to allow the understanding of their faith to be purified” (No. 49). The “mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5) shapes and transforms the logos of Christian faith. The dialogue between Christianity and Judaism provides an example of how such transformation of the logos of faith takes place. The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures recognizes as possible and legitimate the Jewish reading of sacred texts and affirms that Jewish hope in the Messiah is not vain. The Jewish-Christian

18.A. Spadaro, “Interview with Pope Francis,” cit., 469f. 19.Francis, “Lettera a chi non crede,” cit. PAOLO GAMBERINI, SJ

dialogue is a clear example of how the logos of the Christian reconsiders its own doctrinal conceptions when it comes to defining the doctrine of faith with others, in this case with Jewish people. This has happened in the rejection of the idea of “supersessionism,” the notion that the “new” (Christianity), because it is better, has replaced the “old” (Judaism). Discernment, reconciliation and transformation of the doctrines of faith will make it possible to “unmask the violence” that presents them as something sacred, a sort of idol, instead of being an authentic openness to the Absolute, as Pope Francis reminded us in his address at Al-Azhar.20

80

20.Cf. Francis, Address to the participants in the International Peace Conference, cit. What Future for Christians in Indonesia?

Franz Magnis-Suseno, SJ

A model of Islamic tolerance? For a long time Indonesia was regarded as the model country of Islamic tolerance. With 87 percent of its 255 million inhabitants being Muslim, it is the country with the biggest number of Muslims in the world. Despite isolated tensions and 81 conflicts, they have lived in peace together with the remaining population composed of 10 percent Christians (almost one- third Catholics), 1.7 percent Hindus (on the island of Bali), and a small number of Buddhists and Confucians. Freedom of religion is enshrined in the Indonesian constitution and change of religion takes place generally without problems. As far as civil legislation is concerned, there is no prohibition against changing religion nor any punishment for apostasy, except where Sharia is applied.1 Non-Muslims are fully recognized as citizens of Indonesia. But during the last 12 months Indonesia has seen a wave of Islamist populism that has made many Indonesians worry, including Muslims. The reason for this unexpected outpouring of Islamic identity was the case of Ahok. The then-Governor of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, Ahok, whose full name is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, is a Protestant Christian of Chinese origin. Thus he is a double minority in Indonesia. From the very beginning Muslim hard-liners sought to widen their influence among Indonesia’s Muslims by rejecting him fiercely. But Ahok was popular, he proved himself not corrupt and the most efficient governor of Jakarta for more than 40 years.

1.The law only punishes those who by deceit induce minors to change religion. Cf. art. 56 of law 23/2002 on the protection of minors. FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

In September 2016, by a careless remark, Ahok gave his enemies the desired opening to accuse him of blasphemy. Under the catchword “defense of Islam” they mobilized hundreds of thousand Muslims in several huge demonstrations. They even threatened to depose President Joko Widodo if Ahok was not imprisoned. Last April Ahok lost a bid for reelection as governor of Jakarta by an unexpectedly high margin. A month later, under heavy pressure from the streets, a court convicted Ahok to two years in prison. Many Christians were shocked. But one could also ask whether a figure like Ahok was not 100 years too early. In the United States it took 160 years until the first Catholic could become president and his election still drew some hysterical 82 reactions. Maybe a Christian, and of Chinese origin too, was too much for many Muslims, even tolerant ones. What was worrying in these huge demonstrations was that conservative hard-liners succeeded in sidelining the moderate mainstream Islam that up to then had consistently supported religious tolerance. Habib Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front whose followers sometimes raid karaoke bars and offer muscle to protesters against new churches, has now become the Imam (spiritual leader) of Indonesian Islam and is widely admired by many young Muslims. With Ahok in prison the situation has now calmed down, mainstream Muslim groups are reasserting their position, Rizieq himself is under attack and has for the moment retired to Mecca. But worries about the future of Indonesia persist under the surface. There can be no doubt that the Islamist component of Indonesia will continue to grow. The question is: Will it remain a democracy where human rights and religious freedom are guaranteed, or will it, for instance, develop into something like Pakistan? Proceeding from these latest developments we shall look at how Indonesian Islam might develop. Then we will show how Indonesian Christians coped with this situation in the past and what might be demanded from them in the future. WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

A look at Indonesian Islam That Indonesia is becoming more Islamic is clear. Just 40 years ago only a minority of Muslim women wore a headscarf, while now, almost without exception, they do not leave their houses without covering their heads. It was actually the former president, Suharto, although not Islamist himself, who initiated this development. In order to immunize Indonesians against the perceived danger of communism he promoted an intensification of religiosity. Its primary object were the Javanese. With 42 percent of the population, the Javanese, the original inhabitants of Central and Eastern Java, are still the culturally dominant ethnicity in Indonesia. Only 50 years ago a majority of the Javanese felt themselves more bound to their old Javanese-Hindu culture than to Islam. 83 People then would not take the five daily prayers or fasting too seriously. Java was also the base of the Indonesian Communist Party that was annihilated after a leftist coup attempt in 1965. Suharto changed this. Now most Javanese Muslims pray five times a day, they fast during Ramadan and make, if possible, the pilgrimage to Mecca. There is no Muslim village now without a mosque. On the other hand, there always existed an extremist wing in Indonesian Islam. From 1950 until 1962 Darul Islam rebels fought a guerilla war against the Indonesian Central Government in Western Java, Southern Sulawesi (Celebes) and Aceh. During the 1980s hundreds of Indonesian mujahedeen fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets, paid by the Americans and spiritually nursed by Osama bin Laden. These former mujahedeen, many of them grandchildren of the old Darul Islam rebels, are regarded as the core element in the small but dangerous Indonesian terrorist movement that sprang up after the fall of Suharto. The democratic opening after Suharto’s resignation in 1998 meant that Islamic extremists could go public. Some of these groups, as for instance the above-mentioned Islamic Defenders Front, were actually nursed by the military in order to counter students that demonstrated for more democracy. Islamic fundamentalism had already began infiltrating some secular state universities since the 1970s. Muslim students began to read the pamphlets of Pakistani writer Abu Al’a Maududi, FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

and those of Hasssan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, the ideologues of the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood. Later Hizbut Tahrir, an organization founded in Palestine in the 1960s to promote an Islamic caliphate and now outlawed in many Muslim states, found a growing number of adherents.

Moderate Islamic mainstream But until last year these extremist groups had little political influence. Of the 222 million Indonesian Muslims less than 1,000 joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. This shows that Indonesian Islam has been mostly immune toward extremism. Mainstream Islam in Indonesia is represented by two big civil society organizations that sprang into existence during 84 the first half of last century. One is Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a more traditional, rural organization that has thousands of Quranic boarding schools, claiming more than 40 million members. The other one is the more modernist, city-based Muhammadiyah, founded as an offspring of the Islamic renewal in Egypt at the end of the 19th century. Muhammadiyah, with an estimated 30 million members, runs schools, hospitals and more than 100 universities. Both reject an Islamic state as unsuitable under Indonesian conditions. They feel strongly Indonesian, thus reject ideologies like Hizbuth Tahrir’s notion of an Islamic caliphate. Both declared officially that the existing Indonesian state is the appropriate political organization for the Indonesian archipelago. They have explicitly recognized Indonesia’s state philosophy, Pancasila, which awards the same rights as citizens to all Indonesians regardless of their religion. This inclusive mainstream Islam proved itself at two crucial moments in the history of Indonesia. On August 18, 1945, one day after Sukarno and Hatta had proclaimed Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands, a constitutional assembly, consisting mostly of Muslims, ratified the constitution for the newly born republic. The remarkable fact was that in it they did not give any special place to Islam despite its overwhelming majority. They did so by removing a clause from the first principle of Pancasila - the five fundamental principles on which WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

they based the Indonesian state - on which the assembly had formally agreed upon, namely that Muslims were obliged to obey Islamic Sharia. Now this first principle, “Belief in One Divinity,”2 implies that Indonesia is a religious state but that no religion, even the majority religion, enjoys a preferential position. By giving all Indonesians the same rights as citizens and human beings regardless of their religion, Pancasila is the cornerstone of the unity of Indonesia which consists of communities with many hundreds of languages, local cultures and a plurality of religious orientations. Despite many instances of intolerance and religiously based conflicts that emerged later on, this fundamental consensus has never been challenged. Maybe still more astonishing is what happened after the fall of Suharto, especially if we compare it with the developments 85 in Egypt in 2011. After Suharto resigned as president on May 21, 1998, politicians with strong Islamic credentials took over. But within a few weeks, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, Suharto’s successor, who had been the head of ICMI, the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals, initiated decisive measures for a transition to democracy on the basis of Pancasila. His successor, Abdurrahman Wahid, for 15 years head of NU, was then already an icon of Muslim pluralism. At the same time, the former head of Muhammadiyah, Amien Rais (who by many was regarded as an Islamic hard-liner) became head of the first democratically elected Constitutional Assembly (MPR). Under his direction the Assembly not only put crucial democratic safeguards into the constitution, but also most human rights listed in the United Nations Declaration of 1945, including religious freedom. The decisive point is that Indonesian Muslims did not use the opportunity offered by Suharto’s fall to make Indonesia an Islamic state.3

2.The four other principles are “Just and civilized humanism; Indonesia’s Unity; People’s power (or: Orientation to the people), led by the guidance of wisdom in common deliberation/representation; and Social justice for the whole Indonesian people.” 3.In 2001 an attempt by two Islamic political parties to reenter an obligation for Muslims to obey the Islamic Sharia legislation into the constitution was rejected by the Constitutional Assembly (MPR) with a majority of 81 percent. FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

Where is Islam going in Indonesia? The unexpected upwelling of Islamic populism last year took many Indonesians by surprise. Why was the Pancasila accord that had been reaffirmed after Suharto’s fall now being eroded? Actually, the writing had long been on the wall. Still under Suharto ethnic tensions erupted in violence in several places. From 1999 until 2002 two terrible civil wars raged separately in two eastern Indonesian provinces (in Central Sulawesi and in the Moluccas), with almost 8,000 people killed and more than half a million displaced. These two conflicts had similar characteristics. In both places a Protestant indigenous majority had eroded because of Muslim migrants. This meant loss of political power for the traditional 86 ruling elite. In both places a small incident led to fully fledged war, with war zones and green lines where overstepping with the wrong religious identity meant instantaneous death. Both sides committed massacres. In both places traditional local customs limiting tribal wars were no longer effective, since they had been intentionally destroyed by the Suharto government. Peace was finally restored when both warring camps became aware that they were in fact being maneuvered by businessmen, mostly military power brokers in Jakarta. Now Christians and Muslims in both regions have built up networks of communication that are able to block repeated attempts to rekindle the war. At the same time instances of religious intolerance multiplied. In many Muslim regions it is difficult to get the necessary permits to build a church. Christian worship at school halls and other unlicensed places is sometimes threatened with violence, often under assistance from the above-mentioned Islamic Defenders Front. Sharia-based bylaws, especially regarding women, were gradually introduced at the local level, often by politicians from secular parties in order to get votes from more Islamic voters. The situation is particularly precarious for religious communities outside the legally recognized six religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism). While the existence of the recognized religions is not questioned even by Islamic hard-liners, Shiites, Achmadis, and local Islamic sects like Gafatar are the object of WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

hate speech and physical attacks. The state does not give them full protection. At this moment there are still more than 1,000 Shiites and Achmadis living in shelters because they cannot return to their villages. Thus the question is: Will Indonesia’s Pancasila democracy assert itself or will radical groups get more and more influence leading to a situation more like the Middle East? And will Indonesia’s mainstream Islam, embodied in NU and Muhammadiyah which call themselves moderate, assert itself in the face of growing radical and extremist pressure? NU and Muhammadiyah are well aware of this challenge. NU even issued a fatwa declaring Saudi Arabian-backed wahabism as heretical. They officially declared an “Islam Nusantara,” an “Indonesian Islam,” as the kind of Islam they support, claiming 87 that Islam should always be inculturated into the respective cultural environment of its followers. Both NU and Muhammadiyah see extremist Islamic movements as their adversaries, not Christians. On the other hand, their tolerance does not extend to the so-called “heretical movements” like Achmadiyah or the Shiites. Although both NU and Muhammadiyah have distanced themselves from violence against these communities, their right of existence is resolutely rejected through the whole Islamic specter. Both NU and Muhammadiyah worry about the attractiveness of radical groups for their own younger generations. Within NU, for instance, there exists a group of young people calling themselves “NU of the Right Way,” thereby alluding to the first sura of the Quran, and rejecting the Islam Nusantara as in contradiction to the essence of Islam which must be the same everywhere. But both in NU and Muhammadiyah there are also groups of young Muslims professing an open, tolerant, democratic Islam that respects religious freedom. NU and Muhammadiyah, and Muslim intellectuals in general, often invite intellectuals and leaders of other religions, especially Christians, to their events. But probably Indonesia’s future will depend not so much on ideological developments as on whether the mass of the Indonesian people feel that social justice is being realized. If a majority of lower and middle class Indonesians feel that the FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

existing democratic-pluralistic system gives them hope for a better future for their children, they will not become extremists. Whether the surge of populism of the last 12 months in Indonesia recedes or instead steers the country into an Islamist direction depends on whether the present government of President Joko Widodo will succeed in fulfilling his promise to advance the economic situation of the lower 50 percent of the nation.

A challenge for Indonesia’s Christians If Indonesia becomes more Islamic, what would be the implication for the more than 25 million Christians living in the country? There are reasons for concern, but not for panicking. The building of new churches could become more difficult, 88 occasional discrimination against Christians could increase. But all across Indonesia Christians are fully integrated into the social, cultural and political life of their nation. Even in strongly Muslim regions they are fully accepted, they can move freely without fear – unlike so-called “deviant communities” like the Shiites or the Achmadis. And 95 percent of Christian communities that exist as tiny minorities in Muslim surroundings live, work and worship without encountering any difficulties. Even conversions take place without disturbing public opinion. What Christians should ask themselves is: How do we prepare for an Indonesia that certainly will become more Islamist? In order to answer this question we can learn from past experiences. We limit ourselves to the Catholics, although Protestant experiences are similar. Only 50 years ago there existed almost no communications between Catholics and “real” Muslims.4 NU and Muhammadiyah were unknown territory for Christians who instead relied on what was then called the “nationalists,” the majority of Indonesians, and particularly the Javanese who did not want to give Islam a role in affairs of state and regarded themselves more as Javanese than as Muslims. Since they were the majority, they felt protected from what was regarded as an Islamic threat.

4.But there existed cordial relations between the big anti-communist Masyumi party and Catholic politicians. WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

Only during the 1970s, because of ongoing human rights violations a growing number of Catholics began to feel uneasy about the support given to the government of President Suharto in the hope that he would protect them from Islam. They also thought that a win-lose relationship with Islam – what is good for Christians must be bad for them, and vice versa – offered no perspective for the future of the Christian minority. Instead, they thought it necessary to build up a win-win relationship, meaning trusting relations with “real” Islam. In this they were helped by a number of open-minded, pluralistic Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders. The most important of them was Abdurrahman Wahid who later would become the head of NU and Indonesia’s fourth president (1999-2001), one of the most open-minded and beloved people of the country. 89 Thanks to Wahid, Christians, Buddhists and Confucians built up close relationships with NU. Encouraged by this experience they also began to get into closer communications with Muhammadiyah. Many bishops have befriended their Muslim counterparts. Parishes invite Muslim neighbors to their feasts and give support to Muslim Idul Fitri (Eid al-Fitr) celebrations. Banser, the militias of NU, now protect many Christian churches during Christmas and Easter celebrations. In many religious orders and congregations a week or two of living in a Quranic boarding school is part of the formation program. In this development Catholics felt greatly helped by the Second Vatican Council, by Perfectae Caritatis and Nostra Aetate, but particularly by paragraph 16 of Lumen Gentium. This Catholic position is highly appreciated by many Muslims. Especially that Vatican II successfully avoided two pitfalls: exclusivism and relativism. If having faith – the condition for being saved – means surrendering to the Absolute (however it is conceptually perceived), then Catholics need no longer pity – as St. did – the “good heathens” for having to go to hell. We are even encouraged to acknowledge that in other religions too there are elements that are “true and holy” (Nostra Aetate, 2). On the other hand we reject the idea that “all religions are the same,” and Muslims fully agree. We are beginning to learn together that one can be convinced of the truth of FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

one’s creed without having to condemn, or even judge, other beliefs. Repeatedly, we receive friendly, smiling reactions from Muslim audiences when we say that between us there do indeed exist differences that cannot be reconciled, but we can leave the final sorting out to the one whois Truth, God. Thus we can have tolerance and sincere respect, maybe even admiration toward other beliefs, without renouncing our own faith. This also means that one no longer feels threatened by the mere fact that there exist people who sincerely follow their religions and are very different from us. Thus one underlying reason for inter-religious violence loses traction: the feeling that the existence of others threatens the claim to universality of my 90 faith. Thanks to a relaxed, mutual acceptance, it is much easier to find the values we share with people from other religions. The letter “A Common Word between Us and You,” written by 138 Muslim spiritual leaders to the leaders of Christianity on October 13, 2007, is an excellent example of this growing awareness that we are rooted in values that belong to all.

No abdication of the Christian mission For Indonesian Christians it is very important to understand that such openness to Islam (and other religions) does not mean that we stop being missionaries. Indonesian Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, certainly see themselves called by Christ to spread the Good News. Openness to other religions does not revoke our calling to be missionaries. But it does widen its meaning. Being sent into the world to be witnesses to Christ means, first of all, to radiate – despite our own inadequacy – the positiveness, love, compassion and saving power of God to all the people we meet. We do this by how we live, by what we do and say. We do not have a monopoly on goodness. Our presence in Indonesian society should be felt as encouraging the blossoming of what is good in all the people we meet, whether they share our faith or not. Mission does not mean bothering people in their own deep convictions – these we should always respect – and still less pressuring people to WHAT FUTURE FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA?

let themselves be baptized. But when people do come and ask about the source of the love we spread, we shall share Jesus with them and we shall be very happy if some of them want to join us and ask to be baptized.5 But there is a condition we have to fulfill: We have to be humble. Christians become missionaries not because they are better people than the others, but because the Lord has chosen them despite their own, sometimes grave, shortcomings. Some of our communities still have to learn to avoid what smells of triumphalism. We should not make Muslims feel backward or inferior. We will be accepted by the Muslim majority if we fit into their cultural landscape,6 if Christianity does not come under the guise of Western superiority. Thus our churches should be effective, but not ostentatious. 91 In an Islamic environment we should not, as often happens, build statues big enough to enter the Guinness Book of Records. We should avoid what in Muslim eyes looks provocative. As long as we fit ourselves into an environment where Muslims feel at home, we will be accepted without difficulty.

A grace for all It is clear that Indonesia will become more Islamic. For Indonesia’s Christians that means we have to develop further our communication with our Muslim brothers and sisters. There is no alternative. But in an era when religiously motivated violence has reached terrifying proportions maybe the time has come for a more focused endeavor. From Jesus we know that violence cannot be a way for people wanting to live under God. This is a conviction that exists in other religions too. Shouldn’t we unite hearts and minds more explicitly in pledging adherence to the conviction that religion, all religion, should always,

5.There are more than 10,000 adult baptisms in Indonesia every year. 6.J. Menchick, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia. Tolerance without Liberalism, Cambridge University Press, 2016, shows convincingly that Islamic tolerance in Indonesia is rooted not so much in an enlightenment understanding of human dignity, but in an openness for other communities as long as they fit into the general cultural pattern that affirms the Muslim majority. FRANZ MAGNIS-SUSENO, SJ

without exception, reject hatred, envy and vengeance and behave in a way that both we ourselves and others experience as a blessing? Muslims like to cite a beautiful verse from the Quran: that the prophet is sent to become rahmatan lil alamin,7 a grace for all the world. Religions should feel united under the awareness that they are called to be recognized as mercy and so as a gift that brings love, forgiveness, compassion. We could use this verse to build a coalition uniting people from all religions who are convinced that there should be no room in religion for jealousy, hatred, vengeance or arrogance. Such a movement should agree on three things: principled rejection of violence in the name of religions; living and realizing our religions in 92 a way that does not instill fear; creating environments where people and communities of all religious convictions can live and worship free of fear.

7.Sura al-Anbiya (nr. 21) verse 107 reads: “And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to all the world.” Aggiornamento of the Chinese Catholic Church

Thierry Meynard, SJ – Michel Chambon

China has accomplished much in recent decades with huge social, economic and political transformations. However, the challenges faced by the local Catholic Church are not vanishing. All kinds of difficulties continue to constrain the growth of the Chinese Catholic Church, forcing it to adapt 93 its own framework and to produce new responses. In the midst of this moving and tormented context, many voices from the Church and beyond constantly arise to offer analyses, to suggest practical guidelines or even to propose solutions. The number of these commentators, experts and well-intentioned people is countless. Still, their discourses could be grouped into three main tendencies.

Three approaches to the issue of the Chinese Catholic Church The first kind of these discourses tends to focus onthe Chinese communist state. All Church problems and difficulties seem rooted in the external influence of the Chinese government. Most of these discourses focus on the division between the registered and underground Church, constantly presented as the main and most urgent problem to solve. But this approach is based on a problematic understanding of modern nation states. Too often, it assumes that the Chinese state is entirely homogenous and anti-Christian. The supporters of these discourses usually dismiss the importance of regional variations, the internal competition among state agencies and the pragmatic nature of the communist power. Then, their approach leads to consideration of the Church and the state in a binary antagonism that condemns everyone to a narrow dead- end. And since most of the attention is given to the Chinese THIERRY MEYNARD, SJ – MICHEL CHAMBON

communist state, little is left to look at in the Church per se. To enlarge this political debate, it would be helpful to look at the Taiwanese case where the political context is completely different, yet Church growth and renewal are not more dynamic. Thus, we may conclude that the communist state is not the solution – nor the origin - to all problems. The second approach is more optimistic and insists on the need for a modern and active education. Most of the time, this approach advocates the need to improve the situation of the Chinese Catholic Church through all kinds of training programs and study groups. Re-educating the clergy, the laity and youth to the true and contemporary Catholic faith seem to be the miraculous solution. Well-prepared catechesis, appealing 94 youth camps, substantial intellectual formation of the clergy and proactive internet presence seem to be key factors to secure a bright future. But objectifying rationality brings as many benefits as challenges, and does not necessarily fit in with local interests. Giving too much priority to the rational formation approach ultimately neglects a whole range of people, social groups and classes of people. Indeed, the sincere but naive belief in the power of education diffuses the idea that the Catholic Church tends toward an obvious and unique model, more fully understood by its leaders and accomplished in the West. In this approach, the clergy appear more and more as being the only ones knowing, while deep Chinese religious concerns about healing, ghosts, paradise and apocalypse are not considered seriously. Ultimately, many ignore how this belief in a program of rational education is deeply rooted in standards and guidelines defined in the West, by the West, and for the West. Finally, a third kind of discourse gives the priority to Chinese culture itself. This approach assumes that the current form of Chinese Catholicism is still too much at odds with the true and deep Chinese culture, and that the distance between the two can be reduced. Chinese culture is assumed to be an objective reality aligned with Christ’s teaching. More inculturation would therefore resolve many tensions and difficulties while making evangelization easier. AGGIORNAMENTO OF THE CHINESE CATHOLIC CHURCH

This discourse insists on ‘Chinese characteristics’ whose meaning is usually built upon a vague ideology of culture that carries a tendency for problematic essentialism and a lack of knowledge of Chinese history and diversity. Often Chinese culture is rigidly identified as Confucian or Buddhist, without any consideration of popular religiosity. What counts as Chinese uniqueness? Who holds the power to answer that question? Also, hiding behind the need of more inculturation can become a shortcut to avoiding any in-depth debate within Chinese Catholic communities themselves or with any alternative views. The risk is that “culture” becomes an argument that is really authoritarian and aims to keep any challenges at bay. To overcome these problems, only a more serious dialogue with academic ethnography and cultural anthropology, but also 95 with ecumenical ecclesiology and Church history, will help strengthen the legitimate concerns that are folded into these “culturalist” discourses. In summary, we believe that in most debates about the Chinese Catholic Church, there are three dominating approaches to explain its difficulties and define priorities: a focus on the communist state, or on rational training or on Chinese culture. Sometimes, experts or Church elites combine two or even the three approaches. To go beyond these recurrent but problematic approaches, each carrying its own benefits and limits, we would like to build on a point of view absent from most debates. If we really want to reflect better on Christianity in China, we should look at the whole of Christianity that is today flourishing in China. We suggest a focus on Christians themselves and take a serious look at Christ’s Chinese disciples. Therefore, we will briefly introduce contemporary Chinese Protestantism. The issue here is not to offer Protestantism as a model, or as a supplementary “miraculous solution,” but to scrutinize the concrete and diverse reality of Christianity in China, and to question ourselves from there. From a closer look at Chinese Protestants, we may rediscover better the reality of Chinese Catholics. THIERRY MEYNARD, SJ – MICHEL CHAMBON

Protestantism in China So, what is Protestantism in contemporary China? Everyone knows that Chinese Protestantism is extremely diverse, constantly evolving and growing. Scholars and Protestant leaders are still debating the best typology to present the huge variety of Chinese Protestantism. Nevertheless, Chinese Protestantism is not just motions and change. We personally identify four main streams that constitute the large Chinese Protestant river today. A first type of Protestant Churches is usually labeled as the Three-self Patriotic Churches. They take their name from their official and government-led effort to be self-governed, self-financed and self-propagating. They are the official Churches that are legally registered. They follow most guidelines defined by the Chinese 96 administration, they evolve under the guidance of a recognized and trained clergy, they usually own specific land and buildings. Some of these communities can host up to 10,000 Christians with more than 10 full-time pastors and 100 full-time ministers. Several Three-self Churches can coexist in a single space depending on the theological and ecclesiological traditions they identify with (Adventist, Pentecostal, Little Flock and so on). But this semi-denominational aspect is highly different from place to place and applying a Western denominational model is misleading. A second well-known trend within Chinese Protestantism is called the “House Church” movement. This category includes all kinds of groups and communities which refuse any constraining legal recognition. Although many of them secure informal ties with local state agencies, such as the police, they usually cultivate an antagonism against the Chinese state but not systematically against its Communist Party. Hence, they usually avoid being larger than 500 members, easily splitting so as to not become too visible. They operate under a self-trained leader who has studied the Bible and some theology in China or abroad. Most of their meetings occur within private apartments. But larger worship can happen within larger reception halls rented in a hotel. Some of these Churches can join various regional, national and international networks to improve mutual support and religious training. AGGIORNAMENTO OF THE CHINESE CATHOLIC CHURCH

It is worth noting that the fascination of many social scientists with “freedom,” “resistance” and “underground life” has shaped most of the debate about Chinese Protestantism around these House Churches, downplaying the importance of other trends and romanticizing somehow the analysis. However, many observers insist that the vitality of House Churches should not be reduced to a social resistance against the Chinese state, but also considered in relation to many aspects of Chinese socio-religious patterns. A third trend that has also caught the attention of social scientists and religious leaders is the one associated with the Wenzhou Churches. Wenzhou is a large eastern port in Zhejiang province where Christianity has become very visible, generating a unique ecclesiological model which today spreads across China and beyond. In the 1990s and 2000s, huge red crosses crowned 97 more and more buildings all around the area. They usually mark the presence of one “Wenzhou Church,” a community generated from several local entrepreneurs who are tied to the so-called “prosperity Gospel” that emerged in the United States in the 1950s and is very focused on personal success. Because of local religious, economic and political history, these Churches have defined a unique organization where pastors have no leading role. The leadership is shared by a committee of coworkers where members are strictly equal, elected by the Church members every few years, and responsible for every aspect of the Church life, material and spiritual. The Wenzhou Church operates like a guild, hiring experts to serve its needs (e.g. preachers for Sunday services, bible experts for Bible camps). This form of Protestantism is closely associated with merchant networks and has spread all across China and beyond. It is now well established in cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou, in provinces like Anhui and Jiangxi, and even in foreign countries like France and Italy. But over the past few years, the Zhejiang provincial administration became more suspicious about this form of Protestantism and its financial organization, ordering the destruction of most but not all huge red crosses around Wenzhou, so typical in these Wenzhou Churches. In some cases, they even tore down entire buildings, citing the lack of proper construction permits as a pretext. THIERRY MEYNARD, SJ – MICHEL CHAMBON

A final influential movement that defines the borders of Chinese Protestantism is what we may call the heterodox groups. Indeed the appropriation of the Christian revelation by various Chinese people has produced new forms of Christian movements that evolve beyond traditional and orthodox interpretations. For example, at the end of the 1980s, a man from Henan province began a cult around a Chinese woman presented as the female incarnation of Jesus Christ. This movement, the Eastern Lightning later renamed Church of the Almighty God, spread quickly across China, proselytizing at the gates of mainline churches, and calling on people to prepare for the soon-to-arrive end of the world. By the end of the 1990s, the movement had become so powerful and ambiguous that the Chinese government classified it as a perverted 98 sect and its founder took asylum in the United States. Beside this well-known case, there are numerous local teachings and cults that claim a Christian affiliation and challenge other Protestant churches and the Catholic Church. Although most of these movements are too quickly mocked by foreign observers, they are indeed extremely influential and not new in Chinese Christian history. The famous Taiping rebellion in the mid-19th century China claimed the lives of an estimated 20 million people and actually provoked a major political crisis. It was a millenarian Christian cult led by Hong Xiuquan. Today, the Chinese religious soil keeps producing all forms of hybrid Christian groups that impact the ways in which Chinese Protestantism tries to define itself. Indeed, these disturbing but vivid heterodox movements push more established and conventional Churches to deepen their theological and biblical roots, to slowly move away from basic biblical fundamentalism and to publicly declare their institutional markers. In some cases, they also indirectly motivate state agencies, House Churches, Wenzhou Churches and Three-self Churches to collaborate together against them. Without considering these groups as simply Protestant, it is still important to study their challenging influence in order to understand better some broader evolutions in current Chinese Protestantism. We can note that these movements are not strictly denominational and that there is mutual influence and a AGGIORNAMENTO OF THE CHINESE CATHOLIC CHURCH

continuous exchange among these four trends: a single person can successively join several types of Churches. Also, it is common to visit churches that are publicly visible, with an obvious cross at their entrance and implicit recognition from some local state agencies, but without any affiliation to the Three-self patriotic or House Churches movements. These Churches stand in between the two categories. Likewise, the True Jesus Church, an indigenous Pentecostal network particularly active in Southern China, is affiliated with the Three-self Patriotic Movement but rejects the Trinitarian faith. Clearly, Protestantism in China remains more diverse and vivid than any possible categorization, but it is not a mere chaotic mess from which nothing can be discerned. This liquid and changing Protestant reality can help our reflection on 99 Chinese Catholicism.

What can we learn from Chinese Protestants? Protestant communities remind us that Christ is also acting beyond the visible limits of the Catholic Church and that many Chinese people try to be Jesus’ disciples. They may try through their own way and under the influence of other Christian traditions. But no one can deny how they really care about the presence of Christ. While we should not minimize problems and issues characterizing Protestant communities, neither should we ignore the presence and hard work of our Christian brothers and sisters. It is in relation to them that we will deepen our mysterious link to Christ who stands beyond all groups, clans and parties. It is true that many Chinese Protestants do not have a well- informed view of the Catholic Church. But we still need to deepen our ecumenical efforts. No reform program, inculturation effort or social turn of the Church can truly flourish without the clear goal of further revealing the presence of Christ, who always exceeds and anticipates all of our actions and strategies. Second, the Protestant communities reveal that the ways in which Christ followers organize themselves in the Middle Kingdom is not under the sole influence of the Chinese Communist Party. No matter what many believe, the Chinese THIERRY MEYNARD, SJ – MICHEL CHAMBON

state is not the almighty factor that shapes every aspect of Church life. As we see with Protestants, a variety of theological preferences, economic constraints and regional particularities all play a role in the ways in which Chinese Christians organize themselves. And this is true with Catholics too. Several times, we witnessed how some “underground” Catholics remain as such more because of ethnic and xenophobic tensions than political ones. It is simplistic to say that everything is political. Economic migrations, theological tensions, historical legacy and regional particularism are other factors that often explain divisions across Chinese Catholicism. Thus, reducing Chinese Catholicism to two categories - the patriotic Church and the underground one - is an approach that gives far too much weight to the Chinese 100 Communist Party and does not reflect seriously the reality of the Church in China. This leads us to our third and final point. While recognizing Protestant diversity, we should also acknowledge the huge variety of Chinese Catholics, of Chinese Catholic spiritualities and theologies, and of Chinese Catholic networks and institutions. This Catholic variety may not look exactly like the four Protestant streams described earlier. But still, the practical reality of the Chinese Catholic Church is far from being homogenous and uniform. The regional traditions, the merchant networks, the theological plurality, the clerical rivalries, the competing international influences and the national ethnic diversity are some of the factors that make 21st-century Chinese Catholicism diverse and vivid. But this diversity is such that it often appears as hard to describe. Facing diversity can be a frightening challenge! Hence, it is tempting to reduce everything to a single political, theological or economic scale. But this does not honor the rich life and pious efforts of Chinese Catholicism. The body of Christ is never one- dimensional. We must acknowledge that the flesh of His body and the vitality of His spirit are too often neglected in our debates on Chinese Catholicism. Where, when and how do we reflect on Chinese monastic life, male religious vocations, the actual Pentecostal influence on Chinese Catholicism, the interplay AGGIORNAMENTO OF THE CHINESE CATHOLIC CHURCH between youth ministry and urbanization, the contribution of lay patrons, the influence of the Hong Kong diocese and other Churches? We need to create new typologies and discursive tools to recognize and better describe Chinese Catholicism.

Conclusion It may be true that when it comes to the Chinese Catholic Church, we could do more to reflect on its unity in diversity. If we do not seriously face its diversity, our concerns and discourses about its unity are superficial and simplistic. Therefore, moving away from ideological claims and strategic discourses, we should reevaluate whether or not this diversity is a threat to the Catholic identity and unity. Church history has already shown the opposite. Allowing alternative ecclesial forms to survive and 101 encouraging some marginal movements to share their charisma can, in the long run, be a blessing for the whole Church. In conclusion, we know that Vatican II called for an aggiornamento of the Church. And most of its decisions have since been implemented across China. But while the Church in the People’s Republic of China may have applied liturgical reforms and structural adjustments decided by the Council, Christianity in China and China itself have subsequently changed so much that the aggiornamento is far from accomplished. We still have to open more widely our windows on this changing world. The Chinese followers of Christ are multiplying, the Chinese body of Christ takes on new traits and His presence becomes more manifest. In this new context, Catholics need to deepen their reflection on the revelation of Christ in China today. Thereby they will find new ways to connect with His unique and central presence, recognizing more openly and thankfully the various commitments He generates among them and beyond their own Church.