ZENIT
The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - February 12, 2009
VATICAN DOSSIER Anti-Semitism Has No Place in Church, Pope Repeats Benedict XVI Prepares Holy Land Visit Pope Points to Creator, Creation, Creature Link NEWS BRIEFS Carmelite Priests to Minister in Sri Lanka Bishops Call for New Game Rules in Globalization INTERVIEW Cultural Promotion in Church's DNA (Part 1) Why the World Needs Salesians ROME NOTES Ups and Downs of a City and a Hero DOCUMENTS Pope's Greeting to New Envoy From Australia Papal Address to American Jewish Organizations
CLASSIFIED ADS2nd international priests' retreat in Ars
VATICAN DOSSIER
Anti-Semitism Has No Place in Church, Pope Repeats
Says Holocaust-Denial Is Unacceptable
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Any denial or minimization of the Holocaust is "intolerable and altogether unacceptable," says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this again today when he received at the Vatican the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in Italy in conjunction with their annual Leadership Mission to Israel.
The Holy Father's meeting with the Jewish leaders came at a key moment in Jewish-Catholic relations, which have suffered turmoil in the wake of scandal caused by a Lefebvrite prelate, Bishop Richard Williamson, who denies the gassing of the Jews. His interview aired at about the same time as the bishop, along with three other Society of St. Pius X prelates, had their excommunication lifted in the framework of the Pontiff's continuing efforts to heal the schism with the society.
The Pope and the Vatican have since made repeated statements affirming the Church's respect for the Jews. In his address today, Benedict XVI recalled his visit to Auschwitz in 2006.
"What words can adequately convey that profoundly moving experience," he asked. "As I walked through the entrance to that place of horror, the scene of such untold suffering, I meditated on the countless number of prisoners, so many of them Jews, who had trodden that same path into captivity at Auschwitz and in all the other prison camps.
"Those children of Abraham, grief-stricken and degraded, had little to sustain them beyond their faith in the God of their fathers, a faith that we Christians share with you, our brothers and sisters. How can we begin to grasp the enormity of what took place in those infamous prisons? The entire human race feels deep shame at the savage brutality shown to your people at that time."
The Pope went on to note that he is preparing his visit to Israel, which is expected in the second week of May.
Then he reflected on the 2,000 year history of the relationship between Judaism and the Church, acknowledging that it "has passed through many different phases, some of them painful to recall."
He affirmed that the Second Vatican Council declaration "Nostra Aetate" has guided the relationship since its redaction.
"The Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities," the Bishop of Rome declared.
He added: "The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the holy Scriptures, according to which every human being is created in the image and likeness of God.
"It is beyond question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable."
Benedict XVI concluded by urging that the memory of the Holocaust remain as a "warning to us for the future, and a summons to strive for reconciliation."
"To remember is to do everything in our power to prevent any recurrence of such a catastrophe within the human family by building bridges of lasting friendship," he said. "It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews. It is my heartfelt desire that the friendship we now enjoy will grow ever stronger, so that the Church's irrevocable commitment to respectful and harmonious relations with the people of the Covenant will bear fruit in abundance."
The representative of the Jewish leaders who greeted the Pope was Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. This rabbi welcomed the Pope at the Park East Synagogue during the apostolic visit to New York last April.
"As a Holocaust survivor, these have been painful and difficult days, when confronted with Holocaust-denial by no less than a bishop of the Society of St. Pius X," Schneier affirmed. "Victims of the Holocaust have not given us the right to forgive the perpetrators nor the Holocaust deniers. Thank you for understanding our pain and anguish."
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Benedict XVI Prepares Holy Land Visit
Personally Confirms Plan
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's preparations for his trip to the Holy Land are under way, as he himself confirmed today in a meeting with a Jewish delegation from the United States.
The Pope was visited today in the Vatican by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
According to sources from both Jerusalem and Rome, the Holy Father's first pilgrimage to Israel and the surrounding region will take place during the second week of May.
He confirmed his intention to make the visit, despite doubts cast on the plan by the conflict in Gaza and the scandal caused by Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier of New York told the Pontiff, "The promised land awaits your arrival."
And noting that his guests were scheduled to visit the Holy Land after their time in Italy, Benedict XVI said: "I too am preparing to visit Israel, a land which is holy for Christians as well as Jews, since the roots of our faith are to be found there.
"Indeed, the Church draws its sustenance from the root of that good olive tree, the people of Israel, onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. From the earliest days of Christianity, our identity and every aspect of our life and worship have been intimately bound up with the ancient religion of our fathers in faith."
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Pope Points to Creator, Creation, Creature Link
Says Progress Depends on Recognizing Man's Supernatural Vocation
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI affirmed Australia's response to the challenges of globalization, and urged the country to respect and ponder the relationship between the Creator, creation and the creature.
The Pope affirmed this today in an audience with Timothy Andrew Fischer, Australia's new ambassador to the Holy See.
He stated, "The Church's engagement with civil society is anchored in her conviction that human progress -- whether as individuals or communities -- is dependent upon the recognition of the supernatural vocation proper to every person."
With the perspective that each person receives his dignity from God, the Pontiff said, "we can counter tendencies to pragmatism and consequentialism, so prevalent today, which engage only with the symptoms and effects of conflicts, social fragmentation, and moral ambiguity, rather than their roots."
He continued: "When humanity's spiritual dimension is brought to light, individuals' hearts and minds are drawn to God and to the marvels of human life: being itself, truth, beauty, moral values, and other persons."
Remembering youth
The Holy Father spoke about World Youth Day in Australia last July and its importance for the Church. He described it as "a spiritual event: a time when young people, not all of whom have a close association with the Church, encounter God in an intense experience of prayer, learning and listening, thus coming to experience faith in action."
He added, "I pray that this young generation of Christians in Australia and throughout the world will channel their enthusiasm for all that is true and good into forging friendships across divides and creating places of living faith in and for our world, settings of hope and practical charity."
Benedict XVI lauded Australia's diplomatic efforts, both internally with the indigenous peoples, as well as externally with Asia and Africa. He affirmed that "as the shadows and lights of globalization cast their reach over our world in increasingly complex ways, your nation is showing itself ready to respond to a growing variety of exigencies in a principled, responsible and innovative manner."
One of these issues is the threat to God's creation through climate change, he affirmed, and thus "the fundamental relationship between Creator, creation and creature needs to be pondered and respected."
The Pope added, "From this recognition we can discover a common code of ethics, consisting of norms rooted in the natural law inscribed by the Creator on the heart of every human being."
He said: "A genuinely ethical stance is at the heart of every responsible, respectful and socially inclusive development policy.
"It is ethics which render imperative a compassionate and generous response to poverty; they render urgent the sacrificing of protectionist interests for fair accessibility of poor countries to developed markets just as they render reasonable donor nations' insistence upon accountability and transparency in the use of financial aid by receiver nations.
"For her part, the Church has a long tradition within the health care sector where she brings to the fore an ethical approach to every individual's particular needs."
However, he emphasized, pursuing "quality of life" must not include "taking a life" through practices such as abortion.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Carmelite Priests to Minister in Sri Lanka
Hoping Presence Will Bring Vocations
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Discalced Carmelite priests are hoping their presence in Sri Lanka will lend support to the 50 Carmelite nuns on the island and give rise to native Sri Lankan priestly vocations.
According to the curia-general of the order, provision for future foundations of monasteries for Carmelite priests on the island is in response to bishops' invitations to support the nuns, who arrived to Sri Lanka in 1935 and now live in three carmels.
They also hope to foster Sri Lankan vocations, as the last native Sri Lankan Carmelite priest, Father Gabriel Gunasekara, died almost a year ago.
Only about 6% of Sri Lanka's 21 million people are Christian.
The island nation is the site of a 25-year conflict between the separatist Tamil Tigers and the government. The fighting over the decades has caused the suppression of some of the Carmelites' monasteries.
The recent escalation of the conflict and the plight of nearly a quarter million civilians trapped in the last corner held by the Tigers have raised international concern, including that of the Pope. The Holy Father on Feb. 4 said: "News of a worsening of the conflict and the growing number of innocent victims moves me to offer a pressing appeal to the combatants to respect humanitarian law and people's freedom of movement.
"May they do everything possible to guarantee assistance for the wounded and security for civilians, and permit their urgent food and medical needs to be satisfied."
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Bishops Call for New Game Rules in Globalization
Latin American Prelates Envision Continent of Love
BOGOTA, Colombia, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- The roots of the economic crisis point to the need for a new international structure, say bishops of Latin America.
This conclusion came in a statement from the leadership of the Latin American bishops' council, which met in Colombia last week.
Taking up the observation made by Benedict XVI, the prelates affirmed that "the current crisis is not the result of immediate financial difficulties, but a consequence of the state of ecological health of the planet, and above all, of the cultural and moral crisis that we live, whose symptoms have been evident for some time now all around the world."
Thus, the bishops declared, "globalization should abide by ethics, placing everything at the service of the human person created in the image and likeness of God."
"The current financial crisis has shown the excessive desire for luxury above the valuing of work and employment, making it into an end in itself," they added.
This inversion of values "perverts human relationships," the bishops warned, "substituting them for financial transactions, which should be at the service of production and the satisfaction of human needs."
The prelates continued, "It has become evident that globalization as it is currently configured has not been capable of interpreting and reacting in function of objective values, which are found beyond the market and which make up the most important part of human life: truth, justice, love and especially, the dignity and rights of everyone, even those who live at the outskirts of the market itself."
The Latin American prelates lamented that international economy has concentrated power and riches in just a few hands, excluding the underprivileged and increasing inequality.
They urged "seriously considering the need to establish bases for a new international order, founded on new game rules, which also take into account the values of the Gospel and the social teaching of the Church, with the aim to promote a globalization marked by solidarity and rationality, that would make of this continent not only the continent of hope, but also the continent of love."
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INTERVIEW
Cultural Promotion in Church's DNA (Part 1)
Interview With Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone After Mexico Visit
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Proclamation of the Gospel is cultural creation, and Catholic institutions must show that they can address progress and development successfully, said the Pope's secretary of state.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was in Mexico from Jan. 15 to 19 to preside over the 6th World Meeting of Families and to meet with Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, as well as with the representatives of the world of culture.
On his return to the Vatican, the secretary of state gave a joint interview to Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano and the Vatican Television Center, in which he evaluated his visit.
This interview was conducted by Carlo Di Cicco, deputy director of the Vatican newspaper, and Roberto Piermarini, director of the news service of the papal radio.
Part 2 of this interview will be published Friday.
Q: Eminence, your visit to Mexico seemed very different from your previous ones. In addition to the fact that you took part as a papal legate, it seemed to mark a new beginning in relations between the Church, the Holy See and Mexican society. What actually happened?
Cardinal Bertone: It was a trip of a profound pastoral character -- as papal legate for the 6th World Meeting of Families -- and, of course, [it was] also political to have meetings with the president of the republic and other authorities.
We must recall that Archbishop Dominique Mamberti also went recently to Mexico on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, which was a great change in Mexico, a stage marked in 1993 by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his trip for World Youth Day in Denver.
The secretary of state went to Mexico as papal legate but also as secretary of state, which put the accent on these positive aspects. Not that there is a positive secularism in Mexico -- a subject that was discussed later in the meeting of Queretaro -- but yes, there are more positive meetings and relations between the Church and the state.
There is a Church that is reassuming itself -- a martyr Church, which the Mexican [Church] is. It was an exceptional occasion in which the Pope made himself present with two messages: his recorded blessing and live transmission during which the joyful and palpitating Mexican cry resounded: "the Pope is present."
It is a conviction that expresses the great desire for the presence of the Pope, but also the sense of full communion and fellowship with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.
Q: Family and culture were the two most important points in all your speeches. Why did you give so much attention to these topics?
Cardinal Bertone: Because in reality, the family is the first transmitter of values and culture for the new generations; for children and young people growing up, the family is the transmitter of values.
This is a proven fact in the experience of family life, despite all the difficulties that mark the way, not only in Europe but also in Latin America.
I recall a conference, a debate, that took place here in Rome, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, with Professor Barbiellini Amidei, precisely about the family, regarding its capacity or incapacity to address other instances of socialization in the task of transmitting values.
In the end we agreed that the family is the first instance of the transmission of values -- and this is also the conviction of the Popes: of John Paul II and, particularly, Pope Benedict, as taken up in the two messages addressed to Mexico -- the family is the first instance of human and Christian formation.
It transmits the identity, the family's own identity, and the cultural and spiritual identity of a people.
Then the state is born thanks to the grouping, the communion among families, that is why the state should have the mission to strengthen the identity of a people grounded in its roots, in its origins, which later determine the development of both the political and ecclesial community.
Q: In some way, you seemed to encourage a re-foundation of Mexican Catholic culture. With what objective?
Cardinal Bertone: There are great cultural traditions in Mexico: there are many universities and many educational institutions, and there is a risk that these realities, which were reborn after the Church was given a space of freedom, will remain in a corner.
There is a strong strain of secularism, there are forces which are opposed to the Church, which oppose the Church's mission to educate and form, the Church's function to develop culture.
But we must recall that the Church was the creator of the university; the universities were born in the heart of the Church, and in Mexico they say there are more than 2,000 universities, counting the state and private ones, many of them Catholic, also belonging to religious institutes.
It is an immense resource that must be tapped, so to speak, that must be made present and active, so that it can influence the people's culture and demonstrate -- and herein lies the problem of the evangelization of the culture -- that also universities of a Catholic nature or Catholic inspiration can address science, make it progress and thus create new ambits and forms of cultural development, precisely for the good of the Mexican nation. That is why I sought to encourage and stimulate this type of development.
Q: In the meeting with [people of] the world of culture and education you emphasized the limited success that Mexican culture had during the last century. Is it not a rather harsh judgment for a Church that suffered persecution, including a bloody one?
Cardinal Bertone: It is, in fact, a question of harsh judgment. I literally quoted an author, Gabriel Zaid, who remembers his meeting with a European bishop who asked him: "Is a Catholic culture possible in Mexico? Can the Catholic Church have some cultural influence in the country?"
When this European bishop, more precisely this Dutch bishop, asked him what could be expected of Mexico, Zaid, desolate, said: "I couldn't give him any hope.
"In Mexico, beyond the vestiges of better times and popular culture, Catholic culture has ended" -- you must realize that we were in the 70s -- it remained on the margin, in one of the most notable centuries of Mexican culture: the 20th century. How could that happen? -- Zaid replied -- "I'm still asking myself that!"
This diagnosis is certainly pessimistic: I have taken it up again precisely because there have been incentives, highly significant positive aspects, so that it would be very unjust to stress the negative and subscribe fully to this diagnosis.
Nevertheless, the writer's observation and the bishop's question require an answer; they are stimulating.
That culture is necessary in the work of the Church, and even more so in humanity itself, was affirmed by Pope John Paul II, in his great address in UNESCO, when he cried out: "The future of man depends on culture! The peace of the world depends on the primacy of the Spirit! The peaceful future of humanity depends on love!" Thus he related peace, culture and love.
For the Church, cultural promotion is an innate reality, written in her DNA, in her history: It is an urgent and necessary imperative.
By the very fact that the Gospel is itself creator of culture, the proclamation of the Gospel is cultural creation.
The truth is that the Church in Mexico was persecuted and gave many martyrs. I received and venerated the relics of a 15-year-old boy, who looked much more mature than his age, José Sánchez del Río, who took part in a cultural circle of Catholic Action.
Despite his young age, he was arrested, and after his capture he was killed. Before dying, he wrote "Long Live Christ the King," which was the cry of Mexican martyrs.
That is why Mexico's Church is certainly a martyr Church, but also because of this she has been marginalized.
This Church has always practiced a great religion of worship, very significant, source of her fidelity to Christ and of her enthusiasm for the faith, but somewhat resigned from the cultural point of view.
That is why it was and is necessary to re-launch the whole of cultural promotion that -- as I said -- is innate to the mission of the Church, particularly in Mexico.
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Why the World Needs Salesians
Interview With Superior-General of Sisters of Don Bosco
By María de la Torre
ROME, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- The Salesian charism has a special task in today's world, marked by what Benedict XVI calls an "educational emergency," says the mother superior of the order's feminine branch.
Mother Yvonne Reungoat was elected the superior-general of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in October.
At the beginning of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Salesian family, ZENIT spoke with Mother Reungoat about her new mission and the importance of her charism.
Q: What did you feel upon being elected mother superior of the Salesian sisters?
Mother Reungoat: When I was elected, I was surprised. I did not expect this election. However, if one knows that when one gives one's life to the Lord he can ask whatever he wishes, which often is not what we ourselves want, in a religious institute he can ask for any mission.
It was a moment of surprise, but also of some disconcert, yet always of much confidence. Up to now I have tried to make my life a gift for him. What is most important is that my life belongs to the Lord. He has often led me to hear him, unexpectedly, and this time he has come to me and I could not say no to what the Lord was asking me.
When one feels small and poor before a mission, at that moment one feels more strongly the need for confidence and help. It was a moment of great trust in him and in Mary Help of Christians, because Don Bosco and our founder, Mother Maria Mazzarello, always said that Mary Help of Christians was the senior founder of the institute. So I felt that she took me by the hand and heard her say: "You are the vicar, the real superior," and this has given me much confidence. I feel her present in my life and I count on her.
I had the experience, at the same time, that the Lord was asking me and giving me the gift of a new maternity: to carry in my heart all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians worldwide, and there are many of them. And along with them so many young people, so many laymen who share the mission with us in the whole world. This is a most beautiful experience.
Q: Did you ever imagine it?
Mother Reungoat: No, I never imagined it. I couldn't imagine it because I did not feel able to live a mission such as this one, despite knowing that it could happen. Our constitution says that any Daughter of Mary Help of Christians can be elected mother-general after a certain number of years of profession, but honestly, I had never thought about it really.
Q: What has changed in your life since then?
Mother Reungoat: From the personal point of view, for the time being nothing has changed much, but my sense of responsibility has changed. Now I cannot think of myself, as every moment of my life becomes a gift for others, a gift for my sisters and for the whole institute. I have had the experience of a great call, first of all to holiness, because I think that what is most important is the quality with which one gives one's life to the Lord, letting oneself be enraptured by him to be able to be a channel of his through which he himself can pass.
Then one feels the responsibility of being a bond of communion in a great family such as ours, which extends to every continent, with sisters who belong to different cultures, with a great diversity, called to be a continual interrelationship and to carry out together in unity a common mission to the young generations.
Q: What do the Salesians offer today's world?
Mother Reungoat: What we Salesians can offer today's world is an educational mission, a commitment in the field of education. There is so much talk today, and Benedict XVI has mentioned it many times, that we are living a moment of educational emergency. We live the experience of this emergency as something that is true in all parts of the world. We feel it, increasingly, as our responsibility and as the current task of our charism: to educate the youth of today, taking into account the great challenge of a society that constantly changes at great speed; to be in constant search in order to answer these challenges, having in mind the plan God has for humanity.
This means to build the human family and we think that education is at the base of the construction of the society of the future. Benedict XVI reminds us of this in many of his addresses.
This educational mission is a great responsibility for us, but also a great stimulus, a challenge that commits not only us, but also many laymen that collaborate with us. That is why a synergy must be created, we must enter increasingly into a synergy with other institutions that seek to make an effort in this world of education.
Q: What does it mean to continue the way of Don Bosco and of Mother Mazzarello?
Mother Reungoat: To continue the way of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello today is this, to make this educational charism actual today: to live the pedagogical style, which is the style of the "preventive system." It means that it is based on confidence in young people, in weakness, to make young people feel loved, but not only that they know it but that they are shown this love so that they can come to believe that God really loves them and help them to discover and develop all the resources so that they become leaders in the construction of the society of today and of tomorrow.
I will try to proclaim Jesus to young people. Don Bosco had this great passion to help young people to grow as human beings, to find their place in society and in the Church, and to discover God's place, the presence of God in their lives. To believe that they are loved by God and not only this, from this experience to become preachers of Jesus for the rest of young people. This is an important challenge for us: to make young people leaders of this proclamation so that they become missionaries in the midst of other young people to help them find the meaning of their lives. The young people of today need love, they need to know the meaning of life, which in reality they can find in God and we, all together, must be witnesses to be able to help them to find God, a living person, who is close to them, who gives meaning to their lives.
Q: Where do you yourself find the strength to carry out this responsibility?
Mother Reungoat: Several elements strengthen me. One is knowing that I am not alone. I said at the beginning that to trust in God and in Mary Help of Christians is a very great strength. I feel supported by prayer, commitment and the affection of all my sisters worldwide. I feel part of a family: we support one another. I have seen the commitment and dedication of so many Daughters of Mary Help of Christians worldwide who with so much courage, joy and love give their whole life with passion to their mission.
Another element that supports me is the vocations that the Lord continues to send to the institute from different parts of the world. Vocations are more numerous in some parts and less in others, but worldwide every year a certain number of young people enter who continue to hear this call from God and who choose to say "yes" to our family. This is a sign of God's confidence in us, of the importance of our vocation and a constant renewal, because they bring us the wealth of today's young people and this is a great support in living this mission.
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ROME NOTES
Ups and Downs of a City and a Hero
Looking at Florence in David's Light
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Every semester I take my students to Florence, which is always a breath of fresh artistic air. The city constantly offers new ways to meditate on old favorites, and this weekend, after 48 hours of studying images of David, I saw that their formal evolution in many ways reflected the spiritual growth of the city.
During the course of its rich history, Florence has accumulated many symbols, from the lion "Marzocco" to the lily, sign of its dedication to the Virgin Mary. But the best-known emblem of the Florentines is David, the Old Testament king and hero. The story of his heroic deeds marred by his grave errors resonates with the strengths and weaknesses of the extraordinary people of Florence.
Like David the youngest son of Jesse, the town of Florence was a relatively late arrival on the Italian Peninsula. Although founded by Julius Caesar as Florentia, the settlement had lain dormant from the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. Florence became a feudal stronghold only at the end of the first millennium, after being the subject of a tug of war during the barbarian invasions.
Her feudal shackles were struck off in the 12th century and the fledgling town went on to become one of the first important industrial centers in Italy. Without seaports or trade routes like Pisa and Venice, and lacking a venerable ancient pedigree like Milan or Rome, Florence thrived nonetheless. Like David, chosen fresh from the fields by Samuel, the Florentines felt that Providence had selected them for greatness.
It was a city of hard workers, constantly aiming toward excellence. From Dante to Brunelleschi, the achievements of the Florentines became known throughout the world.
David, "handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance," made the perfect model for a city still famous as an artistic jewel. As David's musical skills could soothe the agitated Saul, so the gifts of Florentine artists and writers have long entranced Western man.
Facing Goliaths
Florence was often beset by Goliaths. The Duke of Milan, possessed of superior fighting men and weapons, came close to annexing the little town to his domain. But he died suddenly on the very threshold of victory. Financial disasters and deadly plagues swept through Europe, but Florence remained steady and strong. Florentines danced and sang as their city became the cradle of the art and thought of the Renaissance.
The Florentines commissioned numerous images of David. The first life-size sculptural representations began with Donatello's marble
version destined for the cathedral. He emphasized David's heroism with a diadem of curling laurel around his brow, but the figure itself, a series of slender gothic S-curves, underscored his youth and fragility. Painted and gilt, the statue revealed how rough stone could be transformed into refined beauty.
Donatello revisited the subject later on in life when he produced another David, this time for the Medici family. This famous bronze work represents David as a nude youth at rest after the battle. His handsome face shielded by a wide brimmed hat crowned with laurel, David stands in his ornately etched sandals on the head of the defeated Goliath. He holds the heavy sword of his vanquished enemy. This rough instrument of death, half his height, is the only object in dissonance with the elegant scene.
The Medicis placed this work in their palace courtyard. Passers-by peeking in would see this victorious figure, serenely meditating upon his fallen foe.
As one of Donatello's most sophisticated works, nude David reflected the artist's extensive study of Greco-Roman heroic statues and well as the Neo-Platonic thought popular among the Medici clan. The extraordinary youth of David suggests Cupid, the god of love. David then becomes a symbol of love conquering evil. The base bore the inscription, "The victor is whoever defends the fatherland. All-powerful God crushes the angry enemy. Behold a boy overcame the great tyrant. Conquer, O citizens!"
A few years later, the Medicis commissioned a second David from the sculptor Verrocchio. Although close in size to Donatello's, (about 5 feet), this work interpreted the hero in a markedly different fashion. Verrocchio's wiry, muscular David has also conquered Goliath, but the adrenaline still seems to course through his veins. With his sword at an angle and the quick turn of the head, as well as his fitted breastplate and light kilt, David is ready to face the next challenge. Both Davids boasted gilt hair and boots, again illustrating the young hero bathed in God's glory.
Another enemy
With the fall of the Medicis, the Florentine Republic emerged. To symbolize this new era in its history, in 1501 the city called upon its most glorious son, Michelangelo, to carve the largest most monumental David of all. Sculpted out of a 14-foot block of marble, this David is triple the size of the bronze versions (making one wonder how big Goliath must have been)!
Michelangelo approached the subject in a completely innovative way. Instead of showing David after the battle, Michelangelo captured David the moment before he confronted his foe. Wary anticipation of battle clouds David's face, creasing the brow of his otherwise Grecian countenance. Muscles tensed, head turned sharply, David is aware of the danger he faces, but stone clasped in hand, he pushes off with his left foot counting on God's assistance.
Like Donatello, Michelangelo represented his David in the heroic nude, but he eschewed the prepubescent images of his predecessors. Nor did Michelangelo employ paint or gold to describe the special place of David in God's divine plan. The polished marble reflected light, rendering David a luminous figure in salvation history. But for all that radiance, Michelangelo never forgot that David was not Goliath's physical equal, nor could he match the Philistine in experience. He did not wear armor because he had "never tried them before."
Despite his colossal size, Michelangelo's David displays an inherent awkwardness. His large head balances atop a thin neck while his disproportionate hands emerge from slim arms. His long torso and slightly gangly legs remind one less of the Apollos of antiquity than of the uncomfortable years of adolescence. The promise of greatness is there in his monumental stature, but he is still struggling with ungainliness.
Michelangelo infused his subject with greater realism not only in the attentively carved veins and muscles, but also by conveying the fact that even with God's grace there will be moments of uncertainty in even the most divinely favored missions.
Michelangelo's David was the last great version of the subject. Within a few years, the government fell and the Republic turned into the Medici Duchy. Florence would know years of tyranny and unrest, but the Florentine people would forge ahead and continue to make great contributions to the world.
David too, flush with victory over Goliath, could not see that his real opponent, sin, would soon fell him. When he coveted Bathsheba, the wife of another man, and then murdered her husband Uriah, the great promise of David seemed dissipated by wickedness.
But David, again calling on God's grace, offered one more heroic example: repentance. Seeking God's forgiveness, he turned his artistic talent into an instrument to guide others to conversion. His psalms still move modern readers for their beauty, especially Psalm 51, the plea for God's mercy.
In later years, statues of David were substituted by paintings, where somber colors depict the older King David. Having lost the battle with temptation, he plays his harp as he calls again on God's assistance. Above him, light filters through the heavens, bathing the troubled king in the warmth of forgiveness.
In taking David as its emblem, Florence embraced a figure whose journey from promising youth to the older, battle-scarred leader mirrored the ups and downs of the city's history. Combining insight with creative genius, Florentine artists depicted a hero whose struggles would resonate with all those bound on the difficult journey of the Christian life.
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Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus and at the University of St. Thomas Catholic Studies program in Rome. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.
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DOCUMENTS
Pope's Greeting to New Envoy From Australia
"World Youth Day Was an Event of Singular Importance"
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave today upon receiving the letters of credence of Timothy Andrew Fischer, the first residential ambassador from Australia to the Holy See.
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Mr Ambassador,
It is with particular pleasure that I welcome you to the Vatican and accept the Letters of Credence by which you are appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Australia to the Holy See. I would ask you kindly to convey to the Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce, and the Government and people of your nation my gratitude for their greetings. With vivid memories of my recent visit to your beautiful country, I assure you of my prayers for the country’s well-being and in particular I wish to send my condolences to the grieving individuals and families in Victoria who have lost loved ones in the recent bush fires.
Your Excellency’s appointment as Australia’s first residential Ambassador to the Holy See marks a welcome new stage in our diplomatic relations and provides an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and to extend our already significant collaboration. The Church’s engagement with civil society is anchored in her conviction that human progress -- whether as individuals or communities -- is dependent upon the recognition of the supernatural vocation proper to every person. It is from God that men and women receive their essential dignity (cf. Gen 1:27) and the capacity to seek truth and goodness. Within this broad perspective we can counter tendencies to pragmatism and consequentialism, so prevalent today, which engage only with the symptoms and effects of conflicts, social fragmentation, and moral ambiguity, rather than their roots. When humanity’s spiritual dimension is brought to light, individuals’ hearts and minds are drawn to God and to the marvels of human life: being itself, truth, beauty, moral values, and other persons. In this way a sure foundation to unite society and sustain a vision of hope can be found.
World Youth Day was an event of singular importance for the universal Church and for Australia. Echoes of appreciation continue to resound within your own nation and across the globe. Above all, every World Youth Day is a spiritual event: a time when young people, not all of whom have a close association with the Church, encounter God in an intense experience of prayer, learning, and listening, thus coming to experience faith in action. Sydney residents themselves, as Your Excellency observed, were inspired by the sheer joy of the pilgrims. I pray that this young generation of Christians in Australia and throughout the world will channel their enthusiasm for all that is true and good into forging friendships across divides and creating places of living faith in and for our world, settings of hope and practical charity.
Mr Ambassador, cultural diversity brings much richness to the social fabric of Australia today. For decades that collage was tarnished by the injustices so painfully endured by the Indigenous Peoples. Through the apology offered last year by Prime Minister Rudd, a profound change of heart has been affirmed. Now, renewed in the spirit of reconciliation, both government agencies and aboriginal elders can address with resolution and compassion the plethora of challenges that lie ahead. A further example of your Government’s desire to promote respect and understanding among cultures is its laudable effort to facilitate inter-religious dialogue and cooperation both at home and in the region. Such initiatives help to preserve cultural heritages, nourish the public dimension of religion, and kindle the very values without which civic society’s heart would soon wither.
Australia’s diplomatic activity in the Pacific, Asia and more recently in Africa is multifaceted and growing. The nation’s active support of the Millennium Development Goals, numerous regional partnerships, initiatives to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and keen concern for just economic development are well known and respected. And as the shadows and lights of globalization cast their reach over our world in increasingly complex ways, your nation is showing itself ready to respond to a growing variety of exigencies in a principled, responsible and innovative manner. Not least of these are the menacing threats to God’s creation itself through climate change. Perhaps more than ever before in our human history the fundamental relationship between Creator, Creation and Creature needs to be pondered and respected. From this recognition we can discover a common code of ethics, consisting of norms rooted in the natural law inscribed by the Creator on the heart of every human being.
In my message this year for the World Day of Peace, I drew particular attention to the need for an ethical approach to the creation of positive partnerships between markets, civil society and States (cf. no. 12). In this regard I note with interest the Australian Government’s determination to establish relations of cooperation based on the values of fairness, good governance, and the sense of a regional neighbourhood. A genuinely ethical stance is at the heart of every responsible, respectful and socially inclusive development policy. It is ethics which render imperative a compassionate and generous response to poverty; they render urgent the sacrificing of protectionist interests for fair accessibility of poor countries to developed markets just as they render reasonable donor nations’ insistence upon accountability and transparency in the use of financial aid by receiver nations.
For her part, the Church has a long tradition within the healthcare sector where she brings to the fore an ethical approach to every individual’s particular needs. Especially in poorer nations, Religious Orders and church organizations – including many Australian missionaries – fund and staff a vast network of hospitals and clinics, often in remote areas where States have been unable to serve their own people. Of particular concern is the provision of medical care for families, including high-quality obstetrical care for women. How ironic it is, however, when some groups, through aid programmes, promote abortion as a form of ‘maternal’ healthcare: taking a life, purportedly to improve the quality of life.
Your Excellency, I am sure that your appointment will further strengthen the bonds of friendship which already exist between Australia and the Holy See. As you exercise your new responsibilities you will find the broad range of offices of the Roman Curia ready to assist you in the fulfilment of your duties. Upon you and your family together with your fellow citizens, I cordially invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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Papal Address to American Jewish Organizations
"Shoah Was a Crime Against God and Against Humanity"
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2009 (
Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave today upon receiving in audience members of a delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
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Dear Friends,
I am pleased to welcome all of you today, and I thank Rabbi Arthur Schneier and Mr Alan Solow for the greetings they have addressed to me on your behalf. I well recall the various occasions, during my visit to the United States last year, when I was able to meet some of you in Washington D.C. and New York. Rabbi Schneier, you graciously received me at Park East Synagogue just hours before your celebration of Pesah. Now, I am glad to have this opportunity to offer you hospitality here in my own home. Such meetings as this enable us to demonstrate our respect for one another. I want you to know that you are all most welcome here today in the house of Peter, the home of the Pope.
I look back with gratitude to the various opportunities I have had over many years to spend time in the company of my Jewish friends. My visits to your communities in Washington and New York, though brief, were experiences of fraternal esteem and sincere friendship. So too was my visit to the Synagogue in Cologne, the first such visit in my Pontificate. It was very moving for me to spend those moments with the Jewish community in the city I know so well, the city which was home to the earliest Jewish settlement in Germany, its roots reaching back to the time of the Roman Empire.
A year later, in May 2006, I visited the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. What words can adequately convey that profoundly moving experience? As I walked through the entrance to that place of horror, the scene of such untold suffering, I meditated on the countless number of prisoners, so many of them Jews, who had trodden that same path into captivity at Auschwitz and in all the other prison camps. Those children of Abraham, grief-stricken and degraded, had little to sustain them beyond their faith in the God of their fathers, a faith that we Christians share with you, our brothers and sisters. How can we begin to grasp the enormity of what took place in those infamous prisons? The entire human race feels deep shame at the savage brutality shown to your people at that time. Allow me to recall what I said on that sombre occasion: "The rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people, to cancel it from the register of the peoples of the earth. Thus the words of the Psalm, ‘We are being killed, accounted as sheep for the slaughter’, were fulfilled in a terrifying way."
Our meeting today occurs in the context of your visit to Italy in conjunction with your annual Leadership Mission to Israel. I too am preparing to visit Israel, a land which is holy for Christians as well as Jews, since the roots of our faith are to be found there. Indeed, the Church draws its sustenance from the root of that good olive tree, the people of Israel, onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles (cf. Rom 11: 17-24). From the earliest days of Christianity, our identity and every aspect of our life and worship have been intimately bound up with the ancient religion of our fathers in faith.
The two-thousand-year history of the relationship between Judaism and the Church has passed through many different phases, some of them painful to recall. Now that we are able to meet in a spirit of reconciliation, we must not allow past difficulties to hold us back from extending to one another the hand of friendship. Indeed, what family is there that has not been troubled by tensions of one kind or another? The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration "Nostra Aetate" marked a milestone in the journey towards reconciliation, and clearly outlined the principles that have governed the Church’s approach to Christian-Jewish relations ever since. The Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities. If there is one particular image which encapsulates this commitment, it is the moment when my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II stood at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, pleading for God’s forgiveness after all the injustice that the Jewish people have had to suffer. I now make his prayer my own: "God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant" (26 March 2000).
The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures, according to which every human being is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). It is beyond question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable. Recently, in a public audience, I reaffirmed that the Shoah must be "a warning for all against forgetfulness, denial or reductionism, because violence committed against one single human being is violence against all" (January 28, 2009).
This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten. Remembrance -- it is rightly said -- is memoria futuri, a warning to us for the future, and a summons to strive for reconciliation. To remember is to do everything in our power to prevent any recurrence of such a catastrophe within the human family by building bridges of lasting friendship. It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews. It is my heartfelt desire that the friendship we now enjoy will grow ever stronger, so that the Church’s irrevocable commitment to respectful and harmonious relations with the people of the Covenant will bear fruit in abundance.
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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2nd international priests' retreat in Ars
After the first retreat in 2005 with 900 priests attending, the Sanctuary of Ars, the Jean-Marie Vianney Society and the Community of the Beatitudes organize, under the guidance of Mgr Bagnard and sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy, a new international priests' retreat on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Cure of Ars. Preached by Cardinal Schönborn (Austria), its theme is "The joy of priesthood: consecrated for the salvation of the world!"
The retreat will take place from Sept.27th through Oct. 3rd 2009: one week to be renewed in your priesthood and ministry.
http://retraitears2009.org
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