TURKEY AND THE POPE'S CHALLENGE TO SECULAR EUROPEANS
on secular ground
By Marco Palmisano
To reflect with the necessary prudence on the reasons that impel Benedict XVI to carry out his sensitive trip
to Turkey, let us try to get into the thoughts and actions of the Holy Father by examining his own relevant statements.
Before he became Pope, Joseph Ratzinger always insisted in his writings that reason cannot exclude an openness
to the mystery of the presence of God in our life.
"As a standard," he wrote, "I would speak about the need for a correlative relationship between reason and faith,
reason and religion, which must reciprocally clarify each other and must be recognized as a living unity."
It is on this 'secular' ground of reason that the Pope is turning to, in order to weave a fabric of dialog between
different cultures and professions of faith in the world today.
The Pope does not speak of abstract ecumenism nor of a politically correct dialog among religions, but
of reason that is open to the transcendent, publicly challenging believers and non-believers, Catholics
and Muslims, the Islamic, Slavic and Western worlds together.
Another illuminating passage from Papa Ratzinger: "We are now faced with this question - if terrorism is nourished
by religious fanaticism as it is, can religion be understood in such terms to be something healthy and redeeming,
or is it rather an archaic and dangerous power which creates a false 'universalism' that leads to intolerance and hatred?...
Perhaps religion and reason should delimit each other, each one in its proper place, in order to conduct man along
a positive path."
The balance and wisdom shown in these passages say much about the Pope's (understanding of) secularism
and of his great moral and cultural power to speak to modern man not in confessional (religious) terms, but in
expressions based on reason that are appropriate to man's dignity and the gravity of the problems which confront him.
In fact, the Christian faith requires believers to be in full possession of reason to be able to accept the faith as the
appropriate and exhaustive answer to the ultimate questions of life.
That is why, in the Pope's address to the Italian Church in Verona, he did not conceal his great sympathy
for all secular initiatives, free of ideological motivation, which derive from a sincere attention to the true
needs of human beings, for which answers are sought that do not deny the presence of God a priori in human life,
but are open to a recognition and affirmation of God.
The Pope's trip to the ancient land of Anatolia comes at a particularly delicate and decisive moment for
the outcome of the great encounter of civilizations taking place in the world today, upon which the fate
of the European peoples will depend in large part.
Turkey represents the true geographic, cultural and religious hinge between Europe and Asia, particularly Arabia.
One can say with the late Oriana Fallaci, that the growing encroachment of Eurabia that is taking place within
our nations with a Christian matrix, will surely result in the Eurasian front contributing strongly to the cultural
impoverishment of our European identity and its historic roots.
That is why Turkey's entry into the European Union is so ctritical, and even more important at this time is the visit
of a new Pope to this strategic frontier nation.
It is a mission that takes place on two parallel planes: as a renewed appeal to the European peoples on the ever
more urgent need to recover their European identity, and on the other, to confront other religions and cultures
openly and fearlessly, by challenging them secularly on rational grounds, with the consequent and necessary
application of reason to every field of human experience, both personal as well as collective.
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This is certainly a thoughtful piece, but like most reporting so far on the Turkish trip, it chooses to ignore
the primary reason for the visit - a demonstration of ecumenical solidarity with the Orthodox Church, which can
only be beneficial to the moral, cultural and political aspects of the battle to preserve the European identity and
the Chrtistian values on which that identity is based.
And, of course, politically, it is the first Muslim country visited by Benedict XVI, and as far as we know, the only one
to any Muslim country contemplated so far.
Am I right that the next foreign trip we can expect will be the one in May 2007 to Brazil? Of course, if speculation
published earlier this year in an Italian newspaper has any basis, it could be the occasion for an American 'tour'
that might include Mexico and the United States (or at least, the UN in New York).
The rationale is that if the 80-year-old Pope (as he will be by then) is going to make such a long trip anyway,
it might be possible to maximize the opportunity and plan an itinerary that will not tax his health unnecessarily. .
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/11/2006 3.06]