The Malta Independent on Sunday
Courtyard of the Gentiles
Life is an excellent cradle for dialogue. Without dialogue, life simply ceases to be what it is and should always be – life. That is why, in his address to the participants of the International Meeting for Peace by the Sant’ Egidio Community on 30 September 2013, Pope Francis rightly emphasised the fact that “each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls!”
Walls can be built in many ways and by many means, including those that are constructed by the complete absence of dialogue and cultural interaction. Yes, walls can be intellectual too! And here lies the reason why it is so important to hold conversations, to bring people together – irrespective of their faith or non-faith beliefs. This has also been the vision of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, to launch that much-needed inititative he dubbed the ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’.
In a December 2009 address to the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict “called for an itinerant Courtyard of the Gentiles”, an international forum that would foster dialogue between Christian believers and agnostics or atheists. In his Discourse of Foundation to the Pontifical Council for Culture, on December 21, 2009, the Holy Father declared: “Here I think naturally of the words which Jesus quoted from the Prophet Isaiah, namely that the Temple must be a house of prayer for all the nations (see Is 56: 7; Mk 11:17). Jesus was thinking of the so-called Court of the Gentiles which he cleared of extraneous affairs so that it could be a free space for the Gentiles who wished to pray there. He was thinking of people who know God, so to speak, only from afar; who are dissatisfied with their own gods, rites and myths; who desire the Pure and the Great, even if God remains for them the ‘unknown God’ (see Acts 17:23)”.
Today, in addition to interreligious dialogue, there is a dire need to hold a dialogue with those to whom religion is something foreign, to whom God is still unknown and yet who, nevertheless, do not want to be left merely ‘Godless’, but rather to draw near to him, albeit as ‘the Unknown’. The biblical Court of the Gentiles was a large outer courtyard in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem that was not reserved for the Jews, but rather was open to anyone, independent of culture or religion. Cardinal Ravasi developed the Pope’s vision of large, open discussions “between faith and reason, secular culture and the Church.” Thanks to this initiative, Cardinal Ravasi “wanted to reintroduce the ancient tradition of the ‘disputed questions’ – as they were called then. While at that time they had to do with different opinions and theses, in this case they will be between believers and nonbelievers.” He added: “I am trying to see to it that this danger is avoided.” He then stated: “I want really fundamental questions to be asked – questions of anthropology, then good and evil, life and afterlife, love, suffering, the meaning of evil – questions that are substantially at the basis of human existence.” The leading intellectual questions to be discussed and highlighted are always in the form of whether or not “one chooses a ‘World without God’.How far can the human person go in the field of creation? Are there limits and, if so, what are they?”
The Augustinian Institute Centre for Augustinian and Patristic Studies has taken Pope Benedict’s prophetic call to organise the Courtyard of the Gentiles to heart. In fact, on 24 January, at 6pm, in Thérèse Spinelli Hall at the Augustinian Sisters School, T. Spinelli Street, Gzira, His Eminence Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture as well as President of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, will deliver a lecture on the subject Il tempio e la piazza. Fede, cultura, società (The Temple and the square. faith, culture and society). The lecture will be the main event of this year’s The City of God seminar. This special event will be chaired by Professor Salvino Caruana OSA and will be under the distinguished patronage of the VR Prior Provincial Dr Ray Francalanza OSA SThD (Melit.).
Let us meet together to talk about the great questions of our human existence! Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap