30DAYS IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD
POPE
Confession is ‘a path’ for the New Evangelization

Faithful line up in front of the confessional of St Pio of Pietrelcina
THE YEAR OF FAITH
Messori: faith is only ‘wagering’ on the Resurrection of Jesus

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary at the sepulcher
CHURCH
God’s preference for ‘what is small’
“‘Great things always begin in a grain of mustard and mass movements always have a short duration’. This sentence written to describe the needs of a new evangelization by Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, puts in sharp focus what is dear to the heart of Joseph Ratzinger as a theologian, bishop and pope”. This is the opening statement of an article by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which appeared in L’Osservatore Romano last 15 April. So, for the cardinal, the Holy Father posits as a “basic principle” of God’s action in history, the very “preference for what is small” itself. He explains: “The mustard seed is not only an example of Christian hope, but also highlights that the great comes from the small not by means of revolutionary upheavals, nor even because we men assume the direction but because it comes about slowly and gradually, following its own dynamic. In the face of it the Christian attitude can only be of love and patience, which is the long breath of love. [...] But we men are always tempted to take the particular for the whole, to exchange the finite for the infinite and, therefore, to place the emphasis, in the example of Jesus, on growth; we would like, with nervous impatience, to have very quickly a large sturdy tree and, if necessary, contribute to it with our hands in our striving to see a respectable result immediately, and in pastoral care we risk confusing the care of souls with the preoccupation about numbers [...]. Through the example of the mustard seed, the Pope emphasizes that the action in the Church should have as its starting point its mystery and not insist on dragging a large tree from it immediately. The Church is at once both the mustard seed and the tree and the Pope underlines this by pointing out that: ‘Perhaps we should, the Church should find itself faced with great trials (1 Thes 1, 6) so as to relearn what it lives on also today, it lives for the hope of the mustard seed and not for the strength of its projects and its structures’”.
Cut-Outs
CHURCH/1
Bertello, the faith of the simple and the miracles of Jesus
“There are two ways to approach Jesus: with the approach of ‘the wise’ who doubt his words, or with that of simple people, who give witness to the miracles of Christ and have eyes to see the Awaited”. So Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, in a homily during a Mass celebrated in the church of Santa Maria della Pietà at the Coliseum. The cardinal’s words were taken from L’Osservatore Romano on 4 April.
CHURCH/2
Moraglia and The Year of Faith
On 25 March the new Patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, took up office in the new episcopal see. In his first mass he focused on the Gospel passage about the Supper at Emmaus. We quote a passage: “The two pilgrims – Cleopas and his companion on the road – they’re walking with the risen Jesus and are sad because, for them, He is still dead; at a given moment, presuming, even, to explain to Him, precisely what had happened in the days before, in Jerusalem [...]. One seems to glimpse, in this clumsy attempt, the image of a certain theology, more diligent than enlightened, totally dedicated to the arduous and unlikely undertaking of saving, through its own categories, Jesus Christ and His Word. But in this image we are also represented, when every time, with our pastoral planning, with our projects and debates, divorced from a true faith, we presume to explain to Jesus Christ who He is. Cleopas, his traveling companion – and after them the disciples of all time – eventually express their despair and distrust with regard to Jesus and his work; the words of the two and the use of the imperfect tense are unequivocal : ‘... we were hoping that He would have redeemed Israel; and beside all this three days have passed...’ (Lk 24, 21). When faith is lost, or is no longer able to support and enrich the lives of the disciples, then every theological discourse, every pastoral plan or mediatic coverage are insufficient. And we find ourselves in the same condition of the two disciples of Emmaus, incapable of going beyond their logic, their their states of mind, exposing ourselves as prisoners of their fears. Let’s keep all of this in mind on the eve of the incipient Year of the Faith”.
24 March 2012, Tel Aviv, demonstration against the hypothesis of an Israeli preemptive strike on Iran [© Associated Press/LaPresse]
Grossman: “Why I say no to war on Iran”
The well-known Israeli novelist David Grosmann wrotein la Repubblica on 12 March: “Iran, as we know, is not only a fundamentalist and extremist country. Large swathes of the population are secular, educated and advanced. Several representatives of its vast middle class have manifested with courage and at risk of their lives against a religious and tyrannical regime that detest. I’m not saying that part of the Iranian people feel any sympathy for Israel but one day, in the future, these people could govern Iran and perhaps be more favorably inclined toward Israel. Such a possibility would disappear however if Israel were to attack Iran portraying itself as an arrogant megalomaniacal nation, a historical enemy against whom to fight relentlessly, even in the eyes of Iranian moderates. Is this eventuality more or less dangerous than a nuclear Iran? And what will Israel do if at some point Saudi Arabia also decides it wants nuclear weapons and gets them? Will it launch another attack? And if Egypt also, under the new government, will choose this path? Will Israel bomb it? And will it forever remain the only country in the region authorised to have nuclear weapons? [...]. Such an attack would be rash, thoughtless, hasty and could completely change our future, I dare not even imagine how. Rather, no: I can imagine it, but my hand refuses to write it”.