I first met Víctor Manuel Fernández[1] – who will be created cardinal on September 30 – in Argentina in September 2014 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, of which he was then rector. Exactly one year later he came to the offices of La Civiltà Cattolica in Rome to give a talk at an international seminar on “Reform and Reforms in the Church.”[2] He spoke on the topic “The Gospel, the Spirit and Ecclesial Reform in the Thought of...
“This is not a pipe (Ceci n’est pas une pipe).” In his famous 1929 painting depicting a pipe, Magritte inscribed these words in a simple, cursive font. The great Surrealist painter was sending the viewer a message as surprising as it is obvious: representation is not the object that represents. The same can be said of the journal you are now reading. Civiltà Cattolica is not an object, that is, it is not to be identified with its paper or...
“Observing water is an art,” says Mencius (372-289 B.C.), a student of Confucius’ grandson. He clarifies what he means as follows: “Confucius climbed the East Mountain and [the State of] Lu became small; he climbed the Taishan and the world became small. Thus, for those who have contemplated the sea, it is difficult to take notice of rivers; for those who have traveled to study under the guidance of a sage, it is difficult to take notice of discourses. Observing...
With Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, we breathe deeply the air of “Mare Nostrum,” the Mediterranean Sea, where the scents of North and South, East and West, mingle. When he was in charge of education in his diocese of Marseille, theology was for him an instrument of dialogue with the diverse human and religious experiences of which the “Phocaean city” is a cosmopolitan exemplar. Originally from Sidi-Bel-Abbès, in Algeria, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, which was French at the time,...
To talk about Haiti today is to talk about a country with problems dragging it down, in circumstances that make life difficult compared with other countries. What characterizes its present must be seen in the context of its past. Haiti was proclaimed the world’s first black republic on January 1, 1804, at the end of a war of independence, with the victory of former slaves over French troops. As a new country it assumed the name “Ayiti,” originally meaning “Land...
Early on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, the plane carrying the pope, his entourage and accredited journalists took off from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport for Lisbon. The flight landed at Figo Maduro Air Base at 10 a.m. local time. Francis was welcomed by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Then the pope and the president headed to a lounge, where a brief meeting took place. Lisbon, city of encounter From here they moved on to the main entrance of the Palácio Nacional de...
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