Pope Benedict XVI’s 15th apostolic journey outside Italy, which he embarked on from 11-14 May, brought him this time to Portugal, a traditionally Catholic country and one of the pioneer missionary states Ad Gentes. The main reason for this trip was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco, the young shepherds of Fátima.
One of the principal intentions which the Holy Father had in mind for his trip to Portugal was his appeal for “a wise vision of life”. In his interview with the journalists during his flight to Portugal, the German Pontiff acknowledged with the greatest esteem the fact that “the dialectic between secularism and faith in Portugal has a long history”. The Pope stressed the need that secularism and faith do not part company from one another but rather keep dialoguing face to face. As a result of centuries of dialectic between enlightenment, secularism and faith, bridges were built among the varied sectors of Portuguese society. Even today, this very dialectic represents an opportunity which is calling for a deeper “synthesis and a forward-looking and profound dialogue”. Dialogue is the factotum for a broader understanding of life.
Through the art of dialogue human rationality finds its appropriate place within the present postmodern world. It is wrong to assume that “there exists a pure, anti-historical reason, solely self-existent, which is ‘reason itself’ ”. Reason cannot exist and develop in the way it was intended to be if it is entirely divorced from meta-historical realities. In fact, it plants the seeds of its own destruction, as European history has amply shown over and over again in its course of time. It is solely when reason is intimately connected with the transcendent realm that it can best serve its purpose. “Reason as such is open to transcendence and only in the encounter between transcendent reality and faith and reason does man find himself.” God is the apex of human reason.
In his thoroughly instructive answers, Pope Benedict accentuated once more that the Church’s paramount responsibility is precisely that of illumining contemporary reason with her faith. If human reason opens itself to God, its economic activity brings worldwide solidarity and promotes the cause of peaceful coexistence among the various cultures that inhabit the Old Continent. “I set out in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate – and the whole tradition of the Church’s social teaching goes in this direction – to broaden the ethical aspect of the faith above and beyond the individual towards responsibility for the world, towards a ‘performative’ reasoning inspired by ethics. On the other hand, the most recent events in the market, over the past two or three years, have shown that the ethical dimension is internal and needs to enter deeply into economic activity, since Man is a unified being, and it is Man that we are speaking of, as well as a sound anthropology which embraces the whole, and only thus can the problem be solved, and only thus can Europe carry out and achieve its mission.”
By means of an open, constructive and objective dialogue, both reason and faith are enriched by each other. Reason challenges faith to put into practice what it preaches whereas faith summons reason to find its real humanity by endorsing the all-embracing vision that only transcendence is able to provide it with. And, in this ever more relevant scenario, the Church undeniably holds “a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to Man, to his dignity, to his vocation. […] Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognises it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce.” (Caritas in Veritate, 9). This makes the Church a solid and trustworthy guarantor for a wise vision of life.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap