By M.C.
What unites a university professor, a physician, and the president
of a country? That which unites all men. In the center of Dublin,
on the evening of November 13th 2001, the presentation of the
first book of the Trilogy
BY PAOLA RONCONI
It was a spectacular day, crystal-clear,
even though cold, as rarely happens in these parts, people tell
me. The setting was one of the most elegant (perhaps the most
elegant) in Dublin: the Shelbourne Hotel, a central, historic
hotel overlooking St Stephen’s Green, the city’s “green
lung.” The hall, full of mirrors, chandeliers, and decorative
rugs, was crowded with an audience of about 500 people, much larger
than the organizers could have expected. They were awaiting the
speakers on the theme “The Religious Sense in the Modern
World,” the presentation of the English version of Fr Giussani’s
book The Religious Sense.
Waiting for the guest of honor, President of Ireland Mary McAleese,
to arrive, the evening program began. Sitting in the front row
were ambassadors (Mexico, Belgium, Italy, Finland, Egypt, Cyprus,
France, Romania, Morocco, and Pakistan), figures from the Irish
cultural world, the head of international relations at Trinity
College, Catholics, Muslims, and Protestants. And then, farther
back, “ordinary” people, students, friends of friends,
mere acquaintances, and co-workers. Fr Ian Ker, on the faculty
of theology at Oxford, was the first speaker. He is one of the
leading scholars of the life and work of Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Chance would have it that on the other side of the park, a few
hundred yards from the Shelbourne, stands the Catholic university
of which Newman was a great supporter, as well as rector, a hundred
and fifty years ago. Ker is familiar to Traces readers after the
London event on this same theme. He could not avoid making a parallel
between Newman’s thought and Giussani’s. What struck
him, Ker said, when he read The Religious Sense in 1997, was above
all the concept of reason, a reason that was open. Ker spoke of
a “holistic sense of human mind,” common to both Giussani
and Newman: man is not simply the sum of the factors making him
up, but something that goes beyond. “It is not mere logic
that moves us,” Ker continued. “Man moves with his
whole being and cannot get away from his background. And it would
be very unfair not to take it into consideration, like a scientist
not basing his work on the discoveries made before him.”
Point of convergence
“Human reason,” Ker said in conclusion, “is
made for knowing different types of reality and operates in many
ways. The fullness of its action lies in its success in grasping
the meaning of life, but when it reaches that point, it runs into
Mystery, which is not something vague, even if it cannot manage
to seize hold of it. Human reason goes as far as the point where
it meets Christian revelation, which answers man’s deepest
aspiration.”
The floor passed to Giancarlo Cesana, who provoked his audience:
“Christianity is not a religion,” he stated, “but
a faith. We believe and we follow an historical event.”
His talk was structured on the book’s three premises: realism,
reason, morality, and ended with the invitation Fr Giussani extends
to his readers at the end of the book, “Love the truth more
than yourself.”
A murmur ran though the crowd, especially among the people standing
at the back of the room. The crowd split into two wings to make
a wide path up the steps into the hall. Finally, Mary McAleese
made her entrance, and her expression plainly revealed that she
was not expecting such a large group and such a warm welcome.
Protocol required that she be alone on the speaker’s platform.
“Dia dhaoibh a cháirde. Is mór an chuis…”
These were her opening words, and many of her listeners were a
bit astonished. But after a few seconds she started speaking English.
This was simply Gaelic, the official language for the beginning
of her speeches, but thankfully only for the beginning.
Twenty years ago in Belfast
This sunny, affable young woman taught law at Queen’s University
in Belfast before becoming the President of Ireland. At that time,
some twenty years ago, the current responsible of the CL community
of Dublin and organizer of this event went to see her in Dublin,
to try to understand a little more about diplomatic relations
between Ulster and the Republic of Ireland. “At the time,”
McAleese recounted, “our discussions centered more on the
failure of the religious sense. Indeed, we were deeply challenged
by the manifest presence of sectarian hatred, by its generation
of violence, and by its resonance even in the most courteous of
religious discourse and religious sensibilities… This island,
with its Christian past, has struggled to make sense of religion
and to develop a religious sense capable of responding to its
deep urge for peace and holding in check the age-old impulse towards
conflict.” Obviously, President McAleese was referring to
the problems between Catholics and Protestants in her country.
She went on, “Only with self-sacrifice and compromise can
there be a human future. This generation decided not to be driven
by history, but to become its driver, and the impulse at work
is driven by what Fr Giussani calls man’s desire for happiness,
which lies within each human heart. With the Peace Process in
Ireland, it has happened that a critical mass of people have risked
finding personal and communal happiness through giving, through
sharing. We could say that ‘liberation’ has ironically
come from seeking a sort of ‘communion’ with ‘the
other,’ with those from whom we have been estranged.”
In conclusion, McAleese told about an episode at the beginning
of the last century, recently reported in the daily newspaper,
The Irish News. It is the story of James Brady, who was in and
out of prison all his life for petty theft and similar charges,
the victim of a repressive judicial system. Finally a judge, who
knew him well by that point, decided to help him find a job, and
went to visit him in the hospital shortly before his death. On
his deathbed, Brady confided in the judge that he had received
from him “a foretaste of heaven.” “There is
no better description,” concluded McAleese, “of the
religious sense at work in a world like ours.”
Ireland
