Maratona religiosa pelos arménios

Hoje é dia de Santo André e o Papa, como é costume, escreveu uma carta ao Patriarca de Constantinopla em que volta a sublinhar o seu desejo de plena comunhão entre católicos e ortodoxos. A união entre os próprios ortodoxos é que está complicada por estes dias.

Na Holanda está a decorrer uma maratona de celebrações religiosas, de diferentes confissões, numa igreja protestante. O objetivo é impedir a deportação de uma família para a Arménia.

Foi descoberto um documento cristão no Japão que data dos tempos da pior perseguição naquele país.

Começa na segunda-feira um curso online sobre “A Missa Explicada”, que promete ser do maior interesse para quem gosta de aprofundar o seu conhecimento nestas áreas.

Publiquei esta sexta-feira no blogue a transcrição integral da minha conversa com o Pe. Tomás Halík. Aconselho a sua leitura!

Não deixem de ler o artigo desta semana do The Catholic Thing, sobre a leitura do Antigo Testamento.

E deixo-vos ainda com o link para um site chamado Livres para Amar, que pode ser de interesse para cristãos que procuram conciliar a sua fé com uma atração por pessoas do mesmo sexo. Não tenho nada a ver com o site, mas este é um assunto que me interessa, por isso se tiverem comentários a fazer agradeço que me os façam chegar.

"Pope Francis is starting a new era of the Church"

This is a full transcript, in the original English, of my interview with Fr. Tomás Halík. The published version can be found here, in Portuguese.

Esta é uma transcrição completa, no inglês original, da minha entrevista com o Pe. Tomás Halík. A notícia pode ser lida aqui.

Pope Francis has been a strong critic of what he calls self-referentialism. Is there anything more self-referential than an autobiography? Does this worry you?

I think my book is a testimony. It is inspired by St. Augustine's “Confessions”. It is the combination of a theological reflection and autobiography. It is not only an autobiography, it is not only about my life story, it is also about the history of the Church in our country, and not only in our country. There are many of my life experiences, from the time of the hard persecution of the Church and the transition, and there are some which I felt I should share with other people. 

You have become a very popular writer and spiritual reference. Your books are translated in many languages, you have won awards, you mingle with important and successful people. How do you keep from being affected by vanity and pride?

There is a nice story from the Desert Fathers. One told people to go to the cemetery and think very good things about the people there. They did so and when they returned the spiritual father asked them what the dead had replied. And they said: “nothing”. 

So, he said “Go again and think terrible things about the people there, blame them”, and so on. They did so and when they returned he asked them what they had answered. They said: “nothing”. 

So, the master told them they must be like this. If people are attacking you, if they are glorifying you, you must be like the dead people. 

I think that what God thinks about us is more important than what other people think about us. 

You say that the persecution in Czechoslovakia was worse than in the rest of the communist bloc. Why?

I think that the communists chose Czechoslovakia as a terrain for the total atheisation of a country, because of the very dramatic Czech religious history. Jan Hus, the reformer who was burned in Konstanz in 1415, then the Hussite wars, the crusades against the Czechs and the violent Catholicisation in the XVII Century, then the link between the Catholic Church and the Habsburg Monarchy. There are some wounds in the history of our country, and there were tensions between the Catholic identity and the national identity. 

It is the opposite of Poland. In Poland the Catholic Church was always an instrument of national identity, but not in our country, because of these tensions and these anti-Catholic feelings from before the Communist times. And the communists tried to use this, but the effect was rather the opposite, because Czech people are always sympathetic to the persecuted, so during the persecution the moral authority of the Church increased.

In the first few pages you mention several times the importance of Jan Hus for the Czech mentality. Who was he, why was he so important and why do so many Czech Catholics seem intent on restoring his standing as a Catholic? Would you like to see that happen?

Yes! When I first met John Paul II, in 1989, the day before the fall of the Berlin wall, one of his first questions was "what should we do with Jan Hus? I rehabilitated Galilei, perhaps it is time for the rehabilitation of Jan Hus. Remember that the Polish delegation was the only one which defended him in the Council of Konstanz”. 

So, I returned to Prague and I visited our Archbishop Cardinal Tomasic, and I told him about this, but the Cardinal was very reserved, because he spent his youth in the time of the first republic and at that time Jan Hus was a symbol of the anti-Catholic tensions. So, we had to wait. But when the Holy Father came to Czechoslovakia for the first time, I was in Rome to help him prepare, because it was his first visit to the post-communist world, he spoke about Jan Hus in a very positive way, and then, on the eve of the new millennium, there was a symposium in Rome about Jan Hus and the Pope made quite a remarkable speech there, and many other figures were present as well. 

Something happened there, because St. John Paul said a very important thing. "Hus was a sign of our division, between Catholics and Protestants, and now he may become a bridge between Catholics and Protestants", because he was a Catholic priest his whole life, and he didn't want to fight against Rome, he wanted to reform the Church, but many of his ideas were developed in a more radical way by Martin Luther and the German Reformation, but he was not in such tension as the German reformation. 

A friend of the Holy Father, a Polish Theologian and Historian, wrote an article called "Jan Hus: Heretic or precursor of Vatican II?". He wrote about some of Jan Hus' ideas which were fulfilled by Vatican II, a poorer and more modest Church, without triumphalism. I think Pope Francis is the type of Pope Jan Hus would like very much. 

The Church is going through a period of division now, and it sometimes seems like those close to Pope Benedict XVI are against Pope Francis. But you have been a strong defender of Pope Francis and you were also close to Pope Benedict. How do you interpret this current division in the Church?

I think that John Paul II and Pope Benedict ended – with great honesty and in a very positive way – a long period of Church history. It was a long period where the main task was confrontation with modernity. I think the happy end of this confrontation was the famous interview of Cardinal Ratzinger, the year before he was elected Pope, with German philosopher Jurgen Habermas. They both agree with the statement that Secular Humanism and Christianity need each other to overcome one-sidedness.

Also, Pope Benedict had a wonderful speech during his flight to Portugal, I always say that his best speeches were in the airplane... Perhaps because he was so near to heaven! And this speech about the compatibility of secular culture and Christianity was very profound and very courageous. 

I think it marked the end of one long period of Christianity. But now modernity is over, we live in the post-modern global age, the age of internet, of radical plurality, and we need something different. And I think Pope Francis is starting this new era of the Church, and every time somebody starts something new, such as happened with many saints in History, they found trouble in the Church, they were attacked, but they keep the fidelity to the Church, and I think that the supporters of Pope Francis want, and have the sensitivity, to read the signs of the times, and I think Pope Francis really discovered in a new and profound way, the very heart of the Gospel, which is mercy, solidarity with the poor, the struggle for Social Justice and responsibility for nature.

I think this is a very important thing. These things have been a little bit overshadowed by things to do with sexual morality, which are important questions, but they are not the most important questions. The most important is solidarity, mercy, justice and this is the focus of the message of Pope Francis.

At one point you say that you would not be comfortable in a society which is overtly Christian. Is this just a question of personal sensitivity, or do you think there is something inherently wrong with more overt expressions of popular devotion, as we see in Latin or African countries, for example?

I think that sometimes people in the countries where religion is taken for granted have the temptation for superficial religiosity, conformism. But in the secular situation we must make a personal choice.

I think that in the countries where religion is very traditional, and is taken for granted, there is a temptation for religiosity to be superficial, just keeping the traditions, turning to the past, but in the secular society we must decide, our faith is our free choice, and we must think about faith, and rethink many things, so what I support is the idea, which is expressed for example by the American philosopher Richard Kearney of Irish origin, who speaks about “anatheism”, to believe again, not to return to the past, to pre-modern religiosity, to take seriously the criticism of religion by many modern thinkers.

After this criticism this could be a time of purification of faith, purification of idolatry, and then we can believe again, after the crisis, and believe deeper, not just return to the past. I think our faith is the faith of Easter, and Easter is the mystery of death and resurrection.

Sometimes our faith, in our personal history, but also in the history of the Church, must be crucified and withstand the “dark night of the Soul”, Must withstand the moment in which Christ was crying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. And then after the Good Friday we can be open to the Easter morning. There is no resurrection without the Cross. 

I was struck by something… You were an only child, and although you had many uncles and aunts, it seems that most of them either never had children or had very few. Looking around the world one does seem to notice that countries that draw away from God seem to have fewer children. Does that explain what happened in the Czech Republic in your time? Does it have a deeper meaning?

I think this phenomenon is more recent, that people are not willing to have families and rear children. I think it was not like that in the generation of my parents, it is more now that the family is in crisis.

We should rethink many things. I am a little bit afraid of the Feast of the Holy Family, because I have heard many sermons for this feast and Holy Family was spoken of as an ideal patriarchal family from the XIX Century, a bourgeois family, and the family of Nazareth was not like that.

Our situation is also not like this. We cannot turn to this model of the traditional patriarchal family of the XIX Century. Now we live in another time, and it is not easy to find a proper model for the family of our time. I think we should think deeply about the spirituality of the family, about the role of women, the relation between the generations, we cannot just keep, or try to return to, the past.

There is something substantial about the family, the love between men and women, and procreation and education of children, but the history and the context is always changing. I admire the young people who, in this situation, have the courage to not only found a family, but I am digressing…

You explain conversion as a sunrise. This is a very profound image… Could you elaborate?

Faith is, for me, not just a worldview, some sort of philosophy. It is an existential orientation, and conversion is the transformation of the whole personality. I think that people who were brought up in the traditional family must also experience this sort of conversion, because the faith of children is nice, but there is always a time when that children's faith is in crisis. And I think that education in the Church, and pastoral work, is not prepared to work with this crisis, as a challenge to go deeper. For many people this crisis ended in atheism or a “apatheism”, where people are apathetic to the Church, and we need to accompany people through this crisis, not to push them back to the faith of their childhood, this is often a type of fundamentalism, this attempt to go back to the style of my faith as it was in my childhood, or in the past of the Church.

We must go through this crisis and discover the deeper dimension of the faith. It is a transformation, it is not just a situation where we add something to our worldview, but it is real, like a sunrise, and now we see everything in a new light, from a new perspective, and I think we all need this perpetual transition, this perpetual conversion.

The sign of the times today is to move from being Christian to becoming Christian, it is a long-life process.

You express the moment when you, yourself, went through this conversion. But is this something which happens only once? When was the last time you experienced a sunrise such as this, which changes the way you see reality?

I think it was at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Francis. I realised that there was something new in the Church, a new way to read the Gospel and to take it and the radical challenges, the radical message of the Gospel very seriously. So, when I meditate, practically every day, on the preaching of the Holy Father in Santa Marta, which can be found on the Internet, which is sometimes very simple, but it has something new and fresh, the spirit of somebody who is deeply involved with the heart of the Gospel.

This was a wakeup call for me and led me to read the Gospel in a new and more radical way.

Diferentes Papas para Diferentes Épocas

Dentro de cerca de uma hora o padre Tomás Halík vai proferir uma conferência em Lisboa. Se não teve a sorte de poder ir ao evento, não deixe de ler a entrevista que lhe fiz, em que ele explica como o Papa Francisco inaugurou uma nova época para a Igreja, mas sem tecer qualquer crítica – muito pelo contrário – aos seus antecessores. Se conseguiu ir à conferência, leia a entrevista à mesma. Quando acabar de a ler podem ainda ir ler a entrevista que ele deu à Ecclesia, ao Octávio Carmo, que complementa bem a minha.

Por falar na Ecclesia, os nossos amigos dessa agência estão por Angola e de lá mandaram estas duas reportagens muito interessantes. Numa os bispos sublinham a importância da relação com Portugal e noutra colocam-se firmemente junto ao atual regime e às reformas que está a empreender.

O Vaticano divulgou esta quarta-feira o programa da visita do Papa ao Panamá, para as Jornadas Mundiais da Juventude, em Janeiro. O Papa publicou ainda uma mensagem em vídeo para os participantes.

Hoje no artigo do The Catholic Thing trago-vos Michael Pakaluk, que comente ao Evangelho de Marcos e a centralidade, no mesmo, do poder de Cristo sobre os demónios. É uma análise muito interessante, cuja leitura recomendo!

Passaporte para a Asia, precisa-se

A face da coragem e a face da revolta

Foi durante a minha licença, mas a maioria terá tido conhecimento da libertação de Asia Bibi. Hoje o seu advogado disse que ela precisa de um passaporte estrangeiro para poder abandonar o Paquistão, onde a sua vida está em perigo.

Ontem quando mandei o mail decorriam operações de salvamento após o desabamento de uma estrada em Borba. Há mortos, e hoje o arcebispo de Évora associou-se “à dor e ao luto” pelas vítimas.

Amanhã, se puderem, não percam a conferência do padre Tomás Halik, da República Checa. Vai decorrer no Colégio São João de Brito, pelas 18h30. Nos próximos dias poderão ler na Renascença um artigo com este padre extraordinário.

Não percam o artigo do The Catholic Thing da semana passada, com recomendações e advertências para os bispos sobre a questão dos abusos sexuais!

Patriarca agradece aos russos e Vatileaks II chega ao fim

O Patriarca Siríaco em Fátima

O Papa Francisco falou hoje sobre a Síria, recordando que não pode haver uma solução unicamente militar para o conflito e pedindo o reforço das orações.

Também hoje publicamos uma interessante entrevista ao um dos patriarcas cristãos do Médio Oriente. Inácio José III Younan, Patriarca de Antioquia da Igreja Católica Siríaca falada necessidade de um espaço seguro para os cristãos no Iraque e louva os russos pela sua intervenção no conflito.

Estão quase a começar as Jornadas Hospitaleiras de Pastoral da Saúde, que este ano reflectem sobre o sentido do sofrimento e não fogem à questão da eutanásia.

O caso Vatileaks II está a concluir. A acusação pediu ontem quatro condenações e uma absolvição.

Não deixem de ler a muito interessante entrevista ao padre Tomás Halík, cuja transcrição completa publiquei no blogue ontem.

Fim de Ramadão para esquecer

Elie Wiesel

Os portugueses são generosos e deram provas disso novamente em 2015, ano em que a fundação Ajuda à Igreja que Sofre bateu recordes de donativos. Saiba aqui para que serve esse dinheiro.

O Bloco de Esquerda promete ter uma proposta de lei revista das “barrigas de aluguer” até ao dia 15 de Julho, que satisfaça as dúvidas do Presidente Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Sexta-feira houve um ataque jihadista no Bangladesh que fez 20 mortos entre reféns ocidentais. Durante o fim-de-semana um atentado terrível em Bagdad. O Papa rezou pelas vítimas em ambas as situações. Agora soube-se de uma vaga de atentados na Arábia Saudita… Um fim de Ramadão para esquecer.

O Papa entretanto pede à Europa que não se esqueça das suas raízes cristãs.

D. José Alves “o bispo itinerante” fez agora 50 anos de sacerdócio e de presente o Papa pediu-lhe que ficasse mais um ano à frente da sua diocese.

Há meses entrevistei o fascinante padre Tomás Halík. Agora, para quem gostou da reportagem, fica aqui a transcrição completa, que inclui mais informação.

E morreu Elie Wiesel, judeu, Nobel da Paz e sobrevivente do Holocausto. Que descanse em paz!

"Traditionalists and Progressives share the same mistake"

This is a full transcript, in the original English, of my interview with Czech priest and theologian Tomás Halík. The news item can be found here.

Esta é uma transcrição completa, no inglês original, da minha conversa com o padre e teólogo checo Tomás Halík. A reportagem pode ser vista aqui.

Your book is about love, yet you confess that you had some difficulty deciding to approach this topic. Why?

My books are theological essays, and I think it is important to reinterpret the great Christian values: Love, Hope and Faith. I wrote a book about Faith, about Hope and when I was asked if it was time to write a book about love, I said "oh, there are so many books about love". It sounded a bit too sweet for me. What could I say theologically about love?

I think it is important to speak about love of God, about love of our enemies, something that is special for the Christian understanding of Love. I think there is a connection between the love of God and love of people. The gospels say that if you don't love your brother who you can see, you can't say you love God whom you have not seen. I think this connection between love of people and love of God is very typical for Christianity.

My provocative sentence is that God perhaps is not so interested if we believe in him, but if we love him. People say you must first believe in God and then you can love him. I don't think so. I think that it is not so important what we believe, in the sense of our reflections, our views, that if we have the experience of love, love of people, love of man, nature, the world... love is not just an emotion, love is the self-transcendence. You love somebody, or something, if it is more important for you than you are yourself. It is a self-transcendence and in this experience of self-transcendence in love, you can understand what the word God means.

We seem to be going through a crisis of faith in the Western World. Some find this alarming, but you read the situation in a different way…

If a non-believer says to me that he doesn't believe in God I always ask what this God he doesn't believe in looks like. He has to have some image of God, some concept, in which he doesn't believe. If he explains his image of God I have to answer "thank God you don't believe in such a God, I don't believe in such a God either".

Then he replies that he is not a stupid materialist, he knows that something is above us. And this "somethingness" I believe, is the most widespread religion in our age.

So people have problems with faith, because they are not prepared to believe in a special concept of God, and I think this concept of God is in crisis, but it is a challenge, and an opportunity for theologians, to reflect deeper the concept of God. I think that the XXth Century was a sort of dark night of the soul, a dark night of religion, a collective dark night. The mystics spoke about the dark night of the soul at an individual level, but I think there are also some collective dark nights of the soul. Some collective crises in the trust of God, and I think that the hard experiences of the XXth Century, with the Gulags, Auschwitz, the Holocaust,  the to World Wars, they were great tests, and after them we cannot just return to the good old type of religion.

I think Christianity is in its Easter phase and Easter means the Cross, Death and Resurrection. I think it is good that sometimes our concept of God is dying, but then it is an opportunity for a resurrection of our Faith which must be deeper and when I am reading the Gospel about the resurrected Christ, he is coming to his disciples and they are not able to recognize him. He is like a foreigner, and he legitimizes himself with his wounds. I think we should also seek the wounds of Christ in our world.

For me this is very important, the theme of the meeting of Thomas with the Resurrected Christ and it is the only part of the Gospel where Christ is called God. Thomas is touching the wounds of Christ and he says "My Lord and my God".

When I was in [place of the martyr Thomas] in India, I celebrated mass, I read the Gospel of Thomas and his meeting with Christ. And then, in the afternoon I visited the hospital for poor children there. And it was like a hell. These poor children and sick children... I remembered the sentence of Karamazov "I return the ticket to the world in which children are suffering", and then I realized, they are the wounds of Christ in our World, and if we ignore the wounds of Christ in our World, the wounds of our World, we have no right to say "My Lord and my God".

This brings us to another point… In “Touch the Wounds” you tell a story about Pascale, at a time when he was not allowed to receive communion, having taken a sick man into his home so as to be able to receive the body of Christ. In a footnote you even say this sort of approach might be a solution for people who are not allowed to receive communion. Meanwhile, ironically also in a footnote, Pope Francis has cleared the way for some people who are in irregular situations to receive communion. In light of that example of Pascal, was this a missed opportunity to emphasize different ways of being united to Christ? What is your view of this section of the Apostolic Exhortation?

Yes, I think it is a great inspiration for us Christians to find other ways to be in connection with Christ. It is not only the sacraments, it is not only in the Milieu of the Church, there are many suffering people, bodily suffering and many other ways of suffering, and in this connection with the suffering people, and also with people who are in spiritual need, they live in this experience of the hiddenness of God. It is an opportunity for us.

I think the great Patron Saint of our age is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She served the poor and sick during her days, but when, after her death, her diary was published, it was a shock for many people, because she suffered great doubts and this dark night of the soul. And I think that she, during her days, showed a solidarity with the people suffering through sickness and poverty, but during her nights, she felt a solidarity with people in the dark night of the faith. I think these two types of solidarity are very important for inspiration for our Christian witness in our world. There are people who suffer social misery, but also many who suffer a spiritual crisis, through this darkness of faith and this hiddenness of God. I think we should also understand them and show solidarity with them.

You quote Pascal saying that faith is a choice, but in church parlance we hear that faith is a gift…

I think it is both. Of course, faith is a gift... Faith is a mixture God's activity and human freedom. I think it is typical for Christianity, this meeting of God and man. The meeting of God and man in Jesus Christ, the meeting of this divine and human dimension in the Church, and the meeting and the unity of God's inspiration and Human culture in the scripture. I think there is something very similar in the virtues, they are God's inspiration, a gift of grace, but also, from our side, they are an act of our freedom, to accept this gift and to cooperate with the Grace. So this meeting of Grace and human freedom is, I think, the fascinating substance of faith, hope and love.

It is not belief in God that makes a Christian, but belief that God is Love. Are there many who claim to be Christians but do not reflect a God who is love? And are they dangerous?

Yes they are. In the New Testament we read that even the demons believe, but they are afraid. And I think that belief with fear is something demonic. Our belief should be connected with joy and with freedom and gratitude, so there are a sort of belief and religion which are connected to our human projection of God, our human images of God which are full of our anxiety, our desires, and thanks to the great atheists, like Freud, Nietzsche and Marx, they discovered that many images of God are too human, they are the projections of human fears, anxiety and desires. And we need the correction of this all too human image of God, and to discover the image of God which is in the Gospel, and, I think, Pope Francis is the teacher of this reinterpretation of this new, deeper understanding of the Gospel.

Traditionalists are up in arms at the moment with Pope Francis’ papacy. You claim in your book that the Christianity envisioned by traditionalists is relatively modern and very limited. Why is that?

I think this traditionalism and fundamentalism is really a modern phenomenon, it is the reaction to modernity, but tradition, real Christian tradition, is something deeper, something dynamic. Tradition is not just a treasure, it is like a river, it is dynamic, it is the historical dialogue between God's inspiration, scripture, and the signs of the time. So it is the reason why theology and the Church are here, to interpret again and again the message of the Gospel, in the context of the special time and culture.

Blessed cardinal John Henry Newman said "when we repeat the same thing our grandfathers said we are saying something different", because the whole context, our language, is changing. So if we should be faithful, and truthful, and have responsibility for our tradition and for the authenticity of our tradition we must reinterpret it, we should recognize the signs of the time and try to interpret the message of the Gospel in the way which is understandable for people in our time. So it is not just conformism with the spirit of the time, no, it was said that those who are married to the spirit of the time will quickly become a widower, so it is not conformity, but we should make our message understandable.

Sometimes it is a provocation towards the mentality of a certain age. So tradition is nothing bad, it is a living movement.

Yet for somebody who is critical of traditionalism, you hold liturgical beauty in high esteem, which some might find surprising…

I don't identify with traditionalists or with so called progressives, because I think they both share a mistake. They are too concentrated on the outward things, the institutions, the formulae... The traditionalists want to keep it the same all the time, and some progressives see the solution as the changing of the institutions and forms. But I think the real solution is to go deeper in a refreshment of our language and in a deepening of our spirituality, so it is a third way between traditionalism and progressivism. I think the right way is to go deeper.

I am thinking about the afternoon of Christianity and I am preparing my next book with this title, the afternoon of Christianity. I use the metaphor of Karl Gustav Jung, the founder of depth and analytical psychology. He said that human life is like a day, the youth is like a morning. Youth is the time for developing our outward structures of our life and personality, our social role and so on, then came the noonday crisis. It could be a crisis in marriage, in our job, in our health... the symptom of burning out, of depression, it is this noonday crisis. But afterwards, the afternoon of life, is a challenge to go deeper, not just to develop the outside structures of our life.

And I think that something similar happens in the history of Christianity. These two thousand years were the morning and then came, with modernity, the noonday crisis: secularisation, death of God, and such things. But now, perhaps, is the time for the afternoon of Christianity, it is the challenge to go deeper, and I think these conservatives and progressivists are always thinking in the categories of the morning, they are concentrated about the institutional structures, but I think it is a time to go deeper.

The Christian faith is the Easter faith, and Easter is death and resurrection, and I think that after this so called death of God, which was the crisis of our banal, old and too naive concept of God and religion, we should go deeper.

You complain that the phrase “nobody reaches the Father except through me” is widely misunderstood. In a previous book you make the same point. So what do these expressions actually mean? Does this reasoning also apply to the expression “No salvation outside the Church”?

I think that this sentence of Cyprianus was said in another context. It was said during a polemic with some very demanding Christians, who were not prepared to accept the cristiani lapsi, and so Cyprianus said we should also open the church to these people, because there is no salvation outside the Church. It was not an attempt to close the door, but to open the door of the church to the failed Christians.

I think also the sentence of Jesus, "nobody can go to the father except through me"... What does this mean? Who is the "me" of Christ. Christ identifies with the least, with the poor, in this parable about the last judgement. Jesus says that if you served his poor brothers and sisters you served him. He was they. He identified himself with the poor, with the sick, with the people, and they are in need, and they are also Christ and open doors. So if we serve the poor, if we have solidarity with the seekers, they also represent Christ, and with them we can go to God, through Christ.

So it is not just the historical figure of Christ, but the Christ who identified himself with these, the least ones.

Buddhism and Christianity have very different starting points. One holds that reality is suffering and the other that creation is fundamentally good. It follows that Buddhist and Christian meditation also have very different foundations. Is it possible to bridge this gap, and what does that mean for inter-religious dialogue with Eastern religions?

I don't believe in the possibility of creating some sort of religious Esperanto, a religion for all people. I think the plurality of religions were there always and will be there always, and we should also discover, recognize and respect the differences. But at the time, in our dialogue, we can discover things that are good experiences also for us. We can exchange our experiences and I think there is something in Zen meditation, in the inner-liberation, in how to find inner-freedom, and how to recognize the importance of the special moments and how to be free of our dependence. It is something that could also be an inspiration for us.

Also, for example, the role of the body in meditation, that meditation in spiritual life is something that involves the whole personality, not just the mind, but also our breath and our body, and these are the things which are forgotten in Christianity and which we can discover again in this dialogue with other people. So there are many people in our country and other countries, who started there interest in spirituality and religion by seeking the Eastern tradition, but after a while they recognized it is not so easy to be a Buddhist in Prague or Lisbon, and sometimes they then discovered also Christian mysticism.

Over the last 25 years, after the fall of communism, I baptized more than 1000 young adults, mostly university students. We have the two year catechumenate, and I spoke to the all and their paths to Christianity were sometimes very complicated and many of them started with Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, and then realised that it is not so easy to be a Buddhist in Prague, and there is something similar in the Christian mysticism, and many of these people are well prepared for the spiritual life. They have a certain discipline in meditation, they know that the spiritual life demands also asceticism, and it could also be a preparation for the Christian spiritual life.

One chapter of Touch the Wounds struck me particularly… Your criticism of the Bodies exhibition. Does our society have a difficulty in dealing with death, and what does this mean?

From my experience, during the communist time, speaking of death was a taboo. Because death provoked spiritual questions, and communist materialism had no answers to these questions, so death was taboo.

Now, people are fascinated with death. If we look at the television at night, you can see so many deaths, on the news, in films, horror movies. But it is not real death, it is artificial death. And I think this is also a an escape from the question. Death is a question, a provocation for deeper thinking, and sometimes people are fascinated by this virtual death.

This exhibition of the bodies is like the narcotization to look at it, but it is virtual death, it is not real death.

Birth and death are very important moments in life and when we witness birth and death we are witnesses of something connected with the transcendence of our life.

The death of many people nowadays takes place in hospitals and people are not confronted with these deaths. And I think sometimes if we are close to our dying parents and friends, the experience could be a great gift to us, it was a great gift for me! I was the son of very old parents and I spent many years with anxiety that one day they would die, and then, when I was there it was a very peaceful and very deep spiritual experience, this transition from this World... Yes... The eschatological dimension of our life, what will be after death... the traditional images are in crisis, because I think the experience of the the XXth Century overshadow the traditional image of hell and paradise. Because the concentration camps, the holocaust and all the tragedies of the XXth Century was something more real than our image of hell.

And the attractive polarity of our world is, to many people, more attractive than our images of heaven. So we should say that we don't know what it life after death will look like, it is a great mystery, but we could live with the mystery.

I think faith is not here just to answer all our questions. There are some questions which are so good, we shouldn't spoil them with answers. Faith is also the courage to live with the mystery, to enter the cloak of the mystery, to live with some open questions. I think we are confronted with the hiddenness of God, with the mystery of God, and our faith, our hope, our love are three ways to live with this silence of God. So there are some impatient answers, short-term answers, in front of this silence of God, which is the experience of many people of our age.

Atheists interpret this silence of God as the non-existence of God, death of God; There are the fundamentalists, repeating all the old formulas and are unable to listen to the silent music of the hiddenness of God. There is emotional religiosity, with all its "hallelujahs" but I think a mature faith must withstand this, and contemplate this and see God's signs and language in the events of our life. God is always speaking to us in the events of our life, of our world. The signs of the times are also the language of God, but we need the inner silence, patience, intelligence of faith, the art of interpreting these events in the light of God, in the light of faith, because the answers are not superficial, they are in the depths, and then to contemplate our own life, our own experiences, our own World, and then to discover, and to interpret and accept the challenge of God, the inspiration of God, the provocations of God and to answer in the life of faith and dialogue. And part of this dialogue is this listening, this attempt to understand and to answer, to respond, to live in responsibility.

The real life of faith is life as a dialogue.

Madre Teresa, Padre Halik e Tiago Cavaco

Riso de santo

Espero que a minha falta de assiduidade nas últimas semanas seja justificada por este mail, em que partilho convosco três reportagens de fundo em que tenho estado a trabalhar.

Começo com a entrevista ao padre Tomás Halík, uma das maiores figuras da teologia actual, que considera que a Europa está a atravessar uma “noite escura da alma” colectiva. Vale muito a pena ler, a entrevista primeiro, depois os livros…

Passamos agora ao padre Brian, postulador da causa de canonização de Madre Teresa de Calcutá, que nesta conversa fala do sentido de humor, do sofrimento espiritual, da amizade com João Paulo II e até do que diria sobre o Papa Francisco. Tudo em função da canonização, no dia 4 de Setembro.

E termino esta ronda com mais uma reportagem da série que tenho estado a fazer sobre o Jubileu da Misericórdia. Desta vez temos o pastor baptista Tiago Cavaco a comentar a misericórdia à luz das parábolas de Jesus, que também não se vai arrepender de ler.

Mas porque a actualidade religiosa não se faz apenas de grandes reportagens, temos também esta reacção dos juristas católicos, sobre as “barrigas de aluguer” e notícia sobre o último relatório anual da comissão americana para a Liberdade Religiosa, que considera que a situação mundial vai piorando.

Em Israel foi hoje condenado a prisão perpétua um extremista judeu que participou na tortura e assassinato de um jovem palestiniano, que contribuiu para a segunda guerra de Gaza, em 2014.

Sugestões para o Natal

Se é daquelas pessoas que todos os anos fica sem ideias para presentes de Natal, precisamente nas últimas semanas antes da data, aqui ficam algumas dicas da Actualidade Religiosa. Cada dia divulgarei mais uma dica.

1. Que Fazes Aí Fechada

Sim, sou mesmo tão desenvergonhado que começo por sugerir um livro da minha autoria. Mas faço-o sem problemas de consciência porque, como já disse várias vezes, este livro não vive de mim, mas sim das histórias fantásticas das entrevistadas.

Ao longo de oito conversas com freiras ou monjas de diferentes ordens e congregações, desfazem-se vários mitos sobre a vida consagrada. Desde a cantora de jazz que faz um esforço para não sofrer pelo Benfica num convento de clausura, no Alentejo, até à rapariga de Viseu cujo pai queria que assumisse a exploração agrícola, mas agora dedica a vida ao trabalho com prostitutas e a combater o tráfico humano.

Há ainda a história da freira cujo pai deixou de praticar quando ela disse que ia para o convento, a dominicana albanesa que cresceu a pensar que os padres e as missas eram coisas do tempo dos contos de fadas e o fantástico prólogo de Maria João Avillez, cuja filha se tornou carmelita e que fala do assunto de uma perspectiva muito diferente, de matriarca de uma família que ainda luta por aceitar essa decisão.

O livro é da Aletheia e custa cerca de 15 euros. Pode ser adquirido nas principais livrarias ou encomendado do site da editora.

2. O Meu Deus é um Deus Ferido

Este livro é da autoria do padre checo Tomás Halík. Recebi-o há alguns meses da editora Paulinas e logo na altura despertou-me a atenção, mas acabou por ir parar a uma prateleira e só peguei nele novamente há duas semanas. Foi preciso pouco para ficar fã.

Halík faz uma leitura da passagem do Evangelho em que São Tomé duvida da ressurreição de Jesus e explora o significado de Cristo lhe ter mostrado as chagas, de Cristo, mesmo ressuscitado, continuar a ter chagas, concluindo que é através da identificação com as chagas dos mundo, dos pobres e dos oprimidos, nos vários sentidos da palavra, que nos salvamos.

Trata-se de um autor que foi ordenado sacerdote na clandestinidade, durante o regime comunista, e que sofreu perseguições mas agora é um perito em diálogo intercultural e inter-religioso. Um livro, sem dúvida, a não perder.

Não é uma obra leve, mas também não é preciso ter um curso de teologia para o ler, e custa € 14,90 no site das Paulinas.

3. Uma Vida de Doação – Padre Dâmaso Lambers

Há vários anos que estou a trabalhar na Renascença e tem acontecido muita coisa boa. Mas um dos maiores privilégios que sinto que tenho tido é ter conhecido e poder acompanhar, pelo menos semanalmente, o padre Dâmaso. Em 2010 entrevistei-o para a série “Vidas Consagradas” e fiquei fascinado com a sua história.

Agora todos podem conhecer a vida do padre Dâmaso. Dedicou a vida aos reclusos; sobreviveu à Segunda Guerra Mundial; diz, com naturalidade, que foram poucos os dias que não comungou desde criança e, acima de tudo, é profundamente apaixonado por Jesus.

“Jesus é fantástico” é a expressão que mais se ouve da sua boca. Tudo isso transparece neste livro tremendamente simples e tremendamente inspirador.

A edição é das Paulinas e, no site, custa 10 euros.

4. Artesanato da Terra Santa

Tempos houve em que um em cada cinco palestinianos era cristão, mas com o passar dos anos e devido ao conflito interminável e o aumento do clima de perseguição aos cristãos por parte de movimentos islâmicos fundamentalistas, esta percentagem tem diminuído drasticamente.

Ainda assim, alguns permanecem e sobretudo na zona de Belém ganham a vida muito à custa do turismo e da vende de artigos de artesanato religioso, esculpido em madeira de oliveira.

À imagem do que se passou noutros anos, este Natal encontram-se em Portugal alguns membros dessa comunidade para vender esses artigos. É uma forma de ajudar directamente os cristãos da Terra Santa a enfrentar as dificuldades diárias e as peças, para além de serem de boa qualidade, são muito bonitas.

Em Lisboa é possível encontrar estes artigos à entrada da Basílica dos Mártires, no Chiado.

5. Fiat Lux

O número especial da Invennire, publicação do secretariado dos Bens Culturais da Igreja, é de um beleza de cortar a respiração.

Ao longo de 130 páginas, pode encontrar aqui imagens de altíssima qualidade de algumas das mais bonitas iluminuras feitas em Portugal.

A revista está esgotada na loja online, mas encontra-se à venda em vários locais, incluindo na Férin, em Lisboa, ou na Voz Portucalense do Porto, Museu de Arte Sacra e Etnologia de Fátima ou no Museu Diocesano de Santarém, entre outros.

Claro que a palavra "revista" é pouco para caracterizar uma obra destas, que tem tanta ou mais qualidade que muitos livros. O preço reflecte isso, 18 euros, mas vale cada cêntimo, sobretudo se o destinatário for um apreciador de arte.