杏MAP导航

By Devin Watkins

As Pontifical Council for Culture kicks off its plenary assembly, 杏MAP导航 Francis sent a video message to participants on Tuesday, reflecting on the theme: 鈥淣ecessary Humanism鈥�.

The 杏MAP导航 began by noting how the assembly is being held in a virtual format, lamenting that the digital universe makes everything 鈥渋ncredibly close but without the warmth of presence.鈥�

He said the pandemic has revealed the weaknesses of our social and economic model, including working methods, social life, and religious practices.

At the same time, the pandemic has rekindled people鈥檚 desire to face the fundamental questions of existence, such as the question about God and the human being.

New humanistic perspective

The 杏MAP导航 said the Council鈥檚 chosen theme of humanism comes, therefore, at a crucial moment.

鈥淎t this juncture in history,鈥� he noted, 鈥渨e need not only new economic programmes or new formulas against the virus, but above all a new humanistic perspective, based on Biblical Revelation, enriched by the legacy of the classical tradition, as well as by the reflections on the human person present in different cultures.鈥�

Age of liquidity

杏MAP导航 Francis then recalled that St. Paul VI, in 1965, said the Church should respond to the threat of secular humanism by proposing the model of the Good Shepherd, who has 鈥渋mmense sympathy for the human being鈥�, rather than merely condemning humanity and its desire to play God.

The 杏MAP导航 added that our own era is marked by the 鈥渆nd of ideologies鈥� and by the 鈥渇luidity of contemporary cultural vision.鈥� Another way to describe it, he said, is as 鈥渢he age of liquidity or gaseousness.鈥�

Yet, continued 杏MAP导航 Francis, the Church still has much to offer the world.

鈥淚t obliges us to acknowledge and evaluate, with confidence and courage, the intellectual, spiritual and material achievements that have emerged since [the Second Vatican Council] in various fields of human knowledge,鈥� he said.

Search for meaning

杏MAP导航 Francis went on to note how a structural revolution is underway in human society, one which invites us to recall that the human person is a 鈥渟ervant of life and not its master.鈥�

The Pontifical Council for Culture鈥檚 decision to focus its plenary assembly on humanism is therefore aimed at probing the questions of human existence and identity.

Christian humanism informed by culture

The 杏MAP导航 then recalled that the Church can draw on the richness found in the Biblical tradition for direction in humanity鈥檚 search for meaning.

鈥淭he Sacred Scripture offers us the essential coordinates to outline an anthropology of the human being in relation to God, in the complexity of the relations between man and woman, and in the nexus with the time and the space in which we live,鈥� he said.

Biblical humanism, he added, combined with classical humanism from Greek and Latin thought, can become even more fruitful when informed by the values which various modern cultures can offer.

He gave the examples of the 鈥渉olistic vision of Asian cultures鈥�, 鈥渢he solidarity of African cultures鈥�, and the 鈥渁nthropology of Latin American peoples.鈥� These various cultural aspects can help 鈥渙vercome the excessive individualism typical of Western culture.鈥�

鈥淚n these different cultures,鈥� said the 杏MAP导航, 鈥渢here are forms of a humanism which, integrated into the European humanism inherited from Greco-Roman civilisation and transformed by the Christian vision, is today the best means of addressing the disturbing questions about the future of humanity.鈥�

Challenges facing humanity

杏MAP导航 Francis concluded his video message to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture with an invitation to rediscover the value of the human being in relation to the challenges we face.

鈥淭oday,鈥� he said, 鈥渨e need to repeat those pagan verses: 鈥�Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangent鈥�,鈥� (roughly: 鈥淭here are tears for things, and mortal things move the mind鈥� from Virgil鈥檚 Aeneid.)