Source: Catholic News Agency
In a letter to a prominent
non-believing Italian journalist, Pope Francis called dialogue a “profound and
indispensable expression” of the Christian life.
It “seems to me that it is
nothing other than positive, not only for us individually but also for the
society in which we live, to pause to dialogue on a reality as important as the
faith is,” the Pope said in a Sept 11 letter to Eugenio Scalfari, translated by
the Catholic news agency Zenit.
Scalfari, the 89-year-old
journalist and founder of the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica,” had posed
several questions to the Pope in response to his July encyclical “Lumen Fidei.”
The Pope replied that his
latest encyclical was intended not only to confirm the faithful but also to
advance a “sincere and rigorous dialogue” between Catholics and non-believers.
Dialogue is not secondary to the Christian life, he said.
Citing “Lumen Fidei,” he
reflected that faith “grows in coexistence that respects the other.” The
certainty of faith “makes possible witness and dialogue with everyone.”
Pope Francis said his own
faith is born from the “encounter with Jesus” that “has touched my heart and
given direction and new meaning to my existence.” This was made possible by
“the community of faith in which I have lived,” the Church.
“Believe me, without the
Church I would not have been able to encounter Christ, also in the awareness
that the immense gift that faith is kept in the fragile earthen vessels of our
humanity,” he said.
The Pope examined the
“paradox” of Christianity’s present reputation among many non-believers. The
faith is expressed through the symbol of light, but has come to be referred to
as “the darkness of superstition that is opposed to the light of reason.”
He lamented the
“incommunicability” that has existed between the Church and the “modern culture
of enlightenment stamp.”
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