Rome will become the city of the announcement of peace on the occasion of the Jubilee. This is the hope of Monsignor Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the New Evangelization, who spoke on April 30 in Rome at the Adnkronos Forum, in the Information Palace, headquarters of the press agency. The archbishop addressed various topics, from the crisis in the Middle East to the participation of Pope Francis in the G7, and from the next Holy Year to pop theology, that is, the rebirth of the Gospel and its message through the language of the young people, pop music, cinema, theater, and art.
The situation in the Middle East
Regarding Israel and Palestine, Monsignor Fisichella recalled that he recently stood in front of the olive tree planted by Pope Francis together with Abu Mazen and Shimon Peres and realized how much it had grown, while today we find ourselves in a situation that contradicts that symbolic gesture, but about which the diplomacy of the Holy See is always of great help.
Pope Francis at the G7
Regarding Francis’ intervention in the G7 session dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, for the prelate it will be a provocation to push governments to understand above all that the issue will increasingly touch people’s lives and that rules will be necessary. . The pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the New Evangelization considers that the very conception of man is at stake, that artificial intelligence must be considered in the broader context of digital and cybernetic culture, and that everything it uses is listed on the stock market and has repercussions on social and personal life, so the presence of the Pope at the G7 will be a provocation to put the dignity of the person at the center again.
The Jubilee of 2025
Regarding the Jubilee, Monsignor Fisichella anticipated that the Holy Father will make gestures towards the prisoners and that at the end of the Holy Year there will also be a concrete act of charity for the benefit of Syria, where a forgotten war has been fought for thirteen years. Those who wish to pass through the Holy Door will have to register for the special pilgrim card, the prelate also explained, this also to guarantee a good welcome to all, that there are no excessive crowds or security problems.
Monsignor Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the New EvangelizationThousands of registrations have already arrived, and the organizational machinery assumes the arrival of thirty-two million people, including more than two million five hundred thousand from the United States and nine hundred thousand from Germany. Many presences from South America are also expected. Regarding the works of preparation of Rome for the Jubilee, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the New Evangelization stopped at those that are being carried out in Piazza Pia, at the beginning of Via della Conciliazione, two steps from the Castel Sant ‘Angelo, and was confident that they will be completed within the scheduled time. The delivery date for the new plaza, which will have approximately seven thousand square meters, is December 8.
For Monsignor Fisichella, the important thing is that the antiquity of Castel Sant’Angelo and the baroque style of St. Peter’s Square with Bernini’s colonnade be respected and that, therefore, it is not a square that artistically creates a discontinuity. Those in Piazza Pia, he added, are the most representative works of the Jubilee and the most complex to carry out; The excavation of the tunnel has already begun and the work, he explained, is of the highest level of engineering, intended to move two large sewer collectors and build a new, much larger one.
An ethical economy
Regarding Worker’s Day, celebrated on May 1, Monsignor Fisichella stressed that an economy without ethics inevitably leads to violence, both in terms of deaths at work and the worker’s own dignity.
An economy that does not respect the specific professional qualities of the worker is not ethical, the prelate continued, that does not respect the client, that gives more value to the machine than to the man, because an economy that aims solely and exclusively at profit is already placed outside any vehicle of sociality and collides with the very criteria of society.
New languages to speak to young people
Finally, regarding pop theology as a new form of evangelization, the opinion of the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the New Evangelization is that young people should not be attracted with stratagems, but by the seriousness of the proposal that is made, which is the announcement of Jesus Christ.
For Monsignor Fisichella, new forms of communication are indeed needed to speak to new generations, increasingly within social networks and away from the language of the Church, but we must find a language to speak to them about Jesus Christ, we must not give a content to attract them, the Church must be consistent with itself, what it proposes is the meaning of life, what is ephemeral is done by many others.
Theology, he pointed out, is the effort to understand more the mystery of faith, it is critical intelligence, which faces the mystery trying to explain the reasons, the why of the presence of the mystery in our lives. Among other things, he concluded, the theologian recognizes that there is also a popular spirituality that also needs intelligence.
