Skip to main content

Visiting Dicasteries

Today we visited the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. I took a quick moment in each room to imagine all the important conversations that took place in these rooms – the people who gathered here with a genuine interest in promoting unity, community and understanding between human beings.

First, we met with Bishop Brian Farrell who is responsible for the Dicastery of Christian Unity. He is one of 24 people responsible for dialogues with Christians from all denominations. The dicastery is also involved as a partner, though not a member of the World Council of Churches. One of the reasons that the Roman Catholic church is not a member of the WCC is because of its population. Since voting is based on proportional representation, Catholic membership would mean a disproportionately powerful voice in decision making. This was a revelation to me. There are also theological and pastoral differences but these are not the primary reason for not being a member. The Catholic church is, however, a full member of the Faith and Order Commission which Bishop Farrell called “a pearl of great price. This commission is responsible for reflecting on the theological questions that have divided churches and working toward understanding.

After this, we went to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue where we met with Monsignor Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage (who informed us that he has, not surprisingly, the longest name of anyone who works at the Vatican.) The Monsignor reminded us that in interreligious conversations, our identity matters. As Christians, we believe we are created in the image of a Trinitarian God – a community of Love. If God is dialogical and we are created in God’s image, then we also must be dialogical. Monsignor also spoke of how interreligious dialogue is a sacred act because we are listening to the heart of the other where God also speaks. Thus, silence and prayer are important elements of the encounter with the religious other.

While both of these leaders spoke, I was compelled by the obvious humility in their personalities. This was demonstrated in the self-deprecating humour of Bishop Farrell recounting the story of the Holy Father John Paul II asking him to take on this position. “Not this position, Holy Father,” he said, “I would have to know something!” As well, we saw this in the honest admission from Monsignor Indunil that he did not have the expertise to answer a question asked by one of the students.

Each of the dicasteries was adorned a piece of art that conveyed something of its mission. An icon of Saints Peter and Andrew embracing in the first dicastery was a gift from Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Pope Paul VI in 1964. Peter is regarded as the traditional head of the Roman Church and Andrew, the traditional head of the Eastern Church. In the second, there was a painting of Pope Paul VI receiving guests from many different religious traditions. Both were powerful visual statements of the work being done.

By Christine







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Catacombs of Domitilla

The story of Christianity is awe-inspiring.  This is true whether you are a believer or not.  Within 50 years of the physical death of Christ, 12 believers had directly and indirectly converted thousands to the new faith.  Within 300 years, they had converted an empire. This tour begins at the walls of Rome within sight of St. John Lateran where we get our ride to the countryside of Rome.  Making our way outside the walls, the city changes to country quickly.  The Roman countryside is quite beautiful.  The hills begin to roll and the gated villas extend to farms of vegetables, rose hips, or barley.  The air cleaner and the sound clearer. Flavia Domitilla was the granddaughter of the emperor Vespasian.  As daughter of Domitilla "the Younger", Flavia was also the niece of the emperors Titus and Domitian.  These catacombs were founded on her property in about the year 120 A.D.  Flavia and her husband, Flavius Clemens, were likely ...

The Villa Borghese: Tainted Beauty

In the 17 th  century it was common for the pope to place a nephew in a key administrative role, for self-preservation.  Thus in 1605, at the age of 28, Scipione Borghese was made cardinal and papal secretary, head of the Roman Curia, by his uncle Pope Paul V, making Scipione the second most powerful person in the country.  Cardinal Scipione purchased a property in the north of Rome and began acquiring ancient Roman and contemporary Italian art.  The villa and its beautiful grounds were never a residence, only ever a gallery and conservatory. Cardinal Scipione became the patron of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, providing Bernini with the opportunity to cement his legacy as perhaps the best sculptor to have ever lived.  Though several pieces of furniture and adornment were sold off by the Borghese family in the 19 th  century to address fiscal problems, those have been replaced with copies, and the most famous and significant pieces of the original collec...

A Trini - Canadian walks into a Mosque, a Synagogue and Several Churches

       During my last week in Rome, I had the honour of entering both a synagogue and a mosque for the first time in my life. After visiting what seemed like a million churches in Rome and, (as a Roman Catholic), loving every one of them, it was a nice way to end off the interreligious dialogue component of our course.     The synagogue is located in the old Jewish ghetto of Rome. It is in this area that Jews were forced to live and had many restrictions put upon them in the past. Our visit included the museum under the synagogue where we saw a copy of the declaration that announced forming the State of Israel. The Great Synagogue of Rome A picture I took of the beautiful square dome inside the Synagogue Declaration of the State of Israel           Our friend and classmate Oded, who was born and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, drew my attention to an extraordinary black and white photo of crowds of Jews in Rome celebrating this d...