Assisi to host Courtyard of the Gentiles dialogue event
(Vatican Radio) The head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi joined the renowned atheist photographer Oliviero Toscani in the Vatican press office on Monday to present a new edition of the ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’ initiative for dialogue with non-believers.
Philippa Hitchen reports:
This latest edition of the Courtyard of the Gentiles will talk place from September 23rd to 27th in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, the second time that the city of St Francis has hosted this international event. The initiative takes its name from the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem that had an area dedicated as a place of encounter between Jews and Gentiles, people of all cultures, languages and religious beliefs.
As Cardinal Ravasi pointed out at the press briefing, St Francis was also a man who was unafraid of dialogue: he met with the Sultan of Egypt, welcomed the outcasts like the leper, and saw the whole of creation joined in God’s loving embrace. This encounter in Assisi is focused on the theme of dialogue with all of humanity, reminding us both of our shared membership of one human race and of our need to be more humane, generous and caring as we reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves. Oliviero Toscani, famous for his colourful and provocative fashion photography, said St Francis was also counter-cultural in the way he presented the Gospel to people of his day.
In our age of smart phone technology, he noted that everyone can take pictures and write comments, but to be genuine witnesses of our times means not just looking or judging, but really seeing and understanding how we can contribute to making a better world.The Assisi event includes some 50 workshops, conferences, concerts and panel discussions that will feature some well-known names such as the director of the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Moncef Ben Moussa, or the Jewish author and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Entrance to all events is free but to be sure of a place, you can book online and find more information at www.sanfrancesco.org
(Vatican Radio) The head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi joined the renowned atheist photographer Oliviero Toscani in the Vatican press office on Monday to present a new edition of the ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’ initiative for dialogue with non-believers.
Philippa Hitchen reports:
This latest edition of the Courtyard of the Gentiles will talk place from September 23rd to 27th in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, the second time that the city of St Francis has hosted this international event. The initiative takes its name from the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem that had an area dedicated as a place of encounter between Jews and Gentiles, people of all cultures, languages and religious beliefs.
As Cardinal Ravasi pointed out at the press briefing, St Francis was also a man who was unafraid of dialogue: he met with the Sultan of Egypt, welcomed the outcasts like the leper, and saw the whole of creation joined in God’s loving embrace. This encounter in Assisi is focused on the theme of dialogue with all of humanity, reminding us both of our shared membership of one human race and of our need to be more humane, generous and caring as we reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves. Oliviero Toscani, famous for his colourful and provocative fashion photography, said St Francis was also counter-cultural in the way he presented the Gospel to people of his day.
In our age of smart phone technology, he noted that everyone can take pictures and write comments, but to be genuine witnesses of our times means not just looking or judging, but really seeing and understanding how we can contribute to making a better world.The Assisi event includes some 50 workshops, conferences, concerts and panel discussions that will feature some well-known names such as the director of the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Moncef Ben Moussa, or the Jewish author and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Entrance to all events is free but to be sure of a place, you can book online and find more information at www.sanfrancesco.org
In the year 20-19 BC, King Herod began a major renovation, almost a restructuring of the Temple of Jerusalem, the second, one that had been built after the exile. In addition to the areas reserved to the members of the people of Israel (men, women, priests) in this temple there was a space in which everyone could enter, Jews and non-Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, members or not of the chosen people, people educated in the law and
people who weren't. Here gathered the rabbis and teachers of the law ready to listen to people's questions about God, and to respond in a respectful and compassionate exchange. This was the Court of the Gentiles and pagans, in Latin the atrium gentium, a space that everyone could traverse and could remain in, regardless of culture, language or religious profession. It was a meeting place and of diversity.
From such a place comes the inspiration for this initiative of the Pontifical Council for culture: 'the Courtyard of the Gentiles.' It deals with encounter and dialogue, a space of expression for those who do not believe, and for those who are asking questions about their faith, a window open to the world, to contemporary culture and to the voices that resonate.
THE COURTYARD, A PLACE OF MEETING AND OF DIVERSITY
The term ' Gentiles/pagans ' requires a preliminary reflection. If in the Jewish sphere it referred to those who were not Jews, the uncircumcised, currently the identity of those invited to this «Courtyard» poses additional questions.
The term Latin gens, from which the word ' gentile' comes, refers to the idea of a foreign nation in contrast to the Roman people, the populus romanus. «Gentile» or «pagan» is the translation of the Hebrew goi/goyim, which appears 561 times in the Old testament, and the Greek ethnos/ethnê, which recurs not less than 162 times in the New Testament.
Therefore, thus throughout history of God's Covenant, even those who seemed to be excluded, the foreigners (Gentiles, Pagans), were in fact the object of interest and were taken into account. A concrete space has now been opened: all are convoked, their voice joins other voices that go in search of the unknown God.
people who weren't. Here gathered the rabbis and teachers of the law ready to listen to people's questions about God, and to respond in a respectful and compassionate exchange. This was the Court of the Gentiles and pagans, in Latin the atrium gentium, a space that everyone could traverse and could remain in, regardless of culture, language or religious profession. It was a meeting place and of diversity.
(Heb., usually in plural, goyim), meaning in general all nations except the Jews. In course of time, as the Jews began more and more to pride themselves on their peculiar privileges, it acquired unpleasant associations, and was used as a term of contempt.
The Pontifical Council for Culture traces its origins to the Second Vatican Council and its opening up to that great, dynamic, worried and multiform world of contemporary culture. In its Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, the Council Fathers expressed the need for the Church to continually place itself before the needs of the cultures of the world. It was a new period of history where a new humanism was arising, and the Church, faithful to its own traditions, was aware of the universality of its mission, entering into communion with the different forms of culture, a communion that would enrich the Church as much as the cultures.
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