The Church must not use the trouble surrounding the “convulsive transition we are going through, an expression of the dark evil of the so-called economic, financial and political crisis” as “an excuse” to avoid dealing with a more serious and deeper crisis: the separation between faith and life that have led to a massive abandonment of the Christian practice.
These were the words spoken by Cardinal Angelo Scola in his homily during the Mass he celebrated in Milan’s Cathedral this afternoon, when made his official entrance as the successor of Cardinal Tettamanzi.
Scola’s day began in Malgrate – a small town near Lecco where he was born 69 years ago – with a brief ceremony at the parish church where he was baptized and a private visit to the cemetery where his parents and older brother are buried.
Then the Archbishop of Milan reached the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, site of the martyrdom and burial place of the first four martyrs of Milan. Once there, he was greeted by Mayor Giuliano Pisapia and he prayed along with two hundred catechumens who were to be baptized.
As per tradition, the Cardinal left a token to the basilica, his rochet, the small embroidered tunic worn under the mozzetta. From here, Scola reached Piazza Duomo by car, where he met the mayor and the representatives of the Province and Region; after receiving military honors and blessing the flag, the new Archbishop was then greeted in the church courtyard by his predecessor, Tettamanzi, with whom he made his entrance to the Cathedral.
At the beginning of the ceremony, attended by Cardinal Antonelli, Ravasi, Levada, and many bishops, Tettamanzi handed to Scola the pastoral staff of San Carlo Borromeo, a “handover” of sorts.
In his homily, Scola stated his wish to follow in the footsteps of the “saint shepherds” of Milan, whose faith “first of all requires that we welcome the message of the Church, a message that the Church has been repeating for two thousand years: wise is the man who builds his house upon a rock.”
And specifically from one of his predecessors, Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI, the new Archbishop developed the “keen and prophetic diagnosis of the baptized people’s Christian life.” Already in 1934, twenty years before becoming Archbishop of Milan, Montini wrote, “Christ is unknown, forgotten, absent in much of our contemporary culture.”
“When Montini was young,” Scola said, “he was already sure of this: Christianity that does not embrace every aspect of human life, which does not become culture, cannot find a way to express itself anymore. This triggered the process that would inexorably lead to the separation of faith from life, to which the papacy of Paul VI made frequent reference and which would lead to the major abandoning of Christian practice, with serious consequences for the personal and community life of Church and society.”
The cardinal stated that in the twenty years of his Episcopal ministry (in 1991 he became Bishop of Grosseto) he witnessed “painful and growing confirmation of this diagnosis right into the present day, especially for men and women of the intermediate generations, who seem overwhelmed by the ‘art of living’. Typically, they are not against the Christian spirit of life, but they cannot see its use in their daily lives and in those of their loved ones.”
“The Church”, Scola added, “in order to avoid facing this judgment, cannot use the trouble this convulsive transition we are living through, expression of the dark evil of the so-called economic, financial and political crisis, as an excuse; from here the need to spread the Gospel, to go after those worlds which by now seem impervious to Christian faith.”
“I want to repeat Archbishop Montini's invitation to all the people of the diocese, right from the beginning: If we have not been able to understand you; if we have not been able to listen to you the way we should have, [now] we invite you to “come and listen;” however, this “come and listen” assumes getting close to one another as Christians, getting closer to the men and women in every stage of their life. Jesus himself said to two of the Baptist’s disciples who asked him to become his family, ‘come and you shall see,’ because in his mission he was getting close to man in his everyday life, sharing every aspect of it and every need. Our only aim, is to make Christ light of the people and of the Church.”
“And to be witnesses,” the new Archbishop of Milan added, “We must overcome all temptations to conform to the way of thinking of this world, but accept the cross that humiliated Jesus himself. We are indeed in a position not to have any stable city down here. Even if a Christian is not of this world, he is not an alienated person, but fully part of the world. He lives in the world while letting Jesus embrace him and in so doing, he builds the house upon the rock and on objective and effective love.”
During his homily, Scola mentioned the VII World Family Meeting to be hosted in Milan next year at the presence of the Pope. The event “will allow meditating on the meaning of man and woman, of marriage, of family and life. All aspects,” the Cardinal added “that through work and rest (the festivities), the building of a city that is just, the generous and balanced sharing of fragility, of all the forms of marginalization, of the suffering of immigration, describe every person’s common experience.”
“The wise man who built his house upon the rock,” Scola said, “can experience first hand how these guidelines can open the heart if they are followed. He becomes a witness. In order to speak to man, Christ wanted to have a need for man, of witnesses. He decided that he needed me, you, each one of us. Herein is the wonder of the grace of Christ, a beauty that exalts human freedom.”
“I need you, all of you,” the Cardinal said, “to carry out with joy and not with sorrow this demanding task, of which – I am fully aware - I will be called to answer. For this reason I will try to make my own the words that the Holy Father spoke to me and to the auxiliary bishops on Wednesday, when he handed me the pallium: ‘the Archbishop is from Milan and all his heart will be for Milan.’ However, you too, as the sacred text keenly highlights, will have to remember always that the joy of your shepherd is to your own advantage.”