As Paris prepares to host a new forum for dialogue between believers
and non-believers, the Vatican official in charge of the initiative sees
interest cropping up all over the globe.
The first major "Courtyard of the Gentiles" meeting is due to take
place this March 24-25 in the French capital.
The Pontifical Council for
Culture-promoted program aims to engage leaders of French culture in
dialogue on issues of religion, enlightenment and common reason.
Important sites of culture, including the storied Sorbonne University, have been chosen for a series of encounters.
There will also be a moment for young people to meet in a more public
"courtyard," the large square outside the Basilica of Notre Dame, to
have discussions. Pope Benedict XVI will address the young people in a
video message.
Inside the basilica, the ecumenical Taize community will
be leading a prayer service.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the head of the council for culture, told
Vatican Radio Feb. 5 that interest is being generated around the world.
The council has heard from a number of cities interested in the
possibility of hosting such a forum of their own.
One institution, the University of Bologna, Italy – called the Alma
Mater Studiorum – plans to hold a gathering next week, ahead of the
Paris event in March.
On Feb. 12, the university will bring back the tradition of "disputed
questions." Cardinal Ravasi said that this was traditionally an
exchange of opinions on a variety of subjects, whereas questions in the
coming event will pertain to matters of belief and non-belief.
During the talks, four professors will exchange viewpoints on God
while examining law, philosophy, literature and science. Teachings from
Paschal, St. Augustine and Nietzsche will be read aloud by another
participant in between the academics' remarks.
For Cardinal Ravasi, the amount of interest is "very surprising." His
original plan in Paris –what he called "the city-emblem of secularism" –
was to host a more low-key event at a Catholic institution.
"Then, though, I saw this branching out. And this branching out is
extending itself ever further and with very different typologies. It
will now be our task to continue it, but most of all to allow others to
do it."
The council is thinking of staging one in Tirana, Albania and is
thinking about setting up another in Stockholm, Sweden in November of
this year.
The latter event would be particularly "curious," he said,
because of the initiative's Catholic roots and expected participation
from Lutherans.
For the cardinal, there is no limit to the possibilities.
He spoke of
"crossing the ocean and going to the most remote countries, beginning
with the United States, where there has already been interest in Chicago
and Washington."
Afterwards, he is setting his sights on countries with a small
population of Catholics but a presence of "a religiosity of another
kind."
"Let's think to Asia," he said.