The School of Theology's XV Conference took place on March 12 and 13, reflecting upon the theme "Word and Testimony in the Communication of the Faith: Re-reading a Critical Pair in the Light of the Second Vatican Council."

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Msgr. Fisichella: "Witness is essential to the Church's mission in the world"

"Provoke lifestyles that can speak of true love, genuine freedom, and real joy."

A witness is "the last word a Christian can pronounce to give credibility to his faith, in the knowledge that it is tantamount to offering the gift of his life for love." Such a witness is "essential to the mission that the Church carries out in the world," and for many reasons, is also the "first path" she can take in the search for "more coherent instruments" that can evangelize today's world.

Announcing the Gospel, therefore, "calls for convinced witnesses who are capable of placing their existence at the service of truth, of a message that can only be received through them." These are the words of H.E. Msgr. Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. He spoke during the Theological Conference "Word and Testimony in the Communication of the Faith," which took place on March 12-13 at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross on the initiative of the School of Theology.

In an atmosphere of indifference, agnosticism, and lack of faith, "witnesses have the serious task of provoking lifestyles that can speak of true love, genuine freedom, and real joy." Such a witness is indispensable to the path of new evangelization undertaken by the Church,  which will only be "provocative to the extent that it manages to express itself in an authentic language."

Msgr. Giuseppe Angelini, a Professor for Northern Italy’s School of Theology, instead focused on the anthropological significance of Christian witness. "The meaning and necessity for witnesses," he stated, "can only be understood if man's original condition is acknowledged." The current "cultural climate," characterized by a "rejection of the idea of truth," is dominated by "a weak and extremely poor deterioration of the concept of witness, which has been reduced to merely "telling one's own experience." Nevertheless, "witness is an absolutely indispensable category for confirming the quality of Christian words." At the same time, it is "the category which is most repugnant to current forms of thought," on the basis of a principle called the "mutual estrangement of consciousness."

Faced with this cultural climate, we must proclaim the "image of a witness whose confession of truth precedes the subject, opens his path, and commits his freedom." It is a truth that "must be carried out throughout life's drama" in order to manifest itself in all clarity and permit an irrevocable decision.

Prof. Javier María Prades, Rector of the University San Dámaso in Madrid, addressed on the other hand the notion of witness in both the Second Vatican Council's documents as well as the post-conciliar pontifical magisterium. From a long and well-documented explanation, Prof. Prades summarized that the "witness par excellence is that of Christ Himself." It is also however, "an action specific to each Christian, by virtue of his participation in the common priesthood through Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist."

Witness should therefore be equally understood as "spiritual worship, opened up to holiness and martyrdom," and is "a decisive factor in the Church's mission," that belongs at the center of one's own life and pastoral work.

All of this suggests, according to Prof. Prades, that "faith's credibility is recognized within a Christian's life." Further, it is the martyr who demonstrates "the intimate relationship between holiness of life and the explicit profession of faith," and who allows "the interpretation of every Christian witness."

Starting from the conciliar document Dei Verbum, Prof. Paul O'Callaghan, a professor of Christian Antropology at the Holy Cross, explained that "when believers give testimony of their faith, they establish a three-fold link: with the listener, who is driven by their conviction and sincerity; with God who vindicates truth in and through their life, and with themselves, since the witness that they give is, and should be, in complete harmony--in unity of life--with what they concretely experience." Certainly, it must be taken into account that "it is not an automatic process, but a free one, thanks to the eschatological character that has always characterized Christian revelation, and to the need for a generous, personal, and un-transferable response that every man is invited to offer to divine grace."

The professor also argued that the "Gospel is formed in such a way that it does not impose itself on man. Rather, the almighty God, who created heaven and earth, seeks a response to His revelation from man that is completely free and generous." Proof is the fact that "not everyone believed Christ's resurrection. The same happens with the holy life of Christians."  However, it is the Resurrection that adds "something new to Jesus' death, since it offers us the definitive interpretation." In fact, the death of Christ "is no longer perceived as a rejection on God's part, but as a proclamation in Him and through Him, of the truth He preached." The same resurrection "becomes an iconic proclamation of everything Jesus said and did."

Prof. César Izquierdo, from the School of Theology at the University of Navarra (Spain), spoke finally of "witness and dialog in the Church's mission." He began with the assumption that "without apostolic testimony, which is at the same time communication and an expression of faith, the Church would not exist." The Church's witness however, is not "a private fact, or something undertaken by her own initiative," but the expression "of her being in Christ." It is her own "distinctive form," which is no small matter.

Evidently, references to testimony and dialog made today "are sometimes conditioned by a foreign social and ideological context that is hostile to truth." This is a fruit, explained Prof. Izquierdo, of "two principles of post-modern culture: the first is that truth cannot be publicly affirmed; the second, that faith can not be described as true or false, but only as sincere or dishonest." Following this reasoning, "it would be inadequate and inappropriate to think that religious sentiments could be expressed outside the personal sphere and have a reflection on society."

Facing these claims, as the last two Popes have reiterated, "Christian preaching cannot renounce publicly giving witness to the faith, as well as showing that this witness is in relationship with the truth,"

The conference also provided a theological reflection on art, society, and politics, thanks to the participation of distinguished representatives who spoke at two different round table discussions. The first was moderated by the journalist Lorenzo Fazzini and attended by Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli, Superintendent of the Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery of Rome, Giulio Base, actor and Director of the famous TV series Don Matteo, and Costanza Miriano, a journalist and autor of Sposati e Sii Sottomessa. The second discussion on the other hand, saw the participation from several politicians, moderated by Dr. Luca De Mata.

There were further presented close to 20 papers related to various aspects of the two-day conference's general theme.