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Foto eseguita dallo Studio fotografico
Rolando Paolo Guerzoni Modena
INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES
THE VERBANIA
DECLARATION
SPEAKERS
SPONSORS
& PATRONS
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Born in Carpi (Mo) on the
14/07/1956, he graduated University in Modern Literature with
philological orientation (subject: Semitism, mark: 110) from Bologna; he
taught Religion at Primary School for three years, before obtaining a
chair in Literature (italian and latin) at the Scientific High School
“M.Fanti” in Carpi.
Following his Bachelor’s degree in theology from the Studio Teologico
Interdiocesano in Reggio Emilia with a thesis exam in Liturgy about the
relation between the Didaché and Christology of John’s Gospel (mark:
Bene probatus), he was licensed in Theology of the Gospel at the Academy
of Theological Studies in Bologna (STAB) with a thesis on Exegesis of
the Old Testament about the reading of the Holy Bible by Giacomo
Leopardi. He attended a two year post-graduation specialization in
History at Urbino University.
In 1985 he founded the magazine on Jewish-Christian studies “QOL” still
in print today and of which he is the director.
From 1987 until 1995 he directed the Religious Studies Center of the San
Carlo Foundation of Modena and he took part in editing the magazines “Il
Regno” and “CEM Mondialità”.
He is an essayist, writer and journalist and cooperates with many
newspapers, regularly with “Settimana” (EDB), dealing in particular with
the culture page; he further directs the newspaper of Turin “Tempi di
fraternità” and “Memoranda”, a quarterly of the Campo Fossoli Foundation
of Carpi. He has been among the founders, on a national basis, of the
Court for sick people’s rights and is regionally responsible in Emilia
Romagna for the Democratic Federal Movement.
Since a number of years he is among the national experts of Caritas
Italy, Pax Christi Italy and of the Secretary of Ecumenical Activities
and takes part in the Committee “Bible, Culture, School” which proposes
to spread the presence of the sacred text to the Jewish Christian
tradition in the curriculum of our school institutions.
He is a member of ATI (Italian Theologians Association) the main group
of theologians in our country, and of AETC, the association of European
theologians.
Today he is director of the “Foundation ex campo Fossoli”,
vice-president of the Italian association of the “Friends of Nevè
Shalom-Waahat as-Salaam”, the “Peace Village” founded in Israel by
Father Bruno Hussar (together with Rossella Prandi he takes care, since
1991, of the realization of the Peace Calendar, diffused on a national
basis by the CSAM), and he is also scientific coordinator since 1996 of
“Christian-Muslims meetings” in Modena on behalf of the national ACLI.
He is also part (unique non-gospel case) of the Publishing Committee of
the RAI DUE “Protestantism” coming out every 15 days, and has taken
part, as a journalist of CEM Mondialità, in the second Assembly of the
European churches in Graz (1997) and in the Proclamation of the “Charta
Ecumenica” in Strasburg (2001).
In November 2001 he has made the Ecumenical Appeal for a national day of
the Christian-Muslim dialogue (for information you can visit the site
www.il dialogo.org) held in one hundred places on the 29/11/2002 (last
friday of Ramadan 1423) and from which inspired the book made by P.Naso
and B. Salvarani, “The revenge of the dialogue. Christians and Muslims
in Italy after the 11 September” (EMI, Bologna “2002).
He is presently Councillor for Cultural and Youth policies, for the
Project-Memory and at the Artistic-Historical heritage after having been
Councillor for Sports and having been confirmed into the second
legislature at the Municipal Administration of Carpi (Mo). He is one of
the authors of the fiction about the story “Arturo Loria”, of the
national price “Ugo Carpi” on xylography and of the Philosophy Festival
in Modena, Carpi and Sassuolo and is also president of the “Found
Liliana Cavani” about cinema.
Since 2000, he is with the Administrative Council of ATER (Theatres
Association in Emilia Romagna) and since 2001 with the Administrative
Council of “Border Line”, association to promote photography culture,
with its seat at the Corte Ospitale in Rubiera (Re).
“Educating towards an
inter-religious dialogue for a peaceful future”
1) After the 11
September, religions in the limelight
2) Peace, gift of God and human project
3) Educating to an intercultural and inter-religious dialogue
1)
Times are quickly changing: after the season of “God’s death” and the
eclipse of the sacred, people talk more and more about “God’s revenge”
and about going back to spirituality, often under a fundamentalist point
of view or talking about a “supermarket of sacred things”. The sceneries
of the “after the 11 September” – among which the Anglo-American war
against Iraq – have underlined it more and more, showing its most
contradictory and dramatic aspects. Looking at our country, then, we are
living very hardly the passage phase from “Italian people’s religion”
(the catholic one, obviously, as it is true that we cannot call
ourselves non Christians) to the Italy of new religions. The social
visibility and of the “other” faiths, in fact, are growing more and more
in Italy and it is not only Islam that has come silently in the
“immigrant cases” but there is an ancient deposit of realities which are
historically consolidated in our country (Jewish, Waldensians, Orthodox)
and of many different voices like the ones of eastern religions (from
Buddhism to Hinduism) of the New Age and the so-called New religious
movements.
2) In such a context, forty years after the prophetic “Pacem in terris”
the subject of peace appears more and more fragile and full of problems
but, at the same time, it is of fundamental importance for the future of
the human race: the kind of peace that, for those who believe in
Abraham’s and Jesus’ God, first of all is not something ethical or
social but a subject revealing something, being part of faith. As Enzo
Bianchi writes, “it is with peace that the church measures its
faithfulness to God and its capacity to witness the Gospel among men”.
The Bible peace is full life, is “shalom” and its opposite - more than
war – is violence in general: the one that has its roots deep in men’s
heart and unfortunately is able to bless the order of the inter-human
relationships, between humanity and things, the whole universe and
between humanity and God. Peace for Christian churches is then, first, a
God’s gift that can be reached through daily choices like the practice
of justice, the liberation of the oppressed and the defense of the poor.
3) The new pluralism is bound, probably, to try sorely our traditional
ignorance about the Bible and religion, and obliging the school,
information and instruction world to take a serious engagement. It will
be impossible, in any case, to go on considering the religious fact as a
purely individual element, without any cultural or social influence.
As any new thing, such a situation will bring fear and will push towards
shutting some identities, but will also stimulate towards a real leap in
quality: there will be above all the need for a change in mentality,
more availability to listen to others’ ideas, a direct knowledge
starting not only from a better documentation but also from meetings in
everyday life and from the interpersonal exchange of dialogue.
There will be a need for a new “dialogue alphabet” based on identity,
empathy, decentralization, hearing, reception. We will have to invest,
on an ecclesiastical and civil basis, in the education for intercultural
and inter-religious dialogue: a very tough challenge indeed, but
absolutely necessary. |
