Vatican City (AsiaNews) - At this morning's general audience, Pope Leo XIV continued his series of catecheses on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, further reflecting on the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes and the theme of the relationship between faith and culture.
The pontiff examined the second chapter of the document in greater depth. Speaking before 30,000 people in St Peter’s Square, he said: “the progress of culture and knowledge raises ever new and deeper questions, prompting believers to give an account of their faith”. For him, this lies at the heart of the relationship between the Christian faith and culture.
“[F]aith too is an incarnate reality, interwoven with the culture in which it is immersed. It is also required to become culture, that is, to reach the person in their living environment, made up of human words, traditions, religious meaning, art and poetry, thought and science.” Thus, faith makes no distinctions between cultures; rather, it can "be embodied" within each of them.
“It dwells within them, shaping them from within according to the ‘form’ of Jesus Christ; that is, through charity, service and the filial recognition of God’s fatherhood. In this way, the Church draws from the various cultures all that is good, beautiful and true, in order to embody and transmit the message of the Gospel.”
For this reason, culture is promoted by the Church as a “good in itself" and as a “service to the human being and to the fulfilment of her vocation on earth.”
Do not live “the faith in a spirit of opposition” to the world
Gaudium et Spes emphasises the importance of access to "primary" cultural goods. How? “[B]y overcoming illiteracy and the lack of education. All those who are capable of accessing higher education – the Council boldly states – must be placed in a position to do so in practice,” the pontiff said.
At the same time, the Council document “holds the need to direct teaching towards a certain unity of knowledge, even though changing living conditions may make this more difficult”.
At the end of the catechesis, Pope Leo XIV noted that the document “reminds us not to live the faith in a spirit of opposition or hostility towards the world, culture and its human expressions”.
Instead, “Achieving a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture is, in fact, a necessary condition for persevering in the Christian vocation, as well as an essential requirement for bearing witness to the faith before the world and communicating it to others in a credible manner.”
All Saints: “look at the immense host of men and women"
After the catechesis, the pontiff mentioned the Feast of All Saints, which will be celebrated next Sunday.
In Italian, he said: “I invite you to look at this immense host of men and women who present themselves to us as a prophetic sign of the life to come, a life that already has its beginning in the commitment and Christian witness of our earthly existence.”
