Archbishop Rino Fisichella spoke of Christianity this
week in an interview regarding the Norway tragedy brought about by Mr. Breivik. In part he said, the gospel
and the culture that has developed from belief and life in Christ is is not a cultural weapon, it is not a fiction, and it is not something arbitrary, as Breivik is said to think, but “a
religion of love, of rejoicing, and of respect.” Fisichella also said a few
other things that are worth noting because I need to make sense of one man’s
expressive pathology. By the way, I don’t believe this Mr Breivik is a Christian
in any sense: neither practicing nor cultural. But what Breivik may have done is to force orthodox Christians to clarify what they believe and how they live. Sinful and criminal actions have a way of helping us to take stock in questions of identity and belonging. Fisichella’s points:
- “We could never accept violence made in the name of religion and in the name of God.”
- “The word ‘respect’ is very important for us and very Biblical. It means that we know that there is someone else who probably does not think the same way or know my religion, but we respect them, and they should respect our own thoughts and religion.”
- “We cannot forget that in Europe, the Christian identity is very weak. Many people do not know what the main content of the faith is, and the challenge that Islam and other religions present is (for them) to better understand their own traditions and origin.”
- “This is why I think one of the instruments for the New Evangelization should be to understand our identity and our belonging to the Church.”