The Holy Father has sent a Message to the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, on the occasion of the solemn celebration of the 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri which took place today in the Senate of the Republic of Italy.
To my venerated brother
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
On the occasion of the solemn celebration of the 750th anniversary of the birth of the great poet Dante Alighieri, which is being held at the Senate of the Italian Republic, I wish to send you and those who will participate in this commemoration my cordial and affectionate greetings. In particular, I extend to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, to whom go my sincere congratulations for this significant initiative, to Minister Dario Franceschini; and I extend these greetings also to all the Authorities who are present, to he Parliamentarians, to the Dante Alighieri Society, to students of Dante, to artists and to those who through their presence wish to honour one of the most illustrious figures not only of the Italian people but of all of humanity.
With this message, I also wish to be united in heart to all those who consider Dante Alighieri to be an artist of greatest universal value, who still has much to say and to give, through his immortal works, to those who desire to travel the paths of true knowledge, of authentic discovery of self, of the world, of the profound sense and transcendence of their existence.
Many of my predecessors have wished to solemnize the celebrations of Dante with documents of great importance, in which the figure of Dante Alighieri was revived because of his timeliness and for his greatness not only as an artist but also as a theologian and a cultural figure.
Benedict XV devoted to the great Poet, on the occasion of the VI Centenary of his death, the Encyclical In praeclara summorum, dated April 30, 1921. In it, the Pope intended to affirm and to point out the intimate union of Dante with the Chair of Peter. Admiring the prodigious extent and acuteness of his genius, the Pontiff invited Catholics to recognize the mighty momentum of inspiration he drew from divine faith, to consider the importance of a proper and non-reductive reading of the works of Dante above all in scholastic and university formation.
Blessed Paul VI was particularly concerned about the life and works of Dante, to whom he dedicated, at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, exactly fifty years ago, the beautiful Apostolic Letter Altissimi cantus, in which he indicated, with great sensitivity and depth, the fundamental and always living lines of Dante. Paul VI affirmed with strength and intensity that Dante is ours! Ours, that is to say, belonging to the Catholic faith (AC, 9). Concerning the end of Dante's work, Paul VI clearly affirmed: The end of the Comedy is primarily practical and transformative. It not only attempts to be poetically beautiful and morally good, but at the highest level to radically change man and to take him from disorder to wisdom, from sin to holiness, from suffering to happiness, from terrifying contemplation of the inferno to the beatific vision of paradise (AC, 17). He then cited the significant part of the letter addressed by the Poet to Can Grande della Scala: The end of all and of part is removed by the state of suffering in this life and lead to the state of happiness (AC, 17).
Even Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI made reference to the Great Poet and cited him on many occasions. And in my first Encyclical, Lumen fidei, I also chose to tap into the immense patrimony of images, symbols and values found in the works of Dante. To describe the light of faith, the light of discovery and recovery of light that illumines all of human existence, I based my remarks on the suggestive words of the Poet, who spoke of it as a spark / which expands in lively flames / and like a star in the sky, sparkles in me (cf LF, Paragraph XXIV, 145-147).
On the vigil of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which will begin on December 8, fifty years after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, I sincerely wish that the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante, like those being prepared to mark the VII centenary of his death in 2021, may make the figure of Alighieri and of his works once again understood and treasured, even to accompany us in our personal and communal pilgrimage. The Comedy can be read, in fact, as a great itinerary, even as a true pilgrimage, either personally or interiorly, either communal, ecclesial, social or historical. It represents the paradigm of every authentic voyage in which humanity is called to leave what Dante calls the flowerbed that makes us so ferocious (paragraph XX, 151) to reach a new condition marked by harmony, peace and happiness. This is the horizon of all authentic humanism.
Dante is therefore, a prophet of hope, proclaimer of the possibility of redemption, of liberation, of profound change for every man and woman, for all of humanity. He invites us once again to find the lost or hidden sense of our human journey and to hope to see once again the bright horizon where the dignity of every human person shines in all its fullness. Honouring Dante Alighieri, as Paul VI already invited us to do, we shall be enriched by his experience to traverse the many dark passages still being discerned on this earth and joyfully accomplish our pilgrimage in history, to reach the destination dreamed of and desired by every man: the love that moves the son and the other stars (paragraph XXXIII, 145).
From the Vatican
May 4, 2015
Francis
Message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the 750th Anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri
To my venerated brother
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
On the occasion of the solemn celebration of the 750th anniversary of the birth of the great poet Dante Alighieri, which is being held at the Senate of the Italian Republic, I wish to send you and those who will participate in this commemoration my cordial and affectionate greetings. In particular, I extend to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, to whom go my sincere congratulations for this significant initiative, to Minister Dario Franceschini; and I extend these greetings also to all the Authorities who are present, to he Parliamentarians, to the Dante Alighieri Society, to students of Dante, to artists and to those who through their presence wish to honour one of the most illustrious figures not only of the Italian people but of all of humanity.
With this message, I also wish to be united in heart to all those who consider Dante Alighieri to be an artist of greatest universal value, who still has much to say and to give, through his immortal works, to those who desire to travel the paths of true knowledge, of authentic discovery of self, of the world, of the profound sense and transcendence of their existence.
Many of my predecessors have wished to solemnize the celebrations of Dante with documents of great importance, in which the figure of Dante Alighieri was revived because of his timeliness and for his greatness not only as an artist but also as a theologian and a cultural figure.
Benedict XV devoted to the great Poet, on the occasion of the VI Centenary of his death, the Encyclical In praeclara summorum, dated April 30, 1921. In it, the Pope intended to affirm and to point out the intimate union of Dante with the Chair of Peter. Admiring the prodigious extent and acuteness of his genius, the Pontiff invited Catholics to recognize the mighty momentum of inspiration he drew from divine faith, to consider the importance of a proper and non-reductive reading of the works of Dante above all in scholastic and university formation.
Blessed Paul VI was particularly concerned about the life and works of Dante, to whom he dedicated, at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, exactly fifty years ago, the beautiful Apostolic Letter Altissimi cantus, in which he indicated, with great sensitivity and depth, the fundamental and always living lines of Dante. Paul VI affirmed with strength and intensity that Dante is ours! Ours, that is to say, belonging to the Catholic faith (AC, 9). Concerning the end of Dante's work, Paul VI clearly affirmed: The end of the Comedy is primarily practical and transformative. It not only attempts to be poetically beautiful and morally good, but at the highest level to radically change man and to take him from disorder to wisdom, from sin to holiness, from suffering to happiness, from terrifying contemplation of the inferno to the beatific vision of paradise (AC, 17). He then cited the significant part of the letter addressed by the Poet to Can Grande della Scala: The end of all and of part is removed by the state of suffering in this life and lead to the state of happiness (AC, 17).
Even Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI made reference to the Great Poet and cited him on many occasions. And in my first Encyclical, Lumen fidei, I also chose to tap into the immense patrimony of images, symbols and values found in the works of Dante. To describe the light of faith, the light of discovery and recovery of light that illumines all of human existence, I based my remarks on the suggestive words of the Poet, who spoke of it as a spark / which expands in lively flames / and like a star in the sky, sparkles in me (cf LF, Paragraph XXIV, 145-147).
On the vigil of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which will begin on December 8, fifty years after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, I sincerely wish that the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante, like those being prepared to mark the VII centenary of his death in 2021, may make the figure of Alighieri and of his works once again understood and treasured, even to accompany us in our personal and communal pilgrimage. The Comedy can be read, in fact, as a great itinerary, even as a true pilgrimage, either personally or interiorly, either communal, ecclesial, social or historical. It represents the paradigm of every authentic voyage in which humanity is called to leave what Dante calls the flowerbed that makes us so ferocious (paragraph XX, 151) to reach a new condition marked by harmony, peace and happiness. This is the horizon of all authentic humanism.
Dante is therefore, a prophet of hope, proclaimer of the possibility of redemption, of liberation, of profound change for every man and woman, for all of humanity. He invites us once again to find the lost or hidden sense of our human journey and to hope to see once again the bright horizon where the dignity of every human person shines in all its fullness. Honouring Dante Alighieri, as Paul VI already invited us to do, we shall be enriched by his experience to traverse the many dark passages still being discerned on this earth and joyfully accomplish our pilgrimage in history, to reach the destination dreamed of and desired by every man: the love that moves the son and the other stars (paragraph XXXIII, 145).
From the Vatican
May 4, 2015
Francis
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