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INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR TOMAS HALIK FOR THE WEEKLY INFORMATION SERVICE OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE OF ITALY
Sara Silvestri per SIR Europa (www.agensir.it)
Currently Professor of Sociology at Charles University, Rector of the University Church of St Saviour in Prague, President of the Czech Christian Academy, and member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Tomas Halik is a Czech Catholic priest that was secretly ordained in Erfurt, in 1978. In the 1980s he was very active in the “underground church”, becoming one of Cardinal Tomášek's closest associates and co-operating with the future President, Václav Havel, and other dissidents. Halik initiated the ecumenical pastoral project “Decade of National Spiritual Renewal” and was involved in clandestine seminars in private homes and in the publication of “illegal” philosophical and theological texts. After the fall of Communism he became Secretary General of the Czech Conference of Bishops (1990-93), has been an advisor to the Pontifical Council for dialogue with non-believers and is a member of the organising committee of the Forum 2000 conference with particular responsibility for inter-religious relations. He has lectured at a number of universities and international conferences on philosophy, psychology and sociology of religion, the role of religion in modern society, and the cultural and spiritual aspects of the European integration process. He was recently invited at Cambridge University to talk about the “Public Role of Religion in a United Europe” at the conference “Faith’s Public Role: Politics & Theology” (6-8 April 2005). “Europe is not simply un-Christian or non-religious, but nor is it religious in a Christian way”, has affirmed Prof. Halik, adding that we cannot “realistically expect Christianity to become on its own the exclusive ‘common language’ of the West”. Prof Halik has also criticised the slogan “Give Europe a Soul” on the grounds that “Europe is not soulless”. Rather, he has argued, “we the Europeans of today need very much to learn to understand its soul and nourish it”. We have asked him what are the challenges for Christian Europe in 21st century:
“I think that there are two dangers. On the one hand the ‘nostalgie’ for a ‘golden Age’ of Christian Europe, which is a Romantic view of the Middle Ages. This view is not realistic and would be very dangerous. On the other hand there is ‘secular fundamentalism’, which is today even more intolerant than the so-called ‘religious fundamentalism’. In Europe, the Christian tradition and the secular tradition have proved to be compatible with each other by coexisted in the past 200 years. I think that they need each other. Secular humanism needs to be able to come to terms with a religious context; but also us Christians, we must learn to live with people who are not religious or church oriented. We need to make a shift from the notion of ‘Catholicism’ to that of ‘Catholicity’. Catholicism tends to be seen as a form of the Catholic culture that was developed during the modern ages as a reaction to Modernity and Protestantism, and became itself an ‘ism’. The Second Vatican Council, and in many aspects also the pontificate of John Paul II, began this shift from Catholicism to the more open Catholicity, which implies a more ecumenical meaning and the possibility to communicate also with the people that are outside the visible frontier of the Church. Something very important was said in the Second Vatican Council, and it appears in different sentences of the Gaudium et Spes: the joys, hopes and sorrows of the contemporary man are also the joys and sorrows of the Church. The Church has promised love, respect and fidelity to the modern contemporary man. She must fulfil this promise and she needs a type of language that will be balanced and able to reach those that are distant and those that are near. The Church must hold its identity but also be able to communicate with the world outside.”
You said that religion is back, that the “spectre of religion is haunting Europe”, but how many people are ready to receive the message of Christianity?
“It depends on the development of the Church. Although in the contemporary world the so-called “organised religion” is in crisis, people are still seeking spirituality and practical ethical guidelines for many complicated questions in life and science. If the Church will be able to offer the experience of spirituality for contemporary humankind and also to take part in a competent way in the public debate on important issues such as ethics and globalisation, then the Church will be able to withstand, then there is hope for Christianity in the future.”
What characteristics and priorities should have the next Pope?
“For the new Pope it will be very important to be a ‘Pontifex’, that is, a man building bridges. The Catholic Church has the possibility to communicate with two worlds that are divided: on the one hand there are the traditional religions – especially Islam – and on the other side the secular world. The Catholic Church is the only institution that has much in common with both these worlds: through the common Abrahamic heritage with Judaism and Islam and also the experience of the post-modern secular world. The Catholic Church could communicate with both and help the communication between these two divided worlds of today. The new Pontiff should also communicate with and promote communication within the very different streams that are ‘inside’ the Church.”
Could you comment on the progress of ecumenical dialogue at the turn of the Century and on its future development?
“During the pontificate of John Paul II, there was a great chance to communicate with the Orthodox Churches because he was of Slavic origin, had a deep Marian spirituality, was very near to the Orthodox spirituality... I think that it is a great pity that ecumenical dialogue was not developed further. The Russian Orthodox Church became very anxious about the influence of Catholicism in Russia, they did not accept the reaching out hand of the Pope. Moreover, in the Catholic context, ecumenism is sometimes a problem because there are those focused on continuing the tradition and others for whom it is very important to communicate with the world outside. I think that both these concerns are of central importance to the Catholic Church and that the future Pontiff should bring these two tendencies together, without eliminating their special charisma. John Paul II was very successful in this: he was able to combine the fidelity to the tradition with the sensitivity to the signs of the time.”