Commissione Attività Culturali
Commission for Cultural Activities
Presentation of the volume:
Figli nel Figlio. Una teologia morale fondamentale
On
the afternoon of Thursday 17 April 2008 there was the presentation
of the volume Figli nel Figlio. Una teologia morale fondamentale
(Edizioni Dehoniane, Bologna) edited by Redemptorist Father Réal
Tremblay and Dehonian Father Stefano Zamboni.
The atmosphere in the Aula Magna of the Academy was that of major occasions: the presence of numerous professors and students of the Institute and from other Universities in Rome was a sign of the interest in this work within theological circles. The participation of four Bishops, Archbishop A. Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop P. Marini, former Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, recently ordained Redemptorist Bishop F. J. Monteiro, of the diocese of Garanhuns in Brazil and Bishop I. Sanna of the diocese of Oristano, for many years Ordinary professor of Anthropology at the Lateran University and invited professor also at the Academy, gave the event profound ecclesial significance.
After a welcoming address by Moderator Father A. Wodka, the three speakers charged with illustrating the salient aspects of the volume were invited to take the floor.
Jesuit Father K. Stock, professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, highlighted how the work, in each of its different parts, was deeply rooted in both Old and New Testament Revelation. The Council's challenge to render Holy Scripture the soul and the foundation of theological reflection was taken up with courage and intelligence, and as a result – he concluded – the work “offers itself like fresh water, drawn from a deep spring”.
Focussing on the volume's theological-moral framework, Mgr A. Rodriguez Luño, philosopher and moralist at the Santa Croce University, underlined that the basic intention to offer a rigorously Christian and therefore theological treatise on fundamental morals had been “consistently maintained without faltering throughout the volume, from the first page to the last”. Acting as “sons” results from being “sons”, therefore “the deepest essence of this action consists in consciously accepting this filiation and standing with Christ in the presence of the Father, allowing oneself to be drawn by the Holy Spirit, in a total attitude of praise, obedience and love”. This Christological foundation of ethics is not simply a preface or consideration juxtaposed to morals elaborated according to other criteria, instead it informs and is operative in each of the themes treated.
Mgr I. Sanna showed evocatively and brilliantly how this reading of Christian morals, centred on the theme of filiation and based, in ultimate analysis, on the relationship Father - Son, was the healing balm for the deep wounds in the souls of men and women of today, orphans of all paternity and secretly longing to rediscover themselves as beloved sons and daughters.
After the speakers, it was the turn of Father Tremblay, the volume's co-publisher and inspirer of Hypsosis, a research group to which the young theologian authors of the work's various chapters belong. Stirring deep emotion, Father Tremblay spoke of a beating heart at the centre of this fundamental theology and of a life-giving sap which pervades its many branches: this beating heart – he said – is the Son made flesh, “the incommensurable gift which the Lord's invincible love offers humanity”. “It was therefore out of respect, attention, or better still, reverence for the Father's work pro nobis - he added - that my collaborators and I, thought it opportune, indeed necessary, to place at centre of this book the Son given for us and to strive to deduce from this central truth all the consequences for the moral life of Christians, which include anthropology, its ethical dynamism and moral behaviour in the strict sense of the word”.
Father Tremblay then thanked, also on behalf of Fr. Zamboni and the Hypsosis Group, the speakers, the illustrious guests and all the participants, in particular, Father A. Filippi, director of the Edizioni Dehoniane di Bologna and Prof. L. Lorenzetti, editor of the Rivista di Teologia Morale and author of the book's presentazione.
Before the evening ended, the Moderator briefly introduced the authors one by one and then invited everyone to a moment of fraternity at the buffet. Photographs, autographs, purchasing of the book and congratulations brought to a festive close a moment of great academic and ecclesial importance.
The atmosphere in the Aula Magna of the Academy was that of major occasions: the presence of numerous professors and students of the Institute and from other Universities in Rome was a sign of the interest in this work within theological circles. The participation of four Bishops, Archbishop A. Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop P. Marini, former Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, recently ordained Redemptorist Bishop F. J. Monteiro, of the diocese of Garanhuns in Brazil and Bishop I. Sanna of the diocese of Oristano, for many years Ordinary professor of Anthropology at the Lateran University and invited professor also at the Academy, gave the event profound ecclesial significance.
After a welcoming address by Moderator Father A. Wodka, the three speakers charged with illustrating the salient aspects of the volume were invited to take the floor.
Jesuit Father K. Stock, professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, highlighted how the work, in each of its different parts, was deeply rooted in both Old and New Testament Revelation. The Council's challenge to render Holy Scripture the soul and the foundation of theological reflection was taken up with courage and intelligence, and as a result – he concluded – the work “offers itself like fresh water, drawn from a deep spring”.
Focussing on the volume's theological-moral framework, Mgr A. Rodriguez Luño, philosopher and moralist at the Santa Croce University, underlined that the basic intention to offer a rigorously Christian and therefore theological treatise on fundamental morals had been “consistently maintained without faltering throughout the volume, from the first page to the last”. Acting as “sons” results from being “sons”, therefore “the deepest essence of this action consists in consciously accepting this filiation and standing with Christ in the presence of the Father, allowing oneself to be drawn by the Holy Spirit, in a total attitude of praise, obedience and love”. This Christological foundation of ethics is not simply a preface or consideration juxtaposed to morals elaborated according to other criteria, instead it informs and is operative in each of the themes treated.
Mgr I. Sanna showed evocatively and brilliantly how this reading of Christian morals, centred on the theme of filiation and based, in ultimate analysis, on the relationship Father - Son, was the healing balm for the deep wounds in the souls of men and women of today, orphans of all paternity and secretly longing to rediscover themselves as beloved sons and daughters.
After the speakers, it was the turn of Father Tremblay, the volume's co-publisher and inspirer of Hypsosis, a research group to which the young theologian authors of the work's various chapters belong. Stirring deep emotion, Father Tremblay spoke of a beating heart at the centre of this fundamental theology and of a life-giving sap which pervades its many branches: this beating heart – he said – is the Son made flesh, “the incommensurable gift which the Lord's invincible love offers humanity”. “It was therefore out of respect, attention, or better still, reverence for the Father's work pro nobis - he added - that my collaborators and I, thought it opportune, indeed necessary, to place at centre of this book the Son given for us and to strive to deduce from this central truth all the consequences for the moral life of Christians, which include anthropology, its ethical dynamism and moral behaviour in the strict sense of the word”.
Father Tremblay then thanked, also on behalf of Fr. Zamboni and the Hypsosis Group, the speakers, the illustrious guests and all the participants, in particular, Father A. Filippi, director of the Edizioni Dehoniane di Bologna and Prof. L. Lorenzetti, editor of the Rivista di Teologia Morale and author of the book's presentazione.
Before the evening ended, the Moderator briefly introduced the authors one by one and then invited everyone to a moment of fraternity at the buffet. Photographs, autographs, purchasing of the book and congratulations brought to a festive close a moment of great academic and ecclesial importance.
Father
M. P. Faggioni,
ofm
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