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Category: The Last Word
The Last Word

Who is Afraid of Dialogue?

“Nowadays we speak a lot about dialogue between religions and cultures, especially in connection with immigration. I ask myself: why should I enter into dialogue if I am content with my ideas, my values, the dictates of my faith? Moreover, those who arrive in our homeland, shouldn’t they, first of all, be respectful of our values, instead of always speaking about dialogue?”
­– Stefano Ardesi (via e-mail)

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

Between Long Cassocks and Censers

“Among young priests, there is a whole swarming with long cassocks and censers, in their sermons I more often hear them speaking of dogmas and precepts than Gospel and Jesus. How on earth is this enclosing themselves in sacristies happening, so paradoxical in the very moment when a ‘new evangelization’ is supposed to be launched?”
­– Marco Santovito, via e-mail

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

Herod’s Orgies and our National Shame

“I am a Girl Scouts’ leader and I am concerned about the values that are being handed on to the youth. Examples are more important than words. The TV is full of vacuity and the political parties in power have unleashed every type of lewdness and immorality. Italy celebrates 150 years of independence but it gives the impression to the world of a foolish teenager. The only thing of value seems to be power, money and the attitude of getting away with everything beyond every human and divine law that can be twisted to one’s whim and pleasure. Why is it that the Church doesn’t shout with John the Baptist: ‘You are not allowed to do that?’ What to do?”
­– Kate Cotta, Milan

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

What to Give to Caesar, What to God?

“Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” How should we, as Christians, understand this guideline and live up to it? What is it that goes to Caesar if we have to give to God what is His, i.e., everything?
­– Dario Bertacchini, Milan

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

The Crucifix, Scandal and Revolution

“The well-known sentence of the European Court of Human Rights about the crucifix has raised contrasting feelings in me: I find fair that schools (and other public places) conform themselves to the fact that Italy is not a confessional state but I shiver imagining the crucifix taken down from the walls as if something to be ashamed of. Even if I try to think what Jesus Himself would say, two very different sentences come to my mind: ‘When you pray, do it in the secret of your room’; ‘The one who is ashamed of me and the Gospel…’”
­– Raffaele, Genoa

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

Poverty, a Choice that Saves

“In your articles, you insist on the value of poverty, on the necessity for the Church and missionaries not to have material ties. If, however, the Church would divest itself of all goods, wouldn’t it end by being itself crushed and lose every possibility of influencing society?”
­– Claudio (Via e-mail)

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

The Fruits of Mission

“The Seventy-Two returned with joy… ‘Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that
your names are written in heaven’ (Luke 10:17-20)

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

Unrequited Love

“But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say: ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ (…) Woe to you (Luke 10:10-11.13)

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.J. | Biblist & Writer
The Last Word

The River Jordan is Polluted

Because of its association with the Baptism of Jesus, the River Jordan is probably the best known river in the world. All three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, describe this event. Matthew writes that “at that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him… As soon as Jesus was baptized, He came up out of the water. Then heaven was opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and alighting on Him. Then a voice said from heaven. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Mat 3:13-16; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22).

Fr. Seán Mcdonagh, SSC | Environmentalist & Writer
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