Sunday, 20th January 2008
Molto Sapiente! (Very Wise!)
One cannot discount the implications of realpolitik on the Vatican. This certainly isn’t a phenomenon which should stop in front of the holy doors of St. Peter’s. No one can dismiss the philosophical capabilities of this Pope but by now few doubt that this Pope is turning out to be a worthy tactician indeed!
The Vatican was faced on Monday with a very difficult decision. It was the first time in years that a direct protest against the Pope was gaining ground on His Holiness’ home turf – Rome. The Pope, faced with a mini revolution of 67 members of staff out of a staff complement of 10,144, chose not to transmit his message to the few hundreds gathered in a hall but chose the many thousands whose attention was drawn to the event following the hullabaloo that was generated. The protest has now died down – the protesters achieved their aim – however, the Pope achieved his aim too: he was listened to, by an even greater audience. A very good result indeed - for the Pope most of all.
Rather than jumping the gun and calling last Monday’s events in Rome a sign of intolerance, why don’t we refer to them as a new reality? A part of La Sapienza today subscribes to the paradigm of science and this very same part is now vying to occupy the same moral position as the Church. As religion used to decide who the heretics were, science,now decides who its ‘heretics’ are.
Certainly, the Pope was declared a ‘heretic’ by this small group of scientists in a way which I disassociate myself from but, two wrongs don’t make a right. The censorship these scientists imposed deserves the same degree of condemnation. A boycott, although drastic, is in itself a sign, and since dialogue basically implies the transmission, reception and understanding of signs, then a boycott falls in the spectrum of dialogue, no matter how extreme it may be.
Dialogue, in any of its forms, can never
be neither shameful nor bizarre. It is always human and, thus, always in an
infinite need to be refined. La Sapienza presents a challenge, will we take it?
Will the Church, Science and us be wise interlocutors in this debate?
Matthew Mizzi is a third year student of Law and Philosophy and the Development Officer of InSite, the student media organisation. www.insite.org.mt
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