Rimini Meeting 2009 -A Judgement

Rimini Meeting Testimony

Dear Friends,

Please find below a few words that capture and highlight what I lived during the 30th Rimini Meeting. If there are any questions or needs of clarification regarding the content, please let me know.

JR

The theme of the 30th International Rimini Meeting for Friendship among Peoples was “Knowledge is always an Event”. At the heart of the question of knowledge is man’s relationship with the world, his relationship with people, with history, culture and the material world. Contemporary culture is dominated with suspicion and doubts man’s capacity to know and arrive at the truth in any one of these areas of knowledge. What we are left with is an understanding of knowledge that is either purely subjective -an arbitrary interpretation, that which one individual experiences of the world as the deciding character of truth. Or that of a purely objective knowledge which we find in the rigors of scientific experiment as being the lone criterion of truth. In front of both of these reductions of man’s capacity to know and arrive at the truth and his relationship with the world, the Rimini Meeting sought to propose through a series of encounters, testimonies, panel discussions, exhibits, concerts, book presentations -that is a meeting of friends and peoples-, a path to enter into a fuller and more human understanding of man’s capacity for true knowledge.

The Rimini Meeting invited presenters to speak about the nature of knowledge, in existential terms, using tools of their own specific professions. Those from the Church, businessmen, intellectuals, scientists, politicians, journalists and artists participated in the weeklong events. These presentations and witnesses gave testimony to the grandeur of man’s capacity to seek after, to know and to arrive at the truth within various fields. The countless events and encounters of every day during the weeklong Rimini Meeting told a constant story, a story recounted in many languages and in many diverse cultural settings of man’s ability to enter into a relationship with others and the world and to come to a true knowledge of himself and the world.

Knowledge is best be described as a relationship and meeting between a human energy or desire and a presence, that is a relationship between a human “I” and reality –the world. Knowledge is always an event that occurs in ways and forms different between themselves and always implies an otherness, a relation between a subject and an object. At the basis of every form or course of knowledge, also and especially scientific discovery, is the stumbling over something new which had not become part of the experience or simply had not been considered. That is why knowledge can be described as a movement, a movement towards the fuller realization of the truth of someone or something. The “new” that bursts in and triggers or re-launches the dynamics of knowledge is not only something, but is in many cases a someone: it is what we call a witness. Without the mediation of witnesses there would not be the growth of knowledge, there would be no civilization and culture, and there would be no history. Even more so, as studied in the school of community this past year, in Is it Possible to Live this Way?, it is the testimony of another, when it comes to a different humanity, that fully corresponds to the constituent expectations of mankind which make it clear and “intelligible” the sense of living. A meeting with someone or with a people that witness to a truer or more beautiful way of living and being together, and way of looking at the world. In the same exact way as the first people who met the exceptional presence and penetrating gaze of Christ, we need the testimony of others who have met an exceptional presence, to follow and to lead us to the full truth of ourselves and of Christ. The Rimini Meeting sought to bare witness to this particular meaning and form of knowledge in its many manifestations.

Personal Judgement

Throughout the week’s activities at the Rimini Meeting, I was moved and struck by many of the panel discussions, exhibitions, concerts and most notably by the many people I got to meet and spend time with. It was through these personal encounters while working at the Fraternity of St. Charles stand handing out our monthly flyer where I most noticeably experienced the meaning of knowledge as being an event. These unexpected meetings with new people who wanted to share who they are and a little bit of their personal story and what brought them to the Rimini Meeting made it clear to me that all people have a mysterious and beautiful story that wants to be told. Stories that often surprisingly erupted into my life and often changed the way I look at my life or at current life situations I am being asked to embrace. By sharing how I met the Communion and Liberation movement in 2003 and the priests of the Fraternity of St. Charles in 2005 when living and studying in the United States and later in Canada, I am given the opportunity to share the mystery that is involved in meeting and following an exceptional presence. It is difficult to express the joy and hope which was given birth to in those listening when I had the chance to recount the facts of what enabled me to be at the Rimini Meeting. It helped me better understand that I am indeed part of a people following an exceptional presence, and am carrying with me the hopes and joys of this people in my work as a seminarian. Embracing the humanity of the people I was given to meet, and my very own and the many stories contained there within, revealed to me that God indeed passes and makes himself present through the flesh his people. It is the newness and exceptional character of people’s stories and lives that bare testimony to man’s capacity at arriving at a fuller truth of himself and of the world he lives in. At times I remember being very grateful for the mission work these people were doing for me, helping to better reveal to me the nature of what the proposal of a missionary priest entails. These un-expected meetings with new friends helped to purify the gaze upon which I viewed the tiring work of being at the stand, and expanded the way I understand Christ’s capacity to spring from the poverty of my tired body and through my insufficient words to reveal what I have met and am following.

Prior to arriving at the Rimini Meeting, I had spent the previous three weeks at home in Saint John (NB, Canada), vacationing with family and friends. I remember distinctively asking myself in the Toronto Lester Pearson airport before departing for Italy, “what is it I am looking for by returning to Rome for the second year of seminary?”. My answer was that I am leaving my beloved country, family and friends seeking after the full truth of my humanity and freedom, that is the truth of my vocation and relationship with Christ. I carry the certainty within me that God the Father is a generous and merciful father who will lead me to the fulfilment of my life and freedom, and walks with me daily as these are gradually revealed to me and unfold before my very eyes. I try to begin every day reminding myself that the answers to these questions are going to be revealed to me within the concreteness of daily life. These words were a great help to understand many of the experiences I lived during the Rimini Meeting. I particularly enjoyed spending time with a group of Canadians who had come to the Rimini Meeting to volunteer and to work cleaning tables in the restaurant area. Going out to dinner, attending concerts or panel discussions, translating exhibits into English from Italian, or singing the traditional English songs of the movement together were constant reminders of the exceptional presence I had met only a couple of years previously in my beloved country, and how the movement is continuing to grow and flourish. These friendships reminded me that nothing is lost or taken away when one is following Christ and seeking one’s vocation, but that all of one’s history and interests are taken up and given in return with new life and colour in Christ. I am learning to be more at peace with the distance I am being asked to live from loved ones, and am becoming more aware and grateful of everything that has been given to me over the years.

The most interesting panel discussions that I was struck by were those by Mary Ann Glendon and Robert George who spoke of natural rights and man’s elementary experience; one by Carl Anderson who spoke about the history and work of the Knights of Columbus; one by don Aldo Trento an Italian missionary working in Paraguay who told the story of the first missions by the Jesuits in Paraguay and their work with the Indians; one by Marcus and Cleuza from Brazil who shared their experience leading the group of Landless Workers who follow the Communion and Liberation movement in San Paolo; one by Joseph Weiler and Brad Gregory who spoke of the secularization of education in America; and one by don Massimo Camisasca who spoke about his recent book on the life and mission of don Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Communion and Liberation ecclesial movement. Each had an interesting story and an experience to communicate, with the hope to share and introduce their work and knowledge and expand the scope by which we understand ourselves, the world and the current realities in the world today. The educational proposal of these panel discussions is vital to understanding their importance for the Rimini Meeting. It is the hope that through these presentations and the testimonies of the people recounting them that a genuine encounter is given birth to. An encounter with an exceptional reality or a new presence that erupts into one’s life and proposes a truer or fuller way of looking at one’s self, and of one’s knowledge of the world. Those attending are encouraged to participate knowing that these presentations and testimonies are educational paths to a truer knowledge of ourselves and of the given realities which they bare witness to.

The exhibits at the Rimini Meeting attempt tell the story of the theme of the meeting, knowledge is always an event, in my ways, shapes and forms. The exhibits that I was able to visit and witness were on many themes including: Maria Zambrano, a 20th century Spanish philosopher who wrote on themes such as facing the problems of education, freedom, love and the family as being the heart and primary place of one’s education, a person who Luigi Giussani and Julian Carron often like to quote and to make reference to; St. Augustine, which told the story of his life and long pursuit of the truth of his life and vocation, which included a life size reconstruction of the baptismal chapel where he was baptized by St. Ambrose; Napoli, which told the story of this fascinating city helping people enter into the contradictory logic and beauty of the life lived here, how even amidst the many crisis’ and problems Christ does not cease to make himself present and reveal the grandeur and beauty of the Napolitano soul as witnessed in their music and art; Masaccio, Beato Angelico and Piero, three 15th century artists from Florence who through their art work tell the story of the transition from the middle ages to the renaissance period, with a reconstruction of the fresco’s depicted in St. Mark’s convent in Florence; the reductions in Paraguay, which told the story of the first Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay during the 16th and 17th centuries, and how they worked and lived with the Indians making Christianity known not by negating any of the beautiful practices of their lives and traditions but by transforming and revealing the fullness of these realities in Christ; the Christian basilica’s of the 4th century, which told the story of the first basilicas in Rome and Milan following Constantine’s signing of the edict of Milan in 313 A.C., the Lateran basilica is known as the first Christian basilica which followed the same design of prior ones which were primarily used for judicial purposes; the story of the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, which recounted the heroic virtue and life of this great saint’s parents who were beatified in 2008. Each of the exhibits displayed a unique story and revealed in many concrete ways how these people and stories lived knowledge as an event in their respective lives. The newness and depth in the presentation of these exhibits helped the viewer enter into the experience and lives of the people and their stories. Learning about these people and events gives testimony to the ongoing character of man and his pursuit of the true knowledge of himself and the world, and urges one to enter more fully into one’s own particular life and to follow and seek out its truth.

We have all been given the mysterious gift of life and ought to be good stewards of this gift by becoming protagonists and seeking out the full truth and knowledge of ourselves, the people we have been given to accompany us on this journey, and of the wonder of the material world. The Rimini Meeting sought to make this proposal to all of its attendees, that man is capable of arriving at true knowledge of himself, others and the world, and it is an exciting and worthwhile mission. We ought to make this journey as friends, and friendship is the heart and form of what we are called to live, to discover the truth of ourselves, others and the world through a loving companionship. As the 30th International Rimini Meeting for Friendship among Peoples winded down and came to a close, its attendees returned to their families, homes and work environments with the desire to continue and deepen the experience lived together during the days together in Rimini. We can live the experience of the Meeting in our respective circumstances and life situations if we remain faithful to the proposal and method of acknowledging and following the exceptional presences we stumble upon. And through them to seek out the full knowledge of ourselves, the friends and people we have been entrusted in our daily lives, and the mysterious world around us, and to remember that we can only do this work and mission together as a people.