On the day that Italians are celebrating their national unity, Benedict XVI is reminding the nation of their Catholic roots.
The Pope reflected on the Catholic identity of the people of Italy in a letter addressed to the president of nation, Giorgio Napolitano, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s political unity, which is celebrated Thursday.
In commenting on “Il Risorgimento” (The Resurgence), which brought various independent states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy, the Holy Father noted that “Christianity contributed in a fundamental way to the construction of the Italian identity.”
He said that the character of the nation was forged “through the work of the Church, of her educational and charitable institutions, fixing models of behavior, institutional configurations, social relationships, but also through a very rich artistic activity in literature, painting, sculpture, architecture and music.”
The Pontiff named some of the great Christian artists who “have made a fundamental contribution to the formation of the Italian identity,” including Dante, Giotto, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Raphael, Pierluigi of Palestrina, Caravaggio, Scarlatti, Bernini and Borromini.
“Also the experiences of holiness,” he continued, “with which numerous individuals have studded the history of Italy, contributed strongly to construct such identity, not only under the specific profile of a peculiar realization of the evangelical message, which has marked in time the religious experience and spirituality of Italians (one thinks of the great and manifold expressions of popular piety), but also under the cultural and even political profile.”
Benedict XVI noted that St. Francis of Assisi helped to forge the national language, and that St. Catherine of Siena, “offered a formidable stimulus to the elaboration of Italian political and juridical thought.”
The Pope affirmed that “the contribution of the Church and of believers to the process of formation and consolidation of the national identity continues in the modern and contemporary ages.”
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2011 (Zenit.org)