Prof. dr Martin M. Lintner, President of the ESCT (Welcoming the participants and opening of the conference)
My dear colleagues and all of you who have come to this conference, I am delighted to be able to greet you in the name of the European Society for Catholic Theology and to offer you a heartfelt welcome.
This year our theological Society celebrates its 25-year Jubilee. ET is a unique Society that brings together theologians from all disciplines and from all the countries of Europe. Networking theological knowledge and research across the borders of disciplines and nations realises our primary aims. One of the important goals that were set at the formation of ET 25 years ago is related to the historical events of that time: 1989 was the year that the wall came down in Berlin and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, which had separated the East of Europe from the West. So that even today we still speak of the countries of East Europe even if many „Eastern“ European countries are right in the heart of Europe, and a little further to the West as many countries from so-called Western Europe. That time, 1989, saw the end of the separation of Europe into East and West. The founding members of ET consciously wanted to initiate and support an interchange between theologians, men and women, from the countries of the West, Middle and East of Europe.
Because of this, it pleases me and I think it very significant that the meeting of the Curatorium is taking place in Warsaw, a city of great historical, political and cultural significance. I am especially pleased that this year the Curatorium meeting is connected with a theology conference, in which we can engage in an intensive dialogue with colleagues from Poland.
At this point I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have organized this conference: Prof. Piotr Morciniec, President of the Polish Section of ET, Prof. Stanislaw Dziekonski, Rector of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, and his team. This conference was made possible by the generous financial support of CSWU. Further thanks goes to Prof. Tadeusz Dola, Chairman of The Committee on Theological Science of The Polish Academy of Sciences, and his many helpers. A warm welcome to all the members of the Committee. Everyone who has organized a conference these days knows how much work and effort is involved.
From the European Society of Catholic Theology today are here with us the members of the Curatorium, formed by the Presidium and the presidents of the single national sections. Currently we have 19 nationals sections. Tomorrow there will take place the annual meeting. There we will discuss also the foundation of two new sections: in Romania and Ukraine. In this moment I’d like to express our nearness to the people of Ukraine and assure them our prayers in this difficult political situation.
On the poster for the conference the famous hands are portrayed from Michaelangelo’s Creation of Mankind in the Sistine Chapel: God stretches out his powerful and graceful right index finger and lets Adam spring to life, while Adam’s hand points underneath, limp and powerless. Only the index finger of Adam is raised to touch God’s finger. The index fingers of the two hands are two gestures that want to meet each other, that search for each other. The belief that everything that is, is God’s creation, that God has created everything that lives and that God has breathed new life into them is one of the central expressions of the Christian faith. This faith finds a climax in the Incarnation, so that God in the person of his son enters completely into the history of creation and the world, in which he himself becomes human. The history of creation becomes the place of the history of salvation. This means that world and salvation history may no longer be seen as independent of each other, so that the world can’t any more be seen as a Godless world. So the process of secularization must not be interpreted as emancipation form God and religion, but it is necessary to find and express the hidden presence of God in a secularized world.
The two hands on the poster are separated by a deeper crack in the masonry that seems to prevent the spark of life passing from God’s hand to Adam. One can understand this crack to mean: the Church sees itself accepting the obligation to bring the world into contact with God and to mediate God‘s healing grace. One can now ask whether the many cracks in the Church’s masonry – its crises, problems, tensions, conflicts – have become an obstacle that can take over her task. Or we can ask, what ditch today separates the dimension of the worldly from the Godly, the profane from the religious ... and what hinders dialogue, interchange, encounter and mutual fruitfulness?
We will today differentiate Secularization, Secularism and Multiculturalism, so that, today in the heart of Poland, we can reflect with clarity, as we are all in the same boat in Europe, in spite of so many dissimilarities of development at political, cultural and even church levels. There are tendencies and currents that mark out in a certain way the spiritual climate in the whole of Europe and even further afield, and which we can only challenge together.
In this spirit, I look forward to some interesting papers and discussions. Once more, welcome to each and every one of you, and again my heartfelt gratitude to all the organisers.