Introduction to the Person of
Antonio Rosmini
Antonio
Rosmini is one of the most lively and stimulating figures of the
present day in the overall picture of religious and lay culture in
Italy and Western Europe. He lived in the first half of the nineteenth
century (Rovereto 1797 – Stresa 1855). He was a priest, a religious and
the founder of two religious Orders (the Institute or Society of
Charity and the Sisters of Providence). He was an encyclopaedic
thinker, author of more than a hundred works, constituting a type of
summa totius christianitatis [a summa of the whole of Christianity]
both philosophical and theological (Michele Federico Sciacca’s
analogy). He was the embodiment of charity (which for him meant love of
God) on all levels, temporal (he supported the poor of all types),
intellectual (he provided intellectual nourishment) and spiritual (he
helped the spiritually needy).The spirit which guided him was suggested
to him by Pius VIII to
lead people to religion by means of reason.
Above
all he was acutely aware that western culture needed to maintain unity
between faith and reason in friendship, the Gospel and progress, the
natural and supernatural world, knowledge and faith. He realized that
modern history ran the risk of closing man in on himself in the name of
reason, that is, of detaching him from the transcendent, of causing him
to fall back on his own strength, of convincing himself that he could
fashion his life without the need of God. This would be a journey to
death, which would lead to intellectual confusion and the loss of
ethical and spiritual values.
In order to fulfil
his evangelical mission of intellectual charity Rosmini chose a language and method more
in harmony with the times,
but he remained solidly anchored to the genuine values, of authentic
Christian tradition: he fostered the essence of the faith in Augustine
and Thomas, and in drawing on it, he enriched it, but he initiated a
method which can be summarised by saying that while preceding schools
had started with God to arrive at man, I have started with man to reach
God.
Alongside
this in the political sphere, he and his friend Manzoni, regarded with
interest the rise of liberal democracies, noting in them an evangelical
nucleus of freedom and the dignity of the human person which was being
encouraged and purified.
The new language, the
upside down method, his
interest in democratic movements,
together with appropriate ideas, which later turned out to be
prophetic, aroused some apprehension in traditional Catholic circles,
in which we clearly see today both the short sightedness of his
adversaries’ views and the confusion between the message and the new
means in which it was communicated. They feared that the teaching of
Rosmini would lead to a distortion in Catholic dogma and attempt to
introduce democracy into the Church. Lay
culture, however, opposed the purity of his Christian orthodoxy, his
belief that friendship, reason and faith should be intertwined.
The first put Rosmini on the same level as Thomas superficially denying
that he was faithful to the words of St Thomas, the second put Rosmini
on the same level as Kant and his German idealism, denying that he was
faithful to this idealistic vision. A century and a half was needed in
order that the person of Rosmini, removed from the passions and
partisan views of the time, might be seen as a clear and holy thinker,
while no one who had experienced it ever hesitated to doubt his
holiness.
At one stage Rosmini suffered for the
way he
related to emerging democracies. In 1849 his two books Le cinque piaghe
della santa Chiesa [The Five Wounds of Holy Church] and La Costituzione
secondo la giustizia sociale [The Constitution according to Social
Justice] were put on the Index of prohibited books.
But
his
adversaries, as it were, constrained Pius IX to have all his other
published works examined up to that time, in the hope of obtaining a
condemnation of them. It was a serious examination, lasting for several
months in which the contents of his works were scrutinized, and it was
followed personally by the Pope. This resulted in his works being
declared free from any ecclesiastical censure (1854).
The
conclusion of Pius IX disappointed those who had expected a
condemnation of all his work. After the death of Pius IX Rosmini’s
adversaries got his works examined a second time. This time the outcome
satisfied them because it carried a condemnation, though precautionary,
of forty propositions taken from many of his works, with the
explanation that “they did not appear to be in harmony with Catholic
truth”. That “did not appear” can be justified by the novelty of his
words and method, and in addition a reasonable apprehension about the
influence idealism had on his contemporaries.
There
followed
a very long period of detailed and painstaking studies on the work of
Rosmini, on its content, on his orthodoxy, on the sharing of his ideas
with Thomism, on his distancing himself from idealism. It was basically
what was suggested by the document of prohibition itself, like a
suspension of judgement more than a definite condemnation. This intense
study, accompanied by the social and political situation which was
changing in favour of Rosminian ideas caused a new Rosmini to come to
light and his true identity to be restored.
On the part of the laity Giovanni
Gentile was the first to become aware of the greatness of his
thought,even though
he did not perceive his religious values but on the other hand
attempted to associate him with idealistic theories. On the Catholic
side, the studies of Michele Federico Sciacca caused the pure orthodoxy
and the distinctiveness of Rosmini as an imposing Catholic thinker to
emerge. On the strictly Rosminian side, the fathers of his religious
Institute promoted the person and thought of Rosmini in his integrity
preserving the heritage left by him and defending it from any kind of
erroneous exploitation and interpretation.
Gradually
decades passed, his holiness and thought began to assert themselves
with ever-greater clarity. In
Vatican Council II some bishops hailed him as a prophetic figure.
The Popes who followed Pius XII all spoke of him with esteem and
appreciation, until the time came for the pontifical commissions to
re-examine his works. After three commissions, each lasting about two
years, there came the outcome of the Nota of the Congregation of July
2001. This officially cancelled the reservations established in 1888.
Basically it said that the forty propositions had been prohibited as a
precautionary measure because it was necessary that time and study
should clarify their exact meaning. Studies had been carried out,
suspicion abandoned: there was no longer any reason for maintaining the
reservation and suspension of judgement.
With
his imminent
beatification, then, mother Church offers to those of the present a son
which is genuinely hers, a person of integrity, holy because of the
evidence of his life and as teacher. His writings constitute an
intellectual, spiritual and theological patrimony which is both rich
and stimulating. Rosmini has gathered and placed at the service of his
brethren old and new treasures of the deposit of faith.
He
can help secular people in the correct use of reason, to confidently
face up to their salvation and to the transcendent. To believers he
offers the possibility of holiness which is thoughtful, aware, and
intelligent, one which involves the whole of the human person (feeling,
reason and will). To all people he is held up as a bridge builder, a
man of dialogue, a friendly person who persuades one to accept the
whole truth, to love God and neighbour with their whole heart, thinking
and loving on a grand scale, that is, searching for the best in all one
does or thinks or loves.
Above
all Rosmini today teaches us how to unite the earthly with the
heavenly, the temporal with the eternal, the truth with charity, human
fragility with the power of the grace of God, the dignity of the human
person with the demand that the cross of Christ makes on him. The
more we approach his writings the more we become familiar with the
charity with which he sees and conveys truths, and the more hope is
rekindled in us to track down lost truths and the overall, ultimate
meaning of human existence.
In conclusion: I see
the
beatification of Rosmini in a small way, if you like, as a recognition
of his human and spiritual greatness which sweeps away the clouds of
the past which have hung over him, a confirmation of the merit which he
accumulated in his service of the Church and his neighbour. But above
all I see the beatification as a bridge built for the future, as a
promise to use and exploit. It is as if the Church is placing on a lamp
stand a light which remained for a long time under a table, exhorting
us in these times of the obscurity of truth and charity (nihilism and
relativism) to make use of the light of truth and of the fire of
charity which shines forth from it.