SANCTIFYING OFFICE

Cardinal Ravasi’s approach to the liturgy has been shaped by his broader approach to Catholic culture and what he sees as modern needs.

According to one observer, Ravasi is a strong supporter of the liturgy that emerged following the Second Vatican Council and has no interest in the pre-conciliar form of the Latin Rite. He holds that the liturgy is “continuously looking upward, toward the transcendence of God and Christ, to His Word; but on the other hand, it also directs its gaze to the gathered community.”

Liturgical Preferences

At the same time, Ravasi eschews what he calls “rigidity” in the liturgy, and argues that “active participation” is not guaranteed by an “essentialist” liturgy that is reduced to “obedience to all the rubrics.” In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI established the Pontifical Academy for Latin with the goal of fostering deeper knowledge and a more competent use of Latin in both the ecclesiastical context and in the wider world. While speaking about the new academy in an interview with La Stampa, Ravasi commented on “traditionalists” who want the Mass to be celebrated in Latin, noting that while these people desire the Latin Mass, “it is likely they do not know the language that well.” He added, “I myself have witnessed cases in which some of them did celebrate the rite of Mass or the liturgy in Latin with great strength but were unable to work out certain specific aspects of the language.” Nevertheless, Ravasi explained that the new academy could help those who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.

Cardinal Ravasi believes that beauty is an important element of Catholic worship. He has criticized modern trends in church architecture, noting that the lack of integration between architects and the faith communities for which they design worship spaces has sometimes been negative. In 2013, for example, Ravasi noted that “the problem is that in Catholicism, unlike Protestantism, things like the altar, the images, are essential, while architects tend instead to focus on space, lines, light and sound.” In the same interview, Ravasi lamented that more discussion about how the worship space could build up, or impede, liturgical life is warranted up front in building projects. He noted that the Vatican hoped to help heal the fracture between religion and art by commissioning modern liturgical art and building up dialogue with artists prior to commissions. The goal must be to produce churches that resemble not museums but places of prayer.

Attention to Preaching

Ravasi has called upon priests to improve their preaching so that the faithful are gripped by the power of God’s Word and participate more fully in the liturgy. He has said modern homilies risk becoming irrelevant to worshippers who are accustomed to the thrill and excitement of modern technology, and the “advent of televised and computerized information requires us to be compelling and trenchant, to cut to the heart of the matter, resort to narratives and color.” The theological language employed by priests in their homilies, Ravasi argued, is “grey, dull and flavorless,” and he urged priests to resort to the graphic and dramatic imagery of the Bible to bring their sermons to life. Biblical imagery and stories are well suited to grabbing the attention of the “children of television and the internet” who grace church pews, he added. The cardinal also encouraged priests to utilize social media to communicate God’s Word: “We need to remember that communicating the faith does not just take place through sermons. It can be achieved through the 140 characters of a Twitter message.” Ravasi has often called on the Church to find new language to evangelize more effectively.

The cardinal is known for his homilies, especially for his scriptural exegesis. In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI chose Ravasi to preach the Curia’s Lenten retreat, which took place just prior to the pope’s formal resignation. Ravasi’s meditations during the course of the retreat provide a glimpse of his learning and ability to weave themes and thinkers together. In one thirty-eight-minute reflection, Ravasi not only repeatedly cited Scripture but also drew on diverse sources such as Etty Hillesum, Søren Kierkegaard, Yves Congar, Novalis, Aristotle, Blaise Pascal, Heidegger, and a hadith regarding Muhammad. During this talk, he provocatively claimed, “even a blasphemous cry, as we might judge it on the outside, may be heard by God with more attention than so many prayers offered up on Sunday morning.”

Church Aesthetics and Pagan Worship?

The cardinal initiated a project to study how priests and other ministers in the Church might be better trained in aesthetics and the history of art through the Pontifical Council for Culture. Ravasi explained that beautiful art can be a path that leads to contemplation, which is at the heart of faith. “Imagine a church,” he said, “that is built in a refined manner, that expresses a profound beauty. And to find inside this space the possibility of silence, and contemplation, that is, it is the eyes that see. Because faith is made, most of all, of contemplation.” Beauty is an important aspect of the liturgy because worship is a physical, and not just spiritual, act. Sacred spaces must foster the ability to praise in a luminous way. “This church that, for example, has bad acoustics, does not fulfill its mission because listening is as important as contemplation,” Ravasi explained. Faith and art are “like sisters, because they both have as their main task to try not only to represent what can be seen, or the surface of things, but also to find the more profound sense.”

Shortly before the beginning of the Amazon synod in October 2019, a ceremony took place in the Vatican Gardens during which people prostrated themselves in front of a fertility-symbol statue, or what Pope Francis later referred to as a Pachamama. The event caused scandal in the Catholic world. Cardinal Ravasi may have laid the groundwork for this event, since in 2015 he actively participated in a similar event for the Courtyard of the Gentiles project (more on this below). During that event in Argentina, caught on video, Ravasi followed a shaman and other worshippers as they circled a blanket that held religious symbols, while they prayed to “Mother Earth” and “Father Sun, Tata Inti.” These symbols included food, as well as talismans, herbs, and, if the pagan practices were similar to those in La Paz, Argentina, llama fetuses and little fetish dolls. At the time, this event was televised on Argentinian stations, but it surfaced in the wider world after the Pachamama cult emerged during the Amazonian synod.

Pop-Culture and Freemasonry

Provocation and praise for immoral, anti-Catholic artists and thinkers are not foreign to Ravasi, who has frequently made the words of such figures his own. Praised for his vast cultural knowledge, Ravasi draws upon it to tweet affirmations from individuals such as Giordano Bruno, a friar excommunicated and burned at the stake for occult practices (January 15, 2016), and Buddha (January 4, 2015). He has tweeted such messages as “Sadness is the world’s greatest evil (J. Langer)” (September 29, 2015) and praised homosexual rocker Lou Reed (October 29, 2013) and gender-bending David Bowie (January 11, 2016), making headlines across the world: “Vatican Praises David Bowie.”¹Ravasi changed his tune somewhat when he received criticism for supporting Lou Reed. Under Ravasi’s watch, the controversial pop singer Katy Perry, known for her demonic videos and large young following, was invited to speak on transcendental meditation for children at a conference on biotechnology in the Synod Hall (April 2018). Perry was given the pope’s chair to deliver her talk at the conference, co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Ravasi gave a more expected response in July 2020 when he paid tribute to composer Ennio Morricone who had just died, recalling his deep faith and the spiritual dimension of his music. Ravasi highlighted Morricone’s contributions to music that express religious themes, particularly in films like “The Mission.”

But Freemasonry and atheist and esoteric thinkers have also found shelter under Ravasi’s wings. In 1990, the Italian book Dossier Templari 1118-1990 included a list of names under the title “Testimony of industriousness of the Grand Prefecture for Italy of the ‘Supreme Military Order of Templars of Jerusalem’ in the social, cultural, artistic field for peace, faith, and universal fraternity,” among whom was Gianfranco Ravasi.²Maria Lo Mastro, Dossier Templari 1118-1990 (Rome: Edizioni Templari, 1991), 484. A 2000 article in the Italian Bishops’ Conference’s newspaper, Avvenire, titled, “Hermes, come sei Cristiano” (Hermes, how Christian you are), ambiguously praised the figure Hermes Trismegistus, often referenced by modern occultists. In 2008, Ravasi published a book titled Le parole e i giorni. Nuovo breviario laico (Words and days: a new lay breviary), which was supposedly a book of prayers adapted for laypeople — “laity” for him embraces “areligious, agnostics, and even atheists” — that includes reflections from atheists.³Gianfranco Ravasi, Le parole e i giorni. Nuovo breviario laico (Milan: Mondadori, 2008). See the book review in Ravasi, “Scorte di saggezza per la vita quotidiana,” in L’Osservatore Romano, 5 February 2009, 4. Finally, in 2016, Ravasi published an article with the title “Dear Masonic Brothers.” In it, he clearly states the various authoritative Catholic reasons for the “incompatibility” between being a member of the Church and a member of the Masons, while also saying that dialogue between the two groups should be encouraged and one should oppose “that stance from certain Catholic integralist spheres” that apodictically accuses opponents of Freemasonry.⁴English translation of Ravasi’s document on the official site of the Italian Freemasonic “Grand Orient.”Masons around the world praised the work as a recognition of their deep unity with Ravasi’s version of Catholicism. In response, concerned Catholics wrote him, asking if Ravasi was referring to Freemasons much as some Catholics call Protestants “separated brethren,” or if Ravasi was implying that he belonged to the Masons. The prelate replied that the newspaper’s staff created the headline and that the document speaks for itself.

GOVERNING OFFICE

Cardinal Ravasi’s main administrative roles in a scholarly capacity have been his oversight of the Ambrosian Library in Milan and his curial responsibilities most central to his presidency of the Pontifical Council for Culture. In Milan, Ravasi played a large role in revitalizing the storied Ambrosian Library during his eighteen years directing it. He computerized the library and opened it up in a more effectual way to the modern world. He has not served as the administrator of a diocese or run his own parish.

Ravasi has transformed the workings of the Council for Culture since taking the reins in 2007. He assigned a department to each council official, making each individually responsible for the council’s endeavors and bolstering accountability and transparency in the process. His mission in leading the council has been to continue its good work of using culture as a bridge between people of other faiths, in the hope that culture and religion should interact not as in a duel but as in a duet, “when two voices remain different, but harmonious.” Part of his efforts at reinvigorating the council’s work involved revamping its website.

Ravasi has led initiatives to engage with the broader culture and especially with young people. In 2013, Ravasi hosted a meeting on youth culture to solicit from young people what they were thinking and feeling. He appealed to the young people by featuring a concert by an Italian rock band. Another well-known initiative Ravasi leads at the council is the Courtyard of the Gentiles project that began during Benedict XVI’s pontificate and aims to promote dialogue among agnostics, atheists, and people of the Catholic Faith.⁵For a criticism of Ravasi’s work on the Courtyard of the Gentiles project, see George Weigel, “Craving Approval Isn’t Evangelization,” First Things (6 June 2018), (explaining that the project frequently featured the media-savvy philosopher Julia Kristeva, who appears not always to have been the champion of freedom she claimed to be, based on her apparent involvement as an informer to the Bulgarian secret intelligence service during the Cold War and her tendency to provide intellectual cover to some of the twentieth century’s worst regimes). The project is one of encounter and dialogue and provides “a space of expression for those who do not believe, and for those who are asking questions about their faith, a window open to the world, to contemporary culture and to the voices that resonate.” Operating under its own webpage, the project sponsors events and publishes blogs that seek to achieve the aforementioned goals. The project has sponsored high-profile events in cities such as Bologna, Paris, Bucharest, and Stockholm. Another example of Ravasi’s engagement with modern culture was his decision to have the Council for Culture host its own pavilion at the 2013 Venice arts festival known as the Biennale. The council used the space to host artists whose work reflects themes from the book of Genesis.

Against Fundamentalism

Ravasi argues that “fundamentalist” ideas about faith cause problems in dialogue with nonbelievers, as “oftentimes this fear (of dialogue) stems from the fact that the person doesn’t feel capable of defending or justifying his own reasons, hence he doesn’t want to listen to the other.” In this way, he psychologizes reasons for avoiding dialogue. Christians must strengthen the roots of their own faith if they hope to coexist peacefully and dialogue constructively with the growing Muslim population in Europe, Ravasi believes.

In response to some efforts across Europe to remove Christian symbols from public places (e.g., crucifixes displayed in public classrooms and other public places in Italy), Ravasi has argued that removing such symbols risks erasing the identity of Europe.“Having white walls leads to a void, to cultural fragility. You may need to explain what a religious symbol means, but it isn’t right to have to take down your symbols simply to avoid offending someone,” Ravasi said.

Met Gala Scandal

One very ill-advised initiative of the Council for Culture under Ravasi was its role in coordinating a display of Vatican items at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018, in an exhibit called “Heavenly Bodies — Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”Ravasi wanted to engage with the relationship between fashion, art, and faith; he agreed to collaborate with an exhibit at the Met because of its cultural significance and potential global reach. Vatican officials (including Ravasi) were allegedly unaware that the Met Gala, a curtain-raising event for the exhibit, which ran all summer, would be what it was — an occasion at which some celebrities dressed in ways that sacrilegiously mocked the Church. Indeed, prominent critics, including George Weigel, called into question the judgment of Ravasi and other Vatican officials: “Was the cardinal really surprised that the opening of an exhibit devoted to the impact of liturgical vestments and Catholic art on contemporary fashion turned into an exercise in louche camp and vulgarity that bordered on the blasphemous? If not, what precisely does Cardinal Ravasi know about contemporary culture, presumably the remit of his Vatican office?” Criticism also extended to the world of entertainment with British Catholic and talk-show host Piers Morgan saying the gala “crossed a line and was openly, brazenly disrespectful.”

The Vatican’s involvement in the Met Gala serves as a cautionary tale about the limits of evangelization and engagement with mainstream culture. The decision to participate was rooted in a desire to exploit the potential reach that such a venue could provide for widespread appreciation of the beauty of sacred and liturgical objects. “Our remit is to engage the world,” said one Vatican official, noting that the Met is “one of the most significant cultural institutions in the world.” But the Church’s official presence at the Gala (most notably, the presence of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City) created scandal, due to the disrespect for the sacred at the event with celebrities dressing in provocative ways while utilizing liturgical-style garments and themes. The support of the local Church (and especially the support of Cardinal Dolan) eased the Vatican’s concerns about affiliating itself with such an event, but because Ravasi was the person chiefly responsible for the Vatican’s involvement, his judgment was called into question.

Vetoed for Assisi

According to Vaticanist Sandro Magister, in 2005 Ravasi was seriously considered a contender for archbishop of Assisi but was vetoed by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the progressive archbishop emeritus of Milan (whom Ravasi admired), and Cardinal Atillio Nicora, a conservative prelate who had known Ravasi since seminary. Ravasi’s reference to Jesus, that “He did not rise, he arose,” led him to be rejected by the Congregation for Bishops, Magister wrote. He also said Ravasi had already been placed under suspicion in Rome for an exegesis believed to owe too much to the demythologizing theories of the Protestant exegete Rudolf Bultmann.

Synodality

In September 2020, Cardinal Ravasi discussed leadership and a culture of synodality, emphasizing the need for collaborative and inclusive approaches within the Church. Although many have found it challenging to precisely define what synodality actually is, he traced its history in the Church and claimed it was outlined in the Scriptures.

TEACHING OFFICE

Cardinal Ravasi’s cultural influence has been greater than that of many scholars. Before assuming curial responsibilities in 2007, when he was granted the titular archbishopric of Villamagna, Ravasi spent many years teaching Old Testament exegesis at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy. Over the course of his career, he has published alone or as a collaborator some 150 volumes on mostly biblical topics. From 1988 to 2017, Ravasi served as the host and public face of a television program, Le frontiere dello Spirito (Frontiers of the Spirit), that ran on mainstream Italian media every Sunday morning. The program included a Gospel reading followed by commentary by Ravasi. The cardinal is very active on Twitter and has relatively large followings on accounts that tweet in Spanish, Italian, and English. Ravasi regularly and often very prominently engages secular culture and has addressed a variety of important issues bearing on Catholic teaching, not only in his scholarly works but in interactions with and publications in the popular media as well. In 2007, Benedict XVI called upon Ravasi to write the texts of the meditations for the papal Via Crucis on Good Friday at the Colosseum.

Women in the Church

Pope Francis established the Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate, in August 2016, to consider the possibility of allowing women to serve as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. In an interview in February 2017, Ravasi explained that he thought it was a possibility that women could be ordained to the diaconate. “I think a diaconate for women would be possible. But of course it has to be discussed, the historical tradition is very complex,” Ravasi said. The cardinal thus has not affirmatively backed the idea of a female diaconate but has not rejected the possibility either.

In the same interview, Ravasi described his own extensive efforts to promote the role of women in the Church. He observed that the current fixation on women’s ordination is overly clerical, and argued that our time might be better spent “talking about other important church functions that women could take on like the structural administration of parishes, church finances or architectural planning.” The cardinal himself has acted on that last point: in 2015, his dicastery — the Council for Culture — set up a group of female consultants (now numbering thirty-seven) who critically assess the work of the council from their point of view. Ravasi’s council was the first Vatican dicastery to do so. His female consultant group includes two Muslims, a Jewess, and nonbelievers.1540 “Women see many things differently from men,” Ravasi explained. “Our women advisors help prepare our general assembly and take part in it.” The cardinal noted that “good advice is sometimes feminine,” and lamented that in the Vatican “that is a new discovery.”

When thinking about the role and importance of women in the Church, Ravasi refers to Mary. In an interview in 2012, Ravasi referred with approval to Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks during the Angelus on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 2006, when, asking himself why God chose Mary of Nazareth, among all women, to be the Mother of God, Benedict quoted the prayer of St. Bernard to the Virgin Mary. “The answer [to the question],” Benedict said, “is hidden in the unfathomable mystery of the divine will. However there’s a reason that the Gospel evidences: [Mary’s] humility.” Benedict then cited the great poet Dante (Ravasi recalled with approval), noting that the Florentine “clearly emphasizes this in the last canto of Paradiso: ‘Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,/ humble and exalted more than any creature/ fixed term of eternal counsel.’”

Returning to Ravasi’s decision to set up a council of female advisers in his dicastery, he is not unaware that doing so runs certain risks. He said, “For example, if one of the female counselors said that she was for the women’s priesthood — and I think it would be legitimate to express her opinion — this would probably be the headline afterwards: Cardinal Ravasi has suggested women’s priesthood. This ambiguity in communication and the media is currently a very big problem.” Ravasi’s statement here indicates that he does not think it would be problematic to install women in positions of influence at the Vatican who then publicly advocate for female priesthood.

Religious Liberty

In light of developments in culture, Ravasi emphasizes that “religious liberty is not a luxury of which we can avail ourselves or discard according to our whims and fancies, but an imperative imposed on modern society for congenial living and progress.”According to him, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae includes the right of the individual to liberty of conscience as well as the right of groups to liberty of corporate worship, “with the necessary elements of fellowship, association and organization needed for maintaining the cult, teaching, preaching and evangelization.” Ravasi laments that in many areas of the world, religious liberty is suppressed; in some places, the rights of religion are openly trampled upon and believers are persecuted, and in others (modern democratic countries), there are more “subtle” methods for impinging on religious liberty. Ravasi argues that all these “restrictions on religious liberty are not simply legal or political issues but a direct outrage on the human dignity of persons.” Governments should not be indifferent to the value of religion, and should “protect individuals and religious communities from those who would coerce them in religious matters on the basis of theological objections to their beliefs and practices.” Ravasi’s defense of religious liberty does not seem to distinguish between the Catholic right to worship the one true God from the freedom of coercion that ought to be accorded to everyone.

In a 2001 article in L’Osservatore Romano, Ravasi reflected on Pope John Paul II’s emphasis on evangelization and the Word of God. Ravasi notes that the Word of God will “stand forever,” as the prophet Isaiah foretold, and that it is the root of evangelization — a root that was reinvigorated at the Second Vatican Council, “when the Bible penetrated more intensely the daily life of the ecclesial community.” Evangelization requires fidelity to the message, to the Word of God, but fidelity entails a delicate balancing act: “on the one hand, it must preserve the aspect of radical, unadulterated fidelity to the word, but on the other, it must also address the aspect of ‘inculturation’ and patient, gradual progress.” Knowledge of biblical texts is of course necessary. Ravasi, however, cautioned that knowledge is not enough, and the Word must flourish in an acceptance of faith and love. Ravasi concluded, following Kierkegaard, that the Bible should be read as a young man reads a letter from the girl he loves: as if it were written precisely for him.

Immigration

Ravasi reduces the question of government immigration policy to the virtue of hospitality. In June 2018, for example, the Italian government denied entry of a boat of migrants to one of its ports (the boat was named Aquarius and belonged to a French organization). Criticizing the government’s decision to turn away the 629 migrants on board, Ravasi tweeted, “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me (Mt 25:43) #Aquarius.” In an interview discussing his book The Spiritual Significance of Eating, Ravasi was asked to expand on the theme of hospitality. The interviewer noted that in the book, Ravasi quotes Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew, that “he who offers hospitality, offers hospitality to Jesus. He who offers hospitality to Jesus also offers it to whoever sent him.” In response to a question about Pope Francis’ statement that every European country should divide fairly the responsibility of hospitality to immigrants fleeing war and famine, Ravasi lamented that it was unlikely that European countries would respond to the pope’s call. “Fear is difficult to eradicate. Love your neighbor as you love yourself is utopian, because you start to love yourself and stop there. Fear allows you to see others only negatively, as different and therefore threatening, to be eliminated.” Ravasi agreed with Pope Francis on the need to welcome immigrants but was pessimistic that countries would respond to the call, noting that some European countries were Christian by tradition but not in lifestyle.

Artificial Intelligence

In 2017, the Pontifical Council for Culture hosted a plenary assembly on the theme “The Future of Humanity: New Challenges to Anthropology.” Panelists discussed the state of scientific research and potential applications of new developments in genetics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Cardinal Ravasi delivered the closing address of the meeting and explained, Socratically, that the unexamined life is not worth living — and that this is as true for scientists as it is for the rest of us. Ravasi noted the almost science-fiction-like quality of some recent developments, such as gene editing and neuronal interventions, and warned that these advances present “fundamental, urgent questions from the cultural, theological and pastoral angles.” Ravasi mostly expressed a desire that the Church engage with these developments at a deeper level so as not to be left out of the conversation, but he did note, with respect to gene editing, that “there is a risk of manipulations aimed at creating a new enhanced genotype to the extent of envisaging a new human phenotype,” a problem that obviously raises important anthropological and moral concerns.

In the same vein, Ravasi expressed concern over the “overproduction of technological gadgets,” and complained of “an era of bulimia in the means, and atrophy in the ends.” His concerns strike at the core of a scientism that asks only whether it can do something and fails to pause to consider whether it should do that thing. Ravasi expressed wariness about biotechnology changing the role of humanity from being a “guardian of nature” into being a “kind of creator.” All of these biotechnological innovations “have ethical and cultural implications that need to be considered.” Ravasi’s comments at the conclusion of this summit show that he is interested in the potential of new scientific advances, but concerned about their coherence with Church teaching and susceptibility for abuse. He stops short of offering a full account of principles that can be used to reason about these moral issues and is content with flagging the need for ethical consideration.

Pro-Life Issues

In 2013, Ravasi’s Council for Culture hosted a meeting on regenerative medicine focused on adult stem cell research. The conference was intended to show the Church’s support for moral forms of scientific inquiry into regenerative medicine and fight against stereotypes that the Church’s role is always to say no to science. One of Ravasi’s officials who helped organize the conference noted that it was also intended as a “preventative” step “against euthanasia.” Vatican commentator Sandro Magister claimed that on the “crucial topics of abortion, euthanasia, unborn life, when ultimate principles are at stake, [Ravasi] is cutting as a sword. He preaches absolute respect for the life of every person, at every moment, ‘for the same reason why respect is due even to the sinful man.’” In 2007, he upheld the Church’s teaching on embryology, saying: “For the Bible, the purpose of the embryo is clear: it is an inseparable unity, a unitary and coherent process, compact and harmonious with the goal to be achieved, that of the human person.”

Ravasi attended the October 2014 Synod of Bishops on the Family and presided over the commission that produced the meeting’s final message. A month before the synod, Ravasi noted during a press conference at the Vatican that the debate over the indissolubility of marriage is nothing new and has been around in the Church since its origins. He said that the Gospel of Matthew includes an exception to the general ban on divorce for cases of “porneia,” a Greek word often translated as “fornication” but which could have other meanings as well. “We don’t know exactly what it was, but we know that the primitive Christian community recognized an exception to the ban on divorce, without questioning Jesus’ message over the indissolubility of the sacrament,” Ravasi said.

Ravasi’s clarity on a variety of positions is mixed, and he remains ambiguous on such important questions as whether the discipline of celibacy should be alleviated for Latin-Rite priests, whether use of contraceptives is sometimes licit, and whether same-sex “marriage” is a matter of civil law.

Coronavirus Reaction

Cardinal Ravasi responded to the crisis with a series of reflections and interviews posted on the Courtyard of the Gentiles website. In one, he said the pandemic has taught many things to both believers and nonbelievers, revealing the “greatness of science but also its limits.” It has “rewritten the scale of values that does not have money or power at its top” and brought back “being at home together, fathers and children, young and old, the labors and joys of not only virtual relationships.” The pandemic has also “simplified the superfluous and taught us the essentials,” he wrote. “It has forced us to fasten in the eyes of our loved ones our own death,” and he recalled the book of Job, saying we have “the right to even protest with God, to raise our questions and complaints to Him.” But he also pointed out that in the Bible, the words “Do not be afraid” appear 365 times, almost like a “good morning” that God “repeats at every sunrise” and “in these days of terror.”

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM AND DIALOGUE WITH NON-BELIEVERS

Dialogue is a key value for Ravasi. He holds that such encounters sharpen minds and lead to greater mutual understanding. Under his watch and Benedict XVI’s direction, in 2009 he had the Pontifical Council for Culture sponsor the Courtyard of the Gentiles project, mentioned above, which aims to promote dialogue among agnostics, atheists, and people of the Catholic Faith.

Ravasi said of the initiative: “I want really fundamental questions to be asked — questions of anthropology, then good and evil, life and afterlife, love, suffering, the meaning of evil — questions that are substantially at the basis of human existence.” The project initially made waves in the news but has since disappeared from public view.

Catholics should have a greater willingness to listen to the opinions of those who disagree with the Church, Ravasi believes. He thinks fear of such exchanges often occurs when people do not “feel capable of defending or justifying [their] own reasons.” On the other hand, willingness to enter such a dialogue depends on both parties having an “identity that’s serious and well-formed, not just fundamentalist.”

Islam

Ravasi presents Islam’s conception of the relationship between faith and reason as if it were compatible with Christian civilization. He maintains that there are cornerstones of a real general anthropology to Islam “with which it would be interesting to dialogue, far from the brutal reactions of obtuse fundamentalism that has nothing to do with this vision of authentic Muslim thought.” Ravasi noted that diverse paths can lead to understanding, citing a verse of the Quran to the effect that: “To each of you God has assigned a ritual and a way. If God had wanted, he would have made you a single community. If he has not done so, it is to test yourself in what he has given you. Compete, therefore, in good works, for you will all return to God, and then he will inform you of those things for which you are now in dispute.”

More recently, Cardinal Ravasi has emphasized the importance of dialogue as the root and heritage of all faiths. In 2022, he was involved in the Holy See Pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Dubai, which highlighted the significance of friendship, dialogue, and cultural exchanges. This initiative was part of the broader commitment to spreading the culture of fraternity, inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in 2019. “An authentic tolerance,” he toldVatican News, “is not only external, but is also an encounter.”

All Might Be Saved

On the question of universalism, Ravasi seems to hold that all might be saved. He has emphasized the significance “that the Second Vatican Council recognized that in obeying the injunctions of his conscience, even the non-believer can participate in Christ’s Resurrection which ‘holds true not for Christians only but also for all men of good will in whose hearts grace is active invisibly. For since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery’ (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22).”

• 1
  Ravasi changed his tune somewhat when he received criticism for supporting Lou Reed.
• 2
  Maria Lo Mastro, Dossier Templari 1118-1990 (Rome: Edizioni Templari, 1991), 484.
• 3
  Gianfranco Ravasi, Le parole e i giorni. Nuovo breviario laico (Milan: Mondadori, 2008). See the book review in Ravasi, “Scorte di saggezza per la vita quotidiana,” in L’Osservatore Romano, 5 February 2009, 4.
• 4
  English translation of Ravasi’s document on the official site of the Italian Freemasonic “Grand Orient.”
• 5
  For a criticism of Ravasi’s work on the Courtyard of the Gentiles project, see George Weigel, “Craving Approval Isn’t Evangelization,” First Things (6 June 2018), (explaining that the project frequently featured the media-savvy philosopher Julia Kristeva, who appears not always to have been the champion of freedom she claimed to be, based on her apparent involvement as an informer to the Bulgarian secret intelligence service during the Cold War and her tendency to provide intellectual cover to some of the twentieth century’s worst regimes).