inside america

Gaudí’s Lesson
to Obama
WHILE  PRESIDENT OBAMA WAS IN JAKARTA OFFERING SOME CLUES FOR WORLD PEACE, POPE BENEDICT XVI WAS POINTING TO LA SAGRADA FAMíLIA CATHEDRAL IN BARCELONA, AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE CHRISTIAN FAITH CAN BRING HUMANKIND TOWARD A NEW BEGINNING. FOR THE SAME GOAL, TWO OPPOSITE ROADS ARE PAVED OUT.

by lorenzo albacete

On November 10, 2010, at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about the role of religion as a constitutive factor in American life and American foreign policy, especially its relations with nations of Islamic faith and tradition.
Religion, Obama said, was as important a part of American life as democracy and economic development. The President underlined that religion, especially Islam, was “fundamental to the Indonesian story.” (Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.) However, the President noted, “individuals are not defined by their faith.” In the same way, he said, “Indonesia is defined by more than its Muslim population.”
For the President, the role of religion today is to provide an open-ended, multi-faith “spirituality” and thus avoid the conflicts or even violence brought about by the demands of those for whom faith does define individuals and countries.
Obama called for a “new beginning” that creates a path for us to move beyond our differences, a kind of content-free spirituality.
Obama firmly believes that there is a “common ground” between different religious convictions or spiritualities. We can choose to be defined by our differences, leading thus to suspicion and mistrust, “or we can choose to do the hard work of forging common ground and commit ourselves to the steady pursuit of progress.” In Obama’s thought, the USA is defined by this “commitment to progress” supported by a vibrant, inclusive spirituality. “This is who we are,” said the President. “This is what we have done. This is what we will do.”
As an example of what he has in mind, President Obama offered the mosque that he had just visited: “I admired its soaring minaret, imposing dome, and welcoming space. Moreover, this house of worship for many thousands of Muslims was designed by a Christian architect.”
Interestingly, around the same time, Pope Benedict XVI pointed to a church building as an example of the Christian (Catholic) view of faith and culture. The church is the Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, Spain. This is what he said about it: “The architect Antoni Gaudí brought together the reality of the world and the history of salvation, as recounted in the Bible and made present in the Liturgy. He made stones, trees, and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in praise of God, but at the same time he brought the sacred images outside so as to place before people the mystery of God revealed in the Birth, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ... he accomplished one of the most important tasks of our times: overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness...
We have dedicated this sacred space to God, who revealed and gave Himself to us in Christ so as to be definitively God among men. The revealed Word, the humanity of Christ, and His Church are the three supreme expressions of His self-manifestation and self-giving to mankind… The Lord Jesus is the Stone which supports the weight of the world, which maintains the cohesion of the Church and brings together in ultimate unity all the achievements of mankind… He is the rock on which our faith is built. Building on this faith, let us strive together to show the world the face of God who is love and the only one who can respond to our yearning for fulfillment.”
Consider the difference between these two views. Their goal is the same: to build a world in which religion plays a crucial role in promoting peace, freedom, and harmony in spite of the pluralism of religious faith. In the President’s view, the price that must be paid for this to happen is to refuse to be identified by one’s faith, at least in our public life, and especially in the political arena.
In Pope Benedict’s view, the work for peace, harmony, justice, and freedom is not the result of setting aside our Catholic faith, but of the very opposite–indeed, of allowing it to define everything we are and everything we do. The reason for this confidence of course is faith in the person of Jesus as the revelation of God as absolute, unconditional love and mercy.
President Obama’s goal is praiseworthy, but the way to arrive at it is not by setting limits to our faith, which requires us to suppress the desires that make us human. The “common ground” between all human beings is a heart desiring infinite happiness which, encountering the Risen Christ, recognizes Him as the only One who can fulfill these desires. We do not have to find the middle between secular relativism and fundamentalist intolerance. Both are sides of the same coin.
President Obama’s efforts are understandable. What is tragic is that many Catholics do not know how to offer to our world the witness of the real new beginning–a new creation–made possible by Christ.