MILAN'S NEW ARCHBISHOP

"I HAVE LEARNED THAT
HIS PLAN IS ALWAYS BEST"
The Pope has appointed the Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Scola, to the Archdiocese of Milan. In his first greeting, he tells of his "certainty in the step to which I am called."

BY FABRIZIO ROSSI

"Obedience is the sure foothold for serene certainty in this step to which I am called." This is how Cardinal Angelo Scola accepted his appointment as Archbishop of Milan, announced June 28th. "I am certain that this plan comes through the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in this, in a special way, through the ministry of the Holy Father. Despite my limitations, thanks to the education received from my infancy, I have learned that God is always greater, and that His plan for us, when it is accepted with an open soul, is always the best, not only for oneself, but also for those who are entrusted to us." After the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, with the inauguration of the Pastoral Year, Cardinal Tettamanzi will hand over his diocese to the former Patriarch of Venice.
Born in Malgrate, Province of Lecco, Italy, on November 7, 1941, Cardinal Scola describes his parents: "My mother was a woman of the Church. My father was a lorry driver, super Socialist." He studied at a "classical" high school. In 1958, he met Fr. Giussani at an Easter Triduum retreat for students in Lecco. "It was the first time I heard Christianity spoken of in a different way," he recalled later in an interview. "The link between Jesus Christ and my daily life became clear." He graduated in philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan. In 1967, he began studies in the Milan seminary, and later at Fribourg University. He was ordained a priest in 1970. During this period, he got to know Professor Joseph Ratzinger, and edited the Italian edition of the theological review Communio. In the 1980s, he was a consultant for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where Cardinal Ratzinger was prefect, and taught Theological Anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.
In 1991, he was appointed Bishop of Grosseto, choosing as his motto the words of St. Paul: "Sufficit Gratia Tua" ("Your grace is enough"). In 1995, he was appointed Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University and, after two months, was called to head the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. On January 5, 2002, he was promoted to the Patriarchal See of Venice, and was created Cardinal in the Consistory of October 21, 2003, with the title of the Holy Twelve Apostles. In Venice, he created the Studium Generale Marcianum, the pedagogical-academic pole of the Patriarchate, and the Oasis International Centre for dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
In a message on behalf of the whole Movement, Fr. Julián Carrón told Cardinal Scola: "'Sufficit gratia Tua': the faith and the passion for Christ we have always seen in you make us certain that you will want to share it with all those you will meet as pastor of Milan.Like every baptized Christian in the Ambrosian Church, we want to be confirmed in the faith so as to communicate to our fellow-men the fascination of the encounter with Christ, ever ready to give reason for the hope that is in us in all ambits of life, of study and of work.... May Our Lady of Caravaggio support you in the longing that Christ be known, and ensure fecundity to your ministry, so that we can all experience today—following the new Archbishop—the great Ambrosian tradition: Ubi fides ibi libertas."