Church Life

In the Diocese “Shared by East and West”

The nomination of H.E. Msgr Angelo Scola as Patriarch of Venice. “My desire is to testify that faith makes people free indeed” and that “aware attachment to the Church throws wide the door to the respectful and constructive encounter with everyone and everything”

On January 5th, Pope John Paul II appointed Angelo Scola, Rector of the Pontificia Università Lateranense, to succeed Cardinal Marco Cè as Patriarch of Venice. Born in Malgrate in 1941, Scola received his degree in Philosophy at the Università Cattolica in Milan. He has served as president of GS in Lecco and was one of the Responsibles of CL until 1991. Ordained in 1970, he was named Bishop of Grosseto in 1991. Since 1995 he has been Rector of the Pontificia Università Lateranense and Director of the John Paul II Institute for Study of Marriage and the Family. Scola will make his entrance into the diocese on March 3rd. In an interview with the diocesan weekly Gente veneta, Scola said: “I can say that, thanks to Fr Giussani’s charism, I learned what the universal dimension of Christianity means in concrete terms. Ever since I was a young boy, I have been helped to encounter men and worlds that I couldn’t even imagine. I was born in a small town, into a poor family: thanks to the ‘Catholic’ openness of this priest from Milan, I was opened up to live the dimensions of the whole world. Thus I learned from my belonging to Communion and Liberation–in which I have no official role since 1991, when I was sent to Grosseto–the openness in every direction that has enabled me to work with everybody, to the point that the Church, by consecrating me a bishop, has called me to be a father to all.”
The following is the letter he wrote to Cardinal Cè immediately after being notified of his nomination

Your Eminence, I wish to express to you, and through you to all the Church in Venice, my affectionate greetings.
The Holy Father’s decision to name me Patriarch of Venice fills me with trepidation. My understandable apprehension at such a demanding task is joined, however, by the serenity that comes of obedience to the will of Peter’s successor. To this I entrust also my limitations.
In the Epiphany of Our Lord, the fascination of the full humanity which Jesus Christ offers to all gleams unaltered. To live this daily through one’s personal affections and work, the freedom of every man finds a faithful friendship in the Christian community. The fertile tradition of the Church in Venice documents an interwoven web of unparalleled natural, artistic, and cultural beauties, ennobled by the hard-working character of a people today confronted with challenges that are emblematic for the entire country. Out of this extraordinary mosaic of resources emerges the shape of the Church’s mission: man, every man “is the foremost, fundamental path of the Church, the path traced out by Christ Himself, a path which unchangingly passes through the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption” (cf. Redemptor hominis, 14).
Your Eminence, I ask you please to transmit my thoughts to all those who live in our diocese, to which you have given yourself unstintingly for such an important part of your life.
To each and all, to the baptized whether practicing or non-practicing, to those of other religions, to those who consider themselves non-believers, please say that it is my desire to testify, along with the priests, religious men and women, and all the laity, and especially Christian families, that faith in Christ makes people “free indeed” (Jn 8:36). Tell them that aware attachment to Holy Mother Church throws wide the door to the respectful and constructive encounter with everything and everyone. For the truth Jesus taught us has no fear of difference: in fact, the Christian, believing in the Mystery of the One and Triune God, is well aware that it is possible to build a full peace even over differences.
I beg you to manifest my closeness to everyone, especially to the children, the elderly, the sick, and all those who are in a state of material or spiritual indigence.
I count on the prayers of all the people of God for which I invoke Mary’s protection and St Mark’s intercession. I draw near to St Pius X, Blessed John XXIII, and to John Paul I, who have recently given lustre to the name of Venice in all the world.
Your Eminence, it is my wish that my own blessing may be contained in your blessing of all the sons and daughters of this diocese that is “shared by East and West.”
With intense collegial affection,
Angelo Scola