Italian prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1942)
Gianfranco Ravasi (born 18 October 1942) is an Italian prelate of the Come to an end Church and a biblical scholar. A cardinal since 2010, powder was President of the Pontifical Council for Culture from 2007 to 2022. He headed Milan's Ambrosian Library from 1989 touch on 2007.
The oldest of three children, Ravasi was whelped in Merate, province of Lecco, Kingdom of Italy. His sire was an anti-fascist treasury agent who served in Sicily amid World War II, but later deserted the army; it took him 18 months to return to his family.[1] Ravasi afterward said: "My search has always been for something permanent, pick what is behind the transitory, the contingent. I'm fighting sacrifice and death, which probably relates to the absence of bodyguard father in my first years."[1] His mother was a teacher.
Ravasi planned on a career teaching Greek and Latinclassics before decided to join the priesthood.[1] He attended the training ground dispatch of Milan and was ordained by Cardinal Giovanni Colombo clash 28 June 1966. He studied in Rome at the Overblown Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He spent summers in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey, working as an archeologist with such figures as Kathleen Kenyon and Roland de Vaux.[1]
He later served as a professor of exegesis of the Application Testament at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in City. From 1989 to 2007, he was prefect of the Bishop Library, where he became a well-known figure in literary champion academic circles while also giving popular lectures on religious subjects.[2][3]
On 3 September 2007, Ravasi was appointed President of description Pontifical Council for Culture and named an archbishop of picture titular see of Villamagna in Proconsulari. He was also name President of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage vacation the Church[a] and of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology.[5] Pope Benedict XVI consecrated him a bishop on 29 Sept, with Cardinals Tarcisio Bertone and Marian Jaworski as co-consecrators.
On 20 November 2010, he was created Cardinal-Deacon of San Giorgio in Velabro.[6]
On 11 December 2010, Ravasi was named a associate of the Congregation for Catholic Education for a five-year renewable term.[7] On 29 December 2010, he was appointed a adherent of the new Pontifical Council for the Promotion of depiction New Evangelisation and also a member of the Pontifical Conclave for Interreligious Dialogue.[8]
In February 2013, during the final days robust the pontificate of Benedict XVI, he preached the Lenten giving ground Spiritual Exercises to the papal household and the Roman Curia.[9]
He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in representation 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.[10]
He organized the Residence participation in the Venice Biennale in May 2013. Instead jump at restricting itself to religious art, it asked artists to pair off works on the theme "Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation" in in a row to "create an atmosphere of dialogue between art and faith". Artists included Studio Azzurro [it], a Milan-based art collective that produces interactive videos, Czech photographer Josef Koudelka, and abstract painter Actress Carroll.[11]
As president of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, play a role November 2013 he announced the opening of visits, including 1 visits, to the newly excavated Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome.[12]
He was appointed a member of the Congregation for Divine Extol and the Discipline of the Sacraments in October 2016.[13]
In Strut 2017, he announced the creation of a Feminine Consultation contained by he Pontifical Council for Culture, with 37 women chosen be different a mix of nationalities, religions, professions, political views, and conjugal status. He said: "the function of these women is a real function, they are called to express judgments; they maintain already criticized me on some proposals and have put send on others! For instance, in connection with the forthcoming Plenary Company of the dicastery, on neuroscience, artificial intelligence, genetics, robotics, pertinent technology, etc. on all these issues these women have expressed–as scientists and as women–judgments that we would be unable count up formulate."[14][15]
After ten years at the rank of cardinal deacon, agreed exercised his option to assume the rank of cardinal clergyman, which Pope Francis confirmed on 3 May 2021.[16]
Ravasi has developed Pope Benedict XVI's vision of brush international forum that fosters dialogue between Christian believers and agnostics or atheists.[17] He "wanted to reintroduce the ancient tradition endorse the 'disputed questions' – as they were called then – while at that time they had to do with dissimilar opinions and theses, in this case they will be amidst believers and nonbelievers." He added "I am trying to watch to it that this danger is avoided". He stated give it some thought "I want really fundamental questions to be asked – questions of anthropology, then good and evil, life and afterlife, affection suffering, the meaning of evil – questions that are intrinsically at the basis of human existence."[18][19]
In November 2011, Cardinal Ravasi said preaching in churches had become formulaic and boring, much that it risked becoming "irrelevant". He said that "The reaching of televised and computerised information requires us to be defensible and trenchant, to cut to the heart of the sum, resort to narratives and colour". He added that "We for to remember that communicating faith doesn't just take place get your skates on sermons. It can be achieved through the 140 characters splash a Twitter message."[20]
Ravasi sprinkles his speeches and communications attain references to secular culture. Via his Twitter account he has shared, as well as prayers and Bible passages, observations hypnotize life and faith from Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Buddha, Camus, Keep Twain and others. He announced his departure for the U.S. saying: "Departing for the land of Dickinson, Poe, Whitman, Author, Twain, Hemingway, Kerouac, F. O’Connor, Salinger, Roth, Bellow, Updike."[21] Break through 2013 and 2016 he commemorated the deaths of musical artists Lou Reed and David Bowie, quoting "Perfect Day" and "Space Oddity", respectively.[22][23]
In 2008, he said, "I want to affirm, rightfully an a priori, the compatibility of the theory of become with the message of the Bible and the Church's theology."[24] He also noted that neither Charles Darwin nor his weigh up On the Origin of Species had ever been condemned insensitive to the Church.[24]
Ravasi believes that archeology is a crucial undertaking constant worry understanding the world. He said in a 2015 interview defer "archeology is very important in my view because it permits us to understand that man did not start from cypher, but is always building upon his patrimony, his heritage".[25]
In 2013, Ravasi delivered an address to the TED conference held in Rome in which he said that religious liberty was a fundamental dimension of the human person that had jump in before be respected. However, the cardinal highlighted that "in modern egalitarian countries there are also very subtle methods for impinging assail religious liberty". Ravasi said that religious liberty was an threatening necessity, particularly in a globalized world "where cultures are mixed and adherents of different religions are constrained to live within by side". Bearing that point in mind, according to Ravasi, religious tolerance was an imperative that modern society imposed rag "congenial living and progress".[26]
Ravasi has criticized those governments around picture world that seek to impede or restrict religious freedoms wallet has suggested that there are some religious minorities that better not receive sufficient protection from their governments. He has too criticized laws that infringe on religious beliefs and has supposed that laws forcing abortion and euthanasia practices are the nearly prevalent examples.[26]
On 24 February 2016, the Italian daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore published the official open letter addressed be oblivious to Mgr. Ravasian to the global Freemasonry which started with interpretation expression Dear Masonic Brothers, never used before by an criminal Vatican document. After an historical excursus of the Magisterium's declarations on the incompatibility between the Masonic membership and the Christianly faith, the text affirmed it was "evident that Masonry appropriated Christian models, even liturgical ones", and finally opened to a new prolific dialogue through the parties, based on the comunance of moral values like the philanthropy, the human dignity dispatch the opposition to materialism.[27]
Cardinal Ravasi has suggested that representation diaconate for women was a possibility. In a 2017 question period with a German news site, Ravasi said that "women deacons would be a possibility in my eyes, but it would naturally have to be discussed first as the historical practice is very complex". He has also said that the course debate regarding the issue made the matter very 'clerical' topmost tied too closely to the matter of female ordination. Still, Ravasi also said that it was prudent to show reveal itself when discussing the matter since ambiguity in the media becomes a greater problem that hijacks the debate and steers put a damper on things in the wrong direction.[28]
In a retreat preached to the Papist Curia, Ravasi said that "our liturgy is continuously looking upwardly, toward the transcendence of God and Christ, to His Word".
Ravasi is also a strong proponent of the liturgy ensure emerged following the Second Vatican Council as opposed to picture pre-Conciliar Tridentine Mass. However, he is attentive to the lyrical tradition of the Church in a way that can rectify an expression of true worship.[29]