Antonella Palermo – Vatican City

Cardinal and Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn he has participated in numerous Synods praising, in the latest indications, the method increasingly favorable to a profound and prolonged dimension of listening to voices in the Church. This is what he also expresses at the beginning of the path inaugurated last Sunday with the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s presided over by the Pope. He replies to our microphones as follows:

Opening the synodal path, Pope Francis, quoting Father Yves Congar, said that we must not build another Church but a “different Church”. In what way, Eminence, must the Church be different?

I listen more, not to be silent but to feel more what the people of God, above all the people who are in suffering, live. Listening to what God tells us through the situation of so many people. An appeal to what is at the heart of the Church: compassion. Here in Rome you have beautiful testimonies of this spirit of compassion, of presence, of closeness. These are the things that, I think, the Pope means “not another Church but a different Church”.

What experiences are you referring to, in particular?

For example, the Community of Sant’Egidio has been a good example for many years, then there is Chiara Amirante… this group around her is beautiful! They are signs of a Church which lives in a different closeness. This is what we see in Jesus when he meets the widow who has lost her only child: the Gospel says that “he was moved with compassion”. Participating in the suffering of others is the most elementary thing of man. This capacity, Jesus wanted it to be the seal of the Church.

What added value to this Synod is the consultation phase with the people of God?

In all the synods there was a consultation. The Holy Father wants this listening, let’s call it better that way, to be extended beyond our communities, which are sometimes quite closed. Or, let’s say, he had lived listening to those Gospel that not our faith but that often lived the virtues of the Gospel. Many listen to each other: what to do with this listening? I think the Pope does not want action programs. We have many, they are a good thing … Caritas which operates all over the world. Great. But there is a further dimension which creates community, which makes communion, participation, listening. Communion is sharing: from this comes a concept of mission that is not proselytism but attraction, as Pope Benedict said. The Church does not grow with proselytism but with attraction. That attraction of which, as the prophet says: when the pagans come, they will say: God is among you.

In your opinion, can we consider this Synod an opportunity to fully accomplish what is still lacking in the full implementation of the Second Vatican Council?

Absolutely. The reception of an ecumenical council is always a long thing. Consider the first great Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. We will celebrate the Gubilee in 2025: for three, four centuries the Church had to digest, assimilate this great window opening onto the infinite, into the mystery of God. The Council of Trent: it took three hundred years in certain dioceses, 250 years in Vienna for putting it into practice. And every great council is a ‘hurricane’ of the Holy Spirit but it needs time and Pope Francis, like Benedict XVI and John Paul II, have always had this intuition of the ‘people of God’. We are all God’s people and God’s presence in the world. And for this reason the importance of prayer – Pope Francis reiterated this to the Council of the Synod – interior listening to what the Holy Spirit tells us.

Your Eminence, we basically spoke of a Church ‘without walls’, in conclusion I would like to touch on a theme with you that has to do with other walls. Twelve European countries have asked the EU presidency to erect new instruments to protect the external borders in the face of migratory flows, including by financing the construction of walls. How do you comment on this request? He is concerned?

I have a very realistic historical view: they never worked! The walls – see the limes of the Roman Empire, see the Aurelian Walls of Rome – did not prevent the arrival of the so-called ‘barbarians’. The same goes for the Great Wall of China. All these efforts are understood, there is danger, real danger, yes, we cannot forget it, but there are other paths. Europe is rich, Europe can do much more to help poor countries so that people no longer have to leave their country. The Pope has said so many times… The European, American, Russian and Chinese arms market produces “rivers” of migration. Do not be surprised that we will come if we sell weapons, if we make the policy of exploiting poor countries, if we do not fight against corruption in these countries to help people to be able to live. I’ve been to Syria recently. First of all I saw Christians, I heard many young people say: ‘we want to leave because there is no future here’. But why is there no future? Because the great powers do not make peace. They have armed the militias, they are here with their weapons, instead of making peace and allowing people to live and perhaps even to return to their country. So, how surprised that refugees come and what is our role in the “production” of refugees?