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s2smodern

Reflection of Fr. Gaetano Piccolo S.J.

I love asking questions, but I never expected to receive answers. I am a curious person by nature.

The first, "significant" question I asked was when I turned 14.  My curiosity was aroused by the generous witness of 4 nuns struggling with a large group of urchins in Naples: "how do you become a Christian?", I asked.

"Through spiritual direction" Mother Superior replied, and she recommended Fr. Rotelli who accompanied me through a program which he gave me: “prayer and service”. I spent a long time discerning, sometimes even refusing to carry on. It was the poverty in my neighbourhood where together with other young people I committed myself to give service that gave rise to another question: "what if the Lord really asked me to become a priest"?

Philosophy was a privileged place where I practiced this art of questioning. After graduation, I entered the novitiate, a privileged time to grow in my personal relationship with God. Then Regency in Albania was a precious experience of opening up to love. Then again I was in Naples for  theology, "incarnate" theology that originates from the questions, this time posed by people, on the street, in the parish, at parties, at lunches, in group meetings.

Thus a void was opened that only Christ, the word made flesh, was able to fill. Sometimes this void raises its head again ... but the promise persists.

Currently I live in Rome, where I teach at the Pontifical Gregorian University, devoting myself above all to examining the relationship between words and things, language that brings order and discovering that not everything can be explained in words. 

There are three questions that are looming within me during this time:

How can freer information channels be established? It is increasingly evident that the method of communicating important news is strongly marked by political agendas. It is difficult to find information that is free of any hidden agendas and free to give criticism. The way news is broadcasted seems to affirm government actions. This makes me reflect on how reality is presented, but also on the citizen's right to obtain objective information. As Jesuits we should have the strength to denounce this mechanism and try to generate new ways.

When is the right moment to announce the Good News? I have the impression that the right moment to announce the Good News is no longer during adolescence. The Gospel speaks to those who have experienced failure, who have been hurt; it addresses people who have sought answers and experienced disappointment. Adolescents no longer experience these life challenges. Adolescents instead are still fully self-centred, giving free reign to their emotions, and pampered to the point of not being able to become aware of the hardship of life. This leads me to think that the favourable moment to proclaim the Good News is when people are older in age. Perhaps it is necessary to turn to those groups of adults, individuals or young families, who carry a significant existential baggage and are reflecting on their future.

How can this vital attitude towards discernment be encouraged? After having explored this topic above all on a theoretical level and through my spiritual work, I am also trying to address it through my academic research, on the philosophical level. In fact, I think that discernment is based on the very nature of reality. It is how reality is constituted, in metaphysical terms, that is man inevitably requires discernment to find his real self.  Traits of uncertainty, complexity and of humanity can be found within reality: elements that should not only be spoken about but should lead towards a choice. Indeed, decision-making is the fundamental and vital attitude of human existence

Gaetano Piccolo, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, has online a the blog "Rigantur mentes" https://cajetanusparvus.com/

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s2smodern