Christmas greetings from the president of the Foundation
Dearest and dearest,
Thus the poet..." Silence is Christmas! Uncapitalized. In the caresses of a silent crib runs the stand of books that do not speak, of voices that do not write of alphabets that do not speak, of tools that do not serve, of instruments that do not play......" (P. Berdondini)
But is it silence or is it a stifled voice, annihilated by the roars of horizons frequented by ordnance that plummet on a humanity guilty only of being such? Let us try, then, to cross the border of silence so that instead books may return to speak, voices may rise, alphabets may line up again, tools may be seen in their place on artisans' shelves and instruments finally.... begin to play again.
Merry Christmas!
Yes! It is still a Merry Christmas with capital letters! Precisely because it is frontier-shelter from the spread of wars; in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Lebanon and Syria and wherever they are not called war but violence, overpowering, segregation, discrimination, and even more so when hidden by indifference, resignation, by what is conformed and conforms.
There is a boundary-real or just imaginary-that conventionally establishes a place that calls itself an "between us" and that I call "the inside," and it exists precisely because it brings into existence another place "the outsider" that I call "the outside." Even at Christmas, even when it was not Christmas, even where it never was Christmas, even where it will not be Christmas there are men (a few) "inside" and an extended scattering of men "outside." "Inside" where political, economic, and cultural power is installed, defending itself from the "Outside" where an endless crowd of desperate or submissive people is huddled, waiting: for what? Perhaps for ostentatious benevolence or the viscous charity that anesthetizes every cry for social justice ably replaced by the greed of consumption? It is along - that line - where all hope of existence is consumed or the right to be denied.
That is the boundary that the Foundation, with its activities, continually tries to cross in an attempt to remove it where it is only possible to attempt it i.e. in the heart of each person. Once again this year we have tried not to betray the ethical, moral, religious values bequeathed and inherited by the Founders (the memory of Bishop Luciano who left us last June emerges with vigor) as well as the mandate - the implementation of which we have ensured - and finally the trust that our donors, supporters and friends entrust to us so that it may be transformed into a credit of hope, promotion of the quality of life for the discarded, sharing of a common destiny (Edgar Morin).
The Foundation has consolidated its organizational structure reaching the convincing configuration of "Company of Good." It has been busy completing its projects both in Italy with the "migrant reception" projects and in the Holy Land (Bethlehem, Jericho and again in Bethlehem for the Effetà Institute), then in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq with a keen eye on Africa - a region where international aid will be concentrated in the near future - and a further commitment in Italy in the training and preparation dedicated to new guests to ensure their future employment in the territorial economic realities.
Reaffirming the value of hope - the root of a solid faith in the value of creation and the creature - God's project - can bring to the surface from actuality that "state of culture" capable first of understanding and then confining its effects that "state of nature" investigated by I. Kant in the essay "For a Perpetual Peace."
Last Dec. 04, in the historic "Murate" complex in Florence, the Foundation celebrated its annual "Foundation Day" event by going through with the help of religious authorities (Bishop Gambelli, Rabbi Piperno, Imam Ezzedin) the trajectory that from the book of Leviticus ("You shall count seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven years; these seven weeks of years shall make a period of forty-nine years. On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall make the sound of the horn echo; on the day of atonement you shall make the horn echo throughout the whole earth. You shall declare holy the fiftieth year and proclaim deliverance in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you" - Lev 25:8-10) touched ground on the soil of his own difficulties not evading the contradictions of borrowing the value of sympathetic purposes with the inadequacy of his own means.
The understanding of our friends--supporters and donors--of our danger of stumbling into the ambivalence of actions inhabits the field of best practices, enabling us to persist in our mission, and once again great is the gratitude to them.
Merry Christmas to all of us, tenacious preservers of will who are not afraid to stand between the "Dragon and his fury" (Shakespeare). We at the Foundation believe, and we work for it, that children's gazes will once again look with confidence to the East, to that place where a child like them was not afraid to be born. We at the Foundation still believe that the men inhabiting "The Inside" will understand that in that "Outside" a Child was born who still wonders if that border still holds and seems so solid that it cannot be demolished, that there is nevertheless a comet that crosses all resistance and illuminates the trajectory of men of good will.
Finally, thus the poet ... "Behold, the winged sign. It hovers above that holy chrysalis. The unseen Spirit of the Star answers them, Bow down in your song, benign powers. Prostrate your bows of ivory and gold!" (E. Pound)
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas!
Andrea Bottinelli,
President John Paul II Foundation