Cardinal Biffi Breaks Another Taboo. On DossettI : Dossetti backed his political intuitions with the same intransigence of the theologian who must defend the divine truths, and he elaborated his theological perspectives while aiming at "political" ends, even if these were of "ecclesiastical politics."

TWO GOALS, JUST ONE TENSION


"In Dossetti there was the monk in the politician, and the politician in the monk." This brief expression, formulated by Professor Achille Ardigò, who was for some time close to him and worked with him, captures with a quick summary a unique and complex personality.

Those who have studied his long and varied life cannot help but recognize the validity and pertinence of these words. [...] The coexistence, if not the identification, of the two goals – the "political" and the "theological" – which he pursued simultaneously and with equal effort is at the origin of some regrettable methodological confusion. Dossetti backed his political intuitions with the same intransigence of the theologian who must defend the divine truths, and he elaborated his theological perspectives while aiming at "political" ends, even if these were of "ecclesiastical politics."

And here lies also the intrinsic limit of his thought and his teaching. Because authentic theology is essentially the gratuitous and admiring contemplation of the plan conceived by the Father before all ages for our salvation and for our true good; and only in this plan can the lights and impulses be found and explored that can truly benefit the Bride of the Lord Jesus, who is a pilgrim in history.


THE "SELF-TAUGHT THEOLOGIANS"


Dossetti had an initial disadvantage: he was an autodidact in theology.

Someone once asked Saint Thomas Aquinas what was the best way to enter into "sacred theology" and become a good theologian. He answered: study with an excellent theologian, so as to train in the theological art under the guidance of a true master; a master, he added, like Alexander of Hales. At first glance, the judgment is a bit startling. [...] And yet once again the Angelic Doctor reveals his originality, his wisdom, his understanding of the nature both of "sacred doctrine" and of human psychology. In his concreteness, he saw the real risk of the autodidact: that of turning in on oneself and seeing one's own reading and cleverness as the source of truth; more specifically, the risk of contenting oneself with unsteady knowledge, and even of arriving at an incongruous ecclesiology and a deficient Christology.

This was just the case of Fr. Giuseppe Dossetti, who in learning the "scientia Dei, Christi et Ecclesiae" had no masters.

To those who might have asked him where he had gotten his ideas, his perspectives of renewal, his proposals for reform, he might well have answered (and we do nothing but use his own words): "From my head and heart."


THE "IMAGINARY THEOLOGIANS"


Fr. Giuseppe had great respect for Fr. Divo Barsotti, and had begun to involve him in his spiritual life as well as in his active presence in the Catholic world.

But Fr. Divo, who was not only a brilliant theologian but authentic and with a solid formation, quickly became aware of the shortcomings and anomalies of Dossettian thought. [...] And he revealed to me, toward the end of his life, that he was still very concerned about the influence that "Dossettian theology" continued to exercise in certain areas of Christianity.

I too, I must say, realized that Fr. Barsotti's apprehension was not without foundation. In the contexts where today reference is made to Dossetti's legacy and inspiration, we do not always find the seriousness and competence that are necessary when one is discussing issues that touch on "sacred doctrine" and the life of the Church.

Precisely in the declaredly "Dossettian" area we sometimes come across some "imaginary theologians," who in general are highly appreciated by worldly opinion makers relatively inexperienced in this matter, and find ready room in the most widely diffused means of communication.

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On the book from which this selection was taken:

> The Inconvenient Memoirs of Cardinal Biffi

From:http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/