Report From the Nave

August 31, 2008 - 11:16 AM by

NOTE: This was written on Friday but I was only able to post it today:

I am sitting in the center of the world, sort of. Where I am is a booth whose design is inspired by the walls of Jerusalem, located right smack in the center, the nave of the Rimini Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples 2008, the annual pow-wow of Communion & Liberation.

CL, as it is popularly known here in Italy, is a Catholic faith-based movement founded by Father Luigi Giussani that came to the fore both in response to the student riots of 1968 and in reaction to the ossified Catholic establishment, to affirm that “the Christian event, lived in communion, is the foundation of the authentic liberation of man.” Since then, the movement has grown in size and scope, with communities all over the world.

Work and self-sufficiency is essential to being, according to CL. Over the years, as the movement grew and students became professionals, they established CdO, a network representing the small and medium-sized enterprises that wield enormous economic clout here in Italy where SMEs – particularly family-owned ones – comprise a large part of all businesses.

Some people stop by this booth because they want to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Others want to do that, but would like to do business as well – and there’s no contradiction in terms, as far as CL is concerned. Because the Holy Land as a living, breathing modern entity is also integral to CL’s belief, it established CdO Jerusalem, headed by my significant other, Jonathan Sierra. Which is how I got to this desk and WiFi hookup here in the middle of everything.

And there is quite a lot to see. The Rimini Fiera exhibition center comprises six halls, hundreds of booths and pavilions on 460,000 square meters of grounds that include an on-site railway station and a helicopter landing pad – the better to serve the numerous leaders from across the political and religious spectrum arriving on a daily basis to make pronouncements at the Meeting. I am telling you, this event is a very big deal.

CL Meeting 2008 logo
The theme of this year’s Meeting is “O Protagonisti, O Nessuno” – this unfortunately translates literally as “Either Protagonists or Nobodies” – which I am assured is as opaque in Italian as it is in English. In any case, the intention is to have visitors reflect on the concept of the person. (Click here for a better explanation).

You wouldn’t think that a heavy topic like this could be made fun for the masses, but CL has done it in a sort of mass city-cum-country-fair. There are lectures, literary cafes, kiddie shows, sing-a-longs, shows, and numerous didactic exhibitions — one I liked in particular was about finding spiritual redemption while in the bonds of physical imprisonment, sponsored by a prison baking collective.

Plus, there are also important visitors to the Meeting, ranging from then Pope John Paul II to author Chaim Potok, Polish union leader turned President Lech Walesa to modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, inspirations such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama to literary lights like Eugene Ionesco. Each year, Israel’s Ambassador to the Vatican – yes, we have one and his name is Motti Levi — pays his respects, and several important Israeli encounters with the Arab world have taken place at the Meeting.

On Tuesday night, prizewinning Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld spoke — gave his testimony, as they call it here — to the Meeting about The Beauty and Positivity of Life.

It is quite interesting to observe a Catholic audience in the 21st century listening to a Jew speak about his near escape from destruction. Appelfeld, known for works such as Badenheim 1939 and Story of A Life, told the listening audience – numbering in the hundreds — he would “present a series of sensations, images and emotions which molded me and my generation” — referring to the time “when Jewish children were condemned to death”, himself included.

Coming to pre-State Israel at the age of 13 where, he said, “the Jewish past was regarded as a curse from which one had to escape” had no healing effect. What ultimately reconstituted his soul was his discovery of the Biblical narrative that informs his writing, and the resurrection of Hebrew, “the language that bound me to my grandparents… I, who came from Hell, needed a primordial language like that to speak for me. The Hebrew language not only opened my heart, it also connected me to my ancestors and their ancestors.” There is a full video recording of Appelfeld’s speech online and someone has kindly posted a transcript as well.

Whew! I didn’t mean to get all heavy just there. But that is the nature of this event – it moves from the material to the spiritual and back again – the sort of discourse that we are so accustomed to in Israel as well.

Tags: , , , • Category: Art, General, Israeliness, Religion 

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