The martyr restates to our consciousness the question fundamental to all humans: Is there a truth for which it really could be worthwhile to live and, consequently, also to die? And if it does exist, what is the meaning it brings to my life? The martyr teaches us that the acknowledgment of truth is the most profound condition of freedom facing any earthly power. “…thou shall know the truth and the truth will make you free” [John 8: 32]. It is the truth that makes us free when facing power, bestowing fortitude on martyrdom. So it happened with Christ, model and cause of any martyrdom, when taken before Pilate he said: “For that I have been born and for that I came to the world: to give testimony to the truth” [John 18: 37]. That only truth can make us free is demonstrated by the fact that if there were no truth, there would also be no real distinction between good and evil. There only would be left the difference between what is useful and what is harmful for myself: man becomes a slave of utilitarianism and of those who have the power of deciding what is useful. The martyr’s testimony of the truth definitely matches with the testimony of the intangible good which is the human person. The denial of the existence of truth [over the good] would transfer life to the level of a game. This might be enough for those debating at the academic level, but not for those who ask if there is some sense in their living, in their suffering, in their dying. CARLO CARD. CAFFARRA www. caffarra.it
Spanish priest and a Spanish nun who were both proclaimed Doctors of the Church during the opening mass of the Synod of Bishops on 7 October 2012. During the audience given by Benedict XVI to Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, on May 10th, the Holy Father extended the liturgical cult of Saint Hildegard von Bingen to the universal Church, “inscribing her in the catalogue of saints,” which supposes a formal declaration equivalent to her canonization. Furthermore, together with Saint Juan de Ávila, she will be declared a Doctor of the Church on the coming 7th of October. (Cfr. HUMANITAS 66, 2012). Even though the Popes had allowed the cult of Saint Hildegard (member of the Benedictine Order, who was born
in 1089 and died in 1179) in Germany, (Cfr. HUMANITAS 42, 06) the mystic –famous for her visions and prophecies– had never been properly canonized because the process opened half a century after her death was interrupted Benedict XVI, who has quoted her on various occasions and who dedicated to her two catechesis on the occasion of general audiences, defined Hildegard as “an important female figure of the Middle Ages who was distinguished for her spiritual wisdom and the holiness of her life,” whose “mystical visions resembled those of the Old Testament prophets: expressing herself in the cultural and religious categories of her time, she interpreted the Sacred Scriptures in the light of God, applying them to the various circumstances of life.
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