The Rimini Meeting and the Church

While claiming openly from the start to be a place where Christian faith "cries aloud to all the world its passion for the human intrinsic in it", the Rimini Meeting was never conceived as an event of the Catholic world, in the sense, both official and restrictive, that this term implies. But already in its third edition in 1982, it received the accolade of a visit from John Paul II. The speech that the Pope delivered then, the many messages to the Meeting in the following editions, from John Paul II to Benedict XVI, the direct link with Castel Gandolfo, in 2004, all reveal the interest of the popes in the Rimini Meeting.

In 1982, the year of the papal visit, one of the speakers is the then Archbishop of Ravenna Mons. Ersilio Tonini. Also for the first time, Julien Ries takes part in the Meeting. Ries is the cultural heir of Mircea Eliade and well-known as an anthropologist of the sacred. Subsequently he was a guest of the Meeting with seminars on the history of the sacred.

1983 Guest speakers include the Archbishop of Bologna, Enrico Manfredini, and Cardinal Camillo Ruini. Also present is Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of "Communion and Liberation", who is to return to the Meeting in 1985 and 1993, while in his last years he would be connected by a video link, at the end of the event, to give a message of greeting to the people of the Meeting.

1984 The speakers included Hans Urs von Balthasar, a major theologian of our time, and Mons. Antonio Quarracino, President of the Latin American Episcopal Conference.

1985 Participation of Card. John Joseph O'Connor, Archbishop of New York.

1986 Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, speaks on the subject: "One Fact is the Good News."

1987 This is the year of the visit from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, but also of the prayer vigil presided over by Cardinal Léon Suenens, formerly Archbishop of Brussels, one of the most authoritative members of the movement of the Renwal of the Spirit.

1988 One of the guest speakers is the close friend and witness of Paolo VI, the writer Jean Guitton.

1989 Participants include Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and Mons. Paul Josef Cordes, then the vice-president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. As President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", Cordes also took part in the Meeting' 96.

1990 "A Company That is Continually Reforming Itself" is the subject of the concluding address by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The speakers include Mons. Karl Josef Römer, Archbishop in Brazil.

1991 A profound impression is left by the testimony of Cardinal Alexandru Todea, Archbishop Metropolitan of the Eastern Romanian Catholic Church, raised to the purple the previous June, after thirteen years’ forced labor in the lead mines. Participants include the Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East whom the Pope had assembled a few months earlier to testify to Church’s position in favor of religious freedom: they are the Lebanese Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lufti Laham, Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem of the Greek Catholic Melkiti, Andrè Bedoglouyan, Vicar of the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, His Beatitude Raphael I Bidawid, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans. An address by José O'Callaghan also tabled the theme of the historicity of the Gospels, which is to be at the center of subsequent editions.

1992 Participants include Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, President of the Pontifical Councils "Iustitia et Pax" and "Cor Unum", Ignace de la Potterie, a famous biblist, and Guzman Carriquiry, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

1993 This year the Rimini Meeting is addressed by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mons. Michel Sabbah, and the Bishop of Tunis, Fouad Twal, two outstanding personalities in the Catholic Churches of the Arabic world.

1994 Two discourses, respectively by the papyrologist José O'Callaghan and the historian Carsten Peter Thiede, place their demonstration of the historicity of the Gospels at the center of the Meeting, while the largest attendance is recorded at the lecture by Magherita Guarducci, the archeologist responsible for the rediscovery of the grave and relics of the Apostle in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The speakers this year include Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and the Sudanese bishop Mons. Paride Taban.

1995 One of the principal discourses is delivered by Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, Primate of Holland.

1996 The major exhibition "From the Earth to the Nations" presents the first public display of fragments of papyri from cave no. 7 at Qumran. Speakers include the Archbishop of Vienna, Cristoph Schönborn, who in February 1998 is named cardinal, and Kiko Arguëllo, one of the founders of the Neocatechumenal Way.

1997 Cardinal Giacomo Biffi returns to the meeting and speaks of "Jesus Christ, The Only Savior in the Thoughts of St. Ambrose." To describe the difficult postwar period in their countries are Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo, and Mons. Bechara Raï, Bishop of Jbeil of the Maronites, Secretary to the Synod for Lebanon. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State of the Holy See, takes part in the final encounter.

1998 Diarmuid Martin, Secretary of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, speaks on cooperation between peoples. Jean-Louis Tauran, Secretary for Relations with States, speak of development and peace. The twenty years of John Paul II’s papacy are the theme of talks by Carlo Caffarra and Stanislaw Rylko. Angelo Scola, Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, presents the principal theme of the Meeting. Ennio Antonelli, Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference, concludes the ’98 edition.

1999 Innocenzo Martinelli, Bishop of Trios and Fouad Twal, Bishop of Tunis, recount the presence of the Catholic Church in the Arab world. Crescenzio Sepe and Angelo Comastri anticipate the initiatives of Holy Year 2000. The Spanish theologian Javier Prades explores the principal theme of the '99 edition and Lorenzo Albacete, Episcopal Vicar of the Diocese of New York, speaks of the desire for the infinite in history.

2000 Norberto Revere Carrera, archbishop of Town of the Mexico, Giorgio Biguzzi, bishop of Makeni (Sierra Lion), Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun, auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong tell the presence of the Church in the world.

2001 "The Church and the Expectations of Man" is the subject of the address by Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples. Speakers at the Meeting include Diarmuid Martin, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, Franjo Komarica, Bishop of Banja Luka, Fouad Twal, Bishop of Tunis, Lino Panizza Richero, Bishop of Carabayllo, Roberto Octavio Gonzales Nieves, Archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Ferrara, Alessandro Maggiolini, Bishop of Como.

2002 A deeply moving experience is the testimony of the Archbishop of Bombay, Ivan Dias, on the subject of "Beauty and Poverty." Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sends the Meeting a very fine reflection on the subject "The Sense of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty."

2003 "Christian Vocation: Call to Happiness" is the title of the encounter with the Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn. Mauro Giuseppe Lepori, Abbot of Hauterive, speaks on the subject: “Is there a man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?” To mark the 25th year of the papacy of John Paul II, Stanislaw Rylko, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, pays tribute to the Holy Father with a moving testimony. The Archbishop of Genoa, Tarcisio Bertone, speaks on the relationship between the Catholic and politics. The Benedictine monks of "Cascinazza" leave their seclusion for the first time and present the show "In Just One Body. St. Benedict, A Living Tradition".

2004 The Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Scola, addresses the theme of the 25th Meeting: “Our progress does not consist in presuming we have arrived, but in constantly striving for our goal.” The General Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Giuseppe Betori, addresses the Meeting. The Primate of Canada Ouellet speaks of the religious sense in the Western civilization. Sean P. O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, and the theologian Lorenzo Albacete explore the significance of freedom in America today. Other speakers include, Josè Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Christophe Pierre, Papal Nuncio in Uganda, Shlamon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Church in Baghdad, Julián Carrón, professor at the San Damaso Faculty of Theology in Madrid.

2005 Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, explored the title of the Meeting: “Freedom is the Most Precious Gift that Heaven has Bestowed upon Men.” Speakers who discussed the subject of freedom from various viewpoints included: the Archbishop of Bologna, Carlo Caffarra and the Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Peter Erdö. Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Papal Council of Justice and Peace, addresses the relevance of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Luigi Negri, long one of a leading participant in the debates at Rimini, speaks for the first time as Bishop of San Marino and Montefeltro. Bearing witness to the Church in the world are Bishop Diarmuid Martin, who explains in detail the contribution of Ireland to Europe, and Bishop Virgil Bercea, who gives an account of the life of the Church in Romania under the Communist regime. A tribute is also offered to the Holy Father John Paul II through the moving testimony of a friend, Mario Agnes, editor of the Osservatore Romano.

2006 While the keynote speech is presented by a layman, Giancarlo Cesana, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, speaks of the relationship between reason and evolution: a debate kindled some months earlier by an article in the New York Times, in which Cardinal Schönborn made an important contribution to discussion, stressing the all-important role of reason. Further contributions on the relationship between reason and modernity came from the theologian Javier Prades, the Archbishop of Grenade Francisco Javier Martínez, and Luigi Negri, Bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro. Also present at the Meeting was Fouad Twal, Patriarch Coadiutor of Jerusalem of the Latins, who describes the situation of the Christians in Jerusalem.

2007 The Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone celebrates the inaugural Holy Mass. The theme of the Meeting is explored by Fr. Francesco Ventorino. Attention continues to be devoted to the situation of Christians in the Middle East with the presence of Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custodian of the Holy Land. Tesdtimonies to the Church in the world are presented by the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and the Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney Anthony Colin Fisher, coordinator of World Youth Day 2008. Mons. Rino Fisichella speaks for the first time at the Meeting to present a testimony on Oriana Fallaci.

2008 The Meeting takes place exactly during the period where the press finds the news worthy event of the persecutions against Christians in the world, especially in India. This is an international question that finds significant personalities such as Cardinal Tauran, Mons. Mamberti, Mons. Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar of Arabia and the Archbishop of Moscow, Pezzi. The opening address of the Meeting was delivered by Cardinal Bagnasco entitled “The Church, a population that will make history.” The Meeting was also a testimony of how the Catholic faith puts people in the best conditions to meet every type of person on the basis of a common elementary experience, as happened with the Protestant theologian Hauerwas and the Anglican Milbank, as with the Orthodox Mescerinov and Polujanov, the Buddhist Habukawa and with the Jewish Weiler. The new Bishop of Rimini, Mons. Francesco Lambiasi, celebrates the Holy Mass.

2009 From Spain arrives the Cardinal of Madrid Rouco Varela with an intervention on the contribution of the Church to the social life. Cardinal Caffarra also intervenes on the reasonableness of faith.