This month Ronnie Convery and Leonardo Franchi give a summary of the aims of Reclaiming the Piazza.
The Church’s mission is dialogic. ‘Go, teach all nations’ is a call to explain the Gospel to all, using the means appropriate to each situation. Effective communication needs positive points of contact with others to avoid a ‘proclamation’ which echoes off the walls of our enclosed spaces.
Reclaiming the Piazza, as a trilogy of books and now a space on the web, is committed to offering the face of the Church to a world which seeks fraternity, friendship and meaning. Our commitment to cultural renewal is much more than a call to read Dante and admire Renaissance art; it is an appeal to let the joy of the Gospel seep into the public square and make a positive influence on public policy.
To consider
- Do we consider how the language of faith needs words and images which others can understand?
- Is our tone positive and attractive, especially on social media?
- Do we avoid liking and sharing posts which tend to highlight (and promote) division and rupture in the Church?
We ask our readers to seek out the ‘public squares’ of culture, politics and education. Make them thrive with the positive vision of the human person which the Church offers. Leave no stone unturned in our quest to build the civilisation of love.
Reclaim the piazza!