The 36th edition of the largest publishing fair in Italy has opened at the Lingotto in the Piedmontese capital. The Holy See confirms its presence with the titles of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Zaccuri: “Jesus was a perfect narrator. The human being needs the story, as long as it is authentic, sincere. This also serves the Church. The good story is one that is open to interpretation, docile to the breath of the Spirit”
Antonella Palermo – Sent to Turin
This year too the Holy See arrives at the XXXVI edition of the Turin Book Fair – which opened yesterday, 9 May and will continue until Monday 13 and which has as its theme “Imaginary Life” – with a series of meetings and presentations of some volumes published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The stand of Uelci (Italian Catholic Publishers and Booksellers Union) is large with a focus ranging from the figure of Aldo Moro to that of Charles de Foucauld.
Imagination and faith
The opening day of the fair tested the Lingotto space well, also pervaded by many young and very young people who were able to enjoy an approach to literature and its voices for a tribute to imaginary life in all its forms in hope, it is the hope by editorial director Annalena Benini, that some of the worlds resulting from the creativity of historical and contemporary authors can even “become real”. Among those who attend some of the stands there are also aspiring booksellers who are training, convinced that it is a duty to engage in a sector that in Italy finds weak readers but strong buyers. But what is more fascinating than the imagination of immersion in the Holy Scriptures, in that exercise of biblical dramatization that leads to wearing the shoes of the characters before, during and after the earthly life of Jesus? It is also against this background, well remembered by the Pope in the meeting with the artists in the Sistine Chapel, that some of the in-depth meetings at the Salon were conceived.
The tribute to Dorothy Day
Lev, with its editorial manager Lorenzo Fazzini, yesterday held a tribute to Dorothy Day, whose autobiography he edited with a preface by Pope Francis: “I found God through his poor. From atheism to faith: my inner journey”. She was the initiator of the Catholic Worker movement, the American journalist and activist, a pacifist alongside the oppressed, was remembered together with the bishop of Asti Marco Prastaro who highlighted her very strong faith as a convert and her battles against social inequalities. A woman who, it was highlighted, considered God not as a stopgap but as the linchpin of happiness. From her strong anarchic spirit, she took to the streets against US imperialism, the arms trade, aware on the one hand of a too bourgeois Christianity and on the other of comrades who were too forgetful of transcendence. A staunch supporter of women’s right to vote, she set in motion a welcoming of the poor animated by the urgency of protecting their dignity. In Italy today, are Catholics more lukewarm regarding the ability to mobilize on economic and social crises? Maybe a little yes, replies the prelate who has lived over ten years as a missionary in Kenya, but there is a network of solidarity that exists even if it doesn’t make any noise. The world is de-Christianized and we cannot think of a critical mass like we used to.
God between the lines
“When there is no spiritual element in art I am not sure it is art”: this is how the literary critic of Future Alessandro Zaccuri at the presentation of Fazzini’s book “God between the lines. The search for the infinite from Cormac McCarthy to Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt” (Il Pellegrino) which was held in the evening in the headquarters of the new cultural center of the Consolata missionaries, one of the spaces of the Off Hall. A text which, the author recalls, was inspired by a text by the Dominican Timothy Radcliffe “Switch on the imagination. Being alive in God” (EMI), which is also very relevant to the general theme of the Salon. “I feel very comfortable when someone questions the meaning of evil, but even more so the mystery of good. What else should be given to us in literature? Art, music, contemporary cinema, perhaps with the tools of provocation or protest, that’s what they’re talking about”, said Zaccuri who, citing the incipit of the Odyssey, specified how literature is located precisely between the inaccessible of the sky and the abyss of the sea. Jesus himself, moreover, was a perfect narrator using parables and miracles: “transforming words and eloquent gestures”. The transmission of faith passes through stories, even stories that reveal the conflict of writing. “Precisely there, where there is knowledge of the human without preconceptions, salvation grows. Dostoevsky’s novels, without the theological question, what would they be? The human being needs the story, as long as it is authentic, sincere This also serves the Church.” The trash story is the pre-packaged narrative that is useless. “The good story – commented Zaccuri – is one that is open to interpretation, docile to the breath of the Spirit.
The inauguration of the Show on Europe Day
Among the events organized by Uelci (Italian Catholic Publishers and Booksellers Union) on the opening day we highlight the one above Charles de Foucauld. A prophetic voice for our times (ITL Books), up Aldo Moro: the intellectual, the believer, the statesman (ITL Books) and on God’s infiltrator. From the Red Brigades to conversion (TAU). Meanwhile, the San Paolo Foundation creates a space for discussion on young people’s prospects for the future and their expectations from Europe. In the “Euro Nauti” and “Euro Mondi” laboratory spaces at Bookstock, the themes of the green deal, electoral involvement, social inclusion, artificial intelligence and sustainability. On the occasion of Europe Day, celebrated yesterday 9 May, “Europe and its future according to young people. Dialogue on rights, peace and climate” was one of the strong meetings organized by the Foundation and Bollati Boringhieri.
