Ashes on the Aventine. On this first day of Lent, Leo somehow managed to turn the penitential ceremony into an excuse for deploring “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.” Of course, it was understood that, by opposing the deadly sins of rigidity and complacency, LeoChurch alone leads us to new life. “Christians must dare to be free and rediscover freedom.”
The historical irony of both venue and sermon is truly amazing. Once a suburb outside the city walls, the Aventine Hill became a popular cemetery, its nooks and crannies containing thousands of buried urns of cremated Romans. The “haunted” place was eventually a terminus and sanctuary for foreign peoples (illegal immigrants) bringing all sort of strange gods and cults with them. On the Aventine stood a temple to Ceres (Mother Earth aka Pachamama), Libera (queen of the Underworld), and Liber (Bacchus), these eventually becoming the patron deities of the commoners who constantly defied (and finally destroyed) the laws of the Roman Republic in the name of “freedom.”
In early Christian times, the inauspicious Aventine was designated by the Vatican as a place for the burial of non-Catholics, heretics, and such marginalized groups as actors and prostitutes. I think it was assumed that these folks were not headed for heaven.
Ashes on the Aventine. On this first day of Lent, Leo somehow managed to turn the penitential ceremony into an excuse for deploring “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.” Of course, it was understood that, by opposing the deadly sins of rigidity and complacency, LeoChurch alone leads us to new life. “Christians must dare to be free and rediscover freedom.”
The historical irony of both venue and sermon is truly amazing. Once a suburb outside the city walls, the Aventine Hill became a popular cemetery, its nooks and crannies containing thousands of buried urns of cremated Romans. The “haunted” place was eventually a terminus and sanctuary for foreign peoples (illegal immigrants) bringing all sort of strange gods and cults with them. On the Aventine stood a temple to Ceres (Mother Earth aka Pachamama), Libera (queen of the Underworld), and Liber (Bacchus), these eventually becoming the patron deities of the commoners who constantly defied (and finally destroyed) the laws of the Roman Republic in the name of “freedom.”
In early Christian times, the inauspicious Aventine was designated by the Vatican as a place for the burial of non-Catholics, heretics, and such marginalized groups as actors and prostitutes. I think it was assumed that these folks were not headed for heaven.