In collaboration with the National Service of the CEI for the cultural project.
On the occasion of the publication of the book The Law of King Solomon (Ed. BUR)

“King Solomon Law” (published in the editions Bur Rizzoli, curators Marta Cartabia and Andrea Simoncini) was born from a dialogue begun at the Meeting between scholars of different religious belief, experience and nationality. The idea is inspired by the observation that there is a bias in public opinion toward the Church. A prejudice that it’s easy to put it differently: about the great themes of human person the Church expresses strongly a position of authority, which leaves no room for criticality. The book provides answers to the fundamental question: does the Church really dictate the rules of conduct? ” This is how Andrea Simoncini, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Florence, introduced Monday, August 19 to 17 in the auditorium of the Rimini Meeting D5 the three speakers at the conference “Person, politics and justice in grand speeches of Benedict XVI” in collaboration with the national service of the Italian Bishops’ Conference for the Cultural Project.
Paolo Carozza, a professor of law and director of the Kellogg International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana USA), Luis Miguel Maduro, Minister of Economic Development of the Portuguese Republic, Joseph HH Wayler, director of the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice at New York University and author of one of the interventions of the volume, attended the meeting. The text brings together five famous speeches of Benedict XVI pronounced in public institutions: the University of Regensburg, the Assembly of the United Nations, the Collège des Bernardins at Westminster Hall and the Reichstag in Berlin.
Simoncini has called for dialogue with some questions. One among the others: what is the condition of the rule of law and what contribution does the book offer on this subject? “In many countries, rich or poor – says Carozza – democracy has not triumphed. In Europe, the economic and political crisis created by the inability to act for the common good. The book raises many interesting issues. “Maduro continues: “In the speeches of Pope Benedict XVI emeritus, reason and faith sustain each other, they are in permanent relationship, while the dialogue is the essential tool for coexistence between public institutions and citizens. Democracy is facing many challenges. The policy must exist to be able to talk to everyone. ”
Weiler adds: “Believers should not be afraid to enter in the great themes of life and to judge them, so the religious life is not based only on the rules to be followed but on holiness. The speeches of Benedict XVI are true acts of courage, freedom of religion, for example they also includes the freedom to say no to religion. ”
About Europe and its crisis, the speakers agreed on the statement contained in the speeches of Pope Benedict XVI that “identity based on reason alone is in crisis, while it is essential that faith and reason come into relationship to build the new identity. Christians can give a crucial contribution. “Faith is not a set of doctrines – a phrase emerged in more than one occasion during the meeting – but a living man.

(C.C.)