Rome, Italy, Feb 11, 2023 / 03:42 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s charity office has invited around 2,000 poor and marginalized people to a circus performance in Rome on Saturday.
“Making it possible to participate in this performance is a way to give a few hours of contentment to those who are confronted with a hard life and need help to nurture hope,” Pope Francis’ almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, said this week in an announcement about the initiative.
The Vatican said volunteers, including sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, will accompany the circus guests, some of whom are homeless and either living on the streets or in a shelter.
Prisoners, refugees, and families with children from Ukraine, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan were also invited, together with several families living in some of Rome’s illegally occupied apartment buildings.
A circus performance, Krajewski said, paraphrasing Pope Francis, “puts us in contact with the beauty that always lifts us up, and makes us look beyond … it is a way to go to the Lord.”
“The show also reminds us that, behind this art and beauty, there are hours and hours of training, sacrifices, in order to reach the finish line,” the cardinal said. “The circus performers are confirmation that perseverance can make the impossible possible.”
The big top of the Rony Roller Circus is located about 3.5 miles west of the Vatican. The show, which has received glowing reviews, includes musical performances, clowns, trapeze artists, animal tamers, and jugglers.
One online reviewer called the performance “a shining example” of “the greatest show on earth,” and “an event not to be missed.”
The Vatican also organized a day at the circus for some of Rome’s poor and homeless population in 2016 and 2018.
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G.K. Chesterton even proposes that the one thing that Christ concealed was his laughter: “There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when he walked upon our earth; and I have fancied that it was his mirth” (Orthodoxy).
But, now, for a failed blend of the “Greatest Show on Earth” (Paramount Pictures, 1952) and the “Greatest Story ever Told” (novel by Fulton Oursler, 1949) one would have to recall the kumbaya Masses of mostly yesteryear. Or, probably some of the German Church-tax might be forwarded to Rome to bankroll bus tickets to Frankfurt, Germany, to witness the Der Synodale Weg, under a really, really big tent.
“A circus, Cardinal Krajewski said, paraphrasing Pope Francis, puts us in contact with the beauty that always lifts us up, and makes us look beyond. It is a way to go to the Lord.”
Now there seems an analogy [of sorts] here. The upcoming 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be held in two sessions, one year apart: the first from October 4 to 29, 2023, the second in October 2024. Subject Pope Francis’ 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis Communio: “5. So the Bishop is called to lead his flock by walking in front of them, showing them the way, showing them the path; walking in their midst, to strengthen them in unity; walking behind them, to make sure no one loses the scent of the People of God to find new roads”.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if this was intended, but it’s in reference to the bishops’ new ‘profile’, so to speak. The bishops’ assignment of walking here and there and significantly behind, analogously ‘scenting’ to assure no one loses the scent of the People of God. I apologize, but it reminds of clowns entertaining while the ballyhooed circus performers literally come to town marching through the streets.
Life is an ongoing and a never-ending circus. We are all acrobats doing different things in different costumes. Finding God in everything is an Ignatian way of proceeding.