Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM cap offered Pope Leo and the Curia a curious mediation on diversity in the Church, unity within diversity.
Below the quotes from Fr. Roberto, are my most humble but extremely astute comments in red.
Vatican City – This morning, in the Paul VI Hall, Fr. Roberto Pasolini OFM Cap, Preacher of the Pontifical Household, offered the Roman Curia and the Holy Father the second Advent 2025meditation, on the theme: “Rebuilding the Lord’s house. A Church without oppositions.” A reflection that brought into focus the ecclesial responsibility to welcome grace not only as individuals, but as a body, avoiding the shortcuts of uniformity and the polarizations that render discernment sterile.
Babel: unity sought as uniformity
To respond, the Preacher retraced the account of the tower of Babel: a project born of the fear of dispersion and presented as a “reasonable” operation, but in reality concealing a logic of control. The key phrase of the biblical text, taken up in the meditation, is: «Come… let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered». Here unity does not arise from the composition of differences, but from homogenization: identical “bricks” in place of irregular stones, quick consensus instead of real confrontation. Pasolini then brought the temptation of homogenization into the present: yesterday totalitarianisms, today subtler dynamics - from information bubbles to standardized language - even reaching the Church when it confuses the unity of faith with the uniformity of expressions and sensibilities.
“Confusion” as therapy: God saves difference
The theological point is decisive: God does not “punish” Babel out of jealousy, but intervenes to prevent a process of death. The text places on the Lord’s lips words that are harsh and at the same time medicinal: «Let us go down, then, and confuse their language». Confusion thus becomes a protection, because it prevents a single voice from imposing itself as an absolute and restores to humanity the possibility of not all being the same. In the background,Pentecost emerges as a “mirror” account: not one single language for all, but a communion in which each person understands “in his or her own language”. Difference safeguarded, not abolished.

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