"The deathbed friendship between a bishop and an atheist"

The bishop is Rino Fisichella, rector of the Lateran University in Rome, and an intimate of Pope Benedict XVI, reported John L. Allen Jr. in his weekly column of "All Things Catholic." The atheist is "provocative Italian writer," and "earthquake of a human being," Oriana Fallaci.

Bishop Fisichella blessed Ms. Fallaci when she was near death, and he gives his reasons. He also remarks that speaking our hope is better understood that speaking the content of our faith, which Bishop Fisichella does not minimize.

I believe we Christians have a great responsibility to talk about our faith with the language of hope. Quite often, people won't understand us when we talk about the content of our faith. But without doubt, people of today can understand when we talk about hope, if we talk about the mystery of our existence and the meaning of our lives …

This column challenges readers to be more hopeful and more Catholic.
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Flickr image of Oriana Fallaci, uploaded by psiko, and used under Creative Commons Attribution license.