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15 January 2021 Monthly Year 5

Christmas with Ignatius of Loyola

Religious Freedom Facing New Challenges: 55 years after ‘Dignitatis Humanae’

God is to be Found in All Things .01 o The Spirituality of Dying

Juan Carlos Scannone and the Theology of the People

OLUME 5, N 5, OLUME The Economy of Francesco and Young People V Desacralized Myths: Crisis of narrative and narrative of crisis 2021

Progress and Collapse

Mission of the Church and Proper Economic Administration

The Economics of Covid-19: From globalization to localization

BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS

Copyright, 2021, Union of Catholic Asian Editor-in-chief News ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

All rights reserved. Except for any fair Editorial Board dealing permitted under the Hong Kong Antonio Spadaro, SJ – Director Copyright Ordinance, no part of this Giancarlo Pani, SJ – Vice-Director publication may be reproduced by any Domenico Ronchitelli, SJ – Senior Editor means without prior permission. Inquiries Giovanni Cucci, SJ, Diego Fares, SJ should be made to the publisher. Giovanni Sale, SJ, Claudio Zonta, SJ Federico Lombardi, SJ Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editors ISSN: 2207-2446 Virgilio Fantuzzi, SJ Giandomenico Mucci, SJ ISBN: GianPaolo Salvini, SJ 978-988-74903-2-6 (ebook) 978-988-74903-3-3 (kindle) Contributors Published in Hong Kong by George Ruyssen, SJ (Belgium) UCAN Services Ltd. Fernando de la Iglesia Viguiristi, SJ (Spain) Drew Christiansen, SJ (USA) P.O. Box 69626, Kwun Tong, Andrea Vicini, SJ (USA) Hong Kong David Neuhaus, SJ (Israel) Phone: +852 2727 2018 Camillo Ripamonti, SJ (Italy) Fax: +852 2772 7656 www.ucanews.com Vladimir Pachkow, SJ (Russia) Arturo Peraza, SJ (Venezuela) Publishers: Michael Kelly, SJ and Bert Daelemans, SJ (Belgium) Robert Barber Thomas Reese, SJ (USA) Production Manager: Paul Soukup, SJ (USA) Grithanai Napasrapiwong Friedhelm Mennekes, SJ (Germany) Marcel Uwineza, SJ (Rwanda) Marc Rastoin, SJ (France) You Guo Jiang, SJ (China) Luke Hansen, SJ (USA) CONTENTS 0121

15 January 2021 Monthly Year 5

1 Christmas with Ignatius of Loyola Enrico Cattaneo, SJ

10 Religious Freedom Facing New Challenges 55 years after ‘Dignitatis Humanae’ Felix Körner, SJ

24 God is to be Found in All Things Miguel Ángel Fiorito, SJ

29 The Spirituality of Dying Giandomenico Mucci, SJ

36 Juan Carlos Scannone and the Theology of the People Paul Gilbert, SJ

48 The Economy of Francesco and Young People Gaël Giraud, SJ

61 Desacralized Myths: Crisis of narrative and narrative of crisis Giovanni Cucci, SJ

70 Progress and Collapse Giandomenico Mucci, SJ

75 Mission of the Church and Proper Economic Administration Federico Lombardi, SJ

86 The Economics of Covid-19: From globalization to localization Cho Hyun-Chul, SJ LCC 0221: FEBRUARY

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Enrico Cattaneo, SJ

Ignatius was convalescing in his castle in Loyola. A few months earlier, defending the walls of Pamplona during a French siege, a cannonball had broken his leg, and now he was slowly recovering. On long winter evenings he would normally read books on chivalry that excited his imagination. 1 However, the only books in the castle were a Lives of the Saints and the Vita Christi (VC) by Ludolphus of Saxony. This esteemed ascetic writer (born around 1295, he died in Strasbourg in 1377) was first a Dominican, then a Carthusian, the prior of the Carthusian monastery of Koblenz, and author of the Vita Jesu Christi ex quatuor Evangeliis, a powerful theological-spiritual commentary on all four Gospels, enriched by many quotations from the Fathers and spiritual authors of the Middle Ages.1

A crucial reading The year was 1521. Ignatius read those substantial volumes in a Castilian translation2 and was attracted. He would say that

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 1, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.1

1.Ludulfus de Saxonia, Vita Jesu Christi ex Evangelio et approbatis ab Ecclesia Catholica doctoribus sedule collecta, Parisiis - Bruxellis, Societas Generalis Librariae Catholicae, 1878, voll. I-IV. It is quoted here in translation with the initials VC. 2.The translation was that of Franciscan Ambrosius Montesino (late fifteenth century). It was Queen Isabella who asked for that translation, making a gift of it to the members of the court. This is probably how those large volumes in folio ended up in the Loyola castle. According to experts, Montesino’s was a fairly faithful translation. ENRICO CATTANEO, SJ

this reading was crucial for his conversion.3 Today, better than in the past, we realize the importance of the Vita Christi in Ignatius’ spirituality, to the point that we can find many 4 traces of it in his Spiritual Exercises (ES), especially in the contemplation of the Nativity (ES 111-117). For this reason, on the eve of the Ignatian Year 2021-2022, which the Jesuits intend to celebrate during the fifth centenary year of his being wounded at Pamplona.5 We also want to reread with Ignatius the commentary Ludolphus made on Luke’s Gospel, chapter 2, which tells of the nativity of Christ. The learned Carthusian scholar follows the Gospel text to the letter, gradually introducing his comments. We will follow those that best serve our meditation on the mystery of Christmas. 2 The census Luke 2:1: “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Ludolphus emphasizes that at the time of Christ’s birth, “the world, previously perturbed, was quiet under the reign of Caesar Augustus. Christ wanted to be born at that time, because it was appropriate that, being born the peaceful king and the prince of peace, his birth was foretold by peace. Christ always sought peace. He loved lovers of peace and charity, and taught

3.Cf. Ignatius of Loyola, Autobiography, Nos. 3-5: “And since he was very devoted to reading worldly and false books, so-called books on chivalry, feeling well, he asked them to give him some to pass the time; but in that house there was no book of those he used to read, and so they ended up giving him a Vita Christi and a book on the lives of the saints in the vernacular. Reading and rereading those books several times, he ended up getting attached for a while to what was written there” (Gli scritti di Ignazio di Loyola, Rome, AdP, 2007, 85f). 4.For more on Ludolphus and the influence of his Vita Christi on Ignatius, see E. del Río, Ludolphus de Sajonia, La vida de Cristo, I-II, Madrid, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, 2010. 5.“This Ignatian year will last 14 months, from May 20, 2021, the date of Ignatius’ injury during the siege of Pamplona, to July 31, 2022, the feast of Saint Ignatius in the liturgical calendar. The theme of conversion is therefore linked to the experience of the founder of the Society. It is because of his being wounded that Ignatius the knight was forced to undergo a long convalescence during which he was able to reflect on his life, on the meaning that his life had had until then and on the meaning that it could have afterward” (from the Letter of the Superior General Arturo Sosa, October 3, 2019). CHRISTMAS WITH IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA peace in his life and gave it as an inheritance to his disciples on his departure” (VC I, 9:1). According to Ludolphus, the census was not only a means of counting the inhabitants, but also a way of levying tribute. Thus, with three acts – self-certification, inscription and tribute – the Jews had to profess themselves subjects of the Roman Empire: “Here for the first time Judea became tributary of the Romans, forced to pay for its troops” (VC I, 9:2).6 Luke 2:4-5: “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.” Ludolphus comments: “For your sake the Lord chose to 3 be enrolled in an earthly census, so that your name would be inscribed in heaven. Thus he gave you an example of perfect humility. The Savior began with it in his birth, and with it he continued until death, in which he ‘humbled himself, and 7 became obedient to death, even death on a cross’” (Phil 2:8). Ludolphus is also attentive to the condition of Mary, who was pregnant: “For from Nazareth to Jerusalem it is about thirty- five miles, and then, heading south from Jerusalem, after about five miles is Bethlehem.8 And the Virgin, although she was close to giving birth, was not weighed down by the journey, but touched the earth lightly: the light she carried in her could not weigh her down” (VC I, 9:4).

6.This was noted by Ignatius, who wrote in ES 264: “Joseph came up from Galilee to Bethlehem to profess subjection to Caesar, with Mary his betrothed already pregnant.” 7.Ignatius takes up this perspective in ES 116: “Look and see what they are doing [our Lady and Joseph], what it is like to walk and work so that the Lord may come to be born in utter poverty and, after so many sufferings of hunger, thirst, heat and cold, insults and outrages, die on the cross. And all this for me.” 8.From this and many other clues it can be deduced that Ludolphus visited the Holy Land. Ignatius learned from him composition of place. Cf. ES 112: “See with the sight of imagination the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, considering its length, its width, and whether this path is flat or whether it runs through valleys and slopes.” ENRICO CATTANEO, SJ

Poor among the poor Luke 2:6-7: “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Ludolphus remarks: “Because they were poor, they could find no housing, due to the great confluence of people there for the same reason. Put yourself in Our Lady’s shoes. See that delicate fifteen-year-old girl, tired from the long journey, who moves among people with modesty, looking for a place to rest and not finding one” (VC I, 9:6). In the end, Mary and Joseph find shelter in a temporary shelter, “inside the city, near one of the gates, under a concave rock that had no roof. The men who 4 came to the city for a few stores used to bring their animals there” (ibid.). Here Joseph begins to work: “He who was a carpenter made a manger for the ox and donkey they had brought with them: a donkey to put the pregnant Virgin on, and an ox, perhaps to sell and with the proceeds pay the tribute for himself and the 9 Virgin, and have something to live on” (ibid.).

The firstborn son Ludolphus then explains in what sense it should be understood that Mary gave birth to “her firstborn son”: “Here firstborn does not say relationship to one who follows, but deprivation with respect to one who precedes him, because there was no one before him. Every only-begotten child, Bede says, is firstborn;

9.Ignatius was clearly inspired by Ludolphus when he wrote in ES 111, also mentioning the ox: “The first prelude is the history. Here, remember how our Lady departed from Nazareth almost nine months pregnant, sitting, as one can piously think, on the back of a donkey, and Joseph and a handmaiden, leading an ox, to go to Bethlehem to pay the tribute that Caesar imposed in all those lands.” The mention of the handmaid seems to belong to Ignatius, because Ludolphus does not mention it. On the contrary, he quotes a passage from Chrysostom that excludes one: “Those who are poor will find consolation here: Joseph and Mary, the mother of the Lord, had no servant, nor a handmaid. They came alone from Galilee, from Nazareth. They didn’t have a horse! They themselves are lords and servants. How new! They enter a lodging, not the city. Poverty, which moves timidly among the rich, did not dare enter it” (VC I, 9, 7). CHRISTMAS WITH IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA and every firstborn, as such is only-begotten. And since the Son of God wanted to be born in time from a mother according to the flesh, in order to be able to acquire many brethren for the new birth in the Spirit, that is why it is better said firstborn than only-begotten” (VC I, 9, 7). The birth took place “at midnight on the Lord’s day, when ‘night in its swift course was now half gone’ (Wis 18:14), because on the same day when he said: ‘Let there be light, and there was light’ (Gen 1:3), the Lord visited us, the ‘rising Sun coming from above’ (Luke 1:78)” (VC I, 9:7). “He was born at night, because he came in a hidden fashion, to bring back to the light of truth those who were in the night of error” (VC I, 9:8). As soon as he was born, “his mother immediately worshipped him as God, and by herself wrapped him in clothes, that is, in simple and used clothing, 5 and placed him not in a cradle of gold, but in a manger, among the animals mentioned above, that is, the ox and the donkey” (VC I, 9:7). Ludolphus comments: “You see the great poverty and destitution of Christ: not only did he not have a home of his own where to be born, but not even a place that could be considered convenient and adequate. It was necessary to put him in a manger for lack of space. Thus the saying was true: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Thus the Lord rested: first, in the Virgin’s womb; second, in a foul manger; third, on the gallows of the cross; fourth, in a tomb that was not his own. This was the extent of his poverty and his places of rest!” (VC I, 9:7). Luke 2:8-9: “In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.” Why did the angel appear to the shepherds and not to others? Ludolphus responds: “First, because they were poor, and Christ came for the poor, as the psalm says: ‘For the misery of the poor and the groaning of the poor’ (Psalm 11:6). Second, because they were simple, as we read in Proverbs: ‘The simple are in his confidence’ (Prov 3:32). Third, because they were vigilant, as Proverbs says: ‘Those who seek me diligently, find me’ (Prov 8:17)” (VC I, 9:12). ENRICO CATTANEO, SJ

Luke 2:10-11: “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Bethlehem, although a small village, was still the City of David, and significant events had taken place there. Ludolphus is pleased to enumerate them: “Bethlehem, a small town, minimal, opened the way to the homeland of paradise. Before, it was called Ephrath (cf. Gen 48:7). There was a famine there (cf. Ruth 1:1), after which there was a great abundance, and then it was called Bet-lehem, that is, ‘the house of bread.’ “It is by no means least among the cities of Judah” (Matt 2:6), being excellent in dignity, having known many significant events 6 before the coming of Christ. David was anointed there (1 Sam 16:13), a solemn sacrifice was celebrated there (1 Sam 16:2), the marriage between Ruth and Boaz was celebrated there (Ruth 4). These three things foreshadowed the union of the divinity with humanity, the true sacrifice and the immutable kingdom. Then Bethlehem knew the joy of awaiting the coming of Christ. Who could worthily evaluate the joy of the angels who praised God, the shepherds who saw the Lord, the Magi who adored him and all the people who believed in him? But Bethlehem after the birth of Christ also knew the martyrs, when Herod had the children killed” (VC I, 9:22). Ludolphus then explains the meaning of the term “Christ”: “Christòs in Greek is equivalent to unctus in Latin: in the Old Testament only kings and priests were ‘anointed’ [i.e. consecrated by sacred anointing]; now Christ is King and Priest, and therefore he is rightly called Christ, i.e. anointed, not by human anointing, but divine anointing, because in the humanity assumed for us he was anointed [i.e. consecrated] by God the Father, indeed by all the Trinity, with fullness of grace” (VC I, 9:12).

The sign of the Child Luke 2:12: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” Ludolphus comments: “You will find, like one who is hidden, a child, like one who does not speak, and yet it is the Word of God; CHRISTMAS WITH IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

wrapped in swaddling clothes, not in silk garments, a sign of his poverty; lying in a manger, not in a cradle of gold, a sign of his humility, because even though he is the Lord of Lords he has lowered himself to be in a manger of animals. It should be noted that the shepherds were simple, poor and humble, i.e. people who can be despised; and in order for them not to be afraid to approach, they were given the signs of childhood, of poverty and humility in Christ. These are the signs of Christ’s first coming; others will be the signs of his second coming” (VC I, 9:12). Luke 2:13-14: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’” 7 Ludolphus read in the Latin text: “Peace on earth to people of good will,” that is, “to those who welcome the new born Christ, with good will, without persecuting him. For ‘there is no peace for fools?’ (Isa 2:22), while there is ‘much peace for those who love your law, Lord’ (Psalm 118:165). In fact, according to Pope Leo, the true peace of the Christian consists in not separating himself from the will of God and in feeling joy only in the things of God. To be at peace with God is to want what he commands and not to want what he forbids. Peace is therefore proclaimed to people of good will, that is, to good people” (VC I, 9:14). “It is well said: Glory to God and peace to all people. For through Christ, the Father is glorified and peace is made between God and humans, between the angel and us, between the Jews and the other peoples” (ibid.). Luke 2:15-16: “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.”

‘Go yourself and see the Child’ Here Ludolphus invites each one of us to become one of the shepherds: “Go yourself now and see the Word made flesh for you and, kneeling, adore the Lord your God, greet his ENRICO CATTANEO, SJ

Mother and Saint Joseph with respect. Then kiss the feet of the child Jesus, lying in the manger, and pray to Our Lady to hand him to you or allow you to take the child. Then take him with you and hold him in your arms. Look carefully at his face, kiss him with respect and delight in the depths of your heart. You can do it, be sure, because he came precisely for sinners, to save them; he treated them with humility and in the end gave himself to them as food. The Lord, who is good, will patiently allow you to touch him, and will not consider it presumptuous, but an act of love. But always do it with reverence and fear, for he is the holy of holies. Then return him to his mother, and observe carefully how diligently and wisely she nurses him and treats him, and carries out the other tasks. Be ready to serve him and help her if you can” (VC I, 9:20). 8 Here we cannot fail to mention Ignatius of Loyola, who in his Spiritual Exercises wrote: “See Our Lady and Joseph and the handmaiden and child Jesus, after he is born, making myself the poor unworthy servant boy who looks at them, contemplates them and serves them in their needs as if I were present, with every possible respect and reverence” (ES 114). In conclusion, Ludolphus takes up the accents of the Christmas liturgy: “You must therefore meditate with joy on how great the solemnity of this day is. For today Christ is born, and this is truly the Christmas day of the eternal King and the Son of the living God. Today ‘for us a child was born, the Son was given to us’ (Isaiah 9:6). Today the ‘sun of righteousness’ (Mal 4:2), previously hidden by clouds, has risen and shone with clarity. Today the ‘bridegroom’ of the Church, head of the elect, ‘has come out of his bridal chamber’ (Psalm 18:5). Today ‘the most beautiful among the sons of men’ (Psalm 44:3) has shown his desired face. Today the day of our redemption, of ancient reparation, of eternal happiness, has shone for us. Today peace is announced to us, as we sing in the angelic hymn. Today, as the Church sings, the heavens are dripping honey all over the world. Today ‘the kindness and humanity of our Savior our God has appeared’ (Tit 3:4)” (VC I, 9:26). CHRISTMAS WITH IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Colloquy A characteristic of Ludolphus’ commentary is that each chapter ends with a prayer, in conversational style, whose content is suggested by the same Gospel text.10 Here is the one at the end of the chapter on the Nativity: “Sweet Jesus, you who were born humble from a humble handmaiden, you who wished to be wrapped in humble clothes and laid in a manger, grant me, through your ineffable nativity, most merciful Lord, that the holiness of a new life may be reborn in me. Let me humbly wear the religious habit, so that, taking my rule of life seriously, as if I were lying in a manger, I may reach the summit of true humility. And as you, who deigned to participate in our humanity and mortality, let me be part of your divinity and eternity. Amen” (VC I, 9, oratio). 9

10.Ignatius, in his Exercises, suggests ending the meditations with a “conversation,” described as follows: “Properly speaking, the conversation takes place just as a friend speaks with a friend or a servant to his master, now asking for some grace, now blaming himself for some wrongdoing, now communicating his own plans and asking advice about them” (ES 54). Religious Freedom Facing New Challenges: 55 years after ‘Dignitatis Humanae’

Felix Körner, SJ

The recognition of religious freedom by the Second Vatican Council is generally understood as a turning point.1 That said, the Council’s 1965 Declaration Dignitatis Humanae (DH) left many questions open. Was it only a matter of the Church 10 distancing itself from the assertion that Christianity did not arrive at its truth until it was established as a State Church? What is the significance of a Catholic declaration on religious freedom for other religions? And to whom should religious freedom be granted: to individuals who follow their own consciences, or to religions as communities operating in the public sphere? In 2019 the International Theological Commission presented a study on this topic: Religious Freedom for the Good of All. 2 Theological approaches and contemporary challenges. In this article I present an analysis of the document. First of all, let us recall that the documents of the International Theological Commission have a distinctive character: they are written by a group of authors. Since these texts are of increasing breadth, it should be remembered that they should be seen as the result of agreements, just like the Council decrees. In the composition of such a work, theological cultures, intra-ecclesial

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 2, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.2

1.Cf. R. A. Siebenrock, “Theologischer Kommentar zur Erklärung über die religiöse Freiheit ‘Dignitatis humanae’”, in P. Hünermann - B. J. Hilberath (eds.), Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, vol. 4, Freiburg im Breisgau, Herder, 2005, 125-207 (with an extensive bibliography on pages 208-218). 2.The document Religious Freedom for the Good of All. A Theological approach to contemporary challenges was approved on March 21, 2019. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES currents and readings of the signs of different times must find a way to converge in a common formulation. In its fundamental concerns and approach, its structural forms and expressions, there will be significant internal tensions that would be absent in a document that was the work of a single person. The authors – who since 2004 also include women – are well known. This means not only that their names are public, but also that they have been called into the Commission because of their specialist wisdom. Their expertise within the field of theology, is extensive. Therefore, what these documents represent is not the episcopal magisterium, but the academic magisterium; hence, no other authority decides on which issues they should reflect. Rather, the authors show from the very choice of topics what they believe has not been sufficiently taken into account and 11 expressed by the Magisterium. The goal is to provide conceptual solutions to the questions that are raised and to guarantee them through consistent justification. However, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explicitly authorizes the publication of the texts, and obtains papal consent in this regard, the documents of the International Theological Commission are on a higher formal level than any other written document signed by a group of Catholic theologians. It can be said that they have an authority of guidance and orientation. The document Religious Freedom for the Good of All was published by a subgroup of 10 people, members of the current International Theological Commission. It is openly non- exhaustive (cf. No. 13), but nevertheless goes into great depth: the text is five times longer than the conciliar declaration 3 Dignitatis Humanae, which dealt with the same subject. The document is presented as a theological-hermeneutical reflection (cf. No. 12). In fact, it follows a hermeneutical methodology in two respects: on the one hand, the objective is to enter a new phase in the history of the reception of Dignitatis Humanae; on the other, this is done by arguing that

3.It is now published on the Vatican website (vatican.va) in multiple languages, including English. FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

religious freedom is actually to be considered at two different levels, namely, as personal and social freedom. In addition to the declared application of theological hermeneutics, the document also recalls other approaches; in particular, philosophical and theological anthropology, and a sort of political-ecclesiological sociology. Even so, most of the quotations come from the Magisterium of the Church. Since the document chooses as a starting point a re-reading of Dignitatis Humanae, this will also be our starting point in commenting on it. For this purpose five questions are useful: 1) How did the authors, in 2019, judge the relationship between the pre-conciliar and the conciliar position of the Church with regard to religious freedom in terms of the history ? 12 of doctrine 2) How does the new document see the history of the ecclesial effects of the Council declaration? 3) What justifications for religious freedom does the International Theological Commission find in the Council’s declaration? The answer to this question will in turn reveal the main interest of the new document. 4) In its diagnosis of the present, what new problems does the Commission see compared to 1965? 5) In this context, finally, are the authors providing a correct reading of Dignitatis Humanae?

A change of emphasis: Rereading ‘Dignitatis Humanae’ The declaration of Vatican II on religious freedom was welcomed as a turning point, but there were also those who rejected it as a break with tradition. How do the authors of the International Theological Commission describe the relationship between the pre-conciliar vision – which often involved the concept of a State Church – and the doctrine of the Council? On this point, the document presents a wide range of no less than seven elements relating to the history of the doctrine: Dignitatis Humanae shows a “maturation of the Magisterium’s understanding,” an “homogenous evolution of the doctrine,” a “substantial progress in the Church’s understanding,” a “more profound understanding” of the character and implications RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES of the Christian faith, a “new perspective,” and a “different attitude regarding certain inferences and applications of the previous Magisterium” (No. 14). Finally, the document quotes the brief formula with which Benedict XVI intended to resolve the question whether the Council had broken tradition or had overseen its evolution: its texts are to be understood according to a “hermeneutics of reform” (No. 27). Here the reform must be understood in the double sense of change through a return to the sources. In fact – to paraphrase the idea – Christianity is not faithful to tradition when it remains rigidly attached to it, but when the Church acts anew as elucidating the tradition of faith. The first Christian thinkers had already expressed the intuition that faith is part of our reality, and therefore no one can impose it from outside, let alone do so. must Dignitatis Humanae 13 refers in this regard to the Latin patristic literature (see DH, note 8), and the document we are studying uses the formula: “While God calls all people to himself, he forces no one” (No. 27). In the context of its rereading of Dignitatis Humanae, the document does not limit itself to juxtaposing scattered quotes from the Magisterium, but rather offers a brief history, so to speak, of recent popes and their reception of the Council’s declaration. Paul VI is presented as an interpreter of religious freedom in the light of a threefold theological-anthropological element: as human persons we have a spiritual dimension “that makes us capable of entering into temporal and transcendent relationships” (No. 23). John Paul II focused more explicitly on the social dimension and asked for adequate juridical protection for religious freedom, citing the reason that all other freedoms oriented to the common good are based on it: only religious freedom, with its fruitful tension between freedom and responsibility, opens to the human person the true space of freedom (cf. No. 24). Benedict XVI set out some concerns that play a fundamental role in this document. He noted that religious freedom is still threatened by three tendencies: by discrimination based on religious affiliation; by potentially violent and sectarian fundamentalism; and by manipulative and ideological secularism (cf. No. 25). The document repeats several times the formula FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

that Pope Benedict used to describe good mutual recognition between the secular state and religion as regards the contribution of the former to society: “positive laicity” (Nos. 25; 65; 86). Finally, the authors mention the contribution of Pope Francis to the history of religious freedom according to three points. First, he recalls the truly innovative, motivating force of religion; then the victims, indeed the martyrs of religious freedom; finally, cooperation beyond religious boundaries (cf. No. 26). These are three aspects that the authors will return to later (cf. Nos. 48; 81; 77). According to the International Theological Commission, how did Dignitatis Humanae justify religious freedom? It did so by referring to four disciplines: theological anthropology, theological epistemology, a general theology of religion, and 14 political ecclesiology. From the point of view of theological anthropology, the document assumed the “integrity” (No. 18) of human life: what one has inside must be able to be expressed outside; therefore, the judgments of conscience, including religious beliefs, must be guaranteed their public status. The second justification for religious freedom was the epistemology of Dignitatis Humanae. The truth must be sought and, since human beings are social beings, this search must be carried out at the social level: in communities, starting with the family, and then through publicly accessible institutions. Consequently, the state and society must allow the believer to act as a participant in such collective opportunities to seek the truth. The Commission does not make explicit the implications already known to the Council Fathers. In concrete terms, the fact that humanity, including the Christian community, can and must continue to seek the truth even after the completion of the New Testament, and that therefore finding the truth, including religious truth, is a historical process. But the document explicitly states that the search for truth requires “dialogue” (No. 19). With this term the International Theological Commission emphasizes that, in order to acquire knowledge, we must meet the other and thus put ourselves into play. Dialogue is the desire to look beyond one’s own limits, to question oneself and to find solutions that can be shared. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES

Thirdly, according to the reading of the International Theological Commission, Dignitatis Humanae invoked a general theology of religion when the Council justified religious freedom with the idea that public manifestation is part of the essence of religion (cf. No. 20). Therefore, not only does the human being need visibility, an external sphere that goes beyond the interior (cf. No. 18), but religions also have such a need to express themselves publicly. The authors of the document recognize in Dignitatis Humanae a fourth justification, which derived fundamentally from a consideration of political ecclesiology, and therefore of constitutional law that refers to religions. Initially, only a cautious reference is made to this justification, but it will become the of the entire document. “The fourth leitmotif 15 argument [...] concerns the limits of purely human, civil and legal power in matters of religion” (No. 21). But the text immediately recognizes that believers must also exercise constant self-control, because not every form of religious self-assertion is justified. Rather, in all their public activities religious communities must ask themselves whether they are preserving justice and peace; in other words, whether they are serving the common good. In this way the authors show the concern that is at the heart of the document: the state’s action must not intrusively limit religious freedom, since – and to the extent that – religion serves the common good. But if all this can ultimately be drawn from the Council declaration of 1965, what need is there for a new text on religious freedom? And why does the relationship between an intrusive state and religion oriented toward the common good play a fundamental role in it? The answer to these two questions is: because times have changed. “Dignitatis Humanae was approved in an historical context markedly different from that of today” (No. 1); the Commission considers the new situation in which the Church’s request regarding religious freedom and its promotion is posed. For this reason, in several passages, the text presents a diagnosis of the current religious situation. FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

A diagnosis of the present: Religious freedom in a changed context According to the document of the International Theological Commission, the context has changed since 1965 and is now characterized by the fact that the “religion” element has taken on a new meaning. The document states that this has taken place in three ways: religion in plurality; religion against neutrality; religion as a problem. What is specifically referred to here? A first change noted is the evident growth of religious plurality (cf. No. 9). If in the 1960s this was barely visible, today the majority of humanity lives in multi-religious contexts (cf. No. 10), perhaps because the composition of world population has changed, for example because of migration (cf. No. 68), or because of the decrease, in numerical terms, of identification – 16 practiced and felt – within a particular religion and religious community. But changes in the legal situation and cultural self-understanding of peoples may also have contributed to this phenomenon. Here appears a second meaning of social transformation in relation to religion, which again touches on the main concern of the text. According to the authors’ perception, religion is increasingly considered a private matter to be excluded or marginalized from the public sphere. Therefore, the diagnosis presupposes religious-ethnic neutrality (cf. No. 11). Thirdly, and to a much greater extent than 55 years ago, today religion is perceived as a problem (see No. 2). In part this is traced back to the phenomena of fundamentalism. This observation leads in turn to three questions: How do such fundamentalisms arise? How can intellectual arguments counter them? And, above all, how do our present cultures justify religious freedom? Rightly, the document associates the discourse of freedom with the history of human rights, and therefore with secular- humanistic and individualistic-pluralist currents. But it also recalls that they derive from Christian anthropology, according to which every individual, as a human person, has the same dignity and must therefore have the same rights (cf. No. 3). This cautious observation may express regret that the cultural influence of Christianity today is often less in evidence, and this is also because religion is too hastily thought to coincide RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES with the fundamentalist dimension. For this reason the authors briefly discuss here the origin of fundamentalism (cf. No. 4). Appropriately distinguishing fundamentalism from the simple “return to traditional piety,” they realize that it can develop as a reaction to the liberal state: either because it offers little orientation (“relativism”), or because it claims excessive power to orient, pushing religion out of the public sphere (“soft totalitarianism” No. 4). The International Theological Commission recognizes, in this regard, the existence of both religious and anti-religious fanaticism (cf. No. 5). Already in this first section we note the main concern of the document, and also a solution: an effort is required from the theorists of neutrality and from religious communities to find common ground. Liberal cultures, which tend to 17 consider religions fundamentally irrational and ideological, should overcome this prejudice and look more closely at them; meanwhile, religion should also learn to “seek to explain clearly its own vision of the ability of peoples to live together” (No. 7). At this point the authors make an important statement: the use of political power to spread the faith is not Christian. Rather, evangelization today should be implemented through “the positive valorization of a context of religious and civil freedom of conscience,” which does not impede the proclamation of the faith, which should not take place through power, such as state power, let alone through forced imposition (cf. No. 8). The authors of the document justify this position with the openness of the Christian faith to every encounter with human-cultural truth. We can therefore ask ourselves whether the International Theological Commission in 2019 interpreted the 1965 Declaration in an appropriate and balanced way. In other words, is it a correct reading? The choice to highlight Christianity as a particularly rational religion (cf. No. 8) is problematic because it leads one to think that the rationality of Christianity is a unique characteristic. And this risks reducing the relationship of Christianity to history and putting other religions in a subordinate condition, implying they are less rational. FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

If the Commission insists on the rationality of Christianity, it evidently does so because of its fundamental concern: a religion that wants to be publicly recognized and effective considers itself prepared to participate in the public debate. On this point, the main guidelines of the Commission do not exactly follow DH’s theological anthropology, centered on the principle that the human being is a person, and therefore has the right to freedom of conscience. Rather, the Commission defines personality in the tension between individuality and relationality (cf. No. 35). On this point, it does not embrace the theological epistemology of DH 10: “The act of faith is by its very nature a voluntary act.” Instead, as I have already said, it emphasizes more the link between the inside and the outside (cf. No. 18), the search for truth that is necessarily a social-communitarian quest (cf. No. 18 19) and the particular rationality of Christianity (cf. No. 8). The Commission’s reading is therefore not inexact, but clearly oriented; it depends on the socio-political accentuation of the document; it does not want to be limited to the individual.

A relationship involving a distinction: Religious community and state The document calls for mutual recognition between the state and religious communities. This approach to constitutional law in relation to religions rejects any form of “political monophysitism” (No. 61). Civilta Cattolica had already introduced this formula into the debate over 30 years ago,4 rejecting what that term indicates. The document of the International Theological Commission considers all the political forms in which the power of God and the power of the state replace one another, and rejects them as not interchangeable. Such an attempt at substitution can take the form of both theocracy and state atheism. In both cases the duality of the spheres of faith and politics would remain blurred. Instead, it is desirable that there should be a distinction between religious independence and political power. Distinction, however, does not mean separation, because the document

4.See “Fede e politica. Né confusione né separazione, ma distinzione e rapporto reciproco”, in Civ. Catt. 1987 II 521-532. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES

states – in line with the constitution Gaudium et Spes, No. 76 – that the goal is also “cooperation” (No. 60) between political communities and religious communities. On this point it does not limit itself to an assertion, but also provides the reasons for it: in particular, it refers to two philosophical currents of thought that are rarely mentioned in Magisterial writings. Firstly, a reflection by Paul Ricœur is presented. In the first volume of Temps et récit, the French philosopher considers the effect of narratives and recognizes their formative role with regard to identity consciousness and the dignity of the person, but also warns against the abuse of these narratives. A society must be careful not to rely solely on the national narrative (cf. No. 48), because this very easily leads to ideas of superiority and exclusion. Beyond a foundational national narrative, 19 society therefore needs to enrich its essential history through narratives that explain diversity, differentiation and distance, both on a private and universal level; it also needs the traditions of individual families and those stories that describe the whole of humanity as one extended community. And it is mainly religions that provide these elements. Another philosophical current to which the document refers comes from Charles Taylor. In A Secular Age, the philosopher observes a change in the role of religion in societies (see No. 62). Religious belonging, he writes, has become an option, like belonging to a recreational circle, to paraphrase his observation. Taylor points out that at the origin of this comparison there is an inadequate transposition: if modern political theory has fought for the equality of citizens, this means that every individual must have the same rights of protection and participation in relation to the state. But in several countries there has been a shift toward a different demand for equality and democratization, i.e. that all groups in civil society must be treated equally and that common values must become normative at state level with majority rule. Taylor critically examines this change in the meaning of equality and participation: the state is not indifferent as to whether someone, for example, is passionate about Star Wars or whether they are looking for “the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt 6:33); one cannot have recourse FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

to the people’s vote when fundamental values are involved. This would imply the state becoming, willingly or not, “ethically authoritarian” (No. 62).

Discernment: A critique of the terms The authors of the document are aware that in today’s societies religion is often more feared than welcome. People are deeply aware of crimes committed in the name of religion (cf. Nos. 4; 25; 82). Obviously this fuels the idea that religious freedom is also a danger to humanity. If the state does not intervene to tame and civilize this extremely dangerous factor, namely, religion, no one else can do so. The document addresses this problem using the concept of “discernment” (No. 70). Not everyone is familiar with the 20 meaning of this term. Discernment is the art of listening with prudence even in unclear situations, and of deciding in the light of the good of all rather than according to particular interests, in the hope that in this way the will of God will be recognized and fulfilled. Therefore, what the authors of the document offer with the concept of “discernment” is actually a criterion: “every one of the active religions in a society must be willing to ‘present itself’ before the just demands of the reason that is ‘worthy’ of men and women” (No. 70). But what are these requirements? Here the document uses a single formula as an example: “the peaceful reciprocity of religious rights,” and it explicitly refers to freedom of conversion. What exactly does this mean? The document does not go beyond this mention, but it is clear what it refers to: in Saudi Arabia, for example, Muslims cannot convert to Christianity, under penalty of death, while in Europe any change of religion does not involve punishment, including, of course, the case of a Christian who wants to convert to Islam. This fact should be mentioned in international discussions and justifies the demand for religious freedom. However, the request for reciprocity is problematic: no country with a Christian tradition can deny rights to its Muslim population with the justification that some states with a Muslim majority do not grant such rights to their Christian population. The Muslim population, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES for example, in France is neither the legal representative of other countries nor a hostage of the French government. Of course, one can and must explain the “rational request” for religious freedom to those who are responsible for making decisions in those countries, but this request is valid regardless of any de facto or de jure situation. Therefore, the point is not really the reciprocity of a certain generosity, but of religious freedom as a human right to be universally guaranteed. As the reflection on the criteria has come to a critical point, let us now consider two other formulations that can be criticized. In fact, the Commission uses some terms that may encounter legitimate rejection in various cultures. The expression “positive laicity,” which the document repeatedly praises as balanced, is not beyond criticism. In 2008 21 Benedict XVI used it in his response to the speech of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. What do these two terms mean? The adjective “positive” should not be understood in the sense of the philosophy of law, as if it meant something similar to “dogmatic, normative.” Rather, here it is used in the common linguistic sense of “appreciable,” which can expand in the direction of “value”: the state recognizes religion as “positive,” that is, as a welcome and constructive sphere of influence. And the term “laicity” indicates not so much distinction as mutual separation between state and religion. But neither Benedict nor the document would want this, nor would such a separation guarantee true religious freedom, i.e. allowing religious communities to participate in the activities of society and culture. What the document means by “positive laicity” is rather the concept which in terms of civil law affirms a “benevolent laicity” toward religions. Secondly, when the document expresses concepts such as the “humanistic” attitude (see, for example, Nos. 68; 75), the Commission’s opinion on humanism is not always clear. Every political program usually proclaims humanity as a fundamental value; but what is “human”? The slogan of “humanism” is also used by those aggressive and substantially atheistic currents that want to abolish any constructive cooperation – characterized by mutual recognition – between religious communities and the state, declaring it an unjust privilege accorded to faith. And here FELIX KÖRNER, SJ

let me state that, if in this study of the text I criticize some of its terms, I do so in order to show where, according to the linguistic expressions of various cultures, the document could encounter difficulties of reception, not due to a substantial rejection, but to simple misunderstandings. Let us add one last remark on terminology. When the Church’s proclamations and reflections, even in the public sphere, speak of “conscience,” “freedom,” “humanity,” “human dignity” and “common good,” this does not mean it is employing a vocabulary that the Church and society have in common. The ecclesial voices, in these cases, do not pronounce words that are purely “worldly”; and it is not enough to remind readers that today’s cultures owe many of these ideas and formulations to the important cultural mediation of Christianity (cf. No. 3). 22 Rather, the proclamation of the Church, her witness to life and her theology can continually remind people that the Christian conception of these fundamental categories is in permanent dialogue with them. Christian witness always seeks to question other interpretations of these terms, in order to continue to enlighten and enrich them. Naturally, by doing so, theology declares itself willing to engage not only in inculturation – that is, to contribute to the formation of cultures – but also in cultural exchanges (cf. No. 28): it is itself open to learning from other conceptual histories, other traditions and other experiences. In the document, the authors also suggest a third field of the effects of religious freedom. Dignitatis Humanae presented a theory of religious freedom based rather on individual ethics, developed in the light of the concepts of conscience and personality; in other words, it put personal religious freedom first. Now the document also develops, and more markedly, the right of the religious community to act as a determining factor in the public sphere, i.e. a concept of religious freedom based on social ethics. And the Commission applies this principle not only to Christianity, but also to other religious communities, because “Christianity does not enclose the history of salvation within the confines of the history of the Church” (No. 83). The text also briefly mentions a third area: beyond the individual and the social sphere, religious freedom also challenges RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACING NEW CHALLENGES the internal culture of religious communities. How to deal with the criticism – at the official level and among the members of the communities – and the lack of understanding of differences among their brothers and sisters in the faith? “One does not treat the application of religious freedom with respect to other religions alone. This question also demands a critique of one’s own religion” (No. 80). In conclusion, the authors of this document have presented a text at a high theoretical level, which does not uncritically exalt Christian history (cf. No. 83), and yet, with solid reasons, demands a new appreciation of religion on the part of the state and society, as well as the recognition of religious communities as collaborators with the entire community. The fundamental idea is not only that the Church must invoke freedom of 23 religion and conscience, but rather that it is the state that acts as guarantor. The main reason is that religions, and the freedom granted to them to participate in the formation of the world,5 are at the service of the common good.6

5.Cf. F. Körner, Political Religion. How Christianity and Islam Shape the World, New York, Paulist, 2020; Id., Politische Religion. Theologie der Weltgestaltung – Christentum und Islam, Freiburg, Herder, 2020. 6.We are grateful to the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin for its valuable help in the composition of this article. God is to be Found in All Things

Miguel Ángel Fiorito, SJ

Active life and contemplative life We must all find God in everything, but each person must do so according to his or her own vocation. According to the Second Vatican Council, there are only 24 two types of religious vocation and they are characterized by the Institutes in which they are incarnated. The same thing can be said both for vocations “in the evangelical counsels” and also the lay vocation. Some Institutes are “devoted entirely to contemplation, in such a way that their members relate solely 1 with God in solitude and silence.” In other Institutes “apostolic 2 action [...] takes place within the very nature of religious life.” In the first type of vocation, only prayer and penance are essential components; in the second type, along with prayer and penance, apostolic action is also essential. The difference, therefore, is not rooted in the idea that in one vocation you pray while in the other you do not pray; in both there must be prayer, since they are Christian vocations. The difference lies in how prayer and action relate to the essential nature of religious life, and also – consequently – in the mutual relationship between prayer and action. The problem, typical of the active life, but not found in contemplative life, is that all active persons must discover that relationship in their personal life and live it: we refer above all to the relationship, in each of us, between prayer and action.

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 3, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.3

1.Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Perfectae caritatis (PC), No. 7. 2.PC 8. GOD IS TO BE FOUND IN ALL THINGS

The spiritual problem of the active life Therefore, the spiritual problem of the active life – its distinctive richness, which is not the case in a contemplative life – is not that of the quantity of prayer, but that of quality of the prayer; and, above all, that of the relationship between prayer and action, since both belong to the essence of the active life. Let us consider two ways of solving this problem: one is offered by St. Ignatius, and the other by Blessed Peter Faber.3 Since the latter was a very close disciple of St. Ignatius, we will present his solution first. The solution is basically the same in both cases, but the difference in the way of expressing it can help us in understanding and, above all, in putting into practice its fundamental aspects. 25 The solution of Peter Faber An entry in the spiritual diary of Peter Faber, his Memoriale, on October 4, 1542, offers this solution: “Your life [he was addressing Jesuits, whose vocation is active and not purely contemplative] must follow that of Martha and Mary together [classical models of the active and contemplative life], be based on prayer, but also on good deeds, be active, but also contemplative. If, however, one type of life must be practiced in view of the other and not for itself, as often happens, that is, if you undertake prayer as a means to act better, or on the contrary the action is in view of prayer, it will be more convenient, all things considered, that you direct your prayers toward the treasures of good works than the contrary and, vice versa, that you aim to focus on the treasures that are won through prayer. It would be different for those who lead a purely contemplative life: their purpose is to gather treasures of the knowledge and love of God, and they do not need to ask in every circumstance for the graces that those who are in a life of 4 action need.” Shortly before, he had written: “Those who seek God spiritually in good works [as is proper to the active life], then find him better in prayer than if they had abstained from them.”

3.We recall that Peter Faber was canonized by Pope Francis on December 17, 2013. 4.P. Faber, Memoriale, No. 126. MIGUEL ÁNGEL FIORITO, SJ

Therefore, Faber’s solution to the spiritual problem of the relationship between prayer and action in an active person is twofold: first, to order prayer to action (and not the opposite, as a contemplative would do); second, to find God in action, before also doing so in prayer.

The solution of St. Ignatius St. Ignatius develops the second part of St. Peter Faber’s solution much more thoroughly, but he also speaks, albeit in different terms, of the first part. He says, for example, that everyone must ensure that their prayer “extends to the exercises – or activities – in which they are engaged.”5 This means that while the prayer of the contemplative has no reason to become – we could say to turn into – activity, 26 the prayer of the active person must become or turn into action. With regard to the second part of Faber’s solution – “seeking God in action” – Fr. Nadal, in the “order of prayer” he presented in the name of St. Ignatius during his second visit to Spain (1553-54), said to the Jesuit students: “All must strive in the Lord [...] to find God in all their ministries and works [...] and make use of the fruits of meditation, prayer and the habit of it [this is the meaning of the phrase we mentioned earlier, to ‘extend prayer to action’] in all their ministries.”6 Or, as Fr. Nadal states elsewhere, summarizing – in terms he attributes to St. Ignatius – his famous phrase simul in actione contemplativus (“at the same time contemplative and in action”): God is to be found in everything.7 How?

An ‘active’ conception of God We can say a conception of God that we could call “active” is inherent in the Ignatian expression, that is, the one that Fr. Nadal attributes to St. Ignatius. An active person is concerned – especially in action – not so much with God’s “being” or God’s “essence,” but especially with

5.Cf. J. Nadal, Epistolae Hieronymi Nadal Societatis Jesu Ab Anno 1546 Ad 1577, vol. IV, 681. 6.Id., Regulae pro scholaribus Societatis, 490, 14. 7.Id., Epistolae..., op. cit., vol. V, 162; 31. GOD IS TO BE FOUND IN ALL THINGS

God’s “action” in us and in our neighbor. As regards other terms – which Saint Ignatius uses many times in the Spiritual Exercises (ES) and in the Constitutions – one can say that the active person must “seek and find the will of God” (ES 1, this is the goal of his Spiritual Exercises) both in prayer and – and above all – in action. In Pauline terms, it is important for the active person to experience, in himself and in others with whom he relates, “the action of the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18), both in prayer and – and above all – in action.

The search for God in events God’s action must therefore be discerned in the ordinary events of our life. How? Events provoke “reactions” in us (as do prayer, reading or recitation of the word of God). We feel happy or sad, 27 anxious or free; we feel desires or repugnance, we make judgments... A) First of all, therefore, we must be fully aware of these “reactions.” If you are accustomed to it, this is almost immediate; but if you are not used to paying attention to such “reactions” – attending to them is challenging! – you must try to do so in the examination of conscience (mid-day, and in the evening... or at any time of the day). But it could also happen that, for a long time, we do not feel any inner “reaction” to events. This would mean that in all that time, we had lost the desire for “more”; because, if that desire is present, there is always – as Faber attests8 – a “variety” of reactions in us (some from the good spirit and others from the bad spirit). The solution would be to arouse in us this useful desire, to return to experience the “variety” of inner movements. B) Secondly, we should ask ourselves which spirit speaks in each of our reactions (joy or sadness, anxiety or freedom, desire or repugnance, and so forth). It cannot happen that the good spirit – or the bad spirit – provokes at the same time reactions of opposite kinds: either joy is God’s and not sadness, or vice versa. St. Ignatius’ rules for the discernment of spirits can help us not only to “feel,” but also to “know” the significance that the different inner reactions have. The spirit of God, St. Ignatius tells us, penetrates “those who go from good to better [...]

8.Cf. M. A. Fiorito, Escritos, Rome, La Civiltà Cattolica, 2019, vol. IV, 237-239. MIGUEL ÁNGEL FIORITO, SJ

in a gentle, delicate and sweet way, like a drop of water that enters a sponge; on the contrary, the evil angel acts pungently, with noise and disturbance, as when a drop of water falls on a stone. In contrast, in the case of those who go from bad to worse, these two spirits act in the opposite way” (cf. ES 335). Or, as St. Ignatius says in another rule, “it is of the nature of the good spirit to give courage and energy, consolation and tears, inspiration and serenity, diminishing and removing all difficulties, in order to move forward on the path of good,” while, on the contrary, “it is of the nature of the bad spirit to induce remorse, to sadden, to pose difficulties and upset with false reasons, in order to prevent progress and moving forward” (ES 315). The same ideas return in other rules for discernment that St. Ignatius presents in his Exercises. Reading them calmly – at times 28 of examination of conscience or reviewing the day – can help us to become aware of the two spirits that move us in the events of our life, and to know which is the good spirit and which is not.

Conclusion We can conclude by saying that “spiritual movements, such as consolation or desolation [and the agitation] of any spirit” are important, both in the life of prayer (cf. ES 6) and especially in action: thanks to these differences every Christian – but especially those with an active vocation – can know God’s will and fulfill it in their lives, thus finding God in all things. This is the Ignatian message of the Spiritual Exercises, the 9 Constitutions, Letters, the Autobiography and the Spiritual Diary. The solution that St. Ignatius and his disciples give us to the spiritual problems of the active life, is that of establishing the relationship – which is of integration10 – between prayer and action in an active vocation.11

9.Ibid., 222-239. 10.Arrupe, “Letter on the Integration of the Spiritual and Apostolic Life” to the whole Society of Jesus, Acta Romana Societatis Iesu, XVI, 1976. 11.This article, originally published in Boletín de espiritualidad, No. 64, January 1980, 27-31, is now collected in Miguel Ángel Fiorito, Escritos, op. cit., vol. V, 56-59. The Spirituality of Dying

Giandomenico Mucci, SJ

“For we are as tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, that’s not the case, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only seemingly the case.”1 This is from a story by Kafka that emphasizes the fragility of life. 29 Simone de Beauvoir said that death puts the world in question. According to some, talk about death has been progressively marginalized since the end of metaphysics.2 In fact, “liquid persons,” as theorized by Bauman, live everything in the succession and movement of moments, which preclude them from the sense of stability and continuity and, therefore, the possibility of any project motivated by hope. All that remains for us is uncertainty and insecurity, that is, anxiety and fear,3 because no one can avoid the torturous encounter with Time.4 Therefore, it is not really wise to say that death has been marginalized today. Perhaps little is said about it in explicit terms, as if there’s a desire to exorcise it, but, almost in a hidden fashion and annoyingly for those who would like to silence its sovereign presence, its ghost appears in those speeches that allude to it.

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 4, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.4

1.F. Kafka, “Gli alberi”, in Id., I racconti, Milan, Longanesi, 1965, 66. 2.Cf. M. Politi, “Il futuro dell’aldilà”, in La Repubblica, February 14, 2006, 53. 3.See R. Zas Friz De Col, “La silenziosa rivoluzione antiescatologica”, in Civ. Catt. 2014 III 32-42. 4.See M. Fini, “L’inevitabile condanna della nostra vecchiaia”, in Il Fatto Quotidiano, April 12, 2014. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ

And so we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of burial and cremation,5 the right to choose how and when to die and put an end to suffering,6 the dominance of the biological aspect over the religious aspect of death and their conflict: hospitalization and fear of the sick, palliative medicine, the antidepressants that the pharmaceutical industry has developed to manage “mental illness,” which the DSM, the psychiatrists’ diagnostic and statistical manual, calls “malaise of mourning.”7 And there are those who speak of the “bitter rescission of ourselves” in terms moving between the esoteric and the lyrical.8 Regarding the insistence of the “laity” on the biological dimension of death and their silence on its religious dimension, it may be appropriate to recall a brief comment by Remo Bodei on the and the of the 30 resurrectio mortuorum vita venturi saeculi Nicene Creed. “A ‘lay’ response to these expectations lies in not laughing at them, but in fully understanding their meaning, in realizing that the simple denial of these hopes truncates our humanity, that our death is full of meanings that cannot be trivially reduced to the cessation of breath or brain activity.”9 These are the words of a “lay” philosopher. For his part, a Catholic writer, Italo Alighiero Chiusano, has asked believers who are committed to social outreach, charities and the preaching of solidarity and respect for minorities and those who are diverse not to forget the truths that are such only for the Church and its members, those that the “laity” take as myths or superstitions: the Triune God, the resurrection of Christ, the role of Mary, the gravity of personal and social sin. Among these truths are both the biblical meaning of death and eternal life after earthly death.10

5.See E. Cavazzoni, “Il nostro potenziale fertilizzante”, In Il Sole 24 Ore, April 6, 2014, 44. 6.Cf. M. De Luca, “Morire con dignità”, ibid., December 27, 2015, 25; H. Küng, “Resto cristiano anche se scelgo come morire”, in la Repubblica, February 25, 2015, 45. 7.See O. Camerana, “Morire è fuori moda”, in Oss. Rom., January 28-29, 2013, 5; F. Cancelli, “Saper morire”, ibid., September 24, 2015, 4. 8.Cf. E. Zolla, “La melodiosa morte”, in Il Messaggero, August 2, 1971. 9.R. Bodei, “Quando la vita finisce”, in www.repubblica.it/ 10.See I. A. Chiusano, “Un incontro con i ‘Novissimi’”, in Oss. Rom., July 15, 1993, 3. THE SPIRITUALITY OF DYING

But, as proof that at least the discourse on death has not been marginalized, it is worth remembering the International Congress Seeing Beyond in Facing Death, which took place in Padua in September 2014 for the degree course in “Death Studios & The End of Life.” Some speeches delivered there were published, with the contributions of other scholars, in an interesting volume edited by a psychologist (Ines Testoni), a theologian (Guidalberto Bormolini), a sociologist (Enzo Pace) and a philosopher (Luigi Vero Tarca). The preface is by Emanuele Severino, the afterword by Marco Vannini.11 The theme of death and dying is presented both in the light of the human sciences and in the thought of four great religious systems: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Eastern spiritualities with which people in the West are increasingly 31 familiar. The comparison of different perspectives, languages and knowledge undoubtedly offers a vast subject for reflection. Today, secular culture often speaks of death and dying, but mainly as a medicobiological phenomenon, and insists on the most appropriate way to deal with grief. The agnostic matrix allows no alternatives. Although the doctrinal foundations of the Christian conception of death are not unknown to it, it usually treats these by considering these foundations, especially biblical ones, as spoiled by myth and polluted by superstition, so that the evaluation of current culture takes place outside the faith and theology that derives from it. As a result, it is not uncommon for Christians to have a distorted idea of death and dying. We want to outline this idea here in broad terms.

The Christian conception of death To appreciate the profound wisdom of the Christian conception of death and dying, it is necessary first of all to clear the mind of the terrifying images with which, in past centuries and up to the early 20th century, devotional publishing and Lenten preaching spoke from an excessive and one-sided vision of death. The edifying purpose of recalling the faithful to

11.See Vedere oltre. La spiritualità dinanzi al morire nelle diverse religioni, Turin, Lindau, 2015. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ

the eschatological reality, so easily forgotten, made preachers express in an obsessive way the most repugnant details of the corruption to which the human body is subjected after death.12 One thinks of the realism of the Judgement in the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the Triumph of Death and 13 the Last Judgement of the 14th century cemetery in Pisa, a realism that recalls, with Dante, how “living is a race to death.”14 This Dantean verse is behind the reflection of Romano Guardini, the thinker who more and better than others has inserted the theology of the last things into the heart of contemporary problems.15 Death is inevitable. This is true, if we consider that it is not only at the end of life, but pervades its entire extension, in the present order of the world, which Christians believe to be 32 undermined by the effects of an ancient sin. Without this, there would not have been death as we know it, an explicit teaching of Scripture (cf. Rom 5:12). But life would always have an end, in a form today unknown to us. Everything dies, dissolves, in the vegetable, animal and human world. It is in the nature of the living being, the energies of its structure and self-preservation to transform and break apart. “The human person is a living being neither more nor less than all other living beings, with the only difference that of being organized in a higher form. Now, given that every living being subject to transience, death falls perfectly into the order of things. Men and women must persuade themselves that this is so and take a position in the face of the inevitable as best they can, with a broad gesture of magnanimity or heroism or resignation, at least with decorum.”16 This “positivistic” interpretation of the person, held yesterday and today by those who adhere to natural science and empirical observation, has its share of truth at this level. See, in this regard,

12.See, for example, P. Ricaldone, L’esercizio di buona morte, Turin, Sei, 1947, 175-194. 13.See G. E. Mottini, Storia dell’arte Italiana, Milan, Mondadori, 1962, 62-65. 14.Dante, Purgatory, XXXIII, 54. 15.Cf. R. Guardini, I novissimi, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1951, 5-19. 16.Ibid., 7. THE SPIRITUALITY OF DYING a beautiful and dramatic passage of Paul VI.17 Death is, in fact, a natural necessity. But Christianity, rather than speculating about it as “the reverse of being,”18 has always been interested in the question: Is death simply a natural necessity or is it the result of a state of affairs that could be overcome? In other words: Does human life find in death the fulfillment of its nature, or is death the sign of a history that has reached its goal? Christianity firmly professes the link between original sin and death as we now know it. Even if man had not sinned, his life would have had its end, because it belongs to time: it would have been an end without the painful aspects that death has for us after the ancient fault. But between this fault and death was inserted the death of Christ, true and cruel, the mystery of God who wanted to assimilate himself to sinners, atoning for sin, 33 leaving us the memory of his death, promising the return to life as our participation in the resurrection that had to follow the death of the God who became incarnate to share our fate. “This does not mean that a remedy against death has been found (that would take the form of a spell) nor, even less, that a new ethics of death has been discovered (that would only be an advance toward a nobler human value): the reality of death remains, but – being now, even beyond our death, the resurrection – death has entered into a new relationship with life and has been resolved in a transit to a new life, divinely full, eternally human.”19 To people today the word “resurrection” sounds foreign or mythological. “Speaking of resurrection, today’s language tends to indicate the phenomenon that takes place when, in spring, after the rigors of winter, life erupts everywhere, or when in a person, after an inner pause, a new stimulus is awakened. Resurrection, in other words, one of the many moments of life in general […]. But Christian doctrine about the resurrection of Christ and, through Christ, of the redeemed, has nothing to do with these things. It has a radically different meaning, much

17.Cf. Paul VI, “Exhortation For Ash Wednesday”, in Oss. Rom., February 24, 1966, 1. 18.R. Guardini, I novissimi, op. cit., 9. 19.Ibid., 17. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ

more precise and entirely new. It teaches that Christ, after his death, is risen in the sovereign omnipotence of the living God, to new life, and precisely to a new human life. Not only is it the case that his soul was immortal and had received a divine splendor in eternity; not only that his image and his message became a life-giving force in the hearts of those who believed in him, but that his body, after his death, returned to new life, and in an even higher way; [...] that he, in the plenitude of his human-divine being, made his entrance into eternal splendor.”20 Therefore, with the death and resurrection of Christ, death has ceased to be merely part of the atonement of guilt and has received, in the faith of those who belong to Christ, a new meaning, that of being a passage to the fullness of life. Because of this faith, the Apostle Paul challenges death: “Where, O death, 34 is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55). The sting reflects the character of death when it has been someone’s earthly and definitive destruction.21

Some consequences The Waldensian pastor Paolo Ricca has given prominence to a paradox. Our societies are working to legally and socially protect life, yet perhaps never before as in our time is life threatened, manipulated, commodified and destroyed. These same societies that produce so many forms of death work simultaneously to obscure death by dissocializing it. Christ’s teaching does not inculcate fear of death, but the responsibility of living. If death is a sign (the sign) that life is not eternal, the resurrection promised by Christ is the sign that death is not eternal.22 And there is another apparent paradox, which is not so for the Christian. Contrary to what Freud23 maintains, only those who work on earth with an eye to future life can live the present life and its alternating phases with commitment; only those

20.Ibid., 15f. 21.With a clearly anthropological slant, Vatican II reproposes this as the faith of the universal Church. Cf. Gaudium et Spes, Nos. 18; 21 c; 22 c; 41 a. 22.Cf. P. Ricca, Il Cristiano davanti alla morte, Turin, Claudiana, 2005, 13-16; 33. 23.See S. Freud, “Caducità”, In Id., Considerazioni attuali sulla guerra e la morte. Caducità, Rome, Ed. Riuniti, 1982, 93-98. THE SPIRITUALITY OF DYING who think and worry about eternity, which death opens wide, can give time its full importance. The certainty of death gives exceptional importance to earthly life. “Every action, every word, every thought – in short, every act of ours, external or internal, which seems to fade away without leaving a trace in the brief lapse of a few moments – instead shapes some line of our definitive personality. On closer inspection, indeed, only within this conviction can existence be taken seriously. Neither a philosophy that would deny any future life, nor the persuasion that even afterward we can decide and change, would be enough to sustain an authentic commitment in the struggle down here. Why should we worry about anything if everything ends in death? And if everything is still a game after death, why not postpone every demanding 35 and compromising decision to another life?”24 An epitaph of the ancient Roman Church, from the time of Pope Leo I, expresses the Christian conception of death. Accepting the law of nature (praefixo moriens naturae munere functus), the Tigrinya presbyter, buried in a cemetery on the Via Latina, followed up, in the inscription dictated by him, with the profession of his eschatological faith: “For my ultimate fate I have no fear, the only hope for me of salvation is in fact Christ, under whose guidance death dies” (pono metum de fine meo, spes 25 una salutis, nam mihi fit Christus, quo duce mors moritur). In the text resound the hope and joy taught by the Apostle: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54).

24.G. Biffi, Linee di eschatologia cristiana, Milan, Jaca Book, 1984, 91. 25.C. Carletti, “Writing death is never out of desperation”, in Oss. Rom., April 25, 2008, 5. Juan Carlos Scannone and the Theology of the People

Paul Gilbert, SJ

Juan Carlos Scannone, an Argentine Jesuit born in 1931 and who died in November 2019, was a one of the great figures of the Church in Argentina and Latin America. He was also very aware of the problems of the universal Church. 36 He obtained a doctorate in theology with a thesis written in Innsbruck directed by Karl Rahner, and one in philosophy with a dissertation on Maurice Blondel, presented in Munich. He was a keen reader of the French phenomenologists and a member of many ecclesial institutions where reflection focused on the reality of the life of the Church and its tradition. He animated with unusual energy many study groups, whereby he gradually deepened his reflections at the service of the Church. After his course of formation in the Society of Jesus, he taught, from 1967, in Buenos Aires, at the Colegio Máximo of San Miguel (the Faculties of Philosophy and Theology of the Jesuit Province in Argentina). A certain Jorge Bergoglio studied theology there. Scannone already knew him. At the end of the 1950s, in the period preceding his entry into theology, he had given him lessons in ancient literature at the diocesan seminary. Having become a Jesuit, Bergoglio later became his provincial in 1973, then rector of the College, and finally parish priest of the parish he had created a stone’s throw away. He then left Buenos Aires to go to Córdoba and, after a period of study in Germany, returned to the Argentine capital in 1992 as auxiliary bishop. Relations between Scannone and Bergoglio

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 5, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.5 JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE were constant – even after the latter was elected pope in 2013 – but more through exchanges of ideas than institutional ties. What united them was an equal sensitivity to the originality of the Argentine Church. Both know and love their people. The Argentine Church has the reputation of developing an original theology, the “Argentine theology of the people.”1 It does not ignore liberation theology, but gives it an emphasis less centered on the economic-social dialectic than in other Latin American countries. This is what we will see shortly in setting out the main aspects of Scannone’s thought. But first we want to dwell on the term “people.”

‘People’ Today’s languages are full of the word “people,” which 37 appears in many forms. For example, “populism,” a word that indicates a mentality of distrust of politicians in office. However, it is not in this pejorative sense that the word “people” enters the Argentine theological lexicon. Both men lived through Argentina’s Peronist period. One could argue endlessly about whether or not Perón was, or was not, a populist. He came to power in Argentina by campaigning vigorously for the poor and less educated workers, against laws in force at the time (1946) that did not recognize their rights. This was his attempt to follow the implications of the social doctrine of the Church. Peronism’s focus was on the mistreated popular classes. The lexicon of the Argentine Church takes up some aspects of Peronism, while rejecting its deviations in political practice. In the 1970s, theologian Lucio Gera proposed a definition of the term “people” that flows from the experience of the Argentine Church. This definition is cultural and shows that a people is a nation unified “by a common culture or way of life, which, moreover, is embodied in a determined political will and decision to unite, self-determine and self-organize to achieve a common good” (TP 33).

1.J. C. Scannone, La teologia del popolo. Radici teologiche di papa Francesco, Brescia, Queriniana, 2019, 19. In the text, the book will be cited by TP, followed by the page number. PAUL GILBERT, SJ

According to Scannone, in this definition of “people,” “their ‘willing and acting’ prevail together in the pursuit of the same [common good]” (ibid.). The Argentine conception thus places emphasis on the poor as promoters or creators of culture. Indeed, the poor know the value of living together, of solidarity. The latter is natural for them, for “their lack of power and possessions facilitates their awareness of the needs of others and, ultimately, of solidarity” (TP 34). But is this not an idealistic statement, far removed from reality, since the world of poverty is also a world that breeds controversy and lack of mutual respect? According to Scannone, it must be admitted that “certain groups objectively have the inclination to belong to the people, such as the poor” (ibid.), contrary to neoliberal individualistic culture. Moreover, it is necessary to build with the poor correct mediations, “moral 38 attitudes, scale of values and corresponding structures” (ibid.), so that in this way a new culture can really be born. This is where the significance of theology and philosophy for our time comes from according to Scannone.

Theology Some claim that the Second Vatican Council changed the doctrine of the Church; others claim that this was not the case. It is true that the tone or style of this Council was original compared to previous Councils. For the first time, in fact, in Gaudium et Spes, a Council showed that it was not interested in the Church alone, but also in the world in which the Church lives, its values and its dynamics. On the other hand, this Constitution is not a dogmatic document, but a pastoral one. Should it therefore have no significance for theology? At the beginning of chapter II of this Constitution, in No. 53, the Council gave in three paragraphs a definition of culture: we access our humanity through culture; culture enables the development of the capacities of the spirit and the body; and this is done by including historical and social aspects. Is not the person who is invited to listen to the Word a person who lives first of all in a historically situated culture? Would not Vatican II, then, have given new attention to history, as a sort of concrete extension of the Incarnation? JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE

But we also see another sign of novelty in theology. Vatican I was supposed to deal with the bishops after dealing with the pope. This became impossible because of the fall of the Papal States at the time of the Council. Vatican II should therefore have taken up the debate from that point. This is what it did in several documents, for example, in the “Decree on the Pastoral Mission of Bishops,” and especially in Lumen Gentium, a dogmatic constitution. However, before discussing the hierarchy and the bishops, the Council Fathers wished to set out the mystery of the Church; then, within that mystery, the precise nature of the people of God; and finally, within that reality, the meaning of the episcopate. The Church is first of all a people loved by God, and the hierarchical distinctions indicated by the sacraments are internal to that people, to the 39 whole Church, which is, as some German theologians put it, the Ur-Sakrament (“originating sacrament”). Often in his work Scannone emphasized the attention of the conciliar bishops to a dimension of humanity that had previously been little considered. The pastor of a people cannot be faithful to his office if he is not in communion with his people. From this arises a new requirement for theology. Cultures are multiple and historical, and the Gospel message must be proclaimed with an awareness of this fact. Therefore, a fundamental aspect of Christian life is imposed on theologians: attention to popular piety, a privileged manifestation of the soul of a people. Paul VI spoke of this in No. 48 of his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), at the conclusion of the Synod on Evangelization (1974). This paragraph concluded a chapter on certain modes of evangelization. Paul VI noted that the bishops in the Synod discussed popular piety, because this is one of the most important places for the proclamation of the Gospel, in a way parallel to personal witness, the media, the liturgy of the Word, catechesis and the sacraments. Popular piety, however, might seem uneducated, vague and capable of imagining and inventing anything. In fact, it is important because it manifests a life inspired by a true sense of God. Popular religious values are also manifested through experiences, such as pilgrimages. Paul VI then asked us to discern what, in this piety, “manifests PAUL GILBERT, SJ

a thirst for God that only the simple and the poor can know” (No. 48). The pope’s vocabulary here was quite original. In concluding his reflection on popular piety, Paul VI stated that it is “so rich and at the same time so vulnerable.” It is not “threatening,” although it is very often seen by intellectuals as full of potential errors. In expounding Pope Francis’ four famous principles, and more specifically the one that “reality is more important than the idea,” Scannone pointed out that “when the idea becomes exclusive, it distorts the perception of reality” (TP 199). It is time to leave the abstract, the formal, what theorists define as “pure,” to access what is complex, “the historical concrete, the relative and contingent of historical reality” (ibid.). Reality, in fact, cannot be seen without an attitude of connaturality, as 40 Thomas Aquinas asserted, without empathy and goodness, without wisdom, which “is both intellectual and affective, with proper affections” (ibid.). The theme of piety or popular religion was taken up over the last decade in two cycles of studies by the International Theological Commission. The first led to the publication in 2012 of “Theology Today: Perspectives, principles and criteria”; the second to the 2014 publication of “Sensus fidei in the Life of the Church.” Attached to the latter text was a commentary by Dominican Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, then secretary of the Commission. Nos. 33 to 36 of the 2012 document consider the sensus fidei as belonging to theology. The authors mention popular piety in passing in No. 35, including it in the areas that theologians must attend to in order to assist the Magisterium. In fact, No. 35 indicates some areas for “critical evaluation” by theologians: for example, “expressions of popular piety, new currents of thought and movements within the Church,” in order to eliminate aspects that are dangerous for the whole Church. The second text of the International Theological Commission, in 2014, addresses the sole issue of the sensus fidei. Several events motivated this choice, in particular the confusion in some regions of the world, especially in Germany, between the sensus fidei and the “opinion commonly shared by Christians,” JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE and also – what interests us here – the question of the “theology of the people,” which the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Bishop of Rome (2013) had highlighted. No. 108 states: “As such a wisdom, principle and instinct, popular religiosity is clearly very closely related to the sensus fidei, and needs to be considered carefully within the framework of the present study.” But what is “popular religiosity”? Footnote 122 cites the definition given in Article 10 of the Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines, published in 2002 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The essence of a people and its religion is understood as starting from its culture: “‘Popular religiosity’ refers to a universal experience: there is always a religious dimension in the hearts of people, nations, and their collective expressions. 41 All peoples tend to give expression to their totalizing view of the transcendent, their concept of nature, society and history through cultic means. Such characteristic syntheses are of major spiritual and human importance.” The 2014 document, however, does not differ much from the 2012 text. Popular religion, we read in No. 109, is that “of humble Christian believers [who] have a privileged access, at least potentially, to the deep truths of God.” The word “potentially” shows that there is still resistance to reading popular piety as a gift to be understood in its fullness. Instead, Pope Francis – as reported in the document of the International Theological Commission (No. 112) – sees in popular religion a great “missionary power,” an “actively evangelizing force” and therefore not merely “potential.” Bonino’s introductory text, which contains many quotations from the Magisterium, shows how the “theology of the people” is an asset of the Church, at least since Paul VI onward. It is undoubtedly a “theological current” whose orientation is more pastoral than speculative. But how can we distinguish between pastoral and speculative theology? Certainly not on a scale of greater or lesser importance. “It is like with Mary: if we want to know who she is,” writes Fr. Bonino, “we turn to the theologians; if we want to know how to love her, we must ask the people.” So we remain in the wake of the Council’s concerns, in what Scannone calls “the unfinished agenda of Vatican II” (TP 135). PAUL GILBERT, SJ

Philosophy Scannone was more a philosopher than a theologian, or rather he was a philosopher in order to improve his theology. Above all, theology cannot be content with rationalizing representations of the mysteries of faith: it must follow the movement of divine revelation and thus enter history as the place and time of God’s revelation. The very essence of divine revelation is the incarnation. Popular piety is, from this point of view, a source from which a Christian theology is possible. It therefore requires careful observation of its reality, which is in history. This is not a formal entity. The Incarnation is concrete; it takes place first in the history of the chosen people, and then in the history of the people of God, which, being missionary, is 42 in itself limitless. The Latin American experience is important here: it is one of a people that knows suffering and injustice, and precisely because of this it is structured in solidarity. “The poor are those who, at least de facto in Latin America, preserve as structuring their life and coexistence the culture proper to their people, and whose interests coincide with a historical project of justice and peace [...]. In this way, the preferential option for the poor [...] is not opposed to the option [...] for the evangelization of culture and the cultures of peoples, but de facto both coincide” (TP 15). Liberation theology has known deviations; however, the focus given to it by Gustavo Gutiérrez was right. His book 2 Parlare di Dio a partire dalla sofferenza dell’innocente is a magnificent commentary on the words of the protagonist of the Book of Job. In 1993, Scannone published with a colleague the proceedings of the meetings he had had in the previous years with philosophers from all over the Latin American continent: “Irruption of the Poor and Philosophical Work. Toward a New Rationality.”3 Here the term “irruption” is important. He took it from Gutiérrez. It indicates an absolute novelty. Not that theology did not know the poor, of course.

2.G. Gutiérrez, Parlare di Dio a partire dalla sofferenza dell’innocente. Una riflessione sul libro di Giobbe, Brescia, Queriniana, 1986. 3.J. C. Scannone - M. Perine, Irrupción del pobre y quehacer filosófico. Hacia una nueva racionalidad, Buenos Aires, Bonum, 1993. JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE

However, it did not consider them at the center of history, but only as recipients of preaching. The poor, instead, now break into theology. According to Scannone, there is “a proper contribution of popular theology, both to theology as a science and to the Church. [...] Even if such an exchange has deep roots in the Holy Scriptures and in the history of the Church and of theology, today there is, however, a new awareness of it. Its explication, accentuation and deepening are due to an event of twofold importance: ‘the irruption of the poor’ in the conscience of society, of the Church and of theology, and the consequent revalorization of popular religion and wisdom, an event that constitutes a true sign of the times” (TP 127). Pope Francis mentions the “irruption of the poor” in No. 149 43 of his encyclical Laudato Si’, where, referring to life in favelas, he states that “love always proves more powerful. Many people in these conditions are able to weave bonds of belonging and togetherness which convert overcrowding into an experience of community in which the walls of the ego are torn down and the barriers of selfishness overcome. This experience of a communitarian salvation often generates creative ideas for the improvement of a building or a neighborhood.” Can we not see in this fact the response to a call – “Get up!” – resurrection? But in what way can this response enter into theological discourse? This is where philosophy becomes necessary for theology. And in this regard, three authors are important to Scannone: first, Bernard Lonergan, then Enrique Dussel, and finally Paul Ricœur. 4 In his work Method in Theology, Lonergan proposes a philosophical development of theological reflection: first, analysis, then interpretation, next affirmation of truth, and finally the systemic assumption of what is known. Each of these “times” is divided into two, so that the method of four “times” includes eight “moments.”

4.Cf. B. Lonergan, Il metodo in teologia, Brescia, Queriniana, 1975, in par- ticular the chapter “Le specializzazioni funzionali” (pp. 145-164). PAUL GILBERT, SJ

Here we will try to illustrate mainly the first two “times.” The analysis of situations – the first time – belongs to intelligent observation. Two moments can be distinguished: practical observation and projective theorizing. The first moment is that of the search for data. For the Bible, this will be the moment of analysis of literal meaning; for research on popular piety, this will be the moment of social analysis. In the second moment, categories are created that are likely to lead toward new investigations: for example, literary genres in the Scriptures. When it is said that the poor, having nothing to lose, are free to give to other poor people as much as possible of what they have, thus forming a people in solidarity, this is not a naïve judgment. Although among the poor there can be violence, the theologian’s closeness to their existence reveals that even in their 44 relationships there are forces of life. The category of “solidarity” is manifested here because it leads the human group toward a common future, contrary to the categories of individualism. The second time is that of the elaboration of the meaning of the facts observed and already organized with the help of the categories of the first “time.” The third moment of the method consists in considering the variety of possibilities that come from the previous “time” and recognizing their opposition or the nuances that make them compatible. For example, it is impossible to talk about solidarity without taking into account the realities of the lives of the people who are united in the favelas. The fourth moment is that of insight. This term indicates the intellectual or intuitive perception of an internal sense of what has been perceived previously, without neglecting its dialectical aspects. Thus, insight perceives concrete possibilities of meaning for complex human situations. The moment of meaning is followed by the moment of truth or doctrinal judgment. We thus enter the third stage of the method. Obviously here the theologian is required to pay attention to the Magisterium of the Church. Lonergan, however, insists on another point: the correct integration of a “world mediated by meaning and motivated by value” (TP 138), which keeps this stage of his method in the realm of philosophy. We thus conclude this concise exposition of Lonergan’s proposal on method. JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE

However, we feel it is important to make one more point. In order to pass from one time to another, a conversion is required. “By conversion is meant the transformation of the subject and his or her world. [...] It is rather the change of course and direction that results. It is as if one’s eyes were opened and one’s former world has faded and receded. Something new appears in its place.”5 A conversion of reason already occurs when one moves from scientific observation to explanatory categories. The moment of insight is therefore that of a conversion that is more than rational in favor of an intellectual intuition of a meaning that allows one, “without touching the truth of the doctrines, [to] reinterpret them in fidelity and creativity, finding in them facets and explications not discovered until a given historical and 45 cultural moment” (TP 138). The third “time’’ of the method thus requires a form of intuition that makes us attentive to the value of truth. Conversion receives its radical value here. Lonergan presents a series of conversions, and finally an “affective conversion” (TP 139), which puts an end tothe mental claims that hinder the correct understanding of what is. According to Scannone, “in the case of reading the signs of the times in circumstances of injustice and violence, as in Latin America, this conversion takes the form of a historical conversion to the poor, who suffer them” (TP 140). Participation in the experience of the poor and their solidarity frees us from our prejudices as judges who love elaborate and complex cultures. Was it not because a conversion was underway with Vatican II that the expression “preferential option for the poor” entered the speech given by John Paul II at the meeting of Latin American bishops in Puebla in 1979, and was then included, in 2004, in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (No. 182)? At the same time, we should recall it was probably prepared during the Council by a group of bishops gathered together as the “Catacombs Group.”6

5.Ibid., 150. 6.Cf. L. Martínez Saavedra - P. Sauvage, Le pacte des catacombes. ‘Une Église pauvre pour les pauvres’. Un événement méconnu de Vatican II et ses conséquences, PAUL GILBERT, SJ

We now turn to Enrique Dussel. According to Lonergan, hermeneutics is invited to respect the diversity of facts: that is why it will be dialectical. Dussel’s reflection on what he calls “the analectic” is inserted here. The word “analectic” joins the terms “analogical” and “dialectic”: the first aims at the reduction of the multiple to the one; the second expresses an attention to the irreducible difference of the multiple. The analectic thus attempts to bridge classical analogy and dialectics. Dussel, who had very early become a friend of Scannone’s, therefore proposes a philosophy that, through analectics, could correct theologians who follow Marxist models. The influence of Emmanuel Lévinas’ thought in Dussel’s proposal is evident. In Dussel’s Introduction to the Philosophy of (1977) we read that “the word ‘analectic’ means that 46 Liberation the logos comes from ‘farther away,’ that there is first a moment in which a word arises that calls, farther away than the world, which is the point on which the dialectic rests to move from an old order to a new order. This movement from one order to another is dialectical, but it is the Other as oppressed that is the starting point. [...] If the Other is the support for this passage and this growth, I will move to the extent that the Other receives me, calls on me. The analectic method arises from the Other and advances dialectically, but there is a discontinuity that comes from the freedom of the Other.”7 The arrival of the other is an “irruption.” It involves interruptions, but at the same time appeals for recognition. Analectics thus remains attentive to the original irreducibility of the “other,” contextually to the communion it requires, but without confusion. For Scannone, the analectic includes many elements from Lévinas, but also from Ricœur, which allows the reflection to be more practical. For Ricœur, access to the intelligibility of

Brussels, Lessius, 2019; G. Pani, “Il patto delle catacombe”, in Civ. Catt. 2015 IV 542-552. 7.E. Dussel, Introducción a la filosofía de la liberación latinoamericana, Mexico, Editorial Extemporáneos, 1977, 127f. The mixing of the same words also produces “dialogical,” but with his formula “analectic,” Dussel better highlights the original character of the word that is first of all to be heard. JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE human things depends on a hermeneutic whose fundamental categories are the symbol and the metaphor. The symbol is not a tool of interpretation, because it is reality itself that is symbolic, constituting a tension between what appears immediately and the meaning actually present. The sciences do not see, or need not see, that realities are symbolic, which is why they cannot approach their human meaning. For example, there is no science of evil, which nevertheless is a reality as present as ever in our existences. Our sciences can hide the “marks of evil” for some time, but at some point they will have to stop pretending that they have the power to appropriate it. Metaphor is a way to express the symbolic character of lived realities, to indicate a gap immanent to what they are, to reveal the outflow that arises in them and gives them meaning. What 47 can be said about old age that makes more sense than this poetic metaphor referred to by Aristotle: “Old age is the evening or sunset of life”? 8 But it is still necessary to see realities as they are, to accept that they are complex. When Pope Francis uses the figure of the polyhedron to indicate that in which all reality shows its unity in a plural way, he points out that the principle of unity is not a formula, but it is that by which all aspects of each reality constitute a harmonious concert. How better to express what is happening to us in a pandemic like Covid-19 if not by evoking what is being experienced: “the boat in the storm,” “the new flame in the night,” “the underground and the mountains,” or even “the war of the poets”9? Would it not therefore be possible to “read” popular piety in this perspective? This is the chain of thought that Juan Carlos Scannone has bequeathed to us.

8.Aristotle, Poetics, 21 (1457b 22-23). 9.Cf. A. Spadaro, “Una nuova immaginazione del possibile”, in Civ. Catt. 2020 II 567-580. The Economy of Francesco and Young People

Gaël Giraud, SJ

Pope Francis invited young economists from around the world to meet and reflect on how to “change the current economy and give a soul to the economy of tomorrow.” He invited to participate in this broad, shared discernment, all those 48 who today are beginning to study and practice an economics that is different from the one he rejected in the first chapter of his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. What is needed, he says, is “an economy that gives life and does not kill, includes and does not exclude, humanizes and does not dehumanize, takes care of creation and does not plunder it.”1 The event, from November 19 to 21, 2020, held online because of Covid-19, was promoted by the diocese and the town of Assisi, the Seraphic Institute of Assisi and the Economy of Communion (EoC). What characteristics should an economy have that is capable of listening to “the cry of the earth and the poor”? If we want the “Economy of Francesco” not to become an empty slogan, young economists, believers or not, must courageously face the problems that concern their discipline. In the following pages we will recall, first of all, that economics is necessarily based on numbers, and that any change in the economic paradigm requires a realignment, on the part of young economists, of these numbers and of all the data at our disposal. Then we will show that some major principles dear to Pope Francis are also excellent guidelines for reforming the world economy.

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 6, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.6

1.Francis, “Video Message to Participants in the Meeting ‘The Economy of Francesco – Young People, a Commitment, the Future’”, November 21, 2020, in https://francescoeconomy.org THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Finally, we will present the concrete example of an initiative that illustrates the spirit of discernment to which the pope invites us. The observations that follow are not intended to replace this collective discernment, but, on the contrary, to call attention to some fundamental points that are necessary to help all of us in this spiritual experience.

Poverty and inequality “Inequality is the root of social ills” (Evangelii Gaudium [EG], No. 202). It is from this statement that any reflection leading to a different economy must start.The “ world is rich and yet the poor are growing around us. According to official reports this year’s world income will be $12,000 per person. However, hundreds of millions of people are still mired in extreme poverty 49 lacking adequate and essential food, housing, health care, schools, electricity, clean water and sanitation.”2 These situations have caused heated discussions. At the Davos Forum, for example, in January 2019, several participants argued that the number of “poor” people had declined in recent decades and issued a vibrant call in support of market globalization – a position that Pope Francis promptly criticized. The debate and animated discussions partially arise because of the different criteria used to assess poverty. Even if we were to restrict the discussion to monetary poverty, which is already very limiting, since it is not the only dimension of human existence that should be taken into account, the conventional poverty line (equivalent to the purchasing power of $1.90 per day in the United States in 2011) is unacceptable: all evidence shows that living on an average of $2 per day means being exposed to malnutrition, poor education and a very high mortality rate. Many economists support the call for an increase of that threshold to $7.40 per day.3 But even if that

2.Francis, “Address to Participants at the Workshop ‘New Forms of Fraternity, Inclusion, Integration, and Innovation,’” Casina Pio IV, February 5, 2020, in vatican.va 3.Economist Lant Pritchett assumes a threshold of $10. See L. Pritchett, “The World Bank Progresses on Poverty Lines”, at www.cgdev.org/blog/world- bank-progresses-poverty-lines GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

were the case, the number of people living on less than $7.40 a day has increased dramatically since the 1980s, to a total of 4.2 billion people today. Moreover, all of the data that has shown an improvement in this situation can be attributed to China and owes nothing to the “Washington Consensus.”4 A heated debate is also underway on the subject of inequality.5 The Gini index, between 0 and 1, measures income inequality: the higher it is, the more unequal the society. Measured against this index, income inequality in the world has fallen, according to the World Bank, from 0.63 in 1960 to 0.47 in 2013.6 Due to the various factors taken into account, this analysis should be treated with some skepticism. Indeed, such a reduction in inequality between nations is consistent with rising inequality within almost 50 every country. And the explosion of inequality within each country is now a very well documented phenomenon.7 Second, most of that improvement is due to China and, to a lesser extent, India: if we were to calculate the global Gini index excluding China, we would find that there has been a shift from 0.50 in 1980 to 0.58 in 2005. Third, the Gini index considered so far is relative. People’s perceptions of inequality are more sensitive to absolute inequalities than to relative differences. There is, in fact, also a Gini index that measures absolute differences in wealth; but the worldwide “absolute Gini” has risen from 0.57 in 1988, to 0.72 in 2005, despite the progress made by Beijing. In other words, we are not experiencing a convergence that heralds the arrival of a more equitable world society, but the opposite.

4.The Washington Consensus refers to the economic policies imposed on debtor countries by the institutions created by the Bretton Woods agreements (International Monetary Fund, World Bank). 5.Cf. G. Giraud - F. Koerreales - C. Poggi, “Les inégalités dans le monde: où en est-on”, in Études 165 (2019/1). 6.Cf. B. Milanović, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2016. 7.Even today, the best database on inequality is the World Income Inequality Database (Wiid, Denmark): see www.wider.unu.edu/project/wiid-world- income-inequality-database/. See also J. Choi et al., “A Comparison of Major World Inequality Data Sets: LIS, OECD, EU-SILC, WDI and EHII”, in L. Cappellari - S. Polachek - K. Tatsiramos (eds), Income Inequality Around the Wo rld, Bradford, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016, 1-48. THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE

We mention these absurd polemics to remind ourselves that too often economic reflection is the monopoly of experts who engage in discussions from which most citizens feel excluded. The questions posed by Pope Francis make us realize that more often than not, superficial “expertise” distances us from common sense. This is a particularly delicate subject when it comes to constructing and interpreting the data with which economists and decision-makers work. One need only think of their lack of reliability in analyses concerning the African continent.8 Indeed, great efforts are needed if we want the economy to be at the service of the common good. Pope Francis has criticized the trickle-down theory, according to which increasing the wealth of a few would benefit all. This theory is empirically invalidated, as we have just seen, nor is it supported by analytical foundations.9 It argues that increasing 51 wealth at the top of the social pyramid facilitates saving, hence investment, hence growth, and hence wealth for all. All these assumptions are false, because it is not savings that finance investment, but the creation of credit by the banking sector.10 It was to this power of monetary creation that Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno referred, foreseeing the need for regulation of this process. This call has been reiterated recently by the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development.11 Today, most savings are invested in the financial markets or in real estate, thus fueling two speculative bubbles that play a decisive role in exacerbating inequality and accelerating the gentrification of metropolises.12 Secondly, GDP growth not only does not imply a reduction in poverty, but has not necessarily coincided, for at least 30 years, with the creation of new jobs. We have succeeded in inventing “growth without work” or growth accompanied by jobs so precarious that even in Europe a new category has appeared: that of the poor worker who, at the end of the month, is obliged to eat at the soup kitchen. Pope Francis’ questions to the community of economists, financiers and entrepreneurs demand deep reflection from us at a time when conventional economics is in crisis. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer has written, over the past three decades we have witnessed an “intellectual regression” GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

in macroeconomics.13 The former World Bank chief economist refers to “post-real models” to describe the tools used by most economists in major international institutions. Similarly, Olivier Blanchard, shortly after leaving his post as chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, wrote that the DSGE models – the most commonly used until recently – are “decidedly false.”14 The models we most often use do not include money, ignore the existence of debt, postulate that unemployment is voluntary, and assume that wealth can be produced without energy. Such models obviously failed to predict the great financial crisis that occurred in 2008 and continue to provide fanciful predictions about the real impact of global warming and the collapse of biodiversity. Some economists 52 even conclude that “a century of climate change is probably no worse than the loss of a decade of economic growth,” and thus that “there are problems facing humankind that are bigger than climate change.”15 These statements and the analysis that accompanies them are at odds with Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and the deeper aspirations of the “Greta Thunberg generation.” Indeed, one might say that most conventional economists are an obstacle to the ecological and social reconstruction of our societies.

‘Everything is connected’ If young people want to rebuild an economy that helps us understand the real world from a perspective of reorientation toward the “common good and social peace” (cf. EG 217-237), the four principles enunciated by the pope in Evangelii Gaudium can serve as an interesting source of inspiration.16

13.Cf. P. Romer, “The Trouble With Macroeconomics”, in https://paulromer. net/the-trouble-with-macro 14.Cf. O. Blanchard, “Do DSGE Models Have a Future?”, in Peterson Institute for International Economics - Policy Brief, November 16, 2016. 15.R. Tol, “The Economic Impacts of Climate Change”, in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 12 (2018/1) 6. Cf. M. Woillez et al., “Economic impacts of a glacial period: a thought experiment to assess the disconnect between econometrics and climate sciences”, in Earth System Dynamics 11 (2020/4) 1-14. 16.Cf. L. Taylor, Reconstructing Macroeconomics. Structuralist Proposals and Critiques of the Mainstream, Cambridge (Ma), Harvard University Press, 2004; THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE

First, one should consider the principle “the whole is greater than the part” (cf. EG 234-237). This means that the common good of the whole world cannot be reduced to defending the interests of a few, and that therefore, at the level of the “whole,” events can occur that cannot be deduced from the “part.” In economics, the interactions of millions of actors produce aggregate effects on prices, demand and supply every day, which cannot be deduced from the behavior of an individual. Taking the complexity of the real world seriously requires an awareness that new and unexpected phenomena can occur, and this happens in economics as in all other sciences. Yet the conventional economics program called “methodological individualism” that is taught in universities around the world, opposes this view and continues to act as if 53 the whole were strictly nothing more than the sum of the parts. Many of our models continue to provide the absurd assumption that our economies are populated by individual consumers or individual firms, which makes it impossible, for example, to study private debt rigorously, when it plays a decisive role in the deflationary depression we are experiencing today. Second, the principle “time is superior to space” (cf. EG 222- 225). To be envisaged as a goal, the common good requires time, discernment and dialogue. This means that the short term imposed by financial markets cannot be a legitimate horizon for economic decision-making. Ecological transition, in particular, requires investment over several decades. To honor time, financial markets must be regulated so that the state and investors look to a longer term horizon. Pope Francis’ insight also means that time, as such, is a key element in any economic decision. Yet most of our economic reasoning is based on the fiction of a static equilibrium, and no serious unbalanced dynamics are involved. In this respect, economics lags more than a century behind all other scientific disciplines, which take nonlinear dynamics into account in their

E. Bovari et al., “Coping With Collapse: A Stock-Flow Consistent Monetary Macrodynamic of Global Warming”, in Ecological Economics, No. 147, 2018, 383-398. The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) is a network undertaking interesting initiatives in this field. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

analyses. However, this is not the case in conventional economics, which prefers to believe that markets perfectly anticipate the future, so that the future would be entirely deducible from the present. In such a view, time no longer counts. Third, “unity prevails over conflict” (cf. EG 226-230). By affirming this principle, Pope Francis wants to invite usto always seek the unity of the Church and, more generally, of our social bodies, without neglecting diversity. However, a certain economic ideology has placed the competition of “all against all” at the center of social interaction For such an ideology, finding a spouse, choosing a profession, establishing residence in one city rather than another, are all fundamental decisions that should be governed by the “game” 54 of competition, by the law of supply and demand. This is tantamount to placing the exacerbation of conflict at the center of the social fabric. Even the concept of perfect competition is problematic in itself,17 and the virtues attributed to the invisible hand of markets are illusions.18 If the “hand of the market” is invisible, it is because it does not exist. This ideology purporting to explain the market is nothing more than a secularized application of the Christian theology of providence, but an erroneous application: the mystery of divine providence has never meant that we can exploit the poorest, telling them that they need not worry, because an “invisible” force will take care of them. At the center of the social bond must not be competition, but solidarity and fidelity to commitments, without which no institution is possible. Within the theory of “games,” cooperative ones are more important and relevant than non-cooperative ones.19

17.Cf. A. Mas-Colell - W. Hildebrand, The Cournotian foundations of Walrasian equilibrium theory: an exposition of recent theory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983; G. Giraud, “Strategic market games: an introduction”, in Journal of Mathematical Economics, No. 39, 2003, 355-375. 18.Cf. G. Giraud - A. Pottier, “Debt-Deflation versus the Liquidity Trap: the Dilemma of Nonconventional Monetary Policy”, in Economic Theory, No. 62, 2016, 383-408. 19.Cf. G. Giraud, La théorie des jeux, Paris, Flammarion, 2000. THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Rather than an atomized anthropology, it is the vision of the human person as a “being-in-relationship” that must be placed at the center of our economies.20 The triumphalist idea of homo economicus belongs to another era; it goes back to the Vitruvian man: man is thought of as an adult male, white and healthy, isolated from the rest of the world, endowed with technical knowledge that allows him to conceive himself to be in absolute metaphysical solitude. This anthropological idea must be replaced by the concept – deeply biblical and promoted by Francis’ encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti – of women and men in relation to each other, to generations and to creation. It is an anthropological vision that includes issues of justice, because the economy is also a moral discipline.21 What is needed is an economy attentive 55 to a future that is not written with “rational expectations” – the illusion of private actors who perfectly anticipate the future! – but one that we can and must build together, being willing to renounce our idols. Who will be able to build an economy based on these foundations? Fourth, “reality is more important than the idea” (cf. EG 231-233). One of the biggest problems with conventional economics is that it is based on models that ignore material reality. It is time for economics to seriously consider, for example, disruptions to the water cycle. According to the World Resources Institute, by 2040 Italy may not have more than 80% of its current supply of drinking water (like Spain, the Maghreb, South Africa, the Andes, Indonesia, etc.), while in the second half of this century rising temperatures may cause hyperthermia (abnormally high temperature) that could make parts of the Italian peninsula uninhabitable. The same applies to the tropics of the three main continents. The issue of public debt is much less serious than that of lack of natural resources,

20.See for example H. L’Huillier et al., “Crisis and relief in the Niger Delta (2012-13): assessment of the effects of a flood on relational capabilities”, in Oxford Development Studies 46 (2017/1) 113-131. 21.Cf. G. Giraud, “Why Economics is a Moral Science: Lifting the Veil of Ignorance in the right direction”, in K. Basu - R. Hockett (eds), Law, Economics and Conflict, New York, Cornell University Press, 2020. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

because, if Italians were forced to abandon the peninsula for lack of water and excessive heat, one thing would be certain: no one would repay the Italian debt. It is time for economic theory to also take seriously the scarcity of non-renewable mineral resources. So, in collaboration with a team of geophysicists, we have shown that copper could reach its peak of worldwide extraction as early as 2060.22 This is a figure that should seriously concern us, because the infrastructure associated with processing renewable energy consumes far more copper than the infrastructure that enables the extraction of fossil hydrocarbons. Therefore, it is essential that our societies quickly learn to make careful use of copper and all the other minerals that will start to become scarce in the 56 near future. Unfortunately, there are still very few economists advising their governments on these issues. Finally, one last major principle dear to Pope Francis could henceforth serve as a guiding criterion for the reconstruction of economics. It is: “Everything is connected.” Economics can no longer be practiced as a discipline isolated from other academic disciplines: it must listen to ethics, sociology, history, law and political science, as well as physics, biology, and even theology. Why this last? Because economics cannot be separated from law, and because Western law is the product of the interweaving of Roman law with Christian theology that took place during the Gregorian revolution in the 11th century. Contemporary economics is the secularization of a bad theology, confused with John Locke’s political philosophy: its philosophical and theological presuppositions must therefore be questioned. That is why collective discernment is needed more than ever. To contribute to this discernment, we will now examine a concrete example of an initiative launched by young Brazilian economists, which prefigures the economy we must promote and want to promote.

22.Cf. O. Vidal et al., “Global Trends in Metal Consumption and Supply: The Raw Material-Energy Nexus”, in Elements 13 (2017/5) 319-324. THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE

The Woman Mother Earth Alliance In response to Pope Francis’ call to inaugurate new economies, a global alliance was promoted in the Agriculture and Justice Village – one of 12 groups created as part of The Economy of Francesco initiative23 – to enable women’s access to the land so that it fully realizes its vocation to be biodiverse and promotes good living for all communities around the world. Pope Francis’ call for global solidarity and commitment to fighting inequality was answered by more than 2,000 young people from all over the world. As mentioned, the spread of the pandemic forced a change in the calendar, with a first virtual meeting held in November 2020, and a final plenary meeting to be held, again in Assisi, in November 2021. Among the many projects developed as a synthesis of the 57 aspirations for change emerging from Brazil and Latin America, one, in particular, deserves our attention: the Woman Mother Earth Alliance. In this project, Brazil has become a point of reference above all for the social articulation built around the initiative, “The Economy of Francis and Clare” (including St. Clare, thus testifying to the fact that the feminine dimension is structurally important in rethinking the future of the world). More than others, young Brazilians were able to elaborate a critical insight that also embraced the “feminine dimension of the economy” and to establish a network of relationships that attracted young people from a variety of villages and other countries in South America. The Woman Mother Earth Alliance seeks to offer concrete responses to the demand for “Land, Roof and Work”24 for women in rural areas of Brazil and elsewhere in the world; to defend their right of access25 to genetic resources; and to build equitable relationships around the production, trade and consumption of healthy food.

23.www.francescoeconomy.org 24.Cf. “Terra, tetto, lavoro ed enciclica ‘Fratelli tutti’ in tempo di pandemia: incontro virtuale dei movimenti popolari”, at www.fides.org 25.As required by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

This path is articulated on two main levels: 1) the strengthening of a global agenda to defend the right to land, the sovereignty over genetic resources and the overcoming of inequalities that limit the full development of women’s capacities; 2) the building of local alliances for the production and marketing of food. This agenda is intended to be a process of discernment, in which time plays a predominant role. The Woman Mother Earth Alliance takes up the agenda agreed upon in 2014 by representatives of the World Popular Movements – including the Movements for New Economies – centered on the three pillars: “Land, Roof and Work,” with the desire to strengthen the commitments made back then. 58 Globally, gender inequality is one of the biggest obstacles to sustainable development and poverty reduction, as was indicated in the Sustainable Development Goals drafted by the UN on September 25, 2015. The 5th goal is “to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” The Woman Mother Earth Alliance project is therefore configured as an intervention that can help achieve this goal, with a focus on women’s empowerment and their access to land, as well as the recognition of their economic, ecological and social role, which is essential within local farming communities: cooperation instead of a chauvinist war of the sexes. At the international level, the Alliance is planning to participate in a series of events that are being prepared: on the one hand, the Generation Equality Forum,26 organized by UN Women, in which a program of concrete measures to achieve equality between women and men by 2030 will be presented; on the other hand, the next World Forum for Access to Land, which various organizations involved in the struggle for access to land are organizing following the previous meeting in Valencia in 2016.27 This initiative would also be proposed to other major players on the world stage, sensitive to these

26.Cf. “Forum Génération Égalité (2021)”, in www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/ fr/politique-etrangere-de-la-france/la-france-et-les-nations-unies/forum- generation-egalite-2021 27.Cf. “World Forum on Access to Land 2016”, in www.agter.org/bdf/en/ thesaurus_dossiers/motcle-dossiers-136.html THE ECONOMY OF FRANCESCO AND YOUNG PEOPLE issues: UN agencies (FAO, OHCHR), farmer organizations from the Catholic world (FOCSIV, CIDSE) or international ones (LVC). This international agenda is also based on a set of local actions linked to food production, processing, marketing, consumption and disposal. Many of these initiatives are already taking place, and should be understood as stimuli toward the construction of a new agri-food system. They are based on the fundamental premise of shortening the marketing circuits through networked actors and sustainable and solidarity-based solutions already existing in the territories, integrated, increased and pushed toward new solutions, starting from The Economy of Francis and Clare. Why this special focus on women? They are primarily 59 responsible for promoting food sovereignty. It is they who do most of the work of protecting local agriculture, cultivating gardens and medicinal plants and managing domesticated animals. Yet rural women and their children are among the social actors most affected by hunger. According to the Synthesis of Social Indicators published in 2019 by IBGE,28 women have greater difficulty entering employment and remaining employed; they have lower incomes and are more likely to be in casual work than men. This very labor – the basis of production and social reproduction of families and society at large – is invisible, because it is not monetized. This is one of the reasons for the higher incidence of poverty among women, especially those of color. According to the same IBGE data, in 2018 the percentage of black or mulatto women in households with poverty incidence was 33.5 percent, while for white men it was only 15.6 percent.29 Another relevant aspect concerns the way of producing food and preserving life, socio-biodiversity and genetic resources: “Everything is connected.” Historically excluded from the process of agricultural modernization, rural women

28.Cf. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Síntese de Indicadores Sociais. Uma Análise das Condições de Vita da População Brasileira, in www.ibge.gov.br 29.Per capita household income of less than $5.50 PPP per day. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ

have remained the main custodians of local agriculture and traditional production techniques in harmony with the environment. Their contribution therefore goes beyond the promotion of food production and extends to water and energy management, and in particular to the conservation of the genetic resources of territories. Barriers to access to land and the means of production and marketing are among the main reasons for women’s subordinate position in our societies. In several countries of the Global South, access to land is a right formally denied to women. In countries where they can legally own land, women are systematically hindered. This is evident from difficulties in obtaining credit for production and land acquisition to discrimination in 60 inheritance, land registries and public land access policies that often ignore them as owners in the case of agrarian reforms and other interventions supporting land acquisition. Needless to say, these issues – gender inequality, biodiversity conservation, difficulty of access to bank credit and land ownership, food sovereignty – are elements largely neglected by the models of analysis used by conventional economists. But “reality is more important than the idea.” The strength and will of the young people of The Economy of Francis and Clare, and many others who will join the group, lies in their questioning of current economic arrangements and their ability to promote and articulate global and local efforts to reverse the historical and structural inequalities that are affecting women’s lives and impacting everyone in the Common Home. Under the leadership of Pope Francis and in response to his call, this enormous challenge seems to have great potential.30

30.This article was written in collaboration with Andrei Thomaz Oss- Emer, philosopher, MSc Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil; Lea Vidigal, jurist, PhD University of São Paulo, Brazil; Lilian de Pellegrini Elias, PhD economist, State University of Campinas, Brazil; Luiza Dulci, sociologist, PhD Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Valentina Cattivelli, economist, PhD Università Cattolica Piacenza-Milano, coordinator of Villaggio Agricoltura e Giustizia; Elisabetta Basile, economist, PhD Università La Sapienza, Rome, senior member of Villaggio Agricoltura e Giustizia; Paolo Groppo, land tenure specialist FAO (R), senior member of Villaggio Agricoltura e Giustizia. Desacralized Myths: Crisis of narrative and narrative of crisis

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

The discomfort of fragmentation A peculiar characteristic of today’s so-called “Postmodern” era is the absence of global narratives. This is the basic hypothesis of the famous book by Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, published in 1979. Lyotard 61 pointed out that, from a cultural point of view, the so-called “Modern” era, characterized by comprehensive narratives and great utopian projects (the last ones were Rationalism, the Enlightenment, Marxism), capable of providing unity and historical identity to a variety of social groups, has come to an end.1 Next came the era of liquidity, well noted by Zygmunt Bauman: “The era inaugurated with the construction of the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall that ended with the Berlin Wall is over forever. In this global planetary space it is no longer possible to draw a border to feel truly and totally safe behind it. This is true forever: for today and for all the future days we can imagine.”2 Narratives, however, have not disappeared: they have become desacralized (after all, Marxism was also a form of historical messianism), they have lost the aura of absolute truth, capable of an all-embracing explanation of the course of events valid

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1.“Simplifying to the utmost, we can consider ‘postmodern’ the disbelief in metanarratives [...]. Recourse to grand narratives is excluded [...]; the ‘small narrative’ remains the form par excellence of imaginative invention, first and foremost in science” (J.-F. Lyotard, La condizione postmoderna. Rapporto sul sapere, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1981, 6; 110). 2.Z. Bauman, Society Under Siege, Polity, Cambridge, 2013. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

for all time. In their place are the so-called “low-intensity myths,” to take up the title of a recent book on the subject. There is a sacred dimension to high-intensity myths, which are separated from ordinary events. Their purpose is to clarify the main problems of life. They take place in a mythical time other than the mundane, have as protagonists higher beings, presented with positive or negative characteristics, to imitate or be wary of, such as heroes, gods, angels or demons, and they can be recognized thanks to a precise code of values. Low-intensity myths no longer deal with the sacred and the eternal: they are set in ordinary life; they do not present particular values, but merely describe events, and their characters are no different from humans.3 The reason they are also called “myths” is because they deal with the fundamental issues of life: 62 the universe and its civilizations (science fiction), the magical dimension (fantasy), death without the sacred aspect (the many narratives of zombies and vampires), violence (TV series on serial killers), and disaster (epidemics and environmental catastrophes). What these narratives have in common is their apocalyptic tone: the absence of possible answers to such issues as mentioned above leads to foreshadowing an imminent and unstoppable catastrophe, involving the entire human community, with no room for escape. It is a well-known genre because of its considerable public reach through publishing, film, music, videogames and especially social networks.4 It has found, especially in the news events of these last months, dominated by a global and seemingly unstoppable pandemic, plenty of food for thought and some validation. Low-intensity myths have also influenced philosophy. In 2011 Eugene Thacker published an apocalyptic book, In the Dust of this Planet, the first of a series dedicated to horror philosophy (anti-Cartesian and anti-Kantian), in which he theorizes about a world now devoid of human beings due to environmental

3.Cf. P. Ortoleva, Miti a bassa intensità. Racconti, media, vita quotidiana, Turin, Einaudi, 2019, XV. 4.Cf. Ibid., 33 f. For the influence of these narratives on the changed relationship with death and the dead, see G. Cucci, “Morte e digitale,” in Civ. Catt. 2020 II 543-553. LOW-INTENSITY MYTHS: CRISIS OF NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE OF CRISIS disasters, growing pandemics and exploitation produced by a suicidal policy aimed at profit without limits. It is a world that turns out to be indifferent to humans, indeed it can finally exist more effectively thanks to the disappearance of its real enemies.5 The question has been asked why certain types of production (e.g., Star Wars, Harry Potter, films and TV series about zombies, vampires and epidemics) surpass others in terms of popularity. Even in their low intensity some narratives somehow become “classics,” have a large following and show remarkable durability, despite their fragmentary nature noted by Bauman and the often repetitive and rambling plots. Evidently, such productions succeed in expressing in a particularly successful way a widespread current mentality about the fundamental themes of life, especially growing and unstoppable fears. At the 63 same time they preserve a certain aura of mystery and enigma proper to every myth.

The pragmatic side of low intensity The shift to low intensity can also be noticed at the social and political level. Epic narratives and heroes have always been a constant feature of the traditions of all times: Their presence can be found in the main civil festivities, in the names of streets, squares, stations (Garibaldi, Cavour, Vittorio Emanuele). After all, the very word “nation” comes from a word for “birth”: “There is no geopolitics without myth and no myth without ritual. Every community that aspires to power needs a historical root [...]. Myth and ritual compress time. They use the past to legitimize today, to project tomorrow.”6 Hence also there is the possible manipulation of these narratives: several times in the past the leader of the day has arrogated to himself absolute power, interpreting it in terms of a sacred mission. It is interesting to

5.Cf. E. Thacker, Tra le ceneri di questo pianeta, Rome, Produzioni Nero, 2019; A. Weisman, Il mondo senza di noi, Turin, Einaudi, 2017; E. Kolbert, La sesta estinzione, Milan, Beat, 2016 (2015 Pulitzer Prize in the USA). In Italy, philosophical horror is known indirectly thanks to the television revival of the writings of Thacker and especially Thomas Ligotti (La cospirazione contro la razza umana, Milan, il Saggiatore, 2016; La straziante resurrezione di Victor Frankenstein, ibid., 2018) in the HBO series True Detective. 6.“Tutti i miti portano a Roma,” in Limes, No. 2, 2020, 7. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

note how most of the dictators of the 20th century, in addition to attributing to themselves a mythological aura to justify their role, have tried their hand at writing and the arts (with unhappy but effective results), to construct a narrative enterprise, as well as an economic and political one.7 However, in line with Lyotard’s reading, these great narratives seem to have disappeared from the common imagination today: heads of state are presented less and less as heroes to be imitated, bearers of an epic narrative, except in some dictatorial regimes that still have a personality cult. For the most part, the leaders of current governments are also “low intensity.” So too is their narrative, expressed by a term of recent provenance: storytelling. It appeared in the USA in the mid-1990s and covers an increasingly wide range of activities, from economics to 64 medicine, from law to politics.8 Remaining with politics, we note that the narrative genre of some electoral campaigns is striking. It is very different from a few decades ago and at the same time increasingly widespread in various parts of the world. It is the type of narrative that has a considerable grip on a pragmatic level and serves to justify decisions of great impact on the public life of a nation, or even of the entire world: “The great narratives that have marked the history of humanity, from Homer to Tolstoy and from Sophocles to Shakespeare, recounted universal myths and transmitted the lessons of past generations, lessons of wisdom, the fruit of accumulated experience. Storytelling follows the path in the opposite direction: it glues artificial stories onto reality [...]. It doesn’t tell the experience of the past, but it shapes behavior, directs the flow of emotion, synchronizes their circulation.”9

7.Illustrative of this is work by D. Kalder, Dictator Literature. A History of Despots Through their Writings, London, Oneworld, 2019. 8.“Managers are required to tell stories to motivate workers, and doctors are trained to listen to their patients’ stories. Even reporters have adopted narrative journalism and psychologists narrative therapy [...]. A glance at any bookstore is enough to see the impressive success of books devoted to the art of storytelling, considered as a path to spirituality, a strategy for scholarship applicants, a way to resolve conflicts or a plan to lose weight” (F. Polletta, It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics, Chicago, University Chicago Press, 2006, 1). 9.C. Salmon, Storytelling. La fabbrica delle storie, Rome, Fazi, 2008, 13. LOW-INTENSITY MYTHS: CRISIS OF NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE OF CRISIS

These narratives are meant to gain the voters’ consent by trying to intercept their needs and emotions. They are low- intensity narratives because the protagonists present themselves in the guise of the common person and tell people, “I’m just like you.” At his presidential inauguration, Jimmy Carter recalled his humble origins, stating “when I was five I sold peanuts”; George Bush made his redemption from alcohol addiction one of the main topics of his electoral campaign; Nicolas Sarkozy managed his candidacy for the French presidency in a similar way, dwelling on the suffering and injustice he had witnessed, appealing to the emotions of the listeners, for whom he claimed he wanted to be the spokesman.10 The narrative turn characterized a style of politics that soon 65 spread around the world and was used by key leaders in recent years: they “staged democracy” rather than exercised it.11 The web constitutes an immense reservoir of information which can adapt the narrative to the tastes of voters. And in order to achieve this goal, the most disparate sources are drawn upon, not infrequently violating the privacy of citizens by exploiting personal information posted on social networks. The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that this way of proceeding was used, for example, during the election campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, for the 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2018 elections in Mexico. Narratives have also been the main justification for questionable choices that have changed the politics of a nation, a continent (as in the case of Brexit) or much of the world (such as the invasion of Iraq) and, even when they have been disproved by the facts, this has had no consequences for its creators. They have resorted to what has been called “the Shahrazad strategy.”

10.An example is the speech that Sarkozy gave in Versailles on January 14, 2007: “I have changed because the trials of life have changed me [...]. Because no one can remain the same in front of the despair of the parents of a girl burned alive [...]. I find the injustice revolting and it is unfair that society ignores the victims. I want to speak for them.” 11.Cf. S. Ventura, I leader e le loro storie. Narrazione, comunicazione politica e crisi della democrazia, Bologna, il Mulino, 2019. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

In the Thousand and One Nights, the mythical hero, condemned to death, tells a story so compelling and touching that he is pardoned and gains in confidence and popularity.

A low-intensity leader Another important consequence of this lowering of the level is that the leader can more easily continue to function with possible serious failings at an ethical or civic level. In this sense, the low-intensity myth is an expression of “therapeutic culture,” that is, the tendency to highlight the sick part of oneself (dwelling, for example, on one’s past suffering and negative childhood experiences), as a way of relating to others, but also as a way of manipulating consensus, thus justifying inconsistencies 66 and serious omissions: “Ron Davies, a Labor MP who resigned in 1998 following a sex scandal, publicly announced in June 1999 that he had undertaken psychiatric therapy to address his ‘darker side.’ He attributed his condition to a ‘disturbed, violent, emotionally dysfunctional childhood.’ […]. Both Clinton and Al Gore spoke publicly about their marital difficulties, drug addiction problems [...]. Hillary Clinton spoke, referring to her husband, of ‘mental damage’ and during the Lewinski affair revealed the abuse Bill suffered during his childhood: ‘He was very small, he was just four years old, and he was so scarred by the abuse he suffered that he can’t even talk about it.’”12 In this way, when the leader violates the rules he or she has set, he or she can more easily be justified. A recent example is given by Dominic Cummings, advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak violated government lockdown rules to move his family into his vacation home. This had no criminal consequences for him, unlike the case ordinary citizens who had committed the same infraction. Storytelling, by lowering the ideal level expected of leaders, has also further undermined their credibility, fostering the already serious disaffection of voters, abstentionism and distrust

12.F. Furedi, Il nuovo conformismo. Troppa psicologia nella vita quotidiana, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2005, 76; cf. G. Cucci, “La cultura terapeutica nelle società occidentali,” in Civ. Catt. 2013 II 23-36. LOW-INTENSITY MYTHS: CRISIS OF NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE OF CRISIS in institutions and seriously endangering the very identity of democratic governments. As Joan Didion has noted, if politics becomes a novel, the seriousness of unresolved problems and the growing number of broken promises force us to recognize the inevitable difference between reality and fiction: “By dint of inventing, reality crumbles, and whole chunks of existence can no longer be represented, until there emerges an unbridgeable gulf between the ruling class and the rest of the population.”13 The scenario presented thus risks giving substance to the worst apocalyptic fears.

A warning not to be overlooked Low-intensity narratives, mostly used as forms of entertainment, are a particularly successful and intriguing 67 way to read our current situation, and they call attention to the need to address ultimate questions. Their success and popularity confirm their ability to represent in an emblematic way some profound changes in the collective imagination and the great fear of the future, ventilating a possible point of no return. They constitute a sustained and disturbing warning: humanity will face a global catastrophe if it does not revise as soon as possible some assumptions concerning common life. In particular, some themes can be recalled: that of indiscriminate profit, which dangerously widens the gap between rich and poor, with increasingly evident consequences (riots, migrations, environmental disasters); the nihilistic conception of life (and consequently of death), with people deprived of dignity and of a transcendent dimension; the absence of examples on an ethical and political level, even if one cannot help but notice in this context a certain complacent connivance with nihilism.14

13.M. Marzano, “Dietro la politica,” in la Repubblica, May 30, 2020; cf. J. Didion, Finzioni politiche, Milan, il Saggiatore, 2020. 14.As Mario Iannaccone notes with regard to TV series on serial crimes, “the worldview of the police [...] is not very different from that of the cult leader. We understand it when they expound their philosophy, based on Nietzsche’s eternal return. It turns out that the good guys don’t think very differently from the bad guys, even though they may not make human sacrifices” (M. Iannaccone, Meglio regnare all’inferno. Perché i serial killer popolano il cinema, la letteratura e la televisione, Turin, Lindau, 2017, 447). GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

Detecting danger is important, but it is not sufficient. If, as has been noted, “the story is the guardian of time” and “a bridge between experience and the cosmos,” low-intensity myths fail to accomplish this task: they successfully identify the cracks in being, but are unable to rebuild the bridge, to present models capable of protecting from catastrophe.15 However, they do recall these needs, especially for the younger generations. Umberto Galimberti noted that today many young people are sick and cannot even say what makes them sick, because they no longer have narratives available that allow them to read the problems of life and therefore, as a result, they find themselves unable to interpret what happens inside them, hence the nostalgia for a proposal of meaning capable of putting it into words: “If we are faced with a de-intensification, we must 68 not ignore that animating it is also often a demand for a higher intensity, that the new information environment is the ideal habitat for old and new sects and faiths, for old and new rituals, and opens up even more than in the past to the creation of spaces of imagination where individuals and groups can seek a more or less temporary dwelling.”16 In the issues presented, there is a longing for completeness that cannot be ignored. The call for a “higher intensity” at the origin of the perennial narratives is, not surprisingly, one of the main threads of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ (LS), dedicated to the protection of the common home, which five years later continues to demonstrate its enormous relevance. In it, the pope reminds us that there are no solutions to ecological disasters and global crises except in the context of a common collaboration and a renewed mindset. And he poses some decisive questions, which are also the questions underlying these narratives: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? This question does not only concern the environment in

15.Cfr P. Ricœur, Tempo e racconto 3, Milan, Jaca Book, 1988, 369; P. Ortoleva, Miti a bassa intensità..., op. cit., XI; G. Cucci, “La dimensione narrativa della vita”, in Civ. Catt. 2010 III 358-366. 16.P. Ortoleva, Miti a bassa intensità..., op. cit., 309; cf. U. Galimberti, L’o s p i t e inquietante. Il nichilismo e i giovani, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2012, 11-14. LOW-INTENSITY MYTHS: CRISIS OF NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVE OF CRISIS isolation; the issue cannot be approached piecemeal. When we ask ourselves what kind of world we want to leave behind, we think in the first place of its general direction, its meaning and its values. Unless we struggle with these deeper issues, I do not believe that our concern for ecology will produce significant results. But if these issues are courageously faced, we are led inexorably to ask other pointed questions: What is the purpose of our life in this world? Why are we here? What is the goal of our work and all our efforts? What need does the earth have of us? […] The issue is one which dramatically affects us, for it has to do with the ultimate meaning of our earthly sojourn” (LS 160). The ultimate questions, for too long disregarded, now show their dramatic import. Low-intensity myths have not only not cancelled the need 69 for high-intensity narratives, but they are in some way their harbinger, claiming the need for their presence. There is in them a desire for redemption, to give a foundation to the hope of continuing to live, above all to continue to transmit to future generations a heritage of values capable of providing an answer to the fundamental problems of living that cannot be ignored. Progress and Collapse

Giandomenico Mucci, SJ

Among the Enlightenment’s legacy there is an idea that spanned the centuries and penetrated deeply into the mentality of people in the West. It is the idea of progress, the idea of moving toward our cultur ranging pollution al, moral and 70 material best, especially thanks to the successes of science and technology. This idea shaped much of modern European history; it nourished hope and political ideologies; it spread trust in the future.1 Then came the 20th century and that “magnificent fate and progress” was destabilized by two world wars, the absolute evil of the concentration camps, the Cold War, and the third technological revolution. All this undermined the belief that science and technology would inevitably improve humanity and that the future would gradually become better than the past. What about today? The whole world is going through worrying years. The economic recession in the capitalist system shows no sign of abating. The emerging economic powers in Asia – China, India, Indonesia – which have been among the driving forces of the world economy, are already revealing problems similar to those that triggered the 2008 financial crisis in the United States. They too are governed by the neoliberalism that, after the collapse of real socialism, works to impose itself as the sole system and philosophy, despite the serious damage it causes in the less developed parts of the world.

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1.Cf. M. Ceruti, “Una nuova idea di progresso”, in Il Sole 24 Ore, August 2, 2020, IX. PROGRESS AND COLLAPSE

Planet Earth, if one focuses on the climate and the environment, raises serious concerns. We see wide-ranging pollution: water, air, land, melting glaciers, shrinking polar ice caps, rising sea levels, the disappearance of many animal species compromising the food chain. These phenomena are in varying degrees connected with the increase of certain types of diseases, with particular economic repercussions such as those affecting agriculture and fishing, with the scarcity of raw materials, with the rising cost of energy, with the problems of finding and distributing food for a population that is now approaching seven billion. Moreover, the great human movements from the eastern and southern areas of the world toward Europe and North America give rise to problems associated with the difficult 71 clash of cultures, ethnic groups and religions that are not used to coexisting. As far as Europe is concerned, its values, cultural and demographic crises are well known. Obvious signs of these are abortion, the breakdown of the family, the different types of “marriage,” children ordered on commission, legalized drugs, the recognition of individuals’ rights to do what they want as long as it does not disturb others. The parlous situation of the faith in countries of ancient Christian tradition deserves a separate discussion.2 In short, the words “progress,” “the future” and the like do not have the same aura of enthusiasm and hope that have characterized them for so long. “Such belief had received denials so terrible that it could no longer be offered as a credible anchor. In spite of the undoubted conquests of science – indeed, in part, precisely because of them – the horizon was filled with shadows and the path became a confused tangle. Perhaps nothing like the thought of Heidegger can prevent, for the first half of the 20th century (and later, in Italy, that of Emanuele Severino), the darkening of the horizons, and the consequent, dramatic distancing from an indiscriminate confidence in the scientific achievements of the new times. Technology no longer announced a redemption,

2.Cf. G. Meiattini, “L’uovo del serpente”, in La Scala 72 (2018) 77-79. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ

but a condemnation. The old positivistic optimism turned over on itself and left an extremely delicate nerve uncovered in the very heart of modernity.”3

An obsolete idea? No wonder, then, that today many people do not give much credit to the idea of progress, considering it a beguiling idea belied by the facts. And many think that this idea does little or virtually nothing to explain the evolution of human history, as its interpretative grid. Such a clear and definitive judgement is opposed by the more nuanced and balanced judgement of those who are aware of the failures to which the uncritical glorification of the dogma of progress has been exposed, but who have attempted to preserve 72 the value of this idea by applying a distinction to it. If we refer to cognitive capacities and control of the environment, i.e. the development of thought and technology, it is undoubtedly still meaningful to speak of progress, but human history is not made up only of that capacity and control. If one observes the whole – that is, social relations and their conflicts, economic, political and juridical forms, relations of power, ideologies, religious, artistic and philosophical experiences, moral ideas – it often becomes difficult to speak of progress, because human history also knows catastrophic regressions: one thinks, for example, of those ever-looming abuses of technology that could compromise the very survival of humanity.4 In order to achieve an ever greater common good, it is to be hoped that the power of technoscience will be balanced by the strengthening of ethical responsibility and of political and democratic institutions.

A collapse? We were talking about the possibility of catastrophic regressions, of the collapse of civilization. There are many who fear such a danger, especially among those who have stopped

3.A. Schiavone, Progresso, Bologna, il Mulino, 2020, 31. 4.Cf. M. Ceruti, “Una nuova idea di progresso”, op. cit. PROGRESS AND COLLAPSE looking at “progress” as a unidirectional process toward an ever better future. Alongside those who deny the danger, there are those who neurotically exaggerate it, those who are discouraged, those who are unable to define the problem. Certainly today there is open talk of a new field of study: “collapsology.” This is “a field of transdisciplinary scientific research aimed at the analysis and synthesis of data and figures concerning the current complex global situation and the study of the collapse of civilizations, not as a single and inevitable event, but as a series of catastrophic events (hurricanes, industrial accidents, pandemics, droughts...) in a context of progressively destabilizing changes (desertification, pollution, extinctions, climate change...).”5 And to collapsology we can bring a “collapsosophy,” that is the study of ethical and spiritual issues that can promote a profound 73 change of consciousness that can untangle humanity from the situation in which it is struggling and lead it beyond the mere sphere of technoscience.6 The crisis of nature seems to go hand in hand with that of humanity, and therefore it seems necessary to effect a change in worldview that leads to the creation of common goods and the regeneration of the natural world. The overcoming of violent behavior that attacks and ruins nature can contribute to the strengthening of a renewed alliance between humans and nature, between the values that improve humanity and the beneficial alternatives that can heal the damage we have so far done to the world in which our history takes place. This means that an additional dose of wisdom is needed to ward off the specter of total collapse, which would be the most radical form assumed by nihilism, which, in past decades, has been discussed as the inevitable destiny of Western civilization. Attentive as he is to the ethical and cultural deterioration that accompanies ecological deterioration, the pope, for his part, exhorts us to abandon an irrational faith in progress and to be concerned about what is happening to our planet and its

5.See Id., “Se la fine del mondo non è una catastrofe”, in Il Sole 24 Ore, May 31, 2020, VIII. 6.See P. Servigne - R. Stevens - G. Chapelle, Un’altra fine del mondo è pos- sibile. Vivere il collasso (e non solo sopravvivere), Rome, Treccani, 2020. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ

compromised fragility. Science, technology and applied research are a good in themselves; they are resources that promote the integral good of human persons, provided, however, that they respect the limits of their capabilities and abide by the norm of moral values, since they are not morally neutral activities. With regard to fear and the risk of global collapse, the pope offers us another precise directive: “Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to 74 respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts.”7

7.Francis, Encyclical Laudato Si’, No. 205. Cf. G. Mucci, “Papa Francesco e l’idea del progresso”, in Civ. Catt. 2020 III 307-313. Mission of the Church and Proper Economic Administration

Federico Lombardi, SJ

Once again, in light of some widely reported decisions taken by the Holy Father, many people are questioning and discussing the economic resources available to Vatican institutions and their proper administration in the service of the Church’s mission.1 This article intends to place recent events in a wider context, 75 so that the Holy Father’s guidance and decisions may be better understood.

The Lateran Treaty and the new Vatican City State A synthetic retrospective look is never useless. Without going back to the former Papal States and the consequences of the breach of Porta Pia, it must be acknowledged that in terms of economic management the pontificate of Pius XI, with the Lateran Treaty and the constitution of the Vatican City State, remains fundamental. In 1926, Pius XI decisively amalgamated in the new “Administration of the Assets of the Holy See” various pre- existing administrative offices. It managed the buildings belonging to the Holy See after 1870, paid the employees of the various departments and provided for sundry expenses.

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1.We refer to the acceptance of the retirement of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu as Prefect of the Congregation of Saints and his renunciation of the rights and privileges connected with the cardinalate (September 24, 2020), which can be read in the context of the investigations into the administration and investments made in recent years by the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State; and the decision to transfer to APSA the management and administration of the funds it has managed to this date(Letter of August 25, 2020, reiterated and published by the Press Office on November 5, 2020). FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ

Then, with the Lateran Treaty and the attached Financial Convention between Italy and the Holy See, the pontiff found himself with a large sum of compensation paid by Italy to the Church. Of this, he invested more or less one third in the construction and organization of the new small Vatican City State, another third to rebuild the nunciatures and apostolic delegations abroad, and the rest to constitute a patrimony under papal control.2 The management of the sum was entrusted by Pius XI to an expert and prudent man he fully trusted, Bernardino Nogara, appointed Delegate for the new Special Administration of the Holy See, more concisely called “La Speciale.” Nogara conducted a policy of diversified investments, in bonds, shares and real estate in a number of different countries (Switzerland, 76 Paris, London and elsewhere), so as not to depend too much on the Italian situation. Generally, Nogara’s economic action has been considered scrupulous and wise, even if, as always, there has been no lack of differing judgments on such complex matters. The pope also entrusted La Speciale with important resources derived from other donations and Peter’s Pence (the Obolo di San Pietro), the voluntary economic contribution of individual Catholics and Catholic institutions from all over the world to the Holy Father, which had assumed vital importance after the end of the Papal States. The intense and rapid development of the new Vatican City State and its many activities (building, economic, cultural) led at the same time to the reorganization of the “Administration for the Works of Religion,” originally established to look after the offerings to be donated to religious activities. In a certain sense this became a bank, handling deposits and financial transactions of numerous religious institutions and saw remarkable development, including funds for the provision of certain services in the field of foreign relations.

2.The total amount established in the Financial Convention was 1 billion 750 million lire, part in cash and part in bearer bonds. See B. Lai, Finanze vaticane. Da Pio XI a Benedetto XVI, Soveria Mannelli (Cz), Rubbettino, 2012, 14 f. MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND PROPER ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION

Developments and crisis Pius XII, on becoming pope, instituted various cardinalatial commissions for the control of the main areas of administration: Governorate of the State, Administration of Assets, La Speciale, Works of Religion, etc.. In addition, he established an Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State (directly under the direction of Monsignor Montini, then his “Substitute”) to directly manage Peter’s Pence and other donations, in order to be able to operate effectively and rapidly in the large distribution of economic aid that he implemented during the Second World War. For this distribution he used the operational structures and relationships of the Works of Religion, giving them – to overcome legal and diplomatic difficulties – a new legal status. Thus was born, in 1942, the Institute for Works of Religion 77 (IOR), “with its own juridical personality and responsibility separate and distinct from that of the Offices of the Holy See” and with “the purpose of providing for the security and administration of capital for religious works.”3 In the post-war period and in the time of the reconstruction of Italy’s economy led by the Christian Democrats, both La Speciale and the IOR developed an active policy of relationships and investments in the fields of business, banking and real estate, with mixed results. There was no lack of difficulties (such as the new Italian tax known as “la cedolare”), to which were added the great expenses incurred by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the increase in expenses for the increasingly numerous personnel of the State and the Holy See. During the pontificate of Paul VI, with regard to the organization of the Curia, the new apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae (1967), published after the Council, sanctioned the central role of the Secretariat of State (which remained endowed with an Administrative Office); it brought together the Assets and La Speciale in the new “Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See” (APSA); established a new department, the “Prefecture of Economic Affairs,” with the task of controlling the budgets of the various departments

3.Annuario Pontificio 1948, 921. FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ

and bodies that are part of the Holy See, and of their economic coordination, charged also with the task of trying to formulate a consolidated balance sheet of the Holy See’s finances, integrating the results at least of the main ones among the numerous existing administrations. These are steps forward in a difficult process that naturally encountered operational difficulties and even resistance. The IOR, due to its particular statute, remained an autonomous body, separate from the new Prefecture. At the end of Paul VI’s pontificate, Vatican finances were in serious difficulty, which lasted for an extended period, obliging the Vatican – among other things – to make extensive use of Peter’s Pence to replenish its budget. John Paul II therefore made two significant steps to try to ensure the universal Church became co-responsible in offering material support to 78 the Roman Curia: he constituted the “Council of Cardinals to study the organizational and economic problems of the Holy See” (the so-called “Council of 15”, composed of cardinals from different continents), to which the budgets of the central organs of the Church are presented each year, and recalled the duty – formulated in canon 1271 of the Code of Canon Law – of all bishops to contribute to the material needs of the Apostolic See.4 At the same time, to comply with the desire for transparency, all the bishops received essential information, and the summary data was also made public. The responses of individual bishops and episcopal conferences developed in a positive way. But, in addition to the “internal” path of rationalization of the various economic administrations, as already mentioned, a network of external relations and connections with numerous personalities and institutions in the banking and business world also developed considerably. It is a world that does not fail to present its problems, not least because the Vatican appears to be a prestigious and attractive partner, less subject to controls,

4.“Bishops, by reason of the bond of unity and charity, according to the availability of their diocese, should help to procure the means which the Apostolic See, according to the conditions of the times, needs in order to be able to provide its service to the universal Church in an appropriate manner” (can. 1271 of the CIC). MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND PROPER ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION and at the same time there are also people vulnerable to possible pitfalls. Over the years, therefore, there were situations with very serious negative consequences not only for finances, but – perhaps even more seriously – for the good reputation of the Vatican. We can recall in particular the Sindona case (1974), later the Calvi/Banco Ambrosiano scandal (1981), and later still the Gardini-Enimont bribery scandal (1990-91). And if in some sensational cases the weak point was the IOR, one must realize that the problem is more general.

A more complex world and efforts to keep up with it Meanwhile the world had changed. In the context of globalization and developments in world finance and international terrorism (the attack on the Twin Towers marks 79 a decisive point in contemporary history), concern about criminal activities in the economic and financial field, about money laundering and other crimes and about the financing of terrorism grew notably and led states to develop new regulations and international conventions to combat these phenomena. The Vatican was also necessarily involved in these processes. When it wanted to enter the Euro area and therefore signed a new Convention with the European Union (December 18, 2009), it was obliged to adhere to a series of commitments that required a real transformation of the system of supervision and control. This involved new laws for the Vatican City State, the establishment of a new supervisory body, AIF (Financial Intelligence Authority), the assignment to the Vatican City State Tribunal of jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute any crimes committed against the new laws by the staff and in the activities of the bodies of the Holy See, the acceptance of the inspections of the International Moneyval Committee for the periodic evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of measures to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing and allied matters. In this context, the fundamental decisions were taken by Benedict XVI with the Apostolic letter issued motu proprio on December 30, 2010, for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the area of monetary and financial dealings. Translating them FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ

into practice, however, is very challenging even for pre- existing institutions that were not established for these tasks (for example, the Tribunal and the Gendarmerie). The pontificate of Pope Francis is in continuity with previous developments, but has also given new directions, aiming to achieve an overall reform of the Roman Curia, which involves within it a reform of the departments and bodies in the economic field. The road is bumpy and sometimes the intention to regulate, to renew or make a clean sweep leads to drastic or painful decisions, but – according to the method of gradualness used by Pope Francis – we can achieve the results required today. The “Council of 15 Cardinals” was replaced by a new “Council for the Economy,” with tasks of supervision and guidance of all economic activities. It is constituted by a Cardinal 80 President, seven high ranking ecclesiastical members and seven other members, (note: not consultants, but actual members) lay people, experts in the field. In the recent renewal of this Council, six of these members are women. A new Secretariat for the Economy was established (note: “Secretariat” and not “Office,” to affirm its high level of responsibility), which absorbs the tasks that were exercised by the Prefecture of Economic Affairs, the control of the budgets of the various institutions and the preparation of the consolidated financial statements, but also with greater powers of intervention for the realization of an overall “economic policy” under the guidance of the Council for the Economy. A new Office of the Auditor General, based on a Common Law model, was also established, with functions of the control and auditing of the financial statements. The novelty of these last two changes means that the definition of their competences has been going through a period of tension and fine-tuning, also with respect to the competences of APSA and those of the Secretariat of State. To this was added the particular situation of the accusations of a completely different nature and the trial in Australia of Cardinal George Pell, who had to suspend his activity as head of the Secretariat of Economy. A certain stalemate affecting these reforms arose before they could be relaunched in a more constructive climate. MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND PROPER ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION

On a different tack, Pope Francis intervened in the IOR in order to complete the operation already started under the previous pontificate of a complete audit of the existing accounts and to launch a new statute, which limits more strictly the Institute’s activity to the purposes of service of ecclesiastical institutions and persons of the Holy See and Vatican City State5 and ensures full compliance with internal and international regulations,6 with particular attention to the prevention and fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. This important commitment was achieved with the new Statute of the IOR of August 8, 2019. Also, the whole set of Vatican rules and institutions to guard against illegal and criminal activities has been updated and strengthened. In particular, in 2019 AIF was given a new president and an increase in staff, and now a further update 81 of the Statute has been announced.7 As the pope himself has pointed out, the system built up in recent years is proving to be effective: the recent investigations concerning the controversial investments in London and related events, despite the reports in the press, began not from complaints coming from outside but from reports coming from within the Vatican (specifically from the IOR and the Auditor General), and are still ongoing, conducted under the guidance of the Promoter of Justice (the “Public Prosecutor”) of the Vatican City State Tribunal.8

5.Its mission “consists in serving the Catholic Church in all its articulations (Holy See – Related Bodies – Religious Orders – Catholic Institutions – Clergy – Accredited Diplomatic Corps – Employees of the Holy See) by guarding and administering the assets entrusted to them and providing them with dedicated payment services worldwide.” 6.The “fiscal peace” with Italy was sanctioned with the signing of a Convention on fiscal matters in 2015. We recall that relations with Italy regarding the IOR had moments of particular tension as of 2010, following a seizure ordered by the Italian authorities of 23 million euros of the IOR. However, it seems fair to us to point out that all three then IOR managers – Gotti Tedeschi, Cipriani and Tulli – who were on trial in Italy for the operations that had given rise to the seizure, were – after years! – fully acquitted. 7.Cf. Carlo Marroni’s interview ofthe President of AIF, Carmelo Barbagallo: “Scoperchiata la pentola. Ora la fase 2 della trasparenza finanziaria”, in Il Sole 24 Ore, July 3, 2020. 8.A punctual and articulate answer to the many current questions on the London investment issueis given in the interview to Avvenire, November 1, 2020, by Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, President of APSA. One must realize FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ

An economy for mission On the reorganization and coordination of economic departments front, progress resumed with the appointment of the new Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero. In two interviews with Vatican Media,9 he set out the line followed in agreement with the Council for the Economy, working in collaboration with APSA, the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Governorate of State. Fr. Guerrero first of all made it clear that “We are not a business. We are not a company. Our goal is not to make profit. Every department, every entity, performs a service. And every service has costs. Our commitment must be that of maximum restraint and 82 maximum clarity. Ours must be a mission budget. That is, one that involves a balance sheet that relates the numbers to the mission of the Holy See. This, which may appear to be just a premise, is actually the substance of the matter.” It must be understood that the diplomacy of dialogue and peace, the communication of what the pope does and says, support for poor and troubled Churches, and so on, are activities that have costs and do not generate revenue. Therefore, they must be supported with offerings and with the good administration of the assets available. Now, precisely in order to contain and rationalize expenses and ensure the most correct management of resources without sacrificing the ends of the mission, the aim is to centralize financial investments, improve personnel management, and improve procurement management. With regard to this last point, on May 19 this year the new “Rules on the transparency, control and competition for public contracts of the Holy See and Vatican City State” were

that the investigations in this field are extremely complex today and the “small” Vatican institutions, such as the Office of the Promoter of Justice of the Tribunal and the Gendarmerie, must make extensive use of international collaboration. AIF must also stay in contact and cooperate with similar institutions in other countries. 9.Cf. A. Tornielli, “Guerrero: quello della Santa Sede è un bilancio di missione”, in Vatican News, May 13, 2020; Id., “Guerrero: Ecco il bilancio della Curia, a servizio del Papa e della missione”, ibid., October 1, 2020. MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND PROPER ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION published. In addition to rationalizing, it aims to banish the risks of patronage and favoritism in the field of procurement, with their negative economic and moral consequences. With regard to the centralization of investments, the misadventures of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State finally led to a clear decision by the pope to transfer, without further delay, from the latter to APSA the management and administration of all the financial funds and real estate assets at its disposal (without changing the purpose, which must be respected). In addition, the Secretariat for the Economy will assume the functions of control and supervision in administrative and financial matters over all entities of the Roman Curia or related to it, including the Secretariat of State and the entities it previously oversaw. For “confidential” economic matters 83 subject to secrecy, the Secretariat of State will now depend on a Commission that was appointed for this purpose by the pope on October 5, 2020. This outlines an important aspect of the overall reform of the Curia, which is not only economic. The function of the Secretariat of State – which, as the pope states, remains “without a shadow of a doubt the department that most closely and directly supports the action of the Holy Father in his mission, representing an essential point of reference in the life of the Curia and the dicasteries that are part of it”10 – is freed from the weight and risks of being a center of economic power autonomous from the overall system of control and supervision of the Curia, to the benefit – we think – of its essential functions of service to the Holy Father and at the heart of his “diplomacy” throughout the world.

Some reflections On November 30, 1933, after a meeting with Pius XI about economic aid applications from Russia, the then young Monsignor Domenico Tardini noted: “But was it prudent to invest the Holy See’s money in certain securities, foreign

10.Francis, Letter of August 25, published on November 5, 2020 by the Press Office. FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ

currencies, etc.? And is it prudent today to buy real estate in various countries? Hasn’t one entered a little too much into the field of speculation? And weren’t there other ways, more tranquil, safer, more stable? [...] This is the problem: very serious and very difficult. Certainly, if it has made mistakes, the Holy See will suffer for a long time from the mistakes made. And with the Holy See many activities of Catholics throughout the world will be affected. [...] Here, in my judgment, is the thought that is currently worrying the Holy Father, the source of the anguish afflicting him.”11 As Fr. Guerrero rightly points out, after all, the much talked about “Vatican money” is not very much. These are administrations with very small budgets compared to those of large institutions in the educational, commercial and banking 84 world (the Holy See’s expenses are around 320 million euros a year), smaller than those of “an average American university” or some large dioceses. This does not detract from the fact that they should be administered wisely and correctly, both because of their origin, which, directly or indirectly, in the present or in the past, is generally the generosity of the faithful, and because of their unique purpose, which is the service of the Church’s mission, that is, the spreading of the Gospel, charity and the good of the human family. However, from time immemorial, money, which should always serve for good, is often the focus of greed and temptation. It would be naive to think that it will not continue in the future to cause crimes, frauds, misdemeanors and the like. In order to combat these, above all, virtue, honesty, freedom, poverty in spirit, and prudence are certainly necessary, but competence and experience are also needed, as are rules and procedures that allow for strict control, that reduce the risks of illicit acts, guarantee appropriate behavior, correct errors and prosecute crimes. The Vatican, both as a small state and as the Holy See (i.e. the center and government of the Church in the world), is facing the difficult challenge of operating in the economic and financial field in the context of the increasingly complex – and let’s say

11.C. F. Casula, Domenico Tardini (1888-1961), Rome, Studium, 1988, 292. MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND PROPER ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION even more insidious – reality of the modern globalized world. This requires not only the renewal of general organization and skills, but also – as we have seen – the development of complex systems of control. Even if at times these may seem excessive for the relatively small Vatican budget, we must continue our efforts so that it can give, to the greatest extent possible, a witness of sobriety and wisdom, transparency and honesty in the use of economic and financial resources for its great spiritual mission.

85 The Economics of Covid-19: From globalization to localization

Cho Hyun-Chul, SJ

What to do after Covid-19? “After Covid-19 it will all be different.” We often hear these words. However, people have different opinions about how it will be different, just as people evaluate differently how things were 86 before. How will we act after Covid-19? The answer depends on our views about the pandemic. One can view the Covid-19 crisis simply as the consequence of a viral infectious disease. In this case, the countermeasures for “after” would be: better prevention of infection, more effective hygiene policies, preventive measures against epidemics, the development of vaccines and related medicine, the revival of economies battered by the pandemic, and so forth. In this view, a viral infection is seen as an unforeseen obstacle that needs to be overcome; and the central and local governments in Korea have been dealing with Covid-19 from this perspective. However, it is important to view Covid-19 from a social perspective. We will seek to understand how, in human history, viral infections have been caused by the failure to respect the rhythms and spaces of nature. We will analyze the intrinsic correlation between the collapse of the ecosystem and the globalized economy, which seeks cheap labor and resources under the flag of deregulated capitalism that aims to maximize profits. This growth-oriented mentality has taken root as the ideology of the globalized economy. In this light, Covid-19 is not just an obstacle to overcome, but a warning signal to the notion of economic growth as something considered

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 1 art. 10, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.0121.10 THE ECONOMICS OF COVID-19: FROM GLOBALIZATION TO LOCALIZATION only in terms of progress and development. In fact, we humans are responsible for this disastrous viral infection. It is not the virus but our own selves that need to be overcome; the system based on greed that makes tools of human beings and nature in pursuit of profits and riches must be fought against in order to safeguard and value the work of creation. Plans about “after” demand a fundamental self-examination of the “before.” Measures to cope with the crisis from the first viewpoint are necessary, but not enough. The second viewpoint should not be neglected in order to establish a fundamental approach to Covid-19. For it is both a medical problem and an environmental issue. It is about the human problems associated with development and the economy. If we view it only as a disease or an environmental issue, we miss the essential point 87 and will fail to find true solutions. As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’ [LS]: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis that is both social and environmental” (LS 139).

Globalization and pandemic In order to look at the Covid-19 crisis within the social context, we must pay attention to the close relationship between the outbreak of a viral infectious disease and globalization. Firstly, globalization has hugely increased the speed of infection. When transportation was not developed, such an infectious disease was limited to a regional effect. It was borne by sea trade, but the long period of travel could effectively stop the disease from being spread. However, today, the world is connected by high-speed transportation networks, so that a viral infection can spread rapidly and globally once it breaks out. Moreover, the globalized economy has abolished regulations all over the world for the sake of capital investment. Reckless mining, deforestation, and other destructive activities have proliferated, and the ecosystem has been massively damaged. Its damage by humans has led to the spread of a viral infection in various ways. Environmental pollution generally promotes the breeding of viruses. Wild animals that have lost their habitats due to over-development move near to human habitats and CHO HYUN-CHUL, SJ

the likelihood of human contact with viruses has increased. According to a recent study, the number of animals that have zoonotic viral diseases is 2.5 times greater in areas where the natural environment has been destroyed by development. Large farms commonly play the role of an avenue for the viruses to infect humans. Large-scale monoculture, logging and wildfire destroy forests, which leads to the decrease of biodiversity and indigenous species and ultimately enables new viruses to establish themselves more easily. Climate change, which has been caused by continuous economic growth ever since industrialization and by our lifestyle dependent on mass production, distribution, consumption and waste, gives rise to changes in the number of animals that are vehicles for viruses. This prompts viral diseases. Global warming 88 causes permafrost to melt, which may allow various kinds of viruses buried in the ice to be released in the future. In sum, we human beings have facilitated the spread of viruses. Before viruses attacked humans, humans attacked nature. The globalized capitalist system that only aims at the maximization of profits is behind all this. In order to fight against pandemics like Covid-19, hygiene policies and preventive measures directed specifically against the pandemic are not enough. We need to look at what lies beneath the Covid-19 outbreak and have a critical attitude to the globalized economy itself.

The globalized economy The core of globalization lies in the economy. Globalization has been an integrating process whereby the whole world, with transnational companies and international trade agreements as the center, has become a single economic system based on Neoliberalism. The globalized economy has reinforced free trade, which is based on the international distribution of labor through various international trade agreements and has abolished the various regulations and protection measures that had previously existed to support national industries and the environment. In fact, a major part of world trade consists of trade within industry, that is, trade based on export and import. THE ECONOMICS OF COVID-19: FROM GLOBALIZATION TO LOCALIZATION

In a globalized economy, a so-called “crazy trade” can take place under the name of free trade, in which one imports a product that can be produced in the region, even if it is cheaper to produce locally. Global industrial farmers are a typical example. One can find many cheap agricultural products from other countries on the shelves of large markets in Korea. It takes cheap labor, resource exploitation, governmental subsidies and concessions for foreign products to have a competitive edge over regional products. Transnational corporations do not include in the price of their products the costs of environmental pollution and other costs for which they are responsible, but rather dump the costs on the regions in which their products are produced. Their sole interest being maximized profit, they seek cheap labor and large profits, ignoring the needs of those regions. This results 89 in the degradation of both regional labor and the environment. If one focuses only on the selected concentration strategy of a small range of products based on comparative advantage, which is the standard of free trade, this makes an economy more dependent on foreign products and the economy becomes vulnerable to external alterations and shocks. The most vital issue in emergency situations is ultimately food. Due to globalization, a small number of global grain corporations dominate the world grain markets, and the traditional farming industries associated with rural communities are rapidly collapsing. In Korea, for example, the level of dependence of foreign foodstuffs is unbelievably high. Food self-sufficiency around the world is 101.5% on the average, with Australia boasting almost 300%. As was mentioned above, the globalized economy is deeply related to ecology, especially climate issues. Climate change measures and globalized economic policies have been taking place at around the same time, but separately. In the late 1980s, there began an international effort against climate change. The Rio Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was to be the foundation for subsequent climate negotiations. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. More or less contemporaneously, international trade negotiations were taking place that were to be CHO HYUN-CHUL, SJ

the foundation of the globalized economy. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was concluded in 1992 and the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995. The physical distance between production and consumption gradually extended, and long-distance distribution became the main cause of carbon emission. Global industrial farmers are now responsible for 30 percent of world greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, neoliberalism, the ideological foundation of the globalized economy, led to privatization, deregulation and cutbacks in public spending and proved to be the largest obstacle to climate action that seeks to deal with climate change by cutting down on carbon emission. In the most absurd way, the world sought to work against climate change while fostering the globalized economy that accelerates climate change.1 90

Globalization, a ‘normal accident’ From the above arguments, it can be maintained that deliberations about “After Covid-19” must be fundamentally about globalization. The concept of “normal accident” proposed by sociologist Charles Perrow supports this idea.2 “Normal accident” refers to an inevitable accident due to interactive complexity and close coupling innate to a particular system. It is an accident that occurs as a logical consequence because the system cannot avoid interaction with multiple unexpected and simultaneous problems. It occurs because of the high degree of interaction among the elements of the main systems constructed by modern industrial societies. Perrow refers to normal accidents such as those involving the Three Mile Island nuclear power station, petrochemical plants, planes and ships; but it is necessary to look at the globalized reality of the world we live in today from the perspective of normal accidents. Globalization has turned the world into a massive single system with a high degree of complexity and close connections that lead to numerous sub-systems. No one

1.N. Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2014. See in particular chapter 2. 2.Cf. C. Perrow, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999. THE ECONOMICS OF COVID-19: FROM GLOBALIZATION TO LOCALIZATION anticipated Covid-19, but it may well be a normal accident that would inevitably happen. In that case, it is normal that it occurred. If so, it is important to reflect on the reality of our globalized world, prone as it is to viral pandemics, and to make an effort to achieve change in that world while responding to Covid-19 as a viral infection. If one installs safety devices in the present system to try to prevent normal accidents, the level of complexity and connections will increase and so also the possibilities of further accidents. The only way to stop normal accidents is to change the system itself. As a normal accident, Covid-19 sends a clear warning about globalization. In our globalized world, a global disaster should be considered as an unexpected, but inevitable accident. If that is the case, globalization actually is a way to total disaster, 91 unstoppable and unmanageable. Safety devices cannot eradicate its innate dangers. The fundamental countermeasure is to exit from it. There is no other way.

Localized economy After Covid-19 must involve a process of transforming globalization into localization. Just as in globalization, the essence of localization is in the economy; localization does not mean a disconnection between the various regions of the world. A localized economy aims at a reasonable level of self- sufficiency, but not total. It aims at producing and consuming locally as much as possible, according to local needs. Common sense would suggest that the most rational economic system is one that produces what locals need by using local resources. A localized economy can solve many problems caused by the globalized economy. Firstly, it reduces the possibility of a normal accident on a global scale by moving from international interdependency to local dependency and from close international connections to loose connections. A worldwide viral pandemic is an example of a normal accident that can be prevented in this way. Secondly, a localized economy reduces the distance between production and consumption, which diminishes an unnecessary aspect of international trade and the need for the energy consumption of transport. CHO HYUN-CHUL, SJ

Thirdly, in agriculture, small-scale local farmers would replace global industrial farmers, and organic farming would replace chemical farming. People would have easier access to local produce than to commodities from the other end of the world, whose producers they do not know. A localized economy makes it possible to secure a reliable, long-term food supply. Fourthly, it pays attention to the preservation of the local environment, unlike the globalized economy that seeks profits in other parts of the world. Economic self-sufficiency depends, moreover, on energy sufficiency. Replacing fossil energy with such renewable energy sources as solar and wind will thus become an important aspect of localized economies. As a consequence of all this, the possibility of a global viral infection should be drastically reduced. 92

Localization and the Church All the beings in the world are the creation of God, and all the creatures in the world form “a sublime communion linked by unseen bonds” (LS 89). The fundamental bonds among creatures are the order of creation implanted by God in the world. This order of creation demands from us a respect for and regard toward nature as well as to human beings. With its deregulated capitalism concentrating on the maximization of profits by way of cheap labor and a lack of concern about natural resources, the globalized economy has become a process destroying the order of creation. In this sense, localization, which reverses the tide of globalization, needs to be a process of restoring that order. The preservation of the order of creation means the realization of justice, and the peace that results from justice (Isa 32:17; Gaudium et Spes, 78). Localization is a process that leads toward establishing justice, peace and the integrity of creation. It therefore stands as a challenge to Christian life and the Church’s mission today. Moving from globalization to localization means a fundamental transition that demands reflection on and a radical change in our lifestyle of mass production, distribution, consumption and waste management. Localization means an exit from the growth ideology that rules today’s economic THE ECONOMICS OF COVID-19: FROM GLOBALIZATION TO LOCALIZATION situation, but that exit will surely be along a bumpy road. For example, one of the main issues of localization, energy transition, is usually discussed in terms of the “growth paradigm.” Those who promote the transition from fossil fuel to recyclable energy mostly do so under the premise that we will continue to live and consume energy as is now the norm. But is it really possible to transition to recyclable energy that is sufficient to sustain our current lifestyle? Even if it is possible, would it be feasible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a sufficient level to reduce climate warming if we use huge amounts of energy to make the transition happen? Moreover, the energy transition would be limited only to electrical energy, which represents less than half of the world-wide energy consumption. In the end, localization inevitably calls for reduction of production and consumption. 93 Globalization seeks growth, but localization requires moderation. It demands realization that “a decrease in the pace of production and consumption can at times give rise to another form of progress and development” (LS 191). There must be a transition in personal consciousness in order to reduce the speed of the expanding world. Indian scholar Vandana Shiva has rightly said that if the world is to change, “we should become what we want the world to become.” Moderation is an essential element. Moderation means respect and accepting limitations. It accepts the limitation that comes from the limits of nature and makes us humbly admit our own limitations. The problem is that moderation and frugality have become both unpopular and unfamiliar in today’s compulsive and obsessive culture of consumerism (cf. LS 203). It is unthinkable to expect the government and political parties to establish policies based on moderation because they are subject to the voters’ favor. It is not so different for civic groups, which are run by civil volunteers. In the environmental movement, “transition” grabs attention but “frugality” is pushed aside. The Church needs to have a long-term view of today’s reality. Even when other social agents do not raise a voice, she should cry out to the world for moderation and frugality. God wants humans to preserve the world, which He sees as “good.” CHO HYUN-CHUL, SJ

At this moment, the world is being damaged to an irreparable level, due to the climate crisis and other ecological crises. The globalized economy and growth ideology are at the roots of the ecological crisis, and Covid-19 is the result. The Church’s call for moderation and frugality is nothing but a prophetic cry for life. Not every nation has the same responsibility and burden for this issue. The Church should urge rich countries, which benefit more from the globalized economy but are more responsible for environmental destruction, to take the lead (cf. LS 193). Jesus’ life was that of simplicity and moderation. Today’s globalized economy pushes humans to co-destruction by seducing us to seek unlimited riches through economic growth. Increasing social inequality, damages to the ecosystem and outbreaks of viral infection are the inevitable by-products of 94 the economic growth that we are pursuing. Given this reality, simplicity and moderation must be an important characteristic of Christians who follow Jesus today. The Old Testament tradition of the Sabbath enlarges our understanding of moderation and motivates us to preserve this virtue (LS 71, 237). The sabbath tradition involves self-reflection and care for others. The “rest” on the seventh day (Gen 2:2-3) is God’s “contemplative rest” (LS 237) focused on His creatures. The sabbath, in which human beings share in God’s rest (Exod 20:11) is a day to reflect on our life and our activities and to find meaning in them. The Exodus event reminds us that liberation is the spirit of the sabbath (Deut 5:15), and the sabbath periodically reminds us of our duty to guarantee the dignity and equality of the socially marginalized and to respect and care for all creatures. In short, consciously to stop working on the seventh day is an act of voluntary self-limitation for oneself and others. Jesus Christ is the model of that voluntary act. The incarnation and the cross are the events of kenosis (cf. Phil 2:6- 8), the essence of self-limitation. As a faithful continuation of the incarnation, Jesus’ life ended in the death on the cross. Christians who are now living in the time of viral infection and the ecological crisis must realize that the life of voluntary self-limitation is an important way of following Jesus. Ecological conversion is a determination to respect and protect THE ECONOMICS OF COVID-19: FROM GLOBALIZATION TO LOCALIZATION our neighbors and nature by following Jesus (cf. LS 217). That conversion gives rise to a life of simplicity and moderation with the conviction that “less is more” (LS 222). The sabbath’s spirit of frugality and conservation resists globalization and promotes localization. In this regard, moreover, religious life lived under the vow of poverty gains special meaning today. If religious orders realize the meaning of poverty anew in terms of localization and live the vow faithfully, they will contribute enormously to promote the life of moderation and frugality both inside and outside the Church. Grassroots movements have played an important role in localization. Local agriculture is a representative case. “Farming with faces of farmers” in Japan, “farming with reservation” in Europe, the “movement to connect farmers with consumers” 95 in the UK and “Community Supported Agriculture” (CSA) in the US are examples of local agriculture that protests against globalization and promotes localization. Local agriculture connects local farmers with their consumers and uses sustainable cyclic farming methods in order to preserve nature in the local area. It raises the issue against the problems of global industrial farming and awakens local inhabitants to the meaning and importance of their local habitat. From this point of view, The Catholic Farmers Society and Movement for Our Farmers in the Catholic Church in Korea are meaningful endeavors. It is important, too, to be in solidarity with local farmers outside the Church. Consistently raising issues aimed at solving the problems of globalization and forming public opinion so as to influence individual nations and the global society at large are essential tasks of localization. The global networks of the Catholic Church can perform an important function by connecting and unifying localization movements around the world. In order to transition fundamentally to localization, a social and personal awakening to a “good life” (buen vivir) is necessary. It is a realization and conviction that a good life begins with respect toward our neighbor and nature, who are connected in a fundamental bond in the order of creation. More people are beginning to realize that globalization, despite its promises and CHO HYUN-CHUL, SJ

prospects, has a negative influence on both people and nature and needs to make room for more localization. We will see our neighbors and nature with different eyes and act differently if we have a greater sense of belonging to our local community and local environment. Then more people will try to live the good life in their local community. Christians and the Church must make an effort to bring into reality the good life by being in solidarity with the good people in the world in order to preserve the order of creation. This is a slow but sure way toward localization, which will gradually bring about change in the world that the Covid-19 pandemic requires of us.

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