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1118

15 November 2018 Monthly Year 2

The Tyrannical King and Poor Naboth

Paul VI and Vatican II .11 o Digital Argonauts

The Human Cost of the Syrian War

OLUME 2, N 2, OLUME

V Building Bridges in Sarajevo: Theological Ethics

2018 Pino Puglisi: Priest and Martyr

The Architecture of Silence and Post-Secularism

The according to Bruce Springsteen

CONTENTS 1118

BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS

Copyright, 2018, 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. Francesco Occhetta, SJ, Giovanni Sale, SJ

Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editors Federico Lombardi, SJ ISSN: 2207-2446 Virgilio Fantuzzi, SJ Giandomenico Mucci, SJ ISBN: GianPaolo Salvini, SJ 978988-79271-3-6 (paperback) 978988-79271-8-1 (ebook) Contributing Editor 978988-79271-9-8 (kindle) Luke Hansen, SJ

Published in Hong Kong by Contributors UCAN Services Ltd. Federico Lombardi, SJ () George Ruyssen, SJ (Belgium) P.O. Box 80488, Cheung Sha Wan, Fernando De la Iglesia, SJ (Spain) Kowloon, Hong Kong Drew Christiansen, SJ (USA) Phone: +852 2727 2018 Andrea Vicini, SJ (USA) Fax: +852 2772 7656 www.ucanews.com Neuhaus, SJ () Camilo Ripamonti, SJ (Italy) Publishers: Kelly, SJ and Vladimir Pachkow, SJ (Russia) Robert Barber Arturo Peraza, SJ (Venezuela) Production Manager: Bert Daelemans, SJ (Belgium) Rangsan Panpairee Thomas Reese, SJ (USA) Grithanai Napasrapiwong Paul Soukup, SJ (USA) Friedhelm Mennekes, SJ () Marcel Uwineza, SJ (Rwanda) Marc Rastoin, SJ (France) Claudio Zonta, SJ (Italy) CONTENTS 1118

15 November 2018 Monthly Year 2

1 The Tyrannical King and Poor Naboth A never-ending story Giancarlo Pani, SJ

14 Paul VI and Vatican II Giovanni Sale, SJ

32 Digital Argonauts The young and the search for meaning Francesco Occhetta, SJ – Paolo Benanti, TOR

44 The Human Cost of the Syrian War GianPaolo Salvini, SJ

56 Building Bridges in Sarajevo An international conference on Catholic Theological Ethics James F. Keenan, SJ

63 Pino Puglisi: Priest and Martyr Giancarlo Pani, SJ

77 The Architecture of Silence and Post-Secularism Luigi Territo, SJ

85 The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen Claudio Zonta, SJ ABSTRACTS

ARTICLE 1 THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH A NEVER-ENDING STORY

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

“The story of Naboth is an old one, but it is repeated every day.” This is how begins the tale of poor Naboth who was killed by King Ahab so that he could take possession of his vineyard. The episode in the First Book of Kings depicts Ahab’s greed: he who owns everything wants more. But Naboth cannot give away his small piece of land because it is his family’s holy heritage, received as a gift from , hence the rigged trial and the stoning of poor Naboth. Biblical is a never-ending story, then and now. Ambrose refers to the vast estates around Milan at the end of the fourth century. And the episode has been taken up by Francis. In homilies at Santa Martha and during the annual spiritual exercises for the curia, he has repeatedly suggested re-reading these words of Ambrose. They ring true today.

ARTICLE 14 PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

Giovanni Sale, SJ

The of Blessed Paul VI, the pope who masterfully conducted the to its conclusion, gives us the chance, albeit briefly, to retrace some significant moments of the conciliar event at which he was a propeller and tireless mediator in search of consensus and communion among the Council fathers. We examine the most significant moments Paul VI intervened, especially in the third and fourth sessions, both in the general assembly and in the commissions, and the reasons why he did so. These interventions did not undermine the freedom of the Council as he acted in full respect of his prerogatives and his powers.

ABSTRACTS

ARTICLE 32 DIGITAL ARGONAUTS THE YOUNG AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

Francesco Occhetta, SJ – Paolo Benanti, TOR

For digital Argonauts – the generation whose compasses are their smartphones – algorithms and Big Data are sources of authority, blessed with a sacred value as guides to the truth. Can “data-ism” – blind trust in technology and management of one’s own identity – answer young people’s quest for meaning? The challenge of the Church, seen particularly in the 2018 Synod of Bishops, is to accompany young people in their search for faith, and offer a new definition of personal and community belonging that cannot ignore what the new Argonauts experience online and also stretch beyond it. This is the mission of the educating Church: “to draw out” resources, projects and values from the lives of young people and accompany them on their journey toward maturity.

FOCUS 44 THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR

GianPaolo Salvini, SJ

Beyond the daily news that tries to explain the war in Syria and its contradictory and tragic aspects, this article focuses on the civilian victims of seven years of a merciless war fought in a once flourishing and stable country. The Syrian population is exhausted, with approximately 500,000 killed (mostly civilians) and millions of refugees and displaced people who have left their homes and belongings. This article highlights the most dramatic aspects of the war, focusing on the groups that are most at risk, especially women and children, in a situation that seems to have escaped all measures of control, without a definitive solution still in sight. ABSTRACTS

CHURCH LIFE 56 BUILDING BRIDGES IN SARAJEVO AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL ETHICS James F. Keenan, SJ

Sixteen years ago a global network of Catholic ethicists was founded. More than 1,500 scholars participate today. Since its founding, four international conferences have been organized. The first three were held in Padua (2006), Trento (2010) and Bogotà (2016). The most recent, which is discussed in this article, was held in Sarajevo, July 26-29, 2018. Participants included 422 ethicists from 78 countries. Those present represented the multiple voices of the Church around the world, wherever one finds an ethicist, as well as their diverse challenges and hopes. The presentations, posters and panel discussions focused on three themes: climate change, its impact on migration, and the deprivation of civil rights by nationalist political leaders. The author is a professor of Theological Ethics at Boston College, Massachusetts (USA).

PROFILE 63 PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

“The Gospel, the Mafia, the frontiers”: these few words sum up the biography of Fr. Pino Puglisi, the priest of Brancaccio, who was murdered on September 15, 1993. Fr. Pino was not only a man of faith, an educator of the young and a reference point for families, but also a priest on the frontier, faithful to the Gospel to the point of extreme sacrifice, in a district dominated by the Mafia and the culture of death. On May 25, 2013, the Church recognized him as a martyr and proclaimed him blessed. went to Brancaccio to remember this holy parish priest 25 years after his death, a death that marked the fate of the homicidal Mafia. This was his true, incomparable miracle.

ABSTRACTS

ART, MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT 77 THE ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE AND POST-SECULARISM

Luigi Territo, SJ

Secularization has produced not only fragmentation and a weakening of religious practice, but also innovation and emancipation of the sacred from traditional religions. A new wave of religious interests and practices, especially in the Western world, would seem to definitively dismiss the secular age and see it replaced by a post-secular age. An evident effect of this emancipation can be felt in the spread of inter- confessional “chapels,” dedicated to meditation and silence. It is a matter of convenient places where people of different beliefs can converge and meet. The author is an expert in the conservation of cultural heritage.

ART, MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT 85 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Claudio Zonta, SJ

Many important biblical themes are present in the vast discography of American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. In fact, much of his work tries to capture the mystery of the complexity of existence using biblical criteria, such as the exit from the earth (Highway 29, Across the Border), the relationship with one’s father and with the Father ( Raised a Cain, My Father’s House), the fragility of a couple’s relationship (Two Faces), the drama and the question of evil (Into the Fire), the small and insignificant stories of the humble and the lowest (I’ll Work for Your Love). In a recent publication, Il Vangelo secondo Bruce Springsteen (The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen), Luca Miele traces how the poetics of “The Boss” contain evocations of biblical stories that the famous singer restates in a personal and creative way. The author is a student of biblical theology at the Pontifical Theology Faculty of Southern Italy in . LCC 1218:

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For educational and bulk rates, please email [email protected] The Tyrannical King and Poor Naboth: A never-ending story

Giancarlo Pani, SJ “The story of Naboth is an old one, but it is repeated every day.”1 This is how Ambrose begins the tale of poor Naboth whose death was contrived by King Ahab so that he could take possession of his vineyard. Naboth of Israel, Ahab of Samaria, his wife Jezebel and the prophet are the characters in the episode that is found in the First Book of Kings.2 They are the protagonists of the past: the king who is powerful and all- 1 possessing craves a small vineyard that borders on his extensive properties; the wife is the instigator of the crime; then there is the poor man who only has a small vineyard, inherited from his ancestors; and finally, the prophet who denounces the injustice and awakes consciences. History repeated itself at the time of Ambrose in the then capital of the Western Roman Empire, which was changing profoundly and transforming itself. The powerful had immense wealth that they squandered appallingly, not only in homes decorated with gold and palaces embellished with precious stones, but also in great games to honor their children, or in banquets with hundreds of courses. Their display of wealth clashed with the poverty and the misery of the masses. From here emerges Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, coming from a family of the senatorial class, wealthy and powerful. As a catechumen he had been of the city and had personally

1.Ambrose, De Nabuta 1,1 CSEL 32/2, Vienna – Prague – Leipzig etc., 1897, 469-516; Ibid., Il prepotente e il povero. La vigna di Nabot, edited by M. G. Mara, Bologna, EDB, 2015. In the parenthetical citations, the first number indicates the chapter, the other the paragraph. 2.Cf. 1 Kings 21:1-28. The episode is a part of the cycle of Elijah, a crucial time in Israel’s history, where the prophet calls for fidelity to the covenant, compromised by the polytheism that was penetrating the life of the people, and the new economy that promoted the circulation of money and trade in goods, uprooting the familiar structure of the economy and ruining the poorest. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

known the games and the dishonest practices of the rich and powerful. Upon becoming a Christian, he donated all his property to the Church. The deacon Paulinus, his biographer, documents how he donated his gold and silver. Ahab and Naboth are also characters from the history of all times and all places,3 where power becomes arrogance, and justice has the face of corruption. Throughout history, people appear unsatisfied with what they have. We always want to possess more and more at the expense of the poor and the less fortunate. But the word of God, on which the work of Ambrose is based, has an unexpected strength, a perennial value that resonates today whenever an injustice is perpetrated against the least, the poor, the exploited and 2 the hungry.

The story of Naboth Ambrose wrote The Story of Naboth toward the end of the fourth century.4 The biblical episode must have left a great impression on his mind since he refers to it in many works.5 The bishop related the oppression of Ahab to the social, political and religious situation of Milan in a particularly dramatic period. He denounced, in Contra Auxentium, the instigator of and advocate for the of 386 that restored freedom and status to the Arians. Auxentius had also called for the handing over of the Portiana basilica to the Arians. Referencing the biblical episode, Ambrose describes the drama of his conscience: “Naboth defended his vineyard with his own blood. And if he did not give up his vineyard, shall we give up the Church of Christ? If Naboth would not

3.The protagonist of Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick (1851) is called Ahab. Driven by an excessive lust for power, the captain is faced with the mysterious power of the white whale, dragging the entire crew to ruin with him. Only Ishmael, the humble crew member who respects the mystery, is saved. 4.Ambrose, La storia di Nabot di Jezrael, , Morcelliana, 1952; Ibid., Opera omnia. VI. Elia e il digiuno, Naboth, Tobia, Milan – , Biblioteca Ambrosiana – Città Nuova, 1985; G. De Simone, La miseria del ricco. Esegesi biblica e pensiero sociale nella “Storia di Naboth” di Ambrogio, Catanzaro, Ursini, 2003. 5.Ambrose, La storia di Naboth, L’Aquila, Japadre, 1975, 29-34; Ibid., La vigna di Naboth, M. G. Mara (ed), op. cit., 38-44. THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH surrender the heritage of his fathers, shall I surrender Christ’s heritage? God forbid that I should surrender the heritage of my fathers!”6 For Ambrose, Auxentius is the new King Ahab who wants to strip the bishop, the new poor Naboth, of the Church that is his vineyard; Justina, the emperor’s wife, is the new Jezebel who persecuted the prophet Elijah and tried to kill him. However, the bishop refused to hand over the basilica and stayed there with a great number of faithful. Justina, fearing a mob riot, was forced to return the basilica to the supporters of Ambrose. The text is only a few pages in length but is an authoritative witness to the life of the Church. The bishop has at heart the poor and those who are unjustly found guilty and murdered because they are a part of the Church of Christ. Although 3 Ambrose was inspired by Basil and other ancient authors and Fathers of the Church, no writer prior to him had systematically commented on the biblical text of the First Book of Kings. This is a sign of the author’s originality and his biblical sensitivity.

The biblical account The story stands out for its drama. King Ahab should be thankful to the Lord because he received his kingdom from God. Moreover, through Elijah’s intercession, he succeeded in ending the drought that was starving everyone and destroying the kingdom. However, not only does he not thank God, but he acts like a bully toward his subjects. The way he took possession of Naboth’s vineyard is very paradigmatic. The biblical text says: “Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money’” (1 Kings 21:1-2). Naboth refused to give him the vineyard, because it was the inheritance of his fathers.7

6.Ibid., Contra Auxentium 17: PL 16, 1012B. 7.The Mosaic law has it that landownership does not leave the family: “no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

A superficial reading of the story might suggest that Naboth did wrong in not giving his vineyard to Ahab, who after all did not want to use violence. He treated it as a purchase, offering Naboth the equivalent in money and even proposing a better vineyard. But for poor Naboth, that vineyard was not simply a piece of property; it was the patrimonial inheritance of his family, and therefore of his fathers, a holy inheritance that had been received from God. To cede it meant to fail in the vocation of guardian of the land that he had received from above. Hence, his blunt answer to the king: “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance” (1 Kings 21:3). The king was bitter about the refusal. Jezebel therefore takes the initiative and, with an unfair strategy, stages a farcical trial 4 of Naboth, accusing him of blaspheming God and the king. Naboth is tried, condemned to death and stoned. The king can finally annex his vineyard. When the king takes possession of the vineyard, the prophet Elijah goes to meet him and announces the Word of the Lord to him: “Have you killed, and also taken possession? … In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood” (1 Kings 21:19). Ahab repents of his sin and does penance to avert the divine condemnation. However, the penance was not sincere, and the punishment fell upon his family.8

A never-ending story The Naboth episode is repeated continuously in history and in society. Taking inspiration from the story of Ahab, Ambrose has two intentions: he wants to denounce and expose the greed of the powerful at the expense of the poor; and he wants to persuade Christians of the relative value of wealth, proposing the use of goods in civil society in a spirit of justice and solidarity.

all Israelites shall retain the inheritance of their ancestral tribes” (Num 36:7, 9). The introduction of the monarchy in Israel led to a new trading economy that destroyed the one based on territorial possessions linked to the original tribe. 8.For the story of Ahab in the Old Testament, cf. V. Anselmo, Fece ciò che è male agli occhi di Yhwh. La figura narrative di Acab in 1 Re, Rome, Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2018. THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH

To the bishop of Milan, the character of Ahab not only represents a rich person, but is the symbol for the greed of all the rich: “Who among the rich do not daily desire the goods of others? Who among the wealthy do not make every effort to drive the poor person out from their little plots and turn the needy out from the boundaries of their ancestral fields? Who is satisfied with what they have? Which rich person’s thoughts are not preoccupied with his or her neighbor’s possessions? It is not just one Ahab who was born, then, but – and this is worse – Ahab is born each and every day, and he never dies. … It is not one poor man, Naboth, who was slain; every day Naboth is struck down, every day the poor man is trodden upon” (1.1). With rigorous logic, Ambrose examined the soul of the 5 rich and highlighted the greed. The fate of a poor subject and the unfair demand of the king eager to seize the vineyard of Naboth just to have his own vineyard next to his farms are both significant.9 That craving for possession paradoxically shows that the rich are needier than the poor, since they are never satisfied with wealth. The phrase “give me your vineyard,” hammered insistently seven times, reveals “the fire of covetousness” (2.8) but also an interior void that nothing can fill. “Give me” is the cry of the beggar who confesses that he needs the only thing that is lacking. Ambrose comments: “The rich person scorns what belongs to him as if it were worthless, and he covets someone else’s property as if it were the most precious of things. … For he who desires to own

9.The latifundism of Ambrose’s time and the contrast between the wealth of a few and the poverty of the many created a disparity that could lead to absurdity. For example, it is known that Symmachus, the senator who helped the young Augustine conquer the ’s chair in Milan to counter the fame of Ambrose, had three palaces in Rome, three villas on the outskirts and others in the agricultural areas of Laurentum, Naples, Pozzuoli and Cumae; even Ambrose’s family owned a palace in Rome and several properties in . The power of the large landowners was such that it compelled the owners of small properties to surrender their possession in exchange for protection. To understand the drama, one must not forget the dynastic struggles and the barbarian invasions that sadly complete the picture (cf. V. Paglia, Storia della povertà. La rivoluzione della carità dalle radici del cristianesimo alla Chiesa di papa Francesco, Milan, Rizzoli, 2014, 156). GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

everything wishes the other person to possess nothing” (2.9- 10). Given the enviousness for the goods of others, the rich are perpetually unhappy! However, what is more disconcerting is the reason why Ahab covets Naboth’s vineyard: he wants to make it a vegetable field. Ambrose’s comment about this is sarcastic: “All this madness, all this uproar, then, was in order to find space for paltry herbs. It is not, therefore, that you desire to possess something useful for yourself so much as it is that you want to exclude others” (3.11). The rich want to possess everything, want to have everything for themselves to the point of destroying the only asset of the poor. “Why do you claim for yourself dominion over the entire 6 world?” asks Ambrose. “The earth was created to be shared by all, rich and poor. … Nature, which generates everyone poor, knows no wealth. … Naked it brings us into the light (cf. 1:21), needing food, clothing and drink. … Nature, then, … creates all as equals, and likewise it encloses all in the womb of the tomb” (1.2). Moreover, the opulence of the rich has nothing to offer: in their selfishness they are unable to use their own goods because they only think of accumulating them; and they do not permit the poor to use them, even if they have need.10 In addition, perverse greed makes the heart of the rich empty and separates them from human fellowship. Their logic leads them to a total rejection of society. “They flee the companionship of human beings and therefore exclude their neighbors. But they cannot flee because, when they have excluded some, others in turn take their place. … Clearly, they cannot live by themselves on earth” (3.12). The economic points that Ambrose derives from this are significant. First of all, there is the denunciation of the accumulation of treasures as an end in itself: “You mine gold from the earth and conceal it again” (4.16), just as in Psalm 39:6: “they heap up, and do not know who will gather.” The absurdity of not even knowing how to economically manage

10.“Oh rich, you seize everything from the poor, you remove everything, you leave nothing. … The poor, to be sure, do not have what they could use, but you neither use it yourselves nor permit others to use it” (4.16). THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH the productivity of the wealth leads the bishop to say: “The avaricious person is always concerned over an abundant harvest, for he calculates that food will be cheap. For abundance is advantageous to everyone, but a poor yield is so only to the avaricious person: he is pleased more by high prices than by abundant crops. … Observe him as he worries lest the pile of grain be overflowing, lest in its copiousness it spills out of his granaries and in the direction of the poor, and the opportunity for doing some good be offered him” (7.35). Ambrose also denounces the opulence of the rich as being built on the misery of the poor and fed with their blood. It leads to a physical death for the one who dies from working for the rich, and a spiritual death for the parent who, in order to pay a large debt, is in the tragic situation of having to sell into slavery 7 a child and needing to decide which to sell so as not to make the others die of hunger (5.22).11 The accumulated wealth, ostentatious pomp and thirst for possessions also reveal the inner anxiety and dementia of the rich: “Covetousness arouses him, a constant preoccupation with seizing others’ property agitates him, envy torments him, delay vexes him, the unfruitful sterility of his crops disturbs him, abundance disquiets him” (6.29). The parable of the foolish rich man (Luke 12:17-19) serves as an example for those who think they have achieved happiness in life. “Rightly is that person called a fool who caters to the bodily aspects of his soul, because he knows not for whom he is preserving the things that he stores up” (8.38). This rich man does not know that the time of death will overtake him that same night. This should be a warning to those who have accumulated too much and do not give anything, as well as to those who do not know how to be administrators of the goods received and do not know how to return them to their owners. The poor and the needy should be invited since God has given the rich a great harvest so they can be generous to the poor; he gave birth and abundance to the fields through his bounty (6.32).

11.Ambrose takes a page from Basil; cf. the homily In illud dictum, Destruam: PG 31, 268 C – 269 A. “A sermon on the words of the rich man in Luke’s Gospel, ‘ I will destroy my barns. . . ‘ “ (Luke 12:18) GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

A fair use of goods “Why then, do you make evil things from good, when you ought to make good things from evil?” (7.36). The Lord advises: “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth” (Luke 16:9). “For the one who knows how to use them, then, they are good; for the one who knows not how to use them rightly they are bad” (7.36). Ambrose’s observations on private property and wealth are interesting. Property in itself is neither a bad thing nor an abuse, in fact, it is legitimate. Its quality depends upon how it is put to use. It can become a crime if it is wasted in luxury and in vanity; however, it is an asset if, with it, the heart opens to the poor. Riches are a gift from God but can become the cause of 8 crime. Just as for evil people they are an obstacle to doing good, they are a virtue for those who use them with justice and charity. “They are good if you give them to the poor, if you open the granaries of your righteousness, so that you may be the bread of the poor, the life of the needy, the eye of the blind, the father of orphaned infants” (7.36).12 Ambrose comments: “Be a spiritual farmer, sow what can be beneficial to you, … mercy will multiply the fruits” (7.37). The second part of the treatise is a parenthetic discourse that aims to touch the hearts of the rich and open them to generosity. To carry out their plans, the rich also go to church, ask for God’s help and even fast. But what are the prayers and fasting that the Lord likes? They are the ones that break bread for the hungry, lead the needy and homeless to their homes, free the oppressed and destroy any false witness (10.45). The rich are told: do not listen to the advice of the wicked Jezebel, which is motivated by greed. She is covetousness personified, the creator of crime, the fraudulent councilor. Two false witnesses, corrupted by her, accused Naboth of blasphemy, as in the trial of Susanna in the book of Daniel (cf. Dan 13:28) and in the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (cf. Matt 26:65).

12.In the commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Ambrose makes a relevant reflection: “You cannot chase away all the bankers (nummularii, which includes all the money changers), there are also good ones” (Exp. Ev. sec. Lucam 9,18). THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH

Ambrose contrasts the rights and the denunciation of the rich with the law of the Lord, and the false testimony he contrasts with the testimony of conscience (10.45).

The hypocrisy of the rich Following the murder of Naboth, the king expressed great pain and regret, but despite the sadness on his face, he went to the vineyard of the poor and took possession of it (11.47). In reality, that pain was false and it did not take long for divine justice to be felt through the prophet Elijah who unmasked the hypocrisy of the rich: “‘You have done what is evil in the sight of the Lord’ (1 Kings 21:20), because the Lord hands over those who are guilty of crime, but the innocent he does not hand over to the power of their enemies” (12.51). 9 Evil enslaves, obscures the truth, tries to hide, afraid of its own conscience, it is never satisfied; good, on the other hand, makes us free, opens hearts to the poor, does works of mercy, multiplies its fruits: “Whatever you have contributed to the poor, therefore, is profitable to you. What you have taken away from yourself will grow for you. … Mercy is sown on the earth and germinates in heaven; it is planted in the poor and sprouts forth in God’s presence” (12.53). Finally, the rich are proud because they believe the goods they possess make them to others. Ambrose advises the rich not to be proud of what they have since they were born no differently than the poor. It should be remembered that the land and the goods are for everyone. Their palaces, riches, horses, gold and possessions are not for them. “You are, then, the custodian of your riches and not their master. You who bury gold in the ground are, indeed, its servant and not its lord. Where your treasure is, there also is your heart. Sell your gold, rather, and purchase salvation; sell your precious stones and purchase the kingdom of God; sell your field and buy back for yourself eternal life” (14.58). “Reflect that you do not possess these things by yourself. The moth possesses them with you; rust, which consumes money, possesses them. Avarice has given these partners to you” (14.59). “If you wish to be rich, be poor to this world so that you might be rich GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

to God. The one who is rich in faith is rich to God; the one who is rich in mercy is rich to God; the one who is rich in simplicity is rich to God; the one who is rich in wisdom, the one who is rich in knowledge – they are rich to God” (14.60). The final advice takes up again the parable of the judgment from the Gospel according to Matthew: “It makes your debtor the Son, who says: ‘for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing.’ For he says that whatever was given to any of the least ones was given to him.”13

“The poor are the true treasure of the Church” 10 The work of Ambrose closes with praise to God. Psalm 75 celebrates the Lord who protects Israel from the power of the Assyrians, the symbol of people possessed by riches. They do not own the goods, but they are possessed by them; they are not their masters, but they are their slaves. The Lord has upset the designs of the wicked, the rich, the powerful and the great. Therefore, he receives praise from the poor because only those who are truly poor praise the Lord in their heart, a place of peace and communion. The poor, in fact, are richer in faith, and more practiced in sobriety (15.63).14 The story of Naboth is therefore a story that has no end; it is always current. It is a story of greed and abuse of power, of false accusations and killings, robberies and injustices. However, it is also a story of honesty and truth, loyalty to the traditions of the fathers and passion for justice and truth marked by martyrdom. The purpose of the work is clear: wealth, combined with avarice, constitutes humankind’s true misery. Ambrose declares that the earth belongs to God and that the Lord has given it to all. No one can own it as their own, no one is its master: we are all stewards of what is entrusted to us, and we will need to give account of our administration. There are

13.Matt 25:35-36, 40; Ambrose, La storia di Nabot, 14.59. 14.The concept comes from Stoic controversy: cf. Seneca, De vita beata, 22 and 26; Valerius Maximus, Dictorum factorumque memorabilia libri IX 9, 4 ext. 1. THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH few ecclesiastical writers who have formulated a doctrine on the problem of wealth that is so bold and disturbing. It also reveals the radical nature of the Gospel. Ambrose was always a defender of the poor and, when necessary, did not hesitate to sell the riches of the Church to help those who lived in misery. For him, the material goods of the Church were the patrimony of the poor. In fact, he loved to say: The poor are the true treasure of the Church.15

Predilection for the poor Sixteen centuries after Ambrose, Pope Francis, in his homilies at Casa Santa Marta, recalled the ancient episode while commenting on the liturgy of the Word that included 1 Kings 21. He took up the same words of the bishop of Milan: “[The 11 story of Naboth] continually repeats itself in people who have power, material power, political power or spiritual power. But this is a sin: it’s the sin of corruption.” And how does it corrupt a person? “It corrupts on the very road to security. First, wellbeing, money, then power, vanity, pride, and from there everything, even murder.” The pope continues: “It is a daily temptation into which a politician, a businessman, a can fall.”16 “But who pays for corruption?” he asks. “The poor pay for corruption! … Naboth paid for King Ahab’s corruption. Naboth, the poor man, faithful to his traditions, faithful to his values, faithful to the inheritance received from his father.”17 The poor of today pay for it. Naboth is the first of many “martyrs of corruption.” The pope then focused particularly on corruption in the ecclesiastical world, because even here it is dramatically present: “Who pays for the corruption of a prelate? It’s paid for by the children, who don’t know how to make the sign of the cross, who don’t know the catechism, who aren’t cared for; it’s paid for by the sick who aren’t visited; it’s paid for by the imprisoned who don’t receive spiritual attention.”18

15.Cf. V. Paglia, Storia della povertà..., op. cit., 156. 16.Francis, Homily of June 16, 2014, in http://w2.vatican.va. 17.Ibid. 18.Ibid. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

Ultimately, it is always the poor who pay for corruption, the materially poor and the spiritually poor, the poor who lose values and are deprived of their quality of life. The pope also indicates a way out of corruption, referring to the confession of King David: “I have sinned.” He then cried and did penance; he repented. But he also adds the Gospel example of Zacchaeus: “I’ve stolen, Lord. I’ll give back fourfold what I’ve stolen.”19 Pope Francis, referring to Ambrose’s commentary, uses his words. History repeats itself again today. But like the bishop of Milan, he recalls that the way to salvation is the preference for the poor, for the little ones, for the “martyrs of corruption.” It is an invitation for everyone to conversion of heart and to pray for 12 the powerful and the corrupt.20 In the encyclical Laudato Si’, the pope acutely reformulated the situation of King Ahab, adapting it to our time: “The current global situation engenders a feeling of instability and uncertainty, which in turn becomes ‘a seedbed for collective selfishness.’ When people become self-centered and self- enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears.”21 Pope Francis has recently returned to the story of Naboth. It is “paradigmatic of many martyrs of history. It is paradigmatic of the martyrdom of Jesus; it is paradigmatic of Stephen’s martyrdom; it is also paradigmatic, from the Old Testament, of Susanna; it is paradigmatic of many martyrs

19.Ibid., Homily of June 17, 2014, in http://w2.vatican.va. 20.Pope Francis, during the Spiritual Exercises of the Curia in Lent 2014, proposed the reading of Ambrose’s text La storia di Nabot, una storia infinita. Cf. B. Secondin, Profeti del Dio vivente. In cammino con Elia, Padova – , Messaggero – Libr. Ed. Vaticana, 2015, 107-116. 21.Francis, Encyclical letter Laudato Si’, No. 204. The initial quote is from John Paul II, “Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace,” No. 1, in 82 (1990), 147. THE TYRANNICAL KING AND POOR NABOTH who are condemned thanks to a slanderous set-up.”22 But “this story is also paradigmatic of how to proceed in the society of so many people, of many heads of state or government: they communicate a lie, a slander and, after destroying both a person and a situation with that slander, they judge that destruction and condemn. Even today, in many countries this method is used to destroy free communication.”23 Francis then concludes by saying that “the just Naboth … only wanted one thing: to be faithful to the legacy of his ancestors, not to sell the inheritance, not to sell history, not to sell the truth,” because “the legacy was beyond that vineyard: a legacy of the heart is not sold.”24

13

22.Cf. “Dictators manipulate communication,” in Oss. Rom., June 18-19, 2018, 8. 23.Ibid. 24.Ibid. Paul VI and Vatican II

Giovanni Sale, SJ

The canonization of Blessed Paul VI, the pope who masterfully led to its conclusion the Second Vatican Council – convoked a few years earlier by John XXIII – gives us the opportunity to revisit, albeit briefly, some significant moments 14 of the conciliar event at which he was a propeller and tireless mediator in search of consensus and communion among the Council fathers. Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, was elected to the papacy on June 21, 1963. According to many Vaticanisti – and not only them – his election was thoroughly unsurprising, although not to be taken for granted. The conclave that elected him after a day and a half of voting consisted of a number of conservative cardinals, mainly Italian and from the , who would have preferred the election of one of their candidates, such as Cardinal Ildebrando Antoniutti from the Italian region of Friuli or Cardinal Francesco Roberti from the region of Le Marche.1 Instead, the conclave chose a cardinal who actively supported the Council, and would continue with wisdom and foresight the work started by John XXIII. In practical terms, they looked for a moderate cardinal capable of holding together the different spirits in the Council, and this person was quickly identified as the Archbishop of Milan, over against Cardinal , who was supported by the more progressive wing of the conclave. For both sides of the conclave and of the Council – which actually were not symmetrical, as conservative cardinals were

1.Concerning the conclave, cf. A. Tornielli, Paolo VI: L’audacia di un papa, Milan, Mondadori, 2009, 329 f. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II more numerous in the conclave – Montini was the ideal candidate: he was a residential bishop with pastoral experience and at the same time an accomplished prelate, an expert of the mechanisms of the Roman Curia. In the first conciliar session he had kept a low profile. He had intervened only once in the assembly to criticize from a centrist perspective the scheme on the Church presented by the doctrinal commission presided by Cardinal .2 In short, he was close to the views of the so- called progressives – who, from the exploratory vote of October 1963, regarding some essential points of the schema De Ecclesia, became identified as the conciliar majority – but he was also sensitive to the doctrinal reasons of the so-called “conservatives” whose mentality and cultural background he knew well from his time working in the Secretariat of State (1937-54). 15 The new pope was very close to his predecessors. He had faithfully served Pius XII for many years, even if he did not always share his ecclesiological and political views; John XXIII had created him a cardinal after his election, and on many occasions Montini expressed profound respect toward him, also declaring that he wanted to continue the conciliar project following the principles outlined in Pope John’s opening speech . It should be noted that while he felt close to his predecessors and suggested their canonization during the Council, Montini did not identify overly much with them in terms of personality or mentality, to the point that upon accepting election as bishop of Rome he choose neither Pius nor John as his papal name. Paul VI was fully conscious of his high office at “the service of the Church” and he felt deeply his duty before God: “It seems to me that the facts were stronger than me; and that there was in me a sincere and tacit prayer to be spared, together with the intention of not cowardly failing to make more of an offering of my poor life.”3 During his first spiritual retreat at Castel Gandolfo a few weeks after his election, Montini meditated again on the same

2.Cf. G. Sale, “From De Ecclesia to Lumen Gentium,” in Civ. Catt. English ed. November 2017. 3 . P. M a c c h i , Paolo VI nella sua parola, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2003, 106. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

themes. This time he also considered the terrible loneliness he suffered due to his position. This will become, along with the offering of his life, one of the main features of his spirituality. In a note of August 5, 1963, he wrote: “It is necessary that I understand the position and the function that I have now… The position is unique. This means that I find myself in an extreme loneliness. It was already great before, now it is total and tremendous. It causes dizziness, like a statue on a spire.”4 The first act of Pope Montini (after having reconfirmed Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani as his Secretary of State) was to reiterate the continuation of the Council, as many desired. On the morning of June 22, in the , after the ritual act of obedience by the cardinals, he stated that “the 16 dominant part” of his pontificate would be occupied by the Council determined by John XXIII, “on which are fixed the eyes of all people of good will.”5 From the beginning of his pontificate Montini strongly felt the responsibility of carrying on the legacy of his predecessor: leading the greatest assembly of bishops ever gathered in the history of the Church, which would usher in a profound renewal of Catholicism not only from a doctrinal point of view, but also – and above all – from a spiritual, liturgical and pastoral perspective. He led the conciliar agenda using his previous experience as a skilled negotiator and working as a patient mediator among the different spirits of the Council and, when it was needed, intervening with personal decisions in order to ensure the greatest possible consensus to the conciliar resolutions. Sometimes he exercised the right to decide directly some important issues, such as the reform of the Roman Curia, the issue of priestly celibacy and the delicate problem of birth control.6 Furthermore, Paul VI asked to change some of the regulations so that he could take more visible and effective leadership of the

4.L. Sapienza, La barca di Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2018, 39. 5.Paolo VI, Encicliche e Discorsi, vol. I, Rome, Paoline, 1964, 13. 6.Cf. G. M. Vian, “Paolo VI” in Enciclopedia dei Papi, vol. III, Rome, Treccani, 2017, 666;G. Adornato, Paolo VI: La storia, l’eredità, la santità, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2014, 112. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

Council, eliminating the accusation that it was an acephalous gathering. Under the new regulations, the management of the assembly and the deliberation of the texts discussed in it were organized in agreement with the pope (as “head” of the Council), and four moderators appointed by him led the debate in the general congregations. These were Armenian Agagianian and Cardinals Lercaro, Döpfner, and Suenens, who, like the papal legates of old, answered only to the pope. Paul VI was a modern pope. Unlike his immediate predecessors he was of bourgeois origin and culture. His education – not purely clerical – was wide and open to contemporary challenges: he read transalpine theologians and philosophers, especially Maritain and Péguy, and preferred the theological school of Louvain. As a convinced Christian Democrat, he was not 17 interested, as was Pius XII, in the matter of the defense of the Catholic State or in the repetition of condemnations against or the old liberal rationalism: his great concern was how to reconcile the modern world with the Church. In the homily of the solemn rite of his coronation, which for the last time in the happened on June 30, 1963, he affirmed: “Beyond the borders of Christianity, there is another dialogue to which the Church is committed today, and it is the dialogue with the modern world... It aspires to justice, to a progress that is not only technical, but human... We listen to these deep voices of the world.7 The Church, the pope continued, “is in deep communion with the modern world, ready to welcome its challenges and to offer the remedy for its evils, the answer to its appeals.” The international press enthusiastically welcomed the election of Montini, a pope from Lombardy. He was usually described as a sensitive, modern, respectful person who was above all a man of dialogue. According to the French paper Le Monde, Paul VI was the “pope of the Council,” who guided the Church “with skillful hands that are firm but gentle” who is able to find the delicate balance between authority and respect for human

7.Paolo VI, Encicliche e Discorsi, vol. I, op. cit., 40. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

freedom.8 This sympathetic relationship between the new pope and the media world lasted through the entire Council, but started to deteriorate in 1968 with the beginning of the student uprisings, and especially with the publication of the encyclical Humanae Vitae on natural birth control, which was highly disputed, even in some progressive Catholic environments.

Paul VI and the of the Second Vatican Council On September 29, 1963, Pope Paul VI opened the second session of Vatican II. In rich and well-articulated language, the opening speech showed his program for the Council: together with the guiding principles entrusted to the assembly by John XXIII – (updating), the pastoral aspect and the 18 commitment to (reread according to the sensitivity of the new pope) – there were new themes that supplemented and enriched the content and also the practice, the issues submitted to the attention of the conciliar assembly and its bodies. These new themes concerned the priority of deepening the theology of the Church and the Council’s commitment to an open dialogue with the modern world. The first theme, which the pope pointed to as the “very first goal” of the Council, was intended to define the concept of Church in a renewed ecclesiology, integrating it with the doctrine expressed by Vatican I on the prerogatives of papal power. Returning later to this topic in a speech on September 14, 1964, the pope stated: “The time has come when the Church must say about herself what Christ thought and wanted. The Church must define herself.”9 This issue occupied the pontiff’s mind for a long time. He devoted his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, to this subject and carefully oversaw the work of the Council so that the new schema of De Ecclesia (which would later become the Constitution Lumen Gentium), elaborated by Msgr. Gérard Philips and theologians

8.Cf. A. Riccardi, Il potere del papa. Da Pio XII a Paolo VI, Rome – Bari, Laterza, 1988, 227. 9.G. Alberigo, Transizione epocale. Studi sul Concilio Vati cano II, Bologna, il Mulino, 2009, 867. Critical of the ecclesiological orientation of Paul VI is G. Verucci, La Chiesa nella società contemporanea, Rome/Bari, Laterza, 1988, 384. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II of Louvain, was accepted with appropriate adaptations and minor changes by almost all the Council fathers. As John XXIII had the task to encourage the commitment and responsibility of the Council fathers, in the same way, Paul VI had to ensure the unity of the Council – even among a plurality of positions – and its greatest possible convergence after the laborious work of mediation, in approving the texts. According to some scholars, his principle of seeking quasi- unanimous consensus had consequences “in terms of the clarity and coherence of the adopted texts. The motion put forth by the pope had deep resonance in the spirit of bishops, causing them also to sacrifice abstract doctrinal coherence when it was not possible to do otherwise.”10 In fact, each mediation itself is the result of inevitable and appropriate 19 agreements. Paul VI was able to settle the disputes, which, if not expertly guided, would have blocked the Council’s dynamism or sacrificed the acceptance of important texts. Another theme very dear to Paul VI was dialogue with the modern world. It was present in all the stages of the conciliar period, inspiring the drafting of documents – such as Gaudium et Spes – which the pope wanted produced despite the theological difficulties during the drafting of the text. Unlike many of his predecessors – who condemned, even through encyclicals, so- called “innovations” and “modern freedoms” considered products of atheist rationalism and an illiberal thought hostile to the Church – Paul VI looked at modernity through a positive lens. Indeed, he read in this “wonderful panorama” of the progress of and technology many aspirations of justice, peace, human growth, and trusting cooperation among the people who deserved an answer, which the Church – as he said on several occasions – was able to give. This theme, which was typical of Montini and would later be investigated in his social encyclicals, was largely shared also by the Council, and in fact is mentioned in many of his texts.11 The

10.Ibid., 787. 11.In this context, Alberigo writes: “On several occasions, however, there remained the impression of a use which was maybe a little nonchalant and not deepened. If the ability to dialogue was a stark improvement over the grim GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

second session ended in December 1963 with the promulgation of the constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which had inaugurated the work of the Council in its previous session. John XXIII had desired that the Council start with the topic of liturgy because it was the one on which, thanks to the liturgical movement, there was the greatest convergence among the fathers. This issue was of strategic importance for the future of the Council, and Paul VI was well aware of it. In fact, many among the faithful understood the importance of the Council event thanks to the innovations brought by that document, such as the adoption of the vernacular for the liturgy, the importance given to the Sacred Scriptures in liturgical celebrations, and so on. In 20 fact, the reaction against the Second Vatican Council after the event focused precisely on the “new liturgy,” using the defense of the of Pius V as the banner under which to object to Paul VI and the implementation of the conciliar documents. In fact, Sacrosanctum Concilium was merely the necessary premise to the real liturgical reform. It was a sort of framework law which indicated the principles and criteria to be applied in a subsequent regulation of this matter. Anyhow, for Catholics, Latin is not a sacred language (as is Arabic for Muslims), even if for centuries it contributed “to mythically give to the liturgy the character of a form of worship which had been in use since time immemorial.”12 In fact, the Mass in Latin was the result of a long historical process, which began with the Council of Trent and was definitively systematized with the Missal of Pius V. Furthermore, in order to give immediate application to the principles contained in the constitution on the liturgy and to spread among Catholics the innovations of the Council, in 1964 Paul VI created a special body, the Consilium ad exsequendam constitutionem de sacra liturgia (Commission for the implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy), whose leadership was entrusted to one of the greatest architects

attitude of superiority in the previous ecclesiastical Magisterium, sometimes one perceives a use that is too easy and in the end banal” (G. Alberigo, Transizione epocale…, op. cit., 787). 12.A. Riccardi, Il potere del papa: Da Pio XII a Paolo VI, op. cit., 229. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II of the constitution, Cardinal Lercaro. The pope wanted the implementation of this important reform not to pass through the traditional channels of the Curia, but rather that it be managed and led by an appropriate structure, which worked closely with the episcopal conferences around the world and with the Council, while paying full attention that these reforms had the placet of the curia, by asking it to express its views on 13 the Ordo Missarum that was still being tested. In the closing speech of the second phase, on December 4, 1963, the pope did not hide his disappointment that, although the assembly had worked assiduously, there were still too many open questions on important issues. At the end of the speech he announced that he would go on a pilgrimage to the . This announcement was welcomed by the assembly 21 with a long applause. The historic trip, thoughtfully prepared by Paul VI, lasted January 4-6, 1964.14 It was the first time a pope had gone to the Holy Land, indeed, left the old Continent, and Paul VI decreed that this trip had a religious and ecumenical character. He was the first Roman pontiff to travel by plane, at that time a symbol of progress and modernity. The pope visited the holy places of and Galilee and met the Eastern Christian communities and their . In particular, in Jerusalem occurred the twofold meeting between Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras. The season of ecumenism had begun. The gestures of hospitality and friendship in Jerusalem anticipated brave acts, such as the mutual revocation of the excommunication decrees of 1054 between the two sister Churches during a celebration held at the same time in St. Peter’s and in the patriarchal see at the Phanar, just before the end of the Council (December 7, 1965). Meanwhile, early in the third phase of the Council, the Ecumenical Patriarch sent to the Council his own representatives. The travels Paul VI made during the period of the Council and afterwards – nine in total – were the result of a careful

13.Ibid. 14.Cf. G. Sale, “A cinquant’anni dal viaggio di Paolo VI in Terra Santa,” in Civ. Catt. 2014 II, 313-326. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

spiritual meditation and a deliberate intellectual choice. These were signals the pope intended to send to the Council and to the modern world as well. Usually these trips were short but intense, both in terms of the gestures of the pope and for his poignant messages. Each one had a great symbolic value. It was a new way of proclaiming the Gospel and living close to the world. Therefore, Paul VI was the brilliant and prophetic initiator of a new way of living the Petrine ministry through apostolic journeys, a practice later widely undertaken by his successors. On August 6, 1964, Paul VI, more than a year after his election, promulgated the inaugural encyclical of his pontificate, Ecclesiam Suam, written entirely by his own hand. The theme of this document was the Church, but he did not 22 touch on the themes that were being discussed in the Council. It was no longer described as societas perfecta, but as mystical body, in the perspective of the Mystici Corporis written by Pope Pius XII. The novelty of Montini’s thought compared to the ecclesiology of Pius XII consisted in the fact that he proposed the Church “as communion in intensive dialogue with the world.” The Church of Paul VI was not separated from or in opposition to the world. On the contrary, it was in fraternal dialogue with it. The word “dialogue” is present in the encyclical 77 times. Its meaning and its application occupy about half of the long papal document.15 It should not be forgotten that this encyclical diffused this terminology in the Council, to the point that it became one of its key expressions.16

15.Cf. J. W. O’Malley, What Happened at Vati can II?, Harvard University Press, 2010. The author has worked from the Italian translation: Che cosa è successo nel Vati cano II, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 2010, 207. 16.According to Alberigo, the relationship between Paul VI and the contemporary world was more complex than it appears from this document. The scholar affirms: “He was moving according to a sympathetic, but mainly critical assessment of the current time. Therefore, dialogue was responding to an attitude of availability, but not necessarily in harmony and brotherhood” (G. Alberigo, Transizione epocale…, op. cit., 785). This position does not take into account the difficult historical conditions of the ministry of the pope and his introverted, shy and discreet personality, which was however capable of great outbursts of affection and generosity also toward those most distant. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

The role of Paul VI in the Council Starting from the third period of the Council, the interventions of Paul VI in the works of the assembly became, over time, more frequent. While fully respecting the freedom of the Council, he wanted to express his thoughts on the issues that were the most important to him. As he would say, “The pope is not simply the notary of the Council. He has his responsibility before God and the Church.”17 Unfortunately these interventions were sometimes considered to be undue interference by the pope in the activity of the Council, even when their intent was the extension of the consensus of the assembly in line with the reforms presented by the majority, and thus ensure quasi- unanimity in approving the conciliar documents. Some leaders of the progressive front reproached the pope for 23 appearing overly appeasing toward the requests of the minority. Its representatives, in order to defend their traditionalist positions, insisted on the sensitivity of the pontiff who in doctrinal matters tended to avoid excessive polarizations and to always look for a synthesis between tradition and innovation. According to O’Malley, Paul VI had at least four different roles during the Council. Sometimes he wanted to act as a “bishop among the bishops,” presenting amendments that the committees were free to accept or decline. But, as head of the Council, he assumed three distinct leadership roles: A) he acted as the supreme arbiter of procedural disputes, even in first instance; B) he acted as promoter to ensure in each case the almost unanimous approval of the conciliar documents, as the Council was not supposed to end with winners and losers, to avoid the danger of a schism in the Church; C) he acted as guarantor of Catholic orthodoxy, that is to preserve the integrity of the truth of faith even in the change of the forms of transmission to modern men and women. Nevertheless, “it was not always clear to the assembly and especially the commissions which role the pope was playing at any given time.”18

17.G. F. Svidercoschi, Inchiesta sul Concilio. Parlano i protagonisti, Rome, Città Nuova, 1985, 34. 18.J. W. O’Malley, Che cosa è successo nel Vati cano II, op. cit., 175. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

The interventions of Pope Paul VI in the Council Now we want to briefly examine the most significant cases where, during the third and fourth sessions, Paul VI intervened in the Council – both in the general assembly and in the commissions – and the reasons he did so. This, regardless of preconceived ideological positions, will give us the right measure and tenor of these interventions, which did not weaken at all the freedom of the Council, as he acted in full compliance with his prerogatives and powers. The first intervention of Paul VI concerned the third chapter of De Ecclesia, “on the hierarchical structure of the Church.” During the inter-sessional meeting in May 1963, the pope sent the doctrinal commission 13 suggestions on collegiality, 24 which he wanted to be carefully examined in order to avoid future possible misinterpretations of the text. In this case he said he was acting as a “bishop among bishops,” although this intervention was received with consternation by the majority of the fathers. O’Malley writes: “The episode was a harbinger of the extraordinary number of interventions of this kind that there would be from then on.”19 Of course, no one disputed the right of the pope to intervene on the conciliar texts, but what created problems was that this usually happened at the end of the process of production of the text, when it was ready to be signed and submitted to the assembly. The commission considered the suggestions of the pope with great care. Some of them were accepted, others were rejected. Among the latter, in particular, the limitations requested by Paul VI on collegiality, so that the authority of the episcopal college was exercised according to the “prescriptions of its head,” the pope. However, the commission confirmed the solution previously adopted, namely that the authority of the college could never be exercised regardless of the pontiff. Msgr. Philips, in a letter addressed to Paul VI, explained the reasons for the decisions adopted by the commission on the suggestions presented by the pope.

19.Ibid., 205. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

The subject of De Ecclesia, reformulated by the doctrinal commission on the basis of the so-called “Philips project,” continued for a long time to worry the pope. One reason being that on some points of the document – such as the doctrine of collegiality – there had long been a conflict between the two spirits of the Council (i.e. between the “majority” and “minority”), which did not seem to be dissipating. Thus, on September 13, on the eve of the third session of the Council, Paul VI received a long and confidentialmemorandum , signed by 25 cardinals (16 of them from the Curia), and 13 superiors general of religious orders. The document stated that the doctrine expressed in the third chapter of De Ecclesia represented a great danger for the Church and its structure, as it was willed by Christ. It also defined the schema as “very weak 25 and fallacious on the historical and doctrinal levels ... inaccurate, not logical, incoherent and therefore – if approved – it would be a possible element of endless discussions, crises, painful madness, and dangerous attacks to unity, discipline and Church government.” According to these fathers, the doctrine on collegiality changed the teachings of Vatican I on the doctrine of primacy, because it meant a diminishment of authority and freedom of the pontiff in Church leadership, binding them to an agreement with the bishops. Paul VI – who from the beginning had supported change in ecclesiological matters and had chosen “the Church in dialogue with the modern world” as one of the key themes of his papacy – received this memorandum with great sorrow, and on September 21 he sent a personal letter to Cardinal Larraona Saralegui, who he knew was behind this maneuver, saying he was sad for the letter, based on controversial topics. With unusual harshness, the pope added that, if he tried to put in place the measures set out by the memorandum, it would have caused great harm to the Council and to the Church. On October 18, the pontiff rejected in a more attentive way all charges against the schema on the Church presented by the “minority” and recalled his interventions to ensure the GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

integrity and orthodoxy of the doctrine on the Church.20 This defense of De Ecclesia against its detractors did not mean, however, that Paul VI supported this schema in its entirety. According to the pope, some steps in the matter of collegiality should have been rethought, and anyway the arguments of the conciliar minority were to be taken into account, looking for formulations that could obtain the unanimity of consensus in the final vote. In light of this, it is possible to understand the meaning of the Nota Explicativa Praevia that was distributed on November 16 (during the so-called “black week”) to the Council fathers together with the third chapter of De Ecclesia on the hierarchical structure of the Church. It had been sent “on behalf of the 26 supreme authority,” that is, of the pope. The Nota, written in great secrecy during the previous days by Msgr. Philips and Msgr. Carlo Colombo, was presented as an authentic interpretation of the third chapter proposed to the fathers of the Theological Commission, before they passed to the vote on the amendments.21 In fact, the text largely repeated in a redundant manner what had been established in the third chapter. The “new” parts represented the final attempt to win over to the schema the minority who were pressuring the pope, but the main content of the text – capable of renewing the old ecclesiology – remained unchanged.

20.Cf. X. Toscani (ed.), Paolo VI. Una biografia, Rome, Studium, 2014, 384. 21.The Nota Explicativa Praevia was divided into four points. 1) The first point stated that the word ‘college’ was not to be understood in a strictly juridical sense, as a group of equals. 2) The second point stated that the incorporation in the college as an effect of episcopal consecration is conditioned by the “hierarchical communion” of the new bishop with the pope and other bishops. It is a right of the pope to juridically determine the scope of exercise of authority (the diocese) received by each bishop at consecration. 3) The third point concerned the relationship between “personal” mode (the pope alone) and “collegial” mode (the pope together with the episcopal college) of exercising the supreme authority in the Church. It was underlined that the choice on how to exercise authority belonged only to the pope. 4) The fourth point reiterated the pope’s freedom from the influence of the college of bishops and the impossibility of the latter to perform valid acts without the participation or approval of the pope. Cf. G. Alberigo, Breve storia del Concilio Vaticano II, Bologna, il Mulino, 2005, 108. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

The Nota was neither discussed nor voted upon by the assembly. Since it was not signed by the pope, but only by the secretary general of the Council, Archbishop , one wonders what its true value was with respect to the conciliar documents. According to some, it would be a simple working document of the theological commission. However, for others it would have compulsory value in the interpretation of chapter three, to which it would be strictly related. According to Alberigo, whatever in the Nota “is inconsistent, conflicting, or even just added and dissonant with respect to Lumen Gentium is devoid of any value.”22 On November 21, 1964, the Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium was approved by the Council assembly with only five votes against (out of a total of 2,156). The strategy 27 adopted by the pope during those months – considered by some as “Hamletic and ambiguous”23 – obtained its results. Several months earlier, Pope Paul VI, talking to the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, Fr. Roberto Tucci, about the schema De Ecclesia, expressed good words concerning that schema – then still in progress – calling it the “ripe fruit of a beautiful bloom of ecclesiastical studies, and praised especially the French authors who were able to combine the firmness of the concepts with the modern sensibility and an expression so becoming to the needs of contemporary culture.” The sympathy of the pope was especially with the progressives but, in his high function as head and arbiter of the Council, he could not ignore the positions of the minority. There was a need to somehow mediate, and this is what Paul VI did masterfully.

Paul VI at the United Nations The atmosphere of the assembly was further heated, generating a “general discontent,” when, on November 19, Cardinal Eugène Tisserant announced that the Council’s directorate had decided to postpone the vote on the text of the Declaration on Religious Freedom, because, after the changes

22.G. Alberigo, Transizione epocale…, op. cit., 324. 23.Cf. C. Falconi, La svolta di Paolo VI, Rome, Ubaldini, 1968, 207. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

made to it by the Commission, it represented a new text, which, according to the regulations, required a reasonable amount of time to be examined.24 The communication was received by the majority of Council fathers with frustration, especially when it became known that the pope had acquiesced to pressure from a group of Spanish bishops, hostile to the Declaration for political reasons. The majority wanted it to be approved expeditiously, according to the regulations regarding voting. The American bishops, very sensitive to matters of religious freedom, sent to the pope a letter of protest, signed by 441 fathers, asking that the vote be taken. Paul VI wanted the regulations to be applied as a guarantee of impartiality, but promised the fathers of the “majority position” 28 that the declaration would be discussed and voted on at the beginning of the fourth session. On the same day, the secretary general of the Council, Archbishop Felice, announced that the Secretariat for Christian Unity had introduced 19 changes requested by a “higher authority” to bring greater clarity to the text of the schema on ecumenism, which was already close to a final vote. Paul VI, at the last minute, had presented as many as 40 “amendments” to be made to the text, which were not incompatible with what had been approved. Because this request was made on the eve of the discussion, Cardinal did not have time to request a session of the Secretariat, and with his closest collaborators he accepted the changes that had been proposed.

24.The Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, was one of the subjects most debated in the Council. It concerned in the first place the relations of the Church with the various governments not inclined toward religious freedom, with whom the Church had signed concordats. Moreover, in the Church itself, one current of thought held that only truth had rights, not error, which could only be tolerated to avoid greater evil. Supporters of religious freedom instead believed that no person, made in image and likeness of God, could be forced into faith or be impeded (especially by civil authority) from manifesting it. This theme had already been extensively developed in Pacem in Terris by John XXIII. In the Council it was established gradually, but decidedly, that one had to “assume the person as a starting point; the human being as a subject of rights, and a call to adhere to the truth” (X. Toscani [ed.], Paolo VI ..., op. cit., 386). PAUL VI AND VATICAN II

In reality, these were marginal changes – mostly clarifications, minor changes, some semantic, some conceptual – but in the heated climate of those days it seemed to many of the fathers that the substance of the text was being changed, and that the pope was attacking the freedom of the Council. These papal interventions on the texts, even if made with the conviction they were improving what had already been accomplished, were usually received unhappily by the “majority”; almost always a drama ensued, and they gave the “minority,” although defeated in the Council hall itself, the possibility of driving a wedge into the fractures created by the interventions. Thus the schema on ecumenism – which became the decree Unitatis Redintegratio – was successfully approved with near unanimity, thanks to the papal interventions, in the same session. 29 In the fourth session, the first schema proposed for discussion of the fathers was that on religious freedom. The debate was once again a fiery one: the “minority” gave battle, making frequent interventions in the Council hall. About 70 speakers took part in the discussion. The two spirits of the council were still distant from one another. In favor of the schema, the U.S. bishops overwhelmingly lined up, as well as almost all the bishops of Western Europe, the bishops who came from communist countries, and others. Since the positions in the debate seemed to be entrenched, on September 20, the Council’s directorate decided to set aside the document, in anticipation of a new draft. As soon as he was informed of the decision, the pope ordered that the fathers vote on the text as soon as possible, and that it should be moved to the final vote, “because,” he said, “this document is capital. It sets the attitude of the Church for several centuries. The world awaits it.”25

25.X. Toscani, Paolo VI ..., op. cit., 397. The pope also intervened at this time on the schema on Revelation, which would become the constitution Dei Verbum. He sent to the commission in charge some important amendments, which the “minority” was willing to accept. On the question of the sources of Revelation, he proposed the following formulation: “The Church draws certainty from all things revealed, not by the Scriptures alone (sola scriptura)” (No. 9). In matters of inerrancy, he proposed: “Sacred Scripture teaches without error the truth that God wanted to be delivered in the sacred scriptures for our salvation” (No. 11). GIOVANNI SALE, SJ

In that same period Paul VI played a proactive role in stimulating the wrapping up of another important document: what was called “Schema 13” (on relationships between the Church and the world), which later became the constitution Gaudium et Spes. It, too, was subject to criticism, and this time not just from the “minority.” Some criticized it as a text more of sociology than of theology; others said that it was excessively affected by the influence of the French theology, and that it was too optimistic in its evaluation of the modern world. The Germans criticized it for treating too superficially, or not sufficiently, the doctrines of original sin and the salvific role of the cross. According to some fathers, the text did not contain any 30 explicit condemnation of Communism, and they wondered for what purpose they had made the 330 amendments, presented to the assembly, explicitly condemning Marxist atheism. Paul VI asked that the encyclicals and the statements of the who had condemned communism be noted. However he did not want, even though there was still a lot to be done and to be integrated into different areas, the schema to be dropped from the conciliar agenda, as many wished. And, in anticipation of the trip that he would make shortly to the UN, he did not want to give the impression that the was interested only in itself, ignoring the great challenges of the modern world. On October 4, 1965, while the Council was working on the documents mentioned above, Paul VI visited the UN, at the invitation of Secretary-General U Thant. The pope was accompanied by seven cardinals, coming from different continents. He spoke before the representatives of 117 nations; only that of Albania was absent. His was sober; his slim figure dressed in white inspired respect and sympathy from the assembly. Paul VI did not present himself as a teacher of civilization who came to teach the great powers of the earth the Truth on the basis of Revelation or natural law, but as the representative of a Church that was an “expert in humanity”

On the constitution Dei Verbum, cf. G. Sale, “The conciliar discussion on the relationship between Scripture and Tradition,” in Civ. Catt. 2 017 IV, 24 -39. PAUL VI AND VATICAN II and that has long been walking on the path of history. He spoke not only on behalf of Catholics, but also of other Christians, especially of those, he said, “who have been kind enough to designate us explicitly as their spokesman.” The pope expressed words of appreciation toward the statute of the UN and invoked peace for all: “Humanity,” he said, “must put an end to war, or war will put an end to humanity... Never again war; war, never again! It is peace, peace that has to guide the destiny of the nations of all humanity!” Paul VI exhorted disarmament, a better distribution of wealth of the goods of the earth, to grow a new mentality and to spread a different way of thinking about the human person and about coexistence. As soon as he returned from New York, he immediately 31 went to the Council hall where he was welcomed by a long applause. The Catholic Church, he said, has assumed before the world the obligation “to serve the cause of peace.” The fathers wanted the pope’s message incorporated into the official acts of the Council. These themes, only sketched in the speech of Paul VI at the UN, then became the fixed points of the new papal magisterium, no longer focused on the condemnation of the modern world, but on the integral development of humanity as being open to transcendence and called to work together for the common good. Digital Argonauts The young and the search for meaning

Francesco Occhetta, SJ – Paolo Benanti, TOR

Recognition is rarely given to young people’s ability to manage the rapid anthropological change that is occurring. It causes us to experience time as an eternal now and space as something to be navigated, no longer as a path composed 32 of definite rules.1 However, the digital Argonauts2 – the new generation whose compasses are their smartphones – know how to live in the age of interconnectivity and transform the desert of opportunity into an oasis. They are self-taught, learn languages, grow up in multicultural societies, and tell their stories through photography and brief messages. For them, the novelty is to experience the web differently than their parents’ generation.3 A half-century has passed since 1968. Out of fear of losing the little they have been able to win individually, the youth of the third millennium do not fight together for their civil rights. However, they are anything but passive and deflated. They suffer the exploitation of underpaid jobs and prohibitive rent, yet their silence is a form of resilience, similar to a protective shell. Their generation poses questions to the whole educational and social system: Which destination are they heading in? How to assist them? Is dialogue possible?

1.Cf. F. Occhetta - P. Benanti, “La politica di fronte alle sfide del postumano,” in Civ. Catt. 2015 I 572-584. 2.In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a group of 50 heroes who, led by Jason, sailed on board the ship “Argo” heading for the land of Colchis to claim the golden fleece of a ram sent from heaven. 3.Cf. A. Romeo, Posto, taggo, dunque sono? Nuovi rituali e appartenenze digitali, Sesto San Giovanni (Mi), Mimesis, 2017; P. Bignardi - E. Marta - S. Alfieri, Generazione Z. Guardare il mondo con fiducia e speranza, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 2018. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS

The wealth that their age group represents in Italian society – in terms of ideas, vitality, hope and objectives – is unfortunately diminishing: in 1991, there were 26.7 million young people up to the age of 34, that is, 47.1 percent of the population; in 2017, they declined to 20.8 million, 34.3 percent of the population. What changed? And over which subjects can the various generations rediscover each other in order to travel together and pass on the baton?

Eyes that meet: young people and adults It is necessary to recognize that an analysis of the situation of young people is, in general, biased by the perspective of adults. And what if the young are victims of a narration that is overly affected by fear rather than by hope, that is more inclined to 33 impose than to educate? Franco Nembrini4 recalls some ideas about the youth from the ancient world. This is from Socrates in 470 B.C.: “Our youth loves luxury, is ill mannered, mocks authority, and does not have any respect for their elders. Today’s children are tyrants, they do not stand up when an elder enters the room, they talk back to their parents. In a word, they are bad.” Still earlier, in 720 B.C., Hesiod affirms: “There would be no hope for the future of our country if today’s youth were to take power tomorrow, because these youths are unbearable, out of control, terrible.” Finally, of the same tenor is an inscription on a Babylonian vase dated about 3000 B.C.: “The youth are rotten to the depths of their hearts. The youth are malicious and lazy, they will never be like the youth of yesteryear. Those of today will be unable to maintain our culture.” Rather than belittle the youth, these passages bring to light the difficulty of embracing a future that advances, the disconnection between parents and teachers, and the limits of the educational system, which is no longer the principal pedagogical institution alongside the family. Moreover, they invite us not to be beholden to stereotypes, but to put our money on the

4.F. Nembrini, “Come è difficile essere padri,” conference at the Cultural Center of Milan, April 1, 2014, in www.centroculturaledimilano.it/. Cf. Ibid., Di padre in figlio. Conversazioni sul rischio di educare, Milan, Ares, 2017. FRANCESCO OCCHETTA, SJ – PAOLO BENANTI, TOR

educational dynamic, the only one capable of forming a society that permits the young to become adults and prepare themselves for the age of responsibility. The condition of the young, different in the various historical periods, poses an inexhaustible question of meaning to adults. François Gervais highlights it in an essay, a sort of examination of conscience for adults: “The young need parents and we give them video games. The young want to communicate and we give them the internet. The young want to learn and we give them a diploma. The young insist upon more freedom and we give them a car. The young seek love and we give them condoms for protection. The young love to think and we give them know-how. The young are in search of hope and 34 performance is imposed upon them. The young long to discover the meaning of life and we give them a career. The young dream of happiness and they are given the pleasures of consumerism. Are the young complicated? This is true above all when they traverse that period when they insist upon difference in order to help us never to forget our own youth, that difficult period we call adolescence.”5 One becomes an adult not just through the public records office, but by choice. And in order that this happens, we need to move away from an indoctrinating vision of teaching (still expressed in the etymology of the Italian insegnante and the French enseignant that imply “putting something inside”) and move toward being educators, in the noble sense of “leading out” resources, innovation and values. This is the added value of the good educational practices already in place in many families, schools and youth clubs, which do not force the youth to conform but allow them to grow. But there is something more, something that pertains to the social sphere. Formation and work are decisive in the life of a young person, they are the crossroads where identity and culture, concrete possibility and personal development converge. On the one hand, it is true that the young are not

5.F. Gervais, Il piccolo saggio. Parole per maturare, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2014. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS always willing to undertake the professions that businesses seek, like that of an engineer, accountant, metalworker, IT specialist, welder, cook, nurse, marketing expert or carpenter. On the other hand, they pay for dead-end degrees and suffer from the devaluation of their income. The problem of youth unemployment is not limited to Italy, travel to the areas in Europe seeking labor, there is a need for assistance from schools, scholarships for ad hoc work, and Erasmus programs for work in the EU. Moreover, it is necessary to consider how choices of this kind will bring with them other consequences: the demand for work in Europe will reshape demographics and help relaunch production and productivity; politicians, then, are called upon to facilitate flexibility, favor the exchange of skills, and permit 35 citizens to move about with greater ease. Otherwise, the precarious nature of work will force the young toward forms of irregular work that might be unprotected, insecure and underpaid, but that in many cases is their only opportunity. Last year, in Italy, the so-called “Neets” – youths between the ages of 18 and 24 who are not in employment, education or training – were 25.7 percent of the whole, while the European average is equal to 14.3 percent, the equivalent of 5.5 million young people.6

Between desire and reality In a recent study of the condition of young people carried out by the Toniolo Institute, there emerges a profile of a youth interested in the great social problems – like justice, inequality, the environment – and disposed to work for the good, understood more as a common experience with others than as the goal of their own individual effort.7 The “average young person” is non-ideological, conceiving the self as a monad, loving solitude, willingly remaining in their own rooms, preferring to play alone rather than in a team. They perceive that the political realm considers them as spectators

6.Source: Eurostat. 7.Cf. Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo, La condizione giovanile in Italia. Rapporto Giovani 2018, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018. FRANCESCO OCCHETTA, SJ – PAOLO BENANTI, TOR

and not as actors. The few who choose to involve themselves do so because of their experience of volunteer work, which remains the healthiest entrance into the political world. The majority of young people, however, beyond being disillusioned, do not grow up cultivating a political mens; public issues are no longer an object of discussion and debate among young people; only 10 percent of the youth join unions, while four young people out of 10 do not feel represented by any party. In Italy, young people declare themselves to have voted for the Five Star Movement (32 percent), the center- right (46 percent) and the Democratic Party (32 percent). Their apathy “provokes a kind of democratic short-circuit. Political leaders are able to consider themselves free to ignore 36 the needs of these categories, using the young exclusively for campaign slogans. At the same time, politics loses the recognition of its own legitimacy, no longer representing sections of the population that are the present and, even more so, will be the future of the country.”8 The political language that has taken hold among the youth is that of the short story and of narrative, rather than argumentation. Storytelling – which uses the principles of rhetoric and oration, and a language adopted by the world of marketing in the 2000s – is considered by young people the most convincing. Yes we can, America first, Lo mejor está por venir, Le changement c’est maintenant, are not only slogans, but the incipits of stories that win over millions of young people. They use persuasive images and words that already include an existential and moving vision of life. It is this aspect that often makes the young become users of and not decipherers of the messages they receive: the narration of extreme cases and polemics risk polarizing the debate on complex subjects, without developing arguments or considering mediated solutions. If narration becomes the only instrument of communication, subjectivity risks relegating political and ethical questions to the personal and private sphere. A normative morality risks being perceived as

8.Ibid. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS authoritarian, while the narratives become truths that impede the conscience from seeking the true and the good.9 The narrative universe is configured like an experiment where everything is possible and anything can be said, and where the truth has no existential weight. For this reason, too, young people are thankful for those paths that form their consciences and furnish them with a decoder in order to listen to and evaluate the discussions of politicians, intellectuals and their interlocutors, of the manipulators of public opinion, both on and offline. Ethical life is founded upon authentic experiences, not experiments. Experience changes and furnishes keys to interpret life for the youth, while experiments, by definition, can only be reproduced in the exact same way. The task of the adult 37 generation is, precisely, that of promoting experiences. The traditional political formation is behind on this point: it insists – excessively – on explaining a political world that no longer exists, lacking the experiential dimension. The way that young people communicate in the political space is already a form of political communication; formation can only come through maieutic experience, not through direct lessons. For the children of the web, trust is born through connections: it is like a graph composed of nodes and arcs and it is enriched with value when it connects us. Physicist Carlo Rovelli also states this: “To think of the world as a whole composed of objects seems to function less and less. An object exists as the node of a whole composed of interactions, of relationships.”10 It is for this reason that the accompanying of youths, in the Franciscan and Ignatian traditions, requires a continuous, personalized formation, with the help of spiritual reading and selected studies, at times having experiences in the midst of the poor – for example, in a soup kitchen or a jail – and some days of prayer and silence to be lived during the year in order to have the possibility to reexamine one’s life.

9.Cf. F. Occhetta, “A Time of Post-Truth or Post-Conscience?” in Civ. Catt. English Edition, July 2017. 10.C. Rovelli, Ogni cosa è informata, March 20, 2014, in www.ilsole24ore. com/. Also cf. L. Floridi, La rivoluzione dell’informazione, Turin, Codice, 2012. FRANCESCO OCCHETTA, SJ – PAOLO BENANTI, TOR

Digital youth, between natives and immigrants Saying “youth” today does not have a univocal meaning: it is necessary to distinguish those who are born and live immersed in the sea of the web from those who had to enter and swim in order not to drown. The first are digital natives, having grown up and been educated with digital technologies: they are the young people born from 1995 onward, with the mass diffusion of computers with graphic interfaces and user- friendly operating systems. The second are defined as “digital immigrants” because they had to learn to use technology. One differentiates between them by the mental approach they have toward new technologies: for example, a digital native will speak of a new camera without defining the technological model, 38 while a digital immigrant will compare it to the traditional camera with film, etc.. For digital natives, immersion in the web is significant: in five years they will pass 10,000 hours playing videogames, exchange 200,000 emails, pass 10,000 hours on cell phones, 20,000 hours in front of the television, watch at least 500,000 commercials, dedicating, however, only 5,000 hours to reading.11 This “media diet” has produced, according to Marc Prensky, a new language, a new way of organizing thought, which modifies the cerebral structure of digital natives. Multitasking, hypertextuality, and interactivity are, for Prensky, the principal characteristics of today’s youth, who may count on new digital enhancements and cognitive activities.12 What is the result of this change? The young have better cognitive abilities: digital technology should supplement their memory with tools for the acquisition, archiving and retrieval of data, while digital enhancement in the cognitive realm should

11.Cf. M. Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” in The Horizon 9/5 (2001) 1-6, in www.scribd.com/. Ibid., “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, part 2: Do They Really Think Differently?” in The Horizon 9/6 (2001) 1-6, in https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20 Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf. 12.Cf. Ibid., “H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom,” in Innovate 5/3 (2009), in http://www. innovateonline.info/index. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS render them more competitive in the fields of knowledge like , medicine and the disciplines.13 It is necessary to keep in mind another anthropological element: for the youth, the algorithm and big data are sources of authority and they are blessed with a sacred quality; they are the new oracles they consult in order to know the truth.14 In an age when algorithms and artificial intelligence regulate our relationships, a new revolution is beginning, above all in the life of the young, overturning their understanding of the principle of authority and authoritative sources. The priests young people listen to are the high-tech gurus; in Silicon Valley a kind of pseudo-universal religion legitimizes a new source of authority and has all the components of religious rites: from sacrifice to fear of the absolute, even as far 39 as subjection to a new Aristotelian unmoved mover, who is to be loved but does not love. This new religious foundation, blind faith in technology, is called “data-ism.” It is the new myth of the 21st century. This is the most profound dynamic transforming the lives of the young. It is well known how in the classical Greek and Roman worlds it was the parents – and sometimes the oracles – who determined the destiny, even family choices, of the children. Beginning with , feelings took precedence. In the data-ist society, the digital assistant will decide. It is not difficult to imagine that one will say to an artificial intelligence system: “Hello Marvin, both Joanna and Maria are interested in me. I like both, but in a different way. It is so hard to decide! You know all of my data, what do you suggest I should do?” The artificial intelligence will respond: “Hmm, I have known you from the day you were

13.Prensky prefers to speak of “digital enhancement” rather than “technological enhancement” for three reasons. Above all, because almost all technology is digital and supported by digital instruments. Secondly, because digital technology is distinguished from other kinds insofar as it is programmable, capable of being induced to do precisely what one desires to ever more precise degrees. Thirdly, because digital technology continually invests energy in ever smaller versions of microprocessors, which constitute the nucleus of a large part of the technology capable of strengthening cognition. 14.Cf. P. Benanti, Oracoli. Tra algoretica e algocrazia, Rome, Sossela, 2018, 48-53. FRANCESCO OCCHETTA, SJ – PAOLO BENANTI, TOR

born. I have read all your emails, I have kept a record of the calls you made, movies you have seen, your DNA, and the biometric history of your heart. I have constructed tables with your heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar, during every date you have had with Joanna and Maria. On the basis of this information, the algorithms and statistics of millions of couples in the last few years, I suggest you chose Joanna, with whom you will have an 15 87 percent chance of being more satisfied.” Dataism is founded on this new trust and entrusting of ourselves. The digital age changes the entire religious lexicon and generates new beliefs among digital Argonauts. Above all else, it is science fiction – especially that distributed by the great international streaming platforms – which has taken on the 40 role of the foundation myth of this new creed. The religion of digital Argonauts does not require any history, because it is based on data. It has no need of Providence, because the algorithm takes care of everything. It does not ask for love, because the calculations will pick one’s kindred spirit. Eschatology, for these new navigators, also changes, because the kingdom of heaven risks being confused with the cloud, the (new) heaven where, thanks to mind-uploading,16 they will be able to live an infinity of lives.

Taking care of ‘onlife’ relationships Digital Argonauts seem to be the offspring of a new Copernican revolution. According to Luciano Floridi, a professor of Philosophy and Information Ethics at the University of Oxford and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, three revolutions have changed our vision of the world and our understanding of ourselves: the Copernican revolution, Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and Freud’s claim that our day-to-day actions are controlled by the unconscious mind. Floridi holds that we are facing a fourth revolution: what we do online and offline is mixing with our physical life. Our

15.Ibid., 52f. 16.The transfer of the mind or mind-uploading or simulation of the brain is the hypothetical process of the transfer, or the copying, of a conscious mind from a brain to an inorganic substrate. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS society is becoming ever more the fusion of physical and virtual experiences: we are acquiring an “onlife personality,” a mixture of online and offline. The young are on the cutting edge of this process. The digital Argonauts have onlife relationships mediated by smartphones and other devices that elaborate the data they themselves produce. The free nature of the services of social networks, research engines, chat systems that the young use, risk transforming them into products for the market that profiles them even as far as predicting their behavior. If the great tradition of the past, beginning with Socrates, invited us to “know ourselves,” now the new Socrates asks to know our own data: what digital gadgets transform us into data, like our heart rate, blood pressure, our tastes and preferences, etc. This is the data elaborated by the algorithms 41 that profile identities and behaviors. With Yuval Harari,17 we may ask ourselves: “Are organisms really just algorithms and life truly just the elaboration of data?” “Which is more important: intelligence or consciousness?” “What will happen to society, politics and daily life when algorithms, unconscious but gifted with great intelligence, will know us more deeply than we know ourselves?” There is then a radical question from which to begin: “What does it mean not to be slaves and to live in liberty and with responsibility toward others?” This is the most delicate question. It concerns spirituality and civic life, which are ever more conditioned by the protection of data and of their ownership.18

* * *

The 2018 Synod of Bishops on the topic of “young people, the faith, and vocational discernment” took up these anthropological changes to help young people to live their vocations in the world and their relationship with the Lord

17.Cf. Y. N. Harari, Homo Deus. Breve storia del futuro, Milan, Bompiani, 2017, in the conclusions. 18.On this subject, cf. M. Kelly - P. Twomey, “Big Data and Ethical Challenges,” in Civ. Catt. English Edition July 2018. FRANCESCO OCCHETTA, SJ – PAOLO BENANTI, TOR

Jesus.19 The Church recognizes their nostalgia for God and their criticism of languages, signs and rites. It is true: youth tend to describe themselves as doubters, but they are not being polemical. If they profess themselves believers and their faith is solitary and anonymous, they may tend not to show it, but they remember the community of their childhood church and the prayers they learned when little. They are diffident toward the Church understood as an institution, but fascinated by men and women of the Church who build peace, occupy themselves with justice and the environment, communicate simply and give hope to their days. “When moments of crisis arrive, when life asks of them to take a position in face of its challenges, then each fishes out of his 42 or her own religious patrimony whatever is useful, with a selective operation that, at length, forms subjective, emotive and spontaneous religious experiences.”20 From the Church young people ask for an upgrade that speaks to their search for faith, uses their language and their new practices, challenges them to create a sense of belonging to a community that includes and is not exhausted by what they experience on the web. There is in fact something more. “Compared to the past, we have to accustom ourselves to ways of coming closer to the faith that are ever less standardized and always more attentive to the individuality of each person,”21 the preparatory document for the Synod on young people stated. The Instrumentum Laboris affirms this through three key words: recognize, interpret, choose.22

19.To understand more, cf. D. Fares, “‘I am a Mission’: Toward the Synod on Young People,” in Civ. Catt. English Edition May 2018; J. Mesa, “Catholic Education, Faith and Vocational Discernment,” ibid. July 2018. An Italian volume contains many recent similar articles in the series “Accènti” with the title Giovani and is available at www.laciviltacattolica.it. 20.P. Bignardi, “Giovani e comunità cristiana: ristabilire la comunicazione,” in Avvenire, May 26, 2018, 3. Cf. Ibid., “I giovani tra incredulità e (nuovo) fascino della fede,” ibid., May 24, 2018, 1-3. 21.XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, Preparatory Document, in www.vatican.va. 22.‘Instrumentum Laboris’ of the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, June 19, 2018, in www.synod2018.va. DIGITAL ARGONAUTS

The pastoral challenge is one of accompanying young people in the search for autonomy, which sends us back to the interior law and the call of God, to distinguish themselves from the “social flock” to which they belong. A second challenge is that of presenting to the young Argonaut – often hypnotized by the authority of their influencers and virtual followers – authoritative figures who, by accompanying them, bring them to rediscover their own personal life plan. This path requires them to pass from solitude, nourished by likes, to the realization of personal and social goals to be realized in community with others. The “pastoral care of meaning” is something that can proceed from religious information to that of accompanying and of experiencing God. Also in Christian communities, to exorcise 43 the misunderstandings and the fears of the adult world in the face of the web, it is necessary for young people to teach us their new language and their way of relating to others. According to Franciscan spirituality, the social world of the Argonaut is fraternitas, the place where experience of God becomes communion and the sharing of lived experience; according to Ignatian spirituality, it is “contemplation in action,” which permits us to discern the taste of the real – including the good life on the web – from the bulimia of the virtual. The challenge is known to the ecclesial conscience and remains that of inculturating first and then evangelizing the youth of the digital continent, to help them not to confuse the means with the end, to understand how to navigate the web in a such a way as to grow as subjects and not as objects, and to go beyond technology and discover a renewed humanity in relationship with Christ. It is from the virtue of hope that the awareness is born that “deep roots never freeze,” even if times rapidly change. The Human Cost of the Syrian War

GianPaolo Salvini, SJ

The war in Syria has occupied a great deal of space in all forms of media for some time now. Our journal has reported numerous times,1 attempting to help provide an understanding of a war with no end in sight, in which friends and enemies separate 44 and come together again at different times in a kaleidoscope of alliances and conflicts that are often incomprehensible. Every piece mentions the victims, especially the innocent victims of this ruthless and never-ending war. In this article we want to talk only of the victims, leaving the description and interpretation of the war and its various phases to more strictly political contributions. The most detached articles speak of “collateral damage” or even worse of “collateral victims” to indicate the unforeseen, accidental and harmful results of the war. Zygmunt Bauman2 wrote that the justification for the atrocities of war are hidden behind the principle expressed in the metaphor: “You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.” The problem is that it is not the eggs – the human beings in this case – who choose to make the omelet, but the powerful interests of the moment that decide when and what eggs will be sacrificed to

1.To cite just the most recent articles: cf. G. Sale, “Gli alauiti e la ‘dinastia’ degli Assad in Siria,” in Civ. Catt. 2016 IV 426-436; Ibid., “È la fine del Trat- tato di Sykes-Picot? A un secolo dagli accordi che hanno ridisegnato il Medio Oriente,” 2016 III 110-124; Ibid., “La conquista di Mosul,” 2016 IV 371-380; Ibid., “Il ‘martirio’ di Aleppo,” 2017 I 34-45; Ibid., “La Turchia e le ‘enclave’ curde in Siria,” 2018 I 476-490. 2.Cf. Z. Bauman, Danni collaterali, Bari, Laterza, 2013. THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR make the “right” omelet. In any event, it will not be the eggs who taste the result of a sacrifice that they did not choose.3 The fact that we speak of “accidental outcomes” rather than “collateral damage” seems to dampen the impression that it is necessary to condemn those who provoked the war, and that we are claiming our insurance, as is the case when some other sort of damage is caused. It gives the impression of a “side effect” of a war, seemingly to provide the image of a medicine necessary to heal a disease. But war is not the right drug: it kills the patients, it does not treat them. Unfortunately, the duration and the ruthlessness of the war in Syria demonstrate, once again, the illusion of having created an international body able to ensure peace and avoid war, after the 50 million deaths caused by World War II. Indeed, 45 although its actions have in many cases been commendable, the United Nations has not proven able to fulfill the principal aim for which it was established: to keep peace in the world. In the case of Syria, it is also useful to recall that most of the victims of the war are civilians: men, women and children, i.e., people who are defenseless.

War and peace in the world According to the Global Peace Index 2018 developed by the Institute of Economics and Peace, in 2017 the level of conflict in the world increased. Of the 163 countries examined, 92 saw a deterioration, 71 saw an improvement in their levels of conflict between 2016 and 2017. Homicides decreased in 71 percent of the countries, and the presence of armed forces fell in 63 percent of them. The most peaceful region of the world, or better, the one with the fewest conflicts, is certainly Europe. The most peaceful nation is Iceland, followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark. The situation deteriorated sharply with the economic crisis that began in 2008. Conflicts increased, especially in the Middle East and Africa, starting with the so-called “Arab Spring.” The

3.The quote is taken from Dossier No. 34 of Caritas Italiana, dedicated to the Syrian crisis: “Syria. Sulla loro pelle. Costretti a tutto per sopravvivere,” Rome, March 2018. GIANPAOLO SALVINI, SJ

costs linked to violence are enormous. In 2017, $14.76 trillion were spent, mostly on weapons, equal to 12.6 percent of global GDP. The countries that saw a reduction in the level of their conflicts were, in this order: The Gambia, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal and Iraq. The five countries that experienced the worst increase in conflict, on the other hand, were Qatar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Spain and Myanmar. The situation became sharply worse in the United States as well, where the rate of homicides increased, as did the perception of criminal activity and the intensity of internal conflict. The region with the highest level of conflict is a sort of crescent on the map that goes from the borders of Eastern Russia to Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, passing 46 through the Middle East. The country that saw the largest drop in its ranking in this regard is in fact Syria, which is 163 out of 163 countries reported in the Global Peace Index. “Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past five years. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia comprise the remaining least peaceful countries.”

The damage caused by the war in Syria Not unexpectedly, for seven years of interrupted war, there is a long list of the dead, wounded, refugees, disappearances, incarcerations and tortures, as regards people; and also the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, mosques and churches. But the effects of war are not limited to these types of damage. There are also less visible wounds that, in addition to creating an unbearable level of suffering, represent a threat to the future of the country and of millions of people. If we take into account the globalized world in which we live, there are damages that generally extend to the surrounding regions, or to the entire world. The principal damages – remembering that they are estimates, because none of the sides in the war want to reveal the number of their civilian victims – are approximately 500,000 deaths, 5,605,000 refugees abroad, and 5,100,000 people displaced internally. No numbers are provided for those THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR who are wounded or mutilated, even though almost 3 million disabled persons are mostly in this condition due to the war and bombings. Half of the healthcare facilities have been destroyed or closed. A third of schools has been damaged, destroyed or used for other purposes. We do not have reliable data on the number of homes destroyed. While the principal damage tends to increase rapidly, and then drop after having reached its peak as the hostilities gradually decrease, collateral damage follows a different trend. It tends to increase and decrease much more slowly. Concretely, while the numbers of deaths and internal and external refugees seem to fall together with the level of destruction, the population is increasingly worn down, more desperate and willing to do anything to survive. 47 We need to think of the harm caused by poverty, psychological trauma and the social upheaval caused by seven years of war. Sociologists, and also those who deal with humanitarian interventions, speak of coping strategies, i.e., strategies implemented to deal with situations that are stressful or create serious difficulties. A typical example of a negative response strategy – one that does not represent adaptation to a situation of difficulty (such as a war) – is the phenomenon of migration, which affects not only Syria but all of the nations in the area: Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, etc. These countries are struggling to adequately welcome thousands or indeed millions of people in flight. The statistical data shows that in the last year some situations have improved: out of an estimated 22 million inhabitants (in 2014), the number of people in a state of need in 2018 seems to have decreased for the first time since 2017, falling from 13.5 million to 13.1 million. And the people in an acute state of need went from 5,700,000 to 5,600,000. Refugees abroad, however, increased from 5,000,000 to 5,605,000. Persons who are displaced internally every day increased from 6,100 to 6,550. The number of people forced to flee abroad is staggering: UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, currently puts the total at 5,605,231 people, half a million more than the previous year. GIANPAOLO SALVINI, SJ

Turkey is the country that has taken in the most: 3,547,194, half a million more than the previous year. This is both because the conflict zones are concentrated in the north of the country, and because many refugees hope to reach Europe, which is almost impossible from Lebanon or Jordan. Lebanon, the country that has taken in the second largest number of refugees, officially counts approximately 1 million, but it is estimated that the real number is higher. The people needing urgent medical care has fallen from 12.8 million at the end of 2016 to 11.3 million at the end of 2017. But despite some faint signs of improvement, the country’s economic situation is in a state of collapse. Since the beginning of the war, $254 billion of GDP have been lost, of which $16 48 billion has been forcibly abandoned agricultural production and $11 billion in the education sector. As a consequence, 69 percent of the population currently lives in conditions of extreme poverty, while before the crisis the percentage was 34 percent. Unemployment topped 53 percent, reaching 75 percent among youth.

Daily life The level of poverty leads people to take extreme actions in order to survive, which quickly pushes families into the abyss. Life savings are consumed, and then furniture, jewelry, land, livestock, homes and businesses are sold, often at giveaway prices. Next, debts start to accrue, initially with loans from family members, and then from usurers, which leads to a world of quicksand in which it is easy to commit illegal acts (crime, joining armed groups, including with the participation of children, abandonment of school, and begging), or people become victims of labor or sexual exploitation (child weddings, prostitution, abuse, etc.). Those most affected are the most vulnerable: children, women, single-parent families and so on. While it is true that similar phenomena of impoverishment are growing in all countries, even in Europe and Canada, they take on a devastating character in a society debilitated by seven years of uninterrupted war, with a non-existent welfare system and THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR shattered institutions. Social cohesion breaks apart, as does trust in others and in institutions, active social commitment and respect for others and for the environment. Daily life can become a never-ending series of humiliations and experiences of suffering, many of which will leave a mark on the existence of future generations. According to two U.N. reports4 – the second of which considers in particular what women are forced to suffer to ensure assistance or protection – the people who are in an extreme state of need, in a situation where they are not protected, continuously risk becoming victims of exploitation. The report analyses 13 situations to which the most vulnerable are exposed, and was drawn up based on a questionnaire distributed in 2017, analyzing 4,185 communities (villages or neighborhoods) 49 in Syria, Jordan and Turkey. All 13 of the situations are present in the life of the Syrian refugee population most at risk who were interviewed. Often, responses are triggered that can be even more harmful than the situation they are attempting to remedy. The 13 situations analyzed are: 1) child labor (which often makes it impossible to attend school); 2) child soldiers; 3) domestic violence; 4) child marriages; 5) economic exploitation; 6) risks caused by unexploded ordnance; 7) family separation; 8) abuse; 9) problems linked to real estate ownership (homes, lands, business activities, etc.); 10) kidnapping; 11) loss or absence of personal documents (identification, ownership, etc.); 12) sexual molestation; and 13) sexual violence. Of the communities interviewed, 97 percent stated that at least one of these 13 factors is present. The two most frequent, which reach percentages exceeding 80 percent, are “the loss or absence of documentation relating to personal identity, the family unit or property” and “child labor that prevents attendance at school.” High percentages were also recorded of child marriage, domestic violence, recruitment of child soldiers, sexual violence and kidnapping.

4.Cf. Whole of Syria, 2018 Protection Needs Overview v2, November 30, 2017; Ibid., Voices from Syria 2018. GIANPAOLO SALVINI, SJ

It is interesting to note that there is no direct correlation between the areas in which there is more intense combat and the level of gravity of needs of the most vulnerable people. For example, there are catastrophic levels in the areas dominated by the Islamic State Caliphate for years, but very high levels are also present in areas not touched by combat, such as Tartus, where 31 percent of those interviewed confirmed the presence of at least 10 out of 13 factors of vulnerability, while in Aleppo, where combat and damage has been very high, the same number is present in only 3 percent of all the communities surveyed. This shows that the need for protection from extreme vulnerability is not directly proportionate to the clashes on the ground, but is rather a long-term consequence of war. A 50 contributing factor is the arrival in calmer areas of refugees coming from the combat zones; those persons give the most distressing answers. The situations of vulnerability are perceived to be more serious in urban areas, where 100 percent of the communities surveyed declare the presence of at least one of the phenomena described. In addition, there is a correlation between various factors, such as child labor, forced family separation and economic exploitation. As for the response strategies to very serious situations of need, the U.N. considers it healthy to contact local community services – family, neighbors, networks of friends, public institutions that can help solve the problem – rather than counting on international humanitarian organizations. It is considered less healthy to send children to work or undertake illegal activities to obtain the resources necessary to live. Many women and girls are retained inside the home in order to protect them from potential abuse or harassment.

The most painful situations Women and children are the “designated victims” of the extreme poverty affecting families. Child labor is one of the most widespread forms of abuse. It deprives children of their childhood, school and recreational and educational activities, forcing them to perform degrading and dangerous work. THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR

The data we have is not certain, but the phenomenon is very widespread. Those most affected are males between 15 and 17 years of age, but also boys between 12 and 14, and girls between 15 and 17. There are also cases of children younger than 12, and even as young as five, who are forced to work. The children are employed in factories, workshops, artisan shops and oil refineries, or sent to beg or rummage through garbage in search of materials to resell or reuse. Girls are often involved in activities that harm them psychologically, such as domestic work, often unpaid, during which they can suffer various types of violence. Another terrible form of exploitation of children, which we have already mentioned, is enrollment in the ranks of combat groups. Adolescent males are often used in war operations after 51 undergoing military training. Some children have been trained for suicide attacks. The minors are used for support activities and girls – although not only girls – are often sex slaves for the soldiers. They can also suffer torture if they fall into the hands of opposing factions. The reasons that lead an adolescent or a child to join the troops are usually economic: to bring income to the families. One mother said: “I am forced to send my 12-year-old child to fight with one of the warring factions in order to have a salary and be able to feed the rest of my family. I have sacrificed one to allow the others to live”. This often happens when the father dies in combat: the oldest child is sent to replace him, to continue to maintain the family. In order to protect them, the movement of women and girls is limited (they are prevented from going to school, participating in educational or social activities, or even having access to medical care). Many are forced into marriages, often as children, or into polygamy, in what is defined as “survival sex” that is extorted in exchange for humanitarian aid, protection or simply the performance of administrative requirements to which they are entitled. Unfortunately, humanitarian operators who have to distribute aid or places to live in camps also take part in this practice, asking for sexual favors in return. GIANPAOLO SALVINI, SJ

With the men absent, because they are at the front or dead, or have emigrated to avoid the war, or are unemployed, the burden of maintaining the family falls exclusively on the women. For the patriarchal Syrian society, whose social structure has mostly disintegrated, this is not an opportunity for emancipation, but an additional burden for women, who are subject to abuse and discrimination of all kinds. A true calamity is that of child marriage: young girls given to much older men who are often combatants (including many foreign fighters). The reason is mostly financial: by accepting a marriage, the number of mouths to feed is reduced, and sometimes a dowry is received. The situation of need has led the age of marriage for girls to get lower and lower, even down 52 to 12. Another frequent reason is the need for protection: many parents prefer to entrust their daughter to a man who takes care of her, even if that means putting her in the hands of men and families who practically make her a slave. Then there are local customs: a girl who is the victim of violence is forced to marry her rapist, because she would not be accepted by any other suitors, having lost her virginity. Many victims do not report what happened and live alone with their personal drama, without asking for help to overcome the trauma. In extreme cases, the parents of the victims reach the point of killing their own daughter who has suffered violence, just to save the family’s honor. Particularly sad cases that have not been resolved from a legislative standpoint involve the thousands of children born from rape or violence suffered by the “sex slaves” used by foreign fighters in the territories controlled by ISIS. None of these children are registered in the public records, in part because they were born as the result of a “sin,” and are often not accepted even by their involuntary mothers. They end up without identification documents or legal existence, which makes their already precarious situation even worse. Forced marriages involving adult women also take place especially if they are widows or divorced. In particular in a context of polygamy, taking in a widow, for example of a fighter who had multiple wives, is considered an actof THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR charity. It is superfluous to say that in this terrible period in Syria, many frustrated and unemployed men turn violent toward their own wives or children, and the cases of domestic violence multiply. Then there are what are known as “serial temporary marriages,” which represent a form of sexual exploitation, because “the girls, who are almost always minors, are given as brides following the ‘Islamic tradition’ without any civil recognition, so only based on a private agreement between families”. In these “marriages,” which often last just a few hours, the husbands can have sexual relations with the “wives” without offending their honor. Then the marriage is cancelled, until the next one. Obviously, any children who are born are not recognized by their fathers, and this fact alone condemns them 53 to a life of marginalization and misery. These examples of extreme instability and deprivation, or of violence, demonstrate the need for specific services, especially for the most at-risk and vulnerable categories of people. But 23 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, dozens of declarations, decisions and press releases, have been insufficient not only to stop the conflict, but even to create the conditions to offer adequate assistance to the civilian victims.

Syrians in Italy and Europe in general The living conditions of the refugees and displaced persons in Europe and Italy are certainly better than those experienced in the countries closer to Syria, such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and so on. But the expedients to which refugees resort to continue their travel toward the wealthier countries of Central Europe (such as Germany and Holland) or toward the United Kingdom, are no different from those used in poorer countries: debt, the sale of family property and illegal activities (such as drug dealing) to survive and obtain money for the trip. Greece and Italy, which represent the only countries of passage for refugees toward wealthier countries, save changes to the Dublin agreements, end up being prisons where they are forced to live without any stability or prospects for the future. GIANPAOLO SALVINI, SJ

In Italy, many minors are abandoned in border towns, such as Como or Ventimiglia, and live in makeshift shelters without regular access to food. Cases of prostitution and child marriage have been found in housing facilities in Italy and Greece. In these two countries children have the right to education, but many do not enroll or attend school because since they want to go to other wealthier countries, they are not interested in learning the local language and end up getting into dangerous or illegal activities. The main reason for child prostitution lies in the total lack of economic resources. A young victim of sexual exploitation stated: “I said to myself, you made it to Europe, and now? What is your goal? I don’t prostitute myself because I like it. 54 If I want to do something, or simply live, I have to do it. I have no choice”. Child marriages also take place in Italy and Greece, where they are prohibited by law, and therefore kept secret. When a girl is found with an adult man, she usually says “He’s my uncle,” and the parents never admit that they want to offer their young daughters for marriage. But reality is different, in part because the girls cannot wait to get married in order to flee Syria. According to Bazouzou, a Syrian priest, the Armenian-Catholic apostolic administrator in Greece, the people of that country believe that the refugees who arrive have a lot of money. Syria was indeed a wealthy country, but the refugees sell everything to go to the West. Eighty to 90 percent of the youth are encumbered by debt and live waiting for their parents who stayed in Syria to send them more money. Their parents often took on debt to finance the children’s trip, and above all to avoid having them conscripted into military service, which represents certain death. These youth look for work, but are not hired by anyone, because they cannot ensure continuity in time. And Greece is still overwhelmed by an economic crisis, despite the fact that the European Union has allocated funds to be distributed to refugees: 150 euros per month per individual, 280 euros for couples, and 340 euros for families of three. What is usually lacking is not money, however, but peace and the human environment. THE HUMAN COST OF THE SYRIAN WAR

The remedies? It is beyond the scope of this article to examine the countless peace proposals put forth to date, but not implemented, starting with the need not to remain indifferent, as Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed. The call for peace in the Middle East pronounced urbi et orbi by the pope on December 25, 2017, was particularly significant. Many times he has spoken of the need to commit to peace in “beloved Syria.” First of all, it is necessary to reach a true peace, with an immediate ceasefire, and to involve Syrian civil society in the negotiations. It is necessary to promote the implementation and support of peaceful coexistence among the various communities of different religions and ethnic groups. We must stop the sale of arms to the various parties in the 55 conflict. There is always money to purchase arms, and always someone willing to sell them. Italy is among those who sell arms to the countries involved in the conflict, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. International humanitarian law must be respected, ensuring the assistance necessary for everyone both inside and outside of Syria, in particular regarding food, education and health. The most vulnerable, such as women and children, must be protected. Lastly, the international community must be involved in a physical and social reconstruction of Syria that, among other things, is able to facilitate the return to the country of the refugees who have fled abroad out of necessity. Nobody voluntarily abandons their own country if adequate living conditions are present. Building Bridges in Sarajevo: An international conference on Catholic Theological Ethics

James F. Keenan, SJ Sixteen years ago a global network of Catholic theological ethicists was born.1 A year later an international planning committee met at Leuven University and developed the name, “Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC)”, 56 and articulated a mission statement that recognizes “the need: to appreciate the challenge of pluralism; to dialogue from and beyond local culture; and, to interconnect within a world Church not dominated solely by a northern paradigm.”2 Today there are more than 1,500 theological ethicists around the world who belong to the network. There at Leuven we also decided to host an international conference including the participation of those coming from the Global South. For a variety of reasons we decided to host it in Padua. On July 8, 2006, we hosted for the first time in history an international meeting of Catholic theological ethicists: 400 came from 63 countries to Padua. The major theme of the conference was listening: listening to voices beyond our own local culture. The meeting was a great success; the plenary papers were published by six presses around the world.3

1.The term moral theologian has been used in the past to define those working in the field of personal ethics as opposed to those working in social ethics. In our network we include both moral theologians and social ethicists as well as bioethicists and business ethicists under the title theological ethicist. Throughout this essay, I will use the more inclusive term. 2.Cf. www.catholicethics.com 3.Cf. J. F. Keenan (ed.), Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church: The Plenary Papers from the First Cross-cultural Conference on Catholic Theological Ethics, New York, Continuum, 2007; Ibid., Los desafíos éticos del mundo actual: una mirada intercultural, Buenos Aires, San Benito, 2008; Ibid., Etica teologica BUILDING BRIDGES IN SARAJEVO: CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL ETHICS

We decided to meet again four years later in Trento. In 2010, Trento was even more successful with 600 participants from 72 countries. The conference was designed to consider the past, the present and the future. It helped us establish a much stronger network because of four subsequent major developments. First, we developed a website (www.catholicethics.com). Second, we launched a monthly newsletter that contains regional news, updates, book launches, job openings and the widely successful “Forum,” a monthly op-ed piece that comes from contributors from each of the five continents. Third, we started a book series. We decided that each volume would have two editors from different continents and roughly 25 contributors from around the world. Each would be developed 57 according to the specific themes. The first volume contained the plenary papers from Trento.4 Then followed volumes on feminism,5 environmental sustainability,6 migrants and refugees,7 biblical ethics,8 and finally, the theological ethicist in the local Church.9 With over 150 different contributors in these six volumes, the series has prompted all theological ethicists to think globally, to look beyond our localities and to try not to be dominated by the northern paradigm. cattolica nella Chiesa universale: Atti del primo congresso interculturale di teologia morale, Bologna, EDB, 2009; Ética teológica católica no contexto mundial, São Paolo, Santuário, 2010. Linda Hogan, the co-chair of the CTEWC Planning Committee edited a volume of the applied ethics papers. Cf. L. Hogan (ed.), Applied Ethics in a World Church: The Padua Conference, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2010. 4.Cf. J. F. Keenan (ed.), Catholic Theological Ethics, Past, Present, and Future: The Trento Conference, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2011; Ibid., Etica teológica católica: Passado, presente e futuro: A Conferencia de Trento, Aperecida, Santuário, 2015. 5.Cf. L. Hogan – A. Orobator (eds), Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2014. 6.Cf. C. Peppard – A. Vicini (eds), Just Sustainability: Technology, Ecology and Resource Extraction, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2015. 7.Cf. A. Brazal – M. T. Davila (eds), Living with(out) Borders: Catholic Theological Ethics on the Migrations of Peoples, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2016. 8.Cf. Y. S. Lúcás Chan – J. F. Keenan – R. Zacharias (eds), The Bible and Catholic Theological Ethics, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2018. 9.Cf. A. Autiero – L. Magesa (eds), The Catholic Ethicist in the Local Church, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 2018. JAMES F. KEENAN, SJ

Finally, as a fourth development from Trento, reflecting on an initiative by the Filipina Agnes Brazal who invited ethicists across Southeast Asia to Manila in 2008,10 we decided to host regional conferences. We hosted the first pan-African meeting in Nairobi in 2012. Realizing the need to build bridges between Western and Eastern Europe, we met first in Berlin in 2013 and again a year later in Krakow. These first four regional conferences hovered between 40-50 participants. Three years were spent preparing a pan-Asian conference for more than 100 Asian theological ethicists in Bangalore.11 Finally, in 2016 we hosted another large regional conference – this time Latin- American – in Bogota.12 With our regional networks secured, it was time to call a 58 third international conference. We decided on Sarajevo, a city that is neither part of the “industrialized world” nor the Global South but instead a place in-between that tries to bridge both worlds. In the wake of its historic siege (1992-1995), Sarajevo today offers three vital contexts: peace building in the aftermath of ethnic conflict; interreligious and cross-cultural dialogue in a predominantly Muslim city (85 percent); and economic struggle (40 percent unemployment). Furthermore, we wanted to make our network more effective to address three compelling issues: the climate crisis; its impact on already marginalized populations; and the tragic banality of contemporary political leadership that pretends to contradict the urgency of the first two issues. We went to Sarajevo, therefore, because as ethicists, we need to be engaged. In a world where nationalistic popularism tears apart any global cooperation, where the abandonment of the Paris accord mirrors the abandonment of migrants and refugees, where civility is sacrificedfor the banality of self-interest and the common good is trampled underfoot,

10.A. Brazal – A. Cartagenas – E. Genilo – J. F. Keenan (eds), Transformative Theological Ethics: East Asian Contexts, Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2010. 11.Cf. Y. S. Lúcás Chan – J. F. Keenan – S. George Kochuthara (eds), Doing Catholic Theological Ethics in a Cross Cultural and Interreligious Asian Context, Bangalore, Dharmaram Press, 2016. 12.Cf. E. Cuda (ed.), Hacia una Ética de Participación y Esperanza: Congreso LatinoAmericano de Ética Teológica, Bogotá, Javeriana University, 2017. BUILDING BRIDGES IN SARAJEVO: CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL ETHICS we need to be globally connected and active, abandoning the domination of the global north and looking beyond local interests. In order to achieve these goals we needed to rethink what a Catholic international theological conference should be.

Planning a new form of conferencing: the project As we finished our conference in Bogotá, we began developing a markedly different type of conference for our next international gathering. We decided that we needed to go to Rome and to meet with Church leaders to introduce them to our network. After meetings with the of the Holy See, our delegation also met with the newly elected Father General of the , Arturo Sosa. And finally we met for nearly an hour with Pope Francis on March 17. These meetings helped 59 us to realize that we needed to think of the conference not as connecting ideas, but instead as connecting persons. Moreover, we needed to appreciate the diversity we had developed in our network. We made a choice not to look for ideological diversity (who is progressive or conservative?) but rather diversity that was measured by its globality and its . Just as we developed in Europe a bridge between Western and Eastern Europe, we needed to connect our theological ethicists worldwide with one another. Instead of attending to political diversity we wanted to make sure that we had voices of the Church from everywhere we could find an ethicist so as to understand what their actual challenges and hopes were. Thus we needed a conference that would train ethicists for global partnership in a challenging and troubled world further compromised by poor political leadership.

Hosting a new form of conferencing: the event The conference took place at Sarajevo from Thursday, July 26, to Sunday, July 29, 2018. Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo welcomed us. We also wrote to Pope Francis asking if he would send us a word of welcome. He did!13 He sent us a detailed

13.Message of the Holy Father Francis to participants in the 3rd international conference of “Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church,” July 11, 2018; JAMES F. KEENAN, SJ

three-page letter expressing how well he understood our work of building bridges, not walls. His letter gave us immediate international recognition. Then the conference attended to our immediate context: the Church and people of Sarajevo. We invited Fr. Darko Tomasevic, the dean of theology at the University of Sarajevo and Zilka Siljak, a Muslim feminist theologian. Each spoke about struggles of Sarajevo during and after the siege. We concluded the opening session with a film about the early days of the siege when the national library at city hall was fire-bombed and burned for four days, and then in one of our first of many religious acts, we held a procession through the old city, from our conference site, the major Catholic high school of Sarajevo, to the newly restored 60 city hall where our opening reception took place. Here we saw tangibly the fruits of reconciliation, solidarity and restoration. We began the next morning listening to the voices of seven of our members, coming from all over the world, not talking about their projects but rather talking about being connected. Afterward we heard two senior voices; we heard from young, emerging voices; the first woman theologian from India, a lay woman from Uganda, and a lecturer from Hungary. Finally, we concluded with two voices from isolated contexts: a woman ethicist from Bosnia and the first woman ethicist from Vietnam.14 Then we hosted a large poster session.15 The program had only two concurrent sessions of 25 panels, each with two presenters, thus allowing 100 slots for papers. One hundred thirty six participants were able to bring their posters to Sarajevo.

cf. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2018/ documents/papa-francesco_20180711_messaggio-etica-teologica.html. 14.Cf. J. McElwee, “Sarajevo Meeting Amplifies Voices of Women Theologians,” in National Catholic Reporter, July 27, 2018; cf. www.ncronline. org/news/people/sarajevo-meeting-amplifies-voices-women-theologians. 15.Scientific conferences now often have poster sessions where scholars post their findings and others read their work. With images and visual presentations, aims, objectives and results are quickly and effectively communicated. By nature, posters are synthetic means of communication, making messages readily available, and so able to capture greater public attention than would normally be interested in a specific disciplinary sector; it allows authors to meet more freely with the public for clarifications and to develop discussion about the ideas. BUILDING BRIDGES IN SARAJEVO: CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL ETHICS

Later in the day there was a second extended plenary panel, this time inviting two junior scholars from each of the five regions to explore how the method of moral theology in each continent developed from Padua to Trento to Sarajevo.16 At the end of the day we had a prayer meeting with Youth for Peace, an interreligious fellowship from Sarajevo, whose members work for reconciliation across the generations of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They witnessed to how their own solidarity brought them healing and peace. Then our liturgy committee brought us a call for peace in each of the five regions. On the third day, we heard in the third plenary four presentations on the triple theme of the conference: climate change, its impact on migration and the marginalized, and the disenfranchising leadership of nationalist politicians. These 61 papers mirrored the work of the 100 panel presentations and 136 posters. Indeed throughout the conference these three themes were the substance of our concern. After these discussions, Charles Curran gave a powerful presentation on how theological ethics has become more conscious of its social orientation as it calls persons and societies to work more inclusively together toward greater justice and mercy in the world.17 Later we broke for the first of the two extended concurrent sessions.18

16.For instance, we heard how African contextual/liberation theology let African ethicists deepen their appreciation of their historical cultural context while still being able to be critical of cultural biases that might hinder the flourishing of persons and communities. From Asia we heard how ethicists sought to grow through interreligious dialogue and from North America how virtue ethics has taken a distinctively social turn in the context of examining social structures of virtue and vice. Here, showcasing young theologians who knew their own context well we built bridges inter-generationally among each of the regions. 17.Cf. C. Curran, “Charles Curran lays foundation for social justice action,” National Catholic Reporter, July 28, 2018; cf. www.ncronline.org/news/theology/ charles-curran-lays-foundation-social-justice-action. 18.Again, these sessions were designed to bridge-build on each panel. For instance, one panel on global climate action had someone from Kenya speaking with someone working in Switzerland; at a panel on far-reaching consequences of climate change an Indian presented alongside someone from Zimbabwe. Then, our fourth plenary engaged us in a session on ethics and public discourse, led by the journalist Joshua McElwee who coached all the participants into understanding how to connect with the media so that their research would not JAMES F. KEENAN, SJ

The final day began with a plenary on three networks that aim for peace and reconciliation through dialogue. Then the regions gathered for the second continental discussions, this time working toward strategies for action in hope. A second concurrent session followed, structured much like the earlier one, allowing us to focus on the particular challenges of climate change, migration and poor political leadership.19

A new form of conferencing: for whom? At the opening, a rich account of our participants was given; 422 theological ethicists participated: 140 women and 282 men. For the first time in any of our conferences, one third of the participants were women. The participants 62 were young too. Seventy one were new faculty; 29 of them were women, and of those, 19 were from the Global South. Another 48 were doctoral students. Together these young people nominated by senior scholars made up nearly a third of our participants. Of the 140 women present, 118 were lay women and the rest religious sisters. Among the 282 men, 147 were lay men and 135 ordained and 97 of these belonged to religious congregations. Seventy eight countries were represented. From the Global North (Australia, Israel, Japan, Western Europe and the USA) there were 169 participants; from the Global South there were 253 participants. In short, the mission statement we developed a generation ago continues to guide us as we build bridges for networking in Catholic theological ethics.

simply be for academics but for the wider public square and the entire Church. Other ethicists (from Brazil, the Philippines, and Spain) complemented the counsel of McElwee with their own testimonies of how to bring ethics out of the academy and into the public sphere. 19.On the final afternoon, speakers presented other organizations that network for social change. Then we moved to calls for solidarity from Pablo Blanco of Argentina, Emmanuel Katongole of Uganda and Linda Hogan of Ireland. Pino Puglisi: Priest and Martyr

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

“The Gospel, the Mafia, the frontiers”: a few words that summarize “who Father Pino Puglisi, the parish priest of Brancaccio killed on September 15, 1993, really was. He was a man of unshakable faith and a master of spirituality, an educator of young people and a reference point for families, but also a 63 frontier priest who, in order not to betray fidelity to the Gospel, knew how to live out his choices in a Mafia-dominated territory, even to the ultimate sacrifice. On May 25, 2013, the Church acknowledged him as a martyr and proclaimed him blessed.”1 Fr. Puglisi is the first parish priest of the Catholic Church to be proclaimed blessed for martyrdom perpetrated by the Mafia.2 Giuseppe Puglisi was born in , Brancaccio, on September 15, 1937, into a modest family. His father was a shoemaker, his mother was a dressmaker. He entered the seminary at the age of 16, and became a priest on July 2, 1960. His first assignment was as assistant priest in the parish of the Holy in Settecannoli, near Brancaccio; then rector of the church of San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi, chaplain of the Roosevelt orphanage and assistant priest of the Parish of Maria SS. Assunta in Valdesi, Palermo. From 1970 to 1978 he was parish priest in Godrano. After 1979 he held various positions: he was pro-rector of the minor seminary, director

1.“Padre Puglisi,” in www.beatopadrepuglisi.it/2014/08/un-blog-per- ricordare-e-far-conoscere.html; F. Deliziosi, Pino Puglisi, il prete che fece tremare la mafia con un sorriso, Milan, Rizzoli, 2014; F. Deliziosi, Don Pino Puglisi. Se ognuno fa qualcosa si può fare molto. Le parole del prete che fece paura alla mafia, Milan, Rizzoli, 2018. 2.F. Deliziosi, Don Pino Puglisi..., op. cit., 53f. The quote is by , of the cause of his . GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

of the diocesan center for vocations, and as of 1990 parish priest of Brancaccio. From 1978 to 1993 he taught religion at the Liceo Classico Vittorio Emanuele II in Palermo. He was the animator of various movements (Azione Cattolica, Fuci, Équipes Notre Dame) and after 1990 had been in charge of the Casa Madonna dell’accoglienza and the Opera pia del Cardinale Ruffini for single mothers in difficulty.3

Murdered “because he was a priest” September 15, 1993, was the birthday of Fr. Pino Puglisi. The parish priest of San Gaetano in the Brancaccio district of Palermo turned 56. It was the evening of a long day, the last of his life. In the morning he had celebrated two marriages, in the 64 afternoon he had prepared the children of the group for Confession; then a small party at the “Padre Nostro” center, a place created to welcome street children. The church had no rooms for parish activities, not even a rectory. On his return home in Piazzale Anita Garibaldi, as Fr. Pino was about to open his door, suddenly, “Spatuzza [a member of the Mafia] took his bag from him and said: ‘Father, this isa robbery.’ Puglisi replied: ‘I was expecting it.’ He said it with a smile, a smile that has remained with me.” And he concludes: “I then shot him in the nape of his neck.”4 That smile “was stronger than the violence that attempted to annihilate him and ... it accomplished what a thousand words struggle to achieve; it restored the face of a man to his killer,”5 Salvatore Grigoli. He was Brancaccio’s most ruthless assassin. He had committed 45 murders, but that of Fr. Pino was the last, because it would transform him forever. A few years later he confessed: “There was a kind of light in that smile. A smile that had an immediate effect on me. I do not know how to explain

3.(cf. F. Occhetta, “Don Pino Puglisi, il martire di Brancaccio”, in Civ. Catt. 2013 III 66-74) 4.Statement by the killer: cf. F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa..., op. cit., 36 f; V. Bertolone, Padre Pino Puglisi beato. Profeta e martire, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2013, 125; E. A. Mortellaro - C. Aquino, Padre Pino Puglisi il samurai di Dio, , Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013, 40. 5.E. A. Mortellaro - C. Aquino, Padre Pino Puglisi…, op. cit., 159. PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR it: I had already killed several people, but I had not felt anything like that. I’ll always remember that smile, even if I can hardly recall the faces of my relatives. That evening I began to think about it; something had changed.”6 After the murder of Fr. Puglisi his life changed direction. There was also another tragic precedent. He had dissolved in acid the body of Giuseppe, the son of the informer Di Matteo. “I knew that child well. He was a boy full of life ... I did things that cannot be justified, but this, this ... was the reason for my repentance.”7 After that, a journey of humanity and rethinking began. Behind the murder was the head of Cosa Nostra, Leoluca Bagarella, who had decided upon that death, precisely because Fr. Pino was “a priest.” The hostility was directly related to the 65 pastoral commitment of the priest. From the minutes of the canonical process for the beatification it emerged that Bagarella had harshly reprimanded the Graviano brothers, Brancaccio’s Mafia bosses, because they had waited so long to kill him: “If they had killed him immediately when this started, today this madness would not have happened. It seems that they had killed another great magistrate and instead it was only a priest. ... A priest who had practically not campaigned against the Mafia.”8

An anti-Mafia priest? Usually in life, nothing is improvised or dictated by chance, not even one’s own death. And Fr. Puglisi was ready for that appointment. He had been preparing for some time since the day he had asked to be admitted to the seminary. On September 10, 1953, he had written: “Following the holy inspirations of the Lord who enlightened me as to the vanity of earthly things and the greatness of His grace, I decided to dedicate myself to the service of His glory and to the good of souls.”9 Then, on the card that marked his sub-diaconate, he had inscribed the ideal of his own offering: “Accept, O Lord, the holocaust of

6.V. Bertolone, Padre Pino Puglisi beato…, op. cit., 125. 7.Ibid. 8.Ibid., 142. 9.Ibid., 84. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

my life”10; and finally, on the card for his priestly ordination was written: “Lord, that I may be a valid instrument for the salvation of the world.”11 It was the project of a life offered totally to the community. Fr. Puglisi was not the first priest killed by the Mafia,12 but his assassination had a paradoxical consequence. Fr. Nello Fasullo, Redemptorist priest of Palermo, notes: “In the commission of the crime that evening it is possible to see a particular meaning of fatality for the Mafia itself: that bloody barbarian ferocity that we have known throughout the course of its history. … It was soon clear that the sense and the role of the Mafia were brought to an end, finished. And this end represented the only true priceless miracle performed by Father Puglisi. In this sense, his 66 death was truly that of a martyr, in the sense that it represented, in the eyes of those who were able to understand, the fact that the killing of the parish priest without real ‘Mafia reasons’ was a sign that the Mafia phenomenon was exhausted. It was a crime that was a sign of the times.”13 If someone were to interpret that death as a mistake which the Mafia would have remedied to restore everything as it was before, this would be wrong. The parish priest did not compete with the Mafia, but simply placed the Gospel before Mafia culture: “We are called to continue the work of Jesus, freeing ourselves and others from Evil (which involves hatred, oppression and injustice). And our work consists in restoring human dignity to the poor; only in this way will they be able to free themselves from evil.”14 And Fr. Pino did so not in an ambiguous or hidden way, but rather in the clearest possible way, out in the open. He “did not catechize, nor proselytize, but he listened. And he loved talking to young people. He tried to

10.Ibid. 11.M. Lancisi, Don Puglisi. Il Vangelo contro la mafia, Milan, Piemme, 2013, 33. 12.Cf. the list of priests who were Mafia victims in I. Sales, “Martire civile e martire cristiano: per Gesù c’è differenza?” in Segno 345/346 (2013) 110 f. 13.N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio,” ibid., 11 f. 14.V. Ceruso, Don Pino Puglisi. A mani nude, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2012, 69. PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR lead them to question themselves about the meaning of life, to understand what was the way to go for each one.”15 His own way of being a parish priest made everyone understand whose side he was on and what he thought about the Mafia. With the murder of Fr. Puglisi in Sicily, the murderous Mafia came to an end; with the assassination of the priest, Cosa 16 Nostra killed itself. Such a development had never been seen in Brancaccio since the origins of the Mafia phenomenon.

The final ordeal Fr. Puglisi had been a parish priest at Brancaccio for three years. Although he was a diocesan priest, instead of “Don Pino,” he was called “Padre Pino,” as is the custom in Sicily. Even his killer addressed him in this way. He was also called “3Ps” from 67 the initials, Padre Pino Puglisi, which also gave the title to a biography.17 The reason is not a mystery: the “3Ps” outline his spiritual depth, because they indicate the Padre (Father), but also the Parola (Word) and the Poveri (Poor), or the Parrinu (“Father” in Sicilian), the Pane (Eucharistic Bread) and the Preghiera (Prayer).18 It is not by chance that the social center of Brancaccio was called “Our Father,”19 a name that was a challenge for its meaning of paternity, but it also referred to the parish priest who was the “father” of everybody.

15.V. Ceruso, Le sagrestie di Cosa nostra. Inchiesta su preti e mafiosi, Rome, Newton Compton, 2007, 193. 16.Cf. F. Renda, Storia della Mafia, Palermo, Sigma,1998, 413; A. M. Banti, L’età contemporanea. Dalla Grande Guerra a oggi, Rome - Bari, Laterza, 2009, 402 f. After the massacres of Capaci and via d’Amelio (of the judges Falcone and Borsellino) in 1992, the Mafia continued the attacks in 1993 (journalist Beppe Alfano; the massacre of five deaths and 40 people wounded in via dei Georgofili in Florence; five victims in Milan; the three attacks in Rome, without victims: and finally, the attack on Fr. Puglisi). 17.Cf. F. Deliziosi, “3P” Padre Pino Puglisi. La vita e la pastorale del prete ucciso dalla mafia, Milan, Paoline, 1994. In the some banners recall the martyr, one of which explains the meaning of “3Ps.” 18.M. Badalamenti, Martire oggi. Una testimonianza d’amore. Padre Giuseppe Puglisi, Palermo, Presenza del Vangelo, 2001, 133. 19.The meaning of the name of the center “Our Father” should be emphasized: “because from prayer, and especially from this prayer, there emerged his practical commitment in favor of the brothers: to be a servant out of love, as Christ was” (E. A. Mortellaro - C. Aquino, Padre Pino Puglisi…, op. cit., 148). GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

However, in a short time, Fr. Pino had drawn the attention of the bosses to himself. The last year was a long sequence of warnings and acts of intimidation toward him; it was his Calvary. Two months before his death, in a homily, he publicly denounced the threats: “Today I address the protagonists of the intimidation that has targeted us. Let us talk about it; let us explain ourselves! I would like to know you and the reasons why you are trying to hinder those who wish to educate your children to mutual respect, to the values ​​of culture and civil coexistence. The Church has already excommunicated those who are guilty of atrocious crimes, such as the so-called men of honor. I can only add that the killers, those who feed on violence, have lost their human dignity. They are less than men, 68 their choices degrade them to the level of animals.” “It is not from Cosa Nostra that you can expect a better future for this neighborhood. The Mafia can never give you a high school or a nursery where you can leave your children when you go to work. Why do not you want your kids to come to me? Remember: those who use violence are not men. ... We ask those who hinder us, to regain possession of their humanity and I am willing to accompany them on this journey. We have proof that all this was intended as a warning against our work. But we go forward because, as St. Paul says: ‘If God is for us, 20 who can be against us?’ (Rom 8:31).” These words, uttered from the heart, were not only a homily, but a challenge, not to intimidate or to rebel, but to dialogue, to confront, to create a bridge. Fr. Pino wanted to educate even the children of the Mafia to live within the law, in mutual respect, and in the values ​​of study and culture: this was the “great challenge of Don Pino, his true utopia.”21 Precisely in those days, Brancaccio had been defined by the newspapers as the area of Palermo with the highest Mafia density, and the facts confirmed it. Shortly before, some young men on a powerful motorcycle had thrown Molotov cocktails

20.G. Porcaro, “Padre Pino Puglisi. Il sorriso del martire,” in F. Malgeri and others, Sud profetico. Chiesa italiana e mezzogiorno. Padre Pino Puglisi, don Tonino Bello, don Italo Calabrò, don Peppe Diana, Roma, Studium, 2015, 198. 21.V. Ceruso, Le sagrestie di Cosa nostra…, op. cit., 195. PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR at a van of the company that was restoring the church, and the flames had lapped the door. Then the doors of three members of the tenants’ committee of the neighborhood were set on fire because they had not deferred to the Mafia. The committee was created autonomously from the parish, to face the problems of Brancaccio and demand solutions from the authorities. Along the way, it met Fr. Puglisi, the parish priest who gave attention not only to the spiritual life of the faithful, but also to the social context in which they lived.

Father Puglisi: free and independent Brancaccio was the worst crime hotspot in Palermo.22 The lifestyle of the parish priest, simple and resolute, clear and effective, and above all the freedom and independence that 69 he taught were a continuous provocation for the Mafia and contrasted with the general rule that everyone had to respect: “At Brancaccio nothing happens without the Mafia saying so.”23 Even renting a house required their permission. Not only did Fr. Puglisi not respect the rules of the neighborhood, but he also taught people to do the same. The authorities were approached directly, without going through the “offices” of the Mafia. The parish priest did not replace social workers, nor did he do what local authorities should have done. He simply asked authorities for the services and structures to which citizens were entitled. Hence, the first legitimate requests: the sewerage system (Brancaccio was deprived of it, with the consequence that sewage came to the surface in the streets, with several cases

22.At Brancaccio, between 1981 and 1984, 154 Mafia murders took place (cf. P. Toro, “Brancaccio, diario di un impegno,” in P. Toro - N. Vara, Palermo nel gorgo. L’autunno della politica e la scelta di don Puglisi, with a preface by G. Notari, SJ, Palermo, Istituto Poligrafico Europeo, 2015, 76). The district was also the logistic base of the armed struggle against the State, which manifested itself in a series of attacks in Palermo, Milan, Rome, Florence; the explosives were kept there for the slaughters of Capaci and Via D’Amelio; dangerous fugitives were hidden there and the first attempts to negotiate between the state and the Mafia also started there (cf. ibid. 58). 23.N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio,” op. cit., 12. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

of hepatitis C, lethal for children)24; then the opening of a high school in the neighborhood (which was built seven years after the murder of Fr. Puglisi), a social center, a socio-health district center, a meeting place for young and old people.25 Furthermore, requests were not made in a personal capacity, but together with the people of Brancaccio. His “golden rule” consisted in acting together, and he proposed it to everyone: “If everyone does something, much can be achieved.”26 This proposal was a revolution, as it taught the citizens to be free and united in claiming their rights. “The reason for the Mafia assassination of Fr. Puglisi was not the welcoming at the parish of young people and children but rather his free spirit and challenge to the power of Cosa Nostra.”27 A spirit that is at the 70 heart of Gospel teaching.28

The teachers of the parish priest Who are those who inspired Fr. Puglisi? If in the first place – as has already been said – there is the Gospel, we also need to remember another priest who certainly played a strong role in his formation, Don Lorenzo Milani. What unites the two characters, who probably never met, is their freedom and independence. In the 1960s and 1970s, with his books Don Milani became a reference point for the young people. Esperienze pastorali (Pastoral Experiences) of May 1958, despite the initial limited dissemination, experienced considerable success after the decision of the Holy Office to withdraw it from the market. Then L’obbedienza non è più una virtù (Obedience is Not a Virtue), of 1965, shook the Italian ecclesiastical world, and finally his Letter to a Teacher,

24.Cf. F. Palazzo - A. Cavadi - R. Cascio, Beato fra i mafiosi. Don Puglisi: storia, metodo, teologia, Trapani, Di Girolamo, 2013, 21 f. 25.Ibid., 42. 26.Ibid., 62. The proposal was used for the title of the book by F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa si può fare molto…, op. cit., 26; 64. 27.N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio,” op. cit., 13. 28.Fr. Pino summarized it also in his appeal: “Do not ask what you can take from life, but rather what you can give life” (E. A. Mortellaro - C. Aquino, Padre Pino Puglisi…, op. cit., 78). PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR dated 1967, became the protest manifesto of the 1968 student revolution and highlighted the spirit that animated the priest.29 Fr. Puglisi, being a university chaplain, spoke to the students of the figure of Don Milani, who formed young people to become responsible citizens. His vision of a free man, a Christian not inclined to compromises, a parish priest dedicated to the good of his faithful, had a precise model in the Tuscan priest. Furthermore, Fr. Pino was even more free than Don Milani, who had been sent to Barbiana to be somehow marginalized. But since then Don Milani had played a prominent role in the history of Italian democracy, advocating for the approval of conscientious objection, nonviolence, the reform of the high school. Fr. Puglisi had a very clear example before him. Vatican II played a decisive role in his formation, as did 71 the new spirit that the Council instilled in priests. Fr. Pino had been ordained priest in 1960, while from 1958 Pope John had opened a new season in the Church and revived the missionary impulse. The updating (aggiornamento), the new evangelization, the dialogue with those far away took root in the priests of Palermo. The Council shaped the young priest.30 Furthermore, being “a poor Church for the poor”31 was a concrete ideal that he put into practice during his first assignment in Settecannoli, a neighborhood of shacks, built on the ruins of the bombing of the war. Here he started to commit to a series of requests to the local authorities to provide essential services to an abandoned community. Then followed the transfer to Godrano, about 40 kilometers from Palermo, where Fr. Pino met the Franciscan movement “Presence of the Gospel,” little known in the rest of Italy but

29.Cf. N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio”, op. cit., 13. The works by Don Milani are now collected in L. Milani, Tutte le opere, edited by F. Ruozzi - A. Canfora - V. Oldano - S. Tanzarella, under the direction of A. Melloni, Milan, Mondadori, 2017. 30.Cf. F. Deliziosi, “3P” Padre Pino Puglisi…, op. cit., 52-59; F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa..., op. cit., 185-190; 432-438. 31.Cf. C. Lorefice, La compagnia del Vangelo. Discorsi e idee di don Pino Puglisi a Palermo, Reggio Emilia, Ed. San Lorenzo, 2014, 47 f. The expression dates to the Council, Lumen Gentium, No. 8, and was adopted by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, No. 198. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

very active in Sicily, which proposed bringing the Gospel message to simple people through the laity. Hence, the love for the Word of God, “that new yeast which works in the secret heart of each one of us, and then, we do not know when, nor how, it bears fruit.”32 Godrano is only a village of farmers, but marked by family that had claimed many victims (15 murders between the 1950s and 1960s). Perhaps this was his first close encounter with the world of the Mafia. Fr. Puglisi, a man of reconciliation, wants to be present in a context torn by revenge and murder: he knows how to be close to people, he knows how to communicate with them, he knows how to speak of the Lord. The village is his mission, where he lives his pastoral commitment by implementing the Council: 72 “Vatican II had rediscovered some fundamental truths: our vocation is communion with God, with a God who is love and is full of tenderness. ... We have rediscovered this strong message with the Council, along with many other things, for example, the rediscovery of the community, of all of us being Church.”33 The conciliar event constitutes “the golden key that opens up the door to enter the life and martyrdom of Father Puglisi.”34 The commitment to young people finally culminated among the boys of Brancaccio, where in 1990 he was called to be the parish priest. The assignment marked a fundamental stage in the life of Fr. Pino: Brancaccio was his neighborhood, where he was born into a poor family, where he had lived in his youthful years and the vocation to priesthood had matured. The work of this priest undermined the wall of silence and violence that had long kept the people tied to Mafia rule. “Personalism, culture and the Gospel: a mixture that Fr. Puglisi did not create while sitting at a table, during ecclesiastical conferences or in research institutes; rather, while in the streets,

32.E. A. Mortellaro - C. Aquino, Padre Pino Puglisi…, op. cit., 46. 33.Quoted from C. Lorefice, La compagnia del Vangelo…, op. cit., 31; cf. also G. Bellia, Il prete che seminava speranza. La storia semplice di padre Puglisi martire, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013, 65. 34.N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio,” op. cit., 18. In the same year of his death he was defined as follows: “I like to recall him as a ‘council’ priest, not as a priest against Mafia” (G. Ribaudo, “Preti antimafia? In memoria di Padre Pino Puglisi,” in Orientamenti pastorali 41 [1993] 11; 9). PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR in the alleys, fighting alongside families to claim the right to housing and being engaged amid often degrading human conditions.”35 He was a man of culture, an intellectual, but ready to get his hands dirty among his people, with a concrete program: “We will not be the ones to change the neighborhood. This is an illusion that we cannot afford... But our initiatives must be a sign.”36

The “Puglisi Case” The murder of Fr. Puglisi, although it was clearly the death of a martyr, was not immediately understood as to its spiritual value: two interpretations prevailed, both poor and reductive. Since the parish priest of San Gaetano was not very well known outside the neighborhood, an interpretation tended 73 to relocate the figure of the priest back in his environment, and therefore to relegate it to oblivion. The other one, instead, aimed at turning him into the icon of a “prayer card” and to place him in the gallery of the blessed and the , and therefore at removing him from the ranks of ordinary people.37 The two interpretations did not allow one to grasp the value of the priest’s testimony and prevented the essential outcome being highlighted, namely, the provocation and the prophecy that emerged from that brutal murder. Provocation was first for the Church, then for the young people, culture, the city and politics. The Gospel leads to loving one’s enemies. And Fr. Pino invited them to come to church, to talk, to give their reasons and not just to kill... He did not want so much to convert the Mafia as to invite everyone to show solidarity, to help each other, to seek the good of the neighborhood. The prophecy instead is one that stems from the commandment “Thou shalt not kill!”: “After Jesus one can change the mood and wonder about the why of the do not kill... We can compare it with Jesus’ teaching, the “new” one, the

35.V. Ceruso, Le sagrestie di Cosa nostra…, op. cit., 184. 36.P. Toro, “Brancaccio, diario di un impegno,” op. cit., 85; F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa..., op. cit., 59. 37.Cf. N. Vara, “Un nostalgico amarcord,” in P. Toro - N. Vara, Palermo nel gorgo. L’autunno della politica e la scelta di don Puglisi, op. cit., 27. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

last, the testament of the Last Supper; the positive command of “Love one another as I have loved you.”... For life has to be given and not taken. The novelty of Jesus’ commandment is the gift, the giving, the grace, not the prohibition of killing. What must mark life and the Christian style is not prohibition, but “pure” love, the unconditional love that seeks no return. Prohibition, in itself, does not speak to the heart; it is poor... it is cramped and paralyzes... What is more evangelical (insofar as it makes God and Jesus Christ better known) is to announce to the city that Fr. Pino gave up his life as Jesus did... Only giving up (even life) is Christian and never taking away (especially life).38 Finally, there is the weakness of the Mafia, which stands out in the sacrifice of Fr. Puglisi. The Mafia world has within itself a 74 human, ancient and modern disease, that of believing that “power” makes one “omnipotent.” Today, more than in the past, this power is consolidated by the money that Mafia gangs extort and reinvest everywhere. It is no coincidence that , the instigator of the murder of the priest, had the nickname “Mother Nature,” as if everything in Brancaccio, in particular good and evil, depended on him. If such omnipotence makes people more ruthless, it also reveals the vulnerability that corrodes the criminal world. Fr. Puglisi was a nuisance because he was a witness to a closeness to the poor and to unemployed young people, but he had no power: “Ordering the murder of an unarmed man is proof of weakness and, in the end, of impotence. ... Christ had fought for the poor and died as one of them.”39 Thus was “Mother Nature” defeated by the Gospel, by that force revealed in the one who does not rely on power, but on the impotence of the saving cross.

The last homily September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Fr. Pino celebrated Mass at the “Casa Madonna dell’Accoglienza” where he assisted several single mothers. In his homily he explained why Jesus sweated blood. “When we are afraid or we feel a deep sensation of heat, contractions are triggered under

38.N. Fasullo, “Giuseppe Puglisi, un santo necessario voluto da Dio,” op.cit., 16 f. 39.I. Romeo, “La vicinanza e la differenza,” in Segno 345/346, op. cit., 110. PINO PUGLISI: PRIEST AND MARTYR the skin ... and sweat comes out. But when the contraction is stronger, because fear has turned into unbearable anguish, capillaries break. This is the reason why it is said that Jesus sweated blood ... sweated blood due to the human fear of the pain that awaited him. And this makes us feel him more as a brother. From this, we have known the love of God. He gave his life for us and we too must give our lives for our brothers and sisters. It is very difficult to die for a friend, but dying for one’s enemies is even harder. Christ died for us when we were still his enemies. God always remains close to us, embodying the constancy of love to the extreme limit, indeed, without limits. Here is the reason for our joy!”40 Due to intimidation and threats, Fr. Pino was aware that sooner or later it would also be his turn to offer his life. He 75 did not know that this would happen just 24 hours later. His death was, however, also a seed of resurrection for Brancaccio, for Palermo, for Italy and for the whole Church. It should, however, be recalled – as the public prosecutor Lorenzo Matassa noted – that neither the diocese, nor the parish, nor the local authorities, nor the social center “Padre Nostro” pushed the court case forward: “The fight against the Mafia as well as the processes against it must be joint actions. This is why I say that justice is not only truth, but also human participation, it is involvement, it is a continuous civil commitment of all. ... And the first ones are those who have the moral and legal duty of participation because they are the only ones who can give voice to those who will never be able to have it. The successor of Fr. Puglisi said that the Church does not take care of men’s penal responsibility, but rather of their after-life destiny. Nothing could be more wrong or unfair to the memory of Fr. Pino Puglisi, who had tried to give this poor and mistreated humanity of Brancaccio not only its spiritual ‘daily bread,’ but also meet its material needs, as an act of charity and justice.”41

40.G. Porcaro, “Padre Pino Puglisi. Il sorriso del martire,” op. cit., 213 f; cf. also C. Lorefice, La compagnia del Vangelo…, op. cit., 160; F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa..., op. cit., 31. 41.F. Palazzo - A. Cavadi - R. Cascio, Beato fra i mafiosi…, op, cit., 26. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

The words of the public prosecutor indicate the commitment to participate in the suffering life of the people (which is the opposite of populism), in terms of real and emotional, even painful involvement.

* * *

On the 25th anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Pino Puglisi, Pope Francis visited the Brancaccio neighborhood, the church of San Gaetano, where he was the parish priest, and the Piazzale Anita Garibaldi, where he was killed. The pope wished to remember a holy parish priest and pay tribute to the mission of a priest who offered his life out of love. On the occasion of 76 his beatification, he said: “Don Puglisi was an exemplary priest, especially dedicated to youth ministry. Educating young people according to the Gospel, he stole them from the underworld, and this is why it tried to defeat him, by killing him. In reality, however, he is the one who has won, with the Risen Christ.”42

42.F. Deliziosi, Se ognuno fa qualcosa..., op. cit., 52. The Architecture of Silence and Post-Secularism

Luigi Territo, SJ

1 At the outset of Faith as an Option, author Hans Joas questions the causal relationship between modernization and secularization.2 According to many 20th-century philosophers and sociologists, modernization in the West would lead not only to a freeing of public conscience from the illiberal and obscurantist legacies of religions, but also to their complete disappearance. Today, sociological and statistical research conducted by the most 77 important international research institutes describes a general and unexpected “return to the sacred”3 and a renewed presence of religions in the public sphere. The theory of secularization is no longer able to reflect the multifaceted aspects of our contemporary societies. Today, we are instead witnessing a de-privatization of religion: “Religious traditions throughout the world refuse to accept the marginal and privatized role that the theories of secularization and modernity had reserved for them.”4

1.Cf. H. Joas, La fede come opzione. Possibilità di futuro per il cristianesimo, Brescia, Queriniana, 2013. 2.Hans Joas uses the definition of secularization which Charles Taylor summarizes according to three categories: “Public spaces ... have been emptied of God or any reference to ultimate reality... Secularization consists in diminishing belief and religious practice... Faith, even for the most devoted believer, is only one possibility among others” (C. Taylor, L’età secolare, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2009, 12-14). 3.In 2015, the sociologist Rodney Stark published important sociological research on religion, comparing data from 163 different countries. After over a million interviews, the American sociologist stated that 81 percent of the world’s population identifies with a religion, 74 percent consider religion to be important, and only 5 percent consider themselves atheistic or agnostic: cf. R. Stark, The Global Religious Awakening. Faith Triumphs over Secularity, Wilmington, ISI Books, 2015. This data varies widely between continents; figures show that in European countries, religious practice has decreased – 18 percent in Italy – and of under 30 years of age, statistics show a figure around 7 percent: cf. M. Introvigne - P. Zoccatelli, La Messa è finita?, Caltanissetta - Rome, Sciascia, 2010. 4.J. Casanova, Oltre la secolarizzazione. Le religioni alla riconquista della sfera pubblica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2000, 11. LUIGI TERRITO, SJ

Religions return to the public arena to redefine the boundaries of influence in the relations between social duties and individual conscience, legality and morality, religious education and plurality. In the field of sociological research, it is increasingly common to define this orientation as a “post- secular religious condition.”

Post-secularism and religious identities It is from this post-secular perspective that one can make a phenomenological reading of religious experience that is not exclusively limited to the observance of the process of de- privatization of religions, but orients its observations to the transformations that religions in general offer. In the last 30 78 years, in fact, it has become possible to recognize a change that highlights common features of different spiritual projects: “an exceptional pluralization and diversification of faith communities with regard to religious confessions of ancient tradition”5; the diffusion of new forms of trans-confessional religiosity based on inclusivism (a person can contemporaneously belong to a Christian Church, attend Buddhist temples, adhere to a New Age movement and practice Zen meditation); an emotional, anti-institutional preaching, centered on the individual and on psychophysical well-being; the low level of hierarchization of new religious organizations; the emergence of neo- fundamentalist or neo-integralist currents (also in the Western Christian context), which claim new certainties. The adhesion to new forms of religiosity and the development of fundamentalism also place us before the development of original forms of worship that unite Adventist spiritualism with rigid moral concepts often developed from a fundamentalist and literal interpretation of the sacred texts. There has emerged in many parts of the world a trans- religious approach that conveys a spirituality without God, or more precisely, a religion that has replaced a personal God with an impersonal divine milieu. This new wave of religious interest

5.V. Rosito, “Post-secolarismo. Le condizioni del credere oggi,” in Il Regno – Attualità 6/2016, 157. THE ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE AND POST-SECULARISM and practice, especially in the Western world, would seem to have definitively archived the secular era, but a careful hermeneutical analysis of our time has not demonstrated conclusively that the secular age has been replaced by a post-secular age. The secularization described by Charles Taylor is an extremely important key to the interpretation and understanding of the relationship between the modern world and religiosity. After all, secularization not only produced fragmentation and a weakening of religious practice, but also innovation and emancipation of the sacred from traditional religions. “For historical religions, the post-secular condition is characterized by all the effects of secularization, but also by the new spiritual readiness that living in secularity causes.”6 79 Rooms of silence and inter-confessional spaces The post-secular experience has changed the relationship between people and the urban spaces where they socialize. To the identity-shaping places of the past (churches, political party offices, cultural circles, etc.) the post-secular person prefers the “third places”7: spaces of sociality and debate, places of leisure and intellectual sharing, metropolitan crossroads where they can experience forms of spontaneous belonging. This sense of belonging is favored by the design of easily accessible and comfortable spaces.8 The intuition of American sociologist, Ray Oldenburg, who became famous following the publication of his book The Great Good Place, led to the identification of intermediate locations between the familiarity of one’s own home and the

6.L. Berzano, “Religioni nell’epoca postsecolare,” in Sociologia e politiche sociali 52 (2/2009) 13. 7.Cf. R. Oldenburg, The Great Good Place. Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, New York, Marlowe & Company, 1989. 8.Here, what comes to mind is the Starbucks coffee chain, which offers armchairs, Wi-Fi and welcoming places for sharing; or the renewal of McDonald’s, created as fast food places and increasingly transformed into afternoon places to meet; or the multiplex cinema chains, which have now become actual shopping centers, with restaurants and clubs where you can share impressions and comments on the films shown. LUIGI TERRITO, SJ

workplace. These “intermediate spaces” are the cafes, bars, shopping centers, beauty salons or bookshops that serve as spaces for informal interaction. It is therefore no accident – according to Oldenburg – that “third places” become “anchors of community life,” aimed at facilitating wider integration and a growing desire for sharing. Today, these places have often replaced the traditional spaces of aggregation; for example, places of worship and city squares. However, on closer inspection, even these contemporary places of worship have been transformed ad intra by the emerging perspective of post-secularity and the aspects described by Ray Oldenburg in The Great Good Place. An evident effect of this emancipation of the sacred from 80 places traditionally used for worship and socializing can be witnessed in the spread of inter-confessional “chapels” dedicated to meditation and recollection. Among the many examples of recent years, one type in particular seems to have attracted curiosity and interest: the “quiet rooms” often located in airports, hospitals, hotels and universities. These inter-confessional “chapels” came about thanks to an initiative of Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat, and the UN general secretary from 1953 to 1961. Moved by a profound evangelical faith, in 1957 Hammarskjöld wanted to establish a “room of silence” in the UN General Assembly Headquarters in New York. As he himself explained at the opening ceremony, in a building “completely dedicated to work and debate there has to be a room dedicated to silence, in the exterior sense, and to the quiet in the inner sense,”9 a space open to every person, believer or non-believer, a place for reflection and prayer. This would be a room without religious symbols, because “it is the task of those who enter to fill the void with what is at the center of their inner stillness.”10 The Swedish diplomat directed the project personally: he wanted a bare space limited to essentials, full of peace. This included a trapezoidal geometric shape with an altar-block of

9.“Discorso del Segretario dell’Onu Dag Hammarskjöld sul senso della sala di meditazione,” in http://accademiasilenzio.lua.it. 10.Ibid. THE ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE AND POST-SECULARISM magnetite in the center, and a geometric mural on the wall. A six- meter-long dark corridor and a crystal door mark the boundary between the UN’s frenetic activity and the “quiet” room. In the center, the heavy block of ferrous material represents silently the stabilitas in the changeable movement of time. The bare altar placed in the center of the small room, in the intentions of the Swedish diplomat, was not impersonal, “because there is no single God, it is not ... an altar to an unknown God, but ... it is dedicated to the God whom people adore under many names and in many forms.”11 The UN “quiet room” soon inspired the spread of new meditation spaces not connected to one single confession. Today, in the United States, there are numerous universities, airports and hospitals that have incorporated places of silence, 81 and throughout the world there are countless architectural interventions that recall the essential elements of that first room at the UN. These places are characterized by an explicit non-denominationality, where minimalism and the lack of icons (“aniconism”) mark the bare lines of the space offered to the multiplicity of religious beliefs. The luminous creations, abstract decorations and essential furnishings signal the attributes of these quiet spaces, where men and women of different creeds (or non-believers) can be present and each stand before God and their conscience. These “quiet rooms” are not spaces for dialogue, that is, a dialogue understood in an explicit sense, but rather places that promote spiritual coexistence and respect for different religious identities. We could call them “non-confessional, a-liturgical, non-iconic chapels,” but we would be wrong if we characterized them in the light of that negative prefix, which seems to place an accent on absence and deprivation. They are not only places of silence, but of listening. They are not only empty spaces, but emptied, to give voice to silent, broken, interrupted words.12

11.Ibid. 12.These rooms were often built in prisons and hospitals, places where reflection on pain is imposed with dramatic evidence. LUIGI TERRITO, SJ

The construction of these rooms in many hospitals in countries throughout the world has been accompanied with a convergence of interest in different religious institutions. In Italy, after the first “quiet room” was built in 2009 (at the Molinette hospital in Turin), other quiet places have opened in recent years; for example, in the Ospedale Maggiore in Parma, the Careggi in Florence, the San Giovanni Bosco and the Mauritian in Turin, at Santa Lucia and San Camillo in Rome, to name just a few. Among the most famous “quiet rooms,” the first ones to come to mind are the Rothko Chapel in Houston (Texas, USA), designed and painted by the Latvian-American artist Mark Rotkho; the House of Silence (Bet Dumia - Bet as-Sakina), 82 commissioned by Bruno Hussar in the Palestinian village of ; the Sala de reflexió, by the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, in the new Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, ​​ inaugurated in 1996. Among the most recent spaces to be opened, one in particular stands out for its extraordinary location, namely, the “silent room” located in the north wing of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We must recall that the Brandenburg Gate is one of the German capital’s most important monuments. It was considered the symbol of the division of the city up until recently. It was from this monument, in fact, that one could look beyond the wall that divided East and West Berlin. According to the “Silent Environment Promotion Association in Berlin,” which was committed to the realization of this space, there are two aims for the quiet room: 1) “to give the possibility to anyone, regardless of origin, color, ideology, religion or physical condition, to enter and linger in silence ... to reflect, to meditate, to pray in that historical place full of sad memories, but also rich in hope”; 2) “the quiet room constitutes a permanent invitation to tolerance and brotherhood among people, between nationalities and ideologies and a continuous exhortation against violence and racism.”13

13.“Silenzio nella porta di Brandeburgo,” in www.raum-der-stille-im- brandenburger-tor.de/pdf/RdS_Infoblatt_online_it.pdf. THE ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE AND POST-SECULARISM

At universities, too, it is more and more common to find rooms used as inter-religious chapels, or spaces for worship by different religions. For example, in the heart ofGreenwich Village, amid New York University (NYU) buildings, a quiet room was opened in 2012, and several rooms were reserved for students to celebrate their rites. Five years ago, at NYU, the Global Spiritual Center was founded, after a study revealed that 70 percent of the reservations for the university’s common rooms were made for religious activities.

Conclusion As Leon Battista Alberti once said, “being together generates form.” The examples quoted above are certainly a positive attempt to rethink ourselves “together” as part of a common 83 human family. Therefore, religious architecture can become an environment capable of generating communion, a pedagogical place that expresses the reality of community through spaces of mutual acceptance. How can these places be created without giving in to a naive syncretism, or a simple physical juxtaposition of different religious contexts? It is not a question of designing interreligious temples, however fascinating the idea may seem, which would end up generating confusion and ambiguity, but rather of thinking of places of proximity where people with different beliefs can converge and meet without confusion. The “Third Places” are characterized by silence and the desire for communion that precedes our words and our search for meaning: rooms of silence, hermitages for citizens, interreligious chapels located in work and leisure areas, testifying to the legitimacy and proximity of different spiritual quests, the attention to the contemplative dimension of life, the need for recollection; temporary pausing places that refer believers to their own places of worship, all well aware that each of us wants to give a face and a voice to that shared silence. In this time we are living in, religions and people of faith have a precious task to fulfill: to give voice to the deep roots of spiritual experience. LUIGI TERRITO, SJ

Therefore, the emancipation of the sacred from the forms of traditional religiosity should not be demonized. The desire to have spaces for meditation and silence should not be rejected a priori as an ambiguous product of post-secular relativism, but directed toward a spiritual quest that can be evangelized. The spiritual experience can then be an authentic meeting place. Only an authentic and sympathetic dialogue between us will open up unprecedented possibilities for understanding God’s work in cultures, religions and people, generating a necessary immune system against fundamentalisms and a dangerous return to extremisms.

84 The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen

Claudio Zonta, SJ

The existential, Christian journey of American singer- songwriter Bruce Springsteen is traced through his complex and vast discography in a recent publication by Luca Miele, 1 a journalist of the Italian daily newspaper Avvenire. In five sweeping chapters – The Land of Dreams; In the Name of the 85 Father; The Tunnel of Love; The Rising; In the Belly of the Whale – he shows how “The Boss” has tried throughout his artistic career to penetrate and understand the social and human reality of the United States, using existential concepts that echo some biblical themes. Miele stresses that this is the start of a journey through his songs, highlighting evocations and suggestions that link up with Gospel culture, which are reread and reinterpreted by the famous American singer.

Leaving the land As a singer-songwriter, Bruce Springsteen’s songs are like a coast-to-coast road trip with sporadic stops in lonely places where the earth is lashed by wind, where we meet his characters walking toward a dreamed-of destination, fleeing toward an undefined future (Straight Time; Highway 29) and traversing physical and existential frontiers (Across the Border). The protagonists of his songs embrace a condition of exit and exodus. This existential dimension recalls the exodus from Egypt by the people of Israel, who crossed the borders of Canaan and other neighboring places in search of

1.L. Miele, Il Vangelo secondo Bruce Springsteen, Turin, Claudiana, 2017, 81. CLAUDIO ZONTA, SJ

a land where they could finally find peace. Journeying on, for Springsteen, possesses a symbolic value: it holds together the physical reality of fatigue and the uncertainty of a journey with an existential experience of escaping from oneself, of the search for a self that is too often elusive, or the quest for a “Beyond” that reflects a continuous tension between immanence and transcendence. The musician’s quest even dares to scramble into apparently tight corners. For example, in the song Human Touch: “Ain’t no mercy on the streets of this town / Ain’t no bread from heavenly skies / Ain’t nobody drawin’ wine from this blood.” This text, as Antonio Spadaro has suggested,2 presents a rejection of transcendence through “the inversion of the Eucharistic image.” 86 At the same time it is pervaded by a sense of immersion in a reality where the anchor of salvation will be union, the outcome of movement toward another.

The contradiction of relationship This journey to a Promised Land (a song on the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town) also contains moments of fragile rest, instances that involve looking unmasked at one’s own deep relationships, especially at the contradictory paternal figure. Miele states: “All ‘Born to Run’ is a struggle, with and against the father. Young Springsteen’s struggle to escape the father figure’s grip – and the demon who possessed him.” The figure of a missing, absent, often depressed father, permeates Springsteen’s songs, for example Adam Raised a Cain; My Father’s House; Used Cars; and Mansion on the Hill. From the title Adam Raised a Cain, the reference is totally biblical, and the verse “He was standin’ in the door, / I was standin’ in the rain,” shows an original and irreconcilable tension not only between a father and a son, but also between the Father and the actuality of human sin.

2.A. Spadaro, “La resurrezione di Bruce Springsteen,” in Civ. Catt. 2002 IV 14. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

One has the feeling that the fragile and contradictory nature of the paternal relationship results in a sense of sin that is impossible to wash away definitively. This song, in fact, opens with a scene, but it fails to have the effect of purification as the faults that affect father and son are not remitted; the figure of the father conveys sin, which becomes the mark of Cain: “The ‘father’ does not guarantee salvation; behind him we cannot glimpse the shadow of who finally, hearing the word of God, spares .” Though this paternal relationship is suspended in a dynamic tension, it is also capable of openings or glimmers of light, as in the song Living Proof. Here we can see a change in image with regard to the father figure, perhaps because when Springsteen wrote the song he himself experienced becoming 87 a father. This generative event, as is often emphasized in biblical , is not only capable of overcoming anger, frustration and despair, but of provoking a profound vital impulse: “Well now all that’s sure on the boulevard / Is that life is just a house of cards / As fragile as each and every breath / Of this boy sleeping in our bed / ... Looking for a little bit of God’s mercy, / I found living proof.”

Solitude and the sense of the double As is apparent from his extensive back catalog, the tones with which Springsteen colors his research are never explicitly defined, but they include numerous nuances that are sometimes difficult to separate. The songs are thus transformed into passages of self-reflection, which he uses to investigate himself: a “self” that includes the abyss of darkness, the somber colors of the night, crisscrossed by lightning and foreboding. The musician’s inner being becomes a battleground between angels and demons. It is worthy of reflection that Tunnel of Love followed the immensely successful Born in the USA. This album with its persistent rhythms, catchy melodies, which is saturated with energy and anger, represents the American singer’s umpteenth change of artistic direction, this time toward the deep sea of his​​ own being. In this new phase, coinciding with CLAUDIO ZONTA, SJ

his marriage crisis, he employs country music, which is a new musical style for him, and an introspective, crepuscular and bare style of writing. It is the way to isolation, to dead ends and lost ways; in the Tunnel of Love album he sings of “men (and women) who discover that their identity is something friable, that their ego is inhabited, besieged, edged, and haunted by doubt.” The war this time is not directed toward the outside, but ad intra: it is an internal, personal clash with the doubt that can rage violently and cynically. The theme of the double, of the fragility of the ego, is highlighted in the song Two Faces, while the protagonist of Cautious Man has the word “love” tattooed on his right hand, 88 and “fear” on the left, without knowing which will prevail in his life. However, in the Tunnel of Love album the characters are fighters, even in their ambiguity and fragility; they do not abandon the battlefield when confronted with the awareness of an indefinite and uncertain outcome.

September 11, 2001 Springsteen has traversed America’s recent history with his rough voice, the edgy sound of his Telecaster guitar, and his songs composed with just a few chords that nonetheless touch the heart. The dramatic events of September 11, 2001, are reread musically by Springsteen in the album The Rising where, with humility and energy, he tries to give a fullness to a disconcerting void, full of anguish and pain. The Boss enters the inner core of this drama, crossing the abyss of evil to seek a sense of new hope: “Death does not saturate the entire poetic horizon of The Rising, horror does not completely sequester it.” In view of such a painful event, the community dimension takes the place of individual introspection. The fall of the Twin Towers thus becomes the open wound – “The sky was falling and streaked with blood” – and the dust and the fire are the companions of this horror. But in all this hell there are also images of a sacrificial ascension. This is embodied by the rescuers who rise higher and higher in the Towers, going in THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN the opposite direction to all those who are fleeing from horror and pain, descending from the buildings. In the songs Into the Fire and The Rising two individual factors appear who carry the sense of community on their shoulders: they are in fire, which take and give back light, turning the fire of hatred into a light of sacrifice. The firefighter inThe Rising prays: “May their precious blood forever bind me / Lord as I stand before your fiery light.” Only in this way is it possible to sing the refrain “Come on, rise up” from Into the Fire, recalled in different terms by the whole songMy City of Ruins, which is a hymn to getting back up and rising together again.

Christ-like figures During this last decade, Springsteen’s record production 89 has seen another change of themes, especially in the albums Magic (2007) and Wrecking Ball (2012). Here we witness Springsteen’s writing “becoming sharp, allegorical, overflowing with images and figures, condensed in the wrecking ball that breaks down the stadium and cancels the ‘glory days’.” In these albums there is a sense of instability, of a fall, of an abandonment directed at society and the American dream. The lyrics include terms indicating a sliding downward toward darkness, of a drifting, a sense of death that grips and chases the various characters (Gypsy Biker, Devil’s Arcade). However, this is not a cosmic, all-encompassing pessimism. In I’ll Work for Your Love, faith and hope are conveyed through the dramatic situation of a woman who faces her personal Calvary, whose ribs are like the Stations of the Cross, while a light defines a halo about her head, and drops of blood fall. The Christ-like imagery expands, reflecting the relationship between human suffering and that of Christ on the cross – “And I’m just down here searching for my own piece of the cross” – looking deep into the human abysses for the light that allows us to get up and embrace the complexity of life.

* * * CLAUDIO ZONTA, SJ

These are just some of the themes dealt with in Il Vangelo secondo Bruce Springsteen (The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen) by Luca Miele. The author’s achievement lies in his highlighting and linking, throughout the American singer’s many songs, those themes and thoughts that have a direct relationship with the human spirit and that are reflected in biblical tradition. The citations and translations of numerous important verses of Springsteen’s texts are ample and exhaustive. Bruce Springsteen continues to be a tireless singer- songwriter of the American dream: a dream that includes the many uneasy lives of men and women who, on their road, are often touched by God in a silent way.

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