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15 October 2020 Monthly Year 4

Poetry is a Planet of Living Trees: An interview with Ana Varela Tafur

South Sudan: From civil war to a government of national unity

The Centenary of Max Weber’s Death .10 o Hagia Sophia: From museum to mosque

People of Israel, Land of Israel, State of Israel OLUME 4, N 4, OLUME V Fraternity and Social Friendship 2020 2020 Bishop Mario Grech: An interview with the new secretary of the Synod of Bishops

Media Ecology, Church and Pandemic

Ritual or Ritualism: The spirit of Confucianism

BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS

Copyright, 2020, Union of Catholic Asian Editor-in-chief News ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

All rights reserved. Except for any fair Editorial Board dealing permitted under the Hong Kong Antonio Spadaro, SJ – Director Copyright Ordinance, no part of this Giancarlo Pani, SJ – Vice-Director publication may be reproduced by any Domenico Ronchitelli, SJ – Senior Editor means without prior permission. Inquiries Giovanni Cucci, SJ, Diego Fares, SJ should be made to the publisher. Giovanni Sale, SJ, Claudio Zonta, SJ Federico Lombardi, SJ Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editors ISSN: 2207-2446 Virgilio Fantuzzi, SJ Giandomenico Mucci, SJ ISBN: GianPaolo Salvini, SJ 978-988-79271-8-1 (ebook) 978-988-79271-9-8 (kindle) Contributors Published in Hong Kong by George Ruyssen, SJ (Belgium) UCAN Services Ltd. Fernando de la Iglesia Viguiristi, SJ (Spain) Drew Christiansen, SJ (USA) P.O. Box 69626, Kwun Tong, Andrea Vicini, SJ (USA) Hong Kong David Neuhaus, SJ (Israel) Phone: +852 2727 2018 Camillo Ripamonti, SJ (Italy) Fax: +852 2772 7656 www.ucanews.com Vladimir Pachkow, SJ (Russia) Arturo Peraza, SJ (Venezuela) Publishers: Michael Kelly, SJ and Bert Daelemans, SJ (Belgium) Robert Barber Thomas Reese, SJ (USA) Production Manager: Paul Soukup, SJ (USA) Grithanai Napasrapiwong Friedhelm Mennekes, SJ (Germany) Marcel Uwineza, SJ (Rwanda) Marc Rastoin, SJ (France) You Guo Jiang, SJ (China) Luke Hansen, SJ (USA) CONTENTS 1020

15 October 2020 Monthly Year 4

1 Poetry is a Planet of Living Trees: An interview with Ana Varela Tafur Diego Fares, SJ

17 South Sudan: From civil war to a government of national unity Hermann-Habib Kibangou, SJ

29 The Centenary of Max Weber’s Death Giovanni Cucci, SJ

40 Hagia Sophia: From museum to mosque Giancarlo Pani, SJ

50 People of Israel, Land of Israel, State of Israel David M. Neuhaus, SJ

62 Fraternity and Social Friendship Antonio Spadaro, SJ

78 Bishop Mario Grech An interview with the new secretary of the Synod of Bishops Antonio Spadaro, SJ - Simone Sereni

89 Media Ecology, Church and Pandemic Paul A. Soukup, SJ

99 Ritual or Ritualism The spirit of Confucianism Benoît Vermander, SJ LCC 1120: NOVEMBER

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“The pope’s document gives much to reflect on. It is beautiful, illuminating and full of hope in humanity. Beloved Amazon, so loved and suffering” (Ana Varela Tafur) It was the custom for popes not to mention contemporary authors in their official documents. Francis has done so since 1 the beginning of his pontificate. In the apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia (QA) he draws on 16 Latin American poets, women and men. “Francis’ decision to include the poetic and symbolic logos as an integral part of his magisterial text is stronger than may appear.”1 Francis does not quote poets to give examples, but he listens to them and enters into resonance with what poetry gives. The “four dreams” he shares about the Amazon are enriched by being nourished by the cultures of its peoples and attest that “only poetry, with its humble voice, will be able to save this world”2 (QA 46). In “The Prophecy of Contemplation” (QA 53-57) the Holy Father proposes an itinerary that reverses the path followed by the extractive paradigm and enters into the heart of the Amazon. He invites us to adopt courageous attitudes in order not to leave this portion of our planet at the mercy of those who have already

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 1, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.1

1.Cf. A. Spadaro, “Querida Amazonia: Commentary on Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation”, in Civ. Catt. En., February, 2020, https://www. laciviltacattolica.com/querida-amazonia-commentary-on-pope-francis- apostolic-exhortation/ 2.V. de Moraes, Para vivir un gran amor, Buenos Aires, Ediciones de la Flor, 2013, 166. DIEGO FARES, SJ

made contrary attitudes their own: “From the original peoples, we can learn to contemplate the Amazon region and not simply analyze it, and thus appreciate this precious mystery that transcends us. We can love it, not simply use it, with the result that love can awaken a deep and sincere interest. Even more, we can feel intimately a part of it and not only defend it; then the Amazon region will once more become like a mother to us” (QA 55). The image of the Amazon River – on which “streams alight like birds”3 (QA 44) – is the image of an apostolic exhortation in which poems cited are like tributaries that can be explored. This article-interview on Ana Varela Tafur and her poetry tries to follow Francis’ suggestion to let ourselves be guided4 so that Querida Amazonia becomes for us “like a mother” within our great Mother Earth. For “we do not look at the world from 2 without but from within, conscious of the bonds with which the Father has linked us to all beings” (QA 55).

Resonances: it is time to speak out Together with Ana Varela Tafur we read the pope’s text: “Popular poets, enamored of its immense beauty, have tried to express the feelings this river evokes and the life that it bestows as it passes amid a dance of dolphins, anacondas, trees and canoes. Yet they also lament the dangers that menace it. Those poets, contemplatives and prophets, help free us from the technocratic and consumerist paradigm that destroys nature and robs us of a truly dignified existence” (QA 46). I ask how these words resonate with her. Ana Varela answers: “The men and women poets who write about or for the Amazon not only have a personal poetic voice, but are lending themselves, offering and creating verse for the silent voice of all those who live and suffer the dramatic and rapid changes that are taking place. The gaze stops being exotic or totally focused on nature and its unquestionable beauty. We poets cannot limit ourselves to this. Today we talk about the

3.P. Neruda, “Amazonas”, in Id., Canto general (1938), I, IV. 4.“They (the original peoples) are our principal dialogue partners, from whom we have the most to learn [...] What is their idea of ‘good living’ for themselves and for those who will come after them?” (QA 26). POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES suffering of people, animals, plants, rivers, fields, the mothers of trees, the most vulnerable and least protected beings. We know that mining activities are not recent. They date back more than a century, to the time of the extraction of ‘caucho,’ rubber, when terror dominated as a weapon to subjugate the original populations and coastal regions. There were human rights violations, and thousands of trees were also cut down, people were mutilated, debt was used to impose an unsustainable system of perpetual credit. The benefits of the newborn extractivist capitalism went to a local bourgeoisie (Iquitos, Manaus, Belém do Pará, etc.) and to the vast American and European economies. Consequently, the consumerist paradigm favored a social class that lived off rubber wealth. Then this consumerist and predator-extractivist model fell into decline. However, 3 the model has survived until today, with rubber replaced by other materials, while indigenous people continue to die of abandonment, exclusion, abuse, and with them as their territory is disappearing, so is their knowledge, and their pain is great. Now the word, the collective voice, stops contemplating and the time has come to speak out, to prophesy a greater holocaust, that of environmental destruction.” Ana Varela Tafur is a writer to whom one can well apply the term “social poet,” a term coined by the pope.5 She was born in Iquitos (Peru) in 1963. She graduated in Literature from the University of California, Davis. She currently lives in Berkeley, California. “Her literary production is thematic, but important,” says Paco Bardales, a scholar who has studied her poetry.6 Her 7 book Lo que no veo en visiones (What I cannot see in visions; 1992) won first prize at theV Bienal de Poesía Copé, and we should be aware how important it is for her fellow citizens that a person from Iquitos, and moreover a woman, won an award in Lima.

5.Francis, Letter to the popular movements, April 12, 2020. 6.P. Bardales, Los discursos amazónicos, sociales y de género en el proceso creativo de la poesía de Ana Varela. Un río interminable de palabras. Expresión literaria en la Amazonía peruana, Lima, Ediciones del Congreso, 2013, 121-141. 7.A. Varela Tafur, Lo que no veo en visiones, Iquitos, Tierra Nueva, 2010. DIEGO FARES, SJ

As Tafur’s poet friend Percy Vílchez says: “The mere fact that in the Amazon, in the ‘backyard of Peru,’ a woman dedicates herself to writing poetry changes things.”8 Ana Varela Tafur has published Voces desde la orilla (Voices 9 from the Shore; 2000) and Dama en el scenario (Lady on Stage; 2001).10 A selection of her poems has been inserted in the anthology ¡Más aplausos para la lluvia! (More Applause for the 11 Rain; 2010) and En tierras del cóndor (In the Land of the Condor; 2013).12 We can depict her childhood and adolescence with two brushstrokes. Ana tells us in a letter that her house was four blocks away from the Amazon River, which forms 100 kilometers upstream of the city where she lived with the fusion of the Marañón and Ucayali rivers. At the age of 14 she began to write 4 in her personal diary everything that happened to her each day, until she realized that she preferred to express her feelings rather than report events. That is how she began to write her poems. Tafur spent her adolescence and youth in Peru, in a context of extreme violence, the so-called “Twenty Years of Terror” that began in 1980 with the birth of the guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso. In the clashes between the guerrillas and the government, both sides used very violent methods, and even the farmers organized militias to defend themselves, the so-called Rondas campesinas.

Literary aspects and characteristics Roland Forgues, an expert on Amazonian poetry, proposes three different characteristics to define the writing of Peruvian women poets: aesthetic, social and erotic. He believes that Ana Varela identifies mainly with the social category, since she “criticizes social inequalities, denounces unjust human

8.See the video Literatura amazónica, Tierra nueva (see youtu.be/ e2TAnMrPzCA). 9.A. Varela Tafur, Voces desde la orilla, Iquitos, Urcututu ediciones, 2000. 10.Id. Dama en el escenario, Iquitos, Editora regional, 2001. 11.J. G. Larochelle (ed.), ¡Más aplausos para la lluvia!: antología de poesía amazónica reciente, Iquitos, Tierra Nueva, 2010 12.En tierras del cóndor: muestra de poesía Colombia - Perú, Bogotá, Taller de edición Rocca, 2013. POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES addictions and unmasks real cultural manifestations. At the same time, she contributes to consolidating the basis for claiming and generating new goals in everyday life, bearing in mind the needs of the Peruvian Amazonian people.”13 According to Alberto Valdivia Baselli, another scholar who has studied her, Ana Varela is “a most skillful poetess” in her ability to build, through her emotions and testimonial perception, a poetic space where the collective memory (ecological and feminine) reaches the stature of myth.”14 Ana Molina Campodónico, in her thesis on Amazonian poets, states: “In Varela’s poetry the great themes of Amazonian literature (rural and urban, mythical and social) are articulated in a dynamic and creative way to affirm her Loreto identity.” And in the poetic context of social criticism, Ana Varela inserts 5 what Molina calls “mythical ecofeminism.”15 She celebrates “the feminine as the source of life, in the claim of the Amazonian universe as the construction of the wild mother, and in the discovery of the hallucinatory power of Ayahuasca as the primordial mother, as the matrix of Amazonian culture.”16

Ideas: ‘Poetry is a planet of living trees’ In 1983 the young poets Carlos Reyes Ramírez, Percy Vílchez Vela and Ana Varela Tafur, three students at the Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), were invited to join the Urcututu Group (onomatopoeic word from the call of an owl, the bird of wisdom) by its founder, theater director Manuel Luna Mendoza. Urcututu wanted to distance itself from folklorism as an instrument of representation of Amazonian reality, to “create and

13.R. Forgues, Plumas de Afrodita: una mirada a la poeta peruana del siglo XX, Lima, San Marcos, 2004, 76. The quote is taken from A. Molina Campodónico, La búsqueda de la voz propia en la lírica loretana a partir de tres hitos sucesivos: los primeros cantores de la Amazonia; Germán Lequerica y el Grupo Urcututu, Lima, PUCP, 2015, 70. 14.Cf. A. Valdivia Baselli, “Las aristas del género: discursos de género y poesía en la mujer peruana contemporánea y finisecular (1989-2004)”, in Ajos y Zafiros 6 (2004) 86. 15.A. Molina Campodónico, La búsqueda de la voz propia..., op. cit., 83. 16.Ibid., 91. DIEGO FARES, SJ

recreate a literature inclusive of indigenous identity merged with other cultures, reinventing the oral word of the people who inhabit that multicultural and diverse universe called Amazonia.”17 I ask Ana Varela to tell us something about the thought of the Urcututu Group. She replies: “It is not only found in our poetry. We also appealed to the group’s manifesto and the language of criticism targeted at the policies of failure and the ‘officialist’ discourse that still considers the Amazon region an extractivist paradise that can support the national economy. The myth of El Dorado18 persists, even within the variations of the current era. That legendary treasure today is counted in oil, gold, coca and so on.” She goes on to quote some passages from 6 Poetry is a Planet of Living Trees, the Urcututu Manifesto of August 2019: “The Amazon is a transnational space shared by nine countries that have geographical and cultural ties, and where the inhabitants share natural resources, desires, aspirations and, above all, a worldview. However, in recent decades we have witnessed the agony of the Amazon and the entire planet. [...] Apparently there is no future, nothing to look forward to, and everything seems doomed to failure. For this reason, today more than ever, it is urgent to expand the dimension of hope and utopia in order to sustain life in an atmosphere of mutual respect that challenges the present. Then it becomes possible, starting from this deplorable state of affairs today, from the bottom of the variegated deficiencies, to present the future, where poetry has a role of denunciation of abuses and proclamation of beauty and justice. In fact, the poetic verb, the oral word or the one written in poetry, is a source of revelation and salvation, which lets us imagine a possible world freed from its wounds. In this context we demand a radical change in the political behavior of society

17.A. Varela Tafur, “Urcututu, olvido y memoria desde la Amazonía. La poesía de Carlos Reyes”, in El Hablador, No. 18, 2010 (cf. www.elhablador.com/ dossier18_varela1.html). 18.The myth of El Dorado pushed the Spanish conquerors to penetrate to the heart of America and to create an empire that extended into the interior, unlike other nations that colonized only the coasts. POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES and respect for life in all its manifestations. Consequently, the smaller ecosystem must be preserved, cared for and treated with environmental responsibility. Poetry is a planet of living trees that does not want to die.”19

Memory of what is not recorded The first poetic quote we find in Querida Amazonia refers to these “living trees that do not want to die.” These are some verses of the poem Timareo (1950) included in Ana Varela’s Lo que no veo en visiones. The quote is contained in the first of the pope’s four dreams (“A social dream”) and expresses the cry to heaven of the indigenous peoples of African origin on the coast, who were expelled from their land and crushed by the interests of the colonizers: “There are many trees20 / where torture lived / 21 7 and vast forests / bought among a thousand killings” (QA 9). 22 The whole poem goes like this: At Timareo we don’t know the alphabet and its writings / and no one registers us in the pages of the official books. / My grandfather gets excited by the candor of his birth / and recites a chronology wrapped in punishments. / There are many trees where torture lived / and vast forests / bought among a thousand killings. / What distant days, what remote escapes! / Our relations left for a sea / of possibilities distant from ancestral efforts. / But we don’t know the alphabet and their destinations and / we recognize ourselves in the coming of a time of joyful Sundays. / The city is far away and from the port I call all the children / soldiers who don’t come back, girls dragged to cinemas and bars / of poor repute. / (History does not record / our exoduses, the last journeys / intrepid by tumultuous rivers).

19.A. Varela Tafur - P. Vílchez Vela - C. Reyes Ramírez, Manifiesto del grupo Urcututu, Iquitos, August 20, 2019. 20.The rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) are made to “bleed” with V-shaped incisions, under which a container is placed, to catch the latex or rubber drip. 21.A. Varela Tafur, “Timareo (1950)”, in Id., Lo que no veo..., op. cit., 8. 22.Timareo is an island on the Amazon River in the province of Loreto to which Iquitos belongs, where Ana Varela Tafur was born. At the end of the 19th century, “rubber fever” gave rise to sudden fortunes for landowners and slavery among the natives. Loreto is the most diversified Peruvian region in terms of ethnic groups and indigenous languages. DIEGO FARES, SJ

It is significant the author of the apostolic exhortation chose this poem that opens and ends with the denunciation of the “non-registration” of the life and culture of many peoples by official history. What history does not record, the poet instead gives with detailed documentation.23 Here she gives us the image of her grandfather who “is moved by the candor of his birth and recites a chronology wrapped in punishments.” Ana Varela tells us that she is proud to belong through her 24 ancestors to the ethnic Uitoto. The book Voces desde la orilla is dedicated “to my grandmother Ana, who survived the infamous rubber years. To you, grandmother, in your impenetrable sky.” The relationship with her grandmother is an excellent way to delve into her thinking about the Amazon: “My grandmother was a Uitoto. She fled as a teenager from the terror of rubber 8 slavery in Putumayo where she lived with her family. She was the only one who survived and was almost a child. Her whole family was murdered. I am the product of this situation. I am Uitoto from my grandmother and I feel proud to belong to this lineage. I do not know the circumstances, because in fact no one has ever known how she left her home to reach Iquitos. Her story marked me even though I did not know her. She died before I was born. She is buried in Cementerio General close to my grandfather, Esteban Varela, a Spaniard from Valladolid. Nearby is buried the “cauchero” Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald.25 My indigenous grandmother bought her place in the cemetery

23.“A ‘meticulous’ little girl who read everything and who liked to analyze everything”: this is how her mother Teolina Tafur describes her (see youtu.be/ e2TAnMrPzCA). 24.The Uitoto, Witoto, Güitoto or Murui-muinane are an ethnic group or indigenous people who speak a language of the Bora-Witoto family. They are scattered in the region known as the Colombian-Peruvian Middle Amazonas. At the time of the exploitation of rubber, starting in 1886, 22 rubber mining colonies were settled in the areas of Caquetá and Putumayo involving conditions of hard slavery. The population was decimated, moved away from its original territory, and its social organization was seriously compromised. 25.Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald López (1862-97), legendary and ruthless rubber merchant and Peruvian explorer. POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES with her savings. I grew up with her in my memory, in vague stories, even though my father spoke of her with great affection, because he said that she had sent him to school.”26 For Ana Varela the stories of her Uitoto grandmother and of a thousand others can and must be made visible, celebrated as an epic that deserves a prominent place in memory.

Oral tradition and the indestructible power of memory We re-read with Ana Varela the text of Querida Amazonia that says: “Poetry helps give voice to a painful sensation shared by many of us today. The inescapable truth is that, as things stand, this way of treating the Amazon territory spells the end for so much life, for so much beauty, even though people would like to keep thinking that nothing is happening” (QA 47). 9 I continue in interviewing Ana Varela: “In your poetry this loss is felt. What moves me in your book Lo que no veo en visiones is how you place yourself in times, places and things, to create memory, to record what books do not record and keep alive the stories of your people, of good memories like your grandparents. Your poetry brings back to life what those who strip and destroy ‘don’t see’ or ‘don’t want to see,’ those who don’t consider at all the people you recover. You write, as one of your poems27 says, ‘like those who come back to see what happens’ to these humble inhabitants, for ‘we do not take away from anyone the harvest and the catch,’ and yet ‘the nights of the earth are not ours as any creature of the Lord.’” Ana Varela replies: “Yes, as Pope Francis says, perhaps poetry involves a personal, collective and ecological catharsis. We live an environmental cataclysm, but there are few of us who see it or suffer from it in our own flesh. Poets have this voice when confronted with the deterioration of beauty in the Amazon. Bodies are increasingly weakened and exposed to environmental diseases. The feeling you express can be felt in my poetry, perhaps since my childhood and adolescence. In my childhood I heard many stories of mythical beings. Now, for example,

26.A. Varela Tafur, personal letter. 27.A. Varela Tafur, “Magdalena”, in Id. Lo que no veo..., op. cit., 16. DIEGO FARES, SJ

28 the yacumama, the mother snake of the river, is struggling to survive and defend itself from oil spills. Its body is as wounded as that of thousands of inhabitants who suffer from drinking polluted water. Before this the mother of water lived quietly, on its back grew moss and small algae. Now she is suffocating, cannot breathe and dies because of hydrocarbons and chemical residues. The same happens to thousands of children. This legacy of knowledge transmitted has been and remains a strategic resource to remember family and community grief, grief that remains as a chronic wound, an archive of personal stories and epics of survival that official records have not included.” For Roland Forgues, Ana Varela expresses “the orality of a culture that has managed to withstand the ravages of time and 10 history and which is the foundation of its identity, a culture that finds legitimacy in the indestructible vitality of memory and its strength in the rebirth of the word, oppressed and reduced to silence since the distant times of conquest and colonization.”29 It is a memory in which bodily metaphors are important as a mechanism for understanding the world: Our archives held in memory / were truly intense paths of stages and days. / All similar to the serenity of the sun / and to the lights that decipher shadows in the dark. / Our feet, like deer, / agile among the mountains, / ran on paths limed by lightning. /[...] We call all this wisdom stored / in 30 the archives / of the moon. Poems claim the memory of the original peoples of the Amazon and their ancestral traditions, but at the same time “there is an awareness of the fact that this recovery of oral memory cannot be separated from writing, which defines the experience of

28.Yacumama means “mother of water” (from the Quechua yaku, water, and mama, mother) and designates a giant serpent living in South America, in Ecuador and Peru to be exact. “The origin of the people is the celestial anaconda / the milky way that came down to earth. / The great snake is divided like the rivers / that embody it in the Amazon” (J. Arocha - N. S. De Friedemann, Herederos del Jaguar y la Anaconda. Amazónicos: gente de ceniza, anaconda y trueno, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango: cf. babel.banrepcultural.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17054coll10/ id/2806). 29.R. Forgues, in A. Molina Campodónico, La búsqueda de la voz propia..., op. cit., 82. 30.A. Varela Tafur, “Nuestros archivos”, in Id., Voces..., op. cit., 5. POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES

modernity. In that sense it is an effort to use writing for the most effective preservation and transmission of oral and community traditions. The bureaucratic elements of writing, in its turn instruments of extractive capitalism, are transformed into means to claim the indigenous and what is recognized as typically Amazonian. That is to say, poetry uses the written dimension in a subversive way.”31 32 In fact, as the poem Historia de la liana says: “You have to remember everything, absolutely everything,” because “A story is recorded in the waters of the Marañón / sometimes it remains naked in the 33 34 ‘gramalotales’ / or in the marginal voices of the anonymous stories.” In turn, Francis says: “Although there is a growing risk that this cultural richness will be lost; thanks be to God, in recent years some peoples have taken to writing down their stories and 11 describing the meaning of their customs” (QA 35).

Belonging: the ‘we’ as feeling and search for interlocutors I ask Ana Varela: “In your poems there are hundreds of faces and voices evoked with few nouns and many first person plural verbs. The protagonist of the poems is a collective ‘we.’ We who clean paths, we open roads, we who no one sees rise to the top, the unregistered, relatives, grandparents, mothers and grandmothers, soldiers who do not return, girls... and we who recognize ourselves in the coming of a time of joyful Sundays. What can you say about this we that includes the reader as one of the family, with the typical welcome of the people?” She answers: “This ‘we’ is a feeling, a search for interlocutors. I want to reach those who have lived and live between pain and the search for a utopia, joyful Sundays of communion, life, hope and redemption.”

31.R. Forgues, in A. Molina Campodónico, La búsqueda de la voz propia..., op. cit., 84. 32.Ayahuasca (Quechua word, from aya, dead and waskha, rope, vine) means “the liana that allows you to reach the place of the dead” and is the name used in Peru and Ecuador of a hallucinogenic drink called different indigenous names in much of the Amazon: natem by the Shuar, caapi in the central Amazon, yagé from Colombia to Orinoco. 33.About semi-aquatic plants of the Amazon. 34.A. Varela Tafur, “Historia de la liana”, in Id., Voces..., op. cit., 12 f. DIEGO FARES, SJ

The search for interlocutors implies various things. First of all, the memory of common ancestors: “The grandparents who sowed and sow the future,” those who “crossed the divide before us,” “those who opened the way for us to arrive without effort” at the place where “I have always lived,” as one of her poems says, which speaks so as “not to forget stories of whipping.”35 The search for interlocutors also implies faith in a national community older and stronger than the conflicts that divide it, such as the contrast between mountain and coast. And it involves, finally, the vision of a common project, toward which “all citizens must work.”36 Roots: ‘These places / where my poetry has roots / want to last’ I say to Ana Varela: “In Lo que no veo en visiones the preposition of place ‘in’ appears 98 times. There are hundreds of ‘places’ where 12 you position the readers so that they can ‘see’ what you ‘see (and do not see)’ in visions. I list some of them: in the place of my footsteps, in visions, in abandoned fields, in suffering fields where the century dies out, in the orchards where it sows its days, in these roads and detours that lengthen my paths, in nearby places where one hears about wars, in the coming of a time of joyful Sundays in which we recognize ourselves... Your poems have roots; they are a place you can put your feet – this is a recurring theme of yours – and sink them in the mud; they are a river where you can lower your canoe and sail. Beyond rational discourse, we attune ourselves to what you narrate, because we find words and actions that allow us to step on the ground that you step on and put ourselves ‘in’ the places that you visit: those who stand with their feet on the ground feel and record everything. This rootedness and this ‘we’ are certainly gifts of the Amazon, where everything is connected (see QA 41) to the root and furrowed by the tributaries that go to the Rio...” In reply she tells us: “Yes, the Amazon is the most biodiverse region of the planet. And everything is connected in its

35.Id., “Habito desde siempre”, en Lo que no veo..., op. cit., 5. 36.M. Pérez Reátegui, “Hay un discurso de extracción, es como si se vuelva a repetir la época del caucho”, interview with Ana Varela Tafur, in La región, August 24, 2013 (cf. diariolaregion.com/web/hay-un-durso-de-extraccion-es como-se-volvera-repetir-la-epoca del-caucho). POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES infinitely small forms of life, but in that vital dimension it has the gift or the capacity to become immense, and perhaps this is the best expression of God. The Amazon has conducted wars of resistance, but has not succumbed to aggression. We are the men and women of whom the pope speaks. But it is also a universal, planetary we. We are part of a universal community and we all need everyone to face the injustices that are committed in the name of a developmental discourse that excludes and destroys. Those places – where my poetry takes root – want to last, to stay alive, to celebrate their epic deeds, their Sundays and harvests, their oral literature, their moonlit nights around a fire, their traditional knowledge of how to treat the environment.” In 2014 a DePaul University journal published three poems by Ana Varela related to the place: “Iquitos,”37 the prehistoric 13 Amazon – when it was a blue sea – her home.

Iquitos... / Or a riot of intensely occupied shores? / Or a rain island surrounded by expectations? / I can’t define you. Perennial 38 39 frontier and memory of majolica / always on the brink of a fever / and a golden promise. / [...] Iquitos, you always make me think of Peru. / And you’ve never had roads to the coast or the Andes. / From you one arrives by river or in flight over marshy woods. / [...] You are the voice of my blurred childhood in a non-existent house. / I sail on Itaya, the river of death, and I miss your silence. You cannot get to Iquitos by land, but only by going up the Amazon River or, nowadays, by air. In 1757 it was founded as a Jesuit mission, which was given the name of San Pablo de los Napeanos. In 1842 it had 200 inhabitants. Rubber Fever (1880- 1915) attracted considerable commercial attention to the city, making it one of the richest centers of the continent thanks to the exploitation and abuse of the Amazonian natives. In 1905 an electrical network was installed and an urban railway commenced in Iquitos sooner than in many Peruvian and European cities. Charles Goodyear’s vulcanization of rubber for

37.From iquita, “people separated from the waters.” 38.The majolica tiles brought from Málaga, Spain, for the facade of the old Hotel Palace (1908). 39.Like rubber fever... DIEGO FARES, SJ

use in automobile tires brought the city to its high point of prosperity, which was lost after Briton Henry Wickham stole 70,000 seeds of the precious tree for British plantations in Malaya and the Dutch Indies, where they grew “neatly,” bringing an end to Iquitos’ opulence.

Listening: respect the ancestral knowledge of the original peoples I share with Ana Varela another part of the papal text: “If the care of people and the care of ecosystems are inseparable, this becomes especially important in places where ‘the forest is not a resource to be exploited; it is a being, or various beings, with which we have to relate’” (QA 42). I ask her what these words suggest. Her answer: “Our ancestral Amazonian thought feeds on a fundamental concept: people, animals, trees, forests, farms, 14 ponds, rivers, etc. have the dimensions of any living being. They are living beings and have their place in the universe. They have spirit, mother, feelings and desires. That is why the pope’s words not only confirm that we must take care of ecosystems, but in some way they warn us that if we do not listen and respect the ancestral knowledge of the original peoples, we will have destroyed life, the most human expression that embodies God on the planet.”

A culture of the word Fernando Urbina Rangel,40 whose reflections I broadly continue here, splendidly introduces us to a particularity of the culture of the Uitoto to which Ana Varela Tafur refers: it is a culture of the word. The mythologies of the Amazonian peoples are extraordinarily rich and complex, and they are still lived deeply in their feasts, ceremonies and ritual dances. This gives their daily life a multiformity that contrasts with the simplifying and indifferent form in which ordinary people conceive their relations with the social and natural environment. Amazonian cultures cultivate a word that is story and myth and that is not only told, but danced.

40.F. Urbina Rangel, “Mitos y petroglifos en el río Caquetá”, April 4, 2018 (cfr https://it.scribd.com/document/375529721/Mitos-y-Petroglifos-en-El- Rio-Caqueta-Fernando-Urbina-Rangel). POETRY IS A PLANET OF LIVING TREES

Next to the bákaki, the legend, story or myth that the elders tell in the evening in preparation for a party, the Uitoto use another word that alludes to a dimension within which 41 the stories take on fullness of meaning. It is the term ráfue, whose etymology comes from ra, thing, and fúe, mouth, that is: “The thing that came out of the mouth,” “words of advice,” “tradition.” “The ráfue is a way of life, an existential path in which everything is part of a whole that gives reason to each of the parts and activities. It is something cosmological. This profound interrelation between the word and life, as a total warp, is perceived by the uneducated indigenous person, who makes their existence overflow with meaning, for each of their actions refers to this total context that fills it with meaning. It is the totalizing, deeply systematizing, though always open, 42 15 work of myth.” “The ráfue is not only a sapiential system that structures the entire cultural experience: it is also an immediate pragmatic exercise, including especially the rituals (dances) that orient everyday life.”43 Urbina Rangel mentions the sayings of two elders, Belisario Jichamón, Uitoto – an exponent of “El Encanto,” place of the diaspora – and don José García, Muinane. “Every time I questioned them about the meaning of the ráfue, they answered: ‘It is about dancing.’”44 Today there is a marked decline in the preparation and performance of these ceremonies; it could not be otherwise given the ongoing social fragmentation that is undermining community life. However, the strength of the ráfue pulsates and dances at the feet of Ana Varela Tafur’s poetry.

41.“Traditional dance, party. It’s a party. Dani cai: rafue ite. Ie dam danincao ñaticai, which, translated, means: ‘This dance, party (or story) is ours only. Of this we speak, only we’” (Diccionario Huitoto-Murui, I, Pucallpa [Peru], Ministerio de educación, 1983). 42.F. Urbina Rangel, “Mitos...,” op. cit. 43.Ibid. 44.Ibid. DIEGO FARES, SJ

Long before the moon and its flickering sun / the dancers of the night and their whole days / those who never trafficked in other waterways / said “Enough!” to the massacres of the century, / because they were ancestors of distant stars and stars / and rivers and 45 perishable plants and animals / and broom blooming in the grove.

An anecdote I asked Ana Varela if she had an electronic copy of her book Voces desde la orilla, unobtainable. She sent it to me in Word: “I have just copied the book Voces desde la orilla that I enclose here. While I was transcribing it, I thought about many images of my travels. The book is twenty years old and remains young in my heart.” 16 I asked her: “Did you transcribe it by hand? Borges says that reading is rewriting, and rewriting a poem is recreating it. I’m very happy that it allowed you to relive travels, faces and beloved places.” She answers: “Yes, I typed it key after key. And by chance I ran into Borges again. To rewrite is to recreate. And all the better with images of the river.” Only a Uitoto – of which her grandmother will be proud – can do and appreciate such a thing.

45.A. Varela Tafur, “Varaderos”, in Id., Voces..., op. cit., 35. South Sudan: From civil war to a government of national unity

Hermann-Habib Kibangou, SJ

Africa is the youngest continent in the world with its 1.2 billion inhabitants having an average age of 19. Each of its 54 countries has a history worthy of individual consideration. By pure coincidence, this continent is also home to the youngest country in the world. Located in East Africa, South Sudan separated from Sudan (in 17 1 Arabic, Beled as-Sudan, or “Country of the Black Men” ) after more than two decades of war. A referendum of self-determination took place January 9-15, 2011, and was followed by independence on July 9, 2011. In mid-December 2013, South Sudan itself was devastated by its own civil war. Some observers would say that this was a true failure of a political transition. Its toll was heavy: 400,000 dead, 3.5 million displaced, destruction of the existing infrastructure, consolidation of peace called into question, politicization of ethnic groups, destruction of the nation. Whose fault was it? President Salva Kiir accused his rival Riek Machar – former and future vice-president, leader of the opposition – of fomenting a coup d’état.2 Hence the war between Kiir, of Dinka origin, and Machar, belonging to the Nuer ethnic group.3

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 2, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.2

1.G. Prunier, “Soudan: aux marges du génocide”, in Sciences Humaines (www. scienceshumaines.com/soudan-aux-marges-du-genocide_fr_29723.html). 2.Cf. J. Munive Rincon, “Militarised politics is the norm in troubled South Sudan”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/militarised-politics-is- the-norm-in-troubled-south-sudan-21714), January 3, 2014. 3.Some observers believe that there is also a third man, the Chief of Staff, Paul Malong, Kiir’s right-hand man, “a figure that many consider to be the real power behind the presidential throne of Salva Kiir.” See C. Pinaud, “Who’s behind South Sudan’s return to fighting, if it isn’t Kiir or Machar?”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/whos-behind-south-sudans-return- to-fighting-if-it-isnt-kiir-or-machar-62352), July 12, 2016. HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

This made the country unstable and ungovernable. The situation that erupted in South Sudan in 2013 leads us to ask a fundamental question: Why did the transition fail? In this regard, Sudanese scholar Amir Idris proposes a thesis: “[South Sudanese] political elites did not provide an inclusive vision that could have led the country on a prosperous path after independence in 2011.”4 This is an interesting answer, if one notes that this country has been taken hostage by two of its sons who are more concerned about their political enmities than any attention to the common good (at least before the meeting with the pope). Furthermore, the scholar observes, “the trouble with South Sudan is structural. Since independence, political, economic and social challenges have emerged, including the lack of inclusive citizenship, weak institutional capacity and 18 rampant corruption. The power-sharing agreement failed to address these structural problems.”5 If we take these observations into account, another question arises: What explains the failure of the revolutions in sub- Saharan Africa after independence? Congolese historian Dominique Ngoïe-Ngalla answers the question in the following way: “The causes of the failure are essentially anthropological. Given the dubious quality of most of the men who attempted the enterprise, it was foreseeable that things would not go far.”6 This statement, although it concerns countries that today have been independent for more than 60 years, might be applied to the country of John Garang7: the same causes produce the same effects. But should we despair? The answer will undoubtedly depend on the behavior of the political leaders who, we hope, will learn from their country’s recent past. The success of the current peace agreement depends on it.

4.A. Idris, “The trouble with South Sudan’s transitional government”, in The Hill (https://thehill.com/opinion/international/484591-the-trouble-with-south- sudans-transitional-government), February 28, 2020. 5.Ibid. 6.D. Ngoïe-Ngalla, Propos sur l’Afrique, Paris, Bajag - Meri, 2015, 133. 7.John Garang de Mabior (1945-2005) was a South Sudanese politician, guerrilla and soldier; from 1983 to 2005 he led the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. FROM CIVIL WAR TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY

A new peace agreement When in February 2016 Machar was reappointed vice- president, two months later he returned home to form a government of unity. Unfortunately, an accident forced him into exile again. Afterward, he made other attempts to return, but these did not succeed. Thus for two years the country lived under the banner of a “government of non-unity.” But this does not take into account the collaboration of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which succeeded in brokering an agreement between Kiir and Machar in September 2018. Seven months later, on April 10 and 11, 2019, a spiritual retreat was organized in the Vatican, bringing together political and religious leaders from South Sudan. 19 The spiritual retreat in the Vatican and the Declaration of Rome At the proposal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and with the approval of the Holy Father, the Secretary of State of the Holy See and the Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury organized in Santa Marta, in the Vatican, a “spiritual, ecumenical and diplomatic” event as “an opportunity for reflection and prayer, as well as meeting and reconciliation.”8 Those participating in the retreat were welcomed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, who delivered the pope’s greeting. Then they listened to the reflections of John Baptiste Odama, Archbishop of Gulu (Uganda), and Jesuit Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, President of the Conference of Major Jesuit Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM). At the end of the retreat, Pope Francis received them in Santa Marta. In the presence of Archbishop Welby, he bowed and kissed the feet of the South Sudanese president, his first vice- president and the vice-presidents present (of the three designated, one was absent).9 They received a gift of a Bible with the following dedication from the Holy Father, Justin Welby and John Chalmers: “Seek what unites. Overcome what divides.”

8.See www.vaticannews.va/fr/pape/news/2019-04/les-leaders-sud- soudanais-au-vatican-pour-parvenir-a-la-paix.html 9.A. Tornielli, “The Gesture of the Servant of the Servants of God,” in Vati can Ne ws (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope- francis-kisses-feet-leader-south-sudan-retreat-vatican.html), April 12, 2019. HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

Nine months later, the various protagonists of the crisis in South Sudan, including those who were reluctant, took a step forward with the Rome Declaration. It is a fundamental document for a country that wants to rise from the ashes. Its four pages are divided into ten points.

Identity and attitude of the protagonists The first point sets the tone for the document, with the use of the inclusive personal pronoun “we”, i.e. those principally involved in the conflict: the government of South Sudan, the opposition movements united under the acronym SSOMA (South Sudan Opposition Movements), with representatives of Kiir’s SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement), Machar’s SPLM-IO (Sudan ), and the NDM 20 People’s Liberation Movement/Army In Opposition (National Democratic Movement) led by Lam Akol. The IGAD 10 (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) is included as an observer. The protagonists acknowledge that this first official commitment took place under the aegis of the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome on January 11 and 12, 2020. The second point is based on spirituality and humility. The protagonists share the fruit of their spiritual experience following the spiritual retreat made in the Vatican. The use of the expression “humbled by the spiritual call” is revealing. They see in it both a spiritual and a moral character, inherent in peace, reconciliation and fraternity. At the same time, they express their gratitude to the spiritual leaders (Pope Francis, Welby, Chalmers) who have helped them to initiate the threefold pledge to bring about “peace, reconciliation and fraternity.” The political leaders of the government and the opposition express their gratitude to the international community (IGAD, AU [African Union], EU, United Nations), China and Japan, not forgetting all the other countries that support them in this process (point 3). This gratitude extends to the Community of Sant’Egidio, which has been collaborating for several decades with the South Sudanese people (point 4).

10.Consisting of seven countries: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia. FROM CIVIL WAR TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY

National awareness and political dialogue The signatories are aware of the unprecedented suffering inflicted on the people of South Sudan during this devastating civil war, hence the need for a “ceasefire” (point 5). They recall the willingness of the South Sudanese to pursue a political dialogue. The aim is to reconcile and stabilize the country. This dialogue must address the root causes of the crisis (point 6). The signatories recognize that the current conflict requires a global political commitment that must include non-signatories with a view to lasting peace. They reaffirm their confidence in the Community of Sant’Egidio to ensure the continuation of negotiations under the supervision of IGAD, the regional organizations and the international community (point 7). They reaffirm their commitment to the Cessation of Hostilities 21 Agreement of December 2017 in order to provide a framework “conducive to dialogue” and to put an end to the crisis (point 8). This agreement came into force on January 15, 2020. The signatories authorize the Community of Sant’Egidio to schedule a meeting with IGAD to address the problems related to “monitoring and verification” (point 9). They also reaffirm their desire to see local and international organizations use “continuous and uninterrupted” humanitarian access to help the victims of civil war and natural disasters (point 10). In all, this Declaration carries within itself the seeds of a “hope that does not disappoint,” to use the expression of St. Paul (Rom 5:5). Its success is to have remedied the shortcomings of previous pacts and to have initiated a political agreement between the government and the non-signatories.11

The role of the Christian Churches The return to peace in South Sudan has been possible thanks to the discreet but effective action of all the leaders mentioned above. Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby “intend to go together to South Sudan if the situation on the ground permits.”12

11.A. Idris, “The trouble with South Sudan’s transitional government”, op. cit. 12.Cf. www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope-hopes-to-go-to-South-Sudan- with-the-Archbishop-of-Canterbury-48539.html HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

This discreet action of Christian leaders is significant from all points of view. The role of the Catholic Church is clear. What is meant by the term “role” in this context? “What religion says, thinks and does to improve qualitatively and sustainably the economies of our countries and their functioning.”13 This role for the Church is perceptible in very different areas: justice and peace, partnership, human rights, management of natural resources, democracy, etc.14 In the case of South Sudan, the Catholic Church affirms and encourages the search for peace and reconciliation. This effort is only possible with interfaith collaboration. The role of the Church in South Sudan recalls what has happened in other countries of the African continent. In Africa, in fact, the role of the Church in reconciliation and peace is nothing new. History reminds us, for example, of 22 the action of the Anglican Church in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, which earned Archbishop Desmond Tutu the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. His work, 11 years later, at the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was particularly effective in this regard. We can also consider, in Central and West Africa at the beginning of the 1990s, the commitment of Catholic bishops Laurent Monsengwo, Ernest Kombo and Isidore de Souza during the National Conferences to accompany the former Zaire (today DRC), Congo and Benin respectively toward democratization. If the experiences of the first two countries ended in failure, that of Benin was more successful.15 The role of the Church is equally significant with regard to natural resources. Let us mention, for example, the reflection initiated by the Regional Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa (ACERAC).16 We cannot fail to refer to the document of the National Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic

13.H. H. Kibangou, The Role of the Congolese Catholic Church In Promoting Social and Economic Justice In Relation to Oil, Denver, Outskirts Press, 2011, XXIV. 14.Id, “Religion et développement en Afrique noire”, in www.f-ce.com/cgi- bin/news/pg-newspro.cgi?id_news=14382. 15.Ibid. 16.Acerac, L’ Église et la pauvreté en Afrique centrale: le cas du pétrole, Malabo, 2008. FROM CIVIL WAR TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY

of Congo (CENCO), Role and Prospects of the Catholic Church in Peace-building in the DRC, in which the Church encourages “the elaboration of a long-term management plan that takes into account future generations, the harmonization of laws promulgated to avoid conflicts with international standards, the information and involvement of the people in the management of natural resources, so that they become aware of their responsibilities in order to fight corruption.”17 These documents can inspire the South Sudanese Catholic Church in its effort to support the government in the management of public affairs. The role of the Church, obviously, should not obscure that of other partners.

The role of other partners 23 Regional powers such as IGAD and the AU, or international powers (USA, China, Norway, UK, EU, Australia, and others) also play an important role in the construction of South Sudan. To be more effective they must learn from their mistakes. One of the criticisms leveled at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMIS) has been the failure to protect civilians from attacks by armed militias. Therefore, the increase from 12,000 to 17,000 men (Resolution 2304 of 2016) – including 4,000 to form the “Regional Protection Force” – is intended as an opportunity for the Security Council to “remedy the shortcomings of the mission.”18 Another no less important partner is the South Sudanese diaspora. It constitutes an important element for maintaining peace.19

17.H.H. Kibangou, “Rôle et perspectives de l’Église catholique dans la construction de la paix en RDC”, in www.f-ce.com/cgi-bin/news/pg-newspro. cgi?id_news=14382. 18.E. Helms, “The UN is finally getting serious about protecting South Sudan’s civilians”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/the-un- is-finally-getting-serious-about-protecting-south-sudans-civilians-65193), October 4, 2016. 19.S. Logan - P. Biar Ajak, “South Sudan’s crisis is complex, but there’s a way out of war and fragility”, ibid. (https://theconversation.com/south-sudans- crisis-is-complex-but-theres-a-way-out-of-war-and-fragility-72446), February 6, 2017. HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

As can be seen, the power-sharing agreement can be a sign of hope. The formation of a government of national unity is a key element. If it marks the end of the war and “not necessarily the beginning of peace,”20 it nevertheless represents considerable progress toward a lasting peace that, in turn, brings multiple challenges.

A peace with multiple challenges In the peace process in South Sudan, the most influential political parties are the most involved: Kiir’s SPLM and Machar’s SPLM-IO, as well as their allies. The much desired peace must also be built with the cooperation of the non-signatories to the agreement, ensuring the national interest can prevail. This presupposes that the two main rivals put aside their egos to focus 24 on the common interest of the nation and focus only on the good of the South Sudanese. Here lies all the importance of this transitional national government, in which people must learn to trust each other. Its mission, to organize general elections in the next three years, is a sine qua non for the success of the peace agreements and the implementation of the reform program. But the most important challenge remains undoubtedly the de-politicization of ethnic division. In a report by Charles Emptaz, Olivier Jobard and Antonela Bevenja we see young Nuer soldiers singing: “We the Nuer... You need a weapon to fight, to capture cattle, a weapon to kill. If you don’t kill, you are not a man! You need to buy weapons to fight this government. This government must be destroyed. We fight against the enemy. This gives us relief. We eat fruit in the bush, we kill the enemy. That gives us relief…”21 In this chant, the enemy is none other than the Dinka. The mission of these young volunteers is to “guard goats and cows and protect civilians and mothers.” In the same report, we see a young mother giving birth in the fields, helped by three women, with no other support, all traveling by car to escape the fighting. To her daughter the young mother gives the name “Nyalof,” which means “on the

20.A. Idris, “The trouble with South Sudan’s transitional government”, op. cit. 21.C. Emptaz - O. Jobard - A. Bevenja, Le Soudan du Sud, pays maudit, in https://youtu.be/OsVd22GkpU0 FROM CIVIL WAR TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY road.” In such conditions it is not known when and how Nyalof will have a birth certificate. This little girl – we pray she will live – needs hope, peace, education. She needs to learn from her family and society that her country is not cursed, but only needs “intelligent” and above all pragmatic, honest, humble, hard- working and competent political leaders who are respectful of human rights. This is a real challenge for a turbulent country that has to deal with many problems at the same time.

National and regional stability The stability of South Sudan depends on that of East Africa, because “East Africa is an unstable region with many common problems. A political challenge in a given state can have an immediate impact in neighboring states.”22 Proof of this is that, 25 during the conflict, Machar received support from Sudan and Kiir from Uganda. With an estimated population of 12 million inhabitants and an area of 619,745 square kilometers (twice the size of Italy), South Sudan shares its border with six countries: clockwise, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. Like its neighboring countries, South Sudan has experienced armed rebellions, often of ethnic origin. Of the 60 ethnic groups, the Dinka and Nuer are numerically the majority. Between the end of December 2011 and the beginning of 2012 the most serious violence broke out among the lou, Nuer and Murle groups.23

Socio-political history The history of South Sudan is intrinsically linked to that of Sudan (1,886,068 square kilometers), with which it formed a single territory for 55 years (1956-2011). Both the North and the South of this vast Sudanese territory24 until recently

22.M. Phillips, “Peace efforts in South Sudan: could Australia play a bigger role?”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/peace-efforts-in-south- sudan-could-australia-play-a-bigger-role-21732), January 8, 2014. 23.J. Munive Rincon, “Militarised politics is the norm in troubled South Sudan”, op. cit. 24.Former joint British and Egyptian colony. HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

constituted the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa (2,505,813 sq. km). “Sudan’s first years of independence were marked by a civil war between the rebels of the South and the government of the North. [...] During the first years of independence, the government tried to make the country an Arab and Islamic state. The Southerners rebelled and the state of war lasted until 1972.”25 The failure of President Jaafar Nimeiry to respect the 1972 agreement (underground resources to belong to the government of the South) was at the origin of the Garang rebellion.

The economy The economy of South Sudan is based primarily on oil (one of the largest reserves in sub-Saharan Africa). The armed 26 conflict has brought the country to its knees, preventing oil production, the continuation of development projects, and causing economic collapse.26 A landlocked territory, the new state is forced to use the oil pipeline linking Khartoum (capital of Sudan) to Juba (capital of South Sudan). In the medium and long term, this country must seriously consider the diversification of its economy. The ample amount of arable land is an opportunity for its agriculture. Given the low level of education and skills among its population, South Sudan is initially called upon to use foreign labor, and then to strengthen the national labor force and facilitate its regional integration.27

25.C. Tounsel, “South Sudanese football: colonial legacy sheds light on present day fortunes” (https://theconversation.com/south-sudanese-football- colonial-legacy-sheds-light-on-present-day-fortunes-103538), September 25, 2018. 26.P. Run, “Machar’s return signals a significant stage in South Sudan’s peace process” (https://theconversation.com/machars-return-signals-a-significant- stage-in-south-sudans-peace-process-106284), November 8, 2018. 27.A. R. N. Haas, “What South Sudan will gain from joining the East African Community”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/what- south-sudan-will-gain-from-joining-the-east-african-community-55592), March 3, 2016. FROM CIVIL WAR TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY

Some remarks The South Sudanese authorities also have to deal with major outstanding issues. The creation of vocational and technical schools, the education of young people, civic training and the emancipation of women are some of the priorities. According to Paulin Poucouta, “it is necessary to educate people about their rights and duties as citizens, tolerance and respect”28 to remedy the “deficit of the Republic of citizens.”29 Such an ideal cannot neglect the emancipation of South Sudanese women (over 60% of the population) and the inclusion of the rights of ethnic minorities in the Constitution.30 If the post of vice-president assigned to Rebecca Nyandeng (Garang’s widow) falls within this consideration, it is hoped that it can also take root in the popular mentality and be visible in all spheres of 27 South Sudanese society, because women want to be fully involved in the peace process. This is the expectation of those gathered around the program: “Peace is for the people, not for the leaders.”31 The organization of the health system remains a priority, in particular to counter infectious and parasitic diseases, also called “neglected tropical diseases” (NTD), such as trachoma, 32 schistosomiasis, visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). Other problems, such as that of refugees based in Uganda, Ethiopia or within the country, and that of armed militias, must be treated with equal attention. Even now, the South Sudanese can already rejoice in the decision – taken by the protagonists on June 17, 2020 – to form a South Sudan with 10 states.33

28.P. Poucouta, “L’aujourd’hui du Deuxième Synode Africain”, in L’ Africain, No. 242, December 2009 – January 2010, 12. Cf. www.lafricain.net/sys/images/ pdf/242.pdf 29.D. Ngoïe-Ngalla, Propos sur l’Afrique, op. cit., 146. 30.S. Logan - P. Biar Ajak, “South Sudan’s crisis is complex...”, op. cit. 31.R. Ibreck, “Sexual violence is off the charts in South Sudan – but a new female head chief could help bring change” in The Conversation (https:// theconversation.com/sexual-violence-is-off-the-charts-in-south-sudan-but-a- new-female-head-chief-could-help-bring-change-96946), May 31, 2018. 32.J. Smith - P. Kingsley, “South Sudan crisis threatens to derail tropical disease efforts”, in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/south-sudan- crisis-threatens-to-derail-tropical-disease-efforts-21764), January 7, 2014. 33.Number of states at the time of independence, and not 32 as in 2018. HERMANN-HABIB KIBANGOU, SJ

And after that? John Garang’s country must get to work for the good of all the South Sudanese. If the common good is not managed and administered responsibly, social harmony, progress and development will be just empty words. An effective construction of South Sudan necessarily requires a policy based above all on the primacy of general interest over particular interest, indeed on the coincidence of the two types of interest. Otherwise, as long as this country is marked by an unawareness of what it means to be citizens, “a lack of education and training for free public debate on common matters”34 will remain and South Sudan will continue to be in a dangerous situation indefinitely. Moreover, it is essential to avoid any political failure to recognize diversity. 28 South Sudan must learn from the mistakes of other recently independent African countries that have opted for a presidential political system, which can lead to an unbalanced institutional order with executive power opposed to debate on ideas.35 For this country, it is a matter of renouncing the “culture of the single party.” To this must be added the rejection of total control with its corollaries of confusion of economic, judicial and political powers. In conclusion, we ask some questions: Will the power- sharing agreement succeed in solving the structural problems mentioned above? Do those who are at the origin of the country’s problems have to take over the management whatever the cost ? Can an effective reform of the state’s institutions be done by starving the people and being unfair to them? The answers to these questions can be complex. But experience has shown that a government, even of national unity, never makes a country progress economically, politically and socially unless it takes into account the interests and welfare of all its citizens.

34.D. Ngoïe-Ngalla, Propos sur l’Afrique, op. cit. 146. 35.C. Monga, L’argent des autres. Banques et petites entreprises en Afrique: le cas du Cameroun, Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1997, 117. The Centenary of Max Weber’s Death

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

This year marks the centenary of Max Weber’s death.1 His work is as prolific as it is fragmentary. Most of his writings were, in fact, published posthumously, in particular the monumental works, Economy and Society and Sociology of Religions. Only in 1984 did the Mohr publishing house start bringing out a 29 critical edition of his works. This makes the reconstruction and evaluation of his thought particularly complex. Nevertheless, the extremely complex debate that has arisen around his theses confirms, a century later, the profound originality and fecundity of his thought and some of his insights into Western modernity. Taking into account the vastness of the field, this essay limits itself to two of Weber’s ideas that have greatly influenced the study of the sociology of religion: disenchantment of the world, and the Protestant ethic as the driving force behind capitalism.

Disenchantment of the world It is a statement that has made Weber famous. The process of rationalization, which characterizes the modern mentality along

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1.Max Weber was born in Erfurt on April 21, 1864. His father was a member of the Liberal Party. Weber studied history, economics and law at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, and later became professor of political economics. He had to interrupt his tenure of this post for six years (1897-1903) due to a serious form of depression. After the First World War he participated in the drafting of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic. He died in Munich on June 14, 1920, from the so-called “Spanish” flu. Among his works are: Science as a Profession (1917); Politics as a Profession (1919); The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05); Writings on Sociology of Religion (3 vols., 1920-21); Methodology of Social-historical Sciences (1904-17); Economics and Society (1922). GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

with science, leads people to interpret the world in technical- rational terms without any reference to the transcendent: “Growing intellectualization and rationalization do not mean a growing general knowledge of the conditions of life, but something very different, the awareness, or faith, that if you want to, you can always know, that is, in principle there are no mysterious or irrational forces at stake, but on the contrary, all things can – in principle – be dominated by reason. This is nothing other than the disenchantment of the world. It is no longer necessary to resort, as the savages (for whom those forces existed) did to the instruments of magic to dominate or ingratiate spirits. Reason and technical mechanisms replace them. This is the primary meaning of intellectualization as such.”2 This approach has made Western society markedly different from all the others that have existed so far. 30 Disillusionment is the fundamental characteristic of the modern mentality. An example of the “disenchanted” way of thinking can be found in the famous description of the nocturnal noise of windmills that disturbs the characters in Don Quixote, who are only set at ease the next day when sunlight allows a technical explanation. Starobinski comments: “There is no supernatural. There are only the physical world, human nature and tools made by people (here the mallets, the mazos, that beat on woolen fabrics to soften them) that combine and overlap, leaving no room, neither mental, melancholic or superstitious, for the great opponents hoped for or feared during the night. In the face of the fantastic, Cervantes teaches us, we are simply in the presence of our own weakness or our own imaginative strength – our narrative power.”3

2.M. Weber, La scienza come professione, Milan, Rusconi, 1997, 87-89. We should also remember what he wrote in another work: “Wherever a rational empirical knowledge has consistently realized the disenchantment of the world and its transformation into a causal mechanism, there is found the tension toward the claims of the ethical postulate that the world is a cosmos ordered by God, and therefore a cosmos oriented in a way provided with ethical sense. In fact the empirical consideration, especially the one oriented in a mathematical sense, develops in principle the rejection of any form of consideration that wants to seek a meaning in worldly occurrences” (Sociologia della religione, Milan, Edizioni di Comunità, 1982, vol. I, 551). 3.J. Starobinski, L’inchiostro della malinconia, Turin, Einaudi, 2014, 478; cf. M. de Cervantes, Don Quixote, ibid., 1957, 195. THE CENTENARY OF MAX WEBER’S DEATH

The more the competence and application of the scientific method grows, the less people will need to resort to the divine to explain the world. For Weber, atheism and the absence of God are the necessary direction of secularized society: “Our destiny is to live in an age alien to God and without prophets.”4 This is the famous vision of the “retreat” of the religious before the tide of the scientific revolution, which tends to plan life more and more accurately, thanks to science, bureaucracy and a formal legal system capable of regulating procedures. Hence the second characteristic of disenchantment, the mathematical approach to reality, a quantitative, technical approach, which replaces what was once asked of myths and magic. But, as against positivism, particularly Comte’s, Weber does not consider the scientific and technical-mathematical 31 approach to the world to be perfect. On the contrary, such an approach excludes important aspects of life, such as values and criteria of choice, which escape quantification. There is a sort of “steel cage” that modern rationality, at a technical as well as a bureaucratic level, imposes on the world of life, causing it to proceed in a precise manner, a cage that has heavy costs in terms of quality of life and that brings Weber closer to Marx’s analysis of the alienating nature of industrial society. Weber, however, also distances himself from Marx. He gives no consideration to the negative aspects of capitalism, such as exploitation and alienation, a theme to which Marx had dedicated famous pages. On the contrary, he sees capitalism as the highest result of the rationalization process. To this should be added that for the sociologist from Erfurt the social sciences are “a-valuative”; they do not bring values into play, but describe procedures, they look for the appropriate means to achieve purposes, by virtue of analysis based on available data.5 Weber prefers to speak of ideals rather than values, i.e. orientative and

4.M. Weber, La scienza come professione, op. cit., 89. 5.“An empirical science can never teach anyone what he must do, but can only teach him what he can do and – under certain circumstances – what he wants” (M. Weber, Saggi sul metodo delle scienze storicoico-sociali, Milan, Edizioni di Comunità, 2001, 153). However, it remains to be clarified who is called to carry out such a teaching. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

provisional terms. I deals are criteria used to explain a given phenomenon. In this regard he introduces the expression, which has become famous in the historiographic field, of “ideal type.”6 In this sense, even a religious doctrine can represent an effective ideal in historical interpretation. For Weber, an example of idealism is the Protestant ethic. It is an application of the disenchantment that has favored the development and spread of capitalism throughout the world.

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism Weber studied at length the influence of religion in the economic and social spheres, as can be seen from the space he dedicated to it in such wide-ranging works as his Sociology of and . According to his hypothesis, 32 Religion Economics and Society Christianity, unlike other religions, made secularization possible (in particular with the idea of creation and the separation between heaven and earth), by taking away from the world the halo of magic and giving free rein to rational investigation. The Protestant ethic, in particular, favored entrepreneurship in two respects. First, with the idea of vocation (Beruf) understood in a secular sense, that is, transferred from the priestly-religious sphere to every possible activity of the believer.7 The other aspect is the predestination of the elect. Especially in Calvin’s conception (the Westminster Confession of 1647 reads in chapter 3: “God, in order to manifest His majesty, has predestined some men to eternal life, others to eternal death”). A possible sign of God’s predestination can be found in those self-aware “saints,” the puritanical merchants of that heroic era

6.Weber defines the ideal type as “a conceptual framework, which is not the historical reality, nor the ‘authentic’ reality, and even less can it serve as a scheme to which reality must be subordinated as an example; it has the meaning of a purely ideal limit concept, to which reality must be commensurate and compared, in order to illustrate certain significant elements of its empirical content” (M. Weber, “L’oggettività della scienza sociale e della politica sociale”, in Id., Saggi sul metodo delle scienze storico-sociali, op. cit., 190). 7.“Profession or vocation (Beruf) is what man must accept as divine will, which he must follow: this also sets the tone for the other concept that is found in it, that professional work is the task imposed by God” (M. Weber, L’e t i c a protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, Florence, Sansoni, 1977, 155f). THE CENTENARY OF MAX WEBER’S DEATH of capitalism and in some examples of our times. Calvinism recommended untiring professional work as the best way to achieve that self-confidence. Work and work alone dispels religious doubt and gives individuals the security they are in the state of grace.8 In this sense, the Calvinist work ethic provides an enormous motivational push toward rational organization and management, considered as elements that accelerate the disenchantment of the world and promote its transformation by human activity. Success is considered a sign of possible divine election, and hard work a form of secular spirituality, guarding against attachment to the riches achieved, because “the Protestant ethic commands us to distrust the goods of this world and to practice ascetic behavior. It is clear at this point that working rationally on the basis of 33 profit, and not spending profit but continuously reinvesting it, is completely necessary for the development of capitalism.”9 The spirit of work and the spirit of saving thus become the decisive ingredients that make capitalist production qualitatively different from all other forms known so far, giving rise to a successful model (an ideal type) that will soon expand throughout the world. All this has a sacred and salvific meaning, embodied, for Weber, in the bureaucrat and the manager, the new “priests” of the modern era.

The subsequent debate Weber’s work has influenced most subsequent thinkers engaged on a sociological, economic-political, philosophical or historiographical level. In particular, György Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Karl Jaspers, Karl Löwith, Karl Mannheim, Norbert Elias, Carl Schmitt, Raymond Aron, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse can be mentioned. They appreciated the rigor of his analysis, but also denounced the danger of deterministic and nihilistic tendencies in his reading of society. Some also suggested that Weber’s apologia for the intellectual vocation, written in 1917, is an attempt to

8.Cf. Ibid., 191f. 9.G. Reale - D. Antiseri, Cento anni di filosofia. Da Nietzsche ai giorni nostri, Brescia, La Scuola, 2015, vol. I, 119. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

come to terms with the immense tragedy of the First World War and the radical denial of rational and scientific progress.10 It is striking, however, that Weber does not mention the problems of “civilization and its discontents” (to quote Freud’s famous expression), while recognizing how science and rigid economic and social organization lead to a “steel cage” that is not only unable to provide a solution, but not even a possible answer: “If Tolstoy should appear, asking: ‘If science does not do so, who will tell us what we must do and how we must organize our lives?’ [...] then we shall answer: only a prophet or a redeemer. If the redeemer is not there, if his word is no longer believed, you will certainly not be able to bring him down to earth for the sole reason that thousands of professors [...] are trying to steal his place in their classrooms.”11 For Weber, science is unable to 34 answer Tolstoy’s questions: it is for him a profession, a vocation, but not a “religion,” as Auguste Comte believed. Weber recognizes that trust is indispensable even to live in the rational age he vaguely envisioned, but it is rather a matter of beliefs that are indispensable to orient oneself in today’s complex societies, where every day one has to rely on new aspects of technique previously unknown to the ordinary person: “While we travel by tram we have no idea how it moves, unless we are physicists. But neither do we need to

10.See F. Ferrarotti, Max Weber. Fra nazionalismo e democrazia, Naples, Liguori, 1995, 172. When he speaks of war, Weber frames it in the necessary development of the building of a social group: “The army community on the battlefield always feels, today as in the time of the warlords, a community until death – the largest of its kind. Death on the battlefield is distinguished from common death, which is the fate of all men, from that destiny that reaches everyone without one ever being able to say why it was that individual who died at that very moment... Death on the battlefield is distinguished from merely inevitable death, because in war, and only in war on such a massive scale, the individual can believe that he is dying ‘for’ something” (M. Weber, Considerazioni intermedie. Il destino dell’Occidente, Rome, Armando, 2006, 63). It should be added, however, that after the war, Weber harshly criticized Bismarck’s politics, in particular his inability to form a modern ruling class endowed with an effective bureaucratic apparatus. He worked hard to build the Weimar Republic, contributing to the drafting of the Constitution. 11.M. Weber, La scienza come professione, op. cit., 123. The steel cage is mentioned at the conclusion of L’etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, op. cit., 305f., p. 305. THE CENTENARY OF MAX WEBER’S DEATH know. We just need to be able to ‘rely’ on the behavior of the tram and adapt ourselves, while we know nothing about how to build a tram capable of moving.” The difference from primitive societies is not given by the absence of beliefs, but by a different approach to reality, “the awareness or faith that, if you have the desire you can always come to know, or that in principle there are no mysterious and irrational forces at stake, but on the contrary all things can – in principle – be dominated by reason.” But in this perspective the fundamental questions of existence, which science is unable to address, remain unanswered. This objection is at the origin of the deep split in Weber’s thought between factual judgments, the fruit of reason, and judgments of value, based on faith: “ is Judging the validity of these values 35 [...] a question of faith, and is also perhaps a task of speculative consideration and interpretation of life and the world in their meaning, but it is certainly not the subject of an empirical science.”12 This is a similar conclusion to what the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein pointed out more or less in the same years about the inability of scientific knowledge to answer the decisive questions of existence. The demand for meaning that is implicit in every human event is not accessible to empirical experience, but is placed beyond it, beyond the possibilities accessible to reason.13 Subsequent philosophical reflection, starting from Wittgenstein himself, would claim a broader and more reason- rich idea, which includes aspects that are important for its

12.M. Weber, Saggi sul metodo delle scienze storico-sociali, op. cit. 154. 13.“The meaning of the world must be outside of it. In the world everything is as it is, and everything happens as it happens; there is no value in it – nor, if there were, would it have any value. If a value has value there, it must be outside of all coming-to-be and being-so. In fact, every coming-to-be and being-so, is accidental. What makes them non-accidental cannot be in the world, because otherwise it would be, in turn, accidental. It must be outside of the world” (L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus e Quaderni 1914-1916, Turin, Einaudi, 1964, 79 [prop. 6; 41]; italics in the text). Note also what Weber observes in the Quaderni: “To believe in a God means to understand the question of the meaning of life. To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not everything. To believe in God is to see that life has meaning” (ibid., 174). GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

progress, such as narrative, imagination and storytelling: what Weber considered an ancient legacy of the enchanted world and the philosopher Paul Ricœur called rather “primitive word,” source and inspiration of philosophical knowledge.14 It should also be added that Weber, in addition to talking about faith in the choice of values, does not provide a criterion to recognize them; they are somehow dropped from above. This gives rise to further perplexities about possible authoritarian tendencies by unscrupulous managers and speculators who can manipulate the trust of the unsuspecting ordinary person, as unfortunately happened during the recent terrible economic crises: “While Weber is very clear when he states that the only justification for bureaucracy is efficiency, he does not give us any precise rule about how this criterion of judgment should be applied. In reality, an 36 inventory of the characteristics of a bureaucracy would not contain a single voice that is not questionable as to its functional efficiency [...]. The value of the results in the short term, as is known, is deceptive, because they can be easily manipulated in such a way that they demonstrate whatever one wants them to demonstrate.”15 The words “science” and “reason” themselves, without adequate justification for their use, can be used as convenient slogans to defend partisan interests. This lack of transparency about the rules of the game is one of the most serious threats to democracy as well, as Norberto Bobbio had noted with acuity.16

From disenchantment to pluralism If scientific rationality is silent in the face of the fundamental problems of living, this means that the knowledge called to deal with it does not disappear with “disenchantment,” but rather takes different forms; in fact, religious proposals in the course of modernity have not disappeared, they have rather multiplied in increasingly “liquid” ways.

14.See P. Ricœur, Della interpretazione. Saggio su Freud, Milan, il Saggiatore, 1967, 54; Id., Finitudine e colpa, Bologna, il Mulino, 1970, 72f. 15.E. Bittner, “The Concept of Organization”, in Social Research 32 (1965) 247; cf. A. MacIntyre, Dopo la virtù, Rome, Armando, 2007, 110. 16.See G. Cucci, “Il centenario della nascita di Norberto Bobbio”, in Civ. Catt. 2009 IV 235-244. THE CENTENARY OF MAX WEBER’S DEATH

The sociology of religion, since the late 1960s, has stopped using the Weberian image of the “retreat” to introduce rather that of the “plurality” of possible proposals that exist together, without excluding each other. The questioning of this assumption has revolutionized the method of religious sociology, leading to the destruction of the entire building of secularization in the classical sense: “Reality has not changed; rather, the way of perceiving it has. In other words, a typical Kuhnian scientific revolution has occurred.”17 This historiographic breakthrough was somehow contained in Weber’s analysis. The real fracture of modernity does not so much concern religious issues (this was seen with regard to the Protestant capitalism-ethics relationship), but rather the magical aura proper to the enchanted world. This has led to what for 37 the majority of current sociologists of religion is the point of no return for secular modernity, the autonomy of the various disciplines, which each acquire their own methods and skills and are not necessarily conflicting with each other. Each of them reflects one aspect of the capabilities of the human mind, a “multidimensional mind” (Bruner), meaning by this term the multiple cognitive operations of the subject. Just like the “language games” that Wittgenstein speaks of with regard to the variety of languages available to us (technical, sporting, poetic, conversational, humorous, religious...), each discipline puts into play a “game” that is not subject to the criteria of other games. Each one of them represents different and not commensurable worlds, just as the games present a variety of applications, rules and practices that are not comparable to each other. One cannot use the modus operandi of one knowledge (for example, mathematical quantification) as a criterion for the validity of another, just as it is not possible to play rugby within the rules of chess.18

17.J. Casanova, Oltre la secolarizzazione. Le religioni alla riconquista della sfera pubblica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2000, 22. For more information, see G. Cucci, Religione e secolarizzazione. La fine della fede?, Assisi (Pg), Cittadella, 2019. 18.See J. Bruner, La mente a più dimensioni, Bari, Laterza, 2009; P. Berger, I molti altari della modernità. Le religioni al tempo del pluralismo, Verona, Emi, GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

Most of the operations of ordinary life, even the most sophisticated, are eloquent examples of these multiple approaches. The example of the tram presented by Weber is particularly significant in this regard. A tram driver performs a series of purely technical operations that are common to all other drivers and that do not presuppose any adherence to a religious faith. But neither do they exclude it. It can instead find expression in other areas of ordinary life. Berger remembers a surgeon friend, an observant Jew, who also wore a kippah in the doctor’s office, but never spoke of religion at work, especially in the operating room; all his actions and decisions were made solely on the basis of his medical expertise. Like him, many academics do not go into the issues of faith in their scientific publications; they recognize the difference 38 in areas and the autonomy of the rules that characterize them. But this does not mean that faith does not give meaning to their work. As Weber had recognized, the religious dimension is not erased, but rather passes through the many “profane” activities, which are clothed with an aura of the sacred.

Capitalism and the Protestant ethic The relationship between the Protestant ethic and capitalism has also provoked many debates, first of all on an historical level. It has been noted that well before the Reformation in Europe companies with the characteristics of capitalist entrepreneurship had emerged. Such enterprise had been favored by Catholic theological reflection from the 13th century onward.19 But Weber’s hypothesis is mainly based on the assumption that the common utility proceeds parallel to the interest of the individual. This conviction leads him to conclude, in a completely opposite way to Marx, that capitalism is the best possible social realization, destined to assert itself in a necessary way throughout history.20 It has a sort of “pre-established harmony,” which is far

2017; J. Gardner, Formae mentis. Saggio sulla pluralità dell’intelligenza, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2010; L. Wittgenstein, Ricerche filosofiche, Turin, Einaudi, 1968. 19.See G. Reale - D. Antiseri, Cento anni di filosofia..., op. cit., 125-128. 20.“In this way capitalism may well exist peacefully, but either as something fatally ineluctable, as is happening more and more today, or as in the period of THE CENTENARY OF MAX WEBER’S DEATH from evident as the very history of capitalism itself has shown. Yet this idea unites most Enlightenment thinkers (think of Mandeville’s famous Fable of the Bees) and gives full legitimacy to economic individualism. This presupposition, among other factors, is foreign to the spirit of the Protestant ethic.21 Weber himself noted with some apprehension that the increase in wealth guaranteed by capitalist expansion can lead to the destruction of the ethics at its origin, impoverishing its spirit, until it is extinguished. In the concluding pages of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism he expresses this concern in the words of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism: “I fear that every time wealth increases, religious heritage decreases to the same extent [...]. Thus the form of religion remains, but the spirit gradually disappears.”22 39

the Enlightenment – which also includes modern style literature – legitimized as somehow a relatively optimal means of making what is relatively the best of the worlds (in the sense of Leibniz’s theodicy) the relatively best thing” (M. Weber, “Anticritica conclusiva sullo ‘spirito del capitalismo’”, in Id., Sociologia della religione, op. cit., 296). 21.“In the ethics of ascetic Protestantism there can be no room for the pursuit of profit, while in the harmony of interests the pursuit of profit cannot be a duty. The spirit of capitalism in its specific diversity from the economic ethics of ascetic Protestantism is the product of the hybridization between the idea of the duty of economic action and profession and that of the harmony of interests as a cognitive device capable of making the pursuit of profit as an autonomous aim” (D. D’Andrea, “Protestantesimo ascetico, spirito del capitalismo, armonia degli interessi. Secolarizzazioni e immagini del mondo in Max Weber”, in SocietàMutamentoPolitica 5 [2014] 94, cf. 87f). 22.M. Weber, L’etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, op. cit., 297. Hagia Sophia: From museum to mosque

Giancarlo Pani, SJ

On November 29, 2014, during his apostolic trip to Turkey, Pope Francis visited the Hagia Sophia Basilica in Istanbul. Hagia Sophia – in Turkish Aya Sofya – is an ancient monument that dominates the entire city, the Bosphorus and the Golden 40 Horn. At the end of the visit he wrote in Greek characters in the Golden Book of Guests: Hagia Sophia tou Theou, The Holy Wisdom of God. The basilica, a culmination of technical expertise and architectural wonder, has been described as “a work of divine inspiration,” the “place between earth and sky,” the “eighth wonder of the world,” and the “symbol of imperial power.”1 Hagia Sophia was commissioned and built in 537 by the Emperor Justinian and his wife, Theodora, and then, after a fire, rebuilt in 562. It was the largest basilica in Christendom and the world – the Megale Ekklesia – the most important church in Constantinople, where the Byzantine emperors were crowned. The city, founded by Constantine as the New Rome, also established itself as the religious capital of Christianity. Today the Greeks still call it Constantinople. It has had several names over time, including the ancient name of Byzantium.2

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1.See Procopius of Caesarea, whose works are collected in the volume Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli. Un tempio di luce, eds. P. Cesaretti - M. L. Fobelli, Milan, Jaca Book, 2011, 57; 63; 65; 72. 2.The city is of Greek origin and its foundation dates back, according to Herodotus, to 668 B.C.; it would have taken the name “Byzantium” from king Byzas, or Byzantas. Cf. L. Padovese et al., Turchia. I luoghi delle origini cristiane, Casale Monferrato (Al), Piemme, 1987, 169. HAGIA SOPHIA: FROM MUSEUM TO MOSQUE

The current name, Istanbul, comes from the Greek, from the common expression eis tēn polin, and means ad Urbem, that is “[go] to Rome,” as in the New Rome.3 After 900 years, in 1453, with the conquest of the city by the Ottomans, Sultan Muhammad II transformed the basilica into a mosque. Finally, five centuries later, in 1934, the first president of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, known as Atatürk (Father of the Turks), converted it into a museum.4 You can still admire there some magnificent mosaics on a golden background, which cover the vaults, domes and walls. The most significant are the Deesis (“prayer”), where Christ, Our Lady and John the Baptist pray for our salvation, the icons of the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel, and those of saints, emperors and empresses, and various floral and geometric motifs in a decorative style. 41 The basilica has gone down in history as “one of the greatest architectural masterpieces ever.”5 In 1985, Hagia Sophia was proclaimed a “World Heritage Site” by UNESCO. It is one of the most beautiful monuments in Turkey, and in 2019 was admired by almost four million visitors.

The value of Hagia Sophia The tormented history of the basilica has given it a unique value and extraordinary significance through the centuries; it has become a model of dialogue and an emblem of coexistence. Over the years, silently and without causing a stir, it has become a symbol of fraternity in the heart of Istanbul, a sacred space for everyone: Christians, Muslims, religious and non-believers, for anyone who believes in the dialogue between West and East, the encounter of cultures, spirituality and diversity. Who knows if Atatürk, when he transformed the mosque into a museum, had thought about the unpredictable outcomes of that historical choice!

3.The term “New Rome” was used by Paul the Silentiary, Description of Hagia Sophia, v. 165 and the Address to Two Romes (vv. 135-167), in M. L. Fobelli Un tempio per Giustiniano. Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli e la ‘Descrizione’ di Paolo Silenziario, Rome, Viella, 2005, 42-45; 117. 4.See the history of the city in F. Cardini, “Un luogo di controversie. E un ‘ritorno’ che divide”, in Avvenire, July 10, 2020. 5.L. Padovese et al., Turchia. I luoghi delle origini cristiane, op. cit., 170. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

An acute observer of the oriental world has grasped the role of Hagia Sophia: “In the case of Hagia Sophia, we can say that the very coexistence between the enormity and value of the building and the coexistence of unforgettable Byzantine mosques and Islamic medallions inside it for almost a hundred years6 gave everyone the perception of an exception. The cathedral and its dome, welcoming those masterpieces of the former conquerors, conveyed the idea of something more than a museum; one could say it proclaimed a new message for the whole Mediterranean tormented by wars even in the name of God.” And he concluded shrewdly: “That museum announced that the absolutism of believers can be overcome, the space can be preserved to allow a path respectful of history and its truth as much as of complexity.”7 42 Saint Sophia was, in some way, an extraordinary “ecumenical” space.

The revocation of the decree of 1934 On July 10 of this year, the Turkish Council of State, at the request of an Islamic association that had appealed against the 1934 decision, revoked the decree that had transformed Hagia Sophia into a museum. In support of the request, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a decree to convert the museum into a mosque. He said it was “a grave mistake” that the place was no longer used for worship. This opened a new chapter in the history of the ancient basilica. The first prayer session of the Muslim community took place on Friday, July 24. For the occasion, the mosaics of the Christian era were covered with black cloth or darkened with tricks of light and shadow. The prayer was led by the imam, who climbed the steps of the minbar and delivered the Friday sermon, holding an Ottoman sword with his left hand, which seemed to be that of Muhammad II. He explained that this “is a tradition” of mosques and that it is a symbol of conquest. Holding it in

6.The gigantic circular medallions reproduce the names of Allah, the prophet Muhammad, the first four caliphs and the two nephews of Muhammad. 7.R. Cristiano, “Quel che l’Europa distratta non capisce di Santa Sofia”, in Reset. Voci dal mondo, July 24, 2020. HAGIA SOPHIA: FROM MUSEUM TO MOSQUE the left hand, and not in the right, excludes – according to a traditional meaning – a declaration of war against non-believers. President Erdoğan attended the ceremony. He first visited the tomb of Muhammad II, “the Conqueror,” and then he himself started the prayer – a unique event that does not normally happen in any Muslim country – by reading a sura from the Koran called “of victory” or “of conquest.” In fact, the date of July 24 was not chosen by chance. It is the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, in which the Turkish borders were revised with respect to the previous Treaty of Sèvres (of 1920, after the end of the First World War), and those of Greece and Bulgaria. Turkey was required to renounce all claims on Cyprus, Syria and Iraq.8 The political significance of the date is clear: Erdoğan intends to 43 reaffirm the power of his country and reshape the borders of present-day Turkey.9 On August 20, the Turkish president signed another decree that transformed the church-museum of the Holy Savior in Chora into a mosque. The monument dates back to the 5th century and is a real jewel for the Byzantine mosaics and frescoes that can be admired there, including that of the famous Madonna, the Virgin of Tenderness. It was transformed into a mosque in 1511 and then into a museum by Atatürk in 1945.10

Reactions to Erdoğan’s decision The transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque provoked a series of negative reactions. On Sunday, July 12, “International Day of the Sea,” at the Angelus Pope Francis said: “The sea takes my thoughts a little farther, to Istanbul. I think of Hagia Sophia, and I am very saddened.”11

8.Cf. M. Jégo - A. Kaval, “Turquie. Revanche sur le traité de Sèvres”, in Le Monde, August 2-3, 2020, 14. 9.See the editorial of Le Monde, July 26-27, 2020; F. Peloso, “Erdogan usa la religione per non perdere il potere”, in Internazionale, July 31, 2020. 10.See L. Padovese et al., Turchia. I luoghi delle origini cristiane, op. cit., 171; www.lastampa.it/esteri/2020/08/21/news/turchia-dopo-santa-sofia-diventa- moschea-la-chiesa-museo-di-san-salvatore-in-chora-1.39215867 11.Francis, Angelus of July 12, 2020. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

A few days earlier, the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, had expressed “deep concern at the requests of some Turkish politicians to reconsider the museum status of Hagia Sophia [...], one of the greatest monuments of Christian culture.” And he also explained its importance for Orthodoxy. The basilica “built in the sixth century in honor of Christ the Savior enchanted with its beauty the envoys of Prince Vladimir, to the point that the prince, after listening to their story, received baptism and baptized the Rus’, starting Christian civilization in the country.” Finally, he recalled that, “with bitterness and indignation, the Russian people have responded in the past and now respond to any attempt to degrade or trample on the ancient spiritual heritage of the Church of Constantinople.” He hoped for a rethink on the part of Turkish leaders, since maintaining Hagia 44 Sophia’s up until then neutral status would facilitate “the further development of relations between the peoples of Russia and Turkey and [...] peace and interreligious harmony.”12 The Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, did not hide his disappointment. Already in the days before the decision he denounced the risk of such a conversion: “It will push millions of Christians around the world against Islam.” By virtue of its sacredness, Hagia Sophia is a center of life “in which East and West embrace each other,” and its reconversion into a place of Islamic worship “will be a cause of rupture between these two worlds.” In the 21st century it is “absurd and harmful that Hagia Sophia, from a place that now allows the two peoples to meet and admire her greatness, can again become a reason for opposition and confrontation.”13 It is a negative sign, therefore, in a historical time that needs unity and mutual respect. On behalf of the Greek government, the Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, called the decision of the Turkish court “a provocation to the civilized world.” She also made it clear

12.“Turchia: Kirill (patriarca di Mosca), ‘preoccupazione per richieste di riconsiderare lo status museale di ‘Hagia Sophia’ a Istanbul”, in Sir, Information Agency, July 6, 2020. 13.E. Campanile, “Santa Sofia diventa una moschea”, in Vati can Ne ws, July 20, 2020. HAGIA SOPHIA: FROM MUSEUM TO MOSQUE that she did not want to interfere in the internal politics of the Turkish government, but underlined “the unique value and ecumenical nature of the monument for humanity.” Finally, she said that the decision revealed the nationalism of the Turkish President and takes his country back six centuries.14 The position of the imam of Milan and president of Coreis (the Italian Islamic Religious Community), Yahya Pallavicini, is also opposed to the move: “Hagia Sophia has to remain a church and that’s it. [...] This has been done for reasons of power and politics. [...] In the history of Islam, when the wise Muslims visited a place of worship, such as a synagogue, a monastery or a burial place of other confessions, they always respected these places and their identity. Beginning with the episode of Caliph Omar who, when he entered Jerusalem and was offered the 45 opportunity to pray in a church, refused out of respect for the Christian faithful.”15

UNESCO and the East UNESCO has expressed its disappointment with the transformation of the museum into a mosque. In particular, its spokesperson pointed out that Turkey should have warned of the decision, or at least discussed it with the body. Any change in the status of Hagia Sophia – as stated in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention – had to be presented in advance and taken into consideration by the international body. The Council of Churches of the Middle East reads in the move a hard blow to the dialogue between Islam and Christianity.16 The decision of the Turkish state takes place at a historic moment, marked by various attempts at dialogue and peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians. This was noted by the Secretary General of the Council, the Lebanese

14.See G. Antonazzi, “Santa Sofia torna ad essere una moschea”, in Days Italia News, July 11, 2020. 15.“Imam Magliana: ‘Santa Sofia? Atto politico’”, in Adnkronos, July 12, 2020. 16.See S. Falasca, “Turchia. Divide Santa Sofia riconvertita in moschea. Le reazioni del mondo”, in Avvenire, July 14, 2020; “Le reazioni alla trasformazione di Santa Sofia in moschea” (www.retesicomoro.it/reazioni-trasformazione- santa-sofia), July 16, 2020. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

Souraya Bechealany, recalling the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace, signed in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayyeb. The High Committee for Human Fraternity, constituted between Jews, Muslims and Christians on August 20, 2019, to promote the ideals contained in the above-mentioned document, also wrote that divisions should be avoided and mutual respect and understanding between all religions fostered. Everyone is also invited to avoid any step that could undermine interreligious dialogue, confirming the need to give priority to the values of coexistence.17

Erdoğan’s gesture Beyond the wide-ranging reactions recorded, Erdoğan’s 46 gesture could be interpreted as an affront to the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace, as it represents a denial of what Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar signed: “Freedom is the right of every person; each individual should enjoy the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derive. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”18 In the Document there is also a note concerning places of worship: “The protection of places of worship – temples, churches and mosques – is a duty guaranteed by religions, human values, laws and international conventions.”19

17.See A. Lomonaco, “Prima preghiera islamica a Santa Sofia tra imponenti misure di sicurezza”, in Vatican News, July 24, 2020. 18.“Human Brotherhood for World Peace and Common Coexistence” (Abu Dhabi, February 4, 2019), in Civ. Catt. 2019 (cf. laciviltacattolica.com/human- fraternity-for-world-peace-and-life-together/) 19.Ibid. HAGIA SOPHIA: FROM MUSEUM TO MOSQUE

What is behind the conversion of Hagia Sophia? The basic question is: what is hiding in the decision of the Turkish President? Does he want to use Hagia Sophia as a place of prayer? In Istanbul there was no need for a new mosque for prayer. Sunni Muslims have numerous places of worship at their disposal and right next door is the beautiful “Blue Mosque.” This is confirmed by the editorial of the German Tagespost of July 11, 2020: “The debates on the status of Hagia Sophia are not about pastoral needs, but about symbolic and identity politics, sovereignty over culture and history. President Erdoğan [...], alluding to Sultan Muhammad II, believes that turning the venerable patriarchal basilica [...] into a mosque is a ‘right of the conquerors.’ As a believing Muslim he considers the conqueror Muhammad II as the founder, Constantinople the capital of the 47 Ottomans, and Hagia Sophia as the imperial mosque.” The problem is much wider. The conversion to mosque can be a way to cover the economic and monetary crisis that is affecting Turkey, now aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, Erdoğan’s party lost local elections in Ankara and Istanbul in March, as well as the re-run of the vote in the capital, granted because of electoral fraud on May 25, 2019. In history, the sultans behaved differently. If the conquest of Constantinople represented the end of the so-called “Symphony between Church and Empire,” the sultans put into effect the legal statute of Millet (with the dhimmi for those who pay taxes). This involved a limited decentralization for religious groups, in particular the Greek Orthodox.20 It implies that the religious leader – in the specific case, the Patriarch of Constantinople, elected by the Synod, but confirmed by the Sultan – is the guarantor of Christian obedience. Paradoxically, this has ensured the survival of Orthodoxy under Turkish domination.21 Analogous was the behavior of Sultan Abdülmecid, when in 1849 he uncovered the Christian mosaics of Hagia Sophia,

20.See A. Riccardi, “Nostalgia di coabitazione”, in A. Melloni et al. (eds.), Cristianesimo nella storia. Saggi in onore di Giuseppe Alberigo, Bologna, il Mulino, 1996, 131-158. 21.Cf. N .Thon, Quellenbuch zur Geschichte der Orthodoxen Kirche, Trier, Paulinus, 1983, 66f; 173-175. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ

which had been whitewashed with lime. This was a way to relate to Europe and attempt dialogue with European sovereigns. Mustafa Kemal, too, when he transformed the mosque into a museum in 1934, gave a signal to the Orthodox Balkan countries he wanted to befriend. On that occasion he took the name Atatürk, “Father of the Turks.” Now Erdoğan’s gesture would contradict such historic behavior. It is an affront to world Orthodoxy; it challenges the ancient legacy of Constantinople; it is against European countries, and it is also a resounding slap in the face to those who still believe that Turkey is a secular country. The regime makes reference to the Ottoman Empire as the new model of modern Turkey, which from now on “will be independent of Western values such as law or democracy. Now it is on its way 48 to the assertion of absolute power.”22 However, to understand the move, we need to go back a few years.

Turkey’s international relations In September 2012, Erdoğan announced that he would soon go to the Umayyad mosque in Damascus to pray at Saladin’s tomb. But the conqueror of Jerusalem in 1187 is still waiting for his visit.23 This is due to the expansionist plans of Turkey in the Mediterranean, in Libya, in the North of Iraq, and especially in Syria, where the Turkish army, in order to fight the remains of the so-called Islamic State, launched an offensive against the Kurdish movement (formed by the different wings of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK), crossing the north of the territory. But the intervention of Russia in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad stopped him. However, Erdoğan does not give up easily. Rather, his intent is geopolitical, to write a new page of history. Just as Muhammad

22.A. Erdoğan, “Sainte-Sophie en mosquée est une gifle au visage des ceux qui croient encore que la Turquie est un pays laïque”, in Le Monde, July 17, 2020. Asli Erdoğan is a French writer. 23.See M. Jégo - A. Kaval, “Turquie. Revanche sur le traité de Sèvres”, op. cit., 14. HAGIA SOPHIA: FROM MUSEUM TO MOSQUE

II succeeded in ending the Holy Roman Empire of the East, so now Erdoğan’s leadership intends to challenge not only the Christian world, including Orthodox Russia, but also those who guard Islam’s most sacred places, Mecca and Medina. Does he want to oppose Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates and Egypt, as a defender of Islam in the third millennium, converting Hagia Sophia to mosque again? In short, is the conversion of Hagia Sophia, symbol of dialogue and tolerance, an intolerant political act disguised under religious intentions?24 In conclusion, we should remember the testimony of Monsignor Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar in Anatolia, who had his throat slit by his driver on June 3, 2010, in Iskenderun (Alexandretta): a murder whose perpetrators are not yet known. In his last homily, on May 30, 2010, he said: In Turkey one “ 49 learns to accept diversity, but it is also important to be accepted. In this regard, the only way is that of cordiality and friendship. I have sought dialogue with the authorities and with the Muslim world and I am increasingly convinced that dialogue, before being an encounter and a confrontation of ideas, must be an encounter between people who have hearts as well as minds. If a dialogue does not involve the heart, it is of little use.”25

24.See “Sul mar che ci lega con l’Africa d’or”, in Limes. Il Turco alla porta, No. 7, 2020, 22. 25.A. Lomonaco - B. Capelli, “Dieci anni fa veniva ucciso monsignor Padovese, vescovo del dialogo”, in Vatican News, June 2, 2020. People of Israel, Land of Israel, State of Israel

David M. Neuhaus, SJ

In 1994, the Holy See signed an agreement with the State of Israel, establishing diplomatic relations. Ever since, a debate has been raging about the position of the Catholic Church regarding a state that defines itself as Jewish and sees itself in 50 continuity with ancient Israel in the biblical scriptures, which the Church also regards as sacred.

Jewish-Christian dialogue after the Second Vatican Council The Church has been engaged in a process of reconciliation, dialogue and collaboration with Jews ever since the Second Vatican Council. Setting aside a “teaching of contempt,” the Church has sought to develop a “teaching of respect” for Jews and Judaism that takes seriously how Jews see themselves.1 The rethinking of the relationship with the Jews has opened the eyes of many Catholics to the living reality of the Jewish people, their identity and aspirations. A 1974 document insisted that “The history of Judaism did not end with the destruction of Jerusalem, but rather went on to develop a religious tradition. And, although we believe that the importance and meaning of that tradition were deeply affected by the coming of Christ, it is still nonetheless rich in religious values.” Furthermore, “Christians must therefore strive to acquire a better knowledge of the basic components of the religious tradition of Judaism;

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 5, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.5

1.Cf. D. Neuhaus, “‘Ebrei’ ed ‘ebraismo’ nell’insegnamento cattolico: una rivoluzione nell’interpretazione”, in Civ. Catt. 2019 II 417-431. PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL they must strive to learn by what essential traits the Jews define themselves in the light of their own religious experience”2. In the post-Vatican II era, listening to Jews, Catholics have become more and more aware that many Jews today define themselves more as a people than as a religion and as such many of them lay claim to a land they call “the land of Israel” and identify with a state, “the State of Israel,” which has existed there since 1948.

Jewish claims regarding the land and State of Israel Jews of various traditions, many of whom have collaborated with Catholics in dialogue, published an eight-point document in 2000, promoting the relationship with Christians, entitled Dabru Emet (Speak the Truth). The third point of the document stated, “The most important event for Jews since the Holocaust 51 has been the reestablishment of a Jewish state in the Promised Land. As members of a biblically based religion, Christians appreciate that Israel was promised – and given – to Jews as the physical center of the covenant between them and God. Many Christians support the State of Israel for reasons far more profound than mere politics.”3 The Catholic Church has proceeded slowly and cautiously when it comes to dealing with the political reality of the State of Israel. After decades of hesitation, the Holy See inaugurated full diplomatic relations with this state in 1994, a time when peace between Israelis and Palestinians finally seemed imminent. Today, diplomatic relations exist between the Holy See and the State of Israel. Yet, despite the diplomatic recognition of Israel, Jewish spokespeople have continued to lament the Church’s continued reluctance to affirm the theological significance of the Jewish claim to the land and the existence of the State of Israel. Invited to speak alongside Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, at the presentation of the 2015 document celebrating the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate’s paragraph 4, Rabbi David Rosen

2.Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Orientations and Suggestions for the Application of the Council Declaration Nostra Aetate, Preamble, December 1, 1974. 3.National Jewish Scholars Project, Dabru Emet, 2000, in www.jcrelations.net DAVID M. NEUHAUS, SJ

commented on this issue. “Perhaps then I may be permitted to point out that to fully respect Jewish self-understanding, it is also necessary to appreciate the centrality that the land of Israel plays in the historic and contemporary religious life of the Jewish people and that appears to be missing.”4 In fact, the 2015 document made reference to the State of Israel only twice in its long and engaging text. The first time it quoted a previous document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews: “Christians are invited to understand this (Jewish) religious attachment which finds its roots in Biblical tradition, without however making their own or any particular religious interpretation of this relationship.5 The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference 52 to the common principles of international law.”6 The second time the document mentioned the State of Israel was with regard to justice and peace. “In Jewish-Christian dialogue the situation of Christian communities in the State of Israel is of great relevance, since there – as nowhere else in the world – a Christian minority faces a Jewish majority. Peace in the Holy Land – lacking and constantly prayed for – plays a major role in dialogue between Jews and Christians.”7 Today, however, particularly in Europe and North America, some are lobbying to promote a Catholic affirmation of the theological significance of the Jewish claim regarding the land and the State of Israel.8

4.Quoted in G. D’Costa, Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019, 65. Cf. R. Langer, “Theologies of the Land and State of Israel: The Role of the Secular in Jewish and Christian Understandings” in Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations 3 (2008) 1-17. 5.Cf. Declaration of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 20, 1975. 6.Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Notes on the correct way to present Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church (1985), VI, 1. 7.Id., The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable (2015), No. 46. 8.Cf. P. Lenhardt, “La fin du sionisme?” in Sens, No. 3, 2004, 99-138; M. Remaud, Echos d’Israël, Jerusalem, Elkana 2010; R. Lux, The Jewish People, the Holy Land and the State of Israel: A Catholic View, Mahwa, Paulist Press, 2010; G. D’Costa, Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II, op. cit. PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL

Zionist humanism and Israeli militarism At the outset, it is noteworthy that there is no unanimity among Jews themselves with regard to the State of Israel. The history of Zionism and modern Jewish nationalism have met with suspicion and even hostility from some Jews, and many other Jews have been critical of the political options that the Zionist leadership has adopted, especially with regard to the Palestinian people.9 Martin Buber, a renowned Jewish philosopher, wrote as early as May 1948, in the midst of the war that surrounded the establishment of the State of Israel: “Fifty years ago, when I joined the Zionist movement for the rebirth of Israel, my heart was whole. Today it is torn. The war being waged for a political structure risks becoming a war of national survival at any moment… I cannot even be joyful in anticipating victory, for I fear lest the significance of Jewish 53 victory be the downfall of Zionism.” His was a voice of anguish raised as he saw the genesis of Israeli militarism and he feared it would lead to the death of his form of Zionist humanism. His anguish deepened as the Israeli authorities refused to take seriously the Palestinian refugees and instituted military rule over the Arabs who had not fled from the territory that became the State of Israel (a situation that only ended in 1966, some months after Buber’s death). He did not live to see the imposition of military occupation on the territories conquered by Israel in the 1967 War. Also prophetic in her incisive analysis of the darker side of Zionism was the Jewish philosopher, Hannah Arendt. Steeped in the study of totalitarianism in its modern forms, Arendt warned of the perils of Zionism for the Jewish people. In a 1945 article, Arendt wrote, “the Zionists, if they continue to ignore the Mediterranean peoples and watch out only for the big faraway powers, will appear only as their tools, the agents of foreign and hostile interests. Jews who know their own history should be aware that such a state of affairs will inevitably lead to a new wave of Jew-hatred.”10

9.One classic collection of Jewish opposition to Zionism is M. Selzer (ed.), Zionism Reconsidered: The Rejection of Jewish Normalcy, New York, Macmillan, 1970. 10.H. Arendt, “Zionism Reconsidered”, in M. Selzer (ed.), Zionism Reconsidered…, op. cit., 216. DAVID M. NEUHAUS, SJ

The election of the Jewish people and the promised land in the Old Testament It is undoubtedly true, however, that most Jews do see in Israel something more than just another state. According to Dabru Emet, because Jews and Christians share a common set of beliefs based on the Scriptures of Israel, they can also share an understanding that the land of Israel was promised and given to the Jews. From a theological point of view, God’s election of Israel and the gift of the land are indeed central themes in the Old Testament. However, Christians understand the Old Testament in reference to the New and this is particularly true of themes like the gift of land and the election of a people. Faith in Jesus distinguishes the Christian reading of the Bible from that of the 54 Jews and in the ongoing dialogue with Jews, it is important to enunciate how this affects the Christian understanding of land and, in particular, the question of boundaries. In the Old Testament narrative, God promises the land to Abraham and his descendants. Eventually, God led Joshua to conquer the land which was to become the place where Israel would live out the covenantal relationship with God in observing the Torah. At the center of the land was Jerusalem, Holy Zion, and at the center of Jerusalem, the Temple, the sacred place of the enduring divine presence. It should not be forgotten, however, that the land, although given to Israel in the Old Testament, always belonged ultimately to God (cf. Lev 25:23), a land given as the place where Israel would be the “light to the Gentiles” (cf. Isa 42:6, 49:6), attracting all nations to Jerusalem to come and learn the Torah (cf. Isa 2:3). According to the language of Scripture, in particular the books in the Deuteronomist tradition, the land was lost because the sins of Israel brought darkness rather than light. However, God brought the people back to Zion at the time of Cyrus, King of Persia, because of the outpouring of God’s grace and in faithfulness to the promises made. Exile gave way to return, death to resurrection. It is undoubtedly significant that the Jewish canon of the ancient Scriptures of Israel ends with PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL the words of the letter of Cyrus, addressed to the Babylonian exiles, “Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up (to Zion)” (2Chron 36:23). However, the Church has organized these same Scriptures differently, placing the Second Book of Chronicles in the midst of Israel’s saga in the Old Testament. Cyrus’ letter is one more detail that moves the narrative toward the promise at the end of the Old Testament, the coming of the Day of the Lord. In the New Testament, John heralds the Day when, with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, the borders between peoples and lands will be transfigured, ultimately leading to the disappearance of these borders and to the unity of lands and peoples.

The Christian understanding of the land 55 The Christian understanding of the land changes in the passage from the Old Testament to the New. A 2001 document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission points out: “One of the beatitudes transforms the geographical and historical meaning into a more open-ended one, ‘the meek shall possess the land’ (Matt 5:5); ‘the land’ is equivalent here to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ (5:3-10) in an eschatological horizon that is both present and future. The authors of the New Testament are only deepening a symbolic process already at work in the Old Testament and in inter-testamental Judaism.”11 At first glance, the land seems to have almost disappeared in the writings of the New Testament, Christians seeing their homeland as heaven (cf. Hebr 11:13-16) to some extent. However, the land is not absent but rather the resurrected Christ has transfigured it as the borders that separate one land from another, one people from another, progressively dissolve in the preaching of the Gospel. The continuing expansion of the concept of land is evident as the gospel spreads from place to place, documented in the Acts of the Apostles, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. “Land” no longer refers exclusively to the land of Israel but

11.Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (2001), 57. Cf. W.D. Davies, The Gospel and the Land: Early Christianity and Jewish Territorial Doctrine, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974. DAVID M. NEUHAUS, SJ

expands to include every place where the Gospel is preached and lived. Bringing down borders is a central aspect of Christ’s mission: “For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So, he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:14-18). Although Jews and Catholics indeed share a common set of concepts derived from Scripture, they do not always share a 56 common theological understanding of those concepts and their implications for life today, rooted as they are in two distinct religious understandings. In fact, many Christians would be hesitant to use Old Testament texts to justify 20th century ideologies and politics in the Middle East today. Catholics must tread carefully when it comes to enunciating these insights as Jews are well justified in retorting that the Church has not always disseminated this understanding. The imperialist ideology that developed once Christians had earthly power contradicted the New Testament understanding of land from the time of legislation of the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century onward. The Christian Byzantine Empire promoted an enthusiasm for borders that needed defending and territories that awaited conquest in the constant attempt to expand those borders. In the Middle Ages, a militarized Christendom went to war to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, who, according to some, represented a resurrected form of Judaism.12 The teaching of contempt for Muslims has been parallel to the teaching of contempt for Jews. For many during the Crusades, the war took a double form: against the enemy

12.Some referred to Islam as a new, powerful form of heretical Christianity mixed with Talmudic Judaism. They tended to pair Talmud and Quran as sources of error (cf. the writings of Petrus Alfonsi, the Cluniac Corpus Toletanum, Ricoldus de Montecrucis and others). PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL within (the Jews) and the enemy without (the Muslims). The Crusaders, inspired by the Bible, saw themselves as divinely willed conquerors and echoes of a Crusader mentality resound throughout the long history of European colonialism. Explorers and conquerors paved the way for missionaries and preachers. In contrast to victorious Christians who were confirmed by God in their victories, Jews, defeated and subjugated, had lost the land of their forefathers – had not even Jesus supposedly prophesied this?13 – and they were seen as condemned to be a wandering people without a land.14 The post-Vatican II rethinking of Jewish-Christian relations has provoked the realization that Jews have suffered because of Christian empowerment, often based upon the unethical reading of biblical texts. The mechanisms that link Christian 57 empowerment with Jewish marginalization must be uncovered and transformed and the supposed theological principles at the basis of these mechanisms must be overturned. Catholics have begun the important task of reformulating attitudes to the Jews, a real blessing of our age. However, an equally important challenge is to ensure that the reformulation of a Christian theology, purified of anti-Judaism, and imbued with the new language of Jewish-Christian dialogue and collaboration, does not legitimate new mechanisms of empowerment and exclusion in its turn. Any Catholic reflection on the land and the State of Israel must consider the real political, social, economic and cultural situation in Israel/Palestine. This includes a careful examination of how Jewish claims and Israeli policies relate to

13.Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel, said, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (Luke 19:41-44). 14.Church Fathers like Tertullian compared Christian landedness with Jewish exile as he characteristically wrote, “Scattered, wandering about, deprived of land and sky of their own, they roam the earth without man or God as king, a race to whom there is not accorded the right granted to foreigners to set foot upon and greet one land as home” (Tertullian, Apologeticum, 21,5). DAVID M. NEUHAUS, SJ

the protection of the Holy Places of Christianity and Islam, the wellbeing of the indigenous Christian and Muslim communities and the aspirations of the Palestinian people. Whereas the Church’s concern for the Holy Places and the faith communities seems natural enough, the Church’s concern for justice and peace is not simply a political or diplomatic issue but rather an integral part of the Church’s mission. Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) specified: “The Church, for her part, founded on the love of the Redeemer, contributes toward the reign of justice and charity within the borders of a nation and between nations. By preaching the truths of the Gospel, and bringing to bear on all fields of human endeavor the light of her doctrine and of a Christian witness, she respects and fosters the 58 political freedom and responsibility of citizens.”15 The Church formulates its position on the present situation of conflict in Israel/Palestine, analyzing the actual context and not restricting its discourse to biblical formulae or theological speculation, as a moral responsibility.

The Church’s stance on the land of Israel-Palestine Over the past decades, stretching back to the beginning of the present conflict, after the First World War, the Church has developed a sophisticated discourse about the land of Israel/ Palestine, its peoples and the structures of government. This language brings together Scripture, tradition, concern for the Christian communities, a commitment to dialogue with Jews and Muslims and a particular insistence on promoting justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians. This multi-layered discourse is not an exercise in diplomacy but a genuine and dynamic project to speak the truth in a situation of division, conflict and violence.16

15.Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes (1965), No. 76. 16.For a Catholic reflection on these themes, cf. A. Marchadour and D. Neuhaus, The Land, the Bible and History, New York, Fordham University Press, 2007. PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL

Furthermore, the universal Church cannot promote an abstract spiritual or theological discourse about a land in which the members of the local Church confront the daily realities of discrimination and occupation, which affect Christian Palestinians as they affect all other Palestinians living in the area of Israel/Palestine today. The local Church’s attempts to deal with these realities have a very natural and important impact on thinking about the questions of land and state in the universal Church. Jewish claims to the land that appeal both to Biblical authority and Jewish suffering in history must be seen also in the light of the exile of the Palestinian people from their homeland and their experiences of discrimination and occupation in the lands Israel rules today. Patriarch 59 Michel Sabbah, head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land for more than twenty years, posed the burning theological question in his 1993 pastoral letter: “Could we be victims of our own salvation history, which seems to favor the Jewish people and condemn us? Is that truly the will of God to which we must inexorably bow down, demanding that we deprive ourselves in favor of another people, with no possibility of appeal or discussion?”17 According to the teaching of the Church today, the Jewish people, like all peoples, has a right to express itself in its own terms as a people. Marginalized for centuries, Jewish nationalism rejected that marginalization and struggled for empowerment. When it comes to the people of Israel and the land of Israel, the Church understands the Jewish historical, religious and emotional link to the land, rejecting today the centuries of traditional teaching that condemned the Jews to a perpetual state of exile as punishment for their refusal to accept Christ. However, the Church’s recognition of the ongoing specificity of the Jewish people and its respect for the Jewish attachment to the land of Israel cannot be understood as legitimizing the political and ideological determination to exclusively rule the land. The Church is

17.M. Sabbah, Reading the Bible in the Land of the Bible Today (1993), No. 7. DAVID M. NEUHAUS, SJ

suspicious of a language of exclusive rights that supplants the rights of others in Israel/Palestine today. Instead, the Church recognizes the authority of “international law,” which establishes criteria for promoting justice, equality and peace in any given context.18 The teaching about the exile of the Jews as divine punishment must indeed be rejected as it is a betrayal of the Gospel of God’s fidelity. However, the alternative is not the theological affirmation of Jewish nationalism but rather the rejection of all forms of teaching of contempt that affirm exclusive rights for some and exclusion for others. Jewish nationalist insistence on national sovereignty, defined as Jewish, is in sharp tension with the rights of all citizens in the State of Israel, particularly those who are not Jewish. 60 The reality of more than seventy years of Israeli statehood is manifest in the experience of those citizens who encounter manifold forms of discrimination, marginalization and exclusion because they are “non-Jews” in the Jewish state. They too must have a voice, not only in the political arena, but in theological conversation about the land and the State of Israel. Whatever the framework set out for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whether two states living side by side or one unique state for all, the ultimate principle for a lasting resolution is the equality of human persons, equal in rights and duties. A recent statement of the Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land underlined this principle: “We promote a vision according to which everyone in this Holy Land has full equality, the equality befitting all men and women created equal in God’s own image and likeness. We believe that equality, whatever political solutions might be adopted, is a fundamental condition for a just and lasting peace. We have lived together in this land in

18.“International law becomes the guarantor of the international order, that is of coexistence among political communities that seek individually to promote the common good of their citizens and strive collectively to guarantee that of all peoples, aware that the common good of a nation cannot be separated from the good of the entire human family” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, No. 434). PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, LAND OF ISRAEL, STATE OF ISRAEL the past, why should we not live together in the future too? This is our vision for Jerusalem and the whole land, called Israel and Palestine, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”19 As Jews and Catholics gaze toward the land and its inhabitants, they may not be united in a common vision, but they can certainly be united in a common prayer for peace and for the wellbeing of all who live there.

61

19.Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, Righteousness and Peace will kiss each other, May 20, 2019. Fraternity and Social Friendship

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

Eight years after his election, Pope Francis has written a new encyclical that brings together much of his previous teachings 1 (cf. Fratelli Tutti, No. 5). When he began his pontificate, the first idea Francis referred 62 to was “fraternity.” He bowed his head in front of the people gathered in St. Peter’s Square and defined the bishop-people relationship as a “path of fraternity,” stating this desire: “Let us always pray for each other. Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great fraternity.”2 The encyclical’s title is a direct quotation from the Admonitions of St. Francis. It indicates a fraternity that extends not only to human beings, but also to the earth, in full harmony 3 with his other papal encyclical, Laudato Si’.

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 6, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.6

1.References to the encyclical will be made by noting the paragraph number within brackets. 2.Francis, First Greeting of the Holy Father, March 13, 2013. 3.There have been voices raised concerning the use of the male word “fratelli” as though the pope had chosen not to refer to women. Clearly the title of the encyclical is a quotation from St. Francis and so must remain faithful to the original. But there is no exclusive sense here. Certainly, it can be noted that recently in France the High Commission for Equality between women and men, in view of a forthcoming revision of the Constitution, has proposed substituting the word “adelphité” for “fraternité,” which derives from the Greek but does not have exclusively male connotations. Others, to avoid a neologism, propose simply “solidarity.” However, we perceive weakness in this choice, especially in the light of the thought of Francis. Cf. J. L. Narvaja, “Libertà, uguaglianza, fraternità,” in Civ. Catt. 2018 II 394-399. FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

Fraternity and social friendship Fratelli Tutti addresses both fraternity and social friendship; together they are the central message of his text. The realism that runs through the pages dissolves any romantic emptiness that always lurks about whenever we speak of fraternity. For Francis, fraternity is not just an emotion, a feeling or an idea – no matter how noble – but a fact that also implies an outcome, an action (and the freedom to act): “Whose brother can I be?” Fraternity thus understood overturns the prevailing apocalyptic mentality, which is an approach to reality that fights against the world, believing it to be the opposite of God, i.e. an idol, and therefore needing to be destroyed as soon as possible to accelerate the end of time. Faced with the abyss of the apocalypse, there are no more brothers or sisters, only apostates 63 or martyrs running against time. But we are not militants or apostates, we are all sisters and brothers. Fraternity neither burns time nor blinds eyes and souls. Instead it occupies time; it takes time, time needed for a quarrel and reconciliation. Fraternity spends time the apocalypse burns it. Fraternity requires the time of boredom. Hate is pure excitement. Fraternity is what allows equals to be different people. Hate eliminates those who are different. Fraternity saves the time which involves politics, mediation, encounter, the building up of civil society, and caring. Fundamentalism wipes it out as in a video game. That is why on February 4, 2019, in Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis and Aḥmad al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, signed a historic document on fraternity. The two leaders recognized each other as brothers and tried to take a look at today’s world together. And what did they understand? That the only real alternative that defies and curbs the apocalyptic solution is fraternity. It is necessary to rediscover this powerful evangelical word, taken up in the catch cry of the French Revolution, but which the post-revolutionary order then abandoned until it was removed from the political-economic lexicon. It has been replaced with the weaker one of “solidarity,” which in Fratelli recurs 22 times (compared to 44 occurrences of “fraternity”). Francis wrote in ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

one of his messages: “While solidarity is the principle of social planning that allows the unequal to become equal, fraternity is what allows the equal to embrace different people.”4 Recognizing fraternity changes our perspectives, turning them upside down. It is a strong message of political value. We are all brothers and sisters, and therefore all citizens with equal rights and duties, under whose shadow everyone enjoys justice. So fraternity is the solid basis for living “social friendship.” Pope Francis, speaking in Havana in 2015, recalled that he had once visited a very poor area of Buenos Aires. The parish priest of the neighborhood had introduced him to a group of young people who were putting up a few buildings: “This is the architect; he is Jewish; he is Communist; he is a practicing Catholic; he 64 is... .” The pope commented: “They were all different, but they were all working together for the common good.” Francis calls this attitude “social friendship,” which knows how to combine rights with responsibility for the common good, diversity with the recognition of a radical fraternity.

A fraternity without boundaries Fratelli Tutti opens with the evocation of an open fraternity, which allows each person to be recognized, valued and loved regardless of physical proximity, beyond the place in the world where they were born or where they live. Fidelity to the Lord is always proportional to love for one’s brothers and sisters. And this proportion is a fundamental criterion of this encyclical: you cannot say that you love God if you do not love your brothers and sisters. “For those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 5 John 4:20).

4.Francis, Message to Prof Margaret Archer, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, April 24, 2017. 5.The theme recurs throughout the pontificate of Francis and his magisterium. A few passages may serve as examples: In the exhortation Amoris Laetitia: “God has given the family the job of ‘domesticating’ the world and helping each person to see fellow human beings as brothers and sisters” (No. 183). And in Gaudete et Exsultate: “In other words, amid the thicket of precepts and prescriptions, Jesus clears a way to seeing two faces, that of the Father and that of our brother. He does not give us two more formulas or two more commands. He FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

From the outset the encyclical makes clear how Francis of Assisi extended fraternity not only to human beings – and in particular to the abandoned, the sick, the discarded, the least, going beyond the distances of origin, nationality, color or religion – but also to the sun, the sea and the wind (cf. Nos. 1-3). The perspective is therefore global, universal. And so is the breadth of the pages of Pope Francis. This encyclical could not remain aloof from the unexpected outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Beyond the various responses given by different countries, writes the pope, the inability to act together has emerged, despite the fact that we can boast of being hyperconnected. Francis writes: “God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those,’ but only ‘us’” (No. 35). 65

The schism between individual and community The first step that Francis takes is to compile a phenomenology of current world trends that are unfavorable to the development of universal fraternity. The starting point of Bergoglio’s analysis is often – if not always – what he learned from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who invited us to pray, imagining how God sees the world.6 The pontiff observes the world and has the general impression that a real schism is developing between the individual and the human community (cf. No. 30). It is a world that has learned nothing from the tragedies of the 20th century, which has no sense of history (cf. No. 13). There seems to be a regression. Amidst conflicts and nationalisms, social awareness has gone gives us two faces, or better yet, one alone, the face of God reflected in so many other faces. For in every one of our brothers and sisters, especially the least, the most vulnerable, the defenseless and those in need, God’s very image is found” (No. 61). In Christus vivit: “Keep running, attracted by the face of Christ, whom we love so much, whom we adore in the Holy Eucharist and acknowledge in the flesh of our suffering brothers and sisters” (No. 299). In the encyclical Laudato Si’ the theme recurs. For example, Francis’ disciple, Saint Bonaventure, tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, [Francis] would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’” (No. 11). 6.Cf. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, Nos. 103-106. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

missing (cf. No. 11), and the common good seems to be the least common of goods. We are alone in this globalized world and the individual prevails over the communitarian dimension of existence (cf. No. 12). People play the role of consumers or spectators, and the strongest are favored. And so Francis puts together the pieces of a puzzle that illustrates the dramas of our time. The first piece concerns politics. In this dramatic context, great words such as democracy, freedom, justice and unity lose the fullness of their meaning, and historical consciousness, critical thinking, the struggle for justice and the ways to integration have disappeared (cf. Nos. 14 and 110). His judgment on the state of politics today is sometimes very 66 harsh: “Political life no longer has to do with healthy debates about long-term plans to improve people’s lives and to advance the common good, but only with slick marketing techniques primarily aimed at discrediting others” (No. 15). A second piece is the culture of waste. When reduced to marketing, politics favors global waste and the culture from which it derives (see No. 19-20). The picture continues with the inclusion of a reflection on human rights, respect for which is a prerequisite for the social and economic development of a country (see No. 22). The fourth piece is the important paragraph dedicated to migration. If the right not to migrate must be reaffirmed, it is also true that a xenophobic mentality forgets that migrants must be agents in their own redemption. They are considered “less worthy, less important, less human.” And he strongly states: “For Christians, this way of thinking and acting is unacceptable” (No. 39). Then there is the fifth piece: the risks that communications pose today. With digital connections, distances are shortened, but attitudes of closure and intolerance develop, which feed the “spectacle” brought into play by movements of hatred. Instead, we need “physical gestures, facial expressions, moments of silence, body language and even the smells, the trembling of hands, the blushes and perspiration that speak to us and are a part of human communication” (No. 43). FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

The pontiff, however, does not limit himself to providing a dry description of the reality and drama of our time. His is a reading immersed in a spirit of participation and faith. The pope’s vision, being attentive to the socio-political and cultural dimension, is radically theological. The reduction to individualism that emerges here is the fruit of sin.

An outsider on the road Despite the dense shadows described in the pages of this encyclical, Francis intends to cite many paths of hope, which speak to us of a thirst for fullness, of a desire to touch what fills the heart and lifts the spirit to great things (cf. Nos. 54-55). In an attempt to seek a light, and before indicating some lines of action, Francis dedicates a chapter to the parable of the 67 Good Samaritan (cf. Nos. 63-68). Listening to the Word of God is a fundamental step in judging evangelically the drama of our time and finding solutions. Thus the Good Samaritan becomes a social and civil model. The inclusion or exclusion of the wounded on the side of the road defines all economic, political, social and religious projects. The Holy Father, in fact, does not stop at the level of individual choices, but projects these two options at the level of the policies of states. And yet he always returns to the personal level for fear that people may feel uninvolved and unengaged.

Thinking and generating a hospitable world: an inclusive vision The third step Francis makes in his itinerary takes us to what we could define as the “beyond,” that is, the need to go beyond ourselves. If the drama described in the first chapter was that of the solitude of the consumer wrapped in individualism and the passivity of the spectator, a way out must be found. And the basic fact is that no one can experience the value of life without concrete faces to love. Here lies a secret of authentic human existence (cf. No. 86). Love creates bonds and expands existence. But this “exit” from oneself is not reduced to a relationship with a small group, or to family ties; it is impossible to understand oneself without a wider fabric of relationships with others that enrich us (cf. No. 88-91). ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

This love that is openness to the “beyond” and “hospitality” is the foundation of the action that makes it possible to establish social friendship and fraternity. Social friendship and fraternity do not exclude but include. They disregard physical and moral traits or, as the pope writes, ethnic groups, societies and cultures (cf. No. 95). The tension is toward a “universal communion,” or “a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another” (No. 96). This opening is geographical, but even more to the point existential. However, the pontiff himself perceives, at this stage, the risk of a misunderstanding, that of the false universalism of those who do not love their people. There is also a strong risk of an authoritarian and abstract universalism, which aims to homogenize, standardize, 68 dominate. The safeguarding of differences is the criterion of true fraternity, which does not homogenize but welcomes and affirms differences, valuing them. We are brothers because at the same time we are equal and different: “We need to free ourselves from feeling that we all have to be alike.”7

The importance of multilateralism The pope calls for a radical change of perspective not only at the interpersonal or state level, but also in international relations, that of the certainty of the common destination of the earth’s goods. This perspective changes the panorama and “we can then say that each country also belongs to the foreigner, inasmuch as a territory’s goods must not be denied to a needy person coming from elsewhere” (No. 124). This also, continues the pontiff, presupposes another way of understanding international relations. The appeal to the importance of multilateralism is therefore very clear, with a real condemnation of a bilateral approach whereby powerful countries and large corporations prefer to deal with other smaller or poorer countries in order to make greater profit (cf. No. 153). The key is “to know we are responsible for the fragility of others as we strive to build a common future” (No. 115). Caring for the fragile is a key point of this encyclical.

7.Francis, Apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, No. 139. FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

A heart open to the whole world Francis also speaks of the challenges to be faced so that fraternity does not remain only an abstraction, but takes flesh. The first is that of migrations, to be developed around four verbs: to welcome, protect, promote and integrate. It is not, in fact, “a case of implementing welfare programs from the top down, but rather of undertaking a journey together, through these four actions” (No. 129). Francis offers very precise indications (cf. No. 130). In particular, he dwells on the theme of citizenship as it was articulated in the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together signed in Abu Dhabi. Speaking of “citizenship” works against the idea of “minority,” which carries with it the seeds of tribalism and hostility, and sees in the face of 69 the other the mask of the enemy. Francis’ approach is subversive with respect to the spreading apocalyptic political theologies. The pope also highlights the fact that the arrival of people from a different vital and cultural context is actually a gift for those who welcome them; it is an encounter between people and cultures that constitutes an opportunity for enrichment and development. And this can happen if the other person is allowed to be him or herself. The guiding criterion of the discourse is always the same: to raise the awareness that either we all save ourselves or no one does. Any attitude of “sterilization” and isolationism is an obstacle to the enrichment proper to the encounter.

Populism and liberalism Francis continues his encyclical with a chapter dedicated to the best politics, the ones placed at the service of the true common good (cf. No. 154). And here he faces head-on the question of the confrontation between liberalism and populism, which can use the weak, the “people,” in a demagogic way. Francis intends to clear up a misunderstanding, using a broad quotation from the interview he gave me on the occasion of the publication of his writings as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. It is reported in its entirety here because of its importance: ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

“‘People’ is not a logical category, nor is it a mystical category, if by that we mean that everything the people does is good, or that the people is an ‘angelic’ reality. Rather, it is a mythic category [...]. When you have to explain what you mean by ‘people’, you use logical categories for the sake of explanation, and necessarily so. Yet in that way you cannot explain what it means to belong to a people. The word ‘people’ has a deeper meaning that cannot be set forth in purely logical terms. To be part of a people is to be part of a shared identity arising from social and cultural bonds. And that is not something automatic, but rather a slow, difficult process… of advancing toward a common project” (No. 158).8 Consequently, this mythical category can indicate leadership 70 capable of attunement with the people, with its cultural dynamics and the great tendencies of a society toward a service to the common good; or it can indicate degeneration when one changes in the ability to attract consensus for electoral success and to ideologically instrumentalize the culture of the people, at the service of one’s own personal project (cf. No. 159). Nor should we emphasize the mythical category of the people as if it were a romantic expression and therefore, as such, rejected in favor of more concrete, institutional discourses related to social organization, science and the institutions of civil society. What unites both dimensions, the mythical and the institutional, is charity, which implies a path of transformation of history that incorporates everything: institutions, law, technology, experience, professional contributions, scientific analysis, administrative procedures. Love of neighbor is in fact realistic. Therefore, in order to solve problems it is necessary to grow both the spirituality of fraternity and the most efficient organization. The two things are not opposed at all. This can be achieved without imagining that there is an economic recipe that can be applied equally for everyone. Even the most rigorous science can propose different paths and solutions (cf. Nos. 164-165).

8.A. Spadaro, “Le orme di un pastore. Una conversazione con Papa Francesco”, in J. M. Bergoglio/Papa Francesco, Nei tuoi occhi è la mia parola. Omelie e discorsi di Buenos Aires 1999-2013, Milano, Rizzoli, 2016, XVI. FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

Popular movements and international institutions In this context Francis speaks about popular movements and international institutions. They seem two opposite and divergent levels of organization, but in the end they are convergent in their virtuosity, because they value the local, the individual, the global, the other, and always under the banner of multilateralism. The popular movements “unite the unemployed, temporary and informal workers and many others who do not easily find a place in existing structures” (No. 169). With these movements we overcome “that idea of social policies conceived as a policy toward the poor, but never with the poor, never of the poor and even less in a project that reunites peoples” (ibid.). Therefore, Francis dwells on the international institutions, today weakened, especially because the transnational economic- 71 financial dimension tends to predominate over politics. Among these is the United Nations, which must be reformed to prevent it from being delegitimized and so that “the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth” (No. 173). It has as its task the promotion of the sovereignty of law, because justice is “an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal fraternity” (ibid.).

The best politics are not subject to the economy Francis then dwells at length on politics. Several times the pontiff has complained about how much it is subject to the economy, and this to the efficiency-driven paradigm of technocracy. On the contrary, politics should have a broad vision so that the economy is integrated into a political, social, cultural and popular project that tends toward the common good (cf. Nos. 177 and 17). Fraternity and social friendship are not found in abstract utopias. They require decision and the ability to find paths that ensure their real possibility, even involving the social sciences. And this is a “noble exercise of charity” (No. 180). Love therefore expresses itself not only in one-on-one relationships, but also in social, economic and political relationships, in trying to build communities at different levels of social life. This is what Francis calls “social love” (cf. No. 186). This political charity presupposes ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

the maturation of a social sense by virtue of which “each of us is fully a person when we are part of a people; at the same time, there are no peoples without respect for the individuality of each person” (No. 182). In short, “people” and “person” are correlative terms. Social love and political charity are also expressed in full openness to confrontation and dialogue with all, even with political opponents, for the common good, to make convergence possible at least on certain issues. There is no need to fear the conflict generated by differences, not least because “uniformity proves stifling and leads to cultural decay” (No. 191). And it is possible to live this if politicians do not stop considering themselves as human beings, called to live love in their daily 72 interpersonal relationships (cf. No. 193) and if they know how to live in tenderness. This link between politics and tenderness appears unprecedented, but it is truly effective because tenderness is “the love that draws near and becomes real” (No. 194). In the midst of political activity, the weakest must provoke tenderness and have the “right to take our soul and heart” (ibid.).

Dialogue and culture of encounter Francis summarizes some verbs used in this encyclical in a single word: dialogue. “In a pluralist society,” writes the pontiff, “dialogue is the best way to realize what ought always to be affirmed and respected, apart from any ephemeral consensus” (No. 211). Once again there is a special vision of social friendship made up of the constant encounter of differences. The pope notes that this is the time for dialogue. Everyone exchanges messages on social media, for example, and yet dialogue is often confused with a feverish exchange of opinions, which, in reality, is a monologue in which aggressiveness predominates. He notes acutely that this is the style that seems to prevail in the political context, which in turn has a direct reflection in people’s daily lives (cf. 200-202). “Authentic social dialogue presupposes the capacity to respect the other’s point of view and to admit that it may include FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP legitimate convictions and concerns” (No. 203).9 This is the dynamic of fraternity, after all, its existential character, which “helps to relativize ideas, at least in the sense of not resigning oneself to the fact that a conflict arising from a disparity of views and opinions prevails definitively over fraternity.”10 Let it be clear: dialogue does not mean relativism. As he had already written in the encyclical Laudato Si’, Francis affirms that if what counts are not objective truths or stable principles, but the satisfaction of one’s own aspirations and immediate needs, then laws will be understood only as arbitrary impositions and obstacles to be avoided. The search for the noblest values is always present (cf. Nos. 206-210). Encounter and dialogue thus become a “culture of encounter,” which indicates the desire of a people to design something that 73 involves everyone. It is not a good in itself, but a way of attaining the common good (cf. Nos. 216-221).

Pathways to a new encounter: conflict and reconciliation Francis therefore makes an appeal that a solid foundation for encounters be set in place and that healing processes should start. An encounter cannot be founded on empty diplomacy, double talk, concealment, mere manners... Only from the truth of the facts can there arise the effort to understand each other and find a synthesis for the good of all (cf. Nos. 225-226). The pope believes that true reconciliation does not shy away from conflict, but is achieved in conflict, overcoming it through dialogue and transparent, sincere and patient negotiation (cf. No. 244). On the other hand, forgiveness has nothing to do with renouncing one’s rights before a powerful corrupt person, a criminal or someone who degrades our dignity. It is necessary to defend one’s rights strongly and to safeguard one’s dignity (cf. No. 241). Above all, we must not lose the memory of the great misdeeds of history: “It is easy to be tempted to turn the page, to say that

9.Cf. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, No. 22. 10.D. Fares, “Pope Francis and Fraternity” , Civ. Catt. En. Sept 2019 https:// www.laciviltacattolica.com/pope-francis-and-fraternity/ ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

all these things happened long ago and we should look to the future. For God’s sake, no! We can never move forward without remembering the past” (No. 249).

War and the death penalty In this setting, Francis examines two extreme situations that can present themselves as solutions in dramatic circumstances: war and the death penalty. The pontiff is very clear in dealing with the two issues. With regard to war he states that unfortunately it is not a ghost of the past, but a constant threat. It must therefore be clear that “war is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment” (No. 257). 74 He also addresses the position of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, where the possibility of a legitimate defense by military force is contemplated, with the premise of demonstrating that there are some strict conditions of moral legitimacy. However, Francis writes that it is easy to fall into an overly broad interpretation of this potential right. Today, the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and the enormous and growing possibilities offered by new technologies “have granted war an uncontrollable destructive power over great numbers of innocent civilians.” Therefore – and here is the pope’s conclusion – “we can no longer think of war as a solution, because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits. In view of this, it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war.’ Never again war!” (No. 258). The response to the threat of nuclear weapons and all forms of mass destruction must be collective and concerted, based on mutual trust. And – the pontiff proposes again – “with the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, let us establish a global fund that can finally put an end to hunger and favor development in the most impoverished countries, so that their citizens will not resort to violent or illusory solutions, or have to leave their countries in order to seek a more dignified life” (No. 262). FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

With regard to the death penalty, Francis takes up the thought of John Paul II, who clearly stated in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (No. 56) that it is morally inadequate and no longer necessary for penal purposes. Francis also refers to authors such as Lactantius, Pope Nicholas I and St. Augustine, who from the earliest centuries of the Church were opposed to this penalty. He states clearly that “the death penalty is inadmissible” (No. 263) and that the Church is determined to propose that it be abolished throughout the world. The judgment also extends to life imprisonment, which “is a secret death penalty” (No. 268).

Religions at the Service of Fraternity in the World The last part of this encyclical is dedicated to religions and their role in the service of fraternity. Religions gather centuries 75 of experience and wisdom, and therefore must participate in public debate as well as politics or science (cf. No. 275). For this reason, the Church does not relegate its mission to the private sphere. “It is true,” he specifies, “that religious ministers must not engage in the party politics that are the proper domain of the laity, but neither can they renounce the political dimension of life itself” (No. 276). The Church, therefore, has a public role that also works for universal fraternity (cf. ibid.). The source of human dignity and fraternity for Christians, in particular, lies in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, from which springs, both in thought and pastoral action, the fundamental importance of the relationship, of encounter, of universal communion with the whole of humanity (cf. No. 277). The Church “in the power of the risen Lord, wants to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters, where there is room for all those whom our societies discard, where justice and peace are resplendent” (No. 278).

An appeal for peace and fraternity Fratelli Tutti concludes with an appeal and two prayers that make explicit the meaning and the recipients. The appeal, in fact, is a broad quotation from the aforementioned document signed by Pope Francis and the Great Imam Aḥmad al-Tayyeb in Abu Dhabi, and concerns ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

precisely the conviction that “religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood. These tragic realities are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings. They result from a political manipulation of religions and from interpretations made by religious groups” (No. 285). Among the other references offered in the text, we note that the pope chose to recall in particular Blessed Charles de Foucauld, who “wanted to be, ultimately, the universal brother. Yet only by identifying himself with the least did he come at last to be the brother of all” (No. 287). For Francis, fraternity is the space proper to the Kingdom of God, in which the Holy Spirit can come, dwell and act.11 76 ‘...so will Philadelphia, the city of the brothers, reign’ After going through Fratelli Tutti, trying to emphasize its fundamental themes, I would like to conclude by quoting an Argentinean writer, Leopoldo Marechal, who is very much appreciated by Pope Francis and about whom he spoke when I interviewed him in 2013. Marechal described “Philadelphia, city of the brothers” in his masterpiece Adàn Buenosayres, a work that narrates a symbolic three-day journey of the poet Adàn within the geography of a metaphysical Buenos Aires. One recognizes in particular the influence of Dante in the seventh book of the novel, entitledViaje a la Oscura Ciudad de Cacodelphia, an evident parody of Hell. But let us come to Philadelphia, which – writes Marechal – “will raise its domes and bell towers under a sky as bright as the face of a child. As the rose among flowers, as the goldfinch among birds, as the gold among metals, so will Philadelphia, the city of the brothers, reign among the metropolises of the world. A peaceful and happy multitude will walk its streets: the blind will see the light, he who denied will affirm what he denied, the exiled will tread on his native soil, and the damned will be finally redeemed.”12

11.Cf. D. Fares, “La fratellanza umana”, op. cit., 122. 12.L. Marechal, Adàn Buenosayres, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014 FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

As the rose among the flowers, so the “city of the brothers” will reign among the metropolises of the world, writes Marechal. And Francis with this encyclical points straight to the coming of the Kingdom of God, as we pray in the Our Father, the prayer that sees us all as brothers and sisters because we are children of one Father. The meaning of the Kingdom of God is the ability of Christians to make the good news of the Gospel available to all humanity, to all men and women without distinction, as a resource of salvation and fullness. In this case, the Gospel of fraternity.

77 Bishop Mario Grech An interview with the new secretary of the Synod of Bishops

Antonio Spadaro, SJ - Simone Sereni Bishop Mario Grech is the new secretary general of the Synod of Bishops. Born in Malta in 1957, he was appointed Bishop of Gozo in 2005 by Benedict XVI. From 2013 to 2016 he was president of the Episcopal Conference of Malta. On October 2, 78 2019, Pope Francis appointed him pro-secretary general of the Synod of Bishops. In this capacity he participated in the Synod on the Amazon. Bishop Grech’s pastoral experience is extensive. His friendliness and ability to listen to questions prompted us to have a free-running conversation. Starting with the condition of the Church in the time of the pandemic – ecclesiology under lockdown – and the related important challenges for today, we naturally moved on to reflections on the sacraments, evangelization, the meaning of human fraternity, and therefore of synodality, which Bishop Grech sees as closely connected. A section of the interview was dedicated to the “small domestic Church,” hence the conversation was conducted jointly by a priest and a layman, who is a husband and father.

Bishop Grech, the time of the pandemic that we are still going through has forced the world to stop. The home has become a place of refuge from the contagion; the streets have emptied. The Church has been affected by this climate of suspended activity and public liturgical celebrations were not allowed. What were your thoughts as a bishop, as a pastor? If we take this as an opportunity, it can become a moment of renewal. The pandemic has brought to light a certain religious

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 7, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.7 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

ignorance, a spiritual poverty. Some have insisted on freedom of worship or freedom to worship, but little has been said about freedom in the way we worship. We have forgotten the richness and variety of experiences that help us to contemplate the face of Christ. Some have even said that the life of the Church has been interrupted! And this is truly incredible. In the situation that prevented the celebration of the sacraments, we did not realize that there were other ways in which to experience God. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: “The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. [...] the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these 79 to worship him” (John 4:21-23). The disciple’s fidelity to Jesus cannot be compromised by the temporary lack of the liturgy and the sacraments. The fact that many priests and laity went into crisis because suddenly we found ourselves in the situation of not being able to celebrate the Eucharist coram populo is in itself very significant. During the pandemic, a certain clericalism emerged, even via social media. We witnessed a degree of exhibitionism and pietism that has more to do with magic than an expression of mature faith.

So what is the challenge for today? When the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed was destroyed, the Jews and Gentiles, not having the temple, gathered around the family table and offered sacrifices with their lips and prayers of praise. When they could no longer follow the tradition, both Jews and Christians took up the Law and the Prophets and reinterpreted them in a new way.1 This is the challenge for today as well. When he wrote about the reform that the Church needs, Yves Congar affirmed that the updating desired by the

1.See T. Halik, “Questo è il momento per prendere il largo”, in Avvenire, April 5, 2020, 28. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ - SIMONE SERENI

Council must go as far as the invention of a way of being, of speaking and of committing oneself that responds to the need for total evangelical service to the world. Instead, many pastoral initiatives in this period have been centered around the figure of the presbyter alone. The Church, in this sense, appears too clerical, and the ministry is controlled by clerics. Even the laity are often conditioned by a pattern of strong clericalism. The lockdown we have lived through forces us to open our eyes to the reality that we are experiencing in our churches. We need to reflect, to question ourselves about the richness of lay ministries in the Church, to understand if and how they have expressed themselves. What good is the profession of faith if this same faith does not become the leaven that transforms the 80 dough of life?

What aspects of Church life have emerged from the shadows in this time? We have discovered a new ecclesiology, perhaps even a new theology, and a new ministry. This therefore indicates that it is time to make the necessary choices to build on this new model of ministry. It will be suicide if, after the pandemic, we return to the same pastoral models that we have practiced until now. We spend enormous energy trying to convert secular society, but it is more important to convert ourselves to achieve the pastoral conversion of which Pope Francis often speaks. I find it curious that many people have complained about not being able to receive communion and celebrate funerals in church, but not as many have worried about how to reconcile with God and neighbor, how to listen to and celebrate the Word of God and how to live out a life of service. With regard to the Word, then, we must hope that this crisis, whose effects will accompany us for a long time, may be an opportune moment for us, as Church, to bring the Gospel back to the center of our life and ministry. Many are still “Gospel illiterate.” AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

In this regard, you mentioned earlier the question of spiritual poverty: what is its nature, and what are the most obvious causes of this poverty, in your opinion? It is undeniable that the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life or, as others prefer to say, the summit and source of the very life of the Church and of the faithful2; and it is equally true that “the liturgical celebration [...] is the sacred action par excellence, and no other action of the Church equals its effectiveness to the same degree”3; but the Eucharist is not the only possibility that the Christian has to experience the mystery and to meet the Lord Jesus. Paul VI observed this well when he wrote that in the Eucharist “the presence of Christ is ‘real’ not by exclusion, as if the others were not ‘real.’”4 Therefore, it is of concern that someone feels lost outside of 81 the Eucharistic or worship context, for it shows an ignorance of other ways of engaging with the mystery. This not only indicates that there is a certain spiritual illiteracy, but is proof of the inadequacy of current pastoral practice. It is very likely that in the recent past our pastoral activity has sought to lead to the sacraments and not to lead – through the sacraments – to Christian life.

Spiritual poverty and the absence of a true encounter with the Gospel have many implications... Certainly. And one cannot really meet Jesus without committing oneself to His Word. Concerning service, here’s a thought: Didn’t those doctors and nurses who risked their lives to stay close to the sick transform the hospital wards into other “cathedrals”? Service to others in their daily work, plagued by the demands of the health emergency was for Christians an effective way of expressing their faith, of reflecting a Church present in today’s world, and no longer a “sacristy Church,” withdrawn from the streets, or content to project the sacristy into the street.

2.See Vatican Ecumenical Council II, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), No. 10, December 4, 1963. 3.SC 7. 4.Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei, No. 40, September 3, 1965. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ - SIMONE SERENI

So, can this service be a way of evangelization? The breaking of the Eucharistic bread and the Word cannot happen without breaking bread with those who do not have any. This is diakonia. The poor are theologically the face of Christ. Without the poor, one loses contact with reality. So, just as a place for prayer in the parish is necessary, the presence of the soup kitchen in the broad sense of the word is important. Diakonia or the service of evangelization where there are social needs is a constitutive dimension of being Church, of its mission. Just as the Church is missionary by nature, so from this missionary nature flows charity for our neighbor, compassion, which is capable of understanding, assisting and promoting 82 others. The best way to experience Christian love is the ministry of service. Many people are attracted to the Church not because they have participated in catechism lessons, but because they have participated in a meaningful experience of service. And this path of evangelization is fundamental in the current era of change, as the Holy Father observed in his address to the Curia in 2019: “We are no longer in a regime of Christianity.” Faith, in fact, is no longer an obvious prerequisite for living together. The lack of faith, or even clearer, the death of God, is another form of pandemic that causes people to die. I am reminded of Dostoevsky’s paradoxical statement in his Letter to Fonvizin: “If someone would show me that Christ is outside of the truth and indeed it turns out that the truth is outside of Christ, I would rather stay with Christ than with the truth.” Service makes manifest the truth proper to Christ.

The breaking of bread at home during lockdown has finally turned a light on the Eucharistic and ecclesial life that is experienced in the daily life of many families. Can we say that the home has returned to being Church, including “church” in the liturgical sense? This seemed very clear to me. And those who, during this period when the family did not have the opportunity to participate in the Eucharist, did not take the opportunity to help families develop their own potential, missed a golden AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS opportunity. On the other hand, there have been some families who, in this time of restrictions, proved to be, on their own initiative, “creative in love”. This has included the way parents accompanied their youngsters in forms of home-schooling, the help offered to the elderly, combating loneliness, to the creation of spaces for prayer, and being available to the poorest. May the grace of the Lord multiply these beautiful examples and let us rediscover the beauty of the vocation and the charisms hidden within all families.

Earlier you spoke of a “new ecclesiology” that emerges from the forced experience of lockdown. What does this rediscovery of the home suggest? future of the Church lies here, namely, in It suggests that the 83 rehabilitating the domestic Church and giving it more space, a Church-family consisting of a number of families-Church. This is the valid premise of the new evangelization, which we feel is so much needed among ourselves. We must live the Church within our families. There is no comparison between the institutional Church and the domestic Church. The large community Church is made up of small Churches that gather in houses. If the domestic Church fails, the Church cannot exist. If there is no domestic Church, the Church has no future! The domestic Church is the key that opens horizons of hope! In the Acts of the Apostles we have a detailed description of the family Church, the domus ecclesiae: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46). In the Old Testament, the family house was the place where God revealed Himself and where the most solemn celebration of the Jewish faith, the Passover, was celebrated. In the New Testament, the Incarnation took place in a house, the Magnificat and the Benedictus were sung in a house, the first Eucharist took place in a house, as did the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the first two centuries the Church always gathered in the family home. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ - SIMONE SERENI

Recently the expression “small domestic Church” has often been used with a reductionist note, perhaps involuntarily... Could this narrative have contributed to weakening the ecclesial dimension of the home and the family, so easily understood by all, and which today seems so evident to us? We are perhaps still in this state because of clericalism, which is one of the perversions of priestly life and the Church, despite the fact that the Second Vatican Council recovered the notion of the family as “domestic Church”5 and developed the teaching on the common priesthood.6 Lately I read this precise statement in an article on the family. Theology and the value of pastoral care in the family seen as domestic Church took a negative turn in the fourth century, when the sacralization of priests and 84 bishops took place, to the detriment of the common priesthood of baptism, which was beginning to lose its value. The more the institutionalization of the Church advanced, the more the nature and charism of the family as a domestic Church diminished. It is not the family that is subsidiary to the Church, but it is the Church that should be subsidiary to the family. Inasmuch as the family is the basic and permanent structure of the Church, a sacred and cultic dimension should be restored to it, the domus ecclesiae. Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom teach, in the wake of Judaism, that the family should be an environment where faith can be celebrated, meditated upon and lived. It is the duty of the parish community to help the family to be a school of catechesis and a liturgical space where bread can be broken on the kitchen table.

Who are the ministers of this “Church-family”? For St. Paul VI, the common priesthood is lived in an eminent way by the spouses, armed with the grace of the sacrament of marriage.7 Parents, therefore, by virtue of this sacrament, are also the “ministers of worship,” who, during the domestic liturgy break the bread of the Word, pray with it, and thus

5.Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Lumen Gentium (LG), No. 11; Decree Apostolicam Actuositatem (AA), No. 11. 6.See LG 10. 7.Paul VI, General Audience, August 11, 1976. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS the transmission of the faith to their children takes place. The work of catechists is valid, but it cannot replace the ministry of the family. The family liturgy itself initiates the members to participate more actively and consciously in the liturgy of the parish community. All this helps to make the transition from clerical to family liturgy take place.

In addition to the strictly domestic space, do you believe that the specificity of this “ministry” of the family, the spouses and the marriage relationship can and should also have a prophetic and missionary importance for the whole Church as well as the world? In what forms, for example? Although for decades the Church has reaffirmed that the family is the source of pastoral action, I fear that in many 85 ways this has now become merely part of the rhetoric of the family pastoral ministry. Many still are not convinced of the evangelizing charism of the family; they do not believe that the family has a “missionary creativity.” There is much to discover and integrate. I personally had a very stimulating experience in my diocese with the participation of couples and families in family pastoral ministry. Some couples were involved in the preparation for marriage; others accompanied the newlyweds in the first five years of their marriage. Enriched by the experience in their own families, spouses are not only able to share testimonies of faith embodied in daily family life, but they are also able to find a new theological- catechetical language for the proclamation of the Gospel of the family. Following the example of the “Church that goes forth,” the “domestic Church” must be oriented toward emerging from the home; therefore it must also be put in a position to assume its social and political responsibilities. As Pope Francis pointed out, God “has entrusted to the family not the responsibility for intimacy as an end in itself, but the exciting project of making the world ‘domestic.’”8 Families “are called to make their mark on society, finding other expressions of fruitfulness that in some way prolong the

8.Francis, General Audience, September 16, 2015. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ - SIMONE SERENI

love that sustains them.”9 A summary of all this can be found in the Final Document of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, where the Synod Fathers wrote: “The family thus constitutes itself as the subject of pastoral action through the explicit proclamation of the Gospel and the inheritance of multiple forms of witness: solidarity with the poor, openness to the diversity of people, custody of creation, moral and material solidarity with other families, especially the neediest, commitment to the promotion of the common good through the transformation of unjust social structures, starting from the territory in which it lives, practicing works of corporal and spiritual mercy.”10

Let us now return to consider a wider horizon. The virus knows no 86 barriers. If individual and national egoisms have emerged, it is true that it is clear today that on Earth we live a fundamental human brotherhood. This pandemic should lead us to a new understanding of contemporary society, and allow us to discern a new vision of the Church. It is said that history is a teacher who often has no students! Precisely because of our selfishness and individualism, we have a selective memory. Not only do we erase from our memory the hardships we cause, but we are also capable of forgetting our neighbors. For example, in this pandemic, economic and financial considerations have often taken precedence over the common good. In our Western countries, although we pride ourselves on living in a democratic regime, in practice everything is driven by those who possess political or economic power. Instead, we need to rediscover fraternity. If one assumes the responsibility linked to the Synod of Bishops, I think that synodality and fraternity are two terms that recall each other.

In what sense? Is synodality proposed also to civil society? An essential characteristic of the synodal process in the Church is fraternal dialogue. In his speech at the beginning of the Synod on young people, Pope Francis said: “The Synod

9.Id., Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia, No. 181, March 19, 2016. 10.Final Report of the Synod of Bishops, October 24, 2015. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS must be an exercise in dialogue above all among those of you participating.”11 And the first fruit of this dialogue is that each person opens up to novelty, to a change of opinion, to rejoice in what others say.”12 Furthermore, at the beginning of the Special Assembly of the Synod for the Amazon, the Holy Father made a reference to “mystical fraternity,”13 and stressed the importance of a fraternal atmosphere among the synod fathers, “guarding the fraternity that must exist here.”14 This culture of “fraternal dialogue” can help all assemblies – political, economic, scientific – to become places of encounter and not of confrontation. In an era such as ours, in which we are witnessing the excessive claims of sovereignty of States and a return to classism, social subjects could re-evaluate this “synodal” approach, which would facilitate a path of rapprochement and a 87 cooperative vision. As Christoph Theobald argues, this “fraternal dialogue” can open a path to overcome the “struggle between competitive interests”: “Only a real and quasi-physical feeling of ‘fraternity’ can make it possible to overcome the social struggle and give access to an understanding and cohesion, albeit fragile and temporary. Authority is transformed here into ‘authority of fraternity’; a transformation that supposes a fraternal authority, capable of arousing, by interaction, the evangelical feeling of fraternity – or the ‘spirit of brotherhood,’ according to the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – while the storms of history risk swallowing it.”15 In this social framework, the Holy Father’s farsighted words echo strongly when he said that a synodal Church is like a banner raised among nations in a world that calls for

11.Francis, Address at the beginning of the Synod dedicated to young people, October 3, 2018. 12.See ibid. 13.Id., Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, No. 92, November 24, 2013. 14.Id., Greeting at the opening of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region, October 7, 2019. 15.C. Theobald, Dialogue and Authority between Society and Church, prolusion at the Dies academicus of the Theological Faculty of Triveneto (www.fttr.it/ wp-content/uploads/2018/11/THEOBALD-prolusione-dies-Fttr-22-11-2018. pdf), November 22, 2018. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ - SIMONE SERENI

participation, solidarity and transparency in the administration of public affairs, but that instead often places the fate of so many people in the greedy hands of narrow power groups. As part of a synodal Church that “walks together” with men and women and participates in the travails of history, we must cultivate the dream of rediscovering the inviolable dignity of peoples and the service function of authority. This will help us to live in a more fraternal way and to build a world for those who will come after us that is more beautiful and more worthy of humanity.16

88

16.Cf. Francis, Address for the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, October 17, 2015. Media Ecology, Church and Pandemic

Paul A. Soukup, SJ

Media ecology, a subset of communication studies, approaches communication as an ecosystem. Borrowing the metaphor of a natural ecosystem, this type of study imagines communication as an environment in which many different elements interact. The environment contains not only different communication 89 media – telephones, radio, television, social media, printed materials, and so on – but also people, ideas, cultures, historical events, and so on. As with any ecosystem, changing any one part affects all of the others. In a natural ecosystem, say a pond in a forest, the introduction of a new species of frog will affect the insects living near the pond, the grasses and flowers in the locality, the birds, the fish, the animals, in short, everything. The same alteration of an environment takes place in media ecology. We have seen this dramatically just in the last 15 years. The addition of a smartphone, that is, a mobile phone that allows internet access, has changed the ways that people communicate. Rather than talking, they text; rather than reading a newspaper, they follow newsfeeds; rather than watching films or television, they look at video clips; rather than gathering with friends, they connect on social media. Many more such examples can be found. However explained, this ecosystem model describes the communications environment in which the Church has faced the pandemic of Covid-19. But rather than the introduction of a new communication technology, the incursion of the virus has caused the changes.

La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 10 art. 8, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1020.8 PAUL A. SOUKUP, SJ

Seeing the Church through media ecology When the pandemic struck, the Church, like all social actors, had already faced an upheaval in its communication patterns, though a relatively unhurried one. Church institutions continued to use print media and the Vatican, for example, had its own radio and television outlets broadcasting to countries and networks around the world. Church leaders nationally often benefited from similar arrangements with national broadcasters. The Internet provided additional means of distribution, with Church offices sponsoring websites. Crucially, these retained a “broadcast” model, with institutional sources distributing content. Social media, with its bidirectional communication, opened new opportunities and by its very nature challenged the 90 existing communication models. The Church both universal and local responded to the pandemic by acting across the communication spectrum. Communication that affected most people in technologically advanced countries occurred online, with parishes live streaming Masses when local health authorities halted all public gatherings, thus vastly increasing the instances of televised or online Eucharistic celebrations. Parishes and dioceses moved religious education online. Religious communities and other ecclesial groups prepared online devotional guides, increasing the store of spiritual aids – reading, guided meditations, art, commentary, and so on. Individual parishioners continued Bible study and prayer groups online. On more traditional media, the Vatican continued to broadcast the pope’s activities, most memorably an Urbi et Orbi blessing to an empty St. Peter’s Square. Most likely, other changes will occur, given the nature of online communication. But the influence of new situations takes time to diffuse throughout society.

Media ecology at work in history Historical perspectives can illustrate this media ecology. The communication ecosystem constantly changes and occasionally changes dramatically. But it took both society and the Church decades, if not centuries, to begin to adjust to the first experience of mass communication provided by MEDIA ECOLOGY, CHURCH AND PANDEMIC the printing press. The initial response included shifting from a manuscript to a print-based culture, from centralization of communication products in libraries to wide distribution through book sellers. Here, like other institutional actors, the Church tried to maintain the status quo ante, that is, to control the output of the printing presses, both promoting the printing of acceptable works and barring the faithful from reading unacceptable works (as listed on an Index of Forbidden Books). On the other hand, enabled by the independent distribution channels afforded by printing, the Protestant Reformation’s theological writers began to challenge Church control of information and Church authority, publishing and disseminating their own works. Another development, quite different from the distribution 91 or control of information, arose from the form of information. The orally based presentation of manuscript culture did not suit the printed page.1 It took several centuries for scholars, for theology and for the Church to understand the world of the printed word: how best to frame arguments (changing from an oral style to one designed for reading), to take advantage of the layout of a printed page (adopting a visual arrangement), to choose audiences (using Latin rather than a vernacular language), or to assert authority (directly or through the control of information). Over time, some elements of the ecosystem evolved and others disappeared. Consider another example. Starting in the mid-19th century, the Church faced yet another slow revolution in the communication ecosystem, resulting from the rise of electrical technologies and their impact on communication: the telegraph, the telephone and the radio, and the mass media that they enabled, such as newspapers, films and broadcasting. The increased speed and reach of communication allowed the Church to increase centralization, since Vatican offices, for example, could communicate immediately with local dioceses and indeed immediately with the people.

1.W. A. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The technologizing of the word, London, Methuen, 1982. PAUL A. SOUKUP, SJ

At the same time, the Church faced new competition in communication. Beyond competition with other religious voices as in the Reformation, the Church had to compete in an ecosystem in which popular culture helped shape the possibilities of communication. Changes involved government (including democracy), news (immediate reporting of distant events, an increased role of news as a commodity, and an agenda-setting function of the mass press), entertainment (a move to mass entertainment based on music, film and radio), the migration of peoples (who saw new places and opportunities), and employment (the move from farming to manufacturing, an electrical goods industry, information sector work, and so on.).

92 Models of the Church as an ecosystem The experiences of centralized control and of the Church’s existence as one social actor among many others invited a rethinking of ecclesial patterns. As people embraced the technologies of the mass press, radio, film and television, they also accepted multiple centralized systems, something that required an increased consciousness of central Church authority. For example, the characteristics of authority in the Church shifted from the patterns of a medieval and renaissance court to a bureaucracy set up to support her teaching office. In reflecting on Church structures after Vatican II, Cardinal Avery Dulles observed that different models or understandings of the Church aligned with different communication patterns.2 The Church’s institutional structure worked well with broadcasting because broadcast networks preferred a single point of contact. Who would better speak for the Church than the pope? In fact, the Vatican developed its own broadcasting arm in Vatican Radio to take even greater advantage of that technology. Similar things occurred with national broadcasters

2.A. Dulles, The Church is Communication, Rome, Multimedia International, 1971, 5-18; id., Models of the Church, Garden City (NY), Image Books, 1974; id., “Vatican II and Communications”, in R. Latourelle (ed.), Vatican II: Assessment and perspectives, twenty-five years after (1962-1987), vol. 3, New York, Paulist Press, 1989, 525-547. MEDIA ECOLOGY, CHURCH AND PANDEMIC who preferred a single point of contact for religious leaders. In the United States, the more centralized religious groups obtained more access to broadcast networks. Other ideas of the Church, often patterns more suited to the local Church – such as the Church seen as a community of believers – aligned with interpersonal or group communication. Dulles also identified still more understandings of the Church – as sacrament, as herald of God’s word, as servant, as a place of dialogue with secular culture, and so on. All of these exist simultaneously with the others and each aligns with different communication practices. When he considered communication, Dulles’ understanding of the Church resembled an ecological model with many different parts of the Church interacting and sustaining one another in a balanced communication system. 93 Each of the historical examples and each of Dulles’ models indicate something of how a media ecology approach can help to understand parts of Church history. Because the ecology model focuses on communication, it does not attempt to explain all of the events or actions or understandings of the Church. However, the model suggests ideas about the current situation as the Church encounters challenges posed by the pandemic. Two of the proponents of the media ecology approach, Canadian theorist Marshall McLuhan and his son and collaborator, Eric McLuhan, attempted to synthesize some of the ways media ecology works in “the four laws of the media.”3 What happens, they asked, when the media ecosystem experiences disruption? They suggest some particular characteristics, posed as a set of four questions: - “What recurrence or retrieval of earlier actions and services is brought into play simultaneously by the new form?” - “When pushed to the limits of its potential, the new form will tend to reverse what had been its original characteristics. What is the reversal potential of the new form?” - “If some aspect of a situation is enlarged or enhanced, simultaneously the old condition or un-enhanced situation is

3.Cf. M. McLuhan - E. McLuhan, Laws of Media: The new science, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1988. PAUL A. SOUKUP, SJ

displaced thereby. What is pushed aside or made obsolete by the new ‘organ’?” - “What does the artefact enhance or intensify or make possible or accelerate?”4 Marshall Soules gives the example of the Internet enhancing decentralization, speed of access, and networking; reversing into information overload and isolation; making travel, distance and retail outlets obsolete; and retrieving writing, small groups and local activism.5 While these “laws” focus primarily on the media, they illustrate two more general connections. First, communication media and other events are interrelated. Whatever happens with one communication medium affects the others. While we see this most particularly with new communication technologies 94 affecting old ones (the printing press increases the efficiency of scribal copying), the phenomenon also appears as people seek new ways to use existing communication technologies (for example, the Church televising the Mass). The simultaneous dependence upon old forms and change with new forms result from the fact that each communication medium has its own specialities, that is, goals which the medium enables or makes easier to accomplish. People need not use these but they are available for development. Here, too, historical examples of unused opportunities abound, as for example the early European attempt to develop the telephone as a broadcast medium where individuals could listen to entertainment programming through shared telephone lines. This anticipated the later use of the radio even though it did not succeed for the telephone. But other opportunities do lead to successful adoption (the Internet as a social medium or the ability to livestream the Mass). Second, these “laws of the media” can apply to other kinds of historical change (Roman roads made the migration

4.Cf. G. Sandstrom, “Laws of media—The four effects: A McLuhan contribution to social epistemology”, in Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12 (2012/1) 1-6 (cf. wp.me/p1Bfg0-uc). 5.Cf. M. Soules, “McLuhan light and dark”, in Media-Studies.ca (cf. www. media-studies.ca/articles/mcluhan.htm), July 28, 2020. MEDIA ECOLOGY, CHURCH AND PANDEMIC of peoples easier; the bubonic plague indirectly led to the development of labor-saving devices, including the printing press). Whenever people deal with historical change, they often look to past experience (“retrieve” and “reverse into”) to see how they might benefit from something they knew (Gutenberg’s printed Bibles resembled manuscript Bibles in font and columnar arrangement) or recover something (the radio reinforcing the value of oral discourse after centuries of emphasis on print). The “laws of the media” also suggest how people dealt with something becoming obsolete (as motorized transport replaced animal power, wheel makers and blacksmiths became tire manufacturers or tool makers).

The impact of the pandemic on the media ecology of the Church 95 These generalizations about the “laws of the media” suggest some reflections about the impact of the pandemic on the Church, its communication and its nature. The Catholic Church largely followed the directions of public authorities to limit gatherings of people, whether for worship, sacramental celebrations, religious education or other parish activities. Bishops dispensed individuals from Sunday obligation while pastors and parochial workers looked for ways to help maintain and nurture people’s faith. These approaches varied widely across the world, but in developed countries they involved communication technologies: many parishes celebrated the Eucharist in a video format either in making the Mass available in real time or in a recorded fashion. The Vatican used broadcasting to feature the pope’s Urbi et Orbi message and other activities. The experience of these rapidly introduced changes in the routine life of the Church varied from place to place, but they included people worshiping at home in front of a screen of some kind; individuals substituting devotional activities for parish activities; individuals setting up online Bible study sessions or prayer circles; pastoral workers telephoning vulnerable (often elderly) members who did not have online connections; priests making hospital visits wearing protective coverings, more active social networking by retreat centers and online spirituality PAUL A. SOUKUP, SJ

sites, using advertising and marketing techniques to offer prayer helps, and an increased sense of the local (and voluntary) networks connecting families and friends but not necessarily the chance encounters of a parish. Some, either by necessity (no parish online Mass) or by choice (dislike of the quality of their home parish’s digital presence) used the time to explore other parishes or communities. When churches reopened, they did so to limitations on the number of worshipers (only a few family members at funerals, weddings or baptisms; limits to attendance at Mass, with the need to distribute tickets to enter); limitations on liturgical practices (physical separations, no singing, restricted manner of Eucharistic reception), and limitations on diocesan and parish autonomy, and the subsequent questioning of the knowledge 96 and authority of pastoral leaders (regarding the health and safety of parishioners, the need for certain pastoral practices, or even the obligation to attend Mass). More systematically, on the level of specific actions, the pandemic led the Church to retrieve the centrality of Eucharistic devotion and various devotional practices suited to the home. It led to a retrieval of traditions and forms of personal prayer – never forgotten but stressed now in the Church’s online ministries. It also led to a reversal back to the medieval practices of viewing or seeing the Eucharistic elements from afar but not receiving them. Similarly, it reversed the physical reception of Communion to the 18th and 19th century practices of “spiritual communion.” The responses to the pandemic have pushed aside if not made obsolete some of Church’s exercise of authority, with the directives of civil society and public health officials superseding Church law. The pandemic also curtailed face-to-face religious gatherings, whether in parishes, retreat centers, pilgrimages, and so on – in some ways the Church response to the pandemic has lessened the importance of physical place. And the pandemic enhanced the importance of the local Church with the parish maintaining its role as the most visible (even online) point of contact with the Church. It enhanced the role of other kinds of Church leadership, with the laity taking the MEDIA ECOLOGY, CHURCH AND PANDEMIC lead in religious education, spiritual direction, and even the technological services that make the Church present. Interestingly, the pandemic did not seem to affect the centralizing role of the pope and the symbolic role that the papacy so publicly plays. A decidedly negative effect was that the pandemic enhanced and even increased digital media inequalities, separating those individuals and parishes without the connections or expertise to use these technologies from those who could. Because of this the pandemic has made obsolete much of the recent movements in the Church to greater participation and inclusion. On a more general level, the pandemic also highlights how the different models of the Church suggested by Dulles interact. Like the four “laws of the media,” the models of the Church 97 exist simultaneously and with equal validity. While the Church remains an institution, a communion, a sacrament, a herald and a servant, people’s sense of and experience of the Church have changed during this time of closures. The pandemic highlighted the Church as an institution, particularly at the parish level, as parishes controlled the communication from the center to the parishioners, typically using unidirectional formats to send out information or streamed liturgies to people. On the other hand, in many locations the middle level of the institution – the diocese – tended to have less of an impact on the people. The sense of the Church as a communion decreased as face- to-face contact lessened, although some places did manage an increase of a sense of communion through social media, where individuals linked home Churches and prayer groups. The sense of the Church as sacrament shrunk as parishioners, with rare exceptions, could not participate in the celebration of the sacraments but remained limited to watching a few people celebrating the Eucharist, for example. Some few, where civil or medical officials allowed it, did manage to celebrate the sacrament of the sick. To balance this loss, many experienced an increased experience of the Church as herald, announcing God’s word. This occurred through an increase in Bible study, spiritual reflection, online spirituality, and so on, typically through PAUL A. SOUKUP, SJ

links to resources beyond the parish or diocese. Finally, many individuals banded together with institutional Church efforts to care for the sick and feed the hungry. What might this mean for the Church as it moves forward? If one draws on the “laws of the media,” it might take the idea of retrieval and draw on its historical experience of limited worship, either in those parts of the world under persecution or in others with a limited number of priests. Though not globally, the Church has had similar experiences before. Considering reversal, the Church might more consciously evaluate the practical responses taken by parishes and dioceses – practices drawn from the past like spiritual communion – and ask about their theological value. Perhaps the Church’s Eucharistic theology does not always align with its Eucharistic practice. 98 Similarly, the Church might reflect on the relative emphasis or weightthat it places on the different models of the Church. In some ways, the pandemic has shifted the relationship between the sacramental and herald models. Though public health authorities may find ways to limit the impact of the pandemic, the experience of the pandemic will remain in the memories and history of those who lived through it. Most likely, the Church will return to manyof its pre-pandemic activities but it will have the opportunity to reflect on the opportunitiespresented by this experience, on the communication and structural ecosystems that they create, and on how it made use of them in an extraordinary time. Ritual or Ritualism The spirit of Confucianism

Benoît Vermander, SJ

For Confucius, “a noble man of spirit does not use colors such as amaranth or purple for the hems of his clothes, neither 1 red nor purple for everyday wear.” The Analects of Confucius abound in similar aphorisms and, at first glance, one might wonder whether the detail of the dress standards that the 99 Chinese philosopher applied to himself retains any value in contemporary society. However, two observations allow us to immediately grasp the importance of the collection that, for us still today, documents the deeds and words of Master Kong. In the first place, Confucius teaches much less by word than by conduct: the way he dresses, how he eats, how he lies down in his bed to sleep, everything contributes to the formation of the disciples who follow him. Secondly, the practices whose observance he promotes are almost always ritual in nature. Chinese philosophers reflected on the nature and customs of ritual in the same way that Greek philosophers sought to define the law and build an ideal legal system. There is a “spirit of ritual,” and living it provides perhaps the best defense against the excesses of ritualism, excesses into which, moreover, China has often fallen. Therefore, in this article we will try to go back to the sources, to assimilate what Confucius and his first disciples thought to find in the observance of ritualism, and to propose an interpretation that makes sense today. At the same time, we must affirm the universality of an inspiration that is not only valid for China, but which,

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1.Confucius, Analects X.5. BENOÎT VERMANDER, SJ

at a time when wisdom and philosophy intersect and enrich each other, can usefully question all our societies.

What is a ritual? The term “ritual” comes from the Latin expression ritualis liber, a book that describes in detail the rituals to be performed. The word ritus (equivalent of the Greek word nomos) designates a “way to celebrate” (a sacrifice, for example), a sequence of gestures and attitudes. The concrete expressions of a cult (the content of the rite itself, if you like) were indicated by the words sacra and caerimoniae. In French, Italian and English, among other languages, the term “rite” applies both to a mode of action specific to a particular tradition (e.g., “Antiochene rite”) and to a specific 100 action. To speak of “ritualization” means to evoke the way in which a behavior is codified, which thus becomes normative. We could also talk about the progressive ritualization of great sports competitions. Psychologists often consider ritualization as a mechanism that allows us to socially control the manifestation of emotions. “Deritualization” is the opposite phenomenon. The term is mostly used to indicate the propensity of Western societies to privilege the spontaneous and subjective expression of emotional states over ceremonies; the disappearance of rites of passage or initiation (which often took place also in Christian ceremonies) would be its main symptom today. Risk behaviors, frequent among adolescents, can then appear as a form of compensation for the absence of rites of passage sanctioned by society. Institutions strive to restore rites, for example, with the awarding of university diplomas. The rite is invented, disappears, reinvents itself. Moreover, its organization and its manifestation generate power or redistribute it. Who controls the ritual controls the image of itself that society creates. The rites often intersect with religious, social and political dimensions. Roman religion gave the sacred an eminently civic value. But the gods driven out of temples are replaced by others, wrote Durkheim: the nation, the Republic or human rights now receive their share of homage. And the same ritual event can have different meanings: when the emperor of China took RITUAL OR RITUALISM: THE SPIRIT OF CONFUCIANISM the plow on the prescribed date, the sacred organization of the Empire was celebrated, but it was really an agrarian rite, a rite of fertility which took place when the emperor enacted the ritual. Are these themes completely outdated today? One is entitled to doubt it. In China, until the end of the 1980s, the two main civil celebrations were the National Holiday (October 1) and Labor Day (May 1). These dates corresponded exactly to the beginning of two seasons of “sacred effervescence” that Marcel Granet identified in the ancient Chinese agrarian religion.2 Beyond the “major feasts,” there are also almost-ignored “small rituals”, what Erwin Goffman described as “rituals of interaction.” It is they that enliven our daily social contacts, and failure to follow them is becoming one of the main causes of the deterioration of the social bond.3 It involves the mode of 101 shaking hands or bowing, of giving thanks or giving way, where the ignorance of a person from outside the group is forgiven, but violation by someone who has been initiated can only be compensated for by a restorative ritual, of which the simple fact of apologizing is the most simple expression. Today, “ritual studies” have been included among academic disciplines, at the crossroads between anthropology and social psychology. The Romans and the Greeks already knew how to conduct a detached reflection on the rituals that governed their collective life. Think of Cicero’s De divinatione, which questioned the legitimacy and effectiveness of the process of divination, or the way Livy recounted the ceremonial that accompanied what he called “the first contract concluded in history” (Ab Urbe condita, I, 24, 3-9). It was based on sacrifices and oaths that bound each of the parties present, under pain of being cursed by their own gods. Likewise, the biblical texts narrating the refounding of the community after exile – the books of Ezra and Nehemiah above all – present rituals that

2.See M. Granet, La religion des Chinois, Paris, Albin Michel, 2010. 3.“The ‘I’ is in part a ceremonial and sacred object, which should be treated with the necessary ritual care and presented to others in an appropriate light. One of the means by which this ‘I’ is formed is the good behavior of the individual toward others and respect for them” (F. Goffman, Les rites d’interaction, Paris, les éditions de minuit, 1974, 81). BENOÎT VERMANDER, SJ

accompany it, an account that is not only normative, but in many ways ethnographic, “detached.” Ancient Chinese texts, particularly Confucian ones, also contain fundamental insights for our subject. These are the ones we want to examine here.

‘Li’ and ‘ji’ in China: Confucian intuition A very common Chinese character in ancient texts represents a cereal soup deposited in a container and offered to supernatural beings. Sometime after its first appearances in bronze inscriptions, a radical, meaning “spiritual,” “spirits” or “sacred things,” was added. In China, this character (pronounced li) ended up designating a set of ritual behaviors. Another character, ji, very explicitly represents a hand holding a piece of flesh being presented to the spirits. The (the bloody sacrifice) 102 ji is one of the modalities of the li that, while representing the sacrifice, presents a much wider range of meanings. The rite, according to Gilles Boileau, “is the primordial expression of the concrete historical deployment of the ancient social, political and religious institutions of China.”4 As they constitute an immediately political activity, “rite” and “sacrifice” establish a relationship whose elements can hardly be dissociated. At feasts, in offerings to ancestors, meat and vegetable products complement each other. Jean Lévy observed: “The management of the country and the activity of worship overlap or, rather, to govern means to sacrifice.”5 The Shuowen jiezi (the first Chinese dictionary, completed at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D.) defines the li with its “putting into practice” (lü): “Rite: putting into practice. That with which we serve the spirits to obtain blessings.” It is a “doing,” a way of behaving in which the essence of the rite consists. Now, the effects and the rationale of ritual making constitute one of the essential themes of the reflection of Chinese

4.G. Boileau, Politique et rituel dans la Chine ancienne, Paris, Collège de France - Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, Bibliothèque de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, vol. XXXVII, 2013, 11. 5.J. Levy, “Le rite, la norme, le Tao: philosophie du sacrifice et transcendance du pouvoir en Chine ancienne”, in Lagerwey (ed.), Religion et société en Chine ancienne et médiévale, Paris, Cerf, 2009, 166. RITUAL OR RITUALISM: THE SPIRIT OF CONFUCIANISM thinkers, at least from the time of Confucius until the beginning of the Han Empire. While Greek philosophers reflected on the being of things, at the same time their Chinese counterparts discussed human action (whose paradigm is provided by ritual action): this was the focus of their reflections. In 1972 a small book was published by the American philosopher Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular As Sacred, which proposed a contemporary reading of Confucius’ Analects. This Chinese philosopher, wrote Fingarette, had been able to perceive in the regulation of our interactions “the magic of the social,” what makes it possible – one might say, in a natural way – for society to work. We have already seen it with regard tithe rituals of interaction described by Goffman: the right way to shake hands, to ask, to thank and to reciprocate; this is what 103 moves everyone into action, makes everyone react positively, triggers the life-giving dynamic of exchange. One understands then the continuity of the principle established by Confucius among the daily courtesies and the most solemn ceremonies: “The explicitly sacred rites can be seen as a deliberate, intense and highly elaborate extension of daily civil intercommunication.”6 Confucius does not consider this initial observation as a simple record of fact, but sees in ritual practice the characteristics of a social ideal: “Human life in its totality at the end appears as a ritual, at the same time vast, spontaneous and holy, the community of people.”7 Therefore, the defects that can eventually be noted in the functioning of the ritual reveal the social shortcomings. In the observance of the ritual, work is done on oneself (and first of all on the body8), which leads to full personal fulfillment, and at the same time work on the social, so that the ritual observance is based on respect, humanity and justice. The li is not only a practice, but a virtue, that of the relational effort that makes the person and the group fully civilized. This virtue has the

6.H. Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular As Sacred, New York, Harper & Row, 1972, 11. 7.Ibid., 17. 8.Learning to dress, to stand up straight, to bow, to know when and what to eat, drink or not to drink, and to respect these rules: it is always the body that internalizes social discipline. BENOÎT VERMANDER, SJ

characteristic of revealing itself as innate, of manifesting itself spontaneously in all circumstances. It reaches out to and realizes what Confucius calls the ren, that is, the “virtue of humanity” (“empathy,” as it is sometimes translated). The latter is rooted in human nature, but it must gradually find its social expression; it must be educated. The encounter between li and ren corresponds to the perfect combination of the natural and the cultural. Asked about the means to develop the virtue of humanity in one’s inner self, Confucius answers: “Do not look at anything that does not conform to ancient ritual norms; do not mention anything that does not conform to ancient ritual norms, and do nothing that does not conform to ancient ritual norms.”9 The ritual practice, as presented by the Chinese philosopher 104 and some subsequent texts, at the same time commands and liberates. As with musical performance, it reveals the degree of sincerity and inner freedom of the performer. The person who lives according to humanity and rituals can be compared to one of the sacred vessels in which ritual gifts are offered in the right way10; that person is somehow sanctified by this practice. At the same time – it should be noted – the exercise of rites outside the substratum provided by the virtue of humanity is only a dead letter, a letter from which the spirit has departed. “Those without benevolence (ren), what relationship can they have with the ancient ritual rules? Those without benevolence, what relationship can they have with music?”11

Strengths and limits of a tradition This original Confucian conception, which could be further specified, has an evocative force that his successors will develop in different directions. It will also be the object of strong criticism within the Chinese tradition itself. Based on distinctions, on peculiarities, this concept threatens the original unity of the Way, the Taoists will say. Its substantial ritualism leads to inequalities and unjustified expenditures, the Mohists will say. To educate someone

9.Confucius, Analects XII.1. 10.H. Fingarette, Confucius... , op. cit., 79. 11.Confucius, Analects III.3. RITUAL OR RITUALISM: THE SPIRIT OF CONFUCIANISM through ritualistic convention and to appeal to that person’s sense of humanity is a deception, the Legalists will say; only fear of punishment can guarantee social harmony. However, in the course of Chinese history, reflection on ritual as a privileged means of both humanizing and socializing will continue in various ways. The reflection on ritual conducted by the Confucian school therefore sees in it a knowledge that is literally “incorporated,” which introduces fixity and order in the inconstant and fluid, bringing about a transformation of the one who participates in the ritual action. If power was able to instrumentalize the ritual – and did not hesitate to do so – the Chinese authors have at the same time theorized it as an exercise of a regulatory function of control, the pacification and limitation of appetites12; the ritual brings about a human and spiritual transformation that places 105 us in an ever wider horizon. This reflection is associated with a conception of harmony (he) based above all on cultural practices (musical, culinary, ritual), a conception that regulates rhetoric and political practice.13 The excellence and taste shown in musical performance are an indication of the degree of permanence that a state can hope to achieve. The notion of harmony, as well as political, is cosmic: the Way of the Cosmos is music (ritual14), and the Way of Music is cosmic. The Book of Rites (Liji) makes the exchange of energies (qi) between Earth and Heaven a work that is both musical and ritual. Since music is the “engine” of the cosmos, ritual musical performance contributes to the good functioning of the latter. Therefore, far from seeing their symbolic importance diminish over time, ritual performance and its musical dimension receive an increasingly important place in Chinese thought.

12.In the ritual everyone receives what they are entitled to. Theymust eat and drink in an orderly manner and without excesses. The ritual, which educates to peaceful social behavior, represses lust. 13.E. Brindley, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China, Albany, SUNY, 2012. 14.Music and rituals were inseparable in ancient China. The rite differentiates, the music unites:;so states the Yueji chapter of the Book of Rites. It must be understood that the two operations go together; one cannot differentiate without uniting, nor unite without differentiating. This is the very principle of good social and cosmic functioning. BENOÎT VERMANDER, SJ

Xunzi (c. 310-235 B.C.) systematizes Confucian thought on the li in a way that differs both from the more muted approach attempted by Confucius and the essentially moral accent stressed by another disciple of Confucius, Mencius. In his homonymous work, Xunzi, there are about 320 uses of the li character (not counting the additional mentions that link it to the name of a specific ritual). For Xunzi, the exercise of the ritual recapitulates all the orders of existence; it manifests the distinctions necessary for common existence (sexes, classes, functions, generations), while distributing the resources, bringing about general satisfaction. It is therefore a factor of order and harmony in the human world. It gives energy, contributes to beautify and refine existence (aesthetic function), instructs wise men and government officials. In short, there can be no education, 106 no aesthetic or moral sense, no accomplished person or wise government without the “careful” exercise of ritual.15 “Rite is what is used to administer scrupulously [matters concerning] life and death.”16

‘So choose life’ In Chinese tradition, Xunzi, who emphasizes the necessary regulation of external conduct, is often contrasted with Mencius, an interior educator. But beyond this opposition the two thinkers also have points in common when they place the ritual right on the border between life and death. Answering the question whether the ritual is more important than food or sex, Mencius asks if hunger could push his opponent to twist his brother’s arm to take his livelihood by force, or if sexual appetite could induce him to climb over his neighbor’s wall to take possession of his daughter.17 At the same time, while the ritual rules prohibit a man and a woman from simply touching hands in the exchange of food – and the rule is even stricter in the relationship between sister-in-law and brother-in-law – Mencius describes as a “wolf” the man who is not willing to

15.Cf. Masayuki Sato, The Confucian Quest for Order: The Origin and Formation of the Political Thought of Xunzi, Leiden, Brill, 2003, 419-423. 16.Xunzi, Lilun, 17. 17.Mencius, Gaozi II.1-2. RITUAL OR RITUALISM: THE SPIRIT OF CONFUCIANISM save his sister-in-law from drowning by grabbing her.18 The ritual is made for people, not people for the ritual! As for Xunzi, his pessimism about human nature induces him to see in the rite the only (and fragile) barrier that defends “the humanity of man”. “Eliminate the rite, and it is a return to animality, and therefore to the death of the individual and the species.” Curiously enough, the connection of the ritual with matters of life and death is also present in the Taoists, who are often considered opposed in principle to social conventions.19 When his wife dies, Zhuangzi squats on a vase, beats it like a drum and sings.20 If in this gesture there is a clear violation of Confucian rules, it is also possible to find in it a “counter ritual” (strongly reminiscent of shamanic practices), aimed at celebrating the continuous transformation of everything, the fluidity of life, 107 which constantly adopts new expressions. After all, the celebration of the rite carried out by the Chinese before the advent of the Empire delineates a utopian society, society in which interpersonal relationships, as well as those that unite humanity to the supernatural, would be so well regulated and internalized that no central authority could be imposed, except that of a power of a symbolic nature, which would remain “as immobile as the polar star.”21 This utopia will be opposed by legalists, who believe that only fear of punishment and the objectification of laws can remedy the rampant unrest. The ritualist utopia will then be recovered by the Han Empire, but then it will become the ideological clothing of a strong power and will easily turn into ritualism. On several occasions Chinese thinkers will remember the insistence originally placed on rituals, but they will appear as the justification of a procedural, hierarchical and patriarchal power.

18.Id., Lilou 1.17. 19.This description should be strongly qualified The Taoists denounce the camouflage of the convention as “natural law,” rather than contesting the necessity of its introduction into social relations. On the other hand, the story of the butcher Ding, court sacrificer, who has become so expert in handling the knife that it never blunts (Chapter 3 of Zhuangzi), is clearly written by a specialist in the ritual. 20.Cf. Zhuangzi, c. 18. 21.Confucius, Analects II.1. BENOÎT VERMANDER, SJ

This oscillation is no different from that which occurred in the Jewish context, and later in the Christian world. The worship to be rendered to God must be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23); the letter of the law, like that of the rite, brings death if the spirit does not overcome and thus vivify it. Both the rite and the law are phases of an educational process, until the moment when the heart instinctively teaches the inner conduct that pleases Heaven. “The Master said: ‘At fifteen years old I was dedicated to study, at thirty I was firm [in observance of the norms], at forty I had no doubts, at fifty I understood the heavenly decree, at sixty I knew how to listen and at seventy I followed the impulses of my heart without committing transgressions.’”22 In the Judeo-Christian world, as well as in the Chinese world, all paths of humanization start from the heart and lead back to 108 it. In a passage that can be defined as “soteriological,” Mencius requires that everyone commit themselves to seek a master who will make them find their “lost heart.” Among other subjects, this master will teach the right ritual conduct. But, both with his conduct and with his words, he will show above all what the ritual indicates: “Benevolence [ren] is the heart of man; 23 righteousness (yi ) is the way of man. To abandon the way and not follow it, to lose one’s heart and not know how to seek it again, is a real sin! If one loses his chickens or his dogs, he will certainly start looking for them. On the other hand, if he loses his heart, he no longer thinks about looking for it. The purpose of education and moral cultivation is nothing other than this: to look for one’s lost heart.”24

22.Ibid., II.4. 23.The yi character means at the same time “justice,” “righteousness” and “diligence” in behavior. It is therefore an expression, already ritualized, of the sense of humanity (empathy) that is present in the human heart and is the basis of social existence. 24.Mencius, Gaozi I.11.