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15 December 2017 Monthly Year 1

Discern and Accompany: Indications from

Toward the 2018 Synod on Young .11 o People, Faith and Discernment

Christians in Muslim Lands

OLUME 1, N 1, OLUME Moments of Doubt V Venezuela Sinks to New Depths 2017

Christian Art and Contemporary Culture

Korea’s Present and Future

Parliamentary Elections in Germany

CONTENTS 1117

BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS

Copyright, 2017, Union of 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 permission. Inquires Giovanni Cucci SJ, Diego Fares SJ, should be made to the publisher. Francesco Occhetta SJ, Giovanni Sale SJ

Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editor Virgilio Fantuzzi SJ, ISSN: 2207-2446 Giandomenico Mucci SJ, GianPaolo Salvini SJ ISBN: 978-1-925612-30-1 (paperback) Contributing Editor 978-1-925612-31-8 (ebook) Luke Hansen SJ 978-1-925612-32-5 (kindle) Published by Union of Catholic Asian News P.O. Box 80488, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong Phone: +852 2727 2018 Fax: +852 2772 7656 www.ucanews.com Publishers: Michael Kelly SJ and Robert Barber Production Manager: Rangsan Panpairee Grithanai Napasrapiwong CONTENTS 1117

15 December 2017 Monthly Year 1

1 Discern and Accompany Indications from Amoris Laetitia Juan Carlos Scannone, SJ

14 Young People, Faith and Discernment The 2018 Synod: Indications of an incomplete document Diego Fares, SJ

28 Christians in Muslim Lands An ancient, contrasting and multifaceted story Marc Rastoin, SJ

40 Moments of Doubt Giovanni Cucci, SJ

54 Venezuela Sinks to New Depths Arturo Peraza, SJ

67 Christian Art and Contemporary Culture Between decline and hope of redemption Andrea Dall’Asta, SJ

78 Korea’s Present and Future An interview with Hyginus Kim Hee-joong Antonio Spadaro, SJ

90 Parliamentary Elections in Germany Andreas R. Batlogg, SJ ABSTRACTS

ARTICLE 1 DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY Indications from Amoris Laetitia

Juan Carlos Scannone, SJ

The Father loves his Son as “the concrete-living one,” says Romano Guardini, and he loves each and every one of us individually in Christ as “concrete- living beings” in our unrepeatable uniqueness. It follows that such universality and singularity cannot correspond in morality to a mere unequivocal and ahistorical casuistry, nor even to an equivocal and relativistic situation ethics. What is required is an accurate discernment, like the one proposed by the Amoris Laetitia, a personal discernment, accompanied by an ecclesial pastoral discernment that confirms it. The author is a professor for the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel at the Universidad del Salvador in Argentina.

ARTICLE 14 YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT The 2018 Synod: Indications of an incomplete document

Diego Fares, SJ

The preparatory document for the next Synod of Bishops on “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment” was presented in January 2017. The framework of the document may be very useful during the period of consultation of the People of . In this “reader’s guide” we will indicate some key points on which it would be helpful to take some time to benefit from reflection, and others – as indicated by the document itself – where it is possible to make some contribution.

ABSTRACTS

ARTICLE 28 CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS An ancient, contrasting and multifaceted story

Marc Rastoin, SJ

Life for Christians in countries with a Muslim majority is often difficult. The situation is not simple even in countries that do not adhere to an integralist ideology. Throughout history, conditions have often changed, and a certain level of tolerance in some periods and places has let Christians survive in Islamic countries and participate in civil life. It is worth considering why Christians are still present in Egypt but have disappeared from the rest of North Africa, and what elements can support the survival of these Christian communities today in Islamic countries. The author is a Biblical scholar and teaches Sacred Scripture at the Centre Sèvres in Paris.

ARTICLE 40 MOMENTS OF DOUBT

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

Counseling the doubtful is a spiritual work of mercy widely attested to since the origin of Christianity. It shows the intellectual and wisdom dimension of the discipleship of Jesus and of the works of charity. It is not a technique that is learned, a sort of persuasive ability, but it is tied essentially to knowledge and to the spiritual path. This article presents some of its essential features and shows the present and urgent nature of this work for our time. The author is on the college of writers for La Civiltà Cattolica. ABSTRACTS

FOCUS 54 VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS

Arturo Peraza, SJ

In the first months of 2017 there was a dangerous shift in the Venezuelan crisis. On July 30, 2017, after the Supreme Court had disbanded Parliament, a Constituent National Assembly was established in violation of the Venezuelan constitutional rules and against the will of the majority of the population. Despite various attempts at mediation, particularly by the , the government in office does not appear to be giving up on its increasingly authoritarian model of governance, and the country is sinking to new depths of poverty and violence. The author is Deputy Director of the Guayana section of the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, Venezuela.

ART, MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT 67 CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE Between decline and hope of redemption

Andrea Dall’Asta, SJ

The relationship between Christianity and the visual arts has been configured in the European world, albeit between alternate events, as the story of a close and fruitful alliance. But this close tie has withered with the passing of the centuries and above all today with increasing secularization. How has the Church reacted to this historic crisis? On the one hand the temptation to reinsert postmodernism within tradition takes on the nostalgic flavor of a return to a mythical and reassuring past. On the other hand the real challenge is to listen to the questions and contradictions of our time. Art is called to be prophetic again and indicate new horizons of meaning for people today. The author is the director of the San Fedele Art Gallery in Milan. ABSTRACTS

INTERVIEWS 78 KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE An interview with Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

The mission of the Church in Korea; the meaning and context of the escalating tension around North Korea, aware of the interests of the superpowers; the need for a new and mutual trust between the Holy See and China after an era of colonialism and an age of persecutions; the important and positive challenges that the Asian continent brings to the Church and the world: these are some of the issues of a far-reaching conversation between the president of the Korean Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong, and the editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, Fr. Antonio Spadaro. This interview presents a first analysis of Francis’ visit to Korea that was deeply stimulating for the ecclesial fabric there. The article also describes the contrasting tones of a dynamic and vibrant, multicultural and multilingual Korea, where Christian, Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist religious traditions peacefully coexist.

FOCUS 90 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

Andreas R. Batlogg, SJ

Angela Merkel has received her fourth mandate as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. There was little doubt about the outcome, yet this result was accompanied by new factors. In fact, what emerged from the recent German parliamentary elections is anything but an outright victory: a defeat in terms of votes for the coalition that supports the premier; the defeat of the Social Democratic Party of Martin Schulz that has moved into opposition; and the rise of the extreme right of the Alternative for Germany, which threatens to be a combative opposition. As for the formation of the government, a new coalition seems to have emerged between Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the Free Democrats and the Greens, while Cardinal has been calling for “verbal disarmament.” The author is editor in chief of the German magazine Stimmen der Zeit. Annual Digital Subscription $79

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• Parliamentary Elections in Germany Educational and bulk rates are available, please email [email protected] Discern and Accompany: Indications from Amoris Laetitia

Juan Carlos Scannone, SJ

Miserando atque eligendo is the motto chosen by Jorge Mario Bergoglio for his episcopal crest, and he has kept it as pope. It refers not only to the mercy of God but also to the fact that God chooses Bergoglio – just as each one of us – in a singular, 1 personalized and personalizing way. It is the merciful love of the Father with which God loves his Son – in the terminology of Romano Guardini – as “the concrete-living person,” and God loves each and every one of us individually in Christ as “concrete-living persons” in our own unrepeatable uniqueness. We recall that Bergoglio had chosen as the core of his doctoral dissertation in theology the work of Guardini titled “Der Gegensatz: Versuche zu einer Philosophie des Lebendig-Konkreten” (The Opposite: Toward a Philosophy of the Concrete-Living Person),1 thinking, in the first place, of Christ, but also of each and every human person as singular and unique. Guardini’s “concrete-living person” corresponds to the “concrete universal” of Maurice Blondel (very different from the Hegelian one) or to that which the Argentine philosopher Mario Casalla calls the “situated universal,”2 whose universality is true

1.Cf. R. Guardini, Der Gegensatz: Versuche zu einer Philosophie des Lebendig- Konkreten, Mainz, Grünewald, 1985. For a recent Italian version cf. L’opposizione polare: Saggio per una filosofia del concreto vivente, Rome, La Civiltà Cattolica - Corriere della Sera, 2014. 2.Cf. F. Lefèvre, L’itinéraire philosophique de Maurice Blondel. Propos recueillis par Frédéric Lefèvre, Paris, Spes, 1928; and M. Casalla, “Filosofía y cultura nacional en la situación latinoamericana contemporánea,” in O. Ardiles et Al., Hacia una filosofía de la liberación latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Bonum, 1973, 38-52. On the analogical and situated universal cf. J. C. Scannone, Religión y nuevo pensamiento. Hacia una filosofía de la religión para nuestro tiempo desde América Latina, Barcelona - México D. F., Anthropos - UAM (Iztapalapa), 2005, JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

and not abstract. It is concrete, living, situated and analogical according to the historical times, cultural spaces and personal singularities. It follows that such a type of universality and singularity does not correspond – in morality – to a mere unequivocal and ahistorical casuistry, nor to equivocal and relativistic situation ethics, but to a careful personal spiritual discernment, like that proposed by the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL): personal discernment accompanied by an ecclesial pastoral discernment that confirms it, with a view to finding the will of the Father, according to Christ as the final criterion, in the light and power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Lord Jesus and the Spirit are the two hands of the Father in the practice of personal and 2 ecclesial discernment. In the always singular and unique history of these “concrete persons” that we human beings are, there is Christ – as the Gospel teaches – the final objective criterion of discernment, and the Spirit, his most intimate subjective mover.

Personal discernment Among the notes Bergoglio made for his doctoral dissertation, he transcribed and commented on a dream that Guardini had experienced and narrated.3 The philosopher had told how it was revealed to him in the dream that at birth every man and every woman receives his or her own word or sort of password (in German, Passwort) that is at once a gift (Gabe) and a task (Aufgabe), a security and a risk. So what happens in the rest of life is or should be the translation, clarification, realization and fulfilment of that living word. Such a word is given to each and every person in circumstances that are always different. It is a guide on the pathway and a principle of discernment so as to lead us in our

ch. 7. Von Balthasar also speaks of analogy when referring to the personalizing and singular vocations and missions of each one of us: cf. H. Urs von Balthasar, Theodramatik, vol. 2: Die Personen des Spiels, part 2: Die Personen in Christus, Einsiedeln, Johannes Verlag, 1978, 256 f (Italian translation Teodrammatica, vol. 2: Le persone del dramma, parte 2: L’uomo in Cristo, Milan, Jaca Book, 1983, 259 f). 3.Cf. D. J. Fares, “Prefazione. L’arte di guardare il mondo,” in R. Guardini, L’opposizione polare…, cit., VIII f, note 1. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA

searching and finding the present will of God. It not only leads us in choosing our own vocations and missions in life, but can also do so in the so-called “irregular situations.” In fact, it is not a matter of applying a static syllogism with abstract and timeless general principles, but of an in-history spiritual procedure that is dynamic, contextualized and open. We could say that the password or word-proclamation indicates the singular choice, vocation and mission of each person, the call of God, that is like our own name – that He gives us freely – and that, according to Guardini, will be the basis of the word that the just Judge will speak to us on the last day. In the notes he made to prepare his dissertation, Bergoglio calls it the “existential kerygma,”4 and it precedes the evangelical kerygma, given that the latter is rooted in it just as redemption 3 is rooted in creation. All life is a positive or negative response to that primordial call that each human person feels inside, for it touches their intelligent hearts, that is to say their personal intimacy. So, life is filled with encounters, dis-encounters, and re- encounters with the living word that calls us. The encounters and re-encounters show our con-sonances or vital con-cordance with it, while the dis-sonances are the sign either of the quest for the encounter that has not yet taken place, or of the dis- encounter. St. Ignatius affirms that those who go from good to better sweetly absorb the divine call like a sponge does a drop of water, not rejecting it like a stone. So, following an auditory metaphor, we will speak of affective consonance and dissonance and, using Ignatian spiritual terms, respectively of consolation and desolation. To understand the profound knowledge of the will of God that is thereby obtained we can use what calls in other contexts the “affective connaturality born of love”5 or the fact that “God grants the totality of the faithful an instinct of faith – the sensus fidei – that helps them to discern what is truly of God. The presence of the Spirit gives Christians a sort of connaturality with divine realities and a wisdom that

4.Cf. ibid, IX-XI. 5.Francis, Apostolic Exhortation , n. 125. JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

allows them to grasp them intuitively, even when they lack the means to express them precisely.”6 In both texts the pope alludes explicitly to knowledge per connaturalitatem, taught by St. Thomas Aquinas when he spoke of the gift of wisdom. This is not a matter of mere emotion, but of the heart in Pascal’s sense, 7 of Plato’s thymos, as Paul Ricœur interprets it, of an intelligent and wise feeling. This Bergoglian interpretation of Guardini recalls the call and response event in contemporary French phenomenology, as seen in Emmanuel Lévinas, Paul Ricœur, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Michel Henry (in part) and especially Jean-Luc Marion, with his phenomenological reduction to pure form of the call as an absolutely originating gift.8 4 In our opinion, what Bergoglio then called “existential kerygma” (transferred from the evangelical) is the same experience as the first time of choice9: it implies we unhesitatingly allow ourselves to be moved by the call of God, like Matthew, or Paul at Damascus, dying to our “own love, desire and interest,” to convert to the Lord and rise thereby to a new life. From this it follows that the second time of choice – that discerns through consolations and desolations – does so on the basis of the consonances and dissonances with respect to the kerygma lived in faith that works through charity. In fact, the rhythm of consolations and desolations maps out – for those discerning – an orientation and

6.Ibid., n. 119. 7.On knowledge through connaturality in St. Thomas, cf. among others Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 45, a. 2, c. Ricœur puts it into relation with the heart and with the platonic thymos: cf. P. Ricœur, Finitude et culpabilité, I: L’homme faillible, Paris, Aubier, 1960. 8.We refer especially to J.-L. Maarion, Réduction et donation. Recherches sur Husserl, Heidegger et la phénoménologie, Paris, Puf, 1989, 272-302; ibid., Étant donné. Essai d’une phénoménologie de la donation, ibid., 1997, 28 f. 9.Cf. , “Three Times for Electing” and “The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits,” in ibid., Spiritual Exercises, respectively nos. 175-188 and 313-336. cf. J. C. Scannone, Discernimiento filosófico de la acción y pasión históricas. Planteo para el mundo global desde América Latina, Barcelona - México D. F., Anthropos - Universidad Iberoamericana, 2009; ibid., “Church and Spiritual Discernment in a Secular Age and a Global World,” in Atti del Congresso “Renewing the Church in a Secular Age. Holistic Dialogue and Kenotic Vision,” Rome, Pontifical Gregorian University, March 4-5, 2015. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA an itinerary toward a response that is as faithful as possible to the call of God at any moment. and the Uruguayan Jesuit bishop and theologian Daniel Gil – using different terminology – interpreted this second Ignatian time of choice this way, relating it to the first. Consolations effectively make us consent to what the Lord wants for us in the here and now, and the desolations put us on alert for any possible discordance.10 Finally, the third time of choice takes place in a more peaceful moment, without consolations or desolations. Those who make the Spiritual Exercises do so with reason illuminated by faith, both weighing before God the reasons for and against a decision, and deciding how they would do so in the definitive moment of death or at the Last Judgment and so on: turning finally to the divine confirmation through interior peace and harmony, thanks to the 5 agreement with what Bergoglio calls the “existential kerygma,” clarified and transformed by the “evangelical kerygma.” In our opinion, reason acts not in a casuistic way but in an analogical one. Its use corresponds to what today the Mexican Dominican philosopher Mauricio Beuchot and his school call the “analogical hermeneutic.”11 Whatever the moment of choice is, all three times presuppose Ignatian indifference, which consists – so as not to deceive oneself – in a loving preference for the will of God against our own, liberated from “disordered affections.” Aristotle taught that wise and prudent actions in practical questions of ethics and politics presuppose an “ordered desire.”12 And in an era closer to our own, those whom Ricœur called “masters of suspicion” (Marx, Freud, Nietzsche) have alerted us to illusions under the form of goods and to possible mistrust13 due to a lack of affective uprightness.

10.Cf. K. Rahner, “Die Logik der existentiellen Erkenntnis bei Ignatius von Loyola,” in ibid., Das Dynamische in der Kirche, Freiburg, Herder, 1958, 74-148; D. Gil, La consolación sin causa precedente. Estudio hermenéutico-teológico sobre los n° 330, 331 y 336 de los Ejercicios Espirituales de San Ignacio de Loyola y sus principales comentaristas, Rome - Montevideo, CIS, 1971. 11.Cf. M. Beuchot, Tratado de hermenéutica analógica, México D. F., Ítaca, 1997. 12.Cf. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, l. VI, ch. 2. 13.Cf. P. Ricœur, “La critique de la religion,” in Bulletin du Centre Protestant 16 (1964) 5-16. JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

This is why the Canadian Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan asks – for the work of theological science – an “affective conversion” as a completion and assurance of ethical conversion and as integration of a Christian religious conversion in the “dynamic state of being in love” with God who loved us first.14 Now this Ignatian way of proceeding is obviously important in choosing a state of life or for major decisions that concern life, community and mission. But the pope exhorts us to apply it – both personally and also pastorally – in all cases, even and especially to the most difficult ones. The difficult cases cannot be resolved through a mere syllogistic application of a norm, but with reference to situations that occur within limits, conditions 6 and historical contingencies – psychological, cultural, social and even biological15 – that require discernment.

Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness The eighth chapter of Amoris Laetitia has this title: Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness. It is not the central chapter of the exhortation, nor is it the most important, but it is the one that for many is a cause for concern. It promotes the path of discernment that comes from mercy faced with human weakness; and it continues to recognize, following Vatican II, the objective worth of subjective conscience.16 Concerning the first point, Francis had already encouraged us to “care for the vulnerable”17 with a theological stance of mercy in Evangelii Gaudium and in Laudato Si’. This implies loving with the tenderness of charity those who are weak and suffering. Amoris Laetitia is concerned with the weakness of “injured families” (AL 305), a sign of our times. These people are asking for a current response from the Church, a merciful

14.Cf. B. Lonergan, “Natural Rights and Historical Mindness,” in F. Crowe (ed.), A Third Collection. Papers by Bernard J. F. Lonergan S.I., New York - London, Paulist Press, 1985, 161-183. 15.Cf. Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, nos. 301-303; 308. 16.Among the many comments on Amoris Laetitia, cf. the dossier “‘Amoris Laetitia’: Il discernimento,” in Vita Pastorale 7 (2016) 33-50; cf. particularly M. Yáñez, “Le situazioni irregolari,” 44-47. 17.Cf. Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, nos. 209-216. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA

“field hospital” (AL 291), following the heart of Christ. In it, loving, motherly compassion must be connected to the demands of truth and justice. At the same time, following the Vatican II Constitution Gaudium et Spes (cf. GS 16), chapter eight recognizes – in line with traditional teaching – the dignity of moral conscience as the ultimate, de facto criterion of morality. Pastorally, we need to know how to respect it and not arrogantly substitute for it, even if forming it. In fact, conscience, while being subjective, is part of factual reality and historical objectivity. So the exhortation affirms that “individual conscience needs to be better incorporated into the Church’s praxis in some situations that do not objectively embody our understanding of marriage” (AL 303). Hence the need for personal and ecclesial discernment. 7 In no way is there discussion of changing the doctrine on chastity before marriage or the indissolubility of Christian marriage; it is a matter of looking anew at the consequences, especially with regard to what has been called “state of sin.” It must be recognized that, even if such a state is objectively present, it is not automatic that those living in such a state are always deprived of the grace of God. So the pope affirms: “a negative judgment about an objective situation does not imply a judgment about the imputability or culpability of the person involved” (AL 302). He goes on, “Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end” (AL 305), including the sacraments (cf. AL note 351). So the Church can change its disciplinary mandate of denying absolution and communion in those cases without changing its doctrine, but applying it rather to each single situation with a personal and ecclesial discernment using “discreet” charity. This recognizes that those living together as husband and wife or in merely civil unions or who are divorced and remarried can realize the Christian ideal “at least in a partial and analogous way” (AL 292) and “participate in the life of the Church in an incomplete JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

manner” (AL 291). In the same way the Church “does not disregard the constructive elements in those situations that do not yet or no longer correspond to her teaching on marriage” (AL 292), nor “those signs of love that in some way reflect God’s own love” (AL 294) that are present in these situations. The exhortation recalls the biographical, psychological, social, and cultural limits and conditions affecting freedom and the already mentioned mitigating circumstances.18 The infinite number of different possible circumstances impedes there being “a new set of general rules, canonical in nature” (AL 300), given that general norms “in their formulation cannot provide absolutely for all particular situations” (AL 304). Hence the option for accompanied pastoral discernment able to recognize that a given solution resulting from 8 a discernment is “for now the most generous response that can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal” (AL 303). Obviously, self-deception cannot be excluded. This is why there is a need for ecclesial accompaniment and for listening to spiritual masters with their counsels and rules of discernment; above all there is need for a true ethical and religious conversion. This always includes an affective conversion to seek and find the authentic will of God in the choice of the best possible good in a given existential and historical circumstance, that is to say in a given “here and now,” dynamically open to new steps of spiritual growth. We recall the Aristotelian need for an “ordered desire” for every prudent practical decision, and the Ignatian overcoming of “disordered affections” to make a good choice, recognizing that such a work of conversion is gradual in the measure of the possible, according to the limits of each moment, and that it must continue for all of life.

Ecclesial and pastoral discernment The Church does not abandon people in these situations, leaving them alone with their consciences. She accompanies them as mother and teacher in their free Christian responsibilities

18.Cf. ibid., Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, nos. 301-302; 308. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA

toward God. She does so by forming them and informing them, and at the same time witnessing to them the mercy of God and staying “attentive to the goodness that the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness,” as “a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, ‘always does what good she can, even if in the process her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street’” (AL 308). The entire papal exhortation insists on this formation of consciences, even if neither the synod nor the pope himself proposes a “new set of general rules” (AL 300). Added to these teachings of the universal Magisterium of the Church are the pastoral directions of the local bishop, of which Francis speaks explicitly. But above all it is the pastoral accompaniment of the priests in spiritual direction and/or confession: in fact the exhortation 9 refers to the “conversation with the priest, in the internal forum.” This implies that the priest too must accompany the penitent in discerning, not only feeling in some sympathetic way what the penitent feels, but also discerning the sentiments of his own heart, in a theological stance of mercy, pastoral charity and Ignatian indifference before the will of God. The pastor is the representative of Christ and of the Church before the conscience of the believer who sincerely desires to discern, so that the ecclesial discernment is present in the spiritual accompaniment. The pope does not limit such involvement to priests, for he invites the faithful who are living in complicated situations to engage trustingly even with “lay people whose lives are committed to the Lord” (AL 312), as they too are Church. This is how we believe you can have responsible personal and ecclesial discernment before the Lord and the Church, for in such issues there are no “easy recipes” (AL 298). Francis recognizes here that “there are two ways of thinking that recur throughout the Church’s history: casting off and reinstating,” marginalizing and reintegrating, and yet only the latter is in the spirit of the Gospel and the infinite compassionate love of God. Consequently, “there is a need to avoid judgments that do not take into account the complexity of various situations and to be attentive, by necessity, to how people experience distress because of their condition” (AL 296). JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

The importance that this pastoral evangelical stance must always have – especially in the most complicated cases – is illustrated by two currents of contemporary philosophy. First, existential phenomenology teaches us to appreciate the fundamental stance – or fundamental spiritual state – in its ontological value and knowledge of the truth.19 Something similar could be said about the virtue of mercy as a fundamental Christian spiritual state. Secondly, the analytic philosophy of ordinary language clarifies the fundamental stance that pastoral accompaniment assumes before those who are discerning in dialogue with them. Indeed, for this philosophy, the pragmatic moment of language is part of its semantic content.20 That is, as Ricœur explains, the way and the stance with which you 10 say something – in our case, pastoral language – is part of the meaning, that is to say it is part of what is said, or of the message that the pastor communicates to those he is engaging with.21 Hence the importance of a merciful pastoral spiritual disposition in accompaniment and in dialogue. On the contrary, those who follow the non-evangelical logic of marginalization and exclusion can also affirm something whose abstract formulation is orthodox, and yet, because of the stance they adopt when they communicate it, they actually transmit – perhaps without doing so intentionally – a message that is actually opposite to the spirit of the Gospel. So with his simple and profound language, the pope invites pastors not to make harsh judgments and “to avoid judgments that do not take into account the complexity of various situations” (AL 296); not to pigeonhole or fit these situations “into overly rigid classifications, leaving no room for a suitable personal and

19.Think, for example of the disposition of the soul to serenity (Gelassenheit) that Martin Heidegger took from Master Eckhart: a stance of openness that is not imposed on reality, but rather makes it what it is, so that it can show itself to be what it is, and can be compared to Ignatian indifference. cf. M. Heidegger, Gelassenheit, Pfullingen, Neske, 1959. 20.We refer to the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, to John Austin, to John Searle, etc. Cf. J. C. Scannone, Religión y nuevo pensamiento…, cit., 211-222. 21.Cf. P. Ricœur, “Le modèle du texte: l’action sensée considérée comme un texte,” in ibid., Du texte à l’action. Essais d’herméneutique II, Paris, Seuil, 1986, 183-211. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA pastoral discernment” (AL 298); not to behave “as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators” (AL 310), transforming the Church into a tollhouse rather than the “house of the father where there is a place for everyone with all their problems” (AL 310); and not to adopt a “cold bureaucratic morality in dealing with more sensitive issues” (AL 312). At the same time Francis reminds pastors that “it is narrow- minded simply to consider whether or not an individual’s actions correspond to a general law or rule, because that is not enough to discern and ensure full fidelity to God in the concrete life of a human being” (AL 304). “So,” the pontiff says, “a pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives” (AL 305). In such cases, in fact, we see the “closed heart of 11 one used to hiding behind the Church’s teachings, ‘sitting on the chair of Moses and judging at times with superiority and superficiality difficult cases and wounded families’” (AL 305). On the contrary, Francis tells us pastors that “we cannot forget that ‘mercy is not only the working of the Father; it becomes a criterion for knowing who his true children are. In a word, we are called to show mercy because mercy was first shown us’” (AL 310). This applies first to pastors according to Bergoglio’s motto Miserando atque eligendo.

Practical directives One essential element of such pastoral accompaniment is the careful consideration of the concrete situation, both objectively and subjectively, of the history, the circumstances, the influences, any extenuating or aggravating matters, identifying in the person and in his or her situation any “elements that can foster evangelization and human and spiritual growth” (AL 293); among others: the sincere desire for the sacrament, repentance, faithfulness to the new partner, love and care of children, and so on. In this way the pope teaches us to distinguish the situations that are the starting point for the pathway of discernment, as he himself does for those who are divorced and remarried. And this is how Francis distinguishes – among other things – the case JUAN CARLOS SCANNONE, SJ

of “a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self-giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins” (AL 298). So he counsels: “Useful in this process is an examination of conscience through moments of reflection and repentance” (AL 300). And then he lists some things the divorced and remarried need to examine. They should ask themselves: “How did they act toward their children when the conjugal union entered into crisis; whether or not they made attempts at reconciliation; what has become of the abandoned party; what consequences the new relationship has on the rest of the family and the community of 12 the faithful” and so on (AL 300). Another important element to keep in mind is what has been said about the spiritual journey, its gradual progress, the possible good in any given moment and circumstance – for ad impossibilia nemo tenetur (nobody is required to do the impossible) – the fact that “a small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life that appears outwardly in order, but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties” (AL 305). As every case is unique and a general rule cannot be formulated that covers everything, a casuistry of discernment cannot exist: rather the spirit needs to be considered, in an attitude of “fear and trembling,” yet trusting in the help and mercy of God and following the guidance of the Church, including the teaching of Amoris Laetitia. “Jesus expects us [pastors] … to enter into the reality of other people’s lives and to know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated” (AL 308). But the pastoral fruit shall be “the joy of the Gospel” both for the faithful who are involved and for their pastors. Such “wonderful complication” for the lives of the pastors (be they confessors or spiritual directors) is helped not only by all the material that the apostolic exhortation offers us and any guidelines from the local bishop but also by the tradition of spiritual discernment present in the Church since her beginnings. DISCERN AND ACCOMPANY: INDICATIONS FROM AMORIS LAETITIA

It is good to remember this. Also, just as the conscience of the individual is not abandoned to itself but the pastor accompanies it without substituting for it, so too a pastor in providing pastoral accompaniment is not an isolated subject, self-referential and disconnected from ecclesial function and community, but represents the Church. In this context, there are authors today who appeal to the synodality of the Church – a theme that is dear to Francis22 – recalling that syn-odos means “pathway [made] with [others].” This allows the various episcopal conferences, guided by the apostolic exhortation, and the priests under the guidance of their own bishops, to outline criteria of discernment, but without falling into an unequivocal casuistry. Criteria are required, not syllogistic deductions. They can be applied in each 13 case with individual discernment, using an open and analogical hermeneutic in a stance of faithfulness to the truth, to love, to justice and to mercy with the aim of “seeking and finding” in each case, here and now, the will of God.23

22.Cf. D. Vitali, “I soggetti del discernimento: la Chiesa,” in “‘Amoris Laetitia’: Il discernimento,” cit., 48-50. 23.This text was presented by the author at a study day on Amoris Laetitia at l’Institut Catholique of Paris on October 17, 2016. It was also published in P. Bordeyne – J. C. Scannone, Divorcés remarié: Ce qui change avec François, Paris, Salvator, 2017. We thank the editor. Young People, Faith and Discernment Toward the 2018 Synod: Indications of an incomplete document

Diego Fares, SJ

On January 13, 2017, the preparatory document for the next Synod of Bishops was presented. The synod will discuss “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment”1 and will take place in October 2018. 14 The document is innovative and could be useful during the period of consultation with the . The simplicity of its structure – an introduction, three parts that apply the method “see-judge-act” and a questionnaire – is the fruit of a mature discernment and not the development of an abstract or idealistic model. The document admits to being “incomplete” from its very opening, and it is proposed as a “map” for the synodal journey. In particular, it proposes a real figure, the young evangelist John, as an icon of the vocational experience. In this “reader’s guide” we will indicate some key points on which it would be helpful to take some time to benefit from reflection, and others – as indicated by the document itself – where it is possible to make some contribution.

Dialogue and accompaniment The phase of consultation with the People of God began with the sending of the document and a letter from the pope to young people.2 Francis says to the young people: “I wanted you to be the center of attention, because you are in

1.Cf. also, G. Cucci, “Verso il XV Sinodo dei Vescovi. Giovani, fede e discernimento vocazionale,” in Civ. Catt. 2017 II 380-389. 2.The two texts can be found on the webpage of the synod: www.vatican.va/ roman_curia/synod/index.htm TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT my heart,” and he exhorts them to “undertake a journey of discernment to discover God’s plan” in their lives. The questionnaire at the end of the document hopes to gather information about the condition of today’s young people in the diverse contexts in which they live. This is not to be an abstract type of information but rather one that seeks to include young people themselves by their engagement and testimonials. It also involves those who are working directly with today’s young people in the analysis introduced by the document in order to adequately develop an Instrumentum laboris for the synod. The document unfolds under the double aspect of dialogue and accompaniment. It is important to note that the introduction is in a dialogical form and that the first words are those of the Lord Jesus, who speaks directly, presenting his mission as a 15 project of joy for all, without exception: “These things I have said to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11). By allowing the Lord to speak first, the Church enters into dialogue with the young not only as “teacher,” but also as “,” as Church which “by listening to young people…will once again hear the Lord speaking in today’s world” (Doc. Intro.). In the text, the attitude and tone of the Church when it dialogues with young people are those of one who accompanies another in discerning his or her vocation.3 The role of “spiritual guidance re-orientates a person toward the Lord and prepares the ground for an encounter with him (cf. Jn 3:29-30)” (Doc. II, 4). As an institution, the Church adopts the attitude of one who reflects on how best to accompany the young. It seeks to encourage them to be protagonists of their own vocation and their own destiny, taking up responsibility for the very Church they are called to serve. Different tones and accents are used in this search aimed at discerning the will of God. The exhortatory tone, which comes from the challenge of the Lord, is for all. The document reserves

3.Vocation is presented as a “calling of the Lord”: “Come and see” (Doc. Intro.). Discernment is done “in dialogue with the Lord and in listening to the voice of the Spirit” (Doc. II, 2), while continuing to “monitor the signs used by the Lord to indicate and specify a vocation” (Doc. II, 3). DIEGO FARES, SJ

to itself, on the other hand, the instructive tone, asking critically constructive questions of the Church as “pastor” and teacher (cf. Doc. III, 1); and when it speaks directly to young people, the tone is primarily one of recognition and appreciation, of encouragement and consolation, of invitation and of the desire to listen to them.

Francis and young people We know that Pope Francis listens with attention to the People of God, particularly to the young. It is enough to observe him when he listens to the witness given by those who participate in encounters with him. In these meetings, he often sets aside the prepared text to enter into a true dialogue with those present. 16 In the conversations that he has had with young people, we can glimpse some indications of what the synod might bring. We can consider for example the prayer vigil in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on April 8, 2017. A synod that seeks to be “by and for young people” – believers and non-believers – is already a novelty. It becomes all the more significant when the pope says, “In the synod, the entire Church wants to listen to young people: to what they are thinking, to what they want, to what they criticize and to what they are sorry for.”4 In the letter, Francis has written to young people: “Make your voice heard, let it resonate in communities and let it be heard by your shepherds of souls.” Young people cry out often. Making their cry his own and giving them the mission to make it heard is in line with the famous “Let’s make noise!” requested by the pope in Rio de Janeiro, which is integrated with another invitation – a calmer one – to “speak with the elderly.” With his “four times 20” years, Francis communicates very well with those who are only 20 years old. When he was a young and Jesuit provincial, the themes of young people and vocation occupied a central place in his pastoral activity.5 Among the many things that the young people of

4.Francis, Address of His Holiness Pope Francis at the prayer vigil in anticipation of World Youth Day, April 8, 2017. 5.The titles of three lessons of the young provincial, Bergoglio, at the end of the 1970s: “Nuestra misión ante la necesidad de vocaciones”; “Nuestra misión TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT

today appreciate about the pope are the following: “he looks you in the eyes,” “he lets you take a selfie,” and “he speaks of real things.” The most significant, however, is this: Francis “doesn’t recite a part.”6 Young people express this same thought in many ways: “he isn’t stuck up,” “he isn’t stiff,” “he practices what he preaches,” “he is open to dialogue and to difficult questions,” “he listens to you with real interest.” Paradoxically, this is what some – not particularly young in spirit – rebuke him for: “he doesn’t act like a pope [sic!],” “he desecrates the papacy,” “he talks too much”…

The “positive view” of the on young people Without relying on platitudes, like saying that young people are the hope of humanity, or presenting them with an infinitely 17 long list of all of the evils and dangers that surround them, the document takes up the positive view of the Second Vatican Council, which treats young people like mature adults. The Message of the Council to Young People states: the Church “has confidence that you will find such strength and such joy that you will not be tempted, as were some of your elders, to yield to the seductions of egoistic or hedonistic philosophies or to those of despair and nihilism.”7 This vision, critical of adults and full of hope in the young, has perhaps lost a bit of its freshness over the past 50 years as a moralistic tone has come back into favor, one to which many young people just close their ears. More than not making them feel valued, what creates more distance with young people is seeking to discipline them. There are subtle ways of doing so: presenting abstract ideals, giving moralistic advice, diagnosing and admonishing systematically the dangers around them…. The document for the synod, on the other hand, offers concrete ideals: biblical models of young people like Samuel, Jeremiah, John, the Mary. It seeks ante las nuevas vocaciones”; “Nuestra responsabilidad como provincia frente a las futuras vocaciones.” Cf. J. M. Bergoglio, Meditaciones para religiosos, Basauri, Mensajero, 2014, 22-42. 6.Cf. C. Jácome, “La sencillez del Papa Francisco marca los corazones de los jóvenes” (http://tildenoticias.com), May 25, 2015. 7.Second Vatican Council, Message to Young People, December 8, 1965. DIEGO FARES, SJ

advice from young people, and it values their prophetic capacity and the courage to take risks and to get involved.

Recognizing the plurality of young people’s worlds The document is structured around the steps of vocational discernment: it is resolute that its “seeing” is a recognition; that its “judging” not be abstract but discerning what the Lord says to the Church in these times; that its proposals of “acting” be just that: propositions and not impositions. In the text, you can note the presence of larger themes treated by Francis and some points where you can perceive the dialogue between a subject (the Church) who “accompanies” and another subject (young people) who discern. 18 The first section, “Young people in today’s world,” makes its own a bold claim: “It is fair to say that there is a multiplicity of worlds, when speaking of young people, not a single one.”8 These diverse young people are touched by common themes: the speed of change, multiculturalism, the search for identity and belonging, and the quest for trustworthy and consistent persons. These are themes that Pope Francis has always spoken about. In this preparatory document, it is possible to see how his thought is being assimilated by others and is present already in the planning of the next synod.

The existential dimension: “Where they are” First of all we see the existential dimension of going out and accompanying the youth “where they are,” in the same way as the pope invites us to welcome families just “as they are.” The analysis of today’s world seeks to “give a concrete foundation to the ethical-spiritual journey” that leads one to vocational discernment and makes it possible.9 It responds to the challenge proposed in the exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL) to parents (and to pastors) to “understand ‘where’ children really are in their journey. Where are their souls, really?” (AL 261). This “where” is “existential”: it is an understanding of

8.Many differences can be noted, among many of them: the generational geographic one; the historical-cultural one; and the difference between male and female gender in each culture. 9.Cf. Francis, Laudato SI’, n. 15. TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT where young people stand regarding their beliefs, objectives, their desires and their projects for their lives. Just as missionaries often arrived in a new territory without books or any signs of Christianity in order to begin to walk with the people of that land, conforming themselves to the local culture, so too anyone who wants to enter into the world of the new generations must leave aside their excess baggage: “Accompanying young people requires going beyond a preconceived framework, encountering young people where they are, adapting to their times and pace of life and taking them seriously” (Doc. III, 1). The existential perspective that seeks to transform itself into a concrete pastoral action allows one to see a principle we must always remember: inculturation is not only a “spatial” question, so to speak, but also a “generational” one. This adds a dramatic 19 character to the issue. The problem is not, for example, the fact that it has not yet been possible to access Chinese culture, as if “culture” were static, geographically situated. The fact is that, while abstract questions are being debated, entire generations are lost, generations that do not come for “,” understood as the free and total immersion in the love of the Father who created us, the Son who has given his life for us, and the Holy Spirit, creator and giver of every life and of every culture. Therefore, when the pope speaks of “all young persons,” his attitude is “baptismal.” It is that of one called to ensure that all receive a gift that is complete and unconditional. This is the foundation for all further progress and maturation in the faith.

Key advice: Take risks! Faced with the provisional nature of the decisions typical of the world of today’s young people, the pope tells them: “Take risks!” “How can we reawaken the greatness and the courage of comprehensive choices, of the impulses of the heart in order to face educational and emotional challenges? The phrase I use very often is: take a risk! Take a risk. Whoever does not risk does not walk. ‘But what if I make a mistake?’ Blessed be the Lord! You will make more mistakes if you remain still”10 (Doc. I, 3).

10.Francis, Address at “Villa Nazareth,” June 18, 2016. DIEGO FARES, SJ

This can seem surprising but it is part of Francis’ pedagogy not to humiliate young people for their limitations where they are most fragile (for example, in controlling the passions) while, at the same time, he is demanding and audacious where they are at their strongest: giving everything for an ideal.11

Faith, discernment, vocation Wanting to choose an evangelical image that illustrates the proposal of vocation, we can make reference not to the normal one of “fishing” but to one found in the parable of the good seed. The farmer scatters seed over the land. Some grows on its own, and some needs to be taken care of until it matures, without rushing to pull out the weeds. 20 Also illuminating in the same way is the parable of the master who calls the workers to his vineyard and pays the last the same as the first. Just as the farmer sows seed in all his fields, and the master of the vineyard wants all to work there, the desire of the Church is that of “meeting, accompanying, and taking care of every young person, excluding no one” (Doc. II, 1), giving them the instruments that will help them in “the formation of conscience and an authentic freedom” (Doc. Intro.), so that they can discern their vocation. Therefore, the document does not begin with the problem of the need for priestly and religious vocations but it “universalizes the question of vocation.”12 Vocational discernment is presented as “a progressive process of interior discernment and maturation of faith” that belongs to all Christians. This is the way “the vocation to love takes concrete form in everyday life through a series of choices, which find expression in the states of life (marriage, ordained ministry, , etc.), professions, forms of social and civil commitment, lifestyle, the management of time and money, etc.” (ibid.). Discernment is not considered as a singular act but rather as a constant mode of living a “spiritual life” that seeks to be docile

11.Cf. D. Fares, “Educare i figli secondo ‘Amoris laetitia,’” in Civ. Catt. II 2016 363-368. 12.Cf. H. Rojas, “Invitación a repensar el discernimiento vocacional,” in Mensaje, March-April 2017, 24-27. TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT

to the impulses of the Spirit. Here the accent is on the three births – natural, baptismal and spiritual – of which the Eastern Churches speak. In discernment as the “birth of the spirit” (Doc. II, 3), ancient traditions and current charismatic experiences converge. The mission of the pastors is to safeguard and sustain those freedoms that are still being formed, in the image of , who helped Jesus to grow and mature in a human way13 (cf. Doc. II, Intro.).

The joyful awareness of our faith and vocation In the document, faith is considered not as a mere intellectual assent to dogmatic formulae, but rather as “seeing things as Jesus does (cf. , 18),” and flowing out of this are “concrete and consistent choices in life” (Doc. II, 1). The place of this 21 listening and of this dialogue is the conscience, the most secret core and sanctuary of a person. There we are alone with God, whose voice echoes in our depths (Gaudium et Spes, 16)” (ibid.). In this section on faith, two convictions stand out. The first is that conscience is an element that has no substitute in making moral judgments; the second is that freedom never entirely loses its radical capacity to recognize and to do the good. This second point affirms the positive nature of our faith, countering that temptation which Dominique Bertrand calls the “unhappy conscience,”14 that is, the “refusal of what makes us happy.” It is a temptation that has always threatened the Church, and it manifests itself in the tone and in the themes of many preachers and many documents: it is one of those things that most frightens and drives away young people. On this point, the document speaks this way: “If the vocation to the joy of love is the fundamental call that God has placed in the heart of every young person so that each one’s existence will bear fruit, faith is both a gift from on high and a response to feeling oneself chosen and loved” (ibid.).

13.Cf. Francis, Homily during the Mass at the beginning of his Petrine ministry, March 19, 2013. 14.Cf. D. Bertrand, “Contro la ‘coscienza infelice’ nel cristianesimo. Ireneo, Ilario, Cesario,” in Civ. Catt. II 2017 29-41; “Against the ‘unhappy consciousness’ in Christianity. Irenaeus, Hilary, Caesarius,” in Civ. Catt. (English Edition), 0617. DIEGO FARES, SJ

The gift of discernment It is helpful to dedicate some time to the three points that the document picks up from the apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 51. Pope Francis uses three verbs to describe the 15 path of discernment: recognizing, interpreting and choosing. 1) Recognizing. “‘Recognizing’ requires making this emotional richness emerge and ascertaining these feelings without making a judgment. It also requires capturing the ‘flavor’ that remains, that is the consonance or dissonance between what is experienced and what is in the depths of the heart” (Doc. II, 2). With the verb “recognizing,” the pope expresses his positive vision of reality. Having the courage to perceive fearlessly all that one feels is essential to interpreting it and to choosing well. 22 Having the courage to recognize what one feels is essential for maturing. “Human beings cannot easily recognize the concrete form of that joy to which God calls each one and to which each one aspires” (Doc. II, 1). A person must “adopt the instruments needed to recognize the Lord’s call to the joy of love and choose to respond to it” (Doc. II, 4). Recognition requires “personal experience” (ibid.). Therefore, it is necessary to be accompanied by competent persons. Young people seek “persons of reference who are close-by, credible, consistent and honest,” who help them “in recognizing their limits, but without making them feel they are being judged” (Doc. I, 2). At the same time, recognition leads to action: participating in concrete activities of service is “an occasion forming a personal identity.” The model of “recognizing” is the Apostle John, who “will recognize the Risen Lord” (Doc. Intro.). Let’s recall that the entire document is set up on the basis of a recognition: “we recognize that the pastoral and vocational care of young people, though overlapping, has distinct differences (Doc. III, Intro.). The theme of young people might seem to overshadow that of priestly and religious formation. Nevertheless, thanks to the

15.Cf D. Fares, “Aiuti per crescere nella capacità di discernere,” in Civ. Catt. I 2017 377-389; “Aids for growing in discernment,” in Civ. Catt. (English edition), 0417. TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT way Francis has proposed to take up the question, both themes mutually reinforce one another. 2) Interpreting. It is not sufficient to recognize what one is feeling; it is necessary to “interpret it.” One must “understand what the Spirit is calling you to do, through what the Spirit stirs up in each person.” That is, interpreting is not only “explaining” a phenomenon in itself, but is also discovering its spiritual “meaning.” In a discerning interpretation it is essential to know “where this is taking me,” a movement, more than “from where does it come?” or “what is it?” Sometimes the origin of an experience is complex. But it is always a fruitful process to ask oneself if something – whatever it might be and from wherever it may come – brings me closer to Christ or distances me from him in the light of the criteria 23 of the Gospel. It is a process that requires time and is not free of temptations, doubts and spiritual warfare, but it always brings clarity. Here is the importance of confronting ourselves with the Word of God and getting help from someone who accompanies us and can give us confirmation. The entire document starts with the question that the Church asks herself: how to accompany young people so that they recognize the call and how to ask their help in identifying the most efficacious ways in evangelization (cf. Doc. Intro.). This brings to mind a text of Bergoglio on the hermeneutic of conscience itself in which a young novice is formed. It is applicable to every young person: “All problems and human phenomena are susceptible to a process of clarification, an explanation, because all human reality ‘has in itself an immanent explanation that is valid’ [...]; a person exercises ‘dominion’ over things in this explanation.”16 This develops through human means, making use of techniques that the person has discovered. “But every fact of life is susceptible to a salvific meaning, that is, grace, and manifests the eruption of God into that event.”17 There exist, therefore, two dimensions: an immanent one (the

16.Cf. Study Document of the CLAR (Confederación caribeña y latinoamericana de religiosos y religiosas), La vida según el Espíritu en las comunidades religiosas de Latinoamérica, 1977, n. 115. 17.Ibid., n. 116. DIEGO FARES, SJ

explanation of the event) and a transcendent one (the meaning of the event). Neglecting one of these dimensions leads one to extremes of behavior: either to an unreal spiritualism or to closed immanentism. Sometimes, due to suggestions we receive in our formation, we tend to consider any transcendence as something that is ‘beyond’ what surrounds us, as a kind of horizon. Biblical thought is very different: the true transcendence of God, according to the Scriptures, is in the very heart of immanence, of 18 history. Given this, every time that the process of clarification, of immanent explanation moves forward, one necessarily opens more to the transcendent meaning. […] It is not a matter of giving [to a young person] ‘explanations’ or imposing ‘meanings’ but, on this point, the note of Saint Ignatius to the director of the 24 Exercises is valid: they must remain stable like the equilibrium of scales in a balance, making it such that one who receives the Exercises enters into direct communication with the Lord (cf. 19 Spiritual Exercises 15).” 20 The criterion of the (“the more”) is also fundamental. The document shows that interpretation requires effort and that one cannot be happy with “the legalistic logic of the bare minimum,” but must go beyond. The criterion is that, if you want to dialogue with young people and truly accompany them, the choice of a topic of primary importance is essential: how they will spend their lives. Speaking with young people about vocation is not one topic among many; it is the topic. Situating

18.The expression is one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 19.J. M. Bergoglio, Reflexiones espirituales sobre la vida apostólica, Buenos Aires, Diego de Torres, 1987. 20.On the “more,” Bergoglio stated: “The magis [...] has the virtue of making us aware of the variety of spirits that act in us [...] ‘In general, the higher you make your goal in action, faith, hope and love of a person so that you dedicate to that goal your affective and operative strength, the more probable that both good and evil spirits will go into motion’ (P. Favre, Memorie spirituali nn. 301-302). And this is a good way to help those who are tempted in the first way, that is, to ‘sedentarism.’ [Moreover] the magis is never abstractly a good criterion in making choices. It is the ‘environment,’ not an absolute criterion of choice. [...] This is a good help to those who are tempted in the second way, that is, to search for a ‘creativity’ based on an abstract magis, without historical connotations, without inculturation” (J.M. Bergoglio, Reflexiones espirituales sobre la vida apostólica, cit.; tr. it. Il desiderio allarga il cuore, Bologna, EMI, 2014, 140). TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT the topic of discernment of priestly and religious vocation in the framework of a larger dialogue is not one possible frame; it is the frame. 3) Choosing. Francis always speaks about “concreteness.” Choosing is making things concrete. It is also “taking a risk” and then “taking up that which one has desired and chosen” with responsible maturity. Choice is an exercise of authentic human liberty and personal responsibility. Given that choice cannot be avoided (in fact, one is always making choices, in that life is concrete21) two temptations must be avoided: that of deciding in obedience to the blind forces of impulses; and that of deciding without making one’s own intimate choice, seeking refuge in the abstract legality in which an abstract “other” is given responsibility for the choice. 25 Now, this passage – favoring personal decisions – seems to frighten some. In this case, the question of the subject is fundamental. The document affirms: “For a long time throughout history, basic decisions in life have not been made by the individuals concerned” (Doc. II). The subject is every person who acts in the inviolable space of the conscience, for which no one can pretend to substitute (cf. AL 37). Choices are confirmed in life; they “cannot remain imprisoned in an interiority that is likely to remain virtual or unrealistic” (Doc. II). The document points out the vulnerability of young persons on this point, because they “must choose,” and, in fact, “they do choose” but they cannot count on adequate help in this key dimension of life, given that the transient world of today makes all choices “reversible” (Doc. I, 3) and orients the person toward a “narcissistic self-realization.” The pope’s gamble is that of “reawakening the greatness and courage of major decisions.” It is for this purpose that he advises young people: “Take risks.” That is, choose, even if you make a mistake.

21.“Whether these choices are willfully made or simply accepted, either consciously or unconsciously, no one is excluded from making these choices. The purpose of vocational discernment is to find out how to transform them, in the light of faith, into steps toward the fullness of joy to which everyone is called” (Doc. Intro.). DIEGO FARES, SJ

The Church, a companion on the journey In the matter of discernment, the document speaks of a long process, not of “specific moments.” Discernment confirms a choice that has been made and that requires time: it requires giving up being focused on oneself and means counting on the help of a wise companion. In this section on accompaniment and the ideal profile of a good companion, we recognize the role the Church has in regard to young people. “At the basis of discernment we see three convictions” (which are the foundation of accompaniment and make it an exciting tool of apostolic work): 1) The Spirit of God works in the heart of every man and woman through feelings and desires that are linked to ideas, images and plans. Listening 26 carefully, the human being has the possibility to interpret these signals. 2) The human heart, because of its weakness and sin, is normally divided because it is attracted to different and even contrary feelings. 3) Every way of life imposes a choice, because a person cannot remain indefinitely in an undetermined state. These three convictions have consequences. The first is that “a person needs to adopt the instruments needed to recognize the Lord’s call to the joy of love and choose to respond to it” (Doc. II, 4). Another consequence is that those who accompany the young cannot be mere theorists but must have personal experience in order to interpret the movements of the heart and recognize the actions of the Spirit. Here, the document sketches the ideal profile of the person who accompanies the youth,22 pointing to five evangelical elements: “a loving look (the calling of the first disciples, cf. Jn 1:35-51); an authoritative word (teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, cf. Lk 4:32); an ability to ‘become the neighbor’ (the parable of the Good Samaritan, cf. Lk 10:25-37); a choice to ‘walk beside’ (the disciples of Emmaus, cf. Lk 24:13-35); and an authentic witness, fearlessly going against preconceived ideas (the washing of the feet at the Last Supper, cf. Jn 13:1-20).”

22.It makes a distinction between psychological and spiritual accompaniment: “Spiritual guidance re-orientates a person toward the Lord and prepares the ground for an encounter with him (cf. Jn 3:29-30). TOWARD THE 2018 SYNOD ON YOUNG PEOPLE, FAITH AND DISCERNMENT

Finally, “in the task of accompanying the younger generations, the Church accepts her call to collaborate in the joy of young people rather than be tempted to take control of their faith (cf. 2 Cor 1:24)” (Doc. II, 4).

From the ideal to the concreteness of pastoral action The third part of the document treats “pastoral action.” It considers the challenge of pastoral care and vocational discernment and poses a serious question to the Church herself: “How does the Church help young people accept their call to the joy of the Gospel?” This makes the ideal profile of the one who accompanies even more concrete. First, that person’s action is described in three verbs: going 27 out, allowing the young people to be the protagonists; seeing young people, spending time with them like Jesus; calling the young, reawakening in them desires, posing new questions, not prescribing norms to be obeyed. Second, in pastoral action the important elements are the subjects who, on the one hand, are all the young people obviously, and on the other are the credible persons they can to turn to for accompaniment: “This requires authoritative believers, with a clear human identity, a strong sense of belonging to the Church, a visible spiritual character, a strong passion for education and a great capacity for discernment.” Third, it is necessary to accompany the young in those places, especially those of daily life, in which one becomes an adult. The places of social action, those places where one hears the cry of the poor of the earth, are to be privileged. Listening to and serving the poor helps one to have a spiritual experience and to discern one’s own calling. Finally, accompaniment must pay attention to the mechanisms. Accompanying requires finding pastoral language and, in order to do this, it is necessary to be aware of how hard it is to break down the distance between ecclesial language and that of young people. Christians in Muslim Lands An ancient, contrasting and multifaceted story

Marc Rastoin, SJ

Life for Christians in countries with a Muslim majority is often difficult. It is not simple even in countries that do not adhere to an integralist ideology that exploits Islam for political purposes. Some observers point out that these Christians risk 28 being second-class citizens at the very best. Nevertheless, Christians continue to live – and in the past they have lived for extended periods of time – in kingdoms or countries that are officially Muslim, even with a socially inferior status. Throughout history, conditions have often changed, and no doubt there has been a certain level of tolerance in some periods and places. Recall, for example, what is said of Muslim rulers in Andalusia, although it is partly legend. Even the status granted to Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire was not without some fairness, making it possible for the Christian population to survive over the centuries. In any case, great differences can be seen from region to region. It is worth considering why Christians are still present in Egypt but have disappeared from the rest of North Africa. Let us consider five different situations in an attempt to respond to this question.

Resilient historic minorities The first situation to be looked at is that of countries conquered by Islam during its first phase of expansion. These are essentially lands that were originally Byzantine1 and in which Christians, after having long been the majority and

1.Cf. the account of W. Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain. A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, London, Flamingo, 1998. CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS then a significant minority, find themselves today undergoing a process of marginalization. We are referring to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan-Palestine and Iraq, under Persian rule before the conquest. Christians have lived in these countries without interruption for 2,000 years. Their number had long been much greater than what it is today, and change has not always been negative. Their social presence has been effective both on the economic level and on the cultural level. In Egypt, a national Church represented the vast majority of the population for several centuries. How did the religious majority change over time?2 Several factors contributed: regular immigration over many centuries of Islamic nomads who came from the Arabian peninsula and were supported by the local governments; special taxes (jizya) 29 3 imposed on the dhimmi ; strong pressure to convert that was exerted by rich Muslims on slaves (local, African or Caucasian) and on Christian employees; mixed marriages that have involved primarily the elite and have taken place in only one direction for centuries, although this is of little statistical significance; and violent persecution that has been rare but is clearly a cause of concern (and also for the exodus) for Christians. The best-known case of persecution was that of Al-Hakim (985-1021) of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt at a time when Christians still accounted for almost half of the population. Even during the era of the (1096-1270), the manner in which the crusaders tried to exploit the presence of local Christians had negative ramifications: it aroused strong reactions among the Muslims and generated a permanent suspicion about the loyalty of Christians.4 Since 1820 and especially throughout the 20th century, a decisive phenomenon has been seen that can be added to these

2.For a description of the reaction of the bishops to this process in Egypt, cf. J. Van Lent, “Réactions coptes au défi de l’islam. L’homélie de Théophile d’Alexandrie en l’honneur de Saint Pierre et de Saint Paul,” in A. Boud’hors – C. Louis (eds), Études coptes XII. 14ème journée d’études (Rome 11-13 June 2009), Paris, de Boccard, 2013, 133-138. 3.Non-Muslim subjects of an Islamic state, covered by a pact of protection. 4.Cf. A. Maalouf, Les croisades vues par les Arabes, Paris, Lattès, 1983. MARC RASTOIN, SJ

historical facts: a lowering of the birth rate among the Christian population, primarily due to progress in education that has been spurred on by contact with Christians from Europe who founded schools and universities. In some countries, emigration has also been a significant factor in reducing the Christian presence. For example, Lebanon has been experiencing this phenomenon since 1850. Muslims also emigrate, but in a much smaller proportion. While Lebanon, Syria and Palestine have always been lands subject to strong emigration – to such an extent that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches from these countries have more faithful abroad than at home – the same thing would not happen for two strong national Churches, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and 30 the Chaldean Orthodox Church of Iraq, at least not until 1990. In summary, for a long time Christians have been an important part of the population and society of these countries. Brutal violence and coercion have rarely been used against them. Even though they have been Arabicized and have slowly integrated into the dominant culture, they have preserved their linguistic and cultural traditions, their specific identity and their pride. Their resilience is admirable.

The “transferred” and the expelled There are also regions where the Christian presence that previously flourished would later diminish and even disappear altogether for a variety of reasons. Such was the case in North Africa between 750 and 1050, in Central Anatolia between 1150 and 1350 and for Asia Minor after 1922, following the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) and the end of the Greco-Turkish War. In North Africa, the withdrawal of Christians – of Latin culture and mainly urbanized – began after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the interruption of intra-Mediterranean trade, particularly following the conquest of Carthage (698) by Arab troops. While the indigenous and rural populations ended up primarily adopting Islam (despite strong resistance, like that of the Berbers, led by Kahina), the urban Christian communities refused to be Arabicized and survived for some time, at least CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS

until 1030-1050,5 forming urban ghettos. Finally, due to their isolation and great economic and cultural poverty, they agreed to take advantage of a population exchange with neighboring , where the Normans were about to expel the Muslims. On both sides, those who did not want to leave, or could not leave, would convert. In Central Anatolia between 1150 and 1350, the growth of the small state of the Ottoman Turks and its policy of conquest caused a slow exodus of Christians to lands controlled by the Byzantine imperial army. However, the fall of the Empire (1453) was brutal and surprised many Christians. The Turks, who already controlled many European lands, implemented a policy of protection to calm their Christian subjects. Until 1922, some of these, the Greek speakers, remained the majority in Ionia, 31 Pontus and along the coasts. During this period, only the factors that we have already mentioned above – mixed marriages, supply of Islamic slaves, declining birth rates – can explain the decreasing number of Christians. Only when the Treaty of Sèvres brought massive population exchanges were more than a million Greeks from Ionia forced to leave a land that had belonged to them for 3,000 years and take refuge in today’s Greece, while a smaller number of Turks had to leave Thrace and Thessaly.

Communities decimated by violence In some regions, Christians were completely oppressed, or at least the elite were massacred or subjected to forced conversion under penalty of death. Their presence was eliminated by long and premeditated campaigns. These were cases where the social or ethnic-political dimension of the conflict assumed a greater importance than the religious element. This was the case for Christian Nubia in today’s Sudan, where three Christian

5.Cf. the analysis, which makes the best use of the scarce data available, by G. Jehel, Les étapes de la disparition du christianisme primitive en Afrique du Nord à partir de la conquête arabe (www.clio.fr/bibliotheque/pdf/pdf_les_etapes_de_ la_disparition_du_christianisme_primitif_en_afrique_du_nord_a.pdf), Clio, 2009. The author has also written L’Italie et le Maghreb au Moyen-Âge, Paris, PUF, 2001. MARC RASTOIN, SJ

kingdoms had existed since the middle of the first millennium. Between 1200 and 1570 they were conquered militarily and destroyed because they represented an obstacle to the slave trade, an important source of income for Egypt. In addition, these were black populations, despised by the Arab Muslims. On the religious level, these Christians had been separated from other Christians (especially because of the conflict with the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia), and their Church slowly declined without undergoing any replenishment. Moreover, even Ethiopia ran the risk of suffering exactly the same fate during the years 1530 to 1540. Settled on the coast of Eritrea for centuries, the Muslims conquered 80 percent of the territory of Amhara. Under the guidance of a fanatical emir 32 who was also a great strategist, the legendary Grāñ (Ibrahim al-Ghazi, 1506-1543), and thanks to an undeniable technical superiority achieved through the use of European firearms, the Muslims were on the point of prevailing. But then, thanks to a tiny and militarily well-equipped Portuguese contingent, and strengthened by sharing the same faith, the Christians succeeded in fighting off the invasion. The Ethiopian Christian Empire, gradually expanding, especially during the 19th century, even instituted a policy of evangelization toward the only slightly Islamized or still pagan members of the population, who were then numerous. Finally, the vast territories of present-day Turkey belong to this group, where between 1884 and 1918 the Armenian population was decimated by a campaign of violent deportation and large-scale massacres by the Ottoman Empire, followed by the Young Turks of Kemal Atatürk. The Turks felt the Armenian presence was a potential fifth column of support for the Russians. Although the political-ethnic element was predominant, the religious dimension of persecution was also strong, as witnessed by forced conversions and the fact that the Muslim Kurds who were often recruited for the “dirty work” of massacres were spared despite not being Turkish.6

6.Cf. the data in the Vatican archives published in H. G. Ruyssen – Y. Ternon – G. Chaliand, 1915. Le genocide des Arméniens, 7 vol., Paris, Complexe, 2006. CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS

The frontier communities There are two regions where Christians maintained contact with kingdoms having a similar culture and religion to their own and would regain their political independence after long conflicts. We are referring to the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from the domination of the Caliphate of Cordoba (between 796 and 1492, the date of the fall of Granada), and to that of the Balkan Peninsula, which faced conflict and occupation from 1250 to 1913, the date of the second Balkan War. It was here that the Turks slowly advanced for four centuries, ending with the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. Despite the nearness of the dates, the differences between the situations in the two regions are remarkable. In Spain (and in Portugal), the fall of the Visigoths was 33 quick and total, and the Christians as well as the Jews were not unhappy with the new regime. Relying on a small number of Arabs who remained at the head of the army, they found wide support among the merchants and the Christian civil servants at all levels. This also made it possible to counterbalance the influence of the Islamic Berbers, of whom there were many in the army. There was not a systematic persecution, although many Christians, tired of paying taxes or fed up with the never-ending struggles with the Islamic Berbers – converts of Spanish origin and Arabs working as government officials during the 9th and 10th centuries – moved to the north of the peninsula from where they organized the resistance. Gradually, the situation became increasingly tense. Differing from the Balkans, where the fight was conducted from the outside by foreign empires like Austria and Russia, the Reconquista was carried out by the local kingdoms that claimed the legacy of ancient Roman Hispania. We are fortunate to be well-informed about a conflict that shook the of the south, especially in Cordoba and Toledo in the years 849 to 859. Some of the leaders were willing to accept the status quo and to remain faithful to the authorities, as long as the rights of the Christians were respected. Others, under the guidance of a priest from Cordoba, urged the Christians both to openly revolt, joining an offensive coming MARC RASTOIN, SJ

from the north, and also to flee. The provocations multiplied, which alarmed the authorities of the caliphate, causing around the year 850 a persecution against the followers of the rebel group and a general tightening of authority. At that point, many of the clerics and wealthy faithful went to the north,7 resulting in the cultural and religious Christian elite becoming very weak. Abandoned by their leaders, many Christians who were poor, slaves or servants of Muslim masters or the State saw that hope of a victory was shrinking, so they converted. The great Muslim victories around the year 1000 gave new energy to this phenomenon. Then again, even if in Spain the power always returned to the Arabs, once the wind of jihad ceased, Christians remained alive and restless, ready to support the north’s efforts 34 through passive resistance or emigration. This led to the Reconquista. With the fall of the Emirate of Granada, the last Islamic kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, there remained several hundred thousand Muslims in Spain. This Moorish minority was forcibly assimilated and drastically reduced following the final revolt of 1609. The situation in the Balkans was different. In this region, there were several Christian ethnic groups who had dwelled there for a long time, as well as some others from a more recent era (the 10th and 11th centuries), like the Hungarian group. The Ottoman system was very different from that of the Caliphate of Cordoba. Much better organized administratively, it ensured the loyalty of the people by cooperating with the religious authorities who represented them. Of course, massacres still took place, as happened during the Balkan Wars of 1903-1913, but in times of peace, people were respected. The Ottomans were trying to adapt its millet system to Europe, through which ethnic minorities were partly protected and could have some administrative autonomy.8 As in Greece

7.Cf. A. Ropero, Mártires y perseguidores. Historia general de las persecuciones (siglos I-X), Barcelona, Clie, 2010, chapter “Los Mártires de Córdoba,” 503-525. 8.For a historical analysis of this topic, cf. D. Stamatopoulos, “From Millets to Minorities in the 19th Century Ottoman Empire: an Ambiguous Modernization,” in S. G. Ellis – G. Halfdanarson – A. K. Isaacs (eds), Citizenship in Historical Perspective, Pisa, Plus, 2006, 253-273. CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS and Bulgaria, the contributions of the Turkish population were effective but limited. In border areas, Turkish regiments were often installed. In this situation, a local population firmly united around its priests without relocating to Christian kingdoms, or at least doing so only in very limited numbers, fostered survival of the faith. There was, however, a strong feeling of inferiority. The obligation to provide male children for the famous elite corps of janizaries was not the least unpopular toll, and there were frequent revolts, especially prior to the fall of the Byzantine Empire. These people, subdued by the Turks, sometimes repeatedly, bowed their heads but maintained unity. The culture entered a type of “hibernation,” with an increasingly stronger identification between the people and the 35 national church through which it expressed itself. One could also see, ipso facto, the abandoning of the nation when conversions to Islam occurred, especially in the military and in administration. This happened primarily in isolated regions, among groups that were not involved in a strong national church or were divided among themselves on the religious level.

Fragile communities converted en masse to Islam It is surprising to find that, generally, throughout all the Christian lands of the region that extends from the Mediterranean to the Near East, including sub-Saharan Africa (Nubia and Ethiopia), no people during times of Christian majority went peacefully and completely to Islam. It was only gradually and over time that a complex mix of demographic, economic, political and cultural factors led to a decrease in the number of Christians. This has made it impossible, in principle, to establish a date when Muslims became the majority in any given region. There is, however, one important exception although sources are scarce: Albania. The resistance of the Albanians in the 15th century (1442-1468), led by the Catholic George Scanderbeg, was vigorous and passionate. But once they were broken, they converted, at first gradually, and then massively and across vast distances, especially in the center of the country and in the northeast. Why? MARC RASTOIN, SJ

It is possible to begin hypothesizing that the absence of a national church undoubtedly favored conversion to Islam. (The Christians were divided: Catholic to the north and along the coast; Orthodox primarily to the south.) Another important aspect seems to be the fact that the Albanians did not have a very clear concept of state and nation: the base-unit was provided by the clan and its traditional laws (the Kanun). It seems that the Turks knew how to exploit the clan leaders to get conversions. For the Albanians, the strength of their customs was more important than religious affiliation. Additionally, the poverty of the country made the people perfect candidates to engage in public administration and in the military, which is what they increasingly did. Elsewhere – in 36 Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo – many Orthodox Albanians assimilated to the Orthodox Slavic groups, thus losing their Albanian identity. The situation was different in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the countries bordering the two empires, because the mountainous region between Serbia and Croatia, between Constantinople and Rome, was essentially divided between Catholics, Orthodox and Heterodox. Some historians believe it was the Bogomils, precursors to the Cathars with their Gnostic heritage, who were the first to submit to the seduction of Islam. As such, together with converted slaves, they would be the ones to form the core of the future Muslim population. For a long time this was also a “contested” region where Turks, Albanians and Muslim mercenaries settled, sometimes permanently. As a result, some villages ended up being inhabited only by Muslims. Just as there is a Turkish-speaking population in the Danube delta that is Orthodox Christian, so there is a significant Muslim population (10 percent of the entire population) in Bulgaria. However, even though the Bulgarians integrated over the centuries, there was such a strong connection between Christianity and the Bulgarian identity that the Muslims gradually became Turkish because of their conversion, and are regarded as such by the Bulgarians who remain Christians. CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS

A few considerations in summary What conclusions can be drawn from this overview? Let us first note that we have deliberately excluded populations that became Christian as a result of the expansion of colonial Europe beginning in the 16th century who then found themselves under Muslim domination upon independence. Their situation is different, in the sense that from the very beginning the State took on a European form even where a constitution stipulated Islam as the national religion. It is important to note a fact of historical importance for our century. After having lost almost entirely the age-old presence of the Jewish population between 1948 and 1962, the countries that are at the center of the Muslim world (we are referring to Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran and 37 Lebanon) are about to “lose” their Christian population as well. We have seen, in fact, how these historically rich communities that have exercised a fundamental role in the political, economic and cultural life of the Arab world are gradually disappearing, or becoming negligible from a statistical point of view. It is increasingly on the periphery of Arab countries that non-Arabic speaking Muslims remain in daily contact with Christians, for example in Nigeria, Indonesia, Chad, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. This religious homogenization of the Arab world is an unprecedented historical event that is likely to lead to the same cultural impoverishment and the same misunderstandings that were recorded in the Middle Ages among the European Christians who had an awareness of the Muslim world that was often based upon legend. We have also looked at the principal causes of such a numeric decline, particularly the more recent ones. The “natural” demographic factor is undoubtedly the strongest one in the last century. Christian populations that seemed to be remaining at a relatively high percentage (Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon) have recorded a remarkable decline in the 20th century. The second factor, equally important in recent times (as well as in some earlier periods), is the emigration to countries that offer greater opportunities and do not discriminate at the religious level. MARC RASTOIN, SJ

Finally, we need to consider the growth since the end of the 19th century of Muslim identity, known as the “awakening of Islam,” which was supported by a remarkable demographic explosion. Between 1900 and 2015, in fact, Muslims went from 220 million to around 1.5 billion. This phenomenon has increasingly marginalized Arab-Christian identity, making it increasingly difficult to recognize. For Christian Arabs, it has become more and more arduous to continue to exist in this way. Aggravating the situation is the fact that the Israeli- Palestinian conflict from 1967 onward has progressively lost its national characteristic and is increasingly seen as a Jewish- Muslim conflict. It is worth going a bit deeper into the contribution of those 38 rules of the Quran that discriminate against the tolerated non- Muslims (called “people of the book,” that is Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians). These rules have added to the decline of their presence in the countries where they are applied. Some rules, which have played a limited role over time, like conversion to Islam for the Christian wife of a Muslim,9 have greater influence today in a society that is moving away from the former, endogamous social relationships and tightly controlled target group.10 Births and marriages are events that, by themselves, do not significantly stand out, but they are extremely effective in the middle and long terms. In many regions, throughout the history of these Christian communities, these rules have certainly contributed to the reduction of the number of Christians more than violent persecution. Another decisive element related to Quran rules is the need to evade taxation. This has often brought the poorest of the community to conversion, not for belief, but out of desperation. This is similar to how the requirement of being Muslim to have a military career and to rise in administration has contributed to making many young people convert not for belief but for ambition. On the other hand, conversions out of conviction must

9.The opposite is usually impossible. 10.On the topic of marriage between a Christian and a Muslim in an Arab- Israeli context, it is interesting to cf. Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s film, Ajami (2009). CHRISTIANS IN MUSLIM LANDS

not be overlooked. They have always been there throughout the ages, albeit in Islamic countries conversion from Islam to Christianity has always been much more difficult and rarer than that from Christianity to Islam.

Supporting the presence of Christians in Islamic lands What encourages the presence of these Christian communities today? Historical factors that contribute to their decline develop over a long period of time; yet there are some conditions or initiatives that can reduce the speed of this phenomenon. For example, the development of media (newspapers, TV, books) that help Christians to nourish their own intelligence, faith and participation in public life also contribute to the strengthening of their own identity, without feeling the need to constantly 39 hide themselves. The existence of government education programs that highlight the history of the country prior to the entrance of Islam and the contributions of Christians are also very important (for example, in Egypt and in Tunisia), as is the willingness of the government to encourage Christian participation in national public life, to fully recognize their rights and to ensure equal access in the workplace. Unity of intent and action in the diverse Christian denominations, a strong ecumenical spirit, support for the undertakings of young Christians, and larger subsidies for families and children also all play a role. Ultimately, the ongoing presence of active Christian minorities will depend on their ability to give theological meaning to their very presence, while at the same time strengthening their intellectual and spiritual identity. However, this will also depend on the ability of other Christians to demonstrate strong solidarity with them and, above all, on the manner in which Muslim societies undertake a process of reconstruction of their religious and national identity. Moments of Doubt

Giovanni Cucci, SJ

The first spiritual work of mercy Counseling the doubtful is a spiritual work of mercy widely attested to since the origin of Christianity.1 It demonstrates the intellectual and wisdom dimension of the discipleship of Jesus 40 and of the works of charity, a charity exercised in the service of truth, as recalled by Pope Benedict XVI in the encyclical Caritas in veritate. Humans thirst for truth and cannot live without it; anyone who does not find truth has a life not worth living, even if surrounded by many good things. Therefore, counsel is a concrete act and the first work of charity, interpreted as the ability to understand the difficulties of another person; it also gives meaning and direction to the other works of mercy. St. Augustine wrote: “The person who gives alms is not just the one who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty or clothing to the naked; hospitality to the pilgrim or refuge for the fugitive; who visits the sick and the prisoner, redeems the captive, corrects the erroneous, accompanies the blind, consoles the afflicted, heals the lame; the almsgiver is also the one who gives counsel to the doubter or does whatever is necessary for the needy, and is also forgiving with the sinner.”2 Similarly, Rabanus Maurus, a of the ninth century, says this concerning charity: “He who gives alms is the one who puts the wanderer on the path of truth, who gives instruction to the

1.Consider the final exhortation of the Letter of James: “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (5:19-20) 2.Augustine of Hippo, Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love, Ch. XIX, Para. 72. Trans. Albert C. Outler. Amazon Digital, 2010. MOMENTS OF DOUBT

ignorant, who announces the Word of God to his neighbors…. In fact all the good works that every just person does in this life can be understood under this same name.”3 The works of mercy are an invitation to go out from oneself to look elsewhere: to the poor, the desperate, the poor from whom we would like to escape, who instead allow us to express our best selves. James F. Keenan, SJ, writes: “By participating in the life of mercy we can discover the dignity of the human person that sparkles oftentimes when they are most vulnerable. This is a lesson that we are called to learn, a lesson that lasts a lifetime.”4 Counseling the doubtful, together with instructing the ignorant and comforting the sorrowful, is among the so-called “works of vigilance,” those actions that encourage awareness and form our way of looking at things, inviting us to go out from 41 ourselves to meet the world of “the other” in his or her diversity. They enable us to get in touch with that part of ourselves which was previously unknown. It is important to clarify possible misunderstandings that are often associated with the present theme and that end up rendering its exercise vain or counterproductive. One common situation involves someone who is merely looking for psychological or emotional reassurance for decisions already taken. On the other hand, there are those who claim absolute certitude while embarking on an impossible mission.5 By qualifying this work as a spiritual work of mercy, the Church wanted to exclude it from the field of argument, debate or polemics. The Bible itself makes a similar evaluation in this field, clarifying the conditions that make a relationship of help possible, the intentions behind it, the criteria in choosing the “counselors,” and the situations to be addressed. It is not a technique: it is a grace and a gift.

3.Rabano Mauro, La formazione dei chierici, II, 28, Roma, Città Nuova, 2002, 105. 4.James F. Keenan, SJ, The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism. 3rd ed. Rowan & Littlefield, 2017. 5.On the extreme consequences of systematic doubt or the illusion of absolute certainty, cf. G. Cucci, “Il dubbio: insidia o opportunità,” in Civ. Catt. 2017 III, 29- 38; “Doubt: Threat or Opportunity,” in Civ. Catt. (English edition) 0817. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

Counsel Nobody can counsel on everything. This is not only a matter of competence: freedom of heart and detachment are necessary to be able to recognize what could be good for the other. If we are too involved with the person or the question, we could end up in an unresolvable situation. The Bible gives some examples that reveal a psychological finesse: “Do not consult with a woman about her rival, with a coward about war, with a merchant about business, with a buyer about selling, with a miser about generosity, with the merciless about kindness, with an idler about any work, with a seasonal laborer about completing his work, with a lazy servant about a big task – pay no attention to any advice they give” (Sir 37:11). 42 The person who is called to counsel should focus on these affective obstacles rather than on the specific problems. The relational context in which this work of mercy is found is fundamental. The ability to express it by preparing oneself to encounter the other is decisive: “Counsel finds its sense within a relationship of trust between two people,” writes Luciano Manicardi. “Spiritual paternity can be an important context in which to give counsel, taking into account that one should not tell the other what he or she needs or should do; rather, to help them find the answer that already lives within them, of which they are unaware, or dare not face. Suggest to them the possibilities they had not thought of before.”6 As for the request for help, counsel is born from humility and presupposes self-knowledge of those areas of weakness we are called to be vigilant about, being aware that we need help. Without this freedom, we lack the fundamental condition for offering counsel. The Book of Sirach outlines the characteristics of the person who is able to counsel; it is not their skills, influence on the person, or dialectic ability, but an uprightness of the soul and a deep spiritual life: “Associate with a godly person whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, who is like-minded with yourself and who will grieve with you if you fail” (Sir 37:12). These traits are linked to the goodness of the heart, the ability

6.L. Manicardi, La fatica della carità, Magnano (Bi), Qiqajon, 2010, 143. MOMENTS OF DOUBT to experience mercy and affective prayer, which is not afraid of acknowledging fragility and shortcomings. Such behavior can be useful in protecting oneself from thinking that we are better than others (a great temptation for counselors!). In this way, counsel, being born in the heart and animated by such dispositions, can touch the heart of someone else and bear fruit for both. The Book of Sirach also points out two fundamental aspects to clarify: “For our own conscience sometimes keeps us better informed than seven sentinels sitting high on a watchtower. But above all pray to the Most High that he may direct your way in truth” (Sir 37:14-15). Knowledge of oneself and a good spiritual life are necessary to reach the proper goal of counsel, which is recognizing and accomplishing God’s will. Counsel does not free oneself from judgment and personal decision but aims at 43 letting people help themselves. Thomas Green underlines that often the greatest obstacle to overcoming doubt is not the greatness of the mystery of God but rather a lack of self-knowledge, the fact that you do not want to face the challenge of exploring your desires, living in a superficial and fleeting way: “Many people say that it is very difficult to know God, since we do not see him, hear him or touch him as we do another human being. This is true, of course, but I have become convinced that the greatest obstacle to real discernment (and to genuine growth in prayer) is not the intangible nature of God, but our own lack of self-knowledge – even our unwillingness to know ourselves as we truly are. Almost all of us wear masks, not only when facing others but even when looking in the mirror.”7 According to St. Thomas Aquinas, spiritual counsel presents well-defined characteristics. First of all, it is a gift linked to reason. In harmony with what Green observed, it does not free us from the challenge of self-knowledge but requires listening, reflecting and interiorization. It is not mere curiosity but has an operative characteristic; it is an act of deliberation in view of a choice.8 Another characteristic of counsel is that, in harmony with the integration of a good life, it is linked to other gifts; therefore

7.T. H. Green, SJ, Weeds Among the Wheat. Discernment: Where Prayer and Action Meet. Ave Maria Press, 1984, 22. 8.Cf. Sum. Theol. I-II, q. 68, a. 1-3; II-II, q. 52, a. 1, ad 3; q. 71, a. 3. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

it can effectively help anyone who has a pure and transparent heart, who is docile, merciful and above all prudent, able to find the most suitable means to reach the established goal. So, in concrete detail we can understand the essence of what is at stake: “Prudence is highly perfected by the gift of counsel that allows us to know what should or should not be done in particular and difficult cases,” writes Adolphe Tanqueray.9 It is not by chance that the contrary defect to counsel is “rashness” – rushing to conclusions – “which impedes a person’s ability to act according to prudence, that is, right reasoning,” says St. Thomas.10 It can happen that you make mistakes, but if you are humble it is possible to recognize them and let yourself be instructed by what happened. Humility saves us from every 44 rushed conclusion and from thoughtlessness, but above all from every presumption that is spiritually dangerous.11 Presumption wants total certitude that is impossible, humanly speaking, and even superfluous for we are perfectly capable of making decisions about those things we really care about.

Counsel and docility Hence we understand the importance of this gift for ourselves and for others. It allows us to act quickly, to evaluate challenges, and above all to find unexpected strengths to accomplish what seemed beyond our capabilities: “We may compare those who are led by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to a vessel running full- sail before the wind,” writes Louis Lallemant. “And those who are led by virtues, not as yet by gifts, to a shallop propelled by oars with more labor and noise, and at much less speed.”12 With the Spirit one is freer and what was once impossible becomes possible (Mt 19:26), because it is the sign of the benevolent presence of God in our life, which is stronger than any doubt.

9.A. Tanqueray, The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, Desclee & Co, 1930. 10.Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 8, a. 7, ad 1; cf q. 52, a. 4. 11.Cf. C. Marmion, Cristo vita dell’anima, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1943, 155. 12.L. Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine. Trans. Peter Champion. Lecoffre & Co., 1846, 144. MOMENTS OF DOUBT

The texts we quote, though brief, nicely outline the optimal conditions for counsel to be fruitful. It is not just a set of information, nor even a recipe, nor a good technique for all occasions. Rather, it is a walk with faith and the desire to find the good; if this desire is deeply rooted in the person, it will be accomplished. St. Thomas points out that it is not possible to doubt the essential connection between the desire to recognize what is true and its realization, making it appear an illusion or compensation for the unease of life. A profound desire that is written in human nature tends toward the good that is already present and known in some way as its own end: therefore it is not possible to deny the chance of its fulfillment.13 It is also an explicit invitation from the Lord: “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for 45 you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:7-8). It is a promise, but also a reassurance that should not be doubted, because the Lord does not deceive. The inability to give and receive counsel is mostly tied to the failure to accept these wise criteria. For this reason the first and unavoidable step is the desire to clarify, overcoming the fear of confrontation, the challenge of understanding, and the easy way of laziness that remains at the surface of things. When the heart is docile it is easier to recognize what you are looking for and enjoy counsel that does not free you from personal self- assessment. Recall the advice that comes from the one of the sayings of the fathers: “A desert father asks another father: Why do today not have any words to offer? Answer: Because the children are unable to listen.”14

An always present gift Counsel is a gift that we all need, especially in our complex society that is rich with unlimited possibilities yet lacking some basic points of reference and full of contrasting proposals: the

13.Summa contra Gentiles, l. III, c. 51; Sum. Theol. I-II, q. 30, a. 4; G. Cucci, La forza dalla debolezza. Aspetti psicologici della vita spirituale, Rome, AdP, 2011, 33-73. 14.Cited in A. Louf, Generati dallo Spirito. L’ accompagnamento spirituale oggi, Magnano (Bi), Qiqajon, 1994, 66. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

abundance of information, counsel and counselors is unfortunately part of the problem for they raise anxiety and worry in decisions. For this reason doubt is important: it helps to clarify and challenge fixed ideas, ways of thinking, and customs taken for granted that could become major obstacles to attaining resolution. The contested dimension of counsel is linked in psychology to what is called “optimal frustration”: the problem should not be resolved for the sake of maintaining tranquility at all costs, both because the one offering counsel has no such power and above all because, if listened to with intelligence and peace, doubt can become the necessary condition to continue the journey with renewed energy and greater depth.15 The decision is always entrusted to the responsibility of the one asking for help. This is 46 the reason why the degree of certitude that counsel can give is neither mathematical nor empirical but moral. In other words, it is never obligatory and takes nothing from freedom – to receive or refuse it – and it cannot be delegated. St. Thomas says that no counsel, no matter how excellent, can free one from the contingency that characterizes the human condition: “Doubt is implicit in counsel as it is found in the present state of life.”16 Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini noted how he was often asked not for counsel but for an “oracle” – in the sense of an infallible word capable of dispelling doubt, rather than being instructed by it in such a way as to more fully accomplish God’s will. This misunderstanding is often present in religious experience: we do not look for an encounter with the Lord but simply to be well, even at the cost of living a mediocre life. In this way we fear the uncertainty and the struggle that are part of the life of faith and thereby resist the work of the Holy Spirit: “The gift of counsel allows us to live calmly this conflicted and ambiguous situation, to live without anxiety, without interior division, with humility and patience, to be at peace in the face of the choices for which we do not have an absolute certainty,” writes Martini. “The gift of counsel is not a brilliant light; if it were there would be no more problems for it is easy to act when we can see everything

15.Cf. G. Cucci, “Il dubbio: insidia o opportunità?” op cit. 16.Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 52, a. 3, ad 2. MOMENTS OF DOUBT

clearly. Counsel helps when the situation is uncertain, it allows us to go on with confidence and humility, choosingwith reason – after prayer, thinking, reflecting, being counseled – the way that seems the best at this moment, ever ready to be corrected.”17 Those searching for help are often tempted to look for an “oracle.” For this reason, in the Bible (and in life) false prophets are often listened to and followed because they tell people what they want to hear and not what would be good for them, which is often a remedy as bitter as it is healthy. This is a deadly temptation that leads us to be closed in on ourselves, not focused on the good until losing one’s way.18 Even with Jesus, the supreme counselor, many have not been persuaded even in the face of miracles. If we are more concerned with doing what is pleasing to the 47 Lord (motivated by what the Bible calls the “fear of the Lord”19), we have the foundation for good deliberation, and we can find wisdom, which corrects doubt and properly orients it. This is also the meaning of the word “conversion”: to change direction, including in the sense of seeing the problem in a different way. It is the experience of those who have experienced doubt at various levels: through multiple encounters with wisdom (concretized in a book, person or experience), they have made great steps forward even if the problem at the root is still unsolved.

17.C. M. Martini, Uomini e donne dello Spirito, Milan, Piemme, 1998, 107. 18.This caution is clear from the earliest writings of Christianity. In The Shepherd of Hermas, it is stated that the false prophet complacently “ruins the minds of the servants of God. It is the doubters, not the faithful, that he ruins. These doubters then go to him as to a soothsayer, and inquire of him what will happen to them; and he, the false prophet, not having the power of a Divine Spirit in him, answers them according to their inquiries, and according to their wicked desires, and fills their souls with expectations, according to their own wishes… As many, then, as are strong in the faith of the Lord, and are clothed with truth, have no connection with such spirits, but keep away from them.” 19.Literally, “respect for God” (cf. Ps 111:10; Pr 1:7; Sir 1; Jm 28): it is the true sense of distance, which allows us to see ourselves and the world in which we live in its actual context. Such fear is not spontaneous, but it must be learned (cf. Ps 34:11); the school of fear allows us to enter into life, into the bliss of God (cf. Ps 1). It is this fear that drives out every other fear. When this wisdom is lacking, there remains a void that leads to all sorts of vices. It is to know that everybody’s life, like the fate of history, is in God’s hands. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

Bernard Lonergan, concluding his work Insight, recognized that his frequent and assiduous study of the writings of St. Thomas did not give him a clear answer concerning those dilemmas that were dear to his heart; however, that very long intellectual path changed his way of thinking and this was for him what mattered most.20 It is what he calls the “intellectual conversion”: it is not the precise solution to the problem but rather the change of horizon that introduces him to different interpretations of it and opens up new and unexpected paths.

An aid for counsel: the discernment of spirits Counseling the doubtful means pointing toward a path of wisdom to be walked together, offering a possible interpretation 48 of the context in which the problem is placed. In the history of Christian spirituality this kind of help has found a well- known, proven application: the discernment of spirits of St. Ignatius of Loyola. For Ignatius, discernment means above all putting the question inside the proper context of one’s own life journey. He has a narrative conception of discernment: he refers to the person’s history, his direction of life (“those who go from sin to sin”; “those who are committed to purifying themselves from sins”21) and the customs that are consequently rooted in the heart through the repetition of acts. In the history of sin, the good spirit intervenes with “incidents,” spreads doubt, speaks through remorse and an interior sadness (literally “biting conscience”), presents unexpected situations where you can find indications for a change of life. The enemy on the other side tries to appease with apparent pleasures, presenting more suggestive ways to obtain them, so as to continue on the same dangerous path. This tactic is presented in a reverse way for those who want to grow in goodness. To be able to recognize these divergent styles we should exercise our interior vision, educating the “synteresis of reason,”

20.Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergn, Vol. 3), 5th Ed. University of Toronto, 1992. 21.Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, no. 314. Cf. D. J. Fares, “Aiuti per crescere nella capacità di discernere,” in Civ. Catt. 2017 I 377-389. MOMENTS OF DOUBT that is, the capacity to know the first principles of good and evil,22 to distinguish the real good from that which seems to be such but which is actually deception, leaving at the end a sense of emptiness and boredom. Ignatius was able to identify these different styles by reviewing in his personal experience, in particular during his first fundamental discovery of a spiritual life, the difference between true and false consolations. He was at home recovering from a severe wound after the siege of Pamplona: to overcome boredom he wanted to read something exciting, like the tales of knights; unfortunately all he could find was the life of Jesus and the . And so, against his own will, he adapts. But through those narratives he starts to find two alternative worlds: the adventures of knights and the works of saints. Two very different 49 worlds, apparently equidistant. And as though on some kind of interior pendulum or swing, he finds himself sometimes more on one side and sometimes more on the other. However, when he starts to examine with more attention the development of his thoughts, he notes a significant detail: “But in these thoughts there was this difference: When he thought of worldly things it gave him great pleasure, but afterward he found himself dry and sad. Yet when he thought of journeying to Jerusalem, of living only on herbs, and practicing austerities like the saints, he found pleasure not only while thinking of them, but also when he had ceased.”23 Ignatius has his own first foundational experience of God by listening to the affective resonances that came from reading and noting a strange asymmetry: the thoughts of the world are assimilated easily, but they do not last long and in the end leave a bitter taste in his mouth. The thoughts of God, on the contrary, present a certain difficulty, asking for an interior struggle to welcome them, but once you are inside, even if they concern difficult and unpleasant things (fasting, penance, austerity), they give a deep and lasting peace that motivates you.24

22.Sum. Theol. I, q. 79, a. 12. 23.Ignatius of Loyola, Autobiography, Ed. J.F.X. O’Conor. Benzinger Bros., 1900, 26. 24.Ibid. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

The discernment of spirits reveals other surprises. The future founder of the notes with wonder that, as long as he lived the life of a sinner, he experienced a kind of superficial peace and everyone left him to this peace. When he began to reform his life, he found significant and unexpected difficulties. Revisiting this experience years later, he finds a kind of confirmation of his choice, sub contraria specie: reforming his life, making it more docile to the will of God, will bother some people, clash with environments, and ways of thinking and feeling and obstructions will suddenly awaken to block his purpose. Paradoxically, these doubts and difficulties prove that the choice is good and should be confirmed. The temptation is important because it measures and verifies the value of what has been started, testing its consistency, 50 like a fire shows the difference between gold and straw (cf. 1 Cor 3:10-15). For this reason the Bible invites the believer to wait for this moment, so that he is not unprepared (cf. Sir 2:1). It is not an exceptional situation; all have been through this moment: Jesus, the saints and all believers. Remaining ignorant of it can be very dangerous for one’s life. What Ignatius suggests is rooted in the spirit of modernity. He uses doubt appropriately when faced with thoughts and reasoning that present themselves in a vague and ambiguous manner, and tend to generate confusion and to distract from a good work already started.25 Even temptation can speak of God and present apparently efficacious and conclusive suggestions. From this comes the necessity to discern what is moving in the heart, giving a name to what is perceived and its “narrative path,” its origin and above all its destination.26 Thus it is necessary to know oneself and especially one’s own fragility, weak points, the things that are important, and those to which one is more sensitive. These aspects are the authentic passwords of our soul, which the tempter knows well, and they risk opening the door to the

25.Ignatius “felt as if he heard someone whispering to him, ‘How can you keep up for seventy years of your life these practices which you have begun?’ Knowing that this thought was a temptation of the evil one, he expelled it by this answer: ‘Can you, wretched one, promise me one hour of life?’ In this manner he overcame the temptation, and his soul was restored to peace” (Ibid., 20). 26.Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, no. 333. MOMENTS OF DOUBT

enemy who “enters yours and leaves by his.”27 It is a tiring but valuable work, a decisive help not only for discernment but also for the general maturity of the person. In fact, it refines your mind, helps you not to take things for granted, allows you to analyze in depth a given experience, noticing details and nuances that often are the real decisive criteria to recognize what you really want. This hard work frees us from the coarseness and superficiality that Ignatius recognizes as peculiar characteristics of the period before his conversion that led him to waste his time on vain and futile things.

The next phase The narrative dimension of discernment helps us to understand that spiritual counsel is not a mere work of rhetorical 51 persuasion but requires a patient reading of one’s self and life. For this reason, such a work of mercy is not exhausted in dialogue with the doubtful but sees a further moment of examination in the concrete life and its possible goodness. This aspect, which is often neglected by someone looking for counsel, is instead fundamental for its success. Ignatius decides, for example, not to follow any more the doubts that led him to confess repeatedly the sins of the past. And he underlines that after making that decision, he was “free from those scruples.”28 The real answer comes in the moment following the decision: as Thomas Aquinas observed, the strength of the will is part of the process of counsel, as asking for help means already having made a decision. Another significant episode that illustrates the importance of this aspect occurs when Ignatius begins basic studies to become a priest: an arduous task because his schooling was long behind him and because of the dryness of such studies. However, in that very situation he would entertain kind, gentle thoughts that distracted him to the point that he could not continue his studies. He was feeling trapped by these thoughts yet he was able to identify in them some strange disharmonious elements: “Reflecting on this fact, I said to myself: ‘Not even when I am in

27.Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, no. 332. 28.Ignatius, Autobiography, 25. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ

prayer or listening to the Mass do I have such deep illuminations.’ But slowly he understood even this was temptation.”29 These are important observations: these suggestions are out of place, occur at the wrong moment (always when he begins to study) and are an obstacle to God’s service. Hence the conclusion: they are a temptation. And, as in the case of every temptation, one should act in an opposite way to what is suggested. After praying, Ignatius goes to his teacher and reconfirms the determination to continue studying with all his strength. And in the end he notices the consequences of such decisions: “After such a resolution, he did not experience those temptations anymore.”30 In both situations the decisive element that makes the 52 difference is the point of arrival of those thoughts in contrast to his story of life. God’s plan is animated by continuity and perseverance: the good Spirit, when you decide for good, makes things easy and communicates peace and serenity even after the fact, because only God is Lord of time and stability.

Knowing how to live complexity Learning to consider the period following discernment and deliberation is an important aspect and moment of examination that deserves to be put (again) at the center of the work of counseling the doubtful, be that an individual or community, an association or a religious order, or an assembly of the faithful that is deliberating together on the good to be chosen. Cardinal Martini writes, “If the conclusion of so many discourses and reasoning about pastoral life is bitterness, frustration, closure, this means that it is not the work of the Spirit of God; maybe there will be a richness of sociological data and reflections, but not the action of the Spirit. When on the contrary we have a discussion with the will to work and to take action, to take again in our hands a problem to consider it in a better way, this is the work of God’s Spirit…. The enemy is careful in making us notice things that do not work, that nothing is working,

29.Ignatius, Autobiography, 55. 30.Ibid. MOMENTS OF DOUBT and he does that through various forms of reason that we find convincing. But in the end, what remains is bitterness, a lack of trust, and a sense of darkness, a kind of frustration.”31 Therefore, we should not be afraid of complexity, nor seek absolute certainty or “final solutions” (infamous through the horrors of the mid-20th century). Rather, we should remain in this complex and mobile moment that allows us to bring fruit into our own lives. We should not think that the time in which we live is so dark and hostile as to make difficulties and doubts impossible to overcome, so that we are destined to fail at every attempt to bring clarity. “The world in which the Lord allowed us to live is the same in which Jesus lived among Romans and Palestinians, scribes and Pharisees, Herodians and Essenes,” writes Martini. “A world full of darkness, deceit and tricks, in 53 which Jesus has been present with serenity. He suffered, and therefore we should not give up on suffering, but we have the chance to live with truth, honesty, honor and a certainty that God does not abandon us.”32 We are always called to look upon him with the faith of Peter, as he will be beside us and will raise us up from the tempest of doubt (Mt 14:30-33). Counseling the doubtful means recognizing such complexity without fear, sure that good is not absent. In awareness of this situation, we are called to evaluate and decide, being certain that we are offered sufficient capacity to carry it out concretely. Accepting this challenge is the adventure that makes life beautiful and worthy to be lived, because we act until the very end, with the opportunity to spend our lives on that which is worthy.

31.C. M. Martini, Uomini e donne dello Spirito, cit., 114. 32.Ibid., 116. Venezuela Sinks to New Depths

Arturo Peraza, SJ

The drifting Venezuelan crisis of the first part of 2017 signaled the coming of more dramatic events, adding to those already seen by the whole world. A key date was surely July 30, 2017, with the establishment – in violation 54 of the Venezuelan constitutional norms – of the Constituent National Assembly (CNA). If the political actors today, especially the Venezuelan government, do not change their approach, then the situation is going to worsen, especially if the government shows itself unwilling to consider the four conditions for the resolution of the crisis proposed by the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal , in a letter dated December 1, 2016.1 Because of how the situation has worsened, these four conditions have since become five, the fifth being a request to block the CNA from functioning. This wish was first expressed by Archbishop Bernardino Auza, the permanent observer of the Holy See in the 47th General Assembly of the Organization of American

1.In May 2017, the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference argued in a pastoral exhortation: “The government must acknowledge and accept the four points expressed in the letter by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin: opening of the humanitarian channel, release of detained political prisoners, full recognition of the National Assembly [the Venezuelan Parliament] and an electoral path to overcome the differences. In this way it will offer favorable signals to meet the needs of the people” (Conferencia Episcopal Venezolana, Exhortation of the XLIII Extraordinary Plenary Assembly of the CEV (www.cev.org.ve/index.php/noticias/227- exhortacion-de-la-xliii-assemble-extraordinaria-plenaria-de-la-cev), May 17, 2017, No. 10). VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS

States (OAS),2 and then confirmed in a statement by the Vatican Secretariat of State in a press release, August 4, 2017.

What happened in Venezuela in 2017 At the beginning of 2017, there was an unsuccessful attempt to mediate the crisis by former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Spain) and former presidents Leonel Fernández Reyna (Dominican Republic), Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino (Panama), and the Secretary General of the Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR), Ernesto Samper, accompanied by a Vatican delegate nominated ad hoc by the pope, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli. The reasons for the failure of this mission should be sought principally in the national government’s lack of a serious desire to 55 negotiate a political solution to the institutional crisis in Venezuela. This conclusion was confirmed by the former Spanish prime minister Zapatero3 when he abandoned a further negotiation attempt at the end of July. The government’s stance has, therefore, progressively aggravated the worrying humanitarian situation that the country has been experiencing since at least 2016. So in the first quarter of 2017 tensions mounted further. The government sought a way to refinance the public debt and access new monetary sources, but to do so it needed the formal approval of the parliament – the National Assembly (NA) – that is in the hands of the opposition. International institutions did not dare to grant new loans in the absence of this requirement, which the government sought to circumvent. In fact, Venezuela’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), had already divested parliament of its powers in January 2016, and therefore had ruled that all its decisions were null and void. In order to overcome this formal obstacle, on March 28, 2017,

2.Cf. “La Santa Sede fijó ante la OEA su posición sobre Venezuela,” in Aica(www.aica.org/29001-la-santa-sede-fijo-ante-oea-su-posicion-sobre- venezuela.html), June 21, 2017. 3.Cf. “Comunicado de José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero sobre la situación en Venezuela,” in Panorama (www.panorama.com.ve/politicayeconomia/ Comunicado-de-Jose-Luis-Rodriguez-Zapatero--sobre-la-situacion-en- Venezuela-20170729-0026.html), July 29, 2017. ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

the decision was reached – with judgments 1554 and 1565 of the Constitutional Section of the SCJ – to assign to the president certain parliamentary powers. The same Constitutional Section added that members of Parliament could be deprived of their liberty, since parliamentary immunity was in question in the light of the divestment of the National Assembly. These judgments sparked off a number of protests, as well as disagreements within the coalition in government. In several Venezuelan cities, a sort of popular uprising began with demonstrations, strikes and barricades. This triggered government repression. By August, the NGO Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social had already identified 6,729 protests in both urban and rural areas and in various locations 56 throughout the country.6 The protests have not been without bloodshed, with the number of dead standing at 130,7 many of whom are young people under the age of 20, including several teenagers who are 13 or 14 years old. There are also thousands injured who must be added to these figures.8 Another NGO, the Foro Penal Venezolano, has calculated that 5,051 people have been arrested, of whom 1,300 have been imprisoned; among them are 527 civilians who were sentenced by military courts.9 The demonstrations determined an important link between social protest and political protest, which in the

4.Cf. https://es.scribd.com/document/343616814/TSJ-Venezuela-Senten- cia-155/ 5.Cf. J. I. Hernández G., “Sentencia 156: el TSJ usurpa funciones de la Asamblea Nacional,” in Prodavinci (http://historico.prodavinci.com/blogs/sentencia-156- el-tsj-usurpa-funciones-de-la-asamblea-nacional-por-jose-ignacio-hernandez), March 30, 2017. 6.Cf. “OVCS contabilizó 6.729 manifestaciones en cuatro meses,” in El Nacional(http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/protestas/ovcs-contabilizo- 6729-manifestacionescuatro-meses_196899), August 3, 2017. 7.The Public Ministry recognizes 110, cf. L. Reveron, “135 muertes violentas en cuatro meses de protestas contra el régimen de Maduro (+Lista),” in Caraota Digital (www.caraotadigital.net), August 7, 2017. 8.For figures updated in May, cf. “15 mil heridos en 63 días de protestas en Venezuela,” in El Carabobeño (www.el-carabobeno.com), June 2, 2017. 9.Cf. “Foro Penal: Más de 5.000 detenidos en protestas desde abril,” in El Nacional(www.el-nacional.com/noticias/protestas/foro-penal-mas-5000- detenidos-protestasdesde-abril_196282), July 31, 2017. VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS

past were relatively separate. The discontent of the popular sectors, though directed against the government, was mainly dependent on the social and economic crisis, while previous protests by the middle classes were essentially politically motivated. Today, these two branches of protest appear to be connected, with a key role being played by the student movement. On this occasion, protests took place in popular areas, even close to government buildings where previously protests had not taken place. Amid this context of political tension, some of those who had previously identified themselves with the revolutionary political process began to indicate a break within the very structure of “Chavism.” The most significant signal was that of the General Prosecutor of the Republic, Luisa Ortega 57 Díaz, who chairs the all-important Public Ministry. Her first step was to assert the unconstitutionality of Judgments 155 and 156 of the SCJ. This forced the government to partially modify these judgments, but at the same time created a fracture between the government and the centers of power it controlled via the Public Ministry. This fracture worsened in the following months to the point that the official in question was put on trial by the SCJ for alleged “insanity.” It is worth pointing out that it was not only Ortega Díaz who publicly expressed her dissent, but also other senior members of the late President Chavez’s government, like the former Interior Minister, General Miguel Rodríguez Torres, and other former ministers and key political and military personalities from the Chavez era.10 Faced with the Venezuelan situation, the international community has appeared paralyzed and divided. In the OAS, most countries have sought to reach an agreement to signal to the Maduro government the need to change its conduct; but this kind of agreement requires the approval of two-thirds of the OAS members, while almost all the Caribbean Island States do not want to support any initiative against Venezuela.

10.Cf. “Ex Ministros de Chávez reunieron with Luisa Ortega Díaz,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/ministroschavez-reunieron- con-luisa-ortega-diaz_187381), June 12, 2017. ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

The stance of Venezuela has been condemned at various levels by the international system of human rights protection, in particular by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and subsequently the European Union, the United States, Canada and other countries. Many of these have already implemented sanctions against the Venezuelan government or are proposing to do so. On the other hand, Venezuela receives economic and political support from other governments, like those of Cuba, Russia and China. Faced with the political crisis, the response of the Venezuelan government was – as has been said – to call on an authority mentioned in the Constitution, the CNA. The CNA is a sovereign body, legibus solutus, which is called upon 58 to draft a new constitution, but in the process it can take any kind of measure without adhering to any normative regulation. In order to be able to convene the Assembly, the people must first be consulted because sovereignty, according to the Constitution, belongs to them in a non-transferable way.11 According to the constitutional norm, the president has the power to call for a popular consultation12 which in the case of a favorable outcome leads to the convening of the Assembly. But such a process has never taken place: the president exercised the prerogative of convening the CNA without any prior popular consultation, with an electoral mechanism guaranteeing its control by the ruling party, even if it is a minority. Under these conditions, the opposition refused to participate. The CNA elections were characterized by many allegations of fraud, even within the same governing party. State officials were obliged to vote, and would be subject to dismissal if they did not.13 The level of participation, counted at 8 million voters

11.Cf. Articles 5, 70 and 347 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. 12.Article 348 refers to this power in stating that the president may take the initiative and can do so with the support of just 15 percent of the electorate. It is not conceivable, however, that 15 percent of the population can impose electoral criteria without consulting the population. And this includes the president too. 13.Cf. “Despidieron a trabajador con discapacidad por no votar en la ANC,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/despidieron-trabajador- VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS by the National Election Council, does not appear compatible with the scarce popular attendance and the findings of the private company responsible for the Venezuelan electoral system.14 Despite all this, the Assembly was established. The result of the electoral consultation that at best saw only 40 percent of the electorate take part was the creation of a body with full powers that was unilaterally controlled by the ruling party. This situation exacerbated tensions, and violence escalated across the nation. In fact, the day of the election of the CNA members was the most violent since the beginning of protest demonstrations, claiming 15 victims. In addition, in view of the regional elections for the governors in October, President Maduro stated that all elected governors will have to submit to the authority of the Constituent Assembly. 59 As the political crisis is in full swing, the situation is terrible at the humanitarian level. Food and essential medicines are scarce. There has been an alarming increase of endemic diseases like malaria that had been under control since the middle of the 20th century.15 Emblematic was the death of young Migdin Mujica, a doctor engaged in postgraduate training in one of the rural areas with the greatest need in the Venezuelan Amazon. She contracted malaria, and her death was due to the lack of effective medicines, although the goal of health centers in that area is actually to treat this type of endemic disease.16 condiscapacidad-por-votar-anc_196767), August 2, 2017 14.Venezuelan electoral lists include about 19.5 million voters. The National Election Council claims that about 8 million voters voted; the company in charge claims that there were only 6 million who did; some pollsters talk about just 3.5 million voters. Cf: E. Scharfenberg, “La Empresa de gestión electoral de Venezuela denuncia manipulacion en los comicios a la Constituiente,” in El Pais (https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/08/02/actualidad/1501678213_523507. html), August 3, 2017. 15.Cf. M. E. Jorge M., “Proyectan medio millón de casos y 350 muertes por malaria en 2017,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/crisis-humanitaria/ proyectan-medio-millon-casos-350-muertes-por-malaria-2017_83814), March 5, 2017. 16.Cf. “Pasante de medicina murió por falta de medicamento antimalárico en Bolívar,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/crisis-humanitaria/ pasante-medicina-murio-por-falta-medicamento-antimalarico-bolivar_196456), August 1, 2017. ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

For their part, Venezuelan Caritas and the World Health Organization have reported that childhood malnutrition in Venezuela is reaching critical levels.17 According to the Documentation and Social Analysis Center of the Federation of Venezuelan Teachers (Cendas-FVM), the minimum food basket for a five-member family in Venezuela has a value of 1,229,698 bolívar, or $123,123.70, while the minimum wage is 65,000 bolívar, or $6.50814, to which must be added a contribution to meet diet requirements, which at the time of writing is 135,000 bolívar, or $13,516.90.18 Families therefore need to find a figure at least six times greater than the one available on average to cover basic nutritional requirements without counting other expenses like transport and housing. 60 The commitment of the Church Through its various organs, the Catholic Church has played an important operational role and has accompanied the people during this ordeal. Caritas Venezuela and parishes have sought to help communities facing dramatic food shortages. In the parishes, soup kitchens are increasing,19 while the Campaña Compartir project, originally only for Lent, has become permanent in all communities. In addition, in order to combat childhood malnutrition Caritas has started an assistance program for the families that it has been able 20 to contact. The commitment of Fe y Alegría Venezuela that

17.Cf. “OMS: Venezuela tiene 11% de desnutrición infantil,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/sociedad/oms-venezuela-tiene-desnutricionin- fantil_184974), May 29, 2017. 18.Cf. “Cendas-FVM: Canasta alimentaria subió en junio a 1.229.698,35 bolívares,” in Finanzas Digital (http://www.finanzasdigital. com/?s=cendas+fvm+junio), July 19, 2017. 19.Cf., for example, “CEV anunció Ollas Comunitarias para calmar el hambre en Venezuela,” in El Carabobeño (https://www.el-carabobeno.com/cev- anuncio-ollas-comunitarias-calmar-hambre-venezuela), March 1, 2017. 20.Cf. I. Herrera, “Cáritas detectó 427 niños desnutridos y en riesgo en 25 de sus parroquias,” in El Nacional (www.el-nacional.com/noticias/sociedad/ caritasdetecto-427-ninos-desnutridos-riesgo-sus-parroquias_78287), January 30, 2017. VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS ensures that children do not abandon school due to food shortages should also be remembered.21 The Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference (VBC) has repeatedly made strong statements in attempts to throw light on the Venezuelan conflict, but without fueling violence in any way.22 The four points detailed in the aforementioned letter of Cardinal Parolin to the Venezuelan government have guided the agenda of the VBC on the situation. There is a belief in the need for dialogue and compromise as a way out of the current crisis, but a determined will to negotiate is also necessary. In addition, the Venezuelan bishops believe that behind so much violence there is a desire to impose a totalitarian model: “The fundamental cause, as we have stated on other occasions, is the government’s intention to impose the totalitarian system 61 enumerated in the Plan de la Patria (called “Socialism of the 21st century”), despite the fact that the Marxist socialist system has failed in all the countries where it was attempted, leaving a trail of pain and poverty.”23 For the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, the destroyed institutional order needs to be restored in the country. This involves the protection of human rights, the restoration of liberty in particular to political prisoners, the establishment of clear rules for economic policy and the reconstruction of the social fabric. In this sense, the convening of the CNA merely aggravates the coercive elements of a government model rejected by the majority of the population. This is why the VBC has repeatedly invited the government to suspend the convening of the Constituent Assembly because it is unhelpful and unconstitutional. Similar positions have been expressed by Venezuelan religious men and women: for example, by the Jesuit Provincial in Venezuela,

21.Cf. M. Lozada, “El fin de año escolar para los niños de Fe y Alegría incluye ‘olla solidaria’,” in Efecto Cocuyo, July 12, 2016. 22.Cf. The pastoral exhortations of January, May and July 2017 at www.cev. org.ve. 23.VBC, “Exhortación Pastoral: ‘Jesucristo Luz y Camino para Venezuela’” (www.cev.org.ve/index.php/noticias/215-exhortacion-pastoral-jesucristo-luz- ycamino-para-venezuela-de-la-cvii-asamblea-de-la-cev), January 13, 2017. ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

by Catholic organizations like Fe y Alegría and by the universities run by the Society of Jesus in Latin America (Ausjal), not to mention similar statements by bishops, priests, lay organizations, as well as other Christian groups of different denominations. At this time, even the highest authority of the Catholic Church has spoken several times on the matter: the pope directly and through the Secretariat of State and the Apostolic Nuncio in Venezuela. The pope referred to the Venezuelan situation at the end of April on his flight from Egypt to Rome.24 On that occasion he said he believed that negotiation was the way to resolve the crisis, as long as there was a serious willingness of all the parties involved. The next day, the pope recalled again the situation in Venezuela, 62 making “a heartfelt appeal to the Government and to all the members of Venezuelan society in order to avoid any further violence.”25 A few days later, the pontiff wrote a letter to the bishops of Venezuela expressing his closeness to the people and “his concern for the situation of the Venezuelan people in the face of the serious problems that afflict them.”26 On June 8, the pope received the VBC presidency in Rome. It was a particularly significant encounter for the Venezuelan Church, because it set out the language that needs to be used in the circumstances through which the country is going. The pontiff reaffirmed that his own voice resounds through the voice of the Venezuelan bishops.27 A few weeks later, on June 26, Pope Francis received the Nuncio of Venezuela, Archbishop Aldo Giordano. And finally, during the Angelus of the first Sunday of July – preparing for July 5 when

24.Cf. “Conferenza stampa del Santo Padre durante il volo di ritorno dall’Egitto”(http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/april/ documents/papa-francesco_20170429_egitto-volo.html), April 29, 2017. 25.Francis, Regina Coeli (https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/ange- lus/2017/documents/papa-francesco_regina-coeli_20170430.html), April 30, 2017. 26.“Papa Francisco envía carta a los obispos de Venezuela,” in www.cev. org.ve/index.php/noticias/224-papa-francisco-envia-carta-a-los-obispos-de- venezuela/, May 5, 2017. 27.Cf. “Papa Francisco: En la voz de los Obispos Venezolanos también resuena la mía,” in www.cev.org.ve/index.php/noticias/231-papa-francisco-en- lavoz-de-los-obispos-venezolanos-tambien-resuena-la-mia, June 9, 2017. VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS

Venezuelan independence is commemorated – he renewed the call for the violence to end, entrusting the country to Our Lady of Coromoto.28 The numerous papal interventions, without mentioning meetings with State leaders and international authorities in which the Venezuelan case has been discussed, show the pope’s personal concern for the situation in Venezuela, something shared by the Secretariat of State and by Cardinal Parolin personally. On several occasions the cardinal has received different members of the various groups involved in the Venezuelan conflict. The Secretariat of State has played a prominent role, initially accompanying the dialogue process it sought to carry out in Venezuela, then by the aforementioned letter dated December 1, 2016, and also by denouncing the risks inherent 63 in the installation of the Constituent Assembly. The purpose has always been to help to mitigate the effects of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and to face the political roots not only of the humanitarian crisis, but also of the escalation of violence that is likely to spread further afield over time.

Emerging from the depths: a meditation on the Venezuelan political reality The complete set of facts described here outlines a complex, sad and desperate picture: a population is suffering serious food and medicine shortages, not to mention other goods; the society is in a state of anarchy, resulting in violence and death; a government wants to impose a political model that has not been approved by the people and that has actually been rejected by a great majority; the human rights of all citizens have been suppressed; the government and the nation itself have been progressively isolated from the international context. It is a government that does not want to listen to the advice offered to it by several parties, especially by the Holy See (by the pope and the Secretariat of State) and the Venezuelan Church. It is a government that has

28.Cf. Francis, Angelus (https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/ange- lus/2017/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20170702.html), July 2, 2017. ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

taken an authoritarian line, that wants to exercise absolute power without being subject to the rule of law, against which it exercises violence in various ways, neglecting democratic bodies like the Venezuelan Parliament, imprisoning political opponents, leaving the population in misery, and not permitting the opening of humanitarian channels. Here is the essential definition of the Venezuelan political situation: there is no interest in the fact that many citizens have died because of the lack of medicines due to malnutrition, the repression of protests, or unbridled inflation due to failing economic policies and the control mechanisms in the hands of the military. In Venezuelan society and in the government, the sense 64 of restraint seems to have disappeared now. For years there has been a culture of death, the result of the increasing violence that has manifested itself in delinquency, corruption and impunity. This is the context in which institutional order has progressively fractured. The situation of the Venezuelan government is not a matter of a single political representative: in reality, the government mirrors a complex alliance that the protagonists themselves call a “civic-military union.” Various groups of conflicting interests orbited around Chavez, but nonetheless accepted the leadership of the then-president. After the death of Chavez, a new agreement was established and became gradually stronger. Many of those who had been part of the first agreement found themselves sidelined. This explains the distance between important figures who had previously supported the late president. The members of the current alliance belong to the Venezuelan left-wing groups and leaders linked to the Socialist Party of Venezuela and the military sector, most notably the Chiefs of Staff who are supported by some members of the international community like Cuba and with whom they share certain interests. Each of the groups mentioned is in turn formed by a heterogeneous set of people and leaders, so the alliance itself is relatively unstable. Again, on the side of the opposition, we find a heterogeneous set of (political) realities, led by Mesa de la Unidad Democrática VENEZUELA SINKS TO NEW DEPTHS

(MUD), which enjoys national and international political recognition. It includes entrepreneurs, traders, trade unions, academies and universities, associations of civil society, student movements and many groups of citizens. If the alliance that supports the government is complex, then even more so is the one sustaining the MUD. In fact it brings together dissimilar parties with often opposing interests whose leaders seek to take advantage of situations for their own interests. Within this composite reality, frequent divergences are observed on key strategic issues. Meanwhile, outside MUD, an organization called La Resistencia was founded. Convinced that the only way out of this crisis is a clash, in the hope that sooner or later military forces not aligned with the government will generate in the 65 Fuerza Armada Nacional (FAN) a fracture that will be able to require the forces in power to negotiate their own way out, without excluding an intervention by international forces, and hence a replication of the events like those which led to the end of the Noriega government in Panama. For the Church, the way of violence is not an option, nor is submission. Venezuelan citizens have the right to demonstrate their disagreement and to decide their fate in a democratic manner in a system where each person’s vote must be of equal value; and they have the right too that all the voices in the field are represented in proportion to their electoral weight. These are the principles that must be the guide to a negotiated solution to the crisis. Alongside these principles, there must be the one that is at the foundation of the resolution of every crisis: forgiveness. Forgiveness does not oppose either justice or truth. Forgiveness opposes vengeance. To the extent that vengeance is chosen as a form of justice, Venezuelan society will remain under the yoke of violence. As with the Furies (Erinyes in Greek mythology, the feminine deities of vengeance), revenge is insatiable, and vengeance only evokes more vengeance in an endless spiral. The justice that is capable of mercy finds in truth and in reparation the way to the future. The decisions of Venezuelans must be guided by looking to the future of the country and through the awareness that ARTURO PERAZA, SJ

seeds of violence are spread by choices that exclude. At the dawn of the 21st century, a new future is possible for any society that is well integrated in the political and social field starting with a polyphonic point of view. Today, the Venezuelan people find themselves sinking to new depths in a swamp that was formed in the 1980s. The situation worsened further in the 1990s and after the exclusionary policies of the first two decades of the 21st century the country is now plunging into poverty and violence. The Venezuelans have the possibility of emerging from this swamp, but they cannot do so unless they are united and have the help of others.29

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29.“After months of clashes, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said he is willing to meet the opposition. The talks, which ‘will serve for the peace and democracy of Venezuela,’ will take place in the nearby Dominican Republic, an official statement says. [...] However, the opposition remains very skeptical, and has criticized Maduro for not having released political prisoners and has asked to discuss certain preconditions prior to meeting” (“Venezuela, Maduro is open to negotiations,” in Oss. Rom, September 14, 2017, 1). Christian Art and Contemporary Culture Between decline and hope of redemption

Andrea Dall’Asta, SJ

The alliance between art and faith: a history of progressive separation In Western culture today, the important themes of the collective imagination and visions of the world are perhaps better understood by art than by religions or by myths of 67 ideologies that in recent years are receding. After the death of the Greek and the diminishment of the Christian God, aesthetic expression seems to be the new mythology in its claim to interpret the meaning of contemporaneity. To interrogate a work of art does not only mean, therefore, to investigate its intrinsic meaning but rather to understand the symbolic dimension that it carries for society and for individuals. It is to understand how the work re-reads the past, interprets the present time and indicates the future. The relationship between Christianity and the visual arts has been configured in the European world, albeit between alternate events, as the story of a close and fruitful alliance.1 In fact, artistic production in the West – from Spain to Russia, from to Scandinavia – cannot be understood separately from its Christian roots. From the symbolic and essential representations of the early centuries to cold, neoclassical depictions, the image has always enjoyed great familiarity with Christianity. The Church – but we could also speak of “Churches,” like the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church – was an extraordinary patron. However, the alliance between art and faith seems to have increasingly unraveled over the centuries. Specifically, starting with the 18th century and the coming of the Enlightenment,

1.Cf. A. Dall’Asta, Dio alla ricerca dell’uomo: Dialogo tra arte e fede nel mondo contemporaneo, Trapani, il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2011, 7-15. ANDREA DALL’ASTA, SJ

the artistic inspiration that arose from the experience of Christian faith has gradually lost the creative and propulsive ability that had been the source of extraordinary pictorial, sculptural and architectural realizations. This fracture between art and faith does not seem destined to be overcome today. It is sufficient to think about contemporary art and the way it deals with the more specifically religious aspect. The dimension of the invisible, something fundamental for understanding contemporary artistic expression, no longer refers unequivocally to biblical imagery, to a God revealing himself in Jesus as described in the Gospels, to the God who is incarnate in history. Today’s art seems in no way to be related to the representation 68 of a narration, a history in which the experience of a community of faith is recognized. Art is hardly conceived in relation to the realization of images capable of assuming a symbolic-cultic dimension. In short, contemporary art seems to have forgotten the biblical God and God’s history with humanity. The 20th century opened with the tragic announcement of the death of God. The end of Christianity seems to emerge on the horizon. A world of forms that never belonged to aesthetics prevails over human desire to recognize in art a world of harmony, beauty and truth, fundamental principles for the understanding of classical art. Art draws less and less from Christian inspiration to nourish the spaces of its expressive fertility, thus risking falling back narcissistically on itself. It is no coincidence that many artists of the 20th century propose works on the autonomous character of art as their own model of aesthetic phenomena. Based on what happened in the human sciences, from Freud’s psychoanalytic studies and de Saussure’s linguistic research, many artists focus on their own creative gesture, reflecting on the processes and mental functions that are at the origin of their experience of the world. This is a true epistemological breakthrough with respect to the past.2 This self-referencing aspect of artistic

2.In Italy, Filiberto Menna will talk about the “analytic line” of art that reflects on itself and its own language. Art becomes an analysis of the processes CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE expression became particularly important from the second half of the 20th century.

A process of secularization The history of the West in these last centuries is often characterized by a slow and progressive process of secularization. This term refers to a way of understanding the world that has appeared in recent years. An important interpreter of the profound characteristics at the foundation of modern Western societies, Max Weber (1864-1920), noted that modernity is characterized by the gradual acquisition of autonomy in some spheres – economic, political, intellectual, artistic and sexual – to the exclusion of the religious dimension. Modern civilization experiences a rationalization process that, while having received 69 fundamental impetus from the Protestant ethic, involves the whole of the West, increasingly relegating religion to the irrational and private sphere. This involves the disenchantment of the world, the exhaustion of the reign of the invisible, as Marcel Gauchet will laconically comment in continuity with the German sociologist.3 Secularization inevitably leads to the segmentation of the processes from where the formation of meaning had originated and on which the most recent interpretations of the world were based. These slow but constant transformations result in an unexpected increase in complexity, in a multiplication of ways of understanding modern identity, increasingly inhabited by the insecurity of foundational certainty, by a radical questioning of those originating principles that had been accepted for centuries. If the society of the past was recognized in a code where religious and metaphysical aspects played an essential role in the interpretation of history and nature, all of this became dramatically challenged by the contemporary world, beginning with the post-Enlightenment period. In this context, secularization can be considered as a slow process whose foundation coincides with the Renaissance and leading to the creation of a work of art. Cf. F. Menna, La linea analitica dell’arte moderna: Le figure e le icone, Turin, Einaudi, 1983. 3.Cf. M. Gauchet, Il disincanto del mondo: Una storia politica della religione, Turin, Einaudi, 1992. ANDREA DALL’ASTA, SJ

sees in Descartes’ philosophical elaborations and later Kant’s the preliminary steps for the constitution of the identity of contemporary humanity. This is an evolution marked by the progressive awareness of the modern person living independently from God, leading a life according to the famous expression of the Dutch lawyer Grotius, etsi Deus non daretur (“as though God were not there”), with no more need to turn to God to understand the history of humanity and the phenomena of nature. In Cartesian philosophical terms, the origin of the interpretation of the world would no longer refer to a metaphysical or religious entity, but to an act of thought of the subject, or better still, to an act of “my” thought: cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am”). I understand that the human being, reality, the world, does 70 not start from God but from myself, from my subjectivity. It is a revolution with fundamental, anthropological and theological implications for understanding contemporaneity. The human person seems destined to experience the search for the self and the world in the solitude of a personal inquiry that never ceases to accentuate itself with the passing of the centuries. Is this perhaps the transition of human reason from adolescence to maturity, with the consequent “secularization” of the world, which would result at the end of a journey that has lasted for several centuries, as theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained?4 Secularization engages the basic structures of society too, like the Church. Up to a certain point in Western history, the Church was the natural connective institution of society and the driving force of culture and spirituality. Today, we witness a growing detachment of art, literature and philosophy from ecclesial life. People speak of the end of ideologies, of overcoming the sacred, of the death of the role great institutions had in the past when they were able to engage the expectations and hopes of a civilization. Until the 18th century, the Church was the driving force of society at a symbolic, political, ideological and religious level, but thereafter the contemporary world would relegate it to a

4.For a wider discussion of the theme, cf. J. Moingt, L’homme qui venait de Dieu, Paris, Cerf, 1993. CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

secondary role. Hence, the risk for the Church to continue in a defensive position, that of protection, in a desire to create its own field of reference against the attacks of a society that does not hide its lacerations and contradictions. In sum, the problem of so-called “sacred” art arose when the Church felt displaced from the cultural and symbolic leadership it had been able to maintain for centuries.

The winter of Western culture After Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, most contemporary art has not seemed to stop in its desire to dismantle, to deconstruct, to question conventions at the origin of a shared meaning. The fragmentation of art becomes the expression of the fragmentation of the world. However, it is 71 not the fragment that allows the recognition of the whole, the possibility of going back to a whole, to an organic and vital totality, but rather the fragmentation resulting in a chaos, from which we do not know if a new creation will emerge. If in our cultural tradition the Church and society integrated the various aspects of human life, this horizon of meaning ceases to exist in the developing Christian humanist tradition. The world appears marked by contradictions and dissonances that cannot be healed. In the artistic-philosophical world, art historian Jean Clair speaks of “the winter of Western culture”5 that we have reached following ancient times when the culture of worship was practiced and now we have the worship of culture; from the veneration of sacred effigies of gods to the worshipping of avant- garde waste that perverse and uncontrolled commercial systems have elevated for financial profit. Philosopher George Steiner deplores the cultural “deconstruction” of modernity. Jean Clair recalls that Thomas Mann, in his novel Doctor Faustus, does not allow Mephisto to say that, since culture became detached from worship to become a cult in itself, it is nothing more than waste, or rubbish? Culture, in the sense that we attribute to it today, is the worship that man dedicates to man

5.Recall here the famous text by J. Clair, L’inverno della cultura, Milan, Skira, 2011. ANDREA DALL’ASTA, SJ

after the gods have left the scene. It is an idolatry of man for and of himself. In our “winter,” culture no longer circumscribes the space of a lay religiosity, nor is it an instrument for “making the living world habitable.” It is a mercantile logic that prevails. From a cult of worshipping the gods we have ended up in a decline from which there seems to be no way out. How then would it be possible to retrieve the sacredness of the image, understood as a door to the infinite, the transcendent, the absolute, as the ancients taught us? An ontological nihilism, according to which the truth of the word would become the absence of the world, assumed at the origin of the dissolution of figurative representation, would result in the relativization of every discourse and every meaning. 72 Not only that, but in the extension of the unappealable verdict of the death of art lent to Hegel, the American critic Arthur Danto began to speak of After the End of Art. After the death of art, a piece of work would no longer need aesthetics nor even a physical dimension. It would not require anything other than a particular way of seeing ... Uncertainties, confusion ... Would the De profundis of art mean the declaration of the end of a civilization? Would the breath of void be propagated in all aspects of Western civilization? If some proclaim the disillusionment of the world, the exhaustion of the realm of the invisible, as prophesied by sociologist Marcel Gauchet, the tones of post-modernity seem to become more and more apocalyptic, justifying condemnations without appealing to contemporary culture. The Church cannot remain indifferent to this epochal crisis, to this lack of a common horizon. Yet it is certainly not crusading in the name of a judgmental and punitive truth that can contest the present bewilderment. What is necessary is to understand the sense of such despair, which is an expression of an existential condition of a shipwreck and a fall, of abandonment and laceration, to find a meeting ground where the deepest sense of life can be spoken of, and the reasons of today’s world can be interpreted. On the one hand the temptation to reinsert postmodernism within tradition takes on the nostalgic flavor of a return to a mythical and reassuring past. On the other hand the real challenge is to listen to the questions and contradictions CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

of our time. The reason why contemporary art is so fragmented and diversified in its expressions – we only have to consider the distance between Jackson Pollock and Lucian Freud, between Francis Bacon and Pop Art, between Ettore Spalletti and Damien Hirst – is probably that it is inhabited by the anxiety of a search for meaning that is always dissatisfied and in the face of which the Church sometimes feels unprepared and confused.

Current liturgical art: nostalgia for the past This deep sense of loss emerges fully from current liturgical art, which is mostly anachronistic and inadequate.6 When we enter our churches to see what interventions have been made over the last few decades, we are struck by the fragmentation of what is on show, from the improvisation of different realizations, 73 both in ancient and contemporary spaces, as if still today, 50 years after the Second Vatican Council, no serious reflection on the subject of the image had been elaborated.7 Among these different figurative expressions, a common denominator seems to emerge: looking to the past. Carlo Levi said that the future has an ancient heart. Wonderful words! However, we have the feeling that in this case it is not about inspiration, or respect for tradition, but an immersion, a dive into an ancient frozen world. Whether it is attention to the re- creation of a flamboyant neo-Byzantine , by the adoption of stylized shapes and a gold background, or of a dry medieval neo-primitivism, especially in the Franciscan tradition, or of a brilliant revival of Renaissance or of stylistic baroque patterns, even remodeled in their most sensual and ambiguous aspects, in any case the way in which the liturgical image is deficient at the present time is striking. In short, missing the past seems to be the main aspect. How should this return to the “neo” be interpreted? If we look at how the images are made, we cannot remain indifferent to the poor quality of these works ofart. Moreover, who would dare accept a comparison between the genius of our

6.Cf. A. Dall’Asta, Eclissi: Oltre il divorzio tra arte e Chiesa, Milan, San Paolo, 2016; Ibid., “Arte sacra, non solo immagine,” in Avvenire, February 20, 2014. 7.On this subject, cf. L. Territo, “‘Educarsi alla bellezza’: Una indagine sulla committenza di opere d’arte per il culto,” in Civiltà Cattolica 2017 I 522-526. ANDREA DALL’ASTA, SJ

masters of the Middle Ages or of the Renaissance? And if we look at the work of so many artists – also recommended by critics of great renown – who venture into the intricate maze of the sacred, we are struck by the embarrassing mediocrity of their responses. We can find it very easily in our ecclesial spaces. Among the transfigured faces in the style of Guido Reni and the new heroic and athletic bodies in the style of Michelangelo – without mentioning the new “ascetic” Byzantine sublimations or the angelic Giotto re-propositions – liturgical art, when it is not reduced to the kitsch of devotional trinkets, seems to move in an uncertain and problematic territory. If the artistic quality of the works may seem secondary – after all, for centuries the Church talked about image rather than “fine arts” in the contemporary 74 sense developed only in the 18th century by Kantian reflection – when faced with this nostalgic look we cannot avoid questioning the reasons for this rejection of the present. The inability to look at the present and its languages ​​raises questions. Is it a sign of escapism from the problems of our time? A lot of contemporary art reflects on the vulnerability of the human person and the difficult contradictions of our time, even without considering the pointless incidents of desecration that fill the newspapers from time to time. Instead, the contemporary liturgical image generally appears to represent a glorious past, without dramas, a peaceful world in which every conflict has already been resolved and cancelled. Every problematic aspect of existence is deleted in the vacuous and inconsistent sweetness of the image. In an intricate but well-identified thicket in the market of the sacred, we are all too often faced with papier-mâché and plastic representations – whether they are sculptures, paintings or frescoes – with pale shadows that would like to recall the splendid testimonies of our Christian tradition. When we try to understand how this liturgical art intends to convey ​aspects of faith with contemporary forms, that is, the most biblical and theological aspects, we can only be dismayed to discover the superficiality of the images that are exhibited without any relationship to the official world of art, which is quickly written off as useless, morbid, provocative, difficult, sophisticated or elitist. CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

To an extent, this is true. One of the principal limitations of contemporary art is to look at the human person without recognizing the possibility of redemption, of , where the horizon of life stands out from a background of no sense, nothingness and indifference. The most embarrassing aspects of the liturgical image are, instead, artificiality and banality; the glorious, glittering exaltation of a world made of golden lights and muscular heroes, rhetorical gestures and pathetic faces. Irrelevant and insignificant evocations of our spiritual tradition. A universe completely separate from real life. It is often said that art is at the service of catechesis. It lends its attention to the correctness of the iconography or the various symbols represented. However, this is not enough. The image would be reduced to a simple caption, an explanation and a 75 description. It is then forgotten that the image is first and foremost a testimony of faith that is expressed through shapes and colors. It is, therefore, a gift of the Spirit. Of course, a work can be corrected from an iconographic point of view. Nevertheless, as necessary as this may be, it is insufficient to the accomplishment of a “beautiful” liturgical image. It is the distance separating a work by Giotto or Caravaggio from a contemporary work of art describable as “giottesque” or “caravaggesque.” Such reinterpretations can in fact be lifeless, without depth, empty, artificial and immensely far from the theological and spiritual depth of their sources of inspiration. These new images forget to accommodate the challenges of their own era; instead, they quite simply appear as useless, clumsy copies.

Announcing the Gospel with confidence today: what is the challenge facing art? To proclaim the Gospel we must be children of our own time. So that the Good News can bring forth its fruit, we need to experience today’s contradictions and lacerations completely. Christ incarnated himself in his time, and certainly did not yearn for a mythical “lost time.” In the art world, however, few clues can be seen on the horizon in this regard. Certain works, like the Evangeliario of the Ambrosian Church, the Porta Speciosa of the ANDREA DALL’ASTA, SJ

Camaldoli Hermitage, by Claudio Parmiggiani, the works of art in the Reggio Emilia Cathedral, the works of environmental painting by Valentino Vago, the experiments of Bill Viola, not to mention some beautiful European examples, like the windows by Gerhard Richter in the cathedral of Cologne. But these are too isolated to be significant. Also the splendid works of art by Henri Matisse, Lucio Fontana or Giacomo Manzù – like the beautiful Door of Death by Manzù in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – seem to be so far away from us in time, yet unsurpassed in their quest to express something completely new for their time in history, a time that coincided with the Second Vatican Council. What must not be underestimated is that innovation in art is not always welcome 76 today, but rather the contrary, it seems likely to be viewed with great suspicion and distrust. The past appears to be winning. To change, we need courage, deep faith and tremendous humility that the Spirit of God acts today. While Pope Francis is rethinking the various areas of Church evangelization with extraordinary inventiveness, and communicating with incredible strength with the men and women of today, the world of images still appears unchanged in its impassive and cold distance, in its imperturbable tendency to look to the past. Art is called upon to be prophetic once again, and in being thus, point to new horizons of meaning, so that today we can accept the challenges of contemporaneity and its many languages. Today, what kind of art is capable of dialoguing with the absolute? It is the art capable of thinking, which has the courage to seek to believe, to love, to hope. It is the art that is not content with the horizon of this world, but which ignites the desire to give answers to the ultimate mystery of existence in a continuous quest to give meaning to life. It is an art that can reflect while listening to the true questions that dwell in every person, being silent in the face of the insistent frustration of a society that is rapidly consuming every aspect of life. An attitude of full confidence in contemporary culture, in the awareness, as already stated by Benedict XVI, that “in every historical season the encounter with the ever-new word of the CHRISTIAN ART AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

Gospel is the source of civilization. It builds bridges among peoples and enriches the fabric of our cities, expressing itself in culture, in the arts and, last but not least, in the thousand forms of charity.”8 Great courage is needed. As Pope Francis writes in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013), no. 167, “Each particular Church should encourage the use of the arts in evangelization, building on the treasures of the past but also drawing upon the wide variety of contemporary expressions so as to transmit the faith in a new ‘language of parables.’ We must be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody and communicate the word, and different forms of beauty that are valued in different cultural settings, including those unconventional 77 modes of beauty that may mean little to the evangelizers, yet prove particularly attractive for others.” It is necessary to believe that the Gospel can fertilize and animate today’s culture in the search for new signs, new symbols and a new flesh.

8.Benedict XVI, “Message on the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy,” Rome, May 26, 2011. Korea’s Present and Future An interview with Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong

Antonio Spadaro, SJ At the beginning of September 2017, while from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other an escalation of tension occurred involving both North Korea and the United States, an ideal bridge crossed Asia and Europe allowing an exhibition from 78 Seoul to settle in the renovated and magnificent open spaces of the Vatican’s Braccio di Carlo Magno in St. Peter’s Square. The display “On Earth as It is in Heaven: Seoul and 230 Years of the Catholic Church in Korea” was organized by the Catholic Church in Korea.1 During those same days, the pope was traveling from Rome to Bogotá, Colombia, in order to celebrate a long-awaited peace process. Here was an intertwining of various events that were not necessarily connected between each other, yet all strongly significant, linked as they were to threats of war, hope for peace and memories of a history of faith. The 183 precious works on display showed how knowledge of the Gospel spread throughout the Korean Peninsula. For the occasion, Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong came to Rome. He is the archbishop of Gwangju in the southwestern part of the country and president of the Korean Bishops’ Conference. Born in 1947, he is familiar with Rome, having received a doctorate in Church History from the Gregorian University. Among his many tasks, he is a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. In his country, he was the chairperson of the

1.The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Committee Celebrating the Korean Martyrs of the Archdiocese of Seoul and was presented by the Archdiocese of Seoul and the Seoul Museum of History. It had the patronage of the Metropolitan Government of Seoul, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Holy See, and the . KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

Korean Conference of Religion and Peace. As a member of an official delegation, he took a tour of several days in North Korea. We asked him some questions about his country, the history of faith it has witnessed, and also the difficult tensions that are present there and more broadly in the Far East region.

Your , the Korean Church is young and has an extraordinary history. It started out with a group of lay people from the country and not with missionaries from abroad. This is a unique example in the history of the Church. What are the consequences of this history on the Korean Church today? What you say is true. We have to thank the Lord for this extraordinary history. It was a great grace that led some lay people who were not evangelized from abroad to find and 79 walk the path of the Gospel. We are well aware that history is a dialogue among past and present. This exhibition, “Seoul and 230 Years of the Catholic Church in Korea,” is a tangible witness of past history, as well as being a launch pad for extending the traditional faith into the present. It therefore helps us to renew the spirit of the first Korean Christian community, which is still present and enlivens the Church in Korea today. Thanks to God, the pastoral activity is in fact fervent and dynamic; lay people actively participate and collaborate in pastoral activities carried out by priests, in voluntary works and lay associations. We really need to thank God for the fruitful collaboration existing in the Church in Korea among lay people, religious persons and priests.

The Catholic Church in Korea continues to grow every year: there is an increase in the number of faithful and of priestly and religious vocations. How do you explain this lasting vitality in a society that is highly developed from the economic point of view, as well as marked by a Western-style consumerism? Yes, this is true. For some 15 years the Church in Korea has continued to grow every year: there is an increase in the number of the faithful, religious and priestly vocations. However, in recent times these have tended to decrease significantly. As elsewhere, light and shadows co-exist, and we notice that despite an increase in the number of baptized people a large number of them abandon ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

the Church and avoid religious practice. Certainly, the tendency toward Western consumerism has an impact on religious and priestly vocations, contributing to their decrease.

In your opinion, what risks must the Church in Korea avoid? Primarily a “bureaucratization” of priestly life. Priests have to better understand that they are not functionaries or administrators, rather pastors who are sent by the Lord. The essence of priestly life does not reside in the function but rather in the spiritual value of one’s identity as “man of God” whose mission is prayer and proclaiming the Word. We certainly need to carefully avoid the risk of triumphalism that can turn into pride. People in Korea, including non-Catholics, show a great 80 amount of respect and trust for priests and for the Catholic Church. We should respond to this privileged situation with a greater humility and respect for lay people. We also need to pay closer attention to the secularization of the Church in Korea. We need to make an effort to find solutions to the problems that we need to face from time to time, following the Sensus Ecclesiae, the teaching of the Gospel and the Magisterium of the Church, trying to be “a poor Church for the poor,” as Pope Francis reminds us.

Korea has a great Confucian tradition. Does this somehow influence the life and religious feeling of the Catholic Church? How? In my opinion, in order to answer this question a distinction should be made between the socio-political, moral and religious levels.

What can we say about the socio-political level? The socio-political order and the authority of the Yi dynasty (Chosŏn, 1392-1910) were rooted in the Confucian doctrine. If any individual or social group rejected this doctrine that revolved around loyalty and obedience to the sovereign, their attitude was considered a direct challenge to the king’s power and an undermining of social order. This is the reason why the first Christians were persecuted as traitors of the state and of the social order, and the socio-political system of that time could KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

not accept them. It was a situation that could be compared to the one lived by Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire.

On the moral level, is there a similar pattern? Is there a tension between Confucianism and Christianity? I do not think so. On this level, things are different and many Confucian elements are acceptable to Christianity. For example, the most important duty in the traditional Korean society was filial respect. In this context, the first Korean Christians continued to accept and practice in the light of the Gospel the main moral values of Confucianism, and they did not substitute but rather integrated those ethical values in the Christian moral law.

And what about religion? Confucianism is not actually a 81 religion, in the sense of its relationship to the transcendent, as occurs for Christianity, Judaism, Islam… Precisely. Loyalty to the king, filial respect and the sacrificial rite of the cult of ancestors were the main duties from the “religious” point of view. In this respect, it must be highlighted that the rejection of the cult of ancestors made by the first Christian communities, which considered it as a superstition deriving from filial respect, was one of the main reasons for the persecution of Christians for almost a century. Today the Church accepts it because it is seen as an expression of religious piety and prayer for the dead. I would say that we Korean Catholics accept the positive value of Confucianism in a complementary sense, especially from the moral point of view. There are many elements that are similar to what the Catholic Church teaches.

Korean history has always been a matter of borders as well as culturally peaceful or tragically violent influences of the “Celestial Empire,” that is, of China and Japan. Korea embodied the tensions of the Cold War between Russia and the United States. It still geographically witnesses to the geopolitical situation of the second half of the 20th century. It is above all a land of many religions with very ancient and different traditions, like the Confucian and Shamanic ones and also Buddhist and Taoist ones. Could you ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

explain how these tensions and these many cultures and spiritualties shape the sensitivity of Koreans, especially of the faithful?

External pressure compelled Korea to embody the tension of the Cold War between Russia and the United States, the so- called “superpowers.” The fight between these superpowers for their national interests was the main reason for our country still being trapped within the geopolitical tensions of the second half of the 20th century. As for the second part of your question, I would say that, despite the fact that our peninsula is historically home to various religions, a single Korean population was formed ever since the beginning of the history of our country. It was able to consistently maintain its unity until the fourth 82 century A.D., even if it was divided politically into three or five nations in various historical periods. Korea is a country with multiple, ancient traditions including the Confucian and Shamanic ones as well as Buddhist and Taoist ones. Korean religiosity is basically rooted in the Shamanic influence that addresses divinities in order to obtain good luck and happiness and to avoid misfortune and misery. The basic belief is that God can help overcome difficult life situations. It is a common belief that Korean Buddhism and recently some Protestant communities were able to thrive among the people by making use of this Shamanic spirit. Korean people love peace and human relationships. This love for peace allowed for the simultaneous presence of different religious traditions: Christian, Confucian, Buddhist, Taoist and many more.

Korea is said to be a museum of religions, because there are over 60 different religions and sects... We live peacefully together, without serious conflicts. In Korea, we never use the expression “other religions,” rather we talk about “the religions of our neighbors.” Even if we do not share the faith or the doctrine of the religions of our neighbors, we recognize their positive effects, when they do not disregard universal moral values. For our mentality, “difference” does not immediately mean “mistake or error.” The difference of colors is a value in itself, KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE because it enables the creation of a work of art by harmonizing different colors together. There are many different musical instruments and due to their different timbres, tones and sounds they allow a symphony to be created, harmonizing differences in a positive way. Only when there are many flowers with different shapes, colors and dimensions can one create a beautiful garden. Three years ago, when the pope visited Korea, he told the leaders of the different religions that people on the path of life do not walk by themselves, but together. All of us, the leaders of the seven most important religions of Korea, we try to live together peacefully, collaborating to find solutions to social and national problems. As for the sensitivity of Catholic believers, they try to understand their neighbors’ religions in line with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. They try to understand 83 the positive value of their neighbors’ religions, especially in the moral dimension, by making a distinction between the cultural and religious aspects. Every year, Catholic who are preparing to receive priestly ordination visit the main headquarters of the most important religions in order to establish dialogue and understanding. These visits are very helpful for growing in the knowledge of our neighbors’ religions.

The pope has addressed all-encompassing speeches to the Korean bishops and also the Asian bishops. Although they are short, they contain the main guidelines for his apostolic journey to Korea: a project for the Church and the three risks that the Korean ecclesial community has to face in terms of challenges, that is, triumphalism, prosperity and the distance between people and their pastors. Moreover, in Haemi the pope spoke of the need to show “compassion” as the main pastoral approach. Yes, the pope spoke about the risk of triumphalism. It is true that the Korean ecclesial community must tackle this risk as a serious challenge. In fact, Catholics are somehow proud, because many Koreans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, respectfully wait for and listen to the words and declarations made by the Catholic Church in Korea when confronted with some serious social or national issues. In terms of numbers, the Catholic community is a minority group. However, the social and political influence ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

of the Church in Korea is certainly stronger than that of our neighboring religions, and I think this should encourage us Catholics to behave with more humility and prudence.

However, the pope focused against the risk of settling into prosperity... Prosperity may become a true threat if it exposes the Church to the risk of being contaminated by materialism. This is a negative when an individual excessively searches for prosperity, easily desiring to have still more. In this situation, there is no more room for welcoming the Lord’s Word. This is the reason why the pope often makes reference to “the poor Church for the poor.” Poverty offers us the possibility of having Christian freedom to look for and find the Lord. 84 Thus, material prosperity is a very dangerous challenge for the Catholic Church in Korea. We are in need of a greater renewal, strong and tangible, walking side by side with the poorer Churches with a spirit of fraternity and love.

The gap between people and pastors is the other risk that the pope warned about… This is a real problem in Korea, and we need to work hard on this. Normally relationships are good between priests working in parishes and their faithful. This issue is more present among priests who are not directly engaged in parishes. Beyond these relationships, some pastors show a certain inclination to bureaucratization in their pastoral service. During our retreats for priests, as well as in seminary formation, we often insist on respecting and taking care of the faithful with a humble spirit, an essential pastoral attitude.

Did the words of the pope leave a mark in the ecclesial conscience? Sometimes I quote the words of the Holy Father as a basic criterion to renew the life of the faithful, priests and religious people. In order to offer another example, after his visit to Korea, Korean bishops opened a “Good Samaritan bank account” to help poorer Churches in other countries. As bishops we offer a portion of our personal income to the Korean Bishops’ KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

Conference, so that every year it can make use of those funds to offer concrete solidarity to the poorer Churches.2

Korean laypeople who created the first Christian communities in Korea came to know the Gospel during their trips to China. And the first priest who came to Korea was Chinese. Chu-mun-mo was sent by the bishop of Beijing and died as a martyr in Seoul. Nowadays, Korean priests and laypeople are missionaries in many countries of the world. Do you also have relationships with the Catholic Church in China? Yes, we do have different kinds of contact – even if sometimes they are not official – both with the Patriotic Church as well as with the underground Church, but we need to be prudent. Now and then, the Patriotic Church asks 85 for support in the Major Seminary formation or for sisters’ convents, in order to teach philosophy, theology, patristics, or for retreats and the Spiritual Exercises. However, I am not in the position to say whether the aim behind these requests is truly formation or just propaganda. I think that there is still the need for a new type of missionary, like Matteo Ricci, in order to build good relationships with mainland China and for an exchange of mutual interest between the two parties, the Holy See and China. The government of mainland China wishes to avoid divisions among ethnic and social groups in the country, recalling colonialism and Western imperialism. According to the law on religion in China, foreign missionaries cannot carry out their activity for Chinese people in mainland China. Every year, religious leaders from the two countries, China and Korea, meet alternately in China and in Korea for mutual understanding and to work together for peace among their countries, as well as for peace in the world. In general terms, the Chinese people consider “trust” as a fundamental element in all relationships, both at the human level and in commerce and diplomacy.

2.cf. A. Spadaro, “Il viaggio di papa Francesco nella Repubblica di Corea. Custodia, empatia, consolazione” (Pope Francis’ journey in the Republic of Korea. Conservation, compassion, consolation), in Civ. Catt. 2014 III 403-418. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

How do you see the future of relationships between China and the Vatican? I think that the future of the relationships between China and the Holy See will depend on the mutual trust that needs to be created among the parties, in a mutual exchange beneficial for both. Due to national interests China is very sensitive to the relationship with the Holy See. I think it will take time to build trust among the parties. Help might be asked to other countries with good diplomatic relationships with China. Also an invitation from the pope to Chinese leaders on world peace would be desirable.3

St. John Paul II said that the third millennium for the Church 86 will be the time of Asia. What do you think about this perspective, and which do you think could be the specific contribution that the Church in Korea is called to offer in order to give witness to and proclaim the Gospel of Christ in Asia? In 1966, when I was a seminarian in the Major Seminary of Gwangju, our American Jesuit teachers recommended we learn Chinese. I believe that the Catholic Church in Korea should have a project to give witness to and better proclaim the Gospel of Christ in Asia, starting from cultural exchanges with young people from other Asian countries. It seems to me that a direct meeting with young people from different Asian countries might be a first step in order to open the windows and doors of the Church. This could be the specific contribution that the Church in Korea is called to offer, in order to give witness to and proclaim the Gospel of Christ in Asia.

When mentioning Christianity in Korea, one not only makes reference to South Korea but also to North Korea, where the Christian presence was well-rooted and blossoming before the present regime came to power. Do you think that the seeds of the Gospel are still present there and, if so, in which way in the North of the country?

3.Concerning the relationships among the Holy See, the Chinese Church and the Chinese government, cf. A. Spadaro, The Church and the Chinese Government: An interview with Fr. Joseph Shih https://laciviltacattolica.com/free-article/the- church-and-the-chinese-government-an-interview-with-fr-joseph-shih KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

In my opinion, the seeds of the Gospel are still present, even though they are very scarce. I think that we need to try to establish relationships with North Korean authorities in a more dynamic way. In fact, that country’s government has confidence in its cooperation with , connected to the Korean Bishops’ Conference. I hope that it will soon be possible to send some priests to celebrate Mass on major feast days in Pyongyang, following the agreement in 2015. We need to pray to the Lord and tirelessly knock at the door of North Korea for an exchange of both humanitarian and religious collaboration between the two countries.

You went to visit Pyongyang various times with delegations of the Catholic Church as well with ecumenical delegations. Do you 87 think that these meetings bore the fruits of reconciliation and might be started again in the future? I think that reconciliation between our two countries cannot happen in the blink of an eye, just like raising an obelisk, but rather through a process, laying one brick on top of another. It requires a lot of patience and prudence. It seems to me that religions cannot claim any influence on North Korean authorities, because the local government strictly controls religious groups. Nonetheless, North Korea cannot avoid the religious issue due to its socio-political influence in the Western world. This is the framework in which we wish to seek collaboration with religions, social groups and the governments of Western countries, in order to pave the way to dialogue with North Korea. In this respect, it is interesting to highlight that last June North Korea invited the leaders of the seven most important religions that are present in Korea. However, after the U.N. decision to increase sanctions against North Korea, this invitation was postponed. I hope that this invitation may be renewed soon.

The new president of the Korean Republic, Moon Jae-in, shortly after his election, appointed you as his “special envoy” to the pope, assigning you the task of conveying to the pontiff his personal letter. In those same days, Pope Francis was receiving ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ

President Trump at the Vatican. What can you tell us about this special mission, its development and outcome? At the time in which I was sent as a “special envoy” to the pontiff, there was a threat of war in the Korean Peninsula, due to the conflict between the United States and North Korea. The new president of South Korea wanted to explain his position to foster peace in the Korean Peninsula and to ask for the prayer and support of Pope Francis before he met President Trump. I think that my mission was a positive one, also thanks to the help of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The new president, Moon Jae-in, whose baptismal name is Timothy, thanked the Holy Father and all those who helped us. I wish to take this opportunity to renew my gratitude to Pope Francis, His Eminence Cardinal 88 Pietro Parolin, as well as the Apostolic Nunciature in Korea.

How do Catholics feel about the international tensions connected to the demonstrative launch of missiles by North Korea? In this situation the feelings of Korean Catholics depend on their political tendency: conservative or progressive. Some people interpret that these actions by North Korea are a way of survival against the superpowers. Others think that the action was an intolerable threat of war. I think that the demonstrative missile launches represent a strong message: the willingness to dialogue with the United States, but only on an equal footing. As a precondition for dialogue some people ask that North Korea, in advance, renounce nuclear experiments. But is this not false logic? Isn’t North Korea abandoning nuclear experiments the aim of this very dialogue? Until today, there have been many talks between North Korea and the United States, between North Korea and South Korea, which, however, did not produce definitive fruit. Why is this so? Many Koreans think that all the superpowers involved in this issue make use of this tension with North Korea for their own national interests. It seems that several countries are gaining a lot from exploiting and prolonging this tension in the Korean Peninsula.

In your position as a careful observer and protagonist of the social life in your country, as a pastor of an important archdiocese and president of the Korean Bishops’ Conference, do you think that it is still possible KOREA’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

to take the path of a peaceful reconciliation between the “two Koreas”? Which concrete steps would be necessary, from now on, to take this path? I think that the path of peaceful reconciliation in our Peninsula is still possible. Korean people, both in the North and the South, share the same language, writing, history, culture and tradition, the same blood and the same heart. This is what makes the basic homogeneity of Korean people. If the superpowers do not prevent it, I believe we have the human and cultural resources within ourselves for mutual reconciliation, thus becoming builders of peace in Northeast Asia and offering our contribution to peace around the world. I consider it better to support and foster direct dialogue between South and North Korea, without the intervention of any other foreign country. 89 You were recently received again by the pope together with an interreligious delegation made up of the leaders of the seven main religions in Korea. What can the specific contribution of the different religious confessions be in this much-needed reconciliation and peace process? And within this framework, which is the specific role of Catholics? There is a fundamental difference of character between people in the East and the West: Asian people possess an intuitive mentality, rather than a logical and rational one that is typical of Western people. Every two years, we leaders of the seven main religions in Korea go on pilgrimage together for almost a week, visiting in turn various sanctuaries of all the religions. During the pilgrimage, we take the opportunity to talk about various issues, with the aim of a better mutual understanding. This pilgrimage experience enables us to cooperate better, patiently overcoming some serious problems. Peace among us has a strong influence on peace with others. Generally speaking, Korean people think that the Catholic religion is kind and generous, and for this reason it is more acceptable than others. I see that the other religions in Korea attribute to the Catholic Church a role of coordination among the various religious confessions in favor of peace, justice and harmony, both in our country and in all the Korean Peninsula. Parliamentary Elections in Germany

Andreas R. Batlogg, SJ

It is black, yellow and green for the black, red and gold flag: these are apparently the results of the parliamentary elections in Germany.1 Few doubted the reelection of the incumbent chancellor, Angela Merkel However, Merkel’s party, the 90 . Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union, CDU), suffered heavy losses – as did, even more glaringly, its sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (Christlich- Soziale Union, CSU). In Germany, the responsibility for forming a new government traditionally lies with whichever party has obtained the highest number of votes, and therefore this year (as in 2005) with the CDU/CSU. However, it emerged on September 24 that forming a new government will be a very difficult task. On election night, the president of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei, SPD), Martin Schulz, the party’s candidate for chancellor and its main cause to hope for a long-awaited win, categorically announced an end to the grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD. After their worst election results since the end of the Second World War, the Social Democrats are moving to the opposition. This drastically reduces Angela Merkel’s margin for negotiation. Calculations show that, barring any changes, there is only one remaining option for forming a government (since the possibility of a minority government is essentially ruled out): it seems there may be a “Jamaica Coalition” on the horizon – its colors black, yellow and green – formed by the CDU/CSU, the Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) and the Greens.

1.This article first appeared in Italian in October 2017 as coalition negotiations were ongoing. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

The Hamburg weekly magazine Die Zeit, in issue 40 of 2017, published a front-page collage of party presidents Angela Merkel (CDU), Horst Seehofer (CSU), Cem Özdemir (Greens) and Christian Lindner (FDP) dressed up as pirates, under the headline “Curse of the Caribbean” – a reference to Walt Disney’s blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Back Pearl,” starring Johnny Depp. The subtext is that we can expect rough seas. Can a viable government be formed on these terms? The editor’s introduction sums it up: “Jamaica is essentially an impossible alliance. Angela Merkel will have to collaborate with the FDP, the Greens and especially the CSU. Politics are endangered, and not just by Alternative for Germany [Alternative für Deutschland, AFD]. But, finally, we can start talking again.”2 91 In this context, it is not irrelevant to point out who has replaced Norbert Lammert, president of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2017, a man esteemed by the entire political establishment. He retired from politics at the end of the last term after 37 years in Parliament. On September 27, just days after the election, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group put forward Wolfgang Schäuble as its candidate for the second highest office in the land. A member of the Bundestag since 1972, he turned 75 on September 17. Thanks to 45 years of parliamentary experience, this lawyer and long-standing Minister of Finance – committedly pro-Europe and known as Mr. Austerity for the rigid economic policies put forward in negotiations on the future of the Eurozone – is believed capable of acting with foresight and intelligence to manage an unprecedented situation in Parliament.

A political earthquake On September 24, 2017, Germany elected its Bundestag and indirectly its head of government. Heavy losses were suffered by former governing parties CDU/CSU and SPD. In fact, these elections triggered a real political earthquake. The country has

2.Die Zeit. Wochenzeitung für Politik, Wirtschaft, Wissen und Kultur (Hamburg), September 28, 2017, 1. ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

shifted to the right, but even before the election there was talk of a “death wish on the left.”3 The political landscape has radically changed. The AFD is represented in the Bundestag for the first time ever. The FDP is also represented again, after failing to win any seats in 2013 for the first time since 1949. Results remained roughly stable for the Left (Die Linke) and Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), though both registered a slight increase in popularity. According to provisional official results, the situation is as follows: CDU/CSU now has 33 percent of the vote (41.5 percent in 2013), a loss of 8.5 percent (CDU -7.4 percent, CSU -9.8 percent). The SPD has 20.5 percent (25.7 percent in 2013), a loss of 5.2 percent. The AFD won 12.6 percent of the vote 92 (4.7 percent in 2013), a rise of 7.9 percent. The FDP won 10.7 percent (4.8 percent in 2013), a rise of 5.9 percent. Meanwhile, the Left has 9.2 percent of the vote (8.6 percent in 2013), a rise of 0.6 percent, and the Greens have 8.9 percent (8.4 percent in 2013), a rise of 0.5 percent. All the other parties collectively won 5 percent of the vote. Seven parties, therefore, will be represented in the Bundestag. Forty-two parties and 4,828 candidates competed in these elections. 61.6 million Germans were eligible to vote, of whom 31.7 million were women and 29.8 million were men. Three million people voted for the first time. Voter turnout rose to 76.2 percent, up from 71.5 percent in 2013. The new Bundestag will include 709 members, up from 613 in 2013. In terms of the distribution of seats in Parliament, the CDU/CSU is represented by 246 members, respectively 200 and 46 (56 fewer than in 2013), the SPD by 153 (40 fewer than in 2013), the AFD by 94, the FDP by 80, the Left by 69 (five more than in 2013) and the Greens by 67 (four more than in 2013). An absolute majority requires 355 seats; a grand coalition would have an ample majority of 399, while a Jamaica coalition would involve 393.

3.Cf. B. Ulrich, “Die Lust an der Vergeblichkeit,” in Die Zeit, September 14, 2017, 2. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

The composition of the Bundestag will be a major challenge both for ministers and for the new four-party government, which will undoubtedly face greater difficulties than the previous three-pronged coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD. Alexander Gauland, the 76-year-old leader of the AFD who has won a seat in Parliament for the first time, said on election night: “Since we are now the third-strongest party, the federal government that is formed, whatever its composition, will need to buckle up. We will hunt them down. We will hunt down Frau Merkel, or whoever it turns out to be. And we will take back our country and our people.” Politics as a hunting spree? Gauland is merely keeping up the aggressive rhetoric of the campaign trail and giving us a foretaste of what he envisages to be the role of the AFD in opposition. 93

“The calm in Berlin is deceptive” Angela Merkel, Bundestag member since 1990 – always directly elected – and CDU president since 2000, has embarked upon her 13th year as chancellor and her fourth government. After the heavy losses suffered by the CDU/CSU, it is no surprise to be already hearing provocative talk of “the twilight of the Chancellor.” Even when her new term ends in four years, Merkel will still not have overtaken Helmut Kohl (1930-2017), who was in power from October 1982 to October 1998, as the longest-serving German chancellor. Konrad Adenauer (1876- 1967), the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, was in power from September 1949 to October 1963 and led five governments during that time. Two weeks before the election, the Hamburg magazine Der Spiegel splashed the black, red and gold colors of the German flag across its front cover. Its headline read: “All will be well!” (Alles wird Gut!), as if spoken by Angela Merkel. But the magazine replaced a “G” with a “W” (Alles wird Wut!), making the sentence read: “All will be fury!” The cover was intended to express the mood of the nation, or at least part of its population. According to Der Spiegel, the political establishment is facing large numbers of angry citizens. The subtitle read: “The calm in Berlin is deceptive, Germany is in turmoil.” ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

The Union of Angela Merkel remains the most consistent political force in Germany by far, though the CDU/CSU and SPD suffered major losses. The SPD once again fell below its previous negative record of 2013. The CDU/CSU was particularly weak in big cities. The Union, like the SPD, lost many of its younger voters. The AFD was particularly popular with voters ages 30-44 and 45-59. The three smaller parties – the FDP, the Left and the Greens – were more successful with voters under 30 and ages 30-44. Undoubtedly, the bigger parties were punished, an alarm bell which was heard at the party headquarters in Berlin. Electoral surveys show that 60 percent of the 5.3 million voters of the AFD were neither party members nor supportive of 94 its policies, which significantly qualifies its double-digit result. In particular, many who had previously supported coalition parties CDU/CSU and SPD voted for the AFD in protest against the establishment. Many voters were on the fence until the last minute; in mid-August, just one month before the election, almost half of voters were still undecided. Angela Merkel has governed twice with the SPD, from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2017. From 2009 to 2013 she governed with the FDP, who lost parliamentary representation at the end of that term but have refreshed their ideas and candidates during four years in opposition under the leadership of Christian Lindner. The grand coalition, also known as GroKo, was never particularly well-loved and was seen by many in Berlin as a symbol of stagnation. The FDP has almost receded into the shadow of 38-year-old Christian Lindner, whose campaign posters bear a striking resemblance to the large black-and-white Giorgio Armani advertisements at the Termini Station in Rome. He looks young compared to his CDU and SPD colleagues, and the FDP owes its sensational return to power mainly to his persona. According to the polls, Hillary Clinton should be sitting in the Oval Office and the United Kingdom should not have chosen Brexit. As we know, elections often have surprising results – hence Europe was keeping a nervous eye on Germany before the vote. Angela Merkel is well-respected around the world, has PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY played a decisive role in the European Union, and will lead a stable government. Everything now depends on her expertise, though it is clear that she must commit to reviewing her party’s policies and make strategic personal choices for the future.

The decline of the SPD On election night itself, the SPD concluded that it was leaving the grand coalition. Martin Schulz said the coalition was “not re-elected” in his opinion. Playing the role of lesser partner in Merkel’s first and third governments did nothing but damage the SPD. Schulz had inaugurated his Bundestag campaign with three increasingly heavy losses at the regional level. The vote in September was preceded by regional parliamentary elections for Saarland in March (SPD -1.0 percent), Schleswig-Holstein 95 in May (-3.1 percent) and Nordrhein-Westfalen later in May (-7.9 percent). Both in Schleswig-Holstein and in Nordrhein- Westfalen – historically a stronghold – the SPD lost control of regional government to the CDU. The “Schultz-effect” witnessed in the early weeks of 2017 left nothing but memories; he burst like a bubble of soap. The Social Democrats gambled everything on the hero of Strasbourg. This former mayor of Würselen (in the borough of Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen) and long-standing Euro-minister (1994- 2017) led the European socialist group from the 2004 elections until January 2012. From 2012 to early 2017 he was the bellicose president of the European Parliament. In November 2016, Schulz announced his return to federal politics. On January 24, 2017, Sigmar Gabriel, then SPD president and Minister for Economic Affairs, relinquished his candidacy for the role of chancellor and suggested Schulz as his successor. Schulz was unanimously nominated by the party on January 29. His nomination brought fresh enthusiasm: the party polled considerably better and registered over 10,000 new members during the following months. At a party conference in March, Schulz was elected president of the SPD with 100 percent (!) of the delegates’ votes. But after losing ground in three regional elections during the spring, his approval ratings fell significantly. It ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

no longer mattered what he said or did: Angela Merkel was more convincing than him; his European credentials were no longer persuasive. The only question was: Would the SPD fall below 20 percent? A televised debate between Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz on September 3 – presented as a duel and viewed as the culmination of the election campaign – revealed an aggressive SPD candidate who managed to create problems for the chancellor; for example, by saying that if he won, he would seek to end negotiations with Turkey on EU membership. But Merkel fended off his attacks – stateswoman that she is – and in the end emerged victorious. Neither was the decline of the SPD halted by the resignation 96 in mid-January – amid much media furor – of leading, long- standing CDU minister Erika Steinbach. She disagreed with Angela Merkel’s policy on refugees and instead chose to support the AFD in the electoral campaign as an independent candidate. Nor did it help that the leading candidate for the AFD, Alexander Gauland, was another CDU dissident. Martin Schulz and the SPD failed to reverse their downward trend. The Social Democrats now want to undertake a process of renewal while in opposition, in order to avoid shrinking from a popular to a sectarian party via the programmatic phase.4 When, on election night, Schulz brusquely and peremptorily ruled out another GroKo and attacked Angela Merkel directly, he was practicing for the role of “anti-Merkel” which he had failed to communicate during the election campaign – and was proving himself an ungracious loser. There is some truth in the reasoning that, if the SPD were to join the next government, the AFD, as the third strongest party in Germany, would be the main party in opposition. There are positives to be found. But now, in terms of Realpolitik, Angela Merkel is left only with the Jamaica option. Given its terrible results in the national election, many were surprised that the SPD rejected any potential negotiations for a new

4.Cf. J. von Altenbockum, “Am Abgrund,” in Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung, September 25, 2017, 1. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

edition of the GroKo right from the start. It also remains to be seen whether the SPD will succeed under the dual leadership of Martin Schulz as party president and Andrea Nahles, the Minister of Labor in the previous government, as president of the SPD parliamentary group.

The rise of the AFD The AFD was strengthened by those disappointed with Merkel and by former non-voters. Over 1 million people who voted for the CDU in 2013 voted this year for the AFD; they were joined by 1.4 million voters who had previously abstained. The AFD was the strongest party in Saxony, with 27 percent of the vote; across the whole of eastern Germany it won 21.5 percent, closing in second place behind the CDU (26 percent). 97 In only one of the country’s 299 constituencies did the AFD win less than 5 percent. These results, though not particularly surprising, are a wake- up call for the major popular parties. The only uncertainty before September 24 was whether the AFD would make it into double- digits – and it did, closing with only 8 percent less than the SPD. The AFD was founded to protest against policies for salvaging the euro. From internal conflict over populist and sometimes extreme right-wing positions, the positioning that eventually emerged was markedly xenophobic, based on extreme, populist ideas that found consensus among some of the German people. The fact that more than half of AFD voters accepted all this despite disagreeing with the ideological orientation of the party (“conservative, liberal, patriotic”) should be food for thought, particularly for the other parties. The AFD successfully positioned itself as “the party of the regular man” while admitting – with incredible honesty – that it was unable, for example, to present a proposal for pension reform. The two main candidates of the AFD, Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, along with its president, economics professor Jörg Meuthen, exploited all kinds of resentments during the election campaign and made unprecedented blunders in their speeches. But the day after the vote came a twist in the plot. Frauke Petry, who was elected AFD spokesperson in 2015 ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

together with Meuthen, replacing the party’s founder Bernd Lucke after an internal power struggle between nationalist conservatives and economic liberals, announced that she would not be joining the AFD parliamentary group, but would instead act as an independent member. She cited Gauland’s aggressive declarations on election night as her motivation and then left the press conference, leaving fellow party-members open-mouthed. A few days later she, the best-known face of the AFD, left the party entirely.

A new rhetoric The AFD is the first right-wing party to enter the Bundestag since the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany. It had not 98 managed to make this great leap in 2013, though it already had representatives in 13 regional parliaments. It is now for the analysts to say whether other parties, with their exclusionary politics, brought about the rise of AFD. Throughout the election campaign, the AFD dominated conversations around cultural dominance, German identity and patriotism, fanning fears over the alleged excessive presence of foreigners and economic blackmail from Brussels. Wolfgang Krach, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, wrote with foresight on the day before the vote: “Sunday’s election will change Germany more than many people think or wish to admit. This is not a normal round of elections, merely to decide what coalition Angela Merkel will lead next. [...] This election represents a turning point in the history of the Federal Republic comparable to the first elections held in a united Germany in 1990, the results of which, however, were encouraging. For the first time in over 50 years, a radical, nationalist, largely racist right-wing party will sit in the Bundestag. [...] This is sad, shameful, and will change the climate of our country.”5 Unfortunately, he was right. The aggressive, sometimes brutal rhetoric of AFD politicians is frightening. The success of vehement protest and questionable

5.W. Krach, “Der große Einschnitt,” in Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 24, 2017, 4. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

patriotism is new in the political landscape of Germany. The “take back our country and our people” message is painfully reminiscent of Nazi-era rhetoric. What is most upsetting, as previously mentioned, is that this echo did not frighten voters enough to stop them from choosing the AFD. The sound of a “swerve to the right” does not appear to bother millions of people, who have at any rate accepted it. And the CSU has contributed to it as well. The party stood for election only in Bavaria, where it put forward its president, Horst Seehofer. It seems likely that, once coalition negotiations have come to an end, Seehofer may be replaced at the CSU. The CSU now wants to “secure its right flank” and “prepare for battle”; this too is military rhetoric as a means of winning over the people. 99 Andrea Nahles also slipped up. On the day she was elected president of the SPD parliamentary group and resigned as Minister of Labor, Nahles was asked how she felt after her final session in Parliament. She replied: “A little sad.” And about her former CDU/CSU colleagues in government, she said, “Starting tomorrow, they’re in for it!” What was intended to be a light- hearted joke was met with heavy criticism, and Nahles was later obliged to clarify: “My leitmotif is tough in business, fair in the rules of engagement. That is how my colleagues know me and that is how it will be.” The radicalization of language is one result of an unsuccessful election.

The refugee question Undoubtedly, the question of refugees deeply influenced voters. Increasingly serious concerns were raised after more than 200,000 refugees were welcomed into Germany over the course of a single night in August 2015. The question of refugees divides the nation. But the most interesting thing, or the most unusual, is that fear and xenophobic excess are strongest in eastern Germany, where fewer refugees have been welcomed or resettled. The AFD, which has transformed the national landscape, took advantage of it. Horst Seehofer has frequently and publicly poured scorn on and attempted to humiliate Angela Merkel for refusing to set ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

an upper limit on refugee numbers. Munich has always been quick to hit back at Berlin; this public controversy has greatly damaged the relationship between the CDU and the CSU. The outspoken Bavarian leader, who will not tolerate the idea of there being another party to the right of the CSU, was punished by voters: the CSU lost votes even more dramatically than the CDU. Over the coming months, Germany will be discussing what “controlled migration” actually means. A new culture around controversy and debate is urgently needed. The reconciling nature of Angela Merkel – appreciated by some but considered boring to others – can contribute to shaping this new culture. In any case, the question of refugees is only one of many 100 hotly debated topics, though it is perhaps the most visible. Particularly in eastern Germany, many people feel somehow “in suspense.” Thomas de Maizière, the Minister of the Interior of the CDU, sees the loss of votes for the CDU/CSU as a “cry from those who want to be heard.” A fear for the future, the dangers of terrorism and the refugee crisis are all tangled up with each other. Since the last Bundestag elections in 2013, there have been Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris (November 2015), Nice (July 2016), Berlin (December 2016) and Barcelona (August 2017), to name but a few. With its provocations, North Korea is threatening to plunge the world into war. As Angela Merkel rightly said on election night, Germany cannot keep the rest of the world at arm’s length and think only of itself.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx: “Urgent need for verbal disarmament” The President of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has responded with concern to the rise of the AFD, particularly because its results also reflect a European trend. At the opening of the plenary assembly of the DBK in Fulda on September 25, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising said: “This is not typically German.” But he also underlined: “Germany does not revolve around one party.” Parliament is a political arena under scrutiny from all citizens. “If parties promote ideas that are indefensible,” Marx PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY

continued, “we must say so publicly. If limits are overstepped, I will say something myself.” In a press release to mark the conclusion of the plenary assembly of the bishops, the Cardinal said: “We are in urgent need of verbal disarmament. I want to point out that Parliament is invested with a particular dignity and that mutual respect must take precedence in all political debates. In our shared fight to seek the good path, we cannot rely on black and white, nor on hatred and exclusion.” We also need to be attentive to the fact that roughly two-thirds of the AFD electorate is Christian. This is why the following passage from the Cardinal’s press release is particularly important: “For Christians who are found in some way in all the different parties, the following considerations are, 101 in my opinion, of fundamental importance: the relationship with strangers who seek our protection and with the poor and disadvantaged of our society; peace; a positive vision of the great European project; the protection of life; and special protection for marriage and the family. Catholic social doctrine is fundamental to the political engagement of Christians. I am concerned by the strong populism of the European radical right. Nationalism and the desire to shut out others, to live in isolation, are in no way connected to the Christian message. According to the Gospel, every human being is equally worthy before God, regardless of their origin or the color of their skin.”6

Which future? On September 5, 2017, in his final speech as president of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert of the CDU said to incoming members: “Please preserve, wherever possible, the ability and the will – won with effort, after the mistakes of our history – to value the shared consensus of democrats against fanatics and fundamentalists as more important than the competition between parties and groups.”

6.Closing press conference of the autumn plenary session of the German Bishops’ Conference, September 28, 2017 (www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/ diverse_downloads/presse_2017/2017-162-Pressebericht-Herbst-VV.pdf) ANDREAS R. BATLOGG, SJ

And he continued: “Despite the major challenges and questions that polarize and threaten to divide our country, it must be possible in the future to seek and find within this Parliament majorities better or different than the majorities in any case achieved by various coalitions.” About the rise of the AFD, he said: “Authoritarian regimes do not need civil engagement. They do not want it, they hinder it and if nothing else works, they forbid it. Democracy does need it.” At this point, the transcript reads: “Applause from the whole chamber.” Lammert concluded his speech with the following reminder: “And we know, from a period of German history not long past, that even democracies can bleed out, that they lose their inner 102 strength when they lose the support of the people for whom they exist. Democracies live or die by the commitment of their citizens. This is the most important lesson I have learned in my political life.”7 Germany needs a stable government. Angela Merkel will take care of it. But governing will not be easy.

7.NL Post, No. 300, September 5, 2017 (www.norbert-lammert.de/01- lammert/pdf-aus-Berlin/315.pdf)