0520
15 May 2020 Monthly Year 4
The ‘Weakness’ of Christ: An argument for his truth
Starting anew after the COVID-19 Emergency
The Heart of ‘Querida Amazonia’: ‘Overflowing en route’ .05
o Do Nothing: A precious and arduous activity
Africa: A continent on the move
The Mediterranean: A frontier of peace OLUME 4, N 4, OLUME
V The Donatist Temptation: Controversy in Catholic China
2020 2020 ‘The Life of the World to Come’
Raphael: Lights and shadows in the life of a genius
Daniel Pennac and Federico Fellini: Life is dream
Europe and the Virus
CoronaCheck and Fake News
BEATUS POPULUS, CUIUS DOMINUS DEUS EIUS
Copyright, 2020, Union of Catholic Asian Editor-in-chief News ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ
All rights reserved. Except for any fair Editorial Board dealing permitted under the Hong Kong Antonio Spadaro, SJ – Director Copyright Ordinance, no part of this Giancarlo Pani, SJ – Vice-Director publication may be reproduced by any Domenico Ronchitelli, SJ – Senior Editor means without prior permission. Inquiries Giovanni Cucci, SJ, Diego Fares, SJ should be made to the publisher. Giovanni Sale, SJ, Claudio Zonta, SJ Federico Lombardi, SJ Title: La Civiltà Cattolica, English Edition Emeritus editors ISSN: 2207-2446 Virgilio Fantuzzi, SJ Giandomenico Mucci, SJ ISBN: GianPaolo Salvini, SJ 978-988-79391-7-7 (ebook) 978-988-79391-8-4 (kindle) Contributors Published in Hong Kong by George Ruyssen, SJ (Belgium) UCAN Services Ltd. Fernando de la Iglesia Viguiristi, SJ (Spain) Drew Christiansen, SJ (USA) P.O. Box 69626, Kwun Tong, Andrea Vicini, SJ (USA) Hong Kong David Neuhaus, SJ (Israel) Phone: +852 2727 2018 Camillo Ripamonti, SJ (Italy) Fax: +852 2772 7656 www.ucanews.com Vladimir Pachkow, SJ (Russia) Arturo Peraza, SJ (Venezuela) Publishers: Michael Kelly, SJ and Bert Daelemans, SJ (Belgium) Robert Barber Thomas Reese, SJ (USA) Production Manager: Paul Soukup, SJ (USA) Grithanai Napasrapiwong Friedhelm Mennekes, SJ (Germany) Marcel Uwineza, SJ (Rwanda) Marc Rastoin, SJ (France) Joseph You Guo Jiang, SJ (China) Luke Hansen, SJ (USA) CONTENTS 0520
15 May 2020 Monthly Year 4
1 The ‘Weakness’ of Christ: An argument for his truth José M. Millás, SJ
11 Starting anew after the COVID-19 Emergency Gaël Giraud, SJ
23 The Heart of ‘Querida Amazonia’: ‘Overflowing en route’ Diego Fares, SJ
39 Do Nothing: A precious and arduous activity Giovanni Cucci, SJ
49 Africa: A continent on the move Giovanni Sale, SJ
61 The Mediterranean: A frontier of peace Paolo Bizzeti, SJ
74 The Donatist Temptation: Controversy in Catholic China Benoît Vermander, SJ
85 ‘The Life of the World to Come’ Giandomenico Mucci, SJ
92 Raphael: Lights and shadows in the life of a genius Giancarlo Pani, SJ
107 Daniel Pennac and Federico Fellini: Life is dream Claudio Zonta, SJ
111 Europe and the Virus Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ
114 CoronaCheck and Fake News Antonio Spadaro, SJ LCC 0620: JUNE
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José M. Millás, SJ
Sometimes we meet people who have had a good Christian formation, but who have become agnostics over time. We might think that these are exceptional cases. However, we are convinced that these cases are a symptom of an obvious 1 fact: in traditionally Christian countries there is a crisis that affects both the faith and the life of the baptized. They stop practicing, become agnostics, and either live as such, or seek alternatives to a Christian religion that has lost its attractiveness and credibility.1
The issue The truth of Christianity is embodied and concentrated in the truth of the figure of Christ. Jesus of Nazareth continues to arouse interest and admiration, but the full truth of his reality has become fragile and evanescent, and for some even contradictory. Traditional Christian apologetics wanted to demonstrate the truth of Christ, proffering as arguments the extraordinary facts narrated in the Gospels: the excellence of his teaching,
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 1, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.1
1.In this article we want to show how Javier Monserrat, Jesuit, philosopher and scientist, disciple of Xavier Zubiri, addressed the issue and sought a satisfactory answer. In fact, he dealt with the current crisis of Christianity, clarified its key points, made a diagnosis and proposed an original and convincing strategy overcome the crisis. See J. Monserrat, Hacia el Nuevo Concilio, Madrid, San Pablo, 2010. To deepen one’s thinking on the subject of this article, cf. J. M. Millás, Cristianesimo e Realtà. La credibilità di Cristo nell’epoca della scienza, Rome, Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2013; Id., La figura di Cristo. Il segno della verità del Cristianesimo, Rome, AdP, 2006. THE ‘WEAKNESS’ OF CHRIST: AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS TRUTH
miracles and the resurrection. Today it is recognized that a demonstration of the truth of Christ is impossible, and there are efforts instead to justify his truth on the basis of a “convergence of meaning” of the arguments in its favor.2 But even this solution does not seem convincing. According to Monserrat, the decisive arguments in favor of the truth of Christ are not the extraordinary events that characterize the life of Jesus according to the Gospels, but his “weakness,” that is, the human annihilation that he lived and suffered, and which Saint Paul calls kénosis. In order to reach this conclusion, it is necessary to follow a reasoning that we shall set out below. Let us start from the fact that the common and traditional answer to the enigma of reality is the affirmation of the existence of God, transcendent reality, origin and 2 foundation of the world, who is interested in the salvation of all. This religious response is transmitted above all through family and social tradition. Usually, people absorbed in the concrete problems of daily life accept it peacefully. But, alongside this response, that of a “world without God” is also plausible. Therefore, when dealing with the question of the enigma of reality, two answers are possible, based either on the existence of God or the world without God.
A ‘world without God’? Human reason will have to evaluate these two answers, see which of the two is more reasonable and opt for it, knowing, however, that it does not possess absolute certainty, that is, that the other possibility is not eliminated. At this point there arises the problem of believing in God, in the light of the existence of evil, the classic problem of theodicy. Indeed, reason may ask itself: “Where was God when humans were experiencing destitution, suffering unjustly and inevitably dying? Did God have nothing to say? Could God do nothing? Or, worst of all, did God not want to do anything?” In fact, the believer lives immersed in the experience of the silence and the hiddenness of God.
2.Cf. S. Pié-Ninot, La teologia fondamentale, Queriniana, Brescia, 2002, 197 f. JOSÉ M. MILLÁS, SJ
The affirmation of God offers a response to humanity’s unknowns, such as its origin and foundation, how the world ends and human salvation; but the experience of God’s silence can make one think that the idea of God appears unconvincing, lacking truth and actual reality. The idea of a “world without God” leaves open very serious questions, which science will have to investigate and to which it will have to try to respond. But it has freed itself from the contradiction of a God who remains silent and does not intervene in the face of human suffering. At this point in the rational process, a “world without God” would seem to be the most reasonable answer to the enigma of reality.
3 Overcoming ‘contradiction’ The answer “world without God” seems more reasonable because of the scandal caused by the experience of God’s silence in the face of human suffering. Now this scandal can be overcome. If one starts with the human situation of poverty, the experience of God’s silence can be admitted when it reveals a meaning for humanity: precisely through his silence and concealment God has created a space in which it is possible for people to realize their freedom. If God were present in creation showing infinite superiority, the freedom of the creature would not be possible. But freedom is the greatest good that God created, and God wants to preserve and respect it unconditionally, even at the cost of the presence of sin and evil.3 The contradiction that manifests itself between God’s silence and human destitution is then overcome. The religious person can rationally maintain the truth of his or her creed only if he or she recognizes – explicitly or implicitly – the profound meaning of God’s silence: to make possible the most precious thing that human beings possess, that is, to realize themselves as freed.
3.See J. M. Millás, Cristianesimo e Realtà. Novità teologiche nel pensiero di Xavier Zubiri, Rome, Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2014, 57-75. THE ‘WEAKNESS’ OF CHRIST: AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS TRUTH
The affirmation of God as the answer to the enigma of reality has various arguments in its favor, among which the religious explanation of the origin of the world and the salvation of humankind stand out. But it must be stated categorically that the decisive argument is the recognition of the meaning that God’s silence has for the human person. At this point, we can ask ourselves, “Has God, whose existence can be rationally admitted, revealed himself at some point in human history? We can formulate this question more precisely: “Can one recognize in the figure of Christ a true revelation of God?”
The Revelation of God in Christ If God revealed himself in Christ, it must be possible to see a 4 correspondence between the essential content of the Christian faith and the reasoning that leads to the affirmation of God. The essential contents of the Christian faith must be found in Scripture, which is the text transmitted by the Church with the conviction that it contains the revelation of God in written form. A reading of this text makes it possible to establish the following fundamental points. The human person is in reality and in relationship with God from the beginning. But God does not impose a presence: in fact, he can also be rejected. Rejecting God and living as if he did not exist appear as a possibility proper to the situation of the created human being n. This was the original human option (cf. Gen 3). But God does not abandon his creature. He calls Abraham, establishes a covenant with him and offers him a blessing and a promise of salvation for all peoples. The promise will have different and provisional, partial fulfillments: people of Israel, exodus, promised land, kingdom, exile and post-exile. According to a believing reading of the biblical message, the definitive fulfillment takes place in Jesus Christ. He is the center of the biblical message and the Christian faith. He is the promised prophet similar to Moses (cf. Deut 18:18), the descendant of David whose kingdom will be eternal (cf. 2 Sam 7:12-16). In him the prophetic figures of salvation, JOSÉ M. MILLÁS, SJ
the suffering Servant of Isaiah (cf. Isa 52:13-53:12) and the Son of Man of Daniel (cf. Dan 7:14) will find fulfillment. In Christ the promises of the Old Testament are fulfilled, but they are also surpassed: Christ’s humiliation to the point of death on the Cross, the Resurrection and his own unique divine sonship go beyond the Old Testament promises of salvation. According to the Gospels, Christ offered many supernatural signs and showed that he had the power to overcome human dereliction: He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, calmed storms, and multiplied the loaves and fishes so that the crowd that followed him could be satisfied. He also showed that he possessed a mysterious equality with God, whom he addressed as “Father," in a proper and original sense. 5 However, according to the Gospel accounts, these signs of power, although evident, did not impose themselves as such: they could be ignored, misunderstood and rejected by people, to the point of provoking against Jesus the accusation of being possessed and blasphemous, liable to a legal process that condemned him to death on the cross. We are faced with this surprising paradox: Christ appears endowed with a supernatural power, which he exercises on behalf of others, but when he is arrested and condemned, he does not defend himself with these powers, but submits to the trial that condemns him and does not impose silence on those who accuse him. It seems that in the “figure” of Christ what occurs is the mysterious paradox of a revelation of a God who fully respects human freedom.4
Content evaluation One can easily see a correspondence between the rational affirmation of God and the contents of the Christian faith. Indeed, according to the rational affirmation of God, there is a divine and transcendent reality. It is the origin and foundation of the world and has placed humans in an environment where
4.The term “figure” is Zubirian and means the topicality in the world of human reality. Zubiri affirms that human life is a “configuration”; the actuality of the human person “has in every moment a determined figure” (X. Zubiri, L’uomo e Dio, Bari, Edizioni di Pagina, 2013, 45). THE ‘WEAKNESS’ OF CHRIST: AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS TRUTH
they can realize themselves in freedom. God wants our salvation, even though he allows the problem of reconciling his own silence and human destitution. It is precisely the recognition of the meaning of God’s silence that makes possible the complete rational character of the affirmation of his existence. The contents of the Christian faith have a correspondence with the rational affirmation of God, but they also present significant initiatives. God revealed himself to Abraham, established a covenant with him and promised the possession of a land and then the establishment of a kingdom. The promises seem to have a fulfillment in the kingdom of David, but this fulfillment is provisional: The Davidic kingdom is destroyed, and the people must go into exile. In the misfortunes and sufferings of defeat, in exile and return 6 from exile, a “faithful remnant” – the “poor of the Lord” – is formed who, despite failures, retains faith in a future definitive fulfillment of God’s promises. The great novelty of Christianity is the conviction based on faith that God has fulfilled his promises in Christ. Jesus was the witness of God’s truth and presented himself as his definitive envoy. He showed that he possessed supernatural power, but he always exercised it for the benefit of others, and never for his own benefit. The proclamation of the truth and the signs of supernatural power manifested themselves convincingly, and yet they never had a ‘compelling’ character. This is explained by the fact that Christ lived a true human life, sharing human weakness and destitution to the point of dying on the cross without defending himself with supernatural powers. Therefore, in Christ God reveals his truth, but fully respects our human sphere of freedom. God offers sufficient signs of his truth and definitive salvation, but does not impose acceptance of them. He endorses human freedom, and he respects it even at the price of opposition and rejection. In conclusion, starting from the rational affirmation of God, the critical evaluation of the Christian faith must be positive, but it possesses only a moral certainty, that is, a certainty that makes the option reasonable without eliminating alternative options: in this case, that of a “world without God.” JOSÉ M. MILLÁS, SJ
What we have said about moral certainty does not mean that the believer cannot live his or her faith with absolute certainty of the truth. But this is only possible if we add to rational arguments the inner experience of the Spirit. The moments of spiritual experience are moments that happen within the individual they are strictly personal and cannot become the subject of rational discussion.
The decisive argument: the figure of Christ We have followed a reasoning that has led to the conclusion of the truth of the Christian faith. This conclusion possesses only a moral certainty, and therefore the alternative option “world without God” is not eliminated. 7 In the evaluation of the Christian faith the figure of Christ has emerged as the decisive argument for its truth. The reason is clear: on the one hand, he gave a convincing testimony to God’s truth, based on the manifestation of supernatural powers at the service of human good; on the other hand, according to the Gospels, he lived a truly human life, and shared human poverty unconditionally, experiencing rejection, insults, unjust condemnation and death on the cross. According to Scripture, the whole Christ-event possesses a rich set of elements: divine existence, the Incarnation, preaching, healing of the sick and liberation of the possessed, the power to dominate nature and to raise the dead, his death and resurrection, testimonies in the life of the Church. In the past, people tried to demonstrate the truth of Christ through the manifestation of supernatural powers and, in particular, through his resurrection, but we cannot pretend a demonstration is possible. According to the reasoning we have set forth, all the elements of the entire Christ event contribute to the justification of his truth. But the decisive argument is not the manifestation of any extraordinary power, but the appearance of the power of truth that arises from the moment of his greatest weakness. The contents of the Christian faith speak of God’s revelation in human history. Is it possible to admit this from testimonies written two thousand years ago? The answer is yes, if we turn THE ‘WEAKNESS’ OF CHRIST: AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS TRUTH
our attention to the figure of Christ, the center and synthesis of the Christian faith. According to the Scripture transmitted by the Church, he gave convincing signs of his divine condition, in which God reveals himself in the world; but, at the same time, he truly experienced the human condition, which even included the Cross. Death on the Cross could be considered the failure of Christ’s life, but in reality it is the positive conclusion of his mission: to reveal the true God without damaging human freedom, which is the greatest good of creation. For this reason, the figure of the Crucified One, the conclusion of Christ’s becoming human, is the most powerful sign of God’s revelation in the world. The moment of greatest weakness becomes the strongest argument for the truth of Christ and his message. 8
Biblical and liturgical confirmation We came to this conclusion following a line of reasoning, but this conclusion also has a confirmation in the New Testament. In the Synoptic Gospels we find the “three proclamations of the Passion”: Jesus tells the disciples that the Son of Man must “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and, after three days, rise again” (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34 and par.), causing incomprehension in the disciples and scandal in Peter (cf. Matt 16:22). After the Resurrection, Jesus reproaches the disciples on the way to Emmaus because they did not believe the prophets’ proclamation that the “Christ had to suffer in order to enter into his glory” (Luke 24:26). It is assumed that the death and resurrection of Christ was “announced.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus predicts that the most powerful moment of revelation will be his death: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14- 15); “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he” (John 8:28); “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me” (John 12:32). In these verses, Jesus announces that his “being lifted up,” his death on the cross, will be a moment endowed with a special power of revelation. JOSÉ M. MILLÁS, SJ
According to the Gospels, Jesus’ death could be considered a failure; the passers-by, the chief priests and the scribes said to Christ on the cross: “Save yourself, if you are the Son of God, and come down from the cross!” (Matt 27:40); “Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe!” (Mark 15:32); “He saved others! Let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one” (Luke 23:35). But death on the Cross was also a moment of revelation: The centurion said: “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39; Matt 27:54); “Truly this man was just” (Luke 23:47); One of the thieves said: “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). In the trial, the accusation against Jesus of being king aroused mockery and 9 derision, but the accusation of pretending to be the Son of God aroused fearful respect in Pontius Pilate, who asked him: “Where are you from?” (John 19:9). In the Letters of Saint Paul a particular saving power is recognized in the death of Christ. The Apostle, a witness to the Resurrection, understood the death of Jesus as the source of salvation. He says in fact: “We have been reconciled with God through the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10); “In him, through his blood, we have redemption” (Eph 1:7); Christ wanted to “reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] with God in one body through the cross” (Eph 2:16); and he wanted to reconcile “all things ... through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20). With regard to preaching, Paul declares: “We proclaim Christ crucified: scandal for the Jews and foolishness for the Gentiles; but for those who are called [...] the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24) Finally, let us remember that the reason behind the Christian liturgical celebration is the action of thanksgiving, the Eucharist, for the “body given” and for the “blood shed.” Christ is risen, and the moment of his “weakness” remains present among believers, nourishing and confirming their faith. The death of Christ belongs to the integral content of the Christian faith: pre-existence, incarnation, miracles and preaching, death and resurrection, glorification as Lord of all things. But the moment of Christ’s greatest “weakness,” THE ‘WEAKNESS’ OF CHRIST: AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS TRUTH
his death on the cross, constitutes the decisive rational argument of his truth, the center of Christian faith, the source of hope, and the reason for the liturgical celebration as an “action of grace,” “Eucharist.”5
10
5.The confession of faith in the sacrifice of Christ (homology) becomes a thanksgiving (Eucharist) in the Christian liturgy; in it “homology is the Eucharist” (G. Bornkamm, “Das Bekenntnis im Hebräerbrief,” in Id., Studien zu Antike und Urchristentum. Gesammelte Aufsätze, vol. 2, München, Kaiser, 1970, 196). Starting anew after the COVID-19 Emergency
Gaël Giraud, SJ
At the cost of unprecedented suffering to a significant part of our populations, we now realize in many developed world countries, from a health point of view, we do not have adequate infrastructure and public resources for this era and 11 this crisis. How can we address these challenges in the 21st century from a public health perspective? This is what many countries have had to accept and implement in a few weeks in the face of a pandemic that, as we write, promises to rage across the planet in recurring waves of contamination and mutations of the virus.1 Let us see how and why.
Health Systems and the Pandemic First of all, we must reiterate, at the risk of creating dismay, that the position of many public health specialists is consistent on one point2: the COVID-19 pandemic should have remained a no more viral and lethal epidemic than seasonal flu, with mild effects on the vast majority of the population, and very serious effects on only a small fraction of it. Instead – if we consider in particular the United States and some European countries – the dismantling, or lack, of public health systems turned this virus into an unprecedented catastrophe and a threat to all our economic systems.
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 2, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.2
1.Cfr P. Baker - E. Sullivan, “U.S. Virus Plan Anticipates 18-Month Pandemic and Widespread Shortages” in New York Times, March 17, 2020. 2.Cfr J.-D. Michel, “COVID-19: fin de partie?!” (https://bit.ly/3996Evs), March 18, 2020; T. Pueyo, “Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance. What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time” (https://bit. ly/3bjAA9K), March 19, 2020. STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
What the experts say is that it would have been relatively easy to curb the pandemic by systematically screening infected people from the very beginning of the first cases; monitoring their movements; targeted quarantine; and mass distribution of masks to the entire population at risk of contamination to further slow down the spread. The privatization of public health systems worthy of the name into medical industries is a serious problem. This does not prevent “heroes” and “saints” from continuing their work in public health, as we have seen vividly in these days. One outcome of the privatization of healthcare is governments failing to listen to warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) about wildlife markets, such as the Huanan Market in Wuhan. It is not a question of giving 12 ex post factum lessons to anyone, but of understanding our mistakes in order to act as intelligently as possible in the future. Preventing events like a pandemic is not profitable in the short term. Hence no provisions were made for masks or tests to be carried out massively. We have reduced hospital capacity in the name of the ideology of dismantling public services, which is now showing itself for what it is: an ideology that kills. Having never adhered to this ideology, and strengthened by the experience of the SARS epidemic in 2002, countries such as South Korea and Taiwan have put in place an extremely effective prevention system: systematic screening and tracking, use of quarantine, and enabling the collaboration of a well- informed and educated population, getting them to wear masks. No confinement. The economic damage is negligible. Instead of systematic screening, Western governments have adopted an ancient strategy, that of confinement, in the face of a small fraction of infected people, and an even smaller part of them that could have serious complications.3 But however small it may be, this fraction is even greater than the current care capacity of our hospitals. Having no other strategy, it is clear that doing nothing would amount to condemning hundreds of thousands of citizens to death, as shown by the projections circulating within the epidemiological community, including those of GAËL GIRAUD, SJ
Imperial College London.4 Although I consider some aspects of this document to be questionable, it has the merit of making it clear that inaction is simply criminal. It was this perspective that prompted Emmanuel Macron in France and Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom to abandon their initial strategy of “herd immunization”5 and “wake up” the Trump administration. But too late: these countries are now paying a heavy price for their delay in taking appropriate action.
The return of the welfare state The partial isolation of Europe has revived the idea that capitalism is certainly a very fragile system, and so the welfare state is back in fashion. In fact, the flaw in our economic system 13 now revealed by the pandemic is unfortunately simple: if an infected person is able to infect many more within a few days and if the disease has a significant mortality rate, as in the case of COVID-19, no economy can survive without a strong and adequate public health system. Everyone, regardless of their socio-economic status from workers to our leaders and politicians will eventually contract the virus, sooner or later infecting their neighbors. It is impossible to maintain the fiction of individualism implicit in the neoliberal economy and in the policies of dismantling public service that have accompanied it for 40 years: the negatives brought on by the virus radically challenge the idea of a complex system modeled on the voluntarism of “atomized” entrepreneurs. The health of everyone depends on the health of each individual. We are all connected in a relationship of interdependence. This pandemic is by no means the last “great plague” that will not return for another century. On
4.Cfr N. M. Ferguson - D. Laydon et Al., “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand” (https://doi.org/10.25561/77482), London, Imperial College, March 16, 2020. 5.It is well known that the first temptation of the Johnson government was to launch the UK into a collective immunization experiment. The French government was also tempted by this “solution,” albeit in a less explicit way. On this subject, see T. Vey, “La France mise sur l’immunité de groupe pour arrêter le coronavirus” in Sciences, March 13, 2020. STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
the contrary, global warming promises the multiplication of tropical pandemics, as the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been saying for years. And there will be other coronaviruses. Without an efficient public health service to treat everyone there can be no enduring production system during a coronavirus epidemic. And this is likely to remain so for decades. The appeal launched on March 12 by the Mouvement des entreprises de France (Medef) – the French employers’ union – to “make the production system more competitive” betrays a profound misunderstanding about the pandemic.
How to get out of isolation? If healthcare workers fall ill, there is a risk of the collapse 14 of the hospital system, as seems to have happened in Italy in Bergamo, Brescia and, to a lesser extent, in Milan. It is therefore necessary for the state to manage distribution of anti- or retro- viral drugs, so that the burden on hospital systems everywhere on the verge of collapse can be relieved quickly. And, it is to be hoped that the citizens of all countries finally show a sense of responsibility. In order for confinement to be rigorous, together with the well-known basic personal hygiene, everyone must understand the meaning and usefulness of confinement. Confinement effectively slows down the spread of the virus and – let us repeat – in the absence of a screening system, it remains the least negative strategy in the short term. However, if we stop there, the screening itself becomes pointless: if we leave confinement, let us say, in a month’s time, the virus will still be circulating and will cause the same deaths as it would have caused today in the absence of containment. To wait, through isolation, for the population to immunize itself – more or less, the same strategy initially proposed by Boris Johnson, but “at home” – would require months of confinement. To understand this, it is sufficient to return to the essential parameter of a pandemic, R0, the “basic reproduction number,” i.e. the average number of secondary infections produced by each infected individual. As long as R0 is greater than 1, i.e. as GAËL GIRAUD, SJ
long as an infected individual can infect more than one person, the number of infected people increases exponentially. If we leave containment without further delay before R0 falls below 1, we will have those hundreds of thousands of deaths that the pandemic threatened to cause from the beginning. However, in order for collective immunization to bring R0 below 1, it is necessary to immunize about 50% of the population, which – given the average incubation time (5 days) – would probably require more than 5 months confinement given there are now more than one million infected. This is an unsustainable option in economic, social and psychological terms. It is the entire production system of our countries that would collapse, starting from our banking system, which is 15 extremely fragile. Not to mention the fact that, at the moment, the poorest among us – refugees, the homeless, etc. – die not because of the virus, but because they cannot survive unless society is active and looking after them. Not forgetting also that we have no guarantee that our food supply chain can withstand the shock of quarantine for such a long time: do we want to force middle/low income workers to put their lives at risk in order to continue, for example, to transport food for managers who remain quietly at home or on their farm in the countryside? It is therefore necessary to organize a “first” release from containment, in a few weeks at the latest. Taking this risk collectively only makes sense, however, on one condition: to apply, this time, the strategy adopted in South Korea and Taiwan with the utmost rigor. The time we are gaining by locking ourselves up at home should serve to: - Bring R0 (which was probably about 3 at the beginning of the infection) as close to 1 as possible; - Encourage the conversion of certain sectors of the economy to mass produce the lung ventilators that intensive therapy needs to save lives; - Assist local manufacturers to produce screening equipment and materials immediately, while the necessary systems are put in place within the next few weeks. At the moment there are two enzymes in particular, whose stocks are very insufficient, STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
and therefore limit our ability to carry out screening6; - Increase production of personal protective equipment, essential to stop the spread of the virus when we leave our home. If we end our collective confinement when our detection equipment is not ready or the masks are missing, we will again run the risk of a tragedy. Unfortunately, it is impossible to measure R0 today. Therefore, we must wait until we are organized for screening and plan an orderly exit from quarantine as quickly as possible. What will happen then? Those who are “released” must undergo systematic screening and wear masks for several weeks. Otherwise, exit from confinement will have a worse outcome than at the beginning of the pandemic. Those who 16 are still positive will then be quarantined, along with family and those around them. Others may go to work or continue isolating. Testing will have to continue throughout June/July/ August to make sure that the virus has been eradicated by the northern hemisphere autumn.
Health as a global common good The pandemic is forcing us to understand that there is no truly viable capitalism without a strong system of public services and to completely rethink the way we produce and consume, because this pandemic will not be the last. The thawing of the permafrost threatens to spread dangerous epidemics, such as the “Spanish influenza” of 1918/19 and anthrax. Intensive breeding also facilitates the spread of epidemics. In the short term, we will have to nationalize unsustainable companies and, perhaps, some banks. But very soon we will have to learn the lessons of this painful time: reconvert production, regulate financial markets; rethink accounting standards to improve the resilience of our production systems; set carbon and health taxes; launch a major recovery plan for green
6.This is reverse transcriptase (AMV or MMLV) and Taq (or Pfu) which amplifies the chemical reaction, allowing the presence of COVID-19 to be identified. These are the two enzymes that several laboratories are trying to produce continuously. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ
industrialization and massive conversion to renewable energy. The pandemic invites us to radically transform our social relations. Today capitalism knows “the price of everything and the value of nothing,” to quote an effective formula by Oscar Wilde. We must understand that the real sources of value are our human relations and those with the environment. To privatize them, we destroy them and ruin our societies, while putting human lives at risk. We are not isolated monads, connected only by an abstract price system, but beings of flesh interdependent on each other and with our environment. That is what we must learn again. The health of each individual concerns everyone. Even for the most privileged, the privatization of health systems is an irrational option: they cannot remain totally separate 17 from others; disease will always reach them. Health is a global common good and must be managed as such. The “common goods,” as the American economist Elinor Ostrom defined them in particular, open a third space between the market and the state, between the private and the public. They can guide us into a more resilient world, capable of withstanding shocks like the one caused by this pandemic. Health, for example, must be treated as a matter of collective concern, with articulated and stratified modes of intervention. At the local level, for example, communities can organize themselves to react quickly, by isolating clusters of people infected with COVID-19. At the state level, a robust public hospital service is needed. At the international level, WHO recommendations to combat an epidemic situation must become binding. Few countries have followed the WHO recommendations before and during the crisis. We are more willing to listen to the “advice” of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than that of the WHO. The current scenario proves us wrong. Recently we have witnessed the emergence of several “common goods”: like those scientists who, outside of any public or private platform, have spontaneously coordinated STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
through the OpenCOVID19 initiative7 to share information on best practice in virus screening. But health is just one example: the environment, education, culture and biodiversity are also global common goods. We need to imagine institutions that allow us to value them, to recognize our interdependencies and make our societies resilient. Some such organizations already exist. The Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDI) is an excellent example. An organization created by some French doctors 15 years ago for the procurement of drugs for rare or forgotten diseases: a collaborative network of third parties, in which the private sector, the public sector and NGOs cooperate, which can do what neither the private pharmaceutical sector, nor states, nor civil society can do alone. 18 On an individual level, then, we discover the fear of scarcity of goods. Can this be a positive aspect in this crisis? It frees us from consumerist narcissism, from “I want everything and now.” It brings us back to the essential, to what really matters: the quality of human relationships, solidarity. It also reminds us how important nature is for our mental and physical health. Those who live locked up in 15 square meters in Paris or Milan know this very well. The rationing imposed on some products reminds us how resources are limited. Welcome to a limited world! For years, billions spent on marketing have made us think of our planet as a giant supermarket, where everything is available to us indefinitely. Now we abruptly feel the sense of deprivation. It is very difficult for some, but it can be an opportunity to save money. On the other hand, even a certain “collapsological”8 romanticism will quickly be mitigated by the concrete perception of what the brutal economic difficulties imply in the current situation: unemployment, bankruptcy, broken
7.“Low-cost & Open-Source COVID19 Detection kits," cfr https://app.jogl. io/project/118 and also the hashtag on Twitter: #OpenCOVID19 8.Collapsology is a multidisciplinary discourse interested in the collapse of our civilization. It starts from the idea that human actions have a lasting and negative impact on the planet. It is based on scientific data, but also on intuition, so sometimes it is accused of not being a real science, but rather a movement. GAËL GIRAUD, SJ
lives, death, daily suffering of those in whom the virus will leave traces for a lifetime. In the wake of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, we want to hope that this pandemic is an opportunity to direct our lives and institutions toward a happy sobriety and respect for the finitude of our world. The moment is decisive: we can fear what Naomi Klein called the “The Shock Doctrine.” Some governments must not, on the pretext of supporting business, further weaken workers’ rights; or, to further strengthen police surveillance, permanently reduce personal freedoms.
In the meantime, how do you save the economy? Let us try to envisage some possible economic policy choices 19 in this situation: 1) Injecting liquidity into the real economy. Some German economists predict a 9% drop in GDP in Germany in 2020. The figure is reasonable and there are few reasons to expect that things might be different in France and even worse in Italy, the U.K., Switzerland and the Netherlands. This should induce Germany and the Netherlands – the proponents of the belief that greater budgetary austerity adjusts the economy, while basic macro-economics shows the opposite – to revise their dogmas if the escalation of victims in their respective countries is still not enough to open their eyes. In the United States, Donald Trump and his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin propose to Congress to distribute a check for $1,200 to each U.S. citizen. It is either “helicopter money” or, assuming central banks deal with this monetary problem, “a quantitative easing for people.” These are measures that, possibly, should have been taken already in 2009. We can also see this in the Trump administration’s plan of a universal minimum income for all. This is a proposal that has been made by many for a long time. In Europe, suspending the rules of the Stability Pact, issuing “corona bonds” or activating loans from the European Stability Mechanism are all essential measures. 2) Create jobs. However, the initiatives just mentioned are insufficient. It is necessary to understand that the Western production system is, or will be, partially blocked. Unlike STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
the stock market crash of 1929 and the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008, this new crisis is primarily affecting the real economy. In most companies, 30% of employees prevented from working would not correspond to 30% less production, but to zero production. If a company in a value chain stops producing, the whole chain is interrupted. We are finding that just-in-time supply chains (i.e. without stocks) make us extremely fragile. We are thinking of food production and its supply chain. Of course, some governments are prepared to send the police or the army to force workers to risk their lives so as not to interrupt supply chains. The workers at the bottom of the production and supply chain are the first exposed and the first sacrificed. A huge admission of impotence! In most of the countries that are forced into containment, 20 the production system is therefore partially blocked, or soon will be. Global value chains are slowing down and some will be cut. Work is involuntarily “on strike.” We are not only faced with a Keynesian shortage of demand – because those who have cash cannot spend it, since they have to stay at home – but also with a supply crisis. This pandemic introduces us, therefore, into a new and unprecedented type of crisis, in which the decline in demand and the decline in supply are combined. In this context, the injection of liquidity is both necessary and insufficient. To be satisfied with this would be to give crutches to someone who has just lost his legs! Only the state, therefore, can create new jobs capable of absorbing the mass of employees who, when they finally leave home, will discover that they have lost their jobs. The idea of the state as employer of last resort is not new: it has been studied very seriously by the British economist Tony Atkinson. Of course, in order for that to make sense, we need to think seriously about the kind of industries that we want to help get out of the tunnel. This discussion will vary from country to country, in the light of the specific characteristics of their economic framework. It is therefore legitimate and indispensable that developed nations, today as yesterday, use deficit expenditure to finance the effort to rebuild the production system that will be necessary at the end of this long birth; and they will have to do so in an GAËL GIRAUD, SJ
acute and selective way, favoring this or that sector. Obviously, their public debt will increase. Let us remember that, during the Second World War, the public deficit of the United States reached 20% of GDP for several consecutive years. But the deficit would be much greater in the absence of huge spending by the state to save the economy. We can also note that the structural adjustment plan imposed on Greece a few years ago was absolutely useless: the Athens government debt to GDP ratio reached the same levels as in 2010 in 2019. In other words, austerity kills – we can see it with our own eyes right now, in our resuscitation wards – but it does not solve any macroeconomic problem.
21 Rebuilding and saving democracy At this point, a possible mistake would be to appreciate the effectiveness of authoritarianism as a solution. “What if our democracies are poorly prepared? Too slow? Blocked by individual freedoms?” This refrain resonated even before the pandemic. If we consider China, the situation is certainly improving, but the epidemic has not yet been defeated, not even in Wuhan. On the other hand, it is true that two hospitals were built in Beijing in a few days and that the Chinese government is not in the hands of the financial lobby, but, in order to reap the benefits of these two points in favor, should we perhaps give up democracy? Once containment has occurred in a controlled manner, another dangerous trap would be to simply restore yesterday’s economic model and content ourselves with marginally improving our healthcare system to cope with the next pandemic. It is urgent to understand that the COVID-19 pandemic is not only not a so-called “black swan” – it was perfectly predictable, although it was not foreseen at all by the omniscient financial markets – but it is not even an “exogenous shock.” It is one of the inevitable consequences of the anthropocentric consensus abroad in the world at present. The destruction of the environment that our extractionist economy has exerted for over a century has a common root with this pandemic: we have become the dominant species on STARTING ANEW AFTER THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
earth, and therefore we are able to break the food chains of all other animals, but we are also the best vehicle for pathogens. In terms of biological evolution, it is much more effective for a virus to infect humans than the Arctic reindeer, already endangered by global warming. And this will be increasingly so, because the ecological crisis will decimate other living species. Above all, the destruction of biodiversity that we have been engaged in for some time will encourage the spread of viruses.9 Today, many people are aware of this: the ecological crisis guarantees us recurring pandemics. To content ourselves with having masks and enzymes for the foreseeable future would be tantamount to treating only the symptom. The evil is much deeper, and it is its root that must be treated. The economic reconstruction that we will have to carry out after coming out 22 of the tunnel will be the unexpected opportunity to carry out the transformations that, even yesterday, seemed inconceivable to those who continue to look at the future through the rear- view mirror of financial globalization. We need green re- industrialization, accompanied by the re-localization of all our human activities. But, for the time being, and in order to speed up the end of the health crisis, it is necessary to do what is possible, and therefore to continue our efforts to shield and protect the population.
9.Cfr J. Duquesne, “Coronavirus: ‘La disparition du monde sauvage facilite les épidémies’," interview with Serge Morand, researcher at Cnrs-Cirad, in Marianne, March 17, 2020. The Heart of ‘Querida Amazonia’: ‘Overflowing en route’
Diego Fares, SJ
How does Francis propose to solve problems, and in particular those posed by the Amazon? The answer is found in a Spanish word that recurs five times in the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia that is the motor or, rather, 23 the beating heart of the text. It is essentially Pope Francis’ own way of seeing. The term is (in Spanish) desborde or, as a verb, desbordar. It is hard to translate it into other languages using the same word. It suggests “overflowing,” “flooding,” “super abundance,” or “spilling over.” Faced with great problems, such as the one that humanity faces in Amazonia, “solutions are found in ‘overflowing’” (la 1 salida se encuentra por “desborde”), says Pope Francis. And he adds that, in order to recognize the “greater gift that God is offering,” one must “broaden horizons beyond conflicts” and transcend the dialectics that limit vision. It is not enough to put order into existence; rather, life must open to God, whose presence is always beyond: -- “overflowing.” Already in 1989, Archbishop Bergoglio explained that the crisis of contemporary politics lies in its inability to subordinate the power of technology to that inner unity that springs from true ends and means deployed on a human scale. This makes politics “gnostic” in the sense that, while possessing knowledge, it lacks unity. He observed: “This crisis [...] can be overcome
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 3, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.3
1.Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, 2020, No. 105 (we will quote by abbreviating as QA, followed by the number of the paragraph quoted; as we do for the other encyclicals). THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
by means of an interior overflowing desbordamiento( interno), that is into the very core of the crisis, assuming it in its totality, without being trapped in it, but transcending it inward.”2 Desborde is a word dear to Francis, who highlights it even when it is used by someone else. In the Synod, while speaking of the abundance of God’s mercy, he said: “It is an spilling over that Sister Miranda expressed with a word that struck me greatly: the spilling over of itinerancy.3 Only those who are on the way are able to overflow.”4 And in the Exhortation he gave voice to the Amazonian poets who speak of the river that bursts its banks: “The Amazon is born. It is born every second. It descends slowly, a sinuous ray of light, and then swells in the lowland. Rushing upon green spaces, it creates its own path 5 and swells” (QA 45). 24 What does this term mean in Francis’ thought? We can only answer that question by “overflowing” from different standpoints.
The overflow of God’s action The desborde, the “overflow,” should not be considered a technical term, even if it has a solid philosophical foundation and an original use in Romano Guardini’s thought.6 Let’s look
2.J. M. Bergoglio, Non fatevi rubare la speranza, Milan, Mondadori, 2013, 183. The statement is taken from the inaugural lecture of the 1989 academic course at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology San Miguel of the University of Salvador, Buenos Aires. 3.Sister Miranda recalled: “After my speech, the pope told me that he liked a word I had used: itinerancia. I am convinced of the fact that, as Church, we are called to ‘travel’ in our interiority, but also outside, in the street, in social work... All this is prophecy, for it leads us to create something new” (A. Miranda, “Sínodo para la Amazonía: ¿profecía o herejía?,” in Combonianum – Spiritualità e missione: cf. combonianum.org/2019/11/04/sinodo-para-la-amazonia-profecia- o-herejia). 4.On October 15, 2019, Francis spoke as a simple member of the Assembly, equal among equals, without any additional authority. In this regard we will mention some of his expressions, collected from witnesses and from interviews and personal diaries of some participants and not officially published. 5.A. Thiago de Mello, Amazonas, patria da agua. 6.R. Guardini, Der Gegensatz, Mainz, Matthias-Grünewald, 1985, 48. The Spanish edition is R. Guardini, El contraste, Madrid, BAC, 1996, with a Estudio preliminar by A. López Quintás. We will quote it as EC. The Italian edition DIEGO FARES, SJ
at some texts in which Guardini shows life as a fullness that spills over from itself and goes beyond itself, growing and maturing from within. “As such [fullness], life presents a contrast: it wants to remain always rising, freely gushing, impossible to contain, bind, or seal over. It is always elusive, perpetually overflowing, flooding beyond all form and figure. Inexpressible, inexplicable.”7 “There is something in life that always surpasses the limits of 8 before and after.” “Life stretches beyond itself, surpasses itself, is outside of itself.” “And it knows it is much stronger and freer, the less it remains closed in on itself.”9 Even the thought that conceives this vital overcoming must be educated to mature in 10 such a way that it is able to overcome (hinauszuwachsen ) the 25 limits of prejudice and to have a complete vision. The desborde, the inner overflow, is, therefore, essentially a maturation. All these texts are familiar to us when we listen to Francis. But we must not try to define the “overflow” in the abstract. The pope uses it in an evocative and indicative way, one that invites us to look beyond and generates a “transcending” dynamic every time life seems to get bogged down in interpretations that contradict each other in mutual exclusion. The main subject Pope Francis has for this term is God’s action in our life and in our history: “It is the very heart of God that overflows with mercy.”11 Francis points to this as the greatest gift of God (cf. QA 105). In it are founded both the overflowing as a way of acting synodally and as a practical method of thought. They are a way and a method that seek to
of the work - where the Estudio Preliminar does not appear - is R. Guardini, L’opposizione polare, Milan, La Civiltà Cattolica - Il Corriere della Sera, 2014, which we will quote as OP. In reality, Bergoglio takes the term “overflow” from Alfonso López Quintás, who, in his Estudio preliminar in the Spanish translation of Guardini’s book L’opposizione polare, uses this term to translate various uses of the author. 7.OP 48. 8.OP 81. See G. Simmel, Lebensanschauung Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1918; the first chapter is on the ability to transcend oneself in life. 9.OP 82. 10.OP 209. 11.Francis, Homily in the Holy Mass of Chrism, March 24, 2016. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
adapt to this ever greater gift of God, to this “vital sphere,” in which the overflowing of God’s love and mercy never ceases to create and give. For this “adjustment” to take place between the overflowing of God’s greatest gift and our way of acting and thinking, we have to make a discernment. And this is necessary every time we find ourselves at a crossroads. It is a matter of discerning the concrete point – of openness, of fragility, of humility – which allows God’s “overflows.” When we say “concrete point,” we are referring to the fact that the spilling over can happen at a crucial moment, or produce, say, a change of tone, or perhaps a gesture of self- abasement and/or an act of closeness to another, which restores the balance by unblocking a vital relationship. There are many 26 Gospel images for this, from the merciful father running to throw himself around the neck of his son, to the Lord kneeling to wash the disciples’ feet.
Overflow rather than discipline: a common thread of the Synod A common thread uniting Francis’ interventions in the Synod reflects his discernment of when to set disciplinary limits and when to allow God to overflow in our lives and in history. The question of discipline appeared in his first speech: “We approach the Amazonian peoples on tiptoe [...], rejecting ideological colonizations that destroy or ignore the specificities of peoples. [...] And we approach them without a business mentality, without imposing pre-packaged programs, without any desire to ‘discipline’ the Amazonian peoples, to discipline their history, their culture; that is, to ‘tame’ the native peoples.”12 At the end of the Synod, the Holy Father returned to talk about disciplinary matters and noted that the importance of the Synod could not be reduced to intra-ecclesiastical discussions concerned with who “won” this or that. The pope explicitly
12.Id., Greeting, Opening of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Panamazonic Region on the theme “New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology,” October 7, 2019. DIEGO FARES, SJ
asked the media to devote themselves rather to spreading “the diagnoses [of the Synod], which are the most substantial part, which is where the Synod really expressed itself best: cultural diagnosis, social diagnosis, pastoral diagnosis and ecological diagnosis, because society must take responsibility for this.”13 At the heart of the Apostolic Exhortation, Francis made this clear: “Nor is there room, in the presence of the poor and forgotten of the Amazon region, for a discipline that excludes and turns people away [...for] a Church that has become a toll- house [... while it is] ‘ the very Mother called to show them God’s mercy’”14 (QA 84). And in the face of the problems posed by inculturation, in the final, key points of the Exhortation, the pope took up 27 the image of the “overflowing” that he had used in one of his spontaneous interventions, saying: “Similarly, in this historical moment, the Amazon region challenges us to transcend limited perspectives and ‘pragmatic’ solutions mired in partial approaches, in order to seek paths of inculturation that are broader and bolder” (QA 105).
The overflowing of God in life and history In his spontaneous intervention, Francis said that he had listened attentively to all the reflections, looking for what was positive in each one, but that during the Synod he had also felt a progressive unease and displeasure that a pathway forward seemed not to be clear. He expressed this by showing that there was something that united the Assembly: the conviction that the Amazon conflict was all-embracing. And yet the solutions being put forward involved reform proposals of a merely disciplinary nature. It was at this point that Francis was inspired by the expression of Sister Arizete Miranda – “overflowing itinerancy” – and used two images to show how God had solved “by overflow” both the conflict of sin and the initial blockage of the early Church, anchored to questions of a disciplinary nature.
13.Id. Speech at the end of the Synodal Assembly, October 26, 2019. 14.Id. Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, March 19, 2016, No. 49. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
The first image was that of the overflow of Redemption. “The Redemption was an overflow,” said the pope. It was not enough for God to regulate things with the law: He had to resort to grace, which is an overflow, that “ever more abundantly” of God’s action. Besides the overflowing of God’s mercy, the other example mentioned by Francis was what happened in the early Church in the face of the conflict between Jewish and pagan traditions. In that case the questions were not resolved by “disciplining” the pagans; rather, the Church made a “qualitative leap, a leap of overflowing,” opening itself to the action of the Spirit. It is important to remember these examples, because otherwise the formulation chosen by Francis runs the risk of not being understood correctly, as happened in some analyses 28 of his famous four principles: time is superior to space, reality is superior to the idea, and so on. Those who treat them as merely logical or philosophical principles stop at the formula, as if it were a sort of recipe or magic. When Francis affirms that some conflicts are resolved only by overflow, it should be added: “by an overflow of mercy, like the one God used to resolve the conflict of sin,” or “by an overflow of joy in the proclamation of the Gospel, like the one that led the Church to come out of herself as a way to overcome cultural or disciplinary conflicts.” Time is superior to space and reality is superior to the idea, because only in the totality of time and reality can God pour forth his overflowing mercy.
The Amazon as a symbol of God’s overflowing in creation The overflowing of God – of his mercy and the joyof evangelizing – is not an overflowing of grace that comes only from above, that is, a purely supernatural phenomenon, but also from within creation. As the maxim has it: “Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.” It presupposes it and elevates it.15 The entire creation, boundless and multiform, has within it this seed of super abundance that makes it more than what it is, and causes it to go out of itself, to reach out to connect.
15.Cf. Sum. Theol. I, q. I, a. 8, ad 2. DIEGO FARES, SJ
The Amazon is one of those realities where the mystery of creation is manifested and shines in a unified and overflowing way. The overflow, in this case, has a peculiarity; it is not possible to “discipline” it without destroying it. The Amazon cannot be domesticated like other realities. In it everything is one, “everything is connected” (QA 41), but not through external connections, such as those created by technology that allows us to replace pieces, but through connections rooted in such a way that all the parts demand integral respect, both from our actions and from our way of thinking about them. Given that Amazonia is one of those “living realities whose unity surpasses conceptual divisions without opposing them,”16 in order to access them, it is neither necessary nor right to 29 merge their parts as mere elements of a homogeneous whole, since each of them is an irreducible original phenomenon. The Amazon is a living center for which the rule followed by Guardini applies: “The more a concrete living being has an elevated entity, the greater its degree of intimacy and, therefore, the more intense its expressive capacity.”17 The Amazon is a symbol of the “ecological awareness [that] advances and today denounces a path of compulsive exploitation, destruction.”18 As Ana Varela Tafur writes: Many are the trees / where torture 19 dwelt / and vast are the forests / purchased with a thousand deaths (QA 9). The importance of the Amazon as a concrete place and as a symbol to grasp lies in its ability to provoke a search for creative, innovative solutions, for a better future. The peoples who live there have created cultures that have always interacted wisely with nature and have much to say to other cultures, that in this
16.Guardini affirms: “There are two ways of positioning ourselves synthetically [before complex realities]: the false way of those who try to grasp things in a block, regardless of structures and details, and the true way of those who look at the whole without giving in to the temptation of [abstract] universalism” (R. Guardini, Unterscheidung des Christlichen, Mainz, Matthias- Grünewald, 1963, 17f) (EC 24). 17.EC 21-22. 18.Francis, Speech at the end of the Synodal Assembly, op. cit. 19.A. V. Tafur, “Timareo” in Id., Lo que no veo en visiones, Lima, Copé, Petroperú, 1992. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
ecological crisis do not know how to behave toward nature and turn to it spasmodically, lurching from a hyper-technological relationship to another that is destructive and chaotic. Interacting with realities such as our beloved Amazon – by looking after them – helps humanity, cultures, economics and politics find their place. The immense technocratic and techno-economic paradigm has made us lose sight of these, to the point where they risk destroying life (cf. QA 46 and 52). This is why Francis says: “I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests” (QA 7).
Overflow as maturation What is essential to the overflow phenomenon is contained 30 in the word “maturation.” God’s overflow has in itself a seed of unity that leads to the maturing of the realities into which it overflows. Maturation is proper to life: seeds and fruits mature, people and peoples mature, institutions and cultures mature. To mature is to overflow inwardly into one’s own circumstances, without losing unity. Maturation is a feature of thought. Guardini says: “The question is not whether there are prejudices, but what they are. The scientist cannot get rid of them, but the question is whether he possesses them ‘properly,’ that is, if he is conscious of having prejudices and can overcome them and critically integrate them. The personal education of thought has the task of making these limits mature beyond (hinauszuwachsen); of bringing the individual environment into contact and understanding with the overall human world, but without losing its elementary roots in the terrain of the particular. Therefore, it involves organic universality.”20 In this quotation we find a detailed expression of the attitudes that Francis puts into play when he speaks of overcoming conflicts through “inner overflow.” The overflow as the maturation of a process is projected toward the future,
20.OP 209. DIEGO FARES, SJ
with creativity, while in the present it happens by walking with others (synodality) and by dialoguing (overflow of voices), so as to be able to overcome rigid and abstract conceptual schemes. We note that the pope is not afraid that the parts will overflow, because he is confident that they do not want to replace the whole and will find their limit, their riverbed: “Conflict is overcome at a higher level, where each group can join the other in a new reality, while remaining faithful to itself” (QA 104).
Reality is not contradictory The inner overflow, as a method of thinking that adapts to God’s overflowing in life, is a way of contemplating reality without fear and without hurrying to explain it with 31 abstract categories. It is a matter of establishing a dynamic relationship between life and thought and not just between ideas, which presupposes a basic trust in the fact that reality is not contradictory. If there is something contradictory that does not allow us to advance with real solutions, then we are faced with a reductive, partial mental scheme that must be overcome. When we move decisively in reality, accepting the tensions in action, we can reach the point of “seeing” that unity proper to everything that is living, the unity that produces and maintains polar tensions in a fruitful way, without spending itself in one polarity alone, and thus transcending the parts toward the whole. It is a type of thought that Bergoglio has called “syneidetic.”21 This method makes it possible to develop an “integral intuition”22 that opens up to the mystery of realities endowed with intimacy on the basis of an inner attitude that maintains tensions and does not polarize.
21.A thought that makes “a work of the whole, of tension and syneidetic,” to see “the parts in the function of the whole and the whole in the function of the parts, in the awareness that in any vital whole (and the political-social element is a vital whole) the parts cannot be separated from the whole or vice versa, for the simple reason that it is not possible to understand a part without grasping the whole to which it is linked, and also the opposite” (J. M. Bergoglio, Non fatevi rubare la speranza, op. cit., 189f). 22.Anschauung (see EC 45). THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
The Amazon allows this “incarnation,” because it is an organic reality, where everything is connected. In the Amazon region, the pope says, “there is no room for the notion of an individual detached from the community or from the land.23 Relationships are steeped in the surrounding nature, which they feel and think of as a reality that integrates society and culture, and which is an extension of their bodies: personal, familial and communal. “The morning star draws near/ the wings of the hummingbirds flutter / my heart pounds louder than the cascade / with your lips I will water the land/ as the breeze softly blows among us24” (QA 20).
What kind of framework for reflection is ‘Querida Amazonia’? Pope Francis affirmed that his intention with Querida 32 Amazonia was neither to replace nor to repeat the Final Document elaborated by the Synod,25 but to offer the contribution of “a brief framework for reflection” to the entire synodal process and “officially present” the Document, inviting people to read it “in its entirety” (QA 3). This statement made some worry about its “magisterial value.” Cardinal Czerny gave an interesting answer to a journalist who asked him about the ordination of viri probati using a recurrent expression at that time, that the pope had “closed the door.” Czerny replied saying that the best way to understand things is to think of them as a “process that will mature,” as a path.26 Trying to determine which “door has been closed” is the opposite of the spirit in which the synodal event should be lived and in which its documents should be read. We think that precisely in this regard the idea of “overflowing” should be kept in mind.
23.Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Panamazonic Region, Instrumentum laboris, June 17, 2019, No. 24. 24.Y. L. Lema, Tamyahuan Shamakupani (Con la lluvia estoy viviendo), 1 (see siwarmayu.com/es/yana-lucila-lema-6-poemas-de-tamyawan-shamukupani- con-la-lluvia-estoy-viviendo). 25.Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Panamazonic Region, Final Document. “Amazonia: new paths for the Church and for an integral ecology,” October 26, 2019. 26.See www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-1QkNc5xg DIEGO FARES, SJ
The frame that the pope brings to the Synod is “an overflowing frame.” It is somewhat paradoxical, since it is not a frame that seeks to impose external limits on content, but rather stimulates that content to mature, walking with others in search of new, creative solutions. With his Exhortation, the pope not only wants to help people better understand the Final Document, but he wants to direct everyone toward “a harmonious, creative and fruitful reception of the entire synodal journey” (QA 2), including the preparation and applications that will come. For this reason he speaks of the importance of the Synod as a whole and recommends that it should not be reduced to some aspect where one side’s position prevails over another. 33 In his words closing the Synod, Francis was very critical of such partisan attitudes. Quoting Charles Péguy, regarding those who have such attitudes, whom he called “elites,” he said: “Because they do not have the courage to be with the world, they believe they are with God. Because they do not have the courage to commit themselves to man’s life options, they believe they are fighting for God. Because they do not love anyone, they believe they love God.” And he added: “I am very pleased that we did not fall prey to these selective groups that, concerning the Synod, just want to see what was decided on this or that intra-ecclesiastic point and they deny the corpus of the Synod which consists in the diagnoses that we have carried out in the four dimensions.”27
Overflow and structure of the Exhortation The structure chosen to organize the material is suggestive. We can define the structure as a “fountain of dreams”: the chapters of the Exhortation are the four great dreams that Querida Amazonia inspires in the pope. Like dreams, the themes overflow one into the other like the water of a fountain from one pool to another, each of which remains full in itself and simultaneously flows into the next. When the “social dream” ends, “the next dream is born,” the cultural one (QA 27);
27.Francis, Speech at the end of the Synodal Assembly, op. cit. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
from this, in turn, “the next dream makes its way,” the ecological one (QA 40), “the dream made of water” (QA 43-46), from which begins the “ecclesial dream” (QA 60). The theme of dreams reminds us of the passage of the prophet Joel which Pope Francis often likes to quote: “I will pour out my spirit upon every man and your sons and daughters will become prophets; your elders will have dreams, your young people will have visions” (Joel 3:1). “How do the two complement one another? The elderly have dreams built up of memories and images that bear the mark of their long experience. If young people sink roots in those dreams, they can peer into the future; they can have visions that broaden their horizons and show them new paths. But if the elderly do not dream, young people lose clear sight of the horizon” (Christus 34 Vivit [CV], Nos. 192-193). “That is why it is important to ‘let older people tell their long stories,’28 and for young people to take the time to drink deeply from that source” (QA 34). The overflow to which the pope invites us is more intergenerational than spatial. “To abuse nature is to abuse our ancestors, our brothers and sisters, creation and the Creator, and to mortgage the future” (QA 42). We can therefore read the Exhortation and the Final Document of the Synod for the Amazon in the light of this passage, in a dynamic of complementarity between dream and prophecy. The fact that Francis places his contribution on the side of the elderly person’s dreams can be read as an invitation to attribute to the Final Document, especially to the diagnoses that make up the main body, the category of prophecy.29 Dreams broaden the vision, and make it concrete. Now that he has applied them to the reality of Amazonia, many things that the pope had expressed in other documents take on new force: one can see how the universality of a principle shines through in its fullness in something concrete.
28.See CV 195. 29.“This is the charism of ‘prophecy,’ understood not as knowledge of the future, but as communication of a personal spiritual experience” (Francis, “Miguel Ángel Fiorito, master of dialogue” in Civ. Catt. 2020 I 111). DIEGO FARES, SJ
Inner overflow: incarnational dynamic Unlike the artificial fountains that are fed by reservoirs, here it is the Spirit who provides the water and ensures that the dynamic is not only a flowing down, but also springs from within, like the living water that the Lord promises and that “gushes” for eternal life (cf. John 4:14), like the “underground waters [that] well up to embrace the water that falls from the Andes” (QA 45). This incarnational dynamic of the Exhortation can be seen in the pope’s intention to “offer a brief framework for reflection that embodies in the Amazon reality a synthesis of some great concerns” already expressed in previous documents.30 So, as we have been saying, we are not faced here with a theoretical 35 framework that contains all the themes in an abstract way, but with a dynamic framework that seeks to incarnate them. The pope refers to a rereading of entire passages from previous documents. For example, “the great proclamation for all young people,” which includes the three great truths – “A God who is love”; “Christ saves you”; “He lives!”31 – is re-proposed here as part of the “ecclesial dream.” “That message, expressed in a variety of ways, must constantly resound in the Amazon region” (QA 64). And the desire expressed in Laudato Si’ to listen to both the cry of the Earth and that of the poor32 and their 33 cultures is embodied in Querida Amazonia, echoing in the voices of the poets that the pope makes his own, in an overflow of quotations as never before found in a papal document.34 When the topic of inculturation is dealt with, two central ideas stand out. The first is that the Spirit is already present in all peoples and in their cultures; the other, that a new cultural synthesis must always be made, even with “already evangelized” cultures. Francis affirms: “In its earliest days, the Christian faith
30.For example, the question of interconnection, which is a key theme in Laudato Si’ (LS): cf. Francis, Encyclical Laudato Si’, May 24, 2015, Nos. 16, 91, 117, 138, 240. 31.See CV, Chapter IV. 32.LS 49. 33.LS 143-146 (“Cultural ecology”). 34.16 poets are cited. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
spread remarkably in accordance with this way of thinking, which enabled it, from its Jewish roots, to take shape in the Greco-Roman culture, and in time to acquire distinctive forms. Similarly, in this historical moment, the Amazon region challenges us to transcend limited perspectives and pragmatic solutions mired in partial approaches, in order to seek paths of inculturation that are broader and bolder” (QA 105). The understanding of the relationship between the Gospel and culture is always in a bipolar tension: “Whenever a community receives the message of salvation, the Holy Spirit enriches its culture with the transforming power of the Gospel.”35 On the other hand, “the Church herself undergoes a process of reception that enriches her with the fruits of what the Spirit has already mysteriously sown in that culture” 36 (QA 68). There is no “pure Gospel” to be communicated to a “culture completely devoid of the Gospel,” let alone a “Gospel already inculturated in a privileged culture,” which must be implanted by replacing other cultures. The dynamic is always that of “allowing and encouraging the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel to be preached ‘in categories proper to each culture, creating a new synthesis with that particular culture’36” (QA 68). This new synthesis must also be sought in cultures already evangelized and within the more “Catholic” structures and traditions, so to speak.
Two testimonies of incarnated knowledge To conclude, we present two brief testimonies, humble but important, which help us not only to understand intellectually what “overflow” as an idea can mean, but also to experience what the pope calls forth when, in an off-the-cuff intervention, he witnessed to what overflows within him, pouring it into the Synod when he spoke as a simple member of it. Taking note of the testimonies was Óscar Elizalde Prada, a journalist reporting the Synod for the Amazon. There were
35.John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, March 25, 1996, No. 116. 36.Ibid., 105. DIEGO FARES, SJ
two brief exchanges with some of the women who participated: “‘The pope listens to us,’ a native woman told me. Another pointed out to me that he ‘is the one who understands more about what is happening in the Amazon.’ ‘Even though he only spent a few hours in Puerto Maldonado?’ I asked her. And she replied: ‘There are many who have known the Amazon for 37 years, but they don’t feel it like Pope Francis.’” The “feeling” she is talking about is important. To grasp the strength of conviction with which she expressed herself, we can look to a reflection developed by Guardini that translates this experience into words. Analyzing the gnoseological problem of that “living concrete”38 which is the human being, the theologian refers to two different types of knowledge. The 37 first is knowledge of the formal aspects of reality: “[Science] is a formal act that looks at the form, and goes as far as form goes, that is, to everything that is form and that form can represent.” The second is experiential knowledge: “There is, however, still another cognitive attitude: in it, the enquirer experiences himself not as a person before the object, but as one who feels the object, or rather, feels the subjective equivalent of it, its representation ‘in himself’ and himself ‘in it.’”39 “When, for example, a mother knows with perfect clarity and certainty the momentary physiological-psychological situation of her child [...], she could never, as such, express it in concepts, even if she were the most acute philosophical expert; but she could do so with an image, with a gesture, an action.”40 This can help to understand in an adequate way what that woman has intuited about “the pope’s way of knowing.” With her response about how the pope “feels” the Amazon in a different way, she places herself in another area of knowledge. It is an interpersonal knowledge: she, who lives in those
37.Ó. Elizalde Prada, El Sínodo amazónico: contexto, texto y pretexto, November 2019 (cfr www.amerindiaenlared.org/uploads/adjuntos/201911/1573214262_ r2hwyFgD.pdf) 38.Guardini wanted to find a method to think of man as a “concrete liv- ing being.” 39.OP 177f. 40.OP 180, note 3. THE HEART OF ‘QUERIDA AMAZONIA’: ‘OVERFLOWING EN ROUTE’
places, knows that the pope knows this region better than many others. To this is added the affirmation of her friend: “The pope listens to us.” We are in the sphere of “knowing the one who knows,” of appreciating him and respecting his voice, of listening to him, which is something more than merely knowing “what he knows.” Therefore, the Synod’s diagnoses have this added value, which is drawn on by those who live in the Amazon and put their lives there at stake. And for them the most important thing is the fact that the pope shows he knows them by “feeling” their reality “as the local people feel it.” And so the diagnoses they make have a new value, different from that offered by scientific, neutral, universal and abstract knowledge, which anyone can have from afar. This knowledge is in turn useful 38 and adds to the other, which however remains decisive because it is overflowing. Do Nothing: A precious and arduous activity
Giovanni Cucci, SJ
The difficulty of being by yourself A time of enforced rest – such as the period of isolation to cope with the coronavirus pandemic – can also provide a valuable lesson. Many have reflected on the significance of this 39 serious epidemic in this respect. Among the many ideas, we would like to take up one well known in the spiritual tradition: take time simply to do nothing. You can occupy time, kill, fill or cheat it, perhaps by sitting in front of the TV with a beer and crisps. Or, worse, you can yield to the insidiousness of that vice the new web of discoveries offers with its enormous possibilities and equally devastating consequences.1 All this is the exact antithesis of “doing nothing.” Simply being by oneself can be stigmatized as a vice, a form of laziness; at the same time it presents itself as the ideal life situation, free from commitments and tasks. But when you make a conscious decision to do nothing, it becomes both easier and harder. Easier because you do not need any particular activities or proposals, you simply have to remain silent. Harder because our mind is full of images and thoughts, and it is necessary to detoxify from this enormous build-up. This takes time, effort and, if you have never done it, you can easily become discouraged. An article on psychology that appeared a few years ago, obviously without envisaging the current emergency, began with this very question: “When was the last time you did nothing,
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 4, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.4
1.Cf. G. Cucci, “Cybersex. An insidious addiction,” in Civ. Catt. En. August, 2019 https://www.laciviltacattolica.com/cybersex-an-insidious-addiction DO NOTHING: A PRECIOUS AND ARDUOUS ACTIVITY
nothing at all? Not reading, not watching television, not checking your emails, not taking care of your career [...]? When did you let yourselves go all the way to the end of doing nothing, to the emptiness that occurs when all activity ceases and only the diaphragm rises and falls to the rhythm of breathing?”2 No possibility of escaping the encounter with yourself? This possibility is often seen as an ideal not within our reach, because there are too many things to do, or, more realistically, because when we are forced to do nothing (as is the case today), we struggle with boredom and frustration. It is perhaps for this reason that often, when we go on holiday, we return more stressed than before. For many, in fact, being alone with your own thoughts is not a desirable condition but an unbearable torture. Those who 40 are forced to be alone with themselves for a long time, such as the survivors of a shipwreck, prisoners, and those suffering from some illness, are well aware of this. So too are those who, as in this time, are forced to be at home for a long time and discover that the available distractions are inadequate, a condition that has also been examined in various experiments. A series of 11 studies conducted by a team of U.S. researchers showed that when you are alone with yourself, you start to suffer. A group of 146 students were asked to remain silent in contact with their thoughts for a period of 6 to 15 minutes, without having anything with them, sitting in a room that offered no distractions. Then they were asked to evaluate the experience: 58% had difficulty concentrating, 90% were distracted, and half were just bored. Almost identical results were recorded with older people (up to 77 years of age). Some found this situation so unbearable that they wished for any interruption rather than simply being alone to think. Faced with the proposal to undergo light electric shocks to interrupt the 15 minutes of voluntary boredom, most opted for this possibility, some even enthusiastically. Evidently, dealing with one’s own thoughts is more painful than receiving an electric shock.
2.B. Schönberger, “Far niente,” in Psicologia contemporanea, No. 252, November-December 2015, 12. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ
The researchers commented on the results as follows: “The untrained mind does not like to be alone with itself.”3 Yet such training, while painful, is indispensable because it allows us to explore our higher possibilities and abilities, and to help us recognize what we really want from our lives.
Contemplation, synonym of happiness For centuries people have lived, and lived well, without modern-day distractions. And they recognized in the absence of distraction the way to happiness. Pascal noted that most evils and passions “derive from one thing only, from not knowing how to stay in a room and do nothing.”4 The training of the mind, noted by the authors of the above mentioned research, was called 41 by the ancients the art of living wisely, the most important and precious activity, because it allows for participation in happiness (eudaimonia), the condition proper to God. For Aristotle, the pleasure of this activity is perfect; it does not know excess, lack, fatigue, pain, and this is the highest and most worthy action of the free person. The Greek philosopher points out, however, that we can reach this state only for a few brief moments: “Such a life will be too high for a man: in fact, he will not live like this because he is man, but because there is something divine in him: and how much this divine element excels over composite human nature, so much his activity excels over the activity conforming to the other type of virtue. If, therefore, the intellect in comparison with man is a divine reality, the activity according to the intellect will also be divine in comparison with human life.”5 But awareness of this limitation does not constitute an objection. The fact that it is a temporary and unstable activity does not make it any less desirable; therefore a person disdainfully rejects the temptation to let it go because it is considered too difficult to achieve. This would mean mortifying the highest and noblest dimension of man: “We must not listen to those
3.T. D. Wilson et Al., “Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind,” in Science, No. 345, July 2014, 75-77. 4.B. Pascal, Pensées, No. 126. 5.Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 1177 b 25-32. DO NOTHING: A PRECIOUS AND ARDUOUS ACTIVITY
who advise man, because he is man and mortal, to limit himself to thinking human and mortal things; on the contrary, as far as possible, we must behave like immortals and do everything possible to live according to the noblest part that is in us. For although its size is small, its power and value are much greater than all the others. It will be admitted, then, that every man identifies with this part, if it is true that it is his main and best part [...]. This life, then, will also be the happiest.”6 This theme will be widely taken up by Christian writers. Saint Augustine, for example, writes: “The delight one feels in contemplating the truth is so great, so pure, so sincere, and gives so much certainty of the truth, that those who experience it believe they have never known the things they previously believed they knew; and so that the soul may fully adhere to 42 the total Truth, it no longer fears the death it previously feared; indeed, it desires it as a supreme acquisition.”7
Some clarifications of the term ‘contemplation’ It is important not to misunderstand this term, as if it were reserved for a small community of hermits or encourages passivity at the expense of action. When he speaks of contemplation, Aristotle intends something different than how it is thought of today. The examination of current opinions of what is worthwhile, leads him to conclude that happiness can be achieved by exercising two apparently opposing activities, such as contemplation and relationships, thanks to which man achieves his own end, which differentiates him from other animals and slaves, making him share in the life proper to God, and giving a measure of joy and beauty to what he has accomplished. Contemplation is not opposed to action, but, as creative, it is its highest expression, which allows us to be fully alive. The psychologist Abraham Maslow calls these moments “peak- experiences,” in which time appears to have stopped, existence is
6.Ibid., X, 7, 1178 a 5-10. Same conclusion in Metaphysics: “Just as human intelligence – intelligence, at least, which does not think of compounds – behaves at some time, so does divine intelligence behave, thinking of itself for all eternity” (Metaphysics, XII, 9, 1074 b 15 - 1075 a 10; italics ours). 7.Augustine, De Quantitate Animae, 33,76. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ
perceived in all its beauty, and the Absolute makes its entrance, enriching the subject. In this way a deep joy is felt, combined with surprise and amazement, together with a sense of gratitude for such a gift received unexpectedly. As a result, the person becomes more tolerant, capable of forgiveness, of empathy, and is able to react more sensitively to suffering and difficulties.8 The term “peak-experiences” can include a phenomenological range of extremely varied elements, such as poetry, literary inspiration, a work of art, a love affair, a mystical state. Those who experience such moments do not have the impression of being inert, but, on the contrary, consider them as the most intense experiences of their lives. These characteristics of fulfilment also include professional activity, which, if it is in 43 tune with one’s deepest desires, can be considered an anticipation of bliss. This, for example, is the way an American psychiatrist, Irvin Yalom, describes his profession in an autobiographical novel: “Fortunate is he who loves his work. Ernest felt lucky, of course. More than lucky. Blessed. He was a man who had found his vocation, who could say: ‘I express myself perfectly, I am at the height of my talents, my interests, my passions.’ Ernest was not religious, but when he opened his appointment book every morning and saw the names of the eight or nine people who were dear to him and with whom he would spend the day, he was overwhelmed by a feeling that he could only define by the term ‘religious’. In those moments he felt the deepest desire to give thanks – to someone, to something – for having guided him to understand his vocation.”9
Silence and attention, the doors to the truth of oneself Remaining silent is a difficult thing, because it is nota spontaneous state and distractions always loom. You feel that you have no power over your mind and thoughts evade control. In a medieval story, a parish priest bets a farmer that if he is able to pray the Our Father without being distracted, he
8.Cf. A. Maslow, Religious, Values, and Peak-Experiences, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 1964, 59. For more information, cf. G. Cucci, L’a r t e d i vivere. Educare alla felicità, Milan, Àncora - La Civiltà Cattolica, 2019. 9.I. Yalom, Sul lettino di Freud, Milan, Neri Pozza, 2015, 7. DO NOTHING: A PRECIOUS AND ARDUOUS ACTIVITY
will give him a donkey. The farmer accepts with enthusiasm, thinking about the easy gain, but halfway through the prayer he suddenly asks: “But will you also give me the saddle?”10 Staying totally attentive for the duration of an Our Father is not an easy exercise. Simone Weil had understood this well, and she too discovered the value and difficulty of attention when praying. This was something she had never done until the day when, requested to give Greek lessons, she chose to use the text of the Pater noster, and remained conquered by it. But she also noted the difficulty of stopping to reflect on those words without being distracted. And she decided to pray them carefully every morning. When she became distracted, she would start all over again. In this way she learned to taste the Greek nuances in that 44 enchanting text and the value of attention: “The power of this practice is extraordinary and every time surprises me, because although I experience it every day, it exceeds my expectations every time. At times the first words already capture the thought from my body and transport it to a place outside of space, where there is neither perspective nor point of view [...]. At the same time, this infinity of infinity is filled, in all its parts, with silence, a silence that is not the absence of sound, but the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of a sound. The noises, if there are any, reach me only after having gone through this silence.”11 The main difficulty is that attention is considered an effort of the will. That is why, when she invited her students to pay attention, Weil noticed that they were struggling to contract their muscles, and to the next question – What were they
10.Quoted in G. Canobbio, “Leggere per formarsi,” in La Rivista del Clero Italiano 96 (2015) 660. 11.S. Weil, Attesa di Dio, Milan, Rusconi, 1984, 45f. A very similar experience is described by Augustine: “I love a kind of light and voice and smell and food and dialogue in loving my God; the light, the voice, the smell, the food, the dialogue with the inner man who is in me, where a light not enveloped by space shines in my soul, where a voice not overwhelmed by time resonates, where a perfume not dispersed by the wind gives a pleasant scent, where a taste not attenuated by voracity is caught, where a grip is knotted and not interrupted by satiety. This I love, when I love my God” ( Confessions, X, 6,8). GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ
paying attention to?– they were unable to answer. Simone understands that attention is like prayer: a struggle to access the depths of the self, a struggle that at first wears one out, but purifies and allows one to taste life. It is not a technique to apply, but a gift to be welcomed with simplicity: “Attention is an effort, perhaps the greatest of efforts, but it is a negative effort. In itself it does not involve effort. When it makes itself felt, attention is almost no longer possible, unless you have already practiced it a lot.”12 It is like breathing; when you carry out this exercise with attention you make contact with yourself, and you regenerate yourself: “Twenty minutes of intense and effortless attention is worth infinitely more than three hours of application with a 45 wrinkled forehead, which makes you say, with the feeling of having done your duty: ‘I worked hard’ [...]. The most precious goods are not to be searched for, but awaited. Man cannot find them by his own strength alone.”13 Again the importance of doing nothing returns, lived consciously and with docility. Weil does not hide the difficulty of this exercise, which is like holding your breath under water, but it is essential if you want to reach the depths of the spirit: “In our soul there is something that repels true attention much more violently than the flesh repels fatigue. This something is much closer to evil than the flesh. That is why, every time one truly pays attention, one destroys a little evil in oneself. A quarter of an hour of attention so oriented has the same value as many good works.”14
12.Ibid., 80. These indications are very similar to the third way of prayer suggested by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises: “At every yearning or breath one prays mentally by saying a word of the Our Father or another prayer that one wants to recite; thus, between one breath and another, one thinks primarily of the meaning of that word, or the person to whom it is addressed, or one’s own smallness, or the distance between that greatness and one’s own smallness. With the same procedure and the same measure one continues with the other words of the Our Father; finally one says the other prayers in the usual way, that is, the Hail Mary, the Anima Christi, the Creed and the Salve Regina” (n. 258). 13.S. Weil, Attesa di Dio, op. cit., 80f. 14.Ibid. DO NOTHING: A PRECIOUS AND ARDUOUS ACTIVITY
A refreshment for the intelligence Weil’s insights have been matched by those of neurologists. Not long ago a network was discovered in our brain that is activated when we are at rest. We think about ourselves and other people, we retrace our past history, or we fantasize about the future. It is called the “default mode network,” and was identified by neurologist Marcus Raichie in 2001.15 In practice, it favors the reworking and evaluation of how we live, distinguishing what is essential from what is secondary, which is the exercise of intelligence: “Only when we do nothing, irrelevant thoughts are separated from the essential ones and, if we can go deeper, we can go into the territory beyond thought [...]. If we do not properly practice such a setting aside of activity, we lose contact with ourselves, we no longer know what we really want and we 46 throw ourselves into activity without thinking.”16 Of course, as has been noted several times, this is not an easy exercise. But it is important to know this, especially when the dreaded boredom emerges. And yet even this is a thought that must be decoded. People who have been confronted with silence and self-reliance have discovered that boredom is not only a feeling to be taken into account, but it is also important, for it is the gateway to the truth of oneself. It is also the condition for being creative. For this reason we should flee from it as though from something dangerous (as Pascal warned). Like the fatigue that accompanies skill in physical activities, boredom is an indispensable passage to remaining present to oneself. It is a fact also described in psychological terms: “Boredom and anxiety are signs that push toward a greater participation in the reality of things, not an escape from it [...]. The experience of boredom is directly linked to creativity and innovation.
15.R. L. Buckner - J. R. Andrews-Hanna - D. L. Schacter, “The Brain’s Default Network: Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease,” in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1124 (2008), No. 1, 1-38; M. E. Raichie - A. Z. Snyder, “A default mode of brain function: A brief history of an evolving idea,” in NeuroImage 37 (2007) 1083-1090. 16.B. Schönberger, “Far niente,” op. cit., 15. GIOVANNI CUCCI, SJ
If we remain attentive and curious about our boredom, we can use it as a moment to take a step back and then reconnect with reality in a new way.”17
An always current and unpredictable experience What Weil noted is an experience that is renewed punctually when you overcome the fear of being alone with yourself: an experience that mostly happens, as in these days, when you find yourself forced to do so. This is the case of the young officer cadet Franz Jalics at the end of the Second World War. Confined in a monastery as a prisoner of war, he experienced boredom and decided to spend his days in silence, in contact with nature and with himself. At first he did not pay attention 47 to it, but as time went by he noticed that this activity filled him, transformed him, he felt refreshed, and happy to be alive: “After that year, [...] a contemplative foundation had grown within me that manifested itself in a particular inner tranquility and clarity.”18 From that experience he learned to recognize what is truly close to his heart, where he “truly expressed himself” (in Yalom’s words): he decided to enter the Society of Jesus and to dedicate himself to proposing contemplative exercises for anyone who wanted to re-read their life, reconcile themselves with their wounds and discover God’s plan, fulfilling the fundamental desire in their hearts. To make contact with oneself Jalics proposed first of all to exercise perception: “the perceptions of the senses, such as hearing, feeling, tasting, seeing and smelling, and spiritual perception, that of becoming conscious, of becoming aware, of perceiving [...]. To remain in perception also means to remain in the present.”19 The exercise of perception has progressively
17.S. Turkle, La conversazione necessaria. La forza del dialogo nell’era digitale, Turin, Einaudi, 2016, 50-52; see S. Mann - R. Cadman, “Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative?” in Creativity Research Journal 26 (2014) 165-173. 18.F. Jalics, Esercizi di contemplazione, Milan, Àncora, 2018, 29f. 19.Ibid., 34. An indication also noted by Pascal in a famous aphorism: “Let each one examine his own thoughts: he will always find them occupied with the past and the future. We hardly ever think about the present or, if we think about it, it is only to catch the light in order to prepare for the future. The present is never our goal; the past and the present are our means; only the future is our DO NOTHING: A PRECIOUS AND ARDUOUS ACTIVITY
faded in modern times, which have privileged thinking and doing. But without perception, thinking becomes a torment (as in the 11 experiments of voluntary prisoners) and doing generates stress. In both we try to escape the present, which is the only dimension in which we are alive. Perception can be boring, of course. But when you welcome it and listen to it, it ceases to be annoying and gives way to something else, as described above. Contemplating does not tire, it regenerates. That is why Jalics observes that eternal life, spent in the endless contemplation of God, will not be a tiring activity. It will have no need of a break or a holiday, because we will have reached that fullness of which all the experiences and activities of the present time constitute a fragment and, 20 when we feel fulfilled, an eloquent anticipation. 48 Let us then make a virtue of necessity, and take advantage of this time to make contact with ourselves, without fear.21
goal. Thus, we never live, but we hope to live, and, always preparing ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we are never happy” (B. Pascal, Pensées, No. 172). 20.F. Jalics, Esercizi di contemplazione, op. cit., 36. 21.In addition to the texts on these pages, we suggest a short exercise of attention and prayer: “Decide to keep 10 minutes of silence and choose an appropriate place and time.... Find a convenient location..., close your eyes... First of all, feel your mind dispersed for a minute or two... feel the silence now…. This allows you to become aware of this dispersion... Listening to the sounds generates silence... Pay attention to all the sounds you can hear... Keep silent for five minutes, pay attention to the sounds around you... It’s not about identifying them... stop for a moment on each one, one at a time... The intense, the soft..., the near, the distant... Listen now to the sound of your breathing..., feel yourself on the edge of this current and listen to it... Listen now to all the sounds around you as if they were one sound... At the end, ask yourself: What have I perceived, what have I experienced, what have I encountered at this moment?” (G. Cucci - M. Marelli, Istruzioni per il tempo degli Esercizi spirituali, Rome, AdP, 2015, 221f). Africa: A continent on the move
Giovanni Sale, SJ
It is often said that Africa is “a continent on the move.” Before European colonization there were no real borders on the continent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, let alone “walls” or containing barriers, as unfortunately we know 49 them everywhere today. There were, instead, empires whose geographical extent and borders varied, as well as acephalous societies, states without an established head or capital.1 The only truly fixed and determined political reality for the inhabitants was membership of a clan or a specific ethnic group. This, however, does not mean that Africa is a continent without history, without civilization – as was believed in the 19th century – a vast territory on the fringes of world affairs, with the exception of Egypt and the lands bordering the Mediterranean, which first became Roman, then Byzantine, and finally Islamic. This distorted idea of Africa as a “black hole” in the history of humanity derives from a racist mentality
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1.Sub-Saharan Africa has known boundless empires and very advanced civilizations, especially during the period of Islamic domination, even if they were not determined by fixed and stable borders. The most important were the empire of Ghana (vassal of the Arab dynasty of the Almoravids), which in the 13th century was absorbed by the empire of Mali and, the Songhai empire of Gao, which extended over a vast territory along the course of the Niger River and controlled commercial traffic in the southern Sahara area. These were “well-structured state bodies, solidly dominated by a military elite of which the sovereign was the highest expression.” These polities, moreover, were capable of bringing together under one single control even very large regions, so as to ensure and protect the development of trade and the movement of people. See R. Roveda, “L’Africa è la sua storia” in Limes, No. 12, 2005. AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
sometimes cloaked in science, which conceives European domination over the rest of the world as the result of the supposed superiority of white civilization over others. The idea of the “civilizing” mission of the European colonial powers was born in this horizon, justifying colonialism, that is, the indiscriminate occupation of immense territories – which then, after decolonization, became nations – and the legitimacy, on the part of the occupants, of the exploitation of natural resources and populations.2
A continent on the move Contemporary Africa, well defined in its territorial borders by the former colonial powers, has become a continent of migration in the 21st century; millions of people move 50 from one state to another when this is possible, silently and continuously, in search of work or protection. Sometimes these flows are even reversed – as happened between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea – because of the economic changes taking place within individual states. Africa has the youngest population in the world. According to reliable estimates, 60% of its population is under 25 years of age.3 Africa also has a high number of displaced persons and refugees, due to the numerous inter-tribal wars often forgotten by the media. Migration to other regions (particularly Europe) has increased considerably over the last few decades. 2015 was an exceptional year for migration from the African to the European continent. The flow coincided with that of refugees from the Middle East, in particular from Syria.4 According to the European Border and Coast Guard
2.ibid.. 3.Cf. S. Smith, Fuga in Europa. La giovane Africa verso il vecchio continente, Turin, Einaudi, 2018, 52. 4.The population of migrants in the 21st century, both in Europe and in other parts of the world, has been growing, because the exoduses generated by new wars, such as the one in Syria, add to the incessant series of conflicts, somehow forgotten by the great powers that generated them in the past, such as those in Afghanistan or Somalia, which have their roots in the events of the Cold War or in the first years of the new “world order” led by the United States. We must not forget, finally, that Afghanistan for about 30 years produced the GIOVANNI SALE, SJ
Agency (Frontex), about 1,800,000 people entered the EU that year, one million of them crossing the Mediterranean,5 while a considerable number of refugees (circa 800,000) were received by Germany. Of those migrants, about 200,000 came from Africa. Apart from Somalis, South Sudanese and Eritreans, who fled from authoritarian regimes or so-called “failed states,” all the others can be considered “economic immigrants,” i.e. people who cross the Mediterranean hoping to find better living conditions for themselves and their families in the northern part of Mare Nostrum. The number of African migrants during this period has not changed significantly, neither before nor after the refugee 51 crisis. This means that “an exceptional influx – as it was in 2015 – can hide another, more structural one.”6 According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2007, about 2 million Africans have entered Europe – on average 200,000 each year – and they have joined the migrants already present on our continent, that is, about 9 million. Given these numbers it is difficult today to speak of an African invasion of the EU. An important characteristic of recent immigration to Europe is that Spain is now the southern European country with the largest number of immigrants entering by sea, and also by land,
largest number of refugees, who have scattered to different parts of the world. See A. Morales, Non siamo rifugiati. Viaggio in un mondo di esodi, Turin, Einaudi, 2017, 15. 5.The Mediterranean, the sea shared by Africans and Europeans, has become, especially on the routes to Lampedusa, a real “marine cemetery”; in fact, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, from October 3, 2013, to January 2019 the number of deaths in the Mediterranean was 18,066. Cf. A. Veronesi - T. Ben Jelloun - M. Serafini, “Il naufragio dell’Occidente” in Corriere della Sera, “La Lettura” March 31, 2019. On the migratory phenomenon, cf. S. Allievi, Immigrazione. Cambiare tutto, Rome - Bari, Laterza, 2019; A. Morales, Non siamo rifugiati..., op. cit.; V. De Cesaris - E. Deodato, Il confine mediterraneo. L’Europa di fronte agli sbarchi dei migranti, Rome, Carocci, 2018; A. Leogrande, La frontiera, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2017. 6.S. Smith, Fuga in Europa…, op. cit., 19. AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
through its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.7 Spain replaced Italy following the draconian migration measures taken by the former yellow-green Italian government. In the first 9 months of 2019, Spain welcomed more than 23,000 migrants.8 In absolute terms, however, the preponderance of arrivals of immigrants in the countries of the EU is received by Greece, where about 45,000 migrants arrived in the same period.9 At least two conditions must be met for the implementation of a project to migrate.10 The first is the crossing of a minimum poverty threshold. People who do not have economic means do not usually emigrate. To make the leap and realize the dream, it is necessary to have “an initial treasure,” enough to face the challenge of the journey and to pay the various “ferrymen” or human traffickers. Currently, the expected cost of such an enterprise ranges from 52 1,500 to 2,000 euros, which is at least double the annual income of an average worker in a sub-Saharan country. The second condition for the venture to be successful is the presence of diaspora communities in the place of arrival. In fact, relatives or friends who can welcome migrants on the other side of the Mediterranean substantially reduces levels of uncertainty for those contemplating making the journey and the costs of settlement. “The diaspora functions as a decompression chamber to move from the initial loss caused by the new environment to a basic familiarity with another society.”11 In fact, the existence of a diaspora community in a European country, well rooted and not yet merged into the social fabric of the host country, is a strong inducement to those contemplating migration.
7.Cf. U. Ladurner, “La prossima frontiera” in Internazionale, August 24, 2018, 56. 8.According to recent statistics (October 2019), 9,648 migrants arrived in Italy in 2019. In 2018 there were 22,031 (and 111,401 in 2017). Cf. F. Cac- cia, “Il Governo difende il patto con la Libia” in Corriere della Sera, Novem- ber 2, 2019, 6. 9.See www.lenius.it/migranti-2019/ 10.The so-called “ecological stress” in certain parts of the world is generally regarded as an aggravating circumstance that pushes people into exodus. 11.S. Smith, Fuga in Europa…, op.cit., 84. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the decision to emigrate is often not an individual choice, but also concerns the family, or even the clan to which they belong. According to Marco Zuppi, current director of Canone Rai, the importance of family ties in the dynamics of migration is of particular importance in relation to the financial dimension, which leads people to consider emigration “as a family decision to diversify the portfolio of securities that generate income, in order to cover themselves from the risks of low liquidity and the presence of market failures, through the use of remittances sent by the emigrated family member.”12 Some analysts believe that migration from Africa to the “outside” has recently been greatly facilitated by the subsidies 53 offered by richer states to poorer ones. The so-called “co- development theory,” which aims to economically develop these countries and thus reduce both internal (often unwelcome) and external migration, has actually achieved the opposite effect, facilitating the eradication of middle-income people. In this regard, the political scientist Jeremy Harding writes: “Wars, hunger and social decay did not cause mass migrations beyond the natural frontier of the Sahara. But the first rays of prosperity could motivate more Africans to come to Europe.”13 Now, although it has elements of truth, this position, in the light of a perspective based on solidarity, is not, at least in absolute terms, ethically sustainable. In reality it states that only those who live in rich countries have the right to move and travel freely, as if the world had no frontiers for them alone. According to recent studies, immigration in the medium to long term not only contributes to curbing the demographic decline of entire regions, but also creates wealth in the host countries. The Lancet has published a well-documented study showing that every 1% increase in the adult migrant population in a certain geographical area increases the Gross
12.D. Frigeri - M. Zuppi (eds), Dall’Africa all’Europa. La sfida politica delle migrazioni, Rome, Donzelli, 2018, 59. 13.J. Harding, Border Vigils. Keeping Migrants Out of the Rich World, London, Verso Books, 2012, 61. AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
Domestic Product (GDP) by 2%14, although many – especially in European countries – are convinced that immigrants receive (in welfare contributions and other support) more than they contribute in taxes to the host country. However, the analysis of the available data shows the opposite. Immigrants actually give back more than they take, and contribute to improving the labor market for others too. They also contribute significantly to global welfare; in 2017 alone, they sent 631 billion dollars to their families back home, which is much more than rich and industrialized countries give in international cooperation to support the poorest countries.15
The three stages of the migratory phenomenon In general, the phenomenon of migration in Africa can 54 be divided into three stages, which follow one after the other and in which we gradually move from internal to external migration, when the conditions mentioned above exist. The first stage is the so-called “rural exodus.” Millions of young people have recently left the villages where they were born, and have poured into the nearest towns or capital cities in search of work. This passage is considered by many as a form of protest against traditional hierarchies – based on age and clan membership – which are now considered outdated. Usually these young people do not completely cut their ties with their place of origin. Some of them, especially those who have made a fortune in the city, return periodically and build a new, modern house in the village, thus flaunting their success. On the other hand, the elderly accept this state of affairs, even legitimize it, considering these young people who left as their emissaries, “as ambassadors of their community, instead of dissidents or lost boys.”16 According to an historian of international relations, Mario Giro, a sort of anthropological revolution has taken place in Africa in recent decades, especially among young people: Instead of the old culture of solidarity
14.Cf. G. Remuzzi, “+1% di migranti secondo la rivista ‘Lancet’ equivale a +2% di ricchezza” in Corriere della Sera, “la Lettura” January 13, 2019, 14. 15.Cf. ibid. 16.S. Smith, Fuga in Europa …, op. cit., 94. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ
(based on “we”), a “competitive and materialistic culture,” based on “me,” is strongly imposing itself, as in other parts of the world. The impulse to emigrate should also be read as a consequence of this transformation, “since all hope in the future of one’s own country has often failed.”17 Indeed, it is often the adults themselves, repositories of tradition, who push young people to emigrate, to make their fortune “outside.” In short, the new generations “are burdened by the weight and the ‘hurry’ to grasp a few crumbs of the global development that offers new opportunities.”18 The second stage of migration takes place beyond the provincial or capital city and leads to the great African metropolises such as Abidjan, Lagos, Nairobi and others.19 For 55 the first time an international border is crossed, and so all the legal problems of migrant status arise. It should be remembered that it is not easy to move within the African continent. Often residence visas are either slowed down for a long time or simply refused, even by neighboring countries. A poorly conceived pan-Africanism tends to minimize this fact, as if among Africans there were smoother relations and sharing of rights that are reserved only for citizens. In addition, border surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa is a general problem, both because of the size of the territories and the endemic corruption of people tasked with controlling borders. According to the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe,
17.M. Giro, Global Africa, la nuova realtà delle migrazioni: il volto di un continente in movimento, Milan, Guerini e Associati, 2019, 45. 18.Ibid. 19.Lagos, Nigeria, with its 23.5 million inhabitants, is the most populous city in Africa. The percentage of young people living in it corresponds to 60% of the total population of the country. Lagos is certainly the youngest city in the world. It is expected that in the next 10 years it will become one of the main megalopolises of the planet. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa (one in five Africans is Nigerian), and Lagos is the commercial center of the state, its cultural center, the model to which everyone aspires and where dreams live and die. “Nigeria is to Africa,” writes a Nigerian writer, “what the United States is to the American continent; it dominates the cultural landscape, arousing a mixture of admiration, envy, affection and distrust. The best of contemporary Nigerian culture is linked to Lagos” (C. Ngozi Adichie, “L’irresistibile Lagos” in Internazionale, August 2, 2019, 14). AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
to overcome these fractures it is necessary to decolonize Africa territorially: “There is nothing that historically justifies the fracture of the continent between the North and the South of the Sahara desert. Not only that, on the African continent no one should ever treat an African or any person of African origin as a foreigner. ‘Debalkanizing’ the continent therefore increasingly appears to be one of the conditions necessary to protect the lives of Africans.”20 Facilitating free movement on the continent could undermine the mirage of a possible freedom outside Africa in the minds of young people. According to Mbembe, a new line of fracture in the near future will oppose those who will have the unconditional right “to speed and circulation” (with all that follows) to those who cannot benefit from it for racial or simply economic reasons. 56 Those who will manage these processes on a planetary level will be the new masters of the world, because only they will have the power to decide who will be able to circulate freely and who will be condemned to immobility. In this new order, Africa will have to decide how to reorganize its living space and activate greater mobility within the continent. Europe, in fact, has not only decided to militarize its borders and build new ones, in order to contain “the invasion from Africa,” but is progressively moving its borders beyond the Mediterranean, extending them “to the escape routes and tortuous paths used by Africans who want to migrate. These borders, in reality, move as migratory routes change.”21 It should also be remembered that the problem of mobility between states does not only concern Africa, but also more developed continents, such as Europe. The latter has a high population density, excellent communications, large, highly industrialized regions and marked economic inequalities between states. These conditions should favor internal mobility, which, however, in reality, remains very limited, even though
20.A. Mbembe, “La rivoluzione della mobilità,” ibid., February 22, 2019, 46. 21.Ibid., 46; Id, “Non, les migrants africains ne rêvent pas d’Europe” in Courrier international, No. 1492, June 6, 2019. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ
it far exceeds migration from outside its borders. While in the USA, for example, 3% of the working population moves for work, in the EU only 0.5%. In addition to language and identity barriers, recent diatribes in Europe about immigration – between the Schengen Area states themselves – have greatly contributed to reducing the internal movement of people. “The nationalist tension threatens to pose new obstacles to internal movement, creating the need to keep the social and cultural context intact.”22 The recent emergency due to the spread of the coronavirus has made the situation of mobility between states (not only European ones) more complicated and difficult. If the emergency were to last, it would have disastrous consequences for the circulation of 57 people and goods on a global level, damaging above all the poorest countries. The biggest problems, according to Mbembe, are neither those of a demographic nature23 – in fact, compared to other continents, the African continent is the least “crowded” (given its 30 million square kilometers) – nor those concerning migrations outside, since only 29.3 million people of its 1.3 billion inhabitants have left Africa in recent times. The greatest challenge is not, as in colonial times, “to determine borders, limit crossings, force the population to immobility and sedentariness, intensify exchanges at local level. The real challenge will be to regulate circulation and increase mobility within the continent.”24 This may induce millions of young people not to leave Africa and to use their physical and intellectual energies to support the development of the African continent. According to some analysts, all African countries, except Nigeria – which in 2050 could become the third most inhabited country in the world, after China and India – are
22.www.limesonline.com/rubrica/migrazioni-intraeuropee-debolezza-ue- demografia-economia 23.Cf. M. Farina, “Africa, crescita della popolazione. ‘Raddoppierà in trent’anni’” in Corriere della Sera, July 14, 2017. 24.A. Mbembe, “La rivoluzione della mobilità,” op. cit., 46. AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
now under-populated.25 The slave trade, practiced in various ways in past centuries, contributed, until the beginning of the 20th century, to the depopulation of the continent. In any case, compared to European population density, “Africa is virgin land for many sectors of the international economy, in particular the agro-industrial one, with a considerable availability of cultivable land.”26 On this matter it is necessary first of all to clear the field of alarmism regarding the out-of-control African “demographic bomb” (according to many scholars of demography, at the end of this century the African continent would have more than 4 billion inhabitants). Moreover, it should be noted that the demographic transition historically reflects – in the absence of exceptional events, such as wars, 58 famine and pandemics – “a long process of adaptation of customs and cultures to the effects of economic and socio- sanitary development (primarily linked to the role and power spaces of women), as demonstrated by the European experience, in which the reduction in the birth rate was not brought about by force, but was the effect of the overall changes in societies.”27 According to demographic data, Africa, in the period between 1950 and 1955, was the third region in the world by birthrate, after the Latin America-Caribbean area and Oceania. It later became the first, peaking between 1980 and 1985, with a birth rate of 2.85%. After that period there was a long phase
25.According to Zuppi, on the basis of the available data of the United Nations, “in aggregate terms Africa represented 9% of the world population in 1950, then 13.3% (2000), now 16.6% (2017) and will be 25.5% (2050), up to 39.1% in 2100: that is, 4 people out of 10” (D. Frigeri - M. Zuppi [eds], Da ll’Afr i c a all’Europa..., op. cit., 35). In 2050, according to the scholar, the continent would exceed 2.5 billion inhabitants. At the end of the century, according to UN statistics, Africa could become the continent most “present in the top-12 [of the most populous nations on the planet]” with the absolute majority of as many as seven countriesincluded: Nigeria (which should exceed one billion inhabitants), Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, Niger. 26.M. Giro, Global Africa..., op. cit., 31. Cf. Id., La globalizzazione difficile. Ridisegnare la convivenza al tempo delle emozioni, Milan, Mondadori, 2018. 27.D. Frigeri - M. Zuppi (eds), Dall’Africa all’Europa..., op. cit., 35. GIOVANNI SALE, SJ
of decline and stabilization to1.9%, although not uniformly. Nigeria and other countries have growth rates above the continental average, although infant mortality is high. Africa, excluding the case of Western Sahara, “has long been on the road to contain population growth rates.”28 This should continue to decrease gradually throughout the century, and yet the global population of the continent in 2050 will exceed two billion people, while the European population will probably not reach half a billion. The real problem of Africa is not and will not be only demographic), but will concern economic development, generally blocked by a corrupt and quarrelsome political class, often unable to manage the natural resources of the 59 respective countries. Their exploitation is often left to non- African states, such as China, often denying young people a sustainable future. Moreover, the lack of democracy in many countries and the persistence of governments led by the military or long-standing dictators do not bode well for the continent’s immediate future. Usually, the third and final stage pushes many young people to leave the African continent and face the many obstacles and difficulties of immigration to Europe. This subject has already been covered in several articles and publications in our journal.29 We can ultimately say that African migration resembles “a fountain with several overflowing basins.”30 At the beginning there is the rural exodus, which brings many young people from villages to cities, which have become unlivable; then there is the relocation of many of them to the main African megalopolises, where tens of millions of people live, often in conditions of extreme poverty. Finally, with the gradual development of networks of “smugglers,” an increasing number of migrants leave the continent to go to Europe or other parts of the world.
28.Ibid., 37. 29.Cf. G. Sale, “Il fenomeno dei migranti in Europa” in Civ. Catt. 2018 IV 352-365; G. Pani (ed.), Sulle onde delle migrazioni. Dalla paura all’incontro, Milan, Àncora, 2017; Migranti, Rome, La Civiltà Cattolica, 2019. 30.S. Smith, Fuga in Europa…, op. cit., 109. AFRICA: A CONTINENT ON THE MOVE
As has been said, the phenomenon of the migration of young Africans to Europe has for years become a structural phenomenon and, despite the repressive measures taken by various European governments in this area, it will continue to be a reality for a long time. We must take note of this phenomenon and use it as a starting point for making choices, such as what kind of migrants to receive, and under what conditions. Two considerations seem necessary in this regard: on the one hand, in the concrete management of this phenomenon, which is no longer a purely national emergency, we must not lose the humanitarian sense, as sometimes unfortunately happens; on the other hand, we must not sacrifice nor be indifferent to the interests of European citizens, who are not yet prepared – for security reasons – to bear the trauma of an alleged “invasion” 60 of foreigners. A certain humanitarian irenism in this delicate matter is as dangerous from a social point of view as nationalist egoism, often with racist undertones. In fact, in recent years, anti-immigration propaganda has been strongly supported by some media and some right-wing political parties under the pretext of defending labor and national identity, but in reality mainly for political and electoral reasons, which in various cases have involved xenophobic, if not even racist, tendencies. This propaganda has had results that are not negligible. The Mediterranean: A frontier of peace
Paolo Bizzeti, SJ
Sixty bishops from twenty countries attended The 1 Mediterranean, a Frontier of Peace , a meeting from February 19 to 23, 2020, not by chance in Bari, the setting in 2018 of a significant ecumenical prayer meeting that had seen the 61 patriarchs and heads of the Churches of the Middle East gather around Pope Francis.2 With the pope’s encouragement, and on behalf of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti had invited the patriarchs and bishops of the countries bordering the Mediterranean to consider this very particular space in the world for a period of reflection, discernment and pastoral collaboration among the Catholic Churches. In fact, the Mediterranean is “perhaps the most dynamic place of interaction between different societies on the face of the planet, playing a much more significant role in the history of human civilization than any other sea.”3 The intention was also to continue the process that Pope Francis envisaged in the important theological reflection he offered in Naples on June 21, 2019: “The Mediterranean has always been a place of transit, of exchange, and sometimes even of conflict. We are all too familiar with many of them. This place today raises a series of questions, often dramatic ones.
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1.See www.mediterraneodipace.it 2.See “Su di te sia pace. Cristiani insieme per il Medio Oriente” Bari, July 7, 2018. 3.D. Abulafia, The Great Sea. A Human History of the Mediterranean, Oxford - New York, Oxford University Press, 2011. THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
They can be expressed in some of the questions we asked ourselves at the interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi: How can we take care of each other within the one human family? How can we nourish a tolerant and peaceful coexistence that translates into authentic fraternity? How can we make it so that the welcoming of the other person and of those who are different from us because they belong to a different religious and cultural tradition prevails in our communities? How can religions be paths of brotherhood instead of walls of separation? These and other issues need to be discussed at various levels, and require a generous commitment to listening, studying and dialogue in order to promote processes of liberation, peace, brotherhood and justice. We must be convinced: it is about starting processes, not of defining or occupying spaces. Starting 62 processes…”4 In response to this mandate, the days in Bari were organized with ample time for encounter, discussion and formulation of operational proposals. In fact, it was an exercise of episcopal synodality in a climate of sincere sharing of the different riches and fragilities of the Churches, culminating in the expression of desires and projects, a sign of the shared vocation to enhance life in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of the conference, in fact, Cardinal Bassetti expressed his hope that “the Gospel and the Christian life as lived among peoples and found in art, liturgy, theology [...] can still be a place of encounter and synthesis, of genius and cultural creativity, for the benefit of all.” This gathering of bishops also had its roots and inspiring principles in the prophetic vision of Giorgio La Pira. The organizers, speakers and various participants declared: “We believe that the Mediterranean remains what it was: an inexhaustible source of creativity, a living and universal home where people can receive the lights of knowledge, the grace of beauty and the warmth of fraternity. The historical juncture that we live in, the clash of interests and ideologies that find
4.Francis, Speech at the Conference “Theology after ‘Veritatis gaudium’ in the context of the Mediterranean” (www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ speeches/2019/june/documents/papa-francesco_20190621_teologia-napoli. html), Naples, June 21, 2019. PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
humanity in the grip of an incredible childishness give back to the Mediterranean a momentous responsibility [...] for the simultaneous realization of a world made on a human scale by people made on a world scale.” And again: “The Mediterranean is the ‘Lake of Tiberias’ for the new universe of nations, [...] worshippers of the God of Abraham [...], of the true and living God. These nations, with the lake they surround, constitute the religious and civil axis around which this new Cosmos of nations must gravitate; from East and West one comes here: this is the mysterious Jordan in which the [minister of the] Syrian king (and all “kings” of the earth) must wash themselves 5 to cleanse themselves of their leprosy (2 Kings 5:10).” The five days of the conference were not limited to 63 intense work on the theme, but were enriched by a number of events: one evening saw the bishops sent two by two to the parishes of the diocese of Bari; there was time at the theater for performances and also an eloquent and courageous speech by the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli; and finally, a meeting behind closed doors with the pope in the splendid Basilica of San Nicola. The public concelebration of the Sunday Eucharist, presided over by Pope Francis, in the presence of about 60,000 faithful, was the culmination of the conference.
The Mediterranean today Let us take a closer look at the input to the reflections. There were two short but thorough lectures to begin days Thursday and Friday: the first was given by Professor Giuseppina De Simone of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy, under the title Handing on the Faith to Future Generations. Challenges and resources in the context of the Mediterranean; the second by Professor Adriano Roccucci of Roma Tre University, under the title Christian Hope and the Mediterranean. The challenges of a change of epoch.
5.Pace nel Mediterraneo. Il pensiero di Giorgio La Pira, Florence, Polistampa, 2019, 78, quoted by Bishop Raspanti in his speech at the beginning of the Conference, Alla ricerca della vocazione mediterranea, February 19, 2020. THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
De Simone started from an analysis of the current context, obviously characterized by plurality and complexity, in which there is a growing secularization even in countries “apparently immune, by culture and tradition, to any separation between what is God’s and what is man’s” and a “metamorphosis of the sacred,” characterized by a profound transformation that is also noticeable in the way of living the faith: “One believes or one does not believe, starting from choices that are always flexible, regarding the what, the how and the for how long: a sort of clothing that one sews on oneself.” In this complexity there is also a recovery of traditions of popular devotion, such as pilgrimages and, in general, the attraction to sanctuaries, where sometimes people of different religious faiths converge. The speaker said: “There is a demand for salvation and there is an experience 64 of God that popular devotion, in its transverse character, gives back and that escapes any form of rationalization, often integrating itself, among other things, with life practices and skills that fit perfectly into the order of a technical and secular management of existence.” In this context we are also witnessing worrying theocratic instances of the use of religion to desperately assert one’s identity, even to the point of erroneous fundamentalism. Religious freedom is therefore in danger, even when freedom of worship is granted within well-defined spaces. The path leading to persecution is short, with Christians and other minorities among the victims on the front line. On the other hand, the spread of indifference concerning the right to profess one’s faith also emerges, denying that religious freedom is at the basis of any other right, that is to say, ignoring the importance of personal and community conscience. De Simone then addressed the theme of the transmission of the faith, stating that how to transmit it depends first of all on what to transmit. The kerygma speaks of a God who loves humanity, even sinners, not “a distant God or an unassailable and rigid system of ideas.” Therefore, everything that helps people to have an experience of encounter with God is primary, through the testimony of a coherent life and the clarity of a faith that listens to the experiences of peoples, that is, rejecting PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
every kind of crusade, as La Pira said. The “Mediterranean is the sea of mutual enrichment that reminds us that there is no identity without the other.” We are called, therefore, to be a Church of encounter, capable of disarming hearts and breaking down the walls of hatred. Against this background, the speaker then illustrated the characteristics of popular Mediterranean religion. We shall present the main features. First of all, the “ability to hold together a complexity of elements in a dialectic that is not exclusive, but inclusive. It expresses the incessant search for communion, albeit in unresolved tension, between individual and community; between memory and creativity; between unity and plurality; between humanity and creation; between 65 land and sea; between the darkness of the drama and the brightness of the celebration. [...] The faith of the Mediterranean peoples is made of a pathos that does not deny reason in itself, but spreads it and roots it in life as it is, with its drama and in its impulses, a pathos that is the intuition of the infinite within things, a real, concrete experience of God’s providence and of the mystery of evil outside of any rationalizing schema.” Second, “the strong sense of community. The faith of the people gives lively expression to the social nature typical of the Mediterranean people, which is felt in the prolonged bargaining at the market, in the liveliness of the courtyards and alleys, in the strength of family and parental ties that remain despite everything.” In addition, “in the dialectic between hospitality and hostility [...] Mediterranean religious sense tends to privilege hospitality starting from the distinctive Mediterranean value of welcoming and the dictates of faith. Just think of the many experiences of welcoming foreigners [...] that still involve ordinary people in the simplicity of daily gestures, beyond any forced ideological and political opposition [...]. For Islam as for Judaism the guest is sacred. In biblical revelation the foreigner and the guest are manifestations of the divine presence. And in Christianity the welcoming of the other as brother springs from the very heart of the Easter of the Lord Jesus who destroyed enmity (cf. Eph 2:15).” THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
In the transmission of faith the preferred language is symbolic, a language “which does not separate but unites, which does not bother to distinguish and define because it knows how to grasp the deepest links of the real, which does not fear the limits of reason because it expresses a gift of wisdom that amplifies reason while challenging its claims to self-sufficiency [...]; a language that creates relationships, that preserves mystery, and has the breath of transcendence [...]. It is the language of the paradox of the Gospel, the language of the Incarnation and the sacramentality of faith, a language that we need to recover.” But “it would be wrong to think all this is an alternative to speculative capacity. We are well aware that the Mediterranean is not only the cradle of the three great religions, but also the geographical space where philosophical thought in its Greek 66 form originated. It is the space of an intellectual elaboration that has known, over the centuries, very high levels of philosophical discussion, of scientific research, of legal definition. The complexity of thought that discusses, explores and reasons is a heritage that belongs to the Mediterranean.” Finally, De Simone dwelt on the privileged “places” of the Christian traditio fidei, which she identified in the prophetic freedom of being a minority, in the generating force of martyrdom, in the education and formation of consciences, in the choice to be on the side of the last and the least. On the second day, dedicated to the social and operational aspects, Prof. Roccucci began his speech by stating that “we need to cultivate an anxiety that is prophetic and at the same time a creative and generous search for Gospel-based responses, capable of influencing reality and initiating processes of change. [...] This is the social and historical character of Christianity, which is not lacking in the global world.” The context is precisely the Mediterranean, “once again a crucial quadrant for the dynamics of the global world. The orientation of the world’s axes toward Asia has given back to the Mediterranean an importance that had been progressively lost with the shift of the western world’s center of gravity to the Atlantic.” Therefore, “because of its history, its geopolitical location, its cultural profile and its religious fabric, PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
the Mediterranean is multiform. The reflection of scholars and intellectuals has outlined its unitary figure precisely in this complexity. The Mediterranean is a crossroads, where ‘for millennia everything has converged, complicating and enriching its history.’” However, the designs of 20th-century nationalism were focused on building homogeneous states, and “wars, exterminations, deportations, expulsions of populations, in essence the different measures of ethnic cleansing adopted in the last century, have disrupted the framework of secular coexistence in the Mediterranean. The result was not to eliminate diversity, but to separate differences and make them oppose each other.” 67 Today, “old and new antagonisms, plans to expand areas of influence, strategies of geopolitical hegemony, competitive plans for the exploitation of energy resources have resumed. Conflict situations within different countries have turned into long and bloody wars, involving regional actors and global powers.” The challenges of peace – and of peace education – and of interreligious dialogue are therefore the primary ones facing the Christian Churches. Moreover, these challenges are also posed within a Muslim world that “is crisscrossed,” said Roccucci, “by deep divisions of a political and cultural nature. Some of these are at the root of several conflicts in the Mediterranean. Islamic fundamentalism [...] has fomented them, causing suffering and death with its violent manifestations, and it has also disfigured the face of Islam.” Precisely for this reason the Document on Human Brotherhood, signed in Abu Dhabi, on February 4, 2019, by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmad al-Tayyeb, is a fundamental text, which marks a turning point for the Catholic world and within the Muslim world as well. The phenomenon of migration in this context makes it even more urgent to address the problems of the Mediterranean, which has been transformed from a place of connections and exchanges into a sea of death. But these millions of people in search of a homeland put the emphasis on the fact that today’s THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
migration issue “is fundamentally a crisis of humanity, which requires a response of solidarity, compassion and generosity,” as Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos declared on the island of Lesbos. Fear and closure of access, Roccucci recalled, not only do not solve any problems, but they question the universality of the Church. If Christians do not want to renounce their prophetic role as leaven in the dough, they must make a contribution to the construction of inclusive societies, to their humanization and their openness to universality, in a time of antagonisms and resurgent nationalism. This starts with attention to the poor, the first recipients of the Gospel. For this reason Roccucci appropriately concluded by quoting the great ecumenical patriarch Athenagoras, who “outlined the profile of a Christian 68 vision of hope that is still relevant to the Mediterranean societies of this century: ‘At Monastir I got to know the Slavs well. I also observed the Germans and the Austrians. With the French I lived two years. All good people. Each deserves respect and admiration. I have seen men suffer. Everyone needs love. If they are bad, it is perhaps because they have not experienced true love, the one that does not waste words but radiates light and life. I also know that there are dark, demonic forces that sometimes take possession of men, of peoples. But the love of Christ is stronger than hell. In his love we find the courage to love men, and we come to discover that, in order to exist, we need all men and all peoples to exist.’”
Different experiences and free discussion Undoubtedly the most interesting parts of the Conference were the “conversation tables” and the plenary assemblies, where everyone had time and opportunity to speak, and the informalchats in the corridor and at the dining table. Here are some of the more significant elements that emerged in such contexts. Firstly, the Christian Churches are institutional realities that seek to be close to the people: the wealth of testimonies, experiences, initiatives, meetings and talks that were shared in Bari showed how the bishops have a deep knowledge of the PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
history of their peoples. They remember both the positive and negative aspects that have marked their identities. Yet it must also be recognized that among the bishops of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, in the context of the relationship with the civil authorities and the policies of their governments, there are also very different assessments. Secondly, it emerged that European bishops should take greater account of the fact that sometimes the countries to which they belong pursue policies toward the Middle East that do not contribute to the good of local populations, and in particular Christians. In this regard, it would be desirable that those governments should be able to hear the voice of Middle Eastern Christians, not only themselves but also through the words of 69 European bishops. There was also strong condemnation of the economic sanctions imposed on some countries, which hit the populations hard, especially the weakest among them, which end up strengthening the regimes. Thirdly, it was reiterated that, rather than helping Christians to flee the Middle East, it is necessary to help them to remain and to live out their difficult vocation, so that the Churches of the Middle East will not be weakened. It is a matter of doing justice, of supporting the causes of minorities, of encouraging a policy and an economy that does not think only of European interests. Itis not enough to send money. Middle Eastern Christians are asking Europe to continue to support them, to recognize them and to promote their presence in the lands where they live, often in the midst of so many difficulties, and they are also urging the Churches of the North of the Mediterranean to be vigilant about possible solutions to the conflicts in the Middle East. With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must remember the words of Pope Francis. In the aftermath of the decision of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to move the seat of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he made the following appeal at the end of his General Audience of December 6, 2017: “My thoughts now go to Jerusalem. In this regard, I cannot but express my deep concern for the situation that has arisen in recent days; and, at the THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
same time, I cannot but launch a heartfelt appeal that everyone should strive to respect the status quo of the city, in conformity with the pertinent United Nations Resolutions. Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in which the Holy Places are venerated by the respective religions, and which has a special vocation for peace. I pray the Lord that this identity may be preserved and strengthened to the benefit of the Holy Land, of the Middle East and of the entire world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail, in order to prevent additional new elements of tension in a global scenario that is already convulsed and marked by many cruel conflicts.”
Proposals and commitments for the future On the basis of all this wealth of interventions, the 70 Commission in charge has drawn up a document, delivered to Pope Francis, with interesting proposals that now it is up to the local Churches to implement. As a premise, it was rightly decided to choose a Gospel excerpt that would depict the present situation and Christian hope. This is why we voted in favor of the passage about the quelling of the storm from the Gospel of Mark (Mark 4:35-41). The storm is there, fear and bewilderment are there, but the Lord Jesus is in the boat, and his powerful word always offers us the possibility of coming to grips with the threatening powers of death. Faith is our secret weapon, to be held firmly. This premise was followed by an introductory statement in which, re-reading the past in the light of the Word of God, the bishops speak of the need to ask forgiveness – especially from young people – for divisions, prejudices, growing estrangement, support for harmful economic models, failure to denounce so many injustices. They urge engaging in a journey of prayer and fasting to purify relations between the Churches. With regard to the concrete proposals, it was first of all decided this group of the bishops of the Mediterranean would meet regularly. In addition, moments of knowledge and exchange should be encouraged; twinning and pilgrimages, in which “living stones” can also meet. There should also be the sending of priests as a fidei donum and lay people and families PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
to collaborate in pastoral work in those areas where there is a dramatic shortage and strong demand; a period of prolonged training for seminarians and religious in the countries of the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean; making known the figures of the Christian saints and martyrs of the Mediterranean of yesterday and today; promoting knowledge of the Abu Dhabi Document; denouncing the arms trade; carrying out concrete projects to support Christians in difficulty in countries where they are penalized in various ways. The decision was made to support 12 young people from the Mediterranean for a peace training course at the “Rondine Cittadella della Pace” community in Arezzo, which “promotes the creative transformation of conflict through the experience 71 of young people who discover the person in their enemy.”
The Mediterranean, Europe and conviviality in differences On the afternoon of Saturday 22nd, a variegated performance at the Petruzzelli Theatre summarized artistically many of the themes dealt with, which included touching testimonies. The highlight was the speech by the President of the European Parliament, as mentioned above. Sassoli said first of all that “fear has paralyzed us for too long, fear of the other, of others, fear that in those countries proud ruling classes could emerge and they would no longer be willing to sell their resources, fear of being called to fair competition, to a demanding confrontation. The void left by Europe has today been filled with new actors interested in feeding the ongoing conflicts and ensuring their permanence.” For this reason, he continued, “without a European policy, the gap between North and South has widened; we have not been able to establish shared interests or even to work for dialogue with the countries on the southern shore whose problems with communicating increase crises and conflicts. For many European countries it seemed more useful to feed the divisions.” Today, “Europe has a duty to invest in projects that can reduce inequalities, promote the transition to a sustainable society and relaunch partnership policies in the social, economic THE MEDITERRANEAN, A FRONTIER OF PEACE
and cultural fields. We must [...] open the prospect of free trade. [...] This is why investing in intercultural and interreligious dialogue is essential. This is the meaning of the questions that Pope Francis asked in Abu Dhabi: How can religions be paths of brotherhood, rather than walls of separation, and make the reception of the other prevail in our communities?” Sassoli’s reflection on the religious dimension was also significant: “It is precisely in the Mediterranean, in ancient times the region of the most extreme polytheism, that victory over idols has made this sea the region of the one God. This is testified to by the judgments of Jeremiah and Isaiah, which we find almost literally in the Koran: ‘I am the first and I am the last. And outside of me there is no God’ [...] It is not a matter of annulling differences, because we know that the idea of the one 72 God will always raise questions [...]. Here it is only a matter of answering the question that the Koran simply addresses to all those who today are sailing in the stormy Mediterranean: ‘O people of the book, why do you quarrel?’” Sassoli concluded as follows: “In Baghdad, in the House of Wisdom of Caliph Al Ma’mun, Jews, Christians and Muslims met to read sacred books and Greek philosophers. Today, all of us – believers and lay people alike – feel the need to rebuild that house to continue together to fight idols, break down walls, build bridges, embody a new humanism.” Pope Francis, both in the meeting with the bishops and in the Sunday Eucharistic concelebration, relaunched many of the themes that emerged, underlining above all the importance of “conviviality.” It is not enough to have conferences, to talk to each other, to know the rich spiritual heritage of the other, but it is necessary to sit together at a table, to live together, to share the challenges of daily life through a mutual enrichment that is the most characteristic feature of the Mediterranean. This is the mandate entrusted to the shepherds and Churches of this region of the world, cradle of the three most important religions, theater of conflicts, where a piecemeal world war is fought and where the renunciation of the use of weapons and the choice of peace are “the only possible way.” PAOLO BIZZETI, SJ
Conclusion The unstoppable exodus of Christians from the Middle East changes not only the face of thousand-year-old Churches, but also the face of the Middle East, with a serious social, cultural and religious impoverishment, to the detriment of all. This exodus, beyond the declarations and prayer vigils, seems not to affect many European Christians; indeed, some espouse the thesis of populist and nationalist parties, embracing the slogan of the “clash of civilizations,” forgetting the harmful consequences that, as history teaches us, derive from such a contrast. The Christian Churches should be at the forefront in proposing some basic perspectives for new treaties that guarantee greater justice and peace for the peoples of the Mediterranean, 73 in line with what Pope Francis is doing, promoting processes of mutual knowledge, reconciliation and collaboration that erase the specters of indifference, distrust and division. The Donatist Temptation: Controversy in Catholic China
Benoît Vermander, SJ
The Peace of Maxentius in 307 and the consequent official cessation of persecution led to a violent conflict in the Church. Led by Bishop Donatus, the “pure ones” refused the re-admission of the “traitors” (those who had handed over their sacred books and vessels) and the “lapsed” (those who had “fallen” during 74 the persecution, beginning with the bishops). They wanted in particular to forbid them any priestly function. In various forms, the conflict lasted until the sixth century.1 One of the greatest adversaries of Donatism - a movement which, because of its need for purity, was soon marked by all kinds of excesses - was Augustine. Several traits of Donatism were already present at the end of the 2nd century and at the beginning of the 3rd in the Montanist movement, to which Tertullian adhered for a certain period. Today, the climate, both social and ecclesial, sometimes leads to hasty and intransigent judgments, so much so that we should pause for a moment to appreciate the meaning and scope of the decisive position taken then by the Church, through which the repentance expressed by those who had lapsed allowed their reintegration. Above all, the Church can never consider herself composed only of “saints,” excluding those who would not be judged to be so.
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 7, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.7
1.On the risks of a possible neo-Donatist drift, cf. A. Gonçalves Lind, “The Benedict Option. What is the role for Christians in society today?” laciviltacattolica.com/the-benedict-option/ GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
The situation in China today differs in many aspects from that of the 4th century. But it also presents some analogies: some like to pit those who are considered traitors against the pure, who always reject and will always reject any compromise. The motivations of those who engage in dialogue with the authorities are systematically viewed with suspicion. In some writings one even feels the fascination with “martyrdom,” which often seems less tied to sweetness and love than to the cursing of the adversary. Already in the Montanist and Donatist movements, the theme of “martyrdom” seemed to evoke that of “holy war,” to such an extent that the fascination with violence could pervert the most venerable of causes.
75 ‘Semper reformanda’ On September 22, 2018, the Holy See announced that it had signed a Provisional Agreement with the Chinese government. It concerned a mechanism for agreement on the appointment of future bishops, the exact content of which was not revealed. This Agreement came at a time when the Chinese government was tightening its policy of Sinicization of religions.2 But it was also part of an ecclesial context in China, which many have been slow to understand. This is a context formed over the last two or three decades by sociological and cultural factors, and not only, nor above all, political ones. The number of Catholics in China reached a peak of 12 million in 2005; it has stabilized in recent years and is now falling. Anthony Lam estimates that the total Catholic population is about 10.5 million. Moreover, between 1996 and 2014, again according to Lam’s estimates, the number of male vocations declined from 2,300 to 1,260, while that of female vocations from 2,500 to 156. The number of ordinations fell from 134 in 2000 to 78 in 2014 (66 in 2013).3 The transition from a Catholicism “of the fields” to a
2.See B. Vermander, “Sinicizing Religions, Sinicizing Religious Studies” in Religions 10 (2019) 1-23; Id., “Making Christianity More Chinese?” in Civ. Catt. Eng. Ed. May laciviltacattolica.com/making-christianity-more-chinese- pastoral-perspectives/ 3.Cf. A. Lam Sui-key, “The decline of China’s Catholic population and its impact on the Church” in AsiaNews.it, August 23, 2016 (www.asianews.it/ CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE CHURCH IN CHINA
Catholicism “of the cities” partly explains this phenomenon, which also gives rise to new data about Christian numbers.4 On September 26, 2018, four days after the announcement of the Agreement, the “Message of the Holy Father Francis to Chinese Catholics and the universal Church” was made public.5 It is worth remembering some points here. Reconciliation. “I have determined to grant reconciliation to the remaining seven ‘official’ bishops, ordained without papal mandate and, having lifted every relevant canonical sanction, to readmit them to full ecclesial communion. At the same time, I ask them to express with concrete and visible gestures their restored unity with the Apostolic See and with the Churches spread throughout the world, and to remain faithful despite any difficulties” (No. 3). Pragmatism and rejection of over-politicization. “An Agreement 76 is merely an instrument, and not of itself capable of resolving all existing problems” (No. 5). Encouragement not to become closed up in a ghetto. “On the civil and political level, Chinese Catholics must be good citizens, loving their homeland and serving their country with diligence and honesty, to the best of their ability. On the ethical level, they should be aware that many of their fellow citizens expect from them a greater commitment to the service of the common good and the harmonious growth of society as a whole. In particular, Catholics ought to make a prophetic and constructive contribution, born of their faith in the kingdom of God. At times, this may also require of them the effort to offer a word of criticism, not out of sterile opposition, but for the sake of building a society that is more just, humane and respectful of the dignity of each person” (No. 6). Specific encouragement to young Chinese Catholics. “Let yourselves be surprised by the renewing power of grace, even news-en/The-decline-of-China’s-Catholic-population-and-its-impact-on- the-Church-38373.html). Cf. I. Johnson, “How the top-heavy Catholic Church is losing the ground game in China” in America, September 18, 2017. 4.City dwellers accounted for 12% of the Chinese population in 1950, 20% in 1978, 52% in 2012, and over 60% in 2019. 5.Francis, “Message to Chinese Catholics and the Universal Church,” September 26, 2018. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
when it may seem that the Lord is asking more of you than you think you can give. Do not be afraid to listen to his voice as he calls you to fraternity, encounter, capacity for dialogue and forgiveness, and a spirit of service, regardless of the painful experiences of the recent past and wounds not yet healed. Open your hearts and minds to discern the merciful plan of God, who asks us to rise above personal prejudices and conflicts between groups and communities, in order to undertake a courageous fraternal journey in the light of an authentic culture of encounter” (No. 8). Nothing in this Message indicates that Francis lives under any illusions. He recognizes the Chinese state as a sovereign state, a source of uncontested law, both in the eyes of the 77 international community and those of its citizens. This point should be obvious, and it remains independent of the moral and political judgments that can be made on the mechanisms by which this state exercises its sovereignty, and, in particular, on its constitution as a Party-State. It is with this state, as with any other state, that the Church is obliged to dialogue, both on questions concerning the status of its faithful and its institutions and on those concerning the future of the international community. It is also within this state that Christians live their faith and exercise their capacity for individual and community discernment. The same spirit can be found in the “Pastoral guidelines of the Holy See on the civil registration of clergy in China,” made public by the Holy See Press Room on June 28, 2019. They concern above all the situation of priests and bishops, until now “underground,” who decide to register themselves civilly to facilitate the reunification of the Church in China, but who come up against ambiguous or unacceptable requirements. In such a case, the signatory “will specify in writing, upon signing, that he acts without failing in his duty to remain faithful to the principles of Catholic doctrine. Where it is not possible to make such a clarification in writing, the applicant will do so at least orally and if possible in the presence of a witness. In each case, it is appropriate that the applicant then certify to his proper Ordinary with what intention he has made the registration. CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE CHURCH IN CHINA
The registration, in fact, is always to be understood as having the sole aim of fostering the good of the diocesan community and its growth in the spirit of unity, as well as an evangelization commensurate to the new demands of Chinese society and the responsible management of the goods of the Church. At the same time, the Holy See understands and respects the choice of those who, in conscience, decide that they are unable to register under the current conditions.”6 Priority given to the good of communities - the pastors are there to protect them and help them grow in faith - and discernment carried out with respect for people and the diversity of situations are two elements in line with an ecclesiological and moral tradition that is likely to receive unanimous consent. 78 Recurring criticisms And yet there is not universal assent. Civil registration, according to Cardinal Joseph Zen, “encourages the faithful in China to enter a schismatic Church, one that is independent of the pope and under the orders of the Chinese Communist Party.” All the orders of the CCP must necessarily be respected, “including the prohibition of minors under 18 years of age participating in any religious activity.” The cardinal fears that these “pastoral guidelines” will be “radically reversed” by Beijing, so that “what is normal becomes abnormal, what is legitimate becomes tolerated.”7 The criticisms made by Cardinal Zen not only reiterate those he has expressed on several occasions, but are added to others, such as, for example, those of Bernardo Cervellera: “For several official and underground priests, the document is ‘ambiguous,’ because it allows everyone to decide on their
6.“Pastoral guidelines of the Holy See on the civil registration of clergy in China” June 28, 2019. 7.“Letter of September 27, 2019, sent by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, to all the members of the College of Cardinals,” quoted in C. Lesegretain (with CNA, Ucanews), “Polémique autour d’une lettre du cardinal chinois Zen,” in La Croix, January 9, 2020. We have included the text of the letter sent by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, to all the cardinals at the end of this article GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
own, without indicating any regula fidei. [...] The silence on the part of the Vatican and the world Church about persecution, destruction and prohibitions confirms Beijing in its vision: the Chinese Church is a national Church that belongs only to the State.”8 Sister Beatrice Leung pointed out that “the agreement [of September 22, 2018] has served the Catholic cause to a very small degree, but it has helped the policy of the sinicization of religions pursued by Xi Jinping.”9 Sometimes it happens that the criticisms expressed against the Agreement become much more violent, especially when they are supported by websites specializing in a systematic disapproval of the ecclesial orientations promoted by Pope Francis. Then a rhetoric develops according to which the Chinese policy 79 of the Holy See contributes, along with other factors (the encyclical Amoris Laetitia, the Synod for the Amazon, etc.), to a “destruction” of Tradition and its principles. It should also be noted that, unfortunately, groups that support such opposition do not hesitate to spread it in China itself, and the Church in China (already tested enough) becomes the stakes in a similar battlefield. It is like a billiard table on which the “China” ball is targeted to get a better hit on the “Rome” ball.
Living Christian resilience in everyday patience The analyses conducted by Cardinal Zen and Bernardo Cervellera have a good grasp of the objective pursued by the Party-State from the years 2015-201710: to make all the communities of believers of “national” religions subordinate to a “civil religion,” for which the Party tries - not without great difficulty - to elaborate the content and ritual expressions.11 This
8.B. Cervellera, “Religious policy in China before and after the Sino- Vatican agreement” in AsiaNews.it, September 12, 2019. 9.B. Leung, “The Catholic Church in China: One Year After the Sino- Vatican Agreement” November 26, 2019, Georgetown University - Berkley Center (https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/the-catholic-church- in-china-one-year-after-the-sino-vatican-agreement). 10.It should be noted that this is clearly a change of direction from the policy pursued between 1982 and 2012. 11.Cf. B. Vermander, “Le rêve chinois de religion civile” in Esprit, n. 451, 2019, 171-182. CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE CHURCH IN CHINA
objective takes the form of restrictions that are progressively widening, although their nature and application continue to differ in some degree from one place to another. Nevertheless, some obvious facts must be reported: - However restrictive the legal framework in which religions develop, and however ideologically charged the requirements may be, it certainly does not require apostasy, and Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution continues to formally guarantee religious freedom. The current era cannot be identified with that of the Cultural Revolution, although the endorsement that some recent official speeches seem to show toward that era is worrying. - The desire to make religions docile collaborators with the “civil religion” that the Party tries at all costs to build extends to all religions and also to all expressions of civil society. With 80 respect to the pressure exerted on the governing bodies of Chinese Protestantism, one can even think that the Catholic Church is - for the moment - relatively spared following the Agreement of September 2018. - The vast majority of Chinese Catholics today were born under the current government and know how to interpret its rhetoric: they know how to listen to it at a critical distance, like many of their fellow citizens. Whether they have converted or persevered in their faith, Chinese Catholics distinguish things; they “adapt” to the system; in short, they know how to carry out a daily discernment, which no one is authorized to operate in their place. - Finally, the love for the country is as strong among Chinese Catholics as among their fellow citizens, and this sentiment requires them to adopt a responsible and prudent attitude rather than hastily resorting to intransigence, which is an attitude that would soon lead them to isolation, to being marginalized by the wider nation. What we are witnessing, particularly in Shanghai,12 is the resilience of living official parishes, which attract a regular number of catechumens, who often contribute actively to parish
12.Although, in this diocese, the bishop is no longer able to exercise his office normally since July 2012. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
life after baptism. The lay groups in charge of the functioning of the parish - 12 groups in a medium-sized parish - provide reading services, musical entertainment, the welcoming of newcomers and formation. They are often carried out with greater care than what is offered by Western parishes of the same size. The priests in office must regularly participate in “training courses” organized by the Office for Religious Affairs, but they do so in the knowledge that they are safeguarding the existence of their community. They feel that so far they have not had to carry out morally reprehensible acts, and they are ready to make a discernment if they are asked to do things beyond a certain threshold. Here we find that aim which the already mentioned Pastoral Guidelines of June 2019 explicitly 81 proposed: “To promote the good of the diocesan community and its growth in the spirit of unity, as well as an evangelization adapted to the new needs of Chinese society and the responsible management of the goods of the Church.” Should Christians - starting with the converts who have found a parish that has welcomed them and where their path has matured to baptism - decide to abandon the place of their ecclesial roots in order to fulfill the obligations established in New York, Hong Kong or Rome? Are they not able to make for themselves a discernment between situations that allows them to exist as open communities and other cases (if and when they arise) in which a drastic decision should absolutely be taken? It seems to us that many of the critics of a Vatican policy that seeks above all to “promote the good and growth of communities” are “over-politicizing” what is at stake. Some speeches make one think of the French “emigrants” forced to take refuge outside France during and after the French Revolution: speeches characterized by a continuous overstating of the situation making things worse. Very often one gets the impression that those who dedicate themselves to such “heroic” speeches in fact subordinate the good of Christians to the unconfessed goal of attacking the Party-State, thus involving Chinese Christians in a struggle that is not theirs. It is necessary to let these Chinese communities live according to their own CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE CHURCH IN CHINA
characteristics, in their own context, the daily encounter with Jesus Christ. We must recognize that they carry their cross and will continue to carry it, without having to seek martyrdom at all costs, in the way Poliuto sought it.13 It is deeply irresponsible to want to take them on the path of direct confrontation, all the more so when one does not live among them.
* * * In his spiritual testament, made public sometime after his death, Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino expressed a certain bitterness in the face of “criticism, attacks and misunderstandings from Cuban brothers living abroad.”14 This resentment toward Chinese ecclesiastical leaders is sometimes perceptible. It is true that it is often very difficult to discern, but 82 when the difficulty increases, it is good to reread the parable of the weeds (cf. Matt 13:24-30). One can never be mistaken if one chooses not to cut down life at the root, if one chooses to let the wheat and weeds grow together. One can never be mistaken if one remembers that he who judges will be judged in turn.
* * * The letter sent by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals
Vatican, February 26, 2020 Prot. N. 1/2020 Dear Cardinals, With reference to the various public interventions of Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B., and in particular to the letter of September 27, 2019, which the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong sent to us members of the College of Cardinals, I feel it is my duty to share some considerations and to offer
13.He is the protagonist of the tragedy of the same name, written by Pierre Coneille in 1641. 14.J. Ortega y Alamino, “Todo es nada, solo Dios” in Palabra Nueva, January 23, 2020 (http://palabranueva.net/new/gracias-jesus-mio). GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
elements that will facilitate a serene evaluation of the complex issues concerning the Church in China. I wish first of all to point out that, in the approach to the situation of the Catholic Church in China, there is a profound harmony of thought and action on the part of the last three pontiffs. With respect for the truth they have fostered dialogue between the two sides, and not opposition. In particular, they had in mind the delicate and important question of the nomination of bishops. Thus St. John Paul II, while on the one hand he favored the return to full communion of bishops illegally consecrated over the years since 1958, and at the same time it was his desire to support the life of “clandestine” communities led by “unofficial” 83 bishops and priests, on the other hand he promoted the idea of reaching a formal agreement with government authorities on the nomination of bishops. This Agreement, the drafting of which took more than twenty years, was then signed in Beijing on September 22, 2018. Cardinal Zen several times said that no accord would be better than a bad accord. The last three pontiffs did not share this position and supported and accompanied the drafting of the Agreement, which seemed the only one possible at the current time. In particular, the cardinal’s statement that “the agreement signed is the same one that Pope Benedict had, at the time, refused to sign” is surprising. That assertion does not correspond to the truth. After personally researching the documents in the Current Archive of the Secretariat of State, I am able to assure Your Eminences that Pope Benedict XVI had approved the draft Agreement on the appointment of bishops in China, which could only be signed in 2018. The Agreement provides for the intervention of the pope’s authority in the process of appointing bishops in China. Also starting from this certain fact, the expression “independent Church” can no longer be interpreted absolutely as “separation” from the pope, as was the case in the past. Unfortunately, on the ground there is slowness in articulating all the consequences from this epochal change both on the doctrinal and practical level and tensions and painful situations CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE CHURCH IN CHINA
remain. It is unthinkable, moreover, that a partial Agreement - the Agreement addresses, in fact, only the theme of the nomination of bishops - changes things almost automatically and immediately in other aspects of the life of the Church. Cardinal Zen, evaluating the “Pastoral Guidelines of the Holy See regarding the civil registration of the Clergy in China” dated June 28, 2019, writes: “A text against the faith is signed and it is declared that the intention is to promote the good of the community, a more appropriate evangelization, the responsible management of the goods of the Church. This general rule is obviously against any principle of morality. If accepted, it would justify apostasy” (see Dubia). The Pastoral Guidelines, on the contrary, have been designed precisely to safeguard the faith in situations so complicated and difficult as to put personal 84 conscience in crisis. In his letter the Cardinal also speaks of the “killing of the Church in China by those who should protect it and defend it from enemies” and, in particular, in an interview, he addresses Catholics in these words: “Wait for better times, go back to the catacombs, communism is not eternal” (New York Times, October 24, 2018). These are, unfortunately, very controversial statements that challenge the Holy Father’s own pastoral guidance also to “clandestine” Catholics, despite the fact that the pope listened repeatedly to the Cardinal and read his many missives. Dear brother cardinals, Cardinal Zen’s painful intervention helps us to understand how difficult the path of the Church in China still is, and how complex is the mission of the Pastors and the Holy Father! We are, therefore, all called to unite ourselves closely to him and to pray intensely so that the Holy Spirit may sustain the communities of the Catholic Church in China, which, even in suffering for a long time, show their fidelity to the Lord, on the path of reconciliation, unity and mission at the service of the Gospel. Sending you all my best wishes, I cordially greet you. Cardinal Re ‘The Life of the World to Come’
Giandomenico Mucci, SJ
“The life of the world to come.” This detail in the profession of faith concludes the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed proclaimed at Mass on Sundays and on other solemnities. It is perhaps recited by the faithful without particular attention and 85 without too much weight given to these words. “Eternity” is a word that has fallen into disuse. It has been observed, on the basis of some surveys, that the percentage of those who believe in a life beyond death is lower than that of those who believe in the existence of God. And with the horizon of eternity extinguished, the natural desire to live often becomes a frenzy to live pleasantly on earth, even at the expense of others.1 How did this situation come about? According to the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the failure to believe in eternity came with the beginnings of the Enlightenment. This grandiose philosophical and historical phenomenon, which placed faith in “progress” at its center, marginalized Christian eschatology and replaced it with the promise of a happiness no longer linked to the afterlife, but to this world. “In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was still a generic optimism that expected from the triumphal march of the sciences a progressive improvement in the condition of the world and the approaching, ever more urgently, of a kind of paradise; in the twentieth century, this same faith took on a political connotation. On the one hand, there were various
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1.Cf. R. Cantalamessa, “Risurrezione della carne: come (e perché) crederci oggi” in Vita e Pensiero 102 (2019/4) 100. ‘THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME’
Marxist orientations that promised humanity would reach the desired kingdom through the politics proposed by their ideology: an attempt that failed resoundingly. On the other, there were the attempts to build the future by drawing from the sources of liberal traditions in a more or less profound way.”2 The loss of the sense of eternity is to be attributed primarily to the horizontal orientation assumed by modern thought and civilization. Having rejected metaphysical and gnoseological presuppositions, by affirming the primacy of fieri over esse, and praxis as the source and end of all knowledge, modernists live under “the hypnosis of what can be sensed,” which bears various names: hedonism, naturalism, pansexualism, scientism and, on a higher level, neopositivism, historical and dialectical materialism. The current well-being, even if spread unevenly, 86 leads society to believe in an idea proposed by Goethe that pain comes from the earth, but also every possible joy, while eternity fades into oblivion. It is said that a pious Capuchin confessor to a Grand Duke of Tuscany, assisting his dying penitent, told him: “Your Highness, what a beautiful thing to go to heaven!” And the Grand Duke replied: “But I have been so well at the Palazzo Pitti!”3 A certain secular catechesis and some popular manuals of meditation used by clergy and religious may have contributed to obscuring the sense of eternity and the Christian truth of eternal life after death. They have rendered the Christian concept of eternity unpalatable, habitually presenting it both as inert, passive and monotonous contemplation, as individualistic joy, and as happiness of the intellect alone, not of the whole person, a kind of nirvana of which one is barely conscious, a blessed stasis. It is above all perverse to speak of eternity as an essentially subjective and personal enjoyment to a mentality, such as ours, that appreciates concreteness, body, the tangible, and the social.4 For now, on this point of sociality, which the Church calls “communion of saints,” it is enough to quote the authority of St. Thomas: “The perfection of charity is essential to blessedness with respect to love of God, not with respect to love of neighbor. So that, if there were only one soul allowed GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
to enjoy God, it would be blessed even without having a neighbor to love. But, supposing there is a neighbor, love for one’s neighbor necessarily derives from the perfect love of God, so that friendship is almost a concomitant element of perfect blessedness.”5
Eternity We have so far talked about eternity and the crisis in conceptualizing it and finding a meaning for it among our contemporaries. Let us suppose that we refer to eternity as understood by the Christian as the life that the Lord will give to his disciples, thus accomplishing the work of salvation. Of course, with the loss of its evangelical meaning, the word exists 87 in ordinary language with different meanings: it is used, for example, in the “eternal snows,” the “eternal recourse of things” and so on. Thus, noted Guardini, the word is used to signify time that is always moving toward the future, while properly understood it indicates the cessation of time. So, is it possible to think of “a being without time, out of time, devoid of time? A life subtracted from time? A reality that neither comes to be nor passes away; it does not change, but simply is – and yet it is not motionless, but fruitful and vital?”6 “Alone, a person is not able to achieve a similar eternity. He never draws from his own virtue the presence that is all life, in which good is realized without shadows. But if there were a being whose content was good by definition, so that value and being would be fully adequate (a perfectly good and infinitely great being), the life of this being would now exclude all aspiration and becoming. He would be full of meaning, and the meaning of his existence would be entirely real. The transit moment would no longer exist, and the present alone would have value. Now, this being exists: it is God. His way of life is eternity. Time is not something around us, as, for example, a channel through which to pass beyond. We ourselves, our finite being, establish time, while eternity is God’s wayof
5.Sum. Theol. I-II, q. 4, a. 8, a. 3. 6.R. Guardini, I novissimi, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1951, 73. ‘THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME’
living. Nothing eternal could ever come out of us; only the starting out toward eternity, the nostalgia for eternity. In order to take part in reality, it must be given by God. But how?”7 Our participation in eternity as God’s own way of living is an inherently supernatural gift: “This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal himself and give himself. He exceeds the capacities of the intelligence and the forces of the human will, as found in every creature.”8 This initiative, this gift of himself, the Lord has revealed and realized. Eternity has been opened wide to those who believe in the message of God who became incarnate in his Son. Grafted through faith and baptism into the life of the Risen One, we humans ascend to the Father, whose sons and daughters we became through the power and 88 love of the sacrifice of the Father’s own Son. Cf. Matt 11:27, John 6:44, or John 14:6. The whole of the human person enters eternity. Not only the human spirit, but also the body, with its history, actions and achievements that have taken place in space and time.9 The Church affirms this faith of hers based on the resurrection of Christ and therefore denies any form of pantheism, as if after death the human person were to dissolve into a superconsciousness and not retain the consciousness of his or her ego, and were not elevated, with this entire ego - body and soul - to communion with God in eternity, in interpersonal relationship with Him. From the shipwreck of death, the body is also saved, once the intermediate stage is over.10 “In the meantime, we hear again and again the accusation that Christianity saddens humanity, despises the body, undermines the world, confines the believer from a land of industriousness to a spiritual and religious isolation… Only falsehood could give rise to and offer a defense of such a dogma… No one has ever described to humanity such vast horizons as the Christian message; in no system has the world ever been taken so seriously
7.Ibid., 76. 8.Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1998. 9.Cf. R. Guardini, I novissimi, op. cit., 83. 2 10.Cf. C. Pozo, Teologia dell’aldilà, Rome, Pauline, 1972 , 226 f. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
as in it; and the human person, who lives through time, has never been so decisively exalted and approximated to God as it was by Christ. And all this in a way that shuns even the shadow of a myth or a fairy tale, but with a seriousness of purpose that suffers no human comparison, and for which Christ’s destiny is guarantor.”11
Eternity as communion We have already said that one of the causes of the hostility of the contemporary mentality to the conception of eternity is to be attributed to the presumed subjective and individualistic character of eternal happiness, imagined as a boring and solitary stasis. Dante thought of it very differently: “And the more there 89 are on high, you know / the more there are to love, and love you so, / and as a mirror each to the other gives.”12 These very theological formulas – beatific union, beatific vision, eternal bliss – true for what they primarily are intended to express, are today exposed to the risk of not being understood and therefore mocked, as if the transcendence of God, which captures the blessed one’s intelligence and will, were to preclude from the blessed this knowledge and direct communication with the other elect. While the Church speaks of the “communion of saints” and declares that communion in faith and in the sacraments that constitute it on earth remain in eternity and the members of the Church on earth are the same, if saved, who form the community of the Church in eternity, the contemporary mentality reduces and dissolves the eternal ecclesial community into an immense anonymity, into a shapeless cloud, into an eternally immobile and monotonous state, which is therefore undesirable. The Church, instead, believes that in eternity there is a true social coexistence in the supreme participation in the divine essence on the part of each chosen one. Each elected one will not stand beside the other immersed in private contemplation, but will see others, recognize them, love them and be recognized
11.R. Guardini, I novissimi, op. cit., 85. 12.Purgatory XV, 73-75. ‘THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME’
and loved by them, thus sublimating the earthly bonds of love and friendship. The liturgy, in its memories of the saints and the deceased, clearly teaches us to find ourselves in the mutual joy of the blessed members of the Church.13 “The communion of saints extends an immense embrace to all others. Charity has its ordained and hierarchical objects, and because God is its primary object and an essential reason for love toward all others, we can say that the essence of charity in this world is the love of God, and the essence of heavenly bliss is union with God. But since the love of God does not abolish the love of neighbor, and indeed establishes it, so bliss in God does not absorb all the affectionate happiness that we can find in creatures.”14 90 Escape from reality? Conditioned as it is by the dominant culture, Christian culture has developed studies on themes and problems, especially social ones, which it has in common with the mentality and interests of contemporary people. It is right that it should be so, in order to support mutual dialogue. Vatican II exhorts Catholics to penetrate more deeply (intimius comprehendamus) the different ways people feel, to begin and maintain dialogue with them, but warns: “Certainly such love and good will must in no way make us indifferent to truth and goodness.”15 However, as far as eternity and the eschatology connected to it are concerned, the observation of the then Cardinal Ratzinger holds true: “The voice of Christians in recent decades has certainly become too weak and too timid,”16 so much so as to generate the impression of an escape. There is excessive complacency and practical yielding to those who cannot even conceive eternity, which is to give in to secular anthropocentrism. And yet, it is the Catholic doctrine on eternity, correctly
13.Cf. I. Colosio, Inchiesta teologica sul Paradiso..., op. cit., 127-138. 14.A. D. Sertillanges, Catechismo degli increduli, vol. II, Turin, SEI, 1963, 222. 15.Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gaudium et Spes, No. 28. 16.J. Ratzinger, “Prefazione” op. cit., 7. GIANDOMENICO MUCCI, SJ
understood and purified from the accretions left by popular imagination, that gives a measure of dignity and worth to the earthly existence of human beings. Human work, the creations of art, the works of charity and solidarity, thoughts, affections, all our inner or outer acts are indelibly inscribed in that eternity in which every human life, especially a Christian life, receives and finds its definitive personality. It is the gaze toward eternity that makes our lives extraordinarily serious in time. “Why should we worry about anything if everything ends in death? [...] Only those who place all their attention in the future life can logically live the present life with commitment.”17
91
17.G. Biffi, Linee di eschatologia cristiana, Milan, Jaca Book, 1983, 82. It is useful to consult a page of Romana Guarnieri in: F. Accrocca, Donne di Vangelo. Mistica al femminile, Vatican City, Libr. Ed. Vaticana, 2019, 26f; and see Clint Eastwood’s 2010 film “Hereafter” in which the director challenges the common opinion that death is the end of everything. Cf. B. Meucci, “Un viaggio chiamato Aldilà” in Feeria, No. 55, 2019, 25. Raphael: Lights and shadows in the life of a genius
Giancarlo Pani, SJ
In his New Year’s greetings to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis recalled the fifth centenary of the death of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael), “the great artist from Urbino, who died in Rome on April 6, 1520,” and reflected: “he left us a vast legacy of inestimable beauty. Just as 92 an artist’s genius can blend raw materials and different colors and sounds to create a unique work of art, so diplomacy is called upon to harmonize the distinctive features of the various peoples and states in order to build a world of justice and peace. This is in fact the beautiful masterpiece that all of us want to be able to admire.”1 The pope then went on to emphasize two other merits of Raphael. The first: “Raphael was an important figure of the Renaissance, an age that enriched all humanity. It was an age that had its own problems, and yet was filled with confidence and hope.” The second merit is that of having dedicated several paintings to the Madonna: “One of Raphael’s favorite subjects was the Virgin Mary. To her he dedicated many a canvas that can be admired today in museums throughout the world.”2 Pope Francis captured well one of the characteristics of the great artist: in painting the Madonna, almost always depicted
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1.Francis, Address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, for the presentation of greetings for the New Year, January 9, 2020, in w2.vatican.va 2.Ibid. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
with her Son, Raphael established a typology that has had great religious and artistic success in the history of depictions of Mary that have been handed down through the centuries.3
Beauty and harmony Rapahel was born in Urbino in 1483. His father was a painter and man of letters, and introduced his son to art. The cultural life of Urbino under the Montefeltro dukes favored the boy. It was a place where Piero della Francesca had left his mark. After the early death of his father, Raphael became a student of Perugino, a leader of the Umbrian school at the end of the 15th century, who had trained in Florence under Verrocchio, together with Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo 93 da Vinci. Perugino interpreted Piero della Francesca’s art in simplified and graceful forms, which had a significant influence on Raphael. He in turn was inspired by the crystalline clarity in the works of the great Piero – both in the perspective sphere and in the relationship between space and figure – which would later always be reflected in his paintings. When Perugino reached the end of his famous career, the young Raphael experienced an inner crisis involving the artistic conception of his master and the vision of Luca Signorelli, who saw art as communication and exhortation, with a social and spiritual function. In 1504 Raphael was commissioned by the Albizzini family to paint the Marriage of the Virgin for the church of St. Francis in Città di Castello. It is the first painting on which he clearly placed his signature and the date, right in the center of the canvas, on the facade of the temple overlooking the scene: “Raffaello Urbinas 1504.” Here he reflects the underlying idea of the same image that Perugino was painting for the Chapel of the Relic of the Virgin’s Wedding Ring, in the cathedral of Perugia: this almost constitutes a challenge between the pupil and the master. The master takes up the scheme in the Delivery of the Keys (1484, Sistine Chapel): a foreground with
3.Cf. G. C. Argan, Storia dell’arte italiana. III. Il Cinquecento, il Seicento e il Settecento dal Neoclassicismo al Futurismo, Florence, Sansoni, 1979, 26. RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
the biblical episode, and in the background the temple and two triumphal arches. The fresco was celebrated as one of the best perspective constructions of the fifteenth century. Raphael distorts the shape of the image: first of all he enhances the perspective and the sense of space generated by the pavement and the architectural structure of the temple (which recalls that of San Pietro in Montorio, by Bramante), and then he gives the characters a surprising vitality, keeping them in the most natural poses and portraying them participating in the event in different ways. On the right, Saint Joseph emerges with his flowering rod among the disappointed suitors (one even breaks his dry rod on his knee); on the left, Mary attracts the attention of the girls who dreamingly form a crown around her. The groups form 94 two curves: one toward the inside, echoing the front of the temple; the other toward the outside, which seems to include the spectators in the scene. The figures that Perugino painted in his Marriage of the Virgin are completely different. They are rigid, static characters, almost extras who do not generate space and who seem not to participate in this solemn ceremony. In short, Raphael has painted a masterpiece to admire: the pupil, with the novelty of his vision of space and the expression of faces, surpasses the master. However, as the critic Strinati notes, we are faced with a work that makes us think: “The minute analysis of the detail has an epic aspect and the great humanistic painting conveys the skill of the hand but also the ambiguity of the proposal implicitly contained in it. With the Marriage of the Virgin Raphael fully demonstrates that he is a most capable painter. The work is excellent, but the culture underlying it could be suspected of a degree of sterility because it is completely turned toward the past.”4 This is a rigorous and qualified judgement, yet the artist is only 21 years old and is entirely focused toward the future.
4.C. Strinati, Raffaello, Florence - Milan, Giunti, 1995, 13. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
The Florentine experience After the first success, Raphael felt the need to widen his experiences, and for him it became essential to look to Florence, to retrace the Florentine journey of his master, a pupil of Verrocchio. He brought with him a letter of introduction from Giovanna da Montefeltro, Guidobaldo’s sister, for the Gonfaloniere of the Florentine Republic, Pier Soderini. It bears the date of October 1, 1504. Before the end of the year Raphael arrived in Florence, where in the meantime the two great geniuses of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) were fighting for supremacy among the Florentine artistic community. Raphael was amazed at 95 what they had painted and sculpted, with their innovations on display in the Sala del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio. He immediately senses the novelty of their work, understands that they are the masters he has to come to terms with in a particularly lively moment of his training. He studied their works in depth and discovered that they represented two antithetical positions that were not easily reconciled: in Leonardo, art was a function of knowledge of nature, of life, of the discovery of the world; in Michelangelo, on the other hand, it was projected toward the understanding of man, of the mystery of the person, highlighting the tangle and contradictions of the human soul.5 Raphael is open to all experiences; in the process of admiring them he captures the depth of both, and even tries to compete with these incomparable artists. He intelligently imitates their innovative styles, captures their secrets, and understands well where the art market is headed. For him, Florence is really a test case, where he tries to combine the merits of the two great artists and integrate them into the archetype of beauty. Vasari, in his biography of the artist, states it clearly: “[In his painting] it seems there really is a breath of divinity in the beauty of the figures and in the nobility of the painting, which leads those who consider it intensely to marvel at how the human genius, with the limitation of simple
5.Cf. G. C. Argan, Storia dell’arte italiana…, op. cit., 25. RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
colors, can convert with the excellence of drawing the details of painting to living ideas.”6 The observation is interesting: Raphael’s paintings are really alive, and what is more, in the simplicity and naturalness of their expressions they are full of energy and communicate something that attracts, amazes and enchants: it is the mystery of beauty that fascinates.
Raphael’s failure and success Despite the letter of introduction, Raphael remains disappointed. Pier Soderini did not entrust him with any important task, and he had to make do with some marginal orders from some merchants. One of them, Taddeo Taddei, a businessman but also an intellectual, commissioned a painting of the Virgin and Child. 96 Raphael is not new to this work, and has already completed several commissions in Città di Castello and Perugia; but these are very much influenced by Perugino’s style and reveal a somewhat cold and repetitive way of painting that is going out of fashion. Now Taddei’s commission gives him the opportunity to express his originality: with the Madonna in the Meadow (Madonna del prato or Belvedere), dated 1506, Raphael reaches the height of his Florentine period. The pyramidal composition clearly derives from Leonardo (see St. Anne, Virgin and Child) and presents a seated Madonna within a lake landscape against the background of a wide horizon: Mary holds the Child, who takes his first uncertain steps and plays with the Baptist’s astylar cross, a sign of his future saving mission. The artist reformulates the sense of mystery associated with Leonardo in mood of majestic and affectionate calm, conveyed by the combination of glances
6.G. Vasari, Vita di Raffaello da Urbino pittore e architetto, in Raffaello. I disegni, Florence, Nardini, 1983, 145. And further on, concerning a painting of St. Anne handing the child to Mary: “Her beautiful son is naked and the features of his face, and his laughter cheer anyone who looks: [...] Raphael showed in painting our Lady all that beauty can achieve in the depiction of a Virgin, where in her eyes is found modesty, in her forehead honor, in her nose grace, and in her mouth virtue: [...] her habit is such that it shows infinite simplicity and honesty” (ibid., 149). GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
and gestures that intertwine and accentuate the beauty of the image.7 The painting is the first in a series that, as we have said, makes Raphael a specialist of the Marian typology: the figure of the Virgin presents an exemplar of beauty, humanity and sweetness. More or less contemporary is the Madonna del Cardellino, in its own way an experiment that also reaches perfection. This is followed by the Canigiani Holy Family and the Large Cowper Madonna of 1508 (named after the collection of which another Madonna by Raphael was part), where Jesus makes an affectionate gesture by placing his hand on the neckline of Mary’s robe. The Florentine stay was also the era of portraits: many are 97 worthy of note, including that of Agnolo Doni and his wife, Maddalena Strozzi Doni. The portrait’s setting is unmistakably reminiscent of that of the Mona Lisa. But Raphael creates a new painting. The female figure does not have to be beautiful, but she has to be “real.”8 If, on the one hand, it imitates the Mona Lisa, on the other hand it features a woman who is not very idealized, or rather, who has some flaws: her hair lifted by the wind, her obesity and the ostentatious way she wears the precious jewel on her chest. Yet the image emerges with a certain majesty, accentuating the physical features and the intensity of the colors of velvet and satin. The Deposition of Christ (or Pala Baglioni) from 1507 is an important commission: an altarpiece intended for a chapel in Perugia. For Raphael it represents a turning point in the Florentine artistic environment. It was commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni9 in memory of her son, Grifonetto, who was assassinated in 1500 in a fratricidal war. Involved in the murder of his brother, Grifonetto had been thrown out of the house by his mother and fled into exile where he was killed by his cousin.
7.Cf. P. De Vecchi - E. Cerchiari, Arte nel tempo. I. Dal Gotico Internazionale alla Maniera Moderna, Milan, Bompiani, 1992, 339. 8.C. D’Orazio, Raffaello segreto. Dal mistero della ‘Fornarina’ alle Stanze vaticane, Milan, Mondadori, 2019, 72. 9.Cf. G. Vasari, Vita di Raffaello da Urbino pittore e architetto, op. cit., 143. RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
In this work Raphael recalls the tragedy that involved an entire family in a highly emotional episode. A young man, full of vitality, dominates the painting, carrying the body of Christ just taken down from the cross, and his face has the likeness of Grifonetto. Also in evidence is the Magdalene, who still has her hair loose, the same hair with which she dried the feet of the Master; one can see her rosy hand in contact with the bloodless hand of Jesus. She is the only one who touches the Lord. His pain connects with the other part of the painting, where the Madonna who faints (perhaps an image of Baglioni’s drama) is portrayed.10 Among those who support the Lord there is an elderly character who looks at the viewer with an expression between fatigue and repugnance: Joseph of Arimathea? It echoes 98 a Matthew by Michelangelo that struck the imagination of the painter. The composition of the painting also recalls a bas-relief on a Roman sarcophagus, the death of Meleager, from the 2nd century AD. For Raphael, this means an encounter with ancient culture: it is the first evidence the artist’s classicism. The work constitutes a model that will mark the history of painting.11
Raphael in Rome At the end of 1508 Donato Bramante, a native of a village in Urbino and a friend of his father, summoned Raphael to Rome as a matter of urgency. Bramante is the architect of the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica and knows well the artistic ferment that Julius II, the warrior pope, has now triggered in the city. Julius II did not want to live in the apartment of Alexander VI, his predecessor and rival, who, to his mind, had stolen the papal throne from him; therefore he decided to move to the upper rooms of Nicholas V and intended to renovate them completely.12
10.Note here the elbow of the girl in torsion supporting the fainting Madonna: it is a veiled tribute to Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni. 11.It will inspire Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolomeo. 12.For the Stanze, see R. Salvini, Stanze e logge di Raffaello, Novara, De Agostini, 1983; A. Paolucci, Raffaello in Vaticano, Florence - Milan, Giunti, 2013; M. Faietti, “Con studio e fantasia” in M. Faietti - M. Lafranconi (eds), Raffaello GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
When Raphael arrives, he finds established painters already at work in the new apartment: Baldassarre Peruzzi, Lorenzo Lotto, Bramantino and Sodoma. Moreover, Michelangelo is painting the vault of the Sistine Chapel. On Bramante’s advice, Julius II entrusted Raphael with the decoration of the Stanza della Segnatura. The room (also known by the Italian term “stanza”) takes this name because it is intended for the court De signatura Gratiae: on the vault are represented, in four tondi, Theology, with the inscription Divinarum rerum notitia, that is, the revelation of God; then Philosophy, that is Causarum cognitio; and finally,Justice and Poetry. On the walls below Raphael paints the scenes illustrating these ideals, the foundation of humanistic culture. 99 Thus, under Theology there is the fresco of the so-called Disputation of the Sacrament. The theme is centered on the Trinity, in the traditional iconography: the Father, the Son and the Spirit (in the form of a dove), which hovers over the altar, where the monstrance with the Eucharist is found. It seems a simple scheme: in reality Raphael creates a semicircular combination, which starts from the altar, has the consecrated host as its center and widens into two perspective wings, around the Trinity. The first includes members of the militant Church: doctors of the Church (Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Thomas Aquinas), bishops and faithful (even Dante and Savonarola: a rehabilitation after Alexander VI?), who dispute the mystery of the sacrament. The other perspective wing represents the triumphant Church: in the center, Jesus, with the signs of passion and glory, flanked by Our Lady and the Baptist, the apostles, evangelists and prophets. Above, the Father, with his right hand blessing and with his left hand lifting a globe, with a choir of angels and a landscape fading into heaven. It really looks like the basin of an apse.13 The explanation is clear: “revelation” takes shape in the Church and becomes significant in the architectural structure,
1520-1483, Catalogo delle Scuderie del Quirinale, Milan, Skira, 2020, 19-37. See also J. B. Fellay, “Raffaello; the antithesis of Luther?” in Civ. Catt. 2017 I 120-132. 13.Cf. G. C. Argan, Storia dell’arte italiana..., op. cit., 43. RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
where the heavenly reality confirms the earthly one, and this flows into that of heaven. The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament is the first of the masterpieces of the Room of the Signatura.
The ‘School of Athens’ Another masterpiece is the School of Athens (see figure 1), under Philosophy, opposite the Disputation, and it symbolizes ancient wisdom. It gives an ideal continuity between these two walls, between that of Theology and the other of Philosophy. But the new facts are really many compared to the Disputation. Here the architecture is solemn, because it represents the excellence of human thought, which has its acme in philosophy.14 At the center of the perspective are the two supreme 100 philosophers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle, who walk with resolute step, as if they intend to descend the stairs and enter the room. Plato indicates the sky, that is the world of ideas, and has in his hand a book, the Timaeus, the dialogue of the eternal and the becoming, which explains the origin of the cosmos, the nature of the elements and of the human person. His image has the features of Leonardo da Vinci, the artist who was a tireless searcher for truth and of the laws that regulate the universe. At his side, Aristotle – a young man with a questioning look, turning to Plato, his right arm stretched forward – he has in his left the Nicomachean Ethics, the book of morality describing human good. There is discussion as to who is the character depicted: perhaps it is Bastiano da Sangallo, a painter and architect so talented that he received the nickname “ the Aristotle of perspective.”15 He could have designed the succession of perspective plans of the monumental architecture that draws an immense space that hovers endlessly and that takes up the structure of Bramante’s project for Saint Peter’s. Plato and Aristotle, with the features of two living characters, transfigure the problems of ancient philosophy into modern and contemporary issues.
14.Cf. A. Gnann, “The activity of Raphael under Pope Julius II” in M. Faietti - M. Lafranconi (eds), Raffaello 1520-1483, op. cit., 359-367. 15.See C. Strinati, Raphael, op. cit., 30. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
Moreover, since they must represent the excellence of human wisdom, the human figures are imposing: people are distinguished by the grandeur of their attitude and the energy of their gestures. One recognizes Socrates, Alcibiades, Pythagoras, Euclid, and even Diogenes. There is no lack of characters of the time. One can see Bramante in the image of Euclid, and a young man stands out wandering among the learned, dressed in a white tunic: he is a scion of the Della Rovere dynasty, a nephew of Julius II.16 There is also the self-portrait of Raphael, next to Sodoma, on the far right at the bottom, wearing a black cap, the only one looking toward the viewer, his signature.17 Perhaps Michelangelo is also present, in the role of Heraclitus, the only one in clothing of the time and with boots. A rumor has 101 it that the pope himself asked that he be added, since Bramante and Leonardo were present. Michelangelo allusively recalls the likeness of the prophet Isaiah of the Sistine Chapel, whose portrait he had just finished, provoking discussion about him and the novelty of his style. Only here his figure, represented by Raphael, appears devoid of Michelangelo’s pathos.
Poetry and Justice Under Poetry, in the lunette above the window, there is the exaltation of the idea of beauty with Parnassus. There we find Apollo, who plays a viola instead of the traditional lyre, and the Muses with musical instruments, in the presence of ancient and contemporary poets. Behind Homer we can recognize Virgil, Dante and Petrarch. Raphael wants to depict a continuity between the two worlds. In the fresco opposite Parnassus, in the lunette above the window, the artist celebrates the virtues. Among the theological virtues Faith is represented by a little cherub who points to the sky, Hope by another with a torch in his hand, Charity by a third who gathers something from the branches of an oak tree
16.The identification is not certain: see A. Rocca, Il Raffaello dell’Ambrosiana. In principio il Cartone, Milan, Mondadori, 2019, 46. 17.The detail does not appear in the preparatory cartoon and it is also missing in the portrait by Sodoma, a sign that Raphael inserted it at the last moment (cf. ibid., 76). RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
(the heraldic emblem of Julius II). Among the cardinal virtues Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude are alternated with winged cherubs who animate the scene. It should be noted that the Fortitude is holding an oak branch instead of a sword, another tribute to the pope’s family. The two frescoes on either side of the window celebrate Justice, with civil law (Justinian receives the Pandects) and ecclesiastical law (Gregory IX approves the Decretals, the collection of medieval canon law). However, in the figure of the pope, an old man with a resigned face, Raphael portrays Julius II with a beard, a particular sign of grief that says a lot about the pope. In 1510 he was defeated at Ferrara by Alfonso d’Este, husband of Lucrezia Borgia, with the support of the French. The Bolognese took advantage of this to knock 102 down Michelangelo’s statue of the pontiff: a serious insult, to which Julius II reacted with an interdict. Meanwhile Louis XII summoned the Council of Pisa to depose the pope, who, surprisingly, made a vow not to shave off his beard until he had driven all the French out of Italy. Alas, he will have to keep his beard until death. Raphael later painted an official portrait of Julius II with a beard, which was exhibited in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. At that time the faithful rarely saw the pope, and that portrait would be the solemn proclamation of his religious and political program, interpreted effectively by the artist.18
The ‘Room of Heliodorus’ Raphael then painted the Room of Heliodorus, named after one of the frescoes representing the biblical Expulsion of Heliodorus, in which the character is sent by King Seleucus to plunder the riches of the temple in Jerusalem. But God listens to the prayers of the priest Onias, who kneels in the middle of the scene, by sending a heavenly knight to drive out Heliodorus, an ancient and at the same time modern theme that alludes not only to the spiritual and temporal programs of Julius II, but also to divine protection for the Church.
18.The portrait is from 1512 and is now in London at the National Gallery. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
On the side is represented the beautiful and innovative night setting of the Liberation of Saint Peter by means of a luminous angel sent by God. There is also the Mass at Bolsena, depicting the drama of a Bohemian priest who has doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist: suddenly at the consecration drops of blood fall from the host and stain the corporal. They are all episodes in the history of the Church designed to show God’s blessing on the program of Julius II. In this Stanza the execution of the paintings is affected by various collaborators and students, constantly directed and followed by the master: Raphael’s hand by contrast disappears completely in the Encounter of Leo the Great with Attila. In 1513 Julius II dies and Giovanni de’ Medici, son of 103 Lorenzo the Magnificent, ascends the papal throne as Leo X. In the completion of the last fresco it is possible to recognize, in the features of the pope, the face of Leo. But here the artistic level does not reach that of the previous Stanze. In the last room, that of the Borgo Fire, the work of his students predominates.
Roman success: painter and architect The artist’s fame is now well established and, upon Bramante’s death, Raphael was appointed architect of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, a position he would hold until his death. For this work, his study of ancient monuments is important, so much so that Leo X appointed him “superintendent” of the Antiquities of Rome, becoming almost a pioneer of archaeological protection.19 The pope also entrusted him with the project of a series of tapestries (see figure 2) to decorate the lower part of the Sistine walls, already decorated with a depiction of curtains commissioned by Sixtus IV (della Rovere). The work was to be located just below Michelangelo’s masterpiece. It is another challenge for Raphael, who designs an exceptional series of cartoons with stories of St. Peter and St. Paul, the patrons of the Church and the city of Rome. The
19.See E.C., “Raffaello architetto. L’altra faccia del pittore” in C. Strinati, Raffaello, op. cit., 47; interesting is his Letter to Pope Leo X, written with Baldassarre Castiglione, on the protection and conservation of the monuments of ancient Rome (see the text in C. D’Orazio, Raffaello segreto..., op. cit., 183-193). RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
drawings were executed in Brussels by the prestigious tapestry maker Pieter van Aelst, a success that will revolutionize the history of painting and the art of tapestries.20 Now prestigious commissions come pouring in, and not only in Rome. We must remember the Sistine Madonna for the monks of San Sisto in Piacenza, famous for its delicacy and refinement, so much so as to be counted among his masterpieces.21 The canvas stands out for the revelation of the supernatural in the Madonna and Child, who solemnly walk on the clouds looking toward the faithful and soliciting their participation.22 In the figure of St. Sixtus we can recognize the features of Pope Julius II; there are also two little charming angels who, on the edge of the balustrade, admire the scene dreamily. 104 One of the most important commissions in Rome is the Portrait of Leo X between Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi. The pope is painted within an interweaving of glances between the cousins “in mute conversation” and is represented in the act of leafing through a precious illuminated Bible, with a lens in his hand, to indicate his cultural interests, the taste of a collector and refined connoisseur of the arts.23 Among the works whose dates are not easy to establish is the Triumph of Galatea. The fresco seems parallel to the Deposition of Christ, and is also similar to the setting of the Madonna in the Meadow. There is no trace of the style of the School of Athens and yet the work could be its contemporary. Agostino Chigi, a very rich banker, commissioned the artist to depict in fresco the myth of Galatea for the sumptuous villa built by Peruzzi at the Lungara (later called the Farnesina). The nymph is standing
20.“The tragedy and the pathos, the emotion, the glory, the drama enter the tapestries so that each piece of the series is destined to remain unforgettable” (A. Paolucci, Raffaello in Vaticano, op. cit., 39). 21.The altarpiece was commissioned by Julius II to honor the memory of his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere. Today it is located at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. 22.Cf. P. De Vecchi - E. Cerchiari, Arte nel tempo..., op. cit., 372. 23.Ibid., 376. The page of the Bible that the pope has open before him is the beginning of the Gospel of John ( John 1:1): allusion to the name of Leo X. The Portrait, recently restored, is in the Uffizi. GIANCARLO PANI, SJ
on a shell pulled by the dolphins that carry her to safety from the advances of Polyphemus: in the red of the mantle that surrounds her, she emerges hovering, with her body in torsion; a triton has seized another nymph that tries to free herself from the violent grip, while a third clings to the shoulders of a centaur. Against the backdrop of the shimmering sea are the watchful eyes of Eros and the cupids ready to shoot their arrows. Perhaps the painting tells the story of Chigi who, having remained a widower, asks for Margherita Gonzaga’s hand and is refused. Raphael learns that margarites means “pearl” in Greek: and Galatea, splendid and majestic, stands out like a pearl in the shell. There is another secret: her face would be that of Imperia Cognati, the most famous courtesan in Rome, loved by the 24 105 banker after the refusal of the noblewoman. Chigi proposed her as a model to Raphael, who appreciated her beauty and craft. Here the adventurous life of the artist is also revealed. Certainly the two had in common an immoderate passion for women – documented also by Vasari – which is perhaps at the origin of the troubles for the artist from Urbino: “Raphael was a very loving and affectionate person, and quick to serve women. [...] Thus when Agostin Chigi, his dear friend, had him paint the first loggia in his palace, Raphael did not pay attention to his work due to the love he had for one of his women; for this reason Agostino despaired [...] and ensured that this woman of his came to stay with him in the house continuously, in that part where Raphael worked, which was the reason that the work was completed.”25 The episode confirms Raphael’s passionate attraction to feminine beauty that marks his works. Unfortunately, personal events do not help to interpret some of his masterpieces, including the Fornarina. The painting, a beautiful face without a name, with her sparkling eyes almost as a sign of understanding and delicate breasts brushed by her fingers, was so dear to the painter that he kept it with him until his death. Raphael engraved his name on the bracelet that circles her
24.C. D’Orazio, Raffaello segreto..., op. cit., 148. 25.G. Vasari, Vita di Raffaello da Urbino pittore e architetto, op. cit., 152. RAPHAEL: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
left arm: it is his signature. The girl is possibly the daughter of a baker, living not far from the Lungara villa. There is no evidence to document it and the painting had no client: “Just like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, the Fornarina is a ghost figure in the history of art.”26
Death Raphael died at the age of 37, on April 6, 1520.27 because of the unruliness of his life, says Vasari.28 To his deathbed, the students brought The Transfiguration, his last masterpiece, not yet completed, which represents the most beautiful and most original work the artist had produced in just under 20 years of intense and passionate work, measuring himself against the greatness of Leonardo and Michelangelo, sometimes perhaps, 106 according to some, surpassing them. This is how Pietro Bembo celebrates Raphael on the stone sealing his tomb at the Pantheon: Ille hic est Raphael timuit quo 29 sospite vinci / rerum magna parens moriente mori. It would be difficult to add more.
26.C. D’Orazio, Raffaello segreto..., op. cit., 162. 27.It was Good Friday. The day of his birth, March 28, 1483, was also Good Friday. 28.“Raphael, spending so much time on his secret love-life, continued his pleasures out of the way, so that he was more disordered than usual. Because he returned home with a great fever, he was believed by doctors to be with a temperature; as he foolishly did not confess the illness he had contracted,, they drew blood from him; so that he became faint, whereas he needed refreshment. He made a will, and as a Christian he sent his beloved out of the house, and left her means to live honestly. [...] Then he confessed and contritely ended the course of his life” (G. Vasari, Vita di Raffaello da Urbino pittore e architetto, op. cit., 155). 29.“Here is that Raphael by whom, for as long as he lived, Mother Nature feared to be vanquished, and while he was dying, she feared to die.” See M. Lafranconi, “‘Ille hic est Raphael’. La morte di Raffaello nelle parole dei contemporanei” in M. Faietti - M. Lafranconi (eds), Raffaello 1520-1483, op. cit., 43-51. Daniel Pennac and Federico Fellini: Life is dream
Claudio Zonta, SJ
With his latest novel La Loi du rêveur (The Law of the Dreamer), Daniel Pennac crosses paths with Italian film director Federico Fellini (2020 is the centenary of his birth).1 The common thread that links the two characters, both present 107 in the novel, is the importance of the oneiric element in their respective lives. Fellini kept a journal of his dreams from the previous night – which would be published posthumously with the title Libro dei sogni (The Book of My Dreams) – illustrated with color pencils and markers. In the same way, the young protagonist of the novel, Daniel Pennac himself, began to write down his dreams: “Later, by transcribing my dreams (I have been transcribing them all my life since that day), I realized that recounting. a dream means imagining it, as well as telling it, transforming the feeling into a story; strictly speaking, constructing a narrative” (p. 39).
The law of the dreamer This dreamlike story, which initially takes up a Fellini experience – “When I was six or seven I was convinced that there were two lives, one where you lived with your eyes open and the other with closed eyes” (p. 9) – sees little Daniel Pennac on holiday in the Vercors Massif with his parents and friend Louis. At night, as he fell asleep, Daniel, staring at an
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 10, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.10
1.D. Pennac, La Loi du rêveur, Gallimard, Paris 2020. The quotes in this article are taken from the Italian edition, La legge del sognatore, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2020. At the time of writing no English edition is available. DANIEL PENNAC AND FEDERICO FELLINI: LIFE IS DREAM
illuminated light bulb, made it explode; a golden liquid is released that spreads, reaching the hall, which is dominated by a statue of Saint Sebastian. The child moves around the house, amazed by the surprising phenomenon, and realizes that the house has suddenly emptied, with his family and Louis gone; this strange liquid, moreover, is not only all through the house, but pervades the whole city. In a continuous opening and closing of the windows of time and space, other dreams are recounted, and it is difficult to distinguish what is real from what is dreamed. The very “narrating self” becomes unreliable, lacking that reliability that guarantees the unity and truthfulness of the narration itself. The reader thus has to rely on the truth of the dream rather than on the rational and logical structures 108 within which we are accustomed to reason and formulate hypotheses during reading.
A theater for Fellini The dreams lead to a play about Fellini: the theater is another place where you can dream with your eyes open, or maybe with your eyes still closed. The event, entitled “Federico Fellini is willing to receive anyone who wants to meet him,” is to be performed on January 20th, the anniversary of the director’s birth, at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. It is a meta- theatre, which also recalls the famous 1963 film Otto e mezzo (8 1/2) which Fellini, from Rimini, directed. A young Fellini is depicted drawing a dream, while the spectators sit on a stage resembling that of Studio 5 in Cinecittà, the main workspace where his films were crafted. The finale is a video projection of the same show, which ends with a party, involving music, actors, extras and audience that spills out onto the streets to celebrate Fellini’s resurrection. The power of the word, of theatrical action, of art can also bring about a resurrection, understood as bringing back to the audience the artistic spirit of the one who has gone, his playing with characters, the festive atmosphere, the possibility of living in the sweetness of a dream that alleviates the often painful reality of drama. CLAUDIO ZONTA, SJ
Speaking about himself and his work as a director, Fellini said, “I am a man like many others, living his own experience, a man who looks at things around him with humility, with respect, with naive curiosity, especially with love. From this love comes the tenderness and pity that I feel for all the creatures I meet.”2 These elements of respect, humility and love are also reflected in the rhythm of the French writer’s narrative. A calm, easy rhythm, made up of descriptions that lead the reader to engage with the stories told, which, as they transform, open up spaces for fantasy and wonder. The style of writing, therefore, reflects the sense of the oneiric: it proceeds like a dream, with an evanescent, faded, interrupted course, almost 109 waiting to be completed and reformulated through the imagination of the dreamer.
What truth In this succession of events, similar to the opening of Chinese boxes, Daniel Pennac finds himself in hospital after an accident while he was intent on replacing a projector light. He has just woken up from a coma – another element that recalls sleep and dream – and tries to reread everything that has been narrated (and by now read) in the novel. The pact between reader and narrator becomes closer and firmer: trust is established indissolubly, because the content is evocative, nuanced, totally illusory, and therefore true: “The hospital was asleep. I had written the structure of what you have just read, and calculated my percentage of truth, with an approximate margin of 10%.”
From dream to hoped-for reality But the dream also becomes a vehicle for relationship and healing, as Pennac narrates in the last part of the novel. The French author, in fact, has extensive experience as a school teacher. For a period he found himself teaching in a “differential class” in which, due to various previous problems, students
2.V. Fantuzzi, Il vero Fellini, Rome, Ave - La Civiltà Cattolica, 1994, 178 f. DANIEL PENNAC AND FEDERICO FELLINI: LIFE IS DREAM
refused to write. He tells us: “I taught them how to collect dreams. Not to write them, to simply collect them. To gather them, rather. To note them down only for themselves” (p. 141). And if at first the texts were made up only of a few words or an image, with time they became true stories, transformed, completed and imagined: “For fantasy has no obligation of fidelity to dreams” (p. 142). The dream thus really becomes part of one’s existential experience, constituting not only a means of deeper knowledge of the self, as 20th century studies of psychology have shown, but also a concrete instrument to face and overcome wounds of the soul, as in the case of Pennac’s students.
Conclusions 110 For the French writer, as for Fellini, the strength of the dream is above all generative, imaginative: it opens windows of creativity, through which it is possible to describe, understand and transform reality. The power of dreams is such that it transforms even the figure of the narrating self, a dreamer too, who is always poised between reality and dream. The dream enters reality, and vice versa; reality enters the dream in an infinite circle that creates and shapes the narration itself, enriches it, permeates it with meaning and beauty. This is the case for Fellini too, as Fr. Virgilio Fantuzzi has stated: “Starting out as a film director when cinema was expected to faithfully reflect reality (in the turbulent post-war climate), Fellini felt from the beginning the desire to enrich the bare list of external data with the internal contribution of fantasy. He soon realized that the real and the fantastic, within a film, do not cancel each other, but can coexist in a happy relationship of symbiosis, so much so as to suggest the idea of a life dreamed rather than daydreamed or lived 3 with open eyes.” In The Law of the Dreamer, Pennac writes: “Federico is not a Sunday dreamer; he knows that dream is life.”
3.Ibid., 71 f. Europe and the Virus
Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ
Mortality was a world away, disasters were elsewhere, far from our own world that seemed to keep us safe. Death was present, but consumerism and the good life distracted us, suppressing the fear of death in our hearts. An entire generation 111 in Europe grew up in this shallow world and knew no other. Of course, economic crises sometimes troubled our security, but going out of an evening, traveling, a passion for consumerism all eclipsed our questioning and eclipsed our doubts too. All that has changed now. Death, which had a secondary role behind the scenes far away from us, has returned to the center of the stage. Death and the finite nature of existence radically raise the question of the meaning of our life. Isolation and confinement are an opportunity to explore these matters and to reach a true conversion.
* * * Our religious practice was shaped in the image of our societies: the “consumption” of religion does not make us women and men of God. It is listening to the Word, meditating on it in our hearts that makes us turn toward God. It is not the divine, understood as a religious product to be consumed, that gives us a sense of happiness, but the Father, who loves us beyond the end of our life, beyond our death. And a true and sincere conversion always leads us to the human beings created by God and loved by him. A true conversion not only transforms our heart, but also changes our way of life, our actions.
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 11, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.11 EUROPE AND THE VIRUS
* * * The crisis we are going through shows that our economic models must change. Globalization is often blamed for it. For many years we have thought about the meaning of the term glocal, a combination of the words “global” and “local.” Unfortunately, this concept has remained the preserve of the elite few, and economies have taken the path of neoliberalism, where the only thing that matters is the maximization of profit. If we want better outcomes of coming crises, economies need their own “glocal” conversion, which includes remedying so many injustices in which the North takes advantage of the South. Political leaders, if they want to be statesmen and not party politicians, must take the initiative. Let us labor under no illusion: today we are not experiencing “a great exception.” Crises like 112 these will come back and will only be the beginning of the ecological crisis toward which our way of life is advancing. The current crisis also shows us the need for human relations and networks of solidarity. Closed schools and kindergartens and work from home show us the importance of the family as the prime cell of solidarity. Past policies have undermined family networks, fostering individualism, the result of our economic preferences. I call on politicians to do everything possible to strengthen families, the prime nuclei of solidarity. I call on everyone to return to good neighborliness, which favors mutual support.
* * * The biggest network of solidarity we have in focus is the European Union. Yet the EU seems paralyzed. The return to national interests seems an obvious course to most member states. On the anniversary of the Schengen Agreement, we see our borders closed with no possibility of real dialogue and no mutual agreement. The crisis seems to favor the individual interests of nations. Epidemics have always left traces in the collective memory of peoples: masterpieces of literature, and religious edifices, such as the sanctuaries dedicated to the Madonna, St Rocco, St Sebastian. Processions still recall the plague epidemics that raged in Europe. What traces of the coronavirus pandemic will remain in the collective memory of the European peoples? CARD. JEAN-CLAUDE HOLLERICH, SJ
Europe cannot be built without a vision of Europe, without ideals. The fact that the European Union is closing itself off to refugees, the images of the overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, and the thousands of refugees cast adrift in the Mediterranean have inflicted deep wounds on the European ideal. The lack of solidarity during the coronavirus crisis can become a fatal wound. It is true that we know of Italian and French patients being treated in Germany, for example, as well as others in Luxembourg. But difficulties with European solidarity are clearly visible. I fear that for many this will be the moment of disenchantment with the European project. The reconstruction after World War II was important for 113 the formation of new networks of relations, such as the one that brought the United States and parts of Europe closer together. Along what lines can we now foresee the reconstruction of European countries at the end of the crisis? Without economic and financial aid, the risk is that the poor countries will become poorer. This is the last chance for the European project. I hope with all my heart that the countries of the North will show solidarity with the countries of Southern Europe, and that they will make every effort possible in a great gesture of European solidarity, motivated by generosity, not fear. Otherwise, it is not only the European project that will be at risk. It is the map of the world that will change after this crisis. Europe could come out weaker, and the return to nationalism could weaken the nation-states themselves. The crisis is a turning point: it could weaken us or make us respond effectively to new challenges. The coronavirus crisis presents us with personal, existential and religious challenges. It also presents us with social and political challenges for Europe. As Christians, we are called to meditate on all these challenges, associating them with the Paschal Mystery, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and brother. CoronaCheck and Fake News
Antonio Spadaro, SJ
With the spread of the Covid-19 virus, there has been a spike in disinformation about its origin, diffusion and effects. False and misleading claims concerning the 2019- 20 coronavirus pandemic are documented in the Wikipedia entry “Misinformation related to the 2019-20 coronavirus 114 pandemic.” People have died from taking drugs passed off as useful. The information verification process has been in trouble for some time, and the pandemic has made the problem plain for all to see.
Infodemia and data verification The causes of this crisis have been known for a long time: people spreading incorrect information for political reasons, together with the great speed of news propagation on digital platforms. Given the large number of incorrect statements on the internet, it is very difficult to limit their circulation, because fact-checking takes considerable time and effort. To implement such checking it is necessary to identify a fact that is not simply an opinion, collect relevant data from reliable sources, and carry out the analysis to validate or otherwise what is claimed. Unfortunately, given the overload of information on the internet, we are now facing what the World Health Organization (WHO) has called an “infodemia,” namely, the circulation of too much information, which makes it difficult to limit the spread of fake news. There is a lot of evidence that systems designed to moderate content distributed online are in great difficulty because of this problem.
La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 05 art. 12, 0520: 10.32009/22072446.0520.12 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ
Moreover, citizens are overwhelmed by false information, even that coming from people they trust privately - thanks to word of mouth communication and in our experience WhatsApp - and they do not have the tools to verify its correctness and reliability. This problem has surged with the coronavirus crisis, but it is a broader issue that applies to any topic beyond the health emergency, whether it involves industrial, economic or commercial issues. In response to the information crisis, especially online, there are many initiatives that revolve mainly around the world of journalism. Especially in the English-speaking world, journalists have always considered fact-checking to be the mark of reputable editorial staff. As the number of alleged facts 115 to be checked increases, organizations have been created where teams of fact-checkers verify facts (for example, snopes.com and politifact.com or, in Italy, pagellapolitica.it). These sites are independent of major newspapers, but there are also very effective initiatives within major newspapers, as in the case of lemonde.fr/verification. The checks made by these experts are such a valuable resource that Google considers them among the most relevant results in related searches and Facebook buys their checks as a service to use them within its social network in order to identify false content. Obviously these are to be counted alongside a veritable army of thousands of human “moderators.” Recently, the problem has become so noticeable in Italy that the state broadcaster, Rai, and the government have activated a task force against misinformation.
The educational problem and research The controversial reaction of many people in Italy to this news makes it clear that the problem is not only the scale, that is the large number of false “facts” and the impossibility of verifying them all manually. The great Italian controversies are in fact centered on the issue of the right to one’s opinion and the fear that someone from above can decide what is true and what is false. This is also an educational problem because many people do not know what objective verification is. CORONACHECK AND FAKE NEWS
It is said that everyone has opinions, and that all opinions count in the same way. Whenever we talk about objectivity, some will think of methods of control that violate the right to expression. If, on the one hand, the crisis is educational, on the other hand there are initiatives to resolve it from different angles. Certainly this is the case with education itself (see, for example, factcheckingday.com) and with the creation of accessible resources and content, but also with a computational approach to the problem. For years the scientific community has focused on the problem with conferences and journals dedicated to combating disinformation and propaganda, especially online. Many approaches have been proposed to automatically verify different types of facts, to track and understand how to slow 116 down the proliferation of false news on social networks, to limit the effects of so-called “bots” (short for robots), i.e. programs that automatically re-launch content, and many other aspects.
The CoronaCheck These efforts are particularly relevant and important because they can help to combat both of the problems we have raised. We want to signal one that, in the case of the coronavirus, is proving to be very significant. It comes from the work of two researchers: Prof. Paolo Papotti from Eurecom University (France) and Prof. Immanuel Trummer from Cornell University (USA). They have developed a computer system that automatically verifies claims about the coronavirus. CoronaCheck (also available in English at https://coronacheck.eurecom.fr/en) is a website where facts can be verified through official data. For example, given a claim like “Mortality in Italy is much higher than in France,” the system determines whether this is true or false. Each statement is verified on the basis of official data collected daily, thanks to Johns Hopkins University, from sources such as the World Health Organization, governments and health ministries of the various nations. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ
In addition - and this is really relevant - the system learns from user feedback how to manage new types of statements and how to exploit new data sources. The system recognizes statements that it cannot verify and, in these cases, asks the user to help in the process. This interaction creates new examples from which the model learns to verify new types of statements over time. The CoronaCheck is a very helpful tool and can be used by large networks to identify and limit false claims before they become popular, and also by any citizen who wants a reliable tool to verify the information he or she receives.
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