The Holy Father, concluding the 50th Social Week of Catholics in Italy, asked Catholics for the "courage" to think of themselves as a people and to participate and educate themselves in politics as a common good and as a contrast to the "throwaway culture". From Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia, the invitation to "pray and work for peace". To the people of Trieste: "continue to commit yourself on the front line, especially for those arriving from the Balkan route"
by M. Michela Nicolais (Sir)
A strong appeal for participation and political education, to heal a democracy that has a wounded heart. Addressing it to the "people" of the 1200 delegates who have animated the city of Trieste in recent days, for the 50th edition of the Social Week of Catholics in Italy, was Pope Francesco, who in the homily for the celebration of the Unification of Italy focused on the need for the "scandal of faith" rooted in the God who became man and therefore "a human, restless faith, which becomes a thorn in the flesh of a society often anesthetized and stunned by consumerism”.
“From this city we renew our commitment to pray and work for peace: for the tormented Ukraine, for Palestine and Israel, for Sudan, Myanmar and every people who suffer from war”,
the appeal during the Angelus: “Let us nourish the dream of a new civilization founded on peace and brotherhood; let us not be scandalized by Jesus but, on the contrary, let us be indignant at all those situations in which life is brutalized, wounded and killed; we carry the prophecy of the Gospel in our flesh, with our choices even before with words". “Continue to work on the front line to spread the Gospel of hope, especially towards those who arrive from the Balkan route and towards all those who, in body or in spirit, need to be encouraged and consoled”, the words to the Trieste church.
“As Catholics, we cannot be satisfied with a marginal or private faith,”
the exhortation at the center of the speech at the Congress Center: “This means not so much demanding to be listened to, but above all
have the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in public debate".
“We have something to say, but not to defend privileges”, Francis pointed out: “We must be a voice that denounces and proposes in an often voiceless society where too many have no voice. Many have no voice, many! This is political love, which is not satisfied with treating the effects but seeks to address the causes. It is a form of charity that allows politics to live up to its responsibilities and escape from polarizations, which impoverish and do not help to understand and face the challenges". “The entire Christian community is called to this political charity, in the distinction of ministries and charisms”, the Pope's indication of direction:
“Let us train ourselves in this love, to put it into circulation in a world that is short of civil passion. We must recapture the civil passion of the great politicians we have known! Let us learn more and better to walk together as the people of God, to be a leaven of participation among the people of which we are part."
“Knowing the people, getting closer to the people”. This, for Bergoglio, is the secret of good politics. “The politician – he explained off the cuff – must be like a shepherd: in front, in the middle, behind the people”. Following Giorgio La Pira, Francis invited the Catholic laity, with "good political projects that can arise from below", to "organise hope".
“Why not relaunch, support and multiply efforts for social and political education that starts from young people?”, Francis asked: “Why not share the richness of the social teaching of the Church?”. “We can provide places for discussion and dialogue and promote synergies for the common good”, the concrete proposal:
“If the synodal process has trained us in community discernment, the horizon of the Jubilee sees us active, pilgrims of hope, for the Italy of tomorrow. Time is superior to space and initiating processes is wiser than occupying spaces.
This is the role of the Church: to involve in hope, because without it the present is administered but the future cannot be built."
Then the quote from a poet from Trieste, Umberto Saba, to explain that "God hides in the dark corners of life and our cities, his presence is revealed precisely in the faces hollowed out by suffering and where degradation seems to triumph".
“Democracy always requires the transition from taking sides to participating, from cheering to dialogue”,
the Pope's recipe, and the responsibility towards social transformations "is a call addressed to all Christians", because "a State is not truly democratic if it is not at the service of man", while the culture of waste "draws a cities where there is no place for the poor, the unborn, the fragile, the sick, children, women, young people. Power becomes self-referential, incapable of listening and serving people." Hence the relevance and urgency of the key word of the Trieste Social Week: participation, which in Bergoglio's reading "does not simply coincide with the vote of the people, but requires that the conditions be created so that everyone can express themselves and participate . AND
participation cannot be improvised: it is learned as children, as young people, and must be trained, also in the critical sense with respect to ideological and populist temptations".
In social life it is "necessary to heal the heart", and to be such democracy must also have "a healed heart", the proposal combined with an encouragement to participate by exercising creativity in the fields of economics, technology, politics, society, the integration of migrants. Democracy is having the courage to “think of ourselves as a people” : “a democracy with a healed heart continues to cultivate dreams for the future, brings into play, calls for personal and community involvement”, the fresco by Francis, who once again exhorted off the cuff to “dream of the future”, to “not have fear”, not to be fooled by “easy solutions” and “seductive ideologies”: “Let us instead be passionate about the common good”.