“There is a need for a reconstruction of man, of the self. After the delusion of men alone at the lead at global and local level, none of the present problems – migration, development, work, poverty, politics – can be addressed unless there is someone who educates the self, ensuring the recovery of the conscience of desire, of what is positive and of reality.” Thus Giorgio Vittadini, President of the Foundation for Subsidiarity, summarised to SIR the message that characterized the 38th Meeting for Friendship between Peoples.
Mr. President, restoring a specific heritage was the focus of the week-long meeting in Rimini. What is the heritage passed down by this year’s Meeting? A person has a tradition, whether ugly or beautiful. Those who think they can go on with their lives only by eliminating an ugly tradition are already defeated. But in order to ensure its best use we need to criticise that tradition, we need to examine it to identify the positive and negative aspects, and reshape it for the present times. It is a path that every person can undertake. But if these processes are overlooked, or if a person has nostalgia for the past or is seeking something new lacking consistency, then nothing will be gained. Those who discard everything or are stuck in the past are defeated, for they fail to grasp the changing world. The heritage of the Meeting is the perception of carrying out an open criticism of what has happened in order to live the present time. Moreover, in the audience with Communion and Liberation the Pope said: “Pass on the flame of Don Giussani”. The best criticism is done with facts, with people who come together without focusing their gaze on the past.
What has emerged from the conferences and the cultural events of this year’s Meeting? This year’s Meeting was characterized by two guiding threads. The first is linked to the emergence of building the “self” against the backdrop of the multifarious epochal changes, without interruption from the highest political positions to the various representatives of the cultural realm. Thus the first message involves the aspect of individual education, which in this Meeting, also in terms of the young generations, has seen the active participation of many youths. Problems at all levels have always been raised at the Meeting, in the form of the sharing of gestures of Christian love and from the perspective of the enterprises. Our modality is to start from what is there, from what we are doing, because personal testimonies are examples that can serve to draw up a general rule.
What is the second guiding thread? To give renewed impetus to intermediate bodies:
It is largely acknowledged that managing the inflow of migrants, doing business, reviving the job market, creating areas of peace and coexistence between peoples, is not possible without intermediate bodies.
But most of the current problems and concerns appear to be due to those who appear to want to do everything themselves … It’s evident. Previous leaderships and some of those that replaced them purport to ‘speak in the name of myself without intermediations.’ The two guiding threads of this year’s Meeting highlight aspects that are not trendy but that are starting to be widely perceived: the era of ‘I’ll take care about it, make room for me’, is over. It simply doesn’t work anymore, namely, the Trump, Hillary Clinton, Obama and the Bush family approach that overlooks existing relations and wages wars. Or that of Sarkozy and Putin … The idea whereby something already existing is neglected, something that is happening as a result of a mental or ideological predisposition doesn’t work anymore. On every occasion the above-mentioned neglect the Holy See and the Pope as well as the daily presence of the Church.
At the Meeting there was a major focus on employment, the theme of the next Social Week of Italian Catholics … The event that presented the meeting in Cagliari was extremely interesting. I perceived a complete harmony with the way in which the Church addresses the theme of employment today. The idea is to address it on the basis of existing problems, not according to a philosophical-theological analysis but with the present social doctrine. And good practice means to face the problem in an exemplary way. In fact, if I don’t see the example I will be lacking analytical abilities.
What are the main themes that the Meeting passes down to Italian debate? I’ll mention four: first of all, education, which means autonomy and equality in schools along with reviving investments in human capital. For us, development and labour spring from investing in human capital. We have been addressing the theme of school autonomy and equality for the past 30 years, which has shaped the development of a cultural discourse, while in the past it was an open confrontation. These cultural paths will take years, but they will finally reach a conclusion.
What else? There is the theme of labour, understood as supporting those who invest, hire and export. Enough with global policies, there is a need for an economic policy involving the area of labour and business that starts with encouraging ongoing initiatives. It is equally necessary to address the theme of demography in realistic terms, considering that it is linked to the theme of migration. We can devise a thousand rules, but multi-ethnic Italy is a huge opportunity that will stop the Country from coming to an end. Finally, justice must cease to be understood as legal persecution. At the Meeting we reflected on the theme of restorative justice, which focuses on the needs of the victims and of the offenders. It is an invitation to move beyond a 30-year old mentality that caused a standstill, a justicialist understanding of good against evil, using justice for political purposes. These are themes on which a Catholic believer, that is, a person who starting from his identity generates a pluralistic convergence, does not defend his claims for Catholics but upholds the common good.
