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Pope Francis Address
on the occasion of his Pastoral Visit to Trieste
on the occasion of the 50th Social Week of Catholics in Italy
“Generali Convention Center” in Trieste – Sunday, 7 July 2024
” We can imagine the crisis of democracy as a wounded heart”
Distinguished Authorities, Dear Brother Bishops, Your Eminences Cardinals, Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
I thank Cardinal Zuppi and Monsignor Baturi for inviting me to share this closing session with you.
I greet Monsignor Renna and the Scientific and Organizing Committee of the Social Weeks.
On behalf of everyone, I thank Monsignor Trevisi for the welcome of the Diocese of Trieste.
The first time I heard about Trieste was from my grandfather who had done the ’14 on the Piave.
He taught us many songs and one of them was about Trieste:
“General Cadorna wrote to the queen: ‘If you want to see Trieste, let him seet it on a postcard'”.
And this is the first time I have heard about the city.
This was the 50th Social Week. The history of the “Weeks” is interwoven with the history of Italy, and that says a lot: it speaks of a Church sensitive to the changes in society and anxious to contribute to the common good.
Strengthened by this experience, you wanted to deepen a very topical theme:
“At the heart of democracy. Participating between history and future“.
Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, who initiated this initiative in 1907, affirmed that democracy can be defined as “that civil order in which all social, juridical and economic forces, in the fullness of their hierarchical development, cooperate properly for the common good, flowing back into the last result to the prevailing advantage of the lower classes” [1]. So said Toniolo.
Let’s face it, In light of this definition, it is evident that in today’s world, democracy, is not in good health. This interests and worries us, because the good of man is at stake, and nothing that is human can be foreign to us.
In Italy, the democratic order matured after the Second World War, thanks also to the decisive contribution of Catholics. We can be proud of this history, which has also been affected by the experience of the Social Weeks; and, without mythologizing the past, we must learn from it in order to assume the responsibility of building something good in our time. This attitude can be found in the Pastoral Note with which the Italian Episcopate re-launched the Social Weeks in 1988.
I mention the objectives: “To give meaning to everyone’s commitment to the transformation of society; to give attention to the people who remain outside or on the margins of the winning economic processes and mechanisms; to give space to social solidarity in all its forms; to support the return of an ethical solicitous for the common good […]; to give meaning to the development of the country, understood […] as a global improvement in the quality of life, collective coexistence, democratic participation, authentic freedom” [3]. End of quote.
This vision, rooted in the Social Doctrine of the Church, embraces certain dimensions of Christian commitment and an evangelical reading of social phenomena that are not only valid for the Italian context, but represent a warning for the whole of human society and for the journey of all peoples.
In fact, just as the crisis of democracy cuts across different realities and nations, in the same way the attitude of responsibility towards social transformations is a call addressed to all Christians, wherever they find themselves living and working, in every part of the world.
There is an image that sums up all this and that you have chosen as a symbol of this appointment: the heart. On the basis of this image, I propose two reflections to nourish the path ahead.
1. We can imagine the crisis of democracy as a wounded heart.
What limits participation is before our eyes.
If construction and intelligence show a “heart attack” heart, the various forms of social exclusion must also be of concern.
Every time someone is marginalized, the whole social body suffers.
The throwaway culture creates a city where there is no place for the poor, the unborn, the fragile, the sick, children, women, the young, the old. This is the throwaway culture.
Power becomes self-referential – this is an ugly disease – incapable of listening and serving people. Aldo Moro recalled that “a State is not truly democratic if it is not at the service of man, if it does not have as its supreme goal the dignity, freedom and autonomy of the human person, if it does not respecy those social formations in which the human person develops freely and in which he integrates his own personality” [4].
The very word “democracy” does not simply coincide with the vote of the people.
In the meantime, I am worried about the small number of people who went to vote. What does that mean? It is not just about the vote of the people, it is about creating the conditions for everyone to express themselves and to participate.
And participation cannot be improvised. It is something to be learned as children, as young people, and must also be “trained” to a critical sense with respect to ideological and populist temptations.
In this perspective, as I had the opportunity to recall years ago during my visit to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, it is important to highlight “the contribution that Christianity can make today to the cultural and social development of Europe, in the context of a correct relationship between religion and society” [5] and to promote a fruitful dialogue with civil society and with political institutions, because, by enlightening each other and freeing ourselves from the dross of ideology, we can initiate a common reflection, especially on questions relating to human life and the dignity of the person..
Ideologies are seductive. Someone compared them to the one who played the flute in Hamelin; seducono, ma ti portano a negarti. (ie They seduce, but they make you deny yourself).
To this end, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity remain fruitful.
Indeed, a people is held together by the bonds that make it up, and these bonds are strengthened when each person is valued. Every person has value; every person matters. Democracy always requires the transition from taking sides to participating, from “cheering” to dialogue.
“As long as our economic and social system still produces one victim and one rejected person, there can be no celebration of universal fraternity. A humane and fraternal society is capable of ensuring, in an efficient and stable way, that each person is accompanied along his or her life’s path, not only in order to satisfy basic needs, but also so that he or she can give the best of himself or herself, even if his or her performance is not the best, even if he or she is slow, even if his or her efficiency is of little importance” [6].
Everyone must feel part of a community project; No one should feel useless.
Certain forms of welfarism that do not recognize the dignity of people … I stop at the word welfarism. Welfarism, only in this way, is the enemy of democracy, it is the enemy of love of neighbor.
And certain forms of welfarism that do not recognize the dignity of people are social hypocrisy.
Let’s not forget this. And what is behind this distancing from social reality?
There is indifference, and indifference is a cancer of democracy, a lack of participation.
2, The second reflection is an invitation to participate
The second reflection is an invitation to participate, so that democracy is like a healed heart.
This is what it is. : I like to think that in social life it is necessary to heal hearts, to heal hearts. A healed heart. And for this we need to exercise creativity. If we look around us, we see many signs of the Holy Spirit’s action in the lives of families and communities.
Even in the fields of economics, ideology, politics, society.
Let’s think of those who have made room within an economic activity for people with disabilities;
to workers who have waived their right to prevent the dismissal of others;
renewable energy communities that promote integral ecology,
also taking care of families in energy poverty; to administrators who promote the birth rate, work, school, educational services, accessible housing, mobility for all, the integration of migrants.
All these things do not enter into politics without participation.
The heart of politics is to participate.
And these are the things that participation does, taking care of everything; not just charity, taking care of this…, no: altogether!
Fraternity makes social relationships flourish; and on the other hand, caring for one another requires the courage to think of one another as a people.
It takes courage to think of yourself as a people and not as me or my clan, my family, my friends. Unfortunately, this category – “people” – is often misinterpreted and, “could lead to the elimination of the very word ‘democracy’ (‘government of the people’).
Nevertheless, in order to affirm that society is more than the mere sum of individuals, the term ‘people’ is necessary” [7], which is not populism. No, it’s something else: the people.
In fact, “it is very difficult to plan something great in the long term if you do not get it to become a collective dream” [8]. A democracy with a healed heart continues to cultivate dreams for the future, puts it into play, calls for personal and community involvement. Dreaming of the future. Don’t be afraid.
Let’s not be fooled by easy solutions.
Instead, let us be passionate about the common good.
It is up to us not to manipulate the word democracy or to distort it with titles empty of content, capable of justifying any action.
Democracy is not an empty box, but is linked to the values of the person, fraternity and also integral ecology.
As Catholics, in this perspective, we cannot be satisfied with a marginal or private faith.
This means not so much being listened to, but above all having the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in the public debate. We have something to say, but not to defend privilege.
We must be a voice, a voice that denounces and proposes in a society that is often aphonic and where too many have no voice. Many, many have no voice.
This is political love, which is not content to cure the effects but seeks to address the causes.
This is a political love that is not content with curing the effects, but seeks to address the causes. That is political love. It is a form of charity that allows politics to live up to its responsibilities and to get out of polarisations, those polarisations that impoverish and do not help to understand and face challenges.
The whole Christian community is called to this political charity, in the diversity of ministries and charisms..
Let us form ourselves in this love, to put it into circulation in a world that is short of civil passion.
We must recover the civil passion, this, 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 in the midst of the people to which we belong. And this is an important thing in our political action, also in our pastors: to know the people, to get closer to the people.
A politician can be like a pastor who goes before the people, among the people and behind the people. In front of the people to show the way a little; in the midst of the people, to have the nose of the people; behind the people to help the latecomers.
A politician who does not have the flair of the people is a theoretician. He lacks the main one.
Giorgio La Pira had thought of the protagonism of cities, which do not have the power to wage wars but which pay the highest price to them.
So he imagined a system of “bridges” between the cities of the world to create opportunities for unity and dialogue.
Following the example of La Pira, may the Italian Catholic laity not lack this ability to “organize hope”. This is your task, to organize.
Also organize peace and good political projects that can come from below.
Why not relaunch, support and multiply efforts for a social and political formation that starts from young people?
Why not share the richness of the Church’s social teaching?
We can provide places for discussion and dialogue and foster synergies for the common good.
If the synodal process has trained us in community discernment, may the horizon of the Jubilee see us active, pilgrims of hope, for the Italy of tomorrow.
As disciples of the Risen One, we never cease to nourish trust, certain that time is greater than space. Let’s not forget this.
Many times we think that political work is about taking up space: no! It is betting on time, starting processes, not taking places.
Time is greater than space and let’s not forget that it is wiser to start processes than to occupy spaces . I recommend that you, in your social life, have the courage to initiate processes, always.
It is creativity and also the law of life.
A woman, when she gives birth to a child, begins to start a process and accompanies it.
We too in politics must do the same.
This is the role of the Church: to participate in hope, because without it, the present is managed, but the future is not built.
Without hope, we would be administrators, tightrope walkers of the present and not prophets and builders of the future.
Brothers and sisters, I thank you for your commitment.
I bless you and wish you to be artisans of democracy and contagious witnesses of participation.
And please ask you to pray for me, because this job is not easy. Thank you.
Now, let us pray together and I will give you my blessing. Recitation of the Lord’s Prayer
