That fil rouge” “

Is there a problem of transmitting the faith and values to the new generations? How can we overcome this impasse, present in various spheres and societies? These are questions to which answers will be sought by the many experts who are participating this year in the 80th Semaine sociale in France, now being held in Paris from 25 to 27 November, on the theme “Transmitting. Sharing values, encouraging freedom”. The idea of the Semaines sociales – Social Weeks – was conceived just here, in 1904, by Marius Gonin and Adèodat Boissard, two Catholic laymen keen to disseminate the social teaching of the Church and to apply it to the circumstances of present-day life. Since then numerous issues have been treated, the idea itself has spread to other countries, and the number of participants has steadily grown. Last year there were over 5,000 enrolled participants who met to discuss Europe and its future. Lectures, round tables and testimonies will punctuate the three-day meeting, together with six forums on the family, schools and the world of work, Church, media and the life of the associations. The event will end on Sunday 27 November with a eucharistic celebration presided over by Archbishop André Vingt-Trois of Paris. A meeting promoted by the Taizé Community and dedicated to the young professionals who work in the Parisian quarter of La Défense is also on the agenda for the evening of Friday 25th . The event will be transmitted by the KTO Catholic television station. For further info, consult the website www.ssf-fr.org. A FAILED PROJECT? “Our societies, in all their diversity, are in crisis”, declares MICHEL CAMDESSUS, president of the Semaines sociales in France. “Parents are prey to incomprehension or remorse faced by what they believe to be the failure of an educational project lovingly developed – says Camdessus -. Disquiet is also felt by the leaders of trades unions and associations due to the lack of commitment. But there’s also distress, on the part of many Christians and their pastors, as a result of the banning of exterior signs of religious belonging from schools”. The problem of the transmission of the faith and of values now seems to invest every sphere in which we live: family, school, nation, Europe, civil society. However, as Christians, says Camdessus, “We cannot allow ourselves just to sit back and lament the situation. Rather than blame ourselves for the crisis of our societies, let us try to grasp this fil rouge to try to understand what is happening”. Hence the idea of dedicating an entire session of the Semaines sociales to a serious reflection on the theme of transmission. BUT HOW SHOULD FAITH AND VALUES BE “TRASMITTED”? “Only by starting out from the most fundamental datum – suggests MARIE-JOSÈ DENIAU, one of the animators who helped to prepared this year’s Semaine sociale -, can we transmit our joy in life, learn the Word, bear witness to our faith in man and in God; this will progressively lead us to those places of society where concrete perspectives and proposals are reflected. The horizon will be finally widened to the political and planetary dimensions: what world do we wish to transmit?” And can we transmit what gives us the strength to live? May not faith in Christ, being a personal act, be “non-transmittable”? And how can we tackle the complexity of the world in response to the crisis of authority and knowledge? These are just some of the questions that the many philosophers, sociologists, journalists, writers and theologians attending this year’s Semaine sociale will seek to answer. The philosopher EDGARD MORIN, for example, will speak of the “crisis of knowledge”: the more knowledge increases, the more difficult it becomes to understand the world. Morin was one of the first to diagnose the need to create new tools to tackle the complexity of the world and better understand the dangers that could threaten the survival of man on earth. DIFFICULTIES AND OPPORTUNITIES. With regard to the “crisis of authority” investing all sectors of social life, the philosopher MYRIAM REVAULT D’ALLONNES will invite the delegates to “rethink authority” at a time when it is “entering into conflict with the desire for autonomy of individuals and democratic societies”. The Jesuit theologian CHRISTOPH THEOBALD will argue, in turn, that “by rediscovering the narrative of the Gospels and the secret of this man, Jesus, so adept at entering into relationship with people, we may better understand the conditions for a positive transmission of the faith”. All these reflections will permit the identification, “in a new way, of the opportunities, difficulties and promises that involve the actual situation of the Church in French society”. Other themes on the agenda will include the role of politics in the crisis of the transmission of values, the situation of the countries of Eastern Europe and the process of globalization.