Italy: the common good

The 45th Social Week of Italian Catholics opened at Pistoia on 18 October; it will continue in Pisa until 21 October. This year’s theme is: “The common good today: a commitment that comes from afar”. The meeting is being held exactly a century after the first Social Week, promoted in Pisa in 1907 by the Venerable Giuseppe Toniolo (1845-1918), a protagonist of the Italian Catholic movement in the fin de siècle period, the cause of whose beatification is now underway. According to the postulator, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, who will speak during the Week, Toniolo’s idea of “common good, hinge of his social programme” is as relevant as ever today”. “Toniolo – says the bishop – continues to this day to tell us of the importance of a faith that isn’t confined to the regions of the spirit, but is capable of making history, and addressing man’s real problems at the cultural, social, economic and political level”. According to Bishop Arrigo Miglio of Ivrea, chairman of the organizing Committee of the Social Weeks of Italian Catholics, “Catholic laypeople are rightly incorporated and play their part in the Church, but they also enjoy the status of citizens of our country. They have an autonomy of their own: the bishops ask them to be faithful to the fundamental values of Christianity, not only to ensure the faith is proclaimed without any watering down, in an intimate manner, but also because the Gospel is salvation for man in his integrity”, and as such implies “a commitment not only to social but also to political life”. “When the bishops ask for commitment to non-negotiable principles – concludes the bishop – they do so to safeguard the integrity of the Gospel, and also because they are conscious these inalienable values are at the service of the common good”. The President of the Italian Episcopate, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, will also speak at the Social Week. The conclusions will be entrusted to Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Rector of the Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA) in Rome. The first Social Week was founded at a particularly delicate time in the history of the Italian Catholic movement and was conceived more for educational than scientific purposes. Lectures were given on civil, economic and moral issues. The Social Week was a clear expression of Catholic social thought. It appealed to Catholics to get involved in society, and propounded the social question as the way to win back the masses to Catholicism. For further info: www.settimanesociali.it.