SOCIAL WEEKS
Portugal: constructing the common goodIn the framework of the meetings envisaged by the Social Week dedicated to the theme: “The Construction of the Common Good”, held in the city of Aveiro on November 20-22, the Patriarch of Lisbon recalled, “In this time of globalization the good of individuals and of human groups is strictly linked to the good of the whole of humanity. It is not confined to recognized and respected rights. Notably, it involves everyone’s duty of solidarity within one’s social realm”. “Unfortunately – claimed Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo in his address titled, ‘The place of religion in the establishment of the common good’ -unprecedented strong atheist forces are concealed in the guise of the defenders of man’s autonomy, which seek to annihilate the influence of religion and of believers on society’s very creative forces”. The expression “common good – the Cardinal recalled – occupied a significant place and developed within the framework of the social doctrine of the Church acquiring such relevance so as to deserve to be part of the doctrinal corpus of Catholic Church Council and Catechism, included in the themes of the major social encyclicals such as Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate. “The purely economic vision of progress doesn’t ensure full human development. Indeed it can thwart it”. Reaffirming the fundamental pedagogic role of religion in the creation of the common good, the archbishop of Lisbon underlined “the decisive contribution of a humanizing education that will lead to the development of individual and community projects enhancing human greatness, with the precious cooperation of schools, Catechesis, of youth movements in the specific educative mission of the family”. “Without publicly shared ethical priority and needs, development processes may bring to the fore individual and national egoistic sentiments, seriously undermining justice and peace, reaching the point of threatening the balance of planet Earth understood as the common home of the human family”, remarked Cardinal Policarpo. The Church ought to give a real contribution to this task. Her priority is clear: “cooperating with the family in her educational mission for the common good”. Italy: a “hope agenda”The Scientific Committee charged with organizing Italian Catholics’ 46th Social Weeks, due to be held in Reggio Calabria October 14-17 2010, is aimed at realizing an Agenda of Hope for the Country’s future. The relevant feature of this event is the establishment of a common path of discernment with the various realities of civil society to define Italy’s “crucial” problems that will be addressed in next year’s meeting in the Calabria region. “We don’t intend to probe into the difficulties. A problem is something different. It’s a concept that entails an alternative marked by ethically sound possibilities”, underlined the Committee’s vice-President Luca Diotallevi. This is why it is possible to acknowledge a problem with hope. Relevant issues addressed during the Week will be viewed not from the theoretical angle but “through the mobilization of real and true interests, marked by practical cognitive experiences”. The questions due to be inscribed within the Hope Agenda will be the result of a selection of everyone’s contribution. In particular, attention is devoted to the youth, with the involvement of youth associations, such as Catholic Action and AGESCI scout, and the Pastoral Care of the young. Indeed, sixteen forums are being planned at regional level (the first was held in the Marche region on Wednesday November 18) that will lead to a national youth forum focusing on national issues. Catholic associations are actively involved in the event, while several meetings on problems experienced at local level are being set up by dioceses. Finally, among the forthcoming meetings figures the seminar “For a valuable sanctity” (December 1) organized in conjunction with the archdiocese of Pescara-Penne to reflect on the theme of sanctity in Italy, “given its topical relevance and complexity at the level of organization and assistance, and in the realm of resource management”.
