Growing with the least

Reflecting on the social commitment of Moldovan Catholics, knowing that being a minority Church is “the point of departure of our personal commitment”; a Church, moreover, that is called to bear witness, by walking at the side of the “least” of our fellowmen, of those who suffer from the poverty that is so widespread in the country: that, in brief, is the agenda of the first Catholic Social Week in Moldova, held in the capital Chisinau from 11 to 14 October on the initiative of the local diocese. The theme of the meeting was: “The courage to grow at the side of the least”. To the over 150 participants Benedict XVI, in a message signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, sent “greetings and good wishes”, encouraging them “to work constantly” for the common good as “fundamental criterion” of “social and political life as also the authentic goal” of “progress” and of an “integral human development”. Future objectives. “Closeness to the people”, “pastoral programme”, and “personal formation” are the three objectives of “our future path as Moldavian Catholic Church”, described by the Bishop of Chisinau, Mgr. Anton Cosa, at the end of the Social Week. In the first place, he said, “we must be increasingly present among the people, in the midst of the people, on the streets, so that the Gospel may become visible, tangible and palpable through our presence”. This is a commitment that finds expression in “a pastoral ministry of closeness at the heart of our people, and not only of Catholics”. The bishop then announced the presentation – before Advent – “of a specific pastoral project for the Moldavian Church” “that would mark out the way, describe the choices and coordinate our various projects in the field of evangelization and promotion of charity”. Thirdly, the bishop underlined the need for formation, asking “priests and religious to attach great importance to the value of permanent formation”; he also urged laypeople “to study in order to evangelise”. “By electing to be a critical conscience in the world – he said – we must overcome the superficiality of being and acting”. To these three objectives, Bishop Cosa then added other more “immediate” goals, “which need to be shared and experienced here and now”. He concluded with an appeal to the charity that “awaits us and is the responsibility of us all”: charity is “not something we can delegate to others; it needs to be personally lived”.Common good, poverty and witness. The Catholic Social Week in Moldova was opened by the representatives of the Social Weeks in Italy (Mgr. Arrigo Miglio) and France (Jean-Pierre Rosa) and by the chairman of the “Caritas in veritate” Commission of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops Conferences of Europe), Mgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi. The common good of Italy “cannot be divorced from that of Europe”, said Mgr. Arrigo Miglio. Recalling the condition of poverty in Moldova and the fact that a quarter of its population had emigrated, the bishop urged Catholics to “have a sense of responsibility towards this country”, emphasizing the need for a wide-ranging promotion of family policies that would involve not only the countries of the European Union but the whole continent”. “Our faith obliges us always to be vigilant towards the new challenges of poverty”, observed Jean-Pierre Rosa, recalling that the Gospel passage “the poor you always have with you” (Jn 12:8) represents a “horizon of action”: the poor “we must always have close to us” and “constantly go to seek them”. In the view of Mgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, the Social Weeks represent “an important means of tackling the many social, economic and political problems that are posed to the Christian conscience in our time”. The bishop also stressed the importance of “personal witness”. He expressed the hope “that genuinely believing personalities would mature” in the Church: “prophetic and credible witnesses, capable of modifying the mechanisms of contemporary society by their thought and action”.Path of ecumenism. Social engagement can also be a privileged field for ecumenical commitment. The Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, according to Metropolitan Vladimir (Metropolitan of Moldova, Patriarchate of Moscow), together can “combine their forces” in a social intervention that may bring “a smile to the lips and hope to the hearts of the poor”. And another Orthodox exponent, the representative of the metropolitan church of Bessarabia (linked to the Romanian Orthodox Church) in Moldova, reading a text of Metropolitan Petru, said that the message he had drawn from the Social Week was the gospel message to love our neighbour because “in our fellowmen, whatever be their condition, the image of God is to be seen”. “The path of social commitment, as concrete means of promoting ecumenism, was also indicated by the representative of the Baptist Church, Valeriu Ghiletchi. That this is a valid “path for dialogue” is also the opinion of Bishop Cosa, as also of Mgr. Petru Gherghel, Bishop of Jasi, in Romania, who, in a briefing to SIR Europe, spoke of the positive effects of “practical ecumenism”, pointing out that in his diocese “there are various social and charitable initiatives being organized in collaboration with our Orthodox brothers”.