The fruits of Trieste

The latest edition of the Catholic Social Week, held in Trieste from 3 to 7 July and dedicated to the theme of democracy, is already bearing its first fruits.
Not only has an interest in Politics been “cleared” even in the ecclesiastical sphere, mending the distance created in previous decades, but a real network has also been born, transversal to the parties and made up of almost three hundred local Catholic administrators, coming from all the Italian regions. A horizontal and not top-down network, not identified with a leader but coordinated by Francesco Russo from Trieste, who had hosted the first meeting during the social week. The first meetings will take place in the coming weeks in Rome, Naples and Milan (in particular, the administrators from northern Italy will meet in Milan on 14 December at the Ambrosianeum) and will be the occasion to identify the lines of work to orient ourselves on. Not a new (micro) party, therefore, nor a new current within existing parties, but a place of exchange and comparison to be a critical mass and have more tools to bring out, each in their own territory and in their own party, the distinctive traits of Catholic thought: solidarity, subsidiarity, centrality of the person and the community. The administrators of the Trieste network were trained in parishes, associations and Catholic movements and in these first months they have expressed great satisfaction for this beautiful organizational novelty, which allows them to strengthen relationships and makes them feel less alone and isolated.
In the June elections, as many as 58% of practicing Catholics boycotted the polls (Pagnoncelli survey). A very alarming figure, perhaps due to the poor civic education received in ecclesiastical environments or to the political offer that is too polarized and poorly responsive to the needs of Catholics. In any case, the presence of a network of Catholic administrators can be helpful, to raise awareness of civil responsibility, to exert positive pressure on the agenda of the various parties and to dampen the Manichaeism and excessive polarization that characterize the current Italian political framework and that increase abstentionism and weaken the cornerstones of liberal democracy.

The Trieste network is blessed by the bishops, but does not have an episcopal direction, being animated exclusively by lay people and, it is nice to underline, by many lay women.
The objective is that of a real "constituent of Catholic administrators", which, taking up the style of the social week, arises from a participatory process and produces a real discussion on the issues, with a methodology that starts from the bottom and that makes everyone feel like protagonists.
Knowing how to walk, with generosity and sobriety, with the women and men of our time, not as a lobby or a current, without privileges or positions of income to defend. As the Pope told us in Trieste, it must be clear that Catholics do not ask to occupy spaces, but want to start new processes, demonstrating that we have something to say, capable of denunciation and proposal also on behalf of the too many who have no voice.

The priority of the Trieste network will not be to choose a leader, but to identify the battles to be fought in a coordinated way.
To give some examples: the protection of non-self-sufficiency, the promotion of foster care and full-time care as a tool for the integration and inclusion of foreign or disabled children, the increase in female employment, the reduction of school dropouts, support for intermediate bodies as vectors of democracy, co-design with the Third Sector as an expression of subsidiarity, the improvement of rail transport, the fight against pathological gambling.

A document with a shared platform has already been signed in Trieste.
The themes are those of social justice and innovation of territorial welfare, environmental sustainability, the centrality of families and schools, reception and integration. The next ambition is to be able to simultaneously present in all municipalities a motion across political lines that will guide the work of the administrations.
In addition to the network of Catholic administrators, the organizing committee of the social weeks is also proposing to all Italian dioceses four concrete good practices of community and political love: the Youth Municipal Councils (ccr), the Renewable Energy Communities (cer), the Collaboration Pacts between Citizens and Public Administration and the sharing meetings for administrators of Christian formation.

In short, the social week continues its journey
There is a great excitement that could multiply the fruits, even after the five days in Trieste!


Monica Canalis
NP Focus
NP December 2024