By ALEXANDRE ARAGÃO DE ALBUQUERQUE*
Pope Francis called on his faithful to engage in a consistent and real way with the political process of the societies of which they are part
It was not just France that raised its voice loudly, celebrating democracy as a value to be uncompromisingly defended and as a substance to be nurtured daily, on the occasion of the second round of its parliamentary election on July 07th. In the Italian city of Trieste, also on the same date, due to the completion of the 50a. Catholic Social Week, Pope Francis gave a powerful speech, strongly calling on his faithful to engage in a consistent and real way with the political process of the societies of which they are part.
With great enthusiasm, the pontiff focused on what he called the heart of politics: participation. For him, without political participation from all citizens of a given society, democracy becomes an empty box, in rites, bureaucracies and formalities, without the substance with which new worlds can be built. On the contrary, democracy is based on the values of the human person and an integral ecology. Therefore, it is something that concerns everyone, without exception.
Going deeper, Pope Francis warned that this is not just any participation, nor is it improvised. Conditions must be created so that everyone can express themselves and participate. It is necessary to develop an educational system that favors the political participation of children and adolescents, educating them and encouraging them to think critically, through creative pedagogical activities.
Such conditions of participation must favor a deep civil dialogue between citizens and the diverse expressions of their local communities and with political institutions, generating continuous cycles of mutual clarifications, aiming at the liberation of economic and ideological ties, aiming at the emergence of new processes aimed at the concrete lives of people and their dignity.
Therefore, for the Pope, one of the signs of a fraternal human society is when it becomes capable of committing itself to ensuring, in an effective and stable way, that all its members are accompanied on the journey of their lives, not just to satisfy their primary needs, but also to be able to give their best in the growth of their community, even if they do so at their own pace. Everyone should be part of a community project, no one should be treated as useless or disposable. The various forms of social exclusion must cause permanent concern.
In addition to exclusion, another serious problem highlighted by Francisco is a theme that has already been developing over the last few years: “self-referentiality”. He considers it a malignant tumor that only increases the cancer of the distance between healthy and authentic relationships between humans, who become self-centered, generating the fleeting nature of relationships, which do not support questioning or opposing positions, feeding a diffuse fear of the other.
Speaking to leaders of Catholic associations at the beginning of this decade, Francis stated that self-contemplation always leads to defending the institution to the detriment of people. The self-referentiality, experienced by several contemporary Catholic movements, prevents them from seeing their errors, delaying the path to necessary correction, as well as obstructing the updating of method and content through an open and honest verification of erroneous institutional procedures and styles authoritarian and fundamentalist government.
Thus, the bonds of a people strengthen as its citizens are valued, because each person is important, has a value in itself. Therefore, certain forms of politics that aim at well-being and that do not recognize the dignity of the human person are pure hypocrisy.
It is necessary to have voices that denounce and propose. But this is only possible if we walk with the people of which we are part, knowing their joys and pains, sadness and hopes, challenges and oppressions. The excellence of politics is to initiate processes, to give birth to substantive news like the woman giving birth to a child.
*Alexandre Aragão de Albuquerque Master in Public Policy and Society from the State University of Ceará (UECE).
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