ROME โ Amid a series of recent elections, including in the European Parliament, Britain, Iran and France, Pope Francis on Sunday lamented the state of democracies around the world and called for greater inclusion and the promotion of a system in which no one is left out.
“The truth is, it is clear that democracy is not healthy in the world today,” the Pope told participants in the 50th Catholic Social Week in Trieste, Italy, organized by the Italian Bishops’ Conference and aimed at promoting the Church’s social agenda, on July 7.
The disease, he said, is based on the definition of democracy given by Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, the prominent Italian priest who launched Catholic Social Week in 1907. Toniolo defined democracy as “a civil order in which all the forces, social, legal and economic, in the fullness of their hierarchical development, properly cooperate for the common good, ultimately leading to the overwhelming benefit of the lower classes.”
The Pope said the decline of democracy is a matter of concern for the world because it puts the interests of humanity at risk.
“Everyone must feel part of a community project. No one should feel powerless,” he said, stressing the need to pay special attention to the poor and vulnerable.
He said he could not accept “certain forms of welfare that do not recognise human dignity”, adding that disregard for human dignity is “the enemy of democracy and of love of neighbour”.
“Any form of welfare that does not recognise people’s dignity is social hypocrisy. We must not forget this. And what is behind this distance from social reality? There is indifference, and indifference is a cancer of democracy, it is non-participation,” he said.
He spoke at the closing ceremony of the event, which took place from July 3 to 7 and was opened by Italian President Sergio Mattarella and attended by a number of prominent civil and church officials, including Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of Italy’s powerful Bishops’ Conference.
Arriving in Trieste, the Pope met with around 1,200 representatives from parishes and associations from across Italy at the end of Catholic Social Week, reflecting on the event’s theme: “At the Heart of Democracy: Participation between History and Future.”
He likened the current crisis of democracy to a “broken heart” and described it as a “heart attack”, saying: “We also have to worry about different forms of social exclusion”.
“Every time someone is marginalized, the whole society suffers,” he said, lamenting the spread of a so-called “culture of waste” that allows no place for the poor, the unborn, the sick and vulnerable, the elderly or children.
In this system, “power becomes selfish, which is a terrible disease, and it prevents us from listening to the people and serving the people,” he said.
The Pope quoted former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped and murdered by left-wing terrorists in 1978, saying, “If the State does not serve the person, if it does not have as its supreme goal the dignity, freedom and autonomy of the human being, if it does not respect the social structures in which man is free to develop and integrate his individuality, then it is not a true democracy.”
Pope Francis said democracy is more than just voting, but voting is important, and expressed concern about the declining number of citizens choosing to vote in elections.
Ironically, the Pope’s remarks came on the same day that France held its runoff election, with turnout near a record of around 60 percent.
Pope Francis insisted that conditions must be created for everyone to take part, and that young people’s participation must be promoted, “also in a critical sense with regard to ideological and populist temptations.”
He stressed the role that Christians can play in promoting Europe’s cultural and social development through dialogue with citizens and political institutions, but warned against falling into various forms of ideology.
“If we enlighten each other, if we free ourselves from ideological impurities, we can begin a common reflection, especially on issues that concern human life and human dignity,” he said. “Ideology is seductive…it seduces, but it leads to self-denial.”
Pope Francis stressed the importance of participation in a healthy democracy, saying, “In social life, it is very important to heal hearts and minds… and to do this we need to be creative.”
Pointing out the many areas in which the Holy Spirit is at work in democratic societies, he urged attendees to think about moments when space is created to accommodate people with disabilities and when local leaders promote birth rates, job opportunities, education, accessible housing and the integration of immigrants and refugees.
“The essence of politics is participation, and by participating you are looking after the whole – not just charity, but looking after the whole!” he said, adding that it takes courage to “think of ourselves as a people and not just as a clan”.
A focus on the people “is not populism” but is different, he said, and urged attendees not to be satisfied with easy solutions to social problems.
“It is our duty not to manipulate the word democracy or distort it with empty titles that can justify any action. Democracy is not an empty box, it is linked to the values โโof the individual, fraternity and a holistic ecology,” he said.
He said Catholics have a key role to play in encouraging active participation and promoting inclusivity, saying: “We must speak out, we must be a voice to denounce and to propose in a society where too many people are often silenced and too many people are not given a voice.”
This, he said, is a form of philanthropy that “allows politics to live up to its responsibilities and escape the polarization that impoverishes and does not help us understand and confront challenges.”
Everyone should take part in this political charity drive, he said, encouraging more people, including the youth, to get involved in organising projects and promoting various initiatives.
After his speech, Pope Francis met briefly with various ecumenical representatives and several academics, as well as a small number of migrants, refugees and people with disabilities, before holding a public Mass to formally conclude Catholic Social Week.
Speaking at Mass attended by around 100 bishops, 260 priests and some 8,500 people from Italy and surrounding countries, the pope noted that in the day’s Gospel reading, Jesus said that a prophet was not welcome in their land and that in speaking to his community, he had “become a source of scandal for them.”
He focused on the word “scandal,” saying the scandal of Jesus was that He was not a powerful God who fulfilled every desire, but a humble and seemingly weak God, a God who died a painful death and who demanded that his followers overcome selfishness.
He said Jesus represents an “uncomfortable” God and that in the face of many of the political and social challenges of modern society “this is exactly what we need today – a scandal of faith.”
“Not a closed religion that looks up to the heavens, oblivious to what is happening on earth, or that celebrates liturgies in its temples but forgets the dust that rises in the streets. Instead, we need a scandal of faith, a faith rooted in God who became man – a human faith that touches lives, heals broken hearts, becomes the seeds of hope, the seeds of a new world.”
This faith is not afraid to touch society’s wounds and is able to overcome mediocrity, he said, and therefore serves as “a thorn in the flesh of a society paralyzed and disoriented by consumerism.”
“Above all, it is a faith that shatters the selfish calculations of man, denounces evil, points out injustice and thwarts the plans of those in power who play with the lives of the weak,” he said.
Francis urged Christians to be outraged by the plight of the poor, immigrants, prisoners and various social injustices.
He said people were outraged and Jesus was criticized for touching human weakness and wounds, but he remained committed to spreading God’s love and mercy.
“In the same way, we as Christians are called to be prophets and witnesses of the kingdom of God in every context in which we live, in every place in which we live,” he said.
He called Trieste, which sits on the border between Italy and Slovenia and was briefly a British and American protectorate after World War II, a “crossroads of peoples and cultures” and encouraged local people to dream of “a new civilization based on peace and fraternity.”
“Let us not be indignant at Jesus, but on the contrary, let us be indignant at all the situations in which life is degraded, hurt and killed. Let us take the prophecy of the Gospel into our flesh by choice, above words,” the Pope said.
After the Mass, Pope Francis delivered his traditional midday prayer address and expressed his gratitude to the organizers of Catholic Social Week.
He called on the residents of Trieste and the surrounding region to “combine openness with stability, welcome with identity,” saying: “You have what it takes.”
“As Christians, we have the gospel that gives meaning and hope to life. And as a people, we have the Constitution, a reliable compass that points the way in our democracy,” he said.
The Pope concluded by calling on those present to move forward “without fear, open and firm to human and Christian values, welcoming but without compromising the dignity of the human person.”
“This is not something to play around with,” he said, praying for countries experiencing war, including Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar and Sudan.