On the final day of the annual Italian Catholic Social Week, Pope Francis traveled to the northern Italian city of Trieste on July 7 to share his thoughts on the crisis of democracy. Speaking to over 900 delegates from dioceses and associations across Italy, the Pope appealed for a democratic process that engages personal and community involvement.
In his address, Pope Francis offered an image of the crisis of democracy as “a wounded heart,” in which corruption and social exclusion can abound and power becomes self-referential and incapable of serving its constituents.
“The very word ‘democracy’ does not simply coincide with the vote of the people but requires creating the conditions for everyone to express themselves and participate,” he said.
Democratic participation, he added, must be instilled at a young age, so that citizens embrace a critical sense “regarding ideological and populist temptations.” The Pope called on Christians to promote a fruitful dialogue between religion and society, while upholding the dignity of the person.
“The principles of solidarity and subsidiarity,” he said, help build the bonds of democracy, since they encourage participation and overcome indifference, which he said is “a cancer of democracy.”
The Pope went on to uphold the goal of democratic participation with the image of a “healed heart.” “If we look around,” he said, “we see many signs of the Holy Spirit’s action in the lives of families and communities, even in the fields of economics, technology, politics, and society.” Fraternity, added Pope Francis, “makes social relationships flourish,” and engenders a spirit of collective aspiration. “A democracy with a healed heart,” he said, “continues to cultivate dreams for the future, engages, and calls for personal and community involvement.”
Catholics, said the Pope, must look beyond quick fixes for democracy’s ills and never retreat into a “marginal or private faith.”
“This means not so much demanding to be heard,” he said, “but above all having the courage to make proposals on behalf of justice and peace in the public debate.” Christian engagement in politics must take on the aspects of “political love” or “political charity,” which allows politics to “rise to its responsibilities and move beyond polarizations”. “Let us train ourselves in this love to circulate it in a world short of civil passion,” concluded Pope Francis. “Let us learn to better walk together as God’s people, to be leaven of participation among the people to which we belong.”