__NEWS__Italy_________________________
On Two Tracks
While violent protesters dominated the headlines during the G8 meeting, more thoughtful critics of the global economic system called for creative efforts to help the poor, rather than simply condemn the rich.
By CWR Staff
Long before the leaders of the world’s “G8” industrial countries opened their meeting on July 20, the city of Genoa was abuzz with discussions on the future of the global economy. The city’s archbishop, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, observed that the debates which preceded the meeting had become “an event within the event.”
The cardinal was not referring to the arrival of the “Seattle people”—the loosely organized band of radical leftists and environmentalists who turn up at every global summit, intent on disrupting the talks and paralyzing the city. To be sure, those protesters were pouring into Genoa, prompting security officials to cordon off large sections of the old city and call up thousands of police officers to maintain public order. Many Genoa residents were headed for the mountains or the seashore, timing their summer vacations so that they would not be caught up in the riots that everyone anticipated.
But the “Seattle people” were not the only critics of the global economic system who arrived in Genoa before the talks started. Scores of economists, social workers, and missionaries gathered for seminars, hoping to raise public consciousness about the difficulties Third World residents encounter in their efforts to cope with the global economy. Cardinal Tettamanzi was speaking of their discussions, not the exhaustive security precautions, when he told the Italian daily Avvenire that the world had never seen such extensive preparations for a global summit meeting. The cardinal was delighted with the quality of the intellectual exchanges. “In a sense,” he said, “you could say that the meeting has already begun to bear fruit, even before it has begun.”
The cardinal did tell the participants in one such seminar that any demonstrations in Genoa should be “fruitful and not destructive.” He called for “nothing but peaceful gestures” in the coming days, as the world’s most influential political leaders arrived. But his words were addressed to the wrong audience. The Catholic intellectuals to whom he spoke were not likely to rampage through the city streets, and the “Seattle people” were not attending conferences on Catholic social teaching.
Polemics and prayer
A handful of prominent Church leaders did announce that they would be joining in the street demonstrations when the G8 meeting began. Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue of Lancaster, England, said that he felt “compelled” to join the protesters because of what he saw as gross injustices in the world economic system. He told the
Universe, “It is obscene that those with the least are paying money to those with the most. “ Having visited the shanty towns of Africa, the bishop said, “Seeing such poverty that we in the West are contributing to makes you angry at the greed of our society.”
So Bishop O’Donoghue, saying that he wished to be “side by side with the world’s poor,” took a jet to Genoa (where very few poor people remained on the sidewalks after a series of police sweeps). He was accompanied by Julian Filochowski, the director of the Catholic aid agency CAFOD. [Bishop O’Donoghue and Filochowski were simultaneously embroiled in an unrelated controversy in their own homeland. See story, page 48.]
From the Vatican, on the other hand, Cardinal Angelo Sodano issued a reminder that Catholic activists should be realistic about the likely consequences of the G8 summit. No radical change in the world’s economic system was likely to occur, the Vatican Secretary of State said. “In the history of peoples, there is a law of gradualism.”
Christians in Genoa should convey “a message of hope,” Cardinal Sodano said, and they should work to promote “principles of solidarity.” But they should not expect immediate results. Nor should they engage in facile condemnations of globalization, he added, observing: “Christianity is a ‘global’ religion.” Any contributions made by Christians to the debate on globalization, he concluded, ought to “raise the spiritual tone of humanity.”
Back in Genoa, representatives of 250 different missionary groups had come together at the parish church of St. Antonio to “raise the spiritual tone” of the G8 meeting by their fasting and prayer. The priests, religious, and lay people who joined in that quiet witness issued a public statement, to “see how international debt and structural adjustments in the world monetary fund dehumanize and starve the people among whom we work.” But rather than engaging in political polemics, or hoping to catch the attention of the G8 leaders themselves, the organizers of the event chose to bring their case directly before the Almighty. Sister Patrizia Pasini, a Consolata Missionary Sister, told the Fides news service that the prayer vigil would raise “a cry that challenges and judges our comfortable lives, and calls upon God for justice and conversion.”
Other Catholic activists were more willing to take up the polemical cudgels. One group—including representatives of the Sant’Egidio community, Catholic Action, Focolare, Pax Christi, and some of the same missionary groups that had joined in the prayer vigil—issued a “Catholic Manifesto” condemning the inequalities in the global marketplace. The Manifesto highlighted the intrinsic dignity of both human life and human labor, and denounced all forms of exploitation and abuse of power. Stressing that human beings are more important than financial figures, the Manifesto called for the elimination of Third World debt, efforts to protect the world environment, removal of tariffs and other barriers to free trade, and international restraints on monopoly power.
That statement elicited a swift rejoinder from another group of Catholic intellectuals, who insisted that the authors of the “Catholic Manifesto” had accepted the philosophical premises of anti-Catholic thinkers, and ignored the power of the global economy to create wealth. These more conservative thinkers argued that “scientific progress and research are the only means for eliminating hunger” in the world. Moreover, they pointed out, the “Catholic Manifesto” had ignored such pressing social problems as abortion, sterilization, and euthanasia.
Pope John Paul II had sent his own message to the participants in the G8 meeting, urging them to “hear the cry of the many poor people in the world” and to create a “culture of solidarity.” In light of the partisan exchanges in Genoa, Father Georges Cottier, OP, the theologian of the papal household, issued another cautionary statement. “Be careful,” he urged faithful Catholics, “not to use the Pope’s words as instruments to serve the ends of political parties.”
Bloodshed and silence
At last the preliminary conferences ended, and the G8 meeting itself began. Immediately, Genoa erupted in violence. Radical protesters attacked security barriers, overturned vehicles, threw stones and small incendiary devices. The “Seattle people” clashed with police again and again, until finally shots were fired and one young demonstrator—Carlo Giuliani, 23—was dead.
That death shocked Italy, and quieted the debate on economic policies. Instead, journalists and political leaders took up a new argument. Had the police in Genoa overreacted in the face of harmless protests? Or had the radical leaders deliberately escalated the conflict to a point at which bloodshed was inevitable? Had the G8 organizers trampled on civil liberties to ensure the peaceful conclusion of their conference? Or had Italian authorities been negligent when they allowed thousands of young radicals to mass in Genoa, despite the clear and repeated public announcements that these protesters were determined to create chaos in the city?
Those arguments still reverberate across Italy today. But the earlier debates about international debt and tariff barriers have been set aside. The Italian media scarcely mentioned the actual content of the discussions among G8 leaders. The violent protest had drowned out the prudent discussion.
Back to Catholic World Report October 2001 Table of Contents