Is the Church of Belluno Feltre really indifferent to the next elections? “Not at all, she is very worried,” replies Don Davide Fiocco, director of the Communications Office. “And this is clearly stated in the note from the Social Pastoral and Work in Dissemination”. In fact, this is what it says from the very first lines.
“We do not want to” wash our hands “and we do not want to leave to others the use of signs and words that are part of our history, past and present”. Sounds like a targeted recall? To Brothers of Italy for that “God, country, family” of Giorgia Meloni? Or to the Tau cross that Salvini exhibits? “No implicit reference, much less explicit to political forces, but”, explains Don Fiocco, “a respectful invitation not to exploit the Catholic world“.
We find, therefore, the document of social pastoral care and work which – Fr Fiocco always confirms – “obviously is shared by the bishop”, Renato Marangoni.
The analysis is immediately critical. “We are fast approaching the next elections and around us we feel a certain bewilderment, a feeling of emptiness; the references seem to be lacking, the themes seem obvious even when they concern scenarios that until recently no one thought could be presented ». The Social Pastoral speaks of “bewilderment”, specifying that “it is often accompanied by a sort of helplessness, by the feeling of not counting for anything, as if everything had already been decided above our heads, but above all in the place of our heads”. This is why “we cannot be silent, we cannot let everything happen, we cannot give up our say: the Church still wants to be a protagonist”.
Are we going back to the times of the DC? Not at all. “We do not want to indicate who to vote and who not, as perhaps happened in the past, but clearly stating what we care about”. Social commitment, first of all. Especially in a moment of crisis like this one. And then the environment, the territory, the families of the Belluno mountains. The contrast to depopulation.
The Church of Belluno Feltre recommends “not to stop and not to limit oneself to a sterile and often inconclusive evaluation of the behavior of our ruling class”, but invites “to take a further step with which we ourselves, wherever we are and whatever the our commitment within society, we should ask ourselves: what are we asking for? What dream do we have for our nation? How can we participate in the life of the city, the territory, the country? ».
A real examination of conscience, the one proposed by the Social and Labor Pastoral Care of the Diocese. That yesterday evening together with the Catholic Action, the Acli, the Agesci, Communion and Liberation and the Focolare Movement consulted the candidates of the various political forces in a public meeting. With a defense of those who, however, are committed to the political level.
“In recent years everything has been done, at all levels – and perhaps we ourselves have been the architects – to define politics as something ugly, dirty; politicians have been identified as a caste, corrupt, devoid of principles other than that of their own personal gain. ” It goes without saying that history and jurisprudence have found, in some cases, these affirmations to be founded, but this has led to a generalization that does not help growth towards the “common good”. And the electoral law with which you go to vote and which “today everyone defines as wrong” does not help either.
The regret for the Draghi government was explicit (“we could see a great mobilization of civil society”). All the more explicit, therefore, is the call to a “responsible” vote.