Mobility, communication and democracy. The Italian Catholic Action has highlighted some challenges for the next three years. «Important for us but for the whole Church», underlines the national president Giuseppe Notarstefano. At the end of the conference which brought together diocesan presidents and assistants and regional delegations, the president of Aci spoke of “re-flowering”, after the years of the pandemic, and of a time of “grace for the association, of great regeneration and consequent responsibility above all within the challenge of the Synodal Church. It is a journey together, but in the concreteness of the situations.”
You were talking about the challenge of mobility. In what sense?
«In the double meaning of mobility referring to migrants, but also of internal mobility. In the current condition this is not only a limit for the associative proposal, but it is a concrete condition that we must look at in a broad sense. On migration, the Pope sent us a beautiful message in which he asks us to listen more and more, promoting a culture of welcome and integration. On an internal level, mobility also means the need to rethink the training proposal in a flexible manner so that people can be taken care of even when they change residents for study and work reasons. On the one hand, this means having groups and associations that are increasingly welcoming, that is, capable of grasping and being attentive to these signals. We must not only be afraid of mobility, but we must see it as a sign of the times which must also be welcomed as an opportunity. And then we focused on two other challenges.”
And that is?
«The digital transformation, the theme of how to bring communication and culture together. For us this also means an ability to narrate the Christian experience, which passes through the associative experience, which captures the challenges. The challenges are also those of new means. For us this is also meaning a bit of a rethinking of the associative press as well. We will launch a new version of our monthly Segno together with Avvenire and then we are developing a series of tools which, through social media, have the aim of circulating a little more the contents that the association offers at various levels. It is not just a technical problem of tools, of language, but there is a reflection on how communication is also changing associative life. There is a great need to return to the concreteness of groups, to the care of relationships which are our strength and some tools in some way strengthen, enrich and broaden life”.
Does this project with Avvenire, which is the bishops’ newspaper, also indicate greater collaboration with the hierarchy?
«The collaboration between Catholic Action and the hierarchy is constitutive of the association. Of course there is a desire to collaborate more also to strengthen a communication tool like that of Segno. At this moment we feel that Avvenire is a newspaper that is establishing itself in the public sphere with its ability to stay on hot topics on the public agenda. He is capable of holding together a view on the world and a view on the Church without these things being distinct. We feel this sensitivity very closely. Then there is no doubt that Catholic Action expresses the desire to collaborate with bishops, with pastors, at all levels, not just on communication. And we want to experience this collaboration also aware of the task we have regarding co-responsibility. Perhaps this is also what the bishops are asking of us through the synodal path, that is, to particularly enhance the capacity for participation, for the protagonism of the laity in terms of awareness and responsibility”.
And the third challenge?
«It is that of democracy, of political and social commitment. In the wake of the Trieste Social Week and the commitment that in some ways we have animated with some paths, I am thinking of the one on the administrators who have networked, we continue to reflect on democracy. A crucial theme for our country which intersects the theme of reforms and that of participation. Participation that must be seen, in a synodal way, as the participation of the laity in the life of the Church and that of the country. We feel committed to keeping together the two things that are like sides of the same coin. From an organizational point of view, we also want to work more and more on unity and training. This is also why we will launch a training course for parish presidents.”
For the next three years, and also to enter the Jubilee climate, you have chosen the figure of Pier Giorgio Frassati. Why?
,«The choice of Pier Giorgio Frassati was born for many reasons. First of all because, we believe not by chance, the matter of the cause of canonization has reached a point of arrival precisely at this time. For us it is providential to rediscover the figure of Pier Giorgio in this Jubilee time in which the Pope puts before us the theme of the hope of a Church which, while internally rediscovering its synodal nature, its being continually called to unity, to keeping life and faith together, working, even on differences, on pluralism, at the same time tells the world a positive vision, gives a message of hope which is not generic optimism but is centered on gestures of love, solidarity, concrete commitment. This was also the life of Pier Giorgio, a young man who lived all the dimensions to the full, from training, to spirituality, to charity, to study, to politics, to friendship, to sociality, to family, without separating but trying to hold, together with the light of faith, everything. Pier Giorgio cultivated a personal closeness with the Lord and a friendship that matured within the Christian community. A journey made of accompaniment, collaboration with priests, spiritual friendships, a continuous exchange of letters, mutual help in discerning the things of life. He is a truly luminous witness figure who interweaves the theme of hope. And we are certain that, for the association, but also for the whole Church, it can be a witness, a traveling companion through this time.”