Special for En Redeither
Throughout the world, there is a growing number of people and groups who feel the need to return to Politics a spirit and way of acting that seem to have been forgotten or devalued.
In Brazil, the social ministries linked to the Catholic Church and some evangelical confessions have developed the “Re-enchant politics” project. This means deepening in political action as a form of participation of the whole society in the construction of the common good. Parliamentary and representative politics presuppose grassroots political work that gives rise to participatory and, as far as possible, more direct politics.
In Italy, at the beginning of September, a congress of social organizations was held in Città di Castello, Umbria, on the theme: “The urgency of politics”. Despite this, on Sunday, September 25, the Italian people elected a right-wing populist coalition with neo-fascist ideas as their government, which goes against the construction of a more inclusive society.
In Brazil, the national elections on October 2, more than representing the election of candidates, mean the possibility of opting for a country project for all people. The vote against the current occupant of the presidency reveals that the majority of the people feel the need to recover the dignity of politics, as an area in which people and groups from the most diverse social currents debate with respect for differences and freely paths for the construction of a common homeland that cares for mother earth and promotes the widest possible ecosocial justice.
Thus, Politics is exercised in two dimensions:
1 – The most immediate thing is to restore the humanization of political coexistence in the plurality of parties and human tendencies, without demonizing those who are different. This supposes the debate of proposals and political projects in which, on both sides, the ethics and secular nature of society are respected, without giving rise to hatred, intolerance and the dehumanization of the other.
At the same time that Politics is the art of building what is possible in current conditions, its vocation is to point out the audacity to promote eco-social justice, based on greater equality between people and respect for the individual and community rights of each human being and peoples as collective subjects.
This Policy with a capital P is the great Policy that most profoundly translates the solidarity that, as Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga said, expresses tenderness at the collective and community level. This level of Politics opens doors to another horizon that responds to the human vocation to build utopia.
In the most diverse paths of spirituality, faith is lived as adherence to the project of social love and good living. Each tradition expresses it in its own way and with different names: compassion in Buddhism. Mercy in the Muslim faith. The Divine Kingdom in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Axé in Afro spirituality. Living well in the cultures of the original peoples. It is always about building a world of Peace, Justice and Love. In the Gospels, Jesus asks us to ask God to “his kingdom come” and charges us to be witnesses of the divine reign in the social and political construction of a possible new world. May our insertion in Politics be an expression of this first and greatest hope.