The second session of the advanced training course in the Social Teaching of the Church, entitled “The New Challenges of the 21st Century,” kicked off on Tuesday, November 5.
The course is promoted by the Lionello Bonfanti Centre in collaboration with the School of Civil Economy and the participation of Federcasse.
Just before it began on Tuesday, November 5, the virtual venue was already packed with participants. You could sense, as far as a Zoom connection allows, the typical euphoria of the first day of school. Professors Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni, coordinators of the second edition of the advanced training course in the Social Teaching of the Church, opened the meeting, just as they did for as the first one. 120 people had enrolled, mostly Italians, but with some participants from the United Kingdom, the United States, Kenya and Mexico. This second session practically replicated the success of the first one, a clear sign of the interest aroused by the subject. “It is not normal that in a country like ours there is a second edition of a course like this, on the Social Teaching of the Church,” Zamagni commented.
The new series of lectures, promoted by the Lionello Bonfanti Centre together with the School of Civil Economics and with the contribution of Federcasse, is entitled: “The New Challenges of the 21st Century.” It is Prof. Zamagni again who explained, with his usual pathos, those “new challenges” that the course intends to address. “First: the acknowledgement of the end of Christianity as we knew it,” he said.” What model of Christianity is going to impose itself in the coming years? Second challenge: the second secularization is now widespread. If, with the first secularization, Max Weber argued that we must operate in the public sphere as if God did not exist, the second secularization leads us to operate as if the community did not exist, while the individualism that undermines the foundations of communities is becoming increasingly widespread. Third element: the loss of desire that especially affects Generation Z, the youth, which results in the effect of the decrease of so-called “public happiness”. Finally, the impoverishment of Christian thought, not as tradition but as a vital experience. What kind of cultural experience can generate Christianity today?.”
To these, Luigino Bruni added another challenge: “For too long the Church has presented the Social Teaching of the Church by commenting exclusively on the encyclicals of the popes. Making books about books is not sufficient. It has older roots, in the Bible, but also in the lives of so many witnesses. So, we need a change of narrative. Here, we have invited teachers who have this outlook, who believe in creative fidelity to these issues. In our own small way, we would like to make reality speak.”
Among those present at the inaugural lecture were Ernesto Diaco, director of the Italian Bishops’ Conference National Office for Education, Schools and Universities, and Ivana Barbacci, secretary general of CISL School, who, convinced by the educational approach, cooperated in popularizing the course.
“Here at the Centre,” CEO, Maria Gaglione explained, “we seek to promote and support educational experiences, discussion and dialogue that, starting from the analysis of changes and real challenges, deepen those themes and reflections necessary today to generate a new economic model, based on a perspective of integral sustainability and motivated by an ideal which can really bring about change. It was, therefore, natural for the Centre to enter this project, which represents a real path of thought and action on the Social Teaching of the Church.”
The course is divided into 6 modules of about 4 lessons each. “There are 16 lecturers of whom we are really very proud,” Gaglione continued, “they are the leading Italian experts in the dialogue between the Social Teaching of the Church, economics and social sciences, who have long since begun to reflect on Christianity in post-modernity.”
The lectures will be held every Tuesday, also on Zoom, from 4-7 p.m. The full schedule is available at: www.pololionellobonfanti.com.