Encuentro de Convivencia-Estudio
(7 de mayo de 2005)
Team 1: An analysis of Spanish Society of Today (its problems and challenges)
Team 2: THE OPINION OF BASE CHRISTIANS WITH RESPECT TO SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY
Team 3: WHAT ROADS CAN WE TAKE?
To the Meeting of Confraternity and Study
(7th May 2005)
Buenos días, Bon día, Bonjour, Bom dia, Gute Morge, Good Morning
On behalf of the organization of this Meeting, I want thank all the women and men present and offer you a cordial welcome. We celebrate this study day in the framework of the XVth Annual Conference of the European Network of the Church for Liberty (the Spanish name for the EN) which is taking place these days in the Hotel Escuela in the Carretera de Colmenar Viejo in Madrid. Iglesia de Base de Madrid, Corriente Somos Iglesia and Col.lectiu de Dones en l’Esglesia are integrated in this network. In the name of these organizations, please be welcome and feel at home whether or not you belong to the European Network or like those, who not being part of the Network, have made the effort to travel to Madrid today. Thank you for being here with us and may the Spirit of Jesus fill you with happiness.
Allow me, on opening this workday, these three considerations:
1. The first refers to the subject or motive for study in this meeting. We have found very interesting the four workshops that the European Network has been developing in their XVth Annual Conference. Both the subject of Gender, Interreligious Dialogue, Pederasty or the European Conference on Human Rights in the Church are subjects of the utmost interest at the moment. We have been working for a long time on two of these subjects (Human Rights in the Church and the Discrimination of Women); the other two subjects are more recent. From this moment, we want to say (to the European Network) that we are going to reflect on the conclusions you reach in your Conference with the greatest of interest. But we want to tell you that there are moments in life when domestic problems prevent us from occupying ourselves with the more global problems. Since the invasion of Iraq and the terrorist attacks of 11th March, Spanish Society has been involved in a kind of dialectical war or criscrossing of contrary opinions (between political parties) which have helped very little to clarify matters. (Today the press highlights the communiqué of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference about “Conscientious Objection” to the law about marriage between “persons of the same sex”, currently the subject of debate in the Senate – which it qualifies as “radically unjust, which corrupts the institution of marriage...”). As critical Base Christians, we need to clarify our positions. And this is the reason why we have selected the subject matter for today’s study.
2. The second consideration refers to the methodology we have adopted. We reckoned that with a subject like this, in which Christian sensibility is subjected daily to the great challenges of a society undergoing transition, we could not confide solely in theoretical specialists. We all have some information about what is happening at present and, tbus, we all have proposals to make. Therefore, we wanted to count on both experience and reflection from the first moment as the two founts or pillars of our work. The first stage finalized with the preparation by the three groups of men and women of the three study drafts you have in your folder.
The second stage we are starting now, in this conference with the presentation of each document followed by a debate to enrich its content. - And here I would like to thank the efficient work that the three teams have dedicated with such a keen effort - All of us, women and men, are now invited to take part in the debate to adjust the text to the reality we want to express. We will record all the proceedings. Finally, prior to the publication of the complete text, we want to send it to the communities (including, of course, the European Network) such as we leave it today so that no later than 31st May you can comment on it and accept it. What we want to belong to all women and men must pass through all their hands.
3. The third consideration is to invite you to recover the Evangelical Liberty for talking and maintaining our sense of humour. We must recover the use of our tongue because nobody is going to condemn us. They could not even condemn St James, the brother of Jesus, for saying such stupid things like: “The true religion which God likes consists of looking after widows, orphans and the undefended” so they are hardly likely to condemn us. We invite you, therefore, to speak with liberty and without malice. Please respect the timetable and make the most of this confraternity (don’t miss the celebration and the fiesta) which can be a true kairos. Above all, don’t lose your sense of humour. Many thanks and work hard!
Team 1: An analysis of Spanish Society of Today (its problems and challenges)
“IGLESIA POR LA LIBERTAD = CHURCH FOR LIBERTY”
MADRID CONFERENCE 5th to 8th May 2005
PARTICIPANTS
Cristina Plaza
Angel Villagrá
Manuel G. Guerra
Carmen del Río
Juan José Sánchez
Enrique de Castro
José Manuel Vidal
Concha López
César Rollán
Lutgarda Reig
Begoña Lucas
Evaristo Villar
Carlos Fernández Ordóñez
Carlos Pereda (Coordinator)
1. An analysis of Spanish Society of Today (its problems and challenges)
The accelerated modernization of Spanish Society over the last 50 years has not only meant important material changes (in urbanization, industrialization & the developments of production and consumerisation) but also political changes (the democratic constitution of 1978, entry into the European Community in 1986, the gradual development of Spain as a “central” country in its relationship`with the periphery of the countries of the world....) and the expansion of a system of values and a life style based on the logic of the capitalist market economy: The only important thing is to achieve sales, whether of goods or people and life in general has been converted into a big buying and selling market totally based on profits.
The fundamentalism of the market “religion” has managed to impose the ideology of individualism, competition, inequality and submission so that together with the greater levels of economic development known in Spain, there co-exists poverty and the lack of future for whole generations of children and young people due to the insensitivity or “sleeping” consciences of the majority in our society.
A financial analysis, prepared by the Bank of Spain in 2004, has shown in detail the extraordinary inequality of the distribution of wealth in Spain: 10% of the richest families accumulate 16 times more wealth than the 50% of the families with lesser income.
The social relationships based on sectorial exclusive community basis (whether corporativist, political party, nationalist, tribal....) have greater importance and work against the respect and recognition of the human and social rights of all people.
Our democracy has become very devalued with a profound crisis of the conscience of the citizenship. The professional politicians have lost their respect for Truth and habitually practice the arts of deceipt, the manipulation of information and corruptive practices to reach power and maintain themselves there.
The social communication media mark the political and social agenda: What is not expressed in the media, does not exist. Behind the appearance of Freedom of Expression which washes the face of an unjust system, there is a glass wall for the majority who have no access to the media. The information strategy is directed by major companies and financial corporations who endeavour to convert the product into a merchandise and who artificially promote dualities, exaggerating the differences and excluding third parties (Church/State, Socialist Party/Conservative Party (Partido Popular)/ Sporting events., etc)
Publicity reinforces the dominant fashions and values channelling the deepheld desires and aspirations of the people towards the consumerisation of brands and products. For example, a current television advert scandalously recognises the lack of liberty for people in our current Society but then promotes the driving of a specific car as a sign of liberty: “People in our Society are less free than they think. You are tied to your work, you have to pay the mortgage on your flat and dress and think as they tell you in your company. Liberty is not easy. It is going to be difficult. With the Opel-Golf you can try to achieve liberty!”
Whilst state schooling is subject to a growing deterioration in academic efficiency and adapts with difficulty to the multicultural reality of Immigration, private schools are every day more elitist.
The neoliberal policies which prevail both in the Spanish Government and the European Union and in international organisms favour the privatisation of public services and give rise to a growing dualisation in function to the purchasing capacity of our families. Specifically, the important government officials, responsible for the public services, are, themselves, the main users of private schemes, the more elitist the better. It is like having “atheist bishops”, people who do not believe in the function they carry out.
The current Spanish situation has more negative effects in some sectors of the population, especially amongst the young, women, children and immigrants coming from the Third World.
The young generations have before them a difficult panorama due to job insecurity and the high cost of housing. In order to achieve independence (from their parents) they have to accept a rigorous working environment without showing criticism and they must mortgage themselves for many years to pay for a dwelling. (In the Madrid region, an average 51% of family income goes to pay the mortgage loan).
Women, to achieve paid employment, find many difficulties to conciliate family life and work so they postpone or even renounce having children. At work, the efficiency criteria is paramount and, at home, their male partners continue to adopt macho attitudes so the women are overloaded with work and often end up highly stressed and suffering physical and psychical disorders.
Children belonging to the socially emproverished sectors are the ones most affected in the current situation due to their fragility and their lack of possibility to defend themselves. Instead of promoting working and educative facilities which reinforce the basic institutions of the family and school (father-mother-teachers), there has been an increase of institutions which control families, guardianship and the repression of the children (including several types of torture and ill treatment, protected by current legislation for minors.
The majority of immigrants coming from Third World countries are forced to undergo a first phase without official documents which obliges them to work in the submerged economy and prevents them from legal defence against the abuse and discrimination to which they are subjected. In 2004 more than half the foreigners resident in Spain lacked residence permits.
The picture described up to here does not prevent recognition of the fact that in the history of Spain there has been a tradition of resistance and struggles for Justice which goes back over hundreds of years and which still persists. Since the beginning of the XIXth Century, historians recount the confrontation between two Spains, the Conservative-Bourgeois one, with which the Catholic hierarchy allied itself, and the Socialist-Republican one, provoking the 1936-1939 Civil War followed by the Franco dictatorship which lasted 40 years.
Since then Spain has lived two phases: the first of a progressive sign which created a relative consolidation of the Welfare State and the Consumer Society and the second with a marked neoliberal orientation which has promoted employment insecurity, increased social inequalities and repressive, social control and privatization policies which prevail over the social policies which protect and promote the social rights of the citizens.
Both the new so-called social movements which arose in the Seventies and the anti-globalization movement of the end of the XXth century, have been present in the majority of Spanish towns and cities, albeit rather lacking in strength with respect to the existing system of domination except in some isolated cases (such as the General Strike of 1988 against juvenile job insecurity or the mobilizations against the Iraq war and the pro-American policy of the Aznar Government which explain, in the final event, the victory of Zapatero in the 2004 general elections). Many old campaigners have the sensation that their efforts have hardly been of any use and to maintain themselves afloat, they have to swim with an energy they no longer can sustain.
There are, though, multiple symptoms in very different social backgrounds which point towards a transformation of Society: Press reporters and photographers who denounce injustice and cases of corruption; alternative communication media (Diagonal, no charge Internet networks like “Eclesalia”); teachers who work for a liberating education; volunteers and professionals who criticise social policies that interest the State and denounce laws and unjust practices of the institutions; neighbourhood associations which maintain a tradition of direct participation in local affairs; anti-globalization networks actively participated by base Christians; the start of interreligious dialogues, as a result of the experiences of 11th September 2001 or 11th March 2004, etc.
Amongst the challenges affecting the critical social movements, we underline the following:
The reconstruction of a citizenship culture or common civic conscience based on the recognition of fundamental human rights which take precedence over all other principles or social values (national rights, market laws, religions................).
Against individualism and conformist submission, we have to revive the hope that another world is possible and we have to build it by means of a common effort of social movements both local, european and worldwide.
Move on from co-opting or collaborating with unjust institutions to denouncing them and searching for alternative means of social intervention.
Restructure the system of education recognising that the diversity of gender, nationality or culture are valuable components whilst reaffirming the solidarity and democratic participation of all parties in education.
Promote the definition of a new system of ethics based on a respect for the environment, equilibrium of functions between women and men, etc.
Find new forms of social and cooperative economy to balance against the logic of mercantile capitalism.
2. The position of the Church Hierarchy with respect to Spanish Society (initial schema)
Faced with the major problems of current Spanish Society, the hierarchy says nothing. Its pronouncements are anecdotical and frequently appear ridiculous. They are generally centred round minor issues, nearly always questions which affect the hierarchy and they adopt a defensive posture. When questioned, they are as slippery as jelly.
Taken in a historical perspective, the Spanish bishops have undergone an involution with respect to the Seventies, doubtless due to the changes in the Vatican and the appointment of conservative bishops.
The current bishops do not practice what they preach. They talk about looking after the poor but they hoard their goods and properties and do not share them with those in need. Their ideology is frequently reactionary and, as such, they are allies of the conservative right and enemies of alternative social movements.
They are completely deaf and blind to the general exodus from the Church, especially by youth. They continue to count the faithful based on the number of baptisms and weddings, which are also falling. However, there is a rising number of unbelievers and those who, calling themselves Christians, do not practice their religion, feeling themselves out of touch with the official Church.
Women are still excluded in the hierarchical Church resulting in an unjustifiable anachronism in our current Society that the bishops have not even begun to contemplate. On the contrary, they often blame women for being responsible for the crisis in the (traditional) family.
The finances of the hierarchy are not made public and now and again we see financial scandals in which some bishops are implicated.
The participation of lay people at the heart of the Church is marginal and the bishops always reserve the right to have the final say. In the Madrid diocese synod, the base movements and communities were expressely excluded. The bishops do not tolerate any dissent in the Church and they mistrust the freedom of Christians and communities not organised in a rigidly hierarchical system.
The social activities of the Church (mainly through Caritas) are used more as a social cushion of tranquility than a means of social denunciation. The bishops promote a voluntary paternalism more than an active militancy which denounces injustice and promotes Christian values.
The recent controversy between the hierarchy and the Socialist Government, fanned by the press, has been mainly centred on specific questions relating to the power and social privileges of the Church (religious classes, teaching of the Church, homosexual marriage, financing the clergy....) It was not a question of liberating the oppressed members of Society but maintaining their own advantages.. Their social habitat is security. They are happy in their ivory tower and do not want to change.
Contrasting with the above situation, amongst Spanish Christians you can observe a great plurality of situations and ideological positions which are the reflexion of a pluralist Society.
For the most engaged Christians, the challenge consists in maintaining the message of Hope in the Gospel of Jesus in a hostile environment, both socially and ecclesiastically.
Team 2: THE OPINION OF BASE CHRISTIANS WITH RESPECT TO SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY
I. SOME CURRENT CHALLENGES
Taking into account the many interesting contributions to this second round table, we believe that the most important challenges facing Christians of Today are related to two crises which if they are not resolved honestly are going to very seriously affect the Christian experience in the future. On the one hand, “The crisis of the meaning of the Christian Faith”. The significance of this crisis which is affecting Christianity in Europe and especially in Spain is causing large numbers of young people to leave the Church. And on the other, “The crisis of the importance and credibility of the Church” which is generating the phenomenon of the “De-ecclesiastication” of the Faith.
Before beginning the discussion about these two phenomena, we need to make a short introduction. We believe that one of the dangers of the “euphoria of the media” which we have witnessed or rather suffered over these last weeks has been to hide the serious extent of these two crises which we have underlined. We have been offered the image of a triumphant Church which, honestly, we believe mistaken and unreal. Additionally, although both crises can be perfectly differentiated (and we must differentiate between them from an educational perspective) at the same time, we think they are highly related and, to a very large degree, they feed on each other.
1. The crisis of the meaning of the Faith.
We consider that this is very much related with various different types of challenges which we comment as follows:
* The challenge consisting of Today’s Social Injustice with its growing intolerable chasms of inequality. It is our belief that the “weak response”· that our churches, as a whole, are giving to this challenge is undermining the possibilities of credibility and significance of Christianity in our Society. It has been said, and rightly so, that “Injustice hides the face of the Christian God”. And it is also said that “Injustice is the rock of Modern Atheism”. And we must not forget as the best Theology of our day insists that the question of Social Justice is, largely, the “Question of God”, which means that the topic of Social Justice has not only an ethical dimension but also a strictly theological one. For this reason, we believe that the reply given by our churches in Europe (and the rest of the world) will define, to a large extent, the future of Christianity.
When you investigate specific aspects (in which our meeting was very rich), the extent of today’s injustice is easily verified when you take into account such flagrant situations as Hunger, which causes so many premature deaths, compulsory Emigration, the mutilating discrimination of Women in all its aspects, Margination and social Exclusion for reasons of Race, Ethnia, Sexual Orientation (Gays, Lesbians, Trans-sexuals,) etc.
· The challenge of the New Cultural Situation, brought about by the exercise of modern and postmodern critical reasoning which together with the current development of the Sciences, has introduced the doubt that one can reasonably be a Christian and a Believer. A large sector of Society has the idea that the Christian Faith has been relegated by the contemporary situation since it lacks valid answers for the Youth of Spain who affirm in a very high proportion that they receive no interesting message from the Church.
· The challenge for the universality of the Faith, especially the Catholic Faith of the Existing Pluralism of Cultures and Christian and Religious Beliefs, in general. The fear we see in our churches at facing this challenge is further contributing to the Crisis of the Faith we referred to above.
2. The crisis of significance of our Catholic Churches. This second crisis, we believe, is due, in part, to the following causes:
· The excessive hierarchy existing in our churches of today which makes the active and responsible participation of all the faithful difficult.
· The lack of recognition of Human Rights in the very heart of the Church, especially with respect to groups of people, severely discriminated at present, such as, Women, in general, Homosexuals, Married Priests, Divorced Persons, etc.
· This lack of Liberty is translated into numerous fears:
- Fear to critically rethink the Faith and Christian Morals in an honest critical dialogue with modern secular culture and with the findings of the different Sciences;
- Fear of the Historical-Critical Research of the Bible;
- Fear of the legitimate pluralism of theological interpretations and their public expression;
- Fear of the processes of introduction or incarnation of the Gospels in different cultures;
- Fear of Ecumenic Advancement and of Inter-religious Dialogue;
- Fear of a real and legitimate democratization of the Ecclesiastical Institution;
- Fear of revising in depth the understanding and application of all the ministerings of the Church and their specific types of names;
- Fear of excercising the Church’s Prophetic Task as a liberating critique in Society from the viewpoint of a real Solidarity with the Poor and the Excluded of this Earth.
· To the way of understanding their public presence in Society, which is still, unfortunately, linked to former stages of Christianity.
· To the use of a very intemporary language, out of touch with the anxieties, questions, desires and real problems of people (especially of the younger generations), too rotund and dogmatic (even arrogant), very conceptual, excessively orientated to indoctrination, not very wise or fundamented in a living experience of the Faith, not very suggestive or imaginative, very critical and, often, downright old fashioned, suffering (at times) with the pretence that they “embody the Truth and even, the Whole Truth”.
Given the impossibility of giving detailed replies to all the challenges we discussed, we limit ourselves to offer some guidelines or fundamental pointers which we think can qualify our replies:
1. The return to Jesus of Nazareth, to his life and his message, must lead inevitably to recover the vigour of his following, the fundamental indicator of how to experience an individual and community Christian life. This return includes, as its essential part, the Option for the Poor translated into a real and effective solidarity with their cause. Without ceasing to consider the major importance of Economic Poverty, we consider we must not exclude other forms of Poverty and Weakness that our permanent sources of Social Margination and Exclusion. This indicator and the way we have described it, we consider to be the fundamental way to think and live the Christian Faith in a credible and significant manner.
2. An honest critical dialogue with the reality of Today and with the different autonomous streams of knowledge provided by the various fields of Human Knowledge (Philosophy, Human, Empirical and Technical Sciences, etc.) with respect to the different levels and subsystems which configure this reality. We believe it is particularly urgent to establish a frank and honest dialogue with the new sensibilities of the younger generations. This dialogue must be equidistant from the “trenches of doctrinal positions”, already discarded, and from the easy adaptation to the New; a careful dialogue to maintain, at the same time, fidelity with the Faith and achieve for it, credibility and significance. We also consider it is urgent to establish a sincere dialogue without prejudice with the different Christian Churches and with the diverse existing Religious and Non-Religious Beliefs.
3. The need to promote and stregthen the Base Community Movement in order to provide valid community references and allow significant testimony. We are convinced that Testimony, however minor it be, has – like the grain of wheat, the little light on the candlestick or the same yeast in the bread – the irresistible force of the “valid and credible gesture”. We cannot forget that the happyand festive dimension of a Base Community often makes the message of the Kingdom more credible than the simple oral announcement of the Faith. And the presence of a community, abiding by evangelical values, in a rabid individualistic culture, “always provides food for thought”.
4. Finally, we believe that all the Base Christians of both sexes must make greater efforts towards a greater and better coordination. We mean not only the coordination between all the groups but also with the different media of expression witb which we count. Internet coordination and, if possible, the unification of media would be a very important way to transmit both to the Churches and to Society an alternative discourse built on major human and evangelical values that are very much needed Today: Justice, Radical Equality, Real Solidarity, Peace, etc.
Team 3: WHAT ROADS CAN WE TAKE?
Antonio MINGUEZ
Emiliano de TAPIA
Esteban TABARES
Evaristo VILLAR
Javier VITORIA
Joaquín GARCÍA ROCA
Luís Angel AGUILAR
Pedro José GÓMEZ
Pepa TORRES (Coordinator)
Pilar YUSTE
Rafael ROJO
Ricardo GAYOL
“There where the Church loses the air of Fraternity, it asphyxiates.
There where it loses the pace of Fraternity it ceases to be the hope of the disinherited.
There where it ceases to be the mirror of Fraternity it has no songs for the poor.”
(J. García Roca)
We live in times when:
Breathing is not easy, when you are asphyxiating and suffocating from the pressure of the dominating ideology, the rigidity of the institutions, the Market Laws and security restrictions.
These are times in which we experience with sorrow that the institutions of our Church are out of step with the searches, anxieties and hopes of the outcasts of our world and also with those searching for a solution; on the contrary, the hierarchical Church is “blocking the way”.
These are times when it is difficult to believe that the Church can be a mirror of Fraternity due to the triumphalism, dominating ways and structures of exclusion which it legitimizes socially and politically.
But there also exists a frontier Church to which we belong and we do not start from zero. We participate in its wisdom, acquired over the centuries, its capacity for new proposals and resistance.
A frontier is a barrier and separation but also a door opening onto new relationships. From the frontier we are urged to build bridges and become bridges ourselves to promote intercommunication between distant realities which resist and brake the dynamics of exclusion of the System.
We identify ourselves with:
An open Europe, not a closed fortress; a Europe that rejects the idea of selfish riches and we fight for this ideal from our hearts whilst assuming the contradiction of being the a part of the Church of the First World and thus an accomplice of the exclusion of the Third and Fourth Worlds to whom we offer our militancy.
A Europe which is against the economic, warmongering and security policies which favour the North and force millions of people in the South to the bloody exodus of emigration.
A Europe of open doors which welcomes our new neighbours who claim their right to universal citizenship and look to mix their races and cultures with us in our Society.
A Europe which believes that the meaning of the word Liberty has been subverted by Neo-Liberalism and the Imperialism of Bush to legitimize their ends, voiding its content so that its value is no longer synonymous with Social Justice, Solidarity, a passion for the recognition and engagement for a new System in which “Another World is Possible”.
We are conscious that the Social and Ecclesiastical Utopia for which we strive has the same correlation of forces as that of David against Goliath so we must research specific strategies to oppose and reject the Wisdom of Evil that grows in the structures of Sin.
We are also conscious that we live in a Time of Changes due to the transformations caused by the introduction of new technologies and Globalization which are generating situations of menace, danger, exclusion and death for Societies, Cities and Entire Continents but there where the problem arises the solution can also appear; there where we can visualize the risks, we can find the willows to weave alternatives. Thus, the threatening situations are pregnant with Hope. The system has its cracks and we must infiltrate them to destroy the edifice:
SOME DANGERS & POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
1. The globalization of the economy means not only problems are globalised but people also.
Solution: Take global solutions in favour of Humanity
By insisting that the Option for the Poor and Social Justice is an unrenounceable part of the Faith in Jesus Christ and not just a principle in theory, we must make a daily engagement to uphold socially and politically the rights of those who live in the worst conditions in our Society.
We must be physically present and show our solidarity with the causes and people who suffer the maximum exclusion: The Unemployed, Prisoners, Abandoned Women, Youth and Children of the Streets, etc., because only by physically meeting and being near to the victims, participating in their daily lives and understanding their problems, can we develope proposals and strategies with a common cause.
By organising base groups, parishes & comunities engaged with liberation causes with a personal knowledge of the underprivileged we can programme our coordination with adequate resources.
We must strengthen alliances amongst the Base Church and other churches and religions which are also firmly engaged in promoting Social Justice and, with them, promote synergies to denounce the Neoliberal System.
We must also intensify the public and political presence of Christians of both sexes in the tradition of the Left and in the Social Movements: Feminism, Pacificism, Rights to the Land, Alternative Globalization, Identity Movements, etc.
2. The gulf of inequalities, the gap between the North and the Souths, between the club of the satisfied and that of the excluded and together with the evidence that these inequalities can be erradicated
Solution: Radically change the agenda of the Churches:
An agenda which gives priority to appeals from outside the Church, open to the world, neither fearful nor intransigent but in permanent dialogue with the new challenges arising from Culture and Science and always working to favour the major humanitarian causes: Human Rights, the Engagement for Peace, Social Justice, Solidarity, whether or not they have a Christian label because the Holy Spirit does not have a surname and because a Church that does not serve, serves for nothing!!! (Jacques Gaillot).
Favour a planetary perspective which also globalises the right to diversity and separate identities, assuming the inherent risks and welcoming the contributions of the Humanist Democratic Nationalisms, a vital oxygen in a Globalized World.
Create lobbies related to any problem in which the Dignity of People and their Social and Human Rights are compromised.
ENCUENTRO DE CONVIVENCIA-ESTUDIO
Convocados por Iglesia de Base de Madrid, Corriente Somos Iglesia y Col.lectiu Dones en l’Esglesia con ocasión de la XV Asamblea de la Red Europea de la Iglesia por la Libertad, nos hemos reunido durante el día de hoy, 7 de mayo de 2005, 190 personas en una jornada de trabajo en la que hemos analizado la actual situación por la que está atravesando la sociedad española y europea, los posicionamientos que ante ella están tomando las iglesias y las posibilidades que se nos ofrecen en un futuro inmediato. La jornada ha supuesto la culminación de una primera fase de trabajo por parte de varios equipos que dará paso a una última etapa de matización en las comunidades y movimientos, y la posterior publicación de los documentos.
Durante este largo proceso hemos sido testigos de la muerte de Juan Pablo II (a quien deseamos un descanso feliz) y de la elección del Benedicto XVI, cuyo pontificado deseamos que sea un nuevo renacer de la esperanza en las iglesias y en el mundo. Aunque las conclusiones de este trabajo serán publicadas en breve, hoy queremos adelantar algunas constataciones y otras claves de actuación:
1ª. Hemos reconocido una sociedad española y europea plural y polivalente. Asentada sobre la lógica del mercado capitalista se advierten mayoritariamente en ella dos tendencias: de una parte, la que genera un sujeto individualista y competitivo, sumiso y desigual y que tiene como consecuencias más llamativas la desigualdad en la distribución de la riqueza, el corporativismo partidista e identitario, la devaluación de la democracia y la exclusión de los sectores más débiles como son los jóvenes y la mujer, los niños, los homosexuales y los inmigrantes. De otra parte y sin llegar a formar una firme alternativa a la lógica del sistema, hemos descubierto en todos los estamentos sociales una tendencia firme a transformar las aristas más dolorosas del sistema: desde la construcción de una conciencia y cultura ciudadana de participación y respeto a la diversidad, hasta el reconocimiento de la dignidad de los/as excluidos; desde el respeto al equilibrio ecológico, hasta la búsqueda de otras formas de economía social y cooperativa.
2ª. También hemos descubierto una iglesia en España y en Europa plural y diversa donde se advierten predominantemente dos tendencias marcadas por la forma de organizarse, la vivencia de la espiritualidad y el modo de presencia en el mundo. Ambas formas aparecen actualmente envueltas -aunque de diverso modo- en dos crisis profundas que afectan a su credibilidad y significación en el mundo. Aunque estas crisis no son exclusivas de la iglesia católica –de algún modo alcanzan a todas las confesiones religiosas en España y en Europa-, en nuestra propia casa tienen un eco más determinante porque nos están emplazando tanto a ajustar nuestras cuentas con la modernidad (lo que ya intentó el Vaticano II) como al compromiso con la justicia en el mundo.
3ª. Estamos siendo testigos de un cambio de época, marcado por las transformaciones que suponen las nuevas tecnologías y la globalización. Un cambio epocal que está generando exclusión y muerte para colectivos y continentes enteros, pero que también está dejando al desnudo de toda racionalidad y de toda justicia social este sistema capitalista-imperial. Todo esto supone un gran desafío para la significación de la fe cristiana y la credibilidad de las iglesias. No obstante, existen muchas grietas que están resquebrajando el sistema y sus amenazas están, por lo mismo, preñadas de esperanza. Por eso, como cristianos de la base eclesial, deberíamos recuperar algunas claves que, como las siguientes, hagan más creíble y significativo el mensaje cristiano:
Primera clave. Ante una Europa fortaleza y club de la abundancia y unas iglesias cómplices de la exclusión de terceros y cuartos mundos, necesitamos volver a Jesús de Nazaret y recuperar con radicalidad su seguimiento. Un seguimiento que incluye, como primer paso, la opción real y efectiva por los pobres y sus causas; la proximidad a las víctimas y el enfrentamiento contra todo aquello que es causa de exclusión social. Aquí, en nuestro contexto, esta vuelta a Jesús incluye una apuesta firme por una sociedad europea justa y abierta, democrática y secularizada.
Segunda clave. Ante una sociedad marcada por la ideología del individualismo, la limitación de la ciudadanía y la devaluación de la democracia y unas iglesias que se atrincheran en una jerarquización trasnochada que excluye la participación y la igualdad radical del pueblo creyente, necesitamos, de una parte, reforzar la capacidad profética para exigir a la iglesia de Roma algunos gestos significativos como los siguientes: la renuncia del Papa a seguir siendo jefe de un Estado como el Vaticano y la supresión de los nuncios, sus embajadores; la renuncia a continuar siendo un monarca absolutista y la disposición a aceptar, como “primus inter pares”, la representación colegiada en la dirección de la Iglesia con la necesaria inclusión de la mujer en este servicio; la renuncia a la teología del Primado de Pedro que es un resabio de imperialismo medieval; y la aceptación de la iglesia igualitaria y diversa, autóctona y fraterna del Nuevo Testamento. Y, por otra parte, necesitamos recuperar también el movimiento comunitario de base en orden a ofrecer referencias comunitarias a las iglesias, y paradigmas de socialización significativos para la sociedad actual.
Tercera clave. Ante la falta de ética y el uso abusivo de la ciencia en nuestra sociedad y el desprecio que a menudo hacen de ella nuestras iglesias, debemos recuperar el diálogo honesto y crítico con la realidad y los distintos saberes (filosóficos, antropológicos y técnicos). Un diálogo igualmente distante de enrocamientos doctrinales como de la fácil y acrítica adaptación a las novedades.
Cuarta clave. Finalmente, recogiendo el testigo de tantas personas anónimas que, contra viento y marea, siguen creyendo y esperando en Dios y en la Humanidad, necesitamos fomentar y fortalecer una mayor coordinación. Una coordinación en red tanto de los movimientos, grupos y personas de por libre, como de los medios con que contamos. Una coordinación capaz de ir proyectando en la sociedad y en las iglesias un estilo de vida alternativo al actual sistema, y unos valores más cercanos a aquello por lo que estamos luchando: la justicia, la igualdad radical (nunca reñida con la diversidad), la solidaridad real y la paz.
Nos hacemos estas propuestas con honestidad y sin perder el humor. Secundando la fina ironía de González Faus, nosotros, cristianos y cristianas de base, no vamos a negar la Eucaristía a María de Nazaret por haber convivido con José antes de casarse; ni vamos a denunciar anónimamente ante la Sagrada Congelación para la Doctrina de la Fe a José, su casto esposo, por haber dudado de la virginidad de María; ni, por más escandaloso que parezca, vamos a privar del sacerdocio al laico Jesús de Nazaret por haber celebrado su primera misa en medio de una cena de familia. ¡Vamos a recuperar la alegría! Gracias.
Madrid, 7 de mayo de 2005