Radio InBlu – the Digital Audio Broadcasting station of the Italian Episcopal Conference
“Buongiorno inBlu2000” broadcast – episode of 04/22/2025
Interview by Chiara Placenti with Paolo Garonna, President of the Foundation
Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice
Interviewer: Good morning and welcome to Paolo Garonna, economist and president of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation. The Foundation has always been committed to a project, a journey towards a new economy that focuses on the common good, a more sustainable and supportive society. These are all goals and commitments that reflect the teachings of Pope Francis, convinced that care for creation and a new economy are antidotes to suffering, as well as to wars.
Paolo Garonna: Certainly. The Foundation is called Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice. “Centesimus Annus” because it was established by John Paul II in the centenary of Rerum Novarum, by Leo XIII, the encyclical that initiated the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC). “Pro Pontifice” because we are at the direct service of the Pope, we have a special relationship with him. This is why the loss of this Pope brings us great sorrow, because we had almost a physical closeness to him, and then also because of the themes of Pope Francis’s Magisterium, which we focus on, which are those of the Social Doctrine of the Church, on which Francis has been a great innovator. It has been rightly said that his papacy was “revolutionary,” but I would more accurately say that it was deeply reformative, because in the spirit of the SDC, the change in Pope Francis’s papacy is neither revolutionary nor conservative, but a reformative change without fractures, without traumas, and without discontinuity. I believe this was the message and the general style of Pope Francis’s papacy.
Interviewer: Often, when looking at the indications and callings from Pope Francis on the theme of the SDC, analysts in politics and economics have sometimes said that these are utopian, but need to be applied to reality. Is it possible to bring those indications and callings into contemporary reality?
Paolo Garonna: Absolutely yes. It can and must be done. I believe this has been the Pope’s main commitment: extending the logic of the SDC with applications in every direction. Think of the extension of human dialogue. to dialogue with all of creation— the environment, nature. Following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, we must engage in dialogue with birds, with the sun and the moon, because all of creation is God’s work, and all of creation, which is now largely anthropized by human intervention, must also be humanized through human responsibility. These extensions have been very important. Think of the new theology of dialogue that Pope Francis has valorised. Dià – logos: which means that in dialogue, there is God. In his recent catecheses, I find a moving reflection on the fact that in every human encounter, God is present. This explains why in every human encounter, there is always a surprise, innovation, and the ability to adapt to change. I believe this is a very important message for the times in which we live, which are times of radical transformation: only through dialogue today can we find solutions to the problems of change. Dialogue brings solutions to problems, dialogue is the solution to problems.
Interviewer: This year, the year of the Jubilee, would have been an intense year for you, a year of reflection and activation regarding the Church’s social teaching.
Paolo Garonna: It remains so. It is a crucial year that we will continue to take forward in the spirit and teachings of Pope Francis. This teaching is at the heart of our international conference, which will be held in May, dedicated to the complex and current issues of the ethical foundations of global governance. Therefore, what to do and how can we do something to help debt recovery of vulnerable countries, a matter at the very heart of the essence of the Jubilee. On this, we have begun a process of reflection and critical dialogue. Similarly with respect to multilateralism. How to make multilateralism, which is a great human and Christian value, and was the basis of the long period of peace and relative prosperity we experienced after the war, work again. This multilateralism is now in crisis and must be rebuilt with appropriate reforms. How to start and progress with integration at the level of large world regions. Francis has been the Pope of unity: he supported and promoted unity in Europe, in Africa, in Latin America, and even in Asia, where it is particularly difficult. His last trip to that continent, following in the footsteps of other great Jesuits like Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci, was a prophetic journey.
Interviewer: To our guests this morning, the witnesses and analysts who are visiting us in this special of Buongiorno InBlu, I always ask for a personal memory of Pope Francis. So, what is the expression, the image that you cherish the most?
Paolo Garonna: The personal and almost moving expression we have from meeting him is his patience and warmth. Every year, we met with Pope Francis during our international meeting. A meeting in which not only did Francis give us a speech full of content and messages, but he also wanted to shake hands with everyone, one by one, with all the members and stakeholders of the Foundation, nearly 300 people. He shook hands with everyone, spending an incredible amount of time with us. I found this personal gesture moving, because not only did the Pope give us high level, important messages of doctrine and wisdom, but he also took the time to shake our hands, give a look, a caress to the children, a smile, a few words. This great humanity of his is a very vivid personal memory that I and my friends at the Foundation cherish from these meetings with him.
Interviewer: At this point do you feel even more responsible, following the moving words of President Mattarella’s message, to act and implement the messages and teachings of Pope Francis?
Paolo Garonna: Francis has opened many paths. He often said that in encounters, it is not only the result which is important, but stating the process is even more important. He has started many processes, and now it is up to us to carry them forward. Aspects which were closest to his heart such as knowledge, education, and instruction. Francis started his papacy with Veritatis Gaudium, which is a deep reform of the Pontifical Faculties of Theology. Just a few days ago, another extraordinary reform, that of the Academy, the institution that oversees the training of Vatican diplomats. There are excellent diplomats in the Vatican, and we need them. So, this insistence on the need to create the foundations of knowledge, study, and research in theology and political and social sciences in order to do things well – this approach is a challenge for us. We operate in social, economic, financial, and political spheres, and we must pick up the baton and carry forward the processes, moving from reflection to action. In the new “Theology from the Mediterranean”, initiated by Pope Francis ten years ago, which has made enormous strides with the 2023 Marseille Manifesto, in interreligious dialogue, in the Abrahamic dialogue between the major religions of the Mediterranean, there is an important challenge for our Foundation. It is up to us to apply ethical and theological principles in the social, economic, and political realities of different countries, and to seek political solutions to address and resolve the conflicts and polarizations that today afflict this great sea and the whole world.