A passion for freedom
Flavio Felice
Full Professor of the History of Political Doctrines, University of Molise; Ordinary Research Professor, Catholic University of America, Washington DC
In an era of profound transformation such as the one we are currently experiencing, the appeal to the Church’s social doctrine takes on a prophetic character, capable, in Augustinian terms, of highlighting the salient features of a present rich in uncertainties, risks and challenges that challenge the person in their deepest dimension: freedom and responsibility.
This is the aim of the conference organised by the Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation, to be held in Rome on 28 and 29 May. It is an important opportunity to examine the challenges of the present day in the light of social doctrine, reflecting on how to adapt the message of the encyclical Centesimus annus (1991). The first day, dedicated to the Foundation’s general assembly, will be entitled: “Catholic Social Thought Facing the Challenges to Freedom and Pluralism in a Disordered Economy and Society. Renewing the Vision of Centesimus Annus”; whilst on the second day, dedicated to the international conference, the topic will be: “A Fragmented World in Search of Spirituality: Freedom and Pluralism from Within the Social Doctrine of the Church”. For further details on the themes and objectives of the initiative, please refer to the conference concept note.
The focus of the meeting will be a reflection on the political, economic and cultural dimensions of freedom and pluralism, and on how these dimensions challenge the contemporary world, which has been severely shaken by wars, economic and financial crises, and ethical and cultural dilemmas. In this regard, drawing on the political science perspective, we intend to offer a reflection—necessarily brief—to situate the issues of pluralism and freedom within the cultural context of Catholic social thought.
With particular reference to the theme of freedom, we would like to recall the words of Don Luigi Sturzo: ‘Freedom is like the air: we live in the air; if the air is foul, we suffer; if the air is insufficient, we suffocate; if the air is lacking, we die. Freedom is like life; life is present in all acts, in all moments; if it is not present, there is death. Freedom is dynamism that is realised and renewed; if realisation and renewal cease, dynamism fails. […] freedom is realised every day, defended every day, regained every day’. Freedom, therefore, is a precondition of democracy, of the market and of a civilised life worthy of the human person, and it takes concrete form in the human experience of each of us through the promotion and defence of the dignity of every person, within the political, economic and cultural context.
Following this line of thought, deeply rooted in the Church’s social teaching and strongly present throughout Catholic social thought, a distinction should be made between those who love freedom out of deep conviction and those who claim to love it, but only in words. The difference between the two categories of people is substantial: for the former, freedom remedies the evils it may produce, in that it generates new energies, promotes the formation of free associations and represents the moral leaven of the resulting political, economic and cultural pluralism. For the latter, however, freedom is something dangerous, to be feigned for reasons of expediency, but to be placed under guardianship to prevent its risks. This, according to Sturzo, but also for an important author such as Alexis de Tocqueville, is the great fear of freedom that affects oligarchies of every kind, whether political or economic.
Linked to the theme of freedom is the question of pluralism. In civil terms, pluralism can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. Referring to the Church’s social doctrine, we believe it is worth recalling that Pope Benedict XVI, in the encyclical Caritas in veritate (2009), used the adjective ‘polyarchic’ to describe the type of political-institutional structure best suited to representing a pluralistic civil context.
The concept of ‘polyarchy’ is widely used in political science literature thanks to the work of Robert A. Dahl. However Sturzo’s notion of ‘plurarchy’ conveys the meaning of Benedict XVI’s statement more profoundly: “Globalisation certainly requires authority, inasmuch as it raises the issue of a global common good to be pursued; such authority, however, must be organised in a subsidiary and polyarchic manner, both so as not to infringe upon freedom and to be effectively effective in practice” (Cv, no. 57).
Polyarchy and plurarchy, in the sense understood by Sturzo and Ratzinger, refer to a broader social context in which, alongside the political sphere, there are many other spheres of equal dignity: the economic, religious and artistic spheres, all of which produce a particular type of common good. Society, therefore, is not a collection of isolated and uncommunicating individuals, but a system of personal experiences and consciences. From this perspective, participation therefore means taking part in a personal or collective capacity, contributing to affirming the reasons for one’s own existence in the process of shaping public opinion. In this sense, pluralism can be understood as a social context governed by an order produced and maintained by the continuous interaction and competition of multiple and mutually irreducible regulatory principles.
The passion for freedom, which feeds on and is nourished by pluralism, is a consecration of human dignity in all its forms. For this reason, as the late maestro Dario Antiseri loved to say, the passion for freedom goes hand in hand with the risk of freedom, a risk that could translate into the voluntary renunciation of freedom itself, in the name of fear, resentment, irresponsibility, the culture of delegation and the fascination with leadership. A risk we run every day, especially in these tragic days of war, precisely because we are fortunate enough to live in societies that tend to be open – societies for which our forefathers proved they had the strength and courage to sacrifice even their own lives.