Good morning, and a warm welcome to this distinguished panel and to the expectant audience, near and far.
We hear the term global “polycrisis” quite often today. It reflects the convergence of so many different and severe challenges facing communities across the world at the same time: the great 3 Cs (in English): conflict, COVID, and climate, plus the global economic crisis and debt burdens, plus forced migration, all aggravated by a daunting grip of disorientation and what Andrea Riccardi described some years ago as vertigo. To make matters still more complex, the crises are interconnected, challenging those whose worlds have taken shelter in siloes. And deep and often angry divisions within and between communities make the dialogue and encounter which we so earnestly desire far more difficult than they need to be.
A common villain for many is globalization. It can be seen to depersonalize, to strip from people, communities, and even nations the capacity to shape their immediate destinies and their very identity. Some describe it as an irresistible force, an economics-led storm. But instead of a force that levels, as was hoped at some times, it can feed or perpetuate inequalities, favoring the wealthy and powerful and condemning poorer communities to remain, and suffer, at the margins.
The story, we all know, I believe, is more complicated. Globalization brings many gifts, in a sharing of culture, openness to new encounters, a feast of choice. For many it has opened new worlds of opportunity. We have, as we witness here in Rome, a rich possibility for sharing the best of our values and new hopes. The perceived juggernaut of neoliberalism is a muti-headed phenomenon, some heads driven by greed and selfishness but others by generosity and a quest for new and better ways to serve and to act. The dark sides of globalization that encouraged the COVID-19 pandemic and new routes for hate speech and violent urges to spread so rapidly also are linked to positive, hopeful features that bring instant images and stories of courage and suffering, ideas and violation. It can bring together people of good will as well.
Our panel this morning focuses on responsibilities in this complex time of crisis, and specifically religious responsibilities. Religious traditions, we have heard quite often here, transcend national and other borders. They carry a deep legacy of history but also a sharp focus on the present. The shared value and dream of peace is deeply engrained, indeed hard-wired. How can these insights, gifts, legacies, and multiple eyes and ears help in addressing today’s polycrises and specifically those that accompany the phenomena of globalization? We will explore many dimensions, from the knotty debates about global markets, the basic common rights to good health and education, freedom to speak and to advocate, and above all the yearning we share for peace.