Pope Francis and President Higgins We are challenged to build an economy that is designed to serve people, says President Michael D. Higgins
At the Vatican, I had the great honour of meeting with a man who exemplifies in the most striking and moving of manners the extraordinary importance of the spiritual as a powerful wellspring of global ethics, coupled with an ardent commitment to placing what is the essence of humanity at the heart and centre of the global conversations of our time.
Pope Francis is a man who touches us all by his unique courage in identifying the crippling contradictions of our age and the need to engage with the assumptions that sustain them. He does this with words that are infused with both humility and passion.
He has been, since his elevation, a compelling voice tirelessly awakening us to the web of interdependencies that weaves humanity together, as well as weaving us all, humans and non-humans, to our shared and fragile planet.
Indeed from the first moments of his papacy, Pope Francis has been an indispensable voice of humanity and clarity. He has journeyed to places of discord, where he has sought to sow the seeds of peace.
He has been a voice for those most vulnerable – calling for housing for the homeless, land for the landless and the native peoples, dignified employment for those excluded from the labour market, and the fundamental right that all of them have to question ‘macro-relations’ of power and inequality.
Justice
He has called upon us all to respond with compassion and justice to the people and families across the globe who are migrating in desperation and hope.
He has spoken up for ‘Mother Earth’ itself, not just in his Encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, but in many of his public speeches.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to discuss some of these themes with Pope Francis. Both of us share a conviction that new connections between ethics, economy and ecology must be at the core of all work of social and intellectual reconstruction in this new century.
This is indeed a discussion to which I have sought to bring my own contribution, using the medium of the Presidency of Ireland to encourage a debate on ethics across all sectors of Irish society.
I fully share Pope Francis’ observation that, “ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person” (Evangelii Gaudium).
I believe that an ethic of human dignity, a holistic approach to human life, is precisely what must be established as the informing principle and practice of the new, integral, approach to development that our times demand – a conception of development that would serve the human person in his or her integrity, never reducible to criteria of efficiency, or production, or indeed self-absorbed consumption.
This is a challenge shared by all of us, from north and south, east and west, and not just a challenge that concerns primarily the poorer nations of the world. Indeed, it is a challenge that must be at the heart of our collective efforts at rebuilding a positive and ambitious vision for the future of the European Union.
In my conversations with Pope Francis, and with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Secretary for Relations With States Archbishop Paul Gallagher, we spoke of the challenges posed to Europe as a whole, and of course to Ireland and Northern Ireland more particularly, by the decision of Britain to leave the European Union, but we also spoke of the need to tackle the urgent and wider task of building new paths of hope and renewal for European citizens.
That is the great collective task which all of us Europeans must undertake in concert, without delay, addressing issues of reconnection between the citizens on the European street, their governments and their institutions.
We need to do so with clarity of mind, vision, and having at heart, throughout, the hopes, the fears, the vulnerabilities and the immense potential of the millions of women, men and children whom our Union of European nations is here to serve.
Particularities
The particularities of the Brexit negotiations are very important, but a concentration on a part of what challenges us must not be at the cost of the greater issues which we cannot neglect – issues of democratic reengagement, redefined subsidiarity, and a re-articulation of solidarity and cohesion.
As with the great task of building peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, there are those who will say that the challenges currently facing Europe are too deep and complex to solve. And as with Northern Ireland, it is important that we do not evade difficulties, that we face them in a spirit of truth and honesty, while keeping our eyes firmly set on the ideal and the greater human values guiding our actions.
In this, all of us are invited to act together, in our different capacities, and according to our own means. The project of building peace in Northern Ireland offers us an example.
It involved governments, diplomats, political parties, community groups, as well as spiritual leaders and ordinary members of all religious denominations. It was local and personal and international all at once. It was both urgent and generational in its nature. Defining the future of our European Union must similarly be an exercise in inclusion.
All of us – elected representatives, diplomats, members of the laity and of the clergy, and simply concerned citizens – are called upon to play our part in the construction of that future.
We are invited to contribute to building a European Union where new connections between ethics, economy, society and ecology will have been established, new policies been forged that will preserve social cohesion and environmental harmony. That is the vision of the European Union we need to offer as exemplar to the global community, as we face together a world of rapid change and inescapable interdependency.
Challenges
We Europeans are challenged, in other words, to rebuild a socially accountable and sustainable version of the productive economy. We are challenged to restore a hierarchy of purpose, whereby economic objectives, tools and measures are designed to serve the fundamental objective of human development – challenged to restore an ethical vision of the social as the foundation of our Union of European peoples.
My view is that we must accept, too, the implications of regarding work as a fundamental human experience – work in all its aspects: producing, caring, work of the hand, work of the heart and work of the imagination, beyond and above any reification. The worker should never be stripped of this essential dignity; her dreams, energy and toil never reduced to an adjustable unit of labour.
We must prepare the future not await it in fear. Let us, if I may invert the words used by Pope Francis in his address to European leaders gathered in Rome last March, learn to use our wings again and elevate our gaze. Let us recognise the new realities – demographic, cultural, environmental – that will shape our future and respond to them with wisdom, openness, creative innovation, and with confidence, exploring the connections of science, technology, and yes ethics and philosophy too.
The simplistic solutions put forward by the voices of fear and cultural entrenchment are ones that are not fit for a world that requires more, not less, understanding of complexity, more, not less, cooperation, and more, not less, concerted action on the common issues that concern all those who dwell on this Earth.
Is it not the case that our own reluctance to critique models of connection between economy and society that are failing our people has allowed the space of discourse to be dominated by such predators of anxiety?
I look forward to joining with others in welcoming Pope Francis to Ireland next year. It is his hope and intention to attend the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August 2018. For him as well, it will be a return visit. I know that for a great many people in Ireland, Pope Francis’ visit will be a moment when they will be inspired, and strengthened, and indeed challenged. It will be another important moment in the global dialogue we so pressingly need about the kind of society we want to build for this and for future generations.
This is an abridged version of a speech delivered by President Higgins at a reception at the Pontifical Irish College following his meeting with the Pope on Monday.