The choice of Francis as his papal name by Jorge Mario Bergoglio immediately signaled the doctrinal orientation of his pontificate. Following in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, the new Bishop of Rome would uphold three guiding principles: love for the poor, care for our common home, and a commitment to a culture of encounter and peace. A commitment that his critics have sometimes labeled as populist—despite his explicit rejection of that label. Pope Francis’s outlook was, in fact, open, transnational, and pluralistic—the very opposite of European populisms. From his earliest symbolic gestures—from refusing the papal apartments to embracing migrants in Lampedusa—Bergoglio embodied a “Church that goes forth,” one that engages with the world not with doctrinal arrogance but with a spirit of service. His language, stripped of curial formalism, brought the papacy closer to the people, while the vision of the pope “from the ends of the earth” shifted the Church’s center of gravity away from Europe, toward the peripheries of the planet, and above all toward a new alliance between faiths, cultures, and peoples. In this dossier, we offer a series of reflections on the legacy of his pontificate and the future prospects of the Church.
Dossiers
- Philosophical reflection on viable models for the coexistence of diversity is most helpful if developed before the trap of resentment and retaliation is cocked, let alone set off. A workable scheme for the cooperation of free and equal citizens affiliated with diverse and often rival cultural heritages can go a long way toward preventing resentment and the politics of fear from coming into being and gaining ground in the first place. Received models in this respect, however, need a constant updating and finetuning. Resetdoc wants to address this concern in a new chapter of its Essays-series.
- How do we defuse the perverse circle of mutual unfamiliarity and estrangement breeding difference, misrecognition, then resentment not just for the political initiative of ‘the other’ but for its very existence, then outward hostility and confrontation, then retaliation and consequently an ever increased estrangement? Resetdoc believes that political imagination and democratic forces need to be mobilized in order to break out of the trap of reciprocal rejection or misrecognition and the spiraling of negative feelings and to set a virtuous circle of understanding and trust across cultural, ideological and religious divides.
- Today more than ever, cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic pluralism is a fact of life in European societies. Resetdoc believes that a great deal more work is still required in order to enable our liberal and democratic institutions to acknowledge this fact when implementing integration policies, not only to avoid the existing risks of exclusion and conflict, but also to counter cultural, biological and ideological generalizations that afflict the daily political debate and nourish the rhetoric of populist and xenophobic politicians. For our Essays series, Alain Touraine and Zygmunt Bauman explain why this necessary reconfiguration of politics could start with a new understanding and an broader concept of identity and citizenship.
- The wave of liberalisation brought on by the Arab Spring is accompanied by the political victory of Islamist groups who have proven their capacity of mobilisation. This religious-political irruption into public space is not failing to worry certain social strata, women in particular. In this context Iqbal al Gharbi’s article focuses on the relationship between women’s rights and Islam and on the latter’s capacity to integrate female citizenship into the heart of religious reformism.
- For our Essays series, Maeve Cooke and Sebastiano Maffettone discuss the philosophical-political tools required by liberalism in order to address the challenge posed by pluralism: openness to inclusive citizenship, a dialogue between cultures and governing fear in post-secular society. Cooke critically reanalyzes the Habermasian perspective presenting us with a more precise consideration of the burden posed by “translation” within the framework of an intercultural dialogue, while Maffettone addresses the nihilist consequences of post-modernism that make “impossible the construction of a post-colonial discourse through which discontent is transformed into a basis for a reasonable political action.” Earlier versions of both articles were presented at Istanbul Seminars 2010.
- “Cultural pluralism” is a recent concept in Europe to the extent that many do not know what it means. While political pluralism and freedom of thought are deeply-rooted in our continent, and everyone is capable of distinguishing a democratic regime from one that is not, there are some extremely extravagant and vague opinions concerning pluralism of cultures and the relationship between the various religious, linguistic and ethnic cultures. Intellectuals and scholars from all over the world are helping Reset-DoC and its Intercultural Lexicon project to foster cultural pluralism with their contributions to our publications, debates and public conferences. Today, Anthony Appiah from Princeton explains what the evolution of honor codes can mean to cross-cultural understanding.
- The hard daily lives of Palestinian refugees remain stuck between the impossibility to return to their homeland and the difficulties presented by naturalization: all Arab countries oppose it for political reasons and the West is criticized for understanding any new citizenship as a renouncement to the right of return. And today, in the face of a new exodus from Syria, the assistance of Palestinian refugees is in the hands of a neglected UN agency, sidelined by the marginalization of the only UN-sanctioned route to improve their conditions: the right to return to Palestine. Andrea Glioti for Reset-DoC.
- Despite the political crisis that reigns in Tunisia since February 6, the day of opposition leader Chokri Belaid’s murder, according to Slaheddine Jourchi “the country still has real possibilities of constructing an emancipated and civil State”. Jourchi is a journalist, researcher, one of the best Tunisian political experts, human rights activist and since February 13, one of sixteen chosen for the Council of Elders, nominated to find solutions to the political chaos instilled after Belaid’s death. Reset-Dialogues has interviewed him.
- Iran is preparing for the June presidential elections and its situation seems to be increasingly complex. While the international community still has many doubts about the country’s nuclear programme and many believe a compromise is out of reach, inside a country harshly affected by sanctions, civil society suffers ad would like to see change that is not coming. Centre stage is taken up by disagreements Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Guide, which are becoming increasingly conflicting, while reformists are excluded from the main political debate.
- “We will demonstrate to Americans that this is the kind of journalism they can appreciate”, Al Jazeera America spokesman Stan Collender told ResetDOC, praising the new adventure the Qatari network has embarked upon in the United States, buying Al Gore’s Current TV. However, while Qatar and its media are opening out to the world and to the West, there are still many challenges posed to freedom of the media and of expression in the small Gulf emirate. Is anyone trying to resolve the matter? And how? We asked Jan Keulen, director of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom.