Pope Francis is not afraid of the truth

28/08/2018 Leonardo Boff5 Comentários

We are presently suffering an enormous vacuum of leadership, both in the Church and in society. But there is one who stands out from this mediocrity. That is Pope Francis, precisely because he is not afraid to speak the truth.

A Pope who speaks the truth in the Church

The institutional Church, as all power holders, normally does a tightrope-walker’s discourse, pretending to be above all conflict and tension. The result is anodyne statements, lacking prophetic power, which, in the end, do not move society. Francis, who prefers to call himself Bishop of Rome rather than Pope, does not come from the crepuscular European Christianity (with only 25% Catholics), but from the new Churches, no longer colonial, but with their own indigenous roots. The great majority of Catholics (more than 62%) live in those Churches, to the point that it now can be said that Catholicism is a religion of the peripheral world.

One of the most notable characteristics of this Pope is that he is not afraid to speak the truth. He denounces the pedophiles in the Church, the financial scandals of the Vatican Bank (IOR) and the Church as a fortress, closed within herself and apart from contemporary society. He wants a Church that is open to everyone, better yet, he wants a Church like a field hospital, that welcomes everyone with no questions. Pope Francis levies harsh criticisms on the Bishops and priests who do not proclaim the beauty of the Gospels and the joy of the good news. Francis says that they seem to have a sour face, that they are people of Good Friday, who are as sad as if they were going to their own funerals.

My book, The Church: Charisma and Power, was condemned in 1984 by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, because, according to him, in that book I criticized, as the Protestants did, how power, that carries arrogance and exclusion, predominates over Charisma in the Church. Listening to Pope Francis’ words and comparing them to what I wrote, my criticisms now sound like a pious text.

But, to me, what he said about hell to the faces of the new Cardinals was his most courageous. It is what great many theologians have thought but never could say without risking immediate censure. The Pope says, addressing the fear of hell the Church has used to torment the faithful: God does not know eternal damnation. His mercy is infinite and goes beyond justice. There surely will be a judgment because not everything is right with this world. But the world is not the last act of God, Father and Mother of infinite goodness and mercy. God always brings home everything He created with love, because they were born from the Father’s heart. When the time is right, they will return to what was prepared for them from the beginning of time: the communion in the Kingdom of the Trinity. They certainly would have passed through God’s purifying clinic, but that is the threshold of heaven, and not hell.

This is how we understand the transposition in the terminology of his announcement: Pope Francis speaks of the revolution of tenderness, of the joyfulness of conjugal love, of the beauty of the gospels that fascinates people.

More important than the Church is the creation that is threatened with destruction — the reason for his Encyclical letter about ecology that is addressed to all of humanity — and the commitment to safeguard the conditions that allow for life on Earth. Pope Francis strengthens a new type of ecumenism, putting aside the claim of exclusivity the Roman Catholic Church had that it was the only Church of Christ. It is important that the Churches mutually recognize each other and that together they be at the service of the world, especially of the most vulnerable.

Pope Francis has a clear option for the poor and suffering of this world. He seeks reconciliation with the Theology of Liberation, meeting with the father of this theology, Gustavo Gutierrez, and later on, with Jon Sobrino. As Pope Francis was writing his extraordinary Encyclical letter “on caring for our Common Home”, he was not afraid of asking for suggestions from the writer of these lines. According to well known ecologists, such as Edgar Morin and others, that Encyclical letter puts Pope Francis at the vanguard of the ecological world debate.

In a word, Francis, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic Church, has brought Spring to the Church, with the enchantment this season represents, after a rigorous winter under the severe doctrines and disciplines of previous Popes. Francis put aside all the titles of power, abandoned the pontifical palace to live in a guests-house and to serve himself as any other, because, as he humorously comments, “this way makes poisoning more difficult.”

The structural core of his preaching is the Tradition of Jesus. It is a theological concept recently used to identify the original intent of Jesus of Nazareth, prior to the elaboration of the four gospels. Jesus did not intend to found a new religion, but to teach us to live the goodness of his great utopia, the Kingdom of God, accomplished by total openness to God, unconditional love, unlimited mercy and the centrality of the poor and the invisible.

The message of Jesus is summarized in the Our Father, which affirms God as our Father and no just mine, signifying our upwards dimension; and Our Bread, not my bread, representing the human being taking root in the concrete life. Amen can only be pronounced by those who have united these two poles: the Our Father in heaven and our bread on Earth; Father of all and bread for all.

Because of the Tradition of Jesus, Pope Francis emphasizes that love must come before dogma and doctrine, and the poor before discipline. The obsession with abortion must be overcome by the use of contraceptives and the communion of couples in renewed nuptials. The gospel must not be reduced only to these question, because if this happens, the gospel looses its fragrance and its beauty. Pope Francis forcefully said: “it is better to be a non-believer than to be a hypocritical believer”. And to the lay and the young, Francis said: “A Christian who is not a revolutionary is not a Christian; we must be the revolutionaries of grace”. Francis once again challenged them this way: “Do not be more papist than the Pope, do not be more restrictive than the Catholic Church”.

Pope Benedict XVI wanted a pure Church. Francis prefers a Church that is troubled because she walks in the world, Francis wants the Church to be inclusive, with open doors, and without an office of prosecutors of the faith. The Pope wants a Church always seeking an encounter with the other, a Church for the world… A Church for the poor.

In sum, Pope Francis is not Euro-centric but open to universality. He is not eclesio-centric, because the Church is not an auto-referent, he is not Vatican-centric, because he prefers to guide the Church in a collegiate manner with love, not in a monarchical form with canon laws. Pope Francis lives in a boarding house, not in the Pontifical Palace; he is not pope-centric because he puts the People of God above all and feels like one of its members, clearly with a mission for all the Church. Being the Pope does not keep him from carrying his own briefcase, going to buy his own ticket from Alitalia to fly to the Island of Lampedusa, and to use his own cell phone to call someone who wrote him a letter. And he does not forget his friends, such as the shoemaker and the laborer from Buenos Aires, calling them on the phone once in a while, as he does with his old friends.

Faced with so many Christians who had abandoned the institution, such a Pope returns confidence, morality and respectability to the Church. With Pope Francis the Church regains relevance vis a vis the secular world.

The Pope who speaks the truth in Politics

The first that must be acknowledged with respect to the public and political dimensions of Pope Francis is his own person: charismatic, unaffected, in solidarity with the pain of the world and a friend of the poor. Francis is more than a name. Is a new way to exercise power, as real service and not as a privilege and an instrument of control.

This becomes clear in his total rejection of the titles and privileges that historically were added to the figure of the Popes. In the first pages of the Pontifical Yearbook are often found all the honorific titles that belonged to the Popes. Pope Francis renounced all of that, and simply put his name Fransiscus, with no qualifications.

Heads of State have a powerful security apparatus. Pope Francis foregoes that and travels to even the most dangerous places, such as Egypt and South Sudan. with no protection.

Francis argues: “I did not want to be Pope. It was God who wanted it; so God must defend me. If I am killed, it will be a sign that God has called me and then I will go joyfully to meet Him”. Who can talk in such a free and liberating, I would say, mystical, form, of life and death? Only one who feels himself in the palm of the hand of God. So he has nothing to fear.

Moreover, few Popes were truthful regarding the ills of our culture that directly affect the most vulnerable. Francis is a Pope who has taken sides: he is with the least and the invisible, and against those who disgrace humanity and Mother Earth.

He strongly attacks the system of accumulation an idolatry of money. Francis does not use the word Capitalism, so as not to create difficulties for millions of Catholics who live within this system. But he describes the system in such a way that we are inevitably led to identify the capitalist system and its culture of unlimited consumption, individualism, and lack of solidarity, as the cause of misery and of the profound wounds to the body of Mother Earth.

His speech in the Island of Lampedusa where refugees from Africa arrive and many drown in the journey was very harsh. Francis said: “This culture of the well-off leads to indifference regarding the others; it is the globalization of indifference… We are the society that forgot the experience of crying, of being compassionate; the globalization of indifference has robbed us of the ability to cry”.

A society that no longer cries with the one who is crying has lost its sense of humanity and is effectively on a path of self-destruction and barbarism.

Curiously, returning from his visit to Poland, Pope Francis spoke sharply when journalists in the plane mentioned the issue of terrorism as being of Moslem roots. Courageously, Francis said that which analysts do not want to hear. Religions, including Islam, do not want war, but peace. The refugees are in Europe now, because for centuries we had been in their countries, stealing their wealth and imposing our ways on the organization of their societies. True terrorism is the economic-financial system that is against life. “We must say no to an economy of exclusion and social inequality, that type of economy kills”.

As can be seen, he speaks directly, without obscuring metaphors, like the tightrope-walker type of speeches of previous Pontiffs, who put more emphasis on security and distance than on truth and clarity in their own Papal position. Francis’ position is very clear: he talks and acts evangelically, from the perspective of the poor and wretched of this world and especially for the poor. “About this”, he emphasizes, “there should be neither doubts nor explanations that debilitate such an option, because an indissoluble link exists between our faith and the poor”.

In his Encyclical letter about How to Care for the Common Home he repeats 35 times the need to change our relationship with nature; to change and change if we want to subsist. It is important to feel not that we are outside of nature, as if we were her owners, but that we are part of her and responsible for her sustainability. We must change our form of production, our mode of consumption and distribute well the natural goods and services. In this search for alternatives, Francis will not rely on the Social Doctrine of the Church, even though he respects it. But he notes: “We cannot avoid being concrete so that the great social principles do not remain mere generalities that do not move anyone”. For Francis, we cannot wait for anything to come from above, the logic of which is always more of the same: that of ever increasing income, with no other consideration.

Francis believes in those who are outside of the system and are totally forgotten, because they produce little and consume less. Pope Francis trusts in those on the bottom. Therefore, he has met four times with popular social movements all over the world, three times in Rome and once in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. In that meeting he was unquestionably clear: we must demand the three “Ts”: Tierra, techo y trabajo; (Land, Home, and Work). No one without land for survival, no one without a home or anywhere to live, no one without work to earn life’s essentials.

That is one part. The other was a challenge to popular social movements to be protagonists of the new, new solidarian forms of production, agro-ecological cooperatives, forms of consumption characterized by shared sobriety and by a special care for Mother Earth, who offers us everything and is the basis of all we can project in this life. Pope Francis emphasized three points: that the economy not be at the service of the market, but at the service of life; that of building social justice, the basis of peace, and of caring for the Earth, our Common Home.

His travels have been noteworthy for his invitations to dialogue between peoples and religions. Francis proposes a culture of peace in the face of the more than 40 conflicts that exist now around the world that cost so many people their lives, and destroy so much cultural heritage. He has often noted that the level of conflicts and tensions in the world puts us in danger of a Third World War, whose consequences are unimaginable for the human species and the future of life.

He sounds like a prophet who proclaims in the desert, with extreme gravity and simultaneously, with a sense of hope that we can avoid the tragedy because we have technology, human genius, and above all, because we believe in a God who is “the sovereign lover of life ” (Sabiduria 11,26).

Perhaps his most important political contribution was his 2015 Encyclical letter Laudato Si: About caring for the Common Home. It was addressed not only to Catholics, but to all of humanity. Pope Francis is aware of the threats to life and the Earth systems. And he makes a general call to care for our Common Home.

Francis uses the best scientific data, and from there, he develops a rigorous critique of the causes of the present situation: principally anthropocentrism, because of which humans believe they are the lord and master of nature and can use it at their pleasure. Humanity has developed a culture, now globalized, of total exploiting all natural goods and services for individual accumulation, without considering the destruction of entire ecosystems. This voracity has produced a double injustice: a social injustice, creating immeasurable poverty in a large part of humanity, and an ecological injustice, with the slow erosion of the physical and chemical basis that sustains life.

It is not about a green ecology, as many have called it. The vision of Francis is wider. It is about an integral ecology that includes the environment, society, the human mind (its projects, values and prejudices), politics, and, finally, its spirituality. The document incorporates cordial and sensible reason, that enable us to feel the suffering of nature as our own, that hears both the cry of the poor and the screams of the Earth. If we want to save the Earth we must nourish “a passion for caring for the world… a mysticism that moves us, encourages us, motivates us, and gives us courage” to love Mother Earth and to respect her inhereht limits.

In spite of the grave calls he makes to all, the Pope also elicits hope, be it in the capacity of humans to awaken to their responsibilities, or by using science, done with consciousness, to save life, and finally, by trusting in the Spirit, that according to Judeo-Christian Scriptures is the “Spirit of Life” and “sovereign lover of life”. In the end, he expresses confidence, writing, “Let us walk singing, that our struggles and our concerns for this planet do not take from us the joys of hope” (n.244).

In effect, he has given political content to hope and tenderness. “Tenderness is not weakness but courage; it is the path of solidarity and humility”. Hope is the capacity to say, “We”. And if together we say “we… there starts a revolution”… The revolution of the future starts from the moment when people see themselves as part of a “we”. That is where the social revolution lies, when the “we” opposes the “I alone” and all the other “I’s”, the typical attitude of the current capitalist system.

Bruno Giussani, the European director of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a media organization that puts on conferences and exchanges at the world level, put it well: “Francis has become the only moral voice capable of reaching people beyond our borders, to create clarity and propose a convincing message of hope”.

In a world filled with words of hate and prejudice among religions and cultures, the words of Pope Francis ring like a bell of peace, with an authority that radiates from his kindness, from his profound humanism and from hope against all hope; valuing the beauty, the joy of life and an intimate caring for Mother Earth.

Leonardo Boff pilosopher, theologian an writter

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Leonardo Boff, lboff@leonardoboff.eco.br,
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Riscattare un minimo di democrazia contro lo stato post-democratico

28/08/2018 Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

La democrazia nel nostro paese e in generale nel mondo soffre di una pericolosa erosione. Il giudice di diritto di Rio di Janeiroe professore universitario Rubens Casara (O Estado pós-democrático, Rio 2018), è stato uno dei primi a denunciare l’insorgenza di un “post-Stato democratico” vale a dire uno “Stato” (se così possiamo ancora chiamarlo) che rompe il legami con il patto sociale configurato nella Costituzione e con le leggi e si regge sull’autoritarismo, sull’arbitrio e sulla violenza verso la società, soprattutto verso i più vulnerabili. In Brasile tutto questo sta lentamente avvenendo. Un Supremo Tribunale Federale (STF) senza grandezza e estraneo alla gravità di quello che sta succedendo, lascia passare tutto perfino la violazione del sacro santo precetto della presunzione di innocenza fino a quando non venga comprovata la materialità del crimine ( caso Lula).

La lotta adesso consiste nel ricupero della democrazia, sia pure di quella a bassa intensità, per evitare la dissoluzione del patto sociale che ci permette un minimo di convivenza. caso contrario, entreremmo nel caos e nella barbarie come già si nota in alcuni luoghi in Brasile di grande violenza.

Non smetteremo di reclamare, come fanno i movimenti sociali di base una democrazia partecipativa e popolare che gli Andini ci stanno insegnando con il loro ideale del “vivere bene e convivere bene”, inaugurando per la prima volta in tutto il mondo il costituzionalismo ecologico che inserisce nella Lei Maior i diritti della natura e della Madre Terra (Pacha Mama). Con ciò anticipano quello che sarà sicuramente il nuovo patto naturale articolato con quello sociale della futura società mondiale, se prima non l’avremo distrutta.

Ricorderemo sempre le lezione del grande giurista e filosofo Norberto Bobbio con la sua democrazia con valore universale da essere vissuto in famiglia, nella comunità, nel scuola, nei sindacati, nei partiti e nell’Stato. È morto con una profonda frustrazione davanti alla violenza del terrorismo, perfino dello Stato, negli U.S.A.

Non possiamo perdere il sogno del grande amico del Brasile Boaventura de Souza Santos con la sua democrazia senza fine. Essa è senza fine perché è un progetto aperto che sempre può essere arricchito a seconda della maggiore o minore partecipazione umana e la responsabilizzazione che i cittadini accettano di assumere via via nella costruzione del bene comune e del ben viver e convivere e ridefinire le sue relazioni con la natura nella forma di sinergia, di cooperazione e di cura.

Inoltre, la democrazia come sistema aperto fa sì che potremo stare camminando in direzione di una super democrazia planetaria secondo le affermazione del grande consigliere di Mitterrand, Jacques Attali (Per una breve storia del futuro, 2008). Questo forma di democrazia sarà l’alternativa salvatrice davanti a un super conflitto che, lasciato a corsa sfrenata, potrà porre a rischio la specie umana. Questa super democrazia risulterà da una coscienza planetaria collettiva che si rende conto della specie umana, abitando in un’unica Casa Comune, nel pianeta Terra, piccolo, e con beni e servizi naturali scarsi super consumista e sovrappopolato e sotto la minaccia di cambiamenti climatici che stanno raggiungendo la biosfera, la biodiversità e noi stessi.

La Carta da Terra utilizza due espressioni che segnalano il nuovo paradigma di civiltà: raggiungere “un modo di vita sostenibile” (n. 14) e “la sussistenza sostenibile di tutti gli esseri”. Qui emerge un disegno ecologico, voglio dire, un’altra forma di organizzare la relazione con la natura, il flusso della energia e le forme di produzione e di consumo che vadano incontro alla necessità umana, che ci permettano di essere più con meno e che favoriscano la rigenerazione della vitalità della terra.

Infine, io da parte mia, frutto degli studi in cosmologia e ecologia, ho proposto una democrazia socio-ecologica il ponto più avanzato della integrazioni dell’essere umano con la natura. Essa si inscriverebbe dentro al nuovo paradigma cosmologico dentro al quale si situano pure la natura e la società e ogni persona individualmente.

Sarà una civiltà biocentrata che restituirà l’equilibrio perduto alla Madre Terra e garantirà il futuro della nostra civiltà. Tutti, compresa la intera natura, saremo cittadini, abitando con attenzione e gioia la Casa Comune.

*Leonardo Boff ha scritto Como cuidar da Casa Comum, Vozes 2017.

Traduzione di Romano Baraglia e Lidia Arato

Rescatar la democracia mínima contra el“Estado pos-democrático”

27/08/2018 Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

La democracia en nuestro país y en general en el mundo está sufriendo una peligrosa erosión. Juez de Derecho de Río de Janeiro y profesor universitario Rubens Casara fue uno de los primeros en denunciar la aparición de un “Estado post-democrático”, es decir, un “Estado” (si es que lo podemos llamar así) que rompe con el pacto social configurado en la constitución y por las leyes, y se rige por el autoritarismo, por la arbitrariedad y la violencia en relación con la sociedad, especialmente hacia los más vulnerables. En Brasil lentamente está sucediendo eso. Un STF sin grandeza y ajeno a la gravedad de lo que está ocurriendo deja pasar todo, incluso la violación del sagrado precepto de la presunción de inocencia hasta la comprobación de la materialidad del crimen (caso Lula).

La lucha ahora es para reconquistar la democracia, incluso la de baja intensidad, a fin de evitar la disolución del lazo social que nos permite convivir mínimamente. De lo contrario, entraremos en el caos y en la barbarie como se nota en algunos lugares en Brasil de gran violencia.

No dejaremos de reclamar, como lo hacen los movimientos sociales de base, una democracia participativa y popular o una democracia comunitaria, que los andinos nos están enseñando con su ideal del “bien-vivir y del bien-convivir”, inaugurando por primera vez en el mundo el constitucionalismo ecológico, al insertar en la Ley Mayor los derechos de la naturaleza y de la Madre Tierra (Pacha Mama). Con ello anticipan lo que será seguramente el nuevo pacto natural articulado con el social de la futura sociedad mundial, si no la destruimos antes.

Recordemos siempre las lecciones del gran jurista y filósofo Norberto Bobbio con su democracia como valor universal a ser vivido en la familia, en la comunidad, en la escuela, en los sindicatos, en los partidos y en el Estado. Murió con una profunda frustración frente a la violencia del terrorismo, hasta de Estado en los Estados Unidos.

No podemos perder el sueño del gran amigo de Brasil Boaventura de Souza Santos con su Democracia sin fin. Ella es sin fin porque es un proyecto abierto que puede ser siempre enriquecido cuanto mayor sea la participación humana y la responsabilidad que los ciudadanos van asumiendo en la construcción del bien común y del bien vivir y convivir, redefiniendosus relaciones hacia la naturaleza en forma de sinergia, de cooperación y de cuidado.

Además, la democracia como sistema abierto hace que podamos estar caminando hacia una superdemocracia planetaria en las palabras del gran asesor de Mitterand, Jacques Attali (cfr. Una breve historia del futuro, 2008). Esta forma de democracia será la alternativa salvadora frente a un superconflicto que, dejado a su libre curso, podrá poner en peligro la permanencia de la especie humana. Esta superdemocracia resultará de una conciencia planetaria colectiva que se da cuenta de la unidad de la especie humana, viviendo en una única Casa Común, en el planeta Tierra, pequeño, con bienes y servicios naturales escasos, superconsumista y superpoblado y amenazado por los cambios climáticos que están afectando a la biosfera, a la biodiversidad y a nosotros mismos.

La Carta de la Tierra utiliza dos expresiones que señalan el nuevo paradigma de civilización: alcanzar “un modo de vida sostenible” (n.14) y “la subsistencia sostenible de todos los seres”. Aquí emerge un diseño ecológico, es decir, otra forma de organizar la relación con la naturaleza, el flujo de las energías y las formas de producción y de consumo que atiendan a las necesidades humanas, que nos permitan ser más con menos y que favorezcan la regeneración de la vitalidad de la Tierra.

Por fin, yo por mi parte, fruto de los estudios en cosmología y ecología, he propuesto una democracia socio-ecológica que representaría el punto más avanzado de la integración del ser humano con la naturaleza. Ella se inscribiría dentro del nuevo paradigma cosmológico que ve la unidad del proceso cosmogénico dentro del cual se sitúan también la naturaleza y la sociedad y cada persona individualmente.

Será una civilización biocentrada que devolverá el equilibrio perdido a la Madre Tierra y garantizará el futuro de nuestra civilización. Todos y la naturaleza entera seremos ciudadanos habitando cuidadosa y jovialmente la Casa Común.

*Leonardo Boff ha escrito Como cuidar de la Casa Común, Vozes 2017.

Traducción de Mª José Gavito Milano

Resgatar a democracia mínima contra o “Estado pós-democrático”

25/08/2018 Leonardo Boff5 Comentários

A democracia em nosso país e em geral no mundo está em perigosa erosão. O Juiz de Direito no Rio de Janeiro e Prof. universitário Rubens Casara, foi um dos primeiros a denunciar o surgimento de um “Estado pós-democrático” vale dizer, um “Estado”(que se assim ainda podemos chamar) que rompe com o pacto social configurado na constituição e pelas leis e se rege pelo autoritarismo, pelo arbítrio e pela violência em relacão para com a sociedade, especialmente para com os mais vulneráveis. No Brasil isso está lentamente acontecendo. Um STF sem grandeza e alheio à gravidade do que está ocorrendo, deixa tudo passar, até a violação do sagrado preceito da presunção da inocência até a comprovação da materialidade do crime (caso Lula).

A luta agora é reconquistar a democracia, mesmo a de baixa intensidade, para evitar a dissolução do laço social que nos permite minimamente conviver. Caso contrário, entraremos no caos e na barbárie como se nota em alguns lugares no Brasil de grande violência.

Não deixaremos de reclamar, como o fazem os movimentos sociais de base, uma democracria participativa e popular ou uma democracia comunitária que os andinos nos estão ensinando com o seu ideal do “bem-viver e do bem-conviver”, inaugurando pela primeira vez no mundo o constitucionalismo ecológico, ao inserer na Lei Maior os direitos da natureza e da Mãe Terra (Pacha-Mama). Com isso antecipam o que será seguramente o novo pacto natural articulado com o social da futura sociedade mundial se não a destruirmos antes.

Recordaremos sempre as lições do grande jurista e filósofo Norberto Bobbio com sua democracia como valor universal a ser vivido na família, na ocmunidade, na escola, nos sindicatos,nos partidos e no Estado. Morreu com uma profunda frustração face à violência do terrorismo, até do Estado, nos USA.

Não podemos perder o sonho do grande amigo do Brasil Boaventura de Souza Santos com sua Democracia sem fim. Ela é sem fim porque é um projeto aberto que sempre pode ser enriquecido quanto maior for a participação humana e a responsabilização que os cidadãos vão assumindo na construção do bem comum e do bem viver e conviver e redefinirem suas relações para com a natureza na forma de sinergia, de cooperação e de cuidado.

Ademais, a democracia, como sistema aberto faz com que poderemos estar caminhando rumo a uma superdemocracia planetária nas palavras do grande assessor de Mitterand, Jacques Attali (cf. Uma breve historia do futuro, 2008) Essa forma de democracia será a alternativa salvadora face a um superconflito que, deixado em livre curso, poderá pòr em risco a permanência da espécie humana.. Esta superdemocracia resultará de uma consciência planetária coletiva que se dá conta da unidade da espécie humana, morando numa única Casa Comum, no planeta Terra, pequeno, com bens e serviço naturais escassos, superconsumista e superpovoado e ameaçado pelas mudanças climáticas que estão afetando a biosfera, a biodiversiade e a nós próprios.

A Carta da Terra utiliiza duas expressões que assinalam o novo paradigma de civilização: alcançar “um modo de vida sustentável“(n.14) e “a subsistência sustentável de todos os seres”. Aqui emerge um design ecológico, quer dizer, uma outra forma de organizar a relação com a natureza, o fluxo das energias e as formas de produção e de consumo que atendam as necessidades humanas, que nos permitem ser mais com menos e que favoreçam a regeneração da vitalidade da Terra.

Por fim, eu por minha parte, fruto dos estudos em cosmologia e ecologia, tenho proposto uma democracia sócio-ecológica que representaria o ponto mais avançado da integração do ser humano com a natureza. Ela se inscreveria dentro do novo paradigma cosmológico que vê a unidade do processo cosmogênico dentro do qual se situa também a natureza e a sociedade e cada pessoa individualmente.

Será uma civilização biocentrada que devolverá o equilíbrio perdido à Mãe Terra e garantirá o futuro de nossa civilização. Todos e a natureza inteira seremos cidadãos, habitando cuidadosa e jovialmente a Casa Comum.

Leonardo Boff escreveu Como cuidar da Casa Comum, Vozes 2017.