SÉMINAIRE INTERNATIONAL
8, 9 et 10 octobre 2005
Chateau de Bossey - près de Genève - SUISSE
"Pour un Vieillissement pleinement humain et chrétien"
AGEING - THE ENVIRONMENT,
CRESCENDO AND THE ICO CONFERENCE
Ernest König,
President of the ICO ConferenceIt is a pleasure and honour to be with you again. One year ago I had the opportunity to present to you the Conference with its forty ICOs representing about 150 Mio Catholics, taking into account that the majority of them are not aware of this; a consequence of the mission of the Conference which differs from daily pertinent tasks significantly.
Unfortunately I could not follow the whole seminar; but what I heard were excellent presentations making us aware of a more than challenging development. In order to avoid the risk to repeat what already has been said with high professional knowledge, I will try to tie together different influencing factors over the historical axis combined with a glance in the future. Structuring this I will begin with the frame conditions, and then highlight the relations between Crescendo and the CICO before finishing with a few conclusions.
Within the frame conditions developments will be mentioned, which were and are losing their significant impact on human society as compared to developments which are on the way up; both triggered by the "Age of Enlightment", maybe to some extent three hundred years earlier here in Geneva. But nowadays one may find also grey areas with an outcome not known yet.
What is on the way "down"? Tradition for instance is permanently losing ground, becomes more and more forgotten. Along with this esteem and position of our ancestors in daily live seem to fade away, the glue between the generations over thousands of years might disappear. Along with this one may see the function of the family, the brick stone of the society which is more and more marked as outdated, archaic; a hindrance to the free development of the independent individualistic, maybe egoistic individual. Because of the way of thinking behind these developments the function and importance of religions in the life of people by defining values, standards and obedience and with this the eternity oriented way of life, is shrinking too.
On the other hand &endash; what is one the way "up"? This is above all the individual which is claimed to be in the centre of all thinking. The strive for a good life becomes predominant; hedonism, the sinless world with no responsibility to any authority above us is the philosophy behind. A consequence of this is the almost neurotic longing for more, and, combined with this, the complementary acting. To economize, to "marketize" literarily everything, not only goods but also the human being and even money, has a high priority. Quite frequently one speaks of "Westernization", but we must not forget that the "western way of life" is not a geographical term any more; it refers to a specific habit no matter where in the world; it might also be found in Asian as well as in Arabic countries.
Privatization, lean management or freedom (of the stronger) are a few catchwords. But it also inherits a certain potential of aggressiveness. One can identify this in the military type terminology applied in larger enterprises. Examples might be strategy, attack, unfriendly take over, defend, destroy or capitulate. In consequence the individual is not as free at all as imagined, not as self defined as assumed.
Keeping this in mind we come to the question marks in our time. Is this really happiness pour? Quite frequently the results at the end are rather sobering, even disappointing. Obviously there is a dilemma. The eternal questions, for a long while silenced, "where do we come from, why are we here and where do we go?" are heard again, this means search for something which lasts longer than our life, this would be faith, belief. And this again might influence behaviours, trigger the desire to help, lead to convinced engagement. Christians must not hide in an ivory tower from the evils of this world [1]. On the contrary, we must stand up for our conviction; we must not be defensive at all.
This in mind we may turn our attention to the tendencies, now in combination with ageing. In the medical field the biological and technological progress can enable today a significant prolongation of life; but sometimes one can already hear the troubling question whether society can effort this.
Sociological concerns come in the forefront because of overpopulation and over ageing. Mega cities grow all over the world; more than 50 % of the world population are already confined in such agglomerations. This phenomenon is ranking under number one in Konrad Lorenz's listing of the eight capital sins of mankind. As compared to this, weapons of mass destruction you will find at the very end of this scale. In mega cities the "rat &endash; syndrome" becomes reality: Originally family oriented animals, the rats, turn to aggressiveness, when they are too tight together.
Additionally everything is governed by money from the time even before being born till the time already having passed away and all phases in between. Questions pop up like does ageing pay off? Is it worthwhile to "repair" him/her? Become elderly people a burden which one should try to get rid of? Is euthanasia really only a question of pity or also a concept for a socially convenient and supported earlier death? Are we going to have a system of classes in the foreseeable future - the ones who better pass away properly and in time and, according to their wealth, the others, who will be permitted to live much longer than today?
This does not sound too promising, but it may happen if nothing happens. For us the conclusion is - we must be vigilant keeping in mind that decisions in International Organizations will tailor the shape of the future of a global society &endash; without or with Catholic Contributions, this is up to us; I will refer to the euthanasia issue later. It is promising that one may identify indicators for new dynamics in our church with respect to a more efficient cooperation of Catholic NGOs; maybe the preparatory work of the Conference of ICOs since 1997 and the future oriented decisions of Rome in December 2003, will be helpful for this; some of them are related to the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. We can hope that we are ready for all these challenges.
Turning to Crescendo permits optimism too.
To my understanding this seminar here in Geneva focuses on the fundamentals of Crescendo, the ethic, political and religious aspect with practical implications. In 2006 Crescendo will have its emphasis on "Ageing and the Family" Due to the UNs "Year of the Family plus ten" in 2004 a CICO working group tried to introduce the Christian view in the numerous UN conferences of this year. An excellent document was produced and distributed [2].
At this point it might be helpful to explain briefly the relations between Crescendo and the Conference of the ICOs (CICO): Crescendo is a body of this CICO as the Centres in Paris, Geneva and New York are. It is open in its cooperation beyond the Catholic Community as stated in the CICO's Charter of Quito from 1997. It is a network as the CICO is in reality; maybe Crescendo is already more. It is characterized by initiative and hopefully dynamics. It ties together the issue of ageing with other key issues; by doing so it chooses an interdisciplinary approach as the CICO tries to accomplish.
CICO resolutions from 2003 of potential interest for Crescendo and the relevant Working Groups (WG) are "Education for Peace" &endash; it might be combined with the role of the experienced elderly people. The embedded Project "Sarajevo" could be an opportunity to get involved as the high esteem for the older generation in this region still exists. The WG "Youth" is a frame for fostering the Dialog of Generations [3]; when young people realize that one day they might become old too and then want remain integrated in the society at that time it might be helpful and change thinking processes on both sides. The WG Bioethics is engaged in the issue of Euthanasia especially in the frame of the Council of Europe as Crescendo did; I assume they cooperated already. The WG Health made preparatory steps related to AIDS as a problem of societies; we just have heard of the responsibility of grand parents for AIDS orphans. The WG Economy and Solidarity is working on a manifest, the destiny of the poor is quite frequently specifically due for elderly people. In some of these WG Crescendo is already involved; and if not, it should.
A sensitive issue and not yet covered is "Gender". If objectives of pushing groups go beyond equality it has an impact on the family as brick stone of the society and the Humane society in love and passion. Its application might be the realization of the "Brave New World" [4] with its rootless society without history and without family, with a society liberated from the burden of birth, with happiness originated by drugs and pills, totally controlled by the unquestioned wise leader [5].
To conclude: What we need is a common vision of future mankind, for sure another one as just described. It must be based on our belief with its mystic secrets of faith and our responsibility beyond, the first pillar, an answer to the old conflict between Parmenides and Democritus. The second pillar should be the practical value of Christianity for mankind as described and explained by many philosophers, for instance by Baruch Spinoza already three hundred years ago and about hundred years later by Friedrich Schleiermacher. Love in the centre must be seen in our understanding and not in the quite frequently distorted view of today. We have to take position, and I have the good feeling that this occurs in this seminar.
The overall implication oriented objective of the CICO to contribute to "A more Humane Human Society" is overarched by Albert Schweitzer's "Awe or Respect for Life", for the Creation. We have to fight for our Christian Values in International Organizations, educate and prepare our members for this challenging task and to inform.
The organizational task of the CICO are to be effective, which means to do the right things or to choose the most urgent issues as well as to do the things right or to be efficient. To do so, issue related coalitions of those of good will should be helpful for success.
2006 could be the Year to harmonize activities; this will concern Crescendo, the CICO and all Catholic NGOs active in the forefront of International Organizations.
We must not duplicate our efforts, we must avoid the trap of competition between us, and we are not permitted to remain in contemplation over a more or less evil society. We are "Better Together"; this is up to us and to nobody else.
[1] König, Franz; Erinnerungen an ein erfülltes Leben, Styria, 2004
[2] International Year of the Family &endash; the Family, good News for the Third Millennium, published by CCIC with support of the CICO, Spring 2004
[3] Druyen Thomas, Die Verantwortung der Zukunft: Vermögenskultur, in: Conturen, TrendConsult, 2/05
[4] Huxley, 1927
[5] Mozart, Sarastro in "The Magic Flute", 1791
