Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - “Since 1991 we have promoted a culture of giving” professor Luigino Bruni, docent in economy at the Bicocca and Bocconi universities in Milan who is the co-ordinator of an international meeting on New Horizons for the Economy of Communion promoted by the Focolari Movement. The meeting, will be held at Castelgandolfo from 10-12 September and will take a look at results of ten years of efforts at the international level also to identify new horizons .
“It all began in 1991 in Brazil” Prof. Bruni explained, “when Chiara Lubich launched a Programme of Economy of Communion to meet the needs of the poor people in that country and to try to fill the vast gap between the rich and the poor”.
“Economy of communion is a new way of viewing work, connected not only with a logic of profit but to a logic which can be called giving in reciprocity. Some 800 companies are involved on every continent to produce more efficiently and at the same time share profit according to three modalities: re-capitalisation, cultural formation and assistance for the poor”.
These companies operate on the market but see their activity as place and means of communion, brotherhood, justice and use their profit to help the poor and promote a culture of sharing while at the same time developing their business”.
The Focolari movement is the place where business men and women are educated because it is impossible to give without being educated to do so and in fact small and medium companies which try to promote Economy of Communion are born of the movement’s spirituality which they strive implement in their activity. “Our companies” Bruni continued, “are committed to promoting communion inside and outside the company with a style of reciprocity so that communion with the outside is in fact a fruit of something which is lived within the company”.
Besides looking at the results of the activity in the past ten years and the prospects for the future the meeting will also discuss the subject of confrontation and dialogue with social economy in oriental cultures. The participants will listen to reports on experience of micro-credit initiatives inspired by Gandhi’s social thought and Hindu and Jainist cultures.
(P.L.R.) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2004 - Righe 29; Parole 398)
