2013/2014 ; Il tema del dolo eventuale è un tema di confini. Il confine tra il punire e il non punire; o tra cornici edittali molto diverse tra loro. Ciò perché, da sempre, la distinzione tra dolo e colpa ha una rilevanza fondamentale nel diritto penale. Il motivo principale di tale differenziazione è legato al diverso grado di colpevolezza manifestato da chi agisce con dolo e chi lo fa con colpa. Nonostante ciò, con l'avvento della società del rischio, i confini del dolo sono stati dilatati: se, una volta, il campo di elezione di tale istituto era quello dei rapinatori che sparavano ai loro inseguitori, oggi, invece, probabilmente è quello della circolazione stradale. Non solo. Si pensi alle applicazioni all'attività medica o agli infortuni sul lavoro: territori che, una volta, erano colonizzati dalla colpa, hanno finito per essere anch'essi invasi dal dolo, pur nella sua forma eventuale. Questo fenomeno trova la sua origine in esigenze generalpreventive che, però, finiscono per porsi in contrasto proprio con il principio di colpevolezza, prescindendo da una reale indagine sulla volontà. D'altra parte, «La storia del dolo è un continuo attacco alla sua dimensione soggettiva e più genuinamente psicologica», come ci dimostrano figure quali il dolus indirectus, tramite cui non solo il dolo veniva esteso, ma ne veniva anche semplificata la prova. Il dolo eventuale si sviluppa proprio da questo concetto: tuttavia, lo fa allo scopo preciso di recuperare il momento volitivo del dolo, con funzione, quindi, di garanzia. Per quanto riguarda l'oggi, l'indagine non può che partire dal dato normativo, che ci fornisce questo, fondamentale, punto di partenza: il dolo è essenzialmente volontà dell'evento. E ciò deve valere anche per il dolo eventuale. La volontà, ovviamente, non può prescindere da una piena rappresentazione: senza di essa, sarebbe cieca. Inoltre, è un concetto più ampio di intenzione, come ci dimostra l'analisi dei lavori preparatori al Codice. Dati questi presupposti, si deve ricordare che, per molti anni, la tesi prevalente in Italia per distinguere tra dolo eventuale e colpa cosciente è stata quella dell'accettazione del rischio, così come elaborata da Gallo. Riassumendo brevemente il pensiero dell'autore, si avrebbe colpa cosciente quando il soggetto agente, dopo aver previsto l'evento, si risolva ad agire comunque perché convinto che, grazie alla propria abilità, l'evento non si verificherà; diversamente, si avrebbe dolo eventuale quando l'agente, dopo aver previsto l'evento, agisca ugualmente, accettando il rischio della sua verificazione. Alla base dell'elaborazione di tale criterio distintivo vi è l'idea secondo cui agire accettando il rischio di un evento equivale a volerlo; e suo corollario è che il semplice dubbio, non avendo inibito l'evento, viene considerato sufficiente a integrare il dolo. La teoria in esame, però, manifesta diversi punti deboli, specie nella parte in cui si deve affrontare la distinzione tra colpa incosciente e colpa cosciente. Quest'ultima è espressamente disciplinata dall'art. 61, n. 3, c.p., che prevede l'applicazione di una circostanza aggravante nel caso in cui il soggetto abbia «agito nonostante la previsione dell'evento». La lettera della legge sembra dunque richiedere, da parte dell'agente, non la contro-previsione dell'evento, quanto piuttosto una rappresentazione attuale dello stesso al momento della condotta. Ci si chiede, inoltre, se sia compatibile con il principio di colpevolezza punire di più chi si sia risolto ad agire perché convinto, pur erroneamente, che l'evento non si verificherà, rispetto a chi non si sia nemmeno fermato a riflettere sulle possibili conseguenze della propria condotta. Un ulteriore problema dato dalla teoria dell'accettazione del rischio è di carattere processuale, e riguarda l'eccessiva elasticità, se non genericità, della stessa. Tramite l'espressione accettazione del rischio, infatti, la giurisprudenza ha avuto a disposizione uno strumento particolarmente flessibile, con cui ha sempre potuto sostenere la soluzione che appariva più consona al caso concreto, non solo e non tanto in base a valutazioni giuridiche, ma soprattutto di tipo etico-sociale. Le critiche alla teoria hanno iniziato a essere prese seriamente in considerazione solo quando l'ambito di applicazione del dolo eventuale si è esteso ai contesti a rischio lecito di base: questo fenomeno ha portato a una maggiore attenzione verso l'istituto e, grazie al lavoro degli interpreti, ci si è resi conto che la semplice consapevolezza del pericolo non può essere equiparata alla volontà dell'evento. Allo stesso modo, il dubbio non può ancora essere sufficiente a integrare il dolo. La giurisprudenza ‒ dalle Sezioni Unite relative al rapporto tra ricettazione e incauto acquisto, alle più recenti pronunce in tema di circolazione stradale ‒ pur continuando a prestare ossequio (formale?) alla teoria dell'accettazione del rischio, ha quindi iniziato a elaborare nuovi e diversi criteri, spesso combinandoli tra loro. Si va dal bilanciamento di interessi, alla c.d. prima formula di Frank, alla ragionevole speranza. Solo il primo, però, appare veramente utile, in quanto sembra l'unico in grado di esprimere il nucleo fondamentale del dolo: la scelta, in cui viene ponderato non il mero rischio, ma l'evento collaterale, che viene considerato il prezzo che si è disposti a pagare pur di raggiungere il proprio obiettivo. La formula di Frank, invece, fa riferimento a uno stato psichico ipotetico, che vuole indagare cosa sarebbe avvenuto in una situazione diversa da quella che si è concretamente verificata. Ma al diritto penale interessano i fatti per come si sono svolti, non cosa sarebbe avvenuto in una situazione diversa; inoltre, la formula porta in sé il rischio che si scada in un diritto penale d'autore. Tuttavia, se presa sul serio, la formula può essere utile a livello probatorio: essa, infatti, esprime la massima di esperienza secondo cui nessuno vuole un qualcosa che potrebbe costituire la frustrazione immediata e diretta del proprio obiettivo. Il criterio della speranza, poi, appare inaccettabile: il dolo non è desiderio o malanimo, ma volontà in azione; non è bramosia, ma l'attivarsi in vista di uno scopo. Quindi, così come la speranza non può integrare il dolo, allo stesso modo il desiderio che l'evento non si verifichi, in sé, non può escluderlo. Il criterio della speranza è stato utilizzato dalla giurisprudenza soprattutto in relazione a contesti familiari (contagio di HIV del coniuge; impedimento delle trasfusioni da parte dei genitori Testimoni di Geova alla figlia malata): come si vede, lo stesso ha trovato applicazione, essenzialmente, quando una condanna a titolo di dolo appariva eccessiva, alla luce del legame affettivo tra vittima e colpevole. Ciò detto, è anche vero che dalla lettura delle sentenze pronunciate nei casa appena richiamati sembra emergere una certa sovrapposizione tra speranza e mancata rappresentazione. Proprio questo aspetto rende particolarmente interessante uno spunto proposto dalla dottrina, secondo cui si deve fare attenzione a non confondere i due concetti. Infatti, qualora un soggetto sia convinto che un determinato evento non si verificherà, si dovrà concludere che egli versa in uno stato di errore: di conseguenza, l'evento non può essergli imputato a titolo di dolo. Quanto detto, si badi, vale indipendentemente dalla ragionevolezza del convincimento (o della speranza, che dir si voglia): un errore può ben essere dovuto a colpa; e non si devono confondere prevedibilità e previsione. Tuttavia, il parametro della ragionevolezza torna a rilevare a livello processuale, nel senso che non potrà essere sufficiente, per escludere il dolo eventuale, che il soggetto affermi che era convinto che l'evento non si sarebbe verificato, ma sarà necessario che tale convincimento sia coerente con quanto emerso nel corso dell'istruttoria. Come si vede, non si può prescindere da un'indagine sul tema della prova: il dolo eventuale vive nel processo. Ma come si fa a provare uno stato psichico? Non si può che svolgere un'analisi di tipo indiziario, partendo dalle circostanze del caso concreto. Per svolgere tale operazione inferenziale, si dovranno utilizzare delle massime di esperienza, di cui, nel corso del contraddittorio, si dovranno valutare attentamente l'affidabilità e l'adeguatezza rispetto a quella determinata vicenda. Quanto detto vale per tutte le massime di esperienza, e quindi anche per quella sottesa alla formula di Frank, di cui si è detto sopra. Chiarito ciò, si deve notare che, analizzando la giurisprudenza, è possibile ricostruire un elenco degli indicatori più frequentemente utilizzati: l'oggettivo grado di pericolosità della condotta tenuta dall'agente; le modalità dell'azione; la sua durata e il suo eventuale reiterarsi; gli antecedenti e gli eventuali presupposti della condotta, e in particolare l'adozione di cautele; il comportamento tenuto dall'agente successivamente all'evento; le precedenti esperienze e le eventuali conoscenze superiori del soggetto; il movente. L'elenco non può che essere indicativo e incompleto; ma, nonostante ciò, può fornire all'interprete una bussola per individuare il confine tra dolo eventuale e colpa cosciente. Alla luce di quanto detto sinora, è finalmente possibile procedere all'analisi della vicenda ThyssenKrupp, che ha portato alla recente pronuncia delle Sezioni Unite della Corte di cassazione. Le sentenze che si sono susseguite in questo processo appaiono particolarmente interessanti, poiché da essa traspaiono, in modo emblematico, tutte le problematiche su cui ci si è soffermati. L'espansione del dolo eventuale al fine di trovare uno strumento di tutela idoneo ad affrontare i rischi della modernità; l'utilizzo del criterio economico, della prima formula di Frank e della ragionevole speranza; il ruolo centrale assegnato al tema delle prova. Questi temi sono stati affrontati con impostazioni parzialmente diverse dalle varie decisioni e, alla fine, le Sezioni Unite hanno optato per la tesi della colpa cosciente. Secondo i giudici di legittimità, la teoria dell'accettazione del rischio, nella sua classica formulazione, deve essere superata, e il dolo eventuale deve essere inteso come una ponderazione di interessi ‒ che ha come presupposto una rappresentazione chiara e precisa dell'evento collaterale ‒ in cui si subordina un determinato bene giuridico a un altro. Inoltre, non potranno in ogni caso dirsi voluti gli eventi in grado di comportare conseguenze negative per l'agente, salvo casi particolari. Insomma, d'ora innanzi, si dovrà abbandonare la formula dell'accettazione del rischio: meglio parlare di "accettazione dell'evento", al fine di meglio sottolineare il nesso psichico tra la volontà e quest'ultimo. La soluzione appare condivisibile, ma il percorso logico seguito dalla motivazione suscita comunque alcune perplessità. Si ritiene, infatti, che, da un lato, le Sezioni Unite non abbiano risposto in modo chiaro al quesito che era stato loro posto, cioè quale possa essere il ruolo della ragionevole speranza; da un altro, la tesi della colpa cosciente avrebbe potuto essere sostenuta, semplicemente, chiarendo che vi erano due indicatori quanto meno ambigui rispetto al dolo, da cui non poteva che emergere un ragionevole dubbio sulla sussistenza di tale stato psichico (la personalità particolarmente attenta e scrupolosa dell'amministratore delegato; le precedenti esperienze "fortunate", che avevano impedito, fino a quella notte di dicembre del 2007, che un disastro si verificasse). Le Sezioni Unite, invece, continuano a far riferimento alla formula di Frank, pur riconoscendole un ruolo processuale, anche se non ci capisce bene quale esso sia: si tratta di uno strumento in base al quale valutare il materiale probatorio raccolto o di un indicatore? E, in questo secondo caso, qual è il suo rapporto con gli altri? La decisione, inoltre, sembra contraddittoria quando, dopo aver affermato che l'imputato era convinto che l'evento non si sarebbe verificato, ritiene sussistente la colpa cosciente. Quest'ultima, infatti, dovrebbe consistere in una previsione attuale, non in una contro-previsione. Le Sezioni Unite, però, decidono di seguire un percorso argomentativo completamente nuovo, dando una diversa conformazione anche a questo istituto: e lo fanno partendo da un presupposto molto chiaro, quello secondo cui quest'ultima non esprimerebbe uno status psichico contiguo al dolo eventuale, ma una forma radicalmente diversa di colpevolezza. Dolo e colpa vengono intesi come in un rapporto non di più a meno, bensì di aliud/aliud. Da ciò, i giudici di legittimità deducono che dolo eventuale e colpa cosciente non si distinguono solo per la volontà, ma già nell'ambito della previsione. Per il dolo questa deve essere "puntuale" e "chiara": solo così la rappresentazione può essere presupposto di una vera e propria scelta. Per la colpa, invece, il concetto di previsione deve essere ricostruito non come possibile presupposto della volontà, ma alla luce del nesso necessario tra violazione della norma cautelare ed evento, poiché è questo il fulcro della colpevolezza colposa. Dunque, la previsione, nel reato colposo, non è altro che la conoscenza della connessione tra norma cautelare ed evento-tipo; ciò che conta, quindi, non è tanto la rappresentazione, ancora astratta, ancora sfumata, dell'evento, quanto la conoscenza di questo possibile nesso. La novità della soluzione non ci può far che constatare che, se a seguito di questo importante arresto giurisprudenziale i contorni del dolo eventuale sembrano più nitidi, per l'esatta individuazione dei confini della colpa cosciente, invece, il cammino sembra essere appena cominciato. Ciò detto, un tema ulteriore che merita di essere affrontato è quello dell'incompatibilità del dolo eventuale con alcune fattispecie penali: prima fra tutte, il tentativo. Si ritiene, infatti, che non tanto la non equivocità, quanto piuttosto la direzione degli atti sia ontologicamente inconciliabile con il concetto di dolo eventuale. Il perché è presto spiegato: se il tentativo fosse punibile anche a titolo di dolo eventuale, si finirebbe per dilatare eccessivamente l'anticipazione della tutela penale; e il ragionamento potrebbe ripetersi anche per altre fattispecie, come il disastro innominato. Vi sono poi reati che non possono essere puniti a titolo di dolo eventuale per espressa volontà del legislatore: si pensi all'abuso d'ufficio o alla detenzione di materiale pedopornografico, dove l'utilizzo degli avverbi "intenzionalmente" e "consapevolmente" ha proprio la funzione di escludere la rilevanza di tale stato psichico. Da qui si comprende come le diverse forme di dolo possono essere utilizzate dal legislatore per la costruzione della fattispecie tipica: il dolo eventuale, dunque, rileva anche in relazione ai principi di tipicità, frammentarietà e, tramite essi, di offensività. Pur avendo una matrice comune col dolo eventuale, sono poi logicamente incompatibili con lo stesso tutte le fattispecie, lato sensu, preterintenzionali. Queste ultime meritano particolare attenzione, poiché ‒ senza che sia necessario forzare, inopinatamente, il dolo eventuale ‒ possono costituire uno strumento idoneo proprio per affrontare i rischi della modernità. Concludendo con uno sguardo alle proposte di riforma in tema di dolo eventuale, si deve rilevare che queste sono molteplici. Si va dalla possibilità di definire per via legislativa l'istituto, a quella di introdurre nuove forme di responsabilità per sconsideratezza, assimilabili alla recklessness del diritto anglosassone; dall'ipotesi di prevedere fattispecie tipiche ad hoc (come l'omicidio stradale), a quella di intervenire sul sistema delle circostanze per adeguare il trattamento sanzionatorio. Alcune di queste proposte possono portare dei vantaggi, ma nessuna di esse sembra in grado, da sola, di risolvere il vero problema: quello di un preoccupante aumento delle condotte sconsiderate in contesti a rischio consentito. È infatti questa la ragione che ha portato a un'indebita espansione della categoria del dolo eventuale, assieme alle legittime e sempre più pressanti richieste di tutela da parte delle vittime, a cui è corrisposto un atteggiamento eccessivamente rigoroso ma, almeno per certi aspetti, comunque comprensibile da parte della giurisprudenza. Certo, è fisiologico che ad una società sempre più complessa non possa che corrispondere, necessariamente, un aumento delle fattispecie tipiche rilevanti: la storia umana e quella del diritto penale sono, ovviamente, strettamente intrecciate. Ma il fatto è che la risposta a fenomeni di questo tipo non può e non deve essere esclusivamente di tipo penale. Ciò perché le pene, da sole, non sono assolutamente in grado di garantire l'osservanza dei precetti. Anzi, in tema di infortuni sul lavoro vi è chi ha rilevato come proprio il numero eccessivo di contravvenzioni previste dal legislatore abbia complicato il lavoro delle Procure che, alla luce dell'obbligatorietà dell'azione penale, sono costrette a dover seguire, con risorse non sempre adeguate, una miriade di casi (e lo stesso vale per gli organi preposti alla prevenzione) con conseguente perdita di efficacia del sistema. Dunque piuttosto che un aumento (che rischia di restare solo sulla carta) della risposta penale, sarebbe preferibile dare, ai temi proposti dalla modernità, una risposta di tipo integrato. Il diritto penale non può essere lasciato da solo, e il legislatore non può veramente pensare di combattere questi fenomeni con un approccio emergenziale, fatto magari di decreti-legge contenenti norme scritte sull'onda delle emozioni dettate da tristi fatti di cronaca. Come è stato giustamente rilevato, «il terrorismo sanzionatorio non produce alcun effetto deterrente». Una riforma veramente efficace potrebbe essere solo quella volta a investire nell'educazione dei cittadini e nella prevenzione delle condotte pericolose. Ma questo obiettivi non si conseguono solo con delle norme: è necessario investire, sia nella cultura, sia nella predisposizione di organi di controllo, e ciò vale sia sulle strade che nei luoghi di lavoro. «Finalmente il più sicuro ma più difficil mezzo si è di perfezionare l'educazione (…) e non colla incerta del comando, che non ottiene che una simulata e momentanea ubbidienza»; «È meglio prevenire i delitti che punirgli. Questo è il fine principale d'ogni buona legislazione». A 250 anni dalla pubblicazione del volume di Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene, gli insegnamenti del Maestro appaiono sempre attuali. ; XXVII Ciclo ; 1985
Atualmente, o desafio que a educação nos lança reveste-se de um cariz tão alargado quanto a própria definição do termo. Pensá-la para melhor poder intervir nas múltiplas tarefas que esta nos atribui, enquanto professores, representa um esforço de atualização e adaptação constante com o intuito de encontrar ferramentas de prevenção, deteção e resolução das mais variadas questões com ela relacionadas. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho toma por base uma realidade educacional – a do ensino artístico, na vertente do ensino vocacional da música – que, sendo ainda um pouco desconhecida por parte da população em geral e em certa medida até pelas próprias entidades que a gerem, funciona como um reservatório de experiências de ensino e de aprendizagem transversais a toda uma gama de relações interpessoais que são dignas de ser analisadas à luz de um quadro científico rigoroso. A premência da investigação reside na tomada de consciência enquanto docente do Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu "Dr. Azeredo Perdigão", relativamente ao facto de, nos últimos anos, este setor de ensino ter sofrido alterações várias sob a alçada de um projeto global de massificação do ensino da música, desenhado pelo governo que liderou Portugal até ao ano de 2011. Sendo parte integrante desta extensa engrenagem, vejo-me aliciado a analisar a realidade específica da minha escola, bem como o quadro sócio-organizativo desta, a partir de uma teorização em torno de temáticas lançadas pelos investigadores da área específica das Ciências da Educação. Assim, o que se realça, numa primeira fase, é a necessidade de analisar a própria tipologia de escola, nomeadamente o tipo de conceção que lhe assiste e em que medida esse suporte científico pode ou não trazer melhorias em todos os processos adjacentes à realidade da escola. Considerando-a uma construção sociocomunitária, a escola é um espaço onde se movem diferentes atores, cada um deles com papéis diferenciados e comportamentos expectáveis. Procurando afastar a ideia da escola enquanto locus de reprodução das desigualdades sociais, argumento este praticamente unânime ao nível da opinião pública, este trabalho presta ênfase à urgência de articular aquilo que é um saber sólido assente em rigorosas bases científicas, dentro de um contexto escolar relacional favorável, às valências de toda uma comunidade que a suporta e constrói no dia a dia. Ou seja, coloca-se a tónica na premência de colocar a escola ao serviço das comunidades locais, numa lógica de complementaridade. Igualmente no caso do Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu, este caminho é a forma mais passível de se atenuar uma certa tendência para a elitização do ensino vocacional da música e de se atingir a real e efetiva participação do Conservatório na construção de uma identidade própria, paralela ao estímulo que tal significará no plano do reforço da identidade local. Naturalmente, esta via não pode surgir sem que outro dos pilares teóricos aqui dissecado tenha uma maior efetividade. Tal é a autonomia das escolas, um item que demora ainda a sair de um quadro puramente legal para um plano de ação concreta. Uma escola que não pode planear a sua própria ação, o que pode passar por ações várias como a própria contratação de profissionais do corpo docente, é uma escola enfraquecida sob o ponto de vista da sua eficácia. No que toca ao Conservatório, este aspecto é particularmente visível, ainda que no pólo oposto, uma vez que a relativa autonomia que possui tem-lhe permitido, desde a sua fundação em 1985, uma aproximação sólida e gradual à comunidade em que se insere, transferindo a sua própria cultura de escola para um plano extra-escolar. Tal como os alunos são avaliados, também a escola que os forma o deve ser. Porém, essa avaliação deve ter o intuito de detetar os problemas e apontar soluções, o que se afasta da vulgar ideia subjacente à avaliação de desempenho. Só assim se poderá saber se estamos ou não na presença de uma escola que é eficaz, à imagem daquilo que o movimento das escolas eficazes propõe. A dimensão das escolas, agora organizadas em mega-agrupamentos, tem cada vez mais um impacto negativo tanto no campo do trabalho dos professores como no dos alunos. É por isso de notar, com satisfação, que o Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu soube conseguir crescer, sobretudo a partir do ano letivo 2007/08 (ano da entrada em vigor do novo regime articulado de frequência) com passos relativamente seguros, o que demonstra que a sua autonomia e o tipo de cultura de escola que incorpora (à imagem de uma escola de pequena dimensão) vêm ao encontro das necessidades da sua própria atualização. Embora seja hoje um pouco diferente do que era até 2007, o Conservatório mantém um corpo docente e discente que tenta a todo o custo instituir toda uma cultura adjacente a um projeto comum de luta pelo ensino da música. A unidade da escola advém de um núcleo alargado de colaboradores que agem em prol da escola, porque a sentem como sua. E, poder-se-á dizer, esse sentimento de pertença é atualmente aquilo de que mais carece a esmagadora das escolas, sejam estas do ensino regular ou vocacional. Nesta escola, o professor ainda consegue ter espaço para sonhar e viver apaixonadamente a sua profissão numa perspetiva de aprendizagem e partilha, entre colegas e alunos, constante. O presente trabalho propõe algumas formas de ação que se situam quase num plano de prevenção e correção de pequenos problemas que se prendem com a relativa debilidade da estrutura administrativa, salvaguardando no entanto a mais valia funcional do Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu. ; Actuellement, le défi de l'éducation est de lancements de nature plus large que la définition même du terme. Jugeant préférable d'être en mesure d'intervenir dans les multiples tâches que nous assigne, en tant qu'enseignants, est un effort de mise à jour et d'adaptation afin de trouver des outils pour la prévention, détection et résolution de plusieurs questions liées à elle. En ce sens, le présent travail est basé sur une réalité de l'éducation – l' éducation artistique, dans la composante de l'enseignement vocationnelle de la musique – qui, cependant encore peu connu par la population générale et dans une certaine mesure par les entités mêmes qui la gèrent, agit comme un réservoir d'expériences d'enseignement et d' apprentissage dans toute la gamme des relations interpersonnelles qui méritent d'être analysés à la lumière d'un cadre scientifique rigoureux. L'urgence de la recherche réside dans une prise de conscience, de ma part et en tant que professeur du Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu "Dr. Azeredo Perdigão", pour ce qui concerne le fait que, durant les dernières années, le secteur de l'éducation a subi plusieurs changements sous l'égide d'un projet global pour l'éducation de masse de la musique, conçu par le gouvernement qui a dirigé le pays jusqu'à 2011. Faisant partie de ce vaste engrenage, je suis porté à analyser la réalité spécifique de mon école ainsi que son cadre socio-organisationnelle, à partir d'une théorisation des questions lancées par les chercheurs dans le domaine des sciences de l'éducation. Par conséquent, ce qui est destiné à mettre en évidence, d'abord, est la nécessité d'analyser la typologie même de l'école, en particulier son type de conception et dans quelle mesure ce soutien scientifique peut ou non apporter une amélioration dans tous les processus adjacent à la réalité de l'école. Considérant l'école une construction sociocommunautaire, on la classifie comme un lieu où ils se déplacent divers acteurs, chacun avec différents rôles et comportements attendus. En regardant au loin l'idée de l'école comme un lieu de reproduction des inégalités sociales, ce qui est un argument commun, ce travail met l'accent sur l'urgence d'articuler ce qui est un bon savoir fondée sur une base scientifique rigoureuse, à un cadre de valences de toute une communauté qui soutient et renforce l'école de jour en jour. Autrement dit, il y a un accent mis sur l'urgence de mettre l'école au service des communautés locales, dans une logique de complémentarité. Dans le cas du Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu, ce chemin est aussi le plus susceptible d'atténuer une certaine tendance à l'élitisme de l'enseignement vocationnelle de la musique et de parvenir à une participation réelle et effective du Conservatório à la construction de son propre identité, parallèlement à la relance que cela signifie en termes de renforcement de l'identité locale. Naturellement, cet itinéraire ne peut survenir sans l'efficacité d'un autre des piliers théoriques ici disséqué. Telle est l'autonomie des écoles, un élément qui prend encore du temps a sortir d'un cadre purement juridique en vue d'un plan d'action concret. Une école qui ne peut pas planifier sa propre action, ce qui peut passer par différentes actions telles que l'embauche de ses professionnels, est une école affaiblie du point de vue de son efficacité. En ce qui concerne le Conservatório, cet aspect est particulièrement visible, mais à l'opposé, puisque l'autonomie relative qui lui a permis d'avoir, depuis sa fondation en 1985, une approche solide et progressive à la communauté dans laquelle il opère, faisant le transfert de sa propre culture scolaire pour un plan extra scolaire. Tels que les étudiants sont évalués, également l'école le doit être. Cependant, cette évaluation doit détecter les problèmes et trouver des solutions, ce qui s'éloigne de l'idée commune derrière l'évaluation des performances. C'est alors seulement que nous pouvons savoir si on est en face d'une école qui est efficace ou non, à l'image de ce que le mouvement des écoles efficaces propose. La taille des écoles, désormais organisé en méga-groupes, a un impact de plus en plus négatif à la fois sur le champ de travail des enseignants que des élèves. On constate donc avec satisfaction que le Conservatório de Música de Viseu a pu se développer, en particulier depuis l'année scolaire 2007/08 (année d'entrée en vigueur du nouveau régime de fréquence articulé) selon des étapes solides, ce qui démontre que son autonomie et le type de culture scolaire qui incorpore (à l'image d'une petite école) viennent pour répondre aux besoins de leur mise à jour. Bien qu'il soit un peu différent aujourd'hui de ce qu'il était encore en 2007, le Conservatório a un corps de professeurs et d'étudiants qui essaie à tout prix de perpétrer toute une culture adjacente à un projet commun de lutte pour l'éducation musicale. L'unité de l'école vient d'un noyau de collaborateurs qui agissent au nom de l'école, parce qu'ils la voient comme la sienne. On peut dire que le sentiment d'appartenance est ce qui manque à la plupart les écoles, soient-elles issue de l'enseignement régulier ou vocationnelle. Dans cette école, l'enseignant peut encore rêver et vivre passionnément son métier selon une perspective d'apprentissage et de partage constants, entre collègues et étudiants. Cet article propose quelques formes d'action qui se trouvent plutôt sur un plan de prévention et correction de problèmes mineurs qui ont trait à la relative faiblesse de la structure administrative, en préservant toutefois la fonction de gain du Conservatório. ; Currently, the challenge launched by education is as wide as the very definition of the term. Thinking it best to be able to intervene in the multiple tasks that education assigns us, as teachers, represents an effort to update and constantly adapt in order to find tools for prevention, detection and resolution of various issues related to it. In this sense, the present work is based on the reality of a less known education - the art education, specifically the musical vocational education - which is still somewhat unknown by the general population and to some extent even by the very entities that administrate it. This particular reality acts as a reservoir of experiences of teaching and learning across the whole range of interpersonal relationships and consequently deserves to be analyzed in the light of a rigorous scientific framework. The urgency of this research lies in the awareness, while teaching at the Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu " Dr. Azeredo Perdigão", regarding the fact that, in recent years, the education sector has undergone several changes under the umbrella of a global project for mass education of music, designed by the government that led Portugal till 2011. Being part of this extensive gear, I am induced to analyze the specific reality of my school, as well as its social and organizational features, theorizing from issues launched by researchers in the field of educational sciences. Initially, the enhance is put in the need to analyze the very type of school, particularly the kind of design that is being considered and to what extent this scientific support may or may not lead to improvements in all processes adjacent to the reality of school. Considering it as a socio-communitarian construction, school is a place where different actors, each one with different roles and behaviors expected, move. Looking away from the idea of school as a locus of reproduction of social inequalities, this argument virtually unanimous in terms of public opinion, this work lends emphasis to the urgency of articulating what is a sound knowledge based on rigorous scientific basis, within a favorable relational school context, to the valences of an entire community that supports and builds it day by day. That is, there is the stress on the urgency of putting the school at the service of local communities, in complementarity logic. Also in the case of the Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu, this path is the most likely to mitigate a certain tendency toward elitism of the vocational education of music and to achieve real and effective participation of the Conservatório in building is own identity, parallel to the stimulus that this will mean in terms of strengthening the local identity. Naturally, this route cannot arise without a greater effectiveness of another theorical pillar discussed here. Such is the autonomy of schools, an item that is taking time to move away from purely legal framework to a concrete action plan. A school that cannot plan is own action, which can go through various actions such as hiring its own professionals, is a weakened school from the point of view of effectiveness. Regarding the Conservatório, this is particularly visible, albeit at the opposite pole, since the relative autonomy it possesses has allowed it to have, since its foundation in 1985, a solid and gradual approach to the community in which it operates, transferring is own school culture to the whole social plan about. As students are assessed, also the school that educates them should be. However, this assessment should be taken in order to detect problems and identify solutions, which departs from the common idea behind the performance evaluation. Only then we can know whether or not we are in the presence of a school that is effective, in the light of what the effective schools movement proposes. The size of the schools, now organized into mega-clusters, has an increasingly negative impact both on the field of the teachers' and the students' work. It is therefore noted with satisfaction that the Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu has been able to grow, especially since the school year 2007/08 (when the new frequency articulated regime entered into force) with relatively safe steps, which demonstrates that its autonomy and the type of school culture it incorporates (as in the image of a small school) come to meet the needs of its own update. Although it is a little different today than it was until 2007, the Conservatório has a faculty and student body who tries at all costs to establish a culture adjacent to a joint project of fighting for music education. The unit of the school comes from a core range of collaborators who act on behalf of the school, because they feel it like theirs. And it may be said that this sense of belonging is what currently lacks the more in the majority of the schools, whether from regular or vocational type. In this school, the teacher still has room to dream and live passionately his profession in a perspective of constant learning and sharing, among colleagues and students. This paper proposes some forms of action that lie almost in a plane prevention and correction of minor problems due to the relative weakness of the administrative structure, preserving however the gain function of the Conservatório Regional de Música de Viseu.
1. Diese Arbeit ist eine Nachfragestudie, die auf den Mikro-Daten des Verbrauches für Lebensmittel und im Rahmen einer statisch, Nutzenmaximierend, und partielle Modell bearbeitet ist. Die Studie ermöglicht eine Bereitstellung von Information über das Zusammenhang zwischen den konkurrierenden Warengruppen in einer vollständigen Nachfrage System. 2. Derzeitige Wirtschaftentwicklung, die unter anderen wegen der im Juli 1997 ausgebrochene Krise ausgeprägt ist, hat eine dringende Notwendigkeit für die Politik und Wissenschaftler der Lebensmittel und Landwirtschaft dieses Landes um eine Information auf die Konsumsverhalten der Haushalte in ihrer Reaktionen auf die Änderung der Verbrauch determinierenden Faktoren wie Einkommen, Preisverhältnis, Einführung neuer Marken in Lebensmittelprodukte, Intensivierung der Anzeigen, Änderung im Modus des Einzelhandels, usw., sowie die Änderungen in demographische Faktor der Haushalte. Der Bedarf nach dieser Informationen sind um so großer, weil es nach im Juli 1997 ausgebrochene Wirtschaftkrise ein tief greifende Strukturwandel gibt, die vielfältige Folge mitgebracht hat. Diese Folge sind unter anderen: (i) Indonesien ist daran gezwungen, die Wirtschaft, einschließlicher Lebensmittelmarkt sich an einem Markt System zu orientieren; (ii) die durchschnittliche Kaufkraft des Volkes ist zu der Ebene der vor zehn Jahre zurück gegangen; (iii) Der Preisverhältnis verändert sich. (iv) Politisch gesehen, steht die indonesischen Regierung derzeit vor einer Ära der Dezentralisierung. Diese Faktoren konnte es dazu führen, der sich Struktur der verschiedenen Haushaltsgruppen in Indonesien zu ändern. Dazu ist es Notwendig, eine Studie mit den lokalen spezifische Sicht des Verbrauchs verhaltens durchzuführen. 3. Zu den Zeitpunkt ist die existierende Information unzulänglich, weil die vorherigen Studien wenn überhaupt da sind, lediglich nur auf Einzel Gleichung schätzende Modell begrenzt sind, und sie sind meisten basiert auf einen argregierten Datei. Auf Grund der Wichtigkeit des Haushalts als die entscheidende Einheit in Verbrauch und auf Grund einer wachsenden Erreichbarkeit von Makrodaten, hat diese Studie einen disaggregierten Haushalt Mikrodatensatz von der Provinz Ost Java, Indonesien benutzt. 4. Die Studie hat folgende Ziele: Erstens, Nachfragenparameter für die untersuchten Lebensmittelgruppen zu finden, damit man die Wirkung einer Preisänderungen auf die Nachfrage der Lebensmittelgruppen für verschiedene Einkommengruppen in der Provinz Ost Java, Indonesien analysieren kann. Zweitens, um zu zeigen, wie man die Studienergebnisse für real politische Grundsatzfragen um die Lebensmittel und die Landwirtschaft nutzen kann. Drittens, um die spezifischen Wohlfahrtwirkungen der ausgewählten Preispolitik für verschiedene Einkommengruppen zu bewerten. 5. Ein historisch perspektive Überblick über die Republik von Indonesien zeigt an, dass Indonesien eine Wirtschaft mit schwerer staatlicher Einmischung in der Vergangenheit ist, und eine Änderungen von diesem grundlegenden Modell eine Sache des politischen Pragmatismus ist. Die ändernde Wirtschaftstruktur des Landes hat dazu zuführen, das die Rolle der Landwirtschaft im Brutto Inland Produkt (BIP) Beitrags verringert ist, obwohl diese noch wichtig ist für die Lebensmittelsevorkehrung und Anstellung. Steigende pro Kopfseinkommen pro Jahr auf dem Land hat nur geringe Minderung des Verbrauches auf Nahrungsmitteln zu Folge. Reiskonsum hat einen hohen Anteil der gesamter Nahrungsmittelausgaben in allen Haushaltgruppen. Daher hat sich Nahrungsmittelpolitik in Indonesien vorherrschend noch auf Reis konzentriert. 6. Dieses Studie hat den disaggregierten Mikrodatensatz von Haushaltsausgaben bearbeitet. Dieser Datensatz ist von so genannten SUSENAS (die nationalen Sozial Wirtschaftliche Datenerhebung), für die Perioden 1990 1993, 1996 und 1999 von Ost Java Provinz Indonesien eingestellt. Der Ausgaben und der Einkommenmodul von dem SUSENAS Verhebung bedecken alle Haushaltausgaben in einer Woche der Aufzählung mit voller Spezifikation von Waren. Aufgeführt in den Umfragen sind 231 Verbrauchwaren, die Daten auf Quantitäten und Werte gesammelt wurden. Der Datensatz für jede Verhebungsperiode ist von 5692 Haushalten (1990), 7638 Haushalten (1993), 8015 Haushalte (1996), und 8552 Haushalte (1999) in städtischen und ländlichen Gebieten gesammelt. Die zentrale Behörde der Statistik hat die dreistufige stratifizierte Probe für den SUSENAS angewandt. Für Verbrauchsdaten der Nahrungmittels war das Zeitreferenz eine Woche vor der Aufzählung von Daten. 7. Die theoretische Grundlage dieser Studie ist die Neonklassische Verbraucherwirtschaft. Theorie und die verwandten Methoden sind präsentiert, um das in dieser Studie gebrauchten Modell zu rechtfertigen. Wir haben aufgrund einige theoretisch, empirisch und pragmatische Berücksichtigungen die Entscheidung getroffen, die linearen Annäherung von der nahezu idealen Nachfragensystem ( (LA/AIDS) Modell zu benutzen. Es befriedigt die Axiome der Wahl, argregiert perfekt über die Verbrauchern, hat eine praktische Form, die verträglich mit Haushalthaushaltdaten ist, ist einfach zu schätzen, und kann prüfen die wahren Einschränkungen der Nachfragentheorie. Es kombiniert auch den Beste von theoretischen Eigenschaften von sowohl Rotterdam als auch Translog Modelle. Wenn man der Preisindex von Stone im Modell anwendet, ist das Modell als eine Lineare Annäherung der Nahezu idealer Nachfrage System (LA/AIDS) genannt. Der Gebrauch des Compensating Variation (CV) Konzeptes schlägt vor, dass die Ergebnisse der Nachfragenschätzung gut zur politische Analyse beitragen kann. Das CV ist die Entschädigungszahlung (Betrag des Geld) der den Verbraucher ebenso wohl als vor der wirtschaftlichen Änderung verlässt. Es mag positiv oder negativ sein. Es ist positiv, wenn die wirtschaftliche Änderung dem Verbraucher schlechter drauf macht, und Negativ, wenn die wirtschaftliche Änderung dem Verbraucher Verbesserung bringt. 8. Da das CV Geld metrisch ist, ist sein Ausdruck abhängig auf einem absoluten Wert der Währung des Landes. Dies ist weniger vergleichbar. Um dies zu vermeiden, kann es in einem relativen Begriff durch Gebrauch zum Beispiel, eines Preisindexes, umgestalten werden. Dadurch ist es metrisch unabhängig. Auf diesen Grund, wurde Fischer Idealer Preisindex in dieser Studie benutzt, der Wohlfahrtsänderung anzunähern. Fischer Idealer Preisindex ist ein geometrisches Mittel des Laspeyres- (PL) Preisindex, PL = , und der Paasche (PP) Preisindex Pp = . Es ist algebraisch als .ausgedrückt. Es vertritt eine Änderungskaufkraft, die als eine Annäherung der Wohlfahrtsänderung gilt. 9. Die geschätzten Gleichungen für das LA/AIDS sind in Tabelle 6. 2 zu 6. 9 zusammengefasst. Für die ganzen Perioden von der Verhebungen, die städtische und ländliche Gebiete bedecken, gibt es 88 Gleichungen für das LA/AIDS. Achtzig Gleichungen aus diesen 88 wurden direkt durch das SAS Program (die 6,12 Ausgabe) geschätzt, durch die Verwendung der iterativen scheinbar nicht verwandten Regression (ITSUR) Schätzungsverfahren. Die Parameterschätzungen für den Rest von 8 Gleichungen wurden von Gebrauch der Prinzip summierung (add up principle) wiedererlangt. In diesen Modellen wird die Veränderung der Budgetanteilen von elf Nahrungsmittelsgruppen in den Studiegebieten von den folgenden Faktoren bestimmt: Preise (das eigene- und kreuzt Preis), Einkommensnivue, die vom totalen Ausgaben der wöchentlichen Budget auf Nahrungsmitteln angenähert werden, die Einkommengruppe von den Haushalten, und der Haushaltgröße, die den Rest des demographische Merkmale vertritt. Insgesamt sind 220 Parameter in jeder Gleichung, die direkt oder indirekt von dieser Schätzung resultiert. Tabelle 6.10 fasst die Schätzungsleistung durch die Vorlage der Anzahl der statistisch signifikante Schätzungen von 170 Parametern der einzelnen Gleichungen zusammen, die direkt in dieser Studie geschätzt wurden. Statistik gesehen, wird die schlechter Leistung der Schätzung von einer vertreten, die 55 Prozent statistisch signifikante Schätzungen gibt (Tabelle 6.2: Urban90). Die beste Schätzungsleistung wird von einer vertreten, die 78 Prozent statistisch signifikante Schätzungen gibt (Tabelle 6.3: Rural90). Die Tatsachen, dass mehr als die Hälfte von Parameterschätzungen in jedem Gleichungssystem statistisch signifikant sind, gibt einen Grund zu beanspruchen, dass die Modellspezifikation passend ist. Auch direkte Beobachtung auf den Ergebnissen der Schätzung zeigt an, dass Mehrheit von Parameterschätzungen großer sind, im Vergleich mit ihren Standard Fehlern. Die liefern ein gewisses Maß an Vertrauen zu sagen, daß die Schätzungen zuverlässig sind. Diese i n allen vorschlagen, daß unsere Hypothese, wie ausdrücklich in der LA/AIDS Modell, von der Daten unterstuzt wird. Das ist zu sagen, dass die Nachfrage nach Nahrungsmittel in den Studiensgebieten ansprechend ist zu Preisen, totale Ausgaben für Nahrungsmitteln, Einkommengruppen und die Haushaltgröße. 10. Die asymptotische Likelihood Ratio Test auf die Nachfrage Ristriktionen zeigt an, dass das Ergebnis der Prüfung im Einklang mit der früheren algemeinen Ergebnisse von anderen Autoren steht. Das ist, der Homogenität und der Symmetrie Restriktionen in den meisten Fällen von der Daten übertreten worden sind. Es bedeutet aber nicht unbedingt, dass die Theorie falsch ist. Es kann der Fall sein, dass die Daten und Modell nicht die Theorie unterstutzen kann entweder wegen der Dateneigenschaft, und/oder Modell Spezifikation. 11. Die Zeichen von den AIDS Parametern liefern Informationen über die Eigenschaften der Nachfrage nach Nahrungmitell. Man kann durch Besichtigung folgern, dass Waren mit negativen Verbrauchparameter ( a) Einkommen unelastisch sind, und diejenige, die mit positiven Parametern ( , Einkommen elastisch sind. Beobachtung auf den AIDS Schätzungen hat angezeigt, dass Reis in alle Fälle einkommen unelastisch ist. Andere Waren haben eine Mischungsleistung ausgestellt, die von den Gebieten und Verhebungsperioden abhängen. Fisch, Fleisch, Tabake und Betel, und vorbereitete Speise haben eine Allgemeinheit ausgestellt, einkommen elastisch zu sein. Andere Ergebnisse, die im Einklang mit der Intuition haben, sind die Ergibnisse die angezeigt haben, dass alle Nahrungsmittelgruppen eine negative Preiselastizitäten besitzen. Meisten von der untersuchten Waregruppe, mit Ausnahme von Eiern und Milch, sind Eigenpreis unelastisch. Die Tatsache, dass die entschädigten eigenen Preiselastizitäten (compensated ownprice elasticity) deutlich verschieden sind von denen der gewöhnlichen eigenen Preiseselastizitäten hat angezeigt, dass es Nachfragenwirkungen in jeder Preisesänderung der Warengruppe gibt. Andere Warengruppen sind ansprechend (responsive) auf der Änderung des Reisespreises. Das Gegenteil ist nicht der Fall. In Allgemein ist kreuze Preisbeziehung unter den Speisengruppen weniger einflussreich ist. Die Einbeziehung der Haushaltsgröße in den ganzen AIDS Model fuer Nahrungsmittel wird gerechtfertigt von der Tatsache, dass die meisten Parameterschätzungen, die Haushaltgröße vertreten, statistisch bedeutsam (significant) waren. Deswegen, ist es fest gestelt, das die Ausgaben fuer die Mehrheit der Nahrungsmittel von der Anzahl von Haushaltsmitglieder beeinflusst werden. Ein zusätzliches Haushaltmitglied kann verursachen, dass einige Haushaltausgaben steigen fuer das eine oder mindern für das anderen, um auszugleichen. Als die Anzahl von Haushaltmitglied zunimmt dan verringern der Verbrauch des Tabaks, Früchte und Gemüse, vorbereite te Speisen, und Fisch und Fleisch. Diese Reduktionen sind gemacht, um der Verbrauch von anderen Nahrungskategorien mit positiven elastizitäten, hauptsächlich Reis, Nicht-Reisstoffen, und essbares Öl. Die Zunahme der Haushaltsgröße ist mit der Abnahme derjenigen Speisenqualität verbunden. Der Verbrauch der billiger Kohlenhydrats-reicher Speise ist hauptsächlich eine Strategie, die von Haushalten mit große Mitgliedszahl genommen wird. 12. Die geschätzten Nachfragenparameter versorgen einen vollständigen und gleichmäßigen Rahmen für Bewertenschläge irgendeiner Regierungspolitik. Die Kombination des direkten Reises- und indirekte Tabak Preispolitikes ist in diesem Studie benutzt worden, die Nützlichkeit der Ergebnisse dieses Studie vorzuführen. Der Preis des Reises hat einen wichtigen Auswirkung auf das Ausgabenmuster von privatem Haushalt; weil Reis ein wichtigen Einflusses auf dem Haushaltausgaben hat. Die Preisberechnung, die in diesem Studie geleitet wird, schlägt vor, dass die Liberalisierung des Reismarktes eine Wohlfahrtsverbesserung an aller Einkommensgruppen macht. Wenn der Verbrauch von Tabak besteuert wird (indirekter Preisberechnung), wird dann Regierungseinkünfte steigen, ohne das Schaden von so viel armen Haushalten. ; This is a micro-data based study of demand for food in the framework of a static, utility maximizing, and partial model that enables the provision of knowledge on the interrelatedness among the competing commodity groups in a complete demand system. The dynamics which took place in the economy of contemporary Indonesia has created an urgent need for policy makers and scholars of food and agriculture sector of this country to have a knowledge on the spending behavior of the households in their response on changing consumption determinants like income, relative prices, the introduction of new brands in manufactured foods, an intensifying advertisement, changing mode of retailing, etc., as well as the changes in the demography of households themselves. The need is reinforced, as Indonesia after enjoying two decades of economic booming was hit by a devastating economic crisis that broke out in July 1997, the ramification of which prevails until the time of study. The consequences of this crisis are manifold. Economically speaking, the crisis has (i) forced Indonesia to approach a market system that among others, liberalizes the previously intervened food market, (ii) set the purchasing power of the average Indonesian back to the level of ten years before (iii) also changed the prices relatively. Politically, the Indonesian government is now facing an era of decentralization. These factors in combination might change the consumption structure of different household groups in Indonesia. Additionally, it places an urgent need to conduct a study also with local specific perspective of consumption behavior. Until today, the existing knowledge is deficient, because previous studies are limited to the estimation of single equation model based on an aggregated data. Due to the importance of the household as the decisive unit in consumption, and due to an increasing accessibility of micro data, this study used a dis- aggregate micro data set from the province of East Java, Indonesia. Given that background, the objective of this study is firstly to find demand parameters for food groups under investigation, based on which one can analyze the effects of expenditure and price changes on demand of eleven food groups for different income groups in the province of East Java, Indonesia. Secondly, to demonstrates the use of the study results for real policy questions about the food and agricultural sector. Thirdly, to evaluate the specific welfare effects of selected price policies for different income groups. The brief exposition of the republic of Indonesia in a historical perspective indicates that Indonesia is an economy with heavy state intervention in the past and departing from this basic model is a matter of political pragmatism. Changing the economic structure reduced the role of agricultural sector in terms of GDP contribution, but it is still important for food provision and employment. Increasing income per capita per year in the country reduced slightly percentage of expenditure on food. Rice expenditure has a high share of total food expenditure in all household groups. Therefore, food policy in Indonesia has dominantly centered on rice. This study employed the cross sectional household consumption/expenditure micro data set from the so called SUSENAS (the National Socio -Economic Survey), for the periods 1990, 1993, 1996 and 1999 representing the province of East Java, Indonesia. The consumption and income module of the SUSENAS survey covers all household expenditures during a week of enumeration with full specification of commodities. Listed in the questionnaires are 231 consumption items, for which data on quantities and values were gathered. The data set of each survey periods is collected from 5692 households (1990), 7638 households (1993), 8015 Households (1996), and 8552 households (1999) in urban and rural areas. The central Bureau of Statistics applied the three-stage stratified sampling for the SUSENAS. For food consumption the survey reference period was one week prior to the enumeration of data. The theoretical framework of this study is the neo-classical consumer economics. Theory and the related methods are presented in order to justify the model used in this study. Some theoretical, empirical and pragmatical considerations have brought us to the decision to use the linearized approximation of an almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) model. It satisfies the axioms of choice, aggregates perfectly over consumers, has a functional form, which is consistent with household budget data, and simple to estimate and test the true restrictions of demand theory. It also combines the best of theoretical features of both Rotterdam and translog models. When Stone s index is used in the model it is termed as a linear approximation of almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS). The use of the concept of compensating variation suggests that results of demand estimation contribute well to the analysis of policy. Compensating variation is the compensating payment (amount of money) that leaves the consumer as well of as before the economic change. It may be positive or negative. It is positive, if the economic change makes consumer worse off, and negative, if the economic change brings betterment to the consumer. Because compensating variation is money metric, its expression is dependent on an absolute expression in term of country s currency unit. This is less comparable. To avoid this, one can transform it in a relative term by using for example, price index, which is metric independent. Based on that, Fischer Ideal Price Index was used to approximate the welfare change. Fischer Ideal Price Index is a geometric means of Laspeyres- (PL) price index , PL = ), and the Paasche (PP) price index, Pp = . It is expressed algebraically as = . It represents a changing purchasing power as an approximation of welfare change. The estimated equations for the LA/AIDS are summarized in table 6.2 to 6.9. For all the periods of surveys, covering urban and rural areas, there are 88 equations for the LA/AIDS. Eighty equations out of these 88 were estimated directly using SAS program the 6.12 edition, by applying the iterative seemingly unrelated regression (ITSUR) estimation procedure. The parameter estimates for the rest of 8 equations were recovered by using adding-up principle. In these models, the variation of budget shares of eleven food groups in the study areas are determined by (the own- and cross) prices, income level which is approximated by the weekly household s total expenditure on food, the income group of the households, and the household size accommodating the rest of demographical characteristics of the households. In total, 220 parameters in each of equation are resulted directly or indirectly from this estimation. Table 6.10 summarizes the estimation performance by presenting the number of statistically significant estimates out of 170 parameters in each equation that directly estimated in this study. As a matter of statistics, the worse performance of the estimation is represented by the one that give 55 per cent statistically significant estimates (table code 6.2: Urban90). The best estimation performance is exhibited by the one that brought 78 per cent statistically significant estimates (table code 6.3: Rural90). The facts, that more than the half of parameter estimates in each equation system is statistically significant may be the basis to claim, that the model specification is appropriate. Also, direct observation on the results of estimation indicates that majority of parameter estimates are large relative to their standard errors. These deliver some degree of confidence to say that the estimates are reliable. These in all suggest that our hypothesis, as explicitly expressed in the LA/AIDS model, is supported by the data. That is to say, that food demands in the study areas are responsive to prices, total food exp enditure level, income groups and the household size as measured from survey data. The asymptotic likelihood ratio test on demand restrictions indicates that the result of the test is consistent with the previous common findings by other authors. That is, the homogeneity and symmetry restrictions were in most cases violated by the data. However, it does not necessarily mean, that the theory is wrong; it may be rather the case, that the data and model combined do not support the theory either because of data property, and/or model specification. The signs of the AIDS parameters deliver information on the nature of the demand for food commodities. So, by inspection one can infer, those with negative expenditure parameters are income inelastic, and those with positive parameters, are income elastic. Observation on the AIDS estimates indicated that rice is in all cases income inelastic. Other commodities exhibited a mix performance depending on the areas and survey periods. Fish, meat, tobaccos and betel, and prepared food exhibited a generality of being income elastic. Other findings that support the intuition is that all food groups showed a negative own price elasticities. Most of commodity groups under investigation, with exception of Eggs and Milks, are own price inelastic. The fact, that the compensated own price elasticities are different clearly from those of the ordinary own price elasticities indicated that there is a demand effects in each of price change of the commodities groups being analyzed. Other food groups are responsive on the change of rice price. The reverse is not the case. In general, cross price relationship among the food groups are less influential. The inclusion of household size in the AIDS model for food is justified by the fact, that most of the parameter estimates representing household size were statistically significant. So for the majority of food items it holds that an additional of household s member will cause some household expenditure to increase and others to decline to balance the household size variable. As the number of household member increases, households reduce their consumption of tobacco, fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, and some time, fish and meat. These reductions are made in order to increase the consumption of other categories with positive household size elasticities mainly rice, non-rice staple, and edible oil. The increase of household size definitely associated with the decline in the food quality consumed by the households. The consumption of cheap carbohydrate-rich food is mainly the s trategy taken by households having a large membership. The estimated demand parameters provide a complete and consistent framework for evaluating impacts of any government policy. The combination of direct rice- and indirect tobacco pricing policies has been used in this study to demonstrate the usefulness of the results of this study. The price of rice has an important impact on private household s spending pattern, because of its important influence on the household s budget. The policy exercise conducted in this study suggest, that liberalizing the market of rice will make households of all income groups better-off, and a combination of it with a tobacco-taxing (indirect pricing) will increase government revenue without harming so much the poor households.
L'oggetto della nostra ricerca riguarda le dinamiche sociologiche in materia di gestione del discredito a seguito dello scandalo degli abusi sessuali nella Chiesa Cattolica dal 2002 al 2010, prendendo in considerazione alcuni degli eventi mediaticamente più significativi che hanno caratterizzato l'intera vicenda. Il punto di partenza della ricerca è il 9 gennaio 2002, quando il quotidiano americano The Boston Globe ha pubblicato un'inchiesta relativa a un caso di abuso nell'arcidiocesi di Boston. In seguito abbiamo assistito a una propagazione del fenomeno non solo in altre diocesi del territorio, ma anche in alcuni Paesi europei; tra questi abbiamo incentrato la nostra analisi sulla situazione in Irlanda. Le ragioni di questa scelta sono state dettate dal fatto che dagli Stati Uniti è esploso mediaticamente il caso e per tutto il decorso della vicenda essi si sono posti nello scenario internazionale come opinion leaders, non solo a livello di politiche adottate per contrastare il fenomeno (tra tutte, la zero tolerance), ma anche per quanto riguarda l'adozione di prime specifiche norme in materia di tutela dei diritti dei minori. Il focus sull'Irlanda è invece dettato dalla forte tradizione cattolica presente nel Paese . La scelta degli Stati Uniti e dell'Irlanda, poi, è motivata da alcune ragioni di fondo che sembrano accumunare entrambi i Paesi; innanzitutto, la dimensione del fenomeno (ovvero, negli Stati Uniti dal 1950 al 2002 sono stati segnalati circa 4392 preti accusati di abuso sessuale sui minori ; in Irlanda, invece, tra il 1965 e il 2005 sono state registrate più di 100 denunce di abusi su ventuno preti che operavano nella sola diocesi di Ferns ). Un successivo aspetto fa riferimento, invece, all'interesse dei mass media americani (e irlandesi) circa le modalità di rappresentazione della vicenda, spesso presentata in "termini scandalistici", i cui fatti accaduti circa trent'anni fa sono riproposti all'opinione pubblica come se fossero fatti attuali. Infine, dall'America sono partiti anche i primi processi, che hanno portato in molti casi a gravi crisi finanziarie delle diocesi locali che hanno dovuto risarcire le vittime; inoltre, da qui sono scattate le denuncie contro il Vaticano e il Papa (nel settembre del 2011, infatti, lo SNAP , una delle maggiori associazioni delle vittime, ha presentato un'istanza al tribunale dell'Aja conto Benedetto XVI il cardinale Tarcisio Bertone, il cardinale Angelo Sodano e l'ex Prefetto della Congregazione, William Levada). In Irlanda si presenta uno scenario più o meno simile; i dati del Rapporto Ferns, infatti, hanno evidenziato lo stesso modus operandi delle diocesi locali che, in molti casi, hanno offerto alle vittime grossi risarcimenti monetari per evitare che i casi diventassero uno scandalo per la diocesi stessa o per la Chiesa in generale. Il lavoro è stato diviso in tre sezioni: una prima parte, di taglio sociologico, espone le matrici alla base del concetto di credibilità, prestando particolare attenzione alla credibilità delle istituzioni (con la Chiesa Cattolica) e dell'individuo (nello specifico, abbiamo parlato della relazione tra il sacerdote e il minore-vittima dell'abuso). Successivamente abbiamo analizzato le modalità di costruzione della notizia tenendo presenti gli aspetti caratterizzanti il processo del newsmaking e i valori notizia impiegati per la rappresentazione dei fatti da parte dei quotidiani stranieri ed italiani. Infine, abbiamo affrontato il problema del panico morale, sulla scorta dello studio di Griswold sulla costruzione di un problema sociale in relazione al ruolo e all'influenza mediatica in questo processo (Griswold 1997). Nella seconda parte del lavoro, abbiamo applicato le categorie dei valori notizia, delle strategie di tematizzazione dei quotidiani e del panico morale nella ricostruzione dei casi di abuso in America e in Irlanda. Al fine di offrire un quadro quanto più ampio dei singoli fatti, abbiamo elaborato una breve ricostruzione storica sulla base della documentazione prodotta da alcune fonti ufficiali, quali: il sito ufficiale della Santa Sede, referti medici, indagini governative e inchieste condotte dalle diocesi locali o da autorità giudiziarie. Nell'impossibilità di esaminare tutta l'enorme mole di materiale prodotto dagli organi di stampa durante questi anni, abbiamo selezionato due tipologie di articoli giornalistici: - Per i quotidiani stranieri abbiamo scelto l'editoriale, quale forma giornalistica capace di esprimere il punto di vista della direzione del giornale. Le testate impiegate come fonti sono così suddivise: a. Per gli Stati Uniti, ricordiamo: The Boston Globe e The New York Times; b. Per l'Irlanda, invece, abbiamo: The Irish Times; Per quanto riguarda l'analisi degli articoli italiani, invece, abbiamo selezionato i tre quotidiani più letti in Italia: Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica e La Stampa. In questa circostanza abbiamo optato per l'articolo di cronaca, come forma di esposizione di una notizia per eccellenza. Alla ricostruzione storica e mediatica dei principali casi di abusi sessuali abbiamo esaminato la risposta proveniente dalla Chiesa Cattolica nei suoi vari livelli, considerando gli interventi pubblici, le decisioni e i gesti significativi valutando le eventuali analogie e differenze di azione compiute nel corso degli anni da Papa Giovanni Paolo II e da Papa Benedetto XVI. In tal senso, abbiamo fatto riferimento a una fitta documentazione disponibile sul sito ufficiale del Vaticano. I risultati dell'analisi fanno riferimento a due precisi ambiti. In primo luogo, abbiamo preso in esame gli effetti prodotti dai media analizzandoli su due fronti: innanzitutto secondo un'ottica autoreferenziale, ovvero valutando eventuali cambiamenti di posizione rispetto all'avvicendarsi dei fatti e, infine, in relazione alla risposta dell'opinione pubblica prendendo come parametri di riferimento i sondaggi di popolarità e gli indici di fiducia e consenso rivolte alla Chiesa Cattolica. In secondo luogo, poi, abbiamo considerato sulla base delle statistiche e dei sondaggi elaborati, qual è stato il feedback dell'opinione pubblica estera in relazione alla risposta della Chiesa (locale e del Vaticano) e a quel preciso periodo temporale in cui la vicenda si stava evolvendo. Questa modalità riflette una questione fondamentale dell'intera vicenda, ovvero, non essendo ancora conclusa la questione degli abusi (sia da parte della Chiesa Cattolica sia in termini di risoluzione dei casi) al momento non si dispongono di cifre esatte per poter fare una stima circa l'efficacia (o meno) delle strategie di gestione del discredito applicate dalla Chiesa Cattolica. La metodologia impiegata per lo studio sugli articoli è di tipo qualitativo, ovvero, ricorrendo a un'analisi semantica e lessicale con cui abbiamo individuato le parole-chiave, le espressioni maggiormente ricorrenti e i temi (come il dibattito sull'istruzione della Crimen Sollicitationis) collegati alla vicenda; in tal senso, abbiamo applicato lo studio condotto da Dardano (1973) per l'analisi del linguaggio dei giornali. Tra le fonti impiegate per la nostra ricerca abbiamo tenuto conto, come già detto, della documentazione pubblicata on line (dai singoli quotidiani come approfondimenti agli articoli), di quella consultabile negli archivi digitali delle diocesi straniere e di quella reperibile nel sito del Vaticano. Inoltre per quanto concerne il materiale estrapolato dalla "rete" disponiamo: 1. Delle perizie psichiatriche, dei referti medici e delle lettere di corrispondenza tra i vari livelli delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche americane. 2. Dei rapporti delle varie commissioni di inchiesta, come ad esempio: il Rapporto Ryan (maggio 2009), il Rapporto Murphy (novembre 2009) e il Cloyne Report (luglio 2011) diffusi in Irlanda a seguito delle indagini condotte negli istituti religiosi, nelle diocesi del territorio sui casi di abusi sessuali contro i minori e impiegati come strumenti di repressione e prevenzione del fenomeno. Altro esempio è il John Jay Report, uno studio condotto dal John Jay College of Criminal Justice dell'Università di New York, commissionato dalla Conferenza Episcopale dei Vescovi d'America Abbiamo estrapolato i regolamenti, le normative promulgate dalle diocesi locali in materia di gestione dei casi di abuso e nell'ambito della tutela dei diritti dei minori. Alcuni esempi sono: il Framework Document del 1996 (dall'Irlanda), oppure, le Essential Norms promulgate nel 2002 dalla Conferenza Episcopale Americana. 3. Dei discorsi ufficiali, dei comunicati stampa e degli interventi pubblici di Papa Giovanni Paolo II, di Papa Benedetto XVI e di alcuni esponenti del Vaticano. Abbiamo, inoltre, le trascrizioni degli interventi del Papa durante gli incontri con le vittime e durante i viaggi compiuti nei Paesi in cui si sono verificati gli episodi di abusi. 4. Delle normative e dei regolamenti canonici in materia di tutela dei minori dal 1962 ad oggi. Come approfondimento per valutare gli effetti che i casi hanno prodotto in Italia abbiamo raccolto anche una prima serie di interviste, realizzate in Italia e a New York e in Irlanda a giornalisti e vaticanisti che si sono interessati alla vicenda. Ricordiamo qualche nome dall'Italia: Marco Tosatti (La Stampa), Marco Politi (Il Fatto Quotidiano), Stefano Maria Paci (Skytg24) e Andrea Tornielli (La Stampa). Dagli Stati Uniti abbiamo invece: Luciano Clerico, Emanuele Riccardi e Alessandra Baldini (inviati dell'agenzia di stampa Ansa) e Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete (Teologo e giornalista del New Yorker ed editorialista del New York Times). Come testimonianza della situazione irlandese, abbiamo invece un'intervista a Gerard O'Connell (giornalista e collaboratore dell'Irish Times). ; The main theme of our project research is about the sociological dynamics of the discredit as a result of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church; in particular we consider the mass media coverage on the topic from January 2002 to March 2010. Our start point is January 9th, 2002 when the american newspaper, The Boston Globe published an investigation about a sexual abuse case in the Boston Archdiocese. Then, we considered the development of the issue in the american dioceses and in the other European countries too; from all the cases that happened, we decided to consider the Irish situation. The reasons that moved our decision depends on whether the case began in the United States by the newspaper and throughout the development of all the case, the american mass media played the part as opinion leader within international scenario, not only not only for the politics which have been adopted to contrast the phenomenon (among the many, the "zero tolerance" one), either for the adoption of first specific rules concerning the defense of child's rights. The focus in Ireland has been, whereas, set out by the strong Catholic tradition across the nation . The choice of both the USA and Ireland, is motivated by some major reasons seeming to pool the two countries together: first of all, the phenomenon size (namely in the USA from 1950 to 2002, 4392 cases of sexual abuse onto minors have been reported ; while in Ireland between 1965 and 1005, more than 100 sexual abuses complaints have been registered on 21 priests operating in the Ferns diocese itself ). Another following aspect, whereas, refers to the US mass media interest (and the Irish ones as well) about the representation of the occurrence, often presented in "tabloid terms" whose facts occurred over thirty years ago, are now presented as still topical Eventually, the first lawsuits started out in the US, which in several cases have brought the local dioceses to serious financial problems, as these were supposed to refund the victims; in addition there are allegations to the Vatican and the Pope (in fact, in September 2011 the "SNAP" one of the major victims' association submitted a petition to the Aia court against Benedict XVI, cardinals Tarcisio Bertone and Angelo Sodano and the former congregation chief officer, William Levada ). In Ireland the scenario is quite similar to the above mentioned one, the data from the Ferns Report highlighted the same modus operandi in the local dioceses, which, in most cases offered the victims generous monetary refunds to keep the cases from becoming a scandal for the diocese's sake or the entire Catholic church. The work is divided into three sections: in the first one we treated the theory of the credibility, in particular focusing the Catholic Church credibility and the relationship between the priest and the abused minors. Afterwards we analyzed the news' construction modes, considering the news making process and the news values either, employed for the representation of facts on the Italian and also foreign newspapers' behalf. At last, we talked about the construction of the moral panics and the relationship with the Griswold theory on the construction of the social problems by the mass media influence. Finally, we confronted the "moral panic" issue being spotted from Griswold's study about the construction of a social issue in relation to the media role and influence within this process (Griswold 1997). In the second part of this work we have applied the news values categories, newspapers thematization strategies and the moral panic in the reconstruction of the abuses in Ireland and in the USA. In order to offer a wider pattern of the single facts, we have elaborated a short historical reconstruction based on the documents produced and issued by some official sources such as: the Holy See official website, medical reports, governmental investigations and enquiries carried out by local dioceses and judiciary authorities. Due to the enormous amount of material produced by the press organs during all of these years, we have picked out two typologies of journalism articles: - For the foreign newspapers we have chosen the editorial, as the journalistic form able to express the newspaper's editorial management. The newspapers employed as sources are under this division: a. For the United States, we recall: The Boston Globe and The New York Times; b. For Ireland, we have : The Irish Times; As far as the analysis of the Italian articles, we have, whereas, selected the three Italian most read newspapers: Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and La Stampa. Besides the historical and media reconstruction of the major abuse cases, we examined the response moving from the Roman Catholic church within its various levels, considering the public interventions, the decisions and the significant gestures by evaluating any analogy and difference in the action brought on over the years by the Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. In this acceptation we have referred to a voluminous documentation available on the Vatican official website. The outcomes of this analysis refer to two sharp fields. Firstly, we have examined the effects produced by the media, analyzing them onto two different hands: first of all through a self-referring perspective, either evaluating any change of position with respect to the occurrences following one another, and at the end, with respect to the public opinion, taking as standards the popularity surveys and the ratings of trust and consensus towards the Catholic church. Second to this, based on the statistics and the elaborated surveys we considered what was the feedback from the foreign public opinion related to the church's response (locally and from the Vatican either) and to that precise time lap where the deeds were taking turns. This modality reflects one fundamental question of the whole matter, that is, since the question of the abuses has not been resolved yet (both from the church behalf and in terms of resolution of the facts) at the moment there is no reliable numbers to estimate the efficiency or not of the discredit management strategies applied by the Catholic church. The methodology employed in this study is qualitative, namely a semantic and lexical analysis through we have found out the key words, the most redundant expressions and the themes (like the debate about the constitution of the "Crimen Sollicitationis") related to the occurrence; in this acceptation we have applied the study carried out by Dardano for the analysis of newspapers' language. Among the sources employed for our research we held in consideration, as previously said, the online edited documentation (by single newspapers as deeper examination on the articles) those available in the digital archives of the foreign dioceses as well the one at disposal on the Vatican website. In addition, as far as the material excerpted from the "web" we have: 1. psychiatric examinations, medical reports and mail letters exchanged among the various levels of the American clergy hierarchy. 2. Several reports from the enquiry boards, for instance: Ryan Report (May 2009), Murphy Report (November 2009), Cloyne Report (July 2011) released in Ireland after the investigations carried out in religious institutes and facilities, in the local diocese on sexual abuses cases onto minors and employed as repression and prevention means of the phenomenon. Another example is the John Jay Report, a study performed by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, within the New York University, commissioned by the American Episcopal Conference. We have excepted regulations, rules enacted by local dioceses concerning the management of abuse cases and the safeguard of minors' rights. Some of the examples are the Framework Document, 1996, (from Ireland) and the Essential Norms promulgated in 2002 by the American Episcopal Conference. 3. Public speeches, press communications and public appearances by the Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as well as by other Vatican exponents. Also we have the transcriptions from the Pope's statements during the meetings with the victims and the journeys in the countries where the abuses had occurred. 4. Canonical regulations and norms regarding the minors' rights safeguard from to 1962 up to our days. As a deeper examinations in order to evaluate the effects that these cases produced in Italy, we collected a series of interviews too, carried out in Italy, in New York and in Ireland to journalists and vaticanists getting interested in this occurrence. We recall some name from Italy: Marco Tosatti (La Stampa), Marco Politi (Il Fatto Quotidiano), Stefano Maria Paci (Skytg24) and Andrea Tornielli (La Stampa). From the United States we have: Luciano Clerico, Emanuele Riccardi and Alessandra Baldini (reporters from the press agency Ansa) and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete (Teologist and journalist for New Yorker and editorialist for New York Times). As a testimony for the Irish situation we have an interview to Gerard O'Connell (journalist and collaborator for the Irish Times). ; Dottorato di ricerca in Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale (XXIV ciclo)
From the introduction: Ongoing globalization leads to the metamorphosis of social and economic structures and changes the scope of national governmental and non-governmental institutions. Not at least, it changes the aspect of national mentality. The creation of the European Union in 1957 is only one example for the fusion of economic and political domains. In fact, financial and capital markets liberalize, the number of global player rise, and the establishment of international non-governmental organizations increased from 1956 to 1997 by 1,600 % from 985 to 15,965. On the whole, the opportunities for business´ to take influence on the global level are higher and probably more necessary than ever before in history. Economic interrelations and dependencies, international scarcity of non-renewable energy resources and the global climate disaster lead to the necessity of introducing international institutions that act not only in national interest, but serve for the global stabilization of the world economy and its sustainability. A new aspect or logic consequence of globalization arises: Global Governance (in the following abbreviated as GG). GG is one major concomitant phenomenon in the ideology in the disparity in national interests of sovereign states. This difference in the interests of individual items compared to the interests of the entire society exists as long as human beings. Literature calls it the 'moral hazard phenomenon'. There might be common, as well as divergent interests on an efficient solution of various problems, for example in the areas of shelter for refugees and asylum seeker, the problem arising from weapons of mass destruction and the regulations of CO2 emissions. With ongoing globalization there arises a complex multidimensional competition framework. Not only global commercial companies, but also national entities start to compete in terms of production factors, fiscal and political environment and legal frameworks with each another. Figure 1 illustrates the global competition framework by showing up the interrelation among country A and country B. The countries are illustrated including first, their official political entity (government) and secondly, to the Trans-National Companies (in the following abbreviated with TNCs) operating within the country. The third party illustrated is 'the employment'. National government, TNCs and the employment of civil society are interrelated with each another within one country in two directions. Firstly, the TNCs affect the employment and therefore as a result, the government. The higher the action of TNCs within the country, the higher is the employment rate of the civil society (the lower the unemployment). The lower the unemployment rate, the more satisfied the civil society is, and therefore the more powerful the government becomes (because of higher chances to be re-elected). Secondly, the government has impact on the benefits and competitive advantage of TNCs. The better the education policy, the more valuable becomes the human capital. The better the human capital, the more efficient and thus the higher the productivity of TNCs becomes. On a whole, national government can create benefit for TNCs and the other way around. Figure 1 also illustrates the competitive relationship among country A and country B. Both countries compete in terms of providing attractiveness to the TNCs. Attractiveness can be reached by the creation of valuable factors (such as skilled labour et al.). However, this skilled labour also needs to be attracted. As the model introduces a second country, skilled labour can easily move to a place with better factors for the society (better living conditions, better security system, better employment chances, better environmental care, and much more). Though, governments do not only compete for TNCs, but in addition to that for civil society and as a result, finally for voters and power. To sum up, TNCs compete with each other in terms of production. Governments compete with each other in terms of factors. Both, TNCs and the national government, depend from each another and can therefore form an alliance in order to gain in competitive advantage and Global Power (abbreviated in the following as GP). From the aim driven point of view (as explained further in section 1.3.2), GG aims to face and to deal with global challenges in order to balance the markets, to maximize overall welfare and aspire an equal distribution of resources and wealth all over the world. At the same time, GG can be used as a strategic measure and a tool for regulating markets and gaining in competitive advantage and GP. This thesis is going to deal with GG as business strategy based on the neo-realistic approach. The increased presence of TNCs in local economies as a strategy to ensure market control has been labelled 'glocalization'. Research Question: At least after WW II, global society started to realize the ongoing trend for economic trade-off, liberalization of markets and the principle of the invisible hand; not only on a national stage, but on the global layer. National boarders melt, since the action of trade, the economic power, now shifts from the national level to a global degree. International acting companies gain in power and influence with, for instance, direct investments, rising turnover, increased cash flows, and not at least with their bargaining power (in the following abbreviated with BP). The increase in BP is often linked to (global) political activities. Global player, such as TNCs, serve often as a tie between several nations and economies. Though, there are still national governments, and national interests that are not to bring in line with the interests of the global society as a whole. There sometimes might be also dissensions among governments and the TNCs operating in the same arena. The crucial factor then is the BP of the actor. It is not always the case, that government and TNC are equal in having BP. Often there arises an asymmetric dependency, which causes a drop of BP for one of the parties. That disparity and the management of different parties' interests in general, is what Global Governance is all about. During the last 50 years, companies used their BP in order to implement national lobbying as an instrument for gaining in Global Power (in the following abbreviated as GP). Now, as national levels are detached from global platforms and by the GG framework, there arises one important question: Is Global Governance a useful strategy tool for the business sector? In most literature, Global Governance is defined to be an aim driven, goal oriented approach in order to solve problems resulting by the globalization process. But there is only little research in order to find an explanation of how exactly GG is organized. The first essential question to answer now is: What are the factors that influence GG? The second question is: How do these factors influence GG? Third question is: Is there a relation between GG and GP? Last question: Can GG be used as a business strategy in order to increase GP? If yes, how? Research Methods: The thesis´ objective is it to figure out the relationship of involvement into Global Governance and the business´ Global Power. It is pre-assumed that an increase in Global Power leads to an increase in a business market dominating power. Thereby it will be found out, what particular can be done to gain in Global Governance involvement. Several strategies are imaginable. This thesis will work out a new strategy approach by combining 1) Porter's 5 Forces model with 2) Hirschman's model of 'voice and exit" strategies. Further the framework of Global Governance will be transferred to the traditional 5 forces model in order to detect the location of Trans-National Companies in their competitive environment. Further an additional sixth force is going to be introduced. After analyzing the competitive environment of Trans-National Companies and the impact of governmental institutions on the industry, several strategies for gaining in Global Power will be developed, using the new hybrid strategy approach as a tool. In the section of definitions (1.3), the thesis and their basic components are going to be analyzed and explained. Within the theory framework (2.1-2.4), the thesis will be set up theoretically. The case study of Gazprom as Trans-National Company will transfer the theoretical model to a practical example. Thus, Russian influence on the world market (for energy) rises, and the situation concerned Europe directly, the example chosen is very relevant and of actuality. In the end the findings will be evaluated. The unit of analysis used in the theory framework is based on the global level. That is rationale because Global Actors in general are going to form the basis of the framework. However, the topic itself implies choosing the global level as unit of analysis. The case study will concentrate on a specific firm. Here it will be switched to the firma level as unit of analysis. That makes sense, because there are only little volumes of industries that do globalize. On the other hand on the global level there is already everything globalized. Only the smallest unit of analysis fits here, because on the firm level there can be made a decision if to go global or not. Further the unit of the other player is scaled in the same small way.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: 1.Introduction7 1.1Research Question10 1.2Research Methods11 1.3Terms and Definitions13 1.3.1Globalization13 1.3.2Global Governance15 1.3.3Power20 1.3.4Strategy27 2.Theory Framework30 2.1Global Actors in Global Governance's Competitive Environment30 2.1.1The Role of Civil Society in Global Governance30 2.1.2The Role of International Organizations in Global Governance32 2.1.3The Role of the State in Global Governance33 2.1.4The Role of TNC in the Global Governance36 2.2Porters 5 Forces Industry Analysis of TNCs37 2.2.1Rivalry37 2.2.2Threat of Substitutes41 2.2.3Threat of New Entrants42 2.2.4Bargaining Power of Buyer and Supplier43 2.3The Government and International Organizations as Sixth Force45 2.4Elaboration of TNCs´ BP Rising Strategies52 2.4.1Self Regulatory Institutions (SRIs)54 2.4.2Privatization of the Public Sector54 2.4.3Quasi-Regulation55 2.4.4Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)55 2.5Conclusion of Theory Framework57 3.Case Study: Gazprom61 3.1History Background of Russians Policy61 3.2Economy Background63 3.3Strategy framework64 3.3.1Gazprom and Russia64 3.3.2Gazprom and NGO´s65 3.3.3Gazprom and Europe66 4.Conclusion69 Bibliography70 Appendix72Textprobe:Textprobe: Chapter 2.2, Porters 5 Forces Industry Analysis of TNCs: Figure 11 sums up the transformation of GAs to the Porter's model. It illustrates the factors that influence the competitive environment in GG in terms of Global Power of TNCs. In the following it will be provided an analysis of the relevant forces and the competitive environment of TNCs on the GG layer in terms of GP. That analysis serves the purpose to detect the best fitting strategy for TNCs in order to increase the industry's BP. 2.2.1, Rivalry: Strong competition among rival firms decreases profits and makes the industry less attractive. However, competition is not always perfect and firms are not only price takers, but strive for a competitive advantage over their rivals, too. The intensity of rivalry is influenced by a set industry characteristics. The traditional aspects are the volume of competitors, the market growth, the aspect of the entrance cost and exit costs, the switching costs and the level of product differentiation. Rivalry will be increased by a larger number of firms, because more firms must compete for the same purpose. Rivalry even intensifies, if the firms have similar market volume and impact. When looking at the TNCs as firms, who compete for GP, there is a large number of such. In comparison, there are a lot of global player coming from different countries, representing different intentions, but only less alternatives to influence a global decision making process, or a national decision making process, that affects the world globally (demand). In fact, there are in total sum 44,000 TNCs in the world, with 280,000 subsidiaries and an annual turnover of US$ 7,000 billion. Two-thirds of world trade results from TNC production networks. The share of world GDP controlled by TNCs has grown from 17 percent in the mid-60s to 24 percent in 1984 and almost 33 percent in 1995 (UNCTAD). 51 of the world's largest economies are in fact TNCs. Continuous mergers and take-overs have created a situation in which almost every sector of the global economy is controlled by a handful of TNCs. On a whole the total volume of TNCs is rather high; however there is only little Global Power available. Due to that aspect, rivalry is high. If there is a growing market, firms are able to increase revenues simply because of the economic growth itself. A slow market growth causes firms to combat for market share and rivalry grows. Here we are talking about the market of GP in GG. The market size is only hard to measure. However it will be assumed that ongoing globalization is the factor that results in a growth in the market for assessing GP in GG. According to that argument, rivalry will be decreased within the industry of TNCs. When the majority of costs are fixed, the firm must produce near capacity to attain the lowest unit costs. Since the firm must sell a larger quantity of the product in order to benefit from economies of scale, high levels of production lead to a fight for market share and results in increased rivalry. In this case the 'product' TNCs produce is too abstract, to link it anyhow to fix or variable costs. What TNCs 'sell' is not their actual product (e.g. General Motors sells cars), but the influence they have in economy. As a result, it can be said that the more BP a TNC already has, the more influence it has, the lower costs every additional unit added. So the theory of economies of scale can be covered. However, there are no other fixed costs than the fixed costs of running the business anyhow. To sum up, it can be said that the fixed costs in the TNC´s industry are indifferent. However, there can be detected an economies of scale effect. Thus, rivalry in the existing market becomes higher. When a customer can freely switch from one product to another there is a greater struggle to capture customers. Low switching costs increase rivalry. The customer in our case is the national government (or International Organization) as GA who uses the BP of a TNC as product in order to benefit from it in terms of increasing its own GP. Switching costs may arrive when asking which TNC in detail to support. There might be done distinctions from TNCs operation industry (such as energy sector, security sector or media business). This notion leads to the argument of diversification of the product, which will be explained further. In addition here plays the linkage of the TNC an essential role; If the TNC is somehow linked to activities with other GAs. Thought, switching costs in general are assumed to be high, not at least of the lack in trust, experience, information and transparency. Therefore rivalry rises. Low levels of product differentiation leads to higher levels of rivalry. The product itself is defined to be the GB. That influence can be differentiated first in the sense of the actual product offered. Textile producer may have an other channel of influence than companies in the energy sector. It can be detected that most of the TNCs are operating in the industry of petroleum exploiter, processor and distributor (see appendix 1 and 2). What exact relationship there exists is not part of this thesis, however it will be assumed that there must be 'better preferred' industriey. The second and probably related influence measure tool is the 3 dimensions of power approach. Each industry and each TNC concentrates on a different mixture of the power dimensions in providing power. On a whole there is a high level of product differentiation, and therefore a higher level of rivalry. High exit barriers place a high cost on abandoning the product. The firm is forced to compete. High exit barriers cause a firm to remain in an industry, even when the venture is not profitable. A common exit barrier is asset specificity. When a TNC wants to exit the industry, the barriers are low. Far from it! Other competitors or GAs would pay a high price in order to take over the business. That argument leads to a slightly decrease in rivalry. To sum up, rivalry in the TNC industry is relatively high, due to the large number of competitors, scale effects, and high level of product differentiation. There also exists an approach to make rivalry measurable by indicators of industry concentration. One instrument is the Concentration Ratio (further abbreviated as CR). The CR indicates the percent of market share held by the largest (4 - 50) firms within the industry. A high CR means less competition, whereby a low CR indicates a high competitive pressure. The industry is concentrated, when a high volume of market share is held by the (4 - 50) largest firms; then the CR is high. With only a few firms holding a large market share, the competitive landscape is less competitive because it is closer to an oligopoly or to a monopoly. If the industry is characterized by many rivals from whom none of them has a significant market share, we see a low concentration ratio. Fragmented markets are more likely to be highly competitive.
2000/2001 ; Ogni sistema di trasporto delle merci si presenta generalmente molto articolato e complesso: in particolare l'esistenza di numerosi soggetti che, a diverso livello e con diversi obiettivi, sono tenuti ad operare decisioni rappresenta un elemento che influisce in maniera spesso importante sull'assetto del sistema stesso. Il lavoro prende in esame un sistema di trasporto merci con due attori, denominati P e Q, che attraverso le rispettive decisioni determinano l'assetto dei flussi sulla rete. Il soggetto P, in particolare, è incaricato di soddisfare una data domanda di trasporto (ad esempio espressa mediante una matrice 0/D data) e può decidere come ripartire i flussi su una rete multi modale della quale percepisce i tratti fondamentali. Al momento della sua decisione, P conosce il costo generalizzato degli archi della rete e cerca di minimizzare il costo totale del trasporto. Inoltre il giocatore P deve rispettare le decisioni del giocatore Q. Il giocatore Q, che controlla una porzione della rete che connette le origini alle destinazioni di P, invece conosce il profitto unitario che deriva dal transito veicolare sui suoi archi e cerca di massimizzare il proprio profitto complessivo. Nel far questo può modificare la capacità degli archi della sua sotto rete, ma anch'egli deve comunque soddisfare la condizione di bilanciamento ai nodi e deve rispettare le decisioni di P. Quale primo elemento di originalità del presente lavoro può essere considerato il tentativo di condensare in un unico approccio alcuni elementi presenti singolarmente in filoni diversi. Infatti, tra i modelli della letteratura che intendono rappresentare esplicitamente le dinamiche decisionali interattoriali si ricordano i modelli multiattoriali sequenziali, i giochi su rete e la programmazione lineare bilivello i quali formano il quadro di riferimento in cui la presente lavoro si inserisce. Il quadro attoriale appena delineato offre l'opportunità di affrontare una serie di problemi diversi, nel campo dell'affidabilità della rete, a seconda dell'ordine con il quale i due giocatori decidono. Infatti il caso in cui la decisione di P preceda quella di Q può essere significativo, per P, al fine di valutare la peggiore situazione che potrebbe presentarsi per effetto di Q una volta stabilito l'assetto dei flussi sulla propria rete. È questo un tipico esempio della cosiddetta "worst case analysis. Viceversa, se gioca prima Q, P riesce a determinare il migliore assetto dei propri flussi nel rispetto di vincoli imposti da Q su una parte della rete interposta tra la sua origine e la destinazione. Si pensi ad esempio alla problematica dell'attraversamento di Paesi, quali Austria e Svizzera, che impongono severe limitazioni per i veicoli pesanti. Il problema descritto viene formulato come un gioco su rete nel quale i due giocatori, P e Q, non cooperano tra loro. Si ottiene così una formulazione di programmazione lineare bilivello (BLP) dove il giocatore che gioca per primo è il leader, mentre l'altro assume il ruolo di follower. Ricordando che i problemi BLP sono NPhard, è stato sviluppato ed implementato un algoritmo euristico di ricerca della soluzione ottima. Sfruttando però l'osservazione che, nel particolare caso in questione, la soluzione ottima del problema BLP è anche un punto di equilibrio di Nash, l'algoritmo restringe la sua ricerca nell'insieme dei punti di equilibrio di Nash. Da un punto di equilibrio di Nash si passa ad un altro corrispondente ad una soluzione "migliore per il leader fino a quando l'algoritmo non si ferma. Purtroppo però non si è sempre in grado di determinare un ottimo globale, ma solamente un ottimo locale individuando così, nel caso sia P a giocare per primo, un limite superiore alla soluzione ottima. Lo studio di tale modello è stato motivato dalla volontà di rappresentare, con riferimento al sistema del trasporto merci su gomma tra la Thrchia e l'Europa Occidentale, la situazione che si è venuta a creare nella regione dei Balcani a causa dei recenti eventi bellici. Tra le due regioni, annualmente, si registra un traffico dell'ordine delle centinaia di migliaia di veicoli commerciali. Per ragioni di semplicità, si è fatto riferimento alla sola componente verso l'Europa, fermo restando che la direzione opposta potrebbe essere analizzata in maniera del tutto analoga. Nell'esempio affrontato, la domanda di trasporto delle merci, che viene misurata in numero di veicoli all'anno, e che si sposta con origini diverse nel Sud-Est asiatico e destinazioni pure diverse nell'Europa Occidentale, è stata concentrata in due sole polarità (1 origine e l destinazione). Nel sistema appena descritto l'Associazione Industriali della nazione di origine (UND) svolge il ruolo di decisore centrale ed è stata assimilata al giocatore P di cui sopra. In breve, nota la domanda da trasportare, l'UND decide la distribuzione delle merci tra vari percorsi sulla rete che collega l'origine (Turchia) alla destinazione (Europa occidentale). Conosce pure il costo generalizzato degli archi di tale rete e opera le proprie decisioni con l'obiettivo di rendere minimo il costo del trasporto. L'evento bellico ha causato, come riflesso su detto sistema, una decisa modifica alla capacità degli archi di una porzione della rete stradale iniziale, che garantiva la connessione tra origine e destinazione. Alcuni archi sono stati eliminati (la rispettiva capacità posta pari a zero), altri hanno subito una netta riduzione della capacità, o un significativo aumento del costo generalizzato. La guerra quindi ha assunto un comportamento analogo a quello del giocatore Q. In questo caso però, non ha significato parlare di un'utilità che la guerra cerca di massimizzare secondo quanto esposto in precedenza, a meno che non si proceda ad assimilare l'utilità del giocatore Q con i costi di P: se Q gioca per massimizzare la propria utilità e quest'ultima corrisponde ai costi di P, automaticamente Q gioca per massimizzare i costi di P e il modello acquista proprio il significato di una analisi del caso peggiore per P. La rete considerata è stata semplificata in accordo con il livello di dettaglio delle informazioni di cui dispone P ed è formata da 99 nodi e 181 archi, di cui solamente 100 sotto il controllo di P. Gli altri 81 archi, concentrati nella regione dei Balcani, sono sotto il controllo di Q e costituiscono una sottorete connessa, che disconnette l'origine dalla destinazione. La capacità degli archi è stata determinata in accordo con il numero dei permessi di transito annui che ogni Stato concede ai veicoli turchi. Tale numero viene annualmente definito, mediante contrattazione tra le parti, in accordi bilaterali. In questa fase non si è tenuto conto delle differenti tipologie di permessi. In accordo con alcune necessarie ipotesi semplificative, la rete stessa è aciclica. I valori del costo per veicolo percepito da parte di P per transitare sugli archi della sottorete propria od altrui rispettivamente, sono stati determinati come funzione del costo monetario, della lunghezza fisica dell'arco e del tempo di percorrenza, tenendo in considerazione le varie voci che concorrono alla formazione del costo unitario (per veicolo-chilometro) di produzione di un servizio di trasporto sull'arco preso in esame. Per quanto riguarda i termini che compaiono nella funzione obiettivo di Q, si suppone che la guerra non tragga beneficio alcuno dal transito dei flussi veicolari sulla rete di P, mentre il profitto di Q è stato posto pari al costo sostenuto da P cambiato di segno come descritto in precedenza. Ai fini di valutare le prestazioni dell'algoritmo, il medesimo problema, viste le sue contenute dimensioni, è stato risolto anche con un algoritmo esatto, cioè in grado di determinare l'ottimo globale. Il risultato dell'algoritmo proposto si discosta di solo lo 0,3% dal risultato ottenuto con una procedura di branch and bound. L'esempio applicativo ha consentito di comprendere le potenzialità dell'approccio proposto e nell'ottica di un suo utilizzo concreto ha fornito delle utili indicazioni su possibili sviluppi da intraprendere legati sia all'algoritmo, sia al modello sia al caso di studio. In conclusione, il lavoro presenta un modello per la definizione dell'assetto del sistema di trasporto delle merci, con la trattazione esplicita delle dinamiche decisionali interattoriali. In particolare si prendono in considerazione due soggetti, che operano scelte in sequenza gerarchica, uno dei quali agisce per minimizzare i costi totali del trasporto e l'altro cerca invece di massimizzare il proprio profitto che dipende dal volume di traffico lungo gli archi sotto il suo controllo. Si propone una formulazione di programmazione lineare bilivello, per risolvere un gioco infinito statico non cooperativo con insiemi di vincoli accoppiati. Sono descritte le condizioni di esistenza e alcune proprietà dei punti di equilibrio di N ash, dalle quali discende un algoritmo di ricerca di un ottimo locale. Viene infine discussa un'applicazione del modello al caso del trasporto merci dalla Turchia all'Europa. Alcuni futuri sviluppi sono possibili. Essi portano alla progressiva eliminazione delle assunzioni semplificative che sono state adottate allo stato attuale nella formulazione del modello. In particolare si tratta della configurazione della rete, della struttura e delle proprietà dell'algoritmo (oggi trova solamente un ottimo locale). Inoltre si intende procedere con il perfezionamento del caso di studio. ; Freight transportation is generally a very complex domain where several players, each with its own set of objectives, act and operate at various decisional levels. There are different players in the field. The shippers who decide how much of each commodity to move from every origin to every destination and the means by which the goods will be moved. The carriers who respond to this transportation demands and route freight over the actual transportation network under their contro!. Finally, the government defined as the set of international, national and local authorities involved in any way with freight transportation via regulation and the provision of transportation infrastructure. In this work, we consider the case where only one shipper determines the demand for transportation over a network. However, he cannot decide fiow levels on arcs in a fully independent way due to the presence of a second agent controlling some links of the network and optimizing her own objective function. This situation is modelled as a game between two players P and Q acting o n the same network G. Player P fixes the fiows o n the arcs of G in such a way t ha t their divergence at some given nodes (sources and sinks) is equal to prescribed values. Such divergences may represent demand and availability levels for some commodity. On the other hand, player Q decides the values of the maximum capacities of some arcs of the network. Both players are interested in the fact that the connectivity between the sources and the sinks in the network is respected, i.e., they both want that the goods can reach their destination. However, they have different objectives. Player P aims at minimizing the transportation costs, whereas player Q aims at maximizing her profit (or, in generai, her utility) that is proportional to the fiow passing through the arcs under her control. Note that, in generai, the profit of player Q is not assumed to be equal to the cost of player P for the same are. Such game between players P and Q is modelled as a minimum cost flow problem for player P, where the are costs are given and the player Q decides the are capacities. The modelling of the games under investigation are mainly based upon three different research lines. First, the players understand the freight transportation system as a system where the actors involved do not act simultaneously and they explicitly take into account the sequential nature of the interactions among them. Second, they play a (hierarchical) game over a flow network which causes severe limitations and constraints to their action sets. Finally, the games exhibit linear characteristics and can be solved using bilevel linear programming. All these issues have already been discussed in the scientific literature, even though in different separate contexts. The merging of three mentioned approaches in only one single framework is a major contribution of our modelling perspective. Furthermore, bilevel programming is rich of theoretical results and numerica! algorithms, but is scare in actual applications. From this point of view, the present work might be considered as an interesting addition to the field. Bilevel noncooperative games in which one player ( called the leader) declares his strategy first an d enforces i t o n the other players ( called the followers) w ho react (rationally) to the leader's decision are referred to as Stackelberg games. Since the payoff functions and all the constraints in our Stackelberg games may be expressed in a linear form, these games will be formalized as bilevellinear programming problems (BLPPs). In generai, bilevel programming problems are difficult to sol ve because of their inherent non-convexity and non-differentiability. To face their NP-hard nature, we identify some properties of the game solutions which allow us to define a heuristic algorithm restricting its (local) search on the set of the Nash equilibrium points. The optimal solution of any BLPP lies on a vertex of the leader's inducible region. Relying on this result, we develop an algorithm which allows to move from a starting point of the shipper's inducible region to another point in the shipper's inducible region always providing a better solution for him. When no further better points may be attained, the algorithm stops. Unfortunately, only a local optimum is identified. The rationale behind the algorithm stems from the consideration that the optimal solution for our BLPP is also a Nash equilibrium point. In particular, the algorithm moves from a Nash equilibrium point to another better Nash equilibrium point of the BLPP under study. This framework may describe, as an example, the situation where restrictions are imposed by some alpine country on the number of trucks allowed to cross it by road each year. A different context involving the presence of a second agent o n the shipper's network occurred when the International Transporters' Association (UND) of Turkey had to face when the war in the Balkans started. This situation motivates our investigation on hierarchical noncooperative network games. The road freight traffi.c from Turkey to Centrai and Western Europe and viceversa suffered major disruptions because of the war in Balkans during the nineties. UND is the shipper controlling the quasi-totality of this traffi.c thus assuming the role of player P. H e had to cope with an "adverse entity" able to modify the available capacity on some specific links his vehicles had to pass through. The region involved in the confiict may be represented as a connected subnetwork disconnecting the origin and the destinations of the road transportation network since alternative road routes are not easily affordable. Other possibilities, like the seaborne links now operating, did not exist at that time. Hence the whole freight traffi.c was performed using a single mode of transport. The models developed in this work allow the shipper to perform a worst-case analysis at the strategie level for this situation assuming that player Q wishes to maximize the costs he has to afford when going through the region under her control. In fact, it is meaningless to talk about the utility or the profit the war may seek t o maximize. However, i t becomes a sensible modelling when the utility of player Q is strictly related to the costs afforded by player P on this portion of the network. lf player Q is maximizing her utility which corresponds to player P's costs, automatically she plays to maximize player P's costs. Hence the model represents a worst-case analysis for player P. A simple graph composed of 99 nodes and 181 arcs is presented. Player P controls a sub network composed of 100 arcs. The others 81 links representing the connections within the Balkans and Eastern Europe form a connected sub network. Only the main road links ha ve been considered ( motorways or highways). The capacities are calculated taking into account the total number of transit permits available for each country. This figure is annually fixed in bilatera! Joint Committee Meetings. Player P's costs are the average generalized costs derived as a function of lengths and transfer times in the physicallinks. Player Q does not have profits or losses for the fiows passing through the P zone and it is also assumed that the profits she earns for each unit of fiow going through the arcs under her control are equal to the costs afforded by the shipper when traversing these arcs. All the relevant data required to calculate these figures are collected in the UND Annual Sector Report 1997-98 (1999). The heuristic algorithm has been tested on this network and its results have been compared with the outcome obtained by using an exact enumeration procedure. Since it turns out that the percentage error of the heuristic algorithm is equal to 0,3%, we may claim that its performances are certainly highly satisfactory, at least in this specific example. Different extensions of the models and the algorithm developed may be easily envisaged both from the theoretical and the application side. These advances would provide either faster local or global search algorithms either more complete models representing in deeper detail the actual system and the interactions among the actors involved. Hence a decision support system for the shipper's decision making process at the strategie level can be built and effectively used by freight transportation practitioners. ; XIII Ciclo ; 1969 ; Versione digitalizzata della tesi di dottorato cartacea.
Issue 34.3 of the Review for Religious, 1975. ; Review ]or Religious is edited by faculty members of the School of Divinity of St. Louis University, the editorial offices being located at 612 Humboldt Building: 539 North Grand Boulevard: St. Louis, Missouri 63103. It is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute; St. Louis, Missouri. Published bimonthly and copy-right (~ 1975 by Review [or Religious. Composed, printed, and manufactured in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. Single copies: $1.75. Sub-scription U.S.A. and Canada: $6.00 a year; $I1.00 for two years; olher countries, $7.00 a year, $13.00 for two years. Orders should indicate whether they are for new or renewal subscriptions and should be accompanied by check or money order payable to Review ]or Religious in U.S.A. currency only. Pay no money to persons claiming to repre~nt Review ]or Religious. Change of address requests should include former address. Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Everett A. Diederich, S.J. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Editor Associate Editor Questions and Answers Editor May 1975 Volume 34 Number 3 Renewals, new subscriptions, and changes of address should be sent to Review for Religious; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, Minnesota 55802. Correspondence with the editor and the associate editor together with manuscripts and books for review should be sent to Review for Religious; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 Noah Grand Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; St. Joseph's College; City Avenue at 54th Street; Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania 19131. Models of Spiritual Direction David L. Fleming, S.J. David L. Fleming, S.J., is Co-director of the Institute of Religious Formation at the School of Divinity of St. Louis University; 3634 Lindell Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63108. Religious men and women today often find themselves in deep disagreement about the role of spiritual direction in their lives. The basic problem lies often enough in the inability to distinguish the various ways of understanding spiritual direction which have been developed in the Christian tradition. A. Models of Spiritual Direction lnspi~:ed by Father Avery Dulles' book, Models of the Church, 1 would like to propose a similar approach.to be used to better our understanding of spiritual direction. Dulles carefully makes the case that church has no single comprehensive definition, but as contemporary theology views it, church is in need of many models held simultaneously to gain a more adequate under-standing. In a similar way, I believe that we will come to a far richer apprecia-tion of spiritual direction if we consider various models which haye tried to capture what it is and how it works. The advantage of models in understanding spiritual direction, just as in working with the notion of church, arises out of the necessary obscurities of religious language and the area of religious experience. Spiritual direction deals with an ultimate level of religious mystery of a God and man love-relationship. As a result, our religious language should be looked upon as forming models because it can only approximate the object which it is trying to grasp. Whenever we use a model conception, we break the illusion that we are actually holding the infinite within the finite structures of our language. Moreover, a variety of models opens up the possibility of our not getting fixed upon any particular one and taking it as an idol. At the same time, through a 35'1 352 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 variety of models we will more easily allow for the greater expression of the subjective element which is at the core of,all religious experience. 1 will propose, then, five models of spiritual direction that are found in our Christian heritage. Spiritual direction can come in a group setting such as faith-sharing groups, small group discussions, or review-of-life groups. But here I will propose five models that deal only with personal spiritual direction, that is, one director with one being directed. For personal direction holds a privileged place in our tradition, and group activity does not eliminate its value or its need. 1 do not pretend that five models form an exhaustive list, but I think that it covers a help.ful spectrum of ideas about spiritual direction as it has come to be understood and practiced in the Church. The five models 1 have chosen are: I) direction as institutionalized; 2) direction as interpersonal relationship; 3) direction as charismatic; 4) direction as sacramental; and 5) direction as incarnational. ! will describe briefly spiritual direction as un-derstood in each of these models, touching somewhat on both the strengths of the model and the weaknesses. In trying to identify each clearly, I face the risk of caricaturing, but that is not my intention. All models should be valued and respected. I) Direction as Institutionalized Spiritual direction is institutionalized in the functions of the novice direc-tor, the designated spiritual director of a seminary, the tertian director, and sometimes the superior, especially as understood in the original role of the ab-bot or in the lgnatian idea of a superior. Direction in this model is carried out particularly by instructing in the spiritual and religious life. Spiritual direction is considered in terms of formation; it has a molding role, and so it connotes a certain control over a person's life development. Oftentimes direction in this model exercises a judgmental role because candidates for religious life or for the priesthood must be declared fit or not fit and so accepted or rejected. Spiritual direction in this designated job-form plays an important part in the Church today, just as it has in past centuries. Among the advantages of this model, the clarity of formation is assured, because the necessary instruction about spiritual development is not left to chance. Definite goals and some set means are a part of the direction ex-change, in this model, we find a certain control over the competency of the director since the "job" of direction was assigned usually by superiors who have judged a person's fittingness for such a role. From the letters of St. Paul giving direction to communities and to individuals, through the early models of direction by the desert fathers, we find deep in Christian tradition the bases of this institutional model. But a number of weaknesses are also apparent in this model. Obviously freedom is minimal in setting up the relationship of direction since the one be-ing directed must subject himself to the person whose function it is to fulfill the assigned job as director. Direction seems to be more a matter of imposition of Models of Spiritual Direction life style and spiritual practices than an evoking of personal growth. Direction also appears to be quite limited in time-value, for it covers primarily the for-mational period or, beyond that, the possible crisis period which needs infor-mation or judgment. 2) Direction as Interpersonal Relationship In this model, spiritual direction is defined primarily in terms of a per-sonal relationship--the closer the friendship the better. Direction, then, usually has the aspect of friendly sharing and loving support. While still main-taining the interpersonal basis, this model of direction sometimes makes studied use of psychological techniques, e.g. the transactional analysis methods. Even with the possibility of a certain psychological approach being consciously employed, direction attempts to focus equally upon the interper-sonal relationship of the two friends (the one directing and the one directed) and the growth in a life-response to God. Frequently in this model, the two people involved exchange roles of director with each other so that spiritual direction becomes a mutual involvement. The strengths of this model are evident in the presence of the love, care, and concern which permeate the relationship in all its aspects. As in any friendship, the free gift of self to each other is assured. Self-disclosure with all its dreams, ideals, fears, and disappointments flows very naturally as the friendship continues to deepen. While contemporary attitudes, especially in reaction to the institutional model of direction, favor this kind of approach, historically it also rests on strong evidence from the example of various saints' friendships with each other and from the written correspondence of direction. When we consider the weaknesses, we note that such a model may overstress the humanistic and so not allow for the distance between reason and grace, which never perfectly coincide. Even though in one sense friends can speak up honestly and forthrightly to each other, in another sense their lack of distance may blind each other to the very areas which need attention. Sometimes even the best of friends find that they are frozen in speaking about one or other area because of the delicacy of the love relationship between them. Another difficulty arises when psychological techniques enter into the picture too consciously; we may find a good helping relationship, but one which takes very little notice of the presence of God or the dynamism of grace. 3) Direction as Charismatic Spiritual direction in this model finds a basis in the diakrisis or discretio of St. Paul's grace-gifts within the Body of Chrigt. Because of the stress upon the special character of this person who is truly a "spiritual discerner," spiritual direction itself is seen as a rarity. St. Teresa of Avila is often quoted in support of this viewpoint because she said that only one person in a thousand is capable of direction work. Just to make the point more clearly, St. Francis de Sales is cited for his observation that a director may number only one in ten thousand. 354 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 Following the biblical image of forgiveness as seventy times seven, both saints are not using modern statistics, but rather they are indicating the special gift which is demanded of the director in spiritual direction work. For spiritual direction as understood here is defined more in terms of insight or infused in-tuition from God. Direction has an aura of the marvelous about it. The emphasis seems to focus more on the arcane directions which will be given to the person directed--special divine messages which come from the "reading of a soul" by the inspired director. The strengths of such a view certainly include the great stress made upon the gift-notion of spiritual direction. Direction in this model catches up two people in the atmosphere of the divine, and the process receives its proper emphasis of being more than human technique and human response, it does point up that a "seeing deeper" with the eyes of faith highlights the relationship of direction. There is a certain basis in both the Old and New Testament, and some examples in Christian hagiography to support such a viewpoint. The weaknesses become apparent in the over-significance attributed to the power of God's grace--looking for its presence only in the spectacular or the marvelous. It seems to restrict God's gifts far too much to the extraordinary in the light of human judgment. As a result, spiritual direction itself becomes an extraordinary means in the life of the Church spiritual tradition. But the history of spirituality does not support this conclusion. 4) Direction as Sacramental Spiritual direction has long been seen in terms of a sacramental model because of the confessor-penitent relationship in the sacrament of penance. Because of the sacramental grace of priestly ordination, the priest himself was seen to be a very special instrument of God and to embody the gifts of ministry which we find in the writings of St. Paul. The words which a priest speaks, then, have greater importance than mere human opinion or advice because they are spoken by God's human representative. More particularly, within the sacrament of penance the priest-confessor often has words of advice or counsel. This context becomes the only true setting of spiritual direction because of the certain ex opere operato effect of words spoken within the sacramental encounter. Such counsel within the context of the sacrament takes in, not just the area of sinful tendencies, but all the attitudes and ways of acting which relate to the God-orientation of a person's life. The advantages of this model include the emphasis given to a more balanced sense of the sacrament of penance. Confession itself is not a mechanistic forgiveness; it has a human relationship involved between the priest-representative of the Church and the penitent. There is no doubt that God-inspired words of counsel or advice do take place in the sacramental con-text. Yet as every priest knows experientially, such words cannot be presumed automatically--one flagrant handicapping of God's action being the prepared Models of Spiritual Direction / 355 little "sermon" which each penitent, no matter what he may confess, may receive on a particular Saturday confession period. But two-human beings, so consciously aware of the special presence of God in the sacramental relationship, are both more readily open to the word of God being spoken and being received. The merit of this viewpoint rests upon a long tradition stem-ming from the penitential manuals of the Irish monks of the eighth century to the more contemporary confession manuals dating from the seventeenth cen-tury in which direction brings a fullness to and finds its proper setting in the sacrament of penance. The weaknesses of such a model are found in the restrictions which it puts upon spiritual direction itself. Because of the sacramental setting, a priest is the only qualified spiritual director. Direction, then, flows properly from the ministry of priesthood. If other men and women carry on this work, it is only as "secondary" helpers to the priest who gives over to them this function. This viewpoint seems to take for granted that priesthood ministry inclu.des all the ministries to be found within the Church, but this conception has no sound basis in scripture or tradition. Direction in this model also takes on too magical a sense in that whatever is said within the context of the sacrament becomes true spiritual counsel. 5) Direction as Incarnational This model of direction is one that is probably receiving most attention to-day in the revival of the practice of spiritual direction. The name incarnational given to describe it calls a little too ostentatiously to the Christian connotation of God-becoming-man. Spiritual direction takes it place among the many "fleshly" means which make up God's ordinary way of salvation as un-derstood in Christianity. From Jesus Christ through the Apostles down to our own contemporary Church, we know that God has a design of salvation mediated by our fellowmen. Direction, then, is seen in its ordinariness of one man helping another to clarify and objectify God's will in his life. At the same time, direction is known to be a relationship of two persons caught up in the presence and power of God in this very ordinary encounter, and so both are aware by faith of the privileged grace-time which direction makes available. Elements which are present in the incarnation of the God-man have their analogous components in the direction relationship. Human preparation, faith, and an openness to the movement of God are necessary, and then a recognition that any true fruition of the direction relationship comes from the Spirit. This model of direction is also properly identified as incarnational in that no aspect of a person's life is left apart from the direction context, since man as a whole--physically, psychologically, and spiritually--must grow in his response to God's unique call to him. The advantages of this model are especially seen in terms of the developments of our own day. It presents a conceptual notion of direction that is deeply in tune with the whole process of renewal in the Church. It builds 356 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 upon the richness of contemporary scriptural and theological studies, par-ticularly in the areas of Christology and Ecclesiology. It maintains a sure emphasis on the humanness of this relationship in direction, while still placing the solidity of growth as a God-empowered gift. Direction in this model is an ordinary means of spiritual growth in the embodied spirituality which is Christianity. This way of understanding direction has good foundation in both scripture and tradition since we find God acting through men in giving advice and warning (e.g. Jeremiah), in making a person aware of how to listen to God (e.g. Samuel and Saul), in clarifying and objectifying a response (e.g. David and Nathan), and in instruction (e.g. Ananias and Paul). The example con-tinues in the many volumes of spiritual writings and letters which we have as a legacy from holy men and women in our Catholic history. The weaknesses of this model arise somewhat from the novelty of its recent re-emphasis. It may too easily be seen as a good human relationship sprinkled over with pious words about God's will. Direction may look so ordinary that the only conclusion to be drawn is that everyone needs it and is capable of profiting from it and just about everyone has the ability to give direction. Then, too, taking in the whole of one's life as the subject-matter seems to leave this model of direction open to a lack of preciseness--no clear understanding of the concerns of direction or the ways of going about it. In a similar way, direction seems to lack clarity about the quality of this spiritual relationship--mixing friendship and distance or professionalism, and or-dinariness and the sense of the holy. B. A Model of Models? In review, all the models have played and do play an important part in our full understanding of spiritual direction--what it is, who does it, to whom it has value, how to go about it, and so on. What 1 hope to have shown is that we can understand spiritual direction in various ways (not just one right way), and that as a result there are various expectations on the part of the director and the one being directed, various methods of directing, and even different ways of valuing its importance for mature spiritual life. To try to reduce the various models of spiritual direction to a single one is to lose sight of the incomprehensible richness of religious experience which forms the content of direction. Neither the strengths nor the weaknesses of the various approaches or models are neatly reducible to a single model. Even after describing each model in its purity, we should be aware that a blending often happens in ~ictual praciice. What we tend to do is to make one model our pivotal model for adapting and understanding other ways of functioning in spiritual direction. But to hold one model as pivotal is quite different from maintaining that there is only one way of understanding and practicing spiritual direction. If I were to opt for a pivotal model for our own day, 1 would choose direc-tion described as incarnational. I believe that it allows for a greater understand-ing of the continuing importance of spiritual direction, especially for the men Models ojSpiritual Direction / 3!i7 and women who have recognized or who are in the process of recognizing the call to specialized ministry roles within the Church. It also more easily allows for the importance of other understandings of direction and other methodologies according to circumstances, though it maintains an adequacy for its own method as a common pattern. Far more work must still be done to gain .an appreciation of the richness which we possess in the Christian practice of spiritual direction. Presently, to be able to hold the different models of direction in tension allows us to draw a little closer to a more adequate truth and a more varied beauty which encompass the mystery of spiritual direction ministry. Creative Response To A Call Within "The Call" Sister Marie Gatza, I.H.M. Sister Marie Gatza, I.H.M., participated in the Workshop of National Vocation Directors which met at Mercy Center in Farmington, Michigan, during the summer of 1974. She is Assistant General of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Saint Mary Convent; Monroe, Michigan 48161. The area of "Transfer," is, I am told, fast becoming a matter of concern among Vocation Directors. In the past, there have been rare instances of transfers centered mostly on permissions given to leave an active for a con-templative congregation, a less strict order for a stricter one. However, the topic of "Transfer" is a relatively recent new-comer among religious life con-cepts within Congregations of women in the United States, and so not too much has yet made its way into current literature. Opportunities to learn more about the idea of "Transfer,'" "therefore, come best through situations like the workshop of Vocation Directors at Mercy Center in Farmington where during the Summer of 1974, I had the privilege of contributing the ideas developed in this essay. In trying to think how I could most effectively focus the concentration of workshop members on the topic of"Transfer," 1 found that four key questions readily surfaced: I. Why would a Sister desire to leave her parent Congregation? 2. What factors greatly influence the thinking of Sisters in their search for a Congregation into which they can transfer? 3. What motivation would impel a Congregation to welcome into its membership a Sister who has already finalized her commitment in another Congregati6n? 358 Creative Response to a Call Within "The Call" / 359 4. Given mutuality on the part of the Sister to enter and of the Congrega-tion to receive, what procedural steps are basic to achieving the transfer of a Sister from one Congregation to another? I would like to treat each of these questions, now, in some detail. Then in addition to these four questions, it seems well to attend, even briefly, to the beginnings of evaluation of the concept of "Transfer" as we perceive it operating today within religious Congregations. I Why do Sisters feel convinced that they must leave the Congregation in which they pronounced Perpetual Vows? Because the reasons given by each of the Sisters cited here are so in-dividual, it would not be wise--or even possible--for me to generalize in response to this question. What we can do, however, is to take some mini-glimpses into the lives of a few Sisters who saw "Transfer" as vital to the continuance of their religious commitment. From them we may learn that the motives which led Sisters to request transfer are many and varied. My first example is SISTER P who had been for almost twenty years a member.of a cloistered Congregation, which recently, as a matter of entering into renewal of Religious life, permitted coursework for its Sisters on the cam-puses of nearby Catholic colleges. Sister P was greatly enthusiastic about her opportunity for college education, and discovered that she had a gift for and a great desire to impart knowledge to others in a classroom situation. She found the world of apostolic teaching increasingly fascinating, and at the same time was aware of a persistent questioning within herself as to whether she was really fitted for, or any longer drawn to the contemplative life, despite the years she had already spent within it. She asked for a leave of absence in order to test out her vocation in a Congregation whose main apostolic thrust is education. SISTER N became a candidate in the Congregation of her choice after completing secondary school, and entered, with apparent enthusiasm, into full-scale studies toward becoming a teacher in the Congregation's apostolate of education. Toward the end of nearly twenty years of service in various schools, and maintaining only love and reverence for her own active congregation, she felt the persistent call of the Lord to continue'her religious life in a more con-templative setting. Her transfer to a contemplative community was, therefore, effected. SISTER T's story is a second testimonial to the fact that transfer is a two-way proposition: some come, others go. 360 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 Sister T, brilliantly endowed intellectually, chose to transfer from the original foundation Motherhouse of her congregation to one of its branches. Her choice for this action seemed to be motivated by the fact that the style and tempo of that community much more surely encompassed her thoughts on renewal in religious life than did that of her own Congregation. When SISTER S first came into contact with the congregation into which she ultimately transferred, she was in her early thirties, and had already been questioning her current situation in religious life. Sister S's diocesan Com-munity consisted of only thirty-four, mostly older members, who in Sister's es-timation had not sufficient theological background to enable them to cope with renewal. At the offset, Sister's motivation for approaching another religious con-gregation was primarily one of a desire to earn her degree. In the course of completing her studies, she came into close contact with the life-style of the faculty, Sisters who were her peers in the Juniorate, and a number of other Sisters belonging to the Congregation which staffed her college. At gradua-tion, Sister realized that the determination to transfer was still much alive within her, and took a most natural next-step: seek transfer permanently to that congregation. SISTER G, educated in elementary an'd secondary schools staffed by Sisters dedicated primarily to education, chose to enter another congregation whose apostolate included social work, for which she felt-a strong inclination. Ironically, at the time she requested entry into religious life, the congregation of her choice was in great need of teachers rather than of social workers, and so, Sister G was educated for the teaching field, a profession in which, however, she learned to find joy and satisfaction. After 19 years in community, Sister G's mother became ill and was in desperate need of her help. Sister appealed to her Provincial, requesting to live and teach with the group of Sisters in the town where her mother's home was located, a move that enabled her to be closer to her mother. Because Sister G's congregation at the time did not approve of inter- Congregational living situations, she was required to take a leave of absence in order to'care for her mother. Sister's two years of leave were painful ones for her in that she felt an absence of support from her Congregation, and grew in-creasingly concerned that her request to care for her mother in this way had displeased her former superiors. A sense of disappointment,-discouragement and alienation resulted. Meanwhile, her conviction of being at home and loved in her temporary living situation became more compelling, and Sister's thoughts focused on the advisability of asking for a transfer. Her present status 'is one of preparing to finalize her commitment to the Lord in her new Congregation. SISTER M is a promising young Ph.D., gifted as well with an unusually Creative Response to a Call Within "The ('all" / 361 strong sense of commitment to religious life, and a very real love and loyalty to her own Congregation. Sister M's reason for seeking transfer is expressed clearly in this sentence taken from one of her letters: "I am reluctant to make this transfer, but have found peace of mind with the decision, since affiliation with the community, ¯ promises greater freedom to respond to the heart of my religious vocation and to the needs of the Church as ! understand them." Interestingly, Sister M is at the present moment making one last effort to work things out with her own Congregation. I do not know whether or not her transfer will materialize. These examples, though few, indicate that reasons for thinking of transfer are much conditioned by a variety of circumstances in which Sisters find themselves. I1 What considerations greatly influence the thinking of Sisters in their search for a specific Congregation into which they would hope to transfer? I suppose that it would be next to impossible to make a comprehensive listing of the factors influencing Sisters in their search for another Congrega-tion in which they can live out the religious cohamitment already begun in the first, their parent Congregation. It is my experience that most Sisters who are interested in a possible transfer express in some way a feeling of affinity with the "new" Congrega-tion, and a supportiveness toward its thrust in Renewal. Where a House of Prayer has developed, for example, many Sisters relate very positively to the significance accorded this growing movement in the Christian life of our day, and are attracted by the centrality of importance accorded to both personal and communal prayer. Again, a basic belief in, and an inner assurance of, competency in relation to the apostolate of the new Congregation seems to enter significantly into a Sister's choice of a Community to which she might like to transfer. Sometimes, style Of living is an important consideration. A person's contact in childhood with the elected Congregation, that is, in elementary or secondary school years, or contact with members of a given Congregation in adult years may influence the Sister'.s decision to opt for one Congregation rather than another, if a transfer is sought. Occasionally, a more insightful approach is brought to the resolution of this question, i.e. "which Congregation?" ! recall, for example, a Sister who had entered religious life as an Aspirant after completing the eighth grade. Twelve years later, having pronounced perpetual vows, Sister asked to be ex-claustrated from her Congregation for the purpose of searching out whether religious life should c~ntinue to be her life-style. Her searching she did under direction, concluding that, yes, religious life was, indeed, what the Lord was :362 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 calling her to live; bt~t not, however, within the Congregation she had entered. After asking herself what it was within the spirit and heritage of her own Congregation that had been most helpful and inspirational to her, really at the heart of her vocation, Sister contacted better than a.dozen Congregations ask-ing for brochures. These she studied for indications of the traits that best em-bodied the spirit of the Congregation in which she had made her vows. In the end, it was the Congregation which she thought did this best that she ap-proached asking for a transfer. But whatever the method used, or whatever the degree of logic or clearness of purpose perceived by the Sister considering transfer, I believe it is fairly safe to say that the seeker is hopeful of finding in the new Congregation cir-cumstances that will be favorable for her living, in some rewarding way, a commitment which means very much to her; circumstances which for some reason or other may have been painfully absent in her life in Community up to this point. III What would be the motivation of a Congregation which welcomes as a new member o fits own a Sister who has already lived under permanent profession within another Congregation? First off, let's clarify one point beyond any confusion. There is probably small encouragement in the Church for supporting transfer at all. The nature of religious commitment, as it has been historically understood and accepted, i.e., "Community", "family", "leader-followers" concepts, argues for permanency within the parent Congregation. We have learned to speak of the "charism" of a Congregation: that unique spirit that characterizes a group of Sisters as a religious Congregation. Although it is hard to put one's fingers on exactly what it is that distinguishes one Congrega-tion from another, no one will deny that there is a certain something, a family bond or spirit which is recognizable to the members, and, to an appreciable ex-tent, able to be detected by outsiders, as well. In some effective way, it seems that the act of transferring from one Congregation to another has to take this matter of Community-charism into consideration. Granting this fact, even slight reflection leads to the conviction that transfer is not an action one opts to pursue lightly when life's more adven-turous movements taper, off into routine. No. To transfer from one's Congregation to another can result in virtually total uprooting, loss of friends, and severance from all that has been familiar for the individual. Should transfer become a more.common pr~actice, we could anticipate con-sequences for the parent Congregation, also. Loss of morale within the ranks, and diminished confidence in the Community outlook and thrust on the part of many of the members can develop exceedingly fast, as we have all learned through our own decrease in numbers sustained in recent years. Creative Response to a Call Within "'The Call" / 363 These considerations being so, a large number of transfers could hardly be thought desirable. One might ask, then, why do leaders of Congregations entertain the idea of transfer at all? Their motivation has to arise from a basic reverence for each individual call to religious life, and a desire to support a fellow Sister in her efforts to re-main faithful to her vocation, even if it means a painful re-planting. Those sup-porting transfer would have to act from a willingness and desire: a. to provide for a Sister some "time" and "space" away from her Congregation in which she can be free to sort out priorities while still being basically observant of the life style of a religious, -or-b. to provide a Sister with an opportunity to embrace the life and mission of a new Congregation for the sake of remaining faithful to her commit-ment to Christ, when it becomes apparent that she can no longer achieve this end within her own Congregation, -or much more rarely, willingness to engraft upon one's own Congregation (as was recently the case within a diocesan group in one of our Eastern States) a whole Com-munity of Sisters when a basic similarity of spirit, or charism prevails in the two Congregations in question. These thoughts indicate in some way, why a Congregation is sometimes willing to accept Sisters asking for a transfer. IV Given a Sister who believes she needs to have a new setting in which to continue living her religious vocation, and given a Congregation willing to think of her as a potential new member of its own, what must be done? The essentials are not too numerous, in my .experience. a. Willingness of the General Superiors of both Congregations to allow and welcome the fact of a transfer, is undoubtedly, of the essence. b. Some good help provided the Sister in discerning whether transfer is, in-deed, the Lord's will for her seems essential too. c. And, of course, proper transactions with Rome are required for the ob-taining of the needed "paper"--the Rescript of Transfer. Of these three, the step which admits of many specifics is the second one; the discernment process. Taking more time than not enough at this point, and being free to meet the individual needs of the Sister is a matter that must 364 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 receive priority at all costs. The space of a year, or more, can very profitably be employed in initially resolving the question of whether it would be mutually advantageous to bring about a transfer, and then of building a readiness for a transfer which is directed to future personal and apostolic fruitfulness for the Sister and for her new Congregation. In my Congregation, which has been open to requests of Sisters to transfer, dealing with Sisters who are thinking about this possibility is a work delegated to the Assistant of the General Superior. It is her responsibility as contact per-son to keep the General Superior and Provincials aware of the Sister's progress at stated times throughout the year. It is also understood that the contact person in some suitable way perform the following duties in re to the Sister seeking to transfer: I. The Contact person enables the Sister to find a situation in which she will live and work among her new Sisters as an actual member of her own Congregation for at least one year before any formal request is made to Rome. During this year a two-way evaluation is on-going: on the part of the Sister who is acquainting herself with the new Com-munity; and on the part of the chosen Community which tries to ask honestly: "Can our Congregation assist this Sister in her living of a healthy religious life and further our Community interests as well by welcoming her into our midst?" 2. The Contact person makes efforts to assist the Sister to become familiar with the members of the elected Community and their life-st'yle, Constitutions, prayer, Community history, and so on. 3. She arranges a realistic and practical system of contacts by means of which she herself, will keep in close contact with the possible transfer- Sister throughout the year. 4. It is her responsibility to establish, as well, during the year, some means of contacting the Sisters residing with Sister-transfer to see how they in-teract with her and she with them. 5. The Contact person may significantly assist her Superior in preparing the portfolio of materials needed to formalize the transfer at Rome, and within both Congregations of Sisters. 6. She enters into facilitating plans for the liturgical celebration marking completion of transfer. 7. She, finally, keeps files current: documents, letters, various com-munications. These suggestions form'at least a working outline of practical steps that will take on significance during the discernment period, especially. Here, then, are some thoughts on each of the four questions presented in the beginning of this essay. I have shown that transfer from one Congregation to another is possible; and while certainly not giving the last word on how it can come about, I have indicated the outline of a procedure for a starter. With Creative l~,esponse to a Call Within "The Call" / 365 all of this, ~owever, there is a yet unasked, but key question that must be sur-faced: I When all the externals and!formalities of the transfer have been com-pleted; when the document~ have been validated; when the ceremonial commemorating the event l~as become a matter of history, it still seems imperative to ask: Did a transfer really occur? Is it possible for a person to sink permanent roots in new soil twice in the space of a single, human lifetime? What sort of on-going~considerations would have to be borne in mind by the "new" community and satisfactorily dealt with by the transferred Sister so that she will not: -- be constantly lone!y? -- be often lacking in ~nderstanding because her past is so foreign in many ways fro~ the past of those with whom she now lives? -- be many times Iook~ing backward to a chapter of her life which is largely unsharable with others and now closed even to herself?, These questions--very real and, sometimes, harsh, lead one, unerringly to the ultimate question: "For h~w many can transfer really be an alternative'?" This presentation really c~uld end with the question 1 have just posed. Ho ever, as a kind of epilog~te, let me ask one further: w'what would happen were it possible for a Sister to live within another Congregation on an extended leave until such time arrived at which she could return in dignity an~ peace and joy to her own Congregation?" Might not this be an unusu~ai service of love that a Congregation could ex-tend not only to an individual ~eligious, but to its Sister-Congregation, as well? it's worth a thought! I Integrity in the Religious Life Sister Mary John Mananzan, O.S.B. Sister Mary John Mananzan is attached to St. Scholastica's College; 2560 Leon Guinto, Sr. St.; P.O. Box 3153; Manila, Philippines. There are virtues which are so all-encompassing that one can explain the other facets of religious life through them. It is not infrequent to explain religious life primarily through one of the vows--(of poverty, of chastity, and obedience) or primarily as a life of love and from there explain all its other features. One such encompassing virtue which, however, is rarely used to view religious life, is integrity. And it is not infrequent that religious people who ex-hibit m~iny external manifestations of virtue can be lacking in integrity. This lack of integrity .can be so subtle that such religious people become a real problem to honest but simple people who deal with the.m. These cannot put their .finger to a particular fault but somehow .they feel something is wrong somewhere. This article will try to analyze situations that exhibit the presence of integrity or the lack of it particularly in the religious life. Integrity is a many-faceted word. Its nuances encompass different but related levels of meaning--from honesty to wholeness of being. But all along this spectrum of meaning runs a single beam that relates them to each other, namely TRUTH. Integrity describes the many aspects of being true. That is why it is a basic virtue. Without it all other seeming virtues are a show and the lack of it makes any manifested virtue suspect. The most basic meaning of the word is "wholeness" or oneness. A religious who is a "whole" is one who has achievi~d a certain harmony in his being, which presupposes a basic self-understanding and self-acceptance. Further-more he has a certain sense of reality and a coherent system of values which form the framework for this authentic self-awareness. Most religious tend to mature intellectually before they do emotionally and morally. There is thus a Integrity in the Religious LiJ~" / certain incongruence and inconsistency in their life. They can give very good lectures, sermons, or write beautiful articles about behaviour, attitudes or vir-tues which can be sadly lacking in their lives. The catching up of one's emotion and one's will with one's insight is a progressive growth in integrity and wholeness. This tendency of the earlier maturation of the intellect may explain the expert way religious.can rationalize actions which deep in their heart they feel guilty about. Laymen can be more honest about their faults than many religious because they don't need to live up to an image. Religious on the other hand have to live up to the imperatives that rule their lives--the imperative to perfection, the imperative to excellence, the imperative to fidelity, the im-perative to unselfishness, the imperative to sacrifice, etc. There is thus a ground for varying degrees of hypocrisy in the religious life ranging from unconscious inconsistency, through semi-conscious in-congruence to alarming schizophrenic tendencies. In this connection, one can look at the crisis of celibacy today as the crisis of integrity. Celibacy can be viewed as the virtue of integrity par excellence. The fact that physical integrity is a sign of virginity is a significant symbol of the main characteristic of celibacy which is personal wholeness. Lived celibacy is not just renunciation but it is at the same time a fulfillment--namely the coming together of heart, mind, body in a singleness of purpose of serving God and being wholly there for others. Any religious who has had a crisis of celibacy must have undergone the literally heart-rending experience of being drawn to two poles--to the demand of the religious life and to the preoccupa-tion with the person with whom one is emotionally involved. Even without indulging in sexual relationships this inner splitting of one's heart threatens one's integrity as a religious. Sooner or later one will reach a critical point which can result in two ways: It can result in a greater wholeness, in a greater integrity due to a conscious re-direction of one's being to one's religious commitment or to a totally new way of life. But it can also lead to disintegration in one who refuses to heal the dichotomy of his heart. At this point all the other forms of lack of integrity will come in--justification, dis-simulation, outright deceit. The more clever the religious the more ingenious the rationalization. The whole of theology can be overhauled to justify the in-fidelity of the human heart, In those who have come to the point of indulging in sexual relationships, the element of passion comes in which blinds them to an almost unbelievable degree. It is not just a matter of moral disintegration that ensues; it can mean a disintegration of pe~sonality. Whole articles can be written about the so-called "third way." Here, only its effect on one's integrity has been discussed. Less dramatic but nevertheless harmful forms of lack of integrity can be found among religious. Where positions of power are held, there certain danger to one's integrity is present. As has already been said, the imperatives of the religious life conditions the failings of religious to be less glaring, less gross, more subtle, more refihed, and consequently more insidious. One can, 361~ / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 for example develop a way of manipulating facts to serve one's purposes, it is not a matter of downright deception or lie but a way of leaving out facts or choosing them or presenting just an angle of them in order to get what one wants. One cannot put a finger on any downright falsified item but the whole thing is a lie nevertheless. The manipulation of reality can be so subtle that only the most clever can see through the whole scheme and yet ordinary people have an uneasy feeling about it. A more serious form of this lack of integrity is the manipulation of people. It is bad enough to manipulate facts, it is worse to manipulate people. There are clever persons who can play on the weaknesses and strength of other people to their advantage. When one has a project all wiles will be exerted to manipulate people into it. This can lead to sickening forms of "false sweetness," to borrow from the little girl who transformed the 8th commandment into--"Thou shal( not bear false sweetness against thy neighbor." For a positive treatment of integrity, one has to go back to the basic mean-ing given earlier in the article, namely--wholeness. There is in the religious who has achieved a certain amount of integrity, a certain consistency and con-gruence which gives his personality an identifiable core. This gives him a cer-tain reliability and trustworthiness lacking in "shifty" personalities. One. knows where one stands with him. One is aware of encountering someone who remains what he essentially is in differing circumstances. He is real! This solid ¯ reality of his personality is, moreover, transparent, not made opaque by masks, pretensions, dissimulations, or defenses. He is by this very fact vulnerable, because he does not change color like a chameleon or become elusive like an eel. Therefore his weak points are apparent and open to attack. But even this vulnerability is an asset because it is what makes him at home with all men. The link that binds human beings is most often their capacity to be hurt rather than their invulnerability, their common misery rather than the superiority or achievement which set some apart from others, It is a vulnerability that survives being pierced without falling apart. The process of personality integration is an on-going one. A person who has reached a certain degree of integrity continues to make experiences which are to be integrated into his personality if they are to become meaningful to him. One's integrity when one's world is still relatively simple is qualitatively (not only in degree) different from that which one has achieved after going' through major life experiences. There are experiences that are more easily in-tegrated than others because of their familiarity and relative lack of impor-tance. Utterly new experiences, shattering or overwhelming ones are more dif-ficult to integrate. These can cause crisis situations. A person of integrity however, can undergo the most serious crisis, even one caused by his own failings and therefore incurring real guilt without suffering a personality dis-integration. He somehow arises from the ruins battered but whole. He is able to integrate even these negative experiences into his life making him richer and. even more whole because of the confirmation of the links that unite his per-sonality. Integrity in the Religious Life / 369 This is probably the reason why religious who sense an inner integrity in their being tend to take more risks and are less bound by conventions or legalistic observance of rules. They have a sure instinct for what is right, what is true, what is demanded by a situation, what is false or genuine in people they live with. Because of all these, they enjoy an inner freedom which makes them more creative and innovative in the living of their religious commitment. Reprints from the Review "The Confessions of Religious Women" by Sister M. Denis, S.O.S. (25 cents) "Institutional Business Administration and Religious" by John J. Flanagan, S.J., and James I. O'Connor, S.J. (20 cents) "Authority and Religious Life" by J. M. R. Tillard, O.P. (20 cents) "The Death of Atheism" by Rene H. Chabot, M.S. (20 cents) "The Four Moments of Prayer" by John R. Sheets, S.J. (25 cents) "Instruction on the Renewal of Religious Formation" by the Congreg~ition for Religious (35 cents) "Meditative Descriptiori of the Gospel Counsels" (20 cents) "A Method for Eliminating Method in Prayer" by Herbert Francis Smith, S.J. (25 cents) "Religious Life in the Mystery of the Church" by J. M. R. Tiilard, O.P. (30 cents) "Profile of the Spirit: A Theology of Discernment of Spirits" by John R. Sheets, S.J. (30 cents) "Consciousness Examen" by George A. Aschenbrenner, S.J. (20 cents) "Retirement or Vigil?" by Benedict Ashley, O.P. (25 cents) "Celibacy and Contemplation" by Denis Dennehy, S.J. (20 cents) "The Nature and Value of a Directed Retreat" by Herbert F. Smith, S.J. (20 cents) "The Healing of Memories" by Francis Martin (20 cents) Orders for the above should be sent to: Review for Religious 612 Humboldt Building 539 North Grand Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri 63103 Religious Government: A Reflection On Relationships Sister Doris Gottemoeller, R.S.M. Sister Doris Gottemoeller, R.S.M., whose reflections here have grown out of her experience with the nine provinces of the Sisters of Mercy as well as conversations with members of many other congregations, resides at the Generalate of the Sisters of Mercy; 10000 Kentsdale Drive: P.O.,Box 34446; West Bethesda, Maryland 20034. The renewal of religious life inaugurated by Vatican II required the adaptation of every aspect of that life, both external practices and internal attitudes. One of the most readily observable of these external areas is that of religious government, the network of structures which regulate the interrelationships of members and groups within a community. If the revitalization of communities in the light of Gospel vision and community charism was to occur, the Council saw that it had to be done in the light of the "physical and psychological con-ditions of today's religious," "the needs of the apostolate, the requirements of a given culture, (and) the social and economic conditions everywhere."' More particularly, the Council specified that the way in which communities are governed had to be re-examined in the light of these same standards.~ In order for renewal to truly involve and touch each member of a com-munity, structures had to be altered in order to create channels for each in-dividual voice. Moreover, the spirit of collegiality and subsidiarity which enlivened the Council itself implied the necessity for structures of participative decision-making within other Church groups, such as dioceses, parishes, and religious communities. Before renewal began, role definitions of officials in religious communities (e.g., major superiors, councilors, local superiors) had 'Vatican Council II, Perfectae Caritatis. no. ~. ~lbid. 370 Religious Government." A Reflection on Relationships / 37"1 ¯ provided predictable patterns of decision-making. Furthermore, little revision of rule or policy was required from year to year in an era when lack of change was valued as a sign of strength; constitutions and custom books provided guidelines for every situation, whether of great or trivial importance. With the recognition of the need for on-going adaptation, however, structures had to be altered to provide for on-going participation in the vision-building and direction-setting of a community by every member of that community. Not only was widespread grassroots participation needed for the successful carry-ing out of the special general chapters which inaugurated adaptation, but government plans had to be tailored to allow for continuing involvement in the affairs of the community. At least five years have elapsed since this work began, and some obser-vations can be offered as the fruit of a backwards glance over those years. The remarks which follow can be characterized as insights gleaned from observing the efforts of many communities to re-structure their governments into more responsive and responsible models. They are reflections on the phenomena--not evaluations from a religious or a theological point of view. This work of evaluation is certainly called for, but first we must form a good idea of what is happ.ening before we probe further. The following observations apply to representative bodies, to administrative groups, and to the methods whereby leadership is selected. Representative Bodies The ultimate authority in a religious community has always been vested in its general chapter. Accordingly the efforts to update communities had to begin here in a twofold sense: the chapter itself had to be updated as an instru-ment of leadership and then it, in turn, had the responsibility to inaugurate change in every Other aspect of community life. To this end communities modified their chapters in various ways and, in some cases, supplemented them with other representative groups described variously as assemblies, boards, and congresses. All .of these representative bodies are discussed together here, because certain observations can be made which pertain to all of them. Therefore, in the paragraphs which follow, "chapter" is used to refer to any representative body with responsibility to and for an entire religious in-stitute or a large portion thereof, e.g., a province. I. Most representative bodies have been made truly representative. Great progress has been made here, in the sense that chapters are no longer con-trolled by a preponderance of ex-officio delegates. In most cases the size of the group has been expanded and communities have been diligent in trying to bring together a genuine cross section of the congregation--diversified as to age, apostolic experience, community experience, and geographic location (in instances where a community is widespread). One thing we have learned here, however, is that this effort has its own inherent limitations, in the sense that to specify the configuration of the delegate group too particularly may arbitrarily 372 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 limit the freedom of the community members to have the representatives of their choice. In other words, suitable chapter delegates are not always or necessarily found in equal proportions in each geographic region or age group. 2. A distinction between the chapter and other non-legislative representative groups is not always viable in practice. This observation applies to those com-munities which have created an additional representative group to serve in the interim between chapter sessions in an advisory .capacity to the administrative group (major superior and council). The composition of this new group usually overlaps, to a large extent, the chapter membership, so a certain confusion of roles and responsibilities results. As chapter members, while the chapter is in session, the delegates have dominative authority over the affairs of the in-stitute or province. As assembly members, however, the delegates have only a consultative function. However, a crisis of confidence in the leadership of the administrative group would soon develop if they overrode or ignored the con-sidered judgment of the assembly very often. So, in practice, the assembly becomes, effectively, legislative or policy-making. Also, assembly members would soon lose interest in serving in that capacity if the matters submitted to them were not of real significance and/or if their judgments were not adopted and implemented by the administrative group. Therefore, the tendency is for such assemblies to either develop a quasi-legislative function or else to be con-sistently frustrated by the ineffectiveness of their role. The question must be asked, though, how many significant agenda items are t~ere which should receive the attention of a broad-based chapter group? It would seem that on many issues the administrative group would profit more from consultation with a more specialized committee within the community, such as the representatives of one particular area of apostolic service, than from the broad-based consultation which a chapter can provide. 3. The frequency with which the group meets is more significant than whether or not it is defined as legislative. If the group meets frequently (e.g., as often as bi-monthly, or even quarterly), there is a tendency on the part of the ad-ministrative group to submit a comparatively larger number of items to its consideration and to defer action even on relatively noncontroversial issues un-til after consultation with the chapter or assembly. Thus there is the possibility of paralyzing the activity and initiative of the administrative group, or at least of weakening their effectiveness as a leadership group. Major superiors may hesitate to make any personal creative approach to a problem or issue without submitting it to a chapter 'referendum.' In some cases this is by design: the administrative group is conceived of as the executive arm of the chapter which, in a sense, retains ordinary authority in the community. If this is patterned on the federal government's model of separation of powers, it fails to take account of the fact that the executive and legislative arms of the federal government are (ideally!) separate but equal and, furthermore, are counterbalanced by the judicial arm. If it is patterned on the model of the relationship between a board of trustees and administrators Religious Government: A Reflection on Relationships / :373 who are responsible to the board, then it should be noted that trustees or-dinarily entrust a large amount of ordinary authority to their administrators. If the administrators abuse that trust, they are replaced by the trustees, but the latter are not involved in the administration per se of the institution. One ques-tion which a community which adopts this "strong chapter/weak ad-ministrator" model must ask itself is to what extent the chapter members are willing to prepare themselves to consider and to involve themselves in a succes-sion of varied problems and issues. Too frequent meetings also may have the unfortunate effect of discourag-ing otherwise qualified community members from serving as delegates. Once this occurs the moral authority of the chapter is subtly undermined because the community senses that somehow serving as a delegate is not a priority respon-sibility and that the composition of the delegate body does not reflect the 'first choice' of the members of the community. 4. Chapter authority is weakened by confusion over its function. Formerly the understanding of what chapter delegates were to do was quite clear and recognized throughout the community. Ordinarily general chapter meetings coincided with the election of the major superior and other officials, and this task was the primary responsibility of the delegates: In addition to this elective function, the delegates knew they had legislative authority. However, in the pre-Vatican Ii era little change was expected or seemingly desired. Therefore the responsibility for this legislative function did not weigh too heavily on the delegates. Beginning with the special general chapters, however, the whole situation changed, and the legislative aspect assumed great prominence. Chapters vir-tually legislated anew on every aspect of religious life, even to the extent of abrogating their former constitutions almost in toto. Since that time com-munities have been using interim constitutions and chapter decrees in place of their former constitutions. The changes reflected in these documents, of course, could not be effected by simply promulgating them: on-going develop-ment had to take place in order to assist community members, delegates and non-delegates alike, to test out the new vis{on in terms of concrete experience and to internalize that vision in their personal value structures. Quite naturally, chapter delegates thus saw that their responsibility did not end when a chapter session adjourned. They had to communicate the chapter vision to everyone and become agents of on-going renewal. Subsequent chapter sessions then became occasions of further corporate reflection on the values embodied in earlier chapter decrees and led to appropriate modifications, refinements, a shared search for ways to implement ideals, and so forth. Thus the legislative function of chapters shaded into a new one, the renewal function. While this evolution of chapter responsibility is understandable and, from some standpoints, desirable, from another viewpoint an unfortunate blurring of distinctions may occur. That is, all of the pronouncements of the same legislative body tend to carry the same weight. As a result, chapter enactments 374 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 may appear to regress to the minutiae of an earlier era, and hence invite dis-regard, or they may all appear to be merely exhortatory without the benefit of stress or emphasis. If the authority of the chapter becomes weakened in the general estimate by too frequent pronouncements, there will be no authoritative voice left in a community to make a really solemn or effective point when it is called for. Perhaps this is an argument for less frequent chapter meetings, preceded by extensive reflection and development of issues within the community. The renewal function, then, would remain primarily the responsibility of the ad-ministrative group and such other community members and committees as they invite to share their responsibility, while the deliberative and legislative function--the ultimate direction setting--would remain the primary emphasis of the chapter itself. Administrative Groups The day-to-day administration of religious communities as well as or-dinary authority between chapter sessions is entrusted to a major superior and councilors and staff persons who collaborate with them. Just as with represen-tative bodies, there have been a variety of new approaches to maximizing the effective service of~.administrative groups. 1. "Teamwork" is seen as an ideal for administrative groups. Scarcely a group could be found today which would not lay claim to functioning as a "'team," but the connotations of this term are sometimes elusive. The use of it probably reflects an effort to escape from a hierarchical arrangement within the administrative group in which distinctions of rank and authority were strictly maintained, or from a rigid system of role descriptions within the council which tended to discourage creativity and initiative among the members and to stifle leadership in all but the major superior. To state what a team is not, however, is not the same as filling the concept with positive mean-ing. The chief characteristic of a team relationship is probably the high degree of communication and interaction among its members. Team organization is not incompatible with differentiation of tasks and authority among the members--after all, there is only one captain of a football team, and everyone plays a different position on it. (There are even offensive players as well as defensive ones, althgugh one would not like to push the analogy this far!) A team does imply a common goal for the members' efforts, however, and a genuinely concerted effort to reach it. There can be a distribution of authority on a team, and there certainly should be a flexibility in approach, a willingness to capitalize on one another's strengths and to compensate for one another's weaknesses, and a relative freedom to revise the "game plan" or to strategize as play progresses. A few communities have organized their administrative groups in such a way that two or more persons have co-equal responsibility. For example, there Religious Government: A Reflection on Relationships / 37~i may be three co-provincials who have different spheres of responsibility (such as religious formation, apostolic placement, finances, etc.), but seemingly equal accountability for the affairs of the total province. At least one com-munity reported that they found this to be an ineffective and inefficient arrangement because~f the lack of dynamism and leadership which resulted. Another effect of dividing the decisions to be made into approximately equal shares might be that the "co-provincials" tend to make decisions in isolation from one another without reference to the fact that these decisions ought to flow from an integrated vision of what the community is and is about. On the other hand, if "co-provincials" are all equally involved in every decision, the community's expectation will be that all will be equally knowledgeable about every area of responsibility--which would be a wasteful use of time and effort in some cases. These difficulties highlight the importance of studying the decision-making functions of the administrative group in order to provide, insofar as it can be anticipated, for participation which is proportionate to the centrality and im- 'portance of the issue. Formerly, constitutions took care of this by enumerating those matters which required a deliberative vote of the council and those for which only a consultative vote was required. The fact that administrative teams function in a more collegial and less formal style today should not obscure the insight that different matters require varying amounts of delibera-tion and ~consultation. 2. Administrative responsibility is increasingly shared with staff persons. This phenomenon results from the newly-emphasized distinction between charismatic and administrative leadership, as well as from an increasingly specialized and professional approach to traditional areas of administrative responsibility, such as finances, communications and record-keeping, per-sonnel services, and the management of apostolic institutions. Major superiors and their councils are seen primarily as 'in-spirators' and 'enablers' of religious community life--a role which is distinguished from the more management-oriented phase of their responsibility. It is further recognized that such tasks as financial management and personnel services require specialized preparation which is not always had by those whom the community wishes to elect to office. Also, these specialized tasks are often done better when a continuity of responsibility is maintained, and the tenure of such per-sons as the treasurer is not tied into an elected term of office. While in principle such distinctions can be made, there are also certain dif-ficulties which have been evidenced. First of all, the distinction between "charismatic" and "administrative" leadership cannot be exclusively main-tained: a religious leader who did not have a firm and sympathetic under-standing of the realities of the community's existence in every facet of its life would not be able to give credible inspiration to anyone. The leader's respon-sibility is to-cultivate an integrated vision of every aspect of community life in order to be able to challenge the members to further generosity in their 376 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 religious and apostolic life. Therefore the superior and council must collaborate closely with any staff persons in order to keep abreast of what they are learning about the community and also to help determine the priorities of the staff and to set the overall direction of their work. Another difficulty is apparent when the staff has insufficient authority to be effective. Community members must respect the expertise, community dedication, and delegated authority of the staff in order for their collaboration with the administrative group to really benefit all concerned. There are infor-mal as well as formal ways for the administrative group to i'einforce the staff's authority and responsibility in the community's eyes. For example, if a staff person has been designated to respond to a certain type of regularly-recurring request, the councilor should usually refuse to deal with such a request unless it can be shown that the staff person failed to give satisfactory service. Community members themselves sometimes create problems by requiring leaders to hold in confidence information which effects a staff member's role performance. Then the councilor is forced to intervene in the staff person's area of responsibility and to give a seemingly arbitrary direction, thus cir-cumventing the whole process. Councilors must be wary of allowing such situations to occur very often if they wish to have the assistance of a credible and effective staff. The relationship between the administrative group and the staff brings into focus the question of how large each group should be. This is probably a more relevant question than one which is more frequently'heard, "How many full-time persons are r(quired for community leadership?" In a day of declining membership and ever-pressing apostolic demands, releasing talented members for full-time community leadership often seems like a luxury which a com-munity cannot afford. But if more attention is given to a proper balance of elected leaders (full or part-time) and a supportive staff (full or part-time, lay or religious), new possibilities for maximizing leadership potential can be en-visioned. Obviously this answer varies from community to community, depend-ing on such factors as size, geographic expanse, diversity of apostolates, and the willingness and/or ability of council members to perform staff functions. Choice of Leadership No attempt will be made here to discuss varying and even inconsistent ex-pectations of leadership, although how to deal with that reality is a challenging question that applies both to representative bodies and to administrative groups. As noted above, community members expect chapter delegates~to be e.lectors, legislators, and (sometimes) renewal facilitators. They also expect major superiors and their councilors to furnish both charismatic and managerial leadership, in varying proportions. These areas of ambiguity do furnish a backdrop, however, for some remarks about the ways in which leaders have been chosen in recent years, a period in which there has been ceaseless experimentation with differing methods. In fact, most chapters spend Religious Government: A Reflection on Relationships / 377 more time determining the method by which they will choose their leaders than they do in carrying out the proce.ss itself. In general, four methods can be identified: choice by discernment, election by the chapter, election by the total community, and a nominated-appointed method. 1. Discernment. This method is difficult to define because its interpretation and application vary in different situations. In brief, though, it is a method whereby the electors reach a prayerful consensus about their choice of leadership. It is an application of the spirituality of discernment--the prayer-ful and communal effort to discover and respond to God's will for a group--to the specific matter of selection of leadership. Its proponents usually contrast it to an election which is considered to be mechanical or political or insufficiently attuned to God's will for the community. Since the effectiveness of the method is dependent on khe development of faith community within the group, its usefulness is qualified if the electors represent a very large or wide-spread community, and do not ordinarily see one another except on the occasion of a chapter meeting. In some cases the discernment process has involved not the chapter delegates, but the nominees themselves. In other words, after a process of nomination (in which the entire community has both active and passive voice), those nominees who decide, after personal discernment, that they would be open to being called to community leadership enter into a process of com-munal discernment. Great objection can be raised to this practice, however, since it arbitrarily restricts active voice in the election to only the nominees. Religious constitutions have traditionally specified very exactly who enjoys the right to elect the major superiors, namely, the chapter delegates. To create a situation in which there are no electors except the nominees themselves--some of whom may have received only a single nominating vote while others may have received hundreds--runs contrary to this whole tradition. There must be many qualified electors in a community who are not themselves potential can-didates for the office of major superior. 2. Election by the Chapter. This is the traditional method for selection of leadership, but the manner in which this process is carried out within the chapter admits of many variations. For example, communities have ex-perimented with nominating procedures which involve the entire community and/or with search committees who are charged with developing a list of nominees. Within the chapter itself great efforts are made to allow candidates to discuss their views and their vision of the future direction of the community in an open forum before the election takes place. The election of major superiors, since it is one of the gravest respon-sibilities of a chapter, should be carried out in a prayerful context (as should "all of the deliberations of a chapter). The chapter body should strive together to search out the best-qualified persons to call to leadership in the light of the religious and apostolic goals of the community. Prayers for divine guidance, for freedom from prejudice and error, and for generosity in responding to God's will should all surround the election. If this is the case, then the sup- 371~ / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 posed contrast between the discernment method and the election method seems to fade in significance. Furthermore, election by the chapter seems to be the only one which readily safeguards the traditional requirements of a valid election, namely, that the votes be free, secret, certain, absolute, and determinate.3 Even a total community election (to be dealt with below) risks compromising these con-ditions. Some would argue that these requirements should no longer apply and that, for example, the community would be better served if ballots were not secret. While at first glance this may seem to represent a growth in the level of mutual trust and evidence a breakthrough in communications within a com-munity, further reflection might lead to an enhanced appreciation of those traditional safeguards which the Church has provided in canon law. Any com-munity which forswears the use of "free, secret, certain, absolute, and deter-minate" ballots should understand full well what it is sacrificing and be con-vinced that a proportionate good will be achieved. 3. Election by the Total Com~munity. It is doubtful whether this method cduid be successfully applied in any but a very small community where all of the members can be present at an election or where the ballots can be collected within a short period of time. Those who advocate a direct popular election probably reflect a lack of confidence in their chapter, a serious problem which should be dealt with in itself since it affects more than the elections. If the chapter is truly representative, however, and the community has confidence in its responsible leadership, then the desire for a community-wide election would seem negligible. 4. Nomination-Appointment. In this method a higher administrative group appoints major superiors from a list of nominees prepared by the constituency. For example, a province (or provincial chapter) may submit a list of nominees to the administrator general and council who then appoint the provincial superiors. Or the provincial administrative group may appoint regional superiors from among nominees presented to them. The alleged advantage of this method is that the higher superior is able to look over the list of nominees and appoint an administrative team with complementary talents, a result which isn't always obtained in a direct election by the appropriate chapter. This method also reflects the authority and responsibility of the higher ad-ministrative group with respect to the smaller units of the community. The method is compromised, however, if the higher superior feels insuf-ficiently informed about the qualifications of the nominees, or is unable to en-dorse any of them with enthusiasm, or does not feel genuinely free to choose from among them. This last condition might apply, for example, if the list of nominees and the total number of votes each received is published to the com-munity at large. Then there is a subtle expectation that the major superior will 3Canon 169. For a discussion of these requirements, see Canon Law for Religious Women by Louis G. Fanfani, O.P., and Kevin D. O'Rourke, O.P. (Dubuque, Iowa: The Priory Press, 1961), pp. 91-93. Religious Government: A Reflection on Relationships / 379 automatically appoint the nominee ~with the highest number of votes, and the appointment becomes only the ratification of a fair accompli. Concluding Remarks Many other aspects of religious government today could be singled out for observation and study. Some of these which come to mind are the utilization of different kinds of balloting in elections (e.g., preferential ballots and weighted ballots), the respective advantages of staggered terms of office and concurrent terms, the participation of ancillary groups such as committees and commissions in the governing process, and the ways in which different units of government discharge their responsibilities (e.g., how they develop their agen-das and how they formulate and communicate policies). Moreover, in addition to the simple observation of phenomena and trends there is a need to evaluate them in the light of assumptions and principles which are acknowledged by the religious community. These espoused beliefs are of many kinds: political, sociological, philosophical, and theological, to name four important areas. This is not the place to develop a list of represen-tative assumptions and, indeed, the renewal process in communities may not have progressed far enough yet for them to be able to articulate these cor-porately. However, any in depth critique of government should deal with questions such as the nature of human persons, the role of law and structure in human life and associations, how government structures can reflect the emphasis of Vatican II on collegiality, subsidiarity,, and shared decision-making, and on the Gospel challenge to be poor, chaste, and obedient in a world which values none of these. Religious government is the point at which a religious community comes together to organize for its collective mission. Those who occupy leadership positions perform a temporary service for the others in order to facilitate that mission. Many relationships should be facilitated by a government structure: relationships of communication, of consultation, of decision-making; relationships between and among community members, community leadership, lay collaborators, Church, and world. The ideal plan of religious government is simple, clear, adapted to contemporary needs, and flexible. The government should be the point of integration of all the concerns of a com-munity, internal and external, and it exists in order to enable the community to better respond to those concerns. There is abundant evidence today that religious communities have in fact grasped the importance of adapting their government structures to these insights and that many of the changes made, and the inevitable trials-and-errors, have brought them closer to that goal. A Note on Religious Poverty J. Robert Hilbert, S.J. Father J. Robert Hilbert is presently assigned to St. Francis Mission; St. Francis, SD 57572 Introduction In many discussions of religious life, it has struck me that, of the three vows, poverty is the most difficult to come to grips with. One is tempted often enough to suspect that the fundamental problem is an unwillingness to take the direct approach of simply being poor. On the other hand, that might be a simplistic move prompted by the desire to escape the discomfort of the in-evitable tension involved in being in the world, but not of the world. There is a fundamental dilemma: poverty is either a good or it is an evil. If it is a good, if it is true that "Happy are you poor," that it really is harder for a rich man than for a poor one to enter the kingdom, then it makes sense for one to himself choose poverty and to counsel others to choose it, but it does not make sense to dedicate one's energies to the elimination of poverty. On the other hand, if poverty is evil, if it hinders man's ability to know, love and serve God, if it is destructive of the human spirit, then certainly it makes sense to work to overcome poverty, but it does not make sense to choose poverty, es-pecially to make it the object of a vow by which one expresses devotion to God. One can say that the Christian concern is not with poverty and wealth as economic or sociological realities, but is rather with poverty of spirit, a spirit which acknowledges man's basic helplessness and dependence on God, which sees man's good as a spiritual good in reference to which material possessions are either indifferent or are subservient as a means. A man who is materially wealthy may have this poverty of spirit in terms of real humility and detach-ment from his possessions, and a man materially poor may have the opposite of this spirit in terms of pride and greed. Yet one does have somehow to deal with the fact that the Gospels present Christ as saying that it is morally im-possible for a rich man to enter the kingdom, that the beatitudes, at least in 380 A Note on Religious Poverty Luke, seem to be talking about the poor and the rich in a sense that includes the material. in considering the sense of Christ's--and the Church's--call to preach the Good News to the poor, one might say of it that it is an assertion to those who are generally looked down on or who experience pain and need and helplessness that they are important to God and are loved by Him. Not that those who experience comfort, and social and mental and physical well-being are not loved, but that they are more apt to know it and so have less need of assurance than do the sufferers. Poverty in this context, one might then say, is not an economic term, but just a generi~ term for those who are needy in any way. Surely Dives is as poor and needy in a spiritual sense as Lazarus? So it is to him perhaps even more than to Lazarus that we are sent to bring the Good News. One hears arguments, too, on the point that Christ did not urge structural social change, much less work for it. Though he responded to physical needs of people on occasion, as when he fed the multitudes or healed the sick, he did not attempt the elimination of poverty or the overthrow of Roman domination any more than he attempted the elimination ~f disease or of earthquakes. Ob-viously he commanded love of neighbor and a practical expression of that love in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc., but he did not preach economic or political structural reform. What manner of reflection, then, led the bishops in their 1971 Synod to say that "action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation?''1 (Is there a possibility that our Lord received his death sentence because his teaching and activity constituted a threat to the established social order?) This note is not an attempt to offer solutions to the difficulties and am-biguities of religious poverty, nor is it intended to touch all the elements in-volved. It is simply aimed at emphasizing a few points that seem to me to be often missed or slighted. Before taking up those, however, it might be worth recalling a few presuppositions on which these reflections are based. The Church's Poverty and Religious Poverty One is that a religious community is a community within the Church. Its way of life, its values and ideals are those of the Church. It gives particular ex-pression to certain values in a way different from the way in which other groups in the Church do, but these values are those of the whole Christian peo-ple. Religious life is to give evidence of, to point to, to make sharply visible certain aspects of what it is to be a Christian. There must, then, be continuity in the sense of poverty of religious life and the sense in which the Church speaks of its poverty. This sense, of course, comes to the Church through the ~Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World (U.S.C.C., Washington, D.C., 1972.) p. 34. 382 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 example and teaching of Christ. "Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and under oppression, so the Church is called to follow the same path in communicating to men the fruits of salvation. Christ Jesus, 'though He was by nature God . . . emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave' (Phil 2:6), and 'being rich, he became poor' (2 Cor 8:9) for our sakes. Thus, although the Church needs human resources to carry out her mission, she is not set up to seek earthly glory, but to proclaim humility and self-sacrifice, even by her own example.''~ The Tradition of Religious Poverty Another assumption is that a religious community is both an inheritor of tradition and an interpreter of that tradition in terms of the present day. There is a long history of the practice of poverty in religious life. In the course of generations, we have developed a complex of values in the matter of poverty, including the following: detachment from material wealth; sparingness and simplicity in use of material things; possession of things in common; a life of labor; dependence on providence; hospitality; service of the poor. To some extent there is an'absoluteness in these values, aspects of them which are true in general for all men and all times. Even were there a time when the world had no drastic contrast between the rich and powerful and the poor and helpless, men would need reminders that the good life is not found in having things. "You have made all these things, made them very good indeed, yet You are my good, not they," It will always be true, as non-Christian cultures, too, realize, that man comes before God in nakedness and emp-tiness- not with reliance on possessions, nor on education, skills, achievements, nor even with security in good works as giving him in any way a claim on God; he comes to God with awareness of his own nothingness, and of God's infinite and personal love. Response to Particular Periods or Societies Beyond such timeless elements, howe, ver, values involved in religious poverty and modes of expression of that poverty are related to the contem-porary social situation of any given period. Modes of expression of religious poverty differ among various orders and in various times and places in part because religious poverty is an affirmation of values endangered by a particular period or society. !t is a prophetic witness directed to the needs of the time and place. Benedict, Francis and Ignatius had initially very different modes of poverty in their orders, not because they had different views of the fundamental and timeless values expressed in poverty, but because they were responding to the needs of the Church in different histo.rical periods. In considering renewal of religious poverty for our times and situation, ~Vatican 1 I, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,//8. (Documents of Vatican 11. America Press, 1966, p. 23.) A Note on Religious Poverty / 383 then, it is not enough to accept the externals of the expression of poverty ac-cording to the traditions of a religious order; one must consider the values and attitudes involved, both the religious values affirmed and the worldly values opposed. Let us put this another way. Christ'.s life of poverty, it has been said, was "characterized by a redemptive use of things.''3 This is not simply an accept-ance of an ideal order of creation; it is also a recognition that there is sin-fulness embodied in the present concrete order, a non-redemptive use of things, which must be counteracted. The non-redemptive use, the sinful use, of God's creation is evil not only because it is an undue or distorted valuing of things (St. Paul speaks of "greed, which is idolatry"), but because it leads men to degrade, exploit and treat unjustly their fellow men. Poverty Is Apostolic Another presupposition is that the poverty of a religious order is not an end in itself. It is ordained to man's redemption, to the development of the Kingdom of God. Hence, there will be variation in the poverty of different g~roups according to the nature of their apostolate. Yet this subordination must not obscure the fact that poverty is really meant and is deliberately chosen. Religious poverty is not a mode of life that is in total equilibrium; it is not a way of life characterized by use of God's creation in what might be the way one would hold up as the ideal for all men in the ultimately just world order. Religious poverty is a deliberate move to the side of the poor and oppressed, an affirmation of intended identification with them. It is this because in Christ God has identified himself with them. Furthermore, religious poverty is a mode of apostolate. A religious may recognize that there are many ways of working for the attainment of man's red, emption. In the spirit of the Kingdom and Two Standards of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, however, he chooses to work from a position of poverty and humiliations. This is not a completely rational approach to the improve-ment of the human situation. There is a mystery in God's mode of salvation in Christ--through poverty, humiliation, injustice, eventually an unjust death on the cross. Unless there is an acceptance in faith of that mystery as still operative, there can be no full acceptance of religious poverty. l have stated four points that seem to me to enter in to reflection on religious poverty: that religious poverty is to give clear evidence to the Church's sense of poverty; that it involves a sense of the tradition of poverty throughout history; that there must be a re-statement of the spirit and tradi-tion of religious poverty in light of the sociological and cultural situation of the present day; that religious poverty is apostolic, "as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and under .oppression." As I consider these points and my experience of religious life, it seems to aJohn R. Sheets, S.J., Toward a Theology of the Religious Life. (Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, II1,8; Nov., 1971, p. 173.) 384. / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 me that three areas which demand much and serious reflection in efforts at renewal are: that religious poverty must be in fundamental, radical opposition to the spirit of our affluent society, and must, then, require fundamental, radical personal conversion on the part of a religious; that contemporary con-sciousness of social injustice is integral and essential to the meaning of religious poverty and its expression in our day; that being concerned for the poor and being poor are not quite the same thing. Religious Poverty in an Affluent Society In referring to our affluent culture, what I am trying to suggest is that simply having things, being relatively wealthy in comparison to the major por-tion of the world's population is not an accidental adjunct to what we are as a people. Our material affluence is rooted in and has sprung from some of the most basic attitudes and values of our culture. In turn, our affluence reinforces and influences the development of these attitudes and values. Surrendering the right to personal ownership, professing a dependence on a superior or a com-munity for material things, even choosing a standard of economic life which eliminates certain superfluities and luxuries, does not signify or produce a very deep-rooted or wide-ranging change in the attitudes and values we have ab-sorbed since birth. It seems to me that this is the fundamental reason why it is so hard for us to come to any clear and satisfactory consensus about the meaning of religious--or Christian--poverty. So long as we consider the matter on the basis of the attitudes and values which are our cultural inheritance, there is no way we can conclude that real poverty is something which can be chosen and prized, for that culture is in diametric opposition to a spirit of poverty. In a brief article such as this, there is not scope for a full discussion of the American value system. What we are as a people, though, can be learned by reflection on our history. It was not an aberration of a few twisted individtials that brought about the centuries of enslavement of millions of Africans and In-dians. The greed, violence, lust for power, unquestioning assumption of superiority that underlay the centuries of European exploration, conquest, dominance and exploitation were not just occasional faults of isolated in-dividuals. They were part of the fundamental value system of an entire culture. Though we now repudiate some of the cruder manifestations, the same values and spirit are still endemic in Western culture, and have been incar~ nated in the social structures that our culture has established. It is not acci-dent, but basic cultural drive that has developed in this, the wealthiest country in the world, an economic and political structure which "virtually guarantees poverty for millions of Americans.''4 The greed, selfishness and exploitation of the colonial period have borne fruit, through the period of the industrial revolution and the growth of the multi-national corporations, in a world 4Poverty Amid Plenty, the report of the President's commission on income maintenance programs, 1969, p. 23. A Note on Religious Poverty / 385 economy which has created an enormous and ever increasing division between rich and poor, which threatens the human race because of the destruction of the earth's environment and resources. So the world is not one. Its peoples are more divided now, and also more conscious of their divisions, than they have ever been. They are divided between those who are satiated and those who are hungry. They a~e divided between those with power and those without power. They are divided between those who dominate and those who are dominated; between those who exploit and those who are exploited. And it is the minority which is well fed, and the minority which has secured control over the world's wealth and over their fellow men. Further, in general that minority is distinguished by the colour of their skins and by their race. And the nations in which most of that minority of the world's people live have a further distinguishing characteristic--their adoption of the Christian religion.5 What is significant is not only the fact of such division, but also our general ability to ignore that fact. How is it, after 80 years of modern social teaching and two thousand years of the Gospel of love, that the Church has to admit her inability to make more impact upon the con-science of her people?. It was stressed again and again that the faithful, particularly the more wealthy and comfortable among them, simply do not see structural social in-justice as a sin, simply feel no personal responsibility for it and simply feel no obligation to do anything about it. Sunday observance, the Church's rules on sex and marriage, tend to enter the Catholic consciousness profoundly as sin. To live like Dives with Lazarus at the gate is not even perceived as sinful.6 A concern for religious poverty which attends only to the externals of per-sonal or community economy is inadequate. If we continue to fit comfortably within the systematized greed, selfishness, cruelty, love of power of our society, we have no poverty of spirit. If we are ourselves to become Christian and to bring the Christian word to our society, we must attain an empathy with the poor and powerless in our own country and in the world. We have to feel the poverty of the migrants who harvest the food that is so plentiful on our tables. We have to know our society as it is experienced by an unemployed In-dian who sees his children growing up undernourished, falsely educated, and culturally destroyed in a country where his grandfathers lived in freedom and plenty. But once again, we have to become aware of and critical of our own ac-culturation. We must ourselves engage in that continuing education described by the bishops, an education which comes "through action, participation and vital contact with the reality of injustice." We must awaken in ourselves "a critical sense, which will lead us to reflect on the society in which we live and its values," and be "ready to renounce these values when they cease to promote justice for all men.''7 This examination will include not only our 5Julius Nyerere, Speech to the Maryknoll Sisters (Maryknoll Overseas Extension Service, Maryknoll, N.Y., p. 6). 6From an account of the debate at the 1971 Bishops' Synod, quoted in Henriot, "The Concept of Social Sin," Sourcebook on Poverty, Development and Justice, Campaign for Human Develop-ment (U.S.C.C., Wash., D.C., 1973, p. 67). 7Synod, op. cit., p. 46. 386 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 private lives, but the values incorporated in the institutions in which we work. It is necessary, for instance, to examine the basis of our judgment of produc-tivity and efficiency, our decisions about choice of means. Do we give due ac-count to the idea that we are called to follow the path of carrying out the work of redemption "in poverty and under oppression?" Abject poverty, we are told over and over again, is destructive of the human spirit, is an evil which must be eradicated, cannot be the object of a choice, certainly not of a vow, because it is an evil. True enough. But is it possible that our sense of how evil it is is to some extent a reflection of how good we think wealth is? Does our reflection on Christ's statement that it is a moral impossibility for a rich man to enter the kingdom suggest to us that perhaps wealth, too, is destructive of the human spirit, is an evil which must be eradicated? There are many ways in which the full acceptance and real valuing of religious poverty demand not simply a spirit of occasional.self-denial, but a very radical transformation of the basic values inculcated in us from birth within our society, values involved in our attitudes towards material creation, toward the meaning of human life, toward our country's position in world relationships. Addressing Social Injustice Earlier in this article 1 said that contemporary consciousness of social in-justice seems integral to our understanding of religious poverty. To some ex-tent l have introduced this idea in discussing the matter of a critical examina-tion of our values, but let me focus more directly on this point. Poverty has always been an essential of religious life--but its motivation and expression have been modified by the needs of the times. The sinful ab-surdity of the economic situation of our times is not in the fact that there are people who are poor, but in the division described by Nyerere, in the fact that the enormous and unprecedented technological, economic and political power of our times is ordered not to alleviating the plight of the poor majority of men, but to the perpetuation and increase of the imbalance of that division. The bishops recognize this situation as a claim on the Church's expression of poverty. Although in general it is difficult to draw a line between what is needed for right use and what is demanded by prophetic witness, we must certainly keep firmly to this principle: our faith demands of us a certain sparingness in use, and the Church is obliged to ad-minister its own goods in such a way that the (~ospel is proclaimed to the poor . In societies enjoying a higher level of consumer spending, it must be asked whether our life style exemplifies that sparingness with regard to consumption which we preach to others as necessary in order that so many millions of hungry people throughout the world be fed.8 8Ibid., p. 45. A Note on Religious Poverty / 387 What is that sparingness? In general, at least, "those who are already rich are bound to accept a less material ~way of life, with less waste, in order to avoid the destruction of the heritage which they are obliged by absolute justice to share with all other members of the human race.''9 Many cautions are given in discussions of religious poverty to the effect that it should not be confused with economic poverty, that religious poverty in its expression is relative to the milieu in which the community lives and works, that religious poverty is distinct from the claims of justice. Such distinctions, however, can be overdrawn to the extent that religious poverty is moved to an abstraction that has little in common with the poverty of Christ. His Kenosis was accomplished in concrete terms of real identification with the poor and ac-tual confrontation with the powerful of his times. When he said, "Happy are you who are poor," and "Alas for you who are rich," one has the impression that he was not abstracting from the economic situation. More fundamentally, Fr. Arrupe's statement deserves serious con-sideration: But God is not only the God of the poor. He is, in a real sense, God who is poor. For the mystery of the Incarnation has established a special relationship between God and pover-ty whose meaning goes much deeper than mere compassion . God is allpowerful. God has riches beyond our ability to estimate. But he is also a God of justice, who demands that justice be done. l f, then, God, allpowerful and infinitely rich, identifies Himself with the poor, it must be because the cause of the poor is somehow identified with the cause of justice?° Sparingness, for example, is fundamental to religious poverty in part as an example to all men that possessions and use of luxuries are not all that essen-tial to the quality of human life--may, in fact, hinder a man in his real development. Today there is clearly added to this motivation in the Church's consciousness the demand of some sparingness in order that justice be served. It is clear, too, that this demand goes beyond the matter of purely personal or domestic religious life to take in as well the means used in our apostolic works. If there is a demand that our society's use of energy, for example, be reduced, that reduction is called for in all aspects of our life and work. It seems to me, in short, that a level of example and witness in this regard is integral to a realistic understanding of the contemporary value of religious poverty--a poverty that is true to the Church's sense of her call to poverty, a poverty characterized by a redemptive use of things, a use redemptive of the actual sinful use of things in our day. Identification with the Sociologically Poor The Church, following the example of Christ, recognizes a particular call to showing concern for the poor and the oppressed. This call is felt with special 91bid., p. 51. 1°Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Witnessing to Justice (Pontifical Commission, Justice and Peace, Vatican, 1972), p. 38. 3~11~ / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 emphasis by religious, as the history of their efforts on behalf of the poor attests. The kind of assistance that is called for will vary in different periods and with different orders. In our times, there is particularly the note of concern that the structures which perpetuate and increase the division between rich and poor be changed. Even within the wealthiest country in the world, change of structures is necessary for the alleviation of widespread poverty: The paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty causes many to ask why some people re-main poor when so many of their fellow Americans have successfully joined the ranks of the affluent . It is often argued that the I~oor are to blame for their own circumstances and should be expected to lift themselves from poverty. This commission has concluded that these assertions are incorrect. Our economic and social structures virtually guarantee poverty for millions of Americans.1~ The call to concern for the poor and for working for structural changes that will ensure justice for the poor is a call to all Christians. For us who profess religious poverty, it is not only a call to have such concern and to work for such change, but to share Christ's identification with the poor. Discer.n-ment is necessary, harmfully simplistic approaches should be avoided--yet our life and mode of work should be such that our being accounted among the poor is clear. Whatever may be said of the relative norm of poverty with reference to the milieu in which a community lives and works, it should be clear that they are poor in that relative way. If it is a question for all Christians "whether belong-ing to the Church places people on a rich island within an ambient of pover-ty,''~ 2 it is preeminently a question for religious. We should share what we have, and it seems good, sometimes, that we do have in order to share. But we should be present to the poor as willing to share what little we have, not as well-to-do philanthropists sharing their excess. There is a lesson for us, though we might not wish to carry it to that extreme, in the example of St. Francis's unwillingness even to accept alms to be dis-tributed to the poor. There is, moreover, the very practical fact that it is most unlikely that we will appreciate the meaning of being truly poor, or be able really to see our society and its structures from the standpoint of the poor, if we ourselves do not in some real way share their experience. It is evident enough in our rec-tories and convents and schools that most of us share pretty completely the values and attitudes and experience and even prejudices of the affluent, not of the poor. It seems pertinent at this point to introduce a quotation from St. Ignatius Loyola which perhaps returns to the statement of my opening paragraph: ~tPoverty Amid Plenty, loc. cir. 12Synod, op. cit., p. 45. A Note on Religious Poverty Let me just say this; whoever loves poverty should be glad to be poor; glad to go hungry, to be badly clothed, to lie on a hard bed. For if someone loves poverty but avoids penury, following poverty only from afar, is that not to be comfortably poor? Surely that is to love the reputation rather than the reality of poverty; to love poverty in word but not in deed.t3 As 1 conclude this article, my sense of futility returns. If some of the honestly poor people of my acquaintance--in the slums of Milwaukee, in Belize, on the Sioux reservation where I now live--were ever to run into the sort of discussion I have written here, 1 suspect they would not find it so much the word of Christ as the confusion of one who is far from Him. 1 think it might cause some amusement, if not amazement, that a man with so much education and so many years of meditation on the Gospel can make such a complicated business out of the relatively simple question of how he can be poor. But this is written by one who lives in material security, even affluence, for others who live similarly, and so must inevitably reflect the confusion of those bound in that mesh. May that which is impossible to men, that which our own mental gyrations and personal anguish can never bring about, be accomplished by Him who can save; may He relieve us of the burden and constriction of our wealth, pull us through the eye of the needle, and introduce us to the simplicity and freedom of His Kingdom. t3Monumenta Ignatiana, Epp. l, 577. Mortification Brother Thomas E. Ruhf, C.P. Bro. Thomas E. Ruhf is.presently engaged in studies for the priesthood at St. John's University, where he was awarded a Master's Degree in Theology last year. He is a member of the Passionist Monastery; 178th St. and Wexford Terrace; Jamaica, NY 11432. The word "mortification" is seldom if ever heard these days, and, when it is, it strikes a strange and sour note because of its seeming lack of harmony with contemporary man's view of himself and his world. In a society ruled by the lords of consumerism, progressivism and utopianism, the concept of mor-tification is most assuredly an outcast. Mortification is viewed as no less than a perversion of life, since life's goal is seen to be the pursuit of happiness and self-fulfillment, which is attained in extracting from life all its treasures of pleasure and burying as much as possible its pains and sorrows. The mul-tiplication of wonders in science and technology is heralding the dawn of a new age when there will be plenty of pleasures and possessions for all, when disease and pains will be laid to rest forever, and when even death may fall victim to the march of man. To speak of death, suffering or any human limitation is to talk of problems to be solved and not perennial conditions to be fa~ed. Such a society has no use for mortification precisely because it is a radical, concrete and complete affirmation of these realities, precisely because it af-firms them as enduring conditions to be faced and embraced for their creative potentials. The problem with mortification is a problem with suffering and death, with their proper place in a full and authentic human existence. In spite of society's claims of present and future scientific and technological conquests, death, suffering and human limitations remain ever so real. Daily the media parades before our eyes the ~pectr'e.of human suf-fering- innocent children with bellies pregnant with starvation, the disfigured and bloodied corpses of victims of senseless terrorism and calculated wars, the 390 . Mortification / 39'1 sad streams of people with lives and homes ruined by the fury of natural dis-asters. At the same time the tales of polluted water and air, of shortages of oil and energy, of inflation and recession are bursting the bubble of the great American myth of the cornucopia of unending resources and limitless produc-tion. Yet modern society continues its masquerade of denial. This denial of the hard and enduring facts of death, suffering and human limitation is not without its costs, for modern man has fallen victim to a certain sense of cultural schizophrenia. It seems that the greater the claims made for man's omniscence and omnipotence, for his control over nature and life in the face of his obvious lack of it, the greater becomes his sense of personal impotence, of being victimized and fated by the forces of nature and life. As society as a whole becomes more integrated, mechanized and systematized, he as an in-dividual becomes more isolated, alienated and categorized. Sodiety's attempt to do away with all external forms of suffering and pain only serves to intensify and foster his internal suffering and pain. A Contemporary Understanding of the Problem of Suffering and Death If any concept of mortification is to be valid today, it must seek its basis in the new heightened awareness of pain and suffering not only as external world realities but also as internal personal realities. It must find its roots in a con-temporary understanding of suffering and death. Perhaps the most meaningful concept of suffering and death for today's world is the existentialist view. In such a view man is seen primarily as a being-unto- death. His very suffering and limitation become movements in con-sciousness toward the final limit of death, which brings man face to face with the fundamental questionableness of his own being without offering him any answer to it. This ultimate questionableness of life is faced by each man alone. Death represents the ultimate loneliness. All suffering, in being mine alone to bear, is essentially an experience of loneliness foreshadowing the ultimate Ioneliriess of death. Thus suffering and death give a character of existential loneliness to all life, a realization that no other finite reality can solve the basic questionableness involved in the finitude of my existence, that no finite reality can satisfy my radical desire to transcend this ultimate limit. This spectre of existential loneliness casts a long shadow of fear and anx-iety over a man's life. He can deal with this spectre in a number of ways. One way, which is most characteristic of contemporary man, is to avoid the whole question as long as possible. There is a retreat from the limits of his loneliness and death and a search for a sense of security in an immersion into th6 daily activities of pleasure and production. Indeed in America death is a taboo. The subject must never be raised, not even with a dying person. Death is always an unfortunate accident that happens to someone else. Likewise acknowledgement of a deep sense of loneliness seems awkward and inappropriate in a society.dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure and hap- 399 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 piness. Loneliness, a basic reality of life, like death, is viewed as a sickness which alienates people from each other and society and hence is an unfor-tunate development in life that must be avoided and spurned. But in fact "it is not loneliness which separates persons from others, but the terror of loneliness and the constant effort to escape it.''t If a man cannot face and affirm his ex-perience of existential loneliness as a condition of existence, he will not only be alienated from others but even from his very self. As Dr. Elisabeth K~ibler- Ross has observed in her study of terminally ill persons, nothing frustrates and alienates them more than their families' and friends' refusal to talk of suffer-ing and death. As a result Dr. K~ibler-Ross makes a plea in her book, On Death and Dying, for more people to face up to the reality of death for the sake of helping the dying and for their own sake in living real and full lives.2 Modes of Acceptance of Suffering and Death Assuredly the acceptance of suffering and death is necessary for a truly authentic and full life. However there are significantly different modes of acceptance that man has and can choose as his way of responding to these realities. Karl Rahner suggests that there are basically three postures of ac-cepting death? First of all, some see death as the stark and complete termination of all that they have found pleasureable in life. Death is a door op~ning out into dark oblivion, into the ultimate futility of all life and as such is a cause for frustra-tion and despair. Suffering is a grim foreshadowing and reminder of this ul-timate emptiness. Others embrace death with the full consciousness of their being, realizing that they have no answer to the enigma of its meaning, but yet remaining open to an answer to this ultimate questionableness of life from a source outside of themselves and time. It is a response of stoic resignation to fatedness and all suffering, leaving open the possibility that death could be a door to ultimate fulfillment as well as to ultimate annihilation. The third response goes beyond resignation, radically affirming death and all "little deaths" in suffering as doors to a life of ultimate fulfillment, as the necessary frontiers to be crossed on the way to the radical transformation of man's ex-istential situation by a gift from God. This response of acceptance is permeated by a sense of faith and hope in seeing in the very finitude of life its radical nature as free gift from the One v~ho is Infinite. This last response is of course the Christian response. We acknowledge in faith the efficacy of Christ's death and resurrection for the transformation of our own death into eternal life in God. Dying to ourselves becomes the only way to the fullness of life. Existential loneliness in suffering and death is the ~Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1961), p. 103. 2Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross, M.D., On Death and Dying (New York, N.Y.: Macmillian Co., 1969). p. 13. 3Karl Rahner, S.I., "The Passion and Asceticism," Theological Investigations (Baltimore, Md.: Helicon Press, 1967), v. 3, p. 92. Mortification / 393 very vehicle to authentic life since it is our only entrance into a participation in the Paschal Mystery which is the answer to the questionableness of all life. We believe that as an existential, ontological result of Christ's saving action all life can now be said to exist in a state of mortification, in a state of having already died with Christ that it may now live with him in a sharing in his resurrection. In this sense every life by way of baptism in Christ enters into a state of "ab-solute mortification."' Present Difficulty with Mortification No Christian has problems with accepting mortification as a state of life entered into in baptism, though we perhaps never consciously refer to life in Christ as mortified existence. The problem comes in the choosing of specific acts of mortification above and beyond the suffering and death inherent in the exigencies of life itself. These self-chosen acts of mortification, which have been termed "relative mortification," have for some time played a role in the tradition of Christian asceticism and been a prominent feature of religious life. But today it is a common assumption that relative mortification has no. place in authentic Christian living. In fact it has been condemned as a distortion and perversion of Christianity, and any mention of the subject evokes looks and words of scorn and disbelief. How can it be that such a long tradition of relative mortification has so suddenly been pushed aside and left to die?.llS it simply true that there is no value in practising it at all? To answer this question we must first identify and face the reasons for this rejection. There seem to be two fundamental reasons for this. First it stems from a reaction against the excessive and exclusively corporal nature of past practices of mortification. Secondly the rejection arises out of an affirmation that there is enough mortification inherent in trying to live a good Christian life of love. Certainly whenever the word "mortification" is spoken in Christian circles it immediately calls to mind a grim picture of severe corporal austerities aimed at prevention of or reparation for sin. Such practices of "attacking" the body do violence to our contemporary awareness of the sacrality of all material ex-istence. We react strongly against the Platonic dualistic view of life implicit in these practices which views the soul as imprisoned in the body and yearning for release from its evil propensities. Furthermore instead of releasing a person from his self-centeredness, these practices often enough focused concern on the self by creating an obsessive preoccupation with avoiding pleasure and con-solation in a fight to win salvation. The Christian call to turn outward from the self to Christ and his ~people in a spirit of suffering love is overshadowed by the quest for personal perfection in the conquest of temptation. Hence such prac-tices appear to have little connection with a valid Christian life. 'William J. Rewak, S.J., "Mortification," Review for Religious, May 1965, p. 374. 394 / Review for Religious, Volume 34, 1975/3 Inadequacy of Traditional Justifications for Mortification It certainly must be admitted that many past ascetical practices are quite justifiable on "worldly" terms alone apart from any connection with a Chris-tian view of life. Karl Rahner distinguishes three types of ascetical practices which developed independently of Christianity.5 The first type he terms moral asceticism, which uses corporal austerities as a means of self-discipline for the sake of attaining a balance of the various forces in man and thus enabling him to lead a life in harmony with the laws of his nature. Such asceticism seeks to conquer the "animality" in man so that his spirit may rule. This description would fit many of our past practices of mortification. Likewise "mystical asceticism," in using bodily self-denials as a preparation for an experience of religious enthusiasm and mystical insight, has nothing peculiarly Christian about it. The same can be said for "ritual asceticism" which also uses bodily austerities as a way to escape the profane sphere of life for the sake of contact with the transcendent. All these justifications for mortification deny the significance of Christ's Incarna;tion, deny the truth of the Word who is the flesh and blood revelation of God, who reveals the spiritual by means of th~ material. There is no prere-quisite of escape from material reality in order to find God. Contemporary Christianity has rejected past practices of mortification quite justifiably on the grounds that the reasons given for employing them had little to do with solid Christian belief. Indeed the decrees of dispensation of the Friday abstinence and of most of the Lenten fast and abstinence were viewed by many as a sort of"Emancipa-tion Proclamation" freeing Catholics from the slavery of past mortificational practices. In the ensuing exhiliration of freedom not only were the past prac-tices cast off but also the whole concept of relative mortification itself. In the name of freedom for a full human life, many could now repeat the words of James Carroll, "I have given up nothing but giving up for several Lents. I have denied myself self-denial.''6 In the same breath as was said "my work is my prayer," can be said "my life is my mortification." The Search for Enduring Values Yet with all this freedom from the past there seems to be a budding sense of frustration and emptiness. There is a growing awareness that in rejecting past practices we have neglected real values that were inherent in them though covered by distortions. A renewed emphasis on contemplation, solitude, and just plain "wasting time" is finding its way back into Christian literature. These concerns are arising not out of a sense of fear of the modern world and an attempt to hold onto the past but out of the faithfulness to one's own being and the call of need from others. There is a new movement beyond the 5Rahner, op. cit., pp. 60-66. 6James Carroll, "Mortification for Liberation," National Catholic Reporter. December 10, 197 I, p. 10. MortiJi'cation / 39~i smashing of past idolized practices to searching for the foundations of the en-during values and treasures of the Church. The present times demand that we be honest with ourselves. We must ad-mit that our work has not really become our prayer nor our living of life a full realization of the spirit of mortification. As Saint Paul so clearly stresses in the ninth chapter of his letter to the Corinthians, there is more to fighting the good fight and running the good race than the contests themselves. Any good athlete spends much time in preparation for the contest in rigorous discipline and training. Just because we find our exercises for the contest to be inade-quate it does not necessarily follow that all exercises are fruitless. What more appropriate time is there for re-examining and reassessing our own commit-ment to and training for the contests of life than now in this Holy Year of renewal and reconciliation with its special focus on personal, interior renewal? Necessity of Re-affirming the Value of Mortification From our discussion of the possible reactions to the experience of suffering and death, it is clear that total acceptance and creative affirmation of them in hope is not man's natural, spontaneous response. The mere acceptance of suf-fering and death as inevitable and a willingness to face it as it comes along is not enough in view of the Christian's radical call to affirm and give himself fully to these realities. If these "contests" are seen to hold out to every man the prize of the very meaning of all life, then they are not simply "contests" which we resign ourselves to entering, but "contests" to be trained and prepared for. A spontaneous response of faith and hope in the face of suffering and death springs from a person who has already radically affirmed these realities in the actions of his own life. The way a person affirms any values in his life is by means of the actions he freely chooses. It would seem that self-chosen acts of self-denial affect the depths of a person in a very special way that fate-imposed