Economy and change: administrators’ meeting

A tradition interrupted during the two years of the pandemic. The zonal meetings of the treasurers of the EUM Province, that took place for six years consecutively until 2019, resumed this year with great participation as regards attendance and discussion. On 11 March in Milan, 25 March in Rome, 8 April in Palermo and 5 May in Malta, a total of about 130 people took part.

“We must help each other reciprocally to understand and carry out the economic dimension more evangelically, in the awareness that this field too, that of the economy, is an instrument of the missionary activity of the Society”: thus, at the conclusion of work carried out in Milan, Fr. Roberto del Riccio, Provincial, indicated the fundamental purpose of the meetings. “Sometimes there can be a temptation to believe that what characterizes a work, a college, are only its programs and its activities, and that administration is instead only a technical thing”. Instead, Del Riccio explained, ‘all functions, including the economic dimension, contribute to the one Project. With this attitude, the right tension can be found between daily work and a higher perspective”. “For an administrator of the Society, being jointly responsible for the mission of a work and reconciling this awareness with the dimension of professionalism is a very special challenge with which one must deal on a daily basis,” the Provincial concluded.

“The report by Berardino Guarino, Director General of the Treasurer’s Office, and the contributions in the various meetings by Fr Franz Pecori, Fr Alessandro Viano and Fr Guglielmo Pireddu on the Statutes of Poverty, by Enrico Sarti on Instruction for the Administration of Assets, and by Gianluca Gentile on Property Insurance and the new Agidae contract for personnel, helped to outline the horizon in which the Province Treasurer’s Office has moved in recent years, to provide training on some specific points and to indicate future objectives. There were three perspectives on which the work was based: “To offer those involved in administration an opportunity to get to know or meet other people who work in the same sector within the Province; to propose reflections and updates on specific issues of property administration; to offer an overview of the basic choices, the main areas of work and some specific projects of the Province Treasurer’s Office,” explained Guarino.

Guarino’s report stemmed from the perspective indicated by Pope Francis in his frequent calls for an economy with parameters that are mindful of the person and the environment. He then moved on to consider the economic vision in light of apostolic preferences and the Ignatian Year. Then, a report on the final budget for the past few years, the status of real estate and financial assets, and major ongoing projects, with special reference to renovations. “Universities, businesses, various organizations and movements, our Works, our Colleges, our Communities are sites of hope to build other ways of understanding the economy and progress, to combat the culture of waste, to give voice to those who have none, to propose new lifestyles. To lay down concrete signs, which have the value of prophecy, but also of tangibility, for example in the re-destination of some properties for social purposes, in the creation or support of social enterprises, capable of creating non-profit work and serving a community interest,” Guarino said. But, he added, “above all, places where the work of shaping consciences never fails, knowing that when people are injected with the desire for change, they are already well on their way.”