Globalization: Challenges to the Church's Mission

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
COMLA VI Congress
Buenos Aires, Argentina
September 29, 1999

Introduction

As this decade and century draw to a close, it has become increasingly apparent that a new world order is taking shape. At the beginning of this decade, we saw the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, and with it, the end of the Cold War. This event meant both the end of the bipolar political arrangement of the world and, as it has turned out, the end of an economic order which divided the world into capitalist and socialist economies.

What has replaced the Cold War world order, which perdured for more than four decades, is what is now being called globalization. While it is still emerging as a new world order, the contours it is bringing to the world and the directions it appears to be going are becoming clearer to us. Given the effects of this world order on concrete persons, it is incumbent upon the Church—which has been entrusted by Christ to care for all--to engage it as it does all cultures: both to affirm what is good and noble about it, and to confront its shortcomings and its evils with the light and power of the Gospel.

In this presentation, I wish to explore what challenges globalization raises for the mission of the Church today. This is, of course, a vast task--one that cannot be fully realized in a presentation such as this. I will try to set out what are both the main challenges globalization raises, as well as what resources the Church brings to bear upon those challenges in its presentation of the message of Jesus Christ. I will begin with a brief description of globalization as it is unfolding in the world today, and follow that by a brief evaluation of its positive and negative dimensions. Attention then turns to how the Church in her evangelizing mission should and can respond to those challenges today. The presentation concludes with some reflections on globalization in light of the New Evangelization and the Great Jubilee.

What Is Globalization?

There are many attempts today to define just what globalization is. It is a phenomenon which is so vast that attempts at grasping it comprehensively can fall short of the mark. Let me begin with an image which sets the stage for understanding globalization, both at the technical and the spiritual levels.

In July we noted the thirtieth anniversary of one of the most remarkable events of the twentieth century: the occasion when an earthdweller first set foot on another planetary body, the moon. That event was filled with all kinds of meaning for us. But one of the most powerful images to emerge from the adventures of travel in space was our first opportunity to see our own planet Earth from the perspective of space. This is an image now familiar to all of us. From the perspective of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, the earth appeared like a sapphire orb, illumined against the blackness of space. As one gazes at this gem, one cannot see lines of political division or other boundaries and barriers that mark and sometimes divide the human community. Instead, the image from space is one of a profound unity.

Globalization in its most positive sense, I believe, is an aspiration here on earth to the harmony and unity seen from space. It holds up the hope and the promise of a truly united human family, bound together in deep communion. It is from such an image, and to such a hope, that we should take our cues about dealing with a process which has the potential to link all humanity together in an unprecedented way. The image of earth from the Apollo 8 spacecraft offers the basis for a spirituality which can guide us to meet the missionary challenges which globalization holds before us, a spirituality more adequate to the vision given us by a truly Catholic faith.

What, then, is globalization? Put most simply, globalization is about a simultaneous expansion and compression of time and space. On the one hand, globalization has connected people and places around the world in a way not earlier known to humanity. On the other, those very connections have created a density of relationships which can become overwhelming and even oppressive to the human community. The computer provides an image of both expansion and compression: the Internet and the World Wide Web represent the expanded interconnectedness of the world; the computer chip, with its compression of information into a very tiny place, gives us an image of what the world has become.

The twin forces of expansion and compression create a lively dynamic and reveal the deep contradictions within globalization, to which I will return in a moment. To try to understand how globalization operates in our world today, let me speak briefly about how it involves four dimensions of our lives: the technological, economic, political and cultural.

1. The Technological Dimension

   What has made globalization possible has been the rapid advances in communications technology. The rise of the personal computer in the 1980’s, and the advent of the interconnections of the World Wide Web and the Internet in the 1990’s have created a form of communication which can move large amounts of information at an extremely rapid rate. It has expanded the scope and cut the time of communication dramatically. It is this possibility of connecting so many people and institutions, and making their interaction fast and relatively effortless, that lies at the foundation of globalization as we are experiencing it. This is most evident in the information flow that this new communications technology makes possible. Information is more accessible and more abundant for ever greater numbers of people.

   In addition, the ease of long-distance transportation has led to both the migration of peoples to improve their political and economic lot and the rapid movement of capital and consumer goods. Such migration and movement are, of course, not new. But they are now emerging on a scale not known at earlier stages.

2. The Economic Dimension

   It is in the economic dimension of human life that globalization has made itself particularly felt. The rapid transference of information and capital allows for business transactions at a greater pace and with great intensity. The economic order that is emerging out of this possibility is a world-wide market capitalism, often called neo-liberal capitalism because it resembles in many ways the liberal capitalism of the end of the nineteenth century. It is a form of capitalism less and less under any cultural or governmental control and regulation. It has linked more countries together than ever before. It also represents one of the profound paradoxes of globalization. Despite its ability to improve life for all, it has--at least to this point—widened the gap between a few immeasurably wealthy groups and individuals and an ever greater number of people imprisoned in economic hardship or even misery. The 1999 report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) indicates that the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider rather than narrowing. I will return to this point later. Likewise, despite its ability to link together everyone in this new economic arrangement, it has mostly linked those most privileged in rich and poor countries.

3. The Political Dimension

   The political effect of communications and transportation technology, the powerful economic forces of global capitalism and the pervasive cultural images circulated in daily life is a weakened nation-state. Communications leap over every national boundary. A global market economy limits government control, reducing the importance and the power of the nation-state. Additionally, economic agreements between nations have created blocs which undercut national sovereignty: the European Union, NAFTA, and Mercosur are all familiar arrangements. Finally, the collapse of the bipolar Cold War world order has been accompanied by an increase in small-scale wars, most often fought now within the nation-states rather than between them. These wars are creating large numbers of displaced persons and refugees on a scale not seen since the end of World War II.

   As the political order shifts, the nation-state will not immediately disappear, but its powers and roles are changing. We are also witnessing the rising importance of transnational, non-state organizations such as the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the political order. Especially important are those accredited at the United Nations.

4. The Cultural Dimension

   In this interconnected web of relationships fostered by communications technology, a kind of global culture has emerged. This culture is marked especially by signs of consumption: food, clothing, and entertainment. Many of these signs of consumption emerged--at least initially--from North America: McDonald’s hamburgers, Coca-Cola, T-shirts, athletic shoes, rock music, videos, and movies. Because they are public companies, they are owned by investors throughout the hemisphere and around the world. Although these cultural signs are received and interpreted in different ways in cultures around the world, they do provide a common cultural language, especially among the youth of the world. Along with a wider choice of cultural goods and lifestyles, a kind of universal skepticism about the human intellect’s ability to grasp truth has arisen. The post-modern mind deconstructs but resists intellectual synthesis.

   Paradoxically, post-modern diversity seems to lead to homogenization of culture. The homogenizing powers of the economic forms of globalization give the impression that there is no alternative to neo-liberal capitalism. Can this business economy described by Pope John Paul in Centesimus Annus—one based on private property, a free market and personal economic initiative but designed so that the economy serves the person rather than the person serving the economy--emerge from our present global economic order? The homogenizing powers of cultural globalization seem to be breaking down forms of art, music, and even language in local cultures. Although Spanish continues to be the most spoken first language in the Catholic Church today, English has emerged as the language of globalization.

   These homogenizing forces are keenly felt. Because of their sheer size, many people experience these forces as being beyond their control. At the same time, there continue to be signs that they may not become as all-embracing as they now appear to be. The United Nations Development Program has called for greater regulation of economic globalization, which indicates an awareness of the problem but gives no solution. Studies are also showing that, while global cultural signs may pervade a culture, they have not eradicated local cultural expressions and sometimes intensify their local culture.

   It is, in fact, being increasingly recognized that to understand globalization, one must not look only at its homogenizing aspects, but must instead attend precisely to where the global intersects with the local. Very few people beyond a small managerial and cultural elite live exclusively at the level of the global. Most people feel its impact as it interacts with their local setting.

   One of the most common postures regarding the global is resistance by reasserting local identity. This has been one of the causes for the increased number of wars in the world today. It has led in some instances to religious identity being invoked as a means to establish a clearer local identity and difference from one’s neighbors, often with violent consequences. It has also contributed to the revival of language and custom in other places. In both instances, the local is experienced more intensely because of its being countered by the incursion of the global.

   This interaction of the global and the local has combined with the migration of peoples (both voluntary and forced) to produce cultural interactions unmatched in intensity and scale. Many of the countries of America have long been multicultural. What is new is the intensity of the interaction between cultures. The United States and Canada are now the second and third most multicultural countries of the world (after Australia). The United States is now also the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.

   The jostling of cultures with one another has led to cultural fragmentation and new forms of culture emerging. Again, cultures have always borrowed from one another. But what we are seeing today is a cultural fragmentation, especially in urban settings.

   Because of a combined experience of powerlessness in the face of globalization, resistance to its encroachments, and the fear of fragmentation of basic cultural values, groups around the world are responding with what are sometimes called fundamentalisms. Fundamentalism is a reassertion of identity and autonomy by selecting certain anti-modern, anti-global dimensions of local (especially religious) identity, and making them both the pillars upon which identity is built, and the boundary against further global encroachment. If globalization is responsible for an unacceptable homogenization, the post-modern world may find its protection for the local in pre-modern phenomena. Human freedom might thereby be finally disconnected from modernity and a genuinely new post-modern order be born in the dialogue between pre-modern culture, such as Islam, and the post-modern culture of secularized Christianity.

Globalization: An Evaluation

Having said all of this about globalization, how shall we evaluate it? There has been a tendency, especially in religious circles, to focus on the negative dimensions. Much of that evaluation is on the mark. But to focus exclusively on the negative dimensions of globalization ignores two important things. First of all, there are some positive values of globalization that must be acknowledged. And second, one cannot simply condemn globalization outright, since all cultural phenomena are evangelically ambiguous and there is no alternative in view. Globalization cannot be ignored nor easily escaped. If the Church wishes to engage the world--as was made so clear she should at the Second Vatican Council --we must not simply evade or ignore or even condemn such a powerful force in the contemporary world. To that end, I wish to look at both the positive and the negative results of globalization.

1. Positive Dimensions: Globalization as Opportunity

   There are two positive dimensions of globalization which I would like to note here. Together they represent the opportunity which globalization offers. The first dimension is the possibility of a more interconnected world. With the communications and transportation technology which we now have, we have the chance to become genuinely a connected human family. For a Church which calls herself Catholic, this is of great importance. The vision of the earth from the Apollo 8 spacecraft is the possibility being held out to us. As we shall see, the implications of this possibility have been expressed over and over again by Pope John II: in his call for greater human solidarity.

   This brings us to a second and related positive aspect of globalization: the increased opportunity for human development which access to information and the shrinking of distance make possible. Communications technology in this newly global era has made possible effective protection of human rights. The movement against the deployment of land mines, for example, was conducted entirely over the Internet. The televised display of famine and war-induced suffering has mobilized public opinion and forced governments to react to these human tragedies. Globalization in medicine is bringing about campaigns to totally eradicate certain diseases. In other words, the access to information and the shrinking of distance can improve the quality of human life in significant ways.

2. Negative Dimensions: Globalization as Ideology

   These are three areas which have attracted most attention from critics of globalization.

   First, these are the values which have often driven economic and cultural globalization: namely, the search for economic profit as the highest human goal and the definition of the human being as a consumer. If profit alone--and especially short-term profit--is seen as the value which organizes an economic system, then human beings and human societies are bound to suffer.

   Likewise, to value human beings primarily in the light of how much they can consume represents an unacceptable diminution of the dignity of the human person. It is an affront to a basic principle of theological anthropology, namely, that we are created in the image and likeness of God. To define people on the basis of how much they can buy and consume destroys our sense of the person, who discovers his genuine self through generosity and self-giving. It remains true, of course, that these negative phenomena are not tied uniquely to globalization. They have existed in every economic order since the fall of Adam and Eve, but their scope makes them more powerful now.

   The second negative dimension of globalization is the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. The global economy promises that those who submit to its ways will have a better way of life economically. But the experience of many is that of exclusion or exploitation rather than inclusion in this growing wealth. In response, more and more voices are calling for a regulation of this economy in order to distribute its wealth more equitably. The problem, of course, is that there is no single political interlocutor for a global economy, nor do most want a world government. In other words, economic dynamics cannot be severed from political and cultural factors. Look at the differences, for example, between the post-Marxist economies of Poland and Hungary and that of Russia. The first two had the cultural context to make the economy shift where Russia apparently did not.

   The third negative dimension has to do with the fracturing of cultures and ways of life which the homogenizing forces of globalization bring in their wake. Part of human dignity is the right to culture, an authentic but distinctive way of being human. This is a point which the Holy Father has made tirelessly in his travels around the world. To deprive peoples of their language and way of life, to force them into other patterns of living, is to rob them of a basic dimension of their humanity. Additionally, the fundamentalist response to cultural globalization is often accompanied by human rights abuses and conflict.

The Church’s Missionary Challenges in an Age of Globalization

What, then, do the possibilities and the challenges of globalization mean for the Church’s mission today?

The Holy Father first spoke of globalization in his Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace.1 In that message, he recognized how the world was changing. In view of the political and especially the economic changes, he posed a series of questions about inclusion and justice. In order to create a more equitable society and peace in the world, he laid down two principles: 1) a greater sense of responsibility for the common good, and 2) never losing sight of the human person as the center of any social project. “The challenge, in short,” he says, “is to ensure a globalization in solidarity, a globalization without marginalization.” (emphasis in the original) In light of these words of the Holy Father, I would propose a focus on two tasks that might define the Church’s mission in an age of globalization, and identify three resources that the Church brings to these tasks.

1. Two Tasks
   • The Proclamation and Defense of the Dignity of the Human Person

     At the very foundation of a globalization that is just and equitable is the dignity of the human person, a theme which Pope John Paul II has returned to again and again, from his first encyclical, Redemptor hominis, onward. Without this focal point, any project for society is bound to go astray and enslave rather than set free. We must make the proclamation of the truth about the human person the center of our missionary proclamation in a globalized world. The redemption we have received in Jesus Christ is testimony to how God perceives and loves each human being.

   • Creating a Culture of Life

     Since our response to human dignity is deeply affected by the values which comprise one’s culture, the second and related major task facing a Church is the conversion of culture. In the words of the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America, the cultures which globalization touches must be guided by “a moral vision of human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity.” (no. 55) As the Apostolic Exhortation explains, this transformation involves both the inculcation of these positive values in every culture and in interactions between nations, and also the attendant reduction of the negative effects of globalization on the poor and weak. The global conversion of culture also involves supporting those international organizations that strive to create and sustain a culture of life.

   Let me give an example of a proper response to one issue that is of special importance to the countries of America: their massive external debt. Dealing with this central issue in our peoples lives requires two strategies. On the one hand, we must mitigate the negative effects of the debt, which drains away resources from a country and hurts especially the poor. This requires concerted efforts to have the debt reduced by lender countries and institutions--or even completely cancelled in some cases. While some efforts have been made by the world financial institutions and the major industrialized countries to acknowledge this issue, all efforts have so far been inadequate. But on the other hand, we must promote an internal culture within each debtor nation that will assure that loans and investments received are used for the common good and for genuine human promotion. Thus, cultural elements that encourage cronyism, corruption, and fraud must be eliminated within the country itself. As Christians, we are called upon to work at both of these dimensions.

2. Three Resources
   • The Church’s Catholicity in an Age of Globalization

     One of the great resources the Catholic Church brings to the mission of evangelization in an age of globalization is its catholicity. I understand catholicity here in both of its theological dimensions: its extension throughout the entire world, and the fullness of truth which it brings to the human family.

     As a Church extended throughout the entire world, the Catholic Church itself is a transnational institution which brings special resources to a globalized world. In an age when transnational institutions (such as the NGOs) can render a special service to mankind which no single nation can do, the Church has networks of communication to build solidarity among nations and throughout the human community. The challenge before us now as a Church is to use the network we already have even more effectively. Missionary institutes and organizations have a special role to play in this. Communion among local churches is meant to be the leaven for solidarity among peoples

     The message of faith which the Church preaches provides a moral and spiritual vision for a just and equitable society in an age of globalization. The truths she has received from Christ emboldens the Church to proclaim the dignity of the human person, the centrality of the human person for any social project, the call to solidarity among all members of the human family, the presence of both good and evil in every culture, and the reconciling mission of Jesus Christ to bring all things together on the earth in an offering to God (cf. Eph 1:10; Col 1:20).

     Let me sketch for you how I see the presentation of these truths. A Church which is truly catholic proposes the message of salvation to all people without exception or distinction; all are called to the banquet table of the Reign of God. The effectiveness of this proposal is grounded in our own continual conversion, a continual “change of mentality” (metanoia) a constant turning away from a radically autonomous and isolated self, a change brought about by the encounter with Christ, in his body the Church. In this constant conversion, ecclesial communion, our relation to one another in Christ, is deepened. The inculturation of the faith—the conversion of a society and culture brought about by preaching who Christ is in a language understandable to the people — begins with identifying semina verbi present in every culture and then moves to identify the demonic elements also present in any culture. This discernment becomes visible in the lives of the evangelizers themselves, who are witnesses to the power of God’s grace. Such Catholic evangelizers must be in profound conversation both with Christ and with the people he places on their path.

   • The Call for New Evangelization

     The New Evangelization, first called for by our Holy Father during a visit to Haiti, takes into account how the world has changed and asks how the saving message of Jesus Christ can be heard by those who, having once accepted the Gospel, now have deliberately put it aside. This conscious rejection of the faith is present not only in the “new Aeropagoi” of the mass media and of science of which the Pope spoke in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio, but also in the changed outlooks of many men and women today, of entire groups who live in a world order where the old compass points no longer orient. Keeping the principles of the New Evangelization in mind will make our mission more effective in a globalized world: it is biblical; comprehensive in attending to all peoples; dialogic in its respect for freedom of conscience; culturally adapted even as it transforms societies; innovative in its use of the new media of communications; and it is the responsibility of all members of the Church.

     The New Evangelization presupposes both ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue. Since Christ and his Church are one, ecclesial disunity is a scandal that weakens the preaching of the Gospel. Globalized economies, societies and cultures will respond only to a genuinely unified Church. As the faith communities become again the primary shapers and leavens of culture in the next millennium, inter-faith dialogue becomes ever more imperative. Especially crucial is the dialogue between Catholicism and Islam, both of which are growing. The relationship between Catholics and Muslims will define globalization more profoundly than any economic or political arrangements.

   • The Celebration of the Great Jubilee

     A third resource for the mission in a context of globalization is the celebration of the Great Jubilee. The Jubilee carries with it messages that are central to mission. First of all, it expresses the gratuitous character of the love of God, who offered His own Son for the salvation of our world. In a world where every relationship threatens to become commercialized, where acts of generosity and gratuity are seen as diminishing possible profits, the message of how God acts gratuituously to save the world brings us into a genuine new world.

     Secondly, Jubilee means in the Bible the cancellation of debt and a new beginning. If authentic globalization is about inclusion and participation, then such inclusion and participation must be made possible by giving the poor a fresh start. The Church brings her resources to bear upon imagining a new beginning where justice and then peace will have a better chance because both are grounded in love.

Conclusion

To sustain this missionary activity, we must have a missionary spirituality which will sustain, guide, and nourish us in our calling. I return here to the image of earth seen from space: our world is, after all, quite small in the total scheme of the cosmos. It is fragile. Its divisions and barriers are of human making, and we believers should be those who can see where the world has come from, and where it is going.

The world in all of its dimensions has come from God. It is God’s creating, and bears the imprint of his own image. It has therefore a dignity, a goodness, and a beauty which cannot be denied, no matter how much sinfulness has disfigured the world’s countenance. The world is on a journey beyond its brokenness and divisions to a new harmony and communion with God, a journey which the Letters of Paul to the Ephesians and Colossians call reconciliation. In the midst of the fracturing which the world experiences more acutely because of globalization, the message of reconciliation of all things in Christ is a truth which our world aches to hear.

Several decades before talk about globalization became common, Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council to revitalize the mission of the Church in the world. He called it so that the Church, as a global, a world, a universal assembly, could be more visibly the sacrament of the unity of the human race, after the national, cultural and economic divisions had led us into war and bloodshed in the first half of this century. The call to mission which is truly Catholic is the true call of the Council. For various reasons, the Council has not yet been received as a call for the Church to change the world. Much energy has been expended in changing the Church according to various patterns; not enough energy has been given to changing ourselves with the help of the Church so that we can change the world.

This change begins with Jesus Christ and ends in him. He is the Reign of God in his person. The greatest challenge to the mission of the Church in a new global order remains what has been the greatest challenge for the last 2000 years: how to overcome the obstacles to discipleship and accept with glad hearts the freedom that Jesus Christ, savior of the world, wants to give us? In any situation, people can be afraid to hope. By expanding this conference to include all of America, you are giving to the world another reason to hope, and I thank you.

1. Pope John Paul II, “From justice of each comes peace for all,” L’Osservatore Romano (English weekly edition), N. 51/52 (17/24 December 1997).
2. These sentiments of building up a just and equitable culture were echoed in many of the interventions at the Synod for America. See especially those of Archbishop Weakland of the United States, Bishop Morales Reyes of Mexico, Bishop Arancedo of Argentina, and Bishop Collazzi of Uruguay.