The 5th Annual “Percorsi Assisi” [Assisi Pathways] Summer School has just ended. It took place from August 24 to September 1, 2024. This initiative was conducted by the Sacred Convent of Assisi in collaboration with seven Italian universities: the University of Naples Federico II, the LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome, the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Perugia, the University of Parma, the University of L’Aquila and the Polytechnic University of the Marches.
This year’s theme was: “Ethics and Technological Development: Synergies to Generate the Future”. Around fifty students participated. They had different academic backgrounds and came from all over Italy. They were guided by tutors from partner universities. Over the course of the week, the students met with teachers (lay and religious) who were experts in their fields. The face-to-face lectures, the in-class debate time and the strong dialogical and creative approach to study through team-work and project-work, enabled the students to delve into the dynamic and difficult relationship between the exponential acceleration of technological development and the problematic nature of the ethical issues it involves. In addition, experiencing the artistic and theological beauty of the Upper and Lower Basilicas and the cultural richness of the Sacred Convent Library, gave the participants a healthy helping of Franciscan spirituality and culture, putting them in tune and in synergy with the friars they met.
The question, as many lecturers have pointed out, is not so much whether we will turn into cyborgs or whether machines will supplant humans altogether, but rather, how we are to engage in this continuing cultural and technical revolution, so that we do not succumb to the very machines we invented. The question at the heart of the dialogue and debate is and remains exquisitely anthropological: Who is man? How does one become and remain human? What principle governs relations between humans, between us and our common home, between states, religions, different cultures, economic forces, etc.? How do we positively navigate the solitude that these technologies entail?
Whether facing an apocalyptic or dystopian outcome (of which the class had an interesting overview based on recent movies) or facing the malignant exploitation of crises (as illustrated by the anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola GRATTERI, speaking about the way mafias use and develop technologies), Franciscans have an important task: to intercept and engage the secular world, especially the world of young people, with new language, perhaps yet to be discovered or invented; language that is not pedantic or shouted but creative, wise and competent. It is the language of freedom, the language of gift and blessing, as Friar Michael LASKY highlighted while leading a seminar in the Upper Basilica. The Basilica is a place of light, spirituality and culture rooted in biblical tradition, in the depth of St. Bonaventure and in the genius of the artists who decorated it. It not only tells the story of St. Francis and the pilgrims of the past, but invites us to grasp that blessing which the Most High Good Lord has extended to all humanity in every age; namely the dignity and freedom of every person, freely bestowed by God Himself. This is the good news that we must teach today’s culture.
It was a joy offering this year’s summer school. The event was rich in content and relationships that rose above mutual preconceptions. What can we say we have learned? That it is still possible to walk in the footsteps of the great Conventual Franciscan cultural tradition, creating and nurturing an open space in which – as Irenaeus of Lyons said about the Word of God – to learn about the world from those who inhabit it and in dialogue with those who live in it, investigating its dynamics with evangelical wisdom and holy toil, pointing out the traps that diminish human dignity and making shine the beauty that “derives its meaning from you.”
Friar Emanuele RIMOLI, Director of Percorsi Assisi
