Sinderesi School: Identity and Experience

Sinderesi School:

Identity and Experience

by SAMUELE SANGALLI Coordinator of Sinderesi School

Created in 2011, Sinderesi School offers an original pedagogical methodology, designed for the younger generations, to train them in critical thinking and commitment in the public sphere in the light of Christian social teaching.

“S ince you have asked for discernment in administering justice… I will give you a wise and discerning heart” (1Kings 3:11-12). The known request of King Solomon in Gàbaon is the leitmotif that has led a group of young people – coordinated by myself and with the encouragement of the then Rector Fr. François-Xavier Dumortier S.J. – to establish the “Sinderesi School” in 2011, within the newly created “Alberto Hurtado” Centre for Faith and Culture under the direction of Fr. Sandro Barlone S.J.

The aim was to institutionalise and academically qualify an original pedagogical, interactive and empowering methodology, aimed at fostering the knowledge of a criterion – inspired by Ignatian discernment –

From the left: Stella Morra, Director of the Alberto Hurtado Centre; Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of KAS; David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament; Msgr. Mariano Crociata, Vice-President COMECE; Rector Nuno da Silva Gonçalves S.J.; and Samuele Sangalli, Coordinator of the Sinderesi School.

to address and evaluate the challenges facing the young generations in contemporary society. The Gregorian University, which at the time was in the process of redesigning its academic offer, especially to lay people, first with the Institute of Religious Sciences and then with the Laikòs Institute, was pleased to adopt – among the proposals of the new Hurtado Centre – this “school for practical application.” Its intent is to provide men and women with the skills for critical thinking together, while addressing the issues at stake in the public domain, in the light of Christian social teaching.

Method and publication of results

The educational offer, based on a set of monthly cenacles from the outset, aims to combine the need for concrete individual and community research pathw ays, foster

ing the creation of working teams coordinated by qualified tutors and teachers, with debates followed by the publication of results, thereby leading to a more extensive critical appraisal. The annual presentation of the paper featuring the fruits of the Sinderesi School research, published in the English language since 2015, is now a regular event at the Gregoriana. Since 2016, the same results thus became focus of an International Seminar, organised by the “Centro di Ateneo per la Dorina Sociale della Chiesa” at the Catholic University of Milan. Among the close group of organisations involved in this endeavour, our gratitude goes above all to the Rome branch of the “Konrad Adenauer Foundation” which, over the years, has always believed in and strongly supported this pedagogical workshop for the younger generations.

The volumes published so far testify to the achievements of a path, in three-year cycles, involving already over 700 young people and at least fifty faculty members. After an introductory year in which we “set the agenda” of the major problems - of an economic, political and social nature - characterising current globalisation contexts and read in the light of the suggested itineraries of Christian social thinking, we focused on two key values: subsidiarity and solidarity, investigating how these are experienced in the main sectors of social life.

In a second cycle we tackled a number of contemporary challenges linked to our changing times: the relationship between religions and politics, i.e. the meanings and modalities of their presence in the public sphere; a faster pace understood as the hall

mark of a new configuration of the human person; technology viewed as the overcoming of our limits. A third cycle was introduced in September 2017, exploring the crucial global phenomenon of immigration, offering analyses and proposals, especially with reference to the situation in Europe and Africa, with an effort to rethink, with originality, the history and perspectives of both continents, proposing new tasks and itineraries.

Each volume published reflects the plurality of contributions and approaches, chiefly presented in the Lectures given by expert faculty and in the Workshops of research groups which, after an exhaustive presentation of the status quaestionis on the chosen theme, offer further in-depth analysis focusing on a specific case study. The latter is always concluded with an own point of view, fruit of the joint debate involving the young researchers, after having submitted – step by step – their work for discussion, or brain-storming, among all the participants in the School’s annual session.

Role models: Guardini and Newman

Over the last few years, Sinderesi School’s activity has been dev eloped in conjunction with the Faculties and Institutes of the University, in constant interaction with those most directly connected with its curricula, first and foremost the Faculty of Social Sciences, of which it represents a research activity.

Thus, in addition to the notions transmied to the young students, Scuola Sinderesi also led to the formation of a group of research tutors who now constitute a multidisciplinary team of experts skilled in assessing research work. This team enabled Sinderesi to develop interdisciplinary geopolitical quality ev aluations, according to the specifics of the School, such as: focus on the challenges of the contemporary world; adherence to Christian ethics; enhancement of the creativity of the young.

The criteria of our research, developed over the years, draws inspiration from the hermeneutical horizon outlined in Romano Guardini’s philosophical theory of polar opposition, illustrated in Gegensa und Gegensäe(1925), in which the same Italian-German philosopher described it as a preliminary attempt at an effective method for understanding reality. Its practical application revealed the extent to which this logical scheme effectively helps identify advantages and limitations of the epistemology of the various experts in the many disciplines involved in our investigations for the purpose of our moral discernment, which always extends beyond theories and data produced

by the various scientific approaches. It is the same rationale of the polar opposition constantly stirring the simultaneous evolution of the same ethical discernment criteria, following, in this case, the notion of development of doctrine, specific to another of our inspiring mentors: John Henry Newman.

To conclude, it can be said that Sinderesi School, within the Gregorian University, aims to be a laboratory of thought capable of aracting the aention of all those open to stimulate their intelligence through innovative paths, with regard to crucial issues of our contemporary world, always challenging but equally rewarding insofar as they substantiate the shared exercise of personal discernment (sinderesis) with regard to knowledge. We hope it will represent an effective training ground for responsible citizens, who also wish to get involved in the various areas where the “city of man” is being erected.