1. Reading the "Signs of the Times" (Matthew 16: 1-3) - Jesus challenges us to open our eyes and our heart.

2. Ignatian "Contemplation on the Incarnation" -- Trinity looks out over the globe and this contemplation ignites the fire of love to mission the Son to bring life; your RSHM mission statement: "We, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, an international apostolic institute of women religious, are called to share in the life-giving mission of Jesus Christ."

3. Vatican Two "Church in the Modern World" -- As followers of Jesus, we have no other choice but to let the joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of people be ours.

4. People whose lives touch us deeply -- Bring them into the room with us here these days, with names and faces explicit in our minds and hearts; mention some names out loud.

III.      Framework and Perspective

So I offer you here this morning a framework, a perspective, a mindset, a pair of glasses, for the work of the next few days, as you develop the meaning and challenge of globalisation and then move into its implcations for your mission today. Nothing startlingly new, just a framework to put your own experiences and insights into. It is good that you are joined today with colleagues, lay and religious, on this cooperative journey.

We will look at:

1. Some remarks about the "prophetic role of religious life" in the globalised reality of today.
2. Definition of "globalisation" and its integrating factors, to situate your own descriptions.
3. Analysis of a few "consequences" of globalisation.
4. Some responses we can make, guided by the call of the church's social teaching.
5. Some dimensions of religious life in the context of globalisation.

IV.      Prophetic Role of Religious Life Today

1. I prefer "missioned life" to "consecrated life" - more active in relationship to needs, responses, service. We are not "set apart," but for the purpose of service we are "set in midst." I find that in Mark 3: 14-15: "And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons.

2. To be with - community; to be sent out - mission: share the Good News of the Reign of God (Kingdom) that is active, is pushing back the bad news of the reign of evil.

3. Listen to your expression of this from the Chapter of 1995: "In a world of broken relationships in which domination, racism, exclusion, intolerance, consumerism, violence and manipulation contradict the example of Jesus Christ whose life and saving mission we are called to continue, we are challenged in a new way to be prophetic as Community."

4. You are "prophetic" in continuing the life and mission of Jesus. The Jesus who said, "I have come that you may have life and have life to the full!" For the moment, what more do I need to say, since you have said it so well!

5. But for now, we turn to this "world" that contradicts the example of Jesus and ask to understand it more sensitively, more deeply. It is what you have been reporting on in the past week and what you have relfected on more thoroughly from the respective regions prior to this Chapter.

V.      Definition of Globalisation and Its Integrating Factors

1. Globalisation is the "in" word today - to get audiences, seminars organised, and, especially, funds! And also to stir demonstrations, riots: Seattle, Washington DC, Prague, Davos, Ottawa, and maybe Genoa! "Anti-globalisation" forces pull together a mixed group of people.

2. But there are so many different descriptions/definitions - truly a "global" phrase! Your own pages tell me you used it in a rich and varied way, without sharp restriction to only "economic". You described both the positive and negative with the focus on experiences of "enhancing/diminishing life" as experienced in your respective provinces and regions.

3. Let me offer a general description and then provide four specific integrating factors, factors that diminish, shrink, in time and in space and in relationship the world we live in today, in whatever part of that world we may be. As I describe the components of each of these factors, think of your own local situations, and recall the descriptions you gave to what you are experiencing.

4. I want to use the term "globalisation" to refer to the phenomenon of increasing integration of nation states through economic exchanges, political configurations, technological advances and cultural influences.

• Economic exchanges include cross-border trade in goods and services, capital flows and financial investments. A simple look at the clothes we wear tell us of the reality of those economic exchanges; a rough review of the activities of our day - waking up to an alarm clock made in China, clearing our head with a cup of coffee grown in Kenya, driving in an automobile manufactured in Japan and powered with petrol from Venezuela, etc., etc. - demonstrates the all-invasive character of those economic exchanges. But even before trade in goods and services, by far the largest component of economic globalisation is the movement of money across borders - disconnected capital, institutionally managed money, that moves with the speed of a mouse click on a computer, putting money into a situation for a quick return, pulling it out equally speedily for a safe return. You have probably heard the figures: Today almost two trillion US dollars moves around the world every day, seeking not the best production but the best return on speculation. Of the one hundred largest economic entities in the world, fifty of them are nation states and fifty are transnational corporations, the latter interested not in the local good but in the global profit. The severe problems experienced by the "Asian tigers" - which also, as you know, affected Brazil -- were largely due to the rapid and uncontrolled movement of capital.

• Political configurations are the new or renewed structures of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the blocs of the European Community, the North American Free Trade Area, etc. These are not democratically elected governments but have considerably more power than any such governments - the political power to govern, regulate, manage, dominate, in fact, to determine the future. For example, the expanded "trade related" mandate of the WTO now touches areas like intellectual property, medicine availability, employment policies, environmental regulations, etc. What does the political power, not simply the economic consequences of Free Trade areas mean to Mexico and Brazil when linked to the USA? To Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia, when linked to South Africa?

• Technological advances are probably the most readily identified factor of globalisation, and the one we initially relate to most positively, as I noted in your reports. These include the rapidly growing utilisation of electronic communications (e-mail and internet) and the increasing ease of transportation. We know that as we sit in this room, we have come together in a notably different fashion than we could ever have done so at some Chapter fifty years ago! We live in an information age, we live in a "borderless age," we live in a very fast age. The remarkable response to the Web Page of your RSHM community around the world is but one obvious demonstration of that fact! The thing to remember here is that the technological advances are themselves always the carriers and frequently the drivers of the other factors we look at in globalisation.

• Cultural influences are the shaping powers that affect the way we live together, dress, eat, entertain each other, dance and sing, express the deepest and most profound meanings of life, how we pray. "Culture" is the precious cement that holds a society together. But driven by economic factors, there is a powerful "westernization" of so much of the popular culture of our world, in music, clothes, life styles, etc. Today the single largest export industry for the United States is not aircrafts, automobiles, computers, but entertainment - Hollywood films and television programmes. One commentator has referred to the contemporary process of globalisation as the birth of the "McWorld" - a cultural integration of fast music (MTV), fact computers (MacIntosh) and fast food (McDonald's). Cultural imperialism is not a new phenomenon, but it assumes alarming proportions when driven by the new technologies and profit propensities of the dynamics of globalisation. We are witnessing predominance of the geoculture over the geopolitical and the geoeconomic, says a Jesuit friend of mine from Nicaragua. Traditional cultural values in Africa and in Latin America, such as family, community, respect for life, hospitality, etc., come into strong confrontation and do losing battle with the values powerfully communicated through Western music, movies, videos, cable and satellite television, advertisements, and the idolised figures of entertainment and sports.

These are some of the major integrating factors (structures) of globalisation today. The definition again, then is: the phenomenon of increasing integration of nation states through economic exchanges, political configurations, technological advances and cultural influences.

VI.      A Few "Consequences" of Globalisation

There are many consequences, come good and some bad, but let's take just three of the more dangerous ones and see their meaning in the world where we are missioned to share the Good News of Jesus about life.

1. Ideological Dominance: Globalisation as currently experienced is, in its major direction, an incarnation of neo-liberalism. In its extreme, this ideology is a kind of "economic fundamentalism" that puts an absolute value on the operation of the market and subordinates people's lives, the function of society, the policies of government and the role of the state to this unrestricted free market. Neo-liberal policies support economic growth as an end in itself and use macro-economic indicators as the primary measurements of a healthy society. It assumes almost a religious character, as greed becomes a virtue, competition a commandment, and profit a sign of salvation. Dissenters are dismissed as non-believers at best, and heretics at worst. Problems with the operation of this ideology - even such massive problems as the collapses experienced a few years ago in Asian economies -- are seen not as "mortal sins" but as mere "falls from grace" that deserve more penitential practice of the exercises that are demanded by the ideology.

   Lest you think that my description is that of some radical Jesuit leftist, let me quote another commentator, one who sees concern about globalisation because it has quickly become a cultural phenomenon:

   "The market as an exchange mechanism has become the medium of a new culture. Many observers have noted the intrusive, even invasive, character of the logic of the market, which reduces more and more the area available to the human community for voluntary and public action at every level. The market imposes its way of thinking and acting, and stamps its scale of values upon behaviour. Those who are subjected to it often see globalisation as a destructive flood threatening the social norms which had protected them and the cultural points of reference which had given direction in life."

   [Pope John Paul II. 27 April 2001, Address to Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, conference on "Globalisation and the Common Humanity: Ethical and Institutional Concerns"]

   This dominance of this market ideology explains, I believe, the reluctance of the major International Financial Institutions and the creditor countries to recognise the need for immediate and complete cancellation of the debt of the poor countries. We could return to this topic of debt cancellation later in the discussion.

2. Economic Gap: Something that many of you have noted in your own reflections is the enlarging gap between the rich countries of the north and the poor countries of the south and indeed within individual countries. I, of course, would pay particular attention to Africa. Economic prosperity brought about through industrialisation, technological innovations, trade and investment, etc., has not in fact been widely experienced in Africa. Let me offer a few empirical observations to demonstrate that fact, and then say something wider about the rest of the so-called "developing world".

   Of the 64 countries ranked as "low income" by the World Bank 2000 report, 38 are in Africa. This ranking is on the basis of strict economic calculations of GNP per capita. Of the 35 countries ranked "low human development" by the UNDP 2000 report, 27 are in Africa. This ranking takes account of social calculations such as life expectancy and literacy, revealing the human side of development.

   That this situation of gap has indeed worsened in the age of globalisation is shown in the fact that the average annual rate of growth in GNP per capita between 1990 and 1998 has in the 43 sub-Saharan African states grown

   • by more than 4% in only one country,
   • from 3-4% in 3 countries
   • from 0-2% in 20 countries,
   • less than 0% in 19 countries
   
   You may be familiar with the expression, the "champagne glass economy," a picture of the globe emerging from the recent UNDP Human Development Reports that document that the richest 20% of the world's population receives 86% of global income, while the poorest 20% receives just 1%. This is a picture of the globe in which the huge majority occupies only the narrowest stem of the glass while the tiny rich majority enjoys the broad bowl of affluence. In this champagne glass, we all know where the majority of Africans fit!

   You may have heard these figures before, but let us hear them once again:

   • the assets of the 3 richest people in the world are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countires
   • the assets of the 200 richest people are more than the combined income of 41% of the world's people;
   • a yearly contribution of 1% of the wealth of the 200 richest people could provide universal access to primary education for all.
     
     

   The current structuring of globalisation also creates an increasing marginalisation of the poor countires in the very process of integrating them into the global economy. For there is a stark disparity between rich and poor in the global opportunities offered in trade, investment and technologies. these are official UN figures:

   • Trade: the shares of the world export markets of goods and services go 82% to the richest 20% of the people living in the highest income countries, the bottom 20% just 1%
   • Investments: the shares in foreign direct investment go 68% to the richest 20%, just 1% to the poorest 20%
   • Technology: taking shares of internet users as one example, 93.3% go to the richest 20%, 0.2% to the poorest.

   
   Veronica Brand offered to you on Saturday the very graphic presentation of the disparity of the global economy and the purchasing power in selected countries that you work in.

   Some might be optimistic that a turn around in this situation is soon to come. But I am not that optimistic at the moment. I am afraid that this marginalisation that has increased dramatically in recent years shows no signs of decreasing in the immediate future, given the current operation of the world forces of globalisation. As the UNDP 1999 Human Development Report commented:

   Some have predicted convergence [between rich and poor countries]. Yet the past decade [the decade of the most intense globalisation] has shown increasing concentration of income, resources and wealth among people, corporations and countries... All these trends are not the inevitable consequences of global economic integration - but they have run ahead of global governance to share the benefits.

3. Growing environmental threat: We could speak here of many dimensions relating to environment and how the globalising threat is not simply something narrowly experienced in the poor countries of the southern hemisphere. You know and you commented on in your preparatory papers how globalisation affects the environment of both rich and poor countires. Let me choose just one particularly disturbing aspect of globalisation and the environment, the phenomenon of global warming. This phemomenon is caused primarily by carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, power plants and industries that are most heavily concentrated in the so-called developed countires. I recently read a report circulated a few months ago by the United Nations Environmental Programme, based in Nairobi. It spoke in frightening terms of the impacts on Africa of global warming, with rising levels of disease, famine and poverty. With all the immediate focus on HIV/AIDS, this report offers another sobering wake-up call: For instance:

   Heavy, monsoon-like rains and higher temperatures will favour the breeding of disease-carrying mosquitoes, allowing them to thrive at higher altitudes. Higher temperatures, heavier rainfall and changes in climate variability would encourage insect carriers of some infectious diseases to multiply and move further afield. The report cites how malaria cases in the highland area of Rwanda have increased by 337 percent in recent years with 80 percent of the climb linked with changes in temperature and rainfall which improved breeding conditions for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. A similar link has been reported in Zimbabwe... Cholera, which is transmitted by water or food, could aggravate health problems in many parts of the world including Africa. The scientists say that during the 1997-1998 El Nino excessive flooding caused cholera epidemics in Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania and Mozambique. [And, I might add, Zambia!]

   There is evidence that El Nino, a vast natural climatic phenomenon that can bring intense floods and droughts in many parts of the globe, is becoming more frequent as a result of global warming.

   The report goes on with more disturbing data and analysis. You might say to me that these effects should be blamed on nature and not on humans. But we have to remember that the global warming is indeed linked to a globalisation of economic forces that develop without ecological concern and of political forces that support these economic patterns. We have had clear proof of that in recent months with USA President George Bush's blunt rejection of the Kyoto agreements to limit harmful emissions.

   These are a few of the negative consequences of globalisation that I would mention as "life-diminishing" - not a particularly cheerful picture. There are positive sides, to be sure, but these are not, in my opinion - as a result of my research studies and my lived experience in Zambia -- the dominant picture.

VII. Some Responses to Globalisation

At this point of the morning, some of you may want to shout out loud and clear: "Stop the globe, I want to get off!" Well, that's not possible, so let's see what we can do if we stay on this globe, in union with the "joys and hope, sorrows and anxieties" of our sisters and brothers around the globe.

Are there any alternatives to this trend, any response that you, as an international religious congregation, could be sensitive to? I believe there are, and I'm going to suggest, in broadest terms, some points I find in the church's social teaching (CST). The CST is that teaching articulated in scripture, in the writings of theologians, both ancient and contemporary, in the statements of popes, councils, synods, regional and national pastoral letters, and in the lives of good people everywhere. I believe that this social teaching offers a vision and suggests structures that can create alternatives to what we are experiencing today.

Let me say a word about alternatives. To Margeret Thatcher is attributed the "TANA" phrase: "There are no alternatives!" (She was speaking about free market approaches.) But I - and millions, probably billions - prefere the "TAMA" phrase: "There are many alternatives!" Must we accept that globalisation is "inevitable"? To answer that, it is necessary and helpful to make an important analytical distinction between:

• Objective forces driving globalisation, such as the facts of technological production and electronic communications, that, left to themselves, would concentrate in the hands of the already powerful any benefits of globalisation.

• Subjective choices shaping globalisation, such as the policies that contribute to its direction, for example, regulation, taxes, governance structures of accountability and participation, etc., that can be changed to spread the benefits of globalisation.

To influence the subjective choices, and thus direct the objective forces, I believe it is necessary to follow a three-fold path (suggested in another context by a specialist in the church's social teaching in the USA, J. Bryan Hehir) that includes:

• Working with globalisation
• Working against globalisation
• Working towards globalisation

1. Working with globalisation means utilising the objective forces that can indeed benefit humanity. We are doing that at this very moment, with the utilisation of the internet for your web page and the e-mail to keep in touch. I believe at its best, the United Nations is a global force that can be worked with for an improved global situation, especially if it is reformed to give a stronger voice to the majority of the global population. That's why I'm encouraged to see many religious congregations playing a role working with the UN in different forums.

2. Working against globalisation is to do the critical analysis necessary to expose its counter-development consequences and to struggle to confront the actors - personal, political and corporate - who promote those consequences. Much publicity has been given in recent months to the demonstrations occuring in Seattle, Washington DC, Prague, Davos, Ottawa, and elsewhere by the forces of "anti-globalisation." I know many of those involved in such demonstrations and the most important part, the strongest part, of their confrontation has not been sporadic violence but consistent analysis. The G-8 meeting in Genoa later this month will see a big gathering of "anti-globalisation" people - don't get distracted by the way the media will highlight the violence - pay attention to the analysis and the peaceful, prayerful demonstrations.

3. Working towards globalisation is to offer the alternatives, the strategies and tactics, that will shape our future. This affects every place where the RSHM are living and serving, in Europe North America, Latin America, Africa. For me, there are some elements in the church's social teaching that offer the vision and suggest the structures that can assist us in our planning for response and our commitment for action. (I am presuming, of course, that action is the desired outcome of your Chapter, and that you do not follow the classic bureaucratic version of the "see-judge-act" approach - "see-judge-file!"

In addressing alternatives, let me suggest briefly a framework of three varieties of globalisation that embody both vision and structures that are necessary today.

1. Globalisation of solidarity: This is a counter-emphasis, indeed a counter-cultural emphasis, to the structures that drive globalisation today. From what I've heard, it is a vision that drives your congregation as you examine your mission today. This emphasis is summed up by John Paul II in his World Day of Peace Message in 1998, when he called for " a globalisation in solidarity, a globalisation without marginalisation." Solidarity can also be expressed in the beautiful African proverb, "I am because we are; we are because I am." My personal existence, identity and worth is only within community; and the order, function and beauty of community is only possible with my personal contribution.

   Solidarity means more than structures, actions and programmes; it is a virtue, a call to conversion and reform, an awareness and caring that dares to do what might be thought un-doable! It is a contemporary expression for commitment to the common good. It is a response to the recognition that true development is not only of the whole person but also of the whole person within the whole community, the whole global community. This is a vision that contains the social values grounded on the fundamental dignity of the human person.

2. Globalisation of concern : this is simply the value that emphasises the priority of people over profit; labour over capital and cooperation over competition. It is an expression of a central emphasis in contemporary church's social teaching, the preferential option for the poor: You have incorporated this emphasis in your own discussions about the development and sharing of human and financial resources within the RSHM congregation. It obliges you to ask of each decision you take, for example, during this Chapter, the basic question: "What will this mean for the poor?" This is not the only question, it may not be the first question, but it is an essential question. And in answering it, there is not a balancing of one group of poor over against another group - a competitive sensitivity that contrasts the poor of the slums of Europe or North America and the poor of the urban and rural compounds of Latin America or Africa.

   We must come to appreciate the analytical distinction between "the poor" and "the impoverished" - the poor are subjects of change, the impoverished are objects of oppression. Wherever there are poor, there are structures - economic, political, social, cultural, religious, gender, etc. - that are oppressive. So to have a vision of the globalisation of concern means that we work for structures that go against the impoverishment of people, whoever, wherever they are.

3. Globalisation from below: This happy turn of phrase focuses our attention on the fact that integral human development, sustainable human development, depends more on harmonious human relationships at the local level than on the organisation and operation of unaccountable national or international political structures or an unfettered free market. A fundamental fault with globalisation as it currently operates is that it is not rooted from below in community but rather it is structured from above according to abstract economic laws. To counter this situation in a creative fashion calls for implementation of what the church's social teaching calls subsidiarity. This is the building at local levels with people's participation of the structures necessary for development.

   One such structure, and a very important one in poor countires especially, obviously is a strong national government. The church's social teaching certainly does not support neo-liberalism's call for the retreat of the state from its duties to promote the common good. Another important structure is a lively civil society, the network of non-governmental organisations (NGO's), community based organisations, self-help groups, etc. The women's movement, human rights advocacy, environmental concerns - all have strong international networks of local groups. Two recent campaigns (and they have special relevance to us from Africa) are good examples of globalisation from below: the campaign against land mines and the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign. Another important effort that RSHM sisters have been involved in is the campaign against trafficking in women.

VIII.      Dimensions of Religious Life in a Globalised Context

These are my final remarks - they really could be, should be, another whole workshop! But even briefly, they may give you something to reflect on as you move into planning in your Chapter deliberations.

I repeat what I said at the outset, that I offer my remarks here, especially now in addressing dimensions of religious life, with some humble caution. As a male religious trained in the USA and now working in Africa, as a Jesuit, I do not intend to offer to you, experienced and dedicated women religious from around the world, anything particularly new or imperative. I simply share my own perceptions, coming out of my own experience.

1. Vows: We can look from two perspectives at the traditional religious vows you and I have publicly professed, and which we invite young people to join us in professing and living. One perspective is ascetical - the vows are disciplines undertaken out of love of God to enable us to live in closer union with God through a giving up, a surrender, a renouncement, of some of the most basic human desires, namely, to love intimately and productively, to make our own major choices of how we dispose our lives and time, and to possess resources that free us from dependency. Such an ascetical perspective of chastity, obedience and poverty has made and continues to make saints out of ordinary religious. It is a grace for us all. (It finds special relevance in discussions of "consecrated lives.")

   But I believe there is another perspective, always relevant but especially so today. This is the apostolic perspective that sees religious life at the service of humanity, a humanity in great need of counter-cultural witnesses. Counter to a selfish sexuality that is frequently exploitative of women, we need the witness of generous love that is truly life giving in a non-exclusive way. Counter to a demand for individualistic control over one's destiny that is frequently dominative of others, we need the witness of cooperation for the common good with a willing contribution of talent and time to something larger than community of humanity, we need the witness of a life style of sharing, caring and sparing (generous, protective and simple). Vows of religious life, lived authentically and daringly, can contribute to that counter-cultural witness. Obviously, religious are not the only ones who give such witness. But in the light of globalisation today, we must ask ourselves if we really do live out the vows with an apostolic dimensiton that contributes to building up the type of globalisation we know is so necessary.

2. Community: In the context of globalisation, community assumes new meanings of inclusiveness, connectedness, extension. Your local reality can only exist and thrive in a wider reality - just the cognitive and emotive experience of a Chapter makes that truth so very obvious! As you consider issues such as formation and extended membership (co-members or associates or whatever), you realise that the world is much different, the church is much different, that at the time of your founding. So how different can you be as community in this age of globalisation, and still be true to your charism?

3. Prayer: Yes, I believe that even prayer takes on a new dimension in an age of globalisation. Living in Africa has taught me spontaneity of prayer that flows out of a naturally religious environment. And it has also sharpened my traditional Ignatian-Jesuit emphasis on "contemplation in action" or "finding God in all things." Let me recall what I said during the liturgy and in our opening reflection this morning: we are all invited to seek and find the Lord - to hear, see and touch him (1 John 1:1) - in the people around us, especially those most in need. And a hard and clear look at the "signs of the times" in this age of globalisation - as you have done in preparation for this Chapter - surely reveals how you are called today to be with others "that they may have life." Your mission as RSHM will continue, then. I invited you to go back to that scene of the Contemplation of the Incarnation. Experience with a loving gaze the globe set before you. And experience again your mission, "ut vitam habeant" - that they may have life! That can make your religious life meaningful, your Chapter exciting, your mission relevant, your service life giving!

Thank you and God bless you!

Peter Henriot, S.J
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
P.O. Box 37774
10101 Lusaka, Zambia