Third video interview in the "Flashes of Life & Roots" series: it features Italian entrepreneur "pioneer" of the Economy of Communion Alberto Ferrucci
What is the purpose of the Flashes of Life & Roots project? If we sought decided to interview a series of "pioneer EoC" entrepreneurs, it is to collect the "precious pearls" contained in the experiences of those people who, in different parts of the world and in different cultural contexts, have responded in a radical way to a common vocation: that of giving life -with their lives- to the Economy of Communion.
The stories of the pioneers are fruits of the same tree, nourished by the same roots.... Getting to know their
stories allows us to savor how different expressions of the same life can be, with different forms but a common aroma. The intent of this interview series is therefore to nurture and encourage those who, in the present and future, feel called to put the Economy of Communion into practice with their lives. That is to say, fruits that become seeds to generate new life in its many expressions.
The third protagonist of our interview series is Italian entrepreneur Alberto Ferrucci, who at the birth of the EoC in 1991 chaired the International Bureau of Economy and Work of the New Humanity Movement, an early organism of the Focolare Movement that since 1984 had the task of trying to embody Chiara Lubich's Charism in the field of Economy and Work. Alberto told us about the beginnings of the Economy of Communion when he gave Chiara Lubich the willingness to follow its development and she was delighted. From there he began to take an interest in concretely building the Economy of Communion first in Brazil where it was born, and in Argentina where it immediately spread: there he went every year for 10 years, to follow the development of the Poles that had been born in the meantime. This gave rise to ESPRI -a corporation that owns the Spartacus Pole (today with its 5,000 members it is the Brazilian company with the largest number of shareholders) and UNIDESA, the company that owns the Argentine Solidaridad Pole. For Alberto, it was immediately very important to lay civil foundations for the achievements that flowed from the EoC, with great care taken to craft well-crafted statutes so as to distinguish well between the spheres (the religious sphere of the Focolare Movement from the civil sphere of the Economy of Communion).
In those years Economy of Communion, because of its concreteness had attracted worldwide attention and Chiara Lubich was receiving many awards (including several honorary degrees). On one such occasion with Tommaso Sorgi I had accompanied Chiara to the European Parliament in Strasbourg and she had given her speech. A parliamentarian, I remember she was not Italian, stood up and said, «But how can we believe that this kind of economy can prevail over the market economy?». She talked about it as if it was a strange economy. And Chiara said, «Alberto,please answer». And I answered very simply that what the economy of communion proposes is nothing strange. It is what we all experience in our family. Who among us in his family is not happier to give a gift to a child instead of buying something for himself? There is more joy in giving than in receiving. And in seeing the other person happy we are happier than if we had something more for ourselves. So if we apply this way of doing things in the world of work, here we are not dividing ourselves by thinking in different ways, outside and inside the family. So many years after that answer today I would say that not only does this economy make us happier, and not divide us as people, but also it is the only way to survive as a planet.
I am an expert in the energy sector, and I see in the speeding up of climate change in recent years,-much faster than what was predicted-a reason, which, in my opinion, is very much dependent on the United States and unfortunately, also on Argentina. That is the fact that they are extracting oil no longer by drilling into the ground to find the deposit, but by crushing the rocks so that they break them up and the oil and gas that is dissolved in them comes out. Now, this system is much more harmful than the other: by drilling into the ground, the oil comes out of the pipe and goes into the reservoir. By splitting rock a kilometer deep, on the other hand, not only do you create earthquakes, (they even occurred in Oklahoma, which had never had an earthquake), but more importantly, the methane that is released does not all flow into the pipe that is supposed to collect it, but it goes into the water table and then is released into the atmosphere. And methane in the atmosphere is 80 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide. And then it happens, especially in the United States, that when a company doing the drilling fails, or the well is no longer productive enough, it is abandoned. And then methane also comes out of the well hole without being collected.
