Crisis & Hope. The Finance Commission of Rome

The great financial crisis that exploded in 2008 had very serious consequences for businesses, families, and associations. Though there does not seem to be a way out of the situation, this crisis also rattles consciences and along with the desperation and waiting, it also moves thinking and creates new ways.

One group of workers from the world of finance and banking in Rome have discovered this for themelves. Daria, Domenico, Paola, Rosapina, Sandro, Gabriele and Assunta have been friends for a long time. They have also been working together professionally for some time but, most especially, they have been belieiving in the values of the Gospel and they think that they can be lived out in banks, post offices, credit and insurance agencies, in their fields of work. With the outbreak of the crisis they have each received requests for help to renegotiate a loan, to read a bank document, to make a more sensible investment.

In time, the group gave itself a name, “Finance Commission” and linked itself to the New Humanity Movementof the Focolare in Rome. Their meetings became an occasion for sharing their experiences and for discussing the problems and the crises of conscience that each day every member of the group was asked to face. It gave them a new sense of professional commitment in a work environment that is difficult at times.

One significant fruit of this dialogue has been the “Risparmio & Finanza” (Saving & Finance) Newsletter whose scope is precisely that of providing “professional” assistance to people in the area of economy and finance.

Each newsletter gives an overview of the current financial situation without a lot of technical language and offers a discussion of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church; it announces what is new on the markets, as well as news relating to financial products. “But first of all, the newsletter is an occasion for dialogue through an email address. This work has made us realize that sharing problems and decisions is critical because in our work we often lose the sense of the “common good” because it is subsituted by what we are expected to do.”

The wide diffusion of the magazine through the internet and social networks has allowed us to extend this experience and share it with other business operators and professionals in several regions of Italy: “We’re creating a network community from which there emerges ever more strongly the need to establish a relationship of truth, where communion becomes a concrete work method, which accepts the other with all of his problems and situations. And this enables us to find the most appropriate solutions.”

One example is what Giovanna and Carlo share,whoare from Rome: “Thanks to this online community we were able to help several people in need, with several small no-interest loans that were always repaid with punctuality. The nice thing is that when we were in need, we were offered the sum of money that we needed. It was a matter of 20,000 Euros that we were able to repay with tranquility and it saved us all the time and bureaucracyof doing it through a bank. We can assure you, in our own small way, that the “Give and there will be gifts for you” that the Gospel speaks of is really true and that Providence never makes you wait.”