Between a Charta and a Letter.

By: Ahmed M. El Nahhas – Montopoli, June 16^th 2015.

- A -

June 15th 1215, in the locality known as Runnymede along the river Thames and in the presence of the kingdom’s Nobles and Landlords; John ‘No-Land’ the English Sovereign finally conceded and laid his signature on the right bottom of a document since then and till now known as the “Magna Charta”.

Eight centuries have passed since that moment, yet the feverish debate over its significance kept its heat continuing to reverberate by the walls and halls of every Palace, Professorship, Parliament, Throne, Presidency, and Jurisprudence Assembly.. Its supporters fanatically affirm and sustain that “The Magna Charta is the first known document establishing the foundations and principles of Modern Democracy”; furthermore they confirm that the document has forged the idea of Human and Civil Rights, basing their claim on its article 39 which textually reads: “We shall not lay our hands over you”. !!

Instead, the opposing side debate that the document is nothing but an instrument by which the Monarch have restrained his powers and shrunk his authority, thus submitting to the will of his Élite Noble class and Feudal landlords, as not to order any their contribution through taxations without consulting with them first. (We shouldn’t forget the date; we’re in the climax of the economic disasters caused by the Crusades and the consequent campaigns to conquer and govern the Levant).

The symbolist influence of the document is undeniable, I admit that; if we consider the Cromwell republican reforms regulating the Parliamentary practices. Yet, the Magna Charta cannot be the only acknowledgeable foundation of what most scholars call “Modern Democracy”.. Because I believe that the modernising factors of the Classic Greek Democracy have risen clear from the sources of the French Revolution and the Universal Declaration Of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen; according to both the power belongs to the people.. All the people.

Antic Penal Code Historian, Adriano Prosperi, explains that “…the document gave life to our present Parliamentary ideas through giving birth to the first Barons’ Assemblies, and where lies the decisive matter of Protecting the rights of the person.. The problem however is another: it is how we have already forgotten the principles that the Charta inspired in the first place.. In the name of terrorism as a unique and absolute enemy, the principle of Efficiency has prevailed, by now we are living a permanent status of Exceptions that is corroding every right”.

I agree with the last part of this statement.

- B –

200 pages including many citations and notes; with its introduction, six chapters and two final prayers; are all the contents of the Pope Francis 1^st “Encyclical Letter”.. Francis 1^st, originally Francesco Primo, dedicated his work to Man and Nature.. We can deduct his passion out of the text of this prayer:

“ A prayer for our Earth..

O Lord in thy heights, who is present in all the Universe and in the smallest of your creatures, You who hold with your tenderness all and every existence; pour in us the force of your love so as we take care of life and of beauty.

Inundate us with peace to live as brothers and sisters without harming no one”.

Throughout the Encyclical text, the Pope urged man as not to harm the environment, nature or earth:

Ø  “The destruction of Human Environment is a very serious matter”..

Ø  “…a crime against Nature is a crime against our own selves and a sin against God”..

Ø  “The urgent challenge of protecting our common home includes the unification of the entire Human Family in the search for a sustainable and integral development, as to know that things could change”.

This Pope is a man committed to the change as much as he is coherent with the idea.

Pass On The Word.