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Message from the President Small is Beautiful. E.F. Schumacher's 1974 socio-economic analysis of capitalist society--his concerns over the juggernaut of the religion of bigness and the inhumanity of laissez-faire liberal economics--anticipated only too well the opium of the '90s. According to the contemporary credo, no meat processing plant, no bank, no school board, no hospital, no suburban city can be inoculated against the disease of bigness. Where, one might wonder, does the religion of bigness and entrepreneurial appetite leave a philosophy which espouses the essential dignity of the individual, the priority of labour over capital, the innate humanness of work, the need for society to care for the underprivileged, the weak, the smallest in our midst? The religion of bigness is wholly at odds with time-tested Catholic social principles which take their origin in Pope Leo XIII's Rerum novarum of 1891 when the "new things" over which the Pope was fretting included wide-ranging industrialization, laissez-faire capitalism, and the increasingly trans-national nature of capital. Where, in the religion of bigness, one might wonder, is there room for diversity, diversity such as that provided by the Catholic school, diversity provided by the federated and affiliated system of post-secondary education which enlivens and humanizes the Canadian campuses of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, diversity which approaches health care and social policy from Christian conviction rather than economic efficiency? The analogical imagination which is insightfully Catholic posits an imperfect world which is an expression of Creative Intent, a world to be transformed. It is a world which urges the need for light where there is darkness, healing where there is disease, consoling where there is grief. Indeed, committed and energetic Roman Catholics have breathed life into this analogical image by creating schools, hospitals, counselling agencies, and centres of refuge and human assistance. Like the philosophy which gave these agencies their inspiration, they are themselves worth celebrating and worth conserving, even though they are expressions of a divergent voice, and even though their relative size could give the false impression of fiscal inefficiency in a society which puts a systemic emphasis on the economics of amalgamation. In the previous issue of Update I outlined the progress being made by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities of Canada in establishing a co-operative and integrative voice on the national scene. Similar alliances are being formed more locally with our educational, medical, and social agencies. In the four-city area of Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge/ Guelph, for example, we have an active Alliance of Organizations with Catholic Values and Traditions. The Alliance is the brainchild of Sonia Pouyat, the Executive Director of Notre Dame of St. Agatha Children's Village, and embraces St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener, St. Joseph's Hospital and Home in Guelph, the Catholic School Boards of Waterloo and Wellington Districts, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Catholic Family Counselling Centre, Notre Dame of St. Agatha, the Catholic Women's League, the Knights of Columbus, the Waterloo Region Catholic Community Foundation, and St. Jerome's University. In addition to looking for joint operating efficiencies and discussing matters of common support, as an Alliance we have initiated a volunteering programme with St. Jerome's students and have begun to meet with local MPPs, MPs, and civic politicians as a means of raising consciousness about who we are and the importance of what we are offering within our community. One needs to have informed friends at the table. And in raising consciousness one will sow the seeds both of understanding and of appreciation. Ours is a tradition which in principle puts people first, one in which we are our brother's keeper. Ours is a tradition which values social units whose size does not overwhelm the human. Ours is a voice which needs to be heard, a vision which needs to be shared, a tradition whose affirmation that small is beautiful needs to be appreciated, embraced, and articulated. Photo: Ron Hewson Doug Letson, President, St. Jerome's University. Where does the religion of bigness and entrepreneurial appetite leave a philosophy which espouses the essential dignity of the individual, the priority of labour over capital, the innate humanness of work, the need for society to care for the underprivileged, the weak, the smallest in our midst? Bigger isn't always better