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Promoted by the Fratelli tutti Foundation, the “Vocabulary of Fraternity. 365 words to rewrite our humanity,” published by Rizzoli, offers 365 reflections on topics pertaining to the common good and Pope Francis’ encyclical. The book was presented last Friday at Palazzo San Giacomo in Naples with the city’s mayor and Anci president Gaetano Manfredi, and Father Francesco Occhetta, Secretary General of the Foundation, moderated by Conchita Sannino of Repubblica.

At the center of the debate “words” that, if disarmed, can become concrete actions in municipalities and in the action of an administrator.

“Often,” pointed out Gaetano Manfredi, mayor of Naples and president of Anci, “we are the ones who fuel conflict: we fuel it with politics, we fuel it with information, turning words into weapons, determining a climate that leads to wrong choices and sometimes, as an extreme consequence, to wars. Giorgio La Pira brought forward a very important message: the principle that municipalities are a place of proximity to citizens. They are the real link between politics and people, and in their specificity they are even stronger than states because they are able to speak across the barriers of diplomacy, different cultures and religions. “Some time ago,” Manfredi continued, “I participated in Florence in a meeting of mayors of Mediterranean cities along with representatives of different religious denominations as well: at the same table were men who would never have met under the flag of their own state. “There, that is precisely the global dimension of the concept of ‘fraternity’: being able to use the tool of dialogue as a powerful instrument of diplomacy and soft power. If we do not talk to each other we can only fight,” concluded the Anci president.

For his part, Father Francis Occhetta recalled, “In life we always become the words we learn, which is why the vocabulary wants to disarm words as Pope Leo asks and reawaken a nostalgia for fraternity, which was thought of by the Enlightenment and then betrayed. There is no equality and freedom without fraternity. 365 very different signatures, Nobel laureates, people who work in institutions, people who are professionals, have believed together that the paradigm of fraternity can give birth to a new alternative of being together in social life and political life.” He added, “Good words always curb words of violence and words of war. The former bestow deep peace, while the latter disturb and distress even those who utter them.

Unfortunately, today divisive words such as battlefield, season of terror, fallen, attack, conquest, offensive prevail. Instead when good words, human words enter history, these can change history, for example it was for the September 1993 agreement between Rabin and Arafat, Mandela’s amnesty, the peace processes in Colombia and Bangladesh.”

The event was also an opportunity to illustrate the agreement, signed by Anci President Gaetano Manfredi and the president of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, in January this year, with the aim of supporting the spread of the culture of collaboration and integration of all public actors in a context of loyal interinstitutional cooperation to protect the common good.

Today’s meeting is also part of an important stage in the run-up to the World Meeting on Human Fraternity on September 12-13, which will have an international section dedicated precisely to the world’s mayors.

The World Meeting on Human Fraternity #BeHuman was a crucial moment to reflect on the principle of fraternity in contemporary culture, a principle that in the “Vocabulary of Fraternity” has acquired a broader scope thanks to the commitment and will of the Fratelli tutti Foundation.

The volume not only collects the thoughts of #BeHuman participants, but also offers the reflections of numerous experts in the field of humanities, social sciences and scientific and technological knowledge: each author was asked to reflect on a specific word related to the concept of fraternity, referring to his or her own experience. And as Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, writes in the afterword to the book, “The splendid kaleidoscope of meanings that the authors have composed through the 365 words that have sprung from the intelligence of hearts, gives a glimpse of the plural expression of humanity, united by feelings, passions, aspirations, ideals… Believers and non-believers of good will converge together on a ‘human word.”

They talked about it (in Italian): Ansa Campania, Focus Italia, Gaeta.it, Radio Una voce vicina, Expartibus, La rampa news, Telpress, Telpress.

Click here to watch the highlights of the event (in Italian).

Click here to watch the interview at Fr. Occhetta (in Italian).

View the pictures of the event.