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In her address at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, placed work at the centre of human dignity and social life. She emphasized that work is not merely a means of earning a living; it is one of the fundamental ways through which individuals express their abilities and participate in the building of society.

To work is to contribute, to collaborate, to assume responsibility, and to recognize oneself as part of a community. For this reason, exclusion from work can become a profound form of alienation and marginalization. Likewise, ensuring safety in the workplace means concretely safeguarding the dignity and life of every person.

Sister Smerilli also highlighted the spiritual dimension of work. Work becomes a means of placing one’s talents and skills at the service of God and the common good. Any form of work, when carried out in freedom and responsibility, can become an opportunity for personal growth and authentic human fulfilment.

This vision runs throughout the Church’s social teaching, from Rerum Novarum to the most recent reflections on fraternity and social justice. Today, the question of work has acquired renewed urgency in light of the transformations brought about by the digital revolution and artificial intelligence. Work therefore emerges as one of the key arenas in which a fraternity grounded in dignity, participation, and the common good can become a concrete reality.

Excerpt from the address by the Reverend Sister Alessandra Smerilli—Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

Work is not merely an economic issue; it concerns the very dignity of the human person, social justice, and the meaning of living together in a rapidly changing society. Work is a fundamental dimension of human existence. When people are unable to express themselves through the work of their hands and their intelligence, they can feel excluded from the society in which they live. Work is a means of survival, but it is much more than that. Through our work we reveal to the world who we are and what we are capable of doing. In a certain sense, we do not truly know a person until we see them at work.

Work is an expression of dignity, but it is also commitment, effort, and the capacity to collaborate with others, because work is always carried out with or for someone else and is therefore never a solitary act. Work is cooperation. It is a place where people mature, where they make their contribution to making the world more beautiful. In Christian terms, it is a participation in God’s creative work.

This is why preventing a person from working is an alienating act: it deprives them of the possibility of actively participating in the construction of a society and a global reality of which they are themselves a part. The same principle applies to lives lost in the workplace. Failing to provide adequate safety measures for workers means placing their very existence in a condition of persistent uncertainty and vulnerability.

Work is also a spiritual activity when it reflects the choice to place one’s gifts, potential, and talents at the service of God and the common good. Any form of work, from university teaching to the humblest task, when lived freely and responsibly, can become an opportunity for human flourishing and a path towards full self-realization.

The history of the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum (1891), has paid particular attention to the question of work. It is a theme that runs throughout the whole of Catholic social teaching. There has been no pope and no social encyclical that has failed to express concern for the condition of workers. From Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum to Pope Francis’ Fratelli tutti (2020), work remains a constant concern: from the workers’ question raised by the Industrial Revolution to the challenges of the digital revolution and artificial intelligence today.

Smerilli’s reflection echoes the central insight of Rerum Novarum: work is not a commodity but a human activity rooted in the dignity of the person. At the same time, it develops the vision of fraternity expressed in Fratelli Tutti, where participation, inclusion, and concern for the common good are essential for building a society in which every person can contribute and belong. Work thus becomes a privileged space where human fraternity is lived concretely through cooperation, solidarity, and shared responsibility for one another.