Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli tutti Foundation and Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, the two organizations promoting the Ways introduced Prodi’s speech. “Today is not a time for nostalgic politics that allows us to remain in a comfort zone,” Gambetti noted, ”there is no need to build monuments to our fathers, it is enough to have a grateful memory and to look ahead not to watch what so-called politicians are doing now. If anything, it is the time for nostalgia for politics, a return to the original spirit of democratic politics. It is the time to take care of each other, it is the time of fraternity on which to base politics, what we are proposing wants to be the passage to political love.”

Father Francesco Occhetta, Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, finally took stock of the 9 meetings of the Paths. The one yesterday was attended by representatives of 160 associations, movements, businesses, institutions, foundations, NGOs. And he wanted to explain the Foundation’s role in society.

“The Foundation which is of Vatican law is first and foremost an inclusive relational place, the boundaries go beyond those of Italy, the heart on which we work is the search for what says we are human today, in this world, to stem words, violent gestures, forms of revenge and war,” Occhetta explained. That is why our invitation is to ask everyone to take a step back with respect to the defense of one’s own belonging sometimes defended as ideological and to take two steps forward together so that on the great issues we can promote the human and the principle of fraternity as the 20th century taught us, through the reworking of the Charters of Rights, Constitutions and great social reforms.”

Article by Goffredo de Marchis

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The initiative includes a series of appointments on the major themes of the Encyclical “Brothers All,” in preparation for the Jubilee 2025.

Watch the video (in Italian)

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Serving as a frame and horizon for this new series of meetings is Chapter 5 of the Encyclical, “The Best Politic,” namely, that which represents one of the most valuable forms of charity because it is placed at the service of the common good and knows the importance of the people, understood as an open category, available for confrontation and dialogue: “The development of a global community of fraternity based on the practice of social friendship on the part of peoples and nations calls for a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good.” (FT, 154).

The first meeting will be held next October 12 at the Pontifical Urbanian University and will be dedicated to deepening the relationship between the synodal Church and the current political context: what are the challenges and commitments of the Christian in the world in today’s geopolitical scenario? The articulation of said meeting will include an opening panel discussion followed by a working group session and an itinerant time of contemplation in St. Peter’s Basilica reserved exclusively for participants. The symposium proceedings will be opened by H.E. Card. Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Papal Basilica and President of the Foundation. Fr. Francesco Occhetta S.J., Secretary General of the Foundation, will moderate the panel discussion in which Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, and Veronica Nicotra, Secretary General of Anci, will participate.

To participate, write to fondazioneft@fondazionefratellitutti.va

It will be possible to enjoy the entire meeting afterwards on our online channels.

Read the programme (in Italian)

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The meeting began in the presence of Card. Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St Peter’s Papal Basilica. A welcoming address by Msgr. Orazio Pepe, Secretary of the Fabric of St. Peter’s,  followed. The round table, “The educational horizon”, was animated by Prof. Chiara Giaccardi, Professor of Media Sociology and Anthropology at the Catholic University of Milan, Mr. Francesco Ghirelli, President of Lega Pro and Vice President of FIGC, and Msgr.  Armando Matteo, Secretary of the Doctrinal Section, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The format of the meeting included a dialogue workshop: a moment of reflection and sharing in working groups of representatives of civil society operating in the family/school educational context.

Father Francesco Occhetta, Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation and moderator of the event, explained: “The aim of the individual legs of the Synodal Jubilee Journeys is to take up the themes of the Encyclical, such as care and integration, detention and social disadvantage, and explore them in depth together with social workers to find more humane solutions to current social problems. These meetings are organized by St Peter’s Basilica at the service of the world. On 3rd December, there will be representatives of sport, of the oratories and of all those experiences that help young people grow after the loneliness produced by the pandemic. The whole country will be represented. We are surprised by the response to our proposal. It shows the desire to build community, to share knowledge and good practices, to take a step forward all together. By doing this quietly, the Fratelli tutti Foundation helps to meet and open a dialogue to build bridges and social friendship. Fraternity must indeed be built at the cultural level. We are just at the beginning of a process”.

The experience ended in St. Peter’s Basilica, at sunset, providing time for contemplating beauty by thematic itineraries, so that the topics discussed could be brought to spiritual life. The visit was accompanied by organ music.
“Recognising ourselves on the threshold of education” closed the cycle of meetings planned for 2022, whose main theme was “closeness and care”. Six more meetings are scheduled in preparation for the next Jubilee, three in 2023 and three in 2024.

In 2023 the topic will be ‘reconciliation and purification of memory’ with testimonies on how to reconstruct justice, which is not revenge but reconstruction of relationships and social ties. In 2024 we will deepen the discourse on ‘political love’, as Pope Francis defines it, referring to the responsibility of building the common good together.

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The meeting “At the margins of society” will take place on 17 September at the Aula Nuova of the Synod in the Vatican, the second of three events planned for 2022 in the run-up to the Jubilee 2025, organised by the Fratelli tutti Foundation.

After the symposium “Leaning into life”, held last 18 June, the Foundation once again puts the themes of proximity and care at the centre of its spiritual dialogues with a meeting that hinges on the teachings of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

“We must recognise the temptation that surrounds us to disregard others,” Pope Francis explains in his encyclical, “especially the most vulnerable. It must be said, we have grown in many ways but we are illiterate in accompanying, caring for and supporting the most vulnerable and frail in our developed societies. We have become accustomed to turning a blind eye, to passing by, to ignoring situations until they touch us directly”.

The Holy Father’s words will be the starting point for next Saturday’s meeting, again with a focus on solidarity as a “moral virtue and social attitude” that “demands a commitment on the part of a multiplicity of individuals”.

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The meeting, moderated by Father Francesco Occhetta, Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, consisted of a plenary listening session, a group session to share participants’ experiences, and a spiritual itinerary in St. Peter’s Basilica during sunset.

Participants had the opportunity to share their experiences of suffering and infirmity, loneliness and care in several contexts and to share their stories of commitment to the most fragile people in facilities, associations or organizations.

This first stage of the approach to the Jubilee experience precedes two other very important appointments.

The first meeting “On the margins of society”, will take place on 17 September 2022 and will consist of a reading, between rhetoric and realism, in pursuit of processes founded on an ethic based on the recognition of universal human rights and the Gospel message . The second meeting, to be held on 3 December 2022, is entitled “Recognising oneself on the threshold of education”. The themes include the vulnerability of humankind, universal solidarity and world-wide responsibility.

The Jubilee meetings in St. Peter’s Basilica will accompany the Jubilee Committee’s proposals to allow a human and spiritual experience for all people of goodwill who identify with the teachings of the Encyclical Fratelli tutti .

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