Let's dream the future together

November 2021

Dear friends:

«Let us dream the future together» is the invitation from all ecclesial, social, economic, political and environmental spheres in the last six months of the year. On the third Sunday in November, the Church commemorates the "World Day of the Poor", which this year was entitled «The poor you will always have with you». This presence should not get us used to it and make us indifferent, on the contrary, it invites us to share life, to open our hearts to recognise the multiple expressions of poverty, to welcome and to participate, promoting creative social and environmental policies.

In the second part of the Fourth World Meeting of Popular Movements in October, Pope Francis addressed them as "social poets who bring hope where there is only rejecting and exclusion". The Pope made appeals that reflect not only the necessary personal change, but also the adjustment of our socio-economic models so that they have a human face. In the name of God he asked for health, zero poverty, integral ecology, food, peace, ethics in technology, education, truth and development. "If all those who stood up for love together against the pandemic out could also dream together of a new world, how different everything would be".

From 1 to 4 October, the International Workshop and General Assembly of Justice and Peace Europe was held under the theme "Integral Ecology - overcoming the social and environmental crisis". The ecological transition, its limits and opportunities were analysed. At the end of the meetings, a declaration was approved on the Climate Summit (Glasgow) and the Biodiversity Summit (Kunming). The statement demanded, among other issues, a greater willingness on the part of the European Union to achieve the commitment to keep the increase in the Earth's average temperature below 1.5 ºC, and that this to be binding.

On 8 November we organised the webinar "Future of Europe: values and rights", in the framework of the Future of Europe Conference. In her speech «Strengthening the soul of our Union», on the state of the EU in 2021, Ursula Von der Leyen draws on Robert Schumann's phrase: "Europe needs a soul, an ideal and the political will to achieve it" but this cannot be achieved by being complicit in individualistic policies that deconstruct society and discard people as Pope Francis reminds us in Fratelli tutti.

On the back cover we report on the latest actions of Weaving Networks Against Trafficking and Church for Decent Work. We mention the numerous meetings in favour of a culture of peace, held in October, as well as the activities related to the Season of Creation and the conclusions of the last United Nations Summits that reproduce actions in the face of related ecological problems, staying in desires without deepening the commitments. «If areas rich in biodiversity are degraded, the whole of human civilisation will suffer» (Kunming) «[...] and we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation» (LS, 48).

Isabel Cuenca Anaya
Secretary-General