Pope Leo XIV’s address at the Fourth ‘Fratelli Tutti’ Synodal Meeting united international judicatories and leaders of financial, labor, academic, ecclesial, and social organizations, including Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) Co-Director Joe Rubio and Texas IAF Director Elizabeth Valdez.

[Excerpts from Vatican News]

The breadth of representation, [Pope Leo] said, gives the meeting particular significance, and reflects a willingness to continue a dialogue which can translate into models of development that are “more human, sustainable and in solidarity”

“A courageous and confident dialogue”

…Dialogue with the world, he explained, is not a secondary activity for the Church but part of its evangelising mission. The Church proclaims the Gospel amid the concrete circumstances in which people live and is therefore called to look squarely at the reality of men and women.

In this context, the Pope recalled that the Church is called to “embrace reality” and to expose the contradictions that can accompany scientific and technological progress, whose unprecedented possibilities bring new responsibilities.

What kind of humanity do we want to build?

….“When public institutions, businesses, workers, universities, communities and social organisations share their knowledge, capacities and resources in the service of the common good, a conviction that has matured within the Church’s social doctrine and that my Predecessors have developed in different ways takes concrete shape: major social challenges require shared responsibility, participation and collaboration among the different bodies of society.”...

A culture of negotiation

…Negotiation, he said, can open paths where differences appear to have closed every possibility of encounter. In this way, those involved in the process can also contribute to the diplomacy of peace that the world needs.

Pope Leo brought his address to a conclusion by expressing the hope that the progress of our time would not leave new ruins in its wake, so that what we build might truly become “a home and a refuge for all”.

Read Pope Leo XIV’s full address here

[Photo credit: Vatican News]

Pope: Progress Must Not Leave New Ruins in its Wake, Vatican News [pdf]

Address of his Holiness Pope Leo XIV to the Participants at the Meeting 'Fratelli Tutti: North-South Socio-Environmental Diologue,' Pope Leo XIV [pdf]