The Vatican has announced the next meeting of popular movements, to be held in Rome on November 2 to find out how to give 'land, housing and work' to those excluded from society.
They are grassroots organizations of workers who are not represented by unions. People like farmers, laborers or cooperatives, who are not linked to political parties but launch policy proposals.
JUAN GRABOIS
Excluded Workers Movement
'We try to be very political, because politics is one of the highest forms of charity and politics aim to change reality. It is true that there are partisan interests within popular movements, like within the Church or media. Of course we do everything possible so that these partisan interests take up as little space as possible. But risks have to be taken.'
MSGR. SILVANO TOMMASI
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
'The aim of the pope is to go to the peripheries, but in order to bring them to the center, not to leave them aside. So everyone can see fundamental human rights being respected. At this meeting, in particular the right to a house, to a decent work, and to the land. Which means respect for an environment that is healthy for all, food for all, also for future generations.â?
The pope will meet with them on November 5. It will be their third meeting. The first meeting was in the Vatican in 2014 and the second, a year later in Bolivia. One of the issues that they will face is the situation of refugees and displaced persons, which is of great concern to Pope Francis.
MSGR. SILVANO TOMMASI
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
'The concern on the pastoral point of view of the Church is that these people have fundamental human rights that need to be respected independent of their legal status. So many people are forced to move to other countries in search of life. Because the first human right in this case is the right not to have to emigrate.'
JUAN GRABOIS
Excluded Workers Movement
'This situation is mirrored in the other three areas, land, housing and work. There are over two billion people who are in a situation of informality in terms of their working conditions, in terms of their living conditions in villages and settlements , and in terms of their condition as unrecognized peasant indigenous peoples'.
The closeness of the pope has made the popular movements heard. The result is that society now takes more account of the marginalized, and politicians seek operational responses to these situations.
More than 200 delegates from 92 organizations and 65 countries are attending the next meeting in Rome.
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