The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) participated, last weekend, in a meeting with Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican. The meeting was promoted during the IV Fratelli Tutti Sindonal Meeting: North-South Socio-Environmental Dialogue. At the audience, the pontiff stated that “land, shelter and work are sacred rights worth fighting for.”
The meeting brought together leaders from the Catholic Church, social movements, unions, universities and the business sector and served to debate global integration and the pillars contained in the encyclical All Brothers. The encyclical was proposed by Pope Francis and proposes a reflection on the ideal of universal fraternity.
The meeting in the Vatican served to consolidate a space for dialogue between actors from South and North America. The MST participated in the delivery of a document that presented the main socioeconomic emergencies of countries on the continents, demanding a technological development model with social meaning. At the event, the person representing the MST was Rodrigo Suñe, from the movement’s Internationalism Sector Directorate.
The meeting revolved around three fundamental axes: (1) The world of work and ecological transition; (2) Impacts of extractivism and the urgency of giving an active voice to communities affected by mineral and extractive exploration in Latin America; (3) and the ethical and social challenges of technological innovations and Artificial Intelligence.
Throughout the event, Pope Leo XIV encouraged participants to “not be afraid” and to actively act in promoting a “culture of negotiation” aimed at the good of the community.
Social dialogue
The Synodal Meetings All Brothers They began in Latin America and the Caribbean as an ecclesiastical space focused on the “culture of encounter”. The first guidelines were established in Bogotá, in 2022, with the participation of researchers, representatives of social movements and the Catholic Church.
In this year’s edition, the president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Cardinal Jaime Spengler, spoke and pointed out that, at this historic moment, it is necessary to “bring together the best forces of our societies in the North and South to listen to each other and discover the dreams that unite us to see a better world possible for everyone”.
In October last year, the MST met for the first time with the current pontiff. On that occasion, the movement participated in the fifth edition of the World Meeting of Popular Movements, in the Vatican, saying that the event was “a call for movements to continue walking alongside the Church in building a more fraternal world”.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
