Fourth Fratelli Tutti Synodal Encounter begins in Rome

By Christopher Wells

The Fourth Fratelli Tutti Synodal Encounter on North-South socio-environmental dialogue is meeting this week in Rome for discussions aimed at offering a multilateral response to the major transformations occurring in the Americas.

Promoted by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) with the collaboration of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the three-day Meeting, from 10-12 September, is addressing issues of continent-wide import, including the growth of artificial intelligence; human dignity; responding to the socio-environmental crisis; social friendship; community organization; and energy transition and protection of territories as a common good.

As the meeting kicked off on Thursday, USCCB Associate Secretary General Anthony Granado told Vatican Radio said the fourth edition of the Encounter, which was established in the light of the encyclical Fratelli tutti, published by Pope Francis in 2020, is now taking into account the indications provided by Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas. In this meeting, the Church is able “to bring together labour groups, civil society groups, business [and others] to talk about how we can have a shared common vision to promote the social teaching of the Church and promote the common good together in the times we’re living in.”

Bringing people to the table

Granado explained that the promoters of the Synodal Encounter have worked together “to find the ways we can bring people to the table, especially in light of things we’re seeing globally,” while focusing in particular on how groups throughout the Western Hemisphere can address questions of labour, immigration, the environment, “and, of course, artificial intelligence.”

Jill Rauh, the Executive Director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace – who is also taking part in the Encounter – emphasized the Church’s role in bringing people together. “I think that the church plays a really important role in these meetings. The Church is the convener of these important conversations that are happening. And it is not only a meeting that is happening with people who work for the Church who are in the room, but there have been invitations extended, and there is the participation of many important individuals from the secular world, from the various sectors that are being represented. And we’re all in that room together to, to, to really identify some of the common values that we have that can be brought to those conversations.”

Finding common ground in a polarized society

In the context of the United States, Rauh expressed concern about the polarization in American society, and highlighted the importance of trying to hear and understand the experiences of dialogue partners, to see how shared experience “can identify something in common.” It is in those relationships, she said, “that we can address some of what may seem like polarities in those social and environmental questions where we can identify something in common and we can work together.”

Asked about concrete proposals and concrete actions that can be taken, Granado explained his role in the USCCB as bringing people together to influence public policy, law, and other areas in order “to advance the common good and promote human life and dignity.” He highlighted the Church’s robust teaching on social justice, including Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical Rerum novarum, and noted her longstanding concern for and significant contributions to questions of labour, the environment, and creation.

The Fourth Fratelli Synodal Meeting is intended “to promote fraternity through social dialogue by launching a ‘North-South shared responsibility agenda for multisectoral cooperation’.”

On Saturday, participants in the Encounter will have an opportunity to meet with Pope Leo XIV in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace.