ARGENTINA, mda. In view of Pope Francis’ visit to Argentina in 2016, Generation Francis held the country’s second ecumenical conference in Rosario. Its aim was to bring together all those who were interested to discuss three issues, which are important for Pope Francis: youth, poverty and a culture of encounter. The meeting took place on 7 June, the eve of the Feast of Pentecost, the day before the meeting of Presidents Abbas and Peres, called by Pope Francis to pray for peace, together.
“You know that it wasn’t easy, because you were there, and much of that achievement is due to you,” said Francis about this meeting in an interview with Spanish daily La Vanguardia. “I felt that it was something that accidentally happened to all of us. Here, in the Vatican, 99% said it would not happen, and then the 1% started to grow [in favor of it]. I felt that we were feeling pushed towards something that had not occurred to us, and that, little by little, started to take shape. It was not all a political act – I felt that from the beginning – but it was, rather, a religious: opening a window to the world…”(1)
For this reason at the end of the encounter, an inter-religious group composed of the Methodist Bishop Emeritus Federico Pagura, Father Alejandro Saba of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the Patriarch of Antioch, the Iman of the Sufí Naqshbanj Arq. Order Walter Collieri, Dr. Diana Schwartz of the Jewish community, Dominican Sister, Leticia Batista, and Mario Caffaro, Director of the Buddhist Center of Darma, led the communitarian Prayer for Peace of Saint Francis. 8 June was proclaimed as the World Day of Unity for Peace and Inter-religious Encounter without Borders because of Francis’ historic meeting with the Presidents of Israel and Palestine.
Three challenges
The Conference began with a video with a greeting from Guzmán Carriquiri, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Latin America, Monsignor José M. Arancedo, Archbishop of Santa Fe and President of the Argentinean Bishops’ Conference, as well as pictures of the First Conference of Generation Francis (on 15 March in San Miguel, Buenos Aires) and Francis’ message for the Feast of Saint Cayetano.
More than 130 people from Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Buenos Aires participated in the event; they worked on three Commissions:
1. Youth and Francis’ challenges,
2. Poverty, the marginalized and existential peripheries and
3. How a culture of encounter can be achieved.
The following General Proposals, aspects that were identified as being held in common by the three work commissions emerged from the commissions:
To maintain and broaden spaces for encounter: sectoral, territorial, interreligious and inter-generational (youth, adults, older adults, children, etc.) on family values, national culture and based on the four principles that Francis proposes:
- Time over space.
- Unity over conflict
- The whole over the parts.
- Reality over the idea.
Training Promoters of the Culture of Encounter. Ex: Generate instructive material, training schools, etc.
Implement a network of virtually based attachments complemented by people who are responsible for those without access to new technologies (ex: restore the personal visit, use of mail, etc.)
That all the participants of this “meeting” become missionaries and bearers of the “Culture of Encounter” in all spheres of their lives (Ex. Neighborhood visits, “go toward”).
At the conclusion of the conference, Fr. Jorge Nardi celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Saint Joseph of Charity Chapel of the Provincial Hospital of Rosary.
Do what he says…and does
The first conference was held on 15 March in San Miguel (Buenos Aires), where 300 people gathered at workshops to propose activities for the commissions for youth and Francis’ challenges, poverty, peripheries and the existential peripheries, and a culture of encounter.
The outcomes included the need to continue spreading Francis’ thoughts and actions using all mediums possible, particularly in public spaces through documents, conferences, posters, street paintings, flyers and parades.
“As Argentineans, we feel responsible that actions are taken in the Pope’s country to work on his message,” commented Juan Carlos Bensuley, one of the organizers of the activity in Rosario.
(1) Translation according to CNA
Original: Spanish. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, USA/Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa.
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