Pope Francis To Participate in the World Meeting of Popular Movements

On Oct. 16, Pope Francis will attend the IV World Meeting of Popular Movements, an event that seeks to discuss and share the ongoing social struggles and propose new forms of action to defend workers’ rights.

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Its agenda includes the presentation of the "Save humanity and the planet!", a synthesis of the dialogues between social movements and the Church on the "dilemmas of humanity", one of which is the land, housing, and labor problem.

Among the participants will be recyclers, street vendors, artisans, fishermen, farmers, builders, miners, Christian workers of various trades and professions, and workers of neighborhoods and slums.

More specifically, the meeting will feature the participation of organizations such as Catholic Action Workers' Brotherhood (CAWB), the Andalusian Association of Ignored Neighborhoods (AAIN), the Church for Decent Work (CDW), and the Anti-Eviction Platform (AEP).

In the preparatory meetings for this meeting, social leaders from around the world discussed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the "land, housind, and labor" problem. In the "All Brothers" encyclical, Pope Francis referred to this problem as a matter of social justice.

"It is possible to aspire to a planet that offers land, shelter, and jobs for all," he wrote and backed popular movements in their autonomous journey.

“Popular movements are making history by promoting change. The challenge is to overcome the structural causes of poverty and injustice,” Cardinal Peter Turkson said.