Message of Pope Francis to popular movements and organizations on Easter Sunday 2020

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To our brothers and sisters of popular movements and organizations

Dear Friends,

I often recall our previous meetings: two at the Vatican and one in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and I must tell you that this “souvenir” warms my heart. It brings me closer to you, and helps me re-live so many dialogues we had during those times. I think of all the beautiful projects that emerged from those conversations and took shape and have become reality. Now, in the midst of this pandemic, I think of you in a special way and wish to express my closeness to you. In these days of great anxiety and hardship, many have used war-like metaphors to refer to the pandemic we are experiencing. If the struggle against COVID-19 is a war, then you are truly an invisible army, fighting in the most dangerous trenches; an army whose only weapons are solidarity, hope, and community spirit, all revitalizing at a time when no one can save themselves alone. As I told you in our meetings, to me you are social poets because, from the forgotten peripheries where you live, you create admirable solutions for the most pressing problems afflicting the marginalized.

I know that you nearly never receive the recognition that you deserve, because you are truly invisible to the system. Market solutions do not reach the peripheries, and State protection is hardly visible there. Nor do you have the resources to substitute for its functioning. You are looked upon with suspicion when through community organization you try to move beyond philanthropy or when, instead of resigning and hoping to catch some crumbs that fall from the table of economic power, you claim your rights. You often feel rage and powerlessness at the sight of persistent inequalities and when any excuse at all is sufficient for maintaining those privileges. Nevertheless, you do not resign yourselves to complaining: you roll up your sleeves and keep working for your families, your communities, and the common good. Your resilience helps me, challenges me, and teaches me a great deal.

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Joint Statement of the Presidents of COMECE and CEC in the context of the COVID–19 pandemic: "LET US REMAIN UNITED"

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LET US REMAIN UNITED

This is the time to show our commitment to European values

The COVID-19 pandemic and its dire consequences have hit Europe and the entire world with full strength. Putting to the test every person, family and community, the present crisis has exposed the vulnerabilities and apparent certainties of our politics, economics and societies.

Nevertheless, these trying times are also allowing us to re-discover our common humanity as brothers and sisters. We think of the many people who are sowing hope every day by exercising charity and solidarity. We would like to pray with deep gratitude for all those who serve their fellow human beings with empathy and warmth by supporting them selflessly: medical doctors, nursing staff, providers of basic services, law and order forces – and persons involved in pastoral care. We wish to pray for all the people who are suffering during this crisis - in particular the sick, the elderly, the poor, the excluded and children experiencing family instability. We also remember all those who passed away in our prayers.

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Prayer for our hurting world

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Prayer for our hurting world

 

O Lord,

to you we come in these dark and hard times.

To you we come to explain you the pain and death

that causes the pandemic that decimates our peoples.

And we put the words of the psalmist into our mouths:

"Say to the Lord: “My stronghold, my refuge,

my God in whom I trust!”

He will rescue you… from the deadly pestilence…

He will give you refuge under his wings.

You shall not fear the terror of the night…

nor the pestilence that stalks by night,

and the plague that destroys at noonday (Ps 91,2-6).

 

Lord,

in you we trust at this time

that so many of our brothers and sisters,

so weak, who are sharing in their flesh

the pain of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, your Son.

 

Lord,

to you we come to thank you

for so many of our brothers and sisters

that bring up to date the Resurrection of your beloved Son,

giving himself up with all his strength to relieve so much pain.

We thank you for all the medical professionals

for everyone who works in hospitals,

for those who care for their sick elders at home,

for the parents and grandparents who, with patience,

explain this situation to their young children.

For the young people who mature by assuming this experience,

and draw conclusions from it for the future.

We thank you for all the public employees

and officials from our countries and cities

that make life and living together more bearable.

We thank you for the workers who make

that public transportation works,

that there are medicines in the pharmacies

and food in the shops and in the markets.

And we thank you for the working men and women

that make our lives easier in these times of confinement,

and for those who continue to work from home. 

Yes, we thank you for so many signs of solidarity

and for the responsibility and seriousness

with which so many citizens face this difficult reality. 

 

O Lord,

we are afraid of the future, and the economic consequences

that are going to result from this pandemic

that is affecting so many, many countries. 

We're worried about the jobs that are going to be lost,

the workers who will have their labour rights violated,

or that their purchasing power will be reduced,

the poor and impoverished

they'll have to go through social services,

the small businessmen who will have to start over.

 

Lord,

we are also concerned about

the global economic situation in the coming years.

Help economic experts find ways out

viable and in solidarity with all our countries,

especially with the poorest peoples  

and with less means to overcome this situation.

We also introduce you to the refugee camps,

and all those who live badly in them.

 

Lord, you know their precariousness.

Do not allow this pandemic to become fattening

in them, the poorest and most abandoned,

or the homeless who live on our streets,

nor in the prisoners confined in our prisons. 

 

Lord,

we pray you for our rulers.

Let them have the wisdom that comes from you

so that they can make the right decisions,

and be sensitive to the pain of so many families

who suffer illness or the death

of their loved ones.

May they have no spurious interests

and be moved only by selfless service. 

 

Father,

we pray for all the dead of this pandemic.

Welcome them into your loving and tender embrace

of a loving mother with the bowels of mercy.

May they rest in your peace and enjoy your presence forever.

We also pray you for their families:

give them your comfort and your love so that,

after this ordeal, they can look back at life with hope.

 

Father,

we finally pray you for us.

Make this difficult experience 

that we now go through we know how to take advantage

so that in the future we can live life with meaning,

so that we know to reject everything that is superfluous,

so that we can make ours

the saving experience of your Son Jesus Christ

and so, knowing him, loving him and following him

as disciples who want to live their Gospel,

let us fulfil your will that our world

is truly the kingdom you have dreamed for us.

 

Amen.

 

Josep Jiménez Montejo

ECWM Assistant

24 March 2020

European Christian Workers Movement Statement in the International Free-Work Sunday Day (3rd March)

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European Christian Workers Movement (ECWM) expresses its full support to all the initiatives taking place on 3rd March that is the International Free-Work Sunday Day. In this year 2020, the ECWM offers the following reflection.

In the world of work we are in a new situation that asks us to open new paths to fraternity, solidarity and sensitivity to suffering and injustice so that it is possible for people to be and to live. The social model in which we live, shaped mainly by the way of human work is conceived and treated, is a great obstacle for social organization and social relations and institutions to favour what they should always serve: that people can realize their being and can live according to their dignity, that we can realize our humanity in image and likeness of God. This is what is radically at stake today and for the future: that people can realize their being and live according to their dignity, and it is very important that we really take charge of this situation in which the social model that has been configured places us:

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ECWM Seminar 2019 in Ostend: "A dignified life for EVERYONE in the digital age!"

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Final statement of the Seminar "Digital work: between the desire for self-determination and the need for statutory provisions and labour law regulations ", held from 17^th to 19^th October, 2019 in Ostend (Belgium)

 

A dignified life for EVERYONE in the digital age!

The European Christian Workers Movement (EBCA/ECWM/MTCE) held a seminar entitled "Digital work: between the desire for self-determination and the need for statutory provisions and labour law regulations” from 17-19 October 2019 in Ostend, Belgium. 37 representatives of member organisations from more than 11 European countries participated in the seminar, and all contributed their experience and perspectives.

Conclusions of dialogues

Digitalisation is in full swing, advancing at an accelerated pace and changing our lives in both the private and working environments. It is a phenomenon that affects our whole society and, obviously, has a great attraction, which feeds its development and importance. However, this phenomenon - like many others - can be described as ambivalent and we understand that it is our task to contribute to the configuration of this process by understanding its principles, reflecting its effects on the basis of our horizon of values and considering how and what we can contribute to its configuration as actors. It is also important that we examine the use of digital media with self-criticism.

It is striking that there is a gap in society with regard to digitalisation. On the other hand, there are also a large number of people who, until now, have had little or no access to the new media and who, because of the great importance of digitalisation in the public and work spheres, run the risk of losing contact with society. This problem is worsened by the fact that digital development is very fast and is progressing in all directions at such speed that until now political leaders have regulated barely the process, which aggravates especially the situation of those who are discarded in this process.

In this context, a social message about the future design of a digital world of work is needed, and which we want to start with our calls to the church and society. They arise, among other things, in the following topics:

- Lifelong learning

- Ensuring employment in the transformation process

- Working time and private time with blurred limits

- Ecological issue - e.g. exploited countries supplying raw materials and energy in a global context

- Substitution of economic growth as the main development criterion by values such as solidarity, the common good, etc.

- Fiscal justice and distribution of wealth (prevention of tax evasion, tax harmonization, awareness of the positive dimension of taxation, etc.).

- Development of social security systems (basic income...)

- Work-free Sunday

- Valuation of other forms of work (care, services to society...)

In the political sphere, a dignified life of all people is our criterion in the case of digitalisation. In Laudato si, no. 128, Pope Francis says: "The broader objective should always be to allow them (human beings) a dignified life through work." To achieve this goal, we talk inside our movements and externally, we bring our specific vision in dialogue with representatives of the Church (COMECE, Caritas, Justice and Peace, local Episcopal Conferences, IYCW, ICYCW...), civil society (Trade Unions, NGO´s...) and politics at all levels. An exemplary action is Decent Work Day, which is celebrated on 7^th October each year.

 

Ostend, 19^th October, 2019