This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the members of the Executive Council of Fondazione Cattolica (“Catholic Foundation”).

The following is the Pope’s greeting to those present:

Greeting of the Holy Father

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to meet you, first and foremost because this gives me the opportunity to express my gratitude to the Fondazione Cattolica and the Società Cattolica di Assicurazione (Catholic Insurance Society) for their constant commitment to fostering an active Catholic presence in Italian society.

Your visit also offers me the opportunity to emphasize how important it is, in our time, to study and appreciate the history of the Catholic movement in Italy, so as to draw inspiration from it and translate into the present day the insights and experiences of men and women who, in their lives, have united faith with a commitment to justice. Hundreds of cooperatives, rural banks and mutual aid societies were the concrete response to the call made by Pope Leo XIII in the Encyclical Rerum novarum to organize themselves economically as well, in order to address social issues.

Among these pioneers were also the founders of the Società Cattolica di Assicurazione (Catholic Insurance Society), a group of priests and laypeople who, in 1896 in Verona, established a cooperative society with broad popular participation, which subsequently developed alongside the country, helping communities to overcome the traumas of the two world wars.

Twenty years ago, in a very different context but building on those same foundations, the Fondazione Cattolica was established, recognizing the fundamental role of the third sector in supporting communities, individuals and families living in conditions of greater vulnerability and social marginalization. In this way, by fostering the initiatives of so many associations and social enterprises, foundations and religious bodies, you have made an important contribution to social cohesion and the protection of the most vulnerable.

I therefore encourage you to continue this commitment, including by working, as you already do, to promote the formation of young people through educational, cultural and participatory programmes. In this field, the most recent initiative is the Academy for the Third Sector, in collaboration with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, which you also wish to extend to LUMSA in Rome.

Finally, thank you for the support you have given over the years to the Festival of Social Doctrine, an initiative very dear to Pope Francis, to which the Festival of Social Poets has recently been added, in the same spirit.

Dear friends, whilst I commend you for your initiative, I urge you to always cultivate the spirit that animates it and the evangelical style, so that there may be consistency between the aims you set yourselves and the means and tools with which you pursue them. May the teaching of Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo always enlighten and inspire you, and may my blessing, which I impart wholeheartedly to you and your loved ones, also sustain you. Thank you!