Press Release

Popular Movements to commemorate ten years

since their first meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican

Representatives of Popular Movements will return to the Vatican to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their first global meeting in October 2014, which brought together organisations of humble, excluded and disenfranchised workers from five continents with Pope Francis. This landmark event united the voice of the Church and popular movements to the shared cry of the three T’s – techo, tierra y trabajo (housing, land, and work): “No family without housing, no peasant without land, no worker without rights, no person without the dignity that comes from work”. 

With the theme ‘Planting a flag in the face of dehumanisation’, the World Meeting of Popular Movements (known as EMMP) and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development of the Holy See will organise, on Friday 20 September, a symposium to dialogue and reflect on the journey from the first to the fourth meeting, as a way of addressing current challenges and concerns.

The event will feature speakers representing Popular Movements and the Church, including the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Michael Czerny, as well as leaders involved in the founding of the EMMP, such as Juan Grabois, Xaro Castelló, and Joao Pedro Stedile. Organisers also anticipate a message from Pope Francis.

In addition, a book will be presented that compiles the messages that Pope Francis has addressed to the Popular Movements along with other texts in which the 3T’s are highlighted. A commemorative video of this tenth anniversary will also be released. 

According to the organisers, this anniversary “is a good opportunity to reflect on the journey we have made during this time with companions from all over the world, planting the banner of social justice and peace in our common home”.  

The symposium will take place on Friday, 20 September at 10:00 a.m. (Rome time) and can be followed on the YouTube Channel of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Media contacts:

Abraham Canales – EMMP (Encuentro Mundial de Movimientos Populares) abrahamcanalesf@gmail.com  

Muriel Fleury – DPIHD (Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development) press@humandevelopment.va