Beginning with the firm conviction that everything is connected, Pope Francis invites us to discover a “new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet”, that is environmental, economic, social, cultural and religious.
Therefore, inspired by his vision of ecology that is integral, Pope Francis continues to formulate a meaning of development that is also integral: a development that does not exclude anyone and includes every aspect and dimension of the human person.
In this regard, Pope Francis invites us to also bear in mind the value of work, developed so wisely by Saint John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, in which he writes that “human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question”. When defining work as the essential key of the entire social issue, Saint John Paul II considered the organization and association amongst workers aimed at guaranteeing that dignity be truly attained in every work place as morally correct. He affirms that – in the face of profound transformations that occur in the work world – “there is a need for ever new movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers”. In the conditions of the world today, in fact, it is fundamental that there be new possibilities for encounter and reflection together with the institutions involved in the development of the common good of all humanity such as “unions”.
Based on the perspective outlined above, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development organized an International Conference of Workers’ Movements: Work and workers' movements at the centre of integral, sustainable and fraternal human development. Why does the world of work continue to be the key to development in the global world? The Conference was held in the New Synod Hall in the Vatican 23 and 24 November 2017.