The European Green Deal: the Diastery at the EU Parliament

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, represented by Fr. Augusto Zampini, participated in the forum "The European Green Deal", organized by the European Parliament on January 28, 2020 in the context of Art. 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The seminar brought together representatives of the various Churches, religious organizations and communities, associations and non-confessional groups, committed to safeguarding the planet as our "common home".

In his speech Fr. Zampini recalled how Pope Francis in Evengalii Gaudium (n. 183) said: "an authentic faith ... always implies a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this land in some way better than we found it". Faith, therefore, can help with the personal and social conversion that is urgently required; it can help to face the challenges facing a just transition towards a new society, in which "nobody is left behind" (UN Agenda 2030, 2015), where the common home is cultivated and cared for.

For this reason, Zampini underlined, "today an integral ecological approach is needed", it is no longer enough to speak only of an environmental or "green" pact. So: "protecting our common home is a question of how we would like to live on this planet and which planet we want to leave to the next generations, doing everything possible to avoid irreversible damage". Here religions can play a fundamental role. "Through spiritual traditions - was the conclusion - religions can help remind us, as Pope Francis does, that "injustice is not invincible" and that the interdependence of human beings in their search for development should include not only all human beings on earth, but also, as required by our faith, future generations, other creatures and even the rest of creation. If we want to redesign our society and the way we develop as human beings, then we must review the our mutual relationships and with nature".

The meeting was attended, among others, by David Maria Sassoli, President of the European Parliament; Mairead McGuinness, First Vice-President of the European Parliament and Head of Implementation of Article 17 TFEU of the European Parliament; Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission and Responsible for the "European Green Deal"; Magaritis Schinas, European Commissioner responsible for Article 17 TFEU.