#BeHuman: Pope to participate in Round Table dedicated to children

By Michele Raviart

"Wars mainly affect children, those who die, those who lose everything and those who are forever scarred by memories. Let us hold them, embrace them and do something for them." With these words, the Fratelli Tutti Foundation presents the "Children: Generation Future" round table which will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, May 11, in the new Synod Hall, as part of #BeHuman, the second meeting on Human Fraternity. The event, which will be streamed on the Vatican News website starting at 4 p.m. CET, will also be attended by Pope Francis at 5 p.m., who will again reflect on the future of the new generations after yesterday's intervention at the “General States of Natality” event and in view of the upcoming First World Children's Day.

"A vocabulary of fraternity" 

In total, on Saturday afternoon, there will be eleven "tables" making up the second day of the #BeHuman event, in which eminent personalities from the scientific, academic, entrepreneurial, institutional, and sports worlds will discuss their respective topics from a perspective of fraternity inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Fratelli Tutti. Fifty influencers, including the Italian Mattia Stanga, along with experts such as Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, will try to find a “vocabulary of fraternity” during the table dedicated to social media that takes place in Rome’s “Palazzo della Cancelleria.” Their vocabulary will strive to build bridges of humanity in a world that struggles to love itself. The event can be followed starting at 4 p.m. CET  in Italian and English.

Round Tables

The Mayor of New York Leroy Adams, the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri, and about fifty young Italian mayors under 40, will focus on Public Administration at the Round Table “Urban Community.” It proposes fraternity as a compass for administrators in their political and social choices. (link in Italian and English). The CCO of the digital advertising agency Dentsu Gordon Bowen, Gilles Gressani from SciencesPo in Paris, and the director of the “Quotidiano Nazionale” newspaper, Agnese Pini, will be among the facilitators, at the Vatican’s “Palazzo della Canonica” at the Round Table on Information: “The Right to Transparency”. It aims to explore " how information can use the new tools - social media, web, video, reels - to ensure a quality collective service that is not superficial but rather educational." (link in Italian and English) Luca Pancalli, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee, and Luciano Spalletti, coach of the Italian National Football Team, will speak in the Hall of Honor at Coni, at the Round Table on Sport: “Competing in Mutual Esteem”. They will focus on “Falling down and getting up again, the value of relationships, teamwork, friendship and sense of belonging." (link in Italian and English). The other round tables will be on "Sustainability and Business: Being Good Pays Off"; "Fraternal Cooperation, Paths of Peace, Social Economy"; "Education: How to Reconstruct the World (links in Italian and English); "Health: Of and For Everyone" and "Labour: Dignity, Community, and Participation" (link in Italian and English).

Audience with Pope Francis 

In the morning of Saturday the participants were received by Pope Francis in the Vatican. Among them were the Nobel laureates who took part in the "Table for Peace," held on Friday at Rome’s Palazzo della Cancelleria. The event was opened by Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, who reiterated that war is "always a failure of all humanity and not just of the individual parties involved" and that "while reaffirming the inalienable right to self-defense," he said "God created men to live in peace and to preserve Creation, not to destroy it."

Among the Nobel laureates present were Rigoberta Menchù Tum from Guatemala, Dmitrij Muratov from Russia, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, all of whom were also received by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella.

The Second World Meeting on Human Fraternity concludes at 9:30 p.m. CET, in the portico of St. Peter's Basilica with a concert featuring composer Giovanni Allevi, singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni, and American country singer Garth Brooks.