Pope Francis praises Declaration on Human Fraternity, signed at Vatican event
June 12, 2023
The Declaration on Human Fraternity, drafted by 30 Nobel laureates and signed at the Vatican on June 10, “offers us a grammar of fraternity and is an effective guide for living it and witnessing to it every day in a concrete way,” Pope Francis wrote in his address to the World Meeting on Human Fraternity “Not Alone.”
“The heavens above invite us to walk together, to rediscover each other as brothers and sisters and to believe in fraternity as the foundation of our pilgrimage,” the Pontiff wrote. “Only a great spiritual and social covenant born from the heart and centered on fraternity can restore the sacredness and inviolability of human dignity as the core of relationships.”
“The future of the human family in a globalized world is along the path of fraternity and social friendship,” he added in a tweet.
The hospitalized Pope was unable to attend the event, organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation in collaboration with St. Peter’s Basilica, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and the Dicastery for Communication.
The World Meeting had two parts. In the morning, “five working groups—centered on Nobel Prize winners, the environment, schools, the fragile, and associations”—explored “the theme of fraternity and ... paths of communion,” Vatican News reported.
In the afternoon, a sparsely attended public event took place in St. Peter’s Square; it lasted nearly five hours (video). The event featured performances by several artists, including Andrea Bocelli, Al Bano, Roberto Bolle, Giovanni Caccamo, Simone Cristicchi, Carly Paoli, Piccolo Coro dell’Antoniano, Mr. Rain, Amii Stewart, and Paolo Vallesi.
Following an introduction by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, OFM Conv, chairman of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, Paoli led off the artists’ performances by singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Italian television personality Carlo Conti was the event’s emcee.
Midway through the event, Nobel laureates Nadia Murad and Muhammad Yunus read aloud the Declaration on Human Fraternity. Murad, a member of Iraq’s Yazidi people, was enslaved by ISIS for three months; she is an advocate against human trafficking and sexual violence. Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, founded a bank that provides small loans to the poor.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, then signed the Declaration on Human Fraternity, which is distinct from the Document on Human Fraternity, signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi in 2019. Cardinal Gambetti read aloud the papal address. Two hours later, the event concluded with a singer from Milan performing before an almost empty St. Peter’s Square.
The event was simulcast in city squares in Italy (Trappani), Congo (Brazzaville), the Central African Republic (Bangui), Ethiopia, Argentina (Buenos Aires), Israel (Jerusalem), Japan (Nagasaki), and Peru (Lima), Vatican News reported.
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