Young People for the Common Home

Helping young people to become aware of the challenges highlighted by Pope Francis in the Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ and find ways to promote a culture for safeguarding Creation are the themes at the heart of the 3rd International Conference organised by the “John Paul II Youth Foundation” on the occasion of the 34th World Youth Day.

Delegates from the Episcopal Conferences, movements, communities and lay associations at world level will meet on the premises of the Saint Maria Antigua Catholic University for a period of reflection and exchange at the heart of which will be the intervention of Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, joint organizer of the conference.

The meeting, organised with the contribution of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, will see, among others, the participation of the Archbishop of Panama, the Rector of USMA and the Secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. The works will take place in a plenary session and in work groups, with interventions by experts in the field of environmental and youth pastoral care matters coming from five continents. Among the questions to be dealt with, participants will be discussing the relationship between climate change and poverty, access to drinking water and protection of biodiversity.

At the end of the conference, a final document will be approved and presented at a press conference on 21st January next.