The Economy of Francesco

young people, a pact, the future

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young people, a pact, the future

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September 22-24 2022, - Assisi

September 22-24 2022, Assisi

"The Economy of Francesco"

young people, a pact, the future

Breaking news:

published today the letter with which Pope Francis summons young economists and entrepreneurs to Assisi to propose a pact for a new economy. Economy of Communion participates in the organizing committee of the event together with the Diocese and the Municipality of Assisi and the Seraphic Institute.

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Spain: "We are committed to caring for the environment”

#EoF: the Stories - Reading Laudato has changed the plans of a young Spanish economist, Ismael Pérez Franco

by Maria Gaglione

published in Avvenire on 10/09/2020

"Born into a family of farmers and breeders, I have always felt a strong bond with the land, ever since my childhood. During my first year of economics, I started attending the Catholic University Youth, a youth association where I learned to combine my activity as a university student with being a young Catholic committed to building a better world. In 2017 we did a thorough reading of the encyclical Laudato si". Ismael tells us that that reading was decisive in his life: "My vision of reality has changed, I understood that my studies could not remain just 'a piece of paper' to find a job. And I wondered how studies in economics could serve the society in which I live today. Some pages of the Encyclical showed me a way and I returned to that 'first link': the land, the environment, ecology. After graduating and a master's degree, I had the opportunity and fortune to start a PhD in Environmental Economics in 2019, with a research project on the effects of climate change on livestock farming. When I registered for the Economy of Francesco, being able to choose to go deeper into the subject of Agriculture and Justice together with young people from all over the world involved in different ways in the care of our common home seemed to me an immense opportunity".

Why combine the word justice with an activity like agriculture? "We are part, not masters, of the interconnected network of life. Justice is the premise for building a society capable of guaranteeing a dignified and fair life for all and in harmony with other living beings. Studying and implementing sustainable agricultural, breeding and resource management practices that preserve biodiversity and provide for the livelihoods of all is fundamental. But it is not easy to achieve". And the young PhD student quotes Laudato si’: "Caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation. But the cost of the damage caused by such selfish lack of concern is much greater than the economic benefits to be obtained. Where certain species are destroyed or seriously harmed, the values involved are incalculable. We can be silent witnesses to terrible injustices if we think that we can obtain significant benefits by making the rest of humanity, present and future, pay the extremely high costs of environmental deterioration.”

Ismael, together with other colleagues of his, is co-responsible for the research area in the thematic group Agriculture and Justice. "Each time it is interesting and surprising to listen to different ideas and confront each other on issues that question us all, such as: social inclusion, the recovery of rural areas, gender equality, access to resources, mortality from hunger or malnutrition, decent work, the relationship between climate crisis and the productive capacity of the agricultural sector, sustainable agriculture and agricultural policies". Ismael looks to the future and thinks that the experience he is building with his young companions will also contribute to his doctoral studies. "I am sure that my thesis will have the faces, voices and ideas of all the young people I am meeting on this beautiful journey. A journey to make our home a better place".

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