Stories from around the globe show how a united world is already in motion. This platform highlights experiences, initiatives, and projects from people and communities working for unity and peace. Explore what’s happening and get inspired.
<p>We are the "Youth for a United World", and looking at the global situation and what is happening around the world, we feel the need and urgency to step in and do something about it. Driven by the experiences of many, we would like to propose a project to make an impact in our communities, in our country, in the institutions, in the social media and loudly declare, together with the whole Work of Mary, involving as many people as possible, that: ”WE WANT PEACE AND UNITY AMONG PEOPLES”.</p> <p>Therefore, we propose to everyone to begin, as a first step, from <strong>11 September 2015</strong> to:</p>
<p><em>A new spirit of participation has been spreading among the population since April. Resignations and arrests at the highest levels of the Latin American country. The contribution of the Political Movement for Unity: #politics4unity</em></p> <p><strong></strong>In April, a huge fraud by officials of the Tax Administration Service in collusion with senior level political leaders was uncovered. The close collaboration between the Public Ministry and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) led to dozens of people being brought to trial for corruption, including the Vice President. It raised a wave of indignation among citizens, which continues to grow.</p>
<p><em>The aim is to create a world of 100% renewable energy by 2050. "Religions for Peace" calls on heads of nations to respond urgently to the threats of climate change. Give your support too!</em></p> <p><strong>Climatic change is one of the major moral challenges of our times</strong>. Several religious leaders unite in order to support a worldwide petition in favour of 100% of renewable energy by 2050.</p> <p><strong>Religions for Peace</strong> is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition-advances common action among the world’s religious communities for peace.
<p><em>While the Mediterranean tragedy of people escaping from war and hunger continues, in a mountain municipality in northern Italy, the hospitality offered to migrants turns into a revival of the community and the region.</em></p> <p><strong><strong>Five years ago, the town was classified as having one of the lowest socio-economic communities in the Piemonte region</strong>. </strong>But the entire community learned about hospitality towards others and today, 30 refugees, almost all Africans, besides a family from Kosovo with three children, have been living for eight months now, in a housing unit owned by the Cottolengo Institute.</p>
<p><em>After two days of intense talks North and South Korea have reached an agreement on ending their stand off which had pushed the peninsula into a state of heightened military tension.</em></p> <p>“The crisis began after landmine explosions wounded South Korean troops. Seoul responded by broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.</p> <p>In a statement South Korea’s Chief of National Security said : North Korea has expressed regret over a recent landmine incident on the South’s side of the Demilitarized Zone along the Military Demarcation Line that wounded South Korean soldiers. South Korea has agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts. And the North has agreed to end its ‘semi-state of war’.”</p>
<p><em>Carmen, a volunteer worker at the jailhouse in the eastern region of the Caribbean Island, recounts her meeting with the «poorest among the poor.» The power of the Word.</em></p> <p><strong>“</strong><strong>Since 1994</strong> <strong>I have worked in the Pastoral Jail of the Archdiocese of Santiago </strong>in Cuba which also includes the city of Guantanamo. Together with other volunteers we see to their needs and those of their relatives, because these people are <strong>really the poorest among the poor</strong>.</p>
<p><em>70 years ago, with the launch of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945), the world entered the nuclear age: for the first time in history, mankind acquired the ability to destroy itself (in the pic, the sky above Hiroshima after the explosion of the bomb).</em></p> <p>Though he try fiendishly and implacably, it is not given to man to destroy mankind. It was God Who brought the human race into being; it is His Providence, and not man’s passion for tearing down, that will bring mankind’s earthly sojourn to an end.</p> <p>But man can embark on a course of destruction; he can harness the forces of nature by the keenness of his God-given intelligence and the skill of his God-given hands, and he can unloose those forces not for the beneficent ends that God wills, but for the purpose of ruin, destruction and chaos.</p>
<p><em>The first anniversary of the ISIS invasion of the Nineveh Plains, the Catholic Church promotes a series of prayer vigils in Fheis. A moment of relief amidst tragedy.</em></p> <p><strong>On August 7, 2015, the Catholic Church in Jordan held a prayer vigil</strong> to commemorate last year’s tragic events that displaced more than 100,000 Christians.</p> <p><strong><strong></strong></strong>More than 2000 faithful, the majority Iraqi refugees, held a solemn prayer vigil steeped in pain, at the church square of Fuheis.
Economy & Work
Thirty-five years ago a dream was born: the Economy of Communion. In late May Argentina will host an extraordinary celebration where people of all ages will come together to breathe new life into this project and write the future for a different kind of economy.
Lorna Gold, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, reflects on ten years of the encyclical, analysing how integral ecology is an essential path to global unity and tackling the climate crisis.
Operation Mato Grosso is working on over 100 missions across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, all rooted in education, hard work, and solidarity. Jacopo Manara, who has been a volunteer for years, tells us their story.
An interview on communication with Michele Zanzucchi, journalist and writer, former director of Città Nuova, professor of communication at Sophia University Institute and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and author of around forty books.
EN
