“Raising Hope for Climate Justice”
From October 1–3, 2025, Castel Gandolfo (Italy) will host the international conference “Raising Hope for Climate Justice”, a historic gathering to mark the tenth anniversary of the Laudato Si’ encyclical and to foster a global response to the climate and ecological crisis from the perspectives of faith, politics, and civil society.
The event will feature His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, alongside prominent leaders such as Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with bishops, international agency officials, indigenous leaders, climate and biodiversity experts, and civil society representatives.
Over three days, the conference will include keynotes, panel discussions, spiritual moments, and cultural events that highlight both the progress made since Laudato Si’ and the urgent steps needed ahead of COP30 in Brazil.
“In a time marked by global challenges and deep wounds, our commitment for unity and peace cannot exclude a pursuit of climate justice that places human dignity and care for creation at its core.” This is the declaration of Margaret Karram, the President of the Focolare Movement, who is one of the event’s partners. She continues, “As Focolare Movement, we want to collaborate with everyone, in protecting and safeguarding our common home, and with a new responsibility we want to live closeness to the poor and solidarity among the generations for a sustainable future.”
The event will be held in person at Castel Gandolfo and streamed live, enabling thousands of people and media outlets worldwide to follow the main messages and join the global conversation.
Stefania Tanesini
Ecuador: an intercultural experience in Latin America
Operation Unity Washington D.C.
“The Best Spirituals”, new album by Gen Rosso
Gen Rosso, one of the Focolare Movement’s international bands, has announced the release of a new album entitled “The Best Spirituals”. This collection marks a significant moment in their career, bringing together live versions of some of the most famous songs from the band’s spiritual repertoire, recorded during tours from 2020-2025. The album stands out both for the selection of songs and for the new arrangements and reinterpretations which give a contemporary voice to timeless melodies.
Each track has been carefully reinterpreted to engage today’s listeners while preserving the heart of the “Spirituals” tradition. The live recordings capture the energy of the stage, the emotion of the moment and the deep connection between the artists and the audience, inviting listeners into an experience of hope and closeness.
“Seeing these songs continue to live and generate life even today is something wonderful and very important, a legacy that must be valued and preserved over time,” says Band. This desire to keep the tradition alive is reflected in Gen Rosso’s concerts, where audiences are encouraged to sing along and participate, transforming each performance into a shared celebration of joy. “The Best Spirituals” is not just an album; it is an invitation to rediscover time and time again, the beauty and relevance of these powerful messages. With rich harmonies, vibrant arrangements, and renewed rhythms, Gen Rosso continues to further its passion for music, paying tribute to a musical and cultural heritage that transcends time and generations.
The release of this album is an unmissable opportunity for fans of Gen Rosso music and for anyone who believes in the power of art as a force for unity and change.
Gen Rosso invites everyone to join them on this particular musical journey, rediscovering together the timeless value of the “Spirituals” and letting themselves be carried away by the emotions that only music and history together will be able to evoke. The album is available from 11 August on all digital platforms.
Lorenzo Russo
Photo: Gen Rosso at the Youth Jubilee in Tor Vergata (Rome) on August 2, 2025 (© Gen Rosso)
Brotherhood
Come exiled brother, let us embrace. Wherever you are, whatever your name, whatever you do, you are my brother. What does it matter to me if nature and social conventions try to separate you from me, with names, conditions, restrictions or laws?
The heart cannot be restrained, the will knows no limits and by making an effort to love we can overcome all these divisions and reunite as a family.
Don’t you recognise me? Nature placed you elsewhere, made you different, within other borders, you may be German, Romanian, Chinese, Indian… You may be yellow, olive-skinned, black, bronze, copper-toned… but what does it matter?
What does it matter that you are from a different country? When this small, still-glowing globe consolidated, no one could have imagined that for such accidental outgrowths, people would kill each other for ages.
And even today, in the face of our political systems, do you think that nature ever asks our permission to express itself through volcanoes, earthquakes or floods? And do you think it cares about our disparities, appearances or hierarchies?
Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. Under all the trappings, under the all the social classifications, no matter how codified, you are a soul that God created as a sister to mine, to that of every other person (there is only one Father) and you are like every other person who suffers and perhaps you cause suffering, who needs more than he possesses, who falters, who gets tired, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, like me, like everyone else.
“Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. (…)
In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace. “
You are a poor pilgrim following a mirage. You believe yourself to be the centre of the universe and yet you are nothing more than an atom of this humanity that from millennia to millennia struggles more through sorrow than through joys.
You are a speck, brother, so let’s join forces instead of fighting. Do not be proud, do not isolate yourself, do not accentuate the marks of differentiation devised by man.
Didn’t you cry when you were born, as I did? Will you not groan when you die, as I will? Whatever its earthly shell, the soul will return to be naked, equal. So come. From beyond all seas, climates, all laws, from beyond every social, political or intellectual compartment, from beyond all boundaries (man knows only how to circumscribe, divide and isolate) come, brother.
In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace.
Igino Giordani
in: Rivolta cattolica, Città Nuova, 1997 (ed. Piero Gobetti, Torino, 1925)
Compiled by Elena Merli
Photo: © CM – CSC Audiovisivi