The 50th Social Week of Catholics in Italy will take place in Trieste from 3 to 7 July. The event is particularly important because it marks a sort of turning point in the tradition of the Social Weeks, giving ample space to the “Village of good practices”. In fact, among the aims of the Social Week is to involve and enhance the presence and commitment of good practices that exist on the national territory to encourage the participation of all citizens: good practices are initiatives that demonstrate ways of participation which strengthen social ties, enhance the role of people, make democracy alive and concrete. Our diocese will be present with three initiatives. In line with this, our first good practice refers to Renewable Energy Communities (Cer). Our diocese has promoted a project that sees Treviso at the forefront. In continuity with the commitments of the previous Social Weeks, in particular from Taranto, an active commitment arose from the good practice. Community members, in fact, can produce, accumulate and exchange renewable energy in order to obtain environmental, social and economic benefits.
The second good practice tries to express the theme of democracy as the victory of the culture of value over the culture of waste. The sign is an “Ape car” built by students of the Fonte training school, with discarded parts from other means of transport, including an Ape, a Yamaha motorbike and a quad. Pope Francis writes to the Laudato si’ communities: “Whoever has compassion enters into a hard daily struggle against discard and waste, the discard of others and the waste of things. It hurts to think about how many people are discarded without compassion: the elderly, children, workers, people with disabilities… But the waste of things is also scandalous.” Every school, but in particular professional schools, struggles daily to give value to people through the value of their abilities, often hidden under disesteem, fatigue in traditional study, or a difficult educational or family heritage. Taking up the challenge, believing that we can recover not just a thing, but a person, is the best way to make our training action credible.
The latest good practice lies in teaching young generations to respect the environment. This is an album (of stickers) of the ecological transition for children in the last years of primary school and the first years of middle school. Promoted by the Laudato si’ Community of Treviso, in the introduction the authors write: “It is necessary for boys and girls to understand how the many different fields work – from agriculture to energy, from the climate crisis to water resources, from oceans to insects – to then understand how all these sectors are interconnected”. Convinced “that each of us is called, at this moment more than ever, to “put some of himself into it”, first in understanding and immediately afterwards in behavior”. These experiences are – to quote the preparatory document – forms in which participation becomes a driving, powerful, energetic element that reinforces unity. By participating, exposing ourselves, listening to each other, we discover that we are brothers, more united and courageous, invigorated by that strength that allows us to open up, to find new paths, to undertake new projects. (Don Paolo Magoga, director of the diocesan office of social pastoral care and work, justice and peace, safeguarding of creation)
The delegation of our diocese
The diocese of Treviso will be present, as well as with bishop Michele Tomasi (who is part of the scientific committee and promoter of the event) and 5 delegates: Don Paolo Magoga (director of the social pastoral and work office) Luca Bertuola and Laura Agnoletto (of the PSL Commission), the young mayor of Mussolente, Ellena Bontorin, Doreta Corrà (representing the Migrantes office). References for the presentation of good practices will be the economist Sergio Criveller (Renewable Energy Communities), the director of the Fonte training school (“Ape car” project) and Lucio Carraro (sticker album project).
