Objectives
- Promote dialogue between academia, the public and private sectors to design strategies for coordinated action on faith and innovation, in line with the COP30 agenda.
- To promote inter-university cooperation networks around sustainability and climate change.
- Promote commitments by Ibero-American universities in the just transition through sustainable integral development models capable of addressing the ecological and socio-environmental crisis.
- Articulate strategic recommendations for COP30 from the academic community.
- Reflect on the impact of the encyclical Laudato Si' on higher education, research, and public policy.
Relevance
Universities are a privileged agent in the chaos generated by the "change of era" of which Francis speaks in the 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. As autarchic entities organized in continental networks, universities can implement processes of continuing education and formation through "coordinated international action," according to the 2023 Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum. According to Francis, "It is not useful to talk about problems, to polemicize, to scandalize ourselves, everyone knows how to do this. It is up to us to organize hope, to translate it into concrete options and gestures of attention, justice, solidarity and care for our common home." (Message at the Fifth World Day of the Poor, Rome, November 14, 2021).
Aware of the urgent need to move towards an "ethical regulation", in line with the Rome Call – a document of the Holy See signed in agreement by more than 200 university rectors before the Holy Father – the RUC promotes in this meeting "social dialogue" as "the best policy" as Francis tells us in the Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti: "so that no one is left behind", as expressed in the UN's 2030 Agenda; "so that our peoples may have a good and abundant life," as the Latin American bishops express it in the Aparecida Document; and for "the future of work," as the ILO proclaims.
Taking care of the Common Home, in accordance with Pope Francis' Message for the World Day of Peace 2025, also implies thinking together, in a synodal and creative way, how to face the public debt:
“Ecological debt and foreign debt are two sides of the same coin of this logic of exploitation that culminates in the debt crisis. As we look ahead to this Jubilee Year, I invite the international community to take action to remission the foreign debt, recognizing the existence of an ecological debt between the North and the South of the world. It is a call for solidarity, but above all for justice.”
Pope Francis, Message for the World Day of Peace 2025
Photo: Weiler Filho
In this message, Francis suggests "three actions to overcome the debt crisis": 1) "the development of a new financial architecture, which will lead to the creation of a global financial document, based on solidarity and harmony among peoples"; 2) "to promote respect for the dignity of human life"; 3) "the constitution of a global fund that definitively eliminates hunger and facilitates educational activities in the poorest countries also aimed at promoting sustainable development, countering climate change". He concludes by saying: "Those who will undertake, through the gestures suggested, the path of hope, will be able to see the long-awaited goal of peace ever closer."
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