“Economy of Francis” Foundation and spazio + spadoni meet Pope Francis
Spazio + spadoni has embraced the mission of the Foundation “The Economy of Francesco” since the international meeting in Assisi in 2022
A month after the meeting held with the Pope, we like to recall a speech by Msgr. Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino and president of The Economy of Francis Foundation, established Sept. 23, 2024.
“The task of EoF,” he said in the presence of the other two founders (the International Association for an Economy of Communion and the Seraphic Institute for the Deaf and the Blind in Assisi), ‘is to make people understand and spread a different economic thought that encompasses the values of proximity, circularity, subsidiarity, ethics, fraternity and equity’ because “it is now before everyone’s eyes that the care and active involvement of workers and the custody of the common home are elements from which not even entrepreneurs can disregard”.
The aims of the Foundation are, in fact, to promote and organize initiatives and activities in various fields (cultural and spiritual, scientific research, training, business and innovation); to foster awareness and responsibility for economic and entrepreneurial life; and to encourage cultural, academic, publishing and entrepreneurial experiences and paths.
It is a process that originates from the inputs of Pope Francis, when in 2019 he urged economists and entrepreneurs to think about a “new economy,” which Seraphic Institute President Francesca Di Maolo described as “capable of putting human dignity, the most fragile and the care of creation at the center”. And which in recent years has resulted in conferences, startups, publications, more than 50 research projects, 10 summer schools around the world, 12 thematic villages and 50 local hubs.
Without excluding anyone. This is the imperative that the Foundation “The Economy of Francis” will take on, which, as vice president Luigino Bruni explained, wants to be “a concrete help” to “support with our ‘dreams’ of adults the ‘visions’ of young people”.
In addition to a representation of the latter from thirty nationalities, a group of experts and supporters (the so-called “participation assembly”) and the Dicastery for the Service to Integral Human Development, represented by the Prefect, Card. Michael Czerny, S.I., and Secretary, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A.
Among them, the founder of spazio + spadoni, who embraced Eof’s mission from the international meeting held in Assisi in September 2022, could not be absent.
As Luigi Spadoni declares, “we are and have been the legs of many such projects and, being present in the peripheries of the world, we can help to concretize what their studies are and not let them remain academic”.
Even Pope Francis seems to agree, who, at the end of the meeting, upon seeing the Opera M booklet by spazio + spadoni, gave it a thumbs up and added, “I like this!”