Statement
Cardinal Turkson Welcome Letter
Cardinal Peter Turkson's Welcome Letter to the U.S. Regional World Meeting of Popular Movements, January 23, 2017
Cardinal Turkson welcomes grassroots leaders, organizers, clergy, and bishops to the US Regional World Meeting of Popular Movements in Modesto, a regional continuation of global WMPM gatherings.
The World Meeting of Popular Movements is Pope Francis’s initiative (meetings in Rome 2014, 2016 and Bolivia 2015) to connect people from the peripheries who seek dignified lives and basic rights.
The meeting focuses on Land, Work, and Housing, with the US organizing committee giving special attention to Migration and Racism. Attendees will build relationships, analyze social structures that produce an “economy of exclusion,” deepen solidarity between social justice movements and the Church, and support communities in organizing for systemic change.
The Holy Father encourages people facing economic and racial exclusion to be protagonists of change; the meeting aims to strengthen empathy, solidarity, and collaborative action.