Expert Consultation in Vatican demands dignified work

In an interview with Vatican News, Monsignor Robert Vitillo, Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), discusses how international experts participating in the Consultation in the Vatican, jointly sponsored by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will support rights and dignified conditions for workers, and will be an opportunity for effective social change.

May 08, 2024

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

The International Labour Organization has established a Global Social Justice Coalition "to promote achievement of Social Development Goals by 2030." For the past six years, the International Catholic Migration Commission has helped to convene a project called “The Future of Work: Labour After Laudato Si’” with very similar aims. Many of the Catholic organizations participating in the project, along with other faith-based and community-based organizations, have similar aims, and have joined this coalition.

In an interview with Vatican News, Monsignor Robert Vitillo, Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), made this observation, as he shed light on the imminent Consultation on Promoting “Care is work, work is care” toward Building a Global Transformative Community and contributing to the global development agenda," taking place 8-10 May in the Vatican.

The international expert participants gathering in Rome for the event jointly organized by the ICMC and the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will be meeting Pope Francis on Wednesday morning before diving into their deliberations..

In this interview, Monsignor Vitillo discussed the need for this encounter, the work taking place, what he hopes the consultation achieves, and the significance of Pope Francis supporting their work and commitments to these critical issues.

Monsignor Vitillo, happening this week in the Vatican is the 'Consultation on Promoting 'Care is work, work is care' toward Building a Global Transformative Community and contributing to the global development agenda." What does this entail?

Well, this Consultation is part of a project that the International Catholic Migration Commission has been organizing, together with about 30 different international Catholic organizations for the past six years, and that project's name is "The Future of Work Labor after Laudato si." This project has involved a series of research initiatives, sharing of good practices,  and publications that have been done by a number of the project's different member organizations. When concluding  the first phase of the project, we prepared a report on it, saw the overlying theme that emerged throughout much of the research done, and in the reflections and the sharing of best practices, was the theme of "Care is work. Work is care." Also significant is that this also is a theme the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has mentioned several times, as he spoke of a caring community, both in his encyclical Laudato si and in his Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, about the care of Creation. Now we are launching a second phase of this project, and that is the reason for this Consultation, co-sponsored by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is taking place here in Rome. We have about 60 experts from organizations of the UN and also throughout Europe who are involved in organizing for social justice and assuring justice and decent work for all, along with international Catholic organizations that work with and organize employees. We are now undertaking this second phase of the project, and as we do so, wish to take a more synodal approach to the work we're doing, and thus, are doing a great deal of listening, similar to what the Holy Father did with the Synod participants and how the Synod participants dedicated their attention to one another. The participants in the Consultation also will include academics, labour union officials and members, and representatives of the International Labour Organization.

And what have you discovered, and what has it led you to work toward?

During this phase, we organized regional groups that were looking at the key themes regarding the future of work at a regional level, and saw again the transversal themes that are coming out are those of: decent work in the food supply chain; extractive industries and decent work; social justice, dignity and inequality; the protection of migrants, especially migrant workers and those who are vulnerable; and the just environmental transition in the context of economic crises and in the context of climate change. Therefore, during this meeting, these 60 experts and people involved in the field are here to reflect on this and to use a methodology of common social discernment similar to what's being done in the Synod of Bishops. In addition, they will develop out of this reflection together a roadmap on the future, on the work that we will do during the next few years. As this project of building a global transformative community around the theme of "Care is work, work is care, we keep recalling for ourselves as we engage in this discernment that the Holy Father talks about "Care is work, work is care," not simply about care work, where we're all very familiar with the fact that with the aging population throughout the world, and also especially at the end or continuing pandemic of Covid, we've needed a lot of care workers to help those who are still vulnerable, but for the Holy Father, "care is work, work is care" means that all work should be caring, no matter what kind of work is taking place, and that we should always be centering our concerns on the worker, especially those seeking just and fair wages and decent work conditions.

The Consultation's experts, as you mentioned, will delve into those five priority care and work issues, all of which are issues that Pope Francis himself has drawn great attention to in the past. What, from your point of view, is the value of the Pope's encouragement of all of your efforts in these key areas?

I think the value of this reflection and his encouragement is leading to action, and especially bringing greater social justice to the world. Always with this spirit, there is an interesting parallel effort being launched now by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which has been very involved with us in developing this project for the last six years. In that sense, the ILO is reaching out to other United Nations organizations, to governments and to civil society worldwide to build greater social justice. They're calling it a coalition for social justice. That will help us to be able to fulfill the achievement of the social development goals by 2030. Both the International Catholic Migration Commission, which has been coordinating this project on the future of work, many of them Catholic member organizations, have already subscribed to be part of the coalition for Social Justice of the International Labour Organization. So we want to build action for greater social justice in the world and to remember that without workers, it will be very hard to have an economy, and it will be very hard to build a just society in the world.

Monsignor, you have much experience at the International Catholic Migration Commission, which provides assistance and protection to vulnerable people on the move and advocates for sustainable solutions for refugees and migrants. As you speak about this roadmap, what issue do you see as being of particular importance during the days' discussions, and how can the Consultation's efforts make a difference?

Well, certainly, at my organization, ICMC, we are very concerned and work concretely and often with the world's  Episcopal Conferences and other Catholic-inspired organizations   to assure justice for migrant workers, both those migrant workers who cross borders and those migrant workers who are within a particular country. We are committed to helping ensure their work is valued, that it's regular, and that people are not vulnerable to human trafficking, to modern forms of slavery, and to exploitation in the labor field. We see that in so many countries, the nations, including the most affluent, depend on the migrant workforce to keep the economy going. We are greatly concerned about this. But the interesting thing in this project has been that as we've done this listening process for the last number of months on a regional basis, all five of the principal themes--the decent work in the food supply chain, decent work in extractive industries, social justice, protection of migrants and just environmental transition--have been transversal. And certainly, migrants have been key in each of those areas, and vice versa, with all of those. So we really see these elements as being very much connected, and we hope that the roadmap could move forward with more reflection, more sharing of practical, lived experiences and eventually more actions, in the future, to build a just, transformative community in the world at large.--Vatican News