In France, a new dynamic for the “Day of Human Fraternity”

“We are at the beginning, but it’s a great project! The confidence is released by a manager of Scouts and Guides of France (SGDF), on the sidelines of the general assembly of the movement organized from Saturday May 13 to Sunday May 14, at the National Center of Activities of Jambville (Yvelines). It was on this occasion that the association communicated for the first time, in connection with the interconvictional movement Coexister, on the launch of a new “dynamic” in France to honor in the future the “World Day of Fraternity human”, the next edition of which is due to be held on February 4, 2024.

Established internationally after Pope Francis’ meeting in 2019 with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al Tayeb, in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), this new proposal is coordinated in France by Secours Catholique. “So far, this day has been followed, but sometimes a little timidly in France, by various networks and associative actors”, explains to La Croix Thomas Chanteau, in charge of animation for intercultural and interreligious within Secours Catholic, and coordinator of this initiative so far.

“New Ideas”

“While seizing an opportunity to highlight the already existing proposals, we wanted to think about new concrete ideas to honor fraternity on this day”, he continues. Thursday, March 9, various actors – representing a total of around twenty organizations or movements that are mainly Christian, but not only, the initiative hoping to brew beyond denominational borders – thus gathered by videoconference to initiate the first outlines of the project.

“Leads have already emerged, but it is still too early to talk about them; all of these lines of work will be clarified at the end of a new work meeting to be held on July 4”, specifies Thomas Chanteau. According to our sources, around forty associations – whose commitment remains to be confirmed in the coming weeks – are already ready to participate.

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