The "Paestum Days for Volunteering" were held on the theme "From the South a New Solidarity to imagine and build new possible worlds". Many participants included members of the "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo" coordinated by Giuseppe Lumia and Emanuele Alecci. On this occasion, Secretary-General Michele Capasso gave a speech on the global context entitled "Earth and Peace".
In preparation for the COP29 international climate summit that will begin in Baku next Monday11 November, the "Global Summit of Religious Leaders for Climate", organised by the Caucasus Muslim Council (CMB) under the patronage of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, took place on 5 and 6 November in the capital of Azerbaijan. A delegation from the United States of the World and the Mediterranean Foundation participated in the proceedings, which were held as a continuation of the work started last year at COP28 in Abu Dhabi. The Baku Summit was co-organised by the Muslim Council of Elders, the COP29 Presidency, the Azerbaijan State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Over 300 government representatives, senior UN officials, leaders of international organisations, global religious leaders, scholars and environmental experts from around the world gathered under the theme "World Religions for a Green Planet".
The Press Conference for the presentation of "Dilexit nos - Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of JesusChrist" took place at the Holy See Press Office in Via della Conciliazione 54. Speakers included: H.E. Monsignor Bruno Forte, Theologian, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto (Italy); Sister Antonella Fraccaro, General Head of the Disciples of the Gospel.
A delegation of the "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo", exclusively as ‘observers’, attended the BRICS held in Moscow, Kazan, on the banks of the Volga. Secretary General Michele Capasso commented: "Instead of uniting in a single ‘whole’ - such as that of the United States of the World - they continue to create rifts by feeding rampant egoism when there is a gigantic ‘love gap’ in the world to be filled. Exploiting a certain anti-Western resentment fosters the paralysis of that global cooperation that is already in crisis: climate change, debt crisis, food security are just some of the topics that resonate with insistence in the meetings taking place around the world and are issues that also weigh heavily on the geopolitical dynamics of a world torn apart by conflicts and rivalries. The slowness with which the global financial system has reacted to the new challenges, the need for partnerships with the global South and a more bottom-up driven development, the objective of accelerating the fight against poverty in the face of growing inequalities: there is also this in the terms of the dialectic with the Brics that does not appear in any of the working tables".
A delegation from the "United States of the World" and the ‘Fondazione Mediterraneo’ participated in the event, which brought together delegates from 200 governments and around ten thousand representatives of various organisations in southwest Colombia. This year's COP16 takes place in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca (Colombia), between 21 October and 1 November 2024. The slogan ‘Peace with Nature’ is a call for reflection to improve the relationship we have with the environment, to rethink an economic model that does not prioritise extraction, overexploitation and pollution of nature. "This World Conference on Biodiversity - said Secretary General Michele Capasso - is one of the last opportunities to preserve the inestimable cultural heritage of the planet, and it is being held in a country and a city where the contradictions in terms of respect for Creation are most evident.Colombia is, in fact, an unparalleled treasure chest of biodiversity.According to the most up-to-date data, it is the second largest country in the world.The only one on the continent where practically all the natural environments of South America exist: the Andes and the Amazon, the Atlantic and the Pacific, the desert, the savannah and the great plains, the Caribbean islands and the long rivers". But Colombia is also, and by far, the most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders: 73 murders in 2023, 40 per cent of all those on the planet. They are those who fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, monocultures, deforestation. For the first time, South America is hosting a world intervention on the environment, in anticipation of next year's climate conference in Belém, Brazil, and this is taking place in a city that symbolises Colombian violence. For this very reason, in Colombia, ‘COP16’ is seen as a great opportunity. It raises hopes, of which both the Church and, more generally, civil society and popular movements are spokesmen. The Colombian Church has a massive presence at the conference. The programme includes conferences, forums, congresses, exhibitions and documentary screenings, organised in particular by the Archdiocese of Cali, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, the Episcopal Council of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) and the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (Repam). Also present in Cali is a representation of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Paolo Rudelli.