Social justice leaders from Vatican, world to converge in Modesto – and here’s why

Modesto becomes a world stage in February when a Vatican co-sponsored conference gathers more than 600 people from across the world to discuss social justice issues.

The U.S. regional World Meeting of Popular Movements will be held Feb. 16-19 at Central Catholic High School, an interfaith gathering where grass-roots community representatives will meet along with papal and international social justice group leaders.

Pope Francis is exploring an off-site presence, including the possibility of teleconferencing into parts of the convening, which is co-sponsored by the Vatican’s department for Integral Human Development, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and PICO – the largest network of faith-based groups in the nation.

Among those from the Vatican planning to attend is Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the IHD. Turkson is among Francis’ senior leaders and president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

“This is a gathering which is being taken out to the regions and to the national levels,” Turkson said in a news release from PICO. “The gathering is about the dignity of all people, which we don’t receive from any government; it’s something we are born with. We encourage all grass-roots movements to join us in Modesto.”

The three Central Valley dioceses – Stockton, Sacramento and Fresno – are co-hosts, according to Sister Terry Davis, Diocese of Stockton director of communications. Catholic churches in the greater Modesto region are part of the Stockton Diocese.

The conference is closed to the public, but each diocese will be allowed to send delegates.

While there have been other such conferences – held in 2014 and 2016 in Rome and 2015 in Bolivia – the Modesto 2017 gathering marks the first in the United States, according to PICO, People Improving Communities through Organizing.

The conference aims to help grass-roots groups push for worker rights, housing and environmental justice, according to the PICO release. Sister Davis said the selection of Modesto is appropriate given Stockton Diocese Bishop Stephen Blaire’s experience working for and concern with social justice issues.

“Bishop Blaire has been very active in these kinds of issues and groups, really working to improve society for those who have so little,” Davis said. “Bishop Blaire is very committed; therefore, I think he became known” to those organizing the conference.

Ralph McCloud, director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development at USCCB, said in an email interview that the planned key themes of land, housing and work are particularly important in the Valley.

“Because these themes are so prominent in the Central Valley, the organizers … wanted to locate the event in Modesto,” McCloud said. “The Catholic Church in the U.S. stands in solidarity with grass-roots organizations working to transform what the pope has called the ‘economy of exclusion’ to promote human dignity, justice and peace.”

Other “resonant issues in the U.S context, racism and migration,” also will be on the agenda, McCloud said.

Along with bishops and other religious leaders, McCloud said grass-roots community attendees will include immigrant rights activists, young people involved in Black Lives Matter, indigenous leaders, low-wage workers, formerly incarcerated individuals, small family farmers and members of worker cooperatives.

Local diocesan delegates are still being worked out, Davis said.

McCloud said Francis is expected to have a presence in some form, whether “through written testimony or reporting or through video or teleconference.”

The pope has “made it a point to ‘accompany’ these grass-roots organizers on their journey: to learn from them, to encourage them and to lend his moral authority to their cause,” McCloud said. “He has called them ‘social poets’ for the way in which they reimagine and reorganize their world to promote greater justice and human dignity for those who have been shut out or discarded by an economy that, in the Pope’s words, excludes and kills.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Social justice leaders from Vatican, world to converge in Modesto – and here’s why."