The 50th Social Week of Italian Catholics

The 50th Social Week of Catholics in Italy was held in Trieste from 3 to 7 July 2024, inaugurated on Wednesday with the surprise arrival of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who should have been hosted in Piazza Unità d’Italia, but who due to the uncertain weather he was welcomed at the conference center.

From Thursday to Saturday the Generali Convention Center Trieste hosted the delegates: from their arrival at 8.30 to the biblical reflection that opened the proceedings each day, to the plenary assemblies on the theme of this fiftieth edition: “At the heart of democracy”; the topics covered, in fact, ranged from responsibility to inclusion, to the promotion and defense of worthy work and from the reduction of inequalities to the protection of the environment. Precisely in the name of these principles, the over 900 delegates from the Italian parishes and the coordinators took part in the participation tables, specially set up in the spaces of the conference centre, where they also spent their lunch break at the tables specially set in the hall of Magazzino 28.

The culmination of the Week was July 7, the closing day of the event, when at 8.00 am, in the square in front of the conference center, the helicopter from the Vatican City landed, bringing Pope Francis to Trieste for the first time. Welcomed by the authorities, the Pontiff brought his greetings to the congress participants gathered in the General Auditorium and spoke about inclusion, peace and collaboration.

Subsequently, the Pontiff met three delegations – respectively from the religious communities of Trieste, representatives of the local academic world and a group of people with disabilities and migrants – in as many private rooms set up for the occasion in the hall of Magazzino 28 after the dismantling of dining tables.

Pope Francis left the conference center at 10am, this time aboard the popemobile, headed to Piazza Unità, where he celebrated the homily: the live broadcast from the square was broadcast in the Generali Auditorium and in the press room set up in Magazzino 27 for everyone those who could not reach the city center.

Click on the images below to view the photo gallery.