At the beginning of June, Siân and Michael joined a group travelling to Rome for the Caritas Social Action Network Leadership Conference, and it’s fair to say we brought back a wealth of ideas and inspiration.

Under the conference theme Flourishing Together: Building Compassionate Communities, we gathered from across the Catholic social action network, with organisations such as other diocesan Caritas agencies, SVP, Nugent, CCLA, JRS and Million Minutes. We spent the week sharing what’s working, what’s hard and what still needs to change.

The conference was structured around four discussion workstreams, each looking into a different dimension of the challenges facing our communities:

  • Young People: Exploring everything from mental health and digital life to what it really means to give young people a seat at the table and genuine responsibility within our organisations.
  • Dignity of Work: Grounded in the Church’s document Rerum novarum, conversations were looking at the realities of in work poverty, economy contracts, the vulnerability of migrant workers and people who are poorly-paid and under-valued.
  • Flourishing Communities: Looking at topics such as cuts to local services, housing insecurity, asylum seekers moved to temporary accommodation and rising hate crime; but also resources on Catholic Social Teaching and building community for those most excluded.
  • Organisational Challenges: How Catholic charities can stay rooted in their mission when funding pressures are immense, fewer motivated staff and “mission drift” is a real risk. Addressing root causes, co-creating solutions and offering a hopeful direction.

Throughout the week we also had many presentations from various people covering the different aspects of our work and on topics such as: Francis, Leo and the mission synodal response to the ‘change of era’, Synodal leadership in times of challenge and change, and Analysing the new encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

  • Raymond Friel: CEO of Caritas Social Action Network
  • Dr Austen Ivereigh: UK Catholic Journalist; Author, commentator and biographer of Pope Francis
  • Fr Matthew Nunes: Co-Director of School for Synodality
  • Alessandra Piccirili and Michele Robibaro Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
  • Sr Helen Alford: President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
  • Sr Alessandra Smerilli: Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
  • Alistair Dutton: Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis
  • Maria Nyman: Secretary General of Caritas Europa
  • Rebecca Rathbone: Youth Officer for Caritas Internationalis
  • Silvia Sinibaldi: Vice-Director of Caritas Italy
  • Chris Trott CVO: Ambassador, Holy See at FCDO

The week ended with our resolute commitment to standing in solidarity, advocating for justice and giving a voice to those that are often unheard. The conference didn’t solve any explicit issue, but it deepened the network, sharpened our thinking and sent us home with more energy than we arrived with – and that in itself felt like flourishing.

Our Director offered a few lessons she would take home from the conference:

  • Take time to rest because sustainable leadership requires it.
  • Pause and listen as some of the most important insights emerge when we create space to hear others.
  • Continue to work intergenerationally as the wisdom, energy, example and perspective found across generations are gifts we need.
  • Remain rooted in hope for there are so many people living out their vocation and working for the common good alongside you.