Matteo Zuppi at the Sant'Egidio meeting: "Let us be inspired by the Constitution to defend the environment"

The Italian Constitution is a modern model of the culture of "us": nations should be inspired by their constituent fathers to repudiate the exploitation of the environment and promote peace and justice". This was stated by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna, speaking at the forum "Caring for the Common Home" during the inter-religious prayer meeting for peace "People as Brothers, Future Earth". "The Constituent Charter," Zuppi explained, "is the fruit of the painful awareness of the generation that came out of the Second World War and was committed to rebuilding a common home. The text repudiates war, which for a while seemed to be a way forward, and indicates a way to limit parts of national sovereignty in favour of international organisations in order to achieve an order that promotes peace and justice: it could be a model for all the states of the world to elaborate a grammar of 'us' and concrete ways for the ecological transition".