CleF session with The Economy of Francesco

by Sr. Noura Khoury-Hanna | Soeurs Maronites de la Sainte Famille | Maison-Mère, Ebrine, Liban

Beirut 20.03.2024 – Once more, the Christian Leadership Formation (CLeF) and The Economy of Francesco (EOF) collaborated, while Professor Valentina Rotondi participated as the honored guest.

Following nearly three years of cooperation between both organizations, resulted in these tremendous accomplishments:

  • Perla Tannous (member of CLeF – Cohort 2022), participated in the Hogar session of the Economy of Francesco worldwide event in Assisi, Italy, in 2022.
  • Perla Tannous and Antoine Farah (member of CLeF – Cohort 2023) attended the EOF Summer School in June 2023.
  • CleF’s endeavor in 2023 to translate the EOF economy pact into Arabic, the official language of Lebanon.
  • The dissemination of the church’s social doctrine compendium’s chapter 7, “Economic life,” through the first “make it local” event hosted by CLeF, which featured a round table discussion on the “Ethics & Challenges of Economic Life” in 2022, at which three business professionals discussed their perspectives and experiences following their reading of the chapter 7. Furthermore, the audience at the round table heard His Holiness Pope Francis’ message live from Assisi.
  • The EoF’s inclusion in the CleF program starting 2023, where Perla Tannous and Matheus Machado were invited to speak during the session regarding their involvement in the EoF event.

Constantly, Professor Valentina Rotondi led another outstanding conversation as part of the Christian Leadership Formation sessions in 2024.
She provided a clear and concise explanation of the Economy of Francesco (EOF) and the actions required to move forward with an Economy of Peace rather than war. To emphasize the importance of the tangible actions that must be taken in this economy, Professor Rotondi read the Francesco Economy Pact, which was released last year. “We need to be incarnated where the economy is needed,” she continued.

This amazing session came to an end with a Q&A session with the EOF World attendees to further clarify and discuss the themes.

Noteworthy, CLeF is providing leadership training (formation) to equip Christian leaders with a strong Christian foundation who can be front-runners in the political, diplomatic, and economic spheres.
Young Christian professionals or academics (ages 21 to 35) working in the public sphere (politics, diplomacy, economy, press, social media, social movements, etc.) are the target audience.

Finally, to encourage aspirational young Christians and develop them into outstanding leaders of the future, CLeF reaffirms its ongoing efforts to promote the economics of peace across CLeF’s initiatives in Lebanon.