A Day of Reflection starts the conversation
In September 2013, CEOs from some of the world's leading mining companies, global faith leaders as well as representatives from a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) congregated for a Day of Reflection in Rome.
The meeting was at the request of the mining industry as many inside the industry had realised that the Faith traditions play an extremely influential role — not only in shaping public opinion about the industry — but also in mobilising around it.
Following on this Day of Reflection, mining companies hosted visits from members of the Church and representatives from NGOs in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ghana and South Africa.
In 2017 the engagement was formalised in the creation of the Mining and Faith Reflections Initiative (MFRI) which supports faith traditions all over the world convene courageous dialogue with representatives of the mining sector to better understand how mining can serve the Common Good. In 2019, at the Day of Reflection in Rome, participants were addressed by Pope Francis in a private papal address.
Papal Address
In his Address to participants of the Vatican meeting on 'Mining and the Common Good' in 2019, Pope Francis looked at what the common good implied for mining.
In essence the message was:
- Mining should be at the service of the entire human community
- Mining should be at the service of the human person and not vice versa
- Mining should go beyond social responsibility and "lead to the integral human development of each and every person and of the entire community"
- The implementation of a circular economy needs to be encouraged
Since then the tradition of convening Courageous Dialogue has grown with annual events in London, South Africa, Peru and Brazil with ambition to build support for such dialogue in Chile, Argentina, Ghana and Zambia.
