Spain

Madrid meeting: trust under debate

Maria José Atienza-November 17, 2020-Reading time: 2 minutes

Encuentro Madrid will reopen its doors on November 19th in a virtual way. Three days to rethink about trust from different perspectives and fields.

Although the pandemic has eliminated from the program the meetings and gatherings characteristic elements of the Madrid MeetingThis year, its leaders decided to go ahead with this cultural, popular and Catholic initiative, which this year focuses on trust, one of the great values in crisis in our society and which, at the same time, is irreplaceably necessary for the development of any area of life. 

"This situation we live in has given rise to two paradoxical realities: a greater distrust of citizens with respect to the political class and, at the same time, the need to trust those around us, our family, our doctor or whoever sells us food."states Rafael Gerez, President of Encuentro Madridwhich this year will be held virtually from November 19 to 22. 

Who can we trust? This is the motto of the Madrid 2020 Meeting, a theme decided before the pandemic "since we saw that, at least in Spanish society, it is an issue that is clearly in crisis, especially with respect to the socio-political sphere.

And yet, without trust, we cannot live. It is a logical statement, trust is the basis of a healthy social construction. Beyond ideologies or positions, all the guests invited to the presentations, lectures, round tables or even shows that make up this year's lineup of Encuentro Madrid, agree on the importance of trust in work or personal relationships. 

Despite the impossibility of holding an open and popular meeting, as the Madrid Meetings have always been, there are many fields in which the theme of trust will have a space for reflection, debate and exhibition: culture, economy, work, politics or pandemics. 

A meeting with Catholic roots

Encuentro Madrid is not a typical academic congress, like other initiatives of Church groups. This project was born from people linked to Communion and Liberation who shared a concern implicit in the DNA of Communion and Liberation: the cultural dimension of the life of faith. 

Encuentro Madrid, as its name suggests, was born with the vocation of being a point of union between different people, with different life experiences and orientations. As Rafael Gerez points out "Culture lived in faith has meaning to the extent that it generates possibilities for encounters between concrete people". 

This year's speakers at Encuentro Madrid include people as diverse as the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, the Regional Minister of Economy, Employment and Competitiveness of the Community of Madrid, Manuel Giménez, the priest Ignacio Carbajosa, author of the book: Testigo de excepción. Diario de un cura en un hospital del COVID or Remedios Orrantia, director of human resources and real estate of Vodafone. 

All the programmed events can be followed online through the Meeting's website 

Read more
La Brújula Newsletter Leave us your email and receive every week the latest news curated with a catholic point of view.