The Luxembourg School of Religion and Society hosted the European Conference of the Centesimus Annus Pro-Pontefice Foundation on January 23. The 2026 Conference focused on the theme of “Peacebuilding in Europe: what role for Catholic social thought and universal values?”.
This year’s theme could not be more timely. Contemporary societies increasingly resist engaging with the contribution that religiously inspired universal values can make to the common good. Yet societies can only flourish and live in peace when they are grounded in shared truths that shape their norms and values.
The event was inaugurated by the keynote speeches of Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, and by a representative of Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
Sergio Arzeni, President of INSME, contributed to the Conference with an intervention during a session dedicated to the most pressing economic challenges facing contemporary societies, including persistent inequalities, job market inefficiencies, and worrying demographic trends. Arzeni invited participants to reflect on three concepts, namely anxiety, affordability, and fraternity. He observed that modern societies are increasingly burned by anxiety because of the rapid pace of technological change and its profound impacts on human life. According to the President of INSME, automation and Artificial Intelligence should not be deployed without careful consideration of their consequences for employment and the structure of the labor market. A second major economic challenge concerns the growing lack of affordable housing and essential services, a phenomenon that fuels a sense of uncertainty and that is closely linked to current demographic dynamics and prospects. Enhancing affordability, therefore, requires targeted interventions to address the structural shortcomings of the economic system. In his concluding remarks, Arzeni underlined that, in spite of the remarkable quality of the intellectual resources available today, our societies remain insufficiently sustainable. What is urgently needed for them to flourish, he argued, is the restoration of the principle of fraternity.
Source: INSME
