It is my honour and privilege to be able to welcome you all to the 24th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. This Plenary is significant for a number of reasons. The first among them is the topic, Disability and the Human Condition: Changing the Social Determinants of Disabilities and Building a New Culture of Inclusion, but this is the first time in its history that the Academy has dedicated a Plenary to this topic.
Issues connected to disabilities have been addressed within other meetings. At one of them, Fabio Ferrucci, sitting opposite me, was invited to speak and, I have to say, he impressed the Academicians so much that they decided to vote him in as a member, so perhaps some of the other visiting speakers today may end up in that position. But still, this is the first time that a whole meeting has been dedicated to this topic.
I'm also delighted that the person who was the original source of this idea, Baroness Hollins, sitting over here, is able to be with us today and to open the proceedings with her speech. It was Sheila Hollins who planted the idea of this Plenary in my little mind when I met her at a reception at the British Embassy to the Holy See, when the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Holy See came to Rome to commemorate its founder, Sir David Amess, who had been tragically killed by an assailant when he was in his home constituency, receiving his constituents.
At that time I was on the Council of the Academy and the previous President, the indomitable Stefano Zamagni – those of you who know him know that's the right adjective to describe him – the indomitable Stefano Zamagni asked me to make a proposal for the topic of the 2024 Plenary, so what Sheila had said to me came back into my mind and the balls started rolling from there.
Following the good example that Pierpaolo Donati had set in the preparation of the last Plenary, the 23rd Plenary, where a webinar between Academicians themselves took place before the main Plenary, we also had a webinar last December to help our Academicians, many of whom were working on disability for the first time, to start developing their ideas.
The next person I should thank for making a crucial and essential contribution to the development of this Plenary, is the aforementioned Fabio Ferrucci. In a real way the structure, the content, the ideas of this Plenary are his brainchild and I, for sure, am in his debt for the amount of work and effort he has put into developing it.
Another reason why this Plenary is significant is that it has driven a set of reasonable adjustments of the very building in which we are sitting at the moment. This part of the building is about one hundred years old, but the part that we will be going down to later was built in the mid 1500s so the modifications of it are quite important and significant, they have both practical and symbolic value, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fabio again, who brought in some very well-qualified technical staff to help evaluate what could be done and then also Monsignor Dario Viganò, the Vice Chancellor, who oversaw the work, and the various skilled artisans and workers who actually produced these adjustments. Thanks to your precious work we have been able to make a concrete step forward in creating a culture of inclusion for persons with disabilities on a practical level.
Lastly, this Plenary takes place in the 30th year of the existence of this Academy, representing a milestone in its history. Later in the proceedings we should take some time to reflect on these first thirty years, since our future depends in no small degree on our past.
For me personally, this is the first Plenary at which I was due to participate as President and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the previous President, Stefano Zamagni, and the Chancellor, Cardinal Turkson, for all their help and support in the handover process, as well as the members of the PASS Council sitting by my side, who are a constant source of support and good ideas. Stefano is a very hard act to follow, as most of you will already know. Those of you who don't know him will learn why I say this when we have the brief ceremony later today to install him and Joseph Stiglitz, also sitting behind me, as Honorary Academicians.
I said a moment ago I was due to participate as President. This is because I'm sorry to have to tell you all, but I received news yesterday evening that my mother is dying and thus I have to go to London this evening to be with her in her last hours, and my family, so, once again, I thank the former President, Stefano Zamagni, who has very kindly agreed to take over from me when I need to leave to go to the airport later today, in the afternoon, and the dear Cardinal who has assured me of his prayers so many times since I told him yesterday evening about this, and to all of you who will stay here and make this Plenary really worthy of the 30th anniversary of the foundation of this Academy.
I ask the Academicians in particular, but I would be equally happy to ask all of you here, to take this opportunity to think about where we could take our Academy in the next thirty years, what work do we need to prioritize and how should we do it.
I hope to be able to join you on Zoom at least some of the time and especially for the session where we will look back over the first thirty years, and also for the Closed Session at the end for the Academicians so, in both moments, I'm looking forward to sharing with you my ideas about where I think we could go and to hearing your responses and counter proposals.
In conclusion, I would like to thank all of you, Academicians, external experts, accompanying persons, people who are following us online who weren't able to come in person, all of you who have come to participate in this Plenary, as well as to thank the Chancellor, Cardinal Turkson the Vice Chancellor, Monsignor Viganò, the seven staff members who work here, to all of you for your stalwart efforts on the practical and logistical levels to make this meeting possible, so thank you for your attention and now I hand over to the Cardinal.