“Let's not do alone what we can do together"
On the closing weekend of the Synod in Rome, we celebrated the Networking Time day. NETWORKS is the Network of Development Entities to which the NGO delwende belongs together with 54 other Entities, whose mission is the Cooperation for the Development of Church organizations; currently, this NETWORK is chaired by Silvia Sanchis, representing delwende, NGO created at the initiative of the Sisters of Consolation. The purpose of this Day was to deepen the synodal call that we live concretely in our field of global justice by the hand of excellent speakers and interventions that made it possible to grow in meaning, relevance and desire to continue growing together.
On Saturday, October 26, management representatives and governing bodies of NETWORK organizations met at the Menesian College in Madrid to promote Synodality for Social Transformation. Representing the Sisters of the Consolation were Inmaculada Agost and Beatriz de Diego.
In a very complex world and with enormous social challenges (inequality, ecology, violence, welcome, polarization...) we reaffirm that the essential thing is to keep the compass on God and the poor, above the gazes, reduced and in the short term, to the structure of our own organizations.
We started with a space of prayer and welcome followed by the intervention of Jose Luis Gutiérrez from the NETWORK Representation Group and a member of Karit Solidarios, who made a historical tour of the NETWORK framing the different milestones and Campaigns that have consolidated an IP that has allowed the ILP for the Regularization of Migrants to reach Parliament.
Next, Carmen Elisa Bandeo, head of Migrations at the UISG, insisted on leadership models. Synodality invites us to listen, and Carmen put an emphasis on who we listen to. The Vice President of CONFER, Lourdes Perramón, took up this thread from her experience with women in situations of prostitution, who ask to be heard without bringing them the recipe they need in advance. He invited us that each organization, when undertaking a project, should ask itself in principle if it can be promoted together with other entities, sharing complementary points of view: “Let's not do alone what we can do together”.José Luis Segovia, Vicar of Social Pastoral of the Diocese of Madrid, in his speech recalled that all organizations need a change of leadership culture, moving from the coordination of different egos, to facilitation towards an objective that is common to all our entities and charisms. And if we do not walk together, we will not be able to express to the world these two fundamental realities: God and the poor.
For his part, Javier Sánchez, director of Arcores and coordinator of the Political Advocacy team of REDES, invited to work in a network, because in networking the one who contributes the most receives the most; a work for justice that concretizes and completes the charism of the congregations.
Igor Irigoyen, a member of the NETWORKS representation group, insisted on this, noting how NETWORKS exceeds the particular capacity of any of the partner entities. NETWORKS is thus a privileged space in which its partner organizations live synodality in a concrete way.
The President of REDES, Sivlia Sanchis, invited that this experience be put in value in the congregations linked to the partner entities, not only in the people who participate directly in the activities of REDES. To be a network is to lay the groundwork, it is that so many realities and people who are therefore threatened stand up, and we build this together, also fighting together that no more investments are made in security and defense than in welcoming and guaranteeing rights. It's great to feel part of something bigger.
With all these voices as inspiration, we concluded the day distilling with Javier Palop, facilitator in the elaboration of the Strategic Plan of NETWORKS, the possible steps that NETWORK organizations can take to strengthen this path of synodality for social transformation.