MISSION | Christians4future

In humility before the Creator and mindful of the lamentation of our Mother Earth and her creatures, as disciples of Christ we answer the call to a profound inner conversion and act as a driving force in the commitment to spiritual, social and ecological transformation.

Mission from CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE

The mission of CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE is a clear mission for those people who wish to respond to the call of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. At the same time, it is the glue with which the C4F community forms a unity across national borders.

CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE is equally method, movement and lifestyle. As a consequence of the wake-up call by the encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato si', an agile framework was created in which everything that contributes to an ecosocial transformation of our society should and may develop.

Hierarchies and rigid structures are to be deliberately avoided in order to allow the potential of committed people to fully develop.

Like every initiative, CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE has a story to tell. The movement was launched against the backdrop of disastrous ecosocial developments. The span of these developments began with a mysterious forest dieback at a time when the so-called Club of Rome had long since (1972) warned of the consequences of human actions.

Le "forest dieback

From around 1980, German forests fell victim to the consequences of industrial pollution. In France, this natural phenomenon seemed distant, was ignored or dismissed as hysteria. And because it seemed to be a German problem, this natural phenomenon was called "Le Waldsterben" in France. Four years later, the French forests died, too.

This phenomenon showed the first recognizable characteristics of a modern environmental problem. What this experience was to teach long before CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE was: We should call wrong developments by their "right" names.

Photo: Forest die Bohemian Forest 1980

Photo: The unity among creatures

The creation of the creation

For the majority of society, the ecological, economic and political connections of these phenomena were difficult to comprehend. But what many people could already feel was that there can be no "right" when the glory of the divine creation is disenchanted in such a degrading way.

Today, five decades later, the causes and effects can be identified and named much better. Since the time of the forest dieback, the drama of an ecosocial decline has increased at a much higher speed than the consciousness of mankind could develop. What remains is a creation that has long since been exhausted and that will sooner or later no longer be able to provide an adequate basis for human life. Apart from often invoked technological achievements, a comprehensive and profound reversal of mankind seems to be the only way leading towards a future worth living.

Laudato si'

But until today there are only a few suitable approaches to initiate an internally driven reversal for transformation. Only an integral and holistic (and thus also spiritual) approach leads to the necessary deepening in the question of how humanity can be empowered for successful ecosocial transformation and be able to rise to a higher level of consciousness. Probably the most influential confirmation of this was the idea of CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE in the encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato si', which eventually became the cornerstone of the initiative C4F and whose call for the protection of creation, justice and peace this project wants to follow. CHRISTIANS FOR FUTURE made it its task to complement the Holy Father's call for conversion with a structure and method to be able to accompany people on the path of an ecosocial renewal.

Photo: Pope Francis with the initiator of C4F

Thomas Gamsjaeger-Allain (li), Rome 2021