Professor Luigino Bruni (third from the right) and programme coordinator Josine Westerbeek-Huitink (first left) with the participants of the Young Professionals programme.
Friday May 13th is the Young Professionals program, organized by Socires and Stichting Thomas More, started. In this course, young workers talk to each other and influential social and business people about the Catholic Social Thought, and how they shape this in their personal and working lives.
The first meeting was kicked off with a lecture by Italian economist and writer Luigino Bruni (Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta, Rome). Professor Bruni spoke to the young people about the project The Economy of Francesco, which, based on the papal encyclicals Laudato Si hindered and Fratelli Tutti, is driving sustainable, social and inclusive economic reform. Then, under the direction of Dr. Edwin van der Zande (Titus Brandsma Institute), the participants spoke about what a good life means to them. Through missions they were challenged to concrete their ideas and to engage in dialogue.
In the course of the programme, the Young Professionals will talk to Dr Annemarie Hinten, director of the Radboud Honours Academy; Prof. Dr. Wim van de Donk, Rector Magnificus and Chairman of the Executive Board of Tilburg University; and Prof. Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende, external consultant at accountancy and consultancy firm Ernst & Young, professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands. They will talk about the role Catholic-Social thought has played in their careers and beyond. In the autumn, the programme will be concluded with a lecture by Bishop Gerard de Korte, Bishop of "Hertogenbosch." Then the new cycle will also start.
More information about the Young Professionals Program is available on the website of Stichting Thomas More: https://www.thomasmore.nl/net-graduates/young-professionals-program/