(Brussels) “125 years of social doctrine of the Church: a reference for social and ecological welfare”: this is the theme of an evening that will take place on 3rd May in Brussels to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the first social encyclical, the Rerum Novarum, at the initiative of the commission of the EU Bishops Conferences (Comece) and the European Christian Workers’ Movement (MMTC). The evening will be opened by the bishop of Piacenza-Bobbio and deputy president of Comece, mgr. Gianni Ambrosio; his speech will be followed by the speeches of two MEPs (Elmar Brok, German people’s Party, and Patrizia Toia, an Italian of the Socialist and Democrat group), called to tell their opinions about whether “the social writings of the Church provide helpful guidance to European politicians in facing the persisting economic crisis” and how important they are for their work, the organisers explain. The Austrian theologian Ingeborg Gabriel, deputy president of Justitia et Pax Europa, will give her reading of these 125 years of social doctrine of the Church, with a focus on current European news and the need for a new “social and ecological welfare”. A workshop will be held before the evening: the most important guest speaker will be Flaminia Giovanelli, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council Justitia et Pax, who will speak of the relations between poverty and ecology, and will make comparison between the Rerum Novarum and the Laudato Si’.