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Pope Francis lauds Giraud & Petrini book in just-released preface

The pope calls The Taste to Change: The Ecological Transition as the Path to Happiness (Il Gusto di Cambiare) a “gift” showing the way to “a plausible future for our society and our planet itself”

May 26, 2023– Pope Francis has written the preface to The Taste to Change: The Ecological Transition as the Path to Happiness (Il Gusto di Cambiare) by EJP’s Gaël Giraud and Carlo Petrini, who founded the Slow Food movement.

In his preface, the pope points out that the book is written as a dialogue between two experienced scholar-activists engaged in “an intense and constructive conversation” grounded in respect for their “different points of view and cultural origins.” He praises them for finding common ground in their attention to “the truly critical environmental situation in which we find ourselves,” and insists that “we cannot remain indifferent” to it.

Pope Francis also calls on readers to recognize the leadership of the world’s youth, who are advocating that  we “change our relationship with the Earth’s resources” and who are demonstrating how to do it, “starting from the everyday: making responsible choices about food, transport, consumption.” He observes that “Giraud and Petrini often refer to youth movements that, in different parts of the world, advance the demands of climate justice and social justice,” which “must be kept together, always.”

The book, Pope Francis says, is “a precious gift” that “shows us a road and a concrete possibility for following it at an individual, community, and institutional level.”

The book was released by the Vatican publishing house on May 17.  The preface can be read in its entirety on the Vatican News website.