Vatican
City, 9 September 2013 (VIS) – Today Cardinal Secretary of State
Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. sent a message on behalf of the Holy Father
to participants in the Day of Reflection on the world mining
industry, organised by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
The Day will be celebrated on 7 September and will be attended by
representatives of the world's most important mining companies,
including the Anglo American, China Minmetals Corporation, Rio Tinto
and Zamin Resources, as well as experts in the sector from within the
Catholic Church, Caritas and Oxfam America.
The
cardinal states that the meeting was of great importance, not only
due to the presence of numerous leaders of multinational companies,
but also because it is the first time that the directors of the
mining industry have met, “close to the Successor of Peter, to
reflect on the importance of their human and environmental
responsibilities”, and adds that “the extraction industries are
seen, not always without reason, as unjustly exploiting resources and
local populations, resorting even to slavery and the forced removal
of entire populations. … Mining, like many other industrial
activities, has ecological and social consequences which go well
beyond national borders and pass from one generation to the next”.
“The
participants in this meeting are aware that, so as not to repeat
grave errors of the past, decisions today cannot be taken solely from
geological perspectives or the possible economic benefits for
investors and for the states in which the companies are based. A new
and more profound decision-making process is indispensable and
inescapable, one which takes into consideration the complexity of the
problems involved, in a context of solidarity. Such a context
requires, first of all, that workers be assured of all their economic
and social rights, in full accordance with the norms and
recommendations of the International Labour Organisation. Likewise it
requires the assurance that extraction activities respect
international standards for the protection of the environment. The
great challenge of business leaders is to create a harmony of
interests, involving investors, managers, workers, their families,
the future of their children, the preservation of the environment on
both a regional and international scale, and a contribution to world
peace”.
Cardinal
Bertone concludes by commenting that the local Churches “will
surely wish to imitate your Pontifical Council's solicitude, and
place themselves at the service of miners, so as to help them develop
an ever more integral version of this question”.
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