Vatican City, 2014 (VIS) – This
morning the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the
plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace”: a
meeting that coincides with the fifth anniversary of the publication
of Benedict VI's encyclical “Caritas in veritate”. Pope Francis
described it as “a fundamental document for the evangelisation of
the social sphere, which offers valuable guidance for the presence of
Catholics in society, in the institutions, in the economy, in finance
and in politics”, which “has drawn attention to both the benefits
and the dangers of globalisation, when the latter is not guided
towards the good of the people. While globalisation has increased
aggregate wealth and that of a number of individual States, it has
also caused division between various social groups, creating
inequality and new forms of poverty in within those same countries
that are considered to be among the richest”.
The Pope remarked that one of the
aspects of the current economic system is the exploitation of
international imbalances in the costs of labour, which affects
millions of people who live on less than two dollars a day. This
imbalance not only fails to respect the dignity of those who provide
low cost labour, but also removes sources of work from those areas
where it is most protected. “This poses the problem of creating
mechanisms for protecting working rights, as well as the environment,
in the presence of an increasingly consumerist ideology, that does
not demonstrate responsibility with regard to cities and to creation.
Rising inequality and poverty put participatory and inclusive
democracy at risk; the latter always presupposes an economy and a
market that are fair and do not exclude. This therefore means that
the structural causes of inequality and poverty must be dealt with”.
Frances remarked that in his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii
gaudium” he indicated three basic instruments for the social
inclusion of the those most in need: education, access to healthcare,
and work for all.
“In other words”, he explained,
“the State of social rights must not be dismantled, and in
particular the right to work must be protected. This must not be
considered a variable, dependent upon financial and monetary markets.
It is a fundamental right for dignity, for the formation of a family,
for the realisation of the common good and for peace. Education and
work and access to welfare for all are key elements both for
development and for the just distribution of goods, for achieving
social justice and for belonging to society, and for participating
freely and responsibly in political life, understood as the
management of the “res publica”. Ideas that claim to increase
income at the cost of restricting the job market and creating further
exclusion are not coherent with an economy at the service of man and
the common good, or with an inclusive and participatory democracy”.
Further problems arise from the
“lasting imbalances between economic sectors, remuneration,
commercial banks and banks engaged in speculation, between
institutions and global problems: it is necessary to remain vigilant
about poverty and social justice. This requires, on the one hand,
radical reforms that provide for the redistribution of the wealth
produced, and the universalisation of free markets in the service of
families, and on the other, a redistribution of sovereignty, at both
national and supranational levels”.
Returning to the encyclical “Caritas
in veritate”, the Pope noted that this document emphasised the bond
between the environmental and human ecology, and affirmed the current
relevance of its principles. “A love full of truth is in fact the
foundation on which we must build the peace that is particularly
hoped for and necessary for the good of all today. It enables us to
overcome dangerous fanaticism, conflicts over the possession of
resources, migration of biblical dimensions, the lasting wounds of
hunger and poverty, human trafficking, social and economic injustice
and disparity, and imbalance in terms of access to collective goods”.
He concluded, “the Church is always on the move, in the search of
new ways to proclaim the Gospel, also in the social sphere”.
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