Vatican City, 26 February 2015 (VIS) –
This morning in the Holy See Press Office the Foundation Centesimus
Annus presented its activity during the past two years, its
programmes and the names of the winners of the second edition of its
the biennial international award, “Economy and Society”. The
speakers in the conference were Domingo Sugranyes Bickel, president
of the Foundation, Michael Konrad, secretary of the jury, Msgr.
Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, a jury member and Alberto Quadrio Curzio,
president of the scientific committee of the foundation and deputy
president of the Italian Lincean Academy.
The Foundation Centesimus Annus Pro
Pontifice, the president explained, was created by St. John Paul II
in 1993, is managed by a council made up of nine laypeople and
reports to the president of the APSA (Administration of the Patrimony
of the Apostolic See), currently Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, under
the supervision of the Secretariat of State. Its main objective is to
promote the Social Doctrine of the Church and it therefore invites
the participation of businesspeople and professionals who acknowledge
the principles of this Doctrine and of the papal Magisterium, and who
wish to contribute to the creation of a new economic and social
culture. Sugranyes Bickel emphasised that in these last two years the
Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice has worked in line with the themes of
Pope Francis' 2013 address, in which he remarked that it was
essential to “restore to this word 'solidarity', viewed askance by
the world of economics – as if it were a bad word – the social
dignity that it deserves”.
Msgr. Scotti reiterated the importance
of following Pope Francis' example in challenging the “deviant
culture” that has reached the point of discarding people. “There
are many who believe that the economy should assume the role of
absolute producer of the aims and values to which every single aspect
of the human dimension should be subject, justifying this with the
fact that we live in a post-ideological, post-political age.
Certainly, this would be an interesting aspect to analyse. …
However, contemporary culture can also be analysed from the
perspective of the Word of God. Considering that this award is
assigned to authors who seek to contribute, through their studies,
reflections and publications to learning anew how to take a scholarly
view of the present and on the use of money, it seems appropriate to
me to recall the words of the Qoheleth: 'Whoever loves money never
has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his
income. This too is meaningless'”.
The names of the recipients of the
second edition of the award were then announced: Pierre de Lauzun,
for his work “Finance: un regard chrétien. De la banque mediéval
a la mondialisation financière”, a profound reflection on the
morality that motivates financial markets, viewed in the light of the
social doctrine of the Church, inviting consideration of an order
other than that purely linked to profit, and emphasising that there
is no form of financial operation that may be separated from social
realities and moral needs.
In the special section dedicated to
young researchers of the social doctrine of the Church, the winner
was Alexander Stummvoll, born in 1983, for his thesis “A Living
Tradition. The Holy See, Catholic Social Doctrine and Global Politics
1965-2000”, presented in 2012 at the European University Institute,
Florence, Italy. The study examines the Social Doctrine of the Church
in international relations, referring to four major international
issues that take a concrete event as a starting point. With reference
to the war in Vietnam, he analyses the Holy See's commitment to
peace; taking as a point of reference the Polish crisis before 1989
he studies the politics of the Holy See in relation to communism;
from the conferences in Cairo and Beijing in 1994 and 1995 he
examines the position of the Holy See regarding bioethical questions,
and finally in relation to the campaign against Third World debt on
the occasion of the 2000 Jubilee, he studies the Holy See's criticism
of unfettered capitalism.
The awards will be presented by
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich und Freising and
president of the Jury, during the next International Congress of the
Foundation, scheduled to take place from 25 to 27 May in the
Vatican's New Synod Hall and in the Palazzo della Cancelleria in
Rome, on the theme “Rethinking Key Features of Economic and Social
Life”.
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