Read most recent World Day of Peace Message from Rome:
Filed under: Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice, Spirituality
December 27, 2008 • 5:54 pm 0
Jan 1..World Day of Peace. How do you think peace and poverty are connected?
Each year, the Holy Father releases a statement on peace to celebrate the World Day of Peace. The connections between Poverty and Peace are the basis of this year’s statement for January 1, 2009. The US Catholic Bishops have set up a website with ideas regarding peace and poverty. Visit this website for links to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 World Day of Peace Statement and the US Bishops website to continue our work in poverty reduction and peace building.
What do you think are the connections between peace and poverty? What ideas do you have to build peace?
Filed under: Culture, Economic Policy, Official Statements, Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice, Spirituality
December 13, 2008 • 4:48 pm 0
Globalization: Justice, Poverty and Peace
GLOBALIZATION WORKS ONLY WHEN ALL CAN GROW, SAYS CARDINAL GEORGE GREETING WORLD DAY OF PEACE MESSAGE
WASHINGTON—Globalization works only when all can grow, said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop, December 12. “The moral dimension of world poverty must be addressed if we are to have world peace.”
Cardinal George made his comments in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 World Day of Peace message, released at the Vatican, Dec. 11. The message is titled “Fighting Poverty To Build Peace,” and highlights the dangers of massive inequality among peoples of the world.
World Day of Peace is January 1.
“In today’s globalized world, it is increasingly evident that peace can be built only if everyone is assured the possibility of reasonable growth: sooner or later, the distortions produced by unjust systems have to be paid for by everyone,” Pope Benedict said. “It is utterly foolish to build a luxury home in the midst of desert or decay. Globalization on its own is incapable of building peace, and in many cases, it actually creates divisions and conflicts. If anything it points to a need: to be oriented towards a goal of profound solidarity that seeks the good of each and all. In this sense, globalization should be seen as a good opportunity to achieve something important in the fight against poverty, and to place at the disposal of justice and peace resources which were scarcely conceivable previously.”
Pope Benedict listed several areas of concern and noted that “fighting poverty requires attentive consideration of the complex phenomenon of globalization.” He cited moral implications of poverty and campaigns to reduce birth rates “sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have; graver still, these methods often fail to respect even the right to life. The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings.”
He said that “since the end of the Second World War, the world’s population has grown by four billion, largely because of certain countries that have recently emerged on the international scene as new economic powers, and have experienced rapid development specifically because of the large number of their inhabitants. Moreover, among the most developed nations, those with higher birth-rates enjoy better opportunities for development. In other words, population is proving to be an asset, not a factor that contributes to poverty.”
The Holy Father cited concern for pandemic diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. “Efforts to rein in the consequences of these diseases on the population do not always achieve significant results,” he said. “It also happens that countries afflicted by some of these pandemics find themselves held hostage, when they try to address them, by those who make economic aid conditional upon the implementation of anti-life policies.”
“It is especially hard to combat AIDS, a major cause of poverty, unless the moral issues connected with the spread of the virus are also addressed,” he said also. First and foremost, educational campaigns are needed, aimed especially at the young, to promote a sexual ethic that fully corresponds to the dignity of the person; initiatives of this kind have already borne important fruits, causing a reduction in the spread of AIDS. Then, too, the necessary medicines and treatment must be made available to poorer peoples as well. This presupposes a determined effort to promote medical research and innovative forms of treatment, as well as flexible application, when required, of the international rules protecting intellectual property, so as to guarantee necessary basic healthcare to all people.”
Pope Benedict highlighted child poverty especially.
“When poverty strikes a family, the children prove to be the most vulnerable victims: almost half of those living in absolute poverty today are children,” he said. “To take the side of children when considering poverty means giving priority to those objectives which concern them most directly, such as caring for mothers, commitment to education, access to vaccines, medical care and drinking water, safeguarding the environment, and above all, commitment to defence of the family and the stability of relations within it. When the family is weakened, it is inevitably children who suffer. If the dignity of women and mothers is not protected, it is the children who are affected most.”
The pontiff stressed the “relationship between disarmament and development. ”
“The current level of world military expenditure gives cause for concern. As I have pointed out before, it can happen that ‘immense military expenditure, involving material and human resources and arms, is in fact diverted from development projects for peoples, especially the poorest who are most in need of aid.’”
“This state of affairs does nothing to promote, and indeed seriously impedes, attainment of the ambitious development targets of the international community,” he added. “What is more, an excessive increase in military expenditure risks accelerating the arms race, producing pockets of underdevelopment and desperation, so that it can paradoxically become a cause of instability, tension and conflict.”
The pope cited “the current food crisis, which places in jeopardy the fulfillment of basic needs.”
“This crisis is characterized not so much by a shortage of food, as by difficulty in gaining access to it and by different forms of speculation: in other words, by a structural lack of political and economic institutions capable of addressing needs and emergencies. Malnutrition can also cause grave mental and physical damage to the population, depriving many people of the energy necessary to escape from poverty unaided. This contributes to the widening gap of inequality, and can provoke violent reactions,” he said. “All the indicators of relative poverty in recent years point to an increased disparity between rich and poor. No doubt the principal reasons for this are, on the one hand, advances in technology, which mainly benefit the more affluent, and on the other hand, changes in the prices of industrial products, which rise much faster than those of agricultural products and raw materials in the possession of poorer countries. In this way, the majority of the population in the poorest countries suffers a double marginalization, through the adverse effects of lower incomes and higher prices.”
He stressed the need for global solidarity and the fight against poverty.
“One of the most important ways of building peace is through a form of globalization directed towards the interests of the whole human family,” he said, noting “there needs to be a strong sense ofglobal solidarity between rich and poor countries, as well as within individual countries, including affluent ones.”
He cited natural law as calling us to global solidarity.
“Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world’s poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights,” he said.
He spoke of international commerce and finance and voiced concern for processes “ dividing and marginalizing peoples, and creating dangerous situations that can erupt into wars and conflicts.”
“Since the Second World War, international trade in goods and services has grown extraordinarily fast, with a momentum unprecedented in history,” he said. “Much of this global trade has involved countries that were industrialized early, with the significant addition of many newly- emerging countries which have now entered onto the world stage. Yet there are other low-income countries which are still seriously marginalized in terms of trade. Their growth has been negatively influenced by the rapid decline, seen in recent decades, in the prices of commodities, which constitute practically the whole of their exports. In these countries, which are mostly in Africa, dependence on the exportation of commodities continues to constitute a potent risk factor. Here I should like to renew an appeal for all countries to be given equal opportunities of access to the world market, without exclusion or marginalization.”
The Holy Father voiced similar concern in the area of finance.
“Today this appears extremely fragile: it is experiencing the negative repercussions of a system of financial dealings – both national and global – based upon very short-term thinking, which aims at increasing the value of financial operations and concentrates on the technical management of various forms of risk,” he said. “The recent crisis demonstrates how financial activity can at times be completely turned in on itself, lacking any long-term consideration of the common good. This lowering of the objectives of global finance to the very short term reduces its capacity to function as a bridge between the present and the future, and as a stimulus to the creation of new opportunities for production and for work in the long term. Finance limited in this way to the short and very short term becomes dangerous for everyone, even for those who benefit when the markets perform well.”
Pope Benedict called for “an ethical approach to economics on the part of those active in the international market, an ethical approach to politics on the part of those in public office, and an ethical approach to participation capable of harnessing the contributions of civil society at local and international levels.”
He noted that globalization must include “giving priority to the needs of the world’s poor, and overcoming the scandal of the imbalance between the problems of poverty and the measures which have been adopted in order to address them. The imbalance lies both in the cultural and political order and in the spiritual and moral order. In fact we often consider only the superficial and instrumental causes of poverty without attending to those harboured within the human heart, like greed and narrow vision. The problems of development, aid and international cooperation are sometimes addressed without any real attention to the human element, but as merely technical questions – limited, that is, to establishing structures, setting up trade agreements, and allocating funding impersonally. What the fight against poverty really needs are men and women who live in a profoundly fraternal way and are able to accompany individuals, families and communities on journeys of authentic human development.”
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Filed under: consumerism, Economic Policy, Market Place, morals, Official Statements, Papal Teachings, Politics, Social Doctrine, Social Justice
December 11, 2008 • 4:30 pm 0
FIGHT POVERTY, BUILD PEACE: Pope Benedict XVI World Day of Peace
VATICAN CITY, 11 DEC 2008 (VIS) – This morning Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented Benedict XVI’s Message for the XLII World Day of Peace in the Press Office of the Holy See. The theme of this World Day of Peace, which will be celebrated 1 January 2009, is “Fighting Poverty to Build Peace“.
Benedict XVI’s Message, said Cardinal Martino, “returns to and develops the Message of John Paul II for the World Day of Peace 1993, which explained the reciprocal connections and conditions existing between poverty and peace”. This time the Holy Father “shows us how peace and the fight against poverty intersect: a given that constitutes one of the most stimulating assumptions, giving a proper cultural, social, and political focus to the complex themes tied to the achievement of peace in our day, which is characterized by the phenomenon of globalization”.
Regarding globalization, the Pope emphasized “the methodological meaning and the content with which to face the theme of the fight against poverty in a broad and concrete manner” and to “analyze in depth these aspects in order to identify the multiple faces of poverty today”.
“The Holy Father above all”, the cardinal continued, “is taking into consideration the role of the social sciences to measure the phenomenon of poverty … which provide quantitative data and, if poverty were merely a material problem, they would suffice to explain its characteristics. However, we know that that is not the case: there are non-material forms of poverty that are not the direct and automatic consequence of material deprivation”.
“In advanced wealthy societies, the phenomenon of affective, moral and spiritual poverty is wide-spread: many persons feel marginalized and live with various forms of malaise despite their economic prosperity. This is what is known as ‘moral underdevelopment'”.
“The Pope’s message”, concluded the cardinal, “establishes two parts in the theme of the fight against poverty … it ties in with the diverse aspects promoting peace. The first deals with the moral implications tied to poverty; in the second, the fight against poverty is tied to the need the need for a greater global solidarity”.
OP/PRESENTATION PEACE MESSAGE/MARTINO VIS 081211 (360)
Filed under: Official Statements, Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice
December 3, 2008 • 4:26 pm 0
HOLY SEE at INTERNATIONAL FINANCE and DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE: There is Money for Development
Holy See: There Is Money for Development
Urges Political Will to Make It Available
DOHA, Qatar, DEC. 1, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Developed countries’ pretext that aid for poor countries is “too cumbersome” is an excuse lacking in sincerity, as military and bailout spending proves, affirmed the Holy See.This affirmation was made today by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, at the U.N.-sponsored meeting on development under way in Qatar.
The archbishop acknowledged that the meeting is unfolding under the shadow of a worldwide, unprecedented economic crisis.
“At its root, the financial crisis is not a failure of human ingenuity, rather of moral conduct,” he contended. “Unbridled human ingenuity crafted the systems and means for providing highly leveraged and unsustainable credit limits, which allowed people and companies alike to pursue material excess at the expense of long-term sustainability. Unfortunately, we are now seeing the effects of such short-term greed and lack of prudence, and as a result those who recently were able to rise out of extreme poverty are now likely to fall back.”
The Holy See representative proposed that the Doha conference’s “great challenge” is ensuring sustainable financing for development.
“Global development is, at its heart, a question not only of technical logistics but more fundamentally of morality,” he said. “Social and economic development must be measured and implemented with the human person at the center of all decisions. The last six years have seen an increase in aid flows and encouraging developments in a number of indicators and statistics.
“However, questions remain: How many people don’t have access to food, how many live with fear of war and oppression, how many do not have access to even basic health care and how many lack decent employment to provide a living wage for themselves and their families? Unfortunately, the answer remains: too many.
“These are the questions and concerns which must be at the heart of our strategies in order to ensure that development is measured not only by capital gain but more importantly by lives sustained.”
International support
After recalling that each individual government must uphold principles to provide the means for personal and global development, the prelate affirmed that nations need the support of the international community.
He praised the fact that “we have seen renewed commitment towards the target of 0.7% Gross National Income in Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, we still remain far behind this goal and have recently seen a slight decline in ODA.”
“Too often,” Archbishop Migliore lamented, “developed countries state that development assistance is too cumbersome, yet such an explanation lacks sincerity, especially when we see the increase of military spending at levels many times greater than development assistance. Similarly, the recent financial crisis demonstrates that when political will is combined with concern for the common good we are able to generate, within months, substantial funds for financial markets which are far greater than the total amount of ODA expended since Monterrey. Surely, it goes without saying that the same political will and concern for the common good of the financial systems applies to the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Moreover, the archbishop continued, the international community needs to have greater respect for those nations who need financial assistance.
“The Bretton Woods institutions need to be refocused and the so called G-8 and G-20 countries must ensure that the voices of those who are in such need of development assistance are heard and respected,” he affirmed. “A purely top down approach to development will remain insufficient unless greater concern is given to those whose lives and countries are at stake.”
Archbishop Migliore concluded by acknowledging that the prevailing attitudes are “uncertainty and anxiety.” But he voiced a word of confidence: “[T]he virtues and principles which have lead the global community out of so many crises remain; that of solidarity with our global community, just and equitable sharing in resources and opportunity, prudent use of the environment, restraint from seeking short-term financial and social gain at the expense of sustainable development, and finally, the political courage which is necessary to build a world in which human life is placed at the center of all social and economic activities.”
“By embracing these fundamental principles,” the archbishop affirmed, “we will help to create a world in which social, economic and spiritual growth is accessible to all.”
— — —
Full text: http://www.zenit.org/article-24435?l=english
“Uncertainty and Anxiety Seem to Prevail at This Particular Point in Time”
DOHA, Qatar, DEC. 1, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Here is the address Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered today at the U.N.-sponsored meeting on development under way in Qatar.
* * *
Mr. President,
Six years ago, world leaders gathered in Monterrey, Mexico to begin a new process for addressing together the needs of the poorest amongst us. At that time, the world was reeling from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent economic decline, but despite these hurdles, it still came together to craft the Monterrey Consensus which created a new vision for a shared future.
Today, we meet in Doha, Qatar to assess the lessons learned and to create ways and means for realizing the vision of Monterrey. However, again we come with a cloud hanging over our heads: the anxiety over the economic and political consequences of an unprecedented financial crisis and the persistent devastating presence of terrorism, as evidenced by the tragic events in Mumbai, India.
This crisis presents an enormous challenge in finding ways to address the concerns of those most in need. At its root, the financial crisis is not a failure of human ingenuity, rather of moral conduct. Unbridled human ingenuity crafted the systems and means for providing highly leveraged and unsustainable credit limits which allowed people and companies alike to pursue material excess at the expense of long-term sustainability. Unfortunately, we are now seeing the effects of such short-term greed and lack of prudence, and as a result those who recently were able to rise out of extreme poverty are now likely to fall back.
We often speak of sustainable development as an overarching principle for developing countries. Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Likewise, sustainable financing should meet the present capital needs for development, while ensuring the long-term preservation and increase of resources. It is time for developed and developing countries alike to reaffirm the principle of sustainable financial development apply it to financial markets and thus create truly sustainable capital management. Such is the great challenge of this Conference: nothing less than ensure, in a sustainable way, the financing for development.
Global development is, at its heart, a question not only of technical logistics but more fundamentally of morality. Social and economic development must be measured and implemented with the human person at the center of all decisions. The last six years have seen an increase in aid flows and encouraging developments in a number of indicators and statistics. However, questions remain: how many people don’t have access to food, how many live with fear of war and oppression, how many do not have access to even basic healthcare and how many lack decent employment to provide a living wage for themselves and their families? Unfortunately, the answer remains: too many. These are the questions and concerns which must be at the heart of our strategies in order to ensure that development is measured not only by capital gain but more importantly by lives sustained.
Since Monterrey, we have again seen the importance for each and every country to uphold good governance in order to provide the means for personal as well as global development. Governmental leadership which provides for effective financial systems, just taxation, responsible spending and good stewardship of the environment, sets the foundation for countries upon which to build. Transparency, the rule of law and good governance guarantee the stability and financial certainty needed in order to provide job creation, tax revenues and long term growth. Further, good governance, respect for human rights and social stability assure the means for civil society actors, including faith-based organizations, to offer the life saving and life affirming services which are oftentimes beyond the capacities of national and local governments.
National governments need the cooperation of the international community in order to accelerate economic and human development. Since Monterey we have seen renewed commitment towards the target of 0.7% Gross National Income in Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, we still remain far behind this goal and have recently seen a slight decline in ODA. Too often developed countries state that development assistance is too cumbersome, yet such an explanation lacks sincerity, especially when we see the increase of military spending at levels many times greater than development assistance. Similarly, the recent financial crisis demonstrates that when political will is combined with concern for the common good we are able to generate, within months, substantial funds for financial markets which are far greater than the total amount of ODA expended since Monterrey. Surely, it goes without saying that the same political will and concern for the common good of the financial systems applies to the poorest and most vulnerable.
The international community must also give greater respect for the voices of those countries and individuals most in need of financial assistance. The Bretton Woods institutions need to be refocused and the so called G-8 and G-20 countries must ensure that the voices of those who are in such need of development assistance are heard and respected. A purely top down approach to development will remain insufficient unless greater concern is given to those whose lives and countries are at stake. The United Nations continues to serve as a vital forum for bringing all voices together in order to foster greater global solidarity.
Likewise, renewed attention must be given to ensuring more just and equitable trade systems. These days we have heard many calls for a greater commitment to implementing the Doha-Round trade talks. However, these talks will continue to languish unless countries express the necessary political fortitude to promote fair trade and make the inevitable required sacrifices. Further, trade distorting subsidies, financial speculation, increased energy prices and decreased investment in agriculture have recently given rise to lack of access to the very thing which is necessary for life namely – food. This economic volatility, which strikes at the heart of human existence, gives greater urgency to finding a common commitment to addressing global trade and development.
Mr. President,
Uncertainty and anxiety seem to prevail at this particular point in time. However, the virtues and principles which have lead the global community out of so many crises remain; that of solidarity with our global community, just and equitable sharing in resources and opportunity, prudent use of the environment, restraint from seeking short-term financial and social gain at the expense of sustainable development, and finally, the political courage which is necessary to build a world in which human life is placed at the center of all social and economic activities. By embracing these fundamental principles we will help to create a world in which social, economic and spiritual growth is accessible to all.
Thank you Mr. President.
Filed under: Economic Policy, Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine
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