Co-operative Globalisation, calls for the restoration of humanity to the centre of our economies — The Rome Roundtable 15&16 June 2018 — The Global Foundation: “Together, we strive for the global common good” — Address of His Holiness Pope Francis — Keynote of His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin — Remarks of His Excellency, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher

Main points were:

1. Con­ver­gence between the Social Teach­ing of the Catholic Church and Chi­nese Con­fucean val­ues: Chi­na could ben­e­fit from Chris­t­ian ethics in today’s “moral desert”.

Like at the meet­ing at the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­e­my in March 2018, there was a clear intent of the Holy See, through the Pon­tif­i­cal Acad­e­my, to build trust in rela­tions between Chi­na and the Catholic Church:

- in March on organ transplants

- in June on com­mon val­ues between Chi­na and Christianity.

The first Ple­nary Ses­sion was enti­tled “Towards a 21st Cen­tu­ry Dia­logue of Civil­i­sa­tions: The New Silk Road” 

 

2. Co-oper­a­tive glob­al­i­sa­tioncould be based on the Social Teach­ing of the Catholic Church (work­ing towards the com­mon good, prin­ci­ples of sol­i­dar­i­ty and subsidiarity).

Car­di­nal Parolin was quite explic­it on this issue at the Keynote address he gave on Fri­day evening at the Head­quar­ters of the Bank of Italy.

Arch­bish­op Gal­lagher, at the Open­ing Ses­sion, asked for “a sus­tained com­mit­ment […] so as to pro­mote a per­son-based and com­mu­ni­ty-ori­ent­ed cul­tur­al process of world-wide inte­gra­tion that is open to tran­scen­dence” and “to steer the glob­al­i­sa­tion of human­i­ty in rela­tion­al terms, in terms of com­mu­nion and the shar­ing of goods” and asked for “struc­tures of sol­i­dar­i­ty”, stress­ing the “imper­a­tive” and “urgent” char­ac­ter of co-oper­a­tive globalisation.

 

3. Migra­tion is not tran­si­to­ry. It is a struc­tur­al phe­nom­e­non. Traf­fick­ing is the most inhu­mane exploita­tion of migrants and refugees..

 

4. Civ­il soci­ety, includ­ing reli­gious lead­ers and pri­vate busi­ness, should sup­port Gov­ern­ments to cope with the chal­lengesof glob­al­i­sa­tion, migra­tion, cli­mate change, in a respon­si­ble and eth­i­cal man­ner.  Pas­cal Lamy told me: “As Gov­ern­ments and diplo­mats are not able or not will­ing to deal with these vital chal­lenges, we must mobilise civ­il soci­ety to cope, to pres­sure Gov­ern­ments to take their respon­si­bil­i­ties, and, when­ev­er pos­si­ble, to do the work ourselves…”

The May­or of Assisi, Prof. Ing. Ste­fa­nia Proi­et­ti, offered to host meet­ings on var­i­ous issues.

 

Final­ly, we have to take into account the very impor­tant objec­tives set by the Vat­i­can for this Round­table and the eco­nom­ic and busi­ness issues in the world in gen­er­al. Vatican’s mes­sage to the Rome Round­table was trans­mit­ted through:

• the Address of His Holi­ness Pope Fran­cis to participants
• the Keynote Address of His Emi­nence Car­di­nal Pietro Parolin
• the Remarks of His Excel­len­cy, Arch­bish­op Paul Richard Gallagher

 

You will find the con­tent of these objec­tives in the extracts of each inter­ven­tion below.

 

Summary of the Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to participants (Extracts)

 

Before all else, I would restate my con­vic­tion that a world eco­nom­ic sys­tem that dis­cards men, women and chil­dren because they are no longer con­sid­ered use­ful or pro­duc­tive accord­ing to cri­te­ria drawn from the world of busi­ness or oth­er orga­ni­za­tions, is unac­cept­able, because it is inhu­mane. For they implic­it­ly accept the prin­ci­ple that they too, soon­er or lat­er, will be dis­card­ed, when they no longer prove use­ful to a soci­ety that has made mam­mon, the god of mon­ey, the cen­tre of its attention.

In 1991, Saint John Paul II, respond­ing to the fall of oppres­sive polit­i­cal sys­tems and the pro­gres­sive inte­gra­tion of mar­kets that we have come to call glob­al­iza­tion, warned of the risk that an ide­ol­o­gy of cap­i­tal­ism would become wide­spread. My Pre­de­ces­sor asked if such an eco­nom­ic sys­tem would be the mod­el to pro­pose to those seek­ing the road to gen­uine eco­nom­ic and social progress, and offered a clear­ly neg­a­tive response. Sad­ly, the dan­gers that trou­bled Saint John Paul II have large­ly come to pass.

We need to learn “com-pas­sion” for those suf­fer­ing from per­se­cu­tion, lone­li­ness, forced dis­place­ment or sep­a­ra­tion from their fam­i­lies. We need to learn to “suf­fer with” those who lack access to health care, or who endure hunger, cold or heat.

Hence the need to devise a long-term glob­al strat­e­gy able to pro­vide ener­gy secu­ri­ty and, by lay­ing down pre­cise com­mit­ments to meet the prob­lem of cli­mate change, to encour­age eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty, pub­lic health, the pro­tec­tion of the envi­ron­ment and inte­gral human devel­op­ment.  We know that the chal­lenges fac­ing us are inter­con­nect­ed. Yet we must acknowl­edge that the demand for con­tin­u­ous eco­nom­ic growth has led to severe eco­log­i­cal and social con­se­quences, since our cur­rent eco­nom­ic sys­tem thrives on ever-increas­ing extrac­tion, con­sump­tion and waste.

“The prob­lem is that we still lack the cul­ture need­ed to con­front this cri­sis.We lack lead­er­ship capa­ble of strik­ing out on new paths in meet­ing the needs of the present with con­cern for all and with­out prej­u­dice towards com­ing gen­er­a­tions” (Lauda­to Si’, 53).

Dear broth­ers and sis­ters, I appeal in a par­tic­u­lar way to you, as men and women so great­ly blessed in terms of tal­ent and experience.

 

Clemen­tine Hall Sat­ur­day, 9 June 2018

 

 

Summary of the Keynote Address of His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 15 June 2018 (Extracts)

 

The cur­rent glob­al polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion could well fill us with wor­ry and fear.

A theme that links sev­er­al of the points that I have been asked to address is that of migra­tion. Today there are two hun­dred and fifty-eight mil­lion migrants in vary­ing categories2, of which six­ty-five mil­lion are forced migrants. We know, how­ev­er, that it is not unusu­al for inter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments, assumed by States on the basis of shared human­i­tar­i­an con­cerns, to be dis­re­gard­ed and prin­ci­ples erod­ed.

In real­i­ty, these atti­tudes also reflect the decline of pub­lic con­fi­dence in the abil­i­ty of Gov­ern­ments ade­quate­ly to man­age the phe­nom­e­non of migra­tion whilst main­tain­ing the lev­els of devel­op­ment achieved.

It calls for action on the caus­es of migra­tion, which is, for the most part, the con­se­quence of human deci­sions, be they polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic incon­sis­ten­cies, injus­tices, ide­o­log­i­cal impo­si­tions and the search for prof­it at any cost. As such, these could be resolved with an effec­tive polit­i­cal will and a strong col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to sta­bil­i­ty and peace.

 

I would like briefly to con­sid­er the ques­tion of human trafficking. 

It is nec­es­sary to address the roots of inequal­i­ty: the lack of edu­ca­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion and pover­ty, which give rise to it; and also to give ade­quate answers to the prob­lems of wars, social inequal­i­ties, under­de­vel­op­ment and eco­nom­ic degra­da­tion that penalise entire nations. Trans­lat­ed into num­bers, we are faced with a vast and tru­ly dra­mat­ic glob­al phenomenon.

We must, how­ev­er, take respon­si­bil­i­ty and, at the same time, ask why there is demand for “slav­ery” and exam­ine the val­ues that under­pin the fab­ric of soci­ety.Tack­ling the root of the phe­nom­e­non means oppos­ing that cul­turethat con­tin­ues to tol­er­ate, indeed has a degree of com­plic­i­ty in humans being used and treat­ed as objects, for pure­ly self­ish ends and con­sump­tion. It is, there­fore, nec­es­sary to ensure that the mea­sures adopt­ed cor­re­spond to a cul­tur­al com­mit­ment, and are not con­tra­dict­ed by a soci­ety that simul­ta­ne­ous­ly favours the dis­in­te­gra­tion of the fam­i­ly, the sup­pres­sion of life at any age, the vio­la­tion of the dig­ni­ty of women and chil­dren for immoral ends, black mar­ket labour and the uncon­trolled traf­fick­ing of human organs.

Pope Fran­cis has repeat­ed­ly warned against a new ide­o­log­i­cal total­i­tar­i­an­ism that con­ceives of man only as an eco­nom­ic agent to be dis­card­ed when no longer use­ful: a sort of sub-cul­ture of clo­sure and rejec­tion, with vary­ing degrees of grav­i­ty, but always caus­ing suf­fer­ing. As Lauda­to si’ fore­warns us: “a great cul­tur­al, spir­i­tu­al and edu­ca­tion­al chal­lenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.”8

 

 

Summary Remarks of His Excellency, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher (Extracts) at the Opening Session “The Co-operative Globalisation Imperative”, Casina Pio IV, Vatican, Friday, 15 June 2018, 11:00 a.m.

 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the glob­alised world in which we live has not always suc­ceed­ed in uni­fy­ing the human fam­i­ly; often it has born neg­a­tive fruit with the dread­ful con­se­quences of dri­ving wedges that cre­ate even greater eco­nom­ic and social divi­sion and that pro­duce numer­ous injus­tices which too fre­quent­ly result in polit­i­cal unrest, con­flicts and war. “The world has become ‘glob­al’: the econ­o­my and com­mu­ni­ca­tions are, so to speak, ‘uni­fied’. But, for many peo­ple, espe­cial­ly the poor, new walls have been built.Diver­si­ty is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for hos­til­i­ty and con­flict; a glob­al­iza­tion of sol­i­dar­i­ty and of the Spir­it is yet to be built.

This imme­di­ate­ly sit­u­ates our dis­cus­sion of glob­al­i­sa­tion, with its man­i­fold dimen­sions and expres­sions, with­in the con­text of human moral­i­ty, specif­i­cal­ly with­in the frame­work of the moral oblig­a­tion we have to live and to act in jus­tice and sol­i­dar­i­ty with all of humanity.

Over the last years, some coun­tries grasped for a “quick fix” to the prob­lems of hyper­glob­al­iza­tion– where­by, over three decades or more, the pri­or­i­tiz­ing of nar­row finan­cial inter­estshas cre­at­ed an unsus­tain­able and inequitable world in which too many peo­ple in too many places were left out. Stag­nant wages, dizzy­ing lev­els of debt and recur­rent finan­cial crises are the most vis­i­ble man­i­fes­ta­tions of a dan­ger­ous­ly unbal­anced world. Fur­ther­more, rigged mar­kets, cor­po­rate ren­tierism and a dearth of pro­duc­tive invest­ments are also hob­bling eco­nom­ic recov­ery and longer- term transformation.

In devel­op­ing coun­tries, these prob­lems are com­pound­ed by pre­ma­ture dein­dus­tri­al­iza­tion, the dimin­ish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for export-led growth and a height­ened vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to exter­nal shocks both eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal. Per­sis­tent inse­cu­ri­ty and inequal­i­tyare at the heart of the cur­rent malaise and the under­ly­ing cause of the loss of trust in the eco­nom­ic sys­tem and its abil­i­ty to pro­vide sus­tain­able liveli­hoods and cred­i­ble path­ways to prosperity.

Cor­rec­tive mea­sures must also address the pro­found imbal­ances in bar­gain­ing pow­er between cap­i­tal and labour, and between gov­ern­ments and glob­al­iz­ing cor­po­ra­tions, that have been allowed to devel­op in recent decades.

Many of the sources of exclu­sion and strat­i­fi­ca­tion have a large inter­na­tion­al foot­print. More­over, some of the tools need­ed to build a more inclu­sive econ­o­my have been con­strained or even for­bid­den by inter­na­tion­al rules and agree­ments. Review­ing these agree­ments is a pre­req­ui­sitefor ensur­ing that gov­ern­ments have suf­fi­cient space to adapt poli­cies to local con­di­tions and capabilities.

Hence, a sus­tained com­mit­ment is need­ed so as to pro­mote a per­son-based and com­mu­ni­ty-ori­ent­ed cul­tur­al process of world-wide inte­gra­tion that is open to tran­scen­dence.” A sec­ond aspect that seems indis­pens­able in our dis­cus­sions these days is the neces­si­ty to have and employ clear eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples that respect and pro­mote the dig­ni­ty of every human being. Such an approach to life that seeks per­son­al gain and plea­sure at the cost of oth­er or while tram­pling on the dig­ni­ty of oth­ers is not acceptable.

Con­sid­er­ing the numer­ous glob­al chal­lenges, espe­cial­ly those in the areas of glob­al finance and econ­o­my, which put this sol­i­dar­i­ty to the test, there aris­es also the aware­ness that there is an “urgency” to this “imper­a­tive”; we must engage, we can­not not act, and such is the imperative.