CV NEWS FEED // In a letter addressed to Klaus Schwab, Executive President of the World Economic Forum (WEF) taking place in Davos, Switzerland, Pope Francis called on participants to work for a more ethical globalization, arguing that the process is inevitable.
Every year, the WEF brings together the most powerful persons and institutions in the world – from politicians to billionaires – to discuss the future of the world. This year, the summit has seen an unusually small representation of the US government, but still a significant presence of US financial leaders.
In the letter, signed on January 15 but released on the 17th by the Vatican Press Office, Francis wrote that “this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum takes place in a very troubling climate of international instability.”
“Your Forum, which aims to guide and strengthen political will and mutual cooperation, provides an important opportunity for multi-stakeholder engagement to explore innovative and effective ways to build a better world,” Francis wrote:
It is my hope that your discussions will take into account the urgent need to advance social cohesion, fraternity, and reconciliation among groups, communities, and states, in order to address the challenges before us.
Insisting in his vision of an “ethical globalization,” Pope Francis also wrote that
the process of globalization, which has by now clearly demonstrated the interdependence of the world’s nations and peoples, thus has a fundamentally moral dimension, which must make itself felt in the economic, cultural, political and religious discussions that aim to shape the future of the international community.
“In a world increasingly threatened by violence, aggression and fragmentation,” the Pontiff continued,
it is essential that states and businesses join in promoting far-sighted and ethically sound models of globalization, which by their very nature must entail subordinating the pursuit of power and individual gain, be it political or economic, to the common good of our human family, giving priority to the poor, the needy and those in the most vulnerable situations.
Francis added, “there is an evident need for international political action that, through the adoption of coordinated measures, can effectively pursue the goals of global peace and authentic development.”
It is also “important that intergovernmental structures be able effectively to exercise their functions of control and guidance in the economic sector,” Francis wrote,
since the achievement of the common good is an objective beyond the reach of individual states, even those that are dominant in terms of power, wealth and political strength.
International organizations are also challenged to ensure the achievement of that equality which is the basis of the right of all to participate in the process of full development, with due respect for legitimate differences.
Francis concluded, “It is my hope, then, that the participants in this year’s Forum will be mindful of the moral responsibility that each of us has in the fight against poverty, the attainment of an integral development for all our brothers and sisters, and the quest for a peaceful coexistence among peoples.”
