Of Kristina Miller

Vatican City, November 15, 2024 / 10:05 am

The Pontifical Academy for Life discussed the global financial system in light of the Catholic Church’s social teaching and crises affecting the world at a meeting entitled “Common Good: Theory and Practice” on Thursday evening in Vatican City.

The event, which was opened by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, welcomed and introduced guest panelists Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics for Innovation and Public Value at University College London.

Participants gathered to discuss the multifaceted and interconnected effects of war, technology, health crises and the environment on politics and the global economy.

During the two-hour exchange, both women spoke about the value of Catholic social teaching – including solidarity; call for family, community and participation; and the favorable option for the poor and vulnerable – by providing “clear goals” for the creation of policies that ultimately aim to serve and protect people.

Mazzucato highlighted the difference between the classical economic theory of “public goods” and the Catholic concept of the common good, and also emphasized that, in order to improve the current “global financial architecture”, it is necessary to first consider the dignity of the person.

“The way we talk to each other, the way we respect each other, the way we value each other matters in the way we approach the goals,” she said. “It holds the system accountable.”

“We currently do not have the action that we require globally to address these (health and environmental problems) collectively, systematically and in an economy-wide way,” she told the conference.

Speaking about the wide political, economic and technological divide between global North and global South countries, Mottley said food and water insecurity in parts of the world is largely due to a lack of political will or collective action.

“We can find a way to put a man on the moon, but we can’t find a way to distribute the abundant food and water that exists on Earth,” Mottley said. “All these things are man-made. They have to be solved (and) require moral, strategic leadership.”

Mottley stated that many people are skeptical of rethinking the global financial system in a “fundamental way” because they have become “accustomed to the status quo.” But she believes a reformed system is “within our reach” if appropriate action is taken by individuals, multinational organizations and governments.

“I think it is not only appropriate for us to talk about the pursuit of the common good,” she said, “but it is now important for us to flesh out and map out how that can happen and how it must happen.”

In a message to the participants of the November 14 conference, Pope Francis said that “the search for the common good and justice are central and essential aspects of every defense of every human life, especially the most fragile and defenseless, respecting the entire ecosystem in which we live .”

The Pope said the common good is “one of the cornerstones of the Church’s social teaching” which must be understood primarily as a “community of faces, stories and people” and not idea or an abstract ideology disconnected from reality.

“We need solid economic theories that adopt and develop this theme in its specificity, so that it can become a principle that effectively inspires political choices (as I suggested in my encyclical Laudato Si’) and not just a category so much invoked in words but ignored in action,” he wrote.

Kristina Millare is a freelance journalist with a professional communications background in the humanitarian aid and development sector, news journalism, entertainment marketing, politics and government, business and entrepreneurship.