Message for World Day for Peace

1 Response to Message for World Day for Peace

1. Bo the Okie says:

   11 December 2008 at 11:51 AM

   Maybe its just me, but when I read this, it sure fit the image I had in mind of what the long put off “social encyclical” the Pope has been allegedly working on would look like. Maybe he “scrapped” what was the basis of that encyclical and simply included it here? That is a lot of speculation, but it sure does remind me of the topics the Pope was rumored to be working on (especially globalization). At anyrate, I was a bit suprised by the following paragraph…it does not read like the typical “soft socialism” Rome is often accused of:

   “On the other hand, it cannot be denied that policies which place too much emphasis on assistance underlie many of the failures in providing aid to poor countries. Investing in the formation of people and developing a specific and well-integrated culture of enterprise would seem at present to be the right approach in the medium and long term. If economic activities require a favourable context in order to develop, this must not distract attention from the need to generate revenue. While it has been rightly emphasized that increasing per capita income cannot be the ultimate goal of political and economic activity, it is still an important means of attaining the objective of the fight against hunger and absolute poverty. Hence, the illusion that a policy of mere redistribution of existing wealth can definitively resolve the problem must be set aside. In a modern economy, the value of assets is utterly dependent on the capacity to generate revenue in the present and the future. Wealth creation therefore becomes an inescapable duty, which must be kept in mind if the fight against material poverty is to be effective in the long term.”

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