Pontifical Academy appraises Centesimus annus
(Vatican Radio) A major
international conference sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
is hosting a conference this weekend looking at the 25th anniversary
of Pope St. John Paul II’s landmark social encyclical letterCentesimus annus.
Centesimus annus was itself an anniversary marker: celebrating
the 100thanniversary of the seminal Papal piece of writing on social
matters in the modern world, Rerum novarum, by Pope Leo XIII in
1891.
Centesimus annus was written at a moment of massive change and
upheaval in politics and economics in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet
Union, and in the midst of an unprecedented increase in wealth and standards of
living across the globe that were threatened by corrupt and exploitative
interests. Its purpose was to welcome a vision of morally ordered liberty in
the service of the human person. Now, scholars, policymakers and political
leaders from around the world are gathered in the Vatican to take stock
of political, economic and cultural changes since the release of Centesimus annus,
and offer a critical appraisal of Catholic social doctrine’s engagement with
the world over the same period and into the future.
Presidents Evo Morales
of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador are among the participants,
as is US Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist independent from
Vermont who is seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party as its candidate
in the November presidential election in the United States.
An external advisor to Pope
St. John Paul II on Centesimus annus who has worked closely
with the the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences for many years, and a
participant in the Centesimus annus, Jeffrey Sachs of the
Earth Institute at Columbia University, told Vatican Radio the time is ripe for
a new and vigorous dialogue. “The Church has always emphasized – especially
sinceRerum novarum in 1891 – that the market economy – the kind of
economic system in which we live – must be operated within a moral framework,”
Sachs said. “In 1991, when Centesimus annus was issued by Pope
[St.] John Paul II, that was the moment of the revolutionary chenges in Eastern
Europe – going from Communisim to market economies – and Pope John Paul II said
very clearly, ‘Yes!’ [to the] market economy, but it must have a moral
framework,” he continued. “Unfortunately,” Sachs continued, “his message was
not heeded adequately.”
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