Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday lashed out against financial speculation and economic ruthlessness which he said were at the root of poverty and the global food crisis.In a message prepared for World Peace Day, January 1, the pope said that ''finance focused on short and very-short term profit is a threat to all, even for those who are able to reap benefits during periods of financial euphoria''.
The recent global financial crisis, he observed, ''demonstrated how financial activity is only focused on itself without any consideration of the long term, the common good''.
It is because of this, he added, that finance has ''lost its role as a bridge between the present and the future, in the creation of new production opportunities and employment in the long term''.
Turning his attention to the food crisis, Benedict said that this ''has not been created by a lack of food as much as the phenomenon of speculation and the inability of economic and political institutions to deal with needs and emergencies'' of the poor.
According to the pope, globalization is ''ambivalent'' and thus needed to be ''governed with cautious wisdom''.
Globalization, he argued, ''must be seen as an opportunity to achieve something important in the battle against poverty and offer peace and justice resources which until now have been unthinkable''.
The unbridled pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake, the pope observed, created ''a risk that in the world the rich will live in an ivory tower surrounded by a desert of poverty and degradation''.
After urging governments to spend less on military weapons and more on development, Benedict said that international cooperation and development were not just ''technical terms'' but involved ''courageous choices by men and women in the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity''.
The pope ended his message with an appeal to everyone to ''open their hearts to the needs of the poor and do whatever is concretely possible to come to their aid. Combating poverty means building peace''. The pope's message for World Peace Day is entitled: Combating Poverty, Building Peace.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: Ansa)