(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a symposium this week to mark twenty five years since the publication of Saint John Paul II's social encyclical “ Centesimus Annus". In an effort to find out more about this social encyclical Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to a Professor of Social Teaching at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas here in Rome. He's Dominican Alejandro Crosthwaite: It was 1987 when Pope John Paul II promulgated his social encyclical "Sollicitudo Rei Socialis". In this document he highlighted changing circumstances, both within the debtor nations and in the international financial market:"...At a time when the instrument chosen to make a contribution to development had turned into a counterproductive mechanism. This because debtor nations, in order to service their debt, found themselves obliged to export the capital needed for improving or at least maintaining their sta...
(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a symposium this week to mark twenty five years since the publication of Saint John Paul II's social encyclical “ Centesimus Annus".
In an effort to find out more about this social encyclical Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to a Professor of Social Teaching at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas here in Rome. He's Dominican Alejandro Crosthwaite:
It was 1987 when Pope John Paul II promulgated his social encyclical "Sollicitudo Rei Socialis". In this document he highlighted changing circumstances, both within the debtor nations and in the international financial market:"...At a time when the instrument chosen to make a contribution to development had turned into a counterproductive mechanism. This because debtor nations, in order to service their debt, found themselves obliged to export the capital needed for improving or at least maintaining their standard of living. And also because, for the same reason, they were unable to obtain new and equally essential financing.
Through this mechanism, the means intended for the development of peoples had turned into a brake upon development instead, and indeed in some cases even aggravated underdevelopment..."
So when John Paul II published his second social encyclical "Centesimus Annus "in 1991, as the title indicates a century after Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum", he picked up on this same theme. Highlighting once again how the positive efforts which have been made along those lines are being affected by the still largely unsolved problem of the foreign debt of the poorer countries:".. The principle that debts must be paid is certainly just. However, it is not right to demand or expect payment when the effect would be the imposition of political choices leading to hunger and despair for entire peoples. It cannot be expected that the debts which have been contracted should be paid at the price of unbearable sacrifices. In such cases it is necessary to find — as in fact is partly happening — ways to lighten, defer or even cancel the debt, compatible with the fundamental right of peoples to subsistence and progress..."
Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on April 24, 2024. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 25, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).Asked during a new interview if he has any message for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who instigated the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis stated that "a negotiated peace is better than an endless war."CBS News broadcast some excerpts April 24 from a new interview conducted by journalist Norah O'Donnell with Pope Francis at St. Martha House, the pontiff's residence in the Vatican.During the exchange, the full version of which will be released on May 19, the Holy Father reflected on world conflicts and especially on the suffering of children during wars.O'Donnell asked the Holy Father if he had any message for Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine, to which the pontiff replied: "Please, countries at war, all of them... Stop the war. Seek to negotiate. Seek peace. A negotiated peace is better than an e...
An aerial view of Washington Square in San Francisco on May 22, 2020. / Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Apr 25, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).San Francisco police arrested a homeless man last Sunday for allegedly stabbing a parent from a nearby Catholic school after an altercation involving the two outside a historic Catholic church in the city. Twenty-five-year-old Marko Asaulyuk of San Francisco was charged with attempted murder and eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon.The Catholic school father, who was released from the hospital Sunday, only suffered a minor injury to his leg, Father Tho Bui, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, told CNA Thursday in an email.San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was conferring the sacrament of confirmation on the parish school's students and students from a nearby parish during a noon Mass when a "disruptive man" entered the church, as Bui described him.The man was walking up and down the main aisle of the ...
The pro-life flag from the Pro-Life Flag Project (www.prolifeflag.com). / Credit: Pro-Life Flag Project (www.prolifeflag.com)Toronto, Canada, Apr 25, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).The International Pro-Life Flag will not fly over Toronto Catholic schools this May.Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustees voted against an April 23 motion proposed by trustee Michael Del Grande that the pro-life flag fly outside all schools and the Catholic Education Centre during the month of May, just as the board voted to fly the Pride flag in June.Del Grande's motion was defeated at the April 23 board meeting when only Garry Tanuan supported Del Grande's motion. The eight other board members in attendance and the two student trustees opposed his proposal.Though Del Grande could not muster enough backing from his colleagues, his plan, which would have also directed all TCDSB schools to teach an exclusively pro-life curriculum on May 9, the day of the National March for Life, garnered bois...