This morning, the Holy See Press Office released the text of a Message which was sent by the Holy Father, Pope Francis to those who are participating in the World Forum on Local Economic Development, taking place in Turin (Italy) from October 13 to 16.
Illustrious Sirs
Honorable Piero Fassino
Mayor of Turin
I send my cordial greetings to you, to the authorities and to all of those who are taking part in the III World Forum on Local Development, taking place in Turin from October 13 to 16 of this year. Very appropriately, you intend to reflect and dialogue about the possibilities for local economic development, as a motivating force for different vision of the economy, of development, of the relationship with the earth and between people. May God grant enlightenment and inspiration to your meeting, a very important step in promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, inclusion, environmental protection and an integral human development. In order to contribute to your efforts, I would like to mention a few ideas which I have mentioned recently at the Assembly of the United Nations about the Objectives of Sustainable Development, which are a source of hope for humanity, provided that they are promoted in an appropriate manner.
The implementation of the 2030 Agenda is urgent and indispensable. The decisions that were made by the International Community are important, but there is still a temptation to fall into a declamatory minimalism with a tranquilizing effect on consciences. In addition, the multiplicity and the complexity of the problems requires the use of technical measurements. This, however, brings with it a double peril: limiting ourselves to a bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals - goals, objectives and statistical information - or, believing that one particular solution chosen a priori can respond to every challenge.
Political and economic action is a prudent activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice which is always aware that, above and beyond any programs, there are real women and men, equal to those who govern, who live, struggle and suffer, and who should be masters of their own destiny. Integral human challenge is the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be constructed and produced by each individual, by individual families, along with other human beings and in right relationship with all the areas in which human society is developed - friendship, community, villages and towns, schools, business and trade unions, provinces and nations.
Therefore, from this perspective, the local economic challenge seems to be the most adequate response to the challenges that are faced by a globalized economy and one which is often cruel in its outcomes. The III Forum rightly intends to present and to discuss practices and strategies relative to the local processes in worldwide development and to focus the potential of these practices and strategies, as essential resources, at all levels, including regional, national and international ones. I pointed out at the United Nations that measurement is the simplest and best indicator of the proper fulfillment of the new Agenda will be effective access, practical and immediate, for all people to indispensable material and spiritual goods: their own habitations, decent work that is adequately remunerated, adequate food and drinking water, religious freedom and, more generally, freedom of speech and education. I would add that the only way to truly and permanently obtain these objectives is to work at the local level. In my meetings with popular movements and with Italian cooperatives, I have recalled and developed these ideas, which can be summed up in two axioms: small is beautiful; and small is effective.
Ongoing world crises have shown how economic decisions which, in general, seek to promote the progress of all people through generating new consumption and the permanent increase of profits are unsupportable in the global economy. We should also add that these are per se immoral, from the moment they leave on the margins every question about what is right and about what really serves the common good. Instead, public and private political and economic decisions should question themselves about how to integrate ethical criteria in their structures and their decisions. The fundamental focus on the local level, as is the desire of the Forum on Local Development, seems to be one of the major steps toward a true ethical discernment and the creation of economies and businesses that are truly free: free of ideologies, free of political manipulation and above all free from the law of profit at any cost and from perpetual expansion of business, in order to be truly at the service of others and the reintegration into social life of those who have been excluded.
Christian social thought, in Italy, advanced by people such as Giuseppe Toniolo, Father Sturzo and others, following along the lines of Pope Leo XIII outlined in his Encyclical Rerum norarum, have defined an economic analysis that, beginning precisely at the local and territorial levels, proposes options and directions for the world economy. In addition, a good part of the common social thought, beginning with various premises, also arrive at similar proposals. Such a vision of an economy which goes from local levels to world levels is developed also in other countries by many studies. Here, I will limit myself to recalling Ernst Friedrich Schumacher and his celebrated work Small is beautiful.
Mister Mayor, I hope that these brief reflections might offer some useful contribution to your discussions and to the future activity of the Forum, in order to strengthen local development and above all to inspire the reform of larger global models. I therefore renew my wish for the success of your gathering, while I invoke divine blessings upon you, upon other Authorities and upon all the participants in the Forum, as well as upon their respective families and endeavours.
From the Vatican
10 October 2015
Francis
Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the World Forum on Local Economic Development
Illustrious Sirs
Honorable Piero Fassino
Mayor of Turin
I send my cordial greetings to you, to the authorities and to all of those who are taking part in the III World Forum on Local Development, taking place in Turin from October 13 to 16 of this year. Very appropriately, you intend to reflect and dialogue about the possibilities for local economic development, as a motivating force for different vision of the economy, of development, of the relationship with the earth and between people. May God grant enlightenment and inspiration to your meeting, a very important step in promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, inclusion, environmental protection and an integral human development. In order to contribute to your efforts, I would like to mention a few ideas which I have mentioned recently at the Assembly of the United Nations about the Objectives of Sustainable Development, which are a source of hope for humanity, provided that they are promoted in an appropriate manner.
The implementation of the 2030 Agenda is urgent and indispensable. The decisions that were made by the International Community are important, but there is still a temptation to fall into a declamatory minimalism with a tranquilizing effect on consciences. In addition, the multiplicity and the complexity of the problems requires the use of technical measurements. This, however, brings with it a double peril: limiting ourselves to a bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals - goals, objectives and statistical information - or, believing that one particular solution chosen a priori can respond to every challenge.
Political and economic action is a prudent activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice which is always aware that, above and beyond any programs, there are real women and men, equal to those who govern, who live, struggle and suffer, and who should be masters of their own destiny. Integral human challenge is the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be constructed and produced by each individual, by individual families, along with other human beings and in right relationship with all the areas in which human society is developed - friendship, community, villages and towns, schools, business and trade unions, provinces and nations.
Therefore, from this perspective, the local economic challenge seems to be the most adequate response to the challenges that are faced by a globalized economy and one which is often cruel in its outcomes. The III Forum rightly intends to present and to discuss practices and strategies relative to the local processes in worldwide development and to focus the potential of these practices and strategies, as essential resources, at all levels, including regional, national and international ones. I pointed out at the United Nations that measurement is the simplest and best indicator of the proper fulfillment of the new Agenda will be effective access, practical and immediate, for all people to indispensable material and spiritual goods: their own habitations, decent work that is adequately remunerated, adequate food and drinking water, religious freedom and, more generally, freedom of speech and education. I would add that the only way to truly and permanently obtain these objectives is to work at the local level. In my meetings with popular movements and with Italian cooperatives, I have recalled and developed these ideas, which can be summed up in two axioms: small is beautiful; and small is effective.
Ongoing world crises have shown how economic decisions which, in general, seek to promote the progress of all people through generating new consumption and the permanent increase of profits are unsupportable in the global economy. We should also add that these are per se immoral, from the moment they leave on the margins every question about what is right and about what really serves the common good. Instead, public and private political and economic decisions should question themselves about how to integrate ethical criteria in their structures and their decisions. The fundamental focus on the local level, as is the desire of the Forum on Local Development, seems to be one of the major steps toward a true ethical discernment and the creation of economies and businesses that are truly free: free of ideologies, free of political manipulation and above all free from the law of profit at any cost and from perpetual expansion of business, in order to be truly at the service of others and the reintegration into social life of those who have been excluded.
Christian social thought, in Italy, advanced by people such as Giuseppe Toniolo, Father Sturzo and others, following along the lines of Pope Leo XIII outlined in his Encyclical Rerum norarum, have defined an economic analysis that, beginning precisely at the local and territorial levels, proposes options and directions for the world economy. In addition, a good part of the common social thought, beginning with various premises, also arrive at similar proposals. Such a vision of an economy which goes from local levels to world levels is developed also in other countries by many studies. Here, I will limit myself to recalling Ernst Friedrich Schumacher and his celebrated work Small is beautiful.
Mister Mayor, I hope that these brief reflections might offer some useful contribution to your discussions and to the future activity of the Forum, in order to strengthen local development and above all to inspire the reform of larger global models. I therefore renew my wish for the success of your gathering, while I invoke divine blessings upon you, upon other Authorities and upon all the participants in the Forum, as well as upon their respective families and endeavours.
From the Vatican
10 October 2015
Francis
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