A conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will reflect on the Church’s social doctrine, especially in the context of modern-day globalization and injustices.
In regard to the results expected from the congress, Bishop Mario Toso, the dicastery’s secretary explained, “We hope there will be a new awareness of the importance of the mobilization of all ecclesial communities and the various lay associations and movements in respect to the great problems of the world.”
The three-day international congress on the theme “Justice and Globalization: From ‘Mater et Magistra’ to ‘Caritas in Veritate’” will be held in Rome beginning Monday.
The congress, which marks the 50th anniversary of the encyclical “Mater et Magistra,” aims to offer solutions to social problems in light of the universal destination of goods and of justice, deepening the task of studying and spreading Church teaching on this topic.
Among the speakers are Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo; and Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and president of Caritas.
In a press conference Thursday, in which Bishop Toso presented the congress along with other topics, he pointed out that the imbalances indicated by “Mater et Magistra” have not been surmounted, and some have been aggravated.
“In addition to the, so to speak, traditional imbalances there are others that are taken up in ‘Caritas in Veritate,'” he said, such as those posed by globalization, the ecological question and the defense of life.
Moreover, the prelate said that “Mater et Magistra” did not so much propose a series of recipes as it did a series of interpretative criteria very similar to that elaborated in “Caritas in Veritate,” to “analyze and initiate solutions to the new imbalances.”
ROME, MAY 13, 2011 (Zenit.org)