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Centesimus Annus 25 Years Later

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SCIE IA NT EM IA D R A V C M A S S O O O A A I I I C C C C C C I I I I I I I I A A A A A A F F F I I I I L L L L L L T T T T I I I I V V V N N N N M M O O O P P P CONFERENCE JOINTLY SPONSORED BY THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED CATHOLIC STUDIES Centesimus Annus 25 Years Later 15-16 April 2016 • Casina Pio IV • Vatican City My appeal The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home. Here I want to recognize, encourage and thank all those striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home which we share. Particular appreciation is owed to those who tirelessly seek to resolve the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest. Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded. (Papa Francesco, Laudato si’ , par. 13) Il mio appello La sfida urgente di proteggere la nostra casa comune comprende la preoccupazione di unire tutta la famiglia umana nella ricerca di uno sviluppo sostenibile e integrale, poiché sappiamo che le cose possono cambiare. Il Creatore non ci abbandona, non fa mai marcia indietro nel suo progetto di amore, non si pente di averci creato. L’umanità ha ancora la capacità di collaborare per costruire la nostra casa comune. Desidero esprimere riconoscenza, incoraggiare e ringraziare tutti coloro che, nei più svariati settori dell’attività umana, stanno lavorando per garantire la protezione della casa che condividiamo. Meritano una gratitudine speciale quanti lottano con vigore per risolvere le drammatiche conseguenze del degrado ambientale nella vita dei più poveri del mondo. I giovani esigono da noi un cambiamento. Essi si domandano com’è possibile che si pretenda di costruire un futuro migliore senza pensare alla crisi ambientale e alle sofferenze degli esclusi. (Pope Francis, Laudato si’ , par. 13) Centesimus Annus 25 Years Later 3 Centesimus annus : 25 Years Later veryone knew that Pope John Paul II would issue would have access to the most current social scientific a social encyclical in 1991 to mark the 100 th research relevant to the Church’s teaching. anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum , E In light of this history, it is eminently appropriate for the but expectations were low. The Pope had issued a Pontifical Academy of Social Science to organize a social encyclical, Solicitudo rei socialis , in 1988, delayed symposium on the 25 th anniversary of Centesimus past its official 1987 date commemorating the annus . Remaining faithful both to St. John Paul’s own twentieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Populorum intellectual preparations for the document and to the progressio . Many wondered whether he would have Academy’s own charter, this gathering will not be a anything significantly new to say. However, these commemorative event but a serious academic subdued expectations were dramatically altered by the discussion. Papers and the conversations they generate events that transformed the Pope’s homeland in 1989. are not intended to be confessional or fideistic or In August of that year a Catholic intellectual, Tadeusz simply celebratory of past insight in either tone or Mazowieki, was elected Prime Minister of Poland. By content. The symposium will focus on two major early October, the finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, questions. The first concerns the changes in the world announced detailed plans to convert the nation to a situation – economically, politically, and culturally – over market economy. Already engaged with the upheavals the past 25 years. The second will investigate how in Poland brought about by the worker’s union, Catholic social teaching has engaged the world in order Solidarity, the Pope become deeply involved in the to ask how best the Church can do so in the coming question being asked throughout Eastern Europe: what years and decades. should the nation’s economy look like? The preliminary drafting of a relatively minor anniversary document was Assessing changes in the world situation taken over by the Secretary of State and the Pope himself by the time the Polish government Just as John Paul II made a careful assessment of the implemented these reforms in early 1990. world around him, this symposium will propose the question: what have been the major changes in This direct involvement by the Pope also entailed efforts economic, political, and cultural life over the past 25 to engage the best of contemporary economic thinking years to which the Church must respond today? As we on the issues. He himself proposed that the Pontifical reflect on Centesimus annus , to what extent do the new Council for Justice and Peace organize a symposium of realities in the world situation today affirm or call for leading economists to help him develop an informed further development of the insights there. perspective on the economic prospects for Eastern Europe at the time. Nearly twenty internationally Changes in the world economy since 1991 distinguished economists, including Catholics, The fall of the Soviet Union was the major economic Protestants, Jews, and others, were invited to present backdrop of Centesimus annus . Much has occurred answers to a list of detailed questions. Fifteen economically since. What are the most salient changes economists participated in a gathering in November of in global economic life since then and how well does 1990, which included a lunch and long afternoon the economic insight of Centesimus annus illuminate discussion with the Pope in his personal residence. At those changes? What do recent economic crises and the end of the session, the Pope told the group he was recent changes in economic thinking suggest for the deeply impressed by the concern these economists future of economic life of ordinary people, especially showed for the moral dimensions of economic life. the poor and marginalized? Popes from Leo XIII onward had relied on individual Changes in the world political situation since 1991 social scientists for assistance in drafting social encyclicals, but this consultation represented the most The fall of the Soviet Union and the democratization of thoroughgoing interaction of a Pontiff with social Eastern Europe formed the major political backdrop of scientists in an effort to improve the content of church Centesimus annus . What is the global political situation teaching. And the experience of this consultation was today and how is this different from the recent past? undoubtedly part of the Pope’s later decision to Which elements require greater attention by both the establish the Pontifical Academy of Social Science in international community and by Catholic social teaching 1994: so that the Holy Father and all Vatican offices in order to improve the political involvement of and political outcomes for ordinary citizens, especially the age, “especially those who are poor or in any way poor and marginalized? afflicted” because “these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” Pope Changes in the world cultural situation since 1991 Francis has called the pastors of the Church to be so The Church is an expert on the human person, and this close to their flocks that they take on the odor of the insight imbued the analysis of Centesimus annus . Yet sheep and has challenged all believers to engage the past 25 years have seen remarkable developments personally with the suffering of so many in our world in culture, with the impact of the internet, the today. marketization of life, the importance of Islam, new The Academy recognizes that it plays an important role dynamics of secularization, etc. How ought we to think in how the church engages the world. Its purpose is a about the cultural situation today and what realities call scholarly one, and so offering the insights of social for further reflection within Catholic social thought science can help both church leaders and ordinary today to better understand the situation of ordinary Catholics better understand what is happening around people, especially the poor and marginalized? them. At the same time, however, the Academy’s scholars reject any belief that a top-down, deductive How Catholic Social Teaching Engages the World declaration of truth from any discipline can suffice for Situation understanding of the contemporary situation. Careful observation, analysis, and theorization of what is Like Rerum novarum a hundred years earlier, occurring and a generous listening to the multiplicity of Centesimus annus engaged the world situation of its “grass-roots” groups and movements around the globe day. How social encyclicals have engaged the world – is critical for an adequate grasp of social reality today. and not simply what they had to say about it – has much to teach us going forward. As the fathers of the The challenge of the gospel, the integrity of social second Vatican Council reminded us, the Church, both science, and the common good in our day all press us clergy and laity, is called by the gospel to engage “the to attend carefully both to what is occurring in the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties” of our world around us and to how we engage that world.
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