Publications

Summary on Globalization. Main Outcomes of the Work of the PASS on Globalization

Ed. J.J. Llach
Extra Series 12
Vatican City, 2008
ISBN 978-88-86726-22-1
pp. 108

In the recent past, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences has devoted various meetings to analyze and to discuss different aspects of the phase of globalization we are going through. All this work has enabled us to reaffirm that, without ignoring many positive developments carried on by globalization, there is a lack of charity and justice in the world we live in. This may be summarized in general as disproportionate allocations or reallocations of any kind of resources, promises not honored and unequal divisions. At the same time, worldwide, regional or national institutional arrangements and policies have not developed enough so as to give successful answers to these complex challenges. Within the framework of the centennial teachings of the Social Doctrine of the Church, those challenges have been addressed by the renewed appeals to charity and justice made by the Pope, Benedict XVI, in particular in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est.
As a contribution to a better understanding of these new realities, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences offers this document, organized as follows. The first part is focused on identifying the new signs of the times that we should cautiously read to assess if they enhance or threaten an improved effectiveness of charity and justice in the relations among peoples and nations at the beginning of this new millennium. To better understand the current stage of globalization this section begins with an introductory historical framework that summarizes the main developments of globalization, its governance and the role of the Social Doctrine of the Church since the Second World War. The second part presents a very brief synthesis of the previous work of the Academy on globalization, including recent contributions to the development of the Social Doctrine of the Church made by H.H. Pope Benedict XVI. This section is complemented by an appendix containing guidelines for a better future of this stage of globalization. All along the document we look at the relations between different peoples and nations, the developed and the developing, the emerging and the poor, from the point of view of the virtues of charity and justice. We ask ourselves whether these relations, in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church, can become more just, fairer, and more peaceful, and what the route should be to achieve such ends.

Juan J. Llach