Vatican meeting highlights ‘common good’ as key objective to reform global financial order

Vatican City, Nov 15, 2024 / 10:05 am

The Pontifical Academy for Life discussed the global financial system in light of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and crises that have impacted the world at a meeting titled “Common Good: Theory and Practice” on Thursday evening in Vatican City.

The event, opened by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, welcomed and introduced guest panelists Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics of innovation and public value at University College London.

The participants gathered to discuss the multifaceted and interconnected impacts of war, technology, health crises, and the environment on politics and the global economy.

During the two-hour exchange both women spoke of the value of Catholic social teaching — including solidarity; call to family, community, and participation; and the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable — in providing “clear objectives” for the creation of policies ultimately aimed at serving and protecting people.

Highlighting the difference between the classic economic theory on “public goods” and the Catholic concept of the common good, Mazzucato — also the founder-director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose — stressed that, in order to improve the current “global financial architecture,” it is necessary to first consider the dignity of the person.

“The way we talk to each other, the way we respect each other, the way we value each other matters in the way that we then approach the goals,” she said. “It holds the system to account.”

“We do not currently have the action that we require globally to treat these [health and environmental] problems collectively, systematically, and in an economy-wide way,” she asserted at the conference.

Speaking on the great political, economic, and technological divide between Global North and Global South countries, Mottley said food and water insecurity in parts of the world are largely due to the lack of political will or collective action. 

“We can find a way to put a man on the moon but we cannot find a way to distribute the ample food and water that exists on earth,” Mottley said. “All of these things are man-made. They need to be solved [and] require moral, strategic leadership.”

Mottley stated that many people are skeptical of rethinking the global financial system in a “fundamental way” because they have become “used to the status quo.” However, she believes a reformed system is “within our reach” if individuals, multinational organizations, and governments take appropriate action.

“I believe that it is not only appropriate for us to speak about the pursuit of the common good,” she said, “but it is now important for us to flesh out and map out how it can happen and how it must happen.” 

In a message to participants of the Nov. 14 conference, Pope Francis said the “search for the common good and justice are central and essential aspects of any defense of every human life, especially the most fragile and defenseless, with respect for the entire ecosystem that we inhabit.” 

The pope said the common good is “one of the cornerstones of the social doctrine of the Church” that must primarily be understood as a “communion of faces, stories, and people” and not idea or an abstract ideology disconnected from reality.

“We need solid economic theories that assume and develop this theme in its specificity, so that it can become a principle that effectively inspires political choices (as I indicated in my encyclical Laudato Si’) and not just a category so much invoked in words but ignored in deeds,” he wrote.