Plenary Session to Consider Charity Among Nations
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences says there are seven "signs of the times" which cause concern for the future of international relations.
The academy is dedicating its next plenary session to the study of charity and justice between nations.
The session, which runs Friday through Tuesday, was presented today in a press conference featuring Mary Ann Glendon, president of the academy and a Harvard law professor.
The academy published an introductory statement, saying: "In the recent past, the academy has devoted sessions to the study of globalization and these have enabled us to see that there is a lack of charity and justice in the world we live in.
"This may be summarized in a general way as: disproportionate reallocations, promises not honored and unequal divisions."
The academy mentioned that Benedict XVI's renewed appeal to charity in his encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" has motivated the current topic.
Negative factors
The introductory statement lists seven "signs of the times," which the Pontifical Academy considers worrying.
These are the re-emergence of nationalism, weak convergence, pervasive poverty, the weakness of multilateralism, doubts regarding millennium goals, insufficient and inefficient aid, and terrorism and war.
Opposed to these negative factors, Benedict XVI's encyclical offers inspiration, the academy says.
"In particular this document reminds us that the theological and human virtue of charity must preside over all of the social teaching and all of the social works of the Church and her members," the statement says.
"Indeed, 'Deus Caritas Est' places itself in the long lineage of other social encyclicals," the academy contends, "not only because it addresses the virtue of charity but also because it attributes primary importance to the virtue of justice."
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