Pope: to overcome the current social order model, transform it from within

Inequality and exploitation "are not a fatality nor a historical constant," but depend on human action and economic rules. The call to “eliminate the pressures of public and private lobbyists that defend sectoral interests" and that "political action is truly in the service of the human person, the common good and respect for nature".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Inequality and exploitation "are not a fatality, nor a historical constant," but depend on human action and the economic rules that a society decides to set itself and that, if only aimed at profit, tend to transform democracy into "plutocracy". The need to "go beyond the prevailing social model today, transforming it from within", "to develop new models of cooperation between the market, the state and civil society" was supported by Pope Francis in a speech to participants in a meeting promoted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Exclusion and existential peripheries, he noted, are fuelled primarily by the "endemic and systemic increase in inequalities and the exploitation of the planet, which is greater than the increase in income and wealth. Yet inequality and exploitation are not a fatality nor a historical constant. They are not a fatality because they depend, not only on the different individual behaviors, but also on the economic rules that a society decides to set itself. Think of energy production, the labor market, the banking system, welfare, the tax system, and the school sector. Depending on how these sectors are designed, there are different consequences on how income and wealth are shared among those who have contributed to producing them. If profit prevails, democracy tends to become a plutocracy in which inequalities and the exploitation of the planet grow. I repeat: this is not a necessity; there are times when, in some countries, inequalities diminish and the environment is better protected. "

"The other cause of exclusion is work that is unworthy of the human person." Today, creating new work needs "open and enterprising people, fraternal relationships, research and investment in the development of clean energy to address the challenges of climate change. This is concretely possible today. It is necessary to get rid of the pressures of public and private lobbyists who defend sectoral interests "and that "political action is truly in the service of the human person, the common good, and respect for nature ". "The challenge to pick up is then to take courage to go beyond the prevalent social order model, transforming it from within. We must ask the market not only to be efficient in wealth production and to ensure sustainable growth, but also to be at the service of integral human development."

"An analogous approach concerns the rethinking of the figure and the role of the nation-state in a new context, which is that of globalization, which has profoundly modified the previous international order. The state can not conceive itself as the sole and exclusive holder of the common good by not allowing the intermediate bodies of civil society to freely express their full potential. This would be a violation of the principle of subsidiarity which, combined with the solidarity, is a cornerstone of the Church's social doctrine. The challenge here is how to link individual rights to the common good. "