A document of the Social Committee of the French episcopate with the title “How to orient oneself in a globalized economy” has been presented in Paris. The document 64 pages long is the result of a project begun in January 2003 and appears 17 years after the publication of the document “Creating and Sharing”. It offers a series of reflections and guidelines to “humanise the world of the economy”. Presented by Archbishop Jean-Charles Descubes of Rouen, chairman of the Social Committee, the new document is intended as a contribution to the debate in terms of what the social doctrine of the Church has to say about the economy and the world of finance. The Church explained the archbishop “has no economic model to propose, but can give guidance to ensure than man be placed at the centre of economic activity”. The world economic situation is not exactly rosy. “The living conditions of millions of human beings says the introduction to the document have not improved to any significant degree. The urge for wealth in the developed countries, to the detriment of those who are hungry, ill and deprived of freedom, has caused dramatic consequences such as the enrichment of a tiny minority, mass immigration, civil wars, terrorism… To overcome the globalization of suffering and injustice, we need to question whether our economic practices and their goals are respectful of man”. The French bishops intend to “restore trust to the human intelligence in the certainty that it is capable of placing this economy at the service of the integral development of man. To succeed in this says the introduction to the document we are well aware that economic growth is a necessity, but only on condition that it be exclusively aimed not at short-term profit and indebtedness” but at the achievement of such objectives as equality, sharing and justice”. Embarking on this road necessarily requires that “each and everyone sets to work but also that new professions be invented, the young and not so young be trained and professional life increasingly become a place of creativity for an ever larger number of people”. All this concludes the Social Committee implies a courageous political will to permit the barrier that exists between a mere readjustment of current practices and the establishment of genuine justice at the service of the common good to be torn down”. Is this only an illusion? “First of all replies Jacques Turck, who edited the book we need to understand that financial movements are not abstract and blind mechanisms but that human beings who take decisions are always behind them. We need to aim at these human beings and foster in them an ethics of economic and financial development”.
