“Development based on the respect of every man’s dignity: it is the appeal made by Benedict XVI “to those who have political responsibilities and have in their hands the levers of economic and financial power”, in his first message for Lent 2006, which was announced today by the Vatican press room. “Before the terrible challenges of the poverty of so many men and women", commented the Pope, "even today, at the time of global interdependence, we can see that no economic, social or political plan can replace that gift of the self to others, in which love is expressed”. For this reason, Benedict XVI invites them "to guide the world towards a globalisation that is focussed on man’s real good”. “With the same mercy as Jesus’s for the crowds he stressed even today the Church feels bound to ask those who have political responsibilities and have in their hands the levers of economic and financial power to promote a development based on the respect of every man’s dignity. An important test of this effort will be actual religious freedom, not viewed just as a possibility to announce and celebrate Christ, but also to give a contribution to the building of a world enlivened by love”. “This effort the Pope insisted includes the actual consideration of the focal role that authentic Christian values play in man’s life as a response to man’s innermost doubts and as an ethical urge to man’s personal and social responsibilities. These are he warns the criteria based on which Christians will have to learn to wisely judge the plans of those who rule them”.
