"Inequality and poverty are the most important moral challenge of the 21st century", went on mgr. Tomasi, according to whom "a globalisation that promotes economic growth without preventing access to decent jobs" boosts "the spreading of ideas, capitals, technology, goods and people for the common good". The possibility of "giving a personal imprint" to work, so that one can carry it out "with satisfaction" is, for the Vatican delegate, also a growth factor and a "contribution to social cohabitation", because "if there’s no work or if work is indecent, a person will instantly break up" and so will be "easily tempted by destructive or antisocial behaviour". The steps forward for a "gradual improvement of the quality of work and workers’ rights", according to mgr. Tomasi, include the recent "good news" that "for the very first time, the number of children forced to work in the world has fallen by 11% between 2000 and 2004, from 248 to 218 million. "The prospect that children may be taken out of farming or mining jobs, that they may no longer be trafficked for forced prostitution, that they may go to school and grow and be hopeful commented mgr. Tomasi should double up the determination of the governments" and civil society in achieving the "total eradication of under-age workers".
