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Card Ravasi: Grafting ethics onto a world economy led by India and China
by Nirmala Carvalho
At a seminar titled “Towards a Strong Global Economic System: Revealing the Logic of Gratuitousness in the Market Economy”, discussions will focus on the challenges of progress: globalisation, social injustice, dehumanising exploitation and materialism. For Card Gianfranco Ravasi, president Pontifical Council for Culture, “economy and economics” must be “a science of ethical governance of the human household.”
Bangalore (AsiaNews) – An international colloquium on “Towards a Strong Global Economic System: Revealing the Logic of Gratuitousness in the Market Economy” is underway in India under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (Bangalore), and Christ University (Bangalore) from 25 to 29 October at Christ University and Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram in Bangalore. The purpose is to give the Indian Church, which is already involved in the socio-cultural field, an opportunity to reflect on the world’s development in relation to the need to respect human dignity.
In the Letter of Invitation, Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi, who chairs the Pontifical Council for Culture, stated, “As you are aware, vast economic development is underway around the planet. Asian countries like India and China are now taking the lead in the big economic boom. While progress has brought development and improvement in the living conditions of the people, it has also propped up new challenges like globalisation, increasing social injustice, dehumanising exploitation and materialism. [. . .] the Church in India already much involved in the socio-cultural field also has to face the cultural challenges of the fast changing economic scene.”
From this perspective, “The Pontifical Council for Culture wants to look at economy and economics not simply as a science of market forces and financial endeavours but more [as] a science of ethical governance of the human household.”
Mgr Salvatore Pennacchio, apostolic nuncio to India, Card Oswald Gracias, president of the Indian Bishops’ Conference, Card Telesphore Toppo, who represents the Dalit community, and Fr Theodore Mascarenhas, head of the Department for the Cultures in Asia, Africa and Oceania, were among those who are participating in the seminar. Fr Mascarenhas will speak on the ‘Logic of Gratuitousness and Global Economy: Bird’s Eye-View on the Colloquium’.