VATICAN, Jan. 31. 01 (Both CWNews.com and ZENIT.org contributed to this article) -- At a conference on the future of the
workplace, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
insisted that economic structures must serve human needs and uphold
human dignity.
Archbishop Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan made his remarks on
Tuesday at the conference, being held in Rome, attended by business leaders
including Bill Gates.
"Our social and economic institutions cannot be submitted to an exaggerated
and savage competition," the archbishop said. He also predicted that "no
market system that ignores the dignity and the needs of man will be able to
survive."
Archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan observed, "We are living with the paradox of
an economic and social system that does not value the potential and the
needs of persons." He pointed to the multiple violations of the rights of
women and children, and of migrant workers; the use of "child soldiers" in
civil warfare; the rise in unemployment; the exploitation of workers and
especially of children; and the "weak political will" shown by the failure to
confront these problems. He also lamented the "diminution" of the role
played by labor unions, "to which the Church has always attached great
importance."
The archbishop concluded that the key concern for world leaders "is not to
reflect on the future of labor, but on the future of man." The world's
economic and social systems must be reformed so as to provide for the needs
of "the poor, the marginalized, and the future generations." And the
responsibility for that future rests not only with governments and
international bodies, but also with business leaders, he said.
Bill Gates and Archbishop François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân agree that the human condition can be improved.
The problem is, they don't agree on what "improve" means.
At a conference on the future of globalization, sponsored by the Italian businessmen's group Confindustria, the founder of Microsoft and the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace sat on opposite sides of the table at the Congressional Palace here.
They, along with personalities of Italian political and social life, had been invited to respond to the question: "What will be the outcome of the Internet economy?"
Many of the 2,000 participants seemed more focused on the 45-year-old multibillionaire "software guru" than on the discreet 72-year-old Vietnamese cardinal-designate who spent 13 years as a prisoner under communists.
According to Bill Gates, the key to the future is in computer science: a paradigm capable of changing work, leisure and the overall life of citizens.
"Computer science is the best instrument of history to release man's creativity," Gates said. More-powerful computers, at lower prices, will progressively bring countries and citizens together, he insisted.
Computers and technology will also help overcome the barriers of social injustice, he said. "Half a million Indians earn $40,000 developing programs for U.S. businesses," Gates observed, "a success that is possible thanks to the excellent schooling available in India."
The other model for success in the future, according to Gates, is "talent." "The priority for every country must be investment in universities and schools," he said.
For Archbishop Van Thuân, on the contrary, man's model is man himself, his person and dignity.
The archbishop spoke from experience, having lived in Communist Vietnam. Since he was sometimes without a salary, he explained that he was a "carpenter, which enabled me to make this cross that I hid for years in a piece of soap; afterward, [I was] a rural worker, artisan and language teacher to my jailers."
According to the archbishop, who will be made a cardinal at the consistory Feb. 21, the problem does not lie in wondering what work will be like in the future, but rather, "What will the men and women be like on whom we depend to construct future work?"
"It cannot be 'homo faber,' who produces and consumes more and more," the archbishop explained. "Work is not an end in itself. Material production cannot be infinite; we cannot continue like this without being concerned about the one who makes the products that we acquire at a low price."
It is necessary "to change the culture completely: to make the person once again the subject of the economy and work," the cardinal-designate concluded.
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