The deconstruction of the world’s markets suggests that very difficult times are ahead.
The speed of the dissolution suggests that these difficulties cannot now be avoided.
In his Message for the World Day for Peace, the Holy Father wrote:
This perspective requires an understanding of poverty that is wide-ranging and well articulated. If it were a question of material poverty alone, then the social sciences, which enable us to measure phenomena on the basis of mainly quantitative data, would be sufficient to illustrate its principal characteristics. Yet we know that other, non-material forms of poverty exist which are not the direct and automatic consequence of material deprivation. For example, in advanced wealthy societies, there is evidence of marginalization, as well as affective, moral and spiritual poverty, seen in people whose interior lives are disoriented and who experience various forms of malaise despite their economic prosperity. On the one hand, I have in mind what is known as “moral underdevelopment”, and on the other hand the negative consequences of “superdevelopment”. Nor can I forget that, in so-called “poor” societies, economic growth is often hampered by cultural impediments which lead to inefficient use of available resources. It remains true, however, that every form of externally imposed poverty has at its root a lack of respect for the transcendent dignity of the human person. When man is not considered within the total context of his vocation, and when the demands of a true “human ecology” are not respected, the cruel forces of poverty are unleashed, as is evident in certain specific areas that I shall now consider briefly one by one.
The Holy Father writes also about many other themes.
This is what Popes do these days. They write a lot about everything.
I want to come back to a theme I have pushed on WDTPRS for a while now.
One of my favorite radio talkers and writers, Bill Bennett, often makes the point that culture trumps … many other spheres, such as politics or economics.
This certain strikes a chord with me. This chord is readily heard by most people who pause to observe and ponder our society.
I am compelled to indicate deeper rumbling, something the depths of which you must register by feel more than the mere sense of hearing.
At the same time the way we worship, that is, the way we engage in the sacred action of the liturgy, affects the world.
Every act of faithful worship, to my mind, has a deep affect upon the course of human affairs.
By all means let us write on globalization and be busy about many things.
I propose that no matter what else we do, the helm of this wreck will be steered around only by how we pray as a Church.
It is strongly possible that in our lifetimes "various nations will be annihilated", but this dire sequence can be affected by our actions.
Get serious with your worship and the sphere of the world you shape.
It is now probably up to us to save the world.
