Pope to World Bank and IMF: Solidarity means more than sporadic acts of generosity
ROME REPORTS 1,365 views Apr 8, 2021
The pope addressed a letter to participants of the 2021 Spring Meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.
World Bank Group President Kim: We Are Proud To Be a Champion for LGBTI Inclusion
World Bank 1,983 views May 16, 2018
The World Bank Group stands with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community and will continue working toward the equality and inclusion of LGBTI people in all aspects of society everywhere in the world, says President Jim Yong Kim on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOT).
The World Bank, the Catholic Church, and the Global Future of Development
Thomas Banchoff March 16, 2015
Contact between the two institutions has been sporadic. The Bank’s focus is projects with governments to address economic development, while the Church works mainly through social channels. Recently, however, the leaders of both institutions have articulated convergent approaches to human development that link economics with health, education, and the environment. As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim put it after his meeting with Pope Francis in October 2013, “We share a vision of a world with greater compassion for all people in need.”
This spring Georgetown’s new Global Futures Initiative is inviting faculty and students to explore that common vision and how to realize it in practice. A series of lectures by President Kim and his colleague Chief Economist Kaushik Basu are catalyzing conversations on campus and on the web, including one with 20 participants from Catholic and Jesuit colleges and universities around the world.
In that conversation thus far, bloggers from Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, India, South Korea, Japan, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda, and the United States have highlighted two areas of overlap and one difference of emphasis in emergent approaches to development within the Bank and within the Church.
Mental Models. Kim’s first lecture, on the Ebola crisis, highlighted the Bank’s recent work on mental models—the often unconscious ideas and values that frame problems and can impede the search for creative solutions. What Francis calls the “globalization of indifference” exemplifies a destructive mental model—the widespread assumption that economic forces are beyond our control and that fundamental questions of justice should not frame our policy thinking.
Social Inequality. In his first lecture, on global economic trends, Kaushik Basu discussed the Bank’s adoption of “shared prosperity” as a priority goal. The emphasis not just on extreme poverty but also on inequality parallels developments in Catholic social thought in recent years. As inequality has sharpened—the wealth of the richest global 1 percent is likely to soon surpass that of the other 99 percent—Francis has addressed it as “the root of social evil” and a threat to the global common good.
Accompaniment. A cross-cutting current within the blogs—the importance of personal engagement with the poor in a spirit of mutual respect—points to a difference of emphasis between the Bank and the Church. As an intergovernmental institution with a secular ethos, the Bank cannot approach human dignity as grounded in transcendence or in a Gospel command of love. Francis’ radical call to accompany the poor in their struggle makes development a personal, as well as a political, imperative.
Ultimately the World Bank, like the Catholic Church and other faith communities, acknowledges the importance of personal engagement in advancing social and political goals. Any appeal to rid the world of poverty involves a call to individual conscience. As Kim reminded the Georgetown students at the close of his lecture, “You are the first generation in the history of the world that can end extreme poverty in your lifetimes.”
Jim Kim’s next lecture in the Global Future of Development series, on March 18, will address climate change. To follow the conversation, visit the Georgetown Global Futures website and follow the dialogues on global development and Catholic social thought.
https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/forum/the-world-bank-the-catholic-church-and-the-global-future-of-development
This blog post originally appeared on the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs at Georgetown University.
https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/forum/the-world-bank-the-catholic-church-and-the-global-future-of-development
Pope Francis: Too much exclusion for a world in which all are equal
Pope Francis sends a letter to the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund as they begin their virtual spring meetings. In his letter, the Pope stresses the importance of developing a just and equal society for all.
By Vatican News staff writer April 2021
In a letter addressed to the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, Pope Francis noted that over the last year, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, "our world has been forced to confront a series of grave and interrelated socio-economic, ecological and political crises".
As the groups meet this spring, the Pope stresses that it is his hope that their discussions may contribute to a model of 'recovery' capable of generating new, more inclusive, and sustainable solutions to support the real economy, assisting individuals and communities to achieve their deepest aspirations and the universal common good.
Equal, yet excluded
Pope Francis went on to note that "for all our deeply-held convictions that all men and women are created equal, many of our brothers and sisters in the human family, especially those at the margins of society, are effectively excluded from the financial world". The pandemic, he continued, has reminded us that "no one is saved alone". "If we are to come out of this situation as a better, more humane, and solidary world," he said, "new and creative forms of social, political and economic participation must be devised, sensitive to the voice of the poor and committed to including them in the building of our common future", through inclusive projects.
Need for a global plan
The Pope then noted that many countries are now consolidating a recovery plan for Covid, but that "there remains an urgent need for a global plan that can create new or regenerate existing institutions, particularly those of global governance, and help to build a new network of international relations for advancing the integral human development of all peoples". This, he explained, means giving poorer and less developed nations an effective share in decision-making and facilitating access to the international market.
We cannot overlook the “ecological debt” that exists especially between the global north and south, continued the Pope. "We are, in fact, in debt to nature itself, as well as the people and countries affected by human-induced ecological degradation and biodiversity loss", he added. In this regard, the Pope said, "I believe that the financial industry, which is distinguished by its great creativity, will prove capable of developing agile mechanisms for calculating this ecological debt, so that developed countries can pay it, not only by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy or by assisting poorer countries to enact policies and programmes of sustainable development, but also by covering the costs of the innovation required for that purpose".
He continued, "Central to a just and integrated development is a profound appreciation of the essential objective and end of all economic life, namely the universal common good: Public money should never be disjoined from the public good, and financial markets should be underpinned by laws and regulations aimed at ensuring that they truly work for the common good".
A future for our common home
Bringing his letter to a close, the Pope said that it is time to acknowledge that markets do not govern themselves. "Markets need to be underpinned by laws and regulations that ensure they work for the common good, guaranteeing that finance works for the societal goals so much needed in the context of the present global healthcare emergency."
Finally, the Pope expressed his hope that in these days of formal deliberations and personal encounters, the two organisations with "bear much fruit from the discernment of wise solutions for a more inclusive and sustainable future. A future where finance is at the service of the common good, where the vulnerable and the marginalized are placed at the centre, and where the earth, our common home, is well cared for"
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-04/pope-francis-world-monetary-fund-message.html
World Bank's van Trotsenburg: Serious support to Africa through locals and trust
In an interview with Vatican News ahead of the Italy-Africa Summit, the World Bank's Senior Managing Director, Mr. Axel van Trotsenburg, discusses the need for the International Community to support Africa in a way that values and relies on the people on the continent, building on what they need and including them in the decision-making process.
He also discusses shared priorities of Pope Francis and the Pope's appeals for peace, welcoming hisconcretenessin working to help societies and nations in need.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov 27 January 2024, 14:33
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2024-01/interview-world-bank-deputy-leader-axel-van-trotsenburg.html
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to the World Bank Group and International Monetary FundApril 7, 2021
I am grateful for the kind invitation to address the participants in the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund 2021 Spring Meetings by means of this letter, which I have entrusted to Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
In this past year, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, our world has been forced to confront a series of grave and interrelated socio-economic, ecological, and political crises. It is my hope that your discussions will contribute to a model of “recovery” capable of generating new, more inclusive and sustainable solutions to support the real economy, assisting individuals and communities to achieve their deepest aspirations and the universal common good. The notion of recovery cannot be content to a return to an unequal and unsustainable model of economic and social life, where a tiny minority of the world’s population owns half of its wealth.
For all our deeply-held convictions that all men and women are created equal, many of our brothers and sisters in the human family, especially those at the margins of society, are effectively excluded from the financial world. The pandemic, however, has reminded us once again that no one is saved alone. If we are to come out of this situation as a better, more humane and solidary world, new and creative forms of social, political and economic participation must be devised, sensitive to the voice of the poor and committed to including them in the building of our common future (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 169). As experts in finance and economics, you know well that trust, born of the interconnectedness between people, is the cornerstone of all relationships, including financial relationships. Those relationships can only be built up through the development of a “culture of encounter” in which every voice can be heard and all can thrive, finding points of contact, building bridges, and envisioning long-term inclusive projects (cf. ibid., 216).
While many countries are now consolidating individual recovery plans, there remains an urgent need for a global plan that can create new or regenerate existing institutions, particularly those of global governance, and help to build a new network of international relations for advancing the integral human development of all peoples. This necessarily means giving poorer and less developed nations an effective share in decision-making and facilitating access to the international market. A spirit of global solidarity also demands at the least a significant reduction in the debt burden of the poorest nations, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Relieving the burden of debt of so many countries and communities today, is a profoundly human gesture that can help people to develop, to have access to vaccines, health, education and jobs.
Nor can we overlook another kind of debt: the “ecological debt” that exists especially between the global north and south. We are, in fact, in debt to nature itself, as well as the people and countries affected by human-induced ecological degradation and biodiversity loss. In this regard, I believe that the financial industry, which is distinguished by its great creativity, will prove capable of developing agile mechanisms for calculating this ecological debt, so that developed countries can pay it, not only by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy or by assisting poorer countries to enact policies and programmes of sustainable development, but also by covering the costs of the innovation required for that purpose (cf. Laudato Si’, 51-52).
Central to a just and integrated development is a profound appreciation of the essential objective and end of all economic life, namely the universal common good. It follows that public money may never be disjoined from the public good, and financial markets should be underpinned by laws and regulations aimed at ensuring that they truly work for the common good. A commitment to economic, financial and social solidarity thus entails much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. “It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labour rights… Solidarity, understood in its most profound meaning, is a way of making history” (Fratelli Tutti, 116).
It is time to acknowledge that markets - particularly the financial ones - do not govern themselves. Markets need to be underpinned by laws and regulations that ensure they work for the common good, guaranteeing that finance - rather than being merely speculative or self-financing- works for the societal goals so much needed during the present global healthcare emergency.
In this regard, we especially need a justly financed vaccine solidarity, for we cannot allow the law of the marketplace to take precedence over the law of love and the health of all. Here, I reiterate my call to government leaders, businesses and international organizations to work together in providing vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy (cf. Urbi et Orbi Message, Christmas Day 2020).
It is my hope that in these days your formal deliberations and your personal encounters will bear much fruit for the discernment of wise solutions for a more inclusive and sustainable future. A future where finance is at the service of the common good, where the vulnerable and the marginalized are placed at the centre, and where the earth, our common home, is well cared for.
In offering my prayerful best wishes for the fruitfulness of the meetings, I invoke upon all taking part God’s blessings of wisdom and understanding, good counsel, strength and peace.
From the Vatican, 4 April 2021
S.A., 4 aprile 2021
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2021/04/07/message-of-his-holiness-pope-francis-to-the-world-bank-group-and-international-monetary-fund
Pope Paul VI's Encyclical : "On the Development of Peoples" (English)
Pope Francis visited Washington D.C. on September 22-24, 2015. While a stop at the offices of the World Bank Group were not on his schedule for that trip, the Bank and the Catholic Church shared many objectives with regard to the development of the world's poorer countries. This commonality of ideals and principles was perhaps articulated most effectively in an encyclical titled "On the Development of Peoples" disseminated by Pope Paul VI in 1967. In the late 1960s, when Paul VI's message was published, the World Bank's understanding of and involvement in development was broadening to include social and humanitarian aspects. Paul VI's discussion of development is wide-ranging and includes sections on the origins of poverty and inequality, the challenges to development, and the need for action, among others.
https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/205331510689735229/pope-paul-vis-encyclical-on-the-development-of-peoples
Pope Paul VI's Encyclical : "On the Development of Peoples" (English). World Bank Group Archives exhibit series,no. 089 Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/205331510689735229/Pope-Paul-VIs-Encyclical-On-the-Development-of-Peoples
Side dig on Anjay Banga
==AJAY BANGA worked for EXOR AGNELLI FAMILY > FIAT > Fascism
Before being nominated to the World Bank, he was the chairman of Exor, the Netherlands-based investment holding company controlled by the Italian Agnelli Family,[7][8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajay_Banga
Agnelli and fascism
IMAGE: Mussolini giving a speech in Turin with Agnelli in 1923
An acquaintance of Benito Mussolini since 1914, Agnelli was appointed in 1923 by Mussolini as a senator for the National Fascist Party.[23] His newspaper La Stampa distanced themselves from Mussolini; thanks to his connections with the House of Savoy, he could assert autonomy from the Italian fascist regime. As an example, he appointed Curzio Malaparte, who was disliked by Mussolini, as director of La Stampa, and took on as private tutor of his grandson the liberal anti-fascist Franco Antonicelli,[24] and allowed his nephews to attend as their tutor the anti-fascist Augusto Monti, and another anti-fascist, Massimo Mila, as their musicologist.[25] In addition, he sought as accountant Vittorio Valletta, who was known to the Fascist regime for his social democratic ideas, membership in Freemasonry, and clandestine connections with exiled anti-fascists in France, including Giuseppe Saragat.[15] Mussolini described Agnelli as too old to be fascist, and he was suspected by the regime of helping the anti-fascist movement Giustizia e Libertà in the 1930s.[25]
Asked whether Agnelli could be considered an anti-fascist, Castronovo said: "No, for him fascism still remained the regime that guaranteed 'effective labour discipline' and with which it was necessary — bon gré, mal gré — to coexist in the interests of one's industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Agnelli
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (15 December 1932; Grand Officer: 1 February 1920; Knight: 8 December 1898)
Knight of the Order of Labour (30 May 1907)
Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (6 February 1921)
Inducted into the European Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001.[33]
Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.[34]
The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italian: Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro) (abbreviated OSSML) is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood bestowed by the royal House of Savoy. It is the second-oldest order of knighthood in the world, tracing its lineage to AD 1098, and it is one of the rare orders of knighthood recognized by papal bull, in this case by Pope Gregory XIII.[2] In that bull, Pope Gregory XIII bestowed upon Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and his Savoy successors, the right to confer this knighthood in perpetuity. The Grand Master is Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, also known as the Duke of Savoy, the grandson of the last King of Italy, Umberto II. However, Emanuele Filiberto's cousin twice removed Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta claims to be grand master as his father claimed to be head of the house of Savoy.
The order was formerly awarded by the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) with the heads of the House of Savoy as the Kings of Italy. Originally a chivalric order of noble nature, it was restricted to subjects of noble families with proofs of at least eight noble great-grandparents. The order's military and noble nature was and is still combined with a Roman Catholic character.
After the abolition of the monarchy and the foundation of the Italian Republic in 1946, the legacy of the order is maintained by the pretenders of the House of Savoy and the Italian throne in exile.
The order is estimated to include about 2,000 members around the world, with about 200 in the United States. The Order also has roster consultative status with the United Nations, as part of the U.N.'s ECOSOC.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saints_Maurice_and_Lazarus
The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
List of Grand Masters
King and Grand Master Charles Felix of Sardinia in ceremonial robe of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1572–1580)
Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (1580–1630)
Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (1630–1637)
Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy (1637–1638)
Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (1638–1675)
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (1675–1731)
Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (1732–1773)
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (1773–1796)
Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia (1796–1802)
Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (1802–1824)
Charles Felix of Sardinia (1824–1831)
Charles Albert of Sardinia (1831–1849)
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (1849–1878)
Umberto I of Italy (1878–1900)
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (1900–1946)
Umberto II of Italy (1946–1983)
Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples (1983–2024)
Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice (2024–present)
Monarchs
Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia
Gojong, Emperor of Korea
Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
Zog I, King of the Albanians
George V, King of the United Kingdom
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar of Shah of Persia
H.M.E.H. Servant of God Fra' Andrew Bertie, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Maharaja Jagatjit Singh
Maharaja Juddha Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana
Mihailo Obrenović of Serbia
Abbas I, Wāli of Egypt
Military
General of the Armies John Pershing
General of the Army George Marshall
Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch
Field Marshal Francisco Solano López
General Matthew Bunker Ridgway
General François d'Astier de La Vigerie
General Tasker H. Bliss
General Mark W. Clark
General Ira C. Eaker
General Peyton C. March
Admiral Ernesto Burzagli[10]
Surgeon Rear-Admiral Arthur Skey
Major General Ulysses S. Grant III
Major General Mason Patrick[11]
General Sebastiano Visconti Prasca
Rear Admiral Richard Byrd
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell
Naval Captain Emilio Faà di Bruno
Flight Commander Douglas Harries
SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Lammers
Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram
Brigadier General Evan M. Johnson[12]
Brigadier General Walter McCaw[13]
Rear Admiral Charles R. Train[14]
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