Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Fides Service) - The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato R. Martino, is in Mexico for a week long pastoral visit 28 March 2 - April 2 to take part in important church and civil events. On Monday 29 March the Cardinal gave his first address on the Church’s commitment to alleviate the sufferings of the poor in a globalised world.
After taking part official opening of the World Congress for Families in Mexico City the Cardinal went to address students and teachers at the Spanish American University of Mexico on the occasion of the 60th anniversary it is establishment. Recalling the biblical foundations for the Church preferential option for the poor, he stressed that this option - never exclusive or discriminating with regard to other groups - “tends to do everything possible to help whole peoples who are excluded or marginalised, to enter the circle of economic and human development”. Hence the need, Cardinal Martino said, “not simply to give the superfluous of societies in abundance these peoples, but also and above all to change life styles, models of producing and consuming and consolidated power structures which govern society today”.
Cardinal Martino then highlighted the valid contribution of the Church’s Social Teaching towards solving present day problems of globalised economy, underlining that the Church’s moral vision in this matter “is based on the three cornerstones human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity. “The Church in America - the Cardinal said - is called not only to promote greater integration between nations contributing towards creating a truly globalised culture of solidarity but also to collaborate with legitimate means to reducing negative effects of globalisation such as the dominion of the strongest over the weaker especially in the economic field and the loss of values of local culture in favour of homogenised misunderstanding, ”.
After presiding a Concelebration of the Eucharist in the Spanish-American University chapel, in the afternoon of Monday 29 March, Cardinal Martino had a meeting with academics of the College’s Institute for Sustainable Development and Social Equity who have undertaken a study on poverty. On Tuesday March 30 the Cardinal will visit the Mexican Ministry for Social Development, where he will address in particular the problems of indigenous peoples and later he will these peoples at Aquixtla near Puebla. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 30/3/2004 - Righe 29; Parole 393)
