Card Ravasi: Grafting ethics onto a world economy led by India and China
(October 27, 2011) 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
and Christ University. It was held at Bangalore, Southern India’s Karnataka State
from 25 to 29 October. 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. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President
of the Pontifical Council for Culture in his message mentioned of the vast economic
development that 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.
Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, Apostolic Nuncio to India, Cardinal Oswald Gracias,
President of the Indian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, who represents
the Dalit community, and Fr Theodore Mascarenhas, head of the Department for the Cultures
in Asia, Africa and Oceania, are among those who are participating in the seminar.