The search for the source of happiness

(Vatican Radio) ‘Well-being of society: happiness as a measure of the economy?’ was the title of a conference held on Tuesday at the Rome headquarters of the De La Salle Brothers. Organised by the embassies of Costa Rica and Great Britain to the Holy See, together with the Pontifical Council for Culture, it focused on the attempt to “measure what really matters” to promote greater well-being in society.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report:

Using a series of social and environmental factors, as well as the traditional economic indicators offered by a nation’s Gross Domestic Product, researchers discussed the tools they are developing to measure the happiness of individuals and, as a consequence, the well-being of countries around the world.
Glenn Everett is director of Well-Being for the Office of National Statistics in the UK – he tells us more about his work

“We use three pillars, the environment, the social and the economic……

Reflecting on the meaning of the word happiness, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi spoke of the practical, physical needs that provide people with a sense of happiness, but also of the spiritual, interior elements that constitute a deeper, longer lasting sense of well-being.
This holistic vision of the human person is what leads the Church to increasingly raise its voice in the area of economic and social justice, as Richard Rouse from the Council for Culture explains:

“It’s not just about economics….

It’s not just the Church or faith groups which are focusing on the deeper search for contentment in our increasingly secular and consumer driven societies. The global economic crisis, which continues to keep countries in recession, laid bare the destructive effects of politics based exclusively on profits and financial gain. Increasingly governments and international institutions are joining the search for new tools to measure more meaningful and equitable economic progress – tools like the Happy Planet Index drawn up by the New Economics Foundation. Dr Saamah Abdallah is a senior researcher at that London based foundation…

“It’s a very simple index…..