Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “The basis of human rights has been the message of Christ that the Church has interpreted with various notions that have arisen in the Christian world, like the idea of the person, the idea of freedom as the essential component of man.” This is what Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, affirmed in presenting the conclusions from the 15th Plenary Assembly of the Academy, whose theme was: “Catholic Social Doctrine and Human Rights.” In the press conference held in the Holy See Press Office, also present were Mary Ann Glendon, President of the Academy, and Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli, Professore of Canon Law at the University of Milan. Glendon highlighted the fact that in today's world there are still many problems with the protection of human rights, and mentioned that next year, the workshops will be centered on the economic crisis and its social consequences.
The Holy Father Benedict XVI received the participants of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, in an audience on May 4 and reminded them fo the need to promote respect for human rights, for a more just society, in the Christian tradition that has always affirmed that fundamental rights should be universally sustained and recognized, as they are inherent to the very nature of man as created in the image and likeness of God (see Fides 5/5/2009).
In the press conference, they also addressed the need to reaffirm the primacy of ethics over politics and politics over technology. In this area, two problems were mentioned: the foreign debt of developing countries which has been for some time awaiting a better solution and secondly, the current financial crisis, characterized by the financial bubble that has led to damages and affected the weakest of society. Thus, among the themes addressed in the course of the debate, there was also that of the possible involvement of the International Court on these questions, in cases of extreme human rights violations. (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 7/5/2009)
