Overcoming inequality is key to economic development, pope says

Published: 2003-12-15

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Programs to promote economic development in the Dominican Republic will not have a lasting positive effect on the country unless a key aim is overcoming inequality, Pope John Paul II said. "In today's world, the law of the market and globalization are not enough," the pope said Dec. 15 in a message to the country's new ambassador to the Vatican, Carlos Rafael Conrado Marion-Landais Castillo. Solidarity between rich and poor is the only thing that can help a developing country "avoid the evils which derive from a capitalism that places earnings before the person and which makes the human person the victim of many injustices," the pope said. "A model of development which does not take inequalities into account and face them with decisiveness cannot prosper," the pope said. Pope John Paul said that as the Dominican Republic continues its recovery from the economic crises of the 1990s the state must give special attention to the poor by providing education, creating employment opportunities and involving the poor in the development of projects to improve their lives.

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