Unemployment, low wages at root of conflict, Vatican official says

Published: 2004-06-11

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A lack of work and low wages lie at the root of many of the world's conflicts, said the Vatican's top representative at the United Nations in Geneva. Jobs foster both personal and national development and "working persons enrich society and foster ways of peace," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi. He spoke June 8 in an address to participants of the U.N.-sponsored International Labor Conference under way June 1-17 in Geneva. The Vatican released a copy of the text to Catholic News Service June 11. "Work is an expression of each person's dignity and identity" that "goes far beyond any quantitative measurable economic value," said Archbishop Tomasi. Armed conflicts, however, "disrupt the achievements of set goals of development," he said. Yet "at the root of many conflicts is the lack of work and of a minimum earning capacity to escape poverty and live in dignity with one's family," he said.

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