The main focus of this year’s international three-day conference held by Fondazione Centesimus Annus at the Nuova Aula del Sinodo at the Vatican City was the refugee emergency and its challenges to us as citizens, professionals and businessmen.
Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice is a Vatican-based foundation that is recognised as a think-tank on social, political and economic matters in the light of the Catholic Church’s social thinking.
Although the conference’s main title was ‘Business initiative in the fight against poverty’, it was its sub-title ‘The refugee emergency, our challenge’ that caught the attention of most speakers and participants.
The data on refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers is simply shocking. Over 230 million (three per cent of the world’s population) live outside the country they were born; of these, 14.2 million are refugees.
Ten million people across the world are ‘Stateless’, and around 33.3 million have been forced to leave their homes although still living within their country. These are people on the move – a better definition than the labels of refugees and immigrants most commonly used to categorise, and in the process dehumanise, the people going through the trauma of having to leave their home and surroundings.
These are all people who have taken the most difficult decision of leaving their homes to look for a better life. These people are human beings with human dignity; they are also our brothers and sisters, especially in their difficult destiny.
If we look at our surnames and family history we would realise that our ancestors were also part of this big movement of people in search of greener pastures due to economic, social or political reasons.
It was insightful to look at poor people and refugees as an ‘opportunity to flourish’ rather than a problem to be solved. People settle down and feel empowered socially and economically when they have dignified work and receive recognition.
We need to personally encounter excluded people
An interesting reflection made during the conference was that most refugee and migrant support programmes are designed to ‘manage the problem’, not to solve it. For example, we are not investing enough in conflict prevention to avoid civil and tribal wars. The ‘law of war’, which is clearly defined by the UN and other internationally recognised conventions, is continuously and flagrantly violated.
On an economic level, humanitarian relief must not to be separated from socio-economic development, and anthropologic issues of dysfunctional culture, failed States and corruption need to be forcefully tackled to ensure fairness and justice.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila and president of Caritas International issued a moving call to shake the numbness of our conscience. He mentioned cases where people in the western world and business look the other way, indifferent to the plight of these human beings, or even exploit them.
He listed some paths to a human response to this reality. Firstly, a renewed vision of the human person, society, the economy and development, by viewing life as a gift, which perspective is ignored in a consumerist, pragmatic and utilitarian way of life.
Secondly, a deliberate effort to include people who at present are excluded from decision-making and activities. Action is needed to pursue an inclusive growth even in business with the involvement of persons living on the margins.
In this regard Cardinal Tagle asked: Are the poor included in our vision-mission statements? Are the poor included in our goals and planning? And is the development of the poor a factor in deciding what to produce and what services to offer?
Thirdly, we need to personally encounter excluded people. This means we need to move from awareness to touch, to have physical contact with this reality.
It is only by touching these people and listening to their experiences and stories of sorrow and grief that we consider them not as categories or numbers but as human beings with feelings, hurts and thresholds.
Pope Francis addressed the conference speakers and participants on the second day and encouraged the professional and business community to strengthen its fight against poverty, which he defined as “not merely a technical, economic problem, but above all a moral one”.
He encouraged the foundation to contribute to the search for economic progress, which is directed to “the universal common good, the creation of labour and investment in human resources”.
The foundation will pursue its efforts in taking up this challenge.