Vatican City - In an encyclical published Tuesday on the eve of a Group of Eight summit, Pope Benedict XVI has urged governments to place the needs of people first as they grapple with the current economic crisis. "The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his and her integrity," the pontiff wrote in the document, published as a 144-page booklet.
He also calls for a reform of the United Nations and of economic institutions and international finance "so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth."
Poorer nations in particular, "must be given an effective voice in shared decision making," according to the German-born pontiff.
Benedict notes how, under the guise of intellectual property rights, rich nations often display an excessive zeal to "protect knowledge," with the effect that the poor are deprived of access to costly medicines and other forms of advanced health care products and treatments.
Entitled "Caritas in veritate," in English, Charity in Truth, the text - compiled with the input of several experts - was given final approval when the pope signed it last week.
Traditionally, encyclicals are the most authoritative documents a pope can issue. The Vatican has said Benedict had been working on the encyclical since 2007, but held back on issuing it so that he could update it to reflect the global economic crisis.
And in the text of Charity in Truth, the 82-year-old pontiff deals with some of the finer points of global trade, financial speculation on the investment markets, food security and intellectual property rights.
Stressing what he sees as the injustices of globalized, transnational capitalism, Benedict pinpoints the practice of "outsourcing," whereby companies obtain product components or services from suppliers located in areas with lower labour costs.
Such business arrangements "can weaken the company's sense of responsibility," towards "the workers, the suppliers, the consumers, the natural environment."
Instead, those who benefit are company shareholders "who are not tied to a specific geographical area," the pontiff writes, stressing that businesses have to show "greater social responsibility."
While recognizing that development based on economic growth has brought benefits, this process continues to be "weighed down by malfunctions and dramatic problems."
Among the chief evils of the global economy, the pontiff includes "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing," the forces that propel "large scale migration of people," and the "unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources."
Benedict notes that, in rich countries, parts of society are succumbing to poverty, while in poor nations some elites enjoy the benefits of "super-development of a wasteful and consumerist kind."
Whilst the current global crisis has had a devastating impact on millions of people, it also offers an opportunity "to replan our journey, set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment," according to Benedict.
Benedict has written three encyclicals in his four years as pope including "God is Love" in 2006 and "Saved by Hope" in 2007.
Leaders from the Group of Eight - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia - on Wednesday are scheduled to begin three days of talks in the central Italian city of L'Aquila in Rome.
