power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural   
   resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because   
   they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate   
   information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political   
   action. Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity   
   and a grave offence against human rights and the environment. The poorest are   
   those who suffer most from such offences, for three serious reasons: they are   
   cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly   
   from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today's widespread and   
   quietly growing 'culture of waste'.   
    "The dramatic reality this whole situation of exclusion and inequality, with   
   its evident effects, has led me, in union with the entire Christian people and   
   many others, to take stock of my grave responsibility in this regard and to   
   speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and   
   effective   
   solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the   
   World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign of hope. I am similarly   
   confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic Change will secure fundamental   
   and effective agreements.   
    "Solemn commitments, however, are not enough, although they are certainly a   
   necessary step toward solutions. The classic definition of justice which I   
   mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and   
   perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum cuique   
   tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is   
   effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for   
   preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as   
   quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with   
   its   
   baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and   
   tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including   
   prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organised   
   crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent   
   lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist   
   nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our   
   institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.   
    "The number and complexity of the problems require that we possess technical   
   instruments of verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content   
   with the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals -   
   goals, objectives and statistics - or we can think that a single theoretical   
   and   
   aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all the challenges. It must   
   never   
   be forgotten that political and economic activity is only effective when it is   
   understood as a prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice   
   and constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and   
   programmes, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and   
   suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.   
    "To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must   
   allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human   
   development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must   
   be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in   
   communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas in   
   which   
   human social life develops - friends, communities, towns and cities, schools,   
   businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc. This presupposes and requires   
   the right to education - also for girls (excluded in certain places) - which is   
   ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of   
   the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social   
   groups to support and assist families in the education of their children.   
   Education conceived in this way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030   
   Agenda and for reclaiming the environment.   
    "At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to ensure   
   that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in   
   dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any   
   social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names:   
   lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which   
   includes religious freedom, the right to education and all other civil rights.   
    "For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the   
   implementation of the new Agenda for development will be effective, practical   
   and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual   
   goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food   
   and   
   drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and   
   education. These pillars of integral human development have a common   
   foundation,   
   which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to   
   existence of human nature itself.   
    "The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can   
   threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of   
   an   
   irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for   
   wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright reflection on man:   
   'man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create   
   himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature'. Creation is compromised   
   'where   
   we ourselves have the final word... The misuse of creation begins when we no   
   longer recognise any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but   
   ourselves'. Consequently, the defence of the environment and the fight against   
   exclusion demand that we recognise a moral law written into human nature   
   itself,   
   one which includes the natural difference between man and woman, and absolute   
   respect for life in all its stages and dimensions.   
    "Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and   
   without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human   
   development, the ideal of 'saving succeeding generations from the scourge of   
   war', and 'promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger   
   freedom', risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter   
   which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying   
   out an ideological colonisation by the imposition of anomalous models and   
   lifestyles which are alien to people's identity and, in the end, irresponsible.   
    "War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment.   
   If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to   
   avoid war between nations and peoples. To this end, there is a need to ensure   
   the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and   
   arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which   
   constitutes   
   truly a fundamental juridical norm. The experience of these seventy years since   
   the founding of the United Nations in general, and in particular the experience   
   of these first fifteen years of the third millennium, reveal both the   
   effectiveness of the full application of international norms and the   
   ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement. When the Charter of the United   
   Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without   
   ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a   
   means   
   of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the   
   other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever   
   it proves favourable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora's box is   
   opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm defenceless   
   populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological environment.   
    "The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations set   
   forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace, the   
   pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations between   
   the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying them,   
   is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of   
   mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the   
   threat of mutual destruction - and possibly the destruction of all mankind -   
   are   
   self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United   
   Nations,   
   which would end up as 'nations united by fear and distrust'. There is urgent   
   need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the   
   non-proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete   
   prohibition of these weapons.   
    "The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive region of   
   Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political good will and   
   of   
   law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy. I express my hope that   
   this agreement will be lasting and efficacious, and bring forth the desired   
   fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.   
    "In this sense, hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects of   
   military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members   
   of the international community. For this reason, while regretting to have to do   
   so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the   
   entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians,   
   together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority   
   religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been   
   forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural   
   and   
   religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative   
   either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their   
   own lives, or by enslavement.   
    "These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of   
   conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international   
   affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every   
   situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the   
   Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests,   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)