By Joan Mitchell, CSJ
Sunday’s gospel is about doubling an investment. Pope Francis has weighed in on an economy that deifies the free market and makes the already rich richer. He pleads for an economy of inclusion.
“We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programs, mechanisms, and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment, and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality” (Joy of the Gospel #204).
Pope Francis wonders if many professional and media people live too far removed from those who are poor to know their problems. “They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population (Laudato Si’ #49). The pope urges us to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. To repair our common home requires also bettering the life of people who are poor.
In 2015, the United Nations celebrated its work to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals it set in 2000. It took only 10 years to achieve the first goal — to cut in half the number of people living on $1.25 per day. Then looking to the future, 195 nations agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030. The first is no poverty and the second zero hunger.
Good health and quality education are the third and four goals. The United Nations achieved having 90% of the children in the world complete primary school, both boys and girls by 2012. The work goes on to achieve higher levels and struggle against the effects of war and climate change.
Many of the new goals aim to repair Earth. The new goals include sustainable energy, water, climate action, life below water in seas, life on land and biodiversity — areas in which Pope Francis encourages global action in his exhortation on our common home. Achieving the first goals showed the nations of the world that more is possible and more is needed for a sustainable future for all.
- How are you joining in home repair for Earth?