Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

4 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | 27 th O ctober 2000 In a world that is becoming ever more unified from an economic and financial standpoint, where you can communicate in real time between anywhere in the world and anywhere else, what is needed is a style of dialogue and listening that also includes consideration of social and economic problems and allows a shift from the globalization of markets and information exchange towards a globalization of solidarity. Pope John Paul II has frequently called for this and has invited people for the Jubilee years to “create a new culture of solidarity and international cooperation where everybody… accepts their responsibility for building an economic model at the service of the individual.” (John Paul II, Incarnationnis Mysterium , number 12). This means interpreting and organizing the economy by recognizing its values and limits and its subordination to ethics. “This also means searching for ideal legal tools for effective supranational control of the economy; an economic community has to correspond with an international civil society, able to express forms of political and economic subjectivity inspired in solidarity and the quest for the common good, in a broader vision able to include the whole world.” (John Paul II, To the teachers and students of the ‘Luigi Bocconi’ Business University of Milan , 20 November 1999, number 4). We could thus deal with the burning questions of the day: peace between ethnic groups and religions, particularly in the Middle East; human rights and the defence of lifelong personal dignity in every country in the world; environmental issues and protecting the earth against the degradation that threatens it. The believer will be guided by the certainty that underlying the paths of man there is a grace from the Holy Spirit leading the struggle against all that is absurd and unjust. All those who at least has confidence in life itself, even though they may have no particular religious faith, will thereby find fellow travellers to share their yearning for the dignity of every man and woman, and of every country on earth. Carlo Maria Martini — Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2000 In 2000, Cardenal Martini (1927-2012) had been Archbishop of Milan since 1979. — Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences on 27/10/2000.