During the Foundation’s 2012 annual conference in Milan Cardinal Scola asked if it was not a special duty for the Fondazione Centesimus Annus – Pro Pontifice to help elaborate a better rationale of the present financial disorder, so that most people could start to feel really responsible, rather than a mere link in an incomprehensible chain of events.
For this purpose the Centesimus Annus – Pro Pontifice – having already published a report on the risks of financial globalization as early as in 2000 – organized an International Consultation on ‘The Debt Crisis, Financial Reform and the Common Good’. The Consultation took place at the Vatican on 27-28 September 2013.
The aim of this consultation was to reflect on the conditions and the possible results of a dialogue between Church leaders and moral theologians, on the one side, and academic economists, central bank leaders, professional bankers and investors on the other. About 50 personally invited participants were asked to reflect on the following question: the Church, specially Pope Francis, is making urgent appeals for a correction in the way the world economy works, to give full status to solidarity and to design governance in a way which corrects injustice; is it possible to build a bridge between these general appeals and the real decisions which policy makers and finance professionals have to face in the very difficult present context of international financial reform?
The conference was a true effort at building a dialogue.
2013 September International Consultation’s follow up now having theme “A Dialogue on Finance and the Common Good” took place on 24-25 October 2014 in Dublin in homage to Archbishop Martin’s special interest in this initiative.
The Group tasked to submit a proposal tried to formulate a limited number of conclusions and recommendations in order to put Finance to serve the Common Good, as defined by Catholic Social Teaching.
The name “Dublin Process” refers to the first and second consultation meetings both introduced by the Most Rev. Mgr. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin.
The third consultation took place on 29-30 January 2016 in Malta at the premises of Central Bank of Malta, hosted by Governor Prof. Josef Bonnici.
The fourth Consultation took place in Madrid on 25, 26 and 27 January 2017, this time jointly sponsored by the Foundation, the BBVA group and the Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE.
While the three previous consultation meetings focused on the Debt Crisis, Financial Reform and the internal ethical reconstruction in the financial sector, the Madrid Consultation focused on “Economic and Financial Ethics in the Digital Age“.
The fifth Consultation was held in New York on 15, 16 and 17 March 2018, jointly sponsored by the Foundation and the Fordham University on the theme “An Ethical Compass for the Digital Age”
La sesta Consultazione si é svolta a Londra il 31 Gennaio e 1 Febbraio 2019 ed é stata organizzata congiuntamente alla University of Notre Dame (USA) in England sul tema “An Ethical Debate on Finance and Technology” e co-sponsorizzata da St Mary’s University (Twickenham), Centre for Catholic Studies (Durham University), School of Politics and International Relations (University of Kent) e Campion Hall (Oxford).
Papers prepared at the request of the Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation for Consultations are circulated under authors’ responsibility to elicit comments and to encourage debate; the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the CAPP Foundation.