Maybe the Pope in Rome is more important than the President in Washington

As a politically independent newspaper, we are freed from the heavy burden of having to or wanting to engage directly in politics. Instead, we are focussing on issues arising from a political ethic based on the social nature and the personal concept of man¹, on questions regarding issues of mankind – both large and small.

Many people are currently focussed on one topic: What is the new US president planning … and what will he do? This focus is easy to understand. The USA are a major military and economic power, and its policies have too often had nothing to do with political ethics. But even the new US president is not the ruler of the world … and hopefully humanity will keep in mind that others also have a say.
  Much of what is currently written and broadcast is also part of a major war of information: not only between the USA, Russia and China, for example, but also between the desire to actually shape the future world order differently than before and the violent inertia of the old powers, especially those in our Western countries. Public statements by politicians and their media mouthpieces are therefore often open to interpretation – and many things are not to be taken at face value.
  Sometimes, however, you can find accurate statements even in a newspaper like the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. For example, in an otherwise uninviting interview from 22 January 2025 with the Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. This director is also focused on the new US president, but at least he says: “Many people in the world are rejecting the current type of American foreign policy. They dislike the idea that America, as the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, sees itself as morally legitimised to determine what they should – and should not – do.”
  That is indeed the case. And that is why it is so important not to focus on the words and actions of the new US president like a rabbit caught in the headlight but to think more about what the real issues facing humanity are.

Message for the World Day of Peace

The Pope in Rome is one person trying to make human issues a public topic. This year, as every year, he did so again in his message on 1 January, celebrating the 58^th World Day of Peace. The Pope says things that should be self-evident, but which are in danger of being forgotten in our countries.
  For example, the Pope said that “no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will.”
  As Pope, he feels “bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbours oppressed.”. Each of us, the Pope said, “must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family. Systemic challenges, distinct yet interconnected, are thus created and together cause havoc in our world. I think, in particular, of all manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion wilfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole.”

Hearing the cry of humanity

He continues: “At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice […]. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about.”
  Because: “The celebration of the Holy Year [which the Roman Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years] spurs us to make a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone.” And “the international system, unless it is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped.”

The logic of exploitation

Specifically: “I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets. In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the “ecological debt” incurred by the more developed countries. Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis.”

Mutually dependent

What foundations can a change be built on?
  “The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to ‘rediscover once for all that we need one another’ [here the Pope quotes his encyclical Fratelli tutti of 3 October 2020] and are indebted one to another.”
  Specifically, the Pope proposes three measures to overcome the debt crisis: firstly, “a total cancellation of international debt”; secondly, “at the same time, a new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial Charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples”; and thirdly, “firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children”.
  In view of the catastrophic situation of millions of children and young people in the world, he also calls for “a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development […].”
  It was also important to “eliminate every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones.”
  “The goal of peace” is the title of the last section of the Pope’s message. There we can read: “When I divest myself of the weapon of credit and restore the path of hope to one of my brothers or sisters, I contribute to the restoration of God’s justice on this earth and, with that person, I advance towards the goal of peace.”

For a world in which we
experience ourselves differently,
more united and more fraternal

“May 2025,” said the Pope, “be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises.” Because “peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible”.
  Truly, this is a different programme!

PS: In German-speaking media outside the Catholic Church, the Pope’s message of peace was hardly mentioned anywhere. In other parts of the world, however, the situation is different. •

¹ see, for example: Sutor, Bernhard. Politische Ethik. Gesamtdarstellung auf der Basis der Christlichen Gesellschaftslehre (Political ethics: A comprehensive presentation based on Christian social teaching), 1992 (2^nd edition)