This was the analysis made 28 years ago by Chiara Lubich, founder of a worldwide movement of unity and winner of the Unesco Prize for Peace Education. Faced with the absurdity of immense economic inequality — for example, letting children starve even as vast amounts of resources are invested in technological feats — she observed that our world is deficient in relationships. We know how to produce wealth but do not know how to share it.
SINGAPORE (May 20): As a French citizen, I was deeply affected by the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and was happy and surprised that many people contributed generously to its reconstruction. But I do not understand why, while we were able to collect millions of euros in a few days to rebuild the cathedral, we still cannot collect what is necessary to help those in need and reduce inequality to fix our economy.
Once again, we have shown there is no lack of resources. Why do we not consider it as urgent to support entire parts of the global economy that are in danger of collapsing because of rising inequality? How can we accept that some countries are using the earth’s resources excessively at the expense of others, leaving entire peoples in desolation, when we have the capacity to act?
