Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the Fourth World Meeting of Popular Movements (EMMP), 16.10.2021
Some powerful quotes
1. Dear social poets
This is what I like to call you: social poets. You are social poets, because you have the ability and the courage to create hope where there appears to be only waste and exclusion. Poetry means creativity, and you create hope. With your hands you know how to shape the dignity of each person, of families and of society as a whole, with land, housing, work, care, and community. Thank you, because your dedication speaks with an authority that can refute the silent and often polite denials to which you have been subjected, or to which so many of our brothers and sisters are subjected. But, thinking of you, I am convinced that your dedication is above all a proclamation of hope.
Thank you for the video we have just seen. I have read the reflections from the meeting, the testimonies of those who lived in these times of tribulation and anguish, the summary of their desires and their proposals. Thank you. Thank you for including me in the historical process that you are going through, and thank you for sharing with me this fraternal dialogue that seeks to see the great in the small and the small in the great, a dialogue that is born in the peripheries, a dialogue that reaches Rome and wherein we may all feel invited and engaged. “If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue”,[1] and how much!
You felt that the current situation merited a new meeting. I felt the same. Although we have never lost contact, it is already five years, I think, since the general meeting, isn’t it? A lot has happened in that time; a lot has changed
In these months, many things you’ve long been denouncing have become totally obvious. The pandemic has laid bare the social inequalities that afflict our peoples
Many things we used to take for granted have collapsed like a house of cards. We have experienced how our way of life can drastically change from one day to the next, preventing us, for example, from seeing our relatives, colleagues and friends
We have all suffered the pain of lockdown, but as usual you have had the worst of it.
One of the expressions of this culture of indifference is that this suffering one-third of our world does not seem to be of sufficient interest to the big media and opinion makers. It remains huddled together and hidden.
And speaking of pandemics, we have stopped questioning the scourge of the food crisis. Despite advances in biotechnology, millions of people have been deprived of food, even though it is available.
Annual deaths from hunger may exceed those of Covid.[3] But this does not make the news. It does not generate empathy
Like the doctors, nurses and health workers in the trenches of healthcare, you have taken your place in the trenches of the marginalised neighbourhoods. I am thinking of many, in quotation marks, “martyrs” to this solidarity, about whom I have learned from you. The Lord will take them into account. If all those who out of love struggled together against the pandemic could also dream of a new world together, how different things would be! To dream together.
2. The blessed
You are, as I said in the letter I sent you last year,[4] a veritable invisible army; you are a fundamental part of that humanity that fights for life against a system of death
I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being, to have access to the vaccines. There are countries where only three or four per cent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated.
In the name of God, I ask financial groups and international credit institutions to allow poor countries to assure “the basic needs of their people” and to cancel those debts that so often are contracted against the interests of those same peoples.
In the name of God, I ask the great extractive industries -- mining, oil, forestry, real estate, agribusiness -- to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.
In the name of God, I ask the great food corporations to stop imposing monopolistic systems of production and distribution that inflate prices and end up withholding bread from the hungry.
In the name of God, I ask arms manufacturers and dealers to completely stop their activity, because it foments violence and war, it contributes to those awful geopolitical games which cost millions of lives displaced and millions dead.
In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.
In the name of God, I ask the telecommunications giants to ease access to educational material and connectivity for teachers via the internet so that poor children can be educated even under quarantine
In the name of God, I ask the media to stop the logic of post-truth, disinformation, defamation, slander and the unhealthy attraction to dirt and scandal, and to contribute to human fraternity and empathy with those who are most deeply damaged.
In the name of God, I call on powerful countries to stop aggression, blockades and unilateral sanctions against any country anywhere on earth. No to neo-colonialism. Conflicts must be resolved in multilateral fora such as the United Nations. We have already seen how unilateral interventions, invasions and occupations end up; even if they are justified by noble motives and fine words.
I also want to ask all of us religious leaders never to use the name of God to foment wars or coups (cf
3. Let us dream together!
Sisters and brothers, let us dream together. And so, as I ask all of this with you as well as of you, I want to add some reflections on the future that we must dream and build. Although I say reflections, perhaps I ought to say dreams, because right now our brains and hands are not enough, we also need our hearts and our imagination; we need to dream so that we do not go backwards. We need to use that sublime human faculty which is the imagination, that place where intelligence, intuition, experience and historical memory come together to create, compose, venture and risk. Let us dream together, because it was precisely the dreams of freedom and equality, of justice and dignity, the dreams of fraternity, that improved the world. And I am convinced when we look through these dreams we will find God’s own dream for all of us, who are His own sons and daughters.
But what is one of the greatest dangers we face today? In the course of my life - I am not a teenager, I know, I do have some experience - I have managed to learn that from a crisis you never emerge the same. We will not come out of this pandemic crisis the same. Come out better or come out worse but: the same as we were before? No. We will never emerge the same.
In Fratelli tutti I used the parable of the Good Samaritan as the clearest possible Gospel presentation of this intentional choice
Do you know what comes to mind now when, together with popular movements, I think of the Good Samaritan? Do you know what comes to mind? The protests over the death of George Floyd. It is clear that this type of reaction against social, racial or macho injustice can be manipulated or exploited by political machinations or whatever, but the main thing is that, in that protest against this death, there was the Collective Samaritan who is no fool! This movement did not pass by on the other side of the road when it saw the injury to human dignity caused by an abuse of power. The popular movements are not only social poets but also collective Samaritans.
I want to offer some guidelines. The social teaching of the Church does not have all the answers, but it does have some principles that along this journey can help to concretize the answers, principles useful to Christians and non-Christians alike It sometimes surprises me that every time I speak of these principles, some people are astonished, and then the Holy Father gets labeled with a series of epithets that are used to reduce any reflection to mere discrediting adjectives. It doesn’t anger me, it saddens me. It is part of the post-truth plot that seeks to nullify any humanistic search for an alternative to capitalist globalisation, it is part of the throwaway culture, and it is part of the technocratic paradigm.
In chapter four of this document, we find principles such as the preferential option for the poor, the universal destination of goods, solidarity, subsidiarity, participation, and the common good. These are all ways in which the Good News of the Gospel takes concrete form on a social and cultural level. And it saddens me that some members of the Church get annoyed when we mention these guidelines that belong to the full tradition of the Church. But the Pope must not stop mentioning this teaching, even if it often annoys people, because what is at stake is not the Pope but the Gospel.
4. Time for action
I often hear, “Father, we agree, but in real terms, what must we do?” I do not have the answer, and so we must dream together and find it together. There are, however, some concrete measures that may allow for significant changes
A basic income (the UBI) or salary so that everyone in the world may have access to the most basic necessities of life. It is right to fight for a humane distribution of these resources, and it is up to governments to establish tax and redistribution schemes so that the wealth of one part of society is shared fairly, but without imposing an unbearable burden, especially upon the middle class.
Shortening the workday is another possibility: the minimum income is one, the reduction of the working day is another possibility, and one that needs seriously to be explored. In the 19th century, workers laboured twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours a day. When they achieved the eight-hour day, nothing collapsed, contrary to what some sectors had predicted.
Sisters and brothers, I am convinced that “the world can be seen more clearly from the peripheries”. We must listen to the peripheries, open the doors to them and allow them to participate.
Let us reaffirm the commitment we made in Bolivia: to place the economy at the service of the people in order to build a lasting peace based on social justice and on care for our Common Home. Continue to promote your agenda of land, work and housing. Continue to dream together. And thank you, thank you very much, thank you for letting me dream with you.
Thank you for the video we have just seen. I have read the reflections from the meeting, the testimonies of those who lived in these times of tribulation and anguish, the summary of their desires and their proposals. Thank you. Thank you for including me in the historical process that you are going through, and thank you for sharing with me this fraternal dialogue that seeks to see the great in the small and the small in the great, a dialogue that is born in the peripheries, a dialogue that reaches Rome and wherein we may all feel invited and engaged. “If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue”,[1] and how much!
ReplyDeleteThe Preparatory Document for the Synod says that we are to do two interrelated things: 1) talk about our "walking together" internally as a Church, and 2) talk about our "walking together" with humanity. Francis is modeling that second dimension in this talk
2. The blessed
ReplyDeleteYou are, as I said in the letter I sent you last year,[4] a veritable invisible army; you are a fundamental part of that humanity that fights for life against a system of death
I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being, to have access to the vaccines. There are countries where only three or four per cent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated.
In Matthews Gospel the Beatitudes which come from the Q document are stated in the positive form, but in Luke they are stated as both blessing and woe.
Francis is giving a long list of woes to those who fail to be blessed.
Do you know what comes to mind now when, together with popular movements, I think of the Good Samaritan? Do you know what comes to mind? The protests over the death of George Floyd. It is clear that this type of reaction against social, racial or macho injustice can be manipulated or exploited by political machinations or whatever, but the main thing is that, in that protest against this death, there was the Collective Samaritan who is no fool! This movement did not pass by on the other side of the road when it saw the injury to human dignity caused by an abuse of power. The popular movements are not only social poets but also collective Samaritans.
ReplyDeleteA powerful endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement even if with the caveat that it can be political manipulated.
Yes, some very powerful quotes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure exactly which "powerful movements" he is addressing. Is it ecclesial ones such as Focolare or Communion and Liberation, or secular ones such as BLM, or maybe both?
Pope Francis is amazing in so many ways. Not perfect, but I do admire him and his willingness to actually preach as Jesus did., He doesn’t much worry about the political fallout, or the pushback from the right wing faction of the RCC. He is very willing to rock the boat and let unhappy Catholics be unhappy because he is reminding them of what Jesus taught. Jesus didn’t worry about making his listeners feel comfortable either. He rocked the boat.
ReplyDeleteI especially admire his forthrightness on the George Floyd protests. Bravo, Jorge!
"I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being, to have access to the vaccines. There are countries where only three or four per cent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated."
ReplyDeleteWith all the respect I owe the Holy Father, I think this is bad advice. Releasing the patents wouldn't get more needles into arms in a short amount of time, and in the longer run it would weaken the incentives of pharmaceutical makers to develop more lifesaving remedies.
Intellectual property (IP) rights are not what is preventing the developing world from getting vaccinated. As I understand it, it is limited manufacturing capacity, coupled with a lack of effective international coordination. The vaccines are sufficiently complex that ramping up manufacturing is very difficult - even if all "raw materials" of the vaccines and components of the manufacturing processes (all of which also are protected by IP laws, btw) are in sufficient supply.
It's in the self interest of the United States, the EU and other developed world countries that the rest of the world reach a critical point of vaccination. The best way to do that is to replicate and "scale up" the initial effort that has allowed the developed world to get vaccinated. A global Operation Warp Speed. In the US, we have effective vaccines in large quantities today, not because anyone set aside IP rights, but because governments and private enterprise teamed up to work within the existing system of IP rights to spur the development, testing, approval, manufacture and distribution of vaccines faster than ever has been done before.
The EU is showing wisdom: it opposes setting aside IP rights.
The pope, in the document Jack quoted, made the point that elements of Catholic social teaching are uncongenial to the ideologies of the world. Well, among the traditional elements of Catholic social teaching is confirmation of property rights. In this instance, I think Francis would do better by drinking from the well of tradition, rather than seeking to innovate.
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DeleteThere is precedent for this. It happened during the fight against AIDS in Africa.
DeletePutting profit over people’s lives doesn’t seem particularly pro- life.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-11/aids-drugs-in-south-africa-shows-precedent-for-overriding-patents-on-medications
Hi Anne, I read that article. I don't see that it states that the makers of the HIV/AIDS treatments relinquished their patents. It states that adverse publicity induced the manufacturers to offer the treatments for considerably cheapers.
DeleteAnne and all, here is a different recap of that HIV/AIDS treatment episode, with some explicit comparisons of the two situations. Please note:
* The AIDS-fighting treatments were intended for a relatively small and targeted population, they were extremely expensive on a per-dose basis; they were relatively easy to manufacture.
* The COVID vaccines are intended for a broad population (literally, the entire adult population or as much as is possible); they are relatively cheap on a per-dose basis; they are quite expensive to manufacture.
In other words, the two situations aren't parallel. Still, he acknowledges that the threat of voiding the IP protections might be a "stick" (as opposed to a carrot) that would bring otherwise-uncooperative manufacturers to the table. But I'm not sure how uncooperative they would be; they surely remember the same adverse-publicity lessons of the AIDS treatment episode.
To be sure: the article also notes that the manufacturers have some natural market disincentives to expand production: it's not clear that COVID vaccines represent the long-term revenue stream which normally would justify a dramatic increase in production; and building a worldwide production capability might require working with thieves and pirates, e.g. China, whose track record of stealing IP is well documented and deplorable.
The author includes a laundry list of recommendations, which fall under the umbrella of "government/manufacturer partnership". Of course, that's how we got to where we now are: plentiful and effective vaccines (if only we could induce the remaining adults to take them).
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/how-to-vaccinate-the-world/
This Axios article notes that the Biden Administration is promising to twist Moderna's arm, using the power of the US federal government, to induce it to increase production of the virus and deliver one billion doses to a coordinating agency - at cost. Whether this policy supplements or replaces the Biden Administration's previously stated goal of getting manufacturers to waive their patent rights isn't clear from the article. But that pressure seems to be an example of the carrot-and-stick approach that Patrick Brennan advocated for in the article I had referenced in my previous comment.
Deletehttps://www.axios.com/covid-vaccine-moderna-biden-global-supply-covax-ff74663f-8123-40e1-bc91-f91fdbb92f4c.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top
Since the end goal is to get everyone we can vaccinated, especially in the countries where so few have been, getting the manufacturers to donate free doses is probably a more realistic goal than getting them to waive patent rights. As you said, "carrot and stick".
DeleteI wonder if the under-vaccinated places will have any trouble getting people to accept vaccination when doses do become available to them.
DeleteI should add: it's not of primary importance to me that Big Pharma makes Big Profits. I think that, on the whole, they provide a lot of social value by creating medications and treatments that prevent and cure illnesses, save lives, alleviate pain and so on. But I'm not their unpaid advocate.
DeleteBut what struck me about the quote from Francis - in fact, it was a jaw-dropper - was his urging that manufacturers relinquish their patent rights. Patents protect intellectual property (IP). The tradition of Catholic social teaching is they should be protected.
Now - that right doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it isn't absolute. It should be understood to be subordinate to the Universal Destination of Goods, whereby the goods of the earth (and those things such as IP which are derived from or help increase the utility and value of the goods of the earth) are a blessing meant for all, not to be hoarded by a wealthy few. Ownership of property should be wielded for the Common Good.
Those who possess much property are expected to live in solidarity with those who have little. They are expected to live out the Preferential Option for the Poor.
If the choice is between protecting intellectual property rights and getting persons in the developing world vaccinated, then it's no contest: the urgent need for vaccination takes precedence. But to set up the problem this way is to pose a false dilemma. It isn't an either-or situation. It seems quite possible to make vaccines plentiful while respecting intellectual property rights.
The problem is broader than vaccines but extends to all medications and medical equipment. The government grants monopolistic power to the pharmaceutical companies through patent protection. They use this protection to charge higher prices to the American public, even though a large part of R&D is paid by the government. This is never considered as part of the national debt but it increases the debt of individual members of the nation, nonetheless. Economist Dean Baker discusses the situation here.
Deletehttps://cepr.net/high-drug-prices-and-the-refusal-to-talk-seriously-about-debt-and-deficits/
Thank you, Stanley.
DeleteOff- topic. I once shared memories of my mother’s encounters with Hollywood stars when she was young - friends in LA who went on to be known to millions , like John Wayne and Lucille Ball. I also mentioned that when living in DC “ordinary” people often have brief encounters with local celebrities - not movie stars, but politicians or high level government leaders. Today I will mention only one of those encounters, Colin Powell, because the news of his death from Covid really saddens me. Did he make mistakes in judgment? Yes, definitely. Many criticize him harshly. I can understand the criticism, but it doesn’t change my admiration for him. He had a presence when he came into a room that was amazing. He filled the whole space. I met him at a few small social events when I was working as a consultant to a small non- profit that he and his wife, Alma, supported. I’ve had similar encounters with politicians, a Supreme Court justice, ambassadors, well known political talking heads on the Sunday morning shows, political journalists (and even Mohammed Ali) etc, but none of those impressed me in the way that the quiet dignity and presence of Colin Powell did.
DeleteMay he Rest In Peace.
Stanley, thanks for that link. It's kind of an unusual argument. If his point is that we should remove patent and copyright protections in order to reduce the government deficit, then I disagree with him, plain and simple.
DeleteHe acknowledges my view, which is very much the mainstream view: the innovators and creators of intellectual property (IP) own that property. If the government wishes to purchase products or services based on that IP, The owners can negotiate with the government to arrive at a price that is mutually acceptable to both. If the owners wish to donate the IP to the commons, they are free to do so - but it is the owners' choice; it isn't the government's prerogative to set aside IP rights so it can save itself money.
The author's example of an alleged IP monopoly - the Moderna vaccine - is poorly chosen. The marketplace in question isn't "Moderna vaccines"; it's "Effective COVID-19 vaccines". And clearly, the marketplace for effective COVID-19 vaccines is quite competitive. In that highly-regulated marketplace, there are three products already approved for use in the US; worldwide, there are many other choices as well, some or all of which conceivably also could be approved by our government for use in the US; and there are still other products in the development pipeline. The marketplace for COVID-19 vaccines strikes me as a reasonably robust marketplace. And now we are learning that cross-vaccination not only is possible and safe, it actually boosts the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Our government spends more money than any other entity in the economy. There are many choices the government makes in determining how to spend its resources. If it needs to spend more on vaccines than anticipated (2-3 years ago, nobody had done any budget planning for the COVID-19 pandemic), either it can borrow more, or raise taxes, or spend less on other categories. The federal government has many options which don't require the abolition of property rights.
Anne, thanks for that anecdote and those reflections about Colin Powell. I agree with your assessment - I think he was a great man and was a great American. I haven't been following news items about his death very closely, but I'm guessing the criticism is related to his involvement in justifying the invasion of Iraq. I think it's almost a Greek tragedy, that he allowed himself to get entangled in that terrible and corrupting decision by the Bush Administration. I think the phenomenon of Donald Trump has caused a lot of people to forget how bad our governance could be, even before Trump came along. Our politics has been broken for a long time, and Trump isn't the cause as much as a symptom.
DeleteI need to do a lot more research on this topic.
DeleteBut, there is a problem with allowing corporations whose intellectual property was developed primarily through funding by the government - taxpayers IOW, having such a long period of exclusive patent rights and the right to set the prices as high as they want. As we know,in some cases companies have raised the prices so high that people weren't taking their medications because they couldn't afford them. Many prescription plans don't cover the really expensive drugs. I have read many stories of people who live near Canada driving to Canada to buy their drugs. The EU countries don't permit unreasonable profits for drug companies - and many of the largest pharmaceutical companies are based in Europe. There should be a balance - since the people are paying the companies to develop these drugs via their taxes, perhaps there should be some limit on the patent rights - especially in exceptional circumstances like a pandemic that comes once/century and which will not be stamped out unless - IF - a lot more people are vaccinated.
Very often the pope calls on the world's rich countries, and the corporations that make billions and billions, to put the welfare of human beings ahead of profits. I think that Jesus would approve.
Anne - I don't disagree with that point. When prescriptions and treatments are so expensive that only a wealthy person (or wealthy country) can afford it, that is a moral problem.
DeleteFrancis has identified what seems to be a genuine problem: the developed world is largely vaccinated, while much of the developing world isn't vaccinated.
But the problem in this case isn't that the developing world can't afford the vaccines. Rather, the problem seems to be that it's difficult for manufacturers to ramp up production for the vaccines. Consequently, worldwide demand far exceeds supply today; and frankly the developed world has been sweeping up (and in some cases hoarding) the supply.
Francis's proposed remedy doesn't actually solve the problem, which is an inability to ramp up production adequately.
It appears to me that the US and the EU are willing to subsidize vaccines to the developing world. It's in the developed world's self-interest that everyone worldwide be vaccinated.
I believe this news is in a Washington Post article I cannot access but I saw it mentioned in Twitter. Although one would think that by the sacred rules if capitalism, if you buy something, it is yours and you can give it to anyone or sell it to anyone, except in the case of weapons. But with Pfizer's vaccine, the company has constrained the transfer of their vaccine through gift or sale, requiring Pfizer's permission. This has been applied to Brazil. In addition, Brazil cannot accept donations or purchase from other sources without Pfizer's permission. Funny how capitalists override the sacred rules of capitalism. I guess they believe in it as much as the socialists. It's all about power and influence. It doesn't have anything to do with some free market fantasy.
DeleteStanley - this Guardian article might cover that situation:
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/10/pfizer-accused-of-holding-brazil-to-ransom-over-vaccine-contract-demands
Thanks, Jim. Guardian article seems to mostly relate to indemnity. Twitter statement seemed to imply broader issues, if I read correctly.
DeleteColin Powell had a lot of gravitas and he supported American democracy in its time of peril. But he DID expend his reputation on the lurch into the Iraq War with his selling the phoney WMD justification. With all the praise, especially in the wake of the low-bar Trump presidency, a lot of bad actions of the Bush presidency are being prematurely forgiven. And the Obama presidency was a continuation of Bush's folly. Trump has thrown all political sense out of calibration. That goes for non-Trumpers as well.
ReplyDelete