One of the fundamental tasks of those actively involved in international economic matters is to achieve for mankind an integral development in solidarity, that is to say, “it has to promote the good of every person and of the whole person”.764Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 14: AAS 59 (1967), 264. To achieve this task requires a vision of the economy that, on the international level, guarantees an equitable distribution of resources and that is responsive to awareness of the interdependence — economic, political and cultural — that today unites people definitively among themselves and makes them feel linked by a sole destiny.765Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2437-2438. Social problems increasingly take on a global dimension. No State can face these alone and find a solution. The present generations have direct experience of the need for solidarity and are concretely aware of the necessity to move beyond an individualistic culture.766Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 2000 World Day of Peace, 13-14: AAS 92 (2000), 365-366. There is an ever wider awareness of the need for models of development that seek to take on the task not only “of raising all peoples to the level currently enjoyed by the richest countries, but rather of building up a more decent life through united labour, of concretely enhancing every individual's dignity and creativity, as well as his capacity to respond to his personal vocation, and thus to God's call”.767John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 29: AAS 83 (1991), 828-829; cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 40-42: AAS 59 (1967), 277-278.
A more human development in solidarity will also bring benefit to the richer countries themselves. In these countries “one frequently observes a sort of existential confusion, an inability to live and to experience properly the meaning of life, even though surrounded by an abundance of material possessions. A sense of alienation and loss of their own humanity has made people feel reduced to the role of cogs in the machinery of production and consumption and they find no way to affirm their own dignity as persons made in the image and likeness of God”.768John Paul II, Address at General Audience (1 May 1991): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 6 May 1991, p. 3. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 9: AAS 80 (1988), 520-523. Rich countries have shown the ability to create material well-being, but often at the expense of man and the weaker social classes. “One cannot ignore the fact that the frontiers of wealth and poverty intersect within societies themselves, whether developed or developing. In fact, just as social inequalities — even to the point of lives of misery and poverty — exist in rich countries, so, in parallel fashion, in the less developed countries one often sees manifestations of selfishness and a flaunting of wealth which is as disconcerting as it is scandalous”.769John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 14: AAS 80 (1988), 526-527.