power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural
resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because
they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate
information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political
action. Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity
and a grave offence against human rights and the environment. The poorest are
those who suffer most from such offences, for three serious reasons: they are
cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly
from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today's widespread and
quietly growing 'culture of waste'.
 "The dramatic reality this whole situation of exclusion and inequality, with
its evident effects, has led me, in union with the entire Christian people and
many others, to take stock of my grave responsibility in this regard and to
speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and effective
solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the
World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign of hope. I am similarly
confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic Change will secure fundamental
and effective agreements.
 "Solemn commitments, however, are not enough, although they are certainly a
necessary step toward solutions. The classic definition of justice which I
mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and
perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum cuique
tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is
effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for
preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as
quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its
baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and
tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including
prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organised
crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent
lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist
nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our
institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.
 "The number and complexity of the problems require that we possess technical
instruments of verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content
with the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals -
goals, objectives and statistics - or we can think that a single theoretical and
aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all the challenges. It must never
be forgotten that political and economic activity is only effective when it is
understood as a prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice
and constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and
programmes, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and
suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.
 "To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must
allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human
development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must
be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in
communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas in which
human social life develops - friends, communities, towns and cities, schools,
businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc. This presupposes and requires
the right to education - also for girls (excluded in certain places) - which is
ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of
the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social
groups to support and assist families in the education of their children.
Education conceived in this way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030
Agenda and for reclaiming the environment.
 "At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to ensure
that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in
dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any
social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names:
lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which
includes religious freedom, the right to education and all other civil rights.
 "For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the
implementation of the new Agenda for development will be effective, practical
and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual
goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and
drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and
education. These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation,
which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to
existence of human nature itself.
 "The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can
threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of an
irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for
wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright reflection on man:
'man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create
himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature'. Creation is compromised 'where
we ourselves have the final word... The misuse of creation begins when we no
longer recognise any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but
ourselves'. Consequently, the defence of the environment and the fight against
exclusion demand that we recognise a moral law written into human nature itself,
one which includes the natural difference between man and woman, and absolute
respect for life in all its stages and dimensions.
 "Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and
without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human
development, the ideal of 'saving succeeding generations from the scourge of
war', and 'promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger
freedom', risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter
which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying
out an ideological colonisation by the imposition of anomalous models and
lifestyles which are alien to people's identity and, in the end, irresponsible.
 "War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment.
If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to
avoid war between nations and peoples. To this end, there is a need to ensure
the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and
arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which constitutes
truly a fundamental juridical norm. The experience of these seventy years since
the founding of the United Nations in general, and in particular the experience
of these first fifteen years of the third millennium, reveal both the
effectiveness of the full application of international norms and the
ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement. When the Charter of the United
Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without
ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a means
of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the
other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever
it proves favourable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora's box is
opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm defenceless
populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological environment.
 "The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations set
forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace, the
pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations between
the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying them,
is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of
mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the
threat of mutual destruction - and possibly the destruction of all mankind - are
self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations,
which would end up as 'nations united by fear and distrust'. There is urgent
need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the
non-proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete
prohibition of these weapons.
 "The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive region of
Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political good will and of
law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy. I express my hope that
this agreement will be lasting and efficacious, and bring forth the desired
fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.
 "In this sense, hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects of
military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members
of the international community. For this reason, while regretting to have to do
so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the
entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians,
together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority
religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been
forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and
religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative
either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their
own lives, or by enslavement.
 "These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of
conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international
affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every
situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the
Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests,

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