With countries around the world undergoing reorganization after wars, nonviolent revolutions and, in the Sudan, a vote to split apart, the Catholic Church’s example for development holds valuable lessons. So said the economist Paul Collier in an address on Feb. 15 to the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. Collier, the author of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, has been urging that developing countries follow the church’s example in providing basic services to the poor. What the Catholic Church has known for at least a century, he said, is that "what makes people committed to their work is not primarily financial incentives, it’s internalizing the objectives of the organization.”
Development Lessons
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
At a Mass for the Jubilee of Youth outside Rome, Pope Leo exhorted over a million young people to be "seeds of hope" and a "sign that a different world is possible."
Perhaps it is the hard-won wisdom that comes with age, but the Catholic rituals and practices I once scorned are the same rituals and practices that now usher me into God's presence, time and time again.
"Only through patient and inclusive dialogue" can "a just and lasting conflict resolution can be achieved" in the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, said the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations.
The ”Bad Guys” films ask, how do we determine who the “bad guys” are? And if you’re marked as “bad” from the start, can you ever make good?