An appeal for Jubilee proposals

59. God's call, handed on by his Church, is evidently a call to share, all to active and practical charity. It is a call addressed not only to Christians but to all men and women of goodwill, and to all those who are capable of goodwill, namely to the whole of humanity without exception. The Church, out of concern for the human person in general and of each person in particular, is therefore at the head of the movements that promote love in solidarity. Being present and active by the side of all those who are carrying out humanitarian work to meet the needs, and to assure the most fundamental rights, of their fellow human beings, the Church regularly recalls that the "solution" to the social issue demands the effort of all(⁸⁷).

All men and women of goodwill can perceive the ethical issues that are at stake and are linked to the future of the world economy: combating hunger and malnutrition, contributing to food security and the endogenous agricultural development of the developing countries; developing these countries' export potential, and preserving the natural resources of planet-wide relevance. The Church's social teaching views all these as constituent components of the universal common good which must be identified and fostered by the developed countries. These components must also stand as the essential objective of international economic organisations and as the challenge facing the globalisation of trade. This universal common good, once it has been recognised, should be the inspiration for strengthening the legal, institutional and political framework governing international trade and new proposals for the Jubilee Year. This will demand courage on the part of the leaders of social, governmental and trade union institutions, since it is today so difficult to set the interests of each individual within a consistent vision of the common good.

The Church is not responsible for proposing technical solutions in this regard, but she does wish to seize on this occasion of preparing for the Great Jubilee to launch a wide-ranging appeal for suggestions and proposals, for the Jubilee Year, which may hasten the eradication of hunger and malnutrition.

Among these proposals, there are two areas to which particular attention should be given.

— Food buffer stocks, following the example of Joseph in Egypt (Cf. Gen. 41:35), to make it possible to provide concrete aid when there is a temporary crisis threatening populations with disaster. The procedures for building up and managing these stocks must be designed in such a way as to stave off any temptation to create a bureaucracy which opens the gates to struggles for political or economic influence on the one hand, and corruption on the other, as well as to prevent any direct or indirect market manipulation.

Promotion of family vegetable gardens, particularly in regions where poverty deprives the people, particularly heads of families and their loved ones, from gaining access to land-use and from staple foods. This is similar to what Pope Leo XIII demanded for workers in the 19th century, and for the same reasons: "Men learn to love the very soil that yields in response to the labour of their hands, not only food to eat, but an abundance of good things for themselves and those that are dear to them(⁸⁸)." In most parts of the world, schemes must be designed and implemented to make available to the poorest people some corner of the earth, and the necessary knowledge and minimum of tools, which will enable them to make great progress and break out of their state of grave distress.

— Lastly, and taking a broader perspective, it is necessary to collect information and surveys based on experience and observation, in specific situations, in order to build up a data bank containing practical descriptions of real-life situations, of "structures of sin" and of "structures of the common good" from every point of view(⁸⁹).