In a May 2 address to the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, Pope John Paul II repeated his call for the creation of a new international body to respond to the challenges of globalization.

As he spoke to the members of the Pontifical Academy, which is meeting in Rome this week, the Holy Father introduced a topic that he had first broached in his message for the World Day of Peace this January 1. He argued that the world's nations should have a greater say in the process of globalization. Questions of world development, he said, should be handled openly and responsibly, in a democratic manner.

In his January 1 message, the Pontiff had asked world leaders to reflect on how a new organization might respond to the needs of the world community in handling the concerns that revolve around economic development. In his May 2 statement the Pope enlarged on that theme. "This organization should be capable of responding to new questions posed by globalization," he said. The Pope added that he was not advocating the creation of a "global super-state," but a structure that would allow for democratic consideration of issues that affect the entire world.

Pope John Paul argued that ethical choices regarding economic development should not be determined exclusively by marketplace forces. Saying that "special interests and market demands often work to the detriment of the common good," he called for new measures that would protect those who are marginalized. The Pontiff went on to suggest that in the absence of such efforts to include all people in the process of globalization, hostile reactions are likely to arise against the wealthy industrial powers, leading to "extreme reactions like excessive nationalism, religious fanaticism, and even terrorism." The Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, which was created by Pope John Paul in 1994 as an advisory group, is meeting in plenary session this week to discuss the general problem of globalization. The Pope told the members that while sovereign nations can regulate their own internal economic affairs, "in the framework of a global economy, the ethical and legal regulation of the market is objectively more difficult. Indeed the political initiatives of individual countries are not sufficient to implement it effectively."

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