ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERENCE OF PARIS ON THE WORLD ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Monday, 30 May 1977

Our attention turns today, with particular good wishes, to the Conference on international economic cooperation, known as “the North- South dialogue", in which the representatives of industrialized countries, together with those of the oil exporting countries and other countries in the development phase, are making a new effort to find, in a frank and open exchange, an agreement on cooperation in the economic field.

We earnestly hope that the spirit of understanding and the desire to promote the good of the whole of humanity, may produce concrete and lasting results, acceptable to all the participants, and that those who already enjoy the goods of this earth in abundance, may be ready to share them with their less fortunate brothers. For it is all the more urgent to find without delay generous and just solutions, in that the economic crisis, which touches all countries, strikes first of all, strikes directly and cruelty, the countries and men who are deprived of what is due to them out of necessity and, to a certain extent, out of justice, and for whom human degradation threatens to become then daily fate.

May the creative dialogue, which has been started, find a continuation, since to establish new world relations both time and generosity, an effort for social justice and realism are necessary.

Our fervent prayer accompanies all those who are working for a world in which all men, united together as real partners associated in the decisions which concern them all, may find peace and justice.

*ORa n°24 p.3.