Pope Francis launches "A New Enlightenment"

Club of Rome sees Pope Francis pioneer of new thinking

"Virtue of balance"

The Club of Rome confirms that Francis plays an important role in solving humanity's problems. Instead of doctrines, the Pope had launched a "virtue of balance", according to the international group.

With the encyclopaedia "Laudato si" (2015) a "new enlightenment" had begun, which the world needs to escape elf-destruction, the new report of the international association of personalities from science, culture, economy and politics, the Club of Rome, which was presented on Monday evening in Munich.

To this extent, the Pope was a "historic landmark". The report bears the German title "Wir sind dran", one of the two main authors is Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker.

The role of the economy

Weizsäcker said in Munich that civilization was in a "deep philosophical crisis". The knowledge about the necessary changes for the preservation of the world was available, but all the therapies so far proposed by the policy made the situation worse.

The second chief author of the report, Swedish Anders Wijkman, said the role of the economy must be redefined. The question was whether the task would be to make one percent of humanity even richer, or to satisfy the needs of all human beings.

Critical confrontation with creation

"A great deal can be achieved by looking at religiously-based teachings that require care and care of our shared house," the report says in reference to "Laudato si". Critically, the authors deal with the Jewish-Christian Islamic tradition of the so-called Creation Order. The mandate to mankind to multiply itself and subdue the earth could no longer be valid for a "full world" with now 7.5 billion inhabitants.

"Instead of doctrines," the "new Enlightenment" must emphasize the "virtue of balance", wrote Weizsäcker, Wijkman and their 32 co-authors. The relationship between man and nature, public and private goods as well as short-term and long-term interests and consequences must be balanced. In the key part of the book are 18 success models for business and politics, which invite immediate action.

Private capital should flow into climate friendly companies

After the book presentation, entrepreneurs in Munich called for an "investment change". Private capital should be targeted at those companies that felt committed to the Paris Climate Treaty and the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, thus contributing to solving the real problems of the world.

Since 1968, the Club of Rome has been unifying personalities from science, culture, business and politics. His first report on the "limits of growth" in 1972 inspired the global environmental movement.

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