Campus of International Excellence – Aristos Campus Mundus 2015

The universities of Deusto (UD), Comillas ICAI-ICADE and Ramon Llull (URL) held the 1st International seminar on  “Global governance: on the fiftieth anniversary of Pacem in terris”, as part of the activities of UNIJES’ Christian Social Thinking and the Humanitas Network of the Campus of International Excellence (CIE) Aristos Campus Mundus (ACM) Project.

This seminar was held in Barcelona last 22 January at IQS-URL and it was coordinated by lecturers José Manuel Aparicio (ICAI-ICADE Comillas Pontifical University) and José Sols (Universidad Ramon Llull). During this seminar, lecturers Aitziber Mugarra (University of Deusto), José Manuel Aparicio and José Manuel Caamaño (ICAI-ICADE Comillas Pontifical University), José Sols y M. Dolors Oller (Ramon Llull University) presented their papers and discussed about global governance.

The lecturers started from the premise that “reflection on contemporary social morality suggests the need to meditate on the various problems that, although seemingly unrelated, allow us to glimpse common features of great significance”. According to them, “the 2008 economic crisis has highlighted the previous dynamics that have only increased the existing difficulties”. These lecturers believe that “the interaction of interests and the appearance of previously unknown synergies add an element of confusion to the whole sphere of reflection.”

And it is in this scenario, as they argued, “where the echo of the contributions, which can now be seen as prophetic, can be identified in the words of John XXIII who, in his Pacem in Terris spiritual testament, he claimed a global authority that helps to run the could respond to the challenges that were then intuitions and are now intuitions that were not easily predictable.”

In this regard, the seminar examined the current influence of Pope John XXIII’s call in his encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) to provide universal common good value and a necessary global ethics in order to set up a world authority that helps to run the world. This message has a special value in the current context of globalisation. Thus, the Pope’s statements were related to the current debate on how globalization should be structured, both economically and culturally, and politically.

In fact, as the lecturers stated, ‘today’s reflection on political philosophy seems to better embrace the concept of global authority under the category of global governance, to the extent that it allows to point out the necessary leadership for social coexistence matters, with no specific link to its exercise. “

The participants added that the key aspect of this project is “the recognition of the universal common good that could arise from the feeling of fraternity that claims a bond between all peoples from a Catholic perspective, the current crisis shows it as the conclusion of a purely statistical approach to problems such as development or environmental balance”. Therefore, the experts concluded that, before thinking about possible global political structures, we should work for a culture of respect for human rights throughout the world, a global ethics and a sense of the universal common good.

The seminar will hold its second session on 11 April 2014 at ICAI-ICADE Comillas Pontifical University.