The urgency of a moral economy: Reflections on the 25th anniversary of Centesimus Annus

[Senator Sanders delivered these remarks on Friday, April 15, at the Vatican conference of the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences.]

I am honored to be with you today and was pleased to receive your invitation to speak to this conference of The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Today we celebrate the encyclical Centesimus Annus and reflect on its meaning for our world a quarter-century after it was presented by Pope John Paul II. With the fall of Communism, Pope John Paul II gave a clarion call for human freedom in its truest sense: freedom that defends the dignity of every person and that is always oriented toward the common good.