Implementing the Fraternal Economy

Towards A New Economics and Statecraft for Our Time

Our two-year journey reaches its capstone. Guided by the Church’s Social Teaching and open to people of all faiths and cultures, the Economy of Francesco calls for a New Economics – rooted in human nature and the laws of nature – and a New Statecraft – grounded in the primacy of peace, dialogue, and cooperation. Our aim in the Fraternal Economy Program is both practical and universal: to promote a new conceptual framework for economy and statecraft, and to launch an action agenda to put the new framework into operation.

Why A Fraternal Economy

The world today is fraught with widening inequalities of income wealth, and power, an ecological breakdown, and escalating geopolitical tensions. Yet humanity has the knowledge, wealth, and technology to end extreme poverty, protect our common home, and secure peace.

What is missing is a shared global ethics and the economic and political institutions fit for purpose. The Fraternal Economy program has aimed to uncover a pathway forward, drawing our principles derived from natural law and ways to translate them into policy, finance, educational curricula, and diplomacy.We are guided by Pope Paul VI’s declaration that “Development is the new name of peace,” Populorum Progressio, and the call of Pope Francis for “An economy of life… an economy of peace.”

Lessons from Preceding Meetings

• The Fraternal Economy [2-3 February 2023]: the importance of integrating ethics into finance, trade, and development, ensuring that global systems serve the wellbeing of all.
• Reform of the Global Financial Architecture [26-27 June 2023]: the need for resilience and justice in credit, debt, and capital allocation, making finance a servant of sustainable development.
• Private Capital for Public Good [26-27 October 2023]: the need to direct the vast global savings towards the common good, including climate and social priorities.
• New Multilateralism [4-5 March 2024]: the urgency of UN renewal and stronger international organizations to respond effectively to planetary and human needs.
• The Jubilee Opportunity [6-7 November 2024]: the hope in the sign of the times, calling on us to connect debt relief with peace, disarmament and reconciliation among nations.
• Financing for Development [1-2 April 2025]: the possibility of practical reforms to match affordable financing with the long horizons of sustainable infrastructure and human development.
• Ethical Multilateralism [3-4 July 2025]: the necessity of developing ethical multilateralism to translate global cooperation and shared values into effective institutions that ensure peace, justice, and the common good for all.

The Fraternal Economy Synthesis: New Economics & New Statecraft

Pope Leo XIII discerned the need for new teachings brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The result, Rerum Novarum, set the path for the past 134 years of modern Catholic Social Teachings, with wisdom extending across economy, ecology, politics, and development, economic transformation, and peace. In our time, we again face many “new things,” including a multi-polar world, human-induced ecological catastrophe, and the acceleration of technologies that offer both great benefits and grave threats to humanity. We have explored, as a result, a New Economics and a New Statecraft for our times, both of which aim to be global in reach, holistic in design, grounded in natural law, and aimed at human wellbeing.

The New Economics:

• Human Flourishing at the Center: The economy exists to serve people, families, and communities; profit is a means, not an end.
• Integral Development: Prosperity, social inclusion, and environmental stewardship advance together.
• Civil Economy: The economy is built on social trust, mutual benefit, and ethics infusing economic relations
• Nature’s Limits & Moral Purpose: Align markets and finance with planetary boundaries and the common good.
• Ethics by Design: Reorient institutions as corporations, credit ratings, trade and, MDB, so that incentives serve the good.
• Economics as Moral Philosophy: Economics teaching and practice should recover their classical roots (virtue ethics, economia civile), joining empirical rigor with practical wisdom.

The New Statecraft:

• Primacy of Peace: Replace the law of force with the force of law; revitalize diplomacy, negotiation, and disarmament.
• Effective Multilateralism: Renew the UN system (a practical “UN 2.0”) to safeguard peace, human rights, and the planet.
• Just Rules for a Multipolar World: Trade and finance must be fair, predictable, and ecologically sound.
• From Rivalry to Cooperation: A multipolar peace ethic that privileges cooperation and dialogue across civilizations and faiths