and Divergence

The economic plight of the poor of the southern hemisphere, in the face of the growing wealth of the north, took center stage in the discussions. Many of the participating theologians not only study issues of economic justice and injustice in their countries but also participate in and minister to communities of the very poor. They noted the importance of capitalist markets for economic growth. But the voice of the very poor echoed powerfully in the presentations of theologians from Latin America, Africa and Asia, who lamented that markets often do not serve the poorest. Indeed, the group reached a consensus on the moral values grounded in our common humanity, that all persons have rights to fulfill their most basic human needs for food, medical care andeducation. These economic rights express every person’s claim to be treated as a full member of the human family and to share in its common good. Economic participation, hand in hand with political participation, enables all, including the poor, to have a voice in shaping the institutions that often determine their fate.

To be sure, the theologians diverged at times on the full implications of these underlying human rights. Differences surfaced on the issue of gender and the rights of women. When a panel of three male theologians, for example, addressed the moral challenges facing the African continent, they did not even mention the injustices faced by African women, including their disproportionate vulnerability to the deadly scourge of H.I.V.-AIDS. Several African women theologians strongly challenged them. In a similar