What is the remedy for the gap between rich and poor?
In a word development, but this term requires explanation since one finds in CST an evolution in its usage. One might say that there has been development in the church’s teaching on development! Although John XIII called in 1961 for increased financial aid and emergency assistance to poor nations where this was needed, he realized the underlying causes of the plight of the world’s poor had to be addressed in a new way. The year he wrote Mater et Magistra was also the beginning of the U.N. First Development Decade. There was optimism that something akin to the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild postwar Europe, might happen in Africa, Asia and Latin America. John laid out three basic norms for development: (a) the internal affairs of poor nations should be reformed to ensure efficiency and fairness (#167-68); (b) all efforts should be made to avoid a cultural imperialism by which economically advanced nations disrupt the cultural systems of aid recipients (#169-71); and (c) new developm
