CSDC 362

Globalization gives rise to new hopes while at the same time it poses troubling questions.⁷⁴⁹ Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America, 20: AAS 91AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 91 (1999) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1999), 756. Globalization is able to produce potentially beneficial effects for the whole of humanity. In the wake of dizzying developments in the field of telecommunications, the growth of the system of economic and financial relations has brought about simultaneously a significant reduction in the costs of communications and new communication technologies, and has accelerated the process by which commercial trade and financial transactions are expanding worldwide. In other words, the two phenomena of economic-financial globalization and technological progress have mutually strengthened each other, making the whole process of this present phase of transition extremely rapid. In analyzing the present context, besides identifying the opportunities now opening up in the era of the global economy, one also comes to see the risks connected with the new dimensions of commercial and financial relations. In fact, there are indications aplenty that point to a trend of increasing inequalities, both between advanced countries and developing countries, and within industrialized countries. The growing economic wealth made possible by the processes described above is accompanied by an increase in relative poverty.