CSDC 363

Looking after the common good means making use of the new opportunities for the redistribution of wealth among the different areas of the planet, to the benefit of the underprivileged that until now have been excluded or cast to the sidelines of social and economic progress.⁷⁵⁰ Cf. John Paul II, Address to members of the “Centesimus Annus - Pro Pontifice” Foundation (9 May 1998), 2: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 27 May 1998, p. 6. “The challenge, in short, is to ensure a globalization in solidarity, a globalization without marginalization”.⁷⁵¹ John Paul II, Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace, 3: AAS 90AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 90 (1998) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1998), 150. This technological progress itself risks being unfairly distributed among countries. In fact, technological innovations can penetrate and spread within a specific community only if the potential beneficiaries have a minimum level of knowledge and financial resources. It is evident that, because of the great disparities between countries regarding access to technical and scientific knowledge and to the most recent products of technology, the process of globalization ends up increasing rather than decreasing the inequalities between countries in terms of economic and social development. Given the nature of the current dynamics, the free circulation of capital is not of itself sufficient to close the gap between developing countries and the more advanced countries.