Cardinal Tomasi: Church’s Social Doctrine, Great Value Today

Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Speaks at Italian Embassy to Holy See’s Celebration of Masters Program

Pope with Cardinal Tomasi © Vatican Media
Pope with Cardinal Tomasi © Vatican Media

“The contribution of Social Doctrine of the Church in contemporary contexts brings great value…,” says Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

The Italian prelate was speaking at the private event, for the inauguration of the IV Edition of the Master in Management of Organizations and Social Doctrine of the Church on “Building hope for the future: the role of complex organizations,” where Exaudi’s Deborah Castellano Lubov was present. The event, organized by Italian Ambassador to the Holy See Pietro Sebastiani, took place outdoors May 26, in the cloister of Palazzo Borromeo, in full compliance with anti-Covid-19 rules and provisions.

Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, who has served as special delegate to the order since November 1, 2020, and was the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva from 2003 to 2016, and Orazio Schillaci, the Rector of Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata,” gave keynote speeches.

During his intervention, Cardinal Tomasi thanked Ambassador Sebastiani for inviting him. Acknowledging his vast experience working with international organizations, after having worked in Africa, then in the United States and Geneva, the prelate applauded the new educational initiative.

The Catholic tradition, he started underlining, has tried to give answers to contemporary problems, going back centuries through numerous pontificates through the present.

“We see this with what Pope Francis has been doing,” he noted, citing his new form of economy and new reading of capitalism.

International organisms, the Vatican diplomat observed, need new forces.

“Young people need to take responsibility to rise up in these roles to be effective and achieve concrete results.”


“The contribution of Social Doctrine of the Church in these new contexts brings a great value,” the cardinal underscored.

Cardinal Tomasi clarified that this is not a matter of just “good declarations and intentions,” but of efforts “that resolve the reality.”

This prospect, this concrete contribution, he suggests, is “a precious work, in offering concrete responses to todays problems.”

This, he reminded, ought to offer responses to questions that touch the international community and which effect vulnerable groups globally.

The Vatican cardinal and naturalized US citizen expressed gratitude to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, where he also serves as a consultant, for their work in and dedication to this realm.

He gave his best wishes for this opportunity to advance these objectives through this Masters’ program.

Cardinal Tomasi concluded expressing his hope that those young people “who come after us can bring efficient responses with human sensibility to make world more beautiful, efficient, and above all, with more solidarity.”

Those giving interventions were Paola Paniccia, the coordinator of the Master’s Program at the Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata; Roberto Cafferata, founder of the Master’s Program and Past President of the Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA); Luigi Paganetto, President of the Fondazione Economia “Tor Vergata”; Gian Luca Galletti, President of the Unione Cristiana Imprenditori Dirigenti (UCID); Mario Risso, of the Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano; Leonardo Becchetti of the Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata; Grammenos Mastrojeni, the Vice Secretary General of the Unione per il Mediterraneo; Valeria Vittimberga, Director of Central Credit, Welfare and Social Structures at INPS; Federico D’Urso, Master’s Professor at MODSC.