These days a Study Seminar sponsored by the Association “Etica, dignità e valori” (E.DI.VA.) is being held in the Vatican. The Association was created in Varese, about five years ago, to «respond to the extremely strong requests for dignity and fundamental values in the world of credit».

The Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Msgr. Carlos Simón Vázques, spoke in the name of the President, Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, on Tuesday, December 3^rd, on the theme: “Family and Natality: Primary motors of a country’s economic development: The economic role of family businesses and the critical need for a demographic boost in the West”. «In our Dicastery, we are absolutely certain that the combination Family and Natality constitutes the real motor of a country’s development. In fact, the family founded on indissoluble monogamous marriage and ‘open to life’ is the main instrument for the integral development of a country, even on the economic level», said Msgr. Simón Vázques. «The “normal” Family is the social capital par excellence. This fact explains the intimate intertwining of the family and development. Not only that kind of family produces benefits and well-being both inside and outside of itself, but it is also society’s indispensable resource. Moreover, only such a family is able to provide integral progress, because it is the only one that can allow and guarantee a population that activates economic markets and social relations».

On the morning of Tuesday, December 3^rd, the President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Card. Francesco Coccopalmerio, gave a lecture.

The proceedings were opened on Monday, December 2^nd, by the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Card. Peter Kodwo Turkson. The Dicastery led by Cardinal Turkson received the distinction «for the work of spreading the values of ethics in the economy and finance, the value of the gift and generosity in economic life, including by means of the note: “Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority” (October 24^th, 2011)».