Twenty-six scholars, academics and social justice activists gathered outside Toronto, September 25-28, 2003, to assess the relevance and promise of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) for the globalizing dynamics of today. A general consensus emerged from this group that CST in its present form has much to contribute to the world community, but it clearly cannot claim to be a global ethic, marked as it is by both the strengths and the clear limitations of being culturally western and theologically Catholic-Christian. The challenge is to develop a Catholic ethic for globalization that can be brought into constructive dialogue with the other faiths and cultures gracing the planet. That will put us on the only viable path toward a global ethic–an ethic that will then have to be expressed to the peoples of the world in the rich diversity of cultural forms that constitute the world’s faiths.

"The Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle is an important moment in the process of constructing the global institutions that will govern life on the planet in the 21st century. The Church, with its wealth of experience, reflection and commitment to social justice, needs to be more present and more fully engaged. It needs to engage not just in the Seattle moment but especially in the longer term process of sorting out the global trade system and the structures of global governance."