EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 52

52
or her own subjective truth, it becomes difficult
for citizens to devise a common plan which tran-
scends individual gain and personal ambitions.
62. In the prevailing culture, priority is given
to the outward, the immediate, the visible, the
quick, the superficial and the provisional. What is
real gives way to appearances. In many countries
globalization has meant a hastened deterioration
of their own cultural roots and the invasion of
ways of thinking and acting proper to other cul-
tures which are economically advanced but eth-
ically debilitated. This fact has been brought up
by bishops from various continents in different
Synods. The African bishops, for example, tak-
ing up the Encyclical
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
, point-
ed out years ago that there have been frequent
attempts to make the African countries “parts of
a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel. This is often
true also in the field of social communications
which, being run by centres mostly in the north-
ern hemisphere, do not always give due consid-
eration to the priorities and problems of such
countries or respect their cultural make-up”.
57
By
the same token, the bishops of Asia “underlined
the external influences being brought to bear
on Asian cultures. New patterns of behaviour
are emerging as a result of over-exposure to the
57
 J
ohn
P
aul
II, Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Africa
(14 September 1995), 52: AAS 88 (1996), 32-33; ID.
,
Encyclical
Letter
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
(30 December 1987), 22: AAS 80
(1988), 539.
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