As the G8 Summit gets underway in Ireland this week, Pope Francis put out a call to world leaders to remember that “the goal of economics and politics is to serve humanity, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable wherever they may be, even in their mothers’ wombs.”

The Vatican Information Service is reporting that the pope sent his message to the host of this year’s Summit, British Prime Minister David Cameron. The meeting is taking place June 17 and 18  at Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, with the theme of “A G8 Meeting that Goes Back to First Principles”.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Pope Francis noted that “every economic and political theory or action must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one’s own human potential. This is the main thing; in the absence of such a vision, all economic activity is meaningless.”

He also expressed his support for proposals that will be brought before the G8 to fight hunger and ensure food security for all, to protect women and children from sexual violence in conflict situations, and to address the situation in the Middle East, particularly in Syria.

Pope Francis wrote that he wished to share these thoughts with the Prime Minister “with a view to highlighting what is implicit in all political choices, but can sometimes be forgotten: the primary importance of putting humanity, every single man and woman, at the center of all political and economic activity, both nationally and internationally, because man is the truest and deepest resource for politics and economics, as well as their ultimate end.”

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