 Good evening, and a very cordial welcome to the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. Are you here? So there are four reasons and four wishes I have for you. First, you are part of a community. This annual meeting in Davos is not a normal conference. It's a gathering of members of a multi-stakeholder community, and so far I'm very happy to see so many familiar faces here, but also newcomers, and may I just ask the newcomers to stand up? Give them a big hand. So it's the foremost, as we would say, multi-stakeholder community which exists in the world. You have here, of course, our partners and members, business leaders. You have politicians, the heads of international organizations, and here I would like to welcome one of our coaches, Christine Lagarde. We have here civil society, most of the, practically all of the key international NGOs are here. You have trade union leaders. You have the young generation, very important, and you have science and academia. You have the media. So a real global multi-stakeholder community, based on our firm belief, such big issues in our world cannot be solved by governments alone, by business alone, or by civil society alone. We need collaborative efforts. No nation, no person, no stakeholder group alone can really address the complex global agenda in a constructive way. But you are here not only to be part of a community, you are here to engage. And that's my second wish. Of course, it's very exciting with all the plenary sessions we have here, with all the speakers and the political personalities whom we will receive this week. But actually, for us, what is very important are those 400 smaller sessions where you really can engage to live up to the mission of the World Economic Forum to improve the state of the world. It's not only a multi-stakeholder meeting, it's also a meeting which deals with the global agenda in an integrated, comprehensive way to pinpoint priorities at the beginning of the year, to define problems, to find solutions, and possible, if ever possible, to start joint action. So it's a service. You have to engage into the spirit of doubles. I know there may be speakers here where we may not always join and share the opinion. But let's not forget, the spirit of doubles is the spirit of interaction based on three values. First, respect, human dignity, and diversity. Second, serve the community more than yourself. And number three, be a trustee of the next generation. And finally, my last wish is that you are here not only with your brains, but that you are here with your soul and with your heart, with your soul to really address the issues with a longer-term vision, and with your heart to feel passionate about what we are doing, passionate about our engagement for humanity. And this evening is an evening of passion. And before Hilde Schwab takes the floor, I have the great pleasure to invite his Eminence, Cardinal Turks, who will read for us on behalf, who will speak to us on behalf of His Holiness, Pope Francis. Your Eminence, please come to the floor here. Well, Your Excellencies, my brothers and sisters, one of the stakeholders as Professor talked about was the Vatican, who said Pope Francis was invited to this event. But on account of his recent visit, as you know, to Latin America, to Chile and Peru, couldn't be here, so sends this small message to Professor Schwab, which I now like to read. To Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, I'm grateful to you for your invitation to participate in the World Economic Forum 2018. And for your desire to include the perspectives of the Church, Catholic Church, and the Holy Sea at a meeting in Davos. I thank you also for your efforts to bring this perspective to the attention of those gathered in this annual forum, including the distinguished political and governmental leaders and authorities present and all those engaged in the fields of business. Economy, work, culture, as they discussed the challenges, the concerns, hopes, prospects of a world today and of the future. The theme chosen for this year's forum, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World, is very timely. I trust that it will assist in guiding your deliberations, as you said before, to better foundations for building inclusive, just and supporting societies, capable of restoring dignity to those who live with great uncertainty and who are unable to dream of a better world. At the level of global governance, we are increasingly aware that there is a growing fragmentation between states and institutions. New actors are emerging, as well as new economic competition and regional trade agreements. Even the most recent technologies are transforming economic models and globalized world itself, which conditioned by private interests and an ambition for profit at all costs seem to favor further fragmentation and individualism rather than to facilitate approaches that are more and more inclusive. The recurring financial instability has brought new problems and serious challenges that governments must confront, such as the growth of unemployment, the increase in various forms of poverty, and the widening of the socioeconomic gap and new forms of slavery, often rooted in situations of conflict, migration, and various social problems. Together with this, we encounter certain rather lifestyles marked by an opulent which is no longer sustainable and frequently indifferent to the world around us, and especially the poorest in our midst. To our dismay, we see technical and economic questions dominating political debate, to the detriment of genuine concern for human beings. Men and women risk being reduced to mere cocks in a machine that treats them as items of consumption to be exploited. With the result of that, as so tragically apparent whenever a human life no longer proves useful for that machine, it is discarded with few crumbs. In this context, it is vital to safeguard the dignity of the human person, in particular by offering to all people real opportunities for integral human development, and by implementing economic policies that favor the family. Economic freedom must not prevail over the practical freedom of men and women and over their rights, and the market must not be absolute, but honor the exigencies of justice. Economic models, therefore, are always required to observe an ethic of sustainable and integral development based on values that place a human person and his and her right at the center. So before the very many barriers of injustice, of loneliness, of distrust, and of suspicion, which have still been elaborated in our day, the world of labor is called upon to take courageous steps in order that being and working together is not merely a slogan but a program for the present and for the future. Running through a firm resolve shared by all economic actors, may we hope to give a new direction to the destiny of our world. So too, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other technological innovation must be so employed that they contribute to the service of humanity and to the protection of our common home, rather than to the contrary, as some assessments, unfortunately, foresee. We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of millions of people whose dignity is wounded, nor can we continue to move forward as if the spread of poverty and injustice had no cause. It is a moral imperative, a responsibility that involves all of us to create the right conditions to allow each person to live in a dignified manner. By rejecting a true-away culture and a mentality of indifference, the entrepreneurial world has enormous potential to effect substantial change by increasing the quality of productivity, creating new jobs, respecting labor laws, fighting against public and private corruption, and promoting social justice together with the fair and equitable sharing of profits. There is a grave responsibility to exercise wise discernment. For the decisions made will be decisive for shaping the world of tomorrow and that of future generations. Thus, if we want a more secure future, one that encourages the prosperity of all, then it is necessary to keep the compass continually oriented towards the true north, represented by true authentic values. Now is the time to take courageous and bold steps for our beloved planet. This is the right moment to put into action our responsibility to contribute to the development of humanity. And so I hope that this 2018 Meeting of the World Economic Forum will allow an open, free and respectful exchange and be inspired above all else by the desire to advance the common good. In renewing my best wishes for the success of the meeting, I willingly invoke upon you and all participating in this forum the divine blessings of wisdom and of strength. Signed in the Vatican on the 12th of January by Pope Francis. And I thank you.