The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (Justitia et Pax) was a pontifical council of the Roman Curia dedicated to "action-oriented studies" for the international promotion of justice, peace, and human rights from the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church. To this end, it cooperated with various religious institutes and advocacy groups, as well as scholarly, ecumenical, and international organizations.
Effective 1 January 2017, the work of the Council was assumed by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Cardinal Peter Turkson became Prefect of the Dicastery.
The Second Vatican Council had proposed the creation of a body of the universal Church whose role would be "to stimulate the Catholic Community to foster progress in needy regions and social justice on the international scene". It was in reply to this request that Pope Paul VI established the Pontifical Commission "Justitia et Pax" by a Motu Proprio dated 6 January 1967 (Catholicam Christi Ecclesiam).
When the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus of 28 June 1988 reorganized the Roman Curia, Pope John Paul II changed its name from Commission to Pontifical Council and reconfirmed the general lines of its work.
Pastor Bonus defined the objectives and mandate of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in the following terms:
On Saturday, May 16, 2015, Pope Francis named the Reverend Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., Director of the Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars in Oxford, England, which does studies on social justice and human rights, as one of the Consultors.
There was a two-day (June 16 and 17), 2011 "Executive Summit on Ethics for the Business World", which examined Christian views, from the Catholic perspective of Pope Benedict XVI's on financial ethics and possible positive Christian-based alternatives to contemporary status quo secular best practices in the field. The summit was co-hosted by the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University and the Fidelis International Institute, as well as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
According to an online news story on the conference by Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service, on Friday, June 17, 2011: