An incredible privilege to be present at the reading of the 5th directive. Now the imperative is to walk the walk. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Today, we all live in the age of globalization, democracy, and information. However, the depressing fact is that, despite the advances in technology and mass communication of the second half of the 20th century, despite mass travel, the intermingling of races, the ever-growing reduction - or so we believe - of the mysteries of our world, misunderstandings, prejudices, and stereotypes among members of different faiths and cultures still endure.
This reveals both challenges and also opportunities for us. We can turn these challenges into new opportunities and hopes for humanity if we can deal with the new phenomenon of diversity and multiculturalism with a creative mind.
Therefore, I do hope that Towards a Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration) will a wake-up call for many and a foundational text for the work ahead of us.

I am happily dedicated to the Global Ethic Project of building shared ground for a better world. I believe the Global Ethic Declaration testifies to the unifying aspiration of the diverse human family to cooperatively exercise and cultivate voluntary responsibility aimed at the dignity of all fellow human beings. As a list of values, the Global Ethic commitments are a list of desirable orientations that is attractive to anyone identifying as a human being among other fellow human beings and (a) looking for proven ways to get along well with them, especially in diverse or intercultural settings, and / or (b) looking for cosmopolitan purpose and guidance in building a better world with others. – As an ethic in the traditional sense of ethos – an attitude of character, an embodied disposition to act a certain way – Global Ethic commitments take the form of cosmopolitan virtues that shape and shade all habitualized and creative action. – Finally, as a practice, Global Ethic is the capacity for dialogue, built in the confluence of practicing all the commitments together. In Küng's tradition, the capacity for dialogue is central because it combines the steadfastness of religious truths with a readiness to learn and transform towards peace. And it is central for Global Ethic philosopher Claus Dierksmeier as the practice of globally responsible freedom as a method, as the exercise of procedural and participatory liberty.

The Global Ethic builds the fundamental basis of the World Citizen School and functions as orientation and coordination of all volunteering activities of socially-engaged student and their initiatives at the Weltethos-Institut at the University of Tuebingen.