Desmond Destang (owner of Bay Gardens Beach Hotel) presents St Lucian flag and other gifts to President Lech Walesa (right) while Archbishop Kelvin Felix and Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy look on.

Former trade union leader, human rights activist and first democratically elected president of the Republic of Poland, Lech Walesa, would like to see a new world order where globalisation is regulated by values and not driven by money and material resources.”

He expressed this sentiment to a group of Catholic leaders and clergy invited to dine with him on Tuesday, July 17, at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort by the owners Desmond and Joyce Destang, themselves staunch Catholics.

Walesa was in St Lucia for a one-day visit seeking support for Poland’s bid to hold the International Exhibition ECPO 2012 in one of its cities, Wroclaw, under the theme The Culture of Leisure in World Economies.

During the informal conversation, Walesa passionately argued that the agenda for the quality of world civilisation we want to create should not be dominated by countries that are militarily, economically and financially powerful. Other countries like St Lucia and Poland, he felt strongly, should raise their voice and influence that agenda.

Attending the dinner were the Governor General, Dame Pearlette Louisy, the acting Prime Minister Hon Stephen King, Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Msgr Patrick Anthony, Fr Stephen Quinlan and leading Catholic legislators; Dr Rosemarie Husbands-Mathurin, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon Sarah Flood-Beaubrun with their spouses.
(Catholic Chronicle)