CathInfo.com

Vatican Calls for ‘Global Public Authority’ and ‘Central World Bank’

October 24th, 2011
Via: Reuters:
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.
The docuмent from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions.
“The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.
It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems.
“In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.
“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid,” it said.
It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.

One-World Churches usually love One-World Governments.

Vatican Pontifical Council Issues Banking Paper - Ignorant Reaction Takes Place


http://opinionatedcatholic.blogspot.com/2011/10/vatican-pontitifcal-council-issues.html

I really knew this was coming when I first heard of this last week. See Full Text: Note on financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace No matter what we can be rest assured that 99 percent of the people that go on a tantrum about this docuмent will never read it.

Catholic Vote has a initial post on this , that I think rightly gives some criticism to Father Reese, at Pope Benedict Calls For “Central World Bank” … Only He Didn’t. Here’s Why. To be fair I am going to have a rare criticism of the wonderful Father Z. Though I agree with what he is saying here in part I am not sure the tone is helpful.

To be honest the "white paper" as Father Z calls it is not nearly as radical as was advertised. Of course it should be noted that anyone is free to disagree with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on if there should some of sort of Global watchdog Bank. However the concerns there are valid. Also besides the proposal itself the Christian issues that this proposal hopes to address are Orthodox Christian thought.

For instance I think it's hard to say that there is Catholic worldview that a Country can do economic wise whatever it wants though it might cause drastic harm to another country.

Now in reality this will in likely hood operate in the world of theory. What is missed in the rants against the docuмent is all those "conditions" such a bank must have to be effective and to be moral. Note for instance the talk of the need to safe guard subsidiarity . Also the big "elephant" in the room is how to give those "underdeveloped" countries a real voice. Especially when many of these places don't exactly resemble Plato's Republic in governance. Finally even if the West signed on I have huge doubts that China would sign on

Whatever one might think of this paper by the Pontifical Council it does point out real issues.

(1) Unfetteredunregulated capitalism is not the same as Christianity. Though capitalism and the Church do not have to be opposed to each other.

(2) Globalization is a real issue. The Church in the docuмent recognizes the good of globalization. However when a part of the world's financial system hiccups it can cause real damage to real human beings elsewhere in the world. Often in areas that don't have a good social safety net to help their citizens during the crisis. Further there needs to be efforts to ensure that globalization does not unfairly hurt the underdeveloped counties.

No matter what you think of this proposal those real issues are out there. If one does like this the idea proposed in the docuмent , then it's incuмbent on Christians to offer alternatives .

Anyway I am anxious to see the interesting discussion that will take place over this docuмent. Contrary to what people might think the Church often puts things like this out there to start the discussion. So we shall if that develops or if this will be forgotten by the end of the week