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of a global public authority and a central world bank to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.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 document 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.
Vatican calls for global authority on economy, raps idolatry of the market | Reuters
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:34:21 UTC
One could write a book in response to these paragraphs, including a dissertation on the relevance of the Catholic church and its declining population.
I'll just humbly provide the simple thought that the Church now apparently views its purvey beyond its simple rendering to Caesar, and proposes that Caesar's share should be enlarged in scope and authority.