Pope's new world order: Pope Benedict XVI proposes stunningly radical approach to global economy
Wednesday, July 8th 2009, 4:00 AM
Pope Benedict's encyclical on economic justice, delivered amid the global financial meltdown, is an extraordinary document, both in its tough challenges
and in the remarkably radical solutions it prescribes.
The pontiff focuses on moral dimensions of markets, globalization, consumerism, environmental protection, the role of technology, workers' rights and more.
To call the document sweeping is an understatement.
Individually, many of Benedict's teachings are profound ethical and social statements. A few examples:
- "Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth
and creating poverty."
- "... there is no doubt that foreign workers, despite any difficulties concerning integration, make a significant contribution to the economic
development of the host country."
- "What is meant by the word 'decency' in regard to work? It means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context
of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work
that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide
schooling for their children. ..."
- "Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to
betray the interests of savers."
Cumulatively, Benedict's diagnoses of global economic ills lead to a call for nothing short of "a profoundly new way of understanding human
enterprise."
He would move toward markets geared to "redistribute" wealth from advanced to poorer countries and sees
"urgent need of a true world political authority" to, among other tasks, "manage the global economy."
As we said, Benedict's encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," is stunningly radical, notably in its prescriptions for the temporal order.
There's no doubt that in urging the creation of something akin to a world government, he has established a landmark for his papacy and for
Catholicism.


