Pope Calls for New Economic Structure
July 7, 2009
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July 7, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI criticized the world's economic systems today and called for a new global structure based on social responsibility, concern for the dignity of the worker and a respect for ethics.
"Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding human enterprise," Benedict wrote in his latest encyclical, which is the most authoritative document a pope can issue. "Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for business is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limited in their social value."
In the sweeping document, Benedict denounced the private sector and blamed "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing" for causing the current economic meltdown. He said that the primary capital to be safeguarded is people, and cautioned that economic systems need to be guided by charity and truth.
"We have the globalization of economics, technologies and societies, without an accompanying growth in global ethics to guide these new practices," said Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of politics at Catholic University's Life Cycle Institute. "This encyclical tries to bridge these ethical gaps, applying ancient ethics to 21st-century problems."
The encyclical comes one day before President Obama and leaders of other wealthy nations are set to gather in L'Aquila, Italy, to discuss the global economic crisis at a G8 summit. Benedict is scheduled to meet with Obama on Friday and is expected to raise the issues discussed in his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth). He has been working on the document since 2007, but said he refrained from issuing it earlier in order to make updates that reflect the world's current economic troubles.
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