Christianity Oasis Forum

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Part of an article from the Washington Post

Pope Criticizes World Economic System
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI criticized the international economic system yesterday 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 144-page document, Benedict sketches a radically different world economy, in which access to food and water is a universal right, wealthy nations share with poorer ones and profit is not the ultimate goal of commerce. He advocates the creation of a "world political authority" to manage the economy.

He blames "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing" for causing the economic meltdown. The primary capital to be safeguarded is people, he says, adding that economic systems need to be guided by charity and truth.

The encyclical comes a day before President Obama and leaders of other industrial nations are to gather in L'Aquila, Italy, to discuss the global economic crisis at a Group of Eight summit. The timing demonstrates that Benedict, 82, aims to insert his voice into that discussion by focusing on the moral underpinnings of the meltdown.