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Hermit
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Pope Agrees With Hermit and Seeks UN with Teeth
« on: 2009-07-10 20:45:00 » |
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Pope calls for a UN 'with teeth'
Source: BBC
Authors: Not Credited (May be David Willey BBC Rome)
Dated: 2009-07-10
The Pope has called for reform of the United Nations and financial bodies, giving them the "real teeth" needed to tackle economic and social injustice.
Benedict XVI said the blind pursuit of profit and economic mismanagement had "wreaked havoc" on the global economy. [ Hermit : Of course the Catholic Church wouldn't know about anything like that ]
The market, said the Pope, must not become the place where the strong prevail over the weak.
His encyclical letter said a reformed UN should strive for disarmament, food security and environmental protection. [ Hermit : But wouldn't that mean reducing the global population? I think the Pope is confused. ]
An encyclical letter is the highest form of papal teaching, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.
This letter, Caritas in Veritate, or Charity in Truth, is his third since being made Pope in 2005. It is the first to focus on social issues, and follows two on spiritual matters.
The densely argued 144-page document is the result of a two-year effort by the Pope to bring Catholic social teaching up to date on the ethical responsibilities for the global economic meltdown, says our correspondent. [ Hermit : The BBC needs to study the difference between a tract and an argument. They might start with Monty Python's, "An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a definite proposition." ]
Its publication comes on the eve of Wednesday's G8 meeting of world leaders at L'Aquila.
"There is a strongly felt need... for a reform of the United Nations Organisation, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth... there is urgent need of a true world political authority," the Pope wrote. [ Hermit : Indeed. But given that the Catholic Church had its chance - and blew it - it would be good to try some alternates. ]
The strengthened international body should work "to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace, to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration," Benedict said. [ Hermit : Excellent suggestion. Now how would one implement this? ]
Dangers of profit
The letter, addressed to all Catholics "and people of goodwill", reminds them of their moral duties in financial dealings.
"Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end," he wrote.
"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." [ Hermit : Under the current regime, profit implies scarcity. Is the Pope also arguing that the current system should be dispensed with? ]
He warned that globalisation, properly managed, could "open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale". [ Hermit : It has already. The wealth has been redistributed to the supremely wealthy. ]
But badly directed, it could "lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis". [ Hermit : Too late. Duh. ]
On Friday Pope Benedict will have his first meeting with President Barack Obama at the Vatican, when the new US leader will have the opportunity to exchange views with the Pope on the moral imperatives facing world leaders in 2009, our correspondent says. [ Hermit : I wonder if a these two could possibly agree on what constitutes a "moral imperative" and support their positions? ]
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Hermit
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Re:Pope Agrees With Hermit and Seeks UN with Teeth
« Reply #1 on: 2009-07-13 01:26:44 » |
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From profits to ethics: pope calls for a new political and financial world order
• Global recession caused by greed, says pontiff
• Economic crisis is 'clear proof of effects of sin'
Source: guardian.co.uk
Authors: John Hooper
Dated: 2009-07-07
The Vampyre Pope
Pope Benedict today pinned responsibility for the worldwide recession squarely on greed and an amoral fascination with technological progress for its own sake.
This must be tackled, he said, by the creation of a global political authority and financial order based not just on the search for ever greater profits, but on ethics and a sense of the common good.
The pontiff made the appeal in a 144-page encyclical – a reflection on doctrine that is the highest form of papal writing – three days before he was due to discuss the global downturn with Barack Obama.
Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) is Benedict's third encyclical and the first to deal exclusively with economic and social issues. In one section, he says the current economic crisis is "clear proof" of the "pernicious effects of sin".
The pope's analysis echoed some of the criticisms made by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, of government policies that target growth to the exclusion of wider social considerations. But, as its title suggests, the papal encyclical is a primarily theological discourse which takes as its point of departure the argument that only a belief in the truth as proclaimed by Christianity can offer the necessary answers.
"A Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments," Benedict writes. His reflection – delayed by more than a year by the world economic crisis – nevertheless contains numerous specific criticisms and recommendations. Though the pontiff does not use the word "capitalism" in the encyclical, there are lengthy reflections on morality in economics.
In a key passage, the encyclical says: "The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from 'influences' of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way. In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise."
Then in an unequivocal critique of unbridled markets, the pope writes that "grave imbalances are produced when economic action, conceived merely as an engine for wealth creation, is detached from political action, conceived as a means for pursuing justice through redistribution."
At a press conference in the Vatican, the pope's technical consultant, Stefano Zamagni, an economics professor at the University of Bologna, denied the encyclical was anti-capitalist, but added that it "views capitalism in its historical dimension and goes beyond it".
He noted that "the market economy is broader than just capitalism", which was merely one variant. In another section of the reflection, Benedict argues that "financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity … right intention, transparency, and the search for positive results are mutually compatible and must never be detached from one another."
Then, in a passage that builds on ideas first voiced by his predecessor, John Paul II, the pope argues that globalisation has made necessary a "reform of the United Nations Organisation and likewise of economic institutions and international finance so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth".
One of his most senior advisers, cardinal Renato Martino, said: "The encyclical is not asking for a super- or world government." But it comes very close to doing so. It proposes a "true world political authority" that "would need to be universally recognised and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice and respect for rights." It would be asked to "manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis [and] to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis."
But its responsibilities would be more than just economic. They would include securing "timely disarmament, food security and peace". The new body, a reformed UN, would also be called upon "to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration".
Often regarded as the first "green" pope, Benedict also took advantage of his encyclical to make clearer his ideas on the importance of respecting the environment. But Zamagni said the document implicitly rejected forms of environmental thinking that put other forms of creation on a par with humankind.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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