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The cry of the poor

12 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet Amos, from whom we hear this Sunday, urged the Jewish people to keep the needs of the poor always in mind. Pope Benedict XVI issued an encyclical Tuesday that calls for a new world financial order guided by ethics and the search for the common good. Caritas In Veritate (Charity in Truth) has been in the works for two years and its publication was delayed to incorporate fallout from the recent economic crisis. In the third encyclical of his pontificate, Benedict denounced a profit-at-all-costs mentality for bringing about the global financial meltdown. He pressed for reform of the United Nations and international economic and financial institutions to give poorer countries more of a say in international policy. "The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly--not any ethics, but an ethics which is people-centered," Benedict wrote. He has spoken out frequently about the impact of the crisis on the poor, particularly in Africa, which he visited earlier this year. But the 144-page encyclical marked a new level of church teaching by linking the Vatican's long-standing social doctrine on caring for the poor with current events. While acknowledging that the globalized economy has "lifted billions of people out of misery," Benedict pinpointed the unbridled growth of recent years as having caused unprecedented problems as well, citing mass migration flows, environmental degradation, and a complete loss of trust in the world market. He urged wealthier countries to increase development aid to poor countries to help eliminate world hunger, saying peace and security depended on it. He specified that aid should go to agricultural development to improve infrastructure, irrigation systems, transport, and sharing of agricultural technology. Father Drew Christiansen, S.J., editor of the Catholic newsweekly America and a leading social ethicist, said he was most intrigued by the pope's call for a new sector of society to work alongside government, market, and civil society: for-profit entities that work for the common good, which Christiansen suggested could include "fair trade" product makers and micro-finance institutions. "I am not sure these enterprises yet constitute a sector of economic life," Christiansen wrote. "But they are harbingers of a different, conscientious kind of economics that would not repeat the mistakes of the last 30 years." Source: An article by the Associated Press

Poor charity in truth encyclicals social teaching social doctrine economy drew christiansen fair trade micro-finance economics benedict xvi united nations caritas in veritate

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Nobel calling

18 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the long version of this Sunday's gospel, brothers James and John ask Jesus for the honor of being seated at his side when he comes into his glory. When it comes to being honored with the glory of a Nobel Prize, it has been an exceptionally strong year for the United States. U.S. citizens--some of them immigrants with dual citizenship--account for 11 of the 13 Nobel winners. Last Friday President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Monday Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ostrom was also the fifth woman recognized this year, another first. Ostrom said it's an honor to be the first woman Nobel economics laureate--and promised she won't be the last. She said people had discouraged her from seeking a Ph.D. when she applied for graduate school, but she loved studying economics. The choice of Obama for the Peace Prize has proven controversial; some said it came too early in his presidency to be appropriate. Reacting to the criticism, members of the Norwegian committee that awarded the Prize took the unusual move Tuesday of defending their choice. "We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "He got the prize for what he has done." Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe. "All these things have contributed to--I wouldn't say a safer world--but a world with less tension," Jagland said. He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and Obama's political rivals. Source: Articles by Ian MacDougall, Karl Ritter, Jeannine Aversa, and Matt Moore for Associated Press

barack obama nobel prize united states elinor ostrom nobel prize in economics thorbjoern jagland

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Pope argues for ethical economics

15 Jan 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power,” promises Saint Paul in this Sunday’s excerpt from 1 Corinthians. Pope Benedict XVI would like to see world economic powers raise their ethical standards and create systems that benefit all humanity, he said Monday in his keynote speech for the New Year. The pope said the “grave and disturbing developments of the global economic and financial crisis” that had started in industrialized countries were now infecting the rest of the world and leaving many, particularly the young, disoriented and frustrated. "The crisis can and must be an incentive to reflect on human existence and on the importance of its ethical dimension," he said in French, addressing diplomats from nearly 180 countries. Changes in the economy should not only be "an effort to stem private losses or to shore up national economies, but to give ourselves new rules that ensure that all can lead a dignified life and develop their abilities for the benefit of the community as a whole." A document issued last October by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace called for sweeping reforms of the world economy and the creation of an ethical global authority to regulate financial markets. Source: An article by Philip Pullella for Reuters

common good benedict xvi economics economy financial reform business ethics

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