VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called on Tuesday for a
"world political authority" to manage the global economy and for more government
regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and
avoid a repeat.
The pope made his call for a re-think of the way the world
economy is run in a new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues
but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both
rich and poor nations.
Parts of the encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," seemed bound
to upset free marketeers because of its underlying rejection of unbridled
capitalism and unregulated market forces, which he said had led to "thoroughly
destructive" abuse of the system.
The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence
and called for "forms of redistribution" of wealth overseen by governments to
help those most affected by crises.
Benedict said "there is an urgent need of a true world political
authority" whose task would be "to manage the global economy; to revive
economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis
and the greater imbalances that would result."
Such an authority would have to be "regulated by law" and "would
need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to
ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for
rights."
"Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure
compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated
measures adopted in various international forums," he said.
REFORM NEEDED
The United Nations, economic institutions and international
finance all had to be reformed "even in the midst of a global recession," he
said in the encyclical, a booklet of 141 pages.
The pope's call for a supranational body to tackle global
economic woes disturbed some Catholic capitalists.
"There is a difference between coordination and mandate ... a
reckless loan in the United States can and did impoverish people in Latvia. So
obviously coordination is important as long as it is not mandates," said Frank
Keating, CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers and former Governor of
Oklahoma.
An encyclical is the highest form of papal writing and gives the
clearest indication to the world's 1.1 billion Catholics -- and to non-Catholics
-- of what the pope and the Vatican think about specific social and moral
issues.
This one was addressed to all Catholics and "all people of good
will" and was released on the eve of the start of the G8 summit in Italy and
three days before the pope is due to discuss the global downturn with U.S.
President Barack Obama.
In several sections of the encyclical, Benedict made it clear he
had great reservations about a totally free market.
"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," he said.
"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," he added.
Profit was useful only if it served as a means to a brighter future for all
humanity.
"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," he said.
He said the current economic crisis was "clear proof" of "pernicious effects
of sin" in the economy.
"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," he
said.
The pope appeared to back government intervention "in correcting errors and
malfunctions" in the economy, saying "one could foresee an increase in the new
forms of political participation, nationally and internationally."
"Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and
failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise,"
he said.
In other sections of the encyclical, his first on social issues since his
2005 election, he addressed topics such as development, migration, union rights,
terrorism, sexual tourism, population issues, the environment, bioethics, and
energy.