Over at Chiesa, there is a piece about the new, confused “white paper”, as I prefer to call it, from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Too Much Confusion. Bertone Puts the Curia Under Lock and Key
The document of “Iustitia et Pax” on the global financial crisis is blasted with criticism. The secretary of state disowns it. “L’Osservatore Romano” tears it to shreds. From now on, any new Vatican text will have to be authorized in advance by the cardinal [Imagine! The left hand knowing what the left hand is doing!]
by Sandro Magister
ROME, November 10, 2011 – Precisely when the G20 summit in Cannes was coming to its weak and uncertain conclusion, on that same Friday, November 4 at the Vatican, a smaller summit convened in the secretariat of state was doing damage control on the latest of many moments of confusion in the Roman curia. [You would think they’d be getting good at damage control.]
In the hot seat was the document on the global financial crisis released ten days earlier by the pontifical council for justice and peace. A document that had disturbed many, inside and outside of the Vatican.
The secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, complained that he had not known about it until the last moment. And precisely for this reason he had called that meeting in the secretariat of state. [But… wait. That means he saw it before it was released. Or did I get that wrong?]
The conclusion of the summit was that this binding order would be transmitted to all of the offices of the curia: from that point on, nothing in writing would be released unless it had been inspected and authorized by the secretariat of state. [Interesting in principle, I suppose. But the Secretariat of State is already the über-dicastery of all dicasteries. Perhaps the Suprema, the CDF ought to be involved.]
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Of course, the fact that Bertone and his colleagues had seen that document only after its publication is astonishing in itself. [Above, Magister wrote, “until the last moment”. So, which is it?]
Already on October 19, in fact, five days ahead of time, the Vatican press office – which reports directly to the secretary of state – had made the announcement of the press conference to present the document, at which the speakers would be Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the pontifical council for justice and peace, and Bishop Mario Toso, the council’s secretary. [So… for five days, someone in the Secretariat (SS for short) had a chance to see the announcement in the daily blurb from the Press Office. And at the coffee machine no one bothers to say, “Hey, Massimo! Hear about this new ‘white paper’?”]
Toso, a Salesian like Bertone and his longtime friend, was chosen for this office by the cardinal secretary of state himself. [The letters after the names of Salesians, SDB, have been taken to mean “Socio di Bertone”.]
As for the text of the document, the Vatican press office had given notice that it was already available in four languages, [And where are those translations prepared?] and would be distributed to accredited journalists three hours before it was made public. [It seems to me that a few people had it even before.]
On October 22, a further notification added the name of Professor Leonardo Becchetti to the ticket of the presenters. [And the plot thickens! We wrote about Prof. Becchetti HERE.]
[NB:] Becchetti, a professor of economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and an expert on microcredit and fair trade, is believed to have been the main architect of the document.
And in fact, at the press conference presenting the document on October 24, his remarks were the most specific, centered in particular on calling for the introduction of a tax on financial transactions, called a “Tobin tax” after the name of its creator, or a “Robin Hood tax.” [Another way of looking at it might be “redistribution of wealth”?]
At the G20 summit in Cannes, the idea of this tax popped up in some of the comments of Barack Obama and Nicholas Sarkozy, but nothing concrete was done about it.
Another assertion of the Vatican document, according to which the economy of Europe is in danger of inflation rather than deflation, was contradicted on November 1 by the decision of the new governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who lowered the interest rate of the euro instead of raising it, as is always done when inflation is a real threat.
As for the main objective of the document, nothing less than a one world government of politics and the economy, this came out of the G20 in Cannes shredded to pieces. Not only did no one even speak vaguely of such a utopia, but the little that was decided in the concrete went in the opposite direction. The disorder in the world is now more severe than before, and has its most serious deficit in the increased the inability of European governments to guarantee “governance” of the continent.
It is little consolation for the Vatican document that it has been compared to the views of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters. Or that it was echoed in a pugnacious article by Anglican primate Rowan Williams in the “Financial Times” on November 2, in favor of the “Robin Hood tax.”
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But more than these terrible grades, what has been even more irritating for many authoritative readers of the document of the pontifical council for justice and peace is the fact that it is in glaring contradiction with Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Caritas in Veritate.” [Weren’t some defenders of the “white paper” saying that it is in keeping with Caritas in veritate?]
In the encyclical, pope Joseph Ratzinger does not in any way call for a “public authority with universal competency” over politics and the economy, that sort of great Leviathan (no telling who gets the throne, or how) so dear to the document of October 24.
In “Caritas in Veritate” the pope speaks more properly of the “governance” (meaning regulation, “moderamen” in Latin) of globalization, through subsidiary and polyarchic institutions. Nothing at all like a monocratic world government.
When one then delves into the analyses and specific proposals, it is also stunning how strong the divergence is between what is written in the document of the pontifical council for justice and peace and what has been maintained for some time in the financial commentaries published in “L’Osservatore Romano” by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Vatican bank, also chosen for his post by Cardinal Bertone.
For example, not even one line in the document attributes the global economic and financial crisis to the collapse in the birth rate and to the resulting higher and higher costs of population aging.
It was easy to predict that Gotti Tedeschi would not remain silent. And in fact, on November 4 – the same day as the summit convened by Bertone in the secretariat of state – “L’Osservatore Romano” published an editorial by Tedeschi that reads like a complete repudiation of the document of the pontifical council for justice and peace.
The editorial follows here. And reading it raises the suspicion that the first draft was even more devastating . . .
[…]
You can read that over there.
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And it took them how long to sort this out? Where there is chaos, there is you know who lurking in the shadows, licking his imaginary lips with glee at the confusion…
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us, as you warned us of apostasy in the Church…
Maybe the people in these ‘dicasteries’ should spend more time (and more ink) on telling us how to save our souls, so that we can get to heaven. That’s more important than all the economic stuff.
Temporal things are, well, temporary….eternity is what matters.
irishgirl,
I understand your frustration, but ever since the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became Incarnate and founded a Church on earth, which is a physical, historical institution, and not merely an “invisible” Church, we must engage the world, whether it is and unpleasant task or not. The trouble at this point is that those in authority are neglecting over 125 years of excellent leadership from the Popes on the encyclicals dealing with economics and social life, and falling into the condemned Modernist ideas, including Socialism and Communism. Sadly, we have been infiltrated by the Left to such an extent that when Father says the left hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, I see this as a symptom of the levels of deceit which has caused this very bad paper and much other teaching to get out of the Vatican, under the nose of the authorities, who, sadly, may be immune to the dangers. But, we cannot ignore the duty to lead in the area of economics, until the Second Coming and the New Jerusalem. God gave us brains and spirits, and the good teaching of the Magisterium. We must pray that the type of “dawn” which seems to be happening grows and enlightens. Never give up on the Church and the Holy Spirit, although we may become very, very small and very, very persecuted.
The Pope is a brilliant man and I love him. But the predicted curial tsunami that was all the rage back in 2005 never really panned out. We need to pray that our Holy Father will buckle down and start cutting what needs to be cut. These knuckleheads make the Keystone Kops look totally competent.
I say give the Holy Father a metaphorical bullwhip and let him spend an afternoon cleaning his Father’s house.
I am glad to say that there is finally a growing undercurrent of opinion in Europe, in the news and on the street, that the EU and CEB were bad ideas and that a move back to nationalism would be a wise move. As nobody seems to be discussing the European North/South divide, one has to look at the lack of the work ethic, as well as the declining populations and aging populations, as a reason for the lack of economic growth.
As to the G-20 moving away from a global bank idea, I do not believe that one bit, as those at the conference, including Draghi, have the most to gain from consolidation, in spite of what the people want. Again, as mentioned before, this new head of the European Central Bank was vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs International as well as the Italian Executive Director at the World Bank. Now, if those things are not pointers to a conflict of interests, then we are all blinded by these unseen holders of money. Sadly, the Vatican has just made us all look like pie-in-the-sky utopian nutcases, as well as amateurs in the think category…
There appears to be a major factual error in Sandro Magister’s article where the author states that this paper from the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace is a glaring contradiction to what the Pope wrote in “Caritas In Veritate.” In paragraph 67 of “Caritas In Veritate,” the Holy Father himself did also call for some type of universal political and economic authority:
“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; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, THERE IS URGENT NEED OF A TRUE WORLD POLITICAL AUTHORITY, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago.”
[And this paragraph in Magister’s analysis? “In “Caritas in Veritate” the pope speaks more properly of the “governance” (meaning regulation, “moderamen” in Latin) of globalization, through subsidiary and polyarchic institutions. Nothing at all like a monocratic world government.”]
In the encyclical, pope Joseph Ratzinger does not in any way call for a “public authority with universal competency” over politics and the economy, that sort of great Leviathan (no telling who gets the throne, or how) so dear to the document of October 24.
Well, being fair to the (completely ridiculous) October 24th document, I do not recall it “call[ing] for” such an entity either. You’d have seen it quoted (with verbs and everything!) for contrastive purposes if it had. I remember (perhaps incorrectly?) that it speculates that something like that might emerge from the efforts to regulate the global economy, but passes no judgment on, much less calls for, such an entity.
But you can’t count on Faux News or Matt Drudge to tell you that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Father Z for following up on this story! As soon as I saw the headline: “Vatican calls for one world bank”, I knew the devil was in the details. And then when I read the document, I was even more convinced. I am so glad to see that those in the Vatican are condemning this document, and I have no doubt that their orders are coming straight from our Holy Father. Though others read this document before publication, I think it is safe to say Pope Benedict XVI was purposely left completely in the dark and blindsided with it. When I read it, I knew he would never approve it.
We need to be praying constantly that God protect his Church and his Vicar from the wiles of Satan, who is working mightily to destroy this Church and ultimately the world.
Wait, no, nevermind–that document is a total floater. I retract my earlier statement. Full English text here. The best part is where they try to balance the aims of subsidiarity with this hypothesized “Authority” (always capitalized, creepy). Someone got an A+ in Doublethink for that section.
I think you’ve corrected yourself, but here is just one quote from the document:
In a world on its way to rapid globalization, the reference to a world Authority becomes the only horizon compatible with the new realities of our time and the needs of humankind.
As you wrote, you gotta love the fact that the capitalize “Authority” and give us the inclusive “humankind” instead of mankind. And this includes verbs and everything!
Seriously, I must have dreamed about reading this before. It’s awful. If someone had faked it and called it Protocols of the Elders of Rome I don’t think any of it would have to be rewritten.
Poor Pope Benedict.
“Another assertion of the Vatican document, according to which the economy of Europe is in danger of inflation rather than deflation, was contradicted on November 1 by the decision of the new governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who lowered the interest rate of the euro instead of raising it, as is always done when inflation is a real threat.”
Lowering the interest rate doesn’t necessarily mean that they are expecting deflation.
It could mean that the central bankers expect inflation, but rather than reducing it actually want to increase it, because inflation reduces the real costs of servicing their massive debts.
If this is at long last the straw that breaks the camel’s back and jolts the curia into doing something about its shambolic communications (as they appear from the outside, which strikes me as the right perspective whence to judge), some good will come of it.
I’m curious Father, do you think any form of “redistribution of wealth” by a government is against Church teaching?
@RichardT,
The lowering of the interest rates is also the prescription of those who follow Keynes, thinking that the cause of the collapse is “idle resources,” rather than malinvestment caused by artificially lowered interest rates. The Keynesians therefore strongly favor “stimulus” spending in order to increase the money supply so that the extra currency thereby generated (and hopefully lent out at interest) will be spent, thereby magically creating jobs. After all, the US administration didn’t follow Keynes in the depression of 1920-21, and no one today remembers it because the malinvestments were promptly cleared from the market.
Less than a decade later, following the October 1929 stock market “crash,” Herbert Hoover and FDR, progressives both, followed Keynesian prescriptions and we had a depression that didn’t clear the market of malinvestments until about 1947. And here we are today, voila, repeating the mistakes of the Keynesians once again.
It all makes one suspect that whoever said “the one thing man learns from history is that man does not learn from history” may well have been onto something with more than a grain of truth behind it.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
Hi, Fr. Z.
My essential point was that the document from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pope Benedict’s “Caritas in Veritate” are nearly identical in how they describe this world political and economic authority. In fact, both documents seem to stress the importance of this world authority respecting the principle of subsidiarity, etc. Section 3 of the “white paper” contains several paragraphs explaining how this authority should come about gradually, with cooperation from all parties involved, etc. I don’t think either the “white paper” or “Caritas in Veritate” promote any kind of domineering monocratic universal government.
Also, I don’t see the concept of a one world authority that respects subsidiarity as necessarily being contrary to the Catholic Faith. I do wonder, however, if it would be possible in the practical order for such a world authority to actually improve the economic lives of people. Moreover, by whose economic theories would such a body carry out its work? As we have seen with the U.N., it is difficult for world bodies to devise coherent policies and effect real change due to the competing interests, worldviews, etc., of the participating members. Sometimes the best thing for governments to do is to just get out of the way.
I listen to an Catholic station which broadcasts on the Internet, and on one of the programs (a call-in show which does both phone calls and emails) they really rip into the Holy Father about this ‘one world government’ mess. Oh, my goodness, do they ever!
They always call him ‘a Modernist’, and they tear him down whenever they can!
I just wish they would calm down and really ‘get the facts’ on what was actually written, and not get their information from a totally twisted source!
The person who receives the calls and / or emails is a priest–but if I were to call or write, I would ask him outright, ‘OK Padre, who died and made YOU Pope?’