Posts Tagged ‘financial crisis’

Pandemic: Financial difficulty in New Zealand worse than UK and Norway

Thursday, June 4th, 2020

The New Zealand government’s Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) has reported that a survey of 3,000 people, conducted in April, found 34 per cent of households were in “financial difficulty.” A further 40 per cent were “at risk of tipping into hardship.” The survey was part of a study involving eight countries. New Zealand ranked Read more

Funding difficulties threaten ahead of Amazon summit

Monday, September 30th, 2019
funding difficulties

Issues on the table at the upcoming Vatican summit on the Amazon region are not just political and ecclesiastical, but also down to earth and mundane, including the funding difficulties for Amazonian dioceses and parishes. According to local bishops, the geographic and economic challenges in the Amazon make the Catholic mission in the region a Read more

Advent: Good news for the poor?

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

As Christians we are often heard complaining about the ‘commercialisation’ of Christmas. And yet most of us would admit that, despite the frenetic pull towards consumerism, there is also an underlying ‘good will’ effect at this time of year which is mindful of those less well-off and puts a human face on poverty. There will Read more

Jewish-Catholic commission agrees: economic crisis reflects moral crisis

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

“Religious perspectives on the current financial crisis: vision for a just economic order” was the theme of the eleventh meeting of the Bilateral Commission of the Delegations of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews, which was held in Rome from 27 to 29 March. The event was presided by Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, and by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

In an English-language joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the two sides highlight that, “while many factors contributed to the financial crisis, at its roots lies a crisis of moral values in which the importance of having, reflected in a culture of greed, eclipsed the importance of being; and where the value of truth reflected in honesty and transparency was sorely lacking in economic activity”.

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Vatican’s financial document complex route to publication

Friday, November 25th, 2011

The unusual and somewhat mysterious gestation process of Vatican documents came into the spotlight recently, thanks to a controversial white paper on economic justice. In essence, critics of the document – which called for a global authority to curb the excesses of financial markets – speculated that its authors had done an “end run” to Read more

Occupy movement poses the question – do we have the answer?

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

All is connected – a vast intricate web of relationships in three dimensions. If one strand or knot is disturbed or damaged, the repercussions spread out in every direction, in time and space. Do we have the wisdom, the knowledge, the experience even to understand what we have set in motion, much less how to Read more

The St Pauls protest – Churches fail, Christianity does not

Friday, November 4th, 2011

When the Anglican Church moved to bar protesters from St Paul’s Cathedral in London the Wellington City Missioner, Susan Blaikie, was reported as saying says “Folk at the Newtown Drop In Centre say they are dismayed”. “Almost with one voice they expressed their dismay at St Paul’s closing their doors. But they, like a lot Read more

Vatican body calls for radical reform of monetary system

Friday, October 28th, 2011

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has released a document calling for a radical reform of the world’s financial and monetary system. It also proposed the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy and a new world economic order based on ethics. The note, entitled “Towards reforming the international financial and Read more