The latest problem to come out of Cuba’s economic crisis is a wheat flour shortage. Besides all the usual wheat flour products the population can no longer access, the shortage means Communion hosts aren’t being made any more. “We inform all the dioceses that there are no longer hosts for sale,” the St. Teresa Discalced Read more
Lebanese people must be given the opportunity to create a better future for their own country without undue interference, says Pope Francis. The country must remain a “land of tolerance and pluralism” he said as he welcomed Lebanon’s Christian patriarchs to the Vatican last Thursday. Francis prayed the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic before he and Read more
In the rancorous debate over how to get the sluggish economy moving, we have forgotten the wisdom of Henry Ford. In 1914, not long after the Ford Motor Company came out with the Model T, Ford made the startling announcement that he would pay his workers the unheard-of wage of $5 a day. Not only Read more
Fiji based social justice advocate, Father Kevin Barr, has launched a new booklet in which he argues that greed, individual and corporate, lies at the heart of the current global economic crisis. Key issues discussed in the booklet include: The “scandalous” aspects of wealth and poverty in the US and other countries; The current growing Read more
“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”.
Read the article...
Pope Benedict has encouraged to world to display a courageous showing of brotherhood in face of the global economic crisis. In times when people are left searching for hope, people need to be able to rely on “the courage of of brotherhood,” the pontiff told the Italian branch of Caritas. Lamenting the divide between rich Read more
This article is by Fr Chris Middleton SJ, the Principal of St Aloysius College, Milson’s Point, in Sydney. It is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the college’s newsletter The Occupy Wall Street protests have swept around the globe. While it is hard to identify a coherent program in these protests, it is Read more
The president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Tedeschi, recommends avoiding ‘deceptive simplifications’ when trying to find solutions to the world’s economic crisis. The Vatican banker warns that higher taxes are not a solution to the current economic crisis and that higher taxes merely create a higher level of public spending. Rather, he said, ‘authentic global solutions’ Read more
“Sometimes I feel like the last ambassador to the Republic of Venice.” These words, pronounced by a European ambassador to the Holy See, testify to the stress that both sex abuse scandals and the economic crisis are creating in diplomatic circles in Rome. Being appointed ambassador to the Vatican still gives a very prestigious status. Read more