Posts Tagged ‘Economy’

Rethinking social justice

Thursday, September 14th, 2023
Social justice

The recent Women’s Football World Cup, with its acting-out of the Enlightenment values of liberty, equality and fraternity, was a delightful patch of blue sky among more ominous dark clouds. The fires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere have emphasised the threat of climate change to people’s lives throughout the world. They foreshadow the future. Read more

Pope Francis called on politicians to create jobs so that economies can relaunch

Monday, August 3rd, 2020

Pope Francis called on politicians to create jobs so that economies can relaunch from the lockdowns imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The pope, speaking after the traditional Sunday blessing, said that “without work, families and society cannot go forward. Let us pray for this, because this will be a problem in the post-pandemic period, Read more

Slowing SE Asian economies will test social cohesion

Monday, February 18th, 2019
Social cohesion

Economics is too often under-estimated as a pillar of social cohesion. Southeast Asia’s growth is slowing alongside that of its biggest investor, China. And that will test a region united by a trading bloc but divided by religion, ethnicity, and forms of government. Potentially, the dangers are many. Indonesia experienced this harsh reality when it Read more

The morality of the global market system questioned

Thursday, May 17th, 2018

The morality of the global market system is being evaluated in a new Vatican document. The publication “Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones: Considerations for ethical discernment about some aspects of the current financial-economic system,” is said to be an effort to give more theological weight to Pope Francis’ criticisms that “this economy kills.” The Congregation for Read more

Why Pope Francis praises entrepreneurs and condemns speculators

Thursday, June 15th, 2017

The answers that Pope Francis gave to workers at a steel plant in Genoa, Italy, last month suggested an important distinction in the Holy Father’s economic thinking, one that addresses the increasing importance of the financial sector in the contemporary economy. In meeting the workers of the Ilva steel factory May 27, Pope Francis had Read more

Cardinal Pell flexes muscles over Vatican audit

Thursday, May 11th, 2017

Cardinal George Pell has crossed swords over an audit with those responsible for Vatican real estate. They overstepped the mark, he says. Pell is the Vatican Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. He says the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (ASPA) “overstepped its authority” by instructing other Vatican offices to submit Read more

Venezuela economy crisis means shortage of Communion hosts

Tuesday, August 18th, 2015

One of the effects of Venezuela’s economic crisis is a shortage of unleavened wheat flour to make Communion hosts. The monthly production of hosts in the South American nation has fallen from 80,000 to 30,000 recently, the Catholic News Agency reported. Giovanni Luisio Mass, prior of the Order of Poor Knights of Christ of the Read more

Protecting Mother Earth top priority, says Pope

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

Pope Francis has suggested that the most important task facing the world today is to protect Mother Earth. Speaking at the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on July 9, the Pope sounded a warning. “Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another Read more

Parolin warns nowhere to hide from environment impact

Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

The Vatican’s Secretary of State has warned there are no political barriers behind which people can hide from environmental and social degradation. Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a message to a conference on “The New Climate Economy” in Rome. “When the future of the planet is at stake, there are no political frontiers, barriers or walls Read more

Pope confirms Cardinal Pell’s powers to clean up Vatican

Friday, March 6th, 2015

Pope Francis has moved to confirm the authority of Cardinal George Pell in cleaning up the Vatican’s finances. In a new set of legislative norms approved by the Pope, the Secretariat for the Economy, headed by Cardinal Pell, has been given sweeping powers. Francis appears to have largely put aside recommendations from the Pontifical Council Read more