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 worse than the UK and Norway, where 28 per cent and 8 per cent of respondents respectively were in "financial difficulty." Other countries have not yet reported their results. Continue reading

According to local bishops, the geographic and economic challenges in the Amazon make the Catholic mission in the region a very expensive one, but there aren't many monetary resources. In other words, the Amazonian Church currently faces a financial crisis.

Bishop Flávio Giovenale of the diocese of Cruzeiro do Sul in the State of Acre, explained that the Church in the Amazon had been financed by international agencies and religious congregations until the 1990s, when the dioceses had to become self-sustaining.

"Each diocese used to be managed by an international congregation, such as the Salesians and the Spiritans, which brought money from other countries. But in the 1990s the support Brazil received started to be redirected to poorer countries," the bishop said.

Since then, the Church in the Amazon region has relied mainly on its own parishioners and on scarce donations from other parts of Brazil.

"But outside the major urban areas of the Amazon, there isn't a healthy economy. People just don't have money to contribute," Giovenale told Crux.

Since the beginning of the preparatory works for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops, local bishops have been stressing that they want to move from "a Church that visits to a Church that remains."

The current "ministry of visits," Giovenale said, is one of the main reasons for the financial hardships in the region.

"The other day, I had to go to a small city called Eurinepé. I took a bus to Feijó [170 miles from Cruzeiro do Sul] and then a very small plane, because there are no roads there. For a visit of only a couple of days, I had to spend almost the equivalent of a monthly minimum wage in Brazil [around $240]," he explained.

If Giovenale's trip also required a boat - in the Amazon, the rivers are the main connectors between cities - the total cost could easily run $480.

"Most dioceses make a huge effort to pay their priests a salary equivalent to twice the minimum wage - and we rapidly spend a similar amount of money when traveling for just a few days," the bishop said.

Without the proper funding, it's been difficult to keep the local dioceses functioning, said Bishop Mário Antônio da Silva of the diocese of Roraima, who serves as the Vice-President of the Brazilian National Conference of Bishops. Continue reading

• Image: Today's Catholic

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 be media pieces about the homeless and special collections for the needy. Is this just cheap sentimentalism?

And yet our world needs something more substantial. The Great Recession has added considerably to the ranks of the poor, and, in our own parts of the world, to those who struggle under the yoke of so-called austerity.

Growing inequality, a culture of entitlement among top executives, environmental strain and a ‘financialisation' of economies are just some of the symptoms of a deep malaise at the heart of the present phase of global capitalism.

Commenting on the latter in the context of the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, economic journalist Dan O'Brien notes that there is much evidence to suggest that the financial system has not been sufficiently restructured and re-regulated to avoid a repetition of the recent catastrophe.

Why is this so? Partly due to vested interests and inertia, but, more worryingly, O'Brien argues that ‘complexity has also worked against change. The truth is that nobody fully understands how the system works, making change more difficult'.

In similar vein cultural commentator Michael Cronin observes how ‘the Market has come to function as a kind of dark version of transcendence … a parody of a pagan deity, irascible, touchy, and only to be appeased with pledges of sacrifices and the burnt offerings of public services'.

The readings for the First Sunday of Advent speak to this situation. Continue reading.

Gerry O'Hanlon SJ is based at Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Dublin.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: Telecom Foundation

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".

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 avoid the pre-publication scrutiny of top Vatican officials.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, speaks at a Vatican press conference on the Vatican document on global finance. The document called for a gradual creation of a world political authority with broad powers to regulate financial markets and rein in the "inequalities and distortions of capitalist development." (CNS/Paul Haring)

That turned out not to be true, but the episode illustrated that the editing and approval procedures at the Vatican are less than transparent and far from uniform.

The 41-page text on reforming the international financial system was prepared by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Among other things, it proposed a "central world bank" to regulate the flow of monetary exchanges, and taxation on financial transactions to aid the economies of poorer countries.

Critics immediately tried to downplay the importance of the document and argued that the justice and peace council was a minor player at the Vatican. Then in mid-November, an Italian blogger reported that the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, had been blindsided by the text and had ordered that, from now on, all such documents must have the prior approval of his office.

The real back story was far different.

Continue reading about the Vatican's financial document complex route to publication

Image: Boston Pilot

The Occupy Wall St movement one of the events shaping our world right now. Amazingly, it has been given the tick of approval by the Vatican. Are we at last taking seriously the words of Scripture ‘Serve God or Mammon', and ‘the love of money is the root of all evil'?

Occupations have been happening all around the world, almost spontaneously it seems, in response to the collapse of finance companies and systems. These Occupations are being treated differently in different countries. The response of the city councils in Dunedin and Wellington is one of negotiating with a view to resolving the situation, rather than calling in the police to use force. The individuals camping on public space in the city are causing very little disruption or offence to anyone, and are being supported by restaurants and others in the city.

It is hoped that their peaceful presence and willingness to engage in dialogue will cause some reflection among the public. The group is not offering solutions; the powerful corporations caused the problem; they must find solutions.

Possible solutions are being suggested. One is a financial transaction charge on every transaction that would yield a substantial fund. It could be used to rescue banks, defaulting countries even, but more importantly, reimburse ordinary people whose life savings have vanished with the failure of the banking system.

On another plane, increasingly, individuals and communities are exploring other ways of exchanging goods and services - the transition town movement in New Zealand and elsewhere; Living Economies in the Wairarapa, the Wellington South Time Bank just launched in the suburb of Newtown for example. There are many co-operative initiatives springing up in response to the failure of the traditional financial model, that offer a much more human and caring approach - not all overtly motivated by the Christian spirit. All these give me hope for the resilience of the human spirit.

'Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream of the modern world' is a symposium that is being presented around New Zealand, offering a changed view of our world.

Tricia Kane is a retired librarian and grandmother

Image: I have no ideas

"Almost with one voice they expressed their dismay at St Paul's closing their doors. But they, like a lot of folk, believe the church has failed where Christianity has not. Their response doesn't surprise me; over the ten years since becoming a priest I've heard many people state their discomfort towards the church yet profess allegiance towards Christianity."

The "folk" at the Drop In Centre, and the City Missioner must therefore be encouraged by the lastest turn of events. The City of London Corporation Spokesperson Stuart Fraser has announced 'The church has changed its standpoint and announced it is suspending legal action on its land.'

"Given that change, we've pressed the 'pause' button overnight on legal action affecting the highways - in order to support the cathedral as an important national institution and give time for reflection."

"We want to leave more space for a resolution of this difficult issue - while at the same time not backing away from our responsibilities as a Highway Authority"

A Guardian editorial says "Most churches are a bit of both, and the temptation to identify with the bricks and mortar is particularly strong when they are as glorious as at St Paul's. The cathedral's move to threaten eviction on health and safety grounds certainly suggested it was leaning that way.

But after three resignations ... the contrary view has prevailed. The church has rightly decided to grapple with the question of the demonstration from the perspective of a moral community as opposed to that of a property management company."

Source

• Kapiti Independent
• The BBC
• The Guardian
• Image: Otago daily Times

The note, entitled "Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of the global public authority", was presented to journalists at a press conference today presided over by the President of the Council, Cardinal Peter Turkson.

Cardinal Turkson told reporters that the document was also a way of giving a voice to the voiceless.

"Definitely, that's part of it and in fact in asking the G20 to pay attention to this or currently start doing a reflection in this direction, it is actually in view of those who suffer from this phenomenon, so giving a voice to the voiceless, that's what it is".

The proposal, which is not a papal document, suggests that the reform process might begin with the United Nations as a point of reference.

"On the way to building a more fraternal and just human family and, even prior to that, a new humanism open to transcendence, Blessed John XXIII's teaching seems especially timely. In the prophetic Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris of 1963, he observed that the world was heading towards ever greater unification. He then acknowledged the lack of correspondence in the human community between political organization "on a world level and the objective needs of the universal common good". He also expressed the hope that one day "a true world political authority" would be created.

"Consistent with the spirit of Pacem in Terris, Benedict XVI himself expressed the need to create a world political authority. This seems obvious if we consider the fact that the agenda of questions to be dealt with globally is becoming ever longer. Think, for example, of peace and security; disarmament and arms control; promotion and protection of fundamental human rights; management of the economy and development policies; management of migratory flows and food security; and protection of the environment. In all these areas, the growing interdependence between States and regions of the world becomes more and more obvious as well as the need for answers that are not just sectorial and isolated, but systematic and integrated, rich in solidarity and subsidiarity and geared to the universal common good."

Source

• Vatican Radio
• The Deacon's Bench
• Image Catholic Free Press (CNS photo/Paul Haring)