That no man, rich or poor, free or bond, may buy or sell save he that has the mark...
The Vatican needs to clean up it’s own mess of pedophiles, and Lesbian nuns, and leave financing the world to the politicians.
Read the story.
Drudge shows the Pope in formal robes at the top of his page, as if this was a papal proclamation.
No, it’s a document from the “Justice and Peace” department.
Unfortunately the Vatican still has a few nutballs in it, like any other government, and Justice and Peace is obviously one of their headquarters.
This does NOT have the Pope’s stamp of approval on it. Still less is it official Catholic doctrine.
Unfortunately the same leftist Catholic-bashers who constantly attack the Church are now suddenly pretending that they approve of it, and are holding this up as some sort of official statement on behalf of the Church.
It is not.
Second, Cardinal Turkson is not the 'Vatican'. He is the head of the Vatican’s justice and peace office. The justice and peace office is responsible for promoting the church’s social teachings on justice issues, such as war, the death penalty and human rights. This kind of statement or 'call' is what that department does, thinking it is peace. Not.
Look for a clarification from the Church, the Vatican, to put the Cardinal's 'call' into proper context.
This proposal is really not new. Benedict XVI proposed the same idea in his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.
One can understand this idea as trying to answer the question, “Quis custodet custodes?” (”Who will supervise the supervisors?”).
If the past 15 years have seen widespread examples of selfishness and foolishness and short-sightedness by Wall Street, US Govt (see Freddy, Fannie, Sally, Barney, etc), European banks, etc., then what solution can be crafted both to improve the present situation and to avoid a recurrence?
Happy Anniverary, You SOB VATFATCAT hypocrites!!
Vatican Bank mired in laundering scandal
Updated 12/12/2010 4:01 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-12-11-vatican-bank_N.htm
VATICAN CITY (AP) — This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.
Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it is under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize $30 million in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the “Vatican Bank” has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.
Get behind me, Satan!!
As always, the opinions of Vatican congregations on specific political / economic remedies to problems are ... opinions.
I wish the Vatican had made some attempt to recognize that our present problems are largely, though not entirely, the result of an abandonment of the market rather than its idolatry. The high-flyers were not playing with their own money.
Essentially they were told they could speculate with funds implicitly or explicitly guaranteed by the government. They got to keep any gains, and the gov would cover them for any losses. If somebody gave you $1M on that basis and sent you off to Vegas, how free would you be with the betting?
That said, the Church has never been a fan of unfettered capitalism. For a very long time it prohibited interest and other processes essential to capitalism, forcing businessmen to develop work-arounds similar to those Muslims now use.
I would also like to point out that the free market is amoral, in roughly the same way science is. The free market is a proven way of efficiently allocating resources, just as the scientific method is a proven way of acquiring (certain types of) knowledge.
Neither, in and of itself, has any moral content whatsoever. That has to be brought in from outside the market or the scientific method either by the morality of the participants or imposed by authority.
It is interesting, also, that the free market cannot survive long without this externally imposed morality.
This is not teaching on the subject of faith or morals, therefore subject to error.
Narses, what do you make of this?
Wow, the Pope just pulled a Fonzie and jumped a really really big shark.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that anyone in the Vatican and anyone outside the Vatican that thinks this is a good idea can go fornicate themselves with an iron stick.
With all due respect.
Will they never give it up?
As a practicing Catholic I have to say, NO, I do not agree with the Vatican. I don’t think that they are doing themselves any favors by putting their 2 cents in either.
The Vatican should know about idols.
A free market is the system that is compatible with freedom, Biblical justice, the nature of man as a rational being, and God-given natural rights. It has nothing to do with idolatry.
Additionally, we should note that none of the Catholic bashers who have piled on to this non-story can or will defend the current monetary policies or central banks of the individual nations of the world today.
This is one reason that I could never belong to the Roman Catholic Church, or any organization whose leaders would pronounce such ideas