Social encyclical coming 'soon," Pope says, offering preview
June 15, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI offered a quick preview of his forthcoming social encyclical, and disclosed that it would be issued "soon," during a June 13 audience with members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation.
The Holy Father said that a market economy serves society "only if oriented toward the common good." Moreover, he said, "freedom in the economic sector must be circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality."
The Pontiff said that reflections on economics and the common welfare are particularly necessary today in light of the worldwide financial crisis. That crisis, he said, "clearly indicates the need to reconsider certain economic-financial paradigms that have dominated over the last few years."
Pope Benedict said that his encyclical, applying the principles of Catholic social teaching to current economic discussions, will address that need for a new examination of the global economy. The text, he said, will "highlight what, for us as Christians, are the objectives that need to be pursued and what values to be tirelessly promoted and defended in order to create a truly free and united form of human coexistence."
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