World financial authority, with restricted power, seen needed to address crisis
August 12, 2011
Father Bernardo Cervellera, the director of the AsiaNews service, argues that the current worldwide economic crisis points to the need for some international authority to guide financial affairs. Such an authority, he adds, must itself be guided by the principles of human development laid out by Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
An international authority, Father Cervellera explains, should be subject to clearly demarcated restrictions:
Unless we want a world political and economic world order (like a new emperor) ruling over the (restricted) lives of ordinary people, we must make sure that any new authority (putting aside for now the question of how it could be established) is rooted in democratic and national checks and balances.
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Posted by: unum -
Aug. 15, 2011 7:10 AM ET USA
Government authorities, no matter how well intended, eventually find their way around "checks and balances". Our government is a shining (as in flashing red light) example. Subsidiarity demands that we exercise extreme caution in establishing bureaucracies for history has shown that they will certainly expand and increase in power. The writer shows naivete rather than caution.
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Posted by: -
Aug. 14, 2011 9:27 AM ET USA
WAIT! Fr. Cervellera is not advocating for a world financial authority - on the contrary, he's warning that such an authority, if set up, would be very dangerous. In the end, he repudiates such an idea, quote: "All this means is that the world’s crisis cannot be solved by an ultimate sovereign authority empowered to manage the wealth of nations." This CatholicCulture article, and below posts, do the Father an injustice.
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Posted by: -
Aug. 13, 2011 10:42 AM ET USA
Ye gods! This is the dumbest idea I've heard. And what happened to the Priciple of Subsidiarity? An all powerful nanny world government. Buy this guy a ticket to Toowoomba, somebody. And hurry.
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Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Aug. 13, 2011 12:35 AM ET USA
No, no, no. Idealistic Catholics like Fr. Cervellera need to understand that any higher level of economic authority will be quickly and quietly co-opted by those who do indeed want an "economic world order (like a new emperor) ruling over the (restricted) lives of ordinary people." Where, oh where, did we Catholics get the idea that the mission of the Church is advanced by bigger and bigger governments?
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Posted by: -
Aug. 12, 2011 6:43 PM ET USA
There's that one world government commie stuff again ... Here's a suggestion, how about something that accords with natural law principles: Gold Standard. That would definitely reduce usury.
