According to Father Thomas Reese, who recently resigned as editor of the ultra-liberal America Magazine due to pressure from the Vatican, the new document entitled "Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority" reflects views that are closer to those of the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd than anyone in the U.S. Congress.
"It will call for the redistribution of wealth and the regulation of the world economy by international agencies," Reese writes in an article appearing in the National Post. "Not only will it be to the left of Barack Obama, it will be to the left of Nancy Pelosi."
But that's not what Vatican officials are saying. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who heads the PCJP, doesn't see much commonality between Occupy Wall Street and the Church. "The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good," he told Spero News.
Serious scholars, such as Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute, agree that the popular assessment of the document's contents is all wrong.
As Gregg points out, the first thing to keep in mind is that the text is not an encyclical or the work of Pope Benedict XVI. Second, it contains nothing new as far as Catholic teaching.
"Doctrinally speaking, there’s nothing new to be found in this text. As PCJP officials will themselves tell you, it’s not within this curial body’s competence to make doctrinal statements that bind Catholic consciences. Moreover, the notion that an increasingly integrated world economy requires some type of authority able to make decisions about what the Church calls 'the universal common good' has long been a staple of Catholic social teaching. Such references to a global world authority have always been accompanied by an emphasis on the idea of subsidiarity, and the present document is no exception to that rule. This principle maintains that any higher level of government should assist lower forms of political authority and civil-society associations 'only when (as this PCJP text states) individual, social or financial actors are intrinsically deficient in capacity, or cannot manage by themselves to do what is required of them'.”
Some publications are claiming that Benedict XVI himself expressed the need to create a world political authority in his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, but this is also taken out of context. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League explains that the term “world political authority” appears only once in Benedict's encyclical, the context of which is a plea for “international cooperation” in the pursuit of a more just “political, juridical and economic order.” In the very next sentence, the Holy Father stresses that such an authority must “observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity” and goes on to say that the principle of “subsidiarity is the most effective antidote against any form of all-encompassing welfare state.”
Thomas Peters, author of the popular American Papist blog, also points out that the authors of the document were very clear about how the suggestions contained in it were contributions, not mandates.
" . . . (T)he very authors of the document make clear how it should be evaluated," Peters writes. "Namely, as a 'contribution' (as opposed to a mandate), as a 'possible path' (as opposed to a moral proscription), in line with the Magisterium’s social teaching (as opposed to introducing a new teaching), without getting into the technical issues (because the Church is an expert in humanity, not economics) while fully staying within the Church’s religious and ethical functions."
Peters attributes this distortion by liberal Catholics such as Father Reese to their penchant for picking and choosing what they want to believe.
"Liberal Catholics routinely try to read the Church’s social teaching as dogmatic while choosing to view the Church’s moral and religious teaching as optional," Peters writes.
As for the rest of the media who are trying to equate the Church with Occupy Wall Street, Donohue offers this sage advice: " . . .(T)hose who are comparing this text to the demands of the 'Occupy Wall Street' crowd should first detail what exactly it is the urban campers want."
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
