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Pope Has Best Take on Financial Crisis

Goldman exec touts Benedict's 6-point plan for global economy

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 13, 2009 10:13 AM CDT

(Newser) – All of Pope Benedict XVI's gaffes and controversies have obscured his principal appeal, writes Brian Griffiths in the Times of London: he's a scholar, with an uncommon command of theology and philosophy. For Griffiths, a vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs, the pope's recent encyclical on the economy is "without doubt the most articulate, comprehensive and thoughtful response to the financial crisis that has yet appeared." Unlike John Paul II, who praised free markets after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Benedict says capitalism has forgotten the individual.

Benedict lays out six ways to humanize global capitalism:

Reform of global institutions, including the UN, for "the management of globalization."
More widespread sources of wealth: not just banks but mutual societies, credit unions, and other new forms.
Strengthened trade unions to protect workers in the global market.
Greater aid to developing nations to combat the "scandal of inequality."
Action on climate change, for economic and religious reasons.
Much more attention to the moral consequences of finance. For Benedict, "development is impossible without upright men and women."

[Images (5)]

[Quotes (1)]

Pope Benedict XVI greets faithful as he arrives in Introd, near Aosta, northern Italy, Monday, July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Alberto Pellaschiar)

President Barack Obama, left, meets Pope Benedict XVI, Friday, July 10, 2009, at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, July 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Benedict XVI signs his third encyclical of his pontificate, at the Vatican, Monday, July 6, 2009. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Benedict XVI called Tuesday for a new world financial order guided by ethics, dignity and the search for the common good in the third encyclical of his pontificate. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

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The encyclical has a positive view of profit, providing it is not an exclusive goal. But at the heart of the market is the human person, possessing dignity, deserving of justice and bearing the divine image.
- Brian Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International

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Pope Has Best Take on Financial Crisis