New Vatican Document on Economy Given High Marks in U.S.
By Mark Pattison • Catholic News Service, Published by Catholic Philly and re-posted by OMIUSAJPIC.ORG
Workers weld drawers on the assembly line at Metal Box International toolbox factory in late in February in Franklin Park, Ill. A new Vatican document on the economy, which contains a strong emphasis on financial transactions and maneuvers, is getting a warm welcome among U.S. Catholics who observe the economic scene. (CNS photo/Timothy Aeppel, Reuters) See CDF-ECONOMY-US-REACT May 24, 2018.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new Vatican document on the economy, which contains a strong emphasis on financial transactions and maneuvers, is getting a warm welcome among U.S. Catholics who observe the economic scene.
“I think they did OK,” said Father Seamus Finn, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate who is chairman of the board of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and head of his order’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office.
“I’m not surprised in the things that it comments on — shadow banking, offshoring — things we’ve been following very closely for the past 10 years,” Father Finn said. The world financial crisis, which was dubbed “the Great Recession” in the United States, made its first impact 10 years ago.
“These very specific items that are addressed are freely a call to a more ethical and maybe a more cautionary use of some of these instruments if we don’t know what the overall impact is going to be,” Father Finn said. “If we don’t know the fallout or the consequences of an action is going to be … be very careful or don’t use it.”
He added, “I think these instruments by themselves are not inherently destructive. They do perform a particular function in the financial system. It’s the people who are using them. They have to be careful and they have to know what they’re doing.”