Toward a World Watchdog: The Vatican Talks Finance

Having garnered a high level of buzz over recent weeks, this morning brought the rollout of a text from the Holy See on the reform of the global financial market, highlighted by the call for an international "public authority at the service of the common good" to enforce accountability on the part of the states, banks and exchanges who comprise the worldwide monetary system.

Inspired by the financial collapse of recent years, its effects continuing to ricochet across Europe into the present, here below (in the scrollable window) is a provisional English translation of the statement, published under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace:

SVILUPPO: As reaction to the above text has (albeit predictably) fallen along secular ideological lines, some can seemingly use the reminder of another extensive document prepared by the J&P office: the 2003 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Completed at the silver jubilee of Blessed John Paul II's election, the volume was undertaken at the behest of the late pontiff, to whom it was dedicated with the inscription "master of social doctrine, evangelical witness to justice and peace."

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