Letters

Financial capitalism

Peter D. Howard

Contents - Oct 2012 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The Year of Faith and Catechism of the Catholic Church - Michael Gilchrist Anglican Ordinariate: Melbourne ordinations: historic day for Church in Australia - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Universities: Cardinal Pell's tertiary ministry at Sydney's universities - Br Barry Coldrey The Year of Faith and true unity of faith - Cardinal Raymond Burke Missions: Father Raphael: dynamic Nigerian parish priest - Madonna Brosnan History: Melbourne Catholics: Dr Mannix's impact - Patrick Morgan The new evangelisation and the culture of life - Anne Lastman Liturgical Music: Vatican II: Singing nourishes faith ... raises minds to God - Bishop Arthur Serratelli G.K. Chesterton on the decay of Western Christianity - Donald Boland Schools: Saint Mary MacKillop Colleges, Wagga Wagga: progress report - Charles Morton Letters: Information - Robert Bom Letters: Nuclear family - Leon Voesenek Letters: Harm-minimisation - Arnold Jago Letters: Financial capitalism - Peter D. Howard Letters: Christian unity - Andrew Sholl Letters: Real Presence - Cedric Wright Letters: Biblical assertions - Frank Mobbs Books: AN AMAZING LOVE, by Father Ken Barker - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: Manual of Minor Exorcisms, Prayers for those in Spiritual Affliction, Porteous - Fr Nicholas Dillon Support: 2012 Fighting Fund Progress Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: The Year of Faith and the Church's missionary role - Fr Dennis W. Byrnes

The reference to "the excesses of financial capitalism, which triggered the global financial crisis" ( AD2000, September, p.2, "Fighting Fund") seems strange, as surely it is individuals and groups of individuals who engage in excesses.

The Holy Father has emphasised that "Society does not have to protect itself from the market, as if the development of the latter were ipso facto to entail the death of authentically human relations ... Therefore it is not the instrument that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility" ( Caritas et Veritate, Benedict XVI, 2009, #36).

Further, Blessed John Paul II described the word "capitalism" as inappropriate, pointing out in Centesimus Annus, 42 (1991): "If by 'capitalism' is meant an economic system which recognises the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a 'business economy', 'market economy' or simply 'free economy'."

PETER D. HOWARD
Springwood, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 25 No 9 (October 2012), p. 16